The boat appears to be solid, even the four oars are in decent shape. Kellen's initial foray with the boots is successful, but it doesn't take long to determine that there are 'holes' in the swamp deeper than 5'.
Like it or not, you are rowing.
"I'm guessin' you can longer move us, lad, seein' how we're barely movin' so I guess we're rowin'." Thordak finds a seat between a set of oars and begins rowing.
Lym sits in the middle of the boat, shoulders rigid and muttering incantations under her breath.
Rhianni takes her place in the boat, keeping a careful watch on the swamp around. Every half-hour she calls on her powers to see in which direction they are travelling.
Kellen shrugs and mutters: "Worth a shot...," before clambering into the boat as well and taking up an oar to help Thordak.
Praxim keeps his senses active, spending as much time scanning the water below them as the foliage around them.
To get into the rowing as they move along, Kellen starts quietly warbling out a tune:
"Adelida, pretty little Varisian queen! Belle of the bayou; you're every young man's dream. To stand beside ya, sweet Adelida, I'd swim the Jegg-a-re!"
You row for an hour, heading deeper into the Shimmerglens, in a generally southern direction. The air is thick with the smell of rotting vegetation and moisture. The sounds of insects other animals are all around you, pervasive but unseen.
There is a buzz of wings and a quick blur of motion, and Yap makes a reappearance, flying straight into the side of the rowboat with a 'whack'! He hangs from the side of the boat, one arm over the gunwhale, soaked to the core.
"sorrysorrysorryIforgotyouweresoooosloooow."
He grins a wet, sad grin.
"Oh. Lookout."
The water surges under the boat in a geyser of mud and water. The boat lurches to the side, throwing everyone against the left rail. The sudden shift of weight threatens to capsize the little craft.
Kellen and Rhianni are dumped into the water, as the rest of you struggle to keep the boat from flipping over.
Lym hurriedly casts the spell she had been keeping in readiness - and lifts off out if the boat and into the air!
Lym hurriedly casts the spell she had been keeping in readiness - and lifts off out if the boat and into the air!
Almost as if climbing a ladder, Kellen clambers out of the water and then across it as if it were a floor. If she needs help, he'll pull Rhianni out of the water and either keeps above her it or helps to get her back into the boat.
At the surge of water, he also says: "That's no accident; what is it?"
I was under the impression it was an underwater hot spring, but since you ask
Tomaru grabs at the sides of the boat to help balance both him and it. He sees a dark shape in the water during the near capsize. "Everyone ok? There's somethhing down there. Kellen, use those pretty new boots of yours and help Rhianni back in the boat. We have to get moving again."
Rhianni despite the sudden shock of being tipped out of the boat, keeps hold of her senses. She lets out a scream as the water closes around her, and she tries to keep her head above water, knowing her magics can save her immediate trouble.
Barely managing to catch himself, "Whaddaya mean there's somethin' down there? Wait...," he holds up a hand, "let me guess: It's one of those blasted water trolls, right? Right?" He looks at Tomaru with a look that easily speaks of his confidence in his assumption.
Rhianni despite the sudden shock of being tipped out of the boat, keeps hold of her senses. She lets out a scream as the water closes around her, and she tries to keep her head above water, knowing her magics can save her immediate trouble.
See feels a sudden pull as she gets yanked above the water and carried back into the boat. "Relax, Miss Rhianni - I got ya!"
At Tomaru's call about the something down there, he pulls his swords after placing Rhianni in the boat and eyes the water warily from his perch.
"I don't know what it is, but it's at least as big as the boat."
The grey shape moves out from under the boat and surfaces. It's big, very big, at least as long as the boat and far heavier. Its head rises up up over the side of the rowboat as it peers eye-to-eye with Thordak. Large round eyes, and heavy cheeks covered in whiskers stop mere inches from the dwarf's nose.
With a snort, it blows a nose-full of...water...all over his face. Then it disappears back under the surface and is lost in the murky water.
In a tiny voice, Yap says: "Maybe I'll stay in the boat."
