SKT Session 26 (8/14/23): Iymrith

King Hekaton urged immediate action. The party had helped both Uthor and Serissa back to a healthy state. Uthor had information on Iymrith's location. All the party needed to do was give the storm giants names and locations of those they wanted to aid them. Thanks to a long list of allies, the party ended up doubling in size. The group who would fight Iymrith included the usual party members (Joren, Seamus, Adonis, Dhrys, Calemor), the storm giants (King Hekaton and Princess Serissa), Thestryl, Kalannozz, Thadeus, Zephyros, and Felgolos. The team, comprised of eight humanoids, three giants, and one dragon, set off to fight Iymrith.

Before leaving, Princess Serissa gave each of the party members a potion of giant size. This potion would allow them to grow to a size equal to that of the storm giants around them. They all agreed to use the potion right before fighting Iymrith.

On the way to the Anauroch Desert, the location of Iymrith's home, the storm king commended the party for their actions. He thanked them and explained that they had truly shifted his perception of small folk.

The party traveled to the desert via whale, then roc. Once the rocs were within about a mile of the ruins in which Iymrith, the Doom of the Desert, was believed to reside, the entire group dismounted and approached on foot.

Iymrith's lair was a ruined amphitheater half-buried in the cold desert sands northeast of Ascore, an ancient and abandoned dwarven city. As the party approached, they saw the violent sands ripping through the crumbled stands. Massive statues lay in pieces among the sands as sinkholes slowly sucked in bits of debris. Gargoyle statues stood still across all of the amphitheater's stands. The party decided to quaff their potions, and they all grew to the size of King Hekaton. The gargoyles turned to face the adventurers and began to swarm.

While the gargoyles were not dangerous, they were plentiful, and overwhelmed the party by surrounding them. As Joren and Calemor blasted spells, Dhrys threw psionic blades, and Adonis and Seamus slashed through their stony opponents, a blue dragon emerged from a hole in the middle of the amphitheater. Iymrith the ancient blue dragon had come.

Immediately she blasted the party with lightning, catching as many members as she could in her beam. Those that could fought against her, but not without consequence. Seamus had taken the brunt of most of the attacks made by Iymrith, and she knocked him down with a final claw. With swift, decisive motion, she chewed through the front of his armor and ripped his chest open. Seamus had died.

The party reacted quickly, laying into Iymrith with all they had. Adonis dealt the final blow, ripping her jaw open so that her mouth was held agape. As the dragon seemed to perish, a laugh came from the unhinged jaw. The dragon's form dissipated into sparks, and all of the gargoyles crumbled. The Iymrith they had been fighting was only an avatar.

Dhrys quickly laid one of Selmyr's red flowers on Seamus. It dissolved into the open cavity of Seamus' chest and repaired the shredded internals. Seamus awoke.

After some recovery time, the party knew they had to push onward. The dragon had not been slain yet. They found they could jump down into the hole Iymrith came out of without much issue. So, they pressed forward.

It was dark and sandy inside the hole. The opening led to a wide cavern with tunnels leading left and right. In front of the party was a group of yuan-ti, appearing startled and on edge. Talking to them, they found that Iymrith forced them to perform a ritual to foretell how to defeat the adventurers. Now, the dragon was burrowed within the walls of the cavern.

The party moved carefully throughout the cavern. Dhrys closed his eyes and tried to hear into the walls using his blindsight. Joren, on the other hand, had their familiar, Bentley, pick up some gold coins the party found in one of the cavern's rooms. The moment Bentley touched a coin, four air elementals whipped up, picking up the coins inside their tornado-like bodies. At this same moment, Iymrith found it opportune to attack, and emerged from the walls, slashing into any party member that was close.

The fight went back and forth, with the giants fighting the elementals while the party focused on Iymrith. Thunder rocked the cavern as Iymrith charged her lightning breath and let it scorch the underground, blasting as many adventurers as she could. She burrowed in and out of the walls, creating dust tornadoes, falling rocks, and lightning arcs to deter the party.

Multiple members of the party fell unconscious and rose multiple times throughout the battle. Iymrith grew weaker as she was pelted with attack after attack. She let out one last breath of lightning, hoping to obliterate what was left of the party. One final rock from King Hekaton brought Iymrith to the ground. Calemor approached her body as she spoke.

"I will return."

The red dragonborn who had joined the party just weeks before let forth a fiery dragon's breath, burning the flesh off of Iymrith's face. The Doom of the Desert was dead. Adonis crossed out the name "Iymrith" on his blade.

The party collected the loot from her lair, retrieved the scepters, and returned with the giants to Maelstrom. Our adventurers were successful, and thanks to them, King Hekaton stated there would be no friction between small folk and giant kind, if he could help it. He had a feeling the Ordning was to be restored.

As giant activity settled down, the party said farewell, their goal having been accomplished. They each went their own separate ways.

Thestryl returned to Waterdeep with Kalannozz. With Lady Silverhand dead by the hands of Iymrith after her attack on Waterdeep, the city needed new guidance. Over time, her and Kalannozz filled that space.

Calemor continued the search for his parents. In Iymrith's loot, he had found one of his mother's rings. with that and not much else to go on, he set off to figure out what really happened to them.

Seamus stayed among the storm giant court, helping with relations between small folk and giant kind. As a skilled tailor and armorer, he crafted elegant and practical wear for the storm giants, becoming known as one of their most renowned members. He also dedicated some of his life to Helm's ways, although Seamus could not always sit back and watch. He played an active role in protecting those he cared about, and collected fun trinkets and baubles on his adventures to incorporate into his clothing work whenever he could.

Adonis also stayed close to giant kind, offering his blade to Princess Serissa. He worked as her close personal guard when he wasn't resolving unfinished business (Syl Vallar). Together, he and Serissa began a family, and Adonis was able to live the live shown to him only in visions by Lathander.

Joren had enjoyed their time with the party, but knew they had a much bigger, deadlier opponent ahead: Slarkrethel. They had to return to the Trackless Sea to give their people salvation from the kraken. They bid their friends farewell and started on another perilous journey.

Dhrys cherished the final moments with the party in Maelstrom and slipped off quietly, in true Dhrys fashion. The party never really heard from him again, although there were many stories of a famed Nadael Del'Armgo, Son of the Second House of Menzoberranzan. This famous drow had bought up some of the underground of Waterdeep. He used his riches to form a resistance force against the Lolthite drow. The force came to be known as the Dark Flame and had a crest of a silver viola with a rapier stabbing through it. How did he have the money? Rumors were that he had plundered the hoard of an ancient blue dragon.

While the party went their separate ways, they all still thought of each other often, and of the great adventure to save their home from rampaging giants. Each on separate, dangerous, adventurous paths, they all had the same feeling: they were always watched over by a certain fallen, now restored, angel of Helm.