Cirri's Familiar | Spells -/6/5/4/2 | Arcane Pool 11/11 | Flight Hex minutes 10/10 | GM Folio Reroll +2 | HP 86/86 | AC 21, T 12, FF 20 | Saves 11/6/8 | CMD 23 (25 vs trip) | Perception +7 | Init +1 | Female Human Magus 10 | Alignment NG |Ward not set
"Well, if she can prevent him from freezing- no one wants a Corpse Husband. Plus to the people of Irrisen, it's quite a deal of honor to return with a mate. Let's get Skelg out of bed."
"You can stop him from freezing, right?" Cirri asks before she heads off with the party to talk to Skelg.
Once they’re below-decks and out of earshot of Natalya, Antonella says to the others. “Lady N seems as on the level as a husband-hungry winter-witch widow ripped off by her stepson and abandoned on a funeral-ship with a bunch of frost zombies can be.”
“I say let’s set her up with Skelg.” The monk follows after Cirri.
hp 54/54 | Ac 23 T 16 FF 17 (+1 AC if adjacent to only 1 foe) | Init +7 | Fort +9 Ref+13 Will +7 | Perception +9 | Panache 3/3 | Plume of Panache 1/1 | Lay on Hands 4/4 | Smite 1/1 | Reroll 1/1
"Wait, what!? I wonder what Skelg thinks of all this, and if he can even think straight with that cold he is suffering from. Alas, only one way to find out!"
Banquo: Wait! What's going on now?
Angel: We are going to get the frozen guy hitched to the ice queen back there.
Banquo: Oh. That sounds right.
Angel: No. It sounds creepy.
Banquo: Well, you should know all about creepy.
Angel gives Banquo a stern look. Then they both punch each other in the shoulder and laugh. Almost in unison they turn to the group and say, "Let's do this!"Banquo: Wait! What's going on now?
Angel: We are going to get the frozen guy hitched to the ice queen back there.
Banquo: Oh. That sounds right.
Angel: No. It sounds creepy.
Banquo: Well, you should know all about creepy.
Angel gives Banquo a stern look. Then they both punch each other in the shoulder and laugh. Almost in unison they turn to the group and say, "Let's do this!"
Banquo: "But I don't want to carry the frozen guy. My hands will get cold."
Angel: "I'll do it..."
“I really like your brand of rambling, Cirri. I’ve heard it’s popular with Ulfen doormen down at the docks as well!” Antonella *winks*
Antonella Schiavo wrote:
"Lady Natalya will give him something nice and warm to snuggle up to."
“Oh, and if I wasn’t being clear before – I meant a hot water bottle.” Antonella lifts her eyes to Axis and shakes her head. “I am a paladin you know.”
Take 10 Heal:10 + 5 = 15
Once they're back at Greydog Manor, Antonella kneels by the Ripper’s bed and takes his hand. “Skelg, you sly dog! You didn’t tell us you rescued Lady Yagevna, when she was abandoned on Jarl Bjornsson’s funerary ship! From what I understand of the customs of the North, doesn’t that mean you become responsible for her as her Lord?”
“I saw her ❆shiver❄ when your name was mentioned. She’s a widow and claims a royal pedigree from Irrisen. A union could strengthen ties between your two nations and increase your own prestige. Perhaps you should strike now before your suit grows … cold.”
Antonella smacks her forehead. “D’oh! There’s one more thing … She’s also the only chance you’ve got of curing the curse and staying alive. She’ll sort that if you bend your knee to her.”
Banquo: "She was quite ... the looker, too. You'd be a lucky man." Dip aid:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22
Angel: "It seems she has good intentions, but we believe this might be your only way to remove the curse. We don't know if there is much more we can do." Dip aid:1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12
Cirri's Familiar | Spells -/6/5/4/2 | Arcane Pool 11/11 | Flight Hex minutes 10/10 | GM Folio Reroll +2 | HP 86/86 | AC 21, T 12, FF 20 | Saves 11/6/8 | CMD 23 (25 vs trip) | Perception +7 | Init +1 | Female Human Magus 10 | Alignment NG |Ward not set
"Normally I wouldn't just put you two together like this. But Tirfyr froze and became...something else. We had to put him down. It's best you at least show up and talk to her into removing the curse."
hp 54/54 | Ac 23 T 16 FF 17 (+1 AC if adjacent to only 1 foe) | Init +7 | Fort +9 Ref+13 Will +7 | Perception +9 | Panache 3/3 | Plume of Panache 1/1 | Lay on Hands 4/4 | Smite 1/1 | Reroll 1/1
"We would be happy to carry you there, or arrange a horse" Isabella adds
"Wi-wi-wife of Haldyr Bj-bjornsson? Th-that fool would have h-had her burn, if I hadn't r-r-raided his funerary ship..." the Ulfen man states.
