Session 19: The Black Cabin

General Summary

After killing one of the perytons and driving off the other the party tended to their wounds before continuing on. They travelled the remainder of the day with no further interruptions.   The following day they set out early and arrived just at sundown at the ominous looking black cabin. They find, perched on the edge of a snowy ridge above a gorge, a black lodge on wooden stilts. Whatever path might have led to the ramshackle retreat was buried under snow. By outward appearances the cabin seemed utterly abandoned.   Galanodel investigated under the structure and noted a few weak spots that seemed near collapse. With that warning and the general run down creakiness of the structure Galanodel and Veld opted to stay on solid ground during the initial inspection. This left Bhur, Peh'Tar, Martok, Grimsby, and Michael heading up the initial reconnaissance.   Martok bust his way into a small workshop of sorts unconnected to the rest of the rooms with tools strewn about. Not seeing much of note other than torn papers and some critter nest on a bookcase Bhur, Peh'tar, Martok, and Michael moved on while Grimsby added to his prodigious tool collection.   Bhur had scouted ahead a bit with Peh'tar into the large main room of the cabin. There they found the charred remains of two skeletons, a burnt spine of a large book, and frost covered spherical object made of concentric rings around a dark crystal center. Bhur rifled through the corpses finding a small magical amulet that he pocketed as well as the strange contraption that was giving off a faint magical aura. Initially upon picking it up the central crystal started to glow with a low light and he dropped it back to the ground. When Martok and Michael came to join he picked up the object again, which again started to glow with a dim light, and brought it to Michael for inspection. Michael only got out a horrified "No!" before the device detonated in radiant light, instantly killing Bhur, Peh'Tar, and Martok, and nearly killing Michael who was just coming in the window and was knocked out.   Grimsby, saved from the explosion by his hoarding efforts, proceeded to clear the remainder of the cabin with Horus. Veld removed the bodies down to ground level where Gal was waiting. What followed was several minutes of panic, despair, and general chaos.   Meanwhile in the border ethereal Bhur, Peh'Tar, and Martok found themselves bodiless, observing the results of their sudden death. Looking on with them was a giant floating spectal head who called himself Macreadus. He explained that the device that kill them, as well as himself, was a defective prototype he had built to try to stop the neverending winter. He hoped that with the coming of the party and the small forces they could exert on the material plane that his creation could finally be completed.   With no small amount of urging Macreadus convinced Martok to help contact his friends. Martok may have fastened on to this as a way to bring himself and his friends back to life but in truth Macreadus just wanted to see his design completed. Through Martok and his interactions with Michael and Grimsby they were able to forge a third ring for the device, the "Summer Star", as he called it. Veld was able to copy the runework onto the new ring and Gal attuned to and activated the device.   For a time summer came to Icewind Dale, in a small five mile radius. Sunlight shone down through the darkness light a portal to another plane, the snow began to melt and run and the air was a warm and balmy summer day. Unfortunately this was short lived as the device completed its purpose and became inert, far too small for the task of freeing Icewind Dale.   Macreadus, in his final moments before moving on, told Martok that the Summer Star was his own design yes, but based off a larger device called a Mythallar. He had read about them in the book he had, Magical Wonders of Netheril. He had found it in a lost spire that had broken off a Netherese flying city as it crash landed in Icewind Dale centuries or more ago. If this city could be found it may still contain a working mythallar and with that perhaps the dale could be freed. As he faded from the border ethereal he asked Martok to find his old friend Copper, and to tell him he was sorry and that Copper was right. With that Bhur, Peh'tar, and Martok were alone again in the border ethereal, until they were engulfed in a blinding light.   Back on the material plane as the light of the Summer Star faded the rest of the party began to make plans to head back to a town to try to find someone to revive their fallen allies. Veld, who had been carrying around Peh'tar in his hood, felt a sudden weight literally lifted from his shoulders. Peh'tar's body was gone, the party rushed up to where they had left the other corpses to find all three of them lying unconscious in new bodies unburnt and whole. They awoke to much crying and emotion, and everyone in the group found themselves with a newfound blessing bestowed by the Morninglord, Macreadus' deity Lathander.