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Lars had tied the rope off to a sturdy tree once he reached the other side, but he returns to the banks to be ready to help should the worst befall someone else. He offers encouragement to Vernonia as she attempts the crossing, with intended-to-be comforting reminders that the water isn't as cold as it looks, and is shallow enough to stand in, although he doesn't fully consider that neither might be the case for someone of lesser stature and whose lineage doesn't descend from the far north.
"Augh!" Lars cries out as he plunges through the ice into the cold water below. He founders for a moment before realizing that if he stops flailing he can stand in this depth. He has to crane his neck to keep his nose just barely above water when doing so, but the knowledge helps to calm him down greatly. "I'm okay," he calls back. "It's quite brisk, but it's not as bad as I feared." Gathering up the rope he looks to see if the ice is thick enough to climb out onto to continue across. If it doesn't look like it'll hold him then he'll instead use his sword to break himself a path through the ice and wade the rest of the way over. Then he'll untie the rope from himself and tie it to a tree as per the plan. "The one time it probably would have helped to be small," he says to Baxter, chuckling, as he works with the rope. "Now I definitely want to camp and build a fire to get out of these close and dry them."
Hey everybody! Trip turned out to be much more hectic than I expected, but I'm back and ready to go again. Thanks for your patience and hope everybody had a great holiday!
"I suggest we cross the river now, before camping, while we still know it to be crossable," Lars says while gingerly moving all his weight onto the ice at the edge and then slowly shimmying over deeper and deeper water. "If it's our adversaries that are controlling this cold weather, they may decide to thaw it overnight just enough to thwart us." If nobody objects he'll try to cross first, awkwardly sliding along and holding his sword out almost like a balance pole.
Lars breathes a sigh of relief as things go quiet again. He considers kicking the creature now that it's down, but that doesn't seem to be a particularly chivalrous thing to do and he ultimately decides against it. "We seek to rescue a noblewoman, Lady Argentea Malassene," Lars explains to their newest arrival. "Her caravan was attacked and she was kidnapped, presumably the only other survivor besides the one guard that escaped to seek help. That they would go to such great lengths to prevent a rescue suggests to me that the rescue must be really desperately needed." He tries once more to test the sturdiness of the ice covering the river before them, hoping that no more creatures come out of it. "I'm still a bit wounded," he admits to Vernonia. "I don't know how anyone else is doing, but I would gladly accept some more healing. I don't know how much you have available, though, and would suggest you ration it for now unless we plan to camp here for the night. I hate the thought of adding all those extra hours of captivity for our target, but I am aware that you spell-casty types only have so many resources at your disposal each day and these last encounters have proven to me that my martial prowess is not so great as to eliminate any need for it."
As a general heads-up, next week I'm going to be embarking on an extended family/Christmas vacation time. The prep for that is making my spare time a bit spotty in the run-up to it, so please consider this a general warning that I'm going to be a bit spotty until the first week of January. I'm still going to try to check in when I can, but it won't be as consistent as I'd prefer to be. I hope it won't actually come to it, but if I start to hold anything up, feel free to bot me.
I don't know if I'm one of those two, but just in case I wanted to check in and say that I'm still around, and have been watching and waiting until the next round came about to take the next turn.
Round 1, Initiative Count 12 Lars grunts with surprise and pain as the icy creature slams him pretty hard in the gut. Perhaps its the intensity of the physical pain, but he doesn't even notice the iciness that's supposed to go along with it. This is one of the reasons I prefer archery, he thinks to himself as he rallies his strength and his concentration to swing his sword at the creature that's attacking him.
As he swings his sword he feels a painful tugging in his midsection and, looking down, sees a surprising amount of blood down there. "I'm really hurt and could use some help," he gasps back to the others. He hopes that, now he can see his attacker, he can keep his little buckler between it and himself as it likely readies another slam against him.
"Seems awfully whimsical for a 'keep out' sign," Lars muses as he sidles his way around the snowman to the bank of the river. He stands at the edge. Carefully and slowly he tries applying increasing amounts of pressure to the ice sheet with one foot (while keeping the other firmly on the snowy ground) in order to get a feel for whether the ice can hold them well enough to walk across or if it seems likely to crack under their weight.
