Welcome to the Everlasting Night
The sun hasn’t risen over Icewind Dale in two years. Many believe that the goddess of winter’s wrath -- Auril, the Frostmaiden -- is weaving a spell to lengthen winter and increase the suffering of Ten Towns. No one knows exactly why, but the people of Icewind Dale are hoping for heroes to step up and save them from the everlasting night.
On behalf of Sheriff Markham Southwell of Bryn Shander, bounty hunter Hiln Trollbane has hired a group of adventurers: Anatol, a human paladin of Amaunator; Harvan Stonebridge, a halfling cleric of Yondalla; Ligs, a dwarf fighter from the Dwarven Valley; Ratimir, a human bard; Ziff, a kobold rogue; Glim Peppadimmie, a gnome druid; and Lain Sorenstarr, a drow ranger. What began as a search for a serial killer has become a struggle for the survival of Icewind Dale, and perhaps the world itself.
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Session 68: Bock, Bock, Bock...Bock-Bock!
Campaign Almanac
Day 19 of the campaign, the 10th day of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon was waning quarter and 5 days remained until the new moon.
The Dawnbringers finally crossed "Kill Skath" off their list while Caer-Dineval burned to the ground.Who You Trying to Get Crazy With, Ése? Don't You Know I'm Loco?
Ratimir – either testing the power of faith in his new god or just trying
to bluff Skath – told the vampire that the god
The Dawnbringers quickly attacked the blue tiefling, with Ligs falling to his
powerful charm effect almost immediately. Skath took a step back and asked the
party for a truce so that they could discuss his plan to destroy
The Dawnbringers wanted nothing of it. Skath's words were still hanging in the
air as Anatol unleashed a salvo of
Working together, the party quickly dropped the former Targos captain and watched as his battered form turned to dust before their eyes. Both Ziff and Vellyne gathered some of the dust.
Vengeance, Denied
With Skath dead, the party turned their attention back to Dzaan. The red wizard was livid.
"Do you not realize what you've done? Kadroth is five times more powerful than Skath, and it required all of you working together to defeat him! Kadroth stills sits in the keep on the hill, biding his time. What can you possibly do against that kind of power?!" Dzaan
Ziff – a kobold once more after his polymorph was dispelled by Ravisin
– walked over to Dzaan and plunged his knife into the wizard's abdomen,
again and again. Dzaan's eyes rolled back and he sank to his knees, but as he
did the flesh and blood changed into ice and snow. Ziff watched in shock as
Dzaan dissolved into a melting pile of snow. Vellyne exclaimed behind him,
"Ass-fucking-modeus...that was a
The Temple of Silvanus
The Dawnbringers needed a rest, but with the town ablaze and the unknown forces
of the Sanguine Court afoot in the remnants of Caer-Dineval, they didn't feel
safe in Dinev's Rest. Ravisin suggested that they retreat to the consecrated
ground of the disused
The party ventured out onto the foggy, smoke-filled streets where the stillness was broken by the near-continuous cawing and flapping of Ravisin's flock. But there was another, larger set of creatures flying high above. Ravisin – whose eyes were always a glossy white, much like Ziff's when he sees through the eyes of his familiar – said, "There's something else flying above us. Something unnatural. It's evading the sight of my flock."
It was a short walk to the circle of standing stones and ancient yew trees that
comprised the neglected druidic temple. Ravisin strode to the center and began
the long ritual required to cast the spell
Thus protected, the party bedded down for a long rest just past noon of the day. Over the course of the rest, the various watches saw large, winged creatures take up positions on rooftops and trees outside the influence of Ravisin's grove.
Session 69: Clang-Clang-Clang Goes the Harvan, Burn-Burn-Burn Goes the Town
Campaign Almanac
Day 19 of the campaign, the 10th day of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon was waning quarter and 5 days remained until the new moon.
The Dawnbringers helped Ravisin rescue her sister Vernis from the keep at Caer-Dineval, met the fortune-telling cousin of Xardorok Sunblight, then escaped through the Netherese Door to Termalaine.Riff and Zavisin
The Dawnbringers awoke in the late afternoon from their long rest in the
Ratimir stepped out of the
"You look different," said Ravisin to Ziff as Ratimir stepped back inside. "Did
the Mirror do that do you?" Ziff said no, that it was due to something else.
Then she told him the story of Vernis’ capture by the
"I was not always like this. When Teagan and Davris of the Children of Auril refused to come to our aid, I sat with the mirror and inspected the many versions of myself it presented. When one that seemed powerful enough to take on the vampires appeared, I seized it. But, I've learned the hard way...the miror takes as much as it gives." Ravisin
As their conversation continued, Ziff learned that Ravisin had not communed directly with Auril since before the Rime, and since that time all of the orders were being handed down by Geluvicken or Teagan and Davris of the Children of Auril.
Caution is For the Cowardly
The party decided that freeing Vernis and finding a Netherese tome of magic to
repair the
To the south, they could see the keep silhouetted against the orange light of
the raging town fire, with a pair of guards in each of the four parapets. Ziff
cast
Ziff hurried out, threw Vellyne's
Caer-Dineval Basement Map
Where No Vampire May Pass
At the foot of the stairs was a large chamber through which an underground river flowed. It was noticebly warmer underneath the keep, though the ledges surrounding the water were covered with a layer of ice. The remnants of a destroyed footbridge that once crossed the water remained. Directly across from the staircase was the doorway to the library. To the left and right were short passages leading to circular chambers.
Ravisin left Ziff's shoulder and flew to the chamber on the right. Once over the iron grate and spanned the rushing water, she returned to her humanoid form. Ziff invisibly followed on the icy ledge.
Anatol used
Vellyne cast
He rounded a corner and started down another row of shelves when he spied the silhouette of
a robed man crouched in front of a pile of books, quickly skimming through them and discarding
them over his shoulder one by one. In the flickering lantern light, Ratimir recognized Dzaan,
the Red Wizard whose simulacrum they had destroyed mere hours ago. To steel himself for the fight,
Ratimir reached into a pouch and took a dose of
Harvan reached the unconscious Ratimir just in time to see Dzaan grab Vellyne by the arm and vanish in a purple flash of arcane energy. When Ratimir regained consciousness seconds later, he gathered up the books Dzaan had been examining and threw them in the Portable Hole. He, Harvan, and Anatol then made their way to the holding cells.
