Wild Weasel Wardance
Ecaterina: 26 [miss-Neg hp]
Alikai: 24 [miss]
Sahsara: 24 [hit2]
Ermine: 23 [hit-possible 1S1K]
Tristan: 22 [hit5-no stun]
Gaelin 22[hit-18]
Jeydavu:22 [pending]
Malden: 21 [miss]
Jeydavu misses
Jeydavu barks an order to his moose. Chtonthoth moves to flank with Jeydavu. Jeydavu takes another swing with his quarterstaff.
,
Chtonthoth tries to gore the ermine with his antlers. ,
With the ermine apparently occupied with others, Alikai drops the boar spear, picks up her bow, and fires on the wild weasel.
Alikai's bow shot strikes true, finding the ermine's eye. The creature shreiks and drops Ecaterina to the ground, loping off towards the treeline. It collapses half-a-dozen meters from the trees.
Malden hastens over to where Ecaterina lies, her blood staining the snow red. Praying to the Dawnflower, he uses one of his last remaining spells for the day to heal the white witch.
The grievous wound on Ecaterina's side knits back together, her viscera tucking back into her stomach cavity and the sides of the gash sealing up until there is only a long angry red scar that occasionally weeps a bit of blood.
Jeydavu moves to Ecaterina to see how she is doing. "I have some healing ability as well. Let me see what I can do to assist." He holds out his hand and says in druidic, "Sethrar Gliniaro, mas ar cudrog berlar faun ar ciaro forol as can ar kon"
His hand begins to glow and he lays it on Ecaterina's wound.
Gaelin sheaths his sword and goes to look at the ermine. "This must be the beast the hunter was tracking. But can we tell how it was wounded? That might give us an idea what we are up against."
Upon inspection the ermine's right rear leg shows signs of old wounds. The pattern bespeaks of a trap closing on the leg at some point fairly recently
"Was it not caught in one of his traps?" Malden asks. He looks about at the iron sky and the drifting snow flakes. "I hope we can find the source of this summertime winter soon - if not, we may need to seek shelter and continue on the morrow."
"Do you think Ecaterina can travel? If it's best she rest and recover, we could make camp here and skin the ermine - that pelt must be worth a fortune! If we can keep moving, perhaps your friend, Cathonatonk, can bear Ecaterina or the ermine's carcass upon his back?" she queries Jeydavu. She collects her boar spear, wiping the snow from it, and checks to see if she can find the arrow that missed (50% chance).
Quickly spotting the arrows track in the snow, she plunges a gloved fist into the chill white drift and draws forth her arrow, unharmed. "Hah!" She raises it in her fist, grinning.
Malden looks at the unspeaking and clearly shaken witch. "Between myself and good Jeydavu she should be physically alright," Malden says quietly. "But she has suffered quite a shock. I think she could walk, but perhaps riding the moose is a good idea."
The ermine's fur is indeed luxurious. Pale white with a stippling of black marks within it. It's tail a midnight black. It would make several royal cloaks all by itself
Ecaterina shakes her head
"I am better. I can walk, you have healed me much"
"Oh. Well. That's good," Alikai says absently, looking over the pelt, "But really, I think we should either haul this guy or spend a few minutes to take this pelt. Don't see many like this; it'll fetch a copper or two. Big, though, if anyone can help me with it..."
She draws her knife and prepares to skin the beast.
Alikai expertly peels the hide off the ermine. It's a messy job, and the sun begins to set as she works. There is a tangle of dead trees nearby and a stream that is somewhat unfrozen. The group decides to hunker down as the air gets colder.
Alikai finishes her skinning. She then hunts up an oak tree, and manages to collect a pouch full of acorns. pounding them into a paste with some salt she has, she makes a dark paste that she smears on the scraped side of the hide to preserve it. Once this is done she lashes together a frame and stretches the hide on it and tucks it under a large tree to dry for the night.
She knows it will need about 12 hours to cure enough to keep it from rotting, so she sits by the fire and washes the blood off her hands with a pail fo warminsh water someone placed near the fire that was built while she was working
Alikai's hands are stiff and clumsy from her long work skimming the beast. Her attempts at getting a lean-to together are not promising
Gaelin attempts to help with lean-to, faring slightly better than Alikai, although possibly not as well as he would have liked.
