Wrap up (Various)

[Ebiris]

This guy's pretty sharp for a small elemental! "Apologies for the language," she says sincerely, experience with Simmer helping her know the sort of hornet's nest an ill chosen word can step one into. "But I am trying to further my understanding of Air and Water. Have you heard of Absolute Zero? We'd like to visit it."

Poor odds that he'd know anything, but she could be surprised!

[Anastasia]

"I know here. I know Ice," the small elemental says. "I know snow, but that's all."

[Ebiris]

Yes it was unlikely but nothing is lost in the asking. "That's alright, hopefully someone in Refuge will be able to help us. Good luck spreading snow around," she waves, starting to fly onward.

[Anastasia]

You fly into Refuge. It's a city of clean streets and snow flurries, the air only bitterly cold rather than unearthly freezing. People are about, blobs wrapped in warm furs against the weather. Buildings are sturdy, made of brick, stone, wood and whatever else.

Set up what you plan to do, Afina.

[Ebiris]

We're gonna GI, which makes it a good thing Mirajane suggested Bubbles came!

"Lets try asking around the taverns for local expertise and narrow our focus down from there?" she suggests, looking for a likely place to start.

[19:59] <@Ebiris> roll 1d20+15 aiding on GI
[19:59] <Rei-chan> Ebiris rolled : 1d20+15 aiding on GI --> [ 1d20=8 ]{23}

[Anastasia]

> roll 1d20+7 Mirajane aids
<Rei-chan> Kotono rolled : 1d20+7 Mirajane aids --> [ 1d20=19 ]{26}
> roll 1d20+38 GI for Bubbles, aids added in
<Rei-chan> Kotono rolled : 1d20+38 GI for Bubbles, aids added in --> [ 1d20=7 ]{45}

You ask around about Absolute Zero. At first you don't find anything, but eventually you come to a tent on the outskirts of the city. Inside sits an ancient woman, body frozen solid save for her head. Stringy white hair hangs down, becoming ice past her neck.

"Absolute Zero? No no, not yet. I'm not yet worthy of it," she says to your question.

"Ah, you do know of it!" Bubbles smiles sweetly, hands clapped together. "Wonderful! Could you tell us more about it?"

[Ebiris]

"Even knowing how one becomes worthy of it would be educational for us," Afina seconds. After all, it wasn't so much the Gasping Tomb itself that helped Afina in Smoke, it was the concepts she learned from its guardian.

[Anastasia]

"Oh yes, please tell us," Bubbles smiles, meeting the woman's eyes. "We really do want to know ever so much."

Using temptation: charm.

> roll 1d20+12 Will
<Kobot> Kotono rolled 1d20+12 Will --> [ 1d20=16 ]{28}

DC is 29, so she succeeds. 18/20 temptation points left for the encounter.

"Only those of Ice are allowed. You must become completely of Ice. Until every bone is sub zero and your blood is frozen in your veins, you are not worthy of it." The woman replies, "I struggle with the final step, freezing my mind and soul forever. My body is ice but that is not enough." The woman says back.

"Oh, you poor thing," Bubbles murmurs, "Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Yes. I need more cold. I need more Ice." She answers as she stays still, body iced over. "I am not yet there, I have not found the true secrets of Ice and made them my soul."

[Ebiris]

"Cold we can provide," Afina says, casting control temperature and causing the area around her to plummet drastically in temperature beyond even the usual deadly chill of Ice.

Control temperature drops 4 bands from whatever the current temperature is. Going by the table in Frostburn each band is worth about 30F, although the para-elemental plane of Ice is likely on the lowest band of unearthly cold already. The spell doesn't say it's restricted by that though.

As the temperature plummets she considers what she's been told. Once more it seems like she's run into a paradox of the para-elemental planes...

She's drawing conclusions but we'll see how the gift of cold is received before she goes anywhere with them.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Afina: 263+17/263 (-2 con), glaciante's spiteful ward (CL 24 attached to epic mage armour), heroes feast (CL 20), mind blank (CL 17), fortunate fate (CL 15), planar tolerance (CL 7), epic mage armour (CL 24), moment of prescience (CL 24), control temperature (CL 24)
AC 87, spell resistance 39, blindsense 30, immunity to fire, water, earth, cold, disease, poison, fear
Spell charges: 6/10/10/9/9/9/9/8/7/7/6/5

[Anastasia]

It's colder but there's no mechanical difference. Past that level of cold you get into planar traits and the like.

The woman's head freezes solid and...

> roll 1d20+6
<Kobot> Kotono rolled 1d20+6 --> [ 1d20=3 ]{9}

...she goes still, frozen solid. There's no immediate movement from her. Just as you're about to react, her body shatters. The ice chunks move and reform, a small ice para elemental forming. It looks around slowly, "Cold. Must find cold." It says, before becoming a blizzard that briefly blinds you, before it moves out of the tent and into the snowstorm that engulfs all of Refuge.

[Ebiris]

Oh dear.

"I think I killed her," Afina says, surprised.

It was what she asked for, though. Could it be this is just a further step for her that will ultimately take her to Absolute Zero in a new form as she desired? Or is it a mark of failure that her existence was ended and a new perhaps better one takes its place, like the smoke para-elementals that died around the Gasping Tomb?

[Anastasia]

"No," Mirajane says as the new born elemental goes, "It was what was meant to be. She got her wish, even if she was not strong enough to get it in precisely the form she desired."

[Ebiris]

"I suppose so. However she was wise enough to tell me what I needed to hear," Afina says, explaining her realisation to her companions for the sake of being sociable. "Water and Air are elements that embody movement. Water constantly flows, changes its shape to ever fit its surroundings. And Air is the epitome of freedom, unfettered and blowing wherever it pleases. And there lies the paradox of combining them to form Ice, an element even more static than Earth. The Earth shifts and groans, earthquakes can be shocking in their violence... but Ice, so long as the cold is maintained is still. At most it simply grows as rime builds upon rime."

So, now that she's gained this understanding of how the elements mesh, it's time to put it into practice just as she did in Smoke. "I'm going to try altering my equilibrium to explore this. If I don't respond after an hour try getting my attention," she asks, allowing some time since that stillness may take a while to explore. So, releasing the hold she has over her internal elements, she pulls Earth and Fire back while allowing Water and Air the freedom that they crave... a freedom that taken together will only solidify both.

[Anastasia]

Make a Charisma check.

[Ebiris]

[18:39] <@Ebiris> roll 1d20+15
[18:39] <Kobot> Ebiris rolled 1d20+15 --> [ 1d20=3 ]{18}