Following the tracks that had caught his attention, Hal followed them to his old stomping ground before the raid. Sneaking up on High Sentinel Lodge, Hal noted that a group of humans and a halfling were engaged in combat with... the fey.
Gritting his teeth, Hal removed the bow slung over his shoulder and notched two arrows. Damnable creatures, can't leave well enough alone can they?
As the creature swoops towards everyone and unleashes its cold breath, Paldo manages to duck out of the way of the main blast but still feels a cold burn on his shoulder.
Cursing the creature under his breath Paldo threw a stone in his staff sling and fired at the little monster.
Shivering under the creature's cold breath, Sigrun moves up near the mephit, drawing one of her spears as she goes, and tries to strike at it.
Linge fires a sling bullet but misses. Horn growls at the creature which shakes the creature despite the fact that horn would have a very difficult time getting to the mephit.
Paldo also fires off a sling bullet that goes quite wide.
Garran continues to slowly move back towards the fight.
Sigrun gets close to the mephit who had to fly in low to use a breath weapon and scores a hit. unfortunately, even though she knows she hit true, the weapon seems to do nothing at all to the creature! in fact, this close to the enemy, Sigrun can see the wounds from before already sealing themselves....
out of nowhere more arrows are fired at the mephit. one of them hits her between the ribs in what Hal thinks should have been a fatal hit. unfortunately the creature is still alive!
fortunately(?) the hit was enough to make the mephit decide this isn't worth it. she streaks away from Sigrun, quickly making her way towards the tree line on the opposite side of the ravine!
Global Condition: None |
Global Condition:
Garran HP: 10/10 - AC: 16/11/15 Status:
Hal HP: 20/20 - AC 17/13/14 Status:
Linge: HP: 12/15- AC: 15/13/12 Status:
Horn: HP: 14/17 - AC: 17/15/13 Status:
Paldo HP: 4/7 - AC: 14/14/11 Status:
Sigrun HP: 11/17 - AC: 17/11/16 Status: sickenedNPCS:
Mephit HP -14 | AC: ??? | dazzled, shaken
Smirking a little as his arrow hit its mark solidly in the chest, Hal relishes the hit for only a moment as he realizes the creature was injured... but alive. Mumbling to himself, Hal quickly draws two more arrows "Willy little bastard, aren't you?"
Moving closer, Hal lets loose the first arrow, which appears to miss. Without losing a beat, he traces closer with the second and lands the arrow.
Paldo looked into the tree line trying to see where the mysterious arrow came from. After the groups feeble attempts to hit the creature Paldo is glad to see a sturdy arrow strike the creature true. He smirked as the creature tried to flee for cover. He again tried to fire off another shot before it could reach the safety of the trees. "Oh no you don't!"
Linge slings another magic stone at the mephit, hoping to bring it down before it flies away.
Heartened by the ice demon’s retreat, Garran continues across the bridge.
the mephit flies away, jerking in the air as one of Hal's arrows strikes it, but it keeps going, quickly getting lost in the trees
End of comabt. what do you do now?
Paldo looked inquisitively towards the origin of the arrows that managed to scare off the annoying little creature. "Ho there? Your help is much appreciated. What's your name? And more importantly what brings you into these abnormally snowy woods?"
With the mephit gone, Linge and Horn's attention zeroes in on the skilled archer. Linge hasn't pocketed her last magic stone yet. The bear cub huffs, hesitantly, before she shushes him.
"Hello. Were you on the trail of the feys?" Linge's gaze keeps straying nervously to the ranger's bow -for now without a readied arrow.
Sigrun relaxes as the mephit flies away, putting away her spear and turning to the newcomer. Unlike Linge, she doesn't seem apprehensive about him, considering his help in driving off their foe. With the others having already addressed him, she simply stands and waits for his reply.
His eyes still fixated on the mephit as it fled, Hal crossed over the bridge cautiously, his bow still drawn in event the creature decided to double back. After a moment, Hal relaxed his scowl a little and glanced over at Paldo and Linge as the peppered him with questions. Finally with a nod, Hal responds coolly "Yeah, the fey, I was on their trail alright."
