Everything was going so well! You had made some connections with the smugglers, had a few adventures, and now back to civilization. A few weeks ago a message reached you from Leothan by way of Corporal Robyn – asking you to come to his mother’s house in Sunden by the end of Raintide. That was 27th Suncrest.
2 days later, leaving Mistblossom, he caught you. Kol Tapok, a lizard-man bounty hunter who’d been dogging you for the last month. You thought he’d given up after you gave his kobolds the slip near Turtlebelly a week earlier. Turned out he’d just given you a bit of lead. What was his problem with you, anyway? As far as you knew, you hadn’t upset anyone near enough to have a price on your head, and Kol’s rep is that he’s strictly business.
Now, bouncing along behind him hogtied to a travois, head swimming with some damn dragonfolk poison or other, he’s telling you just that. “Not personal, Yehman. I follow you for weeks, you my kind of warmblood. Live in shadows, slinky, slippery. You no Sun-lover, either. But you worth lot more than those coins in your bag. And you be worth nothing to me if Chosen get you first. You lucky, Yehman. I gone fill you so full of tchong, you not feel anything that Black Skull bastard do to you anyhow. And when you dead, you stay that way, too. Not like if Chosen get you. So you gone give me those sovereigns, say thank you Kol Tapok.”
Black Skulls, eh? Maybe that half-orc priest decided getting a scorpion bolt in the guts wasn’t enough punishment. He must be rich, though, if you have a price worth more than the 150 sovereigns in your bag.
You bumped along through the moors all night, and most of the next, before you were loaded into a boat by a half-dozen squealing kobolds. The flies and mosquitos dined handsomely on you while Kol Tapok paddled through the maze of the swamps. In between singing to himself in the strange, multi-toned music of the dragonfolk, he continued to talk to you. “These Skulls, wish they still at Sweet Lake place. Was easier trip, no nasty fish, no Asshhlit’pak’du, no Three to worry about. But no, warmblood Wardens gone make things difficult. Good they kill so many of the Forsakers finding orc place, but bad for Kol Tapok when I want claim price on your head. Got to go Mist Isle, right under nose of Three, in deep lake where big ph’sshok fish live. And is long trip for you, warmblood. Those little bugs do like you, and I gone save tchong for when I give you to Black Skulls or you really be mad at me.”
Yeah. You’d really be mad at him. Because he didn’t drug you up now, so the bug bites wouldn’t drive you insane, so he could drug you up later when you might actually have a chance to escape. Awfully big of him.
It came out of the black water between the cypresses like a brown-and-yellow wave with teeth. Lots of teeth, and beady red eyes. Some kind of half-fish, half-snake thing. All you had time to do was gulp air into your lungs as the skiff pitched you overboard and Kol Tapok vanished beneath the water, locked in struggle with the monster fish. It was all you could do to keep your head above water, flexing your near-paralyzed body in spasms to twist onto a hillock of grass and muck. You could hear splashing in the distance… whatever that thing was, Kol Tapok seemed to be a bit much for it to digest.
Perhaps it’s the shock, perhaps it’s the terror, but feeling seems to be
returning to your rubbery limbs. Tentatively but urgently, you begin to
wriggle your hands free of your bonds. The splashing noises are coming
closer! As you work at your bonds, you catch a glimpse of something
brown and slimy roiling the surface of the water nearby… another monster
fish? A snake?
Free! Quickly, you undo the rest of your bindings and try to work some
feeling back into your leaden muscles. As you cast about yourself trying
to spot the skiff or some other way out of here, the misty twilight
parts and you see Kol Tapok, some 50’ away. He is struggling mightily
with a colossal eel-like monstrosity, twice his size. He seems to have
the beast mostly under control, but it isn’t quite dead yet – and he is
bleeding profusely from some nasty-looking bites.
There! The skiff floats only a couple dozen feet away from you, under
the vegetation. As you step into the water to make for it, though, you
spot that slimy brown back again. It’s another of the monster fish! And
it’s arrowing straight toward Kol Tapok, unseen.
As your well-concealed holdout knife parts the last of your bonds, you
see the fish pass nearby. Kol Tapok is oblivious to its approach – it
would be easy enough to leave him to feed the slimy horrors and make
your escape. But you’re in the middle of a strange swamp – and what if
he doesn’t lose? Better to have him owe you one. With a whispered curse,
you leap into the stinking water and stab at the monster, yelling
“There’s more of them!”
