Funky Cold Selena's page

Botting Selena

Selena has apparently been lost in thought, stroking her white fox and staring off into the distance. But now suddenly she turns back to Quasit with impatience.

"Didn't I just tell you the I needed to prepare the teleport spell? That's what I've been doing, which isn't easy to do with you jabbering over my shoulder."

She scans the group imperiously, then sighs wearily. "I see Kalchine has already left. You know, it's entirely possible that this entire area could be warded against teleportation, to prevent Bremagyr from escaping, in which case we'll still be walking, but now without our healer. Unless you can summon him back with the power of love." This last phrase is spoken with sneering contempt, and a great deal of relish.

"Very well, gather around. You know the drill, everyone needs to be touching. I'll aim for the spot southwest of the castle by the rocks, but obviously I've never been there before, so this may not be entirely precise. We'll probably be out in the open when we arrive, and perhaps closer to the castle than we'd like. It can't be helped I suppose."

Selena then begins to summon the magic from the air and ground around her, collecting the motes to form a sort of shimmering ball of arcane light that grows increasingly opaque, until with a flash she says the final triggering word, shunting the party across the intervening space in a stomach-bending moment of displacement.

Cast Teleport, aiming for square SW of "D"

"Wretches! Have you no respect for your betters?"

The piping voice of the halfling witch cuts through the dark, cavernous interior of the nave. She steps to the front of the group and drops to both knees before 'Baba Yaga'.

"Forgive them Grandmother, they are addled by weeks of deception and hardship. Of course we shall obey you and take you to the Hut."

"If I may ask, what do you intend to do with Rasputin's daughter, Anastasia? Is she also fated to die? Or will you put her on the vacant throne of this forsaken land? Whatever your will, I seek only to serve you, as is my duty."

He looks hopefully to Sakitu and Selena. "It is not a magic within my realm of understanding, but perhaps one of you?"

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (6) + 12 = 18

Selena rolls her eyes. "I presume they don't have energy-draining attacks on Triaxus, otherwise you'd know what they need is a Restoration spell. It's perfectly standard magic. I believe Tezuzu bought a wand or scroll that could deliver the spell; it should be stashed in the bag of holding. But if you're not familiar with the spell, I wouldn't recommend trying to activate those items blindly. Amateurs shouldn't meddle with magic beyond their understanding." She smiles a little and favors the group with a challenging and imperious arch of the eyebrows. Notably, she does not offer to make the attempt herself.

After a minute or so, the halfling witch moseys back around the corner of the building, her focus still on the walls and towers of the church.

Detect Magic
Spellcraft: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (17) + 10 = 27
Knowledge Arcana: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21

"Well, no surprise. It may be back in this world, but this is no normal building. Even allowing for alien architecture." she says smoothly to Silver. The fox makes a growling sound and trots ahead of her before looking back and giving a single yapping cry.

Selena shakes her head. "I'm not sure. But I suspect the door will be the only way in. And if I were Rasputin, that's how I'd want it."

The fox turns to her, crouches on its forepaws and gives a whining yelp.

"No. Too risky. We might end up on the negative energy plane or something."

She comes up to the group and looks over Bulvi appraisingly. "You should try flirting with Kalchine. He might heal you."

Perhaps this was a joke? At any rate, she imparts a Healing Hex on him to halt his bleeding.

Healing Hex: 2d8 + 10 ⇒ (2, 6) + 10 = 18

Selena watches impassively as Quasit scampers off, and raises an eyebrow at Kalchine before whistling to her familiar. Silver pokes its nose out from behind a bit of fallen stone and yips once.

"No, that's not how they work." she answers nonchalantly. She looks up at the nearest of the towers rising from the church, then begins to walk toward where the golems emerged from. the fox trots after her, looking about furtively.

Moving and scouting for alternate ways into the church. When the golems burst out of the windows, did they leave open broken windows behind? Also, is there anything or anyone above us in that tower? Or windows we might access?

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30

Taking her own advice, Selena targets the golem attacking Quasit with a Ray of Frost.

Ranged Touch: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11Cold Damage: 1d3 ⇒ 2

She then moves up into a flanking position behind the glass monster, staff in hand.

