The Danger Gang explore Pella
After a safe night camped out by the river, the Danger Gang prepares to ford the river and enter Pella. Ramble uses his extensive boat building knowledge to lash together a raft, which Martialis seals up with a Warp Wood. Karp poles his way across, and most follow his lead. Tobin and Can stay behind to watch the horses, while the others drag along the zomboids.
They head into Pella and start milling about. All the buildings are in ruins; the marble of great ancient Greek temples plundered to build contemporary Greek outhouses. First stop is a large agora with a few buildings around it. They stroll into a small building that formerly had two stories. Inside is a small frieze of some nude people fighting a stag. Arben identifies it as a hunting scene. On it is the inscription "Made by Gnosis". Meanwhile, Ramble climbs up on the roof and surveys the scene. There's a smaller temple just outside the city walls, another temple across the agora, and a bridge through a swamp leading to another building. Most everything else has been demolished. They tie up the zomboids inside the small building and go exploring.
There's a small altar across the agora. No one can piece together it's significance. They continue on to the large temple across the square. En route they encounter a small campsite that was used in the last week. Unforunately, there's no clue as to who the camper was, and with their ranger zombified, they can't figure out which way they were headed. Perhaps it was the mysterious Gershon, always one step ahead.
With a shrug of the shoulders, the approach the large temple across the agora. The temple is dedicated to Aphrodite, the Mother of Gods and Monsters. They scour the place, but all they find is a statue of a Aphrodite in a back room. Perhaps there is more there than there appears, but it appears there's nothing there.
With another shrug, they move on. Perhaps this much talked about healing temple is across the bridge in the swamp. The bridge is roughly five feet wide, and just a foot off the ground, offering dry passage through the soggy bog. Ona pillar at the entrance to the swamp is the an inscription, though the top of the pillar is missing, taking with it the beginning of the inscription. The inscription is, "by Cassander, denied a proper burial among the nobles, Aege was cast into this swamp. Let this marker serve as a monument to one otherwise dishonored in death." This probably isn't the healing temple, they reason, but it's still worth checking out. As the cross the bridge, the soon find a part of it has collapsed. There's about a ten foot gap. They discuss how to cross this gap, but the discussions are cut short by the appearance of a Mossican. Arben and Ramble let arrows fly, accidently shooting the flat-footed Karp in the process. Martialis quickly Entangles it in itself, but gets knocked into the swamp by the beast for his trouble. Karp swats at it with his conjured Flame Blade, and soon, between them, they're able to put the Mossican down. Arben helps Martialis up out of the swamp, only to find a giant leech sucking the blood out of his leg. Everyone starts chopping and slicing and shooting magic missiles at the thing. It looses its grip on Martialis and crawls back into the swamp before they can exact their revenge. Martialis has lost a great deal of blood, and so they all head back to the small building where they left their zombid friends. They try to rest for a few hours, but unfortunately, their rest is interupted by the appearance of a pack of squirrels. Ramble, who was on watch, immediately freaks out and starts waking everybody up. Arben notices, however, that these squirrels are not like the squirrels that they've encountered before. He tosses them a few nuts, and they happily munch a few. "Nothing to worry about", Arben tells Ramble, but Ramble won't hear it. Arben decides it's best not to mention the dried blood on undercarriage of the squirrels. As everyone decides to head back to sleep, Can pops up. "That Tobin sure is gabby", he complains. Everyone says hi, then goes back to bed.
