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Sirettis speaks in Common to the party. "Wolves and hags. Zhaleh Setat's prison is well guarded. Her freedom will make us allies and enemies of Ayrzul. But it is the best to learn of Raginori's identity and origins."
Sirettis stares silently at Hydris, letting the charm hex do its work. Miss Poshkettle has a way with words Sirettis could barely understand. Perhaps if she spend more time in books and less time riding the wind it she would be able to learn these finer points.
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Gallix kneels beside Hydris as well. "Sure I got something to add. Let her know she's acting like a damned coward, turning against her friends at the first sign of resistance. It doesn't matter the size of the challenge, even if it's a god, you stick by your people. Now, get up and show us that you have it in you to be great!"
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Mr Peppers looks up from his book as he takes down copious notes "Sirettis or Miss Cup, please ask them to describe who these people they keep naming are... are they creatures such as themselves or something else?"
Also, he does his best to aid in the calming and reassurances towards the tied up woman with a friendly demeanor and general lack of aggressiveness.
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As Hydris realizes what's happened, she desperately struggles against her bindings as she shouts back in Aquan. "This is none of your concern! This is between me and her!" Uesugi finds two masterwork daggers on the ground next to her.
Yet, with the offer of fine tea and kind words, Cup seems to find a soft spot, and Hydris drops her attitude and indulges herself in the warm liquid.
Vaporia pauses dancing to answer Mr. P's questions, though she cocks her head at him on confusion. "You don't know who Ranginori is? You really aren't from here, are you? Ranginori's the Duke of Thunder - an elemental lord. This place, Aucturn's Tear -- the ground we stand on was actually once part of a planet called Iovo." She continues her dance, offering Mr. Peppers her hand.
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With the duo of veelas no longer at each others' throats, you continue on down along the dark, frozen path. The trip there takes minutes, and eventually, you come to a vast frozen city. The gentle wind brings a semblance of life and movement to the area. Failing enchantments causes stone to crumble and rebuild from moment to moment. A thick sheen of ice and snow covers every surface. A few structures around a temple plaza bear signs of recent repairs and habitation, and the icy, shattered remains of fifteen-foot-tall, willowy humanoids lie scattered across the cobbles.
As you travel through the frozen city, you spot a shrine ahead with two large, bronze, broken doors, a thick layer of ice enveloping the handles. What do you do?
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"Thank you." The tall Elf says as he quickly takes down the notes before looking at the offered hand before him. Dancing is not my forte but it may be helpful here. He puts down his book and takes her hand, letting her lead the way in the dance. His Elven heritage helping him along, he glides along with her asking some more questions. "So, who is Zhaleh Setat? A Veela as well? And how about Ayrzul? Do they cast magic spells?"
Mr Peppers keeps his eyes wide and wary as they trek into the frozen city, often calling forth his magic detection spell, ever curious to what magical auras may look like on this foreign landscape. He takes exceptional interest in the large frozen humanoids.
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"They were Veela, water dancers! We were lucky to meet them!"
As they pass by the strange dead ones, Cup looks sad. "Oh... Look. So many dead! Has the cold killed them all?'
When they finally come to the Frozen Shrine, Cup examines it with curiosity.
Like Sirettis, she pauses a moment to study the Temple. Are there obvious traps? Runes in interesting ancient tongues? Any symbols that might give a clue for a curious librarian?
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"Zhaleh's what I think is normally referred to as a genie. And a veela? Is that a real question?" Vaporia laughs at Mr. Peppers. "You're looking at one, silly! Ayrzul is... All around us, unfortunately," she points into space, and you get the sense she's referring to him, or it, as a deity. "I'm not sure exactly what he is. You really don't get out much, do you?"
Master of all knowledge, Cup recognizes the bizarre humanoids as sarcesians, winged alien creatures typically soaring through the Diaspora asteroid belt.
The doors to the shrine are not trapped. Mr. Peppers detects a shimmering magic beyond them, yet he cannot recognize its school, just that it seems ancient and out of this world. Do you enter?
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With a solid push from Gallix and Uesugi, the doors to the shrine creak open, the icy coating the perimeter shattering cleanly off. In the center of the shrine is a frozen pool inside a cracked basin.
As you approach the pool, an ethereal humanoid figure manifests from the waters, bearing a benign expression. It opens its mouth to speak, and its face suddenly distorts wildly. The runes surrounding the pool glow white hot and the spirit howls in pain. The area around the basin begins to rumble as whatever magic is here grows unstable.