"Cold spells will slow down the glass golems! Maka, don't use fire on them!" says the witch, making the assumption that everyone already knows a glass golem when they see one.

When her spell fails to work, Selena frowns petulantly.

"Hmm. That should have worked." she grumbles. She throws a brief accusing glance at her fox, who whimpers defensively.

Selena takes a step to the side and her form swirls and vanishes in a puff of snowflakes, only to have her reappear behind the glass golem. Then, holding her staff before her in one hand, she conjures up a new spell against the creature with her other and delivers it with a word of arcane mystery.

Move Action, Dimensional Slide (spending 1 arcane pool point) then defensively casting Drain Construct on the golem

Concentration: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (9) + 17 = 26 vs DC 19

Botting Selena

Knowledge Arcana: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (11) + 12 = 23 What is it and what are its special defenses?

Selena runs up next to Quasit and attempts to touch the glass creature.

Melee Touch Attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13

Casting Disable Construct

"I'm not sure why I'm helping you when you insist on running off alone to face things well beyond your ability to fight. Maybe I just want to see what you come back as when I cast Reincarnate on your corpse." scolds the witch. "Maybe a hairy little dwarf. Or a wombat."

Selena looks around continually as the group makes its way to the last tower. She seems tense and impatient. When Quasit hesitates to discuss things with the group, her patience snaps.

”Maybe I didn’t make myself clear earlier, the more terminals you deactivate the more unstable the planar energies become. As you probably can feel in the air. You’re doing very rough approximations of the proper settings, and the currents will continue to drift the longer you hesitate. By all the gods, would you PLEASE get up there and turn off that last one before we blow a city sized hole in this planet?”

Selena follows the group more slowly. Her fox squirms and whines in her arms, looking up at her in real distress. The little witch nods.

"Shh. I feel it too." she mutters back to the creature, then stops at the open inner gate to look toward the burned building in the center of the compound. She squints, uncertain that she's actually seeing what she thinks she's seeing.

"I'm seeing the outlines of another buldiing. Rasputin may be aware already of what we're doing." she warns over her shoulder to the others. Then she calls up to the tower.

"Quasit! Don't adjust the settings when a lightning bolt is about to be discharged. Have Findurel time it out and take your hands off the machine altogether a couple seconds beforehand each time!"

As Quasit prepares to follow Findurel up the rope, Selena reaches over and grabs her by the scabbard on one of her swords.

”I see you’re not going to bother consulting with anyone about what you’re about to do, even if your ignorance might blow up half this planet. I don’t know why that still surprises me. No doubt one of your street rat nostalgia stories will provide all the relevant information you think you need. But humor me and just listen for a minute.”

She releases her grip and allows Silver to jump up into her arms. The fox’s unnaturally bright eyes stare witheringly at the rogue.

”I spoke with the scientist before you got him blown up. He didn’t realize it, but he was attempting to use his technology to replicate a sort of Plane Shift spell. Actually what he ended up with was closer to an overblown Rope Trick spell, and even that is incredibly inefficient and clumsy. Like trying to put out a fire by spraying nails at it instead of water.”

”There were a couple aspects of his machine that puzzled me, so I questioned him about them. First off, the machine is generating enormous amounts of energy somehow, much more power than this compound can provide for things like their searchlights or electric fence. Second, why does it need four stations? Especially since they seem unconnected by any wires? Interestingly, the answers to those two questions are interconnected. As I suspected they would be.”

Selena pauses to allow Quasit’s mind to catch up, and to pick some lint off her dress.

”As you may or may not know, lightning in clouds is caused by imbalances between their ionic potentials. The mechanism is complicated, but much of it is caused by friction resulting from winds, air pressures, humidity, and other such things. A similar dynamic is at work with the machine terminals. While active, they exist on two dimensional planes at once. This created enormous energy strain as the matter is pulled in two directions simultaneously. Each terminal is creating a field of pseudo-magical energy that extends out several hundred yards. By having four terminals, the fields of all four interact to create a sort of pocket dimension between them, stranded between the two actual dimensions. Like a Rope Trick spell, the effect is temporary, and so must be consistently recharged—thus the purple arcane lightning discharges.”

