"Well, knowing how things has been up to this point, I would lay low odds that yon snowman is either a real man covered in snow as a morbid joke, or contains someone of evil intentions who will ambush us."
The Tengu speaks with just a hint of bitterness in his voice.
Droviz pulls what looks like the world's least cheerful frisbee from his belt, and sends it hurtling towards the snowman, to bury itself deep in the sign's wood.
"If there's something in there, it won't be happy now," he says in a cheerful tone.
Helios flinches a bit when Droviz sends his weapon down range at the snowman. The thought that a prisoner could be tied up within the snow at the back of his mind. The bard knocks an arrow and seeks the cover of the nearest tree so he scan the surroundings and get a bearing on things. First he'll spy the near side of the river, then he'll scan the treeline across the way.
...nearside
...farside
Ragnar seems unperturbed by the animals using him as perch. He fed them both a small handful of tatzlewyrm meat.
Brynjar half sighed at Droviz' needless attack, but decided to not speak against it, not when they needed to focus on what was around them, he just wished that the masked man would learn to leave things that are overly strange or unexplainable to the more arcane adept people among their group. For now Brynjar kept his eyes open for anything out of the ordinary and tried to see if the tracks they were following were still fresh.
Droviz glanced at Elen after his attack on the snowman, his aspect slightly more subdued. "Yes," he says. "I remember hearing a little about it. Damn waste when the young die before they've had a chance to really live. And I can't say I fancy drowning; especially not in water this cold."
"I think he survived, though he fell ill. But yes... cold water like that would surpass even my endurance."
"Well, good for him!" Droviz says, a smile evident in his tone of voice.
|
Krystae was watching the treeline as they approach the strange snowman and the cryptic message he wore. Therefore when she hears Droviz throw something and followed by the sound of his weapon hitting something solid she spins, drawing her bowstring back, and taking aim at whatever enemy had presented itself.
She stops suddenly at his voice and when she spots the chakram embedded into the wooden sign. She lets out a sigh of irritation and loosens the tension on her bow string. The inquisitor whacks Droviz lightly on the calf with her bow and she moves forward slightly to gain some cover behind one of the nearby trees.
"Be careful, this would be a perfect place for an ambush... Especially from the treeline across the water."
"Yeah," Droviz says, nodding and sounding not at all repentant. "So it's better to spring it from here, so we can get a few shots in, rather than while we're crossing."
"Can anyone tell how thick the ice is?"
The raven has very little to say. It is obviously distraught after the death of his master. It mutters a bit about how the party died but doesn't have any more useful information.
Brynjar can tell the tracks are still fresh, he doesn't see anything out of the ordinary.
After the chakram embeds itself in the sign, the snowman seems to stir to life. It yells back, “Can’t you read? The sign says turn back!
Now get lost!”
Droviz detects a magical aura on the snowman.
Elen is able to see the weak spots on the ice, as indicated on the map. The rest of the ice seems thick enough to walk on.
"Det vil være greit, Watcher." Ragnar says to the raven. "Din kostnad er fortsatt med oss. Han er rett og slett på den andre side av sløret nå. Med tiden, vil han vende tilbake, eller du vil bli med ham. Dette skillet er bare midlertidig. I mellomtiden vil jeg holde deg trygg."
"It will be alright, Watcher. Your charge is still with us. He is simply on the other side of the veil now. In time, he will return, or you will join him. This separation is only temporary. In the mean time, I will keep you safe."
Noticing the talking snowman, Ragnar seems surprised but waits for the others before acting. As far as he knows, this sort of thing may be normal in this bizarre future he found himself in.
When the snowman speaks, Elen's head jerks up in surprise, but then has an expression of, well, should have expected that really. She casts Detect Magic, not knowing that Droviz has done the same.
"Who's going to make us?" Droviz calls back, as he almost casually unslings his shield and draws his greatsword. "Who's backing up this sign with authority? Just you?"
The Tengu, ever suspecting a trap springs around, facing away from the snowman instead of towards it, checking for people sneaking up on them from behind or the sides.
To not be caught unaware or unarmed, he make sure to draw his new blade as well as a bomb and crouching low as he scans the area.
Too simple...the snowman itself does not look all that dangerous, so it seems like a deterrent, but a deterrent is not very effective if there is not a backup in case people do not heed it...
Brynjar's eyebrows raised considerably after hearing what appeared to be a voice coming from the snowman ahead of them. Upon noticing his two companions looking to their back he kept his eyes ahead and got into stance, ready for whatever ambush that may befall them.
"Oh my..." Helios mutters to himself. He gives a flask he wears on his hip a flick. A thing of habit to touch upon the emblazoned symbol of Cayden Cailean the flask bears. "Okay, I've seen sprites, winter fey using a stag as a puppet, two tazylwyrms... I suppose a talking snowman can't be that far fetched..."
