Captured By Toads!(Mareks Revenge Tp)

Zinnia has studied the map and studied it well, looked at it a couple times, of course the map is not super detailed but enough so hopefully that they won’t be in the swamps too long and there are paths in the swamp..sort of.

The swamps are dark, dank and gooey; the path the party are following is a raised hump of land saddle-backing above the pools of stagnant water, mud flats and tall reeds. There are trees, usually festooned with vines and mosses and Benar is currently walking carefully along one of the branches. With his habit tied up through his belt he is peering ahead through the gloom, trying to discern which direction is best at the point the path splits just ahead.

Anomen looks back and forth as they walk, it's the first time he has been in a swamp so he is being extra careful and alert to what’s in here.

Treesong frowns as she walks slowly; a couple times walking faster if she falls behind and has for the moment remained quiet as they go through the swamplands.

Lacota follows along, leaning on his walking stick and glancing around. "Bah, I don't like this place... Not one bit. It smells."

Zinnia studies the map, looking up every so often, she is also careful where she steps as she sighs softly different things on her mind right now but she tries to focus on getting through the swamps and to the dunes seen on the map.

Benar scampers back down the tree, the grey squirrel's long shoulder high walking staff slung across his back. As the days have passed he's been showing less of the quiet, polite Elder Benar and more knowledge of the wilds and survival tips then one might expect. Landing lightly next to Anomen he unlimbers his walking staff and shakes his head, "It is just grey and mud ahead, both routes seem to slope down into thick grey mud after about half a mile... so I am not sure what to suggest Zinnia."

Anomen frowns, "Doesn't sound very good either way to me, it's been quiet for the most part at least."

Treesong blinks as she watches Benar and looks at the paths, "Both are creepy, but feel odd, maybe one less so I don’t know."

Lacota stops short. "Perhaps... we should take the west fork? The seashore should be to the west, right? Stands to reason we should keep to a westerly direction... but that's just my opinion."

Zinnia sighs "I am unsure" She looks at the map, “But if both have mud, there has to be some way to avoid it, right?" She looks at the map again, "The shore is..west on the map, as are the dunes.."

Benar asks, "Well then I say west as well?" He moves forward cautiously and sniffs the air, tilting his head back, the bandana wrapped about his head keeping his hair out of his eyes whilst his ears are free to twitch and turn and listen. "I can't hear anything though... it is... very quiet... I suggest we move cautiously."

Anomen nods, he still has his sword in its case, but his paw is close to the sword if needed, "Yes be careful sounds like good advice indeed."

Treesong frowns deeply as she walks slowly, she jumps once when a dragonfly flies by and shakes her head, noting she is a bit behind she jogs on to catch up to them and almost slips on a patch of slippery mud that was on the path a little.

Lacota, being near the back, glances at Treesong. "Are you alright there, Miss?"

Zinnia watches the path glancing to the left and right and also straight ahead being careful to avoid any patches of mud, well best she can, she gasps slightly when the dragonfly buzzes past her as well, "How long have we been in the swamps, any beast know?" Seems she rather be elsewhere also.

Benar starts to walk down the west most path, looking up and frowning, "Three... four hours maybe?" He shivers and curls his tail from side to side then grimaces as he reaches the end of the path and gingerly reaches out a foot. It slides into the thick mud, the slimy goo oozing over his foot and up to his shins before he seems to reach solid ground. "Ok... ugh... try and follow my foot steps." He takes his staff and starts to probe the muck in front of him, starting to pick up a path. Overhead it is turning grey as clouds blow in, starting to obscure the sky as the scraggly trees start to close in and make it even gloomier.

Anomen also looks back at Treesong and it almost causes him to about fall in the water, luckily there is a vine nearby and he grabs it, regains his balance and shakes his head, "Staring to hate this place." He mutters and nods as he goes to follow Benar, seems the elder is not in the led for now.

Treesong frowns" It’s too...unsure, like grandfather I can be in tune with nature and I don’t like this nature at all" She frowns and goes quickly to be close to Anomen, following close behind him, her ears go back a little.

Lacota gingerly steps into the mud, making a disgusted face as it squelches under his feet paws. "Ugh, this brackish water is foul... Smells rotten..." He grimaces.

Zinnia nods, she lets Benar led for now, it's not as deep for her but she is still young and has some growing to do yet. She decides to lift her robe up enough to keep it mostly out of the muddy water stuff and She keeps a hold of the map as there isn't too much they can do or too far they can even go in this area of the swamp, she sniffs the air noting the clouds forming and mutters some, mainly to herself.

