Down with the Queen - and all that

Through a combination of Light Touch's [Jeff] hiding, some invisibilities and general stealth, we made our way through the dungeons of the White Witch's castle. We heard that the changing of the guards was going to be at 9am. It was 8am.

Down a corridor, Light Touch sensed a further drop in temperature and spotted two human wizards in a room. He returned and collected us, and we engaged them. It was a short battle, as they are totally surprised. One male one female, both wearing Medallions of Warmth. This room was freezing and the medallions certainly kept one warm.

There was a large stone table in the room,  covered in runes, and it had a highly magical blue glowing dagger stuck into the stone. This thing radiated cold like you could not imagine.

One of the abilities of Light Touch's magic feather duster was that it could erase runes. [ Rune magic is a separate form of magic. The spells are very powerful and mostly permanent (unlike the more temporal normal magic), but they require the expenditure of permanent magic - the actual attribute of the character - so is costly to cast ]. The trap runes were removed and the ice dagger was taken from the table. This stopped the permanent winter outside, and it started to warm instantly. Spring was here to warm Narnia.

We ventured upstairs a little more and found the barracks of the prison guards - rat soldiers. It didn't take long to destroy all these foul vermin.

Not brave enough to face the witch alone, we all withdrew out of the entire castle, back through the spider tunnels, and back to the trees.

There was an army of good woodland creatures here. They implored us to sneak back inside and ensure that the gate and portcullis of the castle would stay open, so that their army of Liberation could charge inside.

So we rested, recharged (via potions), collected a handful of elite fighters: centaurs. Since day had broken and it was light now, Yeti made us all invisible and we snuck back inside through the tunnels.

The prison was undisturbed - confirming that the guard patrols and shifts for the prison was entirely separate from the rest of the castle.

Peg Groups [Ian] and John Wayne [Shane] positioned themselves next to a group of rats guarding the portcullis wheel in a room next to the main gate.

Wiz [NPC], a giant and a centaur positioned themselves to take on two white tigers and an ogre on the main gates.

Yeti [Darryl] moved to spike open the gates into the inner keep.

Ah Hung [Ian] took one of the Stone to Fresh scrolls to be cast on some petrified giants in the main courtyard.

Light Touch reconnoitred sniping archers.

I (Carla) was ready to blow a horn: This was the signal for the woodland creature army to charge.

The trigger to start was Wiz's attacks. Everyone was invisible, so we had maximum surprise.

Wiz et al attacked. John launched a fireball, Yeti hammered, Ah Hung cast.
Instantly, I blew on the horn. The army began their rush.

Wiz et al kept the tigers and ogre busy. Wiz was sorely wounded and the giant and centaur slain.

John's fireball smashed into the portcullis wheel rats, killing most, and damaging the rest. Peg finished them off.

 Yeti began his hammering his spike under the door, but a lone white tiger arrived. So Yeti cast a ground-zero fireball and engulfed himself and the tiger in the conflagration, then he played possum - a smoking craven poltroon possum - giving enough time for the two giants, Ah Hung had restored, to engage that tiger.

A few minutes later, the Army of Good rushed in through the open gates, and then straight through the keep doors and thus began a massive battle in the keep's throne room. We noticed with some worry that the White Witch had arrived, flanked by her rhinoceros body-guards, and was rallying her forces and taking pot-shots with her petrification wand, stoning Good animals left, right and centre.

Wiz, Peg Groups, Yeti, Mister Wayne and two centaurs went invisible and started making their way towards the witch.

Ah Hung cast Enhanced Attack on himself and me. [ This gave us both a huge accuracy bonus, +20, on the shots for one round. ] We used the ensorcelled Arrows of Slaying (collected of the unconscious Light Touch), and targeted the witch. There were so many creatures in the way, that there was only room for a brief snapshot. We caught the tiniest glimpse of the witch between the brawling forces, but the bonus-magic was enough to let the arrows fly true. She was hit, twice.

The witch dropped, and literally exploded in a wave of fierce cold. This instantly froze her rhinoceros bodyguards.

That act turned the battle in our favour - the tipping-pointed crossed. The good creatures won, and the started the grisly business of cleaning the filth from the keep.

The instant the witch died, I got a wave of psychic and spiritual energy which augmented me [ stat and skill increases ].

But after an hour or two, while the Good army was mopping up the last pockets of stalwart resistance, I felt this augmentation start to wane. We suspected that the witch had some bolt hole for her spirit and that she was regenerating, albeit slowly.

So we set the good dwarfs out to thoroughly search the entire castle with orders to leave no wall unsearched and no flagstone unturned. Sure enough, after a few hours, they located a secret room next to the stone table room. With some difficulty we broke in, and, sure enough, she was here. And was slowly regenerating. Peg decapitated her. There was a glowing vial of bright blue cold next to her. We give that to a good owl, and he flew high into the sky and dropped it onto the courtyard where it smashed. This seemed to work, because the wave of augmentation returned, and this time did not wane.

"Ding dong the witch is dead.
Witch o witch, the wicked white witch.
Ding dong the wicked white witch is dead.
Wake up, with stone to flesh, wipe your eyes, you are not dead.
Let all know the wicked white witch is dead.