Initiative
Nostariel bursts into the room, her healing magics instantly focused on Asira. A heartbeat later Marduzi's blade finds flesh and blood, crunching deeply into the faceless creature's ribs. Green blood spurts, coating Marduzi, Asira and Nostariel in a fine mist of alien gore.
The creature shrieks, and looks around wildly. It sidesteps toward the stairs, keeping a wall at its back, and lashes out at Marduzi with cruelly clawed fingers.
The creatures claw across Marduzi's arm, ripping through leather and sinking into exposed flesh. He grimaces and growls, "I don't know what you are, but we're going to finish you now. Get it Ruhk!"
AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14. . (+4 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 6/11
Weapon Equipped Greatsword +6 (2d6+7/19-20/x2)
Buffs None
"Easier done than said I'm sure, I am as ever your humble servant, Ruhk drawls as he begins to move forward.
As Ruhk moves towards the unknown creature he casually un-slings his beloved sword, letting the edge thump against the floor as he drags it behind him.
As he steps up next to the foe he leans back and then brings his entire upper body around, dragging Bethany around for a vicious (if badly aimed) chop.
Marduzi glances at Nostariel and Asira and breathes a sigh of relief to see that she still appears to the breathing. He grunts approval at Ruhk's blow and swings his greatsword again at the green-blooded monster.
Bethany delivers her gift of woe, sliding in under the faceless monster's guard. The foul thing drops, and seems to melt, unholy flesh sloughing off its warped skeleton, staining the good woolen rug on the floor with unspeakable ichor.
As the sounds of battle still into a hush of labored breathing, the house is ominously still.
"Nice." Marduzi shakes his head and bends over to look at the monster's remains. "Things don't look good for Walthus...if this thing wasn't him all along. Any idea what it was?"
"Ugh...remind me to give you a good oiling later Bethany, you have earned it old girl."
Finding something to wipe her clean with, Ruhk looks ar Marduzi.
"That's a pretty clever question, I know because *I* didn't think to ask it."
After wiping Bethany clean, Ruhk bends low and begins to examine the floor.
"With us walking around in here and outside, we might not find any tracks, but I'll have a gander anyhow."
Ruhk can tell that there was a fight here, in this room, some hours before you arrived. There is a trail of red, untainted, blood leading up the stairs. You can't tell anything else without further investigation of the house.
"Let's check this out. Maybe the warden was injured by that thing?" Marduzi moves to head up the steps unless someone stops him. He continues to hold his blade at the ready.
"Hang on, lets find a good place to put our injured comrade before we move off."
Asira lets out a painfull moan as she stands up, her rips, where the false Walthus slam hit her, still hurting like hell. She steadys herself against the wall while she looks at that creature laying next to her with a mixture of anger and disgust.
"Whatever this was, it was no halfling. I am wondering what happened to the real Walthus?"
She then mooves her hand over hte injured area, faint light glowing around her hand and the wound.
Asira begins to feel better, though still sorely wounded. Outside clouds have gathered and a thin rain falls. From somewhere in the house, perhaps upstairs, comes a weak voice, "Hello? Hello? Is someone there? I need help..." it trails off, exhausted.
"Ooooh, the plot thickens, what shall we find upstairs now?
...Walthus was a man right? Pity, it would make for a better story if it was a halfling lass in distress.
Meh, I can work with this."
"Hello? Who is there? You have a rather dead and nasty critter down here."
"Asira, are you well enough to continue? Is anyone else injured," Nostariel asks as she looks to the others. Upon hearing the voice upstairs, Nostariel says, "If that is the real Walthus, perhaps I could heal him, too."
After Ruhk lightens the mood, she adds, "You could still spin this into a romance with the rescued Walthus if you play your cards right... He is a lonely hermit, after all."
Ruhk snorts a little at Nostariels words.
"And I take it you just wrote yourself into the other half of a romancing plot with him?"
Nostariel winks at Ruhk and says, "Well, depends on whether he's a looker. Halflings are just the right height for delight..." She elbows him in a jolly manner and heads up the stairs ready to heal the wounded Walthus.
"Oh blessed Erastil, I'm saved! You've killed that monster, the faceless stalker! Thank you, whoever you are." The weak voice from upstairs replies to Marduzi's remark
As Nostariel rounds the top of the stairs, she sees a hidden door swing open. Behind it is a tiny space, and the trembling form of an halfling, with injuries very similar to those that Asira suffered.
