Session 376 - Icy Embrace
General Summary
The Story So Far
Ash - An expert in the occult and a skilled monster hunter. Ash uses his talents and budding alchemical expertise to battle what people fear most for a price.
Ryobi - A monk of the embattled Order of the Warriors of Mameka. Ryobi is given an important mission: retrieve the holy blades containing the souls of his brother knights, which were lost in the recent Rethemi civil war.
They are joined by Vinzent, a bard with a morbid demeanor and a haunted past.
This is the continuation of Session 373 - The Whale's Graveyard.
Location - The Whale Graveyard in the Peran Wilds west of the Kingdom of Rethem.
29th Ilvin (Winter) 727TR
Part 1- Harpies
Sir Wilfrod is meticulously examining the carcass of a rotting corpse of a beached whale. Just as he completes his day's research, the party spots a flock of birds approaching. As they come more clearly in view through a murky squall, it soon becomes evident that these are not birds but flying reptilian humanoids, Yélgri, also known as the Hârnic Harpy.
The cold winter weather has made these typically highly aggressive predators and scavengers particularly grumpy, and they swoop in on the party to drive them away from the whale carcass. However, soon, their vindictive nature emerges, and they fly safely above the heroes (and Wilfrod and his guard) and throw down a barrage of crude barbed javelins and foul bags of toxic dung. Once their ammunition is expended, they mob heroes, flying just above their heads and slashing with frenzied claw attacks. Soon, the characters are covered in deep, bleeding gashes. Sir Wilfrod lobs his whale oil bombs, setting several Yélgri ablaze, but the little varmints don’t give up. Eventually, Ryobi slays the flock’s leader, and most of the cowardly brutes are slaughtered as they attempt to flee.
Sir Wilfrod decides enough is enough. The putrid whale is attracting too much attention (and vermin), so he agrees to return home, escorted by the heroes. However, while traveling through the Peran wilderness a few days later, the weather worsens, and heavy cold rain, followed by a blizzard, engulfs the heroes. At least this will keep the local Kuboran tribesmen at bay, but the party needs to find cover.
Part 2 – The Headless Giant
Freezing, the heroes spot a cave. "Hopefully, this abnormally cold grotto is not occupied," Vinzent quips.
It is. A rock is thrown at Ash from the darkness, followed by a roar as a bizarre 7-ft tall humanoid charges forward. It is massively muscled, wielding a long club. It has no head but a huge toothed mouth on its chest and enormous eyes on stalks located on its shoulders. It is a Blemmyes, one of the many weird creations of the god Ilvir.
The Ivashu furiously batters the heroes with massive swings of its club. Sir Wilfrod splatters it with burning alchemically enhanced whale oil, receives a pounding in return, and has to back off. Ash and Ryobi position themselves on either side of the irate ivashu and score some good strikes, penetrating its tough hide. Suddenly, the monster’s large eye stalks swivel and focus on Ash and, using some sorcery, delivers a perfectly timed blow on the unprepared hero. He nearly has his rib carved in, but Ryobi drives his holy sword through the creature's chest, finding its brain and killing it.
Part 3 - The Icy Embrace
The party continues investigating. As they travel down, it gets considerably colder. The last chamber's floor is covered in solid ice to a depth of 4 to 5 feet. The adventurers spot half a dozen humans embedded within it. It looks very much like a macabre ice box. Most appear to be Kuboran barbarians, but one could be a civilized traveler. Concerned, the heroes look closer, and suddenly, the air freezes. It has become bitterly cold very fast.
Ash looks around, and spots movement under the ice; something blue is tunneling between the bodies. It resembles a blue 4 ft long starfish, and Sir Wilfrod’s bodyguard Solon spots another as a second wave of mind-numbing chill envelopes the dungeon delvers, nearly freezing Ryob and Vinzent to death. Ash draws his axe and hacks at the ice above one of the strange starfish. He smashes a hole, exposing the ivashu, which he identifies as an Arasithul, also known as the Icy Embrace. Ryobi stabs at the monster, and Sir Wilfrod lobs a flask of burning whale oil into the hole. The enraged creature pulls itself out of the burning cavity and, with a furious frenzy, pummels the party with its strong, rubbery limbs.
The other Arasithul emerges from the ice and assaults from behind. These strange Ivashu are rather dangerous, and only Vinzent’s magical healing keeps Ryobi and Sir Wilfrod from being knocked senseless and joining the grim bodies in icy storage. Eventually, using burning touches, flammable oil, blades, and tenacity, the team wears the creatures down, killing them.
Part 4 – An Interesting Corpse
The heroes start retrieving the bodies from the ice; Ash thinks there is a possibility that some of them may still be alive. Sadly, all appear deceased. The one corpse of what looks like a merchant is in good shape; he has not been dead long. Rifling through his effects, Ryobi spots some inconsistencies; under his travel coat are red, yellow, and black clothing with fire and pillar symbols. On his person are icons and symbols of Agrik. This man is a priest of Agrik and, worse, a member of the Order of the Pillar of Fire.
"Unfortunately", most of the priests of this Order were destroyed when their primary temple burned down about ten years ago. Coincidentally, they were allegedly planning a coup against the Apalankh of Hârn Sir Klyrdes Bisidril of the Order of Mamaka, Master of Steel. In magically hidden compartments in the corpse's belt, Ash finds some gold crowns and a note.
Brother, I have finally found where the Ar Gak Karmar is secured.
Saurach's prayer book will be ours!
Our enemy is weak. Now we must strike.
FIRE PURGES THE CORRUPT AND BRINGS LIFE ANEW.
Meet me at Bekar, we can twist that pliable idiot to get the key.
Intrigued, Ryobi will investigate. The Apalankh and the Clerical Order of Mamaka, Master of Steel, sponsor his fighting order, the Order of the Warriors of Mameka.
The heroes return to the city of Golotha and deliver Sir Wilfrod safely to the guild hall of Arcane Lore. On the way, they were ambushed by a hunting band of Kuboran warriors, but they easily defeated them.
To be continued.
NPC Interactions
Sir Wilfrod Granfiel - Expert on whales
Created Content
Related Reports
Player Characters
Ryobi - Human - L6 Monk
Background - Temple Guard.
Archetypes - Barbarian.
Ash - Human - L6 Thaumaturge
Background - Weaponcrafter.
Archetypes - Alchemist.
NPC Companion
Vinzent - Human - L6 Bard
Background - Cursed.
Archetypes - Blessed.
Next Session
NPC Companion
Vinzent
He is a skilled minstrel who is infamous for his depressing performances and bad luck.
Arasithul - The Icy Embrace
The Arasithul is a rare type of highly intelligent, telepathic Ivashu, which weakens its prey by psionically creating chilling mists and then pummeling them senseless with long, flexible, rubbery arms after which it slowly feeds on their dying life force.
Order of the Pillar of Fire
This sect of the church of Agrik sponsors the Companions of Roving Doom was nearly destroyed on the Order of the Harnic Agrikian Primate. They have only recently begun to re-establish themselves, and many of its surviving priests dream of revenge.
Off dah! Sounds like a tough day at the office for our intrepid heroes. Sounds like a nail bitter of a session, cannot wait to see our next exciting entry.
Thanks for the support. This is my mid-week game, which is shorter than the Sunday night game, and often, reports like this cover several real-time sessions.