Chapter One: Assault on the Halls of FrostAfter a good night’s sleep, the rememorization of spells, and bandaging and healing of wounds, the party made plans for the infiltration/assault of the Halls of Frost. Suddenly, an unexpected visitor appeared in front of the cave, surprising the guards: A scruffy, mountain-man like dwarf! He marched inside and introduced himself has Azidmere Stonestaff, and said he had been following and watching the party for the last few days. He claimed he was the last survivor of the Halls of Frost, and that it had been a dwarven stronghold long ago until frost giants and their allies destroyed it many decades ago.
The party was suspicious and began questioning him; Azidmere claimed that he had been chased out of the halls as recently activity by a new influx of frost giants and barbarian followers caused him to sneak out rather than be found inside. He claimed to live off the land as a hunter, and for the last few weeks had been outside the halls watching the comings and goings of the evil beings. When pressed, he said there were 6 frost giants (two had already been killed by the party), along with numerous winter wolves and barbarian followers now encamped within the ruins. They were led by a tall (7 foot) beautiful white haired woman, a half giantess named Inoke, and at least one priestess of Rualt. The dwarven loner asked the party to accompany them, and despite his surly and unpleasant attitude (especially towards the halfling, elves and half orc) they agree to let him come if he could show them a safe way inside the keep.
Carefully making their way close to the cliffs, the party saw three entrances several hundred yards away across an expanse of ice and snow. Now snowing and sleeting, the temperature dropping to near zero, the druid felt the weather was an unnatural phenomenon created by some sort of magical or wizardly influence. However, the cold blowing wind and storm would shield the party from detection if they attempted to sneak in past the six winter wolves they saw frolicking in front of the two entrances, as well as mask any sounds.
Two of the entrances had large stone doors, while the other was open with the torchlight and the sound of giantish laughter coming from within. Deciding to wait until dark, the party began debating which entrance to try when they noticed the dwarf was no where around. Suspicious, they had no choice but to go ahead, only to be surprised as a large bonfire arose hundreds of yards away, getting the attention of the winter wolves. Figuring this was Azidmere helping them distract the evil creatures, the party crept close to the western most door as Ephros and Galgadayle found the large stone gates slightly wedged open. Entering, they found themselves inside a gigantic entry hall, with sleds for hauling items and piles of clothing perhaps belonging to the barbarians known to be inside. Signalling the others to come up, all hell broke loose…
Chapter Two: The Hall of Frost: Upper Level
As the rest of the party snuck forward, they were suddenly shocked and surprised as eight hidden yetis sprang up from the snow covered tundra! Hidden by the ice and snow, the creatures completely surprised the party and three of them proceeded to paralyze both rangers and the druid’s wolf companion with their fearsome gaze. As one yeti grabbed up the wolf and hugged him, breaking his back with a crunch, the attack began on the rest of the party! Angles quickly cast a Remove Paralysis on both Argois and Vaerlon, and the brothers escaped the hold of the yeti. Shouting that the safest path was now to make for the doors, the party abandoned combat to run full speed for the druid and thief inside the ruins. Aided by spells cast by Galgadayle (his Temperature Control made the area around him 70 degrees, which sent yetis screaming away in pain and fear) and his poisoned darts, the flaming skull Chester and shooting stars fired by Ephros from his ring, the party made it inside after killing two yeti and fighting off the rest….all before the winter wolves could return and make the battle more lopsided. Inside the entryway, the doors were barred from the inside and the party proceeded to explore two exits that led down two sets of stairs.
While one exit led to another large abandoned entry room with some broken statues and a ramp leading to a level below, the other smaller stairway led to a set of rooms with torches on sconces lighting the walls, and the sounds of barbarian talking and laughter. Quietly making his way inside with his new elven cloak, Ephros found guest rooms newly cleaned and cleared out and set up for future guests. Rounding one corridor, he came upon three barbarians guarding an open door with laughter coming from within. Sneaking back, he whispered the situation to the party, and Angles made quick work of the barbarians with a Hold Person spell. Quietly slitting their throats, the party moved forward and saw another eight barbarians in the large room playing at dice. Argois, Waqsted and Ephros were sent around the corridor to the door on the other side of the room, as the bard Korgaard cast Stinking Cloud inside the room, filling it with noxious fumes and dropping all but one of the barbarians. The last one standing held his breath long enough to break out of the opposite door (despite it being held shut by Waqsted and Argois) and attacked the fighters, screaming for help. He was quickly killed, and the party began firing arrows inside the room at the retching and nearly helpless barbarians, killing nearly all of them, before help arrived down a far corridor in the form of more barbarians. Soon, the hallway became slippery with warm blood as Argois, Ephros and Waqsted battled and killed the barbarian fighters that contined to arrive. Inside the now-cleared out room, Korgaard, Galgadayle and his wolverine battled the surviving but still woozy barbarians, with the wolverine doing massive damage and Korgaard showing expertise with the now-uncursed Falcon’s Claw, using it to swipe of the arms of two barbarians while in battle!
