On the Trail to Whitethrone

"We should probably head to Whitethrone as fast as we can.  Nazhena will likely return to the Pale Tower and we don't want to be here when she does," Casia stated as the group awoke.

"I think we might want to return to Waldsby with some of this loot. Maybe the locals will buy at least some of it," Fanara countered.

"I feel like we need to find Baba Yaga's hut.  It is supposed to be in Whitethrone," Santrel added.

"Maybe I can help," Nadya interjected.  "If we return to Waldsby I will collect my sons and I will lead you to Whitethrone.  I would plan on dropping the boys off in Ellsprin, hopefully out of sight of Nazhena."

"Your help is much appreciated," Casia responded.

"My late husband's uncle Ringeirr Malenkov is a fisherman in a small shantytown called the Fishcamps on the outskirts of Whitethrone. Uncle Ringeirr has lived in the shadow of Whitethrone for decades. I believe he could be a trusted ally who can help the party infiltrate the city. If anyone can help the you find their way around Whitethrone, it's Uncle Ringeirr-if he is still alive." Nadya offered.

"I say we accept Nadya's help," Jorgen said excitedly.

The group loaded up the dog sled and headed to Waldsby.  The town folk were suspicious, worried about Nazhena's possible retribution.  Nadya gathered her sons and some personal items.  The group sold and bought some minor items and after a couple of days headed out toward Whitethrone.

In the afternoon of the first day on the trail half-dozen ravens approached from the south and began a lazy circling pattern above the party. For the next few miles of the party's journey, the ravens' presence appeared to be benign, but Casia and Milos noticed the birds' numbers were gradually growing over time. The group then noted two swarms of ravens who flew down to attack. Nadya and her boys headed to the surrounding forest and were hidden by Casia's use of a smokestick.  The party and the swarms then traded attacks.  There was some pecking at the party's eyes and at least two of the members were temporarily blinded but the group was able to overcome and break up the swarms.  The remaining ravens broke apart and flew away.

The night and the next day flew by without incident. On the second night during Jorgen's watch, Fanara and Santrel noted small knives cutting open their tent. Two small creatures lean little bat-eared horrors displaying a mouth full of needle-like teeth and glowing, orange eyes.  Grimacing like maniacs, they attacked Milos.  Outside two others popped in on either side of Jorgen while another cut open Nadya's tent.

The battle was instantaneous as Milos and Nadya seemed to be the targets. The creatures were identified as Winter touched Jinkin, who could bestow a curse and also spoil and food.  The party dispatched them apace and then went back to sleep or contemplation.

In the morning Milos noted that he had taken some extra damage than others but he healed it with a spell.  The Ring of Regeneration did not seem to cure that damage. The party was worried that he was cursed but they found no specific curse on him although he was unable to remove the ring. The rest of the next day was without incident but on the morning of the fourth day Jorgen noted a rough wooden cabin standing just inside a small wood. There was no sign of activity around the cabin, but smoke rose from the chimney.

As the party neared the cabin, a strikingly beautiful, red-haired woman in a hooded coat came out of the cabin and hailed them, asking for their help . She introduced herself as Sylgja, and explained that she believes her husband Finngarth was taken by a moss troll that lairs in a nearby cave. 

"Please rescue or avenge Finngarth," Sylgja begged, "In return I offer safe and comfortable lodging for the night and a magical treasure that belongs to my husband."

"Where is the cave? Casia inquired.

Fanara was busy trying to read her motives but it seemed she was entirely truthful.

"It is half a mile on the northwest path.  Be careful the moss troll is probably angry," Sylgja responded.

The party discussed helping Sylgja and finally accepted that they could assist without any danger to their plan to find the hut.  Nadya and the twins stayed with Slygja as Jorgen led the party to the northwest where they found the cave entrance.  Using lit torches thrown into the cave Jorgen followed it around to find a thick sheet of filthy green fungus growing in twisting patterns across the shoulders and back of a feral-looking man.

