Issue #9: Milos's Trial. Episode 5 of 5
It is Wildday, the 21st day of Charder, shortly after dawn. We meet up with Goldpetal in the orchard to the south of the freehold. The tracks of the hundred-ratman army are plain for all of us to see, and even Miriel or Telryn could follow them easily.
Chuck and Goldpetal take the lead as we travel south. Chuck keeps an eye out for signs that anyone ran off the main path, or anything else unusual. On the south side of the orchards, he spots their campsite, with the ruins of their catapult. Goldpetal sends the hawks ahead of us, to watch for ambush.
It’s a bright, clear day, and the morning is still cool enough that walking is pleasant. We can hear birds singing all around us, and even Paks and Goldpetal seem to be in good spirits.
About a mile south of the freehold, Chuck stops us. “Look here,” he says, pointing at a particularly beaten-down point on the main trail. The jumbled tracks are meaningful only to Goldpetal and himself. “Several groups of tracks enter the trail from points north,” he explains. “It looks as though a couple of bands of ratmen regrouped here, and fled south.”
“How many?” asks Paks.
“It’s hard to get an accurate count,” he answers, “The majority of tracks lead north, towards the attack, but it seems that the survivors of the rout fled down the same path they came up.” He begins walking again, and the rest of us fall into a ragged line behind him.
By mid-day, it has turned into a hot day. We’re in the middle of a heat wave, and it still hasn’t rained. We can tell that we are approaching the swamp, because we can smell it before we see it.
We hove into view of the swamp a little after noon. At this point, the swamp is a vast expanse of mud and tall grass. There are a few stands of trees, mostly to the east. As we regard the swamp, Chuck munches on his rations; Stone knocks back another swig of ale. Goldpetal studies the swamp carefully, but does not speak. The grasses are very tall, perhaps six feet or more, mostly growing out of some small pools of water. There are some small meres visible, places where no grass disturbs the surface of the water, and he can see a lot of vines. The tracks lead straight into the swamp.
Miriel asks, “Does anybody have advice for traversing a swamp? I’ve never been in one.”
Chuck laughs. “Our trip to SySy’s doesn’t count?”
“I rode in the cart, on a firm path,” she replies.
“Look for firm ground,” Paks tells her, “And don’t stop walking. You’re more likely to sink if you’re standing still.”
Goldpetal’s hawks fly back into the camp; one lands on his outstretched arm, while another lands on a solitary tree a few yards from the edge of the swamp. That one has a mouse in its beak, which it devours quickly. “The hawks report nothing larger than ‘food’,” he says, “And plenty of that.”
We head into the swamp in single file. Stone takes the lead, carrying the 10-foot pole, and prodding with it to find the most firm ground. Chuck follows, with Miriel and Telryn in the middle. Goldpetal again sends the hawks ahead, to warn us of any signs of ratmen, but walks at the rear of the party with Paks. They watch our backs, but can be heard whispering to each other as we slog our way through the swamp. Though most of their conversation is inaudible over the sloshing foot steps of the rest of the party, Telryn and Miriel catch some snippets of it. It sounds as though Goldpetal is teaching Paks elvish, and their conversation also contains a lengthy discussion of the gods and the Titans.
Within an hour we’re up to our knees in mud. Since it hasn’t rained, there are some places where there are long islands of dry, hard-packed dirt, but more often the ground is wet and very sticky. We’re glad we didn’t bring the horses, but we’re moving very slowly.
The tracks are clear to follow. When the ground is firm, the prints are clear to read, and even when water covers our feet, the passage of a hundred ratmen has broken numerous reeds and bent the grasses.
In the early afternoon, Chuck brings us to a halt. “The tracks split, here,” he says, and points out the two paths. “It looks like some fresher tracks, perhaps ten to fifteen rat men, are headed off to the southwest. The tracks of the main army continue to come from the south.”
Goldpetal points out a set of huge tracks, moving with the smaller group. “These might be the tracks of the mauler that I saw at the freehold with their shaman.”
Chuck looks at the large tracks, and adds, “It’s just one creature, whatever it is.”
Goldpetal looks up at the rest of the group. “These southbound tracks look to be about two days old.” Chuck nods in agreement.
“Which set of tracks should we follow?” asks Miriel.
Paks says, “I think we should follow the main body – that’s the group we decimated, and it’s their warren we’re looking for.”
“I disagree,” Chuck says. “We should follow the smaller group, and kill all the rat men. It will be much more frightening to the others if none of them return alive.”
Paks shakes her head, and says, “We should go to the source, before they have time to call for reinforcements.”
“I’m with Paks,” Miriel says. “They might not be going back to the same village, and we’re two days behind them.”
When Stone and Goldpetal agree, we decide to track the army back. As we begin to move again, Goldpetal warns, “They might double back behind us.”
“We should all keep an eye out for that,” Miriel declares.
