as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Sunday, Calistril 1

It was unusual to be doing battle so early in the day.  After arguing with the yeti, and then killing a half dozen of them, and dispelling an ice storm … it was still at least two hours before lunch.  Our magic wielders found their magic moderately depleted much earlier in the day than usual, and we’d really made very little progress.  So we decided to spend much of the day resting and, for our magic wielders, recovering spells.

To ensure that we would not be surprised and they could indeed recover their spells, we were extra diligent with the guard around the caravan.  To the rear, we had a stone wall that (we hoped) the wardens would not be able to get over or around.  And then, to the yeti side of the caravan, we had the bridge with the anti-life shell over it.  But we weren’t entirely sure the yeti couldn’t bypass that.

There was a long discussion about the ghost sword we had obtained.  We now had the ability (or at least the opportunity) to banish a possessing spirit.  Should we be trying to defeat the yeti king, or exorcise him?  Sparna agreed to take it up, but as a group we were still undecided on how to proceed the next day.

In the meantime, I tried to find some common ground with the yeti.  I saw one yeti watching from behind a rock, and I wanted to show him we were harmless, so I tried standing with my sword sheathed and my arms open.  That got no reaction.  I told him to come out with open arms and we would welcome him, but of course he did not understand Common.

Shortly, however, three more yeti appeared, also taking cover.

I asked Ivan to cast continual light on a small rock, and I underhanded it towards the yeti.  The yeti looked a little nervous, but didn’t approach it.  “C’mon, pick it up” I yelled but they just looked at the rock.  I conferred with Ivan, and he cast light on a bigger, slightly-smaller-than-head sized rock. The other rock stopped glowing, and I tossed the bigger one.

The yeti disappeared, and then reappeared with an object. One tossed it to us over the chasm – it was the revenant’s head.  Clearly he was not understanding.  Sparna kicked the head into the chasm.

I threw another large glowing stone.  It was ignored.

At this point, Sparna and Ivan talked quietly for a moment and then Sparna turned and faced the yeti.  Ivan mumbled quietly and Sparna suddenly increased in size to that of a small yeti, and Kali, getting into the swing of things, created the image of an ioun stone circling his head.  With a look of anger, Sparna took the head of Katiana (I missed how THAT made it out there!) and in a split second and with a gesture from Ivan, it too was glowing.  Sparna threw the head across the chasm.

The yeti threw the head back.

Ivan cast comprehend languages and began translating for us as Sparna kicked the head into the chasm and stared hostilely at the lead yeti.  The staredown was on.

The yeti did not break gaze as he said, “Come, cowards, and meet king.”

Kali made the ioun stone circle Sparna one last time before it flung itself at the leader.  The leader dodged and called for more yeti, including “the king’s men”.  And soon, 10 or so yeti were crowding the entrance, now some with spears.  They were gesturing and shouting and the leader said, “Come now and be escorted to king for death sentence.”

Clearly this little bit of negotiation was not working, and I was tired of it.  Now that there were distance weapons (spears) on the other side, I was feeling less charitable.  So I drew my bow, nocked an arrow and hit the leader.

He was clearly surprised, but on our side, Ivan was quick to let more arrows fly and they too hit the leader.  In a twisted bit of logic, the leader threw his spear at Sparna (!) and hit him good.  Another spear missed him.  Kali cast an aqueous orb as this strange, distance battle over the chasm continued.  Both Ivan and I hit our targets again, and the leader looked to be bleeding pretty good.

After a bit of confusion the horde of yeti hastily retreated to less open positions, and no clear target presented itself anymore.  Ivan defiantly threw an obscene gesture that, I think, transcends spoken word.  Qatana healed Sparna as both Ivan and I hit with arrows one last time before the yeti disappeared entirely.

Diplomacy is harder than it looks.

(around lunch)

We heard a noise from the rear of the caravan.  Qatana flew high enough to see over the stone wall she had erected, and saw more of the headless zombies mindlessly trying to walk through the wall.  While they appeared to be in no danger of reaching us, Qatana nevertheless lit them on fire with oil until they stopped twitching their charred limbs.

That night, after dinner, Kali proposed a startling plan: she would go invisible, and fly into the throne room and see if there was evidence that the king was an oni, or evidence that the king was Katiana’s ghost.  Although it was of general consensus that we needed to deal with the yetis in order to make progress, there had been absolutely no consensus on how best to do that.  I was convinced that if we could limit the yeti to one or two at a time we could methodically slice through them.  Kali, and I think one or two others, were opposed to the needless killing of the yeti.  Frankly, I was too if I could be shown it was really needless but I saw no other way.  Sparna, bearer of the ghost sword, was willing to plunge the sword into the king if we had evidence that he was possessed instead of being a polymorphed oni or even just an angry yeti leader … but he could do much more damage with his usual weapons if there was no need to exorcise a spirit and was wary of going in under-armed.

Kali elaborated on her plan. With detect magic running, she should be able to make that determination.  We would advance to a point nearby and she could use a Message spell to communicate what she learned back to us.  We would then adjust our strategy appropriately.  It was a plan that put Kali at great risk, but it also gave us a possibility of resolving the situation without annihilating the yeti.  If the king could be made our friend, a simple command from him would save us many battles.  And even if I thought it possible to destroy all the yeti, I was by no means certain that it would not come at the cost of the lives of some of our party.

So while I believe the group was still divided on what the yeti king actually was, we did come to the agreement that Kali’s plan gave us the best chance of success.  Normally, the well-armed and buff Radella would be our choice for spy, but this mission required more magic than mere silence.

Moonday, Calistril 2

It was around 7:15am, I think, when I heard Sparna yell something across the chasm and – did I hear right? – something in the language of the yeti?  Later, he told me he’d spent much of his watch learning and practicing the language.  Astonishing.  I later asked Suishen if he could learn new languages, and with typical disdain, he responded that language was only useful in slowing down conversation and the world would be better if everyone was telepathic.  I took that as a no.

We prepared for our foray.  In addition to all the spells Kali would need, we used resist cold (I used protection from cold, from Suishen) and variants of fly or airwalk and dark vision. Kali added magic circle; if she was right and Katiana’s ghost was involved, that ward might give a possessed creature another opportunity to shake it off.

We crossed the chasm and noted there were no yeti present.  Kali added comprehend languages to her spells and took off. We needed to give her 30-60 seconds to get there first and communicate back to us.  I told Suishen to turn the flame on.

We quickly reached the other anti-life shell, and two yeti – I think at least one was one we’d hit yesterday – silently glowered at us from the other side.  With the assistance of Ivan, I took another glowing rock and tossed it over to them.  They were unimpressed. Apparently somebody had updated them on the fact that not everything glowed was fire.  Sparna announced, “Let us pass, and will spare your lives”.

Surprisingly, the yeti replied, “Ok”.  And they each stood off to one side.  This soooo smelled like a trap, but this was the plan.  We flew or walked over the anti-life sphere, as appropriate, and proceeded to the throne room.  Although there were many yeti there – probably more than a dozen – they just stood and stared at us. Qatana announced there was a magical aura over the whole room.

And no king.  Sparna pointed this out: “Where is your king???”  Qatana cast invisibility purge – cleverly missing Kali – as one of the yeti moved down off a ledge and announced, “King? You want king?  ATTACK!”  And the battle we’d hoped to avoid began – including a lightning bolt directed at me.  Wait, lightning??

The mayhem had barely begun when another yeti emerged from a stone wall. Really.  Judging from the others’ reactions that had to be the king.  Kali, who saw the lightning and already knew what the king looked like from previous scrying, realized this really might be Katiana and that this was her chance. Kali flew over the king and put him within the influence of her magic circle.  It had some of the desired effect, as the king cried out, “Stop fighting! Evil spirit … help me defeat evil spirit!”

The yeti stopped, but were very uncertain.

Sparna stepped up and explained before he swung that he must hit the king with the magic sword to expel the spirit.  The king agreed, as Kali reached down and applied a magic circle directly to the king.

The sword hit, but the king was still fighting possession and Katiana was still shooting lightning.

Sparna hit again and this time, Katiana’s ghost emerged from the king, cackling as though it was all her idea.  With her flying, and incorporeal, only we could defeat this enemy now.  There was dispel magic, and there were magic missiles, and there were force beings, and there was, of course, Suishen and flames and shrieking (from Katiana).  She summoned a lightning elemental, but just as quickly Ivan made it go back.  It was Radella that had the killing blow – or at least so we believe since it seems we killed Katiana once before – and the room was finally silent for a bit.

Now the real diplomacy began, as praise was heaped on each party, and gifts exchanged: the king gave us the ioun stone, and we gave him a magic breastplate. Backs were slapped, hands were shaken, and promises were made.  We told the king that the revenant was dead and he was pleased.  We told him the shadows were gone and he was pleased.

[445] ioun stone of Alertness (dark blue)

The king spoke Common, thankfully, but that also meant I got to hear the exchange between the king and Qatana about how Pookie was responsible for his being freed.  It’s a tortuous story, but the next party coming through the caverns will likely find yeti-art resembling a warrior mouse-yeti.  And Qatana will be insufferable for a week.

The King, whose name was Bormurg, also, of course, gave us free passage through his realm, but commented that only a few minutes away the road ended in a blank wall.  He was confident his powerful new friends would figure out how to pass through the wall however.

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Starday, Abadius 31

Everyone was affected by Bevelek’s death, but we also realized that we were not yet safe. We asked ourselves (and answered, mostly from Kali) what we may know about yeti.

