ADVENTURE 84: THE ICE PRINCESS, PART 1
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"I have gone through my notes and records, and I believe there's still a good chance that the Orb of White Dragonkind is to be found in the treasure hoard of a white dragon wyrm named Kerrarpalax," said the elderly sage sitting at the head of the table in one of the Adventurers Guild conference rooms. Guildmaster Farthingale sat immediately across from him at the other end of the table, while on either side sat the various members of Wing Three and a few of their cohorts. "He lairs in a cave network carved from a floating iceberg, high up in the northern seas," continued the sage, passing over a detailed ink sketch of just such an iceberg. "While the interior of his lair seems to be shielded from scrying, this should be an accurate enough depiction to allow you to get there via a greater teleport spell - and it will need to be that spell, as his lair is far enough away that a simple teleport spell won't be able to bridge the distance." Cal took the drawing from the sage and studied it intensely, while those on either side of him looked over his shoulder.
But this was no ordinary sage sitting at the conference room table - this was none other than the gold dragon Gorgoldand, recently rescued by Wing Three from the enchanted mirror in which he'd been imprisoned for a decade or so, currently in his human guise. The Wing Three adventurers were aware of his true nature, but they had neglected to add that into their after-action report to the Guild, and as a result Guildmaster Farthingale had no idea that Gorgoldand was anything but what he appeared to be: a white-bearded human of some 70 summers or so.
"These are some of my top adventurers," boasted the portly Guildmaster. "I'm sure they'll be up to the task, and will be able to retrieve the Orb you seek." He ushered Gorgoldand out of the room with a string of such assurances, handing him over to the care of a young Guild page who escorted him out of the Headquarters building. Once Gorgoldand was out of earshot, Farthingale confided to the team of adventurers, "You wouldn't believe the amount of money that old sage is willing to pay us if we can find that Orb of his! This has to be your top priority! With the cash he's willing to throw our way, we'll be able to fund the Guild for years!" He chuckled in glee at his good fortune.
Rale got down to the important details. "How much are we getting paid?"
"Get this," replied Farthingale. "He'll pay 20,000 pieces of gold to each Guild member willing to fetch him the Orb of White Dragonkind - provided you're successful, that is."
That was all Rale needed to hear. "I'm in!" he called out, looking at Cal.
"That suits me," Cal replied. "I've got a trading business I need to look after. Which reminds me," he said, turning to face Farthingale. "I'm not planning on quitting the Guild or anything, but I do think it's best if I move my goods to my own manor house. It'll make it easier as I start to get the hang of my new business ventures."
"But you'll still be my backup?" asked Rale, suddenly concerned that he might be headed into battle without a high-powered cleric of Kord as his own personal cavalry.
"Oh, certainly," agreed the cleric of Kord. "In fact, I'll wear a pair of the scout goggles, to keep an eye on what you're up to." He pulled on a set of the goggles, smiling amicably. "And I can cast a spell on you before you depart that will allow you to cast a small handful of my spells yourself - probably some healing, maybe a protection from evil for good measure."
"Excellent!" replied Rale, giving Cal a warm handshake to seal the deal - and then palming Cal's ring of protection as he did so, having already come to the lightning-quick conclusion that Cal's ring was over double the power of Rale's own; that Cal wouldn't likely be willing to loan it to him; and that the odds were in his favor that he'd be able to snatch Cal's ring without him even noticing. He was, incidentally, correct on each count.
"Well, I won't be coming with you this time," Dez said, looking at her employer. "I've already been killed once by a dragon; no need to repeat the experience. Plus, I want to work on that play - opening night will be here soon enough!" Rale didn't bother trying to argue with her; having been slain once by a kraken himself, he knew he wouldn't be overly eager to jump headlong into a battle with another of those beasts and could definitely understand Dez's justifiable sudden respect for dragons.
"Well, I'm in!" said Thunderwolf.
"And I," replied Telgrane. Those two were practically a given, as neither had a "bink-partner" as backup with which they had to share duties.
Chalkan looked across the table at Galrich, not all that eager to jump at the chance to battle a powerful white wyrm, but at the same time not exactly eager to broadcast his unwillingness.
"Dibs!" called out Galrich, and Chalkan gave an exterior nod of acknowledgement and an internal sigh of relief. Aerik said nothing; it was understood by all that if Galrich was going, then so was his loyal dwarven bodyguard.
"You'd better take this one," said Delphyne to the half-elven druid sitting at her side. "Without Cal, they'll need your healing spells more than anything I'd be able to contribute." Feron agreed.
The next hour or so was spent on planning, right there in the conference room. Between them, Chalkan and Cal would be able to provide enough resist energy spells to cast one on everyone but Aerik, who'd be given a protection from energy spell instead. Each of the spells, naturally, would be cast to protect its recipient from cold energy, since they'd be facing a white dragon. They'd each be under the effects of an endure elements spell as well, cast by those who would not be on the "strike team," so the spellcasters heading into battle would still have their full complement of spells at the ready. That made sense to Rale, but he still wanted to be outfitted with cold weather gear, on the off chance that a dispel magic spell or a zone of antimagic might strip away his protection. Galrich, Aerik, Thunderwolf, and Feron followed suit, and they all decided to get fitted for cold weather gear before heading out as well. After all, Gorgoldand had been imprisoned for nearly a decade, so it wasn't likely that another day's delay was going to make much of a difference.
So that evening, their planning done, their shopping done (they hit the magic shops and stocked up on some healing potions as well, and Feron spent a considerable sum on a wand of cure critical wounds), the group unanimously decided to get a good night's sleep and start their adventure fresh the first thing in the morning.
- - -
Delphyne cast the greater teleport spell, and the group collectively winced and squinted at the bright light suddenly bombarding them from all directions. They were on a flat sheet of ice that made up about a fourth of the iceberg's upper surface, with a slight downhill incline leading to a flat plane of ice directly in front of a wide cave opening some 80 feet away or so. "Good luck!" called out Delphyne, casting a duplicate of the spell she had just cast, returning her to Wing Three's central living area in the Guild Headquarters building.
The group was blinking furiously, getting accustomed to the polar light reflected by the snow and ice from all directions, when a whuff! of irritation announced that they weren't exactly alone. Telgrane was the first to notice that a large blob of whiteness directly in front of him was in fact a walrus of enormous proportions - easily 20 feet long from tusk to back flippers. It had apparently been sunning itself on the edge of the iceberg - for sure enough, there were waves lapping directly behind the young archmage, some 5 feet below the surface on which he stood - and did not exactly appreciate the sudden interruption.
