Adv Log, Session 37: On the River to Dwarfchat, Part 2
General Summary
Lifesday, Leafturn 21, 879 AFE
The rest of the evening was uneventful. Taid cast Mystic Mist, which provided a significant advantage if anything decided to invade their camp. They had dinner, chatted with the crew around the campfire, then curled up into their sleeping furs. Almë, who’d had his sleeping roll eaten by a reek, slept on a pile of ferns, leaves, and tender branches. Elden had also managed to find a spare tarp wadded up in the forward storage compartment, which he gave to Almë to let him stay a bit drier.
Almë had already set up his tarp in a plow point setup, built to shed rain, and have an open side facing the campfire. While it certainly wasn’t cold, rarely dropping below 21°C, the radiant heat from the fire still felt good, and comforting as well.
He laid the second tarp as a ground cloth; the ground was normally pretty damp in the jungle, and the oilcloth, laid upon the pile of vegetation, would keep Almë from getting wet.
The crew took care of the watches that night; Elitheris had been traumatized by the immense shrimp creature. She still had no idea what it had been, but she wasn’t comfortable knowing that even though she couldn’t see or feel them, the air around all of them was filled with those tentacled fishy things. Taid was tired from digging, or at least, that was the excuse he told himself. It hadn’t been that exhausting, really. He did spend a bit of extra time sharpening and rehoning the blade and spikes of his halberd. Digging in the dirt did bad things to blades, and a halberd was not a very effective digging tool. But soon even he rolled over and went to sleep.
Nothing disturbed them in the night, not even Almë’s night terrors. It rained a little, but no one noticed; their tarps kept the misty, light rain off of them.
Spiritsday, Leafturn 22, 879 AFE
The sun crept over the horizon, brightening the sky in the east. The crew roused and rose, by force of long habit. Alexa stoked the fire and threw some oats in to the pot, adding some chopped nuts and dried fruit, then a drizzle of precious honey. The rest of the crew packed up the camp and loaded their gear back into the forward and aft storage lockers.
Alexa ladled out portions of the morning porridge, quickly ate, then cleaned the pot. Erven doused the fire and made a last minute site check to ensure they had everything, and to make sure the passengers were all situated. He was the last back aboard, and they rowed out to the center of the river.
According to Captain Gwendal, they were a bit behind schedule, so he put six rowers on to make up a bit of time. It was grueling, but the crew had done it before.
At about midmorning the riverbanks started to turn marshy, with tracts of river grasses, reeds, and lily pads clustered along both sides of the river. Frogs could be heard, and large numbers of herons could be seen standing in the water, looking for fish, ducks could be seen floating around, and the drone of insects filled the air. They could even see a few crocodiles, their eyes and snouts the only thing visible above the waterline. As they watched, a narrow, toothy mouth appeared from nowhere and engulfed a duck, the waterfowl disappearing without even a quack.
The air was also filled with biting flies and mosquitoes, and everyone was slapping at themselves and shooing away bugs. Even Almë. His new necklace, while very effective against mosquitoes, didn’t do a thing for the biting flies. They still went for his tender, Elven flesh.
It wasn’t long before the marshy vegetation filled the river from bank to bank. The center was still navigable, but they had to row the knarr through mats of vegetation, and it put quite a bit of drag on the boat. All eight rowers were working hard to make progress through the marshy water.
Elitheris sat in the front of the boat, Mister Wiggles lying next to her. She scanned the river ahead of the boat, looking for trouble, occasionally checking the sky for airborne trouble, such as that manticore. But aside from some scattered clouds, the occasional flock of birds, and the clouds of flies, she saw nothing threatening.
Ruby and Almë, feeling queasy as they always did while on the water, sat aft, near the railing. Just in case. Taid kept them company. Both of them had a nearly crippling motion sickness problem. Even when they weren’t losing their lunches, they were very, very uncomfortable and sick. So Taid took it upon himself to sort of look after them.
Eykit sat near the bow, looking at the diversity of life in the wetlands, when he wasn’t fighting off the biting insects. He was both amazed at the different plants and animals, and how diverse they were, and wishing he was back on cobbled streets and surrounded by brick and mortar buildings. He found that he almost missed the stench of too many people living too close to each other. Almost. He took in a deep breath, trying to appreciate the lack of sewage and body odor aromas, filling his lungs gas with good, clean, foliage-scented air.
Elitheris yelped. Something had grabbed her leg, and was pulling her out of the boat. Her hands scrabbled for purchase on the deck boards, but there was nothing but the bulwark of the boat. The thing, whatever it was, had both legs now, and she was half in and half out of the boat, the bulwark’s edge digging into her stomach. She strained against the pull.
Mr. Wiggles rose up, putting his paws on the bulwark, barking at something in the water.
Eykit looked around, trying to figure out why Elitheris had shouted out. He saw her bent over the forward bulwark, as if she was trying to get back into the boat. Her muscles strained as she fought to stay in the boat.
The two rowing crewmen near the front of the boat craned their necks, trying to see forward and find out what the fuss was.
“You okay up there?” yelled the captain. He couldn’t really see much of the bow; there was cargo piled high in the middle of the boat obscuring his view.
“No!” Elitheris had a chance to shout, as a renewed tugging almost threatened to pull her into the water. Whatever had grabbed her wasn’t hurting her, as far as she could tell. It was only pulling on her. But she didn’t relish going into the water where she knew crocodiles swam. One of those things could easily bite her in half.
Taid stood, craning his neck, trying to see past the two piles of cargo. He could see a bit of Elitheris’ arms and head. The impression he got from her position was that she wasn’t completely in the boat.
Almë and Ruby looked up as well, their nausea momentarily forgotten.
Norolind, responding to Mr. Wiggles’ barking, started barking a warning himself. He bounded towards the front of the boat.
Unbeknownst to the people on the boat, the Dossit Float had bumped up against an aquatic creature whose appearance mimicked that of a wad of floating water plants. It rode the bow for a few moments, then sent its tendrils up the side of the boat, and over the bulwark, where it found prey. It was carnivorous, and it dragged its victims under the water, holding them there until they drowned. Then it fed off of their decaying corpse, shooing away scavengers if they were too small to capture, drown, and eat. Fish it could kill simply by squeezing long enough, but insects were too small and quick to capture, so those it attempted to brush away when it could.
It had wrapped itself around Elitheris’ leg, yanking her towards the water. It almost succeeded, and had her legs in the water. It was only a matter of time before it got the rest of her. It sent more tendrils up her legs, wrapping them around her torso.
Eykit frowned, trying to figure out what was happening. The best he could guess was that something in the water had grabbed his friend and pulled her out of the boat. He moved to Elitheris’ side, next to Mister Wiggles, who had his paws up on the bulwark, barking at something in the water.
Mr. Wiggles barked, then yelped as thin green tendrils with fleshy, leaflike extensions along their lengths encircled his body.
In the water, the Goblin saw a mat of floating vegetation, about three meters across, with tendrils arcing up towards himself and Mr. Wiggles. “Almë!” he shouted, alarmed. It was a plant. The plant mage and gardener would know what to do.
Almë started running down the center access way between the piles of cargo, bales of treesilk fabric on one side, stacked bags of barley on the other. His nausea threw off his stride, and he almost stumbled a couple of times as he made his way past the piles of cargo.
Taid followed on Almë’s tail, his face grim, knowing that something was wrong, but not knowing the details. He just knew that he had to get there as fast as possible. The way between the piles of cargo was blocked by Wilbur and Almë, so he went up the tarp-covered pile of grain sacks.
Ruby did the same, but on the other side, clambering up the pile of treesilk bales.
The sail was reefed, as there was no wind, so both Taid and Ruby could see that Elitheris was being dragged off of the boat by something. They didn’t know what it was, only that it was green in color.
Elitheris lost her grip on the boat’s boards, and the thing pulled her in farther. She was holding on to the bulwark, trying to keep her head above water. She could feel more tendrils around her chest. She could see a mass of green tendrils arch over her head, snap forward, and pull back into the water, taking Mister Wiggles with them. He yelped and whined, then disappeared beneath the surface of the water.
“No!” Elitheris spat through gritted teeth. “Not my dog!”
Eykit saw it happen; Mister Wiggles was there one moment, and then next he’d been swept off of the boat. But he didn’t have time to dwell on it; he could see another mass of tendrils coming for him. He leapt aside, but it wrapped around his arm, and he was fortunate enough to be able to grab onto the boat with his other hand. He felt something snap on his chest, and he could feel some broken pieces of something pinned between his undershirt and his gambeson. He knew, given that he was wearing his mail atop his gambeson, that if that thing pulled him under, he would never surface. Panic started rising in him, the fear of a watery death becoming more and more unbearable.
Ruby saw the thing grab onto Eykit, pulling on him. She was still too far away to cast anything helpful, so she leapt from the bales of fabric to the barrels that were stacked in front of them. But a spell of Glue might be helpful, to stick her friends to the boat, once she got closer.
Norolind was following Almë, barking with his deep voice. Taid pulled out a rope, and moved towards the mast.
The creature pulled Elitheris under, and the boat rocked as the force of her weight and the creature pulling on her disappeared. It also let go of Eykit, perhaps it had enough to feed on for a while.
“Woman overboard!” Elias shouted, and the rowers stopped rowing. The crew was finally putting the pieces together, and were realizing that they were under attack. Many grabbed knives, some grabbed axes.
Taid started tying a rope around the mast.
Almë ran to the bulwark next to Eykit, looking over into the water. He could finally figure out exactly what was going on.
“So, what is it?” Eykit asked.
“Oh shit! It’s a fideal.”
“Well, kill it with your plant magics!” Eykit shouted at him.
“It’s not a plant!” Alme shouted back. “It’s an animal that looks like a plant. And it’s magic resistant.”
“Well, fuck!”
Ruby came up beside him, ready to do…something. She wasn’t sure exactly what yet. But Elitheris was under water, as was Mr. Wiggles.
Elitheris had managed to get a lungful of air before the thing pulled her under. She went for her knife as more green tendrils started enwrapping her arms. Just give me a moment and I’ll cut you into little bitty pieces, she thought desperately as she fought to get the knife out of its sheath.
Eykit couldn’t see Elitheris or Mr. Wiggles, and he looked around trying to figure out what to do.
Almë cast a spell of Spasm on the creature. He could see the mat of vegetation twitch, contract for a moment, then spread out again. Elitheris felt many of the tendrils release her as the muscular spasms wracked its body. The sudden release of several tendrils allowed her to finally get her knife out of its sheath.
Ruby cast the spell of Flaming Armor on Elitheris. She could see an orange flash of light for a moment.
Elitheris saw the flash too, but from inside of it. And it fried the thing holding on to her, so much so that it let go of her completely. She was floating in the water, surrounded by a bunch of greenish kelpy tendrils. She could see her dog, still wrapped in tendrils, not too far from her. She lunged for him, and got her arm around him.
Taid gave up on the rope. Things were happening too fast, and he didn’t have time to put a good knot in it. But that didn’t matter; he had other ideas. He started casting the spell of Icy Touch.
The fideal grabbed Elitheris again. It had been hurt by something, but it was still hungry, and prey was still in reach. Tendrils slid around her body again, embracing her tightly in a hug that was far from endearing.
Almë cast the spell of Spasm again. This time, however, it didn’t have any effect; Almë could feel the spell “slide” off of it, dissipating into the water harmlessly. A mage trying to affect it with magic had to cast the spell very precisely for the magic to have any effect.
Eykit grabbed an oar, ready to give Elitheris something to grab on to.
“How can we help?” Jory asked, holding his oar like a weapon. “How do we kill it?”
Elias tossed a rope into the water, near where he had seen Elitheris go under.
Ruby saw a murky shape in the water that was likely Elitheris, but it seemed larger, so she assumed Elitheris had gotten a hold of Mr. Wiggles. If she used the spell of Flame Armor on her again, it would explode off of her and hurt Mr. Wiggles. So she had to protect one of them first….(1)
She cast the spell of Fire Resistance on the dog. Then she could fry the beast with ease, and not worry about hurting the pup.
Eykit got the oar into the water, bracing it on his end. He wanted to give her something to hold on to and give her some leverage.
Taid was still casting, moving slowly towards the bow as fast as he could without disturbing his concentration on his spell casting.
Almë dropped his staff, took a deep breath, and dived into the water, holding onto a rope. He was sure it wasn’t terribly dangerous to dive into water with a large sea monster in it. And the crocodiles didn’t seem to be nearby….
Ruby cast another spell of Fire Armor on Elitheris. Again the Elven woman exploded in flames underwater, the flames lasting only long enough to hurt the fideal before the water and lack of oxygen snuffed them out. The bog monster again let go of Elitheris and her dog.
Almë saw the flash shortly after he hit the water, and he could see the creature, vast in the dimness underwater, shy back from the creatures it thought were giving it pain. But only for a moment, as new, undamaged tendrils snaked through the water towards their prey.
Taid stepped to the bulwark, and dipped Maggie into the water where the fideal was. His spell of Icy Touch went off, channeled through the shaft of the halberd, and put a coating of ice around all of the tendrils that made up the fideal. It froze, and started floating upwards, buoyed by the ice. But the ice wouldn’t hold it long; it was strong, and they could see the tendrils freeing themselves here and there, shattered pieces of ice popping up to float on the river’s surface.
Elitheris felt a change course through her: the tendrils wrapping around her body suddenly turned icy cold, and she almost lost her breath because of the sudden temperature change. Now she was both wrapped in tendrils, and the tendrils were now rigid and unmoving. She could no longer move.
The fideal, encased in a layer of ice shuddered as it flexed the tendrils that weren’t wrapped around its prey, and chunks of ice broke off and floated to the surface. The centimeter thick coating of ice required effort to break out of, but the fideal was strong. The ice on its tendrils that were wrapped around its prey was uncomfortable, but it could manage that level of discomfort; it didn’t flex those as it didn’t want its prey to get away.
Ruby cast the spell of Fire Armor on Elitheris again. After all, it was effective. Elitheris, and those on the boat looking into the water, again saw a flash of orangish light, quickly snuffed out.
Many of the tendrils that were around the prey burnt away, the rest were damaged, but free of the ice, and they let the prey go.
Elitheris, and Mister Wiggles, were free, and she swam up towards the light. She could see an oar hovering at about water level, and she grabbed onto it with her free hand. She was able to get both her and her dog’s head above water, and the air was sweet as they inhaled.
Eykit felt Elitheris grab the oar, and he braced himself on the bulwark to ensure he didn’t lose the oar.
Elias and Jory both reached down and grabbed Elitheris, pulling her up. Almë did what he could to help them lift the Elf and dog into the boat.
Taid could see a dark green shape moving under the water, dropping deeper into the murky water. He kept his halberd ready, in case it came close enough to attack again. It seemed to be retreating, giving up its prey to look for something easier to eat.
