Post by Dead Greyhawk on Jan 31, 2007 21:47:56 GMT -5
Raven goes over to Jasper, who’s watching the ledge, and finds him asleep, clearly exhausted. Sending him back to the brazier, he takes Jasper’s spot, and stares out into the overcast day. The snow storm is fading, and as the sun comes out, the light is becoming very bright. Suddenly, a flash of motion soars past the ledge, occluding the light, and sailing into the sky. Raven cautiously peeks out the cave mouth and sees a large white dragon perched on the edge of the rift. With a great avalanche that lands in the quicksnow surrounding the sinkhole, it takes to the air, banking and flying off to the southeast.
Several hours later, Oaklock bangs on the boulder and gets it rolled aside. Oaklock explains that he has seen nothing, besides the dragon, and no one in the hours he was outside. He got so bored that he wandered around the glacial caverns while invisible. The others look at him like he is crazed. “You did what?” asks Otto.
Oaklock explains that this side of the glacial rift is also riddled with caves and caverns. At the far end, the caves end in a trail that exits up to the far side of the low rise where they entered the rift. The other fork of the trail must have led to this side of the glacier. The snow is now quite deep on the glacier and will require wading to get out of the rift, even on the trails. Most of the caves and caverns appear to have been used as guard rooms by the giants but are now abandoned. One of the rooms was definitely not a guard room though and appears quite striking. It holds frozen people in it, and each person holds some object of value. Oaklock struggles to explain how odd it is and settles on simply saying it was definitely created by the ice giants as some sort of memorial.
Cedrus, who has slept, still needs some time to finish praying for his miracles, so Raven, Otto, Hugh, and the mages go to see this cavern. Oaklock leads them a circuitous path through the abandoned ice caves that ends in a room filled with hanging icicles and containing two exits. Oaklock puts one finger over his lips, indicating silence, as he points at the icicles and the sharp shards on the floor. He then quietly pads over to the right hand exit. The others follow, making more noise than the stealthy elf, but not enough to shake any icicles free. The exit leads to a large cave containing eight great pillars of ice. The pillars reach up to the ceiling and seem to support it somewhat. Embedded in each pillar is a human or demi-human, horribly mutilated, and set in ice as a trophy of some sort.
The first pillar contains a decapitated dwarf, his head inverted and stacked on his body, clad in ruptured splint mail. In one hand is a heavy battle axe, turned upside down. The next pillar has embedded in it an elf, its throat horribly torn, clad in robes but without shoes. At its feet is a long case. The third pillar contains a human woman, perhaps a merchant or a mage, wearing a heavy, gold mesh belt. The belt is easily a hand high and obviously valuable. Next to the woman is a man missing both his hands, but where one hand would be, a bone scroll tube extends forth. A dwarf fills the next pillar, its detached arms appearing to drop an open pouch from which spills reddish brown gemstones, likely agates, towards the ground. Creating this tableau must have taken much time and effort, as the gemstones are at varying heights, and the pouch hovers in the air between the open hands. Each layer must have been placed and then water poured over the “art.” The sixth pillar holds a human, perhaps a priest or a warrior, in pried-open platemail, an iron ring still on his hand. The penultimate pillar contains a half-elven woman in leather armor grasping a sack. From a burst seam on the sack spills human-sized coins. Unlike the dwarven “art,” this sack appears to have been placed in the pillar intact and ruptured during freezing. The ultimate pillar holds a man clad in gleaming armor. The armor must have had at one point a large hole in its abdomen, because it appears as if the man’s intestines were drawn out through it. The armor is now perfect, slicing the intestines cleanly and in a straight line. It appears as if the armor is magical and had healed itself.
The Company is somewhat perplexed and excited about the plethora of objects here, but is unwilling to place themselves at much risk. It appears as if the scroll case is easiest to get to, requiring only minor carving to break it free. The ceiling creaks and ice dust sifts down as the scroll case is carved free, and Dell pockets it. Daunted by the creaking ceiling and icy powder, they opt to return to Cedrus and the others, rather than continuing to work here.
Cedrus wraps up his prayers soon after the Company returns, and they re-enter the tunnels where they were ambushed by the ogre magi and giants. The bodies still lie there, charred and acid burnt. Climbing across them, the Company hikes to where the passageway curves in a mild arc to the left. This arc continues, and the Company finds itself walking carefully down a long spiraling tunnel. The tunnel sinks and sinks into the ground until the ice becomes mixed with rock, and then with dirt. The Company has arrived at the bottom of the glacier.
They exit into a long, wide room with several passages branching off to the left, another corridor at the end of the room, and a large boulder frozen into the left wall, possibly another boulder doorway. The place is impressively carved, with scenes etched in bas-relief on the right-hand wall. The scenes show giants slaying their enemies, including fleeing humans, and hunting great creatures, including dragons and several stylized creatures no one recognizes. Glowing, giant-sized beetles sit in cages mounted along the length of the room. Nothing stirs in the room, and it is eerily quiet.