The Imprisoned Seer
Ravisin and Ziff entered the prison portion of basement and found four cells
containing an elderly female duergar, a pile of unconscious humans, and
Ravisin's sister Vernis. The Mother of Crows cast
As Ravisin tended to her injured sister, the rest of the party arrived and the elderly dwarf was startled. She squinted at the Dawnbringers, and then a horrible realization crossed her face.
I've been dreading this moment, when you lot would walk through that door. It means my time is up. So be it. I can't eat anymore of this gods-damned knucklehead trout.
"So, you're the Dawnbringers? The ones who raided the
Lotungrung mine? You're shorter than I imagined.""How do I know about the mine?
"How do I know this? Same reason I know I'm about to die – I'm a seer. Visions of the future come to me, unwarranted and unwanted . I told Xardarok his plan was doomed to failure and he cast me out, called me a charlatan. Kadroth took me in, kept me comfortable when the news I had for him was good. But no longer. I saw his death, and told him of it. He called me a liar, locked me up in here with nothing to eat but this godsforsaken fish. He's addicted to my curse. He can't bring himself to end me or free me."Xardorok Sunblight is my cousin. He's been plotting to bring his kinfolk to the surface for years. Says it's their birthright or some shit. He is as vain as he is stupid. His recklessness and ego got his family killed. With his two remaining sons, he launched this scheme to drive all the Manyhands out of Ten Towns, and forged an alliance with Auril to keep the place dark. Now -- thanks to you -- only one son remains, and his supply of chardalyn has been cut off, so he's had to switch to his backup plan."
The mysterious duergar seer imprisoned beneath Caer-Dineval
Her voice became increasing labored and ragged as she continued, but she fought to complete her message.
"Now listen closely...it's almost over. Only you can stop Xardorok, but you're not ready yet. His contraption would obliterate you. You must go to the Spine. SeekKresselack first, and then your bard needs to pursue the one that wronged him. Only after that can you seek theTemple of the Forgotten God , a place that can only be found once you are truly lost."
Ratimir considered the import of what she had told them, then posed one last question: what about Kadroth and the Sanguine Court?
"Kadroth? Yes, he dies...though it will...come at a...terrible...cost."
And with that final rasped sentence, the duergar's head rolled forward and her breathing ceased.
Where My Thralls At?
As the duergar breathed her last, Ravisin's head shot up and her eyes went
white. "The thralls have arrived at the Keep. They know we are here." She tried
sending in her flock of crows, but cringed in pain as they were destroyed in
great swaths. The party decided it was time to go and opened the door to
Termalaine with the
As he relayed this to the others, Ligs announced that he could hear something rushing down the stairs towards them. Ravisin sat down on the floor and bade them to leave, saying that she would cover their escape. Vernis urged her to come along, but Ravisin refused.
"I'll be fine. I cannot lose control ofCorthanx like I lost the Wendigos. Druidcraft me a tree before you leave, please?"
As the keep shook around them and footsteps sounded on the stairs, the Dawnbringers dove through the arcane doorway to Termalaine, closed the door on the other side, and pulled the knob from the mine wall.
Session 70: The Isle of Dread
Campaign Almanac
Day 19 of the campaign, the 10th day of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon was waning quarter and 5 days remained until the new moon.
The Dawnbringers used the Netherese Doorknob to travel to the Isle of Dread where they fought a dinosaur and attempted to make new friends.Encounter with the Druid
The Netherese examination room embedded in the bottom of the Termalaine mine had been transformed: a pile of soft straw had been placed underneath the slued doorway and torches had been brought in to light the space. A wooden scaffold had been hastily but securely set up to assist navigating the sideways room. As the Dawnbringers stepped off the pile of straw, kobolds of the Termalaine Brood rushed up to lend assistance.
Ziff and the kobolds found Vernis a quiet chamber with a cot so that she could recuperate. He snagged some tea from the kitchen and brought it back to her to ask her about Auril. According to Vernis, she had not directly communed with Auril in over two years. Since that time, all of the orders – including the command to reinstitute human sacrifice – had come from Geluvicken in Auril's name.
Ziff then asked what the
Two Towns in Crisis
The Dawnbringers made the rounds through the mine, watching as Karl, the leader
of the Termalaine Brood, spoke with town speaker Oarus Masthew. The town had
taken as many refugees as they could, but the recent fire that had swept through
the
Poop Island
A warm offshore breeze greeted the party as the sun sank behind a cloud bank on the horizon to the west. The beach stretched away to the south before turning a sharp corner while the beach to the right meandered north and west into the distance. A set of outrigger canoes moored to a bamboo and thatch dock extending from the beach bobbed serenely in the gentle surf.
The log entry and map made by Rory Barbarosa
Behind this scene, a set of stone steps ascended away from the water through a
cut stone colonade that created a doorway through the steep cliff face that
separated the island from the narrow strip of beach. Just beyond the top of
these steps was the massive pile of excrement Ziff had encountered on his last
visit. Anatol's wolf Violet smelled it and determined it was the poop of a
predator. Ratimir and Ziff probed it, and soon uncovered the remains of a
humanoid and their gear. Inside a partially-digested canvas backpack, they found
a scroll case containing two p ieces of parchment: one was a page torn from the
logbook of a sailo rnamed
"When the gale finally ended, we found ourselves approximately seven days normal sailing distance due south out of Specularum, in the Thanegioth Archipelago. We replenished our supplies, patched up the ship, and traded our remaining goods at native villages along the shores of several islands. Some villages were friendly, but others were hostile and the natives attacked on sight. I suspect the hostile villages were filled with cannibals.
"We skirted the coastlines of several islands, sailing south by west until we reached a small peninsula cut off from the main island by a massive stone wall. We were well received by the natives of Tanoroa, the small village that guards this wall. The villagers have no name for the large island other than the
'Isle of Dread' . Their own small peninsula is known simply as 'Home'."The villagers told us a tale about an ancient city in the central highland of the isle that was built by the same people who built the wall. The villagers call the builders 'the gods', but I noticed that the names of the gods and the personal names of the clan ancestors were often the same, so I suspect that their ancestors and the builders were one and the same. I believe that the natives once possessed a much more advanced culture and that the descendants of the builders have returned to a more primitive state.
