| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Bazikian heads to the Stoat, looking forward to an ale and some hot, home-cooked food.
Really? Leave me with her, again? Grim's shoulders slump for an instant before he turns back to Ionnia.
"Since you refused to barter and simply stated prices, this should be easy. You said 500 from the town for returning your noble alive and well, and another 500 from the town for returning the bandit leader alive for punishment. That's an easy 1000. You also offered 1000 for solving the cause of the wintery blast. We haven't done that, but we have identified the cause and provided the information required to take action without us, should you choose. Is that not worth something as well?"
------
Afterwards, Grim heads to the smithy. "I am glad to see you again! You said you would have our orders in 2 days, and it just so happens we spent two nights on the road, so I'm betting I can pick up the cold-iron headed arrows right now." Unless there is some sort of surprise, Grim will conduct this trade without hesitation.
"Is there anyone in town who might have a higher-quality bow for sale? Natharen, maybe?
Ionnia nods to Grim as he lists their accomplishments. "Yes, we will of course pay the bounties we agreed upon. While it is true that you have not yet solved the issue of the winter weather, I will give you the funds now in the hopes that it will aid you in stopping the magic of this winter portal.
Ionnia gives the party 200 platinum pieces form the town treasury.
The arrows that Grim ordered are indeed ready, and Grim finds that Natharen does indeed have a masterwork bow available.
"I had made this bow for Dryden Kepp, but he hasn't been back for it yet. I haven't seen him in a few days, but I guess the hunting isn't all that great right now with the snow. I will make him another one if you wish to buy this one. Just keep in mind not to tell Dryden I sold it to you, especially if he's been getting into the applejack again...
Brom had sold the things he wanted to sell, and also ran into Grimgisli who had acquired the full payment from the councilwoman. The weight of coins, and the way it shifted as he walked, strangely put him at ease. He wore a slight smile despite the strange looks a few townspeople gave him. It was still summer-esque in Heldren, despite the frozen tundra creeping further towards the town, and Brominate was still clad in his winter clothes and cold-weather blanket that he'd fashioned into a cloak. But he didn't shy away or act like anything was wrong. To have some coin he'd, mostly, earned honestly put the pep in his step.
He still couldn't afford his cold iron dagger, but he didn't care so much about that anymore. What he really wanted was one of them fancy mithral shirts he saw at the smithy's. But, alas, he was a few hundred short.
Leaving the farm Easlis follows the road to the village and thinking on the problems ahead. He stops at the first house he sees and knocks gently at Mother Theodora's door. Presenting himself the half-elf explains their current situation and asks for her help in deciphering the spells the necromancer has written down.
Some of them were above his level of understanding, some too gruesome but three of them caught his eye and had written them down in his spells.
Just before leaving Easlis says "In our journey, we've also crossed paths with a necromancer. We've barely defeated him and brought him back with us. Could you see that he is well handled?
The spellbook from which we've extracted the spells is his, yet he also had four more scrolls which dealt with the revival of corpses. I know there isn't anybody in the town, aside from the necromancer, interested in using necromancy. I also know that you have a very odd collection of wands, scrolls, and alchemical substances which are of no use as well to the normal townsfolk.
Would you be by any chance interested in purchasing these four scrolls? They are the most potent spells I have at my disposal yet we need the coins to better prepare ourselves."
On the way to see Tessaraea at the apothecary, Nyalis stops by the general store.
Opening the door and walking in, he greets the proprieter. "Greetings Vivialla! How are you this day? I'm not sure if you have heard much yet, but we're setting out again to try to track down the source of this unusual cold. Might you have anything that would help with that? I'm most bothered by my backpack. Might you have a nicer one that carries weight better? Also, any cold weather gear you have would be most appreciated."
Brominate, feeling his purse slightly heavier, walks toward the tavern, but keeping an eye out for an easy target. He didn't have enough money yet for what he felt he would need in order to survive whatever was coming. He didn't want to steal but..."desperate times" and all that.
Then he saw it. Or rather, them. A small family. A mother. A father. And a little girl on her daddy's shoulders, and a grin even wider than Zeke's... and that's saying something. The mother had a basket of flowers and was trying to sell them here on the street. Looking closer, he saw past the grin on their faces. The girl was dirty, her clothes threadbare, and a crutch was lying nearby. Their daughter was hurt. They were poor. They were smiling. More than once, someone would walk by and the mother would offer a flower. Whenever someone said they couldn't pay, or didn't have any left after buying their food, she would give the flower to them...for free. He hadn't intended to stare, but he found himself watching them from the shadows for what must have been an hour. He looked again at everyone going about their business and saw them all as if for the first time.
