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Into the Icy Darkness: The Great Demon War
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<blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1317126" data-attributes="member: 15043"><p><strong>Of Harpies, Confusion, and Nymphs</strong></p><p></p><p>The party was still recovering from the events of the previous night when Tess noticed that the idols in the party’s possession had somehow “wilted” further. The heads of the creatures they depicted now hung low over its chest, its arms were now crossed in front of it. Tess reasoned that this could mean the creature was weakening in some way, and she urged the party to finish their morning preparations so the group could head out.</p><p></p><p>Somewhat surprisingly to Siabrey et al, Shaun said he was, indeed coming with. Lucius stated that he had told Shaun of the groups quest, and had asked him to come with. Siabrey was more than a little concerned, but didn’t say much. Tess nodded with approval, asking him if his bow skills were adequate. Shaun laughed. </p><p></p><p>Geoffrey, awake now, balked. He had been paid 150 gold by Shaun, true, but to find Ilia, not to run after some ice demon. He states that he is going back to Kulloden, and that should Shaun wish to resume the hunt, he can find him there. He then stumbles off to find his horse, complaining of a blazing headache.</p><p></p><p>Siabrey herself has a budding problem in her own head… Lucius. For a while, she had been growing fond of the young man… then attached to him. Her worried, sometimes despondent antics when he couldn’t be found were evidence of this. Despite her growing… <em>liking</em> was the word her in denial mind kept stressing, of him, her moral will spoke there was something not right about allowing such feelings for someone younger than her like that. She’d further struggled with it once she found out Lucius’ family was negotiating to betroth him to the Emperor’s granddaughter, who was even <em>older</em> than Siabrey by perhaps ten years.</p><p></p><p>She’d managed to put her feelings aside, trying to convert them into being his watcher, keeping an eye on him, making sure he was safe. But now, that seemed like it was slowly turning on its head. He’d been close to her for the past week and a half, but he seemed to be closer now.. singling her out from Tess and the rest of the group. Part of her was excited by the prospects, while part of her dreaded the thought… She put them aside with the slight murmur of <em>Its in your head… he saw you were feeling down, and he wanted to cheer you up, that’s all… nothing untoward there…</em> and finished her now headache-free preparations to head out with the rest of the party.</p><p></p><p>Around noon the party cantered out of the west gate of Mephys, leaving behind a village that would remember each of them for a long time to come. They reined their horses to the northwest, where a very large section of trees through the forest had been obviously knocked down, and vegetation trampled. Shaun called out the obvious, stating it was the path the ice armies must have taken to reach Mephys. Siabrey resisted the urge to smack him.</p><p></p><p>The party rides within sight of the path, through the forest, with Lucius’ hawk flying high above and ahead to keep a lookout. Lucius has said he couldn’t fully <em>talk</em> to the animal, though he could get some sense of what the animal was thinking and what it was seeing… sort of like seeing a picture through several opaque glasses.</p><p></p><p> The party ran into little that first day other than normal woodland creatures, and they made camp away from the trail (if the giant destroyed area could be called that). Lucius took the first watch, while Siabrey took the second. When the time came for Siabrey to hand off her watch to Shaun, she was surprised to be woken by him only a few minutes later.</p><p></p><p> “Hmm?” she grumbled, rubbing her bleary eyes.</p><p></p><p> “Siabrey?” Shaun asked, his voice quiet and a little shaky. She immediately was able to tell that something wasn’t right. Instinctively, she reached for her katana.</p><p></p><p> “What? What is it?” she was rising to her feet when he touched her shoulder and shook his head.</p><p></p><p> “Its not a monster… its just… well…” his voice dropped to a bare whisper, “I have something I want to tell you… its very personal… and I know that I’ve been sort of a fool towards you in the past but… I need you. I need you to stay up with me… you see… I’m afraid of the dark.”</p><p></p><p> Part of Siabrey wanted to smile in triumph, but she managed to hold it in… barely.</p><p></p><p> “You do realize that considering what you did back in town, I could use this against you,” she said deadpan. Shaun nodded, and she noticed he looked a little more fearful. She then let the smile break through.</p><p></p><p> “Don’t worry, I won’t. I’ll stay up, so long as you let me sleep a little extra in the morning so I get my eight hours.”</p><p></p><p> “Agreed.”</p><p></p><p> The two spent the next several hours chatting things up, and by morning’s rise something of a truce had developed… at least for the time being.