1) They can climb.
2) What we’ve seen so far is normal behavior.
3) They are well-adapted to the cold; in fact, they radiate cold themselves.
4) They emit a fear effect of some sort which can cause one to hesitate for a period of time.
5) They have no trouble seeing in the dark.
6) They have no particular weakness, except maybe fire.
7) They may have a language, called aklo?

So while the yetis could not cross the anti-life shell on the bridge, they were good climbers and might have another way to reach us. Heaven knows we’ve made some assumptions before that we were wrong about. So we spent more time than usual setting up our watch to make sure any attack would be promptly noticed, and notice quickly given.

Around 11pm, Qatana saw a yeti on top of the shelter that Kali had conjured up, but it just sat there and watched us as she watched it.

 

Sunday, Calistril 1

Around 3am, Nehali flew up and looked behind the shelter. There was nothing there.

Around 5am, everyone was rested and up. Qatana used stone shape to create a ten foot high wall behind us – hopefully that will stop the headless miscreants from coming up behind us again.

It was around 6:20am when Suishen gave me airwalk, and the others used their various methods to cross the chasm into the necropolis. There were no yeti waiting for us on the other side.

We carefully made our way to the ornate door in the “tree” room. The revenant’s body still lay silent on the ground where it fell the last time we killed it. Qatana cast hide from undead on us, and Ivan did a hand-plant to his forehead.

“Just a minute,” he said, and ran off back in the direction of the caravan. He returned shortly, explaining he’d just cast the same on the folks in the caravan.

Radella, inspecting the door for traps, immediately noted that the door was gilded, or mostly so. It was obvious that some of the gild had been scraped off, though. Ivan did a detect poison on the door, and the two of them concluded that the door had once been both locked and trapped, but no longer was either. The door opened towards us, and bore a demonic, tusked skull face on the door.

Inside there was a flickering firelight illuminating the room and corridor. A large shadow began to materialize; more undead. It approached Radella and took a swipe, noticeably weakening her. I had Suishen turn on its flame. But then from behind us came a deafening scream. The revenant arose, and made a beeline to the shadow. He started to hack at the shadow, but his efforts seemed ineffectual.

“Force weapons” yelled somebody. Sparna called upon his spiritual ally, but it missed. I had no such force option but held Suishen at ready as I looked for an opening. A lantern archon appeared, courtesy of Kali, but also missed the shadow. Ivan hit it with some arrows, but the damage looked small. Qatana’s spiritual ally thumped the shadow pretty good; then the shadow made a point of giving me an opening by approaching me and taking a swipe. I felt a bit weaker but swung hard with Suishen. The sword and the flame hit solidly and the shadow evaporated in fading black wisps.

At the same time, the revenant dropped to the ground and lay motionless, its reason for life gone.

We paused a second before Qatana, of course, stepped toward the body, and I swear I heard her say “third time’s the charm!” For the first time, she successfully picked up

[434] rapier +1
[435] cloak of elvenkind
[436] goggles of minute seeing
[437] MW thieves tools
47 platinum pieces
a backpack
[438] 200-300gp worth of scraped gold leaf

This appeared to be another “converted” room. There were red demonic faces on the walls; certainly not a Desna design. The center of the room was dark, but a skeleton with a mask was lying on a blue stone there. Here there was

[439] crystal lamp with a continual flame
[440] ghost armor +1 (breast plate)
– can cast death watch 3/day
– automatic protect from evil 1/day when attacked by undead
[441] ghost touch sword with nine rings +1
– use 1 ring – undead bane for 1 min
– use 2 rings – attempt to banish a possessing spirit (DC17)
– use 3 rings – destroy an undead creature
sword recharges at 1 ring/wk
[442] 8 matching bracelets
[443] 8 matching rings
[444] mask, gold w/jade eyes

Outside, in the “tree” room, Ivan and I both used our airwalk to walk up to the ceiling and see why it seemed to sparkle with starlight. Turns out it was just reflective flakes in the rock.

It was 8am now, and we had decided to head in to the yeti. I asked Suishen to give me protection from cold.

We passed through the catacombs and continued north. I could see ahead there were two yeti with their hands held palm out towards us. Clearly they understood the symbol for Stop 🙂

Kali, at this point, cast a special spell that would allow her to create and then use a special language with the yeti; at least that’s what I think she said. Qatana was included in the magic, and they did indeed seem to have some sort of conversation with the yeti. Kali told us that the King had said we were not to pass. He foretold one or two moons ago that strangers in wagons would appear and now here we were. In fact, we must be killed, also per order of the King. The King is very smart, and has a glowing rock flying around his head. We were assured, however, that we would be killed honorably.

During this conversation, many in our group received resist cold. I wonder what may them so nervous …

It was pretty clear that talking was not going to solve this problem. In fact, the conversation suggested a party may have already been dispatched to “greet” us. Reluctantly we retreated to the “tree” room again. Kali used a magical shelter to block one entrance to the room and we waited. It wasn’t too long before, sure enough, yeti started to appear.

During the course of the battle, several of us were momentarily struck by fear, but never enough at once that there wasn’t at least one fighter available to defend us. Additionally, Qatana cast both confusion and aura of madness at one point, and this caused the yetis to start attacking each other. Ivan created a wall of fire that made them very uncomfortable. I think all the fighters eventually got a killing blow on a yeti, and even one of the yetis got a killing blow on a yeti 🙂

But then it got weird. As the last yetis ran off, injured, Kali ran after them! Qatana threw a look of, sure, why not? and ran after her too! I looked at Sparna, and he looked at me and we shared a look that said, “I suppose we need to go protect them.” As we approached, a giant sleet storm enveloped them both. We each heaved a sigh and prepared to move in when, just as quickly, it disappeared: we found out later that Qatana had successfully dispelled it.

Now Kali created 4 smallish fire elementals and sent them into the yeti passages. What? This seemed like a good time to retreat, having driven them off, but it seemed we were moving forward with an attack. Yet Kali seemed to be telling us to fall back. Having intentionally introduced confusion, were we not now going to attack? Sparna and I were ready to move forward and make the most of this advantage, but moving forward, we found nothing to fight. If we continued to move farther, we would be even more separated and nothing good comes from that.

“Hear anything?” I said softly to Sparna. He shook his head no.

Confused, we headed back, and then the group as a whole moved back to the caravan to regain spells and decide on a strategy.

Starday, Abadius 31

The guard towers were not empty.

I’m not sure why a necropolis needs guards anyway – aren’t dead and undead people enough of a reason to steer clear? – but these headless wonders seemed to be everywhere.  The biggest problem in dispatching them is that they look so … startling, that it causes people to freeze up sometimes.  This has happened to myself, and Sparna, and others.  While you’re struggling to refocus, they get free attacks on you.  And their attacks are not just physical damage – they do something deeper.  At some level, they just make you feel weaker, like they’re also draining life force yomehow.  And every one of them can do this startle thing from a distance.  They are most easily handled  one at a time; with a group it’s far too likely that at least one of them will startle you.

And so we’ve developed the strategy of separating them with walls of fire. The wall not only visibly blocks them and their startle ability, but also does them damage. Ivan is also great at picking them off with arrows.

So as they started to come out of the guard towers, up went the usual wall of fire.  I got a swing at him as one walked past me, but then without even turning, he startled myself and Kali.  While we stood stock still and gathered our wits, Kali, Sparna, and I watched Radella and Qatana destroy those that walked through the fire.  When I finally recovered, most of the headless were dead, and Radella got the last one before I could move closer to take a swing. Disappointing.

Qatana ran into a guard tower without backup, per usual, to check it out.  I quickly followed her, and we found that inside the tower was a room that looked to have alcoves suitable for bodies.  A door at the far end led to a more ornate room with room for a few more bodies.  All looked like they’d been disturbed, but whether by grave robbers or these headless creatures themselves I couldn’t tell.  There were pictures of the dead attacking the living which, given the history of this place, I have to believe were a late renovation.

Exiting the guard towers, Qatana next went to the bridge. There were runes on the supports of the bridge, that seemed to translate to “Here the dead walk. Trouble them not and do not bar their path.”  And there was a whole pile of magic surrounding the bridge, according to our staff who could see magic.  Qatana tried crossing the bridge and was stopped – we surmise the abjuration magic we detected is an anti-life field.  We were not able to dispel it, so for now we decided to go around it.

Suishen gave me air walk, and others used either air walk or fly to cross the bridge. Radella received darkvision since she was the most adept at finding traps and would be near the front.  We judged that the caravans would be safe since there could be nothing behind us, and everything in front of us had just been killed.

Ahead lay a purple glow, and as we approached we found that it came from a pool of water surrounding a tree like pillar.  The ceiling looked like a night sky, with tiny lights resembling stars.  The pool seemed deeper than we could see, and at the end farthest from us, on the ground there was a corpse.

“Undead” warned Ivan briefly.

Qatana reached down to take its sword, and it came to life. Or at least, it attacked.  It had glowing red eyes, which is always a good clue to identifying enemies.

We surrounded it easily, but at the same moment, a creature entered the room to the north – looked to be a yeti, according to Sparna.  Now there were issues on two fronts.  Kali summoned (ironically) a dire ape, and the ape and Sparna battled the yeti while the rest of us battled the revenant.  I managed to put a final blow onto the revenant and was going to turn my attention to the yeti, except Qatana again reached for the sword.  And it sprang to life again and we had two enemies again.  The revenant actually got ahold of Qatana at one point and started to squeeze her, but it was Radella this time who brought it down and saved Qatana.  Meanwhile Ivan managed to nail the yeti with some well shot arrows and it too fell.

