We notice that Jezeg’s looking a little worse for the wear. Caradryan checks him out and discovers a 1-1/2 foot leech on his back that’s sucking him dry. Ilmarian kills the leech, but it’s still attached, so Caradryan has to operate to remove it. Caradryan successfully gets it off and patches up poor Jezeg. Battle Records: Ilmarian = 1 kill.
Notable Quotes: Nivak to Ilmarian: “Wouldn’t ‘Felix’ not be an idiot?”
Day 1832 (4 days later)
Jezeg woke up today! We’re keeping the leech incident hush-hush. Wouldn’t want to kick a man while he’s down.
Day 1835 (3 days later)
A medium-sized mutant encounter today. Nothing we can’t handle with ease.
Battle Records: Nadon = 2 kills, First Blood. Lillay = 5 kills (including 3 bigger mutants & the leader), stole the leader kill from Bruticus & Nivak, High Damage Kill at 26 points. Growlyn = 6 kills. Bruticus = 3 kills. Nivak = 5 kills (including 1 bigger mutant). Ilmarian = 2 kills. Jezeg = 5 kills. Arvin = 3 kills (including 1 bigger mutant). Caradryan = 5 kills (including the tentacle beast).
Day 1837 (2 days later)
Another encounter with those huge, mutant man-things. Or, bulbous man-things, if you will. Still a bit of a bitch to kill, but we know of their tricks now, so it’s a much easier task.
Battle Records: Caradryan = 1 kill. Nivak = 1 kill, High Damage Kill at 17 points.
Notable Quotes: Nivak: “We have a frothing man-thing.” Ilmarian: “Always an exciting time.”
Day 1840 (3 days later)
We arrive at what we’ve determined is “The Spot”. Although we’re pretty sure the mutant compound is around here somewhere, we’re not exactly sure where yet. Nadon’s been scouting it out, so hopefully he’ll turn up something soon.
Day 1841 (the next day)
Nadon’s still looking, although he’s assured us that this is perfectly normal and he’s most certainly on the right track.
Day 1842 (the next day)
Still looking.
Day 1843 (the next day)
Found it! Looks like it’ll be a bigger battle than we imagined at first. We’ve come upon a bit of a depression in the swamp and we can see a large hole (tunnel?) that’s been dug out in the middle of the depression. There are mutants all over the place – approximately 50-80 of them – hauling muck in and out of that hole. And creatures we’ve never encountered before – large rat-men – appear to be directing the mutants. Jezeg proposes to draw the mutants out little by little instead of charging in the true style of our party. So, our long-rangers try to pick off as many as they can before the mutants can reach us. And it works. A smallish band of mutants take the bait and we slaughter all but one who breaks and begins running back to the rest of his comrades. Not wanting to let him escape and tell the others about us, Jezeg takes off after him. By the time he catches up and kills it, it’s too late to turn back because now the rest of the mutants and those rat-men have seen what’s happened and come charging in on us. It’s bad. Really bad. The mutants and rat-men just keep pouring out of that hole in a never-ending stream, it seems. Finally we’re able to cut them all down, but we’ve taken serious injuries ourselves and Bruticus has passed to the Land of Morr. The time for grief over the loss of our noble friend must be brief, though, because we’re still in danger of being attacked should there be even more dark creatures hiding in that hole. It’s decided to bury him here in the swamps.
Battle Records: Caradryan = 23 kills High Damage Kill at 36 points. Nadon = 31 kills. Lillay = 51 kills (including the rat-men leader). Ilmarian = 25 kills. Nivak = 39 kills (including the scorpion-tailed mutant & the 4-armed mutant ogre). Jezeg = 28 kills. Growlyn = 31 kills (including the muscle-headed mutant). Arvin = 22 kills. Bruticus = 24 kills (including the sheep-headed mutant), DEAD. Amber = 2 kills. Most 100-Rolls in one battle to date: 17.
Day 1844 (the next day)
Jezeg worked his magic on Caradryan who’d been hurt in yesterday’s battle. My one leg’s all diseased and infected from the bite of one of the tentacle mutants – Nadon and Nivak went out looking for some healing herbs for it.
Day 1846 (2 days later)
The infection isn’t subsiding. Caradryan went out with Nadon and Nivak to look for more herbs. Enough is enough with these damn leg injuries!
Day 1850 (4 days later)
We’re all sufficiently healed up enough to venture into the mutant’s hole/tunnel. A small skirmish inside (mostly mutant children) which is over quickly. We found the book - nothing much else of value, though.