As Ziva shatters the final skeleton with one mighty blow of her greatsword, it explodes in a shower of icy fragments.
The rocks and snow along this part of the ridge are stained a reddish brown, and many tracks, both animal and human, cross the area.
Up on the ride there is a mutilated human body with paw prints around it. On the is still wearing a bloody and ripped (but still usable) cold-weather outfit, a pair of homemade snowshoes, and a MW composite Longbow (Str +4) and two magical arrows remain in his quiver.
Ziva, Einar and Crummock spot a bloodstained pack lying half-covered by a fresh dusting of snow nearby. It holds 3 days’ worth of trail rations, a half-full hip flask of strong applejack, and a journal (on which the front page has a name – Dryden Kepp) with one entry reading as follows:
Damnit, so close!
That weasel evaded me again. I heard the death scream of a deer, but went there and found nothing but bloodstains. This time I will set a trap. No, wait, I’ll set three in case the first two don’t work. Then I’ll kill the weasel and bring its head home as a trophy. That’ll teach the Heldren folk to disbelieve what I say, when there’s proof right in front of their eyes.
The other entry reads:
I’ve found a really curious hut in the woods. There’s a strange little doll there. I tried calling out to her but got a shard of ice thrown at me. People who live in the woods are strange. Really.
Tracks of a giant weasel
Mr. Whiskers trudges forward through the snow. He can barely see the creature through Crummock and Einar.
Just as he is about to start one of his spells, the monster explodes!
"What was that?" he asks.
When the group comes across the corpse, Mr. Whiskers announces "These tracks appear to have been left by a giant weasel."
Ziva winces at the influx of cold, before frowning as she flicks through the notebook."It look like a fellow hunter was active here. I don't know how heavily we could trust what he wrote though, I grew out of talking to dolls years and years ago".
Crummock looks at the tracks thoughtfully.
"Clever Girl."
Ever practical, he then carefully loots the body.
"Einar? I take that ye be wantin' yon bow? Who be wantin' the snowshoes?"
He then continues on the trail.
"If only they were smaller..." Mr. Whiskers says while gazing wistfully at the snowshoes.
A cold wind blows through the forest atop the ridge. Heavy snow burdens the boughs of the evergreen trees, but someone has apparently cleared the snow from a large patch of ground to dig in the pine-needle-carpeted soil. As the party passes, what seems like innocent looking pine trees come to life and attack the party.
Mr Whiskers recognizes theses as frost firs, malovelent tree creatures who keep to themselves and disdain any who intrude upon their forested realms. He knows the following:
Sticky Resin (Ex) A frost fir’s bark constantly exudes a sticky resin that aids its combat maneuvers and natural attacks. The resin grants a frost fir a +2 circumstance bonus on all disarm, grapple, and steal combat maneuvers, as well as on saving throws against effects that cause it to drop something it is holding. Any creature that is damaged by a frost fir’s slam attack, deals damage to a frost fir with a natural weapon or unarmed attack, or otherwise touches a frost fir (including with a grapple maneuver), must succeed at a DC 13 Reflex save or be coated with the frost fir’s sticky resin. A creature affected by this resin takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls and concentration checks (penalties from multiple contacts do not stack). Any enemy grappled by a frost fir takes a –2 penalty on attempts to break the grapple and to escape using the Escape Artist skill. Strong alcohol, universal solvent, or any amount of fire damage dealt to a creature coated in resin removes the resin. The save DC is Constitution-based.
"Vatch out it vill explode!" Einar ducks in time only catching a little of the ice shards. Kicking the remains he continues leading the party.
'What is this, ahh, an unfortunate hunter. After helping search the body, he points at the snow shoes, "Would anyvone mind if I use zee snow shoes?" Turning and answering Crummock "Ya, A more powerful bow vould be of use." then stopping for a moment he turns to Ziva, "Or vould you like to use it Fräulein"
Taking the time to strap on the shoe and gather the items into his pack, he observes, lifting his arm showing a nasty cut. "Zee ice has cut me deep, vould anyvone be able to stitch it up."
"What now, damn trees?" Ziva remarks, quickly checking if any suspicious looking trees around her also start moving,. She hesitates for a moment, not really sure if fire would be the best option, since it at least appeared to be a tree, before half halfheartedly slashing at it with her sword.
Ziva chops the trunk of one of the trees, lank wise, and it falls onto the ground with a resounding crash, not unlike a pine tree when chopped down.
Vernai, reacting again from an audio cue from Ziva, dives out of the sky, slashing with a claw.
Vernai’s claw does not penetrate its thick woody bark. The frost fir attacked by Vernai strikes back with its branch like arms.
The other two shuffle across the snow and pummel Crummock to the ground with the branch like arms.
'Even the trees, well at least Ziva is quick on her feet.' Momentarily surprised by even the trees assaulting them, Einar brings his glaive into play. Seeing their new companion, Ziva handling herself against the enemies to the front Einar Turns in enough time to see Crummock attacked. Stepping beside Mister Whiskers, Einar swings his glaive in a wide arc, slashing at he tree that attacked Crummock. "Vatch out for zee glaive, Crummock."
