Averlorn Campaign - G2 The Death of Jarl Grugnar and Epilogue

Recap from 9/2/2011

So now that we had secured another way into the second level of the lair of the Frost Giant Jarl we pondered our next move.  It was decided to go in through the dragon’s cave since the giants were not aware that we had killed their two pets and had another way in.  Once in, we made it through the second floor entry hall and into the lair where we encountered two more giants guarding the entrance and managed to kill them before they could sound the alarm.  Once through that room we had another tough fight in the room beyond against four more Frost Giants and once again got beat up pretty badly once we lost the element of surprise and they summoned help. 

So at this point we realized that there were still a large number of Frost Giants defending the lair, and that it would be a tough fight to carve our way through them to get to their leader if we just went in the front door.  So instead, we decided to use stealth to locate the Jarl’s quarters and cut off the head of the snake so to speak rather than attempting another frontal assault which had been so brutal in the past.  One of the Elves cast Invisibility on our assassin Evie and then she drank a Potion of Gaseous form and she turned into an invisible mist and went in to try to locate the King’s quarters.  Being both invisible and in gaseous form she was nearly immune to detection by normal means. 

She explored through the throne room and noted the guards and then went into the areas beyond that and found what looked to be a trophy room of sorts hung with all kinds of stuffed big game animal heads with various items, weapons and armor hanging on the walls and displayed about the room.  Off of that room she noticed on the left that another passage led into what appeared to be the Frost Giant noble’s quarters and it was full of a large number of sleeping or off duty giants (15-20 or so).  She considered briefly trying to sneak through them to see if it connected up with the other passages where we had been before, but thought better of it after remembering her experience of attempting to sneak through the twenty or so giants in the barracks where one of them spotted her invisible form or the faint dagger light from her only light source.  So instead she went through the passage at the end of the cavern which led into the Jarl’s quarters.

And there was Jarl Grugnar and his queen in bed asleep with a giant hell hound below the bed which was uneasy and had possibly detected her presence.  She hastened back to the group and we debated what to do.  Lucias wanted to continue with the frontal assault so that we could thoroughly loot the place despite the large amount of treasure we had already found, but in the end the group decided to use one of the wishes on the ring of three wishes to wish the entire party into the lair of the sleeping giant King Jarl, his Queen and their hell hound pet and cut off the head of the snake without having to take on the rest of the giants which would have taken some time and considerable effort and could have led to more casualties.  In the end it was probably the right call as we were weary of going toe to toe with Frost giants and getting mauled just about every session by them.

So Evie used the Wish of the ring and the group appeared before the trio and it was over very fast.  Jarl Grugnar lie dead in his own bed along with his beloved queen and his faithful pet was no more as well.  At this point we did what we could to loot the place without being detected by the other giants in the noble’s quarters beyond.  We also found an exit passageway which was Jarl’s secret escape route out of the place so we had a way out that didn’t involve going back through the lair and the rift.  Within the Jarl’s quarters in a chest we found the magical tome that we had been hired to acquire by the Surgeon’s Guild along with more treasure.  Once his quarters had been thoroughly looted we stared looting the trophy room and found quite a few magic items but when we took a magical shield off of the wall the Shedu head hung on the wall started screaming “Intruders!!! Alarm!!! Intruders!!!” so we grabbed everything that we could and beat a hasty retreat out of the secret escape passage.

So once back to the ice cave we awaited our dragon ships to come pick us up along with the considerable hoard of wealth and magic items that we had amassed there mostly from the dragon’s hoard and the Jarl’s quarters and trophy room.  We made it back to Medea’s Gate and beyond and looked to our domains during the winter period – Lucias had been named level for a while and had a domain but had yet to start building a keep due to a lack of funds.  That was no longer a problem so he busied himself with clearing the land around the town of Cool Rock Springs and the old Hill Fort of Dunweilding north of Ptoleph of monsters so that he could build his keep and fortify the town.  Quite a few of the others also made it to named level and were granted domains as well and they were busy with affairs of state as well.  The Elves Asclepius and Teth-en-Aire were both granted domains by their Elven peers along with Kaira the cleric and Taleth the Ranger.  Evie the Assassin began working on her underworld syndicate as well.

During this time we were contacted by the nobles of Medea’s Gate to undertake a task for them to help secure their domains from the threat of further Giant raids.  Among the treasure that we found in Jarl’s lair was a map that led to the Hall of the Fire Giant King located in a volcanic mountain range not too far from where the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl was located to the southwest.  The Lords of Medea’s Gate wanted us to assault the Fire Giant Hall as well and discover who or what force was behind the giant’s uprising.  For some reason, Hill Giants, Frost Giants and Fire Giants had all united under a common banner to plague their holdings nearby by raiding human and demi human lands in the area.  This was almost unheard of as most of giant kind is usually more concerned with their own affairs and domains to unite under a common banner of cooperation like this so it was surmised that there must have been some unknown force behind the uprising.  So once everyone’s domains had been seen to, and everything was in order, the group began to provision and prepare for another foray into the mountains to assault G3 The Hall of the Fire Giant King!

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign - G2 The Rift Floor and a Tale of Two Dragons

Recap from 9/9/2011

After getting continuously pummeled in previous sessions by giants and other denizens of the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl (and by Frost Giants and Ogre Magi in the previous session) using the direct approach (a.k.a. a frontal assault) we decided to hit the Jarl’s complex from a different direction in order to have a less predictable pattern and hopefully catch the giants off guard.  So the plan was to attempt to take out the Winter Wolves guarding the floor of the glacial rift and go into the complex from that direction this time if we could find another entrance since we hadn’t successfully done that before or explored the rift floor at all.

During the first session adventuring in this module, the group went down to the rift floor straight away but had to retreat from seven Winter Wolves after the wolves won initiative and hit us with their breath weapons simultaneously in the first round.  Several of the lower level characters or henchmen were nearly killed so we had to fall back and hadn’t returned that way because of the danger posed by the wolves.  So we surmised the best way to take out the wolves was to have Asclepius fly over them and hit them with fireballs from the air where he was out of range of their breath weapons.  The spotters called in the air strike with the coordinates for our Smelf bomber to make his run with precision guided munitions (in this case a necklace of fireballs).  The Elf cast fly and took off for the glacial rift from just outside the entrance. 

