Scarlet Horizons

"So, why exactly are we cutting out their livers?" Aury asks conversationally. The beefy cleric has his head on a swivel, mace in hand and shield strapped to his left forearm as he keeps a vigilant lookout for further threats. And the truth is, he'd rather have to fight again than have to put his hands in frogling entrails.

Mattie finishes carefully placing another frogling internal organ in one of a pair of plast bags hanging by strings from a low-hanging cypress branch. "The livers are for Chudwick, Cimmer the Glassblower's boy — he has viddimen deficiency." The mage returns to the corpse of the same frogling and begins work on extracting its heart. "The hearts are for the goblins, proof of our effectiveness — but also good eating, or so I'm told."

The cleric grunts. "I'll take your word for it." While continuing to scan the shadows of nearby trees and other flora, he reaches down and peels another leech off his leg, just above a knee. "I don't get it. The water only comes up near the tops of our boots, but I keep finding leeches higher and higher on my legs."

Mattie stands and deposits a frogling heart in a plast bag that dangles next to the fuller, heavier, bag for livers. "They're making their way toward your groin. It's their preferred dining location." He stoops over and cleanses his hands and forearms with bog water.

"Makes sense," muses the cleric. "That is where my single largest vein is located..." Mattie looks up sharply, but the cleric is dead-panning, ostensibly focused only on the hazards of the surroundings.

"Well!" rejoins the mage, sealing the two plast bags. "You go ahead and luxuriate in that mistaken notion. Meanwhile, I have finished my collecting. I think these should suffice to convince our unfriendly lizardmen not to do anything untoward, at least not in the next few weeks." He hefts the bags, grimacing with a pained grunt as the weight aggravates a cut on his right arm. "Shall we head for home?"

Aury turns as he hears his friend grunt in pain. "You know, I'm hurt, too, actually. One moment..." The cleric lowers his head and closes his eyes briefly, whispering words too soft to hear.

Aghh... sighs Matthias in relief, having not noticed the impact on his right hip until his comerade's Healing Surge rights the injury with an audible click of a socket realigning. And so the two Seekers begin slogging their way — sloshing step by mud-sucking step — back east toward Helix village.

But of course, things can't be that simple, right? We can't just spend the morning in the bog collecting some froglings organs. No. No, a pair of lizardmen, who just might have been on their way to confer with their erstwhile frogling allies, have spotted you. And clearly, these lizardmen have seen the cut-open bodies of those small, no-longer-jumping amphibious ne'er-do-wells. They draw up just long enough to cast spears at about thirty feet distance, and are already charging forward even before those projectiles find or miss their marks.

For this fight, we'll eschew mapping. It'll be a tough fight, as these lizardman cannot yet be targeted by our cleric hero's Fray Dice. As combat erupts, Mattie is at 10/10 HP, and Aury is at 11/13 HP.

We resolve the hurled spears and, luckily, our heroes aren't hit. Matthias' mage Fray Die makes things much more manageable for the PCs, and in short order the combat is over.

Between the two of them, the lizardman have thirteen chroma, no royals, and a dozen red cuprous copper pieces.

However, no sooner have our heroes looted the bodies of this pair of lizardmen and again begun their eastyard trek, than they are set upon by quite a sizable band of bog denizens arriving from further west. In fact, could this be a group intending to attack the Scarface Goblins? Our heroes count five lizardmen and a dozen froglings.

The froglings are generally leading the lizardmen. No doubt, this group came across the floating corpses of the froglings you slew earlier this morning.

We'll do this theatre of the mind, to save website disk space and speed up combat. Fortunately for Aury and Mattie, these lizardmen either aren't bearing spears, or else they're forbearing hurling them in order to not endanger their frogling allies who are leading the charge.

As the initial wave of froglings leap to the attack, Aury and Mattie lash out with their mace and magic, respectively, slaying two. Then Aury's mace sweeps a frogling on its downward arc as it leaps for him. The frogling that leaps for Mattie misses the mage, just as Mattie's dagger fails to connect. It's the end of round one, and no PCs are further injured, while three froglings lie dead.

The second round of combat begins, and Mattie uses his Fray Die against a leaping frogling whose attack would otherwise have hit.

Mattie pivots lashing out with his quarterstaff to slay another frogling as it leaps toward the cleric. Aury's Fray Die slays a frogling menacing him from the west, and then the cleric's backhand mace swipe slays another frogling! The remaining frogling in melee range misses Aury. Meanwhile, other froglings have been positioning themselves for leap attacks, and the lizardmen have spread out, ready to menace the PCs once their frogling ~~cannon-fodder~~ allies succumb.

Round three arrives and two-thirds of the froglings float in the bog, slain. Undoutedly, they would have broken and fled were it not for the presence of their lizardmen allies. A frogling west of Aury is slain by the cleric's fray attack as it leaps, and Mattie's fray attack slays the only other frogling that is currently in immediate melee range of the heroes. Hoping its timing will avail, two other froglings leap at the mage, but Mattie criticals one of them and the other fails its to-hit roll. Two other froglings get smart and use the remainder of round three to position themselves to leap upon the heroes from behind them, assuming the PCs remain facing the advancing lizardmen. A spear chucked by a lizardmen due north of Aury at the bottom of round three hits the cleric, dropping Aury from 11/13 to 10/13 HP.

As round 4 begins, one of the five lizardmen turns and begins hurrying back west, leaving the scene.

