Rissada - Session 25.4

They call it the Shivering Heart. A massive ice tower, off the west coast of Delfia, in the middle of the ocean. In there lies Anarod, dreaming a dream of being frozen in ice. How long has he been there? It seems like forever ago since he slept for the night on the way to Sakkel.
It's a dream Anarod's had before. Nearly every night, in fact, But this one seems to stretch on for eternity, and, still, something is different than usual.

Anarod sighs.
Anarod: "I've seen this play out over a thousand times, whoever decided to give me the Extended Cut version this time?"
The atmosphere of the air changes abruptly, then returns to the calm cold. An intruder appears, forming out of the icy mist itself, but it appears to be a very welcome one.
Anarod: "Oh, for the love of-"
Engir: "Rrr, so this is what you've been suffering?"
Anarod: "Well I guess this IS supposed to be a nightmare."
"Well most nights by now it's more like generally uncomfortable. Sometimes it's weirder. I don't know."
"So what's your deal anyway?"
Engir: "You've been trapped in this sleep for three days. I've come here to get you out."
Anarod: "This both makes a lot of sense and none at all."
Engir: "Speaking of getting you out..."
Engir pulls out a sheet of paper, and writes out a summons for a Fire Elemental.
With a flash, the paper summons ignites into flame, slowly forming the shape of a small spirit.
The air stiffens.
Engir: "I just hope these spirits can last long in the cold."
Voice: "Intruder... you dare bring fire into our domain...?"
Anarod: "Oh awesome."
"I love when my nightmare speaks."
"Hey, it's been a while, disembodied icy voice."
Engir: "Spirit, I beseech you to release my abducted brother!"
The elemental wraps around the form of ice encasing Anarod, thawing him out and freeing him.
Anarod: "I bet this force of nature isn't signing into a legal contract ever again after this."
The wind begins to feel hostile. Whatever spoke a moment ago seems to be aggressive now.
Engir: "I wouldn't blame him in this case."
"Still, it seems your icy keep has a master."
Anarod: "I've been assuming there some sort of thing behind this for a long while, yes."
"I don't think my own personal psyche would hate me to this degree."
Engir: "I certainly don't think self-loathing would manifest like this."
Anarod: "I've had second doubts since you showed up, though. I'm really hoping you really figured out a dream-travelling machine."
Engir: "Close, actually."
"Time for that, later, though. Let's get you out of here."
Anarod: "I would personally resent my own recurring nightmare to finally spawn something to interact with and picking you."
Ice crystals begin to form and coalesce, creating its own spirits as if to combat Engir's.
Engir: "Would you prefer they sent that Goblin?"
Anarod: "Watching him freeze to death might've been entertaining."
Engir grits his teeth, and moves on.
The ice spirit appears hostile towards Engir and his elemental spirit.
Voice:  "Leave, intruder. Begone from our icy realm."
Engir: "That's precisely what I intend to do!"
Anarod: "I'm still not entirely grasping the idea of physically escaping my own dream."
Engir: "I don't think the dream will let you go unless we try something."
Anarod: "If it's apparently been three days it seems likely."
"The only real baffling thing is you, really."

Engir motions the Elemental to move the ice spirit from his path.
[Fire Elemental : Slam
Attack: 21, Damage: 3
Ice Elemental : Slam
Attack: 18, Damage: 8]
Engir: "Like you said, I was planted into the dream from outside."
The two elementals exchange blows but the ice elemental seems to be at the advantage.

Engir: "Tch, I'm not going to break through with my usual summons."
"If this is a dream, then I wonder if I can still..."
Engir calls out to his Quill, beckoning its aid.
The quill remains silent, not speaking to Engir as it usually does.
Engir: "Tch, I guess only I was sent, after all."

[Engir - Initiative: 14
Anarod - Initiative: 4]

Engir steps to the side, and begins calling another Fire Elemental.
Anarod: "I... guess I can try to fight my own dream. This is incredibly weird."
Engir: "I would really suggest figuring out the rules of this world."

Anarod attempts to blast the ice elemental with a Color Spray, unsure whether attempting to use magic makes any sense.
The ray of lights shine at the ice sprite, staggering it. While it seems neither stunned nor asleep, it seems as blind as an elemental could be.

Engir: "Good, I'm glad that's solved."
[Fire Elemental : Slam
Attack: 24, Crit Confirm: 12
Damage: 1, Crit Damage +2]
The fire elemental takes the chance and slams into the ice elemental, which is unable to effectively dodge it.
[Ice Elemental : Slam
Attack: 8, Damage: 10]
The ice elemental attempts to attack back, but the blindness prevents it from striking its target.

