"I accept your vow. Take your fallen and depart in peace," said Teana. She waited for the mongrelfolk to be out of sight before she headed in the other direction, towards the group.

Using his knowledge in nature Urle tries to help increase the strength and power of the fire.

Turning to the pilgrims.
Do you have any fire wood.  We need to make this fire bigger and better to stave of the cold.

The Mountain Trail



The mongrelfolk quickly shoulder what they can of their fallen (mostly taking what weapons remain and a few locks of hair, apparently as either their custom or perhaps fear that Teana will turn them all into smoking craters if they linger) and depart at a jog.  After some long moments of making certain they are not doubling back, Teana takes her leave back the other direction.

She travels most of the day, and into the darkness.  It's not until quite late that she gets back to where the group is supposed to be... a traveler's rest that is occupied by strange wagons, and the nearby forest filled with freezing cold mist!

--

Traveler's Rest



Davor strikes true, the flame on his blade sizzling into the freezing flesh of the serpent, releasing more glowing blood that floods the misty woods!



Helena's touch drives back the chill that had creeped Jerec's flesh, and he straightens up and peers into the glowing mist.  He sees the shadows moving in the bright mist, and finally one of the pilgrims screams as a loop of a huge snake thrashes at the edge of the trees!

"Ware, fire!" Jerec calls, and then shouts out a fiery roar that is answered by an impressive ball of flame that engulfs part of the serpent! 




With the ball of flame and Urle's words giving them hope, the unarmed pilgrims spring into action and get more of the firewood on the fire, hastily trying to fan the flames and bring more light and warmth to the clearing.

The cold serpent, or at least part of it, is visible at the edge of the woods, and Urle now has a target for his ire!

In the woods, Zenna fires off several more arrows, wounding the serpent further.   The serpent, seemingly maddened by the flare of fire from earlier, lunges at Davor.  But perhaps because of the flame's kiss, it missing sinking its fangs into him by a clear foot!

Helena's numb finger try to wrap herself in her shawl.  "So cold...."  And yet what can she do?   Standing, still near the fire, she watches as Jerec unleashes a blast of fire, arrows fly and the creature and Davor's blade hisses across the creature's flesh - and all this in the eerie mist.

Leaning towards Urle she softly nudges him, "Go... Davor needs you and Jerec and the pilgrims are with me.   Go, be a hero."

Urle looks at Helena.
I am no hero.  But a good nobleman knows when to attack and when to defend.
A good nobleman knows when to follow a request even if he does not wish to.
Stay safe.

Urle calls over Demetria.  Jumps quickly into the saddle and ride straight for the creature.  Speaking softly to Demertia as he does.

The with all his power and might he tries to hit the creature with his lance.
However this time he does not let Demetria get close enough to attach herself.
Urle not willing to risk the damage to his beloved horse.

OOC:
22:01, Today: Urle rolled 27 using 1d20+14.  Attack with a lance.
22:01, Today: Urle rolled 8 using 1d8+5.  Damage x2.  Hit AC 27 for 16 damage.

Davor's dodge out of the path of the serpent's lunge might appear to be uncanny, but it is in fact an accident. Still suffering from the effects of the poisonous breath, Davor had simply stumbled backwards just as the beast lunged. Fortunately the serpent's lunge puts it in a prime position for Davor to continue to hew away at its massive body. Another swing of his blade makes another bloody gash.

Standard Action: Attack hits AC 26 for 9 magical slashing damage + 1 fire damage.

Davor Spiritwalker rolled 26,9,1 using 1d20+11,2d6+5,1d4.  Attack w/ damage.

Upon sight of the wagons and the mist, Teana quickly came in for a landing just out of sight and crept toward the rest and the circle.

Davor's sword slashes down upon the serpent as Urle takes to Demetria's back and comes charging in like an avalanche with his lance.  As the serpent rears back at the pain, Urle's lance takes it below the chin, skewering it through the skull!  The serpent thrashes on the ground, the frost spreading at the touch of its freezing blood, before it finally expires.  The cold of its blood remains, but the freezing of the air that had so discomfited everyone else abruptly breaks, leaving the night cool but fair.

Urle pulls his lance out of the creature and moves Demetria back.
He looks over to Davor Spiritwalker.
Uhm, sorry.  The lady said I should come help you.
He looks back at the creature.
I may have over done it again.  Sorry.
I return to looking after her.


Slowly Urle turns his horse and rides back to Helena.
Getting off her he goes back to making sure the fire is warming everybody.

As the mist broke, Teana walked into the camp, still rubbing her side where she'd taken an arrow graze.

"I see I missed some excitement," she said wryly to the camp, looking around to see if anyone needed immediate attention.

As Urle returns, Helena, her skin freezing to the touch and having taken on a blueish tinge with the cold, stumbles over to him, "Are... are you ok?"   The cold didn't even appear to have touched the man.

She turned too to see Teana's return and with chattering teeth she greeted the half-elf, "Tea.... are you ok?"

And to the others as folk gather around the fire which is slowly warming her, "How did they find us?"

