The Early Bird
Chronicler Venno had no trouble assembling an audience after the cliffhanger he'd left them on last time. The only difficulty was getting them all to be quiet as they fired question after question at him. Only the threat of not continuing the story was enough to bring silence.
"'Hands up!' The lead ghoul shouted at Katin, who immediately complied. Fighting three ghouls had been bad enough, and there were definitely more than three here. Possibly even dozens. 'Drop your weapons and come with us. We know about your friends.'
Katin hadn't been able to stop herself glancing up at the tower, where Lenny and Zippo were now rapidly descending. 'How about if I come with you without making a fuss and I get to keep hold of my weapons?' They did not find her argument convincing. The same suggestion from Lenny carried more weight. Or possibly more spikes.
The three of them were taken over to the large pools, where they saw a familiar face. Or rather two familiar faces, as in a pair of cages they found Ren, the final missing member of the first expedition, and his dog Stimpy.
The zone ghouls demanded to know why they were there and if they were trying to steal water. Of course they told them that they were looking for their previous group, and managed to distract them from too much further questioning by demonstrating their ability to read the signs on the walls, something the zone ghouls couldn't do.
Finally a compromise was reached. They would be allowed to go free and given some grub and water on the condition that they dealt with the bird from the tower. If they dealt with a previously unmentioned worm infestation, they would be allowed to return for more water. And if they provided reading lessons, then the Seven Sisters water pipe would be connected to their supply and the Ark would have fresh water again.
Before they could do any of that though, they needed to rest. After a night's sleep and some water and grub, they were feeling ready to take on their list of tasks.
The bird was back in the tower. They discussed the possibility of climbing up there to attack it in its nest, but finally concluded that the risk of falling off the tower themselves was too high. Waiting for it to leave and ambushing it when it got back was also too risky. They were going to have to attack it on the ground. For that they needed bait. Maybe they could use the worms?
They went to ask the zone ghouls where the worms were, but found almost all of them engaged in some kind of ritual around the water pools. One of them seemed to be in charge, speaking words from what must have been their sacred teachings, but learned by rote instead of from a sacred tome. Only a few smaller ones, possibly the hobbits spoken of in our sacred tome, were able to answer questions. The hobbits told them that the worms lived in the water and sometimes came out and snatched people away.
They conducted a thorough search of the pools, but none of them contained any worms. Only when the ritual was complete could they ask the ghouls' leader to show them where to find them.
They were taken to a separate round pool, away from the main pool. It was indeed full of unpleasant looking worms, with mouths full of sharp mandibles. While they wondered what to do about them, Stimpy made the decision for them by barking angrily at the worms.
A swarm of the hideous creatures came slithering out of the pool towards them. Lenny immediately started smashing them up with his spiked bat and Katin managed to impale a couple with her arrows, but it wasn't long before the huge bird joined the fight, snatching up clawfuls of worms.
Katin saw straight away what had to be done. Her first arrow went wide, but the second pinned down the bird so Lenny could get in with his bat. While the others dealt with the remnants of the worms, Lenny spat acid onto the bird, and at last it was defeated. Lenny handed the remains over to the ghoul leader.
One item off the list, but the worm problem remained. They'd only managed to deal with a small number. They couldn't possibly kill them all one at a time like this.
Zippo had the answer. After some more rest, he got to work, using scraped up bird droppings and other bits and pieces to construct an explosive. All they needed to do was to drop it into the pool and then run away.
Katin volunteered. Once the others had retreated to a safe distance, she dropped Zippo's bomb and ran. Moments later there was a massive explosion with water and worms flying in all directions. And Katin was still inside the blast radius.
The others came running, ignoring the rain of worm guts. The blast had caused few external injuries, but had done enough damage to cause internal bleeding. Without help she would be dead in minutes. Lenny cradled her to hold her still while Ren got to work. With some help from Zippo, and Stimpy ready to lick wounds, he did his best to stabilise her before she bled to death.
A few tense minutes passed, but at last they could all breath easy as Katin's blood stayed where it was supposed to be and Ren could patch up her remaining injuries.
And so the group returned victorious. Having defeated both the bird and the worms, they were able to bring back both the previous expedition members and some fresh water, and we sent back chroniclers to teach the ghouls how to read their sacred text. And that is the story of how fresh water was brought to the Seven Sisters."
Zenno sat back, basking in the applause.
(If you want to watch the actual play of this game, you can find it on Twitch and a few days later on YouTube.)
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