"And no magic. Just a contest of blades. If we lose, we will proclaim your greatness whereever we go. If you lose, you must take us under your protection to Rohkar and then depart. A simple task, yes?"
Fawfein pauses, the smile slipping from his face slowly turning into a scowl!"Wait, what? I never mentioned Rohkar! Traitors, die!" The atomie and the stag attack!
Round 1:
Fawfein looks at the party with anger and contempt! Pointing to Martok, "You! You're the one who fed me your lies! You will pay for that!" The atomie flies into action before even Exiel can react, and he stabs Martok in the cheek with his rapier, causing a nasty cut!
Exiel's blade cuts the fey in two!
The stag looks spooked and about to flee.
Stunned at the speed with which Exiel disposed of the fey she assumed was going to give them a lot of trouble, Aurora momentarily stands there. She snaps herself out of it and moves to get a clear shot, bringing her crossbow up in a fluid movement and loosing a bolt in the direction of the stag.
The bolt burrows deep into the stag, causing it to scream in pain. However, it also infuriates it and it abandons its plans of fleeing. Instead, it charges Aurora with its horns, goring her!
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Marek was waiting for a chance to shoot the fey, but he is slow with his muscles and joints stiff from the cold. And before he can react, the atomie lies dead from Exiels blade. He doesn't know if he's disappointed or happy the way things turned out. In any case, there is still enemy about, and a gorgeous prey it is.
He tries to shoot the stag, only to find his fingers frozen and unable to pull the arrow properly.
Vespa cringes when the fey catches on to her slip. She shouts as the battle erupts and in moments it's just them against the stag. She rounds on the stag, trying to flank the beast.
Still surprised that the small needle-like sword caused him so much pain, the dwarf grunts when the fey is cut down. Resisting the urge to burn it to ash, he takes out his sling and twirls a bullet about.
The dwarf shakes his head as his throw is well off its mark.
Aurora gazes in horror at the blood, her blood, that has seeped out in a red stain over her nice blue dress. Her eyes narrow, the stag is going to pay! Channeling all her anger, she barely manages to get a quarrel loaded before taking a considered pace back and opening fire again.
I believe you are right Exiel, in fact I think those bolts look very good in that stag, very fletching indeed
The bolt hits the stag in its neck and it falls over dead.
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"Well, that fey was full of himself. Congratulations, Exiel. That was a good kill."
Marek looks at Martok and Aurora. "Are you badly hurt? I think we should continue soon, if you are able", he says, shivering from the cold.
Rubbing his hands together, Marek tries to get some feeling back to his frozen fingers. He walks to the dead fey, and looks if it had anything interesting in its belongings.
No treasure other than the tiny rapier.
The dwarf looks at the tiny rapier, still wondering how it could have done so much damage. He keeps it a souvenier and shrugs, "Aye, I am hurt but I don't think we can spare the ehaling. I'll just bandage it up as best I can and we can move on."
He surveys the battlefield in appreciation, "Good job, everyone."
The dwarf then gathers his belonging and once again trudges through the snow.
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To Aurora:
"Probably not too comfortable though. One of them looks like it was quite a pain in the neck," Exiel replies, indicating where Aurora's second bolt hit.
Seeing Martok pressing on, he sheathes Yuln's sword and hefts the stag onto his shoulder.
"At least we know we'll have a good dinner to look forward to," he says cheerfully as he trudges along.
Vesna smiles at the fallen stag. "That would make an excellent meal!" She comes over to examine Aurora's wounds, and notices Martok is bleeding too.
"I think I can heal one of you, but only one."
After you decide who gets healed, the party trudges along, dead stag in hand. 45 minutes later, you notice a human-sized snowman stands in the middle of the trail before a frozen stream. A crude wooden sign leans against it and bears the words "Trespassers Turn Back."
Vesna, save your magic for our warriors, the stag hurt me but the bleeding has already stopped. I'm unlikely to be in the front line in the fights to come, i'll keep myself out of harms way, I'm tougher than I look, ice in the blood you know
She tips Vesna a wink, then looks solemnly at her ruined dress. Shrugging, she tears a strip from the hem and uses it to bind her side.
Crossbow reloaded, Aurora waits to see what happens when Exiel's bolt strikes the snowman.
The bolt flies through the snowman, dislodging some snow and causing its head to wobble and almost fall off.
Vesna nods at Aurora and then whispers some words over Martok. The dwarf's wounds instantly begin to close with a cool but refreshing breeze washing over him.
