Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

December 5, 2021 Posted in Adventures and Downloads

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.

Map of Icewind Dale Map of Icewind Dale - West Map of the Sword Coast (5e) Expanded Map of Faerûn (3e) Harptos Calendar

Session Recap Menu

Session 118: Mechs, Drugs, & Rock n' Roll

January 11th, 2025

Campaign Almanac

Day 31 of the campaign, the 22nd of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne is waxing half.

The Dawnbringers struggled against Xardarok and Durth Sunblight in the forge level of Dorn's Deep, bringing the mountain down upon them all when they destroyed the black dragon heart.

The Dawnbringers fought fiercely against Xardarok and Durth Sunblight's mechs. Xardarok's immense mech shot a corrosive beam of dark energy that dealt enormous amounts of damage while Durth's had a rocket-assisted charge that boosted his lead-knuckle attacks.
Earthquakes continued to rock the forge, knocking people off their feet and causing magma to slosh out of the channels in the floor and rocks to fall from the cavern ceiling.
Over the course of the battle, three of the six columns supporting the cavern were destroyed, destabilizing the forge.
Nearly everyone in the party went unconscious during the fight, some multiple times.
The heart of Throstrugrael inside the spherical Forge Yoke was suspended between three globes of pure black chardalyn, and dark bolts of energy darted back and forth between them and the yoke. Periodically, the yoke connected with Xardarok's mech, repairing damage sustained in battle.
Lain and Ziff focused their attacks on the chardalyn globes, eventually destroying all three.
A duergar soldier picked that moment to turn on Xardarok, and a series of javelin attacks disabled the mech's corrosive chest beam.
Glim caught the mech and the Forge Yoke in a Lightning Bolt, which heavily damaged the mech but also exploded the Forge Yoke.
The resulting explosion collapsed the forge, crushing everyone inside, including the Dawnbringers.

Session 119: The Persistence of Memories

January 18th, 2025

Campaign Almanac

Day 32 of the campaign, the 23rd of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne is currently not visible in the sky of the Valley of Lost Gods.

The Dawnbringers relived some recent memories; Ziff saw the demise of Arveiaturace; Ratimir said goodbye to Olidammara; Anatol heard new voices in his head; The party found a dead god.

For a time, the Dawnbringers were cast into darkness, but then, images began to take shape.

Pursuit in Caer-Dineval

Glim Peppadimmie found himself on a dead run straight at the keep at Caer-Dineval. The town around him burned as the bodies of the massive flock of crows that had attacked leader of the Sanguine Court Lornus Kadroth and his companion now lay scattered on the ground, some twitching, but most motionless. Watching that flock work together — a gestalt that exceeded a mere murmuration — had been one of the strangest sights of Glim's life.

He raced through the ruined keep and into the basement as he heard Kadroth's horrible sword cutting screeching arcs through the air followed by the sound of crow bodies striking the ground. The gnome druid arrived at the bottom of the basement stairs and looked down into a river flowing underneath the keep. He dashed across a narrow ledge toward a light source at the far end of the hallway as a woman’s scream tore out into the darkness, followed by a blinding flash from the chamber. Kadroth cried out in agony as Glim flew into the doorway. There, he saw Kadroth's blade plunged into the abdomen of a wild female druid with jet black hair and fully white eyes. Kadroth — whose skin had been seared to a crisp on one side of his body — shook and struggled to keep his legs under him.

Kadroth’s female companion – a tall woman in an elegant red dress, an Oni demon mask covering top part of her face jerked her head around to see Glim framed in the doorway. She hissed through clenched teeth, “Lornus – we must leave NOW!” In one fluid movement she drew her katana and swung, but found only air as the druid kicked off of Kadroth's sword, wild shaped into a knucklehead trout, and dropped into the river below.

The vampire in the red dress blasted a fireball into the library, picked up Kadroth, and cast Dimension Door on them both, disappearing from sight.

A Door Left Open

Lain Sorenstarr was intently watching the drake pens through the window of his classroom at the Academy. He'd just summoned Aeloria, his new drake companion. She was only a few days old, but was growing and learning fast. It was fascinating to watch. A sharp voice snatched Lain from his reverie.

“Lain. LAIN!"

Sitting across from Lain was Belgos, the schoolmaster. His eyebrows furrowed, hands plantly firmly on the volume in on the table between them.

"Please pay attention. I know it’s hard to look away from the drakes, but you need to finish this assignment. Read this passage again."

Looking at the book, Lain recognized the words he’d already read ten times over. The ancient elvish script was a pleasure to examine: beautiful and elegant in presentation; efficient in exposition. A handful of these words would require paragraphs in common.

Lain replied, “Yes, I've read this," and recited, "'When the astral elves departed Toril, they left behind the Manifold Mirrors, and the Orifedia, final resting place of the sword Horizon.' We learn about this every week at temple school.”

“Yes, you’ve read the words, but you’ve failed to absorb the substance. Do you know what Orifedia means in ancient elvish? It’s ‘anchor’ or ‘tether’. They left Horizon behind to keep the door open, to give themselves a way back...or the ones left behind a way to follow. It's important to understand this, because we're not the only ones looking for these relics.”

A Dragon Felled

Ziff spiralled in the blackness until light appeared at the end of a long tunnel, and then enlarged in his view. The scene that unfolded was the form of an immense white dragon on the tundra, its head buried in a mound of snow and a 200 foot impact crater streaking out behind it.

As Ziff's view spun around, he saw a diminutive figure busily clearing snow from the dragon's back. The figure stopped digging and pulled its fur-lined hood back, revealing the face of Ithlis. The kobold shaman appraised the body of Melathrond, the long-dead, magically preserved wizard strapped to the back of Arveiaturace, the blind, ancient white dragon.

Ithlis beckoned to someone just out of Ziff's sight. Then, the red wizard Dzaan strode up next to him and waved a hand over his features, changing them into a man with dark hair, pointed beard, and gray robes with Netherese Runes embroidered into the trim. He reached out and grasped the chin of Melathrond and said, "I’ve been looking forward to this little chat."