Lars nods and presses on as well, letting Ysabella vent without comment.
Lars nods his understanding to Nissi. There's still one more matter of great importance to attend to before they actually press on, however. He un-slings his original longsword from where he's storing it on his back and offers it to Ysabella. "Hopefully your greatsword will return to its normal size in time," he says, somberly. "I have no idea how to fix it other than that hope, though, so in the mean time you're welcome to borrow one of my normal-sized weapons. It's not as big as yours was, but at least you can wield it as-is."
Lars appraises the newest new arrival. It seems that these woods are chock full of people searching for the same, or extremely similar goals as he is. After this stag business, part of him worries about blithely trusting any old person they encounter here, but the sudden loss of Veronwe makes it clear that any offered help should not be turned down. Better to let this Ratfolk help and keep an eye on him rather than turn him down out of hand. Yet another part of him wonders if all these small creatures will actually prove helpful in a fight. "I have no objection to you traveling with us, especially if there is payment offered," he finally agrees. "These woods have proven dangerous and it seems each of us could use all the help we can get. I'm Lars, what shall we call you?"
Lars open his mouth to respond to Bedwyr, but then instead goggles at the shrunken greatsword in her hands. "That has to be the single strangest thing I've ever seen, and I'm standing in a winter forest in the middle of southern Taldor next to a Gnome-Angel riding a lion so you know I'm not exaggerating." Seeing the stag take that exact moment to run off, his stomach sinks a little. There's probably no catching a creature as fast as a stag in snow this deep. Without knowing what it was that did it, he's really at a loss for what might fix the problem. "Maybe try stretching it back to normal?" he suggests, scratching his head. "Or put it down and see if that does anything?"
Well, it makes me feel better that I wasn't entirely wrong about the size and stuff. I didn't realize that Aasimars could come in small sizes, and so started to get worried when I noticed that I had the wrong race in my head. Heh. I think Lars and Bedwyr are, at the very least, explicitly pressing on. I don't know what Ysabella wants to do about her sword, but Lars hasn't noticed at this point (since he's probably a ways ahead by now from the others continuing to linger with the stag) and so I don't think I have anything more to add until we find out what we're proceeding to next.
I just realized that I've been laboring under the totally false impression that Bedwyr is a Gnome. (I think the avatar picture didn't help.) I'm so sorry, and feel so embarassed :P
"I'm Lars, Son of Gustaf," Lars reminds Bedwyr. At least, he's pretty sure he mentioned it before, but the circumstances of their meeting are so strange and hectic that it would be understandable to have missed it, even assuming that Lars himself remembers correctly that he did so in the first place. "I have to admit my curiosity about you, my new friend. How does one so small manage to get into such proximity of a lion like that without becoming a snack?" He continues trudging as he asks, completely unaware of any sudden developments on Ysabella's gear.
"Perhaps its name's stagnation, since talking to it is keeping us from getting anywhere," Lars calls back over his shoulder at the exchange. He smirks and thinks himself quite clever, and continues to trudge until he's starting to pull too far away from the rest of the group.
"That's not an option," Lars say, grimly. "A woman needs our help, and she shall have it. I don't know what your angle is, if this is some sort of mind game to trick us into abandoning our errand where physical violence has failed, but it won't work. Perhaps most stags don't talk because they don't have anything useful to contribute." He gives a frustrated sigh and turns back to the others. "We should press on, we're wasting time here," he asserts, frowning, and begins to once more trudge through the snow in the direction of the trail they've been following.
It takes Lars a moment for the notion that he was just talked to by a stag to sink in. He actually looks around for the source of the voice for a moment while Baxter responds first. When the stag fails to respond to his rather vague question, Lars tries being more direct. "The comforts of home lose their luster when you know there are others in peril and you can do something about it," he adds to the stag, feeling really weird about speaking to it. "We are a rescue party seeking the kidnapped survivor of a caravan that was ambushed at the edge of the wood. Would you happen to know anything about that?"
Lars watches it back for a moment, confused and impressed. "Hang on," he says to Baxter as he moves to catch up with the Ratfolk. "I'll come with you, just in case." He likewise approaches and, while he doesn't put his sword away, he does hold it in a very non-threatening way.
