Battle of Coldhome

After a scouting mission left the northern temple, with intent to go back to camp, they instead stumbled upon the town of Coldhome and made their way in. They did not expect what lay in store for them here.

== Prelude == Following the discovery of journals from past residents of the Tinradh Valley, a group of refugees left the camp with the intent of finding any more journals, or perhaps the location of any survivors. This search took them first to Deadtree Village, and then to the Northern Temple. After it started to shake they made their escape, followed by an odd shuffling from beyond the area of the temple. Fleeing from this shuffling, they encountered a place not yet explored by them- The town of Coldhome.

== Deployment == As the scouting group first came upon Coldhome, the town appeared eerily quiet. The reason behind this became clear once they were within the walls- there were no living creatures to be seen. All they found were remains, and a few strange ice structures, similar to what had been seen within the forest. The refugees began searching through the quiet homes and tents for anything of use or interest.

While the refugees were still finishing looking around the husk of a town, the shuffling noises from the temple drew closer. The refugees spotted what appeared at first to be a large group of people heading towards the town. Some watched them from the walls while the last few buildings were searched, and it was determined that these were not people at all, but corpses, still moving despite lack off life. Using weapons salvaged from the town and the other smaller settlements first explored, the refugees prepared to defend their position.

== Battle == While the horde was still approaching the refugees closed the gates to the town, and those with bows shot arrows into their midst. This did little to slow them, and soon they were pounding at the gates. The gate started to buckle under the weight of the horde, even with the archers still shooting at them and dropping some of their number. Then the right gate gave way and the horde started to stream in. The refugees fought the rest of the night, managing to hold off the horde, and as the sun rose over the horizon, the last living corpse fell.

The battle was not over however- another creature came into view in the distance, a large creature that appeared to be made of bone and clay, with a horn of ivory extending from its head. It had no eyes, only empty holes where they should be, but seemed to see anyways. When it approached the gates, a man jumped from the wall onto it, stabbing it in the back. This didn’t seem to affect the creature, and it charged into the gate, sending splinters of wood flying. It rushed the wall again, destroying what remained of the gate and sending even more splinters around. A group of refugees moved around it, trying to fight, but their attacks to it seemed to do nothing, and it charged at those that came close. One such charge sent it into the side of a house near the gate, collapsing one of the walls. Slashes from weapons sprayed water from the beast, but did nothing to slow it.

After a time, it became clear that only attacks to the horn on the head had any effect on the creature, causing it to freeze in place.They started to focus their attacks on the horn, until it finally broken in half with one direct hit. The clay started to fall from the bones, forming a mound on the ground, and the falling snow swirled towards the pieces of broken ivory in a cone shape. The snow moving towards the ivory formed ice around it, and all sensor amulets in the area tried to fly directly towards it. When the ivory halves were entirely covered by ice, they started to shatter into tiny fragments, leaving a sort of coarse powder before the snow stopped swirling towards it. The battle was over.

== Aftermath == The death of the unknown beast marked the end of the danger, and the refugees returned to their camp. They brought back from the battle another journal from a resident of the valley, and the knowledge of a threat they had not faced before, the living corpses, dubbed Dolls for the stiff, unnatural way in which they moved. There were a few injuries sustained in the battle, but none of the refugees perished.