==== Summary 202: Good Toad Food ensued (2018-11-10) ====
[[Giraine]] [[summaries-2018|Summaries]]
----
Hi,

You rested with Cjed for another day to heal, then departed. In the Big Gunge swamps you came across an abandoned Giranois farm where a family of seven's bodies lay rotting, along with their goat and sheep herds, amidst buzzing flies, and Miguel spotted strange tracks in the mud like a sliding body with claw-ruts around it; he'd seen them before with the fly-demons. You burned the bodies and left.

That night, everyone except Ahappi had bad dreams. Boamund awoke realizing that in his dreams a spirit had been trying to drag him into the Spirit Plane but he fended it off; Fraud simply awoke confused, and Miguel was tossing and turning for a while until he awoke and figured out the same thing had happened- in his case, it was a rotting figure of a child that tried to force itself into his mouth until he cast it off. You returned to sleep warily and Ahappi soon fought off the same incidence.

Worse yet, later that same night as the rain intensified and turned the campsite into a muddy slurry, Miguel spotted things coming and warned you-two buzzing fly demons came from one direction and from the other direction came the sliding body of a thing made of bones and debris, with two clawed arms and a tendril holding a skull. You had lots of warning, thankfully, but it was still a desperate fight because the foes were nigh invulnerable. Fraud used the Foestopper fan to great effect to disperse the fly-things and blow flames into them. Miguel nimbly kept the pile-of-bones thing busy until the rest of you engaged it, then Boamund paralyzed it with his icy sword and you battered it until Fraud dealt a final blow to its head.

Then you turned to the fly-things, which eventually reformed and engaged you through Boamund's fire-wall. Immediately they used their nastiest power to breathe flies onto Ahappi, felling him, and Fraud had to dive out of the flames to escape this too. Boamund's ice-sword proved very effective against the chest of one fly-thing, then Miguel got in a lucky shot to the chest of another; and they were helpless and falling apart so you could dispatch them easily and burn the remains. With some first aid you managed to get Ahappi up again and healing himself, and you returned to rest.

You've learned quite a few things about these horrors, and something seems to be similar between the two of them: one is purely flies, the other seems like the reformed remnants of consumed fly-victims? They do have an odd association and the tracks you've seen match up: the pile-of-bones was surely what left the marks at the Giranois farm. This was the worst yet you'd seen from these horrors from Yomil: three monstrosities plus a haunting by sickness-spirits. Furthermore you know better how to fight them: the fly-things are very susceptible to the Fan, and both foes are vulnerable to fire and cold. The bone-pile was incredibly robust, with tough bony hide especially on its bulky body an ability to regenerate from physical wounds (not fire/cold), and piercing/impaling blows barely hurt it compared with sword-slashes. But sustained blows to the body and its head dispatched it. In the end, pluck and teamwork paid off. You hope not to see them again soon, and figured your proximity now to the Bad Place/Library might explain this very deadly encounter.

The next day you left the swamps into badlands and came upon a flooded stream that was a lengthy barrier. Ahappi swam across with a rope and on the way spotted something swimming alongside him: a scintillating, silvery serpentine shape. It inspected him when he reached the far shore and he spoke to it respectfully in Seaspeech, figuring it to be an aquatic Wyrm, which it was, and it poked its head out of water and tried communicating. It was not antagonistic but it could only vocalize in Auld Wyrmish and seemed to grasp some Seaspeech, but communication did not go far. Fraud swam across, rebuffing its attempt to force a Mindspeech connection, and as it sat flushing with colourful reactions on its crest he used the Truestone's Coldblooded magic to compel it to subdue its feelings, so it swam away and the rest of the team could cross via the rope.

That night was quiet and the third day, north of Sharde lands, was too. At night Boamund had a dream, which he imparted some of to you: Apatune sent a spirit to him communicating "Brave Boamund, the lands of Giraine need balance. There is too much death and disorder. The Sharde clan need a saviour; Aym Alamyn must not be theirs. You can be that saviour-the way is open to you. Bring life and harmony; you have it within you. There is still hope for the land to return to peace someday. This is what I know." (this part only Boamund knows) Boamund willed a connection to be formed between them so he could converse via the spirit-sending, and Apatune explained that she had heard of a Pontiff figure who might come if the saviours of the clans rose again. So she advised him to seek this out or information about it. The Pontiff was not a familiar name to any of you so you kept it in mind.

The fourth day took you into unfamiliar lands north of the Spider Temple, and the swampspiders' presence out in the badlands was very evident. Fraud found some communication-webs and strummed them. As you camped at night, he noticed some spiders coming and was able to prevent any violence. The five spiders simply investigated the camp and its occupants and played exotic web-music along with his lute. Fraud was very pleased; the rest of you were not so thrilled.

The fifth day finally brought you to Good Toad Food, where the mists seemed like a solid greyish-white wall. You pondered it warily and then stepped in. Soon you were in a fungal forest, and the clinging mists dampened and numbed your minds and bodies-Iphara's curse on the land from the Shattering, as Cjed had warned, lingered powerfully here. [Game effects: -1/3 to all skills except Stealth... and 50m visibility at best] But at least the rains didn't enter here, oddly enough. The badlands here were twisted into eerie shapes and thin breezes blew through them, whistling as if thin voices carried on them. You decided to go slowly and investigate carefully. Miguel noticed plenty of tracks: a range of arthropods up to gigantic sizes, and the same with amphibians (presumably frogs/toads), and then other things that he could not identify but seemed unlike footprints of normal creatures but then unexplainable as anything but some kind of trackways.

On your map you first explored "#1" and ran into Riftoyz the Great Troll trader and his friend Lars Windchare. They had been exploring this end of GTF for 2 days now and while the Uz was in his element, Lars was in misery; the food here did not suit him and he was wasting away. The troll explained that they sought rumours of a sacred Uz place (if you saw it, it would be noticeable, but he didn't want to give secrets; maybe he did not know) and that this land was mythical "Good Troll Food" to Uz. Lars was documenting the flora and fauna while Riftoyz handled the "logistics"-especially bashing giant arthropods and amphibians that were abundant here, and fending against ghosts and disease spirits that they'd also met. They headed back the way you'd come, to turn north later, and you headed to the east where they said they'd seen a giant round mushroom with an opening in it; they had not investigated due to Lars's illness but said it was no more than 2 days away and on the edge of GTF. (Judging from their descriptions, either in #2 or #3 on your map; they had been moving at a faster pace than you are so it might be the latter) They had explained, too, that the mushroom-forest at least extended east to #3; if it was more extensive no one knew.

That same day Boamund noticed a giant monstrous spiny-backed toad eyeing him up from concealment amidst rock formations, and so Boamund dove to the ground as its tongue lashed out. Miguel tried to use Giranois phrases on it but it did not respond. Fraud bravely charged it and leapt up atop its back using its spines to hoist himself up, while the others engaged from the front and avoided its fearsome but clumsy bites. Amazingly, Fraud's sword then drove deep into its neck and it was down! Fraud jubilantly tried to leap back down but wrenched his knee in the drop.

As you began to prepare to camp, you found six skeletons that seemed to be Giranois children splayed out on the rocks, bare of fungi, and while you were saddened and thought about giving them a respectful burial or disposal you felt it best to leave them be and simply note their location on your map. And that night Boamund cleverly found a nice cozy cave and some mushroom-top "pillows", so you had a surprisingly fine rest that night, refreshed to spend your second day exploring Good Toad Food.

----