31 March 2020
(Run by Ivanoski)
Day 24
Participants
Father Kask
Quagg
Sgt Rumpus
Sam
Woakeston
Idle Doodler's session report
Several adventurers decided to try their luck once again in the frosty temple. After a day’s travel on foot, the expedition found themselves down on torchbearer after a giant eagle swooped down and seized him. Otherwise unimpeded by their journey, they arrived at their destination and performed the candle-and-petting ritual to gain access to the hidden door.
Guided by Woakeston’s vague recollections of the layout, they descended down the icy steps and found themselves confronted by an icy white flame hovering in the air. The remaining torchbearer narrowly avoided an icy tendril. The flame was extinguished by introducing it to an actual heat-producing flame.
The guardian tree was sound asleep again – the party snuck past, making sure to avoid treading on any roots. No need to risk a grumpy wake up.
Moving past the statue of Seree and her dead faun, the party investigated the north-westerly room, but all it appeared to have in it was some grass. When touched, it was withdrawn back into a seemingly bottomless hole in the ground.
The torchbearer tried to move south into the next room but fell asleep upon touching the door handle, and no effort could wake him. Leaving him snoring away, the party sought an alternative route in, finding a few more floating flame spirits.
Two were dispatched fairly quickly, but a larger one conjured up a fierce blizzard in the chamber. Having opened the door to escape, group watched as the sleeping torchbearer’s body was dragged inside and swatted against a pillar. Firing fiery arrows and flammable oil into the room kept the flame at bay and drained some of its potency, but it moved into the room with Seree and set Quagg alight, starting up another blizzard to really hammer home the point.
In desperation, Quagg threw himself into burning oil to sap away the icy flames, and Sgt. Rumpus plunged through the same patch of oil – narrowly avoiding a fiery death – and plunged a torch into the floating flame, extinguishing it.
At the end of this room there was a frozen fountain concealing a large number of coins. The party smashed through the ice to grab them and a magical blue branch which, if a leaf was plucked, would turn the holder temporarily into a tree. Battered and bruised, the group elected to return to Helix to lick their wounds and contemplate another foray, wondering what was down the mystery hole.