Breathing heavity, Davor stares down at the beast as its death throws convulse the long serpentine body. As Urle starts to turn, Davor looks up with a wild expression. "Better to have the cavalry on my side." The mad light still dances behind his eyes. He thrusts his ethereal sword down into the body of the creature and leaves it there. The fire fades a few moments before the sword also disperses.

Kneeling down over the serpent's body, Davor braves the freezing blood to examine the remains. (Knowledge check?) After doing so, he rises and checks with Zenna that there areno other threats before moving back towards camp.

Davor takes a moment to collect himself and wrap his cloak around himself again before he emerges from the trees and back into the firelight of the camp. "The road is a dangerous place these days." He addresses this comment to Teanna before looking significantly over to the other group that shares the clearing.

Teana nodded to Helena. "I'm fine, or I will be after a little nap. Was mildly inconvenienced by some mongrelfolk on the road," she said. "I don't think they knew which direction you guys were going, but they were coming too close to your route and I had to send them packing. I dropped a hint that they were on the wrong road entirely, but I don't know if they or their master will pick it up and believe it."

She looked over at the serpent, then back at Helena. "The mongrelfolk's boss wants you captured unharmed, so he can 'persuade' you to work for him. Monsters like this or the chimera don't do 'capture unharmed' very well. I think we might have two enemies, rather than one." She shook her head. "We definitely need to make our way to Vellowgrass."

The pilgrims are understandably unnerved by what had just happened, and most are somewhat in pain from the freezing aura of the serpent, but will heal in time.  As the fire is built back up, Lul and some of the others tend to frost-nipped faces, fingers, and toes.  Any who wish to aid them are quite welcome.

When Helena asks her question of how did they find us, Zenna crouches down at the edge of camp, her wolf at her side looking about warily.  "That I am not certain.  But I would like to back-track the serpent once it is light and figure out where it came from.  I know where you are going, and we cannot assume it came here on its own, so I will catch up to you with the news as soon as I am able."

Davor examines the serpent's remains carefully. 

Lul finishes tending to his pilgrims before going over to the other group and asking, "Do you think it is safe to stay here for the rest of the night?  Does a creature like this have a mate or will scavengers come to feed upon it?"

Over by the body, Davor pulls out his hunting knife and spends some time attempting to extract the serpent's fangs. He does his best to keep any venom sacks intact so that he can preserve the venom, but his main focus is on his trophies. The cold blood bites at his fingers and when he is done, he wipes the blood over the portions of his armor where the black paint has chipped to reveal the shiny metal underneath before finally returning to the clearing.

Davor Spiritwalker rolled 25 using 1d20+8.  Survival - harvest parts.

Addressing everyone, Davor shakes his head. "That kind of creature travels alone and it's blood is as cold as ice so I don't think we have to worry about scavengers. We're as safe here as we would be trampin' along the road in the dark." He shoots a significant look at Teana and Urle to indicate that he has more to say on the matter, but first turns back to Lul. "Let me see if I can do do anything to help your people." He takes the man by the shoulder and steers his back towards the pilgrims.

Davor will put some time and effort into helping the pilgrims. If any are badly hurt, he will expend up to 2 first level spells on cure light wounds.

Once the pilgrims have been seen to and settled, Davor will return to the others. "The serpent's called a coldfang. It's a hunter and can track prey a very long way. It takes magic to lure one and set it to track someone specific. I think it's safe to say that the chimera's master sent this as well."

Helena just looks with wide eyes as Teana makes light of what she's done.  "You must show me your wound - I can wash it."   She is far from a healer but she has to help this heroine (and the others in the camp) though for anyone with any real skill, they'll quickly see she had none!   Similarly, she'll point Davor at Teana and ask him to heal her wound if she can't manage it herself.

When she has a moment, she'll collect a scale from the creature and place it in a pouch at her belt.   So much has happened and the defeat of this creature was a landmark - much as the defeat of other had been. 

That done she'll head over to where she'd seen the pair bury something with most folk distracted, she'll look to dig it up.   Could they have somehow summoned the creature with whatever they'd buried? 

Finally, when the question of remaining here comes up she'll nod, "I understand Davor's reluctance to depart in the dark, but I think you're right, Lul.  Staying here is a risk.  I don't think we should be remaining here and I suggest you leave too... for your own safety of course."   There, she'd made a decision!
This message was last edited by the player at 20:02, Tue 26 May 2020.

Teana nodded to Helena softly. "Thank you," she said, moving a bit away from the group so that Helena could lift up her mithral shirt and work on cleaning the wound. It didn't take healing skill just to wash an injury, fortunately - and it seemed to be rather more of a flesh wound than something deeper.

"Thank you, Helena," she said when the washing was done, and then she poured a little water from the skin to help wash the light bloodstains from Helena's hands in turn, before blow-drying them with a quick breeze.

"...I agree, we can move on a little from here and then make camp," said Teana. "As much as I liked the idea of a comfortable bedroll..." She rolled her eyes playfully.

Lul looks uncertain about the affair, but perhaps that's not surprising.  No amount of assurances will help someone who's just had an enormous cold serpent monster nearly slither into their sleeping space.  "Well, we can get up the road a piece and then rest there.  I'd druther sleep in the middle of the road than risk thrashing about in the woods.  My friends, let us pick up our wood and move up the road a mile, then sleep what we can until morning."  The pilgrims begin to pick up the stockpiled firewood and getting their belongings in the wagon and in their packs, their comments only in nervous murmurs to each other.

Helena can collect a tough blue scale from the corpse without difficulty.

Zenna is gone into the forest, off to search the creature's back-trail, and Helena can help ease the wounds of those hurt.  Once wounds are tended, the group can pack up and move down the road, the opposite direction of the pilgrims, until they find a smaller, more awkward clearing they can rest in for the remainder of the night.  It's not nearly so large, and there's no fire pit or convenient water source, but it's flat and softened with grass.  Setting up watch for the remainder of the evening, dawn comes uneventfully.

With dawn comes breakfast, and as Jerec stirs the morning porridge, he has a question to post to the group.  "Now, do we dare go back to the halfling village?  Or just straight across the entrance to the underground city?"

"We move to Vellowgrass as quickly as possible," declared Teana as they ate. "We can't afford to hide or waste more time." She looked to Helena for confirmation.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:45, Mon 01 June 2020.

As they left, Helena went over to a couple of the travellers and softly wished them safety and luck for their future. 

Then in the morning, she woke once again, tired, but... alive.  She sat silently and a little glumly as breakfast was prepared before the question of their path was raised.  "I'm not sure we could travel there without being seen by the people of Vellowgrass but avoiding them may be best for their safety."

Teana nodded grimly. "Unless we can find a way to protect all the peoples of this area, we'd do best to avoid the smaller villages and only rest in cities, or in places like Greenbriar where they have appropriate defenses."

Davor helps to pack the group's gear and carry it to the new campsite. He seems to be in relatively good spirits despite being covered in the serpent's blood. Perhaps it is because much of the blood is self-applied.

The next morning, over the porridge, the half-orc voices his agreement with Teana. "Agreed. We've got plenty of supplies and we'll move faster if we keep straight on. Whether they see us or not, we'll be to the entrance to the underground before the news reaches anyone." When Teana and Helena voice their concerns about people's safety he points out that both monsters were dealt with before they could do harm to innocents. "I'm not sayin' we should take chances, but we dealt with the chimera and the serpent well enough."

Urle returns to the group after killing the creature.
He gets of his horse.  On listening to Helena for once take charge and decide what the group should do he says two things.

So much for our first idea.

He then nods to Helena with
As my Lady wishes.  I will be ready quickly.
His face has no expression on them but his eyes tell different tale.
He's eyes clearly spark with approval that Helena had made a decision and Urle quickly follows out her wishes.

The Knight is quite for the journey to the new camp.  He settles down and makes sure Helena is safe and comfortable.

Inspite of the location the group has no problems with water.  Urle seems to have quite a few water-skins and he filled them all up at the last place.  Everybody and all the animals are watered before they leave the  new camp.

On listening to what being said Urle just adds.
If one can it is always best to keep commoners out of the battle area and away from the battle lines.
One less accident to happen.

Helena nods, accepting the advice of her compatriots.  "Ok.  Let's head directly to the entrance and do our best to avoid anyone along the way.  If there are more of those monsters hunting us then putting innocent folk in danger makes no sense."

Those watching will see Helena wince as Urle refers to her as 'My Lady' but she attempts to cover it with business.  She may be making decisions but she is still struggling with it!

As the new day dawns, the group resumes their trek out of the forest over the next few days, keeping a careful watch out for any more large and scaly foes.  Zenna catches up after a day and has the following news:

"The coldfang's tracks seem to simply appear at the northeastern edge of the forest, perhaps five miles away from the road, and several days old  I don't know a great deal about magic, but I saw no wax or odd powders or things of the sort.  I did find this, she says, holding out a large feather perhaps two feet long.  It looks rather like an eagle feather, but not one from the wings or tail, more like a curved body feather.  And if it is indeed a body feather, then said eagle must be a truly giant member of its kind.  "I do not know if it was some component in magic or evidence of a large eagle dropping the coldfang off."

Jerec examines the feather with discerning eyes.  "Feathers are used in spell work, but not often ones of this size.  The feather itself has no magic upon it, so it seems it is naturally that size.  As one of our unknown foes seems to prefer animals of unusual size for their attacks.  From what Zenna said, it seems this foe may have dropped off the coldfang and waited for us to come out of the forest.

Thusly informed and quite wary, the group kept their heads about them as they crossed the Vellowgrass Plains, bypassing the village in favor of headed straight for the boundary stones.  They made the final crossing at twilight, as much to make certain they were out of sight of the village before night fell as anything, and felt the cool of the cave embrace them after several days of the baking heat of the plains.

The chimera, whose body had been dragged here, was little more than some bits of discarded bone, widely scattered.  The passageway slopes downward, a smell of dampness and decaying vegetation wafting up from below.

"Camp here?  Scout ahead?  Or head down right away?  I remember those killer mushroom things we had to go through," Zenna asks.