Session 13 -- The Floor Is Lava

Session 13 -- The Floor Is Lava

As the party approached the realm of the fire giants, Tiv, Vedica, and Dwårfy perceived a dark-skinned elf picking his way carelessly along the ridge. Unsure if the others were friend or foe, both sides advanced carefully.  In the middle of the tense standoff, Jack stepped forward and thrust his hand out.

“Hi! My name’s Jack. We’re here to steal some nails from the fire giants.”

“Do we really want to be that up front?” Tiv asked Dwårfy.

“That’s not quite right,” corrected Murchad. “We were going to trade with them for it.”

“Meh,” said Jack with a smirk, “I don’t get along much with giants.”

The elf introduces himself as Ceangal. As he and the party get to know each other, they exchange information about themselves, and it comes to light that they appear to be on the same mission. Ceangal is trying to track down the Drow who have the kinapped children because his brother is leading them, and the party is doing the same. Ceangal missed the Drow at the Gloomspring Court, and so he was coming to the fire giants to ask for a piece of armor that would help him in his quest. The party wants a magical nail crafted for Granny Crabapple so they can get to the Shadowfell.

As they approached the village of Feuer, they were stopped by Gurn, the head Watcher. He, like all the fire giants, had bright orange skin and flaming red hair with yellow roots. He was in the process of turning them away when Murchad mentions the need for a “special nail” forged in the fires of Mt. Raiva. When Jack jumps in and adds that it was demanded by “a witch...Granny somebodyorother...Granny Appletree, or something. She’s the Baba Yaga.”

At this, the giant’s demeanor changes. “So you that Granny Crabapple is no mere ‘witch.’     She is a powerful, ancient, and malevolet force.”

At this, he takes the party (now a party of six) to Chief Smolderfist.  When they got to him, he was there with a third fire giant, Forgemaster Ignar. As the party begins to explain their purpose, Ignar tells them that there are two things posing an obstacle. First, the giants will need special iron from the Tummel Mines. At this, Dwårfy whips out the ingot he got from the dwarves. Ignar inspected it and verified that it was, indeed, the special iron. After that, Chief Smolderfist remarked that the other matter was even more serious. The giants’ forges in Mt. Raiva had been hijacked by Ignaraxx, a large red dragon. If the party could dispose of Ignaraxx, the giants would be agree to craft the nail for Granny Crabapple and a piece of armor for Ceangal.

The party debated whether or not to undertake slaying the dragon and delivering the nail to Granny Crabapple, as they could try to make their way back through the Cave at the World’s End with Ceangal as their guide. Still, the cave was very far away, and Ceangal was able to tell them that it was fraught with dangerous monsters and winding passages in which was easy to get lost.  In the interest of time, the party opted to attack the dragon.

After healing and acquiring some more healing potions, the party entered the cave complex, making their way into the heart of Mt. Raiva.

Frequently, gushing lava flows or vents of hot gas and steam would burst forth, making every step fraught with peril.

Eventually, the party made its way to the cavern inhabited by Ignaraxx.  Vedica entered, invisible, to get a feel for what the chamber looks like.

She was able to report back the general layout of the chamber, with a large red dragon resting (but not sleeping) on a natural platform of sorts, and two other, smaller platforms.  This chamber would be subject to the venting of gasses and flowing of lava every turn (if the party rolled unluckily).

They party hatched a plan whereby Vedica would coat an arrow with the wyvern poison and wait on one of the platforms, invisible. Jack would enter the room invisible and fire at the dragon, running to the other platform to draw Ignaraxx out, and then Ceangal would unleash a fireball spell.  While the dragon was immune to the effects of fire, it would still take half damage from force of the fireball spell.

The start of the plan went off well, but things eventually went awry.

Vedica took her position, and Jack fired at the dragon from the center of the room. Once he was no longer covered by invisibility, he bolted to his platform.   Tiv tried to sneak into the room with her elven cloak, but the dragon spotted her.  She attacked it with her sling, but the stone just bounced off its tough scales.  Dwårfy rushed in and shot at the dragon with his crossbow, also failing to penetrate the dragon’s hide.   Ceangal slipped in past Dwårfy and unleashed a fireball on the dragon. The explosion and damage were tremendous.   Murchad entered the room and got into position.

The dragon, now very angry, leaped from his platform to attack Ceangal and Tiv by biting and clawing them.  

Tiv slipped aside and drank a healing potion.

Vedica shot at the dragon with the poisoned arrow and hit him. The dragon, failing his saving throw, would suffer the effects of being posioned for the rest of the encounter.  

Dwårfy used his hammers to attack, unsuccessfully, while Ceangal unleashed three magic missiles. 

Murchad attacked, and the dragon clawed him and bit Dwårfy.  Jack, however, bore the brunt of the dragon’s breath weapon. Jack managed to dodge out of the way with a successful saving throw vs dragon breath, taking only half damage.

Tiv healed Dwårfy who also drank a healing potion.  With one final use of magic missile, managing to bring down the dragon.

The party harvested some teeth, horns, and scales from the dragon to have the giants fashion weapons and armor. In the dragon’s hoard, they found coins and a golden leaf, finely crafted. Tiv took the leaf, and Jack took some magical ointment of blessing.

The giants were very grateful, and they crafted what the party asked. They made a square nail, covered in magical runes for Granny Crabapple.

For Ceangal, they made a helm of understanding. This helm, covered in runes from every conceivable language. The helm allows the wearer a 50% chance to understand any unknown language he hears (it does not allow him to read or speak the language, though).

For Murchad, Dwårfy, Jack, and Tiv, the giants crafted dragonscale armor. This armor has an AC of 2 and offers resistance to fire damage.

For Vedica, they crafted a dagger +3 from one of the dragon’s teeth.

Foregemaster Ignar cautioned the party, however, that the nature of the nail meant that Granny Crabapple could want it for only one purpose. She intends to drive it into the sacred tree of Sylviana, the Guardian of the Wild. Sylviana is an ancient and benevolent fey spirit. In carrying out her plan, Granny Crabapple would bind the power of Sylviana, drawing it to herself and disrupting the balace of magic and nature in the feywild and beyond.

Enough experience was rewarded to increase the level of all members of the party.