Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, have decided to embark on an epic quest to reach Lathar's long-lost father, Harkonn. After side-quests, distractions, blue surges of strange auras, and beings definitely not from around Riverbend, they've finally arrived at the Black Reeds of the Wildlands. But do the Black Reeds take well with strangers?
Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout. Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers. Apparently addicted to his newly uncovered yellow powder found at "The Pool House"
Sonny Helianthus: an over 10' tall sentient sunflower artifact examiner with four arms, and trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable, but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades. Sonny may have recently detonated an atomic device in the petrified woods... although no one else knows.
Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble in all the wrong places, and finding it often. He has been subject to genetic testing and developed super-human strength, a more human body, and a thick coat of shaggy white hair. Recently attacked and kidnapped then left for dead by an unknown group, looking for revenge. Also pregnant for the third time, and due to deliver badly out of season
Poppy and Speedy: Two of Squiggles' offspring from his first... litter(?) They're now teenagers in worm years, old enough to grab diminutive muskets and help their Manchi and his friends on this epic quest.
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The small pole barge, piloted by the Pritch, and the rowboat captained by his son, Lio, had arrived downriver into a region the called the Black Reeds...
The De Facto Explorers had arrived.
Sonny: What lives around these parts?
Pritch: Stuff that hides really well... and pretty sturdy.
Sonny dug through his pack for the documents Ramsey's father had smuggled out of KIA Academy. Documents that mentioned Harkonn Bracken.
Resource survey... contact assessment... prototype filter masks... volunteered... knows the risks.... loss of contact after animal movements spike... Bracken did not flee when instructed.
Subject chose to stay...
They aren't what you think... they remember things.
Sonny: Pritch are there any buildings out here?
Pritch: The ones I barely remember were covered in vines.... they've claimed the building by now. A lot of the relics and ruins you'll run into are submerged.
The group had traded some flintlocks for the pole barge, the Explorers piled into it and Pritch and Lio turned upriver in their rowboat.... Grabbing the pole, our heroes pushed off in the marshland... the tall dark reeds in the distance.
The water oddly seemed to flow away from the Big River, deeper into the Black Reeds. The heroes were no river pilots, bone rattling shudders as the barge hit solid land masses, awkward bounces for those time the land mass was actually floating.
Poppy: Who's piloting this thing? Aren't you guys from a place called Riverbend, born and raised.
Sonny: Hey, kid! Do you see me sailing across the river all day long. Guys trying to fish up the river near us only last a few months before they disappear....
The barge continued into the marsh, the reeds poking out of the water growing in height the further they sailed in, reaching heights of 10, 12, even 14 foot tall, so that even Sonny had trouble looking over the plant life to figure their place.
And the reeds were changing color, closer to a pale charcoal color. By touch the Reeds were actually glossy to look at and waxy to the touch.
There was a random bird noise here and there, but not insect noises... again.
Lathar: Should we start calling out?
Pete: Oh, no... we shouldn't make noises at all.
Sonny: The documents talk about something dangerous here.... not a good idea.
The rotated pole duties... Pete noticed No-Name was a bit lethargic... The weasel used his telepathy...
Pete: Hey buddy, what's wrong
No-Name: Don't like the floating land... tummy hurts... make the rocking stop... solid land.
Lathar had taken the pole and navigated up front. While he was preoccupied with navigation, the others focused on the breaks in the twelve-foot tall reed. The breaks were fairly uniform. Much of it appeared to land solid land, some of it still dipping below the water as it continued beyond. The breaks seemed uniform, each side appearing in regular intervals.
Some of the group was caught off guard as something finally appeared in the break they were passing.
 |
| No-Name's mysterious cousin was a bit scary... |
Pete: How did it do that? The antlers would've been tangled up in seconds!
Pete was insistent on disembarking from the barge and following the stagon, confident that the paths were back from the ancient times.
"It's obvious"
Squiggles: Really?
Eventually, they did decide to tie down the barge around some reeds they could fit a rope through and they started following these breaks, their faithful scouts, Pete and Squiggles leading the way....
The scouts maneuvered on these deceptively straight breaks. It took a while to realize the break actually curved to the left.
And then came a break in the reeds going across their path. It was short, but did connect to the breaks to the left and to the right, but nothing else.
Pete was able to find hooved animal tracks...
Pete: No-Name, what animals do you smell?
No-Name: I smell wet... and now some of the yellow powder you just snorted up your nose.
A bit later, Pete realized he hadn't disconnected his telepathy from Lathar's stagon, when he heard, "Ooooh... salt lick!" in his head.
Pete turned to find No-Name gnawing on some of the black reeds, licking fervently on the ones he had managed to break open.... Eating, something the group had been unable to provide to the stagon on the river boat launch, seemed to make him happy, with no ill effects.
The scouts continued to follow the tracks, which seemed all seemed to move in the same directions down the paths, turning left, right, and straight in random intervals. They sensed they were continuing to further inland and continuing a curve of some sort.
Finally deciding to take a break, Squiggles turned back to check on his kids, Speedy and Poppy. Poppy was busy asking questions to Sonny.
Speedy was missing.
The mutant worm called out to his kid, told all the others to stay put, and backtracked from where they came from.
He arrived at a four way intersection. There was no sign of Speedy in any direction.
There were no tracks either. Not of Speedy. Not of the animals they were following. Not of the Explorers.
Squiggles quickly shoved his foot in the ground. The footprint remained. He walked back towards the group, turning around... to see his own footprints. They were there, but moving back the group's tracks were gone in the direction heading in... and where he thought he had left the group, near a cross path that was partially submerged a few inches deep?
It was now a straight and relatively dry pathway now... and no one was there.
He cried out to the group.
Somewhere within the reeds, the rest of the Explorers were resting, by the submerged path.
It was Lathar who heard a very muffled "Lathar? Pete? Sonny? Where are you guys?"
Lathar: Did you hear that?
Sonny didn't even pay attention enough to respond. Pete, turned, his face covered with his yellow curry powder.
Lathar cried back Squiggles' name.
Wherever Squiggles was, he heard nothing.
He pulled out his flintlock, firing it up into the air.
Lathar heard the shot ring out, unsure whether it was a warning shot, a "come find me" shot, or the worm was in peril.
Lathar: Seriously guys? You don't hear that? Squiggles is in trouble.
Pete's addiction didn't affect his eyes, as they followed the trail. The others paused as Lathar suggested they tied themselves.
Pete looked at the others with yellow-faced derision and headed out.
Lathar: He's the exact reason we need ropes!
Pete continued on, finding a four way intersection. Everyone's tracks disappeared. He tried to reach out to the missing worms with no success. Pete seemed concerned.
"I marked this spot with my scent... nothing's here. They're gone!"
The group of Explorers, still together, shot more flintlocks into the air.
Squiggles hears but one of them, muffled and definitely off in the distance. He reaches into the reeds, pulling the ten foot pieces down one by one, blowing a whistle that no one hears, it was hard going, so he decided to stop. He turned himself around, to find him entirely encircled with the reeds, where there once was a path.
"Yep, water can't be trusted. Reed are in water. Reeds can't be trusted."
Unsure what the fate of their friends were, the collected Explorers made some realizations.
Pete: They aren't what you think... they remember things.
Next: #133 -
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