AAR [3M: Event] The Ghost Barge: 2020-12-20

[Anoush]

Keel's Journal:

[A letter from Kun'da'lin Iceclaw, found among her parents' effects at the troll moot; written in Sperethiel.]

Dear Mom & Dad,

The more expeditions that I go on, the more I learn about the world. And I learn more and more about the Scourge and how it’s still affecting the world. A recent trip made me realize just how lucky I am to have been raised by you in a safe community in the mountains. Other people aren’t so lucky.

Here’s what happened to bring this to mind.

An elven wizard that I met recently, Calina, asked me to meet her at The Mallet, a bar in Throal. Calina is a little odd; she doesn’t talk, but is very smart and well educated. So I knew she must have a reason, right? So I got there early, about 7 am and enjoyed a good breakfast. Yes, taverns in Throal serve breakfast! Isn’t that wonderful?

Calina was there, as were three of her friends: Barag (a dwarf elementalist), Darius (a human archer) and Qwillem (a dwarf weaponsmith).

As we ate breakfast, Calina passed around papers explaining the situation. Calina had been contacted by the Throalic Guards. They were concerned about some recent incidents along the Coil River, south of Throal. There were three incidents: the first, at Fair Oaks Farm, then at Clearbrook Cove, and finally at Tassadae. The first two were on the east side of the Coil, while Tassadae was on the west. The incidents all occurred almost exactly one week apart, with the last one happening just one week ago.

The incidents were too gruesome to describe here, but all involved the sighting of what witnesses called a “Ghost Barge”, some kind of barge that was traveling south on the Coil. This barge was causing insanity, or illness, or something in many; causing damage in others. The guard expected to hear of a fourth incident any day now.

The guard had asked Calina, and companions, to investigate and report back. So we made plans to leave Throal and head south. We gathered some special items for raft-making and camping in the wilds, since we weren’t sure what to expect.

We reached the last big town, Kampung Gajah, before Fair Oaks Farm, and rather than take a riverboat, struck off across country. We approached the farm from a path near the river. The first thing we saw were three young orks — children — in a treehouse screaming and throwing things at an adult ork on the ground. They were yelling, “Uncle Jeb, Stop!” Meanwhile, Uncle Jeb kept muttering, “Gonna kill those kids…” Uncle Jeb looked strange. He had leaves and fungi growing out of his ears and some things were moving under his skin. Creepy!

Looking around, we also saw a huge herd of cows, easily over 200, moving toward a farmhouse in the distance. They weren’t acting like cows either. At one point, I thought I saw a cow lie down on top of the body of a wolf and then heard sucking noises. I told myself that I was imagining things, but now, well, I’m just trying to forget it.

Meanwhile, Jeb was trying to chop down the tree with the kids in it. The largest of the ork kids was fending him off with a pitchfork, but Jeb cut off the metal head of the fork. There was no way that I was going to let Jeb — Uncle or not — kill them. So, I raced up, battle shouting, and throwing a rock to get Jeb’s attention, then shouted “Come over here and pick on someone your own size!” Battle started.

Some of the — perhaps infected? — cows came over to help Jeb in the fight. And when we hit one of these cows, they exploded into a cloud of spores. Very nasty stuff, it made it hard to breath and tired us out. After Jeb went done, one the odd cows laid down on him and began sucking. Disgusting, not something I want to think about even now. Eventually, we killed Jeb and his cow allies. The kids were safe.

Right after the battle, we went to the river to wash off any remnants of the spores. But I don’t think we got it all, or got it in time. As we recovered, I felt strange, from the spores I think. I could sense something powerful, and its Name, the Burning Heart of Wrath, entered my head. The direction it pointed was towards the river.

The three kids were: Orlin (about 12 in human years), Anna (about 8), and Big Merle (about 6). We offered the children some food and candy that we had in our packs. The kids told us that all the adults had felt something strange, that led them to the river. Under the influence of whatever it was, they killed all the kids, except these three.

We noticed some patterns in the earth around the tree that the kids had taken refuge in. Around each of the places where a cow (or maybe a spore) had exploded, there was a clear area in which no spores were found. Nothing much was found in those areas at all. Calina studied the areas and concluded that there was a mix of nethermantice and elemental magic, along with something else she had never seen before, something totally alien, present, and that it was unlocked by blood magic. As I looked around, I felt a raging anger grow inside me, and in my mind’s eye saw a large crystal mass. the phrase “unweave the universe” kept running through my head, and was feeding the anger. I studied the plants, leading into the water, and could just stare for a while. I managed to pull myself out of it, but for a while after, I really didn’t trust myself.

The girl, Anna, was an apprentice herbalist, working with her Aunt Clara. She told us that the spores looked like the same ones that caused the Red Fungus, a fungus that grew on the hooves of their cattle. Her aunt made a salve that killed the fungus, and a tincture that she fed the cows to ward off the fungus. We figured the salve would also get rid of these spores, too. The salve was made from a plant known as q’walltz, an odd plant with red leaves. Anna said that Aunt Clara had a recipe book for this cure, plus others, hidden in the kitchen, and that to make it, she’d need equipment from the stillhouse. She said there was also a supply of the salve, ready-made, in the stillhouse. Aunt Clara also grew the q’walltz in the herb garden, so we could collect some of the plants there, too.

