They eventually come to a homestead where a couple of young children are sitting by the water's edge fishing (as they watch, one of the kids pulls up a chunk of mud that wriggles, and then washes it off to reveal something like a bug but with big claws - the kids call it a "crayfish"). They ask if there's a village elder or someone nearby, and one of the kids turns around and yells "MA!"
A woman emerges from the house and greets them. They ask about Belle's family, and she points them down another bridge. They trundle off through the swamp and arrive at a similar house. A woman in a thin shirt is hanging laundry, and covers herself when she sees the adventures. She called up to the house "Rue! Toss me one of your shirts, please!" and another woman throws a shirt out the window, and then comes to join them.
Turns out that Rue is Belle's older's sister, and the other woman is Rue's wife, Issa. The heroes break the news to Rue as gently as they can, and Zook is sure to inform her that Belle died a hero, protecting her friends and protecting a village from demons. Issa goes to get "the girls," and Rue thanks the heroes. She tells them a little more about Osclaimid - "Osclaimid" is a collective name for the villages and homesteads out here in the swamp, all connected by bridges. Everyone is welcome, provided you don't harm people, buildings, or bridges. She also mentions that sometimes a creature or a disaster destroys something, and then they cut the bridges to that area and let it go. The swamp takes, sometimes.
Issa returns with two girls and they tell them about their aunt. They process, it's hard, and then when things calm down a little Aisling takes the little ones to the water so they can show her how to fish for crayfish (which of course Aisling has never seen). Rue goes over a couple of bridges with a few of the heroes to see her brothers, Yan and Tom, and give them the bad news, and Issa asks Rue to see if they've heard from her cousin Treasa.
They go deeper into the swamp and find a pair of men doing repairs on a house and arguing about nails. Rue calls them over and tells them what happened; Yan stomps off behind his house and Zook correctly guesses that he never really approved of Belle going off to adventure, anyway. Rue also mentions that the last time Belle was home ("you remember," whispers Keenan to Zook, "we told you, we fought that snake-grow-many-heads-thing"), Yan was away and missed her.
Rue asks if they've heard from Treasa, and they haven't. Rue isn't worried necessarily, figures they'll send a chain ("chain?" "yeah, not much paper here, so there's someone in every village who can remember messages and run to the next village and relay it. If you want your message to get there intact, keep it simple"). Zook offers to look in on her, but Clara wisely points out that it'd be better to wait for morning. Rue agrees - you don't want to be out in the swamp at night.
The heroes all go back to Rue and Issa's house to eat - a stew of mushrooms, crayfish, other fish, frog's legs, roots and so on. Aisling plays some music on her lute and in the distance, someone plays the tune back. "That's how we stay connected," says Issa. "You play, someone answers. Lets us know they're out there." Everyone beds down - half the heroes stay with Rue and Issa, while the other half stay on Tom and Yan's land in the tiny hut. The next morning, they head into the swamp to find what the sisters refer to as the "Irlan Homestead." Issa says that, to her knowledge, that should consist of her sister Treasa, Treasa's husband, his parents, and another woman that Issa thinks might be Treasa's husband's aunt?
The heroes all cross their fingers and head into the swamp, but as they approach the homestead, it's clear that something is horrible wrong. The building has been smashed in - one wall is demolished, and the back corner of the place has completely collapsed. As they cross the final bridge, too, they smell something unholy. Dara sniffs and figures that the stench is moving - there's something out there.
They also find bodies - a man and a woman in the rubble, another woman towards the back of the building, two more women (one elderly) in a crushed boat on the water side, and Dara finds a man with a crude war pick against the back of the house. The pick is bloodstained and stinks; he stabbed something before he died. All of the bodies look a bit nibbled by swamp rats, but their wounds are from something big and blunt, like a mace.
"Getting a little tired of being a harbinger of grim tidings," muses Zook. "Maybe you're in the wrong business," Clara suggests, but agrees that bringing this kind of news does wear you down. Brébhin, not the biggest fan of this kind of thing anyway, offers to go back and inform Yan and Tom, and casts longstrider to quicken the journey. As just as she's leaving, the attack comes!
Two creatures burst out of the water, one by the smashed-up boat where Zook and Fearg and pulling bodies out, and one by where Dara is standing! The creatures are huge, bigger than horses, with long necks and tails that end in massive lumps of bone...like a mace.
 |
| This, but smellier |
One of them glares at Zook...and his heart stops. He collapses, and Clara runs over and punches the thing. Keenan grabs Zook and pulls him out of harm's way, and Aisling throws healing magic at him to revive him. Fearg flies into rage and swings on the monster, and Dara calls up a flame blade and strikes the other one. It swings its tail and hits her in the chest, knocking the wind out of her.
The first monster swings its tail and it goes whistling over Clara's head. Keenan rolls up his sleeves, gauges distance, and hurls a fireball into the swamp. It explodes and they see a tree fall, but the fire roils up and catches both creatures. Zook follows his lead and throws another, and the creatures scream and try to move. One submerges and is gone, but Fearg catches the other with his war hammer and kills it.
The heroes all take a breath, and then regret it because this thing smells even worse dead. Brébhin returns with villagers (and more arrive shortly thereafter, because they saw the explosions), and some of the older folks remember stories of the "catoblepas," a swamp-dwelling monster that can crush a man's head with its tail or kill with a single glance! ("Confirmed," coughs Zook.) They pull the bodies from the wreckage into the house and burn the place, and Fearg and some of the able-bodies men shove the dead monster into the swamp.
Everyone falls back to their homes and the villagers cut the bridges to the Irlan Homestead. Tom says that, in future, if someone wants to build there, they can replace the bridges and make that place part of Osclaimid again, but for now, the swamp can have it. The other villagers return home, and everyone goes back to Tom and Yan's house to rest. They build a fire and show them how to roast chunks of swamp root, peeled and soaked in a sweet sap, so that these "marsh mallows" get toasted and sugar. They also discuss what to do about the other catoblepas.
They aren't sure why the monsters attacked in the first place, but the heroes are worried that the other one might come back - they did kill its companion (maybe mate?). They decide to try and lure it. Aisling does her best impression of the catoblepas' loud mooing call, and gets a response. The call gets closer, and then the thing burst out of the swamp!
But the heroes are ready. Aisling gives it a snootful of magic missile, and Brébhin, Keenan, and Zook follow suit. It glares at Aisling, but she knows to look away, and Dara calls down lightning on it. As the flash of lightning fades, Clara leaps between Fearg and Aisling and kicks the thing in the head, snapping its neck!
Fearg calls the brothers over to shove the thing into the swamp, and Aisling casts a spell to cleanse them ("this smell lingers," grumbles Fearg, "my teeth and lungs are lined with the scum of it"). The heroes bed down for the night.
In the morning, they ask the brothers where they might learn about a hag - maybe there's someone in Osclaimid who's had some experience with them? They mention an old woman that leaves on the edge of the village; she's not a hag, but is "cantankerous," according to Tom. They'll have to take a boat to get to her, but the brothers point them where to go.
They find the boat, and the first batch of them gets on (it's not big enough to hold all seven of them). As they're rowing off, they hear tittering from the trees. Aisling asks if there are pixies there, and after some initial fuckery ("no pixies here!"), one flitters down. They're just making sure that, now that they're leaving Osclaimid, they're fulfilling their oath. Aisling says that they are, they're working on tracking down Granny Snowmelt. The pixie nods and flutters off, and the characters continue their hunt.
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