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Tam Sa Gi looks to the group and states, "I think it would be wise to stay the night as they suggest. If we fall into the river and then have to spend the night wet and in the bitter cold, we risk serious injury even death." Having stated her opinion, she wanders over to talk to the Bluetongue Brawlers.
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"Hey Feldspar!" Frankie calls the wizard over. "Now I've been told I have some mighty powerful thighs, if you catch my drift. But even so I am not certain I'm going to be able to make that leap. You seem like a brainy one... Any chance you got any pointers on how to get this dwarf to reach new heights? Some... Guidance, if you will?"
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Carmelizzia listen to Tam Sa Gi and nods “If someone gets wet, we need to change clothing, whatever the time of the day. After that, we’d have to dry them. Would it be better to do so while on the move or doing camp? Those cooked fish sounds better than our rations thought.
For the sleigh, I guess we need to tie some of our ropes and move it on the other side when half of us crossed.”
Whatever the group decides, the varisian dancer will try to befriend some officials.
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"I am happy to take the advice of the locals. This looks like quite a task and being well-rested when we start seems wise. We may need to take only what is essential and leave the sleigh unless we can find a good solution."
Barb helps set up camp and makes sure that watches are established.
She will also speak with the officials, asking if they have seen any further evidence of tampering, explaining if need be the incidence with the eggs, and gleaning what she can of the route ahead.
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Tam Sa Gi listens to Barb's idea and nods, "Barb's right. We should try to stick to bare essentials; if we don't need to take the sleigh, it would be best to get rid of it here where it would impede our travel the most. If that means some of us need to redistribute people's gear so that people can get across the river and continue to the trek, then we should do that."
"No, we haven't seen any evidence of tampering," an official answers Barb. "Have you?"
Carmelizzia dances to the entertainment of the marshals at dinner time. This performance goes over better than her last one, but she's not certain if she achieved her underlying goal or not.
Meanwhile, Tam Sa Gi learns from the Bluetongue Brawlers that the next stretch of the race is comprised of mostly flat stretches of ice, rock, and snow.
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Feldspar ponders the dwarf's question.
"I'm afraid that my acrobatics training is still somewhat rudimentary, and taking any advice I give you is more likely than not to impede your efforts. You also seem significantly heavier than my telekinetic projectile spells are capable of dealing with. All I can do is start a fire on the far side, should it come to that."
He ponders the 20 foot crossing and his fifty foot coil of rope. "We might be able to rig something to get our sledge across, once we have a team member on the far side."
Feldspar will then go examine the crossing and the poles, looking for inspiration to see if any equipment modifications would make it easier for a dwarf to cross.
The consensus is to remain on the check point side of the river and take advantage of the food and warmth. The mood in the camp, especially with Carmelizzia providing entertainment, is one of good cheer. You bed down for the night with full bellies. Feldspar goes to bed pondering the puzzle of the river, always coming back to the pole vault being the most efficient way to cross given the bounds of the challenge.
When Feldspar goes to relieve himself by the river, he spies a large shadow on an overlook on the opposite bank. The creature seems to be watching the camp. When its gaze makes contact with the wizard's, it retreats from the ledge and disappears into the darkness. From the glimpse he got, his memory is jogged of a zoological text listing creatures from the frozen north: a short-faced bear.
On a separate occasion that Tam Sa Gi has to head to the river's edge, she also notices a large, shadowed creature watching from the edge of the woods on the opposite bank. It lopes away on four legs when it spies her. She knows this to be a giant short-faced bear, an exceedingly rare bordering on mythical predator from the Crown of the World.
The morning ultimately comes without disturbance on your side of the river, though.
After you have had a chance to share your nocturnal observations and once you have distributed your gear among your fellows, you head to the river crossing.
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After Carmelizzia sees the problem she will go to her companions, asking them to check twice the plate on her poles. Her’s a little too loose to be safe.
Hopefully, the officials haven’t gone away yet, and before anyone fixes the poles she goes to them to indicate the problem. “Excuse me” she says as she tries to remember one of the officials name. “I don’t know if it’s indented or not but the plate on my pole seems a loose. See?
I don’t want anyone to get injured because of that, maybe you should send someone to check on the other teams equipment.”
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"Well spotted, let me take a closer look at mine. We definitely should warn the other teams, I don't want to see anyone come to harm during this event."
"Shri, I begin to think your suspicions may be correct, but I am also concerned about the bear the others have seen."
After the officials have been notified and make any examination they desire, Barb will check her equipment and then the rest of the teams, making repairs as she can.
Once everyone is ready, Barb shoulders a good portion of the load from the sled, thinking that even if they manage to pull it across that is best done with it close to empty. She then attempts the pole volt.
Once on the other side, Barb sets down the extraneous load and prepares a rope, ready to either try to rescue any who fall or work to pull the sled across when indicated. While making sure to be ready for her team, Barb also tries to keep an eye out for the bear or any other hazards.
