Elxurian gets up, puts her Breastplate back and gather her things.
"Morning, everyone. What the heck is that?"
Nev looks up briefly from his rations. "If it's like everything else we've encountered in these godforsaken woods, it'll either be trapped or set off an ambush. I say we leave it alone."
"unnn... What! A body, where?" says Grimkell as he is jolted awake by Lex.
Seeing that no one seems worried, he puts back his hide armor on top of some of his furs and puts back more furs on top of it. Looking back at the body:
"Well, we could learn valuable information from the body, plus we need to put it to rest. As for traps... we could always use a rope to draw the body out from a distance... anyone has a rope?"
Llyr awakens with a jolt, sword coming out of its sheath in the bedroll. "Huh? What?" he mumbles as he slowly comes to his senses. Rising to his feet, he looks over the body for any signs of traps before pulling a rope from his pack and looping it around the bodies legs to try and hoist the corpse from the snow.
"Careful everyone, that could be a distraction."
Elxurian is pretty sure Llyr is gonna be carefull after the previous trap he got into, so she start looking around for other possible threats, in case the body was a distraction.
Nothing seems too wonky about this body, except its out here and its dead. No traps on it that you can make out.
The woman gets closer to examine the body and find out the cause of death.
Waking up, Karyne stretches a few times and then brushes herself clean. Upon seeing the body, she moves over to look upon it a bit more closely. She can't see anything odd about it, save for it being frozen. "Ve should be very careful. Zhis could have been slain rather zhan simply dying to cold."
In true rogue-ish fashion, while Elxurian is examining the body for cause of death, Llyr looks it over for signs of valuables or items that may help them rescue the Lady.
As the others inspect the body, Grimkell plays a dirge for the soul of the dead to depart. Doing so, he looks over the shoulders of Elxurian and Llyr to see what the body looks like. More importantly, the origin of the individual.
"Either its a poor soul who got caught out here in this unseasonable snow without any warm clothing, or if we're lucky, its one of the bandits, meaning we've got one less to deal with..." Lex states, taking the moment while everyone was distracted by the dead body to change into her other cold weather outfit, staying close by the fire to keep warm. She pulled another coat on, changing her pants and drying out her boots, slipping her gloves on as well. It took her a minute altogether, as she stuffed the rest into her pack before pulling it on.
"Right, so, let's get to following the trail soon as we can, then. Today, we'll rescue Argentea. Either that or we'll end up dead, captured, or worse. Personally, I'd prefer not to make company with bandits that would treat me with far less respect than the woman they're ransoming."
Human, from what you can deem, he seemed to be a soldier from Taldor. On him he has a composite longbow (+1 Str) with 12 arrows;a dagger; a masterwork handaxe; and a pouch containing14 gp, 25 sp, and 18 cp.
"Well, there's nothing we can do for the poor soul, aside from finding out who did it and bringing them to answer for their crimes. Shall we get moving, then?"
Pocketing the coins and hand axe, Llyr offer the bow to someone with the strength to use it, along with the few arrows that remained intact. "Yeah, we should get to rescuing." he responds as he finishes repacking his pack. "I didn't expect one of the guardsman to make it all the way out here, alone. Think they dumped his body after they used him for sport?"
"Either that or he succumbed to the cold. Then again, considering those other creatures that we dispatched, he may have just been unlucky enough to run into them," Lex comments, glad she got to changing without anyone having seen her. She holds onto her quarterstaff, feeling better with the familiar piece of wood over the short spear.
"...We can come back to retrieve his body later so it can get a proper burial. Let's focus on the living victims for right now." The magus states, ready to get going. "Llyr, you think you can be stealthy enough to scout ahead before we alert any ambushes?"
The skald finishes playing the lyre. He places it back in his bag. Still looking at the body, he seems to be wondering. Not reacting to the comments made by Llyr and Lex, Grimkell seems to be thinking to himself.
"You know, I don't remember finding any axes in the stack of weapon left by the bandits...and most guards are usually equipped with the same type of weapons... right Llyr? Maybe this is not one of the guards of the caravan, but one of the high sentinels... Anyway, I agree that we should get going."
Grimkell goes back into the semi igloo. There, he eats a quick snack and packs his bedroll and blanket and puts on his helmet.
"So, how do we cross the river?"
"Hey." Lex calls out to Grim, raising an eyebrow at the Ulfen, before taking her quarterstaff and poking the ice covering the stream, using it to check for thin ice as she carefully and methodically crosses over on foot. "Not every task needs to be done in such dramatic fashion..."
Grimkell turns around to see Lex when she calls up to him. His first thoughts are on here strange comment about drama:
I didn't say anything, she must have heard a ghost from another world
As he realizes that she he crossing, alone, far from everyone, the river. His expression is changed to one of worries than one of anger. He shakes his hand and recovers his cool. He watches until she reaches the other side (or fall).
Seeing the rushing water and the man dead from the cold, she is unsure as to what she should do, knowing her magic will not get her across the water. She looks about hopeful for a large tree branch or a fallen tree.
As El goes over the body, she deduces that the man was harassed by the sprites, just as you, by the tiny arrows in his flesh. He must have died from the elemental you fought earlier, for there are signs of frostbite in unusual places.
You all make it across the stream fine, using Lex's path as a guide, you keep dry!
You walk for about an hour and a half through knee high 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.
You all hear some arguing around the bend.
Nev motions the group to a stop. "Shhh. I hear something up ahead. Arguing of some sort."
Lex is dealing with the cold far better this morning than last night - perhaps its the change of clothing that's helped her. She pauses as she hears voices up ahead of them on the path, stopping and whispering to the others.