Another snort from the left indicated that his mate wasn't thrilled at the sudden appearance of the adventurers either.
"Floatdisks!" suggested Telgrane over the Rary's telepathic bond spell he had cast on the group before teleporting in. He followed his own advice, stepping onto the drow-made shield and rapidly elevating it to a safe height. Infernia leapt upon his back as he did so, and it was always a comical sight to see a 9-foot-tall being composed of living flame towering over a relatively lanky human wizard while they both balanced on a shield-sized drow floatdisk, but despite her size Infernia only weighed a paltry 4 pounds or so. (If she wanted to, she could flare up to 16 feet tall with little effort, but 9 feet tall had proven to be a fair compromise between "large enough to keep most foes at bay" and "small enough to still be able to interact easily with her master.") Most of the others followed suit.
Feron, however, had other plans. Casting a speak with animals spell, she assured the walruses that the heroes were not there to hurt them, but rather to seek the dragon who laired on the iceberg. The response she got from the massive beasts could best be translated as "DRAGON?" - followed by a quite impressive waddling speed as the walruses dove over the side of the iceberg and into the polar seas below. Feron stepped onto her own floatdisk and joined the others.
Galrich and Aerik had skimmed forward, just over the surface of the smooth-as-glass patch of ice directly in front of the dark cave. It was difficult to judge distances in this all-white world, but Galrich was fairly certain that a wyrm would be able to fit through the confines of the cave opening. Rale wasn't as sure, though, and as the others followed Galrich's lead, he instead rode his floatdisk directly up, scanning the sheer ice cliff directly above the cave. Sure enough, it rose for what he guessed to be a good 60 feet before flattening out onto a ledge, beyond which was another ice cliff - and what looked like it might be an even larger cave. He started passing on what he had seen to the others over the mental link...
...but they were otherwise occupied, for stepping out of the lower cave stood a quartet of strange, humanoid figures. They were a bluish-white, with backs so hunched and gnarled they seemed to suffer from the worst kind of debilitating bone disease. However, they grinned evil smiles full of crooked teeth upon sight of the heroes and one of the said a short phrase in the Giant tongue, which Feron and Thunderwolf recognized as "Looks like lunch is here, boys!"
Telgrane cast a fireball spell smack-dab in the middle of the group of ice trolls, infuriating them immensely. Feron followed suit with a flame strike, which did more than infuriate them - it actually killed the two in the front ranks, who toppled over onto the ice, dropping their weapons in the process: a crude-looking hammer or club, and an intricately-carved greatsword of impressive workmanship.
The two remaining trolls had an interesting reaction to this obvious display of fiery spellcraft: one immediately dashed back into the cave, while the other took a step forward, tapped three times on the ice with the butt of his hammer-club, and then immediately followed suit.
"We've got them on the run!" exclaimed Aerik, skimming his floatdisk into the cave and pushing his way past the winter wolf pelts hanging from a bunch of metal pitons in the icy ceiling. He was immediately attacked by both trolls, who had positioned themselves to swing their weapons at anyone who might follow them into their cave. Aerik grunted in pain, but just barely managed to stay on his floatdisk.
Galrich, however, was at the same time gasping in surprise, for the ice beneath him suddenly exploded upwards and a mass of snakelike heads rose up out of the frigid water. Several heads snapped at him, one actually drawing blood and attempting to get the barbarian in a firm grip between its teeth - no doubt for an immediate plunge back underwater, where the aquatic cryohydra would have the definite advantage - but Galrich squirmed away from the snapping jaws at the last moment and remained free of the beast's wicked teeth. Feron and Telgrane hurled a couple of fire-based spells at it, and the dozen pairs of eyes goggled in astonishment at this sudden onslaught. It crashed down beneath the surface of the water and did not return.
Thunderwolf wasn't taking any chances that the two motionless ice trolls were actually dead. He shot arrows at each from his flaming longbow, grunting in satisfaction when neither one moved after being hit. Just to be sure, though, Infernia leapt off of her master's floatdisk and landed astride the two, doing a little hopping dance from one to the other, eventually setting the two ablaze. Then she jumped off before their bodies could melt through the ice, for the fire elemental had no desire to plunge into the icy waters below. Instead, she entered the cave to help Aerik finish off the ice trolls, leaving melted depressions of her footprints as she walked across the icy cavern floor.
It wasn't much of a fight, and Aerik was displeased to see that the trolls didn't have much in the way of treasure besides a few clean-picked bones and some smelly furs in a smaller cavern in the back they obviously used as a bunkhouse. Thunderwolf, however, had lowered his floatdisk to the surface long enough to pick up the greatsword the troll leader had been using. He had Telgrane give it a quick look with his arcane sight, and the auras of necromancy and transmutation looked similar enough to Galrich's recently-purchased axe for the archmage to state with full confidence that it was a vorpal greatsword. Xanthros said nothing as his master slid the new sword into place on his belt, perhaps not wishing to appear petty or jealous.
During this time, though, Rale had elevated himself to the height of the higher ledge. It was unoccupied, but certainly large enough to allow a white wyrm to laze about under the polar sun there if it so desired. Rale also noted the dimensions of this higher cave opening were more in line with the bulk of a wyrm, being about thirty feet wide and of equal height. He didn't like the look of the snowdrifts leading from the ledge partly into the darkened depths of the cavern; to test a theory, he let fly an arrow into the nearest of the snowdrifts. It slid silently into the snow and buried itself up to its feathers without hitting anything hidden underneath.
The others rose up to the ledge level, and the group had a silent discussion over their telepathic bond.
"Who's going in?" Rale wanted to know, his demeanor suggesting that he was certainly not volunteering to be the first to trespass into the lair of a white wyrm.
"Galrich, Aerik, what do you see?" asked Telgrane, partly stalling for time but also well aware that of their group of heroes, they were the only two with darkvision.
Galrich skimmed up to the cave entrance and peered inside. "It's about 40 feet wide, 60 feet deep," he reported back. "Ice cliff in the back rises straight up for about 30 feet. Ceiling's about 50 feet high here, taller in the back. Empty, far as I can tell."
"I don't like it," said Rale, nervously.
"I think I can hear breathing," added Feron, straining her half-elven ears. "Big, deep breaths, like a massive bellows."
"I'll send in some spies," suggested Telgrane, casting a summoning spell. Four ice mephits popped into existence, looked around, and apparently liked the environment in which they found themselves. Telgrane gave them their orders, and, wings fluttering, they entered the dark cavern. Once there, they gave the big open space a quick peruse before rising up to check out the ledge above. Not surprisingly, they discovered the massive, sleeping form of Kerrarpalax, resting in the middle of the upper ledge.
