Barnaby watches each Zombie fall to the ground like dominoes.
That was quite exciting!
The Ant chitters in agreement.
As the others are looking over the carriage, collecting bolts, vandalizing n Ice carving; the gnome begins looking about for any trails that these Undead-Loving Bandit Witches Fey Creature would have gone...
He cast Guidance.
As Barnaby looks over the carriage he notices a strongbox under the seat from the vantage point of one being short.
Well, that could have gone better, but I think that they will be resting in Pharasmas realm.
He then takes a swig of water from his waterskin, and wipes down the blade of his axe.
He then joins in with checking over the site.
Ylena joins Tegan in retrieving her bolts, although her face looks a little green as she does so. "A necromancer...perhaps one in league with the bandits? That is a troubling thought, as such a spell is well beyond my own power."
"They look like just regular warriors. Perhaps they weren't reanimated guard as I'd assumed."
The wizard squints to examine the zombies a bit longer, focusing on any identifiable features on their armor.
-
"This man seems to have been the leader of the guardians." Rimesong says, turning serenely to the others. "I believe that the frozen fey preserved him like this, though the reasons for doing so are beyond me."
"Your saying he was the captain in charge of protecting Lady Argentea?" Tegan stands from her examination of the zombies and turns to look at the ice statue. "That's a ghastly picture."
"I believe so." Rimesong inclines his head at Tegan. "I do not know for certain, but based on his clothing and the symbols on it..." He flicks his ears and shrugs slightly. "Either that or one of the bandits had a taste for wealth and was very unlucky." The elf's voice is wholly serious, as though the idea of that being a joke hasn't occurred to him.
"Either that or one of the bandits had a taste for wealth and was very unlucky."
"Hah," Tegan smiles and turns away. Laughing in the middle of such a grim scene was inappropriate, but the commentary eased her anxiety.
"Well, that could have gone better, but I think that they will be resting in Pharasmas realm."
He then takes a swig of water from his waterskin and wipes down the blade of his axe.
He then joins in with checking over the site.
Tegan makes space for Rorgar as he searches. She clasps her gloved hands together under her cloak. "Have you discovered anything new from your initial encounter with this site?"
Nay, just more guards than I had seen, and some nasty living dead. mind you I never actively searched the site when I was here the first time. I saw it from over there, then headed into town.
Rorgar points in the ESE direction to indicate where he was when he saw the remains of the ambush.
Ylena leaves the carriage behind and joins the others. "We'll have to come back later for the bodies, or send someone from town once we're sure it's safe. They've been desecrated enough already; they deserve proper burials."
"For now we should probably move on and follow the bandits. I doubt there's anything more we can learn here. Barnaby, can you find their tracks?"
Pulling the small strong box out, its not very heavy, and sitting in on the ground. Its only maybe 8"Lx6"Wx10"D. A small inset lock ois on the front of the box.
Barnaby then continued walking around the massacre site and when he saw the easily to find tracks following a trail into the border forest in the snow he pointed at the tracks and the direction which was slightly SW.
Rorgar pointed to the SE where he had come from and mentioned he hadnt seen anyone living and no it wasnt apparent there were any undead.
Rimesong indeed had to use her axe to hack through the ice and remove the hand to pull the superbly crafted blade from his hand, then she had to use the axe to chisel through the ice to get to the scabbard, which was easy enough to pull out once enough ice was removed. Once off the corpse he starts to remove his own belt to put the scabbard on, and slide the blade into the scabbard. Its quite apparent to the others That Rimesong found a nice sword and is seemingly laying claim to it.
Rimesong looks in the direction that Barnaby indicates, slowly tying his newly claimed weapon to his hip. "I concur with Ylena. At this point, we may save lives by moving quickly - especially since the ground here is likely frozen over, and we have no digging tools immediately available - let alone time enough to build a cremation fire."
He wipes his axe in the snow again before putting it away once more. A curious group. Competent in combat, but working without harmony. Truly a different experience from back home.
Tegan peers over at the small strongbox. "Is it locked?"
-
"For now we should probably move on and follow the bandits. I doubt there's anything more we can learn here. Barnaby, can you find their tracks?"
Tegan nods, sharing Ylena's sentiment. At least with this cold we won't have to worry about them rotting. She gives her attention to Barnaby, who most of the party was expecting to lead.
Barnaby looks down at the strongbox that he did find in the carriage. He carries outside--accidently--seeing the easily enough tracks in the snow heading SW.
I found a box!
He looks about at everyone starring at the gnome, holding a box. He looks at Ant-iciapation. The Giant Ant shrugs; although his chittering sounds suspiciously like laughter.
Barnaby takes a tentative step toward the trail (still holding a box). The gnome glances at the others. He smiles. He takes another more confident step toward the trial. He looks at the others. He smiles. He then takes a super confident step onto the trail (still holding a box).