We continue to travel south, and the ground becomes softer, progressing from swamp to marsh, and eventually nearly to bog. We are forced to move more and more slowly. Insects start biting us ravenously, especially the mosquitoes. The smell is overpowering, it’s humid, and we’re sweating. Paks smears herself with mud to protect against the insects, but it doesn’t seem to help much.
One of the hawks comes back to perch on Goldpetal’s arm. He tells us, “The hawks say that they saw a flock of rat men to the west, just a couple miles as the hawks fly.”
Telryn sends his owl to scout. Before the owl returns, he says, “Yes, they’re not too far away, about two miles west. Chester says they’re on a grassy knoll, a dry spot, in the lee of a ruined human nest. He saw about a dozen of them, one really big. They’re sleeping.”
“We should go after them,” Chuck urges strongly, “And kill them all.” Realizing that we aren’t two days behind them after all, we all agree. We return to the point where we saw tracks branching off, and follow the branching to the southwest.
The going is much easier, and we realize that it’s actually an old path, firmer than the surrounding area. It’s hopelessly overgrown. Goldpetal says that it’s an ancient road; every once in a while we see cobblestones. Goldpetal looks for ruins along the way, but he doesn’t see anything that would tell him what kind of people built the road.
Occasionally, as we walk, the path disappears under water. We travel until we know that the rat men are nearby. We can’t see them, but the birds say we're close, and we can see a little smoke. Stone brings us to a halt, and motions to us to keep quiet.
Telryn whispers, “Chester says that most of them are still asleep, but there are one or two awake, probably sentries.”
We hear a bowstring twang, followed by a cursing. “One of them tried to shoot at Chester,” Telryn tells us, “Luckily, it missed.”
Miriel suggests, “Goldpetal, this looks like a perfect opportunity to use your entangle spell again.”
Chuck whispers, “If we do, we can’t get at them.”
“Why this is bad?” Stone asks, genuinely confused.
Nobody else has any other ideas, so we prepare for our attack.
Stone grabs a bunch of grass and ties it together, making an arrow which points across the road. He then steps off the path, and puts his pack down in the swamp, where the arrow points to it. His boots are even more covered in mud.
When he returns, Paks whispers, “Why don’t you just leave it on the path instead?” She points to her pack, which she has set on the hard path. Stone shakes his head when he realizes that this will work, and retrieves his, getting even muddier. All the fighters drop their extra baggage with Paks’, and we advance on the knoll.
We sneak up the path, moving as quietly as we can. Goldpetal is in front, with Stone, Paks, and Chuck right behind him. We reach a break in the grass, and Goldpetal stops us with a commanding hand gesture. Everyone slips up beside him, so that we can all peer through the grass.
In front of us is a small rise, the highest point we’ve found in the swamp, maybe two feet above the water level. To the south is a small pond, while the other three directions have the grass and mud which we are accustomed to. On the west side of the rise, about fifty yards away, there stand two crumbling stone walls, the remnants of a building long since ruined. The walls form an L which was formerly the northeast corner of the building. The corner is tall, perhaps eight feet in height, though the rest of the arms of the L are ever shorter, and by the time they terminate, the arms are only a foot high. The rat men are using the ruin for an ad-hoc shelter, and are camped in the cradle of the L. Two sentries are sitting, talking in low voices. They look very bored, and aren’t paying much attention, in the heat of the afternoon. The mauler lays back against the wall with its tongue out, snoring.
“There’s plenty of low vegetation all around,” Goldpetal whispers, “So the entangle should work perfectly.”
“Draw bows,” Chuck says. “We’ll all fire when Goldpetal casts the spell.”
The fighters all ready their bows, and Goldpetal casts entangle. Grasses and vines begin to twine their way around the sleeping ratmen, who wake up screaming in terror. We all loose our bows, while the two hawks plummet from the sky, adding their hunting screams to the sudden cacophony. Three ratmen are definitely out of range of the spell, but one of those is trapped in the corner of the walls. The hawks both claw at the eyes of the nearest rat man, and it throws up its arms to cover its eyes. Stone’s arrow hits it in its unprotected chest, and kills it.
We begin to advance into the knoll, with Stone and Paks in the lead. The mauler, on the far side of the spell’s effect, tries to charge towards us through the entangling vines. It is too strong to be entangled, and tears through the vegetation, though the vines do slow it. The shaman begins to move through the living vines, away from us. He appears completely unaffected – in fact, it seems that the plants move out of his way. The rest of the ratmen try to run, but the entangling vines wrap most of them up before they get far.
Chuck moves to the edge of the clearing and fires at the nearest rat man, putting an arrow through it and killing it. The free rat men draw their short bows, and fire, but their hurried shots are as much a danger to their comrades as to us. One of the ratmen in the spell’s area manages to worm its way to the edge of the spell, but as it stands up, Telryn shoots his crossbow at it. His arrow pierces straight through its eye and into its brain, a double critical hit, killing it. Goldpetal’s second shot wounds one of the archers, putting an arrow into its chest. The hawks dive down to finish it off – one scratches at its eyes, while the other tears at its jugular. The ratman dies.
