The Witchwar Legacy (Inactive)

Game Master Sedoriku

I’ll examine the body of the ice lady and take the stuff from her, but Molly is smart enough to know she shouldn’t touch the torc.

Examining the body shows there are more than a few magical items on it. Taking all the items to Gillian shows the witch had a Ring of the Ram with 32 charges left, a wand of Vampric Touch made at the highest level with 21 charges left, a +2 wounding kukri, a +1 shocking burst kukri, a +4 belt of physical perfection, a pair of boots of speed, a hand of glory, a +4 headband of mental prowess in Int and Wis, a dusty rose prism ioun stone, a major ring of cold resistance, a +5 ring of protection, and a black robe of the archmagi.

The sorcerer is also able to look over the torc from all angles and notices nothing that even hints at a magical trap or curse put on the item. You can give me a perception check to look for physical traps if you want.

Wynn's botted Will save: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (18) + 14 = 32
Wynn is also able to resist the haunting whispers of the room. With one last fluff of annoyance the enchantment leaves the archer alone. Next, Hendric starts to hear a whispering sound in his ears. Suggesting that maybe his colleagues aren't as reputable as they claim to be. That they must be here to try and steal the relic to give back to the demon lord. That he should kill them and keep it here where it will be safe.
Next is Sir Hendric that needs to make a DC 30 Will save. I'll bot his save in ~24 hours from now. If I might suggest, we really don't want him to fail this one.

Yeah, Sir Hendric turning on the party might be bad. Though the way to beat him is to hit Sentry with more than 1 save-or-lose spell per round, as Indomitable Mount is limited like that. Sir Hendric will use the 1/day power of his Lucky Horseshoe to increase to a +4 rather than a +1, for a net +3 to his Will save. He also gets +1 from Shake it Off since he is on Sentry, who has the feat.

Will, Lucky Horseshoe, Shake it Off: 1d20 + 18 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 18 + 3 + 1 = 31

The knight just barely resists the murderous whispers in his mind.

Whew! He has a very good Will save for a martial, but that was close. If Sentry needs to save, Sir Hendric can use Indomitable Mount for an auto-success.

"I had left Illivorr alive because she is kin to the Queen and I though the Queen should decide her fate. If any of you think that was the wrong call, I will not stand in your way.
Do we take this Torc back to the Society?"

Given that Ilivorr was able to keep her familiar, I'm kinda operating under the assumption that this won't target animals or ones that are a part of a class feature. Also technically, I'm not Sentry has the requirements.

Hendric is barely able to hold out against the whispers, believing that the society is better than that. The whispers next decide to focus on the non-humanoid in the room, targeting Dear with their enticements. You can be free from her control. You're older than everyone here combined, why aren't you controlling them? You should kill them to show them the folly of their ways.
DC 30 Will save from Dear this time. Unless someone gives him a boost he will auto fail (only has a +7) and start to attack everyone. I'll bot his roll in ~24 hours if needed.

Dear's Will Save: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8 Knew he was going to fail but didn't expect it to be this bad!

Dear gives a small roar as he falls prey to the enticements of the enchantment in the room. He gives a small pull on threads of the aether and tries to grapple Gillian, his captor and slave driver of a summoner. "You brought me here against my will and wantonly used my power. You will leave here and the torc or you will die!"

Grapple vs CMD 27: 1d20 + 27 ⇒ (1) + 27 = 28

The threads however, slip right off the woman, as the loss of his free will seems to have also made him lose mastery of his telekinetic powers.

++++++++++++++++
Round 1
General Active Conditions: None

Peter: Can take a surprise round as well

Dear

Sir Hendric: -10
Sentry
Gillian
Wynn
Molly

Bold are up!
++++++++++++++++
Current map

Poke poke. You could probably just grab the Torc and leave if you wanted to. Dear might prove to be a hassle to that end though.

My apologies. So my phone, where I usually check to see if I need to post new stuff, still hasn't been fixed.

After the will save, Peter would have used arcane sight to try to figure out of there is something, perhaps a magic jar causing this effect.