Ziff awoke clutching the Crystal Dragon Scale Staff to his chest.

Valley of Lost Gods Hex Map, (currently visible areas). Campsite is the starting location, temple is Ossuary of Mournful Silence.

The Valley of Lost Gods

Harvan, Lain, Ziff, Glim, and Anatol awoke staring up into the canopy a temperate forest. The sun was in the sky and there was the sound of insects, but no birds. Each of them felt absolutely wrecked and were covered in wounds from their fight in Dorn's Deep. Ratimir was not with them.
Harvan's Mace of the Ephemeris could not find their location, so they assumed they were off the Prime Material Plane.
Anatol found that he now had a persistent psychic link with Kresselack and that his two swords — the Vargensklinga and Levandedöd — had combined into the single sword Horizon.
Ziff sent his familiar Hrothgar (Frank) into the sky for reconnaissance. Frank rose above the forest and viewed a variety of landscapes encircling their location: badlands and desert to the northeast, volcanoes to the north, icy mountains to the northwest, jungle to the west, swamp to the southwest, and tropical beach to the south and southeast.
Frank saw no sign of Ratimir.

An Appointment With Fate

Ratimir opened his eyes and saw that he was standing in the entryway of Dinev's Rest, the inn the Dawnbringers had barricaded themselves inside in Caer-Dineval. The inn was dark and the air was heavy with the smell of smoke. His hands were full of light ash, which quickly blew away in the breeze through the open door. The chairs of the bar had been reconfigured into rows facing the stage, on which was set a table with two chairs. Six people sat in the audience a few rows back, their features obscured by the strong stage lighting. One man sat in the front row, an elegant half-elf dressed in an immaculately tailored black suit. As Ratimir shambled over, the man stood and appraised the bard with sharp eyes. Just as he reached out a hand, a familiar voice burst in the front door.

"WAIT. Wait a moment. Not yet!"

There — doubled over in exhaustion — stood the god Olidammara, hand outstretched and waggling his index finger.

The well-dressed half elf's voice cut across the room like a scythe. "Yes, I got the memo. Still, collateral is required."

With that, the half-elf reached into Ratimir's chest and pulled forth a beating, glowing ember. He produced a box from thin air, placed the ember inside, and locked the box with a key. The man then indicated the stage to Ratimir, "Would you please join us, Maestro?"

Before Ratimir could move, Olidammara's hand rested on his shoulder and the god whispered into his ear, "I'm so sorry, old friend. Believe me when I say this was the absolute best I could do."

As Ratimir took the stage and sat at the table, the six audience members rose and joined them, forming a large circle around the table. Ratimir recognized Anatol's former militia captain Jasra Catogeirr among them. The man in black placed the box and key on the table next to Ratimir.

A hunched man in simple robes slowly walked onto the stage. He sat opposite Ratimir and pulled his hood back, revealing a metal mask adorned with three eyes. He stretched a hand toward Ratimir and waited. Olidammara leaned in and said, "He wants to to draw your deck."

Ratimir pulled the Fateweaver's Foil from his pocket and placed it on the table. The robed man waved a hand over his face and the metal mask vanished, revealing Ratimir's face underneath. He then looked down to the cards, and Ratimir got the idea: he was to perform a Tarokka reading for himself. Ratimir drew the cards as he'd done for his friends before and laid them on the table.

Ratimir's Tarokka Reading

With the reading done, the mysterious man rose from his chair, taking the key to the box with him. The well-dressed half-elf leaned in a scooped up the box. The audience members left the stage and disappeared into the inn. Olidamara walked with Ratimir out of Dinev's Rest.

"Those cards you hold — The Fateweaver's Foil — are a powerful talisman. They belong to Savras himself. He's not wild about them being at large on the Prime Material, but the choice is out of his hands. If you weren't in possession of them, your soul would be off to serve Levistus in Stygia right now. As it is, you've been given a second chance. But part of the deal is that I have to go. I'm alien to this world and the Powers-That-Be want me out of the picture. So, this is 'Farewell'...for now."

The Mournful Silence

Hrothgar (Frank) made another pass over the forest and spotted Ratimir lying on his back. Once the party located him, he was sitting up and pondering the metal mask with three eyes that he'd found in his satchel.
Glim and Lain noticed the striking lack of larger animals, but the proliferance of insects and earthworms in the soil. Glim cast Speak With Animals and asked a cicada if there were any animals. It replied that there weren't any larger animals around but there were a large amount of "shambling creatures."
Ratimir cast Leomund's Tiny Hut and the party settled in for a long rest as night settled in over the forest. During the evening, they heard a large group of creatures shambling approximately 200 feet away.
In the morning, Lain inspected the tracks and determined at least 40 humanoids had walked through the forest nearby on their way to the tropical area to the southeast.
The Dawnbringers set out for the northeast, across a set of low, barren hills into some badlands. They traveled for hours before they saw a structure built into the cliffsides ahead.
Set into the cracked earth and jagged stone pillars of the desolate badlands cliff face, the temple loomed like a monument to despair. The sprawling, skeletal ruin was constructed entirely of intertwined bones: massive femurs formed its arches, ribs curved into vaulted ceilings, and countless smaller bones paved the uneven floors. Sun-bleached remains of an untold number of creatures — humanoid and beast alike — composed its walls, crumbling and weather-worn. It appeared to have been abandoned for a long, long time.
The wind whistled through the hollow structures, creating a dissonant, mournful symphony that echoed for miles. The entrance, framed by the gargantuan skull of some long-extinct creature, gaped open, its hollow sockets watching eternally. Inside, the silence was oppressive, broken only by the crunch of brittle bones underfoot.
Inside, an enormous, circular dais of vertebrae rose from the center. Scattered among the ruins were fragments of titanic skeletal hands, an immense rib cage — its sternum cracked and pierced, and titanic skull. Tiny bells hung on rings on the ribs, quietly tinkling in the breeze.
In the floor surrounding the dais, almost hidden by the piles of bones were three circular, 2-inch diameter holes that had been burrowed in the floor.
Lain and Ratimir studied the weathered writings on the temple fixtures and learned that this was the Ossuary of Silent Prayers, domain of a god known as Kelyth, The Mournful Silence. Pictographs accompanying the writings matched the titanic corpse of bones sprawled across the floor.
Inside the nearby priest's rectory, the party found Fetters of the Penitent, a set of rusted chains that, when draped across the shoulders, prevented a creature from moving.

