The Herb Garden

As Sylziria added dropped the gold nugget and dragon scale into the cauldron The wooden walls of the hut disappeared, replaced by large windows set in delicate iron traceries that looked out in all directions over a wide, gloomy garden . Thick clouds hung unnaturally low over overgrown stands of trees, barren flower beds, and white pebble paths. The sky and distant landscape seemed peculiarly artificial, almost as if they were part of a faded and blurry watercolour painting .

The ever-present large iron cauldron sat atop a round, marble-topped table surrounded by six white wooden chairs in the centre of the circular room . A set of framed stained-glass doors to the south provided the only exit.

Eventually, after a somewhat paranoid Katya had checked everything for traps, Kelsidor led the way out. They followed the path round the gazebo and then a long looping pathway that circled the garden. showing the whole thing to be overgrown and neglected. Eventually they stopped near a walled garden and Katya ultra-cautiously opened the rusty iron gate  which led to a very overgrown herb garden - presumably components for Baba Yaga's witchcraft.

Most of the plants were harmless, but as they wandered round the overgrown pathway they were attacked by an assassin vine which grabbed Katya, and then later they were attacked by two basidronds which nearly did for Caedwallis and then two shambling mounds.

The final  plant they encountered proved the most formidable, a giant flytrap that nearly managed to eat Gulbrand and Kelsidor before their friends finally managed to destroy it, mostly helped by Sylziria flying above and indiscriminately dropping fireball spells on it. In the course of this encounter (much to the GM's amusement) Caedwallis finally discovered that  the broom of flying he had been carrying round with him was in fact a cursed broom of animated attacking  - but a lightning bolt soon put paid to that!

The Grumpy Gardener

Battered and bruised the Party returned to the Gazebo where they stayed for a full two days or R&R, much to Zorka’s annoyance as she tried to tidy round them! Eventually they felt fit enough to head back into the garden and this time the headed along the northern path towards the trees there. Sylziria took to the air and spotted a clearing on the far side of the trees, although she could see nothing obviously threating within.
 
Gulbrand and Kelsidor led the way into the tree-line and they reached the clearing without incident, however as they entered it, the forest closed round behind them and a huge treant stepped out and grumpily inquired why they were trespassing in her grove. As only Caedwallis (using Tongues) and Sylziria could understand sylvan so led the discussion which was going reasonably well till Sylziria mention they were agent of Baba Yaga at which point the treant abruptly flew into a rage and attacked. A nasty little combat ensured where Caedwallis Kelsidor and Gulbrand were badly injured, but eventually, aided considerably by Sylziria’s indiscriminate use of fire magic, the Party prevailed. On the treant's body Katy found a ring of blessed mistletoe which Kelsidor claimed.
 
After resting they headed to the western section of the garden, a jungle zone, where they were promptly attacked by two moonflowers. Kelsidor, Gulbrand and Katya were nearly slain, being in turn ingested and then spewed out in pods before Sylziria’s fire magic again saved the day. Caedwallis only barely managed to keep everyone alive this time as he was blinded by one of the moonflower’s light pulse ability. Badly damaged they decided to return to the gazebo again, but not before Katya did manage to recover some magic armour, a magic heavy flail and a handy haversack from the remains of the plants.
 
Next day they headed back to finish exploring the jungle area finding what looked like a small warehouse at the far end. Somewhat surprisingly they were met by a strange humanoid figure shrouded in tattered robes which Sylziria identified as a Denizen of Leng.  The figure who introduced himself as T’Leng politely invited them in to meet his master. They accepted the invitation and entered the warehouse to see the master, a moonbeast, floating several feet off the floor. The moonbeast immediately used Dominate to convince Kelsidor and Katya to come stand by his side and worship him.
 