The shaman starts casting a spell. He seems to have no difficulty casting: the vines and grasses swirl around him, but seem not to touch him. He completes the spell before anyone can shoot him. A swarm of bees appears, making a wall around Paks and Stone. Paks is able to dodge them without getting stung, but Stone is injured. Nonetheless, he steps out of the wall of bees, which moves him towards the mauler. He drops his crossbow and readies his fists, as it continues to labor through the entangling grasses towards him. The ratman in the corner has a bow, and hits the monk with an arrow.
Chuck and Paks take up positions near the end of the ruined wall, taking cover behind it. Paks waits with her sword drawn, while Chuck continues to fire his bow. He directs his arrows at the mauler, but the mauler’s armor protects it, and shot after shot glances off of it.
Goldpetal and Telryn try to deal with the shaman. Telryn takes cover behind Paks and Chuck, and casts his newly-learned sleep spell at the shaman. There is no visible effect – the shaman doesn’t even yawn. Goldpetal works around the clearing towards the right, where the walls provide no cover, firing his bow at the shaman. His arrows have as little effect as Telryn’s spell.
The hawks dive out of the sky to claw at the shaman, but he sidesteps their attack, and one of the hawks becomes trapped in the grass! The shaman reaches the edge of the entangle area, and casts another spell of his own. His skin, which was previously covered in white fur, suddenly hardens and turns a dark ashen color. It looks cracked, like the bark of a tree.
The mauler continues to close on Stone and Paks, but when it is only fifteen feet away, it grinds to a halt. It leans forward, struggling to continue its advance, but a hundred ropy vines stretch out diagonally behind it, holding it firm. It roars in frustration, as arrows rain down upon it from Stone’s crossbow, and the bows of Chuck and Paks. Most of the arrows miss, but Stone’s bolt scratches it.
Most of the ratmen remain entangled. The ratman in the corner has a bow, and continues to shoot at Stone. He hits again. “Ow! Hey, stop that!” Stone yells. Another frees himself enough to shoot at Paks, but his arrow glances harmlessly off of her shield. A third climbs the wall, finally escaping the entangled area.
Telryn casts another new spell, and a small orb of fire bursts into being. It burns the shaman, scorching his bark-like skin. Telryn had only just learned lesser fire orb from Delonia the previous day, but he succeeds in his first casting of it. Goldpetal continues to shoot his bow at the shaman, but misses. The entangled hawk screeches in rage, but it cannot break free of the grasses. The shaman, now free of the writhing vegetation, draws his flail. The other hawk flies at him, but the shaman is ready, and smashes it aside with his flail. It falls to the ground on the far side of him, badly wounded, but Goldpetal can see that it is still alive.
Stone shoots at the archer trapped in the corner, who has hit him twice. He wounds it, and that distracts it enough that its next shot misses. Chuck steps around Paks and shoots at the rat man atop the wall. Both of his shots hit, one to its shoulder, and one critically hits it, piercing through the throat. It crumples, falling from the wall, dead.
Paks shifts her fire to the shaman, but her short bow lacks the power to pierce his barkskin. Telryn’s first flaming orb has already expired, and he casts another lesser fire orb at the shaman. This time, he misses, and the burning orb drifts overhead. The shaman hides behind the taller part of the wall, out of sight of everyone save Telryn’s owl, Chester. The injured hawk picks itself off the ground, and flies away, back towards the party. It hides behind the wall of bees. Goldpetal turns his attention to the archer trapped in the corner.
With a great twang of snapping vines, the mauler breaks free. As it charges to engage the three fighters, Miriel yells, “Madriel! Bless these, your allies!”
The mauler attacks Paks first. He claws and bites, hitting her with both claws. She is still standing, but her shield arm dangles uselessly, and she cries out to Miriel, “Healer!” She tries to bring her sword between herself and the mauler, but she is too wounded to wield it well.
Stone unleashes a flurry of blows at the mauler, pounding it with both hands. Chuck shoots the mauler, but gets tangled in his bowstring. Not only does his shot miss, but he falls to the ground, and the bow flies out of his hand and into the mass of living vines. He is still holding the arrow. Miriel runs over to Paks and heals her: “Madriel, heal this warrior!” The spell takes effect immediately, and Paks lifts her shield back into position.
Goldpetal and the ratman archer in the corner exchange arrows, firing at the same moment. The ratman hits the elf in the leg, wounding him, but the elf’s arrow flies more true, piercing the heart and killing the archer. The druid surveys the rest of the entangle’s area for another target, and sees two more ratmen break free.