</p><p></p><p></p><p> The next morning, the party sets out once again, and can now plainly see White Spine Mountain. Tess estimates that it is perhaps three days ride away over the trees, and once again the party rides along in the woods beside the path. Unbeknownst to them, two eyes start watching them, and moving towards them.</p><p></p><p> Lucius was the first to get the alarm, a series of feelings cascading down from his familiar… danger, urgency, something big. He gave the party as clear a warning as he could, and the group split up, half in the woods on one side of the road, half on the other… all planning for to ambush their would be attackers.</p><p></p><p> Its Shaun that first hears a distinctively strange noise… <em>whump… whump… whump</em> echoing through the trees. He and the part look around desperately, but don’t see anything at first, even after Tess figures out the <em>whump</em> is likely the sound of wings flapping… rather large wings. </p><p></p><p></p><p> The harpy, her skin a mottled blue with the normal reddish pink of her kind, flapped closer to where she saw the humans, her voice primed and ready. Some 50 feet off the ground, she planned to stay out of range of their melee weapons, relying on her voice to call them to her. Finally, just as the party spots the wicked visage of the harpy in the sky, the creature opens its mouth.</p><p></p><p>Immediately, Siabrey and Shaun find themselves captivated by the creature’s song. They both know that they <em>shouldn’t</em> be walking towards it, yet their bodies continue moving anyway, as the creature’s song continues to hypnotically draw them to her.</p><p></p><p>Tess sees her friends blindly walking into danger, and draws her harpbow. She, Lucius, and Rogar let loose a ragged volley, with only Tess’ arrow striking the creature, piercing one of its leathery wings. Tess reloads as Siabrey and Shaun draw closer, and desperately aims at the creature’s neck.</p><p></p><p>As she lets loose, Rogar and Lucius fire again, and this time all three arrows find their target. Tess’ however, does the most important damage. While it doesn’t pierce into the creature’s throat as she hoped, it does knock the wind out of the harpy, and her delirious song ceases. Blood comes gurgling from her mouth from an arrow from Lucius in her lung.</p><p></p><p>Free of their bindings, Shaun and Siabrey now add their bows to the fire, and within seconds, the creature falls like some fiendish pincushion out of the sky, with Tess’ final arrow between its eyes. The party pokes and prods the creature for a bit to make sure it was dead, before confiscating from the creature a little idol (wilted), and 4 small sapphires. .</p><p></p><p>Far more alert, the party rides on through mid morning till midday. By this point is is becoming increasingly apparent that the horses are thirsty. Lucius spots a large pond/small lake to the party’s left, and slowly the group ventures there, only to find a very odd sight.</p><p></p><p>By the opposite side of the beautifully clean waters were a badly injured wolf and a deer, drinking side by side from the pool. Other animals, hunters and prey alike, milled around close to the pool as well. No one is sure of what to make of this… Tess has the best idea, guessing that it might be a dryad, or a nymph, or some other kind of fey that watches over these waters.</p><p></p><p>”Regardless,” she says, “we should find the owner of these waters, I believe, and gain their permission before we water our horses.” The party agrees and dismounts to find the owner, when something unexpected happens.</p><p></p><p>All around the party, vines suddenly explode out of the ground. The green tendrils rapidly ensnare Lucius and Rogar, while Tess, Siabrey and Shaun manage to jump free in time. Before they can have time to react, from behind one of the trees steps a tall, almost statuesque woman with a figure and features that would make most males cry. Her face, which would normally be heavenly, was twisted in a snarl of anger.</p><p></p><p>“You,” she snapped, pointing at the party, “you two leggers come tramping through my forest, destroying my animals, ruining my trees,a nd trying to destroy my lake with your ice magic!” Her green eyes burn with a flame that Tess sees is dangerous, as she points across the lake towards the wolf.</p><p></p><p>“You even went after poor wolfie!” she half snarled, half sobbed, “I should get rid of you all n…”</p><p></p><p>“Stop! Wait!” Tess shouts, thinking quickly. “We are not the creatures you speak of… we have no ice on us! We only seek to stop those who would use ice to harm you and your forest!”</p><p></p><p>The nymph angrily crosses her arms and looks at the upstart human. Tess continued.</p><p></p><p>“We merely came here to take care of our animals, our horses! They need fresh water, and we saw your pond! We only dismounted to look for you to ask your permission!”</p><p></p><p>The nymph sighed, looked down for a moment, and then stared Tess in the eye.</p><p></p><p>“Prove it!”