Swamped

You need to get down quickly. You've got no time for doubts. You spread out your arms and let the thin flaps of your suit spread out.

You never really wanted to test the gliding functions, no matter how much Theodore assured you they were structurally sound. But it seems to be your only fast option now.

You scurry down to the edge of the roof, and jump.

You glide down, towards the water, and carefully land on the trunk of a tree. Then you let out the breath you've been holding for the last two minutes. You definitely don't want to do that again.

"What the hell was that thing?"

...You look up. It seems some humans are looking out of a hole in the structure... oh, right, windows, that's what the humans call them. You'd forgotten about those.

It seems you were spotted, but fortunately, none of them are looking at the tree you're on now. Still, they might send someone to investigate. You should get moving...

But you still don't know to where. And having already set the humans on their guard, taking a map from them would surely be noticed.

You suppose you may as well investigate the other structure. It might not be another military base, or you might find a route out of the swamp along the way.

You start climbing up towards the nearby walkway to see where the human patrols are at the moment, but as you do, you hear a low hissing sound.

You look up, and see a very green snake above you, slithering down the trunk. At a glance, you would have mistaken it for a vine.

What do you do now?

grab it by the tail and swing it like a flail

You scurry around the tree as the snake draws closer. You manage to slip behind it and grab its tail... but now what do you do?

You spot it turning around, and in a panic, you simply swing it around, before losing your grip and dropping it in the water.

There's a loud splash. That more than likely drew someone's attention. You're not doing as well as you hoped at sneaking around unnoticed.

On the plus side, nobody's actually caught you yet. You climb up into the canopy as fast as you can, and watch.

Three humans have gathered down below to take a look at the splash.

"I think I see a leaf viper in the water," one of them says. "That's odd, did it just fall in?"

"Not likely. Leaf vipers tend to have pretty good grip," says another. "You know what I find more likely, though? A Marshguard scout sneaking into a nearby tree, spotting a viper, and throwing it down in a panic. We'd better check the trees carefully."

Well. Now you've really done it. What now?

no use hiding, get ready to attack

You don't think you can get to a better hiding spot without exposing yourself. You'd better prepare yourself for a fight.

Not that you have much. Your claws are reasonably sharp, and if you were on the ground you might be able to trip a human with your tail, but that's about it. Your teeth aren't suited to biting, and you're not that strong - not strong enough to take on a fully-grown human, at any rate.

And the humans are armored. Your claws might not be able to pierce it.

Hmm. But if you keep them from seeing you, and fight enough like a wild creature, they might mistake you for one. Their theory works well enough if a beast flings the snake out of the tree instead of a "Marshguard", whatever those are.

So you slip out towards the trunk, and get your claws ready. You watch as one of the humans climbs up.

"You guys had better have my back if there is a Marshguard up here!" he calls down. "Don't want to get ambushed while I'm climbing!"

You hide carefully under the leaves, waiting for his hand to get close.

Then you scratch it as hard as you can.

"Ack! There's something with sharp claws up here!"

"Maybe we should call pest control?" one of the knights on the walkways says.

"Depends what it is. Hey Martin! Any chance you can get a look at whatever scratched you?"

"Not from here, I think it's under the leaves! And I'm not reaching under there, what if it's another greatrat?"

"Nonsense. Greatrats can't climb trees."

"Still might be something nasty. I say we get pest control on it. And I'm coming down before it hits me again!"

You watch as he descends. The humans start mumbling to themselves, then one of them runs off. Presumably to contact pest control.

But the others are staring very intently at the tree you're in. Probably hoping to catch a glimpse of you if you decide to leave. Which is not something you want.

You'd better think of something fast. If you don't have some way of hiding or escaping, you don't see much option besides surrendering yourself now.

run away and make them think it was bigfoot or something

Their eyes are on your hiding spot. Your only hope for getting away is to mislead them about what, exactly, they're chasing after.

Preferably by making yourself seem bigger than you really are. You're only about two-thirds the size of an average human, but something significantly larger could easily fit in these upper branches.

So you start by making the branches shake.

"I think it's moving! Uh... how big do you think it is?"

"Don't know. I just know it has claws."

That second voice is the human who tried climbing. Good, he should be particularly easy to dissuade.

What else can you do to set them on the wrong track?

If it isn't possible to spread out your gliding wings to jump to another tree, making you look larger in the process, you may want to consider letting out some sort of terrifying groan or throwing something into the branches of a nearby tree to make it look like you've jumped.

