Session9

On the journey back to Myth Drannor while peaceful and uneventful you hear a few people humming a song that seems to be stuck in their heads about the adventures of a great bard who helped his friends defeat an army of undead dwarves and a mighty dragon. The song goes on to describe in great detail how he saved a paladin named Felkars life multiple times and received his undying loyalty and thanks. It also describes how he supported a mighty archer who nearly single handedly slew a dragon sending it running in fear. Some of the verses also talk about helping the same adventurers with a tax evading nobles death game.

After ariving back to the agreed meeting spot which was the church you all had received as a reward for completing the trials of Torm. Approaching the gates you can see the large metallic symbol of Astraea a mirrored hand adorned on the roof. Inside rows of silk covered pews face toward a raised altar. A large grand mural extends across the roof and back wall, the roof depicts the visage of Astreaea Reaching down as if to give a gift to anyone who would sit in the church. On the back wall a strong and bold inlaid painting that depicts the history of Mammon and Felkar and their struggles with a very tiny portion in the back wall almost hidden behind some candles dedicated to Hildra and Faen. While the church is old and shabby you can see great care and detail has been taken toward the inside and decor.

At the centre by the marble altar mammon is kneeling in prayer.

Library of Deneir
Down the road leading toward the library of deneir you notice many carts and wagons filled with books. As you arrive at the main entrance you can see hundreds of movers shifting them out and piling them into the carts. A scholarly man is blocking the entrance turning away anyone who tries to enter informing them that the library will be temporarily closed.

-if the players reveal they are here to pickup ilrune he guides them into the living quaters

Inside the library which once contained books as far as the eye can see now only reveals desolate shelves. At the living quaters you find Ilrune and the head nun of the temple seated around a small coffee table. Ilrune is looking much better now. She has fresh bandages across her wounds and she is no longer dressed in rags. She looks happy to see you and immediately moves over next to you.

The head nun approaches you.

"Thank you for this opportunity to learn more about the mysterious diviners. We have learnt much these past few days. Unfortunately our deal is now at a close and we must part ways."

She seems somewhat in a hurry to get rid of you but she still adheres to all the proper manners and politeness.

-if the players question her about why they are packing up she glances towards Ilrune and says 'Due to recent information we no longer feel this place is the most suitable for the acquisition and storage of knowledge.'

Silver Cloud
You travel through the city and enter the silver cloud. All the tables and chairs in the dining area are occupied and the place is rather crowded. A small cluster of people have gathered around the mission board.

The receptionist recognizes you and makes a motion for you to come over.

"Hello again, The guild administrator has left me instructions that should you return I should recommend a particular mission for you."

She hands you a mission posting and begins to explain the details.

"Shadowvale, a town not to far from here if you follow the coramanthor river south west, has requested assistance dealing with a strange portal that has opened up recently. The mission is for anyone who has any information or knowledge on the portal. As well as seeking people to enter and return to determine any potential threats. As thus far anyone who has entered has failed to return. This is an Unranked class mission as a proper rating can not be yet assigned due to the lack of information. The reward is 200g for any valuable information about the portal, and 900g for scoutingl. A deposit of 100g is required, to be returned upon completion of course, only one mission can be taken at a time. Failure of a mission will result in a loss of your deposit".

"Of course you're free to decline or even choose another mission from the board. However the rewards will not be quite as generous, and this is the fastest way to climb ranks".

'''-players accept, contract length 1 month including the time needed to scout. Payment will be payed upon returning with a signature from the contract requester. In this case, Mayor redwood.'''

-players check the board, the D class missions mostly include small and basic missions, of the ones that might possible be of interest to you, theres one for returning 10 wolf pelts, there's another to find a missing person last seen by a basilisk nest, and another to gather 3 sacks of owlbear feathers. In the C class missions there are two, to slay the giant ape harassing the caravans in the south, and another to remove the white dragons nest in dragons spine mountain range to the north past zhentil keep. As for B class missions, almost all of them require traveling to places extremely far away, a lot of places you have not even heard of. The only one that is close by requires you to slay the world turtle and bring back it's shell. (100g for the D class, 500 for the C class, and 2500g for the B class)

-perhaps bring up the fact that felkars bag is completly full

TRAVEL TO SHADOWVALE
random encounter

after (encounter) you travel the rest of the way to Shadowvale uninterrupted. From time to time you feel as though a giant shadow is moving across the ground passed you as if something huge is blocking out the sun. However you can't make out what it is passed the trees. However after a day or so it leaves. Now arriving at Shadowvale you can see a small town nestled against the river. Only a few hundred homes or so. Just barely big enough to no longer be considered a village. A small wooden wall with sharpened tips extends the length of the city in a circle guards are posted in a triangle formation along it, the only access points are a small gate and the river next to it. As you approach even from some distance out you can see the blue glowing hue of what you recognize to be the exact same kind of portal you saw in Melvaunt. It doesn't appear to the located in the city itself it actually seems be some distance around 4 kilometers by the river. The only reason you can see it is because the the area around the city has been felled leaving a big wide open field. The portal seem to have 4 guards by it.

