Braegan watches Dezso watch the man leave. "You don't like our decision." He seems ready to have this conversation on the march.
Dezső falls in next to Braegan as they walk, and speaks loudly enough for anyone else interested. "Yes, I do not feel comfortable having released a bandit who was involved in killing the militia at the Sentinel and who in all likelihood will return to banditry as soon as he is out of danger and reunited with this half orc. I take no pleasure in acting as judge and executioner, but we are far from civilization. If we can expect to soon meet up with authorities, it seems the right moral course is to take prisoners and deliver them for punishment. But if we are in a situation where that is not realistic, it seems immoral to just release the evil back into the world. I am willing to go along with the decision of the group, and our present task is more important than any misgivings I have in this area, but those are my feelings. Thank you for asking, Braegan."
Braegan shrugs, clearly uncomfortable with the topic as he tries to consider the other man’s thoughts. ”But we’re not that close to civilization, and we do have something urgent to do. Who knows how long it will be before we return. Hours? Days? I sure as hells don’t want to have to manage him while we take care of what’s ahead.”
He shrugs, ”And immoral is a funny thing. I think it’s a slippery slope to start killing men for the crimes they might commit. He seemed genuine in his fear of us. Hopefully he’ll stick to his plan of heading south. Hopefully this area will have seen the last of him.”
Yrja falls into step with the group, leading the donkey behind her. For a while she listens to the debate in silence, but after a while pipes up. "I think we don't know enough about that man to judge him evil or not evil. And Dezső, I would think that you would be less inclined than most to pass hasty judgement on others. We do what we do. Perhaps he wasn't worthy of a chance, but who knows how our mercy might touch him? Maybe he'll go back to banditry. Or maybe he will repent of his violent ways and become a priest of Sarenrae. Who can know?" She shrugs and pulls her thick cloak closer around herself as she walks.
"But perhaps it is better to leave aside the maybe and maybe nots for now. What is our plan for when we get to the lodge? Creeping up on the bandits earlier served us well, might we try the same approach again?"
Dezső listens quietly and carefully to Braegan and Yrja's comments. After some reflection he responds, "It seems to me we have no choice but to judge creatures and their likely future conduct by their past actions. To refuse to do so does not do any justice to their future victims. And to judge someone by their conduct is rather different than judging them by their appearance, Yrja. But I will defer to the group on how to deal with prisoners. There is much evil in this world, and our unity in facing the greater evil before us is more important than any disagreement on how to handle a lowly bandit."
"As to our approach, yes, once we get across the river I think a stealthy approach is best. From what the bandit said, hopefully the remaining bandits in the Sentinel are in a weakened condition due to the cold and whatever interaction they have had with the fey."
Imendri takes point in the walk, listening to the conversation he provoked by his actions, thinking aloud in his mixed up mumble of foreign words, common, and made up sounds.
Eventually, he says simply, "We are all like de animals. Eet's good and evil what people says, but eet's not. Hee's a predator. Me too. May be he can find a army. Hee's no good a fighter if he has to fight me, but he can get better. May be we's de ones who's wrong. Or not. Just get strong. Don't die. Fight for your fight. Get stronger. Den yuu prove right by winning."
You walk down the hill and can see the icy crossing that Kwent described. Braegan recalls that the other ways to the High Sentinel Lodge are deliberately blocked; steep cliffsides of the Sharpened Hills protect the Lodge from the south and east, and the westward way is the only way in without taking very circuitous routes.
From a distance, Imendri can see a human-sized snowman, and a crude wooden sign leaning against it, bearing some sort of message. He cannot see the 'ice critters' that Kwent described, but it's clear that there is a 'fake' way across that will lead the unwary right to them, and presumably the brigands cross the ice north of this and resume the trail.
You are a hundred yards or so from the crossing, and it's cold.
The snow stops falling, which is not a blessing. The wind bites at your exposed flesh, not strong enough to blow up flurries, but enough to chill your bones and nip at your noses and ears.
With the recognition of what comes when the snow stops falling, Imendri hurries to wrap the nearest unprotected ally in his Winter Blanket, blocking them from the winds he knows await.
Yrja seems unaffected by the cold as she surveys the crossing.
Chiquq walks along in the front just behind Imendri, using her spear to poke at the snow ever so often.
"In the north, where I am from, we do not have your southern 'courts'. There are tribal elders, and justice is decided when necessary, but we often allow the land itself to claim those who do wrong. The land, and the winter." Chiquq's breath steams in the air. "This man we have let go... I might have had him do so without his boots."
(The Kellid woman smiles briefly at the thought.)
"Still... there is much here we do not know. If we take it in our hands to kill, to-- execute-- for crimes... perhaps later we must account for every life we take. It is good to stay the blade, when you can. And we cannot march him with us as prisoner. It is too risky. I think he has the fear of the gods in him now, at least. For a while."
Chiquq brushes her shoulder against Ila's as she speaks, squinting out at the frozen landscape as the temperature tries to penetrate.
"Tcha. Let us move north and find the way to cross."