Before you can see whether Kol Tapok has even heard your warning, you’re
underwater. The thing is horribly strong, and its coils wind around you
like a snake, dragging you under as the jaws snap at your face. Again
and again, you blindly lash out with your knife, matching one slim steel
fang against its dozens of bony needles. You think it’s beginning to
weaken, but so are you… your lungs are bursting! At last, the creature’s
grip begins to slacken… but you cannot summon the strength to free
yourself… You’ve always heard that drowning’s not a bad way to go.
.......
....
..
AIR! It’s as if the hand of the Gods reached down and snatched you from
the waters. With a shuddering retch, the foul swamp water spills from
you, and a harsh voice speaks. “You think maybe you hatchling dragonkin?
Little tiny fang? Dive too deep for little warmblood lungs? But brave.
And for one who sell you to Black Skulls, too.” Kol Tapok is battered
and bloody, but as imposing as ever. “It seems that Semuanya does not
think you should be given to Black Skulls. She sends her hounds to tell
me so. And you, with your little hatchling fang, you even kill ph’sshok
that sneak up on me. Very brave, warmblood. The eldest of asshlit’pak is
not so easily slain – I am not food for Semuanya’s hounds – but you not
know my blessing.
“If you sneak away, I would hunt you, maybe I would kill you. Not good
for Kol Tapok’s reputation if his prey slips away. Semuanya says not to
give you to Black Skulls, but that not to make me let you live. You
brave like hatchling, that make me let you live. You try to help me,
that make me keep Dragon Lake from kill you. You still gone die, Death’s
Chosen find you. No harm for my reputation lose you to Aehana – I know
she from long time. She kill like fiit’k’k mist, that one. She and
Mister Death, they close.
“One thing I not understand, though, warmblood. Why Aehana want kill you
and other Fairhill heroes. You not important people, and she got no use
for dead-loving Black Skulls like Tavik. She kill him for Mister Death,
that I understand. She kill bunch of little heroes? Not make sense.”
Kol Tapok leaves you at the edge of the swamps, not far from the
Halfling town of Turtlebelly. As he poles back into the mist, his last
words to you are “Hide good, hatchling dragon. Death’s Chosen prob’ly
found your clutchmates already. Aehana say she know you come back to
Fairhill soon enough.”
2 days later, leaving Mistblossom, he caught you. Kol Tapok, a lizard-man bounty hunter who’d been dogging you for the last month. You thought he’d given up after you gave his kobolds the slip near Turtlebelly a week earlier. Turned out he’d just given you a bit of lead. What was his problem with you, anyway? As far as you knew, you hadn’t upset anyone near enough to have a price on your head, and Kol’s rep is that he’s strictly business.
Now, bouncing along behind him hogtied to a travois, head swimming with some damn dragonfolk poison or other, he’s telling you just that. “Not personal, Yehman. I follow you for weeks, you my kind of warmblood. Live in shadows, slinky, slippery. You no Sun-lover, either. But you worth lot more than those coins in your bag. And you be worth nothing to me if Chosen get you first. You lucky, Yehman. I gone fill you so full of tchong, you not feel anything that Black Skull bastard do to you anyhow. And when you dead, you stay that way, too. Not like if Chosen get you. So you gone give me those sovereigns, say thank you Kol Tapok.”
Black Skulls, eh? Maybe that half-orc priest decided getting a scorpion bolt in the guts wasn’t enough punishment. He must be rich, though, if you have a price worth more than the 150 sovereigns in your bag.
You bumped along through the moors all night, and most of the next, before you were loaded into a boat by a half-dozen squealing kobolds. The flies and mosquitos dined handsomely on you while Kol Tapok paddled through the maze of the swamps. In between singing to himself in the strange, multi-toned music of the dragonfolk, he continued to talk to you. “These Skulls, wish they still at Sweet Lake place. Was easier trip, no nasty fish, no Asshhlit’pak’du, no Three to worry about. But no, warmblood Wardens gone make things difficult. Good they kill so many of the Forsakers finding orc place, but bad for Kol Tapok when I want claim price on your head. Got to go Mist Isle, right under nose of Three, in deep lake where big ph’sshok fish live. And is long trip for you, warmblood. Those little bugs do like you, and I gone save tchong for when I give you to Black Skulls or you really be mad at me.”
