RP Session 10: "Mired in the Mire"

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May 26, 2025 6:11 am
Edwinna looked at the halfling. "Well?"

"Ask a pissing elf" Bigwhistle spat back with a roll of his eyes "I'm not some bumpkin herbalist chasing stories about flowers."

"Oh for Pynninos' sake-"

"Language!" the halfling cut her off harshly. "Keep the Gods' names out of your mouth."
May 26, 2025 6:13 am
The Yarin rose carefully, with both hands tied, prepared to follow where this motley crew led.

"Oh? Does that mean you never heard of it?" Rawiya asked of the halfling, playing crestfallen with aplomb. "I suppose I can understand that. These jungles and swamps and rocky ruined shrines sure make for an awful lot to keep track of!" She grinned, indulgent. "So ... Do you mostly just know the river, then? I bet that's still pretty useful."

Her innocent gaze roamed the other faces present.

"What do the rest of you guys do? I mean, when you're not spearheading brave, moonlit hunts for errant Trapmakers. Please tell me you've a musician or two in your midst!"
May 26, 2025 6:14 am
The one-eyed one called Clorvis brightened up. "I once won a prize fer me whistlin!" he announced through a gap in his teeth before stringing together a perfunctory melody in demonstration. The competition must not have been a heated one, but the tune was passable. With the addition of some enthusiastic hamboning and perhaps a jug and washboard Rawiya figured she might have a down home marsh band on her hands.

"We haul to make other folks rich is what we do, and we're tired of it" put in Ninny, her plump cheeks reddening with frustration. "Toil never made man or woman rich, nor even paid their debts, and Edwinna here's got a plan to make us all otherwise."

"Trapmaker's sittin on a map that ain't hers to sit on" added Edwinna simply. "We're fixin to change that."
May 26, 2025 6:15 am
Ej had an hour or more till he took the final watch from Rawiya, so it came as an unpleasant surprise when a slender hand surreptitiously took hold of his shoulder. Cracking an eye (he was never truly asleep after all - sleep was form mortal men, and it was merely his body of bone and flesh and sinew that needed such trifles) he found Che'vanna crouched next to the low palette that he'd made his own.

"I woke a few moments ago for air. I think Rawiya's gone" she reported unbidden. "I didn't hear any struggle..."
May 26, 2025 6:17 am
Ej's open eye was joined by the other as Che'vanna spoke her news. With a grunt of acknowledgment, he motioned her back out onto the deck and followed her into the open air.

"I am glad you woke another instead of looking alone. If there is danger near, it is foolish to approach it one at a time. Though if Rawiya fell victim to danger, why her and no one else?"

He looked out into the murky darkness, thinking aloud and unconsciously quirking a smile. "Rawiya cannot help but speak whenever in any company. If she encountered something, she would at least narrate the experience. For her to have gone quietly would suggest she is alone. Could she be ... hunting wood?" he glanced at Che'vanna with a smirk. "It seems to be a favored pastime for her, and not in a euphemistic way."

"Still," he finished. "Let us take a pass around the boat and see if she has left a trail. If she was taken we should find signs of struggle. I hope."
May 26, 2025 6:18 am
It was a matter of moments to pick up the Yarin performer's trail. She took no pains to hide her passage through the world, and deep footmarks in the sucking mud little more than an hour old trailed around the boat with no special purpose before leading off straight into a thicket where the trail became hand and knee. On the other side the trail of a party of small folk - certainly not dwarves - delayed a while before leaving with Rawiya in their company.

There was no sign of struggle, and yet a scrap of fresh-cut rope lay discarded in the undergrowth. She'd gone willingly... tied up... with seven small folk who, again, were definitely were not dwarves.

