Road to Hyperborea, Chapter Seven

Art Class
Friday, June 8th, 988 AD

Jean-Claude, Ivan, and Shara head back to the Elven Shrine on Phantom Steeds so that Jean-Claude can make a detailed drawing. They come back and we ask Orm where we could find a trustworthy armorer. He says he told his people to head for the mouth of the Kalix River aka Kalix Mouth. He had armorers and maybe one of them can help us with our Emerald Dragon hides. We rest

Hamalasia Save
Saturday, June 9th, 988 AD

For four hours in the morning, Edward makes our sledge bigger. He Summons some reindeer and tells them they have to take us to Kalix Mouth before they can go back about their business. Thalia and Reynaldo make harnesses for the reindeer so they can pull the sledge. After some handling of the Iron Hat that we found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, we realize it’s not the hat that makes our sledge faster, but Reynaldo himself. Reynaldo then remembers that he pulled the Chariot card at the Tarot Dungeon and that’s what’s giving this power. Anything he pilots will be faster than normal because of the Tarot card’s magic.

Reynaldo Items all the dragon hide and we all pile on the sled, which goes faster than we would have had we been force marching. We head towards Kalix Mouth.

After about two and a half hours, a bunch of bees show up. Shara casts Speak with Animals and the bees tell us to wait for Aylee.

She rides up on her giant spider and says that some of the Hamalasia have fallen in with a bad crowd.

Reynaldo: Aren’t you their queen or whatever?
Aylee: Well, yes, I am, but I lost some power when Shara beat me in our duel.
Reynaldo: Well, yeah, you got your ass kicked. I’d stop listening to you too.
Shara: Reynaldo! What bad crowd, Aylee?
Aylee: Well, I didn’t actually see it, the bees did.

The bees say human-sized, flying pistils came and corrupted the Spider-People. We’re a little confused, but after some more coaxing by Shara, the bees say that there were a lot of pistils attached to the same flower. We look at each other and guess octopuses. We discuss our options and head back north to save the Hamalasia.

We’re ambushed by a few Grells, which also resemble one mass with many pistils. They’ve got a new tactic with them, in the form of many tiny Grellings. These little guys are much faster than their older, bigger counterparts, but are also easier to kill. Unfortunately, they target spellcasters exclusively. They paralyze Malina and Shara and telepathically ask them where the World Tree is. Luckily, neither of them can remember. We kill them all and Edward takes one of the Grells’ weapons (an electrically charged spear) and buries it. We search for Hamalasia bodies because Oddvar says the Grells need dead bodies to reproduce. We don’t find any, and let Aylee know when she catches up to us, as well as Thorgrim and Thorgrima since we’re near the Everbloom again. We rest there for the night.

Unprovoked Attacks
Sunday, June 10th, 988 AD

We head back to where the electrical spear was buried and Edward encases it in stone using a Stone Shape. We ride south all day with no incident, so we rest.

During second watch, a bunch of Hamalasia attack us. We kill a few, but most of them just run away. A Grell shows up as well, but Thalia kills it and the remaining Spider-People throw their weapons down and give up.

We ride for another four hours and try to rest again, but two giants come crashing through the forest during first watch. Jean-Claude and Anna hit them with fire spells. We kill one of them, and Reynaldo Magic Jars the other one. He shows neck and we coup de grace him.

We finally rest for the night.

Molk and Yete
Monday, June 11th, 988 AD

In the morning, we loot the giant bodies and come away with 3000 silver pieces and 900 electrum pieces, as well as eleven Hematite gems worth 10 gold each.

We ride south for four hours and meet Molk and Yete, who are going north.

Yete: So, did my predictions come true?
Reynaldo: They most certainly did. Do you have any information for us this time around?
Yete: King Erik the Victorious’ army was able to destroy most of a giant army to the south. The remaining giants are fleeing to the northwest.
Reynaldo: That actually is pretty--
Yete: You killed Kontakna , didn’t you? Yes, you did. But you only killed him the second time, when he was already weakened. The two Emerald Dragons killed him the first time. Kutavorak brought back Kontakna once, will he do so again?
Edward: I’m sorry, who’s Kutavorak?
Yete: You might know him better as Six-Phases. He is a magician of great power.
Reynaldo: You anything about a Cold Woman?
Yete: Yes. You killed her outside of Kontakna’s cave.
Thalia: The snow creature?
Yete: That was the form she chose to take that time.
Reynaldo: Well thanks. Any predictions for us today?
Yete: Beware the ring and the rod that the man bears.

Then she fell asleep. We bid farewell to Molk, who grunted and continued north. We continued south until nightfall.

Traveling
Tuesday through Thursday, June 12th through June 14th, 988 AD

We traveled all three days with only a few Ice Toads attacking on Tuesday night. They were quickly take care of.

King Erik the Victorious
Friday, June 15th, 988 AD

Three hours after waking, we reach Kalix Mouth. We ask around for Orm’s people, but a Captain Gunthorn tries to pressgang us instead. Ivan shows him the ring that King Erik gave him and the Captain leaves us alone.

Skalgrim, a messenger from King Erik, finds us and tells us that King Erik wants to see us. Half the party sighs, but we go with him to an ill-lit tent. In the back somewhere, we can almost make out somebody sitting on a throne. Thalia “accidentally” drops her continual light stone, illuminating the entire tent. We see a big, burly bearded man sitting on a throne with a bunch of guys sitting around him. There are also a handful of skeletons standing around the inside of the tent.

King Erik is wearing some kind of fantastic ring that makes Ivan, Conrad, Stepanova, and Shara really want it. They start attacking each other. King Erik leaves exasperated and tells us to find him later. Edward casts Dispel Magic on the four of them and they stop hitting each other. We ignore King Erik’s directions after getting into an argument with his guards, and continue looking for Orm’s people instead.

We find a guy named Inar who tells us that King Erik has been driving giants north for awhile, but he doesn’t want to kill them all lest barbarians attack. Reynaldo reminds Inar that they are the barbarians, but Inar ignores him. The last battle went particularly well because a fellow named Maka Ripo led the giants straight into a trap. King Erik is in a very good mood because of this victory. We tell him we couldn’t really tell. Inar also tells us that most of Orm’s people have either been pressganged into Erik’s army or have moved south.

After this news, we decide to go meet with King Erik, except for Ivan and Thalia, who go to a bar instead. The rest of the party meets with Thorgnir, King Erik’s advisor. He tells the same thing about the giants and we tell him about what happened up north. Thorgnir then asks about Gotland, specifically Sigrid. King Erik would very much like to know how she is wearing her hair. We tell him we don’t remember as it was over four months ago.

We travel south for an hour and then put the Valgae Leya on the water. We sail down the coast at our increased speed until nightfall.

Dragon Hide
Saturday, June 16th, 988 AD

We continue sailing until we reach Ketelheim. We find an armorer there named Ottley whom Jean-Claude immediately charms. He tells us that each suit of dragon hide would cost about 5000gp to make and that they’d be pretty brittle once made. As a party we have enough cash on hand for maybe one suit. We decide it’s not worth and just start selling the dragon hide. We sell two yards of the hide to the armorer for 500 gold.

Shara then pools all of her money, borrowing 200 gold from Dorn, and gets Ottley to make her holy symbol.

End of Chapter Seven