Samiya follows with the crossbow ready.
"What happened to the witch?" Samiya voices her thoughts in whisper, looking at the house.
Lugert leads the way bravely toward the house, while Plergk hides behind Samiya, trembling visibly. To the north, an old storage shed has mostly collapsed.
Lugert places a heavy boot on the front porch. It groans and creaks under his weight but seems sturdy enough. The front door to the shack is sealed tight, the moisture in the air apparently having caused the wood to expand.
Lugert slings his bow and walks up to the door. He grasps the handle with both hands and gives it a tug. When it doesn't budge he puts his foot up on the wall and pulls back with more of his strength.
Gôlgast help Lugert open the door by putting his boot into it (a bit):
Lugert grasps the door and tugs with all his strength. With an angry groan the hinges give way and the door breaks loose, causing him to fall backward five feet and land heavily on his back! Plergk squeals and hides behind a bush.
Inside, sheets of fungus grow along the walls and floor of the entry room, and on the numerous gourds, twigs, and bones hanging from the ceiling on siney and string. It truly looks like what you'd imagine a "witch's shack" to be. The door to the north leads to a small closet.
Gôlgast shrugs enters the newly opened door, and walks in, with his rapier drawn.
"Hello? Is anyone here?"
Lugert moves into the shack, up until what looks like a hole in the floor. He's drawn his sword and waits for the rest of his team to follow.
Samiya enters inside, treading carefully on the creaking floor.
"Hello?" She tries to open the left door.
Any luck with the tracks?
As the group treads heavily into the room, the floorboards of the room begin to sag dangerously. You think to leave and turn to the door, only to hear a loud series of hissing noises. Suddenly you surrounded, as a trio of enormous, feral rats appear from various holes in the floor and walls! They bare their rotten teeth, eager for the tender-fleshed meal they are obviously about to devour! To the northeast, you hear a soft, high-pitched giggle. A hideous, rat-like creature with a human face skitters along the very wall, chattering its teeth noisily.
_________________________
Avg = 16.75
Avg = 13.75
Lugert sweeps the floor with his blade, trying to cut and the rat closest to him and Kandor.
The floorboards creak under Lugert’s weight as he lunges forward, threatening to give way under his weight. Luck is on his side, however, and the floor barely holds. His sword slams down with a solid thwack, sending rat guts flying.
The other rats hiss in anger, lashing out at Golgast and Samiya. One merely bits into the toe of Golgast’s boot, but the other latches onto Samiya’s ankle, drawing blood!
To the north, the smallest rat’s incessent chattering transforms into an eerie whisper...
You are frightened and must spend the next several rounds fleeing in terror!
_________________________
pass
miss
hit
fail
fail
rounds
Gôlgast goes into a mystic focus and stabs at the rat in front of him with his rapier.
Delivering a shocking grasp spell when he does so.
Hissing from the pain Samiya tries to make the ratling useless with a disorienting spell.
Lugert throws himself forward, charging to the doorway and out into the wilderness.
Lugert charges toward the front door in a state of primal fear. Taking advantage of his change of heart, the rat nearest the door snaps out, catching him in the ankle. .
Amidst the chaos, Kandor calmly steps close to Golgast and places his hand on the half-orc’s arm. Golgast’s skin briefly glows a soft blue. Golgast utters his own incantation and his eyes glow white. He lashes out with his rapier, connecting with the closest rat and sending a rush of electricity out from his hand, down the length of his blade, and into its body. The rat literally explodes in a mass of sizzling blood, organic tissue, and singed fur.
Wiping the mess from the side of her face, Samiya waves a hand toward the tiny rat-witch, attempting to mesmerize the creature. As the air around her fingers begins to sparkle, the disgusting creature begins to stare, drooling down its chin.
Plergk suddenly leaps onto the front porch, apparently having found his courage. He points his tiny bow at the rat in the doorway, expertly planting an arrow in its haunches. The rat hisses in pain and anger but still stands!
In anger, the rat launches itself at Plergk, sinking its dirty teeth deep into the flesh of his leg. . Plergk screams. ”Get it off! Help Plergk! Gaaaaah!”
_________________________
pass
pass
pass
hit
hit
success
fail
hit
hit
success
Gôlgast continues his mystic focus and charges the skitterfoot, hoping to run it through with his rapier.
Using another Shocking Grasp spell when he does so.
Samiya steps behind Kandor and shoots the bolt in the remaining rat.
Kandor marches onto the front porch and releases his wave of light energy. As it strikes Lugert he blinks, coming to his senses, realizing that the nightmare was all in his head .
In the meantime Golgast charges the tiny rat-thing in the northern corner. With a cry of triumph he impales it against the wall, delivering another bolt of electricity that fills the cabin with burnt rat fur.
