Looking from Szasa to Tazwell and back again, "Drinking? As in to the point of drunkenness which leads to this 'bar fight' as Tazwell mentioned?" he asks, pondering that a moment before shaking his head. "I do not drink to such an extreme. I only drink leisurely and rarely at that," he says as a matter of fact. He then looks again to them both a moment before, "So who's for sitting in silence and waiting patiently? I am for that," he says with a raised hand, "I am," he reiterates, nodding repeatedly to emphasize how much he truly is for sitting and waiting patiently.
"Who said anything about a fight? Have you never heard of the Tianese drinking game 'Pin Pon Pan'?"
Hylota is caught off guard by the gnome's question. Another Winter Witch looking for Endure Elements? What are the chances? Hylota answered the question, "It is not always the cold that one must seek protection from - the spell also protects against great heat, such as that found in the deserts of Osirion. I've been known to occasionally be struck with wanderlust, and I want to be ready should I decide to journey again. I am surprised one of my fellow witches would come here, however. Many of them never leave Irrisen. I may look to travel with her. Tell me, what was her name?"
"Maybe I wasn't clean, my concern isn't over any of you getting drunk. My concern is over agents of our enemy or rival factions of the Queen's court manipulating others into starting a fight with us in order to cause difficulty with the authorities and delay our endeavor." Tazwell clarifies to the others.
The gnome shopkeeper, having found the scroll, returned to the counter, hopping onto a stool. "Hmm, the Ladyship of eight days ago? She'd be the White Witch Ilivorr Karanasi. She came with seven or eight others and they gathered several spells and items to journey north. I think I heard their honors say a thing or two about a tale of frozen fears? No, a vale of honest tears? Oh! Veil of Frozen Tears, yes."
He held out the scroll. It was held in a pale gold case bejeweled with two large - if cheap - gems, a ruby and a sapphire on each end, the parchment papyrus imported from Osirion, and the ink seemed to gleam as if still not yet dry. "Shall this serve your Grace? Or shall I provide more examples of my humble wares?"
"Who said anything about a fight? Have you never heard of the Tianese drinking game 'Pin Pon Pan'?"
The sorcerer blinks a couple of times as he stares blankly at the swashbuckler for a moment before, "No," he shakes his head, "no I cannot say that I have." He then listens to the bard as he speaks. "Actually I," he starts, stammering a bit as he appears to be uncomfortable with the subject, "I, I would be a bit concerned over this whole 'drunk' affair/business or whatever the proper term for it is. So naturally I would have to agree with Tazwell. Better to be safe than sorry, you know," he nods. Taking a deep breath through his nose, "So, with that, I guess I will probably just read... you know... something," he says, grinning uncomfortably before quickly rising and walking about the room, looking for any form of reading material. Don't ask any more questions, Vincent. And don't talk about drinking. Horrible topic of conversation. This is what happens when you are unaccustomed to conversation you know.
Szasa glances from Vincent to Tarwell and says "Okay, your loss." she then smirks while sipping her wine, like one would at an inside joke.
"That is most excellent. I must thank you for your prompt service and willingness to speak. You are most exceptional."
Hylota will pay for the scroll, leaving a few extra gold for informaiton, then exit the shop and head back to the inn, her mind racing. Seven or eight people, along with the White Witch Ilivorr Karanasi. I've been away too long, and I don't know her. Still, eight days is quite the head start. Hopefully we can get there more quickly.
Once she returns to the inn, she ascends to the private dining room and, upon entry, says, "We have trouble. In addition to Svartokshe, it seems the White Witch Ilivorr Karanasi has also departed for the Veil of Frozen Tears. She left eight days ago with seven or eight others. I am unfamiliar with her. Tazwell, with your recent time in the Queen's court, are you familiar with her?"
Vincent perks up at the name mentioned. "Ilivorr Karanasi you say? I know of her. She is one of the Queen's favored granddaughters. They say she is quite powerful in her own right and apparently her flesh has taken on the properties of ice itself. If she is too oppose us...," he stops, pondering that a moment. "Wait a minute, if the Queen has sent her to acquire the Torc, why would she need us? UNLESS... Ilivorr means to oppose the Queen? Surely not," he says incredulously. "But seven or eight others?" he asks, completely confused on it all. "Why so large a group?"
