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Gah!
Goragg steps back through.
It's colder than a virgin elf-maid on her wedding night.
He rubs his arms and legs, trying to warm himself with the friction.
There's a bit of snow, but crusted over with ice, so we'll be falling through with every step. And did I mention it's cold?
Let's check what cold-weather gear we have, but it better be good or we're gonna freeze our toes and fingers off pretty quick.
I usually ignore 1d6 of damage per 5 pts of resistance. IE: If the environment would normally do 1d6 cold damage per hour, and you have 5pts of cold resistance, then you're fine with that level of cold. If it normally is cold enough to do 2d6, then you're taking 1d6 of damage every hour (with no cold resistance).
Cale Rumbles up having no problem with the earth quakes and not falling into the fissure. He did check on thier equipment though.
"I do believe we have enough cold weather gear except for Palakka."
Picking up some of the spare pieces of winter gear, Cale begines to measure the blink dog.
"Those times on the farms sure come in useful at times like these. Now do stop disappearing on me, my friend. It's hard enough as it is."
If nobody has it, then whoever has the highest INT can make an untrained check.
By skirting immediately next to the wall, the group can make decent time, despite the trees, as they don't grow thickly close to the wall.
The hectate is eerily silent as they huff and puff in the sub freezing temperatures. The only sound is the low luff of air pushing between frozen and dead tree limbs.
There's no sign of life around... No tracks at all..
There's no sign of life around... No tracks at all.. Not even bird calls. This is strange, it's as if nothing is moving at all other than the group.
There's no sign of life around... No tracks at all.. Not even bird calls. This is strange, it's as if nothing is moving at all other than the group.
You've not found any signs of anything alive within the past several months in the area. The snow is hard packed, as if it hadn't snowed in weeks, and the sun had slowly been melting just the top section each day. The crust on the snow makes you think it hasn't snowed in at least 3 months.
[spoiler=Survival DC 20]
[spoiler=Perception DC 15]
The ice around you is just a thin (quarter inch) crust over snow under it, about another 5 inches of snow under the ice. Your boots crunch loudly every time you take a step. It's the only sounds you hear as you march.
The ice around you is just a thin (quarter inch) crust over snow under it, about another 5 inches of snow under the ice. Your boots crunch loudly every time you take a step. It's the only sounds you hear as you march.
As you look around the eerily silent hectate, you begin to see shapes. Ice structures on limbs in the shape of birds, or a round glob of snow and ice that has a vaguely animal shape.
As the sun gets close to setting the first day, you need to try to find a place to camp.
What an unfortunate place. So...strangely still.
Lilandra shakes her head as the plodding through the icy landscape presses on. She shields her eyes from the sun and it's glare off the ice, then gestures toward the distance. "Do any of you see those? That looks like something's buried under the snow. Look! There's another one!"
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The ice around you is just a thin (quarter inch) crust over snow under it, about another 5 inches of snow under the ice. Your boots crunch loudly every time you take a step. It's the only sounds you hear as you march.
Crunch, crunch, crunch. Goragg pauses a moment, looking around. He takes a handful of snow and peers at it intently.
This is old snow. He looks to the sky. It hasn't snowed here in months. And there's no game tracks, no birds, no nuthin'.
It's not natural. I don't like it.
"Hasn't snowed in.. months?" Lilandra considers Goragg's words and their implications. "I wonder if this cold came in as a snap frost, but, well- worse. Maybe this hectate didn't use to be so cold and snow-laden?" She points to what appears to be a structure of some sort, coated in snow and ice. "Maybe we can uncover that and learn something of what happened here?" She looks to the others, her obvious curiosity shining brightly in her eyes.
"It's too heavily snowed in for me to see anything than again, where I'm from hasn't had any heavy snow for years. I can't tell the land now and it's cold too. I'll take your words for it but we should find shelter and soon." saying the last out as he shrugs off snow.
Shelter is a good idea, we are in no rush and there is no need to push ourselves into exertion. If we don't find anything suitable i can make us a small igloo.
Lilandra frowns at the calls for immediate shelter, but seeing some of the others struggle against the cold she relents. "Alright, alright. Follow me. Judging by the grade of the land, we'll likely find something suitable over this way."
Lilandra notices a deadfall that forms a perfect shelter for the group, and leads them into it. The ground is icy, but it's at least ground, rather than snow and ice.
Camp is set up, including a small fire (which requires thawing out some wood with body heat to get it started, there seems to be a lot of dead wood though, given it's a deadfall, so that's good at least).
As soon as the sun flips, however, the temperature drops at least 20 degrees. It's an almost physical slap as the temperature drops so fast, like stepping from a hot day into a freezer.
If the temperature keeps dropping, it'll be too low to survive even with the cold weather gear.
Lilandra gasps as the cold snap hits, not expecting such a dramatic drop.
"I don't know about this shelter. Even though we're out of the wind and have a fire, if the temperature keeps dropping like this we'll be in trouble."
Indeed, even for my natural resistance this is getting to be too much. Should we return once the sun rises?
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This is going to be a very hard hecate to investigate should be try to cross it. Plus it will take its toll on our reserves etc. With the proper stuff i could makes us enought Blackfire Clay. It would be our best chance of surviving this says grim as he ponders
Cale begins shovelling and packing snow.
"We're going to need to insulate ourselves."
Lilandra looks up at Goragg, blinking rapidly as a look of confusion faintly clouds her face. After a moment, she coughs then adds, "That's... that's a pretty good idea actually." She glances at the others wordlessly for a long moment before shrugging, getting up, and preparing her things for the hike back to the barrier.
We will have the outer perimeter of the Hecate but its a start
Abbas offers a warm pat on the shoulder to Lilandra and winks at her knowingly as he laughs at the hobgoblin, surely she was surprised that you did not order us more than the soundness of the tactic...
Abbas moves to aid anyone who is impaired back to the warmer hecate.
Stepping through the wall is like enough to take everyone's breath away. Their bodies all but physically recoil from the rapid change in temperature, as the temperature goes from a dry frigid -30F to a sweltering 100% humidity 100F.
The group works their way east, walking in cold during the day, sleeping in hot at night with a watch. Doing so makes it very safe to travel, as nothing is alive while they are walking, and sleeping in cold camps next to the wall seems to keep predators at bay.
A week later, they reach the triple intersection.
As usual, Goragg goes through the wall first...
*SPLASH*
Goragg finds himself swimming in his cold weather gear in warm ocean water. A warm breeze blowing over his face (when he can keep it above water). The water tastes salty.
You manage to swim back to the wall and pull yourself up and back into the freezing cold air. You are now standing in -3F degree weather, soaking wet from head to toe.
Goragg comes crawling back from the wall, dripping water from every pore of his body. Steam comes off his form as he stands up.