Pausing to size up the group, Hal frowned a little as he added in a dry and curt manner "Hrmm, you know, you folk ought be more careful, this place is crawling with fey. What brings you out here anyway?"
”We’re looking into the cause of this unnatural weather” Garran answers. He looks around at the snow covered trees, shortbow in hand, arrow nocked. ”It seems we are being invaded by witches from the North.”
"It seems that those feys are coming from a portal. Have you heard of it?"
Paldo pipped up and added "Yes, the townsfolk of Heldren have asked us to look into this cursed snow. Well... first they asked us to rescue Lady Thurdanhelm, who had been captured by bandits nearby, which we did. And it turned out that said bandits had been hired by these creatures that are invading the area. And... these bandits had a map of the area indicating a portal that we are investigating." Paldo paused to catch his breath. "Am I rambling? I feel like I am rambling... Anyway that about explains why we are out here. You yourself seem like the type that likes to hunt? Your skills would be very useful with what lies ahead." Paldo's mind wandered to all the annoying flying creatures that had plagued them in the forest and pictured Hal picking them off with his bow. "Maybe with your help we can banish this cold weather and get back to a life of normalcy. I myself cannot stand these frigid temperatures. I can't wait to be lying in my back yard, a nice cool drink in my hand." Paldo closed his eyes, he could almost feel the warm sun beating down on his skin.
Slinging his bow back over his shoulder, Hal listens closely as the group gathered explain their purpose here. Finally with a smirk, Hal retorts to Paldo "Rambling? A little, yeah."
Taking a deep breath, Hal looks towards the direction the mephit had flown off too and responds to Linge "No, I haven't heard of any portal... but that might explain all these damn fey crawling about." Pausing a moment to consider Paldo's request, Hal finally nods and answer the group as a whole "A'ight, I'll join up with the lot of you then; I'm as curious about all this as you are to be honest." Motioning across the bridge, Hal appears to invite the others to lead the way.
”Good. I’m Garran, Sword of Iomedae.” The cleric turns, and begins trudging through the deep snow, on up the trail.
the group makes their way slowly and carefully across the bridge and all make it without incident, though Horn is clearly uncomfortable with the idea.
on the far side of the ravine there is a small trail that is at least leading in the right direction to go to where the maps indicated the portal sits. the path is not nearly as easy to follow as the bandit trail that led you to the lodge.
the thin trail is suddenly bisected by a mess of tracks, both human and animal. several patches of ground are stained red.
you see a pair of human legs sticking out of a snowdrift to the side of the trail. they are not moving.
the tracks are a mix of booted human prints and a large animal. it looks like a rodent, but very very big
Looking down at the red stained snow, Paldo suggests "If we are getting close to the portal, Hal perhaps you can look ahead lest we get ambushed but whatever lurks in these woods."
Garran halts to take in the scene. ”Someone did a dive into the snow bank there.” Garran points out the protruding legs.
”Rodents of unusually large size.” Garran tells Paldo. ”Judging from these tracks...”
Linge introduces both herself and the bear cub to Hal, and follows the group across the ravine.
With snowflakes in her eyelashes, Linge can't see as far as Garran, but still kneels to inspect the rodent's footprints to see if it's anything she recognizes, and if she can draw further information from the tracks.
Introductions made, Hal sets out across the bridge with the others.
Pointing out the legs protruding from the snow, Hal informs the group "Definitely a pair of legs out ahead there in the snowbank, you're right. We should check it out, but approach cautiously."
Looking at the tracks that Garran pointed out, Hal curses himself a little that he missed them. "Yeah, rodents alright... big ones."
Paldo felt his throat dry up as Garran talked about the tracks "Rodents of unusually large size? I thought they only lived in fire swamps, not this weather..."
Paldo looked around expectantly "So... who is going to touch those legs?"
