Post by Dead Greyhawk on Jan 24, 2009 0:45:51 GMT -5
Castle Diego recedes in the distance, Otto and Hugh leading their band of followers and hangers-on off across the Javan River into the Rushmoors. Otto's gnomish ward, laid upon him by the gnomish Laird Gwylar, Pfiffwin Hintergrund and Samantha Lacrosse, the elvish mage freed from bondage in Castle Crag, follow the Ranger Lord and Patriarch with some confidence, both having seen the strength and wonders they can muster. Claude, a warrior; Ledonia, a ranger; and Wendelain, a priestess of the brawling god Kord, follow Otto with a surprising fervor, augmented, no doubt, by his brave words and willingness to take on what must be to him a minor deed: the search and rescue of missing village children.
The rest of the band is less illustrious and possibly less trustworthy. All men who took up Diego's offer of employment, they have abandoned him now. All claim, some truthfully, to be repulsed by his easy employment of Org Bugeater's orcish brethren. Florin, an elven warrior displaced from his home in the Oytwood, and Adler, a half-elven priest of Celestian, are the most likely to truly have been repulsed. Clift, a shifty, obnoxious man, and Frippi Nostockings, a halfling who claims to be possessed by the holy spirit, seem more likely to have changed their allegiance on a fickle whim or the prospect of easy looting.
Of course, nothing is more surprising to them than the sudden appearance of Eats Salmon, who lumbers into site. Grousing in his bearish way, he strikes an easy friendship with Ledonia, who has wisely carried fish and berries among her rations. Frippi, who can stand underneath the bear unimpeded, is particularly wary of Eats Salmon.
The twelve of them make a sizable band, and Otto, Hugh, and Ledonia's ability to find the smallest path through the almost-trackless marsh is impressive. As recounted by Wendelain, she, Ledonia, and Claude had stopped in a village to the north of the Rushmoors, Orlane, and heard their of missing children. They had been approached by two tearful families whose children, a teenage boy and girl, had gone missing. While sounding like young love gone awry, the parents were certain it was more than that. Other children had gone missing as well, some for a long period of time, and not all had returned. The three of them had agreed to search for the teenagers.
After a few days combing the countryside, nothing had been discovered, but when the three had returned to Orlane, both families had left town. This curious behavior was explained by the local tavernkeeper, who claimed that they had heard from their children that they had eloped to the Rushmoors. The three of them had taken this story at face value and traveled into the swamp, searching for the teenagers and their parents. It was there that they met up with Mother Gird, who directed them deeper into the Rushmoors, and then with the Company.
The disorganized rabble of a band is full of commentary, little of it productive. Clift calls them fools and buffoons. Frippi comments about how they got themselves turned in circles. Adler queries them whether they searched the skies for advice while Florin sneers at their competence as warriors and priestess.
"Shut up," interjects Hugh. "Lost children need to be found, and your gum flapping doesn't do that. You will follow Otto's directions, and when he is not here you will follow mine. With Trithereon's blessings, we will find what was lost, uncover what is hidden, and free what is bound." Hugh jabs his fingers at Samantha and Pfiffwin, sitting silently on a dry hummock of land. "Until then, we put our faith into Otto's strong arm, my piety, and the wizardry of those two. Go to sleep. Otto and I take first watch."
The others rile under Hugh's curt words and sullenly find a place to rest. After they finally nod off, or at least give a strong impression of doing so, Hugh leans over to Otto. "What do you think?" he asks.
"Some may pull through, but we are scraping the bottom of the barrel," grunts Otto, not particularly quietly. "Make sure one of the elves is behind you and keep me in front."
Hugh nods in agreement. "What about the children?" he whispers.
"I'll pick up tracks once we get closer to the northern edge of the swamp," says Otto confidently. "Five days, give or take, assuming decent weather. We either find them or we find what found them. Then we apply Otto's Razor to the problem. Get some sleep; the bear can keep watch with me. Hugh chuckles and nods off.
The Rushmoors is a miserable place, full of leeches, stagnant water, and the droning of millions of biting insects. Infiltrating armor and private places, the insects feast on blood: human, elven, halfling, and bearish. Frippi, remarkably short even for a halfling, and Pfiffwin both need to be carried through large swaths of the swamp where the waters and mire come up to waist level. Claude, a rather strong man though not particular blessed with wits, easily hoists Frippi up, while Otto carries Pfiffwin on his shoulders. After two days of hiking, the swamp appears uniformly the same in all directions to all but Ledonia, Hugh, and Otto.
"Uh, uh, aiiieee!" cries Frippi, as Claude hikes out of the most recent pool. Claude, starting in surprise, dumps Frippi unceremoniously to the ground and spins about, looking for the enemy not in sight.
"What?" demands Otto, two days of insects having reduced him to single syllables.
"On your leg!" cries Frippi, pointing with a quivering hand.
Otto looks down over his shoulder, pushing his leg back. Attached to the back of it is a leech easily two feet long, bloated with his blood. Otto frowns at it. "Hugh!" he calls, gesturing with one hand.
Hugh jogs over and looks at the giant leech. Igniting Flametongue, he applies it to the leech's side until it releases from Otto's leg. Once it flops to the ground, Otto lets into it with a vengeance, spraying blood and gore across the marsh grass. Assured its dead, Otto has the others checked for leeches as well. Eats Salmon has accumulated one, and it is carefully removed and slain. After that, the pace slows, as Otto requires everyone to be checked for leeches after each submergence.
The slower pace causes them to linger longer in the deep swamp, where more water and less land makes travel treacherous. It is only after great efforts do they start to reach more solid land where travel can be expedited. It is late in the afternoon when Florin calls out a halt. The others, not expecting to hear from the normally quiet elf, straggle to a stop. "That's not a bird," he says, pointing back into the swamp. Nothing is visible in the air.
Samantha and Adler also seem to have spotted something in the air, far away. "He's right," says Samantha. "It glides too long for a bird. You should be able to see it in a moment." After half a minute, a dark spot low to the horizon is visible, arcing towards them. It looks somewhat like a heron, but its wing beats are oddly slow and infrequent.
Otto stands and looks at the approaching sight. "Joramy's fiery furnace. Everyone scatter. Move!" bellows Otto as he unlimbers his massive hammer. "It's a dragon."
The party splits up and flounders about in the swamp, and as the black dragon's massive form comes low over the horizon a horrible dread fills their bones. Only Pfiffwin, Hugh, and Otto seem able to keep their wits about them as the creature approaches. "Unless you can force it down, I'll only get one throw at it, " mutters Otto to the two of them. Otto pours an oil over the hammer's head while Hugh calls upon Trithereon's might to add strength and precision to Otto's throw.
The dragon does not come to meet the mighty warrior preparing to do battle with it though. Instead, it swerves towards one of the helpless and cowering opponents trying to burrow into the marsh reeds. With a disgusting hacking sound, the dragon expectorates at Samantha. Hugh and Otto both start running towards her, expecting to find nothing more than a pile of partly dissolved bone and flesh. Already the marsh reeds blacken and wilt from the bilious spittle.
Pfiffwin takes a different approach. Eying the gap, he speaks words of power inscribed in his mind and twists the world. Pfiffwin does not know what the dragon sees, but he does know it must be hideous, frightful, and powerful. The black dragon's horned head whips around in fright, and it makes a strange mewling sound as it performs a full barrel roll, spiraling off to the right, away from the approaching party.
Otto stands, somewhat flummoxed, staring at the fleeing dragon. Looking down at the dripping hammer, he carefully wraps it in a small bag and then restows it. "How much is left of her," he asks Hugh. "I know the rod brought back Oaklock; we could bring her to Cedrus in Longspear."
"What are you talking about?" asks Samantha in a high tone. She brushes the muck off her traveling leathers. "That was the most disgusting thing I have experienced, and I was held prisoner by trolls and gnolls." Hugh shrugs his shoulders. Samantha seems mainly unscathed; some abrasions and a red patch along the back of one arm the only results of having been breathed on by a dragon.
Otto smiles.