Skelg shrugs "There are worse fates than keeping a woman of her beauty company..." The man shakily stands to his feet and moves to follow Isabella through the portal. The biting cold of the ship seems to agitate his condition even farther.
He reaches the cabin and the eyes of the sorceress gravitate towards him immediately. "I see you have brought him..."
Skelg half-heartedly smiles. "Hello, once more Natalya..."
Impatiently, she stands up and puts out her hand. "Alright, I shall fix this curse. The lantern, please?"
Cirri hands the lantern to the witch. Natalya opens the door to the ice-cold flame before summoning a ball of energy in her other hand that pulsates faster and faster as she bring it closer to the lantern. She tilts her hand and the magic seems to roll into the compartment before it leaps and smothers the blue flame.
"The connection between Skelg and the lantern is severed." states the woman plainly.
Color seems to return to the face and skin of the Ulfen man and his teeth stop chattering. "Thank you, Natalya. I shall honor my end of the bargain as well. I assume that you wish to head to Irrisen to formalize our arrangement?"
"You know my customs well, Skelg."
As the two converse, the ice surrounding the boat starts to thaw and it is not long before the ice completely melts. Skelg and Natalya head to the deck of the ship as she hangs the lantern from the prow of the ship. She sets the lantern on the deck before summoning two powerful ice devils to her side.
The two ice devils extend their claws and channel their icy powers into the lantern. The witch then slams her hand on the deck of the ship and the ice devils disappear in a puff of snow and the lantern suddenly glows with a warm, blue flame.
"This is how you actually light the lantern." Natalya states simply. She picks up a long pole from the ship's deck and uses it to hang the lantern in front of them on the prow of the ship. As soon as she pulls back the pole, the lantern's glow grows larger and larger until a portal appears 100' in front of the ship. Beyond the portal, it appears to be a haze of a harbor, ice and seawater.
"Next stop, Irrisen." the witch says wryly.
Turning her head she coolly says. If you wish to depart, then now is the time. You are more than welcome to become a part of my crew if you wish it. Natalya says with a wink.
Antonella observes the summoning and sacrifice of the two fiends coldly. “I am pleased you have destroyed those dark thralls of the Pit, My Lady.”
The paladin's mouth is a thin line. “Saves us the trouble of sullying your beautiful vessel with their blood.”
“Alas, I must decline your kind offer of employment. I doubt I could acclimatize to life in Irrisen. Having now experienced snow, I can appreciate its allure and beauty. However, I find after an hour of being cold and wet, its charm wears thin.”
hp 54/54 | Ac 23 T 16 FF 17 (+1 AC if adjacent to only 1 foe) | Init +7 | Fort +9 Ref+13 Will +7 | Perception +9 | Panache 3/3 | Plume of Panache 1/1 | Lay on Hands 4/4 | Smite 1/1 | Reroll 1/1
"No thanks, but if I ever find myself in Irrisen I will pay you two a visit. Besides we have to arrange the wedding of Cirri with this nice Ulfen bloke!"
Returning to the portal you see the familiar presence of Skelg's hallway.
"You have my thanks, Pathfinders. Look me up in Irrisen if you come north." Skelg says.
"I'm sure I can repay the favor. Good luck with your travels, Pathfinders." Natalya says icily.
Skelg shakes everyone's hand and thanks them for their efforts. As you go back through the portal, you end up in Skelg's villa on the outskirts of Absalom.
---Later, back at the Grand Lodge...---
"So you gave her the Beacon, sold Skelg the Ripper into marriage, and then let them live happily ever after in Irrisen?!?" Adril Hestram is not pleased, the words coming through biting teeth. "Skelg promised to reward the Society with relics recovered on his travels. I am quite sure I mentioned this. Did it not occur to you that a magical lantern capable of freezing a man from within, covering an entire ship in ice, and creating giant portals for traveling, might be just what I was talking about? Did you at least examine the lantern and take some notes? No?! Argh!! Get out!"
Primary Mission: Save Skelg (Success).
Secondary Mission: Recover Lantern of the North (Failure).
The End. Finishing up chronicles. I should have them out by tomorrow evening.
“I beg your pardon, VC Hestram. I made the rookie error of thinking an oral report would be sufficient. If you can forgive us this blunder, I would be delighted to set out our report in writing so ALL Pathfinders can benefit from our investigation.”
“Now during the briefing, I thought you said …”
With an amazing recall for details, Antonella closes her eyes and recites from memory …
Adril Hestram wrote:
“If you find an item that is somehow connected to the curse, either retrieve it or glean as much information as you can about it.”
