Azgul
Info
Warlock, Pact of the Hexblade
Background: Sage
| § | Interactions |
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| 43 | #TheDevilYouKnow A dismal, darkening dawn approached the party as Vellynne's tiny hut spell began to wane. While attending to the dog sleds, the group began to wonder what happened to Azgul and realized they could scry on him with the Great Oak's Amulet. They saw a vision of the warlock eating a salted fish in a dingy homestay before stepping outside into a Ten Towns street. The rubble and ash and paved remnants of the Eastway told them this was Easthaven. Following Azgul from afar, they saw him meet a shady man with a silver tooth to buy a magical ward with an evil eye on it. Grasping it from the vendor, Azgul immediately cocked his head and their vision utterly vanished. Some discussion later and the party agreed. Azgul had acquired an amulet of proof against detection. |
| 42 | #TheDevilYouKnow #Kulduhar After returning from the Yuan-Ti ruins, the party spent several nights recuperating in Kuldahar preparing for their trek back to Ten Towns. One morning they awoke and Azgul was not only gone, but the evil druid Eirys was dead. Either in his haste, out of guilt, or for the future of his comrades, he had left behind the Great Oak Crystal and Frostburn Blade. |
| 40 | #Kulduhar The party spent some time around Kuldahar. Crank spent some time at the Root Cellar, a tavern in a defunct airship at the edge, where Eirys thanked the party for their efforts in bringing the Ten Towners into the haven. Azgul and Gadget checked out the laboratory of a gnomish herbalist, Oswald Fiddlebender, whose had a decent stock of potions which they picked through. Fern, Oona, and Tetro went to a wizard's tower, where a masked half-orc mage named Orrick offered to sell them some of his old belongings. When Tetro spotted a Belt of Dwarvenkind, he had to have it, 3000 gold cost be damned. |
| 40 | #Kulduhar Meeting with Keeper at the Shrine of the Heartstone Gem, the oddball druid attested that something was off about the Great Oak. Frosted rime was found along its roots, and he swears the temperature had been a degree lower than normal. And the birds! Of the 2000 birds known to him in Kuldahar, he now only counted 1998! While listening to the quirky man was a labor in its own right, the party did notice some peculiarities. Large bootprints were noted, which didn't belong to the barefoot Keeper nor to Iselore who frequented the shrine recently. Azgul cast identify on the gem itself and revealed a curse on it with imprints of a snowflake pattern. |
| 40 | #battle #Kulduhar As the heroes investigated the Heartstone Gem, an awakened badger appeared at the opening of the Great Oak's trunk. It was a distraction, taking their eyes off a small spider creeping towards the gem on the pedestal. After all, there were cobwebs about inside the Great Oak. Suddenly a fog cloud enveloped the area. A crack was heard and Gadget noted a small owlbear figurine at her feet, now cleft in half with its magic released. The party fought a trio of snowy owlbear in the dark as they heard another critter burrowing out the rear of the trunk. This was a badger. The party rallied and Azgul managed to hold monster as Crank swiftly ran around the rooty perimeter towards the beast. Snow was falling outside and druids began screaming in panic. The team managed to unmask the wild-shaped culprit, a seething Eirys who damned them all. |
| 39 | #TheRimeoftheFrostmaiden #Kulduhar Azgul, accompanied by Oona and Fern, sought out Vellynne Harpell. The necromancer was seen packing her sled with the help of a zombie Bartaban. She was heading to the tundra to investigate a nagging thought. Something felt wrong with the Weave, she admitted. The cold was colder and the Dawn did not stir in her magical equipment as it should. The party recognized a similar passing, as their Boon of Lathander had diminished with time. In a previous travel, she and Azgul II, who had since turned into black ooze, encountered a frost salamander. Such a creature was native to the Plane of Ice, not of the Prime Material Plane. The party too had fought one of these, back in the Lost Spire. They had also been thrown briefly into the Plane of Ice itself, when Varrin Axebreaker attempted to use a Cubic Gate. When asked about Kuldahar, Vellynne encouraged them to go. The Great Oak was known to be a wellspring of divination magic. Perhaps its druids could see what was wrong with the Weave in Icewind Dale. Sharing now between them that the Reghed Glacier held the entrance to Ythryn, she revealed that the key to crack the rimed waterfall, whatever that key exactly was, was likely held on Solstice Isle. Vellynne would like to band together to head to retrieve this key. |
| 38 | #DestructionsLight ENGAGEMENT CONTINUED. MALEVOLENCE CONSIDERED. Exhausted but unrelenting, our heroes continued their assault on the dragon. The dragon released its stored spell energy, recasting Shatter on Tetro who was aiding an unconscious Oona. The tortle fell beside her. Its wing and tail ripped across Crank's chest, tossing him aside as well. Azgul ran to the battlefield, past dying villagers, and fired blasts of force at the behemoth. RESUME PROTOCOL. Once again, the dragon took flight. Before it could get far, Fern and her cunning mage hand loaded and shot a ballista through the damaged wing, grounding it once again. |
| 38 | #DestructionsLight MALEVOLENCE AURA ACTIVATED. Our wounded heroes were just picking themselves up when their minds reeled, awash with the malignance of raw chardalyn. They took arms to each other as the Chardalyn Dragon, now damaged beyond repair, began picking off party members. Eyeing her suffering comrades, Gadget launched arcane bursts at the dragon, tearing off several scales. The dragon loomed over them now. Out of options, Fern loaded another bolt and re-fired the ballista. It missed. Breaking the hold of the malevolence, Azgul sent two Eldritch Blasts through the chest of the dragon, shearing chardalyn plate and rending its core from its torso. The dragon was felled. Scrambling to their allies as onlookers came out of the burning woodwork, the party was forced to rest, entrusting their preparations to secure the safety of Ten Towns. |
| 37 | #DestructionsLight The griffons' flight to Ten Towns was met with the piercing winds of the tundra. The dim skies and light snow obscured their vision, but Azgul spotted the dragon heading off towards Bremen. Perhaps the griffons could beat it and save some lives. Gadget would entrust Kapanuk Talltree with tinkered stones depicting clear evacuation and battle instructions for the towns. They themselves would land in Easthaven and prepare for battle. A sunrise shone across Icewind Dale as they closed in, dying as quickly as it rose. Inspired by the brief light, the heroes steeled themselves. They were going to fight a dragon. |
