JollyDoc
Explorer
BATTLE OF THE BOG
Hooktongue Slough was a vast, trackless swamp, teeming with life, but equally inhospitable to life not familiar with its dangers. The six companions knew the way to Fort Drelev…at least on paper…but the reality was much more…meandering. They’d been in the bog for two days, with very little to show except for multiple insect bites, rashes in sensitive areas, and water-logged gear. The clearing they’d most recently wandered into differed from the myriad others only by the preponderance of dragonflies over other types of bugs. Had there not been so many of them, with their incessant droning, the sight might actually have been beautiful.
Suddenly, the droning intensified, and when the group turned to look around them, what they saw momentarily took their breath away. Eight dragonflies, easily the size of flying ponies, swarmed upon them from above. They darted and flitted about like their smaller cousins, but when they bit, their mandibles tore into the flesh of the companions like reaping scythes. Davrim, Velox and Stevhan formed a perimeter around Selena, Mox and Tungdill, trying to defend the magi, but attempting to mount a defense in three dimensions proved nigh impossible. Their blades and arrows struck precisely, but the chitinous exoskeletons of the insects deflected many of their blows. Then the magic began to flow. Acid, electricity and fire filled the air, and the bugs began to drop like…well, like flies. Several tense minutes later, the monstrosities all lay dead on the ground, and their smaller brethren began to gather for the feast.
“Ah…nuttin’ like getting’ back t’nature!” Tungdill laughed.
________________________________________________________
Two days later, the companions reached the shore of Lake Hooktongue itself. The massive, shallow lake stretched to the horizon, mist-wrapped and sinister. They set out to the south, skirting the dark water through the marshland along its banks. Fort Drelev lay somewhere on the opposite side, but it would be days before they reached it.
Late on the third day, as Stevhan and Davrim scouted ahead through a cypress grove, the ranger caught a quick flicker of movement from the trees ahead. Two man-sized, frog-like creatures detached themselves from the tree’s branches and darted off into the marsh, hooting and croaking as they ran.
“Boggards,” Stevhan said. “We’d better warn the others. Those two were scouts. There’re likely to be a lot more up ahead.”
Cautiously, the group crept forward through the dense underbrush until they emerged into a large clearing. In the center of it, surrounded by a dozen or more mud huts, was a large fire pit, a wisp of smoke rising from it to a massive stone statue chiseled to resemble an immense, menacing toad. No less than fifty boggards stood around the perimeter of the clearing, croaking and grunting, spears gripped in their hands. Near the middle of the village, eight boggards stood apart. They were taller, and more massive than the others, and they held barbed tridents. At their sides crouched large frogs the size of wolves. Beyond them stood another boggard, even larger still. This one wore an elaborate headdress and was bedecked in an assortment of totems and bone jewelry.
Mox stepped forward, her hands empty and upraised.
“We aren’t looking for trouble…,” she began, but before she could speak another word, the chieftain made a curt motion with his hand, and the eight soldiers rushed forward.
As the large boggards surged forward, the chieftain waved his hand again, and from out of nowhere, several buzzing swarms of red wasps appeared. At that moment, Velox’s eyes glazed over, and he raised his hands above his head. As he did so, flames erupted from the ground in the center of the village, stretching across the entire clearing. The boggards along the edge drew back, shrieking, their eyes like wide saucers. The fire engulfed the wasps, burning them all to ash in an instant. The wall also scorched two of the oncoming soldiers, and at the same time, Davrim and Stevhan opened up with their bows, peppering the warriors with a barrage of arrows.
“You had your chance, animals!” Mox growled as she rose into the air.
The queen flew above the top of the fire wall so that she could see the boggard chieftain. Then, calling upon her most powerful magic, she wove a spell designed to suck the air completely out of the lungs of its victim. She meant to drop the sorcerer in one fell swoop. To her surprise, the chieftain showed no reaction at all. The spell failed. A moment later, the big boggard cast his own spell, and a column of emerald fire roared down from the sky, completely engulfing Mox.
Two of the boggard warriors were on the near-side of Velox’s wall, and the pair that was trapped within it leaped free as well, their hides dry, cracked and smoldering. The quartet moved in, their tridents set, and their monstrous frogs at their sides. Velox and Davrim met them half way, and in a brief but violent exchange, three of the boggards and their amphibious companions were laid low. A flurry of arrows from Stevhan dropped the last one in its tracks as well.
Selena rose into the air on an updraft, rushing to reach the still-smoking form of Mox. The queen was conscious, though badly injured.
“Get back!” Selena cried.
To cover their retreat, she lobbed a fireball into the midst of the boggards on the far side of the wall, then grabbed Mox’s wrist and pulled her back to safety.
