Charlotte is able to verify that the chest is indeed trapped, however in attempting to disarm the trap, she instead springs it.
Suddenly, A spiked log comes flying down towards Charlotte.
The Log manages to hit Charlotte with no problem at all.
Charlotte's scream pierces the air as the spikes cut through her coat and into her skin.
"Damnation!" Stigr cries out, grabbing Charlotte and pulling her back away from the chest. "Lady Greystone, stay still. Do we have a healer?" He looks up, placing his cloak on the wound to staunch any blood flow, though the girl doesn't look to be bleeding out.
"Stigr, hold her still!". Grayson places his hand firmly against the bloody stain on the lady's coat.
A pale flight flickers under his palm, and quickly dissipates.
"Give her a moment, lay her down. She should be okay now... says Grayson, relaxing.
Stigr nods as Grayson heals the woman. "Thank you." Gesturing with his fingers and murmuring in Skald, the clergyman causes water to stream out and clean the wound and clothing.
Charlotte's breathing is rapid and uneven, but finally begins to slow as Grayson puts his hand against her. She lays in the snow, shivering as Prophet cleans her wounds, trying to regain her bearings. She forces a weak smile at the men around her, before saying, "You think I'd have learned by now. I am in your debt, gentlemen."
After a few minutes, she pushes herself up into a sitting position. "It would appear that I was wrong. They may not have covered their tracks, but did take the time to leave a trap. Curious."
"Well," she said, doing her best to brush it off and seem strong. "Shall we see what my blood bought us?"
Please do and be quick about it." Indras says sounding harsh.
"Your scream may have alerted them or even worse things draw nearer to the sound."
Indras still keeps his eyes peeled for anything that approaches.
Argen does the same by smelling the air around them.
If anyone had heard the scream, they do not seem all that interested, as the forest is still quiet and cold. Upon opening the chest, Charlotte discovers that it is actually empty, though why it was half buried in the snow is still a mystery, had it had something in it and not been a trap perhaps it would have been buried completely or perhaps it is only there to distract from something a little less obvious.
Argen smells many things, but is not sure what if anything might be threatening, he smells neither fear nor blood-thirst from anything nearby and thus does not seem to believe that anything is out of the ordinary.
Drazheek peers from around Indras and watches the scene.
"That looked like ouchies!"
"Indeed, Drazheek," Stigr says, helping to stand and balance. "As for this chest, it's most likely a trap, a ploy to distract and slow us down." The Ulfen sounds bitter and annoyed with the trap's placement and efficacy, upset with himself for wanting to investigate it.
"Well, investigating it was probably the thing to do. Let us stay on the trail, we need to get the lady."
Before moving on Drazheek casts a spell.
"એનર્જી મને દૃશ્યક્ષમ બની જાય છે. તમે જ્યાં છો તે મને બતાવો
Charlotte lowers her eyes from Indras, knowing that he's right. She says nothing as Prophet helps her to her feet, and only furrows her brow on seeing that the chest is empty.
She shares Prophet's feelings of annoyance, but more than that, she feels embarrassment at being caught off guard and tricked. "They may have fooled us once, but they shan't again." she said, a new determination coming to her eyes.
The chest does not appear to be magical, but it doesn't appear to be level either, perhaps there's more to the chest being half buried then just to trigger a trap.
Charlotte does not notice anything else significant around. She does know that it is unnaturally cold however, much colder then it was before you entered the forest, and that the trail is leading deeper into the snowy wood. Charlotte also knows that there is a Fort deep in this wood known as The High Sentinel Lodge which is supposed to be operated by Taldan rangers to guard the forest from Qadiran aggression.
Charlotte looked down at the chest and frowned. Something still felt off to her. An empty chest, half buried in the snow, trapped. It didn't make sense. She bit her lip and looked around, looked at the chest, looked towards Prophet and Gaandik. "Humour me for a moment longer, gentlemen?" She offered.
"I know that we've wasted considerable time here already, but a few more seconds shouldn't make a world of difference." She gestures to the chest. "If you could, please, I'd very much like to see what's underneath."
"Nothing magical about the chest. No more ouchies ok? Bad for you."
"No trouble Ms. Greystone. Drazheek! Come help me dig this out.
Pausing for a moment, Grayson shakes off the cold and then, drawing his dagger from the hidden wrist sheath, he begins digging out around the corners of the chest.
The ice, and hard packed ground make for a difficult time and it takes several minutes before the haphazardly buried container is ready to be removed.
After managing to remove the chest, a plainly visible cache is revealed, containing five sets of leather armor, three sets of studded leather armor, a masterwork chain shirt, two light wooden shields, seven longswords, two spears, a masterwork dagger, and three light crossbows with a total of 25 bolts. This must been the armor and weapons that were taken from Lady Argentea's guards.
Indras keeps his eyes peeled for danger, but overhears the words of Charlotte.
"You thinking their might be more to it then? A hidden compartment of sorts? In old stories they'd knock to check if it sounds hollow, beats me if that works."
"Well at least we now know what happened to their equipment, would be a waste to not use it I'd say. I wonder why'd they leave it here. Was it too heavy for them to take along?"
His eyes scan the contents of the cache intensively and he sees the chain shirt.
"That chain shirt looks of a better quality than my own worn one. I'll take that along."
"Dagger if not too much trouble. Good for me." he says while eying the dagger.
"Good thinking digging out that chest. That equipment will be useful, though that dagger looks a little big for your hands Draz. Maybe you can use it as shortsword?"
Gaandik waits until the equipment is divvied up.
"Shall we continue. Some of us won't want to be out here too long in this cold."
