Swamped

It's a compass, you think. But you can't make any sense of the symbols on it, and the needle's snapped in two.

Maybe it comes from the same country the book does. Not that you have any more idea of why a prisoner would leave it here. Surely the Master would search the cell?

No, wait. He wouldn't personally search it, because it's antimagic. He'd send someone without magic to search it instead. All a prisoner would have to do is bribe or fool that servant.

So maybe this book and broken compass are important somehow? Or at least something their owners wanted to keep out of the Master's hands? Seems worth looking into when you get a better chance.

Of course, your main question is how to get that chance. It's not as if Carma trusts you, and she's calling the shots around here. Then again, it's also not as if persuading Ash to let you go somewhere else is out of the question; you just need to convince him it's going to be good for him somehow.

Thing is, you don't even know what you'd be doing if you left, let alone how to sell Ash on it. So maybe you should give that a little thought.

Ask Ash if the vehicle has a galley or something where we could all sit and get some nourishment while we wait for Carma's battle with the gods to resolve itself. It'd be good to get Marshall and Long out of here and make sure they're healthy.

As for what's in it for Ash to help you... well, Carma didn't say to keep you here, just to keep an eye on you. And if she comes out on top in her heavenly contest, there's a chance she'll want help from all of us to oppose Shume and his ilk. And she may need that help sooner than she realized, so its to all our benefit if Marshall and Long are active and alert.

And look at it another way... she may lose her contest with the gods. Her whole plan could fall apart. In that case, we need allies and an escape plan. Our odds are better together. Surely by now Ash has seen that Long is not his greatest enemy, nor the Marshguards his most dangerous, with the Master running amok and the gods in reprisal.

Well. Your biggest problem right now is that Long is unconscious. You're not a medical expert, but you do know a few things - for all the ways you wronged Doc, being inattentive when she talked about her work wasn't one of them.

"Does this ship have an infirmary?" you ask Ash. "Or at the very least a galley for eating. Marshall's probably pretty hungry, and Long's likely to need something once he wakes up."

"Now hold on," Ash begins to protest, but you're already continuing.

"Carma just told you to keep an eye on us. Doesn't have to be here, does it? And if you help us with what we need, then we won't cause you any further trouble."

You don't feel the need to say just how much you wouldn't mind giving Ash further trouble. He should be pretty clear on that by now.

"Fair enough. I don't know about an infirmary, or medical supplies in general... but I do know where the galley is. But how are we going to get Long there? And what do we do about him?" He points to the unmoving Shume. "Who's to say he won't start moving again when we're gone?"

You glance down at the box. The coins don't seem to be moving - you wonder if the magic's entirely drained, or if you just need to do something to get them active again.

"If I can get that strange creature working again, I think it could carry one of them. Then you and I could handle the other. Would be easier with a stretcher, but we'll work with what we've got."

Ash looks skeptical.

"I really don't think Carma would be happy if I let you order around a magical creature strong enough to carry a human being."

"Well, we might be able to get the quiet kid and Marshall to help, but one of them is exhausted and only has one arm, and the other is... well, you can see for yourself."

Ash pauses for a while in thought.

"No, I can't agree. Not unless you can guarantee it won't attack me."

Well, you don't actually have an idea of how to get it working yet, so maybe there's not much point in bargaining. But either way, you should probably think about your next move.

It's true that we can't guarantee the creature wouldn't attack us. Shume wanted it brought to him, and he could likely exert more control over it than we could, especially if he's as powerful as he claimed. Maybe we should just leave Shume here (preferably without the coins).

I'm not sure we want to be around him if/when he wakes up. He wasn't overtly hostile to me, but he was a far cry from friendly. The two of us can get under Long's shoulders and carry him to the galley.

Also, it might be safer to walk the corridors now with Shume subdued than it was earlier.

Honestly - Ash has a point. He seems to be worried about you turning the creature on him - which you might, depending on what he does - but a bigger concern is that for all you know, Shume's commands could override yours if he wakes up.

On the other hand - well, there's a cell here specifically for wizards. The lock's broken, but it would weaken him even so. Then again, what if it also weakens whatever's keeping him stuck in place?

