7: One-Eyed Bog Daemons

Aubentag 9^th Pflugzeit

You took a bearing on the compass and saw that it led straight along the lake, but you decided that it was too muddy and treacherous to risk following that line so you stayed on the bank.

Balden took the tooth out and saw that it was wrapped in a page from the book ‘A Theory of Chaos’, and it read:

the tooth of the moon and use that to complete the ritual upon the egg and thereby should the egg be saved and Zahnarzt turned away from the face of the moon. But know that the daemon still lives and in exactly one thousand years at the time of the eclipse then the veils be parted once more and then it may return to the world.

You wondered that you might not have to worry about stuff happening for a thousand years but then you thought maybe it had happened a thousand years ago and was due to happen again soon.

Then Balden tried to remember the spell that Goffman had used to animate the tooth, and he said some magic words but they weren’t the right ones and the tooth remained still.

Looking at the map you decided you could just follow the lake along for a day’s travel and then cross the river and head towards what you thought might be a village on the road to the north west. But you wondered how accurate the map actually was.

You set out on your journey in the rain and soon saw that the empty lake had exposed a sunken village with a bridge that you could use to cross the river. But you decided that ploughing through the mud might be dangerous, and Kris had a sixth sense about danger in the village, so you kept to the lake shore.

You followed the river for the full day and found a decent place to camp. Balden found some nightshade and Heinrich found a frog you decided not to eat, so you tucked into your rations. As it grew dark you could see Morrslieb rise in the sky. It was still quite small and low to the horizon but you knew this second moon was considered a portent of doom. But you actually got a half decent night’s sleep.

Marktag 10^th Pflugzeit

In the morning it was raining a bit again. You had breakfast and Balden tried to remember the magic words for the tooth, and he succeeded. The tooth turned around and pointed in a direction, and then it seemed to crawl in that direction for a few inches, like a worm. And then it returned to its tooth-like state. And Balden got an uneasy feeling about it.

Instead of following the bearing you decided to use the map to head cross country and hopefully hit the village and the road that seemed to go in roughly the direction you wanted. As you went, though you were passed by a flock of hawks that purposefully circled you a few times and then flew off in the direction you were heading. You thought this was odd not just because they might have been following you, but also because hawks don’t flock.

After a few hours you managed to hit the road roughly where you were expecting to find it and saw a village in the distance so headed for that. The village was strangely empty, and you entered a house to find a still warn, half eaten meal for two of sea slug stew. That was Balden’s favourite so he ate some, and you all tried it and it wasn’t that bad.

Then you went around the village and it looked like the whole settlement had been deserted suddenly. You found the biggest house in the village and went through their larder and took a load of fresh supplies. And then Balden heard a noise coming from the stables, so you approached it cautiously and drew your weapons, and opened the door, only to see a horse bolt and run out of the village and head off up the road as fast as it could.

Then you set off up the road and after a few hours spotted an old lady by the side of the road. She told you her name was Benja and that she had been dancing, but had twisted her ankle and been left behind by all the other dancers. And she told you of a strange piper who had led everyone away from their village. And she wondered about her husband who was still with them.

And so Max and Heinrich told the others how they had encountered the piper in Marienburg, and how Max had been impelled to dance to the piping, but through a great effort, he overcame it, and then shot the piper and the piper had disappeared.

You decided the best thing to do was to help Benja back to her village, which was called Gruynbaak, because it was the only way she would get to safety before nightfall, even though it would lengthen your journey.

You managed to get to Gruynbaak before nightfall and Kris helped Benja with her ankle, and she made you a big meal which was by far the best meal you had had for ages. (And you realised you had stolen her sea slug stew earlier that day.) And you were pleased that the village had a palisade around it and a high watchtower, so you set watches and had another decent night’s sleep, but Max couldn’t seem to shake off his injuries.

Bakkertag 11^th Pflugzeit

Benja made you a good breakfast and asked you to look out for Berti, her husband, who had stayed with the dance and you said you would. And she also invited you to pop in on your way back, if you could.

So it was another drizzly day but the road was raised above the marsh and well kept so you made decent progress. In the afternoon you spotted a crowd of people in the distance and as you approached them you realised they were dancing. And there were some rats and boars and other animals and birds with them, too.

 And you spotted the piper who Max and Heinrich had met in Marienburg in the middle of the throng. You had the idea to stuff pipe-weed in your ears so that you wouldn’t be able to hear the pipe. You could still hear it, but it definitely helped. And as if at the command of the piper’s music, the dancers made a sort of corridor leading to him. As you approached Kris sang a Manannite hymn and that seemed to get the attention of the piper. But then he spotted Max and seemed to change his tune and aimed a song specifically at Max. But he was not swayed.  

