Previously: Chapter 44: Ten Weeks Later
Preparing for the Trip
The party spends most of the day before leaving to gather supplies. They also leave behind a bunch of gold for upkeep of the house, and promise he horses they will be back. Having lost the cursed crystal ball, they acquire a new focus to use for scrying, and finds a hand mirror that will be suitable. In addition, they buy whatever they can find of diamonds, but due to the dragon attack on Khuzunzan, supplies are dwindling. After shopping for whatever material components they need, they meet Thervan on the docks, who briefs them on the situation. He reminds them that the main priority is to rescue their people, but if they manage to make a truce with Murzol then that would be preferable.
The Unsinkable II
Walking down the docks, they see a fine ship, with an extremely tall Katari captain standing at the helm. He looks at the party, and waves them to approach, clearly having been told who to look for. He welcomes the party to The Unsinkable II, and introduces himself as the captain Windy in the Wind. Dandelion and Kal both ask what happened to the first Unsinkable, but he makes himself busy, not wanting to answer the question. Shame? Pride? It is uncertain. When they board, Dandelion asks where the boat is, and Windy in the Wind steels himself for 5 days with this extremely sheltered individual. Before setting off, he tells the party they’re waiting on the cook, and shortly after a stern looking goblin comes wandering down the docks, dragging a big bag of food behind him. Windy in the Wind warns the party that he is to be left alone, as he has a tendency to stab people who interfere with his cooking. He also tells them he doesn’t know the goblins name, he just makes sounds when they ask him, and they just og by that. Today it seems the name is Grah.
Setting Off
As the ship sets sail in the night, Kal apologizes for the storm that is raging above them, and Windy in the Wind is confused at first, but when he sees her holy symbol he understands. He says it’s fine, he’s been through worse. Dandelion spends most of the trip being nauseous as she has never set foot on a ship before. Fie spends most of his days cooped up in his cabin, dreading the cold weather. Penny spends some time writing songs for the crew about the ship, and her performance even draws the attention of some merfolk. Dandelion manages to insult them, so they splash her with some cold saltwater, but Penny is just glad to finally have seen merfolk up close.
Kal in the meantime, has been trying to befriend the goblin. She does this by simply standing around him when cooking, and doing her best to intimidate him into accepting her. It seems he doesn’t appreciate it at first, but he respects the effort she is putting in. When she starts helping out, she brings out her bag of spices, much to the goblin’s approval.
The deckhand Hugh approaches Dandelion as she is trying not to be sick due to the unsteady ground, and Kal senses that he is interested, but Dandelion being Dandelion doesn’t notice or realize. Talk about barking up the wrong tree.
Kal also tries to go into the crows nest, much to the annoyance of the navigator Nalral. He allows her to stay for a short while, so Kal uses her storm magic to look through the storm to see what is ahead of them. She can sense that she can move extremely far, reaching almost 20 miles away by her approximation, before her vision becomes blurry.
Nearing the end of their journey, by the shore, they see a massive hulking creature, almost like a troll. It appears to have noticed them, and starts walking out towards them. It appears to be an old friend of Windy in the Wind, who introduces himself as Larth. He asks if Windy in the Wind’s passengers are going to behave, referencing a bachelor party that went wrong a while back. He promises that they are just passing through, so Larth gives them a push to send them on their way, making Dandelion lose her footing, falling straight into the arms of Hugh. Hugh and Windy in the Wind share a wink, but Dandelion is too busy trying no to throw up to notice.
The Northern Fort
As they arrive at the docks, nightfall has come, and so the party sleeps on the ship for the night, before setting out in the morning. Before they do, Kal makes some candies, and gives one to the goblin, much to his approval. So much so that he tries to force her at knifepoint to stay on the ship to keep making food with him. He almost manages to convince her, but she sadly has to depart. They shake hands, leaving on good terms.
Standing by the docks, with Argus and Ira stretching their wings, Dandelion notices that Kal is staring at the storm roaring to the north. She puts her hand on her shoulder, asking if she’s okay. Kal just replies that she doesn’t like the cold. Dandelion feels there is more to it, but doesn’t press it. Standing around, Penny tries to throw a snowball at Fie, but he easily avoids her throw.
