Hylota cackles and claps as Ferric falls to the ground dead. "Oh, well done! He should definitely have surrendered. Ah, well. His fault."
She then pulls out a wand and begins healing herself, asking, "Does anyone else need some healing?"
"Agreed." Says Szasa as she watches the head roll. She then looks directly at the remaining two Giants.
Vincent floats to the ground and retracts his wings. Dusting off his sleeves he looks to the giants nonchalantly as he crosses his arms. "Well, you have one more opportunity to surrender, OR, you can meet the same fate as that one," he tells the remaining giants as he motions toward their headless leader. "The choice is yours. And in case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit more diplomatic than my ally over there," he glances over at Szasa, "so I would HIGHLY recommend you yield. Unless, of course, you prefer dying over living," he states as a matter of fact, shrugging.
The giants babble fearfully in Giant before managing to drop their weapons from their magically-stiffened fingers.
As you search them and the room, you find 2,000 gp in assorted coins and semi-precious stones on the two giants. Ferric had a personal bag containing 5 masterwork chain shirts, a +2 heavy wooden shield, a +1 shock light crossbow, two potions of lesser restoration, a belt of physical might +2 that buffs both Strength and Constitution, and a smaller sack full of gold coins adding up to 1,975 gp. Ferric's warhammer is adamantine but is too large to be wielded by anyone of lesser stature that the slain gigas.
The stone doors are covered in strange reliefs depicting strange creatures. The doors themselves seem to have no handle, keyhole, or even hinges.
Above the doors there is are a line of runes written in an ancient dialect of Skald.
Relieved the giants have some sense about them, Vincent moves up to the door and examines it. "'Only by the Power of Faith shall ye pass beyond', is what the door reads. As far as any other clues on how to open this door, well, that is beyond me I'm afraid." Rubbing his chin in thought, "'Power of Faith... Power of Faith', I am curious as to what is meant by that."
Without missing a beat, Szasa draws and uses a charge from one of her wands.
Tazwell examines the door for clues as to it's opening.
"I wouldn't have thought Baba Yaga was big on faith."
Hylota studied the carvings about the door. ”Many of these creatures are unknown to Golarion - indeed they are unknown to most of the known planes. Fascinating.”
Hylota steps up to the door and rests her hand on it. ”Let’s see...Baba Yaga has traveled everywhere - she would know what the creatures are. She has gone beyond what is known...” Hylota studied the doors again, contemplating the words above...”Only by the Power of Faith shall ye pass Beyond.”
She casts a spell, seeking out magical auras.
As the others work on the door, Vincent takes a moment and removes the idol from his pack to examine it. "Let us see if we can determine what power you hold, Milady," he mutters under his breath as his eyes begin to glow a deep blue.
Szasa flicks her wand at the door, loosing a charge of magic at the stone to no avail. Tazwell paces back and forth in front of the door, looking with keen eyes for anything to open the doors. Hylota delves deep into her knowledge of the arcane and witchcraft to divine the answer to the riddle. Vincent, however, seems to pay the door no mind and his eyes gleam with a blue light as he examines the idol he picked up before.
Sitting before the altar a dark-skinned troll that would stand twenty feet tall muttered to himself. His back to your sight, he waved his arms in ritualistic motions whilst he seemed to pray before this woman.
This vision lasts for ten seconds before you "return" to your body with the others.
"Anyone have any ideas on channeling the power of the gods? I tried using healing magic, but that didn't work."
Vincent loses himself in thought a moment before finally placing the idol back within his pack. "No, Lady Szasa, I'm afraid...," he stops in mid-sentence in thought again and then his eyes go wide. "WAIT! I'VE GOT IT!" he exclaims, and then immediately finds himself a bit embarrassed at his outburst. Giving an awkward clearing of his throat, "Um, please forgive me. I'm not sure what came over me," he states plainly before continuing on as if nothing happened; withdrawing the idol once again from his pack. "The lady here is the key; she must be. I'm not exactly sure how she is but she is. And I can tell you after studying it just a moment ago there is an altar somewhere within this cavern dedicated to her. At least, that is my theory. Now... let us see if she will open the door for us, shall we?" He then moves to the door with the idol in hand. Unsure of what to do, he places his empty hand on the door first to see if that triggers anything.
"I don't think there is a door, I just think these were too weak willed to pass through." Tazwell says, flying forward to touch the door and willing himself to disbelieve what he thinks is a powerful illusion.
"You are correct, Tazwell - the door's enchantment is heavily based in illusion magic. However, what is interesting is that my magic normally detects all magic auras up to 60 feet in front of me, unless blocked by a certain thickness of a material. In this case, it cannot penetrate the door - which it could were this an ordinary illusion. Therefore, I suspect that the door is, to some extent, solid and real, but the enchantment preventing passage involves illusion in some capacity. Baba Yaga would have wanted to ensure that only the strongest willed could pass the doors. Let us try to pass through."
Hylota frowned - she could not countenance the possibility that she was not strong-willed enough to pass through the door. There must be more to it...
Vincent places his hand on the door but it does not move. Tazwell flies straight into the stone and loses some height, only damaging his pride. Hylota's hand rests upon the cold stone of the doors, neither giving way.
