PREVIOUS: 002: Eleri's House
Lostmoor Outskirts
📝 So we're out of Eleri's house, and we need a complication that will delay our trek to Tanvir's place... You know what's worse than dead birds floating around? Exploding dead birds!
Jagal is only passively avoiding the fallen wildlife when the blood smearing a heron in his path starts to sizzle.
JAGAL: "Hah?"
❗ SCENE CHALLENGE: Zombie Bird Minesweeper ⚫⚪⚪⚪⚪
🎲 Jagal and Lucya roll Face Danger to dodge the explosion. Jagal gets a strong hit, Lucya gets a weak hit.
The heron detonates in a searing flash of feather and gizzard. Jagal dodges neatly, moving farther from Eleri's house in the process. Lucya isn't quite fast enough, and only her sturdy cape saves her from the spray of acidic blood.
JAGAL: "Does that happen a lot around here??"
LUCYA: "Auhh!! What in Frigg's name was that?!"
LUCYA: "Ye think it's that fella they was talking about? Is he doing this somehow??"
JAGAL: "Sure hope not. My price is known to go up if too many explosions are involved."
Jagal makes sure his hair is still in order and starts to proceed a bit more carefully.
LUCYA: "Auhh... it only happened once ye got close, right?"
JAGAL: "Seemed like it. Why, think it's personal?"
LUCYA: "Iunno, I'm ginnae try something..."
Lucya fishes around in the nasty swamp water for some rocks, and tosses one at another large corpse a few yards away.
🎲 Lucya rolls Secure an Advantage to see if she can detonate the birds from a distance. Strong hit!
It does indeed explode on impact.
LUCYA: "Aye, we can take 'em out!"
🎲 Another strong hit on a strike this time, to take out more birds. You go girl.
Lucya throws more rocks of increasing size, somehow clearing a path through the bird viscera. Jagal does not mind letting her do the dirty work.
🎲 One more roll to End the Fight, and it's a weak hit. Note to self that troublesome challenges are pretty dang easy at full health and supplies. Still, Lucya must Pay The Price...
The two of them trudge on through the swamp, though the embroidery on the hem of Lucya's dress is now beyond salvaging.
☑ Scene challenge completed!
The waters around Eleri's house already stank, but as the two follow their directions across the swamp, the odor starts to shift in an unnatural way. Not as strong, but somehow worse than bird guts. There's a light now visible in the distance, but the foliage is too thick to even tell if it's coming from a building.
Lucya has been periodically tossing rocks ahead of them just in case, but there aren't as many corpses littering the water now. Jagal is much more difficult to keep track of where the shadows abound.
LUCYA: "Auh, maybe we oughtae have found a room fer the night first..."
JAGAL: "Oh, we got a good while before it's night. I'm sure the barkeep's got a place for you, anyway, yeah? Shouldn't be too hard to take care of."
LUCYA: "S'pose so, but I... well, usually I've got goats tae take care of in the morning. Guess I don't now..."
Lucya sighs and pulls her cloak a little tighter.
JAGAL: "Guess not!"
Jagal just keeps moving. Lucya also keeps moving, but with much less enthusiasm.
Suddenly, from somewhere nearby, there's a rustle and a splash. Jagal pauses this time.
JAGAL: "That wasn't you throwing more rocks, was it?"
LUCYA: "Nay..."
Lucya slides her axe out from her belt.
Jagal puts a wee bit more distance between him and the axe just to be safe.
Just ahead of him, beady eyes glint in the dim light—a small pack of large marsh rats.
❗ ENCOUNTER: Rats! Rats! ⚫⚫⚪⚪⚪
🎲 Lucya rolls a weak hit on Entering The Fray. Jagal rolls a strong hit.
Jagal Hecking Vanishes. Lucya looks up with her axe at the ready and freezes for a moment.
LUCYA: "Wh... where's that bliddy wee man?? Leaving a wee lass like me tae fight some rats inna swamp..."
