Brisk!

"When last we left our intrepid band of adventurers, they had just exited the Feywild through a Fairy Circle, and were confronted by the pixie, Widdershins." was how Craig started off our next session. He always started off our sessions with that line: "When last we left our intrepid band of adventurers...". I enjoyed that. It seemed to tie everything together.

Anyway, Widdershins confronted us and wanted to know where Kai was. I hadn't known about this, but Kai (Toni's human bard) was married to Widdershins. Calatin had taken a ring that Kai wore, and I suppose it was specifically for this purpose, as he handed it over to Widdershins, giving him the bad news about Kai's death at the hands of the shambling mounds. He was not pleased, of course, and left.

We traveled to the nearby human city of Ebrandel, and took the time to identify all the magic we'd found, spend some money on new things, and have Timond create some new magic items for us. The next step in our journey would be to find a portal that would lead us to the Deeping Well... the place where all souls go to as they journey to their final destination. We, of course, wanted to avoid the usual method of arriving there... you know... death, and we discovered that there was one high in the mountains. We set out, climbing the mountain trail, until we reached a vale at the top. There was a mining town we were making for, named Delve, and upon approaching we noticed something very strange. The town glittered in the sun, as if it was covered in diamonds! Reaching the town, we discovered the true reason for this... it was actually covered in ice!

Approaching the town, we didn't see any movement and everything was deathly silent. Stepping through the open gate, we found that all the buildings were coated in ice, and there were actually people here, but they were all frozen in ice, and they were still alive! We set to work as quickly as we could, releasing as many as we could until evening set in. We took everyone outside the city, built up a big fire and sat everyone around it. They told us that a white dragon attacked the town, freezing everyone and everything with its breath!

As we were completing our preparations for the night, and dreading the possibility of facing off against a dragon, when we heard some noise coming from inside the gates... some chattering... and went to investigate.

Poking our heads inside, we saw three small humanoid creatures lurking about near one of the buildings, talking to one another. Trying to get their attention revealed them as illusions, and Zorenthiel made his way over to check things out. He spotted the one creating the illusion, but failed to spot two others... one by the gate, and one up on top of a roof.

While we were distracted by deal with one of them, suddenly, a shadow fell over the area and a huge white dragon descended upon us, breathing a cone of cold over us! During the fight, Zorenthiel noticed something strange, though. Looking up, the creature on the roof was pointing a wand at the dragon. Suspicious, given that we'd already seen one of them generating illusions with a wand, I got everyone to concentrate on that one guy and take him down. Then, to prove to the others that the dragon was an illusion, I had Zorenthiel charge the white dragon! Swinging his staff, it passed right through the dragon, confirming my suspicion and showing the others that it wasn't real. We mopped up the other two little guys, and then went out to the fire, where we discovered that Pate had taken down three more.

One was still alive, so we questioned him. He turned out to be an ice mephit... a kind of elemental creature. The mephit's "Master" had sent them out to coat the town in ice. Apparently a dwarven priest released some great evil in the mines, nearby.

In the morning, the group left town for the mines, with Zorenthiel staying behind to continue efforts in releasing everyone still trapped in the ice (I missed that next session, so it was a convenient excuse. :) ).