The Father of Waters

Game Master Fighting Chicken

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Sarenith 26, Night of the Stormreader's visit
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There is no mud, but Oios finds heel marks - large heel marks - in a bit of spilled grain by the feeder chute. It isn't much to go on, as Hamfatten likely left the granary by watercraft, but it is confirmation that he or someone just as burly was here - rarely do the beastlings wear shoes, and they're usually of smaller stature than the Three Peoples.

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Sarenith 27, early, early morning
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The floor of the harbormaster's home is hard, but you find yourselves drifting off quickly none-the-less. Latha nudges you awake well before dawn. "The hunters will have their morning meal and set off before Ayida Wedu rises, in order to catch the birds that stir in her radiance."

The hunter's guild is a small, circular pavilion that once sat on a rooftop. Now, it is almost water-level. Bullboats bob gently in the current as you approach, tied to a hastily-constructed wooden landing. Climbing the short stair up to the pavilion finds about a score of hunters, sitting in the early morning dark, watching you in silence. Spread out among them are platters of a communal feast - flat, breadlike circles that they have stuffed with a variety of vegetables.

One hunter gestures to the food and says something to Latha. "We're invited to breakfast. The hunters are curious to know why they are graced with your presence."

Taking a roundbread and filling it with a corn and green's stew. Latha takes a thoughtful bite. "I should probably say, the hunters rarely hunt for meat, because most animals drink the cursed waters. They hunt for feathers, and skins, and bones, which go to our jewelry-makers, tanners, and craftsfolk."

Drazan stirs from his bedroll, mood soured by this place, Do we have time to satisfy their curiosity? Drazan asks groggily, of his travelling companions.

Istiel was sleeping while sitting, her head and back propped up against the wall. Unless one looked directly into the eye holes of her mask, it was impossible to tell she was not awake.

Of course, she wasn't when Latha enters, and her eyes slowly open when the fox-lady makes the rounds rustling them to wakefulness. No dreams last night. She thinks while smoothly rising, the taut muscles of her body seemingly unaffected by what would be an awkward sleeping position for anyone else. I wonder if Master will visit me again soon?

A chorus of voices from deep within her mind answer this question, most encouraging or hopeful. Shhh... Istiel calms them, bringing stillness to her mind. It was easy now to assauge them, and she often had peace with her own thoughts once more.

When they arrive at the breakfast feast, Istiel glances at the food, to Latha, and then Drazan. "No." She states flatly, and even though she hungers, she knew better than to accept hospitality if she was not going to return it in kind. "One of these hunters knows where the Heartslocke grows. The Heartslocke that killed your friend. That put us in this trouble. We must find that one. Learn what they know."

She would leave the.. specific... words to Oios, but it was clear the monk wasn't here to make friends.

An animated conversation begins amid the hunters, with Latha occasionally answering a question, nodding along as they talk. Once the talk is concluded, the hunters pass her a basket filled with the flatbread and vegetables.

"They wish us to take some food with us this morning, and are not offended by your haste. Rumors run rampant around the Enclave. There is a hunter that is not here this morning - nor has he been seen since yesterday. He hunts on a string of lonely islands to the southwest, good for birds, as the bluepools at the head of the island breed many bugs, which draw the birds."

"The lonely islands are known to have clumps of heartlocke. Ithak is the hunter's name."

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The lonely islands are a couple of hours paddle southwest, and you arrive in time for the birds' daily awakening along with Ayida-Wedu.

You find a discovery at one cottonwood-choked island: one lone bullboat and one lone canoe pulled into the undergrowth beyond the muddy beach.

Istiel, an unmoving oak with just as much emotion, listens to Latha's rumors before snodding slowly. She reaches out a scarred hand for a roundbread, and starts to walk away.

"We will find this Ithak." She says simply before the roundbread quickly disappears under her mask, never to be seen again.

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With a grunt, the monk makes a final heave of her oar to launch their canoe directly into the muddy beach. She serves to stabilize the craft while the others get out one by one, As the final person exits she leaps from the back of the canoe onto the shore with a great splash of mud, sinking up to her ankles.

