Radosek dies, quite messily.
In addition to Nazhena’s cauldron of overwhelming allies, the laboratory alcove contains enough active ingredients and supplies to constitute a full alchemist’s lab. Many completed alchemical items are stored on the shelves in the alcove as well, including two flasks of acid, three flasks of alchemist’s fire, two pinches of flash powder, three flasks of liquid ice, three smokesticks (each a different color), a sunrod, two tanglefoot bags, three thunderstones, 15 tindertwigs in a silver canister (worth 50 gp), and three applications of cold iron weapon blanch.
Three doors exit the laboratory.
Natalya tosses Radosek's cloak to Malkiel and appropriates the one that was worn by a warrior she actually respected. She then gathers all the other stuff up and deposits it for Izzie to work through and decide who should have what (variable) and who should carry the rest (inevitably her).
"That way?" She asks eventually, picking a door at random.
Two of the rooms are relatively unremarkable bedroom. The third bedroom features a large bed, wardrobe, reading desk, and bookshelf. A carved ice statue of a striking, robed woman with an owl on her shoulder stands next to an alcove of crystalline tiles. To the south, a white curtain hangs in a doorway. The door here is made of ice, but it is securely locked.
Natalya hefts her flail and looks at the others for permission.
With his ability to spot traps, Malkiel notices a glyph of warding inscribed on the door!
Malkiel grabs the cloak and throws it over his shoulders, hoping it would help him should something arise soon. He's about to continue forward when he notices the glyph and shows it Izolda. "Izzy, you have anything for that?"
Before anyone does anything too hasty, Izolda bothers over her compatriot's hot-headedness and attempts to relieve their pain.
"I appreciate we didn't have much choice, but charging in head first isn't usually the right answer you know? At least not for you Mal, Naty is just a little unique in that regard."
"Let me have a look at this thing." Izolda says, taking a step forwards, but not getting too close.
"Can I at least smash the statue?" Natalya asks with a pout.
Mal breathes a sigh of relief when Izolda soothes his pain. He sighs, "I'm sorry. I got a little worked up about this situation with Nadya and her daughter. I probably shouldn't have let it get to me like it did. Point taken."
After being healed, he sets about disabling this trap ahead of them.
Malkiel expertly disarms the glyph, then picks the lock on the door. Several crates, urns, decanters, and storage boxes fill this small room. A mirrored vanity and chair sit next to the east window. A similar looking ice statue stands in this room. When you enter, the mouth seems to move, proclaiming, "The uninvited shall wither and die like the frost-covered bloom. You should never have ventured here, and you’d do well to leave before my return." There are no further effects, though, as the glyph was disabled.
The storage boxes contain an impressive collection of arcane spell scrolls, consisting of two scrolls of comprehend languages, two scrolls of cure moderate wounds, a scroll of delay poison, a scroll of dispel magic, a scroll of Irriseni mirror sight, a scroll of remove disease, two scrolls of remove sickness, a scroll of threefold aspect, and a scroll of youthful appearance. The decanters hold varying draughts of potions not yet dispensed into individual vials—the equivalent of two potions of cure light wounds, two potions of enlarge person, three oils of mask dweomerA, and two potions of reduce person. The crates hold 50 trade bars of pure silver, each one weighing 10 pounds and worth 50 gp. A chest holds a bag, a small iron coffer, and a heavy blue robe. The bag is a bag of holding (type II), which contains 1,290 gp, 2,198 sp, and 2,787 cp. The robe is a robe of useful items (with extra patches for a bag of 100 gp, three flasks of alchemist’s fire, a ladder, an open pit, a potion of cure serious wounds, a rowboat, a pair of war dogs, and a window). The coffer holds a pair of feather tokens (bird and tree) and a wand of color spray (23 charges).
With all of the loot acquired, you now turn your attention to closing the winter portal to Taldor. Unfortunately, you can only do so from the ritual chamber inside the Pale Tower, which will strand you on this side of the portal, in Irrisen, when it closes.