"I'll go," Linge says, resigned. Though she's almost sure that the legs belong to a corpse now, she's less than enthusiastic about the possibility that this particular dead might abruptly come to life.
She approaches cautiously, ready to call Horn and her teammates at the first problem. She'll take a good look at whatever is lying in the snowbank. If she sees a body, she'll poke it lightly with her scimitar to see if it stirs, and will only risk herself at touching it if it stays perfectly still and no immediate threat are in sight.
the legs are definitely attached to a body. the body is not moving at all. you are able to uncover it and see that the body belongs to someone you maybe recognize from Heldren. a hunter named Dryden Kepp. he was well known for his abilities as a hunter, and also his tendencies towards heavy drinking.
you ID the tracks as a weasel. a really really big one. the blood spots look similar to what you have seen from an animal that has been caught in a bear trap or something.
you find a pack with some supplies and a notebook. the "supplies" include rope, some magical arrows, 3 days of trail rations, and a few flasks of strong applejack.
After inspecting the decidedly unmoving legs, Linge calls Horn to help her dig up the rest of the body. The corpse of a man is lying in the snowbank, and one that the young woman recognizes:
"That's Dryden Kepp," she tells her teammates once they've come closer to the body. "He used to hunt in Heldren's forest, and I think he came to the apothecary's once or twice. He had a bit of a problem staying off the bottle. Poor soul."
She closes his eyes, and after respecting a brief moment of silence, she starts looking for both the man's cause of death, and any items that might be of use for the survival of the living in a hostile environment.
Sigrun nods to Hal as he joins the group, and sets off carefully across the bridge. She leaves the scouting and searching to the rest of the team - they've already demonstrated that they're much better at it than she is - and stands guard while the group is busy...though, she doesn't see much else than white, as usual.
Garran casts detect magic, then carefully looks around. ”These are magic.” He sets the arrows aside. He smells the liquor. ”This is not. May come in handy though.” He picks up the notebook, flipping through its pages., skimming to get an impression of the subject covered.
Linge can pretty easily determine that cause of death was being mauled by a large animal. there is a lot of frozen blood, and it looks like claw and bite marks.
Garran looks in the journal and finds that a lot of the recent entries involve notes on the movements of a large white weasel. apparently the townsfolk wouldn't believe that the hunter had seen such a thing, a weasel the size of a horse, and had laughed at him. he set out to trap the thing to show that he wasn't crazy. his notes indicate the locations of 5 bear traps that Dryden set out for the beast.
There are also notes of something else that Dryden ran into in the woods. his notes mention a small field of ice blocks, sitting near a tiny cabin that he had never seen in the woods before. it looks too small to be comfortable for humans, and is raised above the ground slightly on stilts. on the porch fo the hut there was a porcelain doll that gave him "the creeps" and so he left it alone.
Between the large wounds on Dryden's body, and the blood staining the rodent's tracks, it doesn't take much efforts to deduce what had happened.
"These footprints belong to a very large weasel," Linge points out. "I think Dryden injured him with a trap. He is the one who got killed. We have to be careful. It's hurt, and hungry, it won't hesitate to attack."
She stands up.
"However, we don't have to fight it. Predators always go for the easiest prey and never like to take risks, especially if they're wounded. If we can offer it enough meat to satiate it, it will probably leave us alone."
The death of one of Heldren's townsfolk was a shock to Paldo, "Poor Dryden... My brother and i used to drink with him now and again."
Paldo swallowed hard as he looked around at his much more menacing companions. "Easiest prey you say?..." Paldo looked uneasily towards the tree line. "Anyone have an extra meat handy right about now?"
"Only a couple rations, which isn't much. But Horn and I can try to hunt something."
”It’s been injured. I’m afraid it will attack anyone it meets.” Garran frowns. ”The weasel must have come through the portal from the North. I can’t imagine a white weasel being native around here.”
