16.4.2.2 Clearing out the temple, and exploring the drake caves.
General Summary
The 2 headbands of alluring charisma +4 (Dredoc/Zaxel) distributed to Dredoc and Zaxel, Dredoc also given the pink/green sphere ion stone to orbit around his head (+2 CHA)
The central chamber where we fought UNDEAD had a double set of doors leading east and west with a pair of single doors leading away to the north east and northwest.
We choose the western double doors, opening them The sickly sweet smell of blood and viscera was almost overpowering in this room. A long, giant-sized table rests against the west wall. A partially devoured human corpse lay on top of the table like a meal to be served, complete with an apple jammed in its mouth. The floor near the body is sticky with blood; elsewhere, hides and furs cover the floor.
Zaxel takes a few moments and speaks a prayer for the dead human, invoking the prayer of Consecrating the body in the name of Brigh. Upon close examination we discover that this chamber has a magical silence aura upon it with no sounds being allowed past its thresholds either way.
This chamber held two new doors, north and south, we went south hoping to find the barred doorway we encountered outside. Sure enough it was an antechamber of sorts murals upon the walls depict a titanic figure composed of ice, tall enough to overshadow mountains, stumbling into a vast, mist-shrouded body of water. We know this to be the frost giants creation myth of Thremyr falling into the sea of ice and wind to the northeast of here a few hundred miles. otherwise the chamber was empty.
We turned back to the central western chamber we have deciding to clear the western half of the Temple i kick open the north door from the silent chamber.
A table draped in red cloth sits against the west side of the room. Holy symbols and other objects pertinent to worship and divine sacraments are laid on its surface. We spend a few moments debating if we should take the items and destory them elsewhere when Daemon pipes up and suggests using his Flare's upon the cloth and burning everything within the chamber and then does so.
We head back into the central chamber, Adler takes point and least us across to the eastern double doors. we enter what appears to be a shrine to Urgathoa. Giant-sized pews are lined up in front of a large stone altar. Above the altar is a tapestry depicting a great citadel in the midst of a city, surrounded by a vast wasteland. A silver goblet and knife rest on a red cloth draped across the altar.
Between Daemon, Zaxel and Dredoc they are able to deduce that the tappestry depicts the realm of Urgathoa upon Abaddon. Continual flame torches are in holders upon the four corners of the chamber. We recover the silver and torches then Daemon again uses his flare to spark up a tapestry. Hopefully Urgathoa is watching us.
We head back into the central chamber and choose the NW door coming to a chamber filled with crates and barrels. looking through them we find some very nice varrisian wine, cooking spices, and some carmel candies, and probally the last batch of spirits brewed at the brewer we blew up a few nights back.
We have but one chamber left, we are prepared for the worst. What awaits us upon the other side, none of us could have guessed. This simple room contains something utterly out-of-place in the giant village: a large bed with a soft mattress, fluffy pillows, and silk sheets. A small nightstand sits against the opposite wall.
Upon the nightstand we a pouch of black onyx gemstones and some letters of personal correspondence between Dybellos and someone named Dulcilene, who appears to be Dybellos’s sister. The letter is strangely mundane, addressed to a location called Druanwiet Manor. In the letter, Dybellos asks about the weather, the health of the other’s children, and how she misses the autumn in Varno.
We remember that Varno is a principality within the nation of Ustalav to the northeast. Druanwiet is a noble estate is within the settlement of Redleaf. Dredoc realizes this is a coded message and translates spelling and phrasing order mistakes to come up with "The Frost Queen prepares. We permit the Storm Tyrant to perform our labors. Timetable uncertain. The pawn’s citadel requires repair. Then the Pallid Princess’s Great Work begins.”
This is troubling.. it means that the creature we faught Dybellos has a sister, perhaps even more powerful. both of whom served the frost queen.. not just this giant godess of undeath, but a being that we have until now not even heard rumor of. It also means we need to either travel ourselves or send trusted companions to investigate both the manner of Druanwiet and perhaps that whole Principality of Varno should redleaf not be within it.. troubling lead to follow up hundreds of miles away from here.