| 37 | #DestructionsLight They had few hours, enough for a short rest. But more importantly, they needed to prepare. The skies had cleared, and so Tetro cast Skywrite notifying all towns of the imminent attack. Panicked townsfolk were rushing to shelters. A wounded man and his animals were aided by Oona's strength. Fern helped a child look for his mother as a crowd crush was broken up by guards in the market alleys. Gadget and Crank sought the militia armorers, demanding iron nets for the ballistae. Azgul found a harried Speaker Waylen, and after getting the lay of the town's defensive capabilities, he forced the Speaker to take cover with trusted men. Azgul then sought out Captain Imdra Arlaggath at the town's southern watchtowers. |
| 37 | #DestructionsLight #TheDevilYouKnow Azgul, Oona, and Crank started making their way towards Imdra Arlaggath, while the remaining party tended to preparations near the East Way. A cloaked figure was tending to her sled. Upon recognition, the party stopped abruptly. That was Vellynne Harpell. A shrewd Vellynne queried Azgul, wondering whether he was going to turn into a black ooze like the illusion who had been accompanying her for the last week. Crank took out the sample from the Lost Spire and Vellynne nodded in confirmation. Yes, that ooze. With the pressure of the dragon on everyone's minds, the wizened wizard acquiesced to lend them a hand, noting that despite the warlock's mysterious plans, they all had commanded several acts of heroics. She kept her one good eye on the half-orc warlock, nonetheless. |
| 37 | #battle #DestructionsLight With cries for arms, the tumult turned to terror, as cries of battle rang out. Oona, Crank, and Azgul rushed to the watch tower, only to see a knifed Imdra Arlaggath fall from the tower. Across the city, the duergar assault had begun. By the time our heroes felled the fire lance wielding duergar xarrorn, Captain Arlaggath had died. With the dust of the ground battle settling in their vicinity, shouts of fear arose. The Chardalyn Dragon was approaching and fast. Fern and Gadget prepared a ballista for a clean shot, entrusting the stalwart Tetro to its aim as the pair ran for cover. Soon, the skies flashed alight, dragon's breath rending the southeastern expanse of Easthaven in a radiant beam. Ballista shots pierced the dragon's armor but did not pin the behemoth to the ground. It took off for the eastern districts, toppling a structure in the distance. |
| 37 | #battle #DestructionsLight Our heroes rallied their wounded and reloaded the ballistae, picking off the remaining duergar stragglers who were fleeing past now burning buildings. Finn the puffin homunculus was notably back with a vengeance. Casting Fly, Azgul spotted the Chardalyn Dragon attacking a dockside fortification. Two Eldritch Blasts later and the chase was on. No match for the dragon's speed, Azgul was whipped hard enough to lose control over his spell, falling through a rooftop below. The ruse was effective, however. Entering range of the party's bolt shooters, another ballistae round cracked into the dragon. Landing in front of Vellynne Harpell, her cast of Bigby's Hand proved its might, grappling the beast by the throat. |
| 36 | #battle #ADuergarPlot #DestructionsLight Our heroes stormed Home | Calendar | Characters | ❮ 36 · Chronicles · 38 ❯ | Loot | Quests | XPthe forge through every possible avenue. Crank jumped into the pit and rushed for Xardorok Sunblight, Azgul and Tetro fired spells from the cleared guard towers, Fern masked their casters with darkness, Gadget led the vanguard of Muzgardt duergar, and Oona flanked the quaggoth warriors through the Temple of Deep Duerra. An enemy forewoman rushed to the Chardalyn Dragon's iron service platform but was enwebbed and died in flames. Xardorok, briefly stunned by the bugbear monk, went invisible and began monologuing to the interloping heroes about his imminent victory. As the party lost sight of him, they cut through several more quaggoth until they heard the click of a lever. Through the hiss of steam, the dragon spoke NEW DATE. TONIGHT IS THE FEAST OF THE MOON. PREPARING SYSTEMS FOR ANNIHILATION. Xardorok had reset his dragon to attack this evening, though the true Feast of the Moon lie two nights ahead. HOSTILITIES DETECTED. MALEVOLENCE PROTOCOL ENGAGED. A radiant beam disintegrated two duergar and felled Olpha before the dragon clawed up the exit shaft, pushing off towards Ten Towns. |
| 36 | #battle #ADuergarPlot Picking themselves up, our heroes pushed back as three duergar hammerer units made their way from the far side of the forge. Olpha polymorphed a duergar into a chicken atop one guard tower, inspiring her comrades up top to fight back. The front lines of the quaggoths began to fall under the pressure on the main floor. Alit by Tetro's shooting star, a bloodied Xardorok's eye stumbled as Crank shoved a sussur branch into his eye. It shattered, as eye puss trickled down, and he began to cackle. Enlarging himself in an agonizing shout, chardalyn growths rapidly spurted from his flesh. Xardorok, subject to the sussur branch's influence, had little control over what happened next. Pillars of earth randomly erupted. Gadget and Ulkin were pinned to the ceiling, some 30 feet high, and Azgul dodged away from a tower of the black earth as he was shut out from the guard tower. The numbers soon turned on Sunblight, however, and he died in rapture, as Azgul's spectral servant severed the last chords binding his soul to his flesh. |
| 34 | #TheDevilYouKnow #ADuergarPlot Azgul's patron, the archdevil Levistus, once again reached into his psyche. The speech was fragmented, as though the chardalyn dust in the air disrupted his concentration. "There's no mistake. I taste his acrid vileness permeating the very smoke. Such ego! End his foothold in the North, and I will deliver you to power. To the doorstep of the Netherese." As the chardalyn smoke filled his lungs, he felt his connection weaken. And, for now, silence. |
| 34 | #ADuergarPlotXardorok Sunblight was not in his war room, nor was he in his bed chamber. Fern gingerly cracked open a hefty iron padlock on a chest. While Azgul was unable to detect any magical trap, something was amiss about its base, which bobbed up and down while they lifted out an extremely expensive platinum and star sapphire hookah. It spooked them out enough to leave along, and they shouted at T-Rex when he poked around the gem-encrusted dwarven smoking jacket, causing the chest's base to rattle further. |