He couldn't steal from these people.
He wouldn't steal from anyone.
Ever again.
He turned heel and sprinted back, reclaiming the scrolls he had sold and everything else. Luckily, the merchants allowed him to buyback for the same price he had sold it to them.
Then he made his way to the cart, where he secured everything. Then he made his way to the tavern. When he found his companions, he told all. How he had pocketed things and not shared them with anyone, nor had he intended too. But he got it all back and was going to share it with whomever wanted it. Whatever couldn't be well-utilized could be sold and distributed equally or kept together as a collective hoard. He was done worrying about how heavy his purse was.
Not really in the mood for drinking, he sat by the fire, as if he could store up the heat it gave to use for later. Slowly, the tavern emptied. It was uneventful, which was good. Brominate knew there would be few uneventful days for a long time. Eventually, he fell asleep.
Fortunately, he awoke without the aid of a mop to his face, gathered his things, and left the tavern. He found the cart, double and triple-checked his few meager belongings and that the cart and no one else's belongings looked tampered with or missing. While waiting for everyone to arrive, he reviewed in his mind the path they took to get to the lodge, for the bridge was where they would need to start. He wouldn't be able to tell by visual cues that much, but more from the steps he took. In any case, he was sure Grimgisli, or Grizzly as he'd come to think of him, would know where to go. The man was skilled, if quiet, but had saved his life more than once in the past couple of days. To pass the time, he spoke with the mule, in elvish, and sang a song he hadn't sung in quite some time. He was surprised at the comfort it gave him; less surprised that it was mixed with grief and pain.
He let these things settle, steeling himself for whatever they might face.
Leaving Mother Theodora's home Easlis headed for the inn and once there he ordered a large bottle of wine. He noticed that both Bazikian and Brom were there and placed himself at their table but did not have much to say, he just wanted to forget for one night about all the snow, or the war between the fey and men, about what they would challenge the next day.
Examining the marks on his face in the reflection of the glass, Easlis couldn't help to raise an eyebrow They've changed again. Why is it that I feel that they bring bad tidings?...
After finishing a couple of more cups of ale Easlis dizzily returned to the stables.
Once the financial transactions are completed, Grimgisli returns to inn. He carefully tends his gear, making sure it is ready for departure in the morning, and then (in this order) takes a hot bath, soaking until the water starts to take on the chill of the room's temperature, and has a hot meal, including mulled wine.
Only after he has sated himself does he turn in.
In the morning, he looks . . . bigger. Fatter. Except for the big opening along his front, where the winter wear is open to help him stay somewhat cool until they get to the blast of winter.
As you gather in the morning to leave again, Lady Argantea has come to see you off, and at her side is Yulin, looking healthier than when you first met him, but obviously still in pain.
"I will pray to Erastil to guide your hunt and bring balance back to the forest in this region. Thank you again for everything you have done for me. If you ever find yourself in Oppara know that you will be welcomed and provided for."
With that, she and Yulin are joined by a couple of young men from the village and they start their journey down the road in a horse-drawn cart.
The party make their way back into the woods, and easily find the path back to the High Sentinel Lodge. the woods seem much quieter this time, and you are not attacked by any more groups of fey creatures in this section of the woods.
After your recent adventures in these woods, however, you can't help but jump slightly at every sound of a moving tree branch or snapping twig.
The lodge does not appear to have been touched in the day that you have been gone. the outhouse still has wisps of smoke rising from it, and evidence of your battle can be seen around the grounds.
What do you do now?
Ever wary, Brominate goes to the western side of the grounds, examining the bridge, river (ravine?), and what might lay on the other side.
Brominate examines the anchors of the bridge, looks carefully into the canopies of the surrounding trees, and takes a peak over the edge, trying to gauge the distance, should someone fall.
Remembering what the bandits mentioned about the secret meetings of their leader with the winged monster Easlis kept his eyes wide open for any signs of a trap. If there ever was a place for an ambush this would be it.
He draws the scimitar and walks carefully on the bridge holding tight on the rope railing with his offhand.
"Is it just me or had the road back been suspiciously uneventful. They certainly saw the smoke from the outhouse."
Grim will also examine the area towards and around the bridge. "Accept the small favors when you can. Probably means they've drawn back and are waiting for us to show our faces. I would expect more traps ahead than behind as a result."
The bridge does not appear to be trapped, though it does look somewhat difficult to cross. it is a simple wooden bridge, and has gathered a layer of frost and ice that looks quite slippery.
The bridge is 30 feet above the river below. water is still flowing, as the river is wider and faster here than the ford that was iced over before you reached the lodge.