</p><p></p><p>“Call over your injured wolf… I will heal him,” Tess asks. The nymph looks across the lake, and though no spoken words are uttered, the wolf trots over, gingerly holding up is front left paw, where a large chunk of meat has been removed by some creature’s bite. Tess gingerly places her hands on the wolf’s wound, which almost completely covers over and heals. The nymph sighs, and uncrosses her arms. (DM’s Note: She got a 27 on her diplomacy check… darn high <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />)</p><p></p><p>“I suppose then that I misjudged you all,” she says. “For that, please accept my apologies.” The vines around Lucius and Rogar quickly vanish, and the two shake their arms, happy to be free</p><p></p><p>“What creatures come and attack your lake?” Siabrey asks. The nymph sits on the ground, and begins her tale.</p><p></p><p>Even only a few weeks later, things were normal here… until a large group of ice creatures tramped by, headed southeast. They crushed the large path through the forest with their sheer numbers, destroying many trees several hundred years old. TO make matters worse, seven specific creatures broke off from the group and attacked her and her pond. She drove them off, but these same severan creatures keep returning, now not even when the ice army marches by. </p><p></p><p>She describes two of them as being tall… nearly 9 feet high, seemingly made entirely out of ice crystal. These are the ones that try to reach her lake and stick their legs into it, turning it into ice. They are followed by four smaller creatures, which by description resemble the “ghouls” that Lucius and Shaun faced outside of Mephys. Finally, she says that the two bigger ice creatures have a “pet,” they bring along, that hasn’t done much other than stay in the woods. She says he’s small, and he’s some kind of lizard, but in the heat of combat she hasn’t been able to tell what kind. She says that her powers are increasingly not able to hold them back, and she fears for the safety of the pond and the animals that rely on it.</p><p></p><p>Tess volunteers that the party could stay overnight to help the nymph in case the ice creatures arrive… aside from ready water, there was a small clearing by the lake that could serve as a ready campsite. The party agrees, and begins watering their horses.</p><p></p><p>. Shaun, true to himself, makes a rather lewd comment about the nymph’s physical beauty. Before she can turn to punish him, Siabrey’s hand connects with the back of his head and a loud <em>SLAP</em> echoes through the forest. The nymph grins, and comments that human males need to be corrected more often in that manner. Shaun, cowed, sits down to rub his sore skull.</p><p></p><p> The comment, along the nervous idle time before a possible battle, reignites Siabrey and Tess’ dispute over looks (DM’s Note: These are two female players going at it… quite funny to watch <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />). The males in the group try to not act like they’re listening, but its readily apparent they are.</p><p></p><p> Lucius the noble re-emerges sometime later. Not having washed in well over a week… nearing two, he decides he smells horrid, and asks everyone to turn around while he cleans himself off in the clean waters. Everyone save Rogar and the Nymph decide it’s a good idea as well, and fortunately the lake is shaped in a rather large L… allowing both sides some privacy while remaining within earshot. </p><p></p><p> This proves to potentially be a burden, as the guys, particularly Shaun the prankster, overhear the loud exclamation of the “stacked” discussion re-emerging. Shaun then incites, (through dares, with teens are unfortunately vulnerable to at times) Lucius to attempt to swim underwater most of the distance, and confirm the “winner of the discussion.”</p><p></p><p> The girls realize something is wrong once they only spot Shaun in the water, and they see Rogar on the shore rolling around in laughter. They pile out of the water, and get themselves properly covered before a foiled Lucius comes to the surface. Tess remarks the boy is naughty while a shocked Siabrey doesn’t know how to react… </p><p></p><p> After the chaos settles, the party settles down by the campsite, and Lucius starts practicing some magical spells, trying to rein in his abilities. Siabrey continues to struggle with the issues in her mind, as its increasingly obvious that he’s devoting lots of his attention exclusively <em>to her</em>. She finds herself sitting beside him for a couple hours as he explains some of the spells in the book he is learning his control from, though he doesn’t demonstrate them.. he wants to hold his magical power for the night in case of battle.</p><p></p><p> “See that log over there?” he points to a rather large dead log. Siabrey leans in to see, bumping his shoulder, and feelings pop into her head, and she has trouble pushes them aside. The log in question was perhaps three feet wide and ten feet long.</p><p></p><p> “Yeah?”</p><p> </p><p> “With this one,” he points in the book, “I can shatter the log with a blast of energy… I just need to work on my aiming.” Siabrey catches herself staring at him for a second, though she manages to look away just before he turns back around to talk to her. He gives her a rather large grin that makes her uncomfortable.</p><p></p><p><em>This can’t be happening</em> her mind kicks her, <em> Why are you dwelling on this?</em></p><p></p><p><em>That grin was not a normal grin,</em> another part of her mind exclaimed, <em>that grin was… was…</em></p><p></p><p><em>I’m delving too deep into this… it was not a normal grin… I’m getting too close… I need to get away… quickly…</em>and she makes up a rather weak excuse to get away from the area, and avoids him for quite a while.