As quietly as possible, the ice mephits split up to check out the rest of the area. Behind Kerrarpalax, a side cavern dropped down 40 feet or so; this obviously served as the wyrm's hoard, as it was piled with coins, gems, and a few scattered weapons. One ice mephit dropped down to do a quick survey of the treasure, specifically looking for the white orb Telgrane had told him was the object of their search.
Another mephit found a wide tunnel leading down from the level of the upper ledge; he found it to be large enough in diameter to fit Kerrarpalax's gargantuan form and went exploring to see where it might lead.
The other two mephits didn't get a chance to do much exploring, for at this time Kerrarpalax gave a mighty influx of breath as he suddenly awoke, having picked up the sounds of the mephits' wings as they flew past. He went from a sound slumber at one moment to full alert in the very next, springing to all fours and spreading his wings out wide. He gave a massive roar of outrage, causing the mephits to freeze up in terror. Out on the exterior ledge to his lair, the wyrm noted a handful of adventurers give a sudden start at the fierceness of his roar, and spent less than a second deducing their likely intentions before leaping from the ledge, gliding down to the front of his entrance cavern, and blasting the group with his frozen breath.
Fortunately, the heroes' precautions prevented much of the damage from getting through, but only Rale managed to avoid any kind of damage altogether. He also took the opportunity to slide his floatdisk around the corner of the cave entrance, out of view of the dragon, and activate one of the powers of his rod of thievery. Immediately, he disappeared from sight as an aura of invisibility cloaked his features; only Telgrane, who had recently upgraded his magical eyesight yet again to include a permanent see invisibility effect, was able to still see the rogue.
But Telgrane had other things on his mind at the moment. He unleashed one of his most powerful spells, sending a meteor swarm streaking at the angry dragon, hitting Kerrarpalax straight in the face with his flaming missiles. The dragon bellowed in pain and raced forward, snapping out at Galrich who had the misfortune of being the closest within range, tearing into the barbarian's body with its dagger-long teeth. Galrich allowed his rage to fly forth at this attack, and started striking back at the wyrm with his vorpal war axe, hoping to sever the dragon's head from its shoulders as he swung his blade in fury.
Feron cast a finger of death at the wyrm, but the spell failed to penetrate past the dragon's inherent spell resistance. Another flame strike followed immediately, this one managing to scorch the dragon severely. Snarling in increased fury, Kerrarpalax was forced to spend time during his battle casting a defensive spell, shielding him from fire-based attacks. He hated having to waste his time on such measures, but he reluctantly came to the realization that it was a necessary evil, for the fire spells were rapidly taking their toll on the massive wyrm.
While the spellcasters were busy flinging spells at Kerrarpalax, Galrich and Aerik were doing their best to carve into the dragon's thick hide with their axes. Thunderwolf hung back, shooting arrow after arrow into the beast's hide, his magical longbow causing each arrow to burst into flame in flight.
"I could use yer vorpal sword about now!" called Aerik over his shoulder to Thunderwolf. "Mebbe we can cut the head off this beastie!"
"Come back here and get it, then!" called back Thunderwolf, not slowing the pace of his archery at all. "I'm kind of busy!" Aerik grumbled, but continued swinging his axe at the dragon, unwilling to leave his liege to face the wyrm in combat alone for even a moment.
Kerrarpalax roared in pain again as a polar ray struck him. Normally, he'd have been immune to the effects of the magical ray of pure coldness, but Telgrane had used his arcane training to convert the cold energy to electricity as it left his fingertips. The dragon, protected though he was from cold and fire, had no defenses against electrical damage once the spell had made it past his inherent spell resistance. Kerrarpalax then did what he had vowed he would never do, but he was rapidly running out of options - these adventurers would likely kill him in less than a minute if things kept up the way they were going.
"Mistress!" the white wyrm called out in the Draconic language. "I seek your immediate assistance!"
Several of the Wing Three heroes understood the Draconic language and translated over the link for the benefit of those who didn't. This brought immediate gasps of shock among the heroes, for Kerrarpalax had been one of the toughest opponents they'd ever faced to date, and the thought that it was merely a guardian for an even tougher opponent caused no small amount of concern. But they saw no one else, and so concentrated their efforts on the one foe they knew they had to defeat.
Rale, however, saw an opening between the dragon's body and widespread wing, and dashed through the span on his invisible floatdisk. He looked around the cavern for any other foes, but saw only two of the ice mephits returning back from their explorations to give their findings to Telgrane. However, he did hear a feminine voice speak a few arcane syllables from somewhere off to the side of him, and whipped around to find the speaker, in vain.
The spoken syllables, however, had an immediate effect. The snowdrifts at the cave entrance - where Kerrarpalax was even now giving his final, defiant roar of fury as his lifeless body crashed to the ground - warped and swirled and took on a stocky, draconic shape. It was only about half the size of the slain Kerrarpalax, with a much smaller neck, but it charged forward at Thunderwolf, who desperately tried dodging back out of the way. Telgrane, originally convinced that this snow dragon was a clone of the white wyrm they had just slain, soon revised his estimate as the animated snow creature was quickly put to rest. It had been nowhere near as tough an opponent as Kerrarpalax had been.
But now new enemies were approaching. As the remaining ice mephits reported their findings to Telgrane, two man-shaped chunks of ice broke free from the back ice cliff, and the ice golems shambled forward to engage the heroes. Rale had heard the same voice give the command that freed the ice golems and set them forth on their mission, but still didn't see anyone. "We're facing a spellcaster!" he called to the others over the link, not wanting his voice to give away his position. Just to be safe, he backed his floatdisk over against the back wall, so nobody could sneak up on him.
Feron cast a simple detect magic spell in the entrance cavern to see if she could see any magical auras and while she didn't find any, her scrutiny along the back wall allowed her keen half-elven vision to spot a dark shadow about 30 feet up. This shadow was about the right size and shape for a normal doorway; elevating her floatdisk high enough to see into the carved depression, she saw an amazing sight: a human woman with pale skin, clad only in an elaborate headdress, sitting upon a throne carved of solid ice depicting white dragons surrounding her and bowing before her. "She's up here!" Feron called to the others.
Telgrane wasted no time determining the possible intentions of this new player in the mix; he cast a wall of fire directly across the throne, covering the icy seat and the woman seated regally upon it.
