NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2822280" data-attributes="member: 1210">Our heroes (less Jorgen, who has returned to Whitewater to ensure justice is served on the man who held his sister a prisoner in his basement for so long) make their way downslope towards the muck of the Dipper, leaving their mounts tied at the edge of the first big sink in the ground.  They know that horses will do them no real good in the marshy ground of the Dipper.  But surely the party can stay stealthy enough to avoid a major engagement, and perhaps unearth the reason why the Tydonians are coming from the Dipper at all.  After all, a fetid swamp that requires a significant detour seems an unlikely area from which to stage a war!The Dipper is a large area, miles across, where the ground has sunken. According to old bards’ tales, this happened generations ago, during some kind of magical war.  Water drains into it from the higher ground that lays in all directions, and a small river runs from its western edge, eventually to join the Roaring River that runs through both Whitewater (the home town of most of our heroes) and Kamenda City.  It is up this small river that the Tydonian forces are coming; yet the Dipper is a swamp near the south side of the Barony of Kamenda, and the Duchy of Tydon lies to the east.  The south is the wrong side for Tydon to attack from, but that is the direction they are coming from.  Why?  How?  Finding the answers to those two questions is the essence of our heroes’ mission.  Of course, if they were to hurt the Tydonian advance in the process, Baron Rusk would not be disappointed.  Down into the Dipper our heroes go.  Dahlia’s attempts to scout in eagle form are fruitless, as the foliage is too thick to allow a bird’s eye to see the ground and water.  Goer suggests following the water downhill, reasoning that if the Tydonians are taking troops towards Kamenda City by boat- as our heroes have seen- they will be where the water concentrates.  They must be, if they are going to float boats at all!  His logic seems indisputable. As he explains his reasoning, Dahlia approaches Kyle.  “How’s the elf?” she asks.“I don’t know,” he replies, fidgeting and biting his lip.“What do you mean, you don’t know?”“Ask Otis.”  Kyle is plainly unhappy.  He drops his gaze to his feet.His master comes to his rescue.  “I gave him to the Keepers of the Cerulean Sign,” Otis announces.“You what!” exclaims Goer.“That elf was nothing but trouble.”  Otis is firm.  “As long as we had him, the Tydonians are going to be looking for us, not to mention the black magic cult or whoever Sir Harth was working with.  Ever since we got to Kamenda City, we’ve been misled, sent in the wrong direction and tricked.  We got sent after red herrings outside the city and missed a chance to catch the cult the night we found their altar while we were patrolling.  We were tricked into accusing Sir Galadon of being the traitor.  All along, that elf brought us nothing but trouble.  Think about it.”“But the Keepers of the Cerulean Sign will kill him!” Dahlia groans.“No.  We came to an agreement.”“Oh yeah?  And what was your half of the agreement?” demands Colder. “I gave him to them,” Otis says.Kyle remains silent, the unhappy look remaining on his face.  It is clear that he does not (and, at the time, did not) like Otis’ decision.  Neither does much of the rest of the party.  But everyone has to agree that Otis has a point: the elf is a big juicy target for enemies. Moreover, it’s too late to do anything about it; done is done.  He’s gone.  “Shikexil,” Dahlia says mournfully.  She gives Kyle a dirty look.  He only shrugs unhappily.  Down the party squelches, following rivulets that trickle beside muddy banks.  Soon the party is surrounded by thick groves of banyans and tall clumps of marsh grasses.  Swamp willows hunch over the wet ground, their long, concealing branches dangling above the adventurers.  The buzz of insects drifts through the air.  Everyone curses the mosquitoes at one point or another. Finally, after about half an hour of trudging through increasingly marshy areas, some strewn with random large broken boulders, the lower areas of ground around the party are starting to be full of water.  Abruptly our heroes emerge, warm and sweating, in a clearing.  A strange beast is there, chewing on some grass.  It has an ugly, warthog-like head with curving tusks perched at the end of a long, weak-looking neck; a stout, club-like tail; and a body much like that of a cow, complete with fat pink udders.Kyle shrieks in fear at what is obviously a terrible monster and casts a magic missile at the ugly beast.  Me pulls out his sling, gaping at the weird monster.  “It’th kind of cute, but what ith it?” Sir Cedric wonders.*The creature’s eyes fix on Me and a green ray shoots out of them.  Me gasps and clutches at his chest, coughing- but just manages to resist the death gaze.  “Me not like this creature!” he cries fearfully.“Moooo,” says the creature.Dahlia calls lightning and begins zapping the thing with bolts, one after another.  Otis fires a volley of magic missiles at it as well, and the monster moos loudly in pain.  Again it fires a death ray from its eyes at Me, but the scout manages to throw off the worst of the effects again: he lives, though pain courses through his body.  “Mangle dangle, I’m taking cover!” Colder squeals.  He moves closer to the monster and ducks behind a bush.  Even as he does so another crack of lightning descends to strike the strange cow-like monster.  Sir Cedric slogs forward towards it as best he can, and the thing trundles through the muck to meet him.“Mooo!!” the beast cries, and swings its great tail at Sir Cedric.  The knight catches the blow on his shield and prepares to reply.  Meanwhile Otis is incanting yet another magic missile, and the thing weakens visibly.  It is now scorched and pocked from multiple magical assaults, and a final blast from Dahlia’s call lightning is more than it can take.  Already bleeding and burnt from multiple wounds, the monster crashes sideways into the marsh with a last, despairing “Mooo.....”  A splatter of muddy water sprays from the impact of the bizarre creature’s body on the wet ground, and then it lies still.  The party gathers round the corpse to examine it.  “What is that thing?” asks Colder.  “Mangle dangle, it could have killed us all!  Otis, do you know what it was?”“Of course,” the wizard bluffs.  “It was a swamp deathcow.  They moo like cows, their gaze brings death and they live in swamps.”“It could not overcome the power of my pinkie finger,” Sir Cedric declares sternly.  “Uh- right, my lord.  Here, drink this.”  Goer knows just how to distract Sir Cedric.Me sits down at the thing’s side.  Experimentally, he squeezes an udder.  Milk squirts out.  Everyone looks at one another, not quite sure what to make of this. “Me thirsty,” says Me, and squirts some milk directly out of the teat into his mouth.  He swallows, and then loudly smacks his lips.  “Ahhh!” he sighs, sounding quite satisfied.Aghast, Kyle warns, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”“Why not?”  Me looks puzzled.  He drinks another squirt.  The party watches for a few moments as the big half-orc guzzles some more, and then most of them decide to try it.  It is delicious.“This is surreal,” comments Goer.  “Here we are, sitting in the Dipper, enjoying a little deathcow milk...”  He laughs heartily.The party resumes their movement.  As they traverse the swamp, a very large, horny-scaled snake assaults them, trying to eat Dahlia, and they dispatch it.  Dahlia identifies it as a dire snake, and the party talks about skinning it but decides that it will take too long.  There is considerable debate over whether to simply leave the body- it seems too big to move easily- or leave someone behind to skin it.  In the end, Dahlia and Me remain behind to skin the snake.  The group plans to rendezvous the next day.  When the rest of the party resumes its journey through the mud and grass, the sun is showing late afternoon.  Half an hour after they set out, they stumble into a wooden fence- certainly not intended for security, but more as a property marker, or perhaps intended to keep cattle in.You can, of course, see where this is going.Next Time: Jorgen dispenses justice in Whitewater!  *Everyone with Knowledge (arcana) failed their check to recognize this creature.  Several players knew, though. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" /></blockquote>

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