"Well, I hope that snowman is one of the ice warriors. Exiel might have just taken him down!" She laughs.
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Exiel narrows his eyes and pouts as Vesna makes her jibe.
"Yes...I be Exiel... slayer of snow-men... I'm still not sure about it though... let's be careful."
With that, he reloads his crossbow, slings it across his back and readies his shield. He also pulls out one of his clubs, and begins approaching the snowman, but slowly.
Perception:
The dwarf cautiously looks around the area, even going as far as trying to go around the snowman and letting him be.
He turns to the others, "Now that fey didn't mention anything about a snowman, did she? I knew we should not have set it free."
None of you see anything out of the ordinary from the snowman or the surroundings. When you approach within 15' of the snowman from any direction, it seemingly stirs to life and speaks in Common. “Can’t you read? The sign says turn back! Now get lost!”
Vesna chuckles at the snowman's voice. "How fun! My father used to do things like this when I was younger. It's a simple spell to make sounds when someone triggers it usually by getting close. It's not coming from the snowman itself."
Ah indeed, that little creature we let go has a wicked sense of humor! We should have expected something like this!
Aurora will approach the snowman and knock his hat off, and retrieve Exiel's crossbow bolt at the same time. She'll also check the iced over river to make sure it can hold the party's weight.
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As Vesna identifies the nature of the magic on the snowman, Exiel decides not to pay it too much attention. As Aurora approaches the snowman, however, Exiel continues to warily give it a wide berth, instead heading South-East to find a crossing point.
"I wouldn't go too near that snowman, Aurora. We don't know what other magics have been cast on that creepy-looking thing. If any of you are able to detect magical auras, it may be a good idea to check that thing for any other magics still left on it."
Exiel walks around the South-Eastern most copse of trees on this side of the river, then doubles back along the stream to stand 20ft South and 5ft East from the snowman.
"Hmm...any of you guys have some rope? I reckon if we get the lightest and most nimble of us to cross around here," he says as he indicates the stretch of the river before him, "we could use the trees on either side to secure a rope across the river for the rest of us to get across. Stay alert, though. I expect that those 'ice warriors' are lurking about somewhere..."
"Good idea. I have some rope."
The dwarf ties the rope around his waist, gives one end to Exiel, and wades onto the ice, prodding with his spear to make sure the ice seemed somewhat able to support his weight.
Aurora walks up to the snowman with Exiel's words of caution in her ear. As she moves to knock its hat off, before she can even touch it, the snowman screams in frustration and explodes in a wave of sonic force. She manages somehow to cover her ears and prevent her eardrums from exploding, but the explosion leaves her disoriented.
Upon hearing the explosion, two creatures of ice rise from the river. From the waist up, this icy creature's features are humanoid, but below its body is a snake-like, slithering tail. They move to attack!
Initiative Order:
"Aurora, get back!" Vesna drops her spear and loads her crossbow. She steps out to try and get a clear shot.
*stares*
Vesna's arrow bounces off the creature's icy skin, causing no damage.
Round 1: Elementals
The two creatures speak to each other in a language the party does not understand. One of them rushes Exiel, while the other attacks the stunned Aurora. They glide through the snow, leaving no trail behind.
The larger of the 2 elementals, Skriss, charges Exiel, and bashes him with his icy fist, cutting into the paladin's skin. Exiel also feels an overwhelming cold ravage his body from the elemental's touch and turning his skin blue.
The smaller elemental, Zaxx, moves to strike the stunned Aurora, but the sorcerer is able to evade the blow.
The dwarf hisses inwardly as the two ice warriors emerge. BURN THEM
Trusting in Lord Fire, he positions himself strategically to burn them both. He puts his hands forward menacingly and screams forth his anger.
Bright colored flames, red and yellow, erupt forth from his fingertips barely missing his companions but spreading out in a fan to engulf both ice warriors.
Vesna quickly moves around Aurora to fire another crossbow bolt.
Aurora recovers from her stupor, shaking her head to try and clear it of the still present ringing noise from the sound blast. She staggers back from the claws of the ice warrior in front of her, rapidly bringing up her crossbow and letting fly with the bolt.
She grimaces as the bolt goes wide, and then frantically begins reloading.
Round 2:
Skriss, angered by Exiel's blow, raises his icy fist at him, but the paladin's shield takes the blow and deflects it!
Zaxx, angered by the fire, steps to K23, and attacks Martok, but thew wily dwarf ducks the awkward blow.
Vesna loads another bolt and fires it at the Ice warrior fighting Exiel.