Session 18: Slipping the Maw

Kissethkashaan, the White Wyrm

Summary

Glenn the Undertaker

Greatsword of Dragon Slaying

Elowen Stonereach

Astral Plane - The Silver Void

After their failed parley with King Nanraak, the party returned to Vix, trading gold for guidance. Octavius spied on the goblin camp, glimpsing secret councils and a useless witch's broom. Choosing stealth, they slipped through the shadows past spider patrols, overhearing tales of haunted glowstones and ghostly horsemen along the way.

They left Brug, the self-proclaimed "King of Waterfall," to his business, and freed terrified ice spiderlings from a cruel goblin's javelins. At the king's tent, they found only an empty cage—Elowen already offered to the White Wyrm. A stolen helm and a reluctant goblin confirmed the betrayal before fate—or gravity—claimed the goblin midair.

Flying onward under Selûne's light, they played catch with a goblin, then found Erik, the lone survivor of a crushed dragonslaying party. He warned of the wyrm's lair: an ancient temple to Auril. Pushing forward, Thistle scouted the caverns, finding Elowen alive—and the wyrm awake and watching.

The party entered the frozen sanctum, offering resurrection magic in exchange for Elowen's life. Nearly placated, the wyrm turned on them as their words faltered. As winter's breath surged forward, Octavius pulled them from the Prime, casting them into the Blind Eternities.

For the first time, Octavius's planeswalking faltered, lacking the familiar anchor of a known starting place. Their momentum failed, and they drifted in the Blind Eternities until they slipped into the Astral Plane. Regrouping, they traveled across endless silver skies to the shell of a dead god, where old formulas glowed faintly. There, they made camp at last, resting under the eternal stars.

XP Award

• 500 XP for navigating the goblin camp undetected
• 750 XP for dealing with the cruel spider pen goblin and rescuing the baby ice spiders
• 2500 XP for surviving an encounter with Kissethkashaan, the White Wyrm
• What trade-off?: 1000 XP for both rescuing Elowen and the Monolith of Stars
• Total: 3750 XP
• Current XP: 24938 XP -> 28688 XP (Level 7)
• (Required for next level: 34000 XP)

Things That Happened

Return to Vix

• Date: 17th of Tarsakh (The Claw of the Storms, April), late evening, 1372 DR
  • Failing to negotiate with King Nanraak, the party slunk back to where Vix awaited them, their elephant turning back into a bat.
  • The party gave Vix his promised coin as they began to consider their options.

Hatching Plans

• Octavius cast Clairavoyance, focusing on the cluster of tents that King Nanraak had come from.
  • He observed the king sitting in conversation with a shaman. He could almost make out their words, but could not see into their tents.
  • He observed one goblin wearing a witch's broom on his back, unstrapping it and trying to get it to do something.
• The party deliberated stealthing, open warfare, dive bombing the central camp from above, but were ultimately concerned about the ice spider patrols and their ability to shoot webs.
• They ultimately decided to sneak into the camp with Pass without Trace, and Vix guiding them past patrols.

Infiltrating the Goblin Camp

• Their steps muffled and tracks disappearing behind them, the party repeatedly evaded mounted ice spider and bugbear patrols, despite the camp's higher state of alertness.
• There were two close calls where patrols almost spotted Diedric, but they passed by ultimately.

Ghosts and Demons

• Passing by a campfire with goblins, hobgoblins, and a single bugbear, the party overheard a conversation.
• A nervous goblin described a "glowstone" that reached out with tendrils of black smoke, distintigrating his companions.
• It spoke to him, offering to make him smart. He ran -- and seemed ashamed.
• A hobgoblin described a Tuigan burial ground encountered on patrol, where the ghost of a horselord had twisted Tog's head clean backwards.
• The hobgoblin emphasized that they should stick together on raids and patrols, and that there was plenty of horsedrink for everyone.
• They all very primly drank their horsedrink, spilling not a drop while eyeing the DM nervously.

