Kalhar stops as the words echo behind him, his back still turned on his companions but frozen in place. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to say. "Is there no other?" he ventured, weakly.
Sarlene approached the small crowd slowly, taking in the conversation with interest. Something about Baba Yaga had always intrigued her.
A trip to Irrisen? Fancy that. And here I thought it'd take forever for me to head north and back home. Sarlene is not talking to anyone in particular. Her amusement seems unbound. She continues to mumble incoherently and happily in a variety of languages before she notices the rider's strange glances.
Aye! What's with the stare, eh?
After minutes of staring dumbfoundedly at the portal, Axel finally snaps his gaze away. {b]"I've been wanting a change in my life so badly. I thought this errand would take only a week or so but it looks like it may take us much longer, months, maybe even years."[/b] his eyes lose a bit of focus as he stares into the distance. With a small laugh "If mom and dad could see me now..."
A small nose pokes out of his jacket which brings Axel back to the current situation. He looks down at his companion. "Oh all right! You win this time little guy. You better hope we find more things like that portal. It's so fascinating. If we are very lucky we may even see the dancing hut. Just to look at it would make any tinkerers dreams come true." Axel looks up to his friends and then to the rider. "We're in." he says with resolution in his voice. A small tickle of trepidation and excitement swell inside Axel and he can't help but smile.
The crunching of snow betrayed Kalhar's return to the portal, and with a resigned grimace the man rejoined the ranks of his companions. "If you're all going you'll surely get killed without me." he muttered, still glancing back behind him as if a rescue could come at any moment.
Kalhar nodded with perhaps a shred of humility. "Thank you, friend."
He nods and manages a faint smile.
"The hut has many keys— objects attuned to the hut—that can take it almost anywhere. I managed to secure two of these keys, but Elvanna stole their power to prevent anyone from using the hut to find her mother. Once they are reactivated, placing the keys in the hut’s cauldron will retrace Baba Yaga’s path"
With reverence he adjusts the lock and mask and beckons the party forward with his knife hand.
"I imagine you'll want to close this portal. You can find its source in the Pale Tower, on the other side, but this portal is but one of many. Through them, Elvanna will spread a new ice age across your world, consuming it for all eternity."
He raises the knife to his neck and slits his own throat. His lifeblood spraying all over the keys and the party's feet. A feeling of ice water washes over, the feeling dries out at the limbs and travels to each individual's center of mass tying itself in a knot and tugging forward.
A fraction of the knowledge the rider once knew spears into Axel's mind. The mental pain is instantaneous but severe. After the moment passes, Axel knows what he must do. He picks up the keys, stores them in an inner pocket on his jacket, then strides forward to the portal.
Kalhar takes a deep, surprised breath as the old man kills himself, but soon the ritual flows through him and he closes his eyes, focusing on his breath. His heart beats faster. His muscles harden and strengthen. His bones harden, and his lungs expand. The exhalation is powerful, and he opens his eyes once more, a sense of sturdiness lit within him.
Turning around, he trudges back to the chest with conviction, grabbing ahold of one of the handles and snatching up the spear with the other hand, stowing it in his spear hangar with the other before bending at the knees. A neutral, determined look on his face hides the exertion as his muscles tense and bulge, and he drags the container out of the snow with one massive heave, placing it atop the snowbank and dragging it towards the portal. He reaches the others, looking between them wordlessly, and then crosses the threshold himself.
Daegan closes his eyes, breathing deeply as the magic courses through him. He feels his muscles tense, in a quick succession, starting in his chest and then slowly relaxing, the sensation traveling outward through his arms, legs, and finally the tips of his.fingers. As his limbs relax, they subtly lengthen, and he feels his reflexes sharpen, his body coursing with adrenaline.
He opens his eyes, feeling the energy surging through him, and turns to face his companions before following Kalhar into the portal.
Onwards, my friends.
Sarlene goes from overjoyed from the potential of returning North, to solemn disbelief as the Black Rider takes his own life. The icy magic grips her heart, seizing her appendages, but she feels her mind uniquely unrestrained.
The magic leaves her, and she feels her body come back within her command.
With a grim determination she faces the portal. Well, f&+! it, let's see what happens Stephen flutters to her shoulder, and the two follow Daegan into the portal.
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As Jezzera stands bewildered at the dead man before his feet, a rush overtakes him. His ears twitch and his nose tingles. His pupils dilate as blood rushes to his head, and for the briefest moment, he is perfectly aware of his surroundings. The heartbeat of his comrades, the soft sound of small creatures foraging in the snowy distance. He catches the scent of a dead rabbit some 5 miles behind them.
