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Grimvar's Spine

Pilgrim Mountain • Home of the Skyhammer Clan • Where Red Left the Party

Overview​

Grimvar's Spine is the mountain above Milstrom, climbed by the Pilgrim's Path, an old trail of stones marked with the scales of Tyr. Partway up stands a shrine of Tyr built to hold a rift to the Shadowfell closed; at the summit stands the village of the Skyhammer Clan, Red's birth clan, beside the cave where Red undertook his trials.

It is where the party rescued George (Sessions 14–16), where Red was merged with his clan's starship and lost to the party (Session 22), and where, in Session 38, the party found the Goliath village being torn down by two Eldoran soldiers and took the reality stones Scarlet needed for the pocket village.

The Pilgrim's Path​

  • The shepherd's farm. Near the start of the trail lives a struggling shepherd, Jeffrey Thompson, with a flock of magical sheep: Bessie the lightning-throwing ewe, Gus the cliff-climbing ram, three lambs that shift whoever touches them into other planes, and Old Myrtle, a sheep possessed by the spirit of a god, who gave prophecies and crumbled to bones on reaching his cottage. A new Myrtle was born to Bessie and Olivia's fey ram Bob. The party rounded up the flock, recruited the lambs into "Bru's Army," and received cold-resistant Woolen Cloaks of the Mountain Guardians (Session 14). Later recaps call the shepherd Jeremy.
  • The shrine of Tyr. Higher up, past ghostly pilgrims and an abandoned camp holding Father Jacob's and George's journals, stands a shrine of four warded pillars around the statue of a dwarf woman carrying water. Its wards had been corrupted; the party restored them and destroyed Lacuna, the corrupted statue-creature (Session 15).
  • The Shadowfell rift. Beside the shrine, a rift held George and the Tyr pilgrims trapped in the Shadowfell. Olivia smashed it open, the party fought the shadows that poured out with the help of the Eldoran knight Eric, and Red closed it with Eleanor's amulet. That night, from the shepherd's cottage, Bru watched the real moon crack and explode (Session 16).

The Skyhammer Village​

A two-and-a-half-day climb above the shepherd's farm, the Skyhammer village sits on the summit: solar panels, electric lights, aluminum and steel buildings, guards with railguns, white crystal technology, and a half-built rocket at its center. The clan's elder, Elder Ragar, told Red that only the Skyhammer bloodline could power the ship, and sent him into the Worm Tunnel, a cave carved by an ancient serpent, to prove his heritage (Session 17). Inside, the party solved a pressure-plate puzzle and a constellation chamber, met the star-scaled dragon Sol, and was sent through a portal to the astral tree and Lakeshore Vale (Session 20).

Red's Last Flight (Session 22)​

Returning through Marcus's portal, the party arrived on the snowy mountaintop to find Eric attacking the village; Eldoran soldiers had planted explosives to set off an avalanche. Jasper refused to join Eric and fought her alongside the party. With the avalanche coming, Red entered the ship's chamber at the Elder's urging and was merged with the ship, permanently. The party killed Eric, Bru stabbed the Elder, and the party refused the clan's space mission, took technology and Eric's crystal armor from the compound, and rode a sheep-drawn sleigh down to Milstrom.

The Village Dismantled (Session 38)​

When the party returned for reality stones, the only people in the village were two Eldoran soldiers, camped in a tent at its center, tearing down its huts and feeding boulders and lumber into an oven-sized cube machine that made whatever went in vanish. Silas pantsed the terminal operator and Elspeth shoved the other worker into the cube; Kevin's dynamite struck the machine with the man three-quarters of the way through, and it began exploding over and over on itself. Ohma stripped the loading bays and carts of close to 500 pounds of reality stones.

Session History​

  • Session 14 — The party starts up the Pilgrim's Path, rounds up the shepherd's magical sheep, hears a radio report of void dragons, and receives cold-resistant cloaks.
  • Session 15 — Following George's trail higher up the mountain, the party restores the corrupted shrine of Tyr and destroys Lacuna, revealing a rift behind it.
  • Session 16 — Olivia breaks open the Shadowfell rift, the party rescues George and the pilgrims with Eric's help, and Bru watches the moon explode from the shepherd's cottage.
  • Session 17 — The party climbs to the Skyhammer village at the summit, where Elder Ragar confirms Red's identity and sends him to the Worm Tunnel.
  • Session 20 — In the Worm Tunnel the party solves the trial puzzles, meets Sol, and passes through a portal to the astral tree.
  • Session 22 — Eric attacks the Goliath village, Red merges permanently with the clan's starship, and the party kills Eric and leaves the mountain by sleigh.
  • Session 38 — The party finds two Eldoran soldiers dismantling the Goliath village with a cube machine, wrecks the machine, and takes about 500 pounds of reality stones.