Dran'Thil the snow-plower is the Dwarf's nickame!
And the elf sure moves forward!
If not for the snow, he would be way ahead...
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Sylvia buckles down and does her best to make steady progress.
And Sylvia once again manages to muster her strength and not only keep up but move along quite well.
In the late afternoon, among the tall drifts and dunes of snow and ice, a small hollow reveals signs of life.
You arrive upon a campsite that is being set up, alongside an ice floe.
A large fire pit is encircled by tents and snow shelters as officials stand near the warmth of the blazing fire.
The officials are surprised to see you: "Already? Oh... you are the first!"
Beyond the camp, a large sheet of exposed ice is marked by race banners.
In the middle of the ice, a delicate ribbon lies partially frozen in the sheet.
The officials tell you that "this trial recounts the tale of Balgird’s brave survival on the open ice.
While camping in the tundra, Balgird lost some precious equipment to the wind in the night.
The following morning, he followed a trail of gear to discover one of his scrolls frozen in the ice. With great care, he moved across the thin sheet to where his scroll lay trapped.
Balgird created a lens from a piece of the ice itself, focusing the sunlight on the ice to slowly melt it away from his scroll until he was able to free it."
Pointing to the frozen lake behind, you are told that the goal of this trial is to make it across the ice to the center and free the ribbon from the ice... without damaging it.
So, how do you wish to attempt this.
Sylvia will spend a minute circling the pond, adjusting her glasses and looking to see if any approach appears better than any other.
Sylvia moves around the pond, her feet crunching the icy snow.
Her feeling is that the water beneath the ice is probably not more than 3 feet deep and does not pose a drowning risk-- but is treacherous nonetheless.
The challenge here is twofold, though, as the tells your the ice itself is just thick enough to support the weight of a person-- but any violent or vigorous action while on it could cause you to fall through.
Sylvia feels that if you move out by walking, and standing, you probably need a good balance-- or else you might fall and break through the ice.
It seems you could simply crawl on all fours across the ice-- maybe look like a fool, but would not break the ice!
Klatzu is happy with his lens-- that seems to melt things with sunlight.
Frogger believes a torch would work-- maybe. Or, yeah, it would work.
So-- Klatzu and Frogger crawl out? Or just walk out?
Anyone else?
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With great care, he moved across the thin sheet to where his scroll lay trapped.
Balgird created a lens from a piece of the ice itself, focusing the sunlight on the ice to slowly melt it away from his scroll until he was able to free it."
Klatzu has a cold belly as he slips over, and then uses his lens to melt the ice around--
--the ribbon.
Coptidel makes it out onto the ice near the ribbon...
"Yes... you can damage the ice-- and the Goblin!
Just not the ribbon."
Sylvia looks to her allies "Sh... should we all be out there at once? Sh shouldn't we wait and try 1 at a time?"
The Officials watch the people slithering out onto the ice on their bellies, or crawling out, holding lenses and other things, and then passing them amongst themselves--
--but not going for the ribbon.
"So, make up your minds? Are you going to attempt the last trial, or will you just move on back to camp?"
Sylvia will uncerimounsly slide out on her butt to one of the ribbons and attempt to melt a bit with a mirror.
Dran'Thil's hopes are fulfilled when he sees Sylvia slide out on her butt - something she probably does not do often - and carefully remove a ribbon!
Before she is joined by Frogger who crawls out-- and uses a torch to retrieve a ribbon.
So it seems like a double victory in accomplishing the trial.
Two ribbons!
You are quite happy, and the officials smile at you, quite impressed: "You are in the lead, and by far!
The Kebab is strong with these ones..."
And so, with pride and a feeling of a job well done, you head off the finish line to officially win, and collect your rewards!
You joyfully pass a little bridge that will take past some trees and then to the completion of the race--
--when, all of a sudden, a big paw pops out from under the bridge, grabbing Sylvia who was plum in the middle of the bridge--
--and starting to drag her across the ice towards some cave or den...
The bear----is rather large, and fast.
When the bear's paw popped out, it hit Sylvia's leg, the claws gripping onto her torn flesh, and dragging her off the bridge-- but she managed to remain standing, and pulling her along behind the bear that, having grabbed her, is dragging her across the ice.
"ahhh!" screams Sylvia as she panics and tries to scare the bear into dropping her.
Sylvia then tries to protect her more sensitive parts with a shield spell.
Frogger decides to add some black to the white and red, and magically summons Grease to mix in with Sylvia's blood on the ice--
--and the bear's claws suddenly lose adherence, sending the big beast toppling over with a thud.
