I'd say it's bound to be a trap Corum, why else bury something magical here in the middle of the only way onwards?
she cocks her head, considering
The question is, will it take us more resources to skirt around, several hours of hard slog in the freezing temperatures... or is it best to try and trigger it now where we can try and minimise the damage it might do?
She sets her feet
If you all want to stand back I'm happy to run down the path and see if I set off anything that might be there...
@ Corum
you honour me my friend, I would like to learn more of the dialects that abound in golarion. Languages are something of a hobby of mine I hope to learn as many as I can. This is a trap, of that I am certain but what kind? That is the question.
he says and then turns to Nas go slowly Nas, we don't know what's there
as Nasrin begins to clear the snow he hopes the kellid girl doesn't trigger whatever is there, but her actions are careful and methodical and he is impressed.
His attention is suddenly shifted from Nas as sapphire states her brave but reckless intent.
wait Sapphire! he calls urgently as she readies herself to run through the area.
given the type of aura I would guess this is an alarm spell but it's just a guess. We have already passed their watchdog back there , if it is an alarm spell it will alert whoever is up here and they will be expecting us he says quickly that in itself is a big risk, plus if you run through there and it isn't a simple alarm... I don't want you to be hurt ..or worse
Even as Sapphire selflessly offers to scout out the area of magic, Nasrin takes a far more forthright approach.
She begins sweeping aside snow in great swathes, digging deeper and deeper in the area Elleros indicated.
As she strikes the hard ground beneath the deep snow there is a sudden Whump! as the ground shakes and a ripple runs through the snow such as those that break the surface of a pond when a stone is dropped in. The patch immediately before Nasrin erupts in a flash of light and the displaced air from the explosion tears at her flesh and clothes.
The flash of light hits him a fraction of a second before the immense blast of cold literally freezes him almost solid his flesh hardening as the magic destroys the tissue beneath his winter clothing. The pain is horrendous but almost immediately followed by a warm numbing sensation and he thinks absently....
a glyph of warding ! Not an alarm at all I should know by now they just want to kill those that may be drawing near to them
.....Before he is thrown to the ground and darkness descends upon him.
Hp. -6 /12
While the other talk about what's ahead he stands at the back. Mother would tell me to stop skulking about He thinks to himself caught up in his thoughts of how he can master his art. That is tell he hears the explosion and sees Elleross fall to the for up again.
Quickly running over to the group he gets down on his knees to check on the old elf."What happened? Elleross? I have no healing for him, his breathing is weak but it's here!."
Nasrin ducks back just as the fabric of reality is twisted. She screams, a guttural sound, expressing her frustration at the whole situation. Even her thoughts are a chaos-pain, fear, anger, strength and perseverance. All this stops when she looks behind her and sees Elleross collapsed into the snow, Greyston tending him - and it occurs to her, I did this! She rushes to the old man and whispers a prayer to the spirits of warmth and fire. Heat this man's heart and keep him with us.
The feral girl stands up, the old man as light as a scarecrow in her arms. She trudges back up the hill to Thora's hut. "Best shelter we have. If anyone returns, we can see them coming." Nasrin starts making the hut warm with a fire in the center.
Reflex
As Nasrin sweeps snow from the ground the barbarian watches their flank. Suddenly the ground erupys in a freezing explosion that engulfs them all amd only his warrior's reflexes save him. He dives to one side and avoids the worst of the blast. Rolling on his shoulder he regains his feer and turns to see Elleross has not been so fortunate.
Nasrin picks him up and carries him to the hut. As soon as they get there Corum removes a vial from his pocket and forces the clear liquid down the old man's throat.
Clw
As the old man stirs he turns to Nasrin. :Are you ok?"
Nasrin grunts to Corum, "No. This needs to end, yet no matter what we do we go slower and slower." She returns to her work, moving things around with more force than necessary.
The night that passes is as cold and bitter as any you remember. The wind howls through the open ends of the hut and even the make shift screens Nasrin erects with tree limbs does little to insulate the building.
