Tim (Anpago Yost) points out that in Champions, anything can happen. Chris (Tonk Sangaree) points out that that is only true is "anything" has something to do with taking perfectly workable GURPS characters and bowdlerizing them into syphilitic French poodles. Chuck (Marcus Sangaree) suddenly chirps out, "Helium burn Elmo!" for no reason at all. Bruce (Longfellow Yost) types furiously while yodeling the Racer X theme song. Billy (Andrinor) makes friends with his fried chicken, then tearfully announces that the magic is gone and consumes it, sobbing as he does. Paul explains gently that he must first dehumanize his lunch, and only eat it after he has lost sight of its unique value as an individual with hopes, dreams and aspirations. Georgina (Gero) nervously looks around for her tranquilizer gun, having already concluded that she remains the only hope for rational behaviour in the group.
The session opens with the characters standing around in the ruins of the magicians' quarters in the Flame King's little fortress. Paul shouts out, "Everyone make a Listen check!" Players fumble dice in their panic to roll. Fortunately, no permanent injuries result though Bruce takes a serious hit to his dice-rolling hand.
Finally, Gero announces, "Someone's talking off in the next room, and they have a cold!" Longfellow Yost comments, "I think they must be from Cathtille! They thpeak with a lithp!" Everyone agrees to send Marcus Sangaree to check the situation out, because he's the rogue. Andrinor demurs, "I might be invisible, but I can't go because I'm not feeling well." Tonk Sangaree grouses, "This coming from the man who got eaten by a giant worm."
Marcus expertly sneaks up to a doorway with a black curtain. He peers through and sees a bathroom done up in beautiful navy blue tile. A ten-foot-diameter tiled built-in tub full of steaming water dominates the center of the room. Next to the tub is a four-foot high cage with a crouched man inside. He is the source of the lispy calls. Marcus takes a look at him and decides he's a priest of Obad-Hai.
Marcus goes back to the others and reports his findings. He is particularly enthusiastic about the color of the tile, and suggests that the characters should attempt to find out which contractor the Flame King used so they can hire the same guy. Andrinor asks Longfellow Yost, "What is it with you Obad-Hai guys? You're like Nazis! You're everywhere! And frankly, every druid but you we've ever met has been a murderous raging psychopath." Longfellow does not feel this comment is even worth a reply.
The characters enter into a long discussion on how to tell if someone is a druid of Obad-Hai. Tonk Sangaree concludes the discussion by explaining (mostly to Longfellow), "Really it boils down to the clothes. You Obad-Hai people always seem to dress yourselves in stale roadkill. Oh yes, and then there are those antler hats you're so fond of. What is it druids see in those things? And for people who are supposed to know so much about nature, why can't they properly clean the things before they put them on? And would it kill them to take a bath ever so often? With soap? If anyone asked, I could recommend several reputable brands of organic soaps, some of them priced very reasonably." Longfellow clucks, "Awrk... But I wear antlers... and they look good on me" Tonk rolls his eyes. Marcus Sangaree wonders to himself just where Longfellow managed to find a stag with antlers six inches long.
Tonk decides to go in first, armed with one of Gero's salamander spears. His plan is to prod the caged priest a few times to see if he's harmless. The man watches as Tonk approaches, then rather nervously asks, "Who are you? Never mind, just let me outta here." Tonk tells him, "Don't worry, I'm just gonna check the place out and poke some stuff." While he inspects the bathroom for deathtraps, he questions the man:
Tonk decides he's had enough. He heads back to the others to tell them that the bathroom is safe.
The others file in. Marcus checks the cage for traps, and verifies that the cage really is locked. And that the druid isn't in there on the honor system. Then it turns out that he's actually a cleric of Obad-Hai. Marcus comments, "That's weird. They wouldn't let him be a full druid, apparently." The guy doesn't want to hang around, because he heard that guy Cavanaugh was planning on releasing the demons to fight the cold things. He doesn't want to hang out for that.
The cleric thinks that the Flame King is dead, killed by one of the demons. Gero asks, "But you were locked up in the bathroom, how could you know?" Andrinor replies before the cleric can, "Well, he hasn't come in to bathe, so he must be dead." The cleric explains that the Flame King lost control of a demon, so he summoned up an inferno and then died. The characters deduce that the demon must be icy, based on the damage the inferno had taken.