Going east, towards the fort, they can see the winds whipping the snow across the peaks of the mountain. Getting close to the base, they can see a guardpost with a tunnel leading into the mountain. A couple of sentries raise their crossbows and demand to know who goes there. Fie simply responds that they are sent from the crown to reach the north, looking for missing people. The guards lower their crossbows, having been told of their arrival. The party is led by carriage into the tunnel, which appears to be dwarven made, most likely from when the dwarves called the north their homeland. It has since been overtaken by the orcs. After a couple of hours of travel into the tunnel, they reach an ancient elevator. The journey to the top is slow and arduous, and takes about an hour. Getting to the fort, they are led to their chambers for the night, ready to set out in the morning. Looking to the north, they see a massive blizzard raging. Fie dreads the “fucking cold”. He and Dandelion try to walk around to find someone who can tell them more about the north, finding a ranger who tells them that there seems to be two factions, one with blue warpaint. The factions do not seem to get along, and the war painted ones seem to be more hostile. They are warned about howling blizzards, dangerous creatures like dragons, winter wolves, and other creatures that come from below. Another danger is “The Cold”, an unknown entity wandering around restlessly. Extremely dangerous. They are told it would take at least two weeks to reach Darmurd, but they do not recommend going there. Murzol, whom they are trying to reach, never stays in the same place too long, as he has to wander around the various tribes to lead the orcish people. But the ranger recommends to the party that the orcs are violent people, and if they are faced with a group of orcs, the party should run away or kill them before the orcs get a chance. In the evening, Kal asks Udall if the weather is his doing, which it is, but it is not to help or hinder the party, it’s just weather.
Into the Wild
Going down the elevator and walking to the north to exit the mountain, the party dreads the journey ahead of them. It is an extremely windy morning, and a full on blizzard. They put on their snowshoes and sets out. The first day goes relatively fine, no orcs to be seen, no scary monsters, just bad weather, luckily the party has good cleather. They push ahead to find a spot to get shelter from the wind. Penny casts the tiny hut to keep themselves safe, but Fie asks everyone if they would also like to accompany him in the ring to get more comfortable. They do, so they get dragged into it, getting a nice comfortable rest for the evening.
The next morning the storm has let down a bit, so the owls take flight to scout the area. Argus spots a party of orcs, to the north east. They appear to be painted with blue war paint. Realizing this, the party tries their best to stay hidden, managing to avoid facing the orcs. They seem to be looking for people, but it’s unclear if they are looking for the party in particular or people in general. After the orc party has passed, they stealthily head north, and can see a frozen lake in the distance, most likely Lake Mordol. Kal uses a spell to clear away some snow, with Penny summoning the hut again. Dandelion wants some beasts to protect the ring and hut in case something happens in the night, and manages to summon Mr. Elk again, as well as a giant boar and giant badger. Kal, Fie and Penny all look at each other, having come up with an idea that could make travel faster. Penny uses seeming to make the furry trio look like a Woolly Mammoth with its offspring, with Fie fastening the ring in a thread around Mr. Elks neck. They tell Mr. Elk to travel as far north as they can go, and pop into the ring to rest and travel at the same time.
Long Lost Relics
When the party emerges from the ring in the morning, just before dawn, Mr. Elk looks tired. The badger disappeared in the night, having fallen behind. Dandelion and Penny give lots of attention to Mr. Elk, and before he disappears as dawn approaches, he tells the party that he saw a hooded figure in the night, that just disappeared in front of his eyes. It seemed to be observing them.
The party continues their trek, with Ira suddenly spotting something in the distance with his owl eyes. He gestures to them to follow, which they do. In front of them, frozen in a thick sheet of ice, they see what appears to be an ancient door. Kal uses a few charges of Destroy water to make an opening in the ice wall. Penny studies the door, trying to find traps, but it appears to be safe. She tries to open the door, using all of her strength, and manages to force it open. It wasn’t locked, just slow. Darkness can be seen beyond the door. Fie goes first with his fiendish eyes granted to him by his patron, with the rest of the party following close behind.
The door leads to a set of narrow stairs, leading down into the mountain. After a short descent, they reach a hallway that opens a bit up. At the end of the hallway they see a large intricate door that is quite obviously dwarven with dwarven markings and imagery. Fie and Dandelion both notice that the beautiful floor leading up to the door appears to be pressure plates, and in the ceiling they see a large hammer that appears to reset itself. Fie activates his flying, and floats into the hallway, looking for a switch or button to stop the trap. Guided by Dandelion, he finds a small lever next to the wall, on the ground, that seems to lock them in place, making it safe to pass. The rest of the party approaches, and the door is locked, by a pretty sturdy and intricate lock, but Fie decides to go for it. Guided by Dandelion and Inspired by Penny, he manages to just barely unlock the door, and it slowly opens inwards.
