The Party captures Kalina, kills an ice dragon, finds the elemental egg, reunites its halves, saves the frozen arena, and takes a well-deserved long rest. The Party reaches Level 5, and gains many new magical items.
Previously: with the West Haven's arena coated in a thick layer of ice from the explosion of an elemental egg of ice, the Party ventures through an icy portal to a frozen mountaintop, in hopes of recovering the egg and capturing the sorceress who used it.
The icy spire
The portal we just walked through appears to be anchored to a tall icy spire on the shoulder of the mountain. It sits on a small clearing atop a ridgeline, no larger than a twenty-foot square. The ridgeline stretches for a hundred feet until it meets a sheer cliff face, where a cave mouth yawns.
Kalina, that vexsome sorceress, sprints from the cave, yelling, "Run!"
She is pursued by an ice gargoyle.
Round 1
Bugfood casts Fairy Fire on Kalina and the gargoyle.
Salris Eldritch Blasts Kalina and the Gargoyle.
The ice gargoyle — a small sort known as an ice mephit — sprints to Kalina and attacks her. She seems fine after being hit.
Tula advances to Kalina, does not attack her, and takes the Dodge action.
Ryltar casts Hold Person on Kalina. "Deal with the mephit," he tells the party.
Jerry moves next to the mephit and attacks it with her longhammer.
Vurguron advances to the side of the spire, and shoots at the mephit with his crossbow.
Round 2.
Bugfood casts Frostbite on the mephit, somewhat ineffectually.
Salris explodes the mephit with an Eldritch Blast, killing it and slashing Jerry and Kalina with ice shards.
Vurguron slowly enters the ice cave, but sees little.
Bugfood moves towards Kalina.
Salris ties Kalina's hands and legs together.Vanathar's Guide to Bondage.
Kalina breaks Ryltar's Hold Person, but is still bound.
"You have some explaining to do," Ryltar tells Kalina. He suggests the party explore the cave.
Kalina objects, claiming there's a dragon hiding in the cave. Jerry's natural proficiency with mountainous terrain and a high Survival roll lead her to believe that Kalina is telling the truth. This cave is the lair of an ice dragon.
Kalina claims that the ice was not her fault; she panicked. The mephit attacked her. She was just looking around inside the portal.
Vurguron confirms the dragon estimation, pointing out large dragon prints going into the cave.
So we return to the West Haven.
The frozen arena
We exit the portal into the frozen arena. Two performers are still there; they ask us what happened. Tula appears from the portal, carrying Kalina. Kalina exclaims that she didn't mean to cause this devastation. Ryltar rubs her nose in the fact that she was experimenting with unknown magic. Kalina's face pales.
"What did you mean to do?" asks Jerry.
"Where did you get the egg?" asks Ryltar.
"Someone in a tavern suggested I could use it." The character she describes was standing in shadow, taller than she was, dressed in all black. Kalina is somewhat in shock, it seems.
So we take her to Ren, her former tutor.
At the south gate
Since we last saw Ren at the South Gate, we go there. Jerry asks the captain of the guard, who says that Ren was last seen heading towards the arena.
We go back towards the Arena. Ryltar casts Message, and the messenger finds Ren. We meet up with him.
Ren asks Kalina why. She repeats the "I didn't mean to!" refrain.
Where is the egg now?
Kalina says she left the egg in the dragon's den, a few steps in, but then she saw the mephit and fled.
Bugfood knows a lot about portals, it turns out. The one in the center of the arena is perpetuating itself. The ice dome signals the presence of the portal.
Ren casts Detect Thoughts.
We discuss taking a rest in the arena.
Tula wants to go kill the dragon now.
We take a short rest instead. Ryltar uses the Pearl of Power he won in the Might of the Magus competition to regain a second-level spell slot.
Salris and Ryltar go off to a side room, because Salris wanted to talk to Ryltar about something. Salris pulls out the pot of ashes, and explains. "This is Thalia."
"What did you do," asks Ryltar, aghast.
"I didn't do it. She did it." And so Salris explains everything to Ryltar.
Ryltar says that the same goal could have been achieved with many powerful mages; it need not have required her life.
Outside, Ren and Majorie talk with the party. Bugfood suggests to Ren that Ren work with a blacksmit to make ice skates. They would make for an exciting new sport for this icy arena.
