Dez moves over to the twigjack and strikes at it with his cold iron rapier.
He also calls out, "Orik! Yrja needs help! Can you call upon Erastil for aid?"
Dez slashes at the twigjack, to the usual, cold-iron-damnable, modicum of effect.
Yrja continues to leak purplish tiefling blood onto the tree-root-knotted ground, her eyes glazing over.
Dawn Piper #3 Round 4
Yrja -8 hp, dying
Piper, -3 HP, Flying, Evil Eye Hexed 8 rounds
Kseniya, Dragon Style, 43/56 HP <<-- we are here.
Twigjack -3 HP
Orik -8 HP
Dez
The piper sees the downed tiefling and a horrible smile comes across its fiery features. It utters words known only in the First World, clearly casting an incantation.
Unadulterated Loathing.
Kseniya can feel tendrils entering her mind, telling her that Yrja is the most digusting vile creature that ever lived. She must get away from the tiefling...
Kseniya spits in defiance at the piper's attempt to drive her off, and strides towards Yrja, indomitable.
With a swiftness borne of urgency, she pours a potion down the tiefling's gullet.
The twigjack, much of its fey mojo expended, pokes at Yrja again.
Looking a bit startled for an animated bundle of sticks, it doesn't come close to the revived tiefling.
Dawn Piper #3 Round 4
Yrja +9 HP!
Piper, -3 HP, Flying, Evil Eye Hexed 8 rounds
Kseniya, Dragon Style, 43/56 HP
Twigjack -3 HP
Orik -8 HP <<-- we are here!
Dez
Orik looks annoyed, "well, at least you're a better fight than the other ones" and he shuffles quickly over the snow to Yrja, and, summoning the power of the pumpkin, channels energy to heal the witch.
Yrja gasps as she is brought back from the brink of death, blinking terrified at the dawn piper looming above her. Not thinking quite straight after her brush with the afterlife, she points at him and mumbles "Naps are nice" as her power reaches out to try and subdue the fey.
The piper remains inerrant, unflappable, a glittering shard of primordial adamantine in the dull sky of the Second World.
Dez takes a moment to study the twigjack (move action) and then strikes at it with his cold iron rapier, hoping to eliminate it as a factor in the fight.
Dez lands a solid hit on the twigjack and draws it into a posture where it cannot attack defensively, via some fancy twists of his Ustalavian sword.
The Third Piper, Round 5
Yrja, 9 HP <-- we are here
Piper, -3 HP, Evil Eye hexed 7 rounds
Kseniya, Dragon Style, 43/56 HP
Twigjack -16 HP, sapped!
Orik -8 HP
Dez
Yrja tries again to put the piper to sleep, fearful of what might happen to her if he wasn't taken out.
This time the hex takes effect, and the piper plummets to earth, twitching in its sleep and dreaming of a better world.
Kseniya is up!
Kseniya spits at the downed piper and moves to grab the twigjack.
The twigjack is caught like a tiny stick insect by the towering jadwiga!
Sensing the end is nigh, it flexes its little fey body for another spray of spines.
I would rule of cool it that if you fall on the twigjack like it's a grenade, you could protect Orik and Yrja from any 'shrapnel', but you couldn't reflex save to halve the damage. Whaddya think?
Seeing the twigjack well in hand, Dez moves over to the downed piper, and grabs the piper's pipe. "Shall I leash it to the tree with a rope, or slit its throat?"
Sure, I’ll take you up on that
Kseniya, seeing that the twigjack is going to deploy its final strike of thorns, opts to bring the tiny fey to the ground, covering it completely with her body to protect Yrja and Orik.
The twigjack unleashes its thorns directly into the sternum of the mighty jadwiga, but it is to no avail; it is pinned utterly.
Orik frowns at the thing while picking out a piece of twig from his green skin, "blech. Just kill it. It'll regenerate in the first world, right? It's not a plant. I dunno..." He closes his eyes, and whispers something to himself, "yeah. That's my opinion. Plus, it's pretty hard to "reform" fey."
Yrja points to the piper. "Let's knock him out like we did the others." The witch doesn't express an opinion on the fate of the twigjack, but nods gratefully at Kseniya for shielding her.
"Are you hurt?"
Orik nods, ”yeah I agree about the piper.”
Kseniya knocks out the twigjack but does not kill it. ”A lady uses only as much force as is necessary. They said this at the finishing school.”
With the last piper neutralized and its ritual halted, you detect something in the air that wasn't there before--a strange sense of calm. If there was a noise in your ears before, there isn't one now.
The tree begins to visibly wither, quite slowly, but you can see it in the bark and branches.
You notice something gleaming in the roots of the tree.
Now that the immediate threats had been neutralized, Yrja takes some time to attune to the magic that the pipers had been weaving, trying to discern whether there was anything else that still needed to be done in order to sever the connection with the First World.
"Yrja, I'm glad you were able to bring that piper to the ground. I think I'm going to have to figure out how to be useful against flying opponents..." Dez then proceeds to carefully search the entire area, and among all the roots and branches.