Elitheris and Mister Wiggles got pulled into the boat in a sodden mass. Then Elias and Jory helped drag Almë back aboard. Mr. Wiggles shook himself, sending water everywhere.
“Hey!” Elias said, trying to protect his face from the dog-scented river water. He had a grin on his face, though, and didn’t seem very mad about getting drenched. Elitheris, next to him, looked like she wished she could do that to get dry.
Once Almë was in the boat, and there didn’t seem to be any more attacks, Elias asked, “What just happened, and what was that thing? All we saw was a bunch of matted reeds.”
Elitheris spoke up. Once she wasn’t fighting for her life and afraid of drowning, she realized that she’d heard of, and possibly even seen that thing before, without realizing it. A fideal. They were very dangerous, hard to wound, and resistant to most magics.
The drenched woman wrung the river water out of her hair.
“By the gods,” Jory said. “How do you kill it?”
“Cutting it apart, mainly,” Elitheris replied. “Hitting it with a stick won’t help, and I would just waste arrows shooting at it. Whatever was causing that flash of light and heat seemed to annoy the hell out of it though.”
“Flame Armor,” Ruby said. “Seemed to work on that thing as well as the reek.”
“Thanks,” Elitheris told her. She took off her gambeson, wringing that out as well. Being a garment consisting of thirty layers of linen, it held liquids like a sponge. And it was fully saturated. Her jacket alone probably held almost five kilograms of water. Her gambeson leggings likely almost as much. She shed those, too.
Most of the crew made it a point to look away, and get back to business. But Elitheris wasn’t particularly modest, and her small clothes preserved her modesty well enough. She wrung the leggings out as well, letting the water cascade into the river. She kept a wary eye out for the fideal, though, in case it was thinking about coming back.
She laid out the cloth armor flat on the deck, to let the sun dry it out. No need to carry around several extra kilograms of water weight.
Almë had done the same, wringing out the armor, and laying it out on an open spot on the deck. At least this time, his clothes hadn’t been dissolved and eaten….
The rest of the day was uneventful, thankfully. The boat made its way upriver, pushed mostly by the oars, but in the afternoon a slight breeze blew in, so the sail got some use. It had been a warm day, with plenty of sunshine, so the wet gambesons were dry before the late afternoon sun started dropping too far behind the trees.
They found a suitable place to make camp, and there was a convenient fallen log, half in and half out of the water, that would make a good makeshift dock to moor the boat to.
There was a two and a half meter high cliff on one end of the camp, which provided a bit of a wind break. It was an exposed rock face, and what appeared to be pieces of it lay scattered about, providing convenient seating. The ground between them was full of weedy plants, along with a few saplings.
The crew stamped down a lot of the weeds, forming an open space for them to lay their bedrolls on. Tarps were set up to provide shelter for the bedrolls. Alexa got the fire started, and put the kettle on while Erven directed the crew to get the camp set up the way he wanted it.
It didn’t take long. There wasn’t much to do besides set up the bedrolls, tarps, and some minimal supplies from the boat.
Almë cast his usual campsite spell, Plant Vision, while the crew set up camp. He scanned around the area looking for things that thought they would be able to hide in the undergrowth. To Almë, the plants were transparent, mere vague shapes surrounding him. He saw the usual creatures: rodents, a rabbit, a few ground birds. Insects galore, even a ten centimeter long beetle, its carapace an iridescent black.
But he did see something interesting. The first thing he became aware of was a chunk of meat lying on the ground. But not just a single chunk of meat; there were several, and as he raised his eyes he saw that a short distance beyond the camp was a circle of stones. Had he not been using a spell that made about twenty meters of jungle disappear, he’d have never have seen it. Odd, he thought, they seem to be radiating out from the center, as if something—or someone—exploded into pieces.
He walked closer to it, and he noticed that whomever had placed these stones had done so in an almost amateurish way. Even he, not one to use ritual magic very often, could tell that this rock should be moved a bit this way, and that rock moved and rotated that way to improve the magical effectiveness. The center stone, the focus, wasn’t even in the middle of the circle, it was obviously off center.
No wonder the mage blew himself up, he thought wryly. Poor idiot.
He went back to the campsite, saying, “Hey guys, I found something that is similar to those ritual spots we found on the islands near Nathan’s place.”
“I think we should check it out,” Taid said. “But I’d like to cast Mystic Mist first, to give us somewhere to retreat to, if necessary. Almë, you didn’t find anything in the area that was dangerous, right?”
“Nothing that would bother us. Some small animals, but those look like they were scared off when the crew was stomping down the weeds.”
“Alright, then. Give me a few minutes before you all go back to the circle.”
His companions waited as he laboriously cast the spell of Mystic Mist, walking the perimeter of the spell’s extent while chanting. The mist sprang up, then faded to that iridescent sparkle.
The five of them, along with their dogs, wandered back to the circle of stones. At the first chunk of meat, both dogs sniffed at it, then turned up their noses and retreated away from it, whining. They certainly didn’t like whatever meat it was. Mr. Wiggles ran around Elitheris, putting her between him and the meat. Norolind likewise moved behind Ruby, as if she could protect him from whatever the meat was.
Both Elitheris and Almë could tell that the meat had been there for a few days, judging from the decomposition. They could also tell that in a jungle, filled with all kinds of scavengers, that there shouldn’t have been meat there at all. Even the insects, which should have been the first to swarm all over the meat, weren’t there.
Elitheris saw a chunk that looked to be a part of someone’s hand. Taid speared a chunk, holding it up, that looked suspiciously like a kneecap and the upper part of the shin. He flicked the halberd and sent the piece into the bushes nearby. And wedged into the juncture of a branch and the trunk of a tree, Eykit found what could only be a nose and part of an upper lip.
Something was seriously wrong with the chunks of meat. They could all smell the taint of rot in the air, but no one wanted to get their noses down near the meat, especially after seeing the reactions of the two dogs.
Almë looked around, and found some scraps of brownish cloth scattered about.
They were standing at the edge of the circle, reticent to enter. Almë sighed, and walked into the area between the stones. He stood near the center, looking around. He saw a satchel behind a rock. He knelt beside it, and opened it up, revealing a collection of small bags and glass jars, all full of spell casting components. He could see acorns, metal shavings, sulphur, forked twigs…all of the usual material components required for spell casting. Useful things, some of which he needed for his own spells. He knew the sulphur would be useful for Ruby’s fire magics, especially since she’d used so much of her stash of it already, even if only a pinch at a time.
He stood up with the satchel. He was a bit surprised as he did so; the contents seemed much lighter than they had originally appeared. A second look at the satchel showed that it was enchanted.
He saw some footprints near the center of the circle of stones. They appeared to come into the circle, but he didn’t see any going out again.
“Hey, Elitheris,” Almë said, “I think it’s safe. I haven’t exploded yet. I’ve found this satchel and some footprints, but I need some help figuring out what happened here.”
Elitheris came over to him. She examined the footprints, doing her best to ignore his footprints. She couldn’t make heads or tails of it, seeing only what Almë had already discovered.
Taid, meanwhile had moved over to the closest standing stone, examining it. It wasn’t natural. He could see chisel marks, eroded somewhat due to wind and weather. He estimated the marks at being less than a hundred years old, and likely less than fifty. The rocks weren’t smoothed, either; the chisel marks implied haste, instead of careful craftsmanship.
Ruby was moving along the perimeter, Norolind following, shying away from any meat chunks he found. The Hobbit was looking around, seeing if there were any clues tossed out of the circle. She didn’t expect to actually find anything, but it was good to look anyway. She was wary of traps, primarily of trip wires or snares. It was entirely possible that the victim may have been done in by something mundane, rather than magic.
She didn’t think it was a high probability, given that the shoulder bag held the spell components of a mage. Her take on it was that a mage tried to do some magic spell, botched it, and there was some kind of power backlash. It was a risk all mages had to live with. Most of the time, a catastrophic mis-cast wasn’t usually fatal, although she’d heard some horror stories.
And the risk was higher the more spells a mage attempted to cast. The working mages had the worst of it: they cast spells all day. Statistically, a severe spell failure was inevitable. Smart mages did their best to limit the amount of spells they threw around, although in many ways, that was like rejecting food when starving. A mage loved casting spells. It was what they did. They just accepted that one day, it would blow up in their faces.
She saw something, wedged between some roots just outside of the circle on the side away from the camp. Going over to it, and moving aside some leaves, she could see that it was a book, bound in leather, and fairly thick. She picked it up, opening the cover, and saw that it was a spellbook for the spell Itch. She tucked it under her arm, rose, and came back to the rest of them.
“I found what appears to be one of the poor mage’s books,” Ruby said, holding up the book. “It’s a spell book for the spell of Itch.” There were a few specks of blood on the cover of the book.
“Huh,” Elitheris said. “Looks like this guy was a fucking novice, and managed to blow himself up.”
“Yep,” Almë agreed.
“Or was torturing someone,” Taid said.
“Could be,” Elitheris said. “But a mage wouldn’t leave his stuff lying about, unless he’s around here someplace.”
“Yeah, he probably fucked something up,” Almë said.
“Well, unless someone wants to gather up the mage’s pieces, I think we are done here,” Taid said.
“I can hear my bedroll calling to me,” Elitheris said. “Lazing around on a boat all day in the hot sun has got me drowsy.”
“Besides,” Ruby said, “dinner is ready. I can hear Alexa dishing it up.”
“You guys go ahead,” Elitheris said, “I’ll join you in a bit.”
They went back to the camp, and got in line for the vegetable and barley stew and the roasted meat skewers.
Elitheris wanted to see if she could find any tracks outside of the circle, in the jungle. Maybe there were clues that might answer some of her questions about what happened here.
While she was able to discover some broken branches along the line of the footprints Almë had spotted, she couldn’t determine anything else about them. Then she, too, when back to camp.
They ate, then they spent time around the campfire telling stories. Jory sketched pictures in his sketchbook, character studies of the passengers, a landscape showing the marshy section of the river, and an elaborate drawing of Elitheris getting pulled over the bulwark by the fideal.
The question of why the scavengers didn’t eat the meat nagged at Elitheris. It was unnatural. Something, perhaps magic, had done something to the meat to make it entirely unpalatable to anything larger than a microbe. The old Elven texts spoke of tiny creatures too small to see that were everywhere, and caused diseases and rot.
Too small to see, but were everywhere. Invisible to the eye, but there nonetheless. Was that what she had seen in that dead area? Magnified creatures that normally were too small to see? She didn’t know, and it worried her. When that big shrimp thing attacked her, was it giving her a disease? What was the incubation period? She didn’t feel sick yet, but it was early. It might take a few more days to manifest.
But there was nothing she could do until she felt ill. Hopefully, it wasn’t one of those diseases that did its work without symptoms. By the time she realized she had the disease, it might have already done some damage, and she wouldn’t even know it. It’s even possible that it might have just weakened her heart, not so much as to make it obvious it happened, just something that would manifest in a few centuries, long after she forgot all about it. And if it caused a brain disease, she might not even be able to recognize that something was wrong!
She started trembling, and forced her mind to think about other things, such as a swarm of butterflies in a sunlit meadow of wildflowers. She thought about her favorite spot when she was young, a secluded waterfall with a small pond in the middle of a grove not far from Celumarauca. Eventually, she got her wild thoughts of horrific possibilities under control.
But just because her thoughts were “under control”, didn’t mean she could sleep. She took first watch. The watch was almost a formality, given the protection of the Mystic Mist, but she wasn’t going to be sleeping any time soon anyway. Besides, being alone on watch was the closest she could come to her hermit days, and being in close proximity to so many people all day every day was wearing on her nerves. She embraced the solitude, even if it was punctuated by snores.
Almë had agreed to take second watch, so when Elitheris finally decided to go to bed, she woke the tall Elf.
He spent most of it sitting on a rock, looking out at the river in the moonlight. The moon was a sliver, a waning crescent. Sometimes he would walk the perimeter of the mist, always staying within it. He even cast the spell of Plant Vision, just as a precaution, when he heard movement in the jungle. But it was only a panther, stalking a boar. Neither of which wanted anything to do with the misty area by the river.
Soon enough his watch was over, and he woke Itura, who would watch during the deepest of night before she woke Fikkiil for the last watch.
Almë didn’t have one of his patented nightmares, so he didn’t wake up the camp with his screaming.
But Taid did. Something woke him up. Something nasty, crawling on his chest, its toxicognaths mere inches from his face.
Taid yelled as the giant, meter long centipede struck at his face with its poisonous mandibles. But that wasn’t all that was poisonous. Its hooked feet dug into soft skin, and the skin oozed enough toxin to make its footprints burn and sting.
Taid’s reflexes, honed by years in the Imperial Army, stood him in good stead. He grabbed at the huge, chitinous creature that perched on his chest. He could feel the line of burning pain that extended from his right hip and up his chest, right up to just below his chin.
A portion of his brain realized that the creature was standing in his beard.
He grabbed at it just as it bit into the Dwarf’s cheek. The wound was small, but its toxin was causing excruciating pain. He screamed in pain.
His screams woke up the camp. The dogs started barking. They didn’t know what was happening, but instinct made them attempt to alert the pack of danger.
In the bedroll next to Taid, Jory started screaming in pain as well.
Taid’s attempt at grabbing the squirming creature wasn’t as successful as he would have liked. He got a handful of wriggling legs that pulled through his fingers before he could grab them. It bit at him again, but Taid managed to move his head out of the way so it missed.
“Get it off me!” Jory screamed. “Get it off me!”
Almë fumbled for his staff in the dark under his tarp. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but he wanted to be ready for it. He spidercrawled out from under his tarp. (2)
Elitheris, also unsure as to what was going on, and with Mister Wiggles barking in her ear, threw the woolen blanket off of her, rolled over, and began to get out from under her tarp. Taid wasn’t usually the one who screamed, so whatever was happening was serious.
Ruby, practically blind in the deep darkness of the jungle, was also extricating herself from her bedroll. What little light there was came from weak moonlight reflected off of the river. It too scant to do much besides orient her.
Taid kept trying to grapple the centipede, finally getting his hands around the squirming creature. It curled over his hand, biting at his arm, but failing to get through the armor he wore to bed. Sleeping in armor left him exhausted and sleepy, and didn’t provide a good night’s sleep, but it really helped in situations like the one he found himself in.
Almë cast the Itch spell on the creature, figuring that it would be difficult for it to scratch without arms. Although it had plenty of legs to do it. He wasn’t sure if his spell did any good. (3)
Jory was still screaming, and thrashing about under his tarp shelter. Fikkiil, who’d been on watch and thus awake, was the first to respond, pulling his dagger out and running over to him to see what was the matter. The rest of the crew were struggling to get out of their bedrolls, crawling out from under their own shelters.