Dardonelle, the self-styled Ice Princess, stood up from her throne in irritation. Granted, her thrall Kerrarpalax had kept the intruders busy enough for her to cast a great number of defensive spells upon herself, among them a protection from energy spell that temporarily shielded her from all fire damage, but she didn't want to have it leeched away by remaining in the wall of fire for longer than necessary. And, on a more practical front, it was difficult for her to see through the dancing flames. So she stood, spoke the words to a dimension door spell, and instantly reappeared at the top of the ledge where Kerrarpalax had recently enjoyed the last sleep of his lengthy life.
Her foes were currently few in number, for Thunderwolf, Galrich, and Aerik had stayed behind out on the ledge, not only for the archer to pass over the ice troll's vorpal greatsword to the dwarf, but for Aerik to start systematically chopping away at the slain Kerrarpalax's neck. Galrich had gotten it into his head that the wyrm's head had to be cut off to prevent it from being reanimated (having fought it once while it was alive, he had no desire to have to fight it again while it was dead), and the loyal dwarven bodyguard was more than willing to follow through with his liege's wishes, especially if it meant testing out the properties of a powerful melee weapon. That left only Telgrane, Infernia, and Feron as apparent adversaries, for Rale was still cloaked in invisibility along the back wall, but was rising his floatdisk up to a higher level.
Thunderwolf surprised the wizard by sending a fusillade of flaming arrows headed her way. He, in turn, was surprised to see them strike her body and deflect off in various directions, without any seeming actions on her part.
Infernia made a sudden decision and didn't wait around for her master's orders. She jumped off the back of his floatdisk, leaping at the Ice Princess and wrapping her fiery arms around the female spellcaster in a bear hug. The fire elemental was surprised at the coldness of her opponent's skin; Infernia was used to most everything around her being colder than her own flames, but the wizard's skin was much cooler than that of her master's, or of any other living thing she had encountered. She passed this information on to her master, and Telgrane immediately started harboring suspicions that the wizard might be undead. Suddenly, Galrich's concerns about removing Kerrarpalax's head didn't seem so far-fetched.
Down below, though, Galrich had lost interest in his own project once he saw the ice golems approaching and an opportunity for combat. Calling back to Aerik to finish the draconic decapitation job (which he had been helping with, wielding his own vorpal axe), Galrich leapt back onto his floatdisk and raced over to meet the closest ice golem in combat. Aerik looked over with some concern, then saw it was a mere two shambling automatons at a hulking 9 feet tall each - nothing his liege couldn't handle. And Thunderwolf was already shooting flaming arrows into the broad chest of one of the golems. Without a word, the dwarf went back to cutting his way through the dead dragon's thick neck.
Arms pinned at her sides, Dardonelle tried escaping from Infernia's grasp, but failed. But no bother; she didn't need her spells to defeat such an opponent. She sucked in her breath and blasted a wide cone of frost directly into Infernia's face, catching Telgrane in the blast as well. Infernia, surprised, loosened her grip enough for the Ice Princess to step back out of her grasp. Telgrane nearly fell off his floatdisk, but kept it steady at the last moment, his mind now entertaining thoughts that their foe might be a half-dragon, despite a lack of any outward draconic features.
Feron, seeing how successful Infernia had been at grappling the nearly-nude wizard - for the druid could see various patches of thick ice adhering to Dardonelle's body, enough to make a bare minimum nod towards modesty - decided to up the scale a bit and cast a summon nature's ally spell. A blast of flame behind the Ice Princess marked the appearance of a huge fire elemental, who immediately tried the same trick, grabbing at the wizard's body with wide-stretched arms. But Dardonelle had learned that this was not the best position from which to have to fight, and ducked under the flaming limbs. She countered with a mass hold monster spell. Telgrane and Feron both shook off the effects, but the more immediate threat - the two fire elementals - was temporarily dealt with, for they stopped all movement but the involuntary flickering of their flaming forms.
Feron cast a call lightning storm spell, dropping a bolt of electricity down upon the Ice Princess. However, it arced away from the intended target at the last moment and struck the astonished druid instead. Feron gritted her teeth in fury at having had her own spell directed back at her, but dutifully passed on the information to the others over the mental link that their foe was shielded from directly-targeted spells.
By this time, Aerik had finally cut through Kerrarpalax's neck and Galrich and Thunderwolf had made short work of the first of the ice golems. Shards of ice exploded across the cavern as Galrich's axe finally shattered the golem's torso into pieces beyond number - the act even more impressive considering the half-orc had been temporarily blind while doing so, having taken ice shards to the eyes at the beginning of the golems' attack. With a grin, though, Galrich felt his eyesight returning and turned to face the second ice golem. Thunderwolf changed targets with his longbow as well, and Aerik looked over, glad to see they had left one for him to help destroy. He jumped back onto his floatdisk and skimmed over towards the remaining golem.
Above them, Dardonelle the Ice Princess stood flanked by fire elementals looming motionless above her, while Telgrane and Feron floated on their magical disks above the cavern below. Unseen, Rale was at the same level as his two companions, invisibly shortening the distance between him and their alluring young opponent. Tactics and counter-moves flashed across everyone's mind as they eagerly sought out the best way to defeat their foes....
- - -
...and that's where we left off, as Jacob had an appointment he had to go to, so we quit the game session at 5 PM. I had already figured this would likely be a two-session adventure, so I wasn't concerned. But we did what we always do when we have to pack up in the midst of a battle: we marked the positions of each character in pencil on the back of the desk calender that was serving as our geomorph, I put a rubber band around the initiative card deck so we'd be able to pick up next time exactly where we left off, and of course I still have my tracking sheets showing the relevant info on hp status, spells in effect, etc. for both my enemies and the PCs. When we start up next time, I'll do a brief recap and remind everyone about their PCs' current hit point status and which spells are active on which PCs.
Kerrarpalax started combat with 445 hit points, easily the most hp of any creatures the PCs have yet faced in this campaign. He didn't last as long as he would have had he been able to prepare some defensive spells up front, but then I knew that the time spent with him combating the PCs was time that Dardonelle would be able to put to good use, and she entered combat with half a dozen protective spells already cast. I'm often surprised at how short a time a foe I've built for the PCs to fight lasts in actual combat with them, and frequently tell myself after the fact that I probably should have bumped the creature's AC up first, or did this, or did that. This time, while building Dardonelle, I found myself wanting to weaken her a bit, thinking how tough she'd be to beat with that high of an AC, and that many defensive spells in effect, and so on. But I resisted the impulse, figuring the PCs need a truly tough fight every once in a while. So we'll see how it all works out.