Asclepius spotted the evil Winter Wolves roughly in the same location where we fought them before – right at the bottom of the cliffside pathway that led to the rift floor down from the ledge on the right side of the entrance to the glacial rift.  He used one of the larger fireballs from the necklace first followed by yelps of pain from the wolves and then hit them with two of the smaller fireballs from the necklace and the wolves were all destroyed.  While he had his spell going, he did a low level circuit of the rift floor and noticed a few things.  First, there was a very large ice mound at the far end of the rift not too far away from where we were trapped in the cave occupied by the three Fire Giants previously.  Next, he noticed a large sheet of ice beyond the mound which looked like it might be covering an opening in the snowy rift floor (a sink hole or something).  He also noticed some odd snow closer to the entrance on the left side in a couple of places as he flew over but couldn’t figure out from that height why it looked strange so he went in for a closer look.

He landed about where the winter wolves were killed and did a circuit on foot around the perimeter of the rift floor to get a better look at things.  There was a lot of swirling snow and ice which obstructed vision beyond 30’ in front of him but once he was on the ground he got a better look at the ice sheet and the dome but didn’t investigate them further.  As he followed the perimeter, he eventually made it to the two odd patches of snow and noticed something peculiar – the snow was moving or shifting in some way.  It was apparent that there was something living in those patches so he avoided them and reported back to the group.  With the way to the floor now clear of Winter Wolves, the group descended down the path off of the right hand ledge to investigate the mound.

When the ranger Taleth approached it, he immediately noticed that it appeared to be a lair of some sort.  Upon further examination, he thought it might be the lair of a Remorhaz – a great ice wyrm!  This was interesting indeed and if that was the case it was quite a dangerous creature.  There appeared to be an entrance on one side of the mound so, knowing there was a predator about, Asclepius cast invisibility on himself and flew in without touching the walls or walking on the snow of the floor of the ice cave (his fly spell was still running at this point).  He was concerned about causing vibrations that the creature could detect since he knew it was probably lurking under the snow nearby somewhere so he didn’t want to touch anything unless he had to.  Further into the lair, he noticed a frost covered human skeleton lying in the snow and ice.  On the skeleton’s finger was a rune covered ring and in his bony hand it grasped a very finely made rune covered long sword! 

Assuming these items were magical or at least very valuable, he slipped the ring gently off of the bony finger and put it in his pocket then pried the sword out of the skeleton’s bony rigid hand.  As soon as he pried the sword out of the dead adventurer’s hand (which took some effort and caused the skeleton to vibrate slightly) the Remorhaz struck and snapped at the invisible elf having detected his location at its trapped treasure trove from the vibrations of the skeleton!  The elf was bitten and hurt badly but not killed and he flew out of the cave as fast as he could with the icy beast in hot pursuit!  Asclepius succeeded in drawing the beast out of its lair and out into the open, like a mouse successfully snatching the cheese out of a mouse trap! 

The other two elves and the wizard Ferris attacked the creature with a barrage of magic missiles hurting it badly.  Then the dwarf fighter Beorn boldly stepped forward and slew the mighty beast with his magical broadsword in one powerful blow!  The sword hissed a bit from the heat of the creature but since it held a powerful enchantment it escaped any damage from the extreme temperatures issuing from the creature's back.  Remorhaz can generate extreme heat on their bodies and backs in particular to melt snow quickly to attack prey from below snow and ice.  As the great ice wyrm convulsed in its death spasms, the heat melted a sinkhole into the icy floor and the slain creature gradually sank from view to its final resting place.

So having defeated the Remorhaz, we decided it was best to leave the “moving snow” alone (it was obviously some kind of creature) and decided to explore the ice sheet at the back of the glacial rift to see if it might actually be covering up a sink hole that was another entrance into the lair of the Frost Giant Jarl.  When we approached the ice sheet for a closer look, it did indeed appeared to be a giant ice covered sink hole in the rift floor and another way into the cave complex!  So Evelyn the Assassin set to work cutting a hole in the ice sheet as quietly and gingerly as she could so as to not give away our presence having been trained in the arts of elicit entry.  Once she cut a hole in the ice sheet that was large enough to slip through (being careful to remove the ice as she cut it rather than letting it slip into the sink hole) we peered down into an eerily dark and quiet cave below.

We decided to send her in for a closer look and one of the Elves cast invisibility on her so she would not be easily detected by any occupants of the cave.  We lowered a rope down and she climbed down to the cave far below.  She was gone for quite some time but eventually returned to the surface on the rope.  When she returned, she verified that this was indeed the same cave that she had scouted out before during the session when the Frost Giants had ambushed us on the ledge and we had entered the second level for the first time.

Previously, she entered that cavern while invisible when she and Lucias scouted out the second level while both were invisible.  She determined at that time that she was pretty sure there was a dragon or some other very large lizard or beast in the cave since she could hear its breathing but hadn’t actually seen it.  When she emerged she confirmed that, it wasn’t a single dragon but in fact was two very large and very old white dragons!  One was on a ledge above the cavern floor and the other was cleverly situated behind a large rock pillar so as to be unnoticed if someone were to enter the cave from the opening into the cavern that she had scouted out before. 

So we set about formulating a plan.  We decided that just entering the cave down the rope and attacking from there was far too risky since we would be strung out as we entered and if we were attacked while entering, we could easily be picked off by the dragons one at a time on the rope since they could fly and hit us with their breath weapons or their claw and bite attacks.  We also didn’t really have any defenses against their cold breath attack so any kind of frontal assault was ruled out.  We surmised that our best course of action would be for the Wizard and the Elves to hit them with a number of fireballs and lightning bolts at range if we could lure them out somehow.

