It's just after dawn on the first Hedraday of Madrer. We're at the hiding place of the slaves. There are now twenty-one slaves, twenty humans, and a dwarf. Paks takes the longsword from Chuck and gives the "shield" ring back to Miriel. Miriel checks everyone over for signs of disease. Four people are sick. Chuck has corpse blisters from fighting dead eaters. Hands of Fire and Swims With Fishes have Filth Fever from walking around the ratman warrens. Drinks With Orcs has Slimy Doom. With everyone helping, Miriel cures them all, then treats everyone else's wounds.
It's now the middle of the morning. Telryn is exhausted from the stress of the fight and Miriel tells him he should rest as much as possible. Paks asks Hands of Fire to help us to the edge of the swamp with the slaves, and he agrees. He says it's about two days travel to the edge of the swamp. Miriel suggests resting midday; Chuck suggests a forced march. Chuck hands out his rations to the slaves.
Red Scale comes back and talks to Hands of Fire, who says "No rats, gone. They left." The dwarf comes over to Paks and introduces himself as Dorin Silvershield. He thanks us for rescuing them and asks for a weapon. Paks gives him a masterwork bastard sword. He chuckles happily, "This'll split some rat man skulls."
We travel for about two hours. Chuck and Goldpetal look around for ninequine, hag's tongue, and food and drink as we go. Hands of Fire calls a halt at a clearing where we could rest. Everyone agrees, though, that we should keep going. Miriel has been checking out the slaves and thinks they can go on. Goldpetal finds some ninequine and gives it out to everyone to prevent swamp fever.
We travel for another twenty minutes or so. It's started to drizzle, and it's cooled down, although it's very humid. Telryn mutters about how much he hates the swamp. We're moving through a wooded section of the swamp, so the ground is a little drier. From the east, four wolf rats burst from the trees.
The wolf rats rush forward and attack. One attacks Fists of Fury, but misses. The other three attack slaves; one hits, one misses, one fumbles. The slave who was hit goes down. Goldpetal steps back around Chuck and shoots an arrow at the wolf rat that fumbled, hitting it. Chuck steps in front of Goldpetal and shoots at the same one twice, hitting once. Paks runs around and swings at the one towards the front of the column, hitting it. Stone drops his bag, steps out of the column and charges the wolves, leaping over the first one and hitting the second one. The first wolf bites him as he flies over. He smashes the second one hard. The slaves run away as quickly as they can in the other direction. As they run, they get caught up in a web, which is strung between the trees. Drinks With Orcs runs up and attacks the wolf in front, but misses. Hands of Fire comes up and attacks the wolf in front, hitting it and smashing it flat, dead. Fists of Fury attacks the second wolf and hits it, smasihng it flat as well. Red Scale charges the one in back and hits it. Novalia shoots twice at the two remaining wolves, hitting each but not killing either. Dorin runs up and strikes at the one in front, but misses. Swims With Fishes comes over and attacks the wolf in back and hits it, killing it. Miriel runs around to the fallen slave and stabilizes him. She shouts to the slaves to pull the stuck ones loose. The slaves start shouting, "Spiders!".
The last wolf rat attacks Dorin, but misses. Goldpetal turns to look for spiders and tries to shoot one, but just misses. Chuck turns and shoots twice at two spiders, hitting both times. Paks yells to the slaves to come back to us where we can protect them, then runs over and attacks a spider. Stone steps around the wolf and attacks with a flurry of blows, fumbling and getting elbowed in the head by Dorin. The slaves who are not in the web listen to Paks and start moving back to us. The eight slaves in the web try to break free, but none of them manage it. Hands of Fire charges up behind Paks and attacks the same spider, fumbling and falling into a web. Drinks With Orcs steps around Dorin and hits the remaning wolf rat. A spider shoots a web at Paks and entangles her. The unwounded spiders attack slaves. They hit and the slaves go down. The two wounded spiders scuttle off. Fists of Fury bashes the wolf rat with his greatclub, killing it. Red Scale runs over to the entangled slaves. Novalia shoots twice at the spiders, but misses both times. Dorin charges over into the web and attacks a spider, hitting it. Swims With Fishes runs over to try to pull the slaves loose. Miriel runs over to the unconscious slave near Dorin.
