HP 59/83
AC 25 (+1 vs. traps), deny advantage, cold resistance 3
Fort +11, Ref +17, Will +12 (+1 vs. traps)
Hero Points: 1
Deviant backlash DC: 5
Effects:
Daehalya winces, and swings out with her staff ... to little effect as the pain of her wounds nearly overcomes her.
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Nicky is beset on multiple sides. But this is a perfect opportunity for him to use his masterful brain to figure out ways to go on the offensive.
He has his back to a wall, and an enemy in front of him and to the side of him.
Ah, the one to my right looks pretty injured. Let me see if I can feed them false information and get the drop on my enemies.
Shutting the door didn't work. I'll need to cut down the one in front- so we can keep the last stuck in the hallway!
A good lie might just work!
Nicky instead looks to see if the Green enemy has focused on others.
* Devise a Stratagem - Green
Nope. That's not going to work. They are dumb as stumps. Can't even be smart enough to be fooled.
** Regular attack. Red
*** Raise buckler
A cascade of jumbling rocks appears over two of the creatures, bludgeoning them is some force as Alvarius completes his spell. "That'll slow you down!"
He then erects a magical shield, looking to protect himself.
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Onye leaps on and begins tearing one of the foul creatures limb from limb as it barely hangs together. Nicholo quickly devises a strategy but notices just in time that it isn't going to work before shielding himself. his rapier causes a small wound to the beast.
Daehalya fails to trip or hit any of the beasts as she quickly gets overwhelmed. Alvarius causes the ceiling and walls to buckle as they come in around two of the creature injuring them.
The beasts, severely wounded all breath in deeply and release a gust of frozen winds that bring the temperature in the room down to near fatal levels in a instant.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Onye
➤ Nicholo
➤ Daehalya
➤ Alvarius
The Guest (Red)
The Guest (Green)
The Guest (Yellow)
The Guest (Blue)
Alvarius manages to avoid the worst of the arctic blast.
He sees how unfazed these strange guests were by the falling stones and opts for a different spell. His bony fingers waggle as electricity forms between them. He completes the spell, hurling an electric arc that he hopes will lay them low.
He then once more erects a magica shield.
HP 59/83
AC 25 (+1 vs. traps), deny advantage, cold resistance 3
Fort +11, Ref +17, Will +12 (+1 vs. traps)
Hero Points: 1
Deviant backlash DC: 5
Effects:
Daehalya is inured to the cold and doesn't even notice the chill wind. She lashes out with her staff again, still struggling to knock her foes down, though having more success on her follow-through jab.
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DC 25
That was cold. That was chilly, but Aha! I got you! I poked you with the stinger of a wasp's sting. You want another?
This is just Nicky trying to fake and hurt the other Guest.
◆ Green Guest
◆ ◆ He has the enemy totally faked out. He strikes out at green.
Crit with deadly.
◆ ◆ ◆ and he raises his shield as he's worried about Red attacking.
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The group weathers the cold winds as Onye finishes shredding the beasts apart in the hallway.
Onye isn't able to get through their defenses as arms fill every available space. Nicholo strikes out, stabbing one f the creatures through the brain, killing it in an instant. As it dies its body falls apart into a tangle of meat, gristle, fur, bone, and gore.
Daehalya manages to trip tone of the beasts nearest here as she gives it a good whack with her staff.
She leaves a small bruise.
The severly wounded beast explodes into a pile of gore that covers every inch of the wall as Alvariu's static charge touches its body.
Nicholo, Onye, and Daehalya all take quite a few more cuts and scrapes as it is difficult to avoid so many arms coming in from so many angles at once.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Onye
➤ Nicholo
➤ Daehalya
➤ Alvarius
The Guest (Yellow)
The Guest (Blue)
HP 37/83
AC 25 (+1 vs. traps), deny advantage, cold resistance 3
Fort +11, Ref +17, Will +12 (+1 vs. traps)
Hero Points: 1
Deviant backlash DC: 5
Effects: Sickened 2
Daehalya instinctively retches, which doesn't help at all. Realizing she's in a precarious position, she decides she need to keep on offense and lashes out to trip and strike the more injured of the two remaining foes.
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Nicky exults in victory at stabbing the brute, causing it to dis-ass-emble.
Heh. Heh. I thought the word AsS. He He.
But then the rank smell hits him while his mouth was open, and his nose passages were clean and clear.
