"That should be enough." He takes a small step back to give himself a little room before he shouts right in the trolls face. "Hey, big guy, look! We have fire. Fire to burn you with! Leave us be and we won't burn you." There's a fair chance the troll has no idea what he's saying, but hopefully the shouting and fire will do the talking for him.
Faethara moves towards the carriage as well. She draws her sword but keeps it lowered, in case the movement is innocuous.
The South Road -
The creature backs away 10' but does not flee though it is clearly shaken by the lit torch and its proximity.
The South Road -
As Grey and Faethara close on the carriage which is on its side. The only way to see into a window, if there is one, would be to climb up. There are no front or rear windows.
The doors are forced closed by a spear that has been wedged between the handles of the carriage doors. The carriage is on its side so you would need to climb up there to remove the spear, assuming any of you want to.
You see movement still as the carriage softly rocks but hear no voices.
Noticing the spear shafts blocking the door handles, Lanyssa tries to remove them. "Let's see if we can get this thing open here..."
Hendra stands slowly, using the shaft of her scythe to aid her.
"Odd. Would have thought they would have just let me die, flee while the thing ate me." Looking up at Frjya and Freyr, she gives a quick nod of thanks before turning back to the troll.
Wordlessly, the drow lashes out at the troll again with her scythe, aiming for the creature's neck in an effort to decapitate it.
Greivious shouts No! Can you not see the spear is on the outside? Whatever is in there was put in there by these dead me n... I say we set it aflame. If it's a living person they'd have heard us talking and would have said something... she pulls out an unlit torch, If you insist on opening it, at least call out...
Lanyssa jumps at the hearing of setting the carriage aflame. "What? No! We can't burn this if there's someone inside! What if he's gagged? What if they cut his tongue? Or it can be an animal. We need to interrogate him, or her!" Lanyssa looks at the others to seek for some support.
I stand by my original desire to open the carriage, if it was trapped in there by the bandits, it may be useful to us.
Greivious growls and prepares herself to blast whatever comes out at the first sign of danger
The South Road -
Hendra's strike cuts half of the creatures head off! It flops backwards flailing blood spraying everywhere including on all of you...
Before it hits the ground you watch as its neck re-knits itself before your very eyes! It attacks again but this time, the creature holding its most feared and hated weapon, fire...
Once more, the troll's attacks prove deadly as its right claw slices Freyr's left arm and its fangs bite deeply into his right shoulder. By the grace of the Gods did the things other massive clawed hand miss the Ranger.
The South Road -
Faethara stands by next to the carriage at the ready. Grey nods to Lanyssa to dislodge the spear. Grievous shakes her head and prepares a spell in case her fears are realized.
The doors are suddenly thrust open and two sets of bloodied hands reach up at anyone near them! One of the doors nearly knocks her off of the carriage. Pehaps she would have been better off knocked off though as the two sets of bloodied hands belong to two guardsmen who appear quite dead.
They both attack Lanyssa
clumsily as both miss her.
Grievous cannot quite see a foe yet as her view is obscured by the door now popped open, based on Lanyssa's body laguage though, she did not find a pot of gold in the carriage.
Lanyssa
Grievous
Grey
Zombies
Battlefield set up - only Lanyssa can currently see them as the bulk of their bodies are within the carriage and she is standing on top. It is about a 7' drop to the ground. Faethara, Grey, and Grievous are all on the ground near the carriage.
----
Fryja cried, she could feel the bite in her own skin, even though it was nothing more then phantom pains.
Once more she ran closer to the combat, this time to save her brother.
Freyr groans and hits the ground hard, blood dripping from his open wounds. He fades in and out of consciousness for a moment, before his sister manages to save his ass. "Thank you," he gasps, feeling several of the wounds closing. "The torch... need to burn it or it will keep coming back."
"Pull him back, get fire on weapon. Will hold here as long as able."
Turning back to the troll, she glares at him.
"No amount healing keep you safe from my blade. Give regards to hells, tell House Krammier sent you."
Seeing that her words might not be enough to cause the creature to turn its focus back on her, Hendra takes another swing at decapitating the beast before moving a few feet away from the twins.
Grey holds her action until she can see something to target. Lanyessa get off of there!
Lanyssa removes the shaft holding the door... when she's suddenly assailed by a pair of unknown attackers! They're caged inside the carriage, but she realises that letting them out will prove a better advantage for her group. Jumping down of the top of the chariot, she lets them come out while she grabs her falchion.
