Session #18, Clock tower's bell rung, rest and move on to the hut in the Market Square!

From the journal of Sadobras:

Weren’t good.  Nope.  Thought we’d don most o’ the work… slayin’ the dragon and all them trolls.  Already had us a fancy opera singer an’ a couple young’uns in tow for the rescue.  But that’s where it hit the fan!  The rescue.  Once we found the exit, we figured it’d be safer to get the squishies to safety before clearin’ out the rest of the clock tower.  But lo and b’hold… no sooner do Zaaz and Yoska walk them squishies the door, that some statues come to life and separate the party.  Dalomar moves in to help them two leavin’ me alone in the hall.  I guess that’s better than bein’ out there with the statues.  Wait!  No ‘taint!!  Not now that more trolls and a festerin’ dog start comin’ outta doors and tryin’ to make a Sadobras sandwich.  One hit from the big, ugly one (well I guess they’re all ugly) and my dog is done.  Daggit!  I’m laid out and I can’t get up without takin’ another punch from the troll.  Hell, even if I could git up… turn’s out a sprinter I ain’t.  I’m not likin’ the looks of things in here, but it ain’t no better out thar.  I guess Zaza was really taking a beatin’ cause I see her tryin’ to fly away up the stairs, but that troll got other plans and jest swats her down like a pesky bug.  She goes limp and starts bleedin’ bad on the floor over there.  I wanna go help her, but I’m about one swat away from ending up jes’ like her.  Anyhow, I gotta do sumpin' cause that mangey mutt is trying to use ol’ Bras like kibble so I pull a patch off my robe an’ make a winder to crawl through.  Thought I was gonna be safer away from the trolls, but the statue moves over and starts to swinging.  No way we can take on both them statues and both them trolls so I gotta think fast.  So’s I take another patch off my robe and drop a big ol’ pit underneath that statue.  One down!  Yoska and Dalomar are whoopin’ on the other one and he ‘splodes into little bits.  Back ’n forth through that winder a few times and slingin’ stones at them trolls when I can.  Once Yoska gets his big electric sword a’swingin’ things start to fall away real quick like.  When there’s a break in the action, I sneak over and pour a potion down Zaaz’s gullet.  It’s been too long I fear.  I hope she’s awright.  Shoo… she starts to breathin’ again.  She’s still with us thank the gods!  Once we’re feeling better we have look ‘round.  We loot what we can from the tower and make our escape.

The opera singer and the kids ain’t nowhere to be seen.  No s’prise there.  So, we head back to Temple.  Yoska a good un, but I fear he’s a gettin’ cunnywhooped cause he brought the wolf-girl into the secret temple.  I know he likes her, but I don’ truss her one bit.  Yoska won’t believe me, but I done asked to the priest to keep an eye on her an’ he confirmed… she’s evil!  Nevertheless, we ain’t never gon’ steal Baba Yaga’s Hut without Yoska so I just tell Dalomar, “We gotta keep a close eye on her.  She’s upta sumpin’.” 

So, now we gonna steal Baba Yaga’s hut from the market square.  Ain’t that a hoot.  Actually, yeah.  A hoot is exactly what it is cause we use Dalomar’s new magic owl to scout out the forest and he lets us know there’s a clearin’ in there.  Gotta be where the Hut is at!  We head in and see the path guarded by three more ice trolls.  Ain’t no end to them things ‘round here and frankly, I’m tired of lookin’ at ‘em so we jest go right at ‘em.  I charge right in and the gang (and one wolf bitch) come right behind blades a’swingin’.  I dun like her much, but that wolf bitch can swing an axe.  Helped us take them trolls out real quick like.  Now we gon’ head into the bush to steal a house.  Ain’t that a hoot.  No tellin’ what we gonna find in there…

Caryatid Column

Greta in human form

DM Bullet points:

•  The group continued downstairs in the clock tower looking for any children or other captives.

•  The party walked into a room with 3 doors and found the one door lead outside.  After leading Bella Belvorica (the opera singer) outside into the courtyard Zaaz entered back into the clock tower via the front doors and the two statues sprung to life attacking Zaaz and Yoska.

•  The others were trapped inside the room with 2 ice trolls now coming through the door attacking from both sides flanking the party.

•  After the battle the party explored the rest of the lower level finding the quarters for the female ice troll leader, the prison where the children were being kept and fattened up prior to their feeding to the Trolls, an armory, barracks, and other living quarters.

•  The party rested back at the Shrine of Everbloom and were healed in part by Solveig.

•  Yoska brought his new “girlfriend” Greta to the shrine while the party was prepping for the attack.  

•  The area surrounding Whitethrone's Market Square is now overgrown with a thick forest that erupted almost overnight around the Dancing Hut. Every day, the Winter Guard chops down the forest, only to see it regrow overnight. The streets around the square are a wreckage of stumps and fallen trees, and many of the traders residing in the Merchants' Quarter have been evacuated. The Market Square itself has almost entirely vanished save for a few buildings that are now completely out of place in this sylvan landscape.

•  The party scouted the area from the air using their new owl artifact and they saw that it was densely overrun with very dense thorny bushes and foliage that made it appear to be very difficult to enter except through an opening that was being guarded by 3 ice trolls.  The rest of the area was pretty much covered with the growth of vines and thorns, even pushing some houses and structures up into the treetops.  A huge dead tree was spotted in the northern quadrant, a large pool of water in the southern region as well as some interesting rock formations in another area in the southern region.

•  The center of the square the owl could see a giant hut, but there was some sort of shadowy “force” sphere that surrounded that portion of the market square and seemed to isolate the hut from the rest of the area.


•  The party made quick work of the Trolls and now stand at the entrance of what used to be the market square, but now looks like a dense forested area with open areas/paths within the growth.

