Deadly Secret's Reign of Winter (Inactive)

Game Master Deadly secret

As the others pick over the carriage, Lars finds what he's looking for in the snow and dirt. With this much traffic, it should be a pretty easy trail to follow.

"When we're finished looking over the scene of the ambush, I know where we're headed next," he calls over to them, squatting at the start of the trail. "Looks like about a dozen people, and even a horse or two, went into the woods that-away." He points with the new sword in the direction the tracks lead. "That makes for a pretty big party of potential enemies, so hopefully we'll pass a few bodies as we go."

Now that he's confident there won't be any survivors to be found here, he waits patiently until the others are ready to follow the trail as well.

Voronwe raises an eyebrow at the jewellery, "That's close to 250 gold you've picked up there. The lady may appreciate seeing that again, if she yet lives."
Voronwe turns to follow Lars, a renewed urgency in his step, "If she yet lives..."

Vernonia continues to look for clues and useful items among the dead and the other wagon.

Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16

After her search she will head out over to where Lars is pointing.

What time of day it is? Should we be heading off into the forest if night is beginning to fall or should we set up camp here where we can set up some shelter in the wagons?

The date is 4713 AR on Oathday, 17th Earstus at 3:00 pm

"Just a moment." Baxter says, pulling something from his pack. He spends a moment to affix something to the leather cap on his tail. It appears to be a pair of blades that are enameled in white and make the end of his tail look like a dragon's. He gives his tail a practice swing and nods to himself.

"Okay, I'm ready this time." he declares.

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While Baxter prepares to move out Vernonia says, "It is getting late. If we are going to head out now then we need to gather firewood from the wreckage. It is going to be cold tonight."

With that said the pulls out here cold weather gear and begins to put it on.

Good point Voronwe hesitates, then begins gathering firewood, avoiding lingering too long near any corpses.
perception, in case I might stumble across anything: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

Voronwe finds a decent amount of wood that hasn't been completely soaked from this constant falling snow and perhaps you're starting to wonder if it will ever stop. Nothing else catches your interest.

Ysabella takes a moment to sort herself out, but she masks the pain of her wounds well, "Thank you Voronwe for gathering the firewood. Let us move on and make the best of the light we have left." She heads into the woods.

Assuming you all follow and move along...

After 10 minutes of walking, the trail enters the full expanse of the Border Wood, it passes through a small clearing among the taller trees before continuing uphill and out of sight. A large chest lies half-buried in the snow, apparently dropped or discarded by those who hastily passed this way.

"It's a trap! See the rope under the snow and that spiked log hanging up above it.

"Oh dear. Let me see..." Baxter says, rooting around carefully in the snow.

Disable Device: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21

"Aha. I think I got it." He says, working with his tools.

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Baxter successfully disables the trap.

"Well spotted," says Lars, impressed, and freezing in place instead of following him impulse to open it immediately. "And well done to you as well," he adds to Baxter once he's disarmed the snare. "I'm glad to have fallen in with such capable companions in this endeavor, it gives me hope that we'll fare better than those that were ambushed." Then he attempts to open it to see what's inside, though he suspects that whoever laid the trap wouldn't have left behind anything of particular value.

Lars moves to open the chest. It doesn't seem to be unlocked. As the lid is raised, he quickly realizes it's empty.

Ysabella thanks Veronia and Baxter for their quick thinking and deft hands respectively. When Lars opens the chest she notices something odd sticking out from other the chest and reflexively grabs at it and attempts to pull it out, "What's this?"

Ysabella pulls at the material and notices it's large and the chest starts to flip over as she tugs it. Under the chest you find the real stash. It looks like this may be the gear from Lady Argentea's caravan guards. Crossbow Bolts x20, mwk Chain Shirt, Light Crossbow x3, mwk Dagger x2, Leather Armor x5, Longsword x7, Light Wooden Shield x2, Spear x2. You don't find any other items.

"Well, neatly handled. Some of these could be very useful."

Presumably, we can take what we need and collect the rest later to return to town or make use of.

Voronwe looks up at the snow and around at the group, "Two traps set for us: either they fear pursuit or they relish slaughter. Hopefully it is the former rather than the latter."

