The PCs in my 4e game have gone to the Feywild looking for the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, so they can destroy the Frost Giants who are massing, in alliance with Lolth and the Prince of Frost, to start a War of Seasons that will overthrow the Summer Fey and steal control over winter away from the Raven Queen.
In a previous session, they
travelled to the Feywild and got directions to the giants.
Since then, a lot of d20s have been rolled.
I'm using photocopies of my old G2 maps, blown up onto A3 paper, with notes on cavern occupants and stats written up where necessary. (I'm not using Chris Perkins' conversion, partly because I got the idea before he had written his conversions, partly because my PCs are mid-Epic and so I would need to convert his conversion anyway, partly because I suspect that his conversion would be a bit encounter-heavy for my taste, and it's already going to be encounter-heavy as it is.)
I have kept some of the occupants the same (eg frost giants in the original get converted to frost giants in my version, with a healthy dose of minions). I kept the remorhaz, and some high-level winter wolves, on the floor of the rift.
In the upper level I also put some eladrin emissaries from the Winter Court, with an eldritch giant friend, and their rimefire griffons and a (huge, roc-sized) frosthawk for the giant. And some Eisk Jaat ("cold dwarves" from the Plane Below) in place of the yetis - they work the rimefire forges for the giants.
The PCs flew into the rift from the south, on phantom steeds. They saw the eladrin and landed. Negotiations opened poorly, with the drow sorcerer proclaiming his allegiance to Corellon and denouncing Lolth and the Winter Fey. The eladrin repsonded with hostilities, and the Bralani (sp?) of the Autumn Winds blasted them with a gust of wind that blew the paladin off the ice ledge down into the rift below. (He now has winged boots, which stop him taking falling damage. These were acquired partly in recognition of the fact that he gets blown over ledges a lot.)
The ranger got blown over too, but used his safewing amulet and Acrobatics to negate the damage, and flew back up on his flying carpet.
Up on the ledge the PC invoker/wizard was able to retaliate by flying to a position behind the eladrin and then using a gust of wind from the Rod of 5 (of 7) Parts to blow a couple of eladrin over. So the combat ended up having three parts: the ranger in the air, fighting flying eladrin plus their steeds; the sorcerer and invoker up on the ledge fighting the eladrin that remained there; and the paladin down on the rift floor, fighting one of the eladrin that survived the fall plus the remorhaz that was attracted by all the activity.
There is a 5th PC, but because his player couldn't attend the session, we assumed that his giant-slaying mordenkraad, Overwhelm, had got the scent of giants and had led him away from the rest of the party to do some solo giant-slaying.
At the end of the session, the eladrin, edritch giant and griffons were all dead, and the invoker had tamed the giant's frosthawk (with a successful Nature check plus some gentle words spoken in elven). The paladin was inside the remorhaz (but, being a tiefling, was mostly enduring the auto-fire damage it does to swallowed creatures). The ranger was still in the air on his carpet.
The next session began with the ranger spotting the 5th PC, the dwarf fighter wielding Overwhelm, in melee with a group of giants on the ledge at the other end of the rift (around areas 16-20, for those who know the module).
The ranger flew off to help on his carpet. The invoker followed on his newly-tamed giant frosthawk, but not before giving the sorcerer a lift down to the rift floor, where he was able to try and free the paladin from the remorhaz.
The remorhaz fight was quite amusing, as it burrowed down into the earth to try and get away from the pesky sorcerer, but got followed through the tunnel being blown up from the outside while the paladin stabbed it from the inside, using second wind (free action for a bloodied Questing Knight) and a couple of Lay on Hands to keep himself alive. Meanwhile, the flying PCs managed to make it down the rift (multiple rounds of fight, as it is a long map even in 10' squares, and so becomes very long when everything gets multiplied by 2), where they helped the dwarf with his giants.
Eventually the sorcerer killed the remorhaz and the paladin was able to cut himself out, but they then had to make it to the other end of the rift. The sorcerer has at-will fly (via Dominant Winds) but that is not very good for two people.
Then a solution suggested itself.
