My Gaming Journey: Icewind Dale II - Journal Entry #21

Greetings and salutations again from the Pacific Northwestern U.S., everyone. Welcome to My Gaming Journey: Icewind Dale II – Journal Entry #21. This has been quite the story. Through all the battles and trails the party has faced since the beginning to all of you who have over time been joining thank you so much for being part of this. Special shout out to @Aragmar AKA The Black Knight for inspiring me to do this. Go check out his Starshatter novels, you can find out more about them on his Minds channel.

But don’t think that this is the end. Because once this journal entry is done next week there will be an epilogue. Also, As I announced on Minds and the various other platforms, the next chapter of My Gaming Journey will be The Temple of Elemental Evil: A Greyhawk Adventure. A game released via a partnership between Troika Games and Wizards of the Coast. So yeah there’s still more to come.

Before I begin, I’d like to welcome @RileyCottingham, the artist to my growing list of subscribers. I appreciate all of you who have helped push me over 100 and are bringing me closer to my year end maximum goal of 250 subscribers or more. Thank you for making this blog more than I could have ever hoped for and giving me the confidence to continue with this.

Meanwhile for this chapter the P.O.V. shifts to Dar’Kandra, the Drow fighter. Also, please note I will be taking some creative advantage with this for the sake of the story.

With that out of the way let Journal Entry #21 begin.

Dar'Kandra, the Drow fighter!

Poor pathetic Isair and Madae! For all their carefully laid plans, in the end. this party completely undid them like the utterly disgusting half-breed freaks that they are! Ah, but I get ahead of myself. Just remembering that moment of glory still spurs the bloodlust in me!

After recovering from that incredibly hard battle with that statue/avatar of Iyachtu Xvim and those demons, we headed upstairs to the next level of the Cleric’s tower. There we encountered a Half-Drow High Priest of Iyachtu Xvim, I believe they are called Brutals, named Tyrannor Brutal Mar. The cowardly swine actually left his minions to deal with us while he fled to the top of the tower. Disgusting pig hiding behind his minions rather than facing me and the others and taste my blade.

Tyrannor Brutal Mar

I loathe those kinds of cowering weaklings! The Half-Drow escaped through a mystical circle at the center of the room that even my Drow senses could tell had strong magic about it. Forced to have to contend with his disgusting gnat servants I took great pleasure in helping to send them to the Yocolol for all eternity! We found two more of the Iyachtu Xvim Amulets on some of those Half-Demon Slayer Knights of Xvim. Adding them to the one the party took from Isair’s bedroom we examined the circle. On a hunch we threw some pebbles in, which were blasted by lightning. But then when Garrett stepped in wearing one of the Iyactu Xvim amulet’s he was protected. Somehow this circle must electrically blast anyone without an Amulet of Xvim. We decided to come back later. But I made it clear that Tyrannor Brutal Mar would face my blade and he would suffer, oh yes! 

Do not go into this circle until you aquire six Iyachtu Xvim amulets!

The next level, we came across a group of Xvim worshippers and Half-Dragon freaks involved in worship of Iyachtu Xvim. When one of the priests saw us, he ordered the coven to come after us. I wanted to slaughter them all but that annoying Paladin told me to only go after the warriors and priests not the civilians. How I ache to leave this paladin and go with my Terrax to Thay away from this paladin fool and his High ideals of goodness. But I digress. We slaughtered all the wretches who came after us! When it was done, we found two more Amulets of Xvim…and realized we were one short of using the device on Level 2 of the Cleric tower! After collecting all the treasure, plus the amulets. We headed down to the medical hall to do some thinking, me swearing in my Drow tongue all the time! After resting up it came to Terrax, he remembered that the Neo-Orog Hatemaster Garuk Katah had some Slayer Knights of Xvim with him.

The Orb of Essence, kill the guards for their amulets and destroy the orb to get rid of the Glabrezu Guards' immortality!

Proceeding down to Severed hand Second Level We found the Neo-Orog Hatemaster and his goons still guarding the Orb of Essence blissfully unaware that it was now vulnerable, what an utter idiot! The price of his arrogance was his life and that of his men. It was a hard fight. AS we found out later some of those Slayer Knights had powerful two-Handed Swords called Swords of the Soulless, very powerful. I put a number of them in my bag of holding. Some will be sold, but I figured the others would be put in trophy cases if we got out of the adventure alive. Examining the corpses, we found the last amulet plus an extra. With all the treasure and items needed collected from the corpses we headed up to the second floor of the Cleric Tower.

Swords of  the Soulless given to the strongest and most brutal of Iyachtu Xvim's Slayer Knights!

