Eyes Of The Lich Queen

[jkason]

Brother Donovan, human cleric

"Rogan convinced the lizardfolk to leave us be." Khalia said. "I am not quite sure what Jango said to him after that, though; the elves of our time seem to avoid doing damage to the fabric of the universe, and we use Draconic for High Church writings in our own tradition, so I have never studied the Elven tongue."

Donovan nods.

"You're better off than I am. I picked up dwarven back when I was doing heavy labor, but all the rest of this is gibberish to me without the right gift from the Flame."

So saying, Donovan holds back, letting Rogan conduct the negotiations for now, though he mentally sifts through the favors the Flame granted him this morning, preparing to use them if necessary.

 

[DEFCON 1]

"I am Rogan. It is a pleasure to meet you Krustach. Were you out on the hunt today? We are on a hunt of sorts, ourselves. We are looking for a temple in this area. Any chance we might be heading the right way? The last thing I'd want to happen is spend days heading the wrong way."

Krustach frowns a bit when Rogan mentions the hunt, and by the looks on the other faces in their group, they only wish they had been hunting.

"You going to the Temple of Kha'shazul? Hrmph. You paying tribute as well?" The elder lizardman almost spits when he says the word 'tribute'.

Krustach then snorts in dark humor and continues. "You are not of our race... you do not need to pay tribute. We however are not so lucky. The blackscales threatened to destroy our tribe this past season unless we give tribute. They take armaekrixner, our tribal spear passed from leader to heir."

[sblock=Aern, Ari, Jina, Khalia, Horatio: ]As Rogan and Jango speak to the lizardfolk, each of you observe the six of them and you all notice they bear very recent wounds.[/sblock]

 

[jkason]

Brother Donovan, human cleric

Krustach then snorts in dark humor and continues. "You are not of our race... you do not need to pay tribute. We however are not so lucky. The blackscales threatened to destroy our tribe this past season unless we give tribute. They take armaekrixner, our tribal spear passed from leader to heir."

[sblock=Aern, Ari, Jina, Khalia, Horatio: ]As Rogan and Jango speak to the lizardfolk, each of you observe the six of them and you all notice they bear very recent wounds.[/sblock]

The cleric frowns as the Krustach relates his current difficulty. "I want to take a whack at these blackscales already," he says. He keeps his voice low so, not wanting to interfere with Rogan's position for negotiaing; only his fellows near the back can hear him. "Stealing a heritage sits very poorly with me."

His brow furrows, as well, as he notices something about the lizardfolk. "I don't know if it's the hunt or something else, but these folk aren't whole. Maybe an offer of healing might grease the gears some more?"

 

[Mista Collins]

"Theft of heritage should not go unpunished." Rogan says as he takes notice of the wounds Donovan referred to. "Do these blackscales guard something at this temple or just accept tribute? Any information of the Temple of Kha'shazul and the blackscales who inhabit there area would be a blessing. Who knows, we might be able to recover armaekrixner for you."

 

[Autumn]

Jango starts to scan the people around. As he spots his sister, he stands up. It seems not quite easy, Jango muscle seems tired. Cerrill Maise try to tell him to stay on his bed, to relax, but Jango ignore him. He walks up to Jina. "Sis. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have treated like that in the lasts days. I wanted to see you far from me, because the Daelkyr wanted to have you out of his way, he was ready to kill you, and I didn't wanted it to happen. And somewhere in my soul, I knew I couldn't have stop him if he would have decided it was the time to kill you. But you stubornness was my salvation. Because you were around me, you have been the only reason why I was figthing the Daelkyr. He was playing with my fears, with my ambition, but he has never been able to suppress the love I had for you, he never completly control me. Most probably things would have turned worst if I hadn't hinder his progress before Sur'Kil finally arrive here, and I was able to do it because I hadn't completly surrended to him."

Jango opens his arms and hugs his sister. "It seems our faith is still bound for some times." adds Jango with a smiles.