There was healing all around and then we noticed something flitting about on the tree/pillar.  Qatana stepped to the water’s edge, and it came over and touched her. She visibly withered, and I rushed over to attack it and with a particular adept hit, Suishen momentarily created an even bigger burst of flame – perfect timing!  But our blows didn’t seem to damage it as much as I might have thought they would.

We quickly realized that weapons of force – magic missiles, spiritual allies, that sort of thing – was our best bet.  But at about the same moment it got through my defenses and touched me as well … and, just like Qatana, I suddenly felt weaker, like I’d lost a step.  I backed off, and the group slowly attacked them (there were 3 altogether) by force and distance weapons.

And just as we were getting the upper hand, two more yetis appeared near the corpse of the other yeti.  Ivan threw up a wall of fire, and it looked like the battle would never end when Kali paused with a distant look on her face and yelled, “The caravan! The caravan is under attack!” She cast haste on us all and we all hurried back as fast as we could. For Ivan and me, with airwalk still in effect, that was as fast as I could run. Others required another application of a fly spell.

The sounds of battle led us to the rear of the caravan, where we found Ameiko, Sandru, and Shalelu grimly holding back more of the headless wonders.  Ivan immediately threw up the ever-ready wall of fire to put some space between the undead and the caravan.  I immediately moved to protect Ameiko, who threw me a quick look like, “took your time”.  I asked Suishen for protection from cold, on a hunch, while we waited for the undead to try to come through the wall of fire.  Others began to arrive, and Sparna used his flight to stay above the undead while still being beyond the range of their startle ability.  Radella was able to engage them and start slashing at them.  I think she laid the killing blow on all three.

I had thought we were lucky to have gotten back to help before any of our party was seriously injured.  Ameiko, of course, was my first concern, but Sandru seemed stricken by grief.  I asked if he were seriously injured, and he gaped at me momentarily before gesturing to the ground beside one of the wagons.

There lay Bevelek.  Dead.

We’ve been very occupied with how this quest has affected us and our lives. We are scions now, and heir to the throne after Ameiko.  We have been learning new skills and spells, and acquiring new magic items, and to some extent enriching ourselves, in the name of increasing our chances of success, but because he’s a driver and not a swordsman or a woodsman or a cleric or a wizard, we have not done the same with all of our companions.  The idea was that they would never face danger, but when danger came anyway, he grabbed a sword and did the best he could.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he was startled by the headless undead and made easy prey by his hesitation.

A quick discussion with Qatana, Kali, and others revealed they felt similarly.  I think we have a consensus that if we can, we will resurrect him.  A gentle repose applied now will allow us to acquire the components necessary for that spell … which may take some time.  But he is important to our journey and our goals too.

It’s the right thing to do.

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Toilday, 15 Abadius

Kali, ever the accountant of our group, quietly told each of us that as a result of selling acquired but unneeded equipment, we were each 9616.43 copper pieces richer.

That evening, as I sat listening, somewhat contentedly, to the rest of the group talk about various things, I heard/felt/sensed a clearing of a throat.  Internally, I rolled my eyes, because I knew what this meant.  There was no clearing, and really, there was no throat.  And only I could hear it.  But this is the way it began every time:  the fabled sword Suishen was about to bless me with some pearl of his wisdom.

Since I’ve become his human caretaker, I’ve come to recognize his method of introducing himself.  There is a noticeable lessening of outside noise, as if I’d just lightly covered my ears.  Then there is a sound which, for all the world, sounds like a briefly clearing throat, followed by that voice that seems to always have a tinge of superiority somehow infused in it. “You know,” it may say, “you’d get more power from your swing if you drew your arm back further.”  Or “Not bad, for a standard-bearer with no formal training.”  Or “It’s hard to believe that of all the swordsmen in the world, I chanced upon one that wields a sword much like a halfling housewife might wield a flyswatter, but with half the skill and a quarter of the charisma.”

Sometimes I have a clever response, and sometimes I don’t, but it always ends with my realizing my companions are staring at me, because I’ve stopped what I was doing, sometimes in mid-sentence, and my eyes have taken on an unfocused gaze almost as though I was scanning a distant horizon.  It is sufficient at this point for me to shake my head lightly, grimace, and mutter “Suishen” and my friends nod knowledgably but look away, as if they’ve been witness to something they’d rather not, and clear their throats, quickly resuming the conversation with “soooooo, anyways …”.

And this time, my face must have looked different; perhaps my eyebrows raised in surprise. Because this time, for the first time I can remember, Suishen said nothing critical.  He said, slowly, “I am impressed with your battle with the oni.”  He paused. “I feel compelled to tell you I have more capability to assist you than I have previously revealed.  Should you find it useful, three times a day I can grant you protection from energy, and additionally, on exceptional hits, I can create a burst of flame that will do additional damage. While you need ask for the first, the second is granted unconditionally.”

I realized my companions were staring at me at the same moment that I realized my jaw had dropped perceptibly.  “Suishen?” Qatana asked consolingly.  I nodded my head slightly, almost as if to break a trance. “Uh, um, yes,” I replied. “But he just revealed to me he has more power than he’d previously let on.”  Qatana looked mildly interested. “Oh?”

“He, uh, he …” I said, still a little stunned.

And then the old Suishen echoed in my head: “Quit stammering like an imbecile. You’re about as comprehensible as an ogre with a mouthful of tree sap.”

I shook my head again and glared at … at a mental vision of me beating Suishen against a rock.  And Qatana said, “sooooooo, anyways …”

Sunday, Abadius 20

We have reached Jaagiin, with no additional notable events – notable in itself.

Jaagiin is the “capital” of the loose confederations of tribes which live on and near the high ice.  Perhaps because of the greater mix of heritage and culture, Ulf says they are more welcoming of outsiders here than some of the previous places we have stopped.  Having arrived after midday, we decided to stay the remainder of this day plus one more, which should give us adequate opportunity to reprovision, rest a bit, and perhaps pick up some more news of what lay ahead on our path.  To that end, Ameiko announced she would go shopping, looking directly at me. I sighed and announced I would do the same. In the end, the two of us plus Shalelu and Qatana went into town.

We heard a number of things both in conversations we had and in conversations we passed near to, but the most interesting things were that a white dragon had been killed over in Iqaliat (“imagine that!”) and that storms had been stronger than usual this winter (“do tell!”) and that storms in Altan Zuud, the route we intended to take, seemed to be getting worse even as the winter and storms started to ebb everywhere else (“wait, what?”).

That evening, Ameiko again looked me in the eye and announced she wanted to take her lute and visit all the pubs in town.  I swear, that woman .. but of course I went along. Keeping her safe is what I do these days.  Fortunately I am not alone in this … the entire party spontaneously decided to do the same.

And nothing happened.  Maybe we overthink this.

Oathday, Abadius 24

We have been out of Jaagiin now for three days, and it’s been uneventful.  Well, the weather has been formidable, but after all the time we spent on the high ice it’s barely noteworthy.

We saw a cabin, today, with (apparently) some trappers in it. They came out and waved, but we waved back and kept going.  We may have to weather a storm or two while in the pass so we don’t really have any time to spare.

Fireday, Abadius 25

Today it was a pile of frozen, and arguably mutilated, animal corpses that we came across.  Is this connected to the trappers?

Sunday, Abadius 27

We are now in the shadow of the mountains surrounding the pass. The storm has not abated; if anything it’s gotten worse since we approached.  Aside from the dark clouds and fierce winds, there is thunder echoing from the waves of blowing snow. Worse, Kali has heard the same mocking laugh we heard on the high ice at Dead Man’s Dome. I’m 90% certain this is not a natural storm, but I’m not sure what to do about it.

We will hope for better weather tomorrow.

Moonday, Abadius 28

It is not better. We can now hear rockfalls in the distance.  It’s not just the weather and the cold anymore; now there are physical dangers that would be difficult to defend against.  We discussed our options, but according to Ulf and Sandru, there really aren’t any.  This pass is the way through the mountains, and it’s far too dangerous to attempt to negotiate it. Going around the mountains is hundreds if not a thousand miles out of the way, and would take months – and even then we’d have to try to rejoin the main path at some point by forging our own path through the mountains and surrounding highlands.  We are stymied.

(later)
Kali, with Koya’s guidance, did a harrowing.  We were hoping the gods might give us a clue, but they mock us as much as the wind.

Toilday, Abadius 29

The cards did not give us any clue, but Koya claims that in her dreams, the gods did provide one after all.   She says the cards made her remember a story about how a traveller once took a path that went through the mountains (literally, as in a tunnel or cave). Desna is sometimes known as the Queen of the North, and legend has it that the tunnel was created so that faithful from the south could make the trek to the north – Desna – in relative safety.

Supposedly it is marked on the north side by two statues of Desna. No telling how large or obvious these statues may be, so I hope they are not buried under snow and only visible in summer.

Kali sent Nehali out to search; she can do it faster than any of us could.  Marching to the west, we began to parallel the mountain range.

Behind us, it almost seems that the storm has erupted from the pass, and is now following us.

(later)
Nehali did find a statue, and it was only about 5 miles away.  We can hear the wind building behind us, and the skies are darkening. This is no natural storm; it now pursues us.