The light here at the bottom of the glacier is less than desirable, as the stone and dirt occludes much of the strange green light from the glacier. The mixture of green light from the glacier and red light from the glowing, giant beetles creates mottled shadows that flow along the walls. Otto affixes his glowing stone to his helm, while Raven frees the lighted portion of his longbow. They search the open corridors to the left, finding that they end within sixty feet of the entry cavern. In both cases, they end suddenly, as if those tunneling had been interrupted in their work. Otto then leads the Company towards the far end of the room to the corridor that leads out of the room.
Halfway across the room, he stops and smacks himself in the forehead. He then bends over and starts looking for tracks on the ground. What he sees surprises him. The room is filled in all directions with overlapping tracks from creatures of a variety of shapes and sizes. Most of the tracks come from different-sized giants, but armored and unarmored ogres and ogre magi are also present. The tracks are mainly parallel to the long axis of the room, but extend from one wall to the other, flowing from the ramp to and from the corridor at the end of the room.
Reassured, Otto leads the Company towards the corridor at the end of the room. The corridor extends forward a hundred feet or so and then branches. To the left, a new cavern is almost immediately visible. Unlike the ornately carved entry cavern, this place seems to be a dumping ground for unused items. The old bones of some large carcasses, a few broken boxes with spoiled provisions, which must have been many months old to spoil on the glacier, and some spilled sacks with mold growing from them are piled amidst stove-in casks and barrels.
To the right though, the corridor continues and enters into a large cavern. Many tunnels lead from the cavern, three to the left and two on the far side of the cavern. The cavern itself has seen better days. More large glowing beetles trapped in cages line the walls. Destroyed furniture, including chairs and a large banquet table, are crushed by large ice blocks that have fallen from the ceiling. The devastation is complete. Not a single chair, stool, or table has survived intact, though in several cases ice and icy debris has slid off of a chair, or whoever was in the chair when the ice fell.
Plainly visible in the middle of the chamber are three hill giant corpses, crushed under a pile of ice and rock. The Company cautiously approaches the corpses, watching the myriad tunnels. The hill giants are clad in armor similar to that seen on the hill giants fought above. The hill giants are armed and appear to have been carrying their sacks and treasure with them, since one giant’s sack has been knocked loose during the crushing. Giant-sized gold coins, with Nosnra’s uprooted tree mint on them, are scattered around and under the ice pile. While the others keep watch, Otto and Al dig out the coins and the sacks, finding a shield marked with the insignia of Keoland within one of them.
Jasper motions to the others. “Cold toads!” he loudly whispers, pointing towards the passageways to the left. “They keep saying ‘Meat! Hot meat! Must feed the toad god!’ I don’t like that.” Raven nods at Jasper and sends him back to the entry chamber to watch the spiral ramp. While Jasper runs off, the Company prepares to defeat the cold toads. Jasper hears a thumping sound as he enters into the entry chamber, but can’t identify what it is or where it comes from.
This time the Company has surprise and preparedness on their side, rather than on the side of the cold toads. The cold toads hop to the attack, and Dell unleashes a cone of fear against them. The toads squeal and hop away, opening their backs up to attack. Diego, who has stood too close to the toads, is also caught in the cone and is also struck with mind-numbing fear. The cold toads are quickly slain before they can close with the Company, limiting the effects of the devastating cold that they emit. Unlike the cold toad cavern above, no gemstone idols are found among the toads.
The distraction of the cold toads dealt with, the Company explores the end of the cavern. The two passages leading out from the room loop around and merge into a single large tunnel, the end of which is collapsed. A hill giant torso extends out from the icy debris. The giant’s arms are outstretched and his face and arms are covered in crushing welts and bruises. The giant appears to have been running towards this room to escape the collapse, but ultimately failed. His giant sword is jammed deep into the ice by the force of his collapse, and an iron tube lays just out of his reach, as if knocked out of his grip. Dell rolls the tube over to Oaklock, suggesting that he open it.
Oaklock wrestles with the tube, finally prying the cap free. Inside the tube is a map, annotated in a strange runic tongue similar to that seen on Nosnra’s map, that displays the insides of some fortress. Oaklock turns the map around and shows it to Dell, who clamps his eyes shut, and Winthrop. The mages study the map and eventually agree that the map appears to be of this level of the rift. The entry hall and this dining area are clearly marked, as is the long spiral down to the base of the glacier.
Dell, Raven, and Winthrop argue extensively over whether to memorize a spell in order to read the map. Dell eventually accedes to their requests and cracks open his spellbook. Cedrus takes this quiet interlude as an opportunity to pray for more of his spells. With Diego and Jasper on guard, the rest of the Company help in searching this room and the entry hall. Embedded in the ornate carvings is another, boulder-like door hidden in the ornate carvings.
Dell casts his magics and the runes on the map resort themselves into common script. The map annotations describe the area beyond the collapsed ceiling as vast and containing prisoner chambers, guest quarters, and warrior barracks, as well as the Jarl’s feast hall. According to the map, the visible boulder blocks entry to both coin and food storage. The door hidden amidst the carvings opens into a void space on the map, where nothing is drawn. Raven suggests any hidden passages wouldn’t be marked on a map held by a visitor to the rift, and the others find no fault with that.
