"Do we have a plan here?" Jessamy calls as she continues to run.
"Keep running!" Kaplan yells as he continues forward. He might suffer a few wounds but he had to keep going.
"Hey! Don' you ignore me!" cries the younger dwarf, a bit offended.
"Oi! Ugly!" Ventus shouts from the back of Beaks, trying to bounce the creature's attention to him long enough for Kaplan to get some more distance.
Ventus succeeds in getting the beast’s attention giving the fiery Kaplan time to get clear. The beast thunders after the airborne ranger and sucks in a breath for another gout of noxious gas but stops when it recognizes the flooded shores of the nearby river. With a pained cry it thunders towards the water and dives in causing more property damage but sparing Turtleback Ferry anymore of Black Maga’s fury.
Swooping down to the river side, Ventus dismounts and checks on the others.
"Can I get a sound off before we move to help the locals?" He calls out.
"Sound off? What's that?" Jessamy asks.
"I can't believe we ... sort of ... beat that thing. It probably would've destroyed the village if we hadn't been here. But I hope it doesn't come back."
The flames on Kaplan die away and the older dwarf returns to his normal self. "I share that sentiment, Jessamy."
Eli's eyes grow wide as he flies about in the air, desperately trying to shake off the maddening visions filling his mind. He begins to claw at his own face and, when the madness is at its worst, he hurls a bomb down at the party.
Finally Magga's deadly fumes run their course and the alchemist returns to his senses.
"Eli!" exclaims Pirknok loudly, "Fight it! It ain't real! Kaplan sed she kin make ya see an' hear things!"
The burly dwarf gives a small sigh of relief as the alchemist finally returns to normal. Looking around, he nods at the others and motions back toward the town. "Come on. We better fin' out if there's more peopul in trubble."
"Gotcha," Ventus says, launching back into the air with Beaks and circling overhead, looking for a place to start and directing his companions.
"Ouch!" Jessamy says plaintively as she emerges from the smoke of the bomb, her skin and clothing covered in soot.
She begins painfully following the others back to town.
With Magga driven away and the initial floodwater settling, it looks like the danger to Turtleback Ferry has passed for now.
Over the next few minutes, as the panicked massed begin to calm, the townsfolk quickly hail the party as heroes. A single voice can be heard over the crowd, hoarse but strong. "Where are these heroes? I need to set my eyes on them."
The crowd breaks to let an elderly and crooked Garundi man through.
"We're over here!" Jessamy calls, the words a balm to her burns.
Ventus lands Beaks on the edge of the crowd and dismounts.
"Seems like everywhere we go, people end up needing help," he says, idly stroking Beaks' face.
"Or everywhere people need help, there we are!" Jessamy says brightly.
"I'm inclined to agree with Ventus," Kaplan says gruffly.
The wizened old man beams, waves to the crowd, and then returns his attention to the party.
"And we were fortunate to have you here when this disaster struck. Please, join me indoors. An old man can't be asked to stand for long and you deserves the full extent of Deadeye's blessings."
Dead...eye... oh, that's the one they call Erastil. I remember something about him... likes families or something, I think?
Pirknok frowns momentarily and looks around. "Is evrywun alright?" he asks, shunning rest until he knows there is nothing more he can do.
"There's no more danger of folks being washed away and I suspect Old Maga is going to find someplace dark and deep and settle back to sleep. Please, this old man's knees are known to ache."
The dwarf glances around once more before nodding slowly. "Ah suppose yer right," he admits, preparing to follow the man inside.
"Well, if your knees hurt, I guess we can go in."
She follows the old mayor into the building.
"Come ON!" she hisses to Pirknok.
Eli sheepishly descends back to the soggy ground and follows the others to the Mayor's, downing an extract as he does. His head clears a little, but he squints at the others and reacts a little slower as the residual effects of the gas linger.
Pirknok frowns a bit at Jessamy's tone, but follows wordlessly.
Kaplan tilts his head and follows behind the rest of the group.
"Beaks, stay," Ventus says to his mount who responds with a chirp and affectionate nuzzle.
Maelin leads the party into the brewery, one of the few buildings to survive the crushing flood waters mostly intact.
"Erastil's blessings upon you", he says overly loudly as he shuts the door behind Ventus.
