Mission 008: The Snow Stalkers
A special shipment from Eiselcross has gone missing somewhere along the treacherous mountain pass to Uthodern, and it's up to the Golden Standard to retrieve it, as well as rescue the team originally sent to transport it, of course. If they still can...
Misson Log
Armed with a complimentary Balloon Pack, a giant snow bear pelt, and some questionable yak milk, the party used Jace's Orb of Direction and Paisley's guidance to make excellent time to their first obstacle: a steep 60 ft climb down to a gorge split by a swiftly flowing river, half-melted due to the volcano's warmth. Everyone descended the first cliff safely, with the exception of Paisley who hitched a ride on Jace's shoulders, where the party was swiftly set upon by eight snow apes chucking rocks at them. Despite provocation, illusory magic, and a thickly protective fog as Tide channeled her divinity to conceal the party from attacks, the apes refused to venture down for close combat. It wasn't until the party began to attempt crossing the river that they discovered why: after Tide and Monty nimbly made their way to the far bank, Wild Yarn slipped on the ice and fell in. Jace chucked Paisley across holding a rope, causing inadvertent damage to Monty who was both squashed by the gnome and struck by the thunder of Wild Yarn's earlier inspiration to Jace. Wild Yarn was able to pull herself safely across on the rope, but when Jace attempted to follow, he also lost his footing and was shocked by the icy water. On the far bank, as the party began to move towards the other side of the gorge, Paisley noticed a strange sight hidden in one of the shrubs by the water, and the party was attacked by a horrifically blinded owlbear. Though the party was able to dispatch it swiftly, it left them with more questions about the route ahead of them. On the final descent out of the gorge, Monty lost his grip and began to plummet. In a moment of selfless bravery, Paisley launched himself off of Jace's back, latched onto Monty, and deployed the balloon pack to lower them both safely to the ground.
Shaking with cold and exhausted, the party followed the path upward until they spotted a shape in a red cloak dangling from a rope attached to a gnarled branch. Remembering that the party they were looking for was called the Red Drakes, they decided to investigate more closely. Paisley's handy Wand of Secrets indicated a trap, so the party kept its distance. Jace attempted to knock the shape down with a rock and spun it around, revealing a frozen, limbless deer corpse wrapped in the cloak. After finding an unusual stone fallen in the snow, Monty neatly shot the frozen body down, triggering a massive bear trap hidden directly underneath. The clanging jaws echoed throughout the rocks around them, and the party was struck with a sudden creeping fear that they were being watched. With no sign of their stalker, however, they were forced to continue up the path until they found the remains of the Red Drake's camp.
A thorough investigation and cautious trap-checking of the camp made it clear that some time had passed since the Red Drakes had been there, and though the camp was clearly tossed, most of their supplies remained, including an extremely well-made rope and a beautiful longsword of Dwarven origins. Next to a tent set slightly apart from the others, the party found the frozen (cloakless) body of Iovus the rogue, bound and cleaved of his hands post-mortem. A sled trail headed away from the camp towards a cave entrance beneath a cliff overhang nearby. After a short rest where Paisley ritually identified the items found (a Rope of Climbing and a +1 longsword housing a dwarven barbarian named Verna the Longsword who knew nothing terribly helpful), the party headed into the cave to try to safely camp.
Inside the dark cave, they found what appeared to be an owlbear nest, but Monty was easily able to see through the ruse and inform the others that it was clearly staged to look that way by a person. Another red-cloaked body lay in the center of the cavern. Cautious after the last encounter, the group stayed back, using Paisley's Wand of Secrets to identify a definite trap on the body and sending Wild Yarn's unseen servant Hamlet forward to lift the cloak. Moving the cloak triggered a massive explosion that didn't harm anyone in the party, but left the remains of the tiefling Thalia scattered across the cave (and them)...
Careful examination from Paisley uncovered a trap door in the back of the cave, but as he turned to tell the party about it, the creature that had been stalking them for hours finally chose to pounce: a massive, misshapen combination of elk, owlbear, and snow ape sewn together to form a Frankensteinian abomination. It managed a few brutal hits on the party before Jace used his deadly combo of Stone Rune and grapple to render the creature helpless so that the party could whale on it. Paisley, however, sent the Rope of Climbing to try to tie a knot around the creature's legs and then decided to peek through the secret door into the tunnels beyond. Disturbed and sickened by what he saw, he called out to the rest of the party: Monty followed him just in time to witness Paisley falling unconscious to the ground before he was snatched up by a darting shape that disappeared down the tunnel. Anxious for his friend's life, he scored a perfect shot right through the mutant's eye just as it broke Jace's spell.
As soon as the snow monster finally collapsed (on top of Jace, who had to be tugged free), the party rushed down the halls searching for their missing cleric. The bloody operating theater, the hanging meat hooks, and the abandoned storage room revealed no gnome. It wasn't until they smashed through a door did they find the laboratory, a mad scientist, the missing Red Drake Bruja, and their unconscious party member on the floor at the scientist's feet. A brutal fight followed. The alchemist released three of her pet horrors from glass chambers to fight the party, attacking with explosive bombs and vials of essence of ether as the mutant aberrations clawed at the intrepid adventurers. Jace rolled Paisley to safety, who awoke when slapped by Wild Yarn, while Monty and Tide fended off the imperfect specimens — and succumbed to their poisonous fumes, falling to unconsciousness not once, but twice each. As Wild Yarn and Paisley struggled to keep them alive, Jace managed to grapple the mad scientist and stop her from releasing any more of her creations, then ripped off the respirator she'd welded onto her face for devastating damage: his final blow as he struck her across the face with her own mask was what did her in.
Upon her death, the specimens screamed and swarmed their creator, tearing her body apart as the party edged away and took advantage of their distraction to free Bruja from her cage and steal the scientist's supplies, along with her blood-splattered journal, and the special shipment they'd been tasked with retrieving. They were able to administer antitoxin and Lesser Restoration, stabilize Bruja, and find the final Red Drake, Garlan, in a separate room full of cages. As they barricaded the lab door and settled down to wait out the blizzard overnight, Garlan begged the party to let him take the Eiselcross artifact in the sealed box to the nearby volcano to destroy it. They struggled with the choice, arguing for the completion of their job and the mostly unknown properties of the artifact against the druid's heartfelt pleas and knowledge of how dangerous Eiselcross artifacts can be; Paisley's augury helped convince them that at least part of the plan was sound enough to attempt the artifact's destruction.
They finished the mission by hiking up the volcano and letting Monty toss the still-sealed box into the lava, then returning to Palebank with the surviving Red Drakes and their companions' remains. Though Nim Bragos was none too happy with the loss of his shipment and refused to pay the full reward, he begrudgingly meted out the promised rescue funds, and Wild Yarn pickpocketed him for a little extra revenge against the skinflint. After the funeral, Garlan and Bruja both expressed their deep appreciation, and Bruja released a reluctant Verna into a reluctant Tide's service.
Summary
DM Zoe
PLAYERS Katie (Wild Yarn), Luke (Jace), Ryan (Paisley), Sherri (Tide), Tony (Monty)
RESULT Mission Incomplete, but Morally Successful?
TOTAL XP 2360 each
TOTAL GP 5 gp each paid (and 25 gp/2pp pickpocketed along with 5gp and 20sp from the Red Drake's camp) for a total of 15gp and 20sp kept by Tide