"I'd say give him Hargrove's description and send him after the bastard... But the thought of Godrick besting him and sending an undead hill giant after us is unpleasant."

((Is the party splitting up - if so, who's going back to Peltarch, and who's looking for Dagg? Perception checks for everyone regardless of which option you take, please.))

"And the chances that Dagg crushes the wrong person that has a passing resemblence to Hargrove are likely high."

Marrin will stay with Ethel to find and convince Dagg.

Perception: 21

"True. Do you wager I go back with the same face, or a new one? I gather that multiple new arrivals might warrant comment, so going back as the same may be less suspicious, though I think there may be questions about the horsewoman I was with... assuming you're not returning as her."

Avaria looks at Ethel with confusion and is about to argue her to come to Peltarch, when Marrin volunteers to go with her.  "Are you two mad?  Just leave him, we've got our own mission to accomplish and I don't feel good with us splitting up like this.  But we have to go to Peltarch, we don't want to lose the advantage we have gained by going through that cursed forest!"  She looks at Jan, hoping she was being reasonable as well but she had already acquiesced to the plan.  "Are you all losing your minds?"  

She starts packing up the gear, growling under her breath and then finally mounts her horse next to Jan.  She decides not to say anymore and looks around.

Perception: 11

Jan Perception: 9

K perception: 6

"New face when I go back, and I agree, probably a new one for you to avoid questions. Well, questions about the horse woman."

Marrin answers Jan.

She waves Ava down,

"I don't think he'll be hard to find and we don't want him lingering. We'll send him on his way and be by the fire in Peltarch before you know it."

She looks out at the cold,

"Very close to the fire."

((Just Marrin and Ethel going to find Dagg? Everyone else heading to Peltarch?))

((Jan will send K with them, with instructions to report back if there is trouble.))

Ethel Perception:  7

Ethel looks to Marrin and then nods in appreciation.  "Fair enough.  Let's go find him.  If he's unwilling to depart, I have some ideas to occupy him somewhere far from Peltarch."

Marrin gives Ethel a nod,

"Certainly game to hear what you've got in mind. But let's move before we freeze."

She'll wave to Jan, Ava and the rest,

"Save me a spot by the fire. Depending how long we're gone, might need to be in the fire."

PELTARCH:

Soren leads the majority of the group back into Peltarch. The streets remain quiet, and icily cold. The hoofs of the horses crunch in icy snow, making it next to impossible for anyone to hear anything else. Who knows what could be out in the dark shadows watching them? But at any rate it would have to be someone or something happy with the cold. In the past hour the temperature has dropped another couple of degrees.

Instead of leading them to the front of the Stickleback Inn, Soren leads them around to the back and to a set of stables inside a gated courtyard.

The stables are closed up tight, but the smell of hay and horses is unmistakable to Avaria.

Near the rear door is a bell with a bit of rope.

Soren pulls on it, causing a loud peeling of chimes to echo across the courtyard.

After a few moments, the innkeeper opens the back door to the inn, looks out at the group. Nods a greeting and calls back over his shoulder. "Egg, you better get out here and get to work or I'm going to tan your hide."

A sullen teen, whom Jan recognizes as the one who brought her the chowder earlier appears and looks at all the horses and ponies.

"It's going to take all night to get this lot settled," he groans.

The innkeeper, clearly the father, looks at his son and laughs. "Well then you better get at it."

The son, Egg, uses a key to unlock the stable and starts leading the horses and ponies in, and the innkeeper ushers the group inside.

"Quite the group to be showing up this late. Get lost on your way to somewhere nice, did you?" he asks.

AT THE EDGE OF ICELACE LAKE:

From the swirling snow ahead, a towering shape comes into view- Dagg, his back to Marrin and Ethel is bent over the edge of the lake. The icy flows stretch off into the dark. In one hand, Dagg is pulling on something long and bluish-white.

Wolfie appears out of the dark and a low growl rumbles in the dire wolf’s throat, causing Dagg to turn around and look at the group.

“Oh hi. Think Dagg find dinner. Big big fish in ice,” Dagg says.