Engir calls the second Elemental to flank the Ice spirit. He raises his finger to channel positive energy, then realises something.
Engir: "Hmm, I can't really heal something that'll burn my fingers."
[Engir : Light Crossbow
Attack: 21, Damage: 5]
The bolt strikes the elemental solidly, shattering parts of its form.

Anarod looks around.
Anarod: "It feels like something is trying to draw me somewhere. This tower's layout is really convoluted but it feels like it's not that way."
Engir: "Right. Lead the way, then."
Anarod: "I'll start heading the other way. You might want to finish off this elemental to be sure. I don't know."

[Fire Elemental : Slam
Attack: 15, Damage: 3]
The ice elemental shatters against the fire elemental's slam, and its threat seems to have been ended.
The fire elemental seems to be interested in another sprite further in, however.
[Ice Elemental : Slam
Attack: 5, Damage: 6]
Engir: "Thank you for holding them at bay."
Engir makes double time, to make use of the diversion.
The pair find a staircase leading down, but icicles bar the way from accessing it.
Anarod: "Ok so maybe not this way either. This layout is confusing."
Engir: "Let's force our way down."

[Fire Elemental : Slam
Attack: 15, Damage: 3
Ice Elemental : Slam
Attack: 21, Damage: 7]
Anarod: "Let's just try this path instead."
Engir: "Right."
"Hmph, our defender fell. We must move fast."
An enormous form of ice elemental falls under Anarod's vision. It seems utterly uninterested in him, however.
Anarod: "That thing sure is large. Strongly suggest calling off the fire."
Engir: "Spirit, please hold off the path behind us. We'll keep moving."
Engir runs due south, not stopping to see the larger elemental.
The ice elemental seems alerted to Engir's presence, and begins to slowly lumber after him.
Engir: "Uh oh."
Anarod: "Ugh, yeah okay it doesn't like you, either."
Engir: "I think they see you as one of them."
"Maybe you can call them off?"
Anarod: "Worth a try I guess."
Anarod moves back to the ice creature and tries to get his attention somehow.
The ice elemental doesn't even seem to notice Anarod. Its gaze is fixed at Engir.
Engir: "...well, damn."
"Perhaps because you are the dreamer, you do not have a presence here."
Voice:  "Intruder, leave."
Engir continues to flee as quickly as his gnome legs allow.
Voice: "The scion stays. Forever."
Engir: "You would entrap him? Why?"
Anarod: "Well, I have been here forever, technically."
Engir: "Who can say?"
"Tch, dead end."
Anarod: "When did a third of every day start becoming not enough, though?"
[Ice Elemental : Slam
Attack: 10, Damage: 10]
An ice sprite swings at Engir, luckily missing him
Engir: "They're not going to let up, are they?"
Anarod blasts the ice elemental in the path's way with a Color Spray.
It staggers, blinded.
Engir steps forward to imbue himself with a shielding light.
Engir: "I guess we'll need to move together, relying on your magic to stun them."
Anarod: "I was gonna say I should probably lead in this case."
"There's another."
Engir: "After you."
Anarod: "...several, actually."
Engir: "...ah."
Anarod: "Get in the back there, I'll try to wait until they're grouped together."
Engir steps away, drawing them to the chokepoint.
The smaller ice elementals continue the path near Anarod. The large one, however, opts for a different route, walking through the nearby wall as if it didn't exist.
Anarod: "Hopefully the other large one got st-"
Engir: "...ohh, right."
Anarod: "Wow okay that's not good. "
Engir begins to call more fire-aligned aid.
Engir: "The smaller ones were tough enough head on."

Anarod fires his color spray on cue, firing a blast of rainbow lights at the elementals. One of them seems unphased, but the other's senses seem negatively affected.
Anarod: "Damn it, hit and miss. Send your summoned flame to distract the remaining one and let's try to bolt through!"

Engir: "Kin of flame, distract the large one. You need not engage it directly. I'll distract the small one myself."
Engir decides to try and bolt past the smaller one, confident in his bolstered defenses.

The elemental advances towards the large elemental, adopting a protective stance.
[Ice Elemental : Slam
Attack: 18, Damage: 8
Ice Elemental : Slam
Attack: 5, Damage: 8
Ice Elemental : Slam
Attack: 13, Damage: 20]
All the elementals fail to hit their intended targets.

