Heldren's general store appears to carry everything a villager needs, as well as most gear an adventurer requires. The store's proprietor appears to be a female human. She turns to greet the new but eager customer. "Oh dear, you're going to brave that cold? Well we don't really have much in stock here for the winter. We hardly ever see snow. However, there was this one time... oh that reminds me." The woman turns around and heads to the back room and disappears for awhile as you hear her moving things around as if looking for something. When she returns she says "I only have these. We used them from a particularly harsh winter a couple years back. But aside from that we don't stock such items you ask for. I will offer these to you for a discount since they are used. How about 4 gp each." The woman holds out 5 Cold Weather Outfits.
I enthusiastically hand over 4gp, "Thank you, that's just what I need.
While Lars is looking forward to the cold, himself, he figures he can always take it off it it feels to hot. Part of him worries that there were too many years spent in Taldor to fully retain his acclimation to the lower temperatures. Better to have it in case that turns out to be true. He starts counting out some coins from his pouch, then pauses.
"Do you have any cold iron arrows as well?" he asks the shopkeeper. "If so I'll take twenty, otherwise this'll do it for me."
"No sorry we don't." she responds.
"Oh well," says Lars, shrugging. He hands over 4gp for the cold weather outfit. At least he already has some, he'll just have to be judicious with them. He then waits for the others to complete their transactions.
Ysabella doesn't offer up any gold, when the others send her questioning looks she simply answers, "The cold doesn't bother me." Inwardly she feels a mix of panic and anticipation. She fears meeting the winter witches again, but wants nothing more than to damage them and their goals.
Looking over the selection Vernonia picks out what she thinks will fit her the best and pays for the purchase.
She then turns to Lars, "You head to the Armory and see if they have anything that we can use and I will head over to the Smithy and do the same."
"I will wait at the gate out of town for you to finish shopping." the curious ratfolk apprises. He will go and have a sit, not seeming to be bothered by the cold.
"Sounds like a plan," Lars agrees. "If you don't see Isker right away, he's probably out shoeing a horse. Hopefully at least one of us will find something helpful, and then we'll all meet up at the gate to press on regardless."
Plan established, Lars heads up the dirt path to the stone tower that serves as the town armory. He's not particularly hopeful that there'll be any sort of stockpile of fey-killing weapons this far south, but it never hurts to look for these things. Even if there aren't any arrows, his preference, any sort of reusable melee weapons can serve in a pinch. They probably really only need to borrow them until the job is done, if he finds them.
Knowing that the place is probably not being used, since they're not at war or under siege, he tries to just walk in. Once inside the hollow space lined with weapon and armor racks, he pulls one of his own cold iron arrows, and compares the material of it to that of the metal weapons, looking first for arrows and then blades, but completely ignoring the armor.
Voronwe accompanies Baxter to the town gates, once there he dons the thick coat and other clothes, adjusting the straps on his gear so that it sits comfortably.
"There can be something wonderful about being wrapped up warm in cold weather; this doesn't feel like one of those times."
Baxter's whiskers twitch. "No, it seems that this will be a harsh year for everyone." he says. He slips his cloak back, showing that he is already dressed for the cold, and checks his rapier.
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Vernonia finds the smith working hard at this forge. She waits patiently for the man to stop hammering the horseshoe he is working on. When he stops he looks up at her and asks what he can do for her.
"Good day sir. I was wondering if you have any weapons that are made from cold iron. There was a kidnapping south of here and it looks like fey creatures were involved. We would like to buy any that you have ready."
Isker looks up at Vernonia and frowns, "oh no, I'm so sorry I don't have any cold iron or any weapons. I haven't had to make any for years now. I wish I could help you, especially since you're planning to rescue the lovely Lady Argentea. Hopefully you find what you're looking for."
"Can I commission you to make some cold iron arrowheads and small blades? Hopefully we will be returning with the lady soon and then we will have to find the source of these problems. We can pick them up when we return."
Isker looks puzzled, "But I don't have any cold iron to work with..."
