"Grab that little thing's neck, Wulfgang. And squeeze the life out of it!"
Skyne's eyes then unfocus and his hands begin to pulse, seemingly growing and shrinking in waves.
Free 5-ft. step
Talking Stag - Round 1 - concluded
21 Irina
18 Ruso
18 Jack
13 Wulfgang
12 Peltra
9 Fawfein (evil eye, -2 attacks, 7 rounds)
6 Skyne (casting)
4 Stag (12hp dmg)
Rearing back, kicking its forelegs and crashing its heavy antlers onto Wulfgang, the stag tries its best to attack the axe-wielding fighter. While the kicks are both clumsy and miss, the bony antlers crash into the shoulder of Wulfgang, bruising him slightly.
End of Round 1
Talking Stag - Round 2
21 Irina
18 Ruso
18 Jack
13 Wulfgang (3hp dmg, 1 NL)
12 Peltra
9 Fawfein (evil eye, -2 attacks, 7 rounds)
6 Skyne (casting)
4 Stag (12hp dmg)
Ruso closes in on the tiny fey and hopes at the same time that the stag will leave him be. He thrusts his rapier at the tiny creature hoping to skewer it upon his blade. "Have at you!"
Irina gives the stag the Evil Eye this time, and she lets out a cackle that sends chills up the spines of her enemies.
Jack steps forward and attacks the fey with his cold iron longsword.
"I am really starting to dislike these little guys."
Talking Stag - Round 2 - continued
Irina's bone-chilling cackles splits the air, as she turns her Evil Eye on the great stag, which seems to shake most of the effect off, slowed for just next attack.
Daring the stag to attack, Ruso lunges out at the tiny fey with his rapier. The normal steel weapon hits the target, but seems to do less damage than intended, still scoring a hit that elicits a stream of blue blood from the winter-touched fey.
Jack's attack on the same target misses, as hitting the tiny foe is much more difficult than it appears.
Ignoring the fey for now, Wulfgang makes another full-swing at the stag, but his grip on the handle slips in the snow, and the attack is foiled before it starts.
Peltra moves forward, casting a spell on Jack, that gives divine guidance to his actions for a limited time.
The winter-touched atomie begins casting another spell-like ability on the defensive, and in front of everyone he disappears.
As Skyne completes his prolonged casting, Wulfgang suddenly doubles in height. The wizard then sprints forward to touch the viking, causing his muscles to bulge and stretch even more. "Be careful, I think that little faerie just . . . "
Standard Cast augment on Wulfgang
On the atomie's disappearance.
Talking Stag - Round 2 - concluded
Moving forward and touching the viking warrior, Skyne causes Wulfgang to grow in height and size, making him stronger but also easier to hit. He then augments his natural and magically enhanced strength even more, really giving the fighter some power on this next attack.
Shaking off the effects of Evil Eye, the stag continues to try to attack Wulfgang who is now a much bigger target. Despite the witchcraft the herd animal lands hits with one kick and the antlers. These hit the Viking hard, and he nearly drops from the damage.
End of Round 2
Talking Stag - Round 3
21 Irina
18 Ruso
18 Jack (guidance)
13 Wulfgang (12hp dmg, 1 NL; disabled)
12 Peltra
9 Fawfein (evil eye, -2 attacks, 6 rounds, disappeared)
6 Skyne
4 Stag (12hp dmg)
"That little trickster just went invisible, but he'll have to show himself to attack. Be ready to strike first."
Ruso moves to flank the stag, hoping to avoid being hit, and strikes at the beast.
Not waiting for the imp, Jack steps in to try to drop the stag.
Irina dashes forward to Wulfgang, and pulls out the wand of Cure Light Wounds.
Talking Stag - Round 3 - continued
Seeing the large-sized Wulfgang take a pair of serious injuries, Irina rushes forward drawing out the wand provided by the old witch woman. She gets to him, but cannot get any healing activated just yet.
Trying to flank the hoofed beast, Ruso stumbles a bit in the ice, and the great antlers come crashing down around him, but a well-timed leap gets the elf rogue clear, and also puts him in a position to stab from behind the beast. His rapier thrusts forward quickly and the stag crumbles, forelegs first, into the snow, slowly dying.
Without a foe to strike, Jack readies to attack if the other enemy becomes visible within range, looking about for the small sprite.
Getting a chance to catch is breath instead of fighting, Wulfgang, now enlarged, rests for a moment, as his wounds continue to plague him.
As the stag dies, the invisible atomie screams a primal cry of rage and flies in from the west, attacking Jack. The ranger comes off delay as the fey becomes visible, but his reactive attack fails to connect. The tiny fey's needle-sharp rapier seems destined to hit Jack, but Irina's witchcraft is still affect the small fey, and his attack is turned away at the last moment.
