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.

The Black Dawn (Session 8) - Emmanir 14, 888 F.S.

North of Schnorking
The city of Schnorking sends 3000 men north toward Gurdikar to see if they can take it back. This force is led by Lord Hallibank. The party travels along with the troops. They send a dispatch of 50 scouts ahead to see what is in Gurdikar, Laendersberg, and Stahl. Gurdikar is leveled, as was Laendersberg. Lord Hallibank retakes Stahl and sets up a base of operation there. Stahl is still fairly intact. However, the invading forces appear to have retreated back to the north.

Lord Hallibank sends a detachment north to seek out this invading army. The party goes along with them. The party breaks off to head over to Degarn’s Keep. Estenel finds the rock where Flick had entombed his man-at-arms. Flick un-entombs his man-at-arms. Yukon cures his Goblin Fever.

Flick then notices, a quarter mile in the distance, a dust cloud being raised by wagons heading west away from us. Flick sees that they are carrying shields with a marking of a sword through a crescent moon on a field of blue and black. These appear to be the same people who had kidnapped the water sprite. We decide to follow them until they set up camp, and then investigate them under the cover of night.

Night falls. The wagons make camp. We watch the camp. After they get done eating, they get a couple people out of the wagons, hand them swords, and force them to fight to the death. The guards hoot and holler, exchange their bets, then put the victor back into the wagon, and toss the corpse outside their camp.

We make a plan to assault the camp, using the wagons full of hostages as a diversion. Flick heads to the wagons and begins to release the hostages. A few seconds later, the rest of us approach the camp to take the guards. We get to within 200 yards of the camp, when Flick hears one of the wolfen alert the captain, who says, “Yeah, I see ‘em.” Apparently, the party’s presence has been discovered. Two of the wolfen go toward the picket line of horses and a few of the others begin to snuff the fire out. Meanwhile, Flick picks the lock on the door of one of the wagons. Yukon uncorks a fireball on some of the guards. Unfortunately, it torches one of the wagons with captives inside. Mayhem ensues.

In the end, the party prevails. We tie up the captain of the thugs, heal him (he passed out during battle), awaken him, and question him. He says they’re coming from Gurdikar with the slaves. The wolfen have the heraldry of the snowflake. The humans have the heraldry of the Black Dawn. They have a ship to the west called the Gale’s Teeth. One of the pirates (humans) says that their leader, Red Francis, sells the slaves to Stormbrother Garrin. One of the other pirate leaders that also makes runs to Hronn for slaves is a man by the name of Priamo, who sails the Flying Tiger. They also tell of a third pirate by the name of Captain Preetu who runs slaves. The wolfen says that Ididerac is now in the Frozen Citadel. They tell that they will most likely meet up with Stormbrother Garrin on this shipment of slaves due to its size. When they meet up with Garrin, it is outside of the town of Fopasado (the seaside village where the port is located).

The party decides to continue heading west on the wagon’s timetable, with the hopes of catching up with Stormbrother Garrin.

The Rout of Degarn (Session 6) - Sehnir 14, 888 F.S.

Degarn’s Keep
We go back to Laendersberg and inform the Duke’s men about Degarn’s fortress. They agree that he must be neutralized. So, we head back to Degarn’s fortress with the Duke’s men and lay siege. On the second day of battle, the orcs of Degarn’s fortress surrender and allow the Duke’s men to occupy the castle. Huzzah!

Ragnak, Racker, Gorack, and Degarn all fled before the fortress was taken.

Estenel questions the remaining orcs if they know what caused the drop in temperature earlier. Flick instructs the orcs to take us to Degarn’s room, which they do. They take us past the center of the keep, where a statue of a large giant with a hammer is positioned. There is a large white gem in the side of the head of the hammer. The orcs said that the statue was not there two days ago. The gem in the hammer head is magical.

Scrounging through Degarn’s items: letter between Degarn and Ididerac (snowflake army). It discusses military issues. There is another and a piece of paper that is a letter between Stormbrother Garrin. The latter is an agreement that if they continue to wage war, that the Ice Queen will continue to supply the gems needed to continue the winterization of Hronn. We grab and orc and ask him about Ididerac and Garrin. He says Ididerac has been at the fortress. He’s a big human bald, bushy red moustached guy. The orc believes that Ididerac is an Ascommani. He further says that he’s the one that, five days ago, brought the gem that is in the hammer head of the giant. The orc says that Garrin also arrived with Ididerac five days ago. Garrin wears sky blue robes, and is also human, but probably not Ascommani.

We get a couple orcs to pull the white gem out of the hammer head. The orc reaches to pull out the gem. As soon as he touches it, the orc screams that it’s freezing cold. Ice shoots up his arm and freezes it solid. As the orc pulls back, his arm breaks off at the shoulder and falls to the ground and shatters.

Tracking Degarn north of the Fortress
We track Degarn to the north for 10 miles. The snow at this point has dissipated (i.e., no snow on the ground). We follow the tracks to a road. The tracks follow the road to the east. We follow the road. Ahead of us on the road, about 140 yards distant, we see about a dozen soldiers. The party gets off the road to seek whatever cover we can find. Estenel espies that they are snowflake soldiers. There is a camp near the soldiers with some horses. There is a guardhouse next to the road, where the snowflakes are posted. On the horizon, Sophia sees a keep. The soldiers guarding the road are bipedal dog-like creatures dressed in armor and snowflake heraldry. We advance up the road toward the guardpost with Flick and Yukon hiding off in the grass to the side of the road. The creatures espy us and six of them come out to meet us on horseback. They inform us that we are trespassing on Lord Ididerac’s lands and that we are not his slaves. We disagree with that assessment. They fire upon us and then charge. Combat ensues. In the end, we kill four of them, capture two more, and the other six blow a warning horn and head back to the keep. The guard shack is devoid of anything even remotely useful. We haul the two captured dogmen back to Degarn’s Keep to turn them over to the Duke’s men.