The Twelve

Now that the player characters are in the Glacial rift it was time to go up against the twelve. They had heard of the twelve from a cultist of the White Worm in Phom Thult. The twelve most powerful magic users in the world. All under the sway of the White Worm. This made the party a little nervous. Lucky for them the White Worm consumes members of the twelve once per month to gain their powers. The Twelve are being continually replenished but right now only five of the twelve are in the Lair of the White Worm. As mentioned earlier this adventure is based on the Conqueror Worm written by Alphonso Warden and published by Expeditious Retreat Press. I changed the ice caves with a pillar of ice with similar chambers.

Session 120: The Pillar of Ice

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Aldus (human cavalier), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Domago (human cleric NPC), Dusig (dwarf fighter NPC).

The adventurers have entered the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giants in the Frozen Lands. Expecting to find it deserted after they watched a troop of Frost Giants march south, they instead found ice caves full of Frost Giants. After a long battle, they are victorious but badly injured.

Domago goes from companion to companion tending to wounds and using his Staff of Healing. Once everyone has been healed of most of their wounds they retrace their steps heading back down the giant stairs to the huge ice cavern. Fenris takes the lead and soon picks up their trail where they had battled two yetis. The tracks in the snow head north into the dimly lit cavern.

They trudge along through the ankle-deep snow on a floor of ice. Huge pillars of ice loom up out of the floor. Suddenly, four yeti leap out of nearby snowbanks with hungry roars. The company is surrounded. Lakima points his wand of fireballs at two of the yetis and blasts them with a blaze of fire. Fenris slips away into the darkness nearly disappearing. Domago blows the Silver Horn of Valhalla and summons four berserkers to their defense. The berserkers rush up to the yeti providing an immediate line of defense while Aldus, Eathwund, and Dusig follow and attack with swords and axe. Alrix uses his Sword of Dancing to attack a yeti from a distance. During the battle, both Aldus and Eathwund are clawed badly but the group kills the four yeti leaving them in a heap in the snow. Domago casts cure light wounds on all three fighters.

Fenris takes the lead again and the group continues to follow the tracks. Up ahead Fenris stops and points at an enormous pillar of ice 90 feet across and hundreds of feet tall. Steps have been carved into the side of the ice pillar. The tracks lead directly to it.

Fenris suggests that Eathwund or Aldus take the lead now but Lakima shakes his head telling Fenris that the stairs are a perfect place for a trap. Fenris walks up to the steps and starts climbing them checking for traps as he goes. The stairs circle 80 feet up the ice pillar before they end at a tunnel carved into the ice. Peering around the corner Fenris sees an iron portcullis barring the tunnel. Another iron portcullis can be seen twenty feet past the first. He tells everyone what he sees. Eathwund and Aldus come forward to try to lift the portcullis. Before grabbing it, Eathwund activates the strength enchantment on his sword. He yanks the iron portcullis up with a scream of breaking metal. The portcullis is jammed up permanently. In the tunnel, he spots a Frost Giant walking up to the next portcullis to investigate the noise. The Frost giant shouts something at them in its language.

“He said who goes there!” Domago tells them.

Lakima tells Domago to claim that they are members of the twelve. Domago tries that but the Frost Giant curses at him.

“Quick!” Lakima yells and points at the iron bars urging Eathwund, Aldus, and Dusig forward. He casts Aztazibar's Acrid Finger and begins to burn through the bars with acid. Domago blows the Silver Horn of Valhalla and six summoned berserkers appear on the other side of the bars and launch themselves at the Frost Giant. At this point they see two more Frost giants enter the chamber on the other side of the bars. While the berserkers keep the three giants busy, Lakima burns a hole through the portcullis big enough for the fighters to slip through. Aldus and Eathwund slip through one after another and attack the nearest frost giant. They see that there is a ballista in the center of the chamber pointed right at them. Against two walls are wooden barred cages each holding four angry, growling, and barking winter wolves.

