Salvianella smiles and laughs with a sound betraying no humor whatsoever. "Yes," she says as she stands and steadies herself. "Perfectly fine. Nothing a little applied science cannot handle."
She dusts off her clothes and frowns at the accumulated dirt, blood, snow, and half-frozen necrotic flesh. And the blackened scorch marks. "Well this shall never come out," she mutters to herself. Seeing the condition of the rest of her "companions", she yells, "I for one am all for returning to town." Hope at returning to civilization drips from her every word.
We are here now. We might as well search the area and set up camp. Perhaps tomorrow will be a better day for us!"
Wildir slaps the side of the coach to test the sturdiness and then gives a shrug saying, "Gud enough." He grabs a bundle of the discarded clothes and crawls inside to sleep.
Ykaterina is in favour of resting up to restore spells and heal a little.
"I for one am not content to run back to town with my tail tucked between my legs at the first difficulty" she pronounces and then sets to helping set up camp.
Salvianella shrugs and moves towards the carriage.
You rise the next morning to temperatures at least as cold as when you bedded down for the night; you get the distinct feeling as you gaze out into the Border Wood that things are only going to get worse. A light dusting of snow covers the ground at your feet, with the drifts getting suddenly deeper as the path advances. While the tracks you could see yesterday are slightly covered over by the freshly-fallen powder, they are not so far gone that they could not be followed.
Snuffling as he steps back out into the cold, Wildir marks the side of the carriage with deep scratches from his clawed hands and then sits cross-legged in some sort of communion for a long while. Finally, he gets up and rubs snow over his wounds once more before wordlessly offering Drew the same treatment.
cure light wounds
Drew cure
After a fitful sleep, and nightmares about undead tearing their way into a coach to get him, Drew stumbles about the campsite, trying to get warm and eating a cold breakfast. When Wildir heals him, some of the gloom recedes and a smile come back to his face.
"My greatest thanks Wildir! I am feeling much better now, thanks to you."
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Trelck will nod when he sees the healing, Ah, good that you are both not so wounded we cannot make progress, though the cold does't bother me I don't relish being out in this an longer than we need.
Trelck stamps his feet a bit in the chill morning air but seems otherwise unaffected by the cold and continues to wear his sleeveless shirt and armor. Checking his goggles on his head he looks about, So what next. I found nothing yesterday but this was the ambush yes? We are to glean what foul forces perpetuate the cold or some such?
Salvianella stretches as she wakes from the carriage. Her back cracks. "This is overrated. I don't know how some of you all do this." Before continuing on, Salvianella opens her pack and begins going over her formulas and preparing her chemicals.
"We will have to be cautious in our explorations I think..yesterday showed the perils of being caught unawares"
Spells for today..
Cantrips..Daze, Ray of Frost, Stabilize
1st level CLW, Cause Fear
The snow doesn't help, but Wildir makes an attempt to follow the tracks.
survival
Ykaterina suggests they pile the bodies into the coach and burn the vehicle to prevent the return of any more of them as undead.
Fortunately for Wildir, the snow actually DOES help...the fresh powder makes following the tracks back into the Border Wood a not-too-difficult task, especially since those you are pursuing seem to have made no effort, at least for the moment, to conceal their travel.
You follow the tracks past the carriages, then beyond the Taldan Guard Captain, still holding his undamaged, if frozen, sword aloft, before passing into the trees.
As it enters the full expanse of the Border Wood, the trail passes through a small clearing among the taller trees before continuing uphill and out of sight. There is a large chest here, half-buried in the snow, apparently dropped or discarded by those making haste through his area before you.
Wildir scowls at the chest, "I vind it hard to belief even dem scatterhead fey forget der treasure. Last time ve open somting, I get mine head bash by dead guy."
Wildir looks around to see where the trail continues.
Drew will look over the chest, checking to see if it is locked, or perhaps trapped.
perception:
Though it appears her curiosity is piqued by the chest, the cold has Slavianella in her mountain of furs looking thoroughly miserable and much like she'd rather be somewhere else.
"No one says we have to go through it now. We could take it back to town with us and examine it later. Can we get a move on. It's cold."
As Drew examines the chest, the first thing he notices is that it isn't locked at all, nor does the latch appear to be trapped.
After checking the chest, Drew opens it.
Wildir stands back gripping his spear in case any tiny undead leap out of the chest.
Ykaterina stands well back..not trusting anything in this strangeness.
Drew opens the chest to find...nothing. It is entirely empty. However, upon opening the container, Drew notices that it sits uneven on the ground, as if there something buried beneath it.
Drew will look under the box and see what is there
As Drew lifts the empty chest, the first thing he notices is a stockpile of armor and weapons, buried hurriedly in the snow beneath the empty treasure chest.
The second thing that Drew notices is the snow-covered rope that snaps tight as soon as the back of the chest is lifted from it's place. The group hears the sound of a rope suddenly drawing taut and looks up just in time to see a massive log, the front and forward sides lined with wicked-looking, forward facing spikes, barreling towards them!
[ooc]By my reckoning, Wildir, Salvianella, and Trelck are hit by that. Drew's AC is one point over being hit and Ykatarina specifically stated she was hanging back.
Wildir stands back gripping his spear in case any tiny undead leap out of the chest.
Wildir stands back gripping his spear in case any tiny undead leap out of the chest.
Wildir tries to yell out a warning as the log swings past him, but it is too late. Sighing as he surveys the damage, he notes, "I haf no more healing left today. I tink ve leave chests and coaches alone now."
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Trelck snorts at the druid and spits a small stain of blood onto the snow. Takes more than a spiked tree and some shambling skin to drive me down. If its getting hurt we are worried about I'll check the chests. The dwarf offers a guffaw and moves to the cache of uncovered weapons, Let's see, anything here worth getting my skull caved in for?
The shaggy Ulfen just shrugs and goes back to snuffling around for the trail.
Underneath the chest you discover the following:
5x leather armor
3x studded leather armor
1x masterwork chain shirt
2x light wooden shields
7x longswords
2x spears
1x masterwork dagger
3x light crossbows
25x bolts
Drew picks up the masterwork dagger and examines it.
"There seems to be some items here of worth. Come and see."
He steps away from the pile of loot, so that others can see what is there, sticking the dagger into his belt as he does so.
Wildir looks unimpressed with the cache, but picks up a wooden shield before following the trail.
Salvianella turns her nose up at the pitiful excuse for "treasure" that almost saw them killed. "Wonderful. Now we can all die rich." She mutters something unintelligible under her breath as she pulls a small vial of something semi-transparent and sparkly out of her bandolier of clinking potions. She empties it in one swift swig, and her wounds seem to melt away back into her previously pristine skin.
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Ykaterina cries out just too late to help her comrades avoid the trap.."Agreed" she says to Wildir's comment and then steps up to the pit.."after the others have claimed what they want she picks up one of the other crossbows and the remaining bolts.
"I've hunted before I can use one of these" she says simply
After finishing taking their pick of the armor and weapons found beneath the chest, the party moves deeper into the Border Wood, the snowfall growing slightly heavier as they make their way further in.
After rounding a bend in the path, the snow suddenly grows deeper where a windswept gully carves a path through a tree-covered ridge. A soft cascade of snow falls from an overhead branch, emitting a soft hiss as it hits the ground in front of you.
"I do not think I will be tall enough to get through this drift without some assistance.", he comments as he looks at the obstacle in front of them.