Ingrit quickly begins searching for a way up to the roof. "None of you know a way to make me fly do you?" she asks her magically gifted companions.
If anyone moves toward the opening, she/he can look down and see how far down it is and look up to see if this is the top level.
"Can't fly, not yet. If need be, I can float down safely, but I can't get back up afterwards. "
Erland stows his spear and draws his crossbow, looking for the druid to return.
Rurik finally manages to get to his feet.
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Dom moves to the southern edge, looking for where the priestess has gone. "Can't see her!" he reports. "Lots more tower above!"
Dom takes up a defensive stance, readying himself for attack.
Jairess flew down once she escaped the confines of the aerie.
Bow in hand, Ingrit quickly heads to look out the openings, trying to get as comprehensive view around the tower as possible. "If we don't find her soon, better to assume she bolted and focus on the witch."
As Ingrit stands ready to fire her bow, Domitian takes a defensive stance, Rurik stands, and Khristov catches his breath, Damiano attempts unsuccessfully to clear his eyes of blood.
The wall of wind dies down and about that time, Jairess flies back into view, giving Ingrit and Erland a shot before she does anything. She looks as if she is very angry and preparing to throw her spear at someone.
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Erland looses a crossbow bolt towards the flying woman with a hissed curse.
"Work with the ice witches, this is your payment!"
to hit, for piercing damage
As Jairess comes within sight, Ingrit sends another arrow streaking towards her. "You should've run"
Khristov doesn't have a ranged weapon but yells in rage at Jairess.
What's going on ?
Erland and Ingrit shot the cleric before she could throw her spear and she succombed to her wounds. No longer able to concentrate on her flight, her body is pulled by gravity toward the ground and death.
"She's dead. She was flying outside but we shot her down. Her body just crashed down into the courtyard." Ingrit says slinging her bow over her shoulder. Getting out her waterskin she assist Damiano in getting the blood out of his eyes.
"Well, she chose her fate, and we were the hands of that choice. I can't day I'm happy to have helped kill her, but at least she won't be able to hurt anyone any longer."
Erland looks over the team, assessing their injuries.
"Okay, who's hurt, and how bad?"
Domitian exits his defensive crouch as he sees the body of the Cleric of Gozreh descending to the ground. "Now that her body is down there, if someone stops by the tower, they'll have clear evidence that something is amiss. I think it's time we finish this, today."
He looks up and down the tower. "I wonder if there's a way to approach the tower from the outside. We just experienced how deadly it could be to attack one-by-one through a teleporter. The ravens were picking us off, and we were fortunate Damiano dispersed them with his magical fire." Domitian gives his friend Damiano a pat on the shoulder. "You did great, even if you couldn't see the result!"
Dom would like to assess whether an outside approach is possible.
Rurik first stows his morningstar and then makes the rounds fixing up people's faces so that they can see again.
Then he gathers the team for some supplemental healing as well.
"I hope this shows my willingness to help your cause and my usefulness," he adds.
"Anyway. This is a good victory but we need to finish exploring and get out of here - it will probably be a few days before anyone knows what's happened, if we're lucky, but they'll send overwhelming force against us if we are still here when they do."
Once his vision is cleared, Damiano looks around casting Detect Magic
I can indeed continue today if all are game
The tower exhibits no obvious way in from the outside. The earlier floors had windows but all were clear sections of the same material making up the tower and not open to the outside. Of course, it may be possible to break through a window with the proper application of force and magic.
Searching the area reveals some things in the side rooms.
The west room: Two bookshelves, a chest, and a comfortable-looking bed heaped with thick blankets furnish this bedroom. A mobile of ice crystals carved to resemble birds hangs from the ceiling, glinting in the light from frost-covered windows.
This room was apparently the bedroom of the cleric. Among the personal items found here is a snowflake shaped transporter key, with a not attached to it by a golden thread that says, "Visit me any time. --Radosek."
The east room: Dozens of stacked crates fill this angular storeroom. Several miniature dollhouses stand atop high shelves. The crates are filled with grain for feeding the ravens. The dollhouses actually look as if they have been lived in, with bits of tiny clothing littering the floor. Looking more closely at the contents of the dollhouse reveals some valuable items apparently squirreled away her by the residents. Thinking of what creatures would be small enough to live in a dollhouse, the wintertouched atomies that the group fought below comes to mind.