A sucking sound acompanies her first two steps, and then Istiel is rapidly walking towards the two docked craft in the underbrush. A cursory insepction of the two watercraft begins for any obvious clues, and then she starts looking for beast-person-like tracks away from the beach.

The hunter brings our people and the beastlings to this place, him in the canoe, them in the bullboat Oios guesses as he helps with the tracking.

Imix luxuriates in his warmth. Normally a night like this would have left him stiff, and cold - but his new vest radiates a gentle warmth that leaves him at his optimal temperature.

Brightly and sprightly he steps from the canoe, with a half-hump to make it to dryer ground.

"I will assist with tracking." he allows, then proceeds to theorise on every mark found by the others.

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Sarenith 27, mid-morning
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Tracks are easy enough to find on the beach, even a day later, and even with the drizzle that came though before. The barefoot prints of many beastlings, as well as the heeled footprints of six of your people indicate a meeting. Istiel leads, Oios and Imix assisting, and you follow the tracks into the cottonwoods, and find a game trail; apparently this island is visited not only by beastlings. The tracks disappear here, wiped out by the passage of something slithering and large - the sides of the trail contain many broken branches along it, the underfoliage is flattened where you walk. Up you go, along the trail and then down into a small valley. Passing by a muddy mire, likely dried up until the most recent rains, Latha points out a clump of heartslocke, barely clinging to life in the drought. The canes show signs of recent harvest.

The game trail leads from the mire into a crack in the earth, about four feet in diameter, perhaps recently covered by the foliage now flattened by whatever passed through. Crawling on your belly for a bit, you emerge into a small cavern, the ceiling large enough to stand in with your heads stooped and backs hunched.

Lighting a torch, you find the edge of the cavern leads to a small pond, its water crystal clear and cold. The pond extends outward, and you wade in, noting small blind fish swimming about your feet, seemingly undiseased, lacking tumors and hints of taint.

Wading further, another fifty or so feet, you can straighten your back, the cavern floor sloping down slightly, until you are thigh-deep. At the edge of your torchlight, something large shifts and turns towards you, slithering as your torchlight bounces off its scales.

The snake is huge, perhaps sixty feet long, though it is coiled within the water. Black boils cover its body, its skin is red and cracked, and its hide and scales slough off as it moves. Its eyes well with tears; but still, its remains unbent by this suffering and the maladies that afflict it.

The snake has recently eaten; it is apparent that there are things within it, in the process of digestion. The snake hisses and swims towards you, intent on gorging itself on the bounty that just showed up, or perhaps drowning you and saving you for later...

Istiel points to the boot prints as she sees them, sqautting next to the tracks for a better look. "Hamfatten." She says simply, squinting briefly before taking to all fours and crawling a short distance along the trail, face only a few feet off the ground. "Beastlings. Why did they all come here?"

Hopping back to her feet, the monk stalks through the brush, noting the game trial and the destruction of the tracks. "Something big... very big." She says with an edge of wonder and excitement on her voice. Though it wasn't said, someone could probably guess what she was thinkng; Could it be the dragon? Istiel didn't know if dragons slithered through the mud, but she was willing to find out.

The heartslocke is no surprise- Istiel gives it a cursory inspection before moving along and following the giant slightering thing.

She is the first into the den, digging her leathery, scarred hands into the dirt along the sides of the tunnel and crawling like some kind of mole. As the others pull themselves into the cavern she is lighting one of her few reamining jute-wrapped torches with a tindertwig, mixing together the old ways of the life they left behind and the new discoveries they have made along their journey. The sap-soaked torch gives off a thick black vapors, and she has to hold it high above their heads to prevent them all from being choked out by the acrid smoke.

She continues to lead through the waters, at one pont dipping in her hand and washing the mud off of it with a few quick sweeps. In the same motion she brings a cupped hand to her mask and pours it into the open hole of her mouth, tasting the water. "Fresh. Could be a spring." She mentions as they plod along the tunnel.

