GM Rednal's Northlands Saga Complete (Inactive)

Game Master Rednal

Hakon lets out a sigh of relief. "This is almost becoming routine," he says with a rueful smile to the others. "If such a thing were possible."

Moving to the tools, he unlimbers his shattered family ax and lays it on the table. "Do either of you have skill with repairs? I'd greatly welcome a return of my weapon."

What's the system for repairing?

"They are unworthy foes," Eydis muttered, "Dangerous as they may be. They have no passion, no fire to their blood. As far as I can tell there souls are as cold as the corpses they inhabit." Glancing at Hakon, Eydis shook her head. "I have no skills for this."

I assume Mending was not one of the Cantrips the Cantrips feat grants?

Eindrid shakes his head as well.

"We move on, then." Hakon returns to the door. "Eydis, do you wish to continue in the lead?"

Random P Check for hidden doors: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

No, the Cantrips feat cannot repair items. That's one of the basic powers of the Creation sphere. Incidentally, the door to the next room is wide open. XD

Hakon peers through the door to the next room.

Nodding to Hakon, Eydis also glanced into the next room, shield ready. This place had shed enough of their blood on the glittering ice to make her wary of what was hidden around the corner.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25

Eindrid followed, sword out.

The door to this room is smashed and stands open, revealing a room tightly packed with three-tiered bunk beds with frayed rope mattresses filling every available inch of floor space, only allowing for a narrow path between them. The bunks are equipped with chains at the head and foot to restrain their occupants, but all the chains were snapped and broken long ago, and the beds are empty (as are the spaces underneath them, for that matter - no undead waiting to spring out there).

Eydis eyed the broken chains with bemusement. Slavers would fit this place. Perhaps part of it's fall into the ice and darkness that now gripped it has been a slave revolt, and their 'masters'. Nothing she had seen here would suggest these people would be worthy of such a title.

Still, she searched the room, just to be certain there was nothing of use.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

Hakon searches as well, face equally grim.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15

Eindrid poked the ground a few times, just in case anything was planning to pop out.

As it turned out, your initial search had revealed all there was - unless you wanted to get very creative with the remaining wood, at least. Fashion crude weapons out of it, build barricades with the tools in the previous room... the cloth was in terrible condition, but thanks to the cold, the wood still seemed to be in good shape.

"Hmm. Well, if we need firewood later..."

Hakon nods that they should continue.

Eydis nodded and headed for the next door along, checking it before entering.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22

Double doors open up onto an open-air courtyard. A colonnade of grimly decorated engaged columns line the edges of the courtyard, and small ice benches are situated in the spaces between to allow for semi-private mediation. The steeply sloping walls of the palatial glacier rise 30 feet all around the courtyard and higher to the northeast and southeast where they join the sides of the central and western spires. A deep drift of snow has piled up in the northwest corner. Unlike the room on the other side of this twisted temple, there don't seem to be any other exits here. Given the amount of snow and the single entrance, though, it might be a fairly good place to set up a fortified position if you need to.

Einarid grits his teeth, walks over to the snow bank, sword in front of him, and runs it as deep into the snow as he can half a dozen times. At least we're learning...

Eydis checked the area anyway. If they needed to fall back to this area, the last thing she wished was to discover the undead burried in the snowdrift.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

Hakon stands miserably to one side, breath coalescing before him, lips pursed as he watches his friends.

"What I wouldn't do for a fire," he whispers, then with a shake he looks at his friends with new purpose. "Come. Let's rest here for a spell, warm our hands and eat some food. I'm growing numb with the horror and lethargic with this endless repetition of frozen rooms. Some real light and heat would do my soul good."

That said, he gathers enough firewood from the closest available sources - breaking old furniture if he has to - and then builds a veritable bonfire in the corner of the courtyard, which he lights with some lantern oil.

Once this is blazing merrily, he spits some of their dried rations on long splinters and roasts them over the flames, leaning in close to the leaping and dancing tongues of fire.

"This place," he says, voice warmed now and more alive. "It will drain you of your will if you're not careful. Leave you frozen and lost. We must safeguard our strength. I was growing almost uncaring toward the end there."

[Just a little aside here. Feel free to scarp the above if the others protest against this move.]

Eindrid's foresight seemed to prove valuable, as he managed to cut through a pair of bodies that had lain underneath the snow. Soon after, Hakon had his bonfire going, and it quickly started to melt the ice and snow within the chamber (forcing a few hasty barricades to keep the fire going). Well... it was warm, that was for sure. More helpfully, it didn't seem to have woken anything up.