The Company hides from the dragon's return and presses on in the morning. Apparently, the presence of the dragon has frightened most of the normal inhabitants of the swamp into hiding. The Company's travel is entirely unimpeded until the sun is high in the sky. It is then, and only then, that the denizens of the swamp venture out to face the Company. What appeared as a small island among the reeds grows stumpy legs and a cruelly hooked beak. A giant snapping turtle lunges at the surprised Company, but, as usual, Otto's deep resonance with nature provides him the necessary warning.
Stepping forward to meet the charging beast, Otto wards off its beak with his shield and begins the brief process of butchering it. Before the rest of the Company has stirred themselves into defense, Otto lops off one of its legs and thrusts Giantslayer deep into its shell. The turtle twitches once and dies.
After a filling dinner of soup that night, the Company rests, hoping to make it out of the dangerous mire as soon as possible. A resonant voice breaks the background of the swamp noises, startling those around the campfire! "Share your fire with another?" queries the man's voice from beyond the light's edge. Otto scoops up Giantslayer while Hugh brings his prayers to the fore of his mind. "It's not often you see so many folk in the middle of nowhere."
"Come on in," says Otto. "We've got plenty of turtle soup." A large man enters the Company's light, his armored form shedding strange reflections and shadows. Clearly a traveler of some competence, the man carries a well-strapped pack, a long bow, and sturdy spear. He nods confidently at the others, reaches behind his back slowly, and draws forth a bowl.
"I like turtle soup," says the man with a smile. Hunkering down with the Company, but keeping them all in his sight, the man introduces himself as Ballard. For Ballard, the Rushmoors are merely a minor obstacle, and he explains that he is traveling south to Keoland, hoping to avoid the troubles in Sterich. Otto and Ledonia see in Ballard a kindred spirit, and assured of his trustworthiness, they explain the Company's quest to save the children of Orlane. "Orlane," mutters Ballard, a foul look on his face. "Those people are strange," he continues. "I wanted to buy provisions and travel on, but they kept harping that I should stay the evening or worship at Merikka's temple. It was almost as if they didn't want to sell me anything." Beyond his general displeasure at his treatment in Orlane, he has nothing specific to say. Ballard does warn though of a dangerous threat in the Rushmoors. "Beware the sky," he intones. "A great black dragon roams the Rushmoors, spreading fear and destruction in its wake!" Samantha smiles at both the warning and Pfiffwin's barely stifled guffaws. Offering Ballard a spot, the Company sets watch and turns to sleep.
The biting and droning insects have become almost commonplace now, so inured to their misery have the Company become. It is deep in the darkness, with Florin and Frippi watching with their inhuman eyes into night, that the droning sounds of insects returns. The noises increase, the buzzing sounds growing ever closer.
Neither Florin nor Frippi can see anything approaching until two small, hot things buzz into sight, slamming into Frippi's chest. Frippi lets out a scream of pain and falls to the ground, writhing, with both of the insectoids draining the lifeblood from him! "Help! Attackers!" shouts Florin, as he strikes out at Frippi, narrowly missing him but cleaving the strange creature from his chest.
The Company stirs to their feet, startled out of sleep and dreams. Some, like Otto and Hugh, roll to their feet, weapons in hand, many seasons of practice now inuring them to waking from dreamless slumber. Others, like Clift, wrap themselves in their blankets and barely make it to their feet, never mind having armed themselves. In either case, their assistance is not needed, as Florin's long sword lashes out again and guts the remaining creature from Frippi's still frame.
As Hugh restores life and vitality to the badly injured halfling, Florin and the rest look at what he has skewered. "Bug-birds," says Otto, shaking his head. "Mad wizards."
Ballard departs in the morning, heading southward and wishing the Company well. Several more days of travel brings them into the northern reaches of the swamp, and Otto, Hugh, and Ledonia pay much more attention to the ground and the lands around them. Towards the end of the second day, Otto draws Hugh and Ledonia's attention to several things invisible to the rest of the Company. Frowning, he has them all turn in early.
The next day, Otto leads the Company northeast, following some strange spoor no one else can see. "Do you hear that?" interrupts Pfiffwin. When everyone stops moving, a faint, regular clanking sound can be heard. The Company searches for and eventually finds its source. The opposite of a waterwheel spins in the middle of the swamp in a large hole. Water is carried out of the ground on a wheel in buckets and dumped on the ground when the wheel turns over, plunging dry into the ground again. "Well, this is interesting," says Hugh.
"Lizardfolk of the underground variety are in the area in force," replies Otto. "Human prints are among them, though not many. Perhaps the lizards lair under us and need dry space for cells?" This sounds surprisingly plausible, and the Company searches for an entry. None is found, but Eats Salmon is very interested in a hole some distance away from the waterwheel.
Eats Salmon has found a small tunnel that looks, to Otto's eye, like that of a giant weasel. A burrowing mammal, it may know of the lizards' lair if it is underground but convincing it to come out with a bear nearby is unlikely. "Climb in," says Otto. Everyone is aghast, thinking he means them personally. "No," says Otto through grinding teeth. "I mean Pfiffwin, who speaks to burrowing mammals like they were old friends."
Pfiffwin searches for a way out but can not find it. Unfortunately he has bragged overloudly about his ability to befriend anything that burrows in the earth and speak with them as well as Jasper. Now that he has been called on to do so, he wishes he never had.
Pfiffwin disappears down the narrow, muddy tunnel, wriggling his way along. Of the remainder of the Company, only Frippi is small enough to possibly fight and aid Pfiffwin if things go poorly. The sounds of screeching, snarling, and barking echo up the tunnel towards the Company, until it suddenly becomes quiet again. After several moments, a very dirty gnome clambers his way back out of the hole.
"It's wet down there," begins Pfiffwin, "but passable. The weasel is a good-sized one named Red-ruff. It knows of the lizardfolk and says its lair connects to theirs. For a bribe of food, it will let us pass without trouble." Otto beams with pleasure. He and Hugh quickly confer and agree. The weasel will be given the remainder of the turtle and some of the iron rations carried by everyone.
Ledonia and Eats Salmon set guard over the weasel's den and the pumping station while the rest of the Company doffs what equipment can be removed. It is placed in bundles to be dragged behind them and pulled through the weasel's lair. Then, one at a time, they inch through the claustrophobic confines of the tunnel, each, at one point, coming face to face with a giant weasel eating turtle flesh.
The weasel's den has a number of odds and ends, such as buckles and pieces of shredded leather, stuck in its walls that indicate that more advanced creatures live nearby, and a muddy corridor connects through a low tunnel on its far side. Once wriggled into, the corridor is clearly not natural. Filled with two feet of water, it is ten feet high and wide and has massive though damp and rotting timbers every five feet supporting the packed mud ceiling. The air is full of strong smells: rot, mold, and swamp gas. Water trickles down the walls and flows slowly away from the weasel's den. As the Company reequips themselves and heads down the tunnel, strong squelching and slurping sounds accompany each step.
The passageway before them slowly dries up as they hike down it. Eventually the water becomes shallow enough that Frippi can stand in it unsupported. After several minutes of careful exploration, the passage forks before them. Otto carefully looks at the muddy floor before him. "Booted humanoids or humans," he whispers, "and lizardfolk of the underground variety. A few dozen of each traveling in both directions regularly." He and Hugh quietly converse but can't see a particular benefit in one passage over the other. Otto leads them all to the left. The calm demeanor and professionalism shown by Otto in leading the Company safely to this point, identifying their foes, and befriending the local wildlife, has made a strong impression on the others, especially Florin, and they follow after him quietly.
This passage branches as well, with more traffic coming from the left than the right, and so Otto leads the Company to the left. After only a few minutes, an underground lake lays before them. Extending further than they can easily see with their cupped lightstones, the water is eerily quiet, with the occasional ripple crossing the surface with no apparent cause. Hugh carefully extends his broadsword into the water, finding it is no more than a foot deep at the edge, but it appears dark and forbidding. Otto quietly gestures everyone backwards toward the other tunnel.
The muck, mire, and occasional puddle make walking through the tunnels an unpleasantly loud and slippery process. Those more heavily armored or less agile slide and struggle to maintain their footing as they try to keep up with Otto and Hugh. Before them, the passageway turns to the left, but mounted in the right wall is a wooden door, mounted into the wall and heavily swollen with water. The door appears scorched by fire and has a large black X burnt into its face. "Any of you have experience with hidden mechanical devices?" asks Pfiffwin, eying the shifty Clift and the holy halfling Frippi. They all shake their heads in the negative. Pfiffwin sighs and looks the door over, finding no locks or hidden traps.
