As his companions continue their assault on the undead creature, Thalin continued to seek an opening on the creature near him. Seeing his opening, Thalin quickly struck out with his hammer hoping to land a solid blow against his unfeeling foe.
As the second zombie stumbles out of the carriage, bumbling its way into the open, the gang all lash out while they have a chance. As Sia and Thanion each drive the points of their weapons in, doing minor damage but damage nonetheless, Thalin bashes the thing with his hammer. The hammer cracks bone, but the zombie feels no pain, just gets nudged forward a little faster. It was just the right amount, as Braham still held his greataxe across to his left. The push gave the little extra momentum to make up for the pain in Braham's shoulder, as he brought his axe back to the right, shearing the staggering undead from hip to shoulder. The muscle destroyed, the thing crumples, as the barely contained negative energy dissipates.
Suzy hears the distress in Aavelixia’s voice as she says
“Suzy, attack it”
Suzy slithers towards the wagon, and gets on top of the carriage. She tries to hit the unnatural thing that is attacking Braham.
Aavelixia fire another arrow hoping to hit the creature from the carriage.
Aavelixia decides that it's time to send Suzy in to help, as she orders the odd viny plant to attack. Suzy slithers and creeps up the side of the wagon, to sit atop it. A thick ropy strand of vine lashes out, whipping hard past the zombie's head, it being none the wiser.
Aavelixia herself draws once more, aiming her bow past Sia's shoulder. Her arrow flies hard into the upper arm of the thing, leaving a long tear in the tricep.
Sevrin focuses on the last remaining zombie, his talents awake in disrupting the connection of the negative energies to the zombie's movements. What little function it had already, becomes hindered, as its limbs move sporadically.
Pulling his weapon away from the fallen enemy before him, Thanion tries to bring it back to jab into the last Zombie. His concern for Braham's injury, as well as dancing nimbly back, split Thanion's attentions too wide, and he starts to step away too early in his thrust. The point doesn't get close enough to puncture.
As Sia went to spear the undead being, she is momentarily distracted by the vine that whips past the foe.
Attack remaining zombie:
Sia tries to realign her weapon from the fallen foe to the last one standing, but her position and the sudden appearance of a green tendril from atop the wagon has her aim disrupted.
Thalin, reverting to his weapon after channeling, lashes out with his warhammer. He smacks the thing hard on the elbow, with a crack of bone and sagging arm indicating he snapped the joint. The zombie seems neither fazed nor concerned by the hit or the change in his limbs. Thalin deems it prudent to also take a step back.
Braham, having found his stride with felling the previous one, swings his large axe up into a woodsman chop, the blade held aloft before gravity and the big man's strength bring it crashing down. He hits it in the collarbone, on its right side, and shears away putrid flesh as he hacks all the way down through the left thigh. The thing crumples into a mass of rotted flesh atop the others.
With the battle over, Thanion begins to calm himself and he can feel the mystical energy flowing out of him. As he continues to calm, he takes survey of those around him. "Is everyone ok? What were those things?" Thanion begins to ramble.
As his heightened state of fear and anger begins to ebb Sevrin sucks in the cold air, trying to feel normal again. "The fey... they must have made those things? Terrible. You, you all were brave..." He shakes his head.
Thalin and Aavelixia easily explain to Thanion that they were minor undead. The are among the most basest form of creation by someone practicing Necromancy. Sevrin is not familiar with any fey specifically that have a penchant for necromancy, but he does know that fey are inherently magical beings, so sorcery would be easy for them to learn and use.
Thanion turns to Sevrin "You were brave yourself. You didn't run away. You stayed at our side."
As the group discusses the undead, Thanion then pipes up, "Then we must hurry. Lady Malassene may be in more danger than we realized. Let us quickly find what we can here and move with haste." With that, Thanion turns and begins searching the carriage the zombies came out of for any useful information.
After giving his explanation to the undead creatures at their feet, Thalin shakes his head in disgust. While Magrim is the dwarven god of the dead, the Taskmaster held death as sacred and to be treated with all respect and honor at the time of passing for all dwarves. Seeing the bodies abused by forcing them into this state went against everything that Thalin held sacred.
