A BioHazard® 5.0 play-by-post adventure run by bh5ogm
Holding perfectly still, with one foot on dry land, I raise the other up out of the water, knowing all too well the Eleneps' electrical generation ability. I use my wooden sharpened staff to balance myself as I scan the water for a long slimy tube-like fish with a beak-like jaw lined with razor-sharp teeth. Realizing the creature hunts by heat, I also hope my lack of movement will cause it to seek some other prey.
I glance at Pafnuty and Grover to see what they are doing, motioning towards the bubbling water.
Not needing further explanation from Heil, Grover looks around for anything he can cling to or climb up on, out of the water. He hopes to find some tree trunk or small rise in land he can hop to quickly. At the same time, Grover unholsters his pistol and grips it tightly in his right hand.
"Eleneps?! Why did it have to be Eleneps?" he grumbles loudly. Then, he hurriedly whispers to Heil, "What're Eleneps anyway! I hate the swamp!" At this point, Grover starts rambling to himself, mostly. "Coryatt said it was daft to have an adventure in the swamp, but I went on one all the same, just to show him!"
"It's a mutant electric Eel with poison skin.... Now shhhh!" I whisper.
Pafnuty looks around desperately for high ground as well. Having never encountered Eleneps outside of books, his pulse races as he slides a bolt into his handmade crossbow.
Four rippling trails in the water race towards the party, in delta formation.
Heil is poised and ready to strike/spear with his staff.
Grover looks to a nearby tree stump, about five feet high and pretty solid. Slightly pausing and concentrating, Grover leaps out of the thigh-deep water in the direction of the stump, swiftly grapples up the side and mounts on top with superhuman ability.
Pafnuty hears "with poisonous skin" from Heil and takes a few awkward, water-logged steps backwards and reaches for his crossbow, threading a bolt.
Combat ensues. One Elenep charges and nips at Heil, sinking tiny teeth into his boot.
Another Elenep barrels towards Pafnuty. Young Galewood suddenly feels an intense stinging sensation in his legs and, shocked, triggers his crossbow. Much to the gladness of his lower extremities, the bolt splashes softly into the water and the pain ceases.
Grover squats deftfully on top of the tall stump, balances his staff and fires his pistol into the water near one of the rippling water trails. There is a splash as the sound echoes throughout the swamp. Unable to see his target dead or alive, he looks for another water trail.
Next round. Actions?
I'm assuming Pafnuty knows that he's been shocked and not bitten; otherwise, Pafnuty's actions would change drastically.
"So that's what it feels like to be shocked by an Elenep. Fascinating!" he thinks, smirking at his malapropos thoughts and nocking another bolt. "I knew this water had to be brackish! But whence come the mineral salts?"
Despite his fear of being bloodied in the swamp, his adrenaline-drenched body is relishing the new sensation, and his brain is reveling in a new theory. His multi-processing brain reaches a first approximation of the conductivity of the water, based on the eel's striking distance.
"W-where-ere are they?" he stutters, standing his ground---er, water. His extra-sensitive ears and eyes seek the slightest splash or ripple.
I stab (using my sharp staff) at the biting Elenep that is sinking its tiny teeth into my boot and attempt to kill it!
Heil rears up and stabs downward at the thin snake, luckily catching its long skinny form and drawing blood. The Elenep withdraws its tiny teeth, leaving a small perforation in Heil's boot, and splashes down into the water, furious. Pafnuty sees that the fourth one is now racing towards him, threads a bolt and shoots at the creature about eight feet away. The bolt sinks halfway into the muddy swamp next to the rippling water trail, but before Pafnuty can curse himself, another bang from Grover's gun sends the water around the bolt and Elenep into the air. Grover feels pretty good about both his shots, but the water is so disturbed that he can't see the creatures dead or alive. Grover's six-shooter now has four bullets left.
The party waits still for a moment, dreading the sight of more water trails.
Actions?
BTW, Pafnuty did not take any appreciable damage, only a painful jolt from the shock.
"Eee hee eee hee hee!" Grover cries, obviously jubilant. Halfway through his chorus of e's he attempts to nonchalantly switch to a lower, more mature voice. Grover scans the water for more trails.
If, after a time, there are no more visitors, he will climb back down the stump and see if he can verify that his shots killed the beasts. With feet on solid ground he'll lay his bardiche aside and reload his pistol.
I watch and wait for a moment, unmoving. If I see Grover trying to find or touch a dead Elenep I say, "Eleneps have poisonous skin you know: I wouldn't touch them if I were you." I relax after a little more time passes.