While Izzy is doing boring magic stuff Natalya sets to work transferring all the silver into her new favorite 'bigger on the inside' bag.
It takes a delightfully long time!
Ignoring the warning with a shrug, Izolda enters the room with her friends. She allows Mal to do the honours with opening the abundance of chests, her eyes widening at the treasures inside.
"We shouldn't take all this, should we?" Izolda muses out loud."Thing is, if we really want to find Baba Yaga, then we might just need the help." She adds, justifying it to herself.
"So, this is interesting." She muses out loud. "I think we can close the winter portal to Taldor here, it would help reduce anything else that may come out this way. I think it can only be done from the Pale Tower in Irrisen, not on the other side. It means, if we close this portal here, there is no easy way home." She adds, spelling it out just in case Nat didn't put two and two together. She looks around at Malkiel and Natalya, the emotions on her face unreadable. "What do you both say?"
She picks up some of the books around her, diving straight in to work out more.
"Having looked at this, I'm confident we could close the portal, we have to complete the winter ritual." Forgetting the others around her, she begins to do what she needs to, to get the job done.
We shouldn't take all this, should we?" Izolda muses out loud
Mal points to the blood all over his clothes. "Do you see this? This is clearly justification. They tried to kill us."
He does his best to help point things out where she needs the help, but for the most part he lets her take the lead.
When she's done and she has a moment to think, he puts his hand on her shoulder and says "Those stupid witches don't know anything. You're the smartest person I know, Izzy."
He then moves off to help Natalya take everything that isn't bolted down or too heavy to lift.
"Wait? We can't go home?" Natalya jerks up-right, her face worried. "But what about Da? I can't just leave him." She frowns, "But we can't just leave a snow portal open can we? Izzy, what do we do?" She asks. "You're the smart one. Tell me what we should do."
Malkiel didn't seem to grasp that part until Natalya reiterates it. "Wait. Wait. What do you mean, can't go home? Like right now or forever?" he asks, confused.
"Well...." Izolda says, speaking slowly, unsure of how to word it, not wanting to scare her friends.
"The problem is, if I close the portal, then it is no longer usable. The Portal can only be closed from this side. I....I guess I could do it on my own if you both go through it first, so you could go home. But, out of us, I am the only one with the abilities to close this thing and I doubt we could find anyone else here to help us either. I guess I could do this myself, I'm sure I'd find a way home somehow." She swallows, trying to, unsuccessfully, push down the emotions beginning to well up inside of her, tears starting to silently stream down her cheeks.
"No!" Natalya says firmly. "I'm not leaving you behind Izzy! Best Friends Forever right? That means we don't leave each other behind. Close the portal, we'll get home together!"
Mal looks longingly at the portal, visualizing his home beyond it. He sighs and says "We'll get there the long way if we have to, I suppose. It needs to be done, close it Izzy."
With an hour of careful work, Izolda unravels the arcane ties between Irrisen and Taldor. On the image of Golarion, she can see the linked winter portals wink out as they close for good. But the remaining winter portals on the image remain, and no amount of effort conducted from the Pale Tower can affect these locations. In order to save the world from entering an ice age, you'll have to find Bab Yaga.
You escape from the Pale Tower, dodging the remaining guardians as you make your way back to Waldsby. Once you are there, Nadya turns to you with resolve in her eyes. "I am going to Whitethrone to get my daughter back. You are welcome to come with me if you'd like. The trip is a dangerous one, but with all of us working together, we will endure. And when we find Nazhena Vasilliovna, it will be my axe that takes her wicked life."
Natalya nods her agreement. "I'll save her for you." She agrees. "Stealing children is just wrong, no matter what."
"It may also be beneficial for us too Nadya, as we are on a hunt for Baba Yaga in order to save other places on Golarion from the close-call our own community might have fallen to. We're with you and we can't wait for you to be reunited with your daughter."
Malkiel nods in agreement, "We're not going to stop until we get her back, Nadya. We're going to find this Nazhena character and either make her see reason to release her or we'll force her to do so."
