Nevinia does recognize Arkady's symptoms as a mild form of chillbane fever, a disease that is normally only found in Irrisen. Thankfully, Arkady has only contracted a mild case, and will get better quickly with treatment. However, from what Nevinia knows, she believes the disease is extremely contagious.
Inside the cave, Cervin quickly finds the lock box and tries the key. The lock easily opens, and Cervin peers inside to find a wealth of treasure. Upon a bed of thousands of various coins lie jewelry and gemstones, a painting of a foreign-looking city, a decorative filigree longsword scabbard and a small scrimshaw sculpture of dancing sprites surrounding a piping satyr. Next to these treasures, a plain unadorned iron coffer stands out.
Arkady looks over the items, intrigued by the collection.
He peers between his fingers, checking for magical auras.
He looks carefully at the iron coffer, curious about such a plain item amidst the treasure.
Cervin gasps, completely unused to seeing so much wealth.
"This could buy a lot of food for Heldren..."
"Pity it can't buy summer."
Realizing the cave won't sustain a fire, Yagello suggests they return to the igloos. "How about Igmar and myself in one igloo and you three in the other? That way the healers can keep tending to Arkady throughout the night."
He also steals a glance at the booty unlocked by Cervin, "This would go a long ways towards sustaining us and making up for Heldren's lost harvest."
Arkady's eye is drawn by the painting, figuring it must be worth a small fortune to the right art collector. The city depicted is covered in snow and ice, and sits perched on the cliffs above a body of water. A lone bridge leads from the city out into the lake, ending in a tower in the distance that appears to be made of solid ice.
Arkady peers through his fingers, and detects the same faint auras coming from the coffer. The Varisian does a quick check for traps, and finding none opens the coffer to see four neatly arranged potions. There is room in the coffer for two more.
Yagello and Cervin scan across the horde, and a few items catch each of their eyes. Cervin eyes the decorative scabbard, figuring it to be worth a couple of hundred gold pieces along, not to mention being functional as well. Yagello sees the gemstone as being the easiest to transport. There is one clear crystal, but the four blue stones interest Yagello in particular, as he has never seen such unique looking stones.
Tzerny catches site of the blue stones and flies off Nevinia's shoulder to investigate. "What's this? Blue stones?"
Arkady looks closer at the potions, trying to discern the auras:
Arkady looks at the potions in turn, each a slightly different shade of blue, but all in identical glass vials. He frowns at them in turn, finally identifying the last as something that would make traveling over the snow much easier, although only for a limited time.
Tzerny eyes the blue stones, but does not think they are as valuable as Yagello does. Their opaque surface makes them on barely more interesting than ordinary stones. The raven does notice the jeweled necklace, which shimmers in the artificial light. Tzerny wonders if he would be able to carry the necklace himself.
"So... shiny..."
Tzerny picks up the necklace in his beak and walks back to Nevinia.
Igmar eyes the treasure as well. "If we're dividing this up, I think I'll take this," the dwarf says, picking up the clear crystal. "I think I'll take a look at this by the fire," he proclaims, heading out to the igloo.
Cervin finishes checking everyone's wounds and sets up his bedroll in the igloo. With a groan, he stretches out, careful of his stitched-up shoulder.
"How should we handle watches? I prefer to have last watch as I pray at dawn, but I'm willing to sit whenever we want. Do you sleep much, Tzerny? If not, perhaps you can take the late night watch."
I'm talking to a crow.
"I sleep all I can, thank you!" Tzerny replies, fluffing his feathers.
Nevinia shakes her head. "Tzerny's not one for watches. I'll take first watch. I want to take some time to brew some medicine. Tzerny will stay with me."
Cervin groans. "Fine. I claim last watch because of the dawn thing. Nevinia as she is less injured and I imagine less exhausted then, Yagello, Igmar for his night vision, and then me. Tzerny can watch whenever he's up and about. Good? Good. Good night."
With that Cervin fluffs up some of the extra clothes he's carrying and lays down to go to sleep.
