Episode 62

The party goes on the offensive after quickly learning that an escape is impossible. The worm immobilizes K and swallows both Seipora and Marisol before its demise at the hands of the angry barbarian. After some dissection, it’s revealed that K was affected by a strange cold-gland that the worm had attached to his stinger. He quickly recovers from it and the party is able to continue their trek.

They travel until it gets dark. Seipora sets up the bubble and they spend a few hours reading or chatting amongst themselves before retiring for the night. Marisol wakes everyone up before the sun fully rises and they spend the following day trudging through the snow. Seipora sings for (almost) the entire trip. That night, Marisol and Ingred make a snowman. Marisol knocks it down afterwards and the night goes by smoothly. Anthos wakes the party before the dome pops. He and Seipora inform the party that a white dragon was spotted during the night, heading north.

They continue their journey, following the stone’s direction until early in the afternoon. Ingred points out buildings in the far distance, saying that the settlement looks abandoned. Most if not all of the structures are covered in thick snow and two bell/watch towers rest on opposite sides of the fort. They reach it in about 3 hours. Lily’s stone leads them to the leftmost tower and they manage to slip through the wall. As the party heads towards the tower they hear a shockingly loud primal roar. Behind them stalks a giant white-scaled dragon. It runs at the party with white energy gathering at the corners of its mouth. Seipora and Ingred have to be dragged away by the rest of the group as white energy shoots over the tops of them. The party retreats into the tower, tumbling down a hole in the floor. The dragon slams into the tower and growls in some unknown language. It sounds pissed.

They all land after a short fall, some harder than others. The air down here is very cold, surprisingly colder than outside. Ice peeks out from a stairway that connects to the room. After gathering herself, Lily tells the group that the dragon was shouting at them to get out of its territory. The party spends a minute to recover from the fall and head down the slippery stairs. The basement below looks to be flash frozen. Weapons, armor, even two sleeping guards are preserved in the ice.

Another set of stairs leads even further down. It’s obvious that something occurred here, originating from deep below. They manage to make it down the stairs with only a few spills. Kova ends up sliding the entire way down. It gets colder and colder as they step down and snow awaits them at the bottom. The party sees a tear in space, 6x3 feet with snow pouring out from in. Lily pulls out to confirm the stone’s route and it points to the tear. After a bit of wary discussion the party pushes through. They enter into a bitingly cold, icy elemental plane. They are surrounded by flat ice and white mountains. The snow that hits them feels like needles and the sky above is dark grey and moody. Lily points out a palace in the far distance.

Marisol runs off. She eventually slows down enough to let the party catch up with her and they soon encounter a cliff. They jump it with help from Seipora’s feather fall. Ingred tries to shimmy down but falls on her ass after climbing ⅔ the way. They continue towards the palace. It gets warmer as they approach the archway of the icey structure. There are stairs carved into the ice, but unlike the stairs from earlier, they are not slippery. The party walks for about 30 minutes or so before it gets warm enough to shed their coats.

They encounter a statue of a dragon, frozen in place. It holds a giant white crystal in its mouth. There’s a pit that rests in front of it and in front of that is a blocked entryway. Frozen bodies lay in the pit, looking to be raiders of some kind. Five stalactites hang from the ceiling in front of the blockage. The party works through the puzzle by swinging the dragon statue and pumping magic into it. After a short rest they enter into the blocked room. Awaiting them is a massive humanoid ice-being with a giant amethyst in the center of its forehead. Behind it are stairs that lead up to a large set of double doors. As they step closer, the amethyst pulses steadily. Runes light up across the creature and two purple eyes open to meet them.

The session ends as the creature turns and speaks to Lily in an unfamiliar language.