</p><p></p><p>The party heads to sleep, with the first watch passing quietly. Late in Siabrey’s second watch, however, her eyes spot movement in the forest. Even though she can’t see figures yet, she begins rousing the party, so that when two tall and four short figures become visible, the party is ready with a follow of arrows, most with burning cloth attached.</p><p></p><p>To the party’s chagrin, however, the arrows that do hit seem to do less damage than they should. One of Siabrey’s slams the creature in the neck, and it hardly flinches. One from Shaun hits the creature full in the chest… it melts some, then pulls the arrow out. The creatures then break into the clearing, and the party for the first time, gets a clear look at the pet…</p><p></p><p>It was small.. perhaps only 3 feet long, but 2 feet wide, and looked much as a miniature dragon. As the monsters emerged from the forests’ edge, one of the ice trolls snarled a command and the dragon took to the air.</p><p></p><p>Disturbed, Shaun launches an arrow at the dragon, hitting it full in the stomach, yet it continues to rise till its about 10 feet in the air. The ghoulish comrades launch themselves at the party, and nearly poison Shaun for his trouble. The battle begins in earnest.</p><p></p><p>Lucius decides to unleash the newest spell he has learned… <em>shatter</em>, which would have been devastating against he ice trolls. Unfortunately for the party, Lucius hadn’t practiced the spell enough, and instead of shattering the trolls to bits, the spell shakes a local apple tree until its fruit rains onto the ground.</p><p></p><p>The nymph calls upon her magical powers, and the same vines that wrapped up Lucius and Rogar now wrap around the trolls, holding them immobile. The ghouls attempt at slashing and hacking, to little avail. One charges Siabrey, who holds her katana in the low guard position. AS the creature closes, she slashes upward, cutting it open from belly to throat, before snapping her body around full circle, cleanly lopping off its head.</p><p></p><p>Tess, dispatches one creature with a sonic dagger as it tried to rake her, and Lucius strikes another so hard with his bastard sword that it is cut open from head to chest. By this point, the ice trolls have broken free of their bonds and begin to lurch forward, as their pet finally acts.</p><p></p><p>The part first feels a chilly feeling run through them as they see the small creatures eyes go aglow. None of them break and run, and the small creature’s mouth starts to fill with blue, and a blue flash rockets across the battlefield, downing the last ghoul but also badly injuring several party members (DM’s note: Cone of Cold). </p><p></p><p>Siabrey then lets the warrior in her take over. She rushes forward towards the ice trolls, her sword upraised, striking hard at one… managing to fell it in one blow. Its compatriot, free and now angry, charges her, dealing a painful amount of damage, and nearly knocking her down. More arrows slice through the air, though the ice trolls seem to shrug off most of the damage.</p><p></p><p>The small icedrake meanwhile has his eyes glow green, and almost immediately Tess and Lucius fall to the ground, asleep. The nymph runs to Tess, the closest one, and starts trying to wake her up. An arrow from Shaun flashes through the air and knocks the icedrake out of the sky, though it rapidly begins to regain its footing.</p><p></p><p>Siabrey returns the favor onto the ice troll, slicing open its midsection. As the icedrake struggles to its feet, Tess, now awakened and infuriated, launches a sonic dart at the creature. Once again, her accuracy is dead on… in the literal sense. The creatures head contorts grostesquely and it falls, as Tess twirls the wrist the dart originated from and then sticks it in her pocket.</p><p></p><p>Lucius and the nymph then walk about the party, Lucius using the staff to heal party members, while the nymph healed Lucius. When everyone found themselves fixed up, the nymph points out that the two dead ice trolls were indeed the ones that had broken off and were bothering her, and asks how she can repay the party. Tess and Siabrey ask if she knows a safer route to White Spine Mountain, and if she can lead them there. The nymph says she can’t leave her lake for too long, but she would be more than happy to talk to one of her animals and have it lead them there.</p><p></p><p>Tired but happy, the party sits back around the campfire, and some humorous banter goes back and forth. Lucius notices that everyone is laughing except Siabrey, and he goes to sit beside her, asking her what’s wrong. She sighs, and mentions that she’s worried about what is to come.</p><p></p><p>Lucius’ response is to give her a tight hug, and the swirling emotions in Siabrey’s head rush to the forefront again. </p><p></p><p></p><p><em>I shouldn’t be thinking about this,</em> she thinks as she is within his embrace, <em>He’s so much younger… he’s a high nobleman!</em></p><p></p><p><em>But you have noble blood in your veins as well,</em> another part of her mind called, </p><p><em>and this young man will possibly be marrying someone far older than you… and someone he doesn’t like…</em> </p><p></p><p><em>You’re getting too close… why don’t you break this off?