Lars takes a spot as the rear guard again as they trudge forward once more. Having another among their number can only be helpful when they eventually run out of trail to follow or if they get ambushed again.
Lars, seeing that the enemies have abandoned the fight, gives a harrumph and turns his attention to the newcomer with the lion. "You say you know why we are here, but I cannot remember having seen you before," he says with a healthy dose of suspicion, but doesn't go so far as to make any threatening gestures. "Are you here for the same errand as the rest of us? Or does another agenda bring you into these woods? You have not attacked us yet, so I will assume you mean to go on not attacking us, but we are strangely met indeed. I'm Lars." He watches the gnome expectantly.
Round 3, Initiative Count 13 Similar to Baxter, Lars will continue to do what he (supposedly) does best, trying to put steel to bad-guy. He tries not to show all of his surprise at the sudden arrival of the lion-riding Gnome. "We're trying to rescue a captured woman," he calls back in response. "Why are you here? Are you friend or foe?" He hopes that the fact that the newcomer is attacking his enemies means friend, but after what happened to Veronwe, one can't be too careful.
Round 2, Initiative Count 13 This was a generally good outcome. It's helpful that these creatures finally revealed themselves, because now that he sees them there's something that he can do about it. He picks the closest one to him, trudges up to it through the snow and swings his sword at it. He's never tried to hit something so small before, and the thing is almost cute with its little wings and everything. But from the corner of his eye he can see Ysabella drop, and he's not about to stand idly by while another of the rescue party dies on his watch.
Pre-Rolled AOO:
Are they out in the open enough for Lars to spot them now? And, if so, about how far away from him is the closest one?
All GM's I have ever worked with call it a standard action in battle to actively see. We will rule it as move action because of the wording down there. However, there is an encounter or two that specifically tells me it's standard action. Huh. I admittedly don't get a chance to play with a lot of other GMs, but until I saw that (and changed it in my own games) I'd always gone with it being a free action to look, and have never encountered it as a standard action. Learn something new everyday! When it comes to the cases where specific encounter text trumps general rules text, I understand completely.
Round 1, Initiative Count 13
Lars takes a look for the source of the tiny arrows, so he can better defend himself by seeing where the attacks are coming from. Whether or not he sees anything, he'll keep trudging along the path in the direction of the trail they've been following. "These tiny arrows aren't doing much but scratching," he suggests. "If you can use that energy you've been channeling, you can probably negate their effectiveness altogether until we're through their territory. Hopefully if we don't fall as easily as these crows they might just give up and go away." He has no idea if that's true, but with the snow impeding movement and ranged attacks alike, he doesn't see much alternative other than just trying to pass them by.
Before I act, can you point out where you're getting the rule that using perception in combat is a standard action? The CRB section on perception suggests that actively searching for a stimulus is a move action. I'd just like to be clear before I post anything, no offense intended.
"Goodness, you're right," says Lars, somewhat disturbed after taking a closer look. "I just assumed they were effigies of some sort. Everyone stay sharp. Hopefully the falling snow will be as bad for them as it is for us and they'll either let us pass without incident or be forced to engage us up close." Letting Ysabella continue to take the front, Lars slows down until the other two pass him in order to guard to rear and keeps looking over his shoulders every few steps and listening for anything out of place.
Lars follows along, trying to stay even more alert than he had been despite the snow making it hard. He keeps his sword in hand to save the time of having to draw it later, just in case.
I'd also say play what you want. I could understand completely if you wanted to follow up with something entirely different. Are you looking for full-casters specifically? Because as a 6-level caster with lots of party buffs a bard (or skald with their sbility to appropriate wizard spells?) might be just the thing to stay an arcane caster while still having a more survivable d8 HD, and if the AP is going to be a doozy of difficulty things like inspire courage might be really handy. Though I'd like to reiterate and agree that it's best to play something you're enthused about, otherwise it'll probably just turn into a grind.
