"Poor man... I hope we catch up to whoever is doing these horrible things soon..."
Despite feeling bad for this poor human, Blik will help chip the ice away from his valuable possessions. Blik will kneel and whisper what passes for a prayer to him.
"Your goods will be put to use for the living, rest well child of day, we will see you avenged soon."
Blik will point out the footprints continuing down the trail to the others, and continue on, with more purpose in his steps.
"The cold itself is not evil. It is nature. This cold may be unnatural but it is still nature, just forced. Whatever is causing it on the other hand needs an axe to the face."
"This cold feels evil ta me."
"Does it not get cold down here usually?"
"No place gets this cold, as far as I'm concerned."
An axe to the face you say?" The samurai said his whiskers twitching in amusement. He pointed to the frozen corpses hand axe. "Whose face do we plant that in?" He asked taking the bow and handing it to Erica along with the arrows. See how friend Hobbes had been handling most of the money and things anyway the feline tossed him the pouch. He frowned as he checked the corpse, wondering if it were the ice men whom killed him and buried him in the snow, the evil sprite things, or something else.
As soon as they leave the place with the snowman, Zses will use his orange scarf to assemble the CrowBall(TM)
"Another one..." he will say as they approach the farmer's corpse. He will join in examining the corpse with Silence, searching for signs if the cold that killed were magical, or if his causes of death were similar to those of the frozen Sentinel.
"This cold is nothing compared to Irrisen. It'll freeze your soul there, a cursed, evil place of eternal cold."
The farmer appears to have been killed by an icy fist. Most likely one of those elementals.
The trail begins to climb a ridgeline to the south beneath snow-laden trees. The prints of boots and horses mar the freshly-fallen snow on the trail. You can hear voices just around the next trail bend. They're speaking Common and appear to be arguing over loot distribution. It seems they're not happy with the current arrangement.
"Bandits ahead yes yes? Surely honorable sentinals would not be arguing over loot. Banditry is for the sword?" The large feline said his katana making a wicked whisper as he withdrew it from its sheath. "I will veer to the left side to give you archers a free reign on the right.
Drawing his great sword as he breaks into a run he'll cheerfully quip to Silence "Yes yes."
Hobbes moves right behind Lyosha.
"Uh, alright..."
Worried about another battle but preparing himself nonetheless, Blik will sneak along to the right side and cast Magic Stone on his bullet pouch.
Magic Stone
School transmutation; Level cleric 1, druid 1
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, DF
Range touch
Targets up to three pebbles touched
Duration 30 minutes or until discharged
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless, object); Spell Resistance yes (harmless, object)
You transmute as many as three pebbles, which can be no larger than sling bullets, so that they strike with great force when thrown or slung. If hurled, they have a range increment of 20 feet. If slung, treat them as sling bullets (range increment 50 feet). The spell gives them a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls. The user of the stones makes a normal ranged attack. Each stone that hits deals 1d6+1 points of damage (including the spell's enhancement bonus), or 2d6+2 points against undead.
Before Silence moves, he will gesture the others to wait, and then Zses will start unwrapping Crow. .
As soon as he's finished, he will nod to the others and follow after Blik.
You charge toward the voices - except for Blik who melts into the forest. Rounding the bend, you see three men wearing High Sentinel uniforms. Their eyes grow wide as Silence and Neverhome rush up, then they see three others coming up fast. They look surprised and scared.
Surprise Round
Silence rears his mount Charger and blinks, Bandits and ne'er do wells didnt wear uniforms.... well ninja did but he hoped those... problematic beings hadnt made their way to this land. Still something just didnt add up. Law folk didnt comlain about loot. "Oh sorry to have startled you yes yes. The feline samurai began blade still bared as Mule pawed at the ground nervously. "The mayor lady in the town was worried about you yes yes, there was a caravan hit by bandits and five of your friends were slain and turned into zombies One lived though. We were sent to see if this evil snow had taken out your lodge."
The large feline smiled, which of course was toothy and possible wicked looking. He nudged his mount closer to them...
Zses will remain rather dumbfounded as he sees the uniforms.
Wait, what? Are they actually Sentinels or they stole those uniforms?
Feeling the witch's worry, Crow and Zses will examine the scene to notice anything strange.
"Are...are you High Sentinels? We were searching for you! The village needs help, fast!"
That's kind of true, tough he will think as he gives another glance at the "Sentinels".
Neverhome will continue to advance on the "Sentinels" with his weapon drawn.
All three of the men are wearing well-fitting uniforms that don't appear damaged or bloodstained.
They're definitely High Sentinels. Silence instead is certain that they're imposters.
Neverhome will simply stare menacingly then.
"Yea, where you guys been? Town's a mess right now."
Blik will hold back when it appears these were the men the others were searching for. He'll still remain hidden though, always wary of any hostility, Blik will try to circle stealthily around behind the Sentinels ready to spot any aggressive behavior in these uniformed humanoids.
Sling at the ready, Blik will watch with trained patience.
Dropping instantly any suspect, Zses will sigh with relief, only to frantically trying to tell what happened to the Sentinels a second later:
"Oh, I'm so glad you're safe! Miss Teppin sent to find you! This blizzard started and the caravans were attacked and there was a Tatzlwyrm and the snowman was trapped and..." a *tok* interrupted the witch's speech.
After having peaked at Zses's head, Crow will tell to the Sentinels, not without some effort "Are you okay? Why were you arguing?".
Massaging where the raven pecked him, Zsestrian will try to regain his composure.
Silence gave them time to answer... an appropriate amount of time in his mind at least. "Are you not this regions protectors? Are you not the law here? Yes yes? Why are you talking about loot? Have you defeated the bandits that attacked that carraige and killed those people... Speak up before the cat takes your tongues!" He said angrily Rearing mount up dramatically his glare on the three.
