Swamped

You quickly fling your slicer into a nearby tree. The Fenguin charges past, knocking you to the ground as it does, and rushes towards the tree, smashing it up.

Fortunately, that provides enough time for the Marshguards to regroup. A few fling their pikes at the Fenguin before running back; the rest just grab you and your group. Everyone rushes in through the fortress, and you hear the gates slam shut behind you.

"What's the commotion? Why aren't you at your posts?"

Everyone, including the Marshguards, freezes up at the sound of the voice. You've got no idea who it is, and can barely see ahead of you with all these Marshguards crowded together, but it's clearly someone important.

"Mantis, sir!" someone says. "We caught some Bogknights sneaking in. They provoked a creature... it looked like a Fenguin, only larger. And fiercer. It's still out there."

"Well, one thing at a time. Let me see the prisoners."

You feel yourself being shuffled to the front, getting a clear view of Mantis. He seems old, perhaps even older than John Recordkeeper. And he holds his hands in front of himself as though he's praying.

"So young," he mutters to himself. "It is a pity that you have all been caught up in our conflict. But, I suppose it cannot be avoided. Take them to the cells. I will deal with the beast."

"Yes, sir!"

You find yourself being dragged to the cells. You're worried, but also a little excited; you might actually find out something about your father soon.

"Wasn't there a sixth Bogknight?" one of the Marshguards mutters.

"We'll let Mantis worry about that," another snaps back. "I'm not going back out there while that beast is around."

"I knew it was a bad idea to launch an attack," mumbles someone else. "We've been seeing lots of weird creatures around lately. Things that just don't turn up in the swamp. We've seen sandsnakes, for crying out loud! And now this. It's just going to get worse."

"Quiet, all of you," one of them says. The voice sounds like the one that spoke to Mantis before. "There's no need to let sensitive information slip around the prisoners. Just take them to the cells and then you can gossip all you want."

There's a lot of griping, then silence.

You have to admit, though, you're rather curious about these out-of-place creatures.

Soon, you arrive in the cells. The Marshguards toss you all in a small room and one of them locks it.

"We'll sort you into separate cells later," he says. "There's a lot going on right now, and we can't really attend to you properly."

He gives you all a glare.

"I hope, for your sakes, it doesn't turn out that you brought that beast into the swamp. But we can address that when we question you."

And with that, the Marshguards step away.

"Sandsnakes," Dean mutters. "Another desert beast."

"If you're thinking something, Dean, share it with the rest of us," Walter grumbles. "Won't have much of a chance to do it quietly once they separate us."

"Some interesting facts I've been mulling over since the Fenguin turned out to be larger than I thought," Dean says. "I may have mentioned it, but the Greater Fenguin is supposed to be a desert animal. One of our captors brought up sandsnakes. And it occurs to me that while greatrats are pests everywhere, they thrive in the desert. As do tunnelers, for that matter."

"Are there bears in the desert, too?" Mary asks. "We never did figure out what that carcass was."

"Dunebears. I've heard of them, but I wouldn't be able to recognize one myself. But yes, I think you can all see where my thoughts are taking me."

"Desert beasts are coming to the swamp?" you ask, a little puzzled. "But I thought the desert was all the way on the east side of the continent."

"It is. There's a lot of ground to cover in between. Even if something were driving them out of the desert, why would they come all the way here?" Dean shakes his head. "But it's a common thread. We'll need to tell the base about it."

"I'd rather not wait to warn them before we get out of here," Jackson says. "But I doubt the Marshguards will send a message on our behalf."

"We'd have to get someone to their roost and send a crow out," Dean says, nodding. "Any ideas on how to pull that off?"

Are there any bars in the cell? If so, between all of you rocking one set in a rehearsed rhythm, you could probably break enough loose to slip out. Also if they come to get you in the racket, you could at least try to fight them by pretending someone escaped (hide them in the upper corner of the room or something, all ninja-like)

I know you don't know much about magic, but are portals a thing in your world? It seems like that might be whats happening here.

Walter looks thoughtful and starts pulling on the bars.

"Not that sturdy," he says. "Think we could loosen these if we found the right pressure points and all pulled on them at once. Enough for someone thin to slip through, anyhow. But, it'd probably mean some rough times for us if the Marshguards find out."

"Then I should go," Dean says. "None of you have been captured before. I know the layout well enough to get to the roost and back quickly." He starts pulling on the lower parts of the bars. "I think this might help?"

The bars start rattling.

"That's awful noisy," Jackson says. "And there's a lot of Marshguards out there who might hear it."

Indeed, you soon hear footsteps. Walter and Dean pull their hands away quickly.

"I'll hide," you say. "You can say I made a run for it. We can figure out what to do next after we see how they react."

You slip under a metal bench in a corner of the cell and wait. Two Marshguards soon arrive.

