"This should get the attention of these wintery creatures."
Gaandik nods to Indras:
"Now, on to the ambush site."
"Alright, follow me gents and lady. But keep your voice to a minimum and your eyes peeled for trouble, I had a feeling of being watched on my way here."
He shoulders his second quiver with cold iron arrows and heads out from the front.
"Let's hope we don't meet that many of them, I'd rather be fighting bandits and wolves."
"Indeed, let's hope."
Grayson stows his new equipment, and takes up a spot in the rear of the group. Turning his cloak up close to his face to hold out the cold air, the man steels himself against the weather.
With the directions he received from Yuln, Indras is able to find the site of the attack on Lady Argentea Malassene's caravan. Retracing Yuln's trail, the party finds themselves on the fringes of the Border Wood, where the remains of the noblewoman's escort lie. The temperature is considerably colder here then it was in town, barely just above freezing. The road ahead is littered with debris and the corpses of slain humans and horses. A carriage stands out in the roadway, its team of horses missing or cut free, while another overturned carriage lies sprawled and broken next to the tree line. To the south, more bodies have fallen around what appears to be a statue of ice. A snowy trail leads deeper into the forest.
"Brr! This is colder than even I am used to!"
"Blast, forgot my warm cloak and vest at my camp, It's already colder than I imagined it to be."
"It seems they have run off in that direction. Everyone holding up in this cold?"
(+5 Outfit, +2 from the Survival)
Charlotte pulls the lined cloak against her and begins surveying the site, trying to piece together what happened. The bodies strewn across the ice statue intrigue her, and she moves over to examine the statue.
"Ah... It's been too long since I've felt cold like this." Stigr feels it clamping on him, and while the memories evoked turn bittersweet from the fact that he's unprepared for such temperatures, and he feels it seeping into his bones and slowing his movements, he still savors it. "Mm... Let's begin."
Still grunting as he moves about, Stigr checks the bodies and carriage, then looks for any tracks. He saves the statue for last.
Gaandik gives some tips to conserve body heat. The cold weather seems not to affect him.
The cleric follows Stigr: "Let us stick together."
Most of the bodies on the ground lie pierced with tiny needles and shards of ice, and they are all stripped of armor and weapons. The overturned carriage has already been looted by the bandits, two of Lady Argentea's handmaidens lie dead inside, broken boxes and chests can be found around the overturned carriage, but they only contain 3 courtier's outfits. The second carriage is locked, it bears the marks of Taldan heraldry as well as damage from many arrows. A spear was wedged between the handles of the carriage doors to hold them closed.
The statue appears to actually be a man, encased in ice, however he is no longer intact. Fragments of his frozen body lie before the man, still wearing his breastplate which is emblazoned with Taldan heraldry. The man's arm still grips his masterwork longsword.
At the edge of the massacre site, an obvious trail leads between a copse of trees and over a snowy plain towards Border Wood.
Charlotte gazed up at the frozen man, shivering just looking at him. His breastplate caught his eye, and she looked up at his face with an idle curiosity, trying to determine if she knew, or had suspicions, as to who he was.
Stigr shakes his head. "Senseless slaughter... These people were massacred, outside of their homes and all of civilization..." The Ulfen begins moving from corpse to corpse, reciting last rites and raising prayers to Erastil to guard their souls as they move to their new homes.
"Now, for this carriage," he says once he's finished, moving toward the 'locked' vehicle. "I think we can all agree it's important that we investigate. Being locked from the outside, it must have been shut by the attackers, meaning they wanted something to stay in there. The enemy of our enemy may well be our ally... Still, I'd suggest keeping weapons ready." The Ulfen himself hefts his battleaxe in two hands, prepared to chop through the haft of the spear. "Ready?"
"Go for it. Then I would like to see if the longsword and the breastplate are useable."
Gaandik touches his holy symbol out of habit.
Indras nocks an arrows on to his bow, gazing upon the carriage, as well as keeping an eye out for any other trouble out here at the ambush site.
"Ready when you are Preacher."
Grayson draws his Greatsword, looking very comfortable with the heft.
"I like not the thought of some poor creature still being alive in there....I am ready Prophet."
Grayson moves to stand next to the door of the coach, ready to strike anything that attacks.
Drazheek stands ready. Not facing the carriage but watching for an ambush.
He has his sling ready and a bullet set to go.
With a grunt, Prophet hefts his axe and brings it down on the spear.
Upon the rather abrupt opening of the carriage, two zombies shamble towards you.
Initiative
"Erastil guide you home!" Stigr shouts as he chops into the nearest zombie with his axe.
Having sliced into the monster, the Ulfen drops back away from it, intending to draw his bow if needed.
Charlotte turns from the frozen statue in surprise, raising and firing her crossbow at one of the zombies.
Waiting until his companions are out of the way, Grayson takes a mighty swing, ,with his greatsword at the nearest zombie!
Indras moves up a bit and fires one arrows straight at the zombie that Stigr isn't attacking.
He takes a moment to look if the arrow had any effect on the unliving thing.
Drazheek fires a ray of frost at the zombie on the right.
The sudden appearance of the zombies causes him to be startled and the ray misses.
Gaandik delays to see if weapons can bring down the horrible creatures. He avoids getting in the way of the better fighters.
Stigr slams his axe into one of the zombies, striking a decent blow and then moves aside as Grayson slashes the second zombie straight through. Drazheek tries to fling a ray of ice towards the first zombie, but misses entirely out of shock and then Indras knocks an arrow right in the zombie's skull, knocking it's head clean off.
