Session 28. - After The Storm

Torak drifted in darkness. He had the vague sensation of being sore or confined but he wasn't certain what that meant. He could feel something warm and wet repeatedly rubbing against his face but couldn't focus on it. It felt pleasant and reassuring but his sleeping mind screamed at him that something was wrong. Wait. Something rubbing against his face? Was it a tentacle? He clawed his way back to consciousness to discover that the " slimy, wet tentacle" was just his dog's tongue. When the dog saw that he was awake it barked enthusiastically and started wagging its tail, thumping it against the bedroom floor. No, not bedroom... cabin. Torak corrected himself as he remembered roughly where he was. The skyship. They'd been hunting rays. Torak remembered jumping. Remembered being a squirrel and falling. Tumbling through the sky. His mind reeled at the memory and he briefly started to panic before managing to calm himself.   His canine companion's bark brought him back to reality and he focused on the here and now. He tried to move and discovered that he was wedged behind some boxes against the wall. That would explain his feeling of confinement as well as the various aches his body was quickly informing him about. He glanced around the room and realised that it was heavily slanted up and away from him. He didn't know anything about the skyship, but something told him that wasn't right.   It took him several minutes to extricate himself from under the tumbled storage chests and stand on his own two feet. Once there he realised that the slant to the floor wasn't as bad as it had seemed before. He also realised that he could hear birdsong. That seemed odd, especially after so many days of relative quiet. He opened his cabin door and went to investigate.   Torak emerged out of his cabin and was shocked to discover the hold of the ship was a complete shambles. Boxes and crates were strewn across the floor and the front of the ship was partially submerged under water. The door leading to the observation nest was almost fully submerged. Thankfully it didn't seem that they were sinking any further so Torak climbed topside to see what had happened and hopefully find the others.   The deck was in the same chaotic disarray that the hold had been in. Boxes and debris were everywhere and the big balloon that the little gnome said made the ship float was torn and laying deflated across the front of the ship and the water beyond. Torak looked around and realised the skyship must have crashed. The deck was still wet with water and the grey stormclouds that had loomed so large the day before looked to be somewhere to the south and west of them. He couldn't see the sun, but estimated it was early to mid-morning. Torak continued to look around in shock at the devastation around him and wondered what exactly had happened.   Torak's dog barked and broke him out of his reverie. He followed the noise, climbing over wreckage to where the dog stood barking at a pile of crates. After shifting some of them, he jumped back in shock. He'd found the corpse of Angrar. Or at least he thought it was his corpse at first. A deep groan emanated from inside the helmet and Angrar shifted. Torak quickly drew his kama and used the haft to poke at his metal encased friend, hoping he wasn't a zombie.   Angrar finally regained consciousness and was happy to see his tiny friend up and moving. Hells, he was just happy to see again in general after being blinded by a lightning bolt during the storm. With Torak's help, they shifted enough of the crates and he shakily stood up. Angrar instantly regretted it as his body did not appreciate the treatment he'd given it the past few days and kindly let him know. His knees started to give but he caught himself before they gave out. He took a moment to steady himself and reassure his body that he was still in charge, before he joined Torak in searching through the wreckage for their friends.   They found Oorr first. He was on the upper deck along with Professor Crankshaft and Bolt-1. Bolt-1 had grabbed both of them and used his metal body to protect them during the crash. Other than a few cuts and bruises, they all seemed to be okay. Oorr seemed somewhat embarrassed that someone had saved him and quickly joined their search for the others. He stood out against the wreckage, or at least his hat did. Everything and everyone else was covered in dirt, grime and mud, but his hat was pristine with not a mark on it.   Axon was lodged up in a tree off the ship's port side when they found him. Thankfully he too, seemed relatively uninjured and as they were helping him down from the tree, Umami wandered up to assist. The tetsudan said he'd awoken floating in the pond just beyond the balloon and other than a minor crack in his carapace, he was fine.   