Seeing the boulder blocks access to some treasures, and some food, the Company decides to roll it aside. With a great frozen cracking, the boulder shifts, revealing a dark icy chamber. Some of the Company ventures within, shifting out from behind a great ice pillar. A large pile of silverish coin comes into sight, piled up against one of the ice walls that tower up out of sight. Dell and Jasper venture further into the room and find some snow heaped against one wall. Dell suddenly realizes that a significant breeze blows down from above. He turns to warn the others when a hoary exhalation covers the rest of the party in ice and frost. A white dragon is here, up, out of sight.
The Company is sorely injured, but the rest and magical recovery in the cold toad’s temple has served them well. Only Oaklock, frail of frame for such an accomplished warrior mage, drops to the ground, unconscious, the longsword of the Hart, one of the earliest enchanted items found by Raven and the Company of the Blue Sun, freezing and shattering from the impact. Otto drags the unconscious Oaklock out of the cavern, and the others scatter into the room, trying not to clump together. Diego shoots shafts into the air above, apparently seeing the white dragon up on a broad mesa against which the hoard of silver coins leans.
Dell, flaming with a shield of fire, runs over to Raven, prepared to grant him flight, but the dragon chooses to breath on the two of them, ignoring Diego’s feeble attacks. Raven collapses to the ground, unable to resist the cold, but Dell’s shield of fire quenches the frost breath, leaving Dell unscathed. He looks down at the supine form of Raven and begins casting magics up at the draconic figure above.
Al curses at the dragon as he clambers through the coins and tries to scale the ice mesa. Diego, who has also climbed in among the coins, steadfastly fires arrows up into the dragon’s underbelly, finally finding his range. The dragon’s neck curls back like a great shepherd’s crook A third breath of ice drops onto Al and Diego, freezing them, but Dell’s magics successfully slow the dragon. As Al and Diego collapse to the ground, Dell takes flight.
Knowing something is wrong, the dragon slowly flaps up into the air. The sinkhole, located over the snow that Dell and Jasper found, is its target, and it spirals upwards, its wings mainly furled. Dell gives pursuit. Even under the molasses-like bindings of Dell’s magic, the dragon is fleet, and clears the surface before Dell can close the gap. As the surface approaches, Dell realizes his peril. Dell will have to breach the surface where the dragon may lie in wait. Uncaring, he presses on. Behind him, Cedrus, who has been tending to the wounded, assists Raven to his feet. Otto, staring up at the sinkhole, offers half his potion of flight to Raven, who takes it greedily. His bow in hand, Raven flies up after Dell and the dragon.
Dell pops up through the sinkhole, face to face with the wounded, enraged dragon. Diego’s shafts protrude from its flanks, and white ichor drips into the snow. In the winds from the dragon’s wings, Dell summons fire, igniting the dragon. The massive form shudders under the impact of the magic, but does not die. Even with its grievous wounds, it seems determined to brings someone with it into death. Furious with rage, it foolishly attacks the flaming Dell, grazing him with a claw and burning off it’s own forelimb. The dragon keels suddenly, its lifeblood gushing forth, and collapses into the snow. The dragon’s corpse begins to slide back into the sinkhole.
Raven flies up into the sinkhole’s shaft in time to see a huge draconic corpse plummet towards him. Alarmed, he scurries backwards, trying to get down the shaft, and away from the frightful mass above. Clearing the shaft, he almost makes it clear before one of the dragon's wings slams him to the ground and into unconsciousness.
The Company spends several hours recovering and healing. While many of the Company were knocked into unconsciousness, no one was slain, and their wounds can mostly be healed. A heavy guard is posted outside of the cave, back in the carved cavern, in case the giants burrow themselves free from their collapsed glacial hall. The others search through the pile of silver, electrum, and platinum coins, marble and alabaster statues, silver boxes, armor, rock crystals, and weapons. No foodstuffs are found, but, when Adrienne so searches, magic is detected on the scroll recovered from the ice block, the Keoish shield, a set of black, enameled chainmail, a dagger, and four potions. They are gathered up and distributed among the Company. The rest of the treasure is left behind to be taken later.
The Company is of good health, high on mage spells but low on healing, when they discuss the other boulder door, the secret door hidden in the carvings. The Company weighs their strength and what they plan to find in the hidden passages leading into the back of their newfound map. Deeming themselves hale enough, they decide to open the hidden door, and do so.
The boulder slides in and aside to reveal a sixty foot room with a single exit at the far end. The floor of the room is covered in shards of ice. At the end of the room is a large, ten foot wide table, now turned on its side and blocking the exit, behind which stare two frost giants. The frost giants stand in alcoves and one has an iron horn to hand. Otto is dumbstruck by the sight and the giants take the opportunity to throw large stones at him, knocking him about.
Otto charges forward and finds that the ice chunks on the ground are exceptionally sharp, lacerating his feet as he goes to knock the barricade aside. With his strength, he believes he can quickly gain the others access to the area behind the barricade. Seeing the need, he ignores the lancing pain to reach the barricade. Jasper, fleet of foot, hurries to join him. Otto puts down his sword and Jasper his axe so that they can heave the table aside.