After getting mentally targeted by something, Peter immediately casts arcane sight on himself. He notices a variety of auras in the room but none of them would be directly contributing to what he is seeing.

To pull back the curtain a little here, this is an effect as from Dominate Monster with a permanent duration and cannot be dispelled. It targets the first person to come into the space (or people in order of when they placed their figurines in the ritual. I've been abstracting via dice rolls as we didn't specify order there) until they are killed or knocked unconscious. you could probably recognize that everyone was going to be affected before most of them had to make a roll. If there was something different you would have wanted to do before Dear failed, let me know. You had time to do things.

I'm not certain what to do then. Protection from evil??? Anyone have other suggestions?

I thought everybody (except Sir Hendric) was already under a Magic Circle Against Evil courtesy of Nocticula, so maybe this is some Mythic stuff that bypasses such protection. Most likely Dear will try to grapple Gillian again, so if you can do something that will keep her free to cast, she can cast Dismissal.

I’m gonna knock him out if we can’t get rid of him.

It's pretty ill-defined as to how this was set up. I guess that the room was made by an evil creature, but I'm not sure if the room itself counts as evil for the purposes of this. Also I would expect that Baba Yaga would have set up security that couldn't be bypassed with a common level 1 spell.

If you want something right now to keep Dear occupied you do have Resilient sphere prepared and enough caster level to just contain the elemental and allow Gillian to Dismissal it. Or the other to attack or just grab the Torc and Illivorr and go?

I'm good on a dismissal. Anyone disagree? Poor dear, he really served his purpose in grappling Illivorr.

I’d say go for it. Get him out of here.

Going to bot a few actions and resolve this dilemma.

Peter, knowing Gillian can readily dismiss Dear but is likely the target of the elemental's ire rushes towards the Torc knowing that the enchantment is focused on keeping it safe. He quickly gets grappled by Dear instead of Gillian, but the sorcerer is then able to act again.

Gillian is able to quickly cast the spell needed to send Dear home. The elemental fails to resist the greater will of his summoner and is sent away. For a moment there's a small glimpse of what almost looks like a level of heaven, and not the ether that the elemental initially comes from.

Gillian is then able to completely resist the urge from the room to become it's next guardian, and the place falls supernaturally silent.

The Torc glimmers on the pale white statue of what must have been a Queen in the past, who Peter recognizes as representing Queen Tashanna, the original queen of Irrisen who rose up against her mother, Baba Yaga. The orb with a permanent See Invisibility also glints in the pervasive light of the room. Peter and Gillian both assure everyone that there is no magical trap hidden on either as far as they can tell. Does someone want to take them?

Sir Hendric is a pretty cautious high-Wis sort, but I am inclined to take the Torc (and possibly Orb) just to move things along.

Sir Hendric moves up closer and examines the Torc for any traps. Not seeing any he gingerly takes the Torc off the statue. It lifts off with a small scrape and slides off the neck of the marble like statue... A few seconds pass and nothing happens. The orb proves to be a similar story. Seems that Baba Yaga decided that trapping her daughter's epitaph was distasteful.

Yup there was no trap beyond the guardian of the room. You have the Torc, do you want to leave from the portal back the the Veil? Or is there anything you want to do here still?

I’m good here. We have what we need.

Okay, I'll take that as enough to push ahead.

The party gathers up Ilivorr, the Torc and orb and step back out the portal back to the Veil of Frozen Tears. The wind whips past, bringing snow and ice in from what looks like a building blizzard on the horizon, but it would be a good hour or two before it reaches here.

The clockwork statues stand still for once, not seeming to react or respond to your presence for once. Ilivorr starts breathing again, something that she stopped doing sometime in the cenotaph, and a small growl of hunger issues out from her stomach. She curls up some in the cold but stays knocked out.

A few seconds tick by as the group takes their bearings of the area, when Bubbles gives a mental warning <Something is coming!> As he warns, a large snake like woman, covered in ice blue and white scales with 6 arms each holding a longsword covered in icicles appears in the midst of the group. Bubbles faints immediately.
Is the Sense Evil something he can turn off? Or should e really be fainting every time some big evil thing appears?