No amount of warm clothing seems to be able to protect Braegan from the biting wind, and hypothermia sets in.
Dezső shivers, but avoids the debilitating effects of the cold. He surveys the scene and, despite his curiosity about the "snowman" and these cold watery guardians, he nods in agreement with Chiquq's suggested course of action.
The area on the approach to the river is choked with snow-laden thornbushes and the like; Chiquq and Imendri may be able to find a way through. Alternately, you can walk along the riverbank (giving the snowman a berth) and then cross the river--probably what the brigands do. Either way, from Kwent's description, it sounds like it's best to address the 'ice critters' before crossing the icy surface of the river. Kwent has warned you not to get too close to the snowman.
You can see the snowman more clearly: SchneeMann
The sign next to him reads: TRESPASSIRS TERN BACK. Apparently the Raiders aren't the best in their own native Taldane.
Frozen to the core, Braegan stumbles along with the group, too focused on his own misery to be of much help in their ongoing efforts.
"So, w-what? We just g-g-go around?"
Braegan, seemingly inspired by the cold, is able to find a route that avoids the snowman and will take them across the river, about 100 paces north of the crossing.
Chiquq throws a concerned look at Braegan and his shivering. "You are not made for the cold," she observes, as she leads Ila across. "Cling to Ila again."
As Chiquq and Ila step onto the ice, two creatures emerge silently from the river, passing through the icy surface as if it isn't even there. They are composed of ice themselves, one of wind-whipped icicles and the other of strange hailstone-like nodules, and their overall shape is of a humanoid torso topping a snakelike lower portion that disappears into the river. They confront the Kellid without speaking, and are almost impossibly still once they are positioned.
”Nobody’s made for this cold,” Braegan responds stubbornly, ”It’s why it’s called unnatural cold.”
Whatever else he might have said is forgotten as the two creatures appear. ”So,” he mutters out of the corner of his mouth, ”anyone speak ice monster?”
Walking along, watching Chiquq poke around with her spear, Imendri continues his quiet muttering. At her note of letting nature take care of things, he shrugs and nods.
Eventually, seeing the snowman, he almost speaks up before the group apparently figures out the way, and so stops himself.
Now they are faced with the 'Aquan' creatures, it seems. He tosses his pack back into the snow, and draws his sword. "Hoy! Do yuu speak common? Weer come from de Fey!"
"That's right. We have a message for Rokhar!" adds Yrja, but her hand is not far from her sling, should Imendri's strategy fail.
Dezső waits with his crossbow lowered and under his coat to see how the creatures respond.
Chiquq is aware she is hardly a good liar-- it does not come at all natural to her-- but she grimaces and tries to support the story being told, gesturing at Ila's now-bulging saddlebags.
"Supplies for Rokhar. Let us pass, if you are... Skrikks or... Szassh."
"Y-y-yah ... don't want the b-b-bossman unhappy," Braegan says helpfully.
The two creatures talk to each other in a language that is completely unfamiliar to you: gutteral and throaty, and in their 'mouths', somewhat crunchy sounding. Then one speaks. "Rooo-khar", and something that sounds like a flatulent whale. They sink back into the ice silently, leaving no ripple, break, or disturbance in the frozen river's face.
You are able to safely cross the ice, and you see no further sign of Skrikks and Szassh.
Those two delightful fellows were ice elementals. Vulnerable to fire, from the edges of the Plane of Water, possessing the same numbing cold power as winter fey, and able to pass through ice or across it with ease.
"Ice elementals," Braegan mutters as they melt back into the icy waters, "we could've r-r-roasted'em pretty well." He shrugs, pressing on, "Though I guess that's just more energy saved to throw at R-R-Rokhar, huh?"
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As the group puts the river behind them, Dezső seems completely lost in thought. Suddenly he turns to the others, a look of great excitement on his face: "Something about seeing those elementals, such mysterious creatures before my very eyes... It is all coming together, all the information I have crammed into my brain since I was a child but have been unable to access... I've always known it was in there somewhere, and now I can practically feel it arranging itself in my brain. And the world, every thing seems sharper, the details more vivid. I've felt this happening over the weeks of my travel and especially the short time I've been in your company, but this... this is as if some of those fireworks I've read they have in Tian all exploded in my head at once but left behind not a charred landscape but a perfectly ordered library. It's wondrous! And..."
He pauses, again entirely inside his own head, and then his eyes open very wide, wider than seems possible. "Yes! A breakthrough at last. I finally understand what Count Caromac was trying to explain to me!"
With those words Dezső drops directly to the ground. He scrambles in his pack and pulls out a sturdy purple book (), 2 vials, and an assortment of powders. He furiously works to combine the powders. He then lowers a finger into each vial and a spark travels from his finger to the powder, causing the vials to become briefly engulfed with smoke. Dezső then holds up the vials triumphantly -- one is filled with a liquid streaked with white and red, and the other is mahogany brown.
"...Is he alright?" Chiquq asks Yrja warily, with a tip of her chin at Dezso. Maybe this is something that devil-people just... do. What does she know.