Session 120: Bloodthirst

January 25th, 2025

Campaign Almanac

Day 32 of the campaign, the 23rd of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne is currently not visible in the sky of the Valley of Lost Gods.

"Team Fun Size" — Glim, Harvan, and Ziff — followed a procession of undead to the temple of a blood god on life support.

While Ratimir and Lain continued studying the weathered writing and Anatol gathered bones inside Ossuary of Silent Prayers, Harvan, Ziff, and Glim ventured out and tried to learn more about the nature of their surroundings.
Glim found evidence of moisture in the badlands soil just under the surface, suggesting that the weather wasn't static.
They noticed that the clouds had changed dramatically during their transition from the forest to the badlands.
As they stared across expanse of dry ground before them, they spotted a cloud of dust in the distance. Ziff sent up his familiar Frank to investigate and saw a marching procession of undead traveling toward the northeast.
The undead were carrying two live wild boars tied to spits. Their path brought them within a quarter mile of the bone temple.
Team Fun Size informed Anatol, Ratimir, and Lain that they were going to investigate the creatures. The others promised to catch up later.
Ziff sent up Frank with Glim's spider familiar Ted riding on his back. Frank orbited about 60 feet over the procession and dropped Ted onto one of the boars.
The undead soldiers spotted Frank as he flew away. One of the leaders drew his sword, barked orders at the archers, and pointed at Frank. The archers fired a volley dropped Frank quickly. They briefly fanned out to find the dead body but gave up after a minute or two.
Ted tucked in between the boar's legs and communicated his location back to Glim, allowing Team Fun Size to track the undead.
They tracked the procession for a few hours, at one point crossing the transition from the badlands into ancient volcanic mountains.
The creatures ascended a set of narrow switchbacks, climbing over two-thousand feet into the mountains.
Over the Sending Stones, they received a message from Tral, the kobold engineer onboard the Terrible Mistake airship. "Dwarf forge a now crater. Volcano erupting. We have retreated to the goliath village wait for your signal, will collape envelope to save fuel."
Using his reply, Ratimir said over the Sending Stones that they were following the marching undead's track and should catch up with Team Fun Size soon.
At the top of the climb, Team Fun Size watched from a discrete distance as the undead creatures entered into a temple cut into the cliff face of the mountain. Obsidian columns framed the entrance, and red minerals spidered across the black glass surface like veins.
Ziff stole invisibly into obsidian temple and a saw different class of undead creatures — perhaps priests — were waiting inside around a large pool of impossibly black liquid. At the far end of the pool was an altar with channels cut into it that drained into the pool.
The creatures untied the two boars and secured each of them in turn to the altar. Both boars were ritually stabbed and their blood drained into the pool.
At the far end of the room, opposite the entrance, an immense husk of a creature was draped on a giant obsidian throne. As the boars' blood mixed into the pool, the creature's chest rose briely and a rasping breath entered its lungs. After the single breath, it was still once more.
The dead boars were tossed into a pile of other long-dead animals and the marching undead gathered themselves to depart on another hunt. The priests retired into one of the four rooms off the main chamber.
Team Fun Size retreated down the mountain path and Glim found a crack in the cliffside where they could hide. Ziff cast Minor Illusion to project a fake rock face over the crack as the undead soldiers marched by.
They used the Sending Stones to warn Ratimir that the soldiers were coming down.
Glim, Harvan, and Ziff returned up the path and quietly looked around the temple. They found a library, a reliquary, a chapel, and a forge. From these rooms, they recovered a set of gauntlets made of bone and and a skeletal hand grasping a scroll.
On the floor of the main room, they found three ragged holes that punctured the obsidian floor tiles, arranged in a rough triangle surrounding the large pool. Each hole was about 2-3 inches in diameter and narrowed toward the bottom.
They approached the throne and inspected the immense creature. There was no sign of life and its body had the consistency of empty corn husks.
Both Ziff and Glim searched their memories for knowledge of this entity and remembered a low level blood god named Tzakar-Vhul, whose cult and main temple was located between Baldur's Gate and Amn on the Sword Coast. The Flaming Fist drove them east into the Sunset Mountains where they vanished into obscurity.

Session 121: Bob Blood God's Blood Mob

February 1st, 2025

Campaign Almanac

Day 32 of the campaign, the 23rd of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne is currently not visible in the sky of the Valley of Lost Gods.

Ratimir, Lain, and Anatol raced to catch up to Team Fun Size; Ziff revived a dying god and tried to make it his bitch.

Lain distracted the descending undead hunting party with a summoned capybara. While the hunters chased the beast, he, Ratimir, and Anatol slipped around them.
Back at the temple, Ziff experimented with the lifeless husk of Tzakar-Vuhl. He cut off a small piece of dried skin and flung it in the black pool. A minute later, a skeleton emerged from the pool and the priests emerged from their chamber to dress it in armor. Once armed, it departed the temple.
Ratimir and Harvan met the newly-emerged skeleton on the mountain path outside and quickly dispatched it, looting its Sword of Wounding.
Ziff continued his experiments inside the temple. He pulled the Pick Ax of Bleeding from the Bag of Holding and struck it upon the altar, creating a continuous trickle of blood that spilled into the black pool.
Within minutes, the husk of Tzakar-Vuhl began to breathe. The undead priests once again emerged from their chambed and kneeled before their god.
Lain, Harvan, Anatol, and Ratimir arrived at the temple and Ziff filled them in on what he'd learned. They launched a plan to try and gain control of Tzakar-Vuhl.
Ratimir cast Tongues and attempted to convince the priests that Ziff was a powerful blood god, but failed. One of the priests blew a whistle, recalling their hunting party.
The priests left the temple and stood on the outside steps, giving directions to the returning hunters. One priest pointed to Ziff and spoke in Chultan, "Retrieve the ax."