Easlis, Brominate and Grimgisli all keep watch on the forest across the bridge and to the sides of the lodge but do not see any creatures
"Bridge doesn't look like good footing. I've got some rope. Want to set an anchor on this side and a belay team? We let one man carefully cross, tied into the rope, and we don't let them go over and into the water. Once across, they transfer the rope to something solid, others can cross holding the rope, and then the final man ties himself into the rope and the group pulls in the slack as he crosses. How's that sound?"
Brominate nods in agreement as the human speaks. "That sounds like a solid plan, Grim. Hold up a mo' Easlis. Let's get you tied in, so you don't fall in."
Together with Brominate, Easlis secures a rope around him and carefully starts crossing the bridge. He keeps his eyes pointed at the other side as he moves slowly, avoiding to look down.
Once he got to the end of the bridge he takes a couple of deep breaths and ties the rope around the nearest tree.
Brominate looks around and with no one jumping to go next, decides he'll go ahead and cross. Like Easlis, he keeps his mind focused, and moves incredibly slowly, keeping both arms hooked around the rope, not wishing to lose his balance.
Once across, Brominate scans the surrounding area looking for signs of ambush, enemies, or anything even more out of the ordinary than a snowy summer.
Easlis and Brominate make it across the bridge without issue. as they cross they find the bridge isn't quite as slick as they feared, but is still not easy to cross quickly.
as Brominate steps off of the bridge by Easlis, both of them feel a tingling sensation of a hostile spell targeting them.
Easlis quickly feels even colder, and notices that his scimitar has grown quite cold to the touch. Brominate does not feel any ill effect from the spell.
after being targeted by the spell, they both spot a creature that was hiding in one of the trees, watching as they crossed the bridge. it is smaller than a human, with dark blue skin and leathery wings.
End surprise round. Round 1, bold may act:
Easlis, Brominate, enemy, nyalis, grim, bazikian
The creature is not a fey, but an outsider called a mephit. this one is an Ice Mephit, a cold outsider from the plane of air. they are known to be cruel and mischievous. though not strong fighters, they have access to limited spellcasting and a breath weapon.
Brominate sees the creature hiding in the trees, and acts. He moves to a more advantageous point, drawing one of his regular daggers. He taking aim, he throws it at the creature.
Brominate's attack hit dead on, but doesn't seem to even scratch the skin of the blue creature
Easlis does not waste any time after seeing the creature, knowing that it is likely one of the fey masters. Waving his left hand in circles he starts casting a spell which sounds very different from the ones he used before. He spits in the direction of the blue demon pointing with the arm he used for casting towards it.
"We will be needing your help here!. Easlis shouts at the ones on the other side of the ravine. "I'll try to hold him off for as long as I can. "
The creature flies close to brominate and breathes out an icy blast of cold air over both Easlis and Brominate
Both characters take 1 damage (though Easlis' cold resistance ignores it), and Easlis is sickened.
Easlis takes 1 point of cold damage (after the resistance reduction) from his sword getting even colder.
bold may act:
Grimgisli, Nyalis, Bazikian,
Easlis, Brominate, creature
Pulling his new Cold Iron arrows, Grim aims at the flying blue fey, looking to end this threat as quickly as he can manage.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Fearful for his friend, Bazikian begins to advance, drawing his crossbow and firing as he strides forward.
"Hold on Brom, I'm coming!" he hollers as his crossbow bolt narrowly avoids striking his companion in the back of the head.
Feeling his scimitar getting colder and colder Easlis dropped his scimitar in the snow deciding it was for the best to fight the winged creature with a ranged weapon.
He drew the longbow aimed at his blue enemy and released an arrow but not before imbuing the weapon with magic energy.
The shivering is getting the better of me, why does everything feel so cold all of a sudden?
It made no sense. He took careful aim, the wind had ceased for a moment, he had thrown the dagger with such accuracy that this thing should have...at least acknowledged a dagger had embedded into its torso... Brominate keeps his distance, taking a large step back and drawing his remaining daggers and waiting to see what the creature will do.
The entire party loose missiles from their bows, but none of them can strike true. the blue creature is moving too fast and is too small for them to hit, even the more experienced archers.
Nyalis is too far from the creature to attempt to throw a fireball at it, so he attempts to move along the bridge. before stepping out on the bridge he drinks a sip of mutagen making himself faster and more aware of his surroundings
He attempts to move out onto the bridge to get closer to the enemy, but slips on the icy bridge. Luckily he is right at the endge of the bridge so when he falls down he is able to fall on solid land and not down into the chasm
Careful! he calls to the others This ice is slicker than it looks!
