The Fourth Adventure

[mushgnome]

Dame Simonetta is watching it all from above.

Frederick is on the top part of the course. He pulls a small axe from his belt and gets to work, clearing the fallen tree from the track.

Dougal bounces out of the track and comes to rest near Wilbur. The two Hobbets are dazed but unharmed. They see an alarming and surprising sight: A foot sticking up out of the snow! It appears to be the bare and hairy foot of a Hobbet, attached to a leg jutting up from the fresh-fallen snow. What a strange discovery!!

Meanwhile Willie and Kiplyn enjoy a perfect moment of tobogganeering victory. They catch 2d6 = 11 seconds of hang time off the jump. Their shouts of "Too-Bog-Ahn!!!! Light in the Darkness!" echo from the hills. To their great surprise, something answers: "OOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM" It's not a Hobbet or Human voice; more like some giant animal calling out from the forest.

And then, their 11 seconds are up, and Kiplyn and Willie's toboggan ride comes to an end. They tumble harmlessly into the deep, powdery snow, giggling with the excitement of it all!

Kiplyn brings up a very good point: How are you going to get back up to the top with the sled?

[coffee]

Wilbur sits upright and starts digging the snow away from the foot. Is there a hobbet attached to it?

[mushgnome]

Wilbur starts digging and realizes there is, indeed, an entire Hobbet buried face-down in the snow. After one turn of digging, he has uncovered the feet and legs of a plump, middle-aged Hobbet. Her skin feels cold to the touch; no sign of life. The body is totally naked and there isn't any equipment or treasure scattered nearby. On a quick visual inspection, Wilbur doesn't see any blood or obvious wounds. Does he keep digging?

[kipper]

Dame Simonetta's attention is drawn to Wilbur's activity. She moves to a better position to hopefully see what he's up to.

[mushgnome]

Dame Simonetta has a bird's-eye view and can see Wilbur digging for something, though not at this point the specifics. She sees him scooping big armfuls of snow.

The trick would be finding a dignified way to get down there. Wilbur and Dougal are about 2/3 of the way down the track, and the way in between is blocked by Frederick and the fallen tree. Maybe if she rode the picnic basket down like a sled, and carefully ducked at exactly the right time?

[mushgnome]

To recap Kiplyn and Willie's position at the foot of the Chute: They are in the middle of a large clearing. They have a good view in all directions, but also nowhere to hide. The ground is covered with virgin powder snow, marred only by the impact mark from their toboggan crash landing. If they had a long enough tape measure, they could perfectly measure the distance of their jump for the record-books.

Kiplyn and Willie notice in the old-growth forest to their south, something big is making the trees sway back and forth. A cloud of startled birds, caw caw caw, the crows take to the wing. Clomp, clomp, clomp and the disturbance in the forest moves in a direct bee-line toward the clearing. "OOOOO, HRM HRM HRM. OOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!"

[acodispo]

"Yipes!" exclaims Willie, quickly coming back to earth after their exhilarating trip. "Something's coming! Quick, Kip, hide!"

Willie does what seems most sensible to him in the moment, and is certainly instinctual for a Hobbet, though it may prove disastrous: he dives into the snow nearer the edge of the clearing & burrows himself under, till only his eyes are peeking out!

[kipper]

Maybe if she rode the picnic basket down like a sled, and carefully ducked at exactly the right time?

The thought is so preposterous that Dame Simonetta is surprised with herself that it would even occur to her. Needless to say, she immediately dismisses it and continues watching from afar.

[mgtremaine]

Kiplyn looks at Willie, then at the sled and then at the Forest. Then repeats as Willie is already burying himself in the snow. "um... this sounds bad" he would whisper and tries to flip the sled on it's side facing the forest so he can duck behind it. Then he looks to see how far he has to crawl to get back the chute.

[coffee]

Wilbur turns to look at Dougal.

"Do you bury your dead in snow?" he asks.