"Loco moco is up!"
Harlan whistles as he goes about making the new dish he learned in the last town.
Dates: 15 - 21 Kuthona 4711
Route: The High Ice (??? -> Storm Tower -> ???)
Distance: 288 miles (Total: ~2201 miles)
Weather: Clear and cold
Special Events: Storm Tower (resolved)
After checking out the fading tower, you spend a couple hours shuttling the goods and valuables to the caravan. The weather remains calm, clear, and noticeably warmer than the frigid clime you have gotten used to. The sky remains benighted, but the break in the ever-present cold is enough to lift your spirits.
"Well, there's still a lot of miles ahead, but from here on out, we're headed south," Ulf remarks.
You close out the week of travel with three days of uninterrupted, trouble-free travel. If there is any wind, it seems to be at your backs.
Dates: 22 - 28 Kuthona 4711
Route: The High Ice (??? -> Dead Man's Dome)
Distance: 336 miles (Total: ~2537 miles)
Weather: Clear and cold
Special Events: The Path Ahead, White Harbinger
The only notable landmark for the last fortnight, the Alabastrine Peaks, now begins to disappear into the horizon at your backs. Faced with trackless glacial plains in all directions, Ulf relies heavily on the constellations to keep your trail.
The weather remains clear, but the respite after the Storm Tower is all too brief. As the week passes, winds begin to pick up steadily, temperatures drop to their normal bone-numbing levels, and heavy clouds rebuild in the distance behind you.
Date: 22 Kuthona 4711
A few days out from the tower, Ulf unrolls his chart at the campfire. "This might be a good time to review the next couple weeks ahead." He points at the area marked for the mountains. "Tomorrow we leave the peaks behind, and we're back in the open stretch. By my plan, we can head for the edge of the glacier near Dead Man's Dome. There we will rejoin with the Path of Aganhei, descend into the basin surrounding Ruun Uvas and the town of Ul-Angorn." He sits back, letting you review the chart. "As long as the morozkos are gone, and at the amazing pace we're keeping, we should be there in two weeks time. In a month, we're at the base of the Wall of Heaven."
"Any questions?"
Date: 28 Kuthona 4711
At the end of the week, the overcast finally catches up to you, carrying fine pellets of ice on the wind.
"Sounds good to me Ulf. We need food and some warm beds for a day I think. Selling this gear and stocking up on emergency food is probably a good idea too. I'll need to see if I can learn that prayer for creating food, it's very handy."
"What? Who is...nevermind."
"Everybody up, something's coming this way and it's probably not friendly!"
Harlan readies his crossbow.
"...Heng, we should always expect trouble. It's just common courtesy, Trouble is always an uninvited guest." Maeve looks a little more off-kilter than usual.
Maeve blinks the sleep, such as it is, out of her eyes. "What, trouble? Tell it to come back some other time, we're not at all in shape to take guests today."
"Trouble coming. Same voice that told me about the chimeras. Of course I seem to remember getting almost kidnapped around that time too."
Ulf nods to Harlan. "Starting with Ul-Angorn, we'll be back in Erutaki lands. It will be easier for us to procure supplies, though it will be mid-winter and it will probably be expensive."
"Nothing bad at Dead Man's Dome. It's a prominent landmark on the edge of the glacier, a tall bald hill that once held a watchtower that protected caravans along the Path." He gives a half-shrug. "Pretty good view of the surroundings, and the paths up are isolated. Local lore says the tower was attacked a couple centuries ago by an army of giants. Many of the guardsmen and caravaners were slaughtered, but one guard led a charge that broke the enemy lines and held them off long enough to let the surviving caravans escape."
"They say the hero then fought back, lured the remaining giants in, and then collapsed the tower upon himself and the enemy. None knew the hero's name, so they dubbed it simply "Dead Man's Dome."
"I'm still here," the voice says, loud enough for everyone to hear. A white shadow separates from the snowy backdrop, revealing a white wolf with icy blue eyes. It stands taught, ready to flee. "The living dead, a hundred or more, drawn from across the Crown. They seek your caravan, and they are getting close."
She continues more seriously. "Look, we haven't talked since Iqaliat. Well, we've talked but not talked. I know I laid a big egg on your lap, and I feel like I bolloxed it completely. I should have approached it differently."
Malnival draws his scimitar and looks away from the caravan before Valwen leaps into the air and begins to soar.
|
Heng's eyebrows rise as the wolf appears, "Uh. Thank you for the warning, friend. But why would the dead search for us? Do they seek to avenge the loss of the tower or are they directed by an enemy?"
Eyes scanning the horizon, Heng sets aside his curiosity about the wolf to focus on more immediate concerns. "Do they block our path? Can they be outrun?"
The wolf blinks. "They come from all over the Crown, from the black spires and the oily lakes. I can smell the voice on the wind, calling them to you. It started after you killed the blue woman."
"I saw them gathering together, and ran to warn you. Their pack is still many miles away, but they are undead, and do not tire or rest. You will not outrun them."