Otto and Jasper haul on the table while Raven shoots at the frost giants, who wind their horn. The others more slowly and carefully enter the room, avoiding the damaging ice shards, but unable to reach the giants’ barricade. Otto and Jasper's efforts to lift the table fail by the smallest of margins. The barricade remains intact.
Fearing being trapped in the room, Al joins them at the barricade, while Diego crowds in with Raven to provide covering arrow fire. The sounds of heavy footsteps can be heard echoing from behind the barrier, though nothing can be seen. Al, Otto, and Jasper all heave at the table, and fail to lift the table by the smallest of margins. The barricade remains intact.
Raven and Diego's well-placed arrows slay one of the giants, but the other tries to fend off the Company by poking over the barrier with a long spear. His efforts do not dissuade the Company, and Diego and Hugh join the others at the barricade. With Diego and Hugh's additional strength, the Company is certain to move the table aside.
With the Company's might clustered together in an enclosed area, the unthinkable occurs. A ball of fire appears on those attempting to lift the table. Otto, whose cold-flamed bastardsword is on the ground next to him, is sorely burned and collapses, as does Diego. The others are injured to some extent, but withstand the ball of fire. All of the ice shards in the area flow into water, clearing some space around the Company for more normal movement.
Confusion reigns while Cedrus runs up and heals Otto back to consciousness. Winthrop thought he saw an object drop from above, beyond the reach of light, but can't see anything. Dell wildly throws a glowing stone towards the ceiling, trying to illuminate the area. From further behind the barrier, larger rocks begin sailing down towards the Company. Dell can see a tall pale giant, similar in demeanor to Nosnra’s advisor who was slain in the unholy temple beneath Nosnra’s steading, throwing these large stones from far behind the barrier. Raven’s arrows finish off the remaining giant at the barricade, clearing the way for the Company to push on, once the table is shifted.
With a heave, the table moves to one side, creating an opening towards the waiting Adrienne and Oaklock. Another ball of fire erupts on those by the barricade. Otto, still without his sword, is burnt badly. His backpack catches on fire. His magical ring found in the slavers’ stockade melts through his hand. His colossal spade, given to him from the dead citadel of Beoll-Dur, shatters. Otto collapses to the ground. Hugh, his holy water turning to steam in a great cloud, falls beside him. Diego, unconscious since the last ball of fire, lies near death; his skin charring.
Al, his backpack on fire and liquids pouring from it, grabs the haunch of burnt meat that is Diego and pulls him out of combat, attempting to staunch his wounds. Cedrus, burnt and bloodied, again heals Otto, reviving him from unconsciousness. Raven grabs Hugh and pulls him aside. Oaklock and Adrienne plug the gap between table and wall as ogres, unseen behind the ten foot barricade, try to pour through. The fight is uneven, with Oaklock struggling to cast his spells under the ogres’ beatings. Adrienne is without prayers, having used them all to revive the Company’s flagging health after the dragon’s assault, and resorts to her sword. Winthrop, still unable to see a target, summons a ball of fire up against the ceiling of the room. In the illumination from the massive burst of flame, he sees an ogre mage, tethered to the ceiling, holding a necklace with golden globes on it. The fireball clips the ogre mage, but the not killing him.
The ogre mage pulls a golden globe from the necklace and drops it down onto the Company. A ball of fire erupts from the globe, but it seems weaker than the previous ones, and Otto withstands its effects as he wades into the ogres. Otto tears through the ogres while Raven fires heedlessly into the massed ogrish bodies. When Al finishes binding Diego’s wounds, stabilizing him on the very verge of death, and joins the fight, the ogres are routed. Even with an errant shot by Raven hitting Oaklock from behind, the Company vanquish the ogres with comparatively little effort.
The other mages deal with the more fearsome foes. Winthrop summons a veritable swarm of magical bolts and sends them into the ogre mage. Even after the ogre mage lies limp, dangling above the Company at the furthest extent of its tether, Winthrop fills its body with excess magical bolts to be certain of its demise. Dell sends his castings down the passageway, to where the great pale giant still stands. Using the same perception altering glamour as before, the giant is entrapped in slowed time, moving as if submerged in treacle. The pale giant flees around the corner.
The ogres attempt to retreat in close order, the leadership of one of the ogres barely holding them together. Dell gestures and chants arcane syllables, and confusion sets in among the ogres. They begin to fight among themselves and wander aimlessly. The Company avoids those fighting and hacks down those that stare off into space. Dell smirks as only three of the ogres escape around the corner.
With Oaklock on watch, the clerics and warriors bind the fallen’s wounds and Hugh uses all but one of his prayers to revive the fallen. Hugh brings Diego back from death’s door, returning health to his burnt flesh. Diego appears stunned by his near death experience, but is functional. Dell, disdaining the binding of wounds, extends his magical rope up to the ceiling. By climbing it, he is able to reach the tethered ogre mage, strip its body, and cut the tether holding it. Once the corpse is on the ground, Hugh burns it. Dell pockets the golden necklace, still with two orbs, some strange scroll in an odd language, a pouch of sapphires, and an odd box that looks like a puzzle box of some type.
