Natalya lets out an audible harumph at 'we kill dragons' but doesn't press the issue. "So where is this warden?" She asks, "Where do we find them?"
"Oh, and can you break curses?"
"It is not my mate that I distrust," Greta growls to Izolda, continuing to warily eye Caigreal.
"I cannot break your curse, but you might find magic here that can help you!" Caigreal says. "The warden moves about Artrosa freely, but she favors certain locations. If you head that way, you might encounter her swiftly!" She points down the northeast passage.
Malkiel looks northeast and nods, "Then that way will shall go. Stay safe, fair maiden, we shall return to free you shortly."
As they depart, Malkiel comments "This is quite peculiar is it not? Thankfully she was quite helpful in narrowing down her possible location. Let's go have a chat with this warden, hmmm?"
A long flight of stairs leads up the eastern tunnel. After a hundred feet or so, a large chamber opens up to the side of the staircase. Beyond a stone arch lies an impossible expanse of broad meadow in bright daylight filled with swaying wildflowers.
A young farm maiden stands in the center of the field, her right arm draped over the muscular neck of a great ox. The maiden has many feathers and beads in her long brown braids. She wears a homespun dress of blue linen as well as a cloak adorned with black raven feathers.
"Oh! Why, hello there," she says with a shy smile. "More visitors have come to Artrosa. And what might your names be?"
"I... You're..." Malkiel says confused at another beautiful woman. "... the Warden?"
Clearing his throat and he smiles, "Hello fair maiden! My name is Malkiel and these are my friends. We're in search of a dangerous warden lurking about who likes to lock up young women such as yourself. Might you point us in the right direction?"
The girl giggles and plays with her hair. "Oh, such bold talk! You're like one of those dashing knights out of the fairy tales, aren't you? Here to rescue the beautiful maiden and win her heart? I wouldn't mind being rescued by somebody as handsome as you."
Predictably, Greta begins to growl and bares her teeth. The ox next to the maiden lows and stamps a hoof, but the girl shushes it. "Easy, girl. Now, it's possible I know where you can find this warden, but maybe you can tell me something first. You aren't the first group to have made it into Artrosa recently. There are a band of frost giants running rampant through these halls. Do you know anything about them? Or perhaps you have heard news of Baba Yaga? This place belongs to her, after all, though she has not graced these halls in many years."
"We know nothing of Frost Giants I am afraid. I am Izolda and this is Naty and Greta." Izolda adds, finishing the job of introductions, that Malkiel started poorly, obviously distracted, "What is your name?"
"We are searching for Baba Yaga ourselves, what did she use this place for? You say it has been many years since she was here last, do you know when this was?"
The girl giggles. "Names are powerful things, Izolda. One shouldn't give theirs away all willy-nilly!
"Baba Yaga created Artosa as a way to keep watch over these lands where her great enemy, the demon lord Kostchtchie, once ruled. His followers still lurk here, plotting against the Queen of Witches. I suspect the frost giants who have infiltrated this place are his devotees.
"Baba Yaga has not been back in nearly a decade. But something must have changed if the giants have become bold enough to assault her stronghold!"
"Are you the warden or not?" Natalya cuts in, clearly annoyed. "There's a girl back there saying that the Warden wants to kill her, and now you're saying you want to be rescued. Just tell us the damn truth!"
The maiden's smile becomes a scowl. "Do not demand the truth unless you are prepared to handle it." With a flash of light, she teleports away, and with her departure, the illusion cloaking the room fades. The field becomes a bare cavern, and the ox is revealed to
be a creature that seems to be made of interlocking metallic plates. Faint plumes of green smoke puff from its mouth. It snorts and prepares to attack!
"Look out!" Greta snarls, rushing at the beast. She tears a chunk out of its hide but does not trip it.
The beast exhales a huge cloud of green gas that engulfs you all! You feel your skin beginning to harden!
"Wait-" Mal says, turning to Natalya with a sigh. "Let me do the talking please!"
When the gas begins to fill the room, the rogue takes two quick swipes at the gorgon with his daggers.
+3 Bleed damage with SA.
+3 Bleed damage with SA.
Natalya freezes in place.
Izolda, fuming about being chastised by the creature for revealing their names, freezes with a scowl upon her face.
Mal scores a critical hit with one dagger but misses with the other. Greta bites the bull again—it responds by goring the wolf and striking her with a hoof!
