Chipping Away

Having forced Radosek to flee, the group scoured the upper level of the tower until Pavo (née Doyle) spotted the wings of the ice sculpture in the courtyard below begin to move. With a sharp crack, the dragon took flight and circled around the tower, searching for a way in. Radosek decided that he had to lure the group out, so he set the statue to strike any besides himself who appeared at the teleporter on the first level, then went in search of the group. With luck, they had just begun to reposition to the aerie, and Kyezra spotted him as he appeared in the dining room's alcove.

Kyezra took a potshot and set her companion on him, but he had prepared his defenses, knowing he had to survive long enough to get back to the sculpture. With the alarm cry risen, the rest of the group circled back to the dining hall just in time to see him disappear through the teleporter again. Pavo heard the activation words and called them out to the rest of the group.

Pavo went through first, into the waiting arms of the dragon sculpture. Although fierce in appearance, the statue's strikes didn't accomplish much. Radosek took cover behind a stairwell door and used his icicle wand to hinder the group, but they quickly dispatched the sculpture. Zacarius teleported Yrrah behind Radosek, forcing Radosek to give up his position and attempt to flee, but Yrrah caught at his foot as Radosek passed, pulling him down onto the stairs.

Kyezra had circled around by this point, and with her, her cat and Yrrah pounding on the apprentice, Radosek was quickly slain.

The group returned to the summoning circle at the top of the tower and figured out how to close the portal to Taldor, ending their only means of returning home without a long overland trip. The group decided to heed the geas laid upon them by the Black Rider, though, and decided to press on to find the owner of the tower, in hopes that she could tell them where Baba Yaga's hut was. Nadya felt that Nazhena was likely in Whitethrone, capital of Irrisen, since that was the only place she'd likely leave her tower for after having taken on the search for the Black Rider; she also coerced the group into accepting her assistance and her boys in the journey to Whitethrone to keep her boys safe.

The group quickly returned to Nadya's house and left as fast as possible, before any more trouble could be brought to Waldsby.