"Wait," commands Hugh as Otto moves to rip the door from the wall. Calling on Trithereon's might, he imbues his eyes with holy sight. The X-marked door appears safe to open, and Hugh motions Otto along.
"I'll open it for you," offers Florin, eager to prove his worth to Otto. Otto shakes his head and, with a stout tug, wrenches the door free from the wall. Beyond is an arched chamber, twenty-five feet high, with four thick columns supporting beams that span the ceiling. Exiting out the far side of the room is a huge corridor, twenty feet wide and twenty feet high. Water pools along the floor of the chamber and flows down the side walls in thick rivulets.
As the Company slowly enters the room, a beautiful sound reverberates down the broad corridor, echoing around them. The song is enthralling, and most of the Company appears captivated by its beautiful themes. To Hugh, Samantha, Florin, and Adler though, it sounds like a harsh, discordant voice screeching words of hate and vengeance! Those with elven blood attempt to restrain the others while Hugh calls upon Trithereon's might to strengthen them all for the upcoming battle. The rest slog forward towards the broad passageway, where the mud is softer and deeper. As each of them stumble into the mud, they begin to sink into its softness. The sound of the song is so compelling that even this danger of drowning in the mud does not dissuade them from pushing forward.
"It's a harpy!" warns Hugh. "Get out missile weapons, because it will be flying," Adler calls upon his god, the great wanderer Celestian, to bless their upcoming strife, as the harpy, a half-vulture, half-woman flies over their comrades struggling in the mud. The touch of the harpy is enthralling, and Frippi, apparently weak of mind, falls prey to her charms. Scrabbling through the deep mud, Frippi struggles forward, a long knife in each hand, towards Clift, planning on slitting his throat. "No, Frippi, no!" cries Hugh, seeing the vicious halfling's intent. The viscous mud proves to be a greater impediment to him than the others, and his light weight is not enough to push his way through it. A frustrated Frippi waves the long knives at Clift's head, mere inches out of range.
While her thrall does her bidding in the mud, the harpy moves forward towards those able to fight back. She pauses to savage Otto with her claws and a sharp dagger, attempting to gouge out his eyes, but the warrior's heavy armor turns her attacks. "Not to worry, Otto and I have this," cries Florin, his wish to gain the respect of the more experienced warrior shining through. Florin, having armed himself with his bow, sends two shafts into the side of the harpy, while Samantha futilely tries to go through the spells she has learned. Neither Winthrop nor Antonus nor Dell have provided her with spells with offensive power, and so she is unable to send magical bolts or other energies at the harpy savaging her comrades!
The harpy, sorely wounded by Florin's arrows, attempts to flee, flapping heavily to regain altitude, but finds herself to barely able to stay in the air. Laboring strongly, she clears the corridor of mud to collapse onto the firmer land in the chamber beyond, unable to fly upwards. The opportunity is all that Florin needs, and he sends two more arrows into the feathered creature. His fletching protrudes from her breast, as the harpy collapses to the ground.
Those trapped in the mud are slowly sinking to the bottom, and the bottom appears to be more than several feet deep. Already Frippi and Pfiffwin are nearly over their head, and the Company struggles to drag them out, using rope and bowstaff to provide leverage and aid to those trapped within. Tense moments go by before the last of the Company are freed from the mud.
Otto looks at the mud-filled passage and can see, barely, a chamber with similar supporting pillars at the far end of the passage. Nodding at Pfiffwin, who clearly is the only one with such abilities, Otto directs him to scale the wall down to the chamber. It is a tricky lateral move, but Pfiffwin has had more than a little experience in climbing along sheer surfaces. He leaps off the far end of the wall and disappears into the harpy's lair.
The chamber beyond the passage is similar to that they just passed through, except the four columns in this chamber have been connected to each other with pieces of lumber and tree branches. From the ground it looks like a crazed nest perched five to ten feet off the floor. Pfiffwin carefully reconnoiters the room for other threats but finds none. Up he climbs into the nest, carefully probing with his short sword before poking his head up through the branches.
The nest is decorated with feathers, pieces of leather, armor, broken weapons, and various medallions and jewelry that are draped over perches. Pfiffwin's eyes light with greed. He carefully collects the gold items, two necklaces, two bracelets, an anklet, and a gold and ruby medallion, and places them in one pouch. In a different pouch he collects the less valuable items, four silver necklaces and an electrum necklaces. Pausing for a moment, he considers the two pouches, emotion working across his head. He digs into the pouch containing the gold items and draws out the most inexpensive of the items, a necklace, and drops it into the other pouch. Nodding, he climbs back down and out across the mud to the others.
"What's back there?" asks Otto, viewing the diminutive gnome with a jaundiced eye.
"A nest with some dead people's stuff. Some shiny jewelry in it," replies the diminutive gnome with a straight face. "Here it is." With that, Pfiffwin makes a pouch appear in one hand, and he tosses it to Otto. Otto's eyes narrow as he stares down at Pfiffwin, but he turns and leads the others off back to the corridor. Pfiffwin smiles contentedly.
Pushing around the corner, the Company sees the corridor extends far forward, but that sixty feet away, the left wall has partially collapsed, Opposite the collapsed wall are two doors, evenly spaced along the wall. Otto leads the squelching Company up to the collapsed wall and looks within. Beyond the subsided wall is a shallow pool of clear, still water. Hundreds of small and apparently blind fish dart through the water, but no other entry is visible. Satisfied that no threat lies there, Otto turns to the doors.
Hugh's holy vision does not show any hidden mechanisms in the doors, and they appear unlocked. The doors, like the X-marked one, are swollen with water and difficult to move, but Otto's strength shifts them from their frames. Both doors open into separate rooms that share a wall. This wall seems to be subsiding like the one across the corridor, as a large pile of oozing mud occupies part of each room, Beyond the collapse of the slowly eroding wall, nothing else appears of interest.
Hugh starts upright as he hears a high-pitched giggle behind him. Turning around, he sees that Clift and Frippi, set as guardians of the rear, are amusing each other capering about. All memory of Clift's planned death at the hands of the halfling have been lost. Frippi lets out repressed laughs at Clift's antics as Clift's cheeks move in and out. Frowning, Hugh marches over to the two of them and claps Clift on the back. A gout of water sprays from his mouth, a small blind fish exiting along with the geyser. Hugh flips it into the pool with his boot and turns on the two of them. "If we are set on from behind, you two are the first to meet them," he snarls. "I hope they find your antics amusing." Frippi makes a peculiar hand gesture as Hugh strides off.
Beyond the collapsed corridor wall the passage travels on until it branches to the left. A series of doors are visible to the left, three on each wall, and Otto can see many booted prints in the mud before him. Otto motions towards the furthest doors, planning to move up and start there, trapping whatever comes out between him and the rest of the Company. "Shall I get these for you?" asks Florin. Otto grins and instead motions towards himself and Hugh. Hugh nods, preparing himself for battle. Given the amount of swamp gas in the air, he chooses not to ignite Flametongue for fear of a sudden explosion. Once the others are set, Otto bangs the far door open with a sturdy kick!
The inhabitants of the room are momentarily stunned by Otto's sudden appearance, but they quickly leap to their fee and charge, spears and shields held at the fore. The sounds of scurrying bodies and tromping feet echo out from behind many of the other doors. Otto's foes are poorly trained and wear no more than farmer's clothes, though leather armor sits in piles in the room beyond. Otto's blows fall fast and furious, bashing through his opponents' untrained guard. It takes Otto no more than a few seconds to run through his opponents and receive a spear in the back! In the tumult, four more spearmen, each armored in leather armor, have closed with Otto from the dark corridor behind and one has, with more luck than skill, found a weak point in Otto's armor.
Otto turns with displeasure in his mien to face his opponents as two more of the doors open to disgorge more spear wielding humans. Four of them are women clad in leather armor, while the other four, while carrying spears, are clad in the clothes of peasantry. As Otto summarily dispatches the four spearmen, trying his best to keep from dismembering them so poorly do they fight, the rest of the Company engages the other eight foes. Pfiffwin steps forth and throws colored light into the air, raining across the spearmen and sending them falling to the ground, pole-axed. Those few that remain are no match for the combined strength of the Company, and they quickly fall. Wendelain looks down on the vanquished foes and draws a sudden gasping breath. "They are from Orlane!" she declares. "I spoke to this one in the Golden Grain Inn."