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Feldspar will tie one end of his rope to the sledge and throw the other across to Barb.
After those preparations, he will carefully examine his equipment and then attempt to fling himself across the river.
Presuming he makes it to the other side, he will make sure his mage armor is up, his familiar is not too unhappy with the rough ride, and keep as close a lookout for the bear as he can.
"What?" the marshal says as Carmelizzia brings her pole to the official. "Oh my! Good thing you noticed this. That would certainly be risky to vault with a loose plate."
The official retrieves a pole from a secured shed and hands it over to Carmelizzia. This plate, she can see, is solidly affixed to the pole.
Barb is able to repair her pole's plate simply enough, and anyone that wishes to exchange their poles can do so. Bringing this to the attention of the other teams finds that, essentially, every pole that was left out and in easy reach for use this morning had a loose plate. The other teams are grateful for the warning.
Using the appropriate poles, Barb, Feldspar, and Tam Sa Gi make it to the other side of the river with ease.
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After swapping out poles herself, Frankie quietly says to herself "You said you wanted to have new experiences... ", shrugs and takes off at a respectable Dwarven sprint for the rivers edge - Vaulting pole raised high. As she nears the river she lets the pole's end begin its fall, plunging it forcefully into the river's muck-filled bottom, and leaps with all her might....
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...only to find she does not have the momentum to carry the pole all the way through it's arcing motion. She slides down the pole, and is submerged into the frigid river below. After screaming and shouting a string of obscenities so long, that they could have made there way across the river and back on their own, Frankie begins swimming the remaining distance
Frankie's pole stops mid-vault, fully upright in the middle of the icy river. She begins to slip down the pole before enacting a heroic swing of her body to bring her back to the originating shore. She tries again but falls back to the same shore. She tries again--rather than swimming for she is not in the river due to heroics--and fails again.
Mordack crosses with much less excitement.
Carmelizzia runs, plants her pole, and leaps. She lands well on the other side.
"I think that's a record," Frankie can hear a marshal comment.
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When Frankie realizes she actually landed back on the starting shore and not in the river, she is relieved. She shouts to the other side, "Thanks Barb, Tammy" and heads back to try another running start. When she lands back on the near shore a second time, she is disappointed. When Liz makes the leap - it is a thing of devine beauty, from Frankie's perspective. She made it look as effortless as an angel flying in the heavens.
But any joy she felt upon watching Lizzy's grace was soon erased by a sweltering embarassment of her own repeated failure. Her ancestral pride required an excuse to be voiced, and so she shouted in an uncharacteristically accented voice, "Ye long-legged lassies have a leverage advantage. Me stubby legs n' I need to work twice as hard as any o ye skinny b*tches... n' Mordack - well... yer folk are all strangely top-heavy."
As she headed back to to try the leap a third time, Frankie wonders to herself whether she could have handled that situation any better.
You leave the other two teams to their efforts trying to cross the river. The Wyrding Wayfinders seem to be having an especially tough time getting the poles to land where they want them.
The sky is a beautiful cerulean without a cloud in sight as you set forth. Along with the clouds, sign of the large predator from the night before is also absent. True to the advice you received, the terrain beyond the forest at the check point is largely open fields of rock and snow.
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Tam Sa Gi gives Frankie a congratulatory pat on the back, "That was a tough challenge for all of us... And you're not the only one here who suffers from an ill-temper when combating one's own limits. If it helps to curse, curse away; it's better than what I usually do."
With that Tam Sa Gi picks up her pack and begins doing as she has for the past few days, searching for the best/safest/easiest travel route for her teammates to traverse.
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Feldspar looks at the dwarf somewhat quizzically. "Actually, you avoided having the drinks be on you quite nicely. He then turns to Tam Sa Gi. "If you're still blazing the trail, I'll still follow.
-or-
If tactics has changed, fall back on survival
And keep as close a lookout for the bear as possible. In fact...
Feldspar opens his pack and pulls out his familiar, a rather lazy looking kitten that seems to owe a lot of his ancestry to the back streets of Oppara.
"You're riding on top of the pack today, Nugget. Unless you want to be renamed 'Morsel', keep an eye out for that bear."
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"Thanks Tammy."
After Feldspar makes his comment, Frankie laughs - but only because she thinks he may be making a joke. In truth, she is simply confused by the comment. But all is forgotten as soon as he pulls a cat out of his pack.
"Nice Trick, Fel - what else can you pull out of there?"
(trail check )
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Commenting on her jump, Carmelizzia’s says “Guess all those exercises to stay in shape pays off, I’ll have to thanks the instructors at the Grand Lodge for that.”
Carmelizzia tries to climb some of the rocky terrain to speed up the journey but finds out it takes her even more time that taking a longer route.