This is fun, but, I agree, we should hurry!
Both the gnome and the Giant Ant giggle.
Rimesong blinks at Barnaby. Gnomes. He flicks his ears, exasperated, before pulling his staff off of his back to follow the gnome at a slight distance.
He keeps a careful eye out for any threats along the way.
Barnaby, let someone else carry that box, so that you have your hands free.
Rorgar drops into post at the back of the party, taking the time to look behind them every so often.
Ylena smiles at Barnaby's excitement. "If you can open the box, it might be worth seeing what's inside. If there are any letters, or maybe even a diary, it could clear up for certain whether or not the Lady was involved in her own kidnapping."
As they begin following the tracks Ylena sticks to the middle of the group. She keeps her crossbow loaded just in case something attacks them on the way.
Barnaby stops. The smiling gnome looks at the box that he is currently holding. He looks at Tegan and at Rorgar.
It appears to be locked! Sweet! I can try to unlock it!
He excitedly takes out his tools for the job. He looks it over for traps first, of course. He casts Guidance prior to each step.
Ant-iciapation begins to scoot Tegan and Ylena further away from the gnome's playing around with strange boxes....
The gnome will try again...
The gnome will try again...
Me Pa always said that I was tenacious!
The lock on the box turns out not to be locked, but merely frozen with ice...and after Barnaby messes with it a few minutes it pops open exposing quite a bit of jewelry.
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Kandoo notices Rimesong removing the nicely crafted sword from the frozen hand, but doesn't say much - they don't know each other so well, and the tiefling understood some of these people were not really interested in working as a party, mostly wanting to look out for themselves. It is okay..., thought the paladin, ... such was the life of an adventurer.
At the same time, he couldn't but admire the tenacity of the gnome opening the box. His spirit was warm. The Dwarf, too, seemed concerned about the group, and fought with the ferocity of his race. And the two Human women... Definitely powerful arcanist by themselves, destined to something grand. There was, after all, something special starting to form there.
Let's find the road, my friends. - finally says Kandoo, waiting for the contents of the box to be stored again - This seems like a proper clue of what happened here. I fear for her security, and we should seek these bandits.
Tegan allows herself to be nudged by AOUS to a safer distance while Barnaby fiddles with the mysterious box. She can’t see what Barnaby is doing as clearly from her new vantage point and assumes the box is locked, not frozen shut.
When Barnaby seems to unlock the box, Tegan claps. The sound of her clapping is muffled by her gloves. “Bravo! Bravo! I had no idea you had such skills.” Perhaps I should have picked up lockpicking instead of studying languages. Hmm, but no new clues from it.
-
Most of the party has suggested they continue to follow the trail and Tegan adds her own interjection. "Yes, there doesn't seem to be anything else to examine here."
"Let us go, then." Rimesong inclines his head gracefully. "Barnaby, would you mind keeping ahead of us? I think that you and Ant-icipation are probably the best suited for that."
Barnaby laughs once he notices the lock can't be unlocked because the lock is not locked. The gnome uses his tools to break the ice covering it. Opening it up, he views the jewels, coins and fancy trinkets. He frowns.
So, if We were bandits; would we not want to take the loot? I mean ransoming the Princess would fetch a royal price, but this is not rice pudding.
Ant-iciaption rejoins the gnome, chitters, and nudges him to the trail.
Barnaby distributes the findings, hands the strongbox (empty) to Rorgar, and begins leading the group on the new trail.
”Nicely done, Barnaby. That’s an extremely useful skill to have. As for why the bandits didn’t take the box, they probably didn’t see it. I certainly didn’t when I looked inside the carriage.” Ylena looks thoughtful. ”And that the box was still here implies my paranoid musings were just that, paranoid. I can’t think of any reason for Lady Argentea to have left such valuable jewelry behind unless she was indeed taken against her will.”
She shifts uncomfortably as Barnaby starts distributing the jewelry but elects not to say anything. She hadn’t said anything when Rimesong took the sword after all. Of course, taking a fine sword from a dead man to help rescue his ward is not the same as stealing a woman’s jewelry. It’s possible the Lady is dead, but in that case shouldn’t it be returned to her family? Her hands reach unconsciously for her deck; an heirloom from her grandmother.
But she does not know these people, and does not wish to start an argument in the middle of these woods. Her reservations can wait until Lady Argentea has been found and they are all safely in town.
Chuckling, Rorgar comments.
I suggest we leave all of her accoutrements in the box and have someone else carry it leaving your hands free.
He pauses
Sadly if it comes to pass that she will no longer need it, then I suggest her gems go to her next of kin
He stows the box in his pack, and then unlimbers his bow.
Lets be about it people. We have a woman to try and save.
"Perhaps the bandits did not find the box?" Rimesong suggests, before considering for a few moments. "Ylena is right, though. I do not think lady had a hand in her own kidnapping."