"I'll try to get some rest, and if things go well, I will be feeling better in the morning and can help watch after I study my spells."
Yagello nods solemnly at Cervin, barely suppressing a yawn with his left hand. He pockets the four blue stones into his backpack and heads out to the igloo with Igmar by his side. He soon gets a strong fire burning and gladly warms his hands by the crackling embers.
Feeling the hunger in his belly, he chows down on a quick meal of trail rations before preparing his bedroll. His body still hurting all around, he gingerly removes his breastplate and curls up in his blanket. He falls into a deep slumber a few moments later, dreaming of his fallen and departed companions...
Nevinia takes first watch, brewing something as the others quickly fall asleep in the blowing wind, with only Arkady's occasional cough to disrupt the sleepers. She wakes Igmar when it is late, and takes her turn to sleep.
Cervin is woken by Igmar in the early morning, a bit groggy and still tired from the battle last night. At least there had been no disruptions to date. He starts the fires up again and stretches from time to time in order to shake off the cold. As the sun rises, the wind appears to be letting up slightly, although the snow still falls, limiting visibility and covering the scene of their battle.
Nevinia checks her potions. She replaces the one that was used last night, and looks over to Arkady, still looking feverish. She shakes her head.
"Tzerny, I'll need some help with everyone today. I think the group is going to need more healing."
Cervin wakes up and spends the morning in prayer whilst tending the fire.
As the party awakes, coughing and groaning from the spreading sickness, a sudden sustained blast of air comes with a shriek, clearing the snow in a few instants. The party gets out of their igloos to see the source.
Impossible to see in the snow and dark, but now impossible to miss, a bank of quill-like icicles spear outward in a ring, seemingly grown from a heavy sheet of ice covering the ground. A second ring of giant icicle-shaped monoliths stands inside the outer ring, surrounding a swirling cylindrical vortex easily ten feet in diameter. Icy winds and snow blast from the vortex, obviously the source of the wintry weather in the clearing.
Cervin continues to poke at the fire and the blast of cold weather knocks him flat on his back. He scrambles to his feet, his eyes wide with fear as he points a shaking finger at the vortex.
"Deadeye preserve us! What is that?!"
Freezing wind whipping around her parka, Nevinia replies, "Considering the chillbane going around, It's probably a portal to Irrisen. That's where the winter and the disease come from."
Cervin stares at the portal, his hair whipping wildly behind him. He clambers to his feet and hooks Daegan's old cold iron greataxe on his shoulder.
"Erastil preserve us. Unless you know a clever way to close it from this side, we may have to go through."
Nevinia is able to detect a strong conjuration and evocation aura around the vortex, but cannot confirm for any additional details about the magic involved.
"Unless there happens to be another magical portal nearby that is also spitting out cold and snow!" Igmar chortles quietly, still in awe of the swirling energies.
Yagello pops his head out of the igloo only to be quickly felled by the icy blast of winter. The ranger emerges a few moments later cursing to himself and looking horrible. His eyes are bloodshot, and he holds his side as he coughs into the wind.
"Hack, Hack, Ugh"
"Arkady, please tell me your magics can close that portal!"
Nevinia heads over to Yagello, knitting her brow.
"Oh no, did you catch the chillbane, too? Oh Pharasma, this is ridiculous."
She turns back to the portal and screams at it, "What are you? Why are you here? Why are you doing this?"
Tzerny clicks his tongue exasperatedly and responds, "Yes, that's right, child, the portal just needs the shrieks of a scared little girl to close. You are so clever."
Nevinia huffs. Staring into the vortex, she responds, calmly, "There's strong Conjuration magic here. That is most definitely a portal. Teleportation, planar shift, whatever. The other side is survivable. What I don't know about is the Evocation. Either it's trying to make everything colder, or there's some sort of trap here..."
She squints. Her raven whispers in her ear. She adds, "Wait, no Abjuration. It... should be safe. Nothing waiting to be sprung. I still can't tell what's on the other side, but my guess... is Irrisen."
