Fire and Ice 1

General Summary

1 Arodus 4713

So I did something weird today. I tagged along with a bunch of people I've never met before. Just suggested they could do with my services. I'm getting ahead of myself. I was in a small human town called Heldren, passing through it on my way north. A badly injured man stumbled into town and several people rushed to help him. I confess I stood off to the side. Turns out, the man was a caravan guard for a noblewoman. The caravan had been attacked and the noblewoman kidnapped. The man--Yuln, I think he said his name was--said they thought their attackers were just bandits at first, but then came "winter-touched fey", something he didn't expect to see so far south. The people who had rushed to help Yuln decided they should do something about this. Yuln warned them that they needed to be prepared for these cold fey. They needed cold iron or fire or both. That's where I stepped in. "I am fire," I told them, "and you need me." Or words to that effect. Honestly, I don't remember precisely what I said. It took a lot just to say it. At any rate, they agreed to let me come. They're a strange bunch, let me tell you. First, there's Cassia. Or just Cassy. She's a wizard with a gun. I'd heard of guns before, but never actually seen one. Now I've seen a bunch. Next up is Grinner. He's a ratfolk and Cassy's familiar. I always thought familiars were small little animals, like a cat or raven or something. I mean, Grinner's not big or anything, but he's bigger than a cat. And he walks on two feet and talks just like other humanoids. I've never actually met a ratfolk before, so maybe that has something to do with it. Anyway, he's got a gun too. Then there's Bronwyn. She's a follower of Sarenrae, I think. With a gun too. What's with all the guns? There's also Valeria. She didn't seem to be with the others at first, just dragged into it by them. Though I don't recall her volunteering. They requested her services. She doesn't have a gun--or at the very least, if she does, she hasn't used or even displayed it. She does have a sword and appears to be a cleric of Iomedae. And finally, there's Billy. Billy's a pack animal of a kind I've never seen before. I think Grinner called her a yak. She carries a lot of stuff for them, including things like bear traps. Anyway, we headed out of town towards what's called the Border Wood. The temperature started to get a lot colder, and by the time we reached that site of the attack, there was snow on the ground. This is kind of weird, seeing as it's currently the middle of summer. We rarely see snow on the ground in these parts in winter time, never mind summer. Anyway, at the attack site, we were ourselves attacked by dead caravan guards that had come back as zombies or something. This was a tough battle and poor Valeria was knocked unconscious pretty quickly. We did keep the zombies contained to one of the carriages for most of the time, and honestly, if they had just let me burn the carriage, the battle would have been over a lot sooner. But no, all they cared about was finding any loot that might have been missed by the bandits. And here I thought we were trying to save the noblewoman, not loot her. To be fair, they also didn't want me to burn the carriage in case there were any clues inside. That I guess is a valid reason. But Grinner particularly really seemed more interested in loot. (Oh, I should say, it was really just Cassy and Grinner who wouldn't let me burn the carriage. Bronwyn was totally in favour of it. I like her. I think we're going to get along just fine.) After the zombies were dealt with, we searched the rest of the site. One of the caravan guards had been encased in ice, so I thawed him out so he could be given a proper burial along with all the others. Grinner also found some loot the bandits missed. Then we returned to Heldren so Valeria could get some medical attention. Once she was conscious, she was able to use her divine abilities to heal herself, me, and anyone else who had been injured in the battle.

Best regards,
Izzy

2 Arodus 4713

We returned to the site of that attack and followed the bandits' trail into the Border Wood. Not long later, we spotted a chest sitting in the snow up ahead. This seemed a really obvious trap, and the others all thought so too. Nevertheless, Grinner triggered it. He was hit by a nasty spiked log that swung down from a tree above. Valeria healed him up. Under the chest, we found a bunch of supplies--armour and stuff--that the bandits had left behind for some reason. Not in the chest. Under the chest. Weird. Maybe there's a reason we'll find out later.

Later,
Izzy