Otto, somewhat disheartened, notes that the frost giants and the ogres are not the elite fought above. Beyond having only standard armor and weapons, they wear no badges or armbands. It seems likely that more dangerous foes lie ahead.
Several hours later, Oaklock bangs on the boulder and gets it rolled aside. Oaklock explains that he has seen nothing, besides the dragon, and no one in the hours he was outside. He got so bored that he wandered around the glacial caverns while invisible. The others look at him like he is crazed. “You did what?” asks Otto.
Oaklock explains that this side of the glacial rift is also riddled with caves and caverns. At the far end, the caves end in a trail that exits up to the far side of the low rise where they entered the rift. The other fork of the trail must have led to this side of the glacier. The snow is now quite deep on the glacier and will require wading to get out of the rift, even on the trails. Most of the caves and caverns appear to have been used as guard rooms by the giants but are now abandoned. One of the rooms was definitely not a guard room though and appears quite striking. It holds frozen people in it, and each person holds some object of value. Oaklock struggles to explain how odd it is and settles on simply saying it was definitely created by the ice giants as some sort of memorial.
Cedrus, who has slept, still needs some time to finish praying for his miracles, so Raven, Otto, Hugh, and the mages go to see this cavern. Oaklock leads them a circuitous path through the abandoned ice caves that ends in a room filled with hanging icicles and containing two exits. Oaklock puts one finger over his lips, indicating silence, as he points at the icicles and the sharp shards on the floor. He then quietly pads over to the right hand exit. The others follow, making more noise than the stealthy elf, but not enough to shake any icicles free. The exit leads to a large cave containing eight great pillars of ice. The pillars reach up to the ceiling and seem to support it somewhat. Embedded in each pillar is a human or demi-human, horribly mutilated, and set in ice as a trophy of some sort.
The first pillar contains a decapitated dwarf, his head inverted and stacked on his body, clad in ruptured splint mail. In one hand is a heavy battle axe, turned upside down. The next pillar has embedded in it an elf, its throat horribly torn, clad in robes but without shoes. At its feet is a long case. The third pillar contains a human woman, perhaps a merchant or a mage, wearing a heavy, gold mesh belt. The belt is easily a hand high and obviously valuable. Next to the woman is a man missing both his hands, but where one hand would be, a bone scroll tube extends forth. A dwarf fills the next pillar, its detached arms appearing to drop an open pouch from which spills reddish brown gemstones, likely agates, towards the ground. Creating this tableau must have taken much time and effort, as the gemstones are at varying heights, and the pouch hovers in the air between the open hands. Each layer must have been placed and then water poured over the “art.” The sixth pillar holds a human, perhaps a priest or a warrior, in pried-open platemail, an iron ring still on his hand. The penultimate pillar contains a half-elven woman in leather armor grasping a sack. From a burst seam on the sack spills human-sized coins. Unlike the dwarven “art,” this sack appears to have been placed in the pillar intact and ruptured during freezing. The ultimate pillar holds a man clad in gleaming armor. The armor must have had at one point a large hole in its abdomen, because it appears as if the man’s intestines were drawn out through it. The armor is now perfect, slicing the intestines cleanly and in a straight line. It appears as if the armor is magical and had healed itself.
The Company is somewhat perplexed and excited about the plethora of objects here, but is unwilling to place themselves at much risk. It appears as if the scroll case is easiest to get to, requiring only minor carving to break it free. The ceiling creaks and ice dust sifts down as the scroll case is carved free, and Dell pockets it. Daunted by the creaking ceiling and icy powder, they opt to return to Cedrus and the others, rather than continuing to work here.
Cedrus wraps up his prayers soon after the Company returns, and they re-enter the tunnels where they were ambushed by the ogre magi and giants. The bodies still lie there, charred and acid burnt. Climbing across them, the Company hikes to where the passageway curves in a mild arc to the left. This arc continues, and the Company finds itself walking carefully down a long spiraling tunnel. The tunnel sinks and sinks into the ground until the ice becomes mixed with rock, and then with dirt. The Company has arrived at the bottom of the glacier.
They exit into a long, wide room with several passages branching off to the left, another corridor at the end of the room, and a large boulder frozen into the left wall, possibly another boulder doorway. The place is impressively carved, with scenes etched in bas-relief on the right-hand wall. The scenes show giants slaying their enemies, including fleeing humans, and hunting great creatures, including dragons and several stylized creatures no one recognizes. Glowing, giant-sized beetles sit in cages mounted along the length of the room. Nothing stirs in the room, and it is eerily quiet.
The light here at the bottom of the glacier is less than desirable, as the stone and dirt occludes much of the strange green light from the glacier. The mixture of green light from the glacier and red light from the glowing, giant beetles creates mottled shadows that flow along the walls. Otto affixes his glowing stone to his helm, while Raven frees the lighted portion of his longbow. They search the open corridors to the left, finding that they end within sixty feet of the entry cavern. In both cases, they end suddenly, as if those tunneling had been interrupted in their work. Otto then leads the Company towards the far end of the room to the corridor that leads out of the room.
