"I think they were connected, but then there was some sort of heist at WaterGate," Daehalya explains.
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Daehalya waits and listens, hoping she can get some more sense of who's waiting outside the structure and just as importantly, who might be inside it.
"We should see what that is?" Daehalya whispers, suggesting she creep forward to try to surveil the scene before the entire group approaches.
"It makes sense to buy something to help protect our breath -- and you all from the cold -- before we go," Daehalya agrees.
"Not this particular temple, but he should clearly be denied access to any temple, of Findeladlara or any other good goddess!"
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.
Daehalya starts reading, but quickly realizes she's just having to put bits and pieces together from the one language she understands.
"In a moment," Daehalya gasps, before tottering over to a corner, where she's violently ill.
Quick stats:
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.
Quick stats:
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.
Quick stats:
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.
Quick Stats:
HP 83/83 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 sweeps her staff to try to knock the oncoming attacker down, then follows up with a straight-on jab. She's slightly distracted by trying to make sure no others make it through the gap.
Predictable! results: Critical Success You precisely discern the target's strategy, gaining a +2 circumstance bonus to AC against the creature until the start of your next turn and a +2 circumstance bonus to your next saving throw against the creature before the start of your next turn. Success You deduce the gist of the target's strategy; as critical success, except the circumstance bonus is only +1. Failure You fail to discern the target's strategy and gain no benefit. Critical Failure You misinterpret the target's strategy and take a –1 circumstance penalty to AC against the creature until the start of your next turn, and a –1 circumstance penalty to your next saving throw against the creature before the start of your next turn.
Daehalya shakes her head. "I don't think it's safe to just let them roam. I think we need to outsmart them. I think if we can fall back, find a way to fight them one on one, that will be safest."
Daehalya retreats to give Onye a chance to squeeze out, ready to defend her companions if she must.
"I think so," Daehalya says, glancing back to see if Onye is following.
Daehalya breathes a sigh of relief as she realizes she was this close to pulling them in the opposite order.
Daehalya throws the other two levers -- hoping for the best -- and then joins her companions in walking out of the nearest gate.
"We've made a huge mistake!" Daehalya calls out, pulling the lever again in hopes of refilling the liquid. "Someone try the costume we recovered!"
"Maybe we shouldn't touch it again," Daehalya suggests. "I can try cycling the liquid, but I don't know if that will help or hurt."
Ignoring the levels for the moment, Daehalya lets Nicky draw her attention to the liquid. She peers more closely, trying to figure out what it might be, though keeping her distance for now. She shrugs at the tiefling's question, however. "It's hard to know, considering what Ritalson is apparently capable of. Nothing good, I'm sure." She'll see if she can get any sense.
"Osoyo!" Daehalya breathes out as she sees the whale, as certain as she's been of anything in her long life. She shudders at the skulls. Ritalson was worse than she could have ever imagined. She glances at the strange model: "the Nameless Spires," she informs the others. She glances among the skulls to see if there are any others she might recognize, her stomach clenched as she looks for Ezgara, Onye and Donkey's names.
"We need to keep moving. To find Ritalson, or more clues as to exactly what he's doing," she says, her voice as cold as the icy north she calls home.
Daehalya takes the slip of paper with a nod of thanks to Alvarius. "Interesting," she muses as she works out what it means.
Daehalya's heart falls as she reads the notes. She'd held on to hope that Ritalson wasn't truly behind everything -- or was perhaps being used by Osoyo -- but clearly that wasn't true. She wonders how much she and her companions have been used by Ritalson.
Daehalya looks concerned. "I don't know that we can wait, but we should be careful going on. That was nearly the death of all of us."
Daehalya nods in agreement, climbing to her feet. She glances once at the rime-cracked bones of her friend, then shifts her gave to the corners of the room, eager to make sure nothing else -- certainly no Saumen Kar! -- comes in to take advantage of their weakened condition. Largely inured to the cold, she flexes her fingers a couple of times as she reclaims her staff -- her symbol of Findeladlara -- and takes up a guard stance, knowing there's nothing she can actually do to help Alvarius.
Quick stats:
HP 58/83 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 thrashes in the throes of the nightmare, sure death comes with the saumen kar. Fortitude:
Will:
Quick Stats:
HP 81/83 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: Fear grips Daehalya for a moment -- she knows as well as anyone how deadly the cold can be and the dangers that lurk in the Crown of the World -- but only for a moment. For in truth, she is as much a native of that realm as the saumen kar. Findeladlara guided her people there, and she commended them to make it a home, and Findeladlara's people obeyed. She is not foolhardy when it comes to the frozen north, but also she is not afraid. It's stark barrenness defines beauty for her, and the chil braces her against the threats that come from the too-hot south. The north sheltered the Ilverani, but it also inured them to the threats that are there.
