The Night Before Arrival:

The Now:

Ehrehk steps out from below deck in his very comfortable winter clothing. A thick, tan and white fur, hooded long coat with the fur swaying in the wind and a similarly colored, hooded fur coat with the fur facing inward underneath. The longcoat has a strip of embroidered cloth along the bottom edge, patterned with colorful flowers against a black background. He wears two layers of gloves, green-dyed sheepskin gloves inside and large, red fur mittens over them, along with black fur pants and black fur hat. He apparently received cobbled together arctic clothing, rather than a set. Completing the ensemble is a pair of curious tan, white fur boots with turquoise fasteners and, most curious of all, the distal portion of the boots are snow powdered already, and the soles of the boots seem to be made of jagged ice.

Ehrehk meets the captain's eyes and nods encouragingly. Not seeing anyone help themselves to the Bag of Holding, Ehrehk elects to bear that burden, snatching the bag up and slinging it over his shoulder. He stuffs the map and letter of intent in the bag as well. "Say, this bag has a face on it. That's funny. Thanks for this." he says as he examines the bag hanging against his torso while he disembarks. "We will update you through your friend, Elro Aldataur in Palebank." he says as he waves back to the captain from the frozen ground below.

He turns from her then, scanning the area, feeling a bit like an explorer in an unknown land... even though this land is well-known to some, it is not known to Ehrehk, so be banishes any such thoughts from his mind and surveys the area with a puffed up chest and rolled back shoulders.

OOC: Perception 13.

Seeing Dantos suffer in the cold, Ehrehk walks over and touches the gloves. "Presi'noidigio!" He says confidently, as though he just saved someone's life. "That should last an hour. Let me know when you need it renewed."

Dantos looks surprised at the sudden warmth and says, "Muy amable friend!" He holds the gloves to his face and smiles. Shrugging into his pack, he begins to head toward the town. If the magic is only going to last an hour they have to move fast!

If you listen carefully, you hear him mumble the incantation just used.

The night before Klorvaz spends bundled up on the deck far from the rest. For hours he writes in it, recording everything that was discussed. He also includes their bearings, the position of the stars, and any and all information that could prove useful to others. As he writes he fiddles with another small metallic orb, images of a bleak mountain range and tall jagged towers occasionally flash. Right before he heads to his bunk, the hobgoblin stops in the doorway to the lower decks and listens to Ehrehk, seeming to hear him for the first time that night. His foot taps along absent-mindedly to the rhythm before Klorvaz quickly stomps and retreats below deck. 

The next morning he stumbles out onto the icy plain. Dressed in a long white cloak, his usual robes lay under a finely made shirt of black oiled chain. Shivering, he quickly pulls his hood up so that his only visible skin is right around his eyes. His lower face is hidden behind a grey scarf that is tightly wound around his face. Squinting at the sun shinning off the snow, Klorvaz grunts, "We should hurry. This is no place for those unaccustomed to the cold." 

Perception: 14

Perception:  20

Shel picks up the gear the Captain has provided and shrugs into the jacket, but she seems relatively unbothered by the cold. She has ignored the Bag of Holding, but as she jumps down onto the ground with a cheerful wave to the ship's crew, you can see that she only carries a similar bag and her trident.

Taking a quick look around, she points her trident down the road. "Well, here we go, friends! - Clear skies and Melora's breath in your sails, Captain!"

More quietly, she asks Klorvaz: "Are you alright in this cold? If it bothers you too much, be better look for a solution now, before we are out in the wild."

The path winds up a ways. As the group looks around as they travel. There is nothing threatening them as far wild life goes. There are signs of foot traffic of the main road. There is also interesting looking plants, that also catches the attention of the group. Looking at the directions the group knows that Urgon’s house lies the north east of Palebank.

//what you like to do?

Dantos continues towards the town until he spots somebody then he smiles and waves, "Hello there! Yes! The one wearing the uh fashionable smock! Come come, we wish to talk to you!"

Krystal simply enjoys the fresh air as they travel, she takes in the strange flora but her eyes are mostly concerned with the road ahead and danger on the horizon....

Ehrehk examines the map, spinning it around in his mittens and holding it out as if trying to line it up with the surrounding environment. "So... should we go right to Urgon's home on the northeast side of Palebank, or should we meet with authorities first to see if they know something? If Urgon hasn't contacted Captain Eldra, it might be because he isn't home." He pauses a moment and chews on a thought that seems to trouble him some. 

"Eldra said that there might be 'other groups' involved as a possible reason for Urgon not contacting her. Do you think perhaps that the Captain knew a bit more than she let on? She did ask that we not ask questions about her organization specifically. She and Urgon might be mixed up in something serious. At first, I thought he might have fallen in a cave somewhere and just needed a rope thrown down, but maybe he is in a different kind of trouble." Ehrehk's mind wanders a bit into memory and his troubled expression deepens before he banishes the thought with a wave of his hand and rolling up the map, placing it in the magical bag strapped to his shoulder. In a cheery, almost musical voice, he says, "An idle mind is a playground for devils and demons. It's probably the cave thing."