Natalya remains stuck in place. It's probably the best rest she's had for days...
Malkiel slips opposite of Greta and continues to hack, yelling "Izzy! Naty! What are you two doing!?"
Izolda breaks free of the force holding her still, wrenching herself from her frozen stance.
Mal and Greta each land a good blow, and as Izolda returns to flesh, she sees the metallic bull fall, bleeding from numerous wounds! Natalya remains a statue for a short time longer before her petrification reverses as well.
"What in the name of Brigh was that?" Izolda exclaims, before moving forwards to examine it. "So, was that the warden or what?" She asks, somewhat densely, her brain still foggy from the petrification.
"She can't have been, could she?"
"I hate this place!" The barbarian says vehemently, although whether she's talking about Arthousa, Iobaria or Golarion in general is unclear.
Malkiel scowls, "Why do maidens in distress always require so much trouble! Bah! I don't understand who that was either. This makes no sense if she was the Warden why give us all that information. If she wasn't, why did she attack us and flee?"
Izolda shakes her head. "Its like this was designed to just confuse any visitors enough to give up. Come on, let's keep looking."
Greta limps slightly from where the metallic bull gored and stomped her. Her growl seems to echo your frustrated sentiments.
The passage continues past this side chamber before opening into another room. While the walls of this small cavern are rough and jagged, the stone floor is smooth and has been swept clean. A small pool of water surrounded by pale white stones lies to the west. Along the opposite wall to the east, an oaken table holding a wooden bowl and a silver chalice sits in a small alcove. The wooden bowl on the table contains corn seed. The silver chalice is empty.
To the northeast, a short passage leads to a stone door engraved with the image of a naked, pregnant woman sitting in a meditative pose. The woman’s hands lie folded in her lap, and a full moon is painted upon her belly. A trio of waist-high pillars of stout gray stone stands in the corridor just before the door.
The tops of the three stone pillars in the northeast passage have been hollowed out to create shallow fonts or bowls, each with an engraved symbol chiseled into the bottom of the font. From west to east, the symbols are a stylized ear of corn, a six-spoked wheel, and a downward-pointing triangle inside a circle. In order, these symbols represent corn, the sun, and water. Izolda recognizes these three elements are part of a crop-planting fertility ritual used by Iobarian witches to celebrate the passage into womanhood.
Izolda tries to get Greta to stand still long enough to heal her.
"This might well be the warden if these images are anything to go by." Izolda muses. "Corn, sun and water....the Iobarian fertility ritual. Let's head this way as peacefully as we can." She suggests, eyeing Greta's snarl and Naty's sword cautiously. "Maybe Mal should do the talking, and Natalya and Greta can follow us behind quietly to protect us just in case." Izolda says, trying to be somewhat diplomatic.
"The Iobarian fertility ritual? What?" the rogue says, confused.
Shaking his head, he nods, moving to the front. "Right then. Let's see if we can through this peacefully."
The door is sealed with a powerful arcane lock. Malkiel breaks out his tools, and while it takes him several minutes, he is just skilled enough to disable the ward and unlock the door. He opens it and steps through, but in so doing, he triggers a terrible trap!
Mal screams as his skin loosens and splits.
Malkiel tries to then stop the device from triggering on his allies.
"The hells?!" Natalya exclaims as Mal sets off some sort of trap.
"Mal!" Izzy yells, worried to see her friend obviously suffering. "How do we stop it?"
"Gah!" he exclaims, shaking his head, lost in the pain. "I don't know. It's not a normal trap. Was there any clues in that fertility thing out there? Maybe that is a way to disable it?"
Izolda rushes back to look at the fertility symbols, racking her brains for any clue so can muster.
The symbols on thr pillars represent corn, water, and the sun. There is corn seed in a bowl you could place on that symbol. You could fill the empty chalice with water to place on the corresponding pillar. That just leaves the sun... A spell that conjures light, perhaps?
Izolda gets to work and quickly starts ordering Natalya to help, leaving Mal a minute to breath.
When they are ready, Izolda finally sighs. "Problem is, I think we need some light now. I never prepare it because none of us need it. We don't have much choice to wait, but do we have the time?" She says, looking cautiously at Malkiel.
"Torch?" Natalya asks, rooting around in her pack.
The torch works. Once all three components are properly aligned, the archway shimmers as thr magic trap is suppressed.
