Swamped

there's a location where there a lot of them out in the swamp, but it's almost as dangerous as in here

you're prepared!!!!! for anything.

you got 7 kilos of the stuff in your closet, right next to your death mold petri dishes and a pile of shed swamp adder skins

Well, fly eggs float, so if you have a fine net you can kind of skim some up...?

You smile.

"I know where their main breeding grounds are. You just need a fine enough net and you could pick up thousands of eggs."

"Uh-huh. And what if you draw the attention of the adults? I'd imagine the breeding grounds have more than a few of those around. Plus, it'll take time to get there and back." He looks at the rat pile. "I'd rather take care of this as soon as possible."

"I know the place well. I'll get my team out there and we'll gather eggs. We'll be back in an hour."

"All right, but if you're not back by then, we're going to have to try something riskier. So move fast."

You get your team and head for the docks, explaining the plan along the way. You'll need the barge to get to the breeding grounds in time, but as this is an emergency, you don't expect it to be a problem.

The nets aren't an issue; there are some near the training pool, specifically to get fly eggs out if they somehow make their way in. They'll serve your purposes just fine. Each member of your squad takes one, and then you head to the docks.

That's when you run into a problem. There are greatrats roaming on the barge. You can see three out on the deck, and for all you know there might be more in the cargo hold.

You don't see anyone on patrol here. If you're lucky, they ran to get help once they saw the rats. If you're not... it might already be too late.

You wonder if you should take the time to get some backup. It's standard procedure... but you're also specifically trained to deal with these sorts of pests. Maybe your group can handle three. It would be faster if you could, and time is of the essence.

Will you go back to get help? And whether you do or not, how are you going to handle these greatrats?

Well, you don't even need to kill all of them, really, just get them off the barge so you can use it. Scare them away?

send a decoy to lure them off the barge and then drive off. the decoy knows how to outrun a few greatrats, you'll just be down a man for fly egg collection

sneak around under the boat it capsize it with your entire teams combined effort!!!!
wait 40 seconds for the greatrats to drown, then flip it back up and get going.

You have some thoughts, but you want a second opinion. You turn to Grey, as you trust his expertise.

"Grey. I've got some ideas here for dealing with these rats."

"Yeah?"

"Well, we don't actually need to kill them. We just need them off the barge. We could frighten them, with a loud noise, perhaps..."

"And then they run into the base, where they might catch someone by surprise. No good unless we can spare someone to warn them."

You nod. Grey's got a good point there.

"In that case, we're probably better off if one of us draws their attention. It'll slow down the egg collecting, but if someone can run fast enough..."

"And what if they run into more rats prowling around the base?"

"That's less likely. Most of the rooms have been scoured, and the tunnels are under guard now that we've found the nest."

"I still don't like it, but at least our runner is a volunteer in this plan. I can't think of anything safer, though. If we were dealing with a smaller boat, we might be able to flip it over and knock the rats into the muck, but that's just not practical with the barge."

"Right. So we'll go with a runner, then." You look at your other four squad members. "I'd take on this risk myself, but I'm the only one who knows where the breeding grounds are, and we don't have time for me to explain the route."

"I'll go, sir," Grey interjects.

"I've seen you run, Grey. You're a good knight, but you're a slowpoke. So that leaves you four. Who's the fastest runner among you?"

Why its Florentine Greenbags! His baggy pants oft lead him to trip, but when he gets in a run'n mood, boy howdy can that fella dash a noodle outta here!

It's Tagly Muster, well known for being the 8th fastest runner in the Bogknights (not well known at all, but they sure do like memorizing those ranking charts)

(i keep forgetting if we're bogknights or marshguards...)

Wakandi (most people call him Andy), he wound up here from a distant jungle land that is known for it's athletes. He spends a lot of free time at the climbing wall and jogging about the wooden paths. He joined up with pest control in an attempt to show the Bogknights that there are other methods to dealing with animals than extermination (and if killing is necessary to make use of the animal's corpse and honor it's spirit.) He always volunteers for stuff like to prove himself as a trustworthy peer, as his skin color and unusual cultural traditions makes him stick out among the mostly homogenous Bogknights like a sore thumb.

"That'd be me, sir," Florentine says, stepping forward and tripping. You let out a sigh.

"You're also the most accident-prone, Greenbags."

"Not when I'm running, sir. Instinct takes over. Don't know how else to describe it."

You feel unsure, but that's why it's good to get a second opinion.

"Grey. Your thoughts?"

"He's not lying. We were cadets in Lanzen together. They'd never seen anyone take the obstacle course at his speed, and he didn't stumble once. Until they called him over to congratulate him on his record, that is."