Pafnuty notches another bolt into his custom crossbow and sloshes gingerly over to his last errant shot, its shaft sticking up halfway out of the water. "Should be some higher 'ground' here," he surmises. He snatches the bolt swiftly out of the mud, causing the swamp to say "Schlorp!"
Looking up at the odd man in the tree stump, he says, "Y-You're a good shot, Grover, th-thanks." His heart still pounds in his chest.
The water settles and the group finally gets back underway. They all feel lucky that they didn't run across the Eleneps in deeper water without the high ground. Pafnuty still cringes when he thinks of the pain of the sting that was only the edge of the full force, he was sure. Heil is still wary of the rippling water trails in the water, as Eleneps usually travel in packs. He is also worried that the white-haired one's weapon will have summoned fiercer beasts.
The flat expanse of the swamp surrounds the group now completely. Gray and black in all directions with hints of grayish-green in the moss on the trees is all you can see. To the northwest, the village highlands are no longer visible.
The group travels until nightfall, and then decides to stop. No use in traveling at night: the visibility, even with moonlight, is very limited, thanks to the nocturnal mists. They could walk within a hundred feet of the entrance to the underground caves and not see it. Unfortunately, as the sun melts into the horizon, the group doesn't see much solid dry ground. A few hollowed-out stumps are here and there, but nothing anyone could sleep on, or in.
Heil leads the group, weary and heavy-legged, in a desperate effort to find some dry land, even breaking their south-easterly path and looking for better land. As night falls, the group is still standing knee-deep in swamp muck.
Heil turns to the group with a tired, exasperated look. "Do we travel at night?"
Turning to the group with a tired exasperated look, I say, "Do we travel at night?"
I shrug, having asked the only good question.
"I, for one, am not tired," Grover says matter-of-factly. "However, I don't like much sleeping in swamp muck." Chuckling, Grover sticks his pole arm in the sloshy swamp floor, and extends his left hand, tilting it slightly with palm facing his companions. As if he were showing them something, he points to his left hand with the index finger of his right.
At his traveling companions' perplexed gaze into his empty palm, he offers, "If we had a little light, maybe we could travel until we find some solid ground, eh?"
Grover awaits the reply of Pafnuty and Heil.
Pafnuty produces a torch from his pack and lights it. "Let there be light!" he elegantly brandishes the torch. "Swamp creatures are a-afraid of f-fire, right, Heil?"
Grover clenches his left fist, and lowers his hand. He bows slightly in Pafnuty's direction and defers to his lead. "Let there be light, indeed!" Turning his gaze to Heil, he suggests, "Lead on! We'll find that cave."
Heil scans the horizon again, and answers Pafnuty flatly, "Only the weak ones." Heil grabs Pafnuty's torch, and, squinting, extends it southward with his arm. "I see high ground that way." Then, checking the stars, he plunges the torch into the swampwater with a loud but short hiss. "Stop attracting the ones we have to worry about."
Pafnuty bends down and retrieves his torch, and in the darkness mocks Heil in a whiny voice: "Stop attracting the ones we have to worry about...."
Grover smiles and follows Heil and Pafnuty to the south. Heil moves for only a short while before stopping, as though something in the moonlight caught the corner of his eye. He kneels down in the swamp water, listening intently and, strangely, swirling his finger in the calf-deep water. He says to himself, "Never in the swamp... never here in the swamp."
Heil suddenly and hastily takes off his backpack and opens it. Pafnuty's eyes widen and his heart begins to race suddenly as he looks about frantically, seeing nothing. Grover notices Heil's hurry. Closing his eyes, Grover bows his head and softly places his right index and middle finger on his temple. Quickly, Grover's head shoots up and his eyes look quickly to the east. He begins to move southward again, quietly, pushing Pafnuty in front of him and whispering harshly in the youth's ear: "Prepare your bow, hurry!"
Heil quickly produces his battery-powered heating coil. He places the battery (charged) and attached solar charging apparatus on a small hill of dry ground and lets the heating coil, hanging by a wire attached to the battery, slip into the water. He turns it on, and straps on his equipment pack and moves south again. He hopes the heating coil will disturb the currents of the swamp and distract the distant creature.
Pafnuty stumbles forward, trying not to make sound with clumsy water-ridden steps, and loads a bolt. "W-what is it?" Heil is moving swiftly in the swamp but responds harshly in a hushed voice, "Move to the high ground as fast as you can, Pafnuty."
