Episode 216 - On Thin Ice

## Synopsis

The group looked around the opulent sights of the high rollers room, eyes drawn to the massive roulette table in the centre. Bou thought he could ask an imp how to avoid the Fiend of Whimsy, in an attempt to make them more interested in the group, and so set off to the bar to find an imp. Meanwhile, Integrity asked an imp for free one cream, failing miserably. Bou accidentally offended the imp bartender, failed to get them to tell him how to avoid the Fiend, then left after they called security to watch him. Next was Mira’s turn to try. She ran over to another imp in the corner, told him she had accidentally insulted the Fiend of Whimsy, and begged him to hide her. The imp stammered and looked around in shock before pointing at another person dressed in armour, saying they could help her, before breaking down and crying that the Fiend would bleed him dry for telling her that.

Mira went over to the person the imp had pointed out, getting ready to act again. As she approached, the air grew hotter, and it looked as though the joints in their armour were glowing red hot. She again begged for them to hide her from the Fiend of Whimsy. They recoiled in shock, before they leaned down and asked her to repeat the request. She told them that several days ago, she had told the Fiend that one of his disguises was obvious, and had had to flee. However, now her Lady Sinderman wanted to come back to gamble, so she needed to be hidden from the Fiend. The guard sighed, and asked for her name. Mira said it was Allena Ungtar. With that, they told her to follow them, and began walking up the nearby stairs. The rest of the group quickly began to follow her. Integrity telepathically told Mira that she wanted to impersonate and swap places with her, seeing as she was the only one of them who could track people. Mira have a subtly nod, and Integrity enacted her plan to cause a distraction and disguise herself as Mira. As she did this, Mira disguised herself as Integrity and quietly slipped away. The guard turned, and told Integrity to hurry up.

They resumed their march, eventually arriving at the top of the stairs and finding another set of double doors. The guard was breathing heavily after the long climb, and told Integrity to walk in front of them so she didn’t run off. She reluctantly stepped forward, and felt a heavy push on her back as the guard hurried her, saying they didn’t have all day, and needed to get back downstairs. He told her the doors in front of them led to the Thawing Room. They opened the doors and began to walk down a steadily narrowing corridor, the walls growing more translucent and ice-like until Integrity could just make out the blurred images of figures trapped in the crystal. After several minutes of waking, they found themselves in a room filled by a pond of boiling water, with crystal-encased figures hanging from hooks in the ceiling. On the far side of the room was a giant snowflake, spinning and releasing smaller snowflakes, which melted into the boiling water after they had moved far enough away. He said that if she wanted to avoid the Fiend of Whimsy’s wrath, all she had to do was willingly freeze herself. After enough time had passed, she could thaw when the Fiend didn’t remember her. Integrity suddenly had a thought, pointed to one of the de-thawing crystals, and asked if it was the Architect. The guard looked surprised, and said she wasn’t normally thawed until later in the evening.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group were waiting outside the doors to the hallway, trying to decide what to do. They looked inside, finding the frozen silhouettes of many people and animals within the walls. Mira noticed a family that, from their clothes, seemed to have been frozen for at least a hundred years. Serinepth saw a decapitated body, with wings that resembled that of the Fiend of Death. Meanwhile, Bou walked further down the hallway, at one point slipping and falling on his face. The guard inside turned to see all three of them and asked what they were doing in the room. Serinepth said that she was looking for her hairdresser, which failed to convince the guard. He said that Integrity would be frozen for offending the Fiend of Whimsy, but they would not be so lucky, before drawing a flaming sword from his side.

Bou jumped up from the ground and ran to stab the guard. He managed to land one hit before the guard knocked his pike away, and then yelled for Integrity to stab him. She jumped up and attempted to stab her jade dagger into the guard’s face, only for him to catch her in midair and throw her to the ground. Serinepth thrust her hand out towards him, pushing him back with telekinetic force, before he dug his feet into the crystal and held his ground. The guard raised raised his sword, before slamming it into the ground causing an explosion of fire that engulfed them all. He then swung his burning blade at Bou, catching them across the chest, then shoved Integrity into the pit of boiling water. On either side of her, two small elementals rose from the water, reaching towards her to drag her further into the water. She easily evaded their hands and began dragging herself out of the pit. The elementals tried to attack her again as she did so, only for Mira to tell insults at them, and Bou to invoke a rune which caused on of their attacks to hit the guard instead.

Once she was out of the pool, Integrity charged towards the guard again, hexing him and attempting to stab the guard in the leg. He shifted to the side slightly, causing her dagger to slide off his armour. She then moved further around him, trying to stay in his blind spot. Mira traced a pattern in the air, summoning a spectral snake that coiled around the guard’s head and attempting to dominate his mind. His hands dropped to his sides as the fiery blade retracted. She mentally commanded the guard to call off the elementals and help them find Di’Auna. His eyes rolled around and he said that he couldn’t call them off, but he could help fight them. Mira agreed, and so the guard turned to face the water. Bou lashed out with his pike at one of the elemental, causing it to dissipate immediately. Serinepth ram over to the water’s edge, blasting a lightning bolt straight into the other elemental, causing it to almost completely break apart. The mind controlled guard then thrust his sword into the water, causing steam to fill the room as the elemental evaporated.

The guard sheathed his sword, told Integrity they would postpone her freezing, then dropped to one knee in front of Mira, awaiting her command. She told him to take them to Di’Auna, to which he was forced to reluctantly agree.