TAT Summaries

[Daos]

Chapter One:  Road to Icewind Dale

On the morning of Tarsakh 16th, 1368 DR, Drezden Thunderoak, Jaxle Longbranch, Dallion Elvenmere and Malavar Mantice were all in the common room of the Cutlass in the city of Luskan. All of them were looking for work and none were too happy to be in the dirtiest dive in a city of pirates.

The four introduce each other. Drezden and Malavar discuss their respective faiths, Eldath and Tempus. Dallion claims he is on a hunt, but is coy about the details. After a bit, the innkeeper, Arumn Gardpeck, shows up and nails a notice to the job board. It seems a merchant named Master Peddywinkle is taking a trip to Targos, up in Icewind Dale, and wants to hire on some adventurers to protect his caravan. All four men, in need of gold and wanting to get out of Luskan, agree to go check it out.

They head to the Royal Arms Inn, a much nicer and far more expensive inn than the Cutlass. They are directed to Master Peddywinkle by a snooty bartender. Peddywinkle asks them about their prior experience, then offers them 50 gold pieces each (plus all food and water expenses), plus the potential for more work once they arrive in Targos. But, on the condition that they must leave in three hours. The party has no objection to this.

Three hours later, the four have gathered their gear and mounts/pack animals and returned to the Royal Arms. There, they find two horse driven wagons, and meet Rafferty Tannerson and his nephew/apprentice, Dell. Dell is fascinated by adventurers and asks them all sorts of questions about their exciting lives. Rafferty, however, is far less enthused.

The fifth guard that Peddywinkle hired then arrives. She is Taska Whiteship, former captain of the Bronzemoon (according to her, her crew mutinied). She flirts with the others and talks a big game, but nobody seems to really take her seriously other than Dell.

The party sets off, and eight days pass uneventfully. That night, they make camp for the evening and Peddywinkle has Malavar, Drezden and Dallion look for kindling for a fire. While doing so, Drezden and Malavar both noticed they were being watched by a lone figure off near some woods. Malavar mounts Onyx and, alongside Drezden, the two go off to investigate while the others remain behind to protect the caravan. Meanwhile, Dallion tells Dell of his homeland (Evereska) and his birthland (Evermeet).

Malavar calls out to the man spying on them, and at first he looks ready to bolt. But instead, he calls back out to them, asking if they are friends or enemies of goblins. Answering they are enemies, the man approaches and explains that there is a camp of goblins nearby. They attacked him, took all of his gear and supplies, and killed his wolf, Raana. He wants to strike back, but cannot do so alone and without weapon. The two agree to take him back to camp and ask permission from Peddywinkle. The man, it turns out, is not really a man at all, for he has icy blue eyes and snow white skin, and seems to radiate coldness from his body.

Upon returning to camp, Peddywinkle recognizes the man, who calls himself Krah, as a frost folk. Krah admits he is an exile, and all on his own. Peddywinkle agrees to let the party help him, but insists some of them stay behind to protect the caravan. Drezden, Malavar and Dallion agree to go, while the others stay.

Malavar loans Krah his warhammer, and then the party follows his lead. After an hour or so, they come across the goblin camp. There are four goblins and a bugbear, eating over a camp fire next to a dead winter wolf. It looks like Krah is going to lose his temper and charge, but Drezden actually beats him to it, and starts shooting at the goblins. A battle breaks out. The party is easily victorious, not taking a single injury in the process. After Krah's rage ends, Drezden finds his gear and returns it to him.

The party returns to camp and reports. The party asks Krah to join them, and he agrees as he has nothing else. They set watch for the night and prepare to get some rest.

The next day, they travel some more, and the day after that, it's more of the same. But that night, when they get a fire going, Rafferty discovers a pair of hoar foxes stealing their food, and gets a blast of ice in the face for his troubles. Peddywinkle orders the party to stop them, but due to a lack of communication, the party is disoriented; some try to attack the foxes, some try to chase them off, and Drezden tries to befriend one. Ultimately, the foxes escape with some food. Peddywinkle sends Drezden and Krah out to hunt to make up for it. Due to a mix of luck and skill, they bring back an adult caribou.