"I will do what I can to give those that have fallen a proper passage to their final destinations, but I would suggest those of ye that have an eye for the woods see if ye can find out where the dark fey went."
Looking over to Braham, Thalin could see a grimace of pain on the apprentice's face as he rolled his shoulders trying to loosen the muscles.
"Ye and your axe did well lad. Are ye going to be ok, or do ye need attending to now for that blow ye took?"
"Yeah, we should get moving. I don't think that time can be on our side. Certainly the Lady Malassene is in danger. I don't know what kind. Obviously they could have killed her here if they wanted. So why did they want her? I don't think they're going to ask for a ransom."
Sevrin shakes his head again, as if to clear it.
"Whatever it is they're doing needs to be interrupted. I have no reason to believe we won't be killed trying, but I don't know what else to do. It would probably take too long to get any proper soldiers here." He seems more calm the more he talks.
Then he peers into the carriage.
The inside of the carriage itself holds nothing of interest, and the distinct aroma of death. Having a little more time to look over the scene itself in further detail, Aavelixia and Sia each remember that they had noticed a small, ornate box hidden carefully under the driver's seat.
The first, overturned and completely wrecked, carriage contains the bodies of two handmaidens, broken chests and boxes strewn across the ground, some containing what remains of the women's spare clothing.
The ice statue, already recognized as a man frozen to death, still wears his breastplate armor emblazoned with Taldan heraldry. His sword sits grasped in the hand of the arm that had been broken off from the whole of him.
As for looking for a trail to follow, it takes very little effort in that regard, as their is a big swath through the snow. It's clear that the horses had not run off, as the path is about the size of two teams of them, and more than a few men on foot.
Aavelixia points towards the box and says to Sia, “The box looks expensive“
She looks towards Suzy to make sure she’s safe. Suzy seems to be content to just having part of her vine hanging from the wagon and swinging one of her many limbs. Aavelixia says, “stay out of trouble“
Aavelixia seems to agree with Thalin, the bodies should be taken care of, and not left to rot or be picked off by animals in the area. She turns to Thalin and says, “Perhaps we should make an attempt to bury them. Not sure if the ground is frozen. We could also, make a pyre and burning the bodies. If we gather the wood pieces from the broken carriage and make a pyre, that shouldn’t take a lot of time. We could place the bodies on top of the carriage and cleanse these unfortunate people. Although it would make nearby creatures aware of our presence here“
She looks at the bodies and says to Thalin, “ Either way, this will take a while to do. If we cannot properly bury them or burn them, maybe we could put them all gently in the carriage. We could lock it with the spear or rope and on the way back we could bury them? She looks at Thalin for a response.
Aavelixia addresses Braham and the others, she looks at the frozen man with the breastplate, “What about his breastplate? Could we use that? Could we remove that? And how could we remove that“ She looks concerned for the frozen man.
She looks at everybody and says, “I think that whatever evil did this, they clearly knew we would come out here to investigate. Why leave the zombies locked in the carriage for someone to find? They are sending us a message to not follow“
Aavelixia continues to talk and points towards the trail “They left a wide trail behind over there, it will be easy to follow it. If they left undead creatures behind for us here, who knows what other surprises awaits us through the trail. We should proceed with caution“
"Perhaps I should open things with more caution. Maybe there's a clue in this box though. I will ask being acting, but I'm going to assume no undead lay within. Shall we open this?" Sia looks at all of her new camponians, awaiting a response.
After finding nothing of interest inside the carriage, Thanion heads over to Thalin. "I am not versed in the rites of passage as you are, but I offer my assistance in any way you need."
Upon hearing Aavelixia's words, Thanion's attention is turned to her. "I am not certain how we could get the breastplate. Perhaps we can shatter the ice but I fear that may desecrate his body. With regards to the box, I feel we should open it. Its doubtful, but it may give us an understanding of what happened her or what this is all about.
"Yes, I think we should. open the box. I don't know what to do about the breastplate though."
He looks around nervously. Horrified as he was to see the bodies at first, he feels no emotion toward them now. They'll be just as dead when and if we ever come back.
"If you all want to take care of the bodies that's ok, I'll even help, but I'd rather get moving soon."
