Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Ididerac's Citadel Cont'd. (Session 13) - Emmanir 24, 888 F.S.


Ididerac’s citadel
Sophia and Tiamut show up out of nowhere, fresh as a daisy. While we discuss our options at this point, four goblins come running down the stairs toward us. Sophia skewers one of them. Ididerac and the ogre are behind them, also coming down the stairs. One of the goblins opens a door in the bailey; two seconds later, a large white snake slithers into the bailey with us (nice). More combat ensues. Estenel hangs onto consciousness by a thread, due in no small part to Sophia’s valiant efforts of throwing herself in harm’s way. A series of critical successes by the party and critical failures by the bad guys swings the combat in our favor. Ididerac is killed; the goblins are slain. The man who, earlier in the combat, ran off to inform Ididerac and his thugs of our presence, is now also dead.

Now that all foes (except for the mage, which is still missing) are dead or unconscious, the party begins to search the citadel for the mage. Yukon draws some pretty pictures in the dirt and Sophia is now able to see invisible objects. Estenel, being completely spent, retires to the kitchen and starts rummaging for ale.

We ransack the citadel. Noteworthy items that were found:
  • Written military orders that command Lord Higgins to head south.

  • Paperwork that describes how to activate the ice/snow stones. (One of these stones was used by Degarn to create the blizzard in the area around his keep. It was the stone that was in the statue next to the shocky sword.)

  • A message from Lady Deepweather Cardia: the final shipment of stones from the ice palace are en route to Ididerac’s citadel. “The forge” is now up and running and pumping out more of them. Meet with Frosttouch Jorval if they need more stones. (There are also 12 of these ice stones in the package.)

  • 4000 silver pieces

  • Several Odoru (reindeer). We now have transportation.

After a bit, the ogre wakes up and wants to know if he is free to go. He’s basically a hired thug, commanding a detachment of wolfen, and is/was in the employ of Ididerac. He informs us that the mage that took flight is Frosttouch Jorval. We now have an idea that Lady Deepweather is most likely a cardinal within the Ice Queen’s clerical hierarchy.

Estenel mind-searches the unconscious female mage. He finds out that:
  • Her name is Romfinia; she is from Zoohoodu Island. The port on Hronn that she uses to get to and from Zoohoodu is Fopasado.

  • She is in the employ of the Ice Queen; her superior is Frosttouch Garrin (formerly Stormbrother Garrin).

  • She has come here to deliver a seal to Ididerac. The seal holds a demon which was destroyed (the seal, that is; not the demon) in the basement of this citadel. Sophia and Flick head into the basement and confirm this, observing broken pottery that contains runes. Several of the pieces of this seal are gathered up and taken with us.

  • The demon that will be released by the breaking of these seals is named Costuhshee (this jives with the name that we gleaned from the blue bald guy back when we were trying to find the temple that ended up having demon dogs in it).

  • The demon is not here yet, but will be after all seals are broken. There are 13 seals in total; four of them have been broken so far; the other nine have not been located yet.

  • Two minions of the Ice Queen (Frosttouch Jorval and Frosttouch Garrin) are researching the location of the remaining seals.

  • Jorval is the mage that we encountered in Ididerac’s citadel, fried Sir Dapifir, then tucked tail and skeedaddled before we finished the fight with Ididerac.

  • Garrin is on Zoohoodu Island. That is the home of Jorval as well.

  • The more seals that are broken, the stronger the demon gets.

  • There is no time limit from when the first seal is broken to when the last seal is broken with regards to allowing or denying the demon access to this plane.

  • If and when the demon is released, he will appear on this world at a location named Careethay.

  • Romfinia does not know where the other seals are, and does not know if anyone else knows for sure yet where they are.

  • The Ice Queen is locating and delivering the seals to the Ice Coven (read: “snowflakes”) in exchange for “pleasantries”.

  • Breaking of the seals requires a ritual. The snowflakes know this ritual; it does not require anything special... just do the ritual. Anybody who knows this ritual can properly break the seals.

  • The seals are 1-foot diameter disks with runes inscribed on them. All seals are made of the same material.

  • The seals are believed to be Sidhe artifacts.

  • Ididerac sent his troops south to engage Lord Futanmoth’s garrison.

Lake of Orb
We allow the ogre to go free. We then leave Ididerac’s citadel, taking the Odoru with us as well as a small non-descript item from the unconscious female mage so that we can track her later. The party heads to the Lake of Orb to discuss recent events with the water sprite, Gidnia. The information we give her confirms her suspicions. She gives Estenel a grand gift: Elidil. This is a sword which, when drawn, continually drips holy water along its blade.

Gidnia introduces us to a friend of hers, Jolin, who accompanies the party as we head back to Schnorking.

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