Hugh, worried that their has been some sort of miscommunication or mistake made, orders everyone to begin binding the wounds of their fallen enemies. Many of them have been sorely wounded, but few, mainly opponents of Otto, have suffered such grievous harm as to have been slain outright. Once those that can be saved are, Hugh looks into the rooms from which the men and women have come. Each room is small and has four wooden bunks and a small table in it. Crude lamps and guttering torches shed light in each room, but no books, games, or other items of entertainment can be seen.
Samantha compares the number of beds to the number of dead or injured. "Short four beds," she says, pointing to the sixteen dead or unconscious and the three rooms with four beds each. Turning to the two remaining unopened doors, Otto looks over to Hugh to see if they are dangerous to open.
"Trithereon's gift has run its course," replies Hugh. "Now we must trust in man, or gnome as the case is." Pfiffwin frowns and pulls more mud from his moustache. Searching over the doors, he finds them both safe to open and one locked. A few minutes with wire and other tools, and it too can be easily opened.
Otto yanks the doors open to reveal another room with the four missing bunks and a communal room. This room has a long table with benches to either side of it, Dirty platters and several stained mugs are strewn around the table top and a small oven is vented up through the ceiling. Several wooden boxes sit near the oven, and Frippi and Clift immediately begin poking through them. The boxes hold dishes, pans, platters and the sort, as well as a number of bottles and sacks. Clift chortles in glee and begins tasting the bottles, finding them to be a vinegarish wine, while the sacks contain dried beans and blocks of lard. "What a haul," mutters Frippi in disgust.
While Frippi and Clift are busy with their loot, Otto and Hugh tell Florin and Wendelain to move the prisoners into one of the rooms and then takes Samantha, Claude, Adler, and Pfiffwin back to the intersection and down the passage. "Let's not leave anything unexplored directly behind us," exhorts Otto. The passageway turns to the left and is reassuringly short. About halfway down the passageway, opposite a torrent of water slowly digging a hole in the floor, is a door, and at the end of the passageway is another. A quick search by Pfiffwin shows them both to be locked, but his hands quickly undo the tumblers.
The first door reveals a storeroom filled with crates, barrels, cases, and racks. Spears and daggers are protected from the damp by a thick layer of oil in a rack against the far wall, and a shortsword dangles from a peg in a second rack. Between the crates and barrels are pile of shovels on top of a stack of stout timbers of various lengths, each similar to those used to shore up the mud tunnels. Seeing no enemies here, the Company heads to the second door.
The second door reveals another storeroom, but this one contains casks and kegs raised up off the floor on wooden shelves. The smell of vinegar is strong here, and Pfiffwin raises a warning hand. "The roof," he says, pointing upwards, "it's not good here. Too much moving about and it will collapse. It's missing some necessary support here, here, and there." Otto looks over at Pfiffwin in surprise but heeds his words of warning.
When they return to the others, they find a tense scene. Clift and Wendelain glare at each other from across the passageway, with Florin trying to keep an eye on both the corridor and Frippi. "What's going on?" asks Otto.
"Nothing," says Frippi. "We're all friends, right?" The halfling looks around meaningfully at everyone. They grudgingly nod.
"We won't let Clift guard the prisoners in the future," spits out Florin. Clift looks injured.
Shaking his head, Otto leads the Company past the prisoners' rooms. The passage quickly enters into a square room with two exits from it: a passage on the far wall and a mud-covered wooden stairwell leading upwards! Clift, Adler, and Claude clamber up the stairs, which extend a full sixty feet, and take in the sights above. The Rushmoors surround them, and they do not see Eats Salmon or Ledonia. The area nearest the stairwell seems dryer than other parts of the swamp, and what appears to be a or wall of some sort encircles the stair at a distance of thirty or so feet. Shrugging their shoulders, they rejoin the others and report.
Satisfied they now have a real exit, Otto leads the others on towards the other passageway. It branches before them, and Otto takes the first right, which leads to stout door. Arraying themselves before the door, Otto smashes it with his foot. He hops backward, wincing in pain as the door does not open! Frowning, he lowers one shoulder and rams it and his shield into the door. With an odd cracking sound, the door flies open, a part of the door normally inside the room dangling from one side of it.
In the middle of the room stands a man in scale mail armed with shield and long sword who beckons Otto forward. Otto smirks and strides into the room, hefting Giantslayer. From the unseen sides of the doorway dart two figures, each clad in leather armor and bearing a short sword and shield. They drive their swords at Otto. One is repelled by his armor, but the other goes remarkably deep, and Otto falls to the ground! "I'll protect you Otto," shouts Florin as he pulls out his longsword.
"Not good," mutters Hugh as he moves to heal Otto. The rest of the Company flows into the room, and battle is met. Florin and Claude move to close with the warrior, while the priests and Clift tussle with the leather-clad humans. The warrior is adept with his longsword and difficult to strike, but Florin's skill is almost as good and Claude's strength offsets much of the warrior's advantage. After all, they need only hold the opponents off long enough for Hugh to bring Otto back to fighting form. In fact, one of the leather-clad opponents suddenly falls to the ground, dead as a stone, as Pfiffwin impales the man's kidney on the end of his short sword.
As Otto rises from the floor, haler than moments earlier, the combined efforts of Wendelain, Adler, Frippi, and Clift overwhelm the second leather-clad man's defense, and he is bludgeoned to death on the floor. The warrior rushes past the faltering Florin and Claude, scampering past the recovering Otto. With a burst of speed, the man runs out of the room and down the opposing corridor. The warriors of the Company charge after him, but Otto's enchanted boots provide him with the fleetest of feet. Closing the distance rapidly, he falls upon the man as he fumbles about in a small alcove. With a flick of the wrists, Giantslayer arcs out and through the man's neck, neatly separating his head from his body. With the warrior's death, the battle is over.
Florin and Claude clatter to a halt next to Otto and the steaming corpse. "He was trying to open something here," says Otto to the keen-eyed elf. "Find it." Florin examines the surrounding walls and finds a wooden door buried under a thin layer of mud. With some careful prodding, the mud falls away and the door opens, revealing a small muddy ledge holding a dinghy. Beyond it, water extends out of sight.
With the situation suddenly calmer, the Company takes in the room. Most obvious is the relative dryness of the room. No water runs down the walls, and the floor is more like compacted dirt and less like slippery mud. Four soft chairs and several small tables stand in one corner near a large fireplace. A smoldering fire burns within it, and several large bundles of wood sit by it. A keg, tapped, sits on a stand in the corner, and two empty, used glasses sit on one of the tables. Clift smiles and saunters over to the keg, snagging one of the glasses along the way. "Duty calls!" he quips as he tries the red wine that comes from the keg.
Three doors lead out of the room, two of which are ajar. One leads to a dry chamber containing two beds and mattresses, two chairs, and six wall pegs. Two woolen cloaks hang on the pegs. Looking at the two dead leather-clad men, it appears that they had other similarities. The second contains a single bed and chair. A woolen cloak hangs from a peg on the wall and a thick quilt covers the bed. The last door is locked, and it requires attention from Pfiffwin to open it. The chamber beyond contains a soft bed, a desk, and a chair.
The Company spreads out to find hidden chests or objects, and Pfiffwin is called over to the locked room to look at a chest that was under the bed. Opening the lock is simple for him, but not looking at the great glowing glyph that appears before his eyes is not. With a gasp, Pfiffwin stiffens into immobility! The others freeze in place, wishing to make sure that nothing else horrible is about to happen. When nothing does, Hugh places a hand on Pfiffwin's shoulder and prays to Trithereon. After a few moments, Pfiffwin lets out a shuddering exhalation and moves again.
The chest holds a lavish red and black hooded robe, a polished mace, and scroll bound in the shed skin of a snake. Hugh carefully unties the snakeskin, unrolls the scroll, and reads. The words within are vile and dedicated to Merrshaulk, a demon god of snakes, but the effects are palatable. The scroll appears to have healing prayers inscribed upon it. Choosing among the other three priests traveling with him, he hands it to Adler.
