The heroes return to the top of the tower where they first encountered the witch and his goat familiar. A translucent image of a globe 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 cross 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 hands between two open windows to the west. Twin ice sculptures of demonic fiends flank the area where the bubbling cauldron used to sit in an archway leading into a deep alcove in the southern wall.
The domed ceiling is 30 feet high. It takes a while to peruse the numerous books and scrolls but they detail the ritual and the magic of the winter portals. After hours of study it becomes apparent that the lines of arcane energy glowing across the globe's surface reflect ley lines. You can pinpoint the site of the portal in the Border Wood in Taldor and trace the connection between here in the Pale Tower in Irrisen and the Border Wood.
It takes the casting of any conjuration spell followed by a DC 15 concentration check or a DC 20 Use Magic Device check to disrupt the magic flowing through the portals. Success at either raises you to level 4.
The Tengu rubs it's beak for a moment, considering, then he brightens.
"Oh, this is rather simple, all that is required is a simple conjuration spell cast, followed by a focusing of will."
"What magics are 'conjuration?'" Ragnar rumbles, looking distrustfully at the strange globe and the lines of magic.
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Krystae examines the magics with admiration. "Quite a complex weaving of magic here. They are tapping into the ley lines around all of Golarion to create the portals. That's how they are able to open portals all over..." Ragnar's question catches her attention. "Conjuration magics are spells that call of summon or call things, creature, objects... It also covers healing magic and even teleportation magic. Conjuration magic covers a large variety of spells actually." She smiles at the large man. "Watch, I'll show you."
Krystae then summons up a globule of acid into her palm, then focuses all her concentration into the disrupting the flow of magic through the ley line into the border wood. She watches with pride as her will is able to overpower the strength of the magic and she plucks the glowing strand. "No longer shall you threaten my home..."
The Warden silently watches the Female Ulfen and the Tengu work out the solution, not fully understanding the principle, but trusting that they knew what they were doing. This seemed like powerful magic at work.
Leylines...we know those...
It goes on to silently studying the map, looking for it's home.
"Wait. Did you say 'all over'?" Droviz repeats. "How far along is the rot?"
Elen studies the lines, trying to see if there are portals linked elsewhere on Golarion.
"Oh no, ley lines are a good way to open a portal and create a network, but it is not something that can be done EASILY or FAST.
I know that Elen's homeland boast such a portal, but it is incredibly old and required an equal amount of skill to create.
Still...it is a good point Droviz, almost makes me suspect there is more to you than a pretty face."
"My people's casters specialize in creepy magic, and I've seen more of their work than I care for. Nazhena's folks seem a lot like them. If they can mess up these lines so they make more winter portals open up faster, seems to me they will."
"Of course, however, beyond disrupting this one, there is little we can do at the moment.
If they posses the knowledge they will guard it jealously and in the hands of powerful casters.
At the moment we should worry about what we CAN do and seek more information and power if we wish to do more."
"No argument. So, we good to break this sucker down and go find Old Babbie's travelling funhouse, or whatever it's called?"
Havelock snorts loudly.
"And there goes that suspicion out the window..."
Droviz... winks. "Maybe I'm a better liar than you know."
"I can truthfully claim that you hold no candle to my own humble self."
While the globe details hundreds of ley lines running all over the world, it is impossible to identify which ones have winter portals set up at them. After examining all of the information available and the globe itself, it becomes obvious that the ley lines are the key factors tying the portals together. Several ley lines converge in Irrisen's capital.
There can certainly be a ley line near Dreaming Trees, "Hearts of the Forest".
"See? In theory, if we cut off any portals that originate along a leyline somewhere in Irrisen, it would cripple their network.
Again, nothing we can do at the present time, but food for though nonetheless."
As Krystae's glob of acid comes into existence and her attention focuses on the magical energy, the room begins to rumble slightly. Time slows and and seconds become minutes. The globe fluctuates, fading in and out and shimmering until it blinks out of existence.
The room continues to shake, growing more and more violent with each passing moment. Suddenly all light in the room is sucked into oblivion. As darkness engulfs the room, a slight hum can be heard rising. It grows louder and louder until it becomes almost deafening.
An explosion of light brightens the room and blinds everyone as colors rarely seen streak out of the center of the room. The humming fades and leaves a ringing in the ears that slowly causes a headache. As vision and hearing return, the globe is gone and most of the paper in the room smolders. The shaking has ceased and the headaches quickly fade. The interruption of magical energy seems to have caused a disjunction in the immediate vicinity.
