Fayne cursed under her breath as she shifted her footing, her boots sinking slightly into the wet ground. The moss-covered trees loomed, their twisted branches clawing upward to steal the lingering rays of sunlight from the murky depths below. With the limited light and the water below about as clear as Dravok's intentions, they had to maintain constant vigilance.
RangerDanger took up the lead, as his abilities allowed him that extra few moments before an ambush to warn the team, provided the creature wasn't too high of a level. With his bow drawn and an arrow nocked, he was constantly scanning the dense undergrowth for signs of movement. The occasional ripple in the water set him on edge. Ranger was never one to enter mysterious water that reached up to his knees willingly. Too many horror movies about sharks, piranhas, and alligators during his childhood had ruined him to any body of water that wasn't chlorinated and populated with plenty of other potential victims to increase his odds.
Dravok trailed behind them, his heavy one-handed mace resting on his spaulders as he made his way through the unforgiving terrain. It was a miracle the group hadn't lost him as soon as they stepped into the swamp, his heavy gear and lumbering steps had them all certain he would simply sink into the mud, never to be heard from again. There had to be a game mechanic that kept him going, something that at the very least gave him a hard time, but never prevented him from venturing deeper into the mud. Still, if he was struggling, he refused to show it.
"Can we take five?" Fayne asked, pulling her damp cloak out of the mud and ringing it dry. "I swear, everything in this swamp is plotting to drag us under."
"We're not stopping here," Dravok said, his voice labored as he picked up his pace to discourage any questioning of his physical state. His eyes narrowed at the tree line. "There could be anything out there, possibly waiting for us to lower our guard. Besides, there's nothing but mud and muck all around us; if we sit down here we might not get back up.
"Fine," Fayne muttered, her irritation barely contained. "But next time I pick the location of the quest."
RangerDanger, glanced over his shoulder. "Cheer up, Fayne. This could be worse."
She shot him a death glare that sent his gaze swinging back front and center. Not long after they began this trek, Ranger and Dravok discussed the Vescarid threat, shared common experiences, and tried to build a sense of comradery. Fayne thought from the get-go that this was part of some scheme to weedle out more information from her.
She had been on edge ever since the deal with Darian was concluded. Fayne knew that what she did was reckless, and yet, here standing before her was one of the people she had saved. Sure, he was actively trying to tear down the carefully constructed web of deception she had crafted, but she only did it to save the players.
As far as murderous demon bugs went, she had to admit, Darian wasn't that bad. He honored his deal, he hadn't attacked any humans since everything went down, and honestly, he hadn't attacked any humans at all. Aside from Ranger who had broken into his house, but again, it went with what Darian had said. He only attacked in self-defense to protect his family.
Fayne recalled every encounter in chronological order. The attack on Ranger at the nest. Self-defense. The attack in the woods, where she had to rush to save them. Self-defense. The raid on his home and the systematic slaughter of nearly all of his children. Self-defense. She knew it was wrong to think of a monster as though it was a player because monsters were specifically meant to be attacked, only he was different, he had sentience. Sure it was probably just an advanced AI, but that was sentience wasn't it? Like Darian, she only did what she did to protect her people. It felt like it shouldn't have been that simple, but on paper, it really did look to be that simple.
"I'm just saying…" Ranger muttered, "Things have only gotten better since you freed those people.
"That never would have happened if you just read your messages Ryan," the use of his real name stepped up the conflict and Dravok trudged a bit further away from them. He wanted to understand the situation and report to Caledryn anything that would help, but he was never great in social conflicts. He would have preferred physical conflicts any day.
"We're slogging through a mosquito-infested swamp, hunting gods-know-what, and not thirty minutes ago you decide to mention that there's another Vescarid swarm out there?"
"That wasn't my fault!" RangerDanger protested, lowering his bow for a moment. "I only just found out about the Vanguard's updates. I was going to tell you, but you were in such a good mood, I didn't want to ruin it."
"Don't you think it might have been a priority to mention there's another swarm big enough to make the Vanguard sweat?" Fayne snapped. "Do you have anything else to share with the group, Ryan?"
"Enough!" Dravok barked, he had enough of this and if he was going to keep his sanity, he needed their bickering to stop. Intel was important, but he wouldn't be able to report anything if he took his own life in a desperate attempt to flee their incessant bickering. "Keep your focus. We're not alone."
Ranger's eyes darted around the swamp as he tried to hone in on what Dravok saw. A notification was pinging wildly in the top right corner of his HUD, exclaiming that an ambush was evident, something he had failed to see as emotions flared.
Before anyone could respond, the reeds to their left exploded in a shower of water and mud. A massive, scaled creature lunged forward, its gnarled body rippling with muscle. Its eyes were tiny and glowed faintly in the dim light. As it opened its mouth to roar, it revealed what had to have been a thousand razor-sharp needle-like teeth.
"Dire Croc!" Dravok shouted as he dashed forward, his speed reduced to a normal jog as the mud impeded his advance. The monstrous reptile swung its tail at him as he swung his mace in a wide arc to meet the attack. The collision of these two forces rang out through the swamp, showering them in glistening scales and sending Dravok back on his ass. The tail took significant damage, but it clearly had a high level of natural armor, likely enhanced by some natural material in the swamp.
