(Following: Dungeon & Dragon)
Lonelywood
Having escaped from Revel's End, survived a polar blizzard and an encounter with an ancient Unknown, the Sewer-side Squad crossed from the Sea of Moving Ice to arrive at one of the most remote of Icewind Dale's Ten Towns: Lonelywood.
The town structures were open, huddled around docks at a clearing surrounded by dense forest. Unlike Bryn Shander, which was surrounded by a 30 foot wall, Lonelywood lacked any sort of protection against the wild. Perhaps to allow one to flee as easily as be contained? The reputation of this town of about 100 was a sort of haven for the shadiest and cold-hearted criminals and miscreants escaping to hide in the remote north. But the group found instead a community of people respecting the privacy of strangers (and each other) and offering a fresh start. Tales of the past being a grave taboo to even casually probe.
The group was offered rooms at a fair price upstairs in the fine home of Lonelywood's Speaker - Nimsey Hussle, a friendly and kind halfling. His upstairs offered three rooms: Dex and Alyks Askaria, Zaknalimar and Sudon, Agaric and Aelar, while Phantom was content to curl up with the dogsled teams in the kennel. After changing from travel clothing to warm social gear, the group joined town members at the long-benched tables of the dockside tavern called The Lucky Liar.
While tales of the past are considered taboo to even casually ask about, what's begun anew may be enthusiastically shared,, as was the case with a group of heroes whose victories had just recently been written into song by a local bard named Randolph the Rapscallion, who sang of their deeds as the party arrived. (As best can be recalled, recounting the adventures of a group of four gnomes calling themselves "The Gnoobz": see the notes in Gnoobz). In addition to the entertainment, the food was excellent (spiced chowder), the hearth was warm, and as the beers and ales were consumed, the patrons shared tall tales and hilarious exaggerations - with no lack of flair for the dramatic in hinting at dangerous secrets and myths.
Sudon took great interest in tales from a tenday before regarding a brilliant shooting star witnessed by the townsfolk, landing somewhere to the north - perhaps not far from the prison of Revel's End, in fact. This would correspond to the same the party had seen while descending into Icewind Dale on the Ten Trail pass over the Spine of the World, after the stop in Hundelstone.
The morning hospitality from Nimsey included generous servings of the halfling's signature cookies, offered to any who stay with him, delighting him when receiving the immensely enthusiastic response from Dex. But the party was to move on to the next town, marking Lonelywood a place to which they would definitely return. The Lucky Liar's barkeep, a striking raven-haired woman named Danae Xotal, would accompany the party to Termalaine, needing to pick up supplies on her sled drawn by a team of rust-colored dogs. As with most of Lonelywood's residents, she was friendly, but generally listened more than spoke.
Termalaine
Only a few miles down the snow-covered trail from Lonelywood, Termalaine was expected to be far more bustling - supporting fishing, logging, and even mining as well as being the launch-point for expeditions eastward or up the northern side of Kelvin's Cairn. However, the late-day arrival of the party found instead a town eerily quiet and so thoroughly dark as to confound even those with darkvision in making out more than the shapes of buildings.
Danae had explained the arrival coincided with the New Moon, when each of the towns, in their often coerced respect for Auril, performed their sacrifice to the Goddess of Winter. While in Lonelywood that would take the form of a fasting and food left for Auril's creatures, in Termalaine the sacrifice would be "warmth" (and correspondingly... light). From the fading of the dimness of mid-day to its next arrival - no torch, no hearth, not even a candle would be allowed to burn - the citizens taking in the harsh cold of the Frostmaiden to appease her wrath.
After showing the group to an inn called The Eastside, Danae vanished into the dark streets to work through her own business chores. The innskeeper Marta Peskryk readied rooms for the group, with little to be done that evening in the darkness. While setting all in place, the willowy teenager sang a strange song:
Ahead of winter's wind she came / The lovely woman with no name;
Draped in a fur-lined cloak of red, / To the icy lake she fled;
The wind pursued her all the same / As sure as night she's dead.
Sudon asked Marta of the tale, and she explained it to be handed down from her grandmother. The story speaks of an event fifty years ago, when a woman in a fur-lined red cloak stopped at the inn on her way to Lonelywood. She was alone and frightened, and Marta's grandparents (who were retired adventurers) did their best to console and reassure the woman. Grateful for the kind assistance, the woman gave them a ring as payment - a ring Marta now wears to this day. The woman vanished after a howling wind blew open the doors and windows of the inn, tossing all within as if rag dolls. Marta's grandparents tried to help the woman escape, but were battered unconscious, and when they awoke the woman was gone and never heard from again.
Assessing party members to be wizards and quite possibly somehow in-the-know relative to a recent scandal, during the next morning's (cold and unlit) breakfast, Marta notes the town holds a wizard in its jail - a member of the Arcane Brotherhood named Dzaan. She only knows that he is a suspect in the scandalous disappearance of the popular group of gnome heroes - the same ones celebrated in Lonelywood.
