With things being sorted out, for now, and mindful that the air-woman could be off to warn the rest of the Tower's defenses, Cylina urged the others to hurry back to the Great Hall, hoping that the key card the woman had given them would grant them access to Radosek and hopefully Nadya's daughter.
Ruso tucks the various valuables into Wulfgang's pack to save for later.
He also tosses the dagger to Irina. "Here, you are going to need something more than finger wiggling and stares if things go poorly." Ruso smirks. "Remember to the pointy end goes in the enemy."
Ruso then finally collects his own gear and makes for the portal back inside. "Well, come on. We've not got all day. Let's get this done with and get out of here."
After finding and valuing the loot stored high up in the storeroom, the group moves on, heading back to the teleporter in the aerie, under the baleful eyes of the jet-black ravens. A bit disorienting, the party is zipped back to the teleporter on the second level of the tower, on the north side behind where the mandragora was defeated before.
Ambulating carefully, they move back to the main mirrored hall which had a red carpet and the broken remains of some ice statues inside. There the teleporter that didn't work before now activates when they hold the key-card trade from Jairess the sylph. The group is again zipped to another part of the tower.
When they reappear, the group finds themselves in a large, blue-tiled chamber where a translucent image of a globe hangs suspended in mid-air, slowly rotating in place, above a summoning circle. Kines of arcane energy glow across 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 hangs between the two open windows to the west. Twin ice sculptures of demonic fiends flank a bubbling cauldron in an archway leading to a deep alcove in the southern wall.
The ceiling here is domed and 30' high. The ice crystal teleporter deposits you in a shallow alcove on the NE side of the room. A tall man dressed in a heavy cloak and holding a wand of ice stands near another alcove in the southern side of the room. He chants and makes casting motions as you enter. A billy goat stands near the man's legs, pawing the ground angrily. Three doors lead off this odd shaped room.
Ritual Chamber - Round 1
18 Wulfgang (blinded)
17 Irina
14 Radzislau
9 Ruso
7 Nadya
6 Radosek
5 Cylina
"Radosek!" cries Nadya, recognizing the man from his depredations on the village. "Where is my child, my sweet Thora?" The man does not stop his casting, but only smiles an evil grin that tells you all you need to know wordlessly.
Irina steps to where she can see the man and fires her crossbow at Radosek trying to disrupt his spell casting.
Ritual Chamber - Round 1 - continued
Stepping off the teleporter and in front of the ornate mirror, Irina lets fly with a crossbow bolt but the shot misses Radosek or any target.
Nadya follows suit taking a shot of her own once her feet are back on solid ground. Her shot seem true but caroms off a defensive warding that Radosek has placed in front of him.
Ruso tugs on his packs shoulder straps and the backpack drops cleanly away. Ruso rushes across the chamber, drawing his rapier as he moves, to confront the spellcaster and hopefully distrupe whatever he was trying to do. "Surprise!"
Ruso's rapier whisks through the air aiming to pierce the mages chest.
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The paladin charges this foe and swings his hammer.
- - - -
Wulfgang his eyes still bandaged, slowly moves his his way, feeling on the ground with the handle of his hammer, towards Radosek.
"Radosek where is the CHILD what happened to her!" He calls out.
- - -
assuming both PCs are alive in round 2
wulfgang tries to hit the caster
paladin on caster
you can bot me
Ritual Chamber - Round 1 - continued
Hurling himself across the chamber, Radzislau challenges the evil witch and his holy tactical skills trigger. He smashes his long hammer into the side of Radosek, hurting the target quite badly, disrupting his spell of summoning.
Ruso also bounds across the room, but his rapier attack does not hit the magically protected Radosek.
Wulfgang can only stumble across the floor in the general direction of the noise.
Radosek, stunned by the hammer blow, mutters a few words and then flies into the air about 20' away from any melee attacks. "What child?" he sputters. "We have some many...though come to think of it, none are currently alive here!" He laughs, a chilling brutal evil laugh.
The goat at Radosek's side attacks against Radzislau who is adjacent bu the ramming attack misses.