Ruby cast Flaming Armor on Taid, and he appeared to burst into flame, the tongues of fire flickering all over his body. “Oh shit!” he yelled, as his bedroll started to singe, as did the oilcloth tarp just above him. But he was now shedding light, as well as heat, so Ruby was able to actually see what was happening. (4)
Taid, struggling to hold the squirming, writhing creature, tossed it, but not before it bit him again on his gloved hand. Its jaws weren’t strong enough to get through the leather, and, in addition, a jet of flame speared out of Taid’s hand where he had been bit, hitting the centipede in the face. Taid wasn’t very successful in tossing it away from him, the combination of its movements and the pain he was in sent it into the tarp, instead of beneath it, and it fell to the ground beside him.
Most of the camp had managed to get out of their bivouacs. Fikkiil had made it to Jory’s side, and was stabbing at the centipede that had attacked him. Unlike Taid, Jory didn’t sleep in armor, so he was in much worse shape. The verminous beast had bitten him several times, and crawled over much more of his body, leaving Jory in agony.
One of the crew had thrown some kindling on the fire, and the embers banked from the night before burst into bright flame, illuminating the camp to a degree.
Ruby could see Jory, wrestling with the second giant centipede. She cast Flame Armor on Jory, and he burst into flame, causing Fikkiil, who had been trying to drag Jory out from under his tarp to let go before his hands burnt. He watched, intrigued and horrified, as a gout of flame erupted out of Jory’s chest and into the face of the long, serpentine form.
Eykit pulled his knife out and moved towards Jory and Fikkiil. Elitheris pulled her knife and moved towards Taid.
Almë scurried out of his bivouac and stood up.
Taid slammed his hand down onto the squirming beast, but he missed, his eyes watering due to the pain he was in, and his fist crashed into the ground near his bedroll. He rolled out from under his tarp.
The centipede struck back at Taid’s hand, but it wasn’t fast enough.
Taid’s roll took him to where Elitheris was approaching, and she had to step over him to plunge her dagger into the centipede. The blade, enchanted with the Penetration spell, slid through the body of the centipede easily, pinning it to the ground. It writhed and twisted, unable to move or attack.
Elitheris knew that centipedes were fairly common, and she knew that the poison was extremely painful, and could lead to paralysis in severe cases. But she also knew that Dwarves were particularly resistant to poisons, venoms, and toxins, so she was fairly certain that he would be fine in a few hours, if not sooner. Jory, on the other hand, might have more problems.
Eykit got to Jory’s side, and could see him struggling with the attacking centipede. He was obviously in pain, struggling to get a grip on the creature, but not having too much luck. Taid had had problems, and he was a trained soldier. Jory was just a civilian sailor. Eykit could feel the heat coming off of the flames that wreathed his body, and he could only hope that Ruby’s spell didn’t panic Jory more than the centipede did.
“Eykit!” Almë said, “Grab it and throw it my way and I’ll whack it with my staff!” He held his staff up in a strike-ready position.
Eykit stood, poised with his knives. If he stabbed, and missed the centipede, he’d likely his Jory. Which would set off the Flaming Armor, sending a jet of flame back at him. That would be bad. It was entirely possible that the centipede would be taken care of by the spell Ruby had cast on Jory.
After seeing that Eykit wasn’t going to grab the centipede and toss it in his direction, Almë started moving towards Jory. He’d grab the thing, if Eykit wasn’t going to. His hands closed around it, and it was like putting his hands in the flames of a campfire. He noticed that several of the jointed legs had burned off.
Ruby could see that the centipede on Taid was pinned and writhing, but seemed to be unable to attack anything. She started casting the spell of Fireball, a ball of flame appearing in her palm.
Taid slammed his fist into the pinned centipede. Chitin crunched under his gloved knuckles, and it stopped moving, fluid leaking out of the broken chitin.
Almë pulled the centipede off of the burning Jory, tossing it into the air, shouting “Ruby!” (5)
The wounded centipede, singed about the edges, twisted as it arced through the air. Ruby cut loose, tracking its trajectory and throwing her fireball at it with a whssst! sound. The ball of fire impacted on it, the flames appearing to splash around the impact point. It hit the ground, and scuttled off into the weeds. It would look for easier prey.
Jory was in bad shape, breathing deeply between clenched teeth, trying not to scream or moan. Taid could sympathize. He could still feel the line of stinging fire where the claws dug into his skin, and his face was a mass of pain, made worse whenever he touched the swollen bite wound on his cheek.
Members of the boat crew had pulled Jory out of his bivouac, to keep him from doing any more damage to his bedroll. The flames that danced over his body didn’t seem to be hurting him, but they were dangerous to anyone or anything around him. As it was, Elven and Itura were both getting their hands bandaged by Alexa, the result of minor burns resulting from grabbing Jory and pulling him out of his bedroll.
His bedroll was charred. He’d need to replace it when they got to civilization, but it was still usable, if smelling of charred wool and smoke. Fortunately, his oil tarp didn’t catch, likely the result of a light rain a few hours earlier.
Taid’s bedroll was in about the same state. Charred, usable, smelly, and in need of replacement.
By Fikkiil’s estimation, dawn was still a couple of hours away. Jory, and Taid, were unlikely to be able to sleep, but after a little while, the rest of the boat crew got back into their bedrolls to get a little more shuteye.
Ruby surreptitiously cast a spell of Sleep on Jory. His face relaxed from its pained grimace, and he lay quietly, breathing deeply in sleep. “Taid,” she asked, “would you like me to cast Sleep on you?”
“Nah, I can take this pain. It’s just weakness flowing out of the body. Besides, I don’t think it will last long. We Dwarves are made of tough stuff.”
An hour later, the pain finally faded from Taid’s body. It was a long, agonizing hour, though.
Eykit wasn’t interested in sleep. Neither was Elitheris. She noticed some tracks. They looked like a pair of dashed lines, made up of dots. They were centipede tracks, made in the wet ground. The creatures weren’t that heavy, and the tracks hadn’t been obvious, but to her skilled eye, visible enough. She followed them back from the two tarp shelters to a rock several meters away, but still within the camp. Bending down, she could see a hollow underneath it, likely the centipedes’ den.
“I miss having a solid roof over my head,” Eykit told Elitheris. “I know you are at home out here in the wilderness, but I’m missing a good warm bed, rafters over my head, and four walls and a door I can lock. That centipede could be anywhere in any of those bushes.”
“I don’t think it was interested in hanging around here,” Elitheris replied. “But I get it. I’m not interested in sleeping either. Maybe I can nap on the boat.”
She was also determined to not be in the bow for a while. The middle of the boat was looking mighty fine.
Skysday, Leafturn 23, 879 AFE
Dawn’s rosy fingers spread into the sky, hidden by overcast, and the campsite became very busy. No one wanted to stay there any longer than they had to, foregoing even breakfast. They would eat cold rations on the boat. The most time consuming thing was getting Wilbur back on the boat.
It was a grey day, warm but not hot, but the air felt thick with humidity. The rowers complained that it seemed difficult to breathe, although it was less a complaint and more a statement of fact. Elias quipped that if he dropped a feather, it wouldn’t fall, held up by the thick air.
Jory’s pain finally subsided around midmorning, the toxins finally being flushed out by his body. He had residual tingling sensations for the next few hours, though.
The river started showing a few more rocks as they climbed in altitude, getting closer and closer to Dwarfchat. There were a few areas of rapids, and they had to carefully maneuver the boat between boulders. This usually involved a lot of oar work, using them more like poles to keep the boat from slamming into the large rocks that made some areas of the river almost impassable.
“I thought this was a well-traveled trading route?” Ruby asked Captain Gwendal. The rapids, along with the jerky movement of the boat that resulted from their progress, had made her stomach do more flip-flops than it had in days.
“It sort of is, but it’s not a main trading route,” he replied. “That would be the Lytan’s Mill-Sheepshear-Fleetmilk route.” He scratched his beard before continuing. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there aren’t a lot of hamlets or towns along this route. No where to trade, except Dwarfchat at one end, and Lytan’s Mill at the other. The only reason we are on this route is because of our cargo. It has a time limit. The main route takes longer, and we’d only be able to do part of it before offloading the cargo to a caravan.”
“And you wouldn’t have been paid as much for the shorter leg?”
“Nope, and the cargo wouldn’t have gotten to where it needs to be in time, which means we wouldn’t have been paid at all. So it was us, taking the cargo on this route to save time. But it’s not an easy trip, and they’re aren’ t a lot of boats that go this way. It’s also a bit wilder, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. Not as many travelers coming through and less Rural Watchmen hunting out all of the beasties.”
At about midday, the rocky section was behind them, and the river was more gentle. Elitheris took a nap, laying on the deck with her gambeson rolled up and used as a pillow. It still smelled of sweat and river water, but she’d smelled worse things.
They actually saw two boats going in the opposite direction, and as they passed, there were jocular shouts of “Ahoy!” Both were knarrs, like the Dossit Float, although both were slightly smaller. Going downstream, they were making good time, even with only four rowers. Both had cargoes that made them ride low in the water.
In late afternoon, they found a good campsite. It was actually another archtree, but this one looked wild. There was no sign that it had ever been groomed for use as any kind of designed structure; it was a rambling, random mass of tree trunks, archways, and branches. From what Almë could tell, it was several hundred years old, and likely about the same size as the much older one that had contained the old Elven village. This one, however, hadn’t been shaped by decades of careful pruning and manipulation.
It made a really good campsite; because it had never been groomed, many of the “archways” were blocked by roots that had grown down from the arches to the ground, looking more like prison cell bars than openings. While there were some openings that someone could squeeze through, it would keep most large animals out. The maze of plant growth was an effective wall on three sides of the campsite, leaving only the open side at the riverbank.
The archtree was dense enough to do a good job hiding the campfire from those three sides as well. The crew of the Dossit Float weren’t the first ones to use this place as a campsite. There were three rings of stones filled with ashes and charred pieces of wood around the area. Erven chose one of them to be the main fire, and designated the other two as secondary fires, if anyone wanted to use them. He assigned most of the other members of the crew to search for firewood. They would need more if people wanted to use the other fires.
It wasn’t cold at night, so the fire wasn’t necessary to keep warm, but it was necessary to dry out items of clothing and other gear.
“You know,” Taid mused, as he wandered around the campsite, “when I finally settle down, I think I’ll open a chain of travel stops. We’ll have amenities, entertainment, Shard games, good food, ale, and no fucking centipedes. And we’ll clear out all the undead crap from whatever holes they are in.”
“Sounds good,” Eykit said. “Count me in. I like civilization.”
Almë cast his spell of Plant Vision, wandering around the perimeter of the camp, looking for anything out of the ordinary. He found some jungle rodents living in a den under a bush, some birds, monkeys, and the usual collection of insects.
He gave Taid the green light to cast Mystic Mist. Taid cast the spell, and the campsite and a bit more was covered in the mist.
Elitheris took second watch, and Almë agreed to take the third.
Almë woke up during Elitheris’ watch, screaming. The camp roused.
Elitheris strode the three steps over to his bivouac, reached down, and gave the tall Elf a slap in the face to wake him up. “Wake up, tall boy,” she said. “You were having a nightmare.” She slapped him again.
“Hey, I’m awake! I’m awake!” Almë said, as Elitheris raised her hand again for a third slap.
Elitheris stood back up, and Almë looked around, seeing the crew’s faces staring back at him. Most put their heads down, and he could hear mutterings as they did so.
But he also saw a faint, magenta light. He stood up to get a better view. It was coming from a rock near the edge of the campsite.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“I have no idea,” Elitheris said. She pulled an arrow out of her quiver, nocking it, ready to pull and shoot. She and Almë moved closer to the rock, stepping around the bivouacs of the crew. The crew seemed oblivious to it.
The runes on it were reminiscent of the runes on the dead baby box, although they weren’t the same. Just vaguely similar to them.
Almë went back to Taid, Eykit, and Ruby, and got them up. He wanted them to see it too. Eykit didn’t see it at all, and looked questioningly at the rest of them. He could see that they saw something. He shrugged inwardly.
The stone was perhaps a meter tall. The glyphs, or markings, glowed in a steady magenta light; they didn’t pulse, or flash. And they hadn’t be glowing or even noticeable earlier. Elitheris estimated that it couldn’t have been glowing before the middle of her watch; she was sure she would have noticed. The runes also weren’t carved into the rock; they were simply glowing. If they hadn’t been glowing, there would have been no indication that a rune was even there. And it didn’t seem to be doing anything.
Taid, Almë, and Ruby, the trained mages, didn’t recognize the glyphs. They didn’t seem to be part of the established common glyph types used in the Empire. There was some similar markings that might relate to fire, or to lightning, but it also could have been plants. But none of them were exactly like the commonly used glyph languages.
“So this is some weird-ass magic,” Elitheris said. “A way marker?” She couldn’t feel any changes in mana level. She was about poke it with her arrow.
“Wait!” Almë said. He started backing away, carefully making his way around the crew who lay in their bunks, most of which hadn’t fallen back to sleep yet. “The last time we had something like this it was a ghost baby!” He moved to the opposite side of the camp. He was about as far away as he could get without leaving the Mystic Mist or getting his feet wet.
Elitheris moved back too. She drew back the arrow to her cheek. She didn’t want the rock to do something that conducted through the arrow shaft. She loosed, and the arrow hit the rock.
And the rock exploded with a loud boom, sending rock fragments all over the campsite. Most of the chunks of rocks did little more than shred through some tarps, but three members of the Dossit Float took some superficial wounds.
Everyone was awake now, even if they had managed to fall back asleep after Almë’s screams. No one was happy. (6)
“What the fuck is going on?” Wynnstan asked.
“Ow,” Artur said, holding his arm where a rock fragment had cut him.
“What the hell did you do that for?” Alexa asked Elitheris, not really caring about an answer as she dug around in her medical bag. She pulled out a roll of linen bandage, and proceeded to wrap Artur’s arm. Fikkiil and Itura were next in line, also bleeding from rock fragment impacts.
“Who’s playing with alchemy at this hour?” Captain Robert Gwendal asked. “What was that? What did you guys do now? By the gods, you guys are a menace.” He put his head in his hand. “Alexa, what’s the damage?” He could see her treating people, even in the dim light provided by the embers of the fire. He couldn’t see who they were, though.
“Minor wounds only. Some blood. Not much.”
“Good. I guess.” He directed his next question to his passengers. “Anything else I should be worrying about? More centipedes? Giants throwing rocks? Sudden cases of the zoomies?”
Almë pressed his lips together; he didn’t want to answer.
Captain Gwendal didn’t get an answer. And that wasn’t going to satisfy him. He was rightfully pissed off. “What just happened?” he asked again.
“I’ve got no idea,” Elitheris said, deflecting. “I’m going to go sleep on the boat.”
Captain Gwendal ordered Wynnstan to be on guard with Almë. “Just in case,” he said.
Wynnstan nodded. “Aye aye, sir.”
Almë said to Wynnstan, “I’ll watch and make sure she doesn’t blow us up again.”
Everyone else tried to go back to sleep. There was no reason to stay up; dawn was still six hours away. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that difficult, and soon the campsite was filled with the sound of snoring.
