Expedition 83: Alligator Hunt 1

As Bea and Damian meet up in Port Vrall, Bea is introduced to one of Damian’s followers, a Duallithi woman named Cat—accompanied by a large gibbon who answers to the title of “the Admiral.” The Admiral is wearing a large flowered bonnet. Cat is introduced as Damian’s first follower, and best friend. Cat shrugs, noting that she is only here to make sure Damian does not die.

Bea admires the Admirals “lovely” hat with great sincerity. He swings around Cat’s body, and pokes Bea in the forehead. “Oh, he seems to like you!” Cat exclaims, as though this is highly unusual.

The group ventures into Blackwater Swamp, noting the small but growing port and the newly formed mousefolk city, still very much under construction. Their mission: kill as many crocodiles as possible, both for food and to clear out the area and keep the mousefolk safe.

They decide to begin by hunting a large crocodile, Bea in particular hoping for a challenging hunt. Cat guides them with ease through the swamp, and they find what they came for: a 14-foot crocodile, 3 feet high, sunning itself on the hunt. At first, neither the great beast nor our adventurers notice each other. As Damian and Bea stop to rest, however, Damian leans back on a large, scaly rock— to find that it is not a rock at all, but a massive crocodile.

Bea leaps into action, firing off two expert shots into its gaping mouth. Cat also shoots at it, but the croc quickly retaliates. The beast lunges at Damian, restraining him in its mouth, and dives into the murky water. Damian, who did not have time to catch his breath, is left to fight his way out of its mouth, unable to cast spells.

Seeing this, Bea grabs her trident, goes into a rage, and dives deep into the water— she is unaccustomed to this style of fighting, and misses both attacks. Cat does her best as well, but Damian remains trapped in its mouth as it chomps down on him. It also lands a terrific attack with its tail as well (critical hit) as it knocks Bea back with its tail. It then surges through the water, 30 feet further into the swamp. Damian struggles in its jaws, but does not manage to escape.

Bea quickly catches up, throwing the trident from five feet away. It hits, imbedding itself in the scaly skin. More arrows pepper into its back, as Bea and Cat continues to fire into it with abandon. Cat’s shot hits its mark, and her arrow does the killing blow, hitting the croc only a couple inches from Damian’s head.

Damian emerges, bloodied, and sets about healing himself. He rolls quite poorly, but does his best to remain in good spirits.

They take a couple hours to finish healing and cart the body back to the port. They head out again, finding a 5-foot gator. Bea easily kills it within seconds (round 1 of combat). Bea hooks Fafnir into the mouth of the alligator, hauling it over her shoulder as they head onwards, ready for another hunt.

They sneak up on another large one, ambushing it and firing off attacks at range before it has time to respond. Damian in particular is back to enact his vengeance, dealing hefty blows with his powerful spells. It turns tail and swims away, putting 80 feet of distance in between them. Cat hits it at range with her longbow, and her gibbon runs after it, chucking river rocks at the beast. The Admiral screeches loudly as he throws his rocks, doing just enough to kill it where it lies. He comes back to screech at Bea, preening and showing off. She growls back to demonstrate her own prowess as a predator, and she thinks she sees the gibbon grin back at her.

They struggle to bring back these two, and it begins to get dark out. However, they push back out, getting in a boat and seeking to track down a pod of small alligators. In the dark, the humans have great difficulty seeing, and the alligators emerge in the darkness to surprise the group. However, Bea rages, and is able to react instantaneously. At first, they are evenly matched, but the gator is able to knock out the Admiral and begins to carry away its prey.

Though they manage to kill the others, the Admiral is carried away. Cat magically brings him back later, and the Admiral wakes up Damian by standing on his chest in the middle of the night, grinning broadly.