Rilee shifts back. "All right. Just know that... I'm here."
Rilee stands still and solemn during the ceremony to redeem and atone Setsuna, making her fully one of Desna's children. She smiles softly, glad for her although that smile fades every time she looks in Eugeni's direction.
Later still, when they all venture back into the Scribbler's chambers, Rilee attempts to help deciphering the clues to the Runeforge.
"Hmm. Seven faces and a steaming mirror? Have I ever seen or heard of something like that...?" she muses, searching deep into her well of fractured memories.
After considering the poem, Eugeni eventually manages to deduce their correct order:
"If Magic Bright is your desire,
To Old Runeforge must you retire!
For only there does wizards' art
Receive it's due and proper start."
"On Eastern shores of Steaming Mirror,
At end of day when dusk is nearer,
Where seven faces silent wait
Encircled guards at Runeforge Gate."
"Each stone the Grace of Seven Lords,
One part of Key each Ruler hoards;
If offered spells and proper prayer,
Take seven keys and climb The Stair."
"On Frozen Mountain Xin awaits,
His regal voice the Yawning Gates
Keys turn twice in Sihedron
Occurred Runeforge waits within."
"And now you've come and joined the Forge
Upon rare lore your mind can gorge.
And when you slough the mortal way
In Runeforge long your work shall stay."
“To me a steaming mirror sounds like a hot spring, or the pool at the bottom of a waferfall. The Stair is the name of the plateau the giants live on, right?
Rilee nods in agreement with Eugeni. "Or, more specifically, a lake near a hot spring. I know of a place in Varisia. I've visited Lake Stormunder when I was Riley. Hot springs and geysers all around it. And, if my memory is correct, there's a bunch of giant stone heads in a ring nearby."
Zoli nods animatedly, "Yes! Stormunder. And this stanza suggests we can enter a cave and, in a chamber beyond, encounter a similar ring of seven stone faces arranged around the seven-pointed star of the Sihedron. Maybe using the keys in these stones opens a portal to Runeforge. It sounds like it exists in a pocket dimension of its own existence!
"I'm not totally sure what those keys will be...but hopefully this verse will make more sense to us when we get there."
Zoli points to
"Each stone the Grace of Seven Lords,
One part of Key each Ruler hoards;
If offered spells and proper prayer,
Take seven keys and climb The Stair."
"I mean, I guess we find the giant stones and 'offer them spells and proper prayers'?
"Anyway, this is pretty exciting! Anyone need time to get stuff done? Or are we ready to go?"
"I am capable of casting all the arcane spells available to wizards and sorcerers now. If any of you desire that I cast a spell on your behalf, I recommend that you purchase scrolls of said spells. I have a limited capacity for memorizing spells from my repertoire each day, but I can always activate a scroll for you. If we wait until tomorrow, I can memorize a teleport spell that would carry us to Magnimar in an instant. I merely say this to inform you all of the possibilities now available to the Rangers. Otherwise, I am prepared to journey."
"I think getting a new wand of healing would be a wise thing. My wand is about empty, and it is barely capable of restoring the types of wounds we have been receiving lately. But otherwise, I'm ready to go."
As such, the Oracle does what she does best; Setsuna opts to just meet with anyone who wants to see her individually and graciously thanks them for their support.
Setsuna watches silently as all the smart and wise people talk about poetry. As socially dense as she can be, the Oracle notes that Rilee seems to lose some of her normal enthusiasm whenever she looks at Eugeni. It takes some of the wind out of her own sails.
Looks like we still need to talk.
Even if her guilt has mostly been calmed, Setsuna finds herself compelled to try and make everything right.
Must run in the family, she muses dryly, thinking about her sister feels like she is to blame for every single crime and sin that Hastur had committed against her and existence itself. That being said, Sabrina's idea of "atonement" seems to be "Commit no further Evil and wait for the cranky snake god to eat me."
Setsuna takes a deep breath.
Unless I somehow stayed sane enough to target only Evil, things probably would've ended terribly, and there would've been no justification for it. Just Destruction for the sake of Destruction. I'm glad I managed to stop myself. If I accomplish nothing else, that's something I can tell Pharasma I did right.
::Sunset, you are a big sister now. If you have time, meet me in Magnimar for more details::
Setsuna has to remember how to breath.
"...Wat? I mean sure! Let's go to Magnimar!"
When they teleport to Magnimar, Rilee balks at the cost of the upgraded wand and instead opts to purchase another basic one. With the cost savings from that choice, she exchanges her *ring of protection* for another one that offers double the defensive benefit.
