Evanya keeps her wits about her, and bolsters the party's morale.
Lucian barely manages to keep his ground, and flies after Rissi to help her overcome her fears with a spell.
Meanwhile, the Azata envoy's voice starts echoing in the gloomy cabin, strengthening the resolve of Lucian and his friends.
Rissi starts running away but then Lucian bolsters her spirits and calls her back. Miana leaps forward to close in with the wendigo. She is frightened by the sight and slips in her execution though.
The dragon-blooded sorcerer hesitates for a moment, but finally decides that wise half dragon will flee such an obviously superior foe.
rds.
Boom-chaka-lacka.
---------------------------------------
Sealman instantly rages from seeing the Wendigo, a creature of nightmares.
Sealman charges forward toward the Wendigo as Thunderpuss flees into the snow piles. Isoult glimmers with the snow melting on her blade.
Seal's powerful blow hits the wendigo but doesn't seem to have full effect against this magical creature. The wendigo snarls and viciously rends at Seal:
Seal is picked up by the Wendigo and slapped around like a red-headed step-child that was the son of a whore. Founts of blood spurt from fresh but chilled wounds. He looks over to his comrades for assistance.
Rissi racks her mind for lore.
She lets fly with a wand twice, carefully placing fireballs to singe wendigos and not our dwarfy hero.
.
.
Lucian flies straight ahead to reach the dwarf, and casts a potent curative spell, taking care not to let his guard down.
The Lilend Azata also moves forward, continuing her celestial performance. She lets out a shrieking sound burst, aimed at the Wendigo.
As for Evanya, she flies on her own and lands behind Miana's back, touching the monk with her diminutive hand.
"May Desna grant you her grace and luck!"
Rissi recalls that magical cold iron weapons are best against wendigos. They are immune to cold and fear but vulnerable to fire, her blasts of flames putting this to the test and burning the wendigo quite badly. Lucian and Evanya work their magic but unfortunately the azatas' magic is not powerful enough to effect the wendigo.
With both the aid of Lucian's spell and the linger protective magics, Sealman feels completely refreshed. He tries to break out of the wendigo's clutches as he drops Isoult to the earth.
If Sealman escapes, he takes a step back and draws his greatclub.
Despite his best efforts, Seal is not able to pull free of the wendigo's mighty grip!
The wendigo claws at Miano as she moves behind it:
She then misses with her kick and the wendigo decides that she deserves to be punished for such insolence.
As wendigo releases Seal to assault Miana, Sealman draws his magical greatclub while closing the distance between the two. He taps the club twice on the ground and swings for the proverbial fences.
It is more or less a constant stream of explosions coming from the little ratfolk wizard as fireball after fireball leaps from her wand, pummeling the wendigo.
. DC 24 halves
. DC 24 halves
Seal swings a bit too hard and completely misses the wendigo but Rissi's spells continue to burn away at the horrifying creature.
Only one of Miana's kicks is good enough to break through the wendigo's defenses! The wendigo is now determined to take the palamonk down!
The formula well worked out by now, Rissi lets forth with even more fireballs upon the wendigo (but above her allies)- fireworks that light up the sky in a perverse celebration.
. DC 24 halves
. DC 24 halves
"You never turn your back on somebody wielding a magical log!"
Sealman swings back and forth, trying to bust open the wendigo's tough hide.
Rissi's dual fireballs and a hefty swing of the greatclub from Seal finally bring the nightmarish creature down!
The ghostly dwarven brother emerges from the cabin, looking quite normal now and his expression at peace but with an element of sadness. As his form starts to fade, he manages a final warning: "You have saved my brother. You have saved me. I should reward you by simply taking the path to Xin-Shalast with me into the beyond, yet I sense that you still harbor a desire to see those golden ruins. Very well. Look to the pages of my ledger for the way, and may Torag watch over you in the darkness to come...."
As he does, several parchment pages appear and f loat lazily to the ground. These are the missing five pages from Silas’s ledger from area B13, and they provide exacting details on the route to Xin-Shalast.
The first step, according to the Vekkers’ directions, is to continue traveling up the Kazaron River until they reach the second tributary. The ledger identifies this river as the legendary River Avah, yet it also says the winding route between the Kodar Mountains is not one for the faint of heart. There are no banks to walk along and the river itself often rises in cataracts of up to 300 feet in height as it climbs ever higher into the mountains. The waters of the River Avah are freezing cold, yet they themselves never freeze
Lucian shakes his daze off, regaining his wits as the ghost fades from view.
