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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 996357" data-attributes="member: 99">As the initial shock of seeing the collected orcish army wore off, the party noticed something else that was unexpected. At the end of the giant burned clearing, opposite of the fortified hill, stood a fortress of ice. It was not nearly as large as the barbarian fortifications but, considering that there was no such ice fortress present ten days ago, it was still a rather noteworthy edifice.It was clear that the party couldn’t launch an attack at the orc army. But they didn’t want to return to the hill fort without some further information about exactly what was going on inside that ice fortress. The party decided to do one last scouting mission before returning to report to Kyndalyn and Hrongar.They withdrew a mile back into the woods and circled to the north. As they went, they were forced to venture back onto the plains. They did the best they could to rapidly move from one small cluster of trees to another. But as they traveled, above them appeared one of the ravens that had dogged their recent journeys. They hurried to the next copse of trees and waited. The raven circled overhead, presumably keeping track of their exact location.“I’ve had enough of this!”, said Speaks with Stone. He stepped a few paces away from his companions and a look of concentration came over his face. As the others stared in astonishment, Speaks’ features elongated and sharpened and he seemed to shrink in on himself. A few seconds later, a large eagle stood where Speaks had been only a moment before. Then it rather clumsily took to the air.The eagle quickly got up to speed and began winging its way toward the raven. The raven suddenly realized that it was in peril and began flying southward as fast as it could go. But eagles are much faster flyers than ravens and Speaks soon caught the raven.He began slashing at the carrion bird with his claws and beak but, never having been in eagle form before, he had a difficult time using these new attack forms (the player rolled an atrocious series of dice rolls, none higher than about a 7). He finally began to get the hang of his new form and his beak was starting to send black feathers drifting to the ground below.Then, the pair of avians flew over the clearing where the orc army was amassed. Looking down at the ice fortress, Speaks could see a handful of orcs, dressed in the garb of the shamans, pointing up at the aerial battle taking place a hundred feet above them. Speaks knew that he would have only one more chance at the raven before he was within bowshot of the orcs.But before he could dive in for this attack, a large snake-like creature emerged from the top of the ice fortress and a small, red, glowing projectile surged skyward and suddenly burst into a huge sphere of flame. Speaks was engulfed in this explosion and was severely hurt. He banked hard and flew back over the forest towards the plains to the north. He hadn’t been able to kill the raven but perhaps it would think twice before spying on them again. Either way, his first trip to the ice fortress had been educational.Speaks returned to the copse of trees where the rest of the party waited. He carefully landed his slightly charred new form and then transformed back to normal, again to the collective astonishment of the rest of the party.“When the heck did you learn to do that?!”, said Krase.“It’s just a new trick I’ve been working on. But nevermind that right now.”By this time it was nearly dark. They moved to a different copse of trees in which to take shelter for the night and settled in for some rest. Speaks decided to send Arc on a scouting mission to determine if large numbers of orcs guarded the northern approach to the ice fortress. He used his ability to Speak with Animals and asked the wolf to approach the clearing and report back. Arc departed.When Speaks was awakened for his turn at watch, he was concerned to find out that Arc still hadn’t returned. It had been several hours and they were only a mile or so from the orcish camp. He kept a vigil for the wolf for the rest of the night but Arc did not return.As the others woke in the pre-dawn darkness, Speaks informed them that at first light, he would be going to go and find Arc. The others looked at one another skeptically. They knew that this meant going right up to the edge of the whole orcish army. But the look of determination on Speaks’ face was enough to quell any arguments they might have. And after all, Arc had fought beside them every step of the way.A team member was missing and they intended to find him. NEXT:  Icecapades</blockquote>

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