Naali tries to work her way through the smoke to find Anna - she can't rightly tell her to come to her.
"Psst! Anna, over here. We can't take them like this - but they'll just keep tracking us if we try to leave. I've got a plan, but we've gotta be quick, start drinking."
Anna, following Naali's voice, finds the bottle and swigs it down.
In the smoke the bandits fruitlessly search, the leader finally shouting, 'Beliandria, you see them Did they break for it?"
From the darkness where the arrows came, a female elven voice calls out, "No, and the horses are still there. Keep looking."
Naali breathed quick as she pulled out the vial she always tried to avoid. Almost too small to notice, a thimbleful was all Naali could manage to keep down. In a gulp it was gone.
Her mind raced. Though the situation remained dire, every step forward seemed clearer.
Another elixir down the hatch while the thugs searched the smoke for an invisible tiefling. They would have trouble finding a tiefling at all, were she visible - with the pop of bones shifting, and flesh rewarping, what now stood in the clearing was a kobold.
Anna grunts a thank you as the magical healing races through her body. "I have healing to, if we need it."
The thugs close in, working through the smoke methodically.
Suddenly Anna makes it much easier as she starts to shimmer and grow, bones lengthening, armor stretching, even her sword swelling in size. Naali's enhanced mind idly wonders where all that mass comes from but shrugs it away.
Magic
Her head rises above the cloud of smoke visible, but is also allows her to see the foes.
The red-haired leader sees enlarged paladin and curses foully.
"Where's the spawn?" He shouts, moving toward Anna, seeing nothing else.
The blow goes wild, the man obviously shaken by Anna's increased size.
As the smoke dissipates the skinny man looks at Naali in surprise muttering, in guttural Common, "Whos the kobold?"
Naali considers answering his question with a bomb - they would remember the feeling, but reconsiders her less than stellar state.
As Naali heals, she waits for an arrow but none comes. Maybe the sight of a giant paladin made them change their minds about this fight?
"Divine judgement, smuggler." Anna thunders and attacks, taking a step back.
The man just dodges the huge blade and it sinks into the sticky mud with a wet sound. As Anna pulls it back up, clumps of grass and weeds are flung everywhere.
The skinny man eyes the enlarged size and mutters, 'Let's get out of here."
The red-haired leader bellows, "No, we stay until we find that woman!"
As he speaks he strikes at Anna, rushing beneath her blade
Her blow catches him on the back and opens a huge wound, blood spurting out. He cries out in anger and in pain, the enlarged blade dripping as Anna draws it back up. The bandit totters, clearly on death's door now.
He looks up at Anna's grim face and, spitting, turns around and runs off.
Naali brandishes a sizzling jar of alchemical explosives in her now scaly claws.
"Listen up! Only reason you're all still alive from the first time is because I wanted to make a deal, and the only reason you're alive now is because I'm still trying to be polite to Mastrich! Don't get it confused, you cross me again and the monsters in this swamp will be the least of your worries!"
'May the swamp take you!" The man shouts, still running. His ally runs with him, and they soon vanish into the inky night, their wet footsteps slowly receding.
Anna grumbles but sees the need for it. Gathering up their supplies, they saddle the spooked horses and try to find a new campsite. The swamp is treacherous at night, with sucking mud and deep pools.
Still, Naali manages to find another high dry spot to camp. Anna heals both of them fully using her divine magic, knowing sleep will replenish her. They make a small fire and both get some sleep.
The night passes uneventfully and the next day dawns bright and clear. Anna stretches, working out the kinks.
'Exciting night. Do you think they will be back? I'd hate to have them dogging our steps the entire way to wherever we are going."
"I can't imagine they'd still have a job if they kept following us - it didn't sound like they had Mastrich's approval."
She shakes the dirt out of her hair, and tries to stitch the stab wounds of her clothing back together while Anna greets the day.
"Honestly it's good to know - at least it seems that Mastrich didn't think we double crossed him or something. And if they do - well, I warned them, and we'll need to deal with it. Better them than a demon, though."
Anna frowns, 'Who knows what tale they will tell him though. To salve their pride, he'll probably make us out to be blacker then Norgerber."
Then the paladin shrugs, 'Onward then? What does your map portend?"
"Probably trouble. If we can bear it, spending some time to prepare before we get too far in wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Plus, I can probably get that bug repellent brewing!"
'The repllent would come in handy." the elf's usually smooth, creamy face is covered in tiny red welts. Naali's red skin hides it better, but she can feel the itchy welts.
Naali sets up her cauldron and Anna gathers more firewood. As the bright morning passes, the tiefling slowly adds her ingredients, consulting her memory and stirring the pot. At a few critical moments Anna aids her with some divine magic, making the pot glow with power for a second.
It takes all morning but soon Naal has a bottle of Protection from Evil, Enlarge Person and Cure Light Wounds. Anna eats a light lunch as Naali, sweating and hot from all day slaving over a hot caludron, manages to cook up an anti-bug ointment.
It is a bit trickier then Naali thought but she soon has a smelly brown paste that drives away the worst of the biting insects.
With her brewing complete, Anna and Naali head out, sweating in the noon sun. With no shade, as the highest plants are knee high the temperature is high and the muggy air holds no mercy. For a few hours they struggle on, feeling the horses sweat and groan under them. The road is tricky and mucky, and Naali has to take special care to keep them on the path. As they head downhill into a small valley the air is even hotter and filled with the smell of sulfur.
They round a curve and are faced with an odd sight. The low valley ahead is full of bubbling pools and pits, all filled with water. Wafts of steam drift high into the water, adding to the sweltering weather. What is stranger is the colors. The mud here, tinged by odd chemicals and minerals is a technicolor dreamscape of blues, reds, yellow and oranges. It is breathtaking, of would be if it wasn't below simmering, boiling water and wreathed in noxious smelling smoke.
The path turns into a crude boardwalk, made of planks, and meanders between the various pools. Some parts of it are new and freshly repaired but others are broken and sinking into the ever-shifting mud.
"I didn't think the smugglers would be nice enough to actually take the time to make a boardwalk, I was expecting a fallen tree bridge or something."
She peers over the edge into the water. "I suppose they're well motivated. Be careful though, they could have trapped the bridge."