| 33 | #ADuergarPlot A water-logged passage was found on the outskirts of the mines. What began as a low pool of cavewater grew waist high as the source of the melt was found, rushing down a crevasse into the deep dark. Through a careful line of rope and frozen blockades established by Tetro as a wildshaped knuckledhead trout, as well as the use of Tensor's Floating Disc by Azgul, the bulk of the party made it safely across. Azgul, though, was caught in the rapids and swept over the side of the falls. |
| 33 | #ADuergarPlot #TheDevilYouKnow As Azgul grasped for footing, he felt a familiar darkness overcome him. His mind was no longer at the cavern's waterfall, but in the icy waters of Stygia, the fifth level of the Nine Hell, as his patron Levistus spoke directly to his mind. "Dear Azgul, so desperate for life. Let's reconnect, shall we? I've been watching you these last months. Have these northern lands and Netherese ruins delighted your interest? I hope they have. You may thank me later for leading you north... for sending you to Icewind Dale. Oh. Were you not aware? Of course it was I, the prince of frost and the shepherd of the lost, who guided you through the darkness. You have been up to so much since then, dear Azgul. Quite the hero you've become. Did you think you were fooling me, cutting your soul into thirds? It should interest you that one has died and thus two of you remain. But I digress, for it seems your current predicament lies in dire straits. Letting these icy waters carry you to your doom seems to be such a tragedy. The soul is yet ripe for the taking! While a lesser devil would let nature run its course, I am far too genteel to see a man of your stature drown so pathetically. So you will live, for today. But this gambit of mine will prove useful, yes. You see this duergar stronghold you near? I smell his rancid stench about it. I demand you end the duergar warlock within. Destroy his petulant mongrel." |
| 32 | #UnderdarkExpedition The party neared the duergar mining colony, whose lamp lights were seen a mile down in the cavernous valley's floor. Sensei worried that their own presence would be met with possible hostility, since some duergar were known for prizing myconid flesh. Therefore the party took efforts to conceal themselves. They told Sensei to play dead, as they carted them in through the town's outer guardpost, claiming they had myconid for sale. Tetro took the form of a mule, and Fern decided to conceal her tiefling self, though tucking the tail proved troublesome. She applied some grey tint to Gadget so that she may appear to be a deep gnome. The half-orcs, Oona and Azgul, along with the bugbear Crank felt their presence was fine, given that the town below was reputedly frequented by other Underdark dwellers for trade. |
| 32 | #UnderdarkExpedition Weariness began to set in. The party had been adventuring for nearly a full 24 hours. They found a roadside duergar bar, where several anxious miners tried their best to ignore them. Oona clapped one on the back and massaged the tired worker, but was taken aback when chardalyn fragments flaked off their skin. The party discovered that the mines were once brimming with the black ice, before the duergar sought out purer sources on the surface. While the dwarves were somewhat more tolerant of its corrupting effects, the party began to sense its malignant presence in the area. Azgul toyed with the stone in his pocket, his grip tightening. These duergar were downtrodden, but eventually one directed them to an inn of sorts. |
| 32 | #UnderdarkExpedition Oona couldn't help but feel sorry for T-Rex, despite Crank and Azgul pleading with her to leave the issue. Fern had to chime in that an indentured servant at their newly deeded inn in Bryn Shander might not be a bad thing. And so it went that the party took T-Rex into their fold, for the meager cost of 50 gp. |
| 30 | #UnderdarkExpedition Standing before a Sussur Tree emerging from a petrified Phaerimm, the party decided to harvest some of its leaves to take advantage of its antimagical aura. Azgul advised caution, as the elven scriptures surrounding the site both heralded the creature and served as a warning of its calamitous power. Oona, Crank, and Fern each managed to walk away with a piece of its foliage, but only after reckoning with the perturbations of the entombed monster. Neither decidedly alive nor dead, whatever seals which held this phaerimm showed the slightest of cracks, spurring Crank into madness, driving him to attack Tetro until Gadget deduced that even slumbering fossils could concentrate on their magicks. |
| 29 | #ADuergarPlot #UnderdarkExpedition Over several days, the Heroes of the Cairn took care to prepare for the forthcoming expedition, a journey into the Underdark to infiltrate Sunblight Fortress and apprehend the duergar warlord Xardorok Sunblight before his army marches on Ten Towns with chardalyn siege weaponry. Gadget used her time to research the capabilities of the duergar military, while others convened with members of the council. Fern found a local stylist to polish and primp her horns. Azgul wandered off, then returned after picking up several potions of healing. Tetro was overheard chatting to three kobolds in a trenchcoat about fungi of the Underdark. |
| 29 | #battle #UnderdarkExpedition A voice pervaded into Fern's head. "Miss your son do you?" Something was watching them. Intimately. Unable to locate the source the party ventured forward. After a stumble, Azgul saw straight into the creature's eye. Feeling its rotting gaze burning his lifeforce away, he was able to recall what this twisted creature was. It was a nothic - a gollum of sorts, a mage or weavebender that went a bit to far and a bit too mad and turned into a one-eyed wretch. Battle ensued, as the caverns gave way to an old ruined city. The party defeated the nothic as well as several drow skeletons whose bones were awakened by the clamor. |
