Gundalin the wainwright pulled us aside, helped us dispose of the bodies, and gave us advice on how to plan our entrance in Skyreach Castle. It turned out that Gunadlin was Leosin Erlanthar in disguise. He had been able to infiltrate the town and gather some information in the months since we had seen him. We were able to relax enough to get a short rest in while we discussed his intelligence to formulate a plan.
The castle belonged to cloud giants led by a giant called Blagothkus. Apparently, the ghost of his wife is the force that helps keep the castle a-float and the giants commune with it to steer it. The giants are cooperating with, but not overly fond of, the Cult of the Dragon. We also learned that the dragons used ogres as foot soldiers, and he advised us not to antagonize them. Later, he mentioned that one of the denizens of the castle is a vampire that helps guard it at night. He mentioned that the vampire fed off the ogres, so taking it out might ingratiate ourselves with the ogre. He also mentioned that Blagothkus kept a pet griffin, and advised us not to attack it. Blagothkus also had a pair of stone giants, a male and female, in the castle, and Leosin let us know that it would be inadvisable to attack them. He let us know that we might need perform a service for Blagothkus to earn his favor-such as taking out the cultists or killing the dragon.
Yes, this flying castle built of magic ice enchanted to be as hard as stone has a dragon. An adult white dragon called Glazhael. For those not familiar with D&D's iconic dragons, white dragons dwell in arctic places and breath cold. They're generally the weakest and least intelligent of the dragons. That said, they're still powerful and dangerous. He mentioned that Glazhael is a prideful monster, and we might be able to convince it to not try and turn us into adventurer-cicles by flattering it. He mentioned that it lived in caves in the glacial ice serving as the castle's flying foundation.
Leosin explained the basic layout of the castle-a lower courtyard where the cultist dwelt and an upper courtyard where the giants lived. The exception being some ogres manning the guard towers at the main gate in the lower courtyard, the stone giants dwelling near the cultist leaders, and Blagothkus's griffin. Rezmir and two Red Wizard emissaries, Azbara Jos and Rath Modar, were living in a building at one corner of the courtyard while the remaining cultists were in a barracks on the opposite corner. The cultists, following their standard operating procedure, kept some kobold servants in another building. This is where Leosin's inside source was staying: a kobold named Kaskoo, distinguished by wearing a yellow and purple striped skull cap. Leosin gave us a code phrase to make contact with Kaskoo: "Hey there purple and yellow fellow."
We had two options for entering the castle: through the front door using pass phrases: either "Hail Blagothkus" or "Tiamat, our mother and strength." The second one required and accompanying gesture: opening the hand and displaying all five fingers, palm up. He mentioned we could also flying in on wyverns, but he advised me might want a cultist banner if we tried that. It turns out that Thok has a torn and muddied banner. He decided to wash it up during our discussion.
Leosin gave us some options for how to approach the castle once inside. His first suggestion was to try and stealthily take out the cult leaders, then seek out Blagothkus for an audience. Leosin also told us we could approach Blagothkus directly, but he might not take kindly to "little folk" just showing up. Leosin also said that we could try and get into the pilot tower by stealth and try communing with the ghost of Escarlotta, Blagothkus's late wife, to try and gain control of the castle.
We finished our short rest our short rest, and ran to catch up to the castle just as it was lifting off. Thok and I needed to give Sandi and Censura a helping hand up. We passed the ogres with the pass phrase and went for Rezmir and the Red Wizards. Despite the over-sized doors, between Thok's athleticism and me being a largish human in full plate armor, we got into the suit of rooms without alerting anyone. We found an unused guest room before running into the Red Wizards. Unfortunately, a bed Stealth roll alerted them as we were opening the door, so we couldn't get in a surprise round.
Spellcasters are tough to fight, especially if they can get a higher initiative, which these two wizards did. Rath Modar managed to drop a fireball, and it took the largest bite out of Sandi and me. Far more annoying was Azbara. He used globe of invulnerability, a notoriously complicated but powerful spell. In this edition it negates spells cast from outside the globe. This seems a bit vague for areas originating outside the globe even if the caster is inside. The DM ruled that the fireball still hit Thok, who was inside the globe, because the caster was in the globe also, even though the point of origin for the area was outside the globe. Fortunately, we managed to disrupt Azbara's concentration, and he lost the globe.
Then Azbara hit us with a more controllery confusion. Unfortunately, through a series of bad rolls, it affected everyone. However, we managed to avoid some of the more terrible effects of the spell before disrupting his concentration on that. After we dropped Rath and bloodied Azbara, he threw up an illusion and tried to run for it. The wizards' room in the castle and a porch open to the air where they could have fled from via fly. Thok spotted his invisible form, and we managed to drop him. However, he screamed for help, and the DM warned us that someone may have heard it.
Looks like we'll have a final confrontation with Rezmir next time.
Since we are coming to a close of Hoard of the Dragon Queen, we'll be starting the elemental evil story line soon. However, I'll be running the game this time. Its been a while since I've had a chance to run a game. I'm looking forward to it.
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