Session 82: Ancient Dragon Lair? Report

General Summary

Session 82 – Wednesday June 5, 2024: Ancient Dragon Lair?

3.5 hour battle / exploration session 6:00 PM to 9:30 PM.

The Stone Bearers. Party of 5:

It is the 17th day of the month of Hammer (Deepwinter) in the 51st year of the Age of Enialis (Mid Jan.)

• Ajani– High Elf, L13 Wizard – Nathan Gioconda (School sound board)
• Cassidy – Human, L13Blood hunter – Ryan Armstrong (Remote)
• Gazlowe – Goblin, L14 Artificer – Josh Pozsonyi
• Isabella – Forest Gnome, L13 Barbarian – Jackie Armstrong
• Juan Peyote – Gnome L13 Paladin – Will Johnson
• Seften Mitcaver – Human, L13 Cleric – Jacob Munson (Remote)

The Cave

The Stone Bearers continued to walk down the mountain. They saw the dark cloud over the top of the peak fade and turn into a large grey cloud. The grey cloud spread, and the temperature dropped. Light snow turned into heavy snow and the winds began to pick up. The party was cold, and visibility became limited. Cassidy knew that this was not a normal, natural occurrence. They heard thunder in the distance and continued to trudge as best they could, looking for path. It wasn’t long before everyone felt rumble in their ground and feared an avalanche was coming.   They spotted a very large cave opening that they didn’t recall being there when they walked up the mountain. They ran in just as the avalanche hit. The avalanche buried the exit. They lit their torches and items and examined the cave. It was 40’ high and 20’ wide and the walls and floor were encased in ice. Old footprints were in the ice. They examined the footprints and determined that Ice Trolls had been through here some time ago. The prints were old but no telling exactly how old.   Seften examined the wounds on Isabella and with the help of Cassidy realized that the vampire’s bite had removed part of her life force. A greater restoration or similar magic could restore her to health but that’s a powerful spell and Gazlowe, Cassidy and Seften himself all had similar wounds. Only Seften could do it and it would take a lot out of him. Seften knew that most would be okay as they are, but Cassidy was in bad shape.   Seften walked around looking at the walls and floor and listened intently to the silence of the cave. Echoes seemed to travel down the large hall for miles. He continued to look at the walls and found an ancient rune on a wall covered by a foot of ice. Cassidy came over and examined it and saw that it was ancient Draconic. Cassidy recalled that long ago, before Elves and men ruled the world, the Dragons and Giants had their own empire. Examining the rune Cassidy thought that perhaps this tunnel is older than even the elven ruins they had seen. The idea of a tunnel leading to a long dead Dragon treasure intrigued Gazlowe. But Cassidy warned that the dragon may not be dead. Gazlowe pulled out the icewrath spear they had found at the clockwork queen’s tower. He re-read the schematic and realized that he could finish the enchantment if he plunged the spear into the heart of an Ice dragon and then the spear would be able to deal significant cold dmg a limited number of times. Gazlowe was up for the adventure! The party decided to take a long rest and then explore in the morning.

Resting in the cold cave.

The party discussed the weather conditions and Cassidy told everyone that a White Dragon lair can certainly surround itself with blizzard like conditions. She contemplated that perhaps the Devil’s influence somehow suppressed the White Dragon lair’s effects. Gazlowe recalled the painting of the Count Von Glauer carving the heart out of a Red Dragon and wondered if this could be related somehow.   The Stone bearers had tents and sleeping bags to keep them warm during the night, but in the morning, they realized that walking for miles in an ice cave would be problematic. Juan suggested they find the hairy Ice trolls and make some warm clothing. Seften said, “That’s not a bad idea.” Seften cast Greater Restoration on Cassidy, eradicating the issue she had from the vampire and allowing her to fully heal again. The party trudged for about 3 hours and only Juan was becoming affected by the cold. Fortunately, Isabella had a potion of vitality that cured Juan of his exhaustion.

Ice Trolls.