"You're right of course Aavelixia, they've got to be aware someone would investigate. Maybe they meant to scare us away. Maybe we should be scared, but we know where we have to go." He shrugs. "So the sooner the better I think."
Sia nods at those that gave her the go ahead. She grabs the box and attempts to open it.
Sia opens the box without any difficulty, to find that the contents are primarily assorted jewelry. If the people that attacked the wagon were indeed bandits, they either completely missed this, or chose not to take it for some reason. Inside the box is a signet ring, a pair of earrings, a set of pearl-inlaid bracelets, assorted gold and silver necklaces, and a sapphire pendant.
"I think I'll be keeping these." Sia figured since she opened the box, she should keep the contents. I wonder how much these are worth...
After putting the contents into her pack, she addresses the group, "I was only asked to lead you to a certain point, but if you all will have me, I would like to take this journey with you. I hate the cold, so if there was a way I could stop it, I am interested."
"Thank you all for your help"
She looks at Sia and asks for her opinion on the worth of the contents in the ornate box " We should return some of those items to the Lady's family. Perhaps they will reward our honesty with coin. Some of those items will hard to sell if they are one of a kind, or custom made for the Lady"
She looks at everyone for an opinion.
"We can attempt to return them to the Lady once we find her. If we need supplies along the way though, we may have to sell some of it depending on the situation. I have enough room in my pack to carry everything. Please hurry along the ritual, we need to move out soon. How badly is everyone injured?"
With the dreadful dealing of the dead taken care of, Thanion readies his gear and turns to the group, "I am unharmed and ready to move on. I don't think those creatures wounded anyone but Braham."
Sevrin is looking distractedly at the frozen man, inspecting him with a mix of disgust and fascination. He gently waves his fingers towards the breastplate.
Sevrin gingerly approaches the box and looks at the assorted items. His eyes briefly become unfocused and he mutters a little. He makes as if to touch them but his hand only hovers above them.
"If we need to sell some of her stuff to save her life then the Lady can deal with it when or if it happens. Right now unless it will help us find her it doesn't matter."
Focusing on the energies surrounding the breastplate, and the box of collected jewelry, Sevrin notices that none of them bear any of the auras that indicate the presence of magic. Between him and Sia looking over the contents of the box, they are able to determine a noticeable value.
The building of a pyre for the bodies takes about half an hour, to include gathering all the bodies to place on it. The frozen man will take some time, even next to the fire once it gets started, to melt enough to remove his breastplate. It could take anywhere from half an hour to an hour more for the straps themselves to be clear of ice without risking cutting them by hacking at the ice.
"We don't have time for this. All of the clues could vanish on the trail if we wait forever for some armor. This man will probably still be frozen when we come back."If we come back....
Sia looks at her new companions, "We should follow that trail and be on the lookout for anything. Traps. Enemies. Wild animals. Everything is a danger."The cold is the biggest danger to us all. The cold equals snow. The snow equals- Stop. He wins when you do this to yourself Sia. He is nowhere near here. You ran from that.
She takes a deep breath to compose herself. Sometimes her anxiety gets the best of her.
I agree with Sia. We've done all we can here we need to move on while we still have a trail. Thanion states while turning and heading towards the start of the trail with more certainty than he feels.
Sevrin nods at Sia's words, oblivious her her inner turmoil. "I agree."
Most of the group decides that they don't have time to wait for the ice on the Taldan guard to melt, and mostly agrees just to leave the pyre for what it is as a way to send off all the dead. The trail in the woods is fairly wide and clear, deep and somewaht muddy. Prints of both hoof and boot pretty clear, as the wet and somewhat freshly churned dirt keeping the snow from sticking too well. Heading into the tree line the temperature clearly drops a few, to just under freezing, while the steady falling snow hinders both vision and movement.
Thanion rubs his arms haphazardly as they trudge through the mud and snow, the cold a simple annoyance. He keeps an eye out for anything that may be amiss as he thinks to himself, "This snow... it makes no sense. Its almost like back home in Irrisen. Could whatever have happened to me be affecting the area? We have to get to the bottom of this and soon... before anyone else is hurt."