Alrix moves up to the iron bars and uses his Sword of Dancing to attack a Frost Giant. He sees the ballista and conjures up an obscuring mist to fill the chamber centered on the ballista. Lakima uses the wand of fireballs and blasts all three Frost Giants but the wand is unable to conjure up a powerful enough fireball to greatly hurt the Giants. Fenris slips unnoticed into the chamber and slams the door to a wolf cage shut just as a Frost Giant was starting to open it. The giant spots Fenris and smashes him against the bars of the cage. Lakima uses the wand to cast another fireball and Eathwund and Aldus kill two of the Frost Giants. The third giant flees into the obscuring mists and they hear a metal door screech open. The combat is over but the chamber is still filled with the barking and growling coming from the wolves in the cages.

Domago uses his Staff of Healing on Fenris, Eathwund, and Aldus. The adventurers decide to immediately follow the trail of blood left by the fleeing frost giant. They descend 40 feet down a spiral staircase and arrive in a long hallway. The walls, ceiling, and floor of the hallway are built from blocks of ice. A rug rests on the floor and wood doors are set into the walls. At the far end of the hallway, they see the wounded Frost Giant limp around a corner into a large chamber. Eathwund runs after the fleeing giant and triggers a frost trap that blasts him with a painful, freezing mist. Fenris yells for him to keep still and Eathwund stops. After a short search, Fenris finds the trigger for the traps in the hallway and switches it off.

Eathwund, Aldus, and Dusig rush forward into a large chamber. There is a staircase leading down on one side of the room. To either side of it is a stone pedestal with the stone statue of an ugly bipedal form atop it. The frost giant steps out from behind one statue and attacks Aldus. Aldus and Eathwund move to attack just as both stone statues step down from their pedestals and move to attack the fighters. Aldus slashes open the side of the Frost Giant and Lakima calls out that they need him alive for questioning. Then he turns to Domago and asks if he has the speak with dead prayer. A confused Domago tells him that he does.

“You can kill him; we will question him when he is dead!” Lakima shouts.

The Frost Giant is soon killed but the two stone guardians are a much tougher fight. They pound Aldus and Eathwund with their stone fists repeatedly. Domago blows the Silver Horn of Valhalla and summons five berserkers to aid them. Aldus and Eathwund manage to bring down one guardian which crumbles into pebbles when it falls. The second one punches Eathwund repeatedly. Domago taps Eathwund with the Staff of Healing twice during the fight to keep him trading blows with the guardian. Finally, the last foe falls. Domago has to do more healing with the Staff.

Once a weary Domago sets the last bandage, Lakima points at the dead Frost Giant and tells Domago that they need to know the White Worm’s location. Domago prays and the spirit of the Frost Giant rises up from its corpse. It looks sullenly down on Domago.

“Where is the White Worm,” Domago asks. The Frost Giant points down beneath their feet. He then asks something which causes the spirit to nod its head in agreement (I cannot remember what this question was). Finally, he asks where the 12 are located and the Frost giant again points down. His final question asked the Frost Giant spirit vanishes.

The adventurers make their way over to the staircase and find that it is made of small blocks of ice and that it spirals down into darkness. At the bottom of the staircase, they enter a large chamber. Again, the walls, floors, and ceilings are carved from ice. They check a small chamber with a hammock and find an unlocked footlocker full of human clothing. They also find magical leather armor and an elven cloak like the one that Fenris wears. Opening the main door from the chamber they see a hallway of ice lit by a single torch burning above a wooden bench. Everything here is human-sized. Fenris slips quietly down the hallway and listens at the doors. He comes back and reports that he can see light under one door at the end of the hall and can hear the sounds of movement.

Expecting that they might run into one of the fabled 12 mages Lakima tells everyone to rush through the door and attack without mercy. Eathwund shoves the door inward and rushes into the room. They see a library carved from the ice. Wood shelves line the walls, and wood tables and chairs rest on the icy floor. A single black-garbed man sits at a table reading a book by candlelight. He looks up in surprise as Eathwund stabs him in the side. Aldus comes around from the other side and slashes the man in the hand as he tries to defend himself, while Dusig hurls a hammer hitting him in the chest and Lakima flings 3 darts into his chest. Finally, Alrix slices right through the man’s throat with his sword. The surprised man tumbles forward dead before he has a chance to utter a word. The entire attack takes only moments and has been accomplished quietly.

