Interlude 09: Savages

The heat and humidity of the Wetlands had always aggravated Alfonso Dudo, especially today when the air was so incredibly hot and muggy. This heat was so different from the desert heat he was used to in his home city of Caldera. There the heat was dry and stinging, akin to that of the inside of a fully stoked oven. Here though the heat was wet and putrid. It clung to you, like a particularly oily mist. Back in Caldera, you had to wear layers of billowy clothing to keep cool from the desert sun. In the Wetlands, you had to strip off most of your clothing to cool down in the inescapable torridity.

The crew of the Hook had done just that. Most of the men were shirtless as they did their duties, though they still sweated heavily in the swamp’s sticky heat. Alfonso wished he could join them in stripping off his outermost layers, but as captain of the ship, he was bound to maintain a certain sense of decorum. Thus he kept his long-sleeved shirt and jacket on, despite the fact that his perspiration had all but soaked through all the layers of his clothing.

He would be glad to set sail and leave this savage place. Sadly, he and his crew couldn’t depart until the last of his quota was filled. The price for lizardman slaves had been increasing in Wargul lately. Their natural resistance to poisons and diseases made the lizardmen highly sought after as a labor force in the southern mines. There the toxic gases along with the outbreak of Yellow Cough, which had all but decimated the human and dwarf slaves, had little to no effect on the lizardmen workforce. The demand was so high that the Slavers’ Guild had begun to hire more ships to sail to the Wetlands to acquire more merchandise.

Thankfully, Alfonso had guessed the rise in prices months in advance and was able to procure a ship and crew long before the Guild’s call had even gone out. This meant he had quite the head start on his competition.

The captain sighed as he looked out over his ship. At the moment, the Hook was anchored in the middle of a small bay which connected to an estuary that led deeper into the harsh swamp. Two boats, filled with his best men, had rowed down the river to collect some product. According to the rumors, there were several small lizardman settlements along the numerous riverbanks that fed the estuary. It would be easy to capture a few hardy specimens. Sadly, some of the product would be lost due to resistance. This was usually the case with the adult males who would clash with his men in an attempt to protect the settlement, but thankfully the women and children would be unhurt and thus easily captured.

Part of Alfonso almost felt sorry for the beasts. They fought fiercely for sure, but they relied too much on their teeth and claws as well as their primitive weapons. The lizards were no match for the modern armor and the steel weaponry that his men were wielding.

“Captain!” called out Williams, one of the deckhands. He pointed a finger towards the estuary. “The boats’re comin’ back!”

Rowing into the bay were the two boats his raiding party had taken. From this distance, Alfonso couldn’t see too much, just two dark shapes upon the water. Thus he could only guess at their success.

“My, my. They’re early,” he remarked to himself. Perhaps the raid caught the lizardmen unawares, with most of their warriors out on patrol or hunting. Regardless, this was good news. The quicker the quota was filled, the faster they could leave this horrible place.

The sailors all crowded the starboard side of the ship, eager to get their first sight of the haul. The two boats were halfway across the bay now, and Alfonso could see the men inside the boats, all of them wearing wide-brimmed hats and concealing cloaks over themselves. There were also lizardmen in the center of each boat, all of them bound and all of them male.

Alfonso grinned, seeing that his men had done well in capturing so many adult males. They would fetch the highest price as they could work the toughest jobs in the mines.

The boats continued to grow closer, the men keeping stooped over in their hats and cloaks.

Something was wrong. They should have signaled him by now. And why were they wearing those cloaks in this dreadful heat?

“Hartman,” he said to a nearby deckhand. “Pass out the arms. Something is amiss.”

The young man looked confused but nodded anyway. “Aye, sir.”

It only took a few minutes to arm the entire crew with the ship’s meager weapons. There were swords and pikes among them, but there were also meat cleavers and butcher knives in the mix. The raiding party had taken the best of the weaponry with them, so the remainder of the crew were left with their leavings.

The crew gathered on the starboard side, ready to meet whoever was on those boats. They held their weapons tightly, ready to repel boarders if need be. The two boats moved ever closer. When they were about twenty feet from the ship, the two turned at an angle until their sides were parallel to that of the Hook’s.

“Foster!” Alfonso called out the name, which belonged to his first mate and leader of the raiding party. “Foster, if you’re there, answer me now, dammit!”

As if in answer, the cloaked men suddenly stood up as one, then tossed off their coverings. There was a collective gasp from the crew when they saw that in the place of their comrades were lizardmen! These lizards were wearing the armor and clothing of the raiding party, and many could see red stains on the leather, metal, and fabric. The lizardmen in the center of the boat, the ones Alfonso had thought were bound, quickly moved, and each handed the standing lizardmen long, oddly shaped wooden spears. The lizards then did the most peculiar thing. Instead of readying themselves to throw the spears, they held the butt up to their shoulders and raised their arms, pointing the tips of the weapons towards the Hook.

Alfonso wondered what they were up to when several ear-splitting cracks resounded in the air. Smoke exploded from the tips of the lizardmen’s spears, and suddenly several of his men went flying back, blood and gore spraying from numerous wounds. The lizardmen handed back the spear to their sitting comrades, who in turn replaced it with a fresh one. They then took aim once more and opened fire again.

More men fell to the deck, torn apart by invisible daggers.

Magicians! Nobody told him that the lizardmen had magicians! Alfonso took cover behind some crates, hoping that whatever this evil magic was that they were using, it wouldn’t find him if he hid. The remaining crew must have thought the same, as they too began to take cover. Many even dropped their weapons, finding it pointless to try to fight against the lizardmen’s savage magic.

Suddenly, dozens of shapes rose out of the water. Once they reached the surface, they began to climb the sides of the ship. They were lizardmen that had swam underneath the water and were now getting ready to board the vessel. Each was dressed in tattered brown fabric that resembled uniforms, which were now wet and soaked to their skin. Along with the clothing, the lizardmen wore wide leather belts from which hung a brace of weapons similar to the fire spears, only much shorter and more compact.

The lizardmen boarders leaped onto the deck of the ship and upon seeing the cowering crewmen, took hold of their weapons in one hand each then began to open fire. The explosions from the shorter weapons were just as loud as the longer ones, and soon sailor after sailor began to fall to the deck with large, gaping wounds spilling blood.

Screams filled the hot and torrid air.

Alfonso quaked in terror. How could the lizardmen have so many magicians with them? It was impossible to have this many in just one tribe! Not even the Empire could field so many war mages in one battle!

His thoughts were interrupted when a lizardman came upon his hiding place. Alfonso shrieked and cried out, “Please, have mercy!”

If the lizardman could understand his cries for pity, it certainly gave no hints of it. The monster before him merely raised its weapon and fired, putting a hole right between his eyes. Alfonso fell to the deck, dead, glassy eyes staring at nothing. The lizardman reached down to his corpse and pulled off his jacket, hissing in delight upon feeling the soft velvet material. It then slipped its arms into the sleeves, finding it a perfect fit.

It took less than a few minutes to round up all the remaining crew and execute them. The lizardmen in the boats then joined their brethren in boarding the ship, helping to toss the human bodies over the side, providing the fish in the water with a bountiful meal.

After the deck was clear and only the red stains of blood remained of the former crew, the lizardmen took down the Wargul standard that the Hook had flown. In its place, they raised a new flag, one that depicted a dragon breathing flame.