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"Wake ooooppp, nin-nay's, wake oooppp!" Orik shouts as the big cat strikes at him. His attempts to rouse the others are at least partially successful as he sees them stirring in their beds. He also looks about for Rees to make sure there aren't other threats to the man they are supposed to protect.
Since the beast is already on top of him, he will attempt to whallop it with his war-axe, looking to end this fight early. If unsuccessful in stopping the beast, Orik will move away from where ever Rees is with 5' step.
As Rufus, Kor'Sarro and Kiyanetikert wake up and prepare to fight the feline continues it's assualy on Orik.
The cat bites into Orik, just barely missing his jugular. Orik takes the chance slash at the beast with his axe while it is so close. Catching the feline off guard and nearly killing it in one blow. While Adakos rises to assist in the fight while the cat, still barely alive looks about assessing it's options.
Rufus takes a shot at the creature, but misses, Kor finds a similar effect. Kiya mixes a bomb and tosses it just south of the creature which manages to catch it in it's blast, the shrapenal ripping open the wound from Orik and dropping the beast.
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Adakos returns to his gear pile and places the scimitar and shield in his bundle. "Well fought, well fought indeed. It is good to know that everyone is capable of handling themselves well enough in battle, and an unexpected one at that." He looks at the corpse of the creature for a moment and turns to the diminutive alchemist, "Any idea what this thing might be? Perhaps this is the creature that the centaur spoke of? Strange that it would be so far from where it was last sighted, unless it has been tracking us this whole way."
Adakos kneels next to the creature, prodding at it with a stick in various places as he examines the body. Although he knows little about the nature of the beast he seems keenly interested in understanding more about its physiology.
Krenshar's retractable skin allows it to dine on carrion with a lower risk of picking up disease-carrying vermin, much like a vulture's bare head and neck. When the creature finishes eating, restoring the facial skin to its normal position scrapes off gore and clinging bugs. The ability to retract their skin is demonstrated in other contexts as well—male krenshars bare their skulls at rivals as a challenge over mates, females use this ability to ward off undesired suitors, and hunting adults use it to scare prey into ambushes.
Though krenshars generally prefer to stalk herd animals like deer or cattle, they have no qualms about taking on humanoids when food is scarce. They average 4 to 5 feet in length and weigh approximately 175 pounds.
Scholars have long debated the confusing nature of krenshar intelligence. While clearly more intelligent than mere animals, the creatures seem to lack all but the most rudimentary language of snarls and yowls, and aside from the scare tactics that make them notorious, tend to behave much like mundane cats or wolves, even going so far as to occasionally be befriended by rangers or druids. Those who deny krenshars' intelligence, however, need only look into their strange violet eyes or observe the ease with which they manipulate and outmaneuver their prey to realize their folly—an error few make twice.
After a few moments of the felines defeat, Urdel Thunderhoof bursts into the forest clearing. Seeing that you have defeated the threat to his forest home he smiles "Well done! I can't thank you enough for your aid. It looks like we arrived to late to assist in it's defeat. I would like to take this beasts body back to our tribe, though the kill is yours. I would offer trade of some furs if you would wish to part with the felines corpse."
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Adakos looks up from the strange corpse at the sudden appearance of the centaur.
Were they following us this whole time? What would be the purpose of that?
Adakos looks to the group and says, "I see no reason that we would want to keep the corpse, so unless my companions object we would be happy to accept your offer."
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"Oooh, it's a krenshar. I've heard of those. We're lucky it didn't get the chance to wail." Kiya happily passes along all the above spoiler information to anyone who's interested and even to those who aren't.
Then greets the centaur and repeats it all again if he shows any sign of interest.
Added:
After snipping off a few bits that might be alchemically interesting, Kiya is fine with letting the body go.
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He sighed for a moment as he gathered the arrow he had used on the animal. When Kiya explained what kind of animal it was he raised a brown. He was amused at the dwarf who decided to just turn around and sleep after the centaurs had shown up.
He provided the centaurs with reserved respect. He provided a nod to the centaurs and took a step back to let them gather the body and watched them leave. when everything settled he went back to his sleeping location and lay down, grinning for a moment.
"Let's hope this was all the excitment for this night..."
After many nod in agreement for Urdel to take to feline's corpse he bows "You are great hunter's indeed. My tribe shall appreciate knowing this foul beast has been dealt with." He hands you the bundle of furs from his back. "With your route, I guess you plan to brave the mountains? I must warn you it can get extremely cold in the high reaches of the cliffs. Please be safe and take care!" Unless otherwise stopped he will get the corpse and toss it over his back then stomp off back into the forest.
You take shifts for watch and get through the rest of the night with no further disturbances. Awaking in the morning you feel the chill of the fog and air coming down from the mountain. It is a bright and sunny day.
Looking at the furs from Urdel you note that while they are nice furs in and of themselves, they could provide some resistance to the cold if put together right.
