Once morning arrived, our group had a quick breakfast and packed their stuff to continue on their journey. The more they approached the mountain, the more the temperature seemed to fall, at some point it got so cold that Xandarr pulled out an extra cloak to wear over his clothes. Marcus didn’t feel the temperature drop until it started softly snowing, while not entirely unusual when climbing a tall mountain, however it is far from common at their current elevation in the middle of summer.

“Is it just me, or it's not supposed to be snowing?” Marcus asked, looking unsure of himself.

“It’s not. It must be magical in nature…” Drazdan answered with a serious tone.

“Damn it.” Marcus cussed.

“We’re close to the carriage, let’s pick up their stuff and leave as quickly as possible.” Xandarr said as he held his cloak closed.

“Yea, let’s do that. Before this gets worse.” Drazdan responded.

They kept following the road up the mountain, but the temperature refused to cooperate and not only did it get colder, but it also started snowing harder than before, reducing the visibility greatly. A snowstorm ended up forming, causing the party to eventually lose track of the road, and they walked off in separated directions, luckily Marcus and Drazdan stayed near each other. So when Drazdan finally noticed that they were lost and screamed as he looked for the others, Marcus could hear him and yelled back.

After realizing that they got separated, Drazdan screamed at Marcus to retrace his steps until they meet back up again. Once they managed to join back up, they planned to go look for Xandarr, who could be quite literally anywhere in the forest.

“Alright, follow me, I’ll surely find him!” Marcus screamed against the deafening wind.

“Wait! Tie this rope to that tree and then to yourself!” Drazdan screamed as he tied his 50-ft rope to his belt.

“Good idea!” he yelled back before doing as instructed.

Using the smaller footsteps in the snow, Drazdan began leading the both of them towards what he hoped was the lost druid.

Meanwhile, Xandarr was freezing in the windy snowstorm, he was shivering uncontrollably, and he was walking in circles without realizing it. He had noticed that he was alone and was trying to find the others with little success. He however did get a good idea, if he created a big fire with his magic, maybe the others will find him easier, plus it would warm him up.

With that in mind, he set fire to a tree in the massive forest, creating a bright beacon in the middle of the storm. He sat near it to warm up and waited.

The other two were still following the tracks they believed belonged to Xandarr, and they were correct, unfortunately Xandarr had gotten pretty far and they didn’t see the fire. However, as they kept going, they eventually managed to catch scent of the fire as it was blown around by the wind. They instantly understood what happened and began looking for light sources around them as they followed the tracks.

To their delight, Marcus eventually spotted the burning pine tree, and they began approaching with fervent hope. As they got closer, they could see Xandarr’s shape sitting in the snow next to the tree, they tried waving at him and screaming, but Xandarr was blinded by the fire’s brightness and could barely hear them over the crackling of the fire.

The two did eventually manage to get his attention when they got close enough and a delighted Xandarr ran up to them, leading to the burning tree, so they could warm up.

A quick reunion near the tree was held as they tried to plan their next step, they would first tie Xandarr to themselves and follow the rope back to what they assumed was the road. They eventually decided to walk up towards the mountain, hoping to find a cave for shelter and wait out the storm.

That in mind, they retraced their steps with the help of the rope and began climbing the mountain still attached with the rope, of course. They eventually have to tie an extra rope to the first one, so they could go further without losing their direction.

They were in luck tonight and managed to find the cave they hoped for, and they quickly funnelled in, taking refuge from the storm. As soon as Xandarr got in, he immediately created a campfire using his magic, and the light of the campfire lit up their surroundings. At a quick glance, one could tell this wasn’t a normal cave…

The stone blocks decorating the walls, the torch handles, the ancient writings and paved road. This… This was a dungeon.

“Fuck…” Drazdan cussed, the cave resonated his words, reinforcing the dreadful feeling.

The group looked between the dungeon and the stormy weather outside, unable to decide what they should do. The silence hung in the air loudly, they were too exhausted to clear the dungeon, but they couldn’t afford to go back out.

That was until Xandarr had another idea and used Mold Earth to create a wall blocking the entry to the dungeon, blocking them in the mouth of the cave. He then made a half wall of this earth wall to block the outside partially to protect the m from the weather.

“This should work for tonight.” Xandarr said, proudly puffing out his chest.

“I hope…” Drazdan answered, ever the optimist.

“Whose got first watch?” the paladin asked the question that was on everybody’s mind.

Then the trio looked at each other, trying to see which one of them was the most exhausted, unfortunately for Xandarr he was the least exhausted member of the party and would get first watch.

“Seriously guys? I just made these walls…” he tried to no avail.

“And you sat near a burning tree of your own making as we were looking for you.” Marcus pointed out and Drazdan nodded along.

Unable to refute their words, Xandarr gave up, “Fine… But you all owe me a drink after this.”

“Sure, that works.” Drazdan answered him with a smile.

At these words, the group began to prepare to go to sleep. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t know that this would be their last interaction with each other and that by tomorrow morning they would all be corpses littering the entry to a dungeon.

Never to be found again…