You manage to build a small, controlled fire that gives some cheer at least but one thing is for certain, this wintery weather is grinding each of you down, even those who have encountered it's like before.
Nasrin spends her night flitting between her patients in the hut as well as keeping an eye on the wintry landscape outside. She orders Thorn to check and check the perimeter. For his part he lopes out and then lopes back, tongue lolling.
As dawn whispers over the woods, illuminating the ground barely enough to see, Nasrin wakes the others. Dark circles under her eyes reflect how little rest she got. "It's time." Whispering a prayer to the spirits she inures herself to the cold and then another prayer and she tends Elleross' injury. "Tell me if you lose feeling in your hand-could be frosted through from the blast."
Setting out, Nasrin takes point, snow crunching under her snow shoes. Her pace is demanding, but not impossible.
They spend a cold night in the makeshift shelter and in the morning wake to a sniw covered vista. Corum is used to such weather but even he grows tired of the relentless slog through the frozen valley.
He cooks a simple but warming breakfast of oats and dry fruit. As he does he talks to Greyston. "Grey. Come and eat. You need your strength. If it wasn't for your potions we would all be dead by now Burrir."
He turns to Elleross. "How are you feeling Ellri? Your wounds look better."
The night passes slowly and with Nasrins care Elleross condition improves slightly but he is still in bad shape , the skin around his face and hands is blackened by the burst blood vessels beneath his skin and the occasional groan of pain is all that betrays the fact he still lives.
As the weak dawn light creeps into the sky his eyes flutter open and he groans in pain.
Staring up into Nasrins eyes he takes several seconds to register she is even there .
unnnngggg ....it w..as a glyph....warding! the strain of talking is almost too much for him and he sags back his face a mask of pain.
As she preys over him the pain of his wounds subsides as she heals him.
thank you Nasrin, i am ok to stand. Help me up please standing with a little help he flexes his fingers carefully they feel stiff and cold but thanks to Nasrins healing he is much better.
I live Corum, though only just. I am lucky to still be here, that trap...I never imagined it would be that powerful. Is everyone else ok? It's a miracle none of us were killed
Taking several minutes to regain his senses he pulls out his pipe and smokes steadily as he lets his battered body warm up beside the fire.
After a while he pulls out his spell book and studies the arcane writings inside, preparing himself for the day ahead.
Despite a day of respite, it is depressing to note that the snow has been falling steadily throughput the morning
Greyston spends most of the evening going over his books and notes while he begins to brew another potion for the group.
Getting up he spend an hour preparing his extracts and handing them out to the Sapphire and Corum. But makes sure to hand over the potion he brewed last night to Elleross. "I hope this helps Elleross if your not feeling at your best you may as well take it now."
Hearing Corum shout his name he prepares for another lecture but nods when breakfast is offered. "I only try and help the best i can, i don't have the strength and skill like you Corum. Burrir? What does this mean i don't think i've ever heard it."
Corum smiles and says "It means mad bugger that blows stuff up!" He laughs long and hard and claps Greyston on the shoulder. "Sorry I shouted at you. I have a temper and it gets the best of me sometimes."
Acid splash,arcane mark, disrupt undead, detect magic
1st lev burning hands x 1 magic missile x1, endure elements x 0
Scrolls
Unseen servant
Magic weapon
Endure elements
Animate dead
Colour spray
Burning hands level 1
Items
1x tangle burn bag
2 x alchemist fire
1x clw potion
Finishing up his preparations he smiles at Greyston and takes the potion from him.
thank you Greyston he says as he drinks the alchemists potion and sighs as the healing liquid spreads through his system .
Elementa, Sustinere, Praesidium
Casting endure elements on himself he almost feels ready to leave.
Tucking into breakfast he eats heartily and then packs up his belongings and with the others he sets out along the trail once more.
I am as ready as I'll ever be, let's move on. We will get to our destination today, we must try and be extra careful along the way
Hp 12 / 12
Fort
After breakfast they pack up their gear and continue on their path. Corum takes the lead, checking the path ahead for signs of danger.
