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Apollo grumbles to Nal about his wasted efforts talking to Without Trace or Fail, "I don't trust them. After all, who wouldn't wanna talk to me? I'm always pleasant!" He stomps off angrily.
He wakes up the next morning prepared to get a good start. As before, he'll try to balance on the snow drifts and slide down gracefully.
Much like yesterday, Apollo the flames oracle is having a rough time with the elements. In fact, the only thing keeping his spirits up right now is Reeta's singing. For a moment, he forgets how bad he feels.
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"Seriously though I thought you guys were going to do better. What happened?""The weather gave you a break. We were prepared for the cold and snow."
"Yeah, we even challeneged each other to see who could wear the most furs. Baltus won. He managed to put on 6 outfits!"
"Jokes on him though, he passed out just a few hours in."
"Maybe tomorrow we will try racing naked again. It will make sliding down the frozen rivers much easier."
"Well be at the next checkpoint in no time!"
[/ooc]
Meadow laughs at the uflen teams antics.
"Wow you guys are super tough. I can't even imagine running this race naked."
She thinks for a moment before continuing.
"Although I guess that would give you a very good reason to try to finish quickly."
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The next day seems to go badly for the pathfinder team. Meadow does her best to plot a proper route.
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Confident in yesterday's progress, Nal sets out strong the next morning. It's not long before her team's struggles are apparent to her. She does her best to help them along, knowing that the whole team has to reach the checkpoint together, not one by one. If I were stronger I'd give one of the smaller ones a piggy back ride or something.
Silence nudges Meadow with his head.
"Screech!"
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Meadow stares incredulously at the owl.
"Cold? Whaddaya mean you're cold? This is your natural whatsit..." She pauses for a moment, waving her hand around trying to think of a word. "Natural habitat. That's it. We're here in your natural habitat."
She shakes her head an laughs, scratching the owl's head.
"Wow. You are soooo spoiled."
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The fog lifted as the weather turned colder but visibility did not improve as a blizzard tore through your path. It was slow going for many of the teams. You struggled a lot more on this day than the last.
As you reach the checkpoint a stern-faced official tromps up to the group and gets intimidatingly close to Meadow.
"Seems we have a problem. Bluetongue's Brawlers were found nearly buried in snow this afternoon completely naked. They aren't going to be able to finish the race. Now you, Miss, were the only one who talked to them last night, and based on reports I heard from others, I am highly suspicious that you goaded them into such reckless activity. So tell me, why shouldn't I penalize your team for poor sportsmanship?"
You notice 3 teams arrived ahead of you, Two Houses, Fangs of the Rhemoraz, and Without Trace or Fail.
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When the race official starts making the false accusations, Apollo quickly jumps in between the the official and Meadow.
He tries to diffuse the situation. "Whoa...slow down, Mr. Race Official Sir. It's my understanding that they were bragging to us about their new strategy of racing naked. Naturally, we thought they were joking." He shivers and continues, "This weather makes me miserable. We wouldn't even think of suggesting anyone remove their clothing. Hell, I want more to wear." He adds with a chuckle, "In fact, I've been told I'm much better looking the more I'm covered up." He smiles a toothy grin.
Apollo implores the official, "In all seriousness, Sir, you only need ask the Bluetongue Brawlers. They seemed honorable and I'm sure will confirm our account." Apollo gives a quick bow and steps back.
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Upon hearing the accusation, Nal's eyes narrow in suspicion. Smoothing that expression from her face, she interjects: "Interesting. First off, impartial officials usually ask questions first, not jump straight to accusations. Secondly, who are the 'others' who gave you the reports you're basing your accusation on? If they're some of the members of the other teams, have you taken into account the possibility that they may have ulterior motives for saying what they said? What did they say, exactly? Let's stick to the facts. Third, are the Bluetongue's Brawlers going to be okay? We don't want any harm to come to any of the people in this race, for any reason."
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1d4
The fog lifted as the weather turned colder but visibility did not improve as a blizzard tore through your path. It was slow going for many of the teams. You struggled a lot more on this day than the last.
As you reach the checkpoint a stern-faced official tromps up to the group and gets intimidatingly close to Meadow.
"Seems we have a problem. Bluetongue's Brawlers were found nearly buried in snow this afternoon completely naked. They aren't going to be able to finish the race. Now you, Miss, were the only one who talked to them last night, and based on reports I heard from others, I am highly suspicious that you goaded them into such reckless activity. So tell me, why shouldn't I penalize your team for poor sportsmanship?"
You notice 3 teams arrived ahead of you, Two Houses, Fangs of the Rhemoraz, and Without Trace or Fail.