Engir tries to slip past the sighted elemental. [Acrobatics, using Vow of the Oracle: 16]
Engir finds himself able to slip through its defenses, while the blinded elemental seems unable to stop his attempt.

Anarod has another go at trying to blind the remaining elemental, turning back after moving past him to blast a shimmering light at it.
Anarod: "Move!"
The flash of light staggers it, afflicting its vision as with the other.
Engir: "Excellent!"
Engir rushes forward, but is immediately halted in awe of the sight ahead.
As the gnomes pass through, they enter what appears to be a sort of altar. A shimmering light, shining in prismatic arrays, encased in a block of ice.
[Engir : Reflex Save: 21]
Engir barely ducks out of the way as an enormous form slams down into the ice near him, causing what feels like the entire floor to shudder.
Engir: "Whoa, nelly!"
Before the party stands an enormous dragon, seemingly made equally of ice and bone. Its gaze pierces to the gnomes' very souls.
Anarod: "I hope whatever you did to get here prevents you from being murdered."
Voice: "Foolish scion. You cannot murder me."
Engir: "He means me."
Anarod: "That was meant for my brother."
Engir: "Luckily, I'm not even the real me. ...I think."
Anarod: "More or less what I was wondering."
Voice: "Scion, you should have stayed in your tomb."
Anarod: "Honestly, you're right! But where's the fun in that?"
Engir: "We have need of him, right now."
Voice: "He is not yours to take."
Engir: "Is he not? He is my brother, flesh and blood."
Voice: "WE own him. His very heart, his very SOUL."
Anarod: "To keep me on some sort of ice shelf in this boring tower?"
Voice: "To keep you spreading our influence. To bring about a world of ice."
"The Shivering Heart is not yours to trifle with. We are your master, and you will OBEY us!"
Engir: "How will he spread your influence in a comatose state?"
Anarod: "You haven't even barked any orders to obey."
"In like, over 40 years."
Voice: "Trifling gnome. You are dealing with powers beyond your comprehension."
Anarod: "You COULD explain, you know."
Engir: "It's an easy excuse to see mortals as incapable of understanding."
Anarod: "I mean that's more or less what I've been waiting for since I started landing here every time I've closed my eyes."
Voice: "Then prove your loyalty. Slay the intruder yourself, and we shall allow you to approach the Heart."
Engir: "Hm..."
Anarod raises an eyebrow, turns to Engir, then back to the dragon.
Engir: "(Do it.)"
Anarod: "Yo, on a scale of one to ten, how confident are you on this 'I don't think I can actually die here" statement?"
Engir: "(Well, I'm confident I cannot die. But I worry about this dragon's intent.)"
Anarod: "(Oh well, I don't think anything other than 'do what the giant ice dragon says' is an option here.)"
Engir: "(Perhaps approaching the heart is something that'll leash you to its power again.)"
Anarod: "Whatever, I mean..."
"The idea of my brother popping out into my own dreams is unsettling enough as it is. I mean this tower is one thing, but what if I start having like not insane ice prison dreams one day?"
Engir: "These dreams are yours. You are their master."
Anarod: "So I guess this hits two birds in one stone."
Anarod grins.
Anarod: "Now get out of my head you freak!"
Engir: "Wait!"
Voice: "Do not wait. Follow our command, and become a servant of the eternal glaciers."
Engir: "Whatever you do, do it for yourself, not these lunatics!"
Anarod: "We're brothers, Engir."
"I can assure you, blasting you with a beam of ice is something I've dreamed of on my own volition more than once!"
Engir grits his teeth.
Engir: "(Then, after you strike me, take that stone before the Dragon does anything with it.)"
Anarod: "And no pain, no gain, right? Better off seeing what's these freaks deal. I'm a grown gnome."
"(Sure, that works.)"
Engir: [Readying a cast of Protection from Evil, before Anarod casts]
Anarod's right arm starts getting engulfed in streaks of ice, racing around his forearm and concentrating in a large cannon shape around his fist.
Anarod: "Thanks for the kick out of the whole ice block deal, I guess that was useful. I can take over from here."
Engir: "I best see you in the material world, brother."
Engir engulfs Anarod in a matt white light, taking no steps to defend himself.
Anarod raises the cannon and fires out a large Arctic Beam.
Engir: "Nnnnnghh!"
The ice beam pierces through Engir, causing him to collapse on the ground.
Anarod: "Well I'm sure that'll have been cathartic on some level."
Voice: "Such coldness. Such ruthlessness. It is perfect, Scion."
"You are our slave now."
Anarod: "Yeah whatever you think."
