Session 29. - Bully For You!

General Summary

---

31^st of Frost's End, 1440 A.P.

 

Axon knew he was dreaming! But in the manner of dreams, he wasn't sure quite how he knew. He was standing at the center of a forest glade. It was winter and everything was covered in a thick layer of snow. The air felt sharp and tiny snowflakes glittered in the pale light. He glanced around and noticed he'd made no trail through the deep snow to get to the clearing's center. That's odd, he thought briefly before his mind skittered away from it, like water on a hot pan. He had a sense that he needed to do something or be somewhere but he wasn't quite sure where or why.
  The forest at the edge of the clearing seemed uniform in every direction. Without a landmark, he decided to pick a direction randomly and started walking. When he got to the edge of the forest, the branches seemed to part, forming a path. He looked back and saw he'd not left a trail. despite the snow being almost knee deep. He continued down the path and after some time came to a castle... no, a hut... no, just a throne. A dark metal throne with a single crystal snowflake centered on the chair's high back. The whole thing was encased with a thick rime of ice. Off to the side, just at the edge of the trees, a single metal lamp post provided an oddly cheerful little light that make the icicles and crystal that adorned the throne sparkle and glitter with an inner fire. Like diamonds in a forge fire.
  Axon slowly approached the throne. He walked all the way around it wondering at the oddness of a why such a thing was on a path in the middle of a frozen forest. After making a full circle around the throne, he came back to face the front only to find that the throne was no longer empty. Sitting idly in it was a tall, statuesque Lady dressed in dark leathers. Her legs were casually draped over one of the arms of the throne and she was reading from a dark leatherbound book. She made no indication that she even saw Axon standing there.
  He stood there in uncomfortable silence for some time, not wanting to disturb this lady's reading. It wasn't until the sound of an owl hooting "Whoo-oooo" made him jump and the Lady, -- who seemed so familiar to Axon, but he couldn't figure out why -- glanced over and saw him. She seemed shocked to see him there. "You!?!" What are you doing here, of all places? You're not supposed to be here... yet. It's too soon."
  She didn't give Axon time to provide a response and continued, "Well, nevermind. Since you're here, you've obviously completed the tasks..." she paused. "You have completed the tasks, right?... Of course you have." When Axon didn't respond she continued. First getting up to stand beside Axon and put an arm around him in a semi-endearing, yet possessive way, "Well then, You should know how this works by now? Just like last time. Choose your reward...." She gestured in front of him.
  In front of him he saw one of the tiny snowflakes grow and shift into a diamond that spun in mid-air. As it turned, it showed a different facet that caught the light reflected by the lamp-light. In those reflections, Axon saw a thousand, choices, a thousand visions. In one, he as standing at the head of a a dark stone table, with seven sword shapes carved in it, the names of the swords glittered in the lamplight but were unreadable from his vantage point. In another, a lush forest and a vision of himself sitting on a bench relaxing. The contented, peaceful look of a man never having to look over his shoulder. A third vision, Darker but no less tempting. Again it was a vision of himself, but this time holding a sword aloft and radiating power, his enemies all laying dead at his feet. Another vision. He was a dog.. no a hound... or maybe a wolf. He was happy. His mistress would take him hunting soon... Another Vision: he was a teacher.... Another: a parent.... yet another, a prince.... The visions didn't stop. The gem kept spinning. The owl hooted. Axon got dizzier and dizzier. The forest started to blur.
  Another vision.... another temptation. The Lady put her arms around him and shook him gently. She asked him to choose. He paused, no she'd said something else.... what was it? She asked again and he still couldn't quite understand. She shook him a third time. Harder than the last and asked him once more. "What do you Choo--"
 

