"Perhaps Ogon would like some extra protection. I also notice he needs some healing if that is possible."
Just before they ascend, Dezső pulls out two vials, one filled with a blue liquid and one greenish brown, and quaffs them both. The blue vial has no obvious effect, but the other causes his arms to elongate unnaturally.
Yrja doesn't have much beneficial magic to her name, but she does know a very simple spell that helps guide one's eye or hand to better succeed at a task.
Orik heals Ogon with his wand a few times.
Just before they go through the portal, Orik casts shield of faith on Ogon and then bless on the party, and lastly, guidance on Dezsö.
Nadya pulls out her remaining flask of alchemist's fire. "He'll be ready for us. Jairess said he'd have 'allies', whatever those may be, so be prepared for multiple targets. And I would not put it past Radosek to have your friends as hostages." She purses her lips. "We should not listen to any bargaining he may try. He is not a man of honor. Let us determine who stands in front."
Ogon glances at Nadya before deliberately stepping into the front of the line. "Do not listen to the witch, simply kill with fire. This I can do."
"Thank you," Chiquq says to Yrja's casting upon her. She pauses, a strange distant look on her face.... then steps up to Ogon.
"....there is a prayer among my people, warrior-of-fire. A prayer to harden the flesh to the roughness of the pine. If you wish it I.... will try and say it over you. I still know almost nothing of you. But I know we have a common enemy. And you have fought honorably by us."
Chiquq pauses, and cannot help but add, with a ghost of a smile, "...now that you are no longer trying to kill Yrja."
Ogon looks a little wary of Chiquq's proposal. "It is not witchcraft? A prayer-from-the-spirits instead." He pauses. "Then I accept."
He holds still as Chiquq prays, although the tension in his posture is obvious, before speaking again.
"I will not harm good-witch-Yrja. She has saved me from prison-of-ice and I will serve her until I save her life in return."
With the prayer said he erupts into new flames, brighter than before, leaping hungrily from his face and hands and causing his heavy mail to glow slightly from the inside.
"Time to kill a witch!"
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The group also sees Dez drink down a thick grey concoction out of a large vial (his mutagen). He follows Ogon in the ascent, with a loaded crossbow, to be fired, dropped, and replaced with his rapier as they move into combat.
After you have all prepared, you step upon the ice crystal teleporter, Jairess' key in hand. Steeling your nerves, you use the key--there is an obvious slot upon which to place it--and you feel the now-familiar sense of disorientation before the new room resolves around you. You are in a ritual chamber, the lit by a translucent, energy suffused, image of a globe.
It hangs suspended in midair, slowly rotating in place, above a summoning circle in the blue-tiled floor of this large chamber. Lines of arcane energy
glow across the globe’s surface, faintly humming with power as they connect multiple endpoints in a radiant glow bright enough to illuminate the domed ceiling overhead. Many tables and shelves covered in books, maps, and large scrolls line the room’s circular walls, and a large ornate mirror hangs between
two open windows to the west. Twin ice sculptures of demonic fiends flank a bubbling cauldron in an archway leading into a deep alcove in the southern wall.
An Irriseni man, unhandsome with a crooked nose and simpering, wet lips, regards you with dark, intelligent eyes. He is cloaked in rich furs, an amulet at his throat, and a glittering icicle is held in one hand like a wand or weapon. There is a clatter as a white goat runs out of an adjacent room, snorting and facing the party.
To your horror, you see a half-elven Kellid in a rich furred cloak, a dwarf clad in armor, and a man in light furs suspended upside down on the walls behind the man. They are coated in hoarfrost and frozen to the wall, a long spear of ice penetrating each of their rib cages. There is a quiet dripping of blood upon the floor--three puddles, the blood still somehow unfrozen.
The man nods at you and raises his icicle.
The Ritual Chamber, Round 1!
Radosek and Valstoi
Dez
Chiquq
Ogon
Yrja
Nadya
Orik
Radosek doesn't spare any villainous words for you; he begins to intone intoxicating arcane phrases, and the cauldron bubbles loudly, echoing them.
Peeling out of the floor and walls like potato shavings, several ice elementals appear before you.
The goat merely bleats and lowers its horns.
Party is up!
"Imendri!!" Chiquq shouts, and takes short steps for a clear shot. With her lip curling in cold anger, she takes aim, not at the man himself, but at his goat. Maybe she thinks that, like with the sylph, destroying the man's animal will stop his attacks. Or maybe she just wants revenge for Ila, to take the cold space in her chest that comes whenever she thinks of her dead mammoth and make someone else share it.