On the evening of the thirteenth day on the road, after the party has made camp, Jaxle finds what appears to be a partially buried bone near a small pond. Jaxle mistakenly believes there is a monster in the pond and cautions the party to leave. The others are skeptical of this, but decide to look around the area just in case. They find a destroyed wagon with several corpses (both human and goblin) lying around it. Finding some tracks, Drezden and Krah follow them to a goblin camp with an ogre. It looks like these bandits have been attacking caravans for some time, and are only off-guard because they weren't expecting a second caravan to come by so soon after the last one. Drezden and Krah return to the others and report.

The party decides to go ambush the goblin camp, using stealth and ranged weaponry. Ironically, they leave behind Taska and bring Krah, whom has no indoor voice or ranged weapons. Fortunately, the goblins are so caught off-guard that Drezden manages to take out their only archer and their leader before the fighting even starts.

From there on, the battle goes well at first. But once the ogre wades in, things take a turn. Malavar finds himself in dire straits, especially after his spear is knocked out of his hands. The rest of the party, occupied with the goblins, are unable to aid him. But luckily the goblins' morale breaks and one runs away, allowing Drezden the chance to jump in. Eventually the two kill the ogre, which causes the last goblin to surrender. However, Dallion and Krah continue attacking and slay her, just as she is about to warn them of orcs to the north.

Malavar becomes angry at this and chastises the others. Drezden and Dallion defend the action, claiming goblins are little more than vicious animals and would attack innocents if not killed now. Krah is mostly confused, as he does not understand the idea of rules in war. After some arguing, Malavar backs down after realizing he wasn't going to change any minds that day. The party rounds up all of the loot, including the weapons and chain mail of the goblins, then head back to camp.

Taska helps them appraise their loot, although she laments not being able to join in. She seems impressed the party took out an ogre. After a few more days of travel, they cross the Shaengarne tributary, meaning they are nearly to Targos. Drezden begins to speak of a good Drow ranger that is said to live in these parts, which gets the party talking about Drow in general. Not long after, they see Targos in the distance.

[Daos]

Chapter Two:  Targos and Beyond

It is Mirtul 6th, 21 days after having left Luskan, that the party at long last reaches their destination, the fishing town of Targos, one of the Ten-Towns of Icewind Dale. They head for the Wolf's Pelt Inn. Peddywinkle pays the party their 50 gold each, then tells them to stick around while he takes care of some personal business--with the promise of possible work in the near future.

The others enter the inn, although Krah is nervous that the warm-bloods will greet him with torch and pitchfork, so he keeps his cloak bundled up over him to hide his features.

Once inside, they find a table and order some food and drink. The inn is run by a burly man named Kalas Winters and his wife, Beatrid. Despite this, Beatrid openly flirts with all of the men in the group. There are also several young women working there as barmaids, and Dell wonders if any are married. After some teasing from Taska, the party begins talking about marriage and whether adventurers are suited for it. Most of the party agrees it's not really for them, although Malavar says he might if it brought him money and power.

After they finish eating, Dell and Rafferty retire for the night and then Peddywinkle returns from his 'personal business.' Gathering them together, he tells them a story of a goodly conjurer named Damien Morienus who built a tower here in Icewind Dale and worked to develop a miracle healing salve. But sadly there was a great thaw and his tower was swallowed up, and so the salve was never released to the world. He asks the party to find this tower for him and retrieve the salve, or at least Morienus' notes on how to recreate it. He offers the party a 50/50 split of any treasure they find within the tower. Malavar barters with him, and the two eventually settle on a 65/35 split, in the party's favor.

With that settled, Peddywinkle tells them to head to the nearby town of Lonelywood. He says there is a barbarian who might know the location of the tower, and there is a halfling scrimshaw carver in Lonelywood named Regis in Lonelywood who can help them find the barbarian. The party decides to walk over charting a boat, by going around the lake. They make preparations and then head to bed.

The following day, Mirtul 7th, the party sets out for Lonelywood. At around noontime, however, they spot what appears to be an elven body lying in the middle of the road. They move closer to investigate, but expect an attack. Sure enough, five orcs emerge from hiding and demand the party hand over their elves. Dallion recognizes them as the same elf-killing orcs he was tracking. Naturally, a fight breaks out. The party is victorious. After they bury the dead elf with a cairn, they continue on to Lonelywood.