| 28 | #battle #TheVault Varrin found what he was looking for - a Cubic Gate. This was an extremely rare item, gifted from the elves to his dwarvish ancestors, it held portals up and down the Sword Coast from Amn to Ironmaster. Varrin was excited to promise a better future for the Valley's clans with these gates, allowing an influx of trade and opportunities to alleviate the ever-going winter. Eager to show it off, he opened a portal to Baldur's Gate, but a fierce and piercing cold instead ripped through the vault. Glacial blue ice spliced between the columns and metalwork. The party was thrusted halfway between planes, in an interstitial space between the Material Plane and the Plane of Ice. Gadget was a translucent figure yelling at the party to get back from a vault that appeared far away, but the remaining five were delayed by two looming rime hulks, primed for battle. As huge cubes of frost crashed to the ground, Azgul was pinned while the portals began to collapse. With a quick rescue by Oona and company, they made it safely back to the vault. It appeared, though, a few dwarves were missing. Azgul promptly intimidated the shaken Varrin to grant them another item for the mess they were dragged into, obtaining the group a Circlet of Blasting. |
| 27 | #TheLostSpire #DzaanIsDead Dzaan's simulacrum urged the players to consider activating the rune chamber, despite Azgul's apparent hesitation. It couldn't hurt to look, they said. The rune chamber hummed with arcane energy as a holographic illusion of its creator beckoned the party in Loross to set an illusion on the golden platform and grant it a touch, to transform thought into reality. Gadget took note of the fissures in the walls on which the byzantine runes were etched. They seemed to crackle and spark, having seen better days. |
| 27 | #TheLostSpire #DzaanIsDead As debate ensued over whether the rune chamber was truly safe, Fern decided to test a living creature. A rat was born and scurried away. She tried again, wanting to keep the rat for herself, and black ooze was the result. It began to unnervingly creep around the golden platform but was not an immediate threat. Dzaan's simulacrum wasn't dissuaded by this result, yearning to become real. However, first, Crank wanted a dog. After two attempts and several sparking, Sparks was happily wagging its tail. Finally Azgul put his foot down. This was enough of a risk. The party told the simulacrum to fuck off, and the group ascended to the surface, Azgul staying behind to have a last word with his mentor's illusion. |
| 27 | #DzaanIsDead #TheLostSpire As the party packed up the sleds, they heard two eldritch blasts ringing out from within the tower. Azgul joined them after several minutes, stating that Dzaan was truly dead, simulacrum and all. |
| 27 | #TheLostSpire Crank was still mulling over the black ooze they saw earlier. Wanting to bottle some up, he returned to the rune chamber. Descending the first floor, he passed Azgul. Descending the second floor, he passed Azgul. Descending the third floor, he passed Azgul. Crank bottled up some ooze. Then he asked Azgul, "didya clone yerself?" Azgul had no idea what he was talking about. |
| 26 | #battle #TheLostSpire Departing from Revel's End, the party set a course towards the Netherese Lost Spire that had been unearthed by Dzaan prior to his execution. Along the way, the party encountered a skirmish between chardalyn berserkers and a pair of Reghed Nomads from the Tribe of the Bear. The berserkers had lost their minds to chardalyn corruption. Azgul began feeling his stone's perturbing presence, as well, and though he was capable of parting with the stone, he nevertheless kept it. As the parties clashed, black ice javelins exploded with shatter magic. The two Reghedsmen died in battle while the final berserker vanished in a blue flame as he adjusted a sapphire blue ring on his finger. |
| 26 | #TheLostSpire The Lost Spire was upside down, buried in the tundra with the jet black stone of its base jutting upwards. A tunnel in the snow descended to its entryway, which appeared to have broken off a larger structure. Fern used Jarnathan the familiar in rat form and noted a sealed entrance guarded by inverted, blindfolded wizard statues.Tetro slid down on his shell, and after affixing a rope, others followed. Azgul comprehended the language of Loross, noting that the statues depicted the head wizard of this particular tower, an illusionist named Lorietta. The statues hinted the solution to enter - those who didn't watch the door could freely pass. |
| 26 | #TheLostSpire #DzaanIsDead #GolemGuardian On the third floor of the Lost Spire, Tetro opened a door into a makeshift office. Behind the desk sat Dzaan and his wight bodyguard Krintaas. On the desk was a shield guardian's amulet, which Dzaan could not make sense of because, well, Dzaan was not Dzaan. He was a simulacrum. A copy of sorts, conjured of snow and ice. Azgul made his way into the room to interrogate the wizard, who admitted to have no idea why Azgul was in Icewind Dale, something the amnesiac warlock had been trying to piece together himself. The simulacrum only knew what his master did up until the time he left the spire, and carried out his master's will to watch over it. |
| 26 | #TheLostSpire #DzaanIsDead The simulacrum had not heard from his master in a ten day, evidently because the real Dzaan was executed in Easthaven. Alarmed by news of his master's death, Dzaan expressed a desire to replace him. See, in the fourth level of the tower was a rune chamber that could turn illusions into reality. The party was intrigued. Azgul was alarmed. He did not wish his former tutor to regain his flesh, ever since he himself had a mark of suggestion placed on his neck when he first approached Dzaan for knowledge. Flummoxed, Dzaan's simulacrum urged the party to consider the matter, lending them Krintaas as they headed into the fourth level, knowing ahead of time that the spirits down there were restless and an ice salamander had been seen crawling about. |
| 25 | #battle #RevelsEnd Lights sputtered against black hallways as the siren blared in Revel's End. Gadget, Tetro, and Fern were caught in combat with a red slaad as prisoners and guards clashed against other threats. Vaelish Gant was seen looking for spellcasting reagents. Prisoner 13 was attacked by a red slaad and defended herself with her river tattoo. Azgul was lost in the fray. Oona and Crank awoke to chaos and soon found themselves fighting off another red slaad near the mess hall. |
| 24 | #RevelsEnd Azgul, Fern, Tetro, and Gadget waited in the mess hall while Oona and Crank took a nap in the guest rooms. Tetro befriended some of the kitchen staff, while Gadget took a look at the Dwarven artificing used to heat Revel's End to a balmy temperature. One guard was muttering about stomach pains when the half-orc Lieutenant Stone arrived to bring the party to Warden Marthannis. |
