Misfits of the Dale, Legacy of the Frostmaiden – session 49

Team Misfits battle for the book, and their lives

• Hinesh – Rohän Fell, a human Life Cleric of Silvanus with the hermit background.
• Sarah – Tsukiya Kimiko, a tabaxi Bladesinger Wizard with the noble background.
• Lyam – Groth, a half-orc Zealot Barbarian with the acolyte background.
• Badger – Grib, a firbolg Circle of the Moon Druid with the hermit background. (away for holiday)
• Tom – Jangar Khusugtun, a goliath Bard with the outlander (wanderer) background.

24th Hammer, 1493 DR, Year of the Purple Dragon

Kimiko ensured that her mage armour spell was active as Jangar brought a nearby ruined cart to life and Rohan imbued Groth’s halberd with divine energy. They didn’t have to wait long before they spotted two large figures lumbering along the path they had previously seen Avarice leave by.

The lead figure they recognised as Ghilgrix, the ice devil they had encountered in the Tower of Conjuration, but the second was unknown to them. It appeared to be a large humanoid with snake-like features, perhaps a variant of a yuan-ti mused Kimiko.

Following behind the duo were Avarice and her gargoyle with a plate-armoured figure wielding a greatsword beside them.

The two groups exchanged “pleasantries” briefly before the armoured figure removed their helmet, revealing grey-skinned elven features with a wicked scar running down the left side of their face. “Been a long time Groth” spoke the figure, “but this time you get to see your friends die in front of you”.

The other heroes all looked at their barbarian friend questioningly but Groth’s only response was to roar with rage and the fight began!

Ghilgrix and the snake creature surged forward, engaging Groth and Jangar, the bard caused an earth tremor under their feet but it had little effect. He commanded his animated cart to ram the ice devil while he passed between the foes to get out of the way of Groth’s sweeping halberd.

Avarice shouted something that sounded almost elven and suddenly a globe of impenetrable darkness appeared amidst the melee. Her gargoyle flew towards the bladesinger to engage her melee as the tiefling unleashed a ball of exploding ice shards that magically missed all of her allies but shredded into the heroes.

Fighting back the heroes found that the multiple hissing mouths covering the snake creature’s torso caused them to lose their focus, even to the point of causing them to strike out randomly at whoever was nearby.

Rohan kept back from the tumultuous melee, keeping his allies bolstered with magical healing as needed. Kimiko found herself overcome by the susurrating noise of the snake creature and unable to concentrate enough to use her own magic.

The source of the dark globe was revealed when the pair of drow warriors appeared, firing their hand crossbows at Rohan but the priest’s armour protected him from the undoubtedly poisoned bolts.

The elf, Korfel, maneuvered around the half-orc barbarian and while he maintained eye contact with Groth he repeatedly struck at Jangar with his greatsword. As they fought, the elf continued to taunt the barbarian, telling him that he had been the one to send the note in Bryn Shander, to bump into him in the market and drop a tracking token in his pocket so that his pets could hunt them. All the while the snake creature continued to assault Groth, managing to grapple the barbarian and keep him in place while biting viciously at him.

Ghilgrix looked towards Avarice, telepathically communicating with the wizardess, before Stamping the butt of his icy spear on the ground and disappearing in a cloud of ice shards. Rohan glared around, fearing the devil had gone invisible but was reassured when his Auril-blessed vision couldn’t see him.

The drow switched to their ebony shortswords and closed upon the priest, though his armour continued to protect him from the worst of their strikes. Meanwhile, the gargoyle returned to pounding upon the beleaguered tabaxi.

In an effort to get away from the unsettling effect of the snake creature Jangar placed his hand on Groths back and with a thunderous explosion teleported the pair of them further down the street.

Unwilling to lose its prey that easily the snake creature charged after the barbarian but the brief respite from its noise was all Groth needed and he quickly cut it down and charged back towards the elf, Korfel. Jangar was less eager to get within the elf’s sword reach and held back to provide magical support as Avarice stepped beside Kimiko and struck her down with an arcane-infused fist before hurling a pair of similarly infused bolts at Jangar and Rohan.

With the tabaxi unconscious on the floor the gargoyle flew across the street to assist the elf against the barbarian though its attacks did little more than annoy the half-orc. Still weathering the blades of the drow, Rohan called upon the divine energies of his god and sent a burst of healing energy out to heal himself, Groth and revive Kimiko.

The bladesinger sprang back onto her feet with her cat-like grace and began to spin her spear through the conjuring motions for her steel wind strike spell, unleashing the first attack against Avarice beside her. The magically enhanced spear strike hit the wizardess hard but before the tabaxi could whisk away to continue her strikes a flare of icy magic burst from the tiefling to encase the tabaxi before it shattered into tiny pieces and Kimiko was gone!

Avarice calmly walked along the street, pulling a familiar red glowing vial from her belt pouch and chugging it down, healing much of the damage Kimiko had just inflicted.

One of the drow uttered a word in their language and Rohan was outlined in glowing mauve flames, making it much easier for the second drow to finally land a blow with his blades, dropping the priest of Silvanus into unconsciousness.

Incensed with the apparent deaths of his allies Groth assaulted Korfel with renewed ferocity, and the elf fell lifeless to the floor. But the drow fired their crossbows at the hulking barbarian and their insidious poison took the fight out of him too.

Avarice sent her gargoyle over to Groth’s slumbering form, it pulled his bag of holding from his belt and took it back to its mistress as Kimiko reappeared, shivering and frost-covered from her banishment to the frigid realm of Cania, seeing her companions on the floor with enemies stood over them.

Before the gargoyle could hand Avarice the stolen bag, Jangar launched a psychic lance into the monster, shattering it into stoney fragments. Showing the first sign of any emotion, Avarice gave a feral snarl, commanding the drow to slit the throats of the unconscious heroes as she hurled arcane bolts at both Kimiko and the bard, sending their souls to join their friends in the afterlife.

30th Hammer, 1493 DR, Year of the Purple Dragon

Miles away in Bryn Shander, the townsfolk felt a shudder, lifting their heads they saw the snow-laden clouds begin to part and the sun force its way through. Their voices were raised in joy, celebrating the success of the heroes that had set out to put an end to the Everlasting Rime of Auril of the Frostmaiden.

The cheers quickly turned to cries of fear and then to horror as coming out of the sky, rising up over the summit of Kelvin’s Cairn and growling larger as it came nearer was a circular black object, massive purple-black tentacles erupting from its underside as if some great sea creature were being birthed from beyond …

And so the adventures of the Misfits in Icewind Dale come to an end. Honestly, the dice absolutely hated the heroes in this battle, with only Rohan being able to pass the required wisdom save to avoid the numbing effects of the snake creature (Kimiko failed every time apart from once and on that occasion her spell was counterspelled). The elf, Korfel, was a rival created from Groth’s backstory (he used the heroic chronicle) and had been a long-term threat that finally came to fruition.

Similarly to team Gnome Force Ultra, this marks the end of the Misfits online play as we will be starting in-person play in a few weeks time as they play through the Call of the Netherdeep in the world of Exandria.

Misfits of the Dale, Legacy of the Frostmaiden – session 48

Team Misfits battle for the book, and their lives

• Hinesh – Rohän Fell, a human Life Cleric of Silvanus with the hermit background.
• Sarah – Tsukiya Kimiko, a tabaxi Bladesinger Wizard with the noble background.
• Lyam – Groth, a half-orc Zealot Barbarian with the acolyte background.
• Badger – Grib, a firbolg Circle of the Moon Druid with the hermit background. (away for holiday)
• Tom – Jangar Khusugtun, a goliath Bard with the outlander (wanderer) background.

