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Talon sits at the table, relieved to once again be indoors. He holds his hands near the fire as they rest.
"I think we had best continue on the trail past this lodge," Talon says. "It seems we had some leads in that direction...I'm afraid we gave our quarry a greater lead with our trip back to town. Has anything happened here in our absence?" he asks the half-orc.
Ten-Penny nods gravely. Yessir, that evil ol' Izoze came pokin' by, lookin' fer Rokhar. I tol' her that the bad man took off an' he ain't never comin' back." she laughs a short hard bark. "Guess it's partly true. Old Izoze got mad and she flew off over the bridge yonder. She was mutterin' some nonsense 'bout tellin' Teb but I doan know what that means."
She points out the window to the rope and wood bridge which stands just outside the lodge, the only nearby way to cross the fast-moving Timber Creek, 50 feet below. The bridge sways in the bitter wind, and appears to have a rime of ice built up along its wooden planks.
Well as soon as we are warmed up... we should continue!
Trawets looks at Ten-Penny and smiles, "That was certainly one way to put it. Totally true, yet absolutely misleading."
"We should be moving on once we're warmed up and ready. I don't like the look of that bridge though. We need to be careful going across."
Speaking with his bear and adjusting a rope to his collar and himself Lucian offers to cross the bridge first, hoping the fourlegged help of his friend might aid him.
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"You did well!" Talon tells Ten-penny as he eats some of the food she had prepared. The rogue finds himself liking the half-orc despite himself.
"We'll make a criminal mastermind out of you yet!"
Once the group finishes, Talon joins the others at the bridge.
"Are you sure you want to go first?" Talon asks Lucian.
"Maybe I should test the bridge first before you put that big bear on it..."
The bridge made of rope and wooden planks spans a narrow ravine. It's already covered with ice and snow, and it sways alarmingly in the icy winds blowing through the gorge. The turbulent waters of a fast-moving creek surge through a couple of waterfalls far below.
The bridge is 30' long, and leads to High Ridge, a stony backbone of forested cliffs overlooking the entire forest. A small game trails on either side of the ridge still look heavily traveled enough to follow tracks without difficulty.
The bridge itself is not trapped and even though the copse of trees on the far side looks like a perfect place to launch an ambush from, none is forthcoming. The bridge seems sturdy enough to bear the weight of the entire party. Crossing is slow and difficult, but since you are not under attack, it can be accomplished without incident.
Once across the gorge, the panoramic view of the Border Wood is rather spectacular. From here, you must begin to descend High Ridge, which is sheer cliffside on the north and south, by working your way westward. As the ridge slowly descends, the path will turn into the Somir Valley and you'll work back east, with the wall of the cliffs on your left. The walk through the highlands in the deep snow is not fun, and soon all of you are huffing and puffing just to keep moving.
About 20 minutes west of the lodge, the forest stand deathly quiet. Even the wind, which was howling across the gorge, has grown still as snow softly falls through the stark branches overhead. A set of tracks, vaguely human but oddly misshapen, cross the path at a right angle. The clanking of metal on metal sounds from the right, and suddenly three armored skeletons, with scimitars strapped to their waists, appear out of the trees, moving to attack living flesh and blood!
Ancient Invaders - Round 1
21 White Skeleton
21 Meditrina
16 Lucien
14 Blue Skeleton
11 Talon
11 Red Skeleton
5 Trawets
4 Agatha
White Skeleton senses the live flesh and rushes forward to attack with its bony claws. As it approaches the temperature near the skeleton plummets to near zero, chilling the flesh of all nearby.
As soon as he can Lucian will order struggler to attack, just to notice that the bear won´t get near the undead. Sighing but not unhappy Lucan will try to damage the skeleton.
But his bowshot misses.
Meditrina hesitates, wanting to unleash her fire attacks, but unwilling to use them on a single target. She decides to hold until the other skeletons move in closer before unleashing attacking.
"Careful", she cries out "These are cold skeletons like what we faced before, being resistant to slashing weapons, immune to cold, and love to deal cold damage to anyone they attack with their weapons. In addition, they also appear to release an aura of cold around them when alive, as well as a sudden burst of damage when re-killed."
Ancient Invaders - Round 1 - continued
Meditrina shares the pertinent facts about the freezing skeletons, but delays any further actions until she sees the tactics of the skeletal soldiers.
Frustrated that his pet won't do as commanded, Lucien fires a bowshot at the oncoming skeleton, only to be more frustrated as the arrow misses, flying off into the distance.
Keeping pace with his wingman, Blue skeleton advances, blocking the path forward.
Red Skeleton shuffles through the snow trying to keep pace with his fellows.
From the rear, Agatha's sling bullet glances off the shield of one of the former soldiers harmlessly.
Trawets moves up past Lucian and unleashes a sheet of flame at the skeletons catching all three.
Ancient Invaders - Round 1 - concluded
Talon winds up his sling, keeping his distance from their freezing aura. His sling bullet strikes off the skull bone of White Skeleton causing small damage.