Within, there appears to be an ancient dwarven workshop, dedicated to the study and production of Warforged. It appears to have been untouched for a few thousand years, as a thick layer of dust covers most of everything. They go through the room, finding a bunch of ancient relics and treasures, some potions, tomes and another blank tarot card like the ones they have found before. Penny also finds what appears to at first be a small statue of a dragon-esque creature, but when she turns a key, it turns into a clockwork familiar that follows her around, to help her.
As the workshop seems untouched, and out of view for most, they decide to stay there at least for the night, getting some good cover from the storm.
Dangers Below
When the party emerges from the workshop, the weather is mostly clear. Some light snow falls from the skies, but the wind is all but gone. The owls fly around observing the area, watching for dangers, while the party wanders the snow covered lands, heading even further north. It does not take long for the ground to suddenly start shaking violently below them. Fie and Penny both take flight to avoid it, but Kal has no way to fly. Dandelion wild shapes into a giant eagle, and flies over to grab Kal out of danger, and just as she manages to pick her up and soar to the sky, a large centipede-like creature bursts out from the ground trying to eat her. The party, realizing that this thing most likely will follow them if they try to leave, decides to try to take it out. It being a wild beast, the party manages to do a lot of damage to it using int-based attacks, with Kal summoning an insect cloud that covers the area around it, hurting it and making it hard for it to move. Realizing it’s mistake, it tries to burrow underground to get away. Kal and Dandelion lands, with Kal running to the side to make it follow her. Dandelion notice that it is moving towards Kal, so she, Penny and Fie hold spells to attack it when it emerges. As it bursts out of the ground again, ready to feast on the cleric, Penny, Fie and Dandelion all release their held spells, with Dandelion getting the killing blow, causing the Remorhaz to explode, it’s smoldering body parts melting the snow and ice around it.
Afterwards, the party continues the trek northwards, but nearing the end of the day, both Dandelion and Penny can see a stormwall approaching from the east. It is moving fast, and is almost upon them, only about a minute away. Penny quickly starts summoning the tiny hut, with Kal once more using her Destroy Water spell to clear some ground for her. The stormwall hits just before the party is safe beneath the hut, causing them to take some cold damage. Seems that the storm is very dangerous to be caught in by the unprepared.
The Cold
Sadly, the storm won’t give up, causing the party to lose a little over a day, waiting for the storm to pass. When it does, they continue north once more, but they don’t get far before night is upon them again. Dandelion notices that they are being followed. A large shape is following them, and getting closer. They all realize that the description fits The Cold that the ranger was talking about, so Penny starts summoning her tiny hut once more, trying to get shelter, managing to get it up just in time before the Cold gets close enough. Looking out, they all see the glowing yellow eyes peering into the hut trying to find the party. Penny uses her detect thoughts, and all she can feel is “cold… so cold… need warmth… cold…”. The being lets out a terrifying groan, sending shivers down the party’s spines. Dandelion lights a torch and places it just outside the hut. As her hand exits the hut, it immediately starts freezing, almost getting frostbite, even though it was only out for a second or two. As the creature notice the torch, it moves towards it, immediately extinguishing it, with the smoke almost freezing mid air. Realizing that this creature will not let up, they have to come up with a plan to lure it away. Kal suggests using the thermal cubes and throwing it away, with them running the other direction, but Penny creates an oven, animates it, makes a fire within it, and sends it on its way to lure the creature towards it, away from them. It seems to be working, and they can see the slumbering, hulking creature disappear into the night. They quickly hurry the other way, and manages to summon Mr. Elk once more, doing the same routine of having him carry them through the night. This time, Penny uses Seeming to make it appear to be a larger version of the Cold, ensuring that it will not be disturbed in the night.
A Presence in the Night
As the party rests in the ring, watching the world pass by outside, Fie goes to sleep. As he enters his slumber, he can sense a presence trying to intrude into his dream. He can hear “give it back”, but his Ring of Mind Shielding manages to keep it out, not affecting him. He tells the others about it when they wake, with them wondering who they are and what they want. He thinks it’s fairly obvious, they want the Key back, but they might not know that they don’t have it anymore.
The Pass
As the party emerge once more, just before dawn, they can see that they have reached a road that leads through a mountain pass. They’re having a hard time thinking about where to go next, continue north, head east, it’s very unclear. They do figure they should stay away from the main road, and sneak around to the south of it. Kal does a divination spell asking where they should go, and is told that “The direct path is not always the best, you should head east”. She casts commune, asking Udall to clarify, and is told to just head east, and they should find their way. She also learns that the missing people are not held at Darmurd, but held by the orcs who use blue war paint. Murzol is not with the missing people, and is not affiliated with the blue-painted orcs.