Perhaps the calm weather and relatively warmer temperatures have fostered complacency in the Pathfinders or perhaps the Bluetongue Brawlers gained a second wind. The two teams arrive at the final checkpoint at the same time. The Two Houses and the Wyrding Wayfinders are nowhere to be seen on your tail.
Among the tall drifts and dunes of snow and ice, a small hollow reveals signs of life. A large fire pit is encircled by tents and snow shelters as officials stand near the warmth of the blazing fire. 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.
Without Trace or Fail are readying their gear to set out again. You realize that this is the first time that you've actually been at a checkpoint at the same time. The Fangs of the Remorhaz are not present, likely in the lead.
After checking on your health and well being, the marshal explains, "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.
"Your goal is to cross the ice individually and free the ribbon without damaging it."
You notice that snow has blow across the ice creating uneven ground and hiding parts of the ice from view.
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After leaving her pack with the others, Tam Sa Gi goes out to the water's edge and, carefully, walks out onto the ice just a few feet just to see how stable it is.
After testing it, she feels fairly confident that it's safe to walk on but keeps her center of gravity spread out by using a wide stance as she moves [ooc]In other words, distributing her body's weight across a more of the ice in a similar manner as laying down on the ice would.[ooc]. This takes her longer but she arrives there safely.
Upon arriving at the ribbon she, attempts to do what the story says by fashioning a lens from the ice and using it to melt the ice and snow around the ribbon being very careful not to hit the ribbon with the sun's rays.
When she is done, she comes back the way she came.
Tam Sa Gi makes it out to the ribbon without cracking the ice. She then goes about chipping and polishing a lens of ice and uses that to focus the sun's light and heat. In short order, she has the ribbon free and makes her wide-based waddle back to the shore.
"I don't think I've ever seen that technique," one of the marshal's comments.
"Ingenious," says another.
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Frankie lights a torch, and carries it with her on the way out to the ribbon. Recalling the stuck egg and loose plates, She keeps her eye open to any possible signs of potential sabotage.
She uses the torch to Melt through most of the ice, but as she gets close to the ribbon, relies on her Mining Knowledge for how to chip away enough ice to get the ribbon without damaging the rest of the surrounding ice's integrity.
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Barb pulls some candles from her pack. "I have these if anyone wants to use one."
She will then flatten herself out on the ice to crawl slowly toward the ribbon, carefully checking the condition of the ice to avoid any cracks or weakened areas.
She then uses the lit candle to attempt to gently melt the ice near the ribbon, if that does not work she will attempt to craft a lens from the ice as demonstrated by her teammate.
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Feldspar spends some time rummaging in the sledge to find a small pot, which he fills with snow and ice. To make his way out to the ice, he rest the pot on the ice, sets the end of his staff inside it, and uses that to take some of his weight, spreading his weight even further than his stance would normally allow.
Stumbling, he makes a heroic effort to recover
....
Should he survive to reach the ribbon, he will use Produce Flame to heat the water in the pot, and use the water to melt the ice away from the ribbon.
... Or if it can be considered relevant
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Mordack will acid splash around the ribbon consistently to melt the ice near it. He will make sure the acid is at least 1 foot away from the ribbon
to hit the ice around the ribbon and not the ribbon itself.
d3 for each acid splash
To cross the ice, Mordack will watch were others step and follow their footprints to find out the easiest path
Barb crawls out on the ice and finds that this is, while slow, and extremely safe way to move out onto the ice. She lights her candle and slowly melts the ribbon free.
Feldspar makes it to the half-way point before he fall on the ice, causing it to crack dangerously around him. However, he is able to better navigate snow dusted ice better. Once there, he summons a ball of flame in his hand. Perhaps having recognized that a direct application of arcane power might destroy the fragile ribbon, he instead heats water and pours it over the entrapped ribbon.
Carmelizzia dances out onto the snow and ice. She trips on an uneven ridge of ice hidden under the snow and falls on the ice.
When Frankie tries to cross, she makes it a quarter of the way there and slips and falls.
Fortunately, Mordack went last because he destroyed the ribbon with his magical attacks, precluding any further attempts.
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Feldspar, on returning and seeing Frankie's difficulties, fetches a rope from his pack.
"One of us should be prepared to throw this out." He keeps an eye on Frankie, ready to try to throw the rope but also ready for one of the more athletic members of the party to either take over or suggest something better.
Frankie trips almost as soon as she stands up. The sudden crash of her weight on the ice weakened from her first fall breaks the ice, and the dwarf lass falls into the frigid water. While breathtakingly cold and immediately dangerous given the temperatures outside, it is not very deep. She disappears under the water but can easily stand, finding the pond is no more than three feet deep.
Frankie (12/22)
Carmelizzia manages to stand back up, steady herself, and make it to the ribbon. She carefully chips away at the ice and teases the ribbon free of the ice.