S06E23 – The Frozen Throne

After crossing the gate our heroes postpone the annoying question of how to kill the demon they are looking for and start exploring the dwarven mines. Hours later they reach a temple of Dumathoin, a dwarven deity. While the sane members of the group wait outside Ada takes hold of the keg of gunpowder and a treasure chest waking up the creature guarding them: a stone golem in the shape of a wagon with brawny limbs and an angry Dumathoin head. Ada hides in a small room which holds the corpse of a priest. After freeing the skeleton of its material belongings, and receiving a brutal scolding from the golem the elf escapes the temple and catches up with his friends who were already running down the hallway. Half an hour later, the group, completely out of breath, is relieved to see the nightmarish wagon stop running after them, turning around and starting to walk back to the temple despondently.

A bit later deeper down the tunnels while the heroes are assaying the gunpowder they accidentally blow up the corridor behind them and exit route.

The following morning the group wakes up to find Albrecht, the last watch, peacefully sleeping while a few corridors away the half-devoured cadaver of Heihachi, the last samurai still alive, rots away. After burying him under a cairn the group continues their trip.

Many hours later they arrive to Hum Boram, the dwarven fortress that lies closest to the dimensional rift that holds the palace and the demon. The heroes notice that a group of cultists and their demon pets are hanging out at the library. Ada sneaks inside and overhears the cultists talking about their artifact and the recently found path to the palace. The heroes, pleased with their new keg of black dirt, find a smaller barrel and fill it with half a keg of gunpowder, hurl it towards the library and cast fire on it as it enters the building. The resulting blast obliterates the whole structure, leaves the heroes’ ears tingling for minutes and makes Mara-kai cringe at the loss of so much knowledge. After digging out the artifact previously in possession of the cultists, a maul with a beating heart inside its head, Cairn takes hold of it and immediately becomes possessed. The group follows the numbed tiefling as he walks through the ruined city and into the mine tunnels.

Soon after reaching the palace the group gets stuck in front of a maze of rooms that reassemble themselves every few seconds. A few attempts to solve the maze’s logic later most of the group makes it out alive. The only casualty is Ada who disappeared into thin air in in one of the rooms.

The group follows the possessed Cairn who continues his forced march through the structure and they all end up in a room with a crucified humanoid decorating the ceiling. Ada, behind bars in one of the side cells, is happy to see them. Mara-kai reminds her of her unused unlabeled potion. Ada proceeds to ingest it turning into a -sized Ada and escapes her cell. At the other end of the room lies a steel plated door with a keyhole in the shape of an axe. Mara-kai pulls out the axe that the group received from Zabha’s messenger, the one axe with killer instincts, and uses it to open the door. Inside it a huge solid box floats in the air. The walls of the cell are decorated with sarcophagi containing the skeletal remnants of the dwarves and humans that imprisoned the demon. The group introduces the killer axe into the floating box’s keyhole causing the floating box to start unlocking while a thunderous earth-shattering tremor echoes throughout the whole palace. With the mental sharpness that only imminent death can beget they decide that Mara-kai and Albrecht will grab the maul, which supposedly controls the demon, fly towards the biggest forge inside Hum Boram, switch it on, throw the maul into the forge and hopefully send the demon back to the Abyss.

As Mara-kai and Albrecht are flying up the mine shaft connecting the dwarven mines and the palace they try to kill as many of the hundreds of demons that are climbing up the shaft as they can. The two heroes reach Hum Boram and find the main forge in the city. The dwarven ghosts protecting it are quickly convinced of Mara-kai’s good intentions and help the heroes turn on the forge. Albrecht climbs up to the ceiling of building and throws the artifact inside the forge fires almost at the same time that the rest of the group is blowing up the mine shaft and stopping the demon horde from reaching the material plane.

With the demon of the Frozen Throne sent back to the Abyss and the whole Ice Kingdoms saved the heroes decide to take a well-deserved break in their adventures.