It is always a hard thing to begin again. The party confronts the seriousness of their new circumstance and its dire consequences, and must once again trek northward to survive. Gain access to an exclusive campaign, Shroud Over Saltmarsh, over on Patreon: https://legendsofavantris.com/patreon The Crooked Moon, a folk horror supplement for 5e, is available for preorder! Get the Crooked Moon at: https://thecrookedmoon.com/ Watch more D&D adventures in the world of Avantris live on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/legendsofavantris Check out our merch store: https://shop.legendsofavantris.com Join our community on Discord: https://legendsofavantris.com/discord Watch our many campaigns on YouTube: https://legendsofavantris.com/youtube All other links: https://linktr.ee/legendsofavantris Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/p9RGoQYveio?si=bFhXXQeLbGO46nok
Chapter 1: What happened in the previous episode?
Welcome to Legends of Avantris. I'm Queenie, and you're listening to Icebound. Here's what happened last time.
This is the same silhouette he saw in the light of a star. It's the same. You race forward, drawing your weapons, drawing your magics, stealing yourself for a fight with the unknown and hoping you will live to see the other side. Taishan. It's gonna be a tantrum. The sea is calm. The sky is clear. The day is young. You think of your duty to tend the light and of the lives you will never know.
No more running. It's time to embrace this. You reach up and you grab the top of the hood and you yank down. Perhaps what Queenie was suspecting, you see in horror, the face of Taishen within the cloak. Taishen looks frozen eyed, staring up. You take 120 damage and the cloak falls to the ground, slumps into a pile and collapses against the frozen cavern floor.
Nothing makes any sense. Nothing is going the way we need it to. Everything is all messed up and topsy-turvy.
How does this place keep moving us around?
You blink, and it is... Oh, whoops. white and blues and grays all around you, and you are looking at the bodies of your friends in snow, howling winds all around you, you realize immediately you are on the top of the tower.
Fight, fight, whatever you are, whether I know you or not. Give me the warmth. Save my friends. Fine. We're losing our minds. This is not real. We have to be prepared to face it. We'll light this on fire now. Every time we've encountered the cloak, it's reset everything.
Nick, we have to just light it without engaging it.
You're right.
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Chapter 2: Who is Taishen and what is his significance?
It is as though you were all trekking together moments ago before stopping here in mad silence. It feels impossible. And in some ways, you are glad for the biting cold that is already numbing your face and freezing your body. You are wholly here. Barnabas, you feel closer to the ocean here than you have in months.
Despite seemingly being on a coastal island moments ago, it is impossible to know how much ice separates you from the sea, but when you touch the shell at your side, you know deep down waves still surge beneath your feet, which brings you some comfort.
I'm back.
Yornir, your eye scans the horizon, the stars, the moon and its fullness in moments you know two things with absolute certainty. You are standing where the tower was when you first encountered it five months ago, and again you have lost time to it. It is the 23rd day of the second month, the heart of winter. The hateful star in the sky appears no more.
Queenie, instinctively you reach out for your magical companions, remembering the hurt they suffered during your shared experience. Your bond is as strong as ever, and you see those familiar spirits spring to your side with the same urgency, checking in to make sure all is well with you in return. Scrim, you are trembling even before the cold hits you. You feel cursed.
Cursed from the moment you woke in that graveyard half a world from here. Cursed to voyage south and be trapped in the harsh realm of Drakkar where you must fight to survive. Cursed to be haunted and hunted as part of some unknowable contract. And now, cursed for simply trying to help your friends.
Taishen, your mind returns to your purpose here, beyond the valley of the setting sun, and you think of those you met within the tower. Fu Zhao charged you to leave your village, to leave Mei Li, to learn the lessons of a vantress as he had. Your mind dwells on what lessons you've learned since your bid farewell. What lesson is there in this?
For them, you look inward for answers, and you become deeply pensive. A full minute passes before anyone dares speak, as though breaking the silence might shatter reality and pull you back. But all that surrounds you is the howling wind and ice and cold and darkness of night. What happens next is up to you.
Well, that was a fucking nightmare.
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Chapter 3: How does the party plan to survive the winter?
Yeah, my bees. I can't remember what it's called.
It's like a mage hand. You should do bees about it.
Yeah, but I can fly, basically. Writhing Tide. I gain a flying speed of 10 feet. Oh yeah. More than enough. I can hover. So I'd like to get close to it and inspect it further.
You gesture or communicate. See if it has any magical properties. Do you... What does that look like? Do you just, like, think it, and then all of a sudden the bees know to assemble underneath you? Yeah, yeah, I would say so. Okay, okay. So that happens, and you're able to get right up next to it without having alerted any of the others.
Make an arcana check to see if there's any magical properties to it, and make a...
19 for Arcana.
I would say Nature Check. Or Survival, your choice, whichever proficiency you prefer.
I'll twist the Survival.
Do one twist. 18 for Survival. That's really good.
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