”Die! Ice thingy!” Braegan yells as he draws out his morningstar, swinging it wildly at the elemental.
The remaining ice elemental shatters into glittering chunks, spraying you again with its debris.
The sprite curses at you from in the trees and sends out several diversionary dancing lights, and then sprints away, low to the ground and back down the rise.
Combat over!
The forest is quiet again, save for the faint burble of unfrozen water beneath the ice.
Dez thoroughly investigates the scene for any clues or items left behind.
Braegan watches the little fae disappear, and spits in the snow. "Thats going to be a problem." He looks at the group, "Any way to keep them from seeing us coming now?"
He looks anxious to keep moving, regardless.
Dez finds nothing.
Chiquq shakes her head unhappily at Braegan's question. "That little one will remain lit up for a few minutes-- but we can't keep up with it on foot, not when it can fly and we must wade through the snow. And cross the river."
She inspects the tiny little frozen spot on Ila's fur, flicking off some ice with her finger and giving the mammoth a concerned head-pat.
"But we should still make what quick time we may. Tcha. Up to the crossing, friends."
She starts leading Ila that way.
"Ack! It got away!" Yrja scowls after the rapidly departing sprite, then hurries to follow Chiquq and Ila to the crossing.
"Those ice creatures were something, huh? I heard stories about them, but never thought to meet them in the... well, not flesh. Whatever they're made of." The tiefling girl shivers. "They were creepy." She chatters nervously as they cross the river, eyes darting everywhere as she expects the sprite to ambush them.
Yrja does not detect anything, and indeed, the sprite is untrackable within seconds of its departure.
You cross the river as per before, this time with no bluff needed, and follow the now familiar rise to the Lodge. Ten-Penny and Quent must be long gone.
The Lodge is silent. You can see frozen waterfalls spilling out of some of the windows.
Braegan frowns at the little waterfalls, "That's weird." Then he looks over at the bridge on the Lodge's west side. "Didn't one of those runts say something about what's across that bridge? I don't know if it's worth going back in the Lodge or not."
Dezső joins in Braegan's puzzlement at the frozen waterfalls. "I think we should do a brief inspection, at the very least to make sure nothing sneaks up on us from behind. I am guessing this does not bode well for the rest of the raiders." Unless someone objects, Dezső quietly approaches the closest door of the lodge with loaded crossbow in hand.
Chiquq bids Ila sit in the snow and covers Dezso with her bow as he proceeds to scout things out.
"Yrja, can you cast that spell of speaking again? It is useful for a scout."
The girl shakes her head regretfully. "I am sorry, but no. Pufos has been very distracted lately and she can't seem to remember that spell now." She sneaks a hand under her furs to pet the sleeping bat.
Imendri looks back and forth at his companions as they talk, and then starts tapping a stone on the floor in a weird rhythm, a cadence that couldn't possible accompany any melody or lyrics.
He smiles at the group in general, and begins looking at the sky, mumbling in his made up words.
Braegan watches Dez move forward. Then a familiar look of concentration appears on his face. Seconds later, Aska explodes from his chest in a flurry of ash and embers.
"Go keep an eye on him," he gasps through gritted teeth, nodding to Dezso, "If he runs into trouble, come get us."
As the little bird bursts from Braegan's body, Imendri traces her with his eyes, smiling again.
Kneeling, he picks up some snow and smells it, then drops it.
"Well, det's annoying. De fae. We should just walk, I fink. Dey know det weer coming, so why not just go?"
"I kind of agree, Big Guy," says Braegan with a look back at the bridge, "but Dez wants to check the place out."
He shrugs as if to say 'what are you gonna do?'
Dez can see that the Lodge is not completely filled with ice, but what he does see is rather gruesome: the remaining Raiders frozen solid, some of them broken into still-frozen pieces. While there are loops and whorls of solid ice, the Lodge is relatively navigable. The fury of the winter fey must have been swift and savage indeed.
Dez can also hear the faintest sizzling noise coming from upstairs.
Nothing is seen across the bridge.
