(group 2) Chapter 1: The Price of Survival

Ruln began turning to the horizon, but, as L'lef spoke, his dark eyes shifted back to study the man. A moment later, he lifted his shoulders in a non-committal shrug, but without turning away. The earth? It was an odd way to create warmth, but the spirits worked in odd ways. Eventually, he rumbles out, "And from within. I do not know your ways."

Deresk chuckles at the L'lef's and Ruln's talk. "True, on both counts," he says smiling. "But whether warmth comes form within or from the earth, the body needs something to keep warmth in, else it merely vanishes into the air." To emphasize his point, he grabs a heavy winter blanket of wolf and reindeer hides and wraps it around his broad shoulders.

Once he has bundled himself, he asks L'lef, "Now that I am prepared, show me how you prepare the earth. What spirits do you ask to make the earth give us warmth?"

Corynn rubs his brow in mild annoyance and bites down on his tobacco pipe hard enough to make it bob before looking at the others. "I'm no fancy mage or druid or anythin' but would you mind either doin' what you're gonna do or make some sense?" he can't help but feel frustrated, half the time he can barely make sense of what they're saying because of how they say it and now they add magic on top of it. As a former solider he might have some experience with quite a few things, but right now he finds himself feeling out of his depth.

Deresk struggles to suppress his laughter. "If one could make sense of the spirits," he says with a wry grin. "Or of the folk that talk them, the whole world would turn back on its head. Or would stand on its legs. I do not what it is standing on right now."

L'lef sighed and pressed his hands into the snow. After a moment the ground from which he touched began to radiate heat. The giant lad didn't attempt to hide any of his actions. With a nod of the head and a wry grin the lad said, "That should keep us warm for 5 hours and heal any of you that are wounded."

After performing the task for the group, the young man began setting up his hut where he had touched the earth. "I will take last watch."

Evergreen: You imbue a 10-foot-radius area of plant life with magical heat, instantly

Dice Roll: 1d8+5z d8 Results: 3 (Total = 8) Regain (8) hp

healing those within the area of the spell as well as granting immunity to cold for 5 hours.

"I'm either gonna be crazy or have one heck of a headache when this is over with." Corynn mutters but still smiles, it's going to take a while to get used to this group, but he thinks he might enjoy it. He pulls out some jerky from his pack, props it up against a nearby stone and sits down with his back against the pack, finding the ground quite comfortable thanks to L'lef's spell.

"Either way," Deresk says as he lounges down next to warmth of the earth life. "You will be warm, and in the tundra and the taiga, that is all that matters. And if you do go crazy, that just means you are becoming a shaman."

The bear is still at the outskirts of his vision, but now that he has stopped, so has he, albeit he now stares ruthlessly at Deresk, eager to make him move sooner. He turns to more pleasant matters.

"I know this spirit." He says to L'lef. "It can make the least fertile land turn into nourishing life. Much better than burning a fire. No signals out to whatever might be lurking out there."

L'lef was able to find a copse of tall evergreen shrubs and bushes about 30 feet away from the road to cast the spell on.

The magical warmth seems to radiate from the plants themselves and is enough to make everyone feel comfortable but not too hot. The night is utterly silent, and as you set up camp the dwindling flakes cease falling altogether. It should be a rather pleasant night for rest, as pleasant as winter nights can be in the frigid North. ooc

L'lef hid his torch within the scroll case when he adjourned for the evening.

ooc

The first part of the night is always the hardest. He waves a good night to the rest and huddles in a bundle of fur. His fears, however, come out, and as usual he senses the spirits more and more as he shuts his mind out of conscious thought. He becomes more and more in touch with primordial thought as he gets closer to sleep, until finally even that part goes down. His ears are ready though, even as his eyes close.