Descending the peak--Barovia
General Summary
As Vanya was talking with Jezra Wagner, Rose was gripped in a vivid nightmare of her final moments. She dreamt that she was in a cave, which was pitch black because the snow and ice had choked the entrance and blocked out all the light. She was weak with hunger, and the air was stale and thick, but more than anything, she was so, so cold. She could no longer feel her hands and feet, which were frozen solid with frostbite, and when she cried, the tears froze her eyelashes together. All she could think was that she couldn't end like this, not here . . .
And suddenly she could see through the darkness as though it were the middle of the day. Her hunger was gone, and she didn't seem to notice the staleness of the air, but she was still so cold. She passed through the ice and snow blocking the cave, with only one thought: she had to find warmth.
Rose woke up to find Julien huddled up against her, the inside of the tent rimed with the frozen condensation from their breath. She knew she wasn't going to get back to sleep, so she got up to relieve Vanya (and relight the fire Jezra had extinguished). She told him about the dream, and Vanya played the song and explained about Jezra's visit. You agreed that you felt bad for her but had to get out of the Balinoks as quickly as possible, especially since you had Julien to worry about. You decided that you would try to descend the peak the old-fashioned way and use air walk to blaze through the pass that would take you most of the way to Hazlan.
The beginning of the descent went uneventfully, but you eventually reached a pass that was choked by an icefall. You maneuvered your way around the teetering seracs, and Vanya actually did quite well for himself here because it involved being light on his feet, but Rose made a misstep and plunged into a crevasse. While she was there, she had a brief vision: the crevasse appeared to be that dark, snowed-in cave, and she saw a skeleton with Jezra's rotted clothes on it. Vanya pulled her out, and you continued without incident until you reached the cliff face.
Sidebar on the exact mechanics of the rappel here: I forgot that you guys invested in those handy dandy nature climbing harnesses, and the whole point of those is being able to "secure yourself in place on a vertical surface so that both your hands are free." So if it's Rose's turn to be the anchor, she can take a standard action to secure herself to the cliff, Vanya and Julien can spider climb down past her until they run out of rope, Vanya can take a standard action to secure himself to the cliff, Rose and Julien can spider climb down past him, etc., etc., etc. No pitons necessary! Part of the anchor's job is also to provide friction and pay out the rope slowly, so if someone does slip and fall, they don't drop fifty feet until the rope finishes unspooling, possibly breaking their head open on the way or getting massive internal injuries from the rope jerking them after a fifty-foot drop; the belayer catches the rope (with those nature-harness-freed hands of theirs) and the descender hopefully only drops a foot or two before that happens. I will not have skimmed Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills in vain, dangit!
As you were descending the cliff, the snow picked up again, even though Rose knew from read weather that it wasn't supposed to. You heard Jezra's voice on the wind telling you that she had warned you not to leave, and when you looked down, you saw a mass of those ice zombies gathering below you.
Related Reports
Previous session: Meeting Jezra Wagner--Barovia
Next session: Putting Jezra to rest--Barovia
Report Date
03 Sep 2022
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