Road to Hyperborea, Chapter Four
Dragonslayers
Tuesday, May 22nd, 988 AD
Sometime during the night, a person of the Asian persuasion comes into Thorgrim and Thorgrima's cave and speaks quick Cantonese at Wong. She looks uneasy and quickly confers with Nicolae. Then she tells us that she has to go. She doesn't say where or for how long, just that she has to go. She wishes us luck in Raising Lady Anna and leaves the cave. Nicolae, like a dutiful puppy, follows her out. The rest of us shrug our shoulders and continue sleeping. We'd probably be more concerned if we weren't hemorrhaging adventurers all the time. There must be a revolving door following us around or something.
In the morning we heal up and decide to go kill that dragon to the west so that Edward can become more powerful. Reynaldo goes out there first to scout the area, make sure there aren't any surprises that we wouldn't rather be made aware of and properly plan for.
He Polymorphs into a bird and flies to the west. He finds a cave with the bones of a snake on its apogee and six little huts surrounding it. There are a few Kobolds darting in and out of the huts; Reynaldo sees a total of five Kobolds, but figures there's probably about eighteen total, three to a hut. He dives under the snow and tries to get closer to listen in on them, and he hears them say something about worshipping something called "Kontakna," but then a Kobold steps on Reynaldo and sounds the alarm. Reynaldo quickly moves away and they can't find him, but he sees aboout a dozen Kobolds dart into the cave. His recon mission all but blown, Reynaldo heads back to the others. His Polymorph spell runs out about ten minutes out, so the trek back takes slightly longer than the trek out.
He reports his findings, and Thorbjorn mentions that Kebnekaise used to have a bunch of Kobolds who called Korminak their leader. Vera, Reynaldo, and Shara all give appreciative nods and then we all start planning for the death of a dragon. This involves an Earth Elemental conjured up by Jean-Claude, a pumped-up Thalia and Ivan, and everybody else just hammering away until it dies. If it takes to the air, the two mages are responsible for grounding it. We also decide we should probably take turns beating on it as its breath weapon might hurt a lot and could conceivably take out a lot of us in one shot. We also decide to finally give ourselves a proper name and decide on the Intrepid Heroes.
As we're planning, a female by the name of Malina shows up. She is a witch from Kiev who has fought alongside the Bogatyrs, or so she says. We are dutifully impressed with her credentials and ask her to join us since we are so shorthanded (especially since Dorn and Shara have come down with some kind of food poisoning). She agrees and we head west.
Malina comes to immediately regret her decision as we are attacked by a pair of Ice Devils. The fear half the party, and Ivan, Thalia, Conrad, Vera, and Edward all run away, leaving Stepanova, Malina, Reynaldo, Moishe, and Jean-Claude. Moishe is immediately knocked unconscious, followed shortly by Stepanova and Malina, but not before both give admirable efforts. The mages had both hidden in the snow until one of the Devils picked up Stepanova and started flying away. Reynaldo grabbed both Moishe and Malina and tried to hide them as well, while Jean-Claude Polymorphed into the spitting image of Beilor. He bullshits as much as he can, trying to talk them into leaving everybody where they found them, but the Devils explain they're working for Kontakna and need to bring back an offering. The one with Stepanova leaves, but the other one is chased down by Jean-Claude and killed. The other half of the party rejoins us shortly thereafter and we rest out in cold expanse, hoping Stepanova can survive the few hours it will take us to recharge.
After resting, we continue west. Jean-Claude casts Haste on Thalia, Ivan, and Conrad, while Reynaldo casts Strength on Thalia and Ivan. Jean-Claude then summons an Earth Elemental and Reynaldo casts his Magic Jar, talking through Moishe when the need arises. We come to the cave Reynaldo had described and saw twelve Kobolds lined up outside of the cave mouth, six on each side, all cheering. An eerie cadence comes from inside the cave. Reynaldo immediately jumps into one of the Kobolds and kills the one to his immediate right with a backstab. The Kobolds protest.
Kobold: What are you doing? This is supposed to be between you guys and Kontakna! We're just bystanders!
Kobold-Rey: Then I suggest you not stand on the battlefield and cheer for the other guy, asshole!
The Kobolds all flee but the cadence continues from within the cave. Suddenly, a Bone Dragon rushed out of the cave, buzzing us with his Breath Weapon. We all scatter, except for Thalia, Ivan, and the Earth Elemental, who pound on the Dragon as it bites and claws. It takes to the air, but Malina and Kobold-Rey shoot it with Magic Missiles and Lightning Bolts, some of which he shrugs off with aid of some Magic Resistance. Nonetheless, we are able to kill it, snuffing out the otherworldly glow in its eyes. The bones lose their magic cohesiveness and fall apart to the ground.
We go into the cave and see that a heretofore unseen thirteenth Kobold was beating a drum, keeping cadence. He abruptly stops when he sees us approach. The cave doesn't go in very far, and contains a lot of treasure at its end, as well as a naked Stepanova in a cage, high above the treasure. Reynaldo and Jean-Claude both volunteer to go get her, but Thalia and Edward beat them to it, while not ogling her.
The treasure in the cave amounts to a lot of cash, as well as two potions (both detect as Alteration and Combat magic), two interlocked rings (one of which disappears when Detect Magic is cast on it; the other detects as Abjuration), a large two-handed sword that has turned green (it detects as Alteration and Combat as well), a statue of a man or dwarf holding a staff (which detects as Conjuration/Summoning and Elemental), an golden torque, a large diamond, and a Scroll of Protection from Electricity, 20 foot-diameter sphere. We also figure out the Iron Hat that Anna found in the waters outside Kevel detects as Alteration and Animal.
The two Kobolds we have as prisoners tell us that the Bone Dragon was the avatar of Kontakna, a northern god. The Ice Devils are Kontakna's servants and were responsible for bringing offerings. Now that we have slain Kontakna's avatar, it shall find another. How long that will take, or where it will manifest, the Kobolds don't know. We let them go and rest in the cave, amidst our riches.
The Cold Man
Wednesday, May 23rd, 988 AD
We heal up in the morning and Edward Divinates on the next best course of action. God tells us about all kinds of things hanging out nearby: a dragon and some giants to the west of the Bone Dragon's cave, some Grells even further west, some large spiders in some nearby woods, the ever ubiquitous furry snakes, the Cold Woman we've been warned about numerous times, and apparently, a Cold Man who's hunting us. That last part's kind of unnerving, but we continue onward.
As we near the mouth of the cave, we see that an ice sculpture resembling castle ramparts has been built on either side of the cave. Jean-Claude casts a Wall of Fire towards one of the ice walls in an effort to melt it before we continue out, but nothing happens. Vera scales the cave wall to touch the ice sculpture and tells us that it's an illusion. Then a giant snow monster attacks from in between the illusory ice walls. We beat it a lot, and Ivan goes down, but we kill it.
We go back into the cave to rest, but two hours in, Reynaldo starts to laugh uncontrollably. Edward quickly casts a Dispel Magic and that seems to take care of it. We assume it's the magic from that magic doll that attacked us when we were prisoners in Gotland.
We resume our rest.
End of Chapter Four
