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| The mysterious Ice Castle |
Timekeeping
This session took place on 05/12/2024, and the PCs adventured for 6 days.
Player Characters Present
Slippery Pete (Level 9 Thief, wearer of the Hat of Disguise and wielder of the Black Dagger)Sever (Level 8 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, wielder of Were'shbane and wearer of the Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength)Giuseppe (Level 7 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, wielder of the Dragonslayer and the Shield of Protection from Missiles, rider of Bonecrusher) with henchmen Bishoy and Tawadros (F5)Sheamus (Level 7 Irish Fighter from Brovenloft, rider of the Rocket Cycle and wielder of the Drewblade) with henchman McScales (Lizardman F2)Gurt the Green (Level 5 Paladin of Machodor, wielder of the Longsword+3, rider of Artax) with henchman Solaire (P3) and Anri (M3)
Downtime
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| Path followed in this session |
Session Report
The Ice Castle was not just a threat, it was a mystery; previously Slippery Pete had snuck in and surveyed the place, finding a magically locked door at the back of it.
For the first time, the players mustered a force of troops that was almost entirely paid and outfitted themselves. This would allow them to reap the full benefit of any mass battle successes they might achieve (see session #54 report when I've finished it).
Towards the end of a three day march the force reached the vicinity of the Ice Castle unmolested. Here the players schemed and decided to find some sort of back way to approach without risking attack from the long range ice weapons that they feared. They found a previously unexplored valley at the foot of the mountain and dug in.
Having left their men in a safe encampment, the players worked their way up and around the mountain side. Their planning left a little to be desired, and night fell while they were still climbing up to the summit of a shoulder that they hoped would lead down to the outcrop of rock above the Ice Castle.
In the middle of the night, Gurt, who was on watch with his henchman, was alerted by the strange sensation that a blizzard was trying to enter the cave they had taken shelter in. It was in fact three Yeti; they failed to surprise him.
Combat #1: Yeti
Rounds: 4
Result: Party Wins
Highlights: It turned out that the cave was in fact the Yeti's lair, there were women and cubs hiding in a sub section of tunnel, they had been trapped when the party had chosen this spot; but, now with their males here, the females crept out of hiding to attack from behind. A nasty close quarters fight followed, but the party prevailed. At the back of the cave the party found 6,000 Gold Machos!
Now I'll let you into the method I use for random encounters like this. I generally have a good idea of what is and is not in a given area of the Bandit Mountains, sometimes more exact than others. Naturally, if no encounter rolls were positive we just keep going from the next morning; but, if, there is an encounter in the night I just roll among the available watchers (usually not Magic Users, Clerics, or Thieves if man power is sufficient) to randomly assign who was on watch at the time. I recall a great deal of game time in my youth being wasted on who was going to take which watch of the night. "I'll take the first watch." "Mate leave my watch alone!" etc etc. In a four hour online session no one has time for that.
In this case the encounter was with Yeti, but that is not all; Yeti have a low 10% chance of being in lair and I rolled under the target. This called for some DM abduction; the only conclusion was that the party had un-fortuitously chosen the Yeti lair as their camp for the night!
I can easily imaging a conventional DM prepping this encounter and then ensuring the party found the cave, decided to stay there, and so on; then staging the arrival of the Yeti in the middle of the night. Players can sense this and don't like it.
The next morning was foggy, hampering them as they tried to determine their direction over to the castle. They followed the general slope down while they could, but then was a conundrum. Ahead were a scattering of large boulders, there was no clear direct route to follow, and when they pushed on, they suddenly found a very large "rock" had stepped out in front of them and was barring their way. With unusual creatures, in fact all creatures, I try to describe what the players see, but I'm not great at this, so I usually relent and show a picture eventually.
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| This creature proved to be the Rock equivalent of a Treant, a Galeb Duhr. |
I knew these guys were up there, and had established that they were afraid of the cold magic of the occupants of the Ice Castle and were following orders to prevent anyone approaching from this direction. A random encounter in the area would be with them. The monster manual doesn't say what languages they can speak, so I assumed only that of their alignment. With communication being so difficult, and them being a direct obstacle to the party's objective, I was expecting a fight; which could well have been deadly indeed. What happened next was the most fun part of the session for me.
Fortunately, the party got a good reaction roll, and the Galeb Duhr made an attempt to communicate. And it was off to Slippery Pete's private channel for a discussion.
DM: "You hear a voice coming from the large boulders ahead, it sounds like... a rock speaking."
Galeb: "Bad men hurt us if we let you pass, return whence you came."
Pete (The Pious and Humble): "Hail, well met rock friends. Bad men, you say? My companions can help free you from them. Also, how can they hurt a rock?"
Galeb: "Those in the Castle Below have the power of COLD! We fear them using it on us."
Pete (TPH): "So do we. That's why we come from this direction. We mean to extirpate them. Would you help us? (Charisma reaction +10)".
The roll was positive.
Galeb: "You must prove your STRENGTH, send forward your strongest to ME."
Pete: "I will consult with my strongest.."
Soon Sever was walking forward to take on a feat of strength contest with the Galeb Duhr. Seeing the diminutive Ranger, the rock creature was not initially impressed, but when Sever threw a rock many times further than the Galeb Duhr could throw one, it changed its tune. After some further negotiations the rock creature was prepared to help the party.
Now, I started this session expecting some kind of mass battle to take the Ice Castle; what would these new players bring to the table? Well according to MM2 they can cast Passwall once per round, indefinitely, at the 20th level of magic use. And so he created a path for the party, right through the mountain, directly down to a spot just above the battlements. This path would last just about an hour in case their assault failed and had to retreat.
The only downside was that the party could not see out from inside the Passwall tunnel; so they leapt out, ready for anything.
Combat #2: Ice Castle defenders
Rounds: 6
Result: Party Victory
Highlights: The defenders had created a checker board like defence system of Glyphs of Warding. They could somehow avoid activating them, while the players could not. The defence was led by a high level fighter and his squad of Spetum wielding assistants; the shoe was on the other foot and party's weapons were dropping all over, sometimes landing on a square they knew must hold a Glyph. They were forced to pull out back up weapons. I though this was cool, but I sensed some frustration among the players.
Finally the party prevailed and they sought new opponents on the further battlements.
Session Statistics:
Wilderness travel: 18 Miles
Combats: 2
Combat rounds: 10