The snake demon looks at everyone with a disparaging sneer on her face and quickly focuses on Sir Hendric. "I am a messenger from the Mighty Kostchtchie. You have something that belongs to him, and he wants it back." She flips one of the swords back into a scabbard, breaking icicles crashing to the ground, before extending the hand expectantly to the knight.

Last major decision of the module. Do you give up the Torc of Kostchtchie or fight the demon to keep it and give it to someone else?

It’s just a constant effect like trueseeing on devils. It’s not an easy life for Bubbles, he’s seen a lot at this point. I’m also not a fan of giving demon lords what they want.

“If the ‘mighty Kostchtchie‘ wanted his fancy torc, he should have walked here and taken it himself!”

knowledge (planes): 1d20 + 34 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 34 + 2 = 48

I believe Kostchtchie to be a demon lord of giants, and thus unlikely to come visit us here on the mortal plane. Where that to happen, other deities would take offense. That said, this is Nazalimora, a famed and mighty representative. I believe our knight, and our Molly revel in such challenges, although this foe is formidable.

Special attacks, defenses, SQ, SLA

Nazalimora gives Molly a glare and snear before she comments, "My lord Kostchtchie does want the Torc, but you puny mortals are not worthy of even a whiff of his unholy essence! I've waited long enough and endured enough whispering and out right brazen insubordination. I shall take the Torc from your frozen dead hands!" She moves to swing at the knight on his horse, but both Molly and Peter spring into action before she can!

++++++++++++++++
Round 1
General Active Conditions: None

Peter:
Molly:

Nazalimora

Sir Hendric: -10
Sentry:
Gillian:
Wynn:

Bold are up!
++++++++++++++++
Current map

Peter sees the six sharp longswords and wards himself and all his allies from potential critical blows by shifting their forms into Particulate before the blades can land.

The targets’ physical forms undergo a bizarre transformation. They look and function normally, but are composed of countless particles that separate and reconnect to remain whole. Each target gains fast healing 2 and is immune to bleed damage, critical hits, sneak attacks, and other forms of precision damage. Any target can end the spell effect on itself as a swift action; the target then regains 5d6 hit points and can attempt an additional saving throw against any one disease or poison affecting it (at the original save DC), ending that disease or poison with a successful saving throw.

Full attack. If a 29 misses but a 54 hits I complete my Dare.

Now this is what I came for! I bet I can take you down.

Attack 1: 1d20 + 24 ⇒ (10) + 24 = 34
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (2, 4) + 12 = 18

Attack 2: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (5) + 19 = 24
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (5, 4) + 12 = 21

Attack 3: 1d20 + 14 + 1d8 + 1d8 + 1d8 + 1d8 ⇒ (15) + 14 + (8) + (7) + (8) + (2) = 54
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (6, 5) + 12 = 23

Attack 4: 1d20 + 24 ⇒ (18) + 24 = 42
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (3, 3) + 12 = 18

As Peter starts to cast a spell the demon takes a swing at him with one of her swords. Assuming he had not gone invisible again.

DC 31 concentration check to keep the spell, if I am not missing something.

Molly fires a salvo of arrows at the demon, and hits with most of them. The first pierces the upper left arm, but seems to loose most of it's power at her scales. The second flies high. The third proves her dare is on point and burries itself deep into her midsection, but not before having it's power reduced. Finally the fourth also hits an arm and buries into flesh. You complete your dare.

In retaliation the demon takes a swing at Molly's midsection for each arrow as she was standing right next to the demon. She has Combat Reflexes and enough Dex to take at least 5 AoOs The first two swings fly high over the woman's head, but the third gets aimed lower as it digs into her side. With the first three slices acting as a good rangefinder, the last comes in for the archer's midsection with abandon, and scours deep into her flesh. Two hits, one of which is a crit, for 54 damage (51 slashing, 4 cold. Crit was for 19 damage.)

