Please note that most of these summaries are based on adventures that are available for download on the internet. These summaries may contain spoilers about the content of those adventures.
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Session 26 Ead/Cin |
Into the Frozen Waste part one (modified version of D&D adventure) |
| Jonyn teaches Karvala about the True Faith. He gives Karvala his psalter, and Karvala transforms his axehead from steel into adamantine so that Jonyn could more easily harm the brass statue if he fought it again. When they are all ready to leave, Karvala gives each of them a silver torc to wear, and warns them that if they remove it within a year and a day they will be returned to his home by magic. He returns them to the central plaza, and they go back to The Faithful Lady. The next day, Cinder tests the magic of the torcs by removing hers. She is returned to Karvala's home, where she has to tell him something new and personal. She chooses to tell him about the politics of Kevland and her desire for arcane power. He gives her a golden torc and warns her that if she removes it within a year and a day she will be returned to his home and forced to play the Game of Karvala with him until she manages to draw the game. When Cinder leaves, she discovers that she was away for three days. The Faithful Lady continues on to Mercania, where they wait for the mast to be replaced and the hull repaired before sailing on towards the far west of Mercania. The Taimyr Sea is still choked with ice from the winter, so Captain Karla lets the adventurers off at the port of Hainen to finish their journey to Bethra on foot. Karla promises to wait at least a month, possibly longer, for them to return. Brenna's adventurers set out for Bethra, and reach the village after five days. They are attacked by five large white wolves on the outskirts of Bethra, killing four and capturing the fifth. After interrogating the wolf, they learn that it serves a giant named King Gungir, and let it go. In Bethra, they learn that Agarathar is the only person who knows where the castle of Zilrus can be found. They meet Agarathar and learn that he is planning to visit Zilrus. Agarathar agrees to take them along after besting Jonyn at a test of strength. From talking with other people in Bethra the adventurers learn that Agarathar named his ship The Cilarelis after his missing wife. Marcus and Cinder ask him about his wife the next morning, but Agarathar is uncommunicative. The Cilarelis sails south along the coast towards the tundra. On the second night, the ship is attacked by fish-people during a storm and damaged by summoned water elementals. After driving off the raiders, they beach The Cilarelis and wait out the storm. The next day, Agarathar and the adventurers continue on towards Zilrus' castle on foot. Spring 1395 AUC | |
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Session 27 Ead/Cin |
Into the Frozen Waste part two (modified version of D&D adventure) |
| Agarathar and Brenna's adventurers travel across the tundra. On the second day, they meet two giants, a man named Arnoul and a woman named Ringunth. The giants attempt to extort a toll on behalf of King Gungir, but are instead killed by the adventurers. When their corpses are looted, the adventurers find a letter from Zilrus to Gungir promising to visit soon and help Gungir deal with his son. On the third day, close to Zilrus' castle, a wyrm attacks from beneath the ice. The wyrm kills two of Agarathar's three mules with the intense heat of its body, and the blade of Marcus' blessed sword snaps off when he kills it. The group continues on to Zilrus' castle of ice, which is surrounded by a heated lake. After some discussion, Agarathar leads them across the long ice bridge. Partway across, the steam creatures who guard the bridge confront them, and do not let them pass until they pay a small toll of almost a pound in shillings. When they enter the ice castle, the group is immediately confronted by Zilrus, who seems to be an older Mercanian man. They defeat Zilrus and his pet ice lizard in battle, and Cinder uses magic to reveal Zilrus' true form as a man of ice. Agarathar kills Zilrus against Cinder's wishes, and confirms that Zilrus was keeping his wife as a hostage and threatened to harm her if he ever caught Agarathar conspiring against him. The adventurers search the ice castle, finding many bodies frozen in ice. Two of the frozen people are still alive when they are freed from the ice, Arene Cilarelis and a female giant named Galswinth. They meet two ice spirits, free to leave the castle now they are not bound to Zilrus' service through his knowledge of their true names. The adventurers find several magic scrolls and rings, a rod of ice that Marcus uses magic to identify as a rod of the icy prison, and maps of the local region that include Gungir's hall. Galswinth is a kinswoman of Gungir, and explains that she was returning to her family's hall to warn them of Gungir's ambition to become King of Mercania when she stopped at Zilrus' castle and was trapped. The group stays at Zilrus' castle for the following two days, while Arene and Galswinth regain their strength with the aid of magic. Spring 1395 AUC | |
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Session 28 Ead/Cin |
The Crumbling Hall of the Frost Giant Jarl part one (modified version of D&D adventure) |
| During the night, four giants and four large white wolves enter Zilrus' castle and confront Brenna's adventurers and Galswinth. Their spokesperson, Guain, demands compensation for the death of his brother, Arnoul, but admits that Zilrus imprisoned Galswinth with Gungir's consent. Brenna's adventurers battle the giants and wolves, killing three of each. The other two flee, but Cinder teleports to the far end of the ice bridge and kills them both when they arrive. The next morning, Galswinth burns her kinsfolk's bodies in a rowing boat. Marcus promises that Galswinth's brother, Haute, will be given a chance to surrender if he's at Gungir's hall. Galswinth reclaims Arnoul and Ringunth's jewellery from an uncooperative Ulfgar before leaving for her parent's hall. Cinder teleports Arene and Agarathar back to The Faithful Lady, where Captain Karla agrees to wait an extra fortnight or more for the adventurers to return. After Cinder returns, Brenna's adventurers begin the six-day journey to Gungir's mountain hall. Spring 1395 AUC | |
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Session 29 Ead/Cin |
The Crumbling Hall of the Frost Giant Jarl part two (modified version of D&D adventure) |
| Brenna's adventurers reach the entrance to Gungir's mountain hall. They wait nearby for a day and a half, and ambush two giants returning to the hall. The giants have a message from Kirik to Gungir, encouraging Gungir to keep his son imprisoned and promising to help Gungir raid the "cities" of Mercania. The adventurers bury the giants and continue to wait. That night, a pack of five large white wolves finds the graves. One of the wolves recognises Cinder's scent, and they all immediately scatter. At dawn, the adventurers see the wolf pack slinking back towards Gungir's hall, and Cinder hurls fire at them. Only one of the wolves escapes, fleeing into the tundra. Eadric is sent inside the hall to scout, transformed into an invisible cloud of gas by Cinder's magic, and finds only a handful of giants, some trolls cleaning the dining hall, and a many-headed beast on a chain. After he returns, Brenna's adventurers enter the hall. They defeat the giants guarding the entrance, rousing Haute from sleep, and allow Haute to leave with his wife, Fredegund. Brenna's adventurers advance into the dining hall, where they rout the trolls who have formed an ineffective barricade with the trestle tables. At this stage, Gungir comes out to parley. His voice is powerful, and briefly entrances Eadric, but the adventurers realise what Gungir is doing and attack. They kill Gungir's bodyguards (a well-equipped troll and two female giants), forcing Gungir to flee. Gungir returns a little while later with another female giant and a polar bear, but Brenna's adventurers kill them all. Gungir's death frees something big further inside the hall. Marcus scouts ahead invisibly until he spots a monstrous creature with the head, arms and torso of a giant and the body, legs and wings of a dragon with silver scales. Marcus rejoins the others in the dining hall, where the monster finds them. He thanks them for killing his father, who shamed him by refusing to give him a name and who had Zilrus imprison him using magic, and leaves to visit his mother. Spring 1395 AUC |