The Thrappled Lemmings and the Swampland (Rangers of Shadow Deep)

 Aethelwyrd observed as her warband bandaged their wounds and sorted themselves out. They only had a brief time to prepare for the next part of this mission, and then they must be off. Ahead she could see various points of interest that she should map, but there was deep water between the Thrappled Lemmings and those. Worse yet, there looked to be something like zombies in the way too.

"Ok, my Lemmings, we need to get going. This mission is not going to complete itself."

She led the way into the brackish water and hoped that none of the Lemmings would sink. As they descended the last part, the choking fumes from the swamp started to take their toll. Kalfr, Aelfwyn and Ash were all overcome by them and started to look distinctly peaky.

Swimming lessons for the Thrappled Lemmings

Despite inhaling too many noxious fumes, the Thrappled Lemmings started out making good progress with their doggy paddle across the deep water. However, the zombies spotted them and started shambling in their general direction. And then a patrol of Orcs appeared. This was not looking good.

Aethelwyrd, Onund and Kalfr were the first to make it to land. As they did so, they came under fire from the Orc archers, and the Orc warrior charged towards Onund waving its spear wildly and yelling obscenities in the peculiarly musical Orc language. The hostiles advanced faster, and an Orc shot Incunabulum, but fortunately, it was just a flesh wound. Ash managed to reach the shore and quickly threw his throwing knife at an oncoming zombie. He scored a hit and part of it fell off. Meanwhile, Aelfwyn and Incunabulum were struggling in the water.

Incunabulum and Aelfwynn were not paying attention during swimming lessons

Kalfr quickly disposed of a zombie, and Onund slashed the Orc warrior across its chest so that blood spouted from it. Aethelwyrd charged the injured zombie and quickly found it tougher than she though as she received a bad cut from its filthy claws. Kalfr then disposed of another zombie while Aethelwyrd was wounded again, and the Orc warrior managed to wound Onund. Aelfwyn made it to dry land, but Incunabulum continued to struggle in the water, finding that the reason was a zombie trying to drag him under.

And then they heard buzzing as a giant fly had followed them down the stairs. Aethelwyrd and Aelfwyn still faced the unusually strong zombie, but not for long as Aelfwyn fell and left Aethelwyrd to face it alone. Kalfr disposed of the Orc archer facing him but fell almost immediately to an arrow from the other archer. Ash managed to slay the Orc warrior, while Incunabulum and the zombie continued to wrestle in the mire with neither gaining the advantage. As Incunabulum struggled, another zombie emerged from the muck to try to drag him under.

Aethelwyrd finally slew the zombie she faced and turned to survey her companions with a feeling of dread. As she did so, she saw Incunabulum dragged beneath the water by the two zombies. He did not resurface and they lost interest in him, turning instead towards her. The giant fly attacked Ash, who swatted it and Onund charged the remaining Orc archer. As he reached it, he suddenly found he had stepped in a sinkhole. As he struggled to free himself, the Orc archer felled him. Aethelwyrd and Ash had both spotted points of interest and were racing towards them, pursued by the zombies. And then it started to rain heavily.

Aethelwyrd's target turned out to be a corpse wearing a signet ring. She took it to return to the next of kin. Ash found some strange flowers that they could study later if they survived. As Aethelwyrd prepared to move on, a sinkhole opened up under her. She was pinned and struggled even as a zombie approached. As if that was not bad enough, the Orc archer had started shooting at her.

Time to skedaddle

She managed to break free and turned her attention to the nearest zombie, which she cut down. Then she raced away as Ash did the same, pursued by Orcish arrows.

Much later, the group straggled in to the point they had agreed they would meet at if separated. It was fortunate that the zombies could not tell an unconscious person from a dead one, so they wandered off once the warband had stopped moving.

Incunabulum was the first back. He was dripping wet and exhausted but otherwise not seriously hurt.

"I knew training to hold my breath for ten minutes would come in handy!" he announced, undaunted by his near death experience.

Kalfr was twitchy and unhappy when he returned. He was clearly doing badly from a psychological perspective. Onund and Aelfwyn were unhappy, but seemed none the worse for their ordeal. As the others drifted in, Aethelwyrd made notes in her journal about the route they had taken and studied the flowers. She made notes about them too.

Finding a quiet place to rest up, the Thrappled Lemmings prepared themselves for the next day and a hike further yet into the Shadow Deep. They were not looking forward to the ordeal, but at least they had reached the edge of the swamp so their feet could remain dry.

Oh boy, that was rough. From failing swimming rolls to getting beaten up by zombies to falling into sinkholes, if anything could go wrong, it did. Some days you just cannot roll well to save your life! And now Kalfr has a psychological trauma that reduces his Will by 1 point. The only thing that helped was the rain, which spoiled the Orc archer's shots. Hopefully, the next day will be better for our heroes.