The Needletooth Swarms
Each of the lizards is the size of a chicken. Their scales glint bright green in the light of the cook fire. Their teeth are as sharp as a lizard’s, and they move extremely quickly. Our heroes rise and draw their weapons as the mass of tiny dinosaurs darts forward like a coud of angry bees. Then the battle is joined.
Shouts of pain as the razor-like teeth swarm over the dogs, Brickneck, Jawbreaker, Zeke and Naomi... Sandy tumbles away, jabbing viciously and impaling one of the lizards... the bright contrast of blood with scales as Jawbreaker hews through dinosaurs. The smell of dinner burning as a blow from Brickneck sends a cloud of tiny dinosaurs sailing through the air. There is chaos and confusion. Rally! Rally, and defend your dinner!
Humphrey has not fought beside our heroes for long, but he continues to prove his worth, summoning a flaming sphere that rolls through a clot of the little lizards. Greasy smoke rises from it as Ezeekiel lays into more of them with his axe. Most of our heroes are bleeding, with little lizards crawling on them, or hanging by their mouths until they pull little chunks of meat free.
“Why does everything always try to eat us!” wails Sandy. It’s a rhetorical question, but he gets an answer.
“It’s because we’re so plump and tasty!” Naomi grins a foul grin, trying to focus her mind and unleash a swarm of crystal, but she fails to maintain her concentration. And she becomes even more distracted as the swarm rushes over her again! With the little monsters tearing into them, our heroes find it hard to do anything other than simply pluck them out and try to brush the green little dinosaurs off of them. Though they slay several at a time, these swarms are tough!
Then Brickneck falls, with little lizards chewing on him. Like a swarm of pirannha, they consume him in only a few short moments, ripping the meat free from his body! With shocking suddenness, Brickneck is dead!
Fortunately for our heroes, they have nearly as many dogs as halflings in the group. Barking and growling, their canine friends tear lizards limb from limb. Though themselves covered in squirming little biters, the dogs have done much good in this battle, and blood covers all of our heroes- both their own and that of the swarming monsters. Finally, Sandy, Chief Jawbreaker and the dog pack manages to chase off the remaining lizards- but what a cost! Glumly, they stare at their dead friend Brickneck.
“Well, at least we won’t have any more trouble with the Hot-Metal clan and their sacred marriage chain,” remarks Beau.
The party somberly buries Brickneck. Well, it might be more accurate to say that most of them are somber; Beau doesn’t much care, and Naomi briefly wonders about dwarf meat, but after thinking about the nasty crap they eat she decides to let the opportunity to sample it pass. After a brief moment of silence, our heroes reconstruct dinner, and before long they are in bed. Setting watches seems wise, so they do.
***
10/7/369 O.L.G., 2 p.m., along the edge of the Bay of Dyshim
The afternoon is overcast but warm. Still, winter is coming. Our heroes are heading north; before them is the Bay of Dyshim. It’s a good day to be walking.
As they move along, they spy what appears to be an old, broken-down lighthouse about 150’ out to sea on a small rocky isle. “Hey, look at that!” exclaims Federico.
”I wonder if the tide is in or out right now,” muses Martini. “It is possible that there is a way out there at low tide.”
Our heroes decide to check it out, with Humphrey wild shaping into a fat, sassy sea gull and flying out to check it out. He flies by once and sees something moving inside; after a closer look he wheels back to the party and tells them that someone is within the lighthouse.
Our heroes wait to see if the tide will recede at all; it does, and it gradually reveals a spur of rock that appears to lead out to the isle. However, the water does not fully uncover it. After watching the tide wash back in and out, our heroes determine to wait until the next low tide in the morning and ford the waters.
The next morning they do just that. As they approach the rocky prominetory, soaked to their upper thighs, a figure bursts out of the base of the tower: a halfling, of all things. Quelle chance!, as the elves says.