Despite the magic caster and archer standing right next to her and hurting her, the woman instead takes focus on the one holding the Torc and turns her full wrath onto Hendric. She takes one of the longswords and swings at him four times with it, only the first one landing. She then swings with all 5 other longswords hitting with two, and follows up with a tail slap. Despite the plethora of swings, the knight only gets hit 3 times, but every hit could be a critically devastating one. 3 hits for 75 slashing, 16 cold and if Peter didn't complete his spell, All three were crits dealing an extra 71 slashing.

++++++++++++++++
Round 1/2
General Active Conditions: None

Sir Hendric: -101 (maybe -172)
Gillian:
Wynn:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter: -31?
Molly: -36 (maybe -55)

Nazalimora

Bold are up!
++++++++++++++++
Current map

WAIT A SECOND! I just remembered that critical hits don't work the same way in PF1 as SF and PF2 where a crit threat doesn't need confirmation. Ignore me rolling a few more dice

Gillian takes a few mechanical like steps away from the demon, taking a few slices in the process.

+1 Frost Longsword, Power, AoO: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (19) + 19 = 38
Damage: 2d6 + 18 ⇒ (4, 3) + 18 = 25
+1 Frost Longsword, Power, AoO: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (12) + 19 = 31
Damage: 2d6 + 18 ⇒ (5, 5) + 18 = 28
Whoops someone is immune to evil weapons!
However the demon gives a growl of compelete annoyance as her weapons bounce right off the celestially powered sorcerer.

She then casts a spell of healing on Hendric, curing the knight of allof his damage, and then quickly follows up with a dimension door to move the knight into a charging position.
Feel free to figure out where you want to go yourself.

Okay, as I recall, the track around the clock tower had those statues, which were Medium-sized. We should be fine to charge if 10' up. And Sentry has Air Walk active. So we will Dim Door to where I put Gillian on the map, 10' up, then charge via Air Walk to strike the demon.

"For Golarion!"
Sir Hendric will charge while drawing his lance from the Scabbard of Many Blades (you can draw a weapon on a charge as long as it is a single move or less).

Challenge/Charge/PA: 1d20 + 33 ⇒ (7) + 33 = 40
Damage: 3d8 + 162 ⇒ (5, 8, 2) + 162 = 177 Weapon is +5.

Free CMB check, choosing Disarm: 1d20 + 33 ⇒ (4) + 33 = 37

With the Champion shield giving a +2 sacred bonus against the target of his Challenge, Sir Hendric now has AC 37 against the demon.

I scoot 5 feet away and lay down some covering fire for Hendric with a full attack. 10 rounds left.

“Just because I don’t want it doesn’t mean I’ll let a demon lord have it. Not today.

Attack: 1d20 + 24 ⇒ (16) + 24 = 40
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (1, 6) + 12 = 19

Attack: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (19) + 19 = 38
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (1, 1) + 12 = 14

Attack: 1d20 + 14 + 1d8 ⇒ (5) + 14 + (4) = 23
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (1, 4) + 12 = 17

Attack: 1d20 + 24 ⇒ (12) + 24 = 36
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (2, 6) + 12 = 20

I had thought Peter was invisible. He also automatically succeeds on casting that defensively at DC 31.

Peter sees the wounds on the knight and summons some heavenly reinforcements.

fort: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (5) + 21 = 26

A lion headed humanoid appears. It charges its fists with divine energy and charges on all fours towards the demon. An apparent feint, instead of pouncing the demon, it delivers its healing magic into the knight.

Std: Summon Monster VIII for Leonal Agathoian; Leonal casts heal and delivers to Hendric. +140 hp. It doesn't look like it needs take an AoO moving into to deliver, but let me know if he does.

- You have no power here, Demon. You can't hurt me, and I won't let you hurt my comrades!

It can be seen that she is full of enthusiasm, because the deadly attacks of the demon could not even scratch her! Everything works. She is rewarded according to her faith! Gillian throws up her hand, scattering a beautiful powder as she casts her spell...

Quicken Dismissal (with Dweomer’s Essence) DC 31 Will
SR: 1d20 + 22 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 22 + 5 = 35

+ ready action - Reach Heal at Sir Hendric (Metamagic Adept to cast it as a standard action) when he will be seriously injured; 150 HP

Okay then Peter wouldn't have taken any damage. I realized in making that post that he might have been invisible at the time. Also it was a busy week last week, I've picked up another table of a special and it's been taking up a lot of GM time, sorry we should be done in another round or two of combat. Also this demon has way too many weapons.