About fifteen minutes later another set of tracks, alone this time and moving with quite some stealth had come the way the seven small folk had, circled the small clearing and them followed them away. The single clear print of a pointed-toed boot gave no clue except that the owner could afford to ruin quality footwear in this marsh.
May 26, 2025 6:18 am
"There are times I am glad to have few expectations regarding life and the permutations of how to live it," mused Ej, standing in the clearing, digesting the implications of the tracks. "This is not something I think I would ever have predicted." He shook his head with a wry smile, then looked to Che'vanna. "Let's wake the others."
May 26, 2025 6:20 am
Bendane had finally fallen into a sleep that his body desperately craved, but was in no way psychically restorative. When Ej awoke them his eyes and throat felt liberally coated with coarse sand, and his nerves jittered like broken glass. He groped for understanding as the druid laid out what he and Che'vanna had found, pulling on his boots and slinging his kit over his shoulder; being able to spring out of the bunk ready to march in short order was one of the few virtues military life had instilled.

He crouched and touched the silver thread that ran around the cabin of the barge. "The ward is still intact. She did not fight back, but let them bind her? They must have betwitched her," he said grimly. Or dangled a shiny trinket in front of her face. "That second set of prints... could another interested party already be in pursuit of Rawiya's abductors? We may have allies in this fight. Or more likely competitors."

The wizard sounded particularly grim and determined as he climbed out onto the barge's deck. His familiar peeked its head out of his mantle, chittering anxiously. Bendane wished he could send it out scouting, but he'd never be able to walk through the mire with his senses dislocated from his own head. He waited for Rahakazar to emerge, and cleared his throat, not quite able to meet her gaze. "Warleader, if you... carry me... I can send my familiar ranging ahead of us with all the subtlety of a nocturnal predator."
May 26, 2025 6:22 am
Being jolted awake from a reasonably restful sleep hours before dawn was not exactly what Rahkazar had expected, but as Ej explained the reasoning behind the intrusion the war leader of their band shook off the remnants of sleep and slid boots onto feet and weapons onto her belt. "More than likely she just found a group that didn't want to be found but was willing to let her talk," she groused in response to Bendane's musings, trying to smother her own worry. "I'll take it as a good sign that there's no blood yet."

Preparing her sword and poleaxe for the trip into the brush, Bendane's suggestion stopped her short. For what felt like a full minute she blinked dumbly at the idea, glancing between him, his boney little pet, and the jungle. She was tempted to refuse just on principle, but for once the usefulness of the skeletal bat could not be ignored. "Fine," she said, stowing her poleaxe and shifting her sword belt to better accommodate the weight. "But you'll have to hang on tight, I will need at least one hand for balance or worse. You're lucky you're scrawny."
May 26, 2025 6:22 am
Leaving the boat behind them - it would be truly miraculous for yet another group of off-the-path travellers to chance by it during a few hours absence, let alone for that group to take on the toil of portage - the remaining Bravos followed Ej as the wild man picked out the incautious trail of Rawiya's kidnappers.

It was a welcome change to trek the jungle without the burden of the boat, and as the sun began to crest the jungle canopy and a cacophonous song of night was replaced by the equally deafening but wholly distinct chatter of day the trail reached the river that would have been a day distant had their morning progressed as planned.

Here the trail seemed to stop for a time amongst traces of provisions before turning north.
May 26, 2025 6:25 am
The night wasn't so dark that travel wasn't pleasant, though the jungle canopy denied much of the night sky and the swamp was as hard going as ever - perhaps more so without free hands. Rawiya hadn't fully appreciated how being leashed might impact her balance and the fight to free her feet from the sucking mud and lunge forward before her momentum thrust her planted foot back (and thus made the step at best lateral in progress) and now she had the addend challenge of swaying off balance every few steps.

To his credit, on the few occasions she had fallen into the muck Barnas had helped to haul her to her feet.

They heard the river long before they saw it, but upon reaching the banks. Many of the party were ready to rush to the waters and wash the sweat from their brows until Bigwhistle pointed out that the dark shapes of sodden driftwood lapped by shallows along the shore were almost certainly disguised crocodiles. At that Ninny planted her heavy booted feet and crossed her arms, painted face in a defiant pout.