You doubt you can jump to another tree without being spotted. But maybe you can fake it. You pull a twig off the branch, and get ready to throw it into a tree closer to the base. If you throw it with enough force, you might be able to make that tree shake and create the illusion that you've moved. Hopefully, that will divert the humans' attention long enough for you to flee in a different direction.

It might also be useful to make a lot of noise. You try your hardest to do a fierce growl, and you strike the twig against the branch you're on a few times to make some more noise.

"What the hell makes a noise like that?"

"Maybe it's an owl? I heard the postmaster had to deal with a whole flock of those. Could still be some lingering around."

"Since when are there owls in the swamp? Especially in the daylight?"

"Maybe the snake woke it up! I don't know! Dean's the animal expert, ask him!"

"I haven't seen him since last night. ...You don't suppose whatever that is got him, do you?"

They're sounding a little scared. It's time to make your move. You toss the twig as hard as you can.

"Gah! Did it just jump to that tree?"

"I didn't see it jump... but I'm not climbing up there, not again!"

You take advantage of their confusion to leap away in the opposite direction. Hopefully, you can get further away while they regain your bearings.

You're not fond of spending so much time in the treetops, but you don't see much of a choice. You keep moving, only stopping briefly on occasion to see if there are any other patrolling soldiers nearby.

But you don't think to check the trees you're going into. As you crawl into one, a woman in purple armor grabs you and puts a hand over your mouth.

"Don't know what a grebling's doing in the swamp," she whispers angrily. "But I can't risk the Bogknights finding me here, so you'd best stay quiet if you know what's good for you."

What do you do now?

Sounds like you'd better stay quiet, if you know what's good for you. Maybe she'll divulge more details.

bite the hand that gags you

You didn't run from one potential captor just to get caught by another. Desperate to get away you bite her hand as hard as you can.

Which turns out not to be that hard. Your teeth just aren't very sharp, and your jaw muscles aren't really strong enough to make up for it. She doesn't even seem to notice the attempt.

You'd try clawing her, but she's clasped her other hand tightly around both of yours. You can barely move them at all.

She suddenly stands up, poking her head out of the canopy, and then crouches down again. She looks straight at you.

"Hey. You seen another girl? About my age, same uniform?"

You shake your head as best as you can. Couldn't she at least take her hand off your mouth?

"Figured not. Dammit. And now I'm stuck with you on top of everything else that's gone wrong. Ugh, I should have just stayed put and let Starling get her own damn self in trouble. Nah, on second thought, Boss would have yelled at me for that too. The hell am I supposed to do now?"

She directs this question at you, probably for the lack of anyone else to direct it to. Unfortunately, your options for offering any kind of answer are rather limited at the moment.

You settle for waving your tail around.

"You making fun of me?"

You make another effort at shaking your head.

"Ugh. Right, I guess you've got your own problems, huh? You're probably just as lost as that sandsnake we saw the other day."

She pauses.

"I'll put you down as long as you don't make any loud noises. Then we'll have a little talk. Deal?"

You nod, and she lets go of you.

Now, are you going to talk, get back at her somehow, or just make a run for it?

run run rudolph

You don't really care about whatever's going on in this swamp. You just want to get away from it. So once your captor lets you go, you just flee before she can react.

You don't hear her shout after you. Probably to avoid drawing attention from the patrollers.

Not long after, you find that you've hit what looks like some kind of border between the two sides. You can only see one path further on, and there are guards on both sides of it, with different uniforms. There also aren't that many trees in between; it's mostly swamp muck, aside from one small hill and a broken rope bridge.

You might be able to climb across what's left of the ropes. But with so little cover, the guards would almost certainly see you, and you don't want to get involved in whatever's going on here. Same goes for gliding; you might be able to get the distance to cross, but not without being spotted.

As for the muck, there's currently a swamp beast in it, and it seems upset. You haven't been too keen on the idea of swimming up to now, but at this point it's just not looking like an option at all.

And, of course, you can't even tell if crossing over would help you leave this stupid swamp.

So what are you going to do now?

strafe the whole perimeter, either looking for a better way through or just going all around

You try tracing your way around the edges, mostly sticking to the trees. But it's not long before you hit a dead end, at least if you don't plan on just making your way back to the base you started at.

So you turn around and start searching the other way. That's when you spot the woman you ran into earlier. She's rushing from one tree to another while the patrollers have their attention elsewhere.

If you keep going by this route, you'll likely cross paths with her again, and she's not likely to give you a second chance. But on the other hand, she might have an idea of how to cross the border unseen, since it seems she wanted to avoid trouble with her superiors.

And she might know how to get out of this damned swamp.

You might be able to follow her. You gradually make your way closer to where she is, trying to keep to cover just in case she's watching. Last thing you want is to make her angry again.