In the dim light of the hours of the twilight-day, the party called upon the Town Hall, met by a courteous and reportedly well-respected (despite being a half-orc) Speaker Oarus Masthew, to inquire about the jailed wizard. Oarus repeated what had been heard from townsfolk concerning both the wizard and the group of gnomes (see Hostage King and Gnoobz). A plan is formed to determine the truth of Dzaan's story.
- Phantom and Dex join a search and rescue party to attempt to track down the alleged site where the gnomes died.
- The rest of the group will gain access to the goblin fortress of Karkolohk on Kelvin's Cairn's northeast face, where Spellix the Artisan is said to be captive.
- The goblins of Karkolohk share a common problem with Termalaine, known as The Red Yeti. Proof of its elimination should be a way to safely secure an audience with the chieftain, then determine the truth of that part of Dzaan's story regarding Spellix.
Regardless of what is discovered in these investigations, the emotional accusations from Termalaine's seer, Vedda Starsprit, a trusted local fortune teller pressing for the punishment of Dzaan has put the town on edge. In addition to the suspicion cast upon the wizard as a member of the always-distrusted Arcane Brotherhood, Dzaan is also a native of the cruel and powerful lich-ruled Thay. Oarus urges haste as time is of the essence to prove or disprove the story. In these grim times, such figures of hope as The Gnoobs become beacons of hope and their demise has angered citizens.
Red Yeti Hunt
The Sewer-side Squad began its climb of Kelvin's Cairn to hunt the marauding yeti where several attacks had been reported. Unfortunately, they soon found a much less informed group had also set out up the mountain in the same place, only to come to tragic ends.
(See also details in the results of quest: The Red Yeti).
Overcoming the hazards of the mountain's terrain, including a steep icy face requiring Agaric to place a rope and grappling hook, ascending as a mountain goat, the party came upon the ice cave that was home to a yeti family. Invisible by the magics of Alyks, and employing his own skills in stealth, Aelar led the infiltration into the lair, delivering a deadly attack upon the twelve-foot tall creature within. A smaller creature, a yeti tyke (merely human-sized) toyed with a severely wounded halfling curled into a ball on the cave's floor. Fully exploiting surprise, the adult was taken down before even realizing any had entered the cave. A precisely-aimed shot from Zaknalimar's pistol instantly killed the tyke, spraying its blood against the cave wall.
Soon after the echoing sound of the pistol shot, an avalanche rumbled down the mountainside, followed by the eerie and beastial roar of what could only be the Red Yeti itself. The party readied itself for the return of the monster, rigging traps and an ambush - but under-estimating its abilities, this nightmare minion of Auril, nearly twenty feet tall, loosed a freezing wind into the cave as it entered, its chill ending the Agaric-as-goat form and injuring the party with frosty wounds. In a response propelled by panic, the party unleashed magics - spinning knives in the air, a scorching moonbeam, a burst of fiery fury, and even opening a bubble of darkness and whispers into the depths of the far realms. Now the yeti in panic, it rushed to its family, nearly pushing the rogue, the hexblade, and the wizard into the deep pit below the ice bridge.
Upon seeing what had happened to its wife and child, the yeti's howl shook the hearts of the group, the fear even driving the druid Agaric to suffer the lingering attacks of the knives and the bubble of darkness, just before both were able to be taken down. Aelar likewise took a position outside to ambush the threat at the cave's mouth, while within, Sudon opened anew the blackness at the cave's heart - blinding the creature. Firing into this darkness, Alyks' fireball's detonation blew back damage to the party, but assured continued assault on the monster. Emerging from the blackness, the yeti slashed at the shadar-kai, severely harming him as it sought to exit the trap. Hit once more with a bolt of flames from the tiefling's magic, then stricken to the ground - helplessly laughing a horrific laugh by the magics of the bard Zaknalimar - even after the traumas of the attacks it suffered and the losses of its family... to end its existence as the blade of Sudon's greatsword severed its neck.
None would have guessed how the Red Yeti was to die would be that it LAUGHED ITS HEAD OFF.
The halfling urged the party to investigate the fate of the remaining party members that continued on up the mountain. A dwarf in blue boots was found, decapitated - while the tiefling wizard to install the weather instruments sat frozen, her face locked in terror as she hid from the yeti and slowly succumbed to hypothermia, her whole body now solid as ice.
But successful in gaining the head of the red yeti as the needed trophy for access to the goblin fortress, the party safely brought the halfing to Termalaine and readied the expedition to Karkolohk. Already unrest was mounting near the town hall, the seer Starsprit at their front, adding a vision that caught Sudon's attention - reporting a pulsing pain within her mind from the night of the shooting star, which she reads as an omen of the ill dealt upon the poor gnomes by this evil wizard. (See: Fallen Star).
And so - a party is formed to set off for Karkolohk...
Reward
For installing the weather instruments, the party will receive 120gp each (600gp total) from the Kalteswetteruntergrund.
Astrix's Spellbook (see Spellbooks)
(See also quests: The Red Yeti and the follow up to this in Hostage King)
(Next: Meanwhile)
See also: Cult of Talos