“Not…so…fast!” Mox grimaced through clenched teeth. “I’m…not done…yet!”
She turned at the last moment and hurled a second fireball into the mix. The boggards scattered, but the chieftain held his ground. As Mox let Selena push her before her, the shaman pointed one finger at them. In an instant, Selena ceased flying and fell heavily to the ground below. Unfortunately, she’d fallen on the far side of the wall, and was now alone against the chieftain and his four remaining bodyguards. As the witch climbed slowly to her feet, two of the boggard warriors pounced on her. As the first one struck, however, the curse that Selena kept constantly woven about her person was triggered in an explosion of electric fire.
“She won’t last long over there!” Davrim cried as he watched Selena fall.
The inquisitor braced himself, and then charged, roaring through the wall of fire. As he emerged on the far side, smoke and flames trailing from his clothing, he lowered his shoulder and slammed into one of the boggards menacing the witch. In that vital moment of distraction, Selena spoke a word and vanished in flash of brilliant light. Just then, Davrim heard something that sounded like rushing wind from behind and above him. When he turned to look, he saw a whirling vortex hovering over the fire wall, lightning crackling through it.
“You never cease to impress me, druid!” the half-orc shouted up at the elemental.
“You ain’t hard t’impress, boy!” came Tungdill’s thunderous voice in return.
Then bolts of electricity began arcing out from the funnel cloud, striking all around the boggard chieftain.
Selena reappeared some two-hundred feet above the battlefield, then quickly engulfed herself in a cocoon of magic that made her light as a feather before she could start to plummet. From her high vantage point she could pick and choose her targets at will. She hurled another fireball into the melee, engulfing the boggard leader and one of his bodyguards. The creature looked to the sky, then waved his hand around his head in a circle. A cloud of mist rose from the ground at his feet and quickly obscured him from view, as well as his wardens and Davrim. Within the fog, Davrim looked this way and that, jumping at the various shadows that moved around him. Suddenly, a boggard warrior loomed up in front of him, thrusting its trident at his gut. The inquisitor pivoted with the blow, grabbing the shaft of the weapon and swinging the boggard around in a wide arc that ended with the frog-man inside the wall of flames. It screamed its last as the fire took it. Davrim darted further into the mist until he came up against an even larger shadow…the boggard chieftain. He raised his sword to strike, just as the boggard began chanting a spell. Suddenly, the entire fog bank lit up with a burst of explosive fire. The shaman collapsed into a pile of ash, and Davrim felt the heat blistering his own skin as well. It passed a moment later, and all was silent around him. Was the battle over? Then, inexplicably, the temperature around him began to drop drastically, followed by a downpour of ice and fist-sized hail. Davrim folded himself into a fetal position, trying to protect himself from the barrage. An instant later, the temperature soared again as yet another fireball exploded. The half-orc tried to open his mouth to scream, but then the darkness overcame him.
Velox’s fire wall burned itself out at the same time that Mox dispelled the mist cloud. She fervently hoped that the combined efforts of her fireballs and Selena’s, coupled with Tungdill’s ice storm had done the job. She smiled when she saw the bodies of the boggards laid out like cordwood, but her face sank a moment later when she saw the other body laying among them…Davrim.
_________________________________________________________
The rest of the boggard villagers, who all during the battle had hooted and croaked each time their chieftain had struck a blow against the outsiders, stared goggle-eyed at the spectacle of their leader and their champions dead forms. Slowly, in groups of two and three to begin with, but then in greater numbers, they began to drift silently into the swamp. Soon, the village stood empty.
“I…I thought he’d gotten out again when I escaped,” Selena stammered as she looked down at Davrim’s burnt and broken form.
“It was the confusion of the battle,” Mox said solemnly. “No one’s to blame.”
“Ah, thank the Lady!” Velox said as he knelt down beside his fallen comrade. “He lives still, though just barely!”
The oracle, with Tungdill’s help, set about tending the worst of Davrim’s injuries while the others searched the village for survivors, or evidence of Drelev’s men having passed through. Their search proved futile, but Davrim recovered quickly under the ministrations of his friends.
“What…what happened?” he asked when he was finally strong enough to speak. “Did the chieftain have some sort of death curse upon him?”
“As a matter of fact, I think that is exactly what occurred,” Mox said tightly.
Velox looked sharply at her.
“It was a chaotic battle,” the queen continued, “but there is no doubt that it was you, mighty oracle, who dealt the killing blow to the brute. We are all indebted to your heroism.”
Davrim dropped his eyes, but couldn’t hide a faint smile of pride as his face flushed with embarrassment.