We started discussing ideas of how best to do this when Ferris mentioned that he had memorized Resilient Sphere - a 4^th level Unearthed Arcana forgotten lore spell he had learned.  This spell is usually used to trap an opponent inside a sphere of force and only a few very powerful spells or a dispel magic can destroy the force shield of the sphere to let someone out.  The result is that those inside the sphere are impervious to damage from the outside and vice versa.  So our plan was to cast resilient sphere on three willing recipients to act as bait and draw the dragons out so the arcane casters could blast the dragons with fireballs and lightning bolts.  The bait consisted of Lucias the human fighter, Beorn the Bahkshanni dwarf fighter and Taleth the Human Ranger who would then drop down into the cave inside of the sphere once the spell was cast.  To make it easier to control the sphere from the inside, Lucias quaffed a potion of flying that he had had for quite some time so that they could move fairly easily and prevent a hard landing on the cave floor below.  The spell is kind of like a hamster ball in that you can push the sphere from the inside or out to move it without damaging the force shield.

So the three of them climbed down the rope just past the hole cut by Evelyn, and Ferris cast his Resilient Sphere spell and they were contained within the force sphere.  They let go of the rope and Lucias flew the sphere down to the cave floor where they landed softly like a beach ball landing in the sand.  Immediately, the dragons noticed the movement and flew over to investigate.  The three fighters began taunting the fell creatures and gesticulating wildly in order to draw them closer.  The two dragons let fly with their icy breath weapons but the frosty breath harmlessly enveloped and went around the sphere to the area beyond.  When the dragons saw that their prey was still quite intact and unharmed, the fighters within began taunting them with renewed vigor – the Bahkshanni dwarf in particular (being the crude mountain dwarf barbarian that he was) even went so far as to drop his trousers and taunt them with his exposed buttocks!  (Shades of Brave heart!)  At this point the dragons were infuriated and charged the three to attack!

The arcane casters above, seeing that their opportunity was at hand, let fly with two 6-7 die lightning bolts and two similarly sized fireballs which also harmlessly enveloped the force sphere but absolutely decimated the two dragons!  The force was so great that there wasn’t much left aside from smoking and charred bones, dragon parts, and steam and melted ice at the bottom of the cave.  The rest of the group climbed down into the cave and Ferris dispelled the sphere and we set out exploring the cavernous dragon’s lair.  Again, it was a two tiered cave with only one exit aside from the one we had come in – that was the stone blocked tunnel that Evie had investigated previously that led to the lair of the Frost Giant Jarl.  So we set about collecting the massive amount of loot in two separate hoards from each dragon and gradually ferried it back to our ice cave hideout some distance away from the glacial rift with the aid of fly and polymorph self spells (Teth-en-Aire polymorphed himself into a White Dragon so he could both fly and carry more treasure).

When we returned to our ice cave hideout, we spent a day or two to identify the magic items that we found in the Remhorhaz' lair and the dragon’s hoard.  It was quite a haul of treasure and items but the real surprise was discovering what the two magic items from the Remorhaz’ lair were – one was a +2 Giant Slaying longsword and the other was a Ring of Three Wishes!  We were undecided as to how to best use the Ring of Three Wishes so we just kept it in the bag of holding for the time being, but we gave the +2 Giant Slayer to the Ranger Taleth and he gave his other enchanted sword (which was also +2 and +3 against giants) to his Elven fighter henchman Bellinorn.  So once this was taken care of, we pondered our next move to return to the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl and assault the lair one final time!

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: G2 Into the Lair of the Frost Giant Jarl

Recap from 8/26/2011

Once the group had returned to the city of Medea’s Gate, we took a week off for a nice long rest and sold some of our treasure and exchanged the rest for more portable gems.  Then we saw to our provisions and more importantly, bought every healing potion we could find in town since we were going through them like water fighting against the giants.  Once we were ready, we boarded the airships again and returned to the snow capped mountains for a follow-up raid on the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl in order to complete our mission – to return the magical tome to its rightful owners in the Surgeon’s Guild.  When we arrived, the ranger led us to our ice cave hideout and base where we spent the night and prepared for our next raid.  The following morning, we left for the Rift of the Frost Giants once again.

Rather than risking another ambush on the ice ledges on either side of the entrance to the rift, we decided to use our knowledge of the place from our previous forays to our advantage.  Asclepius cast his fly spell on himself and he proceeded to ferry us one by one through the air over the rift floor to the ledge outside of the cave where we fought the Fire Giants previously.  We decided to go in from this ledge because it was a place that our opponents wouldn’t be expecting us to enter since it bypassed the primary entrances on either side.  Once we were all on the ledge we went in to the former den of the Fire Giants and found it to be completely empty – even the bodies of the three dead giants were gone.  Gone as well was the Wall of Stone that Teth-en-Aire had cast over the entrance to keep the Frost Giants out.  Apparently, the Frost Giants had been busy cleaning the place up during the week that we were gone.  At this point things were going as planned since we managed to gain entrance to the complex without raising the alarm.

We went into the hallway towards the guard cave where we had been ambushed previously and immediately started getting hit in the hallway again by boulders from the guard post.  Rather than hesitating or trying to take cover, Lucias, Taleth and Bellinorn charged the two Frost Giants in the room to put a stop to their dangerous missile throwing as quickly as possible.  These same giants, or others like them, had hurt us badly with thrown boulders from this location on a previous foray so we were determined to close with them as quickly as possible so they couldn’t do that again.  Once the fighters engaged them in melee with the rest of the group backing them up, they went down pretty quickly without raising the alarm.  The group continued past the guard room down the hallway to the passage that turned to the right and started sloping down. 

We descended the sloping passage cautiously to the second level for quite some time as it twisted and turned, and without a dwarf in the group, we had no idea where we were in relation to the rift and the other caves above relative to our current location.  The large cavern at the bottom was empty and eerily quiet.  This is the chamber we had visited once before while Lucias and Evelyn the assassin were invisible but there were two guards present at that time.  She had scouted it out a bit and there was a passage on the left blocked by a very large boulder that she had squirmed through into the cavern beyond.  There she felt the presence of and most definitely smelled what she was pretty sure was a large dragon in the cavern somewhere guarding its lair no doubt.  Because she was invisible she slipped back into the passage without alerting it to her presence.  So we knew what was behind the left hand passage and decided to leave it alone for now (let sleeping dragons lie says I).

