“Gavin, I wasn’t suggesting the wolves made such a mess - it’s clear they couldn’t have lifted the horses away, either. Instead i’m suggesting they are smarter than we are at avoiding this thing and towards that valley beyond the avalanche is where they avoid it.”
“The thing or things that did this doesn’t have the dexterity to dig for that body, but it can lift whole horses without dragging them.”
What can fly and is strong enough to carry a horse? Dragon? But a dragon could not have destroyed the temple, maybe a Druid with a pet dragon. Whatever it is we better be careful
Kathra nods in agreement. "Moving is the right course of action, I think. We only leave ourselves exposed the longer we linger here, and I do not like what I am hearing."
Speaking of which, does the sound seem to be getting closer or further away?
Once, on your travels up to the northern edge of the Sword Coast, you had pleasure (?) of seeing a huddle of walruses taking a break from their migrations along the rocky shore. What caught your interest was two males getting into something of a shoving match over a female, their bodies crashing into one another as they swung their tusks in what would likely be deadly arcs, if not for their very thick hide and copious blubber, sometimes leaving deep bloody gouges that look eerily similar to the wounds on the dead body here in the snow. But that would be weird right? Why would there be walruses here in the mountains attacking travelers?
For Kathra:
The sound seems to be echoing faintly throughout the valley below. It's hard to pinpoint where it is coming from exactly.
For the party:
Having decided to move along, you start to ford your way through the snows to the old path beyond. It winds circuitously through sparse forest and rocky brush as it takes you ever closer to the valley area bellow. As you round a bend several hours later, you come to a wondrous sight. The valley is choked by an enormous glacier that looks to have existed there for quite some time. There is a stream that winds slowly from a large crack in the front of the goliath ice-wall with a faint steam rising from it in the cool air and patches of green grass and mountain flowers grow near its banks. About fifty feet up the cracked and crumbling ice, an impeccably worked arched tunnel stands lookout over the valley below. What really catches your breath however is the massive two-tiered dome structure peaking out from the glacier itself. The giant round building seems to be made of a white stone, almost the same color as the snow that surrounds it, but noticeably not reflecting the evening sunlight quite like the glacier's ice. Large wooden masts separate the bottom of the dome from the first and second tiers, and the top of the structure seems to have glass walls that catch the light and refract it into a rainbow of colors on the western mountainside. As you take in the structure's magnificence and ponder what such a thing would be doing in such a place, you notice a massive hole in the building's dome. The trail you are on leads down to the banks of the steaming stream. The sounds you have been hearing seem to be coming from the cracking glacier that forms the foundations of the strange building.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
From what you can see from here, you can sort of get the following:
It looks as though the structure was built on the glacier itself. From the tunnel you see sticking out a bit bellow, it is likely that there is much more of the complex built through the glacier as well. From the way the glacier is melting and cracking, there was likely much more of the ice and snow at one time, likely obscuring the structure from the rare few who may have come this way in the past.
The crack the stream is coming out of is large enough that you could walk into it like a natural cave. You are not sure from here how far back it goes. The water seems to be leaving the crack rather lazily.
You could probably scale the glacier wall if you wanted to. You certainly have the right tools to do so. However, every now and then small bits crack off the ice wall and tumble to the ground below and overall it doesn't look like the safest approach.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Kathra stares at the structure in undisguised surprise. "That's because it wasn't here before. Nothing like this ever existed out here, as far as I can recall."
She points at the stream running out of the crack. "That may not be a bad place to hole up for the night. The structure seems sturdy enough, and it will protect us against falling ice."
History check to see if she recalls correctly: 10
((BWOMP BWOMP BWOMP BWOMP, WE GOT A NATURAL TWOMP))
Yeah, in all your tribes histories and in all the stories you have heard, you would have though someone would have mentioned such an odd structure built away in the mountains somewhere like this, but no. This thing clearly doesn't belong here. However, it does look like it has been here for almost a decade or so.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Mirabel scratched his head. "Well, if strange buildings are appearing from nowhere, maybe walruses aren't that much of a stretch." As he hasn't told anyone about the walruses, nobody has a clue what he's talking about.
"Are there walruses in the mountains? Walrus folk?" He looks to the other party members. "What do you all know about bipedal walruses?"
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Kathra shrugs and gestures to the structure. "I know as much about bipedal walruses as I know about this building." There's a long pause. "That means I don't know very much about walrus people at all, beyond not remembering there being any walrus people here before."
“I don’t think I want to camp close to that cave Kathra. That may be where those things that attacked the travelers call home, and I don’t want to be sleeping on their front porch. Maybe we can find a good spot away from there to camp and quickly scout the area of the cave opening before the sun goes down ((if there is enough time)). Maybe the strange lights at night are coming from that broken dome.” Gavin looks at Maribel, “I have never heard of walking walruses, but I had never heard of a yuan ti, a walking snake man until I saw one. We live in a strange world my friends, nothing surprises me much anymore.”
Kathra listens to Gavin and shrugs. "Perhaps so. It is equally likely that camping exposed in the open will cause us to be attacked just as easily. I suppose we may find creatures on the mountain easier to fight than walrus folk, if such things exist and live in caverns."
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“Gavin, I wasn’t suggesting the wolves made such a mess - it’s clear they couldn’t have lifted the horses away, either. Instead i’m suggesting they are smarter than we are at avoiding this thing and towards that valley beyond the avalanche is where they avoid it.”
