Refreshed from our slumber, we ventured up the spiral stairs to the castle’s upper courtyard. There, a phalanx of ogres practiced drills with their javelins at the northwest end of the yard. We snuck silently to the southeast, where we found a few unremarkable guest chambers and then, a curious cave entrance. We entered, and followed a curving tunnel downward, passed branching passages, until we came to a large, two-level cavern, with an icicle-encrusted ceiling, and a vast, glittering treasure hoard encased beneath the frozen floor.
Tegan crossed the cavern to find another tunnel on the north wall, and Gunx moved east to search for a way up to the higher level. Suddenly, from above, a white dragon appeared, freezing our spirits with its menacing presence, and our sinews with its chilling breath. In unison, Jorad and I lashed back at the wintry wyrm with Hellish Rebukes. Tolarin tried to gain higher ground as Brick launched his javelins, but the dragon was hard to hit. I lit our target with a Guiding Bolt, and Jorad smote it with a pair of Eldritch Blasts. Gunx attempted to parlay in vain, as Tegan enraged it further with a Shatter spell.
The dragon roared, and declared its name, “Glazhael the Cloudchaser,” as it coldly promised our imminent doom. Then it flew to Tegan, at the mouth of the north tunnel, turned, and lashed the bard with his barbed tail. Tegan shot a Thunderwave up Glazhael’s icy cloaca, then Misty Stepped away to safety. From across the cavern, Jorad and I hurled more spells, and Brick hurled more javelins: one hit, which seemed to startle Glazhael, who suddenly fled.
It was then that I noticed, beneath my feet and another foot of clear ice, an exquisite pair of bracers amongst the copper, silver, and golden coins. A quick blast of my Burning Hands nearly melted enough of the ice to free them, but at that same moment, a squad of ogres appeared on the upper ridge, their javelins sailing through the air towards Brick and Gunx. Gunx caught one in his own ogre-gloved grip, but he and Brick both took damage from the attack. Then, Glazhael the Cloudchaser reappeared, and with a single blast of icy breath, froze Brick in place where he stood. Tegan Shattered Glazhael again, but the dragon bit the brave bard in the backside as Tegan bolted back up the north tunnel.
While Tolarin crept to circle behind the ogres on the plateau, I limned one ogre in the radiance of Beshaba’s Guiding Bolt, and Jorad Blasted Glazhael with Eldritch force. Together, we two ran for cover in the southern tunnel. As soon as Gunx caught up with his stealthy brother, the ogres spotted the two monks. Tolarin sprung at the radiant ogre target, dropping it to its knees, and Gunx finished it off. Glazhael was too distant to hit effectively, so Jorad and I joined the monk brothers in battling the ogre squad.
Tegan, cornered by Glazhael, heroically tried to Polymorph the dragon, but the monster’s legendary innate resistance was too strong for our bard’s tepid transmutation to top. Still, Glazhael seemed unnerved by the attempt and, again, the dragon fled the cavern in a frigid flash. The tides of chaos shifting in our favour, I incinerated a greasy ogre with a Firebolt, and charged forward onto the plateau with Jorad, as he lashed out with more Eldritch Blasts. Behind us in the tunnel, three more ogres charged in to join the frozen fray.
Tegan emerged from the north tunnel and, with a Healing Word, revived Brick, just as Glazhael re-emerged from a tunnel to the east. Jorad cast Shatter behind us, and together he and I fled for cover down another tunnel. Brick tossed another javelin at the ogres, while Tolarin battled them toe-to-toe. Gunx spat lightning down the tunnel, and softly leapt off the plateau to the glittering floor below. Glazhael bellowed a bitter blast of brisk breath at our bard, freezing our fellow in place where he stood.
We raged at the ogres all around. Tolarin took down one, and together Jorad and I killed another. As Gunx and Tolarin fought the last of the ogres, I spotted Glazhael squeezing through a hole in the ceiling. I cast a Firebolt at the dragon, and Misty Stepped away from any retaliation that might come, but Glazhael once again fled the scene. While Tolarin, Brick, and Gunx worked together to revive Tegan, I quickly retrieved and donned the fancy bracers I had discovered earlier, using my Burning Hands once again to melt the ice.
Our senses on alert for the return of Glazhael, we began to notice more noteworthy items amongst the enormous hoard: a wonderful longbow, an exquisite longsword, and an ornate chest. Then sharp-eyed Tegan spotted Glazhael again, and sang out a Shatter spell, scaring the dragon off once more. Rather than wait around for its next reappearance, we retreated up the spiral stairs, to an upper courtyard guest bedroom for a short rest, to plot our next moves. To recover the treasure hoard, we will need to bring this flying castle down, and our best hope of doing that may rest in one of the castle’s towers.
We headed north and west to the closest tower, but we could not gain entry through its huge, locked stone door. To our east, ogres atop a high blue tower began to assail our position, firing ballista bolts and throwing boulders. Ahead, we could see a winding path leading up to a door at the tower’s base, so we all ran towards it. Brick and the monks ascended the twisting ramp, but suddenly six ogres burst out of a barracks across the courtyard to our north. Brick leapt from his elevated position onto the closest ogre, the Talon of Tresendar flashing in his hands, while Tegan and Jorad Shattered into the middle of their group. I cast Darkness upon them, to further stymie their advance, and headed for higher ground.