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Orik rises and feels the chill in the air. "Go'wan tae bae a wee bit nippy oop in them mountains, ken? Migh' dae some gud tae have some warmer clothin' but I ain't the man fer it, ken? All thoombs when it comes tae sewing like a wee lassie, I am."
He moves off to pack up camp and ready the group for the day's journey.
You manage to stitch the furs together, enough to provide ample protection from any cold weather you might experience.
After packing everything up and eating you head off onto the mountain trail. Hiking up the mountain isn't overly strenuous while staying on the path. The mountains definitely have a chill to them as you go higher in elevation.
You travel for a day getting deeper and higher into the mountains eventually running into snow. As dusk sets in you late afternoon/early evening sets in you decide to stop and make camp before nightfall when the temperatures will drop much quicker.
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Adakos glances over the hill and speaks quietly to the party, "Friends, there appears to be a wagon just over the hill a ways. Given that it might be a bit cold out here tonight do we want to chance a quick look to see what type of shape it might be in? Worst case, it might be a source of firewood to help keep us warm through the night."
As you approach the wagon you get a slight chill. Looking inside the wagon you see three human corpses, frozen pretty solid.
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Adakos studies the corpses, poking at them a few times with the end of his scimitar to assure they do not suddenly spring to life.
Fool me once, shame on you...
If the bodies do not move, Adakos will examine them briefly for what may have caused their death before calling to the rest of the party to assist him with their removal.
"These souls deserve a proper burial, if someone would be so kind as to assist me with them. We should dig a shallow grave or at least gather stones enough for a cairn."
Adakos checks the bodies in the cart and finds they are in fact dead.
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Kiya looks around the wagon for another signs of what might have happened.
"[b]If they froze to death, are we any better prepared? Does it really get that cold up here? Or did something else happen to them?
And this is a wagon, where are the animals? Mules or horses or something. These three didn't pull it themselves.
But yes, we should do something for them. The ground's likely too frozen for graves. A cairn would work, if we can find the rocks. Or a pyre, though the wagon may not give us enough wood for a proper one.[b]"
You do notice in the wagon a wood burning stove and firewood you can use.
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Adakos looks down at the bodies as he prepares them for burial, "The cold weather outfits they have will help protect three of us from the cold that is sure to come in the night. Their souls no longer have need of their worldly goods, so let us remove them before they are interred to the earth." after which he begins removing the clothing and getting it distributed to the party. "Kor'sarro and I will have little need of the outfits, so there should be enough for the rest of you, putting the furs I threw together into the mix as well. I'd suggest we try to clean the wagon up a bit, as even it will provide some level of protection from the winds, unless someone brought a large tent with them for the journey."
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"There's a stove in the wagon and some wood. That should see us through the night. They may have come through in the worst of the winter."
Kiyanetikert will also look over the bodies and the wagon for anything that might identify them. "If we can, it would be good to let their families know what happened and where the bodies are. Though someone may have survived and taken the draft animals."
The wagon looks large enough that 5 medium sized people could fit inside to try and stay warm for the night. After cleaning out some of the snow in the wagon and removing the bodies you do come across a wood burning stove and some firewood. There are no means to identify the bodies that you can find.
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The night is uneventuful but very cold. Adakos, Kor'sarro and Rufus experience no difficulty from the cold, everyone else has a little harder time.
Shaking off the cold, as the sun gets higher in the sky, you pack up and start to head through the mountains. After awhile the path seems to level off and then head back down. As the pass winds around a large mountain, you all spot a light glinting from a ledge some 50 feet above your current location.
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Shaking off the cold from the night and hiding a yawn he gathered his stuff and then regarded the rest. A wry smile touched his lips for a moment and he watched everyone to take in to see who was cold and how they had handled it. Seeing that everyone was okay he merely nodded.
"Let's get moving before the cold get's worse, I am sure we are all lucky that this isn't the dead of winter..."
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"Aye, halflin' I saw tha' flash tae. I kin climb oop if'n yae like, or wae kin jes' stay oon the path, as the Cap'n and the horse-man sez. If yae hae a roop an' a hook, I kin bae oop there in nae time."
Orik would rather stay firmly on the ground and follow the path, but even he is curious about what's up there.
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Curious as to what the glint of light is coming from, Adakos chimes in, "We are Pathfinders after all my friends, our first directive is to Explore. We should have a look if only to satisfy curiosity. I am sure this short delay will not impact our overall mission." With that he waits for the group's response before head to check on the source of the light.
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Seeing the the climb doesn't look to extraordinarily difficult, Orik lays down his heavy shield and begins the slow climb up to the ledge.
He is not the most agile of climbers, relying more on brute force, but being slow and careful, he eventually is able to see above the ledge to the reflection's source.
Taking his time Orik manages to climb up the ledge with no problems.