The mauler swings its mammoth right fist at Paks to try and finish her off, but its great arm is literally brought to a halt mid-punch by the iron grip of the vines. Stone takes advantage of its sudden immobility to bring a big roundhouse right at it. He hits it perfectly in the jaw, and knocks it out!
Seeing the mauler slump into the vines, the shaman abandons the six remaining ratmen, running away into the swamp. Telryn calls out, “The shaman’s getting away,” but the wizened grey ratman is quickly out of sight. The young mage, through their telepathic link, asks his owl to follow the shaman, but Chester tells him that the shaman is hidden in the marsh grass, and he can’t see it either.
Of the six remaining ratmen, only two are free, and one of those is in the L of the wall, near the corner. Paks mutters a brief prayer, “Thank you, Madriel,” as she pulls out her bow. Everyone but Chuck has a bow or crossbow out, and firing into the hapless ratmen. Miriel ducks down, taking cover behind the wall, lest one of the archers hit her.
One of the freed ratmen moves into the corner, out of the entangled area, and fires its bow at Stone, further wounding the half-orc. Goldpetal wounds it, in turn, but Paks and Stone carom their shots off the rock wall behind it. The other freed ratman is entangled again. Chuck regains his footing. His bow is too deep in the writhing grasses to use, so he draws his swords.
Paks also draws hers, and moves along the outside of the wall. She stops near the corner, and readies herself in case one of the ratmen climbs over the wall. No sooner does she reach the corner, than the archer on the other side of the wall climbs over the wall and leaps down in front of her. She swings her longsword, but the force of his fall drops him to all fours, and her blow scythes over his head. He leaps inside her guard. She takes his claw stroke across her shield, but he bites her in the shoulder. Miriel backs away from him, moving closer to Telryn, and calls, “Chuck!”
Chuck runs over to where Paks is and flanks the ratman she's attacking. Between them, they have it trapped against the wall. Paks misses with her long sword, but she puts some distance between herself and the ratman. It claws and bites at her, but this time she keeps it at bay with her sword point, looking for an opening. Circling her, it briefly turns its back on Chuck, and he attacks it with both swords. The long sword, in his right hand, kills it, but that unbalances his second attack. He slips on the muddy ground, and flings his short sword off towards the edge of the clearing while he falls.
The ratmen are having no more luck breaking free: they are all entangled, and each time one manages to free itself momentarily, another vine wraps around it before it can escape. Telryn and Goldpetal continue to fire into the area, but without much effect. The vines are as likely to stop their shots as a ratman. Stone, in frustration, steps into the entanglement, where he can try to punch one. The hawk remains entangled – its cries have degenerated from rage to a piteous sound, as though it is asking Goldpetal for help.
Vines begin to wrap themselves around Stone’s legs, and though his arms are still free, he finds the vines are already slowing him down. He cannot seem to hit his target. Paks sheathes her sword, still unbloodied, and moves around the wall to the far side of the L with her bow drawn. That completes the circle, and the ratmen are surrounded. Telryn advances right to the edge of the writhing vines, and shoots at the closest entangled rat men. He gets a critical hit, and his bolt buries itself in his target’s heart. It tumbles backward, dead. Paks wounds one of the entangled ratmen, while Goldpetal’s arrow kills the one closest to the far edge of the vines.
The vines have completely enveloped Stone now, and it is clear that he cannot move. He strains to free himself, to no avail. The ratman Paks had wounded breaks free of the vines momentarily, but he is deep in the heart of the vines, and there is no way out. Paks moves up to the edge of the vines and shoots him again, killing him this time. The three remaining ratmen are all firmly entangled, and it is just a matter of time. Goldpetal wounds one of them with his next shot.
Behind the wall, Miriel rushes over to pick up Chuck’s short sword. Chuck sees that we have things well in hand, and that he cannot reach his bow, so he walks after her. The redheaded priestess picks up his sword, and gives it back to him. She jokingly admonishes him, “Hold on to it, this time.”
While the archers pour arrows in at the surviving ratmen, Goldpetal’s skin suddenly turns to bark! It looks very much like the shaman’s skin had after one of its spells, though Goldpetal’s skin looks like a dark golden wood, rather than the ash of the ratman’s spell. Chuck, re-armed, moves over to the wall and waits for any of the ratmen to work free of the vines, where he can hit them with his swords. Paks kills another one, and, noticing that Miriel is waiting and watching, she calls, “Miriel, go get our packs!” The priestess turns to go.
Suddenly, the archer by Stone breaks free. It draws its dagger to attack the half-orc. With a desperate burst of strength, Stone also breaks free, and parries the blow with his right arm. The vines try to grip him, but he stays free and punches the rat man with his left hand, killing it. A vine trips him just as he connects, and he falls prone. He is quickly entangled again.
The last rat man is trapped and helpless, but we show no mercy for a titanspawn, and it dies under a rain of arrows. The knoll is ours.
