When we last joined our intrepid heroes they were resting easy once-more in the high-pillared Grand Hall of the Mountainroot Temple; after having narrowly escaped the collapsing barracks infested with agents from the Feywilde the Partay rested on the middle landing while Madboy poured over the mysterious Enchiridion Infinium – an ancient dwarven tome of legendary knowledge and the power that comes with it. Madboy, becoming distressed when she failed to decrypt the cypher laid over the text, fussed and fumed while the rest of the Partay slept. When they awoke their Gnomish companion had vanished, leaving the book she had so recently claimed as her prize in the unsteady care of the party.
As the party arose from their respective slumbers/meditations a bone-deep chill blossomed throughout the otherwise silent temple and a snowy bearded man landed before the Party. He introduced himself as Syman (or, to alleviate confusion) the Ice-King, a former champion of Bahamut now possessing the body of the furious bear-shifter barbarian the Partay knew, Rexx. While not-all members of the party were thrilled at the re-introduction of the barbarian-turned-wizard the Ice-King quickly won favor when he admitted to knowing Amyria and liking to party. The group gathered itself together and, using the Enchridion as a make-shift toboggan, ventured into the chamber at the top of the Grand Hall, its doors shattered to ruins from the violent trolls who had smashed them to bits what seems like so long ago.
Exploring up the stairs of the narrow hallway revealed Madboy, easily recognizable with her imposing dragon-head mask, engaged in a heated conversation with a slender Githyanki, his arm was bound in a peculiar metallic sling. Before our daring ranger could close the gap and demand answers at the head of an arrow the pair slipped away through an unseen exit. Closing to pursue the party soon found themselves embroiled in a fierce combat against a horde of trolls and dragonborn minion left behind to wipe the party out. The chamber itself was a massive reliquary; towering structures of stairways lead to a central platform high-above an enchanted crystalline disk. Stormy quickly charged in to engage in the bloody battle, elation coursing through her crys’als as her warhammer impacted with bone-crushing force and sapphire streaks of primal lightning. Echts tumbled through the melee, dodging blows while hurling flurries of fists and feet in draconian fury. Ash continued to plant shurikens & lightning in any offending mercenary, utilizing fire in order to put down the damnable regenerating trolls for good.
Addy hissed biting words of torment and malice at the belligerent beasts, wounding their morale down to shredded stumps as the mad ice-mage hurled arctic blasts of arcane energy throughout every corner of the massive room. An ancient eidolon, once a stoic sentry for the temple leftover from its long-past days of glory, guarded the chamber with such a ferocity it took nearly all of the Party’s already-frayed focus to prevent it from being a major buzz-kill (aka ripping us to shreds). Despite shrugging off blows that would kill lesser goliaths the guardian was ultimately crushed in an icy fist before plummeting more than 50 ft shattering the cobblestone floor below.
Though the enemy was routed the party had no-clue as to who this treacherous githyanki was, or their connection to their sometimes-ally Madboy. Once the last death-rattle echoed through the otherwise silent chamber the Party began to investigate the impressive room; Syman quickly discovered a doorway that led in to the Astral Sea, and though he could not pass the barrier laid over the temple’s ways he was entranced in the swirling beauty of the sea of stars; Echts, still in pursuit of a gift worthy of Amyria’s praise, found a bitchin’ poster featuring the good-aligned pantheon crushing evil beneath their collective feet/talons/etc; Addy, covered in ectoplasmic goo after repeatedly shish-kabobing a pair of trolls on her halberd, discovered a pair of old dwarven boots, worn but impeccably well-made; Ash used his ranger-tracking to attempt and locate signs of Madboy’s escape route; Stormy explored a grim and filthy quarters before discovering a horrific torture chamber in the adjoining room which contained the caretaker of the Mountainroot Temple. An aged azer who had been tortured to the point of being nearly-insane, Stormy hastily retreated to request the assistance of the rest of the Partay, accepting Echts (as he has developed a poor-reputation for handling sensitive situations). The Azer, faced with the true insanity of the Ice-King (who had busied himself by making the enchanted crystal into an enchanted ice-rink), was able to recover enough to warn us of Zithruun’s (the githyanki general) plot to bring War to Overlook from outside and within by use of the Temple Between’s many portals.
The Caretaker went on to caution that though we had foiled Zithruun’s attempt to sneak a battalion into the heart of Overlook the general still had an army of mercenaries preparing to lay siege to the city. After assisting in a minor ritual to return the temple under the Caretaker’s steady-handed control, he pressed the Enchiridion into our hands and hurried us back towards the hidden portal that would spit us out in the Stone Anvil. We bade the slightly-more-sane azer a fond farewell before turning back to the portal, taking a breath, and stepping through.
What will the Partay find when we return to Overlook? How will the city’s council take our shocking news, and what Scale of War will come to the city? Why has the Ice-King taken control of Rexx? Will Echts ever find Amyria a quality Thong? What is Addy’s involvement in this war, and how did she come to be tied up in the crumbling temple at the hands of the wicked Fey? We will face all these questions and more on Saturday (5ish?) for Party Partay and the Scales of War!!
