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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 1848992" data-attributes="member: 15470">Issue #15: Out of the Swamp - Episode 2 of 5We travel for about two hours. It is hard work and slow going, slogging through the swamp, even with the lizard-men to guide us through the easiest parts. At least this day is cooler, although it remains very humid. As we travel, Chuck and Goldpetal keep an eye out for healing herbs or useful food. By the end of the two hours, the slaves are straggling and spread out, despite our best efforts to keep them together.Hands of Fire calls a halt at a clearing. “Dry land,” he says. “Rest here?”Chuck says, “We should push on.” “I agree,” Paks concurs. We gather the last of the slaves, reforming our line. Miriel checks them over, and says, “I think they can push on.” We are agreed.Before we resume, Goldpetal says, “I found some ninequine.” He passes leaves of the herb out to everyone. “This will help prevent Swamp Fever,” he says.  We push onward for another twenty minutes or so. It’s started to drizzle, and the sun is completely obscured now. We aren’t getting soaked, but everyone’s outer garments are wet. Telryn mutters, “Gods, I hate this swamp.”“At least the ground is drier,” Paks points out. We’re moving through a wooded section of the swamp, so the ground is firm, unlike the deep mire we’ve waded through on previous days.From the east, four wolf-rats, giant rats fully the size of wolves burst from the trees. We’ve fought their ilk before, but they are a vicious lot.The wolf rats rush forward and attack. One bites at Fists of Fury, but misses. The other three attack slaves. One slave ducks, and the wolf-rat lands awkwardly, falling on its side. The second one misses, but the third hits, bearing a hapless slave to the ground beneath it. The other slaves begin to scream in panic and terror.Goldpetal and Chuck step out of the column and fire at the wolf rat which stumbled. Each hit it once as it climbs back to its feet. Chuck’s second shot goes high, into the trees.Paks, who had been walking in the middle, with the slaves, runs forward to attack the one towards the front of the column, the one pinning a slave down. She wounds it with her longsword, driving it off of its victim. Stone drops his bag, and from the front of the column, charges towards the wolf-rats. He leaps over the first one, which gets a good bite on him as he flies over its head. The half-orc lands beside the second one, bringing both his fists, clasped together, down in an overhand blow. We can hear the crunch of ribs breaking beneath his blow, and the monk is surprised to find the wolf-rat still on its feet and snarling at them.The screaming slaves flee in the opposite direction. Telryn tries to halt them, but they are panicked, and ignore the teenage wizard. Before they can get far, however, the leaders get caught up in several giant spider-webs which are strung between the trees. The rest of us are too busy fighting the danger we can see to help them. Drinks with Orcs and Hands of Fire join Paks, attacking the wolf-rat at the front. Drinks misses, but Hands of Fire connects his club with its skull, and smashes the wolf-rat flat, dead.The wolf-rat which Goldpetal and Chuck had shot scrambles to its feet. It prepares to leap at Miriel, but before it can, Fists of Fury delivers a crushing club to its head, and it too is killed. Red Scale charges the one in back and hits it. Novalia shoots twice at the two remaining wolves, hitting each but not killing either. Miriel takes a few steps towards the slaves, and shouts to them, “Pull the stuck ones loose!” Some of them are still free, and they begin trying to help extricate their compatriots. Swims With Fishes attacks the wolf-rat near the back of the column, and with a single blow he kills it.  Dorin Silvershield runs up to the last one, swinging the bastard sword in front of him, but it dodges his blow, then darts in to bite him. The dwarf expertly uses the sword to keep it at bay.Miriel runs around the combatants to reach the fallen slave. He’s bleeding, but alive, and she expertly bandages his wounds.  