Perception
"It's ok Corum, maybe thats what i need to get my head in the game. You grow accustomed to people with bad tempers in a family like mine, its nothing i haven't heard before. You wont need to worry about me again i promise." He says as he take a sip of his tea.
Some whisky in this would help with the cold and my nerves... maybe when we get back. If, i'll have just one for a celebration. Getting up he starts to help pack up, drinking his extract against the cold he can feel the blood returning to his hands and feet. "Let's head out, i hope we can make it there today.. i just hope we don't fall into something again and have a chance this time."
Sapphire is quiet overnight and rises early to study her spellbook with a resigned expression on her face. After breakfast she listens to the banter and adds her own opinion
I think the largest advantage we have here against whoever we find at the end of this trail is each other, I trust you all to make the right decisions for yourselves and each other
She indicates the trail
We'll persevere I've no doubt, and it will be due to the combined strength of our collective talents, not the individual examples. Come now, let us see who is taking such trouble to keep us away from our destination!
she moves out to follow Corum and Nasrin on the trail.
Fancy words when she could just say, 'stay together'. Nasrin nods at Sapphire's words, some spark of hope still lingering.
They trek through the frozen wilderness Corum wonders what they will find at the end of the trail. He constantly scans the road in front of him seeking signs of danger and tapping the snow covered ground with the haft of his bardiche to check for bear traps or snow cobered holes that xould easily break an ankle.
He talks with Sapphire amd Nasrin as they march. "Sapphire. You are right. Together we make a good team. Our foes shpuld be wary but we need to stick together. Work as a team. Nasrin and I have travelled and we work well together. I am no soldier. I do not fight in formatoon or line. I am a warrior. I see a foe and I kill it. If we encounter somenthing I will not hesitate. I will charge syraight down it's throat. You are quick so you and Nasrin need to use that as an opportunity to get behind our foe and between us we can crush it like hammer and anvil."
Listening to Corum, Nasrin thinks, He's forgetting someone. She whistles and Thorn pops his head up from his snuffling in the snow. "Him too." The feral girl grins a too toothy grin.
The snowfall us getting progressively heavier.
The first two miles that morning are difficult but no more so than you have encountered already in this unseasonably frozen land.
But as the morning has progressed the skies have grown ever more fat with the threat of snow, a threat that is more than delivered as huge flurries of it cover everything like a blanket. Though the wind is still, you fifind yourselves having to hold a hand up to the snow to see any distance ahead. Most of you have never seen anything like it.
The snow beneath your feet is incredibly thick, often between two and four feet, and the boughs of trees hang heavy with ice, their limbs scraping the ground like old men with crooked backs.
The point on the map should be just around here somewhere but the driving snow is incredible! It's almost as if it no longer falls in flakes but great white sheets and you find you can see through it only a few feet.
Corum tramps through the deep snow. As one born to such conditions he is able to move through the drifts without hinderance. After a few hours the snow hits hard and he grimaces against the heavy snowfall. Winters were bad in the north but this is as thick as he has seen.
He turns to the others.
"Stay close and be careful. You could walk off a cliff in this and not realise until you hit the bottom! By Gozreh this is thick!"
Despite it being nearly impossible to see his direction sense and survival skills honed throughyears in harsh conditions keep the group roughly on course to their destination. As they near the area he believes is marked on the map he becomes more alert and scans thenarea he can see carefully. He begins moving in a zig zag pattern, maximising the area he can see as if searching in a grid pattern.
Percwption
Nasrin pulls up the hood of her cloak to keep the snow off of her face. I ran south to get away from this. Why did they follow me? She grunts at Corum's words. "Gozreh isn't in this snow."
She trudges along on her snowshoes glad that at least she isn't alone on this suicide mission.
Drawing his hood closer around his face Elleross struggles on through the increasingly heavy snow.
Without his magical protection he dreads to think what shape he would be in by now, the conditions far too harsh for him to cope with.
