Night on a bog is subtly different from night in a swamp. In a swamp, you can be reasonably sure of the depth of the water, for one thing. There's also a lot more activity and sounds at night, like the chirping of insects and the croaking of frogs. The bog, however, is disturbingly quiet. Only the trees seem to thrive here, and everything else clings to them and tends to be quiet.
Diverse Alarums poles the flat-bottomed skiff through the shallow (sometimes too shallow) water. His brother Excursions is at the head, tending the lantern. Between them are spools of rope and other supplies, which serve as makeshift seats for the two Akwavi and one Lapi that are joining them. Less obvious is the ghost of a Rath'ani smuggler.
"Should be close now," Diverse whispers. They've been moving for hours now, and it's nearly midnight.
Aviri huddles his arms around himself against the ... creepiness. At least Swampy isn't here, he thinks, looking around at the bog, holding his bag close, one hand in the pocket with the necklace Natasha gave him, the other holding the piece of chalk.
Trilup is constantly on the verge of nodding off. She leans forward, then suffers a nap-jerk and is wide awake again for a few seconds.
Lin is peering over the side, down into the gloom. She's holding onto the side of the boat with both paws and only barely poking her head over, ready to pull it back in an instant.
"So," Aviri says, "why did we have to wait until night? If that's the only time your father appears, why not come get the treasure during the day?"
"Because during the day the bog-serpents are awake," Diverse notes. "Dad's also crankier then."
"Why's 'e cranky?" Lin asks, turning back from the edge of the boat, "Why's 'e even a ghost? Not everything what dies goes all ghostly. Unless there's a real particular necro-curse."
"He did curse a lot in life," Diverse explains. "Or maybe it's just where and how he died? Treasure could be the reason too. Proper treasure is always haunted." The boat begins to scrape against things just below the surface now.
Aviri shudders at the sound and feeling of the scraping. His talisman-hand grows tighter around it's prize.
Lin looks over the side of the boat again. "Just how close are we?" She asks.
"Pretty close now, should be hitting the roots of the Tree of Death soon," Diverse assures them. "Don't mind the name.. we just name things to scare of the tourists.." Of course, when Lin looks over the side, she gets a glimpse of something distinctly skull-like looking back at her.
Lin's arm snaps out at the skull, her fingers snaging it through the eye sockets. She chirps hapilly and holds the dripping rath'ani skull up to her friends as though she'd just found a puppy. "Hey! Check it out, Tril. Tree of Death sounds 'bout right now dinnit?" A flatworm wriggles past her finger and plops back into the water.
"Remember last time you picked up random bones from a desolate hole?" Aviri asks.
"The first time the bones were missin' and ye wouldn't let us explore the hole." Lin pouts, "Fair 'nuff fer the second time though."
"Exploring holes? What?" Trilup says, jerking awake, then staring in amazement at Lin's new souvenir. "That's neat! Have we already started the grave robbing?"
"Eh, that's.. just a coincidence," Diverse claims, regarding the skull. "See, we used to hang criminals here too. So.. prolly where the skulls are from, eh?"
"Sure, mister ghost oogler." Lin taps her hat, "Hey Silv. Getting anythin offa this skull? Ghostly readins, imprints, cause of death? Ghosts kin do stuff like that, right?"
"We can?" Silv replies. "It's a skull. Might be a male? They tend to be hung."
Aviri looks at Lin. "Do you really wanna risk us getting yet another ghost?"
Linyala facepalms with her free hand. "I got that, an' it was terrible." She puts the skull next to her bag and returns her gaze to the murky shallows. "The more, the merrier?" She says, hesitantly.
The skiff runs aground, and Excursions notes, "We've landed." He hops out and ties the skiff to a protruding.. rib cage? It seems to be embedded in the wood of a very large tree root.
Aviri jolts at the landing. "Yaaaay for ghost number two-point-five," he says wearily.
Trilup jerks again, then yawns. "We're there already?" she asks. "I can barely see anything.." It is dark under the canopy of the massive tree, and the typical low-hanging mist doesn't help either.
Linyala pulls her rope from her pack and ties it into a belt. "Where'd we pick up more ghosts?" She asks Aviri.
"Well, the one we're about to pick up, and the possible one you already did," Aviri explains, standing up and stretching his joints.
The brothers exit the skiff, and Diverse lights a second lantern. "It's just up this way a little further," he whispers to the others, and gestures for them to follow.
"Come on, Aviri." Lin says with a pat on the Lapi's shoulder. "Not every skull in a marsh is haunted." She hopps off and falls into place next to the brothers.
