Sighing Mal says, "The leader mentioned that he would have to confirm the mine is free which would take about a day, before he can give us our reward. So I guess back to the inn for some drinks as there is little else to be done in this town."

You guys need to decide if staying for the reward is worth sitting around a day for, or not. 

 Kari considers. Well, the beds were warm. I suppose a day of rest wouldn't hurt much.

"If we are staying a day, I want to see if this town has a healer or a priest at least."  He says to the others. "I can meet ya back at the bar before the days done."

Badger was about to suggest picking up the reward on the way back through Termalaine, after visiting Lonelywood, but actually the sound of a day of relaxation is quite attractive. Besides, Badger has a few magic items he'd like to examine...

If staying in town for the day, Badger will identify the gem from the skull of the not-water-bufallo. He will also take the time to transcribe two spells from scrolls in his possession into his spellbook (Fly and Teleport) if he has the needed components.

After a long rest, Badger will also:
- swap out Hold Monster for Legend Lore and cast it on the gold-plated bones in the morning
- swap out Fireball for Animate Dead in the hopes there are some dead kobolds to cast it on in the morning

The four of you head back into the Inn where you're greeted by Marta and the warm smell of a fishy stew.  Several people sit about eating. You do indeed enjoy a bit of downtime which includes some rather tasty food, a few drinks, and a quiet peaceful evening. The evening ends abruptly when Marta announces it's lights out in 30 minutes. Everyone heads home to get warm and bundled up before the cold dark of the night. The rest of you head to your rooms. Given your last evening and its strange events, Kurik and Kari both don't feel particularly comfortable when bundling up and getting to sleep, but luckily their dreams and visions aren't strange or real that night.  Badger identifies the crystal. It is a Psi crystal. He seems to get a bit of a sense that it may have further uses beyond its basic functions revealed by the identify spell.  He also transcribes the two spells from scrolls after a brief shopping trip around the icy town.  As he's adjusting his stuff from within a warm tiny hut in his room, he sees the gold covered bones as well. A murmer seems to be heard on the edge of his perception as he looks at them.....a subtle chanting that seems as ancient as stone....and within that chanting, another voice, angry, rebelling, but caught like a fly in a spiders web. He shakes his head and the moment passes and he's simply staring at gold covered bones once more.

The next morning you are greeted to a lovely warm fire lit common room and a breakfast of oats with a bit of milk and honey.  The speaker comes by, "Yer all set. Those kobolds are nasty little morons, but....they can get work done. Thanks for brokerin that deal. Could turn out to be a real blessing. Here's the reward I promised."  He sets over a leather pouch of coins.  Inside are 50 gold, the fee as promised.

Before heading out in the morning, after memorising spells, Badger will cast Legend Lore on the bones. He's never cast it before, and despite being a divination specialist it's one of the few divination spells that he actually casts (usually relying on his fortune-telling gear).

Also, he will attune to the Psi Crystal.

(OOC: I now have a Ring of Protection and Bracers of Defense that I'm not currently using. I thought about swapping between attuned items depending on where we go, but it's too much effort, so anyone is welcome to them.)

Badger nods his thanks to the Speaker, although he is a little disappointed that there are no dead kobolds to spare. Oh well, off to Lonelywood! With any luck we might even find the gnome in the cabin in the woods today...

Badger casts his spell, the golden bones laying in a pile just inside the sack. Reality is suddenly swept away and replaced with a fully immersive vision. Badger is a disembodied presence floating in a room. The room is dark, lit only by a few guttering torches embedded into the walls. The walls are rough hewn stone, black rock, as if a cave. To one side of the room is a large heavy cauldron bubbling with shimmering melted gold. The center of the room has a mishapen but largely flat rock, upon which is stretched a naked human, his limps tied and pulled out tight.  Around this are a group of eight figures in black robes. The human in the center is middle aged, a powerful looking warrior, though his eyes sparkle with blue electricity and his raven black hair thrashes about as he angrily fights his restraints. Arcane magical symbols and a circle enclose the central stone. The figures chant in droning voices while one of them moves forward with a wicked looking curved knife. In a flash the throat of the man is slit open. Blood pours out and he gurgles, though the blood seems to pool solely on the rock and doesn't run away as the man seems to stay conscious despite his life running free. Then, the eight move forward. The fire beneath the cauldron begins to burn blue and the gold bubbling intensifies. They lift the still alive, but no longer struggling figure. He has a look of horror and rage on his face as they move to the cauldron with his body, the blood sort of hovering around the lifted body, and then slowly, terribly, begin to dip it all in the bubbling gold. The flesh and blood bursts into flames as it touches the molten metal.  Slowly, and conscious the entire time, the body is lowered into the cauldron until the entire body is incinerated.  The flames go out and the gold seems to contract until it seeps over and around the remaining bones of the burned figure, leaving no trace of the metal on the rest of the inside of the cauldron. They lift the bones out and lay them on the rock once more.  The bones seem to lift up, forming a golden skeletal body, and then the mans body seems to coelesce around it until he's stands there, looking whole, even dressed in a long black and blue robe and fine silk clothes. He glares around at the figures and tries to speak, but seems unable to, he's unable to thrash about even and emotions ripple across his face, including great pain, until his burning eyes settle on the robed figure with the still bloody and he says between gritted teeth, "I am Zendrak, servant of bones, what is your bidding?" 

The vision fades and Badger is once again in his room, kneeling on the floor, sweat trickling down his forehead...the golden bones piled before him. 

Badger hurriedly bundles the golden bones back up into the bag and stashes them at the bottom of his pack, before wiping the sweat from his bald brow. No doubt his curiosity will again one day draw him to learn more of these bones, but for now he is too shaken. Once composed, he goes to join the others and discuss their plans for the day.

