The party spent the first part of the day shopping, before returning to Nadya’s house. We noticed some strange happenings in the house, drawers moving on their own and such, and asked Nadya about it. She mentioned these happenings had been occurring since around the time her husband died. She was pretty certain it was not the spirit of her husband, though. Speaking with her children we found that it is a small fey creature and just helps her around the house.

As the night progressed and we prepared to go to the tavern there was a knock at the door. Upon opening the door Nadya found 6 guards in the doorway. They asked her about us, she claimed we were family from Whitethrone, covering for us a second time. They essentially accused her of aiding the resistance and demanded she accompany them to the tavern and meet with the captain for questioning. The party accompanied her to protect their “family”. Once we arrived the captain said they were taking her back to the pale tower and Renzin charged into combat. The fight was long, and fairly difficult, but we were able to dispatch the 9 guards + the captain. The barkeep and his wife had jumped in and fought, on no side for sure but mostly against the party. After defeating the guards the barkeep and his wife backed down and apologized, stating they were just trying to protect their family and livelihood.

We questioned the one guard that we took hostage and did get a few bits of useful information from him. We found the name of Nazhena’s right hand man, found there are some portals protected by key words that change daily, and that they are probably 50ish soldiers guarding the tower. The guard also mentioned a dragon, though that seems unlikely and was probably just trying to scare us off.

We disposed of the corpses by burning them in the remnants of another building in town that had been burned before our coming. We then set out in the morning, Nadya with us, for the pale tower. Along the way we encountered a strange talking bird. It mentioned magic items on us a few times, as well as interest in where we were going. We tried to go on past it and it vanished, then attempted to steal Renzin’s belt pouch. Phar hit it with some fire damage and Nimue tried to put it to sleep but it was able to get into invisibility again.

After resting the night, the decision was made to proceed through the portal and meet our fate on the other side – whatever that may be. It was significantly colder on the other side, despite the relative calm, compared with the howling storm pouring forth from the portal in Taldor. The trees were different, the sky was darker (with a storm rolling in) and we knew that we must be far, far from Taldor.

The low sparkle of lights caught our eye a few miles out and we wanted to head in that direction. In this type of cold, the horses would have died quickly so Malicar was selected to take them back through the portal and leave them at the lodge. Some of the goods were packed up for Renzin to carry, while the bulky bucklers and bandit armors went back with the horses. We pressed onwards towards the town.

Along the way, we met and saved Nadya Petska, who’s daughter has been kidnapped by an evil witch, from a Giant Mantis – which Nimue thought odd because these giant mantis creatures are not native to this type of climate. From Nadya, we learned that the witch Nazhena is demanding ransom in the form of food and supplies from the people – to be delivered to the Pale Tower.

We set up camp to weather the coming blizzard and Nadya fed us and chatted with us – we told her about our trip from Taldor, but omitted the part about the black rider. After a time, Mierul the forlarren visited the camp and said something about the black rider. Nadya lied to her about our origins when she asked, and was obviously mistrusting of this creature. After an awkward conversation between Nadya and Mierul, Mierul sang a song and then left.

After this, we spoke with Nadia about her kidnapped daughter, and learned that she has 2 more children back in town. Her husband died a while back during a hunting trip. We promised to save her daughter and that Nazhena would pay.

Once camp was packed up, we heard an oncoming murder of crows, sent from the Pale Tower and tried to quickly set everything back up. However, the birds spotted Nadya and descended upon the group, pecking at the white tarps to flush us out.

We fought the birds off, and eventually they dispersed – Nadya was concerned that this would reveal to the Pale Tower that the party was being harbored by the villagers. We ended up talking to Nadya a little more, quickly, and discovered that her daughter was taken during a parade – this led to us explaining the ghost/vision we saw in Taldor and about the doll resembling Nadya’s daughter and Nadya grew cold and angry vowing revenge against Nazhena Vasilliovna, but did not explain the significance of either the doll or the ghost.

We got back to town, Waldsby, and Nimue realized that the layout is almost exactly like Heldren – with some of the people actually looking very similar to folks in Heldren. Similarly, there’s an angel statue in the center of the town that closely resembled that of the one in Heldren – if not the exact same, done by the same sculptor.

We went back to Nadya’s house and met her two boys Orm and Mjoli and Kashka, the lady watching them while Nadya was away. Nadya gave us some clothes, “peasant garb”, to blend in, but the clothes themselves were actually very beautiful, with nice embroidery. After, we began to explore the town, visiting the sundries shop and the smithy, both of which have a few sorted magical items which we may decide is worth a purchase.