Ren isn't really paying attention. He's chanting the mantra "Did I miss anything?" as if it were a prayer, trying to recall something. Bugfood asks what that thing might be, wondering if it could be used for winter sports. Ren ignores him, makes eye contact with Majorie.
Jerry makes eye contact with Majorie.
Ryltar asks what can be done with the halves of the egg, once it's retrieved. Can it be mended?
Ren suggests it would be best to gather powerful mages in order to get the egg back.
Ryltar's magic is generally ice-based, so Jerry gives him 4 torches, a tinderbox, and a couple oil flasks. He can be a ranged fire weapon, with time and luck.
Ren feels the same time pressure that Tula does. There's a limit on how long the frozen can remain frozen before they can be revived.
Jerry asks how the party could defeat the ice dragon. Ren reommends fire. He says he could help Tula, Jerry, and Vurguron with attack, with Haste.Choose a willing creature you can see. Its speed is doubled, it gains a +2 bonus to AC, it has advantage on Dexterity saves, and it gains an additional action on each of its turns. The action can be used to attack (one weapon attack only), dash, disengage, hide, or use an object. When the spell ends, the target can't move or take actions until the end of its next turn. But it's most effective if it's only applied to Jerry.
And then we enter the portal, and return to the icy peak.
Against the ice dragon
The area from the pencil line to the edge of the cave is difficult terrain in the form of snowdrifts. Jerry is not slowed by the snowdrifts, as the cave counts as her specialization terrain: mountains. The cave has several spires around the edges, forming tall icy spikes that push through the cave ceiling. And at the far end is a ledge set in the wall, like a giant bed. The cave is well lit, as sunlight filters through the blue ice walls.
Three frozen figures are marked on the map: a humanoid with a halbard, a female humanoid with robes, and the lower half of a humanoid.
Jerry sprints through the cave, heading from the entrance in the northeast corner south past the frozen halberd humanoid and then east past the frozen legs, looking for the elemental egg and not finding it. She comes upon the dragon, which is standing behind the central plateau, just east of it.
"Food has wandered into my cave once more," drawls the dragon.
Jerry pauses her sprint. She doesn't see any sign of the egg. She bows to the dragon, saying, "I did not mean to intrude."
"Food is always welcome."
"I'm not tasty."
The dragon breathes its icy breath on Jerry, knocking her down to 1 HP. Then it spreads its wings and flies to the podium in the center of the cave.
Vurguron charges into the room, yelling in Draconic, "Who are you!?" Remember that Vurguron's line is that of a gold dragon.
Bugfood enters the cave, in form of a bear. He Dashes to the opposite side of the ice pillar from Jerry, to the northeast of the central pedestal and east of the second humanoid in the cave.
Salris, who has cast Detect Magic as a ritual, sees a faint aura of magic around the icy figures. He calls to Ryltar that the figures are bound with transmutation and evocation magic.
Jerry continues her search of the cave, and casts Hunter's Mark on the dragon.
Ryltar runs to the second frozen figure, and from her frozen grasp pries a Wand of Magic Missile. He shoots it at the dragon for 13 force damage.
The round in progress
Salris puts his Hexblade's Curse upon the dragon, then hits it with a Eldritch Blast.
The dragon steps off the pillar and lands on the west side of the cave, south of Vurguron, Salris, Tula, and the halberd-carrying frozen figure. The dragon's icy breath takes them all. Tula is down; Vurguron reacts with Absorb Elements.Absorb Elements: The spell captures some of the incoming energy, lessening its effect on you and storing it for your next melee attack. You have resistance to the triggering damage type until the start of your next turn. Also, the first time you hit with a melee attack on your next turn, the target takes an extra 1d6 damage of the triggering type, and the spell ends. Salris falls to 7 HP. Then the dragon flaps to the top of the plateau. It's only 10 feet high.
Vurguron climbs the plateau and uses his firey breath weapon to attack the dragon and melt the ice and snow around it.
Bugfood, still in bear form, runs around the far side of the plateau, trying to smell the pillar. He does not smell anything.
Tula passes her first death save.
The next round: the dragon is severely wounded.
Jerry sprints over to the halberd-carrying icicle and yoinks its halberd, then climbs the pillar to stab the dragon in the butt with a flanking advantage. The halberd's grip is scaly like snakeskin, with an ornately carved shaft and head.
Ryltar burns five charges of the wand for a fifth-level Magic Missile, knocking the dragon's health down by a quarter.
