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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 1440493" data-attributes="member: 15470">Issue #13: The Rat Man Warren, Pt I - Episode 1 of 518th of January, 2003Issue #13 The Rat Man Warren, Part IWhile pursuing the tribe of Disease ratmen who had attacked Kratys Freehold, we encountered a tribe of lizard men who live in the swamp. At their behest, we undertook to cleanse the swamp of a great evil which had festered for generations in the ruins of a tower upon a remote island on a lake.At the bottom of the ruined tower, deep beneath the lake, we found a wight, who styled himself as a king. We defeated the wight and his ghoul minions, and proceeded to enact a difficult ritual of cleansing to help clear the poisoned lake of the blight which the undead king had placed upon it.Successful in our quest, we returned to the village of the lizard men, where we have been resting in our cave.It is mid-afternoon on the first Madraday of Madrer. We’ve been napping, resting from our ordeal, through the heat of the day. When we awake, the shaman comes to tend to our injuries. He proscribes various potions for our injured, explaining them to Goldpetal and Miriel through Telryn’s interpretation. The potions taste absolutely foul, but are quite efficacious, and we are healed of everything that had ailed us. Shortly after he departs, the lizard men arrive to escort us to the feast. They bring us to their main cavern, where there is a large celebration. Everyone gathers around while Hands of Fire tells the tale. He embellishes it a bit, and even though few of us can understand his words, we recognize his meaning as he acts out the many parts. The children gasp at his depiction of a stirge, flee in terror from his imitation of the crayfish, and laugh when he mimics the paralyzation we experienced by stiffening and falling over. Finally, his imitation of the wight is impeccable, and he makes deep guttural noises with his throat, unlike the draconic sibilants he’s been telling the tale in. When he describes how we slew it, and chopped its head off, everyone is very impressed with us. There is a great feast, although there is less food than there was at the feast on Denev’s day. The food is somewhat less edible or appealing, and only Stone partakes of the live mice. Nonetheless, we are the heroes and guests of honor, and everyone is very happy. The feast ends in the late afternoon. Miriel asks Telryn to help her speak to the cook. It goes well, and she leaves some rice soaking in the lizard man kitchen.Miriel steps outside to perform her rituals, which are particularly important since it is her patron deity’s day, Madraday, of her month, Madrer. The rituals take her through sunset, as she performs the evening rituals as well. She gets a strong feeling that the golden armor we found in the crypt was a test, and feels approbation from the goddess, as through we passed.Paks also goes outside, to offer a sincere, silent prayer of thanks to Madriel. It is the first time she has prayed to the goddess, outside of the heat and stress of battle, and when she comes back inside, she seems more at peace with herself.The others, inside, get great amusement when they recognize some lizard children playing “Hands of Fire and the dry-landers.” It’s very cute, and it seems to be a popular game. Chuck meets with the chief, Eyes of the Snake, and asks about the status of the rat man town. Hands of Fire and Telryn accompany him. Eyes of the Snake calls over one of the scouts.“Just yesterday,” the scout tells him, through Telryn’s interpreting, “A small band of about five rat men arrived from the southwest. They were larger, and seemed a little better dressed than the others, and they caused a great stir.”“Do you know where they came from?” Chuck asks. “There are big towns much further to the southwest, deeper in the swamp, so one thinks that they came from such a town.”Hands of Fire explains, “The swamp gets much worse in that direction.”The chief says, “After hearing Hands of Fire’s tale, two more warriors have volunteered to go with you.”Hands of Fire and the chief have a quick discussion, which Telryn interprets blow-by-blow. “Hands of Fire asked who, and the chief said ‘Fists of Fury’ and ‘Swims with Fishes’. Hands of Fire seems very displeased, he doesn’t seem to like them. They were speaking too quickly after that, and I couldn’t quite hear what they said.” From body language, we guess that Hands of Fire has had to submit to the chief’s will.Miriel and Paks have both returned by this time. Chuck asks the scout about the population of the town, and hears that there aren’t as many as in the past, before the siege of Kratys Freehold, but that there are still quite a lot. Meanwhile, Goldpetal asks the shaman for some dove feathers, which the shaman is able to supply from his store of spell components. Paks found herself carrying two long swords when we divided up the treasures. She offers to trade her old longsword for another pearl, to help Telryn’s effort to identify magical items when we find them, but the lizard men are not interested.Finally, well after sunset, when all of our little band have gathered in comfort, Novalia asks about our history with the rat men. We spend the remainder of the evening regaling her with our adventures. Before going to bed, Miriel stops in the kitchen to grind the rice and leave a sourdough starter rising. We rest for the night.In the dark hours of the morning, Stone, Telryn, and Goldpetal wake up. They can hear someone coming stealthily into our cave. Each tenses in his own way – Telryn with a spell on his lips, Stone ready to lash out with his feet, and Goldpetal feeling for his scimitar.The stealthy explorer is Chuck, and each of them relaxes. The Vigilant looks exhausted. He is covered in mud, and his clothes look wet. He looks like he’s been gone all night.  