The Pillar of Winter: Part 4

You travel all night, through the day, and into the next night through the bracing cold taking very little time for rest or food. After following the general directions of a map for most of the trip you’re able to switch over to the landmarks from your notes, cross referenced from the journal and various other sources. Rosalind’s mother speaks fondly about certain places from her childhood and seems to remember them accurately, a fact you confirm as you begin to pass more and more of them. 

You come upon your destination but find no temple, only a few lonely pine trees. You stare in disbelief, knowing for sure that you had put together all the information correctly. Serena looks at you quizzically. For several moments you stand on the bluff looking down at the trees incredulously when you see it. As the moon rises behind you, the shadows cast upon the trees begin to lengthen, together making the vague shape of a castle of some kind. Within the shadow, a door opens, beckoning for you to enter. 

“Quickly, before it closes!” Serena exclaims and begins to race down the hill with you hot on her heels. As you draw closer to the growing shadow of the temple you smell the distinct scent of fallen Autumn leaves, which strikes you immediately as strange because all of the leaves have already been covered in feet of snow. 

A streak of red light comes flying at you and Serena out of the dark a split second before the earth and snow erupt into a powerful explosion, throwing both you and Serena tumbling several feet through the air. You must make either a [Dexterity] save to attempt to orient yourself in a way to minimize the damage or a [Vitality] save to brace for the impact with the ground, but you cannot make both. Success reduces your health to half while a failure reduces you to 1 Health. 

You lose consciousness for what feels like only a moment but when you begin to pick yourself up out of the snow stained red with your blood there is a full battle raging somewhere behind you. As you get to your feet, your body screaming in pain, you see the creature. It’s hunched frame is massive compared to yours, standing perhaps taller than Razylym. It’s head is that of an elk skull with a single glowing red eye and it wields what would be a great sword for you in one hand. 

Around you, the snow is littered with the corpses of soldiers of Amsel and the Duchess herself is doing battle with the creature, leaping nimbly around it in an attempt to stay in it’s blind spot as she inflicts wound after wound upon it with her Estoc. Every few moments the glowing eye grows bright and a beam of vicious red light leaps from it, causing anything it hits to explode in the same fiery red you saw before you were knocked unconscious. 

After a moment of looking around you finally find Serena laying in the snow on her side and you rush to help her up. She’s conscious but appears to have a broken arm and is favoring it heavily with the other. 

“It’s a Fomorian.” she hisses through her teeth as you help her sit up, “I thought they were just the bogeymen that all the other fae tell stories to each other about.” You may make a [Intellect] + [Academics] or [Arcana] to recall your own information about the Fomorians. 

“It had someone else with it...I didn’t see who. But she went into the temple already. We need to dispose of the Fomorian quickly and get in there before this situation gets worse than it already is. It only has one eye, so it’s sight should be terrible. If you wait for the right moment to strike while Rosalind draws its attention, you should be able to finish this.” 

A gust of wind sweeps over the both of you, and though it’s just as cold as ever it still has that distinct scent of Autumn about it. You turn and begin to approach the Fomorian as the Duchess appears to be losing ground to it’s superior strength and stamina. Though badly wounded, it looks as though it might be able to edge out a victory against her. There’s no time to waste. 

You may use either [Strength] + [Athletics] to rush the creature immediately while it’s back is turned or [Dexterity] and [Stealth] to close the distance discreetly and strike. Succeeding on either of these provides you with the element of surprise. 

Once you’ve done this you may make one Attack, use one Ability, or cast one Spell of your choice. For a standard attack you use [Power] + [Brawl], [Melee] or [Marksman]. For an ability you use [Power] + [Ability]. For a spell you use [Potence] + [Magic]. It all comes down to this, you won’t get another chance at this. Your life, Serena’s life, and the life of the Duchess Rosalind rests in your hands now.