Dez rejoins the group and shares his report, his affect a little flat despite the gruesome scene, adding "I don't think there is any pressing need to investigate the Lodge further at this point, but, Braegan, do you think Aska could take a look in an upstairs window to try to figure out the source of the sizzling noise?"
"Good call," he responds, having a quick Skald conversation with the bird, who flits up to the upper story windows, making a circuit of the house to look in every one.
Aska flits around the house and hears the sound more clearly: not a sizzling, more like...something tearing at the edges of reality. The little bird hears it from the window recently used by Rokhar to descend invisibly and alights on the sill.
The former lair of the leader of the Raiders has scattered globules of ice on the floor, and the cage of the sprite, Vrixx, has been dragged into the lair from its hiding place. Vrixx lays motionless on the floor, a sliver of ice piercing the sprite's heart. In a place of cold, the ice looks so incredibly past frozen that it is almost painful to look at. Vrixx' mouth and eyes stare open in a soundless scream.
The sound issues from the sliver and wound; Aska's avian brain realizes that the sprite's very soul is being slowly pulled out to some icy hell.
The bird returns to Braegan as rapidly as possible.
After a strange and labored back-and-forth between the young man and his girl-voiced bird, he gives up, shaking his head. "There's ice everywhere up there. And I think one of the fey is dead. A small one. And then ... some ice is ... sticking out of the fey in its heart. And its ... self? ... seems to be flowing out?"
He shrugs helplessly. "Best I could do. Aska's kind of child-like sometimes. Either way, I don't know that there's anything in there worth investigating."
He looks at the suspiciously-serene bridge. "So, do we cross this bridge that I totally don't think is trapped?"
Dezső's faces scrunches in concentration listening to Braegan translate Aska's report and he gives a quick nod of agreement with Brae's conclusion, turning to face the bridge.
When all are ready, the tiefling will sneak forward to get a better look at the bridge and its surroundings.
Dez doesn't find anything of note on the dreaded bridge.
Chiquq listens to Dez's and Braegan's relation of things with a furrowed brow. She takes a breath at hearing the bandits are dead, but then, this is a sort of justice, perhaps.
"Yes. Let us move on. The days will be short, in this winter."
She moves for the bridge, scanning for any trouble.
Chiquq can note snowed over tracks that go to the edge of the far side of the bridge. Large tracks. Something large that doesn't bother with boots--big, clawed toeprints from the footpad.
She can see clearer tracks past the bridge, but cannot determine if anything guards it still.
The bridge sways alarmingly in the wind. It is about thirty feet across, spanning the Timber Creek (Braegan knows the name of local rivers). Fifty feet below, turbulent rapids churn through the red-rock gorge. Just to make matters worse, the bridge is slick with icy patches and small snow drifts.
It is, however, the way to go onward. It is clear that there has been recent, and significant, fey traffic from the bridge to...whatever lies ahead.
Yrja shudders as she hears Aska's report. Bandits or no, this was a terrible way to die. Like Chiquq, she is eager to move on and away from the ill-fated lodge, although the sight of the bridge they need to cross gives her pause.
"Err, this looks very tricky. We should take the snowshoes off, at least, before we cross."
She gives the donkey a concerned look, wondering how will she manage to get the animal across. Or Ila, even!
"I think... Imendri or Caelum, you should cross first. If you run into any trouble we can cover you from this side." She twirls her empty sling demonstratively, glancing at the others who also possess ranged weapons.
Chiquq falls silent studying the rickety looking bridge. She moves to rummage in Ila's saddlebags while saying: "Something big crossed. Big, and clawed, and not wearing boots. Not a man."
After a few moments of rummaging, Chiquq looks up, decidedly red-faced. "...does anyone else have rope? I... lost mine before I met you all, there was this ice chasm and... I forgot to buy more."
She looks very embarrassed by this. Were she actually hired as guide to the others, she would immediately refund their money out of shame.
"It might be good to tie the person crossing off at the belt-- that bridge does not look so sturdy."
Braegan shrugs, ”I don’t have rope, either, but it’s a good idea.” He coaxes Aska once more into the open air. After a brief exchange, Aska takes flight, circling above the team.
