Cylina gasped in surprise as Radzislau shrank beside her, the fey responsible appearing nearby after its magical attack. Hearing the struggle in the nearby room, she strode forward as the paladin managed to strike the atomie, swinging her morningstar down at the thing before it could cause any more mischief.
Dining Hall - Round 2 - concluded
Cylina clubs the tiny winter-touched atomie, crushing it with her morningstar and watcthing with a grim smile as it falls to the icy floor dead.
With a target now dead, Nadya double moves from her post behind the big dining table, ending up just inside the doorway of the library.
End of Round 2
Ruso moves up to the individual wielding, the what to him is an excessively sized sword, and thrusts his needle esque blade at her armor's weak spot, the armpit. Unfortunately for him the guard's momentary foble of her own blade took her body in an unexpected direction and all his own blade pierces is air.
Dining Hall - Round 3
25 Ruso
20 Irina
20 Wulfgang
16 Jir (red)
16 Radzislau
14 Orlov (14hp dmg)
7 Cylina
5 Nadya
Ruso's aggressive move against Orlov fails to pay off as she is too well-armored for him to damage with his first attack.
Irina moves into the room and gives the Evil Eye to Orlov. "Well this got violent quickly."
Dining Hall - Round 3 - continued
Irina cruises into the library doorway and uses her hexcraft on the enemy sorceror/warrior. Orlov is able to overcome the hex, but her defenses are still limited immediately.
Sensing that opening, Wulfgang attacks his blade cutting the guard captain deeply leaving her pretty badly hurt.
JIr flies against the vaulted ceiling out of reach of the party, and casts his reduce person once again on Wulfgang but the northman shakes off the effect, leaving the atomie without its most potent weapon.
->
Radzislau pushes in to attack the last enemy, swinging his hammer with gusto.
Dining Hall - Round 3 - continued
Radzislau makes for what he lost in size with determination. He enters the library and swings at the floating fey but his attack is far short of hitting.
Captain Orlov is badly hurt, but also trapped by the heroes. Roaring with frustration she makes final death attack against Wulfgang, bringing her greatsword around on the northman. The hit hurts Wulfgang badly, almost bringing him down in one stroke.
Cylina rounded the corner into the room, feeling rather satisfied with herself after striking down the bothersome little fey. Thus she entered right in time to see Wulfgang be on the receiving end of a terrible blow, one that would have dropped a lesser man. Pursing her lips, she strode towards the northman, skirting the table as she reached for his arm, holy symbol clasped in her shield hand.
Dining Hall - Round 3 - concluded
Cylina slips inside the book-filled room and touches Wulfgang, restoring a little of his lost vitality. Still, another hit like the one he just took might be very bad.
Nadya fires her bow at the flying fey. The shot is true, and hits the atomie dead center, knocking it across the room, and pinning it to the opposite wall, still and dead. "That's for Thora!" she cries, triumphantly.
End of Round 3
Dining Hall - Round 4
25 Ruso
20 Irina
20 Wulfgang (17hp dmg)
16 Radzislau (reduced)
14 Orlov (34hp dmg)
7 Cylina
5 Nadya
Irina Cackles and then gives the Evil Eye to the Captain.
Ruso looks at the severely wounded guard. The only merciful thing to do is to end her thereby ending her suffering at our hands. Ruso thrusts his blade at her exposed flesh.
Dining Hall - Round 4 - continued
Ruso attacks the captain again, and this time it looks like she will block the rapier, but the evil eye slows her just enough for a hit. The wound is not great but the brave captain cannot take another like it. She remains in the fight, but only barely.
Irina's cackling laughter carries the hex on to the remaining target, Captain Orlov. Despite her magical nature she cannot resist the powerful hex and her own attacks are worsened for the rest of the fight.
Radzislau steps closer and swings once more, this time towards the fiendish Orlov.
Dining Hall - Round 4 - continued
The small-sized Radzislau squeezes into the space in the front lines, and attacks the Irriseni captain, but she is able to deflect his blow, which falls harmless.
Dining Hall - Round 4 - concluded
Swinging again at the wounded captain, Wulfgang's axe just does connect, and while the wound is minor comparatively, it is enough to down the leader of the Pale Tower guards.
End of Combat
After the guard captain fell, Cylina again reached out and channeled Milani's healing grace into Wulfgang, healing more of the grievous wounds he had sustained since entering the Pale Tower.
Satisfied with the improved results of her blessings, the priestess surveyed the scene and nearly giggled at the sight of the pint-sized Radzislau. She hastily sobered as she caught a glimpse of Nadya, the woman's concern for her daughter evident. She hoped the effect on the paladin wasn't permanent. She quickly helped the others loot the bodies of the fallen, hoping that fairly important folks like these might have keys and whatnot. Once this was done, she was ready to proceed to the Northern double doors when everyone else agreed it was time to press on.
Ruso pulls a rag out and wipes his blade clean. After sheathing his rapier he begins to search those they felled for anything of potential use. Perhaps one of them is carrying a portal key to one or more of the floors.
Radzislau helps the others to look for relevant items in the rooms, taking advantage of his reduced size to look in lower down nooks and crannies.
The dining hall holds nothing more of interest than has been described. It's ice chandelier is beautiful but immovable. The teleporter you arrived on has a twin just to the south. Windows provide a stunning view of the tundra around the tower. Even though you are on the second floor of the keep, you must be a hundred feet in the air already.
The library, where Captain Orlov was reading before the fight, is lined floor to ceiling with bookshelves which line this sprawling chamber. An ornate table, covered with open texts and lit candles, and six chairs sit in the middle of the room. A massive mirror hangs on the western wall.