"The inland city is rumored to be filled with treasure beyond imagining. In particular, I heard persistent tales concerning a great black pearl of 'the gods' that still remains In the inland city. The island waters abound with excellent pearl beds, so the rumor of the black pearl may well be true.
"The village contains a number of huge life-like statues of iron, bronze, and stone. Since no villager currently has the skill or the craft to make such statues, the tale of a lost city built by the 'gods' seems reasonable. I would have liked to explore inland to verify the rumors, but too many crewmen died in the storm or by cannibal spears. Only five of us are left. I am the only professional adventurer, the others are only sailors. We can sail the small ship well enough but on land. In hostile territory. we would be helpless. Once back in Specularum I should be able to recruit a new crew and a party of professional adventurers, then I will return to claim the great black pearl.
"One thing I managed to do before leaving: we sailed around the island and made the best map we could. We were afraid to land, since village fishermen had warned us that it was extremely dangerous to land anywhere on the main island and the coasts were rocky with no beaches. As a result, the map only shows the coastal areas we could chart from the ship, but it is better than nothing."
Rory Barbarosa
The Dawnbringers followed the natives on a taxing chase through the jungle, and soon came upon a clearing where they watched an allosaurus fight a stegosaurus. As the two monsters struggled in mortal combat, Ratimir kept an eye on the natives to glean who was in charge and which of the dinosaurs they felt would win. Once the allosaurus defeated the stegosaurus, it turned its attention to the native war party and the Dawnbringers.
Anatol waded into the fray and connected with his sword
With the battle finished, the party ventured in with the natives to divide up the two carcasses. The natives respectfully gave the Dawnbringers space and allowed them to carve out the heart of the allosaurus.
Session 71: Spoils of the Hunt
Campaign Almanac
Day 19 of the campaign, the 10th day of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon was waning crescent and 5 days remained until the new moon.
The Dawnbringers fought alongside the Tanaroan war party against a trio of young rocs that attempted to steal the dinosaur carcasses.Logistics and Diplomacy
Realizing they were dealing with thousands of pounds of meat, Ziff opened door to Termalaine and went through to enlist help butchering the allosaurus. He returned quickly with Glik and a number of kobolds. The kobolds established a "bucket brigade" line from the carcass to the doorway, ferrying the meat through to Termalaine as quickly as the party could cut it. Moss appeared outside the doorway to Termalaine to watch the sky and kept a pair of arrows nocked in his bow.
Harvan cast
Ratimir and Anatol removed the heart of the allosaurus and offered half of it to Fano, but the war chief politely refused saying that the kill belonged to the Dawnbringers.
In an effort to further impress Fano, Ratimir played his
The Kobold Castaway
Harvan scanned the skies with the natives, but felt like something was watching
them from the treeline. A green kobold named
He said that he'd been held prisoner on the mainland for many years until someone promised him a chance at a better life, and so he escaped and sailed across the ocean. A storm had pushed their ship to the Isle of Dread where it foundered on a reef, and in the swim to shore he'd lost contact with the rest of the crew.
Kid Rocs
The sound of great wing beats filled the air as a trio of young
One roc landed between the rest of the war party and the pair of teenagers that
Fano had chastised. Harvan stepped in between and unleashed a
One roc grappled Harvan and began to fly away, but the halfling cleric cast
The party quickly wore down the two remaining rocs, who were struggling to lift
the allosaurus carcass away. Voar finished off the last roc with a well-placed
Fano gave thanks for the party's help, and Ratimir pantomimed a proposed trade
to provide food for the refugees of Ten Towns. Fano politely declined, saying
that only
Ziff charged the key with a second-level spell slot and re-opened the
Session 72: The Woe of Aftermath
Campaign Almanac
Day 20 of the campaign, the 11th day of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon was waning crescent and 4 days remained until the new moon.
The Dawnbringers picked up their purple worm swag from the Dwarven Valley and tracked the Bone Machine to a set of caves on the shore of Lac Dinneshere.This Bird Has Flown
The Dawnbringers awoke the next morning at Sune's Comfort in Termalaine and
Harvan went straight to work, using the
The party was gutted that someone or something had stolen their beloved transport
and killed their axe beaks. They realized they were going to need their war
wagon if they were going to make Anatol's scheduled meeting with
They secured a fresh set of axe beaks from Termalaine town speaker Oarus Masthew
and took care of a few things before departing. Anatol checked on the status of
the little girl with the glowing eyes that had said to him,
Finally, they wanted a key to encode a new location with the
Kelvin's Cairn and the Dwarven Valley
The Artist Formerly Known as Ratimir
The party descended into the
The party stopped by armorer
After catching up on the local news and retrieving their new gear, the
Dawnbringers drove their axe beaks up the steeply switchbacked
Silent Desolation
When they drew to within a mile of the destroyed town, they diverted south of town and into the trees near the lake. They scanned the skies for signs of the vampires or their thralls but it all seemed clear.
Ziff plunged ahead alone invisibly to the spot they'd parked the Bone Machine before infiltrating Caer-Dineval days ago. The wagon was gone, leaving only tracks and five blood splotches in the snow. A pair of rectangular footprints accompanied the wheel ruts of the Bone Machine.
Ziff followed the tracks back into Caer-Dineval. The fires had stopped and all that was left of the town was a smouldering ruin punctuated with stone hearths and chimneys. The dark, grasping mist that had obscured his vision days ago had vanished, nor did he detect any sign of the vampires or their thralls in town. He contacted Ratimir via the Sending Stones and said that it was safe to approach.
The only buildings still standing besides the keep and the
The tracks followed the main road past the
As Ziff continued on alone, the rest of the party arrived at the keep to have a closer look. The boxy tracks dropped snow inside, allowing them to follow into the kitchen, where a cauldron had obviously been recently removed from the hearth. Upstairs, they found several pools of frozen blood on floors, but no accompanying bodies. All the windows had been shattered and bodies of dead crows were everywhere.
