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Hi everyone, this is your friendly and oh so gifted poet, recorder of great deeds big and small and all around singing bard me and the final tales of our journey in Ice Wind Dale. Here are some highlights of the woes, victories and bloopers of our adventures here in the frigid north. Enjoy.

Let’s begin with a brief line-up of my companions so you know who dragged me along on this ice trek through this frozen landscape.


There is Kuroko of Judgement our Paladin, who loves to dispense justice to those in need even if they don’t know they want it. She’s a brave and lawful sort but lucky for us and me she can turn a blind eye to the small infractions that happened around her. Nothing like a flexible paladin for a companion. More about her later.

Next is Lady Misaka, our half-elven nominal leader and fighter/mage extraordinary. She is our very own blade-singer, combining magic and swordplay into a beautiful if deadly art. Watching her dance with her swords by the light of the moon is a sight to behold let me tell you.

Followed by two companions that came together when they joined us: The half-elven fighter/druid, Uiharu of Green Lake, who was sent out from her forest to explore and understand the world. And her companion the Halfling Saten who tagged along for adventure, a fighter/thief who gets into a lot of mischief all by herself, just too curious for her own good at times. More on her misadventures as well.

Followed by Lady Index of the Winding Vale, a brilliant Gnome and our very own cleric/illusionist. She truly is brilliant as she likes to tell us between meals she enjoys as she thrills us with a lot of trivia about the world and Ice Wind Dale. For a person that eats and enjoys her meals as much as she does, she still manages to remain a toothpick.

And of course there is me, Hyoka, poet and bard, teller of tales, singer extraordinary and the recorder of our tales in the frosty north. Yes, I still don’t like being here, it’s cold and everyone has no fashion sense what so ever.

Now that everyone has been briefly introduced lets tell some tales big and small for your entertainment and amusement. They will thrill you with the frenzy of battle, bring you to tears with sorrow, and have you laughing with enjoyment at some of the silliness and craziness that happens while adventuring.

Let’s begin with some of our woes, the serious ones and the not so serious ones. Well let me tell you first we were truly poorly equipped to handle the north and the adventures that befell us.

The worse equipped was our fighter/druid Uiharu, who for at least ¼ of our adventures didn’t have her own magical weapon. And you are wondering, how is that possible since we must have raided a few dozen crypts and temples and must have a ton of magical weapons. Yes, we found lots of swords, daggers, hammers, maces, flails, bows and even darts but nothing she was able to use. Being a druid first she takes her vows very seriously and as such could only wield when we meet her staff, spear and sling, so essentially she had no magical weapons until after what I am calling “The Big Snake-Demon Adventure at Dragon’s Eye.” [soon to be published and retold everywhere in the working title of the “Big Freeze of Ice Wind Dale” or maybe “The Journey of a very cold Bard and her companions” ] But lucky for us she could conjure her own temporary magical weapons if she needed to participate in the battles that occurred and her shot with her sling was amazing to watch, although, Saten our Halfling would say she was better.


FootNote: If you want to hear all our tales please go to your local tavern in Ice Wind Dale and listen for the A Bard's Journey: Tales of IWD by Hyoka the Poet Bard (soon to be published in fine scrolls everywhere.)

Biggest random misadventure:

Saten, our fighter/thief, enjoys scouting ahead, sometimes way ahead and on the 3rd level of Dragon’s Eye meet a challenge she couldn’t overcome. Having cleared most of the 3rd level, she continued to explore some of the darker reaches of the area looking for treasure and generally being overly curious. This brought about tragedy for her, as she was spotted by a horde of acid bugs (beetles) and they attacked her for no apparent reason, being flight of foot she ran for it, only to be stunned by them and as such taken down. When we heard her yell for help it was too late and we were too far away to help her, although we did get revenge for her by dispatching all these creepy crawlers (I just hate big bugs) – so here was one of her misadventures and it cost us about 1200 gp to correct her error in judgment, lucky for us we had the gold on hand a close cleric who we had saved earlier to help us heal her, although I am a bit peeved that she charged us even after we saved her.

The next misadventure comes during the Severed Hand quest. Here we were clearing the what I will call the second floor of the building and about to take what looks like a lift down to a level we couldn’t reach by the stairs. Our intrepid fighter/thief who had so carefully removed many of the traps on the floor and removed all the skeletons forgot to check for traps one last time and stepped on them. She went berserk for a moment as did Lady Index and started firing bullets at everyone until we calmed her down, a hectic moment for second or two when we thought we had lost two members but thankful the poison trap wasn’t too strong for us to overcome nor were they too strong for us to subdue until they calmed down.