As Samiya jumps in to shoot at the rat on the front porch, her foot breaks right through the rotten wooden floorboard, causing her to trip and fall prone! The rat hisses but seems to understand it’s outnumbered, scurrying off the porch and out into the swamp to the south.
_________________________
You explore the shack and the rest of the grounds. The old storage shed out front was once used to store supplies, but is now mostly collapsed.
Back inside the house, just to the south is an abandoned bedroom. A large bed, its sheets thick with mold and puddles of water from the leaky roof, slumps in the corner. Numerous ruined books lie stacked nearby, their contents destroyed by the damp. In the back room, more fungus and mold grows on the saggin benches, broken table, and narrow cupboards. An old brick stove sits against the west wall. To the north is a lavatory, while to the south is a back door leading into the backyard.
Just off of this room, however, is what was once an alchemical laboratory. The equipment has fallen into decay, however. Ancient chemical spills create weird stains and colorful crystalline growths amid the partially collapsed workbenches. A female skeleton, still dressed in tattered clothes, also lies among the workbenches. An examination of the remains quickly reveals that some hideous transformation or deformity has disfigured her--the skull seems half melted and weirdly elongated in the face, one arm looks more like a bird’s talon, and the ribs have grown long spurs of bone that protrude both into and out of the rib cage.
While neglect has ruined most of Old Megus’s belongings, a few of the witches supplies remain unharmed in a relatively dry nook in the lab. You find 33gp, a masterwork dagger in a steel scabbard worth 15gp, and a scroll tube containing a series of scrolls. There are two scrolls of cure light wounds, a scroll of false life, and a scroll of water walk (caster level 7th).
In addition, there is a detailed map of Brinestump Marsh! The map is curled with the scrolls in the tube. It shows the location of significant locations in the marsh, including Walthus’s home, the Licktoad village, and the two shipwrecks. To the west, you can spot the second shipwreck, and just south of there the entrance to a cave. The cave is marked with a skull-shaped rune of warning, and a notation that Megus hadn’t explored the caverns.
|
Looking at the last rays of sunlight that make it pass the tree tops, Kandor discusses with the rest of the group: "It is getting late, I am nearly out of spells and channels and I wouldn't mind having something for dinner." Going back to Walther while it is getting dark seems unwise. I suggest we stay here, have some dinner, and continue in the morning towards the cave and shipwreck.
He points towards the house "However, we need to clean this place a bit, I am not going to sleep in a room with death rat and rat monster all over it. And I am staying away from that 'lab'."
"Samiya, Gôlgast, if you two start cleaning up the main room, bed room, and the backroom and prepare to cook, Lugert and I will scout the direct vicinity of the hut, to see if any more creatures are hiding. Furtermore I will gather water. We will help you guys as soon as we come back.
"That sounds fair enough."
"It does smell like rat kebabs here."
"Disgusting!"
After a thoughtful pause:
"We should also make a fire pit out front."
"Therebe a shovel somewhere around here."
"We should put what must be Megus' body in there."
"Along with her ruined gear and what's left of the rats."
"Then put a fire atop of that to cleanse the lot and to put Megus to rest as best we can."
Then, looking at Plergk:
"I'm sure the mighty Plergk can gather the wood we need to make a jolly nice fire!"
Lugert's world stops dripping madness and he finds himself in front of the shack. He snarls to himself and heads back into the shack. He throws his sword across the room in a fit of anger and then tosses his bag over to where it landed.
"These damn spells that play with my mind. When we return to Sandpoint I'm going to find a way to combat this somehow. I can't let this keep happening!"
Lugert marches around the shack, rigid and angry. He eyes the body of the witch.
"There are foul things all over this thicket. Look! Even someone versed in witchcraft is nothing but fodder out here."
Upon hearing Kandor's orders Lugert returns to his kit and re-equips himself. He sheathes the sword and draws his bow. He looks at Kandor and nods, then looks to the goblin.
"Come on Plergk, you're with me. We'll get the wood on our way back."
Samiya shivers when she sees the witch's remains.
"With what did she experiment?" she mutters to herself.
Samiya takes a few sips of water from her now full waterskin.
"Thanks, Kandor."
"Now, is there a broom in this house?" she begins searching for the cleaning instruments.
Plergk is clearly extremely anxious from these events--the witch's shack, the rat attack, and deformed skeleton. He jumps in fright as Golgast yells his name. "Yes! Yes, Plergk help!"
In the twilight, Kandor, Lugert, and Plergk hike down to the river out back. There, the rowboat floats lazily in the gentle river current, tethered to a small dock. The boat is in good shape and looks like it could fit all of you, if needed. On the way back up, you spot an old pile of firewood piled up hastily by the back door. It's no wetter than anything else in this swamp, and looks like it might kindle a usable fire with enough encouragement.
