Milos took Old Man Dansby's body to a secluded part of the forest and said a few prayers over it before trying to cover it with rocks and stones.
Casia warmed by the fire, her cold weather gear hanging near the flames to dry out as quick as possible.
Santrel check the hat and found no residue of magic on it, nor was the illusion surrounding the snowman any longer. He also placed the arm of the Taldan soldier, encased in ice, near the fire. As it melted the longsword finally was freed and the party could see its nice sheen.
After around two hours the Casia put her gear back on and the party prepared to follow the trail further.
The trail began to climb a ridgeline to the south beneath snow-laden trees. The prints of boots mar the
freshly fallen snow on the trail. The party began to hear voices from ahead. Jorgen stopped to listen and indicated that the party should try to be quiet. The voices were quarreling over their shares of the loot from the Noble woman's caravan.
The path split ahead going both west and southwest. Jorgen moved forward quietly to the southwest while Fanara and Amadeo moved more to the west. There was a partially hidden grove of trees between the two groups of the party where the voices continued to argue. Santrel broke a branch under the snow and the voices quieted. The whole party stopped moving for a few minutes. Soon the voices started once again and the party began to move slowly.
All three raiders fell to the ground. The party moved in, careful to not awaken any of the enemy and removed the dropped swords. The raiders were bound to trees and Casia awoke one of them.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Casia said to begin the interrogation.
"You don't need to know who I am. Rohkar tasked us with staying behind to intercept any pursuit." the raider answered.
"Who is Rohkar?"
"He is our leader."
"Pursuit of what?"
"Anyone who would be looking for the Noblewoman."
"What Noblewoman?"
"The lady from the caravan. Rohkar and the others have taken her to the lodge."
This led to a side discussion between Milos, Santrel and Jorgen about the lodge. Milos had heard of a lodge in the Border Wood. He recalled that it was no longer manned by the Taldan rangers. It's use was to guard against Qadiran incursions.
The questioning of the raider continued.
"How many raiders are at the lodge?" Fanara asked.
"Fifty. They will make short order of you!" the raider taunted.
"How many fingers are you willing to lose with that wrong answer?" Casia inquired.
"There really are fifty raiders there."
"We will ask your compatriots and then begin removing fingers."
"OK, there are twenty-five."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Why did you take the Noblewoman?" Fanara piped in.
"Rohkar said we will use her to get a ransom from her beau or her parents. He made a deal with Teb, or Tek, whatever his name was, and the ice guy to abduct her."
"So you attacked the caravan with this Teb or Tek and the ice guy?"
"Yes. And we now have her and we will soon have our reward."
The exchange continued with the party learning that Teb was not human, a humanoid but not human. Rohkar had passed through three days before and the Noblewoman was now held at the lodge. The raider finally acceded that there were only ten raiders at the lodge along with a cook, Ten Penny, and Rohkar.
The first raider was gagged and another awakened. The second was more afraid of the heroes and confirmed the ten raiders. He also knew the ice guy was Izoze, some kind of fey. The lodge had bedrooms for Rohkar and the cook. It had two main entrances into great rooms. A second floor held only Rohkar's planning room. Izoze did not like the heat of the lodge so he did not stay there. The third raiders was completely belligerent, who wouldn't confirm any information and was soon gagged to shut him up.
The party decided to leave the raiders bound and gagged. They would return for them once Lady Argentea had been rescued. The militia in Heldren would take care of the raiders when they were brought in. Shortbows, arrows, shortswords, bucklers and padded armor were taken from the raiders.
The party continued to the southwest along the path. After climbing at least a hundred feet into the hills, the snowy trail finally leveled off. In a clearing among the trees, they found a large wooden lodge. Smoke rose from the lodge's two snow- covered chimneys, and large wood pile was stacked against the outer wall. A small outbuilding stood east of the lodge, and a stone well nearly blanketed by snow is barely recognizable to the north. Several tracks led southwest around the lodge.
The party noted several windows facing in every direction. There was also wooded areas close to the north and east of the lodge. The party skirted the eastern entry point by moving into the woods to the east. The small outbuilding was identified as the outhouse and as the party moved south a stable came into view. To the west and south was a large ravine with a rope bridge spanning running to the southwest. Non human tracks ran from the bridge to the west porch. After a minute a person dressed like the raiders in the woods, exited the west door, looked to the bridge and re-entered the lodge.
Casia, worried about reinforcements coming over the bridge, moved under the end of the bridge and cut most of the ropes holding it in place. Fanara suggested plugging the chimneys to smoke out the enemy. She moved toward the northern chimney, the windows there indicating a kitchen, and clambered up to partially plug the chimney. She then moved on to the main chimney in the center of the roof.
Then two raiders exited the eastern doors, followed by another through the west door. Jorgen fired on the half-orc, who then quaffed another potion and disappeared. Santrel cast sleep on the two raiders but only one fell to the ground. The other moved carefully to the north. The battle started in earnest as more raiders exited the lodge.