The large mirror in the room shows numerous cracks but the feeling of being watched just can't be shaken.
Is she talking with herself? Why would she do that? Maybe she has fulfilled her purpose by severing the connection, and can now return to the earth that gave her life? But why would she announce it like that?
Warden, unaware of the nature of the mirrors, curiously watches if Krystae is going to do anything suicidal.
Droviz bangs his ear with the heel of his hand and grunts.
"Right, then."
The masked warrior draws his silver hammer and marches up to the cracked mirror -- which he proceeds to pound into as fine a dust as he can manage.
"No need for her to know what we do next," he says.
Ragnar shields his eyes with his hands and blinks back the light.
"Ow." he rumbled. He scanned the room, hoping they hadn't missed anything and trudged out. He still wanted to find the girl.
While the others spoke with the tree creature, Ragnar knelt next to the body of the young girl, looking pensive and sad.
"This place. Evil. Children should not hurt for power of others."
The body is of a young female human child. Some of the features seem eerily familiar yet distorted, as if you've seen them somewhere before.
"Anyone want to say a few words?" Droviz suggests.
"So...the person responsible for the icy portals is in Irrisen? Did you fulfill your agenda by what you accomplished here? Or are you going to stop the one responsible?", Warden asks, possibly not the kind of words Droviz meant, but words nonetheless-
While the others spoke with the tree creature, Ragnar knelt next to the body of the young girl, looking pensive and sad.
"This place. Evil. Children should not hurt for power of others."
The body is of a young female human child. Some of the features seem eerily familiar yet distorted, as if you've seen them somewhere before.
"Ragnar, my friend, are you looking for the shade of Thora?"
When Droviz asks, Elen remembers her early training for the Desnan priesthood, before she left on her journeys.
"Lady, Tiny voice, like the hidden sounds that moths make, call to me in the silence of the night. Like moths beating their wings against the screen, You beat against the shutters of my mind, demanding entrance. The candle of the moon is dark, granting no direction. Yet, veiled though You are, Your nearness brushes me like fragile wings against the fire’s flame. New beginnings are Your gift, to unfold as the many-petalled moon, or the iridescent wings of Your desire."
"I don't remember the prayer for death, but that's the prayer for rebirth of the new moon, and I hope that wherever her soul is now, it feels reborn."
"Ragnar, my friend, are you looking for the shade of Thora?"
"Yes." he said simply. "I do not believe she wished to enter this place. Her body is all there is. Her soul will be outside the walls, reborn or not."
"Come child." he said gently to the corpse, touching her shriveled lips. "We will return you to your mother."
And the corpse twitched to life, standing and taking the big man's hand.
The corpse of the little girl hung it's head sadly, hardly moving, shuffling it's feet as it followed Ragnar toward the door.
Warden watches Ragnar, not showing any sign of disagreement or concern regarding his actions, before looking to the others again, expecting an answer to it's earlier question.
"You'd better know how to turn that thing off again before we hand it over to the little girl's mum," is all Droviz says to Ragnar. "Folks up here don't take too kindly to the bodies of their dead being turned into meat puppets."
"Yes... I know you're giving it to one of your spirits to inhabit, so it's not the same as a normal necromancer, but it's still giving me the creepy crawlies. As cold as it is, it won't decay, which makes it less unpleasant to be around, but Nadya might mistake it for her daughter still alive, which would be cruel to her."
"Ragnar, if we do find the spirit of Thora around somewhere, and she inhabits the body, would she even be able to act like she did while she was alive?"
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Krystae recognizes the Desnan prayer and joins Elen midway through, smiling at the elven witch for possibly the first time. When Ragnar suddenly brings the child's corpse to unlife she steps back, aghast. "Indeed Ragnar, such a thing is not considered acceptable in this age. Please do not ever do such a thing to me should I fall in battle in our quest." She shudders and quickly walks away... "Once we have returned Thora's body to her mother, we need to do a more thorough search of this place and destroy all mirrors. We can use this as a base of operations and allow the villagers to move into here if they so wish now that their homes have been destroyed."
Havelock shakes his head at that, sighing a little.
"Do not discount the possibility of there being more troops and such stationed in the village, should we go down there, our fight may not yet be over.