"Here are 10 gold pieces. See if you can find some and make the arrow heads for me. If you cannot find any then you can return the money less 2 gold for your time. I will be back in a few days."
With that done she heads off to meet back with the others.
Isker smiles up at you as he takes the gold, "Hmmm, sure I'll look around. Sounds like a fair deal."
Lars completes his search disappointed, but not surprised. It's a small town, and more likely to be worried about regular old bandits rather than capricious and devious creatures from the north. He meets up with the others that are waiting at the gate. Seeing that he's the last to return, and assuming that they'll be heading to the curiously wintry woods next, he goes ahead and starts to put on his cold weather outfit now. It's uncomfortably hot like that in town, and it probably looks pretty dumb, but it'll save having to possibly put it on while in a fight later on.
"I didn't have any luck with the armory," he reports, shrugging. "Hopefully we'll be able to get by with what we already have. Fortunately these creatures can still be wounded without exploiting their weaknesses, and I can always pass out some arrows for use as improvised daggers if necessary. Shall we go search?"
"I am ready." the ratfolk replies, standing.
The party sets off towards the location Yuln informed them of. After an 8 mile walk down the road near the forest, the temperature grows noticeably colder. The road ahead is littered with debris and the corpses of slain humans and horses. A carriage stands in the roadway, its team of horses missing or cut free, while another overturned carriage lies sprawled and broken next to the tree line. To the south, more bodies have fallen around what appears to be a statue of ice. A snowy trail leads deeper into the forest.
Lars:
Vernonia:
Your attention is drawn to a decorative carriage that bears the mark of Taldan Heraldry but seems to be well damaged from many arrows. A spear has been wedged between the handles of the carriage doors to hold them closed. The three of you hear muffled sounds of movement from inside this carriage.
Ysabella:
You both see that the overturned carriage has broken chests and boxes strewn across the ground that seem to contain handmaidens' spare clothing as well as three courtier's outfits that seem to have some value.
Voronwe:
Ysabella:
Neither of you are sure how valuable.
Weather Rules - Snow & Heavy Snow
Ysabella advances toward the site cautiously, "We should survey this place carefully before moving on, it would help to know what we are up against." After surveying the site briefly she will look to the others to see if they find anything.
While the deep chill is certainly a nice change from the summer back in town, Lars isn't too thrilled about the fact that it's actively snowing. The weather will make using his bow more difficult, and probably something done out of necessity until or unless it lets up a bit. Thankfully he has more weapons at his disposal.
The sight of the ambush is distressing. So much carnage. Hearing the sounds of muffled movement inside the carriage, the first instinct that Lars has is to open it up and see what's making all the noise, but it's quite curious that the vehicle has been barred closed from the outside, clearly with intent. Coupled with the fact that Yuln claimed to be the only survivor, it makes him more than a little suspicious. He draws his sword and uses the pommel as a knocker on the door.
"Hello?" he calls out to whatever's inside, but makes no move to un-stick the doors and open them just yet. "Is there somebody trapped in there?"
"Wait!" Baxter exclaims, his squeaky voice almost lost in the snow. "I think there's someone in the carriage! There's a spear keeping the door closed!"
He will slowly shove his way through the snow over there since he's only able to move about 10 feet per round.
Hearing the commotion, Ysabella immediately makes her way over to the carriage with the others. She places her hand on the hilt of her blade as she waits for a reply to Lars's questioning.
Vernonia moves among the dead looking for any survivors. She hears the noise coming from inside the carriage but lets the others check it out.
She moves to the statue to check it out.
Disturbed by the bodies, Voronwe avoids them and heads instead for the statue.
"What could... How?" realising that he's babbling, Voronwe quietens himself and takes a few deep breaths, forcing himself to look at the man.
He examines the badge, discerning any meaning it might have and calls out to the rest of the group, "Frozen to death. How does that happen?"
Vernonia examines the mans wounds.
What could have done this to a man? Were his arms removed before or after he was frozen. I hope he was dead when it happened.
She then cast begins an incantation to detect the presence of any magic on the man including his arms and the sword.