Session 122: All Those Who Wander

February 8th, 2025

Campaign Almanac

Day 32-33 of the campaign, the 23rd and 24th days of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne is currently not visible in the sky of the Valley of Lost Gods.

The Dawnbringers reckon with the difficulties of enlisting a blood-fueled ally then set out across the desert and into the arctic tundra biome of the Valley of Lost Gods.

Hex map of the Valley of Lost Gods. 1 hex = 5 miles. Download the PDF.

Dais inside the Sanctum of Stars Unbound, Exquisite Salon to Cyriath, the Cryostasis Eternal

Ziff pumped more blood from his Handaxe of Bloodletting into the black pool. After several minutes, Tzakar-Vuhl reanimated.
The blood god offered little information, saying that it had not left the Bloodstone Monastery since the temple and the surrounding lands had been transported to the Valley of Lost Gods long ago.
Tzakar-Vuhl said that Alethane's death knight Charenthoth had placed three devices inside the temple that had teleported the temple.
Glim inspected the black pool and recognized necromantic runes carved into the edge. He searched his knowledge for a method of disrupting the magic but turned up nothing obvious.
The blood god expressed a desire to seek revenge against Alethane but required a significant offering of blood. Tzakar-Vuhl and his priests knew of ample aquatic life to the south and an island reachable by boat.
A Red Dragon lived in a jungle biome to the west, but that the undead soldiers "never lasted very long against the dragon."
Six undead soldiers and one high priest named Aht'om accompanied the party when they departed the Monastery and started across the desert. They camped for the night on the edge of the desert expanse.
The Dawnbringers skirted the borders between the volcanic wastelands and the desert. To the north was a vast scorched wasteland with three volcanoes in the distance. To the south was a sea of desert sand dunes.
Eventually they arrived at an arctic tundra biome to the northeast. Perched on a jagged, ice-covered hill was an enormous crystalline structure.
Approaching closer, Ratimir cast Comprehend Languages to read the inscription across the frieze of the structure. At first, the magic couldn't make sense of the writing, but eventually it fell into place roughly as The Sanctum of Stars Unbound, Exquisite Salon to Cyriath, the Cryostasis Eternal.
The entrance was a set of sliding doors, jammed slightly ajar just wide enough to admit the largest members of the party. Inside, they found an immense open chamber jumbled with what had once been floating crystalline platforms. At the far end was a dais equipped with three ten-foot tall podiums. Behind these were a set of a dozen large glass-like cylinders, slanting back from the dais and stretching up into the ceiling.
After they had tranversed the jumbled interior, they saw that the body of a very tall crystalline creature was splayed out upon the dais, it's thorax ripped to shreds. After investigating the wounds closely, they determined they had been made with Anatol's sword Horizon, at one time the weapon of Charenthoth, the death knight of the lich Alethane.

Session 123: Reflexive Logic Continuity

February 15th, 2025

Campaign Almanac

Day 33 of the campaign, the 24th day of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne is currently not visible in the sky of the Valley of Lost Gods.

Ratimir used the Shanten to power the Sanctum of Stars Unbound, allowing them to free a trio of Treants that had been abducted from the Cloakwood Forest.

Consoles within the Sanctum of Stars Unbound

In the shaft below the main hall there were an additional dozen levels ringing the walls. Each level was packed full of crystalline cylinders; some sized for humanoids, others sized for creatures larger or smaller.
Harvan, Ziff, and Ratimir peered into several tubes and saw orcs, elves, humans, treants, and creatures they could not identify.
At the bottom of the shaft was a geodesic sphere connected to the walls by various sets of tubes and bundles of fibers. Inset into the foreward face of the sphere was another panel.
Ratimir cast Comprehend Languages once more. Just as before, the alien glyphs shifted before his eyes, jumping from one seemingly nonsensical word to the next until settling down, as if the spell had gotten as close as possible before giving up.
The buttons on the geodesic sphere panel read Banish, Conflate, Distribution Inhibit, Distribution Flow.
Ratimir donned his Shanten Goggles, pressed the Banish button, and inserted the Shanten they'd aqcuired from Delnor's Tower into the sphere. The interior of the Sanctum lit up and the atmosphere warmed to a non-damaging temperature.
Returning to the main hall, Harvan and Ratimir used the consoles to examine the creatures held in stasis below. They opened a cylinder containing a treant, but the creature did not survive long.
Next time, Ziff stood by the cylinder with Gleb. Once the cylinder opened, Ratimir cast Cure Wounds through Gleb, saving the treant.
Leafbinder was a treant from the Cloakwood Forest, just south of Baldur's Gate across the river Chionthar. The Dawnbringers awakened two more treants — Forestsong and Greenstride — the same way.
The treants said that Cyriath was obsessed with preserving life and would capture and freeze new species that it encountered.
Ratimir returned to the consoles on the dais and examined the one labelled Reflexive Logic Continuity first. He began with the receptacle that corresponded with the one on the crystal corpse's chest. Pressing the buttons to the left and right of the hole opened and closed the aperture blades, but the chamber was empty.
Pressing Reincarnate Matrices illuminated one of the twelve indicators in the center of the console. Similar lights illuminated over the dozen stasis cylinders behind the dais.
He then turned to the Procession Regulate console and began monkeying with the controls. The Sanctum began to rumble as icicles rained from the ceiling.

Session 124: A Spoon in the Road

February 22nd, 2025

Campaign Almanac

Day 33-34 of the campaign, the 24th and 25th days of the month of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne is currently not visible in the sky of the Valley of Lost Gods.

The ÆtherWagon attracted the attention of a monstrous creature; the Dawnbringers entered the Pyramid of Tawaret-Khet.