Following protocal Daemon burns everything that we are not taking with us. We spend a little bit of time to rig the stone building to explode.. plenty of alcohol for fuel and.. gas somehow was created.. im not sure i spent the time trying to make a better sketch of the western antichamber's fresco before we destroyed it. We created a delay of a couple hours and sealed the doors shut behind us. Not much debate we head north to the caves we Noxi told us that the frost drakes resided within.
Four large cave entrances gape here, set high upon a cliff ledge that overlooks the village. Their shadowed depths lead directly into the side of the mountain. Trusting fate we followed the second from the east, same as we did when we met with RenFear a couple of hours ago. Eventually we came to a large chamber whos northern portions slopes downwards covered in ice and rime. The back wall appears to made entierly of a Wall of Ice and appears to have.. coins scattered within it, perhaps we can dig these out or even melt them out after we deal with the drakes and see what treasures they think are important enough to hide with enough breaths to make a solid wall of ice!
As we are searching and studying the wall we hear the sounds of drakes roaring.. multiple voices speaking and echoing in draconic so chaoticly that we cannot make out indivual words. Thankfully before we enter the caves Daemon spoke the words of his Spell of Haste, Zaxel used his prayer of Protection from Elements to cover the other four and i used my prayer of elemental protection to ward myself. We place ourselves to defend against either the west or southern entrance.
The drakes arrive two from the west and three from the south. We are prepaired. Adler remembers he has never heard of a frost drake being trustworthy or known to keep its oath and tells us. Zaxel starts things off by summoning the wall of clockwork gears to choak off the western entrance. Adlertakes aim unleashing a rapid volley of arrows most aimed deadly at the 1st south drake. I take aim unloading four rounds into the 2nd south drake. Dredoc hides in the corner and sings a battle song to inspire us his voice echoing off the chamber walls flawlessly. Daemon takes aim at the 1st and 2nd south drake unleashing a burning scorching ray, almost finishing off the 1st drake and baddly wounding the second drake.
The drakes to the west scream in rage the first unleashing a blast that strikes behind Adler but does not harm him before flying off, west drake two simply turns around and flies swiftly out of our sight. the remaining two from the south both breathe upon Daemon, Varr'os and Zaxel and knocking both Daemon and Zaxel prone.. thankfully the elemental protection absorbs the chill of their breaths. Addler unloads on upon the 1st south drake again, finishing it off and redirrecting his final shot to sink into the 2nd drake. Zaxel tries to get up from the icy ground but is unable to so instead crawls across the ground until he reaches a dry patch of ground. I fire into the 3rd drake loosing track of the 2nd one in the madness. Daemon hunts for the right component.. in that time the 2nd south drake somehow gets behind me and takes a bite out of me trying to lift me up into the air. the 3rd south drake breaths upon daemon and myself knocking me down, daemon gets off his firey disintigration spell turning the drake that was trying to pick me up into a pile of dust. Zaxel manages to get up and fire one round off at the last drake we can see, Adler unloads five arrows into it, dropping it to the ground. dead. We know the others are coming.. we can hear what sounds like four or five distint voices. The others reposition themselves to cover the southern entrance.
I try a technique i heard about when we were meeting with the Sidhedrion Council.. their dwarven defender told me of his technique of using his tower shield as a sled to go down flights of stairs swiftly. i tried it on the icy patch.. not near as skilled at it as him.. i ended up on my stomach with my shield a few paces ahead of me.. Remembering the time we faught against the spire drake broodmother and i had then also lost my shield i make sure the seed rifle is loaded and draw beardsbane (that i keep loaded in the haversack) taking aim to the south.
We are ready for them. Adler takes aim with his bow the first four hits dropping one of the drakes., redirecting his final arrow into the second one. I fire and hit with all six shots, Dredoc sings a new battle song to inspire us to greatness, Daemon launches a fireball into the midsts of the second and third drakes slaying the second and baddly wounding the third, Zaxel takes aim also at the third drake only hitting once not quite enough to kill it.