She grumbles. The rodents of unusual size hiss and chitter, the words neatly attracting their attention.
Jagal feels this is a good time to swooce in (from behind them, somehow).
🎲 Jagal rolls to Strike the rats... and misses. Pay The Price says "it forces you to act against your best intentions."
Despite a slash from both daggers, the rats charge for Lucya in the nick of time, leaving Jagal to stagger-splash around reconfiguring his balance.
JAGAL: "Yeah, leaving may have been the better idea here."
LUCYA: "Auhh!!! Yer sneaky!!"
Jagal does a little bow, sloshing more swamp water on his clothes in the process.
Further aggravated by the shout, the marsh rat pack sets upon Lucya with teeth a-gnashing.
🎲 Lucya Clashes with the rat pack, and rolls a strong hit. This is gonna be a pattern.
Despite her griping, there's no hesitation in Lucya's mighty swing against the rats. At least the blood from these ones doesn't burn her skin. The axe gashes straight through three of the rats, toppling them dead into the bog. The remaining rat thinks maybe it will go after Jagal instead actually.
🎲 Jagal Strikes at the remaining rat, and rolls a weak hit. Pay The Price says "It is stressful." Jagal does get a strong hit on Endure Stress, so he just loses 1 spirit.
Jagal lowers himself a touch and slashes at the rodent at the last possible moment. His dagger lodges deep in the creature's stomach, and it screeches and gnashes out at him one last time. It's too weakened already to break skin, but it still manages to scrape the back edge of his glove and dislodge something.
Jagal yanks his blade back out, unconcerned until he glimpses a thin, dark length of something falling off his wrist. A moment's terror flashes across his face, but he snatches the thing out of the air just before it can splash into muddy oblivion.
☑ Encounter completed!
Lucya trudges out a few steps to find some less bloody water, and looks over at Jagal as she cleans off her axe.
LUCYA: "Er... Are ye alright?"
Jagal takes a second to register the question as he clasps the bracelet back on and tugs the cuff of his glove over it again.
JAGAL: [x] "Ah? Yeah. Didn't get me."
Jagal resumes walking without returning the question, though it could be from being frazzled instead of unconcerned. Maybe.
Lucya huffs, but decides 9pm in a swamp isn't the time or place to be nosy. She hikes her skirt up and follows him, maybe not watching the shadows as carefully as she should...
🎲 We roll one more time to see if anything else happens en route to Tanvir's house. Lucya gets a miss...
The wildlife leaves the adventurers alone as they get closer to the... cabin? in the distance, though as the darkness deepens, there's a lurking feeling of being watched.
Lucya isn't scared of the dark exactly, but in combination with the wet and cold and slimy algae she is not having a good time. And when she looks up from adjusting her bags—
LUCYA: "Auhhh!! Not again!! W-where'd he go..."
Jagal emerges to her left from thin freaking air.
JAGAL: "Right here, why?"
LUCYA: "WAUHHH!!!"
Lucya stumbles, catches a boot on an underwater root, and topples over into the nasty soup. Jagal makes a passing effort not to laugh but only holds out for a second. At least he's not the type to snigger very loud, either.
JAGAL: "You, uh—You good?"
LUCYA: "No!!!"
Lucya scrambles to her feet, trying to rescue the food in her knapsack—it's too late. She looks it over morosely, shivering under her now thoroughly soaked cape.
LUCYA: "Auhh... me bread, me veggies..."
📝 That's a -2 supply.
JAGAL: "Aah, rough. Well, I'm sure the swamp rats will appreciate it, too. Hopefully with us nowhere nearby?"
Lucya sighs and folds her cape up under her arm.
LUCYA: "I guess they would... Auhh, I'm not cut out for this, am I?"
LUCYA: "What happens if yer vow, it gets broken?"
Jagal is about to make a noncommittal hand motion in response to the first question before the second one hits. He grins woodenly.