The gargantuan serpentine creature attracted to the strange energies of the Shanten

Tawaret-Khet, as depicted on the walls of his pyramid

Stone sculpture of Tawaret-Khet's royal reed boat

The party — after unanimously deciding to call the vessel the "ÆtherWagon" — discovered that operating the control panels attracted the attention of a gargantuan serpentine creature that pierced the sky of the Valley of Lost Gods.
The sky above twists and warps as an unfathomable shadow passes overhead, distorting light and reality itself. A massive, serpentine silhouette coils through the air, its form fragmented and incomplete, like a nightmarish vision torn from the fabric of another realm. Shreds of darkness trail behind it, dissolving into nothingness as its body writhes through the sky with unnatural fluidity.
As the entity coursed through the air two miles away, the party could see the sky fracture behind its form, revealing stars. As the creature passed, the sky sealed together, presenting its daytime sky appearance. As the creature approached the ÆtherWagon, they were able to spot several identifiable stars and — cross-referencing them with Harvan's Mace of the Ephemeris — determined they were near their home planet Toril, but not on it.
They powered down the ÆtherWagon and removed the Shanten from the engine core as the creature approached within a quarter mile. Within minutes, the horrible flying creature passed through another portal in the sky and disappeared.
In the process of putting away the Shanten, the six skeletons from Bloodstone Monastery looked directly at it and turned to dust, leaving only Ah'Tom.
The Dawnbringers set out south across the desert toward the jungle biome. After a few miles, Lain spotted a pyramid flanked by four obelisks a few miles away. As the day was wearing on, the party walked to within several hundred feet of the pyramid and camped for the night, surrounded by the three treants in an impromptu desert grove.
The pyramid and obelisks were constructed of smooth sandstone capped with black obsidian. A pictographic language was inscribed over most the surfaces of the obelisk and on the pyramid's obsidian capstone.
Several depictions of a fish-headed humanoids appeared on the pyramid and obelisks. Ratimir translated the pictographs and learned the structure was dedicated to Tawaret-Khet, God of Floods and Drought.
They climbed a staircase a third of the way up the pyramid and entered an antechamber containing a massive statue of Tawaret-Khet holding an urn and a chunk of parched earth. Two doorways flanked the statue on the wall behind.
The left doorway connected to a room with a 10-foot high stairway leading to an empty platform. Curved rails extended like wings from either side. Gouges in the sandstone suggested something had been removed from the platform. At the foot of the stairs was a 5-foot diameter circular depression in the stone floor, approximately 6 inches deep. Diagrams of constellations were engraved on the surrounding walls.
The right doorway led to a round room that sloped gently downward away from the door. The walls were a mural mosaic depicting agrarian life in a desert valley. At the lowest point of the room opposite the door, the mural displayed a coastal scene. Radiating from this point on the floor were a dozen arched lines, reaching all the way to the entrance. Beside the entrance doorway were six panels showing phases of the moon: new, crescent, quarter, half, gibbous, full.
Ratimir and Ziff entered the room on the left while Glim ventured into the right passage alone. Back in the antechamber, Lain was examining the statue and poured water on the hand holding the cracked earth. Both doorways closed, trapping Ratimir, Ziff, and Glim.
Ziff and Ratimir poured water into the circular depression on the floor but did not see any change occur in the room.
Lain poured water into the urn in the statue's hand. Inside Glim's room, water bubbled up from the floor and filled the lowest portion of the chamber to the first arched line. Glim experimented with the moon phase panels and eventually filled the room up to the highest mark, revealing a doorway submerged on the far side of the room. After a ten-foot swim through a submerged tunnel, Glim emerged into another chamber, this one containing a full-size stone sculpture of a reed boat, decked out in royal majesty.
The lifeless corpse of a larger-than-life humanoid was sprawled across the deck of the boat. Emaciated, mummified limbs and a skeletal fish head cracked under Glim's examination. The torso contained the same sort of slashes they'd found on the body of Cyriath back in the arctic biome, signaling that this god had also been slain by Horizon.
Glim recovered a shining scale from the corpse and found that it gave him webbed hands and feet when immersed in the water.

Session 125: The Droughtwarden of Tawaret-Khet

March 1st, 2025

Campaign Almanac

Day 34 of the campaign, the 25th day of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne is currently not visible in the sky of the Valley of Lost Gods.

Anatol and Ratimir iron-spiked a door; Harvan gained a new job and minions; Ziff got "eye bitched" by some load-bearing statues.

Harvan climbed aboard the basalt reed boat and inspected the body of Tawaret-Khet. The slashes and radiant burn marks across the torso matched those they'd seen on Cyriath the Cryostasis Eternal, suggesting Khet had also been slain by Horizon.
Ziff, Ratimir, and Anatol discovered that the circular depression in the floor once filled with water became a water-filled passage to another chamber.
In the next chamber was an orichalcum throne identical to the one in the stone boat elsewhere in the pyramid. Four turnable columns containing ornate statues of lungfish-headed guards wielding kopesh swords supported the ceiling. The walls were decorated with detailed mosaics depicting the agrarian life of a desert civilization.
Harvan stepped into the stern of the basalt boat and grabbed the tiller. As he did, the room around him melted away into a riverine desert canyon. Throughout the pyramid, a booming voice called out, "The trial of the Droughtwarden has begun."
Ziff learned that he could communicate with Harvan by sitting in the orichalcum throne in his room. As Harvan's boat headed downstream, lungfish-headed statues on the shoreline called out riddles. Harvan recited these riddles to Ziff, Ratimir, and Anatol who deciphered the meanings and oriented the statue columns toward certain segments of the room's mosaic.
Harvan reached the end of the river and the boat docked on a reed-covered bank. He stepped ashore and into a luxury tent, where he found a glass vial filled with a clear liquid and a golden tablet capable of casting Druidcraft. When he departed the tent, a voice called out, "The trial of the Droughtwarden is complete. A new servant of Tawaret-Khet stands ready to serve their god." The luxury tent melted away and Harvan found himself back in the stone boat room, with the basalt boat reset on top of its plinth.
The party convened in the statue room and discussed the glass vial. Ratimir learned that it possessed powerful evocation and abjuration magic. Returning to the stone boat room, they poured the liquid into the mouth of Tawaret-Khet's corpse, to no effect.
They returned to the statue room and Harvan the Droughtwarden commanded the statues to rise after he sat in the orichalcum throne. All four drew their kopeshes with a flourish, detached themselves from their columns, and followed the halfling out of the pyramid.