That left only Deadeye and Captain Crankshaft's ward, Alvarine, unaccounted for. When Oorr realised that the young faun hadn't been found yet, he raced back on to the ship without waiting for the others and was hammering on her door in a heartbeat. There wasn't an immediate response and when he tried the door it was locked. Oorr alternated between wanting to pick the lock and kick the door in. While he was trying to decide, the door opened a crack and Alvarine stood shyly behind the door. Through the doorway, Oorr could see a dark purple bruise forming across the side of the girl's face.   "M'lady! Are you alright?" he asked and shifted as if to step inside her cabin but stopped when she instinctively started to close the door. She meekly told him she was fine. She'd hit her head when the ship crashed was all. Oorr looked like he didn't quite believe her but said that he was glad she was alright. The others had returned to the ship by this point and Oorr gallantly told her that if she needed anything, she just had to ask. She smiled demurely and then winced as the action made her bruise throb. She closed the door and Oorr went to help the others search for Deadeye.   They found the kenku in the hold, half-buried under a stack of crates, face down in the muddy water. He wasn't breathing. Umami rushed to him and managed to cast a spell stabilising him and get him breathing again. Deadeye came back from the brink of death, but didn't regain consciousness. Umami surmised he'd taken a heavy blow to the head when the crates fell on him. Hopefully all he'd need was rest.   Angrar carried him to the cabin he shared with Torak, while the others quickly tidied it up. Resetting the room and putting the bed and furniture back to where they had been.   Once the kenku was situated, everyone returned to the deck to assess the damage from the crash. The ship had come down hard in the swamp. It had crashed through some trees and was now lodged deep in the mud in the middle of one of the many ponds that gave the Illyrian Lowlands it's name. To make matters worse, the balloon that gave the airship lift had several tears in it, all its gas had leaked out and it was laying across the top of the water like a wet dish rag.   The professor and Bolt-1 methodically went around the ship, cataloguing every chipped railing, broken pipe and frayed rope they could find. While they did, the others did their best to tidy up. Umami started cooking. The storm had exhausted everyone and a hearty meal would be just the thing to bolster their spirits. He rifled through his own dwindling supplies and what was unspoiled or undamaged in the ship's stores and came up with a simple duck and dumpling soup using one of the birds Deadeye had downed while they were hunting for the rays. Soon the savoury smells of Umami's cooking drifted over the ship, setting everyone's stomachs rumbling. The smell alone enticed them to work a little harder and hope Umami finished soon.   Soon, the ship was as back to normal as it could be. Umami served their food and everyone sat and quietly discussed the problems they faced. The professor laid out the four major problems they faced with the ship. First, the lightning strike had shorted out some of the wiring that ran the ship's controls. Second, the balloon had lost all of it's ætheric gas. Third the balloon itself had more holes than a wheel of Galdani sharp cheese. Finally, they were wedged pretty deeply in the mud.   The professor said that the repairs to the ship's mechanisms would likely take the longest so he, Bolt-1 and Alvarine would get started on that. As for the balloon. The professor admitted that he and Bolt-1 hadn't waded out into the water to fully examine it, but there was spare canvas below and as long as the damage wasn't too bad, they should be able to patch up the holes. Axon asked about the gas and the professor shrugged, and said, "That's the problem."   They didn't even talk about freeing the ship. It didn't seem to be solvable without the balloon or the controls being repaired in the first place. The professor and Bolt-1 disappeared into the engine room to work on the machine and left the others to their own devices.   After a quick discussion, Axon and Umami volunteered to examine the balloon's damage and waded out into the water. Angrar went below to grab the canvas the professor had mentioned and Oorr went to check on Alvarine. He knocked but she didn't respond or come to the door. He tried a few more times without a response before giving up and going to supervise the others. Torak sat on the railing, idly petting his dog while he meditated. Letting the natural flow of life in the fens wash over him and focus his mind.   