It takes a while, but you manage to get one tree over from her. Of course, that's exactly when you notice her making a run for the tree you're in.

Now what do you do?

now you grab her by the mouth

You consider turning things around. Surprising and gagging her, just as she did to you. But the truth is, she's stronger and probably better-trained than you are.

Well. It'll give you a moment's satisfaction, and put you on more even ground when bargaining. You slip beneath the branch and wait, before ambushing her.

It doesn't go well. She spots you and grabs you by the throat before you lay a claw on her.

"Really, grebling? You're no fighter, and this is coming from a novice. What's your goddamn problem?"

"My goddamn problem is that I woke up in a swamp crawling with strange beasts and human soldiers," you gasp. "And you didn't exactly make a strong first impression yourself. Pardon me for not thinking of you as my best friend."

She glares at you, then relents and puts you down.

"Fine. Run away again, see if I care. It's not like you can help me find Starling anyways. As long as you don't get the Bogknights after me, I don't really care what you do."

You've heard of this human trick before. If someone doesn't want to help you, you just pretend to be unimpressed with them and they do what you asked just to salvage their pride. Well, you're not falling for it.

You have to admit, though, this woman seems to be very good at feigning disinterest. It's hard to believe she cares about anything.

Maybe you should just leave her here to stew. Whatever's wrong with this human isn't your problem, after all.

Of course, you don't really have a plan for what to do next. Maybe you should just swallow your pride and bargain with her - she probably knows how to leave this damn place. On the other hand, you don't have much to offer, except as a second pair of eyes in looking for her comrade.

What are you going to do?

ask her which way is out of the swamp

"Just tell me how to get out of this damn swamp," you grumble.

"Don't know. It's been years since I came here, and I can't remember where I came in."

You just stare at her.

"Years? You've never gone home since then?"

"This stupid swamp is my home now. There's nothing for me on the outside."

"Well, how in the hells am I supposed to get out of here, then?"

"That's hardly my problem," she grumbles.

"Well, then. I guess I'll work that out on my own." You start walking away. "Maybe I'll ask these Bogknights, and tell them about the spy in the treetops while I'm at it."

"Don't you dare!" she growls, lunging towards you. But you're far enough away that she can't reach. You quickly scurry up higher, on lighter branches, to maintain what little advantage you have in this situation.

"Believe me, I'd rather not deal with them. But it's not as if you've given me another choice."

"Starling might remember the way out," she says begrudgingly. "Help me find her and I'll ask. Okay?"

What do you say to that?

now that's a deal

"All right, you've got yourself a deal."

You say the words, but it's not as if you know where to look. You need a little more information.

"Where did you last see her?"

The woman frowns as she tries to think.

"So we were patrolling. Our boss had us walk up and down one length of walkway, while the rest of our squad headed a bit further out. Then the assault force started marching past, and Starling wanted to get a closer look at Rider in action."

"Rider?" you ask.

"He's one of the big bosses around here. That beast down below is his mount. Anyhow, we followed him and somewhere along the line, we crossed into Bogknight territory. We panicked when we realized, but there were too many around on both sides for us to risk crossing back. And by the time the assault force gave up and went home, the beast was rampaging down there. So we couldn't go back the way we came."

"Wait, the assault force just gave up? Why'd they do that?"

"None of your damn business. Why do you even care, you just want out of the swamp, don't you?"

You suppose that's probably sensitive information, and as rude as she might be, she's still a soldier. And she's got a point - knowing more about the conflict here isn't really one of your goals.

"I was curious, that's all," you say. "So when exactly did you lose track of her?"

"She went off to look for another way around. That was, maybe an hour ago or so. I haven't seen her since. But the Bogknights don't have her; I'd have noticed them making a fuss if they took a prisoner. Is that all? You got any more questions, or are you just going to start looking?"

Well. Is there anything you need clarified? And if you're starting your search, where's it going to be?

Find out what direction she last went off in. There can't be too many paths she could have taken.

"Let's narrow this down a bit more. Where were you when she headed off, and which direction did she go in? Might give us a better idea of where to look."

"We were... right on the edge, somewhere. Can't say exactly where, though. But we did see the bridge down there, where the guards are. She went away from the Knob - that's that hill you can see by the broken rope bridge - and I think she said she planned on sticking to the edge. Might have had to move inward to avoid being spotted, though."

So, in the opposite direction from where you just went. You peek through the leaves to see if you can spot anything over there.

Hmm. Well, you think you see something odd, but you can't tell if it's unusual for this swamp. What is it you've spotted, exactly?

bees!