As suddenly as it came, it is gone. But the feeling remains of a broadened perspective. A greater sphere. By overloading the senses they have become sharper.
Shaking his head, he strides through the portal.
"Hey, was that you?" Dog barks in a panic. "Did you do that Coyote? I didn't do it. I didn't think we were supposed to interfere with this kinda stuff."
"Not me," the sly, wiry trickster responds. "He is magic. Maybe he can just... do that."
"Any astute canine can see it was the Rider's dying gift," Fox piped up, his nose jutting upwards. "I'm sure our young friend is not so resourceful just yet."
"We should follow into the portal," Wolf interrupted. "Knowing them it will be closed soon."
The four spirits trudged silently and invisibly into the vortex and disappear into its whirling frost, leaving the Rider's body alone in the wasteland, waiting for his Master's will to be carried out.
With an instant pull the snow deepens and the air grows colder, much colder. Subzero temperatures chilling to the bone. From the forested hillside underfoot a village's light visibly shines miles away.
Survival
Daegan emerges from the portal into the whipping winds and strides forward, standing tall and breathing deeply of the frigid air. He closes his eyes and smiles for but a moment before scanning the horizon and turning to face his companions as they emerge from the gateway. As Jezzera steps through, he catches a glimmer of movement, and for the briefest second he sees four, almost canine, figures follow the shaman through. The trapper shakes his head in disbelief and blinks, but the figueres, and with them the portal, are gone. They are left alone with the wind in the freezing wastes.
Come my friends, we must hurry. A storm is coming.
Axel shivers even through his heavy coat. "Gods! It's rather brisk isn't it? Is this Irrisen? I can't say I recognize the surrounding area nor do I have the knack for finding my location." Axel says while following the Half-orc. "Does anybody else know where we are? I'd hate to have fallen into an elaborate trap."
Sarlene takes a deep breath. Yes. Finally. The cold air fills her lungs and rejuvenated her spirits. Gods, I thought it would be years before I'd make it back north. she look over her companions. Kalhar, are you alright?
Jutting out of the trees and into a snow-covered clearing ahead is a small retinue of merchants backpedaling and fleeing from a large insect-like creature. It's four legs stumble awkwardly through the snow, it's wings seemingly frozen to its back, the green creature's mandibles click as it pursues the smaller humans.
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"Curious," Jezzera ventures. "Those men seem to be fleeing from the large insect. I gather, however, that they need not run with such haste. He seems impeded by the snow."
He stands and observes for a moment, arms crossed. "Do you suppose we should help them? He seems to be a bit out of sorts. Maybe he is the one we ought to help..."
Kalhar lets his grip on the chest relax as his name floats out of Sarlene's mouth, and he lets out a pained exhale. "I must admit I feel more than a little sore from the machinations of that little devil." and with that, his arm moved to wipe his brow, only to come back stained red upon the sleeve. "My face stings and my body has been chilled greatly. I can keep going, one second," he added, slipping his hand inside a pouch and slowly raising one of his extracts to this lips, drinking gingerly.
Aye, Axel, this is no trap. The lands you see before you are surely Irrisen... this would be the Hoarwood Forest, if I had to guess. He straightens his pack and begins hustling toward the village. Quickly now, my friends, I don't know how much time we have.
The trapper stops and shields his eyes from the glare, peering into the distance. Indeed, it does not seem to be handling the snow too well. I doubt it's native, perhaps it wandered through a different portal. Regardless... we should offer our aid to the humans, it would pain me to see them dismembered but for our inaction. Should we save them, they may be able to help us in turn.
Daegan draws his bow and will begin steadily advancing, peppering the creature with arrows. If the distance is too great, he will consume a potion of feather step and give chase unimpeded by the icy terrain.
Sarlene ejects a dagger from its sheath and adjusts the straps on her pack.
I say we kill the damn bug and be on our way. Let's be f*@*ing quick about it, eh?
She pulls her goggles over her eyes for an instant, only to be sure that the giant insect plodding through the snow is not a trick or illusion. Assured that it is real, she moves toward the creature, in concert with her companions.
Her eyes dart about. These woods are unfamiliar to her. Daegan said it was the Hoarwood Forest, and she believes him. She's heard tales... travelers who've meandered through these woods on the way to Whitethrone or Hillcross and the smattering of villages in-between. Largely they said to avoid these woods. No reason why. She never asked for one. She was young, and the old men who told these stories were too drunk and barbaric to be taken seriously.
Now she seriously regrets her youthful ignorance.
A few days sailing from home, and still lost as s%~%. she thinks to herself. She laughs at the thought before focusing her mind on the battle at hand.
"The bug doesn't know the way to the tower we want to go to. They might."
