The long rest passed without incident, and they awoke feeling their strength renewed. They donned their armor, readied their packs took up their weapons as they broke camp.
"Time to find Maccath," Neega announced. "I hope we don't have any battles on the way."
She carefully went to the cavern entrance and looked out. About 45 ft. down the corridor in the direction they needed to go, there was an ice troll coming toward them. It saw Neega and gave a mighty roar as it ran toward her. It had time to reach her, but not time to attack before Neega got her blows in.
Neega went into a rage and took 2 swings at the troll, landing a damaging blow. Borovik came into the passageway far enough to see the troll and cast Melf's Acid arrow at it to suppress its regeneration ability. Although he didn't hit, acid still splashed on the troll and that was enough to disable its regeneration. Bree advanced close to Borovik so she could see the troll and shot at it with her short bow. She hit, and because Neega was within 5 ft of the troll she got extra sneak attack damage. The troll bellowed in rage as blood flowed down from its shoulder. Kellen ran up to Neega, cast Heroism on her, then back to Mara and cast Heroism on her, giving the both of them temporary extra health. Preston joined Borovik and Bree in the passageway. He cast Ray of Poison at the troll, but its tough hide deflected the spell. Mara turned into a polar bear, moved next to the troll and nailed it in the head with her mighty paw.
The troll regeneration was disabled, so none of its injuries healed. Because Neega had hurt it first, it attacked her and hit with its bite and one of its claw attacks. However, Neega's rage induced resistance reduced the damage to a minimal amount. She responded by striking the troll again, delivering enough slashing and necrotic damage to knock it unconscious. Borovik threw 3 fiery missiles with the Scorching Ray spell, ensuring it could not regenerate and regain consciousness. The troll breathed its last.
"These must be the ice trolls the ice toads were telling us about," said Borovik.
"Ice troll, huh?" exclaimed Hazirawn. "I guess that's why its blood was so cold."
"So, what makes them different from other trolls, other than the fact that they have white hair and a white hide?" asked Neega.
"I'm not sure," replied Borovik. "But my guess is that cold spells and cold damage don't work well on them."
"Well, let's hope there aren't more of these things out here," said Bree.
They began the circuit of the corridor and paused as they approached the entrance to the ice toad lair. They looked down the hall toward the entrance to the ice troll lair, but the fog ahead of them made it hard to see the entrance. They listened for any sounds of footsteps, but heard nothing.
They quietly crept forward, looking and listening for any signs of trolls, but encountered none. They passed by the entrance to the troll lair, and Mara moved to the rear of the group to protect against trolls coming up from behind.
Shortly after the ice troll lair the corridor turned and swung around to the SW. Another 90 ft. of going SW and they encountered the entrance to the unused chamber Marfulb told them about, going off to their right.
The party approached the entrance and Neega looked in. The cavern was large, about 105 ft. by 90 ft.. and was indeed empty. She saw a passageway leading out of the cavern to the NW. No one seemed to be in the room. She nodded to the group and the rest of them came up behind her. Mara hung back a little to continue guarding the rear.
Neega went to the end of the entry way and about 20 ft. into the room. At that point she saw an ice troll hiding in the passageway to the NW.
"Troll!" she called out to the rest of the group, and retreated about 10 ft. Kellen cast Heroism on Neega and Mara to give them some additional health. Mara, Borovik and Preston decided to hold their actions until they could actually see the troll.
The troll ran out of the passageway into the cavern as fast as it could, but couldn't reach any of the party members before they reacted. Mara ran up next to the troll but didn't have enough time to attack. Borovik cast Scorching Ray at the troll and threw 4 fiery missiles, but cursed as every single one of them missed. Preston cast Ray of Sickness at the troll and gave it some poison damage. However, it was tough enough to avoid getting the lasting poisoned effect.
Bree shot at the troll with her shortbow and hit. Because Mara was next to the troll Bree got additional sneak attack damage and the troll shrieked as the arrow sank deep into its thigh. Neega went into a rage and ran up to the troll. She hit with both attacks and the combination of slashing and necrotic opened a pair of horrific gashes in its abdomen.
Kellen hit the troll with his crossbow and pushed it closer to death. Mara attacked and raked its chest with her claws. It groaned and dropped to the floor. Borovik tried again with Scorching Ray and this time hit. The fire damage suspended the troll's regeneration, so it died.
