[Dawnforge] The Legends of the North - The Tomb of Frozen Dreams

[Hisss]

"What are these things?!" calls Hisss, hoping to hear that they are corporeal. He casts Claws of the Vampire( heal 1/2 base DMG for 1 rnd/lvl), and readies a claw attack to shred the first arm that comes within reach.

OOC: pp 31/43, and how much of a shore is there on either side, and is it close enough to jump to? Keep in mind Hiss has freedom of movement, so the grasping arms aren't a big concern.

 

[Verlomi]

Verlomi takes in the strange, indistinct forms in the walls. If these things have minds, she thinks, they won't for long. Then she narrows her eyes in concentration, and a silver halo shimmers into existance above her head.

OOC: Verlomi is manifesting Planar Apotheosis (Celestial) {CP 93}

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

You are traveling through a passage, and there isn't a shore to be seen. But not to worry, the hands are coming to you.

With a shriek of pure terror, Lady plunges to the center of the raft before Delia can even voice her orders. Edgar shrieks, "The bones were right!" and follows after her.

Forgefly inhales mightily of his star emblem, and the power of the heavens fills his body, starfire suffusing his flesh. The reaching hands seem a little hesitant to touch him as the warm purple radiance begins to overcome the cold glare of the rimefire.

Darvekis takes one look at the hands and gulps audiably.

"Ghosts! Be careful Hisss!" he exclaims, and oddly, doesn't move to summon something. He raises his white shield overhead and shouts a word, and a faintly glowing wall of force extends parallel to the raft. "At least they can't come at us from that way now."

Jyll looses her arrows at the closest set of hands, her bow crackling and screaming as her charge arrows explode through the limbs and into the icy walls. Two of the hands wink out as she shoots through them, faint screams and moan echoing in the confined space.

"You thought it would be so easy..." a sourceless voice whispers in each of your ears, in the tongue of your childhood.

Dalia's gauntlet grants her the power to control her own spells, and she feels her mind becoming more clever, even as the terrible spiritual cold in the Tomb increases with each passing moment.

Hisss's claws become imbued with terrible, life-sucking energy as he prepares to leap and rend and tear at the insubstantial hands.

Verlomi's body becomes suffused with holy energy as she invokes her power. Though the hands seem to be insubstantial, the fear and loathing she feels from them tells her they indeed have minds. And probably mad ones at that.

The hands lash out, spectral fingers easily ripping through leather, and metal, and cloth to seek the flesh below...

OOC: Peoples, I need your AC, because I really don't have everyone's character sheets. (HINT, HINT) Then we can continue with the carnage. Please post them in the Rogue's Gallery thread. Thank you muchly.

 

[Forgefly]

Mordenkainen's Mansion, War Room

Gathered around a table with the party are the 3 dozen wizards saved when the Legends of the North destroyed the Tomb of Frozen Dreams. They take turns talking and gesturing on a map as they plan for the upcoming battle with the Frost Giant King. Forgefly seems to do a lot of talking and gesturing, but also listens to the collected wizards and to the other Legends.

What is key is that we keep the King separated from his guard and if possible far enough away from us that his Frozen Hammer can't make an icicle of Hisss, I mean of any of us.

Forgefly clears his throat as though laughing into his beard and continues

Our chief advantages are the excellent intelligence provided by Darvekis and the other diviners. Additionally we have a day or two to shape the battlefield to our particular needs.

Jyll had a few thoughts and so I'll turn the time over to her, Jyll? Jyll? Where is that elf? I'd say here one moment and gone the next, but these days I can only find her when she wants to be found.

 

[Jyll]

Over here, Hello!

I swear you all couldn't find a tree in a forest. Jeez. I'm right here. Jyll says from her spot next to Forgefly's elbow. Here's what I'm thinking. Their strength is their numbers. Well, one of their strengths, anyway. So if we configure the terrain so that they get bottlenecked somewhere we gain two advantages. First, they can't all get at us at once. And second, they'll bunch up nicely for raining death and destruction spells like fireball and Dalia's freaky lightning.

 

[Forgefly]

You may be right, I try to stay out of forests whenever possible. Jyll is completely right in her desire to remove their strengths while at the same time playing to ours.

Forgefly gestures to Darvekis.

Darvekis can you fill us in on as many specifics as you have about this army marching towards us. How many? How far? What skills they may have to call on?

You can mark anything you want on my handy little map sketch.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

Darvekis had been scrying with the other diviners for several hours, using several different spells for the purpose, and now had several sheets of frosted paper in front of him, scrawled with numbers and names.

"The army that marches now is five hundred frost giants from the clans, with one hundred of his greater warriors, his personal bodyguard of twenty, Sangrinos himself, and the White Beast of the North, his mount and sign of Anlar's favor. It's a winter wolf," he adds before the question can be asked, "A winter wolf nearly as big as this castle."

"The army itself we can help channel with blade barriers and walls of bone, fire, gloom, and ice. The lesser giants we can fight. Those of us that specialize in evocation and battle magic will be pleased to see frost giant blood stain the ice," Immo chimes in. He's become the spokesman of the mixed bag of arcanists. "The stronger of us can battle against the greater warriors and their shamans, even the bodyguards. But the White Beast and Sangrinos himself..." Immo shakes his head for a moment and shudders.

"Anlar wants you dead. He wants you to fall. He would not have had Sangrinos march on the war path if he did not intend on your total annihilation. Sagrinos is Anlar's champion, but the White Beast is infused with his divine power. Together they managed to subdue even the canniest of us. Revenge drives us, Legends, but it would be hard to speak even a single invocation against those two. You lack our fear, and you have stolen some of Anlar's power when you freed the dreams. You have the power to strike past Anlar's immortal protections."

 

[Hisss]

Tactile Success

Hisss takes this moment to discuss how he can best be utilized. "Does anyone have any ideas how my...skills can best be used?" he says, as he casually examines his infamous claws. "It will be hard to inflict damage if I am frozen or otherwise incapacitated. I have some resistance to cold, and limited regeneration from damage I inflict....Darvekis, you didn't see any undead or other types that would interfere with that ability, did you? Anyway, I would like to know if anyone has any ideas about how to get me close enough to do something. I might be able to take out that wolf if I could get on its back or somesuch. Especially if it has been softened up by some spellwork." He gestures to the somewhat bloodthirsty grins of the spellcasters. "What details do we have on that, especially its special abilities? At the very least we could place the melee fighters at the tip of the bottleneck to further block up the enemy."

 

[Jyll]

Shrug

Jyll listens quietly. So, it sounds like we are only concerned about Sangrinos and his beastie? Did I understand correctly that the wizards believe they can handle the rest of the army? She thinks for a minute. Does Sangrinos do magic or is he just a mighty warrior with a fearsome axe? How about I sneak into his tent and cut his throat? She winks at Forgefly, but no one sees it. Because they can't see her. And she's not even trying to hide. Or I could trim the little wolfie's toenails for him!

 

[Dalia the Sky Witch]

"You know Jyll sometimes you scare me...mainly because I hear you but never see you. Anyway My only suggestion would be to create an illusion of us for Sangrinos to focus on while we attack him from behind, or something along those lines. But I've never been one for strategy so just tell me where to cast my spells." Dalia then returns to polishing Spite.