Opportunities Lost, Opportunities Gained
They ventured back into the basement in hopes of securing more books, but found that someone had torched the library. Every book had been burned to ashes. Ligs went room to room carefully inspecting the crumbling masonry and discovered that someone had gone to great lengths to hide something in the far side of the library. After removing the purposefully-placed rubble, he uncovered a material surface identical to the Netherese structures embedded in the bottom of the Termalaine Mine.
Caves where Ziff tracked the Bone Machine (unexplored areas obscured by mosaic tiles)
Ligs soon found a doorway and peered inside. There were at least a dozen of the
same holding tanks they'd found in the other rooms, but none with intact
specimens of
Knowing that they were on a tight schedule, the Dawnbringers decided to revisit
this discovery later and replaced all of the rubble to re-hide the entrance.
Ratimir cast a
Trail's End
Meanwhile, about a mile north along the coast of Lac Dinneshere, Ziff followed the track of the Bone Machine off the coastline and onto the frozen lake. The wheel marks and the box-footed tracks of the creature pulling the wagon disappeared into the lowest of a series of caves overlooking the lake. Ziff waited outside until his companions arrived, then he scouted ahead stealthily.
The ice beneath his feet covered a swiftly moving river, possibly part of the same underground river they'd seen beneath the keep. The cave passage meandered through a series of large caverns and tunnels, ultimately arriving in a wide cavern with a waterfall tumbling into it on the far side. Looking below the ice, the shadowy outlines of three giant bodies lay on the watery bottom. To the right in an alcove sat the Bone Machine, covered in splatters of blood.
Session 73: The Devil in the Dark
Campaign Almanac
Day 20 of the campaign, the 11th day of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon was waning quarter and 4 days remained until the new moon.
The Dawnbringers battled a Cadaver Collector, a Sea Hag, a Frost Giant Skeleton, and lakeweed simulacrums of themselves for the beloved Bone Machine.We Like to Think of Ourselves as Cadaver Creators
The rest of the party caught up to Ziff and watched as a squeaking, creaking metallic automaton clanged down the rising slope off to the right on square, box-like feet and grasped one of the mammoth tusks on the front of the Bone Machine. With an effortless tug, it hauled the blood-covered war wagon back up the slope. Ligs clambered up noiselessly into the crow's next and kept out of sight.
The automaton stopped inside another cavern uphill from the frozen underground river. Lakeweed adorned the walls on all sides and inside this macabre macramé were suspended dozens of bodies in various states of decay. Ligs smelled cooking and hazarded a look from the top of the Bone Machine. There, stirring a steaming cauldron over a campfire, was a elderly woman with green hair and white skin. The metal juggernaut – which was covered with fresh corpses piled upon its back – opened the door of the Bone Machine and began pulling out a number of bodies, depositing them in a pile before the cauldron. The woman called out, "Good, good. Now fetch more."
The Sea Hag and her apparent minion Cadaver Collector
With the command given, the construct turned on its heels and descended to the
frozen river, where the rest of the Dawnbringers had vainly attempted to conceal
themselves in the mats of lakeweed hanging from the walls. The
In the cave above, the
Hag Hunters - 2, Hags - 0
Anatol, Harvan, and Violet quickly shook off their paralysis and the entire
party joined the fight. The Sea Hag shifted between the Material and Ethereal
planes as she cast unusual spells like
Ratimir cast
Session 74: The Cauldron Caves
Campaign Almanac
Day 20 of the campaign, the 11th day of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon was waning quarter and 4 days remained until the new moon.
The Dawnbringers escaped from the Cauldron Caves with the Bone Machine.The remaining two frozen undead frost giants erupted from the ice while the one underneath the Bone Machine picked it up and stood it on its two front wheels. The dawnbringers toppled one of the giants onto the Cavader Collector, pinning the scavenging automaton to the floor of the cavern underwater.
Ziff fired a chardalyn tipped arrow at one of the giants and inadvertently
opened a portal to the
When the first Frost Giant skeleton went down and it dropped the Bone Machine,
Ratimir's
The passage they traveled into the caves had transformed in a churning slurry of
jagged ice and freezing water. With Ligs providing power with his
Session 75: Kuldahar
Campaign Almanac
Day 21 of the campaign, the 12th day of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon was waning quarter and 3 days remained until the new moon.
The Dawnbringers rescued their axe beaks from an aerie of harpies then travelled to Kuldahar where they encountered Orthanx the Observant.Wings in the Storm
BearLigs hauled the Bone Machine south along the shoreline until the Dawnbringers reached the area they'd left their new set of axe beaks. Ziff padded into the forest and found the animals huddled together and anxious. Something had frightened them. After Anatol masterfully calmed the creatures, the party considered where the safest place to sleep would be: under the cover of the forest or on the ice of Lac Dinneshere with its long, unobstructed sight lines. They settled on the latter, so Ligs hitched the axe beaks up to the Bone Machine and they set out upon the ice.
The wind picked up and snow blew in sideways as the wagon creaked
out onto the lake ice. Once they were about a mile from shore, they chose a
sturdy-looking location and Ratimir cast
In the early morning hours, they spotted winged creatures circling in the snowstorm. Fearing that the vampire thralls had tracked them here, the party awoke and prepared for a fight. However, they soon learned what had spooked their animals back in the forest: an aerie of harpies were attracted to the smell of the axe beaks. After a few rounds of combat, they dispatched all but one of the winged monstrosities and went back to sleep to finish their night's rest.
Indigo
In the morning, Anatol used
After a few hours of travel, the party arrived in the foothills of the
The Light of Sylvanus
The party carefully approached and kept their keen eyes on the scene in front of them. As they drew closer, details of the valley became easier to discern. The tree appeared to be the remnant of a gargatuan oak, now dead. No leaves remained and the limbs that clung to the trunk were withered and broken. Underneath the tree for several hundred yards in every direction was evidence of agricultural fields demarcated with hedge row borders and evenly-spaced orchards, all frozen and dead. At the foot of the tree was the ruins of a once-thriving town, now just a maze of crumbling stone walls and collapsed roofs.