-players approach the portal - 4 lazy guards that are not taking their job seriously - notice the badges and matching uniforms and fetch the town chief.

'''-players approach the gates - notice the badges and matching uniforms and fetch the town chief. The ones waiting with you, pull out a pouch of some kind of herb you're unfamiliar with and a pipe.'''

After a borderline rude amount of time passes you see a thin but tall long haired tie dyed shirt man slowly making his way toward you lead by the guards.

(stoner voice) "sup dudes, I'm the de-facto mayor of this town, names redwood, everyone around here just calls me red. I assume you're here about the mission?"

-players say yes

"Alright tubular my dudes, so do you have any information on the portal, what it is, why it's here, how to get rid of it? or are you here to scout that hells asshole."

-players work out the specifics

-if players ask any information about the portal mayor redwood reveals that a terrifying bone chilling cold breeze occasionally comes out from the portal, they have also sent half a dozen groups into the portal and not one have returned.

THROUGH SHADOWDALE PORTAL
DONT FORGET TO PLAY THE MUSIC

(WHOS GOING FIRST) The familiar gut wrenching feeling of been pushed through a dimensional anus passes across you and before you even have time to get your bearings you're spat out in the middle of the air near the edge of a large hill an ice cold wind assails you and you begin plummeting toward the clear white snow below you.

(8d6 DC 14 (players that make dex saves) somehow manage to fall down into the snow at a perfect angle against the hill reducing the impact and rolling down the side only taking half damage.

(whoever goes firsts) Gets up and dusts off his wounds and you're again assaulted by the wind that feels like it could dig into your very soul. You've been here precious few seconds and already the moisture in your noise and mouth seem to be freezing. Looking around all you can see is a blanket of white. No trees, no animals, no buildings. Just white as far as you can make out. To the north a large mountain that seems to overlook the entire area. The portal flickers a solid 70 feet above your heads. With a flicker the rest of the party are spat out (each making their dc14 dex saves) (lowest score lands on Hugothr)

with a thud (x) lands on something boney, a small 'oof' is heard. Standing up you can see neatly situated between a bunch of rocks is a tiefling. His horns are filed down and he has long Lilac hair in a bun with an ivory pin holding in place. He appears to be from one of the groups that lead before you. Based on the amount of snow covering him you can tell he's been here for about a day. Surprisingly alive and unfrozen despite the extreme temperatures. A small wound on his head. Probably from the fall which knocked him out but otherwise uninjured (meta due to the ring of cold resist)

-introductions etc.

(if players check around a perception check of 10 reveals a tent peg stuck in the snow with a peice of cloth attached to it indicating a direction toward the mountains, the portal seems to high to go back through)

The cold now is seeping into your bones and even an idiot can tell that if you don't manage to find some way to stave off the cold soon you will die very quickly.

(if players want to learn about where they are, a history check of 14 reveals They are likely in the frostfell plane. Known for it's extreme coldness. Some areas could be survived with only mundane means of warmth, but other areas were so cold that only by means of magic could one survive. Some scholars insisted that the plane had some areas so cold that the very words one spoke would freeze solid. Others said that even light itself would freeze here in this "true cold".)

RULES IF FROSTFELL

-PLAYERS TAKE 1 POINT OF EXHAUSTION FOR EVERY TWO HOURS THEY ARE HERE, reduced or removed if they find some way to fend off the cold.

-PLAYERS GET 1 POINT OF EXHAUSTION BACK IF FOR EVERY 3 HOURS THEY REST BY SOMETHING WARM ( FIRE, WARMTH SPELL ETC )

-TAKES 2 HOURS TO REACH THE BASE

-TAKES 9 HOURS TO REACH THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

You trudge through the snow, the cold temperature freezing you to your very core. Each of you find yourself uncontrollably shivering. Not even the heavy exercise of traversing up the mountain can make you feel any warmth. As you reach the mountain base the ground begins to get harder and is closer to a rocky crag now. At least easier to walk on than the deep snow. You do notice that in a few clumps around you the snow has a somewhat pink hue to it.

(DC 8 investigation) Uncovering the snow around, you find 3 dead bodies. They appear to be the rest of the group of hugothrs party. Although its hard to tell as each of them are missing their limbs and heads, all of which have been ripped directly from their sockets, the entrails and organs are missing from each of the bodies. You also notice that there are a tent flag poles with cloth tied to them. It seems hugothrs group was following a trail left by someone before them. The markers head toward and up the mountain.

