@Blik: there are at least a half-dozen unaccounted-for tracks heading deeper into the forest.
@Zsestrian: the body's covered with several inches of ice, but it can be defrosted fairly quickly and easily if you make a fire.
Hobbes will take a look around as the rest decided how to handle the Sentinel.
You don't see anything else of interest.
Zses will give Lyosha a puzzled look. "What do you mean?" croaked Crow, who had been awfully silent for the last minutes.
"Can someone help me take some of this wooden planks near that frozen man? I think I have an idea to melt the ice." After the planks are in place, Zsestrian will ignite them using .
After the ice melted, he will examine the corpse .
Poor man. May Desna have mercy of his soul. He will furrow his brows "Why am I talking of Desna so much after having seen those butterflies?" he will say to himself. He will then try to free his head of those strange thoughts and the sound of the crunched Swallowtails.
"Let's see... he will present the Breastplate first to the group. "Wow, this is one finely crafted armor. See these reinforcement here? They're a work of art! This breastplate must have been the work of an excellent armor-smith! But the real beauty is this..." he will take the Longsword, and a note of excitement starts to fill his voice. "At first glance, it would seem a normal weapon, but this Longsword is made of Cold Iron. It may be a little more frail than normal steel, but something made of this material can cut Lychantropes, Demons and other creatures like butter!"
"I'm not good at actually using weapon and armor, tough" he will say while turning to the group, giving a little chuckle. "It's best if you decide who should use what"
After two consecutive edit cancelled by the forums, all should be alright now.
Aaand going to sleep now :)
Silence glanced at the breastplate and sword and shrugged. He was perfectly content in his homelands armor and with his katana, but the cold iron sword could prove of use. "I dont need either, if it comes to worse case scenarios, we keep them and perhaps their are survivors of this assault somewhere yes yes? I dont like that he was frozen solid, powerful magic that i think." He frowned and motioned torwards the path. "I will ride in the front perhaps our bads like cats yes yes." He added mostly hoping actually that if an ambush or something happened perhaps the weaker less prepared of the small party would have a bit higher chance to survive.
As you follow the trail into the woods, the temperature drops significantly, and the falling snow adds a white haze to everything.
About a half-hour in, the trail passes through a small clearing among the taller trees before continuing uphill and out of sight. A large chest lies half-buried in the snow, apparently dropped or discarded by those who hastily passed this way.
In a hushed tone as he points to the rigged chest "Hey Hobbes, didn't you say you were good with traps?"
"Of course." Hobbes gets out his tools and gets to work on the trap.
As they get deeper into the woods, Zsestrian will start to shiver"Brrr, It's freezing! My scarf isn't that warming, I suppose. Is everyone else all right?" He will look at the white cover of snow on the landscape"And this monochrome landscape seems familiar. More of the "buried trauma" than the "happy childhood memory" familiar, tough.". He will give a little grin.
Zses could then feel a slight sense of danger coming from Crow "What's the matter, Crow?"
"Watch out! Trap!". Following the raven's gaze, Zses will notice the contraption. "Uh. Nasty. In truth, I didn't even notice the chest with all this snow..." "Why there is a trapped chest here?" the raven will croak. "Uh, good point. Anyway, I suggest that we trigger the trap from a safe distance. We could shoot the rope holding that spiked log, or I can simply ignite the rope so we don't even need to waste arrows."
EDIT: When he sees the halfling disarming the the trap he will say "...Or we could simply disarm it, yes. Didn't think of that" he will give a cheerful laugh.
Crow will give a supportive croak"Go Hobbes!"
"I have an extra blanket in Charger's packs, if you promise not to get it gnawed upon by undead you could wrap yourself in it like a cape." The samurai said very dead pan from atop his mount...almost too deadpan. He was probably trying to make a joke with Zsestrian. "They expected someone to follow it seems... this is certainly getting more serious yes yes." He added keeping a sharp lookout while the halfling worked on the trap.
"Careful, the chest itself might be the trap..."
Blik will say appearing on a tree branch. He'll hop down and begin carefully examining the tracks around the chest.
Oh, and the trap's been successfully disarmed.
"Wus init?"
"Oh. Okay, Silence, thanks. I promise I'll take care of it."
Well, he's probably mad because I almost got killed back there. Maybe he thinks I'll be a deadweight or something
"I-I'll give it back to you as soon as all my wounds heal". Then for trying to lighten the mood "Physical wounds I mean. Desna knows when I'm going to open a door ever again!" he said, giving a short laugh.
Meanwhile, Crow was peeking inside the open chest, but was not quite sure what was in it...
"What's in the chest?What's in the chest? he croaked, without trying to mask his curiosity.
Zsestrian, feeling Crow excitement, will turn and gave a look at the chest,too, to see if there are any magical effects on the chest or in the objects() within.
The chest is empty....
Crow will fly on a nearby branch and look at the chest from the top, while Zsestrian scratches his head and cast on the chest another time, just to be sure.
"Why would someone trap an empty chest...Aaaah, now I get it" he will pause for a second. "Maybe I'm just stating the obvious, but this was probably prepared against thieves and greedy intruders. The High Sentinels probably put it here, so maybe we could be near their headquarters, or something... If we follow this trail, we'll probably get there and to whoever is responsible for all of this" he will then add with a lower tone "if it's still there..."