Well. You've got to get things moving along.

"Okay, guess I can't. So how about this - you and I get Long to the galley, Marshall keeps an eye on Shume here, and yells if he starts moving at all. We can also dump this box somewhere so Shume can't get at it if he wakes up somehow. Once we make sure Long's going to be fine, we can come back and drag Shume over."

Ash looks doubtful.

"There's a lot that can go wrong there."

"Lots of things could happen. But what I know is, there's two Bogknights in real bad shape. And I don't know what's happened with you, but you're still wearing a Bogknight uniform."

"I haven't had a chance to find new clothes," Ash grumbles.

"Maybe that's fate, then. Maybe it's telling you that despite all the disgraceful things you've done, you're still a goddamn Bogknight and you should act like one."

That seems to have touched a nerve. He's not happy, but he seems... resigned? He leans down and grabs Long's arm.

"We'll carry him by the shoulders," Ash says. "Think you can manage the box, too?"

"It's not as heavy as it looks," you say, grabbing it. "Let's go."

---

You're now Carma. You're on the deck, looking at the serpentine beast the gods have sent your way.

But it's not just any beast - this is a Giant. Not as big as the ship, but still at least eight to ten times your size. And this one flies, faster than you'd expect given how big it is.

The Giants are supposedly long gone from this world - the ones that remain serve as guardians of the gods' realm, or so the stories say. But apparently they have enough to spare for tests like this.

It seems to take notice of you immediately, stopping its assault and flying up to meet you. It's just staring at you now. Almost as if it's daring you to make the first move.

Well. You think you'll oblige.

Start with some freeform spoken word poetry. What it lacks in form, it compensates for with powerful emotional expression!

Also maybe go grab a harpoon in case this isn't that kind of fight.

You decide to start by announcing your intentions.

"I have renounced the Master; I only seek to aid Reth now. What is to be gained from this test?"

The Giant laughs.

"You mortals think it so simple. The gods need no help from you. Nothing you have done so far was beyond their power. All you did was save them a little bit of trouble. Do you really expect their favor for such trifles?"

"You speak of the gods as a whole. Does the will of Reth differ?"

"Reth is but one of many, however the greblings may see it."

"That doesn't answer my question," you say, holding your ground.

"No, it doesn't. What difference does it even make? You have no idea how fortunate you are that the gods even consider you worth testing. Few mortals receive such an honor."

"Perhaps that's why your masters were so sparse on details," you say, starting to back up. "They haven't had enough practice with this. What is this test meant to prove? My sincerity? My power? What do I stand to gain if I pass it?"

"You would be better served focusing on the test itself," the Giant sneers. "And I doubt speaking to me further will help you with it."

It then shrieks as the confiscated slicer strikes one of its wings.

"It was an adequate diversion," you say, readying your quarterstaff. "And it was useful in gauging my opponent."

The Giant settles down; the wing you hit was crucial to its balance when flying. A battle where it's grounded is significantly more favorable to you.

Now you just have to work out how to best make your next strike.

Keep your distance. Look for opportunities to use its own mass against it when it tries to strike you.

Against an opponent of this size, there are two main strategies.

The first is simply to strike quickly and often. It usually takes a lot of time for a large opponent to act, so you make the most of your opportunities in between their strikes.

You don't think that's going to work here - this is a Giant. Their reflexes are better than their size would suggest. That leaves you with the second strategy - let the foe set the pace, and strike back when they make a move.

It should be particularly effective against this beast, as its legs are quite small relative to its massive body. So its main weapons will be its head and tail... that or simply trying to crush you, but without its full flight capabilities, that should be easy to catch.

Or... it could clutch the deck and start making the ship shake. You hadn't seen that one coming. Still, you can see how to respond. You plant your staff in the ground, and use it to launch yourself right at the Giant's front leg.

The leg lets go, and the shaking stops a moment later. The giant withdraws in pain. Seems your best bet might be to take this one limb at a time.

---

You're now Corvus. And you and Ash are barely standing up after that last shake.