Not liking this development, after a brief discussion in the corridor the remaining members of the Party  decided to launch a pre-emptive strike, launching offensive spells at the moonbeast while Gulbrand attacked the denizen of Leng. A nasty little fight ensued in which Sylziria was badly damaged and Wisdom drained and Gulbrand was Dexterity drained. Searching the body of the denizen of Leng, Katya found a number of rubies in a purse including one large one which appeared to  have a tiny figure of a person trapped inside it.
 

The Planar Peddler

Katya volunteered to investigate what was upstairs and after Sylziria cast invisibility on her climbed up the ladder in the chimney. the square room above appeared to be a cosy wooden cabin . Shelves packed with esoteric knickknacks and strange ingredients lined the walls .The stone fire place she found herself in took up the room's northwest corner, while opposite the room's only door stood a simple wooden table on which rested a cracked clay bowl . A large blackened cauldron sat in the centre of the room. Katya quickly dashed over to the door to listen, but couldn't hear anything. Returning to the fireplace she did she saw three ghostly ravens flying around the room. The others then joined her upstairs and as the ravens flew about them crying "Baba Yaga has gone on, off to see her only son. But a trail she left behind, if the breadcrumbs you can find!"  and saw visions of a two-headed eagle, an iron spur and a drinking horn. Gulbrand curiously received a different vision, of an elephant tusk, a small hand mirror and a bearskin rug. Kelsidor meanwhile had opened the door out on to a freezing an alien looking world the sun was much smaller than it should be, not much more than a pinprick of light, though still blindingly bright to look at, and stars were visible in the sky. There was precious little vegetation save some low lying scrub and a huge rage of mountains reared up to the north - at least what he guessed was the north!

Downstairs, Sylziria, after much agonising, decided to break the soul gem. With a flash of light a large figure appeared in the room, a tall, blue-skinned humanoid, clad in loose, flowing robes. Its alien face had too many eyes and its hands had too few fingers. The creature introduced himself as Zilvazaraat, "a peddler of wondrous wares from across the Great Beyond" The Party quickly struck a deal with Zilvazaraat to trade in their accumulated loot for a long list of supplies. The mercane took their gear and then with a promise to return within two days or so, cast plane shift and left. The Party spent the next couple of days vaguely hoping that Zilvazaraat, hadn't just disappeared with all their wealth, but fortunately the mercane was an honest sort and returned to fulfil the contract. He even gave them a small obsidian raven figure that he said could be used to contact him. Though he warned them that due to the vagaries of plane shift, they would be best to summon him from inside the hut as it was a very small plane where he would be able to locate them quickly.

Re-supplied, they eventually headed out into the extreme cold of the alien landscape to explore their surroundings. they hadn't gone far when Katya spotted something flying above them, pointing it out to the others, they quickly discerned it was a red dragon! The party scattered in anticipation of a breath-weapon attack, but the dragon just circled, before gradually descending. As it descended they could see there was a rider on it's back who called out to them in a language no one understood. Caedwallis cast Comprehend Languages and then Tongues as the rider called out again asking if they were "friends or foes of the Skyfire Mandate!" Not having a clue, Caedwallis responded that they were "friends to all men!"

The dragon landed about 150 yards away and the rider dismounted, making a great show of disarming before approaching, introducing herself as Bescaylie. As she came close they noticed she was wearing full plate though of a curious design, and what they could see of her face was covered in a downy fur. She said that she was a dragonrider of the Dragon Legion of the Skyfire Mandate. As Sylziria  and Katya approached and spoke in draconic, Bescaylie replied in kind, introducing her mount as Efirxes. Bescaylie suggested they to speak to her commander Pharamol, the commanding officer of the Legion's outpost at Spurhorn, though she did warn them that Spurhorn, which was about ten miles to the north, was currently besieged by the Drakelands barbarians. The Party accepted the invitation and Bescaylie remounted and flew off to advise her commander to expect strange alien visitors.