Seeing that Radosek had some kind of magical enchantment to protect himself, and unsure if it applied to missiles or just general attacks, Cylina charged into the room determined to drop the man's goat companion and enable everyone to focus on the resident master of the Pale Tower. She felt for Nadya as the witch goaded her while speaking of the children spirited into the evil place, but they needed to win this fight first.
Ritual Chamber - Round 1 - concluded
Cylina advances and deals a glancing blow to the goat companion of the evil witch, hurting it only barely.
End of Round 1
Ritual Chamber - Round 2
18 Wulfgang (blinded)
17 Irina
14 Radzislau
9 Ruso
7 Nadya
6 Radosek (20hp dmg, flying)
5 Cylina
Irina moves in closer and casts Ill Omen on the magic wielder.
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Targets one creature
Duration 1 round/level or until discharged
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes
You afflict the target with bad luck. On the next d20 roll the target makes, it must roll twice and take the less favorable result. For every five caster levels you have, the target must roll twice on an additional d20 roll (to a maximum of five rolls at 20th level).
A target who can speak and has at least one free hand and who is aware of the spell and its effects (such as from a Spellcraft check to identify the spell as it is cast) can negate one reroll by spending a move action to utter a brief prayer or good luck charm to appease the spirits of ill fortune.
"Just where do you think you are off to?" Ruso's rapier slips cleanly into the awful mans flesh where Ruso gives it a violent twist.
Ruso tumbles in behind the goat. As he comes to his feet his rapier slips forth to stab at the beast.
Ritual Chamber - Round 2 - continued
As Radosek flies by, both Radzislau and Ruso make attacks. In fact, both score hits, Ruso's very damaging, and the flying witch looks very shaky as he ascends the rest of the way up, blood running out behind him in a steady stream.
Wulfgang tries to shoot per the paladin's directions, but that, unsurprisingly, does not work well.
Irina casts a bad-luck spell targeting Radosek but the magic seems to have no effect on the flying witch.
Ruso moves behind the goat companion and stabs it harsly, getting a loud bleat in response as the goat is hurt.
Nadya fires at the flying figure. "That's for Thora!" she cries as the arrow wings Radosek.
Grimacing, Radosek points his icicle-shaped wand at the floor under Radzislau and abruptly a giant spear of ice lances up from the frozen floor of the chamber.The ice spear is 5' in diameter and grows 10' long instantly. The ice spear damages the paladin, and knocks him prone.
A second spear appears bursting out below Irina. Knocking her off her feet as well, but she manages to avoid most of the damage. After conjuring the spears, Radosek floats to the window, ready to flee the tower.
Fearing she won't have enough time to load and shoot at the fleeing witch, Cylina instead concentrated on trying to bring down the goat companion of Radosek, hoping to free up some of her more agile companions to attempt to shoot the magician down. Instead, she overthought it and almost slammed her weapon down onto her own foot.
Ritual Chamber - Round 2 - concluded
Cylina focuses on what she can control, leaving the flying witch to those more suited to deal with him. Instead she swings at the goat companion, but she misses.
End of Round 2
Ritual Chamber - Round 3
18 Wulfgang (blinded)
17 Irina (9hp dmg, prone)
14 Radzislau (13hp dmg, prone)
9 Ruso
7 Nadya
6 Radosek (45hp dmg, flying)
6 Valstoi (17hp dmg)
5 Cylina
Ruso draws back one more time and prepares to drop the creature before him quickly. You should have selected a far better master. "Hey you! Surrender or the goat dies!"
Ritual Chamber - Round 3 - continued
As Ruso threatens Radosek's goat companion, the evil witch doesn't even flinch. He is in full survival mode now, and is clearly going to make a break for it. Shrugging, Ruso drives his rapier through the goat's neck, watching it die in a gurgling bleat.
Irina sends a ray of Frost at the flying caster.
Ritual Chamber - Round 3 - concluded
Irina stands up after being buffeted off her feet by the ice spear and then sends her own icy spell at the fleeing Radosek. The ray hits the witch full in the back, but it does not seem to affect him at all.
Wulfgang's attempt to shoot the flying foe fails once again. Radzislau does succeed in piercing the witch with an arrow, but he takes the damage without further complaint.
