Dunmari Frontier - Session 70

Storm’s Echo: in which the party confronts Hralgar’s dream

Featuring: Seeker, Delwath, Wellby, Riswynn
In Taelgar: Nov 23, 1748 DR
On Earth: Thursday Feb 02, 2023
Stormcaller Tower

The Dunmar Fellowship follows a possessed Kenzo into the storm around Stormcaller Tower, and engages with Hralgar’s dreams, leading to his awakening and Kenzo’s release.

Session Info

Seeker, struck full on by a magical lightning blast in Hralgar’s storm, infused with the giant’s magic, learned the Shocking Grasp cantrip while nearly being fried to death.

Summary

The Dunmar Fellowship chases a storm-possessed Kenzo into the magical storm surrounding Stormcaller Tower.
Wellby receives a vision of an orc wearing the Cloak of Rainbows in a castle.
The party ascends the tower, faces storm elementals, and flies to the fourth floor to find the statue of Hralgar.
In Hralgar’s dream-like domain atop the tower, the party tells tales to help him realize he is trapped in a dream.
Hralgar regains his memories, Kenzo recovers from possession, and the party prepares to free Hralgar from his dream.

Timeline

Nov 23, 1748 DR, late afternoon: Enter the storm around Stormcaller Tower, chasing a possessed Kenzo. Dodge animated storm elementals protecting the approach. Reach Hralgar’s dreamscape, bring Hralgar back to himself with stories.

Narrative

We begin as the party stands outside the swirling storm around Stormcaller Tower, listening to the news the winds bring, while deciding what to do as Kenzo mediates and communes with the storm, trying to learn more of it. Suddenly, Kenzo is possessed, his eyes flashing lightning, and he begins to walk into the storm. Having to act quickly, Riswynn and Wellby get the animals settled while Delwath and Seeker get Hralgar’s Eyes from the Portable Hole, hoping to convince Hraglar-as-Kenzo to make the storm safe. To no avail, for Kenzo says that the weather is wonderful and charges ahead. Forced to chase, the party plunges into the storm. Enduring intense lightning strikes and thunderous wind that makes conversation impossible, the party pushes through the storm, following Kenzo.

Deep into the storm, Hralgar’s whispers echo in Wellby’s mind, asking him what he would like to see. Asking for a vision of the place where the Cloak of Rainbows rests, Wellby feels a splitting pain in his head and then his vision is carried away, blown east on the wind, seeing a river, farms, irrigation canals in the desert, a castle built into the cliffs, and sitting on the throne of the castle is an orc, wearing the Cloak of Rainbows.

As Kenzo picks up the pace, and lightning strikes Riswynn, the party finally makes it to the tower itself, the great cliff of stone that they now know is a crashed airship, Vindristjarna. Kenzo is glowing now, lightning flashing from his eyes, as he turns and runs up the path to the tower. He turns angry, shouting ‘Go!’, as he disappears into the tower itself, a wall of wind and clouds forming behind him.

Attempting to follow, Delwath uses the magic of the tanshi to clear some of the fog, revealing storm elementals hiding in wait. Deciding to get past them quickly, the party launches into the air, between Wellby’s wings and Delwath’s spells, and briefly harasses the elementals to keep them occupied as the party hurries past in the air.

Arriving at the tower, the party flies up to the fourth floor, where the statue of Hraglar sits. The storm seems to echo inside the tower, lightning illuminating the walls

Ascending the stairs to the top floor of the tower, the party is not surprised to emerge in a mountaintop domain, giant-sized stairs leading to a massive palace in the distance, as this happened last time as well. Walking down the stairs is a giant, blind, being led by a much smaller person – Kenzo. The giant, Hralgar, invites them to come speak and tell tales. Kenzo seems not to recognize anyone in the party, and says he is the giant Jorundr, a friend and companion of Hralgar’s.

Settling in the palace, the party proceeds to tell stories, trying to lead Hralgar to the idea that he is trapped by telling tales that hint in that direction. After some discussion, during which it is clear that Hralgar believes it is still during the Drankorian Empire, when a man named Akaston is Emperor, the party launches into their tales. Delwath tells of his time trapped in the shadow realm, of the tanshi, the Meswati and how they were freed. Hralgar seems to see echoes of this future on Delwath, and is confused, as he says Delwath’s life seems a circle.

Pausing in thought he turns to Wellby as he begins to speak who tells a story of a wizard who trapped a prince, building a prison for him that the prince would forget was a prison. The story resonants, but not how Wellby intended. Hralgar hears only his own shame and anger in this tale, telling Wellby that doom is coming, and there are fates worse than dreaming.

Seeker then tells the tale of the Heroes of the Great War, how they found a flying castle, had many adventures, and eventually defeated Cha’mutte. Hralgar focuses on Seeker for the first time, sensing something about him, speaking of a phasing stone, the ancient core that powers skyships, and which apparently was the crystallized magic that crashed into the Crystal Mountain in the Feywild and eventually became Seeker’s gauntlet. He tells Seeker if anyone should carry it, it should be a dwarf, and then speaks of the crashed skyship on the plains.

Finally Riswynn tells her story, the story of her journey to Morkalan and the people who were trapped there, how the object she bore, the Chalice of the Runepriest, was the key to liberating those trapped from their prison.

With Riswynn’s story, and Delwath commenting on how similar each day was in the shadow realm, and encouragement from the rest of the party, he seems to finally notice the lack of weather here in his dreamscape. Something breaks in him, and he speaks through Kenzo as lightning flashes from Kenzo’s eyes and fingers, saying he knows the eyes are here, and to give them to him. As Hralgar grabs Wellby lifting high into the air, Wellby sees what looks like a ghosty, haunted echo of Hralgar flicking behind him, and Hralgar agrees to tell his story, seeming to come back to his full memory, realizing that this place is not real and that he has dreamed of Kenzo, and Kenzo has dreamed of him. And he asks for his eyes again.

And then Kenzo opens his eyes, confused, shaken from the possession by Hralgar’s lucidity, a blur of memories coming back to him in a rush, recalling the words of the binding spell that ensnared Hralgar and how to break it, by reciting the first lines of A Lament for Lost Thunder, an elvish poem by Nelawe.

As the party rushes down the stairs, they emerge by the statue and attempt to find a way to return the eyes while reciting the poem, but the sounds of thrashing from above quickly make it clear this is the wrong approach. We end as the party rushes back up the stairs, to the sight of the haunted, ghostly version of Hralgar attempting to strangle the giant in the Dreamworld.