Episode 63

“Welcome to the first trial”, the ice giant says in a language that only Lily understands. She approaches the creature and speaks with it shortly before it melts back into the wall. Soon after the words “their touch will leave you chilled, collect fast before you are killed” appear at their feet.

Lily tells the party that the creature was a guardian of the palace. She is the first to walk up the stairs and tests the double doors, each carrying 2 diamond-shaped recesses that look to be awaiting a “key” of some sort. As the party looks around for clues they spot various ice chunks surrounding the room with golden flecks in them. Seipora finds the first key, a citrine topaz, and hands it off to Lily. Everyone splits up in groups to find more gems. It becomes apparent that they must act quickly as sharp ice spikes begin to protrude from the walls.

Marisol finds runes surrounding the recesses on the doors, which are then translated by Lily. The top rune reads Fire, the bottom one Water, left Earth, and right Wind. Inserting the topaz into the top slot in the door, the stone glows brightly, signaling that the first key has been accepted. K attempts to slash some of the ice spikes with *Cave Dweller*. They shatter, but don’t remain broken for long.

Ingred and Seipora search for more gems together. Soon they notice ice creatures slowly starting to crawl out of the ground, ready to attack both women. Before they can warn each other they are struck with cold, numbing slashes to their legs. Anthos and Ingred quickly cull the creatures but more seep out of the ground to take their place. The three adventurers are restrained from the paralyzing effects of their weapons.

Ingred finds a rock in the rubble of the first creature killed. It’s ordinary looking, but nonetheless she hands it off to Marisol, who runs it up to Lily at the door. It glows in affirmation as it’s slipped into the “Earth” recess. As the creatures continue their attack on the party below, they manage to restrain Marisol and completely incapacitate Seipora. The spikes draw nearer and nearer on the frozen individuals.

With Lily’s help, Anthos locates another gem; an aquamarine. She runs and sticks it into the door with yet another glow. Seipora becomes skewered on the spikes but is pulled away by a very rageful K.

Ingred shouts out that she’s located the last gem but can’t reach it. Lily takes action, teleporting right into the spikes to grab the gem (an amethyst). Ingred is pulled to safety by Kova but soon joins Seipora in being incapacitated. Anthos struggles to resist the many creatures slashing at his heels. The action dies down once Lily inserts the final stone. The creatures and spikes crumble into snow at their feet, and those who were affected by the creatures become fatigued, but free from the paralysis.

Some healing is done. The ice guardian steps out of the wall and speaks to Lily, who translates the conversation back to the group. It congratulated them and said that what she seeks is beyond those doors. Instead of entering right away, the party decides to spend the night in the icey room to recover in case there is another trial awaiting them.

A long rest is had. Some decide to take watches. The ice guardian appears restless.

They gather themselves some much needed sleep and enter through the doorway. The walls and floor below them are mesmerizing, like an infinity mirror that reflects the images below in a diamond-shaped pattern. In the room rests an altar. Below it, the body of a snow white-esque woman who appears to be made of water. Above it, a large chandelier with floating gems. The gems click out of place with Lily’s arrival. She flies up to meet it and places her gem into the empty slot. All of the gems rotate gently and light up. “You’re back home now”, she says. Once back on the ground, Lily approaches the altar with her sword summoned. Noticing a slot, she pushes the sword in. the whining of the gems gets louder. Energy gathers and reflects into the pommel of the sword before channeling itself down, into the body of the woman.

A voice rises from the other side of the room. Beyond the pillars the party sees an androgynous being with a silvery grey palette and two amethyst colored irises. Their hair bobs as if underwater and their third eye is golden with an orange iris, similar to the eye symbol of Nikinen’s.

They introduce themself as Nexus, “*the divine archon created by the Father from the elemental chaos and primordials themselves so that I may keep them in check*” and claims Lily to be their descendant. They ask why Lily hadn’t arrived earlier, to which she responds that she wasn’t sure of herself and didn’t understand the urgency of the situation. Nexus says that they had approached Lily in her dreams in the forms of Anila, Vedic, Ap, and Mata. It should have been obvious.

Nexus appears annoyed at the fact that Lily “made no effort until things became dire” and asks her why she rested before entering the room. Lily defends the action, saying that her team comes first. She’s not willing to risk their lives. “Your companions, no matter how much you trust them, would not matter if the planes were to merge. They would all be doomed”, says Nexus. Lily asks them why they didn’t show her the whole problem sooner? All she got were dreams of what to do when she arrived here. Nexus waves her off, insisting that they had. She’s just been ignoring them.

Anthos steps in to challenge Nexus, calling them pretentious but is quickly unable to finish his statement. He is frozen in place. Lily tells the being to drop the spell and calls them a terrible host. They do, and say that they know Anthos. The party then sees the reflection of their fighter morph into a six-winged version of Anthos adorned in his beautiful regalia armor. Nexus congratulates Lily for completing her task and says that they will contact her again. There will be a trial for each time they need her to complete one of their forms. There will be three more trials.

They mention that although Lily isn’t the only descendant of theirs, she is the most capable. A reward will be given. Magically, Nexus takes away her magic. Her white hair bleeds to black and the color of her skin becomes warmer. K asks if Lily is ok. The party is concerned. Anthos asks Nexus what they did to her. A reminder of what she was before they reached out to her, they say. “Oh, please!” Anthos scoffs. He lectures Nexus about their ego and high standards. He tells Nexus to give Lily her powers back and to stop being petty.

Nexus finds amusement in Anthos’ words and calls him “little brother”. They tell Lily that she will receive a dream the next time they need assistance. Lily tries to cast a spell but finds that she’s unable to do so.

As the party gets ready to leave, Ingred steps forward and asks for an autograph from Nexus. This annoys (most of) the party. Anthos casts a fire bolt to stop the autograph from happening, but Nexus catches it. They thank Anthos and use the flame to burn a sigil in Ingred’s notebook. She thanks them. Nexus turns back to Lily and tells her that the absence of magic will be undone soon. K steps forward as well and asks Nexus “Am I me, or am I *Him*?”. “You are more you that him”, they reply.

The party finally leaves. After chewing Anthos out a bit, they all make their way out of the watchtower basement. They manage to avoid the dragon and begin the trek back to the Iron Jaw. The journey is uneventful, save for an encounter with some giant elk and a pack of wolves. They all make it to the shoreline safe and sound. Before they make it onto the boat, Marisol makes a copy of her map and Ingred walks off for a bit.

Wix and the crew welcomes the party back. They are instantly put to work. The session ends with Lily, Seipora, and Ingred in the dining room. Seipora sends a message to Ingred’s father, Eiffel. It ends poorly.