It is Wildday, the 21st day of Charder, shortly after dawn. We meet up with Goldpetal in the orchard to the south of the freehold. The tracks of the hundred-ratman army are plain for all of us to see, and even Miriel or Telryn could follow them easily.
Chuck and Goldpetal take the lead as we travel south. Chuck keeps an eye out for signs that anyone ran off the main path, or anything else unusual. On the south side of the orchards, he spots their campsite, with the ruins of their catapult. Goldpetal sends the hawks ahead of us, to watch for ambush.
It’s a bright, clear day, and the morning is still cool enough that walking is pleasant. We can hear birds singing all around us, and even Paks and Goldpetal seem to be in good spirits.
About a mile south of the freehold, Chuck stops us. “Look here,” he says, pointing at a particularly beaten-down point on the main trail. The jumbled tracks are meaningful only to Goldpetal and himself. “Several groups of tracks enter the trail from points north,” he explains. “It looks as though a couple of bands of ratmen regrouped here, and fled south.”
“How many?” asks Paks.
“It’s hard to get an accurate count,” he answers, “The majority of tracks lead north, towards the attack, but it seems that the survivors of the rout fled down the same path they came up.” He begins walking again, and the rest of us fall into a ragged line behind him.
By mid-day, it has turned into a hot day. We’re in the middle of a heat wave, and it still hasn’t rained. We can tell that we are approaching the swamp, because we can smell it before we see it.
We hove into view of the swamp a little after noon. At this point, the swamp is a vast expanse of mud and tall grass. There are a few stands of trees, mostly to the east. As we regard the swamp, Chuck munches on his rations; Stone knocks back another swig of ale. Goldpetal studies the swamp carefully, but does not speak. The grasses are very tall, perhaps six feet or more, mostly growing out of some small pools of water. There are some small meres visible, places where no grass disturbs the surface of the water, and he can see a lot of vines. The tracks lead straight into the swamp.
Miriel asks, “Does anybody have advice for traversing a swamp? I’ve never been in one.”
Chuck laughs. “Our trip to SySy’s doesn’t count?”
“I rode in the cart, on a firm path,” she replies.
“Look for firm ground,” Paks tells her, “And don’t stop walking. You’re more likely to sink if you’re standing still.”
Goldpetal’s hawks fly back into the camp; one lands on his outstretched arm, while another lands on a solitary tree a few yards from the edge of the swamp. That one has a mouse in its beak, which it devours quickly. “The hawks report nothing larger than ‘food’,” he says, “And plenty of that.”
We head into the swamp in single file. Stone takes the lead, carrying the 10-foot pole, and prodding with it to find the most firm ground. Chuck follows, with Miriel and Telryn in the middle. Goldpetal again sends the hawks ahead, to warn us of any signs of ratmen, but walks at the rear of the party with Paks. They watch our backs, but can be heard whispering to each other as we slog our way through the swamp. Though most of their conversation is inaudible over the sloshing foot steps of the rest of the party, Telryn and Miriel catch some snippets of it. It sounds as though Goldpetal is teaching Paks elvish, and their conversation also contains a lengthy discussion of the gods and the Titans.
Within an hour we’re up to our knees in mud. Since it hasn’t rained, there are some places where there are long islands of dry, hard-packed dirt, but more often the ground is wet and very sticky. We’re glad we didn’t bring the horses, but we’re moving very slowly.
The tracks are clear to follow. When the ground is firm, the prints are clear to read, and even when water covers our feet, the passage of a hundred ratmen has broken numerous reeds and bent the grasses.
In the early afternoon, Chuck brings us to a halt. “The tracks split, here,” he says, and points out the two paths. “It looks like some fresher tracks, perhaps ten to fifteen rat men, are headed off to the southwest. The tracks of the main army continue to come from the south.”
Goldpetal points out a set of huge tracks, moving with the smaller group. “These might be the tracks of the mauler that I saw at the freehold with their shaman.”
Chuck looks at the large tracks, and adds, “It’s just one creature, whatever it is.”
Goldpetal looks up at the rest of the group. “These southbound tracks look to be about two days old.” Chuck nods in agreement.
“Which set of tracks should we follow?” asks Miriel.
Paks says, “I think we should follow the main body – that’s the group we decimated, and it’s their warren we’re looking for.”
“I disagree,” Chuck says. “We should follow the smaller group, and kill all the rat men. It will be much more frightening to the others if none of them return alive.”
Paks shakes her head, and says, “We should go to the source, before they have time to call for reinforcements.”
“I’m with Paks,” Miriel says. “They might not be going back to the same village, and we’re two days behind them.”
When Stone and Goldpetal agree, we decide to track the army back. As we begin to move again, Goldpetal warns, “They might double back behind us.”
“We should all keep an eye out for that,” Miriel declares.
