Lost Trails Chapter 14: Hunting the River-Monster

[ewancummins]

The Maiden’s Kiss casts off Phlan’s wharves as dawn pinks the mists over the eastern reaches of the Moonsea.

Three days good sailing in cold weather with favorable--and bitterly cold--winds.

The fourth night, after an evening squall, the travelers hear the tolling of bells; the noise seems to be coming through the hull, from the depths of the Moonsea. The sailors of the night watch won’t discuss the strange noise, muttering prayers and clutching at lucky amulets before finding some task to do that takes them away from inquisitive passengers.

The vessel sails southeast though passing fogs and rainstorms and on the fifth day reaches the town of Elmwood on the Moonsea shore, near the broad headwaters of the River Lis.
The party has an hour to stretch cramped legs, walking the tree-lined cobblestone lanes. Near the waterfront, a passing dwarf dressed in a blacksmith’s apron inquires with grave, almost exaggerated politeness about Alain’s ‘starwheel’ (his curiously-fashioned pistol). A farmer pauses in unloading his garden-cart to watch the armed group move past him. At the local inn and tavern, the Dryad’s Door, a dainty barmaid with elfin features moons over Klokulf, to Alwina’s visible irritation. Boys and girls follow Sir Clive and Tonio, begging for money to buy sweets and pestering the knight for tales of his adventures—they seem certain he’s had some.

Word comes with a runner; the Maiden’s Kiss is casting off for the Lis headwaters as soon as the party comes back aboard.
Meals and drinks finished or not (the elfin-eyed barmaid will quickly wrap up any leftovers for Klokulf and his friends) the group returns.

Aboard-ship, they meet Rowan, the young woman who will serve as their river-guide.
…

At highsun, the longboat holding the group and three days’ supplies lowers gently into the river and the master of the Maiden’s Kiss gives immediate orders to make sail for open waters, northwest.

A young sailor leans over and blows Katrin a kiss. “Good luck, Red!”

Light woods grow on either bank of the broad river. The Lis meanders south beyond the horizon over a gently down-sloping region of trees, brush, and sandy bogs. Currents catch the boat and it begins drifting downriver.
Tonio sets oars in place but waits for an order before beginning to row.

--------------

Once underway, the boat makes good time, at least until it hits a submerged sandbar.
Rowan curses. “That wasn’t here before, I’m sure.” Then she shrugs. “The river does change, and…”


The wiry young riverwoman crinkles her freckled nose and stares hard at the water and the trees, getting out at the infrequent stops and looking closely at the sand and mud of the banks, but if she finds any sign of a dragon or giant worm, she gives no indication of such a discovery. Mostly she just frowns.

Two days pass in rowing and looking.
The hunters rest in night camps made on dry hummocks or low bluffs screened by trees, spots Rowan picks out.
Even with campfires, damp and chill seep into everybody's blankets and cloaks.

On the third day, with supplies running low and still no sign of the beast, Rowan announces she will go climb a nearby tree where she’s seen birds nesting. “I want eggs and I’ll get a good look around from up there.”

But she’s not even reached the tree when she spins around and hightails it back through the cattails, shouting: “Longarms, Longarms!”
Three green man-things as tall as men in the saddle come splashing along behind her, gnashing their yellow fangs and grabbing at the air with huge, black-nailed hands. The warty giants cackle with evil glee on sighting the party.
One leaps on Rowan and drags her screaming down into the reeds.
The other two sprint into the water margin and reach for Raen.

[kintire]

Katrin gives the sailor a cheery wave and a wink as she sets off, and then relaxes in the boat, except when it is her turn to row.

As the monsters leap towards them she swiftly draws her rapier and slips around to the side of one, driving in her blade with careful precision, aiming between ribs.

[ewancummins]

KAT'S blade slips off the horrible creature's rubbery hide.
Shouting voices, splashing feet, and then LIGHT-- a radiant cloud falling from above and a ruddy burst of flame from the riverbank.

Blinking through the glare, Katrin sees the two monsters coated in the same glittering dust that covers her sword and sword-arm. The ungainly things hop about splashing muddy water everywhere, howling in rage.

Another big splash, from her rear. Sir Clive has jumped in the water at the river's edge and wades to meet the foe, drawing his enormous headsman's blade as he clatters forward.

One of the two glowing 'longarms' falls on its fellow, rending it tooth and nail.

