In the bat of an eye
DM: Adalyn
Players: Bill, Yang, Tremere, Glorion, Hilda, Gallow
along with Zwei 2.0 Zwei 3.0
Hearing rumors of strange whispers being heard in Ghostwood Marsh, we set out to discover the source of this mystery by taking the road leading west form White Moon Cove which then hooks south skirting the marsh, in order to make good time. I marveled to myself at the handiness of having such a path and all went well until we found a “well” which Glorion and I drank from. The water was sweet and I filled my wineskin till it was almost bursting with the stuff. However, I soon found out much late that this broke rule number two of the Island, which is not to drink from wells, as both Glorion and I found ourselves paralyzed when morning came.
Fortunately, Bill was able conjure up a magical disk which Glorion and I were unceremoniously piled on to after our party was unable to rouse us, and could only watch helplessly as we were dragged along. Already ashamed at the burden I had created for my party due to my foolish action, it deepen as we came upon three green wyrmlings which were dining on the remains of an unlucky hunter and his falcon. The battle raged around us as the wyrmlings whirled and fluttered about the landscape, it was here that poor Zwei2.0 was felled by the wyrmling toxic breath, after having delivered a vicious attack against them. While the party was able to slay two of them by way of Bill’s magical missiles, Yang’s harden fist, and Tremere veracious spider attacks , one did manage to retreat the area.
At this point I began to fade in and out of conciseness, only wakening when I heard voices at our campfire. Its seemed that some rat of sort had visited us and in my confused state I could almost swear that it look like it wore its brains on the outside. It was also during this night that we found an abandon Hyena pup which Yang quickly adopted.
Joyously the dawn met us and both Glorion and I were still alive, and no longer in a paralytic state. I downed a good berry that Tremere graciously offered and hurriedly crammed it down my throat. “The party had not thought to feed us as they dragged our limp bodies all over creation”.
Finally we were now in the swamp proper and began our search, However, no trace of the whispers could be found and we cursed ourselves for not seeking out more information about them before our departure from White Moon Cove. It was only by happenstance we lucked upon a friendly soul who introduced himself as Chester.
Chester was a little backwoods and easy going, which given the setting was not too unusual and happily led us to the home of Ma Marie. However he did have the peculiar habit of needing to leave each night, with the excuse of needing to urinate, where upon he would disappear into the swamp only to return each morning spry and refreshed. This activity caused Yang to become unsettled and she bombarded him with questions seeking to draw out the truth, accusing him from everything from being a shroom head to being a werewolf. What ever his secret is it remained with him as soon we were introduced to another denizen of the swamps.
Ma Marie was the name she went by and she lived in the hollowed out remains of some great tree. She was friendly and entertained our inquires and was polite enough to invite us into her home for dinner. “Yes I know how that sounds” Where she had prepared a delicious pot of soup, I regret not sampling her soup as it seems to have had a positive effects on my party but I was still trying to recover from my episode with the well. During our polite conversation we discovered that she enjoyed a simple life and communed with the spirits of the swamp. Most importantly was she had various trinkets that she was wiling to trade for. A scroll she produced was well beyond my means of procuring, however she produced a small bag of beans, which through a little haggling I quickly bought. My hopes was that the beans may have been the source of the wonderful soup she had made, however it was not until later I discovered how much bang for my coin I had received.
The discourse with Ma Marie led us to another lead as to the source of the whispers and that was a nearby cave known to be the lair of the one known as Lao who possessed a powerful necklace and ruled the night in the swamps. Wasting no more time we departed Ma Marie’s and headed to the place she had directed to on our crude map and we soon found a cave filled with bats, both small and large. Tending the larger bats , which were the size of a horse, were small bat like humanoids picking away at parasites.
Glorion took the lead and using his ability to speak with animal was able to converse with them and showed them good will by laying his hand on one of the Large bats causing the parasites to fall away. This act of kindness pleased the bat like creature and one of them named Jireek allowed us access into the deeper region of the cave where we introduce to Lao.
What greeted us was what I can only describe as the King of all bats, and I was immediately filled with the knowledge of my mortality. Yang began speaking to Loa and told him about White Moon Cove, and I even offered up my bag of beans to him as a sign of friendship, as I knew nothing could stop him from taking everything from us Anyways, even our lives. That when Yang understood that something more than material possession would satisfy one such of this and offered Loa a sacrifice of her arm for the necklace which hung from his neck with a single translucent pearl which glimmered like fire. Loa was particularly acceptant of this proposal, while we stood stunned by this course of action. Given the gravity of the situation no one dared to risk making a displeasing comment to Loa and in a motion almost too fast for a human eye, Yang’s arm ceased to be a part of her body. Glorion was quick with his arts to tend to the now dismembered Yang and we were fairly certain that death would not be her fate. Loa was true to his word and granted Yang the necklace and something more, I am a little shaky on the details, but suffice it to say Lao offered us a pact of sorts and calling forth a bat the size of a hound gave these terms, “I shall send this one to your White Moon Cove, if it stays all is well and I shall not seek to harm those from the cove, but if it returns to me you would be wise to never return my swamp. With that Loa beckoned and several large bats appeared to ferry us back to the surface. Once there we made all haste back to White Moon Cove.