Breathing out, allowing his breath to crystalize a bit as a distraction, "Well, the North  is very smooth snow-unless they've set up for a while under the snow and let it pile up. It'll be easier to tell if anyones been around. South looks harder to judge."  As  Mia trots off  to the south, Red looks to his two others "Whelp, Should I go check the north ? We should not leave Mia alone with how tired she is. I'm confidient I can escape from most things that dont' fly.. I can take a peek from far away if you two want to go with Mia. If something happens you would certainly be able to hear in this quiet landscape."

(If any of the two will oppose, Red will stick with the group at the south together. Otherwise Red'll trot off to the North hill to work his way around it from a decent distance mainly looking for disturbed snow.  I.e. some stealth and perception checks. )

"We probably better to stay together and I can not choose where to go - I'm afraid tracking is not my thing. Mialee, those ... animals over there - would you say something frightened them or are they always running around like that?" That was the only idea Mihris could come up with. In case group would decide to split up, she would stay with Mia.

((I've re-read my post and just to clarify, Mia was still preparing to cast her spell when the goats spoke, everybody heard/understood them even though they might think themselves crazy for that.))

Vanys shakes his head furiously when the goats start talking. He takes a second look to make sure he's not hallucinating and then he checks with the party, "Did anybody else just hear those goats talk?" Once he confirms that he isn't hallucinating, he turns to the goats and shouts, "Why? What's up ahead?"

The black goat watches Vanys intently for several moments, then stomps one hoof to the ground defiantly, causing a bunch of snow to fly off in the strong wind, then repeats "Go baaack!" as some other goats at varying points of the hill turn their heads towards you and watch silently.

"Again! First time I though it was the wind or the cold finally caught up with me. I wander if this is a warning or a threat?"

"Go back? Why? We went through great pain to reach this place" Mia heard the goat speaking and at first she didn't think it's strange. Because for druids, speaking with animals is a normal thing. But then the little elf's clouded brain remembers she hasn't finished her ritual yet and… her friends are reacting to the goat's word as well."Oh you are talking! You are talking in human language!?"

(OCC:Mia tries to recall if she has heard something like talking goat before. )

Nature:14

The lone mountain goat closest to Mialee lowers its head displaying its curled horns and stands his ground, then continues to eye her silently for several moments as the other goats behind him once again start prancing about the various rocky outcropping higher up the hill, slowly going away from your group and eventually fading behind the thin fog.

((Back in her grove, Mialee has vaguely heard of higher druidic spells capable of giving animals the ability to communicate, but doesn't know the details of such powers beyond the reach of acolytes. She doesn't know of any other creature similar to that either.))

Vanys calls out to the goats as they retreat, "Wait! Don't go! Why shouldn't we proceed?" If the goats continue prancing away Vanys huffs out a breath of cold air and asks the group, "So do we listen to the goats?" The exasperation is clearly visible in his eyes as he has no idea why a goat was just talking to them and even less of an idea of how they should interpret the message. He especially looks to Mia given that she is usually more experienced regarding nature-related things like this. Noticing her exhaustion, something inside him softens and he lights a torch from his pack and hands it to the young elf, "The light isn't really necessary but maybe the warmth will be comforting. It isn't much, but it's all I have to offer."

Having been quiet during the oddities, Red simply states, "Well...That's new.  so. Was it warning us because of danger, or because we guessed wrong? What a vague confusing goat. Even if we go back.. to what the caravan? the drifters? At this point coming to the North just seems like a bad choice." Exasperated Red looks to his cohorts, and figures why not, "Well, between the torches, and the...talking goats. We're pretty obvious here. So, lets warm a bit while we talk."  Red fishes into one of his pockets-Pulling a small vial, one that looks familiar to some, the vial he was warming himself upon previously.  Uncermoniously Red pops and dumps the contents, creating a small warm Bonfire for them while they make a quick decision. 

"I'm at a loss, and when in doubt, I press forward. But I'm open to thoughts."

Mihris sighed, that was her thought too. But they were here already and could as well press forward, as Red said. "I wish the goats were more specific but it seems we have to search on our own. Which side should we begin with?"

