Session 21: The Search for Level 5

General Summary

The party spent their hard earned gold on armor and new mounts to help protect and speed their journey throughout Icewind Dale. Several new dogs and birds were added to the menagerie, PETS.   Deciding to abandon their initial plan to investigate the source of the psychic message Michael had been receiving for reasons that were entirely practical, the party journeyed east again towards Caer-Konig. With sufficient mounts to travel quickly if not comfortably they arrived and stayed the night in the The Northern Light again.   In the morning they did some light investigative work to find tracks leading northwest out of town matching their assumed quarry. After a short while however the tracks changed, the dwarf seemed to change into an ogre/sled hybrid monstrosity that continued northwards before turning northeast. Eventually the steady winds removed what remained of the tracks and the party were left to their own skills which proved more than enough. They arrived at a crescent valley with crude fortifications seeming to jut out from the very mountain itself.   Surmising this to be the location of the duergar outpost they began to approach the blind spot not covered by the fortifications defenses, with the exception of Dwayne Lowshade, who chose to play the part of random passerby as a distraction. Unfortunately Veld's new armor turned out to be far more clanky that he had time to get used to and alerted the guards to approaching danger.   The party rushed to assault the fortification's defenses. Dividing their efforts to better use their given weaknesses. The larger stronger party members snuck into the narrow culvert to find a way in from below, while the weaker ranged fighters tried to force their way into the main entrance by opening the heavy stone door. Luckily for the party duergar stronghold design had many defensive flaws and no matriculations to be seen.   Once inside the party faced the duergar defenders in waves as they trickled in from other parts of the outpost. The duergar's servants were brought to battle as well including an ogre zombie and several reanimated corpses covered in fungal growths and various lichens and spores. Will the party be able to overcome the remaining heavily outnumbered defenders and find the threads that will lead them to the coveted level 5?