Havens Blight

Modified on 2012/07/31 02:52 by Kerrick Categorized as Uncategorized

   Oh, Creator! Can monsters exist in the sight of him who alone knows how they were invented, how they invented themselves, and how they might not have invented themselves?

   - Charles Baudelaire
   1821-1867

   The companions are in Loiusiana, acting as guards for a tech-nomad fleet headed for the ville of Haven. As the story begins, they're under attack by a pod of gigantic manatees. They drive the creatures off with lots of firepower and homemade explosives.
   Not long after, the lookout spots ships on the horizon - it's a band of pirates that raid along the coast. A huge battle ensues; as the nomads are fleeing the pirates, a hurricane blows in and a tsunami them sweeps them into the swamp, stranding one of the ships in the treetops.
   The companions, who all happened to be on the same ship, climb down along with the surviving nomads and are surrounded by a pack of swampies. During the battle, Krysty is bitten by a water moccasin and falls into a coma. Things are looking grim until a bunch of natives show up and slaughter the swampies, rescuing them.
   The nomads head on their way, and the companions are taken on to Haven, where they meet Baron Tobias Blackwood and his sister, Elizabeth. During dinner that night, one of the baron's sec men announces that The Beast has struck again. It turns out that this creature has been terrorizing the area for some time, slaughtering animals and people alike. No one's seen it, and there are few clues as to its identity.
   Tobias and the companions go to the scene of the newest attack to find that an entire family, along with two other folks, have been killed. He orders the house burned; after their return to the ville, he offers the companions employment until Krysty awakens from her coma.
   A couple nights later, Ryan is awakened by Jak, who has spotted people sneaking toward the baron's house. They rouse the others and ambush the intruders, who are all townsfolk who wanted to abduct Tobias and question him about The Beast - they think he knows something he's not telling. The next day, the surviving attackers are hung in the village square.
   After the hanging, a young boy slips a note into Ryan's hand - it's an invitation to meet someone in a warehouse outside of town, alone. He goes, with Jak and JB as backup. A local merchant is seeking to overthrow Tobias and place a new baron on the throne, but Ryan refuses and walks away.
   The next day, a dwarf shows up with a message for Ryan - he's been sent by a wise woman in the swamps who knows how to cure Krysty's condition. They make the pilgrimage out to Sweet Julie's island, and she tells them that they have to go into the swampies' territory and talk to their leader, Papa Dough.
   Since Ryan has little choice, he organizes another expedition up the bayou to see Papa Dough. Along the way, they lose one guide to a jaguar, another to a swampie poisoned blowdart, and a third to a creature the locals call Gotch-Eye.
   They finally get to see the swampies and Papa Dough, who (despite being a swampie and being at war with the Havenites) welcomes them as guests. He sends Ryan to see their wise woman, who gives him a packet of powder and demands peace between swampies and Havenites as payment.
   Meanwhile, back in Haven, the baron's sec chief, St. Vincent, is organizing a palace coup with the help of the pirates. The healer knows that Elizabeth is The Beast (and has been trying to cure the condition for years); she sees the attack coming and tells Elizabeth that Krysty is a threat to the baron, so Elizabeth shifts and crashes out. She runs into St. Vincent and kills him, then heads to Krysty's room; Krysty magically awakens just in time to fight off Elizabeth and knock her out.
   The rest of the companions arrive in the middle of the attack and take shelter until they can see what's going on. The pirates round up all the survivors into the village square, whereupon the companions ambush them. Tobias shifts and adds to the chaos; between them, they slaughter most of the pirates, including the leader, and drive the rest away. The baron's mansion has caught fire sometime during the battle; the baron's secret is out, and he wants to end the curse, so he takes his unconscious sister and walks into the mansion just before it collapses.

DEATHLANDS, OUTLANDERS, EARTH BLOOD, and JAMES AXLER are all the property of Gold Eagle / Worldwide Library, and are used here strictly under Fair Use guidelines.