Into the Woods

Moving on through the woods, the group encountered a snowman with a sign.  Being highly suspicious, the snowcaster ranger shot it in the head.  Ash then walked up and poked it with a stick, at which point the sonic trap went off and the ice elementals attacked.  The elementals did their best, but completely failed to throw the woodsman onto the ice.

Once the ice elementals were dispatched, the rogue found the trapped sections of ice by virtue of falling in one.  After a bit more work (and changing him into a spare outfit and winter blanket), they determined a safe path across the stream and set a campfire.  They looted the dead farmer's body at this point as well.

The rogue being comfortably dry, the party moved on.  They made enough noise that the bandits at the lookout station on the path were able to set an ambush, though they didn't have much luck pulling it off.  A quick skirmish dropped all three, proving the group had become much more proficient at dealing with the challenges of the snowy environment.

They moved on up the ridge to arrive at the lodge being used by Rokhar and his bandits.  After carefully examining the place, the rogue was set to sneak in to the lodge by window while the rest of the group approached for parlay.  The rogue was successful at finding a way in and scouted out the trio of rooms on the north side.  The rest of the group approached the front door with the exception of the snowcaster, who kept her distance in the cover of the trees nearby.

Ash set off the crossbow trap at the porch, alerting the bandits within.  Rokhar's men immediately took up their bows and popped open the windows to take down the intruders, but were fairly ineffectual.  The woodsman burst the barred door open while the shaman crouched under the windows and did his best to take out those bandits who were foolish enough to lean out to shoot at them.

One bandit bolted towards Rokhar's room to warn him, but the rogue took this moment to pop out and throw a dagger his way, dropping the poor man before he could reach the stars.  The noise of combat did warn the sick bandits and Ten-Penny, though.  The sick bandits took up arms and prepared for combat, whereas Ten-Penny took her leave.

Ash, the shaman and the snowcaster moved in to the main room of the lodge and pressed the sickened bandits hard.  They finished the bandits pretty quickly, but Rokhar heard the combat under his balcony and slipped out of his room invisibly.  As the group moved up (the snowcaster had caught sight of the door to Rokhar's room opening and closing, but determined that someone had peaked out instead of slipping through), Rokhar lightly hopped down to where the sick bandits had fallen and cast hold person on the snowcaster, who was the only person still on the lower level.  As the group engaged the frost skeletons, five of the bandits rose as zombies at Rokhar's command.

The frost skeletons gravely wounded Ash, who decided that getting off the balcony was the better option, even with the shaman healing him as well he could.  The frost skeletons and zombies pressed hard as the group scattered.  The shaman was dropped to unconsciousness and both Ash and rogue lead their zombies on wild chases.  The rogue snuck back around to catch Rokhar unaware and dropped him below 5 hit points, when Rokhar surrendered and called off the remaining zombies, with Ash standing over him threateningly.

Searching the lodge turned up the imprisoned Lady Argentea and a caged sprite as well as quite a cache of treasures, and now the party limps  back to town with a chained necromancer, an imprisoned fey and a grateful noblewoman.