LOST TRAILS: THE HARROWDALE HORROR: PART 4

[ewancummins]

ON A MUDDY ROAD IN HARROWDALE-TOWN, IN A HEAVY DOWNPOUR

KATRIN sees the earth near the road on one side shift and slide under the heavy rain.
Then a whole section rises like a huge serpent composed of sodden, wilted vegetation and black mud.
Its slimy maw looks big enough to swallow a child whole.
She has time to cry out, warning her companions, before the Serpentine Thing clears the ditch in which it had lain hidden and closes the short distance to the group.

[ewancummins]

MEANWHILE, IN THE CIVIC HALL


ALAIN has joined Periele in the Bailiff's Office-- where he can chat with the young acolyte, keep an eye on the prisoner locked in a cell, and look over some papers he's found.
With blankets, food, wine, coals and a brazier recovered from storage, he's quite comfortable.

[ewancummins]

SIR CLIVE...

[ewancummins]

ON A MUDDY ROAD IN HARROWDALE-TOWN, IN A HEAVY DOWNPOUR

KATRIN sees the earth near the road on one side shift and slide under the heavy rain.
Then a whole section rises like a huge serpent composed of sodden, wilted vegetation and black mud.
Its slimy maw looks big enough to swallow a child whole.
She has time to cry out, warning her companions, before the Serpentine Thing clears the ditch in which it had lain hidden and closes the short distance to the group.

Klokulf, backing away from the approaching monster, lifts his god's symbol and commands the Thing to 'fall.'

It does not pause or slow in its relentless advance...

[Adam]

Bennedict gives out a sound akin to a squeak as he backpedals, raising his crossbow. He stutters through the words to a sanctuary incantation.

[ewancummins]

THE THING ON THE ROAD

The serpentine monster rears and rolls sideways, towards Kat.

The burglar dodges as the slimy mass slams into the road surface with a loud crunch-splash .

[ewancummins]

FIGHT ON THE ROAD


Kat needles the thing with her sword, then tumbles clear.

Klokulf does an end -run around the monster as Raen blasts it with lightning.

Benn, to his growing horror, sees that the mage's bolts do no harm at all to plant-beast.
Worse! It visibly grows as the crackling energy pours into its moldering bulk.

Klokulf , hands flashing with black light, attacks it from behind.

But the monster knocks the priest supine with a mighty wallop of its tail.
Slimy tendrils snake out from its sides and grab Klokulf before he can get to his feet, pulling him closer...

[ewancummins]

MEANWHILE, INDOORS

Alain relaxes in front of the hot brazier, listening to Periele's somewhat confused, slow retelling of the tenday prior to her sudden bout of madness.
The young woman has obviously been through an ordeal, and looks tired and pale.

She's just gotten to the part about blessing the casks of small beer and wine when Alain hears a crack and a thump from outside the window.
Tree limb giving way? Wind knocking something against the wall?
A glance reveals nothing more than the same rainy, dreary prospect he viewed the last time he looked.

Periele doesn't seem to have noticed any sound at all; she keeps talking as Alain checks the window.

But before she finishes explaining a supply problem with the beer, this year at the festival, Alain hears the noise again.
And was that a shout, too? Hard to tell, over the wind and rain.

He checks the window. Nothing.
Moving to the front room, he peeks out a window and sees several figures on the road, down the hill and across a field, rolling a big heap of earth and brush in the rain.

He does a double-take---the muddy heap seems to move of its own accord.

The figures could be his companions. They had stepped outside to track whatever the big 'snake' was...

[Adam]

"Get behind me!" the Archivist shouts, "No more lightning! A Mandragora feeds on it! It will resist flame as well. Strike at the body with your weapons, and mind that it doesn't grab you with it's tendrils!"

[ewancummins]

"Get behind me!" the Archivist shouts, "No more lightning! A Mandragora feeds on it! It will resist flame as well. Strike at the body with your weapons, and mind that it doesn't grab you with it's tendrils!"

Kat thrusts but her blade skids harmlessly along the slimy exterior of the creature, which immediately turns on her in writhing anger--

THUD-SPLASH!

Mud sprays from the thundering impact of the huge tail.
The archivist wipes his eyes and spots Kat, unhurt but muddy, now standing by his side.
A big divot in the road shows where the creature struck.

Klokulf lies in a ditch besides the road, no longer caught in the 'snake's ' coils. His head is submerged in the rain-flooded ditch.

Benn rushes forward and grabs the cleric's limp body, dragging Klokulf back onto the road and toward the others.
He shouts' Tekeli-li, Tekele-Li!' as he runs.

Raen puts away an oil flask he had been opening and draws his dagger. The wizard hurls the knife. It bounces off the spongy body of the slowly approaching horror causing no more harm than a ball of mud might have done.

[alhoon]

"I can't do anything to it!" Raen shouts. "Benn, we should try to disengage and run indoors! I don't think we can take it today!"

[kintire]

Kat stares at the approaching horror.

"I can't touch it, and it hits like a trebuchet! Run for it!"

She grabs Klokulf under one armpit, assuming Raen will grab the other, and flees down the road

[ewancummins]

THE PARTY flees down the road, dragging Klokulf along with them toward the low hill atop which sits the Civic Hall.


The Mandragora crawls after them...


Soaked with rain, mud, and sweat, the adventurers stagger onto the portico.

Just as Raen and Kat get Klokulf up the steps, the front door swings wide and Alain steps out onto the covered porch.
The clank of metal on metal comes from someplace behind the magic-using gunslinger.

The monster has now reached the base of the hill and begun worming its way up toward the city hall.

[RocEter]

Sir Clive

Alain finds Clive laying on cot reading his novel in one of the empty cells, which he has turned into a small but seemingly comfortable room.

When Alain alerts him that their companions might be under attack, Clive is quickly follows Alain to the door.

[ewancummins]

THE PORTICO AND NEARBY SLOPED LAWN

On the portico, Katrin fires a bolt at the approaching monster. In the rain, it's hard to say if she did any real damage or even hit.

Beside her, Alain sends searing beams of light from his fingers, which raise hissing puffs of steam from the sodden outer layers of the creature.

Undeterred by these attacks, the great serpent of slime and rotten vegetation slithers uphill, faster and faster.


Raen quickly checks Klokulf's pulse and breathing and then scurries into the building, taking cover in the lobby near the broken front window.

Bending over Klokulf on the portico near the front door, Benn recites a healing prayer.
The gods, or some dark powers beyond the archivist's ken, answer his call for aid:
Klokulf sputters, stirs, and sits up with an alarmed expression on his pale face.

Sir Clive bounds down the steps and unlimbers his huge sword, standing before the portico, ready for the oncoming enemy...