Chiquq busies herself combing out some kinks in Ila's fur-- is it her imagination, or does Ila seem stronger and healthier? Hmmm...
"I am ready to keep moving, if we are done mixing colored waters," she says drily.
"So those were ice elementals? They look so strange." Yrja pokes with the tip of her foot at the icy surface of the river, apparently not trusting to support her full weight after she has seen the creatures pass through the ice like it was nothing.
She shrugs in reply to Chiquq's question. "I... don't know? What he says, about understanding more than before, it is also what I feel, as I have learned so much in the last few days. But I have no idea what he's doing with those vials. And what are fire... fireworks?"
Braegan shivers as he watches the strange exchange. "Hey, I like growing as much as the next guy, but the quicker we get the Lodge, the quicker we can beat down Rohkar and cozy up to a fire."
He gives Yrja a blue-lipped grin, "And you've never seen fireworks? There's some serious education to be done here."
From the river crossing, you wind through the forest for a time and climb at least a hundred feet back into the hills. To the south are forbidding crags. In a clearing among the trees, a large wooden lodge overlooks a ravine spanned by a long rope bridge. Smoke rises from the lodge's two snow-covered chimneys, and a large woodpile--now a little diminished?--is stacked against the outer wall near you. A small outbuilding stands east of the lodge, and a stone well nearly blanketed by snow is barely recognizable to the north. Several tracks lead south and southwest..you can barely see the corner of a stable around the back of the building.
Imendri pulls up short, squinting his eyes at something near the porch of the lodge.
You can see a trip line across the trail and some pots and pans near the porch. maybe a crossbow over there too.
Imendri listens to each companion talk about their epiphanies, and nods, grunting in assent.
As they move forward, towards their short term goal of the lodge once used to defend the Taldan people of the region, he stops short and spreads his arms out to the sides. "Hoy. Dere's somefing heer. A trap, I fink.", he says, pointing ahead of him towards the ground.
Dez tries to spot what Imendri is referring to, or anything else of relevance.
Braegan stares for a long time at the lodge. There’s probably a warm, warm fire in there, he thinks longingly. Murderers sit in warm comfort while heroes freeze their acorns off. What kind of saga is this?
He’s brought from his thoughts by Imendri, and Braegan scowls down at the tripwire. It takes him a moment to see it even when the Kellid points at it directly. He follows the line, seeing if it connects to the crossbow.
He looks up from it to the lodge once more, then whispers to the group. ”So w-w-who among us are quiet enough to take a s-sneak around the lodge? It’d be g-g-good to know how many doors there are. O-o-or how many are inside.” He nods towards the outbuilding, unwilling to take his hands from his pockets, ”Or what’s ins-s-s-side there.”
"I am willing to conduct a quiet investigation."
With Chiquq's permission, Dezső places his pack on Ila (but brings along his extract of shield and weapons), and throws his armored coat over his shoulder. Assuming Yrja is willing, he borrows her snowshoes (I think I remember she made some).
He studies the trap Imendri spotted and does a wide circle of the lodge to get the general layout of things, or a half circle if that is sufficient to let him see what is around back. He of course watches out for additional traps, for guards on the lookout, and for animals that might set off an alarm. He will first move in the direction of the outbuilding and approach that more closely; he wants to determine if there is anyone inside and if the party can get inside. If he notices anything along the way that makes further investigation seem too risky, he will turn back.
He takes 10 on stealth and also uses inspiration:
He also takes 10 on perception and also uses inspiration:
The tripwire looks to connect to the crossbow. The tripwire is strung across the trail--the ends of it are somewhere under the snow.
It is low enough to step over, but Momo's cart won't step over it, and Chiquq isn't so sure about a mammoth's steps.
"Do you think they are expecting us? Or is it that trap just a precaution?" Yrja shades her eyes against the light glare off the snow as she examines the path.
Of course Dezső can borrow the snowshoes.
Dezső sneaks across the snowy path, noting a well-trod trail between the porch containing pots and pans and a crossbow, and the outbuilding. The smell of the building tells him within a dozen paces that it is an outhouse. It's frozen shut, with a hammer hung on a rope to crack the ice off the door from time to time (Dez would prefer not to think about what liquids and vapors are turning to ice...).
Further around the bend are more corners of the Lodge, and a stable. He can see the traces of steam and/or smoke that indicate horses present, presumably some of Argentea's.
Even further, Dez can see a porch with a disturbing sight: a stout dwarf chained spreadeagled on the deck. Snow and dirt cover his face and extremities. A man steps out on the porch, presumably a Raider. He grunts at the chained dwarf, checks his bonds and sees that he's still out cold (no pun intended), and gives him a good kick in the side for good measure.
Dez can also see a long rope and wooden bridge stretching over a steep ravine past the Lodge, but he doesn't dare go further, as the porch is clearly occupied and watched.
While Dezso scouts, Chiquq helps re-pack some things on Momo the mule, giving it a friendly skritch behind the ears.
"Perhaps Dezso can cut this wire so it does not fire at us?" Chiquq muses. "Or maybe we can just take down this crossbow..."