The orc says nothing, he just continues to tremble..
"It's going to be all right"
Daphne steps towards the shaking girl, ignoring the orc.
"How many of you did he keep here? We'll see you to safety, all of you, if you can tell us where to find your friends. Halmier can you do something about her bruise? She's underfed and scared, no reason to leave her marked as well."
Daphne looks towards the group, then the wagons, staying protectively near the girl they saved. Her eye catches on the orc, and she stops herself before stepping towards him.
"I don't care what you do with the orc, but he's not likely to be useful to us, and I'm fairly sure he broke the local law as much as his idiot leader. Kill him or give him to the guards as your conscious demands, but waste no more time on him."
I turn away from the Orc, his pathetic being slipping from my mind.
I want to go SKATING! Since every time we encounter ice I always seem to fall flat on my face. These "ice skates" seem like something I will have to buy a pair of before we leave here.
The girl is shaking from fear, but accepts your help thankfully.. After taking care of the others and dealing with the remaining orc the group moves over to some Ice Skating!
"The frozen lake has been transformed into a wonderland of winter fun. Several ice skaters twirl and dance across one half of the shimmering surface, while on the opposite half two teams of men struggle as they attempt to tug each other back and forth across the slippery ice."
You can skate or participate in the tug-o-war..
I look around in glee at maybe the only place so far that can't be taken away by the craven. I look over at wreck and Harb
Go flex your muscles gentlemen, I am going skating
I walk over to the both and rent a pair of skates, asking around to the others there if they can help show me how to put them on and maybe a quick less so I don't fall and look to overly foolish.
"Skating. Definitely skating. Danika did you know that there are ice dancers? They devote their whole lives to skating...
Daphne follows Danika towards the skate rental.
I almost look sad at Daphne
So your telling me I can give up the life of an adventurer and turn to ice skating? Sounds like a good deal to me
I wink at Daphne and tie my skates up and move out on to the ice.
Wreck eyes the ice, then shakes his head
"You girls go do that... I prefer to have my feet on stable, non slippery ground... but i do expect a show. Amazing or funny. Do not care" he gives both of them a tusky smile
Harbaestus decides to go to the tug-o-war, as supposed. He scratches his dwarf head and gets moving, still a little hurt from the last fight.
"Harb! Good idea! I'll come with you." he awkwardly moves up to end up next to him as they head to the tug 'o war
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[b]"It definitely has it's appeals. That said, you wouldn't get to explode nearly as many people as an ice dancer, and the costumes are worse."
Daphne continues chatting amiably with danika.
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Danika and Daphne fall down a few times but eventually get the hang of it..
Wreck and Harb dig in and pull as hard as they might..
Both their other pullers do well too!
The match goes back and forth, but one last ferocious pull from Harb brings it home for the adventurers.. There's some complaining about using magical aid on the other side, but in the end the woodsman pay up..
as the group moves about the Carnival the rest of the day is pretty exciting. Harb almost wins the Archery contest and Wreck takes down the pie easting contest with ease.. Finally though the group goes to check out "THE MONSTER GRADZAAL"..
"A small encampment of wagons and tents rests near the entrance to the ice maze. In the center of this encampment sits a tremendous iron cage. Inside paces a hulking dark-haired minotaur performing displays of strength for an unruly audience of carnival goers who gawk and jeer at the great beast. Children dare one another to pull the beast’s mangy hair or pelt it with snowballs, hoping to elicit a fierce snarl from the terrible beast, which then sends the kids scattering. A brightly painted plaque bolted to the bars of the cage reads “Mighty Gradzaal! The Monstrous Minotaur!"
Wreck grunts
"No need to torture the beast. It is captured. If it should get loose, a lot of innocents will die due to this mocking"
"And then I tried that jump. I don't know why I tried, it just looked so easy. We would make terrible ice dancers I think danika. We'll just have to stay heroes."
They wander happily through the carnival, eyeing the other events. Daphne's eye lands on the cage, and she remarks.
"Oh hey, isn't that a...."
Daphne stops suddenly, peering at the cage.
Daphne see's a spec of fiendish blood in this Minotaur..
"Harb, the minotaur, a fiend?"
"Where did the scaters go anyways after that danika? I couldn't tell"
Daphne turns danika away from the cage putting her safely on the backline if the fiend attacks.
I... Don't know. - Harbaestus replies in Sylvan - ... But let's be ready in any case. This night had been fairly eventful.
The dwarf pulls his weapon, apparently not too worried about the surroundings.
Now, what's going on here? - he abruptly asks.
The fair goers seem fairly alarmed that a weapon was drawn.. A carny steps forward.. "Its part of the show man.. Put yur weapon up or I'll get the law."
Can I ask where you found such an interesting specimen? He isn't just your run of the mill Minotaur now is he?
