The Albatross Company enters the Eye of the All Father and find their way to the hall of the Oracle, a divine entity that carries the wisdom of Annam, the god of the giants. They begin to unravel the mystery of King Hekaton’s disappearance and learn the truth about Queen Serissa’s adviser Iymrith.
Player Characters: Adrik, Gregory, Kane, Sister Mary, Strong Palm Ian, Tarancha
1.
In the Eye of the All Father, Harshnag opened the great double doors at the end of the corridor. The heroes entered a great hall whose ceiling stretched to a height of one hundred feet. Before them, there were seven stone statues, six of which depicted tall giants of legend. All save the frost giant held a mighty weapon in its grasp as if in offering to the seventh figure in the center. This statue was taller than the rest and showed a robed figure whose face of uncarved, bare stone was shrouded by a cowl.
“Who is that in the middle?” the heroes asked?
“That is Annam the All Father,” said Harshnag. “The ancient giants who carved this statue knew not what His face looked like, so they dared not attempt to depict His likeness.”
Beyond the statues on the far side of the hall, there was an immense glowing archway filled with a bright mist. Upon the archway were six ancient runes in the giant language. Harshnag recognized one of the runes. It was the Ise rune, which meant “ice” in the ancient Ostorian language.
Sister Mary detected a powerful aura of conjuration upon the archway. The party guessed that this must be the gateway to the temple proper, but it appeared to be closed.
Strong Palm Ian suggested that a giant who touched a rune with the proper device might be able to open the gate. The heroes suggested that Harshnag touch his own axe to the Ise rune, since he was a frost giant and his weapon had once belonged to a frost giant king. Harshnag did so, causing the runes to glow with energy. But the gate did not open. Instead, a storm cloud materialized over their heads. The heroes were pummeled by hail and sleet that fell down upon them, all save for Augrek who watched them from the stairs beyond the great hall.
“Are you alright? What’s happening down there?” Augrek asked worriedly.
The heroes saw that there were frozen doors upon the north and south walls of the hall. They decided to investigate the southern doors, for Kane sensed a bit of warmth coming from that direction. Adrik, eager to explore the dungeon, thawed the frozen doors by conjuring a great ball of fire that exploded upon them. Once the ice was melted, Harshnag easily pushed the doors open.
2.
The heroes found themselves in a great feast hall, with tall stone slabs that had once served as tables and benches. In the center of the hall, there was a large brazier that was perpetually lit with a burning flame, being fed by natural gas emerging from the ground. This was the source of the heat and light that filled the room.
However, the feast hall was not empty. Inside, an alcove upon the wall, they discovered a huge insect-like creature known as a remorhaz! It had been curled up and sleeping until the adventurers entered the room.
The remorhaz burrowed beneath the stone floor and terrorized the adventurers. Adrik lured out the creature by tap dancing upon the floor. When the monster emerged and tried to swallow the halfling, the heroes fell upon it. Kane mounted the creature and distracted it while the others blasted it with their spells, crossbows, and throwing darts. In the end, Gregory landed the killing blow, crushing the insect’s head with his warhammer, and Kane tore out the creature’s heart and ate it whole. The poison and acid in the organ burned his mouth.
“How does it taste?” Adrik asked.
“Bitter,” Kane answered.
“Harshnag, do you think there are other monsters in this dungeon?” the heroes asked.
“If this vermin was able to get in here, there might be other creatures as well,” Harshnag warned them.
Within the feast hall, the party found an immense steel greataxe leaning against one of the stone tables. They guessed that this was the axe that belonged to the statue in the main hall.
When Harshnag picked up the axe and touched it to the rune on the archway, it glowed with a different light. This time, the mist in the archway churned into a thunderstorm. Suddenly, the black clouds cleared with a crack of thunder, and the archway was filled with a bright light. The gate had been opened.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s go in!” Kane shouted as he rushed through the archway. His companions followed behind him.
3.
The heroes arrived in a large hexagonal chamber with six statues of giants holding lanterns aloft. Each lantern had a burning flame that lit the center of the chamber. Beneath their flickering light, the heroes saw the frozen body of a dead cloud giant.
He appeared to be a young giant of noble birth. When Kane approach the body and nudged it with his hand, a specter emerged from the corpse. The heroes drew back and readied their weapons.
“Are you going to kill us?” Kane asked the spirit.
But the spirit repeated his question, almost as if Kane’s words had brought back a memory of his final moments.
“Are you going to kill me…… father?”