…The battle was fierce with summoned Eagles, Tebknotten the ice troll, and a few sprites all attacking the party. Nimue was able to sleep Tebknotten and turn a very fierce opponent into an easy fight. Fighting the sprite Hommelstaub was much more challenging and took a while to kill. He managed to put Nimue down, twice, and inflicted some heavy damage to Renzin before Renzin grappled him and killed him by pulling off his arm.

Searching the near area we find a large swirling ice vortex. As we walk up to check it out an old man riding a pale horse comes through a portal in the center. He lists himself as one of Baba Yaga’s 3 black riders and he has a huge ice cycle stuck in his back. He says Queen Elvanna is trying to stop Baba Yaga from coming so she can imprison the whole world in ice. He says to power the hut you have to place the keys in the huts cauldron will power it so we can find Baba Yaga. The two keys are a Plague Doctor mask and a lock of hair from a frost giant. The keys had lost their power but he empowered them again by slicing his own throat and letting his blood flow over them.

As a reward for agreeing to take up the mantle of the black rider we were granted +2 to any one ability score of our choosing.

Looking through Dryden’s journal he has kept a detailed log of tracking this white weasel. He mentions having set some bear traps around the area to catch it.

His journtal also mentions there is a wooden hut that stands on chicken legs with a very strange doll inside. Once he entered the hut he experienced strange happenings, as if the hut was haunted. He puts in great detail that the doll just sat there but there were things that were falling in the hut as well as voices. Nimue knew that these huts are used to guard the borders of Iresin and are very out of place here.

As we travel along the road we reach a clearing with the afore mentioned hut in it. In front of the hut we see an image of a young girl, who talks to us and apologizes. Renzin attempts to speak with her and follows her around some ice boulders. Nimue detects magic in the easter area of the clearing and Renzin checks it out. He seems images of the girl attending a parade or something similar with a regal woman there who the girl makes fun of. The noble lady takes the girl by the hand and takes her away. Malicar also approaches the image but is terrified by it and retreats. Nimue approached and saw the same image as Renzin but was not afraid.

Nimue recognized Nazhena Vasilliovna in the image and also knew she is acquaintances with Radeseo Pearil. They are both high ranking witches.

Renzin scouted around the perimeter of the clearing and on the back side, where the exit of the clearing is located, he finds words written on the ground:
“turn back now before the winter devours you”

After searching the area Renzin entered the hut and found a doll inside. There was nothing else in the area and Phar burned the hut down. As the hut burned the doll levitated out of the hut and into the woods.

As we prepare to rest for the night we get attacked by a giant weasel. The creature runs forward and hits Renzin pretty hard. Nimue manages to put it to sleep and Nimue finishes it off with a coup de grace.

We make camp (Phar first watch, then Renzin, then Malicar, and then Nimue). Phar is disturbed as all 4 of our fires get put out at once. We are attacked by a small fey (Izoze) creature and a wind spirit. Nimue manages to put the fey to sleep and Renzin coup de grace’s it, ending the creatures existance. The spirit charges in to his Phar and he puts it down with a small ball of fire.

In the morning we travel onward, the weather is terrible with us only being able to see about 5’. We travel onward and encounter an Igloo. There is no one inside and we do not find any tracks around the igloo. As we are preparing to move on we have a stone dropped amongst us that makes a loud boom, deafening Pharysosus. We prepare to engage an enemy…

…Sorry for the late post on this one, forgot all about it.

Shortly after taking him captive something we cannot see shot a magic missile and hit Rohkar. It does not finish him off and we are able to get him inside. We also hear the create that shot him call him a traitor. As Malicar, Renzin, and Pharynosus get Rohkar inside, Nimue frees a trapped sprite named Vrixx who yells at him that it is going to get Tebknotten and Nimue will regret his actions.

Once we get him inside Rohkar admits Lady Argentea is locked in the basement. Renzin goes and gets her (and gets her food) while Nimue explores the rest of the house and Pharynosus and I interrogate Rohkar. (Lady Argentea is not very gracious. She is very abrubt and rude, though she does mellow out and become thankful as she spends more time with us.) Rohkar is very forthcoming with information and we learn the following names and how they interact:

Vrixx (fey he had in the closet, sent as a spy by Tebknotten)
Tebknotten (the one Vrixx is reporting to) (named an ice troll by Rohkar and confirmed by Lady A.)
Izoze (ice mephit as named by Rohkar, turned one of Lady Argentea’s men to ice)

We also learned the following about where the cold is possibly coming from, or at least who is ultimately behind it:
Baba Yaga (Witch queen in Irrisen)
every 100 years she chooses a daughter to rule Irrisen. She takes the previous daughter out of power and puts a new one in power.