The bear is prone!
As it goes down, Frogger recognizes it as being a Giant Short-Faced Bear, which he knows is simply an animal, a beast of Nature.
These ursine creatures are known for loving to toss their prey around!
As Sylvia panics, she hurries into starting to cast a spell, and, managing to avoid being prevented by the bear grabbing her, she moves her hands to generate a magical nexus-- but, as she succeeds in manipulating--
--the bear reacts to this, probably already fearing what is coming, and takes the opportunity to lash out at her with its jaws, biting her arm.
Does Sylvia feel lucky or not?
At least the bite does not prevent her from casting, also, though this hurts, she somehow feels this is the lightest bite the bear can do.
Maybe it wanted to preserve the meat for later?
Whatever the reason, she is still standing!
And her spell is not disrupted-- goes off, and manages to plant some fear in the big beast's small brain.
However, when the bear hit her, Sylvia's feet slipped--
--she is standing on ice!
And the ice is both uneven ground and difficult terrain.
Going down or not, she manages to protect her entire body, since all seems quite sensitive right now.
Sadly, Coptidel's mind, like all the others, were on other things, and he was not able to react as the bear slipped out of nowhere and surprised you all.
Drawing his sword, Coptidel jumps from the bridge one the ice--
Does he fall Prone, or manage to move up beside the bear?
Will he swing his Sword of Valor to come to Sylvia's aid?--
Sylvia slips and slides.
Fin-thir's twin arrows from the hunted shot hit hard on the prey he just selected as his target... but the third arrow passes over the bear, missing.
Sylvia goes down on the ice.
Coptidel--
Coptidel goes down also, slipping on the ice... but Lays Healing Hands on Sylvia.
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"WHERE THAT COME FROM? KLATZU FRIEND DANGER!"
Klatzu looks at the ice, briefly contemplating charging out before noticing his much more nimble friend struggling to stand. Nope. Not for Klatzu. thinking quickly, Klatzu turns to Sylvia, channeling healing into her briefly before turning again to Dran'Thil. "GORUM BLESS YOU!" the goblin screams as he slaps their bastard sword.
As Klatzu looks at the ice, he sees that with the big bear's claws scratching the ice, and-- Sylvia's warm blood sadly spilling out and melting a little bit of the top layer... the surface is getting less slippery.
Klatzu glances at Dran'Thil's sword, which, first of all is not big enough, not being a proper sword, but is also carrying a rune of magic.
As Klatzu heals Sylvia, she feels a clash of steel and a cry of victory in her body, and Gorum's help does deny death!
But just read what was already posted in Discussion, with links.
The only reason for which the spell does not work was clearly given there: it is already magical.
The fact that you are not wielding it should make it count as unattended (at least I would count it as unattended).
As for the size of your sword, I was simply trying to add some RP for Klatzu to not waste his actions.
Gorum was mentioned, and you do have, in Gorum's eyes of what is preferable, a smaller sword, and not the greatsword which is his favored weapon (which Klatzu faithfully wields).
Having more time, Klatzu focuses his healing on Sylvia, totally knitting her wounds together.
Firing toward the bear is what Dran'Thil does-- but that is not enough, and the bullet barely dents the thick fur of the beast.
The beast in question rises--
--clambering back up to its feet.
And, after hesitating and looking around to see whom to attack, though frightened by her-- or maybe because he is upset she frightened him, it is Sylvia that it lashes out at.
The bear's paw swings out with a mighty blow, barely reduced in power by its muscles shaking in slight fear, and it very badly rips into Sylvia's chest, dealing as much damage as it possibly can.
But Sylvia reacts by bringing all the energy of her shield into one spot, somewhat counteracting the bear's blow-- and all of the Force field disappears.
Despite the shield of force being used, and her companion's valorous protective strike--
--the bear's attack manages to just hurt the wizard enough for her to be badly shaken and to pass out, her life slipping out, moving across the ice towards the River of Souls and the Boneyard beyond... her hands letting loose, dropping what she may have been holding.
Then the bear reaches out with that same claw, and manages to hit the one who just struck at him, barely getting past the armor, but barely is enough to hurt Coptidel--
Having taken one enemy down, that the bear intends to take to its lair to eat, it feels a lot less frightened.
The bear looks at Frogger-- and gives the Druid a quizzical ursine look...
But Sylvia's wounds heal up-- and she regains consciousness, but feels in bad shape.