Kal nodded, thinking that he HAD to get the Beldame to at least give him a brief lesson on how all this alien magic worked! He headed off to bed, content to cuddle up with his honey until it was his turn to watch.

Another quiet night passes. The sun climbs over the surrounding mountains. As Olaf stables the horses at a nearby corral, the Beldame herds everyone onto the flat disk of the circle. Olaf, last in line, hops on and says, "You're play luv."

The group disappears, then reappears on a similar disk in another place further away and colder than where they were before.

"How far to this mystery feller," Olaf shouts above the wind.

The Beldame replied,"He's walking directly toward us, less than a day away. We take shelter at the traveler's shack up the hill, keeping a close eye out for the others. If they should arrive first, we might have a fight on our hands, but no use going out freezing to death in this weather. Hopefully the loner will arrive first."

Kal nodded. The plan sounded solid! He pulled his cloak tighter and prepared to follow the Beldame.

The hours pass slowly and tensions rise. Olaf steps out of the shelter every half hour to take a look around. Agrax joins him. The Beldame stares stoically out the window. Kal and Pious speak softly, recalling that once done in the north, a return to Lahkmar will be in order. That means the Thieves Guild and Ghools, spirits and necromancers. For her part, Elora tries her best to not become a nuisance. She's all eager energy and wide awake, bouncing around like a kitten at play.

"Child, come sit with me," The Beldame said. Then she quietly talks to Elora out of earshot of the others. To everyone's surprise, the fairy princess settles and listens, enrapt in whatever the Beldame is saying.

The funny thing about being so far north is that in summer the shines pretty much 23 out of 24 hours of the day. This gives everyone a clear sightline.

Suddenly, the Beldame stiffens. Olaf returns as well, says, "They're here. All of them. One is running ahead of a pack of four!"

Looking out from the windows, you see four heavily armored figures chasing a single individual. They are about a furlong behind the individual.

A couple of brief impressions: the individual runs like a ballet dancer and is wrapped in strips of linen. The four wear masks against the cold and their armor and swords look deadly and wicked. They seem fearless. Suddenly, the four stop cold. The Beldame casts a lightning bolt in their midst and they dive in four separate directions with a cat's grace.

"Well, that didn't go according to plan," she said.

The team of four splits into twos: Two attack the one while the other two approach the shelter.

Party Preparations and actions?
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:48, Mon 07 Sept 2020.

Kal drew his flaming sword and plunged it tip first into the frosty ground for quick retrieval. He said tersely to his companions, "Whatever you got ready, hit 'em hard!" He prepared sleep and cast it when the pair were in range. Knowing he had less chance against these opponents, he immediately grabbed the sword again and summoned the flames, ready to defend!

Two warriors in finely ornate splintmail rush up the slope toward the shelter, leaving the other two to fight out with the single combatant. They wield bastard swords in two hands.

Roll initiative, please. I'll take care of the NPCs

Beldame: 2
Olaf: 3
Elora: 6
Agrax: 4
Pious: 1

Warrior A: 6 - fighting the individual below
Warrior B: 3 - fighting the individual below

Warrior C: 4 @ shelter
Warrior D: 1 @ shelter

Kal ????

You want me to roll initiative for you? Or did you hide it somewhere? LOL!

21:54, Today: Kalmus the Grey rolled 2 using 1d6. Init

You didn't say anything about init...

Kal cast sleep as above.

Elora strikes first blood: Magic Missile *3 for a total of 13 points of damage. Kalmus follows up with a sleep spell which puts both fighters approaching the shelter down into a deep sleep.

Agrax exits the shelter, with her halberd she delivers the coup de grace on both before retreating back into the shelter.

Down below, the fight goes on with the lithe figure facing down the two assailants. Olaf draws his sword, but holds steady beside the Beldame. As for her, she readies another spell: Cone of Cold that does 33 points of damage. One of the last two assailants is frozen in place.

Seeing that he's been out manuevered, the last assailant retreats from lithe figure and holds up a strange implement. Suddenly, he disappears.

Outside the lithe figure falls to its knees in the snow. It seems to have taken some hurt.

Well that was easy enough. LOL. Well done! Will you go to the fallen?

Kal yelled, "Pious! Let's get out there and tend the man!" Kal ran from the shelter towards the fallen figure, hoping he and Pious were there in time.

Pious follows Kal, huffing and puffing all the way. By the time they draw near, the figure is again on her feet. It is then you realize the graceful, lithe woman is indeed a woman.

She is very tall, taller even then Olaf, standing close to seven feet. Despite that she moves with a dancer's grace and she carries a quarterstaff taller even than her as if it's an extension of her will. She has taken multiple small wounds about her arms and torso and as you draw near, she readies her weapon and barks something in a strange language.

The Beldame, escorted by Olaf & Agrax, slowly makes her way down toward Kal. "I've a spell to understand her."

As she casts comprehend languages, the other looks on suspiciously. When the Beldame reaches out to touch her, the woman shies a bit, then accepts the touch. Once done, she invites the woman up to the sanctuary.

As they walk toward the sanctuary, Kal and Pious stay behind to study the frozen corpse standing like a statue before them. "Good spell," Pious said. Then both of you make your way to the sanctuary, finding again the two corpses outside the sanctuary that found their final rest beneath Kal's enchantment.

They are human like, but not human, at least not of any tribe that Kal's ever seen. They run about 6' tall, they have a grayish-green color tone to their skin. They carry bastard swords: a brief detect spell indicates no magic, though each carried a potion of cerulean cast. Healing, you are sure. The armor they wear, however, is quite ornate and magical.

Leaving them where they fell for the time being, you enter the sanctuary to find the Beldame and the other in deep conversation.

