Astvanor Session 99 (1/6)

[cinaed]

Session 99: 1/6 (Day 18 of Veksdan)

The party returns to The Silver Captain and sleeps through the night, with Yolov sending two private Sendings.

In the morning, there is a quiet, uncertain knock at the door. Diana and Hava, who have already tranced, answer the door to find Asa standing there. She looks relieved to find she’s got the right room.

As Hava wakes everyone up, Asa explains that it took a while to gather all the books and information from her shop and the Colma library.

Yolov realizes that these are the resources about the shadowfell as she begins to pile them on the bed. He finally pieces together that this means Asa is Daveena’s heir for his mask and notes the tiny fox charm on her headwrap as she hands him a copy of her class notes and explains it’s pared down to basic explanations, and describes the ten books and scrolls in front of them.

Hava asks if she did this for Yolov, which flusters Asa enough that she turns purple.

Asa says that she did it for the group, not him in particular, and Yolov says he’s sure it’ll be useful.

Diana asks if they’ll transform if they stay in the Shadowfell, and Asa assures her that they would only transform if they stay for a long time in the plane. She explains that she was sent here by Daveena and is in the city supposedly as an alumna helping with the damage to the university. She’ll be in the town for a while, of course while Yolov is gone, but maybe she’ll see him afterwards.

Hava assures her that she will, and Yolov reminds her that there is still the standing invitation to their magic house, which leads into a discussion about the house and Asa’s experiences with Detect Magic on too many magical items at once when Yolov warns her about his temporary blindness after casting it inside the house.

Asa also tells him that her business is doing well enough that she’s hired a centaur named Trixie. The party gets briefly confused with the name, mishearing it as Mixie, who is Az’s thief friend in Stagheart.

When someone jokingly suggests that Asa also hire Mixie, Yolov objects, hedging that Mixie would rob Asa’s shop.

Hava and Galowen stare at the conversation as Yolov and Asa talk about magic for a little while longer before Hava finally drags everyone to breakfast.

Neither Az nor Yolov know the exact location of the dwarven roads, but people like Collie, Genesis, and Loren would know.

Collie is still working in The Silver Captain, and Hava goes over to ask her about them. Collie explains that the closest one is a day and a half away, but warns that Iceclaw coming down from the mountain upset the local animals and the guards have been dealing with wolves, mountain cats, and other wild beasts.

Collie describes the path to an illegitimate entrance, the one that is a day and a half away which mostly smugglers use. The party agrees that way seems likeliest for the Stormriders to enter, though Az asks if they would need to bribe anyone.

Collie says they might, though she herself doesn’t smuggle, she just knows smugglers. It’s one reason the Red thought she would be open to working for the Col’Far because she needed to use those roads one time to get someone she cared about out of the city and into the mountains.

The party decides to use Kiva’s name as leverage if they need to. They thank Collie, and she asks if they’re planning to come back. They say yes, and she says that’s good, otherwise she’d have to go up there and get them. Most of the party gets excited at the idea of seeing her as a dragon and potentially flying on her back.

Hava says if that’s what they need, then she wants to leave immediately, after she goes and throws up. Collie offers to make her tea and then asks how far north they’re going. When she learns that they are going to Iceclaw’s lair, she warns them that even though he’s dead, his lair is still dangerous.

Yolov thanks Asa again, and she says that she was happy to do it. She asks if he’s had a chance to go to the Colma library yet, that they’ve gotten some interesting new collections that the assistant librarian is excited about. Yolov says he hasn’t, trying not to think about his lifetime ban from the school grounds, but he knows he owes Master Tes’vala a visit.

She laughs and agrees before the party heads out of Radiscune.

Yolov knows that the further north they go, the harsher everything is. There is dry, dying shrubbery and rocks, there’s patchy grass and cold, hard ground as they continue north.

Yolov reads while he walks as the path snakes up towards the mountains. The mountains seem almost insurmountable, and by the time they get to the first switchback, everyone except for Galowen and Diana can feel the effort.

Galowen and Diana feel the familiar chill of the mountains. These are the mountains they grew up on, the mountain range where they spent their childhood, and it smells the same. Diana looks up in the air, spying occasional birds, while Az openly dislikes the weather and Yolov is buried in the books Asa gave him as though if he learns all of it immediately that will help.

The party quickly realizes the effort it will take to go up the mountains to reach this entrance and understand why it will take over a day to get there. Everyone is feeling the effort but are mostly all right, except Diana, who is exhausted and breathing hard.