Goldpetal shoots at the spider still in the tree and hits it, right through the eye. Chuck moves around to the side and shoots at it, putting another arrow through its eyes. Paks pulls out her bow and shoots at the nearest spider, grazing it. The entangled slaves try to escape the web, but fail. The other slaves mill about, moving back to the path. Hands of Fire tries to break free, swinging his club at the web, and succeeds. Drinks With Orcs steps up and throws a javelin at a spider, but he misses. The wounded spiders run away. We break the slaves free and Miriel stabilizes both of them. She asks Novalia to give them each a point of healing.
Paks explains to the slaves that they should stick with us, only leaving the group to get out of the way of a fight. We start travelling again. It's about noon now and the slaves ask for a break. Hands of Fire finds a clearing in the wooded area. It's an area of small, stunted trees. It's still drizzling. Miriel recommends resting for an hour. Stone drops his bag, puts his head on it, and promptly falls asleeep. Chuck and Dorin watch with the lizard men while the rest of us rest. We collect rainwater to drink.
After an hour, Miriel checks everyone out for injuries. Goldpetal, Chuck, and Novalia go searching for food. Paks heals Stone. Miriel heals Hands of Fire. Chuck helps the search party find some ducks, which they bring back. Miriel cooks the ducks into a very tasty stew. While the ducks are cooking, Chuck looks for ninequine, but doesn't find any. Chuck takes some duck feathers.
As we're starting to eat, three black and white monkey-like creatures with beaver tails jump down and attack. Swamp gobblers! One attacks Miriel because she has the food, but fumbles and falls on its head. The other two attack nearby slaves and kill them outright. They grab the food and start eating it.
The swamp gobblers are hissing. Novalia shoots at the one that attacked Miriel, but misses and hits a slave, injuring it badly. Goldpetal moves past a slave and swings a scimitar at another swamp gobbler and hits it. Stone grabs one and tries to grapple it, wrapping it up in his arms. Miriel picks up the dagger she was cooking with and stabs at the one that attacked her, but fumbles. Chuck steps over a slave and shoots at the one that attacked Miriel twice, hitting it. Swims With Fishes moves in and attacks another with his great club, hitting it. Red Scale comes in and swings at one, but misses. Paks tells the slaves to move back and comes in to swing at one, but misses. Fists of Fury moves in and smashes at one, hitting it. Hands of Fire comes in and swings at the same one, hitting it. Drinks With Orcs runs up and pulls a slave out of the way. The gobbler that isn't grappled grabs a drumstick, leaps over Goldpetal and runs away. The one Stone has tries to escape, but fails. The slaves drop everything and run away again. Dorin is nervous and holds back.
Novalia shoots twice at the gobbler that attacked Miriel, hitting both times. Goldpetal steps over and swings at the one trying to escape, but misses. Stone punches the one he's holding twice, hitting once. Chuck steps up and swings both swords at the one attacking Miriel, hitting with his longsword. Swims With Fishes swings at the same one, but misses. Red Scale comes over and swings at the same one, but misses. Paks swings at it, but fumbles. Fists of Fury swings at it and hits. Hands of Fire runs after the fleeing one, flanks it, and smashes at it, hitting it. Drinks With Orcs attacks the same one, but misses. It tries to run away and they all swing at it. Goldpetal hits it with a critical hit, killing it. The one grappling with Stone tries to escape, but fails. The slaves hang out where they are. The one bleeding stabilizes. The gobbler attacking Miriel leaps at her and bites her. She stabs at it and misses.
Novalia comes around and shoots at the one attacking Miriel, but misses. Goldpetal moves around to the injured slave. Stone punches twice at the one he's grappling; it looks dazed, but is still alive. Chuck swings both swords at the one attacking Miriel, hitting twice and killing it. Miriel thanks him. Swims With Fishes mills around. Red Scale goes towards a group of slaves to bring them back. Fists of Fury goes back to eating. Hands of Fire comes around to where Stone is and claws the one he's holding, killing it.