Upon arriving in the village, they head for the Bone Works to meet with one Regis, a halfling of some renown. Regis buys the scrimshaw the party found in the goblin camp, and then Malavar asks him about the wizard's tower. There is a lot of confusion, as Drezden and Dallion get distracted when Regis mentions the Crenshinibon, a crystal tower that was destroyed a few years back. Once Regis understands which tower they are looking for, he tells them a nomad friend of his lives out on the Sea of Moving Ice, and can tell them more. He can arrange for his guide, his friend Drizzt, to help them find the nomad. The party accepts. They go to an inn and rest up for a couple of days before heading out.

They travel the Sea of Moving Ice, stunned by its beauty but finding the way difficult due to the freezing cold. Luckily, they had all bought arctic coats and snow shoes beforehand. It takes two days to reach Lone Tree, the area Regis told them that his guide would meet them at. Once there, they find a large cache of supplies, including food, water, fuel and blankets. Grateful, they set a watch. However, that night, they hear the baying of hounds approaching. The party quickly moves to defend themselves, but it looks like the feral beasts will overwhelm them when a mysterious stranger appears and joins in to help cut them down.

Once the battle is over, the stranger offers healing potions and reveals he is none other than the drow renegade ranger, Drizzt Do'Urden. Drezden is pleased to see him, while Dallion is ready to attack, although he never does. Drizzt, having been sent by Regis to guide them, tells them they should wait until morning before setting out. Drizzt sits by himself and goes right to sleep, while the others talk around the campfire (save for Drezden, who goes right to sleep). Dallion warns they cannot trust him, but the others feel Regis wouldn't have recommended him if he wasn't trustworthy.

The following day, Drizzt leads them out onto the Sea of Moving Ice. The journey takes two days, and it quickly becomes apparent they wouldn't have made it far without the drow's expertise. Eventually, they meet up with Kinnuki, the nomad Regis spoke of. He cannot speak Common, so Drizzt serves as translator between them. After they take care of the business Regis asked them to do, they begin asking about the lost tower.

Kinnuki tells the party that a hundred years ago, the permafrost melted in what is known as The Great Thaw, and the tower sank into the ground. A very tall tree was bent in the process, and it could be a valuable landmark in finding the tower. After some questioning, Malavar noticed Kinnuki seemed to be aware of details he couldn't possibly know unless he had actually been there. His deception revealed, Kinnuki told the truth.

Damien Morienus did indeed come to Icewind Dale about a century ago to finish his research, but that research had little to do with any healing salve. A necromancer, Damien came to Ten-Towns in search of seclusion. Damien chose an area of great natural power and transformed great spires of stone into a magnificent set of towers. The local barbarian tribes also knew this area of power and it was used as a holy place (as the druids continue to do to this day).

When Damien, full of magical powers, appeared on the scene, he convinced the primitive barbarians that he was an earth god (by transforming the rocks into a tower complex). Thereafter, Damien sometimes took aged, dying barbarians into his tower, where he performed all types of grisly experiments on them. The barbarians were afraid of angering the 'god' and
so did nothing. Damien continued to take in the old and dying for many months.

Finally, Kinnuki (yes, he's that old and stays alive through barbarian magic and sheer force of will) came to confront Damien, but the wizard was away, and Kinnuki instead spoke with Mathilda--the beginning of the relationship that would produce a child, Jukini, and would take Mathilda forever from the arms of Damien Morienus.

Mathilda had not married an evil, obsessed necromancer. He had fallen in love with Damien, an intelligent but driven man. Over the years Damien's dabblings in dark magic twisted him, and a lust for power replaced his love for his wife.

Regardless, the man Damien had become was far from happy with losing his wife--a wound more to his pride than to his icy heart. Even worse, the stealing of Mathilda by the barbarian prince proved a great distraction to the wizard, one he and his research could ill afford. In rage and frustration, he went to his summoning room and conjured two of the greatest demons ever to roam the darker planes. These he sent out to destroy the barbarian and his deceitful wife.