Best tactics used when facing hordes of monsters in an open area:

The one thing that can be said about being up north is that there sure is a lot of monsters and they come in hordes more frequently than not. Early in our adventures before we got a lot more powerful or is that experienced, we used some clever tactics to outwit and out maneuver the hordes that we encountered. Use the spell spike growth (further away from your party) and web (closer to you) and entangle all the monsters. At the same time call up some allies to take some of the pressure off just encase they start to surround you as they surely will. Followed next by a fireball or some kind of area spell to tenderize them. And of course during this our frontline fighters our slowly bashing away at the closest monsters (works best if you have free action of some kind otherwise you will get stuck as well). This tactic worked so well we got rid of the Lt. Skeletons, all four of them with hardly a scratch to ourselves.

This of course reminds me of another battle on this floor. Here we stood at the bridge and we had literally a ton of poison-zombie coming at us. Night of the living dead anyone, if you ever saw such a horde of monsters you would scream too. Well lucky for us our tactic worked, plus our thief who was invisible on the other side of the bridge waited patiently while they amassed together. Well when the massed all together there had to be about 20 or so of them, Saten fired off one of a couple of her exploding potions/missiles and we got safely out of an otherwise sticky situation.

Best tactic to get rid of an enemy spell casters:

When facing off with wizards who are considerably more powerful than your own spell-slingers the best tactic is to charge them and hope at least 2 of the 4 charging will be able to get through and land some hits or else it’s all over. Lucky for us, we threw in some summoned allies to help us and made it to defeat the wizard at Dragon’s Eye floor 3 with minimal damage to ourselves. If you are unable to charge the wizards/cleric enemies remember that missiles and arrows work to disrupt them as well so keep your bow and slings handy. So when facing powerful spell casters remember charge them, use missile weapons if they are handy and add some allies for distraction and you just might come away with all of your limbs.

Easiest XP:

Experience is everything when it comes to adventuring since we grow and get better at what we do with experience. During our adventures here there are several instances where you can get free experience to help yourself. What you need to bring a long with you to get all the free experience is a paladin (or cleric), a druid and of course me, a bard. Here is one tale of free experiences:

In Kuldahar, we bumped into a man wearing orange who was seemingly lost – he must be in distress since who wears orange, besides it looked awful on him. So this being a place that was dominated by druids, Uiharu spoke to him and convinced him to believe in nature and blessed him and as such we got some free xp from him. Let me tell you he was one confused person since our paladin also spoke with him later and told him about temples and churches and we got another free bunch of xp from this same person.

The moral of this tale, talk with everyone with different group members since who knows what experience you will get.

When to detect traps:

For those inspiring scouts and thieves this small part is for you. You should always detect for traps for we know that any place we are going to go will be guarded by some crazy power hunger monster/person who is overly paranoid. Chest, crypts and anything that contains possible treasure should always be checked but that should be obvious. But really, if the area is a long stretch of hallway or walkway make sure to check for traps; big empty spaces make Saten very nervous. Oddly enough people love to put traps on steps so make sure to check out steps you want to walk on before stepping on them. Traps more often than not are found in front or near doorways/lifts so make sure to always check. And be sure if you are in someone else private space and it/he/she just happens to be a magical entity of some kind and the space is huge to give a quick check just in case.

When to prepare for a big battle and what clues give it away:

So being a seasoned adventure there a many ways to tell when to prepare yourself (and your will just in case) for a huge battle with someone or something really mean and powerful:

1) The amount of traps before a door means something: Dragon’s Eye level 5: The biggest clue for us was the shear amount of traps that Saten encountered as she went closer to this door on this floor. We suspected two things to happen: a) either this was the treasury room (in which case we struck it rich – ya!) or b) someone really wanted their privacy and didn’t want to be disturbed. If you happen to come across a door with at least 6 traps before reaching the door handle prepare yourself for something big to happen or be prepared to take your bruises.

2) Guards and lots of them: When you enter an enemy domain and just happen to notice huge and I mean giant guards or any type of guards standing around guarding the area be prepared to handle them in addition to their boss even if at the moment they are not hostile towards you. Guards and guardians living or undead or other (i.e. golems are magical constructs) will fight to the last ‘breath’ so be ready for them.

3) Monsters kept as pets: Anyone that keeps monsters as house pets has to be deranged and in need of a serious slap or medical attention but be prepared as they will most likely not be willing to go down without a battle or go see a shrink / cleric / local god for their madness no matter what you say.

4) Magical doorways/ magical keys needed to open a door(s): If you happen to be before a magical doorway (which required a lot of keys) which for all intense and purpose is an entry to a magical perhaps sub realm of some kind and is probably one way be prepared for a life and death struggle.

