8th Khordrak
Gelbefelden
Calloway’s army departed from Gelbefelden and headed north. This came as some surprise to Aida, who had been tasked with spreading a rumor of that march as though it were false.
9th Khordrak
The army passed into the eaves of the Farnwald, following a road. The road would eventually lead to the lake coast and the city of Gudrunsburg.
10th Khordrak
On making camp, the quartermasters passed around felt and lampblack, instructing all the marchers to muffle their gear and dull the shine of any metal.
11th Khordrak
Calloway turned off the Gudrunsburg road and led the army northwest along a barely-maintained dirt road. They moved with broken march and in silence.
14th Khordrak
The road ended as the land sloped down into a coastal swamp. At the end of the day’s travel, Calloway ordered an end to the stealthy measures.
24th Khordrak
After a grueling slog through the swamp, Calloway’s army came to a broad river. A bridge once crossed the river, but its pilings now lay in ruins.
Calloway ordered the Pink Unicorn crew to cross the river and make contact with the castellan of these lands, a man who had once fought beside her, and order his help with rebuilding the bridge. She also ordered them to climb the highest tower of his castle, Moosenschloss, and report on the movement of any forces they could espy.
The crew built a raft and began to cross the river. Near the far shore, the raft was attacked by an enormous, seemingly-blind monitor lizard. Its mouth flowed with acid to which it seemed to have no resistance.
It pulled Aida into the water, but was unable to carry her away or drag her below. Eventually Annais and Oskraks slew it, and as it sank its body disintegrated. Unseen, a dark shadow slid from the gore and crawled away along the riverbed.
The Pink Unicorn crew followed the river to its mouth, and then followed the coast northwest.
25th Khordrak
A high gravel bar rose ahead of them, and the jagged tooth of Moosenschloss, its highest tower shattered.
They made their way through outlying fields and pastures, many of which were abandoned, some reclaimed by the swamp. Even as they got closer the the village, the fields were fallow, the plows rusting, and the pastures empty save for the stacked bones of animals. From the differing sizes of the bones, Gunter guessed that the villagers had slaughtered their entire herds, including the stock for future years.
They finally came to the village. A river cut through the gravel bar at the foot of Moosenschloss, and the village was built on piles over the river.
The villages were wary of outsiders, but invited the Pink Unicorn crew to the pub, where they were served a cloudy, enervated, flavorless fish stew.
They heard that the castellan’s family were all dead, killed by a legion of monsters led by a swamp dragon. The adults had been killed, and the castellan’s young granddaughter had walked out of the keep and made an apotropaic sign against the dragon. It killed her in a single blow, but proved unable to pass the point where she had made the sign. The monsters had retreated, and the villagers raised a chapel on the site where the miracle occurred. The village vicar had assumed leadership of the village while maintaining the saint-cult of the child. The village had reverted to hunter-gatherer subsistence because the attack had reduced their numbers so greatly, and the miracle also seemed to grant the vicar the power to call bounties from the water.
Aida began to feel ill, ran to an outhouse outside, and vomited up a pile of wriggling, fingernail-sized slimes.
The vicar arrived at the pub to greet the strangers. He confirmed the story. They asked him about the monsters, and he told them that it had been a warband of lizardmen in a symbiotic relationship with a green hydra. Night was coming on, so he invited them to accept the hospitality of the villagers. A pair of fetching young nuns stepped forward to greet the travelers.
Oskraks checked and was shocked to find every man and woman in the place to be monstrously evil.
They asked to see the chapel and climb the tower of the castle, and the vicar began to lead them up the hill.
Aida scooped the slimes into a bucket and caught up with the others on the boardwalk. She showed them what was in their stomachs and told them to vomit.
A crowd of villagers gathered.
As they were heaving over the railing, the nuns tried to push Oskraks and Annais over the edge.
Annais turned, drew her sword, and struck down nuns and priest. She continued attacking, carving through the onlooking crowd. Oskraks also began attacking the crowd. Of the fallen, only the vicar had human blood. The rest had a thin, acrid serum in their veins.
By some freak of morale, or a higher calling, the entire population of the village surged forth to attack. The Pink Unicorn crew retreated to Moosenschloss, where they barricaded the door and dropped several cannonballs into the crowd. Climbing to the ruins of the highest tower, they found the castle surrounded by murderous villagers.
Looking over the lands, they saw nothing. But on the calm surface of the lake, the moonlight revealed two dozen elegant galleys escorting an enormous golden pleasure-barge that flew the flag of Saladura.