I take an extra step back as Daphne moves me more towards the rear of the party.
Has he always been part of the show? Is he new? I just don't feel over safe with those bars you have holding him in, are they Cold Iron or Adamantine?
The carny sneers at Danika.. "He's been with us quite a while now.. Don't worry your pretty little face.. He's harmless.."
Moving on.. ACT 2!!
Throughout the day you guys have picked up on a few whispers and rumors..
“Quinn is the Carnival Master here, but they say he rarely shows himself these days. The half-elf used to be an adventurer, one of the most famous about. He led some of his fellow carnies in a party called the Nightshades along with his wife Tessa—at least until some horrible monsters in Darkmoon Vale killed her. Quinn ain’t never been the same since.”
“Quinn’s cohorts were pretty disreputable curs before he rehabilitated them. I hear that since Tessa was killed, Quinn doesn’t take much interest in that minotaur. I wouldn’t be surprised if he returned to his old ways without Quinn to bring him to heel.”
“Winter coming early a coincidence? Not bloody likely. I heard that wife o’ Quinn’s wasn’t just killed—an evil fey took her soul. Late at night, they say, strange sprites and moving shadows creep about the carnival after the tents have shut and the lanterns gone dark. They say that Namdrin Quinn has struck some sort o’ bargain with the fey folk in order to get his wife’s soul back. Wonder what he had to do to appease them?”
As you all think and talk it over you see the know one hardly notices a red fox run up to the group with a letter in its mouth.. It drops the letter at the groups feet, turns, and runs away.. It reads:
"Hail Champions, A bleak and bitter frost has fallen across the forest, and I fear it has reached even into the hearts of my people. Aided by agents of an ancient evil, they are about to visit such destruction upon the people of your community as has only been seen in nightmares. If you would aid me in combating these villains, please come swiftly to the grove beyond the west entrance of the carnival. Do not be startled by my appearance."
Signed—Syntira
It seems we are being beckoned once again for our skills and knowledge, maybe we should find your drunkard friend Daphne and show him more of what we are about.
I wink at her.
After a long night of sleep, Harb wakes up shaking his arms and yelling for an imaginary troll to let go of his little feet (his exactly words). After recomposing himself and getting back to his companions, the dwarf heard about the rumors and the letter, then quickly packs his equipment.
Don't like tha part 'bout appearance. We gotta investigate anyway tho. That carnival was already strange yestahday.
"Dragging the dwarf around during his bouts of narcolepsy is bad enough. Welcome back harb, we really need to get your curse reversed. I know it's tradition to wait for your true love, but couldn't we see"
She trails off and sighs at his glare.
"Peace friend. Let's go attend the lady of the wood."
I look around at each of my friends
this feel like a trap to anyone? I think we are generally being asked for some help this time.
"Why go through all that trouble to invite all of us? If it was a trap, wouldnt it be better to get us seperated? Besides. All the trouble we've seen? I say we go"
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The group moves to the grove of doom happiness.
On the western edge of the grove, a pinprick of yellow light flares suddenly against the darkness. From the smallest flash of color, it silently increases its radiance until it seems as if the sun itself has come down from the heavens into the grove.
Suddenly, directly in front of the light, an alluring female form appears. The intensity of the light makes it almost impossible to determine any of her features, but it is clear she must be stunningly beautiful, and completely naked. The only part of her that is clearly visible is her eyes, which are liquid brown and seem to draw in the light. Her voice chimes with the crystal beauty of a mountain spring on a summer afternoon.
She speaks:
“Please do not fear. I will not harm you or any other mortal. I am Syntira, nymph queen of Darkmoon Vale, and I am of the First World. My court of fey lived in these dark woods before the first of your kind set foot upon its verdant green."
She pauses to let yal all take it in..
"I suppose you are wondering why I asked you here yes?"
I think even just a simple explanation is a good place to start. I also assume it will have something to do with the leader of the Carnival and his dead/missing soul wife?
"Indeed.." She begins a tale..
"For an age or more we have watched you from tree and shadow, through spider’s eyes, underneath the wings of sparrows, and behind the grub worm and acorn. Long have we watched as your people bled the land with axe and flame. For a spell my anger grew such that I would see you all pay for this scourging of the forest. When I wallowed in the deepest pit of hate is when a cold wind blew down on my grove. A rider came with the wind; atop a dead stag and sheathed in frozen blades he came, and with a voice like steel on ice he promised me revenge. I agreed then, but now I know this course is ill. I only hope I have not awakened to the truth of this evil too late. When the rider came, my people changed. The cold froze their flesh; their hearts turned to ice. They forgot the green, forgot the woods. They forgot everything but hate. Now they come with the wind, led by their cold rider. They come to the carnival to butcher you and the rest of the mortals, and the only one who could stand against them is chained by bands of love stronger than iron."