Reign of Winter, Session 17, Shackled Hut: Assault on the clock tower in Whitethrone

The party moves forward with a plan for taking out the dragon Logrivich, rescuing the opera singer Bella from the clock tower, and creating a distraction to pull the winter guard away from Baba's hut..... oh, but things never go as planned....

Frogicorn

Logrivich

Bella

Ice Troll

From the Diary of Zaaz Bloodfortune:

Six days of preparations, six days of worries and fears.   Six days of careful scouting of the tower.   Six days of the press of the voices telling me to get at it already.   Six days in the end for crap.   Why is it that no matter what you plan, nothing ever seems to come of it?

We finished our preparations and journeyed to the clock tower.   High and of stone it was, with one of the clock faces removed for the white wyrm.  Late in the night we came to it ready to sneak in when it went on its patrol and realized we had forgotten something important.   No place to hide had we to be close enough to go quickly up and in to the tower.   Making do we hid in the alley near the tower and waited and watched.   Yoska and I, pretending to be Stilyagi decided to brazen it out when the dragon did fly, stealth not being our strong point.   I hiked up my skirts and held him close like a wanton couple playing in the dark.   Dalomar and Sadobras picked out good spots and vanished into the shadows.   The problem in the end was the Frogicorn.   There just isn’t that much you can do to adequately hide a frog the size of a horse.   Spotted by the dragon, the Frogicorn burst into motion, hopping a few hops then up into the air.   Off the dragon went chasing the Frogicorn and off we went to steal into the tower while its occupant was away.   Somehow we thought it would last longer and off we shot towards the tower.   Hiking my spear between my legs to keep a good grip on it, I called on the spirits of the wind and air and launched into the sky.   Zooming low across the streets and then popping up towards the tower I went.  In mere seconds Yoska and I had both made the top of the tower, he on the ledge and I headed towards the entrance with a load of oil I had brought with.  Before I could do anything though, a blast of freezing cold slammed into me.   The dragon had finished off the distraction and returned faster than I could believe.   Not huge in size, but awesome in appearance the dragon stood beside me.   White and bitterly cold, with fearsome and terrible expression.   Truly, in that moment I did understand why dragons were so feared, revered, and talked about.  Even the constant din of voices in my head did seem to stop.   Staring up at him I knew nothing, but a primal fear inside and knew I was about to become a midnight snack.   Pulling myself together I called on the most powerful spell I knew and cast a lightning bolt at him.   It seemed to hurt him, but in the same moment he used the opportunity to attack me back, draining my life greatly.   Almost contemptuously, he lashed out again at me, hitting with claw and bite and tail till finally I was again down and near death.  

After I was down, good Yoska, thinking that perhaps I was no longer with this world, flew into a frenzy and attacked the beast with a mighty and powerful blow.   Electricity and fire ran through his weapon and the dragon let out a scream of pain.   Dalomar and Sadobras soon came on the scene as Sadobras used a magic item that suddenly made a massive tree grow.   Within seconds they too fought the dragon as the tree carried them up to us.  Summoning two riding dogs, Sadobras attacked followed closely by Dalomar.   With a mighty strike, Dalomar put an end to the dragon.   

Moments later I was awake again as Sadobras poured a potion of healing into me.  Coming to, I was greeted back into wakefulness by the attack of one of the white witches climbing out of a trap door in the floor.   Old and gnarled she was, giving truth to the old witches saying, as within so without.   Ugly of soul and full of lust for power she was.   Still hurt and wounded I was, but here I was in my element.   Calling again on the powers Grr granted me I cast a spell of blindness on the hag.   She continued to fight, but without sight we made quick work of her.   I healed myself and those wounded fighting the dragon and we evaluated what we had found.   A huge horde of coins, magic items, and more were found and awaited claiming.   Now more awake and aware of my surroundings I also noticed the gear works and clock bits we were surrounded by.   Loud it was in the tower and we could hope those below didn’t hear us.

Soon Yoska took it upon himself to scout below to see where the Witch had come from.  On the floor below he found the Opera singer and freed her from captivity.   At about that time we learned that no, the gear-works noises had not sheltered us.   Ice troll after ice troll ascended the stairs and each one after another we did slay.   Having them come one at a time on the stairwell actually made it much easier to kill them than to take them all at once.  After a time no more came up and we made ready to leave.   The opera singer and I gathered up the treasure, but a shocking news she told us.   Below there were children that were kept as food for the Ice Trolls.   Finishing our gathering, I handed her a potion of invisibility and told her, “If it all goes wrong, drink this and run.”  With that we went down to the next level.  Dalomar, Sadobras, and Yoska were soon in battle with a huge attacking oven.   The construct was filled with flame and hungry to eat us whole.   Recognizing that this was perhaps not something my magics would be good for, I investigated a pile of crates and vegetables at the end of the hall.   One can rarely have too many vegetables so this looked like a good chance to stock up.   As I approached the pile though a new set of voices and crying came into my head as a strange creature rose up.   Made of bits of string and buttons and cloth, leftovers and scraps, it seemed to be another haunt or construct of some kind.   An attack on my will hit me and I was able to maintain control of my fears.  Backing up I brought forth a web to slow the creature down and made my way back to the fight with the malevolent oven.   Calmly strolling up to it, I told the others, “Ok, I don’t think I’ll be much use against that thing whatever the heck it is,“ and then channeled forth positive energy into my hands.   I slapped the oven and within moments it did fall to pieces.   Ha, Zaaz Bloodfortune, killer of ovens, conqueror of cutlery.   To be fair, perhaps my companions did indeed weaken the oven up quite a bit first.   Yoska, Sadobras, and Dalomar made quick work of the strange patchwork creature.   All we needed to do now was find the children and free them, set off some fireworks, and then we could get back on with the rest of our quest….