Hendric charges into combat after being ported away and risks a swing from one of the demon's longswords.

+1 Frost Longsword, Power, AoO: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (16) + 19 = 35
Damage: 2d6 + 18 ⇒ (1, 1) + 18 = 20
I assume the shield activates when you challenge her?

Molly then takes a step back but not out of the reach of the demon. She fires 4 shots at it, but takes three longsword swings back in return.

+1 Frost Longsword, Power, AoO: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (3) + 19 = 22
+1 Frost Longsword, Power, AoO: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (13) + 19 = 32
+1 Frost Longsword, Power, AoO: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (11) + 19 = 30

They all miss, but most of Molly's shots sink into the big body of the demon.

Peter summons a celestial reinforcement, who feints a head long rush into combat and instead heals the only hurt fighter on the field, Molly.
Unless that AoO hit, which I don't think it would, Hendric is at full from the botted actions of Gillian.

BotWynn takes a step back themselves, and fires a salvo of arrows. Luckily it seems Molly, Gillian and Hendric have soaked up all of her attention, so she doesn't respond in time to try hitting him with her swords.

arrow #1: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (5) + 23 = 28
physical damage: 1d8 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10
Immune to electricity
if evil: 2d6 ⇒ (3, 5) = 8 additional

arrow #2: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (14) + 23 = 37
physical damage: 1d8 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15
Immune to electricity
if evil: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 6) = 10 additional

arrow #3: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (14) + 18 = 32
physical damage: 1d8 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16
Immune to electricity
if evil: 2d6 ⇒ (5, 2) = 7 additional.

arrow #4: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (12) + 23 = 35
physical damage: 1d8 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9
Immune to electricity
if evil: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 5) = 9 additional

Only his first shot misses, as three arrows pierce her hide and cause her to writhe in pain over the good aligned arrows. She seems to be on the precipice of death.

However Nazalimora is still able to go full out one last time and tries to take down Hendric with her stronger hits and the celestial with her weaker ones.

She is able to only get two solid hits, one on both for a middling amount of damage each way. 23 to Hendric, 22 to Mr. Leo.

Gillian then shoots the demon with a banishing ray. Will save: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (11) + 13 = 24
She disappears.
She might be able to come back, but she doesn't have interplanar travel spells in her stat block and she was 10 hp away from being 'killed' anyways. I'm going to call this combat.
End of combat
Sir Hendric: -23
Leo -22

The demon disappears and you are once again alone in the town of ice. The midday sun shines out beyond the precipice, and the Torc is still safely tucked into Sir Hendric's belt.
I'll give you guys a 24 hours to see if there'S anything else you want to do here and then I'll move you guys onto a debriefing with Venture Captain Bjersig. Now might be a good idea to formulate ideas about what to do with the Torc.

I don't think Sir Hendric would have provoked an AOO - he entered a threatened area, but he did not leave one, unless the Marilith had 15' reach. Which it might. In any event, yes, the Sacred bonus from the shield applies as soon as the Challenge is issued, and Sir Hendric takes no AC penalty when charging.

The cavalier looks a little disappointed at the way the fight ended.

Nevertheless, he is ready to move on.

"I believe we should report back to Queen Anastasia with both Illivorr and the Torc. If the Queen decides that Illivorr should die, that is her prerogative. And as to the Torc, my information was that she might allow the Society to study the relic for a while - but that should also be her decision to make."

“I’ll agree on getting out with what we came for. We are in possession of something a demon lord desperately wants to get, so squirreling it away is a priority. We haven’t cleared the whole area, but I don’t think that is what we were supposed to do. There are a TON of evil giants outside...but we aren’t near a place where they are a danger to others. I’m conflicted, but I’m leaning towards leaving.”

Indeed, I'll take a victory. Regarding the 'evil' giants. If I were to go about dramatically altering the balance of power everywhere I went, I may attract much unwanted attention. I think it best we accomplish what we came for and not destroy potential foes simply for having crossed our path.