Aury takes a single sodden step to the northeast, slaying (with his fray attack) one of two froglings menacing Mattie. The mage pivots and slays the other nearby frogling with a haphhazardly flung eldritch bolt of energy. Two more froglings leap at the mage. Mattie brings his quarterstaff to bear on one of them, killing it. The other frogling completes its leap and scores a hit for a single point of damage with a rather poorly fashioned club. Aury remains at 10/13 HP, but Mattie drops to 9/10 HP. The westernmost lizardman closes to within ten feet and hurls its spear at Aury. It's a hit, and our cleric drops to 09/13 HP.

Two other lizardmen don't have spears to throw and so step into melee range from north of the cleric — one critting the cleric (but still just 1 damage, dropping Aury to 08/13 HP) and his compatriot doesn't land a solid hit. At the bottom of round four, the other two lizardmen have adjusted their position, preparing to attack.

Round 5 arrives. Aury's melee attack misses the lizardman to his immediate northeast, but his fray attack injures it. Mattie makes a wise split second decision and slays the surviving frogling with a stray magical bolt of energy. The mage then, not without fear, takes a step northeastward and attacks a lizardman, actually landing a solid hit with his quarterstaff and injuring the reptilian humanoid. Unfortunately, that foe returns the favor, and Mattie drops to 8/10 HP (Aury is at 8/13 HP).

The lizardman NW of Aury lands a solid blow, but Aury catches it on his shield and remains uninjured. The westernmost lizardman closes and attacks Aury, and the cleric barely gets his shield up in time and is jarred, taking a half-step backward from the force of the lizardman's blow.

Round 6 arrives, and from somewhere west of your location a hunting horn sounds sonorously. It's the lone lizardman who left the fight, signaling for reinforcements! Surprisingly, at the top of round 6, Mattie's quarterstaff connects solidly once again, slaying the lizardman SE of the mage's position. The mage pivots northward and an icebolt takes out the throat of the injured lizardman that has been menacing Aury. The cleric attacks another lizardman, and hits! Mace rolls 5 and we add 1 for Aury's strength, so he deals 2 converted damage to lizzie and kills it in round 6! Therefore, the cleric uses his fray attack to injure the lone remaining lizardman. Despite the fact that all its fellows are slain or fled, the remaining lizardman is in a battle frenzy, hating other humanoids too much to realize his perilous position. He attacks Aury again. Misses. And Aury and Mattie's fray attacks end the remaining foe's life.

END OF COMBAT. Total encounter experience: froglings yield 780 XP and lizardmen yield 500 XP, totaling 1,280 — split between the two, each hero gets 640 XP. The froglings carried a total of 8 chroma and 64 shiny cuprous. The lizardmen carried a combined 20 chroma, 8 royals, 32 shiny cuprous coins. Converting chroma to GP yields 10 royals total; converting shiny cuprous, we now have 10.32 GP of treasure. Combining this with the froglings coinage converted to GP, we have 11.76 GP total. Mattie is at 8/10 HP and Aury is at 8/13.

"So..." Aury says, minutes later after you have looted the dead and resumed your trek east, slowly making progress back toward Helix village, "that was not entirely expected."

"It was not," Mattie agrees, glancing over at the cleric. The mage grins as Aury detaches yet another leech. "I hadn't counted on that much organized resistance, based on what Chief Scarface had shared. I think we were just victims of an unfortunate coincidence."

Aury turns, brow crinkling. "What, you don't think they were heading for the goblin camp? I don't know, that was a fairly sizeable group..."

"It was, but I don't think they were launching their attack on the goblins. For one thing, there weren't enough lizardmen. Whenever they decide to make their move, I'm guessing there will be at least a couple dozen lizardmen. No, I suspect that what we encountered was a patrol, perhaps doubling as a hunting party."

"Remember, froglings and lizardmen are naturally enemies, competing for resources. So, I think they were intentionally working together to build a certain degree of trust and familiarity with each other's methods — probably at the behest of their respective leaders."

The cleric nods. "Okay, makes sense. Well, I'm glad we didn't encounter them in force, if what we ran into was just a patrol."

Our two heroes had, briefly, considered harvesting more frogling livers, but Aury hadn't wanted to push their luck, and Mattie had been inclined to agree. Their backpacks jingle intermittently as the two progress eastward, evidence of coinage collected as treasure. By the time that the sun reaches its zenith, our heroes are perhaps another hour from the goblin camp.

"Yes, that. Why did you speak under your breath? Other clerics in our chapterhouse — and for that matter, more broadly around Stigrix — loudly proclaim when they pray. I assume you were praying?"

"You assume correctly," Aury answers. Then he sighs, comes to a stop in the bog, hands on hips and staring off into the distance. "The reason is this. I believe that those other clerics... whoever or whatever they're praying to cannot hear them and grant spells unless they speak aloud."

"—to conspicously consume the blessing of diety," Aury finishes, shaking his head dismissively. "It serves as an explanation, I suppose. But I have never seen any other cleric invoke whatever ... Power it is that is listening without an audible request."

Matthias nods as the two Seekers again begin walking east. "So you've been experimenting, and you have discovered a god who can hear you even when you are silent..."

"Not a god," Aury rejoins. "The God. If I'm right, and I feel strongly that I am, there is only one god. One all-knowing being, all powerful. Those other clerics—"

"Aren't gods?" Matthias exclaims incredulously. "Well, I can't wait to see how your fellow clerics react to that!"

The two are silent for a full minute as they slog along. Finally, the mage says, "So you're ... testing this being."

"Not testing, no," Aury answers. "Displaying my faith. Resting in it..." And that is the end of that conversation, at least for the time being. Matthias shakes his head a minute later, still pondering it.

Scarlet Horizons

The Earth, It Cares Not!

Part 2: Frogling Livers?

2,212 words