Behind us, the slaves start shouting, “Spiders!” Even more ominous, we can hear fear in Telryn’s voice as he says, “Uh, guys…”Goldpetal turns, and sees five giant spiders, easily large enough to make a meal of the slaves, crawling down out of the trees and along the ground towards the slaves trapped in their web. He tries to shoot one, but his arrow glances off of its thick carapace. “Come back where we can protect you!” Paks yells. Chuck also turns. He takes two quick shots, at two different arachnids, and hits both times. Paks charges the spider closest to the slaves, the right-most one. It is up in the tree, and she misses, but she does position herself between it and its victim.Stone steps around the wolf and tries to land his trademark flurry of blows. He and Dorin don’t have the practice of weeks of fighting together, however, and the half-orc gets elbowed in the head by the dwarf. The wolf-rat is about to leap on him when Drinks with Orcs distracts it with a sharp rap of the club, which must be incredibly painful against its broken ribs. The slaves who are not in the web start running back towards the rest of the group, whether because they’ve listened to Paks or whether in terror of the spiders, we’re not sure. The eight slaves in the web try to break free, but after their lengthy captivity, they are too weak to manage it. Hands of Fire charges up behind Paks and attacks the same spider, but his momentum carries him into the web, and he is quickly trapped. The spider shoots a web at Paks, and entangles her as well! Two more of the spiders attack the trapped slaves, biting them. The slaves so bitten fall unconscious, either from the pain or from poison. The two wounded spiders scuttle off into the woods to escape Chuck’s accurate arrows. Meanwhile, Fists of Fury bashes the nearly forgotten wolf-rat with his great club, killing it. Drinks with Orcs tries to help Stone to his feet, but the half-orc looks quite woozy from the blow. He is unable to get all the way to his feet, and stops, kneeling on one knee with his head down.Red Scale and Swims With Fishes rush over to the entangled slaves at the far left of the webs, and start trying to pull them free. Novalia covers them with bowshot, which is unable to injure the spiders, but keeps them away from the two lizard-men.  Dorin charges straight into the center web, slicing through it, and attacks a surprised spider. The well-forged weapon bites deep, and a black ichor begins oozing from the belly of the spider. It steps back from its victim, and Miriel hurries to heal the unconscious slave it has just left. Goldpetal shoots at the spider still in the tree, the one above Paks, and hits it, right through one of its many eyes, and it begins to back away from Paks. She is too entangled to reach it with her sword, but she manages to draw her bow. Her shot is weak, and just grazes it. As the fleeing slaves reach the path, Telryn and Novalia rein them in, helping to prevent further panic, and gathering them together in one space. Chuck moves around to the other side and shoots at the uninjured spider. He puts an arrow through a multifaceted eye as well, and it tries to drag its victim back into the forest with it. Drinks With Orcs steps up and throws a javelin at it, while Hands of Fire breaks free of the web by laying about with his great club. As he steps towards it, the spider drops its victim, and all three spiders run away, either along the ground or through the trees. Chuck and Goldpetal loose a few more arrows after the arachnids, to encourage them to continue fleeing, but neither hit.With the help of the strong lizard men, we break the slaves free. Miriel stabilizes the two wounded ones, but turns to Novalia. “I’m exhausted,” she says, “And I cannot heal them. Can you give them just enough healing to wake them up?”“Yes,” the archer replies.“Just get them in shape to keep walking,” Chuck tells her.As Novalia works, Paks explains to the slaves, “You need to stick with us. The swamp itself is more dangerous than anything which may attack us. If we’re attacked, step back, let us do the fighting, but don’t run – quicksand, alligators, and spiders are not the worst dangers you might run into.”We start traveling again. Around noon, some of the slaves start asking for a break. Hands of Fire finds a clearing in the wooded area. Never before has a muddy area of small, stunted trees looked so inviting. “Let’s rest for an hour,” Miriel recommends.Stone drops his bag, puts his head on it, and promptly falls asleep. Telryn follows suit. It’s still drizzling. Goldpetal sets out a bowl to collect rainwater for us to drink. Copying him, Paks puts out her helmet, and one of the lizard-men places out a gourd of some sort. Chuck, Dorin, and the four lizard men stand watch while the remainder of us rest.</blockquote>

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