Book 1: ” Born Again” Page 23
TRAVELOGUE
OGRES VS. SWAMP-MEN OR SKINS VS. SKINS
12 July 2014
Greetings, most honored reader, to another trans-mission from beyond time and space, from the Hallowed Halls of the Cognescentii, from yours truly, the Traveller. Welcome again to yet another installment of the ongoing Saga of the Terrific Trio.
It appears that our heroes really have their hands full, don’t they? Nikki and Bryan have to hold off the Stone-Men, leaving Seth with the massive task (no pun intended) of defeating the Thinker’s Ogre mercenary. It’s not too hard to see who got the short end of the stick with this arrangement, is it?
Generally speaking, if a typical Ogre met a typical Swamp-Man in the wild, there would have been little doubt as to the typical outcome: one less Swamp-Man. The Ogres were almost absolute apex preda-tors, and with an average height of ten feet and weight of over 1,000 lbs, there weren’t too many who were going to argue the point. Besides their massive size and weight, they brought other wea-pons to the table as well (as I detailed earlier HERE ).
The average Swamp-Man, on the other hand, though a formidable opponent, generally “only” averaged six and a half to seven feet in height with an average weight of between 250 and 350 lbs. Knowing this, there should be no doubt as to the outcome of any hypothetical confrontation between these two monsters. Furthermore, looking at the muscle-bound specimen of an Ogre in today’s transmission, it seems we have an Ogre that’s even over the averages listed above.
However, all’s not lost as Seth brings weapons to the table not available to the average Swamp-Man. First, he brings his own human intelligence, cun-ning, and martial arts experience, all of which are greater than those of the average Swamp-Man. In addition, I should point out that Seth is considerab-ly larger than the average Swamp-Man; in fact, he vvould be considered in the top 1 percent of Swamp-Men in terms of size and strength. Seth is almost seven and a half feet tall and well over four hundred pounds of lean Swamp-Man muscle, with the corresponding strength to match, strength far greater than that of the vast majority of Swamp-Men.
In short, he is at the outlying parameters of how large a Swamp-Man can be, the “Hercules” of Swamp-Men, so to speak.
This leads us, then, to an interesting question: did the Thinker, ostensibly the opponent of our three heroes, understand as he effected the Reincarna-tion Spell upon the three that he was giving them bodies that were the “peak of perfection” of their respective races? And if so, why would he do that?
Next week we’ll discover if Seth’s “peak of perfec-tion” Swamp-Man body has what it takes to beat his Ogre opponent. Until then, honored reacier,
Cognescentii blessings!
—The Traveller