They make it halfway through the next switchback after five hours, slowing down as the path gets more and more difficult. Everyone realizes this is one of the reasons most people use the dwarven roads: to avoid all this exhausting terrain.

It’s about two o’clock when they reach a spot where there is a base at the right of the path. There is a spot where some trees have been cleared and it looks like there is a small, hollowed out space in the mountain with a little overhang to protect people to settle in and rest for the night.

Hava sits down on a rock to rest, while Diana asks someone to roll her up in her bedroll. She curls up in it as Yolov doesn’t protest and sits down to keep reading through Asa’s notes.

Az takes the opportunity to summon Medrash. When Medrash appears, Az asks if he still has it, and Medrash spits the Col’Far jewel into his hand. Az tells him he’s a good boy and puts it back into his jewelry box as Hava comments that it’s gross.

Az agrees and says that he hopes it might help when they get to the lair. This prompts the party discussing the possibility of Iceclaw having wyrmlings, which leads to the party telling Diana about the Tessvar Forest and the green wyrmlings.

When night falls, Galowen summons Glyn and settles in with Az as the first watch.

It’s quiet, especially compared to Radiscune and the towns that they’ve been in. There’s mostly just the quiet sound of the wind in the trees. It’s pretty and cold as Az looks around as the hours pass and is the first to notice a snowflake.

Hava and Yolov take the next watch, watching the light snowfall. It’s light enough that it doesn’t stick to the ground for the time being. This is Hava’s first snow, and she’s absorbing it all as Yolov goes back to reading Asa’s resources. She watches the snowflakes settle on the branches, having heard it described to her before by Taion.

She has a second where she wishes she could experience this with Taion. She takes out her Sending Stone and tells Taion where they’re going and that it’s snowing. Taion responds saying he loves her and that no snowfall could be as beautiful as her.

Hava keeps watching the snow until suddenly the snow is looking back at her with two dark, dark eyes. She spies two more sets of eyes, one up on the path above them. She sees four tremendous white-furred wolves. She shakes Yolov’s shoulder to get his attention off the book and wakes everyone up with the hissed announcement that there are wolves around them.

Audacity wakes with a start, seeing snow for the first time and instinctively making his staff light with flame, as the wolves prowl forward.

Diana can see fresh blood on their muzzles as they advance on the party. She turns invisible and goes after the closest wolf, stabbing it twice. The wolf bites Diana and attempts to wrestle her to the ground, but Diana keeps her footing.

Hava casts Twilight Sanctuary, a familiar healing twilight falling upon the group before she casts Spiritual Weapon at the next closest wolf. The spectral trident stabs into it.

Galowen strides forward and tells the wolf being attacked by the Spiritual Weapon that it’s a bad dog, casting Vicious Mockery.

One of the wolves jumps down two cliffs towards Galowen. The wolf takes a deep breath before it roars and a blast of frigid air blasts him and Diana with cold air that bites into their face and exposed skin.

The next wolf jumps down as well, landing poorly, but bites Diana, knocking her prone as she exclaims she understands why people don’t keep wolves as pets now.

Yolov casts a poisonous Chromatic Orb towards the wolf that just knocked Diana down before Az casts two Eldritch Blasts, attempting to knock the closest wolf into one of the other wolves. He hits it both times, knocking the wolf into the second one, before Medrash flies forward to flank the wolf attacking Diana and sting it.

Audacity rushes to support Diana, hitting at the wolf twice with his fiery staff. The first cracks its face before he slams the staff down and hears its neck snap with the second blow. He turns to face the other wolves as the farthest one lifts its head in a howl and races off for reinforcements.

Diana takes Audacity’s hand and helps her up. She hits out at the nearest wolf with her shortsword. One blade strikes true but the other one misses as Adrin flanks the wolf and bites it.

Hava’s Spiritual Weapon stabs into another wolf, partially impaling it before Hava casts Toll the Dead and kills it. She can hear the distant howls of the wolves overlapped by the sound of crashing waves before the wolf collapses.

Glyn rams into the remaining wolf, striking its head with his hooves, before Galowen swings out with his sword. His sword cuts into the wolf both times, a quick, clean kill.

The wolves lay at the party’s feet as the distant wolves’ howls begin to grow louder to the south. They gather their things and bolt northward, trying to outrun the wolves and get to somewhere safer for the rest of the night.