Telryn rolls over in his bedroll, and asks, “Did you find the duck?” Chuck sits down, taking off his pack, and puts on his best air of innocence. “What are you talking about?”“Go to sleep!” Stone grumbles sleepily.With the fresh light of the new day, a bright and chipper seven-foot-tall lizard man arrives in our cave. Miriel and Goldpetal are close behind him, having just completed their respective dawn rituals. It is Taniday, the third day of Madrer.Hands of Fire speaks in rapid Draconic, sounding awake and cheerful. Telryn, half-asleep, translates grumpily. “He wants to know if we’re ready to set out,” he says “I want to wait another day,” Miriel answers, stepping past the lizard man and into the cave, “So I can finish making bread. When I’m done, I can bless it, so that anyone who eats it is healed of their wounds, and one chunk of bread will be all any of us need to eat in a day.”Telryn sits up, rubbing his eyes. “I like the idea of waiting a day,” he says. “I can transcribe spells, and study.” He laughs to himself, and says under his breath to Paks, “Not to mention putting off tramping through the swamp.” “Let me sleep,” Chuck grumbles, pulling his cloak about his head and rolling over to face the wall.“I’m worried that every day we wait is more time for the rat men to reinforce,” Paks tells the others.“That’s not good,” Stone comments.Goldpetal observes, “They might have already reinforced.”Miriel asks, “How far is the big city of rat men?” Hands of Fire says, in heavily accented Common, “Many days travel.” We all look at him in surprise – clearly he is starting to understand our language, though only Telryn has made any strides into Draconic.“I think we should do both,” Novalia chimes in. “We could leave Miriel and Telryn here, and let the rest of the party go look at the town.” Miriel shakes her head. “I don’t think that is a good idea,” she says.Hands of Fire says, “Healer good. Lots of healing good. Lots of rat men. Many rats. Sharp claws. Sharp teeth.” Hands of Fire’s advice sways Stone and Goldpetal, and we decide to wait a day. Stone, Paks, and Novalia join the others in wakefulness, while Chuck and Telryn try to get some more sleep. During the day, the rest of us discover that we all have errands to run in and around the lizard man caves.  Miriel bakes two loaves of rice sourdough bread. The smell of baking bread wafts through the complex, giving the lizard man warren a nice, homely smell. The scent eventually entices Chuck and Telryn out of bed, although the priestess turns them away, saying that they may have their share tomorrow.Goldpetal goes for a long walk through the swamp. At first he walks with Hands of Fire, learning as much as he can of the swamp through the disjoint communication he and Hands of Fire can make. Eventually, they exhaust the learning which can be communicated through broken Common and hand gestures. When Hands of Fire returns home, Goldpetal explores further into the swamp. He is growing ever more comfortable in the strange environs of the Mourning Marsh, and, with his two hawks circling and keeping an eye out, he feels perfectly safe. Chuck wakes up a few hours later, and he, too goes out to explore the swamp. Starting so much later, he does not see any trace of Goldpetal’s passage. He is curious to see if he can find an animal companion, something which his Vigilant elders had taught him would be possible when his powers were sufficiently advanced. After several hours of walking and wading through the mud, he pauses – in a tree directly across from him is a small, black snake. Their eyes make contact, and the snake shows no fear. Chuck recognizes it as a poisonous swamp viper, but he feels oddly drawn to it. He extends one hand towards the branch, and the snake crawls up his arm, wrapping itself around his forearm. He pets it with his left hand, and it looks at him, flicking its forked tongue in and out to smell him. A strong bond forms between Chuck and the small snake, and he carries it with him for the rest of the day.During the early afternoon, Paks asks Miriel to accompany her for a walk. They do not wander as far as the ranger or druid, staying close to the weeping willows which mark the lizard man complex, but ranging far enough afield that they can talk privately. As they walk, Paks tells Miriel of a strange vision she had the previous night.