"I'm not sure this was a good idea," Ash says. "There might not be any good place to let him lie down at this rate."

"I definitely can't count on holding onto the box next time," you admit. "I'll drop it off in that empty room we passed earlier. Then we can figure out what we're doing next."

"It's probably closer than heading back to the cell at this point," Ash concedes. "So I'll take it."

You carry the box, and Long, over to the room, and put the box down in a corner. Then you lay Long down; it's not the best place, but it's all you've got right now.

So what do you do from here?

Take a break.

Honestly, right now what you probably need most is just a chance to sit still. You've been running around for - what - half an hour now, with barely any time to rest? At this rate you're going to wear yourself out, and then you won't be able to do a damn thing for Long, or anyone else for that matter.

You should probably do a quick injury check on him, though. You're fine after that last tremor, but he couldn't exactly tell you if he hit his head on something. So you sit down next to Long and start checking what you can check.

"What are you doing?" Ash interjects as you hold your fingers to Long's forehead. "That technique is at least eight years out of date. We have a better one now, much less risk to the patient."

"Of course it is," you mutter, as Ash takes over. "Everything in the Marshguards is out of date. That's what happens when your entire budget is whatever you can scrounge up in the swamp."

"The money doesn't help as much as you'd think," Ash shoots back, as he holds up Long's wrist. "It's hard to find personnel willing to work there. Even at the rates we pay, we get few recruits who haven't heard the call. Do you know, we've only had our night medic for five years? The last one stayed on for a decade past retirement because we had that much trouble finding a replacement willing to work so late."

"You get two medics. We've barely got one, and we're stretched so thin we can't even keep her off other duties. You think it's hard to find people willing to live out in a swamp, try finding people willing to live out in a swamp for no money at all. And that's not even getting into equipment."

"Your gear seems on par with ours."

"I'm not just talking about weapons and armor. Somehow we managed to get a good supplier for our actual combat gear, not that I've got enough clout to know any of the details. But everything else gets the short shift. Hells, it's probably even worse than I'm making it sound, considering I was surprised how bad it was when I actually talked to our support officers about it. To the extent we even have support officers."

Ash doesn't say anything. He's silent for a few minutes before speaking up again.

"Captain Long doesn't seem to have any major injuries, fortunately," he says. "I think he got a small bruise on his ankle in the shaking, but I doubt that's going to slow him down."

"That's good," you mutter. You're not sure there's anything else to say at this point.

Talk about the Call of the Swamp, and speculate what might be driving people to such an unfriendly place, what we're trying to protect or claim, and how it fits with the grebling conflict.

Also try patting Long's face to wake him.

"You know, I heard the call, too. I think about it a lot, what it really means."

Ash doesn't say anything.

"Every so often, I get a weird dream. I'm walking down a hallway in the Marsh Fortress that I've never seen before. And, I feel like there's something on the other end... something that wants me there. Don't have the faintest clue why, or what it is; the dream always ends before I get to the end of the hall."

You half-expect Ash to give you a look along the lines of "why should I care", but he seems strangely interested.

"You're not the only one. We've had a few knights return from captivity in the Marsh Fortress and report a dream like that. All of them said they'd heard the call of the swamp. So that's probably part of it."

"And that's what we're fighting over, isn't it. Whatever's at the end of the hall. That's what you want?"

"Only the Commander knows the full details of our mission. Even an acting commander doesn't get told anything more than necessary. But... it's always seemed likely that we wanted something in the fortress, rather than the fortress itself. And I think this Master wants it, too."

"You got any clue what it is?"

Ash falls silent. It takes him a while to talk.

"From what I saw in his city, the Master's people view him as a god. I think he wants that kind of power. I've got no idea where the Marsh Fortress fits in, but if it's protecting a power source of some kind... well, that's the sort of thing a lot of kingdoms would want to get control of. Of course, if we actually got it, I'm not so sure the mess of nations backing us would be able to agree on what to do with it."

A power source. Hmm. Maybe magic, even.

"But if that were it, why would this thing draw people to it seemingly at random? The only thing you and me have in common is our past, but we've both heard the call."

