As you stand around peering past the ice boulders at the hut, starting to whisper amonst yourselves about it, a young girl in pale blond curls in a soft blue skirt with ruffles comes rushing around a boulder, bumping into the wall. what you thought might be a boisterous girl, you realize with a knot twisting in your stomache, is a young girl who just got shoved or hit. As she turns around, probably no more than twelve years old, she yells up at someone in your direction that you can't see due to the boulders, I'm sorry! Don't hurt me! I never meant to call you names! "
Arwyn cautiously approached the boulders to try to see the other person.
She looks right at Arwyn, tensed as if she's a deer about to flee, and says "I'm sorry! Please don't hurt me! Please forgive me! I'm sorry I called you names! Please forgive me! "
Gondorks just stand there with gritted teeth, unsure of what is going on.
Her concealment blown, Arwyn made a snap judgement; she bounded forward, running up to the girl and looked around for what was hitting her.
"I'm a friend little girl! From! What's attacking you?" She said brusquely, putting her hand on the girl preparatory to dragging her away.
Arwynnn!! Noo! Its a triiick!
Gondork darts after Arwyn, hoping to intervene.
the girl bolts before you can get close, disappearing among the boulders, but you hear her reply in the air: I'm sorry Nazhena, I never meant to offend you, it was just a joke.
"Please Nazhena, don't keep me here."you hear from up ahead. "Its so cold. I miss my mother."
What the flying...
"Hey! Wait up kid! We're here to help!" Called Arwyn as she pursued the kid into the boulders.
"Kid?"
She darts away, you start tracking her by her footprints, trying to slow down and be observant while still listening.
"I don't want your stupid doll! I want to go home! Take me back!" , you can hear her shouting ahead, her voice rising to a crescendo before you hear nothing again but the soft patter of snow falling around you and the cold still air.
you finally track her, and see her standing up ahead between two mounds of ice and snow, her face up to the sky, looking away from you.
Giacomo hobbles after Arwyn and Gondork. "Wait guys! I have a bad feeling about this. Why would a child be all alone here in the wilderness?"
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Arwyn huffs up behind the girl.
"Hey little girl! Who are you? What is it that threatens you? We're here to help!" She said, trying to get the kid to talk to her.
She tried to keep an eye out for ambushes, having only just passed through some beartrap laden territory.
she turns around, and you can see that her eyes are gone. empty black spaces as if they never existed, as if a void impossibly existed inside her.
"No, you're Nadya Petska, White Witch of Irrisen, you kidnapped me because I made a joke and it was overheard. "
She shakes herself, shuddering and forcing her eyes closed tightly, opening them suddenly, you can see her eyes and think you might have seen a trick of the light, the darkening sky reflected in a shine "I have to get away!", She locks eyes with Arwyn, [/b]"And you should too! before they see you! Run!"[/b]and fades on the wind, a sudden flurry of snowflakes, and gone.
she turns around, and you can see that her eyes are gone. empty black spaces as if they never existed, as if a void impossibly existed inside her.
Arwyn recoiled at the gruesome sight.
"Desna's tears! Kid, you're eyes... can you see anything?" She asked gently."I have to get away!", She locks eyes with Arwyn, "And you should too! before they see you! Run!"and fades on the wind, a sudden flurry of snowflakes, and gone.
Numb, Arwyn waived a hand through the space the little girl once occupied, but all she came away with was a light dusting of snow.
She turned to her companions."WHAT. In the name of DESNA's pink EARS... Was THAT?" She demanded, her finger pointing back to where the girl had flown apart into a snow flurry.
"It sounded like a warning to me. " ten-penny says, just catching up with the rest
"no idea what the fr-ell it was though." then whispers to herself under her breath :: freezing hell ::
Trickery! MADNESS!! We must leave! NOW!!
Gondork scaredly takes Arwyn's wrist and starts running towards the forest's edge.
Giacomo hoofs it back to where Caladan was standing, yelling all the way.
you hoof it back to the entrance to the clearing. huffing and puffing in the frigid air.
With a comical stunned look on her face, Arwyn allowed Gondork to haul her away.
"Please don't walk us into any beartraps."
We can go around. It will take a bit longer, but I want to get away from this place... it is haunted with witchcraft trickery.
