Date: 11/17/04

XP Awarded: 975 (to 4th level characters)

Start: The woods below Cold Tower

That night, while on night watch with Fei, Celowin voices his opinion that the anonymous letter Fei and Theodar received was written by a Harper agent, who is manipulating the party to eliminate an enemy of the Harpers. Fei also detects a scrying sensor that seems to be watching Theodar.

The next morning, the party leaves the rescued prisoner Hemma with Theodar’s squire Heardan, and returns to the hidden entrance to the tunnels under the dwarven watchtower. Finding the trap door secured against their entry, the adventurers forced it open and descended the freezing shaft to the dark tunnel below. Advancing to the large common room, they found a new icicle trap set in front of the door that led to the staircase up. After searching the rest of the area, Fei disabled the trap with a bolt of fire, and the party started ascending the wide, curving staircase. The walls were lined with niches containing the busts of famous dwarves from the keep’s past. The top of the staircase led up to a heavyset door banded with iron, but a patch of dangerous-looking ice covered the stairs before the door. Theodar chiseled away the ice to provide safe footing, and the door was forced open to reveal a circle of heavily-robed cultists in the midst of some sort of ceremony.

They rushed to attack in a frenzy, and Theodar and Kai lept forward to intercept them. Celowin and Fei remained behind, raining arrows and sleeping magics down upon the crazed cultists. Another staircase descended into the room from the level above, sweeping around the curved outside wall. Down the stairs leapt a heavily-armed half-orc, shouting praises to Tempus, god of battle. Behind him came an sly-looking mage and a scantily-clad priestess of Auril surrounded in an aura of frost and wind. Erecting a magical wall of whipping wind and snow, the spellcasters proceeded to hurl magic down into the combat below. While the others focused on cleaning up the remaining cultists, Theodar engaged the half-orc. The half-orc’s heavy weaponry looked to be more than a match for the badly wounded Theodar, until Fei was able to knock him out with a sleep spell. After closing with the priestess and the mage, the tide of the battle had shifted, and the priestess surrendered after several of Theodar’s and Celowin’s blows pierced her magical defenses. The mage fled up the stairs, but Kai’s summoned wolf dispatched him before he could wreak any further damage.

After taking the priestess and one of the cultists captive, the party searched the tower, finding sleeping quarters on the next level, and a lot of massive metal and stone machinery on the top level. Hidden in the huge gears and cogs was a pile of snow and ice containing a large white dragon egg. Nearby were several chests containing trade bars and other coinage. After much debate, it was decided to take the dragon egg back to Citadel Felbarr and consult the dwarves on its fate.

Taking the loot and prisoners back down to Heardan’s base camp, the party then returned to Citadel Felbarr, arriving in the middle of the night and causing somewhat of a commotion. The prisoners were taken into custody by the dwarves, awaiting transfer to the Hall of Everlasting Justice in Sundabar. The next morning, Cardus Rockfist seemed to be upset when he found outthat the party brought a dragon egg into the Citadel. A short time later the egg was launched from one of the citadel’s catapults far into the valley below.