The hall continues past the torch before ending at a door carved with a symmetrical maze-like pattern surrounding an inlaid iron wheel. Izolda identifies the wheel as an Iobarian witch symbol that represent motherhood. The door is locked, but Mal is able to open it.
Warm yellow light fills this huge and lavishly decorated bedroom from three golden chandeliers suspended from the ceiling. The walls are painted white and draped with plush velvet curtains. Finely woven rugs cover the floor, while the furniture is upholstered in fine brocade and chintz. Silk sheets and a delicate lace canopy cover an overstuffed poster bed to the south.
A half elf woman sits on the floor here, apparently sulking. When she notices your arrival, though, she leaps to her feet and begins screaming at you. ”What is this, Jadrenka? Another one of your tricks? A challenge to win back your favor?” She glares at Izolda and points an accusing finger at her. ”I am sick of your deceptions! You are the one who has been unfaithful, not me! I demand you release me at once!”
Mal mutters under his breath, "Oh good, another one."
He steps in between the women waving his hands. "Alright, alright. That's not Jadrenka, see? Look closely. And then there is the rest of us. Look, we'll set you free too, alright? We are looking for the Warden so we can free all of young maidens here. You wouldn't happen to know where she is, would you?"
The woman stares at you for a few moments. ”No, you are not Jadrenka.” She falls to her knees and bursts into tears. ”Please, I beg you, you must help me! My name is Marislova. The warden you seek is Jadrenka. We were lovers for years, and we were very happy together. But then a nymph who dwells here gave me a lock of hair for inspiration, but then she began to spread horrible rumors that I was having an affair with her!
“Jadrenka found the hair in my possessions and assumed the worst. We had a terrible fight and she locked me in my chambers! I desperately want to recapture Jadrenka’s affections, but so far my pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Jadrenka requires that I prove my love for her, and has devised several “tests” of my fidelity—all of which presuppose a relationship with the nymph that does not exist.
“I fear I will never be able to mend this rift. Now I just want to leave this place and not look back.”
Izolda feels a little silly that she didn't consider a torch, realising that she always defaults to the magical option. Maybe one day she will think about the simple option before jumping to the more complicated solution. Maybe.
Looking taken aback at being singled out by the woman, Izolda is relieved that Mal corrects the situation. "Is Jadrenka always so passionate and hot-headed?" Izolda asks hoping for a negative. "Is this unlike her and out of character?"
"Perhaps something has altered her thinking and she does still love you?" She suggests, trying to cheer the woman up.
Natalya tries very hard not to bash her head against the wall.
Why are all her gender such idiots?
Being stuck in a giant statue for... however long probably has something to do with it, but still!
”Jadrenka has always been mercurial, but she has never been cruel,” Marislova says. ”There are many guardians in this place though who covet her position and power though. The nymph Kyrisjana, who started this mess. Jadrenka’s mother, Caigreal. Possibly others. I am tired of the petty sniping, truth be told. I am ready to just be done with it all!”
Malkiel tries to put it all together. "Okay. Just so I'm on the same page here, Jadrenka is the Warden, right? If she's not cruel, why is everyone warning us against her and is she imprisoning people here?"
"Who else have you spoken to?" Marislova asks.
"Uhh..." Malkiel says, caught off guard by the question. "There have been two other women we have encountered here as well. Caigreal and one who summoned a creature, attacked us and fled."
Marislova frowns. "There are many who dwell her capable of summoning creatures to fight for them. But if you met Caigreal, then you should not trust a word she says. As I said, she is Jadrenka's mother, a powerful annis hag priestess of the demon lord Mestama. She leads a coven of hags that dwell within Artrosa. When Baba Yaga named Jadrenka the warden of this place, that put her out of Caigreal's reach. She has been scheming for years to force her daughter into breaking her oath to Baba Yaga, thereby allowing Caigreal to transform Jadrenka fully into a hag like herself!"
"So we can kill her?" Natalya asks, perking up at the prospect of violence. "That might even make things better!"
"I doubt Jadrenka will mourn her loss," Marislova says. "It may help get you on her good side, if she still has one."
Natalya grins at that particular prospect. "Can Jadrenka remove curses?" She asks, apparently out of nowhere.
Marislova nods. "Yes, if the mood suits her."
Malkiel strokes his chin, "Interesting and yet, so complicated! This was far easier when it was rescuing maidens."
With a sigh, he says "Well. I suppose we continue to seek Jadrenka, though now our goals are slightly less clear."