But the statue did mark the entrance to a tunnel into the mountain.  A second statue, it appears, used to stand here but has fallen over and pieces lie broken on the ground.  The tunnel is large enough to accommodate our wagons, if we string them out single file.  Glancing at the sky, we have little choice.  The storm is perhaps ten miles away and is inexplicably moving west towards us.  We enter the tunnel, and shortly after we hear the storm howling furiously and helplessly outside the tunnel entrance.

However, the legend foretold there would be statues praising Desna in the tunnel, and while there were statues, these were no longer focused on Desna. It would seem they had been mutilated by followers of Fumioshi, and now each stately figure bore the visage of a red, demonic face.

We did not make it far into the tunnel before we decided to stop for the night. But the mutilated statues told us we would definitely want guards for the evening. And were those footprints in the dust fresh, or did the lack of wind here in the cave allow old things to look new?

Fireday, Abadius 30

Last night, or this morning, to be perfectly accurate, as we feared, we were attacked.

Four shambling, headless figures headed for our camp, and Sparna raised the alarm. I awoke, and ran to join him.

While I was ready to fight and defend, something about the creatures froze me in my tracks.  We had no idea of what these creatures may be capable, and there was only the two of us.  The rest would be coming, of course, but these things were evil, I could sense it. They might be capable of horrific acts.  Should I move forward, or drop back to protect Ameiko? What if I failed in my mission to protect her?

And while I considered this, my legs unthinkingly locked into place.  Fire erupted around the figures and it appeared to affect each of them differently. Some tried to escape. Some plowed through. Some simply stood still and started smoldering.

It wasn’t until the last one was a smoldering corpse (instead of just a corpse) that I found myself free to move and realized I had been locked in place the entire time. Sparna came to the same realization at about the same time, and we glanced at each other guiltily.

At least, I suppose, we physically blocked their advancement.

Travelling this day, and being more interested in our surroundings, we did see many footprints around.  It would not be unexpected to have more visitors.

Starday, Abadius 31

We are standing at the entrance to what appears to be an underground city.  Koya grimly tells us that the legend did speak of a necropolis where the dead could rest before finishing their journey to Desna. Fantastic. A whole city of shambling headless figures.  But it lies directly in our path, and it’s not like we can skirt it.  We’ll just have to be smart about it.

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Sunday, 6 Abadius

The undead armies of Katiana were truly defeated, and the legend of the Dead Man had grown. Despite the positive outcome of all that, we were in a hurry to put some distance behind us. We are close to both coming off the high ice, and to seeing daylight return as a regular and lengthy occurrence, and those possibilities have made us eager to move forward.

2 days ago, we determined we needed to magically complete the healing of Vancour. Waiting for nature to fix it was taking too long, and we needed our party, our passengers, and our staff all to be in good shape. Coming off the ice, we rather expected to find agents of the Five Storms to again try to thwart, mislead, or kill us; it was to our advantage to be as rested and healthy as possible, under the circumstances.

And today we saw the first signs of life in a while. There was a cabin, not far off the trail, with smoke curling from its chimney. I’d have as soon moved on – after all, our strategy has been to try not to call attention to ourselves – but Qatana was insistent on dropping in for a visit, and nobody argued with her.

Although he was one of the first to the door, Sparna later insisted it was my day to watch her, but I don’t think I’ve been tracking that closely enough. Seems like it’s always my day to watch her.

Anyway, the resident there surprised us a bit by responding to our knocking by emerging from the bottom half of a split, 4 hinged door. He was short in stature, not unlike Sparna but yet very unlike Sparna. Then I realized: Gods we’ve been away from civilization a long time. He was a halfling! and although it struck me as strange to find him here, upon reflection it was strange to find anybody at all living in the wilderness. Not that we were that far from town, but who would choose the solitude over …

Oh wait. Boy that felt weird. Mr I-don’t-fit-in-with-the-elves wondering why solitude is a blessing. I guess these days I’ve formed something of a camaraderie with, well, with the whole caravan. This is a group I feel comfortable with, and I would risk my life to rescue any of them. They each bring something different to the table, and yet I feel a bond with each.

Shalelu – I thought I knew her, but I guess I knew a side of her that is different from her “adventurer” side. She was something of a mentor before, but I see she is much more rounded than that. And it seems odd, but I daresay that the student is close to surpassing the teacher in a few ways. Odder still, she seems happy to have that happen.

Ameiko – the heir, of course, though nobody dare say that out loud. Thanks to Suishen I’ve come to know her much better than I did, say, a year ago. Not because it told me anything; heaven forbid it actually be that useful. But because of the role that possessing it has forced upon me – “Guardian of the Heir to the Throne” – Ameiko and I have been forced to have some serious talks about how we interact with each other and what our duties and responsibilities are. In that sense, I almost know her better than I know Shalelu now, and while I struggle to keep her out of harm’s way, I’m impressed with her battle skills, even after their being unused for a number of years.

But the halfling – right. Kobi is his name, and he is a guide like Ulf. There seems to be a friendly rivalry between them, and Kobi mentioned several times that were it up to him, he would not have recommended the ice in the winter. He said there were mostly humans/halflings/elves in town. We offered him a bit of lunch by way of friendly thanks, and being a halfling he politely accepted.

Wealday, 9 Abadius

It was the middle of the day when we reached Ul Angorn. Sandru informed us in a low voice that we should plan on staying overnight; while provisioning and minor repairs might be something we could accomplish in an afternoon, his crew badly needed a ‘shore leave’.

And so we found ourselves pulled to The Frozen Spike, the only place to obtain food and drink in the small town.

As expected, talk eventually turned to why we were here, now, at the worst time of year. The cover story we’d agreed upon was that Koya, our family matriarch, was dying, and wanted to see Tien Sha before she passed. It explained an urgency that otherwise transcended common sense. It seemed to make Koya vaguely uncomfortable as strangers offered their condolences and spoke to her in the same ginger manner one carries an heirloom teapot – and I’m sorry to say her discomfort played beautifully.

Stories flowed freely – the waitress confided that just over a week ago, a party of 12 lost half its membership in a winter storm. Last season, another local patron offered, there was a party attacked by a dragon. We had to bite our tongues to avoid saying, “yes, oh, I wonder if that was the one we killed?” Low key, little attention. Low key, little attention.

And then Ameiko, of all people, suggests maybe she could play a little music. A little concerned, I offered to sing with her, so that I could keep close with her even on stage. Normally that would have been passable although nowhere near virtuoso, except the cold air seemed to have affected my voice and what came out was startling even by my standards. Ameiko managed to look simultaneously amused and annoyed at my effort, while she played some very nice music. The pub gradually filled over the next half hour or so and, presumably, word spread. I gave up on the singing but did sit on the edge of the stage with her, keeping time and surveying the crowd.

She ended her piece to universal applause. I noticed during her piece that I was not the only concerned one; Qatana kept close to her as she returned to the table, and I’d noticed Ivan had slipped outside, probably to pre-filter any new patrons. Kali must have gone out there too, while Radella was inside but looking inconspicuous.

A man strode over to Ameiko and complimented her on her piece. She thanked him, and he said, “I play a bit myself, and I have a new piece I’ve been working on. I’d love for you to help critique it. I’ve got it at home.”

And I did a theatrical doubletake when Ameiko said, “I’d like that.”

What? She agreed?? As protector at the very least I’d be going along to observe. Then I caught Qatana’s eyes, which had gone beyond concern. Did she know something more? Her eyes cleared for a second, she mumbled a few words, and the stranger stopped speaking in mid sentence. I realized she must have cast Hold Person on him.

Ameiko was livid. ‘I can go where I want and I do NOT require a chaperone,” she insisted. I moved to put myself between the stranger and Ameiko, saying, “We should discuss this elsewhere.” And then things went quickly from awkward to dangerous.

Ivan burst in from outside. “She’s been charmed!” he cried. I drew Suishen. Radella appeared behind the man and softly said, “you move, you die” while swiftly disarming him. The man shook his head imperceptibly as he apparently broke the Hold, and suddenly roared as he became a purple ogre. Patrons began to scatter, tripping over each other in their eagerness to avoid adventure.

Ameiko looked uncertain, and then drew her own rapier. Radella made good on her threat and cut up the oni substantially. It looked startled and tried to go to gaseous form, but Ivan dispelled it. It was, ironically, Ameiko who dealt the killing blow to the oni, and when I reminded her in a solemn low voice that she should let her protector do that sort of thing, she threw me a hard look.

A little more magic helped mend the broken chairs and clean up the blood, and one more short concert by Ameiko helped soothe the crowd. I gave the oni’s ogre-sized great sword to the proprietor as a memento (“here’s a frozen spike for ya!”). But then the night was over, and while 20 or 30 people had a story that would likely grow in the telling, it was clearly time for us to go. We took the body, because of course we were going to Speak with Dead in the morning and after all, after a bar brawl where you skewer your 8 ft competitor, and splatter blood upon all within 10 feet, it’s only good manners to take the body with you.

Oathday, 10 Abadius

We of course invoked Speak with Dead, and asked four questions. This one was less evasive then some of our previous interviewees:

Who were you working for? The Five Winds
How did you find out we were here? Was waiting to see if you’d come
How did you get here? Travelled by magic
Did you tell others we were here? Yes

There are still a few repairs to make to the wagon, so we will stay another day.

Toilday, 15 Abadius

We were attacked today by two huge (wagon-sized) spiders from either side of the trail. I put myself between Ameiko and the nearest spider and she did not complain. Their bite was extremely venomous, Sparna verified, and even I found out they had body hairs that could be thrown like little darts and cause one to be sickened and unable to defend oneself.