On the walls of the cavern were several intricate bas relief carvings of hunting scenes and scenes of dragons fighting monsters of all sorts.  Also, the place was lit up with caged fire beetles set into sconces on the walls giving it an eery glow, but we were glad that it was illuminated for a change.  Evelyn had also explored further into this cavern on our previous visit and found a large group of ice toads in one of the caverns beyond the end of the large entry cavern.  We knew Ice Toads were dangerous foes since one had killed one of our henchmen on a previous trip through the Pass at Hell’s Peak near Herrari (see recap Day of the Ice Toad).  So rather than disturbing the Dragon or the Ice Toads we decided to search this cavern for secret doors to see if there was a hidden entrance that we had overlooked before.  On the right hand side of the cavern, one of the adventurers found another tunnel blocked by a large boulder similar to the one on the opposite side, except that this one was cleverly hidden to look like the natural wall of the cavern rather than an entrance to a passageway.

The strong fighters, including Teth-en-Aire the Elf with his Girdle of Giant Strength, shifted the boulder out of the way and we were immediately confronted by a pair of frost giant guards at the end of a narrow but long entry foyer cavern.  They were standing near a large bell (obviously an alarm) so we sprang into action to prevent them from sounding the alarm and alerting the complex to our presence.  Apparently, we had found the entrance to the Jarl’s underground lair!  The fighters rushed the one that was heading towards the alarm while the wizards and archers hit him with magic missiles and arrows.  Meanwhile, the rest of the group that was backing them up engaged the other guard.  After a fierce but brief melee, it was over and the giants were slain before they could sound the alarm.

At the opposite end of this space, the cavern narrowed down into a 20’ wide cavernous passage that we cautiously entered.  On the left was a passage leading into a room and on the right were three passages and the hallway kept going straight ahead past all of the side passages.  We turned into the left hand passage and came into a large cavern full of a large group of ogres that we managed to surprise!  There were around twenty of them and we let them have it with a fireball, a lightning bolt, several magic missiles, and some arrows while the fighters went in to mop up.  It was over pretty quickly but we made a lot more noise than we wanted to with the fireball and lightning bolt – it wasn’t really planned but more of a spontaneous attack and we weren’t really trying to stay quiet. 

As we turned our attention to searching the room for loot, four Frost Giant Guards showed up at each entrance (there were two entrances to the chamber that branched off of the entry corridor).  These giants started throwing rocks at us and we quickly turned our attention to them but were caught off guard by this counterattack.  When the fighters engaged the giants, it prevented the wizard and elves from being able to launch any more of the heavy firepower spells at them to take them out quickly and it quickly turned into a desperate struggle.

To make matters worse, two Ogre Magi appeared from being invisible behind the giants, one in each entry passage, and they both cast Cone of Cold spells on most of the group hurting us badly!  While we were reeling from this attack, we finally managed to take out a couple of the giants and the wizard and Elves killed the Ogre Magi on the right side with magic missiles and arrows before he could disappear again in the next round.  During the next round we managed to take down the last of the giants on the left side but the other Ogre Magi turned invisible and was nowhere to be seen.

Cyrcla cast Invisibility on herself and stepped out into the hallway to search for more invisible opponents – she still had a fireball left and was itching for some payback.  Meanwhile, we were badly hurt at this point and Kaira started casting curative spells on some of the wounded group members.  That’s when the other Ogre Magi turned visible again and threw a fireball at the group that was all gathered around the cleric!  Not only did she lose her spell but we got hurt even worse.  Unfortunately for the Ogre Magi though, we now knew where he was and the wizard and elves hit him with magic missiles and arrows and finally killed him.

Lucias went over to his body to search it because he appeared to be their leader but then two Drow flew into the room and cast Charm Person on Lucias twice!  He made one saving throw but failed the other and started heading towards the rest of the group to slay them at the command of the evil Drow wizards!  Fortunately, Teth-en-Aire had a Dispel Magic spell on a scroll and cast it on him negating the Charm Person spell which effectively ended the combat.  Cyrcla began casting a fireball at the dreaded flying Drow but they flew out of the room and down the hallway to the larger cavern outside to escape before we could target them and she stopped casting the spell before it went off.

So once again, we managed to stir up a Hornet’s nest and got badly hurt in the process by the denizens of the complex.  The odd thing was we were coming up against creatures that you wouldn’t expect to be in the lair of a Frost Giant leader.  It was obvious that something bigger was afoot in this place, especially with the appearance of the legendary and mysterious Drow that supposedly didn’t exist.  Later on, the GM told us (speaking as our NPC ally Teth-en-Aire the Elf) that Drow didn't really exist and that the two were most likely also Ogre Magi who used their polymorph self spell like ability to change themselves into Drow in order to scare us.  So maybe they weren’t Drow after all (or were they?).  We did manage to find some treasure and a Necklace of Fireballs on the Ogre Magi leader so it wasn’t a total loss but once again, we were pretty badly chewed up from the combat.  We decided on the next foray to hit them from an unexpected direction again to keep them off guard in order to avoid slipping into a predictable pattern.  So our next raid of the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl started off with a brainstorming session to figure out how to go about doing that.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: G2 A Narrow Escape and a Precipitous Ambush

Recap from 8/12/2011

The session started off with the group in a bit of a bind.  During the previous session, after the Frost Giants in the guardroom threw rocks at the frontline fighters from the hallway and beat them up so bad, we inadvertently blundered into the Fire Giant’s lair and were almost wiped out.  Fortunately, our Elven friend Teth-en-Aire acted quickly and pretty much saved the group from a TPK (total party kill) when he cast Wall of Stone off of a scroll to seal off the Frost Giants in the hallway so we only had to contend with the three Fire Giants.  They were tough but we eventually overcame them and found ourselves trapped in their lair with only one way out of the room which was off of the ledge and into the rift beyond.  We sorted through their belongings and gathered up their loot and then contemplated our escape.

