"Ha! In that case, it may be easiest to simply wade across. Less chance perhaps of taking a plunge."
Guillaume looks carefully at the bog water.
Nasifi looks suspiciously at the water. "It's true I'm not a climber, but jumping across on the pilings seems better than just going into the water. There could be leeches, or snakes, or gators in there."
Bullywogs, trolls, lizardmen ... Bessie adds as Guillaume leans over and scans the water. She isn't sure if all those things are actually found in swamps, but she seemed to remember them mentioned in tavern tales.
Guillaume notices a pair of large frog like eyes just barely sticking up out of the bog muck just as Vlad begins to start leaping across (he is now on the third pylon, 15' from shore).
After tying off the end of the 100' of rope to a near-by tree, he grabs his crossbow and keeps watch for anything dangerous.
"Hold on Vlad, I want to check something." Concentrating, the Undine draws water too him, allowing it to swirl around him momentarily before unleashing it at the large pair of frog eyes.
Unfortunately, his blast goes wide.
Besmara's Blessings! I was only jokin!! Bessie exclaims as Guillaume's blast sprays swamp muck into the air. And she sees Orslaw grabbing his crossbow.
The shot misses but the eyes do submerge.
Vlad continues on undeterred by Guillaume's apparent jumpiness. The undine continues to watch the water closely and Orslaw becomes wary due to his companion's obvious vigilance and he too watches the water. About 10' from the far shore, Vlad slips and falls into the water. He comes up out of the water with large gasp for air and begins to laugh at himself. As Vlad rises so does the enormous head of a giant frog. Guillaume and Orslaw are ready.
"Climb up a piling! Quick!" Orslaw yells to Vlad as he fires a shot with his crossbow at the giant frog near his companion.
With his shot going wide, Orslaw then jumps down into the water, making a large splashing sound as he hits the shallow water.
Guillaume gathers power and fires again, much more successfully this time.
The water blast takes a good bit of skin off the back of the frog but this beast, much like its smaller cousin the big mouth frog, is focused on eating. It leaps toward Vlad and snaps but the water blast had disrupted its attack and it misses by a wide margin.
"What the hell?!" Vlad yells as the huge creature lunges at him. He pulls his sword and tries to stab the thing before it can strike again.
The thing dies as its blood leaks into the briny water and is drawn away by the slow current.
Giant Frogs... no one said anything about giant frogs!! Leeches, snakes, gators, bullywogs, trolls, lizardmen; yes, but not giant frogs!!
Bessie is startled by events and starts scrambling to locate and load her crossbow even as Crow handles the beast. By the time she is ready the creature is floating away.
Huh....Nicely done then! Any more lurking about?
Bessie's concerns are confirmed. She spots another of the beasts lurking in the water to the west of the washed out bridge. (visible on map)
Acting casual... Second one, starboard, midship of the pilings.
"I see it Bessie."
Nasifi trots several feet down the bank until she she's around to the other side of the pilings for a clear shot at the frog. She aims her crossbow at it and lets a bolt fly.
Nasifi's bolt strikes home and frog let's loose with a loud, "Croak!"
Orslaw stows his crossbow on his back and quickly grabs his dagger in his hand as he starts swimming toward the posts.
Guillaume sends a gout of water bursting forth at the frog. The powerful blast hits the exposed part of the frog and takes the top part of its head off.
Bessie searches for any more amphibian assailants among the muck. A bit lax in her celebration of the second frog's demise!
Nice work! I love it when we don't get hurt.
Nothing else seems amiss.
Vlad climbs out of the water and up on to land. He takes a moment to dump water out of his boots before giving a thumbs up to continue.
Already wet and in the muck, Orslaw figures he's not going to get much wetter and swims across the ravine. Once he gets to the last pole, he climbs up and hops over onto the bank and takes a moment to wring his clothes out.
Oh boy... Bessie makes a running jump to get out to the first piling, overcompensates and gets lands on her tiptoes at the edge. Despite the frantic waving of arms, she tips and lands in the mud and muck with an unceremonious "sp-wat". Like Orslaw, she isn't going to get any wetter....wading over to the other side, she climbs up onto the bank wreaking of sweat and swamp.