</em></p><p></p><p><em>But I can’t break this thing off! I don’t want to break this off!</em></p><p></p><p><em>It feels wrong, but it feels right!</em></p><p></p><p><em>I don’t know what to do!</em></p><p></p><p>Siabrey finds herself alternately trying to hug him tighter and releasing her grip. The emotions continue to swirl and rise in her mind, pushing other thoughts aside. This time, she can’t push them back, and she realizes that she can’t ignore them any longer, she must make a decision… soon…</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Emperor Valerian, post: 1317126, member: 15043"] [b]Of Harpies, Confusion, and Nymphs[/b] The party was still recovering from the events of the previous night when Tess noticed that the idols in the party’s possession had somehow “wilted” further. The heads of the creatures they depicted now hung low over its chest, its arms were now crossed in front of it. Tess reasoned that this could mean the creature was weakening in some way, and she urged the party to finish their morning preparations so the group could head out. Somewhat surprisingly to Siabrey et al, Shaun said he was, indeed coming with. Lucius stated that he had told Shaun of the groups quest, and had asked him to come with. Siabrey was more than a little concerned, but didn’t say much. Tess nodded with approval, asking him if his bow skills were adequate. Shaun laughed. Geoffrey, awake now, balked. He had been paid 150 gold by Shaun, true, but to find Ilia, not to run after some ice demon. He states that he is going back to Kulloden, and that should Shaun wish to resume the hunt, he can find him there. He then stumbles off to find his horse, complaining of a blazing headache. Siabrey herself has a budding problem in her own head… Lucius. For a while, she had been growing fond of the young man… then attached to him. Her worried, sometimes despondent antics when he couldn’t be found were evidence of this. Despite her growing… [I]liking[/I] was the word her in denial mind kept stressing, of him, her moral will spoke there was something not right about allowing such feelings for someone younger than her like that. She’d further struggled with it once she found out Lucius’ family was negotiating to betroth him to the Emperor’s granddaughter, who was even [I]older[/I] than Siabrey by perhaps ten years. She’d managed to put her feelings aside, trying to convert them into being his watcher, keeping an eye on him, making sure he was safe. But now, that seemed like it was slowly turning on its head. He’d been close to her for the past week and a half, but he seemed to be closer now.. singling her out from Tess and the rest of the group. Part of her was excited by the prospects, while part of her dreaded the thought… She put them aside with the slight murmur of [I]Its in your head… he saw you were feeling down, and he wanted to cheer you up, that’s all… nothing untoward there…[/I] and finished her now headache-free preparations to head out with the rest of the party. Around noon the party cantered out of the west gate of Mephys, leaving behind a village that would remember each of them for a long time to come. They reined their horses to the northwest, where a very large section of trees through the forest had been obviously knocked down, and vegetation trampled. Shaun called out the obvious, stating it was the path the ice armies must have taken to reach Mephys. Siabrey resisted the urge to smack him. The party rides within sight of the path, through the forest, with Lucius’ hawk flying high above and ahead to keep a lookout. Lucius has said he couldn’t fully [I]talk[/I] to the animal, though he could get some sense of what the animal was thinking and what it was seeing… sort of like seeing a picture through several opaque glasses. The party ran into little that first day other than normal woodland creatures, and they made camp away from the trail (if the giant destroyed area could be called that). Lucius took the first watch, while Siabrey took the second. When the time came for Siabrey to hand off her watch to Shaun, she was surprised to be woken by him only a few minutes later. “Hmm?” she grumbled, rubbing her bleary eyes. “Siabrey?” Shaun asked, his voice quiet and a little shaky. She immediately was able to tell that something wasn’t right. Instinctively, she reached for her katana. “What? What is it?” she was rising to her feet when he touched her shoulder and shook his head. “Its not a monster… its just… well…” his voice dropped to a bare whisper, “I have something I want to tell you… its very personal… and I know that I’ve been sort of a fool towards you in the past but… I need you. I need you to stay up with me… you see… I’m afraid of the dark.” Part of Siabrey wanted to smile in triumph, but she managed to hold it in… barely. “You do realize that considering what you did back in town, I could use this against you,” she said deadpan. Shaun nodded, and she noticed he looked a little more fearful. She then let the smile break through. “Don’t worry, I won’t. I’ll stay up, so long as you let me sleep a little extra in the morning so I get my eight hours.” “Agreed.” The