As if on cue, something starts to rise out of the hole in the ice that Dagg was focused on. The bluish-white whatever is clearly not a fish. A large lumbering shape appears, its pale, frostbitten skin stretched taut over wiry muscle and jagged bones. Standing nearly ten feet tall, the creature rises up, water dripping from its torso, and  begins moving with a gangly, unnatural gait, its long arms nearly dragging in the snow. Its skin glistens with frost, bluish-white and cracked like old glacier ice, and patches of coarse, frozen hair cling stubbornly to its scalp and shoulders.

Icy breath steams from between tusk-like teeth as it snarls, its yellow eyes gleaming with feral hunger. Shards of bone and broken weapons are frozen into its hide like crude armor, and long, icicle-like claws twitch with anticipation. The icy cold seems to bolster it, ice crackling around its limbs with each angry step.

The air grows colder as it finally pulls itself from the ice — not just from the wind, but from the creature itself. The very ground under its feet crackles and freezes with unnatural chill. This is no mere beast—it is a predator born of the deep tundra, sculpted by blizzards, starvation, and the cruel indifference of the Far North.

It roars, angrily at the party.

"That not fish. Dagg not find fish," Dagg says. And then he roars back at the creature. "That ice troll. They not taste good."

(Initiative please - Marrin, Ethel, and K)

Avaria rides in silence as they head to Peltarch, brooding over the fact the group was split and worried about Marrin and Ethel.  What if something happened to them?  She realizes she is being rough with her horse due to her frustrations and she tries to settle down.  As they arrive in town, she lets Soren and Jan do the talking.  She finds she wouldn't mind warming up a bit, but this then turns around and makes her realize her friends are still out in the cold.  She kicks the ground in anger.

She follows the rest of the group in, taking one last look towards the stables and Egg as he gets their horses bedded down for the night.

K : 17

Marrin's curses are blown away by the wind, though Dagg can be made out a few times.

Initiative: 17

Ethel Initiative:  19

Marrin and Ethel, already getting an inkling that Dagg was not going to pull a fish out of the lake aren't too surprised to see that he's actually caught an ice troll. Dagg and the troll though are still getting themselves out of the ice and are moving slower. K appears to have gotten lost in thought and the dire wolf was too distracted by the arrival of Marrin and Ethel to notice the troll right away.

Initiative - Marrin and Ethel, Ice Troll, Dagg, Dire Wolf and then K

((How much does Marrin/Ethel know about trolls in general and ice trolls more specifically?

Troll lore, if needed (history rolled, but same modifier for nature and arcana): 16

How close is Dagg to the troll? And does Dagg have a weapon? How far are Marrin and Ethel from the troll?))

"Well, I'm not sure I can convince a troll to leave us alone."

Marrin yells över the wind to Ethel, and starts backing her horse up.

Ethel Nature/History:  13  (If it is Arcana, the result would be another +3 for 16)

Ethel reins in hard as Marrin begins backing up, her horse snorting and stamping nervously beneath her.  She doesn’t need the warning—her eyes are already locked on the horror clawing its way out of the ice.  But it's one of Dagg’s comments that snags her attention like a fishhook.  Ethel blinks, cold forgotten for a moment. They not taste good?

She stares at Dagg.  “You’ve eaten these things?!”  The wind claws at her hood as she raises her voice, shouting.  “Dagg!  You know how to kill it, then?  You’ve fought one before?”

Ethel’s horse snorts and tosses its head, steam billowing from its nostrils as the ice troll drags its hulking form from the frozen lake.  She urges the pony forward through the crunching snow, ignoring Marrin’s call and the protesting wind. 

When Ethel reaches the frozen shoreline, she draws her hand up, dark energy curling around her fingers.  Her voice rises—not loud, but full of venom and ancient weight—and she speaks the words of dread.

[Casting cause fear, targeting the troll.]

From the troll’s perspective, the already eerie woman on horseback transforms.  Her tattered black cloak whips in unnatural wind.  Her scarred face twists into something far worse—a vision of agony, judgment, and death.  Her eyes burn like embers in a shriveled skull, and the 'warhorse' beneath her stamps and rears, hooves pounding like war drums.  She becomes a nightmare.

[DC 16 WIS save from the troll or it becomes frightened of Ethel until the spell ends.  The frightened troll can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.]

“Come on... Run, you frozen bastard,” she hisses under her breath, likely only heard by her nervous pony.