”The one truly ingenious aspect is the way Miroslav managed to balance the four fields to reinforce one another as well as to stabilize the geometry of the pocket dimension. A lot of the wiring and tubes in the terminals is to monitor the fields at the other terminals, and attempt compensate for fluctuations in energy, and even to restart the other terminals by temporarily expanding their fields. They’re linked together in a very intricate dance of energy flows. Which is also what makes them so dangerous if you meddle with them. Their very adaptability is what makes them so potentially unstable.”

“And because these troglodytes have no idea that the real energy they are dealing with are actually magical mana flows, they have no way to construct proper monitors and dials to measure them. It really is a miracle that the hunchback didn’t blow everything to kingdom come. Rasputin must have been truly desperate to stand in the middle of that shrine when Miroslav turned this contraption on.”

”So, you’ll have to be very aware of the pitch and tones of the electrical hums you hear as you power the terminals down. Those will be the only indications you’ll have that things are staying in balance. Take your time and really listen.”

Selena steps in closer and whispers the last part.

”I know you haven’t slept properly for several nights now. And I know you’re upset about your father and the gods know what else. I don’t care. But you NEED to FOCUS. Castigate yourself on you own time. Pull yourself together and stop being a dramatic child.”

She then steps back, fixes Quasit with a final cold look, then nods once and turns to walk to the back of the group.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 10 = 25

botting Selena

Selena continues to glide forward invisibly across the compound, looking down cooly on the emerging soldiers as they dash panic-stricken and half-dressed into view.

Clutching her fox under one arm, she extends the other arm toward the gate connecting the outer yard with the inner one, and begins to pull her hand slowly upward, as if raising a heavy weight. The familiar leans its soft head in and up toward her ear, whispering strange arcane words in their shared tongue, and she repeats these automatically. Suddenly, ice begins racing up the wires and poles of the fence and gate, rising and rising until they reach up to the levels of the towers, opaque and glistening in the gathering twilight.

Casting Wall of Ice on the north gate, 50 feet long and 20 feet high, anchored on the existing fencing and gate so that it can serve as a sort of skeleton at the center of the ice wall.

It looks to me like Bulvi already posted his action and is flying along with Quasit toward the south-west-most tower.

Selena is invisible thanks to the potion she drank, but her little lips purse sourly as Quasit continues to bark orders at her.

"I understood the fourth time you told me." she growls at the rogue, though the impudent girl was already gone.

Still, there was some value in the endeavor, even if it was unlikely to turn out as neatly as everyone seemed to expect. Invisibly, she strokes her fox as it nestles under her arm and whispers to it in a strange tongue known only to the two of them, and lifts herself into the air. She glides out over the compound, looking down into the fires, the men racing about like ants under a lens of focused sunlight.

"Why do you run? You were powerless to change your fate from the moment you came here." she says under her breath, cool and remorseless as the night.

Standard -Flight Hex, then fly 60 feet

He then bows to Selena. ”And thank you, Selena…while I don’t know much about arcane magic, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have survived without the spells you cast upon me…I am in your debt…”

Selena shrugs. "The scroll did most of the work. I only read it." she says indifferently. She still seems a trifle annoyed that she didn't make the trip into the Pit.

She pulls a rough nugget of gold out of the air and tosses it on the ground in front of Selena.

Selena bends down and picks up the gold nugget. She looks it over briefly, then slips it into a pouch on her belt. Her inclines her head respectfully to the old crone.

Selena will nod and cast Resistance on Findurel.

Selena keeps glaring at Quasit as she pulls out the scroll.

"Careful. Who's going to do your bidding if anything happens to this one?" she simpers.

Then without further ado, she unrolls it and reads it, casting the spell on Findurel.

Selena heaves a huge groaning sigh.

"Findurel, your skill with a bow is matched disgracefully with your slavish devotion to the whims of this cheap guttersnipe. On what basis is she supposed to make such a choice? I'm reminded of attending a market fair where the prettiest girl was being chosen on the basis of which bowl of crushed apples a prize pig selected."

She draws herself up to her full height. "Clearly this place is meant as yet another ritual test in Jadwiga training. This entire complex seems to have been designed to train young girls for the rigors and responsibilities of Baba Yaga's White Witch aristocracy. As the only actual member of the Jadwiga here, I believe I should be in consideration as well. Besides, at my tender current age, a little magical aging wouldn't be such a bad thing -- it might even be a relief."