"One, two, three, four. Ringer, I thought we brought five prisoners in tonight, yes?"

The other one simply rings a small bell once.

"That's what I thought. Now, you didn't see one run down the corridor ahead of us, did you?"

Ringer rings their bell twice this time.

"I'm glad I have you to help me remember these things. So, keep an eye on them so we don't see any more slip out, all right? I'll see who else I can round up so we don't get foolishly outnumbered while we check their cell."

Ringer's bell rings once again.

"And, of course, if they try anything, you know what to do."

You watch as the one Marshguard wanders off. Your plan to surprise them isn't looking too great; you were planning to toss your boot at one if they came in, but you don't think you can toss it through the bars. Certainly not without Ringer noticing.

Mary leans back against the bench and whispers to you.

"Got any ideas?"

Well, do you?

The ol' classic feign illness ploy. Never fails.

"Pretend you're sick," you whisper back. "And hand me your ball, if they didn't take it."

Mary slips her ball towards you. It's not a dangerous weapon, really, but it should be enough to catch the guard by surprise.

"Urgh," Mary groans. "Not doing too well. Dean, is that Fenguin thing poisonous?"

"Greater Fenguins?" Dean seems puzzled, but only for a moment. "Well, not in their normal habitat. But you know, they do spray sand through their gills... if this one tossed swampwater out, and you had your mask off, well, it's possible you could be exposed to something."

Ringer raises their bell, but Walter moves quickly and grabs it through the bars. You toss a ball at Ringer's head, distracting them long enough for Walter to deliver a good punch.

"That'll buy us a little time, but we'll have to answer for it later," Walter says, going back over to the loose bars. "So let's get this loose quickly."

"Right," Dean says. He grips the lower portion of the bars. Jackson pulls out a length of rope from his sleeve and ties it around them, then pulls. You and Mary support him.

It's enough to make a small hole in the bars.

"Right, that should do it," Dean says. "Now I'll hurry to the roost."

"Get back quick, Dean," Walter says. "We'll have enough trouble if you aren't caught."

You're Dean now. The roost isn't far from here, but obviously, that other Marshguard will be coming back soon with backup.

Will you just head for the roost, or is there some way you can delay the guards first?

Start a controlled fire that creates a lot of smoke but is confined to a small area.

Smoke.

Fire is an ever-present danger here in the swamp, and even more in the wooden halls of the Marsh Fortress. At least back at base, most of the walls are stone.

But you happen to know that it's not just fire that can produce smoke.

The last time you were home, you found a bouquet of mistflowers waiting for you. You never did figure out if they were from an unknown admirer, or a would-be prankster who didn't know you that well.

The flowers collect a lot of moisture, and when enough pressure is applied, that moisture is released as a beautiful white mist. That's when they're in the fields that they normally grow in, of course. If, on the other hand, they sit by an open window in a swamp for a month or two, they tend to pick up a good deal of other particles. Enough to make the mist greyer and dirtier.

You knew you'd have a use for it some day, and now seems to be the moment. You pull out the petals you'd been saving and start pressing on them. They disintegrate, leaving a mass of what seems to be smoke in their wake.

That should keep the guards distracted for a while as they try to find the fire. You start making your way to the roost, carefully watching and listening for guards.

It's quiet, though, probably because of the attack. You soon make your way to the ladder leading to their roost.

Now you have another problem, though. If anyone is in the roost, they're bound to see you climbing the ladder. But last time you were here, they didn't have anyone disciplined enough to fit the role of Postmaster. You can't be certain the roost is occupied.

So how can you find that out without climbing up or giving away your presence?

Bird calls. The right one should send the ravens into a tizzy. If someone is up there, they'll shut them up quickly.

Climb the ladder as fast as you can and hope the roost is unoccupied. Keep your eyes peeled for a boot or something heavy flying towards your face!

The simplest option is to make a crow call. A warning should do it. If the ravens panic, you'll hear the keeper try to calm them down. The rest of the base has bigger concerns than ravens right now, so you shouldn't draw attention to yourself; and even if you do, what matters is getting the message off before you get caught.

So you make the call. You don't hear a lot of calls back, which you suppose makes sense; the Marshguards don't have that many places to communicate with.

You also don't hear anyone trying to calm them. There might be a guard up there who doesn't care about the racket, you suppose, but you don't really have any better options right now than to hope.

You scramble up the ladder and find eight cages, four of them empty. Huh, must be some messages going out.

You glance at the signs on the cages. They don't seem to list cities, but rather organizations. Three of them you recognize as criminal groups; two are charities, of which one is currently empty. Two others, you can't place at all, but both of their birds seem to be out.

The last cage is marked "Bogknights", and it too is empty. Well, that's a problem.

Your only chance now is to make your note look like a real letter from a Marshguard. You recall that they get very upset with Marshguards who read each others' mail, but you can't help but think messages to the Bogknight base would at least be read by the officers.

