Session 24 & 25: The King in Black and Tales of the Dead Report

General Summary

After making a deal with the Grandolpha Muzgardt, the group approaches the forge area in the duergar fortress. They find forge workers that have been encased in mechanical suits of Chardalyn armor with needles piercing their skulls. Many of them under control by the evil magic coursing through the metal. After engaging in a fight in the forge, Xardarok enters the forge from another room.   The group is able to defeat him with a clever use of heat metal and toppling his body, head first into one of the heated forges. Aterwards, the Gradolpha appears and tells them of the treasure room in the fortress and where to find Dzann, in the buried Netherese tower near a goblin slave camp by Termaline.   After the group leaves the fortress the head back Easthaven, they rest and get a sled to take them to Termaline. But first, it stops at Bryn Shander where they meet Scramsax, running the inn the Northlook. They make quick friends with him and share information on Easthaven, and how the cold winds and darkness hasn't affected the town since the townspeople stop praising the Frostmaiden. In the middle of the night Char and Lydia make another statue to Xiang, this one an obelisk, telling the story of Xiang's creation at the hands of Averonne and Valinae.   The next day they travel to Termaline by dogsled and meet Oarus Masthew, the half orc speaker that is well loved in town. After conversation with him, they learn of a group, the Arcane Brotherhood. The group was looking for buried spires and for an island made of ice out in the sea to the northwest. He tells them that the group came through months back and Lydia casts detects thoughts to get an image of a woman that Masthew begins to speak of.   Afterwards, she focuses and uses the collected information, to cast sending in an attempt to communicate with the woman that she saw. Lydia receives a ghostly reply back from Nass Lantomir, informing her that she has already died and that the Frostmaiden resides in the North Sea.   That night, Char and Lydia make a brazier with Xiang wrapping around it with the continual flame spell, using a few rubies to keep the brazier lit. With their new information, they prepare to head out to find the fallen tower.