Inizii -- Logs

Kyrel is awake, having just come off watch and uncertain yet as to which spells he should take for the next day. Kiri is flitting around the cavern, chirping happily.

Garrok reaches for a dagger, eyeing the flitting bat, only shadows playing with the winged creature, since the fire has been reduced to smoldering wood and embers, with the faintest leap of crimson tongue. The gnoll gruffs. "He he's?" He asks, glancing at the illusionist and his book.

Kyrel nods to the gnoll. "My friend, yes." He looks up to where Kiri is playing around the stalactites. "Come here, Kiri. I've got some nice scraps for you." The bat obediently returns to his wizard, squeaking happily as he devours the shreds of meat.

Derleth rolls to one side in his sleep, and abruptly exclaims as a sharp stone cuts into his face. "Damme!" he says, rolling upright and pawing at the small wound. "Shoulda shecked for rocks."

Kyrel chuckles. "What for? There's plenty of them."

Derleth winces as he fingers the gouge, murmuring a simple orison to his Lady and healing the wound over. "Aye, but I be interested in not being woken so when me Lady be giving me such wondrous dreams." he grunts at Kyrel.

The gnoll snorts at Derleth, grinning with an unhealthy set of teeth. "He not accustomed to sleeping in caves, hm?" Sitting up straighter, the hyena-man grabs his blade off to the side. "He show he the way out now, so he does not need to leave the cave unguarded."

Kyrel nods. "Good idea. I'm not sleeping anyway. Coming along, Derleth?"

Derleth glances at the gnoll, choosing not to respond to his first comment. "Ah suppose. There be a crick in me back I want ta work out, anyway. Just let me get me flail."

Derleth grabs his blessed flail, and then, as an afterthought, shrugs on his armor.

With another grin, the gnoll reaches out for the flail. "He fix crick, mm?" And, simply illistrating, swings his paw down in a striking motion, while the bushy fur above his eyes, the brows quirking up.

Kyrel chuckles. "That would work, yes."

Derleth is done after a minute or so, and then looks at Kyrel and the gnoll. "Aye, well lets be off." He arches an eyebrow at the gnoll. "Nae so roughly, sir. But maybe he find lizard to use flail on."

The joking tone drains from Garrok at the mention of lizardfolk. He nods, before glancing at the waning fire. "They need light?"

Derleth grunts, confused a moment. "They?" he saus, indicating the group around the fire. "Or they?" he adds, indicting the three of them.

Kyrel nods. "He," pointing to himself, "needs a little. He," pointing to Derleth, "needs much."

Derleth snorts. "Aye, and I wish ah had such fancy eyesight as ye, Kyrel."

Instead of replying, the gnoll simply points at the cleric and his wizardly companion, nodding curtly. "Magics? Or fire? Lizards smell smoke, yes, but see magic glow." Grubby paws lift in a gesture balancing the two possibilities.

Derleth lifts a rock, and mutters an incantation. It emits a soft glow. "Better lizards not smell before can see."

The gnoll nods, and takes up his blade. He shrugs on some armor as well, though his appears to be made of hides, chitin, and an assortment of antlers, horns, and hooves of many animals.

Kyrel stands up, his spell book returning to its pocket-dimension as he puts it aside. "Lets be off, then." He looks up to his familiar. "Kiri. Scout." The bat flutters down to the exit passage way and chirrips questioningly.

Garrok glances over at Kyrel. "Which tunnel dided he take? Many tunnels. Only certain ones lead to where they going."

The gnoll slips silently through the caverns, heading toward the exit, and leading the pair through a winding tunnel before coming to a split. Instead of going along the path which would lead to where the horses are settled in for the night, Garrok choses the other path, slipping down it quietly, blade held ready. Kiri flutters ahead once the passageway being used is known, waiting at junctions for the others to catch up.

Derleth holds the lightstone in one hand, the glow spreading a pool of light perhaps twenty feet around.

Garrok stares past the glow, seeming just fine in the darkness. Kiri reports nothing. "They getting close to exit," Comes a gutteral announcement, "But lizards may be close."

Derleth says, "Exit how far?"