Chuckling, Rorgar comments.
"I suggest we leave all of her accouterments in the box and have someone else carry it leaving your hands free."
Tegan doesn't feel comfortable wearing any of the expensive jewelry so she gently places what she was handed back into the box.
While Ylena and Rimesong voice their opinions, Tegan feels as if she doesn't know enough about the situation to assume anything. She'd made enough deliveries to know nobles don't always say what they mean. And that probably applied to actions too.
The situation in hand, Rorgar puts the box with a lot of the jewelry in it, into his pack
and then they start out down the easily followed trail. They can see the tracks of about 20 men, and 4 hourses. The group travels about a mile through the lightly falling snow storm. Trudging through the cold.
Then they can see a fallen tree across the path, off to the right of the fallen tree they can see a mound of snow that does not look like 'normal' It is mixed with dirt
Tegan moves to the side of her companions to get a clear view of the snow mound. "Why did you slow down? Are there more bodies?"
Rimesong frowns, tightening his grip on his staff before breathing a serene expression back onto his face. "I don't believe so... unless our foes have buried them."
Barnaby--and the Ant-- halt the group some distance away from the distance mound.
This is the oldest trick in the book. Who wants to spring the ambush?
Ant-iciaption takes a no me stance....
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Putting arrow to bowstring.
Its an Ant bush is it ??
Rorgar pauses a moment. Do we bypass whatever it is, or go through?
Tegan purses her lips at Rorgar's pun and pulls out her light crossbow, prepping it with a bolt.
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Ylena snickers. "Looks like Ant-icipation would prefer that it not be an Antbush." More seriously, she adds, "My preference would be to bypass it, no sense in stirring up unnecessary trouble. I'll check for magic first though."
Rorgar takes a detailed look around.
or
No telling what this is, but bypass seems the order of the day
The group pauses to look at the mound from a distance, which does not show a good ammount of detail, also scanning the area for any tell tale signs of an ambush...There is no sound except a few birds chirping. No movement in the trees or bushes. No snow moving. Its harder than normal looking through the lightly falling snow. From the distance. it looks like the trail they followed here indicates they took a break from travelling for a short time. Theres some grain from feeding horses as well as signs of the horses relieving themselves off to the side of the trail. Indicators some of the bandits sat on the fallen tree, some sat on some rocks. but it does look like several of them surrounded that area and some tracks moving back and forth between where the horses were to that mound. If the group was closer they might know more.
Thinking that we clear the path, and either have one of us look at it, or we go around.
"A good idea, Rorgar." Rimesong inclines his head. "Ideally, it would be someone skilled at approaching unseen - if we manage that, then it may be we can counter ambush them. I can use a spell to communicate silently at a distance, which may be to our advantage, as well."
Well, the unseen part counts me out. I am about a subtle as a brick through the tavern window
He then moves off the trail by 5' and settles in to wait while we figure out who is doing what.
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Well, I hope you’re not suggesting we send the ant! - says Kandoo, playfully. In truth he was imagining the ant was probably more able to do it silent than himself, but doubtful on the intelligence and communication skills of the insect.
Rimesong considers the suggestion for a moment. "Not alone, perhaps, but if it is capable of being inconspicuous or stealthy, that is a good thing, I think."
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Barnaby looks to each in the group. He appears to be waiting for a volunteer; any volunteer?
He whistles a soft nameless tune, while eyeing his companions. The gnome shuffles his feet a bit. He picks some imaginary lint off his cloak. His blue eyes wrinkle in merriment.
Patting the poor Giant Ant on its butt, they both begin entering the foliage on the side of the road.
They then stop; the gnome casting a spell, while getting out a winter blanket. He quickly finishes the spell, places the winter blanket over something not there, and smiles.
The Hunter--Swiftly--grants both himself and Giant Ant
As the others pause a good distance from the mound of dirt and snow, Barnaby and his ant friend move around the far side of the road very quietly.
The persistence gnome continues forward; guiding his Unseen Servant from 25'...
"Clever," Ylena says when Barnaby casts his spell. The blanket is a nice visual touch, although if there are sentient beings waiting in ambush she doubts anyone will be fooled. However it is a very good way to scout out the site without anyone being in danger.
(She briefly wonders if she should have volunteered, but while she's relatively light on her feet her colorful clothing stands out far too much against the snow.)
As Barnaby follows behind his servant, Ylena follows about ten feet behind Barnaby. She doesn't want to risk the gnome getting too far away and then ending up in trouble.
Rimesong reaches out, touching Ylena's shoulder gently. "A bit father back, Ylena, would be wise."
With that, he sings quietly the Song of the Soft Wind, focusing it on Barnaby.
Tegan watches Barnaby cast a familiar spell, recognizing it as one she herself can cast. Full of talent... The wizard watches impressed as the gnome moves forward in stealth and soon loses sight of her companion.