Episode 130

## As-snow-lted in the night

* We regroup after our fight with the yetis. Vahlka makes a pyre of the bodies of the civilians and we move on with the rest of the caravan.

* The caravan travels through the rest of the day unharassed. When it gets late, Barkley finds a little valley next to a frozen pond to bed down in. The party briefly explains the difference between a hare and a rabbit to Vahlka when she asks. The caravan set up their tents and Lucius casts tiny hut. Boulder sleeps in her own tent.
* Barkley and Boulder take first watch. It begins to snow heavily.  Boulder spots big clumps of snow flakes moving around in the snow. Barkley wakes up the elves for the next watch and Boulder stays up a little bit longer.
* Boulder, Andy, and Vahlka chat a bit about the Elder Woodlands and the dangers it poses. The snowstorm picks up a bit. Andy and Vahlka spot the clumps of snowflakes drifting with more purpose than is at all natural toward the camp. Boulder explains that she's heard stories of ghosts that haunt the snowstorm. Vahlka wakes everyone up.
* We have a brief combat with these little snow monsters that appear to be snowflakes attached together by thin filament. They deal acid damage when struck by melee attacks. Vahlka kills them all and only Andrith takes a substantial amount of damage in the fight.
* After the fight, Vahlka identifies the creatures as plants actually, rather than undead. Then we go back to bed leaving the elf girls on watch.
* In the morning, Vahlka bursts out of the Tiny Hut dome of snow like a kool-aid man. Lucius throws a snowball at her and natural 20s and catches her right in the ear. Vahlka's reaction is just "i can't believe you've done this." Lucius feigns innocence  successfully because Vahlka is stupid.
* We travel onward. The heavy snowfall makes our progress slow. After a bit we find a few ruined carts. Something has melted a swath in the snow as it passed through a few hours ago. After some investigating, Boulder and Vahlka are able to determine it was some sort of giant worm - most likely a remorhaz that was also traveling with several yetis.
* Deacon's struggling with his prosthetic leg due to the extreme cold. Olivia gives him her boots of the winterlands so he doesn't get frostbite. Vahlka chides him gently that he doesn't have to suffer in silence.
* We travel a bit more and find a smashed up sled. The wood is scorched. We spot an injured dog in the snow, but it is too badly hurt to be helped in anyway. Vahlka kills the dog as painlessly as she can. This dampens the party's mood across the board.
* We chat for a bit decide to take and hide the caravan somewhere safe and then follow the trail left by the yetis and the remorhaz. This takes us most the day. The elf leading the caravan tells us he can't hold for longer than a week or so as they will run out of food.
* We follow the trail higher into the mountains. It gets extremely cold and we take shelter in a cave for a night. Boulder and Olivia take first watch. While on watch, Olivia hears a scratching sound and wakes everyone up. Her and Vahlka go to investigate.
* Hiding in a crack in the stone in the back of the cave is a small humanoid creature. The girls try and speak to it in several languages before Vahlka tries Goblin and it responds in kind. She spends some time assuring the goblin that she means it no harm and encouraging it to tell her about Winterscar and recent events up there in the mountains. Oliva tells the goblin the only phrase she knows in goblin, which is 'this is not a cult.' this is unhelpful.
* The goblin tells Vahlka that the dragon and the yetis attacked her tribe and drove them out of their home. She also tells her the dragon has a collar on, which keeps it close to the mountain but also protects it from bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage (its unclear if this protects against magical weapons). The last adventurers to come through did not last long. The goblin knows of a backdoor into where the dragon is lairing, and the general lay of the land. Vahlka persuades her to act as a guide for the party.
* The goblin woman introduces herself as Tagi. She is reluctant to trust Vahlka but gradually warms to her, particularly when the paladin promises her and her tribe food as well as a portion of the dragon's hoard. The goblin runs off to tell her tribe so they do not harass the party as they travel, and Vahlka returns to the party to explain what the goblin told her then goes back to bed.
* In the morning, Tagi returns and greets the party. She tells Vahlka about the yetis, as well as that the dragon brought with it kobolds and also worms and the worm's offspring. She also mentions a tall human man with white hair with many tattoos, who doesn't look old, does not carry any weapons, and does not seem to be affected by the cold.
* We plan for a bit, and agree on a tentative strategy of picking off the dragon's allies first with the hope of drawing the dragon out and thinning our enemies' numbers.
* Tagi takes us to a narrow tunnel, which we have to polymorph Lucius to fit through. We hear wingbeats and rush into the tunnel, but as Boulder is in the back of the tunnel and is too large to turn around - we only hear the dragon land behind us and do not catch sight of her.
* We arrive in a frozen cavern where the goblins have been hiding out. There are huts and tents pitched inside the cavern. Tagi goes to talk to the goblin's elder, then agrees to take us to the lake where she believes the remorhaz make their lair.