We did eventually defeat them, though. Sparna was gravel injured by the venom, and while the venom did not get to me directly, the hairs sickened me and hampered my efforts to protect Ameiko. I provided, at best, a physical barrier rather than a credible threat.

Starday, 22 Kuthona

We had decided to do the almist-customary-now speak with dead with Katiana, but somewhat to my surprise, this time Qatana wanted the whole body. I thought we only needed the head?  Certainly we’ve done that in the past, but she said something about “it works better if you have more of the body”.

Well it also works better if you don’t kill the body (you’re not limited to four questions!), but I’m not really recommending that as a strategy. I may be half elven with a magical heritage, but sometimes I just don’t understand how these spellcasters work.  So, okay, we’ve got a whole-but-grievously-wounded body for tomorrow. We’ll see if this improves the quality of the answers.

Sunday, 23 Kuthona

Before we set off in the morning, Qatana spoke with Katiana. I was not impressed with the quality of the answers.  I paraphrase here:

Q: Who were the others you were working with?
A: Fell creatures of the frozen north who are allied
against you and your cause!  they may yet thwart you!

Q: What was the purpose of the storms?
A: To further the glory of the lord Sithud! You will feel
his wrath and die at his hands and he will serve death to
you on a putrid platter with a side of fell broccoli.

Q: Who else is assisting Sithud?
A: My underlings, the fell creatures of the frozen north
who are allied against you and your cause!  They will
defeat you and you will join their ranks as the frozen
ice becomes your new home and … and you bow down before
the great Lord Sithud as he, ah, as he serves you death on
a fell platter of MASTER construction with a side of, uh,
moldy yams. Frozen moldy yams. Of death. But which may
once have been candied, but their being of death it
really matters not. Ha ha-ha-ha!

Q: Are you working with the oni of the 5 storms?
A: I serve the great Lord Sithud whose legions of foul
creatures, a subset of which also serve me although
of course his orders would supercede mine should he
give them any, which he doesn’t, so it’s irrelevant,
the legions of which shall oppose you at every step,
or rather every third step because fell creatures
lose a step or two when they originally fell, but
not so much that they fall very far behind, for they
are tireless, and, uh, right.  Who will oppose you – I
mean do ALREADY oppose you with great … opposition
and will defeat you in battle – no, it will be no battle
at all when you fall before the frozen but plodding
armies of … wait, curse Common, I don’t think that’s
the right word .. frozen but STEADFAST, that’s it,
frozen but STEADFAST armies of Sithud that shall –

and at that point the head stopped talking and Qatana informed us the spell had run its course.

Or at least, that’s what I remember. I didn’t have a pen ready so I may not have captured it word for word.  Overall, having the whole body there seemed to mean she spoke more but said less.  Not sure if it  was really worth the trouble. I guess we did learn we may want to be more vigilant.

Ulf told us that our best route out of the ice now would be by way of Dead Man’s Dome, and being a fantastic shill I immediately said, “Dead Man’s Dome?  Why is it called that?” and Ulf managed to look ominous, sinister, and mysterious even though it was the brightest darkness of the day, and said, “aye, there’s a story there, but it needs wait for dinner” because Ulf realized, of course, that the dancing shadows and captive audience provided by the evening fire would be needed to properly tell this story.

In the evening, as our relatively small fire shone brightly across the miles of flat unbroken ice, he told us a tale of a tower that, over two hundred years ago, was used to guarantee safe passage between the ice and the lands beyond.  The area was known to be home to not just fell beasts but disagreeable giants and others.  The last caravan of the season was exiting the ice later than normal, and their scouts reported having seen signs that they were indeed being followed. They reached the guard tower just as an army of undead and giants attacked them.

At this point I realized uncomfortably that this almost perfectly described OUR caravan’s current situation.

The tower was not without armaments, and the caravan had at least reached its elevated base safely.  Still, the attack was ferocious and it didn’t take too long to realize that the tower (and the caravan it was guarding) was destined to fall.

One of the remaining soldiers from the tower came forward and offered a plan.  Since the attacking army may not know how close the tower was to falling, it might be possibly to make the army think there was a massive counterattack preparing.  Distracted by the apparent counterattack, the caravan may yet escape even as the tower fell.  It was, of course, a suicide mission for the lone soldier but it was all they had.

And it was successful.  What was left of the attacking army – for they too had truly taken significant losses – moved up to defeat the apparent counterattack.  The soldier used what little magic and weapons he had left to appear to be a small platoon of troops, when in fact it was just him.  As the attackers angrily surged forward, he played his last card, collapsing the tower upon the attackers and guaranteeing there were too few left to chase the escaping caravan.

Nobody ever learned of the soldier’s name, but the tale of his bravery moved rapidly from campfire to town to garrison, and the remaining wreckage became known as Dead Man’s Dome.  And legend has it (of course) that he guards the pass still, against any evil that would dare attack a passing caravan.

When we get there, we’ll see how much of what remains supports the story. We anticipate it taking over a week to get there.  But Ulf certainly did tell it well.

Fireday, 28 Kuthona

Things had been pretty uneventful until tonight, when a guard reported a woman out on the ice, approaching our position.Ivan, Qatana, and I cautiously approached the figure.  Ivan had cast a spell called ‘deathwatch’ which apparently allows him to discern at a glance if a being is truly alive or not.  A maiden in a red silk robe – which looked dreadfully out of place here on the ice – hesitantly drew nigh and announced, “My name is Uki.”

Sparna quietly moved to the perimeter.

When we bade her to come nearer, she said she was afraid and actually backed up.  We looked at each other, and Ivan shook his head. There was no life here.  We called for the rest of the party, and at that moment the wind inexplicably increased and started becoming an issue.  Hailstones fell from what had previously been a clear sky, and they definitely hurt.  I instructed Suishen to turn up the flame, and Ivan provided a wall of flame behind Uki to encourage her to move closer.

She tried to use her waif looks to captivate us, but was unsuccessful. We then attacked, and although she was much tougher than she looked, she was soon not a threat at all.

Moonday, 31 Kuthona

One of our wagon drivers has been acting strangely, but today it turned to the irrational.  He became afraid of the horses and refused to drive.  We suspect this might be a case of the “Howl of the North” that Ulf had warned us about.  So far we have been fortunate to avoid it, but we had acquired resources before we left town that would allow us to mitigate it.  Qatana was able to use some diamond dust to create a spell of Restoration to help with the healing.  While that did make him better, he is still by no means healed so we have shifted some of our roles around to cover for the missing driver, who now is under the personal care of Koya.

Toilday, 1 Abadius

Owing to Katiana’s clear premonitions, we suspected this day would come. Today, we noticed in the distance, figures following us.  I quickly rode back a bit with Kasimir and observed, yes, I saw at least 10 skeletons plodding, er STEADFASTLY plodding towards us.  They were not really overtaking us, but the problem is that they were tireless, but we’d have to stop and rest at some point. They would eventually catch up to us.  Ivan scouted ahead to make sure we weren’t being herded into a trap, and as far as he could tell, no, we weren’t.

Ulf pointed out we could probably make Dead Man’s Dome and in a quick meeting, we concluded it probably would provide the most defensible place.  It was apparent that more undead were joining the skeletons and it was anybody’s guess how many we’d ultimately be facing.  High ground seemed like a good idea.

By evening, we’d reached Dead Man’s Dome, and we quickly sized it up. We probably had 20-30 min before the horde caught up to us, and in consultation with Ulf we came up with a plan to funnel the undead towards us using walls of fire.  Once they were in the kill zone, some area effect spells would hammer them before the fighters moved in to clean up.  I asked Suishen for protection from cold, and we moved up to execute.

As the greatly reduced undead advanced towards us, among our fighters rose a ghostly figure from the ground. The Dead Man had risen to defend the caravan, just as legend foretold!  His great sword sliced a wight in half as he gave a half nod to the fighters around him.

Ivan kept a steady stream of arrows heading out to the advancing undead.  We destroyed the rest of the undead in short order, with little damage to us.    And that’s when we saw the second wave advancing.

Since we again had a few minutes to prepare, we quickly brought Ulf up to see the Dead Man.  Ulf never expected to see the subject of one of his stories before him 🙂 and the look on his face was worth the effort.  For his part, the Dead Man again politely nodded at Ulf much as he had to us.

The walls of fire had provided not only a funnelling effect, but also light.  But they would be expired for the second wave.  We adjusted our strategy a bit.  Ivan shot some lit arrows out behind the second wave, and that provided some backlight to help see them advancing.  A few tried to move off to flank us, but the nice thing about undead is that they don’t think very hard. they pretty much move directly to the target.  Our basic area effect spells still took out a goodly number.  The Dead Man again proved indispensible. In the end, we easily killed over 30 undead between the two waves, and we did save the caravan.

Instead of disappearing or sinking back into the ground, the Dead Man walked slowly up the hill. He still looked very distinguished in his dated full plate.  But then he reached a pile of rubble, and slowly pointed at it.  I thought we might find his remains there, but what we found was more valuable than that.

[431] terra cotta statue
-once per day one can reroll a d20 attack roll w/+1
– once per day one can call upon a spiritual ally for 7 rds

We believe we have exhausted the undead army, but we will nevertheless proceed with caution for the next few days.

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Starday, 22 Kuthona

The machine now silent, the group moderately weakened (at least spellwise), and with yet another floor above us, Kali asked for time to recover 3 spells.  Radella continued playing with the controls, and while it could not be said she mastered it, she could get it to do what she wanted about, I don’t know, half the time.  It was apparently pretty complex, even for her. A couple of others slowly recovered from a touch of idiocy that the little glass scorpions had bestowed upon them.  When you’ve been touched by idiocy, time is your friend.