The party proceeded cautiously through the passageway. Neega in the front and Mara guarding the rear. There was a slight slope up, so they were glad to have their crampons. At the end of the passageway, Neega stopped to examine the room. She could just see the corner of what looked like a large tent. She didn't see any creatures.
She went a little further into the cavern. It was long and narrow, perhaps 30 ft. wide. Although the far end of the cavern was outside her dark vision, it was lit by lamps and she could see that the cavern was around 160 ft. long. There was indeed a tent in the middle of the cavern, made from huge tapestries and carpets draped across some sort of frame. The tapestries and carpets overlapped to block drafts from blowing into the tent. The bottoms of the walls draped down onto the ground, leaving no gaps underneath. It stood 8 ft. high and was about 20 ft. wide. Neega couldn't quite see the back end to guess how long it was. She also couldn't see any obvious entrance.
She approached the tent and the rest of the party followed. As she got close she could see that the tent was about 30 ft. long. She still saw no one and heard no sounds.
"Maccath?" she called out. "Are you in there?"
"Who's out there?" came a female voice from within. High pitched kobold voices could now also be heard.
"Adventurers," responded Neega. "We were sent by the Arcane Brotherhood to find you."
"What?" the female voice exclaimed in surprise. Footsteps were heard and presently a woman parted a couple of the overlapping carpets and peered out. The party nearly jumped to see a tiefling woman with red skin. She was wearing a blazing crimson cloak over fitted furs. The cloak was fastened with a silver-and-ivory brooch bearing the design of a stylized, branching tree. Borovik remembered that members of the Arcane Brotherhood whom they met in Luskan were wearing jewelry with similar designs.
"Are you Maccath the Crimson?" asked Borovik. "We've been sent to find you."
"Yes. That is me," she admitted. "You might as well come in where its warm."
The party came into the tent through the opening Maccath had parted in the wall of the tent. A small stove kept the interior of the tent substantially warmer than the rest of the ice caves. The frame supporting the carpets and tapestries of the walls was made of whale ribs. Lamps burning whale oil provided light. The floor was covered in thick layers of carpet. Tables and reading stands made of hide and whalebone were stacked with books and scrolls. There was a portable wooden writing desk that looked like it had been salvaged from a sailing ship.
A couple of kobolds chattered nervously to each other and glanced back and forth between Maccath and the party.
"Who are the kobolds?" asked Borovik, hoping they had no knowledge of the other kobolds recently killed by the party.
"They are my attendants, or perhaps you could say they are my jailers. The white dragon, Arauthator, who lives in this lair has told them to follow me around and do chores for me. I think you're making them nervous. By the way, where did you find a pet polar bear?"
"The polar bear is not our pet. She is a Druid named Mara, who can turn into a polar bear."
"Aha!" For the first time since they had met her, Maccath briefly smiled.
Mara did a bow for Maccath, who responded with a bow of her own. Mara then gave a fierce look at the kobolds, who nearly fainted.
In Draconic, Borovik addressed the kobolds, "I think Mara is trying to tell you not to try anything foolish, like fleeing and getting the ice trolls."
The kobolds sat down on the floor, eyes wide with terror. "We understand," one of them peeped. Just to make sure they really didn't try something, Bree tied them up.
"Now that you have found me, what are you going to do?" asked Maccath.
"The Arcane Brotherhood want us bring you back to Luskan," replied Borovik.
"You understand that I am Arauthator's prisoner, don't you. He isn't going to just let you take me away."
"Yes, the ice toads told us that. Why are you his prisoner? I would have expected him to kill you."
"When I first came to the iceberg Oyavigatton, I am sure he planned on killing me, as he did to the rest of the crew of my expedition ship. But he saw my brooch and recognized I belong to the Arcane Brotherhood. He offered to let me live if I solved 2 of his problems. I agreed to his demands to save my life.
"The first problem is that some of the tomes and scrolls that he stole from the Arcane Brotherhood have defied his efforts to understand them, despite him having studied them for over a century. He wants me to decipher them for him. It has been going slowly, since the material is very complex and is also very dangerous if you aren't careful.
"The second reason is to present me as a gift to his mate, Arveiaturace. She once served a wizard who has now died, and she has grieved for a long while. Arauthator hopes that I can replace the dead wizard and relieve her sorrow. When I finish the arcane tomes and scrolls, I will be handed over to her."
"Why don't you escape?'
"Arauthator has me imprisoned with powerful spells. Oyavigatton is surrounded by powerful cloaking spell that prevents anyone from finding me through scrying. He also cast a spell on the iceberg that prevents any Sending spell messages from going out."