As the battle continued, Ephros peeked around the corner to see a blood chilling sight: a frost giant at the end of a 60 ft corridor where it then widened into another giant room, shouting curses down the corridor and threatening to send the winter wolves if the barbarians did not reply! Warning the others, Ephros began firing arrows at the giant and was soon joined by others firing weapons and spells. Casting a Grease spell on the corridor, Arcus was just in time as two winter wolves attempted to attack the party but were slipped up instead flopping helplessly in the spell area. Ephros used his ring of shooting stars to shock the creatures as Waqsted and Galgadayle finished the slipping beasts off, enraging the giant even more. At the same time, from the direction they had already come, three more winter wolves came at the party’s back. Held back by Chester, Angles and Galgadayle, the other corridor had several party members firing arrows at the frost giant as he continued to throw rocks. Arcus’ fireball spell, along with several balls from the necklace of fireballs worn by Korgaard, wore down the giant and whoever was behind him in the larger room. Too small for the corridor, the giant could only launch boulders down it to ocassionaly bounce into an ally.
At that moment, the dwarf Azidmere suddenly appeared (he had been invisible, stalking the party), and attempted to backstab Argois!
Chapter Three: Giants in the Halls of Frost
Screaming at the party and Argois to get out of his house, it became apparent the dwarven thief was insane, either by long years of lonliness or other reasons. His attack missed Argois, and the ranger made short work of him with a few thrusts. Leaving him, Argois went to join Galgadayle, Angles and Chester in combat against the three winter wolves, Angles having to step out due to extreme injury from a wolf bite. Soon, the wolves were finished and the party was healed by Angles before joining the others battling the giant.
As the giant in the first corridor began to look like a pincushion stuck with arrows, finally Ephros and Waqsted took a running leap and jumped the Grease area of the corridor, bringing the battle to the depleted giant. Vaerlon tried to follow them but fell into the spell area, but gained his feet as he Korgaard soon joined the pair, the skald singing a loud battle song.
The first giant, barely standing on his feet from fireball and missile damage, soon fell to Vaerlon’s arrows as two more appeared to do battle. Ephros, Korgaard and Argois took one while Chester (screaming that he was “looking for the invisible girl”) and Waqsted battled the other. Mighty blows were struck on both sides but it soon appeared Waqsted was heavily injured. Knowing Chester was immune to fire and Waqsted owned a ring of fire resistance, Korgaard attempted to help by throwing a fireball from a necklace of missile…unfortunately, Waqsted had switched rings with Ephros again, and it was sheer dumb luck Waqsted managed to dodge out of the way and take partial damage. Unsteady on his feet, the giant was finished off by Galgadayle who ran his giant slaying sword through the frost giant’s heart.
The other giant found itself surrounded and battered by the others, and finally Vaerlon killed it with a mighty blow that took off the front of his head. Breathing heavily in the now quiet, bloody, yet frosty room, the party hastily searched the giant’s belongings, finding gold, silver and several odd items. Casting Detect magic, Angles identified the belt and helm as being magical, as well as Azidmere’s bracers, dagger and warhammer. The bracers turned out to be Bracers of Invisibility, and the helm, when tried on by Argois, turned him into a berserker intent on killing the party! Luckily, he was surrounded by party members, overborne, and held down as Angles cast a Remove Curse to allow the party to remove the obviously evil aligned helm. Angles then used the last of his cures to heal up the party, resorting to scrolls when his spells were done. Reporting back from a foray into the back corridor, Chester told the party that the last frost giant and winter wolf were stationed at the back entrance, obviously guarding the rear in case of party retreat (and not knowing yet the fate of his fellows). Gathering the treasure found, the party located a staircase leading downwards into the keep, and began moving quickly to distance themselves in case the last giant returned. Although injured and low on spells, the adventurers realized that rest would be impossible at this point if they wanted to catch (and kill) the half-giantess and priestess of Rualt before too many preparations had been made. Thus, the party, with Ephros in the lead, began their descent…..