Kali then announced she was going to do some recon.  She summoned a small air elemental to (easily) go up the still-windy center and report back on what it found up there.

It reported, and I’m paraphrasing here, that “there was a great tumult of wind in the center, the room held many frozen dead, the room had gems with lightning passing between them.” Kali concluded that the only thing lacking was a fireball, so from the edge of the shaft, she sent up a fireball to complete the scene.

Kali sent up another surprise: two earth elementals who were told to push any undead down the shaft.  Then we quickly arranged for us all to have cold resistance (Suishen supplied it for me) and prepared to head up ourselves.  Before we could summon the platform, we did see two bodies fly down the shaft so apparently the elementals were following instructions.

Ivan gave us Hide from Undead, and Qatana put a circle against evil on me, and all the fighters got fly or air walk.  Upon arriving at the next level, a quick glance filled in the details the air elemental had not been able to provide. Six equally spaced gem circled the outer wall, with great arcs of lightning going from them up to the ceiling, where they converged in a giant blue all of energy.  Also on the outside edge, 4 platforms rose from the floor to the level of the gems – at least fifty feet – with each ending near an open window.  Standing on one of the platforms was a blue-skinned woman: Katiyana.

As we arrived she looked down upon us and produced an energy burst which seemed to affect some of us worse than others. I did not escape damage, but seemed to fare better than some  of my companions. Kali hasted us all, and I started airwalking my way up to the sylph.

Then the sylph started som intense chanting that seemed to take way longer than a regular spell. Kali yelled, “Summoning!” and I closed the distance to to try to attack her. But the wind from the center blew me against an outer wall as I stopped moving, so I used the ring of ram to try to smack her – and missed. Little did I know that that broke the hide from undead spell for everybody; I had thought as long as I left the undead alone the spell would hold.  Oh well. Qatana successfully inflicted a touch of idiocy on Katiyana, but below us suddenly the undead noticed Ivan and Kali and began attacking them.

Allowed to finish her spell, Katiyana did indeed summon a demon, but because of my circle of protection, it was forced off the ledge and dropped 50′ to the ground.  That did not start off its involuntary visit to the material plane on an up note.  In a quicker move, she also conjured a being of pure force using a spell that Qatyana recognized as spiritual ally, and she briefly warned me that I could not attack it physically.  It, of course, would have no trouble attacking me.

Below me, it turned out, the demon was looking at an easy, paralyzed target named Ivan.  Kali, however, created a pit underneath it and it dropped another 20′ and could no longer reach Ivan.  Welcome again to the material plane.

I, however, was learning a big difference between air walk and fly. The latter allowed for the possibility you might be able to reach a point and hold it, even in a strong wind.  Air walk, however, was an automatic fail – if I wasn’t walking, I was being pushed by the very strong wind. Another attempt got me blown right next to one of the arcing crystals and almost out a window.  A thought occurred to me – if I can’t get to the sylph, perhaps I can get the sylph to come to me.  I turned and attacked the crystal, which terribly vexed Suishen, who wanted me to attack living creatures. That would make me happy too, but I’m working with what I’ve got …

Radella finally made it to the demon, and smacked it so hard she splattered whatever constitutes demon blood all over the walls. Welcome to the material plane.

In general, our resistance to cold was helping a great deal with the frozen undead.  However their ability to paralyze us we had no defense against, and once held in place we were easy targets.

The sylph did seem annoyed at my attacks on the crystal, which by now was greatly diminishing its arcing contribution to the ball of lightning. It was not yet destroyed, but clearly significantly damaged. The battered demon swung at Radella and missed, but Radella returned the favor with a powerful swing and sent it back from whence it had come. Thank you and please don’t visit again.

The crystal I’d been hacking on finally shattered and electricity ceased to flow from it. I (air) walked down to the ground but as I did so, the wind suddenly stopped. I looked up and Kali had flown up and blocked the input somehow, so now there was no downflow. I could walk to and attack Katiyana again!

But I was too late. The rest of the party had been slowly but steadily diminishing the frozen undead, and I’d seen at least one tumble into the shaft when the platform disappeared.  And the sylph had tried to impudently walk pasr Sparna while he had a weapon ready, and he simply struck her down as she passed.  How ignominious.  Or desperate.  Maybe it was just a cry for attention.

From her body we collected

[424] scroll of cleanse
[425] magic breastplate +1
[426] MW buckler
[427] headband of mental superiority +2
[428] spell components
[429] unholy symbol of Sithud

and just in case they should prove useful,

[430] crystal shards

We took the time to destroy each of the crystals, and as we suspected, the ball of lightning faded and finally disappeared altogether, and when it did, the wind stopped.

Returning to the ground floor, it was apparent that it was not just the central shaft that had lost the wind. The surrounding area was no longer suffering the effects of storm. In fact, the clouds had cleared and we could see stars.

There was still the mushroom room on the ground floor that we had not inspected, and in the interest of being thorough, we decided to go there and encounter the invisible carnivorous fungi.  Using my last favor from Suishen today, I asked for see invisible and I was able to strike some down as well as direct others in their battles and spells.  Whenever the man-sized fungi attacked they became briefly visible, so we knew they were real 🙂 For our troubles, upon defeating the four of them we were able to harvest a modest amount of (allegedly edible, according to Qatana) mushrooms to add to dinner.

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Sunday, 11 Neth

Our trip to Unaimo was uneventful, but productive. I was able to get a stronger bow. Additionally, I was able to get the raw materials so that Kali, with all the “spare time” that our travelling has entailed, was able to construct me a handy haversack, as well as improve my cloak of protection to +2. I’ve a sense that we’re going to need every edge when we get to the Storm Tower.

Wealday, 14 Neth

I’m finding that I get tired a lot faster. Not tired as in “I want to sleep” but tired as in “let me catch my breath.” Kali says we’re at an elevation on the ice, now, where the air is not as effective. Apparently as we get higher, the air gets less effective. She tried to explain it to me but the key thing is, we just need to go slower. It’s not just me; others (and the animals) are having the same problem.

Consequently, today we only went about half as far as yesterday. We had a quick meeting tonight and decided we should not travel every day for a while, so our bodies/lungs can rest. In fact, we’re talking about moving only a couple of days a week. Kali says after a few weeks, our bodies will adapt and the air will be just as effective as before. I don’t think this is a spell she’s doing, it just is.

I’ve never encountered it before. I don’t know if this only happens in the cold or if the same thing would happen in a warm, but tall mountain. I’ll have to remember to ask Kali. My head hurts.

The wind is a constant now. Even though there’s no trees or even rocks for it to whistle through, if you listen closely you can hear something on the wind, like an animal calling or something. It must be up ahead, given the wind direction, but it’s impossible to say how far.

Starday, 17 Neth

Rest day again today, but I think we’re getting closer to the animal. I’ve mentioned to the others, but their hearing must not be as keen as mine because they don’t hear it. It is rather high pitched so maybe only an elf or half-elf can hear it. I’m tempted to take an hour or two and go check out the ice ahead, but we’ve agreed to rest and whatever it is hasn’t attacked yet. But I can hear the desperation in its voice; it may not be long before it attacks.

It’s basically dark all day now, and sound is the only way to track it. Thank goodness for my elfin hearing. I haven’t mentioned it again to the others, since there’s no point in worrying them until I can sense an attack is imminent. Their safety is paramount, and if they’re on edge all the time, they’ll be tired, not battle-ready. It’s second nature to me, but not to them.

Starday, 24 Neth

It seems the creature I’d heard has backed off, or abandoned us. Even with my keen hearing, I don’t hear it anymore, and haven’t for several days now. The wind still howls, but it’s just wind. I’m glad I didn’t alarm the others; it would have been wasted effort.

I’ll keep an ear out, of course, but I’m sleeping much better now without that as a constant background.

Starday, 1 Kuthona

Kali and Qatana were on watch when they noticed one of those strange blue-green lights Skygni had told us about. They roused us and we noticed one actually head towards us. Kali hasted us all with a want just as the world exploded around us in shards of sound.

Or at least that’s what it seemed like. The thing shrieked, or yelled, or did something that was VERY easy to hear, and the impact of that sound turned the ice at our feet into flying shards. Several of us took damage, from the shards as much as the sound. I quickly shot it with an arrow, but fighting in darkness, even with some degree of dark vision meant my ability to aim arrows accurately was limited. This creature was flying and for all we know, couldn’t land in a controlled fashion. We were going to have to take the battle to it. Suishen bestowed airwalk upon me.

In general, this was a smart strategy. But the creature had unexpected grace and speed, and it descended to me and hit me with a ferocious sonic blast before I could react. I almost passed out, and realized I needed healing. I quickly pulled a CLW from my belt and drank it, but it only made me feel marginally better, so I called out for healing and walked toward the ground, hoping I would not get hit again before Qatana or Ivan could reach me.

Qatana was able to heal me, and all of us were able to take a nick out of it. A spot of acid finally did it in and it plummeted to the ground, but it truly was a team effort. Ivan and Qatana gave me additional healing to bring me back to full strength, in case others came by … but none did. We noticed it had really small eyes so that and the complete darkness present here made us think that the thing may have used sound, like a bat, to locate its prey.

I came away healed, but with a fresh respect for this foe.

Sunday, 9 Kuthona

Kali said we should find ourselves acclimated to the altitude sometime this week. I must admit, I don’t find myself tiring as easy as before so I think she may be right.