Kellen and Mara looked knowingly at each other. "That's why I couldn't send a message to Talis from you," said Kellen.
"And, of course, if I just tried to walk out, I have to get past the kobolds, the ice trolls and the ice toads in the caves, and then the Ice Hunters on the surface," continued Maccath, "Even if I managed to get on a ship and get off the iceberg, Arauthator would notice within a day or so that I was gone. Then he would track down, attack and sink the ship."
"Well," said Neega. "We intend to help you get out, even if we have to kill Arauthator to do it. Are you willing to come with us? We are a powerful group who have defeated some mighty enemies."
Maccath sized up the party. She judged them to be very powerful, with mighty warriors and potent magic users.
"I will put my trust in you to get me out. But you must help me return as much of the Arcane Brotherhood's stolen property as possible."
"No problem," smiled Bree. "I have a Portable Hole."
"Then, I will go with you. There are a few things you need to know. First, Arauthator is a mighty opponent. He is an adult white dragon, very strong and possessing the cold breath weapon. You can become frightened just by looking at him. He also has learned much magic over the centuries. A frontal assault is probably not the best way to approach him. Stealth is your best bet.
"Arauthator is currently in his lair, which lies directly under the scriptorium, the cavern just to the north of this one, where most of the stolen items are stored. There is a chute that leads down from there directly into his lair. There is another chute elsewhere in the center of these caves that also leads down to the level of his lair, but to a side cavern. I have only seen his actual lair, but not the other caverns of that level.
"I have a couple of items that I fashioned while here that would be helpful to you in a battle with him: a ring of cold resistance and 2 arrows of dragon slaying."
They accepted the items. The arrows of dragon slaying they gave to Bree. The Ring of Cold Resistance they gave to Preston.
"Oh, I almost forgot," said Borovik, "we have also been sent to gather information on the location of the Draakhorn, Did you find out anything about it while you were here?"
"It was here when I came to Oyavigatton, but it's not here anymore," said Maccath. "About half a year ago a group of humans wearing some very distinctive regalia came and negotiated with Arauthator to let them take the Draakhorn. I don't know where they took it. Based on their outfits, I suspect they were with the Cult of the Dragon."
"Sadly, I think you're right. The Cult of the Dragon is now using the Draakhorn to summon chromatic dragons to the Well of Dragons for a ritual to summon Tiamat to the material plane. We are part of a group based in Waterdeep that is working to stop that."
Maccath grew pale. "That would be a true catastrophe! If I ever get out of here, I will urge the Arcane Brotherhood to help to stop the ritual!"
Moving to the northern wall of the tent, she said, "Come with me to the scriptorium. In addition to the stolen arcane materials I want to return, there are some scrolls that may prove useful to you."
They followed Maccath into the scriptorium. The room was long and narrow about 25 ft. wide and about 140 ft. long. In the western end was a hole in the floor that looked much like the hole they had seen before in their initial search of the caves. The room was nearly empty, except for shelves cobbled together out of salvaged wood, whale bone, pieces of giants' armor, and even the frozen limbs of yetis. A number of scrolls, books, parchments, and folios were carefully arranged on the shelves, all bearing the markings of magical writing.
Maccath picked out the items that were stolen from the Arcane Brotherhood and Bree put them into her Portable Hole.
"Remember what I told you about them," she said, turning to Borovik and Preston. "Many of them are from ancient evil civilizations, such as Netheril. They are laced with dangerous lore that can be extremely harmful to mortal minds."
Borovik looked longingly at the writings, but nodded his head in assent.
Continuing to gather things, she said, "Here are several still readable scrolls with spells of interest to Arcane spell casters. I will give them to you."
Borovik smiled broadly as Bree put them into her Portable Hole.
Maccath then took them over to the hole in the floor. A 15-foot-wide chute led downward into Arauthator's lair.
"This chute leads down to a raised perch in the northern part of the dragon's lair," she explained.
"This is where most of the treasure he stores in Oyavigatton is stashed. He also sometimes sleeps there. Other times he will be found on the lower level to the south. Although Arauthator can climb this chute with ease, you all will need climbing gear, particularly if you aren't athletic. The chute descends 60 feet to the roof of the perch area, so be prepared to drop 15 ft. from the hole in the ceiling to the platform. Also, make sure you have put in place a way to climb back up before you descend. Arauthator doesn't want intruders to be easily able to escape.
