Upon returning to Fort Rannick, we found that most of the Flails of Murderers had left the previous day. Additionally, Paulie, Lenn and Geo had also gone, though those three had left that morning. Orik’s people had gone out to deal with numerous troll sightings. None were in the dungeon. Thought you ought to know.
Paulie, Lenn and Geo had headed out to investigate the reason that the waters of the river had become contaminated. Honestly, I think they should have worked to build water purification until the FoM returned, but I’m guessing that Lenn got bored and they needed to get him out and about.
As we were discussing things with Shalelu, who seemed much less ill now, FoM returned. Magrim Emberaxe had been knocked out during their excursion, thus saving me from having to read another one of his dull as hell reports. Orik gave me a very basic rundown of what had happened.
Apparently the trolls were trying to reclaim their territory from the ogres, who had pushed them out as they worked to claim the fort and surrounding areas. Orik and the FoM had disabused them of the notion that this was their territory. In total, they had seventeen troll skulls – they had to take skulls instead of scalps because trolls regenerate. Someone had once tried to keep a troll chained to harvest their scalp repeatedly to make tons of money, so now troll scalps were worthless to the Potent Rainbow Lions. Either way, believe me when I say that this is a lot of dead trolls.
We decided to wait for the other three to return and do what we could while we waited. I spent my time working on a water purification still in case whatever problem they found couldn’t be fixed immediately. There was a fair amount of scrap iron around, so it wasn’t too terribly difficult to rig up something basic. I’m sure that whatever was happening with the others was more interesting, so I’m going to leave a blank space here and have one of them fill it in later.
*****
Polysike
Left behind at the fort, I found that I had plenty of time to myself. Contemplating the wretched state of the filth that live in this world got old, so I instead decided to work on my skills. A few of the mercenaries set up a target and we took turns practicing our marksmanship. The weapons they use are noisy and annoying. But I put up with them anyway. It was better to have competition to drive me to greater heights.
Later that morning, the mercenaries set out to deal with reports of troll sightings, leaving me without competition, so I instead focused on practicing my investigation skills. I managed to uncover a number of interesting secrets. It would amaze you how many of the fort’s soldiers were sleeping with each other. Even more than that, it would seem that few realized that their relationships weren’t exclusive.
I also found evidence that one of the soldiers had been skimming rations and selling them to line his own pockets. He was lucky he had already been killed by the ogres. I would not have been as nice. And with the wizard and knight gone, no one would have stopped me. I guess the militiaman might have said something, but I believe that I could have made him understand. And the giant could be distracted with something shiny.
I’m not sure how I got involved with this ragtag bunch of misfits, but we were working together now, seemingly bound by some kind of prophecy. I don’t know how much I care, but we were removing the filth from the world along the way, so I was just fine going along.
The next morning, we discovered that the water coming down the river was bad, so we decided to go look into it. The militiaman suggested we wait for either the mercenaries or the wizard and knight to return, but the giant and I outvoted him. The big guy was bored, but I could smell that this was more than just a simple case of tainted water. My pride as an investigator required that I turn over this particular rock and see what was underneath.
We barely made it into the woods before running into a troll. I made a note to myself to remind the mercenary captain about the importance of being thorough.
The giant slashed off the troll’s arm six times before the militiaman pointed out that we needed to burn the troll to prevent it from regenerating. Of course, I had already known that, but the giant seemed to be having fun. Some of us hang people from rooftops to learn their secrets, others enjoy hacking up monsters. We all need our hobbies.
As we continued upriver, the stench grew more repulsive. I recognized the sickly sweet smell of rotting human flesh. This was no accidental poisoning. When we found the source, I was certain that we would find evidence that it had been placed deliberately. I didn’t even need to subtle ogre musk to confirm that for me, though confirmation is always nice.
We crashed through the forest – between the giant and my yak, we really couldn’t sneak – until we reached a bend in the river. At the bend, we found a trio of ogres, morons all, piling bodies from a crude cart into the water. They were using steel spikes to anchor the putrid flesh in place so the corpses wouldn’t float down the river. Crude, but effective enough.
As soon as he saw the ogres, the giant charged. He cleaved the first ogre in twain before the others could react. Then, from the forest’s edge came another figure, a green hag. She touched the giant and I could see his muscles immediately fatigue. He was having trouble even raising his axe.
The ogres began laughing at his predicament. That was a mistake.
The giant’s face contorted with rage and he snarled. The ogres took an involuntary step back, but it was too late for them. He charged and swung his massive axe, separating both of their heads from their bodies in a single swing.
