With talk of a plan fomenting, the chef started to feel more at ease. Maybe righteous violence against authority figures was a cure all?
Lyudmilla gives a wary glance to Hatch's cryptic rhymes, her past with fey being less than stellar. Instead she nods to Barnaby with a sly grin.
"I even know all the official-y sounding words too! Your better half certainly has a discerning eye." she finishes with a wink at Ant.
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Hekla fails to help in any meaningful capacity. She drapes one of the guards' jackets over her shoulders like a cloak and then smears a little bit of mud on everyone's face. "We're all far too attractive to pass as these guards, this'll help"
Alethea gives Hekla a skeptical look, but doesn't protest.
"Shall we go?"
"Let's!"
Broulnindre disappears after Frank finishes the disguises.
"One fewer disguise to make." he explains.
Barnaby and Ant both scratch constantly at their fake mustaches, waiting to get this part over with....
Couldn't find one that matched?
Ant chitters in agreement.
Nadya readies her dogsleds and drives you to the pale tower:
The Pale Tower stands upon a flat, snow-covered plain northwest of Waldsby. Sharp winds whistle across this stark white plain, stinging the eyes along with the near-blinding rays of the reflected sun. A great eruption of frozen ice rises in the distance—an imposing pale tower crowned with icicles spearing into the sky. Seemingly born of the land itself, an unbroken circular wall of ice guards the tower’s base, with no means of entrance visible. High above, a large gash opens in the tower’s bowl-like crown, ringed in icy spikes and split by a massive plane of ice resembling an inverted crescent moon.
As you approach you see the glinting of a mirror reflecting a light at you from one of the battlements.
Frank pauses thoughtfully for a moment.
I don't remember finding mirrors on the guards. We... should've questioned one...
This isn't the teleport spot already, is it?
"We need to do a better job of taking prisoners next time." he sighs.
"A gathering within the hall, take one, take us all." he tries, hoping he isn't too early.
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Hekla gets out her own silver handmirror and tries to shine light back at them.
times.
Barnaby and Ant act the part of miserable prisoners. It iseems easily accomplished by the constant scratching by both.
The guards atop the battlement don't seem particularly impressed, but there is no shouting or call to arms. One of the three yawns visibly. You are not discovered yet.
A trampled path of snow, heavily tracked by footprints and sled trails, ends abruptly at an opaque wall of ice. Carvings and ancient glyphs depict only the semblance of a gateway on its surface.
One of the guards yell down in skald, "What have you here?"
"These three are part of the group that killed the barmaid in town." Frank shouts back up, while gesturing to ant, Barnaby, and Dawrbrün.
I hope they don't expect me to know her name; jackbooted thugs never remember names, right? Except for their leader?
"I didn't kill the barmaid! I broke the barkeep's crossbow after he took a shot at us! We're being arrested for simply passing through! It's madness!" Dawbrün blusters, feigning struggling against his captors.
"Shut up, you! No one asked!" Hekla smacks Dawrbrun and lays on her best natural Skald like her dad taught her.
Barnaby and Ant immediately stop tucking at their fake beards, stand straight and eyes forward!
The guards in the battlement look at each other in confusion and one speaks, ”Barmaid? Wait, you mean they killed them at the White Weasel? Ha! Serves em right. Radosek will want to interrogate them, they might know something about the Black Rider. But in the meantime…” The guard tosses down a soiled kerchief, ”Bind that dwarf’s mouth.”
The ice wall in front of you disappears and a portcullis behind it raises revealing a courtyard:
A massive ice sculpture of a dragon dominates this open courtyard, standing with raised wings upon a dais of solid ice. Seven squat shacks sit along the inner wall, with several dogsleds stored outside. Between them, four ice chutes descend from the battlements of the outer wall. To the west, large double doors studded with icicles lead inside the Pale Tower itself, just beneath an overhang of sharp icicles dangling from above.
In one of the shacks is an ice troll, her cold piercing eyes stare at you above her tusked jaw. She sniffs the air testing your scent before rising above you and bellowing,
Barnaby suddenly remembered that he left the oven on!
Anticipation seems to be shiting himself!
"Oh come off it, you think there's a dog in that village they haven't eaten yet? Last one was probably in the tavern's stew. I'll find you a deer next time I hunt."
"N-next time." Frank adds, not really helping, but at least he knows Skald.
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Barnaby and Anticipation seem to be looking for every exit and enemy in view of them.
Barnaby is absolutely sure that when this troll loses it's patience with them the best course of action is to set her on fire.