The Party headed north, following a frozen rived, beside which they camped as night fell, and the already bitter temperatures plunged even further. Next morning their was some dispute as to whether to light a fire, but eventually Kelsidor's advice was followed and a hot meal prepared to help fortify them against the bitter cold. Unfortunately for the party, an outlying patrol of Drakelands  frost drakes spotted the fire and swooped down, attacking with their breath weapons. Caedwallis was badly injured, but as Katya struggled to keep him from dying, their friends, mostly aided by Sylziria's fire magic, managed to kill the attackers.

Spurhorn

Next morning when they awoke, Kelsidor spotted smoke rising to the north- presumably in the region of Spurhorn. He estimated they were only three or four miles away from their destination. After a few hours tramping through the snow-covered scrub vegetation, they could clearly hear the sounds of battle ahead of them.
They made their way cautiously toward the top of a hill and peered over, below them they could see an imposing fortress perched high atop a large rocky crag. The fort was surrounded by an army, spit into three encampments each positioned about a third of a mile from the fortress. Using Katy's spyglass, Caedwallis identified the bulk of the besieging forces were Triaxian barbarians, although there were large numbers of frost drakes and well as small detachments of cryohydras, dracolisks and dragonkin.

Suddenly two shaggy-furred beasts standing on slate grey hooves, their heads resembling that of a maniacal horned ape,  appeared next to them, , one of hem immediately unleashed it's breath weapon while the other attacked Gulbrand. Caedwallis, identifying the monsters as ceustodaemons and recommending the use of holy or silver weapons against them,  manged to get off a lightning bolt and a searing light before Kelsidor and Katya closed and he was forced to draw his silver dagger. Gulbrand, left on his own to deal with the second  was coping well, hewing away at the daemon despite its damage reduction, before an arrow from Kelsidor finished it of.  Afterwards they moved farther away form the battle, Kelsidor finding a reasonable campsite and discussed their options, eventually deciding that Sylziria should cast invisibility and fly on everyone and they should head in that way.

The spells duly cast they headed out over the besieging forces. They got within a couple of hundred yards of the fortress when a brass dragonkin accompanied by a Triaxian sorcerer flew up and confronted them. It was clear that the Triaxian could see them as he cast a lightning bolt at Katya and Kelsidor, while the dragonkin, acting on scent, attacked Gulbrand. Kelsidor immediately withdrew to heal himself while Katya redoubled her efforts to reach the fortress, leaving Caedwallis and Gulbrand to deal with the assailants. The battle was going fairly well and they had managed to kill the dragonkin, when the Triaxian cast dispel magic on Gulbrand, causing her to plummet to the ground. Caedwallis then killed the sorcerer, before flying down to check on Gulbrand.

Katya, flying towards the fortress, ran into a hail of crossbow bolts as her invisibility spell went down abruptly twenty five feet from the walls. Fortunately she was able to call out in draconic to the defenders that they were friends invited by Bescaylie and seeking to meet Commander Pharamol. She landed and was immediately surrounded by guards. Caedwallis, meanwhile, after healing Gulbrand and quickly looting the sorcerer,  manged, with Kelsidor's help, to bodily lift Gulbrand up into the air, just ahead of a group of barbarians moving to intercept them.

They joined Katya and the guards and were immediately escorted to Commander Pharamol's office, where Bescaylie was summoned to join them. While Katya related a brief summary of recent events to the Commander and his dragonkin, all of the members of the party were very conscious of a double headed-eagle in a cage in the corner of the room that regarded them fixedly with all four of its eyes. Eventually Pharamol said he would summon the full council first thing in the morning when they could explain in detail, in the mean time they were to confider themselves honoured guests.

Next morning in a series of impassioned addresses, Katya, with some assistance form her friends, managed to convince the Council they were in fact  friends and allies. At the end of which, to much applause, they were welcomed to join the defence of Spurhorn.

Battle of Spurhorn – Early in the Morning

 Almost immediately the Party were thrust into the thick of the fray, being asked by Commander Pharamol to help reinforce the western bastion. Moving through the fortress the battle raged about them , most obvious in the skies where dragonrider legionnaires took on frost drakes, dracolisks and enemy dragonkin. They arrived at the bastion to find it under assault by a combined force of frost drakes and Drakelands barbarians. While Sylziria hung back and began tossing fireballs willy-nilly at the frost drakes, the others charged forward to engage the barbarians who were trying to disable the defensive ballistae mounted on the walls.
 