Out in the water, Umami and Axon found the balloon was in bad shape. There were several long gashes, likely caused by the trees they'd crashed through, though they surmised that one of the greater ray's barbed tendrils could have also caused the damage. Either way, Umami hoped they had enough canvas to cover all the rents they'd seen. He and Axon headed back to the ship to see how much canvas the others had found and if they'd found a way to join it with the balloon.   Angrar met them on deck. He glanced out over the water briefly. He had a nagging sensation that something seemed off but couldn't see anything and so quickly dismissed the feeling. They spread the canvas out and did some rough guess-timation maths to determine that they would have just enough canvas to cover what damage they had seen. The problem was attaching the new canvas to the existing. Umami suggested sewing but no one said they had enough skill to not just poke more holes in the balloon. Axon nodded and reaffirmed that Urith was the only one who'd had any skill in it. Angrar suggested some sort of glue, to which Oorr piped up that he swore he'd seen some in the hold before the crash. He headed to rummage around and see if he could find it.   While they were discussing adhesives, Torak continued his meditation. He attuned himself to the ebb and flow of life in the fens. He heard the birdsong. The insects buzzing. The pod of giant snakes menacingly slithering towards the skyship. The frogs croaking. His friends busying themselves across the ship. Even Bolt-1, the strangely silent metal man, hummed with life. He was surrounded by life. He sighed contentedly... (or as contentedly as he could without having a drink or a goblin to chase) and continued to meditate.   Oorr returned triumphantly with a small jar of a smelly glue that was barely enough to cover one of the holes. Axon, Umami and Angrar had moved the canvas down off the ship and were cutting it to size when Oorr reappeared out of the hold. As he got to the railing, he shouted to those in the water. "I say chaps. Watch out!" Swimming across the pond was a group of snakes with a bright red striped pattern across their backs. He jumped down to engage.   Oorr's shout jarred Torak from his meditation and he sent his dog to their cabina before he too jumped down to attack.   Umami and Axon were in a bad position, waist deep in the pond when the snakes struck. Or at least they were before Axon stepped sideways, turning into mist for a second before reappearing back on the ship's deck. Umami was not so lucky and now had to face three of the snakes alone. Thankfully, only one of them found an unprotected bit of him and managed to land a bite.   Angrar waded into the water to help the tetsudan while Torak and Oorr paired off against snakes of their own. Torak hacked at his, easily taking it down before moving on to another group he saw emerging from the water.   Oorr attacked his foe and tried getting fancy. He channelled Rayah's fury and was trying to ignite his blade with it's usual spectral green flame when he fumbled the incantation. Instead of his sword bursting into flame, he disappeared in a puff of logic and appeared in darkness, surrounded by a malleable bubble. He could faintly hear the fight still going on around him and cried out for assistance. "Gents! Gents! A little assistance please!" His cries went unheard or unanswered. He couldn't tell.   Once Axon found himself on more solid ground, he fired off a spell at the snakes, charring one easily and sending another slithering back towards the swamp. It never got there as Torak sliced at it as it passed. Umami made his way to the mud bank while Angrar and Torak dealt with the snakes that had been harassing him. Oorr continued to call out for help and, after not getting a response, decided to take matters into his own hands and "attack the darkness". He slashed out wildly with his sword and was satisfactorily met with the distinctive sound of fabric or canvas tearing. After a few more slashes, he saw daylight and was met with a rush of water that poured over him. He emerged triumphant (if not soaking wet) from inside the balloon, only to see the fight over and a shattered look on Axon's face. Now they had another hole to mend. Oorr sputtered a half-assed apology, saying something about the darkness having being vanquished but the others took a more practical view. It was just another problem he'd caused that they'd have to fix.   With the fight over, Umami tended their wounds, purging them of any traces of the venom. They all paused for a moment and realised just how exhausted they really were. It had been far too long since they'd slept and their heads were getting fuzzy trying to come up with solutions. They hoped a good night's rest would help. Axon let the professor know, who agreed that a rest wouldn't be a bad idea. He left Bolt-1 on guard and then everyone took some well needed rest.   