Bröbean looked out at the snow covered mountain, back at Faenys and back to the mountain once more. He shrugged, "I can't see anything in this light, don't leave me behind!".
He sidled closer to the group, wrapping his cloak around him while doing so in an attempt to retain some, if any, heat.
Fiadh had the map, she looked confident, and he didn't want to get lost. If Salazar was anything it was a follower. Right now he had no idea where they were going but was glad someone was leading the way. He he shivered deeper into the dirty cloak and kept close to the stoic ranger.
As the small party trudged through the bitter tundra he tried to picture a yeti. Probably some kind of snow cat by the looks of what it did to the dwarfs. He reckoned that if they were crafty they could probably wrangle the beast to pull the sled back to town for them. It was already proving to be a long and tedious trek, riding back with the reins of a cat powered sled seemed far more heroic to Salazar.
They trudged on, with the small goblin as lost in his own imagination as he was in the bleak expanse of Ice wind dale.
Apache has been watching and studying her companions, as they conducted business and gathered supplies. Her long grey tail swished in excitement as they set out into the frozen tundra, her thick grey fur was a blessing... Still, she placed her hands on her boots with her fingers spread wide, muttering "warmth" and feeling the familiar tingle of the simple cantrip slide through her veins. Her boots instantaneously heated up as if her toes were stretched in front of the hearth.
Apache stayed in the tail position of the small group, excellent eye sight scouring the endless white for any signs of movement or danger..... 3
After six hours of trudging through the wind and snow you crest a snow-covered ridge and see a frozen, dismembered corpse in the gully in front of you. Snow covers some of the gory bits, but the headless torso and severed limbs are visible. You see tracks in the snow all around the corpse, and the tell-tale grooves in the snow left behind by a sled that has been hauled away.
Faenys knelt down beside the corpse and brushed snow from its face. She closed her eyes and bent her head a minute.
“Be at peace,” she said, then reached into the ripped pockets of the corpse and started rummaging around looking for anything that could be of use.
14
She could feel the judgemental stares burning into her neck and turned to face the group.
“What?!” She said, “waste not!”
She stood up and started to walk briskly along the sled tracks feeling irritated about the guilt stirring in her mind. They’d be grateful for her thriftiness one day.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
The scene reminded the goblin of a theatre play he had seen in waterdeep, all limbs and no gore, it was surreal. In the frigid temperature the flesh was preserved and captivated in eerie poses, he noted the fingers of one limb were contorted still grasping some tool buried in the snow.
Horrific fascination overcame him and he edged closer to the scene... No cat could have done this... It would have taken the meat and not the cart.
He saw faenys stoop over the body and offer rites. Something about her doing that seemed fitting to him, it gave him comfort and he felt the horror fade from his furrowed brow.
He was contemplating digging up the limbs and seeing if any retained their finger rings, but somehow that seemed wrong after the ritual.
Faenys said something over her shoulder, but the sound of her voice was stolen away by a gust. Salazar caught her meaning. He wouldn't desecrate the scene. Instead he searched around inspecting the tracks to see if he could determine any clue to what this "yeti" could be and where it dragged the sled to.
"Oi, Fiadh!" Salazar beckoned "whatdya make of this?" the goblin squinted at the rut marks in the snow, scratching his chin with a long dirty nail. He couldn't make sense of the mess except that it seemed to trail off to the south. "Does that look like a cat paw to you?" he quizzed, pointing to one particularly unremarkable impression.
Bröbean asked the group "Do you think this was the work of the Yeti?".
Bröbean looked at the tracks and prints in the snow. He wondered who the corpse once was and whether they had any companions. If so he hoped they got away on that sled.
Fiadh studied the footprint as she crouched in the snow and laughed a little despite the corpse that lay nearby.
“not like any cat I’ve ever seen.” Salazar looked disappointed but Fiadh turned her attention to the rest of the group. ”let’s do this.”
her fingers and ears were frozen from the journey so far, but the thrill of the chase returned some feeling to her extremities and a small smile tugged the corners of her lips. Excitement. Adventure. Finally.
Salazar was disappointed and confused, But Fiadh's leadership reassured him. He took one last look at the tracks while absently fishing the golden elixir from his pouch, and sipping from it.
Cheeks flushed with renewed vigor Salazar snatched Bröbean by the arm as he followed. "Cmon matey, course it's the yeti, what else could it be?" certain now, he spoke matter of factly "let's do this."
He stuck to the muddy ruts where the snow was packed, he still hadn't gotten used to the shoes they'd bought and walked with large exaggerated steps behind Fiadh as they navigated ahead.
After what may very well have been weeks, it's difficult to tell in the constant dark and cold, you round a bend and come upon your quarry.
