Osric: The fall of army group North (21)

The party leaves the hidden vale, having been revealed secrets of the weakness of the ice witch by the druid of the North. They head towards the location said by the elves to hold the horn of Daydri, a valley sized horn from the elemental plane of ice, that threatens to convert all of the world to an icy wasteland.

After 3 days of travel upon their last sled through  heavy snowstorms and blizzards within the ice finger mountains, the group hears war cries and the steady tattoo of drums. The party is able to avoid the goblin outrider piquets of the massive army of the north (with their white clothing and sharp senses). They find themselves on a precipice overlooking the vast valley, howling with the energy of the horn of Daydri, as well as the legion of the ice witch.

Hordes of the goblinoid races can be seen, as well as evil humans, and ice drakes. There are pillars of smoke and the clash of metal indicating the manufacturing of the weapons of war. While the party considers how to get through the army, a troll guard stumbles upon them. The Troll manages to blow upon his horn just before Dan the fighter decapitates him. An answering horn raises it's note to the left, then the right, then and chain. The alarm has been raised.

The party pulls back from the edge, but is quickly accosted by 2 ice drakes, one ridden by a magic user. Jenks the druid casts a large hallucinatory forest to help the group try to escape. Briefly confused the enemies round the forest until the magic user above dispels the illusion. The Drakes are able to swoop down upon the group. Dan is nearly killed by a blast and fakes his death for a number of rounds until goblin skirmishers rush to his body to chop him into Carpaccio.

The battle goes poorly as the drakes swoop in to attack and then retreat into the sky. Some magic spells of magic missle and a paralysis type spell put the hurt on the party as well. The gnomes hide in the thick snow and, as the drakes come down to pick on the survivors, manage to sneak attack with their dragon bane swords. The ice drakes go down hard to catastrophic damage and quickly the party is able to defeat their enemies, although they are heavily depleted in magic and health. An amusing moment for the battle is the original troll that raised the alarm has been staggering around the battle headless, slowly regenerating.

The party quickly dresses up in the garb of the slain goblins and begins blowing on the captured horns and pointing and charging to the South. They hope to confuse their enemy and remain free from attack for a bit. A general pursuit seems to be developing as enemies close in on the area and head in the direction our disguised team is leading.

Meanwhile Jenks, the druid, transforms into a huge snow raptor and carries the gnome Scabs with the everburning ember towards the mouth of the horn of Daydri. In a similarity to LoTR a group of two will bring the magic item to the destination under the nose of an army while the remaining group acts as a distraction.

The pair are able to drop in amongst a small collection of huts upon a vast scaffold to the mouthpeice of the massive icy horn of Daydri. While Jenks remains as a raptor, the small gnome sneaks forward and breathes upon the everburning ember, sending a gout of flame down the mouthpiece of the valley sized horn. A more explosion result could not be imagined. The howling ice winds that have since been emitting from the horn turn to flame which washes across the army of evil camped in the valley. As the Horn collapses and pandemonium breaks out, there is much collapsing of the ice cliffs and structures in the valley. The situation already overloaded with danger a group of mature red dragons is seen to rise into the sky preparing to unleash devastation.

The devastation wrought is upon the ice army however. The Red Dragons are revealed (by the GM) to be captives powering the weapon manufactoriums. The chaos is enhanced as various factions in the army turn upon one another, and large fragments can be seen regaining cohesiveness and moving off in disparate directions out of the valley.

Jenks transforms into a winterwolf while scabs dresses himself in the garb of a dead goblin warrior. The pair begin to prowl through the chaotic army camp. Ice walls continue their collapse and looting is prevalent. Some groups are regaining organization. Eventually the pair spy a large group of humans all wearing gold collars labouring to remove a massive collapsed ice sheet from a portion of a cliff face. It would appear that the ice witch has been entombed in a collapse. The opportunity for an assasination of head of this Northern evil now presents itself to the characters.