”She’ll stay over whoever goes first.” He looks between Imendri and Caelum, ”Whover that ends up being.”
Dezső nods in agreement to the plan and hands Chiquq 50 feet of hemp rope from his pack.
Imendri takes the rope from Chiquq with a wink. "Eet's best if I do the scouting, I fink; then you and Ila," he says with a touch of Kellid chivalry/machismo. Grinning broadly, then deadly serious, he crosses the bridge carefully, the rope around his waist, his arm ready to grab at a weapon. However, nothing happens, and he soon reaches the other side unharmed. He waves gleefully, maintaining silence, and points to the trees and makes an 'X' type motion, indicating that no fey are lurking about, neither flitting sprite nor arboreal troll.
"Looks like it's my turn.", Caelum says with a shrug. After a quick tightening of his gear he heads across the bridge.
Glancing at the others, Yrja takes the donkey by the harness and starts leading it across the bridge. Curiously, she walks backwards, feeling her way with every step and constantly encouraging the animal with eye contact and a steady stream of gentle words.
Braegan stamps his feet in the cold, blowing warmth into his hands as he watches the party progress. He looks over at Chiquq, "So, you then me?" He grins, "I figure if i lose my footing, you all can pretty easily lift my skinny butt up there."
Dez is fine going last. Despite the circumstances, he appreciates the view.
Chiquq keeps her bow drawn as the others cross, watching warily on the far side of the bank even though Imendri gave the all clear and nothing seems to be attacking. After Braegan goes, she crosses, giving the firesinger a nod at his words.
She moves across, gazing down between her feet at the planks, then warily gesturing for Ila to follow. Ila is not light. Chiquq discovers this every time the mammoth is in a stubborn mood.
If the other side is reached without incident, she waves back at Dezso. "Come. We still have much ground to cover, friends."
The bridge crossing is without incident, although none of you care to return that way, if possible. It is slippery going, and the sound of the rushing water through the gorge is deafening.
Past the bridge and the sound of the waters of the gorge, the forest is deathly quiet. The wind has grown still as snow softly falls through the stark branches overhead. Human-sized tracks, but oddly misshapen, mar an otherwise spotless trail through the trees.
Towards the ridge to the west, there is a small stand of trees with snow removed from their bases, and rust red stains on the snow and rocks near them.
The tracks are not natural--looks like something without flesh made them. They are not orderly.
Imendri looks around, at the tracks, and then further ahead at the strangely stained trees, munching on a handful of seeds and nuts.
...and he is suddenly distracted from his observations as he chokes on a seed, wiping a tear from his eye. *cough*
"What are these tracks here? The dead horse, do you think?" She hadn't seen much of the creature herself, but her companions had told the tale and she shudders briefly at the thought of undead animals roaming the forest.
"We will have to get closer to know for sure.", says Caelum. "Should we investigate from cover?"
Chiquq crouches by the tracks, her expression turning grimmer as she studies them.
"Some unnatural thing made these," she says firmly. "Like the feet had no flesh on them. Only bones. And they are... disorganized. Maybe the horse, but I think its tracks should still be even."
She lifts her head and looks at the rust stained snow by the trees ahead. "Tcha. Blood, I think. We should all be ready for more foul spirits or worse."
She shoulders her bow and draws her spear, her breath steaming in the air, Ila lumbering along with her as she walks.
Chiquq murmurs, "Let us stick to the trees as much as possible. I do not like being in the open ground with foul beasts about."
Fully out of his element, Braegan does the best thing he knows to do … sticks to the center of the group, keeps his eyes open, and tries to keep his teeth from chattering. Aska sits stoically on his shoulder, similarly watching the trees around them.
There are three skeletons standing stock-still about 10-15' northwest of the 'tracks' indicator on the map. They have seen you, most likely.
Trees near red spot look wrong chirp chirp
Braegan hisses to get the group's attention, pointing out the three silent skeletons waiting for them. "And Aska says something looks off about those trees," he says, pointing them out.