“The thing or things that did this doesn’t have the dexterity to dig for that body, but it can lift whole horses without dragging them.”
“My mistake Thont, apologies big fella,.You May have a point there.”
What can fly and is strong enough to carry a horse? Dragon?
But a dragon could not have destroyed the temple, maybe a Druid with a pet dragon.
Whatever it is we better be careful
Nervous at our potentially exposed position, Thont looks onward and notes the daylight we have left.
((Everyone ready to continue up the mountain?)) I will keep an eye out for good defensible position to make camp while we are moving.
Ready to go
Kathra nods in agreement. "Moving is the right course of action, I think. We only leave ourselves exposed the longer we linger here, and I do not like what I am hearing."
Speaking of which, does the sound seem to be getting closer or further away?
Perception: 5
For Mirabel:
Once, on your travels up to the northern edge of the Sword Coast, you had pleasure (?) of seeing a huddle of walruses taking a break from their migrations along the rocky shore. What caught your interest was two males getting into something of a shoving match over a female, their bodies crashing into one another as they swung their tusks in what would likely be deadly arcs, if not for their very thick hide and copious blubber, sometimes leaving deep bloody gouges that look eerily similar to the wounds on the dead body here in the snow. But that would be weird right? Why would there be walruses here in the mountains attacking travelers?
For Kathra:
The sound seems to be echoing faintly throughout the valley below. It's hard to pinpoint where it is coming from exactly.
For the party:
Having decided to move along, you start to ford your way through the snows to the old path beyond. It winds circuitously through sparse forest and rocky brush as it takes you ever closer to the valley area bellow. As you round a bend several hours later, you come to a wondrous sight. The valley is choked by an enormous glacier that looks to have existed there for quite some time. There is a stream that winds slowly from a large crack in the front of the goliath ice-wall with a faint steam rising from it in the cool air and patches of green grass and mountain flowers grow near its banks. About fifty feet up the cracked and crumbling ice, an impeccably worked arched tunnel stands lookout over the valley below. What really catches your breath however is the massive two-tiered dome structure peaking out from the glacier itself. The giant round building seems to be made of a white stone, almost the same color as the snow that surrounds it, but noticeably not reflecting the evening sunlight quite like the glacier's ice. Large wooden masts separate the bottom of the dome from the first and second tiers, and the top of the structure seems to have glass walls that catch the light and refract it into a rainbow of colors on the western mountainside. As you take in the structure's magnificence and ponder what such a thing would be doing in such a place, you notice a massive hole in the building's dome. The trail you are on leads down to the banks of the steaming stream. The sounds you have been hearing seem to be coming from the cracking glacier that forms the foundations of the strange building.
“Well isn’t that odd” Gavin ponders out loud. “No one mentioned a dome building. I wonder how long that has been here.
((Few questions for what we see:
-Does it look like it was buried in the glacier and recent avalanches/ice melt uncovered it <global warming is alive and well in D&D :)>
-Is the crack where the stream coming out large enough/current slow enough for us to enter?
-Does it look like we can climb up the edge of the glacier or does it look like it’s melting/giving way?
=What time is it. How long before sun goes down?))
For Gavin:
From what you can see from here, you can sort of get the following:
Kathra stares at the structure in undisguised surprise. "That's because it wasn't here before. Nothing like this ever existed out here, as far as I can recall."
She points at the stream running out of the crack. "That may not be a bad place to hole up for the night. The structure seems sturdy enough, and it will protect us against falling ice."
History check to see if she recalls correctly: 10
((BWOMP BWOMP BWOMP BWOMP, WE GOT A NATURAL TWOMP))
((Shadow council, may our labors please you....))
For Kathra:
Yeah, in all your tribes histories and in all the stories you have heard, you would have though someone would have mentioned such an odd structure built away in the mountains somewhere like this, but no. This thing clearly doesn't belong here. However, it does look like it has been here for almost a decade or so.
Mirabel scratched his head. "Well, if strange buildings are appearing from nowhere, maybe walruses aren't that much of a stretch." As he hasn't told anyone about the walruses, nobody has a clue what he's talking about.
"Are there walruses in the mountains? Walrus folk?" He looks to the other party members. "What do you all know about bipedal walruses?"
Kathra shrugs and gestures to the structure. "I know as much about bipedal walruses as I know about this building." There's a long pause. "That means I don't know very much about walrus people at all, beyond not remembering there being any walrus people here before."
Walrus check (I guess that would be nature?): 13
For Kathra:
Yeah, you've got the basic grasp of most normal humanoid races that exist in Faerun, but you've never heard of any sort of walrus-folk.
“I don’t think I want to camp close to that cave Kathra. That may be where those things that attacked the travelers call home, and I don’t want to be sleeping on their front porch. Maybe we can find a good spot away from there to camp and quickly scout the area of the cave opening before the sun goes down ((if there is enough time)). Maybe the strange lights at night are coming from that broken dome.” Gavin looks at Maribel, “I have never heard of walking walruses, but I had never heard of a yuan ti, a walking snake man until I saw one. We live in a strange world my friends, nothing surprises me much anymore.”
((So is the plan to head down and find a camping spot before exploring?))
((waiting for input from others))
Mirabel nods his assent. "I want to sleep as far away as possible from any potential were-walruses."
Kathra listens to Gavin and shrugs. "Perhaps so. It is equally likely that camping exposed in the open will cause us to be attacked just as easily. I suppose we may find creatures on the mountain easier to fight than walrus folk, if such things exist and live in caverns."