Peltra steps up and pummels the atomie, and while her weapon is not cold iron, she hits with enough force to knock the fey from the air and it falls to the snow with a soft plop, lying there unconscious.
End of Combat
Irina touches Wulfgang with the wand of cure light wounds. "Let's see if we got a good trade for what we promised her." She brings him out of his staggered condition. "What's with all the fey? I don't remember seeing that many around here before."
The wounded man, his name turns out to be Yuln Oerstag, groans audibly, and grimaces as he touches the tip of his nose which is blackened with frostbite.
"Ja, you fin't ze Lady Argentea. Get revench for me brodders? Vinter-touch are fee creatures who haf sworn fealty to vhite vitches of Irrisen, doze who stole our lants in Vinter Var, hmm?. Tiny sprites smaller dan man's forearm, ja? Don't be fool't by small fee. Legend say dey take sliver of ice into heart, and touch ist cold like harsh bite of vinter."
He grimaces once again, and continues. His mind obviously thinking back to the trial he just went through, eyes far-away while he relates it.
"Ve vere ambushed by bandits on da roat. De vere no match for us, ya? Den vinter-touch join fight. Da colt fee of da nort'. Da battle turn against us." He makes a gesture to show how quickly things changed."Me volk speak of vinter-touch many times. I never tink to see dem dis far sout'."
When Wulfgang is looking to be fairing a bit better Ruso begins to look at the trail once more. "There is nothing more we can do about the these tiny sprites at the moment other than what we have been doing. So long as they continue to be hostile they will be met with our strength and skill." Ruso takes a breath and changes topics. "We need to press on and see if we can possibly either locate where it is the lady has been taken or see if we can perhaps locate shelter before the protective magic that was provided to us wears off." Ruso will begin to scout the trail ahead for a short bit before looking back and gesturing for the others to follow along.
The trail continues to move in a generally westerly direction, taking you deeper into the woods, and closer to the rock massif of High Ridge. The biting wind and snow continues to drive at you, but the magical protection from Elder Safander allows you to continue to plow forward.
At about half-past three in the afternoon, you come across a human-sized snowman standing in the middle of the path before a frozen stream. A crude wooden sign leans against it and bears the words "Trespassers turn back!"
Across the frozen creek, the path continues on to the west.
"Would one of you like to tell me what that heck that is. Ruso says while pointing at the large stacked snowballs.
"Haven't you ever seen a snowman before?"
Skyne points to some boots sticking out of the snow. "I'm far more worried about that body over there. But regardless, somebody doesn't want us here, so we should be prepared in case they really don't want us here."
The wizard pulls out his crossbow and loads a bolt, then focuses on the distant shore with a glazed look.
Skyne's divination cantrip cannot reach as far as the boots lying in the snow across the creek, but he does detect magical auras within the 60' cone the spell does cover. Concentrating for a moment more, the wizard is able to divine at least 3 faint auras within the cone. Spending another few seconds, he determines there are 3 faint auras radiating from the snowman.
Ruso sees nothing amiss here except as described above.
This is a spell effect in place, which means you an identify the effect with another DC 21 Know Arcana check.
"Do you think the snowman is going to come to life? The fey are tricky like that. They made the stag talk, and can go invisible. I wouldn't put it past them to make a snowman move." She peers at the snow creature.
Irina stays near Jack when he moves forward.
"What? You know I am afraid of snowmen!
Jack scrambles behind Irina.
"Why would I have heard of a snowman before? We don't get snow here in southern Taldor. This end of the country is close by a desert."
Ruso creeps forward slowly keeping an eye out of any traps or other nasty surprises as he does so.
Irina sighs, and stands bravely between Jack and the snowman.
[dice=22 Arcana check]1d20+8
Ruso mutters something about snow in the desert and pads forward carefully, his eyes open for a trap of some kind. Just as Irina is figuring out that the snowman has an Alarm spell tied to it, Jack steps close enough to trigger it. When Ruso gets within 15' of the snowy figure, it seemingly animates saying in a loud, stern voice, "Can't you read? The sign says turn back! Now get lost!"
Jack stands ready with his scythe, and approaches the snowman.
"I think this might be Wishbone Creek. It ain't deep, but I wouldn't normally try to cross it because it moves so fast. Looks frozen solid, now. I suggest we ignore the sign and go see what those boots are about. Anyone feel like joining...?"
The snowman suddenly speaks. "Are they supposed to do that?"