“I had a dream last night,” she says. “I was outside, in a great dry forest. I walked past a waterfall, above a pool which sparkled in the bright sunlight. I walked to the edge of the woods and came upon a vast fertile plain of grains and grasses. I looked up into the bright, glowing sun and a huge white swan flew down upon her. It was almost frightening, but then it entered me and I felt wiser, somehow. I looked up at the sun and saw Madriel’s face smiling down upon me. “This morning, I found that I knew, almost instinctively, how to invoke some powers.”They discuss the powers which Paks has learned, which Miriel quickly identifies as being divine spells. They discuss the spells Paks knows and discover that some of them are similar to those that Miriel knows, but some are unique, very different, such as the ability to bless a weapon. Paks asks Miriel to keep this to herself, and they walk back to the lizard man town. Telryn spends most of the day studying and writing. He transcribes some of the spells we have discovered from the scrolls into his spell book.  He is extremely focused on the task, and irritable when interrupted, as Paks discovers to her chagrin. A lunch left near him by one of our well-meaning hosts goes completely uneaten, unnoticed.Stone grows quickly bored with sitting around the lizard man caves, until he meets up with a group of several younger lizard men, warriors who have not yet proved their worth. He spends the afternoon and evening getting very drunk with them. They have a fine lizard-berry wine, and, though they start the evening with no shared language, that hardly seems to be a barrier to enjoyment. Physical humor makes both lizard man and half orc laugh uproariously, and as they drink, Stone starts picking up some slight Draconic, and at least one of the lizard men makes an effort to learn some Common.  Chuck returns in the mid-afternoon, carrying a small black viper. This draws amazement and consternation from our hosts, but their shaman explains something to them. Without Telryn to interpret, none of us understand what he said, but they stay clear of Chuck and his viper. Chuck explains that the viper will be safe in the cave with the rest of us, and will not bite us. In the evening, Goldpetal returns at last. He does not speak of his travels or what he has found, though he is very interested to discover Chuck’s animal companion, and spends no little time examining it. The snake puts up with his attentions with good grace.Telryn, finally done with his studies, takes Hands of Fire aside to ask, “So, what do you think about the other two guys?Hands of Fire shakes his head. “That Swims With Fishes, dumb as a newt.”“What do you mean?” “They’re both strong and brave,” Hands of Fire explains, “But Swims with Fishes doesn’t have much sense.” “Is that good or bad for our quest?” Telryn asks.Hands of Fire shrugs, a human gesture he has picked up from Telryn. “Strong club good, weak mind bad.” After dinner, most of us turn in. Miriel asks her hosts to wake her a few hours before dawn. Stone and his lizard man companions are still drinking heavily when the rest of us turn in, and he waves away Chuck’s entreaty that he come to sleep.When Miriel is awoken in the wee hours of the morning, the half-orc is snoring heavily. She pulls a blanket over him, and slips out to go to the kitchen, where she works over her two loaves of bread. She prays for Madriel’s blessing, and enchants the loaves into four healing rations of food each. The ritual exhausts much of her strength, and she goes back to sleep to recover what she can before morning.Dawn arrives on Hedraday, the fourth day of Madrer. As the previous day, Hands of Fire arrives in our cave just after Miriel and Goldpetal complete their dawn rituals. The rest of us roll out of bed and begin stowing our things in packs, all save Stone.The half-orc looks very unwell, and rolls over to burrow into the wall. Miriel takes a minute to examine him, and when she returns to the rest of the group, she tells us, “Stone isn’t feeling well - he drank a lot of lizard-berry wine last night, and didn’t realize how strong it was. He’s going to wait here and rest, and catch up with us later. It seems that lizard-berry wine and half-orcs don’t mix.”“Should we wait for him?” asks Chuck.Even as Paks shakes her head, Miriel answers, “No. I think we should press on. Here, everyone take a chunk of bread – this should be all you’ll need to eat today, and if you are injured before you eat it, it will help to heal your wounds.” She distributes the healing bread chunks, one to each of us, and two to Hands of Fire. Hands of Fire keeps one for himself and gives the other to Fists of Fury, one of the lizard men who will be accompanying us. Miriel packs up the sourdough starter to bring with her.Within minutes, we are packed and ready, and with the three lizard men, we work our way to the surface.Underneath the great hanging willow, we find the chief waiting for us. He offers his blessing on our departure. “I wish you good luck,” he says, through Telryn’s interpretation. “I hope you kill all the rat men, but, regardless of your success or failure, please do not return. I worry that you might lead the rat men back to the lizard people’s home.