Einnar lands a heavy cut on its trunk. Just a little more..and he might have sawed it right through.
Aided by the cold, Crummock manages to stop bleeding.
Mr. Whiskers trudges through the snow, making room for others to get near the two trees that took down Crummock. He then shoots his Acid blob at the northern most of the two.
The acid sears a small depression in its trunk and it thrashes in pain as it glares at Mr Whiskers through angry brown knobs in its bark that Mr Whiskers realizes are actually its eyes.
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No!
His words hit her with a palpable blow. She can see the children, the servants, the faces of those that he killed. They all bear the faces of people she knows and loves. She's in shock, still trying to process it, when he starts gently closing the door.
Without even thinking, she inserts her foot in the door. When he pauses, she looks up at him. "You can't slam the door on my foot, can you? You don't want to hurt people you care about." Her vision blurring, she wipes her face. She doesn't want him to remember her in tears. "Einar, you've just told me the most horrible thing I've ever heard. Why? To drive me away? To make sure that I knew the truth before I made the mistake of falling in love with you?"
Her hands are shaking. An image flashes in her head of Einar strangling George and Freya, snuffing out their young, innocent lives.
No. That's not HIM.
She glances up at him. "If you were the monster you say you are, you'd have slept with me without a second thought. Would that monster have hesitated to slam the door on my foot? Einar... you've committed horrors. Slaying those innocents..." Her hands shake as she tries to reconcile the vengeful assassin with gentle and soft-spoken warrior she'd started falling in love with. "You will carry that guilt for a very long time, Einar. I cannot help you find your path to redemption, but I know one exists for you. The seeds to it lie here."
She touches his chest, right over his heart. "Plant the seeds, Einar. Water them, tend them, protect them. Only you can make them grow. You don't have to end your life as you began, a tool for cold and bitter vengeance. There are other paths open to you, if only you would look."
She takes a deep breath, and finally says, "If you find that path... find me." She then removes her foot and turns to go.
In order to prevent the tree's attacking from all sides, Ziva moves through the snow, heading after Vernai's target.
Feeling the blade sink into the wood, Ziva feels a surge of triumph, before indicating Vernai's next target.
Immediately, the Mantis flies behind the Mantis, seeking to offer the possibility of a flank as best as she could, before striking with a claw.
Ziva chops at the Frost fir, cleaving a large gnash in its trunk, but it does not topple over.
The Frost fir swipes back at Ziva's head, where Ziva ducks at the last minute.
The other Frostfir tries to bat at Vernai, catching her with a glancing blow to her head and the other approaches Einar.
Einar chops at the Frostfir so powerfully that it splinters into thousands of wood chips.
Vernai manages to avoid being covered with the Frost fir's sticky resin.
Mr. Whiskers decides to target the same tree again, even though there are now people in melee with it. Unfortunately, his timing is off.
Mr Whisker's acid blob veers too much to the left, hitting only air.
'Need to get that tree off of Crummock.' Seeing the tree attack Crummock with enough ferocity to put the man on the ground, Einar redoubles his effort to kill the tree which has attacked his teammate. Keeping his head about him, Einar slashes at the tree, "Stay avay from him!"
Einar chops the at the already damanged trunk and saws it all the way through, and the tree tumbles to the ground.
With one single tree left, Ziva strikes out one final time, swinging roughly.
Ziva manages to chop the tree into firewood!
Seeing the last tree drop ending the immediate threat, Einar quickly checks Crummock. Turning first to his rodent friend and then to Ziva,"Mister Viskers, he is still bleeding, ya. Does your magic heal others or can either of you use der vand zhat he has?"
Ziva looks up sharply, hearing Einar address both her and Whiskers.
"What's that about a wand that your friend has? Whats it do?"
'well at least she knows a little about wands.' Einar starts to rifle through Crummocks bloody pockets looking for the wand, shrugging his shoulders at Ziva's question. "I assume it's some kind of healing wand, I got tore up pretty bad, he pulled it out waved it around hummed a little ditty and I was much better."
As he finished speaking Einar found the wand, delicately holding it between his finger and his thumb he hands it to Ziva. "This is it."
Ziva glances at the wand, before shrugging almost half dismissively. "If its simple healing magic, I can probably use it myself without too much difficulty. I'v seen it done before, although it didn't involve the use of a song"
Ziva takes the offered wand, twirling it around her fingers before making a short jabbing motion in the direction of Crummocks, mumbling a few words under her breath.
Einar, Ziva and Crummock find a grove of pine trees with 4 human sized lumps of frozen flesh pounded into the ground . Miraculously escaping destruction, there is a dented flask on each of the bodies, with a red liquid inside, which Mr Whiskers identifies as a potion of CLW. On each lump of flesh there is also a bent out of shape Sentinel badge.
Leading the party on Einar notices the lumps in the grove the same time Ziva and Crummock does. Dropping to his knees, using his kunia he begins to dig. 'Always suspected but now we know for sure.' Turning away for the briefest of seconds he finishes digging up the bodies, collecting the flasks and bent badges. Handing the flasks to Mister Whiskers to inspect, pointing toward the trees he asks. "Do ve leave zem, or return zem to zee ground, or do ve burn zem using zese trees as zeir pyre?"