Ruso stops short when the snowman speaks. "Okay, now that is just not right! So now what? Do we ignore the warning and hope nothing bad happens or do we heed the warning try to keep clear of it?"
"No they don't usually do that. We can try to go around out of sight of the snowman. It's got all kinds of spells on it." She gives the snowman a look.
"Are we really debating whether or not to run from something built by children?"
"We're talking about avoiding something full of magic. Do you have a fireball to throw at it?"
"No fire."
Jack shivers, but you aren't sure if it is from the cold or not.
"If we were just travelers passing through, I would suggest we give it a wide berth. But since we are here to find answers, I suspect we find them past this snowman. Still, I don't mind walking 100 ft around it..."
Jack heads north, to work his way around and across.
"If I was powerful enough to evoke that much fire, I wouldn't be working in mines and lumber yards!"
Giving the talking snowman a wide berth, Jack circles around overland to the north, plowing through the waist deep snow to get to the bank fo the frozen stream. He sees the usually fast-moving stream is a solid sheet of ice which extends across to the others side. Snow-covered rocks line both banks.
Not looking to do any acrobatics, Jack feels no shame in getting down on all fours and slowly crossing the frozen water.
Irina will follow Jack. She moves slowly through the snow. "Maybe we should have let the snowman attack us." She moves slowly across the creek.
Ruso follows the others and when they reach the frozen stream tries to judge the width of the stream to see if he might be able to leap it rather than risk the ice sheet.
Ruso backs up a short distance and takes a run at the frozen stream, leaping just as he reaches it edge.
Jack drops to all fours and starts across the frozen stream with Irina, upright following behind. The stream is about 20' across at its narrowest, and trying to make a running start, Ruso leaps, but falls well short of the other bank, the nimble elf slipping and falling on the slippery surface, unharmed except his pride.
Just as Ruso lands, the ice on either side of the party, both upstream and downstream, starts to shimmer and move. Instead of cracking, as expected the ice buckles and starts to upthrust without shattering the surface. Soon, a trio of vaguely humanoid creatures made from the ice have formed on either side of the party. The creatures seem overly aggressive, and move to attack.
Icy Crossing - Round 1
12 Red Ice Elemental
10 Yellow Ice Elemental
10 Ruso
10 Irina
9 Skyne
9 Jack
6 Wulfgang
6 Blue Ice Elemental
5 Peltra
Moving easily across the surface of frozen creek, the two elementals glide toward the adventurers who are in mid-crossing. Yellow gets close enough to Jack to slam an icy appendage into the ranger, but even flat-footed on the slippery surface, Jack's armor protects him from harm.
Skyne tries to pierce the red-tinted ice beast with a bolt, hoping to keep it away from the prone Ruso. "Curse this crossbow. I told the smith the spring was bad!"
Standard Attack (red)
Move Reload
"Well that could have gone better. I really thought I could make it." Ruso stands up and draws his rapier as he prepares to deal with this new threat.
Jack pulls his longsword and swipes at the yellow elemental.
Icy Crossing - Round 1 - continued
Ruso stands and draws his rapier, dusting himself off to face this new threat.
Startled by the sudden appearance of fearsome foes, Irina sends her Evil Eye in the direction of Yellow, effectively reducing its ability to strike normally.
From the bank, Skyne fires the crossbow, but the shot sails wide of the mark.
From his hands and knees, Jack is able to twist around, draw his longsword, and get an effective attack in against the nearby elemental. To his surprise, the sword seems to damage the planar creature normally even though it seems made of hardened ice.
Seeing his allies under attack, Wulfgang unlimbers his greataxe and goes hell-for-leather through the snow, staying far away from the snowman, but trying to cut off one of the elementals before he can get to the crossing party.
Blue Elemental glides across the ice quickly, ending up next to Ruso, who has just regained his feet.
Scrambling foward to assist, Peltra gets bogged down in the snow, and can't yet get close enough for an attack.
End of Round 1
Icy Crossing - Round 2
12 Red Ice Elemental
10 Yellow Ice Elemental (6hp dmg, Evil eye -2 attacks, 7 rounds)
10 Ruso
10 Irina
9 Skyne
9 Jack
6 Wulfgang
6 Blue Ice Elemental
5 Peltra
Skating forward, Red Elemental balls its icy fist into a might punch which wallops Wulfgang upside the head. The damage is painful, but the icy touch of the creature is worse. The cold slows down the viking warrior's reactions staggering him.
Yellow Elemental takes another swing at Jack, but Irina's witchcraft discombobulates the elemental and the attack misses.
Irina gives the red elemental the Evil Eye. "It did warn us. If you have fire, use it. They are susceptible to that." Then she cackles to add another round onto the weakened attack of yellow.