JAGAL: "Oh, depends. Usually have to get rid of the iron you swore on. Or, some places think you have to get rid of all iron until you've redeemed yourself, or some places label you Forsaken instead of just the vow and kick you out on sight even if you need medical attention, and—" (catching himself) "Just, uh—depends. Really depends."
JAGAL: "But hey, if you gotta back off the vows, I sure won't tell anyone." (winks)
LUCYA: [x] "..."
Somehow, Lucya gets the feeling that maybe her situation isn't so bad in the grand scheme of things.
LUCYA: "Th-that sounds... auhh... I guess I'll sleep on it?"
LUCYA: "We're not too much further, are we?"
JAGAL: "Nah, should be coming up pretty soon."
The foliage parts to reveal another cabin on stilts—not much larger than Eleri's, but more nicely kept, on the outside at least. A heron was perched on the fence around the deck, dimly lit by the window, but it dives away at the sound of the adventurers approaching. Isn't it an odd time of night for those?
Lucya doesn't have much more patience for stealth tonight. She heads straight for the deck, hoping to get her boots out of the water. Jagal would prefer more stealth but guesses he technically signed up for this once he let someone else tag along.
She does at least keep her voice down this time as she turns to Jagal.
LUCYA: "So, er... Do we just knock??"
LUCYA: "I know we're looking for that scrying book, but... We don't know for sure it's him, right? Just that he's a mighty bother to that Mx. Eleri..."
JAGAL: "Right... If we want him to cooperate, the last thing we need to do is accuse him. Just ask if he knows anything about it, who might want it, and maybe keep an eye out for any suspicious book hiding spots..."
LUCYA: "Okay... um..."
Lucya waits a moment to see if Jagal makes the first move, realizes that's a good joke, then trundles up to the door.
Just as she reaches out to knock on the door, the door reaches out to her knuckles. Above her (above her???) a scruffy man's head peeks through the gap.
Tanvir: "Can I help you?"
LUCYA: "WAUHHH!!"
Jagal cranes his neck to look Up There while she's busy hollering.
JAGAL: "Might also need you to recommend a chiropractor if we talk for too long, but! We're asking around about a lost book, wanted to see if you might have any ideas."
The man doesn't blink, or even seem to move much at all as he surveys his visitors. He looks over Lucya's shoulder, down at Jagal.
TANVIR: "Looking for a book, at this hour? I can't say you two struck me as... voracious readers."
TANVIR: "But I am certainly a person you can ask about lost books. Though I'd hardly let you touch them in the state you're in... This place isn't too kind to travellers, is it?"
Lucya huffs and tries to shake some water out of her dress. Jagal attempts to stay out of the way of any stray splashes.
JAGAL: "Eh, at least it's not cold."
Lucya splutters.
LUCYA: "It's not cold?? Ye wee lil—And how did he do that anyway?!"
TANVIR: "Hm? I could hear you stomping around from a mile away."
Jagal squints at Lucya's reaction and then nods solemnly—she does do some stomping, yeah.
JAGAL: (to Tanvir) "No need for touching books now, anyway, unless you've actually picked it up somewhere—it's, what, For the Advancement of Scrying? I'm sure you know of it, at least. Voracious reader that you are."
TANVIR: [x] "Scrying... Oh dear, oh dear. Did Celery send you?"
JAGAL: "Yeah, they, uh, seemed pretty convinced you took it, but I'm not sure they had any actual reason? Seemed like more of a... Personal thing. But if you're the other book guy in town, still stands to reason you might've noticed something, right?"
Tanvir laughs and opens the door.
TANVIR: "Oh dear, that sounds about right. I suppose the least I can do is let you poor things stay the night... so this hasn't been a complete waste of your time."
LUCYA: "Th-thank you...? But I thought their name was Eleri..."
Lucya's mumbling is lost in the sound of her wringing water out of her clothes. After a moment of hesitation, she follows Jagal inside the cabin.
NEXT: 004: Step Into My Parlor