The party sets east, with Penny using Seeming to transform them into orcs who has blue war paint, having Argus and Ira’s help to describe how they should look based on what they saw a few days ago. Dandelion also transforms her staff into a staff of autumn, to help them with stealth. She also communed with nature, and discovered that there are various game animals, winter wolves, ice elementals and orcs within 3 miles of their location. It seems that there also seems to be an influence from the elemental plane of air in the area, but it’s not possible to pinpoint where.
The party doesn’t have to travel long before they hear rhythmic drums ahead of them, the sound carried by the wind. The storm makes it hard to see or tell where it is, but soon they can see the outskirts of a tribe in front of them. They decide to hide and observe, and notice that there seems to not be any blue warpaint on any of them. They do however see that there are women and children in the tribe. The party stays around for a while, observing, and notices that a couple of sentries wanders dangerously close, but they do not see them, thanks to Dandelion's spell veiling them. Penny uses her detect thoughts, and they seem to be on edge, watching for the “wrong” type of orc. They assume they mean the blue-painted ones. Kal does a commune once more, asking if they should talk to the tribe, but it is unclear. It is clear however that the tribe is not affiliated with the blue-painted orcs. With no way to communicate and them looking like the enemy to the tribe, they decide to move east. As they exit the mountain pass, the storm lets up a bit, making it easier to see, and they can now see that there seem to be more trees in the immediate area. Wanting to stay safe for the night, they look around for an abandoned hole they can put the ring in, before resting for the night.
Fau’Nok
The next morning Fie announces that they have just woken up in a new year. It’s January 1st, and what follows is a discussion with Dandelion about the sun, the planet, and how it moves around the sun. Dandelion is confused, and doesn’t see the relevance.
They continue to head east, staying clear of the road to the north. After a couple of hours, they can see a figure sitting in the snow among the trees to the south of them. Ira is sent to examine them, circling abov, before returning. He tells them that the figure looks like a woman, and kinda like Dandelion, with pain in her face, surrounded by bones, feathers and sticks. They discuss how they should approach her, with Ira suggesting that he can just talk to her. Dandelion doesn’t like the idea as she doesn’t want him to get hurt, but Kal assures her it’s fine. Ira flies over, and they can see that he tries to introduce himself, but this just spooks the woman. They talk a bit, with Ira gesturing toward the party to the north. The woman turns, sees them, and tries to run and hide. The party approaches her, making clear that they mean her no harm. She asks them, in very broken Common, who they are, and why they are here, as they don’t belong, all while holding a knife towards them to protect herself. They tell her that they’re looking for some missing people. She asks them if they follow Grommok, supposedly the leader of the blue-painted orcs. They assure her that they do not, but want to find Murzol. She ponders the situation, and the party asks what she was doing out here. She tells them she is praying to Fau'Nok to help her. This causes Dandelion to absolutely lose her mind, as she immediately hears the resemblance to Faunus. The woman tells them that it is not Faunus, as Fau’Nok is an orcish god, but she has heard of the other gods, particularly Velho, the god of magic, whom she refers to as the god of spirits that grants powers. She was praying for help to clear a corrupted shrine nearby, and if they party can help her clear it, she will lead them to Murzol to negotiate. She tells the party that Grommok’s tribe hails from the Frostfang Pekas to the north, but she doesn’t know where they are exactly. Realizing that the party seems safe, she introduces herself as Draka Earthwhisper. She starts walking west, telling the party to follow if they want to help. Fie curses the gods, feeling like a pawn in their game, but comes along too.
Draka leads them to the mountains, and after some hours into the valley and through a narrow passage, she stops, and gestures further, telling them that the shrine is beyond, and that she hopes they can clear it. She seems forthcoming, but Kal gets the impression that she genuinely does not believe they will survive.
The Being
Entering the shrine, they can see that it is walled in, with a natural platform next to the northern wall of the half-cave that seems to have some writing on it. Dandelion approaches carefully, with Penny right behind her, having activated detect thoughts. Fie activates his flying, but walks carefully after them, Kal getting ready for a fight. Penny senses no thoughts in the area other than those of her group. Dandelion approaches the shrine, seeing writing that has been written down over generations. There seems to be no presence around, but as soon as she steps on the shrine, Penny gets a deafening scream into her mind, and as they all look up, they see a disturbing abomination emerging from nowhere, made of what appears to be several body parts of various orcs and creatures, screaming, heading straight towards Dandelion.