DavesGaming

We arrived in Easthaven and immediately set to meeting people. Hoping to locate this Hrothgar, Anastasia dreamed needed our help. We stopped at the local Inn, the obvious place to meet people. And Hrothgar was there, specifically looking for adventurers to join him on an expedition to Kuldahar! Serendipity. I just glad Anastasia is not the “told you so” type!

Hrothgar had a few little tasks he needed help with just to get going, like a missing supply caravan should be close by.

On the way out of town we fought a small group of goblins.

Leave it to Dubin, more energy than brains. Naturally, I was right behind him.

Not too far out of town we found the shattered remains of the supply wagons. And nearby, a cave had become a base for orc raiders. We entered…

That collision shook me to the bone. We fought a half dozen orcs total. Dubin and I are the melee front line, so its on us to keep the others safe. I’ve already learned this could be a hard business!

We cleared out the cave, around 20 orcs total. And an ogre! We found documents from the caravan and returned to Easthaven to report our findings. We made our reports, and learned we’d be all setting out in the morning. Over 20 of us! We looked like a great troop setting out to save the day.

Not too much after noon, we were in a great valley between mountain ridges, I thought I saw movement up along the ridgeline. Something really big? I looked around and no one else, none of locals seemed to have noticed anything. I looked around at where we were and saw a cave opening just nearby. I looked up again and saw the snow up high, like the whole mountainside starting to move. I hollered as loud as I could “Take cover!” I grabbed my wife and ran towards the cave. I saw Marcus right nearby and pulled at him as I passed. He was talking with someone I didn’t know, but they both saw the cave I was heading for and quickly followed. I didn’t see anyone else right close by. As soon as we got into the cave mouth the mountainside was collapsing behind us.

I’m not sure if running into a cave is the smart move for an avalanche? When I think about it, it seems kind of stupid. But I think there was no outrunning that snow in the valley. The avalanche roared outside the cave for what seemed like hours. Probably ten minutes? As it let up I heard the sound of us breathing. I know Ana can see in the dark like its daylight, so I asked her what it looked like and how we all were. She said we were sealed in by snow. She was fine, so was Marcus and a woman with him. A woman’s voice I didn’t know said “Carmen, I’m Carmen. Do we have any light?” I was worried about spoiling our air, so I suggested we wait a minute while Ana looks things over.
Marcus asked if we’d seen anyone else make it out? I’d seen nothing but the four of us. We have three dear friends missing. Of course, we’re buried, they may be thinking we’re missing!

Fortunately snow can be dug easier than rock. My wife insists this could be quite hazardous, but we seemed to have no choice. So we started digging, Ana guiding. She might not be an engineer, but she sees things and she’s smart, so this worked. We had an assortment of weapons and a couple shields, which all proved useful for digging. It took a couple hours until we saw daylight. But we did, and it was beautiful.

As we came out of the cave we saw a changed valley. No more path, no more ground. Just a vast field of snow chunks across the whole valley. Debris stuck up here and there. Everything was silent. We all called and got no answer. At first. Then we heard a shaky voice call that he needed help. We found a man a bit up the cliffside in a sheltered cove. We helped him down and realized he was a very small man! A halfling.

His name was Patrick, he was an archer. I was getting very worried and mentioned we were still missing three friends. Patrick and Carmen had been alone on the adventure. We carefully searched the area, this newly dumped snow was unstable. There were voids, broken trees and debris from our own expedition above the snow in places. We worked our way across the expanse towards the pass and our original destination. A few minutes later we found a body, a breathing body mostly above the snow. He was unconscious, and pretty battered. Ana used a Cure Light Wounds on him, and the rest of us dug him completely free. He was a big guy, almost as big as Dubin! When he awoke we learned his name was Eriksen. He was from Icewind Dale and had joined Hrothgar’s expedition to help Kuldahar.

We finally got out, the battered six of us to the higher ground at the end of the valley.

We all knew we’d just lost a dear part of us. We’ll carry on and see this through. But the loss will be unavoidable.

After catching our breath for a few minutes, the six of us set out for Kuldahar.

Carmen’s survival may come down to the simple fact she was flirting with Marcus when the mountain fell on them. She was close to Marcus, Astolpho and Anastasia when they all found that cave.  Digging out was a chore, but at least none of them were crushed.
Carmen comes from Neverwinter, her parents were both in the City Guard. She took after them in obvious ways, she was big and athletic. And enjoyed bashing things around. She got warrior training to develop her skills. Her dad actually suggested she join the army instead of the guard, at least until she could calm down and take a steadier view of things and people. Well humph. That kind of stung. But she knew it was true, she wanted to dive in and help people, not listen to their excuses and “keep the peace”.  Rather than the army, Carmen decided she should be an adventurer.  She spent a few months traveling the Sword Coast, hoping to find other like minded travelers. But mostly that led nowhere. On a whim, she decided to travel further north. Maybe there would be adventure in Icewind Dale? Which led to her encountering Hrothgar and joining his expedition to Kuldahar.

Carmen. NG Human female. Fighter. 2-handed sword specialist
17 – 17 – 15 – 9 – 10 – 14

Eriksen grew up in the Dale.  His father was a woodcutter, and Ericsen did the same through his teens and early 20s. But Ericsen yearned for adventure. And when a reclusive local warrior offered to train him in the local ways, he leapt at it.  And he took to it well.
He is big and strong, and very focused on whatever the task may be. 
Freshly trained and eager to be a help, he heard of a gathering of heroes in nearby Easthaven. He would join and hone his skills.

Eriksen. CG Human male. Berserker. battle axe specialist
18/39 – 16 – 18 – 11 – 12 – 8

Patrick is a businessman of sorts. A halfling from, wherever he wants to be from. He’s always wandered.  And he always finds things to sell. He truly never means to cause anyone harm or hardship. But he’s never had a home, or family (except for the dimmest memories) and has always survived by “finding” unclaimed things and either finding their rightful owners, or a good fence.  Either way makes him enough money to survive on.
Maybe not a life of luxury, but Patrick feels no need for what he’s never had.  And Patrick recently picked up archery to add to his skills. Maybe he could get a job with an army somewhere? While pondering that, he heard of a call for heroes to join with Hrothgar in Easthaven to help with some local trouble. That might be interesting? So Patrick joined up, to see what it led to.

Patrick. NG Halfling male. Fighter/Thief. Short bow specialist
11 – 18 – 16 – 11 – 9 – 16

*****

I’ve finished Icewind Dale 30 or more times. Recently, it struck me as funny how you set out with an armed expedition of heroes, including locals to save the day. An avalanche strikes, and its the six foreigners… 1st level foreigners who are the only survivors.

I thought it would be an interesting sort of role playing twist to have to change up your team 20 minutes into the game. That could be an interesting mod, what if everyone (except the main character maybe?) had to make a save vs death or something to survive. If you loose a single character you’re kicked to the party arbitration screen and have the option of replacing those who failed their saves, or continuing on short handed.
I would play that! Well once anyway. But this is sort of my way of doing that. Obviously its very early in the game, it shouldn’t have much of a game play effect. The lost characters were all 1st level (Dubin was 50 exp from 2nd). The new characters are back to 0 exp. Small loss I think. I guess this means Marcus is the only one of those followers who has never been played, that will get played. The new characters are all original to this run.
It also means I suddenly have a better balanced party, well at least I have a thief. Only one mage, and he’s a multi. But three melee types now. I think in terms of this game, that’s an upgrade.

As mentioned previously, I don’t expect I’ll do as many updates this time. I’ll do some, when an idea to be visual comes to me. And I’ll do an epilogue.