Issue #7: The Red Witch - Episode 1 of 5
28th of July, 2002
Issue #7
The Red Witch
For two weeks, after the destruction of our caravan, we have been investigating the smuggling ring which passes through the ruined tower, seeking to put a top to the human-slaves-for-ratman-poisons trade. We took out Delonia’s crew, the ones who were using the tower as their base. However, the ship, from House Asuras, escaped our trap at the tower.
In a daring raid, we entered the compound of the rat-woman trader SySy, the final link in the chain. We killed some of her closest guards, and captured the infamous SySy herself. With the witch tied and gagged, we have all piled into the back of the cart. Now, we face a desperate journey through the treacherous swamp, expecting the pursuit to be hot on our trail.
Paks drives the horses at breakneck speed, a dangerous task on the treacherous path through the swamp, but she manages to keep the cart on the narrow road. Chuck and Goldpetal guard our backs, with their bows drawn and an arrow knocked. Delonia, Miriel, and Milo have all been wounded, and ride in the cart, exhausted, with the one slave we managed to free. Beneath them, our prisoner is wrapped in a big burlap sack at the bottom of the cart.
After almost half an hour of madcap flight, our elderly horses are clearly tiring, and we haven’t seen any signs of pursuit. “I’m going to stop for a moment,” Paks calls back, and when she finds a small, solid area, she reigns the horses in. “We’ve been either been extremely lucky,” she says, “Or one of the gods has favored us today, because the cart hasn’t put a wheel off the path. That would have been disaster with all this water and quicksand everywhere. I don’t think we should press our luck further, though; I’m going to get out and lead the horses.” She steps down from the cart.
“What if we’re caught?” asks Miriel.
“These nags can’t outrun horserats,” Paks says, “And we’ll never make it out of the swamp if we founder in quicksand.”
As Paks begins to walk the horses along the road, Chuck gets out to walk behind the cart, keeping his bow ready and a sharp eye out along the trail behind us. It’s shortly after noon on the 3rd Corday of Charder.
As we walk, the former slave introduces himself as Nik, and we all give him our names. He again expresses his thanks for our rescue. We had given him a scimitar, but now he sets it aside, saying that he doesn’t know how to use a sword. Miriel loans him her dagger.
Paks urges the horses to make as much speed as she can, but they are tired and can only make a walking pace. Paks must also take care to keep us safely on the path, which is rarely clear. Miriel, Goldpetal, and Delonia have exhausted much of their magical powers, and they try to meditate as the cart bumps and rumbles along. Milo also sits in the cart, resting as best as he can, but he keeps a close guard on SySy, who, manacled, gagged, blindfolded, and wrapped in a big burlap sack, lies still on the floor of the cart.
We are all on edge, jumping at every sound, and even those resting in the cart get little benefit from it. If there is pursuit, we manage to stay ahead of it, and our luck continues to hold, for we encounter none of the denizens of the swamp which had troubled our journey inward.
After seven hours of constant nerves, we are all thoroughly exhausted. The horses have slowed to a near crawl, but we reach the edge of the swamp at sunset, with no incident. We press on to our campsite, a short ways north of the point where the road enters the swamp.
It’s nearly dark when we reach our campsite, and to our surprise there’s a fire burning at it. Chuck is the only one of us who feels well enough to investigate, and he presses forward under cover of the falling darkness. He slips out of view, as quietly as he can. He’s impressively silent, displaying adeptness for it which would have made Milo proud.
He is gone for only a few minutes, and returns with a smile. “Good news!” he exclaims. “That fire belongs to Stone!”
“Really?” exclaims Miriel. We’re all equally surprised. “What’s he doing here?”
“I don’t know,” Chuck says, “But let’s camp with him.”
As we arrive at the campsite, Stone greets us with a wave. Our half-orc companion has been a stalwart companion, and Paks and Miriel exclaim happy greetings. Even Goldpetal looks relieved. Miriel cooks dinner, while Chuck and Paks make camp. Milo is, once again, nowhere to be seen.
As he disengages from Paks’ warm hug, the half-orc looks at Delonia. A dangerous look crosses his face, and he touches one hand to the hilt of his dagger. “Wait. What’s she doing here?” he growls.
“She’s working with us, now,” Paks answers with a smile.
Stone looks at Nik. “And who’s that?” he asks, relaxing from his hair-trigger alertness.
“I’m Nik,” the freed man answers. “These folk rescued me from the ratmen.”
The half-orc sits down. “This sounds like quite a story,” he says, settling back to enjoy the tale. Chuck proceeds to tell Stone the story of our adventures, with helpful interruptions from Paks and Delonia.
When we tell Stone that we’ve captured SySy, he goes to the cart to look at her. He reaches into the cart, and Milo springs up. They are both surprised! The monk nearly punches the halfling, but when he realizes that no threat is being offered, he halts his blow.
“That’s Milo,” Chuck calls. “Milo, this is Stone. Milo’s the little sneak we saw in Southport.” He goes on to tell Stone how we met him in Southport shortly after Stone left. “He’s been pretty useful,” Chuck admits, “But I still don’t trust him.” Stone sizes Milo up, and then looks away dismissively, spitting into the fire.