| 24 | #RevelsEnd #Prisoner237 #Prisoner13 Azgul and Fern spoke with the stern and cool-headed mage, Warden Marta Marthannis. Once it was sorted out that the party were not Arcane Brotherhood operatives, but, rather, adventurers who had found themselves at the center of all things Icewind Dale, the warden eased up a bit. Fern was able to arrange a meeting with Prisoner 13, though the cautious warden refused an immediate audience with Prisoner 237, Vaelish Gant. Bringing up their collaboration with Easthaven's speaker Danneth Waylen and captain Imdra Arlaggath, they asserted that speaking with Vaelish would be vital for the safety of Icewind Dale. Azgul promised to relay a sending stone message and replay it for the warden. |
| 24 | #RevelsEnd #Prisoner13 Fern and Azgul met with Prisoner 13 - Korra Glintstone in the same interrogation room. The tattooed dwarf initially played coy with Fern, denying the knowledge of the Axebreaker Vault's magical seal. The prisoner said she was quite comfortable with life behind bars, given the protection it offers from her enemies. She eventually said she'd help the party if they brought her a ledger of prisoners - a detailed roster of names and crimes. During this interrogation, Fern noticed a tic. Prisoner 13 was constantly rubbing her knuckle on her right hand. It dawned on her that this hand's tattoo was a lock-breaker. This was the key to the Axebreaker Vault. |
| 24 | #battle #RevelsEnd Waiting to speak with the warden in the morning to get access to Vaelish Gant, the party retired for the evening. They woke up in the dark of morning to red lights and sirens. Lathander's Blessing had also weakened to 8 temporary hit points. A voice on the communication system directed guards to the northwest storage room where the "blue target" had been cornered. The kitchen staff and council members, including the retrieved Jarnathan, were told to quiet down by the party as they crept out of the mess hall and toward the guard room where their weapons had been cached. There was one guard in sight, slumped in the corner, missing the lower half of his body. As the party asked what happened, a second guard was flung into the doorway, neck snapped, and a red slaad appeared. The creatures claws caused eggs to fester under Gadget's skin, but Tetro and Azgul kept it at bay as Fern picked the lock on the chest where their armaments were stored. |
| 24 | #Prisoner237 #RevelsEnd As the prison entered lockdown, the party took the opportunity to talk to Vaelish Gant directly. Azgul got the pompous wizard to talk about his misdeeds - how he masked himself as a merchant and served as Duvessa Shane's aide in Bryn Shander before he tried to overthrow the local government. He was not only imprisoned because of this stunt, but the Arcane Brotherhood had turned their back on him as well. Vaelish still insisted he would've been great for Ten Towns. The best, even. Regardless, Vaelish had learned a thing or two in his time in the north. First, ten years back Auril had a Chosen, a Reghed woman named Hedrun who was dubbed as the Ice Witch. Hedrun had amassed chardalyn weaponry and converted barbarians into a frenzied cult to attack Ten Towns and cow its peoples into worship of Auril. Adventurers had thwarted her at her tower of black ice near the sea Second, during this time Vaelish's study of Hedrun and Auril's cults revealed the presence of a frozen waterfall at the Reghed Glacier. The frozen fall marked the entrance into the depths and a passage to the Netherese ruins of Ythryn. |
| 23 | #battle A frigid battle was fought against three frost druids and an awakened tree. Fern was knocked out after repeated ice storms but was quickly healed by Tetro. As Crank chased a fleeing frost druid and a pack of conjured wolves held Oona, Azgul, and Gadget at bay, Fern returned to deal the killing blow. The party was victorious. |
| 23 | #RevelsEnd The imposing prison loomed above icy cliffs that plunged into the darkness of the Sea of Moving Ice. The party saw guards posted at each tower and decided it best to announce their presence clearly. Still, they thought to don some disguises, with Fern and Azgul acting as emissaries of Vellynne Harpell and the remaining party tending to the dogs as if they were porters. The guards thought the unexpected visitors to be intriguing. After conferring with Warden Marta Marthannis, they brought them inside for shelter, stabling the dogs. The party surrendered their armaments, after which they were led down a corridor lit by many continual flame spells. The guards gave them lodging and told them to wait inside the mess hall. The warden would like a word with them. |
| 22 | #DarkDuchess Arriving at the Dark Duchess, the party couldn't help but feel like they were being followed in the last hour of their journey. Nevertheless, the presence had not appeared and the icy, rimed shipwreck loomed before them. Exploration of the main deck revealed a collapsed hole in the center and freshly battered railings along the forecastle. A large creature was heard stumbling about the hold. It was identified to be an ice troll by Oona and Fern. Meanwhile, Tetro was spending time thawing the frozen door to the captain's quarters, and Azgul used his unseen servant to pry through the rear captain's windows, reaching his logbook. |
| 22 | #AngajuksBell Hours later, the party arrived at Angajuk's Bell, a druidic hermit's enclave turned fishing outpost in the middle of nowhere along the Sea of Moving Ice. Here they beseeched a local, Tinjong, to grant them shelter. This being the night of the full moon, Tinjong let the party know he would be putting the fire out soon, a sacrifice honoring the Frostmaiden. Azgul intimidated the fisher, who did not budge on this practice but relented that they could stay in Anga's cabin and use whatever wood they find if they wished to defy the gods. The party decided to stay the night at Tinjong's in the end. |
| 20 | #battle #BlackSwords With the prisoners now in the north west tower, the party now realized their hospitable lodgings were under lock and key. Both doors were barred from the outside, and at least one was guarded. Azgul and Fern combined an unseen servant and mage hand to lift the bar and distract the guard, but the shadow servant fumbled with the wooden barricade, causing it to clatter to the ground. The party held their breath, and the Black Swords guard blew his horn. As the keep came alive well past midnight, the party held back the cultists while rappelling the servants over the castle wall. Fleeing into a blanketing blizzard under a hail of arrows, all but one made it out alive. Elprekt Norbrav, the half-elf butler and husband to Mylbara Norbrav, was pierced through the heart. Oona scooped up Mylbara, who stood in shock, while Tetro shouldered what remained of Elprekt as they fled. |