“Who are you?” the heroes asked.
“I am Eigeron, son of Blagothkus,” said the spirit. “I came here on a quest to seek the wisdom of the Oracle, the divine vessel that holds the wisdom of our great lord Annam. But here I was betrayed by my father and slain cruelly.”
“That’s terrible! Why did your father kill you?” the heroes asked.
“The oracle told him that he could not become a greater giant lord than he already was, and bade me to step of my father’s shadow. My father became wrathful and slew me. Now he mourns for me and broods upon his foul deed in his floating keep.”
The heroes grieved for Eigeron and wanted justice for him, but they had another task at hand.
“How can one ask a question of the oracle?” the heroes wondered.
“Beneath my frozen body lies a circle of ancient runes. Step into the circle and ask your question. But be warned, the Oracle will only answer you so long as the lanterns remain lit.”
The heroes gently pushed Eigeron’s body aside and saw the circle of faded runes beneath him. Gregory stepped into the circle, causing the runes to glow brightly. He saw that they were written in a dwarven script, and he could read it. The inscription said, “Ask Your Questions and Know Truth.”
4.
Gregory was the first to ask a question.
“Where is Hekaton if he yet lives?”
A deep, rumbling voice echoed through the room like a gathering storm. But it gave only a single word in reply.
“Unknown…”
One of the six lanterns held by the stone statues flickered and went out.
“Then how can we find him?” asked Adrik.
“The clue is closer than you think,” the voice replied. Then the second lantern was extinguished.
“That’s right! Now I recall my quest,” exclaimed the spirit of Eigeron, as if the Oracle’s words had filled the gaps in his memory. “I was sent here to search for an answer regarding a clue that might lead to King Hekaton. It was a token that was found in the place where the king disappeared. Search my hand and you will find the token!”
The heroes opened Eigeron’s fingers and found a bag in their frozen grip. Inside the bag, they found a tiny wooden token painted in gold with the image of a goose.
“Hey! I have one of those!” Kane drew out the golden goose token he had taken from the Grand Dame, the gambling vessel owned by one of Adrik’s wealthy patrons, Lord Khaspere Drylund.
“The Grand Dame!” Adrik exclaimed. He was startled and amazed by this sudden revelation, but a dark foreboding fell upon him. Yet he hardly had time to ponder this riddle before Kane asked the next question.
“Will King Hekaton be my friend?” asked the tiefling.
The others began to protest and chastise Kane for asked a silly question, but the voice of the oracle grew solemn.
“If you save him, King Hekaton will be in your debt and reward you and your companions with a mighty boon. If you fail, Hekaton will perish, and a great war will consume all the lands of the North in fire and blood.”
The third lantern went dim. Beyond the circle, the wall upon the far side of the room began to change shape. Where there was once a surface of smooth, worked stone, there was now an ornately chiseled bas relief of a great tree. On the boughs of the tree hung fruit whose surface held a vision of things to come, or things that might be. The branches of the tree showed a myriad of possible futures depending on the choices that were made in the present.
In one vision, a mighty storm giant king was thanking the Albatross Company and bestowing gifts upon them. The heroes rejoiced as they received many boons including magic potions of great potency.
But in another vision, the king was drowning at the bottom of the ocean, strangled to death by a hideous kraken. This led to a series of events that culminated in other visions of the future, each more terrible than the last. In the next vision, the fire giants had completed the Vonindod, the dragon slaying titan built by their ancestors, and the North was burning in the war between giants and dragons. Yet this was followed by another vision in which the fire giants and all the people of the North had perished beneath glacial frost as the land was swept by an everlasting winter.
Upon seeing these visions of things that may come to pass, Sister Mary asked the next question.
“How can we save King Hekaton and bring him back with us safely?”
This time, the Oracle answered with a brief and cryptic response.
“Find King Hekaton and be swift.”
There were two lanterns that remained burning. Strong Palm Ian began to ponder the riddle before him and wondered about the hidden hand behind the conspiracy.
“What is Iymrith’s scheme in all of this?”
The voice of the oracle answered.
“The blue dragon Iymrith seeks to sow discord among giants and ignite a war between the giants and dragons. It was she who plotted against King Hekaton and manipulated his elder daughters to turn against him. She is an evil that must be rooted out of the court of Maelstrom.”
“So, she was a blue dragon after all!” the heroes said excitedly.
