The Frozen Lake

"The Frozen Lake" is episode 45 of SuperQuest Saga. The Brunhilde heads into Cyber Federation territory to the frozen planet of Shardlar. There, Echo, Persephone, and Sebastian try to trigger Primina's memory to find Zahn's next clue. They discover a hidden elevator in the ruins of an abandoned meteorological station but before they can investigate they are attacked as a vague walrus beast emerges from the frozen lake.

Recap
Last time the characters were gathered around Carter’s computer and it spat out an amalgamation of audio, the likes of which they had never heard before. Right after it was done, the laptop fizzled, snapped, cracked, and burnt out.

Watt has never heard anything quite like that, and the characters agree they’ve never heard anything similar before. Echo asks what an “iTunes review” is, and Sebastian doesn’t know but he comments that it sounds important.

Sebastian betrayed The Iron Legion and had a genocidal nightmare or dream. Watt got really sciency and broke down everything they’ve discovered over the course of their journey. Persephone had a new vision with the Galactic Spirit and saw a city beyond the stars that seemed to be protecting the galaxy. Echo has officially joined the squad and called his parents to tell them about it. The Brunhilde is on its way to Shardlar.

Bad at Making Friends
The party finds themselves traveling through hyper-space towards Shardlar. The planet is known to be pretty deep in Cyber Federation territory so The Brunhilde is using the Aegis shielding.

They know that Shardlar is a sub-arctic planet with a yellow sun. It’s a relatively small planet covered in icy oceans, vast tundra, and boreal forests. Despite the hostile environment the planet does support life and has breathable air. There are no known public settlements on the planet, the only inhabited location on record is a meteorological station in the northern hemisphere.

The Brunhilde pulls out of hyper-space to cool the aether-cores. Victoria notes there are about six more jumps until they are in fuel-burn range of the planet. Watt reports it will take about two hours for the cooling cycle to complete, so she orders him to engage the Aegis and settles in to take a nap. Echo comments that Victoria’s music is old and he prefers the newer stuff, and he pulls up some new bops on his bracer jack.

Sebastian takes this time to inform the party that something happened, he confesses that he will probably be shunned by The Iron Legion. Echo asks if it is because he signed a very thorough contract with Ramazall, Sebastian confirms they were not happy about that. Persephone asks if they’ve added another galactic entity to their list of enemies, and Sebastian hopes The Legion will focus on bigger things than this. He doesn’t know what will happen, or if there will be any consequences, but he figured he should warn the group. Primina comments that they’re bad at making friends.

Echo expresses hesitation to kill enemies if killing them is going to send their soul to hell. Sebastian clarifies that the soul gathering is just part of his contract, the contracts that Echo and Percy signed are that they owe Ramazall a favor at some point. Echo asks Sebastian how he feels about it then. Sebastian is fine with it, he’ll take people down and send them to hell if he needs to. Echo is relieved that he will not be sending souls to hell, but reminds Sebastian that when he does he will be sending souls to hang out with Elat-Bal. If Sebastian is fine with it then that’s his own business. Persephone asks if they should start having Sebastian kill the obviously terrible people while being mindful about other kills so they don’t sentence people to hell indiscriminately. Echo says that he wouldn’t mind if Sebastian kills him if he is close to death because then he can go mess with Elat-Bal.

A Dragon-napping
A flash from outside the cockpit window catches their eyes. Outside they see a small Cyber Federation vessel, sleek with a cross-like body, that appears to be a scouting ship. Victoria sits up and warns them to be ready, the Aegis is hiding them and she won’t engage unless they have to. The scouting ship is still in the distance for a bit and then, in a series of blinding flashes, several small ships and one immense ship appear as a Cyber Federation armada jumps into the area. The ships are all surrounding one enormous transport vessel, a massive, hulking craft of steel and lights that is hauling something almost as large as itself. As the party looks closer they see it is a Pulsar Dragon, bound in massive energy bonds in an almost fetal position and surrounded by a forcefield. It seems the armada does not detect The Brunhilde.

