Session16


 * 4-20-13**
 * The Black Winter Mountain and the Search for Shri**

Xian Torres is known to the locals to be rough with his concubines… they don’t last long, and he’s been known to occasionally wear their skin.

Lord Glinset is rumored to be an elven ranger with a strange sword that has 7 gems. According to the villagers, he had taken off toward the mountain after Torres and Shri.

We head toward the mountain in The Destiny. A day’s travel in we make it to a mesa, a plateu where we can’t make it further in the ship. Wind is swirling violently and snow is falling heavily, but the snow is black and as it melts… it seems to drip and pool off to a gravity of its own.

The ship is blown around in the winds, so we set it down to hover near the mesa. Gregori and Azarius activate a disembarking mechanism that extends a steep path of light to the ground. With a quick test, it seems to magically sticky so we don’t just slide down. Thorn, Posy, Uther, Elthos, Jalen, and Crowe stay behind to watch over the ship.

Erevin, Yuki, Ursus, Mali, Wren, Kale, Azarius, Dom, Reston, and Thirteen disembark and head for the mountain on foot into ankle deep, black snow that continues to fall. Half an hour of travel in, we can’t see the ship from the swirling wind and snow, and the snow has stacked up to knee-deep. It’s waist deep on Mali who happily accepts Ursus’s invitation to put her on his shoulders.

We come to strange humps in the snow… brushing some of it away, we find mutated bodies made of fur, skin, bones… 3 arms… they’ve been hacked down by swords in battle. They’re frozen, and the bodies have similar mutations and wounds. Erevin recognizes the fletching of arrows in one of the bodies… Shri’s. Guessing by the bodies condition that it’s been a couple of days. We continue moving.

We come to a bigger lump in the snow with a bit of magic on it… dusting it off we find an elegant white-wood row boat upside down. *crack, crack, crack* We’re on a lake, and the ice beneath our feet is starting to crack to our collective weight. We move to spread out, heading toward the mountain. Erevin slides over to kick the boat right side up near to Yuki. Wren tells Kale to get in the boat and watch over Yuki, his armor would be too heavy in the water. The boat is only made for two, but little Sir Reston squeezes in pulling Yuki with him before she falls through the ice. Wren backs up quickly alone off to the side. Ursus, Mali, and Melloran spread to the opposite side of Wren. Dominic moves forward up the middle with Erevin and Azarius and Thirteen also move up the middle.

Ice elementals appear in a large circle around us, advancing. The collective weight of Ursus, Mali, and Melloran together cracks the ice and Mali falls through into the icy water. The ice cracks around the middle group, with Dom and Thirteen falling into the water, but Azarius manages to stay up and Erevin charges through the snow into one of the advancing elementals.

One of the advancing elementals moves in on Wren and hits her hard enough to leave her staggered. Another hits Mali, who has barely made it out of the water. Dominic also makes it out of the water. Azarius throws empowered double scorching rays into one of the smaller elementals, fully melting it.

Yuki sends out a prayer of aid from the boat, unable to reach most with her healing. Ursus transforms into a great bear and charges with Melloran on the elemental against Mali. Dominic launches a fiery bomb into the elemental on Erevin, blowing a gaping hole in its chest.

A towering ice elemental slams into Kale and Yuki on the boat. Still staggering, Wren throws out a web on the elemental, but unable to move far away enough in time, it smashes her unconscious to the ground. Azarius turns toward Wren and throws scorching rays at the large elemental, wounding it horribly, and burning away the web.

Erevin brings down the elemental hit by Dominic’s bomb. Kale leaps out of the boat and bolts to intercept the elemental from reaching for Wren’s body. Yuki yells at Sir Reston to help toss her out of the boat to get to Wren, “She’s dying!” He manages to boost her leap and get her to the ice. Yuki runs across the ice to Wren and sends out a powerful wave of healing.

The ice again cracks around Mali and the large bear form of Ursus battling against a large elemental. Ursus grabs her in his mouth and tosses her up onto the ice out of the water, while he treads near the edge. The elemental stays on the surface of the water, ice forming around its feet. It moves to hit Melloran who is still on the ice.

The giant elemental smashes into Sir Reston, shattering the boat and sending the little dog knight sinking into the water. Azarius turns to send out an empowered scorching double rays against the giant elemental, melting two jagged holes in its chest.

Wren manages to get up to her feet, relieved to see Kale’s back defending her from the elemental and Yuki beside her. “My heroes! Thank you. …Spread out for the ice!” She sends an empowered lightning bolt into the giant elemental.

Erevin turns to launch 3 arrows into the large elemental on Kale. The giant elemental, enraged by the scorching, moves up and pounds Azarius with both fists, knocking him unconscious. Yuki sends out another heal, bringing him back awake. Kale drops the large elemental on him. Ursus and Melloran finish the large elemental on their side, and Mali sends out a fiery sphere, melting what was left of the giant elemental.

Azarius grabs Sir Reston, who is sinking into the water, with his tentacles and sets him on the ice, unconscious. Yuki manages to bring him around with mouth to mouth and heals him. With everyone out of the water and standing, we take a moment to dry and warm around Mali’s fiery sphere while Yuki sends out a massive wave of healing over everyone, and then we move on carefully.