“HEY!” shouts the newcomer, and then he reels. It looks like he’s about to fall. For a moment, Martini thinks he’s wounded, but then the halfling from the lighthouse lurches forward and calls out again, raising one finger. “HEY! Yer jussht in time! Why don’tchoose- why don’tchoo come in f’r a dink?”
“He’s drunk,” Martini says.
“HEY!” the newcomer says again. “Ssho? Come have one. I’m >urp< Arthur. Arthur Ontap.”
“What are you doing here?” asks Federico. The party warily follows Ontap into the lighthouse. They find that, although it is in need of repair, Arthur Ontap’s living area is surprisingly organized. Set up along one wall is a mass of tubing with a small fire and various things bubbling and dripping.
“It’sh my sshtill,” Arthur slurs proudly. It develops that he’s brewing up a very special batch of liquor from some rare local fruits. “And it’ll be done in about an hour!”
“Well, we certainly can’t turn that down,” nods Naomi.
That evening the party and their new friend Arthur drink hard and long. If it involves eating or drinking, halflings know how to do it right; and Arthur is set up for drinking. Drink the party does, and perhaps party is the best word for that evening. But eventually even the stoutest of them passes out, for none of them is a dwarf. Not anymore.
***
Sharing a drunk is interesting. Sometimes, it takes but a single drunk with someone to forge a strong bond. The kind of bond that makes the drinkers hug and cry out, “I love you, man!” The kind of bond that makes complete strangers into lifelong friends. Whether or not this is a good thing is debatable, as those sort of drinking binges usually involve far more intoxication than judgment. Nonetheless, that’s what we have here: our heroes throw their collective drunk arms around Arthur and cry, “We love you, man!”
So it is that Arthur Ontap joins the party.
***
10/9/369 O.L.G., 11 a.m., along the Bay of Dyshim
The lighthouse is still visible behind them. Jawbreaker has looked pensive for the last few days. Now he approaches Ezeekiel.
“Ezeekiel, Jawbreaker want your help.”
“What do you need, Jawbreaker?”
Chief Jawbreaker sighs unhappily. “I make mistake. Jawbreaker try to make Heather Peachtree into wife, but instead, hurt her bad. Jawbreaker used to have advisor named Timothy. He help me avoid making bad mistakes.” He fixes Ezeekiel with his eyes. “Ezeekiel, you be Jawbreaker’s new advisor?”
Zeke blinks. After a moment, he nods. “Sure... sure, Chief Jawbreaker. I’ll be your advisor.”
”Good. You wise. You help me not make stupid mistakes. You help me find wife!”
Ezeekiel tries to explain about courting a woman. “You have to be interested in her. You have to listen to what she says.” Jawbreaker looks dubious, but seems willing to try it out. He keeps thinking about Grandpa Clubswinger and Grandma Oneeye. That’s how it has always been done, isn’t it? He sighs. He must listen to his advisor- that’s why he has one!
By midafternoon our heroes have moved into a heavy storm. Water beats down on them throughout the night, though the pace of the rain slows with the dawn. Soon the party reaches the town of Rathla. Rathla, on the Bay of Dyshim, is well situated, with a source of plentiful fish at hand, good metals from Dhali’s Fists to the east, and excellent trade thanks to Grunder’s Pass to the northeast, which leads both to the dwarven community of the Bloody Fist and also to the town of Methwo on the northern coast of Dyshim a hundred miles away or so.
In Rathla our heroes arrange to meet with the headman in order to plead for his town to join Sritivara in a free Dyshim. Unfortunately, Naomi shows the halfling prophecy tattooed on her gross thigh to the headman, and he chooses that exact moment to have a major stroke. Is it triggered by the bloated prophecy? Perhaps. It could have simply been his time, but- well, that’s a hell of a coincidence, innit? Any way you look at it, our heroes are escorted quickly away so that the headman’s loyal followers may attempt to tend him. Hortense states that, once she can pray for the proper spells, she is going to go back and attempt to heal him of any aftereffects of the stroke.
Either way, our heroes doubt that he will be very friendly to their cause at this point.
Next Time: Rathla’s Killer Ghost!