Anatol's acorn (also give to him by Kresselack) began to glow as Indigo
sat at the foot of
Corthanx the Observant
Only one or two structures retained any sort of integrity to be used as a shelter, so the party focused their attentions there. They found one that had obviously been recently repaired with a windbreak and roof. Inside they found a grass sleeping pallet, the remnants of various nondescript spell components, and many pieces of crow skeletons, all tied into intricate designs as some sort of macabre craft project.
Ratimir walked around the ruined town wearing his
Then the air filled with the sound of wings flapping, and a stream of crows poured over the hillside and coallesced in the cracked limbs of Kuldahar. The murmuration took on the form of a gigantic crow with three dull red eyes, clawed hands as well as wings, a tail, and a beak with jagged teeth. A choir of voices pierced into the Dawnbringers' minds asking, "Where is the Mother of Crows?"
Session 76: The Deep Breath
Campaign Almanac
Day 21 of the campaign, the 12th day of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon was waning quarter and 3 days remained until the new moon.
The Dawnbringers spoke with Corthanx the Observant, fought a trio of Ice Trolls, and met a gnome with a better ship than Ligs.The Broken One
The form of
"We expelled the parasites while the the town burned and you cowered in the basement. You were the last to see theMother of Crows . What became of her?" Corthanx the Observant
The party explained that Ravisin bade them all to flee while she remained alone
in the basement of the keep at Caer-Dineval. No one knew where she went or if
she even escaped. Ratimir played a soothing
Boreal Vision
Alone again in the ruins of Kuldahar, Harvan spent time meditating on the great oak tree that had once provided so much life to this remote valley. After an hour of intense focus, Harvan received a vision of the primeval forest that covered the lands of the north, stretching from Neverwinter across the Silver Marches, over the Spine, and into Icewind Dale. He soared into the valley where Kuldahar stood and saw the town in its prime, with active streets and verdant agricultural fields. It was an oasis on life in the frozen north. Focusing on the tree, Harvan saw a door to a dwelling built into one of the massive roots of the oak.
The Dawnbringers fought a trio of Ice Trolls in the ruins of Kuldahar
The party examined a quartet of statues at the base of the tree that depicted
the four druids connected with Kuldahar:
The Terrible Mistake
Further examination of the statues was interrupted when three
"Quickly, now! More will be on the way when these three don't return home!" called the gnome over his shoulder as he turned and began to trot up the hillside away from Kuldahar. The party followed and soon they came to a large, irregular ice dome. The gnome led them through a concealed entrance and inside they saw what appeared to be a large sailing vessel, somewhat smaller than Ligs' recently-purchased ferry. It was resting upright, though at a slight angle. In place of the mast was a squat contraption made of brass and steel.
The gnome pulled off the welder's mask, revealing an old, experienced face with
a shock of coarse salt-and-pepper hair. With the air of a showman, he flung back
his arms and said, "Welcome to the
Session 77: That Which Gazes Back
Campaign Almanac
Day 22 of the campaign, the 13th day of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon was waning crescent and 2 days remained until the new moon.
Oswald Fiddlebender told the Dawnbringers about hisHow Far Does Science Go?
Gnome engineer
When news of Auril's Rime reached Hundelstone, numerous mages and artificiers
set about exploring the limits of the enchantment. Strangely, the boundary could
be seen from the outside as a gradual darkening, but once across the boundary it
appeared to have no limit. Fiddlebender didn't believe it and set out to design
a machine that could fly over the darkness, a vessel not subject to the whims of
magic. After nearly two years of design and construction, he produced the
"This is a vessel of science – it doesn't run on bullshit!" Oswald Fiddlebender
Two months ago, Oswald and gnome mage
Instead, what Oswald and Erpos saw struck them to their core: the darkness extended all the way out to the cosmos. Never had they seen a clearer view of the stars in the sky. Clouds the colors of magenta, blue, and green filled with stars stretched across the black. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Erpos broke out his telescope and began scanning the scene before them – looking at the craters on Selûne and her trailing tears; peering into those nebulous clouds to see stars dancing around one another.
Hundelstone is on the southwestern edge of Icewind Dale, near the crossroads of the Ten and Iron trails.
But there was something lurking in that darkness, something still and watchful that sent a shiver down Erpos' spine, filling him with dread. He called out to Oswald, "We must descend! NOW!" Oswald pulled the vent valves on the envelope and the ship to drop. An unseen force gripped the vessel and it began to climb once again. Erpos screamed as Oswald dropped the nose of the craft and engaged the propellers at full power. The Mistake began to descend once more, but slowly as the unseen force increased its grip. Oswald then pulled the emergency vent valve, emptying the envelope of hot air and the unseen force released, dropping the Mistake like a stone.
The delicate airship plummeted for thousands of feet before Oswald could deploy the emergency chute. Using the engines and the maneuvering planes in concert with the chute, Oswald was able to make an controlled crash landing in the Kuldahar Valley. Erpos did not survive.
Oswald was alone in the valley for weeks in the ruins of the town, surviving on
rations and the remnants of his fuel. A set of duergar messengers carrying
agates for
Oswald told them he needed 2 tons of coal and about 6 or 7 days to finish repairs on the ship before it would be airworthy. The Dawnbringers forged a deal with the gnome, offering coal from the Termalaine mine in exchange for teaching the kobolds all about his technology.
Ratimir asked permission to cast
- Erpos trusted Oswald implicitly.
- The Netherese used a spell similar to the modern encantation
Daylight to activate theSummer Star . - Erpos saw a black star in the sky where no star should have been, and he felt it staring back at him.
- The exact coordinates of where this dark star could be found in the sky.
- In his garden there was money he'd saved for his niece to go to mage school in Luskan.