Sir Clive closes the distance and swings even as Kat ducks and rolls in from the side, probing with her blade.

Black ichor sprays all over Kat. A jabbering head falls in the muck at her feet, followed by a twitching arm. Sir Clive barrels past her, ichor-stained sword raised, and splits the skull of the second monster.
Before the big body splashes down multiple impacts shake it from behind.

Kat spots Alain standing behind the downed enemy, his hands raised.

But there's another one, the one that took down Rowan, the guide.

And now that one races towards Alain, gibbering and swinging its claws in air as it comes on.

Shapes flit past Katrin. Bats? No, hands.
Two dark, wraith-like hands, not attached to any body, circle the last of the longarms, swooping in and out to attack. One, glittering green in spots, strikes like an ironclad fist.
The other bites with a red maw.


--------------

RAEN


The sudden attack leaves Raen scrambling over the side of the boat, casting about for cover. He doesn't even feel the pain of his injuries until he's standing up to his shoulders in the cold river, rattling off the words of the magical formula to conjure glitterdust.


The water's depth isn't the only thing he misjudged. The spell catches some of his party.
But it looks as if it's worked on at least one of the creatures. The monsters fight each other now, enraged and blinded or confused.
Sir Clive is joining the fray.
The rest, Raen misses in a spray of water and mud and the press of retreat as Tonio splashes into the stream and Alwina and Theophilus pile out alongside the glitter-dusted young smith.

Someone shouts to drag the boat along.


THE OTHERS

Manage to get out on the side of the fight and engage the enemy by blade and spell.

The two luminous longarms fall swiftly, but the third one, unharmed and not dusted with radiant motes, turns its attentions from the party's injured guide to charge toward Alain.


AND THEN...


Alain, stepping back as the ugly brute reaches for him, hurls an bright arc of flame from his fingers.
The longarms howls in pain but keeps coming right through the flames.

Sir Clive dashes in swinging his sword. Katrin lunges.

The monster falls under their blades, its whole front blistered and singed by Alain's magic.
The muck it lands in hisses and steams with heat.




All three horrors have fallen.

But the dismembered remains of one of the two cut down near the boat twitch and squirm....

[ewancummins]

Raen suggests gathering together and torching what's left of the enemy...

Soon afterward, as the healers attend the injured, Alain blasts the chopped and sooty monsters and monster parts, melting and burning the green flesh and black bones until only charred fragments and oily scum remains.
The burn stinks horribly.

After being healed, Rowan comes to, looking pallid and shaky but no longer seriously harmed.
She curses roundly.
''I walked right into the buggers! Or they into me, I guess. Too close!''

Seeing the bonfire, she nods.
''Right! I see you lot know what you're doing. Well...''
She gets on her feet.
''Thank you for saving my life!''
Looking about, she adds,
''Three together...We're probably near to their lair. Longarms hoard whatever they don't eat. They'll nosh the boots right off your feet--everything but metal, stone...''

Beside the beached boat, Alwina comforts Tonio and Theophilus.
''The glow is fading already. I'm sure you'll be able to see clearly again soon. And if not, Klokulf can fix it. Have faith in his powers.''

[Adam]

Bennedict pulls out his notebook, scribbling down a quick sketch of the "long-arms" and noting their regenerative properties.

"Should we go and look for this lair?" he suggests. "Could be we would find something useful. Maybe something we could use for trade."

[ewancummins]

The search for the longarms' lair takes the group along muddy tracks leading into a hummock-burrow a bow-shot from the riverbank. Twisted willows and fungus-ringed oaks grow atop the hummock and on its slopes, their lowest branches overhanging the cave-like passage.

Within the hollow mound the group finds a dank, dim chamber as big as a serf's cottage. The mucky floor is littered with splintered bones, with noisome offal heaped on the left. Half-a-dozen unevenly spaced logs shoved upright along the walls serve as crude support pillars.
Two leather bags hang down from tree roots that poke through the earthen ceiling.
Opening the smaller bag, the adventurers find a collection of shining, polished and cut stones. The bigger bag bulges at its rawhide seams. A peek inside reveals many golden coins.