Arkady spends the night in fevered dreams. When he awakens, he is barely rested, but hearing the conversation of the others, he steps out and sees the ring of ice.
He steps up next to Nevinia, and makes his own appraisal.
Arkady concludes that Nevinia is correct. The portal is triggered from something on the other side, and the party will have to travel through to stop it. Arkady begins approaching the portal to check for traps, when another sudden surge of wind blasts from the swirling vortex in the ring of icicles, gusting outward in a stinging spray of snow and ice.
Suddenly, a gaunt horseman with curling ram’s horns and wearing coal-black armor lurches through the portal astride a black warhorse, surrounded by tendrils of cold, dark mist. The rider slumps in the saddle, a shard of blue ice jutting from his back. As rider and mount come to a halt in the snow, the horse suddenly dissipates into black smoke, and the horseman falls to the ground with a groan.
The horned man beckons for the party to come closer, then hesitates. He flicks his hand, and the horns fade away as if illusory, leaving behind an old ordinary human man, exhausted and pale. It does not take much for most in the party to realize the rider is close to death.
"Oh, no!" Nevinia cries, rushing forth in her snowshoes the best she can. She reaches the fallen rider and looks him over, for injuries and disease. Reflexively, she adds, "Preserve thee."
Tzerny flies after her, adding, "Wait! You don't know--ugh..."
Cervin's eyes go even wider at the sight of the rider, and he rushes forward alongside Nevinia.
Nevinia knows of no way to remove the large ice shard jutting from the old man's back. As her magic works into the man's flesh, a bit of color returns to his cheeks, and he coughs heavily, before speaking in a weak voice.
"Come quickly, I have important knowledge to share with you. You must listen to me to stop this winter, before it engulfs your lands and others nearby, bringing an eternal freeze to all. Please," he says, gesturing towards Nevinia, "Do not waste more of your magic on me, for it is my fate to die here today. I will tell you what you need to know to stop this." The old man coughs again, the blue ice in his back bobbing with each breath, giving a chance for the others to gather around and ask questions.
Arkady approaches the man, concerned but also wary for a trap.
The old man recovers from his cough, and begins to speak, his breath laboring from time to time. "My name is Illarion Matveius, but it has been a long time since anyone has called me by that name. Now I am known as Black Midnight. I am the Witch Queen Baba Yaga’s Black Rider, harbinger of her return."
"Something has happened to Baba Yaga. Every hundred years, she returns to Irrisen to place a new daughter on the throne. But Queen Elvanna, current caretaker of the throne, seems to have other plans. Baba Yaga has not appeared as planned, and Elvanna intends to slay everyone loyal to her mother. She hunted down those of us who would herald Baba Yaga’s return and slew my associates. I am the last of the Three Riders and a threat to Elvanna’s plans." He gestures towards the ice shard still jutting from his back.
"Irrisen is a land of endless winter, created by Baba Yaga’s magic. Elvanna seeks to cover the entire world in ice and snow, using portals like this one. She wants to take Baba Yaga's place, and claim all of Golarion as her personal kingdom. You can find the source of the portal behind me in the Pale Tower, on the other side, but to close the other portals, you must find Baba Yaga. Only the Queen of Witches can undo what her daughter has done." The old man pauses to cough again.
Yagello watches this scene play out before him in utter amazement and turns to Cervin with a bewildered glance, "What exactly have we stumbled into!?"
I'm but a humble mercenary, and now this man speaks of a plot which could affect the entire world. Do I have the mettle to see this to its end?
Stifling another cough, he thinks back on his training and travels throughout Taldor. What does he know precisely about Irrisen, this Queen Elvanna, or the missing Witch Queen Baba Yaga? He also tries to discern if the old man is being completely truthful or hiding some hidden agenda.
Yagello has heard of Irrisen, the land of eternal winter, but he has not heard of Baba Yaga or Elvanna. However, Yagello sees no immediate reason to mistrust this man, as he is very obviously dying and does not appear to have a reason to lie to the party.
