RoT 8: “Icebergs and Tribal Champions”

“Iceberg Ho!”

 

You hear one of the crewmates of Frostskimmr call out that he’s spotted the iceberg known as Oyaviggiton, lair of the White Dragon Arauthator, and last knows location of the Tiefling Maccath the Crimson. It’s also the alleged location of the artifact, the Draakhorn . You are a bit surprised as it has been spotted quite early in the quest, only a day after sailing into the Sea of Moving Ice.

 

Captain Lerustrah and crew masterfully sail the Frostskimmr around the ice drifts and circle Oyaviggiton before finding a suitable place to dock. Arauthator’s iceberg lair rises from the sea to form a floating island. The portion of the berg above the water appears roughly triangular, with rounded corners. The plateau portion of the iceberg rises more than a hundred feet above the water, and the jagged ice peaks add another two hundred feet above that. The Captain manages to find a large shelf of ice where the it is apparent that Ice Hunters beach their boats. Approximately 60 feet across, the shelf rises a few feet above sea level and is littered with enormous, cracked bones—including ribs that arch taller than a human.

 

Lerustrah docks along this shelf and has the crew break out gear for your use; crampons for your boots so you can walk on the ice without slipping. He also says that the Ice Hunters don’t speak Common but their own language known as Uluik. As luck would have it, Crewmate Eordlan speaks Uluik as he grew up on a village that would occasionally trade with Ice Hunter tribes. Eordlan agrees to accompany you for extra “hazardous duty pay” of 99 GP for 3-days. Other than him the Captain keeps the rest of the crew with the ship to guard it against theft or vandalism.

 

An ice chasm splits the cliff face above the ice shelf, rising to the top of the plateau. The chasm is 20 feet wide near the bottom but narrows to 5 feet wide at the top. Steps are cut into the ice, making for an easy climb to the top of the plateau. The top of Oyaviggaton is a plateau, but it’s not level. The ground is uneven, fractured by narrow ice chasms and divided by rills, snowdrifts, and ice ridges taller than a human, sculpted by sea spray and wind. The ridges block the view of the village until characters are 200 feet from the nearest shelter.

 

The first sight that greets you when they emerge onto the plateau is a row of ten corpses frozen into a wall of ice: three Luskar warriors, a dwarf, and six Ice Hunters. The bodies have been preserved in the ice, making it impossible to tell how long they’ve been here.

 

The village sits in a sheltered spot near the center of the iceberg. When the wind blows—which is most of the time—snow whips off the surrounding drifts and surrounds the settlement in a swirling shroud of white.

 

Twenty structures make up the village, divided between snow-block shelters similar to igloos and double-walled yurts made from sealskin stretched over whalebone frames. Sixteen of these structures are small, one-room family dwellings. One yurt near the center of the village is slightly larger than the others. A yurt standing apart from the rest of the shelters is clearly the home of the village shaman, as indicated by the many animal totems and whalebone carvings around the hut.

 

As you round the final bend you are greeted by the entire village who have been alerted to strangers coming up the pass by their hunting dogs. At the forefront are what are apparently the three tribal leaders – their chieftain in the center flanked on either side by their shaman and their village champion. They are openly hostile toward your presence, which shocks Eordlan who informs you that he’s never seen Ice Hunters this unfriendly before. When asked about Maccath they claim she’s not here and when asked about Arauthator, they claim “The Old White Death” was killed some time ago by a Frost Giant and the bones you saw below are his remains.

 

They are so adamant that you leave that the chieftain, who you find out is called Barking Seal proposes a duel of the tribe’s champion versus yours. If you lose you leave, if you win then perhaps they’ll allow you to stay for a night.

 

Pubert naturally steps up to face the tribe’s champion, Orcaheart. The rules are no magic allowed so Pubert sets aside Hazirawn (to her constant complaining) and uses Langdarosa’s Greatsword instead. Pubert draws first blood, upon which Orcaheart falls backwards into the shaman, Bonecarver. She cheats by casting Cure Wounds, but Malice spots it and make a point of making sure she knows that he knows what she did. Pubert shifts his tactics afterwards to position himself between Orcaheart and Bonecarver to prevent further interference though she acts indignant and innocent.

 

While Orcaheart gets in several good blows, ultimately Pubert prevails but does not kill their champion. Once Orcaheart falls Pubert sticks his sword in the ice and raises his hands above his head clearly showing he is victorious but also merciful.

 

Barking Seal orders his tribe to allow your stay and the give you space in what is clearly a storage hut and the smallest structure in the village. After a little time passes, the shaman Bonecarver visits you with a plate of slightly spoiled raw fish. Eordlan explains this is typically how the Ice Hunters eat it – they don’t cook their meat and they like it slightly spoiled as they prefer the tanginess. You each partake in some of the raw fish, but Pubert falls ill immediately and passes out. Clearly the fish is poisoned but somehow only Pubert is unable to resist the affects.

 

This puts Bonecarver in an awkward position as though Pubert won the duel and you were to be allowed to stay, yet they also just tried to poison all of you. She quickly checks that no one is outside that could overhear her and then admits that yes, Arauthator is still alive and “the horned one” (meaning Maccath) is on the iceberg as well. Arauthator has enslaved her tribe and she’s will to help you get into his lair as she hopes that if you can defeat him it will free her people. She bids you to come to her yurt by night after Pubert has recovered from the poison and she will show you how to enter the caverns below.

 

After around eight hours, Malice casts Invisiblity on everyone and you send Eordlan back to the ship giving him about a half-hour headstart before leaving the storage hut and going to Bonecarver’s yurt. She is startled at first as she can hear you but not see you but respects that you have powerful magic saying that is good as you will need it. She warns you that Arauthator’s other servants in the caverns will have been alerted to there being strangers by the rest of the tribe by now. She pulls back several layers of furs that cover poles over a hole that leads to chute where there are icy spiral stairs leading 100 feet down into the iceberg’s cavernous interior. As you descend, Bonecarver replaces the poles and fur to once again hide this seldom used entrance.

 

The chute and its icy stairs end at the ceiling. A sturdy ladder then descends into the approximate center of a rectangular chamber. The exit to the corridor is an icy, 15-foot-wide passageway sloping downward. You find yourself in chamber which is empty except for a dozen baskets woven from leather strips and walrus ribs, stacked in the north corner. These contain frozen fish and a few skin-wrapped bundles of rotting shark meat.