A pause. "Mm...around the bend." Moving through another tunnel passage, he heads down the way, and points. Forty feet of tunnel lie beyond, the night's sky and ivory snow in view past the entrance, shining by moonlight.

Derleth looks at Kyrel. "D'ye think ah should put out the light?" He lowers his voice midsentence, realizing they might be able to even hear him from this distance.

Kyrel says, "Definitely. We won't need it with the moon out over snow. Stick it in a pocket or something in case we go back into the tunnels."

Derleth nods and places the stone in a pouch, squinting as his eyes get used to the dimmer illumination.

Kiri ventures out into the stretch of cave. However, only halfway to the end, the bat veers around, visibly shuddering in the air, before winging back, to try and crawl into Kyrel's cloak.

Derleth tches sadly. "Ye have me promise, Kyrel. Once we be done with this, we go back t' warmer places, fer the sake o yer tiny friend."

Kyrel holds up a finger to his lips, and whispers. "He ran into something unusual. He didn't get this cold from flying towards the entrance." He turns his attention to his familiar, warming the little bat inside his tunic and trying to coax him into telling what happened.

Derleth blinks, and grunts in understanding, as he runs through what few prayers he still has ready to call upon, singing as holy fire in his veins even while his hand tightens on his flail.

Garrok looks almost annoyed. "What is it? Is he scared? Lizards?" Patience obviously isn't a strong skill with the gnoll.

Kyrel whispers, "He says that the ceiling and wall up there are covered in something that looks like ice but isn't."

Derleth frowns. "Looks like ice, but is nae? What in the Lady's name c'd that be..."

Kyrel says, "He's scared, but not of lizards. Something odd about the wall up ahead - as near as I can understand him, it's solid and fluid at the same time. Is there a cold-climate version of an ooze or jelly?"

The gnoll looks confusedly at Kyrel. "Ooze? Like..." He snorts, and hacking, before spitting a rather nasty woad upon the cavern floor, guesturing it with his blade. "Ooze?"

Derleth grimaces. "Ah d'nae have a manual o' monsters at me fingertips, Kyrel. But there be snow trolls, snow worms, snow dragons...c'd be an ice ooze"

Kyrel nods at the gnoll. "Like that, but big and hungry."

That seems to just utterly go over the warrior's head. "Hungry spit?"

Kyrel says, "Hungry creature like living spit."

Derleth agrees. "Big pool of living spit."

A bit of recognition flashes in the gnolls eyes. "Oh. He has never hearded of such... maybe magic ice...no 'ooze', though." He stares off into the tunnel. "Who goes and sees?"

Derleth says, "I'll do't. Ooze, as as far as ah know, is nae visible to heat vision. Cover me."

Derleth takes out his stone and thrusts it out in front of him in his fist, slowly walking forward to see if he can catch sight of this 'ice'. He suddenly stops, peering at the walls. Kyrel waits to see what will happen, readying a magic missile if need be.

Derleth puts his flail into his belt, and takes a dagger out of a leg sheath and holding it ready. After a moment, he flings the dagger at a smooth patch of 'ice' on the wall. The weapon soars through the air, bounces off a sloping stone and skidding further down the tunnel.

Garrok approaches, looking curious. "What is it?"

Derleth looks back at Gerrok. "Looks like ice. But mebbe magic. Unnatural cold. Dinnae go further yet..." He clutches at his holy symbol, chanting an orison to detect magic.

The gnoll snorts. "Afraid of ice? It not frostbite, or water to freeze he from the inside. Go!"

Kyrel says, "Carefully. It's not ordinary ice."

Derleth grimaces at the results of his spell. "Well, tis nae magic at least...but, all well. Ah have me ring...and me luck. Best give it a shot." He unholsters his flail once more, stepping up to the ice....and then lashing out with his flail to strike at the ice-covered wall.

The ice suddenly moves like lighting, 'pouring' off the wall like some liquid tendril. A patch of the ice, a good 10' feet of it, melts quickly, and almost hurls itself at the cleric. The cold surface of the slimy, almost solid thing rams into Derleth, but agility, even within heavy armor, wins, as he slips away from the thing. The cleric grunts as he tumbles out of the way. "Gah! Shit, shit, shit!" he cries out, lashing out with his enchanted flail at the living ice. The weapon whistles through the air, and the sound of a wet thud resounds as it hits the freezing slime. It quivers, a crack running up it's semi-hard form, and retreats slightly.