When they awoke it was near mid-afternoon and they were all feeling refreshed. Over the evening meal, the professor told them of a potential solution to their gas problem. He'd remembered reading something in a library in Zur-Ryk. Another inventor had written a treatise suggesting marsh gas, the kind found near wisp-lights in swamps and fens might be an alternative to the Aetheric gas that they had been using. The professor said that it hadn't been tested but at this point it was worth a shot. Only problems with that was he didn't know if these fens produced the gas and if they did, he still hadn't figured out a way to transport it to the ship.   Umami also enlightened them with a suggestion. He'd been thinking back to his days as an apprentice chef and remembering how so many of his clutchmates' failed attempts at food had turned into rock hard paste. He grinned as he thought about using one of those recipes but they were far too water soluble and wouldn't hold up well. Then he remembered one of his teachers telling him about how the earliest tetsudan builders, alchemists and cooks were often cousins living under the same roof. Meaning that the concoctions they made were often very similar. He vaguely remembered his teacher saying something about an alchemist's potion of water walking being just one ingredient removed from glue that a builder could use. Now if he could just remember the ingredients they used. Umami said he'd sat by the pond all day and pondered (chuckling to himself at his pun) while listening to the frog song and remembered what ingredients he could. He remembered that it was a mixture of frog spittle/mucus and a sap rendered from the bark of a witchwillow tree. He hadn't seen any witchwillow immediately near the pond but that didn't mean there weren't any. It was the type of environment that they grew so he was hopeful. The frog spittle would be the problem though. Even if they caught all the tiny frogs in the pond, they'd barely have enough to coat the bottom of a bucket and they needed at least a whole bucket's worth, if not two. They'd have to find a better source.   Now that they had some tangible goals, they decided that they'd best not waste any more daylight and made plans to try and source some of the ingredients they'd discussed. Professor Crankshaft said he'd stick around and continue working on the controls and wished them safe travels. While the group packed up their gear, Umami went to check on Deadeye one last time before they set out. He left a packet of herbs and instructions on their use with Alvarine should Deadeye's condition worsen. He was certain that it wouldn't but left it just in case. She nodded and said very solemnly that she would protect him. Umami thanked her and hurried to catch up with the others, who'd already waded through the pond to the far shore.   Once they were all together again, they picked a direction away from the water and started to explore. At first the ground was wet and easily gave way underfoot but as they walked, they found more and more solid patches. Umami tried to describe the type of tree they were looking for to Torak who nodded slowly, seeming to understand. When the priest had finished, Torak ran over to a random tree that was four feet away and pointed proudly at it, certain that this was what Umami had been looking for. Umami sighed and tried again, but his command of Dhabaran wasn't good enough and Torak's understanding of the language was virtually non-existent. He switched to Elven and spoke with Angrar who then did his best to translate that into Goblinese for the little druid. Torak's comprehension of goblinese was better and he seemed to grasp what Umami was looking for and nodded once before jumping on the back of his dog who bounded off into the trees.   At first, the others weren't sure if they were supposed to wait for them to return or if the little wildling expected them to follow. They decided to wait, but when, the wildling reappeared a short while later, looking exasperated, they realised they'd made the wrong choice. They gathered their gear and set off down the trail.   After a short while. Torak pointed out a stand of trees to Umami that resembled the description he'd been given. A cluster of tall trees with trunks that had a distinctive right angle bend about half way up and long whiplike branches that flowed down to the ground: Witchwillow. From a distance, they resembled an old woman hunched over. The stand they'd found was small, but easily identifiable and once everyone else knew what to look for, they spotted a few more stands here and there off the trail. Umami was satisfied and thanked the small druid. He wasn't sure exactly how much bark he'd need and didn't want to harvest it and then be forced to carry it with them until they were ready for it so they made a rough note of the location relative to the crash and said they'd come back.   