Braving torrential rain, the heroes gather in the Green Dragon, Chalcedon: across the Dragonwater from Drakenberg.
Miles Grocerman arrives late and briefs everyone concerned: "Earlier this season, one of our more remote villages to the east suffered a night-time raid by Broo. Despite valiant fighting by the villagers in defence of their homes, there were several casualties and a number of captives taken by the Broo, among them Bethesda's parents. The villagers, under the guidance of Bethesda, here, made a cursory sortie but were neither equipped nor trained to cope with a mass Chaos infestation. However, they did find out the origin of the creatures."
He pushes the scroll forward and it rolls off the front of the table to reveal a map.
Miles points to the coloured area southeast of Farflung. "This is where we think they are. This area is a marsh that's become polluted by Chaos and has spread in recent years to something like the dimensions shown."
"The inhabitants of the area elected to sue Drakenberg for assistance in cleansing the marsh. Bethesda herself addressed the Council where, to our shame, my fellow councillors failed to give the matter adequate attention, erroneously, in my view, despite a degree of sympathy from the President. I and a few like-minded individuals met with Bethesda and thrashed-out a plan whereby a few heroes would reconnoitre the area and bring back sufficient evidence of Chaos that the Council would be forced to respond and release the funds to hire enough soldiers to efficiently cleanse it."
After sorting out details concerning pay and conditions of work, everyone turns in.
The party journeys through showers to camp by the long abandoned village of Greenacre. That night, Deadeye, the baboon shamanling, discovers two restless ghosts by the remains of the village graveyard. Deadeye speaks with the ghost of a man who hung himself after being poisoned by Chaos in some fight against Broo. He tells the shamanling that suicides are anathema to Matar and so he was buried without the proper rites. The other ghost is that of a woman who murdered her own children and buried them in shallow graves. Deadeye promises to return and send the ghosts to their rest.
In the evening, the party sleep in the inn at Lowford.
The party travels onward to Eastbridge. There, Khalid and Bethesda enter the town while the others retreat to a secluded spot a few miles back along the road. Beth and Khalid discover that Sergeant Nimitz' house is near derelict, he having vanished more than a year previously while leading a squad to help an outlying farm threatened by a dragonsnail. They return after dark to break in. Inside they find a few pathetic belongings and a strongbox.
That night, most of the party have strange dreams.
The party leave their hiding place and try to circle the town without being seen. Unfortunately, Scuttlebug is spotted and this leads to rumours of a trollgang attack on the town. Bethesda and Khalid manage to quiet the vigilantes that set out to deal with the 'threat' and gain one lone volunteer - Sincerity Ironmaiden, a Madonna Heral Amazon, widowed long ago and eager to learn the fate of her two sons who vanished with Nimitz.
Mid-afternoon, they stop to open Nimitz' strongbox. Inside they find three bags of money, a few personal belongings and Nimitz' will.
Deciding to avoid Bethesda's home village, they leave the road and strike south, camping on the north side of a range of hills. That night they entertain themselves by reciting poetry.
They set off as early as possible. The weather has now changed to strong cold blustery winds, very refreshing after the recent dust.
Upon reaching the crest of the ridge, they see the marsh spread out before them; chaos creatures are visible in it, even from ten miles.
Deadeye reckons he sees movement in Sunny Water, a well with a shelter about six miles southeast. A couple of hours later, Deadeye and Rod are close enough to scout around Sunny Water. A rock wrapped in paper is thrown at Rod. He picks it up and carries on. At the far side, the two meet up and Deadeye casts his spiritsight. This reveals that the marsh terrain spirit is 'eating' the surrounding plain and the spirit of Sunny Water. The marsh reacts to Deadeye's presence by causing convulsive ripples in the mire, coming north. The two heroes run, their progress impaired by earth tremors caused by the terrain spirit of Sunny Water recoiling in fear from the marsh.
Reaching their friends, the heroes see several large marsh creatures emerge at the marsh's closest approach to where Deadeye cast his spell. Bethesda reads the message on the stone cast at Rod and finds it to be a message from Nimitz, warning them to stay away and saying he'll speak only to Beth.
Beth goes forward and speaks to Nimitz without seeing him. Nimitz relates how he led his squad into a Broo ambush on Ambien Hill. He went down to a chance head hit and the other young soldiers surrendered after two deaths. They were all taken back and ritually raped as part of a breeding program. Knowing his fate, Nimitz prayed to Matar for intervention and instead of conceiving, gained chaos features. Eventually, he gained a feature that let him escape but not before his soldiers had all died screaming in childbirth and witnessing the arrival of a dozen more captives from Farflung, including Bethesda's parents. Nimitz, riddled with chaos and disease, knew he could find no welcome at home and instead took shelter in Sunny Water.
Bethesda shouts a summary of Nimitz' words to the others and Rod decides to take action. As Bethesda tries to convince Nimitz to come with them for revenge, Rod runs in and leaps the wall of the shelter. He finds Nimitz barely able to stand and the shelter alive with lice! He despatches Nimitz with his spear and then leaves the shelter to pick lice off his body. One louse turns into a butterfly and flies away. Nimitz' body bursts spontaneously into flame.
Together again, Dixon checks everyone for disease while Khalid listens to reports. It is decided to give Nimitz remains a proper burial. Khalid returns to collect the bones and gets bitten by the werebutterfly-louse.
With Nimitz in the ground, everyone heads up to the old Typhon temple on Windybrae Hill for the night. Dixon cures Deadeye of disease before everyone retires.
Bethesda rides off to Farflung to warn the villagers and speak with her Uncle Stan. Everyone else heads SW along Windybrae Ridge. That night, the mist from the plains surrounds the camp, causing strange phantasms that disturb the weak-willed.
About midnight, Deadeye sees a spirit in the form of a large white wolf. It chants a verse and leaves; Deadeye tries to follow but it escapes in a spiritual direction the shamanling cannot follow. Lost, Deadeye settles down for the night. A few hours later, he and the camp are woken by a loud noise. Deadeye is attacked by an horrendous chaos creature but another creature saves him, a huge serpent that breathes fire. Badly injured, the others go to his aid. Rod checks the creature and the serpent. The gribbly's burned, the serpent headed back to the marsh.
The party heads SSW across the plain toward Ambien Hill. Mid-afternoon, Rod comes across the body of a dragonsnail, burned like the previous night; the same huge serpent tracks near the seared shell.
Bethesda rejoins her friends, bringing strange news.
