Rime of the Frostmaiden: Auril’s Abode, Part 11

The previous post is here. The chapter starts here. The campaign starts here.

The PCs had finally found the Codicil of White, the tome that would allow them to access the ruins of an ancient Netherese city. But one of their number had been turned into an ice sculpture, two more were exhausted to the point where they could not move, and the evil goddess of winter had just arrived home.

Madoc the ranger pulled out the gray bag of tricks, hoping that they might get a useful beast of burden out of it. Instead the party got two regular weasels and a giant rat. 😦 Thinking quickly, Omm the tiefling sorcerer proposed that he could polymorph himself into a wooly mammoth so as to carry the frozen rogue, and turn the exhausted bard into a mouse for ease of carrying. The exhausted druid could then Wild Shape into a mouse. There didn’t seem to be any better options, so the young sorcerer Twinned a spell of polymorph, aiming at himself and Hjolgram the dwarf bard, while Twiggy Tenderfoot the druid took the shape of a tiny rodent.

The mice were scooped up, and Madoc and Vellynne the NPC necromancer got to work lifting Flint the frozen half-elf rogue onto the mammoth’s back and securing it in place. Their work was made all the more frantic by an increasing sensation of cold cruelty that seemed to be pressing down on them from above. Did the Frostmaiden known there were intruders in the castle basement?

With the Flint-cicle in place, Madoc remained on mammoth-Omm’s back to hold him in place, and the massive beast stomped up the stairs to the ground floor. Vellynne followed behind as quickly as she could. The presence above them became overwhelming as the odd procession raced towards and out the front gate. But even once outside, the feeling of impending doom did not relent, and mammoth-Omm maintained a frantic pace down the pathway. Looking back over his shoulder, Madoc saw the Northern Lights were gyrating in double-time before a pitch-black sky, which did nothing to alleviate the all-encompassing sense of wrong-ness. The wild-looking ranger also saw that Vellynne was falling behind. The necromancer cried out for Omm to wait for her, which prompted a smiling Madoc to urge the transformed tiefling to move as fast as possible. You don’t have to outrun the evil goddess, after all. You only have to outrun the slowest member of your group.

The path from Grimskalle to the pier. Each square = 200′.

The PCs reached the cliff overlooking the broken pier of ice without incident, and at that distance the evil presence felt less overwhelming. Soppo the ice mephit was there with Vellynne’s kobold servants, all of them regarding the approaching hairy elephant and its rider and its cargo with great curiosity. Mammoth-Omm came to a halt and knelt so that Madoc could get the frozen Flint down to the ground.

“The mistress has returned,” Soppo unhelpfully noted.

“Yeah,” Madoc shouted, “We noticed!”

“Soppo was not expecting to see any of you again,” the mephit added, which was also not very useful.

The obstacle currently before the group was that they needed to contact Angajuk the talking whale for their ride back home, but the mouse-bard was their only means of communication. Omm dispelled his polymorph, which turned himself and the dwarf back into their normal forms, and Hjolgram was encouraged to cast sending to the whale. Hjolgram closed his eyes and started to make humming noises for what felt like forever to the others, who anxiously scanned the sky for some sign of Auril’s humongous bird. “He’s probably making small talk with the whale!” Madoc angrily vented. Finally the dwarf opened his eyes and weakly stated that Angajuk was on her way.

While the group was busy getting Flint and Hjolgram down the stairs that led to the pier, a huffing Vellynne finally turned up. The necromancer was furious, understandably so, but Madoc cut her off. “Do you expect us to believe that you wouldn’t do the same thing with a murderous god breathing down your neck?” To that, she could only scowl.

Angajuk surfaced at the pier and warbled a greetings to the group. “You are the first ever passengers to make the return trip!” she excitedly crooned.

“That isn’t settled yet,” Omm grunted as he dragged the heavy dwarf towards the boat tied to the whale’s back. “The Frostmaiden might show up at any moment. Save the kudos until we’re underwater.”

All the able party members pitched in to get the statue of Flint and the exhausted Hjolgram into Angajuk’s boat. And with that, the whale dived deep, giving the adventurers one last view of the cursed Isle of Solstice before they were swallowed by the sea.

Oh, What a World

A transparent magic bubble enclosed the boat as it sank under the water, providing air and warmth to the passengers during the journey. But to one such passenger, that warmth was deadly! The PCs were ill-equipped for keeping the frozen Flint at sub-zero temperatures, but Vellynne had a rare solution. Within the pages of the Codicil she found an ice spell that she could periodically use to re-freeze the rogue; a belated sign of usefulness that she had not displayed to date.

With that problem resolved, the adventurers had to endure three days crammed together in a small dinghy. They spent that time exploring the Codicil and asking the sentient orb known as Professor Skant about the Netherese city. The white tome contained the Rhyme (Rime?) of the Frostmaiden, reprinted below, a poem about the goddess and her penchant for imprisoning things in ice. According to Skant, the poem had to be recited in front of a particular frozen waterfall on the near side of the Reghed glacier (which is basically on the other side of the map); that was the key to gain entry to the entombed Netherese ruins.

The Rhyme (Rime?) of the Frostmaiden

Hjolgram wondered why the Frostmaiden was so keen to keep the place trapped under ice. “That’s a very good question,” Skant replied. “There have been many theories but ultimately, no one knows for certain save for Auril herself.” Though in a way it embodies all of the goddess’ qualities that were enumerated during the tests: the city is preserved and isolated, the glacier had endured for thousands of years, and as for cruelty… perhaps the Frostmaiden is responsible for the city’s fall from the sky?

The bard spent a lot of the voyage focusing on his shield amulet, which told him what direction the lost shield guardian laid. When that distance stopped decreasing and started to increase, Hjolgram knew that they were passing the guardian by, and requested Angajuk to make a brief side trip. Following the dwarf’s directions, they eventually found the golem stuck in the bottom of a trench. Omm polymorphed into a giant squid and pulled the guardian loose (I suppose the druid could also have performed this task), and then they re-fastened it to the boat, taking extra care to attach it more securely this time. Then Angajuk and squid-Omm had to surface so that the tiefling could re-board; the magic bubble didn’t allow anything from the sea-side to pass through. With that taken care of, Angajuk was able to resume the journey.

After a few days they surfaced at the hole in the ice next to Angajuk’s bell. People and statues were off-loaded, the shield guardian was hauled up out of the water, and many thanks were given to the talking whale for her service. She reminded the PCs of their promise to try and stop the whaling trade in the Ten Towns, and dove back under the ice.

The guardian was intact but, Hjolgram was disappointed to realize, damaged by its time scraping against the sea floor. When they found the golem its maximum hit points had already been reduced from the norm, and now they were reduced further, to 60 I believe. Still, it regenerated ten hit points a round and had a high AC, so it was probably fine.

Icewind Dale

The next stop was the town of Lonelywood to find the high priest of Sylvanus in a nearby grove, who was rumored to be the only one in the area who was powerful enough to cast greater restoration. The players assumed Flint’s condition was akin to petrification, but even it was something else, that spell was capable of removing all sorts of negative conditions. And Vellynne, for once, didn’t make a fuss about not charting a direct course in pursuit of her goals.

Next: unfrozen!