The Pillar of Winter: Part 1

If you haven't made a character yet for this event, please contact me and we'll get you set and ready to go. The checks being made for this part use 2d8 + whatever is in the brackets. These checks can be made in the Pillar of Winter channel in the discord. If you are not in the discord but would like to participate you may name someone in the discord as your proxy or I would be happy to roll for you. 

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A short time ago the Duchy of Amsel broke from the Kingdom of Damsarlia. The Duchess claimed that the King Zansumkai of Damsarlia had slain her father and that she would no longer stand with the Kingdom. To protect against invasion from Damsarlia to retake the Duchy, the Duchess Rosalind Von Amsel erected a massive storm barrier around the realm in a staggering feat of Cryomagic. Ships from Damsarlia have been unable to enter any port and the trek overland has proven difficult for any Damsarlian army. 

But the storm is weakening. 

Though you were originally picked up under suspicion of being a Damsarlian spy you have managed to prove your innocence. You have been noted for a handful of accomplishments in your adventures in the area and have proven resourceful enough to navigate your way through the storm. The Duchess has called upon your resourcefulness in hopes that you can locate the lost Temple of Ghetea that stood nearly a century ago. 

Duchess Rosalind Von Amsel is young, but not inexperienced. She served as a Colonel in the Damsarlian military before breaking away from the Kingdom and she has a reputation for being cold with most people. Despite her icy demeanor she is physically attractive with flawless pale skin and light brown hair with eyes the color of a clear winter sky. She wears a military uniform of Amsel, complete with various commendations from her service with the Kingdom of Damsarlia. She appears to have an average build, though the layers of the uniform make an accurate read of this difficult,  and stands roughly five and a half feet tall. She wears a surprisingly inornate estoc on her left hip. 

You are escorted to a sitting room where she stands near a hearth waiting for you, a fire crackles in the fire place casting the room in an orange light. She turns to speak to you once the door has closed, leaving the two of you alone. 

You’re fairly experienced with adventuring, but audiences with royals and nobility is a separate matter requiring special knowledge of how to behave and present one’s self. You may make a [Intelligence] + [Etiquette] check to make a good first impression upon the Duchess. 

“Though it pains me to admit it...” The Duchess tells you, “My Arcane research has not yielded any answers on how to strengthen the storm. If it fails, we become vulnerable to invasion from Damsarlia. Though we’ve managed to support ourselves so far, I sincerely doubt we could sustain a prolonged war by land or by sea. The storm is our only real defense and our last option is to appeal to the Goddess of Ice herself.”

“Perhaps, with it being so close to Urcare, she’ll heed our call. But first we must locate the temple.” 

Your equipment is returned to you and you are given a meal much more suited to your tastes than what you were getting during your brief stay in the dungeon. As you eat you consider what you already know and where you might need to acquire more information. The Duchess has made her people’s resources available to you, providing you with a temporary rank in the [Status] Background for the Duchy. You have also been provided a short list of individuals to speak with that might be able to get your preparations started before heading out into the wilderness on your own. 

After your meal you go to visit the first person on the list that might be of assistance to you, a woman by the name of Razylym who can be found on the far end of the East wing. The way you understand it, Razylym was the one who tutored the Duchess in Cryomagic when she was younger and maintains the repository of magical tomes and artifacts kept within the castle walls. Though you have no doubt that the Duchess has likely consulted this source and the materials already, it seems like as good of a place as any to start. 

After briefly orienting yourself to find your way around the massive castle and a great deal of walking, you find yourself in the east wing. The presence of servants and guards here is considerably reduced compared to anywhere else in the castle that you’ve been and the lighting in the halls appears to be by magical torch rather than the mundane variety. Even so, it’s much darker here and as you near the end of the corridor, the temperature has dropped noticeably as well. 

The double door at the end of the corridor is much taller than you are by several feet and appears to be made of heavy wood reinforced with iron. You put your hand to the door to pull it open and notice immediately how cold the door is to the touch, to the point of being almost painful. In addition, the door doesn’t seem to want to budge, the mechanisms that keep the door shut seem to have frozen shut. 

Your options are to use a [Strength] + [Athletics] to force the door open or to manipulate the frozen sections of the door with [Intellect] + [Cryomagic] if you are a Cryomage.