A crossbow bolt sailed over Amadeo's head and the half-orc again appeared to his northwest. The party continued to attack or move for a better advantage. Amadeo and Milos were lined up next to south side of the lodge. Fanara, on the roof, was firing down on the Raiders arrayed on the east. Casia and Santrel were in the trees south of the lodge with Casia firing here crossbow at the Raiders while Santrel tried to move close enough for acid splash. Jorgen began to fire at the half-orc. After some back and forth between Milos, Amadeo and Jorgen with the half-orc she threw down her weapons.
"I surrender," she yelled. "I have no solidarity with these Raiders."
"Keep your hands in the air," Amadeo ordered as he took her dagger, crossbow and bolts.
"I am just the cook here," she said pleadingly.
"Backup and sit down on the snowbank behind and don't interfere in the battle," Milos demanded.
The half-orc moved back and sat down with her head in her hands.
Meanwhile Fanara and Casia were attacking the Raiders who moved to the doors, out of Fanara's range and began trying to rid the room of smoke by fanning the doors. Jorgen, Milos and Amadeo moved to the other set of doors where Milos saw a hallway entering a larger room, which was hidden. There was an open door to the northeast inside the hall.
While the half-orc sat quietly, the new enemy attacked Milos with his sword. Milos fell to the decking alongside Amadeo and the party groaned as its healer was now down also. The man then waved his hands and a double appeared next to him. Santrel determined that this was some kind of modified Mirror Image spell as he headed toward the porch to save Milos. Fanara kept firing away, but now there were two images to deal with. Jorgen attacked and Casia dropped another Raider. The second Raider fired back as he yelled into the lodge.
"Get the sick men up we are under attack and need reinforcements."
The magic user, most likely Rohkar, moved away from his attackers and cast a spell at Santrel, who resisted it. He was then felled by a combination of attacks from Fanara and Jorgen. Casia dropped the yelling Raider and Santrel searched Rohkar's body where he found two potions that were the same. Rohkar's cloak was also magical.
Fanara shot the sleeping Raider, who stood up and headed into the lodge. Santrel identified the potions as Cure Light Wounds and gave one to Milos, who revived and called for all who needed healing to gather around him. He then cast Cure Light Wounds on Amadeo and channeled positive energy for all but Casia and Fanara.
After a short time more raiders began to exit the lodge, the party picked them off one by one as they moved slowly and seemed weaker than their counterparts, probably sick of something. Soon no more raiders were seen leaving the lodge. Fanara moved to the eastern doors and looked inside. He found a large table and two benches ran the length of the hall, and a twenty-foot-high vaulted ceiling rose into the rafters overhead. To the west, a roaring fireplace provided a welcome heat and light but smoke was billowing out of the fireplace. To the south , a flight of stairs ascended to a wooden balcony overlooking the room. Open passageways led west on either side of the fireplace. A door was shut on the balcony, an closed door on the north wall and an open door on the south finished the entries while straw mattresses and piles of blankets were strewn close to the fire.
Casia went over to the cook and began talking with her.
"Are you well enough? Who are you and why are you here?" she began.
"I am known as Ten-Penny Tacey. I was rather down on my luck and forced to flee Demgazi. I soon found my way into the Border Wood, where Rohkar gave me shelter and then convinced me to stay on. I reluctantly agreed, and for now, I keep the fire stoked in the kitchen and occasionally serve meals to Rohkar's Raiders. I have a pot of soup on now." Ten-Penny answered.
"What do you know of a Lady hostage?"
"The group came back from a raid with a lady, who seemed noble."
"Do you know where she is?"
"In the cellar."
"How do you get there?"
"There is a trap door under the bearskin rug in the Trophy room."
"Let's head to the porch where it might be warmer, then we can go inside to find the lady."
Meanwhile Fanara had climbed to the roof and unplugged the chimneys and then found her way back down and in the eastern doors. The rest of the party entered the west doors into the trophy room. A bearskin rug dominated the floor of the trophy room , and the heads of several deer had been mounted on the walls. Doors led north and south, while two hallways went farther east.
Jorgen lifted the rug just as Fanara entered from the east. Sure enough there was a trap door which was locked but the key that Santrel found on Rohkar opened the lock. A ladder led down into a chamber with half-dozen boxes and barrels taking up the majority of the space. A rough blanket lay spread on the floor in the southeast corner next to a bowl of half-eaten food.
"Who are you?" the lady asked.
"I am Casia, we are here from Heldren. One of your guards, Yuln, was injured but made it to Heldren. We came to find you and return you to him and civilization." Casia explained.
"Well, someone should have found a way to rescue me," the lady stated with some arrogance. "I am very grateful for your rescue," she continued proudly as she straightened her stance and moved to the ladder.
"Please join us up here. We can talk about returning to Heldren. We need to find you some cold weather gear though and it make take us a couple of days to return."
"I will go get some soup," Ten-Penny said and she went to the kitchen.
"We should search Rohkar's room and the rest of the lodge. Maybe there are some additional items or magic stored here." Santrel said.
DM's Notes: The party earned 370 XP for the day's work.
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