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Previously on Rime of the Frostmaiden
Starring:
Valravn, level 13 Eladrin Bard of Eloquence
Fray, level 13 Halfling Barbarian of the Beast
Celeste, level 13 Half-orc Sun Soul Monk (played by Fray/Heather)
Edmond, Level 13 Human Alchemist Artificer
Thimbleweed, level 13 Thri-kreen Swarmkeeper Ranger (played by Edmond/Raymond)
Having received startling premonitions of a nothic ambush in the Tower of Divination, the Marshals have only seconds to prepare themselves.
Edmond casts enhance ability on Thimbleweed, while the four-armed thri-kreen braces himself against the ruined door to the outside. Fray, Celeste, and Valravn ready attacks and spells as the howls grow louder.
They also remember about the visions. The crashed celestial bodies that litter the ground floor of the tower can cast magic spells, simply by touching them.
Vellyne touches the earth-like planet (Toril) and her skin becomes armored in rock. Valravn touches the gas giant and begins to fly! These buffs should prove useful, as the first wave of nothics begin to slam into the door.
Note: I’m incorporating Dan Kahn’s excellent Ythryn Expanded Towers of Magic supplement to enhance Chapter 7 of Rime of the Frostmaiden. Now available on Roll20!
Despite the monsters’ best efforts, Thimbleweed holds strong, denying them entry. The door buckles and breaks in several places, however, allowing the nasty creatures to use their Rotting Gaze attacks on the thri-kreen.
Seeing a spot through the tattred door, Celeste hurls a Radiant Sun Blast attack outside, bathing half a dozen nothics in a radiant blast. It’s an effective blast, but it also destroys the last shreds of the doorway.
Fray isn’t too worried, striding outside to meet the creatures head-on, despite Valravn’s worried protests. She curiously decides not to rage (but does recklessly attack, of course). More and more nothics gleefully tear into her, eventually forcing the barbarian to pull back into the tower.
Edmond and Thimbleweed (controlled by Edmond) pull off a really cool combo: Edmond casts wall of water from a spell scroll, while Thimblweed uses his magic White Dragon Scale Shield to freeze it by blasting out a cone of cold damage! The effect slows down a nothic or two as they must claw their way through the wall of ice, but they just keep coming.
Vellyne, emboldened by her stoneskin buff, holds strong on the frontline, using vampiric touch.
Valravn flies around from above casting spells and sending out bardic inspirations. He touches the sun and feels the heat buliding. He summons Bigby’s Hand, grabs a nothic with it, and presses it against the sun.
Fray feels this heat and nopes right out — being attuned to the Codicil of White makes her vulnerable to fire damage! The bloodied halfling trudges (and teleports) up the stairs, where she fires her laser pistol from relative safety.
All the planetary bodies eventually go off, with the tidal wave from Karpi barely missing the retreating Fray, and the exploding sun catching two nothics.
With the barbarian pulling back, the others soon follow suit, leaving poor Vellyne alone in front with half a dozen nothics, nothic stalkers, and a nothic preeminent (all from Ythryn Expanded Towers of Magic!).
The wizard takes a terrible beating, and would’ve gone down if not for stoneskin. Valravn, the last one to leave, uses his gem of brightness to blind most of the nothics (but also her!), then flies down to use a spell scroll of thunder step.
Our house rules dictate that anyone can use a spellscroll, but it requires a check if it’s not on your class list. Valravn fails the check, and must roll on the Wild Magic Surge table instead — summoning a unicorn!
It’s Lord Marbury’s cousin Carlos!
The distraction works as the nothics battle the annoyed unicorn. Edmond uses another spell scroll to teleport Vellyne to safety, and Valravn flies up to join the others.
Everyone opens the trap door at the top of the stairs and leaves the chaotic battle behind.
The top of the tower holds an arcane telescope, operated by a green slaad!
The slaad is surprised to see everyone, and a bit annoyed at the intrusion.
Valravn plays it smoothly. When he mentions that they’re not from around here, the creature gets very excited. Though the player characters never ask, she’s actually the High Diviner, Apius. She was transformed into a slaad around the time of the fall, and has been searching for an exit ever since.
The Marshals also have something they desire: this tower’s portion of the Rite of the Arcane Octad. She vaguely remembers that the city is under lockdown (for “quite some time”), but the code was written in her spellbook, which was jettisoned during the crash.
The good news is, they have a magic telescope to search for it! After telling them about the newly opened path to the Caves of Hunger, she lets them use the telescope to search the city for her spellbook.
Valravn tries first, finding a few notable locations to check out (the Wellspring of Answers and the Tower of Necromancy), but doesn’t quite spot the spellbook.
He feels a tugging on his eyes.
Worried, he steps back, and Edmond offers to try next. Using his Eyes of Minute Seeing (and a just-in-case Bardic Inspiration from Valravn), Edmond gets a 26! He easily discovers the rest of the locations (Tower of Illusion and Hall of Silk), and spots the spellbook just outside the Hall of Silk.
He also makes the CON save, avoiding losing an eye!
Before detaching from the telescope, Edmond spots a small army coming down the ice causeway, led by a tiefling woman. Avarice! The humanoids all wield chardalyn weapons, and as they approach the city, they easily cut down a small group of nothics.
Pointing out the ice causeway excites the slaad. The party warns about the nothics battling a unicorn downstairs. The slaad opens the door casts fireball, waves goodbye, and casts invisibility.
Left with the room, the party settles down for a much-needed long rest — and a level up!
MVPC – Edmond
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