Falling unconscious, Daehalya slumps to the floor, insensate to the world around her.
"If only we could find for sure which one," Daehalya says, her frustrating mounting. She nods as Nicky suggests the path forward, though her feet long to carry her back home to the Crown of the World. She can almost see Findeladlara leading the way as she had so long ago with her elven forebears.
Daehalya's eyes linger on the temple to her goddess after Alvarius points it out, as she can't help but try to avoid looking at the mask. "I know I have said not to rush to judgment, but ... this seems to add to the weight of evidence after Professor Ritalson. Though I still hold out hope he brought us together for good reasons and only began being controlled sometime later." She finally brings herself to look at it. "If we journey to the Crown of the World, we should bring that with us. It is remorseless -- as cold as ice -- for those who aren't used to or expecting the environment."
"Don't be hasty," Daehalya admonishes. "We don't know what is happening. It certainly looks like Professor Ritalson is a villain of this piece, but we don't know if he is responsible for killing our fellow Gatewalkers. We certainly don't know if he is scrying -- we have had a number of shared dreams. Perhaps he has as well? Perhaps these drawings are his effort to determine what is happening."
Daehalya is happy to help Nicky look.
"This is surprisingly nice. More than most of your cisterns that I've seen so far," Daehalya notes. "Was someone living down here? But who, and why? It doesn't make sense for Ritalson to stay here when he has the whole manor above, unless there's some reason we don't understand yet."
"Shall we?" she asks, nodding toward the secret door. "That seems likely to lead to something important."
"But I wonder if it is truly Ritalson? Was he taken over at some point by Osoyo? Did Ritalson -- or maybe it was Osoyo even back then? -- gather us for whatever this nefarious purpose is, or did something happen while we were away? Daehalya wonders. She inspects the new bricks, wondering if they're something that could be removed as easily as they were put up.
"Let's make sure there's nothing here behind us before we go farther," Daehalya suggest.
"Something is very wrong here," Daehalya says as Nicholo reveals there are missing heads. "Grundle, why don't you return to the manor and make sure no one comes down here, for their own safety. The rest of us will continue on."
He certainly has a unique way with Common, Daehalya thinks, her face not betraying her thoughts as she continues to examine the area. "Unless Alvarius has some methods I'm not familiar with, I don't think we're going to learn much more here ... but you're the expert in investigations," she says out loud.
"You have so many cisterns here in the south," Daehalya murmurs. "I forget that you don't just live on ice where you can get your water." She hesitates at Onye's words. "Maybe not to lay them to rest now, but I think taking some time to investigate here would be worth it." She begins inspecting the corpses to see if she can find any clues as to their identity, or what killed them.
"We learned about Osoyo on Castrovel, shortly before we met you," she says, relaying what they were told.
"Say it! Just say it!" Daehalya growls quietly under her breath, even as she worries there may be some sort of lab down her and wonders what would be on the slab. Her gaze for some reason shifts from the ooze to Nicky. Shaking her head slightly, she braces herself. "I guess we have little choice. But I suspect these will not be blessed by Findeladlara or anything the Guiding Hand would endorse."
"Who are the blessed ones?" Daehalya asks.
A binding circle," Daehalya whispers as she immediately understands the magical circle's purpose. She addresses the oozing blob. "We have learned much, but not all. Enough for me to guess you are a servant of blackfrost. Are you Dr. Ritalson? If not, what have you done with him? Perhaps if you answer our questions, we will answer more of yours."
Quick stats:
HP 83/83 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 gives Nicky a nod as he dispatches the demon she was struggling with so mightily. Then, seeing her companions remain in trouble, she rushes through the nave, putting her body between the remaining fiend and Grundle, staff probing for weaknesses.
Quick stats:
HP 83/83 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 nimbly avoids the flaming breath as she moves easily around the daemon, feet barely seeming to find the floor before they move again. Again, though, the curtain continues to foul her aim, and she gives a quick frown in frustration as she tries to shake her staff free of the encumbrances.
Quick Stats:
HP 83/83 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 moves in, swinging her staff. She nearly slips on the curtain, but catches herself at the last minute, though it throws off her follow-up strike.
Daehalya turns and lifts her staff, mouthing -- but not speaking out loud -- back to the others: TWO DEMONS!
Daehalya pauses. "I don't know what I was expecting down here ... but this was not it. Ritalson's secret is he is giving lectures?" She pads forward toward the curtain, wanting to make sure it's not concealing a threat before checking what might be written on the chalk boards.
"We know the key works; best to not risk the other way," Daehalya decide.
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