Hammer 15, 1489
Dre'zel my love,
Sensing that there was trouble below, I slid down the rope and saw a black ooze on the ceiling over Ambrose. I shot it down, but it fell on Ambrose, and it began eating away at his clothes.
Thankfully, the monk was able to punch it, ignoring the acid eating at his knuckles, until it stopped moving.
Slashing the ooze with her sword, Taimen had split it into three oozes, damaging her sword in the process.
With the ooze destroyed, Vellynne went into a narrative, but was interrupted by Taimen, who was alerted by Princess Skullcrusher that several well-armed bugbears were fast approaching.
Eager to avoid a confrontation, the decision was made to vacate the premises as quickly as possible. When we reached the spire entrance, I saw the bugbears approaching from the east and cast Pass Without Trace, allowing us to sneak away undetected.
As we travelled toward Easthaven, Talyth granted darkvision to Jojo, Princess Skulcrusher, and most importantly, herself.
Meanwhile, Vellynne continued her narrative, explaining that she joined The Arcane Brotherhood late in life and went on about how cutthroat the organization is. It kind of reminded me of home, on a much smaller scale. She said she joined because her life's work and passion was to learn more about the lost empire of Netheril. She told us about Vaelish Gant, a power-hungry member of The Brotherhood, who tried to take over Ten Towns about a decade ago and is now imprisoned at Revel's End, a prison along the Sea of Moving Ice. She said that The Brotherhood sent people to Icewind Dale because of disturbances in the weave, which she believed to be a result of a lost city of Netheril somewhere in the Dale. Based on the location of the spire, Vellynne calculates the location of the lost city to most likely be within the Reghed Glacier. She seeks the Codicil of White because it contains text that could crack open the Reghed Glacier and allow access to Ythryn, the Netherese city in the glacier. Ythryn likely fell well before the other Netherese cities, which means it fell for a different reason. She thinks Codicil of White is with Auril on her snowflake island, which corresponds with Talyth's visions. Vellynne said she hopes we can work together to stop Xardorok. Talyth believes she is sincere, which is good enough for me.
Claiming that she had a lot of research to do, Vellynne departed for Easthaven on her sled. She said we could find her at the White Woman Inn.
After traveling for an hour, we stopped to rest and sheltered in Talyth’s Tiny Hut.
In the morning, we continued on our way toward Easthaven.
It was still dark when Ambrose tugged on the rope and indicated he’d heard something. Scouting, I saw a polar bear sliding toward us. Then I realized it was sliding specifically toward Jojo, and catching my gaze, it indicated a request for quiet. I knew this must be related to the werebear of Jojo’s tales and granted the request.
The werebear, Mynoch, playfully teased Jojo. They talked for a short while, and Jojo requested Mynoch share its curse with him. Mynoch seemed reluctant but eventually consented. After being bitten, Jojo transformed almost immediately, becoming a bear himself, though much smaller than Mynoch.
Mynoch traveled with us for an hour until we reached the shores of Lac Dinneshere. Along the way, he told us where the fisherfolk were most likely to have gone and warned us of harpies around the lake.
With Mynoch gone, we plugged our ears as best we could and traversed the southern shore of Lac Dinneshere until we found a rowboat overturned near a series of caves.
There were four caves in a cliff facing the lake. Three of the caves were 20-30 feet up the cliffside. The floor of the last cave was a frozen stream at ground level, and from within was a pleasant smell of something cooking.
There were no tracks outside the cave, and the rowboat appeared to have been unattended for days. When we turned over the rowboat, we found standard fishing gear and some spoiled fish.
As we approached the caves, Jojo transformed into a bear, which knocked the plugs out of his ears. Of course, it was at this time that we were attacked by four harpies. I was inside the cave, looking for tracks, when they attacked.
I popped out and shot one of the harpies three times, dropping the flying creature. Even though Jojo had briefly succumbed to their song, they were all soon put down.
Inside the cave, I found tracks of four booted humanoids entering the cave.
As Jojo led the way into the cave, he smelled pork stew coming from within. Small holes throughout the ceiling shed dim light throughout the cave. I watched our rear as we entered.
The frozen stream soon led to a frozen waterfall, fifteen feet high and wide.
Saritu scaled the walls using her slippers and dropped a rope down. When Taimen tried to use the rope to climb up the waterfall, her foot broke through the ice and she was soon sucked into the ice by something!
When she managed to pull herself free, Talyth cast Faerie Fire and illuminated the water elemental swirling within.
Uttering the command of my red feather bow, I shot three arrows into the hole, striking the Water Weird until it stopped and the glow went out.
After we had all scaled the waterfall, we could see a frozen bridge up ahead, twenty feet over the frozen stream.
Another passage broke off to the right, just above the level of the stream. The smell seemed to be coming from the passage, so we followed it.
Beyond some rising slope, we found a chamber with a frozen pool in the center. Encased in the ice was a huge skeleton of a frost giant. It was lying still, but as we approached, its eyes opened, and it began watching us from its frozen tomb.
Just then, we heard cries for help coming from further in the cave. It sounded feminine, and Ambrose ran ahead.
Following Ambrose into a much larger chamber, we saw three old women bound near a large, boiling cast-iron cauldron. They seemed to have been beaten and bound, and said their companion had already been cooked. They introduced themselves as Maldova, Morona, and Sara.
Talyth quickly saw through their guise and realized they were actually three old hags. Once they realized their ruse had been spoiled, they revealed themselves and soon focused on Jojo. They knew him by name and claimed that his mother had sold them to him. Then they put him to sleep and tried to slit his throat, but their nails could not penetrate his werebear hide. Fortunately, Talyth was able to revive him quickly.
Meanwhile, I warned everyone that the giant was breaking through the ice as I ran across the hag’s chamber and shot one of them down with three arrows.
Soon, all three hags were down and thrown into the boiling cauldron, and Taimen hamstrung the frost giant skeleton, proving the adage, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
As we took a short rest, Saritu identified the cauldron as a Cauldron of Plenty.
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