| 20 | #ADuergarPlot Disguising Crank and Azgul as handsome Underdark mercenaries, the party concocted a ruse. Tetro wild-shaped into a war horse hauling a sled full of "chardalyn." Under the wrapping, of course, were Hazel, Fern, and Oona poised to strike. The ruse gained them entry, but pressing the duergar flunky, who insisted Nildar Sunblight was busy in his lab, only arouse suspicious. Tetro charged hoof first into a duergar, sparking a brutal offensive as alarm bells went off. A dozen dead duergar and several splattered spore servants later, the party breathed a collective sigh of relief. Nildar Sunblight was dead. Now to see what he was plotting. |
| 19 | #BlackSwords As Oona and Crank entertained the excitable dullard Thoob over one of Chef Karou Chorizo's 50 trout recipes, Fern and Azgul would make use of spare robes and disguises. Fern would pose as Mere and bring the speaker his dinner. Hazel preoccupied Mere in the kitchen, persuading her to leave the cult if she could find a place to go. Tetro was eyeing the chef's delectable knucklehead trout preparation. With a harsh yell from Thoob for Mere to bring the speaker his trout, the two Meres were about to collide. Some clever talk from Hazel stalled the inevitable. Fern, as Mere, took a plate of fish from the cook. Tetro took the real Mere's fish off her hands, offering to deliver it himself. He, of course, just ate it. |
| 19 | #BlackSwords Speaker Crannoc Siever had a luxurious room. It was downright kingly. He, on the other hand, was not. With Fern as Mere and Azgul as a new cultist, the two spoke with Crannoc about the Black Swords' takeover of the keep two months back. Crannoc seemingly sold out his men, hoping to profit from giving the position over to Kadroth, but the bargain bit him in the ass. He was now living in a gilded cage, signing his name off on Ten Towns documents as Kadroth managed the day-to-day affairs. He beseeched the new cultist, Azgul, to rebel and let him take control. He also kept asking Mere for fish sauce. |
| 19 | #BlackSwords Unsealing a marble slab that opened to the rear area of the cistern, Oona and Fern rowed down, seeing a final room. Meanwhile, Azgul caught a glimpse of metal in the water. His unseen servant pulled up a chain of bloated, but otherwise preserved corpses - the former guardsmen of Caer Dineval. As Oona entered the back room, which reeked of filth, a man jumped on her back attempting to grapple her. She tossed him off like a sack of potatoes and then looked at her surroundings. Five of the Caer's former servants were imprisoned here. She swore to free them and brought news to the party - loudly. The wizard Avarice surely overhead them. |
| 18 | #TheLostSpire #DzaanIsDead In the Easthaven Library on the third floor of the town hall, the party rummaged through the shelves. Azgul was interested in the books claimed from Dzaan's inn room. One hefty tome, The Girthy Sex Lives of the Goliath Tribes: An Illustrated Guide by Volothamp Geddarm, turned out to be an illusion. Through clever use of identification magic, the vividly accurate depictions of Goliath lovemaking faded and were replaced by a Dzann's spellbook, within which was a map. The map marked an inverted building captioned with "A Lost Spire!". |
| 17 | #CauldronCaper At the Easthaven Town Hall, a large three story building with several guards and attendants that serves as both political offices and a community center for the city, the party split into two groups. Tetro, Hazel, and Oona chewed the chud with the town guards in the reception hall while watching the cauldron. Azgul, Crank, and Fern headed into the administrative office where a young, nervous clerk named Prudence waited on them. They asked to see Captain Imdra Arlaggath regarding the missing fishermen bounty. |
| 17 | #CauldronCaper Prudence led the party members into the basement in the city jail. Crank noted a dour, red-haired Shandar Froth in one of the cells. In the jailer's room, the party met with Imdra Arlaggath. In return for the finding the fates of the Bunch of Knuckleheads fishermen, Imdra presented the party with a choice of a reward: a Grey Bag of Tricks or a Well-Triggered Scroll of Fireball. Azgul chose the latter. |
| 17 | #ChardalynCaper Looking for clues, Fern cast detect magic on the remnants of the chardalyn figurehead, which hummed with a dark aura of enchantment, and Azgul sought tracks. The party noted that chardalyn speckles were glowing in a band of several stout humanoid footprints, hurrying about the figurehead statue before taking flight to the west of town hall. The party followed the tracks before losing sight of them near the waterfront. |
| 16 | #battle #ToilAndTrouble A frost giant skeleton had lain dormant until the remaining party entered the chamber. As it chipped out of the ice to tower over even Crank, Hazel began to flee northward while Azgul went south. The lugubrious giant smashed out of the ice and landed heavy blows on Oona before its bones were pulverized. |
| 16 | #ToilAndTrouble Hearing the battle, Azgul decided to wrap around the frozen river, hoping to find another entrance. After scaling up an icy overpass, he hit a dead end. However, he found an old dwarven explorer's pack along with notes about a madness in these halls and shrill cackles. It seemed the explorer was interested in a burial ground for giants in a hot spring. It seems the explorer never left. |
| 16 | #ToilAndTrouble The party met three women, quickly identified as a coven of hags, cooking four swine in a cauldron. The tallest one, Maud Chiselbone, addressed the party through cackling laughter. She invited to know what her guests wanted and what they would exchange. The other two, Alice and Anise cackled along. When asked about the White Lady's treasure, Maud grimaced. What would they give in return for knowledge of the hundreds of gold buried in Lac Dinneshere? Perhaps years off their life? Oona offered a massage. Azgul insisted his crowbar was magic. The hag was amused but soon the patience waned. The party had killed their doorman, the skeletal frost giant. The hags felt they must be compensated! |
| 16 | #battle #ToilAndTrouble When talk devolved into a blood price - either Easthaven's children or one of the party's own - battle ensued. The hags dropped their glamour, unveiling their true, horrid forms. The blue, crafted walls too were replaced by the filth of a cave home to monsters. And the feast of four swine turned out to be the four fishermen. Too bad Crank had a bowl earlier... perhaps worse that it tasted half-decent. As spells flew and metal clanged, Alice fell, followed by Maud who burst into a hundred severed hands. While cleaving through the crawling horde, the third hag, Anise, fled while invisible. She whispered her grudges in Azgul's ear before running past. In the end, the party successfully recovered the Cauldron of Plenty. |
