Hugh nods, but gives her an intent look, hoping she won't question it further.
When the boat arrives, Hugh says, "May we get in? You will take us to the other side, right?"
"I brought you the boat, as we agreed. What you do with it is your business."
"Very well." Hugh sits in the boat. "Can someone else get us across please? I could use a bit of a rest."
Vallju gets on the boat, and would have offered to get them across, but with no oars or sails, he was at a loss on how to do it, so he just stands guard.
Hugh leans back, and shrugs. "I was reminded of a bargain I made with Beag. But after a moment's thought I realized that it couldn't be related, Beag wished to keep what I gave her."
Hugh blushes. "Not married! I... well... she wanted a child, and I wanted help to get to... well, here. The land of the Norse." He looks at Alva and Nix. "No Herbam?"
Hugh smiles. "Well, thank you for not judging me."
He sighs. "I can probably manage again, wish me luck." With a booming voice and exaggerated gestures, he casts a spell. Successful, he concentrates, and the boat begins to move acoss the lake.
[ReHe 3 +1 touch +1 conc +0 ind +1 size = lvl 10 to move the boat
Non-fatiguing spont:
Sta 2 Re 5 He 5 voice 1 gesture 1 aura ? (But full points for faerie)
Roll on discord, success.]
You know it succeeded, unless you test the aura you don't know its level.
You motivate the boat and ride across the lake to the far shore. once you get there there are three paths, and a pair of mice, each trying to go in a different direction but unable to do so because they appear to share a single tail.
It looks like they were born this way, like conjoined twins, connected by the tail.
Both mice start talking at the same time, each of them essentially asking you to tell the other one which tunnel to take- one says right the other left.
"Three of us? Have you been drinking? There are two of us."
"I want to go right, I smell food."
"I want to go left, I smell fresh air."
"Give us food, and then we go left" Declares the mouse who was headed right. The other mouse nods and adds "She is down the middle path. We don't take the middle path, she would cut our tail."
They each take a small piece of bread and head to the left tunnel. Before they go the one who wanted to go right says "be careful, the path ahead grows slick and cold, if you wish to reach the Drottning. The easy paths lead the wrong way."
Heading down the central path you soon come to a large cavern with a chill wind blowing through it, there are at least a dozen ways out of the room.
Vallju scans around them to see which of the ways out is the hardest to get to
roll perception + awareness
[Only 15 total]
Walking the room you notice a breeze of cold air, which you follow to what looks more like a crack in the wall than a passage, but peering beyond you can see it widens to a steep icy slope, with jagged rocks at the bottom. ravens feast upon the carcasses of creatures which apparently failed to make the ascent.
Hugh shrugs. "We have to do what we can to get there, simply climbing up won't work. But I can't make us fly anyway, and there is the baby to consider. I can make other changes to us, but I'm not sure exactly what would be best."
Hugh says, "I have the talent to channel more energy into my spellcasting than most can. So I make use of the extra flexibility to improvise useful magic on the fly. When it comes to inventing spells, I can never decide what I might need, so I just focus on preparing to improvise."
"Clever trick to say the least. So we can't simply climb, we can't fly... but we can't take the easy path either... suggestions? Four feet are certainly more steady than two, but I don't know what other changes would do got best. " (also apologies about the short absence... end of semester is a bitch)