The demons searched far and wide for years for the barbarian, but so great was Kinnuki's skill in the snowlands that they could not find him. Whenever they thought that they had him, he and his family slipped through their grasp. So the demons decided to even the odds...they used their hellfire to melt all the snow. This event came to be known as the Great Thaw by the people of Icewind Dale, and most never learned the truth of it, believing it to be a natural event. Unfortunately for Damien, so great was the demons' ire at being eluded by the barbarian, that they melted too much snow, flooding the tundra and causing the permafrost below the tower to soften. It was then that the tower slowly sank into the earth, never to be seen again. It was during this time that the demons' plan worked to a degree. The ice floe broke up beneath Kinnuki's whole extended-family clan, and only he and Jukini survived. And she later was taken by a fever, leaving only Kinnuki as the last of his people.

Having heard this tale, Malavar suspects that Peddywinkle might already know this and that the party should be careful about what they were walking into. Kinnuki agrees to escort the party back to Lone Tree, and then Drizzt goes with them as far as Lonelywood before saying goodbye. The party reports to Regis and he tells them he knows of a bent tree like they described. After a day of rest, the party then makes their way there where they find a clearing, the bent tree in question, and a circle of old, weather-beaten stones. Malavar quickly deduces that the stones are the top of the tower battlements, as the tower sank into the mud long ago.

The party sets Krah to digging for them, and after an hour, he hits something hard. They find the top of the tower, along with a trap door that is rusted shut. Malavar and Drezden hammer at it to open it. It works a little too well, as part of the ceiling collapses along with the door, and take the two with it. Fortunately, they are not badly injured, just some bruises and covered in spiderwebs. Taska secures a rope and Dallion and Jaxle quickly descend to join the others.  All they find is a circular room with an old cauldron inside a painted circle and an old chair north of it.  They avoid the circle, but after some searching around, Drezden finds a trap door leading deeper into the tower.  They then decide to plan out their next move before descending.

[Daos]

Chapter Three:  The Accursed Tower

The party discusses their next move. They decide to leave Krah to watch the pack animals. They have no light at all, which is a problem for Taska (everyone else has infravision), but Malavar assures her it won't be a problem because they can just make torches. They descend into the next room and when Jaxle moves to check a nearby door, a broken skull suddenly animates and tries (rather pathetically) to nibble at the elf's ankles. Malavar smashes it with his hammer.

At this point, the party realizes they can't make their own torches (no fuel), so they pack up, return to Lonelywood, buy a pair of lanterns and some oil, stay the night at the inn, then return the next day, Mirtul 21st. They enter the next room, which seems to be an old master bedroom. It includes, among other things, a desk and a wardrobe. Drezden checks out the desk while Malavar examines the wardrobe. Finding the drawers locked, Drezden asks Taska to help, but she's unable to pick any of the three locks. Malavar opens the wardrobe, and a four foot tall flesh golem jumps out and attacks him. Drezden, Taska and Dallion jump in to help, and together they put the golem down in one round.

Jaxle then tries the the locked drawers (well, two of them). He only manages to open the second one, but springs a trap that poisons his hand, numbing it to the point where it was difficult to use. Malavar used his hammer to force open the other two drawers, but none of them contained much of value beyond some tarnished silver. The party moves down to the next level and mostly finds broken furniture. Malavar finds a gold earring among it, and also notices a window that opens into an open area underground, revealing another tower on its side. Ignoring it for now, the party descends another level deeper into a guard post, with six dead guards--or rather, their skeletal remains. The party assumes they will animate and attack, and they are right--that is exactly what happens.

Malavar tries to turn them but fails, so the party is forced to fight all six on their own, and Malavar is the only one with a bludgeoning weapon on hand. Things don't go very well. Both Dallion and Malavar fall in the fight. Eventually the party wins, and force-feeds the two downed companions their last healing potions to wake them up. The party decides to retreat back to the surface to rest up and regain their spells before proceeding any further.

They spend the remainder of the day resting, heal up, then repeat it the next day. After that, the party was fully healed and had full spells, so returned to the room where they fought the skeletons and decided to check the door to the south, which opened up into a large hall. At the end of the hall was a statue. Suspecting it might attack, Drezden approached it and poked it. Sure enough, it attacked. The party quickly dispatched it, and it turned out to not be a statue at all, but a zombie wearing rusty old armor.