"Right, that's it, I en't taking another step through this sweatty pit till I've powdered me nose and filled me belly." She crossed her arms and pointed her chin a Edwinna defiantly.

"Fine" conceded the other woman, waving a calloused hand dismissively as she peered with a modicum of horror at the motionless crocodilians "break your fast if it'll curb your bellyaching, but we'd best be at the trapmaker's hut before morning. Don't want her to see us comin' now do we?"

"It's likely a little late for that" said the cherubic halfling dryly.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Just that it might be we who might want our senses at their best to approach the home of the woman who goes by the moniker trapmaker." He replied snippily.

"You're telling me she's fool enough to live amongst a maze of armed snares where a score of beasts would be likely to set all of them off every day? She's not some beast of legend in its dungeon lair Bigwhistle."

"She also runs half the Shiny on the Risetide Coast. You think we're the first group to attempt to get to her?"
May 26, 2025 6:30 am
Rawiya tried at first to enjoy the novelty of being led through the swamp.
It was sort of like being a poorly trained pet or perhaps a towering simpleton trailing in the wake of the wee folk. She did have experience playing all sorts of unusual characters, of course. And it wasn't the first time she'd worn a leash.

Even the entertainer's unflappable playfulness frayed before they got too far. The bugs were more of a nuisance when you couldn't easily swat at them. Rawiya sorely wished she had the time to rummage for herbal remedies. There were plenty of options to repel nibbling, sucking, skittering varmints if you knew which herbs and flower bulbs to mash together.

When they began their trek together, the Yarin guessed her longer legs would give her the advantage on the sloppy terrain. But she was heavier too, thin as she was, and she sunk deeper than her hosts with every step.

Crouching down on the slick grasses near the shore to catch her breath, she thought of Snap and Tooth, wondering how they might have fit in here. Hopefully, when they did hatch, the Driftwood Snappers wouldn't be too snobby over their oceanic heritage to vacation in a marsh.

"You said this Jarbar has a history with pirates," Rawiya commented abruptly. They most certainly had not volunteered such information. "That's a subject I've studied in depth, I must confess. Let's put our heads together and come with a plan. We're not completely witless and unprepared, are we?" While the intrepid young thespian couldn't identify all the risks in motion, it seemed a prudent gambit to offer some guidance on circumventing the meticulous menace of the Trapmaker's lair. She'd heard things, after all. If she portioned out what she knew and what she could surmise, she needn't show all her cards.

"She sounds like an educated woman, or at least very experienced, if she's lived long enough to build a reputation. You say she runs the shiny? So that makes her a master of coin as well as traps." Awkwardly, the Yarin raised both bound hands to tap a thoughtful, muddy finger against her chin. "Among corsairs and buccaneers, the most level-headed among their ruthless numbers usually serve as treasurers as well, balancing accounts. Lots more inventory and logistical planning than you might think in that racket. Especially when you get all your stuff through bloodletting and skulduggery." Rawiya grinned. According to Captain Tenazza, Jarbar had indeed held this role, in addition to being second in command.

"And if she operates alone, I'm betting she's got a fair bit of personal power too. Sturdy build, at the very least. Plenty of stamina." Also true, as she recalled. "But she'll think like a human, I'm betting. Not so good for traipsing around in the dead of night, which means she would have designed her defenses to compensate for that weakness. No help for us there, though those folk often underestimate clever, smaller adversaries who move with subtlety. And that sounds just like us."

Uncomfortable in her bindings, she shifted in place before finally plopping to the ground on the seat of her pants.

"We're not precisely the variety of opposition Jarbar will expect. And if she's both forceful and exacting in her schemes, she'll definitely leave a bolt hole or two, just in case she's overwhelmed. That means there's a safe path to her doorstep, if we can find it." She nodded with satisfaction. "Charging straight at her is a silly idea. Assuming we can sneak up is also a fool's errand. I vote we occupy ourselves with some other innocuous task in this vicinity. We make ourselves visible—inadvertently, if you take my meaning—giving the impression we're pursuing unaffiliated goals, and Jarbar will pretty much need to investigate. She can't afford to ignore trespassers who won't do her the common courtesy of getting themselves killed or attacking outright. We just let her come to us."