They continued down what wasn't so much a path, but a seldom used game trail. The ground was still fairly soft and wet with standing pools of water appearing every so often and swarms of flies hovering above them en masse. After about an hour or so, Torak held up his hand, indicating they should stop. He got off his mount and started to creep forward. Oorr joined him while the other three held back.   They crept forward and came to the edge of a clearing with a crudely fenced encampment of a fair size. The fence was broken up with several huts on stilts that looked like watch towers and through the fence several other buildings could be seen along with what looked to be a stone ruin of some sort. Directly ahead of them was a crude wooden gate flanked by two of the towers. They could see at least one figure in each of the towers and in front of the gate stood two bipedal frogmen in mismatched armour and holding spears. Bullywugs. They had heard of the creatures before but had never personally encountered them. Oorr was contemplating going to speak with them alone, but Torak held onto his arm, pointing back towards the others. Oorr relented with a sigh and they snuck back to inform the others of their discovery.   The others were torn on what to do about the bullywugs. Axon suggested sneaking around the camp but Angrar motioned to his armour and scoffed at the idea. Umami suggested trading with them, thinking that they'd be a good source of frog spittle. Torak wanted to attack them and just take what they had but Oorr, of all people, talked him down from the idea. Ultimately they decided to try the trading approach and openly approached the gate in as non-threatening a manner as they could.   As soon as the party stepped out of the woods, the bullywugs immediately got defensive, raising their spears and shouting a challenge at the party. It took them a second or three to work out what the creatures were saying. They were speaking a dialect of Sylvan but with extremely heavy accents that made them nearly unintelligible. Oorr convinced the party to let him do the talking and attempted to start a conversation with the guards.   The conversation seemed to start off well, with the bullywugs paying attention and genuinely seemed very interested in their plight. Things took a sharp turn however when Oorr mentioned their recent fight with the snakes. Immediately the bullywugs mood changed. They interrupted Oorr and stopped the conversation and told the party to go away. Oorr attempted to placate them but whatever he'd said had set them off and they threatened them with violence by shaking their spears at the party while the archers in the towers drew their bows taut with arrows trained on the group.   Taking the hint, the party backed away slowly and made for the treeline. Once they were out of sight, they decided to keep going and see what else they could find. Perhaps that marsh gas the professor had talkeed about. They did their best to quietly circle the camp but with Angrar's plate mail snagging on every second tree they weren't sure how successful they were. Thankfully, it didn't seem like the bullywugs had heard anything as no one was following them when Torak went to check.   Once on the trail again, Oorr wondered what he'd said that had set them off. Before anyone could give him a reply though, the continued his stream of consciousness thought and complained that the bullywugs should classify as a "person" from within the bounds of the charm person spell. Axon was the only one that truly understood his arcane babbling. At first Umami followed along as the underlying spell framework between his spells and those of an arcane caster were similar, but he quickly lost track of the conversation when Oorr started talking about the transitive properties of words. Wait. What? Was Oorr mad at the spell or the words of the spell? He never could figure it out and settled in to listening to Oorr babble on as they travelled.   They'd been travelling for a few hours since the bullywug camp and according to Torak, were getting close to that point where they'd likely have to turn back if they wanted to make back to the ship by full dark. They debated just going until dark and then making camp rather than turning back but the thought of spending a night sleeping rough in the fens didn't much appeal to them, especially when they didn't have a clear goal or direction beyond find swamp gas, frog spit and tree sap.   The argument continued back and forth for a bit and Torak quickly got bored listening to the others chatter. To alleviate his boredom he decided to climb a tree and see what he could see while there was still light. He easily scampered up the trunk and quickly disappeared in the canopy. He emerged near the tree's top. Torak lightly gripped a branch as the tree swayed gently in the breeze and closed his eyes to bask in the late afternoon sunlight. He stayed that way for several minutes and was only interrupted by Angrar shouting up from below, asking him what he saw.   