He has struggled with the heavy snow all along but this is another level entirely, even with the snowshoes he feels like he is wading through treacle and soon his knee is a screaming agony and he limps noticeably as he grits his teeth and pushes on.
this is getting worse Corum! We must be drawing near our goal, if the weather is worsening the closer we get then I hope we are nearly there he calls out to the warrior, who he can barely see up ahead of him.
Greyston pulls his cloak around him to cover him sell for the falling snow, even with his protection he can still feel the chill. "This is insane i can hardly see anyone in this white haze."
He shouts out, slowly trodding through the thick snow up to his waste. It's alright for them me and Elleross have no business being in this snow by the time we get there we'll pass out. He huffs and puffs. "We had better get there soon!"
With your heads kept low to shelter against the driving snow, you begin to notice that the hard packed snow beneath your feet is criss-crossed with large footprints.
At the very edges of your vision you can make out a number of structures that look like igloos.
Suddenly, there is a tremendous crack that rattles you all as a small, hard object explodes against Corums chest.
This snow is bad, make sure we stay together, don't lose sight of each other or we could get lost easily!
her sentence is cut short as...
Sapphire flinches at the sudden loud noise, hands instinctively going through the motions of a defensive spell and moving to cover.
Is everyone ok!? she shouts over the howling wind...
Nasrin looks towards Sapphire and thinks to answer when she sees a blur of movement, Corum struck and her world shocked into stillness. In a short moment her hearing returns, but she has no idea what struck Corum, or where it came from. She shifts forward, getting closer to the igloos, interposing her shield for any help it might bring. "Close on the huts!"
Flinching violently as the extremely loud noise bursts all around them he looks around himself, hoping to see something, anything through the curtain of snow.
As he hears the explosion Greyston instinctively reaches for his ears to cover them, the ringing continues after a while but then he hears nothing opening his eyes he looks around not hearing any fighting something bad must have happened.
Seeing almost nothing but the person in front of him and hearing nothing but the ringing in his ears he shouts out. "What was that!! I can't hear anything!" He shouts out in panic, the claustrophobic feel of the snow and now the deafness starts to get to him, as he takes big deep breaths. Any moment we could be taken out and wouldn't see it coming!
Fort
Corum flinches momentarily then rushes toward the nearest igloo his axe at the ready.
Perception
With the driving wind whipping snow up in a curtain across the entire landscape, Sapphire struggles to see anything in this thrice-cursed weather.
She follows on the heels of Nasrin and Corum, moving with the other warriors towards the nearest igloo, sword ready.
Dragging himself through the snow Elleross grabs hold of Greyston and looks him in the eyes, he can see the panic on his wind burnt face and he motions for them to move.
the blast has deafened him, I hope there is no lasting damage
you will be ok! follow me ! he says to the young elf, over exaggerating the words so he can understand.
With the others moving off Elleross fears they will get cut off and stranded. Grabbing his hand he leads them after Corum and sapphire .
Corum leads the way through the driving snow with the others close behind. Greyston stumbles through the snow, dimly aware of a spreading trickle of warmth from one of his ruptured eardrums.
With no idea where the attack is coming from the party tries to seek some kind of shelter. Corum spots an igloo and heads for it. It affords shelter from the snow and within he can see a winter blanket, a pile of furs, and a small wooden chest take up most of the floor space in this cramped igloo. A small hole has been cut into the low ceiling to allow smoke to escape, but no fire has been lit.
Hit
and
Hearing sapphire cry out in pain and rock backwards as the missile hits her he is at a loss as to what to do.
He can't see anything around him and he can hardly move in the drifting snow.
sapphire! Are you ok? he calls out to her we are badly exposed here. Corum, Nasrin you need to find whoever is attacking us! Unless you stop them they will pick us off one by one he says as he looks around trying to spot something whilst preparing himself as best he can to duck away if anything comes his way.
Corum begins to feel his frustration and anger rising. He crouches beside the ogloo and squints into the snow looking for signs of movement.
Perception
"Where'd it come from, Sapphire?" Nasrin shouts over the wind. She hunkers down, her shield to one side, the Igloo to the other.