"Kalhar has a point. Let's put this thing down quickly. Every person it kills might be the person who can lead us there."
Already weakened by the snow and it's pursuit the Mantis clumsily and desperately pushes forward. Daegan strides down the hill peppering it with arrows each one falling with a blow that shakes the great insect. Cutting behind Daegan we see Jezzera casting on him and guiding the arrows true.
Kalhar struggles through the snow, fashioning his shield in front of him as he actually plows through it. Closing in on the mantis it spots him and its leg switches out like a blade but yet clashes on Kalhar's shield. Kalhar steps under the blow and stabs the leg with his spear.
Axel stands back and electricity jumps menacingly from his hands, adding burns and scorches to the already half-frozen mantis.
One final arrow takes it in the eye as Daegan's assisted arrow puts the creature down... impressively.
A woman approaches to give thanks. She stands only 5-1/2 feet tall. She wears her vibrant red hair in three braids, two short braids framing her pale face, and a third, longer braid hanging down her back.
"Aye, thanks fer saving me and my lackeys, I'm Nadya.
Some very good shooting I do believe. I'm grateful. But if I do so ask ye, what do foreigners such as yerselves be all the way out eer?"
Her glance shifts to Sarlene, and an odd puzzlement washes over.
"Ya do realize, ya've walked uninvited into the territory of the white witches. Unforgiving lot they are."
She shifts her eyes from Sarlene to the oncoming storm, but shows no sign of concern.
The lightning fades from Axels hand and he gives the woman a small smile.
"It's a bit of a tale how we got here. One that the weather doesn't seem too keen on letting us tell here. Long story short, we sort of found ourselves here rather abruptly and I fear we are unequipped to deal with the aforementioned storm. Might we shelter with your caravan? At least until we reach a settlement."
Axel smiles, a little bigger this time but still clearly unsure of himself in a diplomatic setting.
Sarlene matches Nadya's puzzlement with a stern gaze of her own. She's no stranger to Irrisen, and she's had trouble here before.
Sarlene lowers the hood of her thick, furred cloak and takes off her cap. She pulls her hair over her ears, pretending that it needed some adjustment. Her gnarled and matted white mane deserves no such treatment, nor would it benefit from a brush of the hand. The move looks natural enough, but it is certainly intended to reveal her ears, which come to small points - revealing her mixed ancestry. She mumbles under her breath in Elven, F+!* this air feels great. Sarlene pulls her cap back on, readjusting her hair beneath it, and pulls her hood back up.
She nods to Nadya, following Axel's request. In Hallit, I swear to ya, mam, we are great travel companions, tough as ice and dangerous as a blizzard we are. Certainly it'd be no great trouble to accompany you, eh? Plus, there may be another uninvited guest that needs to meet his snowy grave. She motions to the dead insect, Daegan's arrows still visibly protruding from its carcass.
Kalhar drags himself last into the conversation, the chest in tow. He extends a gauntleted hand to the woman, his face businesslike, and he speaks plainly. "Kalhar Draven, Taldan Apothecary. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Is there a settlement nearby? And, on that note, are you all perchance merchants?"
"This storm is going to be Problematic, you foreigners aren't quite dressed for the occasion. We won't be able to reach Waldsby before it hits. Ya lot are owed my gratitude, let us set up camp. Luckily, I trade in food."
She goes about setting her four hirelings about making camp, setting a fire, pitching shelter, and preparing a meal. She chimes in with corrections and suggestions as she goes about setting the sleds up as a first wind barrier around the tent.
Nadya passes out warm bowls as everyone stuffs into the tent. (it's made for a couple less people but the added bodies are good for warmth)
"We'd just been returning with trade food from the lands of those blasted Mammoth lords when that f+*#ing insect set upon us. Damn forest. I've never seen anything like that here."
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"If I may be so bold," Jezzera offered, speaking for the first time since their new comrades found them. "There is probably a very good reason for that." He slurps a bit of slurry from the wooden bowl. "We too are from lands far afield. A portal in a vortex brought us here. I would wager a similar case applied to the monster that chased you."
"My homeland has at least something to reciprocate the nastiness that this portal has brought it." he muttered, eyeing the storm with increasing trepidation.
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"We came through in search of those very same White Witches you warned us of earlier," the Shaman pointed out, flatly. "If there is any information you have that could help us we would accept it graciously as repayment for assisting you with your... insect problem." He affected a smile as best he could, attempting to look disarming. His long, dour face, however, was more than a bit off-putting. In truth, Jezzera was quite taken with Nadya, and was more preoccupied than usual with trying as best he could to seem pleasant in the presence of more civilized folk. This, of course, read more ill-at-ease than anything.