Sunday, 16 Kuthona

We’re resuming full speed. Everybody seems to be acclimated.

The Storm Tower is visible in the distance; the lights and flashes it seems to generate make it easy to follow in the darkness.

Fireday, 21 Kuthona

We have made it as close as Sandru will allow the caravan to go. The wind here is unbelievable, and that’s part of why Sandru wants to stop here. There are intermittent flashes of light from around the tower. We will rest tonight, recover spells, and investigate – likely, “assault” – the tower tomorrow.

Starday, 22 Kuthona

And so it begins.

The tower is several hundred feet high. The wind only got stronger as we got closer. There is a black slush here and there that Ulf has told us is not uncommon in this area … but it’s also toxic, poisonous, and likely lethal, so … no samples, no dipping, and no ugh tasting!

The tower had an opening to it. I flamed Suishen and we entered.

Inside, we encountered three creatures which seemed to be wights. They were easily dispatched – surprisingly easy. But they were just a prelude to an adjacent room, which held a plant of some sort. The ceiling here must have been a hundred feet above us, but the plant was “only” man sized with a tangle of roots that spread around the room.

Make that a carnivorous plant of some sort, because after emitting a bright blinding light, it quickly ingested Qatana and spit her back out contained in a constricting and apparently acid producing casing that was slowly killing her. While we attacked the plant, Qatana attacked the casing. The plant soon died, and others assisted Qatana in exiting the pod.

I looked at the corpse and thought – how does this even survive here? Thinking it over, it probably is only here as a sentry.

Examining walls around the center section revealed some embedded crystals that made us believe it might act as a lift. Radella played with them a bit and believed she could operate them. We arrayed ourselves, stood on the center platform, and had her work her magic.

The center section quickly rose to a room that contained two large worm-like creatures. Moving without being attacked was difficult, yet we knew the floor would sink soon. Several of us took injuries only because we needed to hastily move without regard for the creatures before us. And wisely so – several seconds after arriving, the floor did indeed descend back to the first floor.

But by that time we were battling these hungry creatures. Hungry? Well, yes, these too seemed to want to eat us. We did kill them both, but not without some peril. And an ominous sign was that the symbol of Sithud had been carved into a scale on each body.

Surprisingly, given the cold clime, these beasts did not seem to shun the flame of Suishen. In fact, he thought they might be immune to it.

There were doors indicating other rooms on this floor, but they seemed sealed (yes, sealed, not locked). Qatana used stoneshape to create an opening next to one of the doors … and it revealed a most peculiar scene.

Inside were many crystalline scorpionlike creatures – perhaps a dozen or more. The walls seemed embedded with crystals that were connected by metallic strips or wires, and the whole room appeared to generate random blue light. The scorpions appeared to be monitoring or maintaining the crystals … until the opening appeared, that is. Then they approached us.

Oh. And they could teleport. Hmm. And apparently they could cast spells, like touch or idiocy.

On the plus side they didn’t seem too hard to kill, although blunt weapons seemed more damaging then edged weapons (sorry Suishen). Despite the large numbers of them, we managed to dispatch them.

I wondered if the now damaged and unmonitored crystal room would explode or something now. But it didn’t seem to; in fact, we ended up taking out all the crystals and caching them. Using detect magic, we determined that 4 of the crystals actually seemed to radiate magic. We spent some time identifying them and found we had

[422] 2 cubic crystals, radiating abjuration. Able to create a 10′ cube within which the temp would remain 65 degrees and absorb cold-based attacks – no more than 50 in one round or 100 in ten.

[423] 2 prism shaped crystals, radiating evocation. They each had 50 charges, and they could
* act as a hooded lantern (1 charge)
* a 1′ diameter ray of light 50′ long that could blind a
creature 1d4 rds (1 charge)
* blinding flash for 30′ cone, blinded 1d4 rds (5 charges)

And we noticed that as we pulled out crystals, the humming decreased bit by bit. Each crystal pulled lowered the sound in the room, until the room was silent.

Up, again, I suspect. But do we need to recharge our spells? Would we lose the element of surprise if we recharged?

It very much seemed that pulling the crystals disabled some aspect of the tower.

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Wealday, 17 Lamashan

The town shaman is dead at our hand, and although it was perfectly justified, it was going to require some explanation.  I suspect “he started it” after specifically warning the town about the dangers of the outsiders is not going to cut it.  However, if we return with the hearthmistress … she was at least neutral to us, and this evidence plus our story might be sufficient for her to remain, at least, neutral.

In the meantime, there is one way that the shaman can still help us, and that is by his generous bequest of his belongings to the victors (us).

[399] 2 potions bark skin
[400] cloak of resistance +2
[401] ring of mindshielding
[402] staff with a decorative fork on top [5]
with 1 charge
detect snares and pits
endure elements
long strider
pass without trace
with 2 charges
freedom of movement
[403] cold weather outfit
[404] unholy symbol of Sithud

The latter was recognized by Kali and Qatana, who informed us that Sithud was a powerful demon lord who once was a god.  So, checking my list, I see, ah yes, there it is.

[*] Antagonize enemies that are more deadly than a white dragon

Glad I can put that one behind me.

Right, retrieve the hearthmistress. Fly spell has worn off, so we’ll have to hoof it.  According to Radella, there might yet be a guard to get past. It occurred to Kali that the guard, if there was one, might be controlled and not inherently evil, so we might not want to kill it. Good thought, although at this point it would not likely have occurred to me.

And sure enough, we did find the guard. Although he took a swing at me, he missed, so I gave him the free swing and held up my hands: “Whoa whoa whoa, friend here!”  Qatana tried hold person – didn’t work.  Ivan tried a dispel magic – no apparent effect.  Sparna tried to intimidate: no go.  Kali created a circle against evil but that too seemed to have no effect. Sigh.

On his next swing he cut me good, but mindful of our goals I tried to disarm him rather than kill him. I succeeded – he dropped his weapon, fell to the ground, and we could now see a small, 1′ tall creature riding on his back.

I can’t imagine a situation where that is harmless, so Sparna and I quickly dispatched it. Or, at least, it disappeared.  The guard quickly came to, and looked both frightened and defensive.  “Do you serve the traitor?”

Ah. Fate has brought us exactly the thing we needed: a witness.

Naquun told us that he had been in service to the shaman willingly, but many days ago, after returning from his visionquest, he called him down. He summoned the creature we saw to take control of him and after that Naquun was helpless to disobey him.

Some drawings and runes on the wall had drawn the attention of both Kali and Qatana, but Naquun had little to offer about them.  We sent our grateful witness back to town to retrieve the hearthmistress.

When the hearthmistress and the chief returned, they were speechless. We barely needed to say anything at all, since Naquun retained all memory of what he’d been forced to do.  We confirmed that the shaman was dead, and asked if the five pictographs – one of standing stones, one of blue towers in a frozen city, another of a single tower beneath pale peaks, yet another of a storm that appeared to be devouring towns, and lastly, one of a blue-skinned woman.

They were aghast at the sight of the broken dragon egg, but knew not why it was there or what it meant.

We climbed to the altar at the top of the peak to make sure it had not been desecrated or damaged.  (It hadn’t.)  We discussed the frozen spirits we had dispatched, and the chief griml acknowledged that some of them were indeed from the village.

The chief and hearthmistress wanted to destroy the body immediately, but Qatana convinced them to keep the body until tomorrow, because she wanted to try Speak with Dead with it. they agreed on the condition that they also be able to attend.

Oathday, 18 Lamashan

Everyone eagerly reconvened to talk to the dead shaman.  Qatana performed the increasingly-familiar ceremony and asked:

Why is the dragon attacking the village?
– So that Sithud’s will be done.
What is the will of Sithud?
– Return to his rightful place.
Why did you trick the dragon into attacking the village?
– I did what must be done.

I felt those were fairly useless answers, but Kali and Qatana seemed satisfied.  As per her new and slightly disturbing habit, Qatana retained the head.

We conclued that we needed to journey to the white dragon. None of our success here would have any reason to stop the attacks. If the dragon knew the human responsible had been executed, maybe it would stop. But again, none of that can happen without notifying the dragon.

By way of thanks, and aid, the chief offered us

[unnumbered] claws of the ice bear – +2 confidence on climbing,
3 times/day spider climb for one round

Fireday, 19 Lamashan

We’ve left on our trip to the home of the white dragon.  Regrettably, the caravan will not be coming with us – too much of a target with no real benefit (other than making the trip a bit more comfortable for us).

Sunday, 21 Lamashan

Weather acted up, slowed us down.  Snowstorm. Very cold.

Moonday, 22 Lamashan

We have arrived.

Unlike a “traditional” dragon lair, in this environment there is only one place for a white drago to live, and that is underground. We have found a rip in the ground which, we are told, is the lair of the dragon.

Dragons. Everybody talks about them but nobody ever does anything about them.  Well, that’s about to change.

We magicked up with protection from cold, and resist cold (mine, courtesy of Suishen), even Draconic Reserve for Sparna.  We added Fly, and Dark Vision.  And down we went.
later
So much for negotiating.

The dragon was, understandably, predisposed against local humans.  Its nest had been clumsily staged to look like it had been raided by the town of Iqaliat.  When we found the dragon, both Qatana and  I tried to tell it we had caught and executed the real murderer, but it was a mother filled with bloodlust.  She went on about how all 2-legs were murderers and untrustworthy, and she kept breathing wintry blasts at us. Surprisingly, due to our magicks aforehand, those were much less painful than the claws and bites.  Still, when we decided to swing instead of talk, it took maybe 30 seconds for us to, collectively, bring her to her death.