23rd Hammer, 1493 DR, Year of the Purple Dragon

“Now!” shouted Rohan, as the golem reappeared in the space it had been and his companions unleashed the readied attacks they had prepared upon it. Groth slammed his halberd into the construct’s torso as Rohan himself grappled its legs, Kimiko and Jangar tried to fire the barbarian’s crafted magic arrows at the creature but neither was exceptionally skilled with the bow. Jangar also commanded his dancing anvil to slam into the monster from above. In response, the monster slammed its heavy fist into the barbarian again.

Thankfully the golem did not appear to have been able to heal itself during its banishment and the continued assault of the heroes swiftly took a toll and within moments of its return it fell motionless to the floor before disappearing once again to its home plane, this time not to return.

With many sighs of relief, the heroes collected their gear, took a moment to heal some of their more grievous wounds and then left the menagerie to return the book to Apius as agreed. This time they took a quicker pace, disregarding any attempt at being stealthy but luckily managed to reach the Tower of Divination without incident. Once again they broke the doors of its hinges to gain access, resecuring it through the use of repeated mending spells before heading upstairs to the transformed wizard.

Apius was happy to see them but Groth was angered that the wizard hadn’t warned them about the golem. Apius apologised but clarified that he hadn’t been the one to use the omniscope to search the menagerie and so didn’t actually know about the golem. This pacified the half-orc, and the heroes handed over the book. Apius waved his bloated fingers over the open pages as he mumbled an arcane phrase in Netherese and they saw the page disappear to reveal a deep cut-out pocket in the book. From this pocket, the wizard picked out his towers token and handed it to the heroes “as promised”.

Before they left they enquired if Apius could cast the knock spell and remove the collar the golem had placed around Kimiko’s neck, “Sadly that is not a magic I have available, I suggest you try looking in the Tower of Abjuration. Perhaps you can find a scroll of it there since its an abjuration spell”. The heroes bid him farewell and left the same way they had come in, mending the door once they had exited.

Jangar did offer to try and pick the lock with what looked to be a long sharp cooking implement but the tabaxi bladesinger quickly made it clear she didn’t want to risk it. The heroes thought they could see if their friendly librarian was able to help and so set off to the library. Once they got there Klytus regrettably informed them that he didn’t use the knock spell, “Why would I? I have keys to all the doors within my library” and so they left to head towards the Tower of Abjuration.

As they made their way along the streets of Ythryn they saw a figure standing in the open ahead of them. A female white-skinned tiefling, not wearing cold weather gear and carrying a pair of staves with a raven sitting on her shoulder.

They approached, clearly expecting an ambush, and indeed did see a pair of drow soldiers positioned off to the sides but not particularly trying to hide and neither had weapons drawn. Once they were close they halted and asked what the tiefling wanted.

She introduced herself as Avarice, a member of the Arcane Brotherhood, and former associate of Vellyne Harpell. She offered the heroes an alliance, to combine their resources to search for the tower tokens and gain admittance to the central spire.

Unfortunately, Groth spied the hulking form of Ghilgrix, the ice demon that had escaped him when chased up the outside of the Tower of Conjuration, and the zealot half-orc threw her offer in her face “We don’t work with those that consort with demons!”

Avarice calmly accepted that decision and motioned to her own companions to begin moving out. As they walked away into the ruins she called back to the heroes, “Don’t expect me to be as reasonable when next we meet”.

The heroes waited until the tiefling and her entourage were out of sight before choosing to go into one of the more intact nearby ruins and consider their options. Kimiko was having to resort to writing her views on parchment until Groth suddenly remembered the item that the fox-man had given them and dove his arm into the bag of holding, rummaging around for a moment before triumphantly pulling forth an item and holding it aloft with a massive smile across his face – the chime of opening!

Before anyone could agree or protest the barbarian struck the chime against the collar and it pinged open. The collar stopped glowing and the chime chipped and lost its lustre. Able to speak once more, Kimiko thanked the barbarian but made known her regret that the chime’s single-use had been spent.

The party needed to rest and recuperate so Kimiko was excited to show them a new spell she had learned, creating a magical door which they all passed through into her magical mansion where they were able to rest peacefully overnight in safety and comfort.

The following morning they gathered their gear and Rohan sent a sending message to Avarice, “Come and get our stones if you think you have the Stones, Library, one hour!” He waited a moment to see if the message had worked and then magically heard the tiefling’s voice in his ear “I don’t think the librarian would take kindly to us fighting in his library, haha. Well then, it seems you have tired of your existence, we’ll be there”. The cleric calmly told his companions what he had done and suggested they get there first to ensure they had the favourable ground.

Quickly the heroes made their way back to the junction they had previously met Avarice and prepared for her arrival …

Misfits of the Dale, Legacy of the Frostmaiden – session 47

Team Misfits battle for the book, and their lives

• Hinesh – Rohän Fell, a human Life Cleric of Silvanus with the hermit background.
• Sarah – Tsukiya Kimiko, a tabaxi Bladesinger Wizard with the noble background.
• Lyam – Groth, a half-orc Zealot Barbarian with the acolyte background.
• Badger – Grib, a firbolg Circle of the Moon Druid with the hermit background. (joined by text only due to illness)
• Tom – Jangar Khusugtun, a goliath Bard with the outlander (wanderer) background.

23rd Hammer, 1493 DR, Year of the Purple Dragon

As the statue began to move Groth pulled his hand back and before his companions could stop him, the barbarian dove between the statue’s legs, scooping up the book and popping it into his bag of holding as he rolled back to his feet behind the towering figure. Suddenly Grib, Jangar and Kimiko felt a wave of psychic energy wash over them and felt the benefit of their heroes’ feast vanish. Grib was also returned to his natural form, and Kimiko felt the protection of her mage armour spell and bladesong stripped from her as her tressym disappeared.

The statue’s left hand reached for Jangar, trying to clamp around the goliath’s neck but he was too nimble and dodged aside, while its right hand smashed into Groth behind him. In response, Jangar rolled backwards, taking another solid punch for his effort, and retreated back out of the doorway before hurling a vicious mockery a the statue with no visible effect.

Grib advanced on the statue, striking it with his staff but it barely even noticed. while Rohan attempted to banish the monster. It looked as if the spell was going to work but then the monster gave an almost imperceptible shudder and withstood the magic.

Kimiko cast her magical missiles at the monster but nothing materialised and she circled around the lower tier of the auditorium. Groth hacked into the monster’s rear with his halberd, magically enhanced by Rohan’s prayer.

from the doorway, Janger called encouragingly to his burly companion just before the statue twisted at its waist, turning its upper half a full hundred and eighty degrees before Kimiko and Rohan felt another wave of psychic agony roll over them and the monster smashed its fists into Groth hard.

Dashing back along the wooden stand Kimiko got behind the creature once again and summoned a fist of arcane energy that punched at it, though ineffectually. Grib conjured a flaming sphere under the statue’s feet as Jangar hurled a psychic lance at it, the pair of them cheering as their spells hit. But the cheers quickly faded as they realised that not only had their spells failed to injure it, but actually seemed to be healing much of the damage Groth had been causing.

With a yell to his allies to clear the way, Groth wrapped his bulging biceps around the statue’s waist and pushed it back to the doorway, Jangar just managed to slip back inside the room before the grappled monster blocked the doorway.