A quarter of a mile to the east, glinting faintly in the moonlight, a large, bony bird splashes silently in the swamp water and cocks its head sideways, listening. After only a second, it suddenly snaps with its beak and catches the front half of a large, thick Elenep in its mouth. Rearing its head into the air, it wolfs down the eel and unfurls its giant wingspan while perched on a fallen log. As the last of the slippery fish slides into its throat, the bony man-sized creature emits a sharp series of caws that ricochets around the swamp.
CAW!
Pafnuty straightens up and momentarily freezes before Grover pushes him onward from behind. Heil says again to himself as he moves towards the high ground to the south. "Not in the swamp...."
The threesome continues southward with haste.
I set a steady but guarded pace, not too fast to attract undue attention, but yet not too slow to waste time. I grumble internally at the two swamp neophytes. Like people of the swamp, they would either learn or die. I just didn't want to die with them.
Feeling like a stranger in a strange land, Pafnuty does not grok what just happened, but he accepts it. In the swamps he is definitely out of his element, and if he is to survive, he must rely on the swamp rat and the peasant who wore his hat even at night. A niggling thought resurfaces: why did Grover seem so protective back there? But the question subsides without an answer, sinking into the murk of his muddled mind.
"This trio is definitely not the stuff of legend," he thinks, laughing to himself. Well, he never held illusory hopes. But he hasn't given up, either. He can't see it, but his grip on his crossbow is knuckle-white as he sloshes laboriously after Heil's starlit silhouette.
Speeding up alongside the swamp man, and catching his breath, Pafnuty whispers, "Heil, h-how much further? And what the f-frak was that back there?" The son of Brinthas tries to stop his stammering, but can't on account of his nerves, his wet and blistered feet, and the night's chill.
Grover continues his trek following the two lads. "I know I'll have to divulge my true nature and full powers to them eventually," he thinks, "but for now, let them keep guessing. The curiosity will keep young Pafnuty on his toes and hopefully aware of any dangers." When Pafnuty catches his gaze in the darkness, Grover waves a friendly wave.
Hearing Pafnuty's question, I just shrug and say, "I'm not a tour guide. We'll get there when we get there. As for that creature... don't ask and you won't shit in your pants." I sigh inwardly and keep moving.
CAW!
The giant creature splashes in the water as it ascends quickly into the sky. A wave of hair-raising anxiety washes over Heil as he tries in the dim light to see which way the creature is heading. He hopes his heating coil has enough energy to significantly distract the Vedoresk.
Arcing in a low curve, the bird streamlines and heads to the ground quickly, landing with surprising grace and softness. The creature immediately plunges its long, sharp bony head into the water and moves it around curiously. The heating coil is now directly in between the party and the killer bird.
Heil knows the party is only a matter of seconds away from being noticed. But what can they do?
Would I know what to do, being from the swamp?
If I'm unable to think of anything I guess we keep moving as quickly as possible. Do we see anything around us? Since I'm assuming this creature hunts by movement in the water, could we get out of the water somehow to avoid its detection?
Still stinging from Heil's last insult, Pafnuty nevertheless summons his last shreds of courage and speaks up. "C-could we submerge ourselves in the s-swamp to hide from it?" he asks Heil timidly. He still has no idea what it is that's coming closer.
He wonders if playing dead would work....
Lowering his voice so as not to attract the attention of the avian creature nearby, Grover offers to the two men he travels with the following suggestions. "Heil, perhaps you know what this creature is, or know enough to avoid it, anyway." Grover looks at each of the men before him as they stand still watching the creature. "Now that we are close enough to have recognized it, I can tell you that I have heard of it myself. This is a Vedoresk, and they are indeed to be avoided. They know what you are going to do before you do it; a truly powerful mutation, for sure. It would be best for all if it does not notice us---maybe submersion would be a good idea, if not a stinky one, eh Pafnuty?" Grover forces a smile to try to ease tensions.
Mulling over the decision quickly, the group takes up position low in the water behind a fallen trunk. The heating coil is still directly in between the two parties. This area of the swamp is completely watered---no patches of dry land except for the large dome-like hill you were heading towards originally. It is still some fifty feet away.
"Submerging in the water?" Heil says to himself. Quite honestly, he doesn't know what that would do. He's never encountered a Vedoresk, but all the lore and tales he's heard from travellers and merchants match what the white-haired one said.