The creature growled comprehensively is response to questions, it did respond to the questions though. Milos was sure it was not a moss troll, the one that had attacked the party at the portal was larger than this creature.  The party of course attacked forthwith but the green fungus appeared to dodge or move so that the man took the damage.  The man attacked with a large battleaxe but Fanara identified that there were two beings in the one place, a human and a Mindslaver Mold.  The Mold has spores and could dominate its prey.  It also could be ripped off the prey if one was strong enough.

Casia attempted to grasp and pull the mold off of who they assumed was Finngarth.  He got a grip on the mold and pulled mightily tearing the mold away from the man.  This ripped the man's skin and he fell on the ground groggily.  Meanwhile the mold was spitting spores at its attackers who managed to successfully not breath in the suspected poison.  As the mold slithered across the floor and climbed the wall the party managed to kill it.

At this point the party helped the man who was Finngarth and thanked them zealously for saving him.  The party related that his wife Sylgja had sent them to save him.  He was ready to head back following some healing and the party returned to the cabin. 

Slygja was overjoyed to see Finngarth and they were both grateful.  They offered the use of the cabin the rest and recover but the party wished to travel onward.  Nevertheless Sylgja told Finngarth she had promised the group a magic item.  He agreed to the deal and Sylgja entered the cabin and returned with a belt.

"This is a belt of Incredible Dexterity at the second level.  Use it wisely."

"I have another item for the group," Finngarth said as he hurried into the cabin.

He returned with a Musket, that was obviously broken, "You may have this.  Possibly you could repair it," he said as he gave it to Casia.  

The party then continued along their path toward Whitethrone and past the noon hour they came upon an interesting sight.  The skies were clear up ahead, and the air grew warmer. Sunlight shown down on fresh grass that had sprouted where the snow suddenly ended in a clear line. As far as the eye can see, fir trees have shed any sign of white, and birch trees show signs of fresh new leaves. The sounds of rivulets of water and melting snow could be heard everywhere.  The air warmed and soon Orm and Mjoli were prancing across the grass which was new to them.  Nadya was chasing after them trying to make sure they stayed safe.  Ahead on the grass was a large elk grazing on the fresh grass.  

Jorgen advanced slowly toward the great elk which ignored him until he got closer.  The elk then charged and the rest of the party had to react and a battle was underway.  As the fight continued two wolves charged into the fray as they saw the elk being damaged.  As the battle continued the party attacked all three enemies.  The elk took off when it had the chance and the party was left to deal with the wolves who did not last long.

The party then headed on and camped in the warmth as they advanced to the end of the warm domain.  The night was uneventful and the party headed on the next day.  As they made camp that evening, the party was going about its normal camp setting.  Nadya gave her son Orm permission to look for firewood before the evening snowfall began. As Nadya finished with her family's shelter, she realized the boy had not returned. She raised the alarm and started to organize a search for the boy.  The party spread out looking for the boy, after twenty minutes Casia and Jorgen found Orm surrounded by three wolves.

The battle was started as one wolf took a bite out of Orm and he fell to the snow covered ground.  The other two attacked the party.  The rest of the party caught up and joined the attack.  Again the party prevailed easily and Nadya sped to Orm to assure that he was alive.  He was weak but still breathing.  Milos provided healing to the entire group and the party went back to the campsite.  Nadya could be heard both reprimanding and consoling her sons as the party headed for a night's rest.

Late in the afternoon on the next day the wind began to pick up, a snowstorm began and the temperature began to drop.  The snow became a blizzard as the wind increased again.  The cold was getting to become a problem as the party struggled forward attempting to find shelter.  They stumbled on some stone foundations and tried to look around for complete buildings.

The place seemed to once be a small town or village. Most of the buildings were little more than piles of snow covered stones, with crumbled sections of their walls rising from the ruins. The only structure that might offer temporary shelter appeared to be an old temple inside a walled circular churchyard with an arch at the entrance.

