That night, the party meets their old friend Sengo in the eating hall of the dwarven stronghold. (Actually Julius and Valrick are the only characters that know him from Barovia). Sengo was hunting down the two remaining night hags in Barovia and had tracked them to this plane. He exited the Astral plane 1000 feet up like the party did, but unlike them he had no spell to fly, and would have died if not found by dwarves who saw him fall and brought him back to the stronghold to recuperate.
While he catches up with the party, the Dwarven wizard Satrogur from the stronghold overhears and offers to cast See Invisible for them. Sengo has Tiny Hut, which should protect them, unless a hag happened in the Ethereal plane to be next to them when he casts it. Ix swaps a spell with Satrogur to get See Invisible. When casting the spells that night, the wizard spots some astral squids that had latched on to Ix, and blasts them off! They clear the area and cast Tiny Hut. The next morning, everyone had a great sleep! Except, the wizard Satrogur, who was haunted by the nightmares. Grumpy Satrogur demands to know the Tiny Hut spell to be able to protect himself now that he seems to be a target for the nightmares.
The party decides to try to retrieve the adamantine ring that legends say the cloud giant Belnoth wore when he was killed, and then go to the city to try to find the gnome that apparently initiated the plan to use a construct bird to steal the Horn of Valhalla. Satrogur casts teleport to take the party to the top of the mountain quickly, and will then cast control weather and concentrate on it for 8 hours to summon the lenticular cloud that will bring the cloud giant castle to the mountain long enough for the party to explore it. Hopefully they can get back to the city the following day to stop the army mobilising against the dwarves.
It’s bitterly cold at the top of the mountain, and there now stands an ice bridge, 30’ wide and 200’ long to a giant castle floating on the cloud. They tie a rope to Serma the goliath and everyone holds it as they cross the bridge. Halfway across the vigilant Teren hears a faint whistle of wind behind, and turns to spot a gargantuan bird swooping towards them at top speed - a roc! Ix lets off two fireballs, and Teren lands an arrow but the roc keeps coming and attempts to sweep the entire group off the bridge. Everyone jumps flat except for Julius who is knocked off. He manages to hold onto the rope and Serma slams her axe into the ice for grip as she manages to hold the rope fast. Julius is pulled back up and the party rushes for the castle as the bird wheels and comes back. This time it bites and claws, picking up Nagwen. Ix casts a ray of enfeeblement, shocking the bird, which starts to retreat. Serma grabs Nagwen’s leg and manages to yank him out of the weakened claw.
After taking more hits, the roc flees, and the party slips through the huge iron portcullis, except for Serma, who has to be lowered a rope from the ramparts and pulled up. The skeletons and rusted weapons of many dwarves and giants litter the courtyard, which is a 200’ radius semicircle. The main door to the keep has rotted away. Teren finds a ring on one of the dwarf skeletons which is magical! A ring of jumping. And a few coins scattered. They notice that now there are griffons far away circling the far towers of the keep. They must have a nest somewhere.
The entry hall has some other halls and rooms off to the side but the throne room at the end is where Belnoth was slain, and they head directly there. More skeletons, but the biggest is Belthoth’s, with a might axe by his side, and the ring on his finger. Patches of rust on his skeleton. There is a huge (10’ wide) stone bowl in the centre with runes carved into it. It’s magical (scrying) as is the huge axe. The bowl needs water in it to function. Serma grabs the axe and Teren can’t resist looting it, but uses a rope to pull the hand. It falls apart and disturbs the rust-colored spores that start spreading. They flee the room but Teren inhaled a little, and is now coughing occasionally.
Half the party wants to go now that they have the ring, and the other half are thinking of looting. Teren has already disappeared into one of the side rooms that appears to be Belnoth’s chambers. Chests that were already looted are open and falling apart. Shelves carved into the wall contain some huge waxed scroll-cases. And there’s a 5’ hole in the floor which must be the privy. Two of the 5’x10’ leather scrolls are magic, and two are mundane, but contain history of how Belnoth conquered these mountains from the silver and white dragons that inhabited the south and north mountains.
