35

Pandexter kindly delivered Our Heroes back to more or less where they were supposed to be by magic carpet, in spite of their surly and frankly hostile attitudes. Honestly, it's so hard to help some people.

Their first proper view of the swamp was hardly encouraging. A labyrinth of stinking, algae-scummed water over dense, glutinous mud, muddy islands of semi-solid land around the buttress-roots of great trees, dense banks of reeds, and a constant thick mist enshrouding the whole and reducing visibility to no more than twenty or thirty metres. The constant croaking of millions of frogs was almost deafening, and the sight of Things gliding beneath the surface of the water failed to engender optimism.

"I think we might need a boat" said somebody.

A great deal of carrying on proceeded to carry on. Calvin, having some sailoring skills, agreed to build a canoe if Pandora would produce the hide to cover it, and he worked solidly on it for the rest of the day. The result looked a little lumpy and skewed, but he assured the party that it was just cosmetic and it would float just fine. Tallis agreed to test it, and learned quickly that she was not born for a life on the water, tracing a very erratic course until the water seeping in through the seams and an alarming crack from somewhere in the structure encouraged her to get the others to pull her back ashore by the rope they had so thoughtfully tied to the stern. "I don't understand it" said Calvin, "it should have been fine".

The old fall-back position, Fairy Magic™ came into play again.

Most of the next day was spent trimming a log down to an acceptable size, and then Pandora magicked it into a good, sturdy boat. A good, sturdy, heavy boat, so heavy that the combined efforts of everyone barely sufficed to slide it into the water where it immediately stuck in the mud. "I don't understand it" said Pandora, "it should have been fine".

A second try, learning from the mistakes of the first, succeeded much better, and just in time since the party was then attacked by a force from the Sword Brethren's base camp that they had completely forgotten was only about 600 metres away. A battle royale ensued in which it looked alarmingly as though everyone would be brutally murdered and chopped up into bits; as it happened, only Reef and Chase were actually brutally murdered and chopped up, though Pandora almost died of a crossbow bolt that, fortunately as it turned out, did so much damage that it actually went straight through her rather than sticking in and stopping her regenerating. Phew! Tallis found out at first hand that some of the Sword Brethren are really, really good fighters, and that going up against one while wearing nothing sturdier than clothes is a bad, bad idea. Fortunately a combined attack managed to take him down before he could kill her completely, though it was a near-run thing.

Basil enjoyed himself with his new-found telekinetic powers by picking up Sword Brethren mercenaries and dumping them head-down in the swamp, where they kicked briefly before drowning.

Once it was all over, Calvin reappeared from where he'd been hiding. Pandora came back to herself after a while, and spent some time fixing the dead elves. She first glued Reef's head back on and called his spirit back... except that she actually got Hrolfgar, one of the mercenaries. Doh! Tallis gently re-killed him and they started again. Again she called his spirit back, and hoorah! Got an elf! Alas, the wrong elf. Chase sat up in Reef's body. Pandora shrugged and figured that was close enough, and went to work on Chase's body to see if she could put Reef into it. Chase bent his mind to the task of guiding his brother back, and hoorah! Modern medicine triumphs once again!

Things are a little bit confusing; Reef is in Chase's body, and Chase is in Reef's body. Or maybe the other way around. Anyway, everyone's back among the living (except the Bad Guys, of course).

Tallis and Reef both tried to nick the amazing sword of the Sword Brother who had so nearly done for Tallis, but just touching it (even indirectly) made their hands burst into flame. They thought perhaps that might make it a bit tricky to use, so Tallis dug a hole around it and buried it.

Everyone jumped into their new fairy-boat and they're paddling off into the swamp, putting some distance between them and the battlefield before more enemies arrive.