Before dawn, the camp was awakened by a shout. Fikkiil had been on the last watch, and he must have seen something. “We’re under attack!” he yelled.
Norolind started barking as arrows started to zip into the campsite.
The camp scrambled, people trying to get out from under their tarps as fast as they could scurry.
Mister Wiggles started barking too, and Elitheris popped her head up so she could see over the bulwark of the boat. She only saw the camp, with people moving in a panic.
Ruby looked around from under her tarp, trying to see something in the darkness. She could hear arrows thwipping into the ground. They didn’t seem to be hitting anyone, at least, not yet. She couldn’t see anyone; whoever it was was hidden in the trees and darkness.
It was Eykit who realized that the the arrows weren’t randomly placed; the attackers were just unsure of where anyone was. They were, after all, hidden by the Mystic Mist.
Almë cast Plant Vision on Ruby, so the vegetation would be transparent. It did nothing to reduce the near pitch blackness of the night, however.
Ruby’s vision changed. All of the vegetation within thirty meters disappeared. She could still see the ground, sloping up from the river in lazy humps, and she could see the rocks scattered here and there, along with small rock fragments scattered about the campsite. She could also see four forms, hovering four or five meters high, ebony black against the deep black background. She could also see movement, everywhere. She couldn’t see what exactly it was, but it was like the skin of the plants, now transparent, was shifting around.
It took her a moment to figure out what was going on; she’d had no warning, and now her brain was trying to figure out what and how she was seeing what she was seeing.
The forms looked humanoid, and had bows, although the latter point was obvious from the meter long shafts that peppered the campsite.
Most of the crew was trying to move to the boat; there were a few rocks, and Jory, Fikkiil, and Elias currently huddled behind the ones that were big enough to provide some cover. (7)
Ruby got to her knees and started casting the spell of Explosive Fireball, and a ball of fire started forming in her palm with a faint roaring sound, lighting up the area immediately around her.
Taid rolled out from under his tarp, and got to his feet.
Almë looked for cover to hide behind, but didn’t find anything close. He started to get up.
Elitheris looked over the bulwark, trying to determine what was happening. She could hear the sounds of arrows hurtling through the air and hitting the ground.
An arrow hit Elias in the leg, and he screamed in pain as his leg gave out beneath him, and he stumbled.
Elitheris grabbed her bow, and stood up in order to use it. She scanned the trees, looking for enemies. She could see quick flashes of movement which she understood to be arrows flicking throughout the campsite.
Eykit scrambled out from beneath his tarp, staying low and using the undergrowth as cover. The mist was probably visual cover enough, but he wasn’t certain of that. He didn’t understand magic; he only knew what the mages told him, and they had said that anything outside of the mist can’t see into it past the first meter or so. But who knows? He couldn’t see the attackers, maybe they could see through the mist. So it was best to be cautious.
I wonder if there is a hidden settlement, Almë mused, and we are camping in the middle of it. But figuring out the details would have to wait; an arrow whisked by his head, and he flinched. Damn, that was close!
“I think we blew up their god-rock!” Taid said, trying to find cover. He saw a rock that might provide at least some protection, and started towards it.
“Get to the boat!” Captain Gwendal ordered. “Use the cargo as cover!”
The boat was outside of the protective mist, but as long as the archers didn’t flank around it, or notice that the people were no longer in the mist, they would be alright. Gwendal hoped that the archers hadn’t heard him, or didn’t realize where the boat actually was.
The only person hit so far was Elias, and it looked like a lucky shot. (8)
Several of the crew dived down the sloped bank, laying in the sandy mud instead of going onto the ship. That way, they stayed within the mist. It wasn’t much of a slope, but unless the archers advanced, it was enough to provide cover.
“Really wishing I had a helmet right now,” Itura grumped. “Hey, Cap’n! Can we get some helmets in Dwarfchat?”
Captain Gwendal dropped to his belly nearby. “Couldn’t hurt. I think we can make room for them in the lockers.”
“Next time,” Artur said, “let’s just do our usual run, okay?”
Several more arrows flicked into the campsite.
Ruby had been aiming at the feet of one of the dark shapes. She threw the ball of fire, and it lofted up in an arc with a hissing roar. It hit the limb of the tree at the figure’s feet, and exploded in a flash of light, flame, and embers. Burning leaves fluttered about as the figure was hurled back into the undergrowth with a thump. The archer didn’t cry out in pain; he hit the ground without a word or even a grunt.
Almë ran towards the ship. He heard the boom from behind him, and correctly guessed that it was likely Ruby’s doing. He had seen a light in her hand out of the corner of his eye, and he knew she was a fire mage.
Taid reached out and grabbed his crossbow from under his tarp. He’d have to forego the cover of the rock; he needed to stand to cock his crossbow.
Eykit, laying in the undergrowth, tried to find the archers in the foliage. He could see three of them, barely. At least one of them was wearing a mask over the lower part of his face, and if their eyes had any whites at all, he couldn’t see them.
He was still seeing spots from the bright flash of light, but during that flash he could tell that the archers seemed Elven. At least they had Elven proportions, and they moved like Elves. He couldn’t tell if they had the pointed ears of an Elf because they all wore hoods. But he was very familiar with what Elven archers could do, Elitheris was a good example, and she was young, for an Elf. Older Elves were likely much, much better.
At least they weren’t singing, he thought. If they were bowsingers, we’d all be dead. If Envinyatar’s stories about them were anything close to the truth. I always figured they were exaggerated, but I’ve seen Elitheris’ archery, and she’s but a novice in comparison to bowsingers.
There was a reason Elven settlements didn’t have bandit problems, and it wasn’t just the dangerous plants they liked to use as trespasser deterrents.
Ruby could see, vaguely, in the darkness, that the archer she had blown off of the tree was starting to get up. He still had his bow; he hadn’t lost in when the fireball exploded at his feet. “Guys, there are four of them,” she said, pointing in turn, “up there, there, on the ground, up there, and up over there.”
Elitheris started watching for the arrows, trying to determine where the archers were. She fumbled blindly for her quiver, which was lying nearby. She didn’t want to take her eyes off of where the arrows were coming from.
An arrow came whistling through the air, punching into Eykit’s left calf with a thwock! "Ahh!" he cried in pain; he could see blood welling up and soaking his gambeson legging. “Damn it all,” he said through gritted teeth.
Taid put his foot into the stirrup of his crossbow, starting to cock it. It would be several more seconds before he would be able to get a shot off.
An arrow zipped by Taid’s ear, but he didn’t really notice or care.
Eykit whimpered; there was a meter long stick protruding out of his leg. He tried to pull it out, but he could feel the barbs on the arrowhead. He’d have to be careful not to tear the wound open further. He gritted his teeth in pain as tears ran down his face.
Elitheris pulled the quiver strap over her head, keeping her eyes on where she thought the enemies were.
Almë cast the spell of Rain of Nuts. It wasn’t a spell he got to use very often; it only worked in forests, and it caused the woods themselves to generate and launch a huge number of annoying nuts at any targets within the area that the caster chose.
In moments, they could hear what sounded like hailstones pelting down in the area around the two archers on the left side. The air was filled with a haze of falling nuts.
Elitheris drew an arrow, nocked it, and drew the string back, all in one smooth motion. She was waiting for a target to present itself. She saw an arrow come out of the haze of nuts, and she was able to get a good read on their position. She let fly, and she watched as her arrow disappeared in the hailstorm of falling nuts.
Almë ran towards the boat and Elitheris. He needed to get closer. His plan was to cast the Plant Vision spell on Elitheris so she could see her targets.
Another ball of fire appeared in Ruby’s hand as she mumbled some magic words. She was eyeing the archer on the right side. As soon as it formed, she threw it. (9)
The fiery missile sped forth with a whhhssst!, impacting on the tree beneath the archer’s feet with a boom! It exploded into a blast of flame, and the archer was blown out of the tree, as were several branches, chunks of bark, and what must have been hundreds of leaves. They fell, fluttering in the air, smoldering, their edges glowing for a few seconds before going out.
A few more arrows came slicing through the air, harmlessly thunking into the soft earth. It was starting to become obvious that the Mystic Mist was doing its job of obscuring where everyone was; the arrows coming in were being loosed blindly into the misty area.
Elitheris loosed her arrow at the leftmost archer. It flew true, and while the archer attempted to evade, he failed and the arrow lodged itself in his arm. He made no sound.
Almë ran into the river near Elitheris’ position on the boat. He needed to be close enough to cast his spell on her.
Ruby started forming another ball of fire. An arrow flew past her shoulder.
Now close enough, Almë cast the spell of Plant Vision on Elitheris. Elitheris saw the nearest thirty meters of jungle disappear from her sight. The nuts, which were still falling, were still visible. The spell didn’t work on magical plants. She could see two of the archers, still in the tree, and two on the ground.
Elitheris drew another arrow, nocked it, drew back the string, and loosed. It slammed into the archer’s right arm, not far from the previous arrow. The arrow the archer held fell from his hand, and the arm lay limp at his side.
Ruby threw her fireball at the first archer she had blown off the tree. She had to resort to indirect fire—she couldn’t throw it through the walls of roots that now lay between her and her target; she had to toss it up and over the branch, hoping that it would land on him. Fortunately for her, she got lucky and it landed at his feet. The archer, seeing it arc over the tree limb, dove to the side. It exploded in a gout of fire, sending bits and pieces of the undergrowth all over. (10)
Taid straightened up, putting his back into pulling the string back until it locked into place. Now all he had to do was get a bolt, and slap it on the stock. Then he could finally get a shot off.
Elitheris quickly drew another arrow, sliding it into place and drawing back the string.
Almë started casting the spell of Haste. He wanted a bit more speed.
Ruby started casting again. A ball of fire appeared in her hand.
Elitheris sighted down the arrow, aiming at the second archer from the left, but she missed. The archer had seen the arrow incoming, and twisted out of the way.
Taid slapped a bolt on to the stock of his crossbow, and raised it up, ready to shoot it.
Almë’s spell went off, and he felt faster. He ran towards Taid’s position.
Ruby’s fireball was ready, and she tossed it at the archer on the right, who had just stood up. The archer, seeing the fireball coming at him, dove for cover. He didn’t quite make it, and some of the blast got him.
Taid took aim at the second archer from the left.
The nuts were still falling from the treetops, forming what seemed to be a carpet of the things.
Elitheris pulled out two arrows, nocking the first one, and aiming at the second archer.
Eykit groaned as he worked the arrow out of his leg. It was slow, and painful, and his face was wet with tears. The barbs on the arrowhead kept catching on the edges of the wound channel, making it difficult and painful to extract. But he kept at it.
Almë ran to the base of the tree near the second archer, using the trunk as cover. He wrapped his arms around the trunk, and tried to shake the archer out of it. It didn’t work, not that he expected it to. It was more a gesture of frustration.
Ruby started forming another fireball.
Taid squeezed the trigger, and the bolt flew at the second archer. The archer didn’t see it coming. It slammed him in the right arm, and the arm flew back, the arrow held in the hand flying into the undergrowth. The arm flopped loosely at his side. The Dwarf dropped the crossbow. It was time for some close in melee fighting. It was time for Maggie.
Elitheris loosed her arrow at the first archer, but he ducked, and the arrow flicked past his head.
Ruby started her next fiery missile.
Elitheris used her second arrow, loosing it at the first archer again. This time the arrow hit its target, the arrow sticking in the archer’s chest. The archer didn’t cry out.
Eykit finally got the arrow out of his leg. It was a barbed, broadhead arrow, about two centimeters across from point to point. His legging was soaked in his blood, and he could feel the warm wetness pulsing out of the ragged hole in his leg. He pressed his hand against the hole, trying to keep the red stuff on the inside, where it belonged.
The fourth archer scrambled back up into the archtree.
The first archer leapt down to the ground. Almë watched him jump down, and started towards him before he even hit the ground. He swung his staff, and the archer parried the strike with his bow.
“Wiggles!” Elitheris commanded, “Sic him!” She pointed at the first archer. The dog barked once, and leapt over the bulwark into the river. Elitheris followed him.
Ruby threw the fireball at the second archer. A ball of flame erupted beneath his feet, sending him and chunks of the tree flying, tiny embers like fireflies floating in the air. The archer landed on the ground with a thump. Like before, he didn’t cry out when he hit.
Taid charged into combat, swinging Maggie at the archer that was now on the ground. The axe head bit deeply into the archer’s left arm, severing the hand. The bow, and the hand that still grasped it, bounced to a spot a meter away. The hand didn’t let go of the bow. The body lay still.
Mister Wiggles ran out of the river, heading towards the first archer, as instructed.
Elitheris ran towards the fourth archer, who was back in the tree and still able to shoot his bow.
Eykit hobbled towards Taid and Almë as Mister Wiggles ran past him.
Another ball of fire formed in Ruby’s hand.
Taid placed the top spike of Maggie in the fallen archer’s neck. “What the hell?” he asked the fallen archer. He got no answer from the still form.
The fourth archer loosed an arrow into the mist. It hit Eykit in the right foot, but the arrow didn’t penetrate his boot. He shook the arrow off of his foot with a swear.
Elitheris drew back another arrow, aiming at the fourth archer.
Almë slid his staff into an attack to the high right side, and as the archer moved to counter with his bow, rotated the staff around and down and hit him first in the right foot, then the left leg. The archer fell as the leg collapsed under his weight, and lay unmoving in the undergrowth. Mister Wiggles charged in, grasping the neck of the archer in his jaws, and twisting his head back and forth. It was a little late, and Almë smirked, watching the dog do his thing for a while.
Eykit moved towards the fourth archer, hoping to get a chance to stab him when Elitheris knocked him out of the tree.
Ruby threw her fireball at the fourth archer, and the fireball exploded under his feet. The archer had tried to sidestep the ball of fire, but couldn’t move fast enough, and was hit by the explosion. He fell out of the tree, bouncing off of the wall of roots on his way down.
Almë now had a chance to really see the archer’s face. The eyes were entirely black, and stared unblinkingly up, staring into space. The rest of the face was hidden behind a bandanna. He put his foot on the guy’s chest, reached down, and pulled the bandanna away. He could see the whole face now, except the archer didn’t have one. It was faceless, with only the two black orbs for eyes. He didn’t even have eyelids.
“Well, that’s disturbing,” Almë said.
All of the archers were down, and not moving. Elitheris came up to Almë, and looked down at the archer. “That’s creepy. Golems? Shard creatures?”
Almë looked at her, and shrugged.
Taid called out from where he was, standing over the one he killed. “Maybe Kallia got word we were coming after her and sent them to meet us.”
“Taid, any blood on your guy?” Almë asked. The right arm of the archer that he was standing on had several arrows in him, but none of them had drawn much blood. Certainly not enough considering the wounds.
Taid looked at the stump of a wrist. There was little blood, and no spurting blood from the stump.
“This is weird,” Eykit said, hobbling up.
