The Talking Stag

Milos examined one of the hanging clumps.  It appeared to be something wrapped in a piece of leather connected with pins.  Milos pushed one and it moved in a pendulum motion on the string it hung from.

"Santrel is it magic?" Fanara asked.

"It appears normal to me," Santrel said after focusing on one for a minute.

Milos pulled one of the bundles down and began to remove a pin or two.  The leather pulled back and revealed what seemed to be black feathers.  He continued pulling out pins and then saw two feet and the edge of a wing.

Pulling the leather completely away Milos found a frozen solid crow.  It had blood from several wounds one of which had a broken tiny arrow still embedded in it.

The party began to pull down several other bundles all of which were dead and frozen crows.

"Do the fey have a problem with crows?" Amadeo offered.

"It doesn't seem that fey have any issue with crows, but crow certainly are pests," Santrel said after a little study of a crow and one of the fey bodies.

"I don't want to sleep with all these crows above my head.  Should we move somewhere else?" Casia suggested.

Looking around Jorgen noted that all the trees had some of the fetishes hanging from them. "I don't think we can move anywhere close that doesn't have these dead birds."

The party then began to cut or pull down all the crow bodies from beneath the largest tree where they had started their fire.  All gathered around the fire for a nights rest as Fanara, Casia and Santrel kept watch in turn.

After eight hours the party broke their fast. Milos began to pray and Santrel pulled out his spellbook and studied it.  Fanara sat crosslegged and went into a trance.  Her hair, previously wild, began to plait itself and an hour later it had streaks of light red in it.

"Everyone ready to go?" Jorgen said excitedly having just returned from scouting the trail ahead.

The party then headed further into the wood to the northwest following the trail left behind by the retreating bandits. Soon the path began to follow a winding game trail through the trees and undergrowth.  Hoofprints marked the underlying snow, leading in both directions.

Jorgen examined the prints and determined they looked like deer prints but much larger than any he had ever seen. Continuing on Jorgen came to a clearing and peered in before entering.  He saw a large Elk striding toward the party. The stag then began to speak.

"Who are you?" the stag asked. "And where are you from?"

"We are from Heldren and have been following this trail," Fanara answered.

"What would you be looking for?" the stag asked.

"We wonder where this track ends," Jorgen said.

A discussion followed in which the party learned that the stag had seen a group of people head down the trail in the opposite direction.  Then they came back later carrying a shrouded body.  The party learned that the stag was not from here but merely followed a snowy path to this area.  He thought it was further north.  The party did not reveal much of their plans and just as everyone was starting to relax slightly, Amadeo felt a touch on his rapier which shrunk many sizes.

Fanara noted a spell cast in her direction but no enemy other than the elk could be seen.  The group moved to attack the elk which responded with antler gore and hooves.  Casia suddenly became half her size, along with her gear and clothing.  Santrel tried in vain to find the invisible spell caster.  Fanara did note that a high voice was speaking in Sylvan to cast spells. The talking stag had ceased talking at this point also.

Amadeo felt the sting of a tiny rapier as a minuscule, green-skinned humanoid appeared near him.  A pair of dragonfly wings held the wee creature aloft.  The elk fell to repeated attacks and the party then concentrated on the flying fey creature.  It did not last long as Fanara's final attack dropped it from the air.

Milos offered a channel for the party as several had taken damage from the battle.  Casia soon returned to her normal size but Amadeo still had a tiny rapier.  Santrel pondered on the possible spells for this effect and was concerned as it appeared the effect might last a day.  He finally suggested throwing the weapon to the ground.  When Amadeo did, the rapier returned to its normal size.

As the party continued following the path Santrel again felt very cold and was afflicted with frostbite.  The path continued until coming around a corner they spied a human-sized snowman standing in the middle of the trail before a frozen stream . A crude wooden sign leaned against it which bore the words "Trespassers Turn Back."

"We are not trespassers. We should just move around it." Amadeo said.

"There may be some magic or other affect on the snowman or the area," Santrel warned as he began to detect magic.  

Santrel noted magic in the area of the snowman, probably on its hat.  Taking more time he determined that there were two magic auras, one evocation and the other in a 15 foot radius, and illusion.  Fanara took a pot shot with her sling at the hat as Jorgen fired a crossbow at it.  The hat tumbled off to land on the shore behind the snowman.  The party then began trying to disbelieve the whole scene but it remained the same for all.  Casia and Amadeo approached slowly but when the reached 15 feet from the snowman a voice boomed.

"Can't you read? The sign says turn back! Now get lost!"

Ignoring the warning Milos strode close to push the snowman with his staff, Amadeo moved right next to the snowman and a piercing scream of frustration erupted from the snowman and stunned both Amadeo and Milos with sonic damage.

The party made its way cautiously around the snowman, a solid sheet of ice extended across the stream, while snow covered rocks lined its banks.  Casia wondered if she might just slide across siting down.  As the party moved closer to the shore a humanoid creature seemingly made of ice, rose up out of the river ice.  It took damage from the crew and then decided to duck back under the ice.  Amadeo and Casia began to make their way across the ice.  The creature rose of of the ice and attacked Milos.  Santrel cast a Burning Hands again doing extra damage to the identified Ice Elementals.  This one broke into pieces and fell to the ice covered stream.  Another Elemental rose up and was attacked by Fanara but then it rushed Casia and pushed her forward five feet, where she broke through the ice into the frigid cold of the stream.  Now wet her Fortitude was tested.  The water was about six feet deep, so Casia could keep her head above the water.  The battle continued with the second Elemental dying.  The party then carefully made their way across the ice as Casia was pulled up out of the water by Milos and Amadeo.

Everyone gathered on the far side of the stream, Casia shivering from the wet clothing.  Jorgen and Milos noted legs and feet of a body jutting from a pile of snow next to the trees on this side of the stream.  The body was nearly frozen and Milos turned the body over to find Old Man Dansby, the farmer who had visited him with stories of the snow and cold creatures.  He had been attacked, but no wounds were evident.  It seemed he had been battered to death.  Milos did a heal check and determined that farmer Dansby could not be revived.  Fanara intuited that the Elementals had beaten him to death.  With the body were a composite crossbow with 12 arrows, a dagger, a fine looking Handaxe and a pouch with some coins.

Meanwhile Amadeo, Santrel and Casia were building a fire as Casia removed her cold weather gear trying to dry it and herself around the blaze.

DM's Notes: The party earned 266 XP for the night.