RangerDanger's arrow was already in flight, striking the beast's flank with a wet thunk. "The thing is tough as hell, the arrowhead of my armor-piercing shot barely penetrated the croc" he called out, nocking another arrow and looking on in frustration as the monster wasn't even bothered to acknowledge his strike.
"No kidding!" Fayne shot back, her staff glowing as she conjured a barrier between them and the creature. The beast slammed into it, cracks spidering across the magical shield.
With some help from Ranger, Dravok rose from the mud and stepped forward, planting his feet firmly in the muck. "We'll take it together. Ranger, aim for the eyes. Fayne, keep it distracted."
"Sure, I'll just wave my hands and hope it notices," Fayne muttered, her staff flaring with energy as she hurled a bolt of light at the creature. It recoiled, its hiss turning into a deep, guttural growl.
In a rare moment of levity, probably thankful for a chance to work out his frustrations, Dravok replied, "Would probably do more damage than that last arrow" and chuckled to himself before heaving another massive strike at the beast, sheering a strip of scales from its flank. "If you can't hit the eyes, shoot at the spots I'm clearing. Without the scales, you might get some decent damage in," Dravok called out to Ranger, his earlier jab at the man already out of his mind.
RangerDanger loosed another arrow, this time striking true. The creature let out a high-pitched shriek, stumbling back as black ichor oozed from its damaged eye.
Dravok didn't waste the opening. With a roar, he surged forward, his mace crashing down onto the beast's skull. Bone cracked under the impact, but it wasn't over yet. The beast tilted its head and opened its mouth before snapping out and gripping Dravok in its jaws.
Fortunately for Dravok, the creature was designed more for tearing and ripping than crushing. Unfortunately for Dravok, it activated death roll and proceeded to hammer the tank's ragdoll of a body into the mud and rock over and over and over again, at one point causing his helmet to go careening off into the distance.
"Do something!" Fayne panicked, nothing in her arsenal would slow the beast as it attempted to eviscerate their increasingly vulnerable defender.
Ranger nocked another arrow and activated a binding shot before letting it loose. His elven eyes watched the spin in slow motion and watched as the arrow sailed toward the exposed patch of flesh Dravok had cleared earlier. When the arrow punctured the beast, an explosion of vines erupted from it, entangling the beast to any and everything in range. As it continued to spin, the velocity decreased, the tangle of vines catching on its limbs, tail, trees, and roots, all of which made movement that much more difficult for it. When the thing came to a halt, it was unable to budge an inch, and Ranger took this time to land a few more choice shots deep into its brain.
The monster's jaw went slack as Dravok tumbled out and into the mud, face first. Fayne rushed over to pry him from the muck and cast a series of heals that began to mend his lacerated skin and broken bones. Dravok groaned in thanks as they all took a collective sigh of relief.
"Nice work keeping it busy," RangerDanger called out to Dravok, who would have cursed if he had the energy.
Fayne wiped the sweat from her brow, her glare fixed on him. "You still haven't explained why you kept quiet about the Vanguard."
"I didn't keep quiet! I didn't think it was relevant until Dravok brought them up!" RangerDanger defended, the two of them immediately jumping back into the conflict. "It's not like I've been sitting on a goldmine of info."
A single tear dripped down Dravok's eye as he regained the function of his body. No amount of physical pain could be worse than this. "It's relevant now." he choked out, trying to redirect attention to himself to let them cool off. "The Vanguard's headed this way. They've been mobilizing for days. Supplies, reinforcements, the works. Whatever's going on with the Ashvale hive, they're about to make their move."
"The hive hasn't done anything since the failed raid," she made sure to emphasize what a disaster it was. "Not so much as a report of Vescarid anywhere near the town, even the Vescora is beginning to recede from our borders.
"The Vesca-what?" Dravok stammered.
"The Vescora, it's what they call that gross fleshy stuff. It seems to travel toward their expansion path, and it's actually receding, I've checked multiple times, and set up markers." Fayne knew she was being too loose with her info, but this was a hell of a bomb to drop on her.
"The blight? Who told you–" Dravok was trying to process all of this, trying to figure out how to get more info, but it was coming at him too fast.
"I overheard when I was captive. Might I add, that during this captivity, I was never harmed. He actually treated me quite nicely, despite the obvious culture clash." Stop talking, stop talking, you're making things worse! Fayne shouted internally.
"It's not a he, it's a thing, a monster. I don't care how you were treated, it slaughtered all of us. And have you seen that secret weapon? The massive bug that can turn you to mist in a single strike. You've got to be kidding me, Fayne." It wasn't very tactful, but Dravok's emotions were rising as well.
"In self-defense!" she shouted, "It has always been in self-defense, each and every instance that human life was in danger, was because we went in there and challenged him. No one is even considering diplomacy, it's always this mad dash to see who can make the other group die faster, just use your fucking head!" Fayne was too worked up, she tried to focus on her breathing but it was all out of her hands.
"Woah" RangerDanger said to himself, catching that F-bomb she dropped, something Fayne rarely if ever did. "Uh, listen, guys, we got the croc. We should harvest what we can from it and turn in the quest. I think we did everything we could today. Time to go home." That was all he had, maybe after they all had a good scrub, some food, and ale, they might be able to touch on this topic again, but for now, they needed to get out of there.
"Fine." Fayne and Dravok said in unison before tossing one another a disgusted glare.
The trio exchanged glances before readying to head back. They didn't have a teleport and would have to make the long quiet journey home by foot.