DC 22 Sickened
DC 22 Sickened save number 2
I have smelled worse things at The Circus! Child Please!
A fully occupied big top tent was literally cleared out by a Gorrilion Fart.
Nicky doesn't expect these amalgamation of beings to get the impact of a gorillion fart, but he does hope they get the impact of his rapier.
◆ Devise a Stratagem Attack Blue.
◆◆ attack. Crit damage. 1D8 deadly
◆◆◆raise buckler.
Now THAT is the kind of impact a Gorillion Fart has!
Alvarius shrugs. "Sorry if these things explode on you."
He then conjures and hurls more lightning at the two remaining monstrosities.
And then he renews his magical shield again.
The lion bites at the zombie beast as it claws at Daehayla.
The lion turns his attention to the beast immediately in front of him to take advantage of Nicholo's distraction. However, he does not fare much better.
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Perhaps it's Nicky feeling much better about the combat now that they outnumber the enemy 2 to 1. Perhaps it's the giddiness of his a profound rapier jab on the monster in Blue.
Or, perhaps Nicky just can't stop acting like a 15 year old Tiefling.
When Alvarius gives his dead panned and shrug reinforced reply of:
"Sorry if these things explode on you."
Nicky replies with a stifled laugh.
If it were not mortal combat, he'd be on the floor laughing at his own juvenile joke.
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Onye nearly kills the wounded mutated abomination as his claws rakes all over its body. Very much used to bad smells in the group Nicholo is unphased as the noxious fumes fill the chamber. He drives his rapier through the creatures brain. It convulses but still stays standing for a few more brief moments.
Daehalya begins to retch as she trips the creature but isn't able to land a killing blow. Alvarius renews his magical shield as he sends electricity into the pair.
The electricity hits both at the same time and begins leaping back and forth between the pair. The smell of burnt hair and feces fills the air as the pair burst apart making everyone gag a bit more.
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Happy that they are out of combat, Nicky pinches his nose to keep the bad smells out.
In a nasally, his nose is shut voice and sound, Nicky says, Since the room is cleared out, let's see if the Professor left some treasure in the water tank. What better way to safeguard a horde of gems and valuables than in a briney tank filled with a monster that would tear limbs off. .
So, Nicky heads back to the three locked door room that has a shattered aquatank.
Checking things out.
"In a moment," Daehalya gasps, before tottering over to a corner, where she's violently ill.
"In a moment," Daehalya gasps, before tottering over to a corner, where she's violently ill.
Lacking organs to be triggered by Daehalya's sickness, Alvarius walks over to the elf and pats her on the back. "Easy now. Get it out of your system. Need me to, uh, hold your hair out the way?"
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As the Guest has been slain, its bodies melt away into a foul-smelling heap. All that remains of the fleshwarped experiment is a single, partially mummified saumen kar hand consisting of a thumb, index and middle finger, and part of the palm. This relic is twice the size a similar fragment of a human hand would be.
Heading back inot the room much of it is destroyed or waterlogged from the bursted container.
The wooden coffer sitting atop the workstation contains numerous of opulent moonstones, in all, these moonstones are worth 600 gp.
The bloodied lion staggers a few steps forward over the remains of the zombified creatures. His body glows a solid silver light that reforms into his amurrun shape, which is no less--and possibly more--bloody. "It will take me hours to heal our wounds," he growls under his mask.
"Yeah, you're looking a bit rough," the relatively unscathed skeleton says. "I'd like to head back and study some of those books, maybe figure out a bit more about what's going on. You can use the time to heal up. Sound good?"
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You head back to the laboratory to study the various scrolls and texts while you bandage your injuries.
A wealth of knowledge awaits if you take the time to look through the dozens of densely-written notebooks and scrolls stored here. Etward kept these written notes in a mix of Common, Varisian, and Aklo—
Daehalya starts reading, but quickly realizes she's just having to put bits and pieces together from the one language she understands.
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Daehalya finds a stack of notes that draw her attention as she spends the entire day going over them all.
These notes provide a full list of all of the gatewalkers he’s watched through dreams, including your own names, any gatewalkers they’ve encountered and, in particular, Queen Equendia of Skywatch. His descriptions of her leading the city’s population north on a dangerous journey to the Crown of the World are tinged with admiration and jealousy—it’s obvious Etward wishes he commanded this level of servitude over a large group of people. The notes conclude with him wondering if the queen reached the Nameless Spires, and ponder “what she might now be” after spending time amid the blackfrost and dreams of Osoyo.
