SESSION TWENTY-ONE “Ascent to Kadagar’s Keep”

The night after Billy leaves, Ewald finds himself once again in the dreamrealm domain of Nulcragh, the fiery elemental of the hot springs. This time he is visited by the elemental itself, in the form of a billowy humanoid body of steam, with glowing embers for eyes. In a deep voice, Nulcragh tells Ewald the following.

“I have a message for thee stoneborn. The horned one treads a path on the edge of a great abyss. The only reason he yet breathes is my debt to him and you for slaying the creature that despoiled my domain. I would warn him myself in repayment of this debt but the powers that guard him ward his mind. He is cut from all celestial bonds and become enemy of the Gods. As child of Erod and servant of the great powers of this land it will fall to you to either save him... or destroy him. Tell him if you wish, that I consider this warning payment of my debt. Should he enter my domain again, I will steam the flesh from his bones and cleanse his spirit that it might better escape the dark places it now inhabits.”

With the final words, the dream dissolves in a hiss of steam and Ewald awakens, drenched in sweat.

Around the small fire that morning, while Gruff works on cleaning and preparing the wyvern hide, the group discusses their plans. Tristan has noticed Rory’s illness, and when questioned about it, Rory tells him the cause, relating that while the negative effects of Tashea’s geas are uncomfortable, it doesn’t seem to be getting any worse. Still, they consider whether or not they should first return the time scepter to their dragon mistress before doing anything else.

After some deliberation, and a strong feeling from Ewald that they should go after Kadagar soon, the party decides they will try to destroy the necromancer first. After some thought, Ewald gives Gruff a warning concerning his dark magics, not forcing the issue, but letting the Trulla know that his descent into shadow has been noticed. Gruff, for his part, points out that it’s not where the power comes from, but what you do with it that’s important. The argument doesn’t fly well with most of the party, but they let it go, for now.

Having found enough pony hair from the Hodra riders, Rory is able to conjure up some mounts for the party with his arcane spellwork. Thus provisioned, the group sets off up the Blackback valley, skirting the center and choosing a more difficult, but less obvious path.

The path first rises. Once past the Darkurth cavern entrance, it dips again. On the second day of travel, Rory, who has been scouting ahead, spots a Hodra warrior cutting toward his companions a quarter wheel behind. After first hiding, he then quickly returns to the others, warning them of the visitor in time for the group to hide themselves and their ponies as best they can.

Though they try their best, it’s obvious that the Hodra has seen at least one of them. Probably Ewald in his very shiny suit of magical Durin plate mail. Tristan keeps a bead on the approaching enemy with his bow while Rory prepares a web spell. At about the point that the Hodra notices the others, Tristan lets fly with his arrow and Rory lets fly with his spell. The result being a very dead, very immobilized Hodra. Gathering the warriors crossbow and bolts, and rifling his pockets for his few coins, Tristan then throws the body over his saddle and the party moves out. Tristan’s cloak is now draped over Ewald, to better camouflage the sparkly Durin.

Much later they dump the body over a likely cliff, hoping that the cause of death (should anyone find the body) will be considered an accidental fall. With no sign of pursuit and an uneventful camp that night, they feel they’ve evaded any detection.

Toward the end of the following day they come upon a large herd of ponies in a meadow on the eastern side of the valley. They know from the many smoke plumes in the valley that they are near the Blackback village now. The ponies are being watched over by two older Hodra. Though they feel certain they could make quick work of the herders, they are interested in keeping their presence unknown. The meadow is long and open, with it’s eastern end being walled by difficult terrain.

The plan decided upon includes Gruff summoning his wolf, Fenris, who will scare the ponies off down the meadow, thus allowing the group to ride through undetected. Unfortunately, when Gruff summons Fenris, his one-time pet growls and lunges at the Trulla, grabbing hold of his master’s arm with sharp teeth. Gruff is stunned. In pain and with an eye to his own defense, he lashes out with his new shadow magic, striking Fenris with shadowy tendrils that bat the dog down and make it cry out in pain. He then quickly dispels the beast as the other’s look on in confusion and fear.

The conversation that follows puts Gruff on the defensive once again. The others see this as further proof that Gruff is straying down a dangerous path. Gruff insists that it only means he must choose new creatures to summon, that with the change in his power source, his old ways must adapt.

Having still to cross the meadow, the plan is revised. While Gruff is forbidden by the group from summoning any more creatures for the time being, Ewald instead summons his owl. Then augmented by Rory’s illusion, the owl in the shape of a wyvern does the job originally assigned the wolf, flying out into the meadow and successfully sending the ponies off at high speed. The two herders watch stunned for a moment before giving chase, leaving the party to proceed unhindered.

Having passed the village, their next encounter comes when Rory startles a crippled Hodra carrying water from a stream. The Hodra has but one arm, and by his cries and limping gate, seems to be slow-witted. Nevertheless, he does cry out and fearing discovery Rory webs the poor creature and knocks him on the head, breaking his bucket.