As the party approached the walled yard they saw two figures wandering among the gravestones.  These figures appeared to be human but they wore only regular clothes, no cold weather gear or warm outer clothes.  When members of the party approached them these men encouraged them not to worry and to 'run along and play'.

Nadya kept her sons outside the wall as the party entered in full force.  After all the party was among the stones they suddenly heard the sound of children screaming and felt a wash of crushing despair fall upon them.  Some of the party could shrug off the effects but others felt discouraged by this whole affair.  A religion check determined the human figures were undead just as they attacked the group as their appearance changed to rotting vestments hanging across the withered flesh of a walking corpse, its mouth hanging open in a silent scream.  These were Huecuvas according to Milos. The battle again was short and sweet for the party destroyed the Huecuvas.  

The front door of the temple had rotted away, but a smooth stone circle engraved with the outline of a butterfly was mounted above the doorway.  This was the sign of Desna.  Amadeo was first to enter the ruined temple.  The pews were broken and the altar overturned but there seemed to be no more enemies.  The rest of the party entered, started a fire and began to search the inside.

Meanwhile Fanara was out in the courtyard trying to read any psychic impressions left in the area of the stones.  After a few minutes she began to see a scene before her eyes of clerics of Desna tending to children and she was lost in the ancient vision.

Fourteen hundred years ago, during the first week of the Winter War, a mass exodus of native Ulfen flooded south before the might of Baba Yaga's army of giants and trolls and the onslaught of unseasonable winter. As the invading army approached, the adults of Ulsgaard left the village to search for a place where the community could hide and regroup with other survivors . They planned to return for the village's children, who were entrusted to a pair of clerics of Desna, once they located a sanctuary. No one from the village ever returned . Abandoned, with no place to hide or run to, and with children they could not protect, the clerics lost their faith in fear and madness. They conspired to offer the children as a sacrifice to Baba Yaga, and pledged their souls to her in exchange for mercy. But when the armies of the Witch Queen arrived at Ulsgaard, no one was spared.

Inside Jorgen and Santrel found a loose floor tile under the ruined altar. Inside was a stone coffer with two scrolls, a magic belt and a ring, along with two fire opals and coins. After Fanara returned the party spent an uneventful night.

"We should arrive in Ellsprin late today Nadya said in the morning.  After memorizing spells and Fanara's Seance the party again headed out onto the path to Whitethrone.  The storm had passed and the weather had returned to its previous cold, not the harsh cold of the blizzard.  The day was spent moving quickly over the new snow. 

As the group neared Ellsprin, a solitary wooden house sat on the outskirts of the small village, partially surrounded by a small grove of trees and hardy shrubs, far from the other houses in the village. A thin column of smoke rose from the chimney, but there was no other sign of life from within, and the window shutters were pulled closed. Fifteen feet in front of the homestead, a humanoid shape lay facedown - the snow around it was dyed red with blood.

As Milos and Jorgen approached the body, which was human, a voice rang out from inside the house.

"Be wary!! That is my husband Borvald.  He was killed by the quicklings and their Twigjack."

Casia immediately looked for tracks and found small footprints leading toward the house where they ended.  The rest of the party was looking around but saw nothing.  Milos determined that Borvald had been killed by claw attacks.

Suddenly a short and slight elf wearing drab clothes and a wicked grin darted from near the body, attacked Casia and ran away in a rapid flurry.  He headed south and was seen twitching, trying hard to stand still.  It moved so fast it was hard to even follow.  The party spread out with Nadya backing up with her sons.  Then a stack of sticks wrapped together with a hemp string attacked Fanara.  Each time the party could move toward the quickling it sped away, attacking Nadya and then flanking with the twigs on Santrel.  Santrel took a dimension step to the roof and continued to attack with fire.  The rest of the party found it difficult to hit the creatures.  All the while the quickling was disparaging humans as evil, dirty, awful creatures.  He even queried shy the elves would align with the humans.

