Sigmarzeit 4 - 5

We were trailing our two Skaven guides for hours and hours upon end through the underground passages when Lorr suddenly stopped in front of us and pointed down at some yellow mould on the tunnel floor. He was telling us the mould was deadly when it moved and shot out spores. In front of me, Starlana just dropped. I couldn't catch her. I tried, but between her and her gear, it was just too heavy for me. I guess people shouldn't expect me to catch them when they fall. There's probably a deeper lesson to be learned here, but you don't always see the bigger picture from an underground tunnel.

I dragged Starlana back out of the mould's blast radius and we all waited for her and Ben to wake up. Randy crept forward and was offering some strange snuff he had taken from Lord Doyle's house. Gunthar advised me to not touch the snuff, but it seemed to do Ben a world of good. Lungs that had been injured by the spores suddenly felt fine. The two men continued on as if they had received a second wind. Starlana continued on short of breath, with a burning sensation in her lungs, to hear her speak of it.

The trail was long and hard, and I really had a lot of weight on my shoulders, with the rations and water and everything. Luckily Arty was such a nice guy that he gladly took my pack for me. That's a real man. Take notes. When the Skaven came back and told us to hurry our "pink skins" up, I shrank into Arty for protection. The young guard is solid muscle, and not afraid of the likes of a ratman, either. I'm glad I have some sort of protection, since my bodyguard travels at the front of the line.

Eventually we were allowed to duck into some kind of cave in the side of the tunnel where we could spend the night. I never thought the Skaven were going to let us rest! I could barely have some of the rations to eat before my eyes closed and I was sound asleep. It was like sleeping near one of my excavation sites, just without the nighttime breeze. On the plus side, I didn't have to worry about setting up my tent. I would have been embarrassed. It's pretty tattered. Arty probably wouldn't be impressed.

After who knows how many hours, Randy woke everyone up to tell us something was coming. The Skaven, who offered to guard the outside of the cave, were nowhere to be seen. As huddled around the cave, this huge beetle shoves it's head through the entrance hole! The bug was gigantic! It couldn't even fit its...shoulders...through. The thing just kept wriggling back and forth, pushing dirt out of the way as it dug in. My arrows did nothing to hurt the creature, but the guards slashed at it with their weapons. I think Lorr might have been the one to actually kill it, though. He smashed his staff into the creature's eye...area. None of us even knew Lorr had it in him. He's so wimpy for such a big guy.

Speaking of wimpy, the freaky Skaven show back up after the beetle is dead and they want to cut it up and eat it. They are sick creatures that I will never be comfortable around.

Our dark-vision eye drops were starting to fade, so we had to put some more in our eyes. I hope I have enough to last me the entire trip. The Skaven told us that it was many, many days travel. At this rate, we have enough drops for about 10 days. We'll see. Heh. We'll see...in the dark. Sorry. I know I'm not an Entertainer.

After more tiring walking, the Skaven come cowering back saying that there are a bunch of warrior Skaven ahead of us. They want us to go above ground for a while to evade the others. None of us have a problem with that. Lorr's been missing the trees and Starlana's been missing the stars. I miss the sun.

When we were back out in the open, we could hear the sound of a river to our north. We headed to the river, then continued our easterly trek. Luckily, there was a road following the river, and both were heading east/west.

After not too long, one of the Skaven came running back toward us saying there were many people ahead. We hid in the forest because we didn't know if the people would be friendly or not.

One horseman, a scout, came riding up the road. He was a pretty good scout, too, because he stopped and followed our trail right into the woods. He called out to us. Gunthar was brave enough to meet the call.

The scout's name was Greg, and he worked for a noble by the name of Lord Erik. It seems Lord Erik was looking for some sell-swords to help dispatch someone he found that he believed was responsible for killing all the nobles around Brettonia. Greg led us back to Lord Erik's campsite, where we were fed and hired for 2 gold now, 2 to our families now, and 10 gold upon completion of the quest.

The person Lord Erik was hunting goes by the name of Lukratt. He used to be named Luciano, but he took on a new name...as he got more evil, I suppose. It is rumored the Lukratt used to be a wizard apprentice, and that he might know some spells.

Gunthar confirmed with the Skaven, who are hiding in the woods away from the human camp, that the person they were taking us to kill was this same Lukratt. Now we're going after the same person, only in better company.

Lord Erik states we were just waiting for a couple of barges to come down the river and pick us up. While were packing up and waiting, a woman screams from the east edge of camp. We all run to see what the problem is, and there's a dead, mangled scout riding a wounded horse. While we're distracted there, more screaming came from the opposite end of camp.

As we turned around, we saw a huge...pack...of Skaven attacking our camp. Everyone immediately puts up a fight, but the majority of the people around were just peasants, who thought they were fighting this one Lukratt guy like fifty to one. Instead, they are now fighting horrific ratmen.

We fought for our lives. Unfortunately, our group was quite separated, and we weren't able to pull together no matter how much I tried to encourage everyone. In the end, both Arty and Ben died. I swear, if I wasn't so shocked for the battle, the first battle I've ever been in, I would have cried my eyes out. Rest in peace, Ben.

I'll miss you, Arty.

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