"What they wanted to do was slow pursuit... perhaps reduce the number of pursuers by a few along the way." Baxter theorizes. "These kinds of traps are to make us move forward cautiously, and give them a bigger time advantage." the little ratfolk shrugs. "Unfortunately we will have to play at their game, since we cannot be sure how many more traps lie ahead of us."

"Agreed," says Lars, grimly. "Hopefully the extra time it costs us will not cost us the chance at rescuing Lady Argentea alive. Would anyone object if I took a minute or so to change into this excellent quality chain shirt before we proceed? I wouldn't normally want something so restrictive, but unless this snow lets up I'm going to have to stay in closer quarters than I'd like."

"A good point." Voronwe nods admiringly to Baxter.

"Here, let me help you with that."
Voronwe helps Lars into the shirt and helps to keep his kit dry.

"Much obliged," Lars thanks Voronwe for the help. Once he's changed he lays his studded leather in the cache with the rest of the gear, then decides to borrow one of the masterwork daggers as well. They can always be returned if necessary, but he can't see any sense in not putting this windfall to the best possible use in their endeavor.

"I think it might be best to leave what we don't use for the trip back, so we don't weigh ourselves down unnecessarily in our pursuit. That being said, there's some seriously high quality gear here, and our chances can only be better if we make use of it. If anyone finds anything helpful, don't be ashamed or guilty to speak up about it since a woman's life may depend on us having the best tools available. Otherwise, I'm ready to press on when everyone else is."

"There's nothing of use to me, but we should definitely bring it back to Heldren if we get the chance." Ysabella will continue down the path if everyone else is ready to go.

I move of with the others, not really able to put any of the gear to use.

"It's all too big for my hands, I'm afraid." Baxter says, but he doesnt seem distressed. "I am fine."

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Vernonia looks over the cache of weapons and armor.

She picks up one of the light crossbows and examines it. Then she slings it over her shoulder and says,"I might be able to handle this crossbow if we get into a fight."

As she reaches for the bolts she spots the high quality dagger. It is much better than the ones she has so takes it too.

Turning to Baxter she asks,"Is the trap disabled so that no one wondering by will get hurt by it if they examine the chest?"

Baxter knows the trap had a manual reset

"It has to be reset manually, so as long as I don't set it back up, it should be safe... short of someone intentionally jumping on the spikes, of course." Baxter answers.

No map for this encounter

The snow becomes increasingly deep in this part of the forest, where a windswept gully carves a path through a tree-covered ridge. A soft cascade of snow falls from an overhead branch, hissing softly as it strikes the ground.

A large reptile leaps out from the snow. It has a dragon’s head filled with sharp teeth, and two arms ending in grasping claws.

The creature ambushes Voronwe Elberion! Voronwe is Flat-footed. The creature Bite vs DC10: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16 for B,S,P Damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6
Then tries to grab a hold of you with it's teeth CMB vs DC10: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (11) + 9 = 20 (you and the creature are now grappled).
As the teeth sink in, the creature rakes you with it's short stubby arms Two Rakes vs DC9: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 101d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16 each doing P,S Damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 41d4 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Total Damage=14

Voronwe Elberion goes unconscious in the grasp of this creatures mouth.

Round 1

To rake, you need to be in a grapple at the start of your turn.

"Look out!", Vernonia screams but it is to late. She calls upon the divine power of deity to heal the damaged members of the party.

Channel Positive Energy: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

She then move away from the creature giving the others room to attack.

Yes, I see they worded it that it pounces but it doesn't have pounce. So technically if it did have pounce I did it correctly. Either way you're in it's grapple and you took a lot of dmg and it will have it's turn before yours so we will continue with all those things it did on it's turn and you'll still be flat-footed.

Voronwe has 1 HP currently.

Unless Lars kills it. The creature will continue its attacks on its turn.

As the teeth sink in to maintain grapple CMB vs FF DC9: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (10) + 14 = 24 and gets free bite dmg if successful B,P,S Damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4 and then creature rakes you with it's short stubby arms Two Rakes vs DC9: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 101d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16 each doing P,S Damage: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 41d4 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Total Damage: 12

Round 1, Initiative Count 23

Reacting quickly to the creature's sudden and violent appearance, he maneuvers as best he can in the deep snow until he has a clear striking angle on the beast's hide.