He opened his eyes and looked around. To the north, he saw the sunlight reflecting off the lakes and ponds of the lowlands. Beyond that, barely visible, was a smudge of dark against the horizon. He assumed those were the hills where they'd started this journey. To the east and north, back the way they'd come, more wetlands as far as the eye could see. He looked for the ship, foolishly thinking he could instantly spot it but if it was there, he couldn't see it. At one point while he strained to see it, he thought he saw a smudge of smoke rise from the treeline but before he could focus on it, the wind quickly dispersed it and he didn't see it again. Due south, all he could see were more wetlands and maybe, just maybe, green fields or possibly a city on a hill in the distance beyond. He tried to gauge distance but the numbers were beyond him. He thought in practical terms instead: if the others kept pace with him and the terrain was favourable, Aliah's face would go from fully bright to fully dark across the sky before they made it. If the others didn't keep pace or the terrain was bad, Aliah would be half smiling once more. When he looked west, the afternoon sun was shining directly in his face. He had to shield his eyes with his free hand and squint to see anything. In the distance he saw the top of a yellow stone building poking out of the canopy.   After not seeing anything else of note, he quickly returned to the ground. He had no idea how long he'd been up in the tree, and by this point the others had stopped arguing (or had at least come to a decision) and were waiting for with expectant looks. He explained about what all he saw. When he started talking about Aliah's faces, he completely lost them at first but then Axon managed to realise he was talking about the moon. A quick calculation gave them between ten and fifteen days to get to the southern edge of the fens. Not something they were looking forward to. The stone building was of interest to them though but according to Torak, they'd have to veer north and back track part of the way if they wanted to reach it, and even then it would be well past dark when they got there.   They decided that the building would have to wait for now. Instead they were going to continue on their current path for another hour and hopefully they'd find something. If they didn't come across anything in that time, then they'd head back, check on the ship and crew and then had out again in the morning towards the building.   They were only fifteen minutes into their additional hour of travel when Torak's dog stopped on the trail and let out a low menacing rumble of a growl. The party stopped to figure out what had spooked him and before they could ask Torak what was up with his dog, the answer revealed itself.   Two of the creatures that gave the Illyrian Lowlands their other name -- The Trollfens, came into view ahead of them. The pair of massive, grey-green skinned trolls were dragging a large horse carcass across the trail ahead of them. The larger one dragged the bulk of the horse, with it's bridle and livery trailing in the muck. The second one, who wasn't much smaller, was carrying one of the horse's legs like a club. Occasionally it would bite a chunk from the leg and chew, dribbling blood and muck down it's bare chest.   The pair saw the party at the same time that they were seen. There was a brief pause as the trolls' tiny brains processed what they were seeing before they roared in challenge and charged the party. The fight was on.   Angrar took up his usual spot in the van and met the larger troll's charge head on. The creature raked it's iron hard nails across his shield and in return he took a swing at the troll, landing a heavy blow, that crushed the troll's shoulder to a pulp. He felt the creature's bones shatter under the impact and thought to himself that this was going to be an easy fight. Then, to his horror, he watched as the troll's crushed shoulder reformed almost before his eyes and he quickly reassessed how the fight was going to go.   Oorr moved up to assist Angrar as the troll's shoulder reformed and he stabbed it repeatedly with his flame-licked blades. The fire wreathed blades bit deep into the troll's flesh causing the troll to jerk back. Where Oorr had landed cuts, the troll's flesh blackened and did not immediately heal.   As Angrar and Oorr were dealing with the larger troll, they were surprised to hear another roar, this time from their side, as Torak defiantly screamed back at the trolls and ran up to attack the other one. He punched and tore at the creature with his hands shaped like claws and bit deeply, scoring hits that smoked with acidic magic. The second troll roared in pain and lashed out with the horse haunch, hitting the tiny wildling solidly in his chest and launching him back into the woods. The troll then moved up and engaged Axon and Umami who'd hung back out of the melee.   