Looking at Nev with curiosity: "You are related to lady Morozov?"
"Ah, must have misheard""He seems confused, must be the warmth playing tricks on him, all dresssed up as he is."
Coming out as the group is making proper introductions, she shakes her head and her tight braids have been removed, her long hair now crimped, making a blanket over her shoulders. "If it iz to be cold, zhen it iz best to uze my gods given protections...az it where."
Near the forest, the temperature grows noticeably colder. The road ahead is littered with debris and the corpses of slain humans and horses. A carriage stands in the roadway, its team of horses missing or cut free, while another overturned carriage lies sprawled and broken next to the tree line. To the south, more bodies have fallen around what appears to be a statue of ice. A snowy trail leads deeper into the forest.
Lady Argentea’s entourage included two carriages, a few handmaidens and servants, and 7 guards. Only she and Yuln survived. The bodies you see have been stripped of weapons and armor.
Most of the bodies lie pierced with tiny needles and shards of ice.
Llyr looks around the area, seeing the carnage from the battle Well, bandits they be, stripping the dead for goods "I'll scout the area to see if anything is still around to ambush us." he says as he steps into a nearby copse of trees and vanishes from sight.
Walking about the ambush site, Karyne's eyes scan the area, though this is not something she is at all accustomed to.
She does look about for a long staff of wood that she can use to help with all this walking, she is so unaccustomed to this style of travel...
Grimkell walks up to the middle of the battle field. As he walks you can hear him whisper a dirge in honor of the fallen warriors. He sings in skald the song is low enought that it should not attract ennemies more than the sound of the footsteps of the group in the fresh snow.
He looks at the fallen body in front of him while taking a helmet from his bag and putting it on.
Nev sees a wrecked carriage and starts to cautiously walk toward it, longspear in hand. "Is anyone here skilled at tracking? It appears that any enemies have long since departed."
Answering in a soft voice to Nev's question:"Yes, I will take a look as soon as we make sure they have left."
Appearing on the far side of the clearing, Llyr calls out to the group. "It looks like they've gone, I haven't seen anything that makes me think they are still here. There is something in that carriage there," he says pointing to the upright carriage. "Probably carrion eaters come to feast on the dead. With the weather being so cold, I doubt there would be much food elsewhere."
The trip up to the forest has Lex mulling over the information she was able to glean from the Jadwiga. It was possible she was in Irrisen still now. But that was very far away - it would take her a long time to reach it.
She comes out of her thoughts when they step into the site of the ambush, the magus keeping back with the paladin, bundling up in her fur-trimmed coat. Llyr seemed be a decent tracker, it looked like. "Did you find their trail? It would probably be a good idea to find them. Probably before they do whatever it is they plan to do with that woman. I'm betting a silver its for slavery."
The remains of the Taldan captain tasked with escorting Lady Argentea from Zimar back to Oppara stand here as a gruesome statue, his slain body mostly encased in ice. Unfortunately, the captain’s body is no longer intact, pieces of him now lie in blocks of slowly melting ice at his feet. The frozen captain still wears his breastplate, emblazoned with Taldan heraldry, and one of the chunks of ice contains the captain’s arm, still grasping his masterwork longsword.
Elxurian arrives at the scene and finds it pretty disturbing. She have seen worst, but takes a moment to absorb everything before moving in. She gets close to the bodies, one at a time, examining the wounds in order to figure out what kind of weapon made them.
She looks at the captain-statue, shaking her head.
"Bastards!" She greets her teeth. "Does anyone got a shovel?"
"My song shall suffice to put them to rest for now, the ground is frozen, we will never be able to bury them. Also, please be more quiet everyone. We should be the ones ambushing, not them." Says the skald softly.
He proceeds to walk to the last carriage, look around and then inside.
She scratches the left side or her face for a second.
"Ambush? What did they leave as bait so we would come biting it? I see dead bodies and snow, so relax a little, we will be on our way soon enough. I just can't leave this vile thing unresolved. If you can, please take watch for a minute, this will make some noise..."
Elxurian takes a closer look at the statue, then draws her warhammer and start breaking the ice on the statue, to release what's left of the body.
She does make some noise breaking the ice, but it seems she doesn't care.
Suicidal heroes with me... my luck...
"All the tales of my land say that feys are tricky and like jokes. They might have hung around just for the sheer fun of seeing the faces of the next people passing by."
Hearing the hammer, Karyne walks over. "Elxurian, I believe zhat I can do zhat more...effectively," she says as she holds her hand up and a ray of fire appears. "And cause a lot less...noise..."
Upon seeing the captain, Karyne gives a moment to study his heraldry.
The rustling in the locked carriage grows a bit more restless. Is that moaning? Yep, you hear moaning.
The broken chests and boxes strewn across the ground contain the handmaidens’ spare clothing, including three courtier’s outfits worth a total of 90 gp.
As Karyne dethaws the captain, his limp body falls, and with that, his masterwork longsword, making noise against a rock. You cannot discern what his nobility is, or if he is noble at all, too much has been lost or damaged.
