Chilling Adventures in the North

"Nah, that furry ball didn't even get close." Says Muharg adjusting his belt. "Thanks for the offer, though, friend."

He then turns to the half-orc. "I can also help a bit with those wounds, Arogna. Let me know if you need a boost after Shad's care."

Bjorn picks up whatever arrows he can find before regrouping with his companions, "I doubt there is a much larger group to this ogre. Especially if they have been actively attacking travelers. The ten towns wouldn't sit idle if that was the case."

Shad reaches out with one hand to touch Arogna's shoulder. He closes his eyes while his ears circle, listening, and casting Cure Wounds for 5.

"Thanks, man. 'S amazin' how you does that," Arogna says to Shad.

"If we're stayin' here a minute, let's get right under that cliff. I reckon you're right, Bjorn, but may's well not be obvious like."

(OOC: Thanks Shad! Qinfaren and Muharg, thanks for the offer, but Arogna will be fine for now, save your magic. If we are short resting I will use a hit dice, but I'm happy to continue if no-one else benefits from resting.)

(Yeah, I'm going to need you to confirm your plan.)

Qinfaren nods at Arogna, but suspects she might be more injured than she lets on, so he sets about finding some kindling or wood to light to get a fire going while they catch their breath and take a short rest.

"Looks like as good a place as any to have some lunch," Qinfaren says.

Survival (to find wood/etc in the snow): 12   

OOC - let's take a short rest.

Arogna leads the dogs and the sledge into the lee of the cliff-face where the snow is thinnest, then gives them some scraps of meat.

"Beautiful, ain't it," she says, looking a little regretfully at the sabretooth tiger. "He ain't so pretty though. He got anythin' on him?"

Arogna doesn't check over the bodies, instead sitting down heavily by the sledge and strapping a cloth pad to the wound over her collarbone where the tiger had evidently tried to bite her throat, but failed. She seems more distressed by the tear in her uniform jacket. "Gonna hafta mend that soon. Can't show up on a delivery lookin' a mess."

Rolling a d12 hit dice + 2: 11

Shad will join the others against the cliff.

"So, our rest and then we push on to the city? I wonder if we can make our delivery before dark," he says.

Qinfaren holds up the necklace he found around the ogre's neck, he runs his fingers over the bronze sundial decorated with gold engravings and shows it to the others.

"I have to think that the ogre probably stole this to begin with," Qinfaren says. "Might pay for some rooms and a bit of a celebration once we make it to the Ten-Towns."

You sit and rest up against the side of the cliff. However, after an hour, you decide that you can't wait around all day. For one, the packages wouldn't deliver themselves. For another, it is too cold.

You press on along the trail continuing north. However, eventually, the day gets even later and you will have to camp out for the night. However, you at least managed to put some distance between yourself and the remains of the sabre-toothed tiger and the ogre.

Survival: 14 to help find a suitable campsite, 23 to hunt or forage for food

When we do find a suitable place to stop, Arogna unharnesses the dogs, and they flop down onto the ground, looking quite worn out. "You an' me both, boys," she says to them. "Let's see if there's anythin' to eat round here, an' spare the rations."

Shad will join Arogna (Survival: 5) in looking for an idea place to camp and for firewood. Pulling his coats tight around his torso, he's especially interested in finding kindling. 

"If we get a campfire going, we can tell stories around it." Shad pauses. "Unfortunately, I only have one tail." He pauses again.

Arogna laughs heartily. "One tail. That's a good one." She can be heard chuckling to herself at intervals for the next couple of hours. Her hunting and foraging is less successful, though, and she returns empty-handed.

Qinfaren joins the others around the campfire (adding a touch of Produce Flame if needed to get it going).

"With yeti, ogres, winter wolves, and sabre-tooth tigers prowling around, we should make sure to set a watch tonight," Qinfaren says. "I can the first one."

He looks out from the fire at the cold, snowy night.

"I don't have anything against your homeland, Bjorn, but maybe next time we see where Shad grew up."

"I can do the midnight watch," offers Arogna. "It is cold, ain't it. I like lookin' at the stars, though, when the sky's clear. Our Red Bear watchin' over us, an' all the other tribes' animals up there."

"Oh yes!" Shad says. "I'm sure there must be deliveries we can make to Chult! The very air warms. This very stick--" he holds us a frozen twig "--can become a forest there! A forest or a jungle, permitted with life and the smell of fresh fruit, waiting on the tree to be plucked and devoured. The days are either blue and bright and breezy or fresh, free water falls from the sky sating every thirst. At night the stars are as bright as those above us now. And the people are as warm as the air. And the food, oh, the food! it is ever only delicious."

He continues this way for two or three hours. He will talk through Qinfaren's watch and continue the conversation, even if it is just with himself, through the second watch, watching during it.

Arogna's watch: Perception 9

Arogna is fascinated by Shad's description of Chult, and asks him for many detailed descriptions of the fruits and flowers and trees and animals, to create a mental picture. The result probably has the same uncomfortable relationship with reality as a medieval artwork produced by an artist who has never actually seen the subjects of the painting, but Arogna seems to enjoy making it.

Arogna's searches the surrounding landscape but sees nothing of note nearby.

The rest of the night plays out the same. You all take a turn keeping watch throughout the night. However, apart from seeing an owl in the middle of the night, nothing of interest happens.

By morning you've all had plenty of rest, and you are eager to press on and finish the rest of your journey.

You travel for a couple of hours when you finally see signs of Ten-Town on the horizon. However, past the town and to the west, you see the Sea of Moving Ice, and to the east, you see Reghed Glacier.

It takes a few more hours before you finally reach Bryn Shander.

The walls of Bryn Shander. southernmost and largest of the Ten-Towns, loom over you. This fortified trading post is the gateway to Icewind Dale, and it stands atop a desolate, windswept hill. Guards atop the walls gaze at you, but you can barely make out their expressions underneath their masks and fur-lined caps. They open the gates and wave you in nonetheless.

As you enter Bryn Shander, you check the remaining packages to see what deliveries you will be able to complete whilst in this town. You see that you have only one package to deliver in Ten-Towns: an iron lockbox. It is accompanied by a note from a Maccath the Crimson that says to ask for Raggamel the Renegade with Ogden the innkeeper of Kelvin's Comfort.

(OOC: Sorry guys, will catch up and post in a couple of hoyrs or so.)

Muharg seems to be quite absent-minded as Shad explains the wonders of his beautiful homeland. He runs his fingers along an engraving on his belt, he looks at his own reflection on the cheek of his axe, he stares at the flickering flames of the campfire. The next day, on the way to Brin Shander, he still seems to be lost in his own thoughts for most of the time, and nods at the mention of going find the Kelvin’s Confort inn.