King of the Waterfall

• The party observed spotted Brug's troll-spiked helm on a tree stump as the bugbear, feet planted like a fortress and back to the party, urinated on a goblin shield that had been nailed against a tree.
• "Bet no goblin piss like that, nope."
• The party observed the troll's head briefly coming alive, glaring at Brug in hatred, then dying again on the spiked helm.
• "Brug King of WATERFALL now. Huuh huuh."
• The party left Brug to his business, leaving the troll-spiked helm behind.

The Spider Pens

• The party walked by a ramshackle wire mesh pen filled with baby ice spiders.
• A cruel goblin was throwing javelins into the pen as little spiders ran away from them in terror.
• One spider quivered in fear as the goblin began to line up another shot.
  • At this point the entire party became Lawful Fuck-that-Guy.
• Glenn loomed behind the goblin and, in a single potion, scooped him into the Bag of Holding and therefore the Astral Plane.
• The party opened the cage. The spiders remained inside fearfully.
• Lilia used Speak with Animals, the little spiders indicating that they missed their mother.
• She suggested she may live in the ice mountain to the distance, and the little spiders began making their escape in that direction.

The King's Camp

• Creeping up behind a large tent, the party listened in on some conversations.
• The goblin with the broom was still trying to get it to work, with his companions calling him an idiot, saying it was probably cursed, and that the skinny witch had broken some legs in their fight.
• The shaman, as he was saying before, told the king that duergar were spotted east of Mulsantir, and that they may carry valuable iron or magic for the wyrm.
  • The king was dismissive, saying that the duergar were the rashemi's problem.
• Vix bid the party wait as the king and then the shaman went to do their business in some bushes to the north.
  • Vix snagged the king's fur-lined tuigan helm.
• Lilia cut the tent's side open...

Empty Promises

• ... only to reveal an empty cage, with spider tracks leading away toward the mountain.
• The party spent some time doing the :| expression. The king had been lying about having the witch.
• Goblins conveniently exposed that she should be arriving at the Great Wyrm and debated what her screams would sound like.
• Resolute, the party made their way out of the camp, circling toward the outer perimeter as its alert status decreased.
• Soon, they were back on the ledge where they had first spotted the camp.
• Exhaustion setting in, especially for Glenn and Lilia, the party bid Vix farewell and took flight on their magic carpet.

The Interrogation

• During the flight, Glenn removed the goblin, nearly suffocated, from the Bag of Holding.
• Overwhelmed by his situation, the goblin began giving the party information -- the tribe steals spider eggs from the Spider Queen in the mountains.
  • The king uses his tuigan helm to command the Spider Queen to sleep as they loot them.
  • Sometimes the Spider Queen wakes up and he's seen several goblins eaten alive.
• Lilia asked Glenn to toss her the goblin.
• She failed to catch him, and the goblin plummeted at terminal velocity toward the snowcovered grasslands, disappearing from view with an echoing series of thumps.
• She shrugged, fate having been put in Tymora's golden hands.

Flight to the Icy Mountain

• Date: 18th of Tarsakh (The Claw of the Storms, April), just past midnight, 1372 DR
• The murderess and accessories to murder continued their flight toward the icy mountain, Selune full in the sky.
• Smokescale and Unit 137 were resummoned.
  • "Well that fucking sucked."
• A few hours passed uneventfully as they began making their ascent toward the peak.

Spotting the Patrol

• The party spotted a patrol of four ice spiders.
• Three were mounted with a goblin, and the fourth was empty, heading away from the peak.
• The party flew past them.