The creatures you’ve been following appear to be goblins, based on their stature. All six of them groan, grunt, and curse loudly as they haul the bulky sled toward what appears to be a twenty-foot-tall wagon parked in the snow. Harnessed to this conveyance are two roaring polar bears that don’t look happy.
As the Goblins are facing away from you, and engrossed in their task, they do not notice the party.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
"oooh, so thassa yeti..." Salazar muttered under his breath, making himself very small, he didn't want to become yeti food. 2
"looks moah like a dog than a cat." he nudged Bröbean "howda ya reckon we skin thissa one Capn'?" readying his short bow and looking for high ground "we can pick off the little uns right quick I rekon"
“Wait!” Faenys put a hand on Salazar’s arm, “don’t shoot! I have a plan.”
Salazar glared at the hand on his arm with his angry, bloodshot eyes. She hastily moved it.
She looked around for support from the rest of the group, but they were all waiting with distrustful sneers on their faces. Faenys lost a bit of confidence and started fiddling with a loose thread on her sleeve.
”If we play this right,” she said “we could end up with the bears, the wagon AND the sled.”
They looked unconvinced.
“What I’m thinking, is that we wait until the goblins have dragged the sled into the wagon. In the meantime we circle them until they’re surrounded. As soon as the sled is safely stored you guys attack the goblins and I tame the bears. I’m great with animals.”
"Alright lassie, if ya reckon you can get dem dog in line den i wish ya good luck." he clawed at his friends arm "C'mon Bröbean, i rekon we'd get a good spy from up dere" before slinking up the snow drift he looked back at Faenys and the others "just give da signal an dem squibs will be swabbed"
Fiadh didn’t like this plan, not one bit. But she tried to brush the fear aside with the shake of her head and she crunched as quietly through the snow as she could to take her place as the group surrounded the goblins.
She didn’t want to doubt Faenys but “I’m great with animals” might have been more convincing of her face had agreed with her mouth.
but never the less, she hunkered down behind a bush and watched the goblins as they finished loading the sled. Her hand on her weapon, ready for the signal.
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Bröbean looked out at the snow covered mountain, back at Faenys and back to the mountain once more. He shrugged, "I can't see anything in this light, don't leave me behind!".
He sidled closer to the group, wrapping his cloak around him while doing so in an attempt to retain some, if any, heat.
"Shall we?" he muttered.
Fiadh had the map, she looked confident, and he didn't want to get lost. If Salazar was anything it was a follower. Right now he had no idea where they were going but was glad someone was leading the way. He he shivered deeper into the dirty cloak and kept close to the stoic ranger.
As the small party trudged through the bitter tundra he tried to picture a yeti. Probably some kind of snow cat by the looks of what it did to the dwarfs. He reckoned that if they were crafty they could probably wrangle the beast to pull the sled back to town for them. It was already proving to be a long and tedious trek, riding back with the reins of a cat powered sled seemed far more heroic to Salazar.
They trudged on, with the small goblin as lost in his own imagination as he was in the bleak expanse of Ice wind dale.
Apache has been watching and studying her companions, as they conducted business and gathered supplies. Her long grey tail swished in excitement as they set out into the frozen tundra, her thick grey fur was a blessing... Still, she placed her hands on her boots with her fingers spread wide, muttering "warmth" and feeling the familiar tingle of the simple cantrip slide through her veins. Her boots instantaneously heated up as if her toes were stretched in front of the hearth.
Apache stayed in the tail position of the small group, excellent eye sight scouring the endless white for any signs of movement or danger..... 3
The companions walked through the billowing snow and stark stone cairns for what felt like two days.
It was cold, it was white, and it was quiet.... Too quiet.
After six hours of trudging through the wind and snow you crest a snow-covered ridge and see a frozen, dismembered corpse in the gully in front of you. Snow covers some of the gory bits, but the headless torso and severed limbs are visible. You see tracks in the snow all around the corpse, and the tell-tale grooves in the snow left behind by a sled that has been hauled away.
Faenys knelt down beside the corpse and brushed snow from its face. She closed her eyes and bent her head a minute.
“Be at peace,” she said, then reached into the ripped pockets of the corpse and started rummaging around looking for anything that could be of use.
14
She could feel the judgemental stares burning into her neck and turned to face the group.
“What?!” She said, “waste not!”
She stood up and started to walk briskly along the sled tracks feeling irritated about the guilt stirring in her mind. They’d be grateful for her thriftiness one day.
The scene reminded the goblin of a theatre play he had seen in waterdeep, all limbs and no gore, it was surreal. In the frigid temperature the flesh was preserved and captivated in eerie poses, he noted the fingers of one limb were contorted still grasping some tool buried in the snow.
