2023-04-29 Travel: Vintra's Hearth - Roc and Roll

• Date: 2023-04-29
• Region: Zymora
• Session #: 31

Player Characters

• Wiznt
• Alystin
• Malivette
• Tarhun
• Val & Soonie

Allies

• Ollinox

Summary

Malivette received the recipe to upgrade Salmund's spirit forge.

The party decided to begin in Basaltthrone, and perused magic items for sale there.

They traveled west to the large Obsidian Atrium, a sprawling mining hub.

The party approached a foreman named Dunnerg. Dunnerg warned the party about fire giants in the area that kidnapped and enslaved folks traveling around these mines. He complimented most of the party's ability to fight, but questioned Wiznt's worth to the party. When Wiznt claimed he was simply lucky, the foreman was not impressed, and challenged him to use his luck to go mining.

Within 30 minutes, after reading some manuals and following his instincts, Wiznt struck gold. Dunnerg was dumbfounded, and gave him 50gp and an invitation to return to work more.

The party continued through the northern tunnel for a few more days, and began passing through the cold Frostin Grotto. While there, they were attacked by a pack of yetis. After slaying the yetis, they collected yeti pelts.

The group came to a fork in the trail, with two signs pointing to Snavon and Aurokor... except the signs were swapped from what they expected. After some deliberation, the party swapped the sign and took the path they believed would lead to Aurokor.

They reached the mouth of the cold caves and stepped into the small cabin village of Aurokor. They party met with its overseer, Lady Narella, to inquire about the roc situation. She told them that it typically attacked at daytime, and that they should travel at night to be safe.

While in the town, Wiznt visited the library to learn more about Zymora. He read rumors about treasure in the frozen wastes guarded by frost giants, white dragons and other monsters. He skimmed the town's history, learning about mighty heroes who had led the town's defense against the Bazen Kingdom during the Bazen War.

The party continued toward Vintra's Hearth, choosing to travel at daytime to find the roc. Two days in, they saw its shadow pass by- sure enough, a large hawk was continually getting closer and larger. They left their offerings (two oxen and two horses) out on the road while they gathered in nearby trees.

When the gargantuan bird swooped down and picked up the oxen, Malivette and Val lept out and grabbed onto it. It dropped the oxen and flew down to kill and eat the horses.

Val cast speak with animals to communicate with the Roc. It shouted angrily about a disturbance at its nest high in the mountains. "Large, horned, hard walkers" had stolen its six eggs. After some back and forth with the defensive bird, it agreed to carry the party near its nest to investigate.

The PCs flew high into the sky as Ollinox tried to catch up. The roc deposited them near the top of a snow-covered mountain, near a huge nest built from uprooted trees. Large footprints in the snow were visible leading away, despite having been set a week ago.

The party followed the footprints for a while, and found the former site of a giant camp. Wiznt found a frozen booger the size of a pocketwatch. He used it to scry on the giants, locating them among different icy mountains a few days away.

The party flagged down the roc and asked it to carry them there, which it did. It set the party down on a ledge 50ft above the giant's camp. The giants stood up and watched the bird as it soared back into the sky. Alystin eavesdropped on the leader, a woman with two heads and two battleaxes. She said something about continuing their search for the Null Vault, a dungeon that Wiznt had read rumors about. She then commanded another giant to begin cooking an egg. Val sprang into action to save the egg.

The party took advantage of their upper perch to fight the giants. While Alystin and Wiznt fought from up high, Malivette, Tarhun and Val lept down into the small valley. As the party killed the giants, the last one surrendered, asking to go on living its life in shameful solitude rather than dying. The party asked him about his mission, and he explained that their leader, Fronjulf, was power-hungry and wanted to find the rumored Null Vault somewhere in the mountains. He did not believe it was real. When asked about the three missing eggs, he told them that his group had already eaten three of them. The party decided they could not let him go, and killed him.

The roc carried the eggs and the party back to its nest. Val was out of casts of speak with animals. The roc repeated a birdcall a few times, which Val imitated and learned. The roc rewarded them with a dead remorhaz, dropping the enormous blue centipede monster in front of them. They collected its fireproof and coldproof carapace, and ate warm crunchy bug steaks. They also collected some stray roc feathers.

The roc flew the party back down to where they first met, and they continued west toward Vintra's Hearth. Along the way, they found a wagon and some humanoids that all appeared to have fallen from a high place.

A day later, the party walked into the cabin village of Vintra's Hearth. They traveled to the civic center and met Mayor Sincerity, who awarded them 200gp per frost giant they claimed to have killed (five), plus 500gp for solving the roc problem.

The PCs marked an approximate zone around the roc's nest on a map so that others would avoid it and leave it alone (but without giving away its exact location to hunters).

They went to Flerby's Shoppe to browse common magic items.

They visited Starwatch Tower and met its owner, a half-elf woman named Wynda. The main room had a teleportation circle drawn within, which Wiznt copied down. Wynda told them about a network of teleportation circles that she and mages in other major cities were building together.

Wiznt invited Wynda along to hear the story of the roc and the frost giants, with the connected two heads of Fronjulf in tow. She reluctantly agreed to join, and the party traveled to the Devil's Arse.

Once in the warm, fragrant, smoky tavern, Wiznt took the stage and recounted the tale of how the party had helped the roc and defeated the frost giants. The people of the tavern were entranced by his story, and more viewers came to listen at the door. Afterward, several people approached him to buy him drinks and sponsor his night at the local inns, and offered to share their own tales.

Later, Wiznt scried on Crim, and saw the red dragonborn standing in an alleyway in Morningshade City, pushing a dagger into the hand of a scared, scrawny potential recruit for the The Red Hand.

Alystin gambled with patrons of the Devil's Arse. He won 50gp and a mystery key in the process.

Val hatched a hippogriff foal from a magic egg.