Meadow is thunderstruck at this news.
"Oh no! Are they going to be okay? I didn't really think that they were going to try to run the race naked. Or at the very least they would do like they did the day before with the extra clothing stunt and stop once it got to be dangerous."
Tears begin to well up in her eyes.
"I thought about telling them to be careful but I wanted them to like me. I thought that if I told them that racing naked was too dangerous they would think I'm being a big ole worry-wort and laugh at me. I should have said it anyway. I'm so stupid."
She looks around for the Brawlers team.
"Where are they? I need to go tell them I'm sorry that I didn't try to stop them."
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Reeta looked rather worried. Sure she had said that she'd give it a go in a bikini and boots but, she would only do that on a cloudless day with no wind. Otherwise it would be more stupid than bravado. And even if they started the race naked, and Reeta was trying to remember if they had, wouldn't they had quickly thrown on protective clothing with the first hint of a breeze. Windchill is no joke.
She than had a horrible thought. Had someone actually found them, removed their clothing, and left them naked to frame her team? That would have been an extremely terrible act and could have led to the Bluetongue Brawler's death from exposure or something. But no one in their right mind would do that ...... would they? If so, they were scum in Reeta's mind.
Or the whole thing was a big fat porkie from the start. But that would be easy to prove.
Reeta say we go talk to Blue Tongue Brawlers. See what they say. And if Blue Tongues were that stupid, which Reeta doubts, more than tongues will be blue.
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"The Bluetongue Brawlers never made it. They have been taken back to the previous checkpoint to recover."
"I do not know which of the teams made the report. But as a senior official it is my job to assess penalties. Brand and Freya are the two officials who reported it to me based on what they heard. They are over by the fire right now, getting it set up. If you can convince one of them you had nothing to do with this, I will not hold you responsible."
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Jei lets loose a little gout of flame as they are accused of treachery. He holds his pack close and rubs at his arms chilled even under the layers of fur.
"We no tell them run with no fur-clothes. Me no understand why warm bloods even live in cold-freeze place like this. Me understand less why they would do bad idea like that. Where is final team? Is odd they show up late, but we should be making sure everyone is question to get to bottom of this. You must believe us."
He looks to his companions and then marched over to the fire seeing it unlit, but nearing completion of being built he decides it best to light it himself. "You are big official race watchers yes? Then you must know that we do not know who convinced the Bluetongues to leave warm-clothes behind and travel in only small-clothes. Me know elf lady is one who talk to them at last camp, but she and screechy bird is good people. Look at us face, we no dishonest that is how weak thieves act, and we pathfinders no weak thieves. If you think me thief-liar then you strike me down here in freeze-place!" He puffs his chest as a point of pride that he isn't lying.
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Nodding to the senior race official, Apollo says, "Then we shall speak with Brand and Freya." As the halfling follows the others to the firepit to speak with the officials, Apollo grumbles and thinks, I thought I was fairly convincing with that guy and now we must talk to someone else. Why did I waste my time? He shakes his head.
When he reaches the officials, he notices them setting up a fire. He casts Produce Flame. "Greetings. I'm Apollo. This is Jei. We're the team, Never Seen Again." He smiles, "It's okay. Most of us hate the name too." Tossing his small fireball from hand to hand, he asks, "Can I help with the fire?"
Once the fire is going, and after Jei has spoken, Apollo adds, "My friend here speaks the truth. Surely you don't believe we had anything to do with the unfortunate incident simply because we were friendly with the Bluetongue Brawlers." He continues, "They were bragging to us about running naked. Naturally we thought they were joking. Who wouldn't? You must believe us." He bows and steps back.
If he feels that he and Jei have been persuasive, Apollo adds, "If we may ask, why did you suspect us? Surely teams talk with each other at the checkpoints." He awaits a response.
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Tagging along after the others, Nal senses that Jei and Apollo are really convincing, and only the hardest of hearts and stubbornest of minds wouldn't be swayed by them. Which, honestly, might apply here. Still, questions won't be answered if they're not asked. "We had a few questions that the senior official couldn't answer. Are the Bluetongue Brawlers going to be okay? Who made the reports? (We want to steer clear of troublemakers.) And what exactly did they say?"
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Meadow is completely ugly crying at this point, tears rolling down her face and snot coming our of her nose. She repeatedly wipes her face with her sleeve as she speaks to the officials.