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You see Mr Peppers cast his detect magic spell outside the shrine and his eyes instantly glow blue and grow wider and wider. "WE MUST ENTER AT ONCE!" He frantically waves Uesugi and Gallix at the doors to open them. "There's ancient and interesting magic inside, lets hurry!"
As soon as the doors open he activates his super magic detection system and heads inside towards the source of his fascination, determined to decipher its secrets. He remains silent, almost in a trance... Its so beautiful... THIS is why I'm here!
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Seeing the pain the figure is in he moves with no hesitation calling out to the others. "Remove whatever wu jen taint traps this spirit I will occupy it's attention."
His feet shuffle against the stone floor the sound of his boots scraping announcing his presence. Out of the hollow of his stomach erupts a "Kiiiiyaaaaa!" that flies from his mouth directed solely at the oni.
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Mr. Peppers determines which of the glowing runes need to be manipulated to slow down the spirit and realizes that whatever's here is the remnant of a deity's knowledge manifested. Cup gets a better understanding for what the runes actually mean, and Gallix tries to shut this thing off, but can't quite figure out how to do so.
Distracted by his words, the spirit lashes out wildly at Uesugi, but Uesugi easily ducks out of the way!
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Uesugi slows his breath focusing on the manifestation of the deity. He watches as the spirit prepares to attack again seeing how fortunate he was to move out the raging spirit's embodied rage.
"We must act quickly, Mr. Peppers. If Madame Poshkettle speaks the truth then we must help to release it from this cage without harming it."
"Kiiiiiyaaaaa!" again Uesugi shouts at the deity and then braces for it's retaliation
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Seeing that his mechanical skills aren't up to par with the task at hand, Gallix reverts to what he knows how to do best: cheap tricks. He runs up beside his friends and calls out for the spirit's attention, Hey check this out!" Suddenly the warrior turns his back to the spirit, bends over, and pulls down his trousers! "FULL MOON ATTACK!!!"
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The spirit appears coherent for a moment as Cup softly speaks to her, yet it reels back as Uesugi continues to terrify it with his barbaric shouting. Sirettis and Gallix also distract it while Mr. Peppers uses the opportunity to study the runes, recognizing some of them from several of the books he's studied.
The spirit wallops Gallix in the head as its anger flares up and magic surges through its palms.
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Mr Peppers continues concentrating, sifting through the magic runes and the auras like the Arcane Elf-Boss that he is. Once he's got a bit of a handle on the magic runes that are being used he goes back to studying the overall concept of the magical auras he sees.
He continues to try to ignore the distractions, almost like he's the only one in the room. I wish they'd be quieter, I could stay here for days, or weeks! "Keep down the racket! Some of us are trying to concentrate here!" He blurts out almost unconsciously.
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Mr. Peppers does what he does best, and figures out exactly how the magic works. Just as he does, he bumps a small button hidden under the basin, and with a voooOOoom, the spirit suddenly stabilizes, and the hot white glow of the magical runes surrounding the basin fades.
The spirit speaks in a foreign language, but somehow, she knows you don't speak it, so she weaves a spell.
Tongues!
... And speaks in Common. Her voice echos as she speaks, "My ... saviors. The haze has been cleared, and now I see you are not here to harm me. I am... The Voice of Seven Songs, the voice of an oracle from home. Home? Home is Iovo?" She seems unsure of her history, yet she continues, her expression turning serious as she focuses on the now. "You are not safe here. There is grave danger ahead. You," she slowly raises her arm to point to Gallix, "Will witness a terrible, evil monster chasing you relentlessly... Yet you will not be able to touch it, nor harm it with your fists."
"And you," she eyes Cup. "You will be enveloped by a snake made of pure ice. I have seen it with my own mind."
Finally, she explains a piece of key information involved with freeing the entity that dwells deep within the Tear.
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Mr Pepper's face becomes visibly disappointed when he 'fixes' the issue and the glorious magic fades away. Oh man! I should have taken my time..
He steps back and pulls out his journal, quickly jotting down notes on what he saw before they muddle together in his mind, letting the others do the talking for the time being. He does raise an eyebrow as he hears the murmurs of a familiar spell being cast.
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Gallix rubs his head yet again as Sirettis applies healing form his wand to the wound. "Man I'm gonna have one hell of a hangover after we get back," he says with a grimace. "Thanks for the help, sis."
He turns to look up at the spirit as she makes a sinister prediction about a forthcoming challenge. He looks up at her with a grave expression, "I've been chased by evil most of my life, most of it of my own making. One thing I've learned recently is that when my fists won't win the fight, I can count on the help of my friends. So go ahead and make your predictions, the Red Arm will prevail."