It took some time but the twigs fell apart into a pile of sticks, the quickling rounded the house and disappeared.  When the party followed they saw a barn behind the house with tracks leading to it. 

A woman came out of the front porch and implored the heroes not to harm her son, the faun, who had fallen in with the quicklings.  "Please be careful with him, I'm sure he is not evil, but has just been confused by the quicklings."

The party waited outside the barn for the quickling to appear which it did not.  Jorgen moved up to open the doors but waited outside.  Amadeo on the other hand walked right into the barn and was flanked by two quicklings and dropped to the ground.

"Attack the humans," one quickling yelled at a faun standing in the back of the barn with a knife in his hand.

"I will not!  You are evil, I should have never joined your group.  You will leave my mother alone." the faun responded.

The rest of the battle was uneventful and Amadeo was restored to consciousness.  The two quicklings fell even though the party was still having trouble damaging them as the quicklings continued to disparage any human. 

Back in the farmhouse, Nadya had joined the woman, Maret Truskin.  The boys were playing with Marit's two children, having a gay time. Maret and Nadya had discussed being widows with children and they had come to an agreement for Nadya to leave her children with Maret until she returned from Whitethrone.

As the party entered they were offered refreshments and Maret explained about her some Garen, the faun.  When Maret was just a teen, a passing satyr seduced her and left her with child . She soon gave birth to a male faun she named Garen. Ostracized by the people of Ellsprin, Maret came to live on the outskirts of the village. Garen sensed he was the source of his mother's alienation, and when he came of age, he ran away. Years later, Maret found happiness and married a kind woodsman named Borvald, and the couple had two children of their own.

Now she yearned to be reunited with her son.  Garen listening outside came in and hugged his mother, promising to stay close and help protect her and the other children. Maret was so thrilled with this she could hardly hold still.  The adventurers had found some coins and jewelry in the barn and on the quicklings. Maret presented them with a fur hat, an ushanka of the northlands which adds additional protection from cold and helps survival.  It also can be used to protect from sonic damage if the ear flaps are pulled down.

Again the party spent the night and left in the morning with two days to get to the Fishcamps. On the trail Casia noticed some falcons flying overhead just before arrows flew at the part from three directions.  Then a large white wolf charged up from behind, bit Santrel and tripped him to the ground.  The white wolf breathed a cold cone on Fanara, Santrel and Nadya.  Santrel fell to the ground unconscious.  Milos hurried to Santrel and got him back on his feet.  Amadeo and Fanara moved to the wolf as the party concentrated on the large wolf.  Jorgen was busy with archers and the falcons that began to attack.  Others in the party were subject to arrow attacks and falcons trying to take a bite out of them.

A fourth archer popped up and began firing arrows and another falcon attack.  The concentration on the wolf dropped it rather swiftly.  Then the battle turned to the archers and falcons.  As the archers, who were all wearing the same leather armor and outfits, took damage they began to throw down their bows and call the falcons, who came and landed on leather gauntlets worn by the archers.

"We surrender!  Norgrimm was our leader we will not fight with him gone." 

Three of the archers gave up but the fourth continued to attack Fanara until he died.

Led by Casia the heroes began to disarm and question the Falconers.  

"Why did you attack us?  Who sent you?" Casia began.

"Just let us go.  We are just falcon trainers who work for Norgrimm.  With him dead, we are not a threat," one of the archers replied.

"Norgrimm told us that a White Witch ordered him to head to a tower outside the town of Waldsby and look for suspicious groups of adventurers traveling to Whitethrone from that direction." another piped in.

"So we are suspicious?" Jorgen asked.

"Norgrimm said you were.  We do not know why or who actually sent Norgrimm and us on this mission.  He said it was a White Witch." the third added.

 "What else do you know," Fanara asked.