PC Roster:
Feron Dru, half-elf druid
Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian
Rale Bodkin, human rogue
Telgrane, half-fire elemental human conjurer/archmage
Thunderwolf, human fighter
Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian
Rale Bodkin, human rogue
Telgrane, half-fire elemental human conjurer/archmage
Thunderwolf, human fighter
NPC Roster:
Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter/dwarven defender
"I have gone through my notes and records, and I believe there's still a good chance that the Orb of White Dragonkind is to be found in the treasure hoard of a white dragon wyrm named Kerrarpalax," said the elderly sage sitting at the head of the table in one of the Adventurers Guild conference rooms. Guildmaster Farthingale sat immediately across from him at the other end of the table, while on either side sat the various members of Wing Three and a few of their cohorts. "He lairs in a cave network carved from a floating iceberg, high up in the northern seas," continued the sage, passing over a detailed ink sketch of just such an iceberg. "While the interior of his lair seems to be shielded from scrying, this should be an accurate enough depiction to allow you to get there via a greater teleport spell - and it will need to be that spell, as his lair is far enough away that a simple teleport spell won't be able to bridge the distance." Cal took the drawing from the sage and studied it intensely, while those on either side of him looked over his shoulder.
But this was no ordinary sage sitting at the conference room table - this was none other than the gold dragon Gorgoldand, recently rescued by Wing Three from the enchanted mirror in which he'd been imprisoned for a decade or so, currently in his human guise. The Wing Three adventurers were aware of his true nature, but they had neglected to add that into their after-action report to the Guild, and as a result Guildmaster Farthingale had no idea that Gorgoldand was anything but what he appeared to be: a white-bearded human of some 70 summers or so.
"These are some of my top adventurers," boasted the portly Guildmaster. "I'm sure they'll be up to the task, and will be able to retrieve the Orb you seek." He ushered Gorgoldand out of the room with a string of such assurances, handing him over to the care of a young Guild page who escorted him out of the Headquarters building. Once Gorgoldand was out of earshot, Farthingale confided to the team of adventurers, "You wouldn't believe the amount of money that old sage is willing to pay us if we can find that Orb of his! This has to be your top priority! With the cash he's willing to throw our way, we'll be able to fund the Guild for years!" He chuckled in glee at his good fortune.
Rale got down to the important details. "How much are we getting paid?"
"Get this," replied Farthingale. "He'll pay 20,000 pieces of gold to each Guild member willing to fetch him the Orb of White Dragonkind - provided you're successful, that is."
That was all Rale needed to hear. "I'm in!" he called out, looking at Cal.
"That suits me," Cal replied. "I've got a trading business I need to look after. Which reminds me," he said, turning to face Farthingale. "I'm not planning on quitting the Guild or anything, but I do think it's best if I move my goods to my own manor house. It'll make it easier as I start to get the hang of my new business ventures."
"But you'll still be my backup?" asked Rale, suddenly concerned that he might be headed into battle without a high-powered cleric of Kord as his own personal cavalry.
"Oh, certainly," agreed the cleric of Kord. "In fact, I'll wear a pair of the scout goggles, to keep an eye on what you're up to." He pulled on a set of the goggles, smiling amicably. "And I can cast a spell on you before you depart that will allow you to cast a small handful of my spells yourself - probably some healing, maybe a protection from evil for good measure."
"Excellent!" replied Rale, giving Cal a warm handshake to seal the deal - and then palming Cal's ring of protection as he did so, having already come to the lightning-quick conclusion that Cal's ring was over double the power of Rale's own; that Cal wouldn't likely be willing to loan it to him; and that the odds were in his favor that he'd be able to snatch Cal's ring without him even noticing. He was, incidentally, correct on each count.
"Well, I won't be coming with you this time," Dez said, looking at her employer. "I've already been killed once by a dragon; no need to repeat the experience. Plus, I want to work on that play - opening night will be here soon enough!" Rale didn't bother trying to argue with her; having been slain once by a kraken himself, he knew he wouldn't be overly eager to jump headlong into a battle with another of those beasts and could definitely understand Dez's justifiable sudden respect for dragons.
"Well, I'm in!" said Thunderwolf.
"And I," replied Telgrane. Those two were practically a given, as neither had a "bink-partner" as backup with which they had to share duties.
Chalkan looked across the table at Galrich, not all that eager to jump at the chance to battle a powerful white wyrm, but at the same time not exactly eager to broadcast his unwillingness.
"Dibs!" called out Galrich, and Chalkan gave an exterior nod of acknowledgement and an internal sigh of relief. Aerik said nothing; it was understood by all that if Galrich was going, then so was his loyal dwarven bodyguard.
"You'd better take this one," said Delphyne to the half-elven druid sitting at her side. "Without Cal, they'll need your healing spells more than anything I'd be able to contribute." Feron agreed.
The next hour or so was spent on planning, right there in the conference room. Between them, Chalkan and Cal would be able to provide enough resist energy spells to cast one on everyone but Aerik, who'd be given a protection from energy spell instead. Each of the spells, naturally, would be cast to protect its recipient from cold energy, since they'd be facing a white dragon. They'd each be under the effects of an endure elements spell as well, cast by those who would not be on the "strike team," so the spellcasters heading into battle would still have their full complement of spells at the ready. That made sense to Rale, but he still wanted to be outfitted with cold weather gear, on the off chance that a dispel magic spell or a zone of antimagic might strip away his protection. Galrich, Aerik, Thunderwolf, and Feron followed suit, and they all decided to get fitted for cold weather gear before heading out as well. After all, Gorgoldand had been imprisoned for nearly a decade, so it wasn't likely that another day's delay was going to make much of a difference.
So that evening, their planning done, their shopping done (they hit the magic shops and stocked up on some healing potions as well, and Feron spent a considerable sum on a wand of cure critical wounds), the group unanimously decided to get a good night's sleep and start their adventure fresh the first thing in the morning.
- - -
Delphyne cast the greater teleport spell, and the group collectively winced and squinted at the bright light suddenly bombarding them from all directions. They were on a flat sheet of ice that made up about a fourth of the iceberg's upper surface, with a slight downhill incline leading to a flat plane of ice directly in front of a wide cave opening some 80 feet away or so. "Good luck!" called out Delphyne, casting a duplicate of the spell she had just cast, returning her to Wing Three's central living area in the Guild Headquarters building.
The group was blinking furiously, getting accustomed to the polar light reflected by the snow and ice from all directions, when a whuff! of irritation announced that they weren't exactly alone. Telgrane was the first to notice that a large blob of whiteness directly in front of him was in fact a walrus of enormous proportions - easily 20 feet long from tusk to back flippers. It had apparently been sunning itself on the edge of the iceberg - for sure enough, there were waves lapping directly behind the young archmage, some 5 feet below the surface on which he stood - and did not exactly appreciate the sudden interruption.