“Even as it was dying, the great silver worm scrabbled to stop me reaching the glowing orb. ‘Please, no, my egg’ it wailed. But how and why was an egg so powerfully enchanted? Later, another worm eventually gave up the story after much torture. It originally wanted to destroy the ‘abomination’ as it was the result of a terrible white dragon forcefully mating with the silver. The mother would not allow the destruction of her egg, and so the silver dragons decided to seal it in a bubble of reality, where it could not grow to hatch. Regardless, I did try to remove some of the protections put upon it, but was only partly successful. It is powerful and will adorn my throne room as a trophy of my conquest.”
After scouring the room and only finding a few loose coins remaining from the looting that occurred 300 years ago, the party decides to leave. The cold is beginning to bite, and some fail a constitution check, becoming disadvantaged by the freezing. (Not Julius, as he had a protection spell running for the last hour). After crossing the bridge back to the mountain and assessing the way down, Teren spots two shapes several miles off. Two rocs with giants mounted on them! Ix quickly casts fly and duplicates it several times to allow the 6 of them to fly down the mountain for 10 minutes. Again, Teren’s sharp eyes briefly spotted some yetis on the mountainside! They land below the snow line, leaving no tracks in the snow.
After an hour’s trek, they hear a soft melody from above the trail. They resist the lure, but more voices join, and they realise it is a clutch of harpies! Now they must resist 6 songs, and Teren and Nagwen dreamily start climbing towards the harpies. Julius casts dispel magic twice to free them! Teren begins to stuff wax from a candle into his ears. Ix intimidates the harpies and warns them off further seduction attempts. They are quiet until we are a little past them, then can’t resist trying again. BOOM goes the boosted fireball. Several are exploded and bits come raining down, along with some rocks and pebbles, while four of the harpies manage to fly off.
The group arrives at the dwarven stronghold in the evening, and the dwarves seem to be in great spirits. Ix notes that they refer to their lord as the “King under the Mountain” now, and thinks, they must have the horn back. He is correct… The dwarves are celebrating the return of their ancestral artefact, which King Hradr is now wearing. There is a bird-construct perched on his shoulder. The wizard Satrogur explains that two hours ago, the bird appeared carrying the horn. It seems the gnome’s plan worked! Satrogur is still willing to help the party retrieve the other items for the humans, and will have the adamantine rod ready to cast plane shift with by tomorrow morning.
Sleeping in Tiny Hut again proves to work, with no nightmares! Serma attunes to the Giant Berserker Axe, which requires 19 strength to use, and is +3 but requires a wisdom save to stop fighting. Satrogur still can’t contact the gnome with the Sending spell. He suggests using the scrying pool in the castle. But if they don’t get to town today, the humans will be sending an army against the dwarves. Julius sets up a shrine to Satrogur can Kelemvor in the vault where many dwarves died fighting the humans off 100 years ago. Now he can recall to that place when needed. Satrogur can teleport the party to the gates of Riventa (the human town).
Unfortunately the guard on duty is the same one that Ix tricked with a spell last time. The party are told to wait in a holding room while their royal writ is checked (mainly just to inconvenience them). The guard tries to shackle them too, but Ix gives him a death-stare and some death words too. While Teren starts to pick the lock of the 20x20 room they’re in, they notice a figure in the hay on the floor. It’s a young woman with dirt and twigs in her hair. She gets up and says “You will pay for what you’ve done” and claws at Julius. Another figure appears in the corner of the room and casts magic missile at him too. They’re Night Hags!
They are both attacking Julius (Valrick isn’t there) and Sengo and Serma (who is from the castle) went with the guards to fetch the guard captain. Ix casts knock on the door to open it, and calls for the guards so they know what’s going on. The others are doing some damage to the older hag, and then Julius casts Hold Person on them. The older one is held and can’t do anything while being peppered with attacks! She dies just as the younger one bends down and grabs her corpse, taking it with her into the ethereal plane.
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