Axon took a deep cut from the troll but managed to slip away before it could do more damage. Umami was going to check on Torak when there was another roar from where he'd disappeared into the brush, but this time deeper and more bestial. A massive wolf with shaggy brown fur bounded out of the woods and attacked the second troll, pulling its attention away from Axon. The troll reeled back from the ferocity of the beast as it took a number of vicious bites out of the troll, eventually ripping one of it's arms right off. It tossed the severed limb aside and continued to tear into the troll.   Angrar and Oorr were tag-teaming the first troll with a synergy borne of months of practice. Angrar kept the troll's focus on him, letting the creature dash it's claws against his heavy armour, while Oorr danced in and out of range, constantly stabbing with his flame-kissed weapons that sent putrid whiffs of charred flesh with each hit. The creature kept healing, but never from the flames and they were slowly whittling away at it. It was just a matter of time.   Though, if Angrar was completely honest with himself, time was not something they had in abundance. Already, his hammer felt three times heavier in his hands and he'd missed blocking one of the troll's swings by inches and the resulting blow sent waves of pain across his ribs every time he breathed in. Thankfully, Umami was there. He wasn't flashy, nor was he overly aggressive, but he bolstered the party at every opportunity and every so often would rebuke the trolls with an attack that sounded like a dolorous bell.   Axon had been able to steer clear of the trolls after the first hit and the intervention of Torak in his wolf form. He blasted away at the one armed troll while Torak continued to gnaw on it. Sadly it did not remain one-armed for long and Axon watched as the damage that Torak was causing, rapidly healed. He dipped into his limited repertoire of fire based spells and did what he could to scorch the troll before it could regenerate. While he was focused on the main troll, he didn't see the limb that Torak had ripped off had gained a life of it's own and was crawling across the forest floor towards him. The disembodied arm grabbed him around his ankle with it's iron-hard claws gouging into his flesh, disrupting the Hex he'd been focusing on. He stifled a scream and kicked the arm away, watching it land near Oorr and then slowly start to crawl inexorably back towards him.   Oorr managed to finish the bigger troll off finally. Searing the wound with fire so it wouldn't get back up. With the first troll down, Angrar moved to flank the other one, who was clawing deeply into wolf-Torak. The wolf that was Torak yelped as the troll slashed at him and then collapsed to the ground overcome with his wounds. Before their eyes the wolf form faded, shimmering and morphing back into Torak who looked up angrily and completely uninjured at the troll before pouncing and slashing at it again with those acid wreathed claws.   Together, Angrar and Torak made short work of the second troll while Oorr used his flaming rapier to pin the autonomous arm that was chasing Axon to the ground. They made a point of starting a fire and ensuring that none of the troll bits that Torak had bitten off escaped the flames.   While a greasy grey pillar of putrid smelling smoke rose into the early evening sky, turning all their stomachs, Axon searched through the remains of the horse. The horse's livery was ruined by the muck. Any symbols or identification were so covered in filth that they were unrecognisable. They did manage to find a partially intact saddlebag and inside that a small pouch of electrum coins and a plain wood and bone scroll case that was swollen shut with exposure to the elements. Axon thought about trying to dry it out using the troll fire, but couldn't stand the thought of staying close to the smell for as long as it would take to dry out. Plus Umami warned that whatever was inside, might be destroyed from the heat as well. They pocketed the scroll with the intent to examine it later along with the bag of coins.   The party decided to head back to the ship at this point. While they could have explored further, they realised that they didn't want to fight any more trolls anytime soon, especially in the dark. The trip back was uneventful for the most part. Umami asked the others to stop several times when he saw a rare plant or herb that he wanted to try or add to his store of spices but even he realised that he was slowing things down and stopped after the third.... well, really the fourth time.   