Part 2: The Shackled Hut
12 Arodus, 4713 AR
You have shut down the winter portal to Taldor, but doing so has trapped you in Irrisen. The Black Rider has charged you to seek out the Dancing Hut in Irrisen’s capital city of Whitethrone, and use it to find and liberate Baba Yaga to end Queen Elvanna’s threat to the entire world.
Nadya tells you that her late husband’s uncle Ringeirr is a fisherman in a small shantytown called the Fishcamps on the outskirts of Whitethrone. Ringeirr Malenkov has lived in the shadow of Whitethrone for decades, and Nadya believes he could be a trusted ally who can help you infiltrate the city.
Nadya also takes this opportunity to relocate her family to avoid retaliation from Nazhena Vasilliovna, packing up her sons, Orm and Mjoli. Nadya plans to take the twins only as far as the village of Ellsprin, which the group should reach after about a week, and she promises to ensure they do not become a burden. After Ellsprin, Nadya will see the party the rest of the way to Whitethrone.
Yet even without having two children in tow, travel to Whitethrone is a daunting task. It is a 9-day journey fraught with many perils besides the eternal winter. Luckily, Nadya is more than capable of getting along in the frozen wilderness. With her aid, you are able to hunt for scarce food and build shelters at night to keep warm.
The first few days pass by without incident. You have to take cover at one point to avoid scrutiny by ravens circling overhead, no doubt more spies for the White Witches. As you set up camp for the evening on the fourth day of travel, Nadya gives her son Orm permissiong to look for firewood before the evening snowfall begins.
It is an hour or so later and the boy has still not returned. "Orm! Orm! Where could he be?" Nadya says, worried. She turns to you. "I will stay here with Mjali. Please, you must find Orm!"
"Oh Naty, you're good at finding things right? Well you always find the boars when went go hunting at least? And you found lil' Aurora here."
Just before Natalya begins tracking, Izolda asks for guidance for her friend.
With Izolda's guidance, Natlya is able to quickly pick up Orm's trail. You trudge through the snow to the edge of the woods, and there you find the young boy surrounded by three white-furred wolves! Two of them are normal-sized, but the third one is the size of a draft horse, with one blue eye and one violet eye. This wolf growls at you before speaking in the Common tongue!
"Leave us to our snack, man-things, or you shall become our next meal!"
Izolda stretches out her fingers and chants, a cone of searing flame shoots from her fingertips.
"This wolf speaks! And threatens, to boot! I'm afraid I have to decline, my friend. I have been looking for a new cloak, however!"
He strides up to the wolf, slashing at it with Connla.
Both of the lesser wolves dodge the flames, but they are still badly singed. Malkiel rushes the big wolf, stabbing it with his sword. The wolf howls and retaliates as the smaller ones move to flank Izolda.
"Leave Izzy alone!" Natalya commands.
Malkiel growls and takes a defensive posture as he stands again.
Izola yells, unused to getting into harms way herself. She springs to the side and puts a hex onto the wolf, her hair blowing as if in an angry wind and her eyes fiercely golden, focusing on the wolf.
Natalya's flail attack goes wide, but Izzy puts one of the wolves that attacked her to sleep! Malkiel dodges the big wolf's jaws as he gets to his feet.
The big wolf snaps at Malkiel again while the other one turns on Natalya, but neither one hits!
"Nice work Izzy!" Natalya says cheerfully as she makes a wolf disappear!
"It is going to wake back up soon, don't be too excited!"
The other little wolf falls asleep as well, freeing Natalya up to rush the bigger wolf. With a solid thwack, the barbarian shatters the wolf's skull, slaying it! It falls lifeless to the snow.
Orm rushes up to Izolda and throws his arms around her. "I want my mama!" he wails.
"Orm isn't it? It'll be okay, we're here to help you." She gives the boy a tight hug with one arm, gesturing towards the sleeping wolves at Mal and Nat with the other.