In an earlier session (linked to above), the PCs had helped an eladrin noble deal with a demon that was cursing his apple grove. I told the players that the noble gave them a reward, and gave them licence to choose their own item or items of 28th level or equivalent value. They chose some sensible, eladrin-noble-appropriate stuff (a couple of elfin chain shirts, the winged boots, a ring of regeneration and a surge-boosting belt) but the player of the sorcerer also liked the idea of the 25th level magical vehicle the Thundercloud Tower (from a Dungeon magazine, maybe one of the Giants ones). It seemed unlikely that an eladrin noble had such a thing on-hand to gift to them, so we agreed that the best they got was to learn rumour of its existence on the Elemental Chaos from the noble, while discussing the threat that the Elemental Chaos (especially its giants) poses to the Feywild.
It had already been discussed that the Glacial Rift was very cold (the PCs are under the protection of an Endure Primordial Elements ritual, cast by the sorcerer), infused with the stuff of the Elemental Chaos. And so the player of the sorcerer decided that perhaps the Thundercloud Tower was somewhere here, having crossed over from the Elemental Chaos. This actually wasn't as farfetched as it might seem, because I had already decided that the mad Storm Giant Mirkamaur (sp?), a servant of the Crushing Wave detailed in the Plane Below, was visiting the giants (in the original I think it is a storm giant princess who is in the lower levels), and a Thundercloud Tower seemed like the sort of vehicle that he might travel in.
So the player made a perception check, assisted by the player of the paladin, and indeed they realised that one of the spires of rock half-buried in snow and wind-blown ice was in fact not a natural outcropping at all, but a 30' tall tower. They made their way in, up the stairs and to the top where the drow made an Arcana check to attune himself to the control circle for the tower. The next round they were up and away.
By this time the giants at the other end of the rift had mostly been mopped up, being beaten up by the dwarf as well as sniped by the ranger and blown up by the invoker, but all the PCs were able to rendezvous for a short rest in the flying tower. As they were resting they were able to see the giants running along the ledges, apparently regrouping in the caves at the south end of the rift. The PCs with range 20 attacks were able to get a few hits in (that's the invoker with Mantle of the Infidel, the ranger with Twin Strike, and the sorcerer firing lightning bolts from the tower), and they killed 7 giant minions as around another 30 or so were seen making it into the southern caves.
Then, before the PCs could plan their next step, from that same southern direction, flying out of the snowy sky, came two dragons - a huge Blizzard Dragon, obviously in alliance with the giants, and an ancient White Dragon being ridden by a frost giant chieftain. At first they thought the White Dragon must have been enslaved (given its natural enmity towards a catastrophic dragon) but then when I read them the relevant lore from the Monster Manual, they learned that white dragons will sell their services for diamonds and meat, and they figured the giants might have plenty of meat to go around.
This combat took the form of an aerial assault upon the tower, where the PCs were all in position on the crenellated roof. The PCs with ranged attacks had the initial advantage, as they alll got a round of attacks as the dragons closed in. This proved bad for the blizzard dragon: having the speed advantage over the white, it was closer, and therefore got quarried first, and proceeded to get blasted by two crits from two Twin Strikes, plus a good blow from the fighter throwing Overwhelm (one of its properties is to be a throw-and-return mordenkraad), plus a dose of Demonsoul Bolts from the sorcerer, who adds around +50 to his dice when dealing thunder damage with forced movement.
It got off one round of attacks before being killed.
The white dragon did better, though. It had an aura 5 of 30 cold auto-damage, which was quite effective as it closed in, and a good initial breath did a bit of damage as well. It got blasted with AoEs by the sorcerer (action point for Blazing Starfall, plus standard action Blazing Starfall, plus quickened Blazing Starfall as a minor action, all admixtured with thunder to do a lot of damage), which hit the giant as well, but I had given the dragon a mount ability, to soak half of any burst or blast damage dealt to its rider, so the giant survived.
One of the Starfalls critted, which from a chaos sorcerer knocks the dragon prone, and also blinds it with a Glimpse of the Abyss. So it fell, but was able to recover before reaching the ground (they were about 300' up, and it succeeded at its DC 30 Athletics check after falling 100'), and then under the guidance of its giant rider was able to come up beneath the tower, gaining total cover from any attacks.
The invoker came up with a plan to blast it out of its cover: he conjured his imp (minor action), had it fly down to the base of the tower (move action), activated his third eye (another minor action: the imp has the Eye of Vecna in it, though now no longer under Vecna's influence, and when the invoker activiates his 3rd eye he can see through his imp's eyes and has LoS and LoE from there) and then spent an action point to attack with Thunderwave (encounter power as a multi-class wizard), the plan being to blast the dragon out from beneath the tower, so the ranged strikers could attack it, and to blast the giant of its mount so it would take 25d10 or so falling down to the bottom of the rift.