Vernonia picks up the longsword and pries it out of the dead mans hand. She puts the mans arm gently at the base of his frozen form.
She then turns and hands the sword to Voronwe. "This sword was crafted by a master smith. I have no skill with this type of blade. Maybe you can use it."
"That's some magic, to freeze a man so completely." Baxter observes, still concerned about the noises from the carriage. He will clamber up the side of the carriage to see if he can see through one of the windows (if it has any).
"Maybe we should open the carriage?" he asks. "If there's a survivor, we could learn something about the attack from them."
Ysabella nods at Baxter's reasoning "You're right." and then shrugs and removes the spear keeping the carriage shut and pulls the door open.
As you open the door you hear deeper moans and grunts. Peering inside you quickly realize why the doors were bared shut, as 2 females with torn clothes and rotting skin begin to make their way towards you.
Baxter:
Lars:
Vernonia:
Voronwe:
Ysabella:
Female 1:
Female 2:
Initiative Order:
- Female 1
- Ysabella
- Female 2
- Baxter
- Lars
- Voronwe
- Vernonia
Vernonia:
Voronwe:
The moans catch Vernonia's & Verownwe's attention. You both know based on the sounds coming from that creature that it is definatly not alive. You're very confident these are undead and therefor have undead traits. You also believe that this creature may be staggared because of the zombie like movement. This creature used to be living once, in fact she looks freshly created give or take a few days and appears to be wearing handmaiden dresses all torn to pieces. You're confident slashing weapons are the best way to harm this type of undead. You also know they have poor reflexes and are staggered.
Round 1
Female 1
The door swings open as something pushes with it and slams into Ysabella. and slams for
You see that she/it is not alone as another one is pushing up behind her.
Voronwe accepts the proffered blade, "Well-"
His response cut off by the commotion, he spins around and goggles at the creatures, Undead, use swords and axes to cut them apart."
Voronwe rushes toward Lars, proffering the finely-balanced longsword.
Round 1, Initiative Count 12
"I guess that explains why they didn't answer," Lars mutters to himself. Since he's already got his sword in hand, and is right there where they burst out, he sees no need to complicate matters by changing weapons, especially since the Elf suggests that his sword is the best tool for this job anyway. He raises his buckler to keep the thing slightly at bey and hacks at one of them with his longsword, eagerly anticipating his first, proper fight to the death.
Ysabella gasps as she is knocked back, but recovers quickly. She brings her blade down in a high arc, cleaving into the undead creature in front of her.
Ysabella lets out a power attack on Female 1 and it dies instantly.
Female 2 moves forward to slam you once. and misses.
Lars follows up with a critical hit as the second female falls to the ground dead.
"Well... I'll admit that's not what I expected to find." Baxter mulls over the discovery of the undead. "But I should have been suspicious that someone was still in there after so long. I'm sorry."
Well, unless one of us had a way of detecting such things remotely, we would have had to risk it anyway, to make sure," Lars says, cleaning his sword on the clothes clinging the remains of the one he took down. Then, if Veronwe is still going to had him the fancy sword he'll stop and look it over, feeling the weight. "This is much nicer than mine," he observes, impressed. "Does anybody mind if I hang onto it? With all this snow coming down, I don't expect my bow to be nearly as effective." If nobody objects, he'll replace his existing sword with the high quality one, and offer to let someone else have the old one as a backup if they want it.
"Yuln said he followed them into the woods before he gave up, that should hopefully mean there's a trail to follow." Then, following his own advice, he starts looking for tell-tale signs they can follow.
Baxter:
Lars:
Vernonia:
Voronwe:
Ysabella:
Wriggling under the seat, Baxter will pop back out holding a jewelry box.
"This is shiny. It might have something of value in it too." he observes, giving the lid a test.
The box opens and you see an assortment of jewelry. There appears to be a Signet Ring, a pair of earrings, a set of pearl-inlaid bracelets, assorted gold and silver necklaces and a sapphire pendant.
Baxter:
Lars:
Vernonia:
Voronwe:
Ysabella: