Adventure #2: Court of the Frog Queen
PART TWO
Helga is soon roused from her table, still carrying her final beer and feeling quite intoxicated. The three of them let their other companions sleep, confident that this entourage is sufficient to protect Delphina Moongem while she collects the herbs and roots necessary to brew a tonic for Cynthia Padraig. Following his father’s directions, they soon find the simple flat and knock on the door. It is answered by a red-haired elf maiden, her hair intertwined with fragrant flowers.
“Oh. Yes! You’re son of the lord, of course. Come to help me find snailwort? Of course you are. Come, come! It grows on Jade Hill, but we must find it while it’s fresh. I know where to look. Follow me!”
She pushes past the group, barefoot and clad in a skimpy dress, and the others look at each other thoughtfully. Delphina Moongem seems to imbibe a few too many herbs that she collects. She is a flighty, absent-minded girl who dashes ahead, seemingly oblivious to whether they are following or not. She is unarmed and only carries a satchel to gather ingredients. At the front gates the guards recognize her, and she states her business as an errand for Lord Padraig. They open the gates enough for everyone to slip out one at a time, and then the gates close behind them.
They are beyond the walls, the moon a high, pale white orb looking down on them.
The forest creaks and chirps with night creatures, rustling softly as they pad down a well- worn path. It is not terribly dense wood, certainly nothing like the tangled undergrowth of the High Forest which Ash knows hides all manner of secret, dangerous things. Delphina hums to herself, stopping occasionally to pluck a purple mushroom that she nibbles. The party members begin to wonder just how much this young elf girl is in her right mind, and how much she’s floating in a semi-world of wonder and bliss. How could she possibly survive alone out here?
Soon though, they hear something large tromping through the woods. Ash halts Delphina and Brandis, but the elf wanderer giggles and pulls away, dancing ahead without heed. Helga grabs the girl and forces her to wait while Ash sneaks ahead. He hears the thing moving around, twigs cracking and branches breaking, and then a breathy SNORT! He freezes just as he crawls around the enormous bole of a duskwood tree, and he sees in the shadowed canopy a large porcine silhouette; cloven hooves, bulbous head and snout, curved tusks – it’s a huge boar, and it sees Ash at the same time!
“Big…PIIIIG!” the rogue bellows, tossing his sunrod at the thing, and the creature explodes toward him with a ferocious snarl!
Light blooms around the tree in a wide berth, and in the resulting glare Ash clearly sees that this boar is not wild; a saddle is strapped to its back, stirrups dangling down, but the saddle is slathered with a copious amount of fresh blood…
The ground is uneven from roots breaking the soil, and the beast’s charge is hampered, but it still manages to gouge the rogue. Ash staggers back, swinging his dagger in defense, using the trunk for cover. Helga puts her beer down and unslings her ax. Brandis the Human Warlord rushes up to help their ally, following the light from the sunrod, but they spectacularly fail both of their Perception checks, until Delphina points, crying out: “Look! Another piggie! I like piggies.”
Sure enough, there is a second boar crouched in the foliage on the other side of the duskwood, and it clambers over the roots and charges Helga, slamming into her. The dwarf stubbornly plants her feet and pushes back, falling prone at the thing’s cloven hooves. Like its companion, this boar also boasts a saddle coated with blood that is not the pigs.
Something in the woods killed the riders, but what exactly, they cannot tell.
The resulting fight is ferocious. The rogue and warlord manage to flank their boar, raining down sharp blows from longsword and dagger, hacking through tough hide and leather barding. Helga the dwarf has a tougher time, Bloodied by consistent hits from her foe.
“Delphina! Help me!” the dwarf bellows, but Delphina has trotted nonchalant to the base of the tree and is digging around, ignorant of the battle raging around her. Something has caught her interest, despite the rampant squeals and screams and scuffling.
At last, one of the boars is dropped, but ferociously surges up for one last dying attack, narrowly missing Brandis Padraig. Ash moves to flank the remaining boar, while Brandis gives the dwarf strategic advise, resulting in a flurry of axe blows, severing a tusk and half of the thing’s face. The boar staggers in agony while Ash sinks a dagger into its haunches, and finally Helga lands a killing blow into its skull, crumpling the beast into a quivering lump of coarse hair, brain pulp and blood.
They search the boar corpses, wracking their memories for knowledge about what kind of creature would ride a boar? Goblins have been known to ride wolves or worgs into combat, and the saddles are big enough...maybe even for a man. Or a large goblin. The only other clues are strips of cured meat in the side pouches, which could just as easily be cured beef as it could be cured human or cured elf. They don’t take the meat.
The next unanswered question is what killed the riders and left the boars?
“Ooh! Ooh! Look what I found!” cries Delphina Moongem. She rushes up, cradling plants in her hands. “Yellowfiddle! This is SO hard to find, you just don’t know.”
Helga the dwarf growls at her. “Why didn’t you help? We could have been killed.”
Delphina glances around. “Oh, I’m sorry. I…I did not notice. Are…are the pigs hurt bad? I hope not…”
The dwarf has had enough of this elf imbecile and stalks off. Brandis grunts, following, and Ash is about to follow too when he hears a distinct chittering laughter in the trees. They all stop, and for a brief moment catch a glimpse of something bright RED in the branches, and then it’s gone, tinkling laughter melting into the darkness.
Unnerved now, and afraid that something else is stalking them, they follow Delphina to Jade Hill, which she insists is not far. Soon, the woods reach an end and they see a large hill rising before them toward a clear, bright, uncluttered moon.
“There! Not far now!” the elf wanderer announces, and she hikes up her dress and begins climbing the hill. Brandis and Helga follow, but Ash hangs back, sinking into the shadows and extending his senses into the darkness behind them, wary of anything following, his dagger ready to lash out and kill it…
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