"They may be hiding--the snow's so thick I can barely see anything other than the portal. They're creatures of frost and snow--they might still be able to see us in it."
Inire shrugs, speaking just over the howling of the winds for everyone nearby's benefit. "Be careful of the ice, as well. If it collapses on us, it will be quite... bad. We might be able to use it to our advantage, though."
"I cannot say, but our graceful cat of prey, who prefers the guise of a mouse, might." She glances to Tiferet only very briefly, to track their spy's motion.
"The field of battle surely doesn't play to our favour..." she whispers. "Unless one's steps happen to be as light as yours, Inire. I still have Fawfein's scroll, if you wish to take a closer look – and position yourself for the coming fight"
Morgraine gets as close as she dares then ties Lily to a sturdy branch, where they would be hidden out of sight of ... whatever the others had found ahead. She remains within easy reach of the horse, but should something go wrong up ahead, she did not want to be stuck with reins in hand and wondering what to do with the beast.
She also could not reliably sneak, even in the midst of the storm - not against creatures that thrived in this. Add fifteen hundred pounds of gear and horseflesh to her, and she might as well grab a pot and ladle and bang them together while singing to announce her arrival.
Nathara swaps her bow for her sword again and nods to Tiferet. "So be it."
Inire shakes her head. "I'll use it to loop around the area and get more information if you like... but otherwise, it's better to save it for someone else. The weather will make it impossible to see much more than moving shapes while we're out there... and as long as I can look like a shadow, I should be fine."
"I was thinking more along the lines of finding out what hides in those igloos – and if there happens to be winged fey or that Hommelstaub, pinpoint them so that we can turn invisible too and dispatch them before the fight even begins."
She sighs. "I don't like our chances otherwise. They probably concentrated most of their defences here. Our arrows can't fly in these winds, and the heavy snow means I would only be able to join the fight once it is already over. Still, you're right – with skills such as yours, who needs magic?" That said, she turns to Nathara. "Would you be willing to take this risk, Sister?"
Nathara swaps the bow for the sword again, reaches her hand out and takes the scroll. "I will." There is obviously a lot of tension in Nathara. She takes a deep breath. "I am ready to go, then. Don't forget about Morgraine, though."
Evelyn struggles to keep up in the difficult snow but manages not to slow the group down.
"I think our best hope would be to end the fight before it starts, if we get lucky and position right we should be able to down them before they get a chance to do anything nasty...That is of course if they have a reasonable force and not an army and us being lucky which doesn't seem to be our strong suit."
Evelyn places a hand on Mouse to grant her the pink mark she's been using in some of the past combat.
The mesmerist can trigger this trick when the subject makes an attack or uses a spell that requires an attack roll. The mesmerist attempts a Bluff check to feint against a single target of the subject's attack. Unlike a normal feint, this ability can be used on non-melee attacks. If the feint succeeds, the target of the attack is denied its Dexterity bonus to AC against the triggering attack.
There are few things worse than waiting, Morgraine reflects as she peers out into the storm. Giving up on seeing or hearing anything through the snow and wind, she turns back and whispers into Kettu's ears. "Go, and tell me when I should follow them."
Of course they could not speak, but Morgraine knew that she would feel the tug on their bond that meant Kettu wanted her near. The stealthy fox soon disappeared into the storm, following the trail left by the others.
"Agreed. Though in the latter case, we're probably dead no matter what" Tiferet pessimistically states in response to Eve's observation. Well. I'd be dead, at the very least. Eerily, this realization doesn't bring her any discomfort, but rather, a quiet sense of purpose. "As the slowest member of the party, should things go south let me be the one to cover your flight."
That said, she draws the Scroll from the her pouch and starts whispering the incantations engraved within. Her hand briefly caresses Nathara' cheek, and suddenly, the elf maiden shimmers and disappears in front of their eyes.
"Alright. I'll try to stick close, but give you a little space. If I snap my fingers, immediately stop." Inire says quietly. Honestly, having Nathara nearby was a significant comfort. Everyone being weighted down by snow and Inire being in front alone could have disastrous consequences... on the other hand, Nathara invisibly being ahead in the event Inire was caught out... would likely have a positive effect - at least by comparison.
"I know you will" answers Nathara and returns the touch, happy for her sister's reassurance. "Vosi, will you please stay above us? You might warn us if we are about to run into anything, but stay hidden. And somebody better tell Morgraine what we're doing."
Every now and then she looks over her shoulder and whispers subvocally to Tiferet to relay her message when she has the feeling she might loose the half elf maiden. And thus she sneaks into the camp.
If Kettu is following them she will gladly take him along, the polar fox is perfectly suited to hide in this environment.
However, in her haste to not let the effect of the scroll fade she is otherwise not quite subtle.