Clambering up wooden ladders on the outside of the towers, Gunnar and Gulbrand engaged one of the barbarians while Kelsidor and Katya took on the other. Katya delighting in finally being able to get into flanking positions! The enemy was slain and most of the ballistae saved, although the legionnaires manning them had not been so lucky, frozen in place by multiple frost drake breath weapon attacks. The Party were just congratulating themselves on a job well-done when suddenly they noticed a bigger threat – in every sense of the word!
 
Somehow the enemy had managed to get a siege tower into place and now two huge cryohydras were pushing the thing up the steep slope, a cluster of barbarians were behind them and three frost drakes flew air cover above. Sylziria cast one of her few remaining fireball spells at the siege tower – to little seeming effect, while  Kelsidor and Katya fired their bows as the frost drakes swooped in to attack with their breath weapon.
 
With nerves of steel, the Party waited till the siege tower was a scant 30 feet away  when Gunnar threw his last flask of alchemist’s fire in front of it causing the ice to melt a creating a swampy area that the cryohydras pushed hard to get the siege engine through.

Kelsidor took this as a sign to attack and dropping off the walls charged down the steep slope, sword drawn. Katya swiftly followed as did Gunnar. Gulbrand meanwhile called on some nearby legionnaires to cover them, grabbed Sylziria and shouted at the sorcerer to get them inside. As their friends attacked, Sylziria cast dimension door  and the arriving legionnaires took on the frost drakes using the remaining ballistae to great effect, they appeared inside the siege tower – which was fortunately empty!
 
While the combat raged outside. Sylziria and Gulbrand target, the huge wheels inside the tower hewing away at the iron bound wood with sword and spell. Kelsidor, Gunnar and Katya targeting one cryohydras while the other contend to push the siege tower ever up the steep slope until suddenly the toppled over crashing forwards. This seemed to turn the tide of battle as despite their severe wounds, the first of the cryohydras was slain.

Once Sylziria and Gulbrand clambered out of the wreckage they targeted the second cryohydra while the others concentrated on the barbarians, quickly overcoming them!

Battle of Spurhorn - Forced Entry

As the Party healed and snatched what rest they could as the battle raged about them, Katya suddenly spotted that a group of enemy troops had been dropped into the courtyard and one of whom was  trying to batter his way into one of the blockhouses that led to the lower levels of Spurhorn, while his comrades formed-up a defensive screen around him. Rousing her friends they rapidly leaped into action – literally in most cases as they jumped off the walls into the courtyard and charged forward. A couple of frost drakes swooped down and attacked with breath weapons. This  caused some delay until Caedwallis and Sylziria drew their attention from the walls  by casting spells at them. Gunnar meanwhile stylishly tumbled through the defence screen and got through to the one wielding an adamantine warhammer against the door of the blockhouse.

As his friends closed to help one of the barbarians turned out to be a sorcerer who started casting lighting bolt spells – unfortunately for him he chose to target Kelsidor and Katya, who easily evaded his spells and attacked. Gunnar meanwhile managed to kill the warhammer wielding barbarian and, although bleeding heavily from wounds,  was working his way through the others when Gulbrand arrived to help, quickly despatching them while Caedwallis and Sylziria dealt with the frost drakes.

Caedwallis’s healing was much in demand after the, and Kelsidor ran through most of a wand healing up his friends. They were just settling to rifling the corpses, when Katya heard an abruptly cut-off scream from the walls. Charging round the end of the blockhouse, she could see a copper Dragonkin and two drakolisks  rising over the walls. The dracolisks' gaze attack had caused carnage on the walls turning most of the defenders to stone. Calling a warning to her friend she charged forward. Fortunately in the combat that ensued, no one succumbed to the gaze attacks and the attackers were slain or driven off.