Up front Golgast goes in search of a shovel. What luck! In the shed there's an old, cobweb-covered specimen that's rusted but usable. He gets to work on digging a pit large enough for a body and a fire.
Inside, Samiya begins prestidigating the floors, walls, furniture, and accroutrements, magically cleaning the whole place until it looks, well, less like a witch's shack.
Together, the group hauls all the bodies out to the front. Lugert and Golgast pile all the remains into the pit while Kandor incites death rites. Samiya bears witness, humming a soft hymn.
The night passes without incident, save for the chirping of insects and the occasional roar of a crocodile somewhere in the river.
___________
The next day, Plergk is up early, gathering his gear and peeing on the fire to make sure it's out. He seems utterly oblivious that this is generally considered poor manners. Goblins...
It is still early morning when the group haul themselves into the little rowboat. Although small and coated in a slimy layer of algae, the boat proves remarkably sturdy and you're all able to fit inside. Even Plergk. "Licktoads expert fisherman," he explains. "Long arms each hold paddle. Pull that way. No, other way!" He sits in the front of the boat, bow drawn in case of danger, as you row yourselves south against the gentle current.
The marsh is relatively quiet this morning. There are no signs of the crocs you heard in the night. The only wildlife seems to be the incessent chirping of millions of insects and the occasional heron or egret flying across the river from overhead. You come to a fork in the river, but you can discern from the map that the supposed shipwreck and skeleton cave are to the west, to your right. After a while you come to a second intersection and, again consulting the map, proceed directly forward, to the west. Soon you reach a third junction and turn right, proceeding north. Sure enough, after another 10 minutes or so you come across the unmistakable scene of a shipwreck.
What appears at first to be a strange tangle of branches is in fact the moss-covered ribs of a wrecked ship. The ruined ship lies on its side, split down the middle and mostly sunken into the mud and murky water. Little remains of this once-large ship today, but a search of the wreck reveals it to be of a similar style to the wrecked Kaijitsu Star. Kandor soon discovers a verdigris-encrusted nameplate that reads Kaijitsu's Blossom. The Blossom is in even worse shape than her sister ship, the Star, but the Blossom was clearly the larger and more important of the two ships.
Amid the ruins, you also find human skeletal remains and a few rusted but still functional wakizashi.
Finding nothing else of interest, the group loads back into the rowboat and rows south, across the river to what the map indicates should be the entrance to the cave. There is no place to dock on this side, and you struggle to tether the boat to the trunk of a submerged tree before unceremoniously splashing your way up the bank. From here you cut your way through about 100 yards of foliage before stopping in your tracks.
A fifty-foot high cliff rises along the marsh's southern border, its face a thick tangle of jutting rocks and bright green vines and nettles. A curtain of these thick nettle vines partially conceals a cave opening at the base of the cliff.
"I guess we need to cut those vines away."
"None of my weapons make good machetes, though."
"Still, we should be ready for anything coming out of there."
Gôlgast draws his sword to be ready.
When Kandor points out the cave entrance Lugert thinks back to the original cave dive that brought them together in the first place.
"Whatever skeletons are in there decimated a goblin tribe on its home turf."
He looks at Plergk. "Plergk, put your bow away and use your hand weapon. Everyone else, you may want to use any potions or oils for your gear before we cross into that cavern."
Once they get near the shore, Lugert gets into the water and pulls the boat to the sunken tree, lashing it to a thick bough. Once he gets to the vines he gives his followers the "quiet" hand gesture and then pulls out a vial from his belt pouch. He pours it on the rag it was wrapped in and then polishes his sword. The blade seems to catch more light from the slowly rising sun.
Lugert then moves up to the nettles and moves them to the side to peer into the cavern beyond.
Gôlgast will have his mace at the ready when they're set to go in.
He gives his light mace a quick polish with the same oil Lurget did, just before entering the cave
Samiya checks her bandolier with flasks of alchemist's fire. Satisfied, she gets one out, holding it tightly in her hand.
Plergk accepts the four flasks of holy water, visibly disappointed there is no fire in them. He also takes the piece of wood (treating as an improvised club).
Lugert moves up to the nettles and pushes them aside, but the prickly vines catch themselves on his exposed skin. Immediately, a strong feeling of nausea overcomes him, and the contents of his stomach expel themselves onto the ground at his feet.
The ranger peers into the tunnel ahead of him into the creepy, claustrophobic cave tunnel. It is pitch black, but Lugert's eyes can capture even the slightest source of light. The ceiling barely rises over seven feet, and moisture constantly drips down from above to make slippery puddles and rivulets in the floor. There is a fork in the tunnel, with one branch heading west while the other extends further south. There the brackish waters remain behind, no doubt from periodic storms and floods, slowly seeping into the rock. The water looks deep, but you can't tell how deep.
fail
fail; sickened