"Um...does anyone else hear that?" Nev nods toward the carriage he and Lex are standing by. "Did that bodyguard say anything about survivors?"
"I believe he zaid that only he and zhe noble voman survived. Zhat does not zound as zuch."
Looking over to the lock on the carriage, she quickly tries to discern if it is frozen shut or not, her amber eyes flickering between it, Nev, and Lex.
The carriage is not frozen shut. A spear has been wedged between the handles of the carriage doors to hold them closed.
Elxurian drives her watch from her task only for a second, watching the others:
"There could be survivors in there, or maybe enemies, take care."
Then she resumes taking the limbs of the man and puts everything together in area where she lowered the snow level. She detaches the man's breastplate and stores the longsword, then looks for any references that could identify him later, or maybe something for his family, like personal stuff.
After it, she tries to cover the body with snow as best as she can in the short time they have.
In Llyr's direction:"Carrion eaters emprisoned in a carriage locked by a spear, doesn't sound right. Maybe one of the warriors had enough sense to lock an ennemy in the carriage... or maybe something much worse."
Walking toward the carriage while drawing sword and shield."Can you see anything inside of it?"
Elxurian calls out again from her spot:
"I haven't seen to courtier's bodies, have you? They could be gagged inside that chest, but why would they be left alive..."
"Friend or foe? Let's find out." Nev loudly bangs his hand against the carriage door. "Hey! Are you all right?"
The muffled moaning intensifies with the knock, whatever is in there definitely wants out.
"The courtiers are in the other carriage. They are dead." Says Grimkell, without diverting his attention from the noises emanating from the estern carriage.
"I do not like zhis..." She looks over to Nev, she stands ready just in case danger does arise.
"...Desna's stars, you'd think Rovagug itself was locked up in there the way you're all handling it," Lex mutters, stepping forward to the noisy carriage, yanking the doors open and pointing her cold iron spear inside. "If you're not a monster, I'd suggest laying down whatever arms you've got in there!" She shouts.
Llyr nods to Grimkell's assessment after its revealed the carriage is locked by a spear. "Are there windows we might see what's inside? Most carriages I've seen have a few to allow their passengers to watch the scenery." Regardless of the answer, Llyr unsheathes his sword in case the noises turn out to be enemies.
The carriage shakes as two humanoid shapes emerge. But what! They look like they are.... dead! They seem a bit dazed by the light.
"Oh, s#&+! There are zombies in here!" Nev steps back quickly and shouts an incantation.
+1 from bless
10 Max
Creating a Snowball between her hands, she blows on it and flames grow from within, turning the little ball into burning flames, then she quickly hurls the ball at one of the dead creatures.
Ranged Touch
Elxurian looks wild-eyed to the things that just came out of the carriage. She rushes in, dropping her hammer and drawing the large blade from the sheath at her back while moving toward them. She barely have the time to swing, but goes for the farthest one, delivering a mighty powerfull attack!
!
!
Lex shows off her extensive vocabulary of curses, this time in Elven, as she stabs at the zombie creature with her short spear. She works the head right into its guts, a distasteful look on her face.
Charging over to the fight, Llyr sees an opening on the one fighting Lex and lashes out with his sword.
Muttering a tune to himself, Grimkell moves up to the undead and as he strikese with Yuln's longsword lets out a fearsome and powerful warcry.
The last zombie is brutally slaughtered through the carriage's windows, never knowing what happened, and probably wouldnt understand if given the chance.
As the last creature falls to the ground, Grimkell approaches it, trying to know whether it was part of the guards or courtiers.
Once done with his observation, he walks up to the trail leading out of the massacre site, sheaths and sword and put his shield on his back.
"I will go first, I have quite a few years of experience tracking down animals of all sorts"
Before departing, Grimkell makes a quick prayer to the Old Deadeye, and prepares to follow the tracks.
While subject to this spell, you take upon yourself the mantle of the hunter, channeling the insights of the spirits of the wild. You gain a +4 sacred bonus on all Survival checks for the duration of the spell, and you do not have to move at half your speed while traveling through the wilderness or while tracking.
Elxurian will make sure they checked the rest of the place for lost items or information, specially on the tilted caravan and on the one that was locked, taking a look at the products the enemies left behind (aside from the courtier's outifts) to try to understand their true reasons.
She takes the Captain breastplate and stores the man's longsword.
An emblazoned breastplate and a fine longsword. The armor suits me, if no one else is desperate for it, but the weapon, although better made, is smaller than mine. Anyone?
Elxurian will finish removing the corpses from the road and will follow right after Grimkell son of Ogmundr.
Taking a quick measure of the scene, she speaks quietly, but with a clear direction.
Looking over to Grim "Ve vill need to follow before anozher snow comes in. You zhould take the lead. If anyvan needs the gear, I vill varm it for you, but ve need to be on our vay, zhis is a very bad vay of zhings."
As Grimkell takes the lead, Llyr falls in beside him, giving him good fields of vision for his keen eyes to watch for predators and to allow him easier access to their backsides. ”Grimkell, if we spot something, I’ll scout it out before we bring the two nobles up, agreed? It would not do to get them into unnecessary danger.”