Jina returns the hug, clasping her brother tightly with a laugh of pure relief and happiness. A few tears roll down her cheek as she releases him, but she's wearing a wide grin across her face. "I'm just glad to have you back. I was so worried." She sniffs and wipes her face with a sleeve, then gives a little laugh. "Well now we've got a real adventure together, right? Just like we always wanted."

* * *

Jina keeps to the rear as she listens quietly to the proceedings with the lizardfolk. Of course she's familiar with the creatures from her Seawell days, but only as exciting curiosities. She'd never actually spoken with them, even though she had a working knowledge of their language. She isn't quite sure what to make of these ones, and her hands hover near the hilts of her swords until the lizards relax following Rogan's speech. But now they are seeming reasonable enough, and a frown darkens her eyes at the mention of the spear's theft. She nods to Donovan. "The enemy of our enemy..." she murmurs. "If you can spare the spells then I think you should."

 

[Unkabear]

Aerndel approaches those who are speaking sliding his Lute back onto his back as he moved forward. He stopped short of Rogan and spoke gently "It would seem as if we have found fellow travelers that do not stand as our enemy. And their race would suggest that they may have knowledge of our destination." Aerndel says not knowing all that has passed between the two beyond that they are not aggressors. "Ask them if they would accept a gift of the Silver Flame. Though our healing may be meager all of those who are not against the light deserve to be whole." Speaking of their wounds though not as presumptuous as to approach them without permission as the negotiations are going well. "Perhaps they have been placed in their path by the Silver Flame to direct us on our quest and it would be impolite not to show our gratitude."

 

[stonegod]

Ari hunkers down. Now that he had a concrete problem in front of him, the brooding he had suffered from for the last few days seemed to have vanished. "Those blackscales are a nasty bit of work. If we can get their location, numbers, anything tactical, that'd be a help. Worst case, perhaps we can shadow these so long as their help appears true."

 

[Velmont]

"I agree, we should see if we can gain something from them. That will mean we might have to do something for them in return, but if it help our objective, I see no reason not to negotiate. It is that I told to Rogan." replies Jango to Ari.

 

[DEFCON 1]

When the offers of healing from the back of the group make their way up front to Rogan, the elder lizardman's eyes widen and light up. "You would do that for us? You would offer us aid?" Upon assurances that what they speak is true, Krustach turns to his tribemates and begins jabbering in draconic. Most of the party does not know what he is saying, but the way the tribe reacts happily it is not hard to figure it out. Krustach turns back smiling, his long pointed teeth glistening in the sun. "We thank you. We thank you very much."

Horatio and Khalia step forward and begin going through rudimentary healing arts, and soon all the lizardfolks are chirping away happily as their aches and pains being to subside. While the healers and the tribe members do their thing, Krustach speaks with the others in the party about what he knows about the Temple and it's surrounding environs. The offer of healing has loosened his tongue considerably, and he answers any questions thrown at him to the best of his ability... especially when Rogan also mentions possibly recovering the tribal spear.

"The Children of Rhashaak lurk within the temple... blackscale shamans and priests honoring Rhashaak, their dragon god. Outside the temple... poison dusk scouts guard the paths up to it... hiding behind the trees and the grasses. Very hard to see. We are about five miles away from the temple, and patrols of six cover each path. However, we know of a secret spot nearby where you can camp and not be seen. High on a hill, too steep to climb from temple side, so patrols never go up there. From this side the trail up is hard but managable."

He looks expectantly for any other inquiries he can answer for the group.

OOC: The more historically knowledgeable members of the party pass on the fact that Rhashaak is the half-fiend black dragon that guards Haka'torvhak, the ancient demon city in the center of the Q'Barran jungle. The blackscales and poison dusk tribes are fanatically devoted to Rhashaak, with the blackscales serving as warriors and priests while the nomadic poison dusks are typically scouts and raiders.

 

[Velmont]

"Why are you wounded? If you are attacked in your own territory, we can fear to be attacked too if we fall on your enemy." asks Jango.