two spent the next several hours chatting things up, and by morning’s rise something of a truce had developed… at least for the time being. The next morning, the party sets out once again, and can now plainly see White Spine Mountain. Tess estimates that it is perhaps three days ride away over the trees, and once again the party rides along in the woods beside the path. Unbeknownst to them, two eyes start watching them, and moving towards them. Lucius was the first to get the alarm, a series of feelings cascading down from his familiar… danger, urgency, something big. He gave the party as clear a warning as he could, and the group split up, half in the woods on one side of the road, half on the other… all planning for to ambush their would be attackers. Its Shaun that first hears a distinctively strange noise… [I]whump… whump… whump[/I] echoing through the trees. He and the part look around desperately, but don’t see anything at first, even after Tess figures out the [I]whump[/I] is likely the sound of wings flapping… rather large wings. The harpy, her skin a mottled blue with the normal reddish pink of her kind, flapped closer to where she saw the humans, her voice primed and ready. Some 50 feet off the ground, she planned to stay out of range of their melee weapons, relying on her voice to call them to her. Finally, just as the party spots the wicked visage of the harpy in the sky, the creature opens its mouth. Immediately, Siabrey and Shaun find themselves captivated by the creature’s song. They both know that they [I]shouldn’t[/I] be walking towards it, yet their bodies continue moving anyway, as the creature’s song continues to hypnotically draw them to her. Tess sees her friends blindly walking into danger, and draws her harpbow. She, Lucius, and Rogar let loose a ragged volley, with only Tess’ arrow striking the creature, piercing one of its leathery wings. Tess reloads as Siabrey and Shaun draw closer, and desperately aims at the creature’s neck. As she lets loose, Rogar and Lucius fire again, and this time all three arrows find their target. Tess’ however, does the most important damage. While it doesn’t pierce into the creature’s throat as she hoped, it does knock the wind out of the harpy, and her delirious song ceases. Blood comes gurgling from her mouth from an arrow from Lucius in her lung. Free of their bindings, Shaun and Siabrey now add their bows to the fire, and within seconds, the creature falls like some fiendish pincushion out of the sky, with Tess’ final arrow between its eyes. The party pokes and prods the creature for a bit to make sure it was dead, before confiscating from the creature a little idol (wilted), and 4 small sapphires. . Far more alert, the party rides on through mid morning till midday. By this point is is becoming increasingly apparent that the horses are thirsty. Lucius spots a large pond/small lake to the party’s left, and slowly the group ventures there, only to find a very odd sight. By the opposite side of the beautifully clean waters were a badly injured wolf and a deer, drinking side by side from the pool. Other animals, hunters and prey alike, milled around close to the pool as well. No one is sure of what to make of this… Tess has the best idea, guessing that it might be a dryad, or a nymph, or some other kind of fey that watches over these waters. ”Regardless,” she says, “we should find the owner of these waters, I believe, and gain their permission before we water our horses.” The party agrees and dismounts to find the owner, when something unexpected happens. All around the party, vines suddenly explode out of the ground. The green tendrils rapidly ensnare Lucius and Rogar, while Tess, Siabrey and Shaun manage to jump free in time. Before they can have time to react, from behind one of the trees steps a tall, almost statuesque woman with a figure and features that would make most males cry. Her face, which would normally be heavenly, was twisted in a snarl of anger. “You,” she snapped, pointing at the party, “you two leggers come tramping through my forest, destroying my animals, ruining my trees,a nd trying to destroy my lake with your ice magic!” Her green eyes burn with a flame that Tess sees is dangerous, as she points across the lake towards the wolf. “You even went after poor wolfie!” she half snarled, half sobbed, “I should get rid of you all n…” “Stop! Wait!” Tess shouts, thinking quickly. “We are not the creatures you speak of… we have no ice on us! We only seek to stop those who would use ice to harm you and your forest!” The nymph angrily crosses her arms and looks at the upstart human. Tess continued. “We merely came here to take care of our animals, our horses! They need fresh water, and we saw your pond! We only dismounted to look for you to ask your permission!” The nymph sighed, looked down for a moment, and then stared Tess in the eye. “Prove it!” “Call over your injured wolf… I will heal him,” Tess asks. The nymph looks across the lake, and though no spoken words are uttered, the wolf trots over, gingerly holding up is front left paw, where a large chunk of meat has been removed by some creature’s bite. Tess gingerly places her hands on the wolf’s wound, which almost completely covers over and heals. The nymph sighs, and uncrosses her