Bengeirr swings again at Pau, using his smite ability.
Luckily, Pau easily dodges the attack.
Pau, upon hearing Narnel take up the song, let's his fists and feet fly as if each had a mind of it's own. Bengeirr takes hit after hit, and falls into a deep coma, followed quickly by death.
You search the loft and recover the lantern, that it is still burning. The oil is at about 1/4 full capacity. You also discover that the goods stolen from Skelg’s vault are stored here. There are carpets, urns, sculptures, and other works of art, weighing a total of 800 pounds and worth 3,000 gp. There is also a box containing 2 potions. Skelg will want all of these items returned to him (with the exception of the potions, which he’ll gladly part with.)
For those interested, Bengeirr also wore half-plate armor and carried a masterwork greatsword.
You can revive one of the guards.
The lantern can easily be extinguished and re-lit as you like. It also does have shutters to control the beam. With a bit of research (once you have vacated the premises, no doubt), you find the following properties:
The lantern also opens portals under the right circumstances.
To activate its powers requires a special lamp oil that only the white witches of Irrisen know how to create. It can hold enough oil to burn for 8 hours, although it currently has only 2 hours of oil remaining. When lit, the lantern burns with a cold light, and if the burning oil is used as a weapon, it does cold damage instead of fire damage.
As a standard action, the wielder can focus the beam on a single living creature, which creates a small portal from the frozen north to the creature’s body (Will save DC 15 negates). Cold energy leaks through this tiny portal, exposing the creature to a permanent cold environment (see Cold Dangers in the DMG, Chapter 8, for details.) If the Beacon is focused on the creature for multiple rounds, the portal opens further. A second failed save worsens the exposure to severe cold, and a third failed save causes extreme cold.
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A guard is revived. Ask him your questions.
"Curse? I don't know about a curse, but I know that Bengeirr aimed that lantern at him and laid him low. I don't know what it does... not really sure Bengeirr did either. But I know he was happy to see Skelg suffer."
"Five weeks ago, Skelg raided the funeral ship of Haldyr Bjornsson, our Ulfen jarl of Varisia. He rescued Haldyr’s wife, an ice witch named Natalya who was about to be sacrificed on her husband’s funeral pyre, and looted the ship. He left Natalya aboard Haldyr’s ship to sail where she wished. Bengeirr was Haldyr’s son and came to avenge the pillaging of his father’s ship and recover the stolen funeral items."
"I don't know how to reverse the effects, if it can even be done.?
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So you go into the tavern across the street and ask around, but no one seems to know anything about this ship. Finally, you decide to follow Narnel's suggestion, and go back to Skelg's house.
As you look around, you see again that the tapestry in the hall now depicts an Ulfen longship on a rolling sea, mostly encased in an iceberg (it was a meadow scene with shepherd and flock before)
Examining the picture closely, you notice that a large lantern ring hangs from the mouth of the dragon figurehead, but no lantern hangs there.
As the light shines on the depiction of the ship, the colors begin to swirl and spin into a large circle. A portal opens in the middle of the tapestry!
On the other side, it feels cold, but you can't see anything.
As you step through the portal, you find yourself in a strange ice-cave. Sunlight filters through the walls and ceiling, and three braziers give some warmth to this otherwise chilly space. Directly ahead of you, a tunnel leads through the ice, sloping steeply downward. Behind you, a shimmering portal hangs on what appears to be a main mast embedded in the ice. Following the mast downward, you can barely make out the blurry outline of a ship’s deck below.
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Demario puts buys and puts on a set of cold weather gear. He steps through the portal and his teeth start to chatter at the frigid cold.
Really, it has to be a frozen hell?! Let's hurry up so I can get back to the warmth of where we were.
He grabs his crossbow and readies it in case trouble shows up.
The sloped tunnel is slippery, but after a long curve it suddenly opens into another cave at the rear deck of a ship. More braziers keep the worst of the cold at bay, but a wall of solid ice blocks access to the foredeck. A large drum stands on the deck, and behind it is a trapdoor leading into the hold.