Nutar frowns when the snowman doesn't respond. "I...I don't think it's an intelligent creature, I think it might simply be enchanted to give simple messages."
Uthred casts Detect Magic, and within moments detects a pair of faint auras coming from the snowman. One is slightly stronger than the other.
Oriol takes no chances and circumvents the snowman and makes his way to the other side of the stream.
Uthred is able to identify the primary aura as Illusion. The secondary aura, though, is unknown.
"Can I just smash it so we can move on? I guess I'll follow Oriol's path otherwise."
"I guess it's best not to break the Fey playthings. HOLD UP ORIOL! I'M COMING TOO." Junan shouts as he fights his way through the deeper snow off the path.
Oriol nods as Junan follows his path. "A cautious man dies of old age in his bed, Junan."
While waiting for the others to make their way across the ice, Oriol notices something stashed within the bushes nearby. The legs and feet of a frozen corpse jut from a pile of snow next to the trees.
Junan just finishes crossing the stream, while Nutar and Uthred are still in the midst of making their way across the ice slowly. Suddenly, the ice starts to swell and take shape in front of them, becoming small, humanoid shapes, which look ready to strike.
Initiative:
Oriol
Nutar
Red
Junan
Uthred
Blue
Nutar acts quickly, fingers curling as they summon a ball of fire. He whips it sideways at the further elemental!
Unfortunately his attack was hastily aimed and it flies into the snow harmlessly. He moves into melee, setting up a flank with Junan to help him crush the creature instead.
Uthred charges the creature with his greataxe!
Oriol moves towards the closest foe while he draws his sword. He then attacks.
Nutar attempts to melt one of the icy-looking creatures, but is a little too hasty and shoots wide. Instead, he gets into a strategic position to help Junan.
Oriol targets the other enemy and easily hits with his sword, cutting a significant chunk of ice away.
The elemental retaliates against Oriol, attempting to slam him with it's icy fist.
Oriol is easily able to avoid the blow.
Uthred charges into the fray, despite the slippery conditions and introduces the elemental to the business end of his axe, cleaving a small chuck off the creature.
Initiative:
Oriol
Nutar
Red; -9 HP
Junan
Uthred
Blue; -5 HP
Junan steps back to get some room to swing his spear hoping to take advantage of Nuta's distraction.
Junan's swing is a little wild, going right over the head of the diminutive icy elemental.
The other elemental repositions itself, looking Nutar in the eyes (you think). It lowers it's head and uses it as a battering ram, right into Nutar's gut, trying to shove the druid back.
Unfortunately it can't overcome the size-difference between them.
Initiative:
Oriol
Nutar
Red; -9 HP
Junan
Uthred
Blue; -5 HP
Nutar takes a supportive role, further trying to help Junan's attack.
Oriol continues to fight his opponent, trying to finish it as fast as possible.
Nutar seems to do little with his Attack of opportunity, so instead he uses his position to help Junan.
Wanting to finish the fight quickly, Oriol manages to do just that. With a solid blow, the aldori swordsman manages to cleave the ice creature in two.
Initiative:
Oriol
Nutar
Red
Junan
Uthred
Blue; -6 HP
With his opponent finished, Oriol moves to the other enemy, intending to give Uthred the upper hand.
Junan steps over intending to hem in the creature in case it tries to escape. Hoping to make escape not an option, Junan strikes out again.
Uthred moves into flanking position and swings.
The group hems in the last of the elementals, looking to finish it off quickly and prevent it's escape.
Junan misses the opportunity given him, but Uthred slams his axe into the creature, shattering it into multiple icy shards.
Nutar looks down at the shattered creatures with curiosity, panting and wiping the hair from his face. "Ah, lovely, now elementals. A truly diverse palette of cold creatures." He stows his dagger and stares down the trail. "I wonder how the bandits got through all of this?"
Nutar looks down at the shattered creatures with curiosity, panting and wiping the hair from his face. "Ah, lovely, now elementals. A truly diverse palette of cold creatures." He stows his dagger and stares down the trail. "I wonder how the bandits got through all of this?"
