PCs Present & Played:
Teake's Teeth
Tinslee & Therese, Teamsters
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| Expedition into Ghallia-That-Fell Day 5 |
Travel Summary
Expedition Day; Season Day; Weather; Hexes; Expenditures; Notes
Expedition 5; Fall 57; Flash Flood; 0622; 1ea ration/feed; mud mud mud
Sidenote: I've already removed the rations/feed listed out above (1ea) from all character inventories.
Next Watch Sequence
Night 6: BCDA
Marching Order
Ashley 30+ feet ahead
1/2 of Teake's Teeth
PCs + teamsters
1/2 of Teake's Teeth
Watches
A. Tenkos, Timothee (I1), Indira (I2)
B. Viggo, Yvonne (I3), Basile (I4)
C. Barthelm, Joseph (A1), Sacha (I6)
D. Lucien (for Claus), Rosaline (P1), Cyril (P2)
Camp Setup: Horses gathered in the center, tied to trees or stakes. Rest of camp arrayed in a circle around them. Light discipline, no campfires or other lights.
Last time the party was attacked by monstrous humanoids, burned the fallen, and was approached by some ratfolk in the dead of night.
"Think of the lives you're saving being out here!" - Barthelm, trying to convince Edmond that it's good they're in Ghallia-That-Fell
"You're two for two now" - Edmond, momentarily placated
The ratfolk that had called out approached to the edge of the firelight to parley. It stopped when the horses in the center of the camp started freaking out. They said they could help in return for considerations.
The party asked about finding a "wizard tower" but got a negative in response.
"No, no tower. upside down, tower in the ground."
"A well you mean?"
Some back and forth with the hidden ratfolk, then: "Okay yeah, a well!"
The negotiating ratfolk also casually mentioned "them" but wouldn't elaborate without an arrangement. Ratfolk then did a weird rat whistle and a pair of rats cam scurrying from the center of the camp. They crawled up ratfolk's arms and seemed to share a quick conversation. Probably around now the second ratfolk approached from their hiding spot in the trees.
The players switched to Teutonic to discuss the situation, figuring the ratfolk wouldn't understand it any pressure than the party understood the chittering tongue of their visitors. Worth noting that meant none of the party's mercenaries understood them either. Edmond was cautious about trusting this thing but in the end deferrer to the group.
Barthelm tried to pressure the ratfolk into accepting a single dagger for all of the information they wanted. Ratfolk offered back a pretty confident number for just how many daggers they had in their camp. Sgt Teake whispered to Tenkos that it was at least as many as her soldiers had.
Barthelm considered, and then offered up one of their two remaining bear traps! Tenkos was not happy, but at least it wasn't the fancy spiked one. The second ratfolk's eyes widened considerably in appreciation. She nodded, "Done!", and walked right up to Barthelm. She hocked a gigantic wad of phlegm into her hand and held it out expectantly. Barthelm deferred to Tenkos, who shook the ratfolk's hand and then wiped it on Barthelm's back.
Barthelm then introduced himself and the rest of the group. The one who had shaken Tenkos' hand said her name was Ashley and introduced the one who first made contact as Arthur.
Hey do you know Brian?
"Which Brian?" - Ashley the Ratfolk
Barthelm does Brian voice
"Oh crazy Brian?" - Ashley the Ratfolk
Yeah that one!
"Yeah, he alive?" - Ashley the Ratfolk
Why what happened to him?
"Oh we haven't seen him since he went into the well." - Ashley the Ratfolk
Uh are we going to the same well as Brian went into?
"Yup!" - Ashley the Ratfolk
Sidebar: The fact that they remember Brian's voice a full two years later is a real testament to the man who played him as a special guest way back. Thanks amigo.
Oh shit what was the wizard's name we were looking for? Could he be related to Wilhelm? The rest of the party explained to Jehan a little bit more about Wilhelm the Wily.
"We only get away from him with our lives because of how lucky we were!" - Claus
"Yeah we luckily came into possession of some terrible disease balls that could be considered weapons of mass destruction..." - Barthelm
Jehan wondered if those balls were the same awful things that maybe caused the plague?! They all tried to figure out if it was possible that the worm sacks were somehow the cause of the plague and why anyone would even want to do that again. It seemed like their general consensus was that it probably wasn't related.
Claus made a point of asking how long they had been following the group so that they would know what would happen if the ratfolk betrayed the party.