The hobgoblin growls and takes a step closer, dropping the torch and scowling. She whispers the words of power, and energy can visibly be seen flowing from the ground into the hobgoblin.
Great power surges into her and flames at almost four times normal power shoot from her hands at the tipped Carriage.
DC=14 reflex to take half
Greivious feels the energy draw on her body and Powers through it... Unfazed.
The South Road -
Once more, Hendra is able to strike the creature, this time she splits its dark green head in half! The green ichor once more splattering the beleaguered travelers.
The creature falls back. This time Lurruk is able to grab the Torch from the injured Freyr and finish the creature!
The South Road -
Lanyssa more falls than jumps off of the carriage.
Grievous draws upon the power of the land around her and the land responds to her commands! A fiery blast surges at the overturned carriage and Lanyssa can feel the heat from her vantage point!
The fire roasts the creatures but still they are moving. It also roasts the carriage setting the curtains within in fire.
Hendra looks on as corpse of the troll burns. "Riddance. Surprise so close to town." The adrenaline of combat fading, Hendra plants the butt of her scythe into the ground, steadying on it like an improvised cane. "Those months of guard duty left me rusty. That thing shouldn't have caught me unawares like that. I am getting soft, it seems."
She coolly inclines her head to Lurruk. "Good work with torch." The tone of these words is almost enough to turn the black ichor dripping from the scythe blade into elongated icicles, but beneath the cold is some modicum of respect as well. "Never did ask what call you by. Oversight. Your name is?"
"Thank you Lurruk," Freyr says as he forces himself to his feet. His shoulder still feels stiff and painful, but he's up and capable of moving just fine. "That could have been much worse. Does anyone know if trolls are common around here or were we just unlucky?" He shakes himself. "Doesn't really matter. Let's keep going."
"It wasn't my idea but I will take credit anyway," grins Lurruk.
To Hendra's question he replies, "I'm called Lurruk. Don't worry about it- I'm used to your boorish manners already." His eyes have a sliver of a sparkle this time addressing her.
Faethara digs a flask out of her belt pouch to throw at the first baddie she gets a clear shot at.
The South Road -
Faethara tosses her flask into the carriage and the mist rises from the inside, thereafter, the carriage goes still.
Well that certainly did not go as I expected, I apologize for placing us all in more danger than necessary. I wonder where the undead came from? Shall we see if we can't thaw out the Captain of the Guard there and see if we don't find out anything interesting from a closer examination? In fact we could probably achieve that by simply dragging him closer to the burning carriage. After that we should probably investigate the trail leading off into the woods, but we might want to wait until any others from town catch up.
Greivious cackles like a maniac. By the gods I love FIRE!!! her grin is wider than ever. She looks to the half-orc. Told you to burn it... she goes around and begins stoking the fire with her Trident.
"You can't burn things just like that! Plus, try to be more cautious, you really don't want to burn me!" Lanyssa walks with difficulty, but still she manages to step a bit back from the fire. "After all, we've got the same result but we know what was inside".
"All things considered, that worked out rather well," Faethara says, and stows her blade. "More to the point, why the hell are there undead here? That is not exactly trivial magic, to say the least!"
Fryja took one of Lurruk's hands between both of hers and smiled softly at him. "Thank you Lurruk, your idea or not it did help save my brother." She told him softly before she returned to Freyr's side. "Are you sure you're alright to continue?" She asked him, a worried look upon her face.
"And I value my life very much," Freyr adds with just a hint of a smile. He tests his injuries and winces as he moves his shoulder too far. "You're healing touch is just as strong as ever, sister. I think that I should be alright to keep going, but I'd rather not have another fight today if we can help it."
"Just, please be more careful." Fryja said as she placed a hand upon her twin's shoulder. "We should try to say closer to one another, a group would be able to react better then each of us on our own." She told the group as she looked to them all.
Freyr sets his hand on top of hers, trying to look comforting. "I will. And yes, I believe that may be wise. If nothing else, we should be able to avoid getting singled out by a troll again."
The South Road -
You drag the Captain near the fire to thaw, he is clearly hopelessly deceased without some potent magic to revive him and even then his swordarm seems destined to be lost.
As you turn your faces north and the fire begins to die away, you see four familiar figures approaching all of you on foot...
The South Road -
That close encounter leaves the small party battered an bruised but alive. They once again head down the trail, the father from town and further south they get the colder it becomes, certainly the Elvanna's know why.
