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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cyronax" data-source="post: 205240" data-attributes="member: 822">Session II (Part II)The September sun hung low to the west, and the party trudged through the muck, following the path that they could only assume led to the source whatever evil was at work in this dank swamp.Kelec walked a few feet ahead of Gorbag and Gareth, while Li Hai brought up the rear. They had been walking for about a half hour from the place they had rested earlier, and in that time, Kelec was able to discern that at least one group of men had passed along the muddy trail since they had hidden themselves after their battle at the bridge. The tracks indicated that the men had been dressed as the guards they had fought earlier, and luckily, the tracks led towards the gateway to the swamp. This meant that the Master would be caught “with his pants down,” as Kelec put it.  Even as twilight turned to night, the party continued their march through the marsh. The air grew cool, and visibility was still poor thanks to lingering swamp gas and the high swaying reeds. Crickets, frogs, and the sounds of other swamp vermin, helped make the night just as unpleasant as the day. Over the course of the next hour, the four men had crossed over numerous islands. Rickety bridges, much simpler in design than the Floodgate, connected the islands, and it was generally an unambiguous trail. They went slowly, in part due to the muddy path, but also due to Kelec’s cautious guidance.Only a few times did the path divide, but in those cases it was merely to send an unwary traveler to a dead end, often over a trapped, collapsing bridge. Kelec, a patient guide and skilled woodsman, was never fooled by such simple protective measures. The dwarf was even able to traverse a fairly large island where the path was not so clear. Numerous hidden, lethal mud holes dotted the island, but the dwarven druid was able to lead the party around these. During their slow march, the captive guard had recovered enough from Gorbag’s punch to wake up and again proclaim the powers of his Master. Having enough of the man’s ranting, Li Hai had Gorbag put the man down, and for the next few minutes, while Kelec and Gareth kept an eye on the trail, the Halthyte threatened and cajoled the guard to cooperate and tell them some real information or else they’d throw him into the swamp like they had his fellow guardsmen. That threat seemed to scare the man enough to tell them about a secret cache of rations, fresh water, and weapons not far from where they were all standing. This peaked everyone’s interest, and so they followed the man’s directions to the cache, which he said was hidden in the cleft of a big rock on a new island.To the south of the main trail, a small side path branched off, over a small bridge, towards a small island that had large rock jutting out of its center. High reeds surrounded the rock, and swayed in the dim moonlight. The party bade Gorbag, bearing the captive guard in his arms in front of him, to make his way over the bridge as soon as Kelec had made sure that it was not trapped.After the whole party had crossed to the new island and had walked only about ten feet into the high reeds, the trail ended with a wall of tall, uncut reeds blocking there path. The large rock at the center of the island was still more than thirty feet ahead of them.“There’s not even a trail here you worthless slug!!” Kelec said to the prone guard.As the companions started questioning their prisoner, Gareth began to draw his longsword. He had heard something.Even as he was about to yell a warning, three monstrous buzzing insects with sharp, black stingers protruding from their bulbous yellow exoskeletons rose out of the tall reeds in front of them. The insects, which were even bigger than Kelec, looked like giant bees. The sound of their “buzz” and their sudden appearance scared Gorbag, who immediately dropped to his knees in the muck. The orc squeezed the bound guard fearfully, and started to fumble with his sword.Li Hai was already backing up, and aiming his crossbow.Kelec dove into the reeds to his left, and raised his club, waiting to defend himself from an attack from above.Gareth, his sword already out, also went towards the safety of the reeds even as he avoided an attack from one of the bees.The fight between the bees was fairly quick. One bee had been done in by lucky strike from Gareth, while the other two bees were driven off by the rest of the party.In the end, both Li Hai and Gorbag had been stung. Gorbag seemed unfazed by the bee’s dagger-sized stinger. He was able to shake off any ill effects from the poison, but Li Hai was not quite so lucky. The young Halthyte’s shoulder had gone numb, and Li Hai limbs seemed heavy.Kelec bade Li Hai to strip off his shirt and for Gorbag to remove his chain shirt so that he could help stop the poison from having more of an effect on the two men. After a few moments of Kelec washing out each man’s wound and doing other ministrations, the dwarf said that he thought that both men would not suffer further effects from the poison.Li Hai, his shoulders and neck were still horribly stiff, thanked Kelec and started to rub the throbbing wound.The bound guard, who had directed the party to the giant bees’ nest, had gone unconscious from the force of Gorbag’s fearful “squeeze,” and despite Li Hai’s murderous intentions, Kelec convinced the Halthyte to leave the man tied up, gagged, where he lay. The dwarf said that they could leave the man on the rock island, so that “he’d be out of my beard, and away from a place where any of his buddies could find him.”Gareth added, “Heh, I like it. This way he can greet the bees when they return.”Still rubbing his numbed shoulder silently, Li Hai merely kicked the guard solidly in the stomach, and then turned to leave.As the party crossed the bridge, walking off the island, Kelec said, “I don’t care if that guard was charmed or just crazy. Leading us into that bees’ nest was downright mean.”----------------  The party had returned to the main path, which was crossing the largest island thus far, and they continued onward.Gorbag, free from the burden of carrying the guard, seemed much more at ease in the slippery mud, and was now walking neck in neck with Kelec. The orcish warrior had been walking with his sword drawn since the party’s fight with the bees. Kelec cast an occasional annoyed glance at the eager orc, but was no doubt grateful for the orc’s readiness, as the party pushed through a narrow part of the trail only to come face to face with two armored guards.Kelec and Gorbag were the only ones who were aware of the guards in that moment. The two guards, who the dwarf and orc clearly saw thanks to their darkvision, were initially surprised by the two men, and didn’t even begin to draw their weapons.Kelec, despite all of his previous vigilance, was also a bit surprised, while Gorbag mutely raised his sword and lumbered towards the two guards.As Gareth and Li Hai hastened around the corner after their two companions a moment later, both were amazed to see Gorbag standing over the crumpled bodies of the two guards, while Kelec stood there dumbly.With looks of combined admiration, fear, and gratitude on their faces, Gorbag’s companions muttered their thanks even as they began to clear the bodies off of the trail.</blockquote>

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