The drakes advance with third and fourth blasting varr'os and daemon with icey breaths. the prayers protecting daemon last but varr'os is knocked prone again and starts to bleed as even the health from the zaxel's aid fades. Adler fires another rapid deadly volley slaying the third drake and again redirecting to the next and hurting it, I try to get up fall back down, finally inch my way back up and out of the drake that i am within. Dredoc sings yet another battle hymn, who would have thought he knew so many songs. Daemon launches another fireball, appearing to hurt the fourth and i think a fifth drake. perhaps i was seeing things but a much larger one with huge wings appeared almost out of nowhere. Zaxel fires hurting it greatly.
The final Frost drake we see bellows its anger and rage unleashing a blast of freezing cold upon Daemon, Varr'os and Zaxel knocking zaxel to the ground again and varr'os bleeds a bit more. We pause here for a moment to gather our collective breath. our heroes were revealed to be somewhat powerful, especially when we are working as a team. those drakes of frost are no joke and had we encountered them back near the forge.. the battle may very well have gone differently.
((The Big Winged Drake double moved at fly speed south out of our LOS on the map, Adler is up next he intends to use the four rounds of haste remaining to chase it down with his boots of flying and a double move or tripple move so to speak. subject to change as he hasnt technically done it.. but did not want the plan to be forgotten over the next two weeks of real time.))
We choose the western double doors, opening them The sickly sweet smell of blood and viscera was almost overpowering in this room. A long, giant-sized table rests against the west wall. A partially devoured human corpse lay on top of the table like a meal to be served, complete with an apple jammed in its mouth. The floor near the body is sticky with blood; elsewhere, hides and furs cover the floor.
Zaxel takes a few moments and speaks a prayer for the dead human, invoking the prayer of Consecrating the body in the name of Brigh. Upon close examination we discover that this chamber has a magical silence aura upon it with no sounds being allowed past its thresholds either way.
This chamber held two new doors, north and south, we went south hoping to find the barred doorway we encountered outside. Sure enough it was an antechamber of sorts murals upon the walls depict a titanic figure composed of ice, tall enough to overshadow mountains, stumbling into a vast, mist-shrouded body of water. We know this to be the frost giants creation myth of Thremyr falling into the sea of ice and wind to the northeast of here a few hundred miles. otherwise the chamber was empty.
We turned back to the central western chamber we have deciding to clear the western half of the Temple i kick open the north door from the silent chamber.
A table draped in red cloth sits against the west side of the room. Holy symbols and other objects pertinent to worship and divine sacraments are laid on its surface. We spend a few moments debating if we should take the items and destory them elsewhere when Daemon pipes up and suggests using his Flare's upon the cloth and burning everything within the chamber and then does so.
We head back into the central chamber, Adler takes point and least us across to the eastern double doors. we enter what appears to be a shrine to Urgathoa. Giant-sized pews are lined up in front of a large stone altar. Above the altar is a tapestry depicting a great citadel in the midst of a city, surrounded by a vast wasteland. A silver goblet and knife rest on a red cloth draped across the altar.
Between Daemon, Zaxel and Dredoc they are able to deduce that the tappestry depicts the realm of Urgathoa upon Abaddon. Continual flame torches are in holders upon the four corners of the chamber. We recover the silver and torches then Daemon again uses his flare to spark up a tapestry. Hopefully Urgathoa is watching us.
We head back into the central chamber and choose the NW door coming to a chamber filled with crates and barrels. looking through them we find some very nice varrisian wine, cooking spices, and some carmel candies, and probally the last batch of spirits brewed at the brewer we blew up a few nights back.
We have but one chamber left, we are prepared for the worst. What awaits us upon the other side, none of us could have guessed. This simple room contains something utterly out-of-place in the giant village: a large bed with a soft mattress, fluffy pillows, and silk sheets. A small nightstand sits against the opposite wall.