Another snort from the left indicated that his mate wasn't thrilled at the sudden appearance of the adventurers either.
"Floatdisks!" suggested Telgrane over the Rary's telepathic bond spell he had cast on the group before teleporting in. He followed his own advice, stepping onto the drow-made shield and rapidly elevating it to a safe height. Infernia leapt upon his back as he did so, and it was always a comical sight to see a 9-foot-tall being composed of living flame towering over a relatively lanky human wizard while they both balanced on a shield-sized drow floatdisk, but despite her size Infernia only weighed a paltry 4 pounds or so. (If she wanted to, she could flare up to 16 feet tall with little effort, but 9 feet tall had proven to be a fair compromise between "large enough to keep most foes at bay" and "small enough to still be able to interact easily with her master.") Most of the others followed suit.
Feron, however, had other plans. Casting a speak with animals spell, she assured the walruses that the heroes were not there to hurt them, but rather to seek the dragon who laired on the iceberg. The response she got from the massive beasts could best be translated as "DRAGON?" - followed by a quite impressive waddling speed as the walruses dove over the side of the iceberg and into the polar seas below. Feron stepped onto her own floatdisk and joined the others.
Galrich and Aerik had skimmed forward, just over the surface of the smooth-as-glass patch of ice directly in front of the dark cave. It was difficult to judge distances in this all-white world, but Galrich was fairly certain that a wyrm would be able to fit through the confines of the cave opening. Rale wasn't as sure, though, and as the others followed Galrich's lead, he instead rode his floatdisk directly up, scanning the sheer ice cliff directly above the cave. Sure enough, it rose for what he guessed to be a good 60 feet before flattening out onto a ledge, beyond which was another ice cliff - and what looked like it might be an even larger cave. He started passing on what he had seen to the others over the mental link...
...but they were otherwise occupied, for stepping out of the lower cave stood a quartet of strange, humanoid figures. They were a bluish-white, with backs so hunched and gnarled they seemed to suffer from the worst kind of debilitating bone disease. However, they grinned evil smiles full of crooked teeth upon sight of the heroes and one of the said a short phrase in the Giant tongue, which Feron and Thunderwolf recognized as "Looks like lunch is here, boys!"
Telgrane cast a fireball spell smack-dab in the middle of the group of ice trolls, infuriating them immensely. Feron followed suit with a flame strike, which did more than infuriate them - it actually killed the two in the front ranks, who toppled over onto the ice, dropping their weapons in the process: a crude-looking hammer or club, and an intricately-carved greatsword of impressive workmanship.
The two remaining trolls had an interesting reaction to this obvious display of fiery spellcraft: one immediately dashed back into the cave, while the other took a step forward, tapped three times on the ice with the butt of his hammer-club, and then immediately followed suit.
"We've got them on the run!" exclaimed Aerik, skimming his floatdisk into the cave and pushing his way past the winter wolf pelts hanging from a bunch of metal pitons in the icy ceiling. He was immediately attacked by both trolls, who had positioned themselves to swing their weapons at anyone who might follow them into their cave. Aerik grunted in pain, but just barely managed to stay on his floatdisk.
Galrich, however, was at the same time gasping in surprise, for the ice beneath him suddenly exploded upwards and a mass of snakelike heads rose up out of the frigid water. Several heads snapped at him, one actually drawing blood and attempting to get the barbarian in a firm grip between its teeth - no doubt for an immediate plunge back underwater, where the aquatic cryohydra would have the definite advantage - but Galrich squirmed away from the snapping jaws at the last moment and remained free of the beast's wicked teeth. Feron and Telgrane hurled a couple of fire-based spells at it, and the dozen pairs of eyes goggled in astonishment at this sudden onslaught. It crashed down beneath the surface of the water and did not return.
Thunderwolf wasn't taking any chances that the two motionless ice trolls were actually dead. He shot arrows at each from his flaming longbow, grunting in satisfaction when neither one moved after being hit. Just to be sure, though, Infernia leapt off of her master's floatdisk and landed astride the two, doing a little hopping dance from one to the other, eventually setting the two ablaze. Then she jumped off before their bodies could melt through the ice, for the fire elemental had no desire to plunge into the icy waters below. Instead, she entered the cave to help Aerik finish off the ice trolls, leaving melted depressions of her footprints as she walked across the icy cavern floor.
It wasn't much of a fight, and Aerik was displeased to see that the trolls didn't have much in the way of treasure besides a few clean-picked bones and some smelly furs in a smaller cavern in the back they obviously used as a bunkhouse. Thunderwolf, however, had lowered his floatdisk to the surface long enough to pick up the greatsword the troll leader had been using. He had Telgrane give it a quick look with his arcane sight, and the auras of necromancy and transmutation looked similar enough to Galrich's recently-purchased axe for the archmage to state with full confidence that it was a vorpal greatsword. Xanthros said nothing as his master slid the new sword into place on his belt, perhaps not wishing to appear petty or jealous.
During this time, though, Rale had elevated himself to the height of the higher ledge. It was unoccupied, but certainly large enough to allow a white wyrm to laze about under the polar sun there if it so desired. Rale also noted the dimensions of this higher cave opening were more in line with the bulk of a wyrm, being about thirty feet wide and of equal height. He didn't like the look of the snowdrifts leading from the ledge partly into the darkened depths of the cavern; to test a theory, he let fly an arrow into the nearest of the snowdrifts. It slid silently into the snow and buried itself up to its feathers without hitting anything hidden underneath.
The others rose up to the ledge level, and the group had a silent discussion over their telepathic bond.
"Who's going in?" Rale wanted to know, his demeanor suggesting that he was certainly not volunteering to be the first to trespass into the lair of a white wyrm.
"Galrich, Aerik, what do you see?" asked Telgrane, partly stalling for time but also well aware that of their group of heroes, they were the only two with darkvision.
Galrich skimmed up to the cave entrance and peered inside. "It's about 40 feet wide, 60 feet deep," he reported back. "Ice cliff in the back rises straight up for about 30 feet. Ceiling's about 50 feet high here, taller in the back. Empty, far as I can tell."
"I don't like it," said Rale, nervously.
"I think I can hear breathing," added Feron, straining her half-elven ears. "Big, deep breaths, like a massive bellows."