"Nothing.  Norgrimm is our leader, he doesn't have to explain himself to us!" the first shot back.

Eventually the group decided this group was too dangerous to leave behind so they killed the remaining three.  Each of the falconers had 2 potions of cure light wounds and mundane weapons and armor of no interest to the party except to sell.

Nadya noted that the winter wolf had one blue eye and one violet eye. She remembered old folk tales that suggested a winter wolf with different-colored eyes can be skinned to create a magic cloak called a rimepelt.  She thought the magic powers could be useful to the party, but the animal had to be skinned in a specific manner so as to not ruin the pelt.  Nadya offered to do the skinning herself.  The whole operation was a success and Amadeo had himself a new magical cloak for limited magical use.

The party then set off further down the road to Whitethrone. They were now on the north shore of the Glacier Lake but could not yet see Whitethrone in the distance but the vast glacial lake was quite the site over the edge of the cliffs.   

A small river cut across the path, headed south toward the cliffs that overlook Glacier Lake. A stone bridge crossed the river, seemingly constructed with horse, wagon, and caravan traffic in mind. The bridge was well maintained, and the snow had been cleared from its span. Four-foot-high stone railings ran along both sides of the bridge, topped at either end by iron spikes upon which clean and meticulously polished skulls had been carefully impaled and turned as if to observe the traffic. A white-painted sign post greeted travelers approaching from the east.

The river looked wide and deep here, making it difficult to imagine fording it. The sign on the bridge, written in Common, Hallit, and Skald, advised foreign merchants headed to Whitethrone that they required licenses to do business in the city and that they may be stopped for inspection without cause. Those who sought licenses should apply at the city gates.

As they were not merchants the party paid scant attention to the sign and moved out onto the bridge. Just as they did three troll like creatures clambered up the far end and blocked the bridge ahead.

"Papers, please," one troll growled in common.

"We do not have any papers.  We don't need them." Casia responded.

"No papers, you pay bridge tax." one troll gruffly said in turn.

"What do you take for tax?" Casia inquired.

"We need living food as tax.  You do not have a mount, or an animal companion.  We take that small woman at the back of your group."

"That will not happen," Casia replied.

The party moved back to talk about their strategy and settled on Amadeo using the cloak to become a Winter Wolf and intimidating the trolls.  This was done forthwith. Amadeo now led the group to the bridge and Casia presented him as an important being in Whitethrone.  Amadeo gnashed his teeth and Casia demanded that the group be allowed to pass without paying the tax.

The trolls responded that they did not mean to hold up any important personage.  They then climbed back down under the bridge as the party walked across and onward to Whitethrone.  Amadeo returned to human form as they moved down the trail.

Another night was spent and Nadya indicated that the party would arrive in the Fishcamps tomorrow.  The best strategy may just be to ask the locals about Ringeirr.  She was hopeful that he still was active in smuggling into Whitethrone from the Fishcamps.

Through a forest of leafless birch trees, after half a day of travel, the city of Whitethrone came into sight.  White walls gleamed in the scant sunlight.  Nadya took a turn at this point to the south toward Glacier Lake. Arctic gulls filled the overcast sky with their cries over a small shantytown. Ramshackle huts were erected on the cold ground, hard packed and barren from generations of foot traffic. Dories and other small fishing boats were moored to dilapidated piers nearby or pulled ashore on the gray pebbled beach of Glacier Lake. The pervasive smell of fish was everywhere, sometimes fresh, but often with the underlying stench of centuries of decay. Small groups of fisherfolk congregate on the piers or around shacks, engaged in whispered conversations, but with watchful eyes on what transpires around them. An occasional child could also be seen, toiling to repair nets or performing some other chore.

DM's Notes: This post covers several nights of play and the journey to Whitethrone.  The characters have earned enough XP to be within a few points of 5th level.  Getting their will depend on their success or failure in the Fishcamps.