A Stitch in Souragne: The Siege of Lac Noir

[steveflam]

Goren finds the old man amusing, but in a good way. He wouldn't mind examining him further to see if he might be able to help him magically. He walks over to stand right near the man, looking him straight in the eyes. Souragnien "Greetings, Papa Doc. I Goren and yes I is alien to Souragne. I help all wherever I goes and this no exception. I
am healer of Lathander, the Morninglord. I no care if you worshipping or not. My points meanings I like to look at you like a docteur and
see if maybe I can help you with my Lathanders gris gris or spells if you much liking better. These men here with me, they good men wanting help Souragne. I only been here few days and speaked Souragne language terriblement and another language I no not knowing name... Mordinters? Or something like that."

He smiles at the man and scratches his beard. He adds "I telling you what. I help you much I canning with your black belly with my spells and come visit you and speak with you every day, you make special prices for my friends for the boat. I forget to mention I does what I does, help peoples for free. Is my vows I tooken and I pleasure in doing this helping."

[Ken of Ghastria]

Lucien hangs back for a moment, impressed by Zumba's and Goren's appeals. "Yes, we're foreigners," he says finally, "willing to help Souragne because we believe in the promise of her beauty and strength. You're welcome to join us, in spirit if not in body." He relaxes the slight concentration he had been maintaining, then uses the latent mental energy to reinforce the appeal to Papa Doc.

_________________________
Rock, let me know if you want Lucien (or any of us) to make a Diplomacy check. Lucien will get a +2 bonus by ending the empathy power.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

(OOC: No Diplomacy checks needed, you guys are doing fine. )

"There always somethin' goin' on in da bayou, boah," Papa Doc says, waving his finger at Zumba. "But now youse got me cu-ri-usss. Somethin' happenin' in da bayou, somethin' ta do wid dat espece de merde what the young'uns call Homme Broché? An' youse thinks what goin' down out there coul' help ole Mama Souragne?"

Papa Doc mutters to himself for a moment, scratches his armpit... and then shrugs and bestows a brilliant smile on you all. It is such a brilliant smile that it takes you a moment to realize there are several teeth missing from it, and the remaining ones are yellowed and browned with age, crooked and chipped in places.

"Tell you what. You fine gennelmen wanna do a good turn for ole Mama Souragne? Papa Doc fix you up nice. You get yo'selves on that there raft, Papa Doc be your guide. You wanna see ole Chicken Bone? See da Dragon o' da Swamps? Mebbe tour Lac Noir? Go anyplace at all in da swamps o' Souragne? Papa Doc ta' you there. See you git there 'live. See you git back ta Marais de Tarascon 'live, long as you ain't stoopid while yer out there. As fer payment..."

Papa Doc casts a shrewd look on you, then grins again. "Call it fi' siller fer Papa Doc -- an' a gua-ran-tee no sawbone lookin' at my black belly." He wags a finger at Goren. "Don' know yore Lathander, boah. But youse a sawbones, don' matter whither you a doctor or a priest. You keep yer hands off of ole Papa Doc, an' he see you through da bayou. Now you all git on down on tha raft, tha Last Stop Express fer the swamp an' da high Voodan o' da Loahd o' da Dead is leavin' tout suite."

The old man spits in his right hand and holds it out to you. "We got us a deal, fine gennelmens?"

[Ken of Ghastria]

Lucien raises an already-arched eyebrow as Papa Doc speaks. Bemused, he turns to look at his companions and says, "Well, this is what we requested, yes?"

Assuming there is no disagreement, Lucien looks back at Papa Doc, spits in his own hand, and shakes the proffered hand of the old man. "Agreed, Papa Doc. To Chicken Bone and back. Five silver, and no healer."

[Ail]

Zumba nods contentedly at the arrangement.

"Sure it's a deal, Papa Doc. No stupidity in the swamp and we'll all be back alive".

[steveflam]

Goren laughs heartily at Papa Doc. Souragnien "Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha! Tres bien, Papa Doc. I no help you medicinally. I still come visit you.