"The Cold Rider plans to use the Eye of Rapture the help in the slaughter.."
Not the smartest or wisest dwarf around, Harb scratched his head murmuring the words slowly. Finally he shook his head and spoke with his low and loud voice.
Who is that Cold Rider, and what is this Eye of Rapture, mate?
I assume that it is someone who made a deal with the Fey and they changed because of the deal, our new friend here is stating that she had the hatred as well but was saved by the remembering the forest will heal over time. I could be wrong though but I feel this eye of rapture is something that will remove the humans from this area or existence.
She responds to the questions.
"A cold rider is a powerful foe. An evil fey that is not easily slain.. Where they walk, winter follows and the strive for great sorrow and misery. What I know about them is this. As long as ice is near, his wounds knit. Fire and shattering force, or the vibrations of sound, can destroy him best. His armor is thick, but can be sundered by magic if you know the proper spell though.”
-------
"The Eye of Rapture is a powerful artifact. In the hands of the cold rider it is deadly. It can be used to create a powerful illusion effect of a large area. Those under its spell see what they want to see, not what is real. They are oblivious to pain, ignoring the screams of agony and their own free-flowing blood. Death takes them with a smile on their face. The townsfolk believe even now that they enjoy the delights of the carnival, but already the cold rider’s converts crush and kill and burn, strangle and choke, gouge jellied eyes from their sockets, and smash brittle bones to shards of pain."
-------
" “The master of the carnival, the half-elf for whom steel and shadow dance as one—he is their slave now. The rider has his wife imprisoned in a shard of deep black ice. Namdrin Quinn swore an unbreakable oath of the old world not to interfere with the cold rider’s revenge, and in return his wife will be free of the ice shard prison that binds her fast. But Namdrin is betrayed. The crystal feeds on his love’s soul, and the only freedom she will know is horrid death, her soul consumed by the evil of shard. Namdrin cannot break his oath, but you could free him of his bond. If you can destroy the shard and free his wife, the compact will be sundered, and the half-elf will rise against his tormentors and aid you.”
"“You need only destroy the crystal with a solid blow of the steel you so favor. Once sundered, her spirit will be free."
-------
“You must act quickly. My kin already begin their slaughter. Your people bleed—I feel their pain as I once did the torment of the trees. Pain is evil. Tree, beast, or man, it makes no matter, and no measure of cruelty can repair what has come before. Your kin suffer for nothing but spite. Save them, and save yourselves. But take this with you, lest you offer yourselves to the frozen fey as lambs to a butcher.”
The intoxicating woman waves her hand across the snow, and a small collection of vials appears.
“Drink this and you will not fall prey to the rider’s magic. So long as this Eye remains unspoiled, your people will continue their revels as the fey cut them down. You must stop the slaughter. Only by frustrating the cold rider can you force him to appear so you can end your people’s suffering once and for all. Once he is dead the Eye will also be gone..”
Daphne pauses as she listens to the nymphs words.
"His freely given oath was betrayed? Does he know this?"
She collects her vial, frowning and turning it over in her hands.
I take my vial as well looking it over, removing the cork and smelling at the liquid contained with in.
I have to ask what sort of magics are in this vial, not that I don't trust you just for my own inquisitive nature.
So we must give Wreck and Harb the opening they need to strike at the Eye and have Quinn there so he can aid us?
"Where is Quinn's wife held? And how long will the magic last?" Halmier holds up the vial he just received.
"Im ready for a fight. Today simply boiled my blood!" he grins at the prospect of using his hammer again
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I look around the Carnival, clearing my mind and relaxing.
so your telling me all the Orcs we have fought or encountered that are attempting to kill women are fey who are working for this Cold Rider? They are actually killing these women in some sort of sacrifice? The only thing I don't understand is that they all seem to be aware of what is going on when they are being attacked.
"She looks puzzled at Danika.. I know nothing of Orcs. At this very moment the fey are slaying the citizens of Falcon's Hollow. You must not tarry or all will be lost. The potion will protect you all from teh Eye's effects. And Namdrin's wife is being held in the witch's ice. You must destroy it to release her. The cold rider carries it so you will have to entice him to fight by killing him troops.."
Harbaestus wasn't really trusting much the nymph - he didn't particularly like fey at all - but the fact he'd got to kill some was actually paying off for his mistrust.
Eh, you only live once! - he says, full of accent, immediately drinking the vial contents - Let's see about tha cold rider mate, ye.
Hrm. Well, it didn't seem to poison Harbaestus at any rate.
"Technically you live as many times as pharasma's priests are willing to recall you, but I doubt the lady would be poisoning us just before asking us to help. Oh and in entirely related news, I just realized why they have a fiendish minotaur."
Daphne sounds glum, and drinks her potion.
"We could have saved ourselves so much trouble if we'd shot him full of arrows while he was in that cage."