"Perhaps they did not and are in fact allied to these beings." Oriol then knees and picks a piece of the elemental and wraps it in a piece of cloth, curious if it will melt like regular ice.
"Maybe not as allied as we thought. There's a body in the bushes over here. Wanna give me a hand pulling it out?"
"Sure!" Oriol sheathes his sword and moves to help Junan.
Nutar lets the older, stronger men work on pulling the body out. He keeps an eye out for anybody else wanting to give them an icy welcome.
Junan and Oriol pull the body out from under the bushes to reveal what appeared to be a grizzled old veteran who kept his equipment in good condition.
While he didn't know the man personally, Uthred recognizes the body of Old Man Dansby, a farmer and widower from Heldren who went missing recently.
On the body, you find a composite longbow (+1 Str), with 12 arrows, a dagger, a masterwork handaxe, and a pouch filled with coin (14 gp, 25 sp, and 18 cp).
"This is Old Man Dansby, a widower from Heldren who went missing not long ago. I'll take his bow and arrows for now, and someone should use that axe of his, as I recall it was from an exceptional forge from the Five Kings mountains and it's been in his family for generations. When we get back to Heldren, we should see to it that this is all returned to his family. In the meantime, we'll have to delay the funerals as his body is frozen, and the ground is rock hard, and a Skald funeral would give our position... I think we're getting close to the bastards who did this to him. Let's camouflage his body and we'll pick him up on the way back to Heldren later."
Uthred looks at the man's wounds for clues...
...not sure how the man died, he weaves a minor spell of magic detection to see if dim magic is still on the corpse.
Nutar's face twists up with a mix of sadness and disgust at the corpse. "Ugh. Bad way to go for the man." He gets a bit closer and tries to figure out how he died.
Examining the corpse doesn't reveal much of the cause of death, other than it looks like her received a severe beating. Impact marks do appear to have some focused frostbite damage, which has blended in well with the general blue-grey of the rest of the frozen corpse. Whatever hit him was, itself, incredibly cold.
Uthred detects no magic on the body.
"Perhaps those elementals killed this Dansby man... as they are made of ice, I bet their punches are quite cold as well. Oh, and our theory of the bandits being working with the fey are valid again." Oriol doesn't take the axe as he is much more versed with his sword.
"Hmm...you're right Oriol, that's exactly what it looks like." Nutar sweeps up the axe if nobody else wants it. If anything it would at least sell decently.
"Poor guy. Let's take care of the rest of these things so no one else has to suffer the same fate."
After collecting the supplies from the body and arranging the remains as best as they could in a short amount of time, the group continues it's pursuit of the bandits.
Another hour passes of trudging through the snow, when the trail begins to climb a ridgeline to the south beneath snow-laden trees. The prints of boots and horses mar the freshly fallen snow on the trail.
As you start to come near the top of the ridgeline, you hear some quarreling voices coming from just over the ridge.
Without even being asked Nutar shoots forward, crouching low to eavesdrop on the voices over the ridge.
Oriol isn't very stealthy, so he waits for Nutar to do the reconnaissance.
Nutar moves quietly up to the edge of the ridge to see three humans wearing various rough-looking gear that seems to be arguing with either other over who gets what from their latest haul. Seems pretty clear that these guys are most likely part of the bandit group that raided the caravan.
No one else seems to be within sight.
Nutar retreats back to his companions. "Bandits. Arguing over their ill gotten gains. Three of them. Think we could take them?"
"Shut up and tell me where I should plant my axe!" answers Uthred, following Nutar.
Oriol draws his sword and nods to the others, showing he is ready to join them.
Junan grins at Uthred's plan and nods his agreement.
Nutar taps everybody with guidance to help them in their opening assault.
Uthred's enthusiasm seems to be catching, as everyone prepares to attack the bandits. Nutar provides a minor buff as they all climb the hill.
Initiative:
Oriol
Blue
Nutar
Uthred
Red
Junan
Green
Nutar slides down the side of the cliff quietly, moving up to hide behind one of the boulders and lettings his melee-capable companions move in.