"The lower level of his lair is very cold and there are no lights. Even with cold weather gear, you are in danger of hypothermia if you stay there more than an hour. Those of you without darkvision will need to carry your own lights. Arauthator enters and exits his lair through underwater tunnels. In the event that he flees through one of these, you won't be able to follow him.
"That's about the extent of what I know of the bottom level of Oyavigatton. I know that it extends eastward from the lair, but I have never been allowed to go there. The other chute you found in the caves leads down to the eastern section, but I don't know exactly where. I also don't know whether there are other minions quartered down there."
After they had collected the items from the scriptorium, Borovik turned to Maccath. "If you are willing, we would like to take an 8-hour rest in your tent so that we can be in good health and at maximum magical energy for our battle tomorrow with the dragon. We will help you with the chores that the kobolds would normally have done."
"Yes, of course," said Maccath. "I want you to be at top strength for what will be a harrowing battle."
Mara resumed half-elf form after they returned to Maccath's tent. Maccath was pleased and amused. Her kobold attendants just stared at Mara in astonishment. Meanwhile, Preston spent an hour attuning himself to the Ring of Cold Resistance.
The party spent the next several hours talking with Maccath. She was hungry for information about events in the world that had happened in the 3 years since she had been imprisoned. She was especially impressed with their tales of helping find the Lost Mine of Phandelver, of defending Phandalin from the marauding horde of cultists and their efforts to track the treasure stolen from so many Sword Coast towns. She cheered at the tale of them capturing Varram the White. Her eyes filled with tears at the description of the obstacles facing Mara and Talis as they strove to forge a new life together.
Maccath also helped guide them through planning how the casters would expend their magical energy. She warned them that Arauthator was immune to cold spells or damage, but he was vulnerable to other types of damage. However, he had a high armor class and was hard to hit. He was able to protect himself from spells with his high ability saves. He was very strong so he could hit hard. As an adult dragon he had some special attacks and resistances. He was very tough, so it would take a lot of damage to defeat him.
"Let's figure out how we will divvy up the protection spells," said Mara. "First, let's talk about the Protection against Cold. Neega has the Dragonguard Breastplate, so she has protection from dragon breath weapons. Preston has the ring of Cold Resistance. Borovik and I have access to the Protection from Energy spell. However, it's a concentration spell, so once you have cast it you can't cast it again or the spell on the first person ends. That means only 2 of the 4 people left can get protection from cold."
"Can't you expend extra magical energy to put protection on more than 1 person with a single casting of the spell?" asked Neega.
"No, not with that spell." replied Mara.
"Mara, I think you need the protection, since you are going to be our healer," said Kellen. "I am willing to forego the protection."
"Then, who among Borovik and Bree will get protection?" asked Neega.
"Let Borovik have it," said Bree. "He has the nasty offensive spells we are going to need."
"Now, if there are traps in the lower caves, I suspect poison is a possibility," continued Mara. "We have the magic ewer from the Tomb of Diderius that can give protection from poison to up to 4 people. Preston has a Ring of Poison Resistance. I will cast Protection from Poison on Neega, so we all should be covered as far as poison goes."
Kellen spoke up, "I can give Heroism to up to 4 people in a single casting to give them immunity from fear. But it's also a concentration spell, so I can only cast it once. Who will get Heroism?"
"Bree will be firing the Arrows of Dragon Slaying. We want her to be protected from the Frightful Presence of the dragon, so she had the maximum chance of hitting him."
"How am I even supposed to see him?" squawked Bree. "I don't have darkvision!"
"You will once I cast the Darkvision spell on you," said Mara. "Unfortunately, if I cast Darkvision on all three of the people in the party who need it, I'm afraid I won't have enough left to heal party members during the battle. Those of you who are left will have to depend on the light spells."
"Mara, are you going to turn into an animal, or remain a half-elf?" asked Neega.
"Since we will need a healer during the battle, I will be a half-elf so I can cast spells.," Mara responded.
Prior to going to sleep, Borovik pulled out his Ring of Spell Storing.
"I have yet to use this," he mused. "Let me cast Fireball and 2 instances of Magic Missiles into it tonight as a precaution against running out of magical energy tomorrow.
The next morning both Borovik and Mara changed out some of their prepared spells to be ready for the upcoming battle. They pulled the magic ewer of Protection from Poison from the Portable Hole so that they could take quaffs from it just before entering the dragon's lair.
