"Ov course, could make more." Natalya retorts, offended. "But the process takes veeks, and supplies only available in my homeland."
She glances at Masym. "Do you haf veeks?"
"Does Skelg?" She adds, a moment later, worriedly.
"Hours!?" She seems distraught.
"The Beacon, it can only take the sheep one place, Glacier Lake." She says, shaking her head at Jones' suggestion.
"You must bring Skelg here. We must all travel together, da?"
"He has sayfed me. Now we must sayf him!"
"Ve must hurry!" Natalya says urgently.
She stands and goes to study the ice for a moment, a worried frown on her face. "Ve vill still haf to clear ice." She points towards the ice wall by the hatch, beyond which is the front of the ship.
"De Beacon must hang from bowsprit."
"You haf fire? Am unsure if I haf enough to clear dat far. De glacier, it fights back." She starts to look concerned as she ponders the logistics of it. "Vill take time."
Malusha is able to get the lamp lit, and after messing with the shutters for a second, gets the mid-sized beam to shine out onto the mast.
The portal appears once more, exactly where it was last time.
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Jones follows Wei Tchak through the portal and heads straight for Skelg. If Tyros tries to intervene, Jones tells him, without breaking stride, "The only way to save him is to take him through the portal, and time is of the essence. We don't have time to argue about this. You can follow us through a well, but don't get in the way. Masym is sick and waiting on us as well."
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Tchak, as soon as JOnes comes through, goes to Skelg's room and lifts him gently but firmly, cradling him like a child, wrapped in his blankets, not that they will keep him warm. "I have him, let's go." He heads back toward the portal. If Tyros gets in the way, he will barrel his way through, hopefully with Jones' help. "You can come along to make sure he is treated well and uncursed but do not try to stop us."
You will indeed find Tyros in Skelg's room.
He stands up as you enter, his face one part hopeful, one part angry.
"So you made it back through? Did you find it?"
As Jones and Wei Tchak start to gather up his master, he starts to get upset, and moves to intervene.
"What are you doing?! Stop that! Its bad enough you left even more of those murdering ruffians in the house without mentioning it it, but now this?! They were bleeding all over the Qadiran carpets!"
Jones brushes him off, ignoring the man's protests.
"I called the guards again! They'll be here any minute!"
He continues to protest, as you take Skelg back downstairs, though does not seem to quite work up the nerve to physically try to stop you.
Tyros calls one last "Stop" Before Jones and Wei Tchak are once more standing on the frozen ice of the uppermost ice cave.
Malusha is still there, a look of relief on his face, as they reappear, carrying Skelg. As the unconscious man hits the cold glacier air, he starts to moan slightly, though doesn't wake up.
No one else follows them through.
While they are gone, Natalya has the remaining Pathfinders clear the furniture away. Once done, she says some arcane words, and a large ball of fire appears against the side of the ice wall.
She continues to press it up against the wall, and slowly, the ice begins to melt. It is clear she's done this before, though if the rest of the ice caves are any indication, she usually takes a little more care. But this time, she goes in a straight line for the bow of the boat, ice melting as she goes, rivulets of water streaming down the sides only to freeze again, forming an icy sheet across the floor.
She has to recast her spell 3 more times, until eventually she sags, her magic spent.
"I'fe no more." She says sadly. "You will haf to use muscles for rest."
When Jones and Wei Tchak return with the Skelg, all her attention turns that way, as she has them lay the man on her bed and sits by his side, one pale hand resting on his wheezing chest.
"He is so cold." She whispers quietly.
But she gets you close enough, and with a few more minutes of manual labor, you are able to get the lantern attached to the bow of the ship.
The cold of the inside of the glacier is finally starting to catch up to you. You take cold damage, and are fatigued.
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Though unused to such temperatures, Nella is mindful to try and keep herself warm through movement and thus is more than happy to help the others dig the rest of the way through to the bowsprit. "The cold isn't too bad if you keep moving," she pants. "But it's not a long-term solution. Let's hope this works and we can all get out of here!"
Once Tchak and Jones return with Skelg and the tunnel through the ice is completed, she kneels down to check on his condition once more. "Malusha and I are both priests; the Dawnflower and the Eternal Rose, respectively," she explains to Natalya. "We'll do our best to keep everyone alive and kicking until we're ready to open the big portal."
Nella will be able to tell that Skelg is suffering from severe hypothermia. Masym also, though not as severe yet. She also notices that Malusha seems to be adapting poorly to the cold climate as well.
.......
