The atmosphere in the Village was bright. As if in a token of acknowledgement, the sun had even broken through the mist for the first time since the adventurers had entered the Swamp. Everyone was tired from the battle. Many were wounded. Some had died. But it was hard to deny the feeling that change had finally, really, come to the Swamp, and the oppression of the material that had been leeching out of the temple dungeon was finally and completely dealt with.
As luck would have it, the monthly supply ship from the East had also arrived, and the White Orc and Leőn had secured them passage with the Captain. He seemed very reluctant; more passengers meant less gold aboard, but between them, the White Orc and Leőn appeared to have been very persuasive.
Mr Thing stood knee deep in the lake water waving and smiling. Or he would have been smiling, if he'd had a mouth to smile with. The Villagers had openly welcomed him, and completely accepted Kylie's idea of making him the permanent Guardian of the Mugwar Swamp. Even though the Groshnickes were no more, there were still plenty of creatures for him to protect and defend against, and restoring the Swamp to a pristine condition was going to take a massive amount of effort, which he seemed excited to be able to get involved with.
Jangles swam around the ship and the jetty, sticking it's head up every now and again with a
blop!
"This ship will be able to take us direct to the Lizard Cities," explained the Orc to Gob, "the timing of their arrival is very lucky, we'll make up for all the unexpected time we've spent here in the swamps."
Gob checked his luck stat. It hadn't changed. The ship being here at just the right time wasn't his doing. He didn't like the idea of getting on the ship. He wasn't sure why. Maybe he was just in a down mood. For all the brightness the morning had brought to the village, it hadn't brought Gurd. She was gone, back to her den.
i iz a trol hag! she had told him over and over again, i don go on aventoors! yoo iz a muntin trol! i iz a swamp trol! yoo go hav yor aventoor. if yoo don die, den com bak an visit me.
The others could see he was glum and left him to mope in peace.
They were all aboard the ship now, the villagers were at the jetty ready to wave them off and the reluctant Captain was grumbling about why it was taking so long, when Gob suddenly had a thought.
"KARL, PAULA!" Gob called out, running back down the gangplank to the jetty. The Captain grumbled again.
Karl, Paula and Criff, who was standing with them all turned to him with interest.
"Umm..." said Gob trying to work out how to phrase it, "Hoo iz da... roola heer? i meen wot domain iz dis?"
"Well that's an interesting question all of a sudden," Karl said thoughtfully, making a face, "I mean we used to have a governing Council of Town leaders... but they're all gone now. It's just us... but we don't rule here. I don't think."
"i fink yoo shood send a messanga up da west pass." said Gob, "up der, der iz a prinsess an she iz da roola of da domain:eternalpreservation. she iz very powaful but she iz orso very cleva an nise. in her domain, al da creeturs dat is a bit... funy in da hed... she lookz afta dem an she haz mad a plase for dem to liv togeva for da res of dere lifes. i fink she cood help yoo... yoo no, wiv al da monstas heer. she cood show yoo how to giv dem al a plase to liv but dat it isn dan-jer-us fo evywun."
"Hmm, thanks Gob..." said Paula with interest, "You know that actually sounds like a great idea, we will need a way to help some of the creatures of the swamp. Thanks so much for thinking of it!"
Gob grinned, "juz go up da pas until yoo com to a reely big icy carsel. yoo can not mis it! ask fo prinsess Ilae. juz look owt for da cocky-trise.. he iz a bit..." Gob made an uncomfortably insane face at her and tapped the side of his head with a claw.
Criff laughed. He was looking much better. "Bye Gob, you're pretty cool. For a troll."
"yoo iz prity cool too. for a hoomin." Gob replied, "can yoo mak shoor gurd iz alrite? juz take her lotz of bogsporn ok?"
"I sure will!" he said with a laugh as Gob turned and ran back up the gangway to the ship's deck.
There was a great cheer, a ground trembling
BYE BYE!
from Mr Thing, and the grumbling Captain finally got the nod to cast off from the jetty.
They all waved as the island village, and the villagers, slowly receded into the mist.
----------------------------------------
Gob was seasick. They weren't even on the sea. There was just something about the movement of the boat that he couldn't stomach. He didn't think the boat arriving today was lucky at all. He had a bad feeling...
He puked over the edge for the third time. There were no spiders, it was just traditional seasickness.
The 'boat' was a river barge. It was wide and deep and sparse; designed for maximising cargo, not for providing any comfort for it's passengers. There was no deck, just a wide central area to store cargo, and a cloth shelter towards the rear only large enough to provide a token shelter for the Captain from the elements. In the middle of the boat there was a single mast with a large dirty sail, hoisted as necessary by the Captain's mate, a young dirty boy, who otherwise just sat next to the Captain doing and saying nothing.
The White Orc, Leőn and Kylie sat uncomfortably on hessian sacks full of treasure that the villagers had used to pay for their supplies. Five of the sacks had been left at the jetty to accommodate them, much to the Captain's chagrin, and the sides of the boat sat so close to the waterline that anything resembling a wave splashed into the boat eliciting a growl of warning from the cranky seadog.