They said their goodbyes to Maccath and set off for the room below the stairs from the Ice Hunter meeting hall, retracing their steps backwards around the circular corridor. They crept quietly past the ice troll lair and re-entered the cavern with the stairs. They passed through the room into the larder. They picked up some of the spikes, a couple of coils of rope and a pulley to suspend from the hook in the room with the chute so they could lower each other down to the lower level and leave a rope dangling down through the chute to climb back up when they were finished.
Going through the SE passageway out of the larder, they entered the room with the chute. In about half an hour they managed to get the pulley and ropes installed. Bree knotted together a harness to hold those being lowered.
"Are we ready?" asked Borovik.
"As ready as we'll ever be," said Mara.
"Okay," said Neega. "Let's get ourselves down the hole."
Neega managed the rope and lowered everyone else. Then she let the harness end of the rope rest on the ice platform down below and drove spikes into the wall to tie off and secure the end of the rope she was holding. This would give them a way to climb back up later. She slid down the rope and landed next to the rest of the party.
They had descended to an ice platform close to the SE corner of the cavern. It was even colder down here than it was in the ice caves above. Looking up, those with darkvision could see that the ceiling soared to 40 ft. Looking down, they saw that the platform they were on had a sharp 8 ft. drop off at its edge, leading to another ledge, which was itself 8 ft. above the cavern floor. Vapor in the room limited visibility to 60 ft. Those with dark vision were able to see ice pillars of varying heights, some as high as 24 ft.
Kellen, Bree, Borovik and Mara took droughts from the magic ewer. Mara then cast Protection from Poison on Neega and Darkvision on Bree. Mara cast Protection from Cold on Borovik and he cast the same on her.
"Let's get to exploring," Neega exclaimed. "We have a dragon to kill!"
Neega took the lead, carefully sliding off onto the lower platform. She then helped the others down. Those with darkvision could see the northern and eastern walls, along with part of an alcove in the NE corner. A large ice pillar stood at the entrance to the alcove, partially blocking it.
Neega descended down from the ledge to the cavern floor. She was helping Mara down when they heard a slight shuffling from the direction of the alcove to the NE. The two of them hurried to get the rest of the party down.
"We heard some noises off to the NE that almost sounded like footsteps," whispered Neega.
"Should we go look?" asked Bree.
"Yes," replied Neega. "Whatever it is, we want to find it before it finds us."
Neega crept up to the corner of the wall leading into the alcove. The large ice pillar and the southern part of the alcove wall formed a short 15 ft. wide passageway into the alcove. Neega looked around the corner and saw a scrag. It turned toward her as she looked around the corner, but it didn't move.
Neega went back to the party and whispered, "There is at least one scrag in there, hiding in the shadows far back in the alcove. I don't believe there are more that 2 or 3 of them. I think it saw me but it's not following."
"What's the plan?" asked Mara.
"Neega, why don't you go back to the entrance and get its attention and see if you can get it to come out here. We will be waiting around the corner for it," said Borovik.
"I suggest we use cantrips as much as possible," said Mara. "We want to save our spells for the dragon."
"Does anyone have cantrips that do acid or fire damage?"
"I have Produce Flame. I can cast the fire into my hand and throw it at the scrag. That will burn it."
Preston spoke up, "My Chill Touch cantrip will prevent an enemy from regaining hit points for a brief period of time,"
"Okay," said Borovik. "Let's do it."
Mara spoke a word and snapped her finger, and a flame appeared in her hand. She held it in readiness. Neega stepped back up to the corner and stood in the center of the passageway into the alcove, where she knew the scrag had to see her. She went into a Barbarian rage.
"Come get me, you coward!" she shouted.
The scrag angrily shouted back in Giantish and began running toward her. As it began to run, Neega saw a second scrag behind it also begin to run.
"There are 2 of them," she called to the group.
The scrags ran as fast as they could, but they were far enough from Neega that they couldn't get in an attack before the party reacted. The best they could do was get next to her, one on the side nearer the party and the other on her other side.
Bree took aim with her shortbow and delivered a nasty blow to the chest of the scrag nearest the group. Because the scrag was distracted by Neega next to it, it didn't even try to dodge, and took a lot of damage. Kellen cast Crown of Madness at the scrag on the far side of Neega, hoping to charm it and order it to attack its comrade. The troll managed to shake off the charm before it took hold.
Neega attacked with Hazirawn, and the combined slashing and necrotic damage made the troll shudder, roaring with pain. Mara stepped out into the open to get a good line of sight and threw the flame at the troll. She hit, and the fire damage briefly disabled its regeneration. She then backed up a little to get out of the way in case it decided to charge at her.
