Remembering how the soldiers wanted to treat Nadya last night, Crummock wafts the smelling salts under the man's nose, and then offers him a bleak choice, as matter-of-factly as possible.
"Right. Things are not going very well for you right now, and I honestly don't see a good end. Your choice remains regarding how you want to go out. Answer truthfully, and I promise a quick and merciful end (better than you lot would have offered us). Lie, or refuse to answer, and you'll end up dying of exposure."
Once that has had a chance to sink in, he continues.
"Tell us about the current complement of soldiers at the Tower, which leaders are in residence, what the current pass-phrase for the main entrance is, and what the command word for the teleporter(s) is/are."
He frowns.
"Be aware that we know the answer to at least some of those questions, so lying would *really* not be a good idea."
"I'm not talking. You can kill me slowly, but Radosek will make sure the pain of my death will be repayed to you thousandfold." He spits at Crummock.
Crummock shakes his head, and sighs sadly.
"Doubtful, since we will make sure he dies, as well; he and his mistress have a lot to answer for. I also doubt that he cares that much for your well-being. I am saddened to see you opt for this path. Please know, this gives me no pleasure."
He then nods to Einar.
"Would you be so kind as to tie him to that tree over there?", he says, gesturing to a tree a few hundred metres from the path. "We can collect the rope on our way back, assuming the local wildlife haven't destroyed it."
Crummock then stuffs a rag in the man's mouth, so he can't shout for help.
He then sighs regretfully.
"Remember, this was your choice."
He then turns back to the business of the other corpses.
"We should at least drag these off the main path; we wouldn't want any casual passer-by to find them."
"I'm sure Radosek is the forgiving type. Surely they will believe you never told us anything." Mr. Whiskers comments. "Leaving you alive means giving them a chance to find you."
The guard confirms the pass phases that Hatch has already told the party. However he does not know the phase to go to the ritual chamber. Only the more high ranking personnel, like Hestrig, Yana, Volan and Jairess know. Some of the cold fey in the dining hall might, too. He refuses to divulge anything about the numbers, despite the threats.
Nadya kicks Volan's corpse. "That was for Thora." She kicks it again. "That was for me!" She snarls. "Yes, we need to get rid of the bodies. I hope the wolves have a good feast." She helps the party drag them into the bushes. "We can use their dog sleds to get to the Pale Tower faster."
As the party heads towards the Pale Tower on dogsled, they see a familiar figure, a bespetacled elf with long blue hair standing at the side of the woods, now clad in a white weasel coat. "Hi guys!" Shui greets the party cheerfully. "I got an audience with the Jarl who was really impressed with my new coat, and he bought that spear you sold to me! Quite a profitable venture it was! Do you have anything to sell?"
Nadya stares at the cheerful elf suspiciously, "Who's she?"
Seeing that Nadya seems to be having a bit of trouble with the cold, Crummock politely says:
"Here. Let me help you with the cold."
He then casts Endure Elements on her.
"Thanks," she replies gratefully.
Crummock shrugs.
"Someone who seems to sort-of follow us around; we keep bumpin' into her! Still, it be useful to meet a merchant every so often - it helps to cut down on the dead weight ye be cartin'."
When he sees that Nadya is looking better, he smiles warmly.
"Happy to help! It warms my galon."
Is it possible we could parlay with her?
"Jairess only cares about one thing in the world. Her birds. Nazhema offered her and her birds sanctuary. She serves them so that anyone who harms her birds will incur the wrath of the winter witches." Hatch replies to Mr Whiskers.
Mr. Whiskers makes more formal introductions. "Nadya, this is Shui. She likes to travel and trade goods. Shui, this is Nadya."
Crummock grants the Pale Tower Guard a merciful death by slitting his throat.
”Well…if you trust her I suppose she must be all right..”Nadya glances at Crummock sounding slightly dubious but shakes Shui’s outstretched hand. ”Are you always that cheerful?”She pointedly asks Shui.
”Urm yes, I mean I love to go to new places, see new things…” Shui chatters inanely on.
Nadya rolls her eyes skywards and doesn’t reply. ”Nevermind, forget I said anything.” The party does their trading with Shui then leaves her behind.
Sharp winds whistle across this stark white plain, stinging the eyes along with the near-blinding rays of the reflected sun. A great eruption of frozen ice rises in the distance—an imposing pale tower crowned with icicles spearing into the sky. Seemingly born of the land itself, an unbroken circular wall of ice guards the tower’s base, with no means of entrance visible. High above, a large gash opens in the tower’s bowl-like crown, ringed in icy spikes and split by a massive plane of ice resembling an inverted crescent moon.