Returning to the others to tell them what happened, they eventually reach the scene to find the Hodra once more up and limping quickly out of sight and around the bend further up the stream. Unsure of what to do, they decide the cripple is likely an outcast and not any kind of immediate threat. Tristan spends a moment repairing the Hodra’s bucket before preparing to continue on. As the group is about to depart, they hear a familiar voice coming from upstream. To everyone’s surprise, their one-time travelling companion, Pede Halfhelm comes around the corner with the Hodra in tow.

After a brief meeting on the trail with the Daagar smith, Pede insists that the group come to his cave where they can talk without the possibility of being spotted. They learn that the Hodra is Pede’s helper, a crippled warrior named Gorik. They also learn that with all the recent Daagar troops in the Blackback village, Pede has decided to spend his time in this isolated cave instead of in the village proper.

It seems that the besides all the Daagar troops, the dark priest, Master Laxxis has made his way to the village as well. At this news Gruff, who is having a hard time not killing the Daagar smith, becomes very interested in the conversation. His fear stems from the fact that Master Laxxis is the very Daagar who owned the Shadow Path Idol before him. Pede goes on to explain that Master Laxxis is desperately searching for something. Also, Kadagar’s lieutenants have been seen in the village. Bloodless undead warriors in fine armor.

When Pede shows them his newest project, a finely forged greatsword meant as a gift for King Gral, ruler of the Blackbacks, Gruff’s avarice nearly overwhelms him. Pede plans on giving the King the weapon in hopes of gaining himself a prominent place in the village, once the Daagar clear out that is.

Instead of murdering the Daagar and taking the sword, Gruff opts to commission Pede to make him his own weapon. He offers one of his dark gems as payment, which Pede immediately recognizes, and rejects. The smith claims that the gem is obviously one of Master Laxxis’ “special” gems and would not be tradeable in the village. With a bit of extra wariness, he asks Gruff for different payment, and is handed Gruff’s share of the Ettin treasure instead.

The party is shown to a small cave further up the stream where they stay the night, relatively certain that Pede won’t betray them to the Hodra. In the morning, Rory purchases a plain but functional bastard sword from Pede. Over an early morning breakfast, Pede lets on that Gorik is actually the son of King Gral, who challenged his father for leadership of the tribe and lost his arm and his wits in the duel. Though this all happened sometime before Pede arrived, the rumor has it that Gorik, like Kaz the Earthwalker, was against the alliance with Kadagar.

As the group sets out once more on their magic ponies, Gorik shuffles forward and hands Tristan a wrapped bundle. When he unwraps the gift, he finds it to be a punching dagger with a bone handle and finely crafted blade.

The parties journey from that point up to the small sapphire lake is uneventful. With every wheel further up the valley, the air becomes thinner and the weather colder. When they reach the lake, they find it perfectly reflects the blue sky and when standing at it’s edge, they can see clear to the bottom. Picking a campsite well out of sight of the lake itself, they await the night where they can watch the spring moon to see which of the many peaks it sets on.

While fishing for their supper, Tristan and Gruff spy a large figure on the other side of the lake. Watching unobserved, they see the creature enter the ice cold waters and disappear beneath the surface. They decide they’ve caught enough fish and return to camp.

Later that night, they spy a small mounted party come up the valley and skirt the far side of the lake, Though they can make out little detail, they can see that at least one or two are outfitted in metal armor that gleams in the moonlight. The party disappears through a gap in the rocks above the lake.

In the morning, after noting during the night the proper peak, the group decides that the mounted party they spied last night must be taking a roundabout trail to the keep. Deciding on a more direct path, they forego the ponies and instead implement a combination of Ewald’s Airwalk spells and Rory’s levitation to head straight toward the peak, moving over terrain otherwise impassible. Though Tristan is far from happy with the route, he toughs it out.

Several times during their approach they spy the small trail most likely taken by those on horseback or foot, but they keep a good distance away from it. When the trail enters a deep, snow packed canyon, the group opts to go over a mountain to avoid it. Coming down the other side they are rewarded with their first glimpse of the keep ruins, some eight or nine wheels to the east.

Kadagar’s fortress sits on the side of a mountain, it’s crumbled walls and jagged spires barely discernible from the stone of the mountainside. Directly below them, a vast and dark chasm encircles the mountain fortress. Nearing the chasm, all can hear the sawing and moaning winds that whistle constantly through it. Ewald has little doubt that such winds will be difficult to push through with his magics. But still the group believes that it is better to stay away from the trail itself, where guardians and watching eyes are more likely to spot them.

They decide to try the approach after dusk, when their midair hike will be less visible. Until then they get what rest they can in the lee of a large boulder, wrapped tight in their cloaks.

When the time comes, Ewald casts an Airwalk spell on himself and Gruff. Rory then casts a levitate on Tristan and himself and they tie off to their companions. Bracing themselves against the rushing, icy winds, they make their way out and over the chasm. As suspected, the winds are enough to slowly push them parallel with the chasm, but they make headway still.

Then, near the center of the great canyon, Rory spots trouble. From the darkness below he sees several swirling masses of ice and snow separate from the canyon walls and rise toward them. Before the snow and ice dissipate, he clearly can see the limbs of what can only be air elementals. Screaming out a warning over the blasting wind the hero’s barely have time to brace themselves before the elementals are upon them....