Oh, this is just too good. He owes me his life, hmm?

Vetis gives Lucas a piercing look. "I wish you hadn't said that." She looks at everyone. "I'm not her friend. I belong to her. I owe her my life more times than can be counted or imagined, and she doesn't hesitate to remind me of that. And I follow her orders." She pulls her hood farther forward. "She seems to think you're all useful to her right now. But that may change, and if it does, I suggest you be ready for her reprisal."

With that rather ominous suggestion, the tiefling heads over to the center of the circle of thrones and sits down, folding her hands to wait until night.

"Our goals sort of fly counter to hers. I think we're all ready for her reprisal."

Lucas nods, "Agreed. I'm not going to avoid fighting her just because I am thankful. However, I will at least be respectful when it comes time to shoot her full of arrows." He gives what sounds like a dry attempt at a laugh, but cuts it short when he realizes how awkward it sounds in his mouth, instead turning it into a cough to clear his throat. "...that said, Vetis, I am still thankful.....so thank you."

DC11 WIS save: 10 22

"Auril has spoken to me through visions, showed me this one's face." she points to Vetis. "Said to guide you to this place and pass the challenge. I do not understand Auril's way. Only to guide Vetis to this place."

If you all wait till it gets dark, there is no full moon tonight. It looks like you are about 3 days too early.

"Well, anyone up for an extended nature trip?"

Lucas raises an eyebrow but shrugs, "If you have a place in mind, sure. If not, I'd rather head back to the refugee camp and help out around there. There's a lot we could do to help out, and being around when we have to wait isn't a bad thing."

"That works too."

"I agree with Lucas," Kai decides with a nod. "I ain't good at much but I can help keep people warm and heal 'em if they need it. Wanna keep busy anyway."

Percival helps the villagers train to fight, showing them how to make use of whatever weapons/pointy sticks they have so that they could win a fight, or at least not instantly die

Sobek spends his time using Mold Earth, to help create windbreaks/shelters, better fire pits and even some rudimentary walls if there’s time, to help channel any enemies towards better defended points. He’ll work constantly during the day, only stopping when ready to collapse into sleep.

He’ll also speak with Lucas ‘These people can’t stay here. They need to travel south, to safety...’

Kaz will set up shop to look at and heal any wounds or illnesses the camp brings them, based on their own knowledge as a medicine person like their parent was.

Shrek will do pretty much the only thing he’s good at in life: he’ll work to set up a package delivery / mail system for the refugees camp. You know, so they can continue to send care packages of knucklehead trout to their paramours. 

Lucas will train a few people he finds are willing, to use the bow and a few tricks to use as a ranger. Using his magic, he also adds to the food stores as best he can, knowing it's not much, but it was something.

"They have no one to guide them, and last I checked, we still had matters to deal with here." Lucas sighs after replying to Sobek, he did agree with him, but as his after his last attempt to convenience people that they were in danger and needed to leave failed so miserably, he was reluctant to try again.

Vetis spends most of her time near the edges of camp watching the snow, though she occasionally comes back and does a few rounds of healing on the worst injured, ignoring the snarky comments from the winter wind.

On the evening of the second day, Kaz will approach Vetis out on the edge of camp. Plopping down to sit beside the icy  cleric, without a word but a nod of acknowledgment. They will sit there staring out at the tundra for a long moment in silence, happy to take in the wonders of ice wind dale.

”Tell me about winter, as you know her. Please.”

Vetis folds her hands in her lap, not looking at Kaz as she begins to speak to them. "She is cold, manipulative, and disdainful of mortals. She thinks of all cold places as her domain, and she would dearly like to extend that domain. She sees most mortals are no more than tools or playthings for her to move about and kill and maim as she desires."

That's not very kind or flattering.

I speak the truth, and I do not think you would have me lie. Besides, I'm not done.

Vetis continues. "But she also saved my life. She gave me my life. I was a baby left for the elements, I don't know why, and she decided to raise me, in her own way. The cold did not freeze my fingers off. Creatures of the tundra took turns caring for me when I was small, and when I was old enough to walk, the wind whispered to me the routes to shelter and sustenance. She abated long enough for me to get water from frozen ponds, and killed animals in their sleep for my food. I was raised under winter's protection, and I would have died thousands of times were in not for her. Even now, she continues to help me, give me power, save my life - our lives, by extension. I don't fool myself into thinking it's because she cares for me, in any deep way. I am a useful tool, a particularly smart and capable pet. But she does not wish to see her pet killed, or her tool shattered." Vetis shrugs.

Kaz nods, “my grief is not with Winter herself, but the imbalance we see now. I must assume that the winter was not this bitter or damaging to the region when you left it, yes? What changed? What made Auril decide to not release her grasp on the dale, to break the natural balance of life? Why does she wish to see nothingness?”

May I?

Mmm...I suppose. You don't know enough to compromise me anyway.

Vetis shrugs. "Why? I know little of her mind. Perhaps it is a desire for power. Perhaps she wishes to preserve the beauty here forever. An endless winter does not bring nothingness, Kazimir. It brings eternal rest. Unchanging preservation." She places one hand on the snow, and tendrils of ice snake out through it, freezing a patch in the exactly shape and size of her hand. "Gods think on scales of time we mortals can barely imagine. You ask what changed. But what makes you think this is a change, not merely the final step of a plan decades or centuries in the making?"

“Because change is inherent to existence. Nothing can be preserved forever.” Kaz will pick up a frozen plant from the ground and cause it to bloom into a flower before resting it on the snaking ice. “I don’t disagree that the deities work on a scale larger than can be comprehended. The gods and goddesses play at their games with mortals like chess pieces, or toys. My order has always been there to clean up their messes. To help the natural balance return from all those cataclysmic events that come from the gods bickering. I didn’t fully understand that until now.” The elf will turn to Vetis, warm smile radiating from the tattooed Druid, “I understand your relationship to Auril better now. Thank you, Vetis. It will take time, but I am certain we will come to a better understanding of what is going on here and find a solution, yes?”