Preston cast Chill Touch on the injured scrag, but missed. Borovik, hoping to reduce it to unconsciousness, used Scorching Ray to throw 3 fiery missiles at it. He hit, and the troll screamed as it received third degree burns. It was barely able to stand. Unfortunately, it was not unconscious yet.
The injured scrag on the near side of Neega was not able to regenerate any health. However, even as weak as it was, it attacked her. It managed to rake her with one of its claw attacks, but did little damage. The second scrag, on her far side, also attacked her. Like the first one, it only hit with 1 of its 3 attacks, and Neega's rage induced resistance reduced the damage by half.
Bree fired another arrow at the injured scrag and another good blow felled it. Kellen cast Vicious Mockery at the scrag on Neega's far side and it clutched its head as it took psychic damage. Its movements became clumsy. Neega was next, and hammered at the remaining scrag with Hazirawn. The scrag had serious injuries, and it panted heavily.
Mara once again cast Produce Flame and called a small fire into her hand. She held it back to use after the remaining scrag had become unconscious. Preston cast Chill Touch at the unconscious troll and added necrotic damage, as well as disabling its regeneration. Borovik cast Melf's Acid Arrow on the remaining troll. Even though he missed, some acid splashed on the scrag and it took some damage.
The unconscious scrag was unable to regenerate, and so died. The second scrag attacked Neega. The temporary clumsiness caused it to miss with two of its attacks. The one attack that hit did little damage.
Bree shot the remaining scrag with her short bow and got in a good hit. Again, the scrag was distracted by Neega and didn't know Bree shot at it until it was hit. So, she got in extra damage. The scrag was now staggering. Kellen tried Vicious Mockery again, but the scrag noticed him at the last minute and dodged out of the way.
Neega took 2 mighty swings at the scrag with her greatsword and sliced its head off. Even this did not kill it and it merely fainted from the injuries. Mara moved up a little closer to the unconscious scrag and threw the flame in her hand at it. The fire damage disabled its regeneration and it never recovered.
After the battle was done, Mara saw that Neega was the only one with any injuries. She took out her Staff of Healing and used it to heal Neega's wounds.
"We used more magical energy than I had hoped," frowned Borovik, "but we had to get those creatures out of the way so they wouldn't attack us while we were dealing with Arauthator."
"I think we will be okay," Mara remarked. "We didn't use all that much."
"Let's go find that dragon!" exclaimed Hazirawn. "It's been too long since I've tasted dragon blood!"
Moving westward, the group skirted around a tall ice pillar and shortly approached what looked like a platform in the middle of the cavern, about 8 ft. high. Neega scouted around one side for a short distance, then around the other side.
"It looks like the platform is long and thin, and it divides the way forward into 2 narrow paths."
"I just bet that there are traps in those narrow paths," Bree observed.
"I could do a Find Traps spell," offered Mara. "Even though it won't tell me exactly where they are, it will tell us if there are any and we would know if its worth taking the time to search them out."
"Makes sense," nodded Bree.
"Neega, can you help me get up onto this platform?" asked Mara. "That would give me a better line of sight along the passage to the west."
"Sure," said Neega. She climbed up onto the 8 ft high plateau and helped Mara get up.
Mara cast the spell and announced the results, "I sense 2 traps ahead of us. One seems to be a Stinking Cloud magic trap. It looks like the other trap sets off a Slow spell. As I said, I can't tell exactly where they are, just that they are somewhere within the space 120 ft in front of us."
"My guess is that they're set up on the cavern floor. If the platform extends all the way through the passage, we may be able to bypass them that way," suggested Bree.
"Mara, lets explore the platform a bit and see if we can traverse it," Neega said.
They explored about 60 ft. down the platform then came back to report.
"It looks like we can walk on the platform if we go slowly," said Neega. "The surface is uneven, so we don't want to get in a hurry and fall. After about 60 ft. another platform rises up above the surface of this one. So we will have to go around to the side and the surface we have to walk on narrows to around 15 ft. wide."
"Okay," worried Borovik. "Let's just hope the traps really are set up on the cavern floor, and not on the platform."