"I'm so sorry. I just wanted them to like me. I didn't think they would run the race naked for real. I mean I knew that they did a silly stunt the day before and wore too many clothes and Baltus won by wearing 6 outfits and passing out but I just thought that they were really really tough that it wouldn't go too far. I didn't think they would actually injure themselves. I should have stopped them but I didn't. I feel awful."
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The two officials look genuinely confused.
"We found the Brawlers in the snow, but we never said anyone was at fault! I don't know who told you that, but we should talk to them. Let's head back to your camp and sort this all out."
A few more minutes trek back to your camp, leads you back to another disturbing sight. It appears that while you were all gone, someone cut the straps on your gear and scattered it all over the place. The official who originally confronted you is nowhere nearby.
"We can't help you put your gear back in order. That would be against the rules."
"But we can put everyone on more equal footing come the morning. That would not be unfair."
"But it is nearly time for the next trial. You should get ready for that and come back to this later."
"If the Wyrding Wayfinders don't make it here soon, we will have to disqualify them as well."
But almost on queue, Faergim Axebinder comes trudging up the hill, one of her squires carried on her shoulders, the other two and their gear on a makeshift sled being pulled by a rope tied around Faergim's waist.
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Apollo is now extremely frustrated. Someone is trying to sabotage us. He thinks back to the fake official who first approached them.
Apollo asks the two officials, "Out of curiosity, are your names Brand and Freya? This other official, clearly an imposter, mentioned you by name. Would all the teams know who you are?" He still doesn't trust Without Trace or Fail.
He pauses and asks, "Since we're at a disadvantage, can you give us any ideas or tips on the upcoming challenge?" He waits hopefully for a response.
He sees the Wyrding Wayfinders finally make it, but he's far more concerned about who's sabotaging them.
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Brand and Freya decide to compensate for this act of sabotage by subjecting all the teams to an extra thorough inspection this evening, which requires them to completely unpack and repack their gear, putting you back on even footing.
You are then led to your next trial.
A small, frigid stream runs between the dense pines, opening onto a frozen pond. To the east, a few small columns of smoke rise above the trees from several small campfires. To the north, a dozen caribou walk along the surface of the ice, snuffling and pawing at the thin grasses poking up from the snowy shoreline. As a race official watches over the small herd, the wind carries the gentle sound of bells.
"This trial is meant to recreate the events surrounding the loss of Balgird’s beloved pack horse. When the steed was lost in a terrible blizzard, Balgird tracked a herd of caribou across the tundra, and watched their behavior from a distance, looking for one that he might be able to tame. The legendary Ulfen spent more than a week trying to get close to the herd, and narrowly escaped death by hundreds of stampeding hooves before he finally managed to sling his saddle bags over the animal’s back and lead his new companion out of the herd and into the taiga."
Four of the caribou have had small bells tied into their antlers. The goal of the trial is to retrieve a set of the bells without disturbing
the caribou. There are a total of 12 caribou currently on the ice, spread out enough to have room to walk between them, but not far enough apart that any of them would be isolated from the group.
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Apollo describes the original race official to Brand and Freya. He asks them, "So is this person an actual race official or was he an imposter?" If they say it's an actual official, Apollo asks, "What's his name? We'd like to report him." Apollo waits for a response. In fact, he hasn't gotten any answers from any of the officials, and he's getting growing more and more irritated.
When hears about the next challenge, he says sarcastically, "Oh good ... more tasks involving Nature and Survival." He shakes his head, looking for something to burn.
He peers off into the distance to search for the caribou. He decides he needs all the help he can get, and he casts Guidance to help him search.
He asks the group, "If anyone else would like some magical Guidance to help spot the caribou, I'm happy to help." He'll cast Guidance on anyone who wants it.
Since his natural skills have let him down, he tries approaching the beasts with Stealth.
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"Let's get this over with quickly. I want to go and make sure that the Wyrding Wayfinders are okay."
Meadow carefully scans the caribou.
"I don't see any bells, do you Silence? Oh wait maybe over there?"
She points out one of the animals.
"I'm going to go for that one. Normally I don't get so close when I hunt. This will be tricky."
Crouching low to minimize the chances of being seen Meadow silently heads towards the herd.
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Jei quickly picks out which tall elk is the one holding the bell, several in fact. He points them out to the group.
"Tall leg there have jingle bell, so does that one, and that one... oh and that over there too."
Knowing his skillset lay elsewhere he started towards the beast and then tripped his loud armor and weaponry clanking.
"Me no sneak thief though so it be best you all get it from pack. If need wrestle it then me come help."
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Even though most of you had trouble following the bells until you got closer, you managed to keep from startling the herd and grabbed all the bells, earning high marks.