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Mr Peppers jots down things and, hearing a lull in questions to the 'being' he looks up to ask his own. "How did you end up in this state? Did someone do this to you? Do you have any insight into how we could realign this asteroid? Finally, do you mind if we scour your shrine for anything that could help us on our mission here?"
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"None of it is clear," the spirit says in defeat. "I do not remember why I am here, or what is meant by an asteroid. This place is not Iovo, but I do not know what or where it is," she doesn't seems to have a whole lot of answers, and the very energy that holds her here is quickly fading. "You will find the answers you seek ahead. I thank you for your help. Please, take what wish, I have no use for material possessions."
You find a small cache containing four potions of endure elements, two potions of cure light wounds, and a potion of remove disease. You also find a scroll of remove curse.
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Beyond the shrine, you continue down a single path leading to a large tower. The trip there takes minutes. This broken stone tower at the center of the city resonates with an unnerving note as wind forcefully billows out, as if it were some manner of alien pipe organ. Ice creeps around the entrance, and the howls of hunting predators ring through the surrounding structures.
As you approach the tower, the howl turns into an angry growl, and you find yourself surrounded by two hungry, mangy white wolves! These bear-sized wolves have white fur and a rime of frost around their snarling muzzles, and their eyes are a pale, icy blue.
The blue wolf runs forth and opens its jaws, unleashing a breath of cold at Gallix, Uesugi, Cup, Longjing, and D. Oh dear.
And, unfortunately, the red-pawed one does the same, this time hitting the entire party.
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Partial Cover
If a creature has cover, but more than half the creature is visible, its cover bonus is reduced to a +2 to AC and a +1 bonus on Reflex saving throws. This partial cover is subject to the GM‘s discretion.
Would this apply? I passed my saves, but the others might benefit.
D. sees the evil icy hounds, (which would make excellent guard dogs for his estate), and deftly avoids part of both breaths.
"White wolves? Magnificent, had they not been hostile."
D. moves away. accepts one burn to empower his blast.
The blast is a miss (i recall the AC from back then).. ):/
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Uesugi reacts quickly as the two largest wolves he has ever seen emerge from near the tower. Blasts of frigid pass through the party but Uesugi throws his arm to protect his exposed skin.
Breaking from the ice that has formed on his arms Uesugi moves to engage the wolf with the red paws not wanting these creatures to harm them anymore. As he does you see his helmet cascaded in a ethereal blue light and a miniature blade flies from the helmet towards the blue wolf. As it does so it grows into a full sized katana made out of complete kinetic force and strikes at the wolf.
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Designation: Make action for Calpurnia Underhall Poshkettle also known as Cup.
Even before Longjing falls from the sky Cup feels the cold sweep through her body once again as the brave dragon falls from the sky caught unaware by the blasts of cold breath from the bear-sized wolves.
Sensing the dragon's faint pulse she breaks out in song weaving lyrics full of Rage Against The Wolves!
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"Thank you for your assistance. May you find a peaceful rest." Sirettis takes the equipment and moves on.
"These are the wolves Vaporia warned us of-" Sirettis is interrupted by a blast of ice, catching her completely off guard.
Scattering slightly, Sirettis tries to will the blue-furred wolf to sleep.
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Mr Peppers looks up as he hears the sounds of howling "That sounds familiar... " And is promptly caught in the face with a blast of wicked cold dog breath.
"Uhhhh OW!" Not bring some scrolls to protect against elemental damage was poor planning...
Mr Peppers reels from the massive amount of cold to his delicate and previously well moisturized skin, and points his fingers towards the RED wolf that just ruined his day and unleashes two rays of fire in his general direction.
He then draws out his healing wand.
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D's sand bullet bounces against the rocky spire exterior, Uesugi bounds forward and slides his blade deep into the red wolf's flank, severing a vital artery . His crown of swords scratches the blue-eyed one, though only superficially.
Despite his struggles, the blue wolf is overcome with weariness, and slumps into a snowbank, its fur blending in with the landscape.
Mr. Peppers unleashes fiery hell upon the red wolf and fires not one, but two rays of flames, the first blowing a hole through the wolf's chest, the second burning its head cleanly off, painting the wintry area in deep crimson blood.
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Mr Peppers glances over and nods approvingly as his spellcraft produced the devastating effects he was hoping for "Those winter wolves are quite susceptable to fire. Lets hope we don't meet any more, those blasts of cold breath are pretty deadly. How's Longjing?"
He then goes about using his healing spoon wand on himself, quite successful actually compared to past experiences. He then pulls out a long scroll and casts a spell on it onto himself.
And again for one onto Sirettis. "I think its a good idea for you to have this as well, just in case."