We continue to travel south, and the ground becomes softer, progressing from swamp to marsh, and eventually nearly to bog. We are forced to move more and more slowly. Insects start biting us ravenously, especially the mosquitoes. The smell is overpowering, it’s humid, and we’re sweating. Paks smears herself with mud to protect against the insects, but it doesn’t seem to help much.
One of the hawks comes back to perch on Goldpetal’s arm. He tells us, “The hawks say that they saw a flock of rat men to the west, just a couple miles as the hawks fly.”
Telryn sends his owl to scout. Before the owl returns, he says, “Yes, they’re not too far away, about two miles west. Chester says they’re on a grassy knoll, a dry spot, in the lee of a ruined human nest. He saw about a dozen of them, one really big. They’re sleeping.”
“We should go after them,” Chuck urges strongly, “And kill them all.” Realizing that we aren’t two days behind them after all, we all agree. We return to the point where we saw tracks branching off, and follow the branching to the southwest.
The going is much easier, and we realize that it’s actually an old path, firmer than the surrounding area. It’s hopelessly overgrown. Goldpetal says that it’s an ancient road; every once in a while we see cobblestones. Goldpetal looks for ruins along the way, but he doesn’t see anything that would tell him what kind of people built the road.
Occasionally, as we walk, the path disappears under water. We travel until we know that the rat men are nearby. We can’t see them, but the birds say we're close, and we can see a little smoke. Stone brings us to a halt, and motions to us to keep quiet.
Telryn whispers, “Chester says that most of them are still asleep, but there are one or two awake, probably sentries.”
We hear a bowstring twang, followed by a cursing. “One of them tried to shoot at Chester,” Telryn tells us, “Luckily, it missed.”
Miriel suggests, “Goldpetal, this looks like a perfect opportunity to use your entangle spell again.”
Chuck whispers, “If we do, we can’t get at them.”
“Why this is bad?” Stone asks, genuinely confused.
Nobody else has any other ideas, so we prepare for our attack.
Stone grabs a bunch of grass and ties it together, making an arrow which points across the road. He then steps off the path, and puts his pack down in the swamp, where the arrow points to it. His boots are even more covered in mud.
When he returns, Paks whispers, “Why don’t you just leave it on the path instead?” She points to her pack, which she has set on the hard path. Stone shakes his head when he realizes that this will work, and retrieves his, getting even muddier. All the fighters drop their extra baggage with Paks’, and we advance on the knoll.
We sneak up the path, moving as quietly as we can. Goldpetal is in front, with Stone, Paks, and Chuck right behind him. We reach a break in the grass, and Goldpetal stops us with a commanding hand gesture. Everyone slips up beside him, so that we can all peer through the grass.
In front of us is a small rise, the highest point we’ve found in the swamp, maybe two feet above the water level. To the south is a small pond, while the other three directions have the grass and mud which we are accustomed to. On the west side of the rise, about fifty yards away, there stand two crumbling stone walls, the remnants of a building long since ruined. The walls form an L which was formerly the northeast corner of the building. The corner is tall, perhaps eight feet in height, though the rest of the arms of the L are ever shorter, and by the time they terminate, the arms are only a foot high. The rat men are using the ruin for an ad-hoc shelter, and are camped in the cradle of the L. Two sentries are sitting, talking in low voices. They look very bored, and aren’t paying much attention, in the heat of the afternoon. The mauler lays back against the wall with its tongue out, snoring.
“There’s plenty of low vegetation all around,” Goldpetal whispers, “So the entangle should work perfectly.”
“Draw bows,” Chuck says. “We’ll all fire when Goldpetal casts the spell.”
The fighters all ready their bows, and Goldpetal casts entangle. Grasses and vines begin to twine their way around the sleeping ratmen, who wake up screaming in terror. We all loose our bows, while the two hawks plummet from the sky, adding their hunting screams to the sudden cacophony. Three ratmen are definitely out of range of the spell, but one of those is trapped in the corner of the walls. The hawks both claw at the eyes of the nearest rat man, and it throws up its arms to cover its eyes. Stone’s arrow hits it in its unprotected chest, and kills it.
We begin to advance into the knoll, with Stone and Paks in the lead. The mauler, on the far side of the spell’s effect, tries to charge towards us through the entangling vines. It is too strong to be entangled, and tears through the vegetation, though the vines do slow it. The shaman begins to move through the living vines, away from us. He appears completely unaffected – in fact, it seems that the plants move out of his way. The rest of the ratmen try to run, but the entangling vines wrap most of them up before they get far.
Chuck moves to the edge of the clearing and fires at the nearest rat man, putting an arrow through it and killing it. The free rat men draw their short bows, and fire, but their hurried shots are as much a danger to their comrades as to us. One of the ratmen in the spell’s area manages to worm its way to the edge of the spell, but as it stands up, Telryn shoots his crossbow at it. His arrow pierces straight through its eye and into its brain, a double critical hit, killing it. Goldpetal’s second shot wounds one of the archers, putting an arrow into its chest. The hawks dive down to finish it off – one scratches at its eyes, while the other tears at its jugular. The ratman dies.
