Attendees:
Our mission... After seeing to Keep Upkeep, we meet our new castlemate. Tis the ice wizard, Muy Frio... er, um... Actually, I can't remember his name. Fris, I think was the last name. (Played by Robert)
We get word of a caravan that was beseiged by primitives. So we set out into the icy cold mountains in search of the marauding band. This prompts a discussion of "Is it right to kill these things", "Shouldn't we just cuddle and fondle them", "While we're at it can't we just hug a few trees and build nests for spotted owls". Oh, boo hoo. This is where War Mages and Crazed backstabbing thieves would have been handy. ("Here, allow me to negotiate with the primitives"... *POW*)
First we must find the apemen. Our lone tracker, the dwarf, gets us in the right direction. Along the way we encounter some icy pillars that generate electrical blasts if you get too close. Good fun. That smell is burning dwarf hair. Don't bother trying to wash it off you; It requires a remove curse spell.
We go around the pillars and end up at a patch of razor ice. The primitives seem to have gone right through it. But we aren't witty enough to figure out how. So we go around it, else take 2-10hp per move through it. Eek! So we lose another half day.
During the night it can be heard that the primitives seem to be debating whether to siege our camp or not. They appear to want to wait until we reach their caves.
We continue into the cold and eventually reach the caves. Then we send out the cleric. I mock here his sense of peace, but he did negotiate well enough. He and eventually the Druid, manage to negotiate between them and the neanderthals a truce in which they will not raid our caravans and we will not summarily execute them. Being a lawful sort, I am willing to abid this so long as everyone keeps to their agreement. As part of this we have to check out a little problem they've been having. It seems their caves are at the opening of a bigger lair. Therein lay an area so cold that Neanderthals dare not go far.
Also, we discover, there are many icy golem things. Dunno what they are, just living bears of ice (Urskines) that attack any who approach. Well, since no one wanted to negotiate with them a treaty in which they keep our tea cold and we sweep up their den for them, we break into combat. This goes pretty well, culminating in Guzgern, the party's token dwarf (hired under that quota system for parties), taking out two in one round via a cleave. We used them to freshen our drinks then moved on.
Well, that brings us to the dragon. Okay, he's probably not a real dragon. He's a dragon made of ice who obviously thinks he's a dragon. He talks to himself and chases folks out of his lab. Our IceWiz tries to bargain with it and is lucky to be alive. We decide to check other rooms. In one there is an ice forge, made for making the same Blue Ice that covers the walls. It seems the Wiz can make blue ice weapons if we get him the materials and seize the cave. Of course we had to take down the bear in charge of the forge first.
We bring the primitives a few pole arms and they are pleased to have big sharp hitty things so they let us sleep in a cave (under guard).
Next we go back and find a prison. Can't see anyone in the cells, yet we decide to take on the two guards. Some of us get hacked up pretty good, but not as much so as Guzgern, who is unceremoniously rent asunder. He takes so much damage in one turn that he is well beyond negative CON. We pack him in ice and haul him back to town for healage. They bring him back to life.
I think that's where we ended it. One room was full of icy books that will be a pain to thaw and use without destroying them. One room had a few weapons (half of which we gave to the primitives). And that's about it.