Battle of Spurhorn - Final Assault

The ebb and flow of battle seemed to take the main thrust of the assault elsewhere for a while giving the Party a brief respite as snow began to fall across the battlefield. Suddenly Katya spotted one of the defending dragonkin above, a silver, attacked by three enemy dragonkin and plunging with a sickening thud into the courtyard nearby twitching feebly. She charged forward to see if she could help, shouting a warning to the others  as the three enemy dragonkin landed. One, a blue raised his glaive for a coup de grace. Desperately, as the others leaped off the wall to go to the stricken dragonkin’s aid,  Sylziria cast her last fireball spell at the blue also hitting the white next to him, immediately drawing their attention from the fallen silver.
 
As the others charged forward, they heard what sounded like a wall crashing down across the courtyard and sounds of furious combat from that area as the barbarians stormed the breach. Meanwhile, the third enemy dragonkin, a green, focused its attentions on Katya, it’s glaive swinging murderously. The enemy dragonkin proved fearsome opponents. As the Kelsidor, Gunnar and Gulbrand joined Katya , Caedwallis made his way round to the unconscious silver and cast a healing spell. The silver leaped to his feet, and immediately used his breath weapon against the enemy dragonkin. Borrowing a dagger from Caedwallis, which looked slightly ridiculous in his large hand, he leaped once more into the fray. This seemed to turn the tide of battle but before the dragonkin were slain most of the party were bleeding heavily from multiple wounds. As they drew breath they heard a cheer from across the courtyard as their fellow defenders repulsed the attack through the breach.
 
A silence fell over the battlefield as the barbarians withdrew to lick their wounds. The party were relived form their position on the walls and went to eat and get some rest. Gunnar partook of the Commander’s  winterberry wine, which although it tasted very  odd to the human palate was at least potent and alcoholic. The rest didn’t last long as they were summoned to a council with Commander Pharamol . The Commander advised that although they had successfully defended the fortress the Legion had taken heavy casualties and he did not think they would survive another day of assaults. They hatched a plan to demoralise the enemy further, and hopefully break the siege by attempting a surgical strike against the enemy leader, General Malesinder. Pharamol would lead the Legion out in an attack on the north-eastern camp as a diversion, while the Party with a small group of dragonkin would target the general in the camp to the south.
 
Next morning, just before dawn, the Party mounted on, or carried by their dragonkin allies flew over the southern encampment. Fortuned was with them and they spotted the general, a large silver dragonkin walking with her bodyguard some distance outside the camp. Immediately their dragonkin allies dropped them off then went to harry the encampment.  Gunnar insisted he be dropped right next to General Malesinder and managed to get a solid blow in before the general retaliated with her breath weapon. The ensuing fight was brutal but eventually the Party triumphed.
 
Commander Pharamol arrived some time later advising that the enemy forced had been routed and were in full retreat. Returning to Spurhorn, and more winterberry wine. Many gifts were offered to the Party for their help , including the two headed eagle they were seeking. Pharamol also told them that from papers they had recovered from the barbarians, this group were part of a much larger army of the Warlord Yrax, who was preparing for a full-on invasion of the Starfire Mandate. When Pharamol told them that Yrax’s base was in somewhere called Ivoryglass, Sylziria and Gulbrand suddenly realised that was where they needed to go to retrieve the second key.

To Ivoryglass

After a brief stop-off at the Dancing Hut  to summon their personal shopper Zilvazeraat, the Party decided it was time to head for the Warlord Yrax’s fortress of  Ivoryglass and  – if only they knew where it was! They returned to Spurhorn where  (eventually) they worked out that it was deep in the Drakelands near about 200 miles northwest on the far side of the mountains. Kelsidor’s eager preparations for a gruelling month-long trek across the ice-fields were cut short when Caedwallis persuaded some of the Legion’s Dragonkin to fly them most of the way there, and they set off early next morning.
 