With her purchases made, she wanders the streets of Magnimar and eventually finds herself in Underbridge, staring up at the decrepit clock tower and sorting out her old memories of those days. Experimentally, she shifts her body into that of Riley Tobias. He rubs his chin, feeling the coarse stubble against his weathered hands. He muses a bit on the possibility of staying that way, but eventually he shifts back.
"I'm still the storm-born," she says to herself. "No sense in trying to relive a life that's passed."
She goes to find the others, and to get ready to find the steaming mirror.
As they get back to Magnimar, Zoli (and anyone who cares to join her) heads off to find her old friend (and artificer), the Reverend Dunner Butterhill.
"Praise Chaldira, it's good to see you!" She hugs the older cleric. After catching him up on their recent adventures, she pulls out the Scribbler's Quill. "Can you make any sense of this?"
The priest listens enthusiastically, enraptured by Zoli's tales. At the request to identify the quill, he mutters a prayer and looks at the item, and is clearly stunned by what he sees.
"By Chaldira's Notched Blade! I have no idea, but it is powerful!"
Zoli scratches her head. "Yeah, and weird! Who do you know in town that we should have look at it?"
"I...I haven't a clue! I've never seen something radiate magic this strong before!" he stammers. But then he adds "Maybe Lady Caiteil, she is a wizard and spokeswoman to the Council of Ushers...she may be able to tell you..."
"Huh! Sometimes when papa was performing I used to usher at the Sandpoint Theater. I don't think we ever had a council...but then Magnimar's a much bigger town..."
He laughs heartily, "Not THAT kind of usher! The council is one of the ruling bodies here in Magnimar. Too many greedy sots to get much done, but there are a few who try. At any rate, Verrine is their spokeswoman."
Zoli slaps her forehead, "Oh right! I've heard of them. Sounds good then, I'll see if I can find her."
As she turns to go, Dunner says, "Oh wait! There's a ring I've been working on that I think you'd love."
He pulls out a beautiful mithral band with a sapphire set in it. "Lovely, yes? But in the hands of a sword fighter with your panache, it has the ability to help you shake off ailments and harmful magics that might otherwise plague you for some time."
Zoli Oooohs and Aaaahs. When Dunner mentions the price, she goes fishing in her napsack. "Hrmmmm. I don't think I can quite afford it just yet, but hold onto it for me, would you? I think it sounds perfect!"
After securing Dunner's promise--and after Zoli promises to come back and tell the congregation more of her adventures, and how Chaldira's luck has plucked her from certain defeat--she heads out for the Council of Ushers.
"I tell ya what," he calls out to her before she leaves, "what if...what if we trade? Ring for the quill? I know it isn't as powerful, but I have no idea what that quill even does. I may be making a bad gamble...but...but I'd rather a cursed item fall to me instead of you," he says as he takes Zoli's hand affectionately.
Zoli's eyes light up. "Ooooh, that sounds great! But, oh, uh...I guess I better ask my friends first. We're all meeting for lunch at the Grubbin' Griffon just past noon. I'll ask'm. I know we can trust you!"
Zoli heads over to the agreed upon pub and looks for her friends. When she finds them she orders some fish and chips, and tells them what little she's learned about the quill...and about Dunner Butterhill's offer. "What do you think? I mean, I'm totally curious about the quill. Maybe we should go talk to Lady Caiteil first? But...gosh, that ring would be awesome...and the quill mostly just seems creepy, right? What do you think?"
The group decides to shorten their journey as much as possible by teleporting to Riddleport and starting from their. Their stay in the city is short, but long enough to tell that it has fallen into a chaotic power struggle, with various crime-lords challenging the rule of the new Overlord in any which way they can.
The flight north is uneventful, but quite cold, despite spring's slow approach. Four days of flying later, Lake Stormunder appears in the distance. From the rocky eastern shoreline of Lake Stormunder, the ground rises into the craggy snow-dappled roots of Rimeskull, casting its long shadow over this area. Yet not all of the ground here is rugged and mountainous. Several hundred feet from the lake’s edge, the land suddenly levels off to create a circular hill. Rocks and tenacious shrubs poke through the scattered clumps of snow here, but they are dwarfed by the ring of seven ten-foot-tall stone heads that circle the hill’s edge, their faces angled inward at each other, mouths agape. To the east, the sheer mountainside of Rimeskull rises, icy and windblasted—two hundred feet above leers a carving of an ancient face, its gaping mouth forming a large cave entrance in the mountainside. A ten-foot-wide stairway of stone descends from this cave to a ledge only fifty feet to the east of the circle of stone faces.
A massive stairway that looks like it must have been built by giants and taken years, if not decades, to complete is chiseled out of the side of the mountain. A twenty-foot-wide and thirty-foot-tall stone arch frames the first steps, while the final steps lead directly up to a carving of an ancient face, its open mouth a cave entrance. The familiar seven-pointed star is etched deeply into its surface, prominently positioned at the highest section of the arch. Bones lie in iced-over heaps along the visible areas of the stairway.
