Rime of the Frost Maiden: Caer Konig and Duergar

Having finished the assault on Caer Dineval, the party was rewarded with free room and board by the Town Speaker, Crannoc. The party went a step further by agreeing to police up the bodies, if for no other reason than to take all of the chardalyn amulets.

Deciding that the amulets were too much of a danger to leave out, the party collected them and went to put them in a lockbox and bury them.

At the burial site, they felt they were being watched. After stopping and looking, the party found dwarf tracks! Remembering the warning from the soothsayer about duergar, the party the party planned for something else.

Deciding that they would set a trap for the dwarves, the party lay in wait, and prepared for them.

Seeing no one, but seeing dirt moving, the bard cast faerie fire upon the figures, showing six invisible dwarves… duergar!!

The battle went quickly, the first two being felled within the first round (including surprise round), and the rest being distracted by the cleric’s thaumaturgy spell to throw his voice yelling from the opposite side of the battle.

Burying the bodies, the party took the box of chardalyn and cut a hole into the ice and placed the box in the water, and then placed the ice back on top, remembering where it was for future reference.

The party decided to have Speaker Crannoc hold onto Cora’s son until they could decide how to deal with him and take him back to his mother. In the mean time, they planned on heading towards Caer Konig.

Arriving at Caer Konig, and this time without their local guide (the monk’s player was unavailable this week), the party had to navigate things on their own. They looked at their map for the local inn and upon finding it, were greeted by a drunk silver dragonborn fumbling his way out of a snowdrift.

Introducing himself as Speaker Trovus, I’m drunk and when you’re dealt them with the problem of thievery going on in Caer Konig: the magical lantern for which the Northern Lights Inn is named, a bag of worked pearls from Frozenfar Expeditions (an adventurer outfitting shop), and a pair of goats from the local tavern, the Hook, Line, and Sinker.

Following him into the tavern, the party got more information from the two innkeepers/owners, a pair of sisters, Allie and Cori, who advised them of a set of dwarf footprints found out by the back of her inn. The party saw the prints heading out of town towards Kelvin’s Cairn.

Also looking for information on Garret (the missing husband of the man in Targos; the reason they were in Caer Konig to begin with), the party began to believe that the two were related, seeing how all signs pointed to the Cairn, and headed to Frozenfar to see what they could dig up on Garret. The proprietor, Atenas Swift, remembered him and the adventuring company he traveled with, a goliath warrior, a lightfoot halfling, and a female tiefling. They were heading towards the Cairn for a treasure expedition.

Taking a nice rest, the party headed out the next day.

Tracking the dwarf prints were easier than before as a new set were found in town, heading towards the Cairn.

The party followed them for miles until the tracks were too worn away from the wind and snow. The ranger, however, was very good at his job and soon track down the trail, although heading away from the Cairn. These tracks were joined by an ogre’s tracks about halfway to the destination, northeast of the Cairn.

Proceeding cautiously, it wasn’t long until the party found a small fortress, dwarven by make, in the side of a hill. Being cautious and quiet worked in their favor as they made the approach without being spotted. The party got inside, where they saw the ogre, or rather an ogre zombie, sitting in a cage, which began to wail and saw them. Deciding to move quickly, the party headed to the east through a door. A duerger turned and began to yell, but not before being hit twice with two arrows, killing her.

The party entered further into the room, with the Ranger at last deciding to close the door they just went in through. Just as he closed the door he saw another duergar entering the hall that they just left, looking at the open door to the main hall that they left open. He began yelling for reinforcements to investigate.

The party lay in wait, knowing they were discovered, waiting further in, and having the half-orc cleric stand on the trap door leading to the guard tower, preventing the duergar within from coming into the room with them.

Battle was joined. The ogre zombie and three duergar, all enlarged, came down to engage with them in battle.

The battle was not difficult, but the party took their lumps, including a crit on the ranger from the lead duergar, Nildar.

The party managed to capture and interrogate the last duergar, the one in the trapdoor below, and executed him afterwards, not wanting to give him a chance to escape to his compatriots.

They discovered several bits of knowledge: the first was that Nildar was the son of Xardorok, the duergar that they were warned of; the second was that Xardorok was collecting chardalyn to create a dragon of some kind, and last, that this outpost was chosen to be a staging ground for an invasion against the dwarven mines near the Cairn.

Armed with this information, the party returned the goods and then headed back to the Cairn.

They found a base camp, with a dogsled overturned, and four dogs, cold, hungry, yet friendly, left behind. The ranger got them settled and fed, inside of a tent. They found the lead they needed and looked up the Cairn towards where Garret hopefully was still alive…

Will they find Garret? What about the adventuring party he was with? Will they stop Xardorok from his nefarious plot?

Find out next week when they head up the Cairn to see!

Until next time dear readers!