They camped that evening on the edge of the ice-fields, but their rest was cruelly interrupted by a frost worm erupting from under the ice and attacking them. In the melee that ensured against the huge beast,  the Party were triumphant, helped enormously by Sylziria’s fire magic, but at a terrible price! As Gulbrand struck the killing blow, the frost worm exploded the fearsome blast of cold and icy shards, badly wounding everyone further (except Katya) and killing  Kelsidor stone dead!
 
With heavy hearts they committed the body of their fallen comrade to the flame and set off once more. The rest of the trip was uneventful, and their dragonkin friends dropped them off as near as they dared go. Next morning they began trekking across the ice. They hadn’t gone far when Katya spotted someone being attacked by two huge insect-like creatures.
 
Gulbrand immediately charged forward, Katya in support, as one of the ursikka’s struck their victim with an awesome blow, flinging her across the ice. Sylziria began launching fireballs as Caedwallis moved to render first aid to the victim, a humanoid white wolf -  an adlet. The ursikka’s were swiftly despatched and when the adlet returned to consciousness, and got over the shock of their furless bodies, she revealed she was a shaman from one of the local tribes who had been dispossessed by Yrax and was seeking a magical artefact beloniging to Sarnok, one of theirtribe's  ancient heroes, who also had borne  a weapon that she believed would help in the battle against Yrax. Hearing this, the party offered to join her quest.

Rimekeening Crevasse

Meanwhile back on Golarion ... Legilmar, an elf woman, a witch was making her way though one of the frozen forests of the north, avoiding the pathways lest those searching for her wound find her trail in the snow. Suddenly she saw a rider, coming towards her and she dived for cover. The rider made his way unerringly towards her and as she approached she noted that she could see right through him! The Rider looked her over carefully and then with a satisfied smirk, said “You’ll do!!

As a burst of cracking black energy struck her from his pointing finger, Legilmar suddenly found herself standing on a blasted ice plain – some distance a large flock of flightless birds took notice and several moved threateningly towards her. Using a hex, Legilmar took to the air and headed southwards where she could see a small group of travellers making their way across the plain. She flew over and greeting them warned them of the birds. Invited to join their group she alighted and many introductions were made.

Their guide, led them round the flock of axe-beaks and thereafter they spent a cold a restless night on the ice. Next morning they set off again. Baknarla stopped about lunchtime on the edge of a large crevasse , a vast fracture which led off in both directions. The rift was about 500ft wide at this point but they could see it narrowed sharply as it descended into the glacier hat was their objective. Using various magical means supplied by Sylziria they avoided an arduous climb and soon found themselves gathering at the bottom of the crevasse.

Moving several hundred feet along the base of the crevasse they stopped outside the jagged maw of an ice cave in the cliff wall. Outside on  the ice wall was a pictogram which Baknarla identified as the  personal sigil of Sarnok.

Heading inwards they were almost immediately attacked by a pair of behir, one of which almost  ate Gunnar before the pair were slain. More dangerously they then ran into a frost worm which after battling it, Legilmar, Gulbrand, Gunnar and Sylziria were all wounded near to death. Fortunately Katya had sufficient healing to stabilise and heal the wounded.

After briefly resting they found themselves in a jagged frozen grotto, cracks and fissures in the ice riddled the walls ceiling and floor,  sharp icicles hung from the uneven ceiling and thick ice covered much of  the walls. A vertical sheet of ice filled the western end of the cavern, and the frozen remains of several creatures are visible with in the ice, sealed within the frozen wall. There was also a roper hidden in the ceiling that proved somewhat troublesome until a combination of Sylziria and Legilmar‘s magic and Gunnar and Gulbrand flying up and hitting it hard with swords, removed the threat, but not before Sylziria was badly weakened by the roper’s strength-sapping tendrils.

