Ok, let's see if you can shrug of THIS little sting Mr beard-o!
His breathing already labored, Zirren shivered slightly, his breath becoming visible as though outside in a frosty environment.
His Eagle, still fighting, does what it can.
Caine! there's little time, I've got a bad feeling about all this. Look, you go ahead, even I can follow those tracks! Somebody was being dragged. I'll get them down from the trees, and be following right behind you as soon as I can.
I've got a folding shovel, some pitons, and a hammer, so I'm sure I've got enough tools, question is what do I need to roll to get to them, and how long will it take me?
I've got a folding shovel, some pitons, and a hammer, so I'm sure I've got enough tools, question is what do I need to roll to get to them, and how long will it take me?
Camp - 8:30PM
The combined snuggle-efforts of Belladonna, Zilka, and the little fox are able to stabilize Zirren's core temperature and keep it from continuing its rapid drop. His skin is an almost pale blue and frigid to the touch, but seems to be rapidly drawing in the provided warmth! The half-elf's body begins to shiver violently as it begins to fight back against the supernatural cold that threatens to kill him....
While Bella and Zilka work to save their comrade's life, Ruhk takes aim with his trusty shortbow. His spell seems to draw his aim to a spot between the ice beard's shoulder blades... The arrow leaps out from the bow and sinks deep into the chest cavity of the foul little creature! It arches its back as it screams in pain, turning suddenly towards the source of the stinging agony. It sees Ruhk standing in the breach of the ice wall, with a bow in hand. One of the foul creature's eyes is significantly larger than the other, bloodshot and nearly bulging from the eyesocket, it lolls around insanely like a ship being tossed in a storm... The creature suddenly snaps one of the icicles from its beard and cocks its arm back to throw the projectile towards Ruhk...
However, the distraction is enough for Zirren's eagle and the remaining fey warriors to finish off their enemy! The fauns once again drive their spears into the creature just as the eagle scratches a deep gouge in its face before disappearing in a flash as several more of the beardcicles impale the summoned creature! The fauns then forced the screaming creature to the ground and pin it to the wet ground. It flails and screams obscenities in an unknown language as the satyr walks over to the creature, raises his blade, and severs its head with a grunt.
Forest - 11:25PM
Syntira allows herself to be slipped into the pouch with a few grimaces, but makes no complaints. Her body and soul are too weary to even notice the discomfort of her wounds as they bound through the woods. The trail is fairly easy to follow with broken branches and underbrush to lead their way...
Unsure if the remaining fey will prove to be more friendly, Ruhk lowers the bow, aiming down towards the ground.
At this point, he does not want to antagonize, but nor does he intend to disarm himself in a situation that could still be hostile.
Looking at the Fauns, he calls out.
"Peace?"
Belladonna keeps up ze snuggles
Camp - 8:30PM
The satyr glances up at Ruhk standing in the threshold of the ice wall, then at Bella and Zilka snuggling Zirren's shivering body. He gestures to the surviving fauns, then points at the strange corpse. "Bag y pen, ac yn llosgi y corff." He keeps his weapon at hand, but makes no aggressive moves towards the party. "Peace. I have no quarrel with you as you helped me and my companions with the ice fey." He looks down at Zirren. "Your friend is brave, but foolish." He reaches into a pouch on his belt and removes a handful of bright red berries. He approaches Zilka and Belladonna, but does not sheath his weapon yet, and hands them eight berries. "Feed these to him, it will hopefully bring him back around."
As he speaks, the two surviving faun check their comrades for any signs of life, but find all four of them dead... They then carefully collect the head and put it into a leather sack before dragging the body off toward the nearby treeline, away from the ice wall. The satyr eyes you all carefully for a moment. "Now, I must ask you; what are you doing here at Llyn Grisial?"
Forest - 12:00AM
The trail is easy to follow and progresses steadily north, seemingly to parallel the logger's path. Occasionally it meanders a bit, but continues relentlessly towards the north. Syntira peeks her head out now and again, commenting on where they may be in between bouts of crying. At one point they reach a small clearing. "I know this place, we are near the lake. They must have run towards the lake."
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Zilka scratches her head, and figures it can't hurt to try the berry. She pushes one into Zirren's mouth, squishing it with her fingers so that the juices will run out onto his tongue.
"Thanks, uh... what's your name? I'm sorry about your friends, that fellah looked like a real bad job. I think he attacked one of the humans over there too... Used a chisel on 'im."
"We're on our way to the oldest tree in the woods, seeking elderwood moss. Laurel, a herbalist, needs it to make a treatment for a disease that's affecting people in town. We had to make camp here, after a hobgoblin attacked us and two of us took him back to town to face trial, or something."
Caine continues moving, hoping against hope to catch the men who had done this. "I'm betting you can see further in this gloom than we can. Let me know if you see anything."
"I know fey and man does not as a general rule have the best of relations in these parts, but I'm hoping we can part in peace, if not friendship.
I have to ask something of my own however, the men that was here before the battle started, they seemed to recognize either you or the foe we just defeated.
And I think we were already a little suspicious of them, they were hiding something..."