Krystal smiled a toothy grin as Ehrek spoke, " Almost certainly. I'm sure."

"I'm almost certain the Captain knows more than she lets on - she was quiet cagy when it came to actually telling us what this expedition was about", Shel cheerfully interjects, not really bothered by it. "I'd say we go to his house first. It would be a lot of bother if we alerted people only to find that he has returned in the meantime and just had a quiet bath or something." 

Taking a quick look at her surroundings and the map, she points to one of the houses.  "This way, I believe!"

---

//  Shel is proficient with Carthographer's tools, so I would assume reading a map and lining it up with the visual cues around her is something she can do - if not, ignore the last part, please, and sorry.

Ehrehk nods and follows along, reassured by the others that his concerns were entirely unfounded. He relaxes his grip on his spear and almost skips along in the snow.

"Oh ah pardon kind stranger, I wasn't aware we had a map to the man's house. Hope your day has clear skies."

Dantos continues down the road thinking,That would have been nice to know yesterday. He refuses to let the feeling dampen his mood. Somebody fell into a crack and his friends will pull his ass out of the fire...That doesn't make sense, don't say it out loud.

17

//

I love the idea that you were creative with the map. Everyone has inspiration. * Inspiration lets you either roll with advantage or cause me to roll at disadvantage.

Hemlock Hardcastle was standing on the road gathering some common herbs. Standing at two feet five inches, with long blueish hair with hair that covered his horns or nubs as mother called them. He sees a group of strangers coming up the trade road from the plains. (See roll of 10). There is nothing about them that seems dangerous.

Hemlock goes on about his business when a very tall and broad Tortle asks him to talk and then tells him to have a nice day.

As the group continues north around or through the village. The group comes out see a one story cabin. There is elven woman dressed in a uniform out front by the door. Her hair is black with a top knot and a scar on her face. She looks at the group and says “Stay back, this area is under investigation and maybe cursed”

Ehrehk is taken aback and looks to the others for leadership in the face of such startling news. Pulling back his extremely fluffy hood... then pulling back the less fluffy but still fairly fluffy hood under that, he raises his hand to call attention to himself and tries to fish out the Letter of Intent from the Bag of Holding. 

"Err, yes, hello. Wait, what?" He says as he fumbles in the bag as he looks at her with a mixture of confusion and alarm. He releases his hold on his spear in his haste, which falls into the snow with a 'poof' noise, tossing up powdery snow after it. Ehrehk clicks his tongue in disappointment for having dropped his own weapon like a clod, but ignores it while he finally grabs the Letter of Intent and pulls it free, holding it in the air triumphantly. "Um, sorry, we don't want to interfere with your investigation. We are representatives of Amberstone & Woods. Our employer lost contact with one 'Urgon Wenth' and we were sent to check up on him. Do you know where we might find him?"

He leaves his spear in the snow and extends the letter forward for the woman to come and get. As he was specifically ordered to stay back, he complies to not aggravate the woman. 

Krystal stepped back a little, " Cursed?  Oh, dear."

Her voice dropped, " Does anyone know that uniform?", she queried the rest of the group as she looked around the area.

History-13

Perception13

"Uh...Well...The Civil Guard at my home have runes carved in their shells" he points to an area of his chest,  "so everbody know who they are." Dontos rubs his chin, "I guess would be like a tattoo for you."

He makes hand motions at the woman, "I canna tell if she has a Guard mark, she has on too much clothes."

Shel quietly moves to Ehrehk's side to pick up the spear and shake the snow off it.  While she seems unable to leave it there, she makes the move as unthreatening as possible, never pointing it or her own weapon at anybody, and offers it back with a casual "You lost something" gesture more than any real urgency - it seems enough that it is not laying on the ground.

"Well, if she says 'cursed', that's more than a guy not keeping up with his correspondence", she mutters under her breath, looking around to find signs of this potential curse.

On Krystal's suggestion, she studies the uniform as well, trying to recall who in this region would wear an uniform at all.

History : 12

Perception: 16

"Oh... thank you, Shel." Ehrehk says as he takes the offered spear and leans it against his shoulder, folding his free hand over it to hold the spear in place. He smiles at her gratefully while waiting for the woman to come and check his offered letter. "You might be right." he whispers. 

The young elven woman looks at the group. “Stop right there, state your business.” She says with a little less confidence than she appears to have.

Each of you have heard of the Glass Blades set of wilderness guardsmen from Uthordurn. A city in the mountains near here.

As she goes to speak, there is loud crash from inside the cabin. As the door burst opens and large orc stands there. “Where is Urgon!!” It yells.

// every one roll for combat!!