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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 1394290" data-attributes="member: 15470">Issue #10: "I hate the swamp" - Episode 5 of 5It is nearly dark when Chuck finally finds a larger dry spot.  It’s on slightly higher ground, with a few trees, off to the side, several yards off to the side of the army’s track. We’re all exhausted, and when Chuck looks around the clearing and says, “This is as good a place as any,” we’re all grateful.  Goldpetal and Telryn both look completely played out, and have been splashing along in silence: they both sit down, abruptly, looking as though they never want to move again. It occurs to Miriel that if Chuck is as tired as the rest of us, she’s not sure he would have seen anything dangerous, even though he checked it out. She says nothing, however.Stone lights one of our lanterns, and Paks, Stone, and Chuck set up camp, again using the canvas to rig a make-shift cover. We’re too tired to light a fire, and after an unsatisfying meal of dry rations, we lay out our bags to sleep. We pair those who can see in the dark with humans, and set a two-man guard rotation. Chuck and Stone take the first watch.It has only been dark for an hour when they notice that they are getting eaten up by mosquitoes. More and more of the annoying vermin are flying out of the darkness towards our camp, and they hear a horrible buzzing approaching. Even as they wake the others, a swarm of mosquitoes enters the campsite. Stone and Chuck are covered in mosquitoes before they can react. The rest of us wake up, to find the air so thick with mosquitoes that we literally cannot see each other.  Paks, Miriel, and Goldpetal bury themselves in their blankets, protecting their heads and faces as best as they can, trying to completely cover themselves.Chuck runs to the edge of the swamp and begins trying to cover his exposed skin in mud. Telryn gets up, and starts searching his pack for a flint and steel and torch. He is engulfed by the swarm and bitten repeatedly as well. Stone makes a pile of wood and opens up the covered, lit lantern, pouring some of the oil on the wood to set it on fire. Telryn helps him. Chuck finishes covering himself in mud, and Stone has a fire going. The stocky half-orc picks up one of the burning brands, and swings the flaming log around through the mosquitoes. It works, and with Telryn and Chuck copying his methodology, they quickly disperse them. With the exception of Chuck and Stone, the rest of us settle down into our bedrolls and go back to sleep. Stone keeps the fire going, and he and Chuck continue their watch.An hour later, Chuck wakes Miriel up. “I don’t feel so good,” he says.She checks him over, and tells him that he’s got Swamp Fever again. While she’s awake, she examines Stone and Telryn as well. The half-orc is resilient, and says he feels fine, but Telryn isn’t feeling well, either. She can’t tell whether it was brought on by the mosquito bites, or a relapse of his earlier illness, but he is falling victim to Swamp Fever yet again.Miriel replaces Chuck on the watch, staying up to tend them. Goldpetal, who is feeling better, gets up, and searches the immediate area for hag’s tongue, an herb which he says may help work against the fever. We go back to sleep, continuing the watch schedule as best as we can. Miriel is the only one on watch at two a.m. Telryn would have been watching with her, but he is too ill.  Between the owl and the hawks, however, we are reasonably confident that one guard is sufficient.It isn’t.The first thing Miriel realizes is wrong is that the night noises, a constant chirping and croaking, have all stopped. She thinks about waking the others, looking around to see if she can figure out what is wrong.Suddenly, the priestess sees a giant menacing shadow, a blacker patch looming out of the darkness of the swamp night. It towers above her. She has time for nothing but a scream of terror. Two giant arms sweep out of the darkness at her, crashing across her face in a powerful slap. It picks her up and throws her viciously to the ground, where she bounces sickeningly, and lays crumpled in a limp heap. Everyone else is woken by Miriel’s screams. We see an eight foot tall mound of rotting vegetation, somehow animate and turning towards the others. It is about eight feet wide at the base, tapering to about two feet wide at the “head”. Two long ropy arms flail about the night. The thing smells putrid. We all scramble for our weapons. The first thing Chuck grabs is a vial of his new acid, which he throws at the creature. It is impossible to miss it, and the acid starts eating away at it, but that’s just making it angrier.Telryn yells, “Is this thing intelligent?” “No!” Chuck hollers back. Telryn casts a magic missile at it, tearing a small crater in the decaying vegetation. Stone charges it and punches it, creating a huge dent which nearly envelops his fist. The monster swings one ropy arm at him, hitting him hard. Paks isn’t wearing her armor, but she grabs her long sword and runs to Stone’s aid. She gets around the other side to flank it, but when she swings her sword, the blade cuts right through it. It doesn’t even appear to injure it. “It’s a shambling mound!” Goldpetal yells to us.  He tries to cast a spell, but it doesn’t appear to do anything.The swamp thing’s right arm swings at Stone, catching him with a great backhand. We can hear bone break. He flies through the air and lands on the ground, his neck bent at an impossible angle. Chuck picks up a flaming log from the fire, and throws it at the shambling mound, hitting it and setting it on fire. Telryn grabs another log and throws at it, but misses. Paks starts to run back around it. She pulls out her unlit lantern and throws it at the mass, hoping to cover it with oil, but she misses. The lamp flies over the mound and shatters on the ground. The shambling mound, wounded and suddenly finding itself fighting fire, retreats quickly towards the water, submerging quickly and disappearing out of sight. Chuck runs to Miriel’s side, and amazingly she is still alive. He stabilizes her wounds as best as he can. Paks rushes to one of the packs, and begins looking for something.Telryn goes to stabilize Stone, but Goldpetal is already there. “Its no use,” the elf tells him, with one finger to Stone’s throat. “He has no pulse.”  He straightens the orc’s broken body, and reaches out to close the corpse’s eyes.Paks has been rummaging through Miriel’s pack, and now she pulls out Madriel’s Tear. Motioning Telryn and Goldpetal aside, she steps to Stone’s side, and kneels beside him with her eyes closed. She prays deeply, for many minutes, over him, begging the gods to help the young monk, if his work on this earth is not yet done. She invokes Madriel, and Corean, and Hedrada, and as she prays the others can feel a great power growing, until it almost fills the clearing. The gold liquid contained inside the crystal of Madriel’s Tear glows with a bright light, illuminating us all with the golden warmth of the sun.  When she stops speaking, the power subsides, and the golden light fades. Stone makes a rattling, ragged gasp for air, and starts breathing again.Paks opens her eyes, and looks around as though she does not know where she is, or what has just occurred.  The others stare at her in stunned silence.</blockquote>

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