Session 38

=July 18th, 2019 - Vault of the Cloudchaser=

The Calm Before the Ice Storm
The session began with the group deciding whether they could risk taking a short rest after their battle with Rezmir. The consensus was that even though they made so much commotion, if the dragon deep within the iceberg didn’t emerge to investigate already, it would likely stay and protect its hoard. Thus, the party ventured back to the upper courtyard of the cloud castle and spoke briefly with Count Blagothkus. They were amazed by the magical steering tower he was guarding, whose top floor was completely invisible, giving the occupants a clear 360 degree view around the sky. Magical giant runes floated and slowly circled around the space, which Rachen deciphered as commands to control the castle itself.

Blagothkus congratulated the group for defeating the cultists on the lower courtyard, but said unfortunately none of his ogre guards could fit down the staircase to help battle the dragon Glazhael, known by the cult as the ‘Cloudchaser’. He also didn’t have any Rocs that could fly them around to the underside tunnels the dragon used to come and go. The ogres manning the tower ballistas would remain vigilant; however, they really didn’t have too much practice and the Count questioned whether they would be good shots against a fast flying dragon. Blagothkus did however agree to let the group rest on the bottom floor of his personal tower, seeing as all the smallfolk quarters on the lower courtyard were currently filled with corpses. And so, the party spent around an hour resting, bandaging up their wounds, and preparing as best they could for the confrontation ahead of them.

Once they were ready, the group went back to the lower courtyard staircase and began to descend. Before they got too far however, they realized that all the torches stopped and the depths of the glacier were in darkness. So, Alburt controlled his newly re-summoned familiar, the owl ‘The Breeze 3’, down the spiral staircase. The darkvision capable owl swept down the stairs until it opened into a small cavern with three tunnels, one level, one going up, and one going down. The level tunnel had light coming from it, and turned out to be an exterior exit tunnel. The owl flew back in and progressed through the downward sloping tunnel, and entered into a massive dark cavern.

As The Breeze 3 flew a circle around the space it spotted the enormous pile of treasure, mostly frozen underneath the floor, but saw no signs of a white dragon. Then in an instant, Alburt was shocked back into his own body, and knew his owl had once again been obliterated. With their path known and a basic understanding of the caverns layout the group progressed down into the heart of the glacier. Cadmus cast a light spell on Rachen’s shield so the human could see, and the brave warrior led the way into the large cavern. The group forgot to don their cold weather gear, as the rest of the castle wasn’t very cold even though it was made of ice. However, this space was unnaturally chilled.

Vault of the Cloudchaser
With most of the vast space in darkness the group heard the beast first, and its sounds came from the ceiling. Thia was the only one who could see across the distance with her newly acquired Black Dragon Mask, and just barely saw the adult white dragon clinging to the ceiling before it roared and unleashed its massive cold breath on the entire group. Almost everyone in the party was almost knocked out from that initial blast. They began to disperse as a number of small ice mephits - the smallest of all elementals - appeared from all around the icy formations on the floor of the cavern and attacked them. Thia commanded Elysian to take flight and began trying to attack the dragon.

The dragon blasted another massive cold breath at those still gathered near the tunnel they entered from, only hitting Cadmus and Rachen, but enough to nearly down them as well. With most of the group unable to even see the dragon, Cadmus used his spear Dragongleam to cast daylight in the middle of chamber, illuminating the monster. The cleric also cast a healing spell on Lachlan, barely keeping him from falling. On the brink of death himself, Alburt used his only polymorph spell to transform himself into a young white dragon. This both reinvigorated him and made him immune to the extreme cold.

Alburt then took to the air and circled the cavern, holding his newly acquired staff of fire, and unleashing fireballs against the adult white. The dragon finally dropped from the ceiling to better maneuver and try to decimate Rachen and Cadmus. In the heart of it’s lair the dragon also unleashed a freezing cold fog, and had massive ice spikes fall from the ceiling. Rufus and most of the melee characters focused on taking out the ice mephits, who upon death exploded into knife-like shards of ice. Half of the party fell unconscious and it looked as if they would all be killed, but it was Alburt in his polymorphed state with his staff of fire that turned the tide.

With Elysian and Alburt circling, the remaining members of the party finally dealt a killing blow to the dragon, whose huge body collapsed near its massive pile of treasure. None of those who had fallen died, although some got very close. Some healing potions and spells later and most had awoken again. The group then had lots of time to recover, converse with their host Blagothkus, and slowly melt the ice on the ground of the dragon’s cavern to uncover the majority of the treasure hoard. Rachen used his sending stone to inform the Lady Silverhand of their victory, and that they had asked the Count to have the cloud castle return them to Ironbay.

Count Blagothkus agreed and would allow them to take half of the treasure and do with as they pleased, but he would keep the other half for his own purposes. Having rewarded the group, the Count told them now that he was free of the cult he had some things to take care of on his own, but he would call upon them for assistance at a later time. There was much to do to restore the various clans of giant and unite them against the machinations of the dragons and their cult. As the castle slowly drifted back south towards Ironbay, the party used their spells to identify whatever magical items were within the hoard, keeping them for themselves, and deciding what they would do with the rest of their half of the recovered hoard. Each person’s share was valued at roughly six and a half thousand golden griffons. Many of the group would give most, or portions of their share back to the people (via Lady Silverhand), but most kept some for themselves.

Rufus wanted to ensure he could recover enough coin for his mother to never have to worry about money again. Rachen, as an agent of the Lord’s Accord was the only one who would give back all of his share, except for what was needed to resupply. The party dispersed the magic items recovered from the hoard, with Rachen taking the ring of feather falling. Alburt was given the headband of intellect, and gave his previous +1 wand to Lachlan. Rufus obtained the highly desired amulet of health, while Cadmus took the +1 shield. There were also two magic potions, an oil of bless weapon, and a potion of delay poison they put into the hoards-person’s bag of holding.

And that is where the session ended, with the party flying across the province towards Ironbay on Count Blagothkus’ iceberg cloud castle. They would reach Ironbay after about four days, around the one hundred and fiftieth day since the raid on Greenest. The party also leveled up to level eight at this time.

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