Hooktongue Slough was a vast, trackless swamp, teeming with life, but equally inhospitable to life not familiar with its dangers. The six companions knew the way to Fort Drelev…at least on paper…but the reality was much more…meandering. They’d been in the bog for two days, with very little to show except for multiple insect bites, rashes in sensitive areas, and water-logged gear. The clearing they’d most recently wandered into differed from the myriad others only by the preponderance of dragonflies over other types of bugs. Had there not been so many of them, with their incessant droning, the sight might actually have been beautiful.
Suddenly, the droning intensified, and when the group turned to look around them, what they saw momentarily took their breath away. Eight dragonflies, easily the size of flying ponies, swarmed upon them from above. They darted and flitted about like their smaller cousins, but when they bit, their mandibles tore into the flesh of the companions like reaping scythes. Davrim, Velox and Stevhan formed a perimeter around Selena, Mox and Tungdill, trying to defend the magi, but attempting to mount a defense in three dimensions proved nigh impossible. Their blades and arrows struck precisely, but the chitinous exoskeletons of the insects deflected many of their blows. Then the magic began to flow. Acid, electricity and fire filled the air, and the bugs began to drop like…well, like flies. Several tense minutes later, the monstrosities all lay dead on the ground, and their smaller brethren began to gather for the feast.
“Ah…nuttin’ like getting’ back t’nature!” Tungdill laughed.
________________________________________________________
Two days later, the companions reached the shore of Lake Hooktongue itself. The massive, shallow lake stretched to the horizon, mist-wrapped and sinister. They set out to the south, skirting the dark water through the marshland along its banks. Fort Drelev lay somewhere on the opposite side, but it would be days before they reached it.
Late on the third day, as Stevhan and Davrim scouted ahead through a cypress grove, the ranger caught a quick flicker of movement from the trees ahead. Two man-sized, frog-like creatures detached themselves from the tree’s branches and darted off into the marsh, hooting and croaking as they ran.
“Boggards,” Stevhan said. “We’d better warn the others. Those two were scouts. There’re likely to be a lot more up ahead.”
Cautiously, the group crept forward through the dense underbrush until they emerged into a large clearing. In the center of it, surrounded by a dozen or more mud huts, was a large fire pit, a wisp of smoke rising from it to a massive stone statue chiseled to resemble an immense, menacing toad. No less than fifty boggards stood around the perimeter of the clearing, croaking and grunting, spears gripped in their hands. Near the middle of the village, eight boggards stood apart. They were taller, and more massive than the others, and they held barbed tridents. At their sides crouched large frogs the size of wolves. Beyond them stood another boggard, even larger still. This one wore an elaborate headdress and was bedecked in an assortment of totems and bone jewelry.
Mox stepped forward, her hands empty and upraised.
“We aren’t looking for trouble…,” she began, but before she could speak another word, the chieftain made a curt motion with his hand, and the eight soldiers rushed forward.
As the large boggards surged forward, the chieftain waved his hand again, and from out of nowhere, several buzzing swarms of red wasps appeared. At that moment, Velox’s eyes glazed over, and he raised his hands above his head. As he did so, flames erupted from the ground in the center of the village, stretching across the entire clearing. The boggards along the edge drew back, shrieking, their eyes like wide saucers. The fire engulfed the wasps, burning them all to ash in an instant. The wall also scorched two of the oncoming soldiers, and at the same time, Davrim and Stevhan opened up with their bows, peppering the warriors with a barrage of arrows.
“You had your chance, animals!” Mox growled as she rose into the air.
The queen flew above the top of the fire wall so that she could see the boggard chieftain. Then, calling upon her most powerful magic, she wove a spell designed to suck the air completely out of the lungs of its victim. She meant to drop the sorcerer in one fell swoop. To her surprise, the chieftain showed no reaction at all. The spell failed. A moment later, the big boggard cast his own spell, and a column of emerald fire roared down from the sky, completely engulfing Mox.
Two of the boggard warriors were on the near-side of Velox’s wall, and the pair that was trapped within it leaped free as well, their hides dry, cracked and smoldering. The quartet moved in, their tridents set, and their monstrous frogs at their sides. Velox and Davrim met them half way, and in a brief but violent exchange, three of the boggards and their amphibious companions were laid low. A flurry of arrows from Stevhan dropped the last one in its tracks as well.
Selena rose into the air on an updraft, rushing to reach the still-smoking form of Mox. The queen was conscious, though badly injured.
“Get back!” Selena cried.
To cover their retreat, she lobbed a fireball into the midst of the boggards on the far side of the wall, then grabbed Mox’s wrist and pulled her back to safety.
