Elway - Turn 278

Lyre and Elway scramble to the top of the snowdrift on their elbows and observe the solitary sabre seal from there. Behind them at the base of the drift, Jones, Mecklenburg and Johnson are rubbing their hands together to try and get some feeling back into them. From where they are they can see the other drift where the other hunters are observing from.

Elway indicates for the priests and mage to join him and he points out a suitable route through the snow and across the ice to where the seal is. Not wanting to be seen by the seal until they are close enough for the use of the powers and spell, Elway leads the way down the other side of the drift.

Quickly they ‘snow ride’ to another drift from where they are able to move round into range of the seal. Jones pops his head up over the drift before him and delivers his Charm power upon the creature. Mecklenburg’s head comes up and he uses Speak with Animals upon it. “Which herd?” asks the creature, “Where are females?” As Mecklenburg talks to it, Johnson casts his Sleep spell which causes the beast to slump into the snow.

Lyre and Elway casually walk up over the drift and down to the snoring creature which they slay swiftly albeit waking the creature in the process. Mecklenburg is forced to listen to its mournful cries as it bleeds to death from the deep wounds they cause.

The hunters seem impressed by their methods and are happy to show-off their expert skills in skinning the beast and cutting out some of the best meat. After a feast of warm sabre seal, the hunters decide to make camp and continue onwards in the morning.

The clear blue sky and sunshine takes the edge off the cold landscape around the group as they move across the almost blinding whiteness.

It is almost midday when one of the hunting scouts reports that he has spotted several herds at a ‘gathering spot’. Following the scout across an ice field, the group are soon witnessing the sea of large dark shapes, grunting, snuffling and barking near the edge of the icy ocean. It seems several herds are present making a total of over seventy sabre seals.

Yrral and Dale help Johnson, Jones and Mecklenburg with the use of the powers and spells on a couple of seals at the periphery of the gathered herds. Lyre and Elway make the kills watched by the hunters who are making their own plans for luring some seals away from their herds. It is as the group move on to a third seal that it happens…

Jones has just delivered the Charm when there is the terrible cracking of ice and a great many of the sabre seals start to give warning bellows and grunts. Lyre looks over to where the noise of the ice cracking came from and can see that something large and black has just burst through the ice from underneath and has swallowed an area of ice on which were at least two seals.

Whatever it was has now disappeared below the ice for a few moments before its ‘fin’ can be see poking up from the hole it has made. The fin seems to be covered in a fine black ‘fur’ and stands some twenty five feet tall at least. Whatever is below the surface starts swimming forwards at speed, its fin cutting through the ice. It is as if it is trying to cut away the ice the seal herds are upon.

The crashing of the ice the fin cuts through is quite loud and Lyre throws a worried glance to Elway who can already see that the fin is heading in their direction.

Lyre considers the situation for a moment and then decides that discretion is the better part of valour.

“Quickly run to Dale,” he calls out to the others and Yrral translates this for one hunter who is near them, the other hunters some distance away.

Lyre looks straight at Dale and tells him, “I suggest you prepare and cast a Teleport spell on those able to reach you!”

The mage quickly scrabbles the scroll from its case and rapidly goes through the gesticulations as the fin continues to tear its way through the ice towards them.

Elway is urging his fellow party members on towards Dale and then notices that Lyre seems to have changed his mind about vanishing with the others and has moved to a position directly in the line of the oncoming fin. On seeing this, Elway starts to unwrap his rope and demands that one of the priests use the power of Wings of a Bird upon him. As he rises into the air, he pulls the box from his pack that contains the Flying Vampiric Dagger.

A prayer issues silently from Lyre’s lips as he braces himself and starts to run towards the great black fin cutting a swathe through the ice towards him. Utilising the Boots of Leaping he jumps into the air and performs a move most L’denon warrior monks would be proud of, his sword flashing in the sun before it plunges into the fin itself. Lyre now has an anchor point on the moving fin as Elway swoops down as best he can under Wings of Bird.

Elway fiddles with the lid of the dagger box which does not seem to want to open because of the cold. Lyre in the meantime grabs a mass of the hair on the fin and empties the charges from his Gauntlet of Shock into the beast. Energy crackles around the fin as Elway finally gets the box open and out flies the dagger, free from its confinement and hungry for blood. For a moment Elway thinks that the dagger is going to go for him but it detects the source of blood beneath it and it streaks downwards through the air.

The sword Lyre has got stuck in the fin carries some of the shock through into himself and he shakes and judders as energy shocks pass into him. The dagger meanwhile only narrowly avoids him as it plunges down into the thick skin of the creature and almost burrows itself into it. Some white fat spurts from the open-mouthed skull pommel before there is a gush of red and a constant flow fountains forth.

The ‘shocks’ seem to have had some effect on the beast for the fin starts to descend as the thing now starts to swim down. Elway can see that Lyre is in trouble, stunned as he is from getting some of the ‘shocking charge’ back through into himself. Flying right at Lyre he manages to get a hold and though some of the ‘charge’ passes through into him, he continues moving. He drags Lyre from the side of the fin and the two of them tumble across the ice as the fin finally vanishes under the ice, Lyre’s sword and Elway’s dagger still stuck in it. The water is being stained red from the dagger and Elway considers what he saw as he swooped down. To him the great shape beneath the ice looked like some form of vast black shark.

The danger now seems to be over and Lyre coughs and rises on his haunches. Looking around, they cannot see Dale and the others.

Dale and the rest of the party members along the one hunter who was with them, trudge back across the ice to where they finally spot the seal herd. They can see the hunters who are now gathered around Elway and Lyre and are treating them like equals, all previous caution and suspicion towards them now washed away.

A good few miles away, Dorsett and his twenty volunteers continue with the wall building and the snow and ice clearance of the field. No such hard work for Muel and Lorac, who are back aboard The Sea Steed. They are looking through the eyes of the two crows Shadow and Shayde as they flap their way towards the cave opening outside which is the green snow.

Shadow simply alights outside as Lorac sends Shayde into the cave as she activates her magical night vision. She can see that the green snow probably formed from a now icy stream which at one time would have flowed from deep in the cave. The green colouring gets stronger the further into the cave the crow flies but the creature stops when it hears from off ahead a strange gurgling sound accompanied by a wet slapping sound.