"I'll trust your judgement, then. Greenbags, lure those pests off the barge while we get the controls. And then warn anyone you can find."

"Yes sir!" He salutes. "I know just the thing, too. I've got an excellent rat call. Just get ready to board."

You all duck behind a crate near the gangplank, as Florentine cups his hands to his mouth and makes a rat call. The rats rush off the ship in search of food, and Florentine takes the opportunity to fling his knife at one of them.

It hisses and growls, and the other two follow its lead. Florentine rushes off, with the rats in pursuit, leaving you free to man the barge.

Assuming there aren't more rats in the hold, that is. You assign Grey to keep watch while you take the wheel and drive out towards the breeding grounds.

The trip is thankfully quiet; there's no noise from the hold. However, as you approach the breeding grounds, you spot some Marshguards on a walkway not far off.

They don't seem to be preparing an ambush, but a fight would slow you down. Fortunately, they don't seem to have spotted you yet. In fact, it looks like two of them are having an argument.

Still, the barge is hardly stealthy. They're likely to spot you as you draw closer, and even if you were to get past them now, they might be waiting for you on the way back.

How are you going to handle this?

try diplomacy, cite the unwritten rules of swamp combat and that you're fighting monsters back at the base so you need to pass just this once. (they might use the information to plan an offensive in morning though, once the monsters are dealt with)

Call them out by name and say, "Hey, ____, hows it going? Love to catch up with you guys later but you know how it is, greatrats and shit"

Dissention among the Marshguard ranks eh?

Well they're not a full fledged core so it's to be expected but...the real worry is why are they at the breeding grounds, and if they see you harvesting fly eggs they'll probably assume you're trying to use it on then later.

The /last/ thing you want is to start a poisoning arms race in the middle of the swamp. It's fortunate poison has been avoided by both sides so far.

You could try and scare them off. They don't know how many knights you have on the barge, you could raise a bunch of noise and try to scare them off...but that would certainly attract the attention of the adult bog flies.

What's more worrisome, however, is the fact that they're here at all. You know that they have a swamp beast rider and...burrowers...the base has never had an issue with burrowers before...they aren't all that dissimilar from swamp beasts in some regards.

You need to get poison and get out fast. And not be detected.

It's risky, but park the barge and take the dingy to cast the net. Then hop back in and leave. Don't forget to mask-on.

You stop the barge. You've got a lifeboat on board, after all. It won't be as fast, or as good for carrying nets full of fly eggs, but it's important not to be spotted.

You leave Grey in charge, and lower the boat into the water. Nina volunteers to help you with the boat.

You slip by quietly, and you don't seem to catch the attention of the Marshguards. Perhaps this is because they're caught up in their argument, which you can hear as you draw close.

"You can't be serious. Rider told us to stay away from the breeding grounds."

"Rider's a fool. If we don't get those eggs, the Bogknights will, and they'll use them against us. It's better to strike first."

"You really think the Bogknights would try to poison us? Burgundy never played dirty like that, and he hated us. If he wouldn't do it, I can't imagine Long pulling that kind of trick."

"Long's just trying to get us off our guard. You can't trust the Bogknights as far as you can throw them."

Well, this has revealed a new problem, one you hadn't thought of up to now. If they spot you, the brash Marshguard is going to take it as proof of his wrongheaded theory.

It might be better to just speak to them and tell them what you're doing. They won't believe it, but you might at least be able to strike some kind of deal to get back to base with the eggs.

On the other hand, if they know the base is recovering from a rat infestation, they might use that as an opportunity to launch an attack. It's not a small risk.

And, of course, you don't exactly have a lot of time to make any decisions.

Do you proceed forward, knowing that you risk escalating the conflict if you're spotted? Or do you parley, and take the chance of alerting the enemy to the fact that you're not at full readiness?

Sheesh! Everything is going wrong today. Proceed forward as sneaky as possible! But you'll need to distract those marshguards, so keep a lookout for a way to do so. If you could find some sort of critter which you can kill and squirt its blood onto the marshguards then that would get a swarm of the bugs chasing after them, at least until they wash that stuff off, which they won't since you'll be squirting it on them discretely!

So, half of the duo is nervous about coming to the nesting grounds huh?

You had brought some fly bait to distract the adults. This might work in your favor.

The 'guards are too far for you to chunk the bait at them, but Nina has something that can launch it a little farther.

Pellet the water near the marshguards with some flybait, and wait for the adults to come by and take notice. That will scare the two off.

You can then harvest some eggs to take back to the barge without being detected.

Using nature as your weapon. This is why you joined pest control.

There's a good chance the paranoid one will suspect fowl play, especially if they catch the splash first. If they come back to investigate and see a patch of harvested eggs - they'll be convinced they're right.