The cleric sticks around long enough to cast some healing spells on Tonk and Gero, then he heads for the Flame Gate and the outside world as fast as his little legs can carry him. Tonk watches him go, then curses, "Damn! I forgot to ask him about the antlers!"
The characters know that the Flame King's chambers are to the West. Directly to the North of his chambers is the summoning room. Directly south is the library. And the Chamber of the Frozen Soul is directly North of them.
Anpago heads North to view the Frozen Soul. He finds himself in the center of burning chaos. A flat-topped pyramid covered in pale blue ice stands in the center of a huge natural cavern. Flames roar up from the cavern floor only to flicker out when they touch the shimmering blue sphere around the pyramid. The sphere throbs like a heart, and appears to be growing. A cluster of humanoids made completely from ice fight amongst themselves at the top of the pyramid. All of them seem to be in pain.
Anpago flies back and whispers to the other, "Let's not go North?" Tonk asks, "Why?" Anpago tells him, "Go in and check it out... It's really cool." Gero asks, "What was wrong with the library?" Andrinor and Anpago respond (in unison), "What library?" Then they remember that the characters had agreed to go check out the library first.
Andrinor heads to the library. He flies down a corridor for a long way (seventy feet), crosses a bridge over a burning chasm, and finds a curtain. He gives up and heads back. Tonk is incredulous, "You stopped because you found a curtain? Go back and see if there are any rasts in the chasm." Andrinor once again travels to the curtain, but sees nothing. He reports this to a sputtering Tonk, then goes back again to see what is beyond the curtain.
Orange cushions. Dark wooden tables. Crystal glasses and decanters. Low bookshelves crammed with tomes, scrolls and parchment. A pair of stone columns enchanted to have waves of flame spiral endlessly up. A four-poster bed fifteen feet on a side, ostentatiously red curtains drawn. And a single piece of paper, a carved stone inkwell, and a red feather pen isolated on the top of a huge desk. Gero looks around and sniffs, "This place is so tacky." Tonk points out, "It's got to be something about being a wizard. None of them seem to have an iota of taste. They're also really fond of fatty comfort foods."
Andrinor chirps up, "Hey, there's another bathroom in back, and this one has mirrored walls!" Marcus asks, "He had his own bathroom! Does he have another cleric caged in here?" Longfellow replies, "Of course! They're like air fresheners!"
It takes a few minutes for the characters to tear their eyes away from the furnishings to see that there is a trail of bloody footprints across the room. Andrinor tells the others, "Come on in! Its okay here, except for the bloody footprints." Anpago adds, "Everyone better wear shoes." Longfellow looks forlorn. Anpago notices Longfellow's upset expression and reassures him, "Don't worry, we'll knit you some booties." Longfellow scowls.
Tonk takes a look at the paper on the desk. It includes a laundry list and a reminder to take care of the slave in the bathroom. Andrinor roots through the Flame King's book collection. He reports, "Hey! I found a book on growing button mushrooms. And one on the lifecycle of the newt-fly. And a collection of naughty plays from the Port Delour Comedy Festival!" Gero comments, "I notice he's got nothing on interior decorating." Tonk disagrees, "I found one called Pimpin' Out Yer Crib!"
The characters move into the library. The place has been worked over by professionals. Or very enthusiastic amateurs. Marcus heads in. He hears shuffling coming from the northeast wall. He announces, "We're going to see who is the hunterer and who is the huntered! The tables are turned on the prey, who is now the predator!" Tonk asks, "What does that mean?" Marcus explains, "I sneak up on it!" Tonk looks dubious.
Marcus creeps over to an alcove in the back of the room. He finds a big gray-skinned humanoid throwing books into yet another burning chasm. He watches the thing throw a stainless steel book into the flames. He goes back to get the others to deal with it. They quickly agree to grease the thing.
Marcus sneaks back to ambush the critter. Then his bowstring breaks. And he trips. And the gray thing notices. Andrinor flutters in and opens up with the usual Magic Missile plans, then gets distracted by some very nice books. Tonk and Gero storm in all full of acrid disdain and spring-chopping madness. Things start to look nasty when Gero realizes that she's chopping apart an undead thing. She tells the others, "It's undead... that's pesky." Tonk starts to obsess over what kinds of undeads are gray. He comes up with a long and very unpromising list that starts out with arcanoliches and ends with zuzu zombies. Longfellow pops up to mention, "Gee... that's pretty much every undead in the book, except for the ones that are necrotic." Anpago buzzes in and announces, "I'm throwing acid at it!" Tonk yells, "I'm standing right next to the thing, you retard! Use a Magic Missile!" Anpago agrees, "Yeah, that's more precise." Andrinor points out, "But they've been healed! They can take it!" Tonk yells, "Don't listen to your evil cousin!" Anpago finally decides to go with the Magic Missiles.
