The Fourth Evening
Well, I certainly can't say much good about this place, except that it's very exciting, if you happen to like being attacked by the native fauna (bloodsucking insects, crocodiles, and so forth). But since I ought to start from the beginning, let me do so.
The first piece of good news I've had all trip was that I was able to sleep through the assorted religious rituals of greeting the sun; I'll definitely have to follow the routine of sleeping with my head covered by my cloak and blanket, which has the side effect of reducing the number of mosquito bites I suffered last night. I'm not sure why I didn't think of this earlier!
Alas, for a day that started out so auspiciously, today hasn't proven to be all that much better than yesterday or the day before. The weather continues to be cloyingly hot and humid, despite the overcast skies. The scenery is still something that only a kobold or an orc could love, and I'm not sure about the orc. The water is still pretty nasty, but at least it's better than what passes for dry land in this accursed place!
After starting out with what has become our normal morning routine (board the raft, with Leighla up front, followed by me and Haley, then the animals, then Maerlyan Elealion ? he's been going by his last name the entire time, apparently ? and Dogboy, and finally Mitsy and the paladin), we proceeded down the stream, if I can ennoble such a stagnant and mucky body of water with the name. And surprise of all surprises, the day didn't get far beyond noon when we were attacked by the native wildlife. This time, not one, not two, but THREE crocodiles decided that we would make a good meal. They somehow capsized the raft, sending all of us into the shallow water, before heading straight for the druid's pony. I suppose I should be grateful that they didn't decide to try snacking on my legs again, but at the time, this was small consolation for the fact that I had just been launched, harp and all, into six feet of mucky water. Fortunately, I was able to get to shore, as were the rest of us. Oh, by the way: guess what Mitsy did! That's right: she screamed!
Leighla was able to take one of the brutes down with a well placed shot of her bow (that woman is proving to be quite a useful companion!), and I blush to say it, but yours truly was responsible for exacting vengeance for my wounds of the other day on a second crocodile (the one that was trying to drag away our rations; obviously a far dumber crocodile than most, since the things are utterly tasteless, though Haley seems to like them...). Prihelm, I'm afraid, proved once again to be remarkably ineffective as anything more than cannon fodder, and I have to add that Haley, Mitsy, Maerlyan, and Dogboy weren't of much more help, but fortunately, the last croc decided to be content with munching on pony and left us alone.
In the process of recovering our raft, we discovered some bad news: most of the food had been ruined! Haley particularly seemed to be disconcerted by this turn of events, but I have faith that Leighla will be able to provide for us in quite adequate fashion. I also discovered something far worse: not unexpectedly, my precious harp was in sad shape from it's prolonged exposure to the water (such as it is). However, I was lucky enough to discover a boat that might have proved more serviceable than our raft were it not for the great big hole in the bottom. I say lucky, because in trying to drag it up to shore to see if it could be fixed, Prihelm stumbled (literally; the boy is rather clumsy) upon a chest. When we got it to shore, I was able to open it, discovering spoiled food, spoiled clothes, and (here's the kicker) a pair of magical short swords, the nicer looking of which I now possess (we gave the other to Dogboy, mostly because no one else could use it ? I sincerely hope that mine doesn't turn out to be cursed, though I won't count on it).
The rest of the day was surprisingly uneventful, until we reached nightfall, when we stumbled across a gypsy's wagon (they call them Vistani here, apparently). While the others were rather apprehensive, I assured them that the Vistani could be trusted (as long as they were careful with their possessions). We shared a pleasant evening with Scarengi, his wife, son, and three grand-children, complete with the best meal I've had since I got talked into this stupid trip, although Scarengi and his family seemed to be music haters and elected to not only skip the traditional music after dinner, but even to ask me to stop singing and harping! There's something a little bizarre about that, but different strokes for different folks, as Aunt Leandra used to say. We did learn that we are in a land called Souragne (which none of us have ever heard of), near a village called Marais d'Tarascon (why anyone would want to build a village in this gods-forsaken wilderness is beyond me, but perhaps people here are all a little strange and it's not just Scarengi and his family).
After dinner, Valana (Scarengi's rather attractive fortune telling daughter) emerged from the wagon (the men stared, Mitsy gave her a jealous glare, and Haley and Leighla and I acted normally, which is, sadly, about the usual for this group). Telling our fortunes (it's all a scam anyway, so don't worry), she had plenty of unsettling things to say, although it's a little strange: she claims it all started when she did a reading for "that poor unfortunate madman." If it weren't for the fact that I know she was making it up, I would be a little worried; she told us that we're here because "the lost one has called you! The dead will walk with the coming storm, and you must find a way to put them to rest. If you cannot, the rain will turn to blood! It will drown you -- you and all of Marais d'Tarascon." Silly girl obviously doesn't know the first thing about fortune telling: everyone knows that you have to promise people that they'll meet a tall, dark stranger who will lavish love and money upon them! And you definitely don't do it for free! Funny thing, though: her family seemed greatly disturbed by this "fortune" of ours: I'm not sure what they're angle is, yet, and that worries me. But it's late, and I need to stand watch tonight, so I better wrap this up and get some rest.
The Fifth Evening
If you thought yesterday was interesting, wait until I tell you about today!