Lars breathes deeply as the adrenaline of battle begins to subside. It's a feeling he's found he quite enjoys under better circumstances. This battle didn't go quite as cleanly as the first, though, and he chastises himself for not being quicker, or more alert, or something to have made the difference. He watches solemnly and silently as Veronwe's body is arranged, and then Baxter says some words. He can't understand the words, but he can make assumptions about, and then sympathize with, the tone of them. He stands with his head down for another respectful moment or two before steeling himself to move onward. "There may be nothing more we can do for him, but hopefully the Lady yet lives. We should press on when we can and, gods willing, we may find whatever has brought these winter creatures to this place and avenge our comrade."
Snow's just water, right? Merfolk should be right at home! :P
Round 2, Initiative Count 23 Lars watches in horror as the thing doesn't turn its attention to him and instead continues to rip his new friend apart. Filled with frustration and anger (although not to Ysabella's extent) he hacks at the creature again with his sword, hoping to put the thing down before it can turn its attention to another of their group.
I have no way of healing, so that'd have to be up to others. I'm a little late to the party of answers to the question, but I'd agree that this is quite fun and you've been doing a good job so far!
Round 1, Initiative Count 23 Reacting quickly to the creature's sudden and violent appearance, he maneuvers as best he can in the deep snow until he has a clear striking angle on the beast's hide. "You put that Elf down!" he admonishes the creature as he swings his sword into its side.
"Much obliged," Lars thanks Voronwe for the help. Once he's changed he lays his studded leather in the cache with the rest of the gear, then decides to borrow one of the masterwork daggers as well. They can always be returned if necessary, but he can't see any sense in not putting this windfall to the best possible use in their endeavor. "I think it might be best to leave what we don't use for the trip back, so we don't weigh ourselves down unnecessarily in our pursuit. That being said, there's some seriously high quality gear here, and our chances can only be better if we make use of it. If anyone finds anything helpful, don't be ashamed or guilty to speak up about it since a woman's life may depend on us having the best tools available. Otherwise, I'm ready to press on when everyone else is."
"Agreed," says Lars, grimly. "Hopefully the extra time it costs us will not cost us the chance at rescuing Lady Argentea alive. Would anyone object if I took a minute or so to change into this excellent quality chain shirt before we proceed? I wouldn't normally want something so restrictive, but unless this snow lets up I'm going to have to stay in closer quarters than I'd like."
"Well spotted," says Lars, impressed, and freezing in place instead of following him impulse to open it immediately. "And well done to you as well," he adds to Baxter once he's disarmed the snare. "I'm glad to have fallen in with such capable companions in this endeavor, it gives me hope that we'll fare better than those that were ambushed." Then he attempts to open it to see what's inside, though he suspects that whoever laid the trap wouldn't have left behind anything of particular value.
As the others pick over the carriage, Lars finds what he's looking for in the snow and dirt. With this much traffic, it should be a pretty easy trail to follow. "When we're finished looking over the scene of the ambush, I know where we're headed next," he calls over to them, squatting at the start of the trail. "Looks like about a dozen people, and even a horse or two, went into the woods that-away." He points with the new sword in the direction the tracks lead. "That makes for a pretty big party of potential enemies, so hopefully we'll pass a few bodies as we go." Now that he's confident there won't be any survivors to be found here, he waits patiently until the others are ready to follow the trail as well.
Well, unless one of us had a way of detecting such things remotely, we would have had to risk it anyway, to make sure," Lars says, cleaning his sword on the clothes clinging the remains of the one he took down. Then, if Veronwe is still going to had him the fancy sword he'll stop and look it over, feeling the weight. "This is much nicer than mine," he observes, impressed. "Does anybody mind if I hang onto it? With all this snow coming down, I don't expect my bow to be nearly as effective." If nobody objects, he'll replace his existing sword with the high quality one, and offer to let someone else have the old one as a backup if they want it. "Yuln said he followed them into the woods before he gave up, that should hopefully mean there's a trail to follow." Then, following his own advice, he starts looking for tell-tale signs they can follow.
Round 1, Initiative Count 12 "I guess that explains why they didn't answer," Lars mutters to himself. Since he's already got his sword in hand, and is right there where they burst out, he sees no need to complicate matters by changing weapons, especially since the Elf suggests that his sword is the best tool for this job anyway. He raises his buckler to keep the thing slightly at bey and hacks at one of them with his longsword, eagerly anticipating his first, proper fight to the death.