"It bothers me because I don't make those sorts of mistakes tactically. But I guess I'm more bothered by our unresolved last conversation, as well. You ended it by threatening to boot me from this fellowship. I don't think you truly understood what I was trying to tell you."
"Can we make the Dome and set up a defensive perimeter before they get to us?"
"I suspect if we rush. No time for Harlan's wonderful meals!" ...oh, like she's eaten any of them since Kalsgrad.
"Can we make the Dome and set up a defensive perimeter before they get to us?"
Ulf ponders the question. "We are a day and a half out from the Dome, but if we force it, we could be there late today."
...oh, like she's eaten any of them since Kalsgrad.
"We need to press on. We need the high ground and that's the only place to find it."
"We need to press on. We need the high ground and that's the only place to find it."Heng nods /grimly/ "It seems the demon seeks vengeance. Let us make haste to the dome."
"Rationally speaking, it's probably just a coincidence. The demonic energy being invested in the tower probably resonated with the necromantic nature of these creatures, which would be...like ringing a really loud bell across the High Ice. Unfortunately, they wake up hungry like almost anyone else. We're just the largest gathering of living sentient creatures out here right now, so they're all converging on us. Dumb luck they happened to meet up."
Parity looks out of breath, and he finishes with a quiet, "That's what I meant ..."
As you commit to the forced march, the wolf nods in acknowledgement. "I will speed ahead and scout the path." With that, it turns and sprints away, quickly disappearing into the snowy backdrop.
You quickly pack up the caravan and set out on a hard pace. The weeks at the glacier's high elevations have finally begun to pay off, and the thin air is not as debilitating as before. Still, the effort is grueling, and even by mid-day your limbs burn from the effort. Ulf works in a few short breaks while he triangulates your course.
As the hours pass, you begin to gain a growing sense of the danger closing in around you. Valwen first spies packs of undead in the gloomy distance, but before long you begin to make them out miles away against the featureless glacier.
The dome becomes visible ten miles out, the only notable high terrain in the area. As you near, you can see it is a hill with steep slopes, climbing roughly a hundred feet above the surrounding glacier. Piles of stone rubble mark the remains of the ruined tower Ulf mentioned. You note a handful of defensible positions.
Maeve points at a point near the top of the dome. "Look. Someone's beaten us here." She pauses, looking over the arrangement and obviously thinking about things. "We should probably use the lower fortification anyway. Bring the wagons around that wider gap and pull them in tight, then have anyone with a bow or magic at range on top. Parity, Ulf, take the southern gap, Heng and I can cover the western one. Ame, take everyone else who can hold a sword to the eastern gap, that's where the biggest number will try to get through, but if they're intelligent they'll try to send stronger fighters to the other sides to break through. Koya, you and Harlan stay to the middle and be prepared to move if anyone else needs support."
"Right." Maeve nods. "I'll go inform them, since I look like the least threat except Harlan, and if we send the cook the rest of the caravan will probably eat us." She grins a bit, but it's clear she's only half-joking.
"Watch out Heng, almost nothing has been friendly lately. You and Maeve get back here as soon as you can."
Harlan moves to the top of the armored wagon and takes watch with his crossbow.
"Don't worry, I'll get on Prughk when the fight starts, better to reinforce the line."
"I feel the same about you. Ameiko ... and it's not just my personal feelings for you. You have that charisma that makes people want to follow you to places unknown. The others are all here in support of you and your birthright to save a place that none of us know. All because we believe in you. Odd that, really. Easy to see how that could be dangerous in the wrong person's hands ... alluding to our earlier conversation of course. Thankfully you're not the wrong person." Parity smiles and moves his head as if looking at Ameiko. Confident now, he doesn't hesitate before speaking and reaches out slightly as he asks,
"May I touch your face, Ame ... and take that memory with me into our next battles?"
"Do we have enough time to prep some rudimentary defenses? Maybe throw some oil down or even casks of alcohol on some steeper slopes? Set up crates and boxes to funnel them into narrow killing fields?"
"Don't tarry up there too long, Heng, Maeve. We could really use that tower as a secondary fallback but we need to prep regardless.
Before the dead arrive, Parity will use resist cold, see invisibility and airwalk on himself. He'll give resist cold to Mal and whichever of the unarmed melees that needs itmore. The 2 rounds before the dead arrive, he'll cast mirror image and activate the chaincloth cloak
"Anyone want see invisibility or airwalk?"
"Good idea Parity! I can also airwalk or grant cold resistance to any who need it. If there's any bare rock I can form it into crude walls too."
While you begin making defensive preparations, Maeve and Heng climb to the summit.
Maeve shakes her head, trying to think of the words in elven...
Perception - Sight:
Maeve shakes her head at Heng rapidly to try to get him to stop, before she says the words she can remember in elven to try to get the idea across quickly.
Yeah, let's use that to create funnels toward open areas in the ruins and then coat those in oil.
As Malnival steps up and speaks, a white-camouflaged figure steps into view. He is of narrow build, elf-like though you have no way to confirm this. He is completely covered by white furs and finely tooled leathers. He carries a spear made of bone and silver.
Malnival steps forward as he speaks his hands held before him.
He tilts his head slightly.