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Exiel breaks Alden out of the ice with a single blow, then brings 42 and Sue back to consciousness.
Alden finds the following items on the centaur:
2 potions of cure serious wounds (2)
mwk breastplate
frost-thunder hammer (+2 warhammer; 1/day shoots the ice that trapped Alden) dagger
belt of mighty constitution +2
periapt of health
As Exiel descends into the pit, he feels the necromantic energy swell around him, sapping his life force and mental energies at an alarming rate!
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+2 vs necromancy/death effects, +2 again if vs evil
+2 vs necromancy/death effects, +2 again if vs evil
+2 vs necromancy/death effects, +2 again if vs evil
+2 vs necromancy/death effects, +2 again if vs evil
+2 vs necromancy/death effects, +2 again if vs evil
+2 vs necromancy/death effects, +2 again if vs evil
+2 vs necromancy/death effects, +2 again if vs evil
+2 vs necromancy/death effects, +2 again if vs evil
After retrieving the scale, he will tap Alden, 42 and Sue with their wands as much as the owners of the wands wish.
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Exiel weathers the storm of necromantic energy with his immense physical and mental fortitude. As he emerges from the pit, he notices that the he is swathed in a black energy, but it is not the black energy of the pit that is still clinging to him, but his black mantle flaring up, especially around the hand that he is holding the blue dragon scale in.
A short moment later, a ripple appears in the air, and from it steps the same hunch-backed crone you saw earlier. She holds in her hand a gold nugget that Exiel's mantle also responds to ever so slightly.
"I apologize for my uneven reception of you so far, and thank you for your great efforts. By slaying the centaur-cleric of Kostchtchie, you have proven the integrity of their intentions, and your worthiness for the task of following Baba Yaga's trail. You have also saved my home, and I believe it would best serve the preservation of Artrosa to aid you."
"That scale you retrieved and this gold nugget are two of the keys to the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga. They are not the original keys, only copies left here by Baba Yaga. If the Queen of Witches did not return to Irrisen as planned, her Three Riders were to use the keys to follow her in her Dancing Hut. Unfortunately, Baba Yaga never told me where these keys would take the hut, so you will need to do the best you can. I already know that your society is looking after the hut, and with the original riders dead, I suppose I have little choice but to entrust this task to you."
"Artrosa is still a dangerous place, however, and the invading giants had stirred up alot of its defenders. You may continue to explore, at your own risk for I am forbidden from intervening, or I can lead you out and send you on your way. It is your choice."
[ooc]Constantin: since your equipment continued to contribute to the success of the mission, especially your ring, and you were here for most of the module, I feel justified in giving you full credit, so you will be able to pay for your resurrection if you wish.
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The crone raises an eyebrow.
"Oh? You must mean Marislova. She and I were...close, but she betrayed me. To think that he had courted me so earnestly... But that two-timing @$#&$ betrayed me for the ^#&$ Kyrisjana. She will be freed when she proves she will be loyal to me. Until then, she is an honoured guest. But that is a personal matter between me and her. It is not your place to interfere in this."
"If you wish to leave, I will show you the way out."
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"If she courted you and came to live with you, then this is a domestic matter, I would think. I for one am ready to leave this place. We have completed our mission here and we should leave before this place claims another of our group."
"Before we go, however, our friend Alden performed a rite that aged him into the old geezer you see here. Were he to seek to reverse it, how should he go about it, might I ask?"
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"Well now, ain't you the charmer, eh? Very well, follow me."
The crone leads you back to the room where you saw her with the crow swarm and gaseous ooze, and unlocks the South-Eastern door there. She then leads you through it and down an exceptionally long passageway.
As the crone passes under an arch along the passage, her form suddenly shifts to that of the young maiden who was accompanied by the bull/gorgon much earlier in the dungeon. You also note that the darkness enveloping the passage does not extend beyond that arch. She notes the look of surprise on your faces and simply giggles childishly.
"Come now, keep up," she chirps playfully as she presses on.
The passage leads into a brightly-lit chamber where four little children were playing, but they stop to watch you warily as the maiden waves you through another door, back into the room where you found and fought the hag.
"Oh, oh my," she says softly as she sees the body of the dead hag, but she does not stop.