Ashley: "Oh yeah I like my head, and my belly!" The ratfolk both seemed sincere in their desire not to be murdered with magic.
Sidebar: Fun tidbit, Claus had already used his murder spells at this point. It was a good bluff.
Sidesidebar: Except that scroll of summon, I guess. Who knows, he's crazy.
Barthelm followed the ratfolk (like a shadow!) after they left the camp for the night but they just went a hundred yards or so, hid themselves, and went to sleep. Everyone else (except the watch) did the same, and they passed an uneventful rest of the evening.
The morning brought with it the pair of rats running into the camp yelling about a flash flood from all the heavy rain! Fortunately for the party they had camped on something of a hill so the warning gave them enough time to avoid any real damage.
While they were waiting on hill for the flash flood to die down, the party remembered the name of the wizard whose laboratory they were trying to find, "Guillaume le Galapiat."
Sidebar: The players are wondering about if this matches up to Wilhelm. I told James that Barthelm knows fake French and fake German, he can figure it out. He asked if he could do a google translate (of course! I don't care about metagaming), and his face when he clicked it was so delightful. "William the Rascal" indeed!
The ratfolk recommended heading west for a few days and then turning south toward the "well" in order to avoid "them and their city." The mud made that impractical for at least a day so they passed the day on their relatively dry hill.
Except Viggo. Viggo ran down the hill and started rolling around in the mud, hooting and hollering for joy.
The ratfolk went out into the woods to sleep and the party settled into their typical camp routine. During the middle of the night, on Barthelm's watch, he heard a cacophony of mixed animal noises, including shrieking and gurgling squeaks.
Sidebar: James rolled an 8 when I asked him to roll a d8! My god that thing in the woods!
The whole camp went on alert, listening and waiting. Ashley came running out from between the trees towards the camp and shouted "Run!" Claus leapt into action, ran forward, and scooped her up to make it easier to run.
Barthelm wanted to stay by the fire. Edmond had heard these noises during his first foray but never encountered whatever made them. Viggo was ALL ABOUT staying near the fire.
"God dammit Edmond you survived in here!" - Barthelm
"Only because I ran faster than the others." - Edmond
So they waited it out, camp bristling with weapons and watchful eyes. The wrenching squeaks had trailed off quite quickly and eventually the other frantic animal noises quieted down and disappeared.
Ashley, for what it's worth, seemed to appreciate Claus' gesture. She mentioned that they got attacked by animal servants of the Mound Witch.
"Who's the mound witch?"
"Oh, she travels around the wood and lives in a big mound made out of dirt!"
"Not sand", asked Tenkos?
The remaining ratfolk muttered in her language for a moment, considering possible translations, and came back with a matter of fact "No, it's dirt." She added that the Mound Witch would reach out her pale hand from the dirt, always asking for "god stuff" and rewarding those who complied. The ratfolk don't like to barter with her because a) she doesn't seem to like what she brings and b) her animals all hate them.
Sidebar: I am not sure what the implication about sand was here. I am probably missing a reference.
Sidesidebar: Days later I finally got it and am very upset. Dammit Sugarplum.
The ratfolk reiterated her suggestion to head west a ways before going south. There was a more direct path but this way they would be able to avoid "them." Barthelm asked about "them," Ashley asked for another dagger but Barthelm took out the crab pearl instead!
"No more bartering, just tell us everything!" - Barthelm
She asked what it do, he put it into some water, and when ten minutes later the first crab came out... Amazement! She used the skinning knife Arthur had gotten from Jehan to cut into the shell and taste it, grinned in satisfaction, and immediately spit into her hand again and held it out. Maybe Tenkos went right for it this time, accepting his role, can't quite recall.
So she broke down "them." There's a lot of them, they look like the other smoothskins, and the blonde ones are the most numerous.
This last bit brought a gasp and a "Are the blonde ones really big?!" but no, not really. There's also sneaky ones that don't taste good and probably some other ones too. They're mostly in the city but she was surprised that the party hadn't encountered any yet, they do come out this direction a lot. She also said the ratfolk don't tend to go to the city directly because the people there don't always barter nice and don't taste good either.
Offhand mention by someone of something like "Oh and are you delicious?!" in what was probably supposed to be a threatening manner but Ashely just agreed. "Oh yeah, we taste the best."
"I don't trust a city in this plagueland." - Claus
Theories about what could be in the city. Are they human? Are they less than? Should they go there? In the end they decided to stick to Ashley's route west to avoid the city.
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