It began with me waking up with a pounding headache; I had passed out while on watch, and while the group slept, those Vistani and their entire vardo (a wagon, if you're not up on gypsy lore) had vanished. Personally, I'm convinced they drugged us, and I'd be quite happy to do some rather unpleasant things to Scarengi right about now ? my head feels as though all the dwarves in existence are busily mining away inside my skull. But the rest of the group elected not to try to track them down, especially once we found a scroll which is frankly a little bizarre and only confirms my belief that I was drugged, since the scroll makes it pretty clear that these Vistani are obviously quite familiar with such things. In case you're curious, I reproduce it here:
Five things must happen, chores for you to do:
Deeds which must be done, ere the Mists release you.
He'll pull your strings with a needle silver,
Fire makes this actor quiver.
When the Mud Hound's Howls echo in your head,
Justice give to the centurial dead.
One life gone: eight to take,
Lay to sleep the one that is awake.
When the Shadow Prince brings an infant Fake,
Ware the wail: the Eye you must take.
When Darkness the land circles, Hell itself will roam;
Provide for the devourer and the Arch shall lead you home.
We elected to head towards Marais d'Tarascon, having nothing better to do, even though the Vistani last night had seemed notably uneasy about that place (which right about now recommends it to me quite thoroughly). Surprisingly, the day passed uneventfully all the way until late at night. Then, things got interesting...
We were searching for a place to stop when we saw a light in the distance. As all bold and foolish adventurers do, we approached it (cautiously, since bold and foolish though we are, we're also not complete idiots). Upon arriving, we found the light to emanate from a hut on stilts in the middle of a large natural pond. Leighla tried to boost me up on her shoulders to see into the building (in retrospect, Prihelm, being tall and strong, would have been a better choice, since Leighla complained about how heavy I am, which of course no girl wants to hear), but this proved to be ineffective. We were just debating climbing up the stilts to see into the house when a rope ladder fell from above. Of course, with our usual good fortune, the bottom rung hit Leighla square on the forehead, knocking her for a loop and into the water. Since I was standing on her shoulders at the time, it's a miracle that I didn't take the blow instead, but I'll count my blessings. Of course, even though I don't have a large bump on my head like Leighla does, I DID go flying into the water when she lost her balance, and since I had farther to fall, I got fairly well drenched and made a tremendously loud and rather embarrassing (not to mention painful) belly flop into stagnant and scummy water. It's quite fortunate that I'm not a screamer like Mitsy, else I would probably have swallowed something that I'd rather not have. As it is, I'm once again in tremendous need of a bath (and I just had one this morning!).
Upon climbing up the rope ladder (Prihelm led the way, by virtue of being the only adventurous one of us who hadn't become one with the muddy and crocodile infested waters), we found a single large room, well lit by about half a dozen oil lamps. Several boxes were neatly stacked next to the door; on the other side was a barrel. These later proved to be food and drink for the hut's sole inhabitant, a rather strange fellow who I'm convinced is thoroughly insane; quite possibly he's the madman that Valana mentioned last night, though none of the others seem to credit my theory. All he does is babble a few seemingly random phrases, although I firmly believe that there's more to this than meets the eye. Since these phrases may prove important, I'll write them down for you:
"The on descend shall evil of night the land, at near is signs of hexad this when hand."
"In sorcerer the Daegon of house the born, though shall unliving, unlife, life scorn."
"The mother stern of child lifeless found, heralds of evil of night a time unbound."
Okay, so I lied: they're sentences. Big deal. I haven't yet entirely decoded them, but these are what I think they mean, respectively:
"The night of evil shall descend on the land, when signs of this hexad is near at hand."
"The sorcerer in the house of Daegon born, ... scorn."
"The stern mother of lifeless child found, heralds a night of evil of time unbound."
I think that we can assume that these are supposed to form some sort of rhyming poem (a hexad, I should think), and that each clause is a line, with the words rearranged. Although I don't understand all of it and don't claim that there aren't other and maybe better ways of interpreting this, I think it's pretty bad, and frankly, the entire thing gives me the chills.
Anyway, Prihelm thoughtlessly shook him, trying to get him to speak sensibly (oh, the irony!), which sent this strange guy (MM, or MadMan, for short) into a screaming fit which almost rivaled Mitsy on a lesser day! Hard to believe, but true. Eventually, he calmed down, and about at the time that Prihelm started babbling something about having released a curse by touching the poor lunatic. How he knows this is beyond me, but since the boy hasn't necessarily shown a great deal of sense yet (although he HAS resisted Mitsy for almost a week, now, which is surely notable in some respects), perhaps it's just his imagination.
The only other experiment we tried was snuffing one or two of the lamps, after moving them didn't cause any reaction. BIG mistake - MM REALLY started screaming (surpassing Mitsy's wildest dreams!), and beat his head to a bloody pulp on the floor. Somehow, I wasn't entirely surprised (there had to be a reason he had so much light in here), but... We eventually got the lamps relit and calmed him down, though no one was considerate enough to try to heal him (I suppose they were all too worried about Prihelm's "curse" to bother helping the poor lost soul). I did my best, but not being a healer, there wasn't much I could do.
At any rate, we are currently camped out here in MM's hut; being spacious, there's room for plenty of us, though all the lanterns do make it a little hard to sleep. Fortunately, Reverie can be performed despite the lights, but my less fortunate non-elven companions (i.e. all of them) are having problems. Oh well; that's what they get for not being elves!