“During our investigation we discovered:
The Beacon of the North is a huge bullseye lantern designed
to be hung on the prow of a ship. To activate its powers
requires a special lamp oil that only the white witches of
Irrisen know how to create. It can hold enough oil to burn
for 8 hours, although it currently has only 2 hours of oil
remaining. When lit, the lantern burns with a cold light, and
if the burning oil is used as a weapon, it does cold damage
instead of fire damage.
The lantern also opens portals under the right
circumstances. If hung on the prow of Haldyr Bjornsson’s
funeral ship (to which it is attuned) and lit, it opens a shipsized
portal to Whitethrone harbor in Irrisen. If the light is
focused on the main mast of the ship or on the tapestry
depicting the ship, a 5-foot-wide portal opens connecting
the tapestry to the ship’s main mast so creatures touching
one appear at the other. A portal appears as a shimmering blue-white patch of
light, and it is impossible to see what is on the other side.
As a standard action, the wielder can focus the beam on a
single living creature, which creates a small portal from the
frozen north to the creature’s body. Cold energy leaks through this tiny portal, exposing the
creature to a permanent cold environment. If the Beacon is focused
on the creature for multiple rounds, the portal opens further.
A second failed save worsens the exposure to severe cold, and
a third failed save causes extreme cold. Regardless of the level
of cold, the portal only inflicts environmental damage once per
day plus once for every round the Beacon shines on the creature.
Any creature that dies from the environmental damage caused
by the Beacon rises the following midnight as a frozen zombie.
“The ice-cold flame may be extinguished by applying summoned energy to it. Lady Natalya demonstrated how the lantern was lit, by coercing two gelugons to channel their icy powers into the lantern. After banishing the fiends, the lantern began glowing with a warm, blue flame.”
“As a rookie, I find my willingness to undertake additional missions highly influenced by the amount my renown spreads throughout the organization on account of carrying out by VC’s briefing to the letter. While finding non-violent resolutions to problems encourages newcomers away from the path of the stereotypical murder-hobo of the Society - thereby uplifting the entire Pathfinder Society’s reputation as we are further motivated by our leaders to relentlessly pursue its goals.”
Pal 9, HP92 - AC 24, T 12, FF 23/ F +14, R +10, W +12 (+2vEvil)/ CMD 26, CMB +13/ Per +15(Dk Vis), Init +5, Move 20ft
Ragnar:
Celestial Horse, HP76 - AC 25, T 12, FF 22/ F +10, R +9, W +6/ CMD 26, CMB +13/ Per +5(Dk Vis), Init +2, Move 50ft
Frost equally remains unmoved by Hestrams concerns.
"I thought the Ripper was your friend, and yet you are more concerned with trinkets and inconvenience than knowing your friend has found love, wealth, title, and a good home in which to live out his days. Love was the answer and I happily wear that as a 'failure' - he went willingly enough to a good life"
hp 54/54 | Ac 23 T 16 FF 17 (+1 AC if adjacent to only 1 foe) | Init +7 | Fort +9 Ref+13 Will +7 | Perception +9 | Panache 3/3 | Plume of Panache 1/1 | Lay on Hands 4/4 | Smite 1/1 | Reroll 1/1
Happy to fail this secondary mission
After the debriefing Isabella works on her political skill, calling in some favors she is owned.
Knowledge (Nobility) take 10 DC19:10 + 9 = 19
Faction card goal: forgo downtime to reinforce political connections. Knowledge (Nobility) DC 15 + level = 19. Using confidante faction card reward to use ranks in diplomacy for knowledge skill
Banquo: "I 'gleaned' that it glowed... BLUE!"
Angel: Quiet. He doesn't care. He wanted the lantern, not information.
Banquo: "But it did glow blue!!"
Angel: I know. I know.
Banquo squints at VC. To Angel, "What a jerk."
Cirri's Familiar | Spells -/6/5/4/2 | Arcane Pool 11/11 | Flight Hex minutes 10/10 | GM Folio Reroll +2 | HP 86/86 | AC 21, T 12, FF 20 | Saves 11/6/8 | CMD 23 (25 vs trip) | Perception +7 | Init +1 | Female Human Magus 10 | Alignment NG |Ward not set
"Huh." Cirri scratches her head. "While I do think these things belong in a museum, she was able to purge the curse so it can't hurt anyone again. She kept her end of the bargain., and we had no reason to suspect treachery."
"We already lost one man to its effects. I wasn't going to lose another just so we had a new toy to play with." Cirri respectfully bows to the VC before taking her leave.
Cirri seems contemplative as the party leaves the inn. "Irrisen is a beautiful region. When I met the Snowmask Clan, they were trying to repel invaders from the Shadow Lodge from taking their sacred treasure. I held it, a flaming greataxe, and understood its power and how we could use it to our benefit. But if I took it we would be no better than the Shadow Lodge." Cirri laughs. "Winning hearts and minds are just as important as gathering powerful artifacts. How can we claim victory if we would stoop to their level?"