Longfellow flings in a Flaming Sphere. Sadly, it has no effect on the undead. Longfellow resolves to write a very nasty letter to the editor of Druid's Weekly on their recent article, "Fire Solves All Your Undead Problems."
Then the thing turns around and washes its evil, empty gaze over half of the group. Everyone makes their rolls, and nobody dies. Tonk gasps, "That was a death stare?" Anpago asks him, "Can I throw acid in its face now?"
Marcus decides to tough it out and shoot it full of arrows. Andrinor decides that he'd rather not be death-gazed. As a safer alternative, he opts to fly down into the lava to rescue some books. Anpago watches his cousin fly down into the inferno and comments, "I guess I shouldn't have spiced his pixie sticks with LSD." Tonk adds, "Luckily, the fire will burn off his eyebrows so he'll be able to see better. I wonder if he's got any salvage tongs to actually pick up the books." Then Tonk cuts the undead into three pieces and kicks the remains into the lava.
From the back of the room, Anpago chirps, "What's going on? I'm afraid to look!" Tonk curses, "Then STOP spraying the room with Magic Missiles, you team-killing fucktard!"
Andrinor finds the stainless steel book. He grabs it from the lava bare-handed. Tonk comments, "You know, that smell reminds me of my last chicken dinner." Andrinor finds out that the book weighs perhaps twenty pounds. He screams, "You didn't tell me this was a huge fucking portfolio! I can't even lift this thing, you bastards!" He trails smoke out of the chasm.
Longfellow offers, "How 'bout this! I'll throw Protection from Elements on someone, and we send them down to fish for the book!" Tonk reflects, "Umm... I can't climb and I'm wearing heavy armor..." Marcus points out, "I'm fragile and I'm a weasel." Gero mentions, "I'm strong, and I can climb, and... why are you all looking at me like that?" Longfellow casts the spell. Gero brings the book back up piping hot. Andrinor has his familiar Chilly cool it down. Tonk mentions, "Hey little guy! While you're out, could you give a zap at my flask here?"
Once the book cools down enough to touch, the characters find out that it is the Journal of Hubert Tael. Hubert Tael, of course, is much better known as the Flame King. Tonk reads out some of the entries:
The characters turn to the back to see what's been up with his life lately. They find that he's been investing in demons and devils to supplement his little army for the whole "Take over the outside world" plan. The characters already know that Tael's more responsible ancestor used the Frozen Soul to keep the volcano in check. The diary provides a step-by-step description of how he's taken the protective spells off the Frozen Soul so he can summon in things from the Elemental Plane of Ice. Unfortunately, this means that soon everything within ten miles will be frozen solid. The original protective spells were some variant on Circle of Endure Elements. The Flame King had his own weaker ritual that limited its effects to a 50-foot radius, but it had to be done daily. And now that he's dead, he's not performing his ritual. His journal also comments, "Imagine my surprise to find that this is not a magic item at all. It is just a piece of primal ice that coexists on two planes at once. That means it could be destroyed. This is a serious weakness that I must address."
The characters also learn that the Flame King originally recruited ex-Chancellor Cavanaugh to recruit apprentices. Since that time, Cavanaugh has proven very useful for persuading the Flame King that he should actually be working diligently to conquer everything in sight, and devil take the consequences. This discovery does little to endear Cavanaugh to the characters.
The characters search through the library for anything useful. Longfellow finds a book that is only partially burned. It contains a lot of spells that he can't possibly use. Andrinor begs, "Gimme gimme gimme!" Longfellow hands it over. Gero finds a map of the entire complex. Tonk grouses, "Showoff!" Andrinor asks her, "Where have you been through all of our adventures!" The map shows a secret room off of the main living quarters. Andrinor finds a small book describing methods of summoning and binding outsiders that also includes the spells Dimensional Anchor, Magic Circle Against Evil, and Lesser Planar Binding.