She leads you once more through the Northern passage (the same one you had taken earlier), and as she walks into the darkness her form once more shifts into that of the old crone. This time, she waves you along irritably, through the room with the blowgun-using fey and into the room where you fought the porcupine-man.
"Made quite a mess as you came through here, didn't ya," she grumbles as she leads you into the North-Eastern passage (you had previously taken the North-Western passage from here).
You come to a cavern where a large black iron cauldron sits in the middle of a small landing between two flights of curving stone stairs. A ring of runes surrounds the base of the cauldron, which contains a bubbling and steaming multicolored stew. To the east, a small table sits against one wall. The old crone walks over to the table and picks up a jar from the table labelled "Witch's Kiss", and adds a pinch of herbs from the jar into the bubbling stew. The colours of the stew shift slightly, and the crone beckons Alden over to be added to the stew have a helping of the stew.
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As Alden drinks the stew, he finds his strength returning, though he loses some of the insight he gained from the croning ritual. The rest of you see the colour returning to his hair and his skin fleshing out and losing their wrinkles. In a few moments, Alden looks much like he did before.
"Next time, don't go messing around with magic you don't understand, young man," she cautions as she waves a wooden ladle in Alden's face, splattering it slightly with a few globs of stew.
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A bemused look crosses Exiel's face as he notes the woman's transformations as she passes through the different parts of the dungeon.
"A crone, then a maiden. I presume that in some parts of the dungeon you appear as a motherly figure, then?"
"I take it the two of you did not get along?" Exiel asks as the maiden walks past the hag's body.
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"Very clever, mantle-bearer," the maiden laughs when Exiel makes his observation. "Yes, I am the warden of Artrosa, and my appearance changes to match the part of Artrosa that we are presently in. As for my mother, she wanted my position, and wanted me to be transferred into a hag like her. Needless to say, I did not share her wishes, and she's been doing all she can to undermine or displace me. We could not act directly against each other, of course, as we are both sworn to Baba Yaga, but...accidents happen."
The crone/maiden leads you back to the stairway through which you entered Artrosa, past the corpse of the ettin and back out to the snow-covered landscape. As you leave Artrosa, you notice that you each now bear a wispy black mantle about your shoulders that coils around you as if it were made of vapours and smoke - Exiel's mantle is somewhat thicker than the rest.
"As bearers of the keys, you now share in the black mantle, and are empowered and bound to seek and aid the Queen of Witches. Do come and visit again. I get precious few visitors who are able to survive this place, after all," she laughs as she retreats into the darkened passage and seal the door with a motion of her hand.
You activate the stone that the Master of Spells had granted to you, and deliver the message that you are ready to be extracted from this place. There is no immediate reply, and you wait. And wait. And wait. Eventually the cold starts to numb your skin and you begin to wonder whether Zey had given you a defective device, but after what seems like several hours (because it was in fact several hours), just as you begin to discuss how you might be able to get back to Absalom without Zey's help, the air before you shimmers, and the Master of Spells appears before you.
"Brrr...it's cold out here," he notes casually as you all give him rather ugly glares.
"Well don't just stand there, gather around me and I'll get us out of this place. It's freezing!"
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"So it would seem. Well, I suppose we'll just have to hope that the Society's administrators think well enough of them that their resurrection or funerary arrangements will be properly taken care of," he says matter-of-factly. Then, finally perceiving your annoyance at his indelicate response, he sighs and half-heartedly adds, "yes, it was a shame that they had to perish in the line of duty. I will remember the sacrifices that Vladimir and Simba made to see this mission accomplished."
Before any of you have time to correct the Master of Scrolls as to the name of your fallen comrades, he begins the incantation for his spell, and you soon find yourself transported to his offie in Absalom where he listens impassively to your report.
"Yes, well, it is a shame that you were not able to explore more of Artrosa, but it is certainly interesting, the rituals and the transformations of the warden, and that pit of necromantic energy. I would have preferred that you brought me back the carcass of the bebilith for study, but I suppose you have completed your mission successfully, and have earned your remuneration for the task. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to figure out what to do next with these keys you retrieved. If you would be so kind," he says absently as he motions to the door, his mind already focused on his next task at hand.