Halfway across the room, he stops and smacks himself in the forehead. He then bends over and starts looking for tracks on the ground. What he sees surprises him. The room is filled in all directions with overlapping tracks from creatures of a variety of shapes and sizes. Most of the tracks come from different-sized giants, but armored and unarmored ogres and ogre magi are also present. The tracks are mainly parallel to the long axis of the room, but extend from one wall to the other, flowing from the ramp to and from the corridor at the end of the room.
Reassured, Otto leads the Company towards the corridor at the end of the room. The corridor extends forward a hundred feet or so and then branches. To the left, a new cavern is almost immediately visible. Unlike the ornately carved entry cavern, this place seems to be a dumping ground for unused items. The old bones of some large carcasses, a few broken boxes with spoiled provisions, which must have been many months old to spoil on the glacier, and some spilled sacks with mold growing from them are piled amidst stove-in casks and barrels.
To the right though, the corridor continues and enters into a large cavern. Many tunnels lead from the cavern, three to the left and two on the far side of the cavern. The cavern itself has seen better days. More large glowing beetles trapped in cages line the walls. Destroyed furniture, including chairs and a large banquet table, are crushed by large ice blocks that have fallen from the ceiling. The devastation is complete. Not a single chair, stool, or table has survived intact, though in several cases ice and icy debris has slid off of a chair, or whoever was in the chair when the ice fell.
Plainly visible in the middle of the chamber are three hill giant corpses, crushed under a pile of ice and rock. The Company cautiously approaches the corpses, watching the myriad tunnels. The hill giants are clad in armor similar to that seen on the hill giants fought above. The hill giants are armed and appear to have been carrying their sacks and treasure with them, since one giant’s sack has been knocked loose during the crushing. Giant-sized gold coins, with Nosnra’s uprooted tree mint on them, are scattered around and under the ice pile. While the others keep watch, Otto and Al dig out the coins and the sacks, finding a shield marked with the insignia of Keoland within one of them.
Jasper motions to the others. “Cold toads!” he loudly whispers, pointing towards the passageways to the left. “They keep saying ‘Meat! Hot meat! Must feed the toad god!’ I don’t like that.” Raven nods at Jasper and sends him back to the entry chamber to watch the spiral ramp. While Jasper runs off, the Company prepares to defeat the cold toads. Jasper hears a thumping sound as he enters into the entry chamber, but can’t identify what it is or where it comes from.
This time the Company has surprise and preparedness on their side, rather than on the side of the cold toads. The cold toads hop to the attack, and Dell unleashes a cone of fear against them. The toads squeal and hop away, opening their backs up to attack. Diego, who has stood too close to the toads, is also caught in the cone and is also struck with mind-numbing fear. The cold toads are quickly slain before they can close with the Company, limiting the effects of the devastating cold that they emit. Unlike the cold toad cavern above, no gemstone idols are found among the toads.
The distraction of the cold toads dealt with, the Company explores the end of the cavern. The two passages leading out from the room loop around and merge into a single large tunnel, the end of which is collapsed. A hill giant torso extends out from the icy debris. The giant’s arms are outstretched and his face and arms are covered in crushing welts and bruises. The giant appears to have been running towards this room to escape the collapse, but ultimately failed. His giant sword is jammed deep into the ice by the force of his collapse, and an iron tube lays just out of his reach, as if knocked out of his grip. Dell rolls the tube over to Oaklock, suggesting that he open it.
Oaklock wrestles with the tube, finally prying the cap free. Inside the tube is a map, annotated in a strange runic tongue similar to that seen on Nosnra’s map, that displays the insides of some fortress. Oaklock turns the map around and shows it to Dell, who clamps his eyes shut, and Winthrop. The mages study the map and eventually agree that the map appears to be of this level of the rift. The entry hall and this dining area are clearly marked, as is the long spiral down to the base of the glacier.
Dell, Raven, and Winthrop argue extensively over whether to memorize a spell in order to read the map. Dell eventually accedes to their requests and cracks open his spellbook. Cedrus takes this quiet interlude as an opportunity to pray for more of his spells. With Diego and Jasper on guard, the rest of the Company help in searching this room and the entry hall. Embedded in the ornate carvings is another, boulder-like door hidden in the ornate carvings.
Dell casts his magics and the runes on the map resort themselves into common script. The map annotations describe the area beyond the collapsed ceiling as vast and containing prisoner chambers, guest quarters, and warrior barracks, as well as the Jarl’s feast hall. According to the map, the visible boulder blocks entry to both coin and food storage. The door hidden amidst the carvings opens into a void space on the map, where nothing is drawn. Raven suggests any hidden passages wouldn’t be marked on a map held by a visitor to the rift, and the others find no fault with that.
Seeing the boulder blocks access to some treasures, and some food, the Company decides to roll it aside. With a great frozen cracking, the boulder shifts, revealing a dark icy chamber. Some of the Company ventures within, shifting out from behind a great ice pillar. A large pile of silverish coin comes into sight, piled up against one of the ice walls that tower up out of sight. Dell and Jasper venture further into the room and find some snow heaped against one wall. Dell suddenly realizes that a significant breeze blows down from above. He turns to warn the others when a hoary exhalation covers the rest of the party in ice and frost. A white dragon is here, up, out of sight.
