Weird little buggers... Grimkell rubs his neck. ... this is still pricking.
The ulfen goes up to the trail and looks back at the others, as he has been doing after every monsters the group has met so far. He waits for the others to fall in line.
"Mine are also minor. An arrow or something like that hit me once, but besides the cold feeling my shoulder is alright."
She stores the crossbow once again and prepare to get moving with the others.
Llyr nods in agreement as everyone suffered only a minor wound from their run in with the fae. "Shall we be off? This seems to be more their playground than their home."
After your victorious battle with the tiny fey, you walk down the path for another thirty minutes. A narrow game trail winds its way through the trees and undergrowth here. Hoof prints mark the underlying snow, leading in both directions.
Nothing too horrible crosses your path, an arctic hare, a few small chipmunks trying to haul a large nut into a hole. And A winter white Elk, which is approaching you.
"Oh! To see other intelligent beings in these woods! I was soon to go mad, no animals here can talk like me, so I've had dreadful company! I'm Render, Pleased to make your acquaintance!"
Elxurian puts her hand on the Greatsword's handle, ready to draw it, but doesn't do it yet.
"You're a white. Talking. Elk. Please don't come any closer, or we will treat you as threat. I've never seen Elks that could talk."
Elxurian tries to identify the creature.
Looking for any wires or mechanical devices, Llyr silently mouths a few words before his mouth clicks shut, clearly amazed at what he sees.
"Take your ease, Elxurian. The approach is not one of a threat. Render, you say zhat you have not seen an intelligent being...and ve have come across pixies and wyrms...are you able to avoid zhem all somehow?"
"...Well, on the bright side, it hasn't attempted to kill us yet," The magus comments, surprised by the elk's presence. She casts a spell of detection to see if its enchanted or not, hoping to gain a bit of insight as to how it can speak.
Grimkell's eyes opened wide as he saw the talking beast. He seems completly fascinated by the creature. Beeing first in line, he approaches it.
"Lady Morozov is right paladin, how can you doubt such a majestic beast! Tales of white elks leading warriors into safe places abound. I am sure it does not wish us any harm."
As Karyne speaks but before the Elk answers:
"I present to you the noblewoman of our group, lady Morozov, great witch."
Grimkell waves toward the sorceress.
"There is Lord Morvinus, Llyr, Lex and Elxurian. I am Grimkell the LoreKeeper"
In the skalds voice there is a clear distinction between the lords, the man and the women...
The elk doesn't move, it doesn't seem swayed by Elxurian's threat. But as Grimkell introduces the group to him, he bows his head, his nose going into the snow. "Its a pleasure to meet all of you." Its head comes back up and acknowledges Karyne. "Oh, pixies? I would hardly call them intelligent and as for wyrms, I cant say I have, lucky me. However, I did see a sprite fly past here."
It pauses for a second.
"You all don't seem the type to be wandering in a winter place like this... Well, that one with the face mask does, but the rest of you seem ill fitted to be in such weather! What are you doing in a place like this? I'm sure there is a place where you can warm yourselves around here."
Nev blinks a couple times as the elk begins to talk but says nothing. a talking beast...never heard of that before...of course, stranger things have happened...
"Noble stag, have you seen any other humans pass this way in the past day or so? Perhaps a noblewoman in fancy clothes?
"In all honesty, I vould be more concerned zhat zhere had been any undead beings come through here...zhey were obviously a treat from zhe abductors..." she smooths her garments trying to look as presentable as she can despite this awful weather.
The magus stares and continues to concentrate, attempting to locate the exact source of that magic and identify it properly. She lets the others question the elk as they are, trying to figure this out.
Elxurian focus her eyes on the creature, trying to see more than it really was,
"We are not winter creatures, and saying that just reminds me that everything related to winter was our enemy so far, are you not?"
Llyr pipes up in continuation of Elxurian's inquiry, "I'm curious about how you came to live here? White elk are not native to Taldan soil, so either you are allied with the Fae, or on an errand of the Gods. While not a particularly religious man, only a fool would impede on a Gods task as we should let you pass." Llyr does not address what would happen if the elk is part of the former, as Elxurian has already implied what that would cause.
Grimkell watches the group and the elk, curious to see what will happen next.
The elk sighs. "No humans, no foul undead, only fae. I can see I am not welcome here. If you are upset with my presence I shall leave. I have other things to attend to. Im sorry to have offended you so much, it was not my intention. I shall take my leave." The elk runs back into the forest.
"Don't..."
Grimkell hides a sight. The wonder on his face is replaced by his normal stern look.
How will I put this in the saga: their spite pushed the majestic white Elk away? And then doom befell them?
Llyr watches the elk dash away, a mixture of suspicion and loss upon his face. "So easily offended... We're in a pocket of unnatural winter having just fought fae that should be on the other end of the world, and it gets upset because we ask a few questions about what its intentions are and why it's here. If it was a messenger of the Gods, it must have been the God of fickleness."
Shaking her head, she doesn't even say anything. She holds it in, but is extremely frustrated by the results of their meeting.
"Well, there was some magic coming from around the elk - I couldn't confirm that it was the elk itself, though. It could have been a spellcaster speaking through the animal via some sort of divination communication spell..." Lex comments logically. "Whatever it was, we should be cautious if it appears again. There's no telling what its true purpose is."
At that point, she sneezes swiftly, sniffling and looking rather miserable and shivering. "...let's try to press on a little further. Then maybe we can take a break and warm up a bit?"