By the time they were back near the bullywug camp it was almost dark. Originally they had planned to circle around it and avoid them entirely but as they got nearer they realised that something was going on in the camp. They kept their distance but noticed that the camp seemed to be on high alert. Through the crude palisade they caught glimpses of a large bonfire at the base of the stone ruins they'd seen earlier along with several smaller fires throughout the camp. Each of the watch towers had more archers and lookouts inside now too. Oorr and Torak wanted to sneak closer to see but the others felt that it was too dangerous and that they were too worn out from the trolls to be in a good position should either of them be spotted and a fight break out. They conceded the point and the party made a wide berth around the camp and headed back towards the ship.   It was almost fully dark by the time they reached the ship and even before they saw it, they knew something was wrong. Umami and Oorr caught a whiff of smoke carried by the breeze and Angrar noticed that there were no lights in the cabin or on the deck. They drew their weapons and waded out to the ship as quietly as they could. When they climbed on board, they saw the deck was in a shambles again. All the crates and boxes they'd stacked up after the crash were spilled over and some of them torn open. There was a dark char mark along the railing where it looked like one of the deck lanterns had smashed and started a fire. Thankfully it didn't look like the fire had spread too far and had either been put out or gone out on its own. In the dark they couldn't tell.   The ship was eerily quiet and Oorr decided to throw caution to the wind and called out for Alvarine. "M'Lady?!" Are you alright?!" His voice echoed across the ship. There was no response. The others cringed and worried he'd just alerted their foes to their presence but no threat revealed itself. They went to check the three main cabins and saw the doors were all kicked in. Inside, they found a shambled disarray of overturned and broken furniture along with rummaged chests and clothes and bedding scattered everywhere. The professor, Bolt-1 and Alvarine were nowhere to be found.   They moved into the hold and discovered their rooms were in equal disarray. Deadeye was not in the bed where they'd left him and they feared that he too had been captured, killed or eaten by whatever had taken their employer. They continued to search the hold and saw a foot sticking out from beneath a pile of crates. When they'd cleared the wreckage, they discovered Bolt-1 and Deadeye had been buried under the crates and pinned down by the water barrel. Deadeye remained unconscious and it looked like Bolt-1 had been trying to hide the kenku when they'd been trapped.   With no pulse to check, they assumed that the forgeborn pilot had died in the raid and they were greatly shocked to see him move suddenly once the crates were cleared. They helped him sit up and asked what had happened. When he replied, they realised that they'd never heard him speak before now and were surprised that his voice was deep, sonorous and warm. For some reason, they'd all presumed he would sound "metallic". Bolt-1 said that a bunch of bullywugs had swarmed over the ship while they'd been repairing it. He'd heard the professor shout and Alvarine swear -- Oorr interrupted him to correct him saying that he meant Alvarine screamed -- Bolt-1 ignored him and continued. He'd heard them fighting on the upper deck and knew that they'd likely kill or eat Deadeye if they found him so he grabbed the kenku and after hiding him, Bolt-1 said he'd turned to go and fight them off and save his friends but accidentally bumped some of the crates which came tumbling down on top of him and must have knocked him out. That was the last thing he remembered.   Oorr immediately swore to rescue "the princess" and was going to charge back to the bullywug camp there and then with vows to take them all on single handedly but the others quickly restrained him and told him to shut up. They still weren't any less rested than they had been earlier and that wasn't going to help anyone. Now, at least, they knew why the bullywugs had been so riled up. Umami reasoned that yes, they needed to rescue the professor and the girl, but they also needed to rest. They stood a better chance of successfully rescuing them after a good night's rest. They could only hope that they would survive the night.   They all, even Oorr eventually, agreed and set about restoring what they could of the ship. They flipped beds back and Umami alternated between checking Deadeye and making dinner. Once the meal was complete they briefly sketched out some plans for the next day but sleep was dragging at them and they all quickly turned in, leaving Bolt-1 on watch to guard the ship.