"Hugh!" calls out Otto, who has been looking at the desk. "Come take a look." Hugh comes over, as do the eyes of much of the Company. "I think we've found an old friend, or at least a sibling." Hugh's eyes narrow as he looks at the item in Otto's hand. Within his tight grip sits a jade statuette of a snake with a woman's head.
The rest of the band is less illustrious and possibly less trustworthy. All men who took up Diego's offer of employment, they have abandoned him now. All claim, some truthfully, to be repulsed by his easy employment of Org Bugeater's orcish brethren. Florin, an elven warrior displaced from his home in the Oytwood, and Adler, a half-elven priest of Celestian, are the most likely to truly have been repulsed. Clift, a shifty, obnoxious man, and Frippi Nostockings, a halfling who claims to be possessed by the holy spirit, seem more likely to have changed their allegiance on a fickle whim or the prospect of easy looting.
Of course, nothing is more surprising to them than the sudden appearance of Eats Salmon, who lumbers into site. Grousing in his bearish way, he strikes an easy friendship with Ledonia, who has wisely carried fish and berries among her rations. Frippi, who can stand underneath the bear unimpeded, is particularly wary of Eats Salmon.
The twelve of them make a sizable band, and Otto, Hugh, and Ledonia's ability to find the smallest path through the almost-trackless marsh is impressive. As recounted by Wendelain, she, Ledonia, and Claude had stopped in a village to the north of the Rushmoors, Orlane, and heard their of missing children. They had been approached by two tearful families whose children, a teenage boy and girl, had gone missing. While sounding like young love gone awry, the parents were certain it was more than that. Other children had gone missing as well, some for a long period of time, and not all had returned. The three of them had agreed to search for the teenagers.
After a few days combing the countryside, nothing had been discovered, but when the three had returned to Orlane, both families had left town. This curious behavior was explained by the local tavernkeeper, who claimed that they had heard from their children that they had eloped to the Rushmoors. The three of them had taken this story at face value and traveled into the swamp, searching for the teenagers and their parents. It was there that they met up with Mother Gird, who directed them deeper into the Rushmoors, and then with the Company.
The disorganized rabble of a band is full of commentary, little of it productive. Clift calls them fools and buffoons. Frippi comments about how they got themselves turned in circles. Adler queries them whether they searched the skies for advice while Florin sneers at their competence as warriors and priestess.
"Shut up," interjects Hugh. "Lost children need to be found, and your gum flapping doesn't do that. You will follow Otto's directions, and when he is not here you will follow mine. With Trithereon's blessings, we will find what was lost, uncover what is hidden, and free what is bound." Hugh jabs his fingers at Samantha and Pfiffwin, sitting silently on a dry hummock of land. "Until then, we put our faith into Otto's strong arm, my piety, and the wizardry of those two. Go to sleep. Otto and I take first watch."
The others rile under Hugh's curt words and sullenly find a place to rest. After they finally nod off, or at least give a strong impression of doing so, Hugh leans over to Otto. "What do you think?" he asks.
"Some may pull through, but we are scraping the bottom of the barrel," grunts Otto, not particularly quietly. "Make sure one of the elves is behind you and keep me in front."
Hugh nods in agreement. "What about the children?" he whispers.
"I'll pick up tracks once we get closer to the northern edge of the swamp," says Otto confidently. "Five days, give or take, assuming decent weather. We either find them or we find what found them. Then we apply Otto's Razor to the problem. Get some sleep; the bear can keep watch with me. Hugh chuckles and nods off.
The Rushmoors is a miserable place, full of leeches, stagnant water, and the droning of millions of biting insects. Infiltrating armor and private places, the insects feast on blood: human, elven, halfling, and bearish. Frippi, remarkably short even for a halfling, and Pfiffwin both need to be carried through large swaths of the swamp where the waters and mire come up to waist level. Claude, a rather strong man though not particular blessed with wits, easily hoists Frippi up, while Otto carries Pfiffwin on his shoulders. After two days of hiking, the swamp appears uniformly the same in all directions to all but Ledonia, Hugh, and Otto.
"Uh, uh, aiiieee!" cries Frippi, as Claude hikes out of the most recent pool. Claude, starting in surprise, dumps Frippi unceremoniously to the ground and spins about, looking for the enemy not in sight.
"What?" demands Otto, two days of insects having reduced him to single syllables.
"On your leg!" cries Frippi, pointing with a quivering hand.
Otto looks down over his shoulder, pushing his leg back. Attached to the back of it is a leech easily two feet long, bloated with his blood. Otto frowns at it. "Hugh!" he calls, gesturing with one hand.
Hugh jogs over and looks at the giant leech. Igniting Flametongue, he applies it to the leech's side until it releases from Otto's leg. Once it flops to the ground, Otto lets into it with a vengeance, spraying blood and gore across the marsh grass. Assured its dead, Otto has the others checked for leeches as well. Eats Salmon has accumulated one, and it is carefully removed and slain. After that, the pace slows, as Otto requires everyone to be checked for leeches after each submergence.
The slower pace causes them to linger longer in the deep swamp, where more water and less land makes travel treacherous. It is only after great efforts do they start to reach more solid land where travel can be expedited. It is late in the afternoon when Florin calls out a halt. The others, not expecting to hear from the normally quiet elf, straggle to a stop. "That's not a bird," he says, pointing back into the swamp. Nothing is visible in the air.
Samantha and Adler also seem to have spotted something in the air, far away. "He's right," says Samantha. "It glides too long for a bird. You should be able to see it in a moment." After half a minute, a dark spot low to the horizon is visible, arcing towards them. It looks somewhat like a heron, but its wing beats are oddly slow and infrequent.
Otto stands and looks at the approaching sight. "Joramy's fiery furnace. Everyone scatter. Move!" bellows Otto as he unlimbers his massive hammer. "It's a dragon."
The party splits up and flounders about in the swamp, and as the black dragon's massive form comes low over the horizon a horrible dread fills their bones. Only Pfiffwin, Hugh, and Otto seem able to keep their wits about them as the creature approaches. "Unless you can force it down, I'll only get one throw at it, " mutters Otto to the two of them. Otto pours an oil over the hammer's head while Hugh calls upon Trithereon's might to add strength and precision to Otto's throw.
The dragon does not come to meet the mighty warrior preparing to do battle with it though. Instead, it swerves towards one of the helpless and cowering opponents trying to burrow into the marsh reeds. With a disgusting hacking sound, the dragon expectorates at Samantha. Hugh and Otto both start running towards her, expecting to find nothing more than a pile of partly dissolved bone and flesh. Already the marsh reeds blacken and wilt from the bilious spittle.
Pfiffwin takes a different approach. Eying the gap, he speaks words of power inscribed in his mind and twists the world. Pfiffwin does not know what the dragon sees, but he does know it must be hideous, frightful, and powerful. The black dragon's horned head whips around in fright, and it makes a strange mewling sound as it performs a full barrel roll, spiraling off to the right, away from the approaching party.
Otto stands, somewhat flummoxed, staring at the fleeing dragon. Looking down at the dripping hammer, he carefully wraps it in a small bag and then restows it. "How much is left of her," he asks Hugh. "I know the rod brought back Oaklock; we could bring her to Cedrus in Longspear."
"What are you talking about?" asks Samantha in a high tone. She brushes the muck off her traveling leathers. "That was the most disgusting thing I have experienced, and I was held prisoner by trolls and gnolls." Hugh shrugs his shoulders. Samantha seems mainly unscathed; some abrasions and a red patch along the back of one arm the only results of having been breathed on by a dragon.
Otto smiles.
The Company hides from the dragon's return and presses on in the morning. Apparently, the presence of the dragon has frightened most of the normal inhabitants of the swamp into hiding. The Company's travel is entirely unimpeded until the sun is high in the sky. It is then, and only then, that the denizens of the swamp venture out to face the Company. What appeared as a small island among the reeds grows stumpy legs and a cruelly hooked beak. A giant snapping turtle lunges at the surprised Company, but, as usual, Otto's deep resonance with nature provides him the necessary warning.