As the snake's scales glints in the torchlight, the monk stops, stunned. It was no dragon... no, but Istiel had no idea a snake could even reach such a size.

What a glorious kill this would be.

Oios grunts at the discoveries, pleased that many of the mysteries surrounding Hamfatten's death had been solved.

Hamfatten and his group led to this remote area to their death. Perhaps to show them untained water as a ruse? The poison harvested to kill their guides and throw suspicion on the Three Peoples... and.... this beast as a murder weapon... Latha... what is this? Do you know what it is capable of? Stay behind us!

With previous experience on how suprisingly deadly Drazan could become without his help Oios instead elects to shuffle behind Isitel and touch the monk to provide protection before she goes charging in as he fully expects her to do.

Latha fumbles with her arrowthrower, hands trembling. "Its a plague-bearing beast! Some creatures are affected adversely from the waters, and carry the taint as an infection - while they seem to be nourished by it, growing to enormous strength and size. Careful! Miasmas cling to it like moss to a tree!"

Round 1

The snake closes the distance between you quickly, its jaws snapping at Istiel, but Oios's protective field shunts creature's bite aside. The water ripples around Imix, sloshing and frothy, and the snake's tail slams at the Suriname - but Imix is quicker and uses his shield to absorb the brunt of the attack...

Round 1

As the snake's fangs glance off the protective magics surrounding her body, Istiel seems to recoil from the blow, her body twisting down and to the left. Yet it rapidly turns into a spin, and the monk's right leg launches out of the water to perform a roundhouse kick aimed directly at the offending reptile's putrid head.

Her torch sputters and water is thrown up into the air as she spins, and as her leg finds solid ground once more a balled fist follows through by smashing into the snake's hide. Again and again she drives her ragged knuckles into its body, which yields much easier than the rocks she had been training against lately.

The man from Fire Peaks surges into action, instead of channeling energy from his mysterious patron, leaping to meet the corrupted water snake with his ancient weapon and shards of chilling ice that spring from his arms, swelling with rage.

Round 1 retcon

Turned aside by Imix's shield, the plague-born serpent 'snakes' its tail around Imix's armor and twists along the Suriname's neck. Scales slough off and Imix's skin burns; the miasma is stomach-churning.

fort + bonus con - sickened: 1d20 + 6 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (2) + 6 + 2 - 2 = 8
Imix roars in pain as his rough skin reddens.

Too sickened to cast again, Imix takes his courage and pick in hand and strikes wildly against the snake, desperately trying to hold it's attention so Istiel and the others can strike home.

Oios mutters a plea to Damballah's pantheon asking for help as they face the diseased beast. The group feels a little more certain of their actions as they focus on the water creature.

Then he replaces Telowo's staff with his branched spear to try and stab the beast from behind the monk's protection.

Round 2

Drazan and Istiel's attacks land solid blows; blood splatters, scales and flesh fly. With Imix's coaching, another ax swipe from Drazan lands, spewing viscera into the water. And yet, the snake does not die.

Latha flings an arrow from her crossbow, her dextrous hands quickly replacing the arrow, and then again, but with no success: all of her shots bounce off of the snake's hide.

The water churns around you, frothy and violent, as the snake circles, threatening to sweep you off of your feet. It bites again at Istiel, this time latching onto her chest, and then quickly wraps itself around the monk, its muscles constricting against Istiel, its miasma cloying.

Again the tail snaps from the water, this time aimed at Drazan, and bounces off of the warrior's watery body, harmless.

All around you, the water churns, the snake moves, pulling you tighter together, as if it means to sweep you into one giant, killing embrace...

Oios stumbles at the churning maelstrom the snake created. Getting a hold of himself before falling face first in the water Oios continues to concentrate on bolstering the young monk as she is grappled by the beast. They were fighting in its territory.

Kill it... quick... he grunts.

