Rime of the Frostmaiden: Caves of Hunger, Part 6

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

The party retreated to the tower trapped in ice (location H6) for a long rest. The time passed without incident, though in the “morning” everyone saw each other with rapidly blackening skin and worms crawling out of people’s now-empty eye sockets! But just as the group was freaking out, the facades faded and everyone returned to normal. Vellynne the necromancer NPC theorized that these hallucinations, as well as the whisperings heard in other parts of the caves, could be psychic remnants of the Netherese who died here when their city fell from the sky.

Once they had calmed down a bit and had some breakfast, the adventurers went back to the room with the magic tour guide (location H8). They were very curious about the giant, smooth tunnel located in the cavern to the south (location H10), and hoped they could use the guide a second time to explore it safely. The device was still inoperable, however, and in fact would remain so; they had used the last of its magic already.

With that plan blocked, the party decided to explore the rest of the current level before going down the gaping hole. They trekked back through the resting place of the golem head (location H9), where Hjolgram the dwarf bard prominently winked at the golem for no real reason, and then into the cave that had been inhabited by undead shadows (H11). From there they marched south, down a sloping passage with a large domed ceiling and exits to the southwest and east (H15). The PCs took the eastward path and found an empty cave that led up to where they had been before (H16); they then traveled south and found a larger space with another 15 foot wide round hole in the floor, which was the entrance to a perfectly smooth tunnel that curved out of sight (H22).

While investigating some deep niches in the eastern cavern wall, Madoc the ranger heard more whisperings, as some had in the other “hole” room. He could make out no actual words, save for his name. The other PCs had heard nothing, which to Hjolgram was evidence that this tunnel “belonged” to Madoc and perhaps there was one hole for each member of the expedition. Vellynne’s “haunting” theory seemed more likely to the rest of the party.

The Thing

In any case, the group gave the opening a wide berth, and continued to the south. After some distance, the path opened up into a humongous 40 foot tall cave, the far side of which was a rough wall of thick ice (location H31). Some giant tentacled thing could be glimpsed within the ice, but it was not frozen – its dimly-perceived appendages drifted this way and that as if swimming languidly in the water! While studying the hypnotic movements, each viewer felt a heavy weight press upon their mind; the unnerved party quickly retreated. Save for the bard, who foolishly walked forward until he could touch the ice with an outstretched hand.

The others called out for the dwarf to come back, and when he did not do so, asked him what was going on. Hjolgram, for his part, had succeeded on a Wisdom save and was now trying to “talk” to the monster with his telepathy. “This friendly creature is having trouble communicating,” he finally called out. “And there’s another passage around this bend.”

To reach the bend, one would have to get perilously close to the unspeakable thing. Madoc named the monster his slayer’s prey so as to get a bonus on any saving throws it might force on him, and the bard inspired the other PCs for potential boosts of their own. And so the group nervously ran past the terrible wall of ice without anyone failing a Wisdom save.

The passage past The Thing in the Ice went south before leading to a cavern with many offshoots (location H32). The icy walls of that central chamber had been polished (by time? by hand?) to a mirror-like finish, which created distorted reflections of the adventurers over the uneven surfaces as the group cautiously stepped into the space. The reflections had no obvious effect, neither boon nor bane. Hjolgram did see one benefit, though: “At least we know that none of us are vampires!”

The mirror cave was empty save for a regular percussive sound that the group followed down the western branch. There they discovered a humanoid trapped behind (not within) in a wall of ice that it was steadily tapping on (location H33). The figure was dressed in black robes and a golden mask, which Professor Skant identified as the dress of a Netherese priest. While the others held warily back, the bard recklessly moved towards the ice wall and tried to communicate with the being beyond. It responded to movements, but its speech, naturally in ancient Netherese, could not be understood. With Skant serving as a translator, Hjolgram established that the creature desired release, but the dwarf could get little else out of it.

“Well now, buddy,” Hjolgram admonished, “We gotta get a little more information out of you before we do that.” Eventually it disclosed that it was a Netherese repository of knowledge, which brought back the memory of the elven mummy that the PCs’ had once encountered, whom had had a similar purpose.

“If we release you, will you tell us your tales?” Skant was instructed to ask it, but its response was in the negative. “‘My knowledge is not for you,’ it says.” Its immediate purpose, Skant translated, was to seek out “the library.” To the PCs, that sounded like they had finally found a guide through the caves, someone who could lead them to the Netherese city buried within the glacier, and so Omm the tiefling sorcerer summoned flame to melt the ice wall.

Follow the Leader

The mummy (as the PCs assumed the creature to be) wiggled through the hole made by Omm as soon as it could and marched out of the cave. The party followed. It crossed the mirror cave, traversed the east passage and took the fork south, and cave to a cave that had bits of broken walls sticking out of the ice in the ceiling (location 34). After looking at the ruins above for a bit, the mummy turned and backtracked. Apparently it didn’t know the way any better than the players did!

It tried the other fork and came to a smaller cave that held an eight-foot cube of smooth stone, strangely free of rime (location H35). The bard assumed the block must be magically warmed somehow, and to demonstrate this, decided to lick it. His tongue was nevertheless stuck fast, because the stone was not a stone at all, but a mimic.

Next: never lick a mimic!