Chapter 4 - Session 5

Swamp Showdown

Events and Actions

Before setting off upriver, the party settled the fate of the three Stone Men held prisoner since the earlier battle for the Islander village: Mathias Monadero, the Southern trade agent acting as the village's Major Domo, agreed to keep them alive and looked after in the party's absence, and the party itself declined to enslave any of them, reasoning that doing so might tip off the southern newcomers to their true origins.

The party continued their journey upriver from the Islander village, weighing the risk of losing the longboat against the risk of losing their camels if things went wrong, and settled on using both: splitting into a group on the longboat and another walking the bank with the captured camels, so either group could fall back on the other. Along the way they passed numerous enormous but harmless lizards sunning on the banks, some reportedly twenty feet long, which showed no interest in the party or their boat. As the river narrowed into a rocky gorge, Noddy sent his familiar Pocket aloft to scout while he and Cosimo climbed to the clifftop above with a spyglass; from there they spotted a large column of people and two longboats approaching the village behind them. A check of religious markings ruled out the colors of the Divinity of Two, and Werner's knowledge of ship construction pointed to a southern force instead, though its size — several dozen at least, perhaps over a hundred — was too large for a simple resupply crew, leaving open whether it was bringing porters or establishing a new base. Sent out further still, Pocket confirmed the newcomers carried muskets. Unwilling to risk finding out more, they pushed on for two more hours into the evening to put distance between themselves and the newcomers; Knick Nab's inspired leadership drove the camel column up and over the clifftop path so briskly that the party broke into an impromptu song — composed on the spot by Noddy — in his honor, dubbing him "Captain of the Ships of the Desert." The next morning, before moving on, Pocket made one last pass over the village and confirmed the newcomers had gone no further than its edge, easing the party's fears of being pursued.

On the afternoon of the second day, as they approached the swampy region at the river's headwaters, they discovered an encampment of "Stone Men" raiders at the very spot where Leela had once fled the same raiders on an earlier journey. Batu Batu attempted to parley with the raiders in their own tongue, first trying to convince them the Islander village lay undefended and open for the taking, but the exchange collapsed once he was pressed on the fate of the village's men and admitted the party had killed most of those who attacked it; the raiders charged. The party's superior firepower and magic proved decisive. Werner opened the fight with a devastating shot from the longboat's swivel gun that killed a camel rider outright, while Mani wounded the enemy leader with a musket shot at extreme range, knocking him from his camel and out of the fight, before later cutting down a second, imposing raider in melee with a "stand and deliver" flourish of rapier and dagger. Cosimo summoned a spectacular illusion of "Handsome Gulliver Gold" riding a Pegasus, which swooped in on a glowing lance to attack and distract the raiders, while Noddy's sleep spells put several opponents down where they stood, leaving three raiders to be taken alive rather than killed. Salter added musket fire of his own, and when the last raider broke and fled, Knick Nab ran him down and Werner finished him off with a reloaded shot from the swivel gun.

During the melee, Leela was seriously wounded in the leg by a raider's scimitar. As the raiders' numbers dwindled, Cosimo channeled a blinding burst of light through Handsome Gulliver Gold's holy symbol that enveloped the nearby combatants while somehow sparing Leela, allowing the party to gain the upper hand. Mani spectacularly leaped across the river to engage the last, large raider, defeating him but stunning himself in the process. After the last of the raiders were killed, captured, or had fled, Riu was able to magically treat Leela's wound, reducing her expected recovery time from a month to less than a week. The party stripped the dead, fed the bodies to the camp's carnivorous finger fruit trees, and searched the raiders' meager belongings, finding little beyond a scavenged catch of fish, frogs, and small lizards from the swamp; Cosimo, an amateur wood-carver, also kept a piece of the dead finger fruit tree's wood to work with later. The session concluded with the party having secured the area, looted the camp, tied up their three sleeping prisoners, and prepared to interrogate them — intending to ask directly whether they knew the whereabouts of the round black stone the party had been seeking.