So you'll want to make this sound innocuous. Luckily, when you were last captured you had a good conversation with a fellow called Shrike, who shares your interest in wildlife. You've been corresponding since, so it would be easiest to pass the letter off as one of his.

You just need to think of how to get the message across. You don't think you can mention the desert creatures directly, as that might be considered sensitive information and your whole ruse will be blown if they give Shrike an earful about the letter.

So what can you say?

Use a code!

You think on what you know of codes. Mostly you know their historical use; cryptography isn't really one of your core interests.

But you do recall a system used by rebels under the Aedran Empire. One where they arranged cards in a deck to spell a message, then passed the deck off to a contact.

You don't have cards on you, of course, but you've got a few tricks. You start writing, but intentionally make some letters look noticeably off. Shrike's got a shaky hand, so this shouldn't draw suspicion by itself.

The marked letters won't spell anything apparent; that's because only every other letter is part of your message. And those letters are spelled out in the card code, anyhow. On top of that, you've used the old Aedran notation.

It's a bit excessive for an improvised system, but Lisa or Grey should be able to work it out quickly, once they know you're the sender.

That leaves you with one problem. How are you going to make it clear this letter is from you, without arousing suspicion on this side?

extol at length about the interesting, if fictitious, behaviour you saw of some kind of swamp fauna - not anything dangerous like the Fenguin, something innocuous like a swamphen.

Mention an inside joke.

extol at length about the interesting, if fictitious, behaviour you saw of some kind of swamp fauna - not anything dangerous like the Fenguin, something innocuous like a swamphen.

Actually do this but without realizing it. This is just part of normal conversation right?

Reference a book that you let Lisa borrow.

You ponder the question as you write out a fictionalized account of an unusual (but entirely plausible) encounter with a swamphen. It briefly occurs to you to make a deliberate and subtle mistake in the story, but you pass on that idea; they'd have a hard time believing you were that inaccurate, and would simply think that Shrike had misinterpreted something.

Ah, but wait. There was that error on the color of swamphen eggs in the old field guide, wasn't there? You mentioned it to Lisa not long before you decided to make an updated one based on your observations. You add a quick postscript.

"P.S. Didn't see her eggs, so I can't tell you if they were brown with black spots. Ha! Still can't believe that one."

Should be subtle enough to escape notice before sending it off, but at home they'll probably ask Pest Control about that line. You're not sure if Grey will pick that up, but Lisa definitely will, and she's bound to hear about it.

With that sorted, you leave the letter by the cage and head back down the ladder.

Only to run into Shrike.

"Well, well," he laughs. "If it isn't my old pal, the Dean. Now, what are you doing here outside of a cell, hmm?"

Despite your worries about being caught, you can't help but notice the opportunity here. If you can persuade Shrike to cover for you about the letter, that would make things quite a bit easier for you. You've got a good rapport going with him, so you might have a chance; on the other hand, if you give too much away, he might decide to reveal what you did, and then your message won't get out.

So what should you say to him?

Fess up about the letter, but lie about its contents.

"I came to your base to let the marshguards know we aren't stockpiling poison. And I need a way to let the bogknights know we made it...and that the marshguards aren't collecting poison in retaliation. The last thing I want is to escalate this conflict."

"I also figured if I'm going to have to pay for escaping, I might as well head to a place where a certain pen-pal would get the credit for capturing me. Can you make sure they send it?"

Once the letter is discovered, this puts Shrike in the position of needing to collude with you to avoid looking like he's colluding with you, and encourages him to claim the letter as his own.

Shrike shares your interest in wildlife, so it would make for good conversation while he takes you back to your cell.

"Saw a few things on the way over here. Did you hear about the Fenguin?"

You decide that it's best for him to know about the letter, but it may be too risky to let him know what's in it.

"I'm trying to clear things up," you explain. "I understand there's a rumor going around that we're stockpiling poison."

"Might have heard something like that, yeah," Shrike says warily. "What's that got to do with you being all the way over here?"

"It's my fault. I did gather a large supply of fly eggs, but it was for dealing with our greatrat infestation. We had tunnelers too, you see, and..."

"Get to the point."

"The point is, we're done with the poison. So, I wanted to make my way over here and let you all know that. The plan got a bit more complicated when we discovered you were already preparing an attack, though... well, anyhow, the point is I wanted to sneak off and let the base know I'd made it here, then just sit quietly and wait in my cell. Because I didn't imagine the Marshguards would be cooperative about me writing home."

"Can't argue there."

"Well, ah. The crow for the base has already flown out, so I left the message there. Um, in your name, because I couldn't very well use mine."

"And you want me to cover for you."

"In short, yes."

"Ha. Is that all? Fine. But you're not causing any more trouble, got that? I get teased enough for having a pen-pal in the Bogknights, don't need rumors. So I'm guessing it's addressed to you?"