Items in the dollhouse: A jeweled dagger whose head resembles the head of a blue-eyed winter wolf made out of silver, a jade bracelet in the shape of a Tien sovereign dragon, a pair of porcelain dolls, a silver medallion decorated with opaque blue jewels, a gold signet ring, and three transparent blue crystals.
PCs may attempt a single appraise check on each item to estimate worth. The DC of all appraise checks is 20.
The value of the signet ring requires a Knowledge (History) check DC 20.
"If we move quickly enough, we may be able to get to Radosek before he knows that she's dead." Ingrit says as she looks at the transporter key.
The dagger is a simple enchanted dagger but it is silver which is good against some type of creatures . The medallion is just ornemental , about 300 gp mais it is not of quality so unsuitable for enchantment. The signet is of an ancient witch house about 500 years ago , about 250gp . The porcelain dolls , I would destroy whatever their value is , we know what they are used for.
Spellcraft
Kn:History
"More cursed treasures from the ice witches, then? Even if they don't inflict damage on the user, the taint from their creation still lingers."
Erland spits on the floor, thinking about the dolls and their likely soul-burning creation methods.
"I agree, we should move with haste, perhaps we can take this Radosek unawares."
"I think he was talking about the dolls. The last thing we want is for any other witches to be able to entrap the souls of more children." Ingrit replies. "The other things we can take with us to trade or ue after we move on from here, and the dagger will be useful."
"We can discuss what to do with this treasure when we are done with the witch. We shouldn't delay if none of us are spent. Let's find a way to get as many of us as possible into her chamber."
Khristov looks up the outside of the tower through a nearby window.
"Doubt any of us will go in that way. If we could bust through the ice we might as well have just knocked the whole thing down on her head. None of us can fly, right? So we'd have to climb up anyhow which is also unlikely."
Looking over the porcelain dolls an important difference between these and the one the group faced in Taldor is that the enchanted one had one eye that was a valuable gem into which the soul of the child was placed and the other eye was a small mirror to allow someone with the mirror spell to see what it sees. The gem detected as magic.
The dolls hidden in the doll house have no gem stones or mirrors, looking like something children might actually play with. Also, there is nothing magical detected on anything except the dagger.
Domitian tries to help Damiano appraise the items he had trouble with, pointing out some helpful identifying markers and traits where he sees them.
"I agree, the way up these walls is impossible, regrettably.
Disguise is an option, if Ingrit can pass herself off as Jairess. Or we all pass ourselves off as soldiers. Or if we can become invisible, that might help. Does someone have invisibility magics?"
I hesitate to say this but would the teleport works with someone piggybacking ?
"It's worth a try, though we don't have access t her clothing since her body is on the grounds outside. I'd also need to be without my bow." Ingrit comments considering their options. "If there was something going on between them, he's going to lose it once he realizes she's dead."
"I can turn..." Khristov wrinkles his brow briefly "Three people invisible to sneak up there."
"I definitely don't want to have Ingrit without a bow. Here's my thinking. We send 3 invisible people up--I'm thinking spellcasters who can benefit the most from being and staying invisible. Then Ingrit in disguise, just to buy a few seconds of confusion while everyone strikes. Then me and Khristov will bring up the rear. If piggybacking works, I'm all for it. We could try talking Hatch into helping us too--he could lead the way invisibly."
"Whatever gets the job done," says Rurik agreeably. "I've used a lot of my magic, but we can press on."
"Sounds like a pretty solid plan." Ingrit says looking around. Going into Jeiress' bedroom, she goes through the woman's things, seeking any hint as to the possible relationship between her and Radosek.
Ingrit can find extra clothing in the cleric's bedroom. There is even a flowing dress that appears to be for non-combat social situations. There is also an extra shortspear but no extra suits of armor. Jairess wore leather armor with a wooden shield, while the other soldiers wore chain shirts and light steel shields.
Those who know spellcraft know that the spell on which the teleporter appears to be based, ice crystal teleport, only works on one target at a time, so attempting to teleport two people at once would fail.