GM, Selena's character page lists a +2 bonus against death magic effects. I'm wondering if that would apply to the necromantic curse magic associated with the pit, in Selena's judgment?

Selena casts Detect Magic and studies the magical warhammer for a while, trying to determine its properties.

Spellcraft to Identify warhammer: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (11) + 10 = 21

She then approaches the Eon Pit and attempts to study its properties as well.

Knowledge (Arcana): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29

Selena moves toward the pit.

Selena hefts her spear and runs out into the room. Double Move

Will Save: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21

LN alignment, Selena takes 5 damage

Selena casts Ironskin upon herself (+5 Natural armor bonus) then moves closer to the door.

with Mage Armor and Ironskin her AC is 23 (FF19, T14)

Selena rolls her eyes and sighs loudly.

"Well somebody go please."

Selena just stares at Quasit with Wednesday Addams energy.

”Our leader.” she observes to the people around her. ”Clearly a future member of the Taldan senate.”

Selena gathers herself, walks calmly down the hallway, then looses a pair of dark purple bolts of energy at the two giants.

Spending an arcane point to raise DC by 1 (free action), Cast Gloomblind Bolt, one bolt at each giant, Reflex Save DC 16 or Blinded

Ranged Touch vs South Giant: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23
Damage: 4d6 ⇒ (3, 3, 3, 5) = 14
Ranged Touch vs North Giant: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16
Damage: 4d6 ⇒ (1, 6, 4, 2) = 13

Selena stays where she is. She holds out one hand, and her fox jumps into her arms, and the witch closes her eyes and begins to pet the creature, slowly and intently...

Spending an arcana point for the Quick study ability, trading out Disable Construct for Gloomblind Bolts

Selena had a 3rd round action. I wanted to get home and check some books to evaluate options, but I'm not seeing a lot of great ones. Still, one must try...

Round 3

Suddenly concentrating on auras is not foremost in Selena's mind. Finding herself grabbed and chomped by the monstrous living oven, Selena grits her teeth hard, not letting out even the merest peep of pain. One hand tries to hold open the oven's maw, and the other hand reaches for a dagger.

"Sakitu... the icicle wand... use the icicle wand..." she manages to say as she strains not be swallowed.

Dagger +1 vs inside of oven: 1d20 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 + 1 = 13
Damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Round 4

Selena stabs again.

Dagger +1 vs inside of oven: 1d20 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 1 + 1 = 15
Damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Selena looks toward the closed door across the hall and cocks her head curiously. She taps Bulvi and Findurel to get their attention wordlessly, gestures west with her head then steps out into the hallway and opens the door across the way.

Silver sits motionless and watches Sakitu battle the yarn entangling the wailing child and swishes its tail back and forth.

Will decide Round 3 action once she sees what's in the western room.

Selena looks at Quasit's hand like she's being offered a dead frog, then she looks into the young rogue's face with a sneer of disgust.

"You act as if you've won. You think this is over? Elvanna and her coven will not forget this. She will quickly learn who all of you are and hunt you down like dogs. I rue the day I met all of you. We could have gone back to my family's land, taken the time to plan properly and gather allies, and perhaps persuaded Nazhena to abandon Elvanna's mad plot to usurp Baba Yaga. That's how things are done here. But no, we had to follow your wild, impetuous whim, race out here with no plan and no precautions, kill off everyone we encountered, and make a powerful witch into a mortal enemy. Irrissen is no longer safe for any of us. I plan to flee to Trollheim and hide among the Ulfen. If you have any sense, you'll forget the pie and do the same."

"And you can keep all the treasures you've found. I don't want any of it. Perhaps if they catch me and find that I have none of Nazhena's things, I can convince them I was coerced into helping you against my will. Which is nearly the truth."

She looks around at the group, then seems satisfied that she's said enough. She turns her back and goes to leave.

"May the gods have mercy on all of us." she says, then vanishes through the mirror.

And unless someone feels like having a last shouting match with Selena, I hereby lay down my NPCing duties with her. Which is a little sad. I sort of enjoyed getting to play the snooty little b$&~*.