Harvan consulted his
When they asked if Oswald had seen anyone else in the valley besides the
duergar, the gnome told them that except for
I'm Sick and Tired of Defending Your Screwball Antics to the Commissioner
The party walked through the Netherese door to Termalaine. There, Glik
impatiently collected the katana made for him by Blaine Dekryl using teeth from
the purple worm. They also deposited the
Once he was done in Termalaine, Southwell was on his way up to
Before returning to Kuldahar, the party sought out Mishann and gave her the
Arundel the Delver
The party searched for the door Harvan had seen in his vision of Kuldahar at the
base of the once-mighty tree. Ziff used his
The arched doorway was organically shaped, as if the wood grew into this shape naturally or through magical means. Dirt and rubble spilled in through a large 6 foot round opening near the door and fragments of colored glass were scattered on the floor underneath it. Inside the tree, was a 20 x 20 space divided into two floors, the uppermost 10x20 and open to the floor below. A natural spiral staircase leads to the upper floor. Two smaller windows on opposite walls are similarly shattered with piles of dirt and rubble pouring through.
The party took the time to gather the fragments and arrange them before Ratimir
cast
The light of Sylvanus, verdant glory, insult to the Winter Heart.
The light of Hope, slain by ice, by three the children abscond.
The light of Dawn, the children reunited, by five they did ascend.
The light of Rebirth, thus rekindled, by four the Winter's end.
Kuldahar Prophecy
A large tortoise shell on a pedestal served as a table in the center of the
bottom floor. Two large, dried toadstools crafted into chairs flanked the table.
Natural wooden shelves lined the walls containing numerous preserved samples of
various fungi. On the wall opposite the door was a macramé-style twine display
that supported an unusually large preserved oak leaf, approximately 3 by 4 feet
in size. A map of the Underdark beneath Icewind Dale drawn in an elegant hand
appeared on the surface of the leaf. On a shelf beneath the leaf was a wooden
plank upon which was carved the
Underneath the spiral staircase was another natural wooden doorway, behind which was a steeply pitched staircase that descended for hundreds of feet. At the bottom, the party found themselves in a stone tunnel dimly light by purple fungi and a wide cavern opening at the far end. With time until the new moon growing short, the party returned to the surface.
Waiting is the Hardest Part
On the surface once more, Anatol summoned Indigo and bade her to take them to
Kresselack. The black wolf trotted to the easternmost extent of the Kuldahar
Valley and sat, staring into the Spine of the World Mountains. In the sky above,
Session 78: Jobo's In Charge
Campaign Almanac
Day 24 of the campaign, the 15th day of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne has just entered the new phase.
After a day making preparations in Kuldahar, the Dawnbringers began their foray into the Spine of the World Mountains to meet Kresselack the Black Wolf.Vellyne
Harvan consulted his
Vellyne was seated in a dilapidated room -- rough wood, sparse furniture. Her hands were bound to the chair she was in, and her legs tied by rope around her knees. There was a gag in her mouth.
Her eye wandered around the room and then stopped as it peered directly at Harvan, or more precisely at the point in space Harvan's scry was coming from. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly, then her eye widened. She looked down to the floor -- back and forth, searching. She settled on something and jump-scooted the chair to the left a couple of feet. With the extent she was able, she clutched a small pebble between her boots and began working the pebble back and forth into the wooden floor, scratching something. She continued for 2 or 3 minutes, looking up at Harvan's scry from time to time, and then stopped, dropping the pebble. Her eye fixed on Harvan again and then deliberately cast back down to the floor.
A message carved into the floor by Vellyne HarpellOn the floor, Harvan saw the letters "IT + DZ" above the letters "DM" scratched into the floor.
Shanten and Santenta
While Oswald, Tral, Glik, and a small squad of kobold assistants worked on the
Harvan read
Hornstone was a dwarf of the old Delzoun empire, which bordered the ancient empire of Netheril at the Nether Mountains. In this tome, Hornstone dissects the legends and lore surrounding the Netherese' use of
Mythallars from an arcane and engineering perspective. Much of what the author presents is supposition -- filling in the blanks with their own knowledge and experience when the existing information doesn't exist -- but theres's a section that stands out to you.Netherese Mythallars were powerful arcane devices that harnessed power directly from the layer of reality known as the
Spellweave , where all magic draws power. They used these mythallars to do everything from creating magic items, to controlling the weather, to keeping their floating cities aloft. To tap into the energy of the Spellweave, the Netherese attempted to replicate a piece of arcane technology known asSantenta . Santenta were arcane lenses invented by the Star Elves that could focus the power of the Spellweave. The process of creating Santenta required several months of specialized, intensive transmutation to build a crystal possessing the correct internal geometries to access the power of the Weave.The Netherese, however, failed to master the synthesis of the crystals. Instead, they took shortcuts using chardalyn. The Netherese versions – called
Shanten – would darken through continued used and become unstable, requiring Netherese transmuters to continue creating replacements. The used crystals would be be re-used to create new crystals, but the results had ever-shortening useful lives.
Satisfied that there was nothing else to do, the party turned in and left the watch to Glik and the kobolds.
The Ghost
In the little hours of the morning, the familiar voice found its way into Anatol's mind.
"Arise, Stärna. It is time."
A luminous path of moving lights, similar to the spell
Harvan scanned the horizon and saw a large, winged shape swooping low over the
peaks. Ligs concentrated on his
After a few hours of travel the party encountered a fallen column of ice that blocked the trail. Anatol and Ziff climbed over to scout ahead and saw puffs of exhaled breath on the cold air coming from behind cover. It was an ambush.
Harvan cast
Ratimir skewered the salamander with a bolt from the Bone Machine's ballista while the rest of the party quickly defeated the bandits. They interrogated the lone survivor and learned:
- The bandits were
Chardalyn Berserkers working forHedrun the Ice Witch - There had been a shaman in the ambush, but he had turned invisible and fled
- There was a magic cold fire brazier in the cave above given to this clan by Hedrun
- Sven's party had passed through the canyon 2-3 days ago
- Ahead on the trail lies the
Cackling Chasm , a natural ice bridge over a yawning crevasse that is guarded by a brutal pack of gnolls.
Ligs hiked up to the cave described by their prisoner and saw the brazier. It
was identical to the one they'd destroyed before venturing into the
Session 79: The Cackling Chasm
Campaign Almanac
Day 24 of the campaign, the 15th day of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne has just entered the new phase.