Stone: "I had him!"
Novalia heals the unconscious slave. Miriel calls to the slaves to come back and get their food. Stone sets about skinning and cleaning the dead gobblers. Chuck says they taste like chicken, and helps him. Miriel heals herself.
We cover the dead slaves with leaves and branches, eat quickly, and set out again. The slaves are feeling much better for the food and rest. We march for four more hours. It's starting to get dark, and it's raining a lot harder. Miriel asks if there's any shelter, but Hands of Fire says "Trees." They find a small ruin, just some what muddy, with some small trees overhanging it. We dump the treasure out of the tarp and make a covered area to cook. Miriel heals herself again.
Stone helps Miriel cook the gobblers, which is fairly difficult due to the rain, but they turn out quite tasty. After we finish cooking, we re-bundle the treasure. Stone gives his winter blanket and bedroll to the slaves. We set watches of three people each.
Around 10pm, one of the slaves comes over to Chuck and asks if he hears that noise, but Chuck can't find anything. The slave says it's a kind of tapping noise. Chuck gestures to the two lizard men watching with him, but no one can tell what it is. He gets out his glowing dagger, gestures to Swims With Fishes, and goes to investigate. He gets near the trees and looks up, but can't see anything, and neither can Swims With Fishes. Suddenly a Darkmantle drops out of the tree and attacks Chuck with one of its tentacles, then grapples him.
Swims With Fishes sounds the alarm and attacks it with claws and teeth, but misses. Chuck attacks it with the glowing dagger and hits it. It tries to suffocate him, but he struggles and gets some breathing room. Fists of Fury charges and attacks, but misses.
Swims With Fishes claws and bites again, hitting it with a claw and killing it. He peels it off of Chuck. Chuck takes the corpse. People wake up, hear it's okay, and go back to sleep. Chuck looks around and notices a skeleton under the tree. He finds a good quality mace and some rotting leather armor.
Miriel heals Chuck and Swims With Fishes when she wakes up. Goldpetal searches for ninequine when he wakes up. Around 4:30am, it's raining even harder. In the predawn darkness, two arrows come shooting at Novalia. One misses, the other hits. Looking in the direction they came from, she sees a rat man fall from a tree.
Stone screams and charges the rat man that fell from the tree, hitting it. Novalia looks for another rat man in the tree, but can't see anything. Drinks With Orcs comes over and looks too, but can't see anything. The rat man on the ground draws a scimitar and short sword and attacks Stone with the scimitar, hitting him.
Stone punches the rat man with a flurry of blows, but misses. Dorin moves around to watch our backs. Red Scale charges the rat man on the ground, but misses. Hands of Fire moves over and looks up in the tree, but can't see anything. Novalia looks up, but doesn't see anything. Paks gets up and flanks the rat man on the ground. Fists of Fury circles around the other side. The slaves stay where they are. Swims With Fishes circles around also. Chuck moves over and shoots at the rat man, grazing it. Goldpetal moves to the center of the camp, yells at the slaves to stay still, and casts Obscuring Mist. Drinks With Orcs moves forward and swings at the rat man, hitting it hard. Miriel moves in with the slaves and tell them to keep together and keep calm. The rat man gestures with his hands and vanishes.
Stone punches the spot where the rat man was, but just hits air. Dorin steps to the edge of the mist so he can see out. Red Scale listens, but doesn't hear anything. Hands of Fire jumps into the area where the rat man was and tries to grapple, but just lands in the mud. Novalia moves to the edge of the mist to look around. Paks detects evil around herself and doesn't detect anything. She tells everyone the rat men are gone. Fists of Fury tries to see something in the trees, but doesn't. The slaves huddle. Chuck tries to see if the rat man left tracks, but doesn't see anything.
After five minutes, the mist dissipates. Miriel heals Novalia. Goldpetal suggests a foraging party. As we're discussing it, the grass and vines start grabbing at us and start to entangle us. Paks tries to detect evil.
