Snowball swoops over to Gorthug and lands on his shoulder.
"Snowball help! Snowball is good plan!"
She grabs a bottle between her teeth and takes off again.
You decide to leave the dungeon temporarily, having only ruled it for a few days.
You begin traveling across the countryside, heading toward the mountain.
Okay, Skank. We will be gone for a few weeks. If anything is missing when we're back, I will be holding you personally responsible, and I will make you watch as Gorthug eats all of your limbs one by one. I'll kindly remind you that I have the ability to keep you alive and awake through that entire process.
Other than that, there's not too much to worry about. Stay out of town, and keep things quiet, and I'll bring back some souvenirs from our trip."
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"Okay, team. We being heading to our secret mission spot. Someone who can read look at map so we go right way. As leader, Bob will direct walking. As other leader, Snowie will direct flying. Set? Go! Walk walk walk walk walk walk walk. More walking, Gorthug! Pick up Cindy, she too slow. Walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk Walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk Walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk Walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk Walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk Walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk Walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk. Snowie, are fliers flying proper?"
The best part about Bob's managerial style is that you can't stop his telepathic metronome in your head.
Gorthug didn’t seem to mind. If nothing else, he now knew how to say “walk” in several different languages. Which he said, on repeat, cycling through the different tongues.
Snowball mostly walks, unable to concentrate on flying with the constant repetition of 'walk' in her mind.
Finally, at Bob's question, Snowball looks up in the direction that she feels a tiny creatures presence.
"Aunty Tina flying."
Then she remembers that she can fly too. Ascending into the air with short quick wing beats, she adds "Snowball fly too."
You travel on and on for quite a long time to head to Mount Pardas. You cross rivers, trek through forests, and dodge towns. It takes you weeks to get close to the mountain.
You get part of the way up Mount Pardas, the ground growing snowier and the air getting much colder. You find yourselves facing a very steep portion of a rough trail up the mountain where snow and ice making the going quite difficult.
Tina keeps a sharp eye out for eagles who might want to swoop down and grab a tasty undead snack as they travel.
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"UGH, Launch Bob is SO hungry. All this walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk walk has left Bob almost empty inside. Bob uses aether to grab bugs and suck them in but they are too small and not enough juicy parts! Ripper, you catch big animal for Bob?"
When it comes to the side of the Mountain, Bob tries to have a stiff upper lip but he is very small and more of a glider than a climber. He gives his best leaps and hopes the wind will take him.
Without tiring Gorthug walked on. Even when they came to the cliff he just started to climb. The way was forward, and as far as he was concerned there was no obstacle too tall when the trail was clear.
On the way to the mountain, Snowball attempts to hunt meat.
In spite of her lack of skill at hunting things larger than squirrels (and her yelling "meat!" with every pounce), she manages to catch something big to eat. Eventually, she eats enough of it that she can carry the rest back for the others later.
Ecstatic to finally be in a cold place, Snowball gleefully swoops around and occasionally tries to help the others climb. Especially Bob, who is both small and not be a particularly skilled climber.
Throughout the entire journey, Goldslip increasingly feels the weight of her dependence upon her companions. Unable to see anything beyond a short distance, and no skill in hunting or foraging to even feed herself. And she's the slowest moving, too!
One evening, she sits away from the campfire and cries.
Snowball hunts very effectively, daily catching very surprised squirrels with blasts of ice breath while they sit in their trees.
Bob and Gorthug begin making their way up the icy slope while Tina and Snowball fly overhead. The snow is cold and Bob finds his viscosity growing uncomfortably high but he plows on with the single-minded determination of a barely-sentient ooze. Gorthug, meanwhile, is completely oblivious to the harshness of his surroundings. Then the two hear a slight rustling in the snow. It seems to be drawing closer to them... Then two strange shapes burst up out of the snow! They look like people made entirely out of ice and they're moving closer much too quickly, walking across the snow as if it weren't an issue.
The monsters from Last Hill react to the new threat!
FLASHBACK!!!
While the more organic members of the group stop to rest at night, Cindy spends the dark times playing in the snow (which she has never seen before) and floating above the drifts opening her mind to this new form of nature. She searches for the female presence she had felt closer to Last Hill, and continues her endless search for bears.
wait a second... she thinks; if the forest has normal bears, are there such things as SNOW BEARS???!!??!?!
One evening as she heads out towards the outskirts of the camp, she hears a strange noise and upon investigating finds Goldslip sitting alone away from the group.
"Big sister? What are you doing? Your eyes seem wet and I feel like I should know what that means but I can't quite remember. Are you ok?"
Concerned that something might be wrong, she floats down to the ground and walks up to Goldslip, reaching out to hug her around the waist, not quite sure why she is doing that but just feeling like it's the right thing to do.
END FLASHBACK!!!!
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Cindy, floating sedately in the air when the figures appear, is fascinated by their icy form. "Hello? Who are you? I've met people made of meat, and made people made of wood, but I've never seen people made of ice! Can we be friends and you can tell me how you are made?"
While she speaks, she concentrates on their forms trying to figure out what they are, and if they are friendly
Bob barely lands a blast of ice, chipping the ice of the monster's face!
One of the icy creatures looks afraid while the other doesn't.