Ligs was attacked by a boulder, Icingdeath loomed out of sight overhead, and the Bone Machine crossed the treacherous Cackling Chasm.As Ligs left the cave and started back down to the canyon floor, a boulder dropped from the ridge above and struck him in the back. The rounded hunk of granite bounced off the dwarf and kept rolling down the canyon out of sight. Harvan scanned the ridgeline and saw nothing but wind-eroded ice, meaning that the boulder had likely not been an accident.
To prepare for the coming fight with the gnolls ahead, the party sliced up the bodies of the berserkers and the frost salamander they had killed. They strung up the parts around the outside of the Bone Machine and hoped that the macabre display would intimidate the gnolls. Ratimir altered his appearance to that of a frightening lich to complete the picture.
Ziff sent his owl familiar
The shrieking guffaws of the gnolls bounced off the canyon walls, reaching the Dawnbringers long before they arrived at the chasm. There, perched at the edge the laughing ceased and Ratimir attempted to intimidate the pack of gnolls. His words fell on deaf ears, and a horde of gnolls stepped from numerous cave openings surrounding the bridge.
The Cackling Chasm
Ligs – holding the reins of the axe beaks – eyed the bridge uneasily. It wasn't quite wide enough to admit the Bone Machine. He knew it was going to take a steady hand and a slow pace to navigate the crossing. He coaxed the birds into about half their normal speed, and even then the wheels slipped off both edges every so often, requiring him to constantly jerk the wagon back on track.
Anatol forged ahead on Violet to clear the path across the bridge, slicing
through the horde with
The Dawnbringers cleared out the gnolls and crossed the bridge, but not without
damaging the Bone Machine. As Ligs slowed the vehicle to a stop and calmed the
axe beaks, Ratimir drew the
Session 79a: A Fractured Mind
Campaign Almanac
Day 24 of the campaign, the 15th day of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne has just entered the new phase.
While the Dawnbringers pursued the path to Kresselack in the Spine of the World, a pair of adventurers in Bryn Shander entered the mind of a killer and faced more than just repressed memories.
Two travelers, a gnome Artificer named
The room was 10’ x 10’ with smooth (almost drywall-like) walls and a large Purple door with no discernible knobs. Molehoth vaguely remembered walking through Bryn Shander to get to a meeting that very morning, but beyond that, his memory was hazy and unclear. Hala seemed to recall even less.
Molehoth decided to investigate the door and as he touched it, it seemed to come to life, sprouting a large mouth. The jolly door bellowed, "Only I may open the door." Taken aback, the travelers began to speak with the unusual, yet cheery door. Abruptly, above the door, a simple riddle appeared.
"What does a rich man need, a poor man have, but if either ate it, they would die?"
Molehoth solved the riddle instantly and Hala seemed to know the answer as well. But when they uttered the correct answer, "nothing," the door did not seem to open. Eventually the travelers realized that the door had also said "Only I may open the door," and when they got the door to utter "Nothing," the mouth was silenced and the door opened.
They found themselves in a circular, open, grassy area with a large circus tent at one end. At the edge of the grassy area was a dark, scary swirl of deep crimson and purple swirls - closing them in, like the dome of a snow globe. It appeared the tent was their only option.
There were thee sets of circus goers in the open field in front of the large tent. A parent handing balloons to their children, a couple about to kiss, and an old man selling candy floss out of an old cart. Upon investigation, the parent and kids, as well as the couple, appeared to be frozen and glitchy, as if paused by a VCR. Only the old man appeared to be sentient and beckoned them closer.
"My name is
Fester Bobblegoop . Some know me as Old Man Bobblegoop, Goop Man, The Gooper, or, sadly, by some children, Old Stinkpot Jones.Anyway, I am a mystic that travels around Ten Towns...lending my assistance. You see, I have a very specific skill...implanting willing folks into the minds of others to retrieve memories.
Some folks lose their keys, or can’t recall a recipe...but in this case, you were hired by Investigator and guardsman Zeb Cole of Bryn Shander...to, you know...enter the mind of a man names Walt Sallow and find where he’s hidden the bodies of his murder victims.
I’m speaking to you from the home of the murder victims here in Bryn Shander. Their names were Freya & Herm Skeller. They worked at the town stables, taking care of the horses and axebeaks.
Walt Sallow was a charming illusionist who used to run a summer circus every year in Turmulain until this damned endless winter came along. He worked the mines for a while then, when they were shut down due to a lousy Kobold infestation, he’s been MIA. We have Walt Sallow here next to us, bound and bagged...but he’s not talking...hence, you both.
Guardsman Zeb Cole is here as well...Zeb do you...hang on...what’s that...he says you were hired for something more substantial than money. It’s what weeded out a lot of the locals. He offered you both favors. Hala, you needed friends located, and Molehoth, you needed some authority issues smoothed over in Neverwinter – god that’s a nice sounding place.But something went wrong. This is no normal mind. It’s littered with tricks and traps and danger. The only guidance I can give you is this...you need to find Sallow and get out!"
The travelers headed towards the tent and opened the flaps revealing a stone stairwell going down. At the top was a torch and another message on he wall saying "Can you embrace the darkness?" They keenly doused the torchlight and, using their dark vision, proceeded cautiously down the stairs. After 10 or 15 minutes of descending they reflected upon the riddle. Were they really embracing the darkness using their dark vision? They both closed their eyes and...BOOM. The stairs turned into a slide, shooting our heroes down and through an opening in the floor, sending them free falling onto a large pile of hay.
They both sat up, side by side, and took in the large big-top main floor surrounding them. There were 4 large fun-house mirrors placed equidistant around the room, a large gorgon (think Medusa) statue on a wordless plinth, and a smooth, large door with a metal circle in the center.
As the heroes searched their surroundings, Molehoth touched the center of the circle and found a small keyhole, which opened on tiny hinges. And as it opened, 4 horrifying evil clowns appeared from the funhouse mirrors, each brandishing a terrible and vicious weapon. The mirrors also became a sort of "pac-man" opening where, if you passed through one, you would come out the other, on the opposite side. This made for a fiery and terrifying battle, in which the heroes (using expertly places arrows and a tinkerer’s fire cannon) ultimately dispatched the horrors.