Jangar tried to hit the statue with an eldritch blast but the spell fizzled as soon as he cast it. Another wave of psychic pain washed over the casters in the room as the statue ignored being manhandled by Groth and smashed a fist each into him and Jangar.

The statue’s magic-cancelling properties were becoming infuriating to the heroes especially as it seemed to be immune to damage from non-magical sources, but they fought on as the monster made its way back towards the centre of the chamber.

It was then that Rohan felt the return of his magic with the monsters back to him and once again tried to banish it, amazingly it worked and the statue disappeared. “This won’t last so whatever we’re doing we need to do it now!” called the cleric.

Groth passed out the frost axe and a longbow with arrows made from the teeth of a creature he had harvested and as they took up positions to strike at the monster upon its return, Rohan sent healing energy into his companions.

“OK, are we ready to finish this?” he asked his companions, looking around as each nodded grimly, “Here it comes, in 3, 2, 1” as he stopped concentrating on his banishment spell …

Misfits of the Dale, Legacy of the Frostmaiden – session 46

Team Misfits seek the High Diviner’s book

• Hinesh – Rohän Fell, a human Life Cleric of Silvanus with the hermit background.
• Sarah – Tsukiya Kimiko, a tabaxi Bladesinger Wizard with the noble background.
• Lyam – Groth, a half-orc Zealot Barbarian with the acolyte background.
• Badger – Grib, a firbolg Circle of the Moon Druid with the hermit background. (joined by text only due to illness)
• Tom – Jangar Khusugtun, a goliath Bard with the outlander (wanderer) background.

23rd Hammer, 1493 DR, Year of the Purple Dragon

Groth offered to try using the arcane telescope, entrusting his orcish stoicism to keep his eyeballs intact. He continued to search the menagerie for several minutes, but he couldn’t find the book in or around the old animal enclosures. Apius said perhaps it was in the under chambers, where the experiments were conducted. The barbarian refocused the telescope on the menagerie, willing the device to scry the lower chambers and he was soon rewarded as his gaze fell upon the blue book of the High Diviner.

It appeared to be on the floor of an auditorium, between the feet of a statue. With a shout of triumph, he relayed the information to his comrades, who set out from the tower to retrieve the book. Not wanting to leave the tower open to assault from the nothics, Kimiko spent a few minutes using her mending cantrip to fix the hinges and keep the door back in place.

Rather than take the shortest, direct route, they agreed to follow the curve of the city’s outer lip and try and do so as quietly as possible. This went well, to begin with, but progress was slow, they were little more than a third of the way to the menagerie before a denizen of the city was alerted to their presence. They heard heavy footfalls approaching before a giant bronze automaton stomped into sight, its massive arms ending in a hammer and axe blade respectively.

Grib shifted his form into that of an air elemental as he and Groth charged at the construct, followed by Rohan. Kimiko and Jangar held back, aiding their friends with ranged spells.

Despite the colossal automaton hitting quite viciously the heroes quickly dealt with it and after a brief look around to see if they had attracted further attention, they resumed their stealthy approach to the menagerie.

Though badly cracked, the dome that covered the menagerie was mostly intact, but as they circled around it they found a section that had been broken open when large pieces of loose structure had crashed through during the city’s impact.

Inside they could still make out the various enclosures, none of which still housed their specimens, though several held their skeletal remains. It reminded them of the grand zoological gardens of Neverwinter.

They searched amongst the enclosures, looking for a way to access the lower levels. As they did so they noticed several old sets of bootprints as well as a strange wide single-wheeled track. Before they could investigate that, however, they discovered what seemed to be a keeper’s storage room. Upon searching it they found a glowing portal affixed to one of the interior walls. Readying their weapons they stepped through.

They found themselves in a stone under chamber, a corridor led north to a reinforced door with two pairs of statues along it in alcoves. There was also another of the reinforced doors leading east from the chamber. After trying both doors they discovered both were locked, Groth and Rohan set about breaking the east door open with sledgehammer and spells.

Breaking through the door revealed the corridor beyond to be knee-deep in swirling mist. Remembering their encounter with the hyena creature in the ice tunnel mists the heroes were wary as they entered. Thankfully this time the mists seemed to be empty and so they explored the length of the corridor, finding two more exits, one leading north, the other further east.

Rohan and Grib broke the northern door open, revealing a chamber that looked to have its ceiling supported by pillars, though one of them had broken and fallen, presumably during the crash. The chamber had two more exits leading further north or east.

Groth smashed the east door open with his sledgehammer, revealing a larger chamber with dividing walls and faintly glowing yellow runic circles on the floor beneath the mists. As the barbarian strode in, followed by Kimiko and Jangar, he suddenly bristled, his hand reaching for his halberd as he turned to view the northwestern corner of the room.

His allies quickly caught up to him upon seeing his reaction and as they all rounded the dividing wall they could see a hulking beast contained within one of the runic circles. If it stood up straight it would tower over the half-orc but it appeared to hunch over. It resembled a hairless bear but its skin was a sickly mottled green with pinkish underbelly.

Groth poked the butt end of his halberd through the circle and into the beast’s arm, the glow suddenly disappearing and the beast came to life. The whole party focused on assaulting the beast but it seemed to only focus on tearing into Groth with its teeth and claws.

Despite the half-orc’s assurances that he was fine, Rohan could see the beast’s attacks were taking a toll upon him and sent a healing spell towards his friend but somehow the magic was twisted, instead harming the barbarian! Thankfully this wasn’t enough to put him off as the party finally stabbed, slashed, pummelled and pierced the beast to death.

They followed Grib and Rohanback into the pillared chamber and broke through the northern door. The chamber beyond appeared to have several barred holding cells but was filled with a thick green fog. Grib was still in the form of an air elemental and floated into the chamber whirling around and dispersing the fog to allow his allies to enter the chamber.

As the first of them entered a disembodied voice called out in Netherese, which Professor Skant translated as saying “Put all utensils back in their place before leaving the chamber”. With the fog gone, they could see there was a stone table in the centre of the chamber, its top was slightly cantered towards the north end where it formed what appeared to be a pouring lip. They quickly surmised that it was probably used for blood-letting or directing of specimens.

The cells were all empty and they found doors leading east and west. They chose to head west and broke the door open to reveal the chamber Groth had described from his use of the telescope. Raised platforms ringed the circular chamber to allow viewing of the central staging area upon which stood the strange statue as the barbarian had called it.

It stood with another of the glowing runic circles, though this one appeared to be coloured blue, and between its feet, they could see the blue leather-bound book of the High Diviner. Groth was ready to try and reach in and pick the book up but the others asked him to wait a moment as they spread themselves out a little, fully expecting the statue to animate upon doing so.

Once they were all ready they gave the half-orc the nod and he reached out. As soon as his hand crossed the edge of the circle it flared and went out, as the statue did indeed come to life before them …

Misfits of the Dale, Legacy of the Frostmaiden – session 45

Team Misfits defend the Tower of Divination

• Hinesh – Rohän Fell, a human Life Cleric of Silvanus with the hermit background.
• Sarah – Tsukiya Kimiko, a tabaxi Bladesinger Wizard with the noble background.
• Lyam – Groth, a half-orc Zealot Barbarian with the acolyte background.
• Badger – Grib, a firbolg Circle of the Moon Druid with the hermit background. (joined by text only due to illness)
• Tom – Jangar Khusugtun, a goliath Bard with the outlander (wanderer) background.