Echo takes some photos and video footage with his bracer jack. Percy is at the window and doesn’t like what she sees. Echo comments that it looks like they’re collecting data to increase the power of their ships. Victoria says there’s nothing they can do, they just need to sit tight. Echo asks if he can post his footage, but decides to wait. The armada jumps again shortly after, and Echo wipes his brow dramatically. Sebastian asks if there’s any way to tell where the armada jumped. Watt taps on his computer and concludes that it’s hard to say. From where they are currently located it’s possible the Cyber Federation was charting a path either to Mechanus or towards Arvandor. Persephone asks if there is any way to contact someone and let them know a Pulsar Dragon has been captured. The others don’t think it’s wise to send a message that could reveal their location. She stares despondently out the window until they make their final jumps toward Shardlar.

The Brunhilde arrives above the arctic planet and VIctoria asks if anyone has information about where to start their search. Zahn left only vague information and Primina does not remember. Echo suggests they can look for structures or odd protrusions in the terrain. Watt reports the only structure on official records is the meteorological station, they could start heading there and do some scans for energy signatures. Sebastian looks at the music box Zahn left Primina again and they relisten to his message, but find no additional clues. Victoria suggests they head towards the meteorological station.

Watt punches in the coordinate for the weather station and their journey takes them over some windswept, snowy plains to an enormous icy lake surrounded by boreal forests. Along the southern shore of the frozen lake is where what was once a meteorological station once stood, but is now a smoldering ruin. Where multiple buildings sprawled are crumbled heaps of concrete and metal, some walls still stand haphazardly, and debris and shrapnel litter the ice all around the site. The structure looks like it was destroyed some time ago. Victoria asks if they want to investigate and Watt scans for life, he finds no sign near the ruins.

Victoria pulls The Brunhilde down, engages the Aegis, and activates Artax. She tells Watt to get ready to go too, they’re all going down. The party cautiously approaches the ruins; it is a grisly sight of jagged metal heaps, shattered concrete and glass, ice, snow and frozen burnt out husks of humanoid bodies.

That Scene from Mulan
Sebastian and Echo investigate the bodies. They’re pretty much burnt to a crisp and anything they carried was burnt as well. Echo finds a cred card that is twisted and melted, he casts Mending on it and restores its appearance revealing the name John Johnson. They can also tell that the structure was destroyed from the inside.

They continue searching through the ruins, Echo finds a slightly damaged stuffed animal resembling a dinosaur-like creature beneath a plate of metal. He holds it up for the group to see. Primina recognizes it, it was hers when she was a kid. Echo casts Mending on the toy and proudly hands the restored toy to her. She looks contemplatively at it and looks around, but doesn’t find the scenery entirely familiar.

Echo suggests maybe the scenery is an illusion and checks to see if he can find signs of magic. He finds an arcane signature closer to the shore and they find a 12 ft. wide circular metal seal flush with the floor. At its center is a keypad with dwarven number runes and a scanner of some kind. The seal is unmarked and undamaged by whatever destroyed the building. Echo checks for traps before they approach, and notices an enormous metal tank that is burnt on all sides but one that is smooth and undamaged. He notes that the runes are a shielding rune and he moves to take a closer look at the gas tank. It seems fairly obvious to him that the gas tank was on top of the seal and got pushed and rolled over; the undamaged side was on the floor covering the ground.

Persephone turns to Primina because last time they encountered a situation like this her scan was what allowed them entry. Echo feels the area is generally safe and Primina climbs onto the seal, placing her hand on the scanner. It lights up, scans her hand, and the seal begins to vibrate before letting air out of its edges and begins to rise. It reveals an elevator large enough to fit the party.

Before they can investigate further, the ice on the shoreline behind them crashes open as an enormous monstrosity lunges out. It is a behemoth with two enormous tusks made of ice, a horn of ice atop its head, and a gaping maw of yellow razor teeth. Its back is covered with thick white fur and blue spines that travel down its reptilian-like tail that ends in a thick, spiked fin. Its flippers are covered in thick hide and claws.