Eindrid said what prayers he could over the dismembered bodies, then turned to the fire.

Do we have anything to eat?

Nope!

Eydis melted some of the snow in a bowl near the fire, drinking it while it was still cold. It was the closest to supplies they had. At least the fire warmed some of the chill from the bones, if not enough. She was used to the cold - all of the North knew it, and embraced it as bitter and proud enemy that helped make them strong - but it was a rare day she could not warm her flesh before a hearth.

His companions prove prone to silence, so Hakon's own volubility subsides, and he enjoys the last of the flames with what proves to be a grim pleasure.

After about twenty minutes, when the spars of wood are charred and starting to collapse upon themselves, he heaps snow onto the flames, putting the fire out more due to habit than any fear of setting the ice palace on fire, and then nods to the others, clearly ready to continue.

[Forgot we're out of rations. Strike that part.]

The fire went out almost as soon as the snow was piled on top, like it didn't even want to exist in this frozen land. The question, then, was where you wanted to explore next. There were some more doors on the southern side of the hall, as well as whatever was up those staircases.

Eydis moved to the room to the south of where they were, listened and then tried the door.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

Hakon moves in behind her.

Can we assume moving forward that Hakon is always right behind Eydis, and that I don't need to post as such each time?

Sorry, accidentally cleared the dot on all my campaigns.

"We still want to go upstairs at some point, right?" Eindrid asks as he follows.

Hakon shrugs.

"Yes, once we have finished this floor. I do no want to leave one of ours down here as we rush on."

The first room you visited was... another latrine. After any business there was finished, you were able to move further east, into the next chamber. Inside this long, narrow room are three cold fire pits lining the south wall, thickly lined with stones and thick layers of ash to insulate the surrounding ice — the only stone construction in the palace. Each fire pit has an iron grill and an intricate contraption that can raise or lower the grill, as well as swing a 10-gallon iron cauldron over the pit. The east and west walls are taken up by cupboards.

Hakon searches the room.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26

Eindrid checks out a few of the cauldrons, curious just what's inside of them.

Eydis searched the room as well, hoping for something useful. Although food would be too much to hope for.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

The cupboards are filled with frozen foodstuffs, spices, and other culinary material, long since spoiled with freezer burn. None of it seems like it's particularly edible - something your stomachs don't seem terribly happy about. There's nothing else here aside from the wood and metal.

Hakon leads them into the next room, whichever is closest.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24

Eydis moved to what she believed was the last unlocked door, over in the Eastern part of the ruined complex.

Eindrid frowned, seeing that the potentially-valuable spices appeared to have been corrupted by this place, and followed.

Another latrine - albeit deeper than the others, with more seats along the walls. You'd... opened quite a few of these recently. More to the point, the number of these suggested that this place had once housed quite a lot of people... certainly far more than the undead you'd destroyed thus far.

Frowning at the idea that there could be many more undead in this place, Eydis added, "We must now choose - break open those doors which are locked, are go to the upper levels and search there."

"We're looking for our Jarl, right? No need to open places forgotten. Just places where others might hide, or be taken prisoners. Places with recent activity. For the purpose of vantage, at least, I think higher might be better."

"I say we clear the place out as we go. Leave no surprises behind us. And for all we know, the jarl might be held prisoner behind one of these doors. Let's be thorough."

"There are no tracks. No sounds. And we have no food. I'm not interested in wasting our lives away learning the last secrets of this terrible, cursed place. I just want to survive long enough to find our boat home."

Hakon looks coldly at Eydis. "You have the tie breaking vote."

*Coughs slightly* The Jarl never got off the boat - the storm hit before he and his companions could join you ashore.

Eydis nodded to Eindrid. "For now, heading upstairs seems wiser. We can hunt through the locked rooms if we must, but unless one of our comrades was skilled with locks, it seems unlikely they are in there." Eydis moved towards the stairs.

Hakon shrugged and followed.

The stairs open onto a small landing that looks out over the temple 70 feet below. Above, the spire rises another 130 feet before opening up to the frozen sky above. There's a door directly to the west, unlocked and untrapped, that lead outside.

There, bridges of ice, 2 feet thick, extend between the eastern (your current location) and western spires and from these to the central spire. The bridges are unsupported and have no rails. Though made of ice, they are not slick as they have a rough surface that allows for good traction. At the point where the two bridges meet is a small rostrum and balcony that looks out over the plaza below.

Hakon trudges over to the rostrum to take a better look.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

"You think we should try to cross from here, head up to the spire, or look for another staircase from the ground level?"