With the library picked clean, the characters make plans to investigate the summoning chamber. Andrinor proposes, "Let's send sneaky boy in to check it out, because I'm feeling very tired and burnt." Anpago asks him, "Sugar cube?" Andrinor stares at his cousin and asks, "What exactly happened to you when you became a pixie?" Anpago chirps back, "I drank the Kool-Aid! It was grape!"
The characters move back to the Flame King's quarters and send Marcus into the summoning chamber. The place is an oddly-shaped chamber dominated by two stone platforms. Four humanoids swathed in chains stand on the platforms. Only their burning yellow eyes are visible through the chains. Andrinor whispers ahead, "Don't touch those!" Marcus gestures back that he doesn't need foolish pixies to tell him not to do obviously suicidal things, but that he'd really appreciate if they'd shut up so his cover won't be blown. Longfellow is really impressed that Marcus is able to convey so much information with nothing more than a few simple gestures.
Marcus continues in until he sees ex-Chancellor Cavanaugh talking to the bound creatures. He doesn't sound very happy. He's cursing the fiends and ordering them to obey him. Marcus notices that the four creatures are all restrained in gold-inlaid protective circles. He also one empty magic circle. The gold inlay is melted, and a wide bloody smear runs diagonally from there to the wall, where there is a wide splash of bloody bone fragments. Andrinor flits in to examine the situation. He comments to himself, "Hmm... Looks like the Flame King went all Event Horizon on this place."
Marcus sneaks out and tells Andrinor, "They look like big devils with yellow eyes covered in chains. Do you know what those are?" Andrinor replies, "Well, those are normally called chain devils, but technically they're called khytons. They can control chains, they feed on fear and terrors, and they have a really really good dental plan. They also really like scented candles, and they're big into aromatherapy. Plus they're immune to cold, but not fire."
Tonk asks, "So Anpago, you still got some of that hideous laughter stuff stored up?" Anpago cracks his fingers and replies, "Yep. Plus some Confusion and a Fireball."
The initial assault plan has Marcus casting Silence on Gero, with the notion that she will run in and go for Cavanaugh. Then the characters realize how huge the room is, and that Cavanaugh is actually about 100 feet from the door, and occluded by two raised platforms. They quickly develop an alternate plan: send in the invisible guys and Marcus first, then follow them with Gero and everyone else.
The pixies flit in and hide behind two statues near the wall. Then Marcus sneaks in. Everyone is terribly impressed by the way the Cloak of Blending allows him to become more than invisible against any sort of background. Except that one chain devil spots him. Marcus breathes, "What's it doing? What's it doing?" Tonk comments, "Hopefully nothing. I bet these things are like cats. They just sit and stare at random things all the time." Andrinor notes, "But Cavanaugh was Chancellor of the Arcane Academy, and he's really mad." Marcus notices that Cavanaugh is looking at him. Cavanaugh holds a dagger out over the edge of the circle.
Anpago decides that this would be the time for Hold Person. Cavanaugh succumbs. Anpago shrieks, "Somebody get him! Get him now!" Gero, Tonk, Marcus and Longfellow all run in making ululating cries. Tonk yells, "This is my favorite kind of fight! Hey, someone get that dagger out of his hand!"
Marcus grabs Cavanaugh and hauls him away from the summoning circle. Andrinor commences the barrage with four Magic Missiles. Tonk and Gero come running in. Marcus yells, "If you cross the circles, I'll kill you myself!"
And then the kicking starts. It doesn't last long: Marcus slits Cavanaugh's throat even through the magician's Stoneskin spell. He finds it rather disturbing to hacksaw his way through the mage's throat while looking him in the eye, but he doesn't let that stop him.
With Cavanaugh dead, Andrinor addresses the chain devils. He tells them, "Don't worry guys, we'll have you sent back to your home plane momentarily. Everything is under control." They respond in unison, "FREE US..." Andrinor runs for it.
Tonk drags Cavanaugh's body out to check it for loot. He comes up with two potions and a ring. Anpago promptly tries out the ring, reasoning that it probably isn't cursed if Cavanaugh was wearing it. There are no obvious effects. He deduces that it must be a Ring of Protection. Or maybe Flight. Or possibly Invisibility. He asks Andrinor, "You try it!" Andrinor objects, "If it didn't do anything for you, it won't do anything for me!" Anpago tells his cousin, "Have a sugar cube!" Andrinor grumbles, "Lousy addict. I've got the ring now!" Anpago mourns, "Oh, why! Why did I give up the shiny thing?" Gero groans, "I hate to see the pixies argue."