Round 2

Istiel feels the sharp pain of one of the snake's sword-sized fangs tear into her torso; the monk does not flinch, but her ripped robes catch on the beast's teeth, whip her to the side, and make her easy prey for its almost slimy, diseased tail.

Struggling to free herself, she claws at the beast's hide with her fingernails, only serving to ripe off decaying scales and release a horrible stench into the air. Coughing from both the miasma and the pressure of the constriction on her chest, it was all she could do to keep the torch above her head and provide light for everyone else.

As her vision blurrs from the lack of air, Istiel has a sudden realization even as the creature's pointed head turns on its seemingly easy prey.

The snake was right where Istiel wanted it.

Every time the creature attempts to strike her immobile form to finish her off, she lashes out with an expertly timed fist straight into its nose, the force of the blow knocking its deadly fangs aside.

Divine energy channels through his rage, and his ax delivering judgement from the world of Drazan's patron while his feet churn the waters to struggle upright.

Round 3

Again, Latha's arrows bounce off the snake's tough hide.

The snake lunges at Drazan, but Imix's magic blunts the beast's attacks, and Drazan suffers no harm. Imix, entwined by the beast's serpentine coils, feels the muscles crush her; the monk's breathing comes labored as the snake squeezes, tightening its grasp.

Drazan's unchecked violence turns into an aggressive momentum, each swing with Bane resonating a celerity that feels instantly familiar and tangible to Drazan's allies.

Round 3

As the snake's grip increases around the monk's stocky frame, she starts to feel her own ribcage squeeze her lungs and heart like a man's fist wrapped about a grape.

She couldn't breathe, and both her head and legs felt filled to bursting with blood, giving them the odd sensation of being far heavier than the rest of her body.

The bizzare numbess that followed, the black on the edges of her vision, and the incredible pain did break her inhuman concentration. Her mind and body were one, and Istiel's mind was still clam and functional- it forced her body to do things no other person could do in this situation.

She fought on, one heavy arm bashing repeatedly into the side of the snake, her rapid and concentrated strikes having worn down the scales and skin to bloody white muscle beneath

You will DIE NOW, Spawn of Foul Waters Oios shouts at the snake as loudly as he can. It was an animal, and loud noises would scare at. Then he stabs it with his spear.

Blood splatters, scales fly, but in the end it is Oios that does the snake in, with a well-placed stab to the creature's eye. The beast lets loose one last hiss as it settles into the water, its coils relaxing around Istiel, allowing the monk to worm free. The water settles its motion, becoming more placid, the beast's blood spreading dark within it under your torchlight.

We must heal and quick Oios breathes out as he yanks the spear free and replaces it with Telowo's staff. Then retrive what is in the belly while keeping a lookout. Anyone who wishes to hide the evidence of their crime would choose a time such as this to strike.

Istiel is out of the snake's grasp as soon as it starts to die, the monk gasping a much needed, yet very painful, breath of air as she slides feet-first into the water. Stumbling and splashing about briefly, she still manages to keep the sooty flame of her torch above water before briefly righting herself. The rip down the left side of her robe exposes the monk's usually moon-pale skin beneath, now a bruised red-blue from being crushed under the snake's grasp.

As Oios gives orders the monk suddenly doubles over, coughing loudly and uncontrollably for several seconds. It ends with a few more heavy gasps of air, at which point she turns around and starts towards the snake in a lurching motion. Water and blood slosh up around her legs as she approaches a fat section of the snake, churning the once pristine pool into a frothy, reddish mess.

She nearly collides with the side of the snake while stumbling forward, and starts to grope for the flint knife on her belt. Drawing it, Istiel leans against the dead creature and drives the sharpened rock in deep. Pulling it towards her body in a sawing motion, more dark red blood spills out and down the incision, pouring across her hands and wrists. Withdrawing the knife she unceremoniously sticks the end of the torch into the incision, making sure it stands upright.

Turning her knife paralell to the snake's body, Istiel plunges it in and pulls it across the beast's strained gut, making a shallow three-foot long slash. Flicking her knife into the bloody water, she returns it to the leather sheath on her belt and puts her fingers into the sides of the wound. With a heaving noise the monk begins to pull apart the flesh of the snake, ripping open its side with her bare hands.