"I'll send in some spies," suggested Telgrane, casting a summoning spell. Four ice mephits popped into existence, looked around, and apparently liked the environment in which they found themselves. Telgrane gave them their orders, and, wings fluttering, they entered the dark cavern. Once there, they gave the big open space a quick peruse before rising up to check out the ledge above. Not surprisingly, they discovered the massive, sleeping form of Kerrarpalax, resting in the middle of the upper ledge.
As quietly as possible, the ice mephits split up to check out the rest of the area. Behind Kerrarpalax, a side cavern dropped down 40 feet or so; this obviously served as the wyrm's hoard, as it was piled with coins, gems, and a few scattered weapons. One ice mephit dropped down to do a quick survey of the treasure, specifically looking for the white orb Telgrane had told him was the object of their search.
Another mephit found a wide tunnel leading down from the level of the upper ledge; he found it to be large enough in diameter to fit Kerrarpalax's gargantuan form and went exploring to see where it might lead.
The other two mephits didn't get a chance to do much exploring, for at this time Kerrarpalax gave a mighty influx of breath as he suddenly awoke, having picked up the sounds of the mephits' wings as they flew past. He went from a sound slumber at one moment to full alert in the very next, springing to all fours and spreading his wings out wide. He gave a massive roar of outrage, causing the mephits to freeze up in terror. Out on the exterior ledge to his lair, the wyrm noted a handful of adventurers give a sudden start at the fierceness of his roar, and spent less than a second deducing their likely intentions before leaping from the ledge, gliding down to the front of his entrance cavern, and blasting the group with his frozen breath.
Fortunately, the heroes' precautions prevented much of the damage from getting through, but only Rale managed to avoid any kind of damage altogether. He also took the opportunity to slide his floatdisk around the corner of the cave entrance, out of view of the dragon, and activate one of the powers of his rod of thievery. Immediately, he disappeared from sight as an aura of invisibility cloaked his features; only Telgrane, who had recently upgraded his magical eyesight yet again to include a permanent see invisibility effect, was able to still see the rogue.
But Telgrane had other things on his mind at the moment. He unleashed one of his most powerful spells, sending a meteor swarm streaking at the angry dragon, hitting Kerrarpalax straight in the face with his flaming missiles. The dragon bellowed in pain and raced forward, snapping out at Galrich who had the misfortune of being the closest within range, tearing into the barbarian's body with its dagger-long teeth. Galrich allowed his rage to fly forth at this attack, and started striking back at the wyrm with his vorpal war axe, hoping to sever the dragon's head from its shoulders as he swung his blade in fury.
Feron cast a finger of death at the wyrm, but the spell failed to penetrate past the dragon's inherent spell resistance. Another flame strike followed immediately, this one managing to scorch the dragon severely. Snarling in increased fury, Kerrarpalax was forced to spend time during his battle casting a defensive spell, shielding him from fire-based attacks. He hated having to waste his time on such measures, but he reluctantly came to the realization that it was a necessary evil, for the fire spells were rapidly taking their toll on the massive wyrm.
While the spellcasters were busy flinging spells at Kerrarpalax, Galrich and Aerik were doing their best to carve into the dragon's thick hide with their axes. Thunderwolf hung back, shooting arrow after arrow into the beast's hide, his magical longbow causing each arrow to burst into flame in flight.
"I could use yer vorpal sword about now!" called Aerik over his shoulder to Thunderwolf. "Mebbe we can cut the head off this beastie!"
"Come back here and get it, then!" called back Thunderwolf, not slowing the pace of his archery at all. "I'm kind of busy!" Aerik grumbled, but continued swinging his axe at the dragon, unwilling to leave his liege to face the wyrm in combat alone for even a moment.
Kerrarpalax roared in pain again as a polar ray struck him. Normally, he'd have been immune to the effects of the magical ray of pure coldness, but Telgrane had used his arcane training to convert the cold energy to electricity as it left his fingertips. The dragon, protected though he was from cold and fire, had no defenses against electrical damage once the spell had made it past his inherent spell resistance. Kerrarpalax then did what he had vowed he would never do, but he was rapidly running out of options - these adventurers would likely kill him in less than a minute if things kept up the way they were going.
"Mistress!" the white wyrm called out in the Draconic language. "I seek your immediate assistance!"
Several of the Wing Three heroes understood the Draconic language and translated over the link for the benefit of those who didn't. This brought immediate gasps of shock among the heroes, for Kerrarpalax had been one of the toughest opponents they'd ever faced to date, and the thought that it was merely a guardian for an even tougher opponent caused no small amount of concern. But they saw no one else, and so concentrated their efforts on the one foe they knew they had to defeat.
Rale, however, saw an opening between the dragon's body and widespread wing, and dashed through the span on his invisible floatdisk. He looked around the cavern for any other foes, but saw only two of the ice mephits returning back from their explorations to give their findings to Telgrane. However, he did hear a feminine voice speak a few arcane syllables from somewhere off to the side of him, and whipped around to find the speaker, in vain.
The spoken syllables, however, had an immediate effect. The snowdrifts at the cave entrance - where Kerrarpalax was even now giving his final, defiant roar of fury as his lifeless body crashed to the ground - warped and swirled and took on a stocky, draconic shape. It was only about half the size of the slain Kerrarpalax, with a much smaller neck, but it charged forward at Thunderwolf, who desperately tried dodging back out of the way. Telgrane, originally convinced that this snow dragon was a clone of the white wyrm they had just slain, soon revised his estimate as the animated snow creature was quickly put to rest. It had been nowhere near as tough an opponent as Kerrarpalax had been.
But now new enemies were approaching. As the remaining ice mephits reported their findings to Telgrane, two man-shaped chunks of ice broke free from the back ice cliff, and the ice golems shambled forward to engage the heroes. Rale had heard the same voice give the command that freed the ice golems and set them forth on their mission, but still didn't see anyone. "We're facing a spellcaster!" he called to the others over the link, not wanting his voice to give away his position. Just to be safe, he backed his floatdisk over against the back wall, so nobody could sneak up on him.
Feron cast a simple detect magic spell in the entrance cavern to see if she could see any magical auras and while she didn't find any, her scrutiny along the back wall allowed her keen half-elven vision to spot a dark shadow about 30 feet up. This shadow was about the right size and shape for a normal doorway; elevating her floatdisk high enough to see into the carved depression, she saw an amazing sight: a human woman with pale skin, clad only in an elaborate headdress, sitting upon a throne carved of solid ice depicting white dragons surrounding her and bowing before her. "She's up here!" Feron called to the others.
Telgrane wasted no time determining the possible intentions of this new player in the mix; he cast a wall of fire directly across the throne, covering the icy seat and the woman seated regally upon it.