Selena stiffens noticeably as Bulvi’s big arms enwrap Selen’a small form.

”Yes, thank you, you’re welcome...” she says awkwardly, patting him lightly on the back. She glances about to see if anyone else is watching.

The scroll will dispel bulvis blindness

Selena uses the Dispel Magic scroll to dispel Bulvi's blindness.

Selena hesitates as she identifies one of the scrolls and raises an eyebrow.

"This scroll dispels magic. It might perhaps dispel the magical blindness afflicting Bulvi. I recommend we try it."

Selena will also cast Read Magic to ID the various scrolls.

Then she attempts to ID the potions and oil with Spellcraft checks.

Spellcraft for Potion B: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11
Spellcraft for Potion C: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23
Spellcraft for Oil A: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22

Also, do we level up to level 4 yet?

Selena stops what she's doing by the portal suddenly, and actually laughs to herself.

"Of course! Ridiculously simple!" She looks down at her fox, who stares up at her noiselessly. She shrugs to it, as if it's questioning look means something more. "It's been a long day. I'm not at my best."

She straightens her sleeves and smooths the front of her dress, then addresses the group with a curious mixture of self-satisfaction and contempt.

"The magic that fuels the portal is quite powerful, but that means it must continue to draw energy in order to function. There is a powerful conjuration spell at work, drawing energy from the ethereal plane via the third parallel of the Vystokin ley line. We have only to disrupt the energy flow, and the portal will collapse for lack of energy. Any conjuration spell that draws upon the same energy will do the trick. It's merely a question of wresting the power away momentarily by a force of will. I believe I can do it. But I suggest you all stand back."

She turns back to the portal and blows lightly on her fingertips, then glances back again over her shoulder. "Once I finish, I can help you identify the items. In the meantime, I suggest you don't touch anything. This is a witch's hoard. There's no reason to be certain that she would employ only one trap to guard it. Some of the items may be cursed or warded. She may have employed Radosek as a lieutenant, but she wouldn't have trusted him. She would expect him to be tempted to steal." She looks pointedly at Quasit for this last bit, then smirks and turns back to the portal.

"Quiet please. I need to concentrate."

She begins to murmur in a low undertone, holding her hands before her, pointed to the portal, fingers tense and bent at strange angles. Her head weaves slowly back and forth, and she pulls her hands slowly toward her, still murmuring all the time...

Casting Unseen Servant

Concentration Check: 1d20 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 2 + 1 = 18

I did. Post 2300.

"Shut... Up... I'm trying... to concentrate here..." says Selena in an intense voice, like she's wrestling psychically with the portal.

Stopping to arch her back and stretch, Selena glances about, then frowns.

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 1 = 10

"I thought it was too quiet in here for the last few minutes. Where did the ragamuffin go?"

She sighs and shakes her head. "Be prepared for an explosion sound sometime in the next five minutes. No doubt she's wandered off to find beer or something."

She studies the maps and charts laying about the tables one last time, then flexes her fingers and cricks her neck sideways. "All right... here goes..."

She casts Detect Magic and stares straight into the portal. Her mouth moves silently, like she mouthing words, and her hands move slowly and deliberately, like she pushing away cobwebs and then forming them into patterns as they collect on her fingers.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

Untrained Knowledge (Geography): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Although Selena has some general thoughts on what contours of land and features of ley lines might be suitable for the location of portals, her obvious lack of familiarity with the lands outside Irrissen soon becomes apparent.

closing the portal is a two step process, need a Knowledge Check followed by a spellcraft check you can aid another in the checks

What sort of Knowledge check? And I assume it can't be made untrained, even to assist?

"That wand does cold magic? I'm especially good with cold magic. Maybe I could make the most use of that. Then I also wouldn't be so helpless in a battle. Maybe I could have saved Bulvi if I had that earlier." Again she stifles a cry.

Selena hesitates, then grimaces and hands the wand over to Sakitu. "Of course."

She glances up at the sky, as if expecting to see something flying at them, then turns and begins to head back inside. "We shouldn't linger out here. We have work to do."

Selena attempts Spellcraft checks on the wand and potion.