23rd Hammer, 1493 DR, Year of the Purple Dragon

Grib gave a shout of warning and then stepped aside from the doorway as Groth gave a howl that was half anger and half glee before charging out the doorway to engage the cyclopean hunchbacks as they approached. As the barbarian intercepted them he could see more figures approaching, some identical to the ones he was now slashing into with his halberd, while others were of different colourations.

The first wave posed little threat to Groth as the magic of Leevan’s Cleaver came alive in his hands, as each creature died he felt his fatigue drift away and slashed at another, and another creature until he stood upon their corpses awaiting the nearest of the following monsters to reach him.

Kimiko, Rohan and Jangar followed their half-orc companion into the street, aiding his fervent assault with their magics, even when the pair that were of a deep blackened purple tore into them and the one that looked like skinless muscle began disappearing and reappearing seemingly at random, the heroes did not let up their assault.

During the fight Jangar used a Thunderous Step to pull himself and Kimiko out of reach of one of the creatures, its boom echoing off the neighbouring structures, and once their last foe had fallen the heroes quickly retreated back inside the tower wary of any other nearby creatures the noise may have alerted.

They cautiously peered out of the doorway for a few minutes until they were satisfied that there were no further creatures approaching and then Kimiko ascended the stairs at the rear of the planetarium to find an unlocked trapdoor at the top. Tentatively she poked it open with her speartip, hearing a voice from within the chamber beyond grumble “I told you not to disturb me, just guard the chamber below!”, slowly she opened the trap door fully and climbed into the room to see a frog-like humanoid peering into a bizarre contraption with a jar of what appeared to be eyeballs floating within it.

The rest of the party followed the bladesinger into the upper chamber, arriving just as the strange creature gave a cry of pained exasperation and pulled its face away from the contraption with a sucking plop and another eye appeared in the nearby jar.

The figure seemed to realise that it had company and turned to regard the heroes as it dabbed at a now empty eye socket with a handkerchief, “You’re not magen! I’ve seen you, poking around the city, you and the others. What do you want?” it asked grumpily.

The ensuing conversation revealed that the figure was the High Diviner Apius, formerly a Netherese wizard but sadly now as he appeared due to an accident after the city had crashed. Apius had gone out into the city to seek and retrieve his book that contained his tower’s token but had run afoul of a creature that had escaped from the menagerie. During the period of his painful transformation, he hadn’t been taking notice that his apprentices had also been changing, becoming the creatures the party had encountered outside – nothics!

He told the heroes that something had gone wrong in the city after they had retrieved an Ostorian artefact from beneath the sea and the city’s archmage had taken it into the central spire for study. Some sort of energy pulse had shorted out pretty much all magic in the city, including the mythallar that allowed it to fly, and thus the city had crashed into the leading edge of the glacier. The ice of the glacier expanded around the city supernaturally quickly and it had been trapped here since.

After talking to Apius for a while he offered them his towers token if they retrieved his book which contained it, he had been using the strange apparatus to search for it without going out of his tower. It was an arcane telescope but he cautioned that using it for any extended period ran the risk of it taking the eye of the user.

Thankfully his new form was able to regenerate a lost eye overnight and so he had been carefully searching the city for his book over the past several hundred years. He had narrowed it down to four remaining possible locations. He wouldn’t search again until the next day but he would happily allow the heroes to try and find it.

Rohan asked to try it and attempted to search the arboretum for the missing book. He didn’t find the book but the device took his eye. Unphased, the cleric used one of his spells to regenerate his eye.

Kimiko tried next, though through her tressym familiar. Again, searching the arboretum, and again unsuccessfully before losing an eye.

The usually quiet druid, Grib, volunteered next. He too searched the arboretum but was certain that the book wasn’t there. He then searched the Wellspring of Answers, it looked like a giant circular pit with stone benches around the edge. He searched for a few minutes with no sign of the book until the apparatus took his eye with a terrible sucking sound.

Not wanting to give up Grib wildshape into a giant spider, though it only had seven eyes, and tried searching the Bazaar of the Bizarre. He found no sign of the book but did see a headless automaton blundering around inside before the apparatus took another eye from his arachnid form …

Misfits of the Dale, Legacy of the Frostmaiden – session 44

Team Misfits seek out their next Tower of magic

• Hinesh – Rohän Fell, a human Life Cleric of Silvanus with the hermit background.
• Sarah – Tsukiya Kimiko, a tabaxi Bladesinger Wizard with the noble background.
• Lyam – Groth, a half-orc Zealot Barbarian with the acolyte background.
• Badger – Grib, a firbolg Circle of the Moon Druid with the hermit background.
• Tom – Jangar Khusugtun, a goliath Bard with the outlander (wanderer) background.

23rd Hammer, 1493 DR, Year of the Purple Dragon

Able to relax and rest in a comfort and security they hadn’t known since arriving in Icewind Dale, the heroes slept through the night without fear, though not without incident. They each had troubling dreams and when they gathered in the morning each had a haunted look about them but none spoke of it.

When they asked Eugene about breakfast he told them the servants could easily make them a hearty breakfast but wondered why they would desire it over the food on offer in the lower chamber of the tower. When the heroes asked why he explained that the meal was a magically heroic feast replenished after a tenday once consumed. Realising the benefits of such a feast the heroes gathered their gear, wished him good day and went to partake of the feast before leaving the tower and heading towards the building Professor Slant identified as the library.

They approached the exterior of the building a curious duo waved them over to where they were concealed in a nearby ruined building. One was a tall gangly humanoid with foxlike features wearing robes and a pair of spectacles perched on its nose, the other appeared to be a penguin the size of a dwarf, wearing a leather harness attached to a small wheeled cart stacked with books.

The fox creature introduced itself as Scrivenscry and its companion as Kingsport. It wanted to ask the heroes a favour, assuming they were heading into the library. They asked why it simply couldn’t go in itself but it explained that sadly it had been in the library when the librarian had suddenly returned and chased them out, refusing to let them back in.

Sensing no ill intent, the heroes asked what the favour was. Scrivenscry wanted them to find a copy of one of the Books of Keeping which he believed was in the library. When they asked what it was for and why he wanted it, he explained it contained the true names of numerous denizens of the lower planes and he needed it to get himself out of a bad situation. He offered the party a magical chime of opening in exchange, and they agreed to see what they could do.

They left the duo in their hiding spot and entered the library, as they did Jangar told his companions that he didn’t trust penguins, his aunt had left their tribe to go and teach a flock of penguins in the Dale to play bagpipes and had never returned! Before the rest of the heroes could enquire further they entered the central chamber of the library and saw the familiar figure of Klytus the chief librarian they had freed from his icy imprisonment in the caves beyond the city.

The librarian was commanding a small force of blue-skinned figures, setting them to work on the arduous task of cleaning up and reorganizing the library. When he spotted the heroes he approached them. Despite their not being Netherese and in gratitude for them freeing him he granted them access to the ground floor of the library but only for the morning.

The heroes asked him about the Books of Keeping and he immediately knew they had been speaking with Scrivenscry. With a dry crackling chuckle he told them that the book wasn’t even in the library but when he had arrived he found the duo haphazardly pulling books off the shelves and just dropping them on the floor, so he had chased them out.

Kimiko searched the stacks and found a volume detailing the history of Chain Lightning, and another on Mythallars. Groth found one that had various anatomical drawings of dwarves, elves, orcs and giants, including autopsy and vivisections.