Either way, her arrow flies.
Any joviality in Orik vanishes when he sees the scene of horror in front of the group. He whispers a prayer to Erastil, and directs a burst of light at the enemies. He then moves to the northern part of the tower, his bow ready.
Standard Action - Cast Burst of Radiance on all the enemies. DC 16 reflex save or be blinded. On a successful save, they are dazzled.
Move Action - Orik moves over a bit.
"Curse you!" Yrja hisses as her eyes alight upon the carnage and defilement. She burns with the desire to avenge her companions and end the evil of this man.
Dezső shares his companion's shock at the horrible scene, but quickly shifts to grim determination. "You will pay for this crime, Radosek," Dezső declares, before firing his crossbow at the evil spell caster.
Dez is frustrated by the poor shot, but it does not slow him down. He drops the crossbow at his feet and moves across the room to engage the caster, drawing his rapier as he moves. He takes up position under poor Callum.
Ogon dismissed the ice elemental as irrelevant, striding past them, flaming blade burning in hand to strike Radosek.
"DIE WITCH!!"
Dez's crossbow shot goes wide of Radosek. He moves near the witch-lord, his unnaturally long arms threatening the Irrisen man.
Chiquq's arrow flies true, hitting the goat in the side. It squeals an agonized bleat and looks at her with almost human fury.
The ice elementals gape at Ogon as he storms past them, incandescent in his armor.
One of the two, amazingly, hits Ogon.
The elemental whips out a coil of ice at the smoldering hobgoblin. Its waves of cold do nothing, although it does manage to rock Ogon somewhat...and the tentacle is melted at the tip, causing the creature to withdraw.
Ogon's flame blade sinks into Radosek's shoulder, searing and burning as it burrows into muscle and bone. To Radosek's credit, he does not scream.
Yrja locks eyes with the witch, delivering her hex...
...which is shrugged off, mostly.
"Good idea, Chiquq--ah, Ogon's in the way," says Nadya in her mountain-accented Skald, eyeing that damnable goat, but settles for an ice elemental instead. She releases her arrow...
...it lands into the front ice elemental with a satisfying thunk.
Orik unleashes his blindingly bright spell.
The goat and one ice elemental are shocked into temporary blindness. Radosek shields his eyes and the other two elementals are twisted in to some conformation that protects them.
Round 2 The Ritual Chamber
Radosek -26 HP, dazzled 4 rounds
Valstoi -11 HP, blind 3 rounds
Icey #1 -5 HP, dazzled 4 rounds
Icey #2 -6 HP, blind
Icey #3 dazzled 4 rounds
Dez
Chiquq
Ogon 43/47 HP
Yrja
Nadya
Orik
Radosek does something and begins to float up toward the ceiling of the room. He remains purse-lipped, not giving any sneering soliloquies.
Valstoi does nothing but bleat and wander.
The ice elemental with an arrow in its chest attacks Ogon.
And misses, of course.
Another heads towards Dez and tries to slam him.
and misses.
Party is up!
Radosek still rises toward the ceiling.
Orik drops his bow and draws his greatsword, stepping forward as his pumpkin-vines sprout all over him and he enlarges to 10 feet tall. He takes a swing at the floating, blind Radosek.
Caught by surprise as Radosek rises Ogon swipes and misses with the dagger. This seems only to enrage him as he glows even more brightly before rocketing upwards on a jet of fire!
Another glowing blade appears in his hand and he thrusts at Radosek once more as he rises next to the blind witch!
"DIE WITCH!"
This was... strange. She had expected Radosek to react in some way, not just stay silent and take his punishment. Her magic had weakened him momentarily, so now was the time to take advantage of that.
Assuming Dez can take an AofO on Radosek, he does so, and I believe he gets a flanking bonus.
He then takes a five foot step.
He takes a move action to aid Ogon with an extra +2 on his next attack:
Assuming he cannot reach Radosek, he then reaches out to stab the goat, ignoring the ice elemental due to his natural resistance to cold damage.
Chiquq turns her attention from the goat to the grimly silent caster.... "This is to keep your hands and eyes off women..."
Dez's swipe easily hits Radosek as he rises. His oddly stretched arms extend toward the goat...and release the animal's innards noisily across the floor in two vicious slices to the belly. It collapses, dying. Blood and ripped intestine color the icy tiles and taint the air with the smells of battle.
Chiquq unleashes another arrow--it smacks into Radosek's inner thigh, appropriately, just missing important arteries.