Oios heals Isitel for damage a few times as she works before turning attention to the others. We must get back to our healers to see this beast did not infect us.

Eventually, the group is able to fish the snake's food from its belly - although digested beyond recognition, the numbers and one corpse's still apparent bulk confirm your worst fears: Hamfatten and his lieutenants are dead.

Further analysis of the corpses shows that they were also killed by poison, not the snake. Indeed, the snake's own taint likely left it immune to any poison still left in the magistrates' bodies when it consumed them.

There is another body in the snake's belly as well, freshly dead and not killed by poison, a beastling. "Our hunter," Latha says, expression grim.

Almost as soon as he is sure the beast is dead, Imix calls upon his powers to heal himself and Istiel - only pausing to reiterate his demand, and drag Istiel and himself to the centre of the crystal clear pool.
"Get it out." growls Imix, unmoved by the dead "Before it contaminates the water. This much water, carefully used, could keep our peoples hydrated for some time."

Once the bodies are removed from the snake, Istiel doesn't mind following Imix's fussing about water quality. She stands back from the rest, holding together her torn robes with one hand as Oios and the others inspect the bodies and reach their conclusions.

"Our lead died with the hunter." The monk says suddenly as the beastling is identified. "But how did the bull boat of guards without the hunter? Someone put them there." She shrugs, unable to puzzle it out. "We have our evidence. The Three Peoples did nothing wrong. We must return to tell the Senate."

With that, Istiel sloshes forward towards the snake, and opens up its massive jaws with a grunt. Balancing its open mouth on her shoulder, she strikes one of its fangs once, twice, three times, each blow cracking the tooth until it breaks completely free.

"Proof." The monk explains if asked, picking up her torch before both it and the trophy away towards the exit of the freshwater spring.

We will take all the bodies back. For proof and to give them a proper burial.

Istiel pauses at Oios' sentiments, causing water to stir around her robes as she turns to face him. "There is no time." She states firmly, but respectfully. "We have until Ayida-Wedu's death to prove our people's innocence." She points to the narrow hole they had to crawl through in order to arrive here. "It will take hours to move them."

Her hand falls back to her side, still holding the massive serpent fang. "There is no time." Is repeated once more, with an added warning. "We must go. Or we will have to bury all our people."

Just Hamfatten then. Oios sighs sadly. There is little better than a corpse to prove a murder, and easy to claim it false without one.

"We can return, when the threat is lifted from us." Imix concurs "Though I wonder if the Flame, the Seers, or simple xenophobia are behind this."

Now that the threat is gone, you find that the underground lake extends a few hundred feet further before you again reach "dry" land - or in this case slippery cavern rock.

Latha grunts as she strains, pulling the snake - huge as it is, this turns out to be an exhausting and difficult task - to the far shore, where there is enough space for its body to rest outside of the water. "The Suriname is right. This lake is a gods-send. How does it exist, I wonder, unconnected to the cursed water around it?"

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The day grows long and feeble as you approach the beastling's Senate, Ayida-Wedu's life drifting below the horizon. Hours pass, as you wait outside the chamber's doors, before they creak open, and a guard beckons you inside.

The Senate sit perched as before above you, quiet enough to hear the rustling of papers. Speaker Orix rises, and his voice rebounds throughout the room. "You arrived just in time, heroes of the Flight. Tell us, what did your investigation uncover?"

Istiel, begrudgingly, hauls the huge snake out of the underground cavern. Even she pants and struggles besides their beastling guide, but she doesn't complain. "Damballah provides to his children." Is her only answer to Latha's question about the source of the underground lake.

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As the group enters the senate chambers, Istiel stands stoicly nearby, arms crossed over her chest. She had plenty of time to mend her robes as they waited outside, and the monk is once more completely cloaked in (slightly more beat up) black silk cloth.

