Realms S2E7 Cold Blooded

As the group tries to come to terms with their new, icy predicament, accusations have only added to the chaos. More aware of the challenges they face, they now set off on solving one problem at a time.

### Player Characters Present

Eclipse, Naphako, Keywynn, Kyrealle, Kerrick

### Synopsis

Our heroes stood before Gwendolyn Godfrey and decided to accept her charge to hunt down the Cold Heart Killer. They gathered information about the victims from Gwendolyn; Liana, the half-elf, who worked in a greenhouse, Havel, a Goliath Lumberjack, who braved the wilds to supply the town with wood. Devon, a dwarven blacksmith apprentice who could never quite make master. Each were found in their homes, dead with unmelting ice knives in their hearts.

Gwendolyn also told them of the terrible sacrifices Pyriel demands of the ten towns: once a month a person must be killed to appease God's wrath in the form of vicious blizzards and attacks from the monsters of the tundra. With information in hand, Gwendolyn gives them her house seal so they can access the crime scene as necessary.

The crew visits the home of Liana, adjoined to the Greenhouse where she worked. Guards let them through, and inside they’re met with a Grizzly sight: blood and bits of bodies frozen in arcs off the ground. They investigate and 3 sets of small footprints and 1 set of larger footprints which walks in from the backdoor and leaves by it. The backdoor’s lock has been frozen solid at an unnaturally low temperature.

After finishing looking around the greenhouse. The group decides to split up, Naphako and Keywynn staying behind to canvas the area for witnesses and Kerrick, Eclipse and Kyrealle attempting to track the footprints. Naphako and Keywynn spy an old lady watching them, and asked her a few questions. Janice explained she heard shouting at 3 in the morning, and Liana was most likely with her sisters at that time. They also help the old woman recover from a very sudden heart attack that they may or may not have been responsible for. (They were.)

Meanwhile Kerrick, Eclipse, and Kyrealle follow the prints to a large thoroughfare and lose hope of following the prints any farther, but they see the blacksmith shop where Devon passed is nearby and continue their investigation there. The master blacksmith shows them to the backroom where Devon lived and the room has been almost emptied out. Nothing remains frozen due to the heat of the forge except the lock which had been frozen in the same manner as Liana’s house.

The group reconnects on the way to the tavern and during a brief lunch and share what they learned. Afterwards they go to investigate the final victim. They learn Havel was killed outside his home and the guards inform them Havel’s brother was yet another victim of the Cold Heart killer, his body is still in their house, an ice-dagger in his heart. They notice this home does not have the locks frozen but instead the door is broken outward as if someone inside was trying to escape. Kyrealle kneels next to this victim to cast Identify on the knife in his chest, but things quickly go wrong as the dead man begins to rise.

The party quickly springs into action and takes him down, and try to understand what is happening. They hurry back to Gwendolyn worrying that she may be under attack by the bodies in her office. Their fears turned out to be right and Gwendolyn is fighting Liana’s reanimated corpse. The party rushes to her aid, taking on Lianna. They notice that Gwendolyn’s legs are becoming petrified in ice. The other corpses begin to rise and join the fight.

As they returned the undead to all dead, they find that magic is being flung at them by an unseen force, and what’s more the ice petrifying Gwendolyn has almost encased her entire body, and Keywynn is becoming encased as well. Eclipse pulls out his lantern of revealing and they see a strange creature in the center of the room. They all rush the monster, Kyrealle getting the final blow with her goose-shaped magic missiles, just as the ice finishes encasing Keywynn. Seeing this, Eclipse quickly remembers the strange oil he had found with Naphako during their early journey together known to cure petrification and pours it over Keywynn saving her in that last moment. Keywynn throws her arms around Eclipse in gratitude and Eclipse is put in his own state of petrification.