Kyrel nods to Garrok. "Hungry ice." He makes a quick incantation and drives a magic missile spell into the bizarre creature. "Ever seen anything like this before?" The three green bolts zigzag through the air, seemingly almost at random, but they strike the fluid ice and make it flee backwards just a bit further before it starts flowing toward the cleric once more, part of it arching up, growing as the part on the bottom lessens, the thing appearing like a coiled spring, almost. Garrok is stunned, not having expected this, but raises his sword in readiness, getting his bearings back.

The flowing ice hurls itself onto the cleric, it's freezing temperature even worse then the air around it, and, indeed, the cause of it. Chilling death draws at the human's body warmth, but the ring flares up in sapphire light, quelling the creature's heat-hunger with protection, but only for now. The thing seems to surround the little cleric, encasing him in an icy shell.

Kyrel murmurs the words of the spell again, a second trio of green bolts striking the creature. "I'd retreat if I were you, Derleth." His voice is almost inhumanly calm, as if he is used to life and death struggles as a matter of course.

Derleth grunts again, his teeth chattering not so much from the cold but from the force of the blow. "C-can't....get this thing offame..." Another crack runs up the thing's form, but it seems stuck to the cleric's body. The strange creature shudders, though, as if it is actually pained by the magic bolts.

Garrok finally gets his act together, and comes in, snarling as if in pain as he enteres the zone of frigidity. His shoulders roll as he swings his sword Derleth's shoulder level, a vicious descending arc toward the ice-creature. The blade slices in, but the encasing ice-form turns the blade aside, negating Garrok's swing. The cleric's ring of warming continues to bathe him in a protective aura, frustrating the elemental creature's need for heat.

Kyrel mutters unhappily and pulls out an arrow and his bow. Most of my spells won't work on something like that. But.. if this thing isn't a prime candidate for a fire arrow, I don't know what would be. Let's see if it reacts to normal ones first.

Derleth struggles underneath the encasing liquid ice, trying to swing the flail at the ice on his chest, and unable to....

The arrow leaps from Kyrel's bow, and spears through the cold thing's shell. However, as it surrounds Derleth now, the arrow pokes into his side as well. Kyrel winces at that. Bozhemoi. How do I kill the thing with him in it?

Derleth looks like he barely notices the wound, considering the far more serious danger of the living ice...he grimaces, trying to swell his muscles to break free....

Garrok, meanwhile, lunges again, not giving up, striking again with his sword - but it seems that the numbing cold has claimed him, the freezing in his bones causing stiffness in the arm, and his swing looses strength, causing no damage to the creature. Derleth's resistance to the creature's sapping cold has kept the ice from draining any heat from the cleric as sustenance, and it finally gives up and strikes at the closest warm thing - Garrok. Luck has not been with the warrior, and the thing releases Derleth suddenly and launches itself onto him, coating the gnoll in its icy grip. A pained expression runs over his face, as daggers of cold sink into the warmth of his body. Derleth blinks in surprise as the monsterous ice flows off of him...setting his teeth, he raises his flail and attacks the living ice! His first swing does no good since he is too close - the chain glances from Garrok's iced-over shoulder, doing no damage.

Kyrel shakes his head, pulling out the fire arrow this time. This had better work..

The arrow jumps from Kyrel, and sails towards the iced-over gnoll...and over him, streaking through the cave opening, dissappearing.

The cold continues to dig into the gnoll warrior, his face contorting in pain, as fingers start to loosen, nearly dropping his sword as he succumbs. Pain, strength sapping from his frozen limbs, drives the tall hyena-man to his knees, while the cold slime continues to assault.

Kyrel says, "Get out of the way, Derleth! I'm going to have to try a lightning bolt on the thing."

Derleth grimaces. "Damme it....let him go you ice monster! Whu? Shit, ye've got it..." He dives to one side, ducknig and covering.

The words are somehow harsher, and the magic this time crackles with energy, leaving behind a tingling feeling and the smell of ozone. A lightning stroke leaps from Kyrel's fingers and washes over the ice-creature encasing the gnoll.