The Company is sorely injured, but the rest and magical recovery in the cold toad’s temple has served them well. Only Oaklock, frail of frame for such an accomplished warrior mage, drops to the ground, unconscious, the longsword of the Hart, one of the earliest enchanted items found by Raven and the Company of the Blue Sun, freezing and shattering from the impact. Otto drags the unconscious Oaklock out of the cavern, and the others scatter into the room, trying not to clump together. Diego shoots shafts into the air above, apparently seeing the white dragon up on a broad mesa against which the hoard of silver coins leans.
Dell, flaming with a shield of fire, runs over to Raven, prepared to grant him flight, but the dragon chooses to breath on the two of them, ignoring Diego’s feeble attacks. Raven collapses to the ground, unable to resist the cold, but Dell’s shield of fire quenches the frost breath, leaving Dell unscathed. He looks down at the supine form of Raven and begins casting magics up at the draconic figure above.
Al curses at the dragon as he clambers through the coins and tries to scale the ice mesa. Diego, who has also climbed in among the coins, steadfastly fires arrows up into the dragon’s underbelly, finally finding his range. The dragon’s neck curls back like a great shepherd’s crook A third breath of ice drops onto Al and Diego, freezing them, but Dell’s magics successfully slow the dragon. As Al and Diego collapse to the ground, Dell takes flight.
Knowing something is wrong, the dragon slowly flaps up into the air. The sinkhole, located over the snow that Dell and Jasper found, is its target, and it spirals upwards, its wings mainly furled. Dell gives pursuit. Even under the molasses-like bindings of Dell’s magic, the dragon is fleet, and clears the surface before Dell can close the gap. As the surface approaches, Dell realizes his peril. Dell will have to breach the surface where the dragon may lie in wait. Uncaring, he presses on. Behind him, Cedrus, who has been tending to the wounded, assists Raven to his feet. Otto, staring up at the sinkhole, offers half his potion of flight to Raven, who takes it greedily. His bow in hand, Raven flies up after Dell and the dragon.
Dell pops up through the sinkhole, face to face with the wounded, enraged dragon. Diego’s shafts protrude from its flanks, and white ichor drips into the snow. In the winds from the dragon’s wings, Dell summons fire, igniting the dragon. The massive form shudders under the impact of the magic, but does not die. Even with its grievous wounds, it seems determined to brings someone with it into death. Furious with rage, it foolishly attacks the flaming Dell, grazing him with a claw and burning off it’s own forelimb. The dragon keels suddenly, its lifeblood gushing forth, and collapses into the snow. The dragon’s corpse begins to slide back into the sinkhole.
Raven flies up into the sinkhole’s shaft in time to see a huge draconic corpse plummet towards him. Alarmed, he scurries backwards, trying to get down the shaft, and away from the frightful mass above. Clearing the shaft, he almost makes it clear before one of the dragon's wings slams him to the ground and into unconsciousness.
The Company spends several hours recovering and healing. While many of the Company were knocked into unconsciousness, no one was slain, and their wounds can mostly be healed. A heavy guard is posted outside of the cave, back in the carved cavern, in case the giants burrow themselves free from their collapsed glacial hall. The others search through the pile of silver, electrum, and platinum coins, marble and alabaster statues, silver boxes, armor, rock crystals, and weapons. No foodstuffs are found, but, when Adrienne so searches, magic is detected on the scroll recovered from the ice block, the Keoish shield, a set of black, enameled chainmail, a dagger, and four potions. They are gathered up and distributed among the Company. The rest of the treasure is left behind to be taken later.
The Company is of good health, high on mage spells but low on healing, when they discuss the other boulder door, the secret door hidden in the carvings. The Company weighs their strength and what they plan to find in the hidden passages leading into the back of their newfound map. Deeming themselves hale enough, they decide to open the hidden door, and do so.
The boulder slides in and aside to reveal a sixty foot room with a single exit at the far end. The floor of the room is covered in shards of ice. At the end of the room is a large, ten foot wide table, now turned on its side and blocking the exit, behind which stare two frost giants. The frost giants stand in alcoves and one has an iron horn to hand. Otto is dumbstruck by the sight and the giants take the opportunity to throw large stones at him, knocking him about.
Otto charges forward and finds that the ice chunks on the ground are exceptionally sharp, lacerating his feet as he goes to knock the barricade aside. With his strength, he believes he can quickly gain the others access to the area behind the barricade. Seeing the need, he ignores the lancing pain to reach the barricade. Jasper, fleet of foot, hurries to join him. Otto puts down his sword and Jasper his axe so that they can heave the table aside.
Otto and Jasper haul on the table while Raven shoots at the frost giants, who wind their horn. The others more slowly and carefully enter the room, avoiding the damaging ice shards, but unable to reach the giants’ barricade. Otto and Jasper's efforts to lift the table fail by the smallest of margins. The barricade remains intact.
