(PRP) Bog of Eternal Stench

[Yumyumcrow]

Beyond the Meat Market, with its heavy airs and vapours, and where churned mud ran red with blood, lay the swamp. The land dipped and the sodden earth turned brackish, malodorous waters ran over everything and razor grass overran everything. The Hedge was transformed into a sucking maze, hemmed in by aquatic grasses and four mists. There were islands in the mists; safe place rising from the swamp.

The map held true and led Milo Chernabog Xander and Daniel Leto to the island of the tower.

The tower leaned drunkenly and bent, several stories high. Someone has been working on the tower's topmost chamber for the roof has been rebuilt and a portion of scaffolding remains in place down one side. At its base several tents and crude lean-to's had been constructed from materials that lay half submerged in the muck. Indeed, if one took into account the shape of the island and the curious rubble lining it, one might imagine that a great fastness lay sinking into the swamp and that this, last remnant, was all that remained at the surface.

As with all things in the Hedge, the truth was hard to discern.

Movement!

On a stoney plinth a fire has been made. With crude ingenuity a cauldron is suspended from it, smoke broiling from it in an overly exuberant display, like dry-ice. A strange person dressed in the tattered and stained raiment of a reveller from a Venetian Carnival, is making a soup. In a horrid Hagrid voice, he is choking the life out of Scarborough Fair.

From behind the lean-to's a burly, reptilian woman emerges carrying a fishing rod and dragging something big and slick behind her.

Over to you, guys. Place yourselves where you wish

[Daniel Leto]

Daniel was low to the boggy ground. The smell of peat filled his nose, though after the visceral reek coming off the Meat Market that was a blessing. He was just as glad they had avoided the marketeers. Daniel still remembered Gianna's reaction to the mere mention of the Goblin Market.

He didn't dare actually go into the swamp. Instead he stayed to the edges of the island paths where mist lapped at the shore just as much as the brackish water. It was slow sneaking up on the sinking tower, using a crouching walk that hurt his legs a little. He kept what cover he could between himself and who ever might be in the tents. When movement caught his eye, the Gravewight froze and the fog from his mantle curled and seemed to envelope him.

One... two... still missing the third man but hopefully he'd emerge soon.

For now, let's see what we shall see.

Daniel's eyes shone as they took in the scene. He looked past the obvious, letting his mind take in the symbolic omens that existed everywhere in the world but were normally too subtle to notice. Daniel focused his divining talent on the first person he saw, Carnival Guy.

OOC

I'm assuming it's currently night in the Hedge. If not, let me know and I'll start adjusting my rolls.

  Vision of Strife 1 success, -1 Glamour

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-02-16 07:26:15		Daniel Leto rolls 7 to Wyrd3+Empathy4+Pledge1-unclear view1 (10 Again)		7, 7, 6, 10, 3, 6, 2, 5		1 success

  Sneaking 2 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-02-16 07:30:46		Daniel Leto rolls 5 to dex+stealth+darkness specialty (9 Again)		7, 8, 10, 2, 6, 1		2 successes

[Milo Chernobog]

This was beyond disgusting.

Carnal odors wafting from the meat market and now the fetid and stale odors of the swamp assaulted the Fairest's senses. Milo's face was twisted into a disgusted grimace as they made their approach that even his Rigid Mask could not hide.

Thankfully though, nobody was going to see Milo's disgust one way or another. His signature contract up, and the shadow was in his comfort zone lurking behind whatever cover he could find. He kept one eye on Daniel as he scanned the people under the tower, but the other eye was trained on the bog.

The tower being on an island meant he'd have to wade through this gunk.....

  Shadowpatch up, 4 suxx stealth

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-02-17 00:04:23		Milo Chernobog rolls 12 to Sneaking! (Dex+Stealth+Shadow Spec+Shadowpatch) (8 Again)		3, 9, 10, 4, 10, 4, 6, 4, 2, 8, 5, 6, 4, 1, 7, 7		4 successes
2016-02-17 00:03:46		Milo Chernobog rolls 5 to Shadowpatch (Wits+Wyrd) (10 Again)		6, 1, 7, 6, 9		1 success

[Yumyumcrow]

The fetid airs and grey/green hued sky was dim enough not to trigger the Darkling's weakness to sunlight. Daniel Leto slipped through the filthy air unwitnessed and unimpeded.

Milo Chernabog was in his element. He slipped like an eel through the sucking mire, flitting from slick stone to spongey tussok with such ease and grace one might have thought of him as an inhabitant of the swamp itself. Moreso than the Gravewright, none noticed the Fairest's passing. He was just one more stagnant air, drifting through the murk.

Daniel's Contract does work on Carnival Guy, after a fashion. If he was anticipating a vision of a hapless mortal falling prey to the Fair Folk, he was to be disappointed. A vision of terror does explode upon his mind - of damp earth and the smell of green; of maggots and the sickly stench of decay; of exploding outward from a foetal prison and looking down upon a shattered and deflated body - a Faerie Queen no less, still and broken, rotting away. He had no idea who he was or what where his purpose lay. He could only tear apart the Queen's raiment and make it his own. He could only flee into the thorns, unknowing, uncaring.

The reptilian woman has reached the Carnival Guy. From the gesticulations it would appear they discussing how to cook what she caught on her fishing line.

[Daniel Leto]

What had he just witnessed? The masked man's birth? From the body of one of the Gentry! Was he some sort of parasite or was he the Faerie Queen reincarnated somehow? Daniel wasn't sure. The vision only raised more questions. Maybe Milo's Autumn knowledge would have heard of something like this.