Soon enough the group sees black smoke in the southern distance,m something down there is on fire. You are all able to follow the south road with no further incidents.
Two more miles and you see it, the snow in the distance. Currently it falls lightly but only in certain areas. There is no question that the snow is magical in nature. The distinction between green grass and snowy ground is clear cut, as if a force field contains the snow and allows it no further.
As the fire begins to die away you come closer to its source and see four familiar figures milling about what appears to be the site of the ambush. Several dead bodies and horses and one burned out carriage complete the scene of carnage.
The Ambush Site of the South Road
"Lurruk." Hendra says, nodding. "Strong name as such go." Taking out one of her daggers, the drow cuts out two of the troll's tusks from the wreckage of its head. Sheathing the dagger after cleaning it, she hands one to the half orc. "Trophy from powerful foe. Worth keeping, bring luck." Placing the other in her bag, she turns to the twins.
"More fighting possible outcome, depends on what found at site. Perhaps others there."
As they get closer, the drow shakes her head at the smoke. "Fire. Wonder if from ambush or later."
"Hopefully the group that went ahead of us will have taken care of anything particularly problematic at the site. Otherwise I think that both of us may be in for a bad time."
As they draw close to the ambush site, he sees the smoke and frowns. "Maybe the bandits, but I doubt that allies of the cold fey would use a large amount of fire. Perhaps something else happened." He heads toward the group milling around in the wreckage.
Wow, what happened to you two? It looks like you ran into something tough!
Eht first hexes Freyr and then Hendra.
"We ran into a troll." Fryja explained with a sigh. "It wasn't something we where expecting to find." She added. Fryja looked around at the battle and returned a question of her own "I take it most of this was here when you arrived?"
"We should bring alchemist's fire next time. That will teach any more trolls a lesson." He nods, hoping that the group can answer his sister's question and shed some light on the situation.
"We, on the other hand, used too much fire here" adds Lanyssa, looking at Grievous. "The carriage will give us no clue now that is completely charred, so I suggest we look for anything else that's left before we decide to destroy it" she says, and takes a mental note to have a long conversation with the hobgoblin about arson. "If this one is going to use her powers that recklessly, I'll have to keep an eye on her".
Hendra accepts the healing from Grey with a raised eyebrow. "Mother was right, surface dwellers are the strangest bunch of creatures on this miserable dirt ball."
"Thank you. Yes, was troll. Bastard took three swings, plus torch stroke, bring down." She pulls out the creatures tusk as proof, and points to Lurruk when she says the word torch.
Grievous scoffs. too much fire? what are you, a bloody dryad? i can use as much fire as I want! she chuckles. ah, but i know the risks... all too well. she adjusts the wraps on her arms.
so, a troll? I bet you would have loved to have me about for that!
Faethara goes to take a look at the carriage anyways, once the flames die out.
As she takes a look, she says, "More to the point, the carriage contained undead, likely the lady's guards turned. That is not exceptionally powerful magic, but it is yet uncommon. Grievious wounded them with a spell, and I finished them off with a flask of acid. I still have two more, if there are trolls in these woods, and I may have another trick in the same vein, given some time to prepare it."
Lurruk accepts Hendra's gift with a bemused smile. "Er, thank you." He wraps the tusk up in a scrap of cloth and puts into a pocket of his cloak.
As they continue on, he is astonished to see what he already knew to be there- "Snow! Is this really what it's like? It's beautiful and terrible all at once."
Beauty swoops in and lands on Lurruk's shoulder, shaking the snow from her. She seems happy, as far as owls go. The half-orc says, "I told you I would bring you home, little one! Did you have success hunting while we fought the troll?"
When they reach the others, Lurruk greets Grey warmly and smiles sheepishly at Lanyssa. "Hello again."
He takes a look around the burned-out carriage. He whistles lowly when he sees the extent of the destruction. "Yes we sure could have used some flames like this against the rotten troll."
"I'm a little worried if they're going to have undead supporting them as well. It seems that for a group of bandits, these raiders have a great deal of support." Freyr frowns and starts to help the others go over the site. They need to find something if they're going to find the noblewoman. And the sooner that's done, the sooner he can get his sister far away from this mess.
Lanyssa raises her eyebrows in response to Grievous remark, and murmurs something just high enough that she can hear it: "Yeah, well, remember I can use as much falchion as I want..."
Then she turns to the others and, pointing at the carriage again, talks openly. "Well, as we have close to nothing to investigate there, we should have a look at the footprints. I think there were some interesting ones here..."