Session 126: The Id Ascendant

April 12th, 2025

Campaign Almanac

Day 35 of the campaign, the 26th day of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne is currently not visible in the sky of the Valley of Lost Gods.

The party searched a crashed nautiloid and Harvan increased his overburdened portfolio of responsibilities.

During their long rest in the desert, Ratimir saw a meteor-like object fall from the heavens, leaving a rift in the image of the sky showing the stars of the Astral Sea beyond. The object crashed into the jungle biome to the southwest and a plume of smoke quickly rose above the jungle canopy.
The rift in the sky persisted and Ratimir saw that hexagonal energy pulses unsuccessfully attempted to stitch the rift back together.
The party made their way into the jungle and found the crash site, an impact trench hundreds of feet long leading to a burning nautiloid, the spaceship used my Mind Flayers, or Illithids.
They entered the ship via a hole in the hull on the bottom level. Inside they found a cargo hold covered with tossed crates and barrels, two unconscious Illithids, and two conscious gnome ceremorph squidlings.
Ratimir cast Detect Thoughts on one of the unconscious Mind Flayers and learned that the nautiloid was a research ship named the Id Ascendant and was tracking an Astral Dreadnought across the Astral Sea.
The nautiloid followed the Dreadnought to an anomaly in space where the leviathan vanished for a short time ago. When it emerged, the nautiloid collided with it and crashed into the Valley of the Lost Gods demiplane.
Glim, Lain, and Harvan experimented with a box of laser rifles they found in the cargo hold.
They killed one illithid and one squidling; they tied the remaining illthid up and hung it on one of the Drought Guardians of Tawaret-Khet.
After wrestling with a series of sphincter doorways, the Dawnbringers searched four rooms in the aft cargo deck and found a seven-foot glass cylinder in each. Beside each cylinder were liquid-filled globes, two of which contained live mind flayer tadpoles.
In one cylinder, the found Durm, a Goliath Monk from the Spine of the World Mountains. Two cylinders had been damaged in the crash and killed their occupants: a Githyanki Warrior and a human mercenary wearing a symbol of an osprey under a star. The last cylinder was empty.
Lain peered out of the nautiloid and saw that the rift in the sky above had grown slightly.
One level up was the engine room where they found a shriveled and cracked black crystal inside a hexagonal sphere. They placed the Psi Crystal recovered from the illitid corpse inside Netherese Lab in Termalaine inside the engine core and the nautiloid powered up.
In the control room on the top deck, they found a ceiling covered with illuminated jellyfish tendrils that depicted a star map. Underneath this map was a a seat flanked by two large orbs.
Harvan sat in the seat and placed his hands on the orbs. The nautiloid sprang to life and the halfling attempted to fly, but the trees and debris on the ship prevented it from taking off.

Session 127: Every Sphincter is a Door

May 3rd, 2025

Campaign Almanac

Day 35 of the campaign, the 26th day of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne is currently not visible in the sky of the Valley of Lost Gods.

The party re-crashed a Nautiloid and met a new "friend" after they killed all of their "friends."

The party spent time clearing debris off the deck of the crashed Nautiloid and noticed that the jagged tear in the image of the sky above had not healed.
Inside the engine room, Ziff interfaced with a piece of organic equipment on the wall. He was initially overcome, but eventually the status of the Nautiloid and the location of its damaged systems were downloaded into his brain.
Glim used this information to repair the ship enough to take off.
Harvan sat in the helm chair once again and used the viewport to see a group of six red wyverns with riders approaching the ship.
Knowing that dragons hate Mind Flayers, the party decided to act out the "execution" of one of the dead Mind Flayers to demonstrate they could be potential allies to the wyvern riders.
When the wyverns arrived, they saw they were being ridden by humanoid saurians. They had been sent to destroy the Nautiloid. Ziff initially tried negotiating with the riders and only got as far as the riders allowing them to disembark from the Nautiloid before destroying it.
Lain was sitting in the upper deck ballista and fired a bolt at the lead wyvern rider, killing him instantly.
Harvan commanded the ship to lift off. It climbed out of its impact trail and raised above the canopy of the surrounding jungle.
The wyverns damaged the Nautiloid enough using their Fire Rays and physical attacks to force it to crash back into the jungle, only a few hundred feet from where it hit the first time.
Using the ballista, light crossbows, and Glim's Call Lightning, the party made short work of the wyverns and saurian riders.
Once all of the wyverns were dead, Anatol and Ziff left the ship and captured the lone fleeing saurian rider.

Session 128: The Hole’s The Goal

May 10th, 2025

Campaign Almanac

Day 35 of the campaign, the 26th day of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne is currently not visible in the sky of the Valley of Lost Gods.

The party re-repaired the twice-crashed Nautiloid; Ziff was Stuck in the Middle with Kaelen; The Dawnbringers "brought it" to Molgarath, the Second Sun. And by "it" I mean the Nautiloid.

Having no effective "torture chairs" available on the Illithid ship, Ziff and Anatol used their tools to craft chairs for their prisoner, the captured wyvern rider. Anatol's was...an attempt. Ziff's was inspired, though a bit snug for their prisoner.
Ziff and Anatol began the interrogation of Kaelen the Wyvern Rider going with a "Bad Cop, Bad Cop" routine. Kaelen was a Saurian, a humanoid dinosaur with an elongated face, scaled skin, and small feathers radiating from his forearm and neck. He had little actionable information:
- The location of Molgarath, the Second Sun's lair just below the calera rim of the volcano The Obsidian Heart, 15 miles away.
- Molgarath rarely leaves the jungle biome but he does no one is allowed to follow.
- Kaelen has five bosses and doesn't speak to Molgarath directly. He said his wife Kaenar told him that if he showed a little bit of initiative, he could be one of those bosses.
- His village of 40-50 Saurian people was at the base of the volcano beneath the jungle canopy.
- The former god of this domain, Ethrellon the Verdant Womb, was killed by someone 'With hair of sunlight, beauty's cruelest crown,' a line that Kaelen almost sang as if it were part of a larger composition. The party took this to mean Charenthoth.
- Kaelen's people search the Valley of Lost Gods for treasure and food to give to Molgarath, though they had been commanded to avoid the central forested area of the demiplane.
Ratimir begain using the Concertina of Construction to repair the damaged Nautiloid and successfully brought most of the ship systems back online.
Harvan retook the helm and flew the ship out of the jungle toward the rift in the sky it had created when it originally crashed. In the distance he saw that six more wyverns were flying in their direction.
They flew the Nautiloid toward the rift in the sky, outrunning the pursuing wyverns. At around 15,000 feet they were about level with the rift while the wyverns capped out at around 10,000 feet.
At this distance they discerned far greater detail of the rift and saw that it was expanding. Harvan was able to feel the faintest tickle of his divine connection with Yondallah.
After a quick spin around the rift, the party flew the Nautiloid directly for the volcano at the center of the jungle, home of the ancient red dragon Molgarath. There was a smoking calera at the top of the volcano and a 200-foot-wide hole on the side of the volcano 500 feet from the calera and a 1000 feet about the jungle canopy.