Charlotte looks pleased that her intuition was correct. Even if it did take several stab wounds for her to get there. She looked under her jacket to observe the damage done to her armour from the spiked log. Seeing holes in multiple places, she decided that it was best time to exchange it. "I should like one of those leather armours if no one objects. This one is damaged and weighing me down."
"Help yourself Charlotte." says the Ranger, tersely.
Grayson, seeming impatient moves to regain the tracks.
Looking back at the rest of the group Grayson calls out,"Gaandik is right, we should move along, back this way..." his fur-lined cloak waves gently in the soft wind as he turns back to the trail.
Stigr nods at Charlotte's suggestion, and grins as the cache is revealed. "Good thinking, girl," he says. Bending down, he glances over the different gear, but only takes one of the shields. Leaving my shield and heraldry behind was much harder than leaving father or the misguided priests of Erastil. Though these are not mine, let me do them proud. He straps the shield onto his arm and tests its weight, moving it around. "Ah... It's good to have a shield."
"Yes, go we should!"
Drazheek is obviously excited at the prospect of traveling and seeing more of the country.
Continuing along the path, the snow begins to get deeper. A windswept gully carves a path through a tree-covered ridge. A soft cascade of snow falling from an overhead branch, hisses softly as it strikes the ground.
Indras is walking just behind Grayson, keeping an eye out, and helping him stay on the trail.
"Bah, the air gets chillier, luckily I've almost grown up outdoors. You people holding up back there?"
As he trudges through the snow he can't help but think that he is still a bit ill-equipped for this journey.
I should do something about my gear next time we venture out, I like to be able to freely move about, not stamp through the snow.
Stigr continues to shiver as the group moves onward, trying not to show it, but finding it hard to control his body in the cold. This is even worse than my homeland, now, he thinks, trudging onward in the middle of the group. Stumbling on a rock, he catches himself with the shield and smiles. At least I've found this, and helped to destroy the fell creatures.
Drazheek manages to hold off the cold this time.
"All good here. If we need to go through snow does anyone have snowshoes?" he asks as he eyes the white fluffy stuff.
Charlotte shivers, wondering if it's just her imagination or if it's actually getting colder out here.
1d20+4
1d6
Charlotte shivers, wondering if it's just her imagination or if it's actually getting colder out here.
Grayson approaches the shivering woman. Grabbing a handful of snow, he blows into it and mutters a few words, "Erastil.....protect...faithful.....cold...."
The ranger lays his hands on Charlotte's shoulders, and a sudden warmth comes over her.
A creature protected by endure elements suffers no harm from being in a hot or cold environment. It can exist comfortably in conditions between –50 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit without having to make Fortitude saves. The creature's equipment is likewise protected.
Endure elements doesn't provide any protection from fire or cold damage, nor does it protect against other environmental hazards such as smoke, lack of air, and so forth.
"I cannot do this but once today, however if we need to, we can repeat this tomorrow Ms. Greystone."
Grayson offers the group advice on how to best defend against the harsh weather, attempting to adjust people's cloaks and other garments to maintain body heat.
Suddenly, a voice is heard in the snow out of nowhere. The voice seems to be addressing Drazheek in a very inquisitive way. "તમે આ વાંદરા સાથે અહીં શું કરી રહ્યા છે?"
"હું અહીં કરવા માટે પસંદ કરે છે. તે શા માટે વાંધો નથી"
Indras nocks a new arrow on his bow and keeps his ears open, understanding the language he waits for a more agressive tone than it already is.
He keeps to himself that he understands the draconic language.
"Who's there? Show yourself!"
He readies an attack for when any of the speakers appears and the conversation turns (more) hostile.
Charlotte begins to feel warmer at Grayson's touch, and smiles at him. "I thank you, sir. With your help I may survive this trip yet!"
The voice leaves her unsettled, and she glares into the trees. To the others she hisses quietly, "It asked why Drazheek was traveling with 'monkeys'" Before anyone can reply, she shouts out. "હું અહીં કરવા માટે પસંદ કરે છે. તે શા માટે વાંધો નથી"
"તેથી વાનર અમારા જીભ બોલે છે? કોઈ બાબત છે, હું તે માત્ર સારા ચાખી હોડ!" The voice sounds a little more excited now.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Charlotte frowns, and states matter-of-factly. "It wants to eat us."
Stigr shakes his head. "I hate it when this happens." He puts the axe and shield into their places, strapping the new object to his pack, and draws his bow, nocking an arrow with practiced movements.
Grayson stands his ground essentially back to back with Stigr. Keeping his greatsword up and ready for any unexpected visitors, he moves his eyes across the landscape looking for the source of the voice.
Drazheek looks and waits for the mysterious person to show themselves.
Suddenly, a serpent like creature leaps out from the snow its skin barely a different color from the color of the snow. Before anyone has a chance to react, it jumps at Stigr and...
And since both claws hit.
slashes at the poor Ulfen with both of it's claws before biting into him and wrapping its tail around him.
Grayson is up first, Stigr is unconscious in addition to being grappled since unless I am mistaken he has taken 9 non-lethal from the cold in addition to the 10 lethal, therefore his non-lethal exceeds his current hit points (3). He is not bleeding, but the serpent seems to think that he looked like the first course (even though Charlotte was the one that proved to understand him).
So initiative is Grayson > Serpent trying to eat Stigr > everyone else.
Totally unprepared for the winter snake, Gaandik feels helpless as the snake latches on to the holy man.
"Ah great, already up close and personal eh?"
Indras drops his bow and draws his greatsword as he moves towards Stigr and the snake-like thing to attack.
Grayson swings hard at the creature.
Grayson swings at the creature, but narrowly misses the creature, and with Stigr going limp in the creature's grasp, it releases him and turns its attention to Grayson.
And misses Grayson entirely, its little claws don't seem to be close enough for the creature to attack despite being close enough to bite the man.