Session 19

The Petrified Forest, Part I
Sebastian, having scouted out the road ahead, met up with the rest of the group on the outskirts of the Petrified Forest, and together they entered. Immediately they felt a chill through their bones, and the further they walked into the forest, the further the temperature plummeted. All the color seemed to fade from their surroundings, leaving everything white and shades of grey. There were no signs of life at all - no sounds of birds chirping as one might expect in a forest, no tracks of animals, no rustling of leaves. Snow covered the ground, and a thick layer of frost covered the foliage. They could all sense the presence of the Fey nearby - it was clear to some that the boundary between the natural world and the Feywild was thin in this location. Caraga's knowledge of Arcana and Sebastian's knowledge of the Eladrin brought them ever closer to the Fey city they sought.

The adventurers kept their balance over icy terrain and endured the sub-zero conditions, and reached the edge of a clearing just as the sun began to set. They waited patiently, and at dusk a rift between the natural world and the Feywild opened, revealing the Fey city of Frostheart. They tentatively entered and looked around in amazement - everything in the city was frozen solid, including its citizens. They slowly walked through the ice-slick streets of what had once been an open market, passing Eladrin who had evidently been flash-frozen in the middle of whatever they were doing. Thus, they were surprised to suddenly hear a voice from behind them ask, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

They turned to find a haggard-looking Eladrin with disheveled white hair and tattered robes addressing them. He eyed them suspiciously, appearing nervous and possibly a little crazy. Taargus and Twitch both explained that they were from the "normal" world, and asked what had happened. Without much convincing, the Eladrin answered their questions. "My name is Immeral," he explained, "and I am the only witness to what occurred here 500 years ago. A ghaele of winter named Anastrianna took this city hostage - surely you can see how strange that is!" When he realized that perhaps only one member of the party did indeed see how strange that was, he elaborated. "Ghaeles are noble Eladrin - they are so attuned to the arcane power of the Feywild that they become immensely powerful. But normally they are just and good, not evil - and they certainly don't suddenly become evil!"

He explained to the group that Anastrianna was the head of the castle of Frostheart, and that he had served as the captain of her guard before the Great Frost happened. One day, a human clad in white armor entered the Feywild seeking Anastrianna's audience. Against Immeral's better judgement, he allowed the unarmed man entry into the castle. He heard a commotion and ran in, only to see the human stabbing the ghaele in the heart with an icicle, the likes of which he had never seen before. "This was no ordinary icicle," he assured them, and they exchanged knowing looks. "Her attacker fled when he saw me," Immeral continued. "I went to check on Anastrianna, and she was still alive! But something about her was different, and strange...I chased her assailant out of the city, but could not catch him, and when I turned back to my beloved home, I saw Anastrianna turn everything - and everyone - into ice. Even the forest in the middle world bordering on Frostheart - your world - became frigid and lifeless. I left the city, fearing what Anastrianna would do to me if she found me, and wandered the forest for years, searching for icicles like the one I had seen. I took any that I found with me, and wandered the natural world, searching for someone with answers to what they were and how they could be used to bring Anastrianna back to her old self. Centuries later, I still have no answers, and I have not found a perpetual icicle in many years."

The adventurers gathered into a huddle to discuss this new knowledge. "Could the attacker have been Whitehelm?" Taargus wondered.

"It was 500 years ago - how is that possible?" Caraga interjected.

"Whitehelm was a good man, he wouldn't have done something like that!" Fausto insisted. "Caraga taught him to recycle, so he couldn't have been all that bad," he added; and then, a little quieter, "Also, he may have been my father."

Fausto continued to mumble about how his mother had been a prostitute and it wasn't something he liked to discuss, when Twitch, in a moment of unusual lucidity, reminded the group that Whitehelm may have been a good man when he died, but they knew very little about his life.

They turned back to question Immeral about the attacker, and while the Eladrin did not know the man's name, he confirmed that he did indeed wear a white helmet. Though Caraga tried to warn him against it, Taargus revealed to Immeral that they had a perpetual icicle. He pointed them to the castle where the ghaele resided, appearing old and defeated. "Perhaps you can find the answers I have long searched for," he said, and left them to go on their way.

The castle was surrounded by a frozen moat with a treacherously slippery surface, but they crossed it with little difficulties. Cora spotted something shining beneath the surface of an area of thin ice, and broke through it to retrieve a Helm of Battle. Once inside the castle, they peered through dim light to see icy stalagmites jutting from the ground and misty white patches of chokefrost blocking their path. They began to navigate around these hazards, only to find that the castle was guarded by a pack of Ice Hounds. The hounds blasted melee fighters many times with their icy breath weapons, and Cora and Taargus took most of the damage. Hitting the dogs with ranged attacks, Fausto and Sebastian finished most of the beasts off from afar. Caraga and Twitch searched for loot while their companions fought - Caraga discovered a magical Rope of Climbing that had been knotted up and discarded in a corner, and also found a jar of Alchemist's Acid buried under a pile of snow. Twitch similarly found a jar of Alchemist's Fire when he shoved his hand deep into a different pile of snow.



They had nearly explored the entire first floor of the castle when Taargus ventured out ahead of the rest of the group, and found himself alone in a very tiny room with a very large Owlbear (not to be confused with the wholly different Bearowl). Hearing his cries for help, Cora and Fausto rushed to his aid - Fausto miraculously managed to ricochet an arrow through the open doorway and off a wall to hit the beast, while Taargus immobilized it with a dizzying blow. Taking advantage of its crippled state, Cora killed the creature, thus ending the most anticlimactic battle the group had ever been party to. Cora swiped an Amulet of Protection that the Owlbear had dropped, and Fausto wrested the beak off of the beast's corpse, to be used for unknown purposes later.

Meanwhile, Twitch had entered a room on the other end of the hallway that was so filled with chokefrost he could not see to the other side. Feeling lucky, he strode through the icy mist, feeling it begin to solidify around him. He found a locked chest on the other side of the haze, and quickly picked the lock to gain 1,500 gp. He managed to escape the room before becoming trapped in the chokefrost, and reconvened with the rest of the group, who had just finished dealing with the Owlbear. Together, they made their way to the second floor of the castle...

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