The remaining merchants and their subordinates allow themselves to be shepherded out of the inn, whether more from fear of a crazy wildling girl or the threat of the insect swarm is unclear. Tamecia rounds up her girls and follows close behind, pausing only to grab an old gnarled staff from the kitchen.
As you enter the cooling night air, It is obvious that time is short. The once soft insect song has become a savage roar. The cacophony of thousands of insects drowns out all the normal night sounds. The glow over the forest has become almost a false dawn, as jungle wildlife continues to emerge from the trees ahead of the oncoming swarm. The outpost guards, finally roused from their complacency by Orin, Adofo, and his guards, have taken positions near the west gate, and are peering curiously into the jungle. Further up the road out the west gate, you can see that Adofo has sent two men ahead to investigate the jungle edge.
Maavu moves to the east side of the courtyard and yells for his workers to start remounting his cargo. Motivated by the wail of insects and Maavu’s screaming, the porters leap to their feat and get to work. You see other merchants doing the same. Garthun’s men, on the west side of the courtyard, stand idle unsure what to do in their master’s absence. Tamecia screams at Orin while waving for her girls to get into a horse cart.
Marcus begins lifting large sacks of rice two at a time onto his shoulders, and then onto Maavu’s pack animals, while his worker’s rapidly try to harness them up. Valinnan lends a hand where it is needed, tightening a harness strap here, and helping a crate up onto an animal there...always with an encouraging word. Nai, Caytis, Svexyn, and Wilbur look for a way to distract the swarm...Wilbur leading the way with his glowing spoon. They discover a stash of firewood, cooking oil, some boards and roof panels used to repair the inn, basic tools, copious amounts of hay, some nails, and a well stocked meat larder.
However, time has run out.
At that moment, a cascade of chittering insects erupts from the jungle edge like a wild river. Thousands of dimly glowing bodies crawl over each other to get ahead of the pack. Each fist sized beetle smolders and twinkles like the dying embers of a campire. Amongst the swarm you can see the larger and brighter adult sized fire beetles floating on the river of beetles like saling ships on a stormy sea. The tide of insects washes over Adofo’s forward guardsmen. Their screams are mercifully drowned out by the screech of the swarm as beetles continue to poor from the jungle’s open wound.
On the open road, the swarm seems to loose some cohesion. Several small tributaries break off, one heading further up the road to the west, the bulk crossing the road to the south, and a large arm heads toward the open front gate of The Lucky Monkey. Orin, Adofo, and the remaining guards have frozen in the face of the oncoming tsunami.
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OOC:
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You have approximately 30 seconds (5 rounds) before the swarm is upon the Lucky Monkey. Garthun’s workers and wagons are housed on the west side of the courtyard near the gate, while Maavu’s cargo is on the east side. The remaining free merchants are scattered between each side as well as along the north wall. Tamecia and her girls are along the north wall trying to get into a wagon. Tamecia is attempting to quickly hitch a draft horse while her girls clamber inside. None of Maavus’ cargo is finished loading, and his workers will require 10 minutes to get fully loaded. 5 minutes will load about half the cargo. Garthuns workers are panicking without leadership and are threatening to run. The courtyard is approximately 50 yards square and requires about 2 full move rounds to cross west to east or north to south. The Main building of the inn is along the south wall. The party is currently located at the east wall with Maavu and his caravan
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