Rawiya looked around at all the dirty, tired faces, gnome and halfling alike.

"You're quite fortunate you found me, yeah? Harmless interference is kind of an artform where I come from."
May 26, 2025 6:32 am
Rawiya was used to her prattle irritating people - it was almost the point - raising someone's ire made them incautious, made them underestimate her, gave her opportunities. In this case though her initial confidence seemed to have impressed the little band of gnomes and save for Ninny who was more concerned with pinching her cheeks and powdering her scar, and Bigwhistle who merely rolled his sapphire eyes, they all stopped to listen closely as the perky entertainer spoke.

When she'd finished Edwinna, face still an ever-present matronly frown, pressed through the ankle deep mud back to Rawiya and crouched in front of her. "I think perhaps we may be. Come now Nudge, this tree of yours? It's ship? It's treasure? We both know better. You're here for the trapmaker, right? You know too much not to be."

She reached down, loosened the rope around Rawiya's wrists. "Why guard our words so close? We needn't be so cagey with each other. You're alone out here. You must need allies if you're going after Jarbar, and if you had them where are they? Not much use I wager. Why don't we work together? You tell us what you know? We get the then talk shares? Or are you here about the Shiny? We could still help each other if you're with a rival distributor - that's not our game."
May 26, 2025 6:33 am
"It is this diet of island food. Crab meat and fruit. Not enough good stodgy starches," Bendane said, half-defensively. In fact he probably had lost a few pounds since arriving like so much debris on the shores of Valani – not that he had many to spare – but the healthy seafoods and strange plants that made up most of the staples here had probably cleansed some of the grey pallor from his skin and toned up his vanishingly wiry musculature, when combined with ample hikes through dense jungle and the occasional fight to the death.

He clung to Rahakazr's back like the Old Man of the Sea in one of Rawiya's old stories as they set off in pursuit. He made for a disquieting passenger; his eyes rolled back in their sockets, revealing only bloodshot whites, and a low, nearly subvocal stream of senseless murmurings uttered from his throat as he concentrated on perceiving elsewhere. His familiar was visible only as the occasional flicker of fleshless ivory wings in the murky dark ahead of Ej, sweeping an arc ahead of them and singing the silent hunt-song of a bat.
May 26, 2025 6:34 am
Pausing by the riverside as Bendane sent his familiar high into the still morning, Ej scanned the riverbank. The tell-tale trails left by the bellies of black camen showed that there had been no feeding frenzy before they went out about their day - that was something. There were traces of heavy white powder on the ground that looked like ground chalk mixed with animal fat or some such oddity. Boot-prints crossed this-way and that, and the neat peach-shaped print of a bottom dug deep into the
mud.

It looked like Rawiya's captors had stopped here for some time.

Far above Bendane's senses whirled and swept away from his senseless body on its orcish mount. Once he was clear of the canopy and its myriad predators - many of whom were hungry or curious enough to sample even the bones of a tiny bat, he looked down on the riverbank and the shallow marshland around it but it looked no different than any other stretch of marsh they'd been pushing through for days.

The smotheringly vital green blanket of the canopy was holding tight to its secrets.
May 26, 2025 6:34 am
"No trace... so far..." Bendane croaked, his voice disjointed with the effort of thinking in two places at once.
May 26, 2025 6:35 am
Rahkazar grunted and shifted her shoulders, adjusting the man once again to wipe the sweat from her brow. Hauling a stranded barge out of the muck had proven harder work purely based off of the soreness of her muscles recently, but that task at least had the benefit of not disrupting her sense of balance nor denying her a hand to wipe her brow with. And despite her promise to keep one hand free, carrying the hollow-cheeked wizard on her back while traipsing through the mud required her full attention.

Rawiya had better have damn-good explanation for all this. And her captives better have some damn-good loot on their corpses.

