My Gaming Journey: Icewind Dale II - Journal Entry #19

Welcome, everyone, o another chapter of My Gaming Journey: Icewind Dale II. Thanks so much for taking time out of your day to read this. Happy Father’s Day top all the fathers out there. All fathers are important in the lives of their kids. So, this day is dedicated you Dads out there. 

The P.O.V. for this chapter, once again, shifts to the scheming diabolical Sorcerer, Terrax of Thay. He relates the continuing story of the party’s efforts to thwart the Legion of the Chimera.

But before we begin, I’d like to welcome my friend martin Schiller @Galenthis, the wonderful @GamemusicHellberg, @J_basco, @blaster_master, @doloresadams, @SpockRocket, and @javipaty to my growing list of subscribers. Every subscription brings me that much closer to my goal of 100 to 250 subscribers or more by the end of the year. Also, at the end of this entry I’ll be putting in links to the Pentari press website where you can buy Martin’s Blackbird books. You might even Check out, A Kinder Greener Vampire which contains my original story ‘Shijak’.

Now with that being said it’s time for Journal Entry #19 begin!

Terrax of Thay, The sorceror

Today could arguably be described as one of the most painful days I’ve had since Dar’Kandra and I joined up with this team of misfits! After breaking up camp we made our way to the graveyard, Hrothgar’s Glen. The intention of the group to grab the legendary sword Holy Avenger Cera Sumat, which if my knowledge of languages reads right means Six now silenced. 

Cera Sumat, Six now silenced

With the amulet containing the sword pommel jewel around Branon’s neck we entered the graveyard and cast our spells. It was a good thing we did because as soon as the sword appeared…The Six Lost Followers of Bane also reappeared. I’d heard legends of the terrible power of these six individuals. I can say Have felt some of their blows first hand I can see how they turned The Silver Court into the Barbed Kingdom. Combined I imagine those six could take down anything. Thankfully Brannon chose the smart path. Instead we chose to concentrate on taking them down one at a time. Inheim-Who-Was-Taken was the first to go down. As dangerous as vampires are, she was also predictable. 

Inheim-Who-Was-Taken, one of the Six Lost Followers of bane.

Kaervas was the next to go down, again just simply by ganging up on him. Meanwhile Mali and I had to run for our lives to dodge the blows of the others.

For a while the party concentrated on Atalclys, but then as I kept getting pelted with arrows the party dealt with that wretched spell casting worm Jaiger.

Jaiger, of the six LostFollowers of Bane

Again, ganging up on him proved to be the right call. We returned to Atalclys and dealt with that wretched worm. Broken Khree was one of the hardest to kill but the addition of that magical short sword we gave Mali and some convenient back stabs helped put that monk down for good. Though Mali did get banged up in the effort, but in all honesty we were all injured by those wretched six warriors.

Next up, the party finished off Veddion Kairne I lent a hand with some nice acid arrow attack. Kaervas was truly the hardest to kill since he could only be hit by melee blunt attacks. Thankfully Brianna and Garrett were more than up to the challenge. When the last of the last of the Six lost Followers of bane were killed Brannon took up the sword and strange new glow came over him. Hmm, I fear in future, he may become strong enough to challenge Dar’Kandra. That may become a problem if he decides to halt my plans.

However, once rested and ready to go, we made our way back to Dragon’s Eye. When we descended to the next level, first we felt a strange sensation of disorientation. When we came to our senses, that when things went absolutely insane. We found ourselves at the end of a 5-day drama involving the Lord of Fire and the Yuan-Ti as we found out later. 

When we arrived, we found ourselves at the tail end of a massive conflict. Intrigued as we were, we made our way around clockwise fighting demons and pesky little Fire Mephitis along the way. We actually found a use for those six ropes we’d collected and that Engineer’s Journal, A bridge needed to be repaired and all came in handy. Then we saw some Yuan-Ti cleric talking about his failure. Before we could say anything, he jumped into the lava and killed himself. He killed himself before we could interrogate him for information.

Save the ropes you find in Dragon's EYe this is where they'll be needed.

A pity really, I could’ve used some practice with a lovely Fiery Fingers spell I’d been contemplating to garner information. Oh, granted Brannon probably wouldn’t have approved of it being the goody-two-shoes he is, but I would’ve had my curiosity satisfied as to whether it worked. But there was no sense worrying over what-ifs, and anyway the air tingled with magic in such a fashion that I wouldn’t recognize until later. We made our way to a fiery figure named Archon. We headed to the domain of a fellow that the Yuan-Ti pureblood Cleric that killed himself mentioned, one Lord Pyros. When we reached his domain, we were forced to fight more Fire mephitis and a greater Werewolf. I haven’t seen one of those things since the pack we faced in the Western pass. The creature fell just as pathetically.

