Summary
The party attends a Winter Elf play and enters into a living myth to retrieve a magical harp from a paranoid Frost Giant.
Player Characters
- Barkface the Druid, played by EvilTables
- Donnie the Bard, played by Malley
- Uriel the Ranger, played by Dante
Hirelings
- Arnd the Dwarf
- Bran the failed magician
- Garbash, Cleric of Crom
- Irya the Archer
- Manks, Cleric of Hathor
Details
The group spends a bit of time carousing and picked up two new hirelings – Manks a cleric of Hathor, newly arrived to Helix looking to prove himself to his god, and Bran a former apprentice to the mage Mazzahs and current drunkard.
Everyone spends the day recuperating in town awaiting the production a group of Winter Elves who arrived three days ago has been preparing.
The group enters and witnesses a stage play, with the Elf troupe telling a tale of how a Frost Giant ticked the Elven rulers, betting that he could build a frost wall around their kingdom to aid them in a coming war against the Fomorians. He bet he could construct the wall in a weeks time, and if he failed he would not have to be paid. If successful he was to be given their Harp, a hereditary magical item of many enchantments, fabled to be able to produce any song or noise in existence.
The elves didn’t bet that the frost giant had a pact with a powerful fire spirit, and paired with the giant the two were quickly able to sculpt an ice wall. Winning the Harp, the giant left just before the elves became occupied with their conflict against the formorians.
The elven troupe then bows and says that the final act, of how a small party of elf adventurers traversed into the giant’s kingdom and retrieved the harp would require audience participation. They unveiled a silvered mirror with an icy portal, and bade the audience to cross over.
The party enters the portal and finds themselves in a wintery kingdom at night, with a looming ice castle in the distance. Looking each other over they realize they are inhabiting the bodies of fey, and while they are in some way versions of themselves, they also find peculiar alien entities known as “arcane spells” in their brain.
They decide to proceed towards the castle, seeing massive stone and ice walls and a thick portcullis, they call out and are responded to by an icy orc guard and his polar bear companion. He tells them that noone is to be allowed in, as the frost giant Bothorn fears ice demons who ride the winds tonight.
The group convinces him to check with his lord, and while he is away they discuss possible alternatives. Eventually returning Gorth the ice orc tells them that they can prove they aren’t ice demons if he is allowed to cut off their tongue and ensure it doesn’t turn into an ice shard.
Barkface agrees, so the gate is raised and Gorth approaches brandishing shears. Uriel and Donnie stop him momentarily, with Donnie singing him an enchanting tale. Beguiling Gorth with his bardic abilities, he convinces him to take them to Bothorn.
They enter through internal walls and witness massive structures, a tall tower with an orange glowing flame above, and a motley of icy fantastical creatures preparing to shelter away from the ice demon threat. Asking Gorth about this land, they learn that many people act as serfs, forced to mine gems in a quarry below to be sacrificed to the fire demon, who protects them from the ice demons.
As the party enters into the main hall they see the paranoid king nervously looking around his banquet hall. He leaps to his feet seeing unfamiliar people and fears they are ice demons who have possessed elves. Barkface tells the king that he will cure the curse, but unfortunately the druidic spell of Cure Poison doesn’t lift whatever malevolence these demons put upon the giant.
He calls for guards to lead the party up the tower, to be consumed by the fire demon. The party pleads with the guards, arguing with them that the king is deranged and that they need not be enslaved to him and his fire spirit, and that they have a means to escape this terrible world.
They convince a group of these beings to rebel against the king, convincing them that they have the means to do so by having Irya drink a potion of giant’s strength and demonstrate fantastic feats.
The group assaults the fortress, coming upon the king in his frosty throne room, launching the massive banquet table at him, casting the spells from their elven transformation, and having Gorth sick his polar bear Bruri upon the king. They slay him, grab a variety of magical items from his store including the harp, and they make their way back towards the portal as a looming set of icy eyes, fangs, and claws manifests in the swirling night winds.
Everyone leaps through, and they see the tent where the elves were performing in chaos – faeries from the ice realms are running amok, and Gorth’s bear Bruri charges into the forest.
The elves applaud the group saying they performed masterfully, and their interpretation of the liberation part of the myth was unconventional but thrilling. The group set to calming the beings who traveled through the portal, seeking out Gorth and Bruri, and conversing with the head of the mercenary guild as to find a home for these beings.
Closing thoughts
I wrote this side adventure based on a roll of a random table of a traveling elf troupe, but I wanted to give it an almost Gloranthan Heroquest-y vibe of letting the party step into the myth. This was an obvious reskin of a common Norse myth, with a lot of influence from other fairytales and Dolmenwood.
It was a lot of fun, and a welcome break from the continual dungeon crawling. Even though I love Barrowmaze its always nice to have a break. I’ll be excited to see the effects this has on the world.