Mud wrestling

Mirtul 10th

The dawn finds me praying once more to Tempus.  Breakfast consisted of trail rations picked up at Triboar - beef jerky and Waterdhavian biscuit, washed down with cold water.  Most unsatisfying.  Why can't humans learn to appreciate Dwarf trail rations?  Some of my favourites like garlic chicken liver, blue cheese, carrots, and mixed mushrooms. 

Once breakfast is all cleared away, we rejoin the Evermoor way and continue our journey towards Yartar.  Late in the morning I see some large birds flying overhead tracking along the road westwards.  They look like they have riders on their backs, but it is difficult to tell at this distance and the sun in my eyes.  Two of them look like vultures, but the third appears a much more elegant.  They don't seem interested in us and we ignore them and continue on along the Way.

We eat more hard tack for lunch as the sun rises to its peak and begins its slow descent.  The afternoon wears on uneventfully, and eventually the aches in my legs remind that it will soon be time to find a campsite.  As the sun is beginning to drop below the horizon, I once again see large birds in the sky following the Way eastwards this time. They are a little closer this time and I recognise the other bird as a Hippogriff and they do indeed have riders on their backs.  

Balthazar mentions they had heard Waterdeep had a flying faction, but surely this is a long way from Waterdeep.  That's the most excitement that happens during the day and soon Balthazar finds us a dry site to make camp for the night.  After more hard tack, I give taking a watch a miss, in preference to sleep.

I dream of finding Torhild's tomb.  As I reach his mausoleum, I feel something damp and awaken to noise all around our camp.  What's this?  I have mud all over my body and around my arms and legs preventing me from moving.  Some more mud shoots past me and as my eyes become accustomed to the darkness, I look for where it came from.  Not far from me is a blasted mud mephit, frolicking around, and throwing mud at me.  Our campsite must have been infested by mephits! I take a look around me and see Vollum, and Balthazar are also covered in mud and not moving.

As I struggle to free myself of the clinging, sticky mud, an arrow flies wildly by my side and into the woods around. I don't follow most of the battle as I try to break free, but I hear shouts, screams,  arrows, fire, daggers and mud flying everywhere.

Eventually I manage to stand up, roaring in anger, although still finding movement difficult.  There are four tricksome mephits close by in-front of me, and I shout loudly to Tempus to give me thunder.  Tempus responds, and there is a thunderous boom. Two of the mephits are knocked back in the violence of the Thunder, but the other two are less affected, although mud is still flung from them from the force of Tempus' boom.  Next, I call down delorous bells on one of the mephits engaged with me, whilst finally struggling free of the sticky mud.  I calmly take stock of my surroundings: there are seven mud mephits attacking our camp, fighting my companions.

There is no sign of Vollum now, but daggers are flying wildly out of the trees.  Vollum must have freed himself and be hiding in the trees somewhere. 

I reach out and touch the mephit fighting me, and with the aid of Tempus, leech the life out of the little elemental. It suddenly explodes covering me, head to toe, in mud, and I am once again restrained by the gooey mud.

As my struggle with the mud continues I watch several of the mephits try to escape. Starchild and Erdan strike one as it flees, merging back into the ground.  There is one last one by, and presumably seeing it is on its own, also  begins to become one with the ground.  Before it completely disappears, I manage to free my arms enough to take a swing at it with my Greataxe.  The head of my axe cleaves through where the mephit was and into the ground.  I can't tell if I dispatched it, or whether it managed to slide off, but either way, its no longer there.

After the chaos of the melee, and whilst I free myself of the sticky mud, Vollum skulks back out of the trees.   I stomp off and find a stream to clean myself up and wash away the mud.  I get back to my bedroll, swearing under my breath about stupid, childish elementals, and how can we be stupid enough to set up a camp infested by mud mephits, as I get the remainder of my nights sleep.