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<blockquote data-quote="Hairy Minotaur" data-source="post: 3811439" data-attributes="member: 11574"><p><strong>The river card is played</strong></p><p></p><p>The keep remains on edge and alert, ever watchful of the mountain range to the north and the rocky hills to the east, expecting an attack at any moment. Xanthos threw himself into repairing the collapsed portion of the north wall; he along with Doopa did most of the heavy lifting in lieu of winches. </p><p></p><p>Haimish inspired courage and competence in the makeshift masons as they repaired the wall to their best efforts. Eeyore retreated to ponder who, what, why, and how Kessen’s body was dumped in the middle of the keep; an enemy that can seemingly reach anywhere would be a dangerous opponent indeed. </p><p></p><p>Aleena returned to Menthos within a few hours with Statinisor’s reply to the warlock’s request for additional firepower to combat the cold creatures they had faced:</p><p></p><p><em>“Give the bag and it’s contents to Thruvimhurax the Cunning, I will send two Opals with a man baring the sign of distress, he will not know who he is meeting so you must intercept him prior to the Pentacles doing so.” </em> </p><p></p><p>“What’s the sign of distress?” Menthos asked</p><p></p><p>Aleena winced, but retrieved a holly branch from her dresser drawer. Withdrawing a small knife from her bodice, she proceeded to strip the branch. After completing that she held the branch out as if dowsing for water, “Then you would ask if had lost my way, to which I would reply yes”.</p><p></p><p>“Hokey, and why would I need to keep it from the pentacles?” Menthos asked</p><p></p><p>“Because they would be faith bound to assist the man and would find the opals and the messenger may assume these are the people he is to deliver to.” Aleena answered</p><p></p><p>“Who is Thruvimhurax the Cunning?” Menthos asked</p><p></p><p>“I do not know that name, perhaps you could check with your bard friend?” Aleena responds</p><p></p><p>Menthos narrowed his eyes and pondered the reply for a moment, wondering silently about traitors within Kador’s ranks. He pushes that thought to the back of his mind for the moment, and excuses himself to go find Gorn.</p><p></p><p>“Ya want me ta wat?” Gorn replies</p><p></p><p>“Anyone new, I don’t care if it’s a corpse, you come find me regardless of what I’m doing and I’ll check them out first.” Menthos instructs</p><p></p><p>“I ain’t givin’ control o’er the security of dis keep to you.” Gorn argues</p><p></p><p>“You won’t be you’d be adding an extra layer of protection. Me.” Menthos advises</p><p></p><p>“Dat ain’t protection, dats an invitation to have dis keep run o’er wit little yous.” Gorn objects</p><p></p><p>“Look old man, I don’t care if I have to camp out on your ass to make this happen, so we can do this benignly or we can do this by me giving you the worst case of hemorrhoids you’ve ever scratched. What’s it going to be?” Menthos replies</p><p></p><p>“Do’na be threaten me, I got me eye on ya. I been watchin’ ya, you ain’t the only one wif secrets.” Gorn answers</p><p></p><p>“Yeah? Well I don’t care that you still sleep with your binky, or that you shave your ass hair with a pair of goat dentures. That still won’t detract from me crawling up inside you and squatting until you comply with this order, you have a problem with it, you go talk to Aleena.” Menthos responds</p><p></p><p>Gorn snorts his disapproval and heads off to find Aleena. Menthos spotted him about ten minutes later, bursting through the inner tower door, fuming with rage and hell bent on ruining the warlock’s day. Menthos decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in Aleena’s bed, a place Gorn wouldn’t dare look for him. So Menthos snuck around the assembled masons rebuilding the north wall and made it back inside the priest’s quarters before he was spotted. </p><p></p><p>Two days passed and the wall had been repaired, the town was even more on edge fearing the lull in scouting parties and no frost giant attack only meant the actual attack would be far worse the longer they made the keep wait to battle them. That night it began to snow heavily, shouts of terror and a call to arms rung out over the keep at three in the morning. Someone along the northern battlements had spotted movement against the black background. When seconds turned to minutes which then began an hour, the keep relaxed a little.</p><p></p><p>“There’s going to be six to eight feet of snow in the keep by morning at this rate.” Xanthos stated</p><p></p><p>“Oh no.” Gorn gasped</p><p></p><p>“What?” Haimish inquired</p><p></p><p>“They’re going to bury us in snow and then pick us off one by one as we’d be unable to fight effectively in waist high snow.” Eeyore answered</p><p></p><p>“Well the snow’s not magical.” Menthos states, using his warlock ability to detect magical auras.