It's very late in the evening here at Oscar's home but none of us are thinking about bedding down. Salvation certainly were successful bandits. After what we did tonight they might think twice about making an already inhabited island their home. I'm not one to care much about money, I'll live for another few hundred years with plenty of time for it down the road. However, holding what I have in my hands right now, the weight, the size, I can't help but be giddy. Oh, and now I know why Zanvar didn't eat, he's interesting indeed.
We left with plenty of daylight. Our plan was to spend the day watching them operate and creating a more detailed plan for infiltrating during the night. We had to trudge through a decent stretch of swamp and boggy marshland. If we strayed more than a few feet from the winding path we'd begin sinking into the ground. The going was slow and slowed even more by the constant harassment of giant insects trying to drain the blood from our bodies. They were fast flying and very difficult to shoot, partly why Oscar likes to use a scattering shot with his cannon. Swatting them with my swords worked well enough for me. No one was injured much by them.
While struggling with a particularly tricky bit of the trip where the path all but disappeared we came upon a large pile of dead piranhas out of the water. They were in the middle of several smaller pools. Covering the fish were glowing purple growths. When Eric went closer to investigate, he was pushed aside by a monstrously long red serpent shooting out of a pool. From its head to the tip of its tail were purple lumps just the same as the piranhas. He said when it hit him that he felt a strange power emanating from it and the fish, something that felt like death. Whatever it was would have to wait. The snake attacked again.
Its head and tail sprang from different pools. When one of us was trying not to be eaten another would be holding their breath not to be crushed by the tail or drowned when it dragged us under the water. Few was singled out early on while Zanvar was busy trying to pin down the tail. In a large sweeping motion the snake swung its tail bowling over Zanvar and wrapping around Few. Zanvar had turned into nothing but a pile of metal scattered about. He's not covered in armor, he IS armor. With no body inside he never needed to eat or sleep. With him in that state, he wasn't able to protect Few.
Coiled tightly around Few she felt the same sensation Eric had been talking about. Squeezing her hurt her mind more than it hurt her body. The snake snapped its jaws on her and threw her far from the fighting. Eric rushed to keep her alive with his healing, a good thing too judging by how mangled she was after the fighting was over. All this while me and Oscar have been hard at work tearing flesh away with magic and projectiles. Zanvar hacked away chunks of muscle once he had literally pulled himself together. The serpent ultimately was no match for our combined strength.
The purple lumps were unlike anything I've seen. Each one of them has the small face of a creature. Some were farm animals, some wild animals, but inside of one of the largest lumps on the snake was the face of a woman. We can't touch anything with these spots directly, the pain in our minds still remains after the creature is dead. We did manage to scoop up one of the piranhas into a bag though. When we return to Endclif we'll bring it to Mr. Skelebones for him to study.
Towards the shore the ground stiffened up a bit. It was still a bit soggy but atleast it would hold your weight. There was only one path in or out of their small cove. On its right were small but steep cliffs that gave an excellent vantage point. On its left were trees and brush. The camp we could see was seven long tents, each big enough to house maybe six or eight people. We could see the furled up sails on a ship with two masts peeking over the top of what looked to be a sea cave, one side from the tents lead to the other where the ship was docked.
Our mission was specifically to learn what their plans were. We had a few different ideas, my favorite of which was to use Eric's grappling hook to take a prisoner up those cliffs and interrogate him. Eric and Zanvar were going to stay behind anyway since they themselves admitted they would only be noticed if they tried to sneak in, so this way they could be useful. Once night fell the three of us, me, Few, and Oscar crept in closer and closer through the foliage.
Few was almost immediately noticed when she stepped out a second too early, that girl is quick though. She used her wits to convince the patrolmen that she had been attacked by a fire slinging sorcerer. They took her to a tent so they could treat her injuries, giving me and Oscar an opening to explore. I tried to peak in each of the tents but Oscar had much less patience and barged into the first tent he saw. I heard a loud thunk and followed him in. The only person inside had been sitting at a desk when Oscar knocked him out with a swift punch to the back of the head. I had to drag him back to the tree line before anyone else came in while Oscar shuffled through papers on the desk. He said he'd found what I was looking for but we still needed to rescue Few.
We continued searching tents. The closest to the forest was full of supplies for flintlocks and cannons. I had the down right brilliant idea to leave a trail of black powder from the tent to the trees and to light it when we had to leave. Oscar had set his sights on one very specific and heavy crate in a tent adjacent to the one Few was in. I could hear her still trying to tell a tale that made sense with the real wounds she had. Once Oscar was clear with his precious box tried to give Few a signal from outside the tent but my message wasn't getting through to her. Luckily, the story she told was that the sorcerer had put a curse on her that whenever she head a certain word she'd burst into flames. It was almost an invitation to tell her to leave. I shouted from the trees, “Periwinkle!” and she ran like a bat out of hell, screaming and flailing her arms all over. I couldn't help it. I chuckled.
When she ran back into our cover I stuck my flint. Sparks honed in on the dust, igniting a chain reaction that sent smoke high into the night sky. The explosion was so violent it not only blew the tent it was inside of the bits but it sent those bits onto every other tent. We hadn't even regrouped before the whole encampment was up in flames. At a safe distance Oscar broke the lid off his crate. He started handing out bars of solid gold, two for each of us. He said it was our payment for helping him retrieve this and the information. I hadn't expected anything other than the permit, but now I'll certainly be giving those Gimmes another visit!
The trip back was much easier in the dark. Oscar knew the path so well that even in the dark we could all find our way, and for anyone having extra trouble Zanvar's eye showed the way in blue light. Oscar took off to tell Ilene what Salvation was planing straight away, but he invited us to spend one more night here. If this were a leisurely trip I might want to stick around for a few more days. I always wanted to learn how to fish something as dangerous as what I hunt. Oh well. Tomorrow we'll see what all the buzz is about that temple I mentioned earlier.
Credit for the amazing art of the Snake goes to a Russian artist who goes by the name Edikt Art. I'd never seen anything from them until I was looking for visuals for this but I'm already in love https://www.artstation.com/ediktart . Credit for the explosion goes to a man named Jay Diem. I found this photo used in a Time article. http://time.com/3544723/antares-explosion-nasa-elon-musk/