Just then, Gunx and Tolarin leapt down onto a pair of ogres, both monks killing their targets. Jorad Shattered the attackers again, and another ogre fell. I roasted one more from above with my Burning Hands, while Brick drove Talon into its belly, then bolted through the Darkness, into the barracks. As Tegan and Gunx finished off the last two ogres, and Jorad was flinging Eldritch Blasts at the ballista high above, I called out to my fellows, to rally to the barracks, then I ran through the Darkness to join Brick. Inside this fetid flophouse, unfurnished save for food and furs and filth, Brick and I were soon joined by the remainder of our party. While we took a short rest, we looked around for loot, eventually scrounging up some eight hundred silver coins, and three hundred gold.
Then, I cloaked myself in Invisibility, opened the door, and left the safety of the barracks, heading northeast, my fellow cunts running with me, hoping to avoid incoming missiles. With a well-aimed spell, Jorad Eldritch Blasted the ballista to pieces, but the ogres atop the high tower continued to toss their boulders, until we got beyond their effective range, on the eastern side of the courtyard. Surveying our new surroundings, we found a door to our north, a huge tower to our east, and a cave entrance to our west.
We entered the north door, discovering another giant guest bedroom. At a touch, a large section of the icy north wall vanished, opening the room to the rush of air as the magical castle soared forward. Finding nothing else of interest here, we moved on, and headed to the large tower to our east. As we opened the door to the tower, a bell chimed to alert its occupants of our entry. Inside, we found a round chamber, ringed with a staircase, occupied by four ogres wearing plumed helmets. They demanded we state our business. We convinced the pretentious peons that we were cultists with an appointment to see the master of the castle, so they obligingly led us up to the second floor.
Here, we found Blagothkus, the cloud giant, sitting on the floor, being attended to by a pair of ogre servants. Evidently this was his private chamber. It contained a huge, fur covered bed, with a headboard shaped like a cloud, and the icy walls were sculpted with reliefs depicting roc-riding giants. An exasperated Blagothkus demanded to know who we were, and what our true business was: either for or against the Cult of the Dragon. We all shed our disguises, and declared ourselves the enemies of the Cult. Though skeptical at first, Blagothkus was eventually convinced of our motives, and agreed to a truce between our group and his own ogre forces, if we would rid his castle of the remaining vestiges of the Cult. Specifically, if we can slay Glazhael, and another mysterious “creature of the night” that haunts the crumbling tower, Blagothkus vows to take us to refuge, and return our stolen treasure. The mighty Blagothkus then began to sink into melancholia, talking of his regrets working with the Cult, how they have fouled the castle, how the castle is powered by the spirit of his dead wife, how his wife is entombed in a frozen mausoleum, blah, blah, blah… Too much information.
We left Blagothkus’ tower, and headed south, towards the winding icy ramp leading to the crumbling tower. The door at the base was sealed shut, so it seemed our only means of entry was through a balcony, some seventy feet up the tower. Though the surface was quite craggy, it was also very cold, and slippery, so it was with some difficulty that Jorad and I followed the more athletic cunts up the side. Eventually, we all made it onto the icy balcony, but the fragile structure immediately gave way beneath our weight. Gunx and Jorad managed to cling to the side, but the rest of our party plummeted back down to the snowy ground.
Together, Gunx and Jorad entered the high room, and from below, we could see the chamber ablaze with the familiar eldritch light of Jorad’s witchcraft, and hear the electric sizzle of Gunx’s lightning breath. Tolarin and I leapt back onto the exterior wall and started our treacherous climb once more. Meanwhile, Brick and Tegan somehow managed to find a way inside the tower, and they too started to climb, to a set of broken interior stairs. More than halfway to the top, my footing slipped, and I was back on the snowy ground. I was about to curse my rotten luck, when a wailing body came hurtling out of the tower, landed at my feet, and burst into ash and flame. I realized, with piety, that this was all part of Beshaba’s plan, and gave solemn thanks to Lady Doom.
With the sounds of battle raging overhead, I calmly began to climb the wall again, secure in the knowledge that the Maid of Misfortune was guiding my every step. I was again about halfway up the wall when the cacophony ended, and someone lowered down a rope and pulled me up. Once I joined the others, they told me of the battle. Rath Modar, the Thayan Red Wizard, and a vampiress named Sandesyl Morgia, the “creature of the night” Blagothkus had spoken of, had fled in defeat: her two nameless vampiric thralls lay slain in the fray. We smashed open the dark chamber’s covered windows, and destroyed Morgia’s unholy coffin, ensuring that she would not find refuge here again.
Returning to Blagothkus, we informed him of our victory. He thanked us for ridding his castle of these last unwelcome guests. He told us that, in about a week, we would arrive at a frost giant refuge on the Miklos Glacier, where he will seek to rally his fellow giants to join the fight against the Cult of the Dragon. Beshaba willing, the rest of our journey aboard Skyreach Castle will prove uneventful, klaatu barada nikto amen.