Horrific fascination overcame him and he edged closer to the scene... No cat could have done this... It would have taken the meat and not the cart.
He saw faenys stoop over the body and offer rites. Something about her doing that seemed fitting to him, it gave him comfort and he felt the horror fade from his furrowed brow.
He was contemplating digging up the limbs and seeing if any retained their finger rings, but somehow that seemed wrong after the ritual.
Faenys said something over her shoulder, but the sound of her voice was stolen away by a gust. Salazar caught her meaning. He wouldn't desecrate the scene. Instead he searched around inspecting the tracks to see if he could determine any clue to what this "yeti" could be and where it dragged the sled to.
18
Faenys discovers a small gemstone worth 10gp but nothing else.
The footprints that Salazar is examining follow the sled tracks to the south but are otherwise unremarkable to him.
"Oi, Fiadh!" Salazar beckoned "whatdya make of this?" the goblin squinted at the rut marks in the snow, scratching his chin with a long dirty nail. He couldn't make sense of the mess except that it seemed to trail off to the south. "Does that look like a cat paw to you?" he quizzed, pointing to one particularly unremarkable impression.
Bröbean asked the group "Do you think this was the work of the Yeti?".
Bröbean looked at the tracks and prints in the snow. He wondered who the corpse once was and whether they had any companions. If so he hoped they got away on that sled.
"Should we follow the trail?", he asked.
Fiadh studied the footprint as she crouched in the snow and laughed a little despite the corpse that lay nearby.
“not like any cat I’ve ever seen.” Salazar looked disappointed but Fiadh turned her attention to the rest of the group. ”let’s do this.”
her fingers and ears were frozen from the journey so far, but the thrill of the chase returned some feeling to her extremities and a small smile tugged the corners of her lips. Excitement. Adventure. Finally.
Salazar was disappointed and confused, But Fiadh's leadership reassured him. He took one last look at the tracks while absently fishing the golden elixir from his pouch, and sipping from it.
Cheeks flushed with renewed vigor Salazar snatched Bröbean by the arm as he followed. "Cmon matey, course it's the yeti, what else could it be?" certain now, he spoke matter of factly "let's do this."
He stuck to the muddy ruts where the snow was packed, he still hadn't gotten used to the shoes they'd bought and walked with large exaggerated steps behind Fiadh as they navigated ahead.
Faenys was freezing. She felt like they’d been marching for weeks.
She scrunched her toes in her shoes...was she developing frostbite?
After what may very well have been weeks, it's difficult to tell in the constant dark and cold, you round a bend and come upon your quarry.
The creatures you’ve been following appear to be goblins, based on their stature. All six of them groan, grunt, and curse loudly as they haul the bulky sled toward what appears to be a twenty-foot-tall wagon parked in the snow. Harnessed to this conveyance are two roaring polar bears that don’t look happy.
As the Goblins are facing away from you, and engrossed in their task, they do not notice the party.
"oooh, so thassa yeti..." Salazar muttered under his breath, making himself very small, he didn't want to become yeti food. 2
"looks moah like a dog than a cat." he nudged Bröbean "howda ya reckon we skin thissa one Capn'?" readying his short bow and looking for high ground "we can pick off the little uns right quick I rekon"
8
(ah crap)
“Wait!” Faenys put a hand on Salazar’s arm, “don’t shoot! I have a plan.”
Salazar glared at the hand on his arm with his angry, bloodshot eyes. She hastily moved it.
She looked around for support from the rest of the group, but they were all waiting with distrustful sneers on their faces. Faenys lost a bit of confidence and started fiddling with a loose thread on her sleeve.
”If we play this right,” she said “we could end up with the bears, the wagon AND the sled.”
They looked unconvinced.
“What I’m thinking, is that we wait until the goblins have dragged the sled into the wagon. In the meantime we circle them until they’re surrounded. As soon as the sled is safely stored you guys attack the goblins and I tame the bears. I’m great with animals.”
"Alright lassie, if ya reckon you can get dem dog in line den i wish ya good luck." he clawed at his friends arm "C'mon Bröbean, i rekon we'd get a good spy from up dere" before slinking up the snow drift he looked back at Faenys and the others "just give da signal an dem squibs will be swabbed"
Fiadh didn’t like this plan, not one bit. But she tried to brush the fear aside with the shake of her head and she crunched as quietly through the snow as she could to take her place as the group surrounded the goblins.
She didn’t want to doubt Faenys but “I’m great with animals” might have been more convincing of her face had agreed with her mouth.
but never the less, she hunkered down behind a bush and watched the goblins as they finished loading the sled. Her hand on her weapon, ready for the signal.