"But as I said, you're my friend; you told me what's important to you and asked for help... that's good enough for me."
"I will not forget your friendship; and I shall remain true to you," he says with a nod.
Aneira looked at Gabe, through the falling snow, and nodded her head in understanding.
"If the culprits need to be killed, then I have no qualms in aiding in the task. Aye, justice is what I am after, and returning this land and its people to its rightful order. This magical, unseasonable weather has no place in Taldor. And the fell creatures being sent through the portal do no belong here. We will all need to work together to get this task done, Gabe. Friends and allies as one."
After Gabryjel says his bit, he listens to Aneira's response.
"We will all need to work together to get this task done, Gabe. Friends and allies as one."
He glances at the snow.
"In an armed company I found that when fighting you have to trust everyone you're fighting with."
"If you think the guy on your flank won't protect you - even if he does his best - if you don't really believe it... the point is; during a fight things get ugly if you don't trust your allies or if they don't trust you."
"But the weird thing in combat is that sometimes you end up trusting your life to people that are trustworthy, but they still aren't your friends."
His eyes get a little distant, as if remembering old times.
"Sometimes you have guys on your flank and you have to believe that in a fight they'll come to back you up; that they'll risk their life for you, just like you risk your life for them, and so on...."
"And sometimes no matter how much you want to believe others, you find out that they're not worth it."
He frowns.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is just 'cause you got guys in your life who you trust doesn't meant that they're also your friends, you know?"
"Some people watch each other's backs just because if they don't, well... they get killed. But you know - that don't make them allies, and it sure don't always make them friends."
He looks at her again.
"What I'm saying is - never mind all the rest; you're my friend and that's good enough for me," he adds with sincerity.
"That said - let's do this," he says with a friendly smile before they head out to whatever fortune has prepared for them.
Venja dons her cold weather gear as they leave the hut area and find things much colder than before. Her light shawl and her natural resistances to cold no longer aiding her, she shivers in the snowy wind.
With ease Beck sets about gathering wood from fallen trees and clearing the snow off. Even among all the snow he found some stuff that was still dry. As he works to build and start the fire Anee was gathering other downed branches to provide a shelter from the wind so the fire would be protected.
Even though the sun is blocked out by the driving snow those wilderness savvy among you think you have about 3 hours until the sun goes down. The map Anee holds shows that he end of the trail should only be about a half hour more traveling and it took you about 2 hours to get here from the hut. It would be a close call but you should be able to make it there, investigate for a bit and back to the hut in time. Of course this is assuming that whatever the portal is can be fixed in a relatively short amount of time.
"Right mates, We so close right now, I figure we'd best get down ta this portal an' deal with it best we can. We can make it there, and back ta the hut before the sun drops. So shall we, give it a Li'l Hustle?"
Variel takes the opportunity to warm himself by the fire. It felt good to warm up again from the frigid world around him even if he was not currently affected by the weather. Even though he was not resistant to the cold like his wife was, maybe their close proximity was wearing off on him and that was why he hadn't succumbed to the cold like Beck and Gabe.If you think we can make it there and back then lets move on. I will follow your lead in this as I have no idea about this weather and how to handle it.
"Based on weather, I think we can tonight. My worry's that it'll only get colder the longer we wait, an' tomorro this hellish snow may be the whole track an' instead o' two an' a half hours, the portal'll be a day's trudge through this thick snow. Actin now's the only way to know the conditions will be good as this, an' its do-able ta make it there an' get back tonight if we hustle." beck says. He feels we should stick to the plan and get this done before the cold hits us again, rather than wait,but if others still want to go back to the hut, and risk having to track a lot longer through this severe cold, we can discuss.
Pulling her thick coat around her and standing near the sheltered fire, Aneira listened to Beck and Variel and nodded in agreement. "Aye, Beck, let us get to this portal as soon as we can. Perhaps we can make some plans on how to close it as we march, so as to be prepared and not waste time in these conditions." Aneira puts on her snowshoes, marvelling at the amount of snowfall and its impact.
"This portal must be very powerful if it has generated this much snow, ice and cold as well as transporting hundreds of fey", Aneira adds.
Gabryjel wastes no time in talking.
He is already wearing his snowshoes.
When his companions are ready, he swings to his feet and slides into his place in the marching order - prepared to follow as they advance....
"Perhaps we can make some plans on how to close it as we march, so as to be prepared and not waste time in these conditions."
As Gabryjel readies himself to get going; he notices that the others are still preparing.
He takes a moment and looks at Aneira, considering her advice.
As his gear is ready, Gabryjel pauses to consider things; especially taking stock of what Aneira had said earlier about planning their advance.
”I ain’t much of one for magic; but I know a little about combat and tactics,” he says thoughtfully as he readies to go.
”I’ve seen snipers and assassins use Dimensional Doors as staging points for hits on targets. You make a solid plan – like we’re doing now – only instead of legging it over the ground, you use sorcery to jump as close to your target as you can – do the job and get back.”
”Those kind of spells are tricky, though; from what I’ve seen.”
”You can block them with certain magical devices, so that enemies can’t just jump in and knife you.”
”It seems like as soon as the noble houses get word of this action they could dispatch a wizard to block any magical attacks; if they felt like it.”
”But if this is something more permanent – like a “portal” – that means that I think you can’t just put a ward up, as it implies the gate’s already there.”
”If you try to mess with dimensional space – like a Bag of Holding, for example, you can cause a rift in both dimensions which can be big trouble. So if we try to destroy the portal outright, we may end up causing a rift – just like trying to rip open a Bag of Holding.”
”If you try to destroy Dimension Magic it ends up doing massive damage.”
That train of thought seems to please him, though.
”But a Bag of Holding can be held shut with the magical draw-string; so there’s likely a way to hold this gate shut permanently; or at least lock it, to prevent an enemy from using it…”
”Some magic gates have passwords – speak the magic command and the door opens; dwarf doors are generally like that, but I’ve heard that other folk have similar magic.”
’It may be something as simple as speaking a word of command; or using a magical “key” to seal it,” he adds somewhat hopefully.
Then he pauses – as if seeing a flaw in his plan.
”But that don’t make no sense.”
”Never mind magic for a minute; pretend this “portal” was just another real gate; say like a gate in a tunnel, you know?”
”And pretend you’re sending in assassins and guards through the gate to reinforce your position on the other side.”
”Now pretend that the enemy on the other side of the gate managed to beat up your guards? Pretend that your assault force got smashed and the enemy wants to prevent you from sending in another attack, right?”
”Well I reckon you’d be the dumbest commander in the world if you put the lock to the gate on the side that the enemy is on. Hell, you’d put the lock to the gate on your own side. That way the basterds you’re hitting can’t just kill your men and bolt the door.”
”And if your boys get overrun, you can just bolt the door on your own side and keep your boys from getting hit by a counter-attack; but that’s just common sense!”
His eyes narrow.
”So if we don’t find a bloody caster with some sort of magical key; we may need to get him to talk the hard way about sharing a password,” he says flexing his heavy hands into tight fists.
”But I bet we won’t find one.”
He spits into the fire.
”If we destroy the gate; that could mean a rip that tears open massive damage – at least enough to kill us. If we try to lock it; we’d need a magic password and key – but even then, a smart caster’d put that on his own side.”
He frowns darkly and looks at the others.
”Maybe we have to shut it on the enemy side?” he says slowly.