After a well concealed night’s rest, Barika opens the door out of the hidden passage and carefully investigates a footbridge over a chasm to the north. There are no traps in the conventional sense, but the trap of aging bridge infrastructure collapses beneath her. She arrests her plummet with a desperate fingerhold long enough for Watc to mizzium apparatus some flying lessons for her. Ten night steps the broken bridge. Ander, Ash, Sqyylarr, and Watc make more pedestrian running leaps over the rotting bridge. As soon as Watc clears the span, the door closes behind her and pompous dragon laughter fills the snow and ice packed cave that stretches out of sight to the north. The booming dragon voice bids them an insincere welcome as elite skeletons and skeletal mammoths spring out of the icy hills around Barika.
Watc opens with a fireball because that never goes wrong. The wrong going fireball melts free several more elite skeletons and another mammoth. Ten summons a gigantic dwarven ghost shadow spiritual guardian who bottlenecks the cavern creating a haven for the convalescent and the squishy. Ander summons a bag of flour and catapults it past a mammoth and into a less dexterous elite skeleton. The unfloured mammoth is hit with a follow-on force ballista knocking it into the same elite skeleton in a puff of flour. The angry mammoth charges Ander, goring and knocking him down before stomping him bloody. Ash controls the other mammoth with some sneaking, goading, vicious arrows. Surrounded Barika gets smacked from the obscuring snowy cloud above by an ancient white tail, undoubtedly attached to APPOTHROMAX at the other end. Sqyylarr slammoths the goaded mammoth and draws plenty of greatsword and longbow action from the surrounding elite skeletons. Watc doubles down on a second fireball which fortunately removes more opposition than it activates this time. Ten channels Ilmater’s twilight sanctuary to buff the righteous and Ilmater’s spiritual weapon to beat the wicked, taking out the skeletal mammoth standing on Ander. Ander regains his feet and brushes off mammoth remains. The party cleans up the remaining elite skeletons and braces for the main event.
The ancient white dragon APPOTHROMAX descends from his lair’s ice storm cloud long enough to frighten everyone, even normally indomitable Sqyylarr. Ten’s aura cures that problem within a few seconds, but the dragon strategerally withdraws back into vertical hiding. Still-flying Barika ascends to take greataxe pain back to the dragon source, but APPOTHROMAX returns the martial damage by way of bites and claws. Ander featherfalls unconscious Barika out of the cloud and tag teams in an air elemental to trade diversionary hits. Ten, with a healing word, drags Barika back to relative safety behind the guardian.
Ten makes a proverbial, and literal, stab at the center of the maelstrom with a moonbeam that lights unseen APPOTHROMAX up. APPOTHROMAX soars to a mathematically appropriate altitude to cold cone the party below, breaking most of the party’s arcane concentration. Already precarious Barika is down and freezing into the ice. Ten is spared by Ander’s flash of genius. Ten masses a cure wounds. Fortunately, the breath weapon also dissipates the obscuring weather. Ander catapults jagged ice bullets and ballista bolts. Ash sims arrows specially dipped in wyvern poison he saved for just such an occasion. Sqyylarr and shaky Barika attack from range, making use of available cover to discourage further breath attacks. Watc manages an immolation which is blunted by APPOTHROMAX’s legendary desire. Unable to close the deal to kill Barika, APPOTHROMAX has a go at Ander. Ander’s right-handed arcane shield intervenes, and he shockingly grasps an escape. Ten positions his aura to cover Ander. Ash aims his last poisoned arrow and cuts APPOTHROMAX down.
Improving weather and a loud cracking to the north suggest that APPOTHROMAX’s demise has some immediately positive effect. While Ander and Barika harvest dragon bits for later crafting, perceptive Ash explores the lair to the north and locates a secret door. Beyond the door is a keening amulet of the two sought triangles of blue and gold.