One of the giants pipes up. "We've been trying that stuff for days. Nothing is going to get through those damned doors."
Hylota frowns at the two Frost giants, ice in her voice. "Shouldn't you two be running off now?
Once they have done so, she turns and says to the others, "This magic is passed not by willpower, but by true force of will. Those most easily able to pass the barrier are those whose very presence commands a room - who others automatically follow and bow to. I imagine a court bard has much of that presence, as would one who carries the blood of dragons. Even one whose reputation has earned the name Liten Dod likely possesses the necessary countenance."
What Hylota didn't say was that she was concerned. She'd never been one to take control of a room, and often preferred operating in the background. She hoped she had the necessary presence to pass the doors.
Tazwell listens to this theory and watches as Hylota tries to open the door.
"Okay, I'll give it a shot."
Szasa gets in the mood and doesn't so much walk up to the door as swagger, getting even more full of herself.
Taking his loss with a grain of salt, "It appears I am incorrect."
Looking upon the idol once more he narrows his eyes as if looking at 'something' and then relaxes. "Fascinating," he mutters to himself as he now tries a different tactic.
Hylota and Vincent walk straight into the cool stone of the doors, but Szasa slips right through.
The floor is lined with an array of true ice statues, five by seven, in the form of an ancient crone with a skull for a face. They are darker in color than the rest of the true ice you've seen, and coursing between them - above, between, all around - fell energy arcs in seemingly random strikes. You don't feel colder in here, but rather you feel numb.
The statues all are angled to lock eyes with you as you entered, some slightly angled to do so. One statue in the last row is shattered, the second to last towards the northwestern corner. This one has a haze of black smoke writhing above its remains.
"We've lost Lady Szasa!" Taz says aloud.
"Give it another try my friends!" "I'm sure it's just a matter of confidence."
"And don't take too long about it!" He finishes, striding purposefully through the doors.
Tazwell, girding himself and reminding himself of his personal accomplishments and how far he's come so far, inspires his fellows as he strides with confidence, finally entering what laid beyond.
"Well, this all seems a bit grim." Taz says.
Hylota takes a deep breath, and focuses on the natural position of a White Witch - one of Power and prestige. Focusing on the image in her mind, she strides purposefully towards the door.
Vincent watches as not only Szasa makes her way through but also Tazwell. Seeing Hylota have a rough go of it, "I shall await for your success, Hylota, and then I shall proceed after you."
Once Hylota finally makes it through, Vincent takes his turn. Pushing against it, he finds it as solid as stone.
Trying once again, he finds himself able to walk right through it.
Walking through the door, Szasa will take a look around to see if there's a way to open the door on this side.
Hylota builds up her mental image of herself, focused, firm, and then tries to pass through the door.
Finally, she is able to get through the door and look at the room beyond. Casting her cantrip for detecting magical auras, she studies the room, trying to determine what the energy arcs are.
Szasa turns to the spellcasters and says "So, what's the deal here?"
"If the room is charged with negative energy, then passing through will harm us, draining away our very life force."
"Indeed. Observe, however, that the lightning arcs are linked to the rows made by these statues. Perhaps destroying the statues will give us a clear path through by breaking the links."
"Someone destroyed one of them."
"I'll let those of you smarter than me figure it out. We'll need someone to smash them, too, since my sword isn't Adamantine."
Observing the scene, "Maybe if we destroyed them all, that may make all the difference. But if not, I fear I am at a loss on how to proceed."
"Maybe we can just bypass them by teleporting across the room." Tazwell suggests.
Pondering their options, something is suddenly telling him to use his magical sight. Concentrating on the room, his eyes once again glow a deep blue and he looks about the room.
As your eyes glow once more, you see the statues smolder with shadowy auras, the arcs of negative energy dark purple, and nothing beyond these walls - even through the doors you just entered.
However, nestled within each of the statues - save the broken one - there is a pale blue glow the size of a child's doll. You know almost instinctively that those are important, but you cannot discern exactly how. Perhaps destroying the statues to get to them is a solid course of action?
"As Hylota mentioned, we need to find a way to destroy the statues. Within each of them glows a blue... something no larger than the doll of a child. I don't suppose any of you have a course of action for accomplishing such a feat?"
"Hmmmm...." Tazwell muses.
He cocks his head and utters a high pitched pulsing sound from deep in his chest that builds to a crescendo.
Tazwell uses his Wordstrike power to damage the closest statue with sonic energy.
Tazwell's wordstrike lashes at the closest statue, but is dispelled by a wave of negative energy and has no effect. You all hear a faint cackle of laughter as all statues now angle their gaze at Tazwell's current position and their skeletal grins seem eerily more pronounced.
"Well that's creepy." Taz comments to the others.
"Any ideas on how to hurt them? Maybe that ginormous admantine hammer?"
Hylota eyes the hammer. "I don't know that any of us can lift the hammer, let alone use it effectively."
"Well that's creepy." Taz comments to the others.
Sighing, Szasa moves up and attacks one of the statues.
Szasa's blade sings through the air, but the strike seems to be deflected to the side less than an inch before impact, a flash of silver against a wave of Negative Energy. The cackling chorus returns for a moment, and now the statues grin at Szasa's place in the room.