At the window, Radosek turns back to the room for an instant. "You may have one today, fools, but you shall lose in the end. You shall lose all, including your heads! You can't outrun the jadwiga. They rule this land!" And with that, he leaps from the window, slowly spiraling towards the tower's outer courtyard. You see him reach for and imbibe a potion of some kind on the way down.
End of Combat
Cylina cursed in Skald as the witch slipped out the window, a feeling of dread coming over her. Radosek had escaped...he knew their faces, likely knew Nadya, and could figure out Cylina's name through her with enough effort. The Jadwiga were not forgiving, and the priestess' life was forfeit if she ever fell into their hands.
After a moment, she straightened back up, resolve calming her as she uttered a short prayer to Milani. This was a choice she had made. They had won, even if the witch had escaped. A small blow made for freedom of the Irriseni. Turning to the others, she spoke briskly in her strong accent, "Quick, let's search the chamber and the adjoining rooms and then be gone. He'll likely try to rally what's left of his guard."
Ruso slips over to the window that the witch had just escaped through and with a bit of a quick calculation decided he would rather not take a leap of faith to knock the cocky spellcaster out of the air. Ruso pulls his head back inside just in time to hear Cylina let loose her vile oat. He blanched at the Cylina's rabid curse before making a mental note to remember that particular bit of phrasing for later use.
"Yes lets." Ruso quickly begins searching the both this room and any other chambers for items of use or value. He piles anything her finds on or around a nearby table.
Ruso also takes a moment to drag the dead goat next to Wulfgang. "Here friend, see if you can gut and butcher this fine animal for us. We may have need of the meat depending on how quickly we have to flee this place."
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Wulfgang rubs his eyes and feels for the goat's body. "Ruso, I will try but I can't see for now. Curse Radosek and those fowl witches!" He spits at the ground.
He turns to where he thinks Nadya is, "Nadya, I am sorry that we couldn't find more information on your daughter. But I will help you keep looking if need be."
Irina begins to scan the room for magical auras. "Perhaps there will be some information here about the girl."
The ritual chamber is now free of enemies, and can be explored at your leisure. The cauldron bubbles in the alcove of the southern wall which is flanked by ice sculptures of demonic fiends.
The are enough alchemical reagents and ingredients here to make a full alchemist's lab. In addition many finshed alchemical products are on the shelves including: 2 flasks of acid, 3 flasks of alchemists' fire, two pinches of flash powder, three flasks of liquid ice, three smokesticks, a sunrod, 2 tanglefoot bags, 3 thunderstones, 15 tindertwigs in a silver cannister and 3 applications of cold-iron weapon blanch.
In addition there are three doors leading off this chamber, to the north, east, and southwest.
As Irina scans the room with divination, she finds that the cauldron itself is magical, giving off an aura of moderate conjuration. Looking closer you can see artistic scrawls on the surface of te small bronze cauldron which depict an array of exotic animals, legendary beasts, leering fiends, and hosts of elementals.
Paranoid that the male witch would be back with reinforcements, but determined to make a genuine search of the Tower, Cylina moved to the eastern door and examined it for any nasty surprises.
If she found no evidence of traps, she'd go ahead and attempt to open the door so they could finish sweeping the floor and leave.
Spying Cylina staring at a door Ruso rushes across the room and smacks Cylina's hand away from the door just before she is able to push it open. "That is no way to check a door!" Ruso growls. "Allow me to demonstrate the proper technique and then you can try again."
Ruso begins to delicately feel his way across and around the door. He also closely examines the door for any signs of a trap. I really need to keep a keen eye on these folks. No sense in losing any of them to something as simple as a trapped door.
Irina examines the cauldron but can't quite figure it out. "It's magical. We might think about bringing it with us. That is if it's not too heavy."
Much to Irina's frustration, identifying the properties of the cauldron is just out of reach. The kettle is small enough to be portable (about 5 pounds) but is hot from being on the fire. An iron exists next to the fire to lift the cauldron off, so you set it on the icy floor to cool, and perhaps you can gather it when you are ready to depart this level.