| 15 | #DzaanIsDead An execution was taking place in the town square. Throngs of Easthaven residents were gathering near a wood pile just set ablaze, relishing in not just its heat but the death of the Red Wizard Dzaan, who the party caught sight of as he went up in flame. Dzaan's eyes frantically scanned through the crowd, glazing over his Arcane Brotherhood colleagues, Vellynne Harpell and another, soon to be introduced as Avarice, before locking on Azgul's. Perceptive party members saw Azgul's eyes widen and pupils dilate ever so slightly. |
| 15 | #DzaanIsDead #ToilAndTrouble The elvish Captain Imdra Arlaggath and human town speaker Danneth Waylen were overseeing Dzaan's execution. Waylen left soon after the fire was lit, but Imdra remained with her town guard. Azgul approached the captain with Hazel surreptitiously shadowing him. Azgul learned from Captain Arlaggath that Dzaan was executed, using wood no less, as a warning against evil in the realms. The red wizard had been convicted of murdering four Easthaven adventurers, who he had reportedly hired several weeks ago for expeditions into the tundra. His belonging were confiscated from his lodging at the White Lady Inn and taken to the Town Hall, though Arlaggath kept two magic items for herself as a prize for his arrest. Arlaggath was willing to part with an item as a reward for investigating the missing sailors of Lac Dinneshere. |
| 15 | #DzaanIsDead Azgul approached Vellynne and Avarice, searching for answers about his former tutor's death, and specifically, about the whereabouts of his books. How Dzaan had been arrested seemed to make Vellynne uneasy. She had come to town to parley for a mitigated sentencing and to speak with Dzaan about his findings, both of which attempts had been denied. Avarice laughed that the well-read illusionist must have been a fool for meeting such a fate, and seeing that the event had ended, took her leave. Azgul thought her an asshole, and Vellynne admitted she was a haughty but powerful prodigy. Vellynne was staying at the White Lady Inn |
| 14 | #TheMeadMustFlow The cave system hosted a burial chamber for an ancient indigenous tribal chieftain of Icewind Dale's past. Pictograms depicted the clan's journey across the Spine of the World, a clash with giants, and the powers of a lightning infused weapon. Opening the sarcophagus, the party found a Pearl of Power and Javelin of Lightning in the hands of the female chieftain's skeleton. Taking the items cursed Azgul, imposing a severe lethargy, though returning them to the skeleton recovered the condition. Eventually, Tetro and Crank picked up the two items respectively and sluggishly followed the party as they explored the final chamber of the cave. |
| 14 | #TheMeadMustFlow The last chamber featured a frozen pool. Under two feet of ice was a crystalline clear spring of water, and at the bottom was a stone statue of Silvanus, god of nature. After Fern detected abjuration magic, Azgul blasted through the ice, and Tetro shaped the waters so they could investigate, it was revealed that the pool's waters were blessed by Silvanus, providing the benefit of Greater Restoration. This relieved the cursed party members. Fern filled a waterskin, hoping the water would retain its properties away from the spring. |
| 14 | #battle #TheMeadMustFlow At dusk the party left the caves with a rickety wagon loaded up with good mead casks. Soon, they ran into Duhg's woman, the verbeeg Gahg. While they avoided her at first, she returned with a vengeance, nearly killing Hazel before falling in battle to Azgul's witchbolt and Oona's axe. Gahg carried a basket of strange metal shards, seemingly scavenged as gift for her lover. The party members deduced this metal was completely foreign in nature and perhaps valuable. |
| 13 | The party visited Kadu's Wondrous Scrolls and met the aloof proprietor Kadu, a bespectacled gnome who dealt in scrolls for the plane shifting wizarding world. Azgul took note of her disarray, and she admitted to be frantically searching for a copy of Scroll of Plane Shift, already missing her summer vacation. Kadu offered her scroll crafting services to the group. |
| 12 | #battle #ColdHeartedKiller Torg's warehouse thinned out later in the evening. When asked about his time on the ship, Sephek attested that those days were in his past life. When asked about the girl, Sephek praised the winter goddess, and spoke of his valiance in honoring her quarry. Battle ensued, and Sephek's true nature was exposed, as he dueled with sword and dagger of ice. He tested the strengths of Crank, Oona, Azgul, and Fern, but was hopelessly outmatched when Hazel and Tetro arrived as reinforcements. Moments before his total demise, Sephek called for Auril to witness him. Sephek slit his throat and his curdling scream began to intertwine into of a woman. In the cold Targos night, Azgul picked up Sephek's now inert longsword, noting its etched runes: Isolation, Cruelty, Endurance, and Preservation. |
| 11 | #TheRimeoftheFrostmaiden Opting to shelter for the night in the Black Cabin, the party feasted on moose meat and drank Macreadus's wine. The surrounding mile had turned green and warm form the Summer Star, though a chill still blew in on the wind and snowflakes intermittently fell. Nearing midnight, Azgul perceived voices on the wind, like the sound of frost. Tetro saw no aurora in the sky and took note of a bird of prey passing the moon. |
| 11 | #TheRimeoftheFrostmaiden Auril demanded to see the Summer Star, whose magic she detected when its radiant burst fired. When the party resisted, she froze Crank and Oona and used the time to hone her detection of the magical item. She found it, teleporting besides Tetro and clutching the "useless trinket." Her frost began taking it over, the magical creaking and craftsmanship coming undone. With quick thinking the party set up a diversion, Fern using Jarnathan as bait, Azgul creating mirror images of himself about the Frostmaiden, and Tetro casting heat metal on the Summer Star before wild-shaping into a velociraptor and dashing into the woods. The party fled Auril, who looked through the remaining Azgul before teleporting onto the back of her Roc and flying away. |
| 11 | #LakeMonster After some hours navigating the ice floes on Maer Dualdon and fishing - Tetro caught a spotted eel and Hazel caught a 40 lb knucklehead! - the party encountered a plesiosaurus, the lake monster. Azgul had readied a blast, so he fired. |