The trail to follow is both deep and wide, allowing to easily keep eyes on where the bandits have likely taken Lady Malassene, thanks to them also taking the horses. Moving deeper into the forest, the trees get closer and closer together, but the trail keeps to the wider portions to allow for their captured goods. After about an hour trudging along the path into the depths of the Border Wood, the trail passes through a small clearing among the taller trees before continuing uphill and out of sight. A large chest lies half-buried in the snow, apparently dropped or discarded by those who hastily passed this way.
The falling snow and unexpected drop in temperatures was more than Sevrin was ready to handle. Having lived his whole life in sunny Taldor has not prepared him for such an extreme level of cold. If he does not warm up soon, he could very well die from hypothermia.
Sia digs into her backpack and pulls out her snow goggles. She puts them on, "Never thought I would have use for these again." She sighs as her eyes adjust to the goggles that were once her normal wear.
Seeing the chest buried in the snow, she pauses and looks carefully at her surroundings. Why would they leave that there....
"Shall we dig out that chest and see what they left behind?"
Sevrin trudges on through the snow. His pack grows heavier by the hour and it becomes colder and colder. Colder than he could have ever imagined. He feels the strength sapping from his body. He stands staring at the chest shivering miserably.
"I don't know. I'm so cold I don't care about the chest. It could be full of platinum for all I know or care."
"Sevrin, you don't look good. Try putting your hands under your armpits. Hopefully that will warm you up some. We can try building a fire later on before the sun sets and we have to camp. Just stay calm though. Don't waste extra energy."
Sia carefully makes her way to the chest and searches for traps. Spotting none, she attempts to open it.
Aavelixia looks at Sia and says to her and everyone around her “ I don’t trust this area and this chest is kinda obvious. The chest looks heavy and I think it would have made some noise when it fell. If these things took the time to loot the wagons back there, they would have secured the items with ropes. If one item fell, that would mean that the rope was loose enough for the chest to “FALL”, then other items would probably have fallen too. ”
Perception traps, ambush, people waiting for us on top of trees…
She looks at Sia “ search the area carefully before going near the chest.”
She looks at Suzy and says ” stay back, it’s dangerous .”
They both are about 20 feet from the chest and they try to take cover towards the edge of the trail.
Both Aavelixia and Suzy are prepared to jump out of the way in the event of a trap.
“ When we are done here, with the possible trap, we can secure the area so that we can camp for the night here. We need a fire for Sevrin. ” She looks at the skies to be able to tell what time it is, and how long they have before nightfall.
She looks at Sevrin and tells him “I can help you tomorrow with enduring the cold weather a little better. I will commune with nature tonight. ”
"Camping for the night does indeed sound good, that would help me to heal as well. But let's first deal with this chest..."
Braham readies his weapon again and concentrates intently on the chest.
As Sevrin stands nearby shivering, the rest of the group looks suspiciously around the area of the chest. The idea that it would just be left behind having a few of them nervous. The falling snow makes it hard to see too much, but no one spots anything untoward about the small clearing or the half-buried chest within it. Feeling confident in her assessment that it is safe to open it, Sia is surprised to find out that the thing is empty. Then she is even more surprised by the spiked log that comes swinging down through the trees toward the group.
The spiked log swings down, traveling across the path where it goes right over the chest to whoever is right in front of it, and just so happens to catch any hapless others standing nearby. In this case, it was Thalin that was unfortunately too close. Both of them got pummeled hard, getting a few solid cuts and gouges from the sharpened branches sticking out of the thing, as well as having the wind thoroughly knocked out of them.
Braham curses under his breath and rushes towards his companions.
"Are you alright? Now we should definitely start a fire and rest for the night, otherwise we're in no shape to deal with what comes next..."
He starts to look around for something that would burn. The chest perhaps?
Thanion rushes towards the Sia and Thalin. "Are you two ok? It appears we may have underestimated them." A memory of Thanion's as a boy making hunting snares and waiting for them to be spring flits through his mind after taking in the scene.
"Be vigilant. They may have been waiting in hiding for someone to set off their trap." Thanion says to the group while trying to look for any threats.
Sia landed on the ground hard from being hit by the log. The spikes caused some not good looking cuts. She stayed on the ground for a moment and took off her goggles. She took some deep breaths to regain the air flow to her lungs. She looks over towards Thalin and sees that he is in the same boat as her.
