Fire and Ice 3

General Summary

2 Arodus 4714

Right, where was I? Oh yes, the stream. The very cold stream. I had made it across, but the others needed to follow. Under Grinner's direction, we strung a couple of ropes across the stream, using trees to anchor them on each side. We then used a log floating on the river and secured with another rope to provide something for people to stand on. They could then use the two ropes to pull themselves across the river and get little more than their feet wet. We used this to get everyone across as well as taking several trips to transport the huge amount of gear carried by Billy. Honestly, I don't know why we have so much gear. Most of it is Grinner's and Cassy's, and a lot of it just seems to be there because you never know when it might come in useful. To be fair, the bear traps did come in useful, so maybe there's a point to it all. Anyway, I'm getting off-topic. The next problem was getting Billy across. There was no way our little rope contraption would hold the yak's weight. So Valeria used some sort of divine magic on her. Something about law and order. I don't really understand it, but it somehow gave Billy more resistance against the cold or something. Bronwyn then gently coaxed Billy across. Nothing magical there. She just spoke soothing words and made gentle gestures. Billy didn't seem pleased by the water, but she made it across. On the other side, Billy promptly discovered a body buried in the snow. She didn't go looking for it or anything. She just went to graze and happened to disturb the snow, which revealed the body. It was the body of an older human man. He had died of cold--not prolonged cold, mind you. The cold had killed him so fast, there hadn't been time for him to develop frostbite or anything like that. It had just frozen him solid. We figured it had to have been the fey who did it. The man still had his gear and money, so it seemed unlikely the bandits were involved. The fey must have done it on their own. Although it was still only early afternoon, we moved off the trail and looked for a place to camp. Several of our members were injured or tired out. Valeria had very little ability to heal left for the day, and Cassy was "out of spells". It was a good opportunity to just chat for a while and get to know one another. We talked a little about religion. The others were surprised I was a follower of Gozreh. They thought, with my love of fire, I'd be a follower of Sarenrae. I honestly don't know much about Sarenrae. I suppose it's kind of cool she's a patron of fire and the sun, but Gozreh is a patron of my people. I was raised to follow Gozreh, and while I've had issues with my people (more, they've had issues with me), I still believe.

3 Arodus 4713

We returned to the trail and continued on. The journey was primarily uphill at this point. After an hour or so, Grinner, who was scouting ahead, returned to inform us he had spotted a group of five humans up ahead. They were lightly armoured with swords and bows. We suspected they were probably part of the bandits we were looking for. We took care to approach stealthily. Luckily, the bandits weren't very attentive and seemed to be preoccupied with arguing amongst themselves, so we went unnoticed and were able to launch a surprise attack on them. It took very little time to take most of them down, and the one bandit remaining conscious surrendered. This bandit, named Sam, told us we were very close to something called the "High Sentinel Lodge". According to Cassy, the High Sentinels are a ranger group that protects the Border Wood. They certainly haven't been doing a very good job, since the bandits were now apparently in control of their lodge. At least, Sam said the bandits were based there. He also told us they were called Rohkar's Raiders, named after their leader, a necromancer named Rohkar Cindren. He also told us that the Raiders were only working with the fey because Rohkar had brokered some sort of deal with them after the fey initially attacked them. Sam warned us that one of the fey's "bosses" hung out near the river by the Lodge. Bronwyn offered Sam a chance to go free if he promised to go far away and reform his life. Apparently, Sarenrae allows everyone the opportunity for a second chance if they make an honest effort to reform. Sam gave his word. I have no idea if we can tust him to keep it, but I doubt he's really much of a threat to anyone. Although they were unconcious, three of the other bandits were still alive, so Valeria healed them up as part of healing the rest of us, and we put them under Sam's responsibility. They all took off, and we continued on our way to the High Sentinel Lodge. The Lodge was at the top of the hill, and we approached it slowly and cautiously. Grinner scouted around the building to get a feel for the layout. He found a stable that he suggested we could burn down as a distraction! I snuck ahead with him to the stable. The stable had snow on its roof and the walls were covered in frost, so it wasn't likely to burn well, but we could still do enough to cause a distraction. We opened all the stalls and the doors. Grinner poured lamp oil over a hay stack, I provided the spark, and WHOOSH! Up it went! We hurried back to the others while the horses panicked and ran out. As we'd hoped, Raiders from inside the Lodge came running out to investigate, and we ambushed them. They went down fast, and we took very little damage ourselves. Valeria and Igmar were a little injured though, so Valeria took Igmar aside to heal them without healing any of the Raiders (her healing abilities usually affect everyone in an area around her, but not always; it's weird). In doing so, she set off a trap that we had previously unknowingly avoided. As well as shooting her with a crossbow bolt, the trap was designed to warn the Raiders of intruders' approach. Guess it hadn't worked out so well for the Raiders. There was no sign of Rohkar, however, so we began to search the Lodge. We came across a half-orc hurriedly packing in one of the rooms. She immediately surrendered to us. She said her name was Ten-Penny and she was the Raiders' cook. She said she was never really one of them and was happy to give us information and even a bit of aid against Rohkar. She said Rohkar was upstairs with some "cold skeletons", and Lady Argentea was probably in the cellar, although she wasn't entirely certain about that. We prepared to attack the upper floor. Valeria and Igmar positioned themselves at the door at the top of the balcony, while Grinner went outside and climbed the walls to the windows. Grinner proceeded to launch an attack by firing through the window. It turned out only the cold skeletons were in the upper room. There was still no sign of Rohkar. Ten-Penny insisted she had no idea he wasn't upstairs. He must have snuck out during the previous fight. While we tried to fight the skeletons (made difficult by the fact that only Valeria and Igmar had clear line of sight to them), Rohkar emerged from one of the lower-level rooms that we hadn't yet searched and began casting spells at us. It didn't go well for him though, and he eventually surrendered and called off the skeletons. We accepted his surrender, but Ten-Penny snuck up behind him (she had somehow turned herself invisible) and slit his throat. She said we couldn't trust his surrender, that he would just wait for the first opportunity to attack us again. It wasn't a very honorable act on her part, but none of us were particularly bothered by it. Cassy even said she was perfectly fine with it. I suppose we could have got some useful information about the fey from him, but oh well. There was still that "boss" that was supposed to be hanging around the Lodge near the river. We hadn't encoutered that yet. We also still had to locate Lady Argentea, but I'll cover that next time. Gotta go again.

All the best,
Izzy.