Turning south, they try the door there and find an old office. There's a dusty desk and a skeleton sitting at it, looking right toward them. Drezden hurls a hand axe at it, just in case. Sure enough, the skeleton jumps to life and defends itself. It's a difficult fight, but ultimately one the party wins. There's little of value in the room itself, but searching the skeleton they find some nice chain mail armor and a broad sword; both are in excellent condition--not rusting away like most of the equipment they've found so far. Malavar claims the armor and Drezden the sword. Malavar also casts Detect Magic on both, revealing they are enchanted.

The next room over is mostly empty. The room after that has a chest in it. It is checked for traps, but nevertheless a fire glyph blows up in Jaxle's face anyway. Inside the chest are a few minor items, including a journal from a cleric of Myrkul who was staying in the tower when the whole thing sank. He claims to have put a curse on the tower, so that anyone who dies here will rise again as undead.

The party moves on and finds a large library. Malavar immediately deduces it is trapped and has a secret room. They look through the books and find one written by Damien himself, but when it is pulled off the shelf, a bar slams down over the door on the outside and a magic mouth starts yelling "Thief, thief!" over and over again. Malavar is able to break through the door and after awhile, the magic alarm wears out. Another book removed from the shelf reveals a secret door with three chests. As soon as Malavar steps inside, though, he sets off another fire glyph.

Taska admits a bit of relief at this, because Malavar had so accurately been predicting where traps, secret doors and treasure were and were not, that she was beginning to suspect he knew more than he was letting on. But his walking into a dangerous trap helped assuage those fears. Malavar chews her out for daring to question his loyalty in return. The party searches the three chests and finds some minor valuables, including a book of poisons and antidotes that Drezden claims.

The next and final room of this floor appears to be an old guard room. There's a strange hallway with a portcullis blocking it, but a door also allowing access, as well. At the end of the hall is another door. There is also a weapon rack with a single long sword on it, and like the broad sword found earlier, seems in perfect condition. Dallion moves closer to inspect, when the weapon rack itself attacks. It turns out to be a starving mimic. It takes down Dallion, but the party is able to defeat it and save the elf's life. Once conscious again, Dallion takes a great interest in the sword and ends up claiming it.

With that threat dealt with, the party turns their attention to the last door. Taska teases the men about bending the bars of the portcullis, but Drezden and Malavar take her seriously and attempt to--but fail. Instead, they use the door but discover a pit trap. After bypassing it, they find the last door leads downstairs, so they decide to head back to the top to rest again.

The following day, Mirtul 23rd, the party sets off again. But this time they leave Taska behind and take Krah instead. They descend to the fifth floor. There they find a laboratory, although Malavar receives a slight shock from an old trap. Inside it appears to have largely been deserted long ago; dust covers everything and a number of beakers have broken after falling off shelves, no doubt from when the tower was buried. They decide to check out the northern door first. Jaxle finds no traps, so when Drezden opens it, he's surprised when a javelin fires at him, then pulls him down into a hole and onto some spikes where a skeleton jumps up and prepares to attack him. Luckily, the party had some rope and were able to pull him back up in time.

After Malavar heals him, they try the east door. This one is not trapped, but it did turn out to be an old frozen locker for body parts that had long since thawed out and gone bad. The horrible smell caused half the party to start puking. While the others start looking for rocks to throw at the lone skeleton below, Dallion investigates a table with a sheet over it. Removing the sheet reveals a one-armed mini-flesh golem that quickly attacks the party. The party makes short work of it, then decides to descend another level in the tower.

They find what appears to be the dungeon. There are numerous cells, and they suspect one of them holds the skeleton that attacked Drezden when he fell into that pit. After a brief discussion on whether there might be anything locked away in those cells, the party decides to check out the jailer's room instead. Inside is the skeleton of an axe-wielding ogre, that quickly animates and attacks them. Jaxle falls, but the others are victorious. After reviving the rogue, Malavar suggests he goes back up to the surface and swaps with Taska.

Once Taska has joined them, the group heads back to the second staircase where they faced the mimic, then descend to the lower level. They pick a room at random, and some kind of barracks. Five skeletons animate and attack immediately. It doesn't go well, as Krah and Dallion fall and everyone keeps fumbling their weapons. Out of nowhere, Jaxle shows up and helps them finish the skeletons off.