Alvana is the current queen of Irrisen (Baba Yaga’s daughter) – she is trying to spread cold across Taldor to take it over, and eventually the whole world.

Four of Rohkar’s men seem to be sick in a room. They have some kind of chills or something. Malicar is able to help 2 of them but the other two do not seem to be getting any better. Nimue also got sick after searching the mens rooms. After the time we spend with them another one is also helped along his way to getting better while the first two seem to be fine now. Nimue has also been treated and seems fine by the time we get back to the lodge after returning to town.

We acquire a chest in Rohkar’s room that contains various amounts of loot. We also find loot in Ten-Penny’s old room

Rohkar confirmed that he had killed all of the sentinels. He regrets having joined up with Izoze. He does not mention remorse for having killed the many people he has killed.

The weather was extremely bad, snow was coming down hard reducing visibility to about 5’. We stayed the night and the weather was just as bad in the morning. We debated long on what action to take, between returning to Heldren or pressing forward. Ultimately we decided to wait a day to see if Nimue recovers. After resting another night Nimue feels much better and appears to have recovered from the disease.

We decide to go back to Heldren to take back Lady A and drop off Rohkar and the 4 raiders that were with him. The trip takes 2 days but is uneventful. We drop off Rohkar and the 4 raiders who get locked up in the armory. Lady A heads back home and promises to send help.

We returned back the way we came. We were able to remove the ice from the bridge leading on from the lodge by Renzin rolling a barrel around on it and breaking up the ice. We then crossed without issue. As we prepared to rest after traveling along the path we were attacked by two trees, which we dispatched without much issue.

After a night’s rest we get attacked by a group of 3 frosty skeletons in the morning, which we dispatched without issue. We travel along the road and find an area that appears to have been a battle. Following the tracks we find the remains of Dryden Kep half buried in a snow bank. We recall that there was a rumor in the tavern that he was chasing a white weasel. We also find two +1 animal bane arrows on his corpse and there are tracks of some form of large animal.

After opening the door Phar takes a swing from one of the skeletons before pulling back. Renzin comes up and helps him face down the two inside. Malicar stays down stairs and guards Penny, Nimue heads up stairs to help with the skeletons.

As the battle is engaged with those, a necromancer (Rohkar) enters the room with a whole host of skeletons, many of them the hunters we had fought before. Additionally he was able to free Ten-Penny Tacey and she fought for him as well. The battle was long but, due to positioning and some luck we managed to put down all of the skeletons and Penny.

The necromancer tried to run and Malicar followed but shortly after exiting the building Malicar heard a female voice yell at him for running and he turned around and surrendered. Rohkar promised to give them all of the information he had and swore to never do any harm to them again if the party let him go. He confirmed the female voice was Izuze and that she was in the woods but the party was unable to spot her.

Picking up where we fought last week we fought 3 of Rohkar’s raiders and subdued them with relative ease. Nimue and Phar did both get smacked a bit. After we beat them we questioned them, learned they took over the lodge, they have about 25 members in their band, they are led by Rohkar, they recently brought on a female member who cooks but is also a rogue, there is a fey with them named Izoze “or something”, executed them instead of letting them die slowly.

Found a trap on the way to the lodge, crossbow tied to a string. Left it there. We left the horses in the woods as we approach the lodge.

Phar, Nimue, and Renzin snuck up to the door but we alert those inside. We dispatch two guys on the porch then pull back as they close the door. They come out again after we move back so we charge in and close up the doors as they come out the other door. We then find a girl inside who says she isn’t with them so we tie her up (Ten-Penny Tacey). We also dispatch the remaining 3 guys inside.

Pharynosus goes upstairs alone while we are down stairs and opens a door, finding two skeletons.

---

Killed the 2 zombies in the carriage after Renzin opened the door by removing the spear. We did take a decent bit of punishment from this fight, the zombies couldn’t seem to miss. Renzin did a good job deflecting some attacks.

Searching around the area we found Lady Argentea‘s jewelry box in the other carriage, apparently hidden from the kidnappers. There was also a frozen captain that was holding a masterwork longsword. We also found a few courtier’s outfits that we might be able to sell.

The freezing cold started to get to the party and they were forced to return to town to get some cold weather equipment. While there the general merchant thanked us for checking into the craziness and gave us a ring of shielding and an arrow magnet. We all got the cold weather gear at no cost thanks to the town leadership allowing us to get the items we need from their store.

We visited the herb shop next and again were rewarded with some nice equipment, this time in the form of 8 vials of alchemists fire and a potion of protection from energy (cold). Additional Renzin offered to take an herb pouch with him in case he could collect some herbs for her.