They talk that way for nearly an hour. Olaf has built a nice fire and the sanctuary is quite comfortable now. When the woman stops talking, the Beldame looks to all of you and says, "I mentioned the redes when we undertook this journey. This is a story that goes back millenia. 'Tis a story of bondage, and then freedom and then fierce rivalry bordering on hatred. It is the story of Gith.

"If you don't know, the gith were once a people enslaved by the foul illithids, mind flayers who's innate skills caused terror not only on the material world, but also in the depths of the outer planes. A time long ago, longer than most remember, the gith fought and won their freedom from their captors. Two factions grew from the tribes: one, the githyanki, became dark sorcerers and stout warriors who made their home in the astral plane. 'Tis said that they ride dragons as mounts, and that their witch queen is a lich of unsurpassed power who's 100,000 years old.

"The other, beholden to their own Wizard Overlord, were called Gith'zerei. They are initiates in the martial arts. Unlike their rivals, they do not wear armor, rather they gird themselves in strips of rune cloth that offer strength and protection. Also unlike their rivals, they do not seek domination, rather they have their own obscure motives; at the forefront is their abiding enmity for their former kin.

"That, to say this. Our guest is apparently quite the accomplished initiate. I do not fully understand how they rank themselves, but it is certain that she is high up in their councils. She was tasked with a critical mission to retrieve a dread artifact and cast it into the ice at the polar cap. She would not disclose what this artifact may do other than to say it would reshape the entire time/space continuum, including the outer planes. Needless to say, there are many keeping a close watch on this drama."

"It seems we are to be her escort," the Beldame finished.

ooc: so, to be clear, she's Gith'zerei?

ooc: that is correct.

Kal smiled during the interview, trying to see if he could recognize any of the language. He turned aside early in the conversation to make sure that Agrax and Pious were looting the bodies of that lovely mail (and yes, sadly, I know exactly what it is!) and anything else worthwhile...

When the conversation was finished, Kal nodded, "Well, if we're to be the escort, then we're going to the Roof of the World? Won't we freeze? Won't Santa Orc get us?"

A thorough investigation of the dead reveals strange, octagonal coins, gold, silver and a grayish coin you've not seen before.

55 silver, 42 gold, and 76 of the greyish coin.

You take 3 sets of armor magical armor. A quick identify indicates +4 splint mail x3. The swords are masterwork, but not magical. They also have typical raiding packs with normal kit material to go along with the armor. Trail Rations are similar to what normal humans/demi-humans would pack.

ooc: I thought that fight was gonna be a lot harder. Nicely played. Sleep spell: first edition cast than run! Effective use of the spell...

Rather than calculating XP, just level up to 3/3/3, minimum XP for those levels and take the Max HP for each class. I think that's fair - and again, nice job. You outplayed me! I'm looking forward to the next stage.

ooc:"Outplayed", piffle, was the best shot outside a standup fight!

OK, to clarify, you want me to max out 3rd level XP in each class AND max hit points? woof! Will do.

Yes, sir! You earned it.

I'll probably post something for you on Tuesday. Getting in late tomorrow night.

No rush, pretty busy the next few days!

I know you're busy: I'm not going to restart until you have all your ducks in a row. When you're ready, don't forget to level up and max your HP. Next chapters are filled with action and tension. I'll give you more back story when we restart.

Tomorrow a good time for a restart?

Let's push it off to next week, Monday's going to be busy unless it rains, then I might have some time to post. Tuesday the same though I might have bit of time after 6 p.m.

sounds good!

The gith woman, exhausted, finds a rack and falls into a comatose slumber. She doesn't even bother to clean her wounds, though close inspection reveals that her wounds seem to close slowly by themselves.

Olaf and the Beldame talk in quiet whispers. Agrax finds another cot and takes advantage of the down time to clean the gore from her weapons (recall she was the one to administer the coup de grace).

Pious extends the straps on his new armor as far as it will go. It just fits, and actually, the priest looks somewhat dashing in the gaudy mail.

Olaf also looks to the splint mail and decides that he, too, wants the upgrade in armor. As he doffs his leather jerkin, he tossed it to Kal and said, "The Lady ensorceled it 3x for my protection. The armor hasn't failed me yet."

The Beldame smiled and nodded.

That's a nice set of leather armor for you, lad. Base bonus +3 increments. It also won't bind your somantic components as a caster - you can spells as if not wearing any armor. And finally, there's a fey component to it that allows you to blink away from danger 3x/day, like a blink dog.

ooc: in other words its +3 leather armor with blink 3x/day and the ability to cast spells normally.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:43, Sat 26 Sept 2020.

A normal watch is set and everyone takes a turn except the Beldame and the wounded Gith.

Olaf takes a turn, followed by Kal, then Pious, then Agrax and finally Elora. Nothing untoward interrupts their rest and the next morning they all sit down to a pleasant meal. The Beldame talks to their guess through the use of her spells. It seems the Gith woman is fully healed.

When they finish their discussion, the Beldame says, "We've a trek today, but the good news is that it should only be a 2 day journey and there are sanctuaries even that far north. Truth told, the sky will be bright enough that we can push on until we're overwhelmed by fatigue, not that I suggest as much. Still, 12 hours should suffice for the first day.

Packing up, Kal listened to the Beldame and said, "Well, then, let's take it as slow as our wounded Gith friend can handle and not exhaust anyone needlessly." Once he was ready, he checked on the others and, once packed up, he kissed Elora passionately. He said, "The next couple of days might be rough, just wanted a proper kiss to keep me warm."

With a wink for Pious and Agrax, Kal moved out towards evil unknown.