Zar'Da looked at the coin on the table. He scratched his chin for a moment then said,"I have a fair amount of my own personal coin but this would go to some use in getting equiptment and what not for the road."

The rugged looking young woman is a surprised by Talvaroff and Sophia's replies, but she decides not to argue with them. "Okay then. I figure there's enough here we can pull out one extra 'share' and say it belongs to the group: the whole group for group payments. Like paying to fix up that wagon or buying another ruddy hose. That helps us all out."

OOC: Sorry to make this so quick an short. I'm posting quickly right now.

We need to decide about the NPC. My opinion is that if we play this so that it makes sense, Mundin, Depiron, Lexis, and Penville should get a share because they participated at that time.

On the other hand, why give treasure to NPCs who aren't going to use it? Comments?

Mundin - NPC
Depiron - NPC
Lexis - NPC
Opa?? - NPC

Cashel
Penville
Sophia – Opt out
Talvaroff – Opt out
Tarmes – 1 share
Thamol – 1 share
Zar'Da – 1 share

The pair of dwarves and Lexis sit around the fireplace and discuss things intensely while Tarmes shows the bounty from the goblins.  They are not paying too much attention, and they appear to be talking about Neconlius, and possibility of him heading to Thay.  Opa joins them in the conversation, and along the line, she learns that Joey Sheppard headed towards Thay, and expresses the desire to go see him.  They are pretty much oblivious to you.

Bigby looked to be interested in Sophia's new horse when it was brought in.  He howled a couple of times to Penville.  He tells you all that it smelled familiar to Bigby, somehow.  Penville doesn't know what to make of this.

OOC: Note, Thamol is not here, as it is evening, and he needs to stay at the Stable to watch the animals...

In the meanwhile at Stable...

The wind howls, and blizzard is coming down hard.  The building shakes a little bit from the strong wind, although the whole stable looks solidly constructed and everyone should be secure.  Many animals are somewhat aggitated, and especially the baby woolly mammoth is very unfriendly towards you now.  You try to calm it down and manages to have it stop stomping its powerful legs.  Even though this is a baby one, you would not want the tons of muscles to attack you.  Occasionally, it tries to undo it's chain by straggling, and the whole stable shakes with the power of the beast.

-K

Thamol decides with the storm coming that he stay up and sleep after it passed.
He does his best to get on with all animals and tries to keep them calm.

OOC:
03:16, Today: Thamol Liadon rolled 16 using 1d20+7. Handle animal.

Overnight, the wind continues to blow strong.  But the warm and comfortable bed of the inn helped everyone staying at inn to sleep very well.  Unfortunately for Thamol, the weather just won't let Woolly Mammoth calm down, and it kept struggling all night long.  As long as Thamol kept wake and company with the baby mastodon, it at least didn't burst out of the chain or break down the wall, but that meant Thamol did not get any sleep at all.

The morning comes and the snow finally begins to subside, and wind calms down.  The blizzard dropped a foot and half of snow, and now all the mud you saw during the summer are hidden beneath the cold white snow.  After an hour, cold wintery sun peeks through between the cloud.  The stable owner opens the door and finds tired Thamol and wooly mammoth, and tells Thamol that he appreciates watching over the Woolly Mammoth, and he is taking over.

The weather looks to be good enough to move on, and head towards the Bloodstone Gate.  With a little bit of sunshine, although brisk, the trek promises to be a nice one.

-K

Thamol explains to the rest of the party he need some sleep.  He tell them he catch up with them later in afternoon.  All does is get there plans of movement and then find nice place in barn and falls asleep.

After a good nights sleep and a nice hot bath Zar'Da wakes in the morning fresh and ready to move on. He dresses and gathers his things. The young dragon shaman then makes his way to check on the wagon. Once satisfied he heads back inside to meet up with the group for breakfast.

Talvaroff came down a little while after Zar'da, with his face clean-shaven but with a few nicks here and there, as he only had his dagger to do the work.  He asked the innkeeper for some bread, butter, and cold chicken, and sat by the wall, getting his senses back.

Tarmes was really happy with her new look; the gloves, the vest, and the spiked collar. Anytime one of the many solders looked at her too long, the busty blonde bared her teeth and growled at them while trying not to break into giggles.

Hearing that Thamol hadn’t had a lick of sleep, Tarmes encourages the druid to try and get comfy in the back of their wagon and get his sleep there. ”You already got separated from us for weeks the last cuffing time we left you behind AND you missed the bloody meeting I called last night.”

OOC: I'm going to just move the action forward.  Let me know what you want to do, Thamol, and we'll fudge it up retroactively.

With some lunch for the road ready, and taking advantage of the calmer weather after the blizzard overnight, the party of Chillbane bids farewell to this Fort-town.  As you leave, the guards remind you that the road up towards the Gate is now underneath a foot and half of snow, and you must be careful not to veer off.

The converted wagon/sleigh, now pulled by a pair of caribous (OOC: This was mentioned by Sophia a while ago.), glides through the snow-covered landscape easily.  The new snow is soft and fluffy, and covers many terrain elements.  Navigating through the moutain is trickier now.  However, the visibility is very good due to the glimmer of sunlight in the crisp air.

OOC: OK, everyone, give me 2 sets of Survival checks, and Zar'da (or whoever is driving) shuold give me a handle animal check...

-K

Still keeping mostly to himself for some reason, Cashel or'Kenset jogs quietly along side newly converted sleigh seemingly lost in thought as he observes the snowy landscape.


13:20, Today: Cashel or-Kenset rolled 23 using 1d20+4. Survival #2.
13:20, Today: Cashel or-Kenset rolled 15 using 1d20+4. Survival #1.

Thamol thinks that moving beds not really for him and sleeps in barn.  He sure he find the group again.  To the elf today yesterday tomorrow.  What the difference.