</p><p></p><p>“Yes, but that doesn’t mean this small storm didn’t grow to huge size because of the presence of the ice treant, it could be exasperating the problem by aggravating the cold and winds.” Xanthos answered. </p><p></p><p>“Eh, a couple of firestorms centered on the clouds above will fix the problem.” Menthos answers</p><p></p><p>“Fix what problem? Human habitation here? Because all you would do is create falling globs of water that would freeze and crush those below.” Xanthos replies</p><p></p><p>“How’s that different from eight feet of snow on top of you? You lack the vision to see through this problem.” Menthos retorts</p><p></p><p>“If genocide is what you want there are more effective ways that wouldn’t leave survivors. If getting rid of the snow is your concern then you’re going about it the wrong way. Either way you’re a self-centered moron.” Xanthos replies</p><p></p><p>“What are some of those no survivor ways you speak of? I find your assertions intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your plot device.” Menthos answers</p><p></p><p>“I’m going to go scout out the giant’s camp and see what they’re doing, maybe we can get a better idea of what they may be planning.” Xanthos advised</p><p></p><p>“What should we be doing here?” Eeyore inquired</p><p></p><p>“Be vigilant.” Xanthos answers</p><p></p><p>“Doopa try that once, get put in jail.” The ogre replies</p><p></p><p>“He meant keep an eye open, keep a look out for anything, not vigilante.” Haimish explains</p><p></p><p>“Oh, but Doopa can’t take eye out of head.” The barbarian states</p><p></p><p>“I think we should wait.” Menthos advises</p><p></p><p>“Why? Looking for a way out?” Xanthos accuses</p><p></p><p>“No, I’ll just be better equipped to handle the ice tree in a couple more days.” Menthos answers</p><p></p><p>“Why’s that?” Eeyore inquires</p><p></p><p>“I’m not going to explain it to ranger, you wouldn’t understand. I think Xanthos should scout out the giant’s camp and Hledra and then we’ll formulate our physical response.” Menthos offers</p><p></p><p>“Is your attention span so bad that you can’t even pay attention to your own conversations? Is that not what I just proposed?” Xanthos asked exasperated</p><p></p><p>“No, you proposed scouting the giant’s camp, I added Hledra in there, making it a completely new request.” Menthos says proudly</p><p></p><p>Xanthos shakes his head in disbelief as he transforms into an eagle and soars into the falling snow, disappearing into the clouds. He heads north and quickly covers the ground to the giant’s former camp. The only thing remaining is a brilliantly glowing “door” in the middle of the valley, no bodies, no tree, no sign of life. Swopping in low for a better look, Xanthos feels the cold protection he placed on himself failing, which confuses the shifter as he should still have several minutes left. The closer he gets to the glowing monolithic structure, the colder he gets, Xanthos veers off and flies parallel to the thing and as he passes it, he realizes that it’s a two dimensional gate. </p><p></p><p>Xanthos circles the valley one last time before heading off to scout out Hledra, satisfied that he had discovered why this autumn storm packed the force of the heart of winter, Xanthos headed east. Reaching the enemy city, Xanthos noted it was snowing their as well. Although he failed to locate the orc or the ogre mage he did spot several dozen kobolds scurrying back and forth from a number of buildings. After a few more minutes, Xanthos turned and headed back to Kindoras.</p><p></p><p>Gorn awoke every healthy body he could and had makeshift shovels passed out to them, most comprised of broken shields and half of breastplates that were no longer serviceable. For the next four hours the keep’s residents kept themselves from getting buried, when the first signs that the storm was relenting the keep rejoiced and Haimish broke into a tearful rendition of “Happy Birthday to me” that seemed to distract the workers from their burning muscles and aching backs.</p><p></p><p>Around noon when the clouds had broken and a freezing sun peeked out through the clouds Gorn sent half of the keep back to bed to rest. Haimish, Doopa, and Eeyore decided to stay up and help with various activities. Menthos however took leave and went back to bed, but not before reminding Gorn to come get him if any strangers ask for permission to gain entrance to the keep.</p><p></p><p>Menthos fell back asleep easily and drifted off into a deep slumber, soon after the nightmare began. Menthos’ dream of owning his own harem was ripped to scrap by cold, black, icy claws. Forcing his dream to the sides of his consciousness, the claws scraped against his will burning his very soul. Two small points of light appeared in the darkness beyond the claws, one blue and the other red, both twinkling and becoming brighter.</p><p></p><p>Then the voice came, “Antithesis to you I am, born of the remnants of the first to be called by the god you suffer for. My power is limited only by the dream of it I have yet to have; I exist across your life like a stain of habit. You wish to find me? You will have to cease looking where you expect answers; I will be here waiting for you, taunting you, playing with you as a child plays with a cricket. One by one your limbs will fall off, your song will stop and you’ll be left there undulating in your own visceral mass. Waiting for me to end your suffering, for that is what I do, that is what I am. The end to your suffering under a false pretense.” </p><p></p><p>Menthos woke with a start, to say he was cold would be an understatement, he could see his heavy breath in the air in front of him. He swung his legs over and readies himself to spring from his bed, only to feel a searing pain in his feet. Looking down he found his toes white with frost and his toenails blue and dying. Limping his way down the hallway to Aleena’s door, he entered to find the priest bent over attending to her own feet colored the same as the warlock’s. A knowing glanced passed before them and Menthos hobbled his way to a chair to await his turn at the healing touch.