"Regardless of her motives or why she has such a large group, Illivorr's presence complicates matters. I need one hour to teach Virix the Endure Elements spell. Then I will prepare it and we will leave. Ilivorr's group will have arrived there yesterday, so we need to be quick. How many of you will need the protection?"
Hylota will set about feeding Virix the scroll of Endure Elements, then preparing the requisite spells.
Tazwell stands up, stretches, and straightens his hat on his head.
"All set to go when you guys are ready."
Shaking his head, "I am not in need of it."
"I'll take it, if you're willing to cast it on me."
As Hylota begins memorizing her spells, Szasa stands and begins stretching. While her movements are clearly meant to prepare muscles for exertion, viewed from a distance it might appear that she is intentionally attempting something like visual seduction. She reaches her arms to the heavens, thrusting out her chest in the process. She then bends over and touches her toes, causing her backside to become the focus of attention.
She continues performing these types of actions for several minutes before returning to a neutral standing pose and buckling on her sword.
"Thank you, but I can deal with the cold well-enough on my own."
Once the ritual was done, Hylota communed with Virix to prepare the spell, then cast it on Szasa and said, ”Now, let us go. Gather round, and I will teleport us there.”
With everyone there, she cast her teleportation spell to outside the Vale.
Tazwell casts extended heroism and overland flight on himself.
When we arrive, he takes a look around.
As the spell takes effect, icy mist swirls around the four of you. It shrouds you for a moment, chilling you to the bone, before dissipating almost as fast as it appeared. You are now standing on the snowy bank of a river of ice leading back up to a massive frozen waterfall. There are few trees near the cliff and along the ice river, but there are thick snow drifts making bumpy terrain. Presently, you are five hundred feet from the base of the falls, a fierce wind of howling snow beginning to desend upon the region.
As the group gathers for teleportation, Szasa will draw her sword and lay the flat of her blade on her left-hand shoulder.
"Hey folks, you might want to crouch down and keep out of sight." Tazwell tells the others, casting his voice low.
"There's a bleedin' army of frost giants camped over there by the front door. They've even got war rhinos. I've never seen a war rhino before."
and wow! that's a big door. Obviously Baba Yaga doesn't go in for subtle much."
Hylota casts mind blank on herself, then says, "Let's avoid wasting resources on them. We should assume they are with Ilivorr, and may alert her to our presence. I believe we can circle around them and avoid their notice with the snow. Let us do so."
"Or I can just go explain to them that they want to be someplace else."
"Even if you killed or ran off most of them Szasa, you can be sure one of them would get away to warn their masters."
"Is there a likely route around them where we won't be seen or smelled?'
"Hmmmm ... doesn't look like it. I can move us past the giants using a magic spell if everyone agrees."
Vincent brings forth a bit of magic, giving himself the ability to see in total darkness and giving himself a bit more protection.
"While I will not dispute your level of prowess against such creatures, Lady Szasa, I must agree with Hylota and Tazwell in this matter. Better to save our resources than to possibly use most of them versus such a group. And we certainly do not need any masters of theirs to arrive after such a battle. It could very well place us in an unwanted predicament. BUT, do not lose your fire, Lady Szasa, we are assuredly going to need it," he says as a matter of fact, giving a slight grin.
"Well, if there appears to be no other way around them, then, by all means, Tazwell, use your magic," he says as he gives a look around just in case.
Szasa chuckles and shakes her head "Who said anything about fighting? I was talking about talking. If you all want to avoid them, however, we can try and move around them."
Hylota quietly laughs at Szasa's eagerness. "Oh, my dear, while I have no doubt your reputation would do wonders with dispersing them, your appearance would only result in warning their masters. They likely have some means of magical communication, after all, and would be sure to report your appearance. The longer we can avoid alerting them, the better off we all are. Tazwell, I agree we should use your magic to cross to the other side of them. Avoiding them is likely the better option."
"Well, okay, but note we'll probably have to deal with them on the way out."
"By then, they won't have the Queen's granddaughter to call on for help."
"Agreed. The fewer reinforcements the better." He then looks to Szasa, "And I applaud your desire to speak with these beings, Lady Szasa, but while I like to think of myself as always the optimist, I would find it hard to believe they would take any type of interest in speaking with any of us. The Queen has several of these type creatures as her minions and none of them - that I am aware of any way - have any penchant for discussion. So while you may have not been speaking about fighting, per se, I would daresay that attempting to speak with them in any fashion would more than likely lead to such. Unless, of course, you possess a fantastic gift of diplomacy that I am unaware of which... is quite possible," he says as a matter of fact, shrugging.
