Fire Can Be Useful

It's funny 'cause it's true.

Tavern Of Fire
2,000 XP

The town of Parnast has awakened and is on the lookout for the group. Guards have entered the small farmhouse in which the adventurers have killed Captain Othelstan and two other guards. The group has slipped out the backdoor and is hiding in the darkened backyard figuring out their next move.

They see guards moving from house to house in search of them and know that it is just a matter of time until they are discovered. Lithariel has retrieved his wagon and collected up his entourage of elves. He negotiates the wagon back to where the others are hiding and leaves the wagon so that it blocks the way into yard behind the tavern where they have temporarily taken refuge.

Soon enough guards spot the adventurers and call out to the others. Most of the guards move in towards the groups location, while a three are sent to the Skyreach Castle to warn it's  inhabitants. T'an sees them running towards the castle and is able to take down two of them with his longbow but the third makes it past the gates into the safety of the castle.

The backyard refuge the group has retreated to is soon to be overrun with guards. The guards numbering near 40 are parting around the local tavern, as a river bends around a rock in a stream. The guards flow around and until the attack the group from either side. Arno sets up a Cloud Of Daggers on one side of the tavern hoping this will prevent the guards from attacking directly. T'an move agilely around the yard taking out guards as they approach, having been effectively bottle-necked on either side.

Smallfang is able to loose his spears through the cloud of daggers but with little results. Lithariel tells his retinue of elve underlings to run for safety, giving them the mission of reaching Waterdeep and telling the Council of their discoveries. Once he feels they are safe he focuses on the battle at hand. It is not long though before Arno can hear loud footsteps approaching from within the tavern itself. Guards have decided, instead of flowing around the tavern, to go straight through.

Arno has a quick internal debate. Should he set the tavern's door on fire? He's used fire before but with results that are not always predictable. He does it anyway. He sends a Fire Bolt through the door blasting both the door and the guard standing directly behind it. It works, but now the tavern is on fire. Arno releases his Cloud Of Daggers while Lithariel releases 16 panthers from a Conjure Animals spell.

Now the battle slogs on while the guards have to deal with being mauled by several panthers as the group moves among the stragglers dispatching them as they can. T'an moves to high ground and uses his bow with deadly precision removing guard after guard. The entire scene lit by the growing fire of the tavern.

After what seems to be an eternity, the stream of guards turns to a trickle and then is gone. All the while Skyreach Castle has withdrew into the air and has begun to sail away until it is lost from site in the darkness.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: It seems a little disappointing to end such a large battle with such a small XP reward, so I'm using a ruling in the DM's manual to bump the XP by the number of enemies multiplier. It is supposed to be for calculating difficulty only but I'll compromise by cutting the number in half.
Oh and the new projection map method was fun to use!

The Wyvern Stable
4,600 XP

With Skyreach Castle quickly flying away, the group remembers the mention of wyverns being kept in the stables. They move quickly to the stables carefully opening the large stable doors looking for potential traps. Once inside they find themselves face to face with two large wyverns. Hoping to harness and ride them, they take to using their animal handling skills and using meat taken from the numerous dead bodies outside to convince the wyverns of their good intent.

Unfortunately it doesn't go as smoothly as they would have hoped. Smallfang cuts an imposing figure, especially in his loud clanking armor. But after a few false starts and a ducking a lethal tail thrash or two, the group gets mounted. T'an and Lithariel on one wyvern, T'an facing backwards with his bow ready, and Smallfang and Arno on the other.

T'an and Lithariel quickly and gracefully take to the skies while the wyvern which must bear the weight of the dragonborn in full scale armor takes to the sky clumsily and with much effort. Once in the air the group finds that the wyverns have a mind of their own and they must use their skills in forcing the wyverns to go where they wish. Lithariel soon learns the way of directing the wyvern while Smallfang tries his best with no result. Finally in anger and desperation, Smallfang hits his wyvern in the back of the head and yells at it. The wyvern decides to listen. Smallfang has learned the way of directing his wyvern.

Skyreach Castle

Yes. It's from 'Frozen'.I loved that movie, ok.

Soon the group is heading in the right direction, as far as they can tell. After about a half and hour they can see in the distance the impressive sight of the giant's ice castle. They debate as to their course of action. They are lacking in spells after their big fight and they could use some healing sleep. If they land though for an extended rest, the castle would be long gone and hard to track. If they land in the castle they may encounter enemies that they would not be able to fight off.

Climbing higher into the sky to get a bird's eye view of the castle they note movement of several creatures around the courtyard of the castle as well as manned ballistas atop at least three towers that they can see. While flying above and around the castle they note at least three landings. One is at the gate's entrance while two are near the back of the castle. Deciding to land on one of the back landings while it is still dark they descend.

There are two landings and the group picks a landing which looks slightly less used than the other. They land their wyverns with little difficulty and find themselves on a large ice ledge beside the towers wall standing at least 40 feet above them. Acting on instinct, Smallfang reaches out and touches the towering wall of ice directly in front of him and a large section vanishes in a blink.

Inside they find a little used room. Judging by it's contents and the evidence of lack of use for sometime they decide it is a rarely used guest room. As soon as they enter Arno begins the ritual for conjuring Leomund's Tiny Hut for protection during their rest. While Arno is doing that the others look through the room but find little of value.

They take refuge in Arno's hut and rest uneventfullly finally awakening to sunlight filtering in slightly through the thick ice walls. Now they look to try and carefully move through the castle. T'an tries to use his thieve's mirror to look under the door but the doors are made to slide on top of the ice floor with little or no gap between. Looking at the rest of the door they find that just opening the door may present a challenge. It is 20 feet high with a door knob 10 feet of the ground.

After some experimentation they settle on a method of Smallfang lifting Arno up to the door knob. Arno raps a rope around the door knob and while T'an and Lithariel pull on the rope, Arno turns the knob. The well coordinated effort works just fine as they open the door into a large empty corridor.

The Red Wizard's Room
3,850 XP

Settling on door to try, they open it the same way and find two Red Wizards of Thay in an academic discussion about summoning magic. Not wasting any time the group attacks. The surprise attack give the group the upper hand in attacking the two wizards but T'an finds himself having to deal with a statue that has come to life in order to defend the wizards. T'an is felled by the gargoyle but is revived by one of his companions in order for him to avenge himself at the gargoyle, smashing it into pieces.

The group is able to defeat one of the wizards but the older wizard, sensing the danger he is in. Teleports away. The large ice wall on one side of the room disappears and the adventurers look to see that the wizard has teleported just to the other side of the ice wall which has vanished just like the one they first encountered. The wizard pauses just long enough to give them a withering look and jumps off the ledge into the clouds below.

T'an and Lithariel run to the ledge to try and attack the fleeing wizard but it is no use. He is gone.

The group moves through the room looking for treasure and other clues. They find:

• Scrolls of: Dimension, Feather Fall, Fireball
• The fallen wizards Staff
• several papers on the writing desk revealing connections between the cult and the Red Wizards
• Some of the letters reveal that some of the Red Wizards do not agree with the alliance.
• A large book sitting on a lectern, written in a language they do not understand, perhaps in Infernal. Describes some type of summoning spells. 

Not bad for a morning's work.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: The choice of the two ice landings was about 50/50. If the group had picked the other ice landing they would have encountered the wizards instead of an empty room. It wouldn't have gone nearly as well.