---

 
  "--oose? Bacon or Sausage? Umami wants to know"
  The voice deepened and became more masculine and gravelly. Axon opened his eyes groggily, confused by the change. The face of the Lady melted away as he awoke and was replaced by Angrar. The tall half-ghrym was standing above him, enquiring about breakfast. It seemed so mundane compared to the surreality of the dream. He took a deep breath to center himself and let it out slowly. "Bacon," he responded to Angrar testily. "Why would you even need to ask? Its always bacon. I wouldn't say no to any eggs if he has any left either."
  Axon shifted out of his cot and stretched. After gathering his plate from Umami (sadly no eggs) he sat apart from the others and ate quietly. They were all talking about raiding the bullywug camp, with Oorr talking the loudest, but for some reason Axon couldn't focus on what they were saying and when asked for his input, he gave non-committal answers. Something about the dream was nagging at him. Something important that he had to remember. When the others geared up and were about to set off, they looked quizzically at him still standing on the deck with Bolt-1. The forgeborn said he was staying behind to continue repairs to the ship and wished them luck.
  Axon said he was going to stay behind as well to help, but in reality he was thinking about going back to bed to see if he could find that dream again. He waved them off and turned to help Bolt-1 at least for a little while...
 

---

  Once breakfast was over, the rest of the party packed up their gear and left the ship. It felt a little strange leaving Axon behind, especially as he was acting so odd, but he'd been adamant and there wasn't much they could do. The party made their way cautiously towards the bullywug camp. En route, Oorr explained the plan he'd come up with one more time. He, Deadeye (who thankfully seemed fully recovered), and Torak would fly into the camp on the magic carpet, then they would deal with the guards in the towers and one of them would open the main gate, allowing Umami and Angrar to enter as well. When Deadeye asked how they'd not be seen, Oorr said that he'd summon a cloud of fog to hide them. The others weren't fond of this idea as it meant that they'd be blind as well. Oorr said it would be fine as they'd be moving super fast and they would be in and out before the bullywugs could react. They then argued that Angrar was the strongest and should likely be on the carpet. They went back and forth as to the seating arrangements on the carpet, with no one being truly happy with this part of Oorr' plan. Ultimately it was decided that Oorr, Angrar, Deadeye and Torak would all cram onto the carpet, while Umami followed along on foot. Oorr would drop Torak and Deadeye off and Angrar would deal with the gate and Oorr would run interference.
  The four of them climbed onto the carpet and Oorr spoke the command word. The carpet rose slowly into the air and they quickly discovered the first flaw in Oorr's plan. Having all four of them on the rug, strained it almost to capacity and reduced it's speed significantly. Oorr was determined to continue though and with a mental command, brought the rug above the trees and set off towards the encampment.
 