Its not pretty, but you manage to drive a narrow tunnel to the bow of the boat, though you're basically crawling the last foot or so once Natalya's fire reaches its limit. You get the Beacon positioned on its hook on the bowsprit and are ready to go.
Malusha is basically laying on his belly on the ice, as he pulls all the shutters back, and lights the lantern.
The intense bluish-white light that emits from the lantern is almost blinding. The surrounding ice picking it up, diffusing it, and projecting it everywhere at once.
A shimmering silvery pane forms out in a spiral at the front of the ship, similar the smaller one you saw on the mast and the tapestry, but exponentially larger. It seems to cut through the ice like a hot knife, and the glacier howls in protest.
There is the briefest of pauses, as the ice seems to groan as if its trying to to maintain its hold on its prize... and then the ship is elsewhere.... and brings part of the glacier with it.
Huge chunks of ice cascade down around your heads like giant boulders as the ship lists hard to left and then rocks back even harder, flinging everyone like a catapult across the deck.
Natalya's furniture, including the bed that Skelg is laying on, skitters across the deck and crashes into the rail. Only Natalya diving across him at the last minute keeps the unconscious man from sailing over the railing.
You hear the sounds of wood snapping, as all the oars on the starboard side snap off from the strain, and the gunwale on the port side is crushed beneath the falling ice.
The sounds are almost deafening, and seem to last forever. But eventually the chaos seems to settle down, and everyone is able to get back to their feet amazingly all still in one piece.
The first thing you notice is the light has changed. Without the ice to filter and diffuse it, the sun shines down on you from high in the sky. The second thing you notice is the bitter cold. Even colder then before. Made even worse by a constant wind blowing across the deck from the southwest.
Looking around you, you realize you are floating on a vast body of water, with large chunks of ice floating along side. Even more than can be accounted for by your recent egress. There is land a short distance to the north, and far off to the south.
Natalya slowly gets to her feet, looking around her eyes wide. She seems entirely unaffected by the cold, despite wearing little more than a fancy dress.
She says something quietly in another language then adds in her accented common.
"Glacier Lake."
She points towards the back of the boat, past the large, wagon-sized piece of ice that still surrounds the mast.
"Vhitethrone! My home!"
Following her finger you see, far off in the distance, on the shore of the lake a few miles east, the spires and and rooftops of a very large city.
Natalya raises an eyebrow. "Nyet. You do not vant to visit Vhitethrone." She says, shaking her head. "Pathfinders not velcome there at all."
She shrugs ruefully. "And vhat is not velcome ..." She leaves that last comment unfinished.
"They vill see sheep from distance soon. Vill send guards to investigate. I vill be fine."
"Perhaps best you are not here vhen they do."
She goes over to check on Skelg, a worried frown appearing on her face.
"How come he does not vake up?" She asks, looking back towards Nella. "The curse, it is gone, da?" She glances at Masym.
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In shock and awe the bard watches these things take place. She is having the time of her life.
Seeing Masym asleep she says, in response to the Natalya Maybe it is like those stories where the princesses needs a kiss to be woken from the magical sleep. I don't see any princes around here so I guess I will have to do. she says as she kisses Masym on the sleep Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey
Natalya's eyes flash sudden realization, at Masym's comment, apparently having not considered the cold at all.
"Oh my." She says, before saying a few arcane words over the unconscious Ulfen man.
When there is no change, she looks annoyed for a moment when she realizes that unconscious people can't really offer feedback. She then turns and casts the same spell again, this time touching Masym.
"Better, da? He can vake up now?"
She nods as Wei Tchak mentions the portals.
"Da. Beacon should send you home." She says. "Though I must stay. Haf great deal to discuss with family."
One hand still rests of Skelg's chest, his breathing now almost normal compared to where it was.
"He vill probably go to, da?" She says quietly suddenly sad at the realization.
She looks up at the Pathfinders. "Perhaps he could be convince to stay?" She suggests hopefully as she looks around at the icy lake and beyond. "This vas his home too, once."
Protected from the elements... internally, and externally... the healing magic of the potions are able to do their work.
Masym is suddenly as good as new, all traces of the curses effects finally gone, including the ache and tiredness in his body.
Although it will be a while before he is fully better, Skelg too seems to improve. His eyes flutter open, and he looks around at the open sky above him, and the ice covered ship deck... none of which his brain can immediately make any sense out of. Needless to say, there is a hint of confusion there.
But they stop once they alight on the Irrisen woman.
"So I died then?" He says, the tiredness evident in his voice.