We then found a Salamander named Ambassador Jasper who was working for the Yuan-Ti. He explained how the Cleric, name of Venomin, killed Lord Pyros and Thoraskus wasn’t too pleased. I had a bit of hunch concerning that but I decided to wait until I had solid evidence. Jasper mentioned the war, that would explain all the residual summoning magic. 

He then mentioned this area was now under the control of a beholder named Zil-t—yor. That comment made me cringe. I remember mother and father telling me of their experiences here in North when they dealt with that nasty incident known as the trials of the Luremaster. I remember enough from their tales and the books I’ve read to know Beholders are not only dangerous, put hard to kill because of their chitinous skin.

Beholders, one of the most dnagerous enemies in Faerun!

With all our questions answered we had Archon take us to Jasper’s former ambassadorial facility. There we dealt with some nasty Zombie Lord, which we dealt with quickly. Mali’s sticky fingers searched Jasper’s desk and found a magical potion, a gem, and a wand of holding.

We then Archon take us to Zil-t’-yor. The Beholder was quite chatty before we attacked him. As it turned up the Beholder had spent days trying to break into this place to claim it for his own…and he’d come from the Fields of Slaughter. The Beholder explained that if we got through things would change and he didn’t want that after all the work he put in to get here and take control. To me and Dar’Kandra that’s perfectly understandable. But the fact remained he was in our way and we had to eliminate him and all those with him. 

The battle with Zil-t'-yor is no walk in the park...it's an old-fashioned painful slugest!

The fight that followed could best be described as positively brutal. We were surrounded on all sides by Fire Mephits, Hell hounds, an Efreeti, and trolls. We all took some damage and Garrett had to cast some healing spells. The fact Zil-t’-yor kept casting control spells and dispel spells didn’t help much either. In the end though we were finally able to best that multi-eyed fool. However no sooner had we finished with that…then Fire elementals appeared to take us on. It was quite evident that the elementals took exception with our killing their new master. Thankfully Fire elementals were less difficult so the group was able to eliminate them, pathetic worms!

When we went through the tunnel to the Fields of Slaughter that’s when we felt the massive surge of energy and disorientation. And next thing we knew we found ourselves in the volcanic area again.

Anyone ever have that funny feeling of deja-vu?

And next thing we knew we found ourselves in the volcanic area again. That conformed my suspicion. We were aught in some kind of Temporal; anomaly, it reminded me of a story of a town that was celebrating a festival involving some rodent and a Weather man who was caught in the middle of that time loop which caused him to relive the same day over and over again. Jasper had mentioned some kind of spell had been cast by Sorceress Izabelah of the Yuan-Ti to halt the eruption. As a result of which there we some unintended consequences when the massive primal energies of the King of this place, and the Yuan-Ti magics were used. It’s caused this place to become trapped in some kind of temporal loop. By my best estimates the only way we could escape it was to go back to when this all started and stop Izbelah from casting the spell to begin with.

Finding Archon, we paid for a ride to Lord Pyros’ Domain…only to watch as Venomin actually killed him and then fled to Jasper’s Embassy. King Lothar, the ruler of this volcanic domain, was not pleased at this act of treachery. Maybe it was unacceptable in his place but back in Thay this is common place when an aspiring wizard wants to get rid of a rival, or an established wizard wants to get rid of some upstart. After Lothar unleashed his wrath on the embassy, we took Archon’s boat to the amphitheater. There we watched as Lothar summoned some nasty Efreeti…the very same ones we killed on the third level. SO that explains where those Efreeti that nearly killed us came from, now it makes sense.

We returned to Lord Pyros’ domain only to watch as a portal opened and a large force of Yuan-Ti started to come through. Now I’m all for a good slaughter, but I also know sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. So, we made our way to the exit tot eh Fields of Slaughter. After killing a Lizard Man Shaman, a Yuan-Ti Pureblood Fighter we scampered into the portal. Not to my surprise we felt that moment of disorientation again…and found ourselves travelling back in time again. Just as I thought the stasis magic and the magic from the battle have caused a temporal instability. And the only way to eliminate this so the party can get to the Fields of Slaughter is to go back in time and stop the spell. 

Anyhow we made our way counterclockwise, dodging an avalanche we made it Archon’s boat we headed to Lord Pyros’ Domain. There we had a talk with Lord Pyros, surprisingly for a creature created by fire he was actually quite reasonable. Brannon even offered him an antidote potion. I will admit he could’ve asked for something in return however, in typical; annoying paladin fashion, he didn’t ask for anything. However, what he got instead turned out to be a ring of fire resistance. As surprising as that was, a ring of fire resistance is always useful. 