Mia receives the torch from Vanys, sits down beside the bonfire Red made. The light makes her focused and the warmth of the fire gives her strength. "Thank you guys. That makes me feel much better. And I remember…" Says Mia, looking at the goats. "There is magic that can turn animals into messengers. It's a druid spell. And in my experience, such spells require the caster to know us in advance or… catch us in their field of view."  

The little elf stands tall. She holds a torch in one hand and a magic berry in another hand. "I'm Mialee of house Raethran." Mia's voice echoes through the rocky hill. " I was sent by the elders of High Forest to protect the Great Oak of Kuldahar! Me and my friends are the ones that are against Auril! There is a caravan that arrives in less than one and half hours. The servant of the winter goddess set a trap to destroy them in this very place! We can't return unless we find something. If you are a druid, who serves nature and lives like me, please lend us your wisdom! Tell us what is happening here and why we shouldn't go forward!"

The black goat watches Mialee silently as she speaks, now alone in the rocky hill he spends several moments eyeing her, you can almost swear he narrows his eyes at you. The goat then takes another stomp at the ground, more snow flying off to the wind, and bleats "Baaaad idea!" before turning around and prancing off towards the higher outcroppings, eventually fading from view. Your are now left alone with only the howling wind at the pass filling your ears.

After the balck goat disappeared from her sight, Mia sighs,puts the berry back into her pouch and shrugs. "Well at least,we now know that…One someone sent that hairy guy isn't our friend. Two, there is something that they don't want us to see over there. Three, they are in the place where they can hear us.…And four, it would be risky or difficult for them to take us out. Because you know,if they can,they should simply ambush us instead of using a creepy goat to scare us." …Also five,Mia adds in her mind,the one controlling the goat might be someone she already knows. 

Mihris sighed (she did it a lot lately) "Or that someone did not believe we can stop whatever is coming, and advised to leave while we can. But either way, we have to check out what is going on, of course. So, left of right?"

Red flips a coin for lack of a better thought, "Well, I guess right? I have no clue otherwise." exasperated Red   opts for, for lack of other clues.  One mountain with nicer snow is easier to track non flyers, but this one had the goat. So this makes the most sense.

((If the road heads east, somewhat north-east, the hill on the right would be the southern one (the taller, rockier, and formerly goat-ier). The smoother hill would be to your left (if you were facing the direction you're following the road in). So, what are you doing? 🙂))

"If you want to start an avalanche or plan something sinister at all, would not it be more logical to do it on the taller cliff?" Mihrins never planned anything sinister (not to mention avalanche), it was pure guessing. "Or we can still split up and check both hills. I can try to climb the one to the right." Should others agree, she would not hesitate to climb (or try to do so) the "goat-ier" cliff.

(Earlier Red mentioned splitting up but it didnt' sound like something folks wanted to do; Red is quite fine with checking out the Left one (no goat smoother one)  alone-as he's pretty good at escaping due to expepditious retreat runes etched into his boots this morning.  But if folks want to split up now, feel free to make that statement. Red's previous offer still stands if follks accept it and we split. Otherwise. Red did vote for the right (The Goat Filled one) if we're sticking together due to a coin toss. )

(As a player now though. I feel like the Goat was telling us the other mountain was the one full of crap. Soft set snow makes for good avalanche)

Vanys is mostly lost regarding the discussion as to which mountain they should investigate and will just follow the other's leads. If splitting up is suggested he says the following, "I'm not sure that would be a good idea. We have no idea what we are up against or how many people we could run into and if we split up and half of us get cut off from the other half, we will be in serious trouble. I say we pick one side and go for that one." As far as which mountain, Vanys will follow Red's lead as the artificer seems to be much more intelligent about this stuff than he is himself and he hasn't heard an especially good argument for either side.

(OOC: As a player, I say we do the rockier mountain as that is the one that the goats retreated back down and if the range of the spell that made them talk isn't that long, then perhaps the caster is on the other side... I'm just guessing though.)