Stepping forward to meet the charging beast, Otto wards off its beak with his shield and begins the brief process of butchering it. Before the rest of the Company has stirred themselves into defense, Otto lops off one of its legs and thrusts Giantslayer deep into its shell. The turtle twitches once and dies.
After a filling dinner of soup that night, the Company rests, hoping to make it out of the dangerous mire as soon as possible. A resonant voice breaks the background of the swamp noises, startling those around the campfire! "Share your fire with another?" queries the man's voice from beyond the light's edge. Otto scoops up Giantslayer while Hugh brings his prayers to the fore of his mind. "It's not often you see so many folk in the middle of nowhere."
"Come on in," says Otto. "We've got plenty of turtle soup." A large man enters the Company's light, his armored form shedding strange reflections and shadows. Clearly a traveler of some competence, the man carries a well-strapped pack, a long bow, and sturdy spear. He nods confidently at the others, reaches behind his back slowly, and draws forth a bowl.
"I like turtle soup," says the man with a smile. Hunkering down with the Company, but keeping them all in his sight, the man introduces himself as Ballard. For Ballard, the Rushmoors are merely a minor obstacle, and he explains that he is traveling south to Keoland, hoping to avoid the troubles in Sterich. Otto and Ledonia see in Ballard a kindred spirit, and assured of his trustworthiness, they explain the Company's quest to save the children of Orlane. "Orlane," mutters Ballard, a foul look on his face. "Those people are strange," he continues. "I wanted to buy provisions and travel on, but they kept harping that I should stay the evening or worship at Merikka's temple. It was almost as if they didn't want to sell me anything." Beyond his general displeasure at his treatment in Orlane, he has nothing specific to say. Ballard does warn though of a dangerous threat in the Rushmoors. "Beware the sky," he intones. "A great black dragon roams the Rushmoors, spreading fear and destruction in its wake!" Samantha smiles at both the warning and Pfiffwin's barely stifled guffaws. Offering Ballard a spot, the Company sets watch and turns to sleep.
The biting and droning insects have become almost commonplace now, so inured to their misery have the Company become. It is deep in the darkness, with Florin and Frippi watching with their inhuman eyes into night, that the droning sounds of insects returns. The noises increase, the buzzing sounds growing ever closer.
Neither Florin nor Frippi can see anything approaching until two small, hot things buzz into sight, slamming into Frippi's chest. Frippi lets out a scream of pain and falls to the ground, writhing, with both of the insectoids draining the lifeblood from him! "Help! Attackers!" shouts Florin, as he strikes out at Frippi, narrowly missing him but cleaving the strange creature from his chest.
The Company stirs to their feet, startled out of sleep and dreams. Some, like Otto and Hugh, roll to their feet, weapons in hand, many seasons of practice now inuring them to waking from dreamless slumber. Others, like Clift, wrap themselves in their blankets and barely make it to their feet, never mind having armed themselves. In either case, their assistance is not needed, as Florin's long sword lashes out again and guts the remaining creature from Frippi's still frame.
As Hugh restores life and vitality to the badly injured halfling, Florin and the rest look at what he has skewered. "Bug-birds," says Otto, shaking his head. "Mad wizards."
Ballard departs in the morning, heading southward and wishing the Company well. Several more days of travel brings them into the northern reaches of the swamp, and Otto, Hugh, and Ledonia pay much more attention to the ground and the lands around them. Towards the end of the second day, Otto draws Hugh and Ledonia's attention to several things invisible to the rest of the Company. Frowning, he has them all turn in early.
The next day, Otto leads the Company northeast, following some strange spoor no one else can see. "Do you hear that?" interrupts Pfiffwin. When everyone stops moving, a faint, regular clanking sound can be heard. The Company searches for and eventually finds its source. The opposite of a waterwheel spins in the middle of the swamp in a large hole. Water is carried out of the ground on a wheel in buckets and dumped on the ground when the wheel turns over, plunging dry into the ground again. "Well, this is interesting," says Hugh.
"Lizardfolk of the underground variety are in the area in force," replies Otto. "Human prints are among them, though not many. Perhaps the lizards lair under us and need dry space for cells?" This sounds surprisingly plausible, and the Company searches for an entry. None is found, but Eats Salmon is very interested in a hole some distance away from the waterwheel.
Eats Salmon has found a small tunnel that looks, to Otto's eye, like that of a giant weasel. A burrowing mammal, it may know of the lizards' lair if it is underground but convincing it to come out with a bear nearby is unlikely. "Climb in," says Otto. Everyone is aghast, thinking he means them personally. "No," says Otto through grinding teeth. "I mean Pfiffwin, who speaks to burrowing mammals like they were old friends."
Pfiffwin searches for a way out but can not find it. Unfortunately he has bragged overloudly about his ability to befriend anything that burrows in the earth and speak with them as well as Jasper. Now that he has been called on to do so, he wishes he never had.
Pfiffwin disappears down the narrow, muddy tunnel, wriggling his way along. Of the remainder of the Company, only Frippi is small enough to possibly fight and aid Pfiffwin if things go poorly. The sounds of screeching, snarling, and barking echo up the tunnel towards the Company, until it suddenly becomes quiet again. After several moments, a very dirty gnome clambers his way back out of the hole.
"It's wet down there," begins Pfiffwin, "but passable. The weasel is a good-sized one named Red-ruff. It knows of the lizardfolk and says its lair connects to theirs. For a bribe of food, it will let us pass without trouble." Otto beams with pleasure. He and Hugh quickly confer and agree. The weasel will be given the remainder of the turtle and some of the iron rations carried by everyone.
Ledonia and Eats Salmon set guard over the weasel's den and the pumping station while the rest of the Company doffs what equipment can be removed. It is placed in bundles to be dragged behind them and pulled through the weasel's lair. Then, one at a time, they inch through the claustrophobic confines of the tunnel, each, at one point, coming face to face with a giant weasel eating turtle flesh.
The weasel's den has a number of odds and ends, such as buckles and pieces of shredded leather, stuck in its walls that indicate that more advanced creatures live nearby, and a muddy corridor connects through a low tunnel on its far side. Once wriggled into, the corridor is clearly not natural. Filled with two feet of water, it is ten feet high and wide and has massive though damp and rotting timbers every five feet supporting the packed mud ceiling. The air is full of strong smells: rot, mold, and swamp gas. Water trickles down the walls and flows slowly away from the weasel's den. As the Company reequips themselves and heads down the tunnel, strong squelching and slurping sounds accompany each step.
The passageway before them slowly dries up as they hike down it. Eventually the water becomes shallow enough that Frippi can stand in it unsupported. After several minutes of careful exploration, the passage forks before them. Otto carefully looks at the muddy floor before him. "Booted humanoids or humans," he whispers, "and lizardfolk of the underground variety. A few dozen of each traveling in both directions regularly." He and Hugh quietly converse but can't see a particular benefit in one passage over the other. Otto leads them all to the left. The calm demeanor and professionalism shown by Otto in leading the Company safely to this point, identifying their foes, and befriending the local wildlife, has made a strong impression on the others, especially Florin, and they follow after him quietly.
This passage branches as well, with more traffic coming from the left than the right, and so Otto leads the Company to the left. After only a few minutes, an underground lake lays before them. Extending further than they can easily see with their cupped lightstones, the water is eerily quiet, with the occasional ripple crossing the surface with no apparent cause. Hugh carefully extends his broadsword into the water, finding it is no more than a foot deep at the edge, but it appears dark and forbidding. Otto quietly gestures everyone backwards toward the other tunnel.
The muck, mire, and occasional puddle make walking through the tunnels an unpleasantly loud and slippery process. Those more heavily armored or less agile slide and struggle to maintain their footing as they try to keep up with Otto and Hugh. Before them, the passageway turns to the left, but mounted in the right wall is a wooden door, mounted into the wall and heavily swollen with water. The door appears scorched by fire and has a large black X burnt into its face. "Any of you have experience with hidden mechanical devices?" asks Pfiffwin, eying the shifty Clift and the holy halfling Frippi. They all shake their heads in the negative. Pfiffwin sighs and looks the door over, finding no locks or hidden traps.
"Wait," commands Hugh as Otto moves to rip the door from the wall. Calling on Trithereon's might, he imbues his eyes with holy sight. The X-marked door appears safe to open, and Hugh motions Otto along.