Fearing being trapped in the room, Al joins them at the barricade, while Diego crowds in with Raven to provide covering arrow fire. The sounds of heavy footsteps can be heard echoing from behind the barrier, though nothing can be seen. Al, Otto, and Jasper all heave at the table, and fail to lift the table by the smallest of margins. The barricade remains intact.
Raven and Diego's well-placed arrows slay one of the giants, but the other tries to fend off the Company by poking over the barrier with a long spear. His efforts do not dissuade the Company, and Diego and Hugh join the others at the barricade. With Diego and Hugh's additional strength, the Company is certain to move the table aside.
With the Company's might clustered together in an enclosed area, the unthinkable occurs. A ball of fire appears on those attempting to lift the table. Otto, whose cold-flamed bastardsword is on the ground next to him, is sorely burned and collapses, as does Diego. The others are injured to some extent, but withstand the ball of fire. All of the ice shards in the area flow into water, clearing some space around the Company for more normal movement.
Confusion reigns while Cedrus runs up and heals Otto back to consciousness. Winthrop thought he saw an object drop from above, beyond the reach of light, but can't see anything. Dell wildly throws a glowing stone towards the ceiling, trying to illuminate the area. From further behind the barrier, larger rocks begin sailing down towards the Company. Dell can see a tall pale giant, similar in demeanor to Nosnra’s advisor who was slain in the unholy temple beneath Nosnra’s steading, throwing these large stones from far behind the barrier. Raven’s arrows finish off the remaining giant at the barricade, clearing the way for the Company to push on, once the table is shifted.
With a heave, the table moves to one side, creating an opening towards the waiting Adrienne and Oaklock. Another ball of fire erupts on those by the barricade. Otto, still without his sword, is burnt badly. His backpack catches on fire. His magical ring found in the slavers’ stockade melts through his hand. His colossal spade, given to him from the dead citadel of Beoll-Dur, shatters. Otto collapses to the ground. Hugh, his holy water turning to steam in a great cloud, falls beside him. Diego, unconscious since the last ball of fire, lies near death; his skin charring.
Al, his backpack on fire and liquids pouring from it, grabs the haunch of burnt meat that is Diego and pulls him out of combat, attempting to staunch his wounds. Cedrus, burnt and bloodied, again heals Otto, reviving him from unconsciousness. Raven grabs Hugh and pulls him aside. Oaklock and Adrienne plug the gap between table and wall as ogres, unseen behind the ten foot barricade, try to pour through. The fight is uneven, with Oaklock struggling to cast his spells under the ogres’ beatings. Adrienne is without prayers, having used them all to revive the Company’s flagging health after the dragon’s assault, and resorts to her sword. Winthrop, still unable to see a target, summons a ball of fire up against the ceiling of the room. In the illumination from the massive burst of flame, he sees an ogre mage, tethered to the ceiling, holding a necklace with golden globes on it. The fireball clips the ogre mage, but the not killing him.
The ogre mage pulls a golden globe from the necklace and drops it down onto the Company. A ball of fire erupts from the globe, but it seems weaker than the previous ones, and Otto withstands its effects as he wades into the ogres. Otto tears through the ogres while Raven fires heedlessly into the massed ogrish bodies. When Al finishes binding Diego’s wounds, stabilizing him on the very verge of death, and joins the fight, the ogres are routed. Even with an errant shot by Raven hitting Oaklock from behind, the Company vanquish the ogres with comparatively little effort.
The other mages deal with the more fearsome foes. Winthrop summons a veritable swarm of magical bolts and sends them into the ogre mage. Even after the ogre mage lies limp, dangling above the Company at the furthest extent of its tether, Winthrop fills its body with excess magical bolts to be certain of its demise. Dell sends his castings down the passageway, to where the great pale giant still stands. Using the same perception altering glamour as before, the giant is entrapped in slowed time, moving as if submerged in treacle. The pale giant flees around the corner.
The ogres attempt to retreat in close order, the leadership of one of the ogres barely holding them together. Dell gestures and chants arcane syllables, and confusion sets in among the ogres. They begin to fight among themselves and wander aimlessly. The Company avoids those fighting and hacks down those that stare off into space. Dell smirks as only three of the ogres escape around the corner.
With Oaklock on watch, the clerics and warriors bind the fallen’s wounds and Hugh uses all but one of his prayers to revive the fallen. Hugh brings Diego back from death’s door, returning health to his burnt flesh. Diego appears stunned by his near death experience, but is functional. Dell, disdaining the binding of wounds, extends his magical rope up to the ceiling. By climbing it, he is able to reach the tethered ogre mage, strip its body, and cut the tether holding it. Once the corpse is on the ground, Hugh burns it. Dell pockets the golden necklace, still with two orbs, some strange scroll in an odd language, a pouch of sapphires, and an odd box that looks like a puzzle box of some type.
Otto, somewhat disheartened, notes that the frost giants and the ogres are not the elite fought above. Beyond having only standard armor and weapons, they wear no badges or armbands. It seems likely that more dangerous foes lie ahead.
