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Message: <blockquote data-quote="drnuncheon" data-source="post: 595231" data-attributes="member: 96">Session Fifteen, Part Four: PanitubeCompiler's Note: You hoped I posted soon - and so I have!  It was kind of funny watching Di'Fier turn purple at the game though.Last night marked the end of the Isle of Dread.  I have been falling far behind, I fear - I have 200 days of game time and about 2 months of real time to cover.  How did I get this far behind?Not only did I fall behind, I somehow messed up my numbering scheme.  Session 14 was stretching longer and longer, mostly because it incorporated all of fifteen and part of sixteen!  I'm going back to correct that after this post...but for now, Di'Fier needs to breathe!Di'Fier struggled with the vine, trying to tear it away from his throat just long enough to gasp another precious breath of air.  He could hear ringing in his ears.  No, not ringing...a song.  A song?  The vine shuddered as something hit it, convulsed, loosened its grip a bit...he dug his fingers in and pulled.Slowly, the vine was forced back, its tiny fibers still groping blindly for him.  He forced it away, ducking under his arm and flinging it off, pulling his sword in the same motion.Shesara's song faltered as one of the vines lashed across her chest, sending her staggering back as she twisted to avoid its clutches. More of the things quested through the grass, and he swung his blade like a scythe.  Dru had grabbed one and was hacking away with the edge of her rapier even as it wrapped itself around her throat.A tendril rose snakelike in front of Di'Fier, and he sent his blade slashing through the fibrous pulp once, twice, dropping it to the ground in three pieces.  Benares battered uselessly at the vines with his staff, managing to keep them away from him but little else.Grimly, Dru sawed at the vine, wishing for just a moment that she had a heavier blade - or maybe one of Ellerand's axes.  She could feel the fibers parting, but she could feel her own consciousness fading as well.  Slow, too slow.  She could see the center of the plant now, a massive knot nestled in a stunted tree...if she could only warn the others.She tore at the vine with blade and fingernails, falling to her knees.  She could see Shesara tugging at the plant, trying vainly to unwrap it from Dru's throat, even as another one crept up behind her. Dru shoved her down, out of the way, hacking one last time at the vine on her before her blade sliced through the air at the new attacker, its arc cutting cleanly through the tendril.She stumbled, fell to one knee, and tore at the vine around her neck.  It came off without resisting, and she looked back to see that her last desperate attack had parted it.  She tried to cry a warning to the others, but her voice wouldn't work.Di'Fier saw Dru sprinting towards the tree.  What is she doing? he thought, his blade cleaving into the dirt.  Severed tendrils writhed a moment before stiffening.  Her blade plunged into something on the tree, again and again, and finally he understood.  With a yell, he leapt over another of the vines and charged.Dru stabbed at the thing, her rapier thunking into the woody center. How the hell do you stab a plant to death? she thought furiously, her hands numbing from the abuse.  She heard a strangled cry, and threw herself backward just as Di'Fier's blade came smashing down, splintering the plant's ligneous exterior and sinking deep into the pulpy center.And then it was over."Is that..." rasped Di'Fier.  "Is that what's...been getting travellers?"Dru shook her head. "No...idea.  You sound like Jaffar."  She considered that a moment.  "...we both do."Benares and Shesara looked on in silent confusion as the Watchmen laughed.<img src="http://www.io.com/~jeffj/b2sep.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Benares' JournalDay Fourteen - BurowaoAfter the disastrous encounter with the plant(s?), which I have tentatively classified as a variant of vineus assassinatus, we decided to press on to Burowao, rather than risk spendingmore time in the jungle.  To our great surprise and pleasure, the 'Zombie Master' here received us with much pleasure, and the ability to speak with us magically.Perhaps I should say a few words about these Zombie Masters.  They are the only practitioners of magic in these villages, and are generally considered to be dangerously insane.  Yet for all that they are accorded a place of power second only to the matriarch and possibly the war leader - depending on the village.  They are the creators and the guardians of the 'walking ancestors', some of which we encountered in the jungle outside the wall.  The walking ancestors are frequently asked to do jobs that are considered too dangerous for the normal villagers.The Zombie Master seemed rather amused when we told him of our entounter with the vine.  Apparently the people of these villages know the signs of one, and did not consider that we would not have the same sorts of plants where we came from.  He was impressed that we were able to fight our way free. In any case, we should be able to recognize them in the future.He also confirmed our suspicions that something is wrong in Panitube - the people that went there most recently have not returned.  Today, we will rest, and tomorrow press on to see if we can discover the source of the problem.<img src="http://www.io.com/~jeffj/b2sep.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> For all its silence, the village did not look peaceful.  It was too ominously still for that.  No animals cried in the forest, no fires burned, no people shouted, no children laughed.They had waited for the cover of darkness before slipping in, letting the keen eyes of the elves guide them.  Di'Fier kept one hand on the hilt of his sword as he crouched low and crept forward towards the stilted longhouses."Bottom of the hut," Dru murmured, avoiding the hissing sibilants that might betray their position.  "Body."They crept closer, sliding easily into the shadows below the longhouse.  Dru reached out, rolling the corpse onto its back, and into the dim moonlight.  "It was bitten," she said, scowling."It doesn't look like an animal bite," Benares said.Di'Fier shook his head.  They'd seen enough wounds like that in the aftermath of tavern brawls.  "It's not.  It's a human bite."Something about the quality of the stillness changed, and Dru's attention flashed upwards.  "There's something moving out there...and it's getting closer."Shesara knelt, picking up a rock. She murmered a few words over it, and it began to glow.  Dimly at first, it illuminated only the companions, but then the glow grew brighter, blazing forth until it seemed like high noon, but for the shadows that streamed away from them.Greyish, hunched figures scattered back from the light, some crouched on all fours, others loping awkwardly on their hind legs.  All were hideous, almost bestial - and yet unmistakably once-human.</blockquote>

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