Frost giant battle!
The barbarian charged the frost giant. The monk rushed the first winter wolf. The rouge followed to help. The barb began to play all manner of inspirational music to bolster the party. The archeologist cast the few magic missile spells he knew at the winter wolves. Two dragonborn guards moved to intercept the monk and rouge. While the other two moved to confront the bard and archeologist.
The frost giant and ½ orc traded blow for blow. It was a modified David and Goliath situation. See this David was a raging barbarian with a giant two handed vorpal sword. This goliath wasn’t going to be taken down by any paltry little rock either!
The monk and rouge were entangled with giant frost wolves and dragonborn soldiers. The bard and archeologist moved to avoid the oncoming pair of dragonborn guards. The bard stopped and tried to strike the giant blind with magic, but it failed to work. He went back to throwing out inspirational songs to aid the party.
As the rouge and monk were finishing off the remaining winter wolf they moved to intercept the oncoming guards. Thus keeping the bard and archeologist safe from melee combat. The barbarian and frost giant continued to hack away at each other in a brutal battle of attrition.
Just then a few more dragonborn arrived through the Eastern doorway. They had been drawn to the sounds of battle! The monk and rouge moved to engage them, while keeping out of range of the giant’s mighty blows. The archeologist leveled his crossbow and fired off shots at the approaching guards. The bard continued to play music to inspire his friends or to try and hamper their foes.
The monk and rouge made quick work of the dragon men who had just arrived. They turned and ran to aid the barbarian against the giant, but it wasn’t necessary. The frost giant and barbarian were both bleeding from several wounds, but they continued to swig away at one another. The frost giant seeing his followers were all dead knew he had little time left. He needed to drop this ½ orc and then he could dispatch his companions. He raised his mighty ice axe and delivered a pair of devastating blows poised to cut the ½ orc in two. The barbarian say this and shifted at the last moment. The strikes missed him and left the giant’s flank exposed. Letting out a bellowing roar the barbarian drove his sword deep into the giant’s side. He then turned the blade and slashed up as far and fast as he could. The giant twisted with the cut and the sword came rushing out, along with a torrent of blood. The giant stumbled two steps to the side and then came crashed to the floor.
The barbarian walked over to the giant’s face and began to remove one of his softball sized eyes. After a few moments, he devoured the giant eyeball to honor Gruumsh , little did he know Gruumsh was watching and passed a blessing of strength upon his ½ orc follower. ( I randomly roll for divine intervention in moments like this usually a 5% chance- I upped it to 15% since he faced and killed the giant all by himself- I roll 6% and so gave the barbarian an extra D4 damage to all his attacks for the next 24 hours ).
The rouge was then all about climbing up to grab the Heir Stone. It was the quick intervention of the archeologist that stopped him. The rouge did not notice the various lines of runes wrapping around the pillar. Not to mention the runic circle surrounding the pillar. These magical runes looked to be protective and destructive. It would take some time and manipulation to remove these magical guards and wards. The Heir Stone was secure and had been for a few centuries it could wait a while longer.
The party secured and searched the room. The managed to find two giant rubies and three smaller ( but still really big ) emeralds beneath the dragon bone throne. They then decided to search through the giant rime covered Eastern doors.
This area of the citadel had many holes and openings in the ceiling. The hallways and rooms in this area were covered with thick sheets of ice. As they searched this area they found one room that held four humans frozen in a block of ice. One of them was in kingly regalia complete with matching crown and jewelry. The party took the time to break out hands, head and chest of the long dead king to retrieve his crown and jewelry. The next room they came upon had at least ten children frozen in ice like the previous room. They found the remains of an old armory that was strangely untouched by the ice and had a complete ceiling. It had been ransacked and the only weapons and armor remaining were too old and brittle to be of any worth. They discovered another small room being used as a larder. A trio of skinless large animals were hanging from chains.
The next room they discovered a small alcove that contained a table covered in a piece of fine blue velvet. Atop it was a sapphire with six facets on each side and a pair of platinum candle sticks. It appeared to be a shrine to some deity. The archeologist had some knowledge of the various deities worshipped in the realms, but whomever this was he had no idea. The party lamented the lack of their paladin and mage at this time. They usually were useful for knowledge like this. The rouge wasted no more time and grabbed the candlesticks and the sapphire. He tossed them in with their loot. As he did this huge blast of ice cold air came roaring through the room blasting the party. The barbarian saw this as a bad omen, but everyone else just shrugged it off as mountain weather and holes in the ceiling.
They rounded a corner and discovered a large metal door covered in frost. It opened into what was once another large meeting hall. The ceiling was gone and they could see the dull grey sky and frozen mountain looming down upon them. A large snow drift had formed on the far side of the room. Snow and ice hung over the two sides of the room, forming a semi-circular frozen roof. Three frozen bodies of yetis hung near the door. A layer of snow covered them. A few feet from the door stood three seven foot tall blocks of ice and within them were three chests. Right in front of these ice blocks sat two chests a half dozen mammoth tusks and a pile of finely skinned yeti pelts.
The barbarian was nervous, and slowly approached the giant snow drift . He stabbed into it several times, but hit nothing. The room looked safe. The group opened the chests to find copper and silver ingots, a pile of gold and silver coins, a small gold ring and a fine green cloak. The yeti pelts were inspected and within the pile they found a hand axe with a blade made of ice. It was looking to be quite the haul. They then started to chip away at the blocks of ice to retrieve the chests within.
The noise they were making chatting and chipping away at ice covered the sound of leather wings flapping. It was the shadow cast upon the group that stopped their working. The next sound they heard was the deep inhalation of air. Then the roaring blast of frigid icy death.
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