"Has he always been this creepy? Am I just now noticing this?" Coyote snickered to his brothers.
"I think he's nice..." Dog quietly mused, his ears drooping.
"The poor fellow doesn't seem too comfortable interacting with the fairer sex," Fox quipped. "'Twould be charming were it less... childish."
"Maybe that's her thing. Atavistic manchildren. It's gotta be someone's thing."
The presence of a fifth canine staring the rest down with deep-set eyes was lost on the other spirits, save for Wolf, but he rarely pointed these things out to his brothers anyway.
Sarlene notices Jezzera's awkward expression and tone, and chimes in in Hallit. My handsome companion here is not a northerner, though he is a capable warrior. she turns to Jezzera to provide an answer to his request, and define his question more accurately. There are plenty of White Witches all over. Our objective is to the north, in Irrisen, if Daegan here is correct in suggesting that we are in Hoarwood forest. Sarlene turns back to Nadya, and continues in Common. What news from the capital? Any unusual news in the northlands? How do we get to the capital from here?
Daegan sits solemnly and pokes at the fire. Aye, I believe Kalhar has the correct idea. The insect was surely not native, and plenty of things crept through to our side. The weasel, for instance, and the tatzlwyrm as well. It is reasonable to conclude, given the creature's state, that it simply wandered through and became lost. He pauses, glancing around the fire at his companions before continuing. We should be wary of anything else that might have come through... accidentally or otherwise.
"Whitethrone is quite the journey from here. Once I get my trade to the white b#%*% in the pale tower, my hostage daughter will be returned to me and I'll be able to help outfit the lot of you. My resources are sparse at the moment from my journey so hopefully the store will have whatever it is you need."
She looks at the ground, becoming noticeably sad.
"What madness has caused you to pursue these white monsters through this portal...
Kalhar did not answer that question, his heart still jarred from his recent enchantment and subsequent portal-riding. "Pale Tower, you say? And a hostage daughter, at that? We may be similarly aligned in purpose, if my conclusions are correct."
Axel is sitting next to the fire with several books open around him. He seems to be scribbling in several at once. A sketch in his journal then some ideas for a spell then some notes on the day. At the mention of the tower, his head snaps up. "I agree with Kalhar. The source of the portal we came through is connected to this tower we believe. We intend to sever its connection with the portal. We hope this will cause it to close and save Kalhar's home from further danger." Axel glances over at the apothecary's assistant, a mix of concern and intrigue on his face. Whatever Axel was thinking soon passes and he return to his books.
"If you are against the white witch Nazhena in the pale tower, than I am a friend.
Time for dinner!
She stands up and gathers bowls and passes out the stew. A since of purpose etched on her face.
A cloaked traveler walks up to the camp. She timidly approaches Nadya as she's passing out food.
"Hello there travelers, I saw your camp from up in the wood and decided to press my luck and ask for a bite to eat. Lots of strange occurrences in the woods these days, I was returning to Waldsby and quite confused."
She sits herself down next to Kalhar and removes her hood showing off her blue features and small horns.
"My name is Mierul Ardelain, I travel the remote villages playing songs in all the taverns. "
She intercepts the bowl meant for Kalhar forcing Nadya to turn and prepare another.
" Such a strange company, perhaps worthy of a song. What brings you out this way?
Nadya practically jumps on the question.
"These are relatives and friends visiting from out of town, I conscripted them into helping me with this run, you may have seen a large green beast. I was glad for their ability."
There is a ravenous efficiency to Sarlene's gastronomic enterprise. Sarlene beams an inappropriately joyous smile at the new guest as stew sloshes gracelessly from her lips, the last spoonful ending up as much on her chin as in her mouth. Stephen leaps up to her lap to polish off the remnants of her relinquished bowl.
Sarlene reaches out and grabs Nadya's shoulder, as a sister or cousin might, and keeps her smile as she swallows the last of her stew.
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Jezzera sits stock-still as he sizes up the new face. Something about her is off-putting to him. Tactless as he has demonstrated himself to be, he still remains silent as he watches her every move.
He completely fails to notice anything of value, however, and chalks it up to distraction. Not wanting to embarass himself in front of company (Nadya especially), he says nothing. A bit of stew begins to run from the corner of his mouth, but he doesn't notice.
Mierul turns and looks at Sarlene as she reassures Nadya.
She responds "How nice. Shall I pay for the meal with some song and dance?"
Daegan unceremoniously clears his throat as if to speak, then thinks better of it. He merely nods at the strangers offer for song, and graciously accepts a bowl from Nadya. He sends a brief glance Kalhar's way, not quite sure what to make of the newcomer's manner and appearance, and begins to slowly eat his stew.