We stayed the night in the tavern to rest up and then headed out at dawn. A short way up the path, following the footprints, we ran into a crazy dragon-snake-thing that attacked Phar. We dispatched it without much issue. Phar tried to talk to it but it seemed most interested in eating us.

In the area behind it we found a chest half buried in the snow. Renzin and Phar went up to examine it and set off a trap; a huge spiked log flew down from the trees above and smacked into both of them. The chest was empty so we decided to pick it up and underneath we found a cache of the gear from Lady A’s entourage. We took the masterwork chain shirt and masterwork dagger as well as a crossbow and some bolts and buried the rest under the snow for later retrieval.

As we finished burying the chest Phar, Renzin, and Nimue all got hit by tiny arrows in their necks. We stood around looking for the foe and eventually saw a sprite as it fired again. The next time it came out Phar blasted it with fire and it ran. Phar also burned down the tree the thing had some fetishes in just in case.

A couple of miles up the trail we encountered a talking elk that was not in the least bit afraid of us and actually did some conversing. We found it had no name and that a wizard had put a spell on him to allow him to speak and comprehend common. He had seen the kidnappers but wasn’t sure if there was a lady with them or not. He also told us he had seen lots of creatures in the area that were not native to this area, stuff from much further north. He informed us the cold appears to be emanating from the north, though he doesn’t know where. He also told us about the High Sentinel Lodge to the north where we could probably rest for the night. After a while of talking he wondered off.

As we headed further up the road to the north we came to a frozen creek/river about 25’ across. On the road in front of the water was a snowman and a sign. The sign said turn back trespassers and, to everyone’s surprise, the snowman also told us to turn back. Nimue detected magic and found it was magical and someone had cast magic mouth on it. Malicar and Renzin moved forward and the snowman exploded, stunning Malicar and damaging both of them. Right after it exploded two ice elementals came up from the frozen river/creek and attacked. Malicar and Renzin both took a bit of a beating and Phar roasted them with his fire. Nimue also kept the elementals well debuffed with his curses.

After dispatching the two elementals we found the remains of a farmer from town who appeared to have come up here on his own to see what was going on. He had a few weapons we were able to take. As we searched the body we looked up and saw 4 armed humanoids coming towards us, and as we saw them they saw us…

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Things of note:
Zombies are resistant to bludgeoning and piercing damage. Also appeared to be unaffected by the witch’s curses.
Sprites are a pain in the ass. They are also very adept at hiding.
Ice Elementals appear to be very vulnerable to fire damage. Their touch is also very chilling
We need to find something to allow us to walk easier in the snow, 1/4 movement is rough

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Trouble has come to the little town of Heldren. Winter has come early and tales of winter touched creatures roaming the forest are spreading. A group of wanderers, troublemakers, and do-gooders has been sent to investigate the kidnapping of a woman.
Four heroes answered the call:
Pharynosus the Pyromancer
Nimue the Winter Witch
Malicar the Cleric of Sarenrae
Renzin the Wandering Swordsman

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An Excerpt Malicar’s Journal:
There was a good bit of commotion in town today, apparently a noble lady was captured. One member of her guard survived, a mercenary who came back swearing the area was beset by biting cold and small cold fey creatures. We questioned him in the tavern and noticed he was suffering from frostbite.

After speaking with the mercenary we talked to the town leadership and they agreed to pay us to check things out. They also gave us access to the town’s stock, which contained a few items we could use (including the smith and the alchemist):
10 +1 cold iron sling bullets
Masterwork Banded Mail
Scroll of Aid
Scroll of Sleep
Wand of Magic Weapon (24 charges)
Potion of Cure Light Wounds
Horses or ponies for each of us

We headed up the road and found the location of the encounter. There are two wagons here as well as a number of dead people and horses. There was some sounds from one of the wagons and when we opened the door a pair of zombies were residing inside.

Also of note Pharynosus almost burned down the tavern juggling balls of fire and was chastised by the tavernkeep.

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Every campaign gets an Adventure Log, a blog for your adventures!

While the wiki is great for organizing your campaign world, it’s not the best way to chronicle your adventures. For that purpose, you need a blog!

The Adventure Log will allow you to chronologically order the happenings of your campaign. It serves as the record of what has passed. After each gaming session, come to the Adventure Log and write up what happened. In time, it will grow into a great story!

Best of all, each Adventure Log post is also a wiki page! You can link back and forth with your wiki, characters, and so forth as you wish.

One final tip: Before you jump in and try to write up the entire history for your campaign, take a deep breath. Rather than spending days writing and getting exhausted, I would suggest writing a quick “Story So Far” with only a summary. Then, get back to gaming! Grow your Adventure Log over time, rather than all at once.