PS: As soon as she comes into the vicinity of the camp she falls into her spell dance.
"May the grace of the Dawnflower be with you both" Tiferet whispers as the two huntresses depart. Then, to Morgraine, "Inire and Nathara are reconnoitring ahead. Everything seems quiet, no enemy in sight – which should be a good thing but I've got a feeling it's not."
Getting closer to the camp, Inire and Nathara can get a better look at the clearing. It seems to be abandoned and empty for the moment, with nothing by the igloos and the trees around.
Eirikr closes his eyes--with the snow, there's not much difference in what he can see--until he opens his eyes again. The difference is subtle, but he has an easier time following Nathara and Inire's forms in the distance now. He closes his eyes again, quietly chanting to himself--he feels power running through his body, ready to guide his claws and fangs, to tear skin to find the soft flesh underneath, to snap bones and drink the marrow and to do things far worse than that.
There's a battle coming, and he's ready for it, He is ready to howl, and his howl will be a song, a song of blood, a song of fear, a song of death--but whose death--well, that had yet to be seen. In his dreams he saw blood, red on white, bodies falling in the snow--but he never saw their faces. Perhaps today--today was the day he would find out.
Nathara halts immediately and instinctively gives Inire a sign, but she then realizes the woman following her won't be able to see her.
"The last big tree is not a tree!" She whispers and covers her mouth to keep the sound from spreading. "Inire and Vosi must not approach it." Hopefully Tiferet would relay it to Inire and Inire give Vosi a sign.
Rethinking what she knows about Invisibility spells it should be safe to cast a spell as long as it isn't an attack, so makes the gesture of splitting the veil and casts Detect Magic with a few hushed words in elven.
Even though time is slipping through her claws she halts to focus the the ... whatever it may be ... and studies the arcane aura through the drifting snow. Doing so she fiddles the oil of magic weapon out and puts it into one of her material component pockets.
Nathara nearly blinds herself as she activates her mage sight, as the glowing aura of the winter portal fills her vision for a moment. Once the spots clear from her eyes, she's able to identify that the tree is indeed magical.
"Nathara says there's something fishy and unnatural in that tree. Steer clear of it" Tiferet promptly passes the message on.
Here we go she thinks. Suddenly, she feels relieved. No longer playing on an empty chessboard. Suddenly, her blood starts roaring again – not the anticipation of the hunt, but the thrill of righteous battle ahead. An almost involuntary reflex, she feels her strength surging as her muscles clench and thicken.
"Is there anyone – or anything – in those igloos?" she asks Nathara. "Don't worry – you have plenty of time left before the spell runs its course."
"It's a a spell to transform temporarily into a tree, it's the enemy. The shape offers a great deal of protection. But we may yet be able to surprise it. We must be make sure the trap does not go deeper, though. They might be hiding in the igloos, waiting for us to engage the tree."
Too bad she has already used her fire spell for today, it would be outstandingly handy right now.
"I'll check the southern igloos."
"Not just fishy – according to Nathara, it's a polymorphed enemy. That's probably their final ambush – their final stand.
Nathara moves around the camp in near silence, her footsteps on the snow the only sound other than the howling wind. She peaks into the igloo carefully, but the interior seems to be entirely bare with nothing but ice bricks within. She can't see inside the other igloos without checking them more thoroughly, but she can see the entrance to what looks like a natural cave on the side of the valley.
Nathara moves from that igloo in an arch to the one north of her, so that she approaches the tree from behind and takes a glance into the igloo.
Inside this igloo, Nathara sees a winter blanket, a pile of loose furs, and a small wooden chest that lays open. She can't tell for sure without examining it more closely, but it seems to be empty. A small hole is cut in the ice above a central fire pit to allow smoke out, but the fire appears to have never been used.
Nathara picks her ways across the clearing, making her way to the entrance of the cave. Inside, she sees two bearskin rugs cover the stone floor of the cave, surrounded by the crates, barrels, and other supplies. The ceiling is about fifteen feet above and studded with icicles that look like sharp stalactites.
Suddenly, Inire is bombarded by a large stone being thrown against her chest. The stone explodes in a massive burst of sound and Inire feels her ear drums nearly burst from the pressure. Though the deafened rogue can't hear what happens next, everyone else can. "Intruders! Kill them all!" The tree shifts and morphs, changing from a gnarled mossy tree into a gnarled mossy creature nearly ten feet tall and holding a large gleaming spear. Two sprites emerge from the unchecked igloos, bows in hand and the speaker becomes visible as his spell is broken by his attack on Inire, a white haired atomie carrying a bluish metal sickle.