"Many thanks, Vekker. May Desna guide your soul into the Great Beyond!"
After performing a short ceremony to lay the two brothers' souls to rest, Lucian heals his companions, of course.
Sealman places his arm across his chest in a sign of respect to the visage.
"I don't feel so great. I just learned how to cast spells, now I can't. Grrrr. Maybe couple days rest before going to Land o' Doom."
Once the party is back on the road, Sealman will lead the group. He will try to avoid as many natural hazards as he can, while keeping a look out for any tracks of creatures in the area.
+2 Track, in addition +2 Magical Beasts, +6 for giants.
As you follow the river upstream, the air grows thin and the sky a deep blue. From leaving the Kazaron to the point just south of the Icemists, they climb thousands of feet to a height of just over 15,000 feet above sea level. Eventually, you reach the River Avah’s source—a frozen swampland shrouded in glittering clouds of ice crystals known as the Fen of the Icemists. Yet even then they find no indication of the ruined spires of Xin-Shalast. Here, the ledger tells that you must fast and wait for a night with a full moon, whereupon the remainder of the route is made clear to them, for here is the edge of Leng’s otherworldly influence upon Golarion. Natural creatures are skittish in this region, and with the exception of magically compelled animals, animal companions, and familiars, no animal willingly travels into this region.
The ratfolk meditates upon her collected volumes of magic as she meditates upon the coming journey into the mountains. She writes her thoughts into a small journal.
In a few days time, with fortune on our side, we will meet Runelord Karzoug, an architect - and corrupter - of modern magic. Will this human truly be utterly bound to the idea of greed, and committed the twisting the joy of well-earned reward into an invisible bondage of debt and servitude? It seems quite likely given what horrors we have yet encountered on the this journey. We have some small magical defenses against his horrors, yet I fear they will not be enough. After all, he has had lifetimes to perfect his craft. We will do the best we can; and to future generations that might find this volume, know that we tried our best to prevent an evil from returning to the world.
The wizard closes the journal and leaves it among the other remains littering the cabin.
The wizard strives to make final preparations before returning to join the others for their final ascent. She casts life bubble, to inure her companions from the altitude and cold.
Sealman spies the sky as they make their way up the mountain. He assists those that need the help and is more then willing to allow those that need to ride Thunderpuss to do so. After hearing about fasting until a full moon, he lets out a small whine.
"Wasn't the full moon last week? Does that mean we have to fast until then? I don't know if I could not eat for 3 hours let alone 3 weeks. Maybe people just think they see Xin-Shalast after going crazy from not eating and hiking such high heights. "
|
"We have done much and journeyed far. We have bested evils great and small and we are not the same men and women that started our travels together in Sandpoint. You are stronger than many giants we battled a month ago. Rissi's arcane prowess have bested some of Thassilon's own while Lucian's call to Desna has been a literal blessing for our party. I myself can feel Irori guiding me on my own mental and physical perfection. We helped each other overcome trials then, and we shall continue to do so as we rid Varisia... no, Golarion of Kharzoug once and for all.", Miana answering Sealman's 'complaint'.
Luckily the full moon is not as far away as Seal feared and after a few days you notice a ghostly afterimage of the River Avah continuing up into the mountains to its original source from before the geological activity in the region altered it. You can then follow this ghostly river with ease. Following the river is one thing though; surviving the dangerous region up the mountain is quite another!
Fortunately, the first thing you encounter up here is not hostile at all: as you enter the Fen of the Icemists, a purple-skinned female with long pointed ears clad in nothing but her long dark hair emerges from the icy waters of the fen. "You carry the blessing of Myriana, I sense it!" she says. "I am Svevenka, her cousin. I felt poor Myriana's death as a stab in my own heart. But I learned from some of my fey contacts that her would had been put to rest by a group described just like you! I am forever grateful and so I must warn you that all is not right in this region. You would do best to avoid traveling farther north."
"A pleasure, Svevenka. We cannot squeak tarry or turn back - our way lies ahead, on to Xin-Shalast, where we must deal with a great evil there. Now if you have specifics on the nature of what plagues this place, so that we may be better prepared, we would be in your debt." Rissi counters.
Sealman stands tall and proud. But catching a glance under his helm, his eyes are tightly shut.
"Yep. We are here to kill giants. I hear there is a whole city of them up there."