Fortunately, Asclepius had memorized the Fly spell so he decided to reconnoiter our possible routes of escape.  First, he cast Invisibility on himself and then Fly and flew over to the ledge on the opposite side of the rift and explored the caves and tunnels over there for a bit.  He found them to be occupied by many Frost Giants and some Ice Toads.  After he reported this back to the group, we decided that that was probably not such a great way to escape, since we were so beat up and out of offensive spells and healing that we really didn’t want to have to fight anything else on the way out.  He also flew over the area where we had encountered the Winter Wolves to see if we could scale down to the rift floor and escape back up onto the lower ice ledge that led upwards, but they were still there guarding the access point.  So after he flew back we discussed it for a bit and decided that the best course of action would be to have the elf ferry over the others on his back while flying to the ledge we had travelled across before on the way in.  Soon enough, the whole group was safely on the other ledge past the barracks and we travelled back through that area and out of the rift to our hideout without any further encounters or problems.

Once we were all healed up and ready for action the next day we returned to the entrance to the rift and went down the right hand path as we had done on the previous two forays.  When we went past the caves where we had previously fought the Yetis and the Snow Leopards, one of the front line fighters set off some kind of a tripwire and we knew we were about to have company.  Appearing from the direction of the opposite end of the cliff in the direction of the barracks were four frost giants who began throwing rocks at us.  We were still bound together with rope at this point to traverse the slippery ice cliffs, and the front line fighters started getting pounded with boulders so we ducked into the cave were we had previously fought the snow leopards.  This afforded some cover from the barrage and we untied ourselves from the rope, but Taleth the ranger quickly realized it wouldn’t be a great place to stay for too long because all the giants would have to do would be to move one of the large boulders they used as doors for their hallways into the entry tunnel and seal us into the cave!

So, knowing we couldn’t stay there and that we needed to find a way to fight back, Lucias, Taleth and Bellinorn made a mighty yell and sallied forth from the cave to attack the giants on the ledge.  Despite the icy conditions, they found that as long as they didn’t run and hugged the icy wall on the right that they had little danger of slipping off of the ledge and into the chasm below.  Unfortunately, as they moved forward slowly and tenuously, the giants resumed their barrage and fell back as we approached and the fighters started getting beat up pretty badly from the missiles.  What this did do however, was allow the arcane spellcasters and others a chance to get out on the ledge and fire back at our attackers with spells and arrows.  So Teth-en-Aire, Cyrcla, Asclepius and Ferris started throwing lightning bolts, fireballs and magic missiles at the giants while the others fired arrows onto the other end of the ledge at the giants which pretty much took out the first group of four giants there.  They were quickly replaced by six more coming from the direction of the barracks after the alarm had been sounded, and they resumed the barrage and kept falling back before the fighters could close with them.

The fighters were almost dead at this point but the spellcasters and archers resumed their barrage and whittled our opponents down to two giants left standing when Kaira the cleric hit them with a nasty little surprise.  Kaira quaffed a potion of Polymorph Self and transformed herself into a small white dragon and Ferris the wizard cast his Enlarge spell on her as well and she suddenly swelled to the size of a large white dragon!  The giant beast quickly flew to the location of the last of the giants and fell on them rending them with her dragon maw and two claw attacks essentially finishing off the last of the ambushers!  Unfortunately, the fighters were hurt badly and we were pretty close to being out of healing and offensive spells again, but with the aid of our newfound dragon friend, we moved forward with the attack to press our advantage.

We went down the hallway off of the ledge past the wall of stone we had previously cast outside of the fire giant lair and towards the guardroom where we had been bombarded from so badly before by the four frost giants there.  Having learned our lesson about just sitting there and getting shelled, Lucias, Taleth and Bellinorn let out a battle cry and charged down the hallway right towards the guardroom with the white dragon leading the way!  We encountered two Frost Giants there who sounded the alarm but quickly fell under our onslaught.  We knew pressing on was probably a mistake since the alarm had been sounded and they were aware of our presence, but we wanted to do a little bit of scouting ahead to see if we could find the Jarl’s lair so we could recover the book we were sent to retrieve.  So the arcane casters cast invisibility on Lucias and Evelyn the assassin and the two scouted ahead and found a tunnel which turned sharply to the right and descended downwards!  So it appeared that we had found the way to the Jarl’s lair after three very difficult forays into the glacial rift of the frost giants!

The two cautiously followed the tunnel trying to be as quiet as possible with the assassin leading the way and moving silently.  When they got to the end of the hallway it opened up into a large chasm that was lit with cages containing fire beetles.  Standing on either side of the chasm were two frost giant guards – presumably, the other two from the guard room who had fallen back to defend their leader’s lair and sound the alarm to the rest of the complex.  So rather than stir up yet another hornet’s nest, we turned around and made our way back up the hallway to give the others the news.  Once they returned to the rest of the group, the group decided to fall back to our ice cave hideout to rest and recoup and decide what to do the next day.

After some discussion, we decided that our best course of action was to head back to the airship drop zone and signal them to pick us up so we could fall back to Medea’s Gate to rest, resupply and purchase more healing potions which we were now out of.  It had been three days since we arrived and the Surgeons said they would send a ship for us every three days until we had been picked up.  We had enough food to continue our assault but at this point, we were so beat up after the last three forays that it would have taken several days of healing just to heal up the group’s fighters to be ready to go back in again, and we were out of healing potions.  So we decided that the best course of action would be to head back to the city to recover and come back for another assault once we were ready.  We had enough information now that we had a pretty good idea of where the Jarl’s lair was located and about some of the other dangers and defenses of the place.  We also surmised that if we gave it a rest for a little bit, that they would probably let their guard down somewhat and it might be easier to go in again undetected this time, at least initially anyway.  So we loaded up the treasure onto the airships, including the massive mammoth tusks from the Yeti’s lair,  and returned to Medea’s Gate the next day.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: G2 The Frost Giant Barracks and an Exciting Cliffhanger

Recap from 7/29/2011

After resting up for the night, we set out the next day for the glacial rift of the Frost Giants.  Once again, we went in on the right cliffside up against the icy mountain and roped ourselves together to keep from falling over the edge into the rift floor far below.  We decided to skirt the sloping path down to the rift floor and continued along the main icy path until we came to more ice caves cut into the right side of the cliff.  We untied the ropes and decided to send the assassin in to scout ahead of the group.  One of the elves cast invisibility on Evelyn and Lucias lent her his magical dagger for light (magical daggers shed less light than magical swords and are better for sneaking around) and she went into the cave moving as silently as possible to look for any signs of trouble.  We waited at the entrance for some time until she came running out yelling that she was being pursued by lots of Frost Giants!  We found out later that she encountered a few frost giants, some of which were sleeping and then decided to keep going instead of turning back to warn us and found even more giants.  In Labyrinth Lord and B/X D&D high level monsters have a very small chance of spotting invisible opponents (like 5% per giant) but the more opponents you try to sneak through, the larger the chance of one of them eventually spotting the invisible character, and apparently, one of them got lucky and noticed her.

