The Ketkath Mountains are said to be filled with all manner of strange creatures unknown in more civilized lands. Some of them seem to be creatures of legend and fairy tale. Some are so bizarre as to defy description. The vast majority are very dangerous. Travelling along paths and roads through the Ketkath is risky enough. Blazing a trail on your own can be downright suicidal.
The party however, making their way north-west towards the Halmae, is only skirting the foothills.
Part the Fifty-Ninth:
An interlude, in which: Fajitas gets what’s coming to him.
The party is a few days out of Miyen lands, and the terrain has begun to grow rougher and steeper. One crisp, cool morning, as the party breaks camp, Reyu notices Hue and Benedic standing by the banks of a nearby creek, engaged in a rather heated discussion:
“But don’t you think that’s what it looks like?” Hue asks.
Benedic lets out an exasperated sigh. “Like I said, it’s not impossible. But I’ve never heard of them, or seen them, and you’re not going to find anyone whose spent more time in the Ketkath than I have.”
“But we’re not in the Ketkath,” Hue points out. “Have you ever been here before?”
Reyu approaches.
“What… have you found?” she asks.
“Giant squirrels!” Hue cheerfully informs her.
Benedic steps in with more information. “Tracks. He found some strange tracks that he thinks belong to a giant squirrel.”
Reyu bends down to examine the tracks for herself. They do look like squirrel tracks, only… much bigger.
She straightens, puzzled, and turns from Benedic to Hue, and back again. “I understand your confusion… but I do not see what else they could be.”
By this point, the rest of the party has gathered to find out what is going on. And Hue, having been given a shred of support for his stance, is determined to study this new, possibly heretofore undiscovered, species.
Benedic, for his part, is merely frustrated. “Look, you hired me to be your guide, and as your guide, I’m telling you that the Ketkath is full of half-a-dozen things that could have left tracks like that, and giants squirrels are by far the friendliest option.” He looks down at Hue. “I know you've got this... thing... about squirrels, but listen: these mountains grow predators. Things like dire wolverines, blink dogs, owl bears… not ‘giant squirrels.’ I mean, what would a giant squirrel eat? A million acorns a day? One would wipe out an entire mountain and still starve over the winter.”
“See,” says Hue—clearly not bothered by Benedic’s logic, “that’s the kind of thing I would be researching... You guys go on. I’ll catch up.”
The rest of the party exchanges dubious glances.
(Meta note: for more than a month now, Hue had been played as an NPC, as his player had essentially dropped off the face of the earth. Having decided to go ahead and write Hue out of the story, Fajitas probably figured that we would just take him at his word and let it go at that. The incidents which follow are what he gets for grousing about our meta-gaming last time Hue took a leave of absence, when he did have a cute little mystery for us to discover, which we stubbornly refused to pursue.)
Thatch leans down to Dennis and whispers, “I’m not sure we should leave him here in the middle of the woods, chasing ‘giant squirrels’.”
“We are not in a hurry,” Reyu points out. “We could investigate these tracks… for a little while at least.”
Benedic throws up his hands. “Fine.”
###
The tracks lead into the woods, and soon vanish, but Reyu notices tree branches with broken twigs, possibly signs that an animal has passed this way.
Thatch quickly shimmies up the trunk. But, as skilled as he is at climbing, 200-plus pounds of fighter are bound to shake the tree a bit and he barely ducks out of the way in time when a large object comes clattering down the tree, falling by just inches from his head.
“Umm… was that really a—?”
“Giant acorn,” Lira confirms.
Hue’s eyes are practically glowing with excitement. He tugs on Benedic’s sleeve, pointing to the acorn. “See, I bet the giant squirrels eat those!”
On Hue's shoulder, the Ferret is clearly thinking overtime.
Thatch looks down at Benedic, Lira, and Reyu, all standing in a circle around the large seed, staring up at him.
“Umm... Could someone toss me my helmet?”
Before anyone can move, a large blur of brownish-red fur goes zooming by the branch where Thatch is crouched. Without taking time to think about what he is doing, he reaches out a hand and grabs, managing to wrap his fingers in the end of a large, bushy tail.
He is holding what can only be described as a giant squirrel.
On the ground, Hue turns to Benedic, “I told you so.”
“I uh… guess you did.”
“Lira,” Reyu whispers, “slowly, give me the acorn.”
Silently, Lira does. And Reyu, armed with a bit of food she is pretty sure that the squirrel will like, begins to cast animal friendship.
(Fajitas slowly bangs his head against the table.)
###
The party stays in the area for a few more hours. Reyu introduces Hue to the squirrel and attempts to convince the squirrel that Hue is no one to be afraid of.
Euro is not convinced that the same could be said of Hue’s familiar. I don’t trust that ferret, Boss. He’s up to something.
Up to what? Lira thinks back, I don’t disagree, but do you really think that someday we’ll be back in Dar Pykos and suddenly a herd of giant squirrels led by the Ferret will come cresting over the horizon?
Boss… I wouldn’t think that too loudly if I were you, you know?
Despite some token protests from the party, Hue is determined to stay and study the giant squirrels. “I’ll just stay here for a few weeks, and then I’ll catch up with you!” he assures them.
And so, the rest of the party (skeptically) moves on.
**********
Travel progresses apace. The weather has turned decidedly cold, but the days are sunny and the skies are clear. And then, one afternoon, just as they come around the bend of a small river, the party members get their first look at the Ketkath Mountains.
Craggy peaks form a long grey wall of forbidding granite, their sharp fingers reaching to the clouds.
A short time later, Benedic informs the party members that they have reached the southern border of the Kettenek Sovereignty.
to be continued...
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