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hairy Minotaur, post: 3811439, member: 11574"] [b]The river card is played[/b] The keep remains on edge and alert, ever watchful of the mountain range to the north and the rocky hills to the east, expecting an attack at any moment. Xanthos threw himself into repairing the collapsed portion of the north wall; he along with Doopa did most of the heavy lifting in lieu of winches. Haimish inspired courage and competence in the makeshift masons as they repaired the wall to their best efforts. Eeyore retreated to ponder who, what, why, and how Kessen’s body was dumped in the middle of the keep; an enemy that can seemingly reach anywhere would be a dangerous opponent indeed. Aleena returned to Menthos within a few hours with Statinisor’s reply to the warlock’s request for additional firepower to combat the cold creatures they had faced: [I]“Give the bag and it’s contents to Thruvimhurax the Cunning, I will send two Opals with a man baring the sign of distress, he will not know who he is meeting so you must intercept him prior to the Pentacles doing so.” [/I] “What’s the sign of distress?” Menthos asked Aleena winced, but retrieved a holly branch from her dresser drawer. Withdrawing a small knife from her bodice, she proceeded to strip the branch. After completing that she held the branch out as if dowsing for water, “Then you would ask if had lost my way, to which I would reply yes”. “Hokey, and why would I need to keep it from the pentacles?” Menthos asked “Because they would be faith bound to assist the man and would find the opals and the messenger may assume these are the people he is to deliver to.” Aleena answered “Who is Thruvimhurax the Cunning?” Menthos asked “I do not know that name, perhaps you could check with your bard friend?” Aleena responds Menthos narrowed his eyes and pondered the reply for a moment, wondering silently about traitors within Kador’s ranks. He pushes that thought to the back of his mind for the moment, and excuses himself to go find Gorn. “Ya want me ta wat?” Gorn replies “Anyone new, I don’t care if it’s a corpse, you come find me regardless of what I’m doing and I’ll check them out first.” Menthos instructs “I ain’t givin’ control o’er the security of dis keep to you.” Gorn argues “You won’t be you’d be adding an extra layer of protection. Me.” Menthos advises “Dat ain’t protection, dats an invitation to have dis keep run o’er wit little yous.” Gorn objects “Look old man, I don’t care if I have to camp out on your ass to make this happen, so we can do this benignly or we can do this by me giving you the worst case of hemorrhoids you’ve ever scratched. What’s it going to be?” Menthos replies “Do’na be threaten me, I got me eye on ya. I been watchin’ ya, you ain’t the only one wif secrets.” Gorn answers “Yeah? Well I don’t care that you still sleep with your binky, or that you shave your ass hair with a pair of goat dentures. That still won’t detract from me crawling up inside you and squatting until you comply with this order, you have a problem with it, you go talk to Aleena.” Menthos responds Gorn snorts his disapproval and heads off to find Aleena. Menthos spotted him about ten minutes later, bursting through the inner tower door, fuming with rage and hell bent on ruining the warlock’s day. Menthos decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in Aleena’s bed, a place Gorn wouldn’t dare look for him. So Menthos snuck around the assembled masons rebuilding the north wall and made it back inside the priest’s quarters before he was spotted. Two days passed and the wall had been repaired, the town was even more on edge fearing the lull in scouting parties and no frost giant attack only meant the actual attack would be far worse the longer they made the keep wait to battle them. That night it began to snow heavily, shouts of terror and a call to arms rung out over the keep at three in the morning. Someone along the northern battlements had spotted movement against the black background. When seconds turned to minutes which then began an hour, the keep relaxed a little. “There’s going to be six to eight feet of snow in the keep by morning at this rate.” Xanthos stated “Oh no.” Gorn gasped “What?” Haimish inquired “They’re going to bury us in snow and then pick us off one by one as we’d be unable to fight effectively in waist high snow.” Eeyore answered “Well the snow’s not magical.” Menthos states, using his warlock ability to detect magical auras. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean this small storm didn’t grow to huge size because of the presence of the ice treant, it could be exasperating the problem by aggravating the cold and winds.” Xanthos answered. “Eh, a couple of firestorms centered on the clouds above will fix the problem.” Menthos answers “Fix what problem? Human habitation here? Because all you would do is create falling globs of water that would freeze and crush those below.” Xanthos replies “How’s that different from eight feet of snow on top of you? You lack the vision to see through this problem.” Menthos retorts “If genocide is what you want there are more effective ways that wouldn’t leave survivors. If getting rid of the snow is your concern then you’re going about it the wrong way. Either way you’re a self-centered moron.” Xanthos replies “What are some of those no survivor ways you speak of? I find your assertions intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your plot device.” Menthos answers “I’m going to go scout out the giant’s camp and see what they’re doing, maybe we can get a better idea of what they may be planning.” Xanthos advised “What should we be doing here?” Eeyore inquired “Be vigilant.” Xanthos answers “Doopa try that once, get put in jail.” The ogre replies “He meant keep an eye open, keep a look out for anything, not vigilante.” Haimish explains “Oh, but Doopa can’t take eye out of head.” The barbarian states “I think we should wait.” Menthos advises “Why? Looking for a way out?” Xanthos accuses “No, I’ll just be better equipped to handle the ice tree in a couple more days.” Menthos answers “Why’s that?” Eeyore inquires “I’m not going to explain it to ranger, you wouldn’t understand. I think Xanthos should scout out the giant’s camp and Hledra and then we’ll formulate our physical response.” Menthos offers “Is your attention span so bad that you can’t even pay attention to your own conversations? Is that not what I just proposed?” Xanthos asked exasperated “No, you proposed scouting the giant’s camp, I added Hledra in there, making it a completely new request.” Menthos says proudly Xanthos shakes his head in disbelief as he transforms into an eagle and soars into the falling snow, disappearing into the clouds. He heads north and quickly covers the ground to the giant’s former camp. The only thing remaining is a brilliantly glowing “door” in the middle of the valley, no bodies, no tree, no sign of life. Swopping in low for a better look, Xanthos feels the cold protection he placed on himself failing, which confuses the shifter as he should still have several minutes left. The closer he gets to the glowing monolithic structure, the colder he gets, Xanthos veers off and flies parallel to the thing and as he passes it, he realizes that it’s a two dimensional gate. Xanthos circles the valley one last time before heading off to scout out Hledra, satisfied that he had discovered why this autumn storm packed the force of the heart of winter, Xanthos headed east. Reaching the enemy city, Xanthos noted it was snowing their as well. Although he failed to locate the orc or the ogre mage he did spot several dozen kobolds scurrying back and forth from a number of buildings. After a few more minutes, Xanthos turned and headed back to Kindoras. Gorn awoke every healthy body he could and had makeshift shovels passed out to them, most comprised of broken shields and half of breastplates that were no longer serviceable. For the next four hours the keep’s residents kept themselves from getting buried, when the first signs that the storm was relenting the keep rejoiced and Haimish broke into a tearful rendition of “Happy Birthday to me” that seemed to distract the workers from their burning muscles and aching backs. Around noon when the clouds had broken and a freezing sun peeked out through the clouds Gorn sent half of the keep back to bed to rest. Haimish, Doopa, and Eeyore decided to stay up and help with various activities. Menthos however took leave and went back to bed, but not before reminding Gorn to come get him if any strangers ask for permission to gain entrance to the keep. Menthos fell back asleep easily and drifted off into a deep slumber, soon after the nightmare began. Menthos’ dream of owning his own harem was ripped to scrap by cold, black, icy claws. Forcing his dream to the sides of his consciousness, the claws scraped against his will burning his very soul. Two small points of light appeared in the darkness beyond the claws, one blue and the other red, both twinkling and becoming brighter. Then the voice came, “Antithesis to you I am, born of the remnants of the first to be called by the god you suffer for. My power is limited only by the dream of it I have yet to have; I exist across your life like a stain of habit. You wish to find me? You will have to cease looking where you expect answers; I will be here waiting for you, taunting you, playing with you as a child plays with a cricket. One by one your limbs will fall off, your song will stop and you’ll be left there undulating in your own visceral mass. Waiting for me to end your suffering, for that is what I do, that is what I am. The end to your suffering under a false pretense.” Menthos woke with a start, to say he was cold would be an understatement, he could see his heavy breath in the air in front of him. He swung his legs over and readies himself to spring from his bed, only to feel a searing pain in his feet. Looking down he found his toes white with frost and his toenails blue and dying. Limping his way down the hallway to Aleena’s door, he entered to find the priest bent over attending to her own feet colored the same as the warlock’s. A knowing glanced passed before them and Menthos hobbled his way to a chair to await his turn at the healing touch. [/QUOTE]
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