Chuck is entangled and tries to escape, but fails. Swims With Fishes is entangled and can't break free. Red Scale is entangled, but breaks free. Stone escapes the entanglement and starts to move out of the entangled area. Goldpetal is not entangled and casts Obscuring Mist again. Two arrows fly at Stone and hit him. He yells "He's over here. Ouch!" Dorin is not entangled and moves out of the entangled area. He tries to see the rat man. Hands of Fire is not entangled. He starts to move out of the entangled area. Miriel moves towards Stone and does Detect Magic, but doesn't detect anything. She continues to concentrate. The slaves are entangled. Fists of Fury is entangled, but breaks free. Novalia is entangled, but breaks free. Drinks With Orcs is not entangled and moves towards Stone. Paks moves out of the entangled area and starts moving towards Stone.
Chuck and Swims With Fishes fail to break free. Red Scale moves towards the edge of the entangled area. Stone moves out of the entangled area and runs towards the source of the shots, but can't see anything. Goldpetal starts to move towards the edge of the mist. The rat man drops out of a tree about sixty feet in front of Stone and shoots him twice. Stone shouts out and then falls unconscious. Dorin runs away. Hands of Fire moves out of the entangled area and moves towards Stone. Miriel continues to try to move out of the entangled area. Fists of Fury tries to break free, but fails. Novalia is entangled. Drinks With Orcs moves out of the entangled area and moves toward Stone. He throws a javelin at the rat man, but misses. Paks runs as fast as she can towards Stone.
Chuck breaks free. Swims With Fishes is still entangled. Red Scale gets entangled. Goldpetal continues to try to move out of the entangled area. The rat man dashes off into the woods. Dorin starts watching into the woods. Hands of Fire chases the rat man through the woods. Miriel gets out of the entangled area and heads for Stone. Fists of Fury breaks free. Novalia tries to break free, but fails. Drinks With Orcs chases after the rat man with Hands of Fire. Paks heals Stone and runs after the rat man. Stone is awake, but looking weak.
Chuck gets entangled. Swims With Fishes and Red Scale can't break free. Goldpetal moves out of the entangled area. The rat man keeps running. Dorin moves around the circle to help Red Scale. Hands of Fire sinks into quicksand. Miriel runs over to Stone. Fists of Fury gets entangled. Novalia breaks free. Drinks With Orcs swims to the edge of the quicksand, but doesn't get out.
Paks stops at the edge of the quicksand and tries to pull Drinks With Orcs out. She yells for help. Stone stands up. Chuck, Swims With Fishes, Red Scale fail to break free. Goldpetal circles the perimeter looking for trouble. Dorin tries to help Red Scale get free, but fails. Hands of Fire tries to escape the quicksand, but fails. Miriel heals Stone. Fists of Fury fails to break free. Novalia starts to move out of the entangled area. Drinks With Orcs gets out of the quicksand.
Paks throws a rope to Hands of Fire. Stone thanks Miriel and runs to help Paks and grabs the end of the rope. Chuck, Swims With Fishes, and Red Scale fail to break free. Goldpetal continues to circle. We get Hands of Fire out of the quicksand. The mist and entanglement vanish.
Stone says head out. Goldpetal says look for food and ninequine; Chuck helps him while we pack. We start to move out.
We walk for about two hours. Suddenly, Hands of Fire holds up and tries to stop us all. Stone sees it, too, and stops, but Drinks With Orcs isn't quick enough and hits a tripwire which causes a branch to swing out and hit him in the head. Stone picks him up. Hands of Fire looks for more traps. Paks stabilizes Drinks With Orcs. Miriel runs forward and heals Drinks With Orcs. The other lizard men look for traps but don't see anything. Hands of Fire notices that there's another trap that didn't go off. Chuck moves up to the front, but Paks stops him. Goldpetal looks for ambushers. Hands of Fire takes a twig and fires off the other trap, and then we continue. Chuck tries to track the trappers, but he can't see anything.