| 10 | #TheGoldenDawn Overhearing the conversation, ever-knowing tavernkeep of the Lucky Liar, Danae Xotal, said she knew of the sage who lived out there... and hinted that the old fool was probably dead out there anyway. The sage had used Arcane Brotherhood networks to get a #SpecialDelivery several weeks ago. Intimidated by Azgul, Danae relented and gave the party guidance to follow the ridge around Maer Dualdon to its western reaches, where the Black Cabin loomed over the forest. |
| 10 | #TheGoldenDawn In the Black Cabin's main room all the furniture was blackened with ash. There were broken wine bottles, a charred book, a burnt skeleton of a human male, and a six inch diameter device: two concentric rings with a black stone inside. While Azgul used magic to look over some of the ancient Giant runes, Tetro picked up the device. He gazed into it as it illuminated. Looking steadfastly into the light, a radiant burst enveloped the party. All that left of poor Tetro afterwards was turtle dust. |
| 10 | #TheGoldenDawn As the party pieced together clues in the Black Cabin, strange occurrences occurred. Loud knocks, three in a row, would bang as characters interacted with the items of the house. Rugs and curtains would shift, tools would fall off tables, and Copper's letter, in the hands of Crank began to tug him in different directions, like a dowsing rod. A bottle of wine Fern found was nearly tugged from her grasp. Oona was fed up with this nonsense and smashed her axe into the cabin in a rage. Eventually, the party uncovered that they needed to forge a third ring, etch it with the appropriate runes, and reconstruct the Summer Star. With Crank smelting a new ring and Fern forging the runes under Azgul's guidance, they pieced it together. |
| 09 | #TheWhiteMoose Vurnis's body laid peacefully atop a closed Elven Tomb sarcophagus, surrounded by four druidic rune stones and clutching a crystal of raw ice. On investigation, Fern noticed Vurnis's throat had been cut and deduced it to be the cause of death, seeing no other markings. The wound must have occurred within the past two moons. While there were ligature marks along the bottom of the body, there was no frost nor evidence of the cold affecting her vitreous humors. Looking at the runes, Hazel recognized them from markings on local shrines of offering she had passed by in Ten Towns. Azgul recalled from his studies that the runes stood for Auril's four tenets: Isolation, Cruelty, Endurance, and Preservation. |
| 09 | #TheWhiteMoose The southern half moon tomb contained an opened sarcophagus with two elven skeletons inside. Inside were a hunting horn and a silvered arrowheads. Azgul picked up the horn, discerning it to be magical, while Tetro objected but ultimately let Azgul proceed. After a short rest, Azgul realized the wondrous object was a Horn of Silent Alarm, though he refrained from using it yet. |
| 09 | #battle #TheWhiteMoose A thick fog began to blanket the area, and sounds of a moose were heard in the distance. The party bunkered in the tomb for a quick rest, but then heard the pwah! noise of Chwinga. Slowly scouting the perimeter with Hazel keeping watching from atop the gnomon and Azgul stepping towards the southern forest, more voices began appearing: those of hunters in need for instance. Sensing a presence behind one of the tall elvish statues, Azgul Eldritch Blasted through it revealing a wendigo horror. The battle was one of light and shadow with the wendigo suddenly shifting between trees and behind bodies in the dimness of the fog as Tetro and Hazel lit up the grounds with spellfire and Fern cloaking herself in the occlusion of the twilight to strike. The party wrecked the distorted moose, which shriveled to its former form. |
| 08 | #TheWhiteMoose The party explored the Elven Tomb found in Lonelywood Forest. Several tall elven status surrounded the berm and central moon dial, and they buzzed with magic as Azgul investigated them. |
| 07 | #ArcaneBrotherhood Azgul revealed a particular bodypart to Vellynne Harpell, somewhat surreptitiously. Thus ensued a conversation about the Brotherhood mage Dzaan, who while she is reluctant to help (her coalition's mages are more competitive than co-operative colleagues), was apparently drawing more ire and attention than was necessary in the town of Easthaven. She was heading there to see if she could capitalize on assisting her colleague - and in exchange - be entitled to any knowledge he has procured. She thanked the party for purging the mine and providing her such lovely henchmen before departing. |
| 07 | #TheWhiteMoose #TheGoldenDawn Visiting Lucky Liar, the party learns little from boastful local hunters. The party does recruit Old Huntsman Clive to help them track the white moose, offering 15g for a job done. The innkeeper, Danae Xotal, seems to know a good lot of secrets. She apparently arrived in Lonelywood about ten years prior and set up the Lucky Liar that she has operated since. When pressed on the events of the golden light and of mages in the woods, she hinted that she certainly knew about magical meddlers, glaring pointedly at Azgul. |
| 07 | #TheWhiteMoose Chwinga appeared by the dozen and began playing around the party's sled, playfully pelting Azgul with snowballs while Crank and Hazel watched over the recuperating party. The chwinga tugged at the party's cloaks and led them to a clearing. Time seemed to ebb a bit differently for the next couple hours. Almost as quickly as the clearing came into focus, the chwinga disappeared. The party had arrived at Elvish ruins. A row of six statues faced a 10 ft berm, over which a massive crystalline gnomon sat in a wide circular depression. They had came across a massive moon dial. Upon further scouting, they noted a sarcaphogus flanked by blue heiroglyphic pillars, a marble gazebo on the other end of the berm, and a hole broken into the nearby cliffside, tunneling into darkness. |
| 04 | Azgul acquired scale mail from Markham Southwell for 50gp, trading in his chain shirt for 5gp as well. |
| 04 | Azgul spoke with Owenn Tarsenal about happenings in Targos. The town conducts a blood sacrifice lottery on the new moon. The town speaker, Naerth Maxildannar, and his council run it, and the militia captain Skath officiates the sacrifice to appease the goddess of winter's wrath. The lottery is conducted during the three days prior to the new moon with the militia controlling passage into the town during those days. |
| 01 | #SpecialDelivery Azgul, Tetro, Hazel, and Fern were all either being guided to Icewind Dale or happened across the traveling party. |