Check back with Ambassador Jasper each day you're in the Magma chamber.

Lord Venomin then appeared and explained to Lord Pyros that the spell Izbelah had cast was slowly wearing off and the eruption of the volcano was inevitable. He also asked for Lord Pyros to find an alternative solution. Pyros agreed to that, then tried to convince King Lothor of such. He even suggested that Lothor go see a play in the amphitheater, to which the King refused, saying he had much to do. Brannon then had a talk with Venomin and tried to convince him to not do everything that had happened. Much as I suspected, Venomin didn’t believe him. We then had a talk with King Lothor. As expected, the Fire Giant not too keen on the idea of finding an alternative to an eruption. But then again considering King Lothor is a Fire Giant, A volcanic Eruption wouldn’t affect him. Fire Giants are one of the most intelligent of the Giant races but still rather stubborn. He also mentioned the eruption was Nature’s Way. If it weren’t for the malevolent nature of Fire Giants, he would’ve been welcome among the Tree hugging Druids. Brannon wisely asked where the original Temporal Stasis spell was cast, and found out it was in the Embassy of Jasper.

Afterwards, the party decided on a whim to check out this play of The Fire creatures of the Volcano. The play was so soothing…that it actually put us all to sleep.

King Lothor, like all Fire Giants, has a trecherous nature to him.

I woke just in time to witness a bit of delightful treachery worthy of the High Wizards of Thay themselves. Lothor snuck over to Izbelah’s cage….and killed her outright. Now granted I may from time to time hold information back from my esteemed leader. But this was information I thought Brannon should have. As I thought the depth of this treachery would be very interesting to see play out. We then headed over to the guardhouse and then back to Lothor’s palace where we saw him explain to Venomin…That Lord Pyros had had Izbelah killed. Treachery and a lie…oh King Lothor if you were the size of us humanoids you would’ve fit so well in Thay. Well played, King Lothor, well played! We saw the look on Venomin’s face that said he believed the King. Now we understand why Venomin killed Lord Pyros. King Lothor, it seemed, was so upset over the Temporal spell being cast that was willing to jeopardize the alliance with the Yuan-Ti to get what he wanted.

However, once Venomin left, Lothor spotted us and was not too happy. That was our cue to escape from this. We made our way to the Fields of Slaughter exit and headed in. We felt another moment of disorientation and found ourselves in the same place on Day 2 of the five-day drama. Getting a boat ride with Archon we witnessed the trial of Izbelah and Lord Venomin’s first appearance. The trial ended as Venomin began his investigation. 

Izbelah, you some splanin' to do!

Next, we made our way to a small island, Mali had noticed with a treasure chest. After eliminating some nasty Lava Mephits, Mali inspected the chest. As expected, there was a trap on it, which Mali properly dealt with. I believe the term jackpot describes what we found. There was a whole bunch of money, gems, and jewelry, as well as some ammunition for us including a lovely Returning Fire bullet which I can make good use of in my sling.

With that situation taken care of, we made our way to the Fields of Slaughter exit and entered, once again feeling that familiar disorientation. We came through on Day 1 when the spell was cast. Making our way counterclockwise and casting a bless and mass haste spell we made our way to the boat of Archon. Mali got us aboard with no problems and no monetary sacrifice. Once at Jasper’s embassy Garrett tried to talk her down from casting the spell. But Izbelah would have none of it. So, we were forced to slay her and her sword spiders with her.

When you come here to stop Izbelah, take her out quick or it's literally game over!

Good thing for that bless and mass haste spell or things could’ve gotten messy. Once Izbelah was dealt with we made our way to the Fields of Slaughter exit, even as we started to feel the effects of the Temporal loop causing us fatigue. We made our way through the Exit to the Fields of Slaughter.

What happened next, I can barely remember but next thing I know we were teleported back to the Ice Temple in the Western pass where we had to assist Nickademus in dealing with some demons. It was a bit before we could rest but once we had some rooms cleared, we got ourselves rested and restored. And that when it finally dawned on me where we were. “No,” I said out loud. “We’re back at the Ice Temple in the Western Pass…damn it!”

Don't look now, but Nickademus is calling in that favor.

And on that funny note, Journal Entry #19 comes to close. I hope you found this entry sufficiently entertaining. I also hope you’re enjoying this blog series. More good stuff comes next week.

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Thank you so much for reading, until next time I’m Animeman73 saying stay true to yourselves, stay classy, and God bless you all.

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