We move on. We travel another half an hour and reach an area with lots of hanging vines. Hands of Fire explains these are razor vines, which we shouldn't touch, and it will take an hour to work around them, or we can just go through. We agree to go around.
As we're skirting the vines, branches come out and hit Drinks With Orcs and Hands of Fire. Drinks With Orcs is knocked into the razor vines. From a tree hanging out over the path, a snake drops on Chuck and bites him and coils around him.
The snake constricts around Chuck. He can't break free. Paks spins and charges them, hitting the snake. The slaves mill about. Stone loads his crossbow and looks out - he sees the rat man in a tree in the distance and shoots at it, but misses.
Stone: "There it is."
Drinks With Orcs turns and throws a javelin at it, but misses. Chuck stabs at the snake with his dagger. His viper bites at it, but misses. Novalia shoots at the snake and misses. Hands of Fire throws a javelin at the rat man, but misses. Miriel casts Hold Person on the rat man. He freezes. Goldpetal strikes at the snake with his dagger, but misses. The hawk claws the snake. Fists of Fury runs over and claws and bites at the snake, but misses. Dorin runs over to the tree the rat man is in. Red Scale runs back and claws the snake, ripping it open. Swims With Fishes runs over to the tree with the rat man in it.
Paks runs over to the tree with the rat man in it. Stone runs over to the tree and climbs it. Drinks With Orcs runs over to the tree. Chuck moves over and shoots at the rat man, but misses. Novalia shoots at it, but misses. Hands of Fire comes over to the tree. Miriel moves over to watch the group under the tree. Goldpetal motions for the slaves to gather around him. Fists of Fury runs up to the tree. Dorin grabs the trunk of the tree and shakes it. Red Scale keeps watch behind us. Swims With Fishes waits for Stone.
Paks waits for Stone. Stone falls out of the tree. Swims With Fishes throws a javelin up at the rat man, but misses. Paks shoots her bow, but misses. Drinks With Orcs helps Stone up. Chuck runs over to the tree. Novalia waits for a target. Hands of Fire climbs the tree. Miriel watches. Goldpetal waits for the rat man to do something. Fists of Fury fails to climb the tree. Dorin yells to the party to get the rat man out of the tree. Red Scale keeps watching our backs.
Stone fails to climb the tree. Swims With Fishes waits for Hands of Fire. Paks shoots again and misses. Drinks With Orcs fails to climb. Chuck climbs the tree. Novalia waits. Hands of Fire falls. Miriel watches. Goldpetal casts an obscuring mist. Fists of Fury tries to climb and fails. Dorin holds on something happening with the rat man. Red Scale keeps watching our backs.
Stone climbs the tree. Everyone waits for Stone, except Chuck, who tries to get up and fails. His snake climbs up to the rat man and bites at its eyes. Miriel casts Hold Person again, but fails. Goldpetal goes to the edge of the mist and shoots at the rat man. Fists of Fury throws a javelin at the rat man, but misses. Dorin waits. Red Scale watches.
The rat man draws his scimitar and chops at Stone, hitting him. "Ow". Stone falls out of the tree. Stone stands up. Swims With Fishes throws a javelin, but misses. Paks shoots an arrow and hits. Drinks With Orcs throws a javelin and misses. Chuck climbs up and tries to grapple the rat man, but fails. The rat man hits him. The viper attacks the rat man and hits. Novalia waits. Hands of Fire tries to climb again, but fails. Miriel runs over and heals Stone. Goldpetal moves under the tree and shoots the rat man. Fists of Fury climbs the tree. Dorin waits. Red Scale watches.
The rat man hisses: "You'll never leave the swamp alive."
He attacks Chuck with his scimitar and short sword and hits with the short sword.
Rat man: "I'm the warden for this sector, and no one gets through."