This is unlike anything i've ever seen... huts on chicken legs? Brr...
the dark doorway flickers for a moment, you think something might have moved, or it could have been some flurries on the wind, carrying an echo of the child's words: ruuuuuuuuun.
you backtrack up the ridge, and manage to find a drop from the ridge that's not completely sheer. you spend about an hour or two navigating it down in the cold with your ropes. its slow going, but you get down. Cutting across the forest for the valley's center, you can feel it getting colder. after that you're able to travel about an hour before needing to camp again. Arwyn has a look out for a spot but keeping an eye out the last half hour of travel, and spots no good places to camp so far. forcing you to press on if you want a good camping spot, or accept one that might not be the best defended place to rest.
fort saves 1st hour DC 16
fort saves 2nd hour DC 17
fort saves 2nd hour DC 18
for the first hour as you backtrack, you have the sensation that the hut is still watching you. turning back you realize you can see it for quite a distance as you go back up, now that you know to look for it. but eventually you feel safer as you get some distance from it.
gondork in particular looks back once, glipsing a small blond shadow hopping over a snow covered tree trunk somewhere in the white woods... but staring after it out in the canopy you don't see anything.
As you're making your way across the forest of the valley floor, a cold wind blows, bringing a spray of sleet and broken ice. The sky ahead roils with thick, gray clouds and the sun is only a dim glow somewhere in the mist.
Giacomo's teeth chatter as he trudges through the snow. "I don't know about you, b-but that spooky girl was the c-c-creepiest thing that's happened to me in all my life. I still get a tingly feeling down my spine when I think about it. Though that could also be this stupid f-frostbite. What do you think it was? I think it's a ghost, but why would it be here?"
It was warning us for something. We're being followed. We should keep going.
Gondork sneers between gritted teeth.
Sivanah be praised, how do we get out of this mess?
As you press on, hoping to find an adequate shelter as it grows darker and colder, suddenly Ten-Penny, bringing up the rear is attacked. You turn to see her scream in pain as a form over her shoulder appears to have bitten her about the shoulder. Blood flies into the air as the struggle starts in earnest.
[15: Ten-Penny], [15: Giacomo], [13: Caladan], [11: Arwyn], [10: Giant Weasel], [4: Gondork]
initiative checks
She tries to stab at the creature, but the angle looks impossible, and she doesn't land a hit through its dense fur.
"Oh no, Ten-Penny!" Giacomo rushes to her to staunch the bleeding, but the snow impedes his movement. He decides to channel instead.
Round 1__________
Arwyn turned and fired at the weasel, with some difficulty with Ten-Penny and the weasel moving around in the struggle.
for a possible piercing damage.
caladan wades around through the snow a bit to get around it, taking out his morningstar as he goes, whailing on it, but it jumps around with its tail, confusing him and misses horribly.
it shreds into ten-penny, releasing to get a better bite, and sinking in deeper, blood spraying as a claw rips out part of her arm tendons through her armor.
[15: Ten-Penny], [15: Giacomo], [13: Caladan], [11: Arwyn], [10: Giant Weasel], [4: Gondork]
[15: Ten-Penny], [15: Giacomo], [13: Caladan], [11: Arwyn], [10: Giant Weasel], [4: Gondork]
"Hang in there, Ten-Penny! We'll get you out of there, I promise!"
Giacomo casts his last Cure Light for the day, moves in, and touches Ten-Penny.
Rawwrh Ten-Pennyyyh! Don't you dare die on me!
Suddenly his face whitens as he points a finger behind the weasel and his friend, where a gargantuan fiendish viper appears out of nowhere, hissing and writhing at the monstrous weasel.
Round 2__________
Arwyn continued to fire rapidly at the weasel, with some difficulty with Ten-Penny and the weasel moving around in the struggle.
for a possible piercing damage.
for a possible piercing damage.
And another -4 to hit if its still snowing like it was.
the figment doesn't seem to distract the weasel, it hunkers down protecting its "kill".
giacomo rushes up, laying hands and healing her for 10 while arwyn peppers the giant weasel with arrows, not managing to land a shot in the frantic movement and snowfall.
caladan tries to swing, landing a sturdy blow , matting the creature's fur a bit with its own blood.
with a nearly dead morsel in its maw, the weasel tries to kill its prey quickly and escape with its food , one claw hitting for 8
LET GO OF TENPENNY YOU MONGREL!
[15: Giacomo], [13: Caladan], [11: Arwyn], [11: Ten-Penny], [10: Giant Weasel], [4: Gondork]
weakly, 10p says , "I'm free, for now. I've got to try and get away. then you can deal with it. Who's got healing? i'll try and tumble behind you. i need some healing or i'll pass out... "
Seeing the weasel drop Ten-Penny, Giacomo lights up with hope again. "Come on guys, there's still a chance! Gondork, go stand in front of it, you're big and beefy, he might not be able to grab you!"