The party takes a moment a decides that leaving the giants lone is probably the best idea, instead they fly back to their base campt they set up that morning and contact Venture Captain Bjersig Torrsen. He signs back that he'll be in contact with Queen Anastasia and that you should come and meet him back at the Iceferry Lodge.

A Greater Teleport spell later finds everyone at th lodge, Bjersig and a few junior pathfinders rushing about the place to tidy it up, and working on preparing a feast. The Venture-Captain stops when he notices you, stating and signing, "Good to have you back! If you aren't too tired, we could use your help getting this place ready and presentable. If you need to rest for a bit, feel free to use some of the rooms upstairs, and we can lodge Sentry out in the stables. But don't forget to dress formal, Queen Anastasia is coming here. She wants to keep this as secret as possible."

A few hours later, the place is spotless and a delicious smell of various foods emanates from the kitchens. The young queen from a different planet and a very few trusted guards and spellcasters appear in the entry way with a swirl of ice and snow. Bjersig, in a formal outfit, and his recently washed and brushed husky, Mahki, both give a bow to the woman, before Mahki gives an uncomfortable scratch at the bow on her neck. "It's a pleasure to have you here, you majesty."

At the dinner table set for only you, Bjersig and the Queen, the venture captain raises a hand and all but the queen's bodyguards leave the room. She gives the group a look for a moment, before smiling, a genuinely interested look in her eyes, "So you're the ones who found the Torc that tempted two of the queens before me. So tell me, was the Veil of Frozen Tears really as deadly as everyone tells me? Can you hear the wailing crying of the dead whenever the winds blow? Did you see spirits walking the village in the center of the Veil? Did you really find a winter witch in there?"

Sir Hendric bows to the queen.
"It was indeed deadly, your Majesty, but through the grace of Iomedae and the strength of my allies we were able to triumph.
There was a mighty but warped frost giant; a linnorm; and some unspeakable abomination of an ooze. There were demons, undead, and constructs. Geysers of steam, and a riddle of Baba Yaga's.
A tribe of frost giants was camped by the Veil, seeking the Torc. Peter Zarr talked our way past them.
I do not recall hearing the the wailing crying of the dead, although the fearful aspect of the place could certainly put such thoughts in one's mind.
And, yes, we did find a Winter Witch. Ilivorr Karanasi, granddaughter of the previous queen of Irrisen, Queen Elvanna. She must have been the head of the expedition that Queen Elvanna sent here. We left her alive and brought her back. You may use your judgment - you are Queen in Irrisen."

Queen Anastasia looks all of her 20 something years listening to Hendric talk about all of the amazing and astounding things that the party encountered in the Veil.

"That sounds amazing. Your world is so interesting and magical with all of these actual giants, undead and even witches. I almost wish I had been born here, and more than anything wish I would travel and explore it, but my advisors warn me it's nearly impossible to keep me safe if don't stay in Whitethrone. It was a hassle to get them to let me come here and only because they don't want me to be seen openly supporting the Pathfinders. Says 'it will show you are weak' and that 'you favor outside powers over those in your own domain.'"

She takes a look at Ilivorr Karansi, still tied up and been fed a knockout agent, and then back at Hendric, "Seems like you're about the only people who treat me like that. I'll take her back with me and see if I can't convince her to help me. A powerful winter witch without their own lands might be actually willing to help me. Maybe she could help teach me some magic." She gives a bow to the knight and the rest of the party. "Please keep the Torc. It's too powerful for me to keep safe and too much of a liability to my rule if it stays in Irrisen. I will take Ilivorr as payment in exchange."

"Thank you, this is a wise decision, Your Majesty..." - Gillian makes an elegant curtsy. "Also, I have served in this squad not only as a Pathfinder Society agent, but also as an envoy of Queen Sorshen. She has a number of interesting suggestions for you, and if you could spare me a few minutes of your time, the young nation of New Tassilon would be extremely grateful to you... " - Gillian says this with all the necessary tact and slightly pretentiously lowers her head (well aware that most of the rulers have time for powerful sorceresses like her)...