"Any clue how long they stayed here?" she asked breathlessly, taking a sip from her water skin. "I'd very much like to know that we're catching up."
May 26, 2025 6:37 am
Rawiya rubbed her wrists, pretending to think it over, eyeing the band with wary interest as she did.

"Maybe," she said. "Maybe we can do business and maybe we can make a deal. Maybe your Trapmaker rode here on that ship I'm after, so maybe we'll find it and all have a merry St. Spencill's Day."

She smiled slyly then, shaking her head in playful disapproval.

"But it doesn't really matter if I'm another distributor. Or if I just wandered off a tour and got lost in crocodile-infested swamps. Or if I'm secretly the most dangerous spymaster on the island. Trust is a two-way street, yeah? So pretend I'm an ignorant city girl and fill me in. What is it you aren't telling me about this Shiny?" Scoffing, as if she's reaching for anything to solidify their unspoken arrangement, the Yarin looks to Bigwhistle. "No reason not to share what you know about the tree I seek, at least. I find it very hard to believe none of you know what I'm talking about."
May 26, 2025 6:42 am
Edwinna looked uncomfortable for a moment, uncertainty and irritation warring on her round face. "Alright" she began cagily. "Alright, so the trapmaker was a mate to one of the most famous pirates of the Risetide. Most pirates meet a messy end, but this crew just up and vanished one day. Decided they had plunder enough for this lifetime and the next. Word is that the higher ups hid their ship and their surplus somewhere on the island. Not at the port they sailed from - that place was raided and burned by the Confederation marines the minute the Moment of Clarety stowed her sails - but somewhere. We want to know where. Maybe we go get it for ourselves, maybe we sell that information to the highest bidder, maybe the Trapmaker keeps us comfortable to keep our mouths shut, who knows?"

She squinted at Rawiya, trying to see if any of this was new information to her captive-turned... well... turned-something.

"Now the Trapmaker, she's the only one of the Gull's inner circle to surface since they called it a day. She came down to the swamps here and took over the harvesting of Star Blue - roughed up the locals, made it clear that throats'd be cut if the Shiny coming out of southern Valani didn't go through her, and it does. She's supplying moongazers for half the mainland coast, anyone not trading with the Myssathelyllin at least, from a cluster of shacks somewhere out here."

She jerked her head towards the halfling. "Bigwhistle here used to sell for her out of Jital. He's been to the farm. But he got stiffed on a big score, and now he's willing to give us a shot at the Trapmaker where she thinks she's safe."

"They take you out there blindfolded" Bigwhistle interjected "but I wasn't about to let that bullshut stand. Saw most of the trip out the bottom of one eye. Just in case I ever needed it. And here we are."

"So" said Edwinna, leaning back as she closed her story "you don't look like Myssathelyllin. Don't think they'd work with half-elves. So the way I see it either you're with the Trapmaker, you're like Bigwhistle here and you've got beef, you're setting up a rival operation, or you were just roaming alone through the swamps in the middle of nowhere looking for a tree in a jungle and happened to fall out of as bush in front of us. I know which I reckon's likely."

Rawiya had assumed that 'Shiny' was some kind of parochial euphemism for coin, but a word stood out amongst all of that exposition. 'Moongazers' was one term for the habitual users of a draught called Shine Eye. Most ports around the Risetide were littered with down-on-their-lucks with eyes that shone like moonlight, talking real fast about dreams and plans that were never going to come to pass. Dressed in rags cos every coin they could beg steal or borrow went on their next fix. It was such a problem in some ports that excise officers had started tipping the stuff into the sea when they found it, and that only made the price even higher for a dose.
May 27, 2025 10:02 pm
"If they've... harmed... so much as a strand... on her head... or her lute..." Bendane mumbled, not even realising he was vocalising as his senses wheeled in the night sky as far as the bond with his familiar could stretch. "The marsh... can swallow many bodies..."
Last edited May 27, 2025 10:03 pm
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