But we knew we had to hurry. The children told us that the adults had been talking about setting fire to the entire fire, all the plants, the buildings, even the animals.

So we watched the farmhouse and other buildings. The adults were moving around, not really directed. We decided that we would never be able to collect all the valuables here — the recipe, the equipment plus salve, and the plants — so we settled on the first two. Some of us, including me, went to the opposite side of the farmhouse area, and made enough noise — the adults seemed drawn to any kind of noise — to lure the adults away. Meanwhile, the other half of our group, along with the kids, found the recipe and the equipment. There were some close calls, but we all made it back to the big tree safely.

Our next stop was Clearbrook Cove, a settlement of t’skrang, along the Coil River. The river was wide there, with scattered small rapids. From a distance, we saw 5 large shaggy creatures that looked for all the world like piles of kelp. And they were attacking the t’skrang. The kelp creatures were focused on one of the t’skrang in particular, one that was carrying a basket of clams, even knocking him down and crabbing the basket from him. We ran forward to intervene.

But as we approached, i felt fiery, like a rage was building inside me. I clamped down hard on those feelings and continued, but the kelp creatures reacted most strangely to me, bowing and moving away deferentially. I had no idea what was going on, but it made me feel creepy, dirty somehow. We killed the creatures one at a time. Once dead, the creatures seemed to lose their form, and quickly were carried out into the river by the waves.

Then we talked to the t’skrang, who brought us to a series of islands dotting the river. They introduced their village as the App’Ressa Niall. Ever since the “Ghost Barge” had appeared on the river, these kelp creatures had been attacking the fishing village.

We asked them about the clams. The villagers told us that they ground the clams and made a paint from then. Their lahala had instructed them that her memories told her the paint would keep the creatures at bay. About then we noticed that all the rocks surrounding the village had been thoroughly painted white. The t’skrang called the creatures nori-monsters.

But the village was running low on supplies to make the paint. And their lahala had been killed in a battle with the nori-monsters. So, the t’skrang were mostly abandoning their village here. But their biggest concern was their large clutch of eggs that were still incubating. It was dangerous to move them, but also dangerous to leave them here for fear the nori-monsters would return and destroy them. So the village decided to take half the eggs with them and leave the other half here. Both groups of eggs would be under heavy guard.

We shared what we knew about the salve that worked against the cows. We exchanged some of the salve for some paint. Between the two concoctions, we hoped to be more prepared to fight the nori-monsters.

When the t’skrang moved their egg clutch to another location, we helped guard the caravan on its way, while some of the t’skrang stayed behind to guard the remaining clutch from the nori-monsters, and others defended the t’skrang rafts from the waters below. After seeing the t’skrang settled in a new site along the river’s edge, we built a small raft and headed to the west shore of the Coil River.

Heading south, we came to Tassadae Farm. The primary crop there was a type of bean, but the fields were on fire! As we rushed to help, we saw that there were Name-givers going about the fields, setting them ablaze. But these Name-givers weren’t using torches, oh on. Instead, they were literally on fire themselves! From a distance, we heard them calling out to the outraged, on-looking farmers, “It’s all about me! Destroy the whole world!” They had to be some kind of cultists.

So, we fought the blazing cultists and killed them all before they could destroy all the bean fields. Once the situation was under control, the farmers returned to the fields and put out the remaining fires. The farmers also told us that two of the village’s kids were dead from the red fungus. From what we had already seen, they had been lucky. But I certainly didn’t tell them that.

It turned out that these beans were the same kind of plants that the ork kids’ Aunt Clara had used to make the salve and tincture. What was the connection here? Calina reported that when we killed one of the cultists, the dead body crumbled quickly to dust. Barag added that the soil here had recycled plant material throughout.

By now, we could tell that we getting closer to getting ahead of whatever this Ghost Barge phenomenon was. So, we quickly moved on south along the river to try to find this Barge. And we did.

The barge was riding too deep in the water. Hmmm, but also too high. We didn’t know what to make of it. Now if it was an airship, I’m sure I could’ve figured it out, but water ships, well, that’s something else again. We peered into the porthole. We saw orks infected with the red fungus, nori-monsters, fungus and other creepy stuff. There was also some kind of material pressing outward on the hatch, and the material was pulsing and growing. The barge was about to blow up!

We worked fast. We killed the orks and then grabbed the papers from the captain’s desk. Then got as far from the barge as possible before it blew sky high! The spores went everywhere! So we all took a dose or two of Aunt Clara’s tincture as a precaution.

The next morning we began the long journey to Throal to give our report to the Guard.

So this is the sort of thing going on in the word these days. It certainly seems like there’s a need for adventurous individuals to go out and take care of problems like this, so normal people can get on with their lives in safety.

That’s all for now. Hope you’re all well.


Your loving daughter,
Kun’dal’in