The Pillar of Winter: Part 2

 If you passed the final check in Part 1, congrats! Here's part 2. If you make the check with Razylym in the middle of the narrative you get a +2 to the final check. I wasn't able to include that in the text because I ran out of room. 

----------------------

It takes you only a moment to manipulate the door in such a way to get it open, the sound of ice cracking as you pry the door open comes a moment before the feeling of frigid cold that rolls over you from beyond. To you it feels just like it did to come through the blizzard barrier when you first entered Amsel, you must make a [Vitality] save or suffer a penalty to all actions while inside the repository, if you have any ranks in [Cryomagic] you may add these to your save as a bonus. 

The repository is located in a large tower with a spiral staircase that runs up the center. Along the walls there is recessed magical lighting that illuminates the whole of the tower in a pale blue light. The staircase brings you up through multiple levels, each filled with shelves of reference material, magical tomes, and artifacts kept under strict guard. You make your way to the second level where a woman’s voice commands you from behind to halt. 

“Stop right there!” she demands as you turn to face her. To your surprise the woman is Linirym, standing nearly eight feet tall with pale skin, white hair, and rich teal colored scales. Like many Linirym she wears little. Metal adornments clinging to her bare flesh and a loincloth keep her just this side of clothed. Behind her a massive powerful tail swishes angrily, the end of which appears to have three separate vicious stingers prepared to strike. 

“Name yourself or be frozen solid where you stand!” Though you have the papers to show who you are and a plausible explanation, the towering presence of the hostile Linirym walking toward you and the frigid cold have put you off balance. 

You may attempt to calm the Linirym with a [Charisma] + [Diplomacy] or try a less conventional approach by flirting with a [Charisma] + [Subterfuge]. 

After a tense moment, you convince Razylym not to turn you into a solid block of ice. You explain to her that you’re looking for any leads on the location of the lost Temple of Ghetea and she apologizes for her initial hostility. 

“All Linirym have a fierce protective instinct of what they consider theirs. While this tower is, by all rights, the property of Rosalind it has been my home since her father asked me here when she was a child. In many ways, I regard her as something of mine to protect as well. It’s not unusual for Linirym, but I apologize all the same. My tower is at your disposal.” 

The collection is easily one of the largest you’ve ever seen, the entire tower save for the living quarters of Razylym are dedicated to magic and the research of it...Arcane, Divine and otherwise. You spend hours researching the subject not just of Ghetea but anything even loosely related to the Goddess of Ice in hopes of finding something of use. Most of the volumes within the tower are older than you, which is why a thin soft leather bound book sandwiched between other volumes stands out to you. You pull it from the shelf and begin to page through the handwritten pages. 

“What have you got there?” Razylym asks you, peering at the pages from over your shoulder. You turn and show her what appears to be a journal, though you’re not sure who it belongs to or what it is doing here in a magical library. 

Razylym takes it and pages through it quickly, taking in the general content of each page with alarming speed. 

“Ah, this is Rosalind’s mother’s journal.” the Linirym says with a hint of sadness in her voice as she looks back at the books you found them with, “Shortly before Rosalind’s father died, he came here to do some research of his own. He’d pulled several books to bring to one of the tables and would sit there for hours. I remember now, asking him about this book. He told me that when he needed guidance on certain things, he would turn to the words of his late wife. He’d left in a hurry on business, I told him not to trouble himself with the books as things seemed rather urgent. He was still quite sick at the time. I suppose this just slipped his mind, and I must have accidently put it back with some of the other books.” 

Razylym hands the book back to you, “Here. Perhaps her words will hold some wisdom for you as they once did for him.” 

You take the book and bring it back with the books you originally came to retrieve and as you sit down at the table with all your research you read an entry that talks about a special trip that the late Duchess was looking forward to bringing Rosalind on for Urcare, the holiday celebrating the Gift of the Throne of Winter to the High King of Winter in the fae courts. The duchess talks about how important the trip is to her, how she and her family made it yearly when she was a child herself and how she believes it will hold special significance for Rosalind. 

The Duchess died before she could take the trip with her daughter. 

You can’t help but shake the feeling that this might be what you’ve been looking for this whole time. You must take what you’ve learned from the library and the journal and assemble the knowledge with an [Intellect] check that adds either [Arcana], [Theology], OR [Academics] to put the remaining pieces together.