He'd already commanded Gob to vomit to the stern to ensure nothing accidentally splashed into his boat.
The air was still, the sail was furled, and the Captain was riding the tide, extremely slowly, downstream.
"We could be walking faster than this..." Leőn mumbled under his breath.
"Ye want te walk, be my guest Elf!" the Captain called out gruffly, "Or swim if ye like, makes no matter te me! I were promised two bags o gold fer each o the one's ye all lost me, but I made no promise about carryin ye all the way!"
You don't want to keep talking.
It was Leőn, though he didn't say anything.
"I don't want te keep talking to the likes of ye anyway." he grumbled to himself.
Gob stumbled over from the side of the boat, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
"You don't look so great Gob!" said Kylie cheerfully.
He gave her a withering look, "i don lik botes, an i don fink we shood be on dis wun. i don like him," he pointed to the Captain who grimaced and went beet red with the effort of not talking anymore, "an i don lik dis plase."
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"So in summary, you dislike everything?" said Leőn, "I know that feeling. It's called a broken heart."
Gob looked down at his chest.
"iz not broken," he said, "i juz gav it to sumwon an she didn giv it bak."
"Oh, poor Gob, you're so sweet!" Kylie said with a melting smile.
"but i fink we shood hav walked. dis feel lik we iz goin da rong way."
"It's a faster route to Cragtop," said the White Orc matter of factly, "Even though it feels slow, we're making good time by taking the river."
The White Orc was often quiet and introspective for long periods, but since his experience in the temple dungeon he had been even more withdrawn than usual. When he spoke now, he seemed to do it in a way that brooked no opposition. The Orc had always exuded a sense of power to Gob, but he had to admit there was something very... authoritative about him now. Now he was a force.
The banks of the river had been very gradually changing from the infected green of the swamp to a much duller and deader grey. Where the swamp was populated by mutated scraggly trees shrouded in a constant humid mist, now the trees began to look sparser, more dead and dry, and the boggy swamp mud started to look cracked and brittle, and soon was no more than a dusty, dark-grey, lifeless dirt. The mist had receded as well, as if it too was being sucked dry by the constant gusting wind that had started to blow, kicking up low dust clouds that skimmed along the ground.
Beyond the banks as far as they could see was the same barren dark waste, dusty, windswept, flat and featureless. The sun was high in the sky above them, but it's light seemed dim and hollow and weak. Even so, every dead tree trunk and boulder cast a deep dark shade on the ground.
They were on the border of the Mugwar, where it transitioned into the barren wastes if the Shadowlands.
Kylie, Leőn and the White Orc weren't looking out at the view though, they were all staring at Gob.
He looked down at himself, self-consciously.
"wot yoo starin at?" he scowled.
"We're waiting for your affinity to change," said Kylie with anticipation.
"It's fascinatingly weird to watch." said Leőn.
"yoo iz fassy-natiny weerd to woch evy time i look at yoo." Gob retorted.
"There's our Gob again!" Leőn replied with a grin, spreading his arms wide.
Looking past them, Gob suddenly saw movement on the far bank. He crossed to the side of the boat and leaned over, squinting to see. There was no further movement as far as he could tell.
"What is it Gob?" asked the White Orc.
"Arr... me hearties..." growled the Captain in a low voice, "we are been... shadowed. By the Splinters. Don' worry, just sit there still and don' move. I will stay in the middle of the river and we'll be a'right. Up ahead there be a small ait, an island, in the river. I may pull in there just to wait them out."
"wot iz splin-tar?" asked Gob.
"O, they be the creatures of the Crypt." said the Captain mysteriously, his eyes jumping from shore to shore, not elaborating any further than that.
Gob kept looking out at the shadows of the trees and the rocks along the bank as they passed. As he did, something in his vision shifted, and he staggered back disoriented making the boat rock and the Captain growl.
"He's doing it!" whispered Leőn gleefully.
During their time in the swamp, Gob had become more familiar with his swamp affinity than with any other form of himself previously. He had been expecting, though not looking forward to losing his tail. He had prepared himself for that.
However he hadn't come even close to realising the significance of the change in his vision. The trait:frogeyes had given him an extremely wide field of view with a movement sensitivity, meaning Gob had become used to, and adept at, seeing almost all the way around himself at once. He had learnt how to focus on things as they moved, instead of seeing everything clearly within a narrow field of view, as with 'normal' vision.
That had just changed. Significantly.
Now, everything was black. Except objects, that were an ethereal wispy purple as if outlined, and the living bodies of his friends, that glowed a bright incandescent yellow-orange-red. Except Kylie. Although she was usually red, now, she was a dull purple.
"Oh, geez!" gasped Kylie wide eyed as he turned his eyes on her. She wasn't smiling. She looked shocked.
The White Orc raised an eyebrow.
The Captain blanched, and crossed himself.
"Oh ho ho! You look NASTY!" exclaimed Leőn.
"Gob, you have black eyes. Like pupil-less voids." Kylie whispered in awe.