Salris casts Shatter on the dragon, positioning it carefully so as not to hit Vurguron or Jerry. The floor and dragon are damaged, but not the ceiling.
The dragon chokes on its own breath weapon, and angrily turns to Vurguron, clawing him twice, then biting Jerry. Jerry, with one HP, survives the attack because of her own Relentless Endurance.When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
Vurguron swings his longsword at the dragon, but misses.
Bugfood the bear goes to investigate a shelf in the far side of the cavern. He smells the egg, somewhere in the southeastern corner of the cave where an ice wall has shut off access to part of the cave. It's near the wall, somewhere.
Tula fails a death save.
The third-ish round:
Jerry critically hits the dragon. With her Savage AttackerWhen you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit. she deals 37+12 to the dragon, and then runs away to the ice wall. The wall is not as thick as nearby walls. Something shiny glints beyond the wall.
Ryltar, whose wand of Magic Missile is out of charges, and whose primary magics are all ice-based, casts Mind Spike on the dragon, for halved psychic damage of 5.
Salris Shatters the dragon again, killing it. He makes pistol-fingers at it as it collapses into a pile of icy shards. The Hexblade's Curse heals him for 9 HP.
Vurguron runs to Tula and stabilizes her.
Bugfood the Bear looks at the icy wall, which Jerry is trying to punch through. Bugfood knows that the egg is on this side of the wall, because he can smell it. He sniffs around some more and finds half the egg, which he tosses to Ryltar.
Salris, Vurguron, and Jerry succeed in cracking the wall, and after five minutes' more work, the ice wall is open enough to get through.
Working together, Ryltar and Bugfood find the second half of the egg. Bugfood then uses Balm of the Summer Court to heal and revive Tula, who uses some Lay on Hands on herself.
In the chamber hidden behind the ice wall is a veritable horde of gold and treasure, frozen beneath the icy floor. Vurguron and Salris melt the ice, and the party spends some time collecting the loot. Jerry acquires 2712 gold in coins, plus 7 gems worth 100 gold apiece, and a potion of healing.
Salris discovers that there's more magic in the frozen bodies. In fact, there's one magic item in each body. He goes first to the frozen female humanoid, who held the wand that Ryltar now carries. He finds 22 gold, which is added to the party funds, a spell scroll of Spare the Dying, and a potion of Climb.
The body that bore Jerry's halberd carries a potion of healing, which he pockets for his own use. There's a green metal key, which he also pockets. The frozen body wears an intact set of splint mail, which Vurguron dons, and 81 gold for the party fund.
The remaining frozen figure is only intact from the waist down, but Salris finds there a scabbard with some sort of conjuration magic that would fit a greatsword, and Eskimo-style boots of abjuration.
Jerry scrapes together the bits of the dragon she can find intact, for sale later.
On our way out of the cave, Salris notices a glint in the ice next to the cave entrance. There's a rope set in eyes leading down the cliff face. And at the top of the rope is a small leather mask set in the ice, black with slitted eyes and an abjuration effect.
And then we leave the portal.
Mending the egg
Ryltar carries the egg halves. Though he tries to push them together, they repel each other.
When we exit the portal, Ren and Majorie are waiting for us, and the other performers too. Majorie takes one look at her mother's horrifically damaged state (Jerry is still at one HP) and is extremely dismayed to see it. Majorie has found a heavy crossbow.
Salris and Ryltar investigate the egg. Everyone watches. Ren says that the halves of the egg need to be pushed together at the same time the egg is infused with "the catalyst." He probably knows that the catalyst Salris carries is Thalia's ashes, but he doesn't remark upon it at this time.
So Tula squeezes the egg haves together. Salris casts magic at the egg, and Ryltar joins in as well. Bugfood does … something. Jerry pushes the egg opposite Tula. And the egg still does not squeeze together.
Ryltar burns his feather, wishing to save all these people. The feather turns into a sphere of white, which floats to the space between the egg halves and stays there.
With Jerry and Tula pushing opposite each other, Vurguron can't really help push the halves of the egg together directly — there's not enough room on the egg. So he moves behind Jerry and pushes her, and Bugfood the bear pushes from behind Tula.
Salris charms the egg with a 24 Charisma roll, but even though he can see it's filling with magic, he can see with his mage sight that it's not magically here yet. The magic has taken the form of concentric rotating bands, like wheels within wheels from nested gyroscopes, which aren't aligned.