When they eventually tired of searching the seemingly endless stacks of bookshelves they thanked the librarian and bid him farewell. Once they exited the building they easily spotted Scrivenscry waving at them once again, they returned to the fox creature and informed him that his book wasn’t in the library. Scrivenscry was disappointed but kept his side of the bargain and handed over the chime. When the heroes asked what he intended to do now he replied that he and Kingsport would make their way out of the city proper so as to be able to transport themselves to another plane in search of the Books. Groth still didn’t trust the duo and watched them suspiciously as they wandered off into the ruins until they seemed to split into multiple copies and scattered.

The heroes paid the pair no further mind and walked past the large garden of the city. The little fenced raised flower beds flourished despite the city location and while they walked by and casually watched they saw the door of a small shed roll up and a small brass automaton trundle out on a mono-wheel, circling several of the flower beds and picking up fallen pieces of plants and leaves, depositing them into the basket-like receptacle mounted onto its back, and then returning to its shed before the door closed once again.

They passed the gardens and approached their destination, the Tower of Divination, again distinguished by the glowing rune of the school of divination magic upon its upper reaches. An arched doorway led to the interior but the door appeared to have been welded shut from the interior. Rohan checked around the rest of the tower for other possible entry routes, finding what looked to be a metal pipe sticking out of a hole in the wall about thirty feet up on the rear of the tower. The priest called Kimiko and her tressym over and they sent the familiar up to see if it could get in through the pipe. The bladesinger used her ability to see through the tressym’s eyes as it flew up to the pipe but it couldn’t get in, the end of the pip was blocked by glass and as she looked at it a reptilian eye glared back at her, blinked twice then was gone.

Regrouping at the door Groth pulled his crowbar from the bag of holding and began prying the door off of its hinges, easily forcing the door open and allowing them access. Inside they could see a handful of various-sized globes laying on the floor painted to represent what looked like planets, while the ceiling was decorated to resemble a starry night sky. A trio of the blue-skinned figures, similar to what had been in the library, were in the chamber, one in robes and the other two in chainmail and armed with greatswords.

The heroes charged into the room as the blue warriors drew their swords and battle commenced. Despite their fearsome appearance, Groth was able to easily despatch the warriors while Rohan, Jangar and Kimiko dealt with the robed figure using their magics.

The heroes weren’t able to revel in their victory though as Grib looked back out through the doorway and spotted a handful of twisted, cyclopean figures approaching …

Misfits of the Dale, Legacy of the Frostmaiden – session 43

Team Misfits explore the Tower of Conjuration.

• Hinesh – Rohän Fell, a human Life Cleric of Silvanus with the hermit background.
• Sarah – Tsukiya Kimiko, a tabaxi Bladesinger Wizard with the noble background.
• Lyam – Groth, a half-orc Zealot Barbarian with the acolyte background.
• Badger – Grib, a firbolg Circle of the Moon Druid with the hermit background.
• Tom – Jangar Khusugtun, a goliath Bard with the outlander (wanderer) background.

21st Hammer, 1493 DR, Year of the Purple Dragon

The heroes greeted the hulking insectoid in all the languages they knew, but rather than respond in any of them they heard its scratchy voice directly in their minds. The creature greeted them in return and calmly crouched as they asked it who it was and what it was doing there. It told them they could call it Ghilgrix, and it had been summoned by the High Conjurer of the tower over two thousand years previously.

Kimiko used her knowledge of the arcane arts to confirm that the glowing runes engraved into the floor and ceiling were indeed keeping Ghilgrix contained while the others continued to converse with it. The insectoid correctly assumed they were seeking the master of the tower’s token and offered a deal, it would tell them how to get the magically hidden token if they freed it from its imprisonment. While most of the heroes were satisfied with Ghilgrix giving its word that it wouldn’t harm them once free, Groth smashed his sledgehammer down upon the rune-carved floor. With a flicker, the glowing runes went out and the insectoid stretched up to its full height as it telepathically thanked the heroes.

However, Groth’s teachings at the hands of the priests of Lathander meant that he couldn’t let the monster roam free and so he started to attack it. Rohan attempted to use his magic to banish it back to its plane of origin but Ghilgrix shrugged the magic off and telepathically spoke to Grib as the Firbolg was the one standing immediately before the shimmering portal to the lower level, offering to complete their deal if the druid would let him pass through. Grib agreed and just before Ghilgrix stepped through he told the druid they needed to press the glowing runes on the south wall in the correct sequence to activate the extra-planar properties of the ornate desk to the north and that the token would be in there.

Still frothing with rage, Groth gave chase, following Ghilgrix through the portal and with a resigned sigh, so did Rohan.

Grib calmly told Jangar and Kimiko what the insectoid had told him regards the glowing runes and the trio investigated the south wall. They recognised that the pictograms represented the forms that the morphing familiar in the lower chamber had taken and tried to recall the order it had done so. The druid thought he had it and pressed the runes in that order, but as he pressed the second one they all went dull, as did both of the glowing portals leading out of the chamber. The floor below him dropped away, dropping both him and Jangar into a fifteen-foot-deep pit amongst a mass of writhing purple-black tentacles that began to wrap around them.

As the tentacles constricted tighter they tried to break free and clamber out but the tentacles were too strong and despite being very tall individuals they couldn’t reach the upper edge of the pit. Jangar managed to get his hand onto Grib’s arm and cast a Thunder Step spell, transporting the pair of them up and out of the pit and the grasping tentacles with a loud crack of thunder.

Meanwhile, Groth had caught up to Ghilgrix and assaulted the insectoid once more. The insectoid swiped at his pursuers with claw, tail and mandibles, more in an effort to put them off than actually harm them, but Groth and Rohan pressed their assault. Manoeuvring around Ghilgrix in an effort to block his exiting the tower.

The infernal insect magically conjured a wall of ice in front of the door, forcing the cleric and barbarian to the sides as it formed. The heroes thought the monster had trapped itself with them in error until it stepped forward into the ice, melding into it and then letting itself out of the door beyond it, safely out of reach of them.

The runes and portals were still inactive but the pit of tentacles remained, so Kimiko cast her arcane hand spell to use as a floating platform over the pit and tried pressing a different combination of the runic pictograms, but nothing happened. After a few more attempts the trio saw the pit disappear and the runes and portals glowed once again so they tried another combination, but had the same results.

It took a couple of more attempts and pauses to wait for the magical trap to reset before the trio were able to enter the correct combination and be rewarded with a soft magical tinkling sound from the central draw of the desk. Jangar carefully opened it to find that it contained quite a collection of incense, ink and other arcane paraphernalia, along with a velvet pouch filled with coins and a small silver statuette of an owl with the lower body of a serpent. But most importantly, the small square cabochon of the master of the tower’s token.

Unwilling to accept his foe’s escape, Groth smashed his way through a section of the ice wall and charged outside the tower, scanning the street around him but couldn’t see any sign of Ghilgrix. Rohan quickly joined him and turned his gaze upwards.

There, about thirty feet up the side of the tower was Ghilgrix. His insectoid form easily climbed the almost perfectly smooth sides of the tower. With a yell of frustration, the half-orc stubbornly began climbing after him. His sheer anger helped him to find the most minuscule handholds in the tower’s structure.

Rohan chanted a prayer, calling down a flaming strike upon the fleeing insectoid but it wasn’t as effective as he hoped it would have been and his foe continued scuttling up the tower’s wall. Groth doggedly climbed after the fleeing monster, pausing momentarily to hurl a javelin up at it, though the mundane weapon had no effect other than to cause the barbarian to lose his precarious grip and plummet down onto the street below.