As Jei was looking for bells, he noticed something on the edge of the field. Curiosity got him to move close enough to see a mangled caribou. Something had torn it apart and consumed a portion of it.
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Jei finds and studies the mutilated caribou, the fact that it's so close to the pack and they aren't reacting concerns him as he brings it to the attention of the others.
"We need fetch-grab fancy official referee peoples, me worry this may be dangerous nasty beast lurk sneaking around for other teams."
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Current Standings
1. Never Seen Again
2. Fangs of the Remorhaz
3. Without Trace or Fail
4. Two Houses
5. Wyrding Wayfinders
Did Not Finish
Bluetongue's Brawlers
Jei is sure some big animal or beast tore this creature apart, but not sure what kind. The carcass is too mutilated.
The officials decide that the race should proceed with caution. The first leg of the trip tomorrow you will all be required to stick together until the officials give the all clear.
Word around the camp is that your performance in the trial is the only thing that save your lead, though it has narrowed considerably.
Wyrding Wayfinders have fallen considerably in the standing due to their poor time to the checkpoint and the fact that only Faergim was ready to participate in the trial.
Two Houses are having a great time despite mixed results.
Fangs of the Rhemoraz, the other non-Ulfen team appear to be keeping to themselves.
Without Trace and Fail have been grumbling the whole time about how the outsiders are making a mockery of the competition.
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Jei sees everyone in rather low spirits and takes it upon himself to carry some extra baggage this time around. Mirroring Reeta's attempts to raise everyone's spirits Jei gives the group an overly loud tune from back when he was with his clan.
"Here we be in giant cave, big and open and oddly tame. Forward we go with picks a swing, singin' our hearts with koboldy kin. Marching forward left then right, to dig up jewels a wondrous sight. Sing with me and swing along, sing with me this Koboldy song!"
The tune was on part to inspire his team to keep working as hard as they could while also being an attempt to cheer up the others, perhaps prompting good faith from them. And perhaps getting them to be less sour towards the pathfinder as a whole.
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Cracking a half-grin, Nal joins in with Jei as she trudges along with her group. Her voice isn't exactly melodic, but it has a pleasing jaunty energy to it. As before, she tries to gauge the lay of the land and choose her route where the footing will be more stable, based on her knowledge of plants preferred growing conditions and whatnot.
Silence bobs his head in time to Jei's song.
"Screech! Screech!"
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The blizzard continues through a second day making going rough. After two hours and no sign of any predators you are given the all clear to race. However, the team of Two Houses pulls off the trail instead of continuing the race. The three leading teams all arrive at the checkpoint within the same hour keeping the race close.
The pair of officials you spoke to yesterday approach.
Brand: "Two Houses wanted us to personally thank you for joining this year's Balgirdtrek, but they felt it was best that they not continue. Seems Unn hasn't been feeling too well and uh..."
Freya: "I think to best put this delicately, we suspect next year it will be too soon for Unn to race again."
Steam and spray from the Whitegold River hangs in the air as the checkpoint draws near. The wet air carries a cold sting. The snow on the trees drips, plopping heavily to the ground and the snow and frost seem to be clinging only in shadowed nooks and slick patches, despite the frigid air. Race officials prepare fish caught from the banks of the river near the camp. South of the campsite, another official stands near the riverbank. Several long poles lean against a mossy rock. Across the river, the course stretches away from the river and through the thinning trees into the snow-dusted hills beyond.
The officials tell the PCs that this trial is particularly important to the Balgirdtrek. After spotting the tarn linnorm, Balgird gave chase to the beast. The linnorm slipped through the trees and made its way across the Whitegold River to evade Balgird. The rushing river was frigid and cold, and as Balgird approached he could see the tarn linnorm lurking in the trees on the other side, waiting to pluck his exhausted body from the shore if he swam across. Balgird felled a tall sapling from the riverside and vaulted across the river with as much of his gear as he could carry, foiling the linnorm and chasing it further into the wild.
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Jei frowns, which comes off more as a snarl with his features. "Me hope Unn make good recovery. They was good competition for long freezy race. We make sure to win and carry on their spirit with us!" Filled with more fervour Jei grabs one of the strange poles to test it's strength and flexibility. He couldn't possibly weigh enough to snap this brittle stick even in his armor.. right?
He looked to the others, "I make long jump first, hold rope I take pull box across and help you all yes?" He hands one end of his rope to the others, tying the other end into his armor before screeching a battle cry and attempting to vault the river.
Jei will take the time to anchor his end of the rope and then hold onto it. "Tie rope to you, then when you do jump push, me pull and bring you to this side Easy!"