“Not…so…fast!” Mox grimaced through clenched teeth. “I’m…not done…yet!”
She turned at the last moment and hurled a second fireball into the mix. The boggards scattered, but the chieftain held his ground. As Mox let Selena push her before her, the shaman pointed one finger at them. In an instant, Selena ceased flying and fell heavily to the ground below. Unfortunately, she’d fallen on the far side of the wall, and was now alone against the chieftain and his four remaining bodyguards. As the witch climbed slowly to her feet, two of the boggard warriors pounced on her. As the first one struck, however, the curse that Selena kept constantly woven about her person was triggered in an explosion of electric fire.
“She won’t last long over there!” Davrim cried as he watched Selena fall.
The inquisitor braced himself, and then charged, roaring through the wall of fire. As he emerged on the far side, smoke and flames trailing from his clothing, he lowered his shoulder and slammed into one of the boggards menacing the witch. In that vital moment of distraction, Selena spoke a word and vanished in flash of brilliant light. Just then, Davrim heard something that sounded like rushing wind from behind and above him. When he turned to look, he saw a whirling vortex hovering over the fire wall, lightning crackling through it.
“You never cease to impress me, druid!” the half-orc shouted up at the elemental.
“You ain’t hard t’impress, boy!” came Tungdill’s thunderous voice in return.
Then bolts of electricity began arcing out from the funnel cloud, striking all around the boggard chieftain.
Selena reappeared some two-hundred feet above the battlefield, then quickly engulfed herself in a cocoon of magic that made her light as a feather before she could start to plummet. From her high vantage point she could pick and choose her targets at will. She hurled another fireball into the melee, engulfing the boggard leader and one of his bodyguards. The creature looked to the sky, then waved his hand around his head in a circle. A cloud of mist rose from the ground at his feet and quickly obscured him from view, as well as his wardens and Davrim. Within the fog, Davrim looked this way and that, jumping at the various shadows that moved around him. Suddenly, a boggard warrior loomed up in front of him, thrusting its trident at his gut. The inquisitor pivoted with the blow, grabbing the shaft of the weapon and swinging the boggard around in a wide arc that ended with the frog-man inside the wall of flames. It screamed its last as the fire took it. Davrim darted further into the mist until he came up against an even larger shadow…the boggard chieftain. He raised his sword to strike, just as the boggard began chanting a spell. Suddenly, the entire fog bank lit up with a burst of explosive fire. The shaman collapsed into a pile of ash, and Davrim felt the heat blistering his own skin as well. It passed a moment later, and all was silent around him. Was the battle over? Then, inexplicably, the temperature around him began to drop drastically, followed by a downpour of ice and fist-sized hail. Davrim folded himself into a fetal position, trying to protect himself from the barrage. An instant later, the temperature soared again as yet another fireball exploded. The half-orc tried to open his mouth to scream, but then the darkness overcame him.
Velox’s fire wall burned itself out at the same time that Mox dispelled the mist cloud. She fervently hoped that the combined efforts of her fireballs and Selena’s, coupled with Tungdill’s ice storm had done the job. She smiled when she saw the bodies of the boggards laid out like cordwood, but her face sank a moment later when she saw the other body laying among them…Davrim.
_________________________________________________________
The rest of the boggard villagers, who all during the battle had hooted and croaked each time their chieftain had struck a blow against the outsiders, stared goggle-eyed at the spectacle of their leader and their champions dead forms. Slowly, in groups of two and three to begin with, but then in greater numbers, they began to drift silently into the swamp. Soon, the village stood empty.
“I…I thought he’d gotten out again when I escaped,” Selena stammered as she looked down at Davrim’s burnt and broken form.
“It was the confusion of the battle,” Mox said solemnly. “No one’s to blame.”
“Ah, thank the Lady!” Velox said as he knelt down beside his fallen comrade. “He lives still, though just barely!”
The oracle, with Tungdill’s help, set about tending the worst of Davrim’s injuries while the others searched the village for survivors, or evidence of Drelev’s men having passed through. Their search proved futile, but Davrim recovered quickly under the ministrations of his friends.
“What…what happened?” he asked when he was finally strong enough to speak. “Did the chieftain have some sort of death curse upon him?”
“As a matter of fact, I think that is exactly what occurred,” Mox said tightly.
Velox looked sharply at her.
“It was a chaotic battle,” the queen continued, “but there is no doubt that it was you, mighty oracle, who dealt the killing blow to the brute. We are all indebted to your heroism.”
Davrim dropped his eyes, but couldn’t hide a faint smile of pride as his face flushed with embarrassment.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