Tina hovers a little higher, eyeing the newcomers a cautiously, trying to figure out what they are. As she hovers, she shots at them "I know Monty sent you! Tell him it won't work! He'll never figure out phase three!" When Bob launches ice at them, Tina sighs, pulls a swig from he flask and bellows out a loud sound, like a horn being blown, and starts making rapid, rhythmic noises that only the vocal cords of the undead could make: "Bum dah da duh. Bum dah da duh. Bum dah da duh. Bum dah da duh." She flails her body in midair, a display unlike any other seen in this world, the elbows and hips spinning and suddenly popping.
Snowball swoops past and let's out a blast of icy breath on the monster that are presumably immune to the cold.
As she circles back, she wonders why they don't look any more frozen.
Tine recognizes these as ice elementals, creatures immune to cold and vulnerable to fire.
Snowball blasts them with her breath but they seem absolutely unaffected. The cloud of ice doesn't even obscure their vision for a moment.
The ice elementals move forward and attack Gorthug. One of them swings an icy arm high but it clangs off his armor. The other strikes him square in the chest, ice forming in Gorthug's sternum (7 bludgeoning damage and 2 cold). Then another ice elemental burrows up out of the snow near Tina. It can't reach her so it begins walking down a steep icy cliff face to approach Bob and Gorthug.
Gorthug staggered under the blow. Chilled as he was, his return strike seemed like it was moving through molasses.
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Tina's "singing" continues, "We like to party. We like, we like to party. As part of her "dancing" she points to a spot on the ground, and a portal opens up above it, and Gustav the archer falls out. Whhaa..Oh it's cold. Why is it so cold! Why do you do this to me! How do you do this to me! The jungle leaves which fell out of the portal along with him wither upon touching the snow.
Tina just continues singing, "We like to party. We like, we like to party.. Her shoulders shimmy as she points to the cliff face. Gustav sighs, and pulls his bow from his shirtless back, as his uncovered feet sink into the snow, and he trudges to the cliff's edge. He lines up a shot against the elemental that is climbing down the cliff face, but fails to hit the icy creature. Tina moves above the main conflict, but moves higher, and continues to sing "We like to party. We like, we like to party.
Goldslip sniffles when she hears Cindy. "Wet? Oh, yes, um...this is called crying. It's..." *SNIFFLE* "It's something people do when they are sad." She stops speaking in surprise as the doll hugs her. She even manages a slight smile.
"I'm just so disappointed in myself, Cindy... Here we are on this great quest, and everyone has to slow down for me, and work hard to provide food and water for me, and stay close so that I don't lose my way..."
Goldslip manages to climb a little closer to the others, and then she stops long enough to disperse helpful divine energies to her allies.
+1 morale bonus on attack rolls and on saving throws against fear effects
"Oh, no! What's happening?"
As Bob leaps at the ice elemental, the elemental strikes him hard with a sharp, hand-like appendage of rock-solid ice (7 damage + 1 cold). But then the elemental is thoroughly Bobbed!
Gorthug swings twice at the elementals but the slipper footing prevents him from landing a blow. His axe bounces harmlessly off the adamant ice.
Deciding that they're no more frozen because they're already frozen enough to eat, Snowball lands on the not-yet-bobbed elemental and begins to chew.
Irritated that the creatures didn't take her offer of friendship and were now attacking her friends, Cindy lets out a burst of angry words at the not Bobbed one.
"Why are you doing that? We could have been friends and had tea and talked but now you're trying to hit my other friends???!?! That's IT! ... you need to be taught a lesson about how to be FRIENDS!"
The elemental slams Snowball once, hard, as she flies in for the bite (9 damage and cold that nobody cares about).
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The elemental with Bob on its head stumbles around blindly (provoking from Gorthug) as his acid eats away at it. The other two, however, attack fiercely.
The one attacking Gustav on the cliff side misses (still need a climb check for Gustav's recent movement) because it is panicked by Cindy and begins rushing away across the ice while the other resists, though it is somewhat shaken, and strikes Snowball another blow (6 damage plus irrelevant cold).
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"Tastes good!" Snowball announces as she tries to bite and claw the elemental into bite sized pieces.
Gorthug didn’t feel the cold, but it didn’t mean he was unaffected. With much of him frozen, the orc zombie moved incredibly slowly.
Goldslip slips as she continues trying to trudge forward, sliding backward. She begins to make back up some of the ground.
Tina keeps singing over the party "I've got somethin' to tell ya, I've got news for you" And her dancing somehow gets more elbow-y. Hey now, hey now, hear what I say now. Happiness is just around the corner"
Her infectious beat catches on to Gustav, who mumbles along, half a second after each word, Happpiness, ..., ..., Corner!" as he lets loose another arrow towards the elementals
Gorthug swings twice but can't manage to find a footing from which to strike these icy beings that defend this pass. Snowball manages to strike twice at the ice elemental, chipping of bits of ice. Bob launches a blast at the terrified elemental, knocking a big chunk of ice out of his shoulder!
Based on your view of the land as you approached, you're pretty sure this pass is your best way up.
The bobbed elemental stumbles around, slowly dying and unable to contribute to this fight, but moving Bob around somewhat randomly. The one struck by Bob continues fleeing but one of the elementals stands its ground and strikes at Snowball, landing a solid blow on her (9 dam). The baby dragon finds herself grateful she's immune to cold or else she would be in significantly worse shape.