It's a constant battle to push the egg halves together. And though the halves of the egg have finally touched, they're still repelled from each other, and are fighting back.
Ryltar casts Shield to protect the egg, and Mend to keep it together.
The group pushing the egg together succeeds another contested strength check.
Ryltar pours a healing potion on the egg. It reddens.
Tula uses her Lay on Hands on the egg, and its color changes to a yellow-white glow.
Bugfood uses Balm of the Summer Court and a green halo forms around the egg before being absorbed.
Salris introduces the ashes. They settle on the egg, coating it in a dull grey energy. From under the grey shines a warmth and red light.
With his remaining 4 spell slots, Ryltar casts Mend. And Ren casts a similar shielding/mending spell, pouring his own energy into the egg.
Finally, the egg is whole.
Using the egg
Ryltar now holds the egg. He tries to evoke its power, but it's like jumpstarting an ornery lawnmower. He holds the egg above his head and tries to crack it against the ground. It falls with a thud and remains uncracked.
Salris similarly tries to spike the egg. A tiny wave of magic is emitted. Very smol.
Tula Channels Divinity and smashes the egg into the ground. The egg emits an initial wave of yellow aura, expanding over the arena, bringing hearty good feelings to everyone, and 3 HP.
Then an orange burst of warmth, which banishes the chill of the ice coating the arena.
Then another orange burst, and the ice in the center of the arena melts. The portal closes.
A third orange burst, and the area of melt begins to spread across the arena. The crowds thaw, continuing their last actions: cheering. As each person thaws, they are confused by the sudden change in the arena, and the wave of cheers is followed by waves of confusion.
Ryltar jumps up to the casters' podium in the center of the arena, and with a quick spell amplifies his voice. Ryltar explains to the crowd that they had been frozen by a magical attack. As he explains this, captain of the guard Jalar, Magistrate Andraste, and a pack of guards push through the growing crowd on the floor of the arena to near the podium. Ryltar continues speaking, telling how the party dove through the portal, retrieved the egg, and repair the egg with healing and warmth. The egg is gone.
Salris joins Ryltar on the podium, telling how each party member contributed, including Ren.
Jerry steps up, and tells the crowd: The competition is cancelled. Go home to your friends and family. The Haven Council will have more to say at a later time. (She's bluffing, but no one will call her on it.)
The crowd replies with scattered clapping, and a gradual move towards the exits.
As we step off the podium, Ren asks to speak with us later. We say that we should go to bed, and make our way back to the Forest Floor.
The Forest Floor
Ryltar and Salris sit at the bar, and order wine from the female elf who's standing in for Fenross tonight. Salris tells Ryltar that he doesn't expect to survive the next day. They drink to victory.
Salris still has that magical fleck of something in his hand, exerting a kind of pressure. He looks at it: it's a symbol of a teardrop, or maybe a drop of blood, or a flicker of flame. He meditates on that pressure, and he tries to contact that creature that contacted him years ago. He extends his focus to it, and what comes back is … the impression of stone.
Jerry sits in front of the fire, warming herself. She attunes to the halberd: it is named "Slayer of the Unnatural" and has several magical qualities.
Salris's green metal key is the Mystery Key, which has a 5% chance of unlocking any lock, but it's a single-use item. The party decides that the Boots of the Winterlands would go to Salris as well.
Tula's greatsword is the only sword in the party that will fit the scabbard we picked up. Tooling on the scabbard names it "The Road Less Traveled." The scabbard makes the sword drawn from it magical, and grants the use of Misty Step once per day.
Ryltar's mask appears to be an item specifically crafted for drow, removing the effects of sunlight. The leather is tooled in patterns reminiscent of spider eyes.
After a long night's rest, the Party levels up to level 5.
Next session
It is the solstice.
New questions:
Who gave Kalina the egg?
There were no drow in the ice cave, so why was there a magic item for a drow there? Where did the rope lead down to?
Things to do next session:
pay off the rest of the weregild: 1750 gold
speak with Ren
follow up about Kalina, and the figure that gave her the egg.
The party's take from this session:
2739 gold, of which we'll be giving 1750 to the Woven Council. 989 gold is split 5 ways for the gold-users in the Party.
7 gems worth 100 gold each, 2 of which are given to Bugfood and the rest kept for the Party.
