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Re: (TFT) Solo 1
Day four
In the morning you eat rabit on a stick. Eva has lost her cooking
equipment so she set some traps during the night. After getting a late
start she says "We might find the pirogue if we stick to the waters edge."
She does have her bow and quiver. "Let me walk in front so I spot any
gators in our path."
Interestingly there seems to be a path going right next to the waters
edge. It is an animal trail, very narrow, and not straight. You hear a
splash up ahead. Probably a gator escaping from your approach. Eva seems
to make a lot less noise than you, but occasionaly she stomps very hard on
purpose. This time you see a gator slide into the bayou further up.
[get one experience point for learning to frighten gators.]
"There it is! Lucky for us its on this side. I don't see the other
oar though. Do you think you could use the spear to pole us along?"
You remember the water being over your head when fighting the turtle,
but that area seemed abnormaly deep. "I think so." With that the two of
you drag the pirogue out of the bayou and turn it over. The swamp water is
dumped onto the bank. It washes around the cypress knees and trickles back
in. She examines the bottom. "Looks right." Ya'll turn it over and get
back in. With the butt of the spear you push off from the bank and out into
the current.
For two hours you get used to standing in the back of the boat.
Pushing along with the spear is easy enough. Avoiding the stumps and snags
takes a little work. Steering comes slowly. Just as you are getting to
where you have the knack of it you notice that the clouds have been
thickening.
[get two experience points for learning to pole.]
It starts with a darkening of the sky. The clouds seem to get blacker
and lower. That distinctive smell that precedes a lightning storm laces the
gusts of cool wind. It starts with a soft drizzle. The drizzle gets
stronger and turns into a solid rain. Someone turns the rain up a notch and
it becomes big fat drops of water. Someone turns it up another notch and it
comes down harder. Unbelivably it gets stronger and the rain comes down
faster. This is the heaviest rain you have ever seen. Its only been five
minutes and already there is a small puddle in the bottom of the pirogue.
Someone turns on even more rain. Now it is big, fat, hard, fast, and thick
rain. At this point even Eva sits up. She is looking at the surface of the
bayou which is jumping and splatering with rain drops. Then the galloping
rain starts. The entire surface of the bayou agitated by rain.
Eva speaks up to be heard over the rain. ?I heard a story once that it
rained so hard that anyone caught in the rain without a wide brimmed hat
would suffocate.? You and she are already soaked to the bone. The pirogue
has about 10cm of water in it. ?I think we should go for shore." She look
at the water pooling in the bottom. "And get under the pirogue!? This you
do.
[get three points for experiencing hard bayou rain.]
Once under the trees the rain isn?t nearly as bad. The bayou is still
ablaze with rain drops. The water level is rising. Before long the bayous
begins to overflow the banks. The two of you turn the pirogue over, get
back in it and sit. Eventually the water level rises around you and you are
afloat again. This time over what was the bank. Now you understand why a
pirogue has a flat bottom and isn't built like a canoe. It can float in
five centimeters of water.
[get four experience points for learning new capabilities of the
pirogue in shallow water.]
This goes on for an hour. When the rain finally lightens up to just a
normal rain you use the spear to find that you are in one meter of water.
They bayou looks pretty fast and dangerous right now, but the flooded
woodland looks clear and safe. You continue on. Rowing the pirouge through
a cathedral of trees and Spanish moss. After rowing for a while you realize
that maneuvering around the trees is taking time. That, and it is easier to
just use the spear to push against the trees themself instead of the forest
floor. This works very well and you begin making excellent time. You start
leaving a wake in your path.
There are many snakes in the bayou and swimming around in the flooded
wood. The flood must have driven them all from their holes. They are
everywhere, but they swim away as you approach.
The rain clears at dusk and the mosquitoes swarm. They are irritating
little things. Biting, taking little slurps of blood and flying off. There
seem to be thousands of them. There is almost no wind in the wood and this
plays to the mosquitos advantage.
She grabs leaves off of an overhanging vine, crushes them and rubs them
on her skin. ?I was named after this ivy. It?s called Eva.? She hand you
some. You notice relief immediately. Apparently if you smell like a plant
the mosquitos wont eat you.
[get five experience for learning basic mosquito repelant.]
Poling along at a brisk pace you make twice the distance you would have
rowing. That and the wind from moving that fast dentures the few mosquitos
and gnats that are still buzzing around. It has been dark for a while but
the moon has come out strong. You didn't see any point in stopping. There
is no where to sleep or cook. You can see everything clearly in that eerie
night vision grey. Ahead you can see a largish mound rising out of the
water. Land. You may get some sleep this night after all. Eva speaks up.
?Oooh. An Indian burial mound. We can cook something to eat there.?
With that she takes an arrow out and asks you to go towards one of the
snakes. It is doing that serpentine motion that only snakes can do. Most
of its body is visible on the surface of the water. She stabs it behind the
head in one swift stroke and throws it into the pirogue. There it twists
and curls as though still alive. It take a full ten minutes to stop moving.
You pole the pirogue onto land next to a large fallen log. The mound
is clear of trees and is covered with soft grass. It looks inviting and
restfull. As you get out to pull the pirogue a little higher onto land the
giant fallen log rears up and swings around. It seems that log you landed
next to is a giant cotton mouth water moccasin. The beast is about one hex
in diameter and nine hexes long. It doesn?t look inclined to share the
mound or to retreat.
This may be the fight of your life. It is two hexes away. Lets hope
you set vs. charge and do great damage. Luck for you you had the spear in
one hand and were pulling the pirogue with the other. As you turn to face
it you notice Eva has already knocked an arrow.
Giant cotton mouth water moccasin 9 Hexes long.
ST 40 Bite 2D, save 3D vs. ST or take 1D damage from poison
DX 11 no armor, no minus to hit because of its enormous size
IQ 6
MA 8
The strange thing about water moccasins is that the smaller they are the
more deadly the poison. The normal sized one that Eva killed for dinner
would be a 5D vs. ST or 4D damage. An infant, about a quarter meter long,
would be 7D vs. ST or 6D damage.
[get 51 possible experience for killing the snake. Some of this may go
to Eva depending on how much damage she does and if she gets the killing
blow or not.]
David Michael Grouchy II
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