The rest of the characters head back to the secret room to look for loot and get away from the squabbling pixies.
The characters identify the secret door, then have Marcus check for traps and open the door. He is distracted by the chittering of arguing pixies. The chamber is totally dark. Tonk watches Marcus squint into the darkness for a while, then loses patience and lights up a lantern. He sees some treasure chests, and some eight-foot creatures that look like they were sewn together from spare body parts. The creatures advance. Tonk pulls back and yells, "Everyone pull out a weapon!"
The flesh golems move forward. Anpago and Andrinor throw Fireballs into the room. This has no effect on the golems. Tonk mourns, "That's crap-tacular." Then Longfellow tosses an elephant into the room. It slams one golem around like a rag doll, but the permanent bad effects upon the golem are sadly rather minimal. Tonk joins in the cavalcade of funny animals by plucking a wolverine from his Bag of Tricks and throwing it behind the golem facing the elephant. Its attacks do nothing appreciable. Tonk asks, "But the golem is still flanked, right? Right?" Marcus dismissively comments, "Yeah, sure, it's still flanked. It's even super-flanked. Whatever..."
Marcus takes a look at the juicy, juicy treasure chests and announces, "Watch this! I'm going to tumble between the legs of the elephant, past the golems, and none of them are going to put a mark on me!" And then he actually does it, even under the disbelieving gazes of his audience. Tonk reflects, "You know, it's successes like that that make him more likely to try that trick again. And then we'll have to make another visit to Reincarnation Groves."
The elephant goes stomp-crazy on its golem, but inflicts no damage. This is really a strange thing to see. Gero mentions, "I really don't want to close in with a berserk elephant and a golem." Longfellow reassures her, "Don't worry - the golem is totally unhurt." Anpago complains, "You know, most of the things we fight have the decency to die after being hit by two Fireballs and an elephant."
Gero finally decides that inaction is the worst possible option. She charges forth and cuts the second golem with her magic kukri. The golem gets hurt. Tonk, his confidence refreshed by Gero's success, moves in to follow.
Marcus pulls out a tanglefoot bag and lands it square on one of the golems. It gets covered with taffy-like goo but isn't stuck to the floor. Tonk scowls, "Dammit! We got the fuckin' Fred Astaire of golems going on here."
Anpago charges a golem and stabs it in the forehead. He delivers a very respectable nick. But then, what do you expect from a combatant who can be outmuscled by a Ken doll?
Marcus watches Tonk lose a kidney to a golem's punch then yells, "I'll save you, Tonk!" He heroically stabs the golem. Tonk wheezes, "That was really great, but next time do you think you could hit the thing before it squashes my internal organs?"
Gero goes medieval on the second golem and splits it open. Tonk congratulates her, "Gee, I thought that thing was going to stand there a while longer. Messy work there." Andrinor comments, "And to think that I wondered why you wore cleated boots."
Tonk steps over to the other one, dismisses the presence of the elephant, and chops the thing something serious. Anpago tries to attack it, but forgets to use his knife. Andrinor cheers him on. To make it seem more real, he casts a Permanent Illusion of a racily-clad cheerleader. Gero very chivalrously misses the creature, just to give Tonk an opportunity to kill it. Tonk obliges.
The characters turn to the four treasure chests. Tonk announces, "Marcus is going to try opening the chests now. Everyone out! Everyone out!" Everyone clears out. Marcus reports that they're all clear, but they're also all locked. Marcus unlocks them all. He is troubled to find that the first chest is lead-lined and contains a large, unlocked wooden box. The second one is the same. As is the third. Marcus isn't surprised when he sees the insides of the fourth. He examines them carefully and determines that each is magically trapped.
The characters develop a plan to send in a drone to trigger the traps. Longfellow starts pulling animals out of his Bag of Tricks, hoping to get one that can open a box. The first two creatures he pulls out are bats. One gets sent to the room of flame; the other becomes Longfellow's lunch. Then Longfellow produces a rat. The rat gets sent in. The rat explodes. Anpago peers in and asks, "Did it open the chest?" Tonk snipes back, "That's a stupid question. You think the room is warded against rats?" Several animals later, all the boxes are open and the room smells like barbecue.