"I'll open it for you," offers Florin, eager to prove his worth to Otto. Otto shakes his head and, with a stout tug, wrenches the door free from the wall. Beyond is an arched chamber, twenty-five feet high, with four thick columns supporting beams that span the ceiling. Exiting out the far side of the room is a huge corridor, twenty feet wide and twenty feet high. Water pools along the floor of the chamber and flows down the side walls in thick rivulets.
As the Company slowly enters the room, a beautiful sound reverberates down the broad corridor, echoing around them. The song is enthralling, and most of the Company appears captivated by its beautiful themes. To Hugh, Samantha, Florin, and Adler though, it sounds like a harsh, discordant voice screeching words of hate and vengeance! Those with elven blood attempt to restrain the others while Hugh calls upon Trithereon's might to strengthen them all for the upcoming battle. The rest slog forward towards the broad passageway, where the mud is softer and deeper. As each of them stumble into the mud, they begin to sink into its softness. The sound of the song is so compelling that even this danger of drowning in the mud does not dissuade them from pushing forward.
"It's a harpy!" warns Hugh. "Get out missile weapons, because it will be flying," Adler calls upon his god, the great wanderer Celestian, to bless their upcoming strife, as the harpy, a half-vulture, half-woman flies over their comrades struggling in the mud. The touch of the harpy is enthralling, and Frippi, apparently weak of mind, falls prey to her charms. Scrabbling through the deep mud, Frippi struggles forward, a long knife in each hand, towards Clift, planning on slitting his throat. "No, Frippi, no!" cries Hugh, seeing the vicious halfling's intent. The viscous mud proves to be a greater impediment to him than the others, and his light weight is not enough to push his way through it. A frustrated Frippi waves the long knives at Clift's head, mere inches out of range.
While her thrall does her bidding in the mud, the harpy moves forward towards those able to fight back. She pauses to savage Otto with her claws and a sharp dagger, attempting to gouge out his eyes, but the warrior's heavy armor turns her attacks. "Not to worry, Otto and I have this," cries Florin, his wish to gain the respect of the more experienced warrior shining through. Florin, having armed himself with his bow, sends two shafts into the side of the harpy, while Samantha futilely tries to go through the spells she has learned. Neither Winthrop nor Antonus nor Dell have provided her with spells with offensive power, and so she is unable to send magical bolts or other energies at the harpy savaging her comrades!
The harpy, sorely wounded by Florin's arrows, attempts to flee, flapping heavily to regain altitude, but finds herself to barely able to stay in the air. Laboring strongly, she clears the corridor of mud to collapse onto the firmer land in the chamber beyond, unable to fly upwards. The opportunity is all that Florin needs, and he sends two more arrows into the feathered creature. His fletching protrudes from her breast, as the harpy collapses to the ground.
Those trapped in the mud are slowly sinking to the bottom, and the bottom appears to be more than several feet deep. Already Frippi and Pfiffwin are nearly over their head, and the Company struggles to drag them out, using rope and bowstaff to provide leverage and aid to those trapped within. Tense moments go by before the last of the Company are freed from the mud.
Otto looks at the mud-filled passage and can see, barely, a chamber with similar supporting pillars at the far end of the passage. Nodding at Pfiffwin, who clearly is the only one with such abilities, Otto directs him to scale the wall down to the chamber. It is a tricky lateral move, but Pfiffwin has had more than a little experience in climbing along sheer surfaces. He leaps off the far end of the wall and disappears into the harpy's lair.
The chamber beyond the passage is similar to that they just passed through, except the four columns in this chamber have been connected to each other with pieces of lumber and tree branches. From the ground it looks like a crazed nest perched five to ten feet off the floor. Pfiffwin carefully reconnoiters the room for other threats but finds none. Up he climbs into the nest, carefully probing with his short sword before poking his head up through the branches.
The nest is decorated with feathers, pieces of leather, armor, broken weapons, and various medallions and jewelry that are draped over perches. Pfiffwin's eyes light with greed. He carefully collects the gold items, two necklaces, two bracelets, an anklet, and a gold and ruby medallion, and places them in one pouch. In a different pouch he collects the less valuable items, four silver necklaces and an electrum necklaces. Pausing for a moment, he considers the two pouches, emotion working across his head. He digs into the pouch containing the gold items and draws out the most inexpensive of the items, a necklace, and drops it into the other pouch. Nodding, he climbs back down and out across the mud to the others.
"What's back there?" asks Otto, viewing the diminutive gnome with a jaundiced eye.
"A nest with some dead people's stuff. Some shiny jewelry in it," replies the diminutive gnome with a straight face. "Here it is." With that, Pfiffwin makes a pouch appear in one hand, and he tosses it to Otto. Otto's eyes narrow as he stares down at Pfiffwin, but he turns and leads the others off back to the corridor. Pfiffwin smiles contentedly.
Pushing around the corner, the Company sees the corridor extends far forward, but that sixty feet away, the left wall has partially collapsed, Opposite the collapsed wall are two doors, evenly spaced along the wall. Otto leads the squelching Company up to the collapsed wall and looks within. Beyond the subsided wall is a shallow pool of clear, still water. Hundreds of small and apparently blind fish dart through the water, but no other entry is visible. Satisfied that no threat lies there, Otto turns to the doors.
Hugh's holy vision does not show any hidden mechanisms in the doors, and they appear unlocked. The doors, like the X-marked one, are swollen with water and difficult to move, but Otto's strength shifts them from their frames. Both doors open into separate rooms that share a wall. This wall seems to be subsiding like the one across the corridor, as a large pile of oozing mud occupies part of each room, Beyond the collapse of the slowly eroding wall, nothing else appears of interest.
Hugh starts upright as he hears a high-pitched giggle behind him. Turning around, he sees that Clift and Frippi, set as guardians of the rear, are amusing each other capering about. All memory of Clift's planned death at the hands of the halfling have been lost. Frippi lets out repressed laughs at Clift's antics as Clift's cheeks move in and out. Frowning, Hugh marches over to the two of them and claps Clift on the back. A gout of water sprays from his mouth, a small blind fish exiting along with the geyser. Hugh flips it into the pool with his boot and turns on the two of them. "If we are set on from behind, you two are the first to meet them," he snarls. "I hope they find your antics amusing." Frippi makes a peculiar hand gesture as Hugh strides off.
Beyond the collapsed corridor wall the passage travels on until it branches to the left. A series of doors are visible to the left, three on each wall, and Otto can see many booted prints in the mud before him. Otto motions towards the furthest doors, planning to move up and start there, trapping whatever comes out between him and the rest of the Company. "Shall I get these for you?" asks Florin. Otto grins and instead motions towards himself and Hugh. Hugh nods, preparing himself for battle. Given the amount of swamp gas in the air, he chooses not to ignite Flametongue for fear of a sudden explosion. Once the others are set, Otto bangs the far door open with a sturdy kick!
The inhabitants of the room are momentarily stunned by Otto's sudden appearance, but they quickly leap to their fee and charge, spears and shields held at the fore. The sounds of scurrying bodies and tromping feet echo out from behind many of the other doors. Otto's foes are poorly trained and wear no more than farmer's clothes, though leather armor sits in piles in the room beyond. Otto's blows fall fast and furious, bashing through his opponents' untrained guard. It takes Otto no more than a few seconds to run through his opponents and receive a spear in the back! In the tumult, four more spearmen, each armored in leather armor, have closed with Otto from the dark corridor behind and one has, with more luck than skill, found a weak point in Otto's armor.
Otto turns with displeasure in his mien to face his opponents as two more of the doors open to disgorge more spear wielding humans. Four of them are women clad in leather armor, while the other four, while carrying spears, are clad in the clothes of peasantry. As Otto summarily dispatches the four spearmen, trying his best to keep from dismembering them so poorly do they fight, the rest of the Company engages the other eight foes. Pfiffwin steps forth and throws colored light into the air, raining across the spearmen and sending them falling to the ground, pole-axed. Those few that remain are no match for the combined strength of the Company, and they quickly fall. Wendelain looks down on the vanquished foes and draws a sudden gasping breath. "They are from Orlane!" she declares. "I spoke to this one in the Golden Grain Inn."