Almë searched him, finding only gambeson armor and the bow he carried. The gambeson had some odd decorative stitching, and the bow seemed to be part of his hand. It didn’t come loose. As Almë examined it, it seemed formed from the hand, although the hand seemed to be muscle and bone, and the bow wood and horn. The gambeson had no discernible livery on it.
He unbuckled the gambeson. It seemed to be the only thing the archer was wearing. Almë could see his bare chest, devoid of hair, and devoid of nipples. His chest was smooth.
“These seem to be made creatures,” Elitheris said.
“Made, not born,” Eykit added.
“Definitely not created from Humans, or anything like that. They are missing too many things.”
Taid looked more closely at the stump he’d created. He could see bones, and what appeared to be muscle, but no arteries or veins.
“Flesh golems or something?” Elitheris said.
They looked at each other, with questioning looks on their faces. No one knew what the things were; they’d never seen anything like them.
The rest of the evening was uneventful. Taid cast Mystic Mist, which provided a significant advantage if anything decided to invade their camp. They had dinner, chatted with the crew around the campfire, then curled up into their sleeping furs. Almë, who’d had his sleeping roll eaten by a reek, slept on a pile of ferns, leaves, and tender branches. Elden had also managed to find a spare tarp wadded up in the forward storage compartment, which he gave to Almë to let him stay a bit drier.
Almë had already set up his tarp in a plow point setup, built to shed rain, and have an open side facing the campfire. While it certainly wasn’t cold, rarely dropping below 21°C, the radiant heat from the fire still felt good, and comforting as well.
The crew took care of the watches that night; Elitheris had been traumatized by the immense shrimp creature. She still had no idea what it had been, but she wasn’t comfortable knowing that even though she couldn’t see or feel them, the air around all of them was filled with those tentacled fishy things. Taid was tired from digging, or at least, that was the excuse he told himself. It hadn’t been that exhausting, really. He did spend a bit of extra time sharpening and rehoning the blade and spikes of his halberd. Digging in the dirt did bad things to blades, and a halberd was not a very effective digging tool. But soon even he rolled over and went to sleep.
Nothing disturbed them in the night, not even Almë’s night terrors. It rained a little, but no one noticed; their tarps kept the misty, light rain off of them.
Spiritsday, Leafturn 22, 879 AFE
The sun crept over the horizon, brightening the sky in the east. The crew roused and rose, by force of long habit. Alexa stoked the fire and threw some oats in to the pot, adding some chopped nuts and dried fruit, then a drizzle of precious honey. The rest of the crew packed up the camp and loaded their gear back into the forward and aft storage lockers.
Alexa ladled out portions of the morning porridge, quickly ate, then cleaned the pot. Erven doused the fire and made a last minute site check to ensure they had everything, and to make sure the passengers were all situated. He was the last back aboard, and they rowed out to the center of the river.
According to Captain Gwendal, they were a bit behind schedule, so he put six rowers on to make up a bit of time. It was grueling, but the crew had done it before.
At about midmorning the riverbanks started to turn marshy, with tracts of river grasses, reeds, and lily pads clustered along both sides of the river. Frogs could be heard, and large numbers of herons could be seen standing in the water, looking for fish, ducks could be seen floating around, and the drone of insects filled the air. They could even see a few crocodiles, their eyes and snouts the only thing visible above the waterline. As they watched, a narrow, toothy mouth appeared from nowhere and engulfed a duck, the waterfowl disappearing without even a quack.
The air was also filled with biting flies and mosquitoes, and everyone was slapping at themselves and shooing away bugs. Even Almë. His new necklace, while very effective against mosquitoes, didn’t do a thing for the biting flies. They still went for his tender, Elven flesh.
It wasn’t long before the marshy vegetation filled the river from bank to bank. The center was still navigable, but they had to row the knarr through mats of vegetation, and it put quite a bit of drag on the boat. All eight rowers were working hard to make progress through the marshy water.
Ruby and Almë, feeling queasy as they always did while on the water, sat aft, near the railing. Just in case. Taid kept them company. Both of them had a nearly crippling motion sickness problem. Even when they weren’t losing their lunches, they were very, very uncomfortable and sick. So Taid took it upon himself to sort of look after them.
Eykit sat near the bow, looking at the diversity of life in the wetlands, when he wasn’t fighting off the biting insects. He was both amazed at the different plants and animals, and how diverse they were, and wishing he was back on cobbled streets and surrounded by brick and mortar buildings. He found that he almost missed the stench of too many people living too close to each other. Almost. He took in a deep breath, trying to appreciate the lack of sewage and body odor aromas, filling his lungs gas with good, clean, foliage-scented air.
Elitheris yelped. Something had grabbed her leg, and was pulling her out of the boat. Her hands scrabbled for purchase on the deck boards, but there was nothing but the bulwark of the boat. The thing, whatever it was, had both legs now, and she was half in and half out of the boat, the bulwark’s edge digging into her stomach. She strained against the pull.
Mr. Wiggles rose up, putting his paws on the bulwark, barking at something in the water.
Eykit looked around, trying to figure out why Elitheris had shouted out. He saw her bent over the forward bulwark, as if she was trying to get back into the boat. Her muscles strained as she fought to stay in the boat.
The two rowing crewmen near the front of the boat craned their necks, trying to see forward and find out what the fuss was.
“You okay up there?” yelled the captain. He couldn’t really see much of the bow; there was cargo piled high in the middle of the boat obscuring his view.
“No!” Elitheris had a chance to shout, as a renewed tugging almost threatened to pull her into the water. Whatever had grabbed her wasn’t hurting her, as far as she could tell. It was only pulling on her. But she didn’t relish going into the water where she knew crocodiles swam. One of those things could easily bite her in half.
Taid stood, craning his neck, trying to see past the two piles of cargo. He could see a bit of Elitheris’ arms and head. The impression he got from her position was that she wasn’t completely in the boat.
Almë and Ruby looked up as well, their nausea momentarily forgotten.
Norolind, responding to Mr. Wiggles’ barking, started barking a warning himself. He bounded towards the front of the boat.
Unbeknownst to the people on the boat, the Dossit Float had bumped up against an aquatic creature whose appearance mimicked that of a wad of floating water plants. It rode the bow for a few moments, then sent its tendrils up the side of the boat, and over the bulwark, where it found prey. It was carnivorous, and it dragged its victims under the water, holding them there until they drowned. Then it fed off of their decaying corpse, shooing away scavengers if they were too small to capture, drown, and eat. Fish it could kill simply by squeezing long enough, but insects were too small and quick to capture, so those it attempted to brush away when it could.
It had wrapped itself around Elitheris’ leg, yanking her towards the water. It almost succeeded, and had her legs in the water. It was only a matter of time before it got the rest of her. It sent more tendrils up her legs, wrapping them around her torso.
Eykit frowned, trying to figure out what was happening. The best he could guess was that something in the water had grabbed his friend and pulled her out of the boat. He moved to Elitheris’ side, next to Mister Wiggles, who had his paws up on the bulwark, barking at something in the water.
Mr. Wiggles barked, then yelped as thin green tendrils with fleshy, leaflike extensions along their lengths encircled his body.
In the water, the Goblin saw a mat of floating vegetation, about three meters across, with tendrils arcing up towards himself and Mr. Wiggles. “Almë!” he shouted, alarmed. It was a plant. The plant mage and gardener would know what to do.
Almë started running down the center access way between the piles of cargo, bales of treesilk fabric on one side, stacked bags of barley on the other. His nausea threw off his stride, and he almost stumbled a couple of times as he made his way past the piles of cargo.
Taid followed on Almë’s tail, his face grim, knowing that something was wrong, but not knowing the details. He just knew that he had to get there as fast as possible. The way between the piles of cargo was blocked by Wilbur and Almë, so he went up the tarp-covered pile of grain sacks.
Ruby did the same, but on the other side, clambering up the pile of treesilk bales.
The sail was reefed, as there was no wind, so both Taid and Ruby could see that Elitheris was being dragged off of the boat by something. They didn’t know what it was, only that it was green in color.
Elitheris lost her grip on the boat’s boards, and the thing pulled her in farther. She was holding on to the bulwark, trying to keep her head above water. She could feel more tendrils around her chest. She could see a mass of green tendrils arch over her head, snap forward, and pull back into the water, taking Mister Wiggles with them. He yelped and whined, then disappeared beneath the surface of the water.
“No!” Elitheris spat through gritted teeth. “Not my dog!”
Eykit saw it happen; Mister Wiggles was there one moment, and then next he’d been swept off of the boat. But he didn’t have time to dwell on it; he could see another mass of tendrils coming for him. He leapt aside, but it wrapped around his arm, and he was fortunate enough to be able to grab onto the boat with his other hand. He felt something snap on his chest, and he could feel some broken pieces of something pinned between his undershirt and his gambeson. He knew, given that he was wearing his mail atop his gambeson, that if that thing pulled him under, he would never surface. Panic started rising in him, the fear of a watery death becoming more and more unbearable.
Ruby saw the thing grab onto Eykit, pulling on him. She was still too far away to cast anything helpful, so she leapt from the bales of fabric to the barrels that were stacked in front of them. But a spell of Glue might be helpful, to stick her friends to the boat, once she got closer.
Norolind was following Almë, barking with his deep voice. Taid pulled out a rope, and moved towards the mast.
The creature pulled Elitheris under, and the boat rocked as the force of her weight and the creature pulling on her disappeared. It also let go of Eykit, perhaps it had enough to feed on for a while.
“Woman overboard!” Elias shouted, and the rowers stopped rowing. The crew was finally putting the pieces together, and were realizing that they were under attack. Many grabbed knives, some grabbed axes.
Taid started tying a rope around the mast.
Almë ran to the bulwark next to Eykit, looking over into the water. He could finally figure out exactly what was going on.
“So, what is it?” Eykit asked.
“Oh shit! It’s a fideal.”
“Well, kill it with your plant magics!” Eykit shouted at him.
“It’s not a plant!” Alme shouted back. “It’s an animal that looks like a plant. And it’s magic resistant.”
“Well, fuck!”
Ruby came up beside him, ready to do…something. She wasn’t sure exactly what yet. But Elitheris was under water, as was Mr. Wiggles.
Elitheris had managed to get a lungful of air before the thing pulled her under. She went for her knife as more green tendrils started enwrapping her arms. Just give me a moment and I’ll cut you into little bitty pieces, she thought desperately as she fought to get the knife out of its sheath.
Eykit couldn’t see Elitheris or Mr. Wiggles, and he looked around trying to figure out what to do.
Almë cast a spell of Spasm on the creature. He could see the mat of vegetation twitch, contract for a moment, then spread out again. Elitheris felt many of the tendrils release her as the muscular spasms wracked its body. The sudden release of several tendrils allowed her to finally get her knife out of its sheath.
Ruby cast the spell of Flaming Armor on Elitheris. She could see an orange flash of light for a moment.
Elitheris saw the flash too, but from inside of it. And it fried the thing holding on to her, so much so that it let go of her completely. She was floating in the water, surrounded by a bunch of greenish kelpy tendrils. She could see her dog, still wrapped in tendrils, not too far from her. She lunged for him, and got her arm around him.
Taid gave up on the rope. Things were happening too fast, and he didn’t have time to put a good knot in it. But that didn’t matter; he had other ideas. He started casting the spell of Icy Touch.
The fideal grabbed Elitheris again. It had been hurt by something, but it was still hungry, and prey was still in reach. Tendrils slid around her body again, embracing her tightly in a hug that was far from endearing.
Almë cast the spell of Spasm again. This time, however, it didn’t have any effect; Almë could feel the spell “slide” off of it, dissipating into the water harmlessly. A mage trying to affect it with magic had to cast the spell very precisely for the magic to have any effect.
Eykit grabbed an oar, ready to give Elitheris something to grab on to.
“How can we help?” Jory asked, holding his oar like a weapon. “How do we kill it?”
Elias tossed a rope into the water, near where he had seen Elitheris go under.
Ruby saw a murky shape in the water that was likely Elitheris, but it seemed larger, so she assumed Elitheris had gotten a hold of Mr. Wiggles. If she used the spell of Flame Armor on her again, it would explode off of her and hurt Mr. Wiggles. So she had to protect one of them first….(1)
She cast the spell of Fire Resistance on the dog. Then she could fry the beast with ease, and not worry about hurting the pup.
Eykit got the oar into the water, bracing it on his end. He wanted to give her something to hold on to and give her some leverage.
Taid was still casting, moving slowly towards the bow as fast as he could without disturbing his concentration on his spell casting.
Almë dropped his staff, took a deep breath, and dived into the water, holding onto a rope. He was sure it wasn’t terribly dangerous to dive into water with a large sea monster in it. And the crocodiles didn’t seem to be nearby….
Ruby cast another spell of Fire Armor on Elitheris. Again the Elven woman exploded in flames underwater, the flames lasting only long enough to hurt the fideal before the water and lack of oxygen snuffed them out. The bog monster again let go of Elitheris and her dog.
Almë saw the flash shortly after he hit the water, and he could see the creature, vast in the dimness underwater, shy back from the creatures it thought were giving it pain. But only for a moment, as new, undamaged tendrils snaked through the water towards their prey.
Taid stepped to the bulwark, and dipped Maggie into the water where the fideal was. His spell of Icy Touch went off, channeled through the shaft of the halberd, and put a coating of ice around all of the tendrils that made up the fideal. It froze, and started floating upwards, buoyed by the ice. But the ice wouldn’t hold it long; it was strong, and they could see the tendrils freeing themselves here and there, shattered pieces of ice popping up to float on the river’s surface.
Elitheris felt a change course through her: the tendrils wrapping around her body suddenly turned icy cold, and she almost lost her breath because of the sudden temperature change. Now she was both wrapped in tendrils, and the tendrils were now rigid and unmoving. She could no longer move.
The fideal, encased in a layer of ice shuddered as it flexed the tendrils that weren’t wrapped around its prey, and chunks of ice broke off and floated to the surface. The centimeter thick coating of ice required effort to break out of, but the fideal was strong. The ice on its tendrils that were wrapped around its prey was uncomfortable, but it could manage that level of discomfort; it didn’t flex those as it didn’t want its prey to get away.
Ruby cast the spell of Fire Armor on Elitheris again. After all, it was effective. Elitheris, and those on the boat looking into the water, again saw a flash of orangish light, quickly snuffed out.
Many of the tendrils that were around the prey burnt away, the rest were damaged, but free of the ice, and they let the prey go.
Elitheris, and Mister Wiggles, were free, and she swam up towards the light. She could see an oar hovering at about water level, and she grabbed onto it with her free hand. She was able to get both her and her dog’s head above water, and the air was sweet as they inhaled.
Eykit felt Elitheris grab the oar, and he braced himself on the bulwark to ensure he didn’t lose the oar.
Elias and Jory both reached down and grabbed Elitheris, pulling her up. Almë did what he could to help them lift the Elf and dog into the boat.
