Session 5: Trek to Ten-Towns

Winter

CESN

Oct 2, 2023 10:23 am
As the sun rises, everyone is ready to recommence the travel to Icewind Dale. The road stretches out before you, the sky gray with clouds, the ground white with snow and the mountain range rising to block the horizon. Beorne Steelstrike estimates this will be a 4-day trip at best as the fresh snow from the storm will slow overland travel throw the dangerous mountain passage to a crawl.

Just past midday, you come across a smashed cart at the side of the road. Two sets of tracks lead away from the cart into a grove of snow-covered fir trees.
Winter
Oct 2, 2023 10:32 am
The line of caravans slow to a pause as they come across the wreckage. Agna's brow creases when she sees the broken cart. A lone cart meant that its drivers had been either desperate or confident. Either way, misfortune had clearly struck.

She leans forward to inspect whether the tracks were made by man or beast.
OOC:
I'm rolling Nature to see what kind of tracks they are instead of Tracking, since Agna isn't trying to follow them for now.

Rolls

Nature - lv5, SR: 5-10 (f0-c0) - (2d6)

(55) = 10

Oct 2, 2023 11:57 am
OOC:
Double! you get one experience recognizing tracks.
CESN sent a note to testlum
Oct 2, 2023 12:38 pm
"Hmp." A horse and bootprints on the ground were all Agna made of the tracks. Not particularly enlightening, but the way they went were clear for anyone see. She runs a hand over the broken wood of the wagon. "Might be best if we go see what's goin' on there, so's it don't do the same thing to us."
Oct 2, 2023 7:49 pm
"A few of us head onto the thicket then?" Izuhn hops down from his riding place. "I'd rather find the surprise than it find me later."
Oct 3, 2023 9:30 am
"Adaia, you comin'?"

Helda Silverstream

CESN

Oct 3, 2023 9:43 am
Helda Silverstream
As soon as Agna starts to check the tracks, Beorne brings the caravan to an halt and shouts a few commands for the guards. As their prepare for anything, the dwarf leads a smaller group to investigate the cart for any clues of what might have happened.

Helda approaches you "Ye might be right there. No want no surprises this far north" She takes a very quick look at the tracks and agrees with Agna. "Boots and horse yes... Maybe someones get caught by the storm?"
Oct 3, 2023 10:02 am
"I agree, could be someone in need out there, and don't want to be caught off guard. Not sure what fate the cart has suffered but it doesn't look good. Let's set out quickly then."

Winter

CESN

Oct 3, 2023 10:45 am
Winter
The group quickly picks up the tracks leading them away from the cart. The four of you follow the tracks into the fir grove for about a half-mile into the grove, finding a grisly scene at the end of them: the half-eaten frozen carcasses of a half-elf man and a horse. Adaia can't tell what killed the half-elf, and any tracks around the scene seem to have been lost to Izuhn, but Agna is able to tell those look like Wolf bites.
OOC:
Another experience for Agna's nature (I'm not sure this rule is useful at all).

Rolls

Adaia: Medicine - lv4, SR: 5-9 (f1-c0) - (2d6)

(12) = 3

Izuhn Frostbeard: Tracking - lv3, SR: 5-8 (f-1-c0) - (2d6)

(64) = 10

Agna Moss: Nature - lv5, SR: 5-10 (f0-c0) - (2d6)

(33) = 6

Oct 3, 2023 10:59 am
"Could it have been the same creature we saw yesterday? An awful sight"
Oct 3, 2023 12:09 pm
OOC:
I agree that the mechanic of getting XP when rolling doubles below a skill is kinda wonky. Agna has collected a bunch of experience since the game started and hasn't spent any yet lol. I do like how doubles above a skill's level causing that skill to level up.

Agna only purses her mouth at the grisly scene. "That man ain't been dead long," she says after studying the corpse for a long moment. "Even with the cold an' all, body's too fresh." So decided, she ushers the group back and arranges the reagents for a summoning around the dead half-elf - a raven's feather, the eye of a lamb, a branch newly snapped from the tree.
OOC:
Gonna assume that the successful Nature roll lets me decide that the corpse is recently dead, so Agna can finally use Commune With Dead!
Last edited October 3, 2023 12:10 pm

Rolls

Magic - lv3, SR: 5-8 (f0-c0) - (2d6)

(26) = 8

half-elven ghost

CESN

Oct 3, 2023 3:42 pm
half-elven ghost
As Agna finishes her ritual, you notice a shift in the lighting around the corpse, a shapeless brightness as if a spot opened in the clouds.

CESN sent a note to testlum
Oct 3, 2023 8:10 pm
"I'm not sure exactly what did this, but whatever it was surely did a number on the area. The whole things so trampled that you'd need a hound to track any farther."
Oct 3, 2023 8:35 pm
Adaia starts off interested in the ritual examining each little detail, the way Agna moves her fingers to exact pronunciation of words. Seeing the effect startles her though, she waits with held breath to see the final effect not quite deciding whether to watch Agna or the corpse.
Oct 4, 2023 9:38 am
The shaman raps her staff on the ground to get the spirit's attention. "Speak plain, ghost, if ye want us to help. What's been taken and where's your thief gone to?"
OOC:
Well if there's something Agna is good at, it's rolling doubles lol.
Last edited October 4, 2023 9:39 am

Rolls

Persuasion - lv2, SR: 5-7 (f0-c0) - (2d6)

(55) = 10

half-elven ghost

CESN

Oct 4, 2023 10:02 am
half-elven ghost
CESN sent a note to testlum
OOC:
so this are the situations for which "raising the roll" was intended. You can take one fatigue and retry, or just assume it the ghost will not notice Agna.
Oct 4, 2023 11:38 am
When the ghost continues its aimless mumbling, the shaman presses her lips into a line. Perhaps this one was too far gone. Sometimes that happened, when the dead wanted to escape what had happened to them. She tried once more, adding more force to her voice. "What happened here, ghost?"

Nothing. Agna uses the butt of her staff to break the pattern she'd arranged around the corpse, dismissing the spirit. "Not much help from this one," she informs Izuhn and Adaia. "Far as I can tell, something was taken from him afore he died. A woman, maybe."
OOC:
Persuasion is now level 4 LOL.
Last edited October 4, 2023 11:40 am

Rolls

Persuasion - lv3, SR: 5-8 (f0-c0) - (2d6)

(55) = 10

Oct 4, 2023 8:07 pm
Izuhn shakes his head and strokes his beard for a moment. "I've got magic to talk to beasts. What about us teaming up to ask the horse?"
Oct 4, 2023 11:01 pm
Agna turns to the dwarf, her brows raised. "I ain't sure how. You got a way to hear the ghost if I raise it?" she asks. "I can try the ritual, but no point doin' it if the only one who knows how can't talk to the spirit."
Oct 5, 2023 12:49 am
Izuhn fumbles a bit. "Er...well... I've not ever talked to a spirit. If your magic keeps it to only you then I guess not." Izuhn shrugs his shoulders. "That leads us to a dead end here then?"
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