Marcus comments, "You know what happens to druids when they die? They turn into the animals that other druids summon." Longfellow snaps back, "You know, lookin' at me you might conclude that that had already happened!" The other characters ignore the bickering and check out the boxes:
The characters remember the familiar locked box as the box stolen from them by Tomas Silverleaf. Marcus checks it for traps, then opens it. Inside there is a magical dagger (Longfellow proves the magical part with Detect Magic). Tonk picks it up, then gets very concerned when the uncaring universe asks him what his alignment is. Then the dagger speaks! It says, "At last I have found someone worthy to wield me!" Anpago speaks for everyone when he says, "So, dagger. Can you help with the Frozen Soul?" The dagger responds, "I am Sir Melkin! I have been trapped in this form for hundreds of years." Marcus comments, "Isn't he the knight who was killed in that castle so long ago that you people were talking about last week?" Everyone congratulates Marcus on his surprisingly-good memory.
The characters recall what they know of Sir Melkin, aided by the dagger's running commentary. Sir Melkin was a crusader in the Orcish Crusades 300 years ago. His castle was destroyed in a terrible battle towards the end of the war, but nobody really knows what happened. He was quite the righteous guy, a worshipper of St. Cuthbert. And he's never heard of the Frozen Soul before. Tonk asks the dagger, "Sooo, what would you like to be doing?" Sir Melkin responds, "To destroy the creature that took my life! Before the goblin armies came to destroy my castle, I came into possession of a gem, large and clear with no flaws or imperfections. I kept it on my bedside table, intending to make it into a crown or scepter. But then I saw it was growing. It was some kind of egg and the creature that hatched disguised itself as me and killed me. That was how the goblins were able to overrun my castle."
Longfellow launches into a long rant about Sir Melkin, mistaken identities, casino losses, murdered nuns and nurses, and a long string of bogus libel suits that tied up the Davra courts for years. Anpago looks over at Longfellow and asks , "Have you been getting into the mushrooms again?" Longfellow blinks and responds, "Yeah. Want some?" Anpago chirps, "Okay!"
Sir Melkin ignores the eagle and the pixie as he finishes his story, "After I died I ended up in this dagger, but neither the demon nor his goblin allies could touch it, so they put it into this box. The demon warlord meant to have it thrown into the ocean, but the castle collapsed first."
Anpago looks up from his half-eaten mushroom to say, "So, now let's go deal with the Frozen Soul!" Tonk volunteers to be the one to chip the ice off the Frozen Soul.
The Frozen Soul is on the top of the pyramid. It is but a single mote of ice, but it is surrounded by a protective shell of mundane ice. Anpago does a reccy. He observes the boundaries of the zone of cold and estimates that there is a layer of ice four feet thick on the top of the pyramid, centered around a bright point of sparkling blue on a pedestal. The pyramid top is guarded by three frost salamanders and two large ice paraelementals. A long bridge leads from the door out to the base of the pyramid.
Longfellow casts his last Protection from Elements on Anpago. Anpago borrows the wand of Flaming Spheres and flies in to drop two Flaming Spheres on the pedestal. He notices that it is so cold that the spheres have almost no effect. The ice melts a little bit, but then the Flaming Spheres gutter out and the ice reforms. He notices that the cavern floor is very hot (flaming, in fact), which keeps the ice away.
Anpago flies down and tries chipping at the ice with his magic knife. He starts to take cold damage. He notes that he is making very little progress.
Then Andrinor points out, "I can talk to these guys!" He approaches the paraelementals and convinces them that by destroying the Frozen Heart they will be able to return home. This is patently ridiculous, but they're not that swift so they buy the story. They make remarkable progress, bashing the ice to bits in only three rounds. One of them finally breaks through the ice and hits the Frozen Soul. The characters take cover. Blue light explodes into the room, but the elemental seems unharmed because it's immune to cold damage.
Suddenly, a hydra is summoned out of the Frozen Soul. It's nine-headed to boot. It knocks the elementals back. The shield around the Frozen Soul starts to regenerate. Anpago replenishes the population of Flaming Spheres on the shield. Amazingly, the hydra (technically, a "cryohydra") takes damage from one of them. Longfellow disses Anpago's Flaming Sphere plan, but admits that he can't come up with anything better so he throws his own on it as well. Trouble is the hydra is way too amped up to fall for a simple trick like that. The elementals attack the hydra and do some damage. Then the hydra savages them. Remarkably, they survive for a bit.
Tonk had previously tossed a salamander spear into the sea of flame to heat it up. He grabs it and heads up to the edge of the cold aura to stand around with Marcus and Gero.