Cylina and Ruso fuss over the eastern door, but finally get it open with no untoward consequences. A large bed, wardrobe, reading desk, and bookshelf take up most of this circular bedroom. A carved ice statue of a striking, robed woman with an owl on her shoulder stands next to an alcove holding an ice crystal teleporter. To the south, a white curtain hangs in a doorway.
Ruso begins pouring over the room searching for items of value or use. He keep weary eye out for an locked doors, chests, etcetera while he searches the room. If he finds any he directs everyone else to stand aside while he takes his time and works open any locks.
Cylina withdrew her hand after Ruso startled her, though she managed a bit of a glare as he took over checking the door. Still, while he checked the portal she took a couple prudent steps backwards, more than happy to let the elf bear the brunt of any trap that might be triggered.
Thankfully, it seemed like his more meticulous search methods had correctly turned up no traps as he opened the door, revealing what appeared to be the witch's bedroom. The priestess cocked her head as she glanced at the ice statue, wondering if it was a likeness of the Mistress of the Tower. Cylina pawed through the belongings in the room briefly before glancing at the curtain to the south, looking at Ruso and arching a brow before patiently waiting several feet away.
Ruso chuckles just a bit and gives his head a slow shake. "Okay. I had that one coming." Ruso moves to the passage to the south and begins checking the way in. Ruso explains what he is doing and why to allow for a learning opportunity. Doing this takes significantly longer than normal but is hopefully useful to someone else should Ruso not be able to perform the task.
You find nothing of value in the bedroom, almost as if all the treasure was stored somewhere else. There are some papers etc on Nazhena's desk. One of those papers seems to indicate that the child, Thora Petska, was killed some days ago, but that somehow her spirit still lives though the combined efforts of Radosek and the jadwiga noblewoman drove it from the tower, into the wilderness.
The curtain to the south pulls aside easily enough and reveals an door made of ice, which is almost, but not quite translucent. The door is locked, but does not appear to be trapped. Showing Cylina the way of it, Ruso is able to jimmy the lock in short order.
Pushing the door open, you see a small vault filled with several crates, urns, decanters, and storage boxes, which fill the back half of the area. A mirrored vanity and chair sit next to the east window. An ice statue of an imperious woman holding a sickle aloft in a threatening manner stands in the center or the room. As Ruso steps foot in the room, a voice booms out from the icy statue, "The uninvited shall wither and die like the frost-covered bloom. You should never have ventured here, and you'd do well to leave before my return."
Ruso scoops up the paperwork that explains what has happened to Nadya's child. "Put these papers in your pack Cylina. We'll need them for later explanations. For now though, I would prefer to keep everyone calm and focused until we can get clear of this tower." Ruso emphasizes a few points with sweeping arm gestures.
***
"Well what do you know, a disembodied voice of threatening our doom. Am I supposed to be scared?" Ruso smirks with his bravado on full display. Well now I know where the faciful adventure tales get the chiche from. With a bit of swagger in his step he begins his methodical looting of the vault. Ruso checks every crate, decanter, storage box, and urn for items of value and use. Whatever he finds he hauls out to the main room for Irina to check for any signs of magic. He also makes use of the other members of the party by passing them items to carry out of the vault.
"Irina, would you be so kind as to give this stuff a once over and see if any of it is imbued with magic.?"
Glancing at the papers quickly as Ruso gestured at the key points, Cylina gave Nadya a worried glance before stowing the documents in her pack, for now. The priestess had every intention of telling the woman about her Thora, but the elf had the right of it. Best to get clear so the woman could properly grieve.
The redhead muttered, "We have every intention of being gone before your return." but otherwise stayed out of the room, perfectly content to let the wily, cocky elf scour through all the boxes, urns, and crates and accepting the handoffs to take into the bedroom for Irina's divination. Every now and then, she glanced back into the room they had fought Radosek to ensure he or any of his allies had not returned.
Ruso has a sudden moment of clarity while looting the vault and shuts it out to Irina. "Hey Irina, just a thought, would any thing in the big blue tiled room tell us how to close that portal thing we went through a few days back. If we can get that closed as least it would stop snowing in Taldor during the summer." Ruos then returns to his looting.