She continues resolute, leaning down to meet Hekla's eyes and speaking in a low voice, "NO. I HAVE ONE OF THEM INSTEAD," she gestures toward your "prisoners." "OR I WILL REVEAL YOUR DECEPTION EARLIER AND THEN I WILL GRIND YOUR BONES INTO FLOUR AND MAKE BREAD WITH IT."
Frank curses under his breath.
Of course someone noticed. Of course it was the troll.
Frank interrupts before Hekla can reply.
"Do you know a guy by the name 'Izoze'?"
The troll loosing it's patience and probably grumpy from her hunger reaches out to grab, Barnaby.
Both Barnaby and Anticipation scream like a little Gnome and Ant that is about to get eaten by an ice troll!
In a state of shock (not really but his player is currently on his phone), they both seem to be waiting for something....
Assessment made, the Hunter commands his vermin companion to Stride into melee with the foolish ice troll! Both then strike out at it with gusto and panache!
Traitorous slime!
Frank throws the hanky from the guard to the ground and summons a small fire elemental behind the troll.
The ball of fire reaches out to scorch the troll.
Dawrbrün draws a vial of alchemist's fire, and throws it at the troll.
Ant distracts the troll as the pair dart in cross, Barney manages to draw his machete across the starving troll's heel. Ant’s legs on the other foot fail to find sufficient purchase on the frosty floor and masticates only air.
Next to Ant a ball of fire manifests and angrily slams the troll, setting her cold dry skin alight but only momentarily.
Dawrbrün puts too much force into his throw and the flash goes over the troll’s head and bounces down her back landing at her feet. The resulting flash of fire licks at Ant’s and the troll’s toes.
The Hunter and the Vermin Companion turn to just shake their newly ashed faces at Dawrbrün.
Alethea surges forward, drawing her falcata from its scabbard and rushing to Barnaby's defense with a powerful upward slash at the troll's arm.
Alethea's falcata slashes into the troll's arm but finds when she pulls the blade away Alethea finds no blood and only a minor flap of skin missing.
The troll whirls around and hefts her massive battle axe at the fire elemental banishing it back from whence it came. She snaps her teeth menacingly at Barnaby, but the gnome is able to rear back at the last moment.
Lyudmilla gives a sharp squeal as the axe swings an arcs towards her friends with an ominous whoosh. She throws up an arcane gesture almost reflexively to don her magical armor. Her thoughts consumed by Troll. Troll. Troll., Otolmens’ fortune begins to flow through her and towards Alethea.
A similar WHOOSH happens from a smaller axe.
Dawrbrün points at the troll and yells, "Ni!"
Alethea ducks under the troll's sweeping claws, repositioning herself to attack its exposed back. She delivers a painful slash from her falcata, accompanied by a cry of triumph.
Frank summons another fiery creature behind the troll, right next to Alethea.
It tries to burn the troll like the one before it.
Alethea cuts deeply into the troll’s exposed side, drawing thick blue ichor that splashes to the ground.
The fire elemental sears the wound, arresting the troll's ability to heal.
Barnaby and Ant cut and nibble it’s other ankle spilling more ichor onto the floor.
She smacks the fire elemental with her battleaxe but fails to banish it this time.
When the troll attempts to retaliate against Alethea, the paladin sidesteps and parries the strikes. Alethea does not fail to riposte, cutting off one of the troll’s arms and her head in two quick strikes.
As the troll falls a million tiny trolls pull themselves from the now loose skin, emptying the larger troll like a popped balloon. The lesser trolls cackle maniacally before scampering off into the dark corners of the tower.
The guards manning the rampart seem to be nowhere in sight. Taking this moment you manage to find a pile of dog bones next to a sack of gold holding 500 pieces.
Both Barnaby and Anticipation just stare at the tiny trolls scampering away with jaws open.
There's seems to be an unexpected pause in our hosts appearance.
The Hunter and Ant decide to towards the upper balcony, rampart recently vacated by any opposition.
Sitting astride his vermin companion, the gnomes blue eyes peer around for any shenanigans.
Lyudmilla stares at the scattering trolls, jaw on the floor. “Is…is it supposed to do that?“
"I... I've never heard of such a thing..." Frank answers.
Alethea flicks the troll's blood from her blade onto the snow, shaking her head. "That's something I'll remember for the rest of my life, I expect."
Barnaby and Ant don't notice anything amiss.
"Oh! Good hit!" Hekla makes a mental note of the weirdness but it doesn't particularly faze her.
"Onward, then. Better to get as far as we can before they can organize."
She'll start checking doors.
"I'm with ya," Dawrbrün says to Hekla, moving to stand at her side as she checks the door.