Aldred grasped the potion, staring at it for a moment. He never liked taking strange handouts such as this, but Emilia was a healer so she knew what she was doing and if it would help deal with the unbearable cold of the mountains then he saw no reason not to take it, so he did, taking a long gulp before placing the rest of it in one of the pockets on his belt. Then he smiled back at Nyx before Sipley approached him with a sarcastic bow.
"It's good to see you back to your cheery self," He said to Sipley, returning the smirk. "Seems like we're ready to go into the freezing cold mountains after all." He added before rising out of his seat and turning towards the whole group.
"Time to get moving! Get your horses and anything else you are going to take with you because I don't know if we're going to be coming back here once our business is finished in the mountains." Aldred said loudly then started out of the inn as the group followed him out, each one following at their own pace, those that came on horses getting on them, Aldred himself walking on his feet.
The ragtag group made their way out of the town, reaching where the giant's had first been spotted which was right near the start of the mountain range, as they moved closer to the mountains, the temperature seemed to drop even further and the wind picked up. It was a whole different animal in this part of the continent, absolutely brutal if you aren't careful.
"I spoke with some of the townsfolk earlier, they said there's ruins in these mountains, suspicious ones at that. Apparently an ancient Elven fortress from thousands of years ago, its creators dead and gone. They shared my thought that the giants may be coming out of the ruins, possibly a powerful mage summoning the beasts for some reason." Aldred said as a strong wind blew into the group as they started going higher up into the mountains, the snow crunching below their feet.
"Thankfully they're not that far into the mountains, we should be coming up right upon them," Aldred replied right as he looked down to see what looked like an
entrance to a set of ancient ruins. "Huh, the fortress must be built into the mountains, that's quite clever."He said, then continued moving down a slope towards the ruins.
As he took a footstep, an arrow whizzed right by him, clanking off the shoulder of his heavy armor. Aldred sprinted to the side, diving behind a large rock as more arrows came, following his trail of footsteps. From where the others were standing, it looked like the arrows were being fired from up above, likely from a ridge or cliff, but no archers could be seen. The time to figure out where they were ended as the arrows started coming towards the group, many coming close to hitting target.
"Get behind something! Keep moving towards the entrance!" Aldred yelled, drawing his blade, still in cover behind a rock.