“If you come back to the swamp in the future, please do not come to our door without permission and a guide.”Miriel asks, “How can we find you, if we need you?” “If you need to find us, come nearby. Our scouts will find you.”We depart, and it feels like leaving home, an oasis of comfort in the muddy misery of the marsh.The day starts hot and humid, with very little breeze. There is a light mist rising from the muddy ground, much as almost every day in the swamp has started. With Hands of Fire leading, and the assistance of the other lizard men, we make much better time than we would have been able to make on our own. As we walk, Goldpetal forages off to the side of the path, searching for ninequine berries. Chuck keeps an eye out for trouble, while Paks asks Telryn to teach her Draconic. Telryn is very jumpy, keeping his crossbow out, but, with Fists of Fury and Telryn both working with her, Paks begins to make some progress. In all, it’s an unorganized line, with people stepping off to either side to look at things, even the other lizard men. We travel for over two hours without any difficulty.We are wading through water a foot deep. There are a lot of tall grasses around us, their tips waving in the wind. Swims with Fishes wanders off to the right to look at something, and trips over a log.We hear a big roar from the log, which whirls to challenge him! It’s the tail of a giant alligator, unlike anything we’ve seen before, with spines on its back and a mace for a tail. Swims with Fishes draws his club and roars back at it, and that provokes the alligator to charge at him! Somehow, the clumsy lizard man manages to dive out of the way, falling into the swamp water with a splash. The rest of us scatter, trying to back away from the great beast.Telryn fires his crossbow at the alligator just as his owl flies up to get out of the way, and the sudden movement of the owl spoils his aim. Paks brings up her bow and fires, hurrying the shot, which goes wildly off into the swamp. Goldpetal’s two hawks dive at the alligator to attack it, and one of them impales itself on the spines of the alligator! It dies, its body stuck on the spine of its intended victim. The other hawk went for the eyes, and so was spared the same fate, but also failed to injure the alligator.Swims With Fishes staggers to his feet, dripping wet, and rushes the lizard from behind. He hits it with his club, but can do no more than just bruise it, and he also injures himself on the spines. He roars again, in fury, as it looks that his attack has wounded him more than the alligator! Fists of Fury sees this, and pulls out a javelin to throw at it, but he also misses. Miriel shouts, “Is it intelligent?” as the surviving hawk flies up to join the owl in the safety of the trees above the battle.Hands of Fire yells “No!” as he fumbles backward and draws his javelin. Chuck’s viper slithers down into the murky water under the thrashing alligator, but we can’t see how he fares. Chuck fires his bow twice in rapid succession. He hits both times, but doesn’t do much damage. Novalia also hits with her arrow, while Miriel slings a bullet at it. The small iron ball bounces harmlessly off of its thick skin.The alligator whirls its body around, swinging its mace-like tail at Swims With Fishes, the only one who is still close to it. He tries to duck, but the ball of the tail catches him across the temple, and he collapses face-first into the water, unconscious.Goldpetal looses an arrow at it, and hits, the arrow burying itself deeply into its side, and Telryn casts a magic missile. It is clearly wounded, but this seems only to enrage it, and it begins to advance on the rest of us. Hands of Fire throws his javelin at it, but it takes an unlucky bounce off of the spines, and sinks into the swamp.  Paks fires her bow again, but the arrow fails to penetrate its hide. We retreat before it, continuing to fight. Fists of Fury throws another javelin, just missing its head. Chuck fires twice more, hitting it once. Hands of Fire steps dangerously close to the monstrous tail to pull Swims with Fishes’ face out of the water, so that the luckless lizard man doesn’t drown.Finally, Miriel casts a sound burst, centered directly on the great beast’s head. The thunderous noise, at such close range, completely stuns the vicious alligator, leaving a heavy ringing in all of our ears as well.With the great beast stunned, Novalia steps up close to it and shoots at the head of the lizard. She hits it right through the eye and kills it. Paks, Novalia, and Fists of Fury remain alert and on guard, the lizard man with a javelin ready, and the two women with an arrow knocked, while the rest of us take care of things.Miriel steps around the corpse to Swims with Fishes, and asks Madriel’s healing for him. This closes the wounds from the spines, and wakes him up, although he is disoriented and dizzy for some time. Chuck also finds that his viper was wounded under the monster’s claws during the fight, and he brings the snake to her. The healing arts work just as well on an animal as they do on us humans, and it looks like it is completely healed when she is finished.Goldpetal retrieves the body of his dead hawk, and sadly buries it on a nearby island, finding a dry spot for the burial. Telryn cuts off some of the spines, which he thinks might be useful, although he doesn’t indicate whether he thinks they would make a good dart, or be useful as a spell reagent. When Swims With Fishes is recovered, Hands of Fire starts cursing at him. He speaks too rapidly for even Telryn to follow, but he is clearly irate. Paks comments to Chuck, who is standing near her, “He sounds more angry than the most terrifying drill sergeant I’ve ever had.”When the lizard man is finished, Swims With Fishes stands with his head down in silent submission. Hands of Fire glares at him, then looks away dismissively and recommends that we move on.</blockquote>

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