The barbarian wasn’t giving up though, and pulled a climber’s kit from his bag of holding and again began ascending the tower. He was about a third of the way up when Ghilgrix reached the roof and disappeared over the lip. This was when Groth’s luck failed again, along with his grip and he fell the fifty feet to the street once more.

The eagle-eyed Rohan spotted a grey, winged shape approach the roof from the east, and then fly back in the same direction carrying Ghilgrix in its claws. As both he and Groth were now quite heavily injured he calmed his companion down and used his message earring to ask one of his companions to let them back inside.

Regrouping, the heroes decided to investigate the second glowing portal doorway, stepping through into a massive entrance hall. The floor was covered in a plush carpet, the walls draped with exquisite tapestries and a pair of curving grand staircases circled up to higher landings above. The whole room was lit by an elaborate chandelier that seemed to hang in empty space unassisted.

An aged male elf approached, wearing a smart but simple plain grey suit, bowing deeply and welcoming them to residence for High Conjurer Damorith and introducing himself as Eugene, the maitre de. During a brief conversation, the heroes discovered that this was a magically created extra-dimensional refuge and that they were welcome to rest and recuperate within its walls in guaranteed safety. More servants appeared, all elven and wearing plain grey robes, and the heroes were able to take hot baths, eat hearty meals and rest for an evening in comfort they hadn’t experienced since last in Bryn Shander …

Misfits of the Dale, Legacy of the Frostmaiden – session 42

Team Misfits begin exploring Ythryn’s towers of magic.

• Hinesh – Rohän Fell, a human Life Cleric of Silvanus with the hermit background.
• Sarah – Tsukiya Kimiko, a tabaxi Bladesinger Wizard with the noble background.
• Lyam – Groth, a half-orc Zealot Barbarian with the acolyte background.
• Badger – Grib, a firbolg Circle of the Moon Druid with the hermit background.
• Tom – Jangar Khusugtun, a goliath Bard with the outlander (wanderer) background.

21st Hammer, 1493 DR, Year of the Purple Dragon

Kimiko was first to step through the door into the chamber, calling out a pleasant greeting to the figures as she did so. Their wordless response was to pull their loaded crossbows up and point them in the direction of the door. The tabaxi snapped her fingers as she conjured up mirror images of herself to hopefully confuse their aim, but nothing happened!

Seeing the blue figures raise their weapons Rohan chanted a prayer giving the blessing of Silvanus to his companions as the air was filled with the sound of twanging crossbow strings, aimed at Grib, Jangar and Kimiko, though only the bladesinger was struck.

With a snarl, Groth raced past his companions into the midst of their foes, his halberd swinging and slashing into them. With a resigned shrug Rohan trotted after his half-orc companion and began attacking another of the blue figures with his quarterstaff.

Grib and Jangar followed suit, realising that spells were uncastable in the chamber and resorting to their mundane weaponry to assail another of the blue figures.

The blue warriors dropped their crossbows and pulled their greatswords from their backs, wordlessly engaging the heroes in a swirling melee. Despite their obvious skill at arms though, it wasn’t enough to match the concerted efforts of the heroes and Groth’s sheer brutality as he cleaved through foe upon foe.

Pausing only long enough to check there were no more enemies in the chamber, the heroes ascended the stairs to the upper chamber. This too was lit with the pale blue glass-like rods set into the walls. minor debris littered the outer edges of the room but what caught the hero’s eye was the furniture within the chamber.

Against the south wall stood a low display cabinet, a trio of fist-sized sapphires laying upon its cushioned top. Sitting in the centre of the chamber was a large adamantine anvil with a mithril hammer resting upon it, both were inscribed with glowing arcane glyphs.

Groth stepped forward and picked the hammer up as they all heard a voice in their heads. The voice belonged to the anvil, and it told them it was hungry and that if they fed it a magic item it would reveal a secret. The heroes asked how they could “feed” it, to which it answered that they would need to place the item on the anvil and smash it with the hammer. Rohan placed one of his goodberrys on the anvil and Groth brought the hammer down upon it with a splat. The anvil rebuked them as that didn’t constitute an item. The heroes began looking through the treasure they had accumulated but then Groth stepped forward as he removed his message earring and placed it upon the anvil. The mighty half-orc brought the hammer down with a smash, a flash of cerulean light erupted from the impact and when Groth lifted the hammer free the earring was gone, in its place sat a small flat, blue gem.

It was roughly an inch square but only a quarter of that thick. At first, they thought it was engraved but upon closer inspection realised that the symbol it held was within the gem itself.

“Behold! The token of the master of the Tower of Abjuration” announced the anvil proudly.

Taking the token and the three sapphires the heroes bid the anvil farewell and left the tower. They briefly discussed which tower to head to next before settling upon the Tower of Conjuration as the rubble-strewn ruins would provide better cover for their approach. They cautiously made their way through a fallen tower, pausing just before they reached its end as they spotted movement in the ruins ahead.

A handful of hunched-over figures dressed in ragged cloaks had passed between two of the partially collapsed buildings. The heroes tried to get a better view of the figures in an effort to identify them but they had disappeared in the sprawling alleyways and debris.

Once they were satisfied that it was safe to continue the heroes headed once more towards the tower. Kimiko confirmed the symbol emblazoned on its upper wall was indeed that of the school of conjuration magic. There were no windows and only a single steel door with a plane iron handle. Unlike the majority of the area around the tower, the immediate vicinity looked to have been swept clear of detritus in a roughly twenty-foot perimeter.

Groth walked up to the door and tried the handle, it was locked and the barbarian had to quickly jump back as a small magical bonfire appeared beneath his feet before disappearing moments later. Thinking for a moment, Jangar walked away from the tower for almost thirty feet and conjured his mage hand, commanding it to float forward and try the door handle. The handle turned and the door opened slightly. Since no bonfire appeared the heroes hurried inside and the door swung closed behind them.

Inside was an opulently appointed room, plush sofas and armchairs, a dining table laden with delicious looking, and smelling food, a gem-encrusted chest sat off to one side and on the far side of the room was a glowing doorway, beside which sat a caged rat on a small side table, all around them they could hear the sound of brooms sweeping but couldn’t see the source of the sound. Kimiko warily investigated the food, fearing it was either illusory or a trap, but was pleasantly surprised that it was neither and eagerly tucked in to a succulent chicken leg.

Rohan examine the chest, it didn’t appear to have a lock of any sort and so he carefully opened it. It opened easily and without incident but was completely empty. The cleric pulled the chest towards the centre of the room to check if it was stuck in place and felt that something was pulling it back to its position, whatever force was pulling it proved stronger than the cleric and the chest was put back in its position.

Groth had gone straight to the caged rat, his curiosity piqued when the rat twisted and turned into a small owl. Its cage wasn’t locked and the owl let him put his hand in and stroke it but wouldn’t let him remove it from the cage. The owl then changed again, becoming a snake. Groth picked up the cage and took it over to the empty chest and placed it inside. He closed the chest, counted slowly to five, and opened the chest. The cage was still there but the snake was now a rat once more. With a shrug, he returned the cage to its place on its table.

The heroes examined the glowing doorway, Kimiko assuring her allies that it was simply a portal and probably to an upper chamber before they boldly stepped through.

Stepping out of the portal they appeared in an almost identically sized chamber. There were still a pair of plush armchairs, but this time they flanked a large writing-style desk against the north wall. Another portal was on the eastern side of the chamber, and on the south wall were four glowing pictograms.