While a revelation quill can certainly function as a standard writing implement, its true strength lies in its ability to answer questions. Once per day, if the user concentrates on a specific future goal, event, or activity occurring within the coming week, the revelation quill takes over and writes out a short phrase in response, often in the form of a cryptic rhyme or omen, much in the same way the divination spell functions. Once per week, the user may use the quill in the same way to cast contact other plane instead, asking up to 10 questions of the mysterious intellect that guides the revelation quill.
"...Wow! This artifact is awesome! It..."
After drinking some of Argor's Magic Kool-Aid her Extended Tears to Wine and asking Desna for Guidance, Setsuna studies the seven statues.
It requires a hiccup in reality, but she recognizes them.
"Starting at the top and going clockwise: Karzoug - Runelord of Transmutation, Krune - Runelord of Conjuration, Belimarius - Runelord of Abjuration, Sorshen - Runelord of Enchantment, Xanderghul - Runelord of Illusion, Alaznist -Runelord of Evocation, and Zutha - Runelord of Necromancy. And according to Scribbles, they have the keys to the Runeforge."
Setsuna pulls out some of the Scribbler's spare paper and pulls out the Revelation Quill.
"In more detail than what the third stanza of the Scribbler's poem about the Runeforge already provides us, how exactly do we get the keys from these statues?"
The quill begins to move in your hand of its own power:
"Magic given for magic earned
Grants you access to what you yearn.
But if magic is something you lack,
Deceit or strength, the stone shall crack."
With this new knowledge in mind, Setsuna flies closer to Krone and casts Create Water - a Conjuration spell for the Conjuration Runelord - on his statue.
The magic of Setsuna's spell does not, in fact, conjure forth water-instead, the statue absorbs the spell and glows with energy for a moment. The ground vibrates as a piercing trill emanates from the head. The glow and the sound fade completely after several seconds, at which point a gold key appears in its mouth.
Rilee nods, understanding what Setsuna is doing. She walks over to Sorshen's statue and casts charm animal on it.
The same effect happens at the statue Rilee is near.
Setsuna flies closer to Karzoug and casts Purify Food and Drink - a Transmutation spell for the Transmutation Runelord - on his statue.
Rilee then casts dancing lights on the statue of Alaznist.
"Does anyone have a necromancy spell?" she asks.
As Setsuna complete's her second spell at the base of Karzoug's head statue, the group notices that the wind seems to pick up significantly, but strangely. It is almost rhythmic, and strengthening, until a disturbing thought enters everyone's minds: wings!
Suddenly the massive form of a white dragon appears above the group, sending a wave of fear over the heroes! It immediately opens its mouth and sends out a blast of its icy breath! It washes over Rilee, Zoli, Eugeni, and Olympus, shards of ice piercing their flesh, and their blood feels like it nearly freezes in their veins!
"How dare you intrude on the realm of Arkrhyst! Lord of Storval!" his chilling voice echoes through the mountains!
Rilee screams an alert but too late as the dragon suddenly appears and breathes bitterly cold snow and ice all over them.
"You should post signs or something!" she yells in answer as she weaves her numb fingers in a complex pattern.
Defiant against the freezing cold, a ring of mushrooms grow a few feet in front of her. "Everybody ! Enter the ring!" she whistles at Olympus who hops in her direction towards the spot and as soon as he steps into the pattern, he fades from sight. Then, once everyone has disappeared through the portal, she herself steps in and the gate is sealed behind her.
Not needing to be told twice, Setsuna flares her wings and flies right into the portal. Thanks to some unusual Grace, she manages to move so quickly that the dragon is unable to react.
"Gah! You will pay for that frosty halitosis you scaled ignoramus!" Eugeni declares, quickly weaving a spell with one hand as he begins flying towards the portal.
Four huge spiked globes of green force appear floating in a halo around Eugeni, who then flings them angrily at the dragon.
Spell resistance checks:
Miss
Miss
Despite his rather good aim with the last two orbs, all four of his projectiles miss. Two of them appear to go directly through where the dragon is standing. "Displacement!? Face us like a real man, you pompous gecko!" Eugeni hisses as he flies into the portal.
Once inside the fairy sanctum, Eugeni informs the others, "Ancient white dragons are surrounded by an aura of cold, approaching it without resistance to damage from low temperatures is inadvisable. Furthermore, the dragon should take additional damage from any source of heat or fire due to it's nature as a creature of ice. Please tell me one of you had more foresight than Desna when she prepared this spellbook for me, and that you have a resist energy or protection from energy in your repertoire." He looks to Rilee and Setsuna. Purple blood begins to leak from Eugeni's many frozen shrapnel wounds.