  Umami expected them to shoot out of sight but the carpet kept pace with him as he maintained a stately walking speed towards the camp. From his perspective, this didn't seem like a very effective plan as they all could have just walked. Heck, had they all just snuck closer, Oorr could have dropped his fog so it reached further into the camp and then he could have ferried them all over the palisade under the cover of the fog but Oorr had been adamant about his plan and couldn't be talked out of it. Umami sighed. They hadn't even considered his suggestion that the pools outside the camp and the ones inside might be connected by underwater tunnels. He just shook his head and kept walking. Or at least he did until Oorr activated the fog and then everything was cloaked in a damp wet blanket. Umami quickly stumbled over a tree root that he swore hadn't been there a moment ago and tried not to let out a curse that might give away his position.
  From the carpet, the settlement came in to view. Oorr made no attempt at a stealthy approach and soon there was shouting from the watchtowers and the camp became abuzz with activity. While he could see them, Deadeye took aim with his bow and fired off a few arrows at the lookouts in the nearest watchtower. One of them hit, but before he could really see how much damage he'd done, Oorr summoned the cloud of fog, enshrouding everything in a blanket of grey mist. Oorr manoeuvred the carpet towards the camp. He flew over the palisade wall near the first guard tower and Torak muttered the words to a spell and a thorn-barbed vine shot out into the fog and hit one of the bullywug archers, the thick vine wrapping around its neck. Torak braced himself on the carpet and then tugged on the whip, pulling the bullywug out of the tower. They couldn't see it, but they heard a strangled scream followed by a wet thud as the frogman hit the ground hard. With no other targets nearby, Angrar dropped his hammer roughly where they thought the frog had landed. Luck was on their side and another thud was heard as Angrar's hammer found it's mark and caved in the bullywug's skull. Angrar pulled his hammer back with a thought and they flew on.
  Deadeye disembarked on top of the first watchtower, standing unsteadily on the woven reed roof and searched through the fog for a target. Torak took a more direct approach and dove off the carpet into the tower, like a tiny, razor-fanged missile, engaging the archers inside. Oorr could see more bullywugs climbing around in the old stone ruin near the rear of the camp and warned Angrar about them before saying he'd "be right back". He used the magic of his armour to teleport through the fog, appearing in the second watchtower by the gate. His intent was to quickly engage the guards and then teleport back onto the carpet through the fog. At least that was the original plan until the fog started to blow away in a strong breeze and he was left stranded. One of the bullywugs in the ruins at the back of the camp was apparently a spellcaster and had summoned a wind to disperse the fog. Oorr cursed vocally. He hated it when a plan didn't come together.
  With the additional weight gone from the carpet, Angrar was free to move about at a much more rapid pace. Unfortunately, he still couldn't see where he was going and so stayed still for fear of running into anything. That problem was quickly solved however, when the fog dispersed and he was left floating, exposed in mid air, at the mercy of several bullywug archers. They quickly targeted him and attempted to turn him into a pin cushion. Thankfully most of the shots couldn't find any holes in his armour and bounced off. Those that did hit him though were painful and he quickly discovered they were laced with a poison as well. He managed to shake off the poison's effects but didn't care for them lining up for a second volley and quickly brought the carpet down at the base of the first watch tower, out of direct sight from the other archers.
  Umami had finally made it to the outer palisade wall just as the fog fully dispersed. He could hear, but not see, Torak and Deadeye fighting above him. He summoned a spell to assist them and he was instantly surrounded by tiny glowing balls of light that swarmed around him. He walked under the watch tower and the glowing orbs zipped into the tower, ignoring Torak and Deadeye, but biting into the bullywugs causing them great pain.
  Oorr sparred with the guards in the second tower, downing two of them and closing on the third, when he happened to glance into the camp as a flash of purple caught his eye. He took a second look and saw a bullywug with brightly coloured skin wearing an equally bright purple hat, almost identical to his own charging towards the tower. He thought to himself, "Hey, that looks a lot like my second best hat." and then quickly realised that it indeed was his second best hat! The bullywug had stolen it... and one of his rapiers too! That bastard.
  With the fog gone, Deadeye had an abundance of targets and quickly finished off the last bullywug harassing Oorr, freeing the Faun move about. He startd to acrobatically climb across the top of the gate to assist Torak but was quickly interrupted when the bullywug wearing his clothes easily leapt up onto the top of the gate beside him. They began to fence back and forth before ending up on top of the second watch tower.
  Deadeye took the opportunity to summon his drake inside the watchtower. Unfortunately, Umami's Spirit Guardians couldn't discern if it was friend or foe and attacked it in the same manner as the bullywugs. It took a heavy hit from the spell and was in no condition to face one of the remaining bullywugs who laid it low, dispersing it almost as quickly as it had appeared. Deadeye then jumped down onto the walkway and from there onto the ground, searching for more targets. Torak moved out of the tower and onto the walkway after Deadeye had passed, The remaining bullywug followed him onto the walkway, but not before Umami's spell swarmed around it too.