And you decided that there was nothing for it but to charge the piper. So you all legged it through the corridor but as you did the dancers started punching and kicking you. And one of them hit Balden pretty hard, bruising his ribs. And the piper played another tune and Heinrich and Kris both decided to dance along. But Balden reached the piper and hit him with his sword and the piper disappeared, or turned into a flock of hawks, or something, and the music stopped and all the villagers and animals suddenly stopped dancing.

The villagers were a bit confused, but you managed to find Berti and he told you that the road led across a bog and you should beware the one-eyed bog daemons who appear at night or in the thickest fog. He told you the village of Grimpengratz lay on the other side of the bog a few hours away and you would need to set off soon if you were going to reach it before night fall. So the villagers all headed back to Gruynbaak and left you to continue over the bog towards Grimpengratz.

After about an hour you could see some dead horses in the road and a few dead bodies and a carriage that had toppled over into the bog. You could see that the first rider had had his head caved in by something large and heavy and the horse had had bits of flesh torn, or eaten, from its body.

Max climbed up onto the coach to see what was inside and he saw a young dead woman who had apparently cut her own throat. He retrieved her purse and found ten guilders and a letter.

Henrijk van der Groot, Paravon

My dear Henrijk,

I hope this letter finds you well. Please, I would ask you take care of Mirabelle until I send for her. I know you will do this gladly. Things are going from bad to worse in Marienburg. We have had rumours of a terrible celestial occurrence for a few days now, and they seem to be gaining credence. There have been riots and many of the those that can are fleeing the city. It is probably fanciful nonsense, but when it comes to my daughter I cannot take such a risk.

Felicitations,

Johannes

You had the vague recollection that the van der Groot house was a sizeable Marienburger trading company.

You decided you wanted to get out of there as soon as possible and set off as quickly as you could for Grimpengratz. On the way Balden filled you in on some of the legends of the bog. He said the one-eyed bog daemons don’t like the light and only appeared at night or when it was foggiest, and they lived in mist-shrouded castles in the marsh that were impossible to find and they kidnapped people and grew new bog daemons from them, which would have explained why the passenger chose to slit her own throat. He said there were lots of legends about them in the Wasteland and it was hard to know what was true.

And you had not gone too far when the mists suddenly began to close in and pretty soon you could barely see twenty yards ahead. You were wondering whether it would be best to creep quietly on your way or to simply leg it when looming out of the mist ahead of you you saw a large, sort of humanoid figure with a large axe. And you noticed several similar figures below you on either side of the road.

Balden drew his sword and attacked the creature, getting a good hit on it, but sensing the creature had tough hide. And Heinrich decided it would be best to try to hide, but on the exposed road and in the daemons’ element it was hard to find anywhere suitable. Max fired his arquebus and got a good hit, but again the creature seemed unmoved.

The creature hit back, attacking Balden with his axe, and as he fended that away the creature’s tail whipped round to hit him, but Balden managed to fend that off, too. And then Kris attacked with his boat hook, hitting the creature and then using the weapon to trip it up. And while the creature was struggling on the ground Balden stabbed it and Max shot it through its eye with his pistol, and the thing was dead.

But then the other four daemons scrambled up onto the road and attacked, and considering how tough the first creature had been to kill, you knew you would be hard-pressed to survive this. The creatures attacked and Max was hit particularly badly in his right arm, and Kris was wounded, too. Heinrich just managed to avoid a dangerous blow.

It was looking fraught, but suddenly a bright light erupted from the ground just behind you making the area around you almost as bright as a summer’s day. The creatures recoiled from the light and scurried away into the mist.

And you saw a rider with a wide-brimmed hat who told you the creatures would not be back. He introduced himself as Otto von Lufthanser and said you should hurry to the next village, but he had to wait for Doctor Balthazar. And in a few minutes, a cart pulled by a donkey turned up driven by an old dwarf. The dwarf didn’t look that happy to meet you.

And as the bright fire-thing that Lufthanser had thrown fizzled out, you loaded Max onto the cart, because of his wounds, and set off for Grimpengratz. In the back of the cart Max could see lots of alchemical apparatus. He tried to start a conversation with Balthazar about it but the dwarf wasn’t interested.

And you soon arrived in Grimpengratz. This looked like a larger version of Gruynbaak, with a stronger palisade and taller watchtower. And at its centre it had an inn, the Muddy Mule.

Lufthanser said it was the best inn for many miles but you just thought it was probably the only inn for many miles. He said he would find you there in a while, and you could explain what you were doing on the road through the marsh. He had been pleasant enough until then, but he said the last bit with a certain degree of menace.