"That was the plan."

"Fine, fine, I'll say I left it before hearing you were captured."

"And, um, could you tell them you found me outside the cells? If you tell them I was near the roost, they'll get suspicious."

"Right. Even better, let's head back that way. I'll 'catch' you there and we might even be lucky enough to have a witness. Of course, if you slip away from me, deal's off."

"Fair. Let's go."

You were hoping to have a talk with Shrike, but he's got a good point. You sneak back around, while he checks ahead for other guards who might spot you too soon. Before long, you're back at the hallway leading to the cells, and there's a group looking around.

"Here's good," Shrike says. "I'll head back down the hall. You run towards me in about a minute, then I'll 'spot' you."

He slips away. You count for roughly a minute before running in his direction.

"Bogknight!" he shouts. It genuinely startles you, which should be good for makng this convincing. You make a show of panicking for a moment before turning around, at which point five other Marshguards are running your way.

"I give up! I give up!"

You hold up your hands in surrender as the Marshguards approach. Shrike laughs.

"Well, look at this!" he says. "It's my pen pal, the Dean. Had no idea we had him here. And just after I finished writing my letter to him!"

"Ugh," one of the other guards says. "Last time he was here, you two wouldn't shut up. Hope I don't get guard duty with you."

"It kept him well-behaved," Shrike snickers. "Why, just look at the trouble he's getting into without my good influence."

"Wouldn't have happened under normal circumstances," the other guard says with a growl. "But we were too short-handed tonight to keep a proper crew ready at the cells. And that damned smoke trick didn't help matters when we finally started getting organized. At least we've got the others separated now."

It sounds like you won't be heading out again. Good thing you got that message sent off.

You're dragged back through the cell block and flung into a solitary cell now. You can see Mary, Walter, and Jackson in three other cells nearby...

"Where's Marshall?" you ask, just as they slam the door shut.

"Razor's got some questions for 'em," says the guard. "Should be back in twenty, though I can't make any guarantees as to how many pieces your friend's coming back in. Now, keep your trap shut, unless you want to be next."

Razor? Why is one of the Marshguard elite questioning Marshall? Are they that shorthanded with the assault force they've sent out?

Or is Marshall that important?

You're now Marshall, and you're in deep trouble.

"Rider wants you for some reason," says the man ahead of you. He's got short black hair, a scar on his face, and a very sharp sword in his hand.

You also have a vague feeling that you've seen him before, somewhere else, long ago. But you don't think it's likely he'll give you a chance to ask him any questions about that.

"Now, why do you think that might be?"

"We've met before, outside the swamp." Keep things vague.

The truth is, you don't know. YOU came to the swamp to find Rider. Really, you have no idea why the person who abandoned you wants to see you now. You hope its because he cares for you, but...if he's known you've been in this swamp this whole time, why hasn't he just called you over before then, aside from all this sneaking, kidnapping and bag of secrets!

He's associated with your father's disappearance some years ago, and... that's all you know for sure. Among the many things you DON'T know is how Rider knew you were coming to the Swamp.

"I don't know," you say. Your interrogator doesn't look pleased, so you clarify quickly. "I have a guess, but it doesn't make any sense to me."

"Share it. I'll tell you if it makes any sense."

"Seven years ago, my father disappeared. On that night, I saw a bright green swamp beast near our home. I came here after hearing rumors of the Rider and his beast, and having seen it for myself... it looks the same."

"Seven years, you say." He looks thoughtful for just a moment before regaining his grim expression. "But you said you had a guess at Rider's interest in you. That didn't sound like a guess to me. Spit it out!"

"Well... For some time now, I've wondered..."

"Get to the point!"

"I think he's my father!" you blurt out. You're a little surprised at yourself. "But that's probably wrong. I heard the Rider's been here for more than seven years..."

"Enough! I asked for your guess, I don't care what you think about it." He starts pacing around, though you can't help but notice he's keeping his sword drawn. "Let's move on to some more basic questions, shall we? About you and your place in the Bogknights, not to mention what you're doing here. Though you've already given me quite a few answers in regard to that last one."

He stops pacing and looks you right in the face. Your attention is mostly on his blade, though.

"What is your name?"

"Marshall," you say nervously.

"Your full name."

Do you tell him the truth, or attempt to lie?

This guy is aggressive. While that may just be the way he interrogates, you don't know much about his rank or Marshguard politics however, you do know your answers need to protect Mudviper. She took a huge risk in allowing some bogknights to slip through, essentially sabotaging the entire marshguard attack. If the marshguards suspect that someone betrayed their army for a personal objective, it wouldn't go well for anyone.

Stick to what you told the Bogknights when you first arrived. You don't have a last name. You suppose they would have called you Marshall First.

Pretend you dont have a last name.

pretend you don't have a first name