"Tell me, what god would be stupid enough to send us a message in a winter package?" Then she joins the others on the move.
You walk along the trail, catching glimpses of what you think might be stags or elks, but you're not very sure. Maybe you're all just paranoid?
Night is closing in soon, and its starting to get colder. You should have about 1 1/2 hours left of sunlight before night falls.
A human-sized snowman stands in the middle of the trail before a frozen stream. A crude wooden sign leans against it and bears the words “Trespassers Turn Back.”
"Un-freaking-believable!" - the paladin calls in a loud voice. She looks to the others, checking if anything has passed with them, but sees only confusion about her own statement. She looks up at the sky. Without previous reason, she speaks to the skies.
"Who am I? I'm a warrior devoted to the good cause and a follower to the god of justice. Next time, if you want to help, grant us your wisdom but don't freaking wrap it in a package with the words ENEMY on it!" She lowers her gazer and move on clearly angered, without looking back.
Elxurian draws her sword when first seeing the snowman. "Why do I get the impression that this...snowman...is going to draw a sword and try to kill us?"
Lex is really not doing so well in the cold, shivering a lot. She trudges along in the snow, hoping the group will stop soon so they can attempt to warm up - there should be enough wood around them to make a fire at the least.
Llyr watches as Elxurian screams at the Gods, staying quiet in hopes of not turning her wrath upon himself. As the group trudges onward, he gets colder and colder, and with the group discussing if they should camp or move on, says "I th-think w-we should use the re-remaining light to f-find a c-campsite that we can s-setup for the overnight. J-just m-my thoughts."
Elxurian is also freezing, but she control her voice to speak to the group:
"Can you hold up a while longer? It seems we're still far from our enemies. If we cover some more ground today, we will have some rest and have less to do tomorrow, incurring less risk and a better chance at finding our enemies in our best shape. What do you think?"
Hearing the paladin curse, and knowing she should have listened to him when he said Elks were guides, Grimkell replies to her in an even tone:
"Don't be mad at the gods paladin... whatever happened, it was to teach us something."
He walks on followed by Llyr, as this one starts to be cold, Grimkell turns, with encouraging words he says:
"Be strong Llyr, don't you have blood from the north? I say we go on for one more hour. On our way, we can look for a place to rest."
As he says so, his teeth are clicking from the cold. Yet, he seems intent on walking a bit more.
His heritage coming into question, Llyr grits his chattering teeth and presses on. I may be hated on both sides of my blood, but it’s MY BLOOD, and I will do right by it. Fine, he mutters, Lets get going.
As the group comes upon the snowman, Llyrs brow furrows in thought, ”Well, clearly we’ve been expected” he says, ”You want to stay here while I check it out?”
Assuming no opposition, Llyr will become one with the shadows of nearby trees, his steps barely registering through the sound of snow falling as he sneaks towards the snow man, getting close enough to read the sign before returning to the group.
The as you get close to the snowman you see it is actually by an iced over stream. Then you hear a loud shrill scream.
You see two creatures emerge from the freezing waters. They seem hungry and want to eat you.
The two creatures work their way to where Llyr is standing, glinting in the sunlight.
Elxurian moves closer (10 ft - Difficult terrain) to support Llyr, but the snow makes it difficult for her to get there.
Nev runs forward and touches Llyr - his hand glowing with a golden light.
He then readies his weapon and prepares for combat.
Llyr shrugs off the dizziness that threatens to overtake him as he scurries back to the group, blood dripping from his ears.
Everyone is tired, now's the time to give them spirits.
Grimkell starts whispering a saga, it slowly becomes more and more loud so that everyone can hear it. It is in skald, yet even for those who do not understand, the rythm is one of battle and it excites them, put them in the mood for glory.
The skald prepares his shield.
Lex was pretty miserable on the last stretch before they got to the river, the snowman a very glaring warning - and apparently enchanted as well. The magus was going to have to start asking people not to poke strange things until she looked them over with a detection spell. That was a moot point for the moment, as two creatures came up out of the ice and moved in for the attack.
Slightly reinvigorated by Grimkell's recitation, the young woman pushes forward despite her fatigue. "Tuo," She chatters as she reenchants her spear, stopping just short out of their range, reaching out with one hand. A magnificent flashing cone of light erupts from her palm, bathing both of the creatures.
Trying to recall what these things are, she thinks back to conversations she has had with her family.
Karyne moves quickly, trudging through the snow as best she can.
Llyr sees the others close on his heals, and wheels upon the elementals, drawing his blade as he does, ready for his foe.
Drawing up another ball of snow and igniting it, she hurls it at the enemy who has not yet reached the others.
One of the Elementals looks at Elxurian, it lunges forward with its small fist of ice. It lands a jab and you feel a twinge of pain and coldness go up your leg.
The second one sizes up Llyr and takes a five foot step to get in front of him. He goes in for the groin AND... misses...
Nev stabs at the elemental attacking Llyr, but the swirling snow gets in his eyes, and distracts him momentarily.
Elxurian swings at the northern enemy, going straight for its head with a powerful attack:
!
Taking a quick step to get into a good line, she then pulls on her powers once more, pulling at the dregs of her powers before hurling it at the enemy in front of Elxurian. "Dóigh."
Lex steps in, twirling the short spear in her hands, before striking out swiftly with the enchanted weapon at Llyr's opponent.