Badger seems particularly agitated that morning but as is usual for the gruff gnome, he shares nothing and the group generally doesn't ask.   Besides, everyone has their own problems, be it domineering world conquering evil rings, an unwelcome parasite inside them, or dark foreboding dreams of cold elementals. 

Regardless, the group makes it through breakfast and is soon 'checking out' with Marta who bids them a safe journey wherever they may be off to next.  Across the street your conveyances...large oversized chickens with nasty tempers and big axe shaped beaks are waiting, warm in a barn. They seem eager to see you though, excited perhaps that your presence will mean that they get to get outside and go for a run.  

A short time later you're all wrapped up against the biting cold and on your mounts and moving away from the town of Termalaine. You see a couple small kobold shaped figured wrapped up against the cold shovelling snow.  They drop their shovels and wave to you, but one's shove accidentally falls and hits the others knee, and the two creatures fall into a wrestling match as you pass by. 

It's of course dark as you proceed through the lonely woods.  The icy trees standing frozen as you follow follow the road along the edge of the lake towards the town of Lonely Wood.  The magical lantern remains lit, hanging from the sleigh, as you proceed north. You spot the odd wild animal in the darkness, including a brown bear that is pulling branches off a tree, but the creature sees the large group of axebeaks and people and turns and runs off into the darkness. 

As you're approaching Lonely Wood, the light coming from the lantern seems to shift in hue to a bright green. 

Petting the side of the neck of her chicken, Mal speaks up, "Isn't the light of the lantern changing color supposed to mean something? Does it mean one of those annoying little creatures is around." As Mal reigns in her chicken and she looks around to see if she sees any tracks or one of the creatures sneaking about.

Mal Perception: 12

Indeed, the glowing light means, somewhere within 300 feet of this point, are some of the little chwingas. Mal hops off her animal and begins poking around, but doesn't see anything in the immediate area. Her eyes and her tracking ability are equivalently keen though and as the group moves a bit further she notices a small set of tracks off to one side of the path. She can see the twinkling of lights up ahead on the road, the group has arrived at Lonely Wood. The tracks seem to lead from Lonely wood, and follow the road until here, before darting off into the forest. She'd figure they're the tracks of a fox, but something small is dragging behind it.  

Mal informs the group and then asks, "Do we continue into town or attempt to follow these fox tracks after the Chwinga? I am not sure if the Chwinga is food for the fox or if the fox is helping the chwinga, either way, it could lead to a body we can recover for that crazy person."

 A chwinga? Let's see if we can track it down. It's always best to keep our word, though we are a long way from being able to take it back to the elf. Kari seems to consider th options as she speaks, but looks ready to do some tracking.

The group decides to head into the forests. The footing in the woods is too treacherous for the axebeaks so you dismount and leave them on the road tied up. They stand their obedient, but glaring at you..plotting your demise and their world domination if only their small brains would allow them to figure out how.  You follow the fox path into the forest for about five minutes before you see some activity in amongst a cluster of conifers ahead.  Sneaking forward, you see a dinner plate with branches and pinecones arrayed on it is placed between three small spirit creatures dressed to look a lot like a tiny pine tree, but with a mask over where a face would be and tiny spindly arms sticking out of the outer green jacket.  One chwinga is sitting at the edge of the plate while the two others are moving a fork and a knife...ineffectively along the twigs and pinecone.  They don't seem to have noticed you and are busy....it would appear....playing at eating a meal.

 Kari turns her head toward the others while keeping her eyes mostly on the little tree beings. You say you've got experience with these spirits? How should we approach them?

Kurik leans forward and whispers, "How about with plate and forks or some food.  Seems like they are playing at eating.  Why not join in?"

 Oh, yes, good idea. Should I use some rations, or... but they are pretending with pinecones... maybe both? Kari quietly takes a bit of jerky and a dried fruit of some kind out of her pouch, and on second thought digs around until she finds a sock and her silverware. Then she briefly looks around for any pinecones and small loose twigs that she can gather without making much noise, and holds them all together in her hands, letting the sock dangle down a bit. She steps forward enough to be visible to the little spirits and starts talking, ostensibly to herself. This is probably far enough, I can have my picnic here. Where can I sit? Ah, this looks like a good place to eat my lunch, pinecone cake. So delicious! Kari sits down cross-legged, (maybe on a log or just in the snow if there's no convenient thing to sit on) and lays her sock carefully down in front of her, arranging the sticks and dried food on top of it. She takes out her fork and knife and begins to pretend to cut and eat the various treats and she continues to talk to herself. Yes, this will be the best lunch. There's the pinecone cake, and, uh, some crunchy stick treats, and a fairy fruit, and a bit of hard meat, yes that's perfect. Mmm, so good, I could eat this all day! She keeps her head down toward her own "plate" but glances from under her eyebrows at the small spirits every once in a while, trying to see if they are interested in her pretend picnic.

As Kari enters the clearing, the three spirits all turn to face her and freeze in place.  They stay that way as she goes about 'setting up her picnic'.  Settling down on a log she sets out everything on a snowy patch and talks to herself.  The spirits, their little mask faces frozen still in her direction....appear to be watching. Finally, once she has it all out and begins to pretend-eat, their frozen forms break free and all animate.  They begin hopping about, most excitedly as they point at their food. They watch what she does and attempt to mimic her. They don't speak, but their hand waving is expressive as they "talk" to each other about the meal.  They continue to watch her and try to copy everything she does. 

Kari keeps "eating," but seems a little stumped. She picks up the jerky and takes an actual bite and thinks while she chews, then has an idea. Pretending to eat the woody bits again she starts to look sad in an exaggerated way. Mmm, this picnic is nice, but I wish my friends were here. A picnic is much better with friends! She glances briefly at the spirits as she talks, and also back at where her companions are still waiting.