arms. (DM’s Note: She got a 27 on her diplomacy check… darn high :)) “I suppose then that I misjudged you all,” she says. “For that, please accept my apologies.” The vines around Lucius and Rogar quickly vanish, and the two shake their arms, happy to be free “What creatures come and attack your lake?” Siabrey asks. The nymph sits on the ground, and begins her tale. Even only a few weeks later, things were normal here… until a large group of ice creatures tramped by, headed southeast. They crushed the large path through the forest with their sheer numbers, destroying many trees several hundred years old. TO make matters worse, seven specific creatures broke off from the group and attacked her and her pond. She drove them off, but these same severan creatures keep returning, now not even when the ice army marches by. She describes two of them as being tall… nearly 9 feet high, seemingly made entirely out of ice crystal. These are the ones that try to reach her lake and stick their legs into it, turning it into ice. They are followed by four smaller creatures, which by description resemble the “ghouls” that Lucius and Shaun faced outside of Mephys. Finally, she says that the two bigger ice creatures have a “pet,” they bring along, that hasn’t done much other than stay in the woods. She says he’s small, and he’s some kind of lizard, but in the heat of combat she hasn’t been able to tell what kind. She says that her powers are increasingly not able to hold them back, and she fears for the safety of the pond and the animals that rely on it. Tess volunteers that the party could stay overnight to help the nymph in case the ice creatures arrive… aside from ready water, there was a small clearing by the lake that could serve as a ready campsite. The party agrees, and begins watering their horses. . Shaun, true to himself, makes a rather lewd comment about the nymph’s physical beauty. Before she can turn to punish him, Siabrey’s hand connects with the back of his head and a loud [I]SLAP[/I] echoes through the forest. The nymph grins, and comments that human males need to be corrected more often in that manner. Shaun, cowed, sits down to rub his sore skull. The comment, along the nervous idle time before a possible battle, reignites Siabrey and Tess’ dispute over looks (DM’s Note: These are two female players going at it… quite funny to watch :)). The males in the group try to not act like they’re listening, but its readily apparent they are. Lucius the noble re-emerges sometime later. Not having washed in well over a week… nearing two, he decides he smells horrid, and asks everyone to turn around while he cleans himself off in the clean waters. Everyone save Rogar and the Nymph decide it’s a good idea as well, and fortunately the lake is shaped in a rather large L… allowing both sides some privacy while remaining within earshot. This proves to potentially be a burden, as the guys, particularly Shaun the prankster, overhear the loud exclamation of the “stacked” discussion re-emerging. Shaun then incites, (through dares, with teens are unfortunately vulnerable to at times) Lucius to attempt to swim underwater most of the distance, and confirm the “winner of the discussion.” The girls realize something is wrong once they only spot Shaun in the water, and they see Rogar on the shore rolling around in laughter. They pile out of the water, and get themselves properly covered before a foiled Lucius comes to the surface. Tess remarks the boy is naughty while a shocked Siabrey doesn’t know how to react… After the chaos settles, the party settles down by the campsite, and Lucius starts practicing some magical spells, trying to rein in his abilities. Siabrey continues to struggle with the issues in her mind, as its increasingly obvious that he’s devoting lots of his attention exclusively [I]to her[/I]. She finds herself sitting beside him for a couple hours as he explains some of the spells in the book he is learning his control from, though he doesn’t demonstrate them.. he wants to hold his magical power for the night in case of battle. “See that log over there?” he points to a rather large dead log. Siabrey leans in to see, bumping his shoulder, and feelings pop into her head, and she has trouble pushes them aside. The log in question was perhaps three feet wide and ten feet long. “Yeah?” “With this one,” he points in the book, “I can shatter the log with a blast of energy… I just need to work on my aiming.” Siabrey catches herself staring at him for a second, though she manages to look away just before he turns back around to talk to her. He gives her a rather large grin that makes her uncomfortable. [I]This can’t be happening[/I] her mind kicks her, [I] Why are you dwelling on this?