Hugh, worried that their has been some sort of miscommunication or mistake made, orders everyone to begin binding the wounds of their fallen enemies. Many of them have been sorely wounded, but few, mainly opponents of Otto, have suffered such grievous harm as to have been slain outright. Once those that can be saved are, Hugh looks into the rooms from which the men and women have come. Each room is small and has four wooden bunks and a small table in it. Crude lamps and guttering torches shed light in each room, but no books, games, or other items of entertainment can be seen.
Samantha compares the number of beds to the number of dead or injured. "Short four beds," she says, pointing to the sixteen dead or unconscious and the three rooms with four beds each. Turning to the two remaining unopened doors, Otto looks over to Hugh to see if they are dangerous to open.
"Trithereon's gift has run its course," replies Hugh. "Now we must trust in man, or gnome as the case is." Pfiffwin frowns and pulls more mud from his moustache. Searching over the doors, he finds them both safe to open and one locked. A few minutes with wire and other tools, and it too can be easily opened.
Otto yanks the doors open to reveal another room with the four missing bunks and a communal room. This room has a long table with benches to either side of it, Dirty platters and several stained mugs are strewn around the table top and a small oven is vented up through the ceiling. Several wooden boxes sit near the oven, and Frippi and Clift immediately begin poking through them. The boxes hold dishes, pans, platters and the sort, as well as a number of bottles and sacks. Clift chortles in glee and begins tasting the bottles, finding them to be a vinegarish wine, while the sacks contain dried beans and blocks of lard. "What a haul," mutters Frippi in disgust.
While Frippi and Clift are busy with their loot, Otto and Hugh tell Florin and Wendelain to move the prisoners into one of the rooms and then takes Samantha, Claude, Adler, and Pfiffwin back to the intersection and down the passage. "Let's not leave anything unexplored directly behind us," exhorts Otto. The passageway turns to the left and is reassuringly short. About halfway down the passageway, opposite a torrent of water slowly digging a hole in the floor, is a door, and at the end of the passageway is another. A quick search by Pfiffwin shows them both to be locked, but his hands quickly undo the tumblers.
The first door reveals a storeroom filled with crates, barrels, cases, and racks. Spears and daggers are protected from the damp by a thick layer of oil in a rack against the far wall, and a shortsword dangles from a peg in a second rack. Between the crates and barrels are pile of shovels on top of a stack of stout timbers of various lengths, each similar to those used to shore up the mud tunnels. Seeing no enemies here, the Company heads to the second door.
The second door reveals another storeroom, but this one contains casks and kegs raised up off the floor on wooden shelves. The smell of vinegar is strong here, and Pfiffwin raises a warning hand. "The roof," he says, pointing upwards, "it's not good here. Too much moving about and it will collapse. It's missing some necessary support here, here, and there." Otto looks over at Pfiffwin in surprise but heeds his words of warning.
When they return to the others, they find a tense scene. Clift and Wendelain glare at each other from across the passageway, with Florin trying to keep an eye on both the corridor and Frippi. "What's going on?" asks Otto.
"Nothing," says Frippi. "We're all friends, right?" The halfling looks around meaningfully at everyone. They grudgingly nod.
"We won't let Clift guard the prisoners in the future," spits out Florin. Clift looks injured.
Shaking his head, Otto leads the Company past the prisoners' rooms. The passage quickly enters into a square room with two exits from it: a passage on the far wall and a mud-covered wooden stairwell leading upwards! Clift, Adler, and Claude clamber up the stairs, which extend a full sixty feet, and take in the sights above. The Rushmoors surround them, and they do not see Eats Salmon or Ledonia. The area nearest the stairwell seems dryer than other parts of the swamp, and what appears to be a or wall of some sort encircles the stair at a distance of thirty or so feet. Shrugging their shoulders, they rejoin the others and report.
Satisfied they now have a real exit, Otto leads the others on towards the other passageway. It branches before them, and Otto takes the first right, which leads to stout door. Arraying themselves before the door, Otto smashes it with his foot. He hops backward, wincing in pain as the door does not open! Frowning, he lowers one shoulder and rams it and his shield into the door. With an odd cracking sound, the door flies open, a part of the door normally inside the room dangling from one side of it.
In the middle of the room stands a man in scale mail armed with shield and long sword who beckons Otto forward. Otto smirks and strides into the room, hefting Giantslayer. From the unseen sides of the doorway dart two figures, each clad in leather armor and bearing a short sword and shield. They drive their swords at Otto. One is repelled by his armor, but the other goes remarkably deep, and Otto falls to the ground! "I'll protect you Otto," shouts Florin as he pulls out his longsword.
"Not good," mutters Hugh as he moves to heal Otto. The rest of the Company flows into the room, and battle is met. Florin and Claude move to close with the warrior, while the priests and Clift tussle with the leather-clad humans. The warrior is adept with his longsword and difficult to strike, but Florin's skill is almost as good and Claude's strength offsets much of the warrior's advantage. After all, they need only hold the opponents off long enough for Hugh to bring Otto back to fighting form. In fact, one of the leather-clad opponents suddenly falls to the ground, dead as a stone, as Pfiffwin impales the man's kidney on the end of his short sword.
As Otto rises from the floor, haler than moments earlier, the combined efforts of Wendelain, Adler, Frippi, and Clift overwhelm the second leather-clad man's defense, and he is bludgeoned to death on the floor. The warrior rushes past the faltering Florin and Claude, scampering past the recovering Otto. With a burst of speed, the man runs out of the room and down the opposing corridor. The warriors of the Company charge after him, but Otto's enchanted boots provide him with the fleetest of feet. Closing the distance rapidly, he falls upon the man as he fumbles about in a small alcove. With a flick of the wrists, Giantslayer arcs out and through the man's neck, neatly separating his head from his body. With the warrior's death, the battle is over.
Florin and Claude clatter to a halt next to Otto and the steaming corpse. "He was trying to open something here," says Otto to the keen-eyed elf. "Find it." Florin examines the surrounding walls and finds a wooden door buried under a thin layer of mud. With some careful prodding, the mud falls away and the door opens, revealing a small muddy ledge holding a dinghy. Beyond it, water extends out of sight.
With the situation suddenly calmer, the Company takes in the room. Most obvious is the relative dryness of the room. No water runs down the walls, and the floor is more like compacted dirt and less like slippery mud. Four soft chairs and several small tables stand in one corner near a large fireplace. A smoldering fire burns within it, and several large bundles of wood sit by it. A keg, tapped, sits on a stand in the corner, and two empty, used glasses sit on one of the tables. Clift smiles and saunters over to the keg, snagging one of the glasses along the way. "Duty calls!" he quips as he tries the red wine that comes from the keg.
Three doors lead out of the room, two of which are ajar. One leads to a dry chamber containing two beds and mattresses, two chairs, and six wall pegs. Two woolen cloaks hang on the pegs. Looking at the two dead leather-clad men, it appears that they had other similarities. The second contains a single bed and chair. A woolen cloak hangs from a peg on the wall and a thick quilt covers the bed. The last door is locked, and it requires attention from Pfiffwin to open it. The chamber beyond contains a soft bed, a desk, and a chair.
The Company spreads out to find hidden chests or objects, and Pfiffwin is called over to the locked room to look at a chest that was under the bed. Opening the lock is simple for him, but not looking at the great glowing glyph that appears before his eyes is not. With a gasp, Pfiffwin stiffens into immobility! The others freeze in place, wishing to make sure that nothing else horrible is about to happen. When nothing does, Hugh places a hand on Pfiffwin's shoulder and prays to Trithereon. After a few moments, Pfiffwin lets out a shuddering exhalation and moves again.
The chest holds a lavish red and black hooded robe, a polished mace, and scroll bound in the shed skin of a snake. Hugh carefully unties the snakeskin, unrolls the scroll, and reads. The words within are vile and dedicated to Merrshaulk, a demon god of snakes, but the effects are palatable. The scroll appears to have healing prayers inscribed upon it. Choosing among the other three priests traveling with him, he hands it to Adler.
"Hugh!" calls out Otto, who has been looking at the desk. "Come take a look." Hugh comes over, as do the eyes of much of the Company. "I think we've found an old friend, or at least a sibling." Hugh's eyes narrow as he looks at the item in Otto's hand. Within his tight grip sits a jade statuette of a snake with a woman's head.
