[round 3]
[24: ten-penny], [20: nadya], [14: arwyn], [13: giacomo], [13: caladan], [12: raven swarm - black ], [7: gondork], [5: raven swarm - violet ] [0: horses ]
"Gondork! I can take care of myself! Now stop you're futile flailing and rescue Giacomo! They are trying to take of with him!"
Ten-Penny keeps wailing at the crows, which are hurting her favorite horse.
for
for
Giacomo runs backwards and fishes the last acid flask out of his pack.
Arwyn crouched blind, reaching out with a left hand defensively, her right hand holding the arrow she was working on.
"Giacomo. Can you lend me sight? I can't help without my sight!" She called out.
nadya steps back, taking out her bow, but misses any of the ravens
caladan steps up, trying to keep a distance from ten-penny, but suffers the same horrid rolls.
horse save vs blind:
the violet swarm veers for the closest creature, gondork. who can AoO it if he'd like as it closes in on him
the black horse rears, but gets spooked by the birds and just spends the round flinching and reacting to them, snapping at air.
[round 4]
[24: ten-penny], [20: nadya], [14: arwyn], [13: giacomo], [13: caladan], [12: raven swarm - black ], [7: gondork], [5: raven swarm - violet ] [0: horses ]
Giacomo walks up to Arwyn and gives her his sight.
"Sorry Arwyn, I sort of forgot about you in the heat of the moment."
Enough!
"Gondork, you oaf! When I said go save Giacomo, I didn't mean let your eyes be scatched out! You already experienced something like this, so why would you let it happen again?"
Ten-Penny keeps wailing at the crows in front of her.
for
for
"Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!" Arwyn gushed at Giacomo as her vision returned with a rush. She kissed him several times before turning towards the swarms.
She drew and shot rapidly at the swarm in front of Gondork.
for a possible piercing damage.
for a possible piercing damage.
"Help, I'm being pelted with soft, slimy projectiles!"
Raaargh!
The violet swarm breaks up, most of its ravens dead or starting to fly off. with that, there's almost a ripple in the air, and the black swarm takes off straight up,
Nadya takes a shot at them, but only downs one bird with the arrow
"Help, I'm being pelted with soft, slimy projectiles!"
Ten-Penny takes one last swipe at the birds, before they get out of her range (AoO) "This is for harming my favorite horse, featherdusters!"
for
"Now get lost and stay lost!"
Ten-Penny tries to calm the Horses, starting with her favorite (the one she has been next to all this time).
She then turns to the rest of the party and says: "Just like some of us, the Horses have been injured. One of them has his eyes scratched, and can hardly see a thing."
She then looks at Gondork and Arwyn. "And now we also have two people who cannot see. Giacomo can only help one of you with temporary sight, so we have a major problem if we get jumped again..."
"Nadya, do you know if there is anything we can do to remove this blindness from our friends. Somewhere nearby or at our destination?"
Vindictively, Arwyn drew and shot rapidly at the black swarm. Rapid shot, favored enemy.
for a possible piercing damage.
for a possible piercing damage.
Turning back, Arwyn nodded in agreement.
"Two people blind is two too many. We have to deal with this now."
a few birds fall from the black swarm, but it flies off, heading NNW. ten-penny calms the horses, and manages to lead the shaking blind one, back to the other horse, and get them calmed. Theyre big horses, but theyve got quite a few deep cuts from the ravens.
"Gondork, AGAIN? What on earth am I going to do with you?
Giacomo then turns to the horse and see if he fares any better.
"Phew, luckily I managed to fix Gondork's eyes again, otherwise we'd have two blind people in our group. Not sure how we would've managed that."
Giacomo then channels to cure everyone of their damage, including the horses.
I think it's wise to keep moving. They know where we are now.
Gondork says while massaging his sore eyes.
And thanks, Giacomo, we would've been in serious trouble if it wasn't for you.
The rest of the first day goes solemnly, ten-penny driving the horses carefully. The sighted horse looking after the blind one, you cover a good bit of ground. The weather is cold, but the snowfall, while persistent, isn't very heavy. With no further sign of the ravens.
As dusk falls, everyone breaks up, doing some of the work setting up the tent and the camp, getting a warming fire going underneath the large tent, with an opening for the smoke. everyone can rest comfortably inside without their winter clothes on. Orm and Mjoli look after Arwyn, as Ten Penny and Gondork brush down the horses and cover them with blankets for the evening.
The first night passes uneventfully, and the second day of travel goes easily until just after noon, breaking shortly for a meal, an hour after you pick up and continue, the skies clear up ahead, and the air grows warmer. The sunlight shines down on fresh grass that has sprouted where the snow suddenly ends in a clear line. As far as the eye can see, fir trees have shed any sign of white, and birch trees show signs of fresh new leaves. The sounds of rivulets of water and melting snow can be heard everywhere.
you vaguely recall stories of druids that fight against the winter witches eternal grip on the landscape. They don't usually last long, as the White Witches stamp them out when they are inevitably located, or they become subsumed by the surrounding magical winter when the druid's power eventually fails.