An ice elemental tries to swipe at Ogon as he moves swiftly to attack Radosek.
It utterly fails to come near him.
Ogon's searing blade, a streak of white hot flame carried by a fury of a shape in dully glowing reddish armor, strikes true, spitting Radosek in the side. Now the witch does scream, waving a hand ineffectually.
Yrja casts her hex.
Perhaps due to his blindness or some grim force of will, the witch is unaffected.
Nadya aims her bow. "You disgust me, Radosek, and your goat is dead," she says matter of factly.
It strikes him in his icicle wand arm, causing him to cry out again. Peppered with arrows, he floats without much direction.
Orik then makes his swing.
All of you see what is going to happen--the blade seems to move in slow motion, a large glittering arc of steel.
It catches Radosek on the hip and slices him in two.
Horribly, the two pieces of the witch continue to levitate in the air, spinning.
With every rotation, the face of Radosek comes around to meet you, his visage a study of complete surprise in death. His eyes never lose their radiance-blasted glassy look.
"Ugh." Orik stays big and takes a few large swings at the ice elementals. He successfully bites the arm off of one, and crunches the ice in his tusks. When the elementals are destroyed, he shrinks to regular size and wipes the blood off onto a cheap tapestry, then approaches the hanging figures to check their conditions (likely fruitlessly).
He then helps lower the party's former companions to the ground and assists the party with whatever they require.
Ogon crashes back to ground like a miniature meteor, smashing an ice elemental to pieces in the process. By the time he has risen the others are destroyed and they are left masters of the... field?
"Witch dead. Good. Now take his gear for trophies!" The hobgoblin declares, waiting for the witches magic to wear off so he can claim items.
He doesn't seem distracted by the hanging bodies, although anyone watching carefully will see that he keeps his back to them at all times - perhaps their situation reminds him too much of his own recent problems.
Once Radosek is killed, Yrja leaves the others to mop up the remaining foes as she rushes over to where their old companions are hanging on the wall, hot tears on her face.
"Please don't be dead, please don't be dead."
She shoots Orik a hopeful glance as the half-orc checks for signs of life.
As the implacable, inevitable, heart-crushing verdict comes with a shake of the head, the young witch screams in pain and fury, lashing out at the floating pieces of Radosek and flailing with her small fists at Orik.
"Why did you kill him? WHY DID YOU KILL HIM?! He should have suffered more! Look what he did!" She swipes again at the lower half of the bad witch, her fingers contorted like claws. "CURSE YOU!" She collapses to her knees, keening. "Bastard... bastard... curse you..."
Dezső is surprised by the rapid sequence of events, but it doesn't show on his face as he immediately turns to engage the ice elementals who, after all, still pose a serious threat to his friends, who seem more susceptible to the cold. He moves from one to the other, his rapier acting like an ice pick until all that remains are chunks of ice melting on the floor.
He then casts a sad look at the companions on the wall, but leaves their remains to others. He moves over to Yrja and places a comforting hand on her shoulder, lacking in words but wanting to offer some support to the young witch.
It in moves over to Yrja and crouched by her in a clank of metal. The ambient heat from his body has diminished and, up close, the hobgoblin looks exhausted. One large, mail covered hand reaches for Syria's much smaller one.
"Losing a friend always hard." His voice is gravelly and grave, but quiet. "That is why we fight witches. So no more friends end like this. Be brave. Mourn the dead. Then go out, live and make them proud." He nods firmly and turns away, perhaps embarrassed by his sudden openness.
Chiquq's mouth curls in a grossed out way at the floating, spinning Radosek, but after a mere arrow or two more sent towards the ice elementals, she sprints over to the hanging forms, eyes scanning helplessly. "Imendri... Kinsman..."
Chiquq moves over towards the three inverted former companions--Imendri, Caelum, and Braegan...and notes that there is the faintest hint of foggy exhalation from their blue, icy lips.
There is a crackling coming from the alcove where the cauldron still bubbles, and then the sound of shattering ice. Several ravens flutter into the room, landing on the ground around Radosek. They cock beady eyes at you.
After a moment, Jairess climbs into the room, with one more raven on her shoulder. She looks a little surprised.
"So you did it."
She indicates her shoulder. "I didn't expect to, but I've found a new flock, just inside the Wood. This one has something to say." She points to her shoulder. The raven puffs up its feathers.
ekekekkkkkkk. "You all look like Hell," it says, regarding you somewhat balefully.
The raven is Pyewacket, Mahb's familiar!