Hunting Trolls

Warily, the group moved forward to investigate the igloos. The first held nothing of interest, but Yrrah spotted a pair of sprites resting on shelves in the second. They sprayed him in color, but he resisted their sorcery and charged in. A yawning pit opened beneath his step yet he managed to shift his weight back before falling in. One sprite exited out of the chimney hole while the other stayed on the far side of the igloo and pelted Yrrah with arrows.

The one that flew out moved to the forest edge to fire on Yrrah from his flank; Ash caught her thus distracted and split her crosswise with his axe. The other was finished off shortly as well.

The group investigated the troll's cave; the troll had been watching the portal and circled back to catch the group unaware. He charged the easiest target, Zacarius' back. The doll decided this was an opportune moment to attack as well, striking at Zacarius' side and convincing the earlier-enchanted Kyezra that Zacarius had turned traitor.

The troll went down quickly to repeated blows from Ash, Doyle and Yrrah. Ash, also charmed by the doll, sought to take her safely from those threatening her, while Kyezra cornered the traitor Zacarius inside the troll cave. Ash and Yrrah tussled in the snow while the doll attempted to use the last of its limited magics on Yrrah (a ray of frost she never successfully cast). Zacarius sprayed Kyezra and her companion cat with color, stunning the beast but leaving Kyezra free to act. He then retreated in to cover of the boxes around the troll's cave, managing barely to keep Kyezra from pinning him in place with an arrow.

Eventually, Yrrah and Doyle managed to break the doll and its influence on Ash and Kyezra. A while after that, Kyezra's cat deigned to get off Zacarius' chest.

Searching the cave turned up a good amount of supplies which the group availed themselves of. The mirror eye of the doll was destroyed out of hand, while the soulgem was destroyed with care, releasing the poor girl's spirit.

Pressing on, the group broke in to the circle of ice surrounding the winter portal itself, arriving just in time to see a black rider come through the portal and crash from his mount, a giant spear of ice lodged in his back. The rider told a story of betrayal, claiming that Baba Yaga had been captured and imprisoned by her daughter, the ruler of Irrisen, Queen Elvanna. The Queen then created the winter portals as part of a plan to blanket all of Golarion in snow and ice. The black rider told that he had two keys (a giant's beard and plague mask), breadcrumbs that when activated and put within the wandering hut's cauldron, would retrace Baba Yaga's path, but both keys where inactive until life's blood fueled them. He then cut his own throat and activated the keys, transferring the mantle he wore and the geas he kept to the group (except Yrrah, would had already gone through the portal).

On the far side of the portal, as Yrrah was setting up a shelter against the oncoming snow storm, he spotted several torches waiving around madly in the darkness, indicating several people fighting a beast. When the rest of the group arrived, they investigated the torches, finding a caravan group fighting off a confused giant preying mantis that Ash recognized as a terror in his own neck of the woods. They quickly put the beast down and discovered that the leader of the caravan was none other than the mother of the girl trapped in the doll that the group had just destroyed, which Zacarius was kind enough to blurt out.