Mr. Whiskers moves back as much as he can through the snow and then tries to hit one of the zombies with his acid attack.
The acid blob flies over the zombie in question.
Einar bites and tears into the zombies like a rabid wolverine. He bites off the head of the one he stabbed earlier and rips the other apart with his claws.
Beneath the carriage seat seat, Cadence, Crummock and Einar spot a small jewellery box that the bandits missed. In the jewellery box is ady Argentea’s signet ring, a pair of earrings worth 25 gp, a set of pearl-inlaid bracelets worth 90 gp, assorted gold and silver necklaces worth a total of 75 gp, and one sapphire pendant worth 50 gp.
"Good job! Now, for the looting..."
Thoroughly pragmatic, Crummock carefully collects all of the saleable items from the area, cracking the ice from the guard-popsicle to get at the nice shiny breastplate beneath.
He then nods to Einar.
"Och, I take it that ye be wantin' this 'un?"
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.
Mr. Whiskers carefully approaches the captain and looks him over.
"Does anyone know what could have done this? I must admit that I'm baffled."
He then looks around the clearing for any signs of where the fey might have been shooting from. "Yuln had mentioned icy arrows. Anyone see any signs of where they were?"
Fortunately the other trail is much easier to find and follow.
Coming up the hill, Mr. Whiskers sees the chest. "Does anyone else think it a little suspicious that they would just leave that there?"
Saying that, he starts concentrating on a spell.
Icy arrows are tiny, all pincushioning the slain guards.
Most of the bodies lie pierced with tiny needles and shards of ice.
Mr Whiskers detects faint conjuration magic UNDER the chest.
Crummock nods.
"Aye. It is more than a wee bit suspicious."
He then inspects the area carefully.
Crummock realizes the packed snow hides a rope someone strung through the undergrowth to a spiked log suspended high in the trees. Once the trap is triggered, the log drops down and sweeps through every target gathered around the chest and along the trail.
"Einar? D'ye think ye can deal with this wee problem?"
The cold winds pick up speed and snow begins to fall on the area. .
"Carefull! There is some conjuration magic beneath it! There may be more than one layer to this trap." Mr. Whiskers warns, his whiskers now looking almost like icicles from all the frost covering them.
After the party has scampered for cover, Einar tries to fiddle with the trap, resulting in an enormous log rolling onto him.
Warned by some instict, Einar manages to dive to the side with supernatural speed, avoiding the log as it rolls down the path.
The half buried chest is empty, but beneath it, the party finds a cache of goods: 1 wand of CLW(50 charges), 2 shortbows, 50 arrows, one small light crossbow, one medium light crossbow and 50 bolts.
The party continues following the trail. The snow becomes increasingly deep in this part of the forest, where a windswept gully 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. The dogs whine and fidget uneasily, as if nervous about something.
"Anyone want any o' this lot?"
Crummock crates-up anything that isn't claimed, and then continues to follow the trail.
|
Cadence sorts the jewelry and other items, carefully packing it in case the lady that they were rescuing would need it.
"Einar, watch out!" But Einar's already dodged the log. "Oh! Great reflexes!" Then Cadence grins as she examines the inside of the chest. "We can use that wand. The bows will be useful too!"
When the dogs become uneasy, Crummock does his best to reassure them, scratching them behind their ears, and patting them consolingly.
"Careful... there may be somethin' aboot..."
As the party is passing by a pile of snow, white eyes briefly flicker from within. Suddenly, a large reptile leaps out, as white as the surrounding foliage and at least six feet in length. It has a dragon’s head filled with sharp teeth, and two arms ending in grasping claws. A cloud of whitish vapor wafts from its gaping maw. It tries to bite Mr Whiskers.
Mr. Whiskers looks at the crossbow in his size. "I can use this." he says, gathering a case of the bolts.
He takes some more of his things and packs them in Accapella's bags so that he can carry the crossbow and bolts.
---
"Why would snow hiss?" Mr. Whiskers asks, puzzled. He does his best to try and figure out where the sound came from, that he can keep his distance.
"Ack!" he says, realizing he had misjudged where the sound was coming from as the lizard bit at him. He quickly scampers out of the way!
Cadence and Mr Whiskers recognize it as an artic tatzylwyrm. It can grab with its bite, pounce, rake, and its breath(which it can use once it has grappled someone, saps strength. Its always hungry, and loves ambushing passing travellers.
|
|
"It can sap strength if it can grapple, so let's make sure it does not grab you, Einar!"
Cadence casts grease on Einar's clothing, making the new breastplate and the leather armor below it glisten and gleam with an oily residue.
She grins. "Actually, maybe would try that sometime without the armor... What do you think?"
The taztylwyrm shierks with rage as Einar takes a good bite out of it His claws glance off its scaly hide.
It tries to return the favour by biting Einar.
It gives Einar's side a savage bite, but fails to grab him . It licks its mouth, like it likes what it tastes.
Crummock wades forward through the snow, and takes a swing.
Crummock can see the intestines peeking out of the incision he has made in its soft underbelly, as it releases a pained screech.
Cadence steps forth, her guisarme raised, and tries to slice it into two.
She opens a huge gnash in its chest and it lies still. The party can still see its heart beating.
With a nod of satisfaction, Crummock puts the creature out of the party's misery.
The sounds of battle have attracted unwanted attention. An icy creature appearing humanoid from from the waist up, but its body a snake-like, slithering tail, comes out of the water.
Cadence knows that the creature is a small ice elemental. Beyond that, zilch.
Mr. Whiskers moves up alongside Einar and tries once again with his acid spell. "Seems we are getting the wrong sort of attention."
Crummock trudges around, and readies for a flank.
Crummock stabs the icy humanoid snake, as Einar comes up, then Einar shatters it into bits of frozen icicles, with a stroke of his glaive.
Now that the threat is over, the dogs walk up to the dead tatzylwyrm and sniff at it curiously.Tempo attempts to tear one of its "arms" away to eat.
Crummock swaggers over and gives Einar a hearty slap on the back.
"Well done, me boyo! Keep it up, and we'll have you striding in the footsteps o' Ninefingers himself before o'erlong!"
He then moves to butcher the tatzylwyrm.
Feathered bundles and strange fetishes hang from the lowest branches of the trees in this part of the forest, swaying and shifting in the wind. All are stuck through with small pins holding pieces of leather bound around them.The feathered fetishes are actually the frozen corpses of dead crows, pierced with tiny sprite arrows, clear evidence of the malevolent fey presence filling the Border Wood. The trees, hundred feet high, are being lit by many balls of cold icy blue light.
"Slay them in the Lady's name." They hear a cold, inhuman voice from the trees, then Einar gets three arrows shot at him.
This is how the voice sounds like.