Wise man like you lived many moons and much knowledge, oui? I even try to bring you something to
drink in échange for you knowledges, oui? Is fair, non? I just like conversationing with wise persons. You never learning enough in one jour, hein?"

He also spits in his hand and offers it to Papa Doc for a shake. He decides he likes the old man.

[Guzrath]

While the others are conversing with pappa Doc, Vincent looks around at the hamlet and the people. He is in no mood for haggling and negotiating today. He is eager to get out there. Today is a day of adventure and he has no patience for negotiating, although he does enjoy watching the negotiations.
Three people negotiating is more than enough, he doesn't need to jump in. He looks at the little kid next to pappa Doc and smiles at him.

As the deal is made he ignores the spitted hand shake. One is person is enough for the deal.
He easily jumps on the water transport. "Time to go" he says, eager to get going.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"Deal's a deal, den," Papa Doc says. He makes a vague gesture in Goren's direction. "You wanna come chit-chat wid an ole man, shore. Brin' some a' dat fine whisss-key fer Papa Doc's black belly. Make it holler, an' mebbe I tell you a thing or two. Now, though, we is goin'."

Papa Doc hops down into the piroque tied up next to the raft. He is quite nimble, considering his disability, and he just lets his wooden peg-leg dangle in the water while he ties an end of rope from the canoo to the raft. "Don' wan' you boahs gettin' lost none," he explains. "Youse is innocent fawns walkin' inda butcher shop, when you goes inta da bayou."

While he waits for everyone to get on board, Papa Doc calls up to the little boy. "You go on an' git yerself 'ome. Tell yer mammie that ole Papa Doc is out in da bayou, earnin' 'is dring."

"I will," the little boy promises. "I also tell 'er, you gettin' five siller, so she can 'it you up for two when you git back!" Giggling, the child runs away while the old man shakes his fist after him.

"No-good chilren, no-good granchilren, no-good babbies of granchilren," the old man complains. "Bad blood, it be. Bad blood an' bad, bad breedin'!" Then he gives you all a sly wink. "An' all the bad, it come fra Papa Doc. Now you boahs pick up dem barge poles, 'cause I ain't pullin' y'all all-across da bayou."

He throws a small, clay bottle onto the raft. "Smear you some'a dat on the back a' your necks, or skeeters is gonna eat you 'live. Less' go!"

Two Hours Later:

You soon learn that Papa Doc was not joking; you find yourselves working very hard, just to keep the raft moving forward. While in front of you, the old man seems to be paddling his canoo with casual ease, you all have to strain and surge just to keep the raft moving. The thick ooze sucks at your barge poles as if eager to devour them whole.
The little clay bottle turned out to contain something not quite thick enough to be a salve, but too thick to be a liquid. It does a wonderful job of keeping away the mosquitoes by virtue of a sharp, lemony stench that causes human eyes to water and their noses to run if they inhale it too deeply.

The oppressive heat you already felt on shore is doubled, then tripled in the swamp. Great trees crowd in all around you, their leafy branches holding the thick air of the swamp captive in their embrace. Many of the leaves are dead and browning, you can see, but they have not lost their ability to make this place darker than it should be at this hour, hotter and more humid than it is on shore. Strange scents assault your noses, weird noises sound in the distance. Familiar noises - the whine of mosquitoes, the buzz of flies - sound rather closer to you.

The sound that really fills your world, though, is Papa Doc's voice. The old man started to croon in Souragnien the instant you left sight of Marais de Tarascon's harbour. Only Zumba may be able to understand the precise meaning of the repetitive ditty, and the young Capoeira may feel his ears grow red at some of the more colourful phrases. The song seems to serve to keep the rhythm for a bargeman; if you follow the tune, you actually make good progress.

Suddenly the song ends, and Papa Doc brings his piroque to a halt, tapping the raft with his paddle to indicate you should do the same. "You boahs take a gander ta tha righ'," he says in a quiet tone. "Dat dere be a gua-ran-tee sight fer visitors ta see. Rare, that is. One'a da dragons a' da bayou."