The Frozen Wagon

• The party spotted a brown square shape in the snow.
• It was the wagon belonging to the dragonslayers they had met in Taporan.
• Slumped against the wagon was a near-death Erik. Surrounded by crossbows and half-covered in frozen burns, as if from a torrent. He was not wearing his eye patch and his eye looked normal.
• He was mumbling to himself as Diedric healed him and he regained awareness.
• Octavius whistled innocently and circled around to check the wagon's contents.
• He stood up carefully, checking his crossbow strings, and gruffly updated the party.
  • His companions were dead, killed by a collapse in the ice cavern.
  • The White Wyrm toyed with him, allowing him to escape.
  • He explained the lair is an old temple, on the secondary northern peak.
  • He asked the party not to approach if they valued their lives.
• He circled to the back of the wagons as Octavius inspected jugs of frozen blood, waterskins, and racks of dried jerky.
  • He looted coins from a chest, and bid the party farewell, saying he was going to Thesk.

Scouting the Lair

• Soon within sight of the white stone pillars marking the entrance to the lair, Lilia sent her bat familiar Thistle forward, seeing through his eyes.
• He flew past the white columns, past carvings on a stone wall, down into a series of tunnels.
• He saw collapsed ice and bodies of dead adventurers.
• He then saw the beast's inner sanctum. It slumbered as Elowen Stonereach, a cowled half-elf woman, stood against a white column she was tied to.
• Thistle began making progress on gnawing on the ropes when the dragon awakened.
• Thistle attempted to fly casual.
  • "I see your familiar, tiny one."
• Thistle was promptly battering-rammed against the cavern's ceiling by a massive white tail.
• Relaying to the party that the dragon was fully aware of what was happening, the party considered how attached they were to their current characters.
• They proceeded onward, planning to offer the Scroll of Ressurection (and a service to raise the creature) in trade for Elowen.
• Diedric equipped the Headdress of Comprehend Languages.

The Temple of the Frostmaiden

• Date: 18th of Tarsakh (The Claw of the Storms, April), four in the morning, 1372 DR
• The party flew past broken white stone pillars, flanking a raised dais with a view overlooking all of the northern hills, including the goblin region to the north.
• They flew down an ancient set of white stone steps, leading into the complex.
• Before them was a wall of the same white stone, covered in centuries of ice. Most of the writing was worn, but some was legible near the center, written in a runic Primordial script.
• "Cover all the lands with ice. Quench fire wherever it is found. Let in the winds and the cold; cut down windbreaks and chop holes in walls and roofs that my breath may come in. Work darknesses to hide the cursed sun so that the chill I bring may slay. Take the life of an arctic creature only in great need, but slay all others at will. Make all Faerûn fear me."
• The party identified this as a temple to Auril, the Frostmaiden, goddess of winter and cold.

The Vanquished Party

• On the second level, they passed by a cavern of collapsed ice — like transparent blue boulders, piled as rubble as tall as a man.
• Beneath the rubble, they saw the dragonslaying party, including:
  • A dead rashemi, his body crushed in half.
  • The orc warrior, facedown with his dragon-hilted greatsword just out of his hand's reach.
  • The halfling sorceress, oddly not frosbitten like the others, the ice seeming to shy away from her, especially from her left hand, which bore a ring with a blue tourmaline.
• The party promptly looted the Greatsword of Dragon Slaying and the Ring of Frost Resistance.
• They passed by crumbling stone bedframes in an ancient dormitory and various shrines to the goddess, depicting her in various forms. "The Maiden of Ice", "The Frostmother", and "The Queen of Frozen Tears".

Kissethkashaan, the White Wyrm

• From below: "I smell your warmth, little ones. Sneak if you wish—it only spices the hunt."
• Leaving Octavius behind and descending without him, the party entered the inner sanctum.
• The ground was slippery and frozen.
• The icy cavern was ringed by a ritual circle, inlaid with mithral and silver, surrounding a frozen pool of water with tens of thousands of glittering gold pieces within.
• Above, an awake and fully-alert white wyrm greeted them.
• Across from him, tied to the stone pillar, was the worn half-elven woman, Elowen Stonereach. She looked grim.