Tristan sets to work despite his inexperience...
Survival untrained
...and surprises himself with the results.
With Tristan finding some perfect boughs and Gaelin and the others assisting, some really nice shelters are put together before night fall. Thankfully despite the magical winter it is technically high summer in Taldor. Thus the light stays up fairly long, if quite muted from the thick cloud cover
We'll set a watch, Malden can see in the dark so is happy to take a night watch, though he needs to be up at dawn to pray.
The night passes, cold, but the Fire and shelter lends a bit of warmth.
Esme trudged through the darkness, the cold a constant reminder of the wrongness in this wood. She had seen a most horrid thing: A small child flying through the air just as the sun began to set. Where this dybbuk or Fae creature went was hard to tell, but Esme was happy it had not noticed her.
She had been trying to investigate the ensorcelled woods by herself, but she was beginning to think that might have been a mistake. The Green Mother seemed subdued here, although this was her season it was more like winter when all that was good in the forest slept.
She was heading along a path towards the river valley below when she spied several sets of prints in the snow. It looked as if a party of perhaps half-a-dozen people had passed by fairly recently. Intrigued, she followed quietly, hoping to discover who traveled the woods.
Ahead in a clearing a warm fire crackled. Several low leantos faced it, and a pair of figures stood at the fire's edge, silhouetted in the glow. Esme realized despite her warm clothes she was colder than she had thought. There seemed to be a woman and a man at the fire and they seemed to be either human or elven
Meanwhile, at the campfire
Alikai and Tristan shivered and stamped their feet, keeping an eye out into the darkness and their backs to the campfire. Ecaterina had donated a pot and some coffee grounds, so there was camp-style coffee to drink. The night had been quiet, with only the occasional howl of distant wolves in the distance
Strangers in my woods, Esme thinks. I don't like it. Only the rangers ever come this deep. Are they the bringers of the snow?
She walks closer to get a better look, pausing at the edge of the clearing. Although, they are huddling close to the fire for warmth. If they brought this winter, they would be more at home in the cold...wouldn't they?
Esme's curiosity warred with her caution, so she wavered on the edge of a greeting, content to merely watch and listen for a time.
Malden snores quietly, dreaming of warm sand and bright sunshine.
[dice=Per]1d20+6
Alikai is looking about when an ember from the fire flies into her face. In the ensuing panic she manages to stare directly into the fire, ruining her night vision for a few minutes
Perception
Tristan shivers and moves closer to the fire, the monotony and chill dulling his senses.
Jeydavu suffers a restless sleep, recalling the day's events in his dreams.
"Ack--- fk-- gag!" Alikai splutters quietly, batting the ember off her face. "By Desna's ti--" Realizing that it's just an ember and that she just ruined her night vision, she sighs and says quietly to Tristan, Sorry. Thought it was a nocturnal firebat or something.
She turns her back to the fire and stares out into the now VERY dark darkness, trying to see anything.
Stupid firebats.
“Wha..? Fire?” Malden sits up abruptly, waken by the faint commotion. “Did someone say fire? Is all well?”
Tristan whispers back, "Firebats? Have you seen such a creature in your travels?"
To Malden, he quietly says, "Other than the campfire invading Alikai's personal space, yes. Nothing to worry about."
"No, but my grandsire told me of them from his grandsire's tales... oh, fine, there may not be any, but their could be, right?" Alikai whispers to Tristan, moving to crouch beside Malden.
"All is well; sorry I woke you," she whispers to the cleric, kissing him gently on the forehead, "Go back to sleep."
She takes a quiet stroll around the campsite, knowing it will be minutes yet until her eyes adjust.
Stupid firebats.
Malden smiles sleepily and settles back down to sleep. “Firebats … fantastic …” he murmurs to himself as he drifts back off to sleep.
"There are no Firebats here," Esme splutters, stepping forward. "And no Acid Beetles, or Lightning Shrews. Really, what sort of nonsense are people passing around these days? I do see a fireful of foolish travelers, though. You don't appear to be the ones who are fouling my forest with blizzards, so who are you and why are you in my woods?"
Esme shakes her head in disgust, sending her leaf-wrapped braids dancing.
Alikai whips her bow up to a loose ready but does not draw.