Aah! Vague Walrus!
Primina, Victoria, and Watt run for cover. Artax will join the fight.

The vague walrus moves up and opens its maw to breathe a cold breath of ice on the party, dealing a lot of damage. Sebastian cranks up his arm brace and turns on his Haste before moving in to attack with a sword. He stabs it once and it starts bleeding, he hits it a second time using a Divine Smite but misses his third attack. The vague walrus uses its tail to attack Sebastian with its tail but misses. Persephone does a Nature check and is unable to determine exactly what the creature is. She casts Dominate Beast in an attempt to beguile the creature, but it uses its Legendary Resistance to shake off her mind domination. Echo shouts that if anyone wants out they should get away from the group so he can teleport them out. Persephone slams her hand on the floor to bring the stone to her as she wild shapes into an Earth Elemental in the shape of a stone bear. The vague walrus does a sweeping tail attack, Echo does a backflip to dodge, but the attack hits Persephone, Sebastian, and Artax, knocking them prone. Echo scopes the area for a good hiding place as he runs toward the side of the beast to use Thunder Step, damaging the vague walrus before teleporting to safety behind a wall. He uses Second Wind to recover some health as he hunkers down to hide. Artax has one prerogative, to destroy. His hand disappears into his arm and lets loose two cannon blasts, hitting the creature once.

The vague walrus sees the big Earth Elemental shaped like a bear and thinks it is food, and moves in with a multiattack, biting Persephone for critical damage and striking with its horns but missing with the tail. Sebastian activates his Hexblade’s Curse causing his eyes to turn solid black then uses Lay on Hands to heal himself. He attacks the vague walrus, calling down a Divine Smite, and the creature’s blood stains the snow. The vague walrus uses its sweeping tail attack again striking Sebastian and Artax, knocking them prone. Persephone rolls up on the vague walrus but misses her slam attacks. Echo casts Fire Bolt, hitting the monster with fire. Artax continues to fire its cannon into the monster’s face, but his ammo just bounces off the icy scales of the creature.

The vague walrus comes in with a multiattack on Sebastian, but all three strikes miss. Sebastian critically strikes the monster with his sword, his moves as a Hexblade are noticeably more flourished than his previously calculated strikes. Deep within his infernal frenzy, Sebastian feels a berserker rage overtake him and his flame saber flares up way higher and brighter than seen before and it becomes entangled with necrotic energy as he brings it down over his head, melting the monster’s face off; the creature split in twain and its burnt, cauterized body is just smoking, its soul sent to hell.

Echo still seems hesitant about souls being sent to hell, Persephone says she thinks that one was okay because they couldn’t reason with it. Victoria suggests they get away from the lake and gestures towards the elevator. Echo fixes a part of the gas tanker with Mending before he enters. The elevator has a really stark, white aesthetic, almost like the walls and floors are made of plastic or acrylic. There is a panel with an up and down button. They press the down button, the door closes, and the elevator begins to sink into the ground

The Party

 * Sebastian Crenshaw: A half-orc paladin/warlock. Basically solo-ed every boss so far.
 * Persephone Goldpetal: A firbolg druid. Will she ever get to use her dope level 6 spells?
 * Echo: An elf bladesinger/fighter/rogue. Uncomfortable with this devil shit.

NPCS

 * Watt: An elderly male gnome. Scans all the things.
 * Victoria: A tiefling woman. Likes old-school bops.
 * Primina: The loveable MacGuffin. Trying to remember her past.
 * Artax: A robot. It's been a long time since he's seen combat.

Music

 * SuperQuest Saga Theme - by Brian

Out of Character

 * Will confirms they have suits available for generally all environments. They use snow suits this time.
 * Brian tries to make Goldeneye references that Will doesn't understand.
 * The Vague Walrus is a reskinned adult white dragon and the art Will shows is of a Final Fantasy VIII Snow Lion.

Nat 20's (1 total)

 * Will (Bite Attack for Vague Walrus)

Nat 1's (1 total)

 * Will (Attack for Artax)