The game began in the icy and frozen underrealm bridge area with Thokoli, Helios, Alaise, and Bardman huddling for warmth. Thokoli went out to look for a way out, and came back less than 10 minutes later blue and slightly frost-bitten (he took some cold damage). He announced that trying to leave at the moment would be a bad idea. Still damaged from the conflict, Helios was able to keep them warm in the room but it wasn’t sustainable without things to burn or ventilation. They took a short rest to recover (roll HD for healing), and then headed southwest to the room with the magical braziers. Bardman had them tie themselves together before crossing the bridge. Helios slipped, but the quick actions of his nearby companions kept him from falling off the bridge. In the room with the braziers they huddled together and tried to sleep. Bardman and Thokoli were able to get to sleep but Helios and Alaise were unable to fall asleep. They tried to sleep again, with Helios successfully sleeping and Alaise still unable to sleep. Bardman and Thokoli took turns heading into the south chamber, scavenging for rations among the bodies of the dead goblins where they found 7 days worth of rations. Alaise finally rested and they talked about leaving. Thokoli, apparently adept at survival and nature, announced he thought that it was warming up, albeit slowly. He suggested they wait a few days before leaving, to allow it to get warmer. They agreed, spending the next 4 days scavenging for food, goblin-cloaks for warmth, etc. After the fourth day, the party had now been here 6 days, and decided to venture fourth. Alaise summoned a mighty giant goat to ride, and the party went back across the bridge (once again tied together). Alaise and Helios both slipped, with Alaise’s new goat shooting off into the pitch darkness. Bardman succeeded his strength roll to hold Alaise, Helios casted “fly”, Thokoli failed his save and started slipping over the edge. Helios flew up above the bridge, and Alaise managed to climb back up, with Bardman giving Thokoli [I think] and inspiration and he got back on the bridge. They continued, now with Helios flying, and Alaise slipped again, almost dragging others into the pit. Firmly on the ground after that, the party was quite glad to have their feet on the ground. The party traveled back towards Rhognah, but after an hour, Thokoli said they would have to take an alternate route due to cave-ins, icy-unpassable areas, etc. After two hours, they stopped at a Keeper Shrine to give them payment and took a short rest. The Keepers never showed up. Bardman pointed out that Alaise and Thokoli had killed them, and Thokoli looked a bit embarrassed. The party walked for two more hours, entering a tunnel with frozen walls. In front of them was a statue of an adventurer, likely a spellcaster, who was frozen solid. After trying to thaw out her backpack for a few minutes, they realized it was going to take longer than they wanted to wait. Thokoli was sneaking forward into another chamber, when they could hear the sounds of battle and orcish battle cries. Thokoli ran forward into the next chamber where a red-skinned man wielding a greatsword and wearing few cloths was surrounded by an orog, an ogre, and several orcs. Thokoli stabbed one of the orcs in the back of the neck, downing it [with 30+ points of damage]. Bardman ran into the room, healing the barbarian, and was followed by Alaise and Helios (both had to use double move to get there). The barbarian roared and stabbed into the orog in front of him. The ogre and orog attacked him again, but weren’t incredibly effective. One of the orcs swung at Thokoli, who dodged out of the way and just took a minor scratch. Another orc slashed into Alaise, doing a bit of damage. On Thokoli’s turn, he backed away from the orc in front of him and ran around the ogre and stabbed the damaged orog in the back of the neck, downing it. Bardman looked at the ogre and said “Flee” then got into range [so that Thokoli, Bardman, and the barbarian could get attacks of oppurtunity]. Alaise killed the orc in front of him then moved around to the side of bardman, taking an attack of opp that Bardman used cutting words to make miss. Helios used scorching ray to down another orc. On the barbarian’s turn, he roared and turned to the ogre, his blade lighting with fire as he hefted the blade and lopped the ogre’s arm off with his first swing, and decapitated it with his second [reckless attack, 2 critical hits dealing 64 points of damage!]. The orcs concentrated on their attacks against the barbarian even more, with Thokoli and Alaise closing in downing one and Helios finishing off the other. Alaise announced, “Who are you? Are you with Corrive? Tell us now if you want to live!” The barbarian turned to him, still holding his greatsword that was covered in blood and heavily steaming from the heat of the blade combined with the bitter cold, cavern air. “I am not with Corrive” he responded. Bardman stepped forward, “Perhaps, Alaise, we shouldn’t begin the conversation like that.” The barbarian revealed the frozen adventurers around them were his friends, and he was an escaped slave from Corrive named Asher who had decided to take a vacation from the Corrive rebellion but was driven west when he was given a vision of a phoenix from his God Kossuth (whom Bardman and Helios knew as the god of good-aligned fire creatures). Alaise had heard stories of Asher. A slave and pit-fighter, Asher was known for his ferocity in combat. He once wrestled a green dragon into submission, an act for which the green dragon tried on several occasions after to murder him. At some point, Asher escaped by organizing a revolt amongst the slaves and other pit fighters. Over the last couple of years, his actions have elevated him into hero status among the slaves and rebellion of Corrive. Alaise said, “Any chance you were a pit fighter in Corrive?” And Asher replied with, “Yes I was.” To this Alaise responded with “I have heard of you. I am Alaise.” When Alaise introduced himself, Asher had heard of him as well. An outsider whom for six months had shown up and was aiding the rebellion, often volunteering for suicide missions and always coming out relatively unscathed. His nickname was “Alaise the Untouchable”. They talked with Helios being a bit guarded after Asher mentioned his god, Helios is still a little pissed off at gods at the moment. The party talked about some other things and decided it was time to travel off. Meanwhile, Thokoli had been gone for some time, and the party moved to the north where there was a slope upwards, with half a dozen frozen keepers on the top. Unlike having seen them before, they were now mostly unclothed (being in their home lair), and the party could see their hair made of snakes and otherwise beautiful men and women features. Thokoli came around from the corner silently beckoning for the party to be quiet and follow him away from the next room. The party mostly did so quietly. Thokoli informed them that in the next room was an orc and a giant bat. He warned them the orc was armed with a couple of scimitars and was dressed in black studded leathers, and was obviously of an assassin’s training. He was trying to pick a vault door. He warned the party that in the main chamber he could hear several of these giant bats flying around and he suspected more of these assassin orcs were nearby. [End] The game ended here with the party leveling up to LEVEL 7!
