1.2: Coming Down the Mountain

**Bear Spirit - Gruk**

Gruk walks through the snow, strength draining with every step in the bitter cold weather. After an hour, Gruk collapses, and with the last of his strength, digs out a small trench to rest. He wakes up from his restless sleep to the sight of a ghostly bear, beckoning him to follow. Seeing this as an omen, Gruk summons the strength to follow the bear, which leads him to a bush of berries that being to restore his vitality.

**Lights - Perlapae, Baygrith, Sajaina, and Gruk**

Perlapae, Baygrith, and Sajaina huddle together in their shelter made from exploded airship. The fire goes out during Baygrith's watch, but this is no problem for the ingenious artificer. Using his infamous rocket boots, the fire is lit once more, providing at least a meager amount of warmth to our freezing adventurers. Sajaina takes watch, but does not cope with the cold well. She huddles close to her companions for warmth, but wakes them up when she sees several lights in the distance. The lights dance in front of the group and begin floating away, as if inviting the adventurers to follow. Baygrith and Perlapae drag Sajaina on a sled after she collapses in a state of frozen delirium. The lights illuminate a large figure stalking through the snow...it's Gruk! He's following an ethereal bear, and the lights begin the go in the same direction. The spirit bear and lights lead the group to a small clearing surrounded by trees.

**The Frozen Outpost - Travize, Salachi, and Timmeron**

While the rest of the party is freezing to death and suffering from horrible frozen delirium, Travize, Sal, and Timmeron spent a pleasant night in a cave protected from the elements. During the night, snow threatens to pile up and close the group inside, but Timmeron uses his magic to slow the accumulation. In the morning, our adventurers wake to a pair of eyes peering at us through the pile of snow. The actual resident of the cave has returned and is somewhat displeased to find another bear sitting in its home, along with two humanoids. Travize, still in his bear form, converses with the bear, who turns out to be surprisingly friendly. She tells Travize about a village further down the mountain, but to be wary of the dangerous residents of the town. The group heads towards the outpost that Travize had seen as a bird the day before in order to find supplies. They find the outpost but it's locked. Upon further inspection, the outpost is blocked with a magical protection that needs a passcode. After some investigation, they figure out that the passcode is "Steve" and the door opens. It's full of useful supplies, which of course are all quickly looted by the desperate adventurers. Satisfied, they start following the directions given to them by the bear, ending up in dilapidated ruins, with skulls hanging in bunches around the abandoned buildings. Timmeron finds a hidden entrance behind some flase rocks, leading to a door. A raspy voice tells the group to leave, but after some polite conversation from Sal and Travize, the guard decides to let them in. Behind the door is an entire town, hidden from the open world.

**When Trees Attack - Perlapae, Baygrith, Sajaina, and Gruk**

In the clearing, the group finds food laid out in an enticing display, and without pause they dig in. All is well until Gruk sees an odd feature on one of the trees. It looks a girl's face, crying for help. He jumps to his feet...or at least he tries to; his legs have started turning to roots. The group starts to panic and Perlapae tells them to eat petals from the tree that cause them to vomit the enchanted food they've eaten. They stop turning into trees, but it does not cure their ailment. The lights begin to shimmer angrily and swarm the party. The group attacks and kills the lights, which breaks the curse. They take the girl and run as far as possible. They find a tree and create a toboggan that Baygrith powers with his rocket boots. They find the hidden town.

**Reunion! - Everyone**

Sal entertains the children with his music in the tavern and is surprised to see Perlapae, Baygrith, Sajaina, and Gruk head into the town. The two groups share much exposition, and there is much rejoicing (yay!). The group goes to meet with the lord of the town who suggests that we pass through the Coriander Woods, where Sajaina knows her Maharajah is being held.

With their downtime, Baygrith, Timmeron, and Sal try to work together to upgrade the Etheric Emitter Torch to act as a long distance communicator. After a few mishaps, they finally use it to reach Heliod, Perlapae's tender. Perlapae warns him about the pirates and the Maharajah, and he promises to send help.