When Ziva uses the wand on Crummock, she finds the magic having to fight against some kind of resistance.
Crummock's body convulses, almost as if it was rejecting the magic, but he stops bleeding, and groggily returns to consciousness.
"Those trees were right bedw!"
Weakly, he takes the wand, and starts healing himself, grimacing and white-knuckling the wand with every use.
"Does anyone else be needin' to use this?"
Turning first to his rodent friend and then to Ziva,"Mister Viskers, he is still bleeding, ya. Does your magic heal others or can either of you use der vand zhat he has?"
"There are ways to cause healing with my sort of magic, but I don't consider the drawbacks worth it. As for the healing wand, I can often make it work." he replies.
When Ziva says she can activate it reliably, he allows her to do it.
Mr. Whiskers takes a few minutes to examine the bodies, looking for clues as to what killed them. "Do you think those Frost Firs did this? This certainly isn't the bandit's work."
Mr. Whiskers starts talking as he is examining the bodies. "Can we perhaps create a rock cairn for them? I would rather avoid a fire because of the trouble it is likely to bring, but it is never good to just leave a body -- especially one from a violent death. Too likely that the spirit will not be able to find rest."
There isn't much left of the bodies to examine, being repeatedly stomped under a heavy object, but Mr Whiskers does pick out some wood splinters from the bodies. The tracks on the ground reveal more, being the same as the frost firs that the party had fought earlier.
Mr Whiskers remembers something else about frost firs, that they often drag their prey to be butchered and used to fertilize the soil for their frost fir young, who appear like evergreen pine trees, until they gain sentience and uproot themselves...
Picking at a few bits of wood, Mr. Whiskers suddenly looks at the group and says "We need to look carefully at the trees around here. Some of them may be saplings of the Frost Firs we fought earlier! If so, a fire may be worth the risk in spite of what I said."
Having said that, he starts examining the trees around the bodies more carefully.
Ziva is a little unnerved by the lumps. While she doesn't understand the significance, the ritualistic look is rather creepy.
"Burn them, I think", she remarks earnestly. "After creepy trees and undead I'd feel better about ensuring that whatever gets put down doesn't return when we least expect it"
'What an absolutely vile fertilizer.' Having heard Mister Whiskers explain how the frostfirs grow, Einar spends a few minutes using his Kunia digging up the ground looking for pinecones, destroying any he finds. Dragging the pulped remains to an area away from the 'garden' he gathers a few rocks and covers them making a small cairn.
"zat is za best ve can do, If ve see anyvone from Heldren ve vill send zee badges back to zem." Tuning back to the trail, he continues leading the party, following the trail as best he can.
Einar digs up quite a number of pinecones and crushes them under the heel of his boot. They make a satisfying crunching sounds as they are ground to bits under his boot.
Bloody animal tracks mark the snow where the trail descends from the ridge above. Forewarned by Dryden’s journal, the party knows where the bear traps are and easily avoids them.
More than a dozen boulder-sized chunks of ice litter the clearing ahead where a strange hut sits perched on tree trunks atop a raised mound of snow-covered earth. The party sees an image of a shivering young Ulfen girl appear suddenly amid the ice boulders.
"Hullo little one! What be ye doin' out here?"
'She looks cold, should I give her the bear cloak to wear.' Einar stops and watches as Crummock uses his charm on the cold little girl.
”The winter witch Nazhena brought me here.” She replies sorrowfully. Then she cowers as if beaten by something unseen. ”I’m sorry! Don’t hurt me! I never meant to call you names!” She cries piteously, as she moves further into the maze.
Crummock follows the girl.
"Och, Aye? That be so? What's your name, little one, and why did this Nazhena bring you here?"
”My name was Thora Petska. She said I was rude, and brought me here to teach me a lesson.” She answers Crummock, sadly. ”Please don’t keep me here. It’s so cold. I miss my mother.”She turns way from the party, seeming to be pleading with an unseen person, then moves further into the maze.
"Pleased to meet ye, Thora. What be your mother's name? Where are ye from?"
"My mother is Nadya Peska, I was from the village of Walsby..." She answers Crummock. The image seems to smile a little, as if remembering good times past. Then a horrified look enters Thora’s eyes as her mouth opens in shock,”I don’t want your stupid doll! I want to go home! Take me back!” She screams, as she moves deeper into the maze.
Crummock continues to follow her, and does his best to speak tenderly to the child, although recalling the journal entry about the magical doll in the forest that the hunter noted having encountered makes him frown, briefly.
"I don't have a doll, un bach. I'd be happy to see you safely home. Do you know how to get there?"
If this be some sort o' ysbryd, that means somethin' truly erchyll happened to the poor wee merch...
Mr. Whiskers starts to follow Crummock. "Yes, please tell us where Walsby is."
He waves for the others to follow as well.
I don't think she was talking to us when she mentioned the doll...