The blue creature swoops down and slashes twice at Brominate
bold may act: Grimgisli, Easlis, Brominate, Nyalis, Bazikian, Creature
Global Condition: None |
Global Condition:
Grimgisli HP: 23/23 - AC: 16/14/12 Status:
Bazikian HP: 12/12 - AC: 17/11/16 Status:
Easlis: HP: 16/17 - AC: 15/11/14 Status: sickened
Brominate HP: 12/17 - AC: 17+4/14+4/13 Status: total defense
Nyalis HP: 14/14 - AC: 16/13/13 Status:NPCS:
Flying creature: HP: ??? | AC: 21? | status:
Now that he's fully prepared, Grim slightly shifts his position before going for opportunity over accuracy.
Bazikian quickly reloads his crossbow and fires again at the creature.
Brominate slashes back with both his daggers at the blue bat from frozen hell!
EDIT:
Not seeing any other response for the winged creature's tactics, Easlis releases another arrow towards it.
Nyalis again tries to advance along the bridge
He lightly steps over the icy bridge with the help of his mutagen making his mind clearer and his limbs faster. he gets close to the flying creature and throws a fireball at it
unfortunately his aim is off and the bomb flies past the head of the creature.
The creature is hit by several very well-placed shots from the party. Even though most of the shots don't seem to do a whole lot, blood is drawn from several attacks. Grimgisli lands a very precise hit with his bow, doing good damage to the creature.
The creature glares at Grim from across the bridge and fires several bolts of magic from her hand which hit Grimgisli.
she then moves away (AoO from Brominate), flying directly away from the party 40 feet.
All PCs may act. one attempt to prevent the creature from fleeing combat
As the bolts of magical force stream into him, Grim verbalizes a little, talking through clenched teeth. "Son of a . . .. Don't know where you think you're going."
Without moving, the ulfen man lets two more arrows fly . . ..
Bazikian makes one last attempt to shoot the creature with his crossbow as it flees.
Not keen on letting the creature just flee the battle so easily, Easlis nocks another arrow but does not draw the bow strong enough and the arrow misses its target.
The creature doesn't get very far. the party fires a surprisingly accurate volley of arrows and bolts, and the creature falls from the air just as it reaches the tree line and lies in the snow unmoving.
End of combat, what do you do now?
Brominate stays low, scanning the surrounding area, listening for signs of other unfriendlies.
If nothing is imminent, he gathers his thrown daggers from the ground and the creature, but first checking the creature for any signs of life.
The ranger will also spend time collecting as much of his ammunition as he can salvage. Even going as far as to cut out the cold iron arrowheads of broken arrows if they are embedded in a tree, or fey.
He does, naturally, keep his head on a swivel.
After making sure everybody has passed the bridge safely, Easlis searches for the fallen creature and examins if it had anything in its possession.
"We should get going. There's no telling how many of its kind are hiding around this place or have been attracted by its wails."
the creature was not carrying any equipment on her, but the party is able ot recover some of their ammunition
Easlis is able to spot a trail moving further into the woods, but no one spots anything else moving around in the woods.
Once seeing that everyone is across, and not too worse for wear, and having grabbed his dagger from the creature, Brominate pulls his winter blanket-made-cloak around him, and scouts ahead.
"Does anyone have any idea exactly what this creature is?" Bazikian asks the group in general before they move on.
I posted this at the beginning of the combat, but I don't remember if anyone passed or even attempted the check:
The creature is not a fey, but an outsider called a mephit. this one is an Ice Mephit, a cold outsider from the plane of air. they are known to be cruel and mischievous. though not strong fighters, they have access to limited spellcasting and a breath weapon.
not far from the bridge you spot a mess of prints in the snow, a mix of humanoid and animal tracks littering the area. some may have belonged to the bandits from the lodge, but you do notice there is a patch of snow and rocks that are stained a reddish brown
"I believe this is the blue-winged creature the bandits were talking about. Rohkar might have set up a deal with this one, but for a leader, it felt really weak. And another thing looks strange.
Easlis first searches for his scimitar in the snow and after finding it he approaches the beast but doesn't touch it directly just moves its face towards him using his weapon.
"This appears to be an outsider. Probably slipt through the portal. I think I can barely see a trail going deeper in the woods that way." He points to some tracks in the deep snow. "Grim, do you think you we should follow it?
Doubling back, Brominate quietly returns to the party, and describes the situation; to Grimgisli specifically, but also to everyone.
"There's a real mess of prints in the snow ahead. I can barely make sense of it. It's a mix of man-like and animal tracks. Perhaps a scuffle? Most worrisome is this patch of reddish-brown stained snow and rocks. Whaddya think, Grim? What's our move?"