The three Sentinels stand frozen as you run up to them. They stammer for a few moments, but look about to speak when Silence issues his threat. The Sentinels stare at the Catfolk's gleaming weapon, glance at each other, and take off running away as fast as they can!
"Well that's not suspicious at all. Get them!" Neverhome will say flatly before breaking into a run after them.
Zses mouth will drop open as he look at the Sentinels running away. He will fix his eyes on one of the Sentinels, the one that looked particularly suspicious even before.*
After not realizing what was going on, Zses will start running after them. Crow will fly up to chase them from above.
"What is going ooooon!" is the only thing Zses manages to shout.
Blik will let out a surprised squeak, this was the last thing he thought the humans would do. When Neverhome shouts out to stop them, he'll move to get in the way of one of the fleeing Sentinels and trip him up.
Leaping out at one of the fleeing humans, Blik will shout,
"What is going on!
"Oh no, you have questions to answer yes yes?" The feline said spurring Mule to charge torwards them....then even passed them. Once in front of them He reared his horse again. "Stop! Or I will take more than your lying tongues!" He half hissed half spat out. [/b]
"Oh great. Now I gotta shoot em down." Hobbes drops his shield and draws his bow.
Blik mistimes his leap, lands directly in front of the lead Sentinel, and promptly gets bowled over.
The Sentinels stop in their tracks as Silence blocks their escape. Glancing behind them and seeing their other pursuers rapidly closing in, they draw shortswords and attack Silence! In their terror, they miss both him and Mule badly.
Hobbes fires a shot at one of the 'Sentinels'.
Blik will leap up from the ground, covered in snow and red-faced with embarrassment. He'll let his sling fly at one of the Sentinels when they begin attacking Silence, using one of his enchanted sling stones.
Neverhome will continue his charge into the nearest "sentinel".
He hadnt been expecting them to attack him, then again cornered rats usually attacked. Why dont you Purrlay?!?" He growled out slashing his katana at one of the men while Mule handled the other attacker.
Why are they attacking us now!? We didn't do anything aside from asking some questions!
"Please, everyone calm down! I'm sure this was all a misunderstanding!" Zses will say completely panicked, while looking with pleading eyes* to the Sentinel that looked more reasonable().
*
"Calm them down!With a punch to the face!" Crow will shout from above.
Looking first above at Crow and next to the party, Zses will day with a nervous laugh* "Or if you have to, don't hit them so hard? We'll just knock them out,and then we'll all have a nice chat,okay? Yes,yes?"
*
What was supposed to pacify the fight, tough, sounded more like a threat.
Hobbes and Silence barely miss their targets. Blik's slingstone hits one Sentinel in the small of the back. Mule kicks a second Sentinel in the head, dropping him to the ground unconscious. Neverhome's greatsword inflicts a massive gash on the third Sentinel, and the man collapses. The bleeding appears to be contained, though. Zsestrian's threat further intimidates the only conscious Sentinel, and he drops his weapon and raises his hands.
"Where are the real Sentinels?" Neverhome says to the remaining "Sentinel" with his sword readied at him.
"Where are the real sentinal's! Silence echoed guiding Mule to crowd the surrendered man forcing him to back way from the dropped sword.
I have some rope on Charger, Let's tie up the two who are unconcious while mr. runner here tells us what they did with the real sentinal's. Yes yes." He said not bothering to even try to intimidate the man any more. It seemed he was intimidated enough.
The man sobs in terror, "We are the real Sentinels!" He seems completely cowed by the group of vicious murderhobos.
Behind you, Erika seems frozen in place. A moment later, she suddenly vanishes, as if she'd never existed. Even her footprints are gone. At the same time, Zsestrian realises there's a note in his hand.
Silences ears got real real flat. "you are the real sentinals? who is the towns mayor? What happened to the ones you had at the caravan? Why did you run?" He asked a flurry of questions getting dismouting from his horse to glare at the man some more though resheathing his katana. Friend Erika, the rope..." He began glancing torwards mule... watching the woman vanish. His eyes widened and his hand grabbed the hilt of his katana again. "What trickery is this?" he growled.
Zses will gasp when Erika disappears in thin air. As soon as he notice the note, he will run to Silence to show him the note "Silence, look here." he will close his eyes for a moment to try to understand what happened, forgetting for a moment the tied-up Sentinels.
"It seems she left on her own... And what does she mean with 'the information I will give her'? And why the future tense? Does she mean that she will catch up later, Silence? And how did she disappeared like that? Must have been an invisibility spell, teleport or some sort of Plane sh..shif..." Zses's series of question got interrupted by a crippling pain to his head, and the witch will fall on his knees, hands around his head.
A view of a shadowy land of ashen trees and jet black grass flashed in his head
The witch will say a quick string of whispers and hisses...
" सुवार् ! आवर्तन ! तानि हिंसति !"
... and then look blankly around himself, only vaguely remembering what happened in the last seconds.
*blink*
*blink*
"What in the $&@# just happened?!?!"
"This is gettin weirder and weirder."
"Oh..." Zses will turn his head to Lyosha, Hobbes and Blik "It seems Erika went away. She left me a letter, that one that I just gave Silence. She was in a hurry, but I think she said we may meet her once again, one day! Talked about an information I will give her or something..."
Zses will then notice he was sitting on the ground and ,remembered faintly the vision he had, tought that maybe the puzzled reactions of Lyosha and Hobbes were not only because of Erika's disappearance. "Oh. Oh! Sorry, did I talk funny again? Like whispering and hissing and stuff? It's,uh, kind of embarrassing: Sometimes I see , or remember dunno, things and then start talking gibberish like that." Unsure of what to say, the witch will give everyone a broad smile.