"Well." Mock puts her hands on her hips and stares at the river. "This might be a problem." She looks at Raza and wolf-Kasha and gives them a little shrug. "I can always carry her 'cross my shoulders if she wants to stay like this. So long as she doesn't bite me."

Nephvir scans the banks of the river, “Do the tracks lead up to the river?  How did they get across?  Did they cross?”

Zhisshikassa's beady eyes sweep the scene of the river, judging the distance between the stones. He calculates the probabilities of the party - and, more importantly, his flimsy self - in vaulting across the river. He unleashes a curling hiss tinged with irritation - the air was colder near the flowing river. His numb hands, muscles nearly frozen, claw out a length of rope from his bag. His puny muscles can barely even carry the length without stumbling, but he wouldn't let that show. He places it on the ground and begins prattling an incantation. One end of the rope rises into the sky until it is entirely perpendicular with the ground, providing a much easier way of traveling across the river. 

Spell - Rope Trick.

"Some of you would not have made it across. Go before the spell ends," he snarls, fully aware his -2 Athletics self had zero chance of making it across. Zhi is known not to be very...strong. He takes any excuse not to work out. He finds the activity demeaning, especially when he had spells like this. To the irritation of probably everyone here, a smug look falls on his snakelike features. 

Wolfsha whimpers, circling in place, and looking at the rope.

Arora stands there a bit dumbfounded at what she sees... wide river, long rope hanging straight up, snow and ice.  "Soooooo, remind me again, how are we getting across the river??"

She walks down to the bank of the river and inspects the area trying to ascertain how the drow got across the river.

Arora-investigation: 11

Mock crouches down beside the wolf-Kasha, both hands out and open palmed so the wolf can see her. "Hey, sweetheart," she says as soothingly as she can, which, well, she's trying. "I'm gonna pick you up so you don't gotta get near the water, okay?" She reaches out and gently pets her if the wolf allows. "I'll go quick as I can and getcha back on the solid ground on the other side."

Poodlesha sniffs you as you approach.

FRIEND. NOT FOOD. DO NOT EAT.

She lets you pick her up, it's awkward at first - she struggles a tad, not used to the activity -  and she's heavy, but not heavy enough for you. Eventually, she stops jerking in your arms enough for both of you to relax and for you to move.

Everyone else who's gonna tarzan across, let's get a DC8 Athletics check.

"The drow most likely collapsed the bridge behind them." Zhi rolls his eyes and slinks forwards to grab the rope. In a rather embarrassing display, he wraps the rope around his wrist and does his best attempt to weakly push forwards and swing across the gap. He expends some of his power to twist fate more favorably in his direction. 

Athletics - 7 + 1 (Guidance)

Zhisshikassa flails midair in very disgraceful arc as he swings forward. He lives up to his reputation of being exceedingly weak - a child could push off the bank harder than he did. Just as he crosses the river, he mistimes his jump and awkwardly releases from the rope a little too early. He snarls and snaps his clawed fingers, rewinding time and altering fate enough for him to fall spectacularly, spread-eagled, face-down in the mud. He spits out some mud and disgustedly picks himself up from the ground, immediately prestidigitating off as much mud as he can. He prickles in annoyance. Hopefully nobody saw. A pause. Yeah, right. Everybody saw. He folds his arms in annoyance. 

Nephvir bends over laughing at Zhi.  “Sorry Zhi, there’s this thing called slap stick.  You’ll have to look it up when you are in your next library.  Too funny!”  Chuckling, he takes hold of the rope and says under his breath “Let’s hope the Cat doesn’t fall flat on his face.”

Athletics :  5

Arora chuckles a bit as she watches Zhi 'tarzaning' across the river... it wasn't pretty but he made it safely.

"Well... if Zhi can do it then we should all be able to do it."  Arora decides to take the challenge and swing across.

Arorazan: 11

"Please let me make it across, please let me make it across."  Raza chants as she grabs the rope, her tail wrapped around her leg in trepidation. 

Raza of the Jungle 16

Daewen is deathly afraid of water....because she really can't swim.  So, she's quite shaking when she climbs up the rope, and attempts to swing across-

DC8 Athletics: 8

And just like Zhisshikassa, she successfully makes it across to the other side of the river, but ungracefully falls flat when she lands.  After a good 30 seconds of crying on the ground, face first in the mud of the river bank, she stands back up.  Mud is caked to her face and the front of her cloak.  Realizing this, she breaks out into a further crying spurt.

Not having any fun, she never the less cleans herself up as much as she can, before proceeding to circle this side of the river bank, looking for tracks from the fleeing Drow (Perception: 11).

Mocks waits for most of the others to go across before heading for the rope. She's a little preoccupied with the wolf in her arms to pay much attention to the rest of them swinging across, though. Managing to get the wolf kind of across her shoulders, Mock goes for the rope and takes her turn.

Athletics: 13

Easy peasy. 

On the other side, the rarely-traveled dirt road continues west along the river. The trees encroach the path here on the north bank. No light yet falls from the sky, the sounds of the night and a chill wind continue to assault your senses. There is an enormously large tree on the forest side, far too large among the other trees based on height and girth alone. You can feel something watching you.

Nephvir sends a message to Daewen, “I’ll go left, you go right, usual routine?”

He throws the hood of his cloak up and breaks out his bow, trying to fit into the shadows, to observe who or what is observing them.  

Stealth :  16 

Raza gives Mock a tail bump after she gets across with Kashapoodle.  "Nicely done!"  She scratches Kasha right between the ears.  "Such a brave girl!"  Moving up the bank a bit Raza rubs the back of her neck, feeling the little hairs stand up.  "Be quiet, I need to concentrate, something is watching."  She quietly admonishes off to the left.

Perception 21

Daewen nods to Nephvir, accepting his excellent idea (and moreso relieved that it's a distraction from the terror she just went though with the rope swing).  Throwing her cloak hood up over hear head, she's effectively invisible in this gloomy darkness (Audible Stealth: 17).

She also uses her superior Umbral Sight (she has Dark Vision out to 90 feet) to inspect this giant tree from a distance, as she sneaks up to it from the left (Perception: 8).

Once Mock set Diresha down, she did that thing dogs do when they're wet and want to dry off, and began panting, excited and full of love for both of them. She stood on her hind legs for a moment, wanting to play with Mock, and leap on Raza playfully.

Raza, from the corner of your eye in the big tree, a humanoid creature that looks like a female dryad of some sorts is watching you all from a high vantage point on a branch.

Nephvir texts Daewen “See anything?  Let me know, I’ll get in position.”  

Nephvir peers through the dark : 18 

MOMENTUM: 1, CHAOS: 4