He smiles up at Nostariel, and says, "It took me by surprise. I managed to wound it, and escape into my safe room," the halfling gestures at the hidden room around him. "Must've passed out. Thank the gods you came. Nasty thing would've found me eventually," he shudders.
"Faceless stalker? Is that what that thing was? Thought they were only in stories...maybe you do have a tale Ruhk."
When Walthus comes down, he adds, "We're from Sandpoint...oh, actually, do you know old Niska?"
Asira steps closer to Walthus, now carefully and ready to react should this one turn out to be another faceless stalker.
"Please let me check your wounds.²
For once, the open invitation for a tale does not produce one from Ruhk's repertoire right away, rather Ruhk stops and strokes his chin thoughtfully.
"No, I don't, well, I don't YET I should add. But give me some time, and by the end of our quest, I promise you that none of you will remember half the things I tell you about at the campfire."
Nostariel examins his wounds and says, "I'll do what I can to reknit these gashes. Be still." She closes her eyes briefly and lays her hands on Walthus' wounds, as she lets the arcane healing strands coruscate through her to heal him. She looks to Asira and says, "That's about all I can do for him. If you can offer more, feel free, but he should be back to normal in a few days."
"Heh, who doesn't know Niska. Been around forever, seems like. Until she... Oh, oh I see. No doubt very wise to check, sir. Very canny. But I'm no faceless stalker, bleed red, me."
Then, "Bless you, dears," the halfling says, as both Nostariel and Asira come to his aid. His color is already improving, and his voice is stronger. "Seems like I owe you lot my life. Was it chance that brought you this way? Or summat you wanted of me?
Ruhk grins at that.
"Depends, what'cha got on offer?"
"I can offer you a bed for the night away from the biting insects, an' a decent meal tonight. I know me way round these swamps, if there was a particular reason you came here?"
"Yes, we've heard the goblins have been more of a nuisance than ever lately. We were hoping you might be able to tell us more about them. We've come to see if we can end their trouble."
"That's right! We're going hunting, and our prey are the vicious little ankle biters that infest the land like weed with teeth.
Me and Bethany have a score to settle with them...as soon as I can make up a story about the score needing settling that is."
"And that is where we need your help. As you know your way round the swamp, you could perhaps help us with giving us directions to the Goblin village."
"It would also be good to know what you might know of the layout of their village and any defenses so we might get to them without bringing a whole tribe down around our ears. Although that would make a good tale if we made it out."
Walthus starts pottering around in his kitchen, disappearing in and out of cupboards to find pots and plates and loaves of bread and wheels of cheese, talking all the while. "About time someone did something the gobbos. Getting right out of hand they are, up to some devilry. I reckon it's since they got hold of those alchemical flash-bangers, they've got all cocky. Well, I can sure enough tell you where to find their village; it's a good half-day trek from here, mind. Back the way ye came, round the outside of the swamp a ways, and back in on the old fishing track. This here's the new fishing track, see, as fishermen have used it in living memory."
The makings of a meal slowly assemble on Walthus' broad kitchen table in front of you.
"Where was I?"
"Right here, but over there.
Nah, you were talking about the old fishing track."
"Yes, the old fishing track...is that the only way to their village?"
"Ah, yeah, the Licktoad goblins. Right bunch of pests and no mistake. Well, if your looking for another way to their town," Walthus sucks in air through his teeth doubtfully, and begins pouring tea into great thick mugs, "I guess you could go almost all the way round the swamp to Old Meg's track. That'd take you to the far side of Licktoad village. Trouble is you'd be on the wrong side of their lagoon, so you'd have a bit of a swim. An that's if Meg doesn't turn you into something unnatural. Fierce temper she's got. Try one of the honey cakes - they're best while they're hot."
He thinks a moment, helping himself to food and urging you all to do the same.
"What else? Oh, right. They've got a crummy wooden wall around the village, that you could climb over in two shakes of a snake's tail. And watch towers - but I've never once seen anyone watching out of them, if you know what I mean."
"More tea? Anyone for ale?"
"Do you know much more about this Meg? Who is she? What's her disposition toward the goblins? Toward other people?"