VIEW CONTENT:

Coins 700 gp
Gems
Amber (90 gp)
Fire Opal (500 gp)
Freshwater Pearl (5 gp)
Hematite (14 gp)
Moss Agate (8 gp)
Moss Agate (13 gp)
Obsidian (12 gp)
Onyx (50 gp)
Sardonyx (30 gp)
Star Ruby (1000 gp)
Tourmaline (80 gp)
Total value = 1802 gp

Total value 2502 gp

Rowan holds a torch up so everyone can get a look at the glittering treasure.
She whistles.
"I wonder if the longarms kept this because they liked the sparkle or if they knew its worth? I have heard they sometimes do trade with wicked folk. Not that I know much about such dark dealings."

[kintire]

Kat examines the treasure with a pleased air. "Well they seem to have some good taste, though we'll need to wash all this stuff before sale..." She looks over the second bag as well "all gems and gold! impossible to identify the original owners...uh which is very sad. yes. Sad."

[Adam]

"Perhaps this will help with our future negotiations," Bennedict agrees. "It always helps to have some capital."

[Lord Skybolt]

While looking at the "treasure" Alain thinks it could also make for good funds to make some magical items usefull to the party .

[ewancummins]

THE PARTY gathers its loot, tends to its hurts, and finds a relatively high and dry spot to bed down for the night....

The cold night passes in stillness and silence except for the crackle of the hummock-top campfire and occasional splashing sounds that seem to come from someplace hidden in low-lying fog.

Morning brings weak sunlight that hardly cuts through the gloomy pall stretching across the sky and only softens the thin layer of frost clinging to trees and rushes.

Rowan oversees boat preparations with visibly renewed confidence. Soon the party is packed up and rowing south with the Lis' sluggish current. The hunt has resumed.
The young river-woman welcomes Katrin's help in looking for signs of the 'worm.'

Rowan and Kat spot the signs first, but soon the blight becomes apparent to anyone with his eyes open: blackened rushes and rotted trees that fall apart when the freezing wind stiffens or crumble at the slap of wavelets raised by Tonio's oar-strokes. Polluted yellow streams wind through the trees and tall reed-clumps along the eastern bank of the main watercourse. The dead zone spreads east as far as anyone can make out, fading into the persistent fog. Skeletal trees appear and vanish again in the drifting vapors. A whiff of vinegar hangs in the air.
Katrin notices a series of long, wide troughs cut into the sandy bank on the eastern side.

[kintire]

Kat narrows her eyes and stares ahead.

"Well, there is clearly something going on around here. Look at this place!" she slowly surveys the area then stiffens slightly "Look there. There's a boat in that creek, I can see the pointy end..."

[Adam]

Bennedict slowly unslings his crossbow from his back. "This is not unusual," he relates to the others. "Dragons are harsh on their environs, from what I read. This sort of spoiling of the land accompanies many of their stories. I had wondered if it was figurative, but this suggests it could be quite literal."

He points to where the fog is thickest. "It is a safe bet that the creature can be found in that direction."

[alhoon]

Raen, after chanting a few words to get his mage armor on, idly debates the point Bennedict made.
"It could be they are attracted to such hostile environments perhaps as it makes pilfering their lairs harsher while they are out, and not that they create the situation themselves. Or, it could indeed be their taint spreading through nature like evil seeps out in our homeland. And speaking of our homeland, the fog makes me uneasy... "

[kintire]

Kat glances at them "Its good to consider all these possible contingencies. perhapsd we could also include the "what do we do about that boat that is lying in wait for us" question?"

[Adam]

Raen, after chanting a few words to get his mage armor on, idly debates the point Bennedict made.
"It could be they are attracted to such hostile environments perhaps as it makes pilfering their lairs harsher while they are out, and not that they create the situation themselves. Or, it could indeed be their taint spreading through nature like evil seeps out in our homeland. And speaking of our homeland, the fog makes me uneasy... "

Bennedict considers the fog and shrugs. "If it takes us back to our home, then my need to hunt this beast is resolved."

Bennedict squints at the boat Kat indicated. "Does it look to be manned or a derelict? There were stories about these draconic beings having serfs or followers as well..."

He looks at the others. "I don't like the idea of shouting to get their attention, but I don't care for sailing into an ambush either. I have a possible solution though. Please, hold my equipment."

He shrugs out of his coat and armor, then steps to the side and drops below the waves with a few chanted words. A moment later, the Archivist is gone and only a small fish remains! In a moment, the silvery minnow flits in the direction of the boat to have a look.