Once back the second floor the party had all protective spells and enhancement spells cast on it before we proceeded to don the Pendants and step into the circle. Nothing happened at first…then we were struck by bolts of lightning, but rather then get shocked by them we were teleported up to the fourth level of the Cleric’s tower.

Get ready for a tough fight  in close quarters and the return of old enemies!

There we at last faced off against the coward Tyrannor Brutal Mar. The Half-Drow thought he could escape us…just laughable! The fool coward called on more servants. This time it was the spirits of our previous opponents, Guthma, Sherincal, Gaernat Sharptooth; the wererat, and also Beastlord Harshoon. Cowards always deserve no mercy and we gave that wretched Half-Drow none! With our enemies dead, we let Mali raid the various containers and bodies on the fourth level for potions and loot. With that done, and the door back down open, we headed back down to the fourth floor of the Severed Hand. 

Meeting with my Fellow Drow, Riki, she gave us some information before she left.

Riki proved useful and one day will again!

She mentioned that there was a group of Half-Dragons coming from a community of the freaks to The Severed hand to discuss an alliance with Isair and Madae. Also, I found out the reasons why she was doing this. Understandably, like me she’s upset at the amount of interspecies breeding, believing in the purity of the Drow race. I can understand that which is why, should I ever decide to have children with say Terrax none of them will see the Underdark lest they be killed! An alliance between the Legion of the Chimera and a kingdom of Half-Dragons could be trouble. So, we decided to see that alliance destroyed. With her information given however Terrax and I took Riki aside and gave her a ring belonging to Terrax’s family the Nightstorm clan. Such a potent Drow female Rogue could be of use in the plans of my Terrax and I.

Now was the time to begin wrapping up loose ends! We headed down to third level and the Illmatarian poured the elven holy water collected from the rite into the Radiant Pool. Oh, poor Isair and Madae, the overly confident fools had no idea of the surprise that waited for them, so predictable! 

Complete the illmatar ritual and pour holy water into the radiant pool equals Isair and Madae get a nasty surprise!

Next we headed down to level two of the Hand and destroyed the Orb of Essence. I wanted to proceed back up to the War Tower but, the paladin insisted we go down to the first level. There much as I hated to, we freed the slaves from the Glabrezu guard which was now quite vulnerable! With that detail out of the way Brannon told Jerre Stoh that he and the slaves were free. Thankfully they wasted no time in getting out of there. Good riddance I say!

Next we headed back up to the War Tower. Garrett informed the other Painbeaerer that the Radiant pool had been purified. The Priest of Illmatar still chose to remain there to go through whatever suffering was about to happen. Next the Paladin gave The Lemure/Archimandrite of the Black raven Monks the cure for his condition that was on Tyrannor Brutal Mar. The Head of the Black Raven Monks was relieved to be back to himself and promised to aid us in the final battle. As long as they don’t get in the way of my glorious bloodshed that was all that mattered!

Ormis Dohor, Archimandrite of the Black Raven Monks, Someone the party wants on their side!

On the third level of the War Tower we found some Neo- Orogs. On questioning them and found out thein order to reach the Top of the War Tower a key was needed, and it was on one Captain Pudu, a Half-Goblin. With that information we headed over to the Officer’s tower after resting in the infirmary.

When we headed into the Officer’s Tower, we climbed up the first two levels but on the advice of Terrax and the Paladin avoided a fight. It was a good thing we did because on the 3rd level of the officer’s Tower we found Captain Pudu there with a half-Dragon named Vyxein. Perhaps Mali should’ve learned how to bluff better because the Half-Goblin wasn’t fooled. However, the bloodshed was deliciously sweet. And it was good from what I saw Captain Pudu was propositioning Vyxein, a Half-Dragon for a tryst, ugh the mating of a Half-Goblin and a Half-Dragon I don’t even want to know what kind of freakish nightmare that would’ve produced! Just thinking about it makes me queasy in the stomach! Thankfully we prevented such a tryst. And then Mali found some loot in a bush nearby after we raided Pudu and Vyxein’s bodies.

With the key to the top of the War Tower we headed back to the War Tower after resting up again. Once we loaded up on protective and enhancement spells, we headed to the top floor, just in time for the delegation from the Half-Dragon nation to arrive. The fight between them and the forces of a Half-Drow named T’rossosl Malign and his forces were hard but, in the end, we overcame them just like all the others!

We rested then cast protective and enhancement spells again as instinctively we knew the final battle was upon us. That feeling proved true. No sooner did we descend the stairs then one of Isair and Madae’s top leaders from the Thayvians greeted us insisting that the Twins wished to have a few words with us. We let the fool teleport us to them as it would waste less time.