Session 129: Saurian Not Saurian

May 31st, 2025

Campaign Almanac

Day 35 of the campaign, the 26th day of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne is currently not visible in the sky of the Valley of Lost Gods.

Harvan flies serpentine and throws Glim into a bulkhead; Charenthoth and Anatol have a tearful reunion; Ziff releases his new bestie Kaelen; The Dawnbringers formulate a 5-dimensional chess plan.

We're Going in Thoth

The Dawnbringers took to the skies in their newly acquired Nautiloid, steering it directly into the formidable lair of the adult red dragon, Molgarath, the Second Sun.

As they approached, Ziff and Ratimir cleverly employed a combination of Minor Illusion and song, broadcasting a plea for truce and parlay. Their persuasion proved successful, allowing them to bypass Molgarath’s outer defenses without conflict.

Inside the lair, which turned out to be the cinder cone of an active volcano, they discovered intricate walkways carved into the cavern walls. Along these paths, scores of Saurian people labored, clearly in service to the dragon. Molgarath herself was there, coiled atop a vast pile of treasure in an alcove directly opposite the entrance.

Surprisingly, it wasn't the dragon's voice that greeted them. Instead, they heard the chilling tones of Charenthoth, the death knight and Anatol’s ancient ancestor. Charenthoth addressed Molgarath, stating, "See, I told you they bring the blade right to us, and now we can use it to go take out Alethane the Lich."

A tense negotiation ensued, during which Charenthoth and Molgarath convinced the party to land the Nautiloid directly in front of the lair. The Dawnbringers disembarked and engaged in a direct conversation with Charenthoth.

It was then revealed that Charenthoth has turned against Alethane. He now opposes Alethane because he believes the lich intends to kill the gods and replace them with himself, a far more sinister goal than the "throwing down of all the gods" that Charenthoth initially understood Alethane to desire. Charenthoth’s own philosophy posits that the gods merely use and discard mortals.

Charenthoth explained that he was walking a thin line with Molgarath and that the red dragon had come from the volcanic wastes to the far north of the demiplane. There it had once been the pet of Urazhal, the Molten Lord, a minor deity Charenthoth had slain once the god's divine magic had been stripped by the demiplane after being transported there.

The Astral Shift

When the party asked how gods and their domains had been brought to the demiplane, Charenthoth explained that there were a set of three probes — The Astral Shift — that when driven into the center of a landform in a precise triangle — would transport the land and several miles around it to the demiplane. Once a god arrived in the demiplane and their connection to divine magic severed, it was a minor task for Charenthoth to walk in and slay the entity with Horizon.

There had been two exceptions: Cyriath, the Cryostasis Eternal was some sort of construct — not a god — and Charenthoth was fortunate to have destroyed the thing's power source. Another was a completely alien entity in the far eastern side of the demiplane where Charenthoth was lucky to escape with his life. There was something in there he could not defeat, and he was forced to leave the Astral Shift behind in its domain.

The Astral Shift and the transport of land masses was controlled by a device inside the Temple of the Forgotten God and had been built by the Star Elves. The Temple, Charenthoth continued, was powered by a Santenta, a arcane magic focusing device that draws raw power from the Spellweave. This Santenta was damaged and the demiplane was losing power, as evidenced by the growing tear in the sky above.

The Temple of the Forgotten God was described as an ancient structure, built by the star elves using 5-dimensional technology. This means its very architecture shifts and adapts based on the viewer’s perspective, making it a bewildering challenge to navigate. Ever since Charenthoth's death at the hands of the barbarian storm herald, Sovenis, he had walked the Valley of Lost Gods as some sort of entity between life and death, but he was barred from entering the Temple at the center of the demiplane.

Ultimately, Charenthoth successfully convinced the Dawnbringers that he was on their side. He proposed that they could use Horizon – the "blade" he’d referenced earlier – to defeat the lich. Together, they devised a plan to infiltrate the Temple of the Forgotten God. The key element of this strategy involves finding a way to admit Molgarath, the red dragon, into the temple, where she would then assist them in dispatching Alethane.

A Crack in the Demiplane

While the Dawnbringers were deep in their negotiations, Glik reached out to the party via the Sending Stones with urgent news. First, a goblin army from Karkolohk was marching on Caer-Koenig and expected to arrive within 24 hours. Sheriff Southwell had already dispatched a team to intercept them. Second, Icingdeath had been spotted near the Sea of Moving Ice. Ravisin, Corthanx, and Glik went to investigate, only to discover the corpse of the ancient white dragon Arveiturace. The dead Netherese wizard Melathrond, who had been strapped to her back, was missing. That ended Glik's message.

That same evening, as Ziff clutched the Crystal Dragonscale Staff, he was overcome by a powerful vision. He saw Ithlis, Dzaan, and an unknown number of humanoids riding Soldondremn directly toward the laboratory of Damien Morienus.

Session 130: Crusin' the Demiplane

June 7th, 2025

Campaign Almanac

Day 36 of the campaign, the 27th day of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne is currently not visible in the sky of the Valley of Lost Gods.