While the deep chill is certainly a nice change from the summer back in town, Lars isn't too thrilled about the fact that it's actively snowing. The weather will make using his bow more difficult, and probably something done out of necessity until or unless it lets up a bit. Thankfully he has more weapons at his disposal. The sight of the ambush is distressing. So much carnage. Hearing the sounds of muffled movement inside the carriage, the first instinct that Lars has is to open it up and see what's making all the noise, but it's quite curious that the vehicle has been barred closed from the outside, clearly with intent. Coupled with the fact that Yuln claimed to be the only survivor, it makes him more than a little suspicious. He draws his sword and uses the pommel as a knocker on the door. "Hello?" he calls out to whatever's inside, but makes no move to un-stick the doors and open them just yet. "Is there somebody trapped in there?"
Lars completes his search disappointed, but not surprised. It's a small town, and more likely to be worried about regular old bandits rather than capricious and devious creatures from the north. He meets up with the others that are waiting at the gate. Seeing that he's the last to return, and assuming that they'll be heading to the curiously wintry woods next, he goes ahead and starts to put on his cold weather outfit now. It's uncomfortably hot like that in town, and it probably looks pretty dumb, but it'll save having to possibly put it on while in a fight later on. "I didn't have any luck with the armory," he reports, shrugging. "Hopefully we'll be able to get by with what we already have. Fortunately these creatures can still be wounded without exploiting their weaknesses, and I can always pass out some arrows for use as improvised daggers if necessary. Shall we go search?"
"Sounds like a plan," Lars agrees. "If you don't see Isker right away, he's probably out shoeing a horse. Hopefully at least one of us will find something helpful, and then we'll all meet up at the gate to press on regardless." Plan established, Lars heads up the dirt path to the stone tower that serves as the town armory. He's not particularly hopeful that there'll be any sort of stockpile of fey-killing weapons this far south, but it never hurts to look for these things. Even if there aren't any arrows, his preference, any sort of reusable melee weapons can serve in a pinch. They probably really only need to borrow them until the job is done, if he finds them. Knowing that the place is probably not being used, since they're not at war or under siege, he tries to just walk in. Once inside the hollow space lined with weapon and armor racks, he pulls one of his own cold iron arrows, and compares the material of it to that of the metal weapons, looking first for arrows and then blades, but completely ignoring the armor.
"Oh well," says Lars, shrugging. He hands over 4gp for the cold weather outfit. At least he already has some, he'll just have to be judicious with them. He then waits for the others to complete their transactions.
While Lars is looking forward to the cold, himself, he figures he can always take it off it it feels to hot. Part of him worries that there were too many years spent in Taldor to fully retain his acclimation to the lower temperatures. Better to have it in case that turns out to be true. He starts counting out some coins from his pouch, then pauses. "Do you have any cold iron arrows as well?" he asks the shopkeeper. "If so I'll take twenty, otherwise this'll do it for me."
Lars stands quiet with nothing to add at the moment. For his own part, he's pretty confident that he's ready for the particulars of this expedition as-is. He understands, however, that things can only go smoother the more people are similarly prepared, so while he's eager to get going as soon as possible, he wouldn't begrudge a trip to a store in search of cold iron equipment. Knowing that his cold iron arrows will be useful in the immediate future, he'd probably spend some cash on a bigger stockpile if they were going there anyway just so he wouldn't have to worry about saving them for something more important later. While he'd moved away from home while still pretty young, he knows well his people's longstanding feud with the witches of Irrisen, and the opportunity to potentially stick it to them, or at the very least their minions, is only adding more fuel to the fires of his desire to help, beyond just the eagerness to save a life and be rewarded for doing so.
Lars gets a very grumpy look on his face. "Fey," he practically growls. "That takes all of the joy out of this lovely cold snap. I'm sure the temperatures and the winter-touched are probably linked together, but as to which one brought which? Both options seem absurdly unlikely." He strokes his beard for a moment and then realizes he's rambling unhelpfully. "I always have a handful of cold iron arrows, just in case," he says, looking around at the new group that's assembling. "Do any of you likewise possess weapons to deal with these creatures? Or perhaps the resources to acquire some before we almost assuredly meet these winter-touched in combat?" |