You can sense the influence of the First World, but no more of it is pouring into this world like so much sweet honey wine. The reality siphon must have stopped.
"I think we have stopped whatever it is they were trying to do. We should probably go back," sighs Yrja, eyeing the unconscious piper warily.
Orik just waits for Dez to finish searching, aiding his efforts to the best of his ability.
Orik and Dez both see a glinting gem in the roots of the dwindling tree.
Dez checks for traps. If he doesn't see any he'll try to fetch the gem.
There are no traps.
Dez finds a completely clear gemstone, faceted in a triangular trilliant cut. Yrja senses magic from within the stone.
This is an air elemental gem.
"Oooh, that is so pretty! And it can summon an air elemental!" She frowns. "Although you have to destroy it first, which I don't agree with."
Aside from the gem, and the dawn piper's pipe, there's nothing further of value in the area of the sky tree, which looks close to death now...perhaps it was drawing sustenance from the First World.
"An air elemental would have been useful to send up against the Piper," Dezső muses. He adds the gem and pipe to the group loot he is carrying in his handy haversack and stealths ahead to see what awaits the group beyond this clearing.
Behind her, you can see what must be the Dancing Hut, and some white fencing and some bodies upon it.
You follow Dez around the bend to where the reality siphon was, staying back and awaiting the wily investigator's report.
Dez slips back to inform the group. "I wish I could say there are no remaining obstacles between us and the hut, but where the reality siphon once swirled and twisted the senses, now there is a clearing. And standing in the clearing is a jadwiga noble--none other than Nazhena Vassiliovna, the lover of Radosek Pavril, the erstwhile leader of the Pale Tower, and the one who slew Nadya Petska's daughter and trapped her soul in that guardian poppet. Nazhena stands there, proud and imperious, scanning the clearing in front of her. And beside her stands a construct made of spiky ice, that must be some sort of animated ally. Behind her is, indeed, the Dancing Hut, and some white fencing and some bodies upon it. What she is doing here, in the midst of all these fey doings, I cannot say, but it looks like we have to go through her to get to the hut."
"Are you all ready for this? I'm all out of alchemical tricks, but my rapier is as sharp as ever. And we should heal up before we proceed. Can you help with that, Orik? And do we know any weaknesses or unusual resistances Nazhena is likely to possess? Any thoughts, Kseniya? And what do we know about the ice golem-type thing?"
Dez, you don't know much about winter witch jadwiga nobles--it's a safe bet they are immune to cold and have cold magic, though!
You know that ice golems are immune to magic, except fire magic, or at least, they are strongly resistant to it. They are vulnerable to fire...and they explode when they are defeated. You're not sure if they rage like other golems do, but they might...
Yrja clenches her fists as she hears Dez's report. "I don't have much magic left, but we can't let her get away! We owe it to Nadya!"
Orik grunts affirmatively and grabs the wand, then applies it to Dez and himself.
"Well, I have a few spells left, including obscuring mist. And remember - I can kill the golem in seconds, theoretically, with this bow." He taps the bow, "will do so on your order. I'm guessing we have to knock her out at least to get to the hut. She's uh, a winter witch. So cold resistance. But she doesn't have evil resistance."
"THank you, Orik. Erastil's blessings are much appreciated. I think it will take all the power we can bring to bear to bring down this evil. Kseniya, anything we should know about fighting a jadwiga like Nazhena? Is she vulnerable to anything, like fire maybe?"
"So how do we proceed? We approach the edge of the clearing, Orik fires on the ice creature, Kseniya and I charge, and Yrja employs one of her hexes? Any better approach?"
Orik is not a leader, and so is waiting for the others to engage her.
After ensuring that everyone was ready, Yrja takes a few deep breaths, squeezing her eyes shut. She brings up the memory of Nadya's face, and the grief and pain that was buried deep in that extraordinary woman. Clenching her fists, she marches into the clearing, raising a skewering finger to point at Nazhena.
"You! Time to pay for all the evil you've done!"
Then she reaches towards her throat under her furs, ripping one of the golden spheres from her necklace and throwing it into the clearing.
As you round the corner you see that Dezső was not quite stealthy enough--Nazhena and her minion are very aware of your approach. She stands imperiously.
"I suppose I should thank you for ending this unwanted fey incursion," she says in perfectly enunciated Irriseni Skald, "But we both know what your meddling has cost me."
She wastes no further words and begins to rise into the air--and Yrja's fireball catches her and the golem immediately.
Showdown At The Hut
Yrja
Dez
Kseniya
Nazhena
Golem
Orik
Nazhena manages to evade some of the fireball. She snarls as a strand of her perfectly coiffed platinum blonde hair is singed, leaving a foul stench. Her striking blue eyes radiate pure fury at you.
The golem, meanwhile, doesn't avoid a damned thing, and droops slightly as the flames lick over its frame with explosive speed.
Showdown at the hut
Yrja, acted
Dez <-- we are here
Nazhena, -8 HP
Golem, -24 hp
Orik