Ivoryglass

Gulbrand spent some time hacking away at the ice-wall where they could see the entombed bodies, before a Shatter spell from Caedwallis made the task easier by exploding a huge chunk of it! With a little further effort they exposed the bodies one of which was that of the adlet shaman Sarnok,  from whom they recovered the dragonbane spear they had been seeking as well as the pectoral Baknarla was after. They also managed to recover a magic belt and from one of the other corpses a suit of magic dragonhide armour.

They decided to rest in the cave that night and next morning Baknarla, after pointing them in the direction they needed to go, left them with thanks to return to her tribe. Before she left she told them what the tribe's lore knew about their destination. Ivoryglass sits within the Vahara Glacier, inside a large well-like shaft almost 200 feet deep called a moulin, formed over millennia from glacial meltwater. Ivoryglass takes its name from an immense, circular block of smooth, palely reflective white stone over 3,000 feet in diameter that supports the entire fortress and its outbuildings . Crafted ages ago by powerful dragons, this massive stone "floats" atop the moving glacier and magically keeps the fortress level and in place, ensuring that the glacier doesn't slowly overrun and swallow it. She also warned them the stone has a strong abjuration aura that has been known to  interfere with teleportation magic.

The Party, with Gunnar supporting a still weakened Sylziria made their way cautiously along the crevasse, till about mid-morning when the neared Ivoryglass itself.They spent some time hiding nearby watching the entranceway. There was two guardhouses manned by drakelands barbarians and a roving patrol of two war-hydras led by a green dragonkin. Eventually after much discussions they hatched a plan. Caedwallis, Gulbrand and Katya would sneak close enough to try to use Dimension Door to get them in  (which necessitated Katya giving the Mystic Theurge a crash course in sneaking). Legilmar would use her shadow walking spell to get herself in which Sylziria assured them she had sufficient strength to get herself an Gunnar in once she had rested a bit.

Next morning the plan, somewhat surprisingly, was executed flawlessly and they found themselves inside the gates. Immediately beyond the gates they found themselves  in a tall roofed gallery supported by slender ice pillars. Thick blocks of translucent crystal set in the roof allowed some outside light to illuminate the area. Ornamental rock gardens lined both sides of a wide flagstone path running through the centre of the chamber. A dozen alabaster statues, all depicting the same draconic figure, flanked the pillars on either side of the path. Almost immediately they were confronted by a half-white dragon destrachan who flew down and challenged them! The creature did considerable damage with his breath-weapon and sonic attacks before being driven-off to presumably lick its wounds in some distant corner of the fortress.

Moving forward through the corridor they were attacked by what they initially though was a huge dragon skeleton which proved troublesome to Gulbrand in particular. Their attacks, both physical and magical, were having little obvious effect when Legilmar suddenly spotted they creature's joints were articulated by adamantine pins and deduced this was in fact some kind of construct! Once they refocused their attacks to deal with constructs rather than undead, the threat was swiftly removed. There were three passageways facing them, but they decided to take the central one which led to a room where Massive stone plinths lined both sides of the arched hallway. Over half the plinths were in use, displaying the skeletal remains of creatures. Sheets of ice sheathed some of the skeletons, holding their ossified remains arranged as if in life, while others were merely jumbled piles of bones. As they reached the centre of the room four of the skeletons animated and stepped down from their plinths!

Bone and Glass

As the skeleton attacked, Sylzira and Legilmar both used their knowledge of magic to identify that they were in fact bone golems and began shouting out advice to their colleagues while backing-off from the combat bearing various wounds. Gulbrand and Gunnar however got stuck in, Gulbrand's adamantine  morningstar proving particularly effective!

The the battle continued, the Party discovered that Bone golems had the ability to trap their opponents in a a crushing bone-cage created from their bodies. First Katya and then Gulbrand and Legilmar were all trapped this way. The rogue managed  to escape with relative ease while Gulbrand broke out using brute force, the witch however eventually had to be freed once the golems were destroyed -  courtesy of  Caedwallis.

