- If anything it is getting colder as he progresses. This makes sense – he must be slowly approaching the source of this alien cold but he has no idea how far away it is. The cold is slowly robbing him of his strength and he can’t use his Mastery of the Stair to find a shortcut as he doesn’t know where he is going. He also notes that this strange cold absorbs light as well as heat. It is darkening even the Stair.
- This cold seems to have affected a great number of worlds – there are many junctions and many branches of the Stair here. Then suddenly he finds the frozen body of an elf. One of Drake’s pathfinders. The body is frozen to the floor. Moving on he finds more elven bodies, all as lifeless as the first.
- Pushing on further he hears a strange buzzing sound ahead. Rather than try to avoid it, he pushes on. He enters a new section of Stair resembling an Elizabethan-era house of white-washed walls, wood panelling and high ceilings. There are occasional portraits on the walls. Then he spots a small buzzing creature about two feet tall. It does not look friendly.
* Image sourced from Google
- The creature appears curious about Grant. He is unable to communicate with it and it decides after a while that he might be food. It tries to spear Grant with its tail but Grant quickly lops it off and dispatches it when it begins screeching. Wondering if the creature might be more suited to the cold than his other forms, Grant assumes its form. Indeed it seems to be well suited to this unearthly cold – it still feels the cold and is being sapped by it, but not to the same degree as his other forms.
- Proceeding on in demonspawn form, he finds large swarms of these small demons but they mostly ignore him as he is ‘one of them’. He also finds two golden armoured corpses that have been stripped of flesh. Both have lightning bolt and cloud symbols on their armour. One carried a warhammer. Neither have any Icons.
- Grant guesses that the white imps are enforcing some sort of perimeter on the Stair and he quickly finds out that this is correct when he goes further and hears the buzzing behind him rather than in front.
- He feels that he is reaching the source of the cold but before he can reach the target Door, he is confronted by a large guardian who blocks the approach. Even in shadow form, the guardian appears able to perceive him. Unable to slip past him, Grant prepares to engage the ice demon but is distracted by an Icon contact from Marindar. Withdrawing, he finds that Matteo, the Captain of the Guard needs to talk to him as the anomaly on Naso has returned.
- Grant is frustrated by this situation. If he returns to Marindar then he cannot easily return to this place on the Stair. Effectively he will have wasted his time in coming this far but he cannot ignore that there is still someone on Naso who is capable of opening a void portal and it is only a matter of time before something comes through, creating a serious problem for him.
- Thinking quickly, he decides to contact Ethan and ask for another ‘Eidolon Grenade’ to buy him some more time. Ethan accepts the contact – again he is distracted. When Grant asks for another device (similar to the one that was used in Session 177), Ethan is able to easily pass him another as he and Isabelle have prepared more (GM’s note – Grant has Good Stuff). Grant then contacts Matteo, hands him the grenade and tells him how to use it.
- Grant knows that this won’t permanently solve the problem in Marindar but it buys him some time. Unable to communicate with the ice demon, he confronts and kills it using Gorgorin and carries on.
* Image sourced from Google
- The source of the cold is not far beyond the ice demon. The Door is wide open and beyond is a frozen wasteland of bitter cold and blue ice. Nothing is moving.
* Image sourced from Google
- Stepping through, Grant enters a world of terribly high mountains capped by snow and ice. This place is desolate and stark. A frozen hell of a world. He can sense more than one Door here.
- Shapeshifting back into the ice imp form, Grant takes to the air to find the source of the cold. He passes over mountains. He sees towers of cold iron. He sees rivers burning below him with a cold blue light. He passes over great glaciers that grind slowly against the desolate landscape.
- At last he reaches a high mountain where a great fortress of iron has been built into the mountainside. The fortress is partly encased in blue ice. The whole structure radiates intense cold.
- Picking an opening, he heads into the fortress. Inside there are few creatures but all are strangely tolerant of the intense chill. But their flesh has withered and they are nearly dead. Semi-frozen giants with black patches on their skin move slowly around the citadel. Gaunt faces with blank eyes wander aimlessly through ice-choked passages. Strange vegetation glows a bluey-purple colour. Everywhere there is ice.
- Grant heads down to the lower levels and finds another Door, open. Frustrated once more, he realises that this frozen world is just another world that has been affected by the strange cold. It isn’t the source after all. He is about to head onto this new section of Stair when he receives an Icon contact from Drake.
- Drake asks after Grant’s health and progress. Drake reports that fighting has broken out on the Stair between his forces and a Dwimmerlaik warlord named Raikan. It wasn’t a planned action – the two groups apparently surprised each other on the Stair and neither side has been holding back. Drake asks whether the Dwimmerlaik could be somehow involved in this. Grant doubts this. Drake also reports that there has been some fighting in Nexopolis and that he’s sent his son, Eric, to investigate. He encourages Grant to keep hunting for the source of the cold.
- Heading once more onto the Stair, the cold is even more penetrating here. After six hours, even Grant is feeling tired. He hasn’t seen a soul – this section of the Stair is so cold as to be devoid of any life.
- Grant has travelled many places on the Stair but it is rare that he has felt so isolated. Dark, cold, weary and with no easy means of retreat, Grant is almost relieved to receive an Icon contact from home. Unfortunately Lady Lucia has bad news. Matteo, the Captain of the Guard, is dead. There are creatures invading Naso. She explains that Matteo found the man who had opened the void portal, tracking down a missing child to a cave on the island which is accessible only by the sea. He went there with a group of armed guards but didn’t come back. Grant recognises that he can’t ignore this situation. He contacts Ethan but Ethan refuses to help, saying that Nicol Bolas has begun his attack on the Legendary Realm. Reluctantly, he will have to deal with the situation himself….
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