Keeps moving forward, the going is long and slow, maybe an hour passes as they cross this treacherous expanse of muck and mud. By the end of the hour it is nearly up to their knees, thick, slimy, gooey, slowing them down somewhat but Benar is aiming toward a tall hillock off to the west. As the dark and the gloom deepens he glances back and points toward it, "I reckon we can make camp there tonight?"

Anomen frowns at all the slime and muck, "Camp? Here? I thought that was unwise, I mean we have to be close to getting out of here, right..I mean how much more of this stuff is there."

Treesong whimpers slightly, she keeps close to Anomen most of the hour or so along this part of the swamp and has been very quiet as well, perking her ears up only to lower them again.

Lacota follows along slowly, frowning. "This place is awful, any dry place is good enough for me."

Zinnia looks at the map "I.." She about slips once and frowns, "I am unsure how much of the swamp is left, I do not think too much, we have to be over half way through, maybe near 3/4 of the way through even." She tries to look ahead for any signs, even faint, of dunes.

Benar clambers up the hill and once at the top of it nimbly scrambles up into the branches and peers off toward what he thinks is west. "Mmffff just can see Swamp... there might be something but well it is quite some distance away. I don't think we want to walk in this muck at night.... and it is getting late."

Anomen nods, he goes to help Treesong up as he speaks to Benar, "True, the dark can make a path more dangerous and the lighter it is the better, hopefully it’s not far off from here, all this swamp stuff blocks any smell of the sea air."

Treesong allows the help and smiles a little for the first time since they came in the swamp. She frowns at all the mud and stuff on her and tries to get some of it off, some comes off and some seems to stay as she sighs and sits down for now, least till they start moving again.

Lacota peers around. "I only hope we aren't going in circles. This place is extremely confusing to navigate, even in the daytime."

Zinnia nods "Well it's not so much daylight now, it’s more night or..late afternoon" She frowns looking at the maps again , "I just want...out of here, soon rather than later."

Benar says, "I want out of here too." He climbs back down the tree and sets his pack down and sighs, looking around the scrubby grass and bushes, "I guess this will just have to do...." He trails off and stares as coming out of the darkness is a light... swaying and bouncing and jumping all over the place as it emerges out of the gloom. The sun continues to set and as the party are left squinting in the failing twilight more leaping, swaying lights emerge out of the darkness and a voice rumbles. "Taken intruders!""

Anomen becomes very alert and now his sword is drawn, "That doesn’t sound friendly at all." He looks around the area trying to judge how many lights there are, yeah they have lights may of been helpful if it was the other way around.

Treesong eyes go wide as she quickly climbs up the tree, a little higher than Benar is and looks down , she shivers some as this to her gives off major bad vibes "Bad..bad evil ...danger is here"

Lacota squints into the darkness. "What is it? Who are they?" He starts to clamber up the tree as well, very quickly. "This does not sound very good at all..."

Zinnia starts to back up and looks around as she quickly rolls up the map putting it away, she has looked at it enough to know a general idea where to go from here. Well unlike squirrels she never was a tree climber, she has when needed but very rarely.

Benar says, "Oh lord...." Benar stares at the huge toad hopping toward them... then as he watches more and more toads start to leap and bound up the hill. They are using bolas and have large nets and tridents and lanterns and with a croaking roar they charge from every direction! Whirling bolas, throwing them, trying to entangle the party's feet even as they jab with tridents and try to throw nets!

Anomen grips his blade and narrows his eyes, he slices at one of the nets, messing it up slightly as he sidesteps, a bola barely misses his feet but does leave a slight burn like mark on his lower leg that starts to sting some.

Treesong backs up and gets onto a smaller branch, she is not enjoying this and she isn’t a fighter at all, or least she rather not be as she never paid attention to lessons when she had them. "Go away..go away!" She calls down to a couple of the toads, she is not in the best place as the branch is weaker here.

Lacota scrambles higher in the branches, whacking at toads who get too close with his stick. "Benar! What do we do? There's too many!"

Zinnia frowns, she is not up in the tree like the others so they would probably try and get to her first, A bola gets tangled on the map case and she frowns, she looks at all the toads as they are now right in front of them by now, she has no weapon of her own as one grabs at her she manages to slam it into another tree that’s close by and looks surprised at her strength, but still even she can’t fight off too many of them.

Benar drops out of the tree, landing in front of Zinnia and sweeps his staff into the gut of an ongoing toad, bowling it down the hill. The Elder starts to move then, swaying his tail, using it to flick and blind and curl out to knock lanterns off their poles as his large quarterstaff whistles through the air like a thick reed, whipping, cracking, poking toads. Mild mannered, quiet Benar seems to know exactly what to do as he dances, spins, whirls and moves back and forth, trying to keep the toads from Zinnia but they just keep coming! There seems to be no end to them....