Yagello sizes up the old man at his feet and questions him further, "Rider, I am truly sorry for the gravity of your wounds, but I must ask you some questions.
I am unfamiliar with your mistress Baba Yaga, but the title you gave her, "Queen of Witches," speaks for itself. How do we know she is any better than this Queen Elvanna you fear?
Also, judging my your armor, you are a man of the sword. What exactly awaits us on the other side of that portal? Enemy numbers? Composition? Tactics?"
Yagello feels his fever spiking but forces himself to remain lucid and clear-headed.
Arkady listens to the story, and considers his own knowledge of lore, and of the type of magic it would take to create this portal.
Arkady has heard the many stories of Irrisen, land of eternal winter. But the wintry effects end at the borders of Irrisen, and the nation has mostly kept to itself in recent memory. He does not know of any stories from Irrisen or elsewhere that would create such a magic portal and the Varisian has also not heard of Baba Yaga or Elvanna.
"Not all witches wish ill upon others," the man says, briefly looking towards Nevinia, "And while Baba Yaga may not be your friend, she had ruled Irrisen for more than a thousand years without releasing the wintry destruction that Queen Elvanna has brought to you now. You either must help in this task or else allow your lands to be destroyed by snow and ice."
"There should be no resistance on the other side of the portal. I evaded my pursuers from the pale tower long before heading here. However, once it becomes known that you are in Irrisen you will not be welcomed friends among representatives of the Queen." The old man coughs again, growing more pale again.
Cervin stares at the man, too stunned to respond for a moment. He finally speaks.
"So there are several portals like this, which the Queen of Irrisen is responsible for creating. And ... well, I see no option but to enter if we have to save this land." Cervin stares at the portal.
"Where in Irrisen does this portal lead? Is there safe haven such as a friendly village nearby? Or will we be in some endless forest with no sense of direction? I do not know this land."
"This portal will take you to the Hoardwood forest. I saw a small village on the way from the pale tower. You may be able to find allies there to help you take the Pale Tower and save your lands for a time."
"After you close this portal, you will need to find Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut to follow her and permanently end the threat of eternal winter. The hut is a powerful artifact that can cross great distances, even travel between worlds. If you can control the hut, it can take you to Baba Yaga."
"Queen Elvanna has stolen the hut, though, and put it on display in Irrisen's capital, Whitethrone." The old man notices Arkady's painting, and points towards it. "That is Whitethrone, home of the Winter Witches, and that icy tower on the sea is where Queen Elvanna runs the kingdom. You will need to find help to make the trek from the other side of this portal to the city, and to get into the city without arising suspicion." The old man coughs again, falling down from the heaving. He waves away help, and props himself up again, his face now taking on a bluish tint.
Tzerny looks around at everyone. "That's convenient. Here, I was afraid we'd have to chase the hut across the countryside. As for the home of the Winter Witches... It is a good thing you are one, child."
Nevinia stares at Tzerny. "I'm what?? I'm a healer. I make potions. I travel around making medicine. I've certainly never been to Irrisen. No, that is not what I am, bird!"
Yagello's eyes glaze over a bit as he stares intently at the winter portal. A moment of clarity comes over him or perhaps it's just his raging fever. In any case, he thinks of his past.
Perhaps, there truly is a higher power guiding my way in this world. Years ago, I traced my mother's attackers back to Irrisen, but the trail went cold before I even left Taldor. Now destiny pulls me to this icy land once again. Everything has come full circle...
His jaw firmly set, he turns to his companions, "I think we've heard enough. Onward! To the portal!"
Cervin looks at the man and then back to the portal.
"If these are your last moments then go with Erastil's blessing. If you can continue, there are igloos nearby in that direction where you can rest. Thank you. We know what choice we must make."
Cervin stands to his feet and makes his way over to Yagello. He sets his jaw.
I don't want to go.
"Are we ready? Then let's march."