The meadow is shrouded in twilight, filled with the gentle sounds of a peaceful night approaching. The air is cool but inviting, but the ambient temperature is warm enough to go naked, were one so inclined. Despite the trill of night insects, there are no biting or stinging ones anywhere.
Up from the bushes rise several large, lunar moths almost glowing in the twilight. However, upon closer inspection, the moths are indeed glowing and are, in fact, small fey that flit about.
Rilee nods to a couple that dance in front of her face. "Yes, that would be very nice. Thank you." Immediately the faerie speed off to the ring of trees that surround the meadow. After several minutes, they return with large leaves that have piled upon them fresh fruit and nuts that they offer to everyone standing in the meadow.
"Welcome to the center of the Wheel," Rilee says. "Well, not really. But it's close enough. Anyway, Eugeni, I have one casting of the spell that will grant resistance to the elements. However, this retreat should last long enough that we can rest, restore our spells, then be fresh and have an appropriate array of wards up."
"I've had Resist Energy in my repertoire (whatever that is) since we first left for Hook Mountain," Setsuna answers as she stuffs her second key in her haversack. "So do you all want to rest now? I mean, now that we've got some breathing room, I figure that we can heal and buff up and then go kick the dragon's teeth in."
"Rest!? We should return and punish that audacious beast. We must dispel its magical protections, and ground it if possible. With resistance to cold, we can take it down. All I need is a clean shot with the spell that I just tried. Not much could stand up to those orbs I threw at it. I can also endow Zoli with greater heroism, and the lot of us with haste. Should we be able to ground the wyrm, her blade will make quick work of it. I have a scroll that can handle a bit of the dispelling at least..."
Eugeni rummages through his gear and picks out a scroll, holding it in one of his off hands.
Zoli nods to Rilee's suggestion to escape, but waits to make sure Eugeni And Setsuna make it in before she jumps through herself.
Once in, Zoli does her best to play off how shaken she feels. She grins and says, "Hey did you see the way I totally dodged that dragon breath? That was pretty cool, eh?
"By the way, I'm pretty sure this is Arkrhyst—called Freezemaw by the Shoanti—an ancient white dragon who has lived on Rimeskull for 500 years. In his youth several centuries ago, Arkrhyst was a great and hated enemy of the Shoanti; his raids on the nomads of the Velashu Uplands and the western Storval Plateau were legendary, and many of those tribes still sing of these dark times, and of the countless heroes who sought out his home on Rimeskull to defeat him. 200 years ago, the dragon's raids ceased. Many thought he had been slain, but no sign of his supposedly vast treasure ever appeared— wiser scholars of things draconic believe that Arkrhyst has simply been sleeping for many, many years.
"Anyway, that's what Dad believed. He loved reading draconic histories."
Rilee smiles encouragingly to Zoli, but that fades when she observes Eugeni's eagerness to return and "punish" the dragon.
Gently, she says to him, "Eugeni, this meadow will last for a full day -- though it remains in perpetual twilight. We can exit it whenever we choose.
"I have one casting of resist energy available to me. With our pearls, I can stretch that out to grant it to several of us, but then that leaves us vulnerable to its teeth and claws. I usually use those for casting barkskin."
She goes over to comfort Olympus, still shivering and ice-rimed. "I don't doubt we can heal and ward ourselves in a few minutes, then leave here to confront the dragon, but we may be better off waiting a day and being optimally prepared. In any event, the dragon shouldn't know when we're going to appear."
"Leave Resist Energy to me. I can spam that sucker all day if needed. As for the battle, I will focus on dispeling the dragon's protections," offers Setsuna. "If Rilee wants to prepare a better set of spells, then I say we let her, Eugeni. I personally could use another selection of Dreamed Secrets - which I totally get from Desna now before anyone says anything! Based on what you just said, I don't think Icy Prison will do much to an icy dragon. Rilee, I would prepare another Fairy Ring Retreat just in case. Even if we don't need to against the dragon, it could still save our lives later."
Not even twenty seconds pass, when the blissful twilight realm in which you are hiding wavers and distorts. A sudden chill surges through the dimension as it shrivels and disperses, leaving you standing, once more, within the circle of heads.
The thundering voice of Arkrhyst booms from above, "You think to run from me!? Freezemaw the Devourer!?!? Surrender to me, or diiiiie!"
Setsuna notices that everyone is in one spot...
"...No. Everyone, grab hands."
Setsuna steps back while grabbing Eugeni's hand and Olympus' wing. With a circle formed, once everyone does as she asks, Setsuna Plane Shifts everyone to a safe spot in Nirvana.