Upon the clowns’ vanquishment, another stature rose from the center of the room, facing the gorgon statue. It’s plinth said "Walt Sallow," and depicted a wide eyed, terrified man, also made out of the same crimson stone. Upon investigation, they found a key around the man’s neck, also carved out of stone.
Hala suggested they muscle one of the large mirrors in between the two statues to block the eyeline between both statues — which worked. The statue of Sallow turned into flesh and he slumped to the ground, thanking Hala and Molehoth.
Molehoth grabbed the key and used it on the door and all three were immediately transported back to Bryn Shander, into the house of Freya and Herm Skeller. For a third time, our heroes sat upright, side-by-side, and saw Fester, Zeb, and the bound form of Walt Sallow tied to a chair. But before their eyes, the form of Walt melted into crimson red ooze, and pooled from the chair onto the floor.
With an extremely high passive investigation, Molehoth immediately heard yells coming from below them. The two heroes peeled back the rug on the floor, to reveal a very similar circle with a keyhole in it. In Molehoth’s hand, he still held the key. He used it in the keyhole, which opened a secret door in the floor, leading into a dark basement.
They both Headed down into the basement and immediately saw the bodies of the slain couple, each covered in a stained purple blanket. They then opened a locked door, which contained the real Walt Sallow. Terrified, he told the heroes that a monster was hidden in another small closet at the far end of the basement. He then escaped up the ladder onto the main floor, where he was captured by Zeb, who quickly began to restrain him.
Both heroes recognized the creature that emerged from the closet as an
A fierce battle ensued, in which both of the heroes, at separate times fell. Luckily, they each knew healing spells, and were able to revive each other. Three times, the monsterous blob created duplicates of the heroes, who were both quite weak, but still able to attack.
When the Oblex was finally destroyed, they reflected on the situation. They knew
that these blobs were created by
The duplicate of Walt followed Freya and Herm home from the stables, hoping to find a way to steal some transportation...but with the mind of a scared monster, it turned ugly fast, and the pair were murdered.
Zeb promised the two heroes any help he could offer in return for their remarkable success.
Session 80: The Vale of Shadows
Campaign Almanac
Day 24 of the campaign, the 15th day of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne has just entered the new phase.
The Dawnbringers battled the elemental forces of the Frostmaiden and found the secluded mountain fortress of Kresselack the Black Wolf.A Crushing Clarity of Sight
The yips of the waking gnolls echoed across the
Ratimir and Ziff worked together to repair the Bone Machine's damaged
wheel and Harvan took the opportunity to peer into the strikingly-clear
night sky that opened up overhead. Just as
With the wheel repaired, Ligs took the reins and followed the path of dancing lights up canyon. As they put some distance between themselves and the chasm, Ziff saw a littany of small cave openings at the top of steeply switched-back trails dotting the top of the canyon walls. Soft gnoll cackles drifted out of the openings, and the party passed one more large cave entrance at ground level where the chilling guffaws reached a crescendo. The party decided to press onward as their time under the new moon was growing short.
Ligs, the Stone Cunning Linguist
An hour of travel up the canyon brought the party to a cliff wall; the illuminated path led straight to the wall and disappeared. Ligs jumped down from the Bone Machine driver's seat and hit the wall but his hand glanced off. Ratimir approached and pushed his hands slowly against the surface, and it gradually gave way. His hands sank into the soft surface of the stone, and resisted his efforts to pull his hands out. Ligs took the axe beak's reins in hand and led them slowly but firmly into the illusory rock face, entering a bizarre dark space where his darkvision only afforded him 10 feet of view, and then only the outlines of the hidden canyon floor and walls. The party crawled through the illusion for the better part of an hour, finally emerging on the other side in a large mountain cirque.
Rime Hulk
The Vale of Shadows
A stone crenelated tower stretched above the center of the cirque and
was connected to a series of elevated ice-covered paths by a narrow
catwalk. Apparitions with featureless, glowing faces covered in tattered
cloaks –
A large chunk of ice calved from the canyon walls and assembled itself
into a huge ice elemental, similar to one they'd seen briefly in the
Lonelywood Forest. The
After trading blows with the walkers and elementals, the group learned
that the flickering light sources were crystal wards generating new ice elementals,
so Anatol focused his attention there. He dispatched the Coldlight Walkers
from the tower and then the crystal placed there. Once destroyed, half the
ice elementals disappeared and the branched illuminated path reduced from six
to three. Ratimir destroyed the other after attacking the elemental
guarding it (and the ice cave that concealed it) with a
The Vale of Shadows
When the second crystal ward was destroyed, the path narrowed into a single beam, and the illusory cave entrance to which it pointed disolved, revealing a large set of finely-cut stone doors inlaid with the wolf paw motif of Kresselack.
Now, Idiots
Inside they found a large columned antechamber with a green marble floor inlaid with the familiar wolf paw motif. At the end of the collonade was a large statue with the proportions of a goliath or half-giant standing feet apart, hands resting on a greatsword: Kresselack as he appeared in life. passages flanked the statue on either side. Through there, they came to an even larger room in the center of which were a pair of white marble pools filled with shimmering, iridescent liquid. A marble dais saddled the pools and held a podium and book. The sounds of hollow bones clacking together filled the party's ears as skeletons began assembling themselves from piles scattered in the corners of the room. Soon the room was filled with a shambling horde of undead as the shadows coalesced into the form of Kresselack on the marble dais.
"Welcome, Stärna and Dawnbringers, to the Vale of Shadows. Long have I waited..."
Each word from Kresselack's mouth was repeated in whispered echoes by the skeleton horde, so completely that it formed a distracting feedback loop. The undead barbarian king stopped his speech, pivoted toward his men, and told them in frustrated stage whisper:
"You don't have to repeat
every word . Just hit the important ones, like we rehearsed. If in doubt, look to your companions for guidance. Yes? Good. Let's take it from the top."
He restarted his speech, but the skeletons merely turned their heads toward each other, sharing looks. Kresselack's speech continued.
"...and with my knowledge and your abilities we will no doubt emerge victorious against Auril and Geluvicken!"
The skeletons looked at Kresselack in silence. Anger welled up within him, and Kresselack burst out, "NOW, idiots!" The skeletons jumped as if startled and called out in echoed whispers, "NOW, idiots!"