But that will take a day or more...hopefully enough time to clear out the greatrats, and get back to operating force.

Inform them of the rat infestation. You can deal with an attack later, should it arise. Nobody has died from combat in the swamp from years, but there are a couple greatrat deaths still present in your mind from back in your training days.

You decide to go for stealth. You've already got what you need to improve your chances.

For starters, you've got a dead rat. You grabbed it to use as bait for the adult flies while you harvested the eggs; but it occurs to you that they'd also make a good diversion for the marshguards.

And Nina happens to have a crossbow.

You tie the pouch with the rat to one of her bolts and make a hole to let out the stench. Nina fires in the direction of the guards, intentionally aiming for the water. Then you start rowing away.

You can already hear the buzzing as the flies swarm the carcass. You can also hear the panicked shouts of the Marshguards behind you. They'll be too preoccupied to notice your boat, especially as it's still dark.

It's not long before you reach the breeding grounds. You fill as many nets as you can with eggs, being careful not to break them.

Then you head back to the barge. You don't have time to raise the lifeboat, so you just leave it in the water; it'll have to be retrieved later, after you report on everything. The Captain's going to want to know about what happened.

You make your way back just a little before the deadline. You toss the nets at the greatrat pile while everyone else stands back, and before long the poison does its work. There's nothing left but greatrat corpses.

You talk with the other squads and agree to just leave the corpses for the burrowers. It's not clear what you should do about them just yet. They're not likely to collapse the hill, and they won't harm anyone so long as you keep a safe distance, but the tunnels they're digging might allow in more unwanted guests.

Still, that decision isn't really yours to make. The officers are going to have to contend with it. Just as well, you think; you've had enough problems to deal with in one night.

You also write up a quick report to the Captain explaining your acquisition and use of fly blood toxin for pest control, and that the Marshguards may mistake this for an attempt to use poison as a weapon. While you're at it, you draw a quick map to where you left the boat so you don't have to retrieve it.

Finally, once all the rooms are checked for holes and stray greatrats, you head to your room so you can get some sleep. You recall volunteering to share your room with a displaced knight if it's needed, so you're not that surprised when you find Tom Eighth on the floor with a sleeping bag.

"There's greatrat piss in my room and they told me it's best if I stay out until it's cleaned up," he grumbles at you. "So, they sent me here."

"Well, they're right. Greatrats carry all sorts of diseases. Wouldn't want you forgetting about that puddle in the middle of the night and stepping in it and catching something nasty, right?"

Eighth doesn't say anything else. He just lies there. You can tell he's not in much of a mood to sleep, but he's had a busy night himself.

"You can have the bed if it makes you more comfortable."

"No," he mutters. "I'm fine here."

You decide to let it go at that, and just head to sleep. Hopefully you won't have another night like this for a while.

It's mid-afternoon. You're Marshall again, and you've just woken up after last night's ordeal. Everyone's schedule has been thrown off by the alarm, not that you have one formally any more.

What are you going to do with your day?

You've done a lot of training, and working, but the action last night confirmed one thing for you: you can still fight.

There's still the decision to be made, however, about if you want to stay or not...

You've heard people talk about the "call of the swamp"...is that what your father heard?

Grab your equipment and seek out Burgundy. You want to go outside.

Ask an officer what they want you to do! Help with closing a burrower hole???

It seems like it might be a good day to relax and do some more reading.

You get out of bed, a bit more easily than last night, and look at where you hung your throwing glove. You didn't have time to get it back to the armory, though the clean-up crews will no doubt recover your skyslicer.

This was your first time actually fighting since you arrived here. And you weren't useless. You might not be winning any fights on your own, but surely there's still a place for your throwing skills on a team.

But you're not ready to think about that just yet. You know there's still a good deal of cleanup to be done today, so you decide to see how that's coming along.

The first thing you realize is that it's hard to find any officers. Asking around a bit, it seems most of them got called to an emergency meeting after the rats were dealt with and so they were up even later. The most senior officers awake right now are Tom First, John Recordkeeper, and the night medic, who's staying up into the day because John Medic was called to the meeting.

As to the cleanup, most of the filth the greatrats left behind has already been dealt with - except Tom Eighth's, as he's insisted on being present for cleanup in his room. The holes are another matter, but that's a job for the repair squads. Though the discovery of a burrower den under the base seems to be making that a more complicated process.

You still want to help out, but you're not sure what you can do. It seems to already be under control. You suppose the simplest thing is to find one of the acting officers and ask for orders.

So who are you going to talk to?

have we met the night medic yet? if not, lets introduce ourselves