Charenthoth delivers his tragic backstory and reveals he has the key to Cyriath the Cryostasis Eternal; The Dawnbringers abandon their 5-dimensional chess plan in favor of 'just flying around'; The Temple of the Forgotten God lashes out at their approaching Nautiloid

The Torment of Charenthoth

The enigma of Charenthoth Mrazdan began to unravel. The Dawnbringers learned of his former glory as a Purple Dragon Knight from Cormyr and his fervent devotion as a Paladin of Lathander, the Morninglord.

His faith, however, was shattered by an unspeakable tragedy. While Charenthoth was battling a vile cult, they enacted a brutal retribution, murdering his entire family—his spouse and sons—leaving his estate in ruin. Only his infant daughter survived, spared by a chance decision to send her to relatives. This profound loss, coupled with Lathander's perceived absence, twisted his heart into a bitter resentment against all gods, leading him to abandon his sacred oath.

This bitterness drew him to Alethane, the enigmatic arcanist who promised to liberate Toril by throwing down its deities. Charenthoth embraced the path of a Death Knight, becoming Alethane's instrument of divine destruction. He systematically dismantled cults and even vanquished lesser gods within this very Valley of Lost Gods. Yet, even in his grim crusade, Charenthoth's twisted sense of justice found a new betrayal: he discovered Alethane's true, self-serving ambition – to accumulate Star Elf and Netherese magic not for liberation, but to ascend and crown himself the new god of Toril. This revelation ignited a fresh, complex fury within Charenthoth, pitting him against the very master he had served.

In a crucial revelation for their immediate quest, the Hole Terrors also learned that Charenthoth possessed the key that would allow Cyriath, the android, to transfer his consciousness into one of his many backup bodies hidden within the Sanctum of Stars Unbound.

Xylos

Following Charenthoth's insights, the party made a strategic decision against a direct assault on the Temple of the Forgotten God. Instead, they chose to embark on a tour of the mysterious demiplane. Their exploration led them to a desolate and poignant discovery: an abandoned agricultural settlement, its fields blighted and its structures crumbling. Here, they found the lingering essence of a dead harvest god, Xylos, a minor deity obliterated by Charenthoth's hand. Compelling evidence in the form of geographical 'seams,' temporal decay, and Charenthoth's own crude inscription suggested that this very location was the first piece of reality Alethane had ripped from Toril and inserted into his burgeoning demiplane.

Aerial Defense

Having absorbed these unsettling truths, the Dawnbringers eventually set the Nautiloid's course towards the ominous Temple of the Forgotten God. As they drew nearer, the temple proved to be anything but dormant. Without warning, the ancient star elf structure targeted the Nautiloid, unleashing two devastating blasts of radiant energy, causing significant damage.

In a desperate maneuver to escape further damage from the potent radiant weapons of the temple, the Nautiloid skimmed the treetops of the central forest biome, the Voidwood, attempting to use the dense canopy as cover from the temple's relentless assault. The immediate threat was not just the ward's effects, but the direct, destructive force emanating from the Temple itself.

Session 131: Raw Hobbiting the Voidwood

June 14th, 2025

Campaign Almanac

Day 36 of the campaign, the 27th day of Hammer, 1492 DR. The moon Selûne is currently not visible in the sky of the Valley of Lost Gods.

The Hole Tearers MacGyvered together a bomb and blew up the nautiloid against the Temple of the Forgotten God, then they encountered monument similar to the Elvish Tomb of the Lonelywood Forest.

A Second Nautiloid

As the party's Nautiloid, piloted by Harvan, retreated from the Temple of the Forgotten God, a new threat materialized: another Nautiloid emerged from the tear in the demiplane's sky. The temple immediately shifted its radiant energy attacks, drawing fire away from the Dawnbringers' vessel. Seizing the opportunity, Harvan skillfully flew their Nautiloid below the treetops of the Voidwood, using the dense forest canopy for concealment.

While hidden, the party quickly began improvising a counter-attack. They scavenged some laser rifle batteries from their cargo hold, combining them with lamp oil and a goblin bomb that Ratimir had looted from Karkolohk to fashion a timed-delay explosive. Before lighting the fuse, Harvan dropped Glim and the Golems 1000 feet away from the temple, ensuring they would be clear of the impending blast. As they flew their rigged Nautiloid silently beneath the tree line towards the temple, several more radiant energy beams shot out, continuing to bombard the second Nautiloid.

When their vessel approached within 500 feet of the temple, Harvan executed a dramatic maneuver. He pulled their Nautiloid above the treetops, revealing it cinematically through the swirling fog, pointed directly at the imposing structure. The Hole Terrors lit the bomb's fuse, then swiftly evacuated the Nautiloid. From a safe distance, they watched as their abandoned vessel, laden with explosives, detonated against the Temple of the Forgotten God. The explosion ravaged a significant section of the adjacent Voidwood forest, leaving a scorched and splintered crater, yet the impossibly black structure of the temple itself remained seemingly untouched, a testament to its strange resilience.

Familiar Terrain

With their improvised mission accomplished, the party proceeded on foot. They reached a 40-foot break in the forest, revealing the temple's base: the same impossibly black structure that defied visible geometric physics, its unnatural angles seemingly bending reality. The Dawnbringers cautiously approached the wall; any items that touched its surface had no effect, except for Anatol’s sword Horizon, which emitted a high-pitched crackle when pressed against it. Ratimir then cast Dispel Magic against the structure, which briefly revealed a magically-crafted smooth stone underneath the dimensionally-shifting surface before reverting.

After these tests, Ratimir cast Passwall on this strange edifice and emerged on the far side, finding more forest beyond. He returned to his companions, and the Dawnbringers decided to walk east around the break. Their path led them to a pair of stone platforms that strongly resembled the Elvish Tomb in Lonelywood forest. However, this one lacked a moon dial. In its place, a 20-foot diameter metal ring lay underneath a stone obelisk, both intricately covered in Star Elf writing. As Ratimir shined the dark light of the Shanten on the metal rings, his action immediately attracted unwanted attention: a set of Planar Phase Spiders shimmered into view, drawn by the strange energy.

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