Svevenka grows thoughtful for a moment. "If you insist on traveling on to Xin-Shalast, I can volunteer my aid to such a quest. I do not wish to leave the Icemists unprotected but this place can be a safe harbor for you should you wish. I'll even put my magical abilities at your disposal. Yes, there will be plenty of giants ahead. Also beware of the lamias and of course the abominable snowmen. I am sure that you understand the region's proximity to Leng and the dangers inherent in that. There are still descendants living in the city's ruins. They are no longer like the original inhabitants but skulks. There are two factions. The more peaceful but less powerful call themselves the Spared. The others are the vampiric minions of the Hidden Beast, a creature with whom I have fought before. I suggest you seek out a member of the Spared. They will be able to give you more recent information about the city. Few other factions in Xin-Shalast will be willing to help you."
Lucian appears to be very excited to meet Myriana's relative.
"I'm delighted to make your acquaintance, Svevenka! I am Lucian, and we're on our way to hasten Karzoug's demise in Xin-Shalast. I'm afraid that this duty is sacred to us, so we won't diverge from our path. Myriana trusted us with a lock of her hair, and she believed in our fight. I'm really glad that you should decide to help us too, for the aid of the fey is the most precious we could ever dream of."
The Varisian boy stops for a moment, startled by the enthralling nymph.
"Has someone ever menioned that you are the most beautiful creature on this world?" Lucian says awkwarrdly but honestly.
Svevenka's purple skin doesn't seem capable of blushing but she gives Lucian a warm smile as she returns the compliment. "And you are quite the dashing and charming human, I must say!"
Continuing on, she again offers her hospitality. "Please, come back whenever you need respite from your duties then. My fen will always be a welcome place to ones such as yourselves. Good luck."
---
You continue your journey, determined now more than ever to reach the ancient powerful city. At this point along the ghostly river’s route, the phantom waters are joined by an ancient road paved with flat stones that have a faint sheen of gold to them. This road continues north to Xin-Shalast—from this point on, you have a physical route to follow and need no longer depend upon the phantom waters of the Avah. The road itself is 100 feet wide, its surface patchy here with swaths of ice but providing a welcome flat surface upon which to travel.
Unfortunately, a small group of cloud giants led by a one-eyed brutish frost giant named Bjormundal has been ordered by their rune giant masters to guard this approach to Xin-Shalast. "Unworthy cretins, turn back now!" Bjormundal bellows at you. "The way to Xin-Shalast is closed to you!"
Bjormundal:
cloud giant 1:
cloud giant 2:
cloud giant 3:
cloud giant 4:
"Unworth, perhaps, but *chhhh* cretin? You wound me sir!"
Lucian smiles genuinely at the compliment, and will spend some time with the charming fey creature before they have to leave.
"I am blessed with your presence! The lifestyle of the fey are very much akin to the tenets of Desna, whom I devoutly follow. Freedom, and endless road... that is a life I love over everything else. Even in solitude there is solace, though I must admit that your company is sweet and inspires me with the truest bliss."
Meanwhile, Evanya observes her master with a bemused look, sharing an empathic link with him and understanding the measure of passion lingering in the young oracle.
*****
Facing the giants, Lucian feels bolstered by his meeting the nymph, and shows great courage.
"True worth is defined by the purity of your soul! You shall not prevent us from bringing down Karzoug for we are the Saviors of Sandpoint! Gazing upon us is a privilege... feel it wholly!"
With these words, he unleashes a potent wave of ecstasy.
"I am Sealman Alerteyes, giantslayer. I have come here to destroy all of you, kith and kin! Flee if you must, die you shall! Thunderpuss, RAGE!"
Thunderpuss and Sealman ride into the heart of the giants, focusing on the one-eyed leader.
Thunderpuss
Rissi's lightning leaves all of the giants with singed hair and blackened skin. Lucian then leaves them twitching and thrusting for a few moments, although some have more stamina than others. Seal then charges in and proves his title of giantslayer by digging Isoult into Bjormundal and the cloud giant next to him!
Bjormundal is still occupied by something going on under his trousers but nonetheless he swings back at Seal!
Two of the cloud giants stand stunned but the other two quickly surround Seal!
Bjormundal: 113 dmg
cloud giant 1: 111 dmg, staggered
cloud giant 2: 51 dmg
cloud giant 3: 51 dmg
cloud giant 4: 51 dmg, staggered
Lucian raises his hands and bestows his companions a familiar blessing.