Upon the nightstand we a pouch of black onyx gemstones and some letters of personal correspondence between Dybellos and someone named Dulcilene, who appears to be Dybellos’s sister. The letter is strangely mundane, addressed to a location called Druanwiet Manor. In the letter, Dybellos asks about the weather, the health of the other’s children, and how she misses the autumn in Varno.
We remember that Varno is a principality within the nation of Ustalav to the northeast. Druanwiet is a noble estate is within the settlement of Redleaf. Dredoc realizes this is a coded message and translates spelling and phrasing order mistakes to come up with "The Frost Queen prepares. We permit the Storm Tyrant to perform our labors. Timetable uncertain. The pawn’s citadel requires repair. Then the Pallid Princess’s Great Work begins.”
This is troubling.. it means that the creature we faught Dybellos has a sister, perhaps even more powerful. both of whom served the frost queen.. not just this giant godess of undeath, but a being that we have until now not even heard rumor of. It also means we need to either travel ourselves or send trusted companions to investigate both the manner of Druanwiet and perhaps that whole Principality of Varno should redleaf not be within it.. troubling lead to follow up hundreds of miles away from here.
Following protocal Daemon burns everything that we are not taking with us. We spend a little bit of time to rig the stone building to explode.. plenty of alcohol for fuel and.. gas somehow was created.. im not sure i spent the time trying to make a better sketch of the western antichamber's fresco before we destroyed it. We created a delay of a couple hours and sealed the doors shut behind us. Not much debate we head north to the caves we Noxi told us that the frost drakes resided within.
Four large cave entrances gape here, set high upon a cliff ledge that overlooks the village. Their shadowed depths lead directly into the side of the mountain. Trusting fate we followed the second from the east, same as we did when we met with RenFear a couple of hours ago. Eventually we came to a large chamber whos northern portions slopes downwards covered in ice and rime. The back wall appears to made entierly of a Wall of Ice and appears to have.. coins scattered within it, perhaps we can dig these out or even melt them out after we deal with the drakes and see what treasures they think are important enough to hide with enough breaths to make a solid wall of ice!
As we are searching and studying the wall we hear the sounds of drakes roaring.. multiple voices speaking and echoing in draconic so chaoticly that we cannot make out indivual words. Thankfully before we enter the caves Daemon spoke the words of his Spell of Haste, Zaxel used his prayer of Protection from Elements to cover the other four and i used my prayer of elemental protection to ward myself. We place ourselves to defend against either the west or southern entrance.
The drakes arrive two from the west and three from the south. We are prepaired. Adler remembers he has never heard of a frost drake being trustworthy or known to keep its oath and tells us. Zaxel starts things off by summoning the wall of clockwork gears to choak off the western entrance. Adlertakes aim unleashing a rapid volley of arrows most aimed deadly at the 1st south drake. I take aim unloading four rounds into the 2nd south drake. Dredoc hides in the corner and sings a battle song to inspire us his voice echoing off the chamber walls flawlessly. Daemon takes aim at the 1st and 2nd south drake unleashing a burning scorching ray, almost finishing off the 1st drake and baddly wounding the second drake.
The drakes to the west scream in rage the first unleashing a blast that strikes behind Adler but does not harm him before flying off, west drake two simply turns around and flies swiftly out of our sight. the remaining two from the south both breathe upon Daemon, Varr'os and Zaxel and knocking both Daemon and Zaxel prone.. thankfully the elemental protection absorbs the chill of their breaths. Addler unloads on upon the 1st south drake again, finishing it off and redirrecting his final shot to sink into the 2nd drake. Zaxel tries to get up from the icy ground but is unable to so instead crawls across the ground until he reaches a dry patch of ground. I fire into the 3rd drake loosing track of the 2nd one in the madness. Daemon hunts for the right component.. in that time the 2nd south drake somehow gets behind me and takes a bite out of me trying to lift me up into the air. the 3rd south drake breaths upon daemon and myself knocking me down, daemon gets off his firey disintigration spell turning the drake that was trying to pick me up into a pile of dust. Zaxel manages to get up and fire one round off at the last drake we can see, Adler unloads five arrows into it, dropping it to the ground. dead. We know the others are coming.. we can hear what sounds like four or five distint voices. The others reposition themselves to cover the southern entrance.
