Blackberry WIS Save 12

Hmmm

WIS Save 21

Ok, one last try

WIS Save 20

Within a few minutes, the rhythmic rumbling fades away. But the blizzard persists. You wait it out again and finally it appears to blow over several hours later. When you do dig yourselves out, it is still dark and the sky is clear, although the moon has gone down. The snow stretches unbroken around you, you can’t even see the tracks of the great beast anymore. You know where the road was in relation to you, but it can’t be seen under this blanket of snow. You gather to do some calculations, and decide, based on the position of constellations, that it must be just after 10 at night and you have another 3 hours of snowshoeing. That said, the blizzard did give you the opportunity to take a long rest, so you are not particularly tired. What would you like to do?

"Well I do not know what that creature was, but I am glad it did not find us. Lets push on." Aubin crawls out of the snow shelter and dust the snow off of him. He waits for the others before proceeding.

Sabetha nods to Aubin on pushing on and replies, "Giants mounted on mammoths, I think, as Elk Running confirmed.  Probably Frost Giants considering the climate?  They were certainly speaking in Giant, swearing at their mounts to stop whining and indicating that they were bound for the sea."

During the storm, Sabetha had shown Elk Running (and Aura who was there in the shelter) the strange ring she had found in the Northlook: a Ring of the Narwhal.  Mostly only useful when in water, aiding with swimming, holding one's breath, and resistance to cold while underwater.  But as Sabetha attunes to it, a long spiraling horn, much like a unicorn's, grows on her forehead.  The rest of the party sees it as everyone emerges from their shelters.  The half-elf repeats the explanation to Blackberry, as she'd promised.

Aubin was tightening his pack as he listened to Sabetha. He turns to say something, but stops and just stares at the horn "What in all the world happened during that blizzard. Why do you have a horn growing out of your head?"

Sabetha appears shy in responding at first, but having already explained it a few times, she gains in confidence as she goes.

"It... it was a ring I found in all that confetti the singing fish, Ol' Bitey, spat out in the Northlook.  I already explained to some of the others.  Ring of the Narwhal.  Helps when swimming.  But, I found when I attuned to it while we were in the shelters, this horn grew.  You know... I don't really care how it looks.  I think I can use it with my fighting style.  And... and..."  She trails off without finishing her sentence and looks away, self-conscious again.

And hopefully nobody searching for a red-haired Sabetha Rai without a narwhal horn will recognize a brown-haired Sabetha with one.  By sight anyway.

Blackberry exclaims, "That's..... Awesome!  So cool! It just grew there? Did it hurt? Can I touch it? You know it reminds me of my cousin, Jack.  He got into an argument with a wizard once and the wizard cursed him to have antlers after that.  People started calling him 'Jackalope'.  Geez, how come cool stuff never happens to me?  Oh, by the way, in the middle of that storm I crept out a saw a really big, I mean really big humanoid riding a shaggy hill with a snake-nose.  Maybe one of those 'mammoths' you're talking about?"

Aubin listens "That is an interesting ring. Well as long as you feel fine. Lets head out"

"A blessing of the gods," Elk Running confirms to Sabetha, trying to stay positive.  The mysteries of this land seem myriad.  A horn is not even close to the strangest thing she has seen.

Sabetha can't help but grin at Blackberry again. "Are you sure 'Jackelope' himself thought of the antlers as 'cool stuff' at the time the wizard cursed him?  Anyway, I think I can un-attune to the ring and the horn will go away, but I'll keep it for now.  And no, it didn't hurt at all.  Maybe a little tingling."

She's not fully sure how she feels about someone touching the horn, but she relents given how genuine the harengon's enthusiasm and curiosity seem to be.

"As for those huge humanoids you saw,, they were likely frost giants riding the mammoths.  Did they have big white beards?  I don't think we'll be ready to tangle with them for a while yet.  I wonder why they were bound for the ocean."

She acknowledges both Elk Running and Aubin's comments and shoulders her pack, ready to move on.  Feeling strangely reborn.