"She looks a priestess of the wild," she whispers to Tristan, "Some from my tribe have walked that path. They become strange and wild and very powerful, for good or for ill. They deck their bodies with tokens of their wilderness. Not many understand their path, so they become grumpy and grouchy with other people, like a granny with a toothache. " She sizes up the newcomer. "This one seems the type. I would not cross her."
"One might say a woman walking up to a campfire of strangers in the night is foolish. But no matter. We did not cause the cold. We have been sent to seek its source and set things right. The warmth-loving people of this land have no love for sparkling frost or keen wind," she replies to the stranger loudly, hoping to rouse the others, "Are you Priestess of these wilds? We mean no disrespect and only wish to pass through. Are you alone? Where is your dire bear or mammoth?"
Sahsara wakes but remains in her bedroll, listening and trying to pretend to sleep while she works her sling from her belt pouch.
Malden had not quite drifted back to sleep when the stranger intrudes on their camp. He sits back up and carefully begins to extract his legs from the tangled bedroll, peering out under the overhanging canvas lean-to at the newcomer.
Esme shakes her head, then bares her teeth in a broad smile. "My mother and her foremothers are priestesses of the wilds. I am the wilds."
Esme walks closer to the fire, keeping her hands at her sides. She is wearing patchwork furs intermixed with broad green leaves, and at her belt is a sickle and several pouches.
"While they sit praying and meditating, hoping for divine intervention, I go looking for the problem. I have not found it yet, but I will, and I will end this cursed winter. The mother of my flesh may have given up, but the Mother of the Green is counting on me."
She looks around at the encampent, at the two on watch, and the others sleeping. She studies the woman she has been speaking to.
"You are not of the wilds, but you look like you are not unfamiliar with them. Have you found any clues in your travels as to what has brought this unnatural freeze?"
Alikai draws herself up proudly, chin in the air. "I am Alikai of the People from the steppes far to the north. I have guided expeditions over the Crown of the World to the lands where people are strange. I have come south from the steppes across many lands to the places of heat and burning sands. Yet never have I seen such things as my friends and I encountered in these woods."
Once her credentials are told, she begins reciting their battles in a singsong manner. "We fought a creature of the cold that looked fae, yet was not. We crushed the bones of men that lay unquiet. We found a trapper slain by his prey and avenged him. He wrote of strange things that we did not believe... until we saw them. We battled trees that brawled like tavern bravos. We met a young child who cried to us to aid her and protect her from the witch Nazhena Vasillinova, yet who vanished into thin air after crying us a warning. We found a hut full of whispers that stood on chicken legs in a field of haunted ice menhirs. We saw a doll fine enough for any city child, yet fashioned like a crone, that mocked us and flew off into the air! We trod a path warded with arcane traps laid out in pine boughs."
She relaxes after the recitation is complete and returns the newcomer's grin. "And here we are! Sorry about the formality; it's how I memorize events. If I returned home from travels unable to tell a proper tale, my clan would turn me out. Does any of that sound familiar to you?"
Jeydavu starts awake at the sound of the conversation. He gathers from the conversation that there is no immediate threat. He then rises to greet the stranger.
After Alikai recounts their adventure thus far, he introduces himself. "My name is Jeydavu, I hail from Hellirin just to the west of Irrisen. I know a thing or two about unnatural cold. I have come down to this country to do some trading and gather supplies. That is my moose over there, his name is Chtonthoth.
We were asked to investigate this unnatural cold by the nearby town. Having seen the devastating effects of the winter witches first hand, I did not hesitate to agree." He glances over at Ecaterina as he says this last statement.
"Have you found anything in your travels to suggest the source of this cold?" he asks.
Esme listens to Alikai and Jeydavu recount their travels. "My name is Esme, Esme who Dwells with the Pines. I am no traveler myself -- these woods are my home. I know them well -- knew them well, that is. They have changed much in these last weeks. I don't know the source of the cold -- that is what I am looking to find. We seem to be approaching the center of the storm."
"As for the specifics you mention, I have seen these fey with hearts so cold they have forgotten their roots. I have seen strange beasts which do not belong in these woods. I have heard rumors of strange foreign trees, and had hoped very much to speak with them, but have not come across any myself."
"If you seek to end this blight on my home, then let us join together. I fear the forces behind this are strong indeed."