Stone asks everyone to help him up the tree, and he makes it. He grapples with the rat man, but he fails. Paks climbs the tree. Chuck makes a called shot on the rat man's tail. The rat man swings at him and hits him. The snake bites at the rat man, but misses. Novalia waits. Hands of Fire tries to climb, but fails. Miriel blesses everyone. Goldpetal tries to throw a rope around the branch the rat man is on, but fails. Fists of Fury climbs the rest of the way up the tree and claws at the rat man, but misses. Red Scale keeps watching. The rat man tries to jump to another tree. Stone hits at it as it goes by, as does Fists of Fury. It falls to the ground.
Stone leaps down onto the rat man and flattens him. "Ooof!" Swims With Fishes runs over and hits the rat man with his great club. Drinks With Orcs jumps down and collapses. Dorin comes over and swings with the bastard sword and hits. Paks jumps out of the tree and smites the rat man, killing it.
Miriel stabilizes Drinks With Orcs and heals him. Paks and Goldpetal search the body. The scimitar is a masterwork scimitar. He's wearing a studded leather armor of a really supple leather. He also has a short sword, a long bow with lots of arrows, and tiny little flick knives, all poisoned. He also has a silver and jet amulet.
Chuck: "Hey, that's sort of a mockery of the Vigilants' medallions."
Paks detects evil on all of it; the rat man is the only thing that is evil; he has a stink of corruption about him. Goldpetal gets the scimitar, Chuck takes the studded leather armor, Novalia refuses the longbow, so Goldpetal takes it, Chuck gets the flick knives, Miriel takes the amulet to detect magic on later. Paks gives the short sword to Dorin. Chuck changes into the new armor and tosses his old armor away.
We move out again. Around 8pm we get out of the swamp. We're exhausted. It's pouring rain. We can see Kratys Freehold off in the distance. Four of the lizard men say "No, human lands," but Hands of Fire wants to see humans and comes along to the freehold. Paks thanks them all and offers her services if they ever need her. Before they go, they point to Stone's bag and he gives them some gems. Paks points out the freehold and tells the lizard men to send word through them for help.
By the time we reach the freehold, it's flooding, very stormy with a great deal of lightning. We pound on the gate of the freehold and they let us in. "It's you guys, we thought you were dead! Who are all those people with you?"
Llewyn comes down: "Chuck, you're alive! Oh, um...nice to see you."
Everyone is amazed at our adventures, and very complimentary. They dry us off and make us some food. They're impressed with the crown Stone is wearing. Paks passes out five gold to each of the slaves. Tarran gtes them clothes and tells them they can stay at the freehold as long as they need to. They burn the old clothes, in case of disease. Miriel heals Stone and Chuck. Goldpetal and Novalia heal Stone and Chuck again. Paks asks Dorin about his story.
Dorin says he was a travelling smith captured by the rat men about six months ago. He asks if we know the Laughing Ogre and Fox, who is a good friend of his clan. We tell him of course we do. He says his cousin Thorin Silvershield used to travel with Fox, back in the old days.
We count Stone's loot: There are 33 gems of various sorts, cheap and badly cut, 55 platinum pieces, 6575 gold pieces, and 321 silver pieces. The gold pieces are a great variety, from all over, and may not be sold at face value.
We rest for the night. The next day, we tell Tarran the story. When we get to the part about the red pearl, he says that's a pearl of Kadum. Every once in a while they wash up from the sea that is tainted with the blood of the titan. Telryn identifies more of the items we found. The silver scimitar is a +1 silver scimitar, and very evil. He can't tell what else it does. The two books he brought out are Slytherin to Leadan translation. Leadan was the old empire language, and current languages are descended from Leadan, though different from it and each other. Telryn knows Leadan and could learn Slytherin by studying this book. The silver ring has three arrows inscribed inside; Novalia says this is the symbol of Tanil. Telyrn figures out that you can twist the ring to cause it to give you +1 to hide. The wooden ring is some sort of alarm system. It warns you if you're near titan-sanctified areas. The potions are Blur and Vision. The amulet gives the wearer a +10 to spot and may have other powers. Chuck is very excited by the amulet, and Miriel hands it to him. Paks gets annoyed; she wants to divide everything in an orderly manner. Chuck says he just wants the amulet.
Loot list (courtesy of Paks):