Before Rhianni has managed to get the words of her spell into her mind, she feels a pull and is lifted out of the water, her clothes dripping wet and her hair bedraggled, long and soaking. "What, how the .. was that you Lym ... no Kellen!" he eyes wide and shocked.
From her position, now dumped unceremoniously in the bottom of the boat, suddenly bursts into laughter as she watches the creature blow water all over Thordak.
Thordak looks curiously at the creature with raised eyebrows, wondering what the heck it's going to do. Completely unprepared for the blast of water, Thordak coughs, a defeated look upon him. "Okay. That's... that's just... can I go home?" He rubs his hand over his face, trying to remove some of the water and whatever else might be mixed in with it. He looks over at the laughing Rhianni and shakes his head, giving a slight chuckle himself. "I'm gettin' to old for this...,"
"You called him a water troll. What did you expect?"
Praxim scans the...creature...for evil.
When it seems that there isn't much danger (except to Thordak's pride), he relaxes...slightly.
The creature, whatever it was, is not evil. It doesn't make another appearance.
The journey south through the swamp continues, rowing slowly down the small canals formed by the trees. For an hour, the swamp is as most swamps are - green and brown, with heavy vegetation and very humid. Then Yap speaks again, just one word, very quietly:
"Whitewillow..."
As if you crossed an invisible line, the landscape changes. Twisted black trees rise wretchedly from shallow pools, seeming to have lurched from the land, their arthritic branches curled into miserable tortured claws. The sun seems to scorn this place, and a cold, dark mist looms within the canopy of bone-bare branches above. Evil murmurs ride an unnatural wind that flows forth from the glens, and shadows dance in the dark mists within.
"Was this always like this, Yap?" Tomaru whispers as if trying not to disturb.... something.
"Ooooohh" Rhianni lets out at the sight of the desolate and blighted landscape. "I was so enjoying that little boat ride, even if I did get drenched, now this...." She looks to Yap, hoping for an answer to Tomaru's question.
Kellen looks around at the dark place, muttering: "Something wicked's a foot - you can taste it in the air."
"No." Yap says, hands clutching the side of the boat with only his eyes peering over the edge. "No. It was a beautiful place, Whitewillow." Yap whispers, barely audible, and uncharacteristically slower.
"Then they came and there was a fight and they took him and they...they..." Yap collapses into the bottom of the rowboat, sobbing uncontrollably, and says no more.
---------------------
As you travel further into Whitewillow, the sense of corruption deepens. Spiders, languid and fat with poison, hang from trees. Dying birds twitch in the shallows. Slithering things with too many eyes squirt away through the water. Nothing but chill silence surrounds you as you slip through the dark water. And then:
Tall dark-robed figures dance on the edge of your peripheral vision, large skeletal claws reaching...reaching out for you...
When you turn to look, the apparitions are nothing more than horribly twisted black trees, and the apparitions appear again on the edges of your sight.
Despite the apparitions sending cold shivers down her back, Rhianni shows her resolve to continue on and meet the evil with her magic and defeat it. "Wait!" says Rhianni sharply to her companions, "Before we enter any construction or chambers, let me at least send forth my sight before us, to give us warning and an advantage over any evil." She smooths down her clothes, once more calling on the arcane powers to protect her robe from the clinging wet and dry it once more.
"Who took him away, Yap, and who was he?"
Tomaru uses a to gird his allies' bravery.
[dice=Will]1d20+13
"Who took him away, Yap, and who was he?"
Tomaru uses a to gird his allies' bravery.
Yap does not speak, he doesn't look up. He continues to sob, head buried in his knees at the bottom of the boat.
Thordak is pleasantly surprised as Rhianni dries out his beard. "Thanks, lass," he tells her, nodding.
As they delve deeper into the unknown area, Thordak feels the same dread as the others. "I've gotta bad feelin' about this place." Catching sight of the skeletal figures, Thordak turns quickly. "What's that?! KILL IT!" Seeing how it's just trees, Thordak calms as he breathes a sigh of relief before he again notices more. "There's some more! KILL 'EM!" He grabs his longaxe and swings futilely, realizing again it's just more trees. "Blast! I could've sworn they were real." He constantly cuts his eyes from left to right, calling out the skeletal figures from time to time and realizing again and again that he's wrong. Letting out a great huff after a while, "One of these times I'm gonna be right; you'll see," he vows.