"As I mentioned before, I am somewhat well-known among the Frost Giants in this part of the world. I believe that they call me "Small Death" or something like that."
"Alright, it sounds like we are agreed. Everyone gather close and hold steady."
Tazwell casts dimension door to move the party collectively 270 feet towards the big Baba Yaga Door.
You exit the dimension door to face the BBYD. Now closer, you see that some of the once elaborate doorway and upward-spiraling stairs have been melted away. This damage is focused from a steaming hole that the stairwell seems to circle, going upwards from right to left.
To the right, just inside the doorway, there are three odd lumps of darkened ice. There appear to be no guards posted, and the only sound you hear is the howling of the wind ... but now that sounds more like wailing and great grieving.
"Well, it appears that my cousin has already opened the door for us. Shall we proceed onward?" Hylota asked, itching to go explore the odd lumps of darkened ice.
"Don't be hasty...."
Tazwell looks for danger.
He also uses Detect Magic to do a quick sweep of 60' in front of them.
Szasa will also look around and see what she sees.
Vincent takes a step nearer, looking within himself. "Fascinating. I am with Hylota. I say we proceed ahead. And what would cause that ice to darken so?"
"She's a winter witch. Likely those were people among her retinue who displeased her, or guardians of the first room."
Hylota looks about, impatiently waiting for the others to see if there was any danger.
"Precisely why I want to investigate them. If they were guardians, I need to see what creatures they are so I know what we may face as we progress further into the veil."
There is little else to the chamber. There are two dark ice lumps at the base of the stairwell and another on the stairs themselves. Approaching you see that they are human corpses - seemingly frozen to death via frostbite due to their darkened skin. They are still wearing their gear and weapons, but you cannot see who they were and what they are wearing clearly through the layer of ice covering them.
Examining the ice statues, "I do not possess fire of any sort. If any of you do, we could melt the ice and possibly determine who these people were," he suggests as he taps upon one of them.
Tazwell looks around to see if anyone is watching.
If the coast seems clear, he continues.
"Step out of the way and I'll see if I can clear the ice."
Tazwell pops his wand of Dragon's Breath out of his sleeve and blasts the two corpsicles with a cone of flame.
when the ice is clear, he searches over the bodies.
"Maybe the dragon's breath is a tad bit of overkill for this ice."
Tazwell searches the gear, using Detect Magic to see if anything looks interesting.
"We can try something different on the next poor frozen soul."
Tazwell pitches his voice to a weird warbling note and directs the sound at the ice surronding the next frozen corpse.
He uses Wordstrike to send sonic energy smashing the ice crystals surrounding the corpse.
Then he likewise searches this corpse for anything useful (detect magic) or any clues as to who they were and why they were here.
Noticing the wand, Vincent's eyes go wide and he's just about to call out but unfortunately is too late. "I meant NORMAL fire, Tazwell. Magical fire is too destructive as we all know and now have plainly witnessed," he says with a resigned sigh. Looking upon the charred - and now probably unidentifiable - corpse, "Aw well, que sera sera."
Sighing, Szasa begins checking the corpses for anything intact, which she sets to the side and asks "Is any of this stuff magical?"
Seeing that the frozen lumps were just ordinary humans, Hylota sighs and says, "Well, that's boring. I suspect they weren't guarding the site - I doubt Baba Yaga would use such mundane protectors. Probably displeased their mistress." Giving Tazwell the side-eye, she says, "You carry that thing around with you in court? Queen Elvanna finds that out, you'll meet the same fate the satyr did - or possibly worse."
The weaponized vocals of Tazwell is not as destructive to the encased corpse. The ice vibrates and shatters, revealing the corpse beneath.
The two burnt corpses each wear a suit of +1 scale mail. One bears a masterwork battleaxe and a +3 dagger. The other has a +2 battleaxe and a feather token (bird). The unburnt one wears a captain's insignia of Irrisen's private military forces, answerable only to the white witches amongst the nobility. He has a ring of protection +4, a suit of +3 scale mail, and a +2 holy cold iron longsword.
"Anyone recognize this guy? He looks like he might have been with Winter Witch Elvanna sent up here last week."
"That's a nice magic ring." Tazwell gestures at the ring of protection.
"and this sword might come in handy if I lose my voice." he says hefting the +2 holy longsword.