[/I] [I]That grin was not a normal grin,[/I] another part of her mind exclaimed, [I]that grin was… was…[/I] [I]I’m delving too deep into this… it was not a normal grin… I’m getting too close… I need to get away… quickly…[/I]and she makes up a rather weak excuse to get away from the area, and avoids him for quite a while. The party heads to sleep, with the first watch passing quietly. Late in Siabrey’s second watch, however, her eyes spot movement in the forest. Even though she can’t see figures yet, she begins rousing the party, so that when two tall and four short figures become visible, the party is ready with a follow of arrows, most with burning cloth attached. To the party’s chagrin, however, the arrows that do hit seem to do less damage than they should. One of Siabrey’s slams the creature in the neck, and it hardly flinches. One from Shaun hits the creature full in the chest… it melts some, then pulls the arrow out. The creatures then break into the clearing, and the party for the first time, gets a clear look at the pet… It was small.. perhaps only 3 feet long, but 2 feet wide, and looked much as a miniature dragon. As the monsters emerged from the forests’ edge, one of the ice trolls snarled a command and the dragon took to the air. Disturbed, Shaun launches an arrow at the dragon, hitting it full in the stomach, yet it continues to rise till its about 10 feet in the air. The ghoulish comrades launch themselves at the party, and nearly poison Shaun for his trouble. The battle begins in earnest. Lucius decides to unleash the newest spell he has learned… [I]shatter[/I], which would have been devastating against he ice trolls. Unfortunately for the party, Lucius hadn’t practiced the spell enough, and instead of shattering the trolls to bits, the spell shakes a local apple tree until its fruit rains onto the ground. The nymph calls upon her magical powers, and the same vines that wrapped up Lucius and Rogar now wrap around the trolls, holding them immobile. The ghouls attempt at slashing and hacking, to little avail. One charges Siabrey, who holds her katana in the low guard position. AS the creature closes, she slashes upward, cutting it open from belly to throat, before snapping her body around full circle, cleanly lopping off its head. Tess, dispatches one creature with a sonic dagger as it tried to rake her, and Lucius strikes another so hard with his bastard sword that it is cut open from head to chest. By this point, the ice trolls have broken free of their bonds and begin to lurch forward, as their pet finally acts. The part first feels a chilly feeling run through them as they see the small creatures eyes go aglow. None of them break and run, and the small creature’s mouth starts to fill with blue, and a blue flash rockets across the battlefield, downing the last ghoul but also badly injuring several party members (DM’s note: Cone of Cold). Siabrey then lets the warrior in her take over. She rushes forward towards the ice trolls, her sword upraised, striking hard at one… managing to fell it in one blow. Its compatriot, free and now angry, charges her, dealing a painful amount of damage, and nearly knocking her down. More arrows slice through the air, though the ice trolls seem to shrug off most of the damage. The small icedrake meanwhile has his eyes glow green, and almost immediately Tess and Lucius fall to the ground, asleep. The nymph runs to Tess, the closest one, and starts trying to wake her up. An arrow from Shaun flashes through the air and knocks the icedrake out of the sky, though it rapidly begins to regain its footing. Siabrey returns the favor onto the ice troll, slicing open its midsection. As the icedrake struggles to its feet, Tess, now awakened and infuriated, launches a sonic dart at the creature. Once again, her accuracy is dead on… in the literal sense. The creatures head contorts grostesquely and it falls, as Tess twirls the wrist the dart originated from and then sticks it in her pocket. Lucius and the nymph then walk about the party, Lucius using the staff to heal party members, while the nymph healed Lucius. When everyone found themselves fixed up, the nymph points out that the two dead ice trolls were indeed the ones that had broken off and were bothering her, and asks how she can repay the party. Tess and Siabrey ask if she knows a safer route to White Spine Mountain, and if she can lead them there. The nymph says she can’t leave her lake for too long, but she would be more than happy to talk to one of her animals and have it lead them there. Tired but happy, the party sits back around the campfire, and some humorous banter goes back and forth. Lucius notices that everyone is laughing except Siabrey, and he goes to sit beside her, asking her what’s wrong. She sighs, and mentions that she’s worried about what is to come. Lucius’ response is to give her a tight hug, and the swirling emotions in Siabrey’s head rush to the forefront again. [I]I shouldn’t be thinking about this,[/I] she thinks as she is within his embrace, [I]He’s so much younger… he’s a high nobleman![/I] [I]But you have noble blood in your veins as well,[/I] another part of her mind called, [I]and this young man will possibly be marrying someone far older than you… and someone he doesn’t like…[/I] [I]You’re getting too close… why don’t you break this off?[/I] [I]But I can’t break this thing off! I don’t want to break this off![/I] [I]It feels wrong, but it feels right![/I] [I]I don’t know what to do![/I] Siabrey finds herself alternately trying to hug him tighter and releasing her grip. The emotions continue to swirl and rise in her mind, pushing other thoughts aside. This time, she can’t push them back, and she realizes that she can’t ignore them any longer, she must make a decision… soon… [/QUOTE]
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