What immediately caught all of their attention, however, was the large insectoid creatures in the centre of the room. Standing within a circle of glowing arcane symbols carved into the floor of the chamber and with a corresponding circle above it on the ceiling, the creature regarded the new arrivals with a clicking of its mandibles …

Gnome Force Ultra goes north, Legacy of the Frostmaiden – session 41

Team Gnome Force Ultra find Ythryn is no walk in the park

• Steve – Drazekk, a green dragonborn Feywanderer Ranger/Druid with the outlander background.
• Morgan – Elenath, a wood elf Circle of the Stars Druid with the sage background.
• Lee – Castle, a warforged Rune Knight Fighter with the city watch background.
• Jack – Eldyra, a high elf Twilight domain Cleric of Selune with the acolyte background.
• Jon -Yongrad Anviltamer, a duergar Artificer Armourer with the Clan Crafter background.

25th Hammer, 1493 Year of the Purple Dragon

The heroes had a quick debate over their best way of leaving the tower, either using the actual door which would then leave the tower accessible to the roving nothics, or clamber out of the small hole in the upper floor where the spyglass looked out. They agreed to keep the tower’s security intact and one by one exited Apius’s study via the hole, though some more gracefully than others.

They approached the arboretum cautiously but saw no signs of any nothics nearby and began to head through the paved paths of the gardens towards the central area. The gardens were in immaculate condition as if they had been regularly tended even during the city’s isolation. At the centre was another of the small fenced areas, flowering bushes delicately arrayed around the gardens crowning glory, a massive oak tree, the one Yongrad had seen the book nestled in the boughs of.

Rather than using either of the decorative stone steps to enter the central garden, the heroes hopped over the low fence, instantly seeing a dramatic change in the appearance of the place before them. The bushes all showed signs of having almost rotted away then recovered, then rotting and recovering repeatedly. The great oak itself now looked like a burnt and blighted shadow of its former self.

Yongrad strode ahead, wanting to recover the book quickly and get out of the depressing garden, passing a pile of broken rubble he spotted a metallic leg that resembled Castle’s but was smaller, child-sized, sticking out from underneath the pile. Before he could examine it further the blasted oak shuddered to life and a handful of rotting humanoid plants attacked!

The plant men posed little more than an annoyance but the tree creature seemed to possess twisted magics that sought to rot the heroes as it washed over them. Castle used his runic powers to enlarge himself and charge into the tree, striking with his hammer and the axe he’d taken from the frost giant. Drazekk utilised the javelin that the artificer had empowered for him, causing it to return to his hand magically after he’d launched it at the tree. Eldyra moved out of the melee range of the tree’s writhing branches and summoned a circle of power to assist her comrades in arms as her fellow elf assumed her draconic starry form and began flying within the garden.

The tree creature seemed to not care about the plant men and stomped the remaining ones into the ground as it closed on the heroes, smashing into the duergar and warforged with its heavy limbs. Yongrad used his own innate magic to grow to a larger size as he continued to smash his thunder gauntlets against the oak in conjunction with Castle and Drazekk’s ongoing assault.

Elenath flew up into the boughs of the tree and attempted to pull the book free of its grasp but the tree wrapped its branches around it tighter and drew it into the hollow of its upper trunk. The frustrated druid threw down a ring of fire upon the tree monster as she flew back up out of its reach.

Stabbed with javelins, smashed with firey hammer and frosted axe, hammered with thundering fists and now ringed in magical flames, the tree creature was quickly overcome, though the heroes were certainly not unscathed themselves. Retrieving the book from the lifeless trunk they thumbed through it, learning that it had been one of Apius’s journals, its entries recalling the final days of the city before its crash. Just as the transformed wizard had said, his tower gem was hidden in a pocket within the book.

As the party retreated to one of the healthier-looking gardens to tend their wounds and catch their collective breath they spied a door opening on one of the nearby buildings and several halfling-sized automatons scurried out, each having an open-topped backpack attached to them. they went to the central garden and immediately began picking up the debris and putting it into their backpacks, once their packs were full the little automatons all returned to their building and the door closed behind them.

Once they were ready to continue the heroes headed past the library and through a former residential area towards the fallen tower of Necromancy. As they approached it they spotted a bulky grey form travelling a path that would intersect with their own. As the rest of the group moved with caution, the warforged rune knight strode forward and called out a friendly greeting.

A familiar white tiefling appeared from the side street, accompanied by a hulking gargoyle, and several well-armed mercenaries could be spotted lurking amongst the nearby ruins. Without any verbal commands from Avarice, the mercenaries sheathed their weapons and visibly relaxed as they slowly walked to stand calmly behind the tiefling. While her comrades moved up to converse with the albino, Elenath tried to use the sending stone to alert Vellyne that they had encountered her former associate but only got a strange static in response.

The conversation with the tiefling mage was cordial but guarded. She readily revealed that she had retrieved a trio of the tower gems, those from the towers of Necromancy, Evocations and Enchantment and proposed a collaboration with the party to each retrieve one of the remaining pair before coming together to access the central spire together. Avarice assured the heroes that all she wanted was access to the lost magics of the Netherese, knowledge and items thought lost to the ages.

Avarice let the heroes choose which of the remaining towers they would prefer to investigate, and calmly agreed to head to the other. Looking at the dishevelled state of the heroes she even suggested that they should perhaps take advantage of an opportunity to rest up afterwards and meet up at the entrance to the spire the following morning. The heroes quickly decided that they would like to make another attempt at entering the tower of Conjuration and so she wished them luck and again without any verbal command her small force of mercenaries fell into step around her as she set off towards the tower of Illusion.

The tower of Conjuration looked just as they had left it, the floor around the tower swept clear of any debris and the plain steel door awaiting them. Castle tried the handle, finding it locked again and a small magical bonfire appeared around his feet when he did so. Yongrad tried using a mage hand to open the door but again it remained locked and a bonfire appeared at his feet. The warforged walked around the building and tried his demolition hammer but it left not a mark upon the surface of the tower. Yongrad used his mage hand to see if there was any pressure plate or button hidden within the glowing rune denoting the tower’s identity but found nothing. Drazekk pulled his pick axe out, and Eldyra whispered a prayer of guidance over the ranger as he began prying the steel door open.

With a mighty heave, the door snapped open, the lock still visibly activated but the heroes didn’t care as they entered a small chamber that looked like an opulently decorated sitting room. Plush chairs, sofas, and tables, which appeared to have been damaged, then lightly mended, and arranged in an orderly way. An impressive array of food was set on the tables of the room. An ornate gemstone-studded chest sat next to one of the sofas. On the east end of the room, a faintly glowing door stood closed. A rat sat quietly in a cage next to the door. The sounds of sweeping could be heard all around the chamber.

Carefully they moved through the chamber, towards the glowing door, Castle opened the chest but found it empty and tried picking it up. He lifted it easily and tossed it aside, the closest sound of sweeping stopped and the chest began to be pulled back to its original position. The warforged grabbed the end of the chest stopping its movement easily but quickly released it and watched as it was put back in place and the sweeping resumed.