Once there, Isair mentioned how he had become absolutely Incarnadine. The Paladin mentioned to the two how it was the duty of his church and his God to stop the Twins. Then Terrax stepped forward and said something that I still remember to this day. “Hold, Twins, know this before your end! I am Terrax of Thay Half-Elf Sorcerer and son of Jurrax of Thay and Vanya the Dark two of the six heroes who slew your mother and your father, Belhifet, years ago! This Paladin is Brannon Steelsong, nephew of Tien and Talia Steelsong, the Half-Elf Rogue is Mali Ironspur daughter of Cabros and Minx Ironspur the other heroes who helped slay your parents all those years ago! Know that we along with these three others who travel with us are your Death, the destroyers of your world! Know this truth and be afraid Twins for your doom has come for you at last!”

Do you feel lucky Isair and Madae?

With that the battle began. We first took down the Thayvvian wizard hiding in the shadows summoning beasts. Once they were dealt with, we quickly eliminated the rest of Isair and Madae top lieutenants. That mass haste spell of Terrax’s came in handy. Then we targeted Isair and Madae. With the help of the Black Raven Archimandrite and his monks we badly weakened them. Any minions Isair had summoned were dealt with and healed. During the first fight with the twins I was diseased, poisoned, and even paralyzed several times. Thankfully between the Mass heals and the heals from the Illmatarian I survived and recovered nicely! 

With the last of the enemies in the throne room defeated we headed for the Radiant Pool room. Oh, the look on the faces of those Cambions when they saw what we did to their precious radiant pool, just the look alone was sweet retribution for all they put us through! Next we went after them and their remaining servants. I personally took great pleasure in driving my blade into Madae’s body. The Monk aided me with Madae while The Melmite and the Illmatarian went after Isair. My Terrax pelted Madaw with those powerful magical bullets we found while Mali when not dodging the Slayer Knights of Xvim pelted Isair with bolts. 

Isair and Madae really thought the party would let them recharge at the radiant pool, how amusing!

After what seemed an eternity…sweet victory was ours! It turned up Isair and Madae had been using the Radiant pool so often they had become linked to the Severed Hand. When the Mythal began to reject the growth and vanish into Limbo it took Isair and Madae with it. The foolish Cambions became too reliant on one source of power. My Terrax has said in order for a family to survive and garner great power in Thay many sources of power are needed. Foolish twins, suffer for all eternity in Limbo like the overconfident worms you really are!

It seemed Orrick had warned the two something like this might happen but they refused to listen. Greed can be useful, but out of control greed can be costly…very costly as Isair and Madae found out the hard way. Orrick told us we should flee as quickly as possible. We finished off the last of Isair and Madae’s servants. Realizing there was no time to collect any of the loot we headed for the exit to escape from the Severed hand. We made it out just as the fortress disappeared into Limbo, never to be seen again!

Farewell Severed Hand, off to Limbo never to be seen again.

Over the course of the months that followed we recovered our strength. Once Spring arrived, we left Kuldahar via Oswald’s Airship and flew back to a recovered Targos. From there we headed back to Luskan and are heading our separate ways. My Terrax and I will head to Thay, for we mean to speak with Jurrax and Vanya. We have some rather ambitious plans for the Nightsorm clan…which I shall be joining with Terrax as my mate! As for the paladin he, Brianna the Monk, The Rogue Mali, and the Priest Garrett headed back for Athkatla. But what do they matter? With what my Terrax and I have collected soon the Nightstorm family will begin its ascension to becoming one of the most powerful families in all of Thay…and so much more!

The Docks of Neverwinter and the rest of the party's Lives begin.

And so Icewind Dale Ii comes to an end!

Well, there you have it, folks there is Journal Entry #21 of My gaming Journey: Icewind Dale II. Bu hold on because there’s still one more chapter. Next week will be the epilogue which tells of what happened to the six adventurers and the ending will eb quite interesting I guarantee you. I’d like to thank everyone who’s joined me for this journey. But this is only the beginning because there is so much roe to come. Meanwhile, if you like this content please feel free to like and remind this on your Minds timelines. Also please feel free to Refer this on to Twitter and Facebook. The more the word gets out about this channel the more you help me towards my maximum goal and more for the end of the year. Also, if you’d like to go further with your support, and you’re under no obligation to do so, please feel free to wire me tokens so I can promote my work and this channel. If you’re already subscribed to me please check out my rewards section for all the neat things that come with wiring me tokens. If you’re seeing this and are not subscribed to my channel please feel free to subscribe as each really helps.

I’ll leave links to my channel, my Gab page where you can follow me also as well as links for the previous chapter and the upcoming epilogue. Until next week, I’m Animeman73 saying stay true to yourselves, stay classy, and God bless you all!

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