I try a technique i heard about when we were meeting with the Sidhedrion Council.. their dwarven defender told me of his technique of using his tower shield as a sled to go down flights of stairs swiftly. i tried it on the icy patch.. not near as skilled at it as him.. i ended up on my stomach with my shield a few paces ahead of me.. Remembering the time we faught against the spire drake broodmother and i had then also lost my shield i make sure the seed rifle is loaded and draw beardsbane (that i keep loaded in the haversack) taking aim to the south.
We are ready for them. Adler takes aim with his bow the first four hits dropping one of the drakes., redirecting his final arrow into the second one. I fire and hit with all six shots, Dredoc sings a new battle song to inspire us to greatness, Daemon launches a fireball into the midsts of the second and third drakes slaying the second and baddly wounding the third, Zaxel takes aim also at the third drake only hitting once not quite enough to kill it.
The drakes advance with third and fourth blasting varr'os and daemon with icey breaths. the prayers protecting daemon last but varr'os is knocked prone again and starts to bleed as even the health from the zaxel's aid fades. Adler fires another rapid deadly volley slaying the third drake and again redirecting to the next and hurting it, I try to get up fall back down, finally inch my way back up and out of the drake that i am within. Dredoc sings yet another battle hymn, who would have thought he knew so many songs. Daemon launches another fireball, appearing to hurt the fourth and i think a fifth drake. perhaps i was seeing things but a much larger one with huge wings appeared almost out of nowhere. Zaxel fires hurting it greatly.
The final Frost drake we see bellows its anger and rage unleashing a blast of freezing cold upon Daemon, Varr'os and Zaxel knocking zaxel to the ground again and varr'os bleeds a bit more. We pause here for a moment to gather our collective breath. our heroes were revealed to be somewhat powerful, especially when we are working as a team. those drakes of frost are no joke and had we encountered them back near the forge.. the battle may very well have gone differently.
((The Big Winged Drake double moved at fly speed south out of our LOS on the map, Adler is up next he intends to use the four rounds of haste remaining to chase it down with his boots of flying and a double move or tripple move so to speak. subject to change as he hasnt technically done it.. but did not want the plan to be forgotten over the next two weeks of real time.))
Rewards Granted
XP awarded to Adler, Daedon, Dredoc, Varr'os, Zaxel was 4800 each.
Items Found this session
1 DC 13 sketch of the Thrmyr's arrival upon our world.
1 Masterwork Silver Dagger (Large)
1 Silver Goblet (50gold)
4 Continual Flame Torches.
2 boxes of culinary spices, rare caramel candies, a keg of Varrisian Moonshine.
1 Platinum Unholy symbol of Urgathoa (50gold)
1 pouch filled with black onyx stones (750gold)
1 pot of black ink, ink-pen, and several sheets of paper.
1 letter addressed to My Beloved Sister Dulcilene, Varno Principality of Ustalv, Druanwiet Manor Redleaf containing a coded message.
presumably the eight hides of the dead frost drakes as well; but we are paused in combat atm.
1 Masterwork Silver Dagger (Large)
1 Silver Goblet (50gold)
4 Continual Flame Torches.
2 boxes of culinary spices, rare caramel candies, a keg of Varrisian Moonshine.
1 Platinum Unholy symbol of Urgathoa (50gold)
1 pouch filled with black onyx stones (750gold)
1 pot of black ink, ink-pen, and several sheets of paper.
1 letter addressed to My Beloved Sister Dulcilene, Varno Principality of Ustalv, Druanwiet Manor Redleaf containing a coded message.
presumably the eight hides of the dead frost drakes as well; but we are paused in combat atm.
Missions/Quests Completed
Disrupt the Temple of Urgathoa without being detected. (complete)
Disrupt the frost drake presence without being detected. (underway)
Disrupt the frost drake presence without being detected. (underway)
Notes
We know in the City of Redleaf of the country Ustalv there is another, Daughter of Urgathoa
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