The invoker is also a Divine Philosopher (and so gets two attack rolls with an action point) and a Sage of Ages (and so gets to roll a bonus d20 at the start of each round, and substitute that into any roll desired). The bonus roll was a 1, so he ignored that. His two rolls against the dragon were a 3 and a 4. He needed a 12 to hits its Fort, and so was 8 short - but he has a d8 for Memories of 1000 Lifetimes, and a +3 from Insightful Riposte. So as long as he rolled 5 or more on his Memories roll he would still hit. So he rolled that, but got a 2. Then he rolled to hit the giant and rolled another 4, missing it.
So a valiant plan came to naught.
Still under the guidance of the giant, the dragon then - on its free action 10 ahead of its normal initiative - flew out from under the tower, and up the side that the invoker was on, and attacked the invoker. Between aura, a hit and a crit he was well and truly bloodied. Though when the giant attacked him the paladin PC retaliated with Eye for an Eye, and so it briefly became a case of the blind leading the blind.
Then on the dragon's actual turn, with its sight back, it encased the ranger in an icy tomb: stunned, immune to forced movement and OG 60 cold (SE all). Various other attacks - a breath weapon, plus more aura damage - were wittling away at the party and it looked like they might be going to lose. But then the players came up with a plan.
The dragon was flying about 2 squares away from the tower. So the fighter ran and jumped onto its back as a charge. The paladin was then able to blast it away from the tower with Strength of Ten, and the sorcerer used his high level Power Jewel to regain Demonsoul Bolts and used them to blast it further away. This got all of the PCs except for the fighter out of its aura. The paladin also used Divine Mettle to give the ranger a save at +8, which was successful, and so the power of the Raven Queen melted away his icy tomb, and he was then able to help himself, the paladin and the sorcerer with a Word of Vigour.
Around this time the dragon got bloodied, and the fighter did more damage to it with a jackal strike. He action pointed and pounded away (including with a Battle Cry which delivered more badly-needed healing), and there were ranged attacks also. The dragon hit him with its claws (including a crit) and got in a couple of bites too (though both did only miss damage), but his Battle Cry plus a Second Wind (2 surges with Cloak of the Walking Wounded) kept him up.
When the dragon tried to fly off carrying the fighter with it, he hit it with an OA which immobilised it (Pinning Strike feat), and then on his turn he hit it with something (I can't remember what) that knocks it prone. So it crashed, and this time - because it was no longer over the open rift but rather the icy ledge - it had no opportunity to recover before crashing. Both the fighter and the dragon took 26 hp from 50' of falling damage. (I gave the player of the fighter the chance to make an Acro check to ride the dragon down - half damage on a success, 1.5 damage on a fail - but he declined, and so they landed 5 squares apart.)
The invoker's turn then came up in the sequence, and he critted against the dragon with Mantle of the Infidel. It took 50-odd damage and had only 10 hp left after the fall, and so lost its chance to fly to freedom. The sorcerer then retook control of the tower, flew it down to the level of the ledge, and the dwarf hopped back on and they took a short rest.
After spending surges, the paladin and sorcerer are at full hp, and the fighter, ranger and invoker just a tad short. The fighter has 3 surges left (of 14), the paladin 8 (of 18 - the ranger, who is also a cleric, has been using Shared Healing to soak the paladin's surges to heal others), the ranger and invoker 2 or 3 each, and the sorcerer 5. (They were all at full surges, or very close to, when they arrived at the Rift.) They still have a reasonable number of dailies left - which they were conserving, somewhat, in anticipation of the giants - but are expecting to find the assault on the giant's defensive position a challenging one. On the plus side, they have just reached 27th level.
The dragon fight itself was only 27th level (so one above the party level of 26th), but played much tougher than that because of the terrain, which greatly favoured the dragon - the defenders weren't able to lock it down until the fighter leaped onto its back, and it used its mobility to good advantage, including exploiting its auto-damage aura. The fact that the ranger's saves to break out of the icy tomb never made it above 9 on the d20 (the successful roll was a 5, with +8 from the paladin's CHA) also helped - he failed the save at the start of his turn (vs the stun component, from Superior Will), failed it again when the invoker used Demand Justice, failed at the end of his turn, and only succeeded when the paladin used Divine Mettle.
For anyone else introducing a Thundercloud Tower into their game, I highly recommend an aerial assault by dragons as a way to break it in!