The shaman starts casting a spell. He seems to have no difficulty casting: the vines and grasses swirl around him, but seem not to touch him. He completes the spell before anyone can shoot him. A swarm of bees appears, making a wall around Paks and Stone. Paks is able to dodge them without getting stung, but Stone is injured. Nonetheless, he steps out of the wall of bees, which moves him towards the mauler. He drops his crossbow and readies his fists, as it continues to labor through the entangling grasses towards him. The ratman in the corner has a bow, and hits the monk with an arrow.
Chuck and Paks take up positions near the end of the ruined wall, taking cover behind it. Paks waits with her sword drawn, while Chuck continues to fire his bow. He directs his arrows at the mauler, but the mauler’s armor protects it, and shot after shot glances off of it.
Goldpetal and Telryn try to deal with the shaman. Telryn takes cover behind Paks and Chuck, and casts his newly-learned sleep spell at the shaman. There is no visible effect – the shaman doesn’t even yawn. Goldpetal works around the clearing towards the right, where the walls provide no cover, firing his bow at the shaman. His arrows have as little effect as Telryn’s spell.
The hawks dive out of the sky to claw at the shaman, but he sidesteps their attack, and one of the hawks becomes trapped in the grass! The shaman reaches the edge of the entangle area, and casts another spell of his own. His skin, which was previously covered in white fur, suddenly hardens and turns a dark ashen color. It looks cracked, like the bark of a tree.
The mauler continues to close on Stone and Paks, but when it is only fifteen feet away, it grinds to a halt. It leans forward, struggling to continue its advance, but a hundred ropy vines stretch out diagonally behind it, holding it firm. It roars in frustration, as arrows rain down upon it from Stone’s crossbow, and the bows of Chuck and Paks. Most of the arrows miss, but Stone’s bolt scratches it.
Most of the ratmen remain entangled. The ratman in the corner has a bow, and continues to shoot at Stone. He hits again. “Ow! Hey, stop that!” Stone yells. Another frees himself enough to shoot at Paks, but his arrow glances harmlessly off of her shield. A third climbs the wall, finally escaping the entangled area.
Telryn casts another new spell, and a small orb of fire bursts into being. It burns the shaman, scorching his bark-like skin. Telryn had only just learned lesser fire orb from Delonia the previous day, but he succeeds in his first casting of it. Goldpetal continues to shoot his bow at the shaman, but misses. The entangled hawk screeches in rage, but it cannot break free of the grasses. The shaman, now free of the writhing vegetation, draws his flail. The other hawk flies at him, but the shaman is ready, and smashes it aside with his flail. It falls to the ground on the far side of him, badly wounded, but Goldpetal can see that it is still alive.
Stone shoots at the archer trapped in the corner, who has hit him twice. He wounds it, and that distracts it enough that its next shot misses. Chuck steps around Paks and shoots at the rat man atop the wall. Both of his shots hit, one to its shoulder, and one critically hits it, piercing through the throat. It crumples, falling from the wall, dead.
Paks shifts her fire to the shaman, but her short bow lacks the power to pierce his barkskin. Telryn’s first flaming orb has already expired, and he casts another lesser fire orb at the shaman. This time, he misses, and the burning orb drifts overhead. The shaman hides behind the taller part of the wall, out of sight of everyone save Telryn’s owl, Chester. The injured hawk picks itself off the ground, and flies away, back towards the party. It hides behind the wall of bees. Goldpetal turns his attention to the archer trapped in the corner.
With a great twang of snapping vines, the mauler breaks free. As it charges to engage the three fighters, Miriel yells, “Madriel! Bless these, your allies!”
The mauler attacks Paks first. He claws and bites, hitting her with both claws. She is still standing, but her shield arm dangles uselessly, and she cries out to Miriel, “Healer!” She tries to bring her sword between herself and the mauler, but she is too wounded to wield it well.
Stone unleashes a flurry of blows at the mauler, pounding it with both hands. Chuck shoots the mauler, but gets tangled in his bowstring. Not only does his shot miss, but he falls to the ground, and the bow flies out of his hand and into the mass of living vines. He is still holding the arrow. Miriel runs over to Paks and heals her: “Madriel, heal this warrior!” The spell takes effect immediately, and Paks lifts her shield back into position.
Goldpetal and the ratman archer in the corner exchange arrows, firing at the same moment. The ratman hits the elf in the leg, wounding him, but the elf’s arrow flies more true, piercing the heart and killing the archer. The druid surveys the rest of the entangle’s area for another target, and sees two more ratmen break free.