As they finally exit their snowy shelters, Uthal feels the need to stretch. He reaches for the heavens, before cracking his neck in a couple directions, followed by a couple squats and finishing with a couple rolls of his shoulders. Their tight lodgings had left him a bit stiff. "Ah! That's better. Shall we head on, then?" he asks. As the passerby's identity as a giant is brought up, he gives an acknowledging nod, showing he'd come to the same conclusion. As for the talk of the ring, he comments: "Narw... Ale? Hale? That is a water beast, yes? Good. Brings you closer to nature, makes you strong. Fine find." 

Elk Running takes this opportunity to share with the others.

"Moving toward the sea...  The creatures of the area are restless, it seems.  As are we."  She ponders something for a moment before appearing to have resolved something. "I have not yet explained what it was that brought me into town.  In the frozen wilderness just two days past, I did find a body of a man.  A beggar from Bryn Shander.  He had been left in the cold in such a manner...  I believe he was made a sacrifice by the people of the village, purposely killed or put out in the cold to die."

"A sacrifice... to what?"  Elk Running looks at Sabetha meaningfully.  "In town you spoke the name Auril.  I know this name too.  And I know her voice.  Her song.  I hear it in the wind.  It sings to me in my dreams.  It... it woke me from a long slumber.  I believe there is a dark wyrd at work in the Dale."

(OOC: I encourage you guys to role-play this out a little more; I'll move the story along in my morning (after midnight in the US, mostly)).

Sabetha shivers.  "They are sacrificing their own people to... Auril?  I know they fear the Frostmaiden, for obvious reasons."  (The half-elf gestures at the brutal snow-scape and darkness all around them.)

"I wonder if some of them worship her as well.  I know very little of Auril and her followers."

Elk Running nods as Sabetha speaks.  "If I have the way of it, and a sacrifice was made, then worship they do, or at least fear her.  Mayhaps they know more than we. When we return from our quest, I aim to learn the truth."

"And there is more, as I have explained to Sabetha.  Last night my dreams were visited upon by a... darkness.  One who showed me animals hewn of ice, and a massive fortress the same.  And a voice told me I would bring it something that would ensure its existence... in perpetuity."  Although seemingly comfortable in the cold, Elk Running visibly shivers.  "I do not know what it means."

Still somewhat stunned by the change in Sabetha's appearance and Elk Running's words, you check your gear, strap-on your snowshoes and start your journey again. You follow the edge of the frozen lake, as the road is no longer particularly visible. After an hour of hiking, you reach what you believe to be the point on the map where you start going cross-country. Movement is slower, as the ground is uneven and becoming hilly, distinctions often disguised in the newly formed snow bluffs. After another hour of hiking in the dark, you hear the distant screen if a predator bird, and see glowing, shifting lights begin to fill the sky, moving from the northwest to the southeast, as best as you can tell.

The pulsing lights are beautiful and, oddly, light up the world almost as well as the sun does during the abbreviated days. 

Another hour under the strange lights and you arrive at what appears to be your destination. Hruna's map was well drawn. As you cross a snow-covered ridge, you see a frozen, dismembered corpse in the gully in front of you. Snow covers much of the gore, but the headless torso and detached limbs are visible in the mess. You see tracks in the snow all around the dead dwarf and the telltale grooves in the snow left behind by a sled that has been hauled away.

Sabetha immediately looks around for an ambush.  She also tries to determine if the tracks appear to be large-sized, as she imagines a yeti's would be, or perhaps also left by others, scavenging the sled.  If the latter, then how many.

Perception:  17 
Survival:  26 

Aura stares are the corpse, eyes widening with horror. Coming from such a sheltered background she had never seen the likes of this before, and the stories she read tended to steer clear of such violence. “Ugh.. that poor dwarf. What could have done such a thing?

The Genasi does not join Sabetha in hunting for clues, too distracted by the gruesome sight before her.

Blackberry wrinkles and then pinches his nose and says, "Subthing tebbs me yebbis do nob hab sensibive noses."  He then looks around for a snow drift to vomit behind.

After a moment, he returns and tries to examine the terrain around the sled tracks, looking for clues.  Are the grooves deep enough for a fully loaded sled?  Are there foot or hoof-prints between the grooves, indicating what sort of creature was pulling it?

Investigation 23

Survival 16