Although – she did come close to exiting the hole and wreaking havoc on the town.  Sensing she was close to death she decided to go out in a blaze – er, frosty haze – of glory.  It was only as it attempted to exit that some bit of Qatana’s magic was able to reach it and drive the killing blow.  Having shot dozens of feet out of the hole, the dragon peaked, then fell back down the hole, falling past us, and slamming into the floor below.

A quick examination told us she was dead … but also revealed the older skeletal remains of another dragon, which probably explained why the dragon had no hope of replacing the eggs, increasing her despair.

Kali and Qatana were both morose about this turnout, and while I’m disappointed we had no choice but to kill it, I was fully prepared for this very likely outcome.  I’d have frankly been surprised if diplomacy had worked.

We took time to catalog the things we found in the ice cave.

[405] arrow of lesser dragon slaying
[406] short sword +2
[407] 2 potions of protection from arrows
[408] ring of featherfall
[409] terra cotta horse – 1/day reroll an attack roll +1, 1/day summon
a phantom steed
[410] wand of enfeeblement [15]
[411] MW light steel shield
[412] MW cold iron spiked gauntlet
[413] MW composite shortbow +2 ST
[414] 11 arrows
[415] MW spear
[416] climber’s kit
[417] 200′ silk rope
[418] 2 pieces of amber (100gp ea)
[419] 6 bloodstones (50gp ea)
[420] 2 blue sapphires (500 ea)
[421] quiver decorated with winter wolf fur (500gp)

And there was coinage. Lots of coinage.

6208 copper
5042 silver
1188 gold
404 platinum

We shrank and brought back the dragon bodies.  There was talk of making armor from the dragon’s hide.

Fireday, 26 Lamashan

We have returned to the village, and are being hailed as heroes. A big celebration is being planned – as big as one may party in a small town in the frigid north in the winter season – and to be honest, a little rest and relaxation sounds kinda good right now.

Starday, 27 Lamashan

We are leaving for supplies at Unaimo, probably the last major supply town before heading out on the high ice.  After peering at the pictograph some more, the elders say they blue-skinned woman may be a disciple of Sithud, and may be trying to restore him to power. She may have already succeeded.  If the woman can gain control of the “Storm tower”, that would be Very Bad.

It would seem we have another purpose to our journey across the ice.  No longer is it enough to save the town. Now we must save the region.

Before leaving, the hearthmistress gave us additional gifts. One was, not surprisingly, a totem of friendship – we would always be welcome in town.  And the other may prove quite useful:  the sashimono of comfort. By attaching it to a lance or a caravan frame, it can grant protection to well below zero.  This may be how we sleep comfortably in the horrible northern cold.

as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Toilday, 9 Lamashan

Travelling in a caravan is, for the most part, a boring use of time. Oh sure, there’s the duty of it all, and I want to see the caravan succeed, and I’m even one of the active people, not just sitting in the wagon, but actually out riding on Kasimir, but nonetheless, it is a lot of “nothing happens”.

Ulf seems to enjoy this – as much as anyone could enjoy bitterly cold weather that is. Suishen grants me endure elements, so for me it never really rises above discomfort, but it’s the tedium. The cold numbs the mind as much as the body. So it was with a slight quiver of excitement when a large white dragon – no, make that silver, which is a much better tiding – flew towards us and as it passed overhead, reported, “Travellers! Be careful! Ice trolls ahead in your path!” before ascending again and flying off.

Nehali, able to scout further ahead than any of us (and less obtrusively, too), checked it out and reported back that there were a group of the creatures apparently camped just off the trail. They were not likely visible from the trail, but nevertheless within easy striking distance of it. Likely their campsite was chosen because it made it easy to ambush people on the trail.

A brief conversation with Ulf yielded the opinion that ice trolls were like normal trolls, only different. When more detail was requested, we learned they were likely blue and probably smarter. “Smarter than a troll” if said in the wrong context could lead to swords being drawn, but it sets the bar so low that we were genuinely unsure of what to expect.

We arranged ourselves in what we thought would be a battle-helpful manner, and advanced, leaving the caravan behind. the biggest surprise was that upon finding the troll camp, one of them advanced to us with his arms open, saying in broken Common, that “if you lost, we help. No big worry.” He then said something in Giant to his companions and they slowly, calmly, began to walk not toward us, but around us, as if to flank us. (I learned later that the troll had foolishly said, “We don’t have to find dinner, friends! Dinner finds US tonight!”)

Since I didn’t think even a smart troll would be all that smart, I approached the lead troll glibly. “We’re not so much lost ourselves, but this rock is. It is not of this place – you can see that, right? Look! Its edges are worn down, no doubt from the harsh cold. You seem to be comfortable in the cold, so I’ll bet you can explain, right?”

The troll stopped and if it were possible for the troll to look perplexed, he did so. “The .. rock? It is … it does not matter!” But his companions continued to gently try to flank us.

“Oh, I quite agree,” I responded, “but this rock is real.” I nodded at the rock and raised an eyebrow to the troll in a “you know what I mean” gesture. He stood their speechless, wondering what part of Common he was not understanding correctly.

About this time, one of the trolls realized my sword was on fire. “Firewielder!” he shrieked, and all pretense at conversation was off. But the task was done – the delay had allowed Kali to summon three fire elementals. While they were not huge by any stretch of the imagination, the ice troll were very much against their appearing. He attacked me, I swung back, and the battle was one.

They were armed with axes the size of battleaxes to us, but they obviously were relying more on numbers than sheer fighting skill. Suishen cut happily into their cold flesh, and a glance around me revealed that Sparna, Radella, and even Qatana were doing a number on them as well. The real fire elementals made the trolls very wary of Ivan’s false image of one. Kali levitated above the fray and cast spells while safely out of harm’s way.

In the end, the eight ice trolls would trouble this world no more. A search of they and their camp revealed only two things of any interest: 80 gp, and

[385] a ring, which later was identified as a ring of sustenance.

The danger removed, we returned to camp. At dinner, Ulf told us a tale of the “Arctic Chimera” which was part walrus, part polar bear, and part white dragon. It tried to bring an avalanche down upon his caravan, but he lured it away and saved the caravan. Or so the story goes

Oathday, 11 Lamashan

Really cold. REALLY cold. Even with Endure Elements – “enduring” is not the same as “enjoying”. The wind picked up today, and it is snowing. We only got about half as much travel in.

Fireday, 12 Lamashan

Wors ! Didn t th k it p sibl , but it is. Ink fr z ng in b ttl . Only 1/4 as m ch t day.

Starday, 13 Lamashan

C uldn t m ve t day. At al .

Sunday, 14 Lamashan

Less cold. Deep drifts. About 3/4 speed. Seems almost warm by comparison. Snow is not my thing.

Wealday, 17 Lamashan

We have made it to Igaliat. The normal caravan route normally bypasses this town, but Ulf wanted to consult with them about conditions over the Crown. Ulf has a talisman of friendship which was given to him by the hearth mistress and which should afford us entry.

— later —

Town very suspicious of us. Even Ulf feels it. The hearth-mistress welcomes him, but the town is tense. Apparently, a white dragon has been harassing their town, to the point of taking or killing townspeople. Their shaman thinks it is a holy retribution for failing to honor their religion, and insists a more rigid adherence to sacred rules is needed. In fact, we discovered upon talking to him in public that he believes we should be sacrificed.

That really is unwelcoming.

The hearth-mistress vetoed the idea, but did suggest that overnight might best be the total length of our stay. We offered to look into the white dragon issue and she was certainly accepting of that .. just don’t stay in town to do it. 3 parties of men from the town left to do the same, and never returned, she pretty much doesn’t expect to see us return again.

Oh, and she also offered the northern route is already blocked by “hungry storms” not unlike the one we encountered this last week. The old gods of winds drives the storms, it is said, and they believe they are but one more bit of evidence that the gods are angry with the town.

Meanwhile, Radella noticed the shaman drifting away, and with a deft invisibility spell from Kali, she went to follow him. She apparently found him taking a path into the mountain that was guarded by both locks and guards, and she followed as long as she dared before returning and bringing us up to date. She encountered a ghostly figure that seemed to see her even though invisible, and Ulf said it might have been a frost spirit – basically a soul that has died at the hands of cold.

The dragon, we were told, is about 60 mi north of the town. It’s about as big as a horse. That’s probably our next stop, but first we wanted to learn more about this shaman. As a group then, we returned to the area Radella had seen, but in a slightly different manner. She had seen an opening in the mountain leading to the same area, and rather than deal with the locks and the guard, we chose to use the more direct route, courtesy of Fly spells.

Owing to their dark vision, Radella and Sparna entered first. As I entered, I had Suishen turn on his flame. I sensed we were about to be in battle and wanted every advantage I could have.

Below us we could see the shaman, and an altar. As he saw us, he seemed to cast a spell, and eight frosty looking spirits appeared near us. Radella nodded; yes, these looked like the figure she had seen. And while we’ve no way of knowing whether they were created as Ulf said, we do know they were undead. One managed to hit Sparna and his shout (and behavior) seemed to leave him less nimble than normal.

I also know that flaming Suishen made the spirits most uncomfortable.

Eventually we worked our way to the shaman, and after dispatching him discovered something on the altar that was both shocking and telling. There on his altar lay shards from what appeared to be a white dragon’s egg.