It takes her a moment to realize that people were talking to her and another moment to realize what they were saying. "I'll survive. I should be more careful. I'm sorry Thalin." This is why he said I would never make it without him. I'm too quick to jump into things. I don't watch enough. I just do...
She stands up slowly and looks around, carefully studying everything around her. Where are the dangers. Look for anything out of place. There's always a telltale sign.
Sia takes a deep breath, "I believe we are safe for now. I think over there would be the best place to camp." She walks to the site and gives it a solid glance over. "We need something to burn." She begins searching for anything flammable, but still keeping an eye out for traps.
Sia manages to pick herself up out of the snow, the pain she feels is obvious in her movements. As the others look around for following signs of danger, Sia tries to also spot a nearby place suitable for making camp. It seems that the eastward side of the hill would help block most of the wind. A small clump of three pines along the side of the hill are close enough together that their boughs could help make a satisfactory canopy to hold in whatever heat they find. Dry firewood will be the biggest challenge, but they know they already have the newly 'discovered' log hanging nearby and the chest itself. Sia can tell that the quality of the chest is enough that the wood inside the chest may still be dry enough to light.
"The chest should be dry inside. It will burn. The spikey log should also be dry enough to be burned. We just need to drag it over there." She shows everyone where the suitable campsite is.
Aavelixia helps Sia to find all they need to camp for the night.
She keeps an eye on Sia and Thalin while gathering materials and setting up camp. ”You both should rest first. “ She makes sure Sevrin is close to the fire for warmth.
After Aavelixia had finished setting up camp, she sits by the fire and takes a big breath. She gathers her strength and cast a spell.
” Anyone interested in berries? These berries will nourish your bodies and heal you a bit. I have 7 of them.“
"O-o-okay. Let's get a fire going then. I hope you two are going to be okay. I guess we walked right into that... We'll have to be smart if we're going to make it. I wish I was smarter right now."
” Anyone interested in berries? These berries will nourish your bodies and heal you a bit. I have 7 of them.“
"Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather rest first and see how much that helps. If I still feel bad in the morning, I might take you up on the offer..."
Aavelixia confirms Sia's assessment of where to best make camp and how to get a fire going, both of them confirming that the only danger in the immediate area has already revealed itself to Sia and Thalin personally. As the group works toward making camp, Thalin offers up a wave of channeled energy to help everyone recover from their injuries.
Preparing the camp, snow is pushed away from the base of the trees to help build a wall against the wind, exposing pine needles beneath which they can use for both insulation and tinder. The log trap is cut down, and dragged over, as the chest is dug out of the snow. As the chest is removed, there is a surprise lying in wait underneath. It seems whatever could be expected to have been within, was actually tucked away underneath. A whole cache of weapons and armor, made up of five sets of leather armor, three sets of studded leather armor, a chain shirt, two light wooden shields, seven longswords, two spears, a dagger, and three light crossbows with a total of twenty-five bolts.
" These are the only good berries I will have for a while. I suggest those that want to eat tonight get a berry or get a ration. " Aavelixia eats one berry and offers the rest to everyone else.
Aavelixia gets her cooking pot out, she seems to cast something over the cooking pot. "We have clean water if anyone wants any. "
She looks at Suzy and says "You can't play with the water yet. Wait until the area warms a bit more, you'll freeze if I bathe you right now! "
Thanion joins the group around the fire warming himself from the elements. As Aavelixia offers him a berry, Thanion politely declines. "Thank you for the offer but I will be fine." He then rummages in his pack for a bit before procuring some rations. "I also have some rations if anyone is hungry," he says to the small band before taking one for himself.
As he slowly warms and satiates his hunger, Thanion keeps an eye on the treeline. "We need to keep watches. While we need this fire for survival tonight, it is a beacon alerting others that someone is out here. We need to be careful so that whoever set the traps don't catch us unaware." Thanion says solemnly.
"I agree, we need to be careful. I volunteer to take the first watch. Thanks to Thalin's spell, I feel a lot better already."
Braham starts scanning the area around the camp site, making note of all the places where enemies could spring an ambush. He keeps his back to the fire, so as not to ruin his night sight.