The rest of the party climbed up onto the platform and they attached themselves together in a line with ropes. They slowly and carefully crept forward. When they reached the point where the path divided, Bree began to take the lead and searched for traps. In about another 90 ft, the platform narrowed again to around 10 ft. wide for a brief space, but then returned to its normal width after that. Another 60 ft. and the secondary platform ended, widening out their walking space. Those in front could see that they were within about 20 ft. of the end of the platform they walked on. Neega and Bree crept out onto the furthest tip of the platform, and could see the dragon Arauthator, about 60 ft. in front of them, apparently asleep. They went back to the party to describe what they had seen.
Back on the upper level, Maccath felt like she should do at least something to help the cause of her would-be rescuers. She was a scholar, not an adventurer, and the spells available to her weren't appropriate for going into battle. However, she had some offensive spells, and could potentially get rid of the remaining ice trolls so they couldn't go down to help Arauthator during the battle. Then perhaps she herself could descend into the lower cave and throw a few spells.
She went to talk to the ice toads, who told her that they had had a talk with the party. They knew about their plans to kill Arauthator and rescue Maccath. They agreed to aid in her attempts to bolster the party using her own magical abilities. There were 3 ice trolls remaining in the upper ice caves, and getting rid of them would prevent them from helping Arauthator fight the party
Maccath cast Greater Invisibility on herself and hid in the larder. The ice toads hauled a pile of food out of the larder, laced it with a good portion of Bonecarver's special poison brew and set it down on the floor of the cavern just to the north of the larder. They called out to the ice trolls, "Time to eat!" They then retreated to their lair.
The trolls rushed in to eat the food. Maccath waited until they were totally engrossed in gobbling the food, then threw a fireball at the trolls. They looked up in shock at the sudden pain but couldn't tell where the fireball came from. As they were looking around, Maccath threw another fireball.
At this point, the trolls became frightened and tried to flee the room. Maccath got them a third time with fireball, and the smell of scorched troll flesh wafted through the caves. They stumbled back toward their lair, but Maccath followed and got in a 4th fireball. Two of the trolls had taken enough fire damage that they fell unconscious and died. About this time the poisoned food started to kick in and the last troll standing felt ill, taking poison damage. Maccath hit it with Magic Missiles, then followed up with a Fire Bolt that knocked it unconscious and disabled its regeneration. It, too, died.
The ice toads came out of their lair and were mightily impressed.
"Meet me back in my quarters," she instructed. "By then the invisibility should have worn off so you will be able to see me."
The toads went into the larder and grabbed ropes, then went to Maccath's quarters. Maccath and the ice toads started to leave the tent for the scriptorium.
"What are you doing?" peeped one of the tied-up kobolds. "We're going to tell the ice trolls about this!"
Maccath turned back and grinned fiendishly at them, "No you won't! They're dead!"
The kobolds squeaked in fear as Maccath and the ice toads left. The ice toads rigged up spikes to secure one end of the rope and quietly let it down the chute into Arauthator's lair. They listened closely, but there was no hint that Arauthator had seen the rope.
After a few minutes a load roar was heard, and Arauthator bellowed, "What was that? Trolls, get down here!"
"That's my sign," said Maccath. "My rescuers are attacking the dragon. I will go down while he is distracted and offer what help I can."
With that, she began to climb down the rope into the dragon's lair and onto the perch in the north of the lair, where most of Arauthator's treasure was stashed.
Back on the platform, Kellen cast Heroism at on Mara, Neega, Borovik and Bree to give them fear immunity and a little temporary health. All those with lights extinguished them. Kellen then gave a Bardic Inspiration to Bree to increase the chance her short bow attacks would hit.
Aruathator lay still, as if asleep. Bree crept up to the edge of the platform and Borovik followed her. Bree nocked up one of the dragon slaying arrows. She struck him in the neck, doing the normal damage from her bow and additional magical dragon slaying energy. Arauthator was tough enough to avoid some of the additional magical energy, but he still got a nasty jolt. The sudden injury awakened him, and he bellowed with pain, calling for the ice trolls. Even though Borovik could not see the enemy, Bree pointed his arm in the direction toward Arauthator and told him how far ahead he was. That was enough information for Borovik to cast spells. He threw a fireball at Arauthator, engulfing the dragon with a blazing sphere. Again, Aruathator was tough enough to avoid some of the damage but sustained nasty burns. Both Borovik and Bree stepped back from the edge and crouched down so they could no longer see him.
Neega went into a rage and began advancing toward Arauthator in order to get within melee range. She climbed down of the platform and did a dash toward him but could not quite get close enough. Mara followed Neega down off the platform so that she could be in a better position to heal her if needed. Running at top speed, she got next to Neega.
