Session 42 9-27/1/2215 AR: Lost Tower of Viondor - Hydra's Fall. XP 5-8-10

Prince Dredan Taroth, Grand Vizier of Quodeth

9/1/2215: While the Prince-Consort, Admiral-General Zerda Savaschu, is enjoying his honeymoon with Queen Deyane Verix Hazeda, Quodeth's Grand Vizier Dredan Taroth recruits Craw, Captain-Baron Vorstag Iceslider (recently back from the Serex Glacier), & Finnris (back from aiding the Ammurath vs Lomar) to go with the Dawnspire Sword Sister Kasumi, on a quest to recover the Atlantean artifacts of the Lost Tower of Viondor before the Hyperborean Princes of the Pale Hand can get them. They are provided with a clinker-built Nimothan drakkar that can survive the harsh northern seas, and a crew of 40 elite rowers. Captain Vorstag selects 16 chosen Quodethi Marines from his company under Centurion Bron. Vorstag's House Sedarnel allies have their Tiamat priests bless the ship, while Finnris gets his girlfriend, the Mistress of Histories Tyarna Vorzin, to wrangle three potions of greater healing from her mother, the Matriarch of Azura.

Dawnspire Fortress

18/1: Sailing north, on the 9th day they outrun a storm cloud that appears to form dragon heads, and stop in for the night at the Dawnspire fortress, once a mighty elven fortress of Lost Sersidyen, now home to the Sword Sisters, reverents of Azura and fierce enemies of the Great Doom. Master Khavas Rho tells Kasumi that a white Hyperborean trireme has been spotted in the Straits of Nimora, matching that said to belong to Ydril ze Omun, a Princess of the Pale Hand. Finnris with Kasumi's help talks his way past the large and intimidating Dawnspire Librarian, and engages in his second-favourite pastime, using the Dawnspire's library to research Viondor. The Atlantean mage Viondor predated Atlantis' fall, and when the Great Doom came to Nimoth he refused to abandon his research into artificial life.
Do the Hyperboreans merely seek to destroy the magics of Atlantis, or to turn them to service of the Great Doom?

Master Rho

19/1: On the morning of departure from the Dawnspire, Kasumi is presented by Master Rho with the sacred Bracers of Defense, anointing her Champion of the Sword Sisters.

21/1, afternoon: In the straits of Viondor the white trireme is spotted, a few miles to starboard rear, approaching with unearthly speed; the drakkar comes in to shore to evade the pursuer, but at anchor is attacked by a familiar Hydra. It grows up to 13 heads, but is jumped on by Finnris, harpooned & reeled in by Vorstag, dealt terrible wounds by Kasumi's dragonbane blade, and finally destroyed. Vorstag bathes in its blood & is gifted a puissant boon. Leaving the rocks under cover of darkness, the drakkar returns to the open sea - the white trireme is seen no more.

Sea Hydra

24/1, mid-day: The ship finally reaches an icy bay, the Dragon's Maw. Vorstag locates the hydra's lair and garners some treasure.

Your ship stands just outside a half-moon bay studded
with rows of rocky islets, almost like the broken teeth
of some titanic primordial sea monster. Here and there
stand tall sea stacks and soaring rocky arches teeming
with arctic terns nesting in narrow clefts and windblown
scrub. The glacial walls of Nimoth draw back from
the shore in this area, and are just visible amid barren
mountains many miles inland. Closer at hand, at the
head of the bay, you can see angular basalt cliffs broken
by patches of rocky shingle, and the outflow of a shallow
rivercourse.

The drakkar is beached, the heroes head inland, following the river across gravel scrub and tundra towards the distant rise of the Dauthuril Glacier. The fifty mile or so journey to the lost tower of Viondor is likely to take about a week over such rough terrain.

A chill wind blows down the river’s course, though the
scrub grass near the shore quickly gives way to windswept
hillsides covered in tundra, dotted with stands of
small evergreens in sheltered spots. The river meanders
between humped-up moraine boulders and pebbled
banks. In places the valley is no more than a hundred
yards across as it passes through stony gates, though it
often widens to a mile or more across. Small game is relatively
plentiful here, taking shelter from the ice-capped
hills beyond.

26/1: After two days they cross the river to bypass two short-faced bears devouring a giant-slain mammoth.

You round a sharp bend in the river, and spot the bony
carcass of a mastodon a hundred yards ahead of you on
the riverbank near the foot of a cliff. Its tusks have been
snapped off and its skull seems to have been split by a
powerful blow. Two big, long-legged bears gnaw at the
corpse.

27/1: The next day they come to waterfalls guarded by a band of a half dozen frost giants, led by Lord Vergga.

The way ahead is blocked by a steep cliff. Here the river
cascades down a rocky cataract 40 feet high, throwing up
billows of chill mist as the veil of waters bounces between
great boulders. From the waterfall’s foot, you can see that
river flows around a heaped-up cairn of stones piled atop
three massive boulders at the top of the falls.

Vorstag greets his cousins, pets the winter wolf Maugg, and the group are welcomed in to Lord Vergga's hall for a feast - and are not on the menu! Finnris wants a wrestling match, so Vergga sends forth his winsome daughter, the princess Margh.

Happy Vorstag reels in his hydra catch.

Ydril ze Omun, Princess of the Pale Hand

Postscript:
At dawn you are awoken by a frost giant scout returning: 
"Hyberboreans approach - in numbers! They are scaling the cliffs!" 
Hurriedly Lord Verga plans to attack the ancient enemy of the frost giants, in a choke point where cliffs and scrub trees can hide an ambush. He offers to let you join the battle.