So the jig was up and multiple Frost Giants started coming at us up the hallways.  There was one large group of giants coming at us through the right hand passage and a couple on the left hand branch that eventually turned into another large group!  Apparently we had stirred up a hornets nest and inadvertently alerted the entire Frost Giant barracks and things were about to get very interesting.  While Lucias and Taleth fought to hold off the ones in the front, the arcane spellcasters in the back (three Elves and a Magic User) started throwing fireballs and lightning bolts on the large groups of giants coming out of both corridors behind the ones that were in the front battling the fighters.  To top that off, our cleric Kaira pulled out a scroll of Flame Strike and cast it on the group on the right and quite a few of them died or were badly burned by the magical attacks.  The burned giants kept coming and the fighters in front were cutting them down as fast as they came while the spellcasters kept up the fusillade of fireballs and started throwing magic missiles when their heavier firepower was exhausted. 

After an epic struggle, we eventually managed to cut down fourteen Frost Giants in that melee and only suffered relatively light casualties.  Kaira healed up the wounded fighters and we decided to search the barracks for loot.  We entered several caverns and found very little until we entered a large cavern with a crystal clear pool of water babbling in the corner.  One of the players spotted something shiny at the bottom and then we were attacked by a lone Frost Giant that we cut down without too much trouble.  We searched the pool and retrieved 200 low value shining gems worth 10 G.P. each.  After having searched the Barracks of the Frost Giants, we returned to the ledge and roped up to continue exploring the complex.  We were mostly out of offensive spells and had little healing left at this point but decided to press on anyway.

We continued down the icy ledge and had another close call with one of the characters slipping over who had to be hoisted back up with the rope.  The last cave on the ledge led to another tunnel into the icy mountainside.  The tunnel eventually branched and one branch led to a cavern with some runes written on the floor.  Taleth the Ranger knew how to speak giant and told us that it was a warning to the giants of some unknown danger and that they should avoid the place.  That was good enough for us and we went the other way.  We continued down the tunnel and quickly found ourselves confronted with another pair of frost giant guards that were throwing rocks at us from the cavern ahead.  Lucias, the Ranger and his hireling fighter Bellinorn the Sun Elf charged them and engaged them in melee while the spellcasters in the back cast what few magic missiles they had left on them, or fired missile weapons.  The two giants were quickly dispatched but we were starting to get pretty beat up at this point.

We continued down the hallway past this guard post and once again came under attack from a fusillade of boulders and both Lucias and Taleth were hurt badly this time.  The giants were so far away that they could see us with their infravision well enough to hurl stones but we couldn’t see them.  They shouted an alarm and charged down the hall towards us.  Since we were in bad shape at this point we decided to turn into a left hand branch of the tunnel to take cover from the barrage of boulders – this turned out to be a huge mistake!  Suddenly, we were confronted by three fire giants that attacked us from the left hand tunnel while the four giants on the right were charging at us up the other hallway! 

This quickly turned into a desperate situation as our two front line fighters were so badly beat up as to be useless in melee and we were under attack from two sides.  Teth-en-Aire, our Elven NPC ally, saved the day when he pulled out a scroll of Wall of Stone and cast the spell to seal off the right hand passage so that we would only have to fight one group of giants at a time.  Cyrcla the Elf cast invisibility on Lucias who only had a few hit points left at this point and he fell back to the newly created wall of stone to quaff a potion of Extra Healing.  Taleth also fell back to heal as best as he could while the rest of the group fought off the three very tough Fire Giants in a desperate struggle for survival.  They eventually killed them but only after several of the other characters were similarly beaten down including our other fighter Bellinorn and Teth-en-Aire who ended up fighting off the giants with the help of the others.

Once the fight was over, we realized that we were trapped in the cavern by our own wall of stone!  Since the Frost Giants to our rear had gone past the “Y” intersection into the passage we had just come from, Teth-en-Aire had to cast the spell on the entry to the Fire Giant cavern and effectively sealed us in.  After quaffing healing potions and using the last remaining healing that we had available, we explored our new accommodations.  The cavern held several large braziers that burned with fiery coals to keep the fire giants nice and warm and we also found a considerable sum of gold (9,000 g.p.) and a bear figurine with topaz eyes as well which appeared to be worth a great deal of gold.  We also found a thick and long rope in one of the giant’s bags.

As we searched the cavern further we realized that there was an exit but that it led out onto another icy ledge with no apparent way off of it except down or through the air.  We could see the ledge we had just come from not too far away to our left, but it was several hundred feet away and the rift floor appeared to be further down below than it was towards the entrance (in other words the rift floor was at a lower elevation here).  We also spotted other ledges on the opposite side of the rift as well that we hadn’t noticed before, that presumably led to other ice caverns on the opposite side of the rift.

In retrospect, we made several mistakes this session – the assassin pressed on into the barracks rather than falling back which ended up stirring up the hornets nest but the end result of that fight wasn’t so bad (we killed some 15 frost giants there and found some loot).  The real mistake was pressing on when we were mostly out of healing and arcane spells.  When we were assailed with the rocks, our third mistake was to turn into the Fire Giant’s lair rather than just falling back – that nearly wiped out the entire party.  The amazing thing was that we found a decent amount of loot and killed some seventeen Frost Giants and three fire giants and somehow managed to survive the session without anyone being killed.  All in all, it was a very exciting session as well due to the element of uncertainty and desperation.