The mauler swings its mammoth right fist at Paks to try and finish her off, but its great arm is literally brought to a halt mid-punch by the iron grip of the vines. Stone takes advantage of its sudden immobility to bring a big roundhouse right at it. He hits it perfectly in the jaw, and knocks it out!
Seeing the mauler slump into the vines, the shaman abandons the six remaining ratmen, running away into the swamp. Telryn calls out, “The shaman’s getting away,” but the wizened grey ratman is quickly out of sight. The young mage, through their telepathic link, asks his owl to follow the shaman, but Chester tells him that the shaman is hidden in the marsh grass, and he can’t see it either.
Of the six remaining ratmen, only two are free, and one of those is in the L of the wall, near the corner. Paks mutters a brief prayer, “Thank you, Madriel,” as she pulls out her bow. Everyone but Chuck has a bow or crossbow out, and firing into the hapless ratmen. Miriel ducks down, taking cover behind the wall, lest one of the archers hit her.
One of the freed ratmen moves into the corner, out of the entangled area, and fires its bow at Stone, further wounding the half-orc. Goldpetal wounds it, in turn, but Paks and Stone carom their shots off the rock wall behind it. The other freed ratman is entangled again. Chuck regains his footing. His bow is too deep in the writhing grasses to use, so he draws his swords.
Paks also draws hers, and moves along the outside of the wall. She stops near the corner, and readies herself in case one of the ratmen climbs over the wall. No sooner does she reach the corner, than the archer on the other side of the wall climbs over the wall and leaps down in front of her. She swings her longsword, but the force of his fall drops him to all fours, and her blow scythes over his head. He leaps inside her guard. She takes his claw stroke across her shield, but he bites her in the shoulder. Miriel backs away from him, moving closer to Telryn, and calls, “Chuck!”
Chuck runs over to where Paks is and flanks the ratman she's attacking. Between them, they have it trapped against the wall. Paks misses with her long sword, but she puts some distance between herself and the ratman. It claws and bites at her, but this time she keeps it at bay with her sword point, looking for an opening. Circling her, it briefly turns its back on Chuck, and he attacks it with both swords. The long sword, in his right hand, kills it, but that unbalances his second attack. He slips on the muddy ground, and flings his short sword off towards the edge of the clearing while he falls.
The ratmen are having no more luck breaking free: they are all entangled, and each time one manages to free itself momentarily, another vine wraps around it before it can escape. Telryn and Goldpetal continue to fire into the area, but without much effect. The vines are as likely to stop their shots as a ratman. Stone, in frustration, steps into the entanglement, where he can try to punch one. The hawk remains entangled – its cries have degenerated from rage to a piteous sound, as though it is asking Goldpetal for help.
Vines begin to wrap themselves around Stone’s legs, and though his arms are still free, he finds the vines are already slowing him down. He cannot seem to hit his target. Paks sheathes her sword, still unbloodied, and moves around the wall to the far side of the L with her bow drawn. That completes the circle, and the ratmen are surrounded. Telryn advances right to the edge of the writhing vines, and shoots at the closest entangled rat men. He gets a critical hit, and his bolt buries itself in his target’s heart. It tumbles backward, dead. Paks wounds one of the entangled ratmen, while Goldpetal’s arrow kills the one closest to the far edge of the vines.
The vines have completely enveloped Stone now, and it is clear that he cannot move. He strains to free himself, to no avail. The ratman Paks had wounded breaks free of the vines momentarily, but he is deep in the heart of the vines, and there is no way out. Paks moves up to the edge of the vines and shoots him again, killing him this time. The three remaining ratmen are all firmly entangled, and it is just a matter of time. Goldpetal wounds one of them with his next shot.
Behind the wall, Miriel rushes over to pick up Chuck’s short sword. Chuck sees that we have things well in hand, and that he cannot reach his bow, so he walks after her. The redheaded priestess picks up his sword, and gives it back to him. She jokingly admonishes him, “Hold on to it, this time.”
While the archers pour arrows in at the surviving ratmen, Goldpetal’s skin suddenly turns to bark! It looks very much like the shaman’s skin had after one of its spells, though Goldpetal’s skin looks like a dark golden wood, rather than the ash of the ratman’s spell. Chuck, re-armed, moves over to the wall and waits for any of the ratmen to work free of the vines, where he can hit them with his swords. Paks kills another one, and, noticing that Miriel is waiting and watching, she calls, “Miriel, go get our packs!” The priestess turns to go.
Suddenly, the archer by Stone breaks free. It draws its dagger to attack the half-orc. With a desperate burst of strength, Stone also breaks free, and parries the blow with his right arm. The vines try to grip him, but he stays free and punches the rat man with his left hand, killing it. A vine trips him just as he connects, and he falls prone. He is quickly entangled again.
The last rat man is trapped and helpless, but we show no mercy for a titanspawn, and it dies under a rain of arrows. The knoll is ours.