Dardonelle, the self-styled Ice Princess, stood up from her throne in irritation. Granted, her thrall Kerrarpalax had kept the intruders busy enough for her to cast a great number of defensive spells upon herself, among them a protection from energy spell that temporarily shielded her from all fire damage, but she didn't want to have it leeched away by remaining in the wall of fire for longer than necessary. And, on a more practical front, it was difficult for her to see through the dancing flames. So she stood, spoke the words to a dimension door spell, and instantly reappeared at the top of the ledge where Kerrarpalax had recently enjoyed the last sleep of his lengthy life.
Her foes were currently few in number, for Thunderwolf, Galrich, and Aerik had stayed behind out on the ledge, not only for the archer to pass over the ice troll's vorpal greatsword to the dwarf, but for Aerik to start systematically chopping away at the slain Kerrarpalax's neck. Galrich had gotten it into his head that the wyrm's head had to be cut off to prevent it from being reanimated (having fought it once while it was alive, he had no desire to have to fight it again while it was dead), and the loyal dwarven bodyguard was more than willing to follow through with his liege's wishes, especially if it meant testing out the properties of a powerful melee weapon. That left only Telgrane, Infernia, and Feron as apparent adversaries, for Rale was still cloaked in invisibility along the back wall, but was rising his floatdisk up to a higher level.
Thunderwolf surprised the wizard by sending a fusillade of flaming arrows headed her way. He, in turn, was surprised to see them strike her body and deflect off in various directions, without any seeming actions on her part.
Infernia made a sudden decision and didn't wait around for her master's orders. She jumped off the back of his floatdisk, leaping at the Ice Princess and wrapping her fiery arms around the female spellcaster in a bear hug. The fire elemental was surprised at the coldness of her opponent's skin; Infernia was used to most everything around her being colder than her own flames, but the wizard's skin was much cooler than that of her master's, or of any other living thing she had encountered. She passed this information on to her master, and Telgrane immediately started harboring suspicions that the wizard might be undead. Suddenly, Galrich's concerns about removing Kerrarpalax's head didn't seem so far-fetched.
Down below, though, Galrich had lost interest in his own project once he saw the ice golems approaching and an opportunity for combat. Calling back to Aerik to finish the draconic decapitation job (which he had been helping with, wielding his own vorpal axe), Galrich leapt back onto his floatdisk and raced over to meet the closest ice golem in combat. Aerik looked over with some concern, then saw it was a mere two shambling automatons at a hulking 9 feet tall each - nothing his liege couldn't handle. And Thunderwolf was already shooting flaming arrows into the broad chest of one of the golems. Without a word, the dwarf went back to cutting his way through the dead dragon's thick neck.
Arms pinned at her sides, Dardonelle tried escaping from Infernia's grasp, but failed. But no bother; she didn't need her spells to defeat such an opponent. She sucked in her breath and blasted a wide cone of frost directly into Infernia's face, catching Telgrane in the blast as well. Infernia, surprised, loosened her grip enough for the Ice Princess to step back out of her grasp. Telgrane nearly fell off his floatdisk, but kept it steady at the last moment, his mind now entertaining thoughts that their foe might be a half-dragon, despite a lack of any outward draconic features.
Feron, seeing how successful Infernia had been at grappling the nearly-nude wizard - for the druid could see various patches of thick ice adhering to Dardonelle's body, enough to make a bare minimum nod towards modesty - decided to up the scale a bit and cast a summon nature's ally spell. A blast of flame behind the Ice Princess marked the appearance of a huge fire elemental, who immediately tried the same trick, grabbing at the wizard's body with wide-stretched arms. But Dardonelle had learned that this was not the best position from which to have to fight, and ducked under the flaming limbs. She countered with a mass hold monster spell. Telgrane and Feron both shook off the effects, but the more immediate threat - the two fire elementals - was temporarily dealt with, for they stopped all movement but the involuntary flickering of their flaming forms.
Feron cast a call lightning storm spell, dropping a bolt of electricity down upon the Ice Princess. However, it arced away from the intended target at the last moment and struck the astonished druid instead. Feron gritted her teeth in fury at having had her own spell directed back at her, but dutifully passed on the information to the others over the mental link that their foe was shielded from directly-targeted spells.
By this time, Aerik had finally cut through Kerrarpalax's neck and Galrich and Thunderwolf had made short work of the first of the ice golems. Shards of ice exploded across the cavern as Galrich's axe finally shattered the golem's torso into pieces beyond number - the act even more impressive considering the half-orc had been temporarily blind while doing so, having taken ice shards to the eyes at the beginning of the golems' attack. With a grin, though, Galrich felt his eyesight returning and turned to face the second ice golem. Thunderwolf changed targets with his longbow as well, and Aerik looked over, glad to see they had left one for him to help destroy. He jumped back onto his floatdisk and skimmed over towards the remaining golem.
Above them, Dardonelle the Ice Princess stood flanked by fire elementals looming motionless above her, while Telgrane and Feron floated on their magical disks above the cavern below. Unseen, Rale was at the same level as his two companions, invisibly shortening the distance between him and their alluring young opponent. Tactics and counter-moves flashed across everyone's mind as they eagerly sought out the best way to defeat their foes....
- - -
...and that's where we left off, as Jacob had an appointment he had to go to, so we quit the game session at 5 PM. I had already figured this would likely be a two-session adventure, so I wasn't concerned. But we did what we always do when we have to pack up in the midst of a battle: we marked the positions of each character in pencil on the back of the desk calender that was serving as our geomorph, I put a rubber band around the initiative card deck so we'd be able to pick up next time exactly where we left off, and of course I still have my tracking sheets showing the relevant info on hp status, spells in effect, etc. for both my enemies and the PCs. When we start up next time, I'll do a brief recap and remind everyone about their PCs' current hit point status and which spells are active on which PCs.
Kerrarpalax started combat with 445 hit points, easily the most hp of any creatures the PCs have yet faced in this campaign. He didn't last as long as he would have had he been able to prepare some defensive spells up front, but then I knew that the time spent with him combating the PCs was time that Dardonelle would be able to put to good use, and she entered combat with half a dozen protective spells already cast. I'm often surprised at how short a time a foe I've built for the PCs to fight lasts in actual combat with them, and frequently tell myself after the fact that I probably should have bumped the creature's AC up first, or did this, or did that. This time, while building Dardonelle, I found myself wanting to weaken her a bit, thinking how tough she'd be to beat with that high of an AC, and that many defensive spells in effect, and so on. But I resisted the impulse, figuring the PCs need a truly tough fight every once in a while. So we'll see how it all works out.