Watching the fey creature weep uncontrollably, Thordak can't help but feel so sorry for it. "Awwww, don't be sad, tiny bug. What can Uncle Thordak do ta help ya turn your tiny little frown upside down? Possibly there's somethin' we can do ta help ya get your person back? And possibly get your Whitewillow back as well? We'll do all that we can ta make it happen if you be wantin'. We just need ya ta tell us which you be wantin' so we can help ye."
+2 vs enchantments
Sigh.
"This place isn't right. Cities are bad enough, but Erastil would prefer a hundred of them to this...corruption. We have to get out of here."
At Praxim's faltering, "We have to get out of here , YES. But we must take this Whitewillow with us. For all the Fey's mischief, this would make them all fall down and weep as Yap. We must continue and rid the place of this evil, not run from it." Rhianni says with determination. "Come friends, Praxim take heart you know we that we have met and destroyed evil before. You were with us when we destroyed that family of ogrekin, the snakewoman, you know together we are strong. Praxim where is the evil the deepest? We move, have strength, let tales be told of our heroics here. Let the bards know of how we faced the dark and brought light to it."
Rhianni attempts to bolster faltering nerve.
Kellen stays quiet, but his grip on the oar tightens as they continue to row and any humming of tunes is lost.
"I'm not saying we leave, but we can't linger, lest we find our own souls as corrupted as the environment," Praxim retorts crossly.
Fired up at Rhianni's words, "Yeah! The light! Bard tales and heroics and everything else too! I'm with the lass," he nods at Rhianni. "I say we find a way ta fix this place. I don't like it at all and if it can be fixed, then let's fix it. Make the world a bit LOOK OUT! KILL... nope, sorry, just more spooky trees. Blast it all." He shakes his head in frustration at his own jumpiness.
Lym has not returned to the boat since the incident. Instead, she glides through the air above the boat, safely halfway between water and canopy.
The fact that she looks eerie, gliding along while standing upright and wrapped in dark cloth, does not seem to concern her.
"This fey queen's misery at having been robbed of the captain must be great indeed, for it to twist the land so," she says, finally rousing herself from some dark reverie. "Hrm... Rhianni, you have that spell which wards off evil influences and helped free me from that wretched lamia. Might you spare a casting for Yap?"
"Of course Lym, I am sure Yap would better have her anguish squashed, but I'm not sure that the dread we felt would be affected. Well I suppose it's worth a shot." she says sympathetically to the fey.
"Everyone ready yourselves. We must proceed. Let's do so cautiously."
Thordak looks around protectively. "Yeah, cautiously. That's good. Cautiously. I like cautiously. Yeah."
"Everyone ready yourselves. We must proceed. Let's do so cautiously."
Kellen replies sarcastically at Tomaru. "Cautiously, eh? I don't think we'll be doing so any other way in this rowboat. Unless you count our flying target up there." This last remark comes with a wave at Lym.
The man seems clearly annoyed with something.
Yap looks up from where he sits in the bottom of the boat as Rhianni casts her spell. He watches her with eyes puffy from crying, but says nothing. When she is done, he tucks his head back into his knees and sniffles.
------------
Another hour passes, and your progress is slowed by the twisting nature of the swamp here in Whitewillow, and the tangle of the trees ans roots as you row. Suddenly the tangle opens for a small pool, a black and still water, formed by the runoff from the black trees all around. There is no life in this pool, no insects, no algae, nothing.
Lym has not returned to the boat since the incident. Instead, she glides through the air above the boat, safely halfway between water and canopy.
Lym makes a scoffing sound at Kellen's remark and floats onward, inches above the others' heads.
"What an unpleasant place," she remarks at the pool. "How much further is it, Yap?"
Kellen remains irritated, but nothing more by this new unpleasantness. "Place looks as nasty as an otyugh's backside; hopin' we get some answers soon and get out of here."