Taid could see a dark green shape moving under the water, dropping deeper into the murky water. He kept his halberd ready, in case it came close enough to attack again. It seemed to be retreating, giving up its prey to look for something easier to eat.
“Hey!” Elias said, trying to protect his face from the dog-scented river water. He had a grin on his face, though, and didn’t seem very mad about getting drenched. Elitheris, next to him, looked like she wished she could do that to get dry.
Once Almë was in the boat, and there didn’t seem to be any more attacks, Elias asked, “What just happened, and what was that thing? All we saw was a bunch of matted reeds.”
Elitheris spoke up. Once she wasn’t fighting for her life and afraid of drowning, she realized that she’d heard of, and possibly even seen that thing before, without realizing it. A fideal. They were very dangerous, hard to wound, and resistant to most magics.
The drenched woman wrung the river water out of her hair.
“By the gods,” Jory said. “How do you kill it?”
“Cutting it apart, mainly,” Elitheris replied. “Hitting it with a stick won’t help, and I would just waste arrows shooting at it. Whatever was causing that flash of light and heat seemed to annoy the hell out of it though.”
“Flame Armor,” Ruby said. “Seemed to work on that thing as well as the reek.”
“Thanks,” Elitheris told her. She took off her gambeson, wringing that out as well. Being a garment consisting of thirty layers of linen, it held liquids like a sponge. And it was fully saturated. Her jacket alone probably held almost five kilograms of water. Her gambeson leggings likely almost as much. She shed those, too.
Most of the crew made it a point to look away, and get back to business. But Elitheris wasn’t particularly modest, and her small clothes preserved her modesty well enough. She wrung the leggings out as well, letting the water cascade into the river. She kept a wary eye out for the fideal, though, in case it was thinking about coming back.
She laid out the cloth armor flat on the deck, to let the sun dry it out. No need to carry around several extra kilograms of water weight.
Almë had done the same, wringing out the armor, and laying it out on an open spot on the deck. At least this time, his clothes hadn’t been dissolved and eaten….
The rest of the day was uneventful, thankfully. The boat made its way upriver, pushed mostly by the oars, but in the afternoon a slight breeze blew in, so the sail got some use. It had been a warm day, with plenty of sunshine, so the wet gambesons were dry before the late afternoon sun started dropping too far behind the trees.
They found a suitable place to make camp, and there was a convenient fallen log, half in and half out of the water, that would make a good makeshift dock to moor the boat to.
There was a two and a half meter high cliff on one end of the camp, which provided a bit of a wind break. It was an exposed rock face, and what appeared to be pieces of it lay scattered about, providing convenient seating. The ground between them was full of weedy plants, along with a few saplings.
The crew stamped down a lot of the weeds, forming an open space for them to lay their bedrolls on. Tarps were set up to provide shelter for the bedrolls. Alexa got the fire started, and put the kettle on while Erven directed the crew to get the camp set up the way he wanted it.
It didn’t take long. There wasn’t much to do besides set up the bedrolls, tarps, and some minimal supplies from the boat.
Almë cast his usual campsite spell, Plant Vision, while the crew set up camp. He scanned around the area looking for things that thought they would be able to hide in the undergrowth. To Almë, the plants were transparent, mere vague shapes surrounding him. He saw the usual creatures: rodents, a rabbit, a few ground birds. Insects galore, even a ten centimeter long beetle, its carapace an iridescent black.
But he did see something interesting. The first thing he became aware of was a chunk of meat lying on the ground. But not just a single chunk of meat; there were several, and as he raised his eyes he saw that a short distance beyond the camp was a circle of stones. Had he not been using a spell that made about twenty meters of jungle disappear, he’d have never have seen it. Odd, he thought, they seem to be radiating out from the center, as if something—or someone—exploded into pieces.
He walked closer to it, and he noticed that whomever had placed these stones had done so in an almost amateurish way. Even he, not one to use ritual magic very often, could tell that this rock should be moved a bit this way, and that rock moved and rotated that way to improve the magical effectiveness. The center stone, the focus, wasn’t even in the middle of the circle, it was obviously off center.
No wonder the mage blew himself up, he thought wryly. Poor idiot.
“I think we should check it out,” Taid said. “But I’d like to cast Mystic Mist first, to give us somewhere to retreat to, if necessary. Almë, you didn’t find anything in the area that was dangerous, right?”
“Nothing that would bother us. Some small animals, but those look like they were scared off when the crew was stomping down the weeds.”
“Alright, then. Give me a few minutes before you all go back to the circle.”
His companions waited as he laboriously cast the spell of Mystic Mist, walking the perimeter of the spell’s extent while chanting. The mist sprang up, then faded to that iridescent sparkle.
The five of them, along with their dogs, wandered back to the circle of stones. At the first chunk of meat, both dogs sniffed at it, then turned up their noses and retreated away from it, whining. They certainly didn’t like whatever meat it was. Mr. Wiggles ran around Elitheris, putting her between him and the meat. Norolind likewise moved behind Ruby, as if she could protect him from whatever the meat was.
Both Elitheris and Almë could tell that the meat had been there for a few days, judging from the decomposition. They could also tell that in a jungle, filled with all kinds of scavengers, that there shouldn’t have been meat there at all. Even the insects, which should have been the first to swarm all over the meat, weren’t there.
Elitheris saw a chunk that looked to be a part of someone’s hand. Taid speared a chunk, holding it up, that looked suspiciously like a kneecap and the upper part of the shin. He flicked the halberd and sent the piece into the bushes nearby. And wedged into the juncture of a branch and the trunk of a tree, Eykit found what could only be a nose and part of an upper lip.
Something was seriously wrong with the chunks of meat. They could all smell the taint of rot in the air, but no one wanted to get their noses down near the meat, especially after seeing the reactions of the two dogs.
Almë looked around, and found some scraps of brownish cloth scattered about.
They were standing at the edge of the circle, reticent to enter. Almë sighed, and walked into the area between the stones. He stood near the center, looking around. He saw a satchel behind a rock. He knelt beside it, and opened it up, revealing a collection of small bags and glass jars, all full of spell casting components. He could see acorns, metal shavings, sulphur, forked twigs…all of the usual material components required for spell casting. Useful things, some of which he needed for his own spells. He knew the sulphur would be useful for Ruby’s fire magics, especially since she’d used so much of her stash of it already, even if only a pinch at a time.
He stood up with the satchel. He was a bit surprised as he did so; the contents seemed much lighter than they had originally appeared. A second look at the satchel showed that it was enchanted.
He saw some footprints near the center of the circle of stones. They appeared to come into the circle, but he didn’t see any going out again.
“Hey, Elitheris,” Almë said, “I think it’s safe. I haven’t exploded yet. I’ve found this satchel and some footprints, but I need some help figuring out what happened here.”
Elitheris came over to him. She examined the footprints, doing her best to ignore his footprints. She couldn’t make heads or tails of it, seeing only what Almë had already discovered.
Taid, meanwhile had moved over to the closest standing stone, examining it. It wasn’t natural. He could see chisel marks, eroded somewhat due to wind and weather. He estimated the marks at being less than a hundred years old, and likely less than fifty. The rocks weren’t smoothed, either; the chisel marks implied haste, instead of careful craftsmanship.
Ruby was moving along the perimeter, Norolind following, shying away from any meat chunks he found. The Hobbit was looking around, seeing if there were any clues tossed out of the circle. She didn’t expect to actually find anything, but it was good to look anyway. She was wary of traps, primarily of trip wires or snares. It was entirely possible that the victim may have been done in by something mundane, rather than magic.
She didn’t think it was a high probability, given that the shoulder bag held the spell components of a mage. Her take on it was that a mage tried to do some magic spell, botched it, and there was some kind of power backlash. It was a risk all mages had to live with. Most of the time, a catastrophic mis-cast wasn’t usually fatal, although she’d heard some horror stories.
And the risk was higher the more spells a mage attempted to cast. The working mages had the worst of it: they cast spells all day. Statistically, a severe spell failure was inevitable. Smart mages did their best to limit the amount of spells they threw around, although in many ways, that was like rejecting food when starving. A mage loved casting spells. It was what they did. They just accepted that one day, it would blow up in their faces.
She saw something, wedged between some roots just outside of the circle on the side away from the camp. Going over to it, and moving aside some leaves, she could see that it was a book, bound in leather, and fairly thick. She picked it up, opening the cover, and saw that it was a spellbook for the spell Itch. She tucked it under her arm, rose, and came back to the rest of them.
“I found what appears to be one of the poor mage’s books,” Ruby said, holding up the book. “It’s a spell book for the spell of Itch.” There were a few specks of blood on the cover of the book.
“Huh,” Elitheris said. “Looks like this guy was a fucking novice, and managed to blow himself up.”
“Yep,” Almë agreed.
“Or was torturing someone,” Taid said.
“Could be,” Elitheris said. “But a mage wouldn’t leave his stuff lying about, unless he’s around here someplace.”
“Yeah, he probably fucked something up,” Almë said.
“Well, unless someone wants to gather up the mage’s pieces, I think we are done here,” Taid said.
“I can hear my bedroll calling to me,” Elitheris said. “Lazing around on a boat all day in the hot sun has got me drowsy.”
“Besides,” Ruby said, “dinner is ready. I can hear Alexa dishing it up.”
“You guys go ahead,” Elitheris said, “I’ll join you in a bit.”
They went back to the camp, and got in line for the vegetable and barley stew and the roasted meat skewers.
Elitheris wanted to see if she could find any tracks outside of the circle, in the jungle. Maybe there were clues that might answer some of her questions about what happened here.
While she was able to discover some broken branches along the line of the footprints Almë had spotted, she couldn’t determine anything else about them. Then she, too, when back to camp.
They ate, then they spent time around the campfire telling stories. Jory sketched pictures in his sketchbook, character studies of the passengers, a landscape showing the marshy section of the river, and an elaborate drawing of Elitheris getting pulled over the bulwark by the fideal.
The question of why the scavengers didn’t eat the meat nagged at Elitheris. It was unnatural. Something, perhaps magic, had done something to the meat to make it entirely unpalatable to anything larger than a microbe. The old Elven texts spoke of tiny creatures too small to see that were everywhere, and caused diseases and rot.
Too small to see, but were everywhere. Invisible to the eye, but there nonetheless. Was that what she had seen in that dead area? Magnified creatures that normally were too small to see? She didn’t know, and it worried her. When that big shrimp thing attacked her, was it giving her a disease? What was the incubation period? She didn’t feel sick yet, but it was early. It might take a few more days to manifest.
But there was nothing she could do until she felt ill. Hopefully, it wasn’t one of those diseases that did its work without symptoms. By the time she realized she had the disease, it might have already done some damage, and she wouldn’t even know it. It’s even possible that it might have just weakened her heart, not so much as to make it obvious it happened, just something that would manifest in a few centuries, long after she forgot all about it. And if it caused a brain disease, she might not even be able to recognize that something was wrong!
She started trembling, and forced her mind to think about other things, such as a swarm of butterflies in a sunlit meadow of wildflowers. She thought about her favorite spot when she was young, a secluded waterfall with a small pond in the middle of a grove not far from Celumarauca. Eventually, she got her wild thoughts of horrific possibilities under control.
But just because her thoughts were “under control”, didn’t mean she could sleep. She took first watch. The watch was almost a formality, given the protection of the Mystic Mist, but she wasn’t going to be sleeping any time soon anyway. Besides, being alone on watch was the closest she could come to her hermit days, and being in close proximity to so many people all day every day was wearing on her nerves. She embraced the solitude, even if it was punctuated by snores.
Almë had agreed to take second watch, so when Elitheris finally decided to go to bed, she woke the tall Elf.
He spent most of it sitting on a rock, looking out at the river in the moonlight. The moon was a sliver, a waning crescent. Sometimes he would walk the perimeter of the mist, always staying within it. He even cast the spell of Plant Vision, just as a precaution, when he heard movement in the jungle. But it was only a panther, stalking a boar. Neither of which wanted anything to do with the misty area by the river.
Soon enough his watch was over, and he woke Itura, who would watch during the deepest of night before she woke Fikkiil for the last watch.
Almë didn’t have one of his patented nightmares, so he didn’t wake up the camp with his screaming.
But Taid did. Something woke him up. Something nasty, crawling on his chest, its toxicognaths mere inches from his face.
Taid’s reflexes, honed by years in the Imperial Army, stood him in good stead. He grabbed at the huge, chitinous creature that perched on his chest. He could feel the line of burning pain that extended from his right hip and up his chest, right up to just below his chin.
A portion of his brain realized that the creature was standing in his beard.
He grabbed at it just as it bit into the Dwarf’s cheek. The wound was small, but its toxin was causing excruciating pain. He screamed in pain.
His screams woke up the camp. The dogs started barking. They didn’t know what was happening, but instinct made them attempt to alert the pack of danger.
In the bedroll next to Taid, Jory started screaming in pain as well.
Taid’s attempt at grabbing the squirming creature wasn’t as successful as he would have liked. He got a handful of wriggling legs that pulled through his fingers before he could grab them. It bit at him again, but Taid managed to move his head out of the way so it missed.
“Get it off me!” Jory screamed. “Get it off me!”
Almë fumbled for his staff in the dark under his tarp. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but he wanted to be ready for it. He spidercrawled out from under his tarp. (2)
Elitheris, also unsure as to what was going on, and with Mister Wiggles barking in her ear, threw the woolen blanket off of her, rolled over, and began to get out from under her tarp. Taid wasn’t usually the one who screamed, so whatever was happening was serious.
Ruby, practically blind in the deep darkness of the jungle, was also extricating herself from her bedroll. What little light there was came from weak moonlight reflected off of the river. It too scant to do much besides orient her.
Taid kept trying to grapple the centipede, finally getting his hands around the squirming creature. It curled over his hand, biting at his arm, but failing to get through the armor he wore to bed. Sleeping in armor left him exhausted and sleepy, and didn’t provide a good night’s sleep, but it really helped in situations like the one he found himself in.
Almë cast the Itch spell on the creature, figuring that it would be difficult for it to scratch without arms. Although it had plenty of legs to do it. He wasn’t sure if his spell did any good. (3)
Jory was still screaming, and thrashing about under his tarp shelter. Fikkiil, who’d been on watch and thus awake, was the first to respond, pulling his dagger out and running over to him to see what was the matter. The rest of the crew were struggling to get out of their bedrolls, crawling out from under their own shelters.
Ruby cast Flaming Armor on Taid, and he appeared to burst into flame, the tongues of fire flickering all over his body. “Oh shit!” he yelled, as his bedroll started to singe, as did the oilcloth tarp just above him. But he was now shedding light, as well as heat, so Ruby was able to actually see what was happening. (4)
Taid, struggling to hold the squirming, writhing creature, tossed it, but not before it bit him again on his gloved hand. Its jaws weren’t strong enough to get through the leather, and, in addition, a jet of flame speared out of Taid’s hand where he had been bit, hitting the centipede in the face. Taid wasn’t very successful in tossing it away from him, the combination of its movements and the pain he was in sent it into the tarp, instead of beneath it, and it fell to the ground beside him.