  Angrar fought several of the bullywugs that had swarmed out of a nearby hut and Torak was having trouble with the one that had followed him onto the walkway when they heard a great bellow come from the far side of the camp. From the largest hut emerged an immense bullywug far larger than any of them had ever seen before. It was short, squat, broadly muscled and charged across the camp towards the melee like a rabid bull. Angrar instinctively wanted to shift to face this new threat but had to deal with the bullywugs he was facing first. He slammed his shield into the face of one of them and it staggered back, stepping just inside the range of Umami's spell. The sparks tore into the bullywug and quickly finished it off.
  Angrar paused briefly to consider the devestation Umami's spell had caused and quickly realised that the mild-mannered chef had a higher body count in this fight than anyone else by a fair margin, and the fight wasn't even over yet. He didn't have time to contemplate further as the other bullywugs attacked again and required his focus.
  Deadeye continued to stalk forward, trying to find a target. He took aim at one of the archers in the central tower and feathered one of them easily. Deadeye was searching for a second target when a glowing, sickly green orb shot out from the ruins and blossomed into a giant acidic sphere that immediately engulfed himself, Torak and Angrar. It expanded rapidly all the way out to the palisade wall, just barely missing Umami as well. Deadeye dove into the muck, managing to avoid the bulk of the acidic blast and washing the sticky residue off before it could cause more damage. Angrar and Torak weren't as lucky and were both coated in a sticky acidic residue that clung to them, instantly searing them in pain and leaving a lingering burning sensation that felt like it took forever to go away.
  Deadeye's focus immediately shifted to the shaman, recognising him to be a greater threat than they'd first assumed. He shifted from his position under the bridge and moved up to get a better shot. The ground around the shaman was constantly shifting and making approach difficult. Thankfully, Deadeye was able to line up a good shot and sunk an arrow into the spellcaster. It wasn't enough to break the caster's focus, but it was a start.
  Oorr continued to spar on top of the far watch tower with his froggy counterpart while being pincushioned by archers in the central tower who had a clear shot on him. He finally bested the strangely dressed bullywug and forced a surrender. The bullywug knelt down and offered his sword up in an symbolic act, but Oorr briefly shook his head and told him to tell the others to surrender. The bullywug complied, shouting out a command in the froggy language but the others didn't hear or didn't listen. When there was no immediate cessation of hostilities, Oorr jumped down and gracefully ran across the top of the gate (though not before being shot at again by the archers in the central tower) and through the first watch tower. Ultimately meeting up with Torak on the walkway. Togther they pincered the bullywug between them and made short work of him.
  The giant bullywug continued it's charge across the camp. It spotted Deadeye off by himself, and shifted it's trajectory slightly. It barrelled into him like a stampede of horses and knocked him prone before moving on to engage the others. With a mighty heave it grabbed the walkway and flipped it over, sending Oorr and Torak tumbling into the muck. Torak managed to land gracefully, but Oorr did not, rolling into the mud and twisting his ankle. Thankfully he wasn't too badly injured, but was thrown out of position for a little bit. Umami shouted over the wall, asking if he needed help to which Oorr replied no and that Deadeye probably needed it more as the ranger hadn't gotten up since the Brute had sent him flying. Umami moved along the edge of the wall until he was just close enough to Deadeye to cast a spell through the palisade that stabilised the ranger.
  Angrar smashed the last of the smaller bullywugs in the face with his shield, sending it stumbling back into Umami's deadly cloud of sparks where it was finished off in short order. Now that he was free, he shifted his position and went toe to toe with the big bullywug, smashing it in the face with his hammer. It was a solid hit that would have caved in the skull of the smaller frogmen but only managed to anger the big brute.
  Sadly, the bullywug with glandular issues wasn't their only problem. Oorr staggered to his feet after being thrown into the mud and hastily had to dodge as the shaman cast a sickening green bolt of energy at him. He got out of the way just in time as the bolt splashed against the palisade wall behind him, sizzling and smoking evilly. He tried moving up to get closer to the mage but was quickly discouraged by the archers in the tower above them. Torak tore into the big bullywug, further angering him and Umami shouted over the fence to bring him closer so as his spell could take effect.