"Do you all hear that? Should someone go check it out ahead?" She asks, glancing around. Certainly she's not the stealthiest person in the group, so she looks to see if someone else can lead them in that endeavor - perhaps Llyr or Grimkell.
Hearing the arguing from up ahead, Llyr motions for the others to hold up. Whispering, he says "I'll scout ahead and see what's going on. If you hear a commotion, come running. ". That said, he does his best to stealth his way up the trail toward the arguing.
Elxurian draws her new Longbow and notches an arrow, waiting to see if there is trouble.
Whispering to Llyr as he leaves:"I've got your back."
Grimkell, waits with the others, he prepares for battle by drawing his sword and shield. While waiting, he listens intently in case Llyr gets into trouble.
The three voices up ahead come into Llyr's view. They look like bandits and seem to be quarreling over loot and stuff. They don't seem to notice Llyr. In fact, they are so much into the quarrel they don't seem to notice anything. There is a chipmunk stealing small shiny silver pieces from their pockets.
Llyr silently debates stabbing one and dashing away before the others recover from the quick death of their comrade, but decides not to show off his reckless streak. Sneaking back to the group, Llyr makes his presence known from the shadow of a tree, "There are 3 bandits, and they seem extra oblivious to their surroundings. Give me 5 minutes, and then start making your way up. That way I'll be lurking behind them to strike if they hear one of you." Not waiting for a response, Llyr vanishes back into the shadows, working his way back to the bandits. There he waits next to a bush, sap in hand.
"Three, you say? All grouped together?" Lex hums to herself for a moment, before nodding and waiting. "If it's all right with everyone else, I'd like to try something first. I can nab all three of them with a color spray, knock them all out, or at least stun and blind them. We can take them prisoner, tell us all about their base and numbers and whatever nasty surprises they have in store for us."
Lex will attempt stealth herself as she slips forward, creeping slowly through the snow to try and get as close to the bandits as possible. If she can get all three of them in range before they notice, then she can unleash her spell.
As Lex casts her spell, the colorful rainbows engulf the three men. They all fall prone, unconscious in the snow. The little chipmunk giggles and scurries off.
Once the bandits are taken care of, you all hear a loud DING!. You're not quite sure if it came from the outside world, or your head...
The girl doesn't give the fools a chance to get their bearings, blasting them with a chaotic spray of colored light that's enough to knock them all out. "Best we disarm and tie them up quickly before they wake up," She calls out to the others, hurrying to remove their weapons first, tossing them away.
Grimkell comes out from behind a tree a few yards away, he runs, as well as he can in the heavy snow, to reach the bandits as quickly as possible. Arriving next to them, he drops his sword and shield.
"Llyr, bring the rope, quickly."Turning toward Lex:"Good job!"
Llyr is visibly awed by Lex's spellcasting and the effect if produced. "Yes yes, well done." he says as he pulls the rope from his pack to tie up the bandits. "How long before they wake up?" he asks as he binds their hands, then their feet, then hogties them together.
"Well done, Lex!" Nev exclaims as he moves up to assist Llyr. Once the bandits are tied up, he searches them - hopefully finishing before they've woken up.
Elxurian is clearly impressed by Lex ability. "Impressive, Lex. It seems you don't need strength do defeat your enemies." She says it already walking toward the three tied men. She sticks the point of her Greatsword in the floor, in front of the three bandits, and sits on the ground, her back leaning on the sword. "Are they gonna take long to wake up Lex?"
"Give them a minute - first they'll wake up, then they'll be blinded for a bit, then they'll be stunned a while longer until they're back to normal. And if they need incentive to be cooperative, just threaten to leave them here tied up without a fire - nobody wants to freeze."
"Sure, I'll wait. It's good they came out unharmed, we don't know if they are really bad."
Elxurian patiently waits for them to get to their full senses, before delivering some questions.
Karyne feels as if the cold is biting into her flesh as she follows the group and then waits patiently for Lex to do what she likes. Seeing the spell go off, she smiles and nods to Lex from a distance.
"Zhat was a very impressive display of magic, Lex. Vell done."
Once they are all tied up, Grimkell takes out some rages from his bag, puts them in a ball, shoves one in the mouth of each of the bandits and then put another rag around their head to make sure they won't spit out the ball.
"Just in case they decide to call for help." He says to no one in particular.
Elxurian just watches Grimkell as he gags the men, still waiting for them to recover.
"I guess that's smart, but we need to talk with them Grimkell. I was just waiting for them to awake. How do you want to do this?"
Grimkell grins at Elxurian.
"Oh, before removing the gag from one of them, I will make sure that he is too scared to scream."
"Listen, there is three of you, we only need one answer our questions, so, you better do it without screaming. If you dare yell, I will make sure you regret it."
The skald puts his sword at the man's throat.
"Now, politely answer my friends questions." He points at Elxurian. "Nod if you understand."
If he nods, Grimkell removes the gag.
As the first man regains consciousness, he looks around and meets the Gaze of Grimkell. Before he can scream, he pisses himself from the shear terror he feels after Grimkells words. Each of the other bandits wake up in time to hear the last bit of it, they stay still and quiet. The first one nods. and coughs and spits on the ground after the gag is removed.
Still sit, Elxurian speaks to the man after his gag is removed. She seems calm and controlled, measuring her words, somehow different than she was yesterday.
"Well, you heard him, so you better don't make anything stupid, if you want to keep your head on your neck. We just want some information, and I would appreciate if you tell us everything you know about you, this place, what were you doing, what has been happening around, and the like. The more honest and throughout you are, the higher the chances of you and your friends walking back home alive. If I think you're telling me a single lie, small as it may be, you're doomed. Understood? So, start speaking."
Grimkell draws back a bit and listens to the man.