- If the players search for anything of use they find a few backpacks that have been mostly destroyed. And food or supplies they had seems to have been torn out and eaten. Likely by whatever did this to the bodies. However there is a small amount of firewood, and 2 warm jumpers. Although not thick enough to remove the cold entirely.

AT THIS POINT TWO HOURS HAVE PASSED AND EVERYONE (constitution 14 or exhaustion) BASED ON THEIR COLD LEVELS

-Players climb the mountain

following the mountain up it's far to steep to climb straight up. Instead you curve around the edges slowly ascending. After around 2 hours (constitution 14 or exhaustion), you've reached a fairly decent height. Every so often on your way up you had noticed a few markers similar to the ones before. At this point in the trail though the wall becomes very thin and to get through you'll have to edge across the cliff side or turn back and find a new way up.

(DC 10 acrobatics check) make it passed without issue

(Fail fall down the cliff side if no one helps and they fall they take 6d6) You fall down the cliff side banging off the edge a few times before finally your left arm is getting impaled between two sharp rocks jutting out the side of the mountain, preventing you from falling down further. The crunching sound of your bones shattering to powder inside your arm lets you know that your arm will be out of use for some time even with healing magic.

--players continue

(DC 8 perception) Across the cliff-side you can see that the mountain loops around, nestled in the mountainside opposite is a small cave. You estimate it would probably take you about 2 hours to reach from where you are. It seems the trail you are currently on seems to be leading there anyway.

Another 2 hours pass and you're very close to where you saw the cave it should be no more than 100-200 feet in front of you, (constitution 14 or exhaustion)

-CHECK PASSIVE PERCEPTION AGAINST (d20 +3) STEALTH (notice the snow on a steep hill to your left which the trail cuts through on its way to the cave seems to be shifting and moving around, you can't quite make out what's up there but there's definitely something there.

-PLAYERS CONTINUE TO THE CAVE

At this point you see 10 or 20 giant snowballs come rolling down the hill toward you. Each snowball is around 10 feet in diameter. To make matters worse if you're hit you'll definitely be pushed toward the edge of the mountain on your right.

(Everyone make a DC 12 DEX SAVING THROWING) (Fail takes 3d6 cold damage and is pushed off the cliff. Thankfully the cliff is not steep and it's just a big pit of snow that you can crawl back up by expending all your movement and a dash action)

(ROLL FOR INITIATIVE) DON'T FORGET MUSIC

5 x YETI - TACTICS,

-GRAPPLE PLAYERS AND PUSH THEM OFF THE EDGE

-(IF YETI FALL THEY CAN MOVE THROUGH SNOW FINE)

-After Battle IN CAVE

Inside the cave the ground is littered with bones, 7 or 8 fresh corpses are against the wall, surprisingly mostly whole. A small campfire that is now put out is in the center of the room. Their bags have also been torn open and the contents are strewn across the cave. There's a few days worth of firewood, However all the clothing has been torn to shreds.

(investigation check of 9) reveals a journal.

The journal details the event's of their journey after they came through the portal and their plans. He talks about how they luckily had enough wood to stave off the cold for a few days after they came here and how they found this cave by luck setting up camp here. (You all probably realize that this was the yetis cave and they basically just gave themselves up as a meal). He then trekked to the top of the mountain to discover a faint glow in the sea of white snow to the north. Probably the only possible sign of life that they have seen. He was unsure of how long it would take to travel there, possibly weeks or months depending on the whether conditions. After observing it for some time he noticed that periodically about twice a day it fires a beam across to the portal that seems to be stabilizing it.

-PLAYERS JOURNEY TO THE GLOW

at this point, there is no way the players can make it there without finding some way to keep warm (skinning the yetis). (yeti meat is also highly poisonous (Medicine check of 8)

- after nearly two weeks of traveling by this point you are totally out of good berries and the components needed for them, as well as any rations you may have had that was keeping you all sustained. You also can't help but shake the feeling that something has been tracking you since you left the mountains.

In front of you now is a sheet of ice that extends out to the horizon. Possibly a frozen sea. The glowing light to the north has been getting ever closer and you estimate you probably have another week to go. To your east a few dead trees can be seen. Which surprises you greatly. Although the tree is long dead, it shows that life can still survive here at least in some places.

-to get more food, players can fish, or try go deeper toward the trees and find animals. -If players go to the Forrest they are assaulted by two abominable yetis that seek to steal their food. It seems like a couple the mother is pregnant. They try to stealthily attack when the party sleeps.(ROLL INIATIVE)

-If the players cut a whole in the water to fish they are eventually assaulted by a chull (ROLL INIATIVE) -TACTICS the chuul will try and drag the players into the water. Anyone taken into the water while grappled immediatly takes a point of exhaustion and must find some way to get dry or freeze to death.