There are obvious indications that someone is transporting up because the target is encased in ice when the spell transports him or her. So if someone were in the room, she would see the ice appear and get some idea of what shape of person was teleporting. But if the occupant of the room is not looking at the transporter as it works, there would only be the water that would flow away as the ice melts (something the tranporters are designed to drain out of the room without making a mess).
The group will have to transport back down (again using the key as before) and go to the east side of the 2nd level. Hatch and Nadya are available for attempting diplomacy and other aid options from Hatch.
Khristov shakes his head.
"The second we do anything hostile we won't be any more invisible than we are right now, and the spell will wear off in less than 30 seconds anyway. What I COULD do is cast the invisibility spell and a separate spell on, say Dom. The Silence spell I told you about before? He'd be virtually undetectable between the two, and immune to the witch's magic. If we can funnel all our best non-magical people -Dom, Ingrit, myself, Rurik - in first while the silence spell is still active, we can hopefully kill the witch while she can't use magic. If there's anyone else up there with her then Damiano and Erland can follow behind once the silence spell wears off."
"Keeping her from casting spells seems like the most potent tactic. I am unsure if she could use hexes or other powers while in such a zone of silence, but at least her spells would be nullified. It might work, if we're lucky."
"Okay, I think leading with a Silence spell might be very effective. Now that I think about it, going up invisibly is not that great since we're still encased in ice as we go up."
Dom considers the implications of Khristov's plan and decides more information is warranted. "Maybe the trick is to send Hatch up to scout--take a quick peek and come back. If he can tell us who if anyone is by the teleporter, that'll change our tactics. And since he's small, it should be harder to notice him appear up there. If it turns out the witch is by the teleporter, we go in with a Silence spell like Khristov suggests."
Once the party catches up with Hatch and Nadya, Dom explains what happened in the prior battle, and then asks for help. "Hatch, would you be willing to sneak up to Nazhena's level? We know you're very talented at sneaking and causing mischief in a way that none of us could ever do!"
.
Hatch was initially fearful of participating in the assault, but seeing that the group has successfully eliminated all opposition except the people at the top, literally, he sees an opportunity to get revenge on Nazhena and/or Radosek, so he gleefully agrees to participate.
"Hatch can help. What is needful?"
I seem to remember you can become invisible at will. Can you use this ability on anyone or only on yourself ?
"Do you think you can sneak upstairs using the teleporter, spend just a few seconds to look around, and then come right back and tell us what you see?"
In answer to Damiano's question, Hatch reaches out and touches him and the wizard disappears. Then he does the same with a picture in a frame on the wall, a painting of the pale tower at sunset, and the picture and frame disappear. Hatch giggles and then dismisses the effect on Damiano. The picture remains invisible for about five minutes.
He demonstrates a few other of his favorite tricks. He takes out his tiny club he can use as a weapon, turns it invisible, and then a moment later, everyone can hear a knocking at the west door. Once people look that way, he dismisses the invisibility on the club and people can see it floating and tapping on the door. He knocks another small framed picture off hits hook. He causes a flash of light and a puff of smoke to appear nearby.
Hatch smiles broadly as he shows off his tricks.
To Domitian's question, he nods.
"For Hatch to go up and come back down, he would need to take the key with him to use on the return. If something happens to him while he's up there, we lose our ability to go up, unless the password on the transporter is the same as Hatch remembers, which I doubt. Anyone up there can change the passwords at will. They won't make it easy to get up there."
"We just need a distraction, right? If Hatch can go up, super sneaky, and cause the folks upstairs to give us even a few moments grace, that might work. So long as we don't bottleneck like we did against this druid woman, we should be able to overwhelm the witch and her apprentice, especially with silence running."
"There really is no way to prevent the bottleneck effect since we can only go one at a time." Ingrit says thoughtfully.
"Would it be worth sending a summoned creature first instead, to draw enemy attacks?"
"Now that would be an interesting tactic. Wouldn't it have to be intelligent enough to use the talisman, and hand it back before it was transported up though? What if Hatch made soemone invisible and they started by summoning something?" Ingrit asks, intrigued by Rurik's idea. The cleric had proven to be very resourceful and a great help despite being a bit soft on their enemies.