If you follow Papa Doc's pointing finger, you can see something has washed up on the roots of one of the swamp's gnarled cypress trees. Something large. It is the carcass of a giant crocodile, much like the one - strike that, exactly like the one you 'met' yesterday night...

[Ail]

Zumba nods at the carcass and Papa Doc's words.


"Are these sights somewhat frequent, Papa Doc? Do you look for one to show every tourist, or is it more like a legend and only shows up for luck?"

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"Frequent? No," the old man says, shaking his head. "Dat dere one a' da dragons. Crocs an' gators need a lot a' time fer growin' dat size. Time an' food. Dere mebbe a handful like dat, an' dey live long time, not see many dead. Specially 'cause things eat them when dey die. Lotta food."

(Spot checks, one and all. DC15.)

[steveflam]

Goren doesn't feel the heat as the others do. Comfortable as can be, the priest observes the swamp as he helps move their transport. He does listen to Papa Doc, secure in his presumption that the old man knows what he is talking about and has tremendous experience in his work. The man's knowledge will come in handy later and many days after that.

Spying the massive Dragon as the old man called it, a short intake of breath escapes his lips. Souragnien "That... that we see yesterday, Papa Doc. It....... it helping us against our foes. Is.... est ce que [Does/Do] ..... meaning good or bad? I take if it helpinged compagnons and myself a good portental. What you thinking on this subject?"

[Higginz]

Nicolae glances from the boat towards the direction to which the old man indicates, but he too is overwhelmed by the heat and foul odors of the swamp to pay much attention to much else.

Spot check = 6

[Ail]

Zumba accepts Papa Doc's explanation. Although a child of Souragne, he had never heard much of these creatures. Perhaps they are one of the secrets of the swamp, known only to those who dwell in there, on make their living off it.

But there is something intriguing about this one specimen. There's no animal life eating it at all. That doesn't surprise Zumba, as he is sure this is the same carcass that helped them on the eve and delivered the message to them, which by then was already pretty much as eaten as any flesh off the bone could be. But that was not what Papa Doc had in mind, surely. He was talking of living aligators, not undead aberrations!

But there were some new marks, as if it had been in a fight after that. Its tail and snout bore the evidence in slashing cuts.

As he was looking more intently at those marks, he noticed something else moving towards them, just below the surface... something that was hiding within the carcass. He spoke alarmed:


"Papa Doc, there's somethign hiding in that dragon... something coming at us. Can you see it? My feeling is that's not good!"


He postpones his other observations and questions for a later time. This now was time for action.

[Guzrath]

Vincent is sweating from the heat and work to keep the boat moving, but he does not complain. He dabs his brow once in a while with his handkerchief, as a habit, a useless thing to do as his handkerchief hasn't dried since he first swiped his brow when they left.
Nonetheless, Vincent is excited and even though the heat is incredible, he has been putting up a monologue about the beauty of Port-a-Lucine, the life of the riches and in some cases tricks pulled by rich friends on their own staff. He laughs heartily when recounting them. He only recounts stories about friends or people he knows, none about himself.

At the sight of the enormous creature Vincent finally stops talking and simply stand and looks at it, uselessly dabbing his head again. He sighs, tired. As Zumba mentions somethings coming their way underneath the surface, his hand reaches for his crossbow. His hand is on it, but he awaits Papa Doc's reaction before he decides to aim it.

[Ken of Ghastria]

Lucien endures the heat in relatively silent misery. He just wants to get to where they have to go. The sight of the dead creature does pique his interest... and he snaps completely to attention when he hears the warning of something approaching the boat!

He begins concentrating. If the raft is about to be attacked, he needs to react as quickly as possible.

"My feeling is that's not good!"

"I'm inclined to agree, Zumba," he says without humor. "I'll do what I can to keep us moving, gentlemen."

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My apologies for the longer-than-expected absence. After getting caught up from vacation, I lost access to the site for a couple of days. All good now!

Rock: Lucien is expending 1 pp to manifest offensive precognition. He'll keep that going for a while.