Stepping to the side and through the deeper snow, Trawets lines up all the frosty skeletons and unleashes a sheet of flames from his hand that engulfs the undead. The White Skeleton bursts, like a roasting chestnut, but the other two, while charred and ashy, remain animated.
End of Round 1
Ancient Invaders - Round 2
21 Meditrina
16 Lucien
14 Blue Skeleton (4hp dmg)
11 Talon
11 Red Skeleton (4hp dmg)
5 Trawets
4 Agatha
I step forward and nail both skeletons with a burning Hands spell.
Lucian, hoping for the best nocks two arrows in rapid succession at the skeleton with the blue scarf.
Ancient Invaders - Round 2 - concluded
Meditrina steps forward and unleashes another cone of flame from her hands, and while the heat doesn't get as intense as it might, the power is just enough to make the last two skeletons both burst in cloudds of icy crystals. Fortunately, no one is near enough to face any real cold damage from their destruction.
End of combat
With the skeletons slain, the path to continue appears clear, and the party moves out still descending along the ridgeline where the wind and cold are more fierce than ever. The march is long and cold, covering nearly two hours.
In the treacherous footing conditions, the descent from the ridge is painstakingly slow, and as you climb down, you see ahead an area where the rocks and snow are stained a reddish-brown. Many tracks, both animal and human criss-cross this area.
Buried in the snow, not far from the track is the mutilated corpse of a hunter from Heldren, named Dryden Kepp. He wears a ripped (but still usable) cold-weather outfit and a pair of homemade snowshoes. His shortbow is snapped in half, but his quiver holds two arrows.
Trawets approaches the corpse and searches it. After rolling the body over he digs in the snow a little and pulls out a backpack. "I think these arrows will help you Lucian. Hmmm... Food, brandy, what's this." He pulls out a journal and starts reading.
After a few minutes he says, "Looks like he was tracking a giant weasel and set some bear traps at the head of Somir Valley. This is interesting. There's a strange hut nearby there with a strange doll inside. Wonder if that is the wintery ones' doing."
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Talon nods in approval as Trawets spots the backpack. "Good find...we will need to be on the lookout for these traps he has set, as well. The last thing I want to do is step on a bear trap."
Though the cold is severe, the rogue trudges on as the only member of the group that does not have magical protection of some sort.
"Let's keep going, I guess...the sooner we get this over with, the better."
The journal found, Trawets stashes it in his pack for later use. The group splits up the food, and a shot of applejack helps Talon sustain the cold a bit longer.
Trawets notices small runes etched into the shafts of the two arrows in Kepp's quiver. Taking a chance, he tries to divine a magical aura, and isn't surprised when they return an aura of moderate conjuration.
As he hands the arrows over, Trawets tells Lucian, "Those are good arrows against animals. They seek them out and do extra damage against animals. Put them to good use."
Moving on after finding the slain hunter, the cold wind blows atop the ridge. Heavy snow burdens the boughs of evergreen trees, but ahead someone has evidently cleared the snow from a large patch of ground to dig in the pine-needle-carpeted soil.
Accepting the arrows with a whistle of apprehension Lucian feels the feathers for a few seconds, imprinting them in his mind, so that he can draw them in a moment´s notice.
Looking around an sniffing the bear looks at Lucian after having gotten a good idea of the weasels scent.
Moving closer, Talon sees that the snow has been scraped to the side as if by rakes, and lies in rough piles. It appears that something has dug around in the exposed soil a bit. If anything, it looks a bit like a planting. He doesn't see any more, or the sign of anyone around who would be farming in the middle of winter.
Lucian has not seen anything like it in his experience either.
Moving carefully closer Lucian inspects it
before very carefully checking what was planted.
Perception DC 22
surprised
surprised
surprised
Frost Firs - Surprise Round
19 Trawets
12 Agatha (surprised)
10 Talon (surprised)
8 Frost Fir 1
7 Lucian
6 Frost Fir 2
4 Meditrina (surprised)
As Lucien goes up to the bare earth to inspect it, he sees small divots in the ground, as if seeds were planted there. Talon tosses a rock into the bare earth patch, and as he does, the trees to the left of the part seem to come alive and a deep booming voice resonates through the wood.
Two vaguely tree-shaped figures emerge from their cover in the side of the clearing. They walk on two towering trunk-like legs, and have arms that resemble snow-laden branches.
The tree-people move with purpose to attack , surprising most of the group, but Trawets and Lucian's quick reactions allows them to act during the surprise round also.
What in the world. The trees are walking. THOSE ARN'T TREES.
"Look out! We are under attack from those tree like creatures!"
Trawets then makes a few arcane gestures and a dart of force flies toward the closest creature.
Frost Firs - Surprise Round - continued
Able to get a force missile away while the rest of the group stands surprised, Trawets wings the nearest fir.
The same tree-creature shambles forward, closer to those who might disrupt its planting ground.
From the other side another tree-creature slowly stomps forward as well.
Drawing his arrow, Lucien tries to hit the left creature.
Then with a quick word he orders struggler to engage.
Moving a bit closer the bear pats to the engage.