  Deadeye finally stirred. He felt ill-used and was going to get up when the ground shook and there was a massive screeching noise from within the ruins. He opened his eyes in time to see the shaman start casting a spell, a look of angry satisfaction on it's face. The look quickly turned to horror as it stumbled over the incantation. The shaman backed away from the glowing bolt that had appeared mid air in front of it. The ball of energy expanded and shifted colour to a reddish purple that was hard to look at. Arcs of lightning shot out from the ball of energy and grabbed at all the plant matter and vegetation nearby. The lightning wreathed around everything and then pulled it inward. It kept pulling more and more plants, twigs and logs into its core. When it had seemingly gathered enough, a deathly screech emanated from the center and the ball of energy and vegetation reformed, coalescing into a vaguely humanoid shaped mass of vegetation and elemental fury with baleful, glowing reddish-purple eyes.. This creature looked around and saw the shaman running away in a panic. The elemental lashed out at its creator with massive vine like tendrils but the bullywug dodged and dove into one of the larger pools of water and disappeared. The creature roared in anger. It turned it's massive head, searching for a new target and saw Angrar and Torak fighting the large bullywug. It charged at them.
  Deadeye stayed down as the massive elemental lumbered past. He was in no condition to do much of anything and played dead, hoping the elemental didn't notice him. The creature passed him by with hardly a glance. Instead it headed straight towards the fight, coming up behind the massive bullywug. It reached out with it's thick vined appendages and easily grabbed the bullywug around its throat and legs. It effortlessly lifted the bullywug above it's head and tightened its grip. The brute struggled but no matter how hard it tried, it could not break free of the elemental's grasp. The elemental continued to tighten its grip and the brute's struggles quickly turned to screams. The elemental mercilessly continued to pull at the brute and, as Angrar watched in horror, the creature tore the huge bullywug in two, spraying the area with gore.
  The screaming stopped and the whole camp paused in shock at the elemental's violence. It tossed the two halves of the brute asidee and turned it's viney tendrils on Angrar. Thankfully, the half-ghrym was quicker than the bullywug had been and dodged out of the way. Another tendril lashed out and struck Torak, wreathing the monk in that reddish-purple lightning and pulling him inexorably closer. The party started to worry. This creature might be the end of them. Oorr shouted at his froggy counterpart and told them they had to work together if they were going to survive this thing. The bullywug shouted orders and some of the archers listened and started shooting at the elemental. Others hung back, unwilling to join the fight for fear of ending up like the large bullywug had.
  Torak had that same fear and managed to tear his way loose from the creature's vines. He dodged in and then back out, trying to goad the elemental into following him close to where Umami was but the creature didn't take the bait. It focused on Angrar. Lashing at him with it's tendrils and shocking him with their inherent electricity.
  Deadeye rose from his "deathbed" and started shooting at the creature from behind. At first he was worried about leaving bullywugs behind him, but when they didn't attack, he continued to focus on the mound of vegetation tearing into his friends.
  Oorr dashed in and out as well, landing hits and then fading back, hoping the creature would follow but it continued to be stubborn and focused most of it's attacks on Angrar. It did lash out at him once, but he was able to parry the blow, preventing any damage.
  Angrar smashed at it with his hammer, trying to do through sheer force, what the others couldn't do with temptation. The fury of his blow was impressive and managed to stagger the elemental, It took a single step backwards but that was enough to put it within Umami's range and his spirit guardians gleefully tore into it. Send sparks flying as they buzzed about like a swarm of angry bees. The bullywug archers continued to shoot at it, as did Deadeye.
  Slowly but surely they hacked at the massive mound of vegetation, whittling away at it. It wasn't going to go down without a fight however. It continued to attack Angrar and managed to entangle the fighter and pull him into itself. He screamed as the world went black and he couldn't see anything. The creature continued to electricute him, the current easily flowing through his metal armour. He was very close to passing out.
  And then he was free. No one is certain who laid the final blow, but the combined efforts of everyone eventually broke the bonds holding the vegetation together and it collapsed around Angrar into a pile of rotting vines and branches.
  With the fight over the party was wary that the bullywugs would turn on them again but the bullywug in Oorr's hat shouted something and the party could hear the tension of the archer's bowstrings lesson. They breathed a sigh of relief. Oorr started talking with his counterpart, who he'd come to think of as "D'Artagnan" after one of the Baraquellan tales, and demanded that the professor and "the princess" be released. D'Artagnan apologised and said that they weren't there anymore. They'd been taken as a sacrifice to appease "The Snake God".
  Oorr demanded that the bullywugs take them to this Snake God, but the others gently reminded him that they needed some rest. Oorr relented and told the bullywugs they'd be back in the morning and they expected to be led to this snake god of theirs. D'Artagnan said they would be waiting. The party then hobbled back to the airship, injured, filthy and exhausted beyond measure. They collapsed in their bunks, not even bothering to look and see what Axon had accomplished, and thought about ways to fight this "Snake God"...

Rewards Granted

• 908 xp

Character(s) interacted with

• Bolt-1
• Dart - aka D'Artagnan, a Bullywug captain emulating Oorr's style
• The Lady?

Notes