Everyone eventually makes it across the briny river to the other side. The trail, what there is of it, continues through the swamp at large to the south. At times it is hard to see where it went as it drops into a boggy patch but a quick check across the water locates where it picks up again. Considering the amount of water, warmth and sunshine available it is odd that the path is still visible here at all. After about twenty minutes of trudging through the swampy cypress jungle the trail comes upon another brackish river but instead of crossing it, the trail turns southwest and follows the river.
"We should hurry. Although I'm no fan of our captain," he says with air-quotes around the word captain, "nor am I a fan of being left on some island out in the middle of the ocean."
Orslaw keeps an eye out for any sort of tracks. He's assuming that the goblin-squids could be using this trail which is why it is still visible. However, he has no idea what kind of trail a goblin-squid would leave.
Staying in the lead (and trying to pick up the pace at Crow's mention of being left behind), he tries to keep his eyes on the surrounding to make sure they don't get ambushed.
You continue down the path for a few more minutes, the slow moving brine river to your left. You begin to smell something sort of sickly sweet, like a dead animal. As you move forward, a terrible stench finally fills the swamp here, a fetid odor of cheap perfume and rotting flesh. A huge tree stands in the middle of a clearing in the swamp, draped with some sort of huge tent. Lurid, painted faces cover both the tree trunk and tent, and both are decorated with rotting humanoid body parts.
Vlad slows his approach and whispers, "I think this is what we're looking for." He draws his bow out as they cautiously survey the area.
Nasifi, near the back, slows then stops when she sees the tent.
"This is a very bad place. I don't like this at all."
Guillaume peers at the tree and tent, fearing that he might recognize some of the body parts.
Bessie readies the crossbow and starts calculating how to use the blessings of her goddess to best effect here.
Lets get our friends.
Guillaume cannot see who or what is inside the tent but he notices that the body parts and the garish pictures are crawling with flies. The far side of the tent appears to be the opening.
"Somebody's home. Look lively."
Nasifi levels her crossbow and waits to see who or what decorates in such a way.
Orslaw draws his falchion and begins making his way toward the tree. "Let's work our way around to the other side. This doesn't look good."
Bessie will move along with the others and follow Orslaw, maintaining our distance as we circle to the northern side where we believe the opening is located.
Besmara, please look after our sister and deliver her back to us to serve your will. We follow the Code as we flow upon the tides, so let us catch the fair wind of your favor.
Once you come around the west side of the tent and move to better view the opening you can see that there is a large bed setup behind the tree. Old clothes are strewn about the tent area. Body parts can be seen hanging from the limbs of the tree and some nailed to the trunk. From the north west side you believe you can make out a woman's body on the ground and another in the bed. (you can pick out these details once you are about 30' away from the opening of the tent.)
Nasifi follows behind Orslaw as well. As they move around and closer to the tent she looks closely at the body parts, trying to figure out how long their owners have been dead, based on degree of decomposition and so forth.
As they round the tree, Vlad lifts his bow and aims for the woman on the bed. He has a feeling that whoever gets a bed in this godforsaken place is someone they want to put down as quickly as possible. He isn't firing yet (just in case this is all some terrible misunderstanding), but he's ready if the need arises.
Guillaume follows the others, ready to provide ranged support as necessary.
Most of the skin on the body parts and on the two bodies that can be seen have turned a ghastly grey. Other than that you cannot tell how long the body parts or bodies have been lying around. The sun beats down, the flies buzz, and the smell of rot fills the air.
Orslaw rips a piece of cloth off of his light green tunic and ties it around his mouth and nose to ward off some of the fetid stench. He glances over his shoulder and gives a confident nod to the raised weapons behind him. He begins walking toward the opening of the tent with his falchion raised up defensively, but at the ready.
Bessie readies her crossbow, waiting for things to go awry... because, you know, its the Peril Crew.
"I... I think they might be dead," Vlad says. He keeps his bow raised as he calls out, "Anyone alive in there?"
Nothing moves as Orslaw nears the tent except for the flies. As Orslaw gets closer, covered by the other three, he can see the flies are thicker than he originally thought. Orslaw can clearly see the two women now. Both are in blood spattered dresses. Their skin is grayish, their features sunken, and they do not breathe.