Zsestrian's bolt hits the snowZombieKing right between the eyes. It makes the familiar *pffft* of disturbed snow. You wait for several more seconds when suddenly ... ... nothing unusual happens!
"Bullseye!" Zses will cheer. After a couple of seconds he will raise an eyebrow. "Wait, what did you mean by *pffft*! You were supposed to explode, attack us, scream and run away, something! Not stand there and do *pffft*!"
After calming down, Zses will sigh "Let's just knock that thing over and see if there are some magic items hidden in it or whatever. I hope that I were right at least about that..."
Shaking his head resignedly Neverhome will proceed up to the snowman and attempt to knock it over and lightly chop it up to look though it with the sentinels sword.
Erika looks confused at the reaction to the snow man. However being cautious as she is, she keeps her bow trained on it just in case.
As soon as Neverhome steps within 15ft of the snowman, it angrily yells, "Can't you read? The sign says turn back! Now get lost!" When Neverhome steps closer, it screams in frustration.
As the scream's echoes die away, some of the river ice rises up and forms two humanoid shapes.
Round One
The ice monsters charge at Neverhome and smack him hard.
"NNNGGGHHHHHH" Neverhome will be revulsed by the jarring attack, knocking the sentinels sword from his grasp.
Everything happened so suddenly that Zses didn't even have the time to panic "Lyosha!" While running to help the half-orc, he will shout to his companions: "They're ice elementals! Immune to ice, and even if you hit them in the back or in the head they don't feel that much pain! They also dive in snow and ice like they were water, so watch out! If you have fire, now's the time to use it!"
Out of breath, Zses will glare angrily* at the elementals.( )
*
"Run back to the drink you came from, you oversized ice cubes, or the next crossbow bolt will be stuck between your eyes!" he will shout at the elemental while pointing the crossbow at it.
Groggily drawing his Greatsword as his head rings he'll shout just to be able to hear his own voice "We can't leave if you kill us!"
Erika sees the creature begin to strike and focuses her mind. Suddenly and unbeknownst to you the world jumps back a fraction of a second and she lets an arrow loose at the snowman.
Zsestrian's threat seems effective, but Neverhome misses. Also, everyone realizes that somehow, Erika's already loosed an arrow and hit her target before anyone else even moved.
Silence will growl and charge forward on his mount brandishing his Katana. "Come you silly foolish block of ice, face a true samurai!" [/b]
Silence will growl and kick forward his mount moving 20 feet closer while knocking an arrow and looses it at the red elemental. Come silly Ice spirit, face a true samurai!
Erika then sees the Elementals and takes a shot at the one closest to her.
"I knew it. We're all gonna die, to snowmen.." Hobbes draws his bow while moving forward 20 feet and fires.
Silence's katana narrowly misses Red. Mule, however, manages to land a nasty bite. Erika and Hobbes miss Blue.
Blik, with his spear already in hand will step forward five feet and swing at blue.
"Return to your home river spirit!"
Blik will run forward 40ft brandishing his little spear.
Round Two
The Elementals swing icy fists at Neverhome and Mule but miss horribly.
Hobbes takes a shot and keeps moving forward.
With a decidedly annoyed hiss Silence reversed his grip on the hilt of his katana and brought it down at the ice elemental.
Mule bites and kicks at the mobile ice block.
Blik runs down past Erika and Hobbes, dashing towards the blue Ice elemental. He'll raise his spear and thrust forward, nervously yelling out.
"You don't belong here, you should go!"
Missing widely he'll add,
"Uh, please?"
His ears still ringing he try's his best to focus to bring his sword down on the elemental .
Silence and Hobbes work together to take down Red Elemental. Blue Elemental is nicked by Hobbes' arrow, then suffers a massive hit from Neverhome but remains upright.
"Don't say I didn't warn you!" Zses will shout to the ice elemental while aiming.
Zses will let out a triumphant laugh.*
*
Neverhome's whirling blade of death gets in the way of Zsestrian's bolt.