We made a resolution to learn from our mistakes if we could only figure out a way out of our current predicament.  We knew the Frost Giants would be back and if they could manage to break through the wall and attack us in the Fire Giant cave we could be finished, so we had to find a way out through the rift or onto one of the other ledges before they could do that.  We ended the session there as a true cliffhanger as we contemplated our options and began to plan our escape…

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: Dungeon Module G2 The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Recap from 7/22/2011 (Part 2 of 2)

Taleth the Ranger led our adventuring party towards the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl through the deep snows of the Pillars of Defiance mountain range at the southern end of the Anvil.  It was easy for him to locate the way to the rift due to the many frost giant tracks left on the trail in the snow by the giants and other creatures moving to and from it with regularity.  When we arrived at the entrance it was really just a break in the snow capped peaks with a path leading to the left and a path leading to the right and a steep drop off down to the floor of the rift far below straight ahead which was obscured by wind driven snowy mists.  So we debated which way to go and went with the conventional wisdom that when confronted with such choices in a maze like labyrinth, that right is right and left is wrong.  So we went down the right hand path which was really just an icy ledge up against the sheer mountain and glacier wall on the right with the steep drop off to the rift floor on the left.  Since it was so slippery, we took the added precaution of roping ourselves together in the hopes that if someone fell over the edge that we could catch them and pull them back to the ledge with the ropes.

As we went further along the path, we eventually came to a cave mouth on the right and decided to explore it.  We untied the ropes and entered the cave and were surprised by a band of six Yetis!  A fierce melee ensued and several of our number were paralyzed with fear from the giant white ape like creatures including Lucias.  As we started cutting them down, another one attacked us from behind that was bigger than the rest and was wielding a glowing white sword.  After a brief but intense battle we eventually overcame all seven yetis and searched their lair.  In addition to the obviously magical sword, we found eleven huge ivory mammoth tusks hidden away in their cave which were worth a great deal of gold.  We pressed on and retied ourselves together to brave the icy ledge once again and again found another ice cave on the right face of the glacier and mountain. 

We entered this cave and found that it was filled with an icy mist mixed with steam that issued forth from a thermal fissure somewhere deep below the ground making it very hard to see.  It also made the floor very treacherous and slippery and we all had to fight to maintain our balance to keep from slipping and dropping our weapons and shields.  Unfortunately, Kaira slipped onto the icy floor and dropped her magical spear which tumbled across the slippery surface and into an icy chasm never to be seen again.  We decided to leave this room before we lost anything else and went back out onto the icy ledge where we roped up again and gave the newly found magical sword to Kaira to replace her lost weapon.  As we continued our march along the treacherous ledge, one of the adventurers slipped on the icy surface and nearly tumbled over the ledge to their death on the rift floor far below.  Fortunately, the rope saved that character’s life and he was quickly hoisted back up to the ledge by the rest of the group.

We continued along the ledge and noticed that there was what appeared to be a path/ledge leading down to the rift floor on our left in addition to the ledge that continued on straight ahead.  There was also another ice cave on our right that we decided to investigate.  As we entered the cave we were surprised by a pair of snow leopards that attacked us from their perch on a ledge above the room.  A quick but fierce melee ensued and the ice cats were quickly dispatched.  After this encounter, we decided to try the path to the left that led to the rift floor in the hopes of finding the entrance to the Frost Giant Jarl’s lair so we could retrieve the tome for the Surgeons of Hecate.  We went down the winding trail and eventually ended up on the rift floor below.  On the rift floor, vision was obscured and limited to 30’ due to the high winds and snow drifts that prevailed there on the snow and ice covered valley floor.

As we started forward we ran into what looked like a pack of seven white wolves.  We moved to engage them and then they breathed frost on us!  This caught us completely off guard since we thought they were just normal wolves.  They turned out to be Winter Wolves and hurt us badly since all seven of them had an icy breath weapon and most of the characters failed their saving throws.  During the second round of combat they breathed on us again and several of the lower level characters were nearly killed so we were forced to withdraw back up the icy ledge.  We threw some of our rations down to distract them as we made our getaway.  Had we realized how dangerous they were, we would have hit them with ranged attacks including fireballs but as it was, we were lucky to escape that encounter without any fatalities.  We eventually made it back to the safety of our ice cave hideout far away from the rift to rest and heal up our wounded comrades.  So we rested up and prepared for our next foray on the following day into the glacial rift.  The odd thing was, on our first outing, we didn’t encounter a single Frost Giant.  This was about to change however...

TO BE CONTINUED…

Averlorn Campaign: Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl Prologue and Background

Recap from 7/22/2011 Averlorn Session (Part 1 of 2)

After our second foray into the Halls of the Blind we took some time off for the winter for a much needed rest.  After we split up the loot from the foray, each of the group members went back to their city or town of origin to ride out the winter before the anvil was completely snowed in.  Beorn the Bahkshanni dwarf returned to the deep Dwarven halls hidden away in the mountains of the anvil.  Gradwin, Evelyn, Asclepius, Cyrcla, Taleth and Kaira returned to the city of Medea’s Gate where they were originally from while Teth-en-Aire and Lucias returned to the city of Ptoleph on the northern edge of the Anvil to winter over.  It was here that Lucias was granted lands and a title having finally attained named level (9^th level fighter).

Lucias was granted the title of Baron by the Duke of Ptoleph.  Previously, he had been granted the title of the Marquis of Stormcall Ridge in the Gorgon’s Trench for taking part in the events that ended up saving the region from being overrun by a horde of undead zombies (see previous recap The Midnight Opal of Shadar from the Barrow Mound of Gravemoor module by Expeditious Retreat Press).  The land was not worth very much except for the occasional turnip farm so he hadn’t spent much time there afterwards as a result.  Besides, it was so far away in a remote backwater of the trench that it was hardly worth the trip. 