Alvarius, who has studied the Aklo language as a curiosity during his time as a wizard's apprentice, has to only muddle his way through the Varisian bits.
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Here Etward details how, ever since the Missing Moment, he’s been able to invade the dreams of other gatewalkers. The notes further reveal how obsessed he’s become with dreams and his quest to find a way to travel to the legendary Dreamlands, where he believes he will be reunited with his missing memories and become much more powerful.
Etward notes in many places that more than memories went missing during his Missing Moment—there are gaps in his fortune as well, indicating that he spent a fair amount of money during the Missing Moment. His investigations have revealed that this money went toward financing an expedition to the Nameless Spires, but the apparent loss of one of his family’s greatest treasures, an explorer’s yurt, intrigued him the most. He secured a scroll of discern location and used it to make an astonishing discovery—his family’s explorer’s yurt is now located in a remote abandoned temple devoted to Findeladlara, the elven goddess of architecture, art, and twilight. This temple can be found at the very edge of the High Ice, about 5 days’ journey from Icegate in the Crown of the World.
The notes describe the physical effects of blackfrost, boast about Etward’s immunity, mention its capacity to create blackfrost zombies, and ruminate upon the true nature of the curse, theorizing that “Osoyo’s dreams” may be the source of the ash-like substance. The fact that blackfrost seems to progress more quickly when an afflicted creature dreams has further intrigued Etward, although he’s not sure yet what to make of this observation.
The discovery of a strange hand found in his belongings pales against Etward’s discovery of a strange presence within his laboratory— an entity named Ogmunzorius. Etward theorizes that Ogmunzorius is a “sending” from Osoyo’s dreams, and takes the entity’s presence as proof that he is some sort of “chosen one” intended to release Osoyo from its prison in return for even greater mental powers and, perhaps, the key to reaching the Dreamlands. The notes also mention how Ogmunzorius assisted Etward in conjuring guardians for the laboratory, but notes that these creatures were “untrustworthy” and that Etward further ensured their compliance with inveigle rituals.
Daehalya's already pale face seems to whiten even more as she hears the news about her goddess' temple. "If he is headed there, we must follow. He is clearly dangerous!" she exclaims.
"I'm inclined to agree. Seems the most likely place for us to find him too."
Alvarius wonders at just how many conclusions the man jumped to. Especially regarding Ogmunzorius.
Bloodstained but significantly less bloody, the amurrun pauses in his healing ministrations to the others. "Onye Dinta is prepared to follow. Do you know this place, Daehalya?" he says as he finishes his most recent meditation.
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Alvarius does not recall any information about Ogmunzorius nor a lost family yurt but does know a bit of basic detail about Blackfrost through these notes and his intense studies.
When elves from Castrovel transported an alien entity called Osoyo to Golarion’s north pole thousands of years ago, the strange, devastating ash Osoyo steadily exhaled came with it. Anyone exposed to this dark, mucky powder suffered terrible surface wounds similar to frostbite, and their flesh became hypersensitive to cold. The ash’s true danger, though, became known only after afflicted individuals died. Such victims would lie frozen, blackening from supernatural cold burns, for a single day before rising as undead monstrosities. In time, people would come to call this terrible umbral powder blackfrost, and the undead who bore its curse blackfrost dead.
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"Not this particular temple, but he should clearly be denied access to any temple, of Findeladlara or any other good goddess!"
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Whoa.
This is so much to think on.
It is evident that we need to go to this IceGate. Maybe we can talk about what is happening as we travel. I, for one, and from Cheliax and not used to traveling in the cold. I think I'll be find with this special cloak I now have. It will keep me warm. I will need it because I sure as Blackfrost can not handle the cold very well.
I have an extra cloak (Cloak of Thirsty Fronds). Anyone able to wear a magical cloak. It protects you in really good ways.
Also, if we BREATHE the blackfrost ash, we become infected. How do we prevent ourselves from breathing this bit of nasty and rising as bad zombies. Also, anyone know weaknesses for these Blackfrost zombies? We sure are going to fight Oso's zombies the closer we get to the whale.
Nicky thinks to occult type stuff he's heard.
Ready to move onward. We will WARN ALL gatewalkers above that Edward is coming to eat their brains, so Flee.
"It makes sense to buy something to help protect our breath -- and you all from the cold -- before we go," Daehalya agrees.
