The Frozen Wastes IC (Group 1)

[dspeyer]

"I think I have the best dark vision, so I'll go check it out. Can one of you turn me invisible? Just to be safe?"

Hirshel then casts fly on himself, waits for either an invisibility spell or a refusal of one and heads over the cliff. He stops about 10 ft off the ground and looks at whatever caught their attention.

[ColdSepp]

Gillium

"Maybe we should wait until morning, it might not be safe out there alone."

[PId6]

As you fly down the side of the cliff, a feeling of apprehension comes over you. You slowly make out more and more of the thing that caught your attention, until you finally make it out. It was a longbow, sticking out of the snow. Clinging to the bow was a frozen hand.

It was then that you noticed many such objects all around you. A piece of torn fur, the tip of a hat, a buried dagger here and there, and obvious signs that there are bodies buried underneath a thin layer of snow.

There are two groups, one right under you, and another mound a few feet to the west. After uncovering the one closest to you, you can see that these corpses are fairly recent. Even taking into account the freezing temperatures, they couldn't have been here longer than a week or two at most. The other set of corpses further away seem much older, at least several weeks or even months old. Those are much more skeletal and also somewhat more numerous, composed of about 6 to 8 corpses compared to the 3 to 4 recent ones. All of the corpses show some signs of being chewed and eaten by animal or humanoid sized jaws.

[Keld Denar]

Serek

Serek casts Invisibility from his LAST 2nd level spell slot on Hirshel.

Hirshel: Please don't be a hero. Come back immediately if you spot ANYTHING.

[dspeyer]

Hirshel returns to his companions and recounts all that he saw. His conclusion: "They're dead, and not the kind of dead that involves getting up and attacking people. They've been that way for days. They'll be no deader in the morning. Let's head back and get some sleep."

[Jair Barik]

Hale nods and heads back to the lodge. "Who takes the first watch? I still have number of spells left before the day is over and I have been unwounded for the entire day. How about the rest of you? Do you feel well?"

[ColdSepp]

Gillium

"Thanks to Hirshel, I feel fine. And I'll take the first watch, as I have no spells to recover." Gil says, as he makes sure all the doors are secure for the night.

[Keld Denar]

Serek

I'll take 2nd watch, Hirshel, you take 3rd, ok? Hale, you fill in where you want while you rest.

Hirshel:

Spoiler

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Do not leave Hale on watch alone.

[dspeyer]

"So Gil, then Serek then me, with three hour watches? Sounds good. Let me take one more precaution and then to sleep."

Hirshel spreads crackly stuff (dry twigs and leaves or similar) around the outside of the room so no one can tread quietly there.

If the next 8 hours pass uneventfully:

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Seeing as Hale is fully rested and awake, and Gillium and Serek have an hour of sleep left, Hirshel pulls out the mysterious magical ring and identifies it. He does so with his staff still in one hand, and enough attention on the outside world to drop the spell at the first sign of trouble.

[ColdSepp]

Gillium

Thanks to his ring of sustenance, he only needs 2 hours of sleep. Once he has gotten that much, he'll join whomever is on watch.

[PId6]

The night passed uneventful and quiet. Your watches went without disturbances, and as morning came, all you could see outside are fog, snow, and clouds.

@Hirshel
You try to identify the ring but the spell doesn't reveal anything. It appears to be just an ordinary ring.

[dspeyer]

Hirshel casts Detect Magic. Does the ring still have a magical aura?

[PId6]

Yes, now it has a dim aura of divination.

[dspeyer]

Very odd. Hirshel casts light on it, dismisses the spell, and detects magic again.

[PId6]

Now you sense a dim aura of evocation on the item.

[dspeyer]

Hirshel puts the ring on and wills it to do something.

[PId6]

The ring looks nice and fancy but nothing magical happens.

[dspeyer]

Well, I never claimed to be an expert on weird magic.

Hirshel waits for everyone else to wake up (which shouldn't be long) and recounts all he tried.

"Serek, have you ever heard of anything like this?"

[Keld Denar]

Serek

Nah, it looks faintly like a noble's ring I remember seeing once, but where and when is totally blanked out. The cold up here freezes the mind as much as it freezes the fingers. That, or I'm just getting old!

Very well, shall we go have a looksie at the cliff and whatever it was that tumbled down it? There is still mystery afoot!

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How in the name of all that is holy, are we gonna carry all those lion pelts back to the city? Who's got extra dimensional space?

[dspeyer]

How in the name of all that is holy, are we gonna carry all those lion pelts back to the city? Who's got extra dimensional space?

Once we have this area safe for travel, we can hire some people and wagons from town. We might even be able to sell them to that merchant and have him pick them up, if he's still sticking around.

For now, let's check out the cliff

[ColdSepp]

Gillium

"To the cliffs, then. Lead the way, Hirshel."

[dspeyer]

Hirshel leads the way to the cliffs, keeping an eye out for anything that's changed since last night. Once there, he points out where the bodies are.

[Keld Denar]

Serek

So, any idea how we get down there? Serek looks both ways, as if expecting a path to jump out and gobble them all up.

[PId6]

You see no simple path down. The cliff seems to extend a long way in both directions. However, it is only 40 ft tall, and shouldn't be difficult to climb with some rope.

[dspeyer]

"No problem," Hirshel says, digging a magical rope out of his pack, "I knew this thing would come in handy sooner or later. Knot yourself for climbing, and fasten yourself securely to that big tree." The rope obeys, and there is now a safe path of descent.

[ColdSepp]

Gillium

"Now that is handy." Gil says, as the rope snakes down the cliff. "Will it untie once we get down?"

[PId6]

You all clamber down the side of the cliff without incident thanks to Hirshel's magic rope. At the bottom, you can clearly see the corpses described to you last night.

They seem no different from the night before, still as dead and partially chewed as ever. Now, in the light of day, you can tell a few more details about them. Most of the older ones seem to be killed by bites and scratches, while the more recent ones seemed to be killed by a weapon, most likely a dagger. The bite marks on the older corpses match the ones found on Hale before and the marks on the more recent ones match the fangs of the creature you killed yesterday.

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You know, it was hard to resist the urge to make the corpses vanish when you finally get down, just for the freaky horror movie factor.

[dspeyer]

Do they show signs of having been thrown off a cliff?

[PId6]

Yes, they've all been thrown down the cliff.

[dspeyer]

These creatures are not the mindless beasts I took them for, as they have clearly labored to conceal their killings. I suppose the one we fought using a dagger should have clued us to that.

I am relieved to see only two sets of bite marks. Perhaps once we destroy the second one, the region will be safe.

For now, let us try to identify these bodies, and then set them properly at rest.