The land that the duke granted him was north of the great city of Ptoleph off of the main trade road in the hills near the giant statue of Hephaestus that marks the northern boundary of the Anvil.  The main population center of the Barony of Dunweilding is located in the last village near the King's Road (the main north-south trade road) before one reaches the lands of the elves to the north.  This hilly region is close to the Fossmoor Grove to the northwest and the Whisperwood Hollow to the northeast which are the forests of the elves wherein reside the three great castes of elven society - the Star Elves, the Sun Elves, and the Moon Elves of Averlorn.  The village is known as Cool Rock Springs and is a very small town sporting only one tavern.  The previous lord of this region was deceased and the Duke granted the Barony to Lucias so that he could represent his interests there and act as the protector of the region which is also the northern border of the Duke's domain.  About four miles away from the road further into the hills is the site of the ancient Iron Age hill fort of Dunweilding that is still used from time to time for the local defense due to its strategic placement on the hill top.  It was also placed there to protect the nearby mines and is ringed on three sides by limestone cliffs making it very hard to assault since there is only one logical approach for an attacker.  The mine is an ancient Gnomish copper mine and it is not known if it is played out or not so it may yet contain additional mineral wealth.  Lucias was also granted a Manor House in the city of Ptoleph as is the custom of the region to take care of his affairs while representing the Duke in the city in the House of Lords.

During this time, Lucias heard that the nearest neighbor to the Dunweilding Barony is a Marquis to the south.  Lucias and Teth-en-Aire were staying at the Emporium in Ptoleph while all of the official business of the granting of the Barony was taking place.  The proprietor of the establishment, one Argus Norviadras, told Lucias to keep an eye on his neighbor to the south.  It was being taken care of by a Marquis who was the brother of a Knight who was usually away on quests and military missions for the Duke.  He told me the Marquis has a black heart and is in fact a petty villain who was using his title for personal gain at the expense of others but that his brother the Knight was actually fair and just when he was around.  He went on to say that their father was the Baron of the region but that he is now dead.  He explained further that should the Knight come to an untimely demise, the younger brother would undoubtedly become a greedy and avaricious neighbor. 

So during the official ceremony held by the Duke of Ptoleph Lucias was granted his official baronial title.  He was to be thereafter known as Lord Lucius Artorius Petreius the Baron of Dunweilding north of Ptoleph in the service of the Duke of Ptoleph, and the Marquis of Stormcall Ridge in Spirythol.  The last bit of official business to attend to was to name his younger brother as the Marquis of Dunweilding to manage the affairs of the region in the event of his absence.  This was a happy day for the Petreius family who had moved to Ptoleph when Lucias was a youngster to get away from the rat race that is known as the city of Grand Oryx.  His father was particularly proud as he was just a simple merchant who had built up his business from nothing in the City of Grand Oryx to rise above the squalor.  Once his business was established and prosperous he eventually relocated to the city of Ptoleph after he had made a name for himself as a successful and wealthy merchant.  Seeing his son named as a Lord was more than he could have hoped for from one of his offspring.

So after all of the official business had been taken care of and he had been given a tour of his new lands at the end of the winter in early spring, it was apparent that in order to earn enough money to build a keep, as was now his right, he would need to continue adventuring for the foreseeable future.  Once the group was rejoined afterwards in the city of Medea’s Gate, we went to see Marut of the Surgeons Guild to inquire about the debt they wanted us to settle with them.  When we fought the three Chimeras outside of the Shrine of Zingalis during the previous adventuring season, our NPC ally Teth-en-Aire the Elf had been slain (see recap Of Baked Ham, Horned Devils and Chimeras).  We all contributed gold to having him raised from the dead by the Surgeons of Hecate but such services were not merely financial transactions for them since they usually only cast them on members of their own order.  In addition to financial compensation, they required a debt be repaid which usually entailed some kind of quest or errand of the adventuring kind to be completed by the recipient(s) of the powerful magic.

So when we went to see Marut to settle up this debt, he told us they still had not found the book that they lost previously and required our assistance to recover it.  More than a year ago the surgeons had contacted us about possibly hiring us to attempt to recover a very powerful and dangerous tome that had been lost when an airship went down on the way to the city of Harbor Reach on the eastern coast.  The ship is believed to have been downed near the village of Chapoi across the Forger’s Runnel River in the Anvil.  The Ancient Tome has beaten brass covers and is 16” x 12” x 6” thick and was stored in a chest with a latch.  To the west of Chapoi, a two days hike, the Wild Moon tribe of goblins holds sway and may have had something to do with the downing of the ship.  They ended up sending someone else out to try and locate the book but it was never recovered.  We ended up turning down their offer of employment at the time in order to explore the Tower of Zingalis instead and the other group never managed to locate the tome.  This was before the Ranger Taleth Flavius joined the group and we were ill suited to attempt an overland adventure of this type at the time.  We would have had a hard time just trying not to get lost, much less trying to locate a lost book in the wilderness.

So through divination spells or perhaps even with the assistance of the Oracles, the surgeons managed to locate the tome and it had been moved a great distance from the original wreckage of the dragon ship which was later found near Chapoi.  The information they had discovered revealed that the book was to be found in the treasure trove of a great Frost Giant leader located high in the snowy peaks of the Pillars of Defiance – the great mountain range far to the southwest of Medea’s Gate which marked the southwest boundary of the Anvil of the Gods.  He also told us that we were forbidden to even open up the great tome as it could be dangerous to us.  Marut arranged for the group to receive a number of healing potions and we purchased enough provisions for two weeks and winter clothing so that we could survive the extreme temperatures of the snowy peaks.  We were then flown via dragonship to a site near the glacial rift and dropped off at the drop zone where we were lowered down to the snowy ground below.  We were told that the ships would return to pick us up every three days and were given the means and method to signal them at the site when we were ready to be retrieved from the barren snowy peaks one hour after sunrise on the pre-designated day of retrieval.

So, with our quest at hand we trudged our way through the snow to find the rift of the frost giants.  The ranger managed to find an ice cave nearby which we would use as a base for our forays against the frost giants.   The cave was highly defensible, particularly against giants because it had a small entrance and was hard to locate from the outside.  From the ice cave it was another 3-4 hour hike using snow shoes through deep snows to the glacial rift itself hidden within the valley of the glacier.  So after resting up from our first hike from the drop zone and establishing our base camp, we set off to explore Dungeon Module G2 the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl.

TO BE CONTINUED…