He felt his face with his hand. His large goggly eyes had sunk back into his head where they belonged, though they still felt larger than his 'normal' eyes... though he was starting to wonder what that even meant for him anymore. As he patted his face, he cut his finger on his own extremely sharp tusk, which was far pointier than usual, and grimaced as he looked at the damage he'd done, before noticing his claws. They were back, this time, long, black, curved, and razor sharp. So was his skin: black and thick and leathery. And his form overall was thin and muscular and lithe. There wasn't a hint of his usual podgy tummy or the excess rolls he had gained in his swamp-form. Now he was gangly. And his barbtail was completely gone.
"What is your... uh... your vision trait Gob?" whispered Kylie.
trait:darksight: The light means nothing to you. Neither darkness nor substance impedes your vision. Instead, you see only the signature of the living against the tapestry of the dead.
"Well that was dark." said Leőn, "why don't you take another look at whoever the Splinters are who are apparently tracking us?"
Gob looked again at the riverbank. The dead trees now stood out purple on a backdrop of black. Behind the trees lining the river were around a fifty short, stooping figures pressing their backs against trees and rocks and carefully peering out from behind their cover. They glowed a bright orange in his vision.
He looked to the opposite bank. The same. He looked ahead to the ait in the river. There were more on it too.
"dey iz waitin fo us!" said Gob, turning to the Captain.
"Oh I think he knows that already," said Leőn coldly, also turning to look at him, drawing his dagger, "don't you Captain?"
"Arr... me hearty..." he said backing away, his hands up in supplication, "now don ye be doin anything rash... I hope ye'll understand that I got mouths te feed, an a man's got a make a living in this cold black world, he does..."
The White Orc stood with a sigh, walked to the Captain, lifted him bodily into the air and threw him overboard.
"Oh!" gasped Kylie, "Why did you--"
"He's double crossed us," said Leőn, "we're about to be ambushed."
"Help! HELP! I CAN'T SWIM!" spluttered the Captain, thrashing around wildly.
"A good Captain always goes down with his ship." the White Orc casually said to him.
"BUT THERE BE NOTHING WRONG--
ATTACK!!!
Came a loud shout from the North bank, just as the ship
CRASHHHHED!
into the rocks surrounding the ait in the middle of the river. Timber crunched and splintered, and the hessian sacks spilled open throwing gold and jewels onto the air in a sparkling fountain.
SSSSSHEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
Short, stooped figures pounced onto the vessel with unearthly, shrill screams, jumping down from the high ground of the ait, and swinging from the banks on black ropes that were secured to the tallest of the surrounding trees overhanging the river. They threw themselves recklessly onto the ships deck, but gained their footing with lightness and agility, wielding short rusty cutlasses in their hands. They were rough looking, scrawny, mangy. They had eyes missing, teeth missing, ears missing, legs missing, but most of all, Gob thought, there was something... tormented about them. They looked haunted.
Some of them charged the Orc immediately with the same shrill scream, others got down on their knees and started scrabbling the treasure into their pouches greedily, hissing and snapping at the other ratmen around them. The shattered boat lilted wildly from the extra weight and the damage, taking on more and more water, stuck on the rocks, but only very temporarily.
The White Orc turned to the others. He hadn't taken out a weapon and didn't seem at all concerned about the creatures rushing towards them, "Swim to the North bank! Don't fight the ambush! Let them capture us and we'll follow that road where it leads!"
It only took a moment for the weight of the cargo and the water in the broken boat to overcome it's capacity to stay afloat, and it lurched one last time then sank like a stone to the bottom of the river.
"NOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo....glug glug." screamed the Captain as he went down with it.
Gob had been an exceptional swimmer yesterday. He was a terrible swimmer today. His thin, lithe body couldn't find purchase or balance in the water, and he felt like the captain probably had only moments earlier, he spluttered and gasped for breath, thrashing around, until the strong sturdy grip of the White Orc took him by the arm and dragged him up onto the bank.
He looked up, gasping for breath to see himself and the others surrounded by a swarm of the ratmen. They looked starved, and angry, and desperate. Their fur was black or grey, matted and wet, and their eyes... their eyes were like pupilless black windows into an abyss of horror.
The leader, a tall night-black ratman Warrior, clad in a silver-studded black leather vest pointed a cutlass at The White Orc. Even though the Orc towered over him, he spoke confidently, but his voice was a rasping, ratlike sneer,
"You where wise, white one, not to fight uss... we are many and you are few... we are the Crypt Ratss... and you must come with uss... the Master of the Crypt has forssseen thiss... he paid the Captain to bring you to uss... we hated that Captain, yess... sso it wass good... to see him thrasshing like--"
"A DROWND RAT!" cried out Gob loudly. He knew how that saying went!
"You are SO awkward." Leőn whispered to him.
The Crypt Rat Warrior looked at Gob with interest. It was at first a malevolent gaze, but then something seemed to change about his demeanour. With a thin smile, he put his sword away, and to Leőn, Kylie and the Orc's utter surprise, bowed low in front of Gob,
"Welcome death-sslayer. The sswarm hass awaited your arrival for sso long...."