"But I'm afraid your work is not yet done", the kindly old man says with grimness once his words are hidden from the crowd outside.
"Wuddya mean?" asks Pirknok, suddenly more attentive to the old man. "This Black Maga, ya think she's gunna come back?"
"No, I don't think Maga will be coming back. She just wants to sleep", he explains.
"It's the dam. That surge of floodwater flattened the city. If the dam completely gives, this entire valley will fill with water. There won't be any survivors."
"We're not exactly stonemasons or carpenters," Kaplan says gruffly. "What would you have us do?"
"The dam is ancient. It was here long before Turtleback Ferry existed. It's functioned well enough on its own but we used to send teams up there to make sure the area was safe - until recently. A family of vicious trolls has taken up residence and we stopped sending men up there as a result."
"We need to make sure that whatever damage was done to the dam, there's no more coming. It's possible the trolls are responsible for the damage but I don't think so. They're too simple to damage a structure that complex and sturdy."
"Seems like the giants are trying to tear this place to the ground," Ventus noted, leaning on an out of the way wall.
"I suppose we should deal with it then," sighs Kaplan.
The old Garundi man nods. "Turtleback Ferry isn't wealthy but I promise to turn over whatever remains in our coffers if you can secure a future for us."
"Nay, if it's to save lives, we won't take payment," Kaplan replies. He hoped the rest wouldn't be angry with him, but he always preferred good karma over coin. Besides, if they were going to face giants, it would be a matter of vengeance and blood money wasn't something the dwarf longed to earn.
Pirknok grunts his agreement with the elder dwarf. "We don't need munny."
Turning to the others, he nods northward. "Whaddya say?"
Kaplan nods at the younger dwarf. "Ready whenever you are."
The mayor quickly draws a crude map showing the caverns that gives entrance to the dam's interior.
"Thank you heroes and may Erastil watch over you all."
***
With their directions in hand, the party heads north, towards the damaged dam. Less then an hour's march later, the trees thin out enough to see the party's destination.
Spanning the great breadth of the gorge is Skull’s Crossing. The massive wall of stone holds back the waters of the Storval Deep — but only just. Thousands of skulls have been carved into the dam’s face, with five larger ones decorating the middle length. The easternmost of these immense skulls is all but hidden by a steady flow of cascading water pouring through what appears to be a recent break in the dam. For now, the ancient dam seems to be holding its own against the Storval Deep, but unless these rains end soon, the recent flood looks to be but a minor precursor to a fantastic disaster.
Advancing, a seven-foot-wide winding stairway of stone climbs the cliff face towards the dam's entrance, reaching a height of nearly two hundred feet before ending at a cave mouth above. Hundreds of stakes line the edges of the stairway, many of them decorated with skulls—some animal, some humanoid, all marked with a strange skull-shaped rune on the brow.
"Careful," warns Pirknok, pointing at the top of the dam. "There's thuh trolls."
"Eli, watch the bombs here. How do you guys want to play this?" Ventus asked, rushing up the damn seemed like a quick way to get flattened.
"Can we draw a few out at a time?" Kaplan asks.
Eli nods and crosses his arms at the offer of money, but he does raise a hand before leaving. "Any healing supplies you can offer us will be of great benefit in our mission." he says as diplomatically as possible.
Before departing, Eli mixes a couple more extracts for the road. Approaching the dam, Eli frowns at Adventus. "I doubt my bombs will have much impact on that." he says, but he eyes the structure with a worried experession.
The mayor nods and clutches his holy symbol. "I'd hoped to save my prayers for those wounded by the flood but if your group fails, we'll all be lost."
"Erastil, heal these heroes so they might fight to protect this community and the families within."
Jessamy's face falls momentarily as Kaplan declines the money, but moments later she nods in agreement.
Heroes don't save people for the money, silly. They do it for the glory! Think about how much they'll love you if you can stop this dam from being destroyed!
She smiles as the cleric heals them, nodding her thanks as the wounds caused by Eli's bomb disappear.
You'd think he could have at least apologized. That hurt!
Still distracted, especially by the big skulls, Jessamy doesn't notice the trolls until Pirknok points them out.
"Do we have anyway we could get a wave to crest the dam and sweep all the trolls off? I don't think it would need to be too much that it would damage the town. I don't think we can really sneak up unless we have some way to become invisible."