Meanwhile, the militiaman and I attacked the hag. His tentacles throttled her and I riddled her with arrows, driving her back. “You’re too late!” she cackled. “Even if you kill me, my sisters will finish the work. This valley will drown and the people of the village will be devoured by the Great One! The coven will serve the master in Lucrecia’s name!”
She probably would have continued talking, but the giant charged her. “SHUT. UP!” he roared, slashing her in half from top to taint. Looking around, he could not find an additional foe, so he began to calm, losing his rage-induced strength. His axe began to slip from his fingers. I walked over and cured the muscle damage the hag had inflicted on him.
“Look at this,” the militiaman called over to me. He was standing over one of the corpses from the cart. I walked over to inspect the corpse. Based on his scent, he had died from a combination of dysentery and a dagger to the chest. But that wasn’t what I was supposed to notice. No, he had been marked with the sihedron, just like so many other corpses we had seen. More sacrifices.
Poisoning the water had simply been a matter of convenience. They had the bodies handy, so it was either feed the ogres or poison the river. They probably did both. I’d bet that the wizard would be glad he wasn’t here.
“What she said…” the militiaman started.
“You thinking Turtleback Ferry is in danger?”
“I think it might be.”
“Let’s go, then. We can deal with the corpses in the water later.”
The trip to the village was a dreary affair, defined by rain and the smell of wet yak. We didn’t see any trolls or ogres, so I suspect that the mercenaries had been earning their pay.
When we arrived in town, people had already begun evacuating to the church. The weak always seek solace in religion when they should be taking the reins of their destiny in their own hands. Of course, there were those who hadn’t evacuated yet.
The town’s schoolteacher had taken his students out on a field trip during the rain for some reason. I will never understand humans. The teacher and his students had returned, but were now trapped near the school with a giant snake trying to eat them. Personally, I thought we should just let it eat a couple of the kids. It’s not like it was criminal scum. It’s just a snake, doing what snakes do. No reason to punish it and it would help thin the herd of the weak, stupid or slow. Either that or we could feed it whoever thought it was a good idea to build a school on the river bank.
Whatever we did, we had to choose quickly before the rising waters swept away all the children. So I followed the other two as we rushed to dispatch the snake, which wouldn’t likely be much of a threat to us.
*****
The rains had gotten heavy when a traveler, bedraggled and caked in mud, banged on the gate. After making sure he was alone, the guards let him in and brought him to us immediately. “Please, milord,” he began immediately. “The rains are too heavy. Skull River and Claybottom Lake are going to overflow. Turtleback Ferry will be flooded and people are going to die. We need your help!”
“I’ll need a few minutes to prepare spells,” I said, glancing at Aurora. She nodded approvingly. “You rest here. We’ll try to save everyone.”
I prepared my spells, with a focus on utility. I had spells that would allow me to repair boats or damaged structures, spells for making whatever we needed out of raw materials – or my own blood if necessary – as well as spells to allow me to teleport short distances and coordinate the rescue efforts quickly. I also prepared a fun little spell that should help me rescue people and raise their spirits at the same time. Finally, I readied a small number of combat spells, since you never know what you’ll need.
We had spent enough time in Turtleback Ferry that I was certain I could teleport us there with no trouble. Aurora used her armor’s magic, turning Starbrite into an image on her armor, which meant I could teleport both us and our horses without straining my magic.
For the record, when you cast a long range teleportation spell, glowing runes surround you like something out of a game. It’s really freaking cool, even if the trip itself is a bit disconcerting. The human brain really wasn’t designed to handle being somewhere and suddenly showing up somewhere else.
We arrived to a torrential downpour, though at least the winds weren’t bad, maybe fifteen miles an hour. We spotted Lenn, Geo and Paulie over near the schoolhouse. They were fighting some kind of giant snake with a group of schoolchildren nearby. They seemed to have everything in hand.
Floodwaters already filled the streets, nearly half the town was under a couple feet of water. Lights in the windows showed that people had already evacuated to the church at the center of town. That could work. It was on a bit of a hill, though it was now at the edge of the water. With a bit of effort, we could somewhat waterproof the church’s first floor and keep everyone safe as we dug channels to turn the water away.
“Kyle!” Aurora said. “Look at the currents in the water!”
“Where?” I asked.
“Over in the lake near the shore. Look at that tree. It’s moving incredibly quickly.”
I looked over past the town’s tavern and bathouse to the lake. A sinking feeling grew in the pit of my stomach as I watched the massive dark shape moving along. “Please be wrong. Please be wrong. Oh, god, please let me be wrong,” I repeated, pulling out my spyglass.
“What is it?” Aurora asked.
I got a better look through the spyglass as the “tree” breached the bank. “That’s no tree!” I gasped. And then the “tree” roared.