"You put that Elf down!" he admonishes the creature as he swings his sword into its side.

Mwk Longsword Attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21
Longsword Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

The creature hisses as it takes the slashing damage and grips Voronwe and takes its turn.

Vernonia channels energy and because she doesn't have selective channeling she also heals the creature. Everyone in area heals for 4.

My apologies but it looks like Voronwe died....

Baxter's turn

"Eeeeeeee!" Baxter cries, drawing his rapier and moving in closer to the creature as Voronwe goes down in a spray of blood. He gets on the other side of it from Lars and lunges with his rapier.

1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 4 + 2 = 18
1d4 ⇒ 4

Ysabelle swears viciously as she watches Voronwe fall, another life for you to answer to! An icy blue glow washes over her eyes and energy begins to leak from them. With a frightening stillness that belies the fury in her glowing eyes, Ysabella launches forward to attack the creature with an overhead chop of her great blade.

Activating bloodrage as a free action and swinging at the creature.

Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13
Damage: 2d6 + 7 ⇒ (3, 2) + 7 = 12

Ysabelle hits the creature with a raging attack. But it is still alive with critical wounds.

Round 2

Round 2, Initiative Count 23

Lars watches in horror as the thing doesn't turn its attention to him and instead continues to rip his new friend apart. Filled with frustration and anger (although not to Ysabella's extent) he hacks at the creature again with his sword, hoping to put the thing down before it can turn its attention to another of their group.

Mwk Longsword Attack: 1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 4 + 2 = 19
Longsword Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

With a final blow Lars takes the creature down and it is now bleeding out in the snow along with Voronwe.

"Ah... He's dead. They're both dead. Small consolation." Baxter laments, sheathing his rapier.

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"We didn't even know you but... We still feel your loss Voronwe." Ysabella bows her head and shuts her eyes momentarily. When she looks up again renewed determination is imprinted on her features, "Now more than ever we must find out what is happening here. We lost a companion following this trail, we cannot let him have died in vain."

Someone grab Voronwe's spell book. He would hate for all that knowledge to be wasted.

That I will do.

Baxter attempts to put Voronwe's body into a respectable position, folding his arms across his chest and straightening his legs. As an afterthought, he collects the man's spellbook, tucking it in his bag.

"This would be a waste if we left it out here." Baxter observes. He then uses his tailblade to cut down low branches and lays them over the body.

Lars breathes deeply as the adrenaline of battle begins to subside. It's a feeling he's found he quite enjoys under better circumstances. This battle didn't go quite as cleanly as the first, though, and he chastises himself for not being quicker, or more alert, or something to have made the difference. He watches solemnly and silently as Veronwe's body is arranged, and then Baxter says some words. He can't understand the words, but he can make assumptions about, and then sympathize with, the tone of them. He stands with his head down for another respectful moment or two before steeling himself to move onward.

"There may be nothing more we can do for him, but hopefully the Lady yet lives. We should press on when we can and, gods willing, we may find whatever has brought these winter creatures to this place and avenge our comrade."

Vernonia helps Baxter with preparing the body. She gathers any personal item from him to return to his family. She also gathers the firewood that he was carrying.

When they are done and the group gathers around she speak up.

"I did not think we would loss anyone. I guess my romantic notion that we were invincible in our quest was wrong. We need to be careful from this point on or we will end them like Voronwe and those at the ambush sit.

Looking around the wood and at the weather she asks, "Do we continue on today or make camp for the night?"

We have had two encounters since we left the road and that was at around 3pm. It is summer so the light should last but with this weather I don't know how dark it is getting.

"Let me heal your wounds before we continue."

Channel: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5 That should bring you back to full health with the 4 I did earlier.

The date is 4713 AR on Oathday, 17th Earstus at 4:00 pm

"We still have daylight left, we should gain as much ground as we can." She trudges away, head bowed in exhaustion and frustration.

Lars follows along, trying to stay even more alert than he had been despite the snow making it hard. He keeps his sword in hand to save the time of having to draw it later, just in case.

Feathered bundles and strange fetishes hang from the lowest branches of the trees in this part of the forest, swaying and shifting in the wind. All are stuck through with small pins holding pieces of leather bound around them.