Most of the camp had managed to get out of their bivouacs. Fikkiil had made it to Jory’s side, and was stabbing at the centipede that had attacked him. Unlike Taid, Jory didn’t sleep in armor, so he was in much worse shape. The verminous beast had bitten him several times, and crawled over much more of his body, leaving Jory in agony.
One of the crew had thrown some kindling on the fire, and the embers banked from the night before burst into bright flame, illuminating the camp to a degree.
Ruby could see Jory, wrestling with the second giant centipede. She cast Flame Armor on Jory, and he burst into flame, causing Fikkiil, who had been trying to drag Jory out from under his tarp to let go before his hands burnt. He watched, intrigued and horrified, as a gout of flame erupted out of Jory’s chest and into the face of the long, serpentine form.
Eykit pulled his knife out and moved towards Jory and Fikkiil. Elitheris pulled her knife and moved towards Taid.
Almë scurried out of his bivouac and stood up.
Taid slammed his hand down onto the squirming beast, but he missed, his eyes watering due to the pain he was in, and his fist crashed into the ground near his bedroll. He rolled out from under his tarp.
The centipede struck back at Taid’s hand, but it wasn’t fast enough.
Taid’s roll took him to where Elitheris was approaching, and she had to step over him to plunge her dagger into the centipede. The blade, enchanted with the Penetration spell, slid through the body of the centipede easily, pinning it to the ground. It writhed and twisted, unable to move or attack.
Elitheris knew that centipedes were fairly common, and she knew that the poison was extremely painful, and could lead to paralysis in severe cases. But she also knew that Dwarves were particularly resistant to poisons, venoms, and toxins, so she was fairly certain that he would be fine in a few hours, if not sooner. Jory, on the other hand, might have more problems.
Eykit got to Jory’s side, and could see him struggling with the attacking centipede. He was obviously in pain, struggling to get a grip on the creature, but not having too much luck. Taid had had problems, and he was a trained soldier. Jory was just a civilian sailor. Eykit could feel the heat coming off of the flames that wreathed his body, and he could only hope that Ruby’s spell didn’t panic Jory more than the centipede did.
“Eykit!” Almë said, “Grab it and throw it my way and I’ll whack it with my staff!” He held his staff up in a strike-ready position.
Eykit stood, poised with his knives. If he stabbed, and missed the centipede, he’d likely his Jory. Which would set off the Flaming Armor, sending a jet of flame back at him. That would be bad. It was entirely possible that the centipede would be taken care of by the spell Ruby had cast on Jory.
After seeing that Eykit wasn’t going to grab the centipede and toss it in his direction, Almë started moving towards Jory. He’d grab the thing, if Eykit wasn’t going to. His hands closed around it, and it was like putting his hands in the flames of a campfire. He noticed that several of the jointed legs had burned off.
Ruby could see that the centipede on Taid was pinned and writhing, but seemed to be unable to attack anything. She started casting the spell of Fireball, a ball of flame appearing in her palm.
Taid slammed his fist into the pinned centipede. Chitin crunched under his gloved knuckles, and it stopped moving, fluid leaking out of the broken chitin.
Almë pulled the centipede off of the burning Jory, tossing it into the air, shouting “Ruby!” (5)
The wounded centipede, singed about the edges, twisted as it arced through the air. Ruby cut loose, tracking its trajectory and throwing her fireball at it with a whssst! sound. The ball of fire impacted on it, the flames appearing to splash around the impact point. It hit the ground, and scuttled off into the weeds. It would look for easier prey.
Jory was in bad shape, breathing deeply between clenched teeth, trying not to scream or moan. Taid could sympathize. He could still feel the line of stinging fire where the claws dug into his skin, and his face was a mass of pain, made worse whenever he touched the swollen bite wound on his cheek.
Members of the boat crew had pulled Jory out of his bivouac, to keep him from doing any more damage to his bedroll. The flames that danced over his body didn’t seem to be hurting him, but they were dangerous to anyone or anything around him. As it was, Elven and Itura were both getting their hands bandaged by Alexa, the result of minor burns resulting from grabbing Jory and pulling him out of his bedroll.
His bedroll was charred. He’d need to replace it when they got to civilization, but it was still usable, if smelling of charred wool and smoke. Fortunately, his oil tarp didn’t catch, likely the result of a light rain a few hours earlier.
Taid’s bedroll was in about the same state. Charred, usable, smelly, and in need of replacement.
By Fikkiil’s estimation, dawn was still a couple of hours away. Jory, and Taid, were unlikely to be able to sleep, but after a little while, the rest of the boat crew got back into their bedrolls to get a little more shuteye.
Ruby surreptitiously cast a spell of Sleep on Jory. His face relaxed from its pained grimace, and he lay quietly, breathing deeply in sleep. “Taid,” she asked, “would you like me to cast Sleep on you?”
“Nah, I can take this pain. It’s just weakness flowing out of the body. Besides, I don’t think it will last long. We Dwarves are made of tough stuff.”
An hour later, the pain finally faded from Taid’s body. It was a long, agonizing hour, though.
Eykit wasn’t interested in sleep. Neither was Elitheris. She noticed some tracks. They looked like a pair of dashed lines, made up of dots. They were centipede tracks, made in the wet ground. The creatures weren’t that heavy, and the tracks hadn’t been obvious, but to her skilled eye, visible enough. She followed them back from the two tarp shelters to a rock several meters away, but still within the camp. Bending down, she could see a hollow underneath it, likely the centipedes’ den.
“I miss having a solid roof over my head,” Eykit told Elitheris. “I know you are at home out here in the wilderness, but I’m missing a good warm bed, rafters over my head, and four walls and a door I can lock. That centipede could be anywhere in any of those bushes.”
“I don’t think it was interested in hanging around here,” Elitheris replied. “But I get it. I’m not interested in sleeping either. Maybe I can nap on the boat.”
She was also determined to not be in the bow for a while. The middle of the boat was looking mighty fine.
Skysday, Leafturn 23, 879 AFE
Dawn’s rosy fingers spread into the sky, hidden by overcast, and the campsite became very busy. No one wanted to stay there any longer than they had to, foregoing even breakfast. They would eat cold rations on the boat. The most time consuming thing was getting Wilbur back on the boat.
It was a grey day, warm but not hot, but the air felt thick with humidity. The rowers complained that it seemed difficult to breathe, although it was less a complaint and more a statement of fact. Elias quipped that if he dropped a feather, it wouldn’t fall, held up by the thick air.
Jory’s pain finally subsided around midmorning, the toxins finally being flushed out by his body. He had residual tingling sensations for the next few hours, though.
The river started showing a few more rocks as they climbed in altitude, getting closer and closer to Dwarfchat. There were a few areas of rapids, and they had to carefully maneuver the boat between boulders. This usually involved a lot of oar work, using them more like poles to keep the boat from slamming into the large rocks that made some areas of the river almost impassable.
“I thought this was a well-traveled trading route?” Ruby asked Captain Gwendal. The rapids, along with the jerky movement of the boat that resulted from their progress, had made her stomach do more flip-flops than it had in days.
“It sort of is, but it’s not a main trading route,” he replied. “That would be the Lytan’s Mill-Sheepshear-Fleetmilk route.” He scratched his beard before continuing. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there aren’t a lot of hamlets or towns along this route. No where to trade, except Dwarfchat at one end, and Lytan’s Mill at the other. The only reason we are on this route is because of our cargo. It has a time limit. The main route takes longer, and we’d only be able to do part of it before offloading the cargo to a caravan.”
“And you wouldn’t have been paid as much for the shorter leg?”
“Nope, and the cargo wouldn’t have gotten to where it needs to be in time, which means we wouldn’t have been paid at all. So it was us, taking the cargo on this route to save time. But it’s not an easy trip, and they’re aren’ t a lot of boats that go this way. It’s also a bit wilder, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. Not as many travelers coming through and less Rural Watchmen hunting out all of the beasties.”
At about midday, the rocky section was behind them, and the river was more gentle. Elitheris took a nap, laying on the deck with her gambeson rolled up and used as a pillow. It still smelled of sweat and river water, but she’d smelled worse things.
They actually saw two boats going in the opposite direction, and as they passed, there were jocular shouts of “Ahoy!” Both were knarrs, like the Dossit Float, although both were slightly smaller. Going downstream, they were making good time, even with only four rowers. Both had cargoes that made them ride low in the water.
In late afternoon, they found a good campsite. It was actually another archtree, but this one looked wild. There was no sign that it had ever been groomed for use as any kind of designed structure; it was a rambling, random mass of tree trunks, archways, and branches. From what Almë could tell, it was several hundred years old, and likely about the same size as the much older one that had contained the old Elven village. This one, however, hadn’t been shaped by decades of careful pruning and manipulation.
The archtree was dense enough to do a good job hiding the campfire from those three sides as well. The crew of the Dossit Float weren’t the first ones to use this place as a campsite. There were three rings of stones filled with ashes and charred pieces of wood around the area. Erven chose one of them to be the main fire, and designated the other two as secondary fires, if anyone wanted to use them. He assigned most of the other members of the crew to search for firewood. They would need more if people wanted to use the other fires.
It wasn’t cold at night, so the fire wasn’t necessary to keep warm, but it was necessary to dry out items of clothing and other gear.
“You know,” Taid mused, as he wandered around the campsite, “when I finally settle down, I think I’ll open a chain of travel stops. We’ll have amenities, entertainment, Shard games, good food, ale, and no fucking centipedes. And we’ll clear out all the undead crap from whatever holes they are in.”
“Sounds good,” Eykit said. “Count me in. I like civilization.”
Almë cast his spell of Plant Vision, wandering around the perimeter of the camp, looking for anything out of the ordinary. He found some jungle rodents living in a den under a bush, some birds, monkeys, and the usual collection of insects.
He gave Taid the green light to cast Mystic Mist. Taid cast the spell, and the campsite and a bit more was covered in the mist.
Elitheris took second watch, and Almë agreed to take the third.
Almë woke up during Elitheris’ watch, screaming. The camp roused.
Elitheris strode the three steps over to his bivouac, reached down, and gave the tall Elf a slap in the face to wake him up. “Wake up, tall boy,” she said. “You were having a nightmare.” She slapped him again.
“Hey, I’m awake! I’m awake!” Almë said, as Elitheris raised her hand again for a third slap.
Elitheris stood back up, and Almë looked around, seeing the crew’s faces staring back at him. Most put their heads down, and he could hear mutterings as they did so.
But he also saw a faint, magenta light. He stood up to get a better view. It was coming from a rock near the edge of the campsite.
“I have no idea,” Elitheris said. She pulled an arrow out of her quiver, nocking it, ready to pull and shoot. She and Almë moved closer to the rock, stepping around the bivouacs of the crew. The crew seemed oblivious to it.
The runes on it were reminiscent of the runes on the dead baby box, although they weren’t the same. Just vaguely similar to them.
Almë went back to Taid, Eykit, and Ruby, and got them up. He wanted them to see it too. Eykit didn’t see it at all, and looked questioningly at the rest of them. He could see that they saw something. He shrugged inwardly.
The stone was perhaps a meter tall. The glyphs, or markings, glowed in a steady magenta light; they didn’t pulse, or flash. And they hadn’t be glowing or even noticeable earlier. Elitheris estimated that it couldn’t have been glowing before the middle of her watch; she was sure she would have noticed. The runes also weren’t carved into the rock; they were simply glowing. If they hadn’t been glowing, there would have been no indication that a rune was even there. And it didn’t seem to be doing anything.
Taid, Almë, and Ruby, the trained mages, didn’t recognize the glyphs. They didn’t seem to be part of the established common glyph types used in the Empire. There was some similar markings that might relate to fire, or to lightning, but it also could have been plants. But none of them were exactly like the commonly used glyph languages.
“So this is some weird-ass magic,” Elitheris said. “A way marker?” She couldn’t feel any changes in mana level. She was about poke it with her arrow.
“Wait!” Almë said. He started backing away, carefully making his way around the crew who lay in their bunks, most of which hadn’t fallen back to sleep yet. “The last time we had something like this it was a ghost baby!” He moved to the opposite side of the camp. He was about as far away as he could get without leaving the Mystic Mist or getting his feet wet.
Elitheris moved back too. She drew back the arrow to her cheek. She didn’t want the rock to do something that conducted through the arrow shaft. She loosed, and the arrow hit the rock.
And the rock exploded with a loud boom, sending rock fragments all over the campsite. Most of the chunks of rocks did little more than shred through some tarps, but three members of the Dossit Float took some superficial wounds.
Everyone was awake now, even if they had managed to fall back asleep after Almë’s screams. No one was happy. (6)
“What the fuck is going on?” Wynnstan asked.
“Ow,” Artur said, holding his arm where a rock fragment had cut him.
“What the hell did you do that for?” Alexa asked Elitheris, not really caring about an answer as she dug around in her medical bag. She pulled out a roll of linen bandage, and proceeded to wrap Artur’s arm. Fikkiil and Itura were next in line, also bleeding from rock fragment impacts.
“Who’s playing with alchemy at this hour?” Captain Robert Gwendal asked. “What was that? What did you guys do now? By the gods, you guys are a menace.” He put his head in his hand. “Alexa, what’s the damage?” He could see her treating people, even in the dim light provided by the embers of the fire. He couldn’t see who they were, though.
“Minor wounds only. Some blood. Not much.”
“Good. I guess.” He directed his next question to his passengers. “Anything else I should be worrying about? More centipedes? Giants throwing rocks? Sudden cases of the zoomies?”
Almë pressed his lips together; he didn’t want to answer.
Captain Gwendal didn’t get an answer. And that wasn’t going to satisfy him. He was rightfully pissed off. “What just happened?” he asked again.
“I’ve got no idea,” Elitheris said, deflecting. “I’m going to go sleep on the boat.”
Captain Gwendal ordered Wynnstan to be on guard with Almë. “Just in case,” he said.
Wynnstan nodded. “Aye aye, sir.”
Almë said to Wynnstan, “I’ll watch and make sure she doesn’t blow us up again.”
Everyone else tried to go back to sleep. There was no reason to stay up; dawn was still six hours away. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that difficult, and soon the campsite was filled with the sound of snoring.
Before dawn, the camp was awakened by a shout. Fikkiil had been on the last watch, and he must have seen something. “We’re under attack!” he yelled.
Norolind started barking as arrows started to zip into the campsite.
The camp scrambled, people trying to get out from under their tarps as fast as they could scurry.
Mister Wiggles started barking too, and Elitheris popped her head up so she could see over the bulwark of the boat. She only saw the camp, with people moving in a panic.