"Oooh, now you are talking MY language, I never pass on a tankard of ale or five.
And climbing over the wall and cut the little blighters down from behind INSIDE their own village, now that sounds like an ironic twist almost as sweet as these cakes."
Asira helps herself to some food too and nods
"An ale would be great. Thank you for your information so far. Anything else we should be looking out? any dangers awaiting us in the marshes?"
"An ale sounds perfect Walthus. Thank you for that and the food." Marduzi takes some bread and cheese and begins eating. "Not sure about going for a swim and I definitely don't feel like being turned into a newt. Perhaps the main approach is better."
Walthus hands out ale and pours tea, and presses everyone to have more bread and cheese and cakes. He smiles, surprisingly happy in your company for a reputed hermit.
"Old Meg, well she's a grumpy old lady lives away to the west. Folk say she's a witch, and I say I don't know about that but she's best steered clear of anyway. Though she did me a good turn one time when I had this boil on me ar... Me arm. Not seen her around in the last few months, but no surprises there, keep ourselves to ourselves us folk."
The halfling turns to Asira, "Well other than getting lost, getting stuck in quicksand, and all those normal swamp dangers for you land folk, what else? You know about the gobbos, I've mentioned Old Meg, though whether she's a real danger I couldn't say. I've seen something off in the bushes, lurking like, a time or two. Might be that you killed that lurker right here in my living room today! Of course, might be there's more than one of 'em. Oh, o' course, there's the shipwrecks. Fisherfolk says they're haunted, but I've not seen any sight of ghosts. Course, I stay here come nightfall."
At that, Walthus invites you to stay the night. Safer than tramping through swamp in the dusk, he says, and warmer too. Least he can do, he says.
"Why thank you for your hospitality Walthus. Your food is excellent and your offer of a place to rest is most kind. I think we will definitely take you up on that. What can you tell us of these shipwrecks? I didn't realize there were shipwrecks in the swamp."
"You're welcome, least I can do." Walthus smiles, pleased by the compliment on his hospitality. "Shipwrecks, yeah. Couple of em from years ago, long before my time. Mebbe, oh, twenty years or more. Never been too close myself, but I can tell you where they are if you're curious. Probably been long stripped of cargo or treasure, but you never know!"
Walthus potters away to make up beds and cots and settles.
"Interesting, thank you Walthus. Well, it sounds like we should rest. The ships can wait for another day. Our duty is to clear out the goblins and it sounds like the front door may be necessary. Let's get some rest and we can go there tomorrow."
Walthus provides comfortable, if basic, sleeping arrangements - cushions and blankets and walls and a roof. You settle in to sleep. Halfway through the night you are woken by a series of loud bangs far off in the distance across the swamp. It's not thunder, and after a moment Walthus identifies it as fireworks, "Probably them damn gobbo's again."
The next morning, Walthus provides breakfast, and clear directions to the goblin village. As you prepare to leave, he vanishes upstairs for a few moments. Returning, he bears a thickly woven cloak in his hands. "Figured I hadn't really thanked you properly for seeing off that Faceless Stalker," he says. "This cloak has some protection about it, saved me a time or two. Might do the same for one of you."
The halfling warden almost bows as he presents his gift.
Marduzi wakes with a start. "Sure are louder here than they are in Sandpoint. Noise must really carry out here in the swamp."
"Wait a second. There is something more out there than the fireworks. I hear screams and sounds of metal. Walthus, have you ever heard that before?"
In the morning, Marduzi enjoys the warden's breakfast, "Walthus, I had no idea such a masterful cook like out here in the marsh. I should have visited long ago. Thank you for your hospitality."
When the warden returns with the cloak, Marduzi does give a slight bow in return. "Thank you so much Walthus. Saving you was the least we could do and this cloak might be very helpful in our battle with the goblins. We really appreciate your gift. I guess we're ready to go."
Once everyone has said their farewells, Marduzi heads outside to saddle Smoke and get ready for the walk to the goblin village.
Walthus shakes his head, "Nope, not heard anything like it before. Something got those gobbos proper rarked up!"
***
"You're welcome, all of you. I can spare a bed and a meal if ever you're in the area. Travel safe, now."
It's a bright morning and the sun will soon burn through the last of the dawn mists. The stench of the swamp seems less overwhelming today, perhaps you are growing more accustomed to it.