"Your Mama sent us to come find you, she is safe back at camp. Do you think you're okay to walk back? You can walk back next to me if you like?"
"O-okay!" Orm says, nodding and doing his best to be brave.
Once the lesser wolves are dispatched, you head back to the camp. Nadya weeps with relief as she is reunited with her son, pulling him into a tight hug. When you tell her about the strange wolves, she gets a curious look on her face.
"Mismatched eyes, you say? Ther are old folk tales that suggest a winter wolf with different-colored eyes can be skinned to create a magic cloak called a rimepelt. Perhaps you should show me where you killed the beast."
The ranger is able to skin the wolf and provide you with the rimepelt!
Natalya gives Malkiel a push towards Orm and stays behind to finish the sleeping wolves and hide the evidence of conflict.
The rimepelt interests her and she watches closely as Nadya skins the beast, helping the ranger by holding legs out of way and so forth. "So what exactly does this thing do?" She asks once the pelt is secured.
"It will protect you from cold, but more importantly, it will allow you to transform into a winter wolf yourself! It is only temporary and can only be used once, but the White Witches employ many of these wolves as guards and servants around Whitethrone. It might benefit you to disguise yourself as one to ease your passage," Nadya says.
"Ha! I had said I was going to make a cloak of him! I had no idea that it could potentially be a special cloak!" Malkiel chuckles.
Once it's explained what it can do, Malkiel nods "Very useful, thank you Nadya."
That night, Izolda sits down next to her two friends next to the fire, watching Nadya give stories to her children, trying to settle them to bed.
She shivers slightly, not because she is overly cold, but because she knows that she should be cold.
With a deep sigh, Izolda asks, "How are you both? These few days have been crazy. What do you think they are doing back home?"
Malkiel shakes his head, "Crazy indeed! I don't know about you, but I'm quite enjoying this wild adventure so far. I've been so focused on getting Nadya's daughter back, I haven't given much thought to this Baba Yaga thing. It still feels surreal. How long do you think we'll need to do this for?"
Natalya shrugs, "Not long. We can do anything!" She grabs both of her friends and pulls them into a hug. "The three of us, no-one can stop us! We'll be home before you know it Izzy. Probably just in time to be scolded for not getting dinner ready or something silly like that!"
Izolda shakes her head at the other two. I really don't think they've thought this through. I'm pretty happy to be away from home and I really didn't want to face my parents, but they don't seem to realise we've been gone quite a while now.
"Sleep close tonight you two. Its cold out here. I'm looking forward to a proper roof over our head soon."
Izolda pulls Aurora towards her and curls up into a ball in her blankets and slowly drifts off to sleep.
The three of you snuggle close to stay warm through the chilly night. The next day, you continue your journey across the frozen land. In the late afternoon, you come across a rough wooden cabin that stands just inside a small wood. There is no sign of activity around the cabin, but smoke rises from the chimney.
As you near the cabin, a strikingly beautiful, red-haired woman in a hooded coat comes out of the cabin and hails you. "Please, travelers! I need your help. My name is Sylgja. My husband Finngarth was taken by a moss troll that lairs in a nearby cave! I ask that you rescue my husband if he yet lives, or avenge him if he does not. Either way, in return, I shall give you safe and comfortable lodging for the night and a magical treasure that belongs to my husband."
"Greetings Sylgja. Are you out here alone? When and from where did your husband get taken?"
"Aye, we live here by ourselves. Finngarth and I prefer to only share each other's company," Sylgja says. "He went out hunting a few days ago but was late coming back. When I went to look for him, I saw the vile troll outside its cave! It's too strong for me to fight, but you look like you can handle yourselves!"
"Well how about you lead us that way, I'm sure we can help right Mal, Naty? Sylgjya, would you mind if Nadya and her children here, stay in the hut whilst we go looking? I think its best that they stay safe and warm up."
"Yes, of course. There's tea on the stove," Sylgja says.
The woman leads you about half a mile away, then points to a small cave in a rocky hillside. "That's where I saw the troll! Please, be careful!"