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[sjm9876]

((Pretty much. It spreads from the horizon up, similar to a sunrise but without ant more intense point.))

 Gunnar nods at Anthony.
 'Indeed it does. And storms do not bode well for travelers. With luck we should reach Khion before it breaks.'

[Harry Baldman]

"I've 'eard pseudevernias grow real good 'round here. Didn't have opportunity to check yet."

On the way to wherever we're going, keep an eye on the lichens on the trees, and harvest any interesting ones.

[Wwolin]

"Aye. 'Red sky in morning, sailors take warning'. But we're not sailing, so it shouldn't be that bad. Besides, we're in mountains. Storms only hit one side of mountains, and if we're lucky, it won't be the side we're on."

Yozod takes a leg of goat for the road, and travels with the group.

[sjm9876]

 The path grows gradually steeper as the day wears on, though its sides slope away so that there is little ice upon it. A few withered trees grow at its edges, but their trunks are bare. The rocks they grow upon, however, abound with mosses and lichens. Ulten identifies these as unremarkable. All the while, the skies grow darker.
 Around midday, the snows start to fall again in earnest. The path winds through a cleft in the mountain, the walls on either side rising steeply to a height to dwarf even an ogre. Caves stud the stone, of which three look large enough for the party, and with some care it would be possible to climb to one of them. The smallest cave lies on the north slope, and the other two on the south. The mouth of one of these is clear of ice, but many of the icicles around the lip of the other appear to have been recently snapped and broken.

Spoiler: GM note (click to show/hide)

It’d be nice to see a little more RP between characters…

[Varee]

(( am not talking to anyone so it up to you guys now ))

[Harry Baldman]

While on the path, Spooner regales his fellows with yet more tales of interesting lichen facts.

"... so I know what yer wonderin'! How's a man supposed to be telling the difference between an usnea and a bryoria? They're both green, bushy and grow on trees, for goodness' sake! They all look the same!"

He laughs.

"But that ain't true, that ain't true at all! See, it's all revealed when ya pull them apart - if it's an usnea, ya pull off the surface layer, and then there's this little white string in the middle - it's sort of like a pith for a tree. Bryoria has no such thing - they just tear. It's pretty fun if ya can find usneas to pull apart. It's like some kind of lichen skeleton in there. So ya see, it's easy. Now, telling apart different types of bryoria apart and telling different types of usnea apart, that's a different story entirely. For instance, a hairy usnea y'can tell apart by checking out the main stem, insofar as y'can call it a stem. It's gonna have these little bumps on it - ya might need a magnifying glass ta tell if yer eyes are none too sharp. But it takes an old hand and a lotta learning to know all that stuff."

Move along, looking out for unusual trees as well. Maybe there's some willows to harvest bark from or something.

[IcyTea31]

((Er, which cave has which traits? "One of them" leaves it unclear.))

[sjm9876]

((Ah, sorry. the small one is on the north slope, and the two then described are on the south.))

[IcyTea31]

"Looks like we'll have to delve a dungeon if we want to get to Khion in any reasonable time. Any preferences?"

Examine each cave entrance carefully.

[Varee]

Trace B6 in the snow to create a ice step up the south slope

[sjm9876]

((The path does continue straight on as well, if that was unclear))

[Harry Baldman]

Examine the most easily accessible cave. Do they look like a normal cave (small and uninteresting) or a big damn fantasy cave (long passages)?

[sjm9876]

 The smaller, northerly cave is also the most easily accessible, and the slope that leads up to it is shallow. (11+3) Ulten scrambles up it with neither incident nor elegance, and peering in sees that it ends no more than ten metres inside. It has a faint smell of animals, but it is nearly faded away, suggesting that they are long absent.
 Fia, meanwhile, moves to act upon the south slope, tracing a rune in the snow. (3+2) Instead of steps of ice, however, she manages to conjure an orb of icy water above herself. It seems to hang there for a moment, before falling onto her, leaving her clothes sodden and heavy. Gunnar chuckles, (18+4+3) causing Chance to look down from where she is perched in the rocks above.
 From there, she can see that the cave with the clear mouth extends some way into the mountain, its back hidden in darkness. More interesting, perhaps, is the other cave. The remains of the broken ice lie just beneath the cave entrance, crushed to a fine dust, and a heavy breathing comes from within. Whilst the beast itself is mostly out of sight, its tail pokes into view. The tail is long and sinuous, but reptilian, and as thick about as an arm. It ends in a spike of bone, which scratches against the rocky floor as the tail twitches. The scales are white, and reminiscent of those of the drakes of the mountain, though this creature is clearly much larger than the average drake.

Spoiler: GM note (click to show/hide)

Thankfully, Fia is a Mira, else she'd probably be on the way to hypothermia by now. But she is, so she's just a little damp.

[IcyTea31]

"That one's big... Let's not rile it up, okay?"

[Harry Baldman]

"Idea! Let's just leave, eh?"