20:36, Today: Thamol Liadon rolled 23 using 1d20+10. survival.
20:36, Today: Thamol Liadon rolled 19 using 1d20+10. survival.

When Thamol decides to hang back and catch up on his ‘beauty rest’, Tarmes scoffs and points out that it’s no concern of hers if he goes and gets himself lost in the snow for weeks on end. She turned her back on the druid and stomps off to put her gear in the back of the sleigh. Even though they were in thick snow now, the girl still only wears simple traveler’s clothes along with the new addition of the vest and gloves.

Out on the snow covered road, Tarmes keeps in front of the sleigh watching the path of the road as best she can so they don’t stray off onto a wilderness trail.


21:10, Today: Tarmes Werthor rolled 14 using 1d20. Survival check #1.
21:10, Today: Tarmes Werthor rolled 15 using 1d20. Survival check #2.

The gang minus Thamol (and his animals) makes a good progress during the day.  With a good visibility, the path up the Bloodstone Path is pretty straight forward.  There are a couple of tricky spots to navigate with the sleigh, but when Zar'da raises the concern, Penville takes over the driving.  Along with Bigby keeping the caribous from wondering around, they navigate the tricky spots with ease.  Trekking the whole day, the group finally approaches the gate that separates Damara and Vaasa.  The enormous gate can be seen from the distance, and they'll reach it in no time, before the sun sets.

As the group nears the gate, Cashel, contemplative most of the day, notices that somehow lower half of Sophia's robe is all soiled with some sort of dark material.  It's concentrated on the parts where the robe rubs up against the horse.

In the meanwhile, Thamol takes a nice nap following the exhausting night trying to calm down the Woolly mammoth.  When he wakes up, he feel refreshed, but it's much later in the day.  He only has a couple of hours before the sun sets.

OOC: Now it's 3ish.  The front group is just about a mile away from the Gate, and Thamol just woke up...

Luckily for Thamol, you all think the weather's gonna be pretty nice at least one more day.

-K

Talvaroff marched along with the cart, his armor newly polished and glistening in the winter sunlight, except for where the leather effaced it.  He looked with admiration at the Gate, and said,
"Soon we will be at our journey's end!"

OOC: Well, duh!

After Penville takes over driving the cart Zar'Da sits back and enjoys the scenery. Even though the air is chilled he couldn't help but smile. He could not understand why the drow so wanted to stay in the earth for the surface was much more stunning. He let out a low whistle when viewing the large gate.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Cashel walks over without saying a word and rubs his hand on the rump of Sophia's mount to find out what the dark material is that’s rubbing of on her robes. At Talvaroff’s sudden exclamation, the monk turns to study the massive gates, then simply shrugs dismissively.

Hey what was that, we all know you can't get a girl but seriously you stoop to a horse.... shame on you! Sophia exclaims before riding away from Cashel.

Cashel touches the horse before Sophia makes it move away.  His hand is all black now, apparently from some sort of black dye.  It appears the horse has sweat a little from the day worth of trek, and dye started come off a little, soiling edge of Sophia's warm coat.

-K

Thamol rest eats well the rest of the day.   He wait until sun rise the next day.  He then sets out at full pace to try catch up with others.

Tarmes lets out a boisterous laugh at Sophia's insult. She certainly thought it was funny. "HAAHA! I guess it takes all types. You never expect the quiet ones to be the wierdos! HAHAHA!" Laughing so hard she didn't even turn to take a good look at the gate for another minute or so. "Well it's about time. There's no telling how far the half-lieutenant has gotten by now." Then she goes back to paying attention to the road and making sure they didn't wander off of it.

OOC: Anyone who is not a Vaasan native (which are most of you...maybe all of you?) should have passed through the Bloodstone Pass and Gates.  There really aren't any other good way to get into Vaasa.  So assume this isn't the first time you've been here.

The gang of Chillbane approaches massive fortress-wall.  The Vaasan side of the Gates (There are two gates on Bloodstone Pass, one on Damara side, and one on Vaasa side), is a massive half-mile long and 60-foot structure, studded with towers in intervals.  The towers are manned by Damaran soldiers and ballistas facing towards Vaasan wilderness and keeps ever watchful eyes on the lawless land of monsters.  As the group approaches the wall, you all start to see a lot more people around, unlike earlier on the Vaasan wilderness.  There is some excitement as you approach the Gate.  There are some people with adventuring gear, some with mining equipments, some with a cargo full of supplies.  All of them are passing this area, looking for the big score available in this forsaken place.

As the wall begins to tower over the group, a medium sized humanoid on the side of this well-travelled road (the snow at this point is all compressed down with the traffic) tries to get your attention.  "Psssst.  Pssst.  Hey, come here.  I've got something you might be interested."

-K

Cashel stops studying the black substance that came off his hand from Sophia's mount to slowly look the person up and down. "I rather doubt that, my preferences lie with the female gander, maybe if Thamol were here..., well, never ming that, if there's anything else we can help you with, just let me know," Cashel suggests, turning to go on his way.

OOC: You didn't specify male or female, but I'm certain Cashel would have notice if it was an attractive girl. ;>

As the figure approaches, you notice this is a rugged and slightly built looking man in winter adventuring gear (OOC: Hey, you can't be sure with the heavy thick fur coat and all that ;)  Although probably the voice was giveaway).

"Well, do you want to make some money?  It's quick money."

-K

Talvaroff came forward, his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"Quick money is usually shady money, gotten of sin.  If you want our services, you would do well to speak plainly." He said, a stern note entering his voice.  He distrusted this manner of speaking, and felt that it didn't bode well.

OOC: Sorry, little paranoid.  Ever since I got jumped by twenty Knights of the Emerald Claw in an Eberron campaign when one of them offered me a letter...