Elenath cast speak with animals and approached the caged rat, noticing as she did so that it had now transformed into a small tawny owl. Conversing with the bird revealed it to be a wizard’s familiar and all that it knew was that the wizards would access the upper chambers via the glowing door. One by one the heroes stepped through the glowing portal, reappearing in another chamber, bathed in yellow light from magical candles around the perimeter. The room was dominated by glowing runes in a 10-foot-radius circle on the floor and ceiling. Within the circle stood a giant bipedal insect with powerful-looking mandibles and a long tail covered in razor-sharp spikes. A beautiful writing desk faced the north wall. Set within the south wall of the room, four
stones glowed with animal depictions …

Misfits of the Dale, Legacy of the Frostmaiden – session 41

Team Misfits finish their journey through the tunnels, but their adventure is far from over

• Hinesh – Rohän Fell, a human Life Cleric of Silvanus with the hermit background.
• Sarah – Tsukiya Kimiko, a tabaxi Bladesinger Wizard with the noble background.
• Lyam – Groth, a half-orc Zealot Barbarian with the acolyte background.
• Badger – Grib, a firbolg Circle of the Moon Druid with the hermit background.
• Tom – Jangar Khusugtun, a goliath Bard with the outlander (wanderer) background.

20th Hammer, 1493 DR, Year of the Purple Dragon

It took a moment for the heroes to realise the ice-imprisoned figure was just screaming incoherently and they pulled the professor orb out to translate for them. The figure was apparently Master Librarian Klytus of the grand city of Ythryn. When he spoke to anyone other than Rohan he would do so with disdain in his voice.

Once the heroes had his assurance that he wouldn’t harm them if they released him, Groth took out his pickaxe and began carefully breaking the ice away while Grib, Jangar and Kimiko all were ready to use defensive magic if needs be. As the last of the ice was removed Klytus stepped forward and pulled a small glass rod from his belt, before anyone could stop him he snapped the rod and instantly disappeared.

The heroes gave the rest of the chamber a quick search but found nothing besides the golden mask that Groth had knocked free, Kimiko examined it for magical properties but found none. It did appear to be made of solid gold and would be worth a significant amount to a collector so she tucked it into her backpack as they set off once again.

They followed the southern tunnel, down another set of naturally formed stairs into a small ante-chamber before opening out into a larger chamber with a fifty-foot ceiling. Dominating the chamber was a small grove of frost-covered trees surrounded by crumbling low stone walls. The trees looked to be thriving and healthy and sported several purple fruits hanging from the lowest branches.

Cautiously the heroes entered the grove and Groth plucked one of the fruits, a purple pear, but before he could take a bite they noticed an elfin face peering from behind one of the nearby trees. They called out to the figure, even using the professor orb to try calling in Netherese, but the figure quickly disappeared behind the trees again.

Jangar began strumming a calming tune on his lute as Rohan and Kimiko continued to calmly call out in elvish and sylvan, and the elfin face reappeared from the tree nearest to the bard. The figure stepped out from behind the tree, a female form very much like an elf but clad in what looked to be leaves.

Once the figure was sure the heroes posed no imminent threat to her she conversed with them in Sylvan, they discovered that she was a dryad of the tree grove and that they were more than welcome to the pears. Her name was Hathowyn and she had been trapped here centuries ago by a Netherese wizard shortly after the flying city had crashed. It had been a long time since any of the wizards had visited the grove but she had seen others recently pass through, a small group of dark-skinned elves had come from the southwest and gone out of the southeast tunnel, they returned a few days later though only three had come back and one was clearly injured. They had gone back out of the southwest tunnel and hadn’t come back since, but shortly afterwards a group of strange hunched creatures had come up the southeast tunnel and gone into the chambers to the south.

The heroes asked Hathowyn if they could help her leave the grove but she told them that she had been with it for so long that if they were to separate her from her trees then both would quickly wither and die. The heroes plucked a handful of the pears, some of them ate one as they left finding them delicious and holding a mild enchantment.

Jangar gifted Hathowyn his painting supplies and the party bid her farewell and they left via the southeast tunnel. It lead down a winding path with no side tunnels leading off for about a mile before it opened up into the largest chamber they had so far encountered.

The tunnel led out onto an icy spar that stretched out to the edge of the fallen city that dominated the cavern. It was sitting on a heavy slant but looked to still be relatively intact. Even from a distance, the heroes could see the city was lit by multiple magical light sources, glowing in hues of green, purple and pink.

Just before the path reached the city edge there was a fallen statue. Its grey stone form lying face down on the ice. As the heroes approached they could see several arrows, crossbow bolts and slash wounds carved into the stature and what looked like the edges of a larger wound on the belly of the statue, hidden by the ice. As they dug some of the concealing ice away they could see that what they first thought was a wound was actually a large fanged mouth, they also discovered that the arrows and bolts were not carved but actual weapons embedded in the statue. Confident that the figure posed no threat they moved past and entered the city, realising that despite the slant it lay on, they felt as if they were walking on a normally flat surface.

They passed what appeared to be an open-air stadium as they headed to an abandoned residence to get their bearings. They pulled the professor orb out again ensuring that they told it to be quiet as they questioned it about the city, learning that the many towers they had spotted on their way in were dedicated to teaching specific schools of magic and that the stadium was for a popular Netherese sport called chain lightning.

As the orb regaled them with the rules of the sport they heard thumping steps and a shadow passed the window of their hiding place. They quickly fell silent and peered out to see a massive metallic construct patrolling the street and heading towards the rim of the city. Humanoid in shape with a massive axe and hammer affixed to its arms.

They recognised the style of its head as matching the one they had encountered in the ice tunnels earlier and waited until it had gone out of sight. Once they were confident that they remained undetected they decided to head to the nearest of the magic towers, from the rune that dominated its upper wall they could tell it was the Tower of Abjuration.

The open archway at the tower’s base led into a small chamber, the walls carved in scenes of wizards casting protective magics against various monsters and the floor littered with ruined books and burnt scrolls. The centre of the chamber was dominated by a narrow spiral staircase that led to the upper floors, as they ascended they could see the first couple looked to be composed of study rooms and practice chambers for the mages studying at the tower, all were trashed and empty.

Finally, the staircase led to a semi-circular chamber, the centre of the straight wall taken up by a stone double door decorated once more with scenes of wizards casting various forms of protective shields and barriers against monstrous four-armed slug-shaped creatures with posterior stingers and barbed teeth which the professor orb identified as the phaerimm, an extra-planar species that had been a major threat to the Netherese and their dependence upon magic.

The door had no keyhole so Groth tried to open it, there was a flash of light and the barbarian disappeared, the door remained closed. Kimiko used a ritual to detect any magic upon the door and wasn’t surprised when it revealed some sort of abjuration magic upon it. Rohan tried a spell to dispel the door’s magic and then tried to open the door himself, only to disappear also. Kimiko tried to do the same, with the same result, leaving Grib, Jangar and Kimiko’s tressym familiar in the chamber.

The barbarian, cleric and bladesinger each found themselves alone in a void of blue light, there were no physical services but they felt themselves to be standing upright. Rohan tried to cast a prayer of banishment upon himself but the magic failed to manifest and so he calmly sat and began to meditate. Groth oriented himself horizontally and began to swim on the spot. Kimiko sat and read through her spell books.

The firbolg and goliath were understandably concerned with the disappearance of their friends but hoped that if they could open the doors they could then discover where they were. Jangar thought about the spells he had available and realised he knew one from the school of abjuration, so he cast it upon himself and with a long exhale grasped the door handle.

The door swung open easily, and as it did so their three companions reappeared in the chamber beside them, and the party could see into the chamber beyond was dominated by a lavish upward-leaning staircase. Columns flank either side of the room, though the right one had fallen. Five well-armoured, greenish-blue-skinned humanoid figures stand at attention around the room, their heads turning in unison towards the open door …