Andrinor mentions casting Flame Shield on himself and attacking the cryohydra. A quick calculation suggests that if the cryohydra were to him nine times (pretty likely), it'd explode under the impact 240+ points of Flame Shield damage. Of course, Andrinor would be very dead too. Longfellow mentions that the characters would make him a very nice monument if he tries it. Tonk asks the pixie, "You actually planning on doing this?" Andrinor replies, "Weeell, no. Say, have an Endure Elements spell!"
Marcus tosses Resist Elements on Gero. Then she runs in to attack the hydra. She stabs and stabs and stabs again, and finds out that those hydra side plates peel off really nicely when you cut them enough. Then the elementals attack the hydra some more. And kill it. Apparently they're "large" ice paraelementals.
Tonk runs up and stabs the Frozen Soul with his heated salamander spear. He chips off some ice. Gero moves over and helps out in the ice-chipping plan. So do the elementals.
Marcus watches their progress and asks, "How far from the city will the ice go if we don't succeed?" Andrinor reassures him, "Oh, about ten miles." Marcus asks, "And we'll be able to outrun it, right?" Andrinor replies, "Sure! It'll take a couple of days to finish freezing up." Tonk yells back to them, "Your lies comfort us!"
Tonk attacks and finally breaks through to the Frozen Soul. He yells, "I lick it! Okay, maybe I don't." He strikes it again. There is another huge explosion of blue light. Tonk takes cold damage even through his Endure Elements. And then it goes out. The cold disappears. The ice paraelementals get very angry because they realize they were lied to. Everyone runs like crazy, except for Anpago who casts Confusion on the paraelementals. And Tonk, who pauses for a moment to pick up his salamander spear. After all (he reasons), the group only has three of them. Both paraelementals stand stunned. Andrinor announces, "I'm gonna run away. But I'm also invisible, so I'm not too worried about these guys finding me. I feel bad that I can't actually help these guys any."
Andrinor figures out that he's got the keywords to open and close the Flame Gate: say "open" in Ignan and it opens; say "close" and it closes. Of course, nobody in the group can speak Ignan. By the time the characters get to the gate, the compound has heated up very noticeably. The fire caverns are too hot for armored people to sustain for even a moment. Outside, the characters find that the temperature in Highthrone is also increasing.
Tonk pauses on his way out to pick up the Cleric Cage from the bathroom. And some silverware, all monogrammed "HT". And some scrapings of the Flame King, which he puts in a bag. Plus the Flame King's journal. And some of the plans from the war room.
Andrinor continues to feel very bad about dooming the ice paraelementals, so he flies quickly to the Arcane College to beg his professors for a scroll of Banish to get them back home. He learns that Banish scrolls are very, very expensive and that even professors who know him are unwilling to part with any.
Tonk mourns, "Oohhh. We left the poor chain devils behind." Marcus concurs, "Yeah, I'm trying to become a specialist in that sort of... oh, never mind."
The characters take their various fragments and artifacts of the Flame King to the constabulary and tell their story. They are personally commended by the Lord Holder of Highthrone. He hands over 6000 gold, plus an extra 1000 gold for the information on the papers from the war room (He muses, "Hmmm... I can adapt these plans to my own purposes..."). The characters rather obliquely mention that Highthrone might become a bit hotter in the near future. They don't dwell on the idea that Highthrone might get obliterated by a volcanic eruption.
The silver bars from the Flame King's treasury are worth 10 gold each. The characters share out all the loot. Each gets a share of 1500 gold. They hold out an additional 2000 gold as an additional payment towards completion of their new house. Anpago examines the potions the characters brought back. He learns that the "Gaseous Form" potion from last session is actually Cat's Grace. Cavanaugh's potions turn out to be Bull's Strength and Cat's Grace.
The semiprecious stones include: 50 gems worth 10 gold each, 12 gems worth 25 each, and 4 gems worth 50 each. All told, the gems are worth another 1000 gold (not yet distributed among the characters).
The characters organize a quick trip back to the Flame King's bedroom next weekend to pick up some home furnishing supplies. They are disappointed to find that most of it has been ruined by the heat. They do manage to bring out some wrought iron end-tables. They also notice that all of the ice creatures are gone. They don't look in on the chain devils.
Each character gains 3733 experience points. Woohoo! New level for Longfellow! Druid 8 here we come!