Spellcraft on Wand: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21
Spellcraft on Potion: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Then she comes over to the group. "Can you walk?" she asks Bulvi, almost gently. "I want to go back to that library. Now that I've seen the portal and have some idea of how it works, I'd like to look around in there and see if I can find any books that might help me. Unless someone else feels like trying their luck?" she adds with trace of resigned hauteur, like someone tired of arguing with a waiter.

As Selena opens her eyes and sees Findurel and Quasit over her, she seems momentarily confused. She frowns. Silver is there as well and gives a little yap and nips at her ear.

"No, it's all right, I'm just surprised is all," she says vaguely, perhaps to herself. She sits up then pulls herself back up to her feet.

"Well, you managed to pull it off." she says matter-of-factly. "And nobody died? We were lucky. Let's not forget Nazhena is still out there and unaccounted for. Radosek was only her lieutenant. And you can be sure he had a way of communicating with her, to let her know what was happening here. So we shouldn't celebrate yet."

She looks at Quasit and smirks superciliously. "Tears? For a street-wise tough you certainly are sentimental. Adorable. I don't suppose you've had a chance to search his body yet?"

Selena goes over to Radosek to ensure he's dead. If not, she opens a neck vein, quick and precise. Then she casts Detect Magic and begins to rummage through his belongings.

Stablize Check: 1d20 + 1 - 5 ⇒ (16) + 1 - 5 = 12

Selena stabilizes at -5 HP

Selena takes a 5 foot step and stabs at Radosek with her longspear.

Melee Attack: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 1 = 11

Selena just shakes her head in dismay.

"This is a disaster." she mutters. She looks about the area, weighing her options, then pulls out her long spear and steps back toward Findurel.

She lays another healing charge on him.

CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Then she takes up a defensive position in front of him with the long spear in hand.

"You're our best hope of surviving this. I'll hold them off as long as I can. Take the healing wand off my body if I go down."

"Don't everyone run off and leave this thing attacking Findurel!" shouts Selena impatiently.

She pulls out her wand and heals Findurel. "Look, I'm no cleric, but I'll do my best."

CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

Selena reappears a few minutes later, making sure to stay well clear of the ice statues, and speaking from the doorway of the warded room. Her little fox jumps up into her arms and she begins to pet it gently.

"I think I can close this portal given time. It's a complicated mix of conjuration and teleportation magic, and it's linked to numerous geographical ley lines across the surface of the planet, with a few streamers sent off to some of the elemental planes... like I said, complicated. But not impossible. However, it will take a long time, at least an hour, and most likely longer. And there's approximately zero chance Radosek will leave us unmolested that long."

"He's probably still nearby. As lieutenant of this tower, he would be forbidden from simply leaving. We should hunt him down and deal with him now. At least that's my opinion."

Selena had been in the process of walking away when Sakitu begins to scream at her. She stops and looks back, raising an eyebrow in mild surprise and lets the kitsune have her say. It's possible she might even be slightly amused by the tirade. At the end she merely shrugs.

"I'm not sure what precisely I said that was untrue or unkind." she says, using a soothing voice one might use with a hysterical child. "I'm merely pointing out that simply poking your noses into every corner of this place may not be wise. If you really feel like chastising someone, you might talk to your friend, who seems intent on getting herself killed with her usual reckless, juvenile antics."

"I'm sorry she got hurt, but these displays of indignation don't help us accomplish our mission. I suggest we stay focused on what's important and close this portal. After which I'll be only too happy to go my separate way. You southerners refuse to understand the way things work here. You seem unable or unwilling to understand the storm you are calling down upon yourselves. When the reckoning comes, I hope to be far away."

Selena appears in the doorway, cradling a book in one arm.

"What is everyone shouting about in here?" Then she spots the ice statues and her breath catches a bit.

"Ah, that must have been the other voice I heard." she says quietly. She shakes her head. "I take it you all ignored the warning and sprung some sort of trap? Is there any point in my reminding you that this is the tower of a powerful witch? When a winter witch has a life-size ice effigy of herself in her room, you can assume that is placed there as a warning to trespassers. A warning that is almost certain to be backed up."

She turns and walks away. "Like toddlers in a kitchen..." she grumbles.