Perusing the library but briefly, you can see that it holds an expansive collection of tomes on lore. The books cover various topics such as Golarion history, the Great Beyond, and bestiaries on dragons, fey, and magical beasts of the icy north. The tomes open on the table all relate to Taldor, strangely enough.
Looking at the gear held by the bard and captain, you find a red elixir, 3 pale blue potions, 1 clear potion, 1 icy white elixir, a MW greatsword, a MW throwing axe, a light crossbow with 10 bolts, a magical cloak, a key (likely to a chest or cabinet), and a flat blue teleporter key, an opal necklace, along with 80gp.
Ruso tastes each of the potions in turn as he tries to make out what they are. He also pockets the opal necklace. Value is value. No sense in leaving small valuable behind.
Iriana is so glad the fight is over for the moment. "I guess our question about the fey has been answered. Glad we didn't mention our friend to her."
She does her best to discover what the items are.
The priestess looked at interest at the contents of the library where the late captain had been reading, finding the brief flip-through of the historical texts fascinating. Why the woman had been studying the southern nation of Taldor was perplexing, but maybe she had just been a scholar and was working her way through all the nations of Golarion. Reluctantly setting down the texts, she helped gather up all the items from the enemies, noting the skilled Ruso and Irina figuring out all the magicky stuff.
Once everything had been sorted out and through, the priestess said, "Shall we finish looking in the other rooms on this floor before going up?" If the answer was an affirmative, she would go with the others to the northern door across the hallway, morningstar at the ready.
Radzislau hefts the throwing axe appreciatively before slotting it into a loop on his belt. "I might hang on to this one. Anyone know how long this spell is going to last? I'd like to be my proper size before we press on if it won't be too long."
Ruso's taste buds are apparently quite refined, and as he sips each of the potions, he is able to identify them, except for the icy white elixir.
Red Elixir = elixir of fire breath
Blue Potion - potion of cure moderate wounds x3
Clear Potion - potion of undetectable alignment
He turns the rest of the items over to Irina who starts trying to decipher more about the remainder of the things. Irina is able to identify the rest of the magical items.
Icy White Elixir = ice floe elixir
cloak= cloak of resistance +1
Radzislau slips the MW throwing axe into his belt loop and as he does, the reduction spell wears off, and he returns to normal size.
When everyone is ready, Cylina pushes open the northern door from the hallway. This room appears to be a conservatory or greenhouse of some kind. Several tables, covered in flowering plants and decorative figurines, both large and small, occupy the corners of the brightly lit large room. A large mirror hangs on the NW wall, while the double lead to the north.
The angles of the ice in the walls and ceiling of this room direct sunlight into the room to feed the collection of plants here. In addition to the potted and planted varieties, a leafy creature that resembles a fat, bratty child made from vegetation stands chained against one of the walls and tables. The creature struggles against the chains as you enter but it cannot attack or move towards you from where you stand.
The humanoid plant struggles against its chains as Wulfgang enters the conservatory, but it cannot get free. Perhaps the steel pinions slip a little in the icy wall, but not enough to give an slack in the taut chains.
"Maybe it would be best if we just moved along and left it to its captivity, for now." The priestess eyed the plant creature warily, looking about the room from the doorway. "Want to try the other doors off the hallway, or those doors right there?" She pointed to the doors to the north off the blood plant creature room. Magic-wielding fey were irritating, but the concept of a blood-drinking demon plant was far worse to the woman.
"Seeing as the demon plant thing can't get to us at the moment I am inclined to leave it right where it is. No sense in putting ourselves in danger by getting close to it."
Ruso checks the doors in the greenhouse to see if they are trapped and/or locked. He also listens to try to find out if there are any threats waiting on the other side.
"I agree, we can return to deal with this later if we have time."
If Ruso gave the all clear on the doors to the north in the greenhouse, Cylina would move in and join the elven man at the door, giving the plant a wary glance. Yet another reason to wish ill on the winter witches, especially this one.
"I agree we should leave it alone unless we have to deal with it. We're tired, and this might just waste resources."
Ruso begins checking the door leaving the conservatory, it does not appear locked or trapped. The whole time the elf is in the room, making sure the doors are safe, the mandragora roars in mindless fury, pulling and tugging on the chains binding it. Then, just as Ruso finishes with the doors, the plant-beast finally succeeds in pulling hte chains free from the icy walls, and is at last loose!
Conservatory - Round 1
24 Ruso
20 Irina
13 Mandragora
12 Cylina
12 Wulfgang
7 Radzislau
6 Nadya
"Ah! Goat poop!" Ruso's rapier rasps loose of its scabbard as he climbs atop the table. He then thrusts his blade down at the head of the plant demon thing in an effort to quickly finish it off.
Irina gives the creature the Evil Eye. "Not what I was hoping for." She also Cackles.
Conservatory - Round 1 - continued
Ruso leaps up on the table and stabs down on the smallish plant thing. His rapier hits for some precision damage.
Irina is able to hex the weak-willed plant man and his defenses falter fro the duration of the fight.
Free and angry about his imprisionment, the mandragora unleashes an ear-splitte shriek that fills the floor of the tower. The heroes try to battle through the effect of the shriek, but it leaves them sick and troubled.
Cylina recoiled from the Mandragora's shriek, though she quickly collected herself, fighting off the sudden sickness she was feeling as a result. Seeing both Wulfgang and Irina lose the battle against the magical scream, she charged forward to help the others press the plant demon and give it little choice but to fight for its life.