We move closer to the mountain, and it blocks some of the raging winds of the black winter. We find more bodies by the entrance of the mountain. .. but these are demons that did not fade back to their own worlds, perhaps brought here physically instead of summoned. The tracks tell us that they were defending the entrance vs an elf, 2 humans, and a dwarf.

We go into a dim circular chamber with a spiral staircase leading up. Large chunks of rubble are scattered on the floor, and big gaps are in the staircase above. As we walk up the stairs, we start to notice lifeless eyes staring out of them, an open maw, a broken claw… what kind of place is this?!

We go up the stairs slowly, with Thirteen tossing Mali over the gaps to tie off rope to her moose on the other side to help everyone cross over. We finally make it up to a room of fleshy walls, disgusting! Villagers have been fused together… Horrifying! Wren slips her hand into Kale’s and lingers closer. Mali gets Ursus to carry her. Yuki stays very close to Erevin, but Sir Reston still lingers close to her, bravely ready to protect her. We notice a faint source of light in a thinner part of the walls, and Erevin slices through the membrane, ooze splashing out.

Stepping through the open membrane, we find a walkway that’s a little too like an esophagus. We make it out to another circular room, though this one is made of stone. Light filters down from 200 feet up, it appears to be the sky outside. Multiple layers of square stone platforms raise up and down. Reptile bird bodies litter the ground in fresh blood. There is a door that leads out with a scorch mark around it… it leads to 4 different chambers.

The first is lavish with plush furniture and expensive decorations. There is a glass case inside with taxidermy stuffed elven woman. One of her eyes is made of glass, and the stitching appears neat though not highly surgical. A plaque with a foreign name is on the front.

Mali finds a closet in the next room, and a little nervous, she asks Ursus to open it. He opens it carefully and glances inside before closing it quickly, looking pale! We all look at him. He looks a little like he’s going to be sick, “It’s ladies clothing…” Mali looks at him like he’s crazy. Wren asks, “like lingerie?” Ursus shakes his head, “No… like a suit made out of ladies.” Eyes widen. We move on quickly.

Walking into the third chamber, Erevin feels a tug on his neck. Reaching up, he feels his symbol of Eilistraee tugging him toward the bed. Pulling back the blankets, he finds another Eilistraee symbol lying under the pillows… but no Shri. A hand is hanging out from under the bed. We find one of the fused villagers with Shri’s arrows sticking out of it’s body.

The fourth chamber is the lord’s “play” room with shackles and various torture devices with dried blood.

Walking back through the room with the square platforms, we find a door to the south where another trap was set off. Inside appears like a mad wizard’s laboratory. A couple of rotting heads are on a table. We shudder. Erevin turns to Dominic, “Dom, take care of that, would you?” Dominic ushered everyone out and then tossed in one of his fiery bombs and closes the door. BOOM! Various strange smokes waft out of the room and out through the hole in the top toward the sky.

We pair up and start climbing and leaping among the square platforms that raise and lower. Erevin and Dominic go together, Azarius takes Yuki so he can help to secure her with his tentacles, Wren goes with Kale, Mali goes with Ursus, and Thirteen teams up with Sir Reston. As we move higher and higher among the platforms, we notice 4 black leathery birds detach from the upper walls and move in toward us.

One grabs Azarius who releases his hold of Yuki to leave her safely on the pedestal. Yuki screams out, “Azarius!” Another leers in and Kale steps forward to defend Wren from its attack. A third grabs Sir Reston and flies away from Thirteen. The fourth leers in to grab Erevin, but Erevin steps back out of the way and then launches 3 arrows to tear holes into its wings.

Azarius reaches out with his tentacles and shocks the bird holding him, causing it to drop him, and double back for Yuki. Kale battles the bird on him, while Wren launches an arrow into it. While right next to them on another pedestal, Ursus bolts it with lightning, and Mali summons a dire bat and sends it after the one carrying Sir Reston.

Yuki casts sanctuary, and the bird doubles back to Azarius who is floating down with feather fall… it stabs him with its tail, dripping with poison, rather than grabbing him. Azarius is weakened. The bird on Erevin and Dom grabs Erevin, who uses both blades at once to stab in its eye-holes! The third continues to carry around Sir Reston who tries to break free while the dire bat attacks it. The fourth stabs into Kale with its poisonous tail. Wren cries out from behind him, “Nooo!” and launches an arrow into it.

Ursus bolts the bird on Sir Reston who continues to fight it off with the dire bat, as it dies… Sir Reston falls. Mali sends the dire bat on the one on Erevin. Erevin cuts under its wings. Azarius shocks the bird on him again and it finally dies, letting Azarius continue to float down, he fights off the poison weakening him.

Kale stabs into the bird on him again, dropping it. He seems to fight off the poison as well. Wren takes flight and grabs Sir Reston. The dire bat helps Erevin drop the last, and Erevin manages to catch one of the lower pedestals, stabbing in an arrow and pulling himself up onto it. Wren sets down Sir Reston safely and then goes down and brings up Azarius. We gather and heal.

We make it to the top… there are two armored humans, a dwarf with a gold axe, and an elf with a gemmed sword. They look like they’re about to battle a human with a scepter by an altar. On the altar struggling is Shri, wearing a torn up version of the dress she was wearing at the wedding on The Destiny. Wind whips through the air and lightning crackles…