A trampled path of snow, heavily tracked by footprints and sled trails, ends abruptly at an opaque wall of ice. Carvings and ancient glyphs depict only the semblance of a gateway on its surface. 3 guards stare at the party from the top of the wall.
”Who goes there? Identify yourselves.”
Crummock hails the gate guards.
"I be Crummock. I'm one o' the guards helpin' to escort Nadya's shipment of supplies back to the Tower."
”Yeah, you guys are 4 days late. Drop the supplies off in the courtyard and be quick about it!” The guards on the wall grumble, then raise the portcullis by pulling a lever. The spikes on the door at the end of the courtyard also sink to the courtyard.
With a nod, Crummock heads inside with the rest of the convoy.
A massive ice sculpture of a dragon dominates this open courtyard, standing with raised wings upon a dais of solid ice. Seven squat shacks sit along the inner wall, with several dogsleds stored outside. Between them, four ice chutes descend from the battlements of the outer wall. To the west, large double doors studded with icicles lead inside the Pale Tower itself, just beneath an overhang of sharp icicles dangling from above.
Mr Whiskers recognizes the ice sculpture commemorates the victory of Nazhema's mother over a powerful white dragon named Auburphex.
There's a nasty looking ice troll guarding the courtyard, watching the party unload supplies.
”What type of polearm do you want?” Shui asks, then fishes out various polearms out of her giant sack and lays them on the ground.
Mr Whiskers has no idea what that giant sack could be…
”Do you want to remove the curse off yourself, or the door?” Shui looks a little dubious. ”I have some scrolls for that, but I can’t guarantee a 100% success rate. It depends on how strong the curse was to begin with. Unless you want something to negate ALL magic.” She shakes her head. ”Its going to cost you, though.”
She then continues,”With an item, there’s no removing of it, since the curse has to be intrinsically tied with the creation of the item itself. The item is basically worthless.”
Whilst unloading, Crummock makes sure Einar catches him gesturing at the troll, and that Nadya and Ziva see him gesturing at the guards.
Shui passes you a Masterwork Lucerne Hammer. ”Made by some dwarf smith I was told. Guaranteed to break an orc skull upon impact or your money back!”
Then she purses her lips considering Einar’s other request. ”For a room, I have scrolls only that will supress the curse for a very short while. You’ll need to get everything out VERY quickly. Best case, you have 24 seconds. Worst, six. Still interested? Either that, or you get the really big stuff, that supresses ALL magic around you for 2 hours.” She furrows her eyebrows. ”It MIGHT make more sense to actually trigger it…with something disposable, of course.”
”Cursed items…those are tricky. Cursed items are very good at disguising themselves as normal items, so honestly unless you were to look very closely, you wouldn’t know the difference. This scroll should help reveal the true nature of the item.”
"Generally, this kind of thing is triggered by creatures. Crowbars don’t cut it. I’ve got scrolls for them, if you’re looking for it. If the room is behind a door, you might want the creature in question to push open the door, just to play safe…so you might want to get an elemental to do it for you.”Shui replies, after some contemplation.
"With some luck, the curse doesn't reset, and you can loot the room freely. Without...then probably you'll need to invest in some heavy magic suppression."Shui gives a helpless shrug of her shoulders.
From behind you, you hear Hatch say darkly, ”I don’t really like the way this is going, this merchant sounds really shady, talking casually about abusing other creatures to soak up curses… maybe you really should leave well enough alone…”
”No, I do not need lectures from invisible consciences.” Shui scolds the empty seeming air, with her hands on her hips. ”I’m just advising a potential client on possible solutions to his problem.” Shui actually sounds irritated for once.
”Collapse the entrance to the vault so no one can access it?”Hatch suggests.”Put bear traps on the entrance?”
”Well you could get someone to call up a demon to open the door. No one likes demons anyway. You do speak abyssal, right?” Shui replies after eyeing Einar from head to toe.
”And now it gets worse!” The party gets a feeling if they could see Hatch, he’d be hopping mad. ”She suggests you summon a DEMON. That’s going to EAT YOUR SOUL!”