Yeah. You’d really be mad at him. Because he didn’t drug you up now, so the bug bites wouldn’t drive you insane, so he could drug you up later when you might actually have a chance to escape. Awfully big of him.
It came out of the black water between the cypresses like a brown-and-yellow wave with teeth. Lots of teeth, and beady red eyes. Some kind of half-fish, half-snake thing. All you had time to do was gulp air into your lungs as the skiff pitched you overboard and Kol Tapok vanished beneath the water, locked in struggle with the monster fish. It was all you could do to keep your head above water, flexing your near-paralyzed body in spasms to twist onto a hillock of grass and muck. You could hear splashing in the distance… whatever that thing was, Kol Tapok seemed to be a bit much for it to digest.
Perhaps it’s the shock, perhaps it’s the terror, but feeling seems to be
returning to your rubbery limbs. Tentatively but urgently, you begin to
wriggle your hands free of your bonds. The splashing noises are coming
closer! As you work at your bonds, you catch a glimpse of something
brown and slimy roiling the surface of the water nearby… another monster
fish? A snake?
Free! Quickly, you undo the rest of your bindings and try to work some
feeling back into your leaden muscles. As you cast about yourself trying
to spot the skiff or some other way out of here, the misty twilight
parts and you see Kol Tapok, some 50’ away. He is struggling mightily
with a colossal eel-like monstrosity, twice his size. He seems to have
the beast mostly under control, but it isn’t quite dead yet – and he is
bleeding profusely from some nasty-looking bites.
There! The skiff floats only a couple dozen feet away from you, under
the vegetation. As you step into the water to make for it, though, you
spot that slimy brown back again. It’s another of the monster fish! And
it’s arrowing straight toward Kol Tapok, unseen.
As your well-concealed holdout knife parts the last of your bonds, you
see the fish pass nearby. Kol Tapok is oblivious to its approach – it
would be easy enough to leave him to feed the slimy horrors and make
your escape. But you’re in the middle of a strange swamp – and what if
he doesn’t lose? Better to have him owe you one. With a whispered curse,
you leap into the stinking water and stab at the monster, yelling
“There’s more of them!”
Before you can see whether Kol Tapok has even heard your warning, you’re
underwater. The thing is horribly strong, and its coils wind around you
like a snake, dragging you under as the jaws snap at your face. Again
and again, you blindly lash out with your knife, matching one slim steel
fang against its dozens of bony needles. You think it’s beginning to
weaken, but so are you… your lungs are bursting! At last, the creature’s
grip begins to slacken… but you cannot summon the strength to free
yourself… You’ve always heard that drowning’s not a bad way to go.
.......
....
..
AIR! It’s as if the hand of the Gods reached down and snatched you from
the waters. With a shuddering retch, the foul swamp water spills from
you, and a harsh voice speaks. “You think maybe you hatchling dragonkin?
Little tiny fang? Dive too deep for little warmblood lungs? But brave.
And for one who sell you to Black Skulls, too.” Kol Tapok is battered
and bloody, but as imposing as ever. “It seems that Semuanya does not
think you should be given to Black Skulls. She sends her hounds to tell
me so. And you, with your little hatchling fang, you even kill ph’sshok
that sneak up on me. Very brave, warmblood. The eldest of asshlit’pak is
not so easily slain – I am not food for Semuanya’s hounds – but you not
know my blessing.
“If you sneak away, I would hunt you, maybe I would kill you. Not good
for Kol Tapok’s reputation if his prey slips away. Semuanya says not to
give you to Black Skulls, but that not to make me let you live. You
brave like hatchling, that make me let you live. You try to help me,
that make me keep Dragon Lake from kill you. You still gone die, Death’s
Chosen find you. No harm for my reputation lose you to Aehana – I know
she from long time. She kill like fiit’k’k mist, that one. She and
Mister Death, they close.
“One thing I not understand, though, warmblood. Why Aehana want kill you
and other Fairhill heroes. You not important people, and she got no use
for dead-loving Black Skulls like Tavik. She kill him for Mister Death,
that I understand. She kill bunch of little heroes? Not make sense.”
Kol Tapok leaves you at the edge of the swamps, not far from the
Halfling town of Turtlebelly. As he poles back into the mist, his last
words to you are “Hide good, hatchling dragon. Death’s Chosen prob’ly
found your clutchmates already. Aehana say she know you come back to
Fairhill soon enough.”