Moreover, I doubt the villagers would like to take this place as a home, if Baba Yaga's daughters inspire such terror, they likely would not risk stepping into something that could land them into trouble should someone suspect they gave us succour."
"You'd better know how to turn that thing off again before we hand it over to the little girl's mum,"
"Before she has a chance to say goodbye? Why would she wish to do that?"
I know you're giving it to one of your spirits to inhabit, so it's not the same as a normal necromancer
"There is no spirit in this body. I am empowering it to find the spirit that it lost. The vessel is empty."
"Ragnar, if we do find the spirit of Thora around somewhere, and she inhabits the body, would she even be able to act like she did while she was alive?"
"She would think so, but it would be different. Like an echo. Reactions and instincts only. Death creates a... distance."
"Folks nowadays see a shambler going about, they don't say "What a jolly chance for a last goodbye", they say "Run! The dead are coming to eat the brains out of our skulls!" Shut the thing down 'fore we get to town and tell Nadya what Tora wants to say yourself. Seeing... this... would horrify her."
"Sad." Ragnar said with a sigh. "I will be sure the vessel is still."
"Most of the unliving are created by evil beings looking to cause destruction and fear, and they do this by trapping the soul -- either the whole thing, in the case of sentient undead, or a fragment of it, in the case of mindless undead, in the dead body. That's why most undead are evil, and why people fear them."
Ragnar shrugged. "Being a spirit is... confusing. The mind does not work right. When a spirit inhabits a body that is not theirs, or one that is not alive, the confusion becomes worse. There is much anger and frustration. Hard to make sense out of things. Memory often fails. That is why undead must be commanded. Given purpose. Left to themselves, they become unstable. Do bad things without realizing."
"I would not say undead are evil. Not by choice. No more than an abused animal is. Sometimes, they must be destroyed for the safety of others. Sometimes, they can still be brought back. Trained. Helped. Made better."
Realizing it's question is utterly ignored, Warden moves on and instead joins the new topic of conversation: "Life, death is a cycle. The dead decay, make room for new life. After all, we all are dead matter with a spark of life. A complicated spark easily snuffed out. But many of that kind envy the living, to the point they act like rabid animals. She seems docile. But will likely need some warmth to decompose properly. It will be convenient if she herself can tend the fire."
The frozen keep is eerily quiet. Only footsteps echo through the ice-covered chambers and hallways. With the portal ritual disrupted, the ice teleporters no longer function by pass phrase. For some strange reason though, the keys still work them. The sylph follows along quietly. Her eyes take in the numerous bodies of defeated foes, those she once called allies.
The trek through the courtyard is cold as the snow and winds have picked up. There is still daylight left, but it's tough to tell how much. Nadya had promised to stay close in order to rendezvous once the keep was clear.
Ragnar was intent on finding the spirit of the little girl. He barely seemed to be paying attention to the real world at all. All around him tiny bare footprints appeared in the snow, along with a handful of adult sized bootprints. The little corpse still held his hand, solemnly walking with him.
Droviz stops Ragnar and nods to the child-zombie.
"Best shut her down 'fore we leave the keep."
Turning to Warden, he adds: "Yeah. We're headed to Irrisen to put an end to all the winter portals. Wanna come? Could be some good looting once the job's done."
Ragnar nods and picks the child up, carrying her gently. He whispers something to her and she nods. Then she slowly turns her head, straining. Then with an audible pop her neck twists itself beyond a natural angle. She goes limp. Ragnar sets her head forward again and continues walking.
Warden, puzzled why the docile undead was shut down again, but feeling that asking would be out of place, is glad to be addressed by Droviz, allowing it to refocus it's attention on him.
It listens to his offer, then nods...cheerfully(?):"I would welcome that. One of their portals threatens my home, too. If we can find the source, and close them permanently, my purpose would be fulfilled. I will not have need of loot, then."
"Perhaps you could help us, then... we've been charged with a greater purpose than just closing the portals. Burdened, one might say."
At Krystae's whistle, Nadya appears on the horizon. It takes her several minutes to reach the smashed portcullis, whether due to caution or the weather. She waves as she approaches and you can see her looking around, taking in the scene.
"By all of the gods, you have done it, haven't you? You have cast the first stone. Did you defeat Nazhena? Was she here? What...what news of my daughter Thora?"
Her face is a mixture of fear and pride.