Initiative
Sprite 2
Vosi
Evelyn
Nathara
Morgraine
Hommelstaub
Teb Knotten
Sprite 1
Tiferet
Eirikr
Inire
The sprite nearest to Inire wastes no time opening fire, sending a tiny arrow flying through the air at her. Unfortunately, he's a little too eager and over shoots his mark. Vosi, realizing that things have gone bad, hesitates a moment before flying in to help.
Evelyn is up!
If able to get into range Evelyn would use her hypnotic stare on the 'tree' before trying to force her will on it and turn it against it's allies.
If she can't get into spell range than both actions are to move into range.
The tree beast shakes its head, then lets loose an incoherent roar of anger.
Nathara is up!
Inire immediately identifies the sprites as pretty much exactly what Vosi is and after a moment she recognizes that Hommelstaub is an atomie like Fawfein.
Crap, that was not part of the plan. It wasn't like they didn't have it coming.
Dropping her backpack off one shoulder she fumbles forth an flask of alchemist's fire. Hoping that she can reduce pressure on Iinire a little she throws it at the sprite next to the direction where they all came from. And with that the invisibility fails and Nathara's figure comes back into existance.
Following the path of the of the flask she yells: "Your time has come, minion's of the witch! I shall teach you fire! Cut them off from the portal!"
Unfortunately, the sprite's small size prevents Nathara from making an accurate hit on the sprite. The blast of flaming oil grazes the small fey and his skin hisses for a moment, but he manages to pat out his arm before the flames could catch.
Morgraine is up!
Morgraine struggles through the snow to come level with Tiferet. She quickly surveys the scene and begins to cast a spell. She had little hope that it would actually stop the mossy creature, but perhaps it would slow it enough to give Inire time to recover and the others time to get into place and deal with the fey before the giant was on them.
The moss creature rather effectively avoids being caught in Morgraine's spell as nature asserts itself with a vengeance, sending long curling roots blasting out of the snow to try and grab at anything that moves. The sprite nearest to him is less fortunate.
Hommelstaub giggles madly and spins a sling above his head, letting a rock fly in Evelyn's direction. "You're mind games are fun human, but you die here!" His rock flies with supernatural accuracy, slamming into Eve's chest and inflicting far more damage than the small stone should be able to.
The troll roars with anger and steps forward. He gives an incoherent roar of fury and lunges at the pour entangled sprite with his spear. The sprite doesn't stand a chance as the trolls spear tears it in half.
Tiferet is up!
That... wasn't supposed to happen.
So startled is Tiferet at the unexpected turn of events that she just stands motionless for one, two, three heartbeats as pure chaos unfolds around her. It's Nathara's voice sounding the charge that suddenly has her snap out of it.
Advancing ever so slowly, ever so laboriously through the knee-high snow, she tries to close the distance between her and the still-dumbfounded Inire.
she screams even as her battle song erupts.
________________________________________________________________
As the battle starts, Eirikr and Ashen run--well, trudge is a more accurate word, that snow slows their movement to a near crawl--towards the clearing, and as they do they both howl, as loudly as they can, a song of battle, joining with Tiferet's song of rage, a harmony dark and terrible.
Ears ringing, Inire shakes her head, but the feeling doesn't go away. Her ears do normalize, though, as her brain decides that maybe her ears don't have any idea of what's going on, any longer. Which leaves her in dead silence, despite whipping winds that she should be able to hear. She can certainly feel them.
Her eyes widen, and then squint once more against the snow, as she looks left, and right, realizing that they were effectively surrounded. She watched Nathara throw her vial of alchemist's fire, which flew end-over-end, just missing the sprite as it bobbed from a lull in its flight - not anything it had done intentionally, but still just as unlucky.
Then she felt the boom, if not saw it, as the thing lurches forward and pushes his spear through the sprite, impaling it. Her body tensed and coiled slightly, completely at a loss for how to react with the world around her.
She looks towards the flying fey, eyes darting from one to the other and back, eventually she moves into range, drawing Scribe as she does. Blue-silver steel moves out, but it's in the return motion that she strikes. 'Pull, don't push.' That way, she can use the flexibility of her body rather than brute force to deliver the blow.
The rest of the party bursts into the clearing, armed for battle. Ashen snarls at the troll and Tif's battle chant fills the air, even overwhelming the rushing wind from the portal. Inire, unable to reach the spellcaster, steps sideways toward the still living sprite. Despite being deaf, her reflexes aren't dulled in the slightest. Her blade sings through the air and carves the fey's chest open with one well placed blow, cutting it clean in half.
Vosi aims his bow again, this time taking a shot at the troll. "Humans are not the ones to die here today!" The troll growls, barely noticing the impact of the tiny arrow. He looks significantly more bothered as an icy crust begins to form across his shoulder.
Evelyn is up!
Annoyed by the rock throwing fairy Evelyn tries to turn the troll against him again but this time tries to make it more permanent.
"Just having the right connections aren't mind games."