Aviri nods and follows. "Enough are," he says, idly wondering whether he could draw a door on the trunk of the tree, and if that would even work.
"Wait!" Lin chirps and runs back to the boat. She returns presently with her lantern. "Got a light?" She asks Diverse.
The Rath'ani lights Lin's lantern for her.
Excursions brings some rope as well. Visibility is poor, so that the tree trunk seems to jump out when it finally gets within range of the lanterns. The tree is big. Big enough for there to be a hollow at the base that someone could walk into. The hollow is deep, dark and looks disturbingly like a screaming mouth, mainly because someone has embedded skulls in the upper lip to look like teeth. "Here we are!" Diverse says cheerfully.
"Looks lovely," Aviri says, unable to help himself from trying to identify the various fungi and parasites that live around the tree.
"How did those get in there?" Lin asks, tapping the leftmost skull with a claw.
"Oh, I imagine someone put them there," Diverse claims. "Anyway, just go in there and and talk to Dad.. about moving on or whatever. This is a depressing place to be haunting, you know?"
The tree is surprisingly free of moss and lichen, considering that most every other tree they passed was covered in it.
"Might be able to get him to move to Don'tgointhe," Aviri muses with a smirk, diappointed by the lack of interesting foliage. "Lin, you wanna lead with the lantern, or should I?"
"Yer taller," Lin chirps and holds the lantern out to Aviri. "I'll go in front, you hold the lantern so we kin all see. Trilup, could'ya hold onta Diverse and take the rear. He kin see ghosts and you've got a link ta Silv so nothin should be able to sneak up on us." She seems pleased with her arangement of the troups.
Aviri nods and takes the lantern with his chalk-hand, leaving the chalk safely in his pocket. "Right," he says, taking a few tentative steps downward until he can get his balance and wait for Lin.
"Good luck!" Diverse says, and Excursions ties the rope around Trilup, since she'll be in the rear. "We... uh.. we'll wait out here. Dad isn't often fond of seeing us.."
"You don't think trees can be zombies, do you?" Trilup whispers to Aviri. Within the hollow.. Silv becomes a bit more visible, hovering near Lin. Or her hat.
"Heeeey." Lin glares at Diverse, "What's ta keep you from scamperin' an leavin' us stranded?" She plants her hands on her hips and taps a foot menacingly.
"Well, if we leave, we can't get the treasure now, can we?" Diverse points out.
"Unless," Aviri starts to say, turning around to look at Diverse. "Ah, no matter. We've been in tougher spots. Come on, Lin. We're here, we might as well see what we can do about this ghost."
Lin sighs and deflates, "Ya know, I'd be questionin yer motives more if I didn't really want ta go in there." She takes a few steps towards the hole then pauses and says over her shoulder, "But if you touch our package, I'll hog tie ya fer the rest of the trip. We are doin' a delivery after all. Can't go lookin at other people's mail." With that she leads the way into the big, scary tree.
Aviri stops on the threshold. "You left it?" he asks. "That won't do." He pulls himself back up to the boat and slips the box into his bag, returning to the hole, nodding to Lin.
The hollow is surprisingly deep, and the ground is wet and squishy underfoot - enough to suck off shoes, if anyone was wearing any. It also turns a bit, so the that entrance becomes hidden by the time they reach the end. There, half of a Rath'ani corpse waits, the lower part sunken into the soft floor. It's clutching a small chest in its bony arms as well. "You kent have it," the corpse claims. Not quite a zombie.. it isn't moving at least. "I'm takin' it wit' me!"
Aviri sighs, holding the lantern out. "Taking it with you where?" he asks. "Deeper into the bog?"
"Keep pulling the rope, slowly." Lin whispers to Trilup once they stop at the bottom. "Make it look like we're still moving. I've got a feelin' is all."
"Yar!" the corpse claims. "The tree be eatin' me, and it be eatin' my purse too. Nobody gets it but me!"
"They how's about we get'cha outta the tree?" Linyala offers.
"Like they can't hear us talking," Aviri retorts to Linyala.
"Better safe than- Eeh." Lin shrugs, "I kin be a bit paranoid if I like." She sticks her tongue out at Aviri.
"I ain't coming out," the corpse says stubbornly. "I like it here. With my loot! They that wants it don't deserve it! 'Specially not my no-good sons."
"Just how no good are they?" Lin asks, leaning forward entusiastically.
"They poisoned me to get it," corpse-dad claims. "I had to get out here while puking me guts out.. literally! I knew they couldn't get it from here, heh!"
"Well, what if we wanted it?" Aviri asks. "Trilup and I've fought off an undead swamp-demon."
