DM: Waylander
Party: Sina (3), Barley (4), Nunde (4), Blubb (3), Vivi (3), Attila (2), Gulu (3)
Date: February 13, 2022
TLDR: I joined Ms. Sina in a journey to the cold, wild land of ZHT. A fox who was not a fox led us to the “Book of Night”. We visited a group of very nice undead Kobolds, who gave us a stone egg. We turned that stone egg into a compass. Life is fascinating, isn’t it?
We arrived at ZHT and were welcomed by strong, cold winds, which are known to be a bad omen. Stopping to talk with the guards at the outpost, we were told that they are waiting for more supplies of rations and wood that will last for a long time.
Traveling northeast, we were approached by a group of Orcs. They all had a blue blade symbol on them. The contrast of the calming blue and the violent blade on their symbol is quite amusing, isn’t it? Anyways, they claimed that the frozen land belongs to them, and that our outpost is in their land. They said that by building an outpost here, we try to claim the land to ourselves, which they didn’t like. If we want to keep the outpost, we must pay them 100 gold each month. Which sounds quite expensive to me. But generous Sina paid them the money.
Arriving at our destination, an old, abandoned church, we visited Nipo the Kobold, who lives with his friends in a cave located under a trap door in the church. They wanted us to take a stone egg to a temple. They claimed that the egg is a key that will free them and let them meet their leader – Stormwing, a white dragon, who is also called The Cold Void and The Master of Storm. I don’t find these names very nice. But the Kobold were nice, so I trust them.
The Kobolds had a note that said:” Bring these symbols over to our temple for we are giving up this place. Ride straight south and don’t stop for anything. It is a day and a half on foot near the mountains”. We assumed it meant we need to take the stone egg to that temple.
We talked with the funny Kobolds for a while. We learned that Nipo is a spellcaster, that these folks have a weird sense of time, and that the aberrations that were in the church last time the party visited came from north.
We spent the night at the church. A creature with white fur scratched the door of the church during the second watch. It was a large white fox, which also followed us during the first day of our journey. I thought he wanted to be our friend, but when we opened the church’s door it ran away. Maybe he was shy. Seems like it wanted us to follow. We also heard heavy footsteps outside the church during that night, which we did not investigate.
Foxes are cute. So we decided to forget about our main task and track the fox instead, first thing in the morning. We found it in a tree with a small hole, that led into a cave. The fox asked us why we followed him…such a confused little guy. Then many yetis attacked us! I asked them to be our friends, but they refused. The fox was a doppleganger. Not so cute anymore.
We investigated the cave where we fought the doppleganger: A staircase inside the cave led down and there was a small room inside. There was a stone plate in the room with a door painted on it. On the door, there is a small part you can push and then it opens. When we tried to open the hidden door, a gas cloud appeared and filled the small room. We let it dissipate and then checked the door again, which led to a tunnel. Inside the tunnel was a tall statue made of ice blocks. Frozen in its stomach was a dark book. In giant, around the statue, the following phrase was written: “To guard the book of night to never see the light again”. It sounded scary, so we locked the door behind us and left.
We arrived at the temple, which is guarded by ghosts. Sina told them that we were sent by Urth Lackman and they let us enter. Inside there was a statue with one hand. We put the stone egg in its hand, and the egg turned golden and ring patterns appeared around it. The statue moved, revealing a hidden room behind it.
Inside the hidden room an undead dragonborn was trapped, and we freed him. His name was Nugard Rockseeker, and he was very motivated to find a man named Mr. Alexander and kill him – avenge his own death. He was killed by Mr. Alexander 200 years ago.
The hidden room revealed a fascinating, ancient story. Paintings and stone statues in this room tell the old story of the dragonborn warriors: It told the story of how the dragonborn fought white dragons, who slayed them in return. Once one of the dragons was chained and locked, the dragonborns and the humans achieved peace, until the humans became sick and turned into monsters and slayed the dragonborns. The last picture was broken, so I am not sure if the story has a good ending. Lets imagine that it has.
We headed back to the portal. During our travel we found out that the egg is acting like a compass. If you touch it or shake it, it’ll get warm and some light will move inside it, probably pointing to the kobolds and the church at the moment.
To summarize, ZHT is cold and wild. 10/10 Would not recommend, but might visit again.