Bang!

The DM: As the party is concerned with Vafrandir's health, which is winnowing away a bit at a time, they hear a tremendous bang and a scream. It comes from west of the crashed ship, upwind, about a two hundred yards away, where there is a cluster of rocks.

Pandred: "What NOW?" I will kick the spider's hairy body and set off towards the sound. "Odds! Hold him, will you!"

The DM: How fast? I presume as fast as you can go. As you rush, you see Willa stagger into sight atop a large rock, holding an unfamiliar backpack, before collapsing forward and rolling down to the ground.

Embla Strand I hurry out and run to Willa as fast as I can.

Pandred: Ditto.

The DM: Pandred reaches her first. She's hurt, having taken some burns on her face. The pack next to her is definitely unfamiliar; valuable, dark grey in colour and bearing the emblem of the King of Denmark & Norway, Christian the 5th. Your king. Willa is muttering, half-heartedly trying to reach under her doublet.

Embla Strand "Willa, what's the matter?"

Vafrandir: To answer the earlier question, no I don't have any additional salves.

The DM: That's a pity.

Willa: [dazed] Fjall is dead.

The DM: She struggles to reach under her doublet and gives up.

Willa: ... healing salve ...

Embla Strand Do we have any more? Is Willa in danger of dying as well?

The DM: It occurs to Embla that this is what Willa may have been reaching for. It should be obvious, however, that Willa can't have known anything about the spider or Vafrandir.

The DM: Willa doesn't seem to be near death, however ~ though she is badly hurt and perhaps below zero hit points, but not wounded or bleeding that you can see.

Embla Strand Thanks. With Vaf needing 5hp to live, I'd rather use this salve on Willa unless we have another salve.

The DM: Vafrandir actually only needs 2 to live. The poison will drop him to -25; he has gained 14 hp back; so he is approaching -11 right now. 2 more will get him to -9 and he'll live. Better hurry.

Embla Strand "Willa, this will save Vafrandir's life. Pandred, stay with her!" I take the healing salve from her and make haste back to Vafrandir.

The DM: Vafrandir is unconscious. Roll a d4 to save Vafrandir's life, Embla.

Embla Strand 3!

The DM: Congratulations, you're allowed to live another day, Vafrandir. You're at -8 hit points. Please roll a d20 to see if you wake up.

Incidentally, Willa is up 140 experience from the damage she takes. I'm working on the spider experience now.

Vafrandir: I roll a 14.

The DM: Vafrandir's wisdom is effectively 2.2 right now; so your roll doesn't make the wisdom check. You'll have to suspend adding this experience until you wake up.

Pandred: I love XP the way one loves a child, but first things first. "Willa, what happened?"

The DM: She's unconscious also. She'll need a day to heal before she can speak. You look around, however, and unexpectedly you see something that looks like a flag sticking up among the rocks.

Pandred: Like a flag? Do I recognize it? I'll approach if I need to get a better look. I seem to recall there was a helluva banner in our possession, or at least in Lothar's.

The DM: This doesn't seem to be that. It is a tent flag; you see two different scenes; one is Fjall's dead body laying amidst what appears to have been an exploded fire trap spell. This is overtop a scene that is much older - a tent, a skeleton lying in it with a broken femur, signs that the camp was lived in perhaps 3 years ago.

Pandred: Let's see to Fjall first. I'll be careful not to disturb anything.

The DM: Longer than expected. I'm here now. Pandred, it does appear that Fjall was killed by the fire trap.

Embla Strand I haul Vafrandir outside.

The DM: The battle took place outside the ship.

Setting Camp

Embla Strand Right! I look for a place to set up camp so Willa and Vaf can recover.

The DM: The best place seems to be the protection of shelter where the tent was placed, as described above. The tundra being all the same here, the wind gets nippy at night. This being summer, it isn't so bad; but apart from the rocks, the terrain goes outwards for half a mile before it rises up the slope across the valley. How far from the ship do you prefer to be?

Embla Strand That'll do, I suppose, if there are no more tricks or traps at this campsite. I move both Willa and Vaf about 20' from the campsite and then go investigate the campsite with Pandred.

[OOC Vafrandir: Just letting you know I'm paying attention to the feed here even though I'm unconscious]

The DM: The campsite itself seems to be the only flat area amid the rocks that you can use. The tent, skeleton and area looks as if it has been undisturbed for a very long time.