Merchants in Ice Wind Dale:

There are all kinds of merchants and shops surprisingly in Ice Wind Dale some good, some not so great, and some downright annoying. Pomeb the first merchant in Easthaven proved to be rather annoying and would later prove to be a real pain in the butt but he bought and sold stuff when we needed it {see footnote 6.1.2 for the full story in the published version – coming soon everywhere}. The merchants of Kuldahar where probably the best and that’s because of the five-fingered discount I got when I pick pocketed them (hopefully they won’t read this section on merchants) and of course their goods and stock were pretty good. If I have to say which one was the best in terms of goods it would have to be Colan’s Smithy (weapons and armor) who gave us the best hammer to use in this adventure, without it we would have been in a lot of trouble, so thanks to Colan. The duergar merchant named Dirty Lew in Lower Dorn Deep in the Hidden City of the Dark Gnomes was also fun to do business with only if you happen to be beautiful and a woman otherwise expect higher prices if you are not as charming as me. The ghost elven merchant in the Severed Hand proved to be quite the savvy merchant and had some of the best prices for our goods – what a ghost merchant wanted with goods is beyond me but he paid in real gold so that makes him a merchant to speak to if you are ever up around the Severed Hand and in need of supplies. And last there is Nym the drow merchant who had some exotic equipment, some good deals and hard bargaining but sadly well not too sad for me at least is no longer able to peddle his wares anymore {see Most Righteous Kill for the full story}. The last word on merchants in Ice Wind Dale, some were good, some were adequate and some were down right evil but hey they are merchants so I guess you get all kinds in the business in this cut throat business world of theirs. {see tavern section on the best places for food and drink}

Biggest Haul (i.e. who doesn’t love treasure):

The two biggest haul for us, and I mean haul since the stuff had to be hauled out of the crypts and chests and carried by us to merchants who gladly exchanged it all for shiny gold stuff to buy better clothes and shoes (and for the Paladin to give to those in need). The first haul was from Dorn Deep’s crypts. We had about 9000gp when we entered the Dwarven home and left with so much goods that we sold for around 50,000 gp leaving us with a hefty with around 60,000 gp for our adventure in the Dwarven crypts.

The next and our largest haul came from Lower Dorn Deep. We had about 45,000 gp going into the lower dwarven home and came out with enough treasure to give us about 150,000gp by the end of our journeys in the far north. I have to say that we came away with a healthy sum to invest in our futures.

Most Righteous Kill:

I normally don’t like to talk about death even the deaths of enemies but I have to say that the death of Nym the Drow merchant needs to be mentioned in our tales.

We meet Nym the Drow merchant in the deep gnome enclave where he was selling his wares. After conducting business with him on several occasions we got to talking about how truly dangerous it was in this area. Well he told us more or less that he was responsible for the rift between the elves and the dwarves and for arming the goblins and orcs. Feeling really righteous and somewhat devious, Lady Misaka interrupted us as I was about to blow up in his face. She shushed me, and told him what a great deal it was and his suspicious nature calmed down as he continued to boast of his success as a merchant. I have to tell you I was ticked off (as was everyone else) and ready to go at her when suddenly Misaka attacked him, chopping and slicing into him, everyone was stunned by the sudden turn of events. I have to say he was a lucky bastard with some gifts since he teleported away but he didn’t get too far as the sword she used called Bane (that got rid of Malavon) also worked on the drow merchant who was too busy running away to notice his injuries. A righteous kill, Kuroko said after the deed was done, a little underhanded but sometimes you have you have to trick the villains if you want to win. Well I jumped and hugged and kissed Misaka who was a little embarrassed at this obvious show of gratitude but I was happy she dispatched such a slimy person and didn’t mind showing it.

Final Battle with the Demon Belhifet:

What’s a story without an epic battle and struggle between the forces of good and evil and in this case it’s literally true. We finally found the true master behind all that was happening in the Dale the demon, Belhifet. If you are thinking that this will be as easy as fighting Yxunomei you could be right although that battle did end with one casualty. Well we entered the magic mirror and where transported to another place within the temple. After his rant and a few hurled insults we prepared for battle. But the portal was open and we had to consider how to close it as well, fortunately Everard the cleric of Tempest decided to make the ultimate sacrifice and close the portal, leaving us to deal with Poquelin who then transformed into Belhifet a demon and his true form. We stood ready to charge him when he suddenly brought in two golems to assist him and brought down all our carefully placed magical protections. What to do now that our heroes where stripped of all their magical protections.