"How should I know? It's probably magic, and magic's weird when it comes to people. Hardly anyone's a wizard - how did the few with that gift end up with it? Nobody knows, least of all me."

You glance down at Long. A wizard, probably, who's heard the call of the swamp - and might even know exactly what's calling, to boot.

There's a lot he won't tell you, but if you're getting any real answers about this, well, he's your best shot.

So you start patting his face. Maybe it'll get him up sooner.

---

You're Carma again. The fight isn't going well.

It's funny. Avoiding this sort of retaliation from the gods is exactly why you turned your back on the Master. If you're facing it anyways, maybe this was a mistake. Maybe they're no better, in the end.

In fairness, you got a good few blows in, but the size difference is still hard to overcome. The Giant's only hit you twice, but both blows hit hard. If not for your training, you woudn't be standing by now.

Still, you're not one to dwell on what might have been. You're here, now, you've betrayed the Master, and you're fighting a Giant. You can't really change any of that.

All you can do is work out your next move.

Could you... drop a yard or boom on it? Or get it tangled up in ropes and ratlines?

You've been trying to win with only your own strength, but you've concluded that will take too long. You need more force.

You could use magic, but any spell potent enough to threaten a Giant is bound to damage this airship. And you can't think of anything a weaker spell could accomplish that the confiscated slicer can't do without squandering ether.

That suggests your best weapon is the ship itself. It's the one thing around here larger than the Giant, after all.

Unfortunately, the rigging isn't as elaborate as a sailing ship; it's mostly just the ropes tied to the balloon. No mast or crow's nest, either. Maybe you could trick the beast into hitting its head against the cabin, but the cabin might get the worst of that exchange.

The figurehead! That useless thing might be able to deal some damage, and it wouldn't affect the ship adversely at all to be rid of the Master's stupid face. If you can distract the Giant for a while, you may be able to pry it loose.

Well. That's a plan. So how are you to go about it?

Make a lot of noise.

The easiest way to cause a distraction is with a noise that can't be ignored. Thing is, a Giant probably won't be distracted by a slicer hitting something. So perhaps this is something your magic can help with after all.

You don't have the knack for illusion Shume did, but wind can be plenty noisy with only a little ether behind it. You just need to figure out the right place for it.

First, though, you need to get out of this thing's sight. Fortunately, it's about to make that easy for you by going for an attack. It lunges towards you and swipes with one of its claws, but you leap backwards and use a little bit of wind magic to make yourself go quite a bit further.

If you're lucky, the Giant thinks it knocked you back. Whether it does or not, though, a little bit of noise in the right place should get it wondering if that's where you landed.

That's when you fling the slicer hard, and give it a bit of a boost with some more wind. That should let it cause enough of a ruckus to get the thing's attention.

You pause only long enough to confirm that it works; the Giant is headed for the cabin when the noise strikes. Now you've got some time to get the damn figurehead loose. Your quarterstaff should make a decent lever, but you'll need to be careful not to drop the stupid thing off the ship. It'll take a lot of wind to get it moving back up here, and you'd rather save that ether for when you're flinging it towards the beast.

So you take a moment to consider how best to handle this operation.

Quickly use some of your clothing to make a makeshift noose around the master figurehead's neck.

A rope. A rope ought to hold it in place. The ones tied to the balloon are hard to loosen, though, for obvious reasons.

Well. Maybe you can get some use out of this sand cloak you've been carrying around in your pouch all day. The damned thing's too uncomfortable to wear outside of the desert, but a statue's not going to complain. You pull it out and tie it around the figurehead's neck, then tie the other end to the railing. Then you start prying it loose.

You're more vulnerable than you'd like right now; if the Giant catches on to your bluff fast enough, you could be in trouble. But you also can't afford to cut corners on this - you'll be in worse shape if you mess up.

"Don't think you can hide, mortal! If you won't stand and fight, I'll just bring down the whole vessel!"

You glance back and spot the Giant starting to climb one of the ropes. It's headed for the balloon. Good thing you stopped it from flying, at least.

The figurehead's starting to come loose, but you're not sure you can get it before the beast reaches the balloon. What should you do?