Erika sees the first elemental fall, and curses at her bad luck. She nocks another arrow to her bow and lets it fly.
Erika's arrow misses the Elemental ...
Round Three
... which promptly proceeds to horribly miss Neverhome.
Trying again, Blik with thrust forward with his spear at the blue elemental.
Hobbes moves to melee blue.
Zses will end laughing abruptly . A moment later he will start looking in contempt at the Ice Elemental*"Well, close enough. You don't seem to be able to hit anything at all, too." he will add with a chuckle**.
*
**
The Samurai guided his mount torwards the remaining foe, flanking it as he brought his katana across his shoulder quickly. His mount too dipped its head and chomped at the giant moble ice-cube.
Neverhome wil join in on the barrage against the elemental.
The entire party would together to hack Blue into a pile of ice cubes.
"Well that happened." He mumbles as he picks up the sentinel's longsword. He'll eye the snowman carefully before poking and prodding it with the sentinel's sword.
As soon as the Ice Elemental is hacked into pieces, Zses will rush to the half-orc "Lyosha, can you stand? You need help! We'll get you fixed up in a moment!" he will turn and look with pleading eyes to the party, as if asking for help for Neverhome.
"I...I'm sorry" he will say while lowering his eyes, after the initial panic faded "I can't fight, and I can't even do well the little arcane babbling that Crow taught me..." Zses will bite his lips "Maybe, if I had been more careful, I would have known that approaching that thing was dangerous, and you wouldn't be here half-dead, for the second time in two days..." He will then turn silent as the raven landed on his shoulder.
Neverhome will face Zsestrian, quiet for a few moments before raising his hand and playfully flicking him in the head with his finger and thumb. "You worry too much." he'll say with a slight smirk.
"That was so strange! Are snowmen often used in deadly magic?"
Blik will shake the ice from his spear-head.
"Don't worry Zsestrian, I don't think anyone could have seen that coming..."
Blik will scan around, trying to see if whoever left this trap has left any tracks behind.
"Are you well friend Neverhome? The man of snow did not like being poked i see." He began his teeth curling back in a feline smile. "we should wiggle the healing wand on you yes yes? He further added dismounting and moving close to the edge of the stream carefully testing it to see if it could hold his weight successfully. In this weather falling into and under the ice was probably a very very very bad idea.
"You just had ta agitate him didn't ya?"
With effort, Zses will manage a faint smile to Neverhome.
I have to get stronger. I can't help anyone nor myself if I'm this weak. I have to be alive if I want to get my memory back...
Feeling Zsesstrian's worry, Crow will stare at him with black eyes.
Zse will then give a glance to the snowman, and try to remember what happened when the spell got off, while Crow will scan the area from the witch's shoulder.
Upon close examination, the snowman is revealed to be just that - a normal snowman.
@Blik: there are tracks leading to the frozen river, walking the trail you've been following.
@Zsestrian: magic mouth + sound burst
Looking down at his wounds Neverhome will take into account the state of his body "I suppose so. You get mauled enough times you stop keeping track of things like that."
Hobbes will graciously heal the wounded androgynous barbarian. "Quit whinin'. I'll take care of ya."
As the positive energy flows into him Neverhome gives done slight stretches of his arms and legs as his wounds close up. "Still not used to that. You have my thanks Hobbes.
"Be careful when you begin to cross. The samurai began slowly beginning to edge his way on the the ice. Slowly and carefully he began to attempt to cross it to the other side. He was very thankful that they had the wand that allowed them to heal the others injuries. For whatever reason he had a bad feeling that the sentinals lodge wasnt going to be a friendly place. So far nothing Else had been. Well, except for the talking spirit elk... but he was still sure that was lunch not a friend. Maybe.
The river ice is very thin in places, but by taking your time, you're able to cross without any unexpected baths. Half-buried in a snowbank on the other side is a frozen corpse. He appears to be a local farmer and carries a composite longbow (STR +1), 12 arrows, a dagger, a MW handaxe, and a pouch containing 14gp, 25sp, 18cp.
The trail continues southward along the ridge.