Over dinner, we ask about Stone’s adventures. He tells us how he accompanied Brunhilde to Lave, and then came back to search for us. He tracked us as far as the campsite, which he had reached this afternoon, but had decided to get a good night’s sleep there before plunging into the swamp after us. Chuck asks him about a fresh scar on his right arm.
Stone chuckles. “Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. There were a couple of bandits on my way back to Southport. Hardly worth mentioning, they barely gave me a fight. I got a bit of a knick when I blocked one’s sword with my forearm.” It looks like it’s mostly healed already, and doesn’t need any further healing.
When we have finished our meal, the conversation becomes jocular, with most of us in a self-congratulatory mood after our victory. “That’s enough chatting,” Miriel stops us, with a stern voice. “I don’t think we should stay here overnight. We should get back to town right away.”
Delonia jumps in, saying, “I don’t want to go back to town! Let’s interrogate SySy right here, now.” She begins walking over to SySy, as though to put her suggestion into action, but Paks puts out a hand to restrain her.
“Wait. Miriel’s right, it’s not safe here. Let’s go back to the tower, at least,” the tall warrior suggests.
After a brief discussion, the rest of us agree with Miriel and Paks, and we pack camp to head back to the ruined tower. We switch the two exhausted horses for two fresh ones, and begin riding east towards the coast.
We take turns sleeping in the cart and walking. Stone is tireless and alert, pacing alongside, and Goldpetal drives. Stone and Goldpetal take the majority of the watches, but we all contribute as best as we can. We trudge steadily through the darkness.
We reach the tower, with no incident, at daybreak on Madraday, the 18th of Charder. Although it’s been two exhausting days and nights, when we reach the tower we are all awake, and Miriel starts a new discussion of our plans.
Miriel begins, “Okay, we need to make a decision. Do we interrogate SySy here and now, or should we take her to Grilliam?”
Delonia looks very nervous. “I don’t like the idea of going back to Southport. I never want to see Grilliam again!” she exclaims.
Paks reassures her, “Nobody will make you.”
“I want to interrogate SySy now,” Delonia says.
Paks nods her head decisively. “Okay,” she says, “Let’s do it.”
“No way!” she exclaims in alarm. “It’s far too risky.”
“I can handle her,” Delonia says confidently.
Goldpetal suggests, “Perhaps we should rest first. We are all tired.” Although the spell casters all tried to meditate in the bumpy cart ride, none have fully recovered their powers.
Stone interjects, looking thoughtfully at the burlap sack, “How long has SySy has been in that sack?”
Miriel ignores him, and asks, “Why should we interrogate her at all?”
“I agree,” Milo is quick to say. “We should fetch Grilliam.”
Goldpetal looks at him quizzically. “Why would he come out here?” he asks.
Milo looks up at the elf. “Why wouldn’t he?”
Delonia stands up abruptly. “I can’t take all this arguing,” she says, and begins walking over towards the bound witch.
Before she can reach the sack, Milo throws a dart at her! Stone leaps up, attempting to catch it out of the air, but he is too slow, and the dart hits Delonia in the back. She turns angrily, but before they can come to further blows, Paks restrains Delonia, and Chuck grabs Milo roughly.
“Hold!” Paks yells, and, with everyone in the group now standing between them, the two antagonists relent.
As their tempers calm, Miriel heals Delonia, and then stands to address everyone. “Everyone, please stop fighting,” she implores. “Let’s listen to what Delonia has to say.”
Delonia says, “I don’t want to be involved with Grilliam again. I’ve always had a good relationship with SySy, and I want to find a resolution to this that doesn’t involve handing SySy over to him. I think we can handle SySy – she’s already hurt, she’s manacled, blindfolded, and there are seven of us to her one. Why are you so afraid of her?”
Milo glares at her. “Why don’t we all have our say?” he asks derisively.
Miriel nods at him, and says, “Okay. You first.”
“We have no reason to trust anything she says,” Milo argues. “We can’t compel her to tell the truth. A priest of Hedrada could get a lot of good information out of her. We can’t.”
Paks speaks next. “There’s a different issue here,” she tells us. “As Delonia says, what are we going to do with SySy? We could kill her now and not interrogate her..."
“That sounds good to me!” Goldpetal interjects.
Paks continues, “...or interrogate her.”
“She’s a rat thing,” Goldpetal says, with venom in his voice. “She enslaves people. She deserves to die.”
Chuck speaks next. He sounds unusually thoughtful. “I agree that we should interrogate her. I also agree with Goldpetal that we should kill her. You know, I think it’s most important that we find out what’s up with her operation, first.”
Stone speaks. Although some might say that the half-orc is not always the brightest lamp in the street, his words have wisdom which the others hadn’t yet considered. “Delonia doesn’t want to see Grilliam,” he says, “But she helped you capture SySy. She wants to be there for the interrogation, and I think you owe her that much. We should do it now.” After a moment’s pause, he adds, “Then kill her.”
Miriel looks at him a little fearfully. “Kill who, Delonia, or SySy?”
Stone thinks about it for a moment. “The second one.”