Daniel breathed in and out, clearing his mind of the fear the vision had inflicted. There was still more to come. The Gravewight opened his eyes again, locking onto the reptile woman this time. His agreement with Omens held and. Like searching for the past in fish entrails and finding meaning.

  Vision of Strife 3 successes, -1 Glamour

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-02-17 09:53:13		Daniel Leto rolls 7 to Wyrd3+Empathy4+Pledge1-unclear view1 (10 Again)		7, 8, 10, 8, 2, 2, 6, 5		3 successes

[Yumyumcrow]

Unfortunately for Daniel Leto, his vision is so much clearer the second time around. He is bombarded by scenes that slid and crashed together like jack hammers, like thunderbolts slashing through his psyche.

There was a steaming swamp. And giant lizards. And insects the size of dogs.

There was the Pit. People Things howled and jeered in the cramped seats above. An endless parade of warriors meals to slay and feast on.

"I'm going home. I'm going home." She sobbed, struggling through the slime and the undergrowth. Home was a caravan close to muddy swamp, right next to the mangroves where she was taken. She is still crawling on her slick belly as she reaches the cream coloured trailer with its fairy lights gleaming in the dark. Don't look at the hands. Don't look at the hands.

She peers inside. Jimmy is there. And Jed, slouched watching the TV as always. She is up by the kitchenette making dinner. Only she's got reptilian eyes and teeth. She turns and looks at her and smiles.

"Fuck off, bitch! Get your ass off my property!" Its Jed. So mean with righteous fury. He's got his shotgun now. He's spitting words. "You don't come here and harass my wife!" She runs! Runs back to the Hedge. Its safer there! People are fucking crazy!

[Milo Chernobog]

Milo waited on his slick rock, waiting for Daniel's return. So far no one had raised the torches and pitchforks, which was good. Still, that didn't mean that no one would, and he stood at the ready just in case. Hopefully the baby could stay silent for just a bit longer.

[Daniel Leto]

That was definitely their Changeling. The booming of the images through his mind forced Daniel to close his eyes. Even then the visions kept coming. Anger, betrayal, fighting, rejection. The signs were all to plain to see in the shadowy images left by the campfire on the back of his eyelids.

Once the visions stopped, Daniel waited a few for more moments, hoping to catch sight of red cap. When the third man didn't appear, he started heading back to where he'd left Milo. It was unfortunate. If potato head was the face of the operation, not having intelligence on him was a set back. Daniel couldn't just sit in the muck all night though. They had a job to do.

If not for the fact that Daniel knew where abouts Milo should be, he probably would have missed the Fairest. Milo blended into the vapors of the bog like he were born there.

  4 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-02-19 01:45:26		Daniel Leto rolls 6 to Wits+Comp (10 Again)		9, 6, 8, 8, 7, 8		4 successes

"Milo," he whispers once he got close enough and wouldn't surprise the Lurker "Alright, no sign of Red Cap but I got reads on the other two. I saw carnival guy's birth." because apparently hobs remembered that sort of thing "There were maggots and rot all around him, then he emerged from the corpse of one of the Gentry. A Queen of some sort. He didn't know who he was or what he was supposed to do, so he stole the Fairie's clothes and ran into the Hedge."

"The crocodile woman is our Changeling. I saw signs of her durance. She was in some kind of swamp and also some kind of fighting pit where she killed and ate people. It wasn't really too clear. I also saw that she tried to go home. Someplace with mangroves and a trailers. There was a guy named Jimmy and another... Jeb... I think he was her husband. And her fetch was there too. Then Jeb chased her off with a shot gun. Said to stop harassing his wife." It was so easy to replay the tragic scene so soon after seeing it.

"I got a couple of her thoughts too. She trusts the Hedge more than she trusts people. And something about... not wanting to look at her hands." He looked to Milo's shadowed face to see him he could make use of any of the information.

"Red cap wasn't visible. Should we wait and try to get a read on him or go in now?"

[Milo Chernobog]

Milo continued to wait until the whispers of his companion drew his attention from the changeling and Hob. Maggots mixed with birth and the news that Hobs could remember that sort of thing elicited a raised eyebrow as he thought on how to use it, but the woman's distrust of other people seemed far more immediately useful.

"So the swamp is familiar, a place she chose over other people." While the other information could be useful, the bits he had repeated seemed the most immediately relevant. "I think we should get going and save your glamour reserves for lie detection during the bargaining process. We don't know these creatures, so I think it would behoove us more to buffer ourselves from grandiose lies then go poking around for leverage on Red Cap."


The Fairest takes a moment to await Daniel's thoughts, but unless an objection is voiced he slowly starts the dance from stone to stone to avoid the muck.

[Daniel Leto]

"Not exactly, she chose it because Jeb chased her away when she tried to go back home. Compared to that it makes more sense to her. So the swamp is more familiar in that way I guess." Maybe Daniel was reading too much into the vision.

The Darkling nodded in agreement to go in now.

"Okay, let's do this," he said.

As the Fairest began to pick his way through the swamp, Daniel gave a bit of a half smile watching the handsome guy trying to avoid getting his shoes dirty. It was kind of cute. Daniel gave a quite sigh and closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the taste of ash and honey on his tongue as he activated his goblin contract. The Gravewight picked up the basket and took out the the Old Witch Root before following. He may not be able to lie for the time being but that didn't mean they had to let the Boggans know they had brought lock picks. Then he began following through the mud after Milo.

  Sight of Truth and Lies 1 success, -1 Glamour

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-02-21 18:26:40		Daniel Leto rolls 5 to Wyrd3+Subterfuge2 (10 Again)		8, 3, 6, 1, 2		1 success