"I think i've seen one of these before, but it was barely thawing from winter before it was reversed by the witches. This one seems to be so... lush. The sled will be slow going, pulling through this... grass. um. we may have to skirt the edge of it and hope it doesn't go on too far."
Skirting the zone of springtime takes you an hour out of your way. you figure its about a three mile diameter bubble. beyond that you continue your trek until nightfall, covering another 20 miles or so.
perception checks
the night passes uneventfully, and you wake refreshed from the tent, Nadya prepares a quick breakfast from the supplies she's packed for everyone, and you continue on your third day. The blind horse is healing nicely, and you think that by tomorrow you should be back to full speed, and then maybe three days until Ellsprin. Four to Irrisen.
about two hours after you set out in the morning, enduring your slow plodding pace with the blind horse, you pass a small wood. By the edge of the wood, you can see a rough wooden cabin. it looks serene and undisturbed, except for a small plume of wood smoke rising from the chimney, stirring some grumbles as you realize you're already hungry for lunch after breakfast a few hours ago.
As you decide to break for lunch, and start building a fire, the door to the cabin creeks, carrying easily over the still snow. even from a distance, a fiery red haired woman can be seen emerging onto the quiet plain. As she gets closer, her beauty become strikingly apparent. dressed in a hooded coat. She hails you all as she approaches in slightly hurried manner, a mix of hope and trepidation on her face, and sadness gets more apparent as she stops cautiously about thirty feet away.
"hei reisende. Jeg ber dine benådninger, men jeg trenger hjelp."
As she sees the look of confusion over most of your faces, she reiterates herself in common.
"hello travellers. I beg your pardons, but I need help. My husband has been taken by a moss troll that lairs nearby in a cave. I beseech you, please help. I can offer a safe and comfortable place to lodge for the night, and a magical treasure that belongs to my husband. I know it is a lot to ask, but without help soon, I fear my husband is as good as dead. "
What's your husband's name?
"His name is Finngarth, and I am Sylgja."
Do you have anything that could help us fight the troll?
Gondork says as he digs deep in his nasal tract, seemingly bored.
"I've not much to offer, but as a sign of good faith, I can offer a scroll of remove blindness/deafness, my husband's magic bear trap is all i can offer for his safe return. I don't have much."
"Thanks so much, miss! We'll gladly save your husband, especially now you've cured Arwyn."
An hour later you approach the cave. the bright white snow and light of day proves a harsh contrast to the dark interior, making it hard to see far inside at first.
Gondork walks yawning into the cave, oblivious.
Maybe we can find some dinner in this godsforsaken place... C'mon guys, pick up the pace. We haven't got all day.
"Dinner? We just had lunch! You're a bottomless pit Gondork!"
caladan advances with gondork, shield out, clawed hand ready to draw his holy symbol for a spell, if needed.
Arwyn is deleriously happy to have her sight back. She hugs Sylja immediately and promises to help her husband any way she can.
At the cave, she carefully looks over the exterior.
the cave doesn't seem overtly dangerous. though the ice hanging from the edge could be dangerous if there's enough of a blast / quake or something. Approaching carefully and adjusting to the darkness inside, you see the cave narrows to a roughly ten ft wide tunnel that goes deeper and down a bit. the floor rocky, and covered with frost and moss.
you think you hear some sounds, much deeper in the cave.
After seeing Arwyn get her sight back and hug the red-haired stranger, Ten-Penny says: "Well, can't deny your request after that, now can we... Alright, show the way."
At the cave, Ten-Penny draws her swords. "Ok people, we fought a troll before. Does anyone still have an Alchemist Fire? Otherwise we'll have to use a torch to kill it."
"Orm, Mjoli, stay here with mommy while Giacomo and his friends go fight the troll."
-- ' aww muddi, do we have to? I wanna see a troll! '
-- ' stupid, you can't see trolls, they're too big '
"I still have two flasks of acid, that works too, right?"
Giacomo casts Light on himself and peers into the cave.
You're fairly certain as a wave of foul smelling air exits the cave, almost like the deep icy cavern is breathing out over you, that you can hear something deep within. like stone on stone. a slight drag or scrape. then nothing but the wind again.
ahead the cave goes in about thirty feet, before opening up in a cavern to the left and descending a bit, going deeper into the hillside. the icy conditions do seem to improve deeper in, past a few frozen puddles, as it gets deeper it seems to thaw a bit, and just descend into mossy and frigid rocks.
You know the moss troll will hear you coming a mile away, if it can't smell you, it will be able to hear Gondork with his full plate occasionally scraping and clanging against itself. You vaguely remember something about moss trolls being able to change shape into trees.
Arwyn and Giacomo spot some tracks, but they're not the barefoot prints of a Large troll, they seem to be scuffs and scrapes left by a Medium creature's booted foot. Maybe her husband Finngarth's tracks.