Voice: "Your fate was sealed the moment you slew your brother."
Anarod: "Heads up how long is this speech gonna be?"
Voice: "It need not be any length at all. You have already proven your subservience."
Anarod: "Yeah sure if that comforts you."
"Let me see this thing now."
Anarod heads towards the block of ice thing.
The dragon makes no attempt to stop him.
Anarod tries to inspect the heart.
Anarod: "...you know, I'd never realized how unsettling it is to do anything with a giant dragon blankly staring at you."
"I thought you were gonna explain things."
Voice: "You seemed uninterested."
"What does a puppet need of knowledge anyway?"
Anarod: "No seriously, what's your deal?"
Voice: "We are the Shivering Heart. The power you so deeply covet."
Anarod: "I'm in I've apparently been here for three days, I'm not in any rush."
Voice: "This dragon, the elementals, this very tower; all of us are as one."
"Your blood, too, is ours."
Anarod: "Fascinating. How'd that even happen?"
"Do y'all just claim ownership on people's blood?"
Voice: "You gave yourself to us when you sought to use our power."
"That is why you poured over the tomes day and night. Is it not?"
Anarod: "I think you've got the order of events reversed."
"I was made to hang out here even before I understood even a shred of what this place was supposed to be."
"What I've sought to do from the very beginning, is to understand why that was."
Voice: "Then now you know. You are the Scion of our power. Granted the strength to freeze the mortal world solid."
Anarod: "So the stated goal of this place is to make me bring about some sort of icepocalypse?"
Voice: "Such is the intention. Our brothers have similar goals, and their own Scions."
Anarod: "Really."
Voice: "Accept the power we are offering you, or reject it and be stripped of it."
Anarod: "So it's like some sort of weird elemental competition? Am I gonna have to fight the other scions gladiator style?"
Voice: "There is no need. Two are already slain and the fourth is our ally."
Anarod: "Ally?"
Voice: "Wind and ice together. To cover the world in a perpetual blizzard."
Anarod: "So I'm guessing this means the ones that are dead were gunning for earth and flame?"
The dragon seems to see no need to answer an obvious question.
Anarod: "Fine, then. You brought up rejection before. If I call off this whole thing, do you just up and go pick someone else?"
Voice: "As long as you have our blood, you are forever a scion of ice."
"If you do not do this by your own hand, you will be forced to by ours."
Anarod: "So what was that about rejection then?"
Voice: "If you refuse, we shall reclaim every last drop of your blood."
Anarod: "You know, I've always thought the whole blood thing was more like a manner of speech."
"You're making it sound incredibly literal."
Voice: "It is very literal. You will be naught more than a husk."
Anarod: "Hm. Fascinating."
"So is this place the real deal?"
Voice: "The true Shivering Heart. Though your presence here is naught more than incorporeal manifestation, as was the intruder's."
Anarod: "That's one of the things I was wondering. So you're basically yanking me away when I fall asleep."
"Alright then, suppose I take the thing, the whole icemageddon happens how?"
"I mean if I go with the part where I'm complicit in the world's downfall I should be privy to the details, right?"
"I mean, I mostly ask because I'm pretty sure I've been involved in a dragon murder before."
Voice: "Yes. Our brother. Though if you mean to think you can defeat me as you may have him, you are welcome to try."
Anarod: "So I'm basically Ice-Sirius!"
"Man that's disconcerting."
Voice: "If it brings you pleasure in calling yourself that."
Anarod: "But... you're like, already here, though."
"I thought 'your brother' or whatever was using Sirius to drag him out of the void thingy."
Voice: "Astute."
Anarod: "I try."
"I guess what I'm asking is what purpose are you trying to use me as a tool for since you apparently have no issue existing in the material world already."
Voice: "I feel no need to explain to you."
"I tire of this conversation."
Anarod: "Took you long enough!"
"I was beginning to think you just liked spilling everything out!"
Voice: "Your arrogance will be your undoing."
Anarod: "You vastly overestimate your own cleverness, dragon."
Blackfrost Dragon: "And you vastly overestimate your survivability, gnome."
Anarod: "'scool, I don't need anything more right now."
Anarod swiftly reaches for the heart.
[Blackfrost Dragon : Breath Weapon
Damage: 34 Cold, 35 Negative, Save: Reflex DC 23]
As Anarod reaches for the Heart, the dragon's dark breath washes over him. His vision fades as his finger traces along the ice...