"That was quick work friends!"says Grayson, obviously impressed by his newfound companions.
I think we may have a greater chance of success than I initially believed....
Grayson begins searching the haggard corpses.
"That's disgustings!" Drazheek says as he observes Grayson search the undead corpses.
While Grayson investigates the corpses, Stigr moves into the carriage, pulling his shirt up over his nose to guard against any stench, though the cold may well have kept the smell weak.
Gaandik joins him and looks for any sign of the power that raised them.
The zombies don't appear to have anything on them, but looking through the carriage, Gaandik finds a small jewelry box under the carriage seat. The jewelry box is unlocked and contains a signet ring, a pair of earrings, a set of pearl-inlaid bracelets, assorted gold and silver necklaces, and one sapphire pendant.
Moving back out of the carriage, Stigr stands between the zombie corpses, again reciting last rites and blessing them. He ends the ceremony with an improvised touch: beheading the two creatures. "Måtte deres sjeler gi videre til Valhalla, krigere," he intones in a strange, sing-song language.
"May your souls pass onto Valhalla, warriors."
"Well, I think this goes in the party treasure pile."
He points at the statue:
"I wanted breastplate, but couldn't afford it."
Gaandik then points to the statue and checks out the breastplate and the finely wrought longsword. If the breastplate is serviceable, he will look to upgrade his armor. He is curious to discover anything of interest on the corpsicle.
"Hate to break your bubble mate, but isn't that man still encased in ice? Staring at it and calling dibs is not enough to get it free. I suggest smash it with a hammer or melt it with flame".
Indras keeps an arrow nocked on his bow and warily scans the surroundings for more trouble. Argen sidles up from his collar to his shoulder and almost retreats back at the smell of the zombies.
Charlotte approached the zombies as Grayson begins going through their pockets. She looks at them curiously, wondering what created them. 'I haven't seen anything that could raise the dead before, she thought with a shudder, imagining all of her trophies coming back to life at once.
A pit was forming in her stomach as she walked away, surveying the land. Hearing Gaandik making plans to steal from the dead, and Indras's suggestions on how to best do it, leaves her feeling disgusted. 'Vultures, all of them.' she thinks to herself.
She turns again, and sees the obvious trail leading from the massacre site towards the Border Wood. Curiosity got the better of her, and she began crunching through the snow alongside the path.
The man is indeed still frozen, and getting the armor out of the ice without damaging it might prove difficult, and time consuming, which is likely why the bandits left the armor on the man. There appears to be no more immediate threats in the area so with enough time one could carefully remove the breastplate from the frozen man, but with the weather and knowing that the bandits have Lady Argentea hostage, it does not seem like time would be on your side.
The obvious trail which leaves the massacre site goes through heavy snow, making it easy to see what sort of creatures made the tracks, horses and men make up the majority of the tracks.
Stigr looks up from his work to see Charlotte wander off toward the woods. Deadeye's bowstring, what's the girl doing? He stands up and strides after her, pulling his cloak tight.
"And where might you be off to, lass?" Stigr calls to her in a light tone. "We already know these woods are dangerous; best not to go off alone." He kneels down and looks at the tracks. "Hm..."
Indras sees the two humans wandering off from the rest. Not at all interested in the carriage and the frozen man, he walks up to them, still keeping his arrow nocked and his gaze at the surroundings.
"You might want to stay within the safety of the group you know. Even seasoned warriors and guards have died here, the carriage is the evidence of that."
He looks over with one eye as Stigr kneels down to look at the tracks.
Seeing apparently nothing new or unusual to him, he keeps his mouth shut before he says anything stupid.
Drazheek moves a short distance away from the carriage and keeps an eye out for anything that might be unusual or out of place.
Everything seems calm for the moment so he plays with some snow and forms a snowball while looking around deviously.
Charlotte looks back as Prophet calls to her. "Yes, right. Well." she stammers, before choking out an explanation. "I wasn't going into the woods, I was just looking."
"Don't you think that the tracks look human? If they didn't bother to cover them, they mustn't believe anyone is following them. The winter touched might not know better, but any men worth their weight should." She mused. "We really ought to hurry if we want to catch them. Another snowfall will disguise their escape."
Stigr glances up as Indras approaches. "Wise words, but I can handle myself in the wilds. And I didn't plan on separating from the group." He nods at Charlotte's comments. "Agreed. We'd best get a move on if we wish to find them."
Gaandik will leave the breastplate for later, and the longsword if it is truly stuck too.
"Let us stick together. Things may not be as easy as that last encounter."
Grayson, having remained typically quiet, sets off with Charlotte, Prophet and the rest of the group. He angles himself away from the wind, and grudgingly turns up the hood of his cloak.
Erastil guide us.
As the group follows the trail, they do not notice any tracks that are not human or horse, if there were other creatures here, such as the fey that Yuln had mentioned, they either did a better job of hiding their trail, or they did not leave one at all.
As the trail enters the full expanse of the Border Wood, it passes through a small clearing among the taller trees before continuing uphill and out of sight. A large chest lies half-buried in the snow, apparently dropped or discarded by those who hastily passed this way.
"Ah, another clue." Stigr nods his head, his breath steaming in the cold air. "Think it's as trapped as the last?"
"Only one way to find out." Charlotte replies, dropping down into the snow. She looks over the chest and digs some tools out from her bag to start testing its security measures.
"Be cautious lady Greystone." Grayson shivers as he watches Charlotte's progress with the chest.
The Ranger turns his attention to their surroundings, and looks for any other dangers.