Theria woke up on a sunny day, and she felt terrific; she stretched in the hammock and got up. She was at Little Bear with guards surrounding her to keep her safe. She asked waiting pages to see about breakfast and if Thomes BigBear, Gris Stitchwell and the Mayor of Little Bear Brewhide Feybeard, Chieftan of the Feybeards might wish to join her for breakfast. After doing her ablutions, replaiting her hair and changing, rebuckleing on her weapons. Theria did a quick portal to the Warden of the Northern Shore's Capital and walked up to the Keep and hailed the Warden and asked if he could arrange to be ready to join the Army marching South, Theria explained she could now Portal and if he'd get his house and supplies in order in a few days, she'd portal the Warden and any troops down to join the Army as the North was relatively safe for now and she told the Warden not to worry too much about Iceflow Bay she'd get it additional protection before she took him away, which relieved his concern, then she Portaled back to Big Bear.
Now she was ready for breakfast; all three of her guests had accepted, and she told them of her encounters with the Goldenrift Dwarves and the Kobolds, speeding up the Dwarven and Kobold delegations journey, she asked the Mayor to let the Kobolds and other Dwarves know of the progress. She invited Gris Stitchwell to come with her to the Northern Wastes to see the hides they have and see what she would like imported. Theria asked Thomas to organise and set aside some wagons with things that might be useful to those in the Northern Wastes for her to come back for in the afternoon. Gris went home to change into warmer wear, and Thomas updated Theria about events the priest had been finding undead here and there. They seemed to be the cause of localised withering famine or pestilence that was reducing the food supply but purifying them removed the cause of the problem. They would recover; they were now stationed along the borders, checking with ward runes for further incursions.
Gris and Theria took their leave, going to the Northern Wastes through a Portal, and Theria left Gris with the Tanners to inspect their stock and prepare what she wanted to take back to Big Bear to spend time with Ice Elves and Great Orcs, who skinned and prepared Walrus hides and other such hides. Theria went to find the Lizardmen contingent and then took them by portal straight to the poison marshes. The ground was water mainly water-logged, and Theria closed and opened portals repeatedly in the area, moving South and looking to find higher ground or evidence of Lizardfolk. After a while, Theria found a raised walkway around a tree, and this was the nearest they had yet seen to indicate civilisation. Theria went through the portal onto the platform and saw that the midges below exuded repeated flashes of green lightning, and a green mist rolled out from her onto the platform and down onto the swamp below. When she felt it was safe, the 20 Lizardfolk all walked through onto the walkway and looked for more signs of life, things were quiet but appeared safe, and their journey had been sped up considerably. She scanned the marshland again, looking for more signs of life, without success but did find four more trees with platforms like the one they were on before finding a hill beyond the Marsh, it was approaching mid-afternoon, and Theria Portalled them to the grassland, on the rising hillside beyond the Poison marshes, they were away from the any of the several visible herds of large Bison eating the grass, and from place to place there were a few lowland scrub bushes but not much else of note.
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Theria continued to scan the surrounding area, and the Bison kept a respectful distance away; the Lizardfolk started to make their way to the peak, glad to have room to stretch, and Theria portaled ahead to the summit of the gentle hill, where the vista beyond was a flat expanse of mainly meadows with patches of colourful flowers, lots of Bison herds roaming around and in the distance two even more massive large red lizards were visible possibly predators for the Bison. Nothing else was obviously of note, so Theria took a seat on the hill, got comfy began to scout again using portal windows to see the surrounding area in more detail.
On top of the hillock, the Lizardfolk considered the benefits of making camp or being portaled back to hospitality somewhere else and returning in the morning. Theria looked back towards the swamp and saw three large rafts that had been camouflaged when in the swamp were now being pulled up onto the grassland edge of the swamp; about thirty Lizardfolk were present, and they were beginning to come up the hill towards them. Theria called the twenty Lizardfolk nearby to order, and they waited for the natives to reach them.
When the natives arrived, the lizardfolk could understand them. However, Theria could not, but her ring of discernment was green, they had a heavily accented dialect of Lizardfolk speech, but both our groups of Lizardfolk could understand them and be understood. They told us that this land belonged to the City Lizardfolk, but they rarely ventured out as far as the Poison marshes and that the natives called themselves the Swamp Lizardfolk. They said it was unsafe to overnight out here due to the large red Lizards, the local apex predator, that they roamed both during the day and at night. It was now twilight I offered them to overnight at the Embassy in Jade City, one of our Lizardfolk went through to get the house set up for guests, and they all came through being offered a trip up to the roof to see the size of Jade City, and it's mixed population, and after a meal much chat and a warm beds they retired for the night. Theria remembered to open portals for Gris and her hides and other such stores to transport back to Big Bear and for the Wood and tools that the Ice Elf King wanted to be transported back from Big Bear to the Northern Wastes. Saving a month-long journey one way that wasn't practical at that time of year and giving craftsmen in both communities the materials for work to undertake over the winter months.
In the morning, we offered all breakfast and ate together, then checked that no red lizards were near the rafts. The party exited the portal by the rafts, and the Swamp Lizardfolk took us back to one of their hidden villages. The Chieftan of the village offered us hospitality, Theria's ring was green, so they accepted, and the lizardfolk exchanged tales and asked about trading via ship in future. The Swamp Lizardfolk said they would like to trade in future, and Theria offered to bless the village, to which the Chieftan agreed. Green mist and lightning came from Theria into the swamp around the village into the buildings, and the Lizardfolk present was affected, growing slightly more muscular but not much different the marsh around the village was affected; the plants, animals, and midges all seemed to become non-poisonous where before they had been poisonous, a few Lizardfolk who were unwell or suffering mild effects of the poisons of the Marshes were healed. The Chieftan of the Lizardfolk village called a celebration, and all enjoyed their hospitality and shelter in the Swamp Lizardfolk village.