Her mask turns slightly to the Suriname and Oios as the Speaker asks for their discoveries., waiting for them to deliver the news.

It uncovered much, Honored Speaker. Oios intones Damballah be praised we have shed much light was shed on shadowed places. I am sad to say that this is the only happy news that I am able to give to you and your assembly however. All of our peoples are companions in grief this day. But I get ahead of myself.

The first place we conducted our investigation was where the bodies of your guards were discovered. The weapon wounds on them were not the cause of death, they were mutilations done after death in order to deceive us all. The cause of death was what we call HeartLock and what you call Mud Blood.

Oios pauses as murmurs from his first revelation start to echo I understand that you would not take my word on this. he says before pulling the gourd out of his pack So here is proof. Retrieved from below the boats where the bodies were found.

He allows the gourd to be taken to the Speaker. Someone wanted to deceive your people into thinking that ours were responsible for murder by blade, and so carried out murder by poison before carrying out a desecration.

But that is not all, from there we went to the hunters, the last of your people to see our own missing ones. We learnt that a hunter, Ithak, served as a guide for ours to a lonely island, where heartlock is known to grow. We followed that clue and found a large plague beast, recently engorged on a meal. It attacked us, we killed it, and from within the body we found our Hamfatten and his magistrates. Dead from the same poison, and the body of Ithak as well. We have brought his body as proof before we bury him.

Dead men, as a rule, though a loose one in these dark times, are innocent of murder, and certainly when they are within the belly of a snake.

Latha interjects into Oios's testimony at points, corroborating the Shadow's account. When he is finished, a yelling, vociferous argument breaks out among the beastlings. The sides seeming to be similar to your previous meeting with the Senate, with Speaker Orix arguing against two other beastlings, one otterlike, the other with insectiod features.

Eventually, things quiet, and Orix turns again to you. "Truer words are hard to imagine, Leader Oios. Dead men do not murder. It seems this chamber owes your people an apology, and that we have a common enemy, hidden though that enemy may be."

The otterlike beastling stares at you, a stare that if it were magic, would likely kill. Its insectiod companion is harder to read, its mandibles clacking together slowly as it stares down at you from the Senate's high seats.

"So," Orix continues, "We apologize. Latha will be our emissary, and if we can provide you with any further assistance as to the investigation, please let us know."

"There is also the matter of the peace between our peoples. We desire both of our peoples to be safe, of course. I would like to hear your thoughts - should our folk be allowed to travel freely among yours, and the opposite as well?"

Istiel guffaws at Orix's question, the first sound and movement she has made throughout the entire proceeding. "No. The Three Peoples are not safe here. Until your Hidden Enemy is dead we should both protect our own." She states simply, casting her piercing hazel eyes upward to the Speaker.

"They have taken ours and yours. We will assist you." She takes a moment to glance at the otterlike beastling, whose stare seems as strong as Latha's bolt-thrower, and meets it head on for several seconds. The monk had never fought a beastling... that one looked like a good start to see how strong they are.

Her gaze slowly, casually, moves back to the Speaker. "I pledge the wrath of Marinette on your Hidden Enemy."

"Our Enemy." Imix speaks calmly, stepping forwrd "Turned those we had thought loyal, and left them within our lands as a Poison. It seems the same may have happened to you. This foul deed is a blessing, if it provides you with advance warning of what you face and you use it to make yourself stronger."
"We believe we have purged the Poison from our own breast, by virtue of them taking advantage of our Trust and Vulnerability to strike. I strongly urge you to take advantage of our experience to move first."
"Experience tells me you should expect a coming coup. A night of knives and poison, where those of your Senate not corrupted are murdered, allowing the ones not killed to take power. Expect this when it becomes harder for them to corrupt the pure hearted who remain."
Imix bows slightly "I would suggest the Senate pass a motion that condemns any senators who survive such a trial to die. This will negate the benefit to the Enemy of doing it in the first place, and give you time to move. Certainly I personally would assume any such survivor is a traitor to your people, and a danger to ours."

Advice given, he steps back.