Not to mention that two of them ran off into the night, and into god only knows what.
Camp - 8:30 PM
The juice from the berry seems to ease Zirren's shaking, but he is still unconscious . The satyr eyes Zilka and Ruhk suspiciously for a few moments, but then nods more to himself it would seem than to them. "My name is Xanostar, I have heard of this disease from the human, Milon, and his frustration in the lack of response from his own people." Xanostar nods towards the berries. "Give them the rest, they will not hurt him, I swear to you." The satyr seems sincere and appears to be sacrificing what may be his own form of healing. You all notice several bleeding lacerations and puncture wounds on Xanostar's upper torso.
He then looks over at Ruhk with a solemn expression. "We will speak more of your journey. For now, show me these men you speak of. I have suspicions of mine own. You are not with these men, are you?" Nearby the faun's overhear the conversation and glance up from their grisly work of hauling the corpse, watching you all carefully.
"Easy enough to do, well, in the case of two of them at least.
One is over there by the tree, and by the smell of him, not in the best condition, the other one is over by the campfire.
The third one, he bolted like a deer in a hunters sight."
Deciding that a little humour PROBABLY won't hurt the situation, Ruhk grins at Xanostar.
"I'd offer to shake your hand as a token of good will and what not, but...well, I seem to be trapped behind this wall of ice.
It's the darndest thing, can't say I have ANY idea how that happened."
As Zilka slowly fed Zirren the fifth berry, he stirred then shuddered again. A moment later he began mumbling, weakly moving his arm as if to protest.
"Huuughh, n-no... no more. I'm..."
As she fed him the sixth berry, he seemed to snap out of whatever reverie he had fallen into.
"Z-Zilka. We won, didn't we?" he said weakly. He instinctually started holding onto Bella for warmth, the side of him she wasn't immediately covering felt as though it was far too cold for his liking.
Camp - 8:30PM
Xanostar nods to Zilka as she introduces herself, then listens to Ruhk's explanation with a stoic look, as if not quite catching the subtext of humor to the human's words. "The creature there conjured up the wall of ice. I will leave the faun to clean up this mess, take me to these men."
As he is passing by Zirren wakes and mumbles weakly to Zilka. "Ah, you are awake then. Good. It was a foolish action, yet done so with a braveheart. I hope that you have learned from this mistake." He nods to Zirren before continuing into the treeline and coming around on the same side of Ruhk. He spots the collapsed form next the water's edge. "Is that one of these men you found?"
Belladonna's words are muffled by Zirren as he holds onto her. "Mmph gph mfh me"
With a quick wiggle, she slips out and gasps for breath. Shivering, she scoops up her still unnamed fox and carries him with her as the group walks. "I'm glad you're okay, Zirren, but hug time is o-over. Oh my goodness I'm so colddddd." She keeps to the back of the group, nervous around Xanostar.
Ruhk nods at Xenostars question.
"Eeeyup, that'd be one of them alright."
As he does so he scratches his head in confusion.
Gee, I always heard that fey had a pretty good sense of humour, maybe this one is the serious "stick-up-the-posterior" kind?
Zirren started to sit up and had to pause halfway through. His head still pounded and his body ached. After several more breaths he pushed himself up off the ground and began to follow after the others.
Camp - 8:30PM
Xanostar follows Ruhk over to the unconscious man, who is moaning and appears on the brink of waking. The satyr casts a simple spell which causes several orbs of silvery light to appear around them, illuminating the man who is starting to rouse and works to move himself into a seated position. At the same moment, Xanostar spots the golden splatter on the man's sleeves and hisses. "It was you!" He lashes out suddenly with the flat of his blade and connects solidly with the man's head! The man lets out a snort and then collapses back onto the ground.
The satyr suddenly spins around, with his blade pointed at the group. "What is the meaning of this?!" From behind the ice wall, the group hears a thud and the sound of running as the fauns come running to their commander's aid.
Zirren stopped and looked at Xanostar. "Look we told you, we don't really know what happened here with the men that we noticed. One of them was wounded and worse and the other two were acting suspicious, but none of us knew what that strange gold substance was." He help up his hands in a disarming gesture.
Clearly you do, and it upsets you. I will say that these men quite possibly deserve whatever fate you have in store for them. But let it be known that we found them after whatever deed they have committed."
Ruhk struggles with the impulse to snap back at the fey, it had been stated several times that they were not associated with the men, and if it was one thing Ruhk well and truly hated, it was repeating himself.
The idea of being accused of a crime of some sort was also making his hackles rise.
Thankfully, better sense managed to prevail, and while it was as painful as pulling teeth, in a gesture of good will, he slowly disarmed himself by placing the bow on the ground.
"Yeah, as we said before, we don't know these men, we don't know their names, we don't know what they did and by now I'm a damned site curious too."
Belladonna tries to hide behind Ruhk
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"Is this a quiz? Because we don't know what the meaning of that gold stuff is. In fact I were hoping you would. "
-Posted with Wayfinder
Despite his struggle with holding back anger, as he notices Bella standing behind him, he manages to give her a reassuring smile and a wink.