Seften heard something in the cave ahead and had everyone pause and be quiet. They sent Isabella to scout ahead. Quietly, Isabella snuck up a little way around a bend and saw a small grouping of 5 skinny, famished, hairy Ice trolls. The trolls started smelling the air and one in broken Giant said, “Fresh Meat! They didn’t see Isabella, and she snuck back quickly and prepared the party. Gazlowe, knowing they’re going to need some fire to kill these things drank a potion of Fire Breathing. The Trolls approached, all grouped together and Seften smiled at his tactical advantage.   Seften walked into the hall and cast a ring of fire around all the Trolls. 4 of the 5 Trolls took lots of fire dmg and one by one they came out of the fire badly hurt. Gazlowe spit fire and punched the first Troll that left Seften’s flames. Isabella walked across the ice and hit the Troll with her axe so hard that it should have killed him, however the Troll didn’t go down. She hit him again and it should have killed him, but the creature was relentless and didn’t fall. Gazlowe said, “We need to kill them with fire?!?”   Another toll ran out of the fire and hit Isabella and Gazlowe. Bird and Juan hit the Troll hard enough to kill it, but it too didn’t go down. Another Troll came out and bit Isabella, hurting her and they could see it healing him. Cassidy enchanted her whip with flames and hit one of the trolls that should have been dead and finished it off with fire. She did the same to the 2nd troll. She then cursed another troll so that it couldn’t move any further.   Seften threw a flaming axe at one of the trolls. Gazlowe hit another troll and used fire to finish it off. The 4th troll tried to attack Gazlowe but couldn’t pierce his armor. Isabella pulled out her flame tongue sword and recklessly attacked the 4th troll until it fell dead. Bird and Juan attacked the last troll that couldn’t move and hit it hard enough to kill it. Cassidy finished it off with her flaming whips.

Harvesting

The party broke out their knives and started skinning the Trolls. They successfully each collected a pelt. Some (Seften) had more pristine pelts than others (Juan.) The Pelts were quickly turned into coats, hats, gloves and boot covers keeping them warm for the rest of the journey. Isabella couldn’t stand the smell, so Gazlowe cast prestidigitation making it smell fresh and clean. Cassidy collected enough Troll blood to be able to make a potion of vitality when she has time and an appropriate lab.

The Shaft.

After about 5 or 6 miles of walking, the party came to the end of the tunnel where there was a large pit. The pit was more of a shaft that was about 60 feet wide and descended deeper than they could see. Gazlowe dropped a small rock and determined the shat was about 200 feet below. Jagged rocks and ice were covering the walls down creating treacherous handholds. Gazlowe tied together his 50’ of rope with Isabella’s 100’ and Juan’s 100’. He created a knot every couple of feet making it easy to climb down. Isabella hammered a piton into the wall and Gazlowe tied the rope to it.   Gazlowe descended slowly looking all around as he went down. About 100’ down he saw a smooth spot on the wall that had an ice-covered Glyph. Gazlowe used his thieve tools to remove the ice and with amazing skill (and much to his surprise) he successfully disarmed the trap. He went down to the bottom of the shaft and saw that it opened to a very large room with a 25’ high ceiling. Spikes of ice covered all the surfaces of the room and there were several large mounds of ice and snow in the middle of the room. Gazlowe yelled up to the others warning them of the dangerous icy spike.   Cassidy pulled out a splash potion of healing and then looked down the pit. She leaned too far and slipped on the ice. She fell to the bottom of the pit 200 feet down with a sickening thud as she hit the spikes and fell unconscious. Fortunately, the splash potion broke when she hit. She pulled herself off the spikes and pulled out another potion of healing.

Giants and wraiths.

Gazlowe sighed at Cassidy and then heard a crunch from behind him. Cassidy’s fall had awakened the 6 giant zombies buried in the mounds of snow. The others quickly joined as the first Giant broke out of his icy slumber and approached the party. Cassidy downed the other potion and changed the damage on her whip to radiant. She hit one of the Zombies and discovered that the undead giants are vulnerable to radiant damage. A wraith flew up from the ground and another came out of the wall. The first wraith flew past Cassidy and Cassidy hit it.   A Giant Hit Cassidy. Gazlowe (still annoyed at Cassidy’s clumsiness) cast Greater Invisibility on Cassidy to protect her from being knocked out by the Giants. Bird and Juan charged in. Bird hit the giant, but the hit had no effect. Juan however struck one of the Giants with his lance twice and smote the creature, destroying it with radiant damage. Another Giant spewed poison at Bird, Juan, Gazlowe and Cassidy. Bird was destroyed and the others were only slightly hurt. Isabella lit her sword back up and charged directly under one of the Giants and swung wildly at his crotch.   Seften smiled again at his tactical advantage. He saw all the giants were in a straight line and he cast Firewall on them. One of the Wraiths shot a spell at Seften and hit him, but it didn’t affect his concentration on the firewall. Cassidy hit the other wrath and killed it causing it to explode. Everyone except Isabell evaded some of the damage. Gazlowe punched one of the Giants leaving him badly hurt. Another Giant hit Isabella a couple times and he tried to push her into the flames, but Isabella was just to strong and she resisted the undead Giant. Juan ran in with his sword and killed one of the Giants that was badly hurt and then turned and killed the one Isabella had critically wounded. Isabella yelled, “That was my kill!” and then went and struck another of the Giants and finished it off. Seften cast toll the dead on one of the Giants thinking it wouldn’t do much against an undead, but it clearly worked and the Giant grabbed his head in pain.

Rewards Granted

Treasure

Seften used 100gp worth of diamonds /diamond dust for Greater Restoration.

From the Ice Trolls

• 5 sets of winter clothing.