Only one lantern remained lit. Harshnag was gripping his axe tightly and grinding his teeth. The heroes asked him whether he had a question on his mind. Taking up their invitation, the frost giant stepped into the circle and asked the sixth and final question through gritted teeth.
“Where is the blue dragon Iymrith?”
As the light of the final lantern vanished, the voice spoke a single word.
“Nearby…”
“She must be here!” the heroes exclaimed. “Back through the archway!”
5.
As the room darkened, the Albatross Company left the circle and rushed through the glowing arch. But when they emerged on the other side, they were caught in the cold, frozen webs of a swarm of ice spiders.
Four large ice spiders with red eyes and pale blue bodies surrounded them on all sides. The spiders leapt forward to devour the adventurers, but the heroes cut their way free from the webs and defended themselves, crushing the spiders swiftly.
Yet these spiders were the least of their concerns. In the stone ceiling, a wide hole began to appear, and from it descended the storm giant Iymrith! But a moment later, she was no longer a giant, for she had transformed herself into her true form, the shape of an ancient blue dragon.
Harshnag turned to his companions, and for the first time in the all the days since they began traveling with him, the heroes thought they sensed a hint of fear in his voice.
“Run!” Harshnag told him. Then the frost giant leaped forward to face the wyrm alone.
As the frost giant swung his mighty axe, the heroes could see that Harshnag was no match for the ancient blue dragon. He was only providing a distraction so that they could escape. The heroes reluctantly obeyed and ran through the large double doors leading out of the temple.
As they fled through the corridor, Strong Palm Ian remembered the conch of teleportation.
“We can use the conch to return to Maelstrom together! Harshnag, hang on-”
Strong Palm Ian turned around in time to see the ceiling of the hall of statues crumbling and falling all around Harshnag and Iymrith, burying them both.
6.
Shocked and distraught by the loss of Harshnag, Ian turned back toward the light outside, only to be greeted by a volley of crossbow bolts. With his quick reflexes, he caught one of the bolts. But the others struck the conch in his outstretched hand and shattered it to pieces.
The Albatross Company turned to the airship and saw the crew on the deck, wielding crossbows that were aimed at them. Mister Mo was nowhere to be seen. To their horror and dismay, the airship began to lift off.
“Farewell, brave adventurers,” said one of the crew members aboard the airship. “We serve a new master now, the blue dragon Iymrith. You can thank your friend, the blue kobold Mister Mo, for this turn of events. It seems that blood is indeed thicker than water. Alas he has already departed so he cannot bid you goodbye. But rest assured that Mister Mo sends his regards.”
As the Red Zeppelin took off, Adrik became enraged by the betrayal and sang a song of fire. A giant ball of flame engulfed the airship and caused it to explode. As the fiery wreckage fell to the earth, the fire and air elementals that had been bound to the furnace and propellers of the airship were freed.
The two elementals attacked the adventurers. The heroes were thrown back by the air elemental which transformed into a whirlwind, and they were burned by the blistering heat of the fire elemental. But this was not the first time they had fought elemental foes. With their deft attacks and magic weapons, the heroes quickly gained the upper hand, shattering the whirlwind and binding the fire elemental in the iron flask that had once held Maegera the Dawn Titan.
7.
Their victory was bittersweet. Mister Mo had betrayed them, and the airship had been destroyed, leaving the Albatross Company without the wings which they had relied on to the travel swiftly over the continent.
The party descended from the mountain, fearing that the blue dragon Iymrith might dig her way out and pursue them. They hid themselves in a cave at the base of the mountain and licked their wounds.
While they rested in the cave, the heroes contacted Vajra Blackstaff with a sending spell, requesting her aid. The Blackstaff allowed them to access a teleportation network so that they might travel more swiftly. But where would they go next?
Adrik reached out to Lord Khaspere Drylund with another sending spell, asking to rejoin the Grand Dame as a resident bard on the gambling ship. Lord Khaspere Drylund was eager to have the halfling in his service once more and invited him to join the Grand Dame in the river city of Yartar where it was currently docked.
The Albatross Company, using the Blackstaff’s teleportation network, arrived swiftly in Yartar. They stood once more upon the docks as the Grand Dame prepared to set sail on its next voyage along the river.
Adventure Name
Storm King’s Thunder
Chapter 4. The Chosen Path
Session #11
Rewards
4 Achievement Points
4 Treasure Points
10 Downtime Days
1 Renown
Level-Up Gold
Level gained: 2nd-4th – 75 gp
Level gained: 5th-10th – 150 gp