Still, Heil doesn't know just what this creature does in combat. "Knowing what you'll do before you do it? Hardly worthwile," he thinks. "I don't know what I do before I do it. Doesn't look that fearsome... lanky at best. Bony." Heil's cocky attitude can't help but savor the adrenaline rush it'd take to charge the beast. But he doubts that his companions feel the same way.
The Vedoresk pops its head up from the water with a slosh, grime and swampwater dripping off its sharp, ugly and contoured head. The direction of its black eyes is undiscernible, but the long snout is motionless and pointed in your direction.
Time to decide what to do.
I attempt to keep the three of us hidden as long as possible. Preparing for the worse case scenario, I draw one dagger and my sharpened walking stick in the other hand. I also consider taking the battle to the Vedoresk in a battle to the death, but I also know my traveling companions would not be so inclined.
The man in the sunhat remains as still as possible. If the Vedoresk makes a motion to attack, Grover will do something unpredictable.
CAW!
Another ear-piercing sound hits you all, rattling your nerves and echoing long in your ears. It is an almost unreal sound, exactly the same every time, with an ethereal resonance you find very eerie.
Still motionless, the creature's head is pointed directly towards the party, and still motionless, the party waits in ankle-deep muck. In the gray and dark of the swamp, you all can faintly see Heil's heating coil turning soft orange in the water.
A slight flutter of the Vedoresk's outstretched and raised wings, and you all nearly jump in anxiety. The silence is roaring, the tension almost bone-rattling.
Now, slowly, the giant bony bird takes a step forward, large clawed feet moving silently and slowly through the shallow water. Its head and wings still in their position, the mammoth bird stalks towards the party... or rather, towards the coil.
Low in the ranges of human hearing, the party senses, rather, feels a vibration for a few seconds. Heil's mind races as he tries to identify the sound, but his concentration has long since been trance-like focused on the bird. Heil knows what it is. He wants to say the name....
In a flurry off to your left, only in the corner of the party's eye, water is splashing into the air. Now trying desperately to look that way and still see the bird, the party sees three forms dashing through the shallows with lightning-like speed towards the Vedoresk. The bird slowly moves its head, as if perturbed by the far off-noise, but manages only to set its stance before---
"Jepperds! Great moon of my mother!" Heil yells.
The Vedoresk is pounced upon by three large Jepperds, each sleek wet and their dark purple fur nearly black. The predatory animals are on top of the bird immediately, teeth chomping and claws rending the thin flesh stretched over the bird's bones. A defiant CAW! shoots out over the swamp as the party is stunned at the sudden display of combat. Two more Jepperds zip in from your right, moving so quickly that they appear to be merely fanning the water as they cross over it. The Vedoresk makes a futile attempt to ascend, but its wings are quickly laden with Jepperds and their fangs.
Heil turns to the party and scans the land behind them, feeling that now is as good as any time to flee.
The Vedoresk makes a snap at one of the Jepperds, but the other four quickly pounce on its great neck, and soon the bird is a bloody mass lying half-submerged in the swamp, a feast for the Jepperds.
"We must go," Heil says. Pafnuty stares with boyish disbelief at the carnage. Grover too, looks intently but is also looking down and seems to be doing something with his hands as well. Heil grabs them both by the arms and tugs, then gets down low in the swamp water and moves directly away from the Jepperds.
"Not to the high ground, for sure?" Grover whispers to Heil.
"No, we must distance ourselves, and travel through the night." Heil looks to Pafnuty. "Are you ready?" Pafnuty's eyes are wide and his face pale, but his body not in the least tired after that adrenaline rush. The Galewood nods his head stiffly, and gets down low in the water as well. The three move away from the Jepperds quickly and avoid detection. They pass up the high ground they had seen earlier, and although they would like to use it and sleep, they know resting in such an obvious place at night would be suicide. During the day most of the beasts are less active.
It is now very late in the night, and Heil guesses it is only a few hours away from sunrise. Walking slowly now, the party distances themselves and avoids all other contact for three hours. They are physically exhausted. Heil resumes the course of southeasterly travel that they were originally following.
Arlktn is a long-distant memory.
Walking while nearly asleep, the party continues on. Suddenly Pafnuty eyes something in the dimly-moonlit horizon. Not natural (for nature has no straight lines), and glinting dully in the moonlight, it is the profile of something that could only be the cave entrance. Awakened suddenly by the revelation, he stammers out loudly, "There it is!" Heil raises his head and eyes and looks to his right. "Sweet salvation," Grover says, thumping his polearm proudly. All three immediately change direction.
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