"My kids would never do something like that," Silv notes. "Not to me anyway. In-laws, possibly.."
"Why should I give it to you?" the corpse claims. "And who's the looker wit' ya?"
"Because we need it to give her a final resting place," Aviri says. "Your no-good sons won't let us cross the bog without your treasure."
"That's Silver." Lin waves a hand in the ghost's direction dramatically. "Fine dresser, skyship ccaptainess, smuggler o' fine goods, theif of hearts, an purveyor of relics of mysterious powers." She ends with a sweeping bow and flourish of her hat.
"Yeah, that!" Silv says, becoming a bit more opaque. "I see why you like this hollow.. got a charge to it."
The corpse also glows a bit, and a ghost stands up. It's a Rath'ani of course, and one that looks a bit rakish. "I always new this would be the place to come too if things went sour for me," he claims.
Aviri looks at the new ghost, raising the lantern slightly. "It's a nice place...." he tries.
"So the tree eats people?" Trilup asks, focusing on the most disturbing part.
"Oh yar, it do!" ghost-dad claims. "Can take awhile though. Faster if you're still alive though! The movement gets it going. Makes your toes tingle.."
Lin grins and rubs her hands together. "An I'll bet ye've got a boat stashed 'round here somewhere ta make yer after-death getaway with yer tr- What?" She goes wide-eyed and climbs Aviri.
"Look, we gotta get yer box and set you to rest or whatever," Silv says. "So what'll it take? You gotto let go and all that!"
Aviri lets the otter climb him, struggling a bit under his sudden weight-gain but stabilizing. "Careful with the arms," he says quietly, as he's still occupied in holding the lantern and necklace.
Of course, the added weight does make the Lapi sink a bit further into floor himself, up to his ankles.
"A bit o' revenge," ghost-dad tells Silv. "If I have to give up the loot, I wanna curse it!"
Lin winds up clinging to Aviri's back. "You're undead-proof, right?" She asks the lapi.
"Oh.. curses. Hmmm," Silv says, rubbing her chin, and looking at Aviri and Lin.
"Carniverous plants don't count as 'undead', I think," Aviri replies. "Oi, what type of curse? Because if you haunt that box, so long as it's not us, I'm perfectly fine with that! It'd be a great way to get back at your sons."
"Or haunt all of the treasure inside! That way they can't just throw out the box!" Lin adds.
"What if they spend the money though?" Trilup asks. "You can't just haunt the money."
Aviri frowns, trying not to move his ankles, very conscious of how they feel to ensure they're not tingling. "Well, could you curse it like our cursed box, so they've gotta go through hell to get it open?"
Linyala waves a paw in the air. "I've got it!" She chirps, "Make 'em straighten up an prove themselves 'worthy' before the box'll open. Make 'em earn the treasure on the terms they failed in tha first place!"
"I was thinking more that Aviri could add some really nasty plant toxin to it to make anyone who handled it sick," Silv notes. "Sure, more of a prank than a curse.."
Aviri grins. "Oh ... I could do that." He looks around. "Don't see much in the immediate viscinity, but I could probably scrounge something up. This is a bog, after all, and some of the best toxins come from fungi!"
"What about the stuff that's eating our toes?" Trilup asks, lifting her feet up and down in turn.
Sure enough, with the mention of it.. Aviri begins to feel some tingling in his feet. It's a bit pins-and-needles for now.
Aviri shivers. "Okay, Lin, time to get down," he says, gently guiding the otter off his body. "Yeah, that might do. We should ... probably get out of here soon, though." He steps out of the holes into which he'd sunk and finds better footing a bit to the side.
Linyala steps down nervously and stands as still as she can.
The footprints fill with a sort of goo before the spongy moss fills them back in.
Aviri gives the moss a look and bends down, taking his hand from the talisman to pluck a bit of it, holding it up to the lamp for a better look.
The moss is rather active. It acts more like a mold or fungus, wiggling tiny tendrils about.
The lapi flicks it to the ground. "That stuff might ... do it" he shudders.
"So, just stick it in the chest?" Trilup asks.
"But doesn't it still take a while?" Lin asks, "Ye'd have ta ghostly supercharge it or summat."
Aviri looks to the two ghosts. "Er ... gonna need the box to do this," he says tentatively toward PapaGhost. "Would you mind?"
"You can open it," the ghost says. "But don't try to pull it from my grasp! That would be bad.."
Aviri very carefully steps across to the corpse and opens the lid.
It's sticky and hard to open, but it finally pops without any bits falling off the body at least. Inside is a random collection of Shekels, with a few coppers, an iron and even a silver. They're all a bit tarnished though, and smell of corpse of course.