"Hmmm perhaps we should check out the hut that creeped him out. Hard to see why a stuffed doll would bother him so much. Does it give any more description of where it might be?" Paldo tries to grab the journal and give it a read for a detailed description of it's location.
"I agree, this hut seems to me to be the greater concern over one wounded animal. Sounds like it could be the work of the fey, or the witches." Sigrun thinks back, trying to remember if she's encountered anything like this in her studies of magic or the old Ulfen tales.
Linge shares Sigrun’s discomfort. The mere thought of a single, lifeless doll left to be the sole inhabitant of the hut makes her hairs stand on end, as she remembers the whispered stories that her mother used to tell her at night. The ones about quivering little girls lying in their beds at night, and dead-eye dolls standing outside at the window, their emotionless gaze affixed on their new prey…
They were all stories, of course. But if the recent events had proven anything, it was that one should think twice before laughing at tall tales.
“Magic dolls?” Linge repeats to herself nervously. She grasps at the shreds of her memories spent reading books on magic, trying to recall if she had come across anything about enchanted dolls.
the description of the location of the hut makes you think it is quite close. the location isn't very exact though. perhaps you will run into it on your way to the portal, but no way to know that for sure.
Linge and Sigrun put their heads together. Sigrun can't remember exact tales, but something about the mental image tickles her memory and makes her think it should be familiar.
Linge knows that there are many ways to enchant a doll. some wizards use them as constructs for simple tasks. some mystic religions use them as effigies to effect specific individuals. some dolls can even be used as a housing for a person's soul, ripped form their body... there is one story she remembers about a doll actually being a trapped demon brought into the Material plane. when it was destroyed by a superstitious adventurer it released the demon into the world to cause death and destruction.... the more she tries to remember about magic dolls the more worried she gets. there are just so many horrible things it could be, and without more context there is just no way to know.
all sufficiently creeped out by these stories, the group pushes forward. the snow has not let up. most of the ground is covered in a foot or more of snow. passing thorugh an area of evergreen trees, you notice that one patch of ground has been completely cleared of snow. there is a circular depression where the ground shows brown pine needles in almost a perfect circle, surrounded closely by several evergreen trees. the trees seem to be leaning towards each other creating kind of a natural shelter.
This patch of ground doesn't seem natural, and Linge is immediately on her
guard.
"Careful. We know that Dryden laid traps, big enough to capture a giant weasel..."
All the talk of possessed dolls and giant white weasels was enough for the stoic ranger to raise his eyebrows in surprise. Though he said little, it was clear that something about the unnatural business they were discussing bothered Hal.
"Alright then, let's find this hut." Keeping his bow drawn, Hal keeps a watchful eye on the strange tree formation. "What on earth might this be..."
"It doesn't look like a bear trap." Garran comments. "But it does look like a trap..."
The cleric casts detect magic again, then carefully examines the area with his magic seeing vision.
“I believe you mentioned the journal indicated the location of said traps did it not?”
Paldo examines the journal again to see if this location corresponds to a trap set by Dryden
this is definitely not where Dryden set his traps.
you could swear you just saw one of the trees move... but when you look again it seems to maybe have just been the wind.
”Hold it! I think I saw that tree move.” Garran pauses, looking again. ”Maybe I’m just being jumpy. Could’ve just been the wind.”
"Hm...a moving tree? I wouldn't even be surprised at this point, it's probably not the weirdest thing in these woods anymore. I'd recommend not going into the middle of that, just in case." Sigrun doesn't quite know what's going on here, so she stays back and keeps an eye out around, seeing nothing of worth as usual.
"Let's keep walking," Linge suggests. "And keep our eyes open..."
Paldo looked curiously at the open space. "This space does look like a good spot to camp... I can't remember the last time I saw grass.
Looking over at Garran with a cautious look, Hal nods and draws an arrow, preparing himself for a possible showdown. Slowly moving his eyes towards the patch of green grass, Hal scowls lightly "Given this weather, that patch don't seem safe..."
"Well since no one seems to trust that area, let's move on."