”Okay fine, fine…if you’re going to harp on me about it. If you’re really fiddly with your fingers, you might be able to undo the curse on the room. Failing would probably trigger it, though.” Shui gives Einar a wry twist of her lips.
He winks at Shui, "I know ven za time comes you vill find a vay to sell us vat ve need to open it. Because I know a secret." He leans in close and whispers. "You vant to sell vat we find as badly as ve vant to find it, ya."
Shui makes a slight nod to Einar's statement, a small smile forming on her lips, acknowledging the hit. "I'd rather my clients and suppliers not come to any harm. If you want to go fiddly on the room, I recommend this. Supposedly once owned by the cat buglar Nine-Fingers who stole Grand Prince Stavian III's crown. And ended up dead in a ditch a week later, stripped of all his belongings." She holds out an elaborately decorated ring is crafted with the design of a fierce dragon wrapped greedily around a shining gemstone. "If you're a little tight on the budget, theres this Cracked Deep Red Sphere. Not so effective, of course, but that's why people pay for quality."
"Maybe not. I have other business to attend to as well. We'll meet again, no doubt, but not as soon as you think."
There's a growling noise when Einar addresses Hatch. "We clean the house and mend things there and try to protect the home from intruders and misfortune. Though I do not know what to be said of people who go around courting it! "After a pause, in a calmer tone, Hatch continues, "I don't cook, I'm too short to reach the stove. Could get you a salad, though."
"I warned you the vaults had a curse on it and you're still trying to find ways to get it open." Hatch lectures Einar. "If that isn't courting misfortune, what is?"
"Well, I like fish too.Mmph."Hatch sounds more molified now Einar talks to him about food.
"Ystlys."
Geist snarls, and moves around to the other side of the troll.
Crummock dumps a Sound Burst on the two guards that have clumped together.
Meanwhile, Nadya takes a shot at one of the guards (preferentially aiming for a stunned one).
Both of the guards are stunned by the sudden burst of sound and Nadya easily places an arrow in the chest of one of them, and he collapses on the wall.
Mr. Whiskers purchases a new cloak from Shui and talks to her about three items which he can not yet afford.
When he hears Hatch and Einar start squabbling, he comes over to see what the problem is. Hearing Einar talk of magical traps, he gives a frustrated sigh. In a voice clear enough to be overhead by Shui, he suggests "I think it is good that you worry about how to deal with magical traps, but for right now isn't it best to just avoid the vault? As I already told you, taking the items would most likely lead to us and any merchants we sold the items to being hunted down and slaughtered."
Pausing a moment, he adds "I wouldn't want that and I hope you wouldn't either."
Mr. Whiskers takes a moment to cast Mage Armor on himself. If we aren't out of there in four hours, we likely aren't leaving.
Mr. Whiskers casts a blob of acid that you think might have been aimed at the troll. The shot was so bad, it is difficult to tell.
"Your concern for my safety is touching, but don't worry, Mr Whiskers. I can take care of myself." Shui assures Mr Whiskers as she gives him a rougish wink.
"I turned merchant so I could get goods to barter for Thora's freedom. She turned merchant to make a profit. I do not know what extent she will go to to make money." Nadya remarks.
Mr Whisker's acid blob misses the troll.
Mr. Whiskers looks somewhat relieved the Shui's reassurance.
[ooc]earlier
'Mister Whiskers does not understand how the evil mind works, why won't he believe me' Einar shakes his head, speaking slowly, like he would to a child. "As I have said my friend. Those people are dead already, just for letting us be here, the despot will blame them, they need to flee. The best thing we can do is deprive the enemy of their resources."
"It is my understanding that humans frequently refuse to flee, even in the face of impossible odds. Also, have you ever heard the term 'scry and fry'?"
Later he catches up with Nadya. "Don't judge Shui too harshly. There is nothing wrong with making money from the exchange of goods, and she travels a surprising distance to bring those goods to people."
Einar bites into the ice troll and find it tastes like sludge, gooey and gelatinous.
Ziva faces down the ice troll without a care in the world. It was huge, true, but Vernai was transitioning into a killing machine and with her friend at her side, she wasn't intimidated in the least.
Ziva slashes with her greatsword, trying to cleave the Ice Troll in half.
Vernai also follows up with her claws for a full attack.
Ziva and Vernai double team up and take the ice troll down. The party can see the wounds inflicted on the ice troll begin to heal.
"We're under attack!" The unstunned remaining guard yells out as he quickly runs to the doors to the interior of the building.