Camp - 8:30PM
The satyr eyes you all very suspiciously for a moment, as if judging your words and deeds in regards to the ice fey. Meanwhile the fauns sprint around the ice wall, with their longspears in hand, rushing towards you all when they spot Xanostar with his blade pointed at the group...
Xanostar seems to believe you and lowers his blade, and then sheathing it. The fauns falter in their charge, slowing to a hastened walk as they continue to approach, but shoulder their spears. "That "golden substance" as you called it, is pixie blood." He then points at the unconscious man. "Now help me bind this murderer."
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"Blood? He killed a pixie? Sheeeit, that's no damn good. Uh, are you sure it wasn't, like, in self-defense or something? I mean, did you see what happened? Just, you know, playing Asmodeus's advocate here." Zilka asks as she works on tying the man's hands.
"I mean, I can figure how humans would react to finding a fey drenched in human blood. I don't expect you to do less."
-Posted with Wayfinder
"What about the one with the blown up back?" asks Belladonna timidly
"I think a pattern is emerging here...
I'll help you bind them, because I have an idea what it was that made them so jumpy now."
Ruhk will begin to tie up the first man.
"Funny, if Nat was here, I bet he would think this was right, handing suspected murderers over to be judged.
I just hope he wouldn't argue about WHOM to hand them over to."
Camp - 8:30PM
Xanostar nods to Ruhk as he assists in binding the man, taking a moment to look up at Belladonna. "It was not just one, and from the scene that I saw..." He shakes his head and pulls the rope extremely taut. "No, it was cold-blooded murder. I do not know why..."
Once the man is tied-up he nods to the two faun who come over and grab him. Xanostar stands as the faun take over. "Now let us deal with this other man you mentioned." The fauns drag the tied-up man behind the group as they head towards the horrendously wounded man.
"Listen, not trying to tell you your business here, but this one isn't going anywhere, frankly, I'd be surprised if he ever wakes again.
But if you let the last one, the one who bolted get away, he can spread all kinds of slander and make it more difficult to live here, on both sides of the fence."
Camp - 8:30PM
Xanostar glances sideways at Ruhk. "I am not concerned with him getting away. We will find him and deal with him accordingly. For now I must deal with what I have at hand..." For the first time, the satyr looks upset as he glances over his shoulder to the massive ice wall... which is starting to crumble and break apart. "Which is four friends to bury. And even more pixies than that..."
Ruhk holds up his hands in a gesture of peace.
"Like I said, it's your business.
Need a hand with that? I'm up, and I doubt I'll get more sleep tonight.
Uh...then again, if you don't like the idea of more human hands in this, I'll not be offended."
Camp - 8:30PM
Xanostar looks at Ruhk for a moment, then nods. "I will gladly acceptance your assistance... I do not think I ever heard your name." He states.
Ruhk laughs and holds out a hand.
"I was probably to busy making jokes to remember to introduce myself, I'm Ruhk, called the dandy by some (and no idea why).
Pleased to meet you Xanostar, although it could have been under better circumstances."
Camp - 12:30 AM
Ruhk assists Xanostar is binding the other, grievously injured man, and leaves the two men with Belladonna, Zilka, and Zirren to keep watch. Ruhk, Xanostar, and the two faun spend the next several hours gathering up enough dead fall and logs for a pyre large enough for the fallen faun... and another smaller one further away for the headless corpse of the ice fey. The fallen faun are arrayed in a honorable manner with their weapons and trophies. Then, as Xanostar plays a haunting tune on his pipes, a flame is set to the pyre and the fey sign an ancient song in their native tongue while the flames lick at the soulless remains of their friends...
Meanwhile as Caine and Boote continue following their trail they sudden hear the faint sounds of signing a pipe music up ahead. In short order they suddenly find themselves looking upon a strange sight of Ruhk, two faun, and a satyr standing around a large fire. In the distance they also spot the smouldering remains of a much smaller fire.
"Its about f&$+ing time." Caine muttered to himself. "" he called out to the rest, holding a hand up.
"Any of you seen anyone covered in gold blood? We followed some tracks straight here."
"Hey Nat, Grey!
Gold blood you say? Huh, what do you know? Seems we have another piece of the puzzle here Xanostar..."
"We-well that s-seems to have cleared away any doubt on what these men did here." Zirren said. Making his way over to the group.
He felt terrible and he was sure he didn't look much better either but they still had a task to accomplish. He took in a chilled breath and steeled himself.
"You have been great help to us so far and I don't know what, if anything, we can do to help you further. But if you would indulge us just a little more, we would ask of you one more boon. If you'd happen to direct us to the location of the Elder tree that we might gather some of its moss, you would be helping to save a great many more lives."
Belladonna has been fairly withdrawn since the groups first interaction with Xanostar. She looks this way and that, seeing bushes shift, small lights in the darkness, and all sorts of other things that may or may not be her imagination. The fighting, deaths, and Zirren's close call have all hit Belladonna fairly hard. She keeps close to Ruhk when she gets the chance, and she hugs her fox like a child with a teddy bear. She does however give a wide eyed smile when she sees Mr. Artegal return with Caine.