Forum

[Plane Sailing]

The grace of Asura is with the young Jazumai, and he mentally casts off the unseen shackles that attempted to bind him. Vicious teeth gouge his ribs as he jumps back, quickdrawing his scimitar and slicing back at the beast.

“Asura’s Blood!!” he cries out.

Once again he hears the refrain “Stupid two-legs” and the attempt to mentally control his body but his resolve is sure; he calls for help as he defends himself against the razor sharp teeth of Broadsword and the attempts by Blaze to either control him or knock him down.

Back at the barn, Azrin and K’tan hear his cries and start running down the field towards Trajan, apparently battling with two… horses? In the house M’ir and the others hurriedly make their way out of the small door. M’ir concentrates briefly and horrible whip-like welts appear on Broadswords side. Trajan spots his opening and critically hits the beast, slicing its awful head clean from its body.

Concerned, Blaze steps back from Trajan, and Darra spots his chance. From his position by the farmhouse he throws his arms forwards and cries out arcane words – and a bolt of lighting blasts across the field, catching Blaze squarely in the side and tumbling it over, dead. DMsnote: this is the first big damage spell ever thrown by the good-guys in my campaign – the first 3rd level arcane spell come to that. It was great!

The party gather round the two corpses.

“What in Asura’s name was all that?” they wonder. Examining the corpses carefully, Syl notices partly-healed wounds on each horses forehead – and apparently some kind of splinter beneath. Azrin does his best to carefully dig out each of the splinters for further examination, but they are delicate crystal, and shatter as he attempts to remove them. M’ir and K’tan both confirm with their knowledge of magecraft Dmsnote: psicraft in my campaign that these goings on sound like magery – and particularly the banned disciplines of the telepaths and the mutables.

“OK” says Darra “Lets go and see that witch now”.

“NO” says Trajan, sharply. “We are not leaving that old mans body lying there in the barn. We hardly knew him, but he was a friend and he deserved better than this. We are not going anywhere until he is properly buried.”

As they are starting to make preparations, a group of guards come up the road from Bellhold, along with the farmhand who originally raised the alarm. A short discussion, and the evidence of the frighteningly deformed head of one of the horses convinces the guards about what has been going on.

With matters settled at Othics farm, and with an increased sense of urgency, the company mount up and ride off to find the witch, and to… discuss… matters with her.

to be continued