Run through the jungle

We were ambushed. We should have seen it coming.

Otis sat down with us to talk. The sun had just gone down and we had just finished eating. We had not heard from Elmo yet and Otis assumed he was just late.

"I wish we could have spoken yesterday," Otis said.

"Given the emergency of the situation," Marc said, "the delay is...unusual."

Otis nodded. "You are too kind. I am sorry. I know Rufus and Burne are in trouble."

"And the children," Anna said. Her stare could've killed. "You haven't forgotten about them, have you?"

Otis smiled patiently. "No, I have not. You must understand. If I changed my schedule at all it would have raised suspicions. Also, Elmo needs to find his contact."

"Who is this contact and what does he know?" Audry asked.

"He claims to have been an escaped slave from the elemental temple," Otis said. "He says he can tell us precisely where hostages are being kept."

"How does he know this?" Saul asked. "Has he seen them personally? And how long ago did he escape? No doubt the elemental temple will have moved the prisoners if they feel they have been compromised."

"The man claims to have escaped four days ago," Otis said. "He says he is aware of where the prisoners are located and none of his former masters are aware that he has this knowledge."

"So what is Elmo doing?" I asked.

"He has been verifying the man's story," Otis said. "He says his contacts from Hardby should have sent word by now."

"All the way from Hardby," Marc said. "Very impressive."

Otis nodded. "Elmo has contacts everywhere. I'm often amazed how much he knows."

"You know, it's getting late," Anna said. "Maybe I should go look for him?"

That's when all hell broke loose.

The window exploded inward. An arrow planted itself in the middle of the table. The arrow glowed with the familiar sparkle of magic.

"Get down!" Marc shouted. We dived away from the table. I managed to get behind an overstuffed chair just as the arrow went up. Magic, it seemed, could simulate a grenade to great effect.

The explosion blew out all of the other windows. The table itself was reduced to splinters, and the surrounding furniture had caught fire, including the chair I hid behind.

Anna and Audry hid behind a sofa. Audry seemed unharmed as she raised her head. Anna looked up over the sofa. Part of her hair had burned away, leaving a strange sort of 80s goth, punk look. She didn't realize what happened just yet.

"What?" she asked me, but I wasn't staring at her. I was staring out the window behind her. A crowd had gathered. It looked like all of them had torches. Most had weapons as well, and they all looked angry. It was like the mob from the movie Frankenstein, only they weren't after monsters. A man in the crowd waved his hands through the air, uttering odd syllables.

"They got a mage," I said.

Marc stood from behind an overturned table. He leaned out a front window (easy, since it was broken). He pointed a wand into the crowd and uttered an arcane word (it sounded like "balance"). He'd pulled this one before, and the rest of us knew it was time to duck one more time.

The crowd cried out as the fireball approached. They scattered, jumping into the bog, running down the road-planks to get out of the way--but there were simply too many of them. The detonation sent bodies through the air. Two of them bounced off the house and fell into the bog. I could feel the heat from the blast wash through the room, along with the smell of burning hair and flesh.

When it was done, Audry stood, furious. "Was that necessary?"

"Yes," Saul said.

"Those weren't townspeople," Marc said. "They wore the cloaks with the yellow eye."

"What, they're from the temple?" I asked.

"Townspeople probably turned us in," Saul said.

"Time to leave," Anna said. She pointed out the window. More people gathered outside. They wore armor and under their cloaks--cloaks with the yellow eye of the elemental temple. Burning bodies lay on the docks, their own cloaks burned away, revealing chainmail underneath.

"So who gave us away?" I asked.

Audry grabbed me and guided me to the back of the house. "We can discuss it later."

Saul and Marc already dove out the window. Audry went next, followed by me and Anna. I sank into the bog up to my neck. The muck at the bottom pulled at my boots and I almost went under. I struggled to keep a float as I swam through the much toward the far shore.

Behind us we heard the front door of the house break down. Ahead I saw Anna swimming for a nearby boat. I swam after her, trying not to make too much noise. I reached the boat just as they started looking at the window. They held their torches high, but it was almost impossible to see in the bog.

We held onto the pier, trying not to touch the boat and give away our position. I wondered if we could convince Audry that stealing the boat in this particular situation would be okay (those pesky paladins), but Saul made a good point.

"They'll spot us if we take a boat. We have to swim the bog."

"Great," Anna said. "Leeches, poisonous snakes...what more can a girl ask for?"

"A new haircut, perhaps?" Marc said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Anna said.

"Nothing," I said. "Where's Otis?"

Everyone looked back at the house. He didn't come out the window with us. As far as I knew, he was still in the house, which meant he was in the custody of the temple soldiers. Which was probably where Elmo was, too.

"Maybe he got away?" Anna said.

"That's what we need to do," Saul said, "while we still have the chance."

We managed to get out of the swamp before sunrise. To my surprise, we did not encounter one single snake. We did encounter dozens of leeches, all of which hitched a ride. Strange thing about leeches, they really don't hurt that much. I pried them off me one by one with a dagger, flicking each one back into the bog. I found one two inches from my...well, from a very private spot.

We got out of our armor and clothes to get the leeches and other parasites off. We stood in the darkness in our underclothes, peeling away leeches. After that we moved deeper into the woods and made camp without a fire. We spent the next couple of days wandering the woods...lost, I'm sorry to say, though we continued in south-westerly direction.

Periodically we'd encounter a group of armed men. We managed to avoid them without being seen--surprisingly easy to do in the woods. Let me amend that. It's surprisingly easy to hide from humans. Elves are another matter, which is why the wood elves spotted us so easily.

I thought Anna could hide. These guys came out of nowhere. They had bows at the ready, but they did not take aim. They didn't have to if they were anywhere near as fast as Anna. Anna said she spent some time with them once. Weird. She's an elf, yes, but she's a high elf. Wood elves have been known to kill people who just happened to wander to close to their homes.

At first glance all you see are a bunch of treehouses, and you don't see them until you're practically under them. After a bit, you begin to realize that they are far more than any treehouse you had as a kid. These things stretch from tree to tree, complete with living rooms, bedrooms (made of leaves, but still very comfortable), and even running water (Marc commented that it was vaguely similar to the kind of thing dwarves would do, which brought a sharp look from our hosts). It's almost like being in one of those rich condos in Cherry Creek or something. Well, almost.

We've been in their home for a few days now, healing and resting up. We are amazed they haven't killed us. They tell me the temple is only a day away. They'll guide us there tomorrow. Audry asked if they would help us. Their response was they were helping us...by taking us there.

You know, Frodo and the rest of the fellowship got at least some cool magic items from the wood elves. Where's my fricking magic cloak?

Anna's hair does look nice now. Heh. You should have seen the look on her face when she looked at her reflection in a pond.

I'm so tired right now, I'll finish up the therapy (aka the moathouse story) some other time. You get all the beauty sleep you can when you're an adventurer.