They shut the door to the library and Lakima casts Detect Magic. A staff leaning against the table glows as magical, as does the man’s dagger. Also glowing are all of the shelves. Lakima deduces that the shelves have some sort of protection magic on them to preserve the books. On the shelves are ancient tomes, scrolls, and even clay tablets. But there are also more recent items and even some scrolls that appear new. Lakima tips over a bookshelf with a loud crash and finds two scrolls with magic spells on them. Possibly, the noise attracts attention because Fenris, who is watching the door, calls for quiet and tells everyone he can hear voices. Fenris continues to listen and hears a door open and close. He motions with 2 fingers indicating two men talking. The voices cross the hall and then he hears a door open and close again. After a quiet pause, Fenris opens the door a crack and finds that the hallway is empty and quiet. He sneaks out into the hallway and soon reports back that he can hear two men talking behind one of the doors in the hallway.

Lakima tells everyone that they need to use the same quick, brutal strategy. They cannot afford to give these wizards a chance to cast a spell. Eathwund again shoves open a door that flies inward and slams against a bed. They see a room lit by a lantern that contains two more doors, several beds, and a table. An elf in the center of the room whirls about to confront them and levels a staff. He is wearing chainmail armor. At the far side of the room, in front of an open door, is a well-dressed man in bright clothes wearing a wide-brimmed hat. Before Eathwund can take three steps, that man casts a spell and everyone feels time seems to slow and their view go hazy. But all of the adventurers shake off the enchantment. The elf casts a spell and three identical elves appear and face the adventurers. Domago blows his horn and four berserkers appear and move to attack the elf. Both Lakima and Alrix strike the elf with magic missiles. Lakima’s missiles strike first and two illusionary elves vanish. Then Alrix’s magic missiles strike the elf. The elf moves forward and attacks Aldus who parries with the great sword. Lakima yells at Fenris to get into the chamber and the thief nimbly jumps up onto a table. He fires a crossbow bolt into the human mage. Alrix jumps up onto the beds and gets close enough to attack the mage with his Sword of Dancing. The mage then points at Aldus and speaks a single word. Aldus stops fighting the elf and his sword drops from his hand as he is stunned. Eathwund concentrates on his sword and casts Confusion on the mage to knock him senseless. He stands dumbly and does not move as the Sword of Dancing plunges into his chest killing him. Eathwund, Dusig, and several berserkers attack the elf. Seeing that he is surrounded and badly injured, the elf casts a fireball. This is a high-level fireball that explodes through the chamber and out into the hallway. Everyone is caught in the blast and badly burned.

As the fires subside, they find that most of the furniture in the chamber is badly burned. The elf lies in a blackened heap on the floor, a victim of his own spell. Lakima calls for Fenris to start searching the chamber. He finds two rings on the elf, a magic staff, and a magic dagger. Lakima tells Fenris to search a small bed chamber located off of the room. Domago uses his staff of healing on Eathwund who has been injured. As they are doing this, they hear footsteps, and a human guard in platemail appears at the door to the chamber. He attacks Eathwund. Another man, a mage in dark blue robes appears and casts a web spell. The sticky webs fall down over most of the adventurers, trapping Eathwund, Dusig, Lakima, and an unmoving Aldus. Alrix shouts in anger when he spots the wizard Ud Lux, his captor, and tormentor.

“You!”. Alrix yells. Then rolls the Figurine of Wondrous Power out into the hallway. It transforms into an enormous wholly mammoth. Ud Lux manages to take one step backward and scream before the mammoth tramples him to a pulp. Meanwhile, Lakima takes out the scroll he found in the library and uses it to summon a manticore. The manticore tears into the human guard. The guard turns from attacking the adventurers and tries to defend himself from the enraged manticore. He manages to injure it but it pierces him multiple times with tail spikes and savages him with its claws. A third man, another mage is injured by the manticore and vanishes through a dimension door. The guard fights back feebly before being crushed under the feet of the mammoth. The manticore vanishes.

After the battle, Domago gets out his staff and starts healing everyone. All of the adventurers are badly injured. Fenris returns to searching and finds a spellbook and some treasure in a chest. Lakima puts everything in the bag of holding.