An Offer Attempted

• The party began negotiating with the white wyrm.
• "I've soared these skies since before your petty Thayans played at empire. Saw their first stones laid and watched the Rashemi bleed rivers into the snow. I feasted when the horsemen of the endless wastes thundered west—thousands fell, and their bodies froze to sate my hunger. And you... so tiny, so frail. What could you possibly matter in my endless winter?"
• When the party began to suggest a trade:
• "You bargain for meat? Curious indeed. Tell me, morsels, what value could this scrawny witch have that might match the sweetness of her fear?"
• The party revealed the Lolthian Scroll of Ressurection, suggesting a service where they could ressurect the wyrm should it meet its end.
• Nearly placated, the party stumbled in their diplomacy, angering the wyrm and losing his trust.
• "You offer insults and empty promises. Your pleading bores me! Leave the offering and the witch to me. Take your leave at once!"
• Octavius took action.

Has It Been Twelve Seconds Yet?!

• Reaching out to the lands of Rashemen, Octavius tapped into their power and, right as his awareness expanded, misty stepped into the midst of the party.
• Both Glenn and Diedric reached for the Scroll of Ressurection.
• Enraged, the wyrm began unleashing a torrent of winter from its maw.
• Octavius was faster, cutting Elowen's scream short as they were all sent careening away from the Prime Material Plane.
• He focused on the caverns beneath the College of Lorehold in Strixhaven, on the world of Arcavios.

The Blind Eternities

• For the third time, the party found themselves as motes of golden scintillating light, surging forward through blue mists as they were drawn by Octavius, with branching stone pathways visible beneath them.
• Octavius, not having the sense of "anchoring" he's had before, lost his momentum, like an arrow fired from a string not taut.
• The motes of light stopped moving, hovering briefly in the misty blue void.

Star Souls Return

• Date: 18th of Tarsakh (The Claw of the Storms, April), four in the morning, 1372 DR
  • Time is frozen while in the Astral Plane.
• The Blind Eternities collapsed into a familiar starry expanse, a timeless and endless silver horizon with scattered wisps of spiral clouds, silvery strands, and twinkling motes of silver and blue and purple -- The Astral Plane.
  • Unlike before, the party did not have silvery cords attached to the backs of their necks.
• Lilia and Elowen both struggled to move and breathe in the Astral Plane.
• Diedric explained that they had to will their movement, and they recovered. Lilia and Elowen embraced, with Elowen asking in wonder where they were.
• Glenn reverted to his gigachad human form, much to Lilia's surprise.
• Diedric explained the Astral Plane as he healed Elowen.
• Octavius recognized intuitively that familiarity with the starting point of a planeswalk may matter even more than familiarity with the destination.
• The party sought the place they had met the mathematician, the body of an ancient mollusk god of fractals.
• The party flew in 20 hours of timeless silence, willing themselves to the location as they had learned.

The Fractal God

• Date: 18th of Tarsakh (The Claw of the Storms, April), four in the morning, 1372 DR
  • Time is frozen while in the Astral Plane. 20 hours of halted aging have accrued.
• The party reached the body of the iridescent dead god.
  • The mathematician was gone, and the formulas he had chiseled onto the shell's surface looked complete, glowing softly.
  • At the bottom he had sketched an owlin, a man, and three women -- the original party.
• Octavius recognized that this may be of interest to The Fraternity of Order, and made a mental note of its location.
• The party discussed going to Cormyr next, to aid Glenn with his curse.
• Elowen will let her coven know that they may enter the Grove of Stars now. Mistdale is not too far from Cormyr.
• Diedric erected his tiny hut, matching the color of the shell, as the party began their first long rest in two days, Elowen looking out in wonder at the stars that were not stars.

Maps

Temple of the Frostmaiden

NPCs Encountered (or mentioned)

• Thistle, Lilia's Bat Familiar
• Vix, the Smart White Kobold
• Brug, King of the Waterfall
• King Nanraak, the Commanding Goblin King
• Erik, the Crossbowman
• Kissethkashaan, the White Wyrm

Memes

DM Thoughts

• There was a surprising amount of urination this session.
  • Lore accurate, lore accurate.