Ruby looked around from under her tarp, trying to see something in the darkness. She could hear arrows thwipping into the ground. They didn’t seem to be hitting anyone, at least, not yet. She couldn’t see anyone; whoever it was was hidden in the trees and darkness.
It was Eykit who realized that the the arrows weren’t randomly placed; the attackers were just unsure of where anyone was. They were, after all, hidden by the Mystic Mist.
Almë cast Plant Vision on Ruby, so the vegetation would be transparent. It did nothing to reduce the near pitch blackness of the night, however.
Ruby’s vision changed. All of the vegetation within thirty meters disappeared. She could still see the ground, sloping up from the river in lazy humps, and she could see the rocks scattered here and there, along with small rock fragments scattered about the campsite. She could also see four forms, hovering four or five meters high, ebony black against the deep black background. She could also see movement, everywhere. She couldn’t see what exactly it was, but it was like the skin of the plants, now transparent, was shifting around.
It took her a moment to figure out what was going on; she’d had no warning, and now her brain was trying to figure out what and how she was seeing what she was seeing.
The forms looked humanoid, and had bows, although the latter point was obvious from the meter long shafts that peppered the campsite.
Most of the crew was trying to move to the boat; there were a few rocks, and Jory, Fikkiil, and Elias currently huddled behind the ones that were big enough to provide some cover. (7)
Ruby got to her knees and started casting the spell of Explosive Fireball, and a ball of fire started forming in her palm with a faint roaring sound, lighting up the area immediately around her.
Taid rolled out from under his tarp, and got to his feet.
Almë looked for cover to hide behind, but didn’t find anything close. He started to get up.
Elitheris looked over the bulwark, trying to determine what was happening. She could hear the sounds of arrows hurtling through the air and hitting the ground.
An arrow hit Elias in the leg, and he screamed in pain as his leg gave out beneath him, and he stumbled.
Elitheris grabbed her bow, and stood up in order to use it. She scanned the trees, looking for enemies. She could see quick flashes of movement which she understood to be arrows flicking throughout the campsite.
Eykit scrambled out from beneath his tarp, staying low and using the undergrowth as cover. The mist was probably visual cover enough, but he wasn’t certain of that. He didn’t understand magic; he only knew what the mages told him, and they had said that anything outside of the mist can’t see into it past the first meter or so. But who knows? He couldn’t see the attackers, maybe they could see through the mist. So it was best to be cautious.
“I think we blew up their god-rock!” Taid said, trying to find cover. He saw a rock that might provide at least some protection, and started towards it.
“Get to the boat!” Captain Gwendal ordered. “Use the cargo as cover!”
The boat was outside of the protective mist, but as long as the archers didn’t flank around it, or notice that the people were no longer in the mist, they would be alright. Gwendal hoped that the archers hadn’t heard him, or didn’t realize where the boat actually was.
The only person hit so far was Elias, and it looked like a lucky shot. (8)
Several of the crew dived down the sloped bank, laying in the sandy mud instead of going onto the ship. That way, they stayed within the mist. It wasn’t much of a slope, but unless the archers advanced, it was enough to provide cover.
“Really wishing I had a helmet right now,” Itura grumped. “Hey, Cap’n! Can we get some helmets in Dwarfchat?”
Captain Gwendal dropped to his belly nearby. “Couldn’t hurt. I think we can make room for them in the lockers.”
“Next time,” Artur said, “let’s just do our usual run, okay?”
Several more arrows flicked into the campsite.
Ruby had been aiming at the feet of one of the dark shapes. She threw the ball of fire, and it lofted up in an arc with a hissing roar. It hit the limb of the tree at the figure’s feet, and exploded in a flash of light, flame, and embers. Burning leaves fluttered about as the figure was hurled back into the undergrowth with a thump. The archer didn’t cry out in pain; he hit the ground without a word or even a grunt.
Almë ran towards the ship. He heard the boom from behind him, and correctly guessed that it was likely Ruby’s doing. He had seen a light in her hand out of the corner of his eye, and he knew she was a fire mage.
Taid reached out and grabbed his crossbow from under his tarp. He’d have to forego the cover of the rock; he needed to stand to cock his crossbow.
Eykit, laying in the undergrowth, tried to find the archers in the foliage. He could see three of them, barely. At least one of them was wearing a mask over the lower part of his face, and if their eyes had any whites at all, he couldn’t see them.
He was still seeing spots from the bright flash of light, but during that flash he could tell that the archers seemed Elven. At least they had Elven proportions, and they moved like Elves. He couldn’t tell if they had the pointed ears of an Elf because they all wore hoods. But he was very familiar with what Elven archers could do, Elitheris was a good example, and she was young, for an Elf. Older Elves were likely much, much better.
At least they weren’t singing, he thought. If they were bowsingers, we’d all be dead. If Envinyatar’s stories about them were anything close to the truth. I always figured they were exaggerated, but I’ve seen Elitheris’ archery, and she’s but a novice in comparison to bowsingers.
There was a reason Elven settlements didn’t have bandit problems, and it wasn’t just the dangerous plants they liked to use as trespasser deterrents.
Ruby could see, vaguely, in the darkness, that the archer she had blown off of the tree was starting to get up. He still had his bow; he hadn’t lost in when the fireball exploded at his feet. “Guys, there are four of them,” she said, pointing in turn, “up there, there, on the ground, up there, and up over there.”
Elitheris started watching for the arrows, trying to determine where the archers were. She fumbled blindly for her quiver, which was lying nearby. She didn’t want to take her eyes off of where the arrows were coming from.
An arrow came whistling through the air, punching into Eykit’s left calf with a thwock! "Ahh!" he cried in pain; he could see blood welling up and soaking his gambeson legging. “Damn it all,” he said through gritted teeth.
Taid put his foot into the stirrup of his crossbow, starting to cock it. It would be several more seconds before he would be able to get a shot off.
An arrow zipped by Taid’s ear, but he didn’t really notice or care.
Eykit whimpered; there was a meter long stick protruding out of his leg. He tried to pull it out, but he could feel the barbs on the arrowhead. He’d have to be careful not to tear the wound open further. He gritted his teeth in pain as tears ran down his face.
Elitheris pulled the quiver strap over her head, keeping her eyes on where she thought the enemies were.
Almë cast the spell of Rain of Nuts. It wasn’t a spell he got to use very often; it only worked in forests, and it caused the woods themselves to generate and launch a huge number of annoying nuts at any targets within the area that the caster chose.
In moments, they could hear what sounded like hailstones pelting down in the area around the two archers on the left side. The air was filled with a haze of falling nuts.
Elitheris drew an arrow, nocked it, and drew the string back, all in one smooth motion. She was waiting for a target to present itself. She saw an arrow come out of the haze of nuts, and she was able to get a good read on their position. She let fly, and she watched as her arrow disappeared in the hailstorm of falling nuts.
Almë ran towards the boat and Elitheris. He needed to get closer. His plan was to cast the Plant Vision spell on Elitheris so she could see her targets.
Another ball of fire appeared in Ruby’s hand as she mumbled some magic words. She was eyeing the archer on the right side. As soon as it formed, she threw it. (9)
A few more arrows came slicing through the air, harmlessly thunking into the soft earth. It was starting to become obvious that the Mystic Mist was doing its job of obscuring where everyone was; the arrows coming in were being loosed blindly into the misty area.
Elitheris loosed her arrow at the leftmost archer. It flew true, and while the archer attempted to evade, he failed and the arrow lodged itself in his arm. He made no sound.
Almë ran into the river near Elitheris’ position on the boat. He needed to be close enough to cast his spell on her.
Ruby started forming another ball of fire. An arrow flew past her shoulder.
Now close enough, Almë cast the spell of Plant Vision on Elitheris. Elitheris saw the nearest thirty meters of jungle disappear from her sight. The nuts, which were still falling, were still visible. The spell didn’t work on magical plants. She could see two of the archers, still in the tree, and two on the ground.
Elitheris drew another arrow, nocked it, drew back the string, and loosed. It slammed into the archer’s right arm, not far from the previous arrow. The arrow the archer held fell from his hand, and the arm lay limp at his side.
Ruby threw her fireball at the first archer she had blown off the tree. She had to resort to indirect fire—she couldn’t throw it through the walls of roots that now lay between her and her target; she had to toss it up and over the branch, hoping that it would land on him. Fortunately for her, she got lucky and it landed at his feet. The archer, seeing it arc over the tree limb, dove to the side. It exploded in a gout of fire, sending bits and pieces of the undergrowth all over. (10)
Taid straightened up, putting his back into pulling the string back until it locked into place. Now all he had to do was get a bolt, and slap it on the stock. Then he could finally get a shot off.
Elitheris quickly drew another arrow, sliding it into place and drawing back the string.
Almë started casting the spell of Haste. He wanted a bit more speed.
Ruby started casting again. A ball of fire appeared in her hand.
Elitheris sighted down the arrow, aiming at the second archer from the left, but she missed. The archer had seen the arrow incoming, and twisted out of the way.
Taid slapped a bolt on to the stock of his crossbow, and raised it up, ready to shoot it.
Almë’s spell went off, and he felt faster. He ran towards Taid’s position.
Ruby’s fireball was ready, and she tossed it at the archer on the right, who had just stood up. The archer, seeing the fireball coming at him, dove for cover. He didn’t quite make it, and some of the blast got him.
Taid took aim at the second archer from the left.
The nuts were still falling from the treetops, forming what seemed to be a carpet of the things.
Elitheris pulled out two arrows, nocking the first one, and aiming at the second archer.
Eykit groaned as he worked the arrow out of his leg. It was slow, and painful, and his face was wet with tears. The barbs on the arrowhead kept catching on the edges of the wound channel, making it difficult and painful to extract. But he kept at it.
Almë ran to the base of the tree near the second archer, using the trunk as cover. He wrapped his arms around the trunk, and tried to shake the archer out of it. It didn’t work, not that he expected it to. It was more a gesture of frustration.
Ruby started forming another fireball.
Taid squeezed the trigger, and the bolt flew at the second archer. The archer didn’t see it coming. It slammed him in the right arm, and the arm flew back, the arrow held in the hand flying into the undergrowth. The arm flopped loosely at his side. The Dwarf dropped the crossbow. It was time for some close in melee fighting. It was time for Maggie.
Elitheris loosed her arrow at the first archer, but he ducked, and the arrow flicked past his head.
Ruby started her next fiery missile.
Elitheris used her second arrow, loosing it at the first archer again. This time the arrow hit its target, the arrow sticking in the archer’s chest. The archer didn’t cry out.
Eykit finally got the arrow out of his leg. It was a barbed, broadhead arrow, about two centimeters across from point to point. His legging was soaked in his blood, and he could feel the warm wetness pulsing out of the ragged hole in his leg. He pressed his hand against the hole, trying to keep the red stuff on the inside, where it belonged.
The fourth archer scrambled back up into the archtree.
The first archer leapt down to the ground. Almë watched him jump down, and started towards him before he even hit the ground. He swung his staff, and the archer parried the strike with his bow.
“Wiggles!” Elitheris commanded, “Sic him!” She pointed at the first archer. The dog barked once, and leapt over the bulwark into the river. Elitheris followed him.
Ruby threw the fireball at the second archer. A ball of flame erupted beneath his feet, sending him and chunks of the tree flying, tiny embers like fireflies floating in the air. The archer landed on the ground with a thump. Like before, he didn’t cry out when he hit.
Taid charged into combat, swinging Maggie at the archer that was now on the ground. The axe head bit deeply into the archer’s left arm, severing the hand. The bow, and the hand that still grasped it, bounced to a spot a meter away. The hand didn’t let go of the bow. The body lay still.
Mister Wiggles ran out of the river, heading towards the first archer, as instructed.
Elitheris ran towards the fourth archer, who was back in the tree and still able to shoot his bow.
Eykit hobbled towards Taid and Almë as Mister Wiggles ran past him.
Another ball of fire formed in Ruby’s hand.
Taid placed the top spike of Maggie in the fallen archer’s neck. “What the hell?” he asked the fallen archer. He got no answer from the still form.
The fourth archer loosed an arrow into the mist. It hit Eykit in the right foot, but the arrow didn’t penetrate his boot. He shook the arrow off of his foot with a swear.
Elitheris drew back another arrow, aiming at the fourth archer.
Almë slid his staff into an attack to the high right side, and as the archer moved to counter with his bow, rotated the staff around and down and hit him first in the right foot, then the left leg. The archer fell as the leg collapsed under his weight, and lay unmoving in the undergrowth. Mister Wiggles charged in, grasping the neck of the archer in his jaws, and twisting his head back and forth. It was a little late, and Almë smirked, watching the dog do his thing for a while.
Eykit moved towards the fourth archer, hoping to get a chance to stab him when Elitheris knocked him out of the tree.
Ruby threw her fireball at the fourth archer, and the fireball exploded under his feet. The archer had tried to sidestep the ball of fire, but couldn’t move fast enough, and was hit by the explosion. He fell out of the tree, bouncing off of the wall of roots on his way down.
Almë now had a chance to really see the archer’s face. The eyes were entirely black, and stared unblinkingly up, staring into space. The rest of the face was hidden behind a bandanna. He put his foot on the guy’s chest, reached down, and pulled the bandanna away. He could see the whole face now, except the archer didn’t have one. It was faceless, with only the two black orbs for eyes. He didn’t even have eyelids.
All of the archers were down, and not moving. Elitheris came up to Almë, and looked down at the archer. “That’s creepy. Golems? Shard creatures?”
Almë looked at her, and shrugged.
Taid called out from where he was, standing over the one he killed. “Maybe Kallia got word we were coming after her and sent them to meet us.”
“Taid, any blood on your guy?” Almë asked. The right arm of the archer that he was standing on had several arrows in him, but none of them had drawn much blood. Certainly not enough considering the wounds.
Taid looked at the stump of a wrist. There was little blood, and no spurting blood from the stump.
“This is weird,” Eykit said, hobbling up.
Almë searched him, finding only gambeson armor and the bow he carried. The gambeson had some odd decorative stitching, and the bow seemed to be part of his hand. It didn’t come loose. As Almë examined it, it seemed formed from the hand, although the hand seemed to be muscle and bone, and the bow wood and horn. The gambeson had no discernible livery on it.
He unbuckled the gambeson. It seemed to be the only thing the archer was wearing. Almë could see his bare chest, devoid of hair, and devoid of nipples. His chest was smooth.
“These seem to be made creatures,” Elitheris said.
“Made, not born,” Eykit added.
“Definitely not created from Humans, or anything like that. They are missing too many things.”
Taid looked more closely at the stump he’d created. He could see bones, and what appeared to be muscle, but no arteries or veins.
“Flesh golems or something?” Elitheris said.
They looked at each other, with questioning looks on their faces. No one knew what the things were; they’d never seen anything like them.
Rewards Granted
3 CP
A satchel (messenger bag, basically) enchanted with Lighten Burden.
A spellbook with the spell Itch in it.
Report Date
18 Nov 2023
Primary Location
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