Electric fire sizzles over the near-watery elemental thing. It seems to cringe, and shrinks away, flowing off the gnoll like melted ice. Even the most unintelligent of things can understand when to flee, and the strange creature crawls toward the end of the tunnel.

Garrok gasps as he's freed, falling upon his hands, hunched over and panting heavily, shivering and curled in on himself, trying to regain warmth.

Derleth dashes forward once the ice-creature is out of the way, and he quickly murmurs a healing chant, his hands clowing brightly as he places them on Garrok's chest...

Kyrel moves forward, keeping the retreating blob covered in case it turns. "What was that thing?"

Breath, like a fog, lifts off the gnoll's lips, before the healing magic puts a little color in his tongue. "Magic... Ice..."

Derleth would answer, but he is still deep in the throes of his prayer, trying to return the warmth to Garrok's body...

After Derleth's second prayer, the divine power has healed Garrok enough. He sits up, waving his hand to Derleth to show that he's fine. Nodding to the human in thanks, he takes a deeper breath, shivering just slightly.

Derleth places his hands on his knees where he crouches. "He seen living ice before?" he queries. The warrior shakes his head, drawing up on his feet. "No. Stories of Magic Ice, he has hearded, before, though. Like... Living water, that likes cold? Much like the hail-devil."

Derleth grunts. "I be wondering...I heerd o' water elementals doin' summat like that, aye...but ne'er of a creature o' ice. Let us hope that these creatures nae be working for the lizards."

Garrok shakes his head. "No, but for Ice-women? Yes, ice women, hail-devils are allies. Share prey, they."

Derleth looks at Kyrel. "Dinnae the folk back at the city say sommat about ice women and ice devils?"

Kyrel nods. "I don't think they meant something like this, from the tales they were telling, though."

Derleth says, "Nae...but I be most interested t' see these things nae th' less...hopefully without them seeing us."

Glancing back between the two, Garrok tilts his head. "Like Magic Ice?" He shakes his head at Derleth. "Oh, he know when Hail-devils come."

Derleth tilts his head as he stands. "How will he know?" Garrok replies with his teeth exposed in a humorless grin. "He see hail that follow them."

Derleth grimaces and looks at Kyrel. "That dinnae sound good."

Kyrel says, "Quite painful, actually."

Derleth pats himself over to make sure the ice creature did no lasting damage. "Th' Lady be with me t'night. Perhaps we should be off and nae try our luck further."

The gnoll shakes his head. "Hamper sight, yes, but no pain, no... But the Hail-Devil..." He shakes his head.

Derleth looks Garrok over. "He be well? Able to defend tribe?"

Hefting his sword, the gnoll gives a nod. "Aye. They return? Or shall they continue to scout?"

Derleth looks at Kyrel. "What do ye think? Meself, I'm fer returning...we know where the cave is...and that lightning bolt wasn't zactly quiet-like."

Kyrel nods. "We know where it is, now, and we've gotten rid of an obstacle. Best to rest up. I don' want to go ouside much before sunrise.

Turning, the gnoll points. "Out of the cave, half-mile straight on. Beware of base."

Kyrel looks at the gnoll in some confusion. Beware of base? What base?

Garrok continues. "They make nests in treacherous terrain. Often dig trenches in the snow and hide, or roll boulders."

Derleth says, "Ye mean the lizards?"

Garrok nods again.

Derleth says, "Just lizards? Or humans that worship dragon, too?"

Kyrel says, "Ah... understood."

Garrok inhales, a note of uncertainty in his voice... "They not encounter many humans, but only on open battlefield."

Derleth grunts. "Be hard t' disguise themselves, then, perhaps..."

Kyrel says, "The humans are probably more nomadic."

Derleth mmms. "Right then, let's be getting back t' sleep."

The gnoll nods. "Aye. They follow the elk herds. Gnolls do also, but have many 'caves'. One reason why they," he swirls his hand around, "Fight."

Kyrel nods. "We'll be careful in the morning. Thanks for the help."

Nodding, the gnoll starts back toward the camp, ready to get close to the fire once more.

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Last modified: 2001-Apr-19 23:10:57

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