Aviri lifts an ear slightly as he begins tearing the, for lack of a better word, "moss" from the floor and stuffing it into the box, trying to ensure the stuff doesn't try to crawl out.
Lin inches towards the exit. "Yer gonna make the tree mad." She whispers.
There might be a slight rumble, but it could be imagination as well. Once the box is filled, the two ghosts dip their hands into it and stir them about, causing the moss to glow. "Let's see.. uh.. curse.. curse.. Gimme some help guys?" Silv asks.
Aviri steps back toward the exit. "Er ... does it have to rhyme?" he asks.
"Magic always rhymes, don't it?" Trilup says, edging back as well. Did the floor ripple?
Lin keeps inching back. "Icky sickly. Moss so sticky. Guarded from your sons, devour them quickly. Trapped in slime, run out of time. To die unless your hearts do shine." She says, scratching her ears in concentration.
"Oh, that's good," Silv says, and repeats the chant, along with the ex-father. The glowing moss begins to.. shrink? Or melt, coating the inside of the box and its contents. Meanwhile, the floor of the hollow is getting a bit more active. There are tearing sounds from the edges.
"Uh ... Lin," Aviri says, backing away, "you're all sneaky-quick and the like ... mind getting the box when the ghosts are done with it?"
"Ready when they are." Lin growls. She's tensed and ready to lunge the instant the ghosts have done their stuff.
The chest snaps closed by itself, and the corpse offers it up to the Akwavi. The edges of the floor are definitely rising up now.
"Lin, it's now or never," Aviri says, backing up slowly, pulling Trilup along with him.
The corpse doesn't even finish raising its arms before Lin is on the move. She snags the box and runs as fast as she can up and out of there.
And just in time. The 'ground' beneath the corpse opens up, and down it goes. The rest of the floor is starting to act like a giant tongue as well. It's risen up quite a bit by the time they reach the entrance.
Aviri tosses the lamp out ahead, freeing both his arms to grab and anchor point, using the leverage and offering his other free hand toward the otters to help them up the last little bit.
The extra slack in the rope works against them, getting tangled underfoot. But it doesn't last long, as it starts to go taut from the brothers outside pulling on it. "Here dey come!" Diverse warns Excursions, who ducks the thrown lamp.
Lin jumps the last bit and rolls into a crouch outside the mouth, clutching the treasure box to her chest. She draws her knife just in case she needs to cut the troublesome rope once everyone is clear.
The threesome get spat out of the tree, the ghastly green moss-tongue waggling and still reaching out for them.
Aviri flees clear of the tongue, ensuring both otters are also out of range, hugging the bag to his chest, breathing heavily. "Why couldn't it just be a normal carniverous plant?" he asks nobody.
"There are normal ones?" Trilup pants.
The raccoons hurry over. "Didja get it?" Diverse asks, rubbing his hands together.
Linyala shakily stands up straight, looks Diverse in the eye, and kicks him in the groin, hard. "That's fer not tellin' us that the tree would try'n eat us!" She snaps. "We got yer inheritance but yer not gettin' it 'till we're all safely on the other side." She stalks off to retrieve her lantern.
Aviri's too shaken up, and too pleased they all made it out safely, to even give a show of repremanding Linyala's actions. It even evokes a kind of smile from the Lapi.
While Diverse curls up into a ball, Excursions checks on the others. "You two alright? How are your feet?" he asks.
"I'm fine," Aviri says. "Thanks for the help, with the rope." He checks his feet, but they still appear to be attached to his ankles.
There's some discoloration to the fur covering the soles, but that could be from anything. The fur does get dirty after all.
"No holes in my webbing," Trilup reports, and unties the rope before heading to the boat. "Can we get to the other side of the bog tonight?"
"Help me roll Diverse onto the boat, and we can get going," Excursions says. "I'll pole.. we can get there by morning."
Lin meets them back at the boat, lantern in hand. "We missin' anythin?" She asks, her good spirits having returned.
"Got my bag," Aviri says, helping Excursions with Diverse. "If you've got the ... inheritance, and Trilup's alive, I think we're good to go."
The skiff is untied, and Excursions pushes them away from the Tree of Death. "Too bad we didn't have more time," Silv whispers to her hauntees. "I haven't met another ghost before.. so many things to.. uh.. experiment with. Yeah.. experiment. Maybe next time, should be lots of ghosts ahead!"
(Curse update)
Icky sickly.
Moss so sticky.
Take the sons,
devour them quickly.
_
Trapped in slime,
run out of time
To die unless their hearts do shine.