Trusting in the others to keep an eye on the perimeter, Helios steps around the tree he'd been using for cover and moves towards the snowman. "Uhm, greetings stalwart guardian. Your warning and advice are heard." The half-elf scratches at the manicured beard at his chin and trying to puzzle out how to proceed. He continues forward and stands alongside Droviz and places a hand on his shoulder to forestall him. "Please excuse the passion in my friend's manner, guardian, but our given task has drained our reserves of friendly banter. Could we not ask a question or two of your snow-armored countenance?"
"I and my comrades are in the market to reacquire a lost lady. Someone dear to yon settlement," Helios motions towards the south and Heldren. "Could we perhaps barter for passage and information? We think the lady was taken across the river here and into the forest beyond."
Elen feels a magical aura on the snowman.
Brynjar notices something moving under the ice in the stream, but can't make out any details.
None of the rest of you notice anything out of the ordinary aside from the snowman, who freezes back into position for the time being and does not respond to Helios.
"It's magic alright... well, easy to tell that... hmm. Let's approach, but carefully." Elen carefully takes a few steps forward.
"Well, that's rude, right?" Helios comments when the snowy watchman doesn't respond. "To think we've reached such a day as this, when an ensorceled snowman refuses proper conversation."
Eyeing the ice covered river warily, he casts outwards with his magical senses to see if the ice is magically trapped in some way.
"What do you guys think? Do we cross here anyway?"
Helios thinks on where the nearest bridge is located.
"Damn right we do," Droviz says, stoutly. "I paid good money for that chakram! Just mind you tell me where the ice's good and thick so I don't go through."
"Careful where you step" Barks the warrior his face frowning and his concentrating on the ice under their feet "There is something under us...I am unsure what it is, but it can't be anything good" Brynjar looked about him once more, tightening his hold on the hilt of his weapon.
"Something moving...UNDER us? You mean, under the ice?
Ooooh, clever, quite clever.
Now THAT would have created problems for us and no mistake!"
Ragnar knew well the dangers of walking on ice. He'd lost an uncle to that hazard when he was very small, back before the evernight came.
He followed last, moving carefully, trying to stay precisely in the footsteps of Brynjar, who was the next largest among them.
Ragnar was clearly nervous about this endeavor.
"Be careful you two," Helios warns Brynjar and Ragnar. The half-elf moves forward a few steps to train his bow on the river's surface, ready to launch an arrow at a moment's notice.
He pauses for a moment and asks the others, also signaling to the two warriors attempting the crossing. "Maybe we tie at least one of you by a rope so if you smash through or get attacked, we can pull you back?" He looks to the others. "Does anyone possess some rope we can use for the endeavor? If they make it across, then we can exchange and do the same thing for each one of us."
Moving past Elen with with patient and as light steps as one could make when wearing armor, Brynjar stopped in front of her and Ragnar.
Looking towards Helios with a furrowed brow, the warrior grunted as he remembered the half-elf's suggestion and how they could not implement it if they didn't have a rope of some kind Air's cold enough, don't want to test the waters Brynjar looked once more towards the ice that awaited them and whatever it hid beneath its somewhat transparent surface.
Krystae's arrow goes deep into the snowman's midsection. It then seems to come back to life. It moves forward towards Helios, and opens an icy mouth to let out a scream of frustration that is painful to hear. It then reaches out and slams Helios with the branch that serves as his arm, but Helios's armor spares him the worst of the blow.
Almost falling to one knee as he tried to cover his ears and withstand the pain of his strange opponents attack, Brynjar forces himself up stares at the snowman with eyes filled with hatred and moves to assault it.
Once the creature was within range of his weapon, the scarred warrior pulled his sword back in a guard-less stance; his sword horizontally to his back, then he swung widely in a slash that almost completed half a circle with the arc of its swing.
Helios winces and feels blood trickle from his ears. "Okay, really rude. *ugh* This is going down on my journal you snowbound fiend."
In a smooth motion he lets his bow fall to the snow and unhooks his scorpion whip to lash out at the enemy.
Droviz comes running up, his greatsword already moving. When he skids to a halt at the snowman's side, the blade ends its gleaming arc.
Havelock looks on in some awe at the instant recations of the people in the group.
Rather than get involved and crowd the area even more, he holds back where he is at the moment, wondering if there may yet be a hidden danger somewhere.
Brynjar's sword swings through the snowman. Krystae's arrow buries itself in the snowman again, and Helios wraps his whip around one of the wooden arms, ripping it out of the snowman. Droviz slices off a small slice of snow from the back of the snowman.
The snowman moves forward, opens an icy mouth and bites Brynjar. Helios feels icy jaws clamp onto his mailed shoulder. His armor spares him the worst of it, but he feels intense cold that seems to go all the way into his bones. The other wooden arm of the snowman swings out at Helios but glances off of his armor again.
Elen was unsure whether this as actually a foe or some sort of trap until it moved in this way. She narrows her eyes at it and envisions it missing all of its future attacks.