Session 17 & 18: Murder Moose and the Who's Whoooot Report

General Summary

The team crosses the World's Spins mountain range over a few dangerous days of travel and arrives in Goodmead. The town seems immediately gives off the feel that something is going on behind the scenes. The group arrives at the local mead hall shortly before nightfall and decides to grab a drink and get to know their new guide Arvid, a blood hunter.   As they talk to him, the barkeep puts out the fire in the mead hall and the group is approached by priestesses that are bare foot in the cold. They ask the group for monetary donations. Lydia openly scoffs at the idea, as do Biri, Xin and Armin, as Arvid gives a gold piece out of habit. They learn from Arvid that people give offerings of fire and money in this town to the 'Cold Lady'. The group also takes note that the priestesses' fingers and toes are blue and bare out in the cold weather.   The group makes preparations to get a dogsled ride to Lonelywood and they stay in the owners barn for the night with Lydia's Tiny Hut spell. In the middle of the night, while Xin is on watch, she sees one of the priestesses go to the shrine of a fire god and spit on a body that is in rest their. The next morning they learn the body is that of the local Speaker and that the town has yet to elect someone new.   On their way out of town the group stops by the shrine. Biri uses speak with dead on the deceased speaker to find out what happened to him. The voice describes being stabbed with daggers held by cold hands. The group immediately suspects the priestesses of foul play. The ask the speaker how he might be properly put to rest and he tells them for his belief it is common to burn the body. Lydia attempts twice to ignite the body. The first time, the spell is put out by the cold and harsh gales blowing across town. She uses a higher level spell the second time and properly burns the body in rest at the shrine.   The group proceeds to ride off into the sunrise on their way to Lonelywood. As they arrive their they notice there are plenty of fisherman and lumberjacks in the vicinity. Many of the workers are coming off an early morning shift that finishes around 11am and are heading to the local tavern, The Lucky Liar. The group decides to stop by and see if they can learn any more about the rumors they were told about before they arrived.   Inside they meet the bartender Danae, along with the local gossip Marcus and his friend Haggar. Marcus is a local lumberjack talking his friend Haggar in to finally proposing to Michelle. Biri approaches Marcus with a friendly demeanor and Marcus tells the group a tale of a large white beast with bloody antlers or horns, wandering through the woods. Lumberjacks in the area have gone missing and after a short conversation, Biri and the group convince Marcus to lead them towards the woods where Marcus thought he saw something.   A short while after, Marcus guides the group across the tundra and points them in the direction of where he thought the creature would be. The group searches the area for around 3 hours before calling it for the night when a winter storm begins to pick up. Lydia makes a tiny hut that is colored blaze orange, to see if the group can attract the creature while they are resting. Biri takes first watch and while she is distracted and inspecting the tiny hut spell, a large owl face, roughly twice the size of Biri's own head, appears for a moment and startles Biri.   She runs in and warns Arvid and Lydia. Arvid begins to look for any clues to this owl creature or anything else that might be in the area. Arvid sees a large white creature speckled with blood off in the distance and yells at it to 'HALT'. The creature runs and the group gives chase. They sprint through the forest after the creature and it leads them to an old elven ruin.   There they confront the creature and discover it's actually a large albino moose with sharpened antlers covered in blood and frozen remains of deceased humanoids. The moose charges the group. Lydia, hesitant to fight the moose, deftly blocks its attacks with a skillful shield spell. Biri and Arvid attack the beast from behind angering it. The beast turns on its heels, kicking Lydia and charging towards Biri, impaling her with its sharpened antlers, landing a critical blow. Arvid tries assisting her to little avail, so Lydia, transforms Biri into a Mammoth. Flipping the moose onto its back and allowing Biri to land a CRUSHING final blow.   The group inspects the moose and the ruins afterwards. Arvid discovers a druidic rune carved into the moose's neck. AFter further inspection the group discovers a sarcophigus and that there is a moon dial in the center of the ruins. After moving the moon dial to the full moon position, the group hears and sees a magical item illuminate.   They find a mirror that Biri immediately tries to inspect, after short while she attunes to the mirror and starts to show her visions of her people and those she is thinking of. Biri thinks for a moment and looks for the owl face that she saw earlier outside of the tiny hut in the woods....the vision shows her a vision of a cavern completely covered in glowing blue ice. As she observes the surroundings in the mirror, the vision pulls closer towards an owl like creature that stands near 8 feet tall wrapped in a blue cloak. The head of the creature has two large black horns protruding from the sides of its head as well. The creature pauses in its stride, along its cloven feet...it turns...and looks directly at Biri through the mirror. The magical mirror cracks and Biri's hands that were touching it sting with an icy cold....   After a shocking turn of events, group decides to shift the mirror to the half moon to further inspect the ruins and they head to the northern chamber that is unlocked and they are yelled at by a dirty woman with blue lips and heavy furs, "The towns will fall, if not by my hand, then surely by the Frostmaiden's!"