Jump onto the figurehead!

Suddenly, you have an idea.

It's far from the most ether-efficient solution. It's not particularly safe, either. And the Giant might well spot you before you're done. You're sure there must be a more effective way, all in all.

But you don't have time to think of whatever that better way is. So you pull your staff back, plant it on the deck, and use it to launch yourself right at the figurehead. It's sturdy enough to take a good kick... but after how much you loosened it, it's not in any shape to stay attached.

Of course, the sand cloak can't keep it in place any more, either. That's where the wind comes in. It requires almost as much ether as you can handle at once, but you manage to propel the figurehead upward, and angle it towards the Giant.

As you feared, the noise draws the Giant's attention, and it turns your way. Well, at least it's not going for the balloon any more. And you can probably salvage this.

The figurehead goes flying towards the Giant's head, but it quickly leaps from the rope to the deck below to dodge.

Perfect. That was the best move it could have made.

You leap from the figurehead as it flies away, and hold your quarterstaff out below you. With what ether you can spare, you guide your descent directly for the top of the Giant's head.

There's a loud sound as you collide with it, and then you see it collapse on the deck just before you lose consciousness.

Woohoo!

>Be Rider

You are now Rider. And you are still in the Path Between.

You didn't really need the crate - this "place", if it can be called that, isn't nearly so hard on the senses after a few journeys into it. But it might have helped Long or Marshall to get back, so you didn't bother clarifying.

Still, you hadn't expected an outright ambush here. The creatures native to the Path have never been hostile - the worst you ever had to deal with was a curious Florp trying and failing to absorb your boots. And even the few dangerous Traveler species you've come across never attacked without provocation.

But you hadn't really thought about the fact that humans can Travel through here as well. Or the fact that they could wait here if they knew you were coming.

Now, how they knew is a very interesting question. Especially as they ignored Corvus, which suggests they were specifically waiting for you. You have some thoughts on that, but first you have a more pressing matter to deal with.

Namely, how to get out of these magical ropes they've tied you up in.

With the help of a friend. Not a human or grebling friend, though.

Your captors seem somewhat less familiar with the Path Between than you. Several seem nervous. Perhaps they're first-timers, somehow protected from the physical effects it has on the senses. If so, that would be a shortsighted decision, considering the mental toll the Path can easily exert.

It would also suggest the local fauna are a source of worry to them. And indeed, you see that two are watching a Blodorn in the distance nervously - clearly they have no idea that despite its size, it's completely intangible.

So when you spot a Vahrn wandering near their makeshift camp, you let out a very particular sort of whistle to get its attention. The Vahrn responds by rising to its hind legs, and as it does, an identical Vahrn appears in the midst of the enemy.

Three panic and flee right away. Two attempt to poke it with their pikes, but they just pass through. Two more rush in from the perimeter to help, futilely, while another pair at the perimeter run off.

"Cowards! Get back here!"

Their commander, however, seems less afraid. He promptly fires an arrow towards the Vahrn in the distance; it gets struck in the forelimb and goes back down, the other one vanishing.

"Now listen here," he says to the remaining men. "There's nothing in this place more dangerous than me. I want two of you to go find the deserters and drag them here so I can clarify that point with them."

"I'm still here, sir!" one of them says defensively, rushing back. "I was just caught off guard by that thing."

"Then you can join the search party."

"Sir," protests one of the remaining ones, "that just leaves the three of us, including you, to watch the prisoner. We already had four wounded in the capture attempt. There's no way we can win if he gets loose somehow."

"And how are you expecting him to get loose if you're watching him carefully?" the commander asks accusingly.

You've seen this type before. Personally competent, but has no respect for the troops under him. It disgusts you.

It also disgusts you a bit that you had to persuade a Florp to absorb these ropes. The enchantment isn't strong enough to provide it a good meal.

The ropes soon weaken enough that you feel able to break through them, and you think the soldiers can't see the Florp. So you may have the element of surprise... but you can't be entirely sure. The commander seems like he might be clever enough to pretend he hasn't seen it when he actually has.

So how should you handle this?