NPCs & Creatures

Mathias Monadero: The Southern trade agent acting as the village's Major Domo. Agreed, before the party set off upriver, to keep the three Stone Men prisoners from the village battle alive and looked after in their absence.
Stone Men: A war party of desert raiders encountered upriver, armed only with spears and scimitars rather than firearms. The party defeated them, killing most and capturing three alive who were put to sleep by Noddy's magic.
Leela: Guided the party to the site where she had once fled the Stone Men herself, then fought alongside the party and sustained a serious leg wound from a scimitar before Riu treated it.
Handsome Gulliver Gold: Cosimo's powerful illusion, which manifested on a Pegasus wielding a glowing lance to attack the raiders, later channeling a blinding burst of light from its holy symbol to shield Leela.
Pocket: Noddy's familiar seagull, sent aloft to scout the pursuing force from the clifftop, confirm it was armed with muskets, and check the next morning that nothing was following the party.
Salter: Fired his musket alongside the party during the battle.
Batu Batu: Attempted to parley with the Stone Men in their own tongue, first trying to convince them the Islander village was undefended before the truth of the earlier fighting slipped out. Once the parley collapsed, he stayed aboard the longboat with his cleaver, ready to repel any raider who tried to board.
Camels: The party continued to use their captured camels for transport; one grew inexplicably devoted to Knick Nab after his successful handling of the group.
Riverbank Lizards: Numerous enormous but harmless lizards, reportedly as long as twenty feet, seen sunning along the riverbanks; they showed no interest in the party or their boat.

Locations

River Valley (Isle of Sands): The party traveled upriver along the Uron, passing through a narrow rocky gorge — its clifftop path used for scouting — before reaching the swampy region at the river's source, where the channel was expected to widen into a shallow, weed-choked lake of uncertain navigability; Leela, who had reached this point once before on foot, couldn't say whether the longboat would make it through. Aside from the finger fruit trees, the only significant vegetation they saw along the way was reeds, some grown thick and tall enough to resemble trees themselves.
Raider Camp: A small encampment established by the Stone Men at the edge of the swamp, on the same spot where Leela had once fled a previous raid, which the party overran. It consisted of a single tent, a felled finger fruit tree the raiders had been harvesting for wood, and several camels.

Conflicts

Before approaching, the party readied their weapons as a show of force and agreed to concentrate their fire on one side of the river to clear it first if talks failed.
Batu Batu's attempt to parley with the raiders and negotiate safe passage collapsed once the party admitted to killing their kin at the Islander village, sparking the battle.
The primary conflict was a large battle against a group of Stone Men raiders.
The party successfully used a combination of firearms, magic, and melee to overwhelm their opponents.
Key moments included Werner's opening cannon shot, Cosimo's flying illusion, Noddy's targeted sleep spells, and a blinding Sunlight spell from Cosimo that protected Leela and incapacitated the enemy.
Leela was seriously wounded during the fight.
The last raider broke and fled but was run down by Knick Nab and finished off by a reloaded shot from Werner's swivel gun.
Three raiders were left alive by Noddy's sleep spells rather than killed, to be tied up, disarmed, and interrogated instead.

Learnings and Discussions

The party confirmed the arrival of a large, well-armed Southern force at the Islander village, reinforcing their decision to remain incognito and avoid returning there.
A check of religious markings ruled out the colors of the Divinity of Two, and Werner's knowledge of ship construction pointed to a southern origin for the force — though its size, several dozen strong and possibly over a hundred, was too large for a single ship's crew, leaving open whether it was a delayed resupply mission bringing porters or an effort to establish a permanent base.
Mani's attunement confirmed the party was heading in the right direction and drawing closer to the totem, though it was still some unknown distance off rather than immediately at hand.
The party noted uneasily that, since crossing the Maelstrom, whatever force had been trailing them had consistently stayed three or four days behind, raising the unresolved question of whether it was tracking the totems rather than the party itself.
With no other usable timber in the river valley — no coconut or oak trees, only finger fruit trees — the locals cure and braid bundles of reed for firewood.

Items Gained

An assortment of weapons from the defeated raiders (spears, scimitars, etc.).
Three additional camels from the raider camp.
A map of the surrounding desert.
A supply of wood from a dead finger-fruit tree.
A small cache of foraged fish, frogs, and lizards taken from the raiders' camp.

Items Lost

Nothing of note was lost.