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To the three Gatewalkers up stairs, Nicky tries to explain themselves.
You see, there are 7 empty heads - absent brains - with metal plaques deep downstairs. The Master of the house would cast spells on the staff to make them forget incriminating stuff, but all the while he has a secret lab and dungeon where he absorbs the brains and powers of GateWalkers.
I recommend that you GET OUT! Don't wait for Etward to come back.
Nicky knows he sounds like a crazy person, but what is downstairs is really traumatic.
I see from your expression- you don't believe me. Go check it out. The name of the room is *Trophy Room*. Etward is a sick bastard. Just be really damn fast, because as soon as you see the shiznit - you are going to want to wish there was an elfgate to walk through to get out of here!
"I don't need convincing. If you tell me a spot in here is bad news and I should avoid it, then I avoid it. I'm not looking to get killed."
The irony of his words sinks in. "Well, killed again."
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Nicky finishes speaking.
For a moment, the upstairs sitting room is silent except for the faint ticking of a distant clock. Firelight flickers across four very different faces.
Lunja is the first to move. She adjusts her coat with rigid precision, jaw set, eyes narrowed in calculation.
“Seven,” she repeats flatly. “Seven plaques. That number is not accidental.”
Her stern composure cracks just a fraction as she looks at Nicky. “If Etward were merely erasing memories, the stellar resonance in this place would be… quieter. Instead, it feels like standing beneath a dead constellation.”
Vaxtervin lets out a sharp, delighted laugh that dies halfway through. The runes along their neck faintly itch, their fingers twitching as if brushing unseen cobwebs from the air.
“Oh, I hate this house,” they mutter. “My runes are screaming. Not ghosts—holes. Like something scooped people out and left echoes behind.”
They glance toward the floor. “Whatever’s downstairs? It wants witnesses.”
Iasanden hasn’t looked up from his ledger once. His charcoal pencil stops mid-stroke. Slowly, deliberately, he closes the book.
“There are no sublevels marked on Etward’s publicly filed estate maps,” he says calmly. “Yet I’ve redrawn this house three times now.”
He finally meets Nicky’s eyes. “Something below us refuses to stay mapped.”
All eyes turn to Takuzo.
The old librarian closes his book with care, as if not to offend it. He says nothing at first. He simply listens.
The air thrums—low, almost imperceptible. A vibration felt more in teeth than ears.
Lunja straightens. "Let's look at this Trophy Room."
They descend together, lantern light tight and controlled. The lower halls smell of old iron and preserved magic. The hum grows louder, rhythmic, hungry.
They stop before the Trophy room.
TROPHY ROOM
engraved neatly into brass.
Vaxtervin presses a tattooed palm to the wall. Their breath catches.
“…There are Gatewalkers in there,” they whisper. “What’s left of them.”
Iasanden cracks the door just wide enough to see.
Seven alcoves.
Seven hollowed skulls.
Metal plaques etched with names that bend when read.
Lunja recoils, hand flying to her mouth. “Those constellations—those aren’t stars. They’re neural pathways.”
Takuzo shuts the door with gentle finality.
“That is enough,” he says quietly. “Knowledge need not always be completed.”
Iasanden doesn’t argue. “This house is no longer safe to be remembered in.”
Takuzo places a steadying hand on Nicky’s arm. “You did right to speak,” he says. “Now we must listen—to our fear.”
They run.
Through the gate and down dark paths, breath burning, the estate looming behind them like a closed mind refusing to forget.
The estate falls silent behind them.
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One by one you gather new equipment, fully expecting to brave the cold. Not wanting to wait any longer for Etward’s untimely return you set off for Lichgate, located in central Shudderwood some 40 miles east of Lepidstadt, in the overgrown ruins of an ancient elven stronghold called Mirianath using the maps found in the Manor's secret laboratory.
Mostly collapsed towers and crumbled walls overgrown by foliage subtly mark the transition of woodland into elven ruin, but the spires of Lichgate itself are relatively intact. Once, travelers of the aiudara network could gather to share stories and trade in these chambers. Lichgate once connected to two other portals, but with the recent destruction of the portal called Tanglegate, Lichgate now connects only to Icegate.
As you get closer you notice a campsite, and hear numerous voices nearby. The campsite is well stocked and contains more than enough artic supplies.
"We should see what that is?" Daehalya whispers, suggesting she creep forward to try to surveil the scene before the entire group approaches.