Anomen grips his sword, he fights with one of the toads nearby him and slices at the toad’s chest and kicking it down the hill, another toad gets a fatal would across the neck as he barely misses one of the 3 pointed weapons the toads have. A third tries to get him from behind as the squirrel stabs backwards getting the toad in the gut and pants a little as the first one attacks as the squirrel groans, ducking a stab and trying to aim his own as the one that was behind him falls over holding his mid-section.. "These toads need dead"

Treesong backs up as one of the toads leap up and causes the branch to break, with her on it as she falls and is quickly surrounded by about three of the toads, she glances around and gulps.

As one of the foul beasts attempts to grab Lacota by the foot, he kicks it hard in the face, causing it to fall backward. The squirrel continues to beat mercilessly at the creatures with his staff, but Friar was clearly starting to tire. "I...can't keep this up much longer..."

Zinnia gasps in shock, she has never seen Benar fight before, well if they get out of this she can ask later on how, one of the toads that does get past him she swats at the toad causing some blood from her claws on its face, it backs up just a little. but not it's friends.

.

Benar turns as he sees Treesong fall, a net is thrown, the young squirrel maid balled up inside the tangling net. "Treesong!" He turns and cracks the base of his staff at a toad behind him but it grabs it and pulls the squirrel off balance. He goes down the hill with a yelp, nets flashing through the flickering, shadowy, flame light darkness to wrap the grey squirrel up as well! More toads close off Zinnia, nets casting through the air as a similar seen happens near Lacota... several toads leap up and over him letting go of a net to fall atop him! Anomen however is holding his own, he has a sword and is worrying the toads quite well but as the others get netted one of them croaks out "Surrender tree-rat! Or we kill the old n young tree rats."

Anomen has managed to kill the toad before the nets came over the others, he narrows his eyes as he backs up, sword still in his paws he looks at where Treesong is and frowns more "Nooo...Treesong!" Worry in his voice. He looks back at the toads.

Treesong whimpers as the nets easily have her and she is now trapped and captive.

Lacota struggles ferociously as the toads drop the net over him. He kicks and even attempts to punch a few of the beasts until they can subdue him and get him still. Hearing the toads speak to Anomen, the squirrel cannot resist a sarcastic quip, "Oy, who are you calling young? Stupid amphibian..."

Zinnia backs up and growls as the toads come close to her, something deep inside her snaps as memories she rather of forgotten come back, she grabs one toad and slams it into a tree, killing it, her eyes go wide at this and she stops, she has never killed anything before, even if this is a toad. She gasps as that moment causes the a couple large nets and a bola to wrap around her legs as she falls down. Luckily her legs are not broken as it wasn’t throw at a large distance, still going to bruise some that’s for sure. She then suddenly gets a panicked look on her face, no WAY is she going to be trapped like a slave again, she struggles and only gets tangled worse seeing quickly that she can’t get loose she starts to cry letting tears go down her face as she shivers.

One of the toads laughs as Treesong is pulled tight and the butt of a trident slams into her head before the pointed end is pointed at the now limp squirrel-maids head. Benar slumps in his tangles of nets, crying out as Zinnia goes down with a thump, the badger subdued... only Anomen remains and the voice echoes out of the darkness. "Surrender squirrel or we kill em!"

Treesong is knocked out cold.

Anomen narrows his eyes as he watches all this, A deep unsquirrel like growl forms in his throat as the toads threaten Treesong, he looks over at Zinnia and frowns as the badger is in tears and Benar and Lacota are caught too, he lets his sword fall to the ground and slowly puts his paws in the air. "I surrender" He says.

Zinnia doesn’t even try to move anymore and still has tears in her eyes, every so often a sob escapes as the toads make sure she can’t move, yeah they know how strong a badger can be even if she has yet to grow some still.

Lacota continues to struggle a bit, but is unable to move. After a few moments, he frowns, the full reality of the situation sinking in... "Oh dear... This is not good...this is not good at all... I can't be trapped... No..." He starts muttering to himself.

Benar squeaks and squirms and then goes still as someone jabs him with a trident butt, "Well.... dang it..." He watches as Anomen is trussed up in a net as well and dragged off! Pulled down the hill and away into the swamp of the mud before they are pitched one by one down into a narrow sided hole! It's an effective prison, the walls are slick with mud and impossible to climb at least in the dark and trapped, captured and held by the toads the party of Redwall are in trouble now.

Anomen frowns as he is taken as well, his sword most likely placed somewhere away from him as he sighs as he has to help the others figure out a way out of here, there has to be a way to escape or there is going to be no hope at all for Redwall Abbey and who knows who else.