"By the way, Blik, what did you mean before when you said that the chest itself might be the trap?"
"Empty? that makes no sense these sentinels are lawmen yes yes? What if an innocent trapper came by and got curious sneaky death traps are not the way of lawmen." Silence said dismounting to look at the chest himself. It was a matter of curiosity and well that never lead to anything good. [/b] "I wonder what was in it yes yes. Perhaps we can take it with us and when we find who attacked the caravan we can put whatever was in it back in it." [/b]
The chest is made from darkwood. It's half-buried in snow, so it'sclearly been here a while. It's 3ft long and 2ft wide. Depth can be estimated at 2-3ft.
Zsestrian detects no magic.
Blik, still digging on the snow with his now cold pink hands will look up sheepishly and respond,
"Uh, well I was just thinking, what better way to get pursures to drop their guard and waste some time than with the promise of treasure. Er, but while this area looks to be travelled quite a bit, there are a lot of older tracks here, I'm not so sure. It still seems like a good spot for an ambush..."
Freaking himself out, Blik will look around wildly then try to hide behind a tree.
Stepping carefully out from behind the tree Blik will creep back towards his previous digging spot. Carefully examining the area, Blik will dig away with his little spear until he discovers the unusual metal object, not wanting to make a fuss until he knows what it is.
Neverhome will let out a scoff of annoyance at seeing the contents of the chest. "If they're going to leave the chest empty they would have been better off if they just trapped the inside too. Lousy trappers."
"An ambush you say? They would have had all the time they wanted to attack us while we were disarming the trap..." pondered Zses.
"Maybe there was an ambush here before?" the raven croaked, and then looked around, perched on the branches.
As Blik continues to poke in the snow around the empty chest, it quickly becomes evident that there are weapons and armor buried directly underneath it!
[spoiler=Under the Chest]Leather Armor x5, Studded Leather x3, MW Chain Shirt x1, Light Wooden Shield x2, Longsword x7, Spear x2, MW Dagger x1, Light Crossbow x3, Crossbow Bolt x25. One of the Longswords has a slightly curved blade and seems sharper than the others .[/ooc]
Neverhome's lips twist into a smile as the halfling unearths the hidden treasure. "Now that's more like it!" As he goes to inspect the equipment his eyes narrow and he stops. "Who buries treasure under the chest! Stupid southerners..."
"Southerners? i was going to blame all of you here in the west and across the spine." The large feline begin with that very toothy grin. Glancing at all the loot the feline shrugged though. "Friend Zsestrian Raven, do you know how a crossbow operates?" He asked with a bit of curiosity. "If not i will show you, should keep you from getting too close to things yes yes. Then they wont try to bite your face off anymore." He nodded a little self sastisfied that suddenly things seemed to be working themselves out in their favor for once.
"Oh ho! What a score! Too bad it's all too big, but at least it's worth something."
"Espicially if we put what doesn't get used in the chest. Like it's supposed to be."
"Friend Zsestrian"! Yay! He's not mad at me anymore!
And I'm more and more convinced that he's a "he" "
He will turn to Silence and give him a broad smile "No, never used a crossbow before. I'd be very grateful if you could tell me how to use that, tough! Is it easier to use than a bow?".
Crow will take off to a safe distance.
Probably behind Lyosha.
"We're in trouble. He'll probably kill us with an accidental ricochet shot" the raven would have sighed, if he could sigh.
After his crossbow training(ad hopefully no lethal ricochet shot) Zsestrian will sit near the hidden stash to examine it closer.
"Hhhm, I don't know. The ones that immediately jump to the eye are this dagger and chain shirt, they're finely crafted, but I'm not sure about the rest."
"Oh, and there's this strange Longsword here, never seen something like this. It looks a little more dangerous than the other Longswords here"
Erika looks up as if noticing the gear for the first time. "Oh, what happened? What's all this?" She looks around at the pile and picks up the slightly curved blade. "This is a beautiful sword..."
Once you're finished with the weapons/armor cache, you continue onward.
As you follow the trail deeper into the forest, the snow becomes progressively deeper. After approximately 20 minutes, you reach a windswept gully that carves a path through a tree-covered ridge. A soft cascade of snow falls from an overhead branch, hissing softly as it strikes the ground.
Wordlessly he'll move in front of the halfling as he draws his greatsword, hoping the others catch on quick.
Ever ready, Blik will recognize the sign of danger and ready his spear taking cover behind the large half-orc.
A dragon/lizard creature lunges from a snowbank and leaps toward Blik. Neverhome's barely able able to interpose himself in front of the halfling and suffers a nasty bite .
Round One
As the pain from the creature's teeth rend into him he feels the rest of the world around him start to fade away until the pain soon becomes heat as his rage takes hold him, focusing his damaged body on the lizard creature. He can't even feel his arms as he swings his sword.
Blik will squeak in surprise as the reptile bursts from the snow towards him, only for Neverhome to take the hit. Surprised at someone willing to protect him, Blik will feel a surge of anger towards the creature.
"Leave him alone!"
Blik will move beside Neverhome and thrust forward with his spear.
Erika isn't looking when the dragon attacks, but feels the wind shift and she whirls in the direction of the beast. Nearly instantly her bow is in her hands, and with a quick shot fires off at the dragon.