Kellen stepped up to the edge and Preston followed him. He then threw Vicious Mockery at Aruathator and the dragon wasn't able to avoid getting hit by the spell. The dragon knew what spell had hit him, and knew that, although the damage done would be small, it would cause him to have disadvantage on his next attack. He used one of his special dragon abilities to nullify the effects of the spell.
Kellen then pointed Preston's arm in the direction toward Arauthator and told him the distance ahead. He gave a bardic inspiration to Preston. Preston was unsure of his ability to hit a target he couldn't see, so opted for a cantrip, casting Chill Touch. He was pleased when the dragon responded with a grunt, meaning he had hit. Arauthator took a chunk of necrotic damage and for a brief time he became unable to benefit from any healing effects. Both Preston and Kellen then stepped back and crouched down.
About this time Maccath was climbing down the rope to the perch. She reached the perch without being seen by Aruathator. However, she could not yet see him and so couldn't cast any spells with assurance of them hitting.
Arauthator had by now realized he was being attacked. He glanced around and saw the 6 adventurers. A roar of fury escaped his mouth and a menacing stare proceeded from his eyes. He cursed in Draconic as he realized that not one of them became afraid from his Frightful Presence gaze. Seeing 2 combatants near him, he approached them and attacked. He bit Neega but the damage was relatively small because of her rage resistance and the temporary health. Next, he tried to claw her, but her armor blocked the swipe. He then turned his attention to Mara. Although he successfully clawed her, her temporary health absorbed some of the damage and she received relatively little injury.
Bree and Borovik stepped up to the edge of the platform. She nocked the second arrow of dragon slaying and let the arrow fly. It didn't look like the aim was perfect when she let it loose, so she used the bardic inspiration to increase the chances of it hitting. That was enough to make it a hit. She did her regular arrow damage and, since Mara and Neega were next to the dragon, she got in sneak attack damage. Although Arauthator was tough enough to avoid the full effect of the anti-dragon magic in the arrow, he still got a nasty injury. The arrow embedded itself deeply into his flank and blood gushed from the wound.
Aruathator was furious at receiving so much damage from a tiny little halfling, so he did a draconic wing attack reaction against Mara and Neega. Both of them took damage and were knocked to the ground. Then Arauthator flew about 20 ft. up into the air, so he was no longer in melee range for either Mara or Neega.
Mara realized that her injuries from the wing attack had made her lose concentration on her Protection From Cold spell.
"Borovik," she yelled. "I lost my concentration on your protection spell!"
Bree told Borovik that the dragon had flown 20 ft. above the spot where he had been and once again pointed Borovik's arm toward the dragon and told him the distance. He calculated where to cast the Fireball spell so as to hit Arauthator but not hit Mara and Neega, aiming it a little above where the dragon hovered. Using more magical energy than normally required to cast the spell, he set it up do more damage than normal. The dragon was tough enough to avoid half of the damage, but still got another nasty burn. Arauthator was now seriously injured and roared curses at them. Bree and Borovik stepped back about 10 ft from the edge.
Neega jumped to her feet. Arauthator was within throwing range of her hand axe, so she pitched it at the dragon, hitting and doing a small amount of damage. Likewise, Mara jumped up and pitched a javelin at Arauthator. She got him with a critical hit and added to his injuries.
Kellen and Preston ran up together to the edge. Kellen did another Vicious Mockery at the dragon. Although Arauthator failed to avoid the effect of the spell, this time he decided not to use his special draconic spell resistance. He took a small amount of psychic damage and got disadvantage on his next attack.
Bree told Preston where the dragon had moved to and pointed his arm in that direction. Preston decided to cast Ray of Sickness at Arauthator and this time used his bardic inspiration because he couldn't see the enemy. However, even the addition of the bardic inspiration wasn't enough to get a hit.
Maccath couldn't see Arauthator yet, but Borovik's Fireball spell had briefly illuminated him, so she knew where he was. She came toward the edge of the perch and climbed down. She still wasn't close enough to see him, but she knew now that he was close enough for her to do magic on her next turn.
There was to be no next turn. Arauthator was very seriously injured and didn't know if he would survive another round of battle. He decided to cut his losses. The party heard flapping wings as he flew toward the western wall and a splash as he dove into the entrance to an underwater passage. After some brief swimming noises, they heard nothing more.
A voice that sounded like Maccath was heard to the north. "Friends? Are you okay? I believe Arauthator has fled. You won! I'm free!"