The battle plan was easy – use summons and distract Belhifet, anyone that can cast protections do so for themselves and then take care of the golems, and last but not least use haste to speed everything in our favor and worry about the side effects tomorrow that is if there is one for us. Lucky for me, I had the Horn of Valhalla [Side Note; it’s faster to blow a horn than to cast summoning plus these Valhalla warriors are very sturdy allies if a bit noisy] and it called some hardy allies who easily distracted Belhifet for a moment, while we took care of the golems. [Side Note: spell casting strategy – cast haste on everyone first; have individuals casts their own protections at the same time as haste then go into battle – once all the enemies are engaged cast spells that assist like ‘righteous wrath of the faithful’; golem strategy – Kuroko and Saten teamed up to take out one of them, and Lady Misaka on her own took out the other.] Then Misaka armed with Aihonen +5 [ Side Note: the battle got very fierce and Lady Misaka was injured so she went for her favorite healing spell – {wait, what you are saying isn’t Lady Misaka a fighter/mage what healing spell can she cast} – well she casted ‘Vampiric Touch’ and even with his magical resistance Lady Misaka was able to take life force away from Belhifet – on a side note this spells always seems to work on everyone] Kuroko armed with Pale Justice +7 (vs evil) and Uiharu armed with Slayer +5 spear along with our summoned allies pounded Belhifet into submission and ultimate defeat and as such he was dragged back screaming and kicking into his own plane of existence. Hopefully that’s the last we see of him for a long time to come. As for me, what did I do during the battle, I took careful notes as they fought; Saten found a lot of traps which our heroes dodged as Belhifet teleported around trying to escape our wrathful justice (our summoned allies stepped on one of them so she checked the floor); and Lady Index assisted with spells that assisted with armor and moral. When Belhifet fell, the ice temple also started to collapse around us and we had to make a mad dash for the exit but we had won the day and had freed Easthaven and Ice Wind Dale of the evil that threaten it. The people celebrated and rebuilt and we became heroes in this icy north celebrated for our brave deeds and our story was retold for many of years to come. More adventures followed us as we left Ice Wind Dale and more brave tales and deeds to tell but that’s a tale for another time…

Appendix:

For people who love statistics and such.

Most used defensive spells: healing, armor, blur, mirror image, stone skin, dispel magic, invisible (best defensive spell for magic-users but you are can’t do anything you say after you cast it and that’s true but on one important note there are some monsters that are almost immune to magic or deal heavy damage with one hit and its best to stay out of the way of the fighters so you don’t get hurt), improved invisibility, sanctuary

Most used offensive spells: chromatic orb, magic missile, skull trap, fireball, web, spike growth, magical weapons (for druid), thorn spray, sun scorch, alicorn lance cloud burst, beast claw, and any type of summoning spell (for temporary allies); vampiric touch [used by Lady Misaka]

[Sidenote: we tried hold person but it doesn’t work on undead, confusion seemed hit or miss for us; charm didn’t seem to be charming anyone or they made all their saving throws – as did blind, stinking cloud, and chaos – and sleep works only on low level monsters]

Most used buff spells: protection from evil (party); recitation
[I know everyone seems to like haste but we used that spell exactly twice – once facing the first Lt Skeleton on level 3 in Dragon’s Eye and once facing Belhifet and that’s it. The side effects are pretty bad so use it wisely and strategically]

Most used Bard Song (or the songs that I played most often that I got tired of hearing them): Ballad of Three Heroes (for help when fighting +1 to hit/damage/saving throws); The Siren’s Yearning (to enchant the enemy); War Chant of Sith (AC bonus +2, 10% resistances to attacks, and regeneration 2hp/r); Tymora’s Melody (+1 luck, +3 saving throws, +10% to thief/lore skills)

Most used/useful potions: healing; mummy tea; antidote; oil of speed (when you need to move fast but don’t want to use haste with its side effects)

Favorite potions (used by fighter/thief Saten): oil of fiery burning; potion of invisibility; and a couple of strength potions when it’s time to do hand-to-hand combat (thankfully, Saten said – those times were few and far between.)

Favorite offensive non-weapon type of weapon: necklace of missiles (as Saten likes to remind us) – it’s fires a great fireball just make sure you stand way back when throwing it as its very powerful [Side Note – sell it before using it – if it sells for 1 gp or some equally low amount then it only has one charge so sell then buy it and when you get down to about half of the charges sell it again (for more money) and then re-buy it again fully charged.]

Most useful magical item (that are not weapons or armor related):
Ring of free action; ring of wizardry; ring of holiness; boots of speed, ring of shadows