The party carry their unconscious back up to the top floor again and discuss whether they should retreat back to Lonelywood or not. They decide not. Three days pass, and they spend that time resting and healing up. During this time, Dallion determines that the shield and long sword they picked up are both magical. Malavar claims the shield, and Dallion the sword. It is now Mirthul 25th, and the group leaves Taska to watch over the animals this time, and then head back to where they left off.

In the next room they search, they find two armored corpses that raise up and attack. Malavar turns them and has Drezden, the only person with a ranged attack, shoot at them until they fall. Although he uses up a lot of his ammunition, this results in a nobody getting hurt. However, Krah grows angry and calls into question the tactic, but Malavar shuts him down.

The next room over is barricaded from the inside, and the room after that seems empty (although nobody enters to search it). So Malavar and Drezden begin beating down the barricaded door. Inside is a servant's room, and three zombie maids. Malavar calls for the party to wait at the door for the zombies to come to them, bottle-necking them. But Krah grows impatient and rushes in. He is then promptly knocked out by a crit. The others mop up the three zombies and then Malavar revives Krah.

Krah is sent back to the surface and swapped out for Taska. Then the party decides to head back up to that window they saw earlier and climb down from there, instead of using the broken stairs on that level. They use a rope to descend to the bottom of the tower, into a massive stone cavern. From here, they can reach the bottom floor through the old main entrance, but instead they head over to a smaller tower that had fallen over on its side. They retrieve the rope from before they get up to it. Because the tower is on its side, its dimensions are all different. The walls are the floors and ceilings, and the floors and ceilings are walls.

After climbing up to the second floor, they find some difficulties in jumping over a small pit. Once it is cleared, they check the door above them to find an empty room. The door below them is so full of spider webbing, they can't really see anything. There's a brief discussion on starting a fire, but none of them have torches, so they decide to leave it for now. Instead, they climb up to the next floor.

They find a bedroom and searching it reveals a ruby dagger. When they try to move on to the next level, though, Malavar asks Taska to go first. She is attacked by a gargoyle that is pinned down by debris. Taska gets wounded before falling back, and Malavar tries to strike it with his spear, but it has no effect. He instantly deduces only magical weapons will hurt it, and sends Drezden and Dallion to use their new blades against it. Working together, they slay it. Malavar heals them up, and they move on.

They descend onto a rickety bridge that takes them to the final room. Inside, they find the corpse of Damien, which is of course, undead. He accuses the party of trying to steal his research and attacks. He casts some kind of spell, and everyone in the party disintegrates into dust except for Jaxle and Malavar. Jaxle goes down a moment later from Damien's claws, leaving Malavar to fight alone. However, after a few rounds, Taska, Drezden and Dallion return. It turns out they weren't vaporized; rather, they were teleported back two rooms, and had to work their way back.

Once the group was reunited, they worked together and managed to take down Damien. After reviving Jaxle, they then searched the room and looted the body of all its possessions, including the diary. The party then returned to the surface, but when preparing to set out to bring the diary to Peddywinkle, Malavar stepped in. He said Peddywinkle had lied to the party about Damien, and that the book should not be turned over to him. He and Taska argued about this, but the others remained largely neutral. Drezden and Krah went hunting, and Dallion prepared Read Magic. He spent the next 22 hours reading the book over. He found no reference to a healing salve, but did find an incomplete formula for turning oneself into a lich. This leads Drezden and Krah to believe the book should be destroyed. Malavar and Dallion believe they should keep the book themselves, and only Taska is left to vote for them giving it to Peddywinkle like they originally agreed.

The party returned to Lonelywood for the night, then the next day set off for Targos. Once there, they went in the inn to see Peddywinkle, with Malavar buffing up first. Fully expecting the merchant to demand the book even after learning about its true contents, he was quite surprised when Peddywinkle fully agreed the book should be destroyed. He even raised the party's pay and agreed to contact one of his Harper friends to come and collect the book, to keep it out of the wrong hands. Malavar remains convinced the whole thing is a ruse, but the others feel it's a pretty good deal and agree to it. The party splits the treasure up between them and then retire to their rooms.

The following morning, a Harper mage named Arlia arrives to claim the book. Malavar and Dallion remain skeptical of who she is and her motives, but ultimately the party hands the book over to her and she departs.