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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 819526" data-attributes="member: 63">Episode One, Act ThreeWhile Torrent leads the group to the river, Kathor and Haddin ride to Cerri to get last-minute supplies.  Haddin is just now recovering from getting punched by Kathor ten minutes ago, and he tries to get the soldier to turn around, but Kathor ignores his complaints.  When they reach Cerri, Kathor tells Haddin what supplies they’ll need for the anti-fire balm Torrent plans to make, so that Haddin can get those while Kathor buys normal food and provisions.Cerri is built along a bend in the same river Torrent is waiting at.  Its buildings are arrayed in ten wide rings; entrances lead in from the outer edge of the ring, but most public living goes on in the centers of the rings, protected from strong winds or wild Orc attackers.  Thankfully the stores they need are located in one of the rings at the edge of the town, so Kathor tethers his horse to a post, and he and Haddin go to shop.  As Kathor goes into his store, he sees a pair of gruff men who had watched his approach.  They nod at him casually as he enters the store, but they don’t look like they’re from this village.The shopkeeper seems fairly friendly despite the dangerous times, and from his small talk Kathor gathers that there’s a group of mercenaries in town looking for bounties.  Within a few minutes, Kathor has everything he needs, and he leaves to put the supplies on his warhorse, when he notices the two men have left.  He spots them just as they enter the store he sent Haddin to, and they’re holding unsheathed blades.Cursing, Kathor rushes after them, hearing a commotion from inside the store, mostly shouting.  He bursts into the building and sees Haddin on the floor, trying to struggle out of the grasp of one of the warriors.  The other warrior is talking with the hysterical shopkeeper, and Kathor can make out, “Yes, he’s Haddin!  I don’t care what you do with him, just get him out of my store before he-”At that point, Haddin tries to cast a spell, shaking a hand at the shopkeeper, but he goes into a coughing fit and bends over in pain.  The warrior holding him raises his sword to attack Haddin for casting a spell, but Kathor moves first, whipping his greatsword off his back and knocking the man flat with one swing.  It’s not fatal, but the man falls unconscious regardless.The second mercenary wheels to face Kathor and attacks, nearly getting through Kathor’s defenses.  Kathor has a hard time fighting in the enclosed space of the small store, and worse, he sees that the shopkeeper is about to slip out the back to call for help.  But Haddin manages to force out a spell without coughing, and a brief chill pulses through the room.  The shopkeeper stops in mid-step, completely motionless.The mercenary and Kathor lock blades, and the mercenary kicks Kathor in the belly, trying to wind him.  But Kathor is stronger than his foe, and he forces the man backward and off-balance.  Before he can recover his guard, Kathor swings his great blade in a wide arc, slashing his opponent in half at the waist.Kathor grabs Haddin and asks what happened.  Haddin shakes off Kathor’s helping hand and just says they need to leave before his paralysis spell on the shopkeeper wears off.  He refuses to answer Kathor’s questions as to why the shopkeeper was afraid of him, so Kathor just has to grab the necessary supplies and get Haddin out.They ride quickly to meet Torrent and the rest of the group.  While they were gone, Crystin had occasionally seemed to be looking off somewhere distant, and with some sort of foresight she tells them that the Inquisitor group they saw approaching has headed toward Cerri itself, and so they have at least a half hour before the Orcs turn in their direction.Torrent uses magic to freeze a 10-ft. wide bridge of ice in the surface of the river, which they cross one horse at a time.  Haddin falls off Kathor’s horse and nearly falls into the deadly cold river, but Kathor manages to drag him back to safety, and they all manage to make it to the other side.  The river leads to the Innenotdar Fire Forest, which is about ten miles away, though they’re now on the opposite side of the river from the Inquisitors.  Torrent dismisses the ice flow so that none can follow them easily, and they ride toward the fire forest.Two hours later, the edge of the forest is a blazing line that stretches beyond sight from east to west.  Its trees rise sixty feet or more into the air, and flames roar across every branch and leaf, though the trees don’t seem to actually be burning away.  No one knows how the forest has managed to remain burning for sixty years, but common legend says that the Innenotdar Elves set fire to their forest in spite when they were driven out by the Ragesians, and the fire has survived through a curse they laid.  Though they’re still a quarter mile from the edge of the forest, the air is at hot as a summer day, and the ground is actually clear of snow.A few hundred feet away they spot a single man and his horse, their small figures barely visible against the blazing glow of the fire forest.  Cautiously, they move closer to find out who he is.</blockquote>

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