After the usual round of healing they moved forward, Gunnar deciding on the middle way and quickly found themselves in a throne room guarded by four glass golems. The glass golems proved briefly troublesome, their attacks doing Gulbrand and Gunnar fearsome bleeding wounds, but Sylzira and Katya helped the fighters by going invisible and standing behind them administering healing spells from wands. Caedwallis dashed in and out of the combat channeling positive energy and Legilmar joined the fighters in the fray smashing away at one of the golems with her flaming  staff!

Yrax

After searching the area of the throne room and finding little of interest Gunnar decided to lead the Party out of the western exit. A long wide passageway led them to an intersection where Gulbrand found some empty cells and practicing in a training room a Triaxian monk working through her combat routines.

Once they had established a common language with Katya's help, the monk introduced herself as Ceseer of Ning, consort to Yrax! She challenged Gulbrand to single combat, which Gulbrand accepted though insisted on using weapons rather than unarmed. After a dazzling display of skilled fighting which Gulbrand slightly edged both were battered, bloodied and bruised. Ceseer bowed and taking a healing potion from a pouch at her side, drank it down. Katya helped Gulbrand with her healing wand.  As they chatted, they Party got the sense that Ceseer would particularly mind becoming a widow which was borne out when she told them where to find Yrax and warned them about the ice elemental guardian outside his door.

Following Ceseer's advice they passed though an illusory wall into an ice filled chamber. They were almost immediately attacked by an elder ice elemental which badly wounded Gunnar and Caedwallis before  being destroyed. After a brief pause for yet more healing, they passed though a large set of double doors to immediately be hit by the icy blast of Yrax's breath weapon! Before the could deploy into the split-level ice-bound pentagonal chamber that was Yrax's lair, they were surrounded by a fog cloud cast by the dragon as he reared up. Undaunted Gunnar and Gulbrand changed forward, Gunnar making the most of his acrobatics ability to slide smoothly over the ice rather than trying to walk!

Katya, still invisible, and Legilmar followed the fighters, though Caedwallis hung back in the relative safety of the fog cloud. Legilmar used a hex to rise into the air - unfortunately for the witch this immediately drew the attention of the dragon who charged across and viciously attacked. As the dragon was flying their options seemed limited, so Gunnar threw his knife at the dragon, irritating it somewhat. Gulbrand meanwhile desperately tried to move into a position where he could use the spear of dragon-bane , while Katya rushed over to Legilmar only  find the witch was dead!

As Caedwallis cautiously emerged from the fog cloud and began channeling positve energy to heal some of his comrade's wounds, the dragon unleashed his breath weapon again to fearsome effect. Gunnar meanwhile had spotted a large vault like door on the upper half of the room and scrambled towards it. Yrax, spotting someone apparently heading to his hoard, flew over, alighted and  attacked. This fortunately allowed Gulbrand to finally get into position to use the spear!

As Caedwallis began casting scorching ray spells at the dragon, which screeched with each hit, it's battle with the two fighter's raged, the dragons claws and bites doing fearsome wounds. Katya meanwhile noticed that Legilmar's body was shrouded in a strange black mist which suddenly surged back into the corpse, which sat up with a gasp. Rising into the air Legilmar began doing what she could to aid the attack, her spell selection severely limited due to the severe injuries to Randolph, her familiar. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of blood and death, both Gunnar and Gulbrand being wounded close to death, Caedwallis was reduced to casting a magic missile. He was somewhat astonished when, as  the small ball of force stuck the dragon it roared and collapsed in a heap, dead!

They quickly looted the area, recovering the bearskin they were seeking as well as a considerable amount of treasure and magic items. As they were looting the dragon;s hoard, Ceseer turned up to wan them that the remaining residents of Ivoryglass were gathering to launch an attack on them  and had summoned reinforcements from the army camped outside. She offered to lead them to Yrax's private entrance, which they gratefully accepted. Returning to Spurhorn the rested for a while then picked up the double-headed eagle after which they returned to the Dancing Hut and placed the items in the cauldron...