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JollyDoc's Serpent's Skull-updated 11/6/2011
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<blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 5680663" data-attributes="member: 9546"><p><strong>...Ask Questions Later</strong></p><p></p><p>As the Bastards neared the rocky outcropping of Gozreh’s Crest, the sky darkened menacingly and rain began to fall heavily. As Nkechi described, the Crest sat at the very edge of the peninsula, an ominously scarred chunk of dark granite worn into a steep, wave-like shape by centuries of wind and rain. Its face caught the ocean, creating a natural wind tunnel that amplified the wind and created howling updrafts. Overhead, large seabirds rode the winds, hovering above the waves in search of prey. It seemed that Nkechi exaggerated the simplicity of the task he set the companions, as the nest of the stormbird sat some three-hundred feet above the water, at the very peak of the crag. The climb looked to be a daunting one, and the howling wind and driving rain didn’t make the prospect any more appealing. </p><p></p><p>“All we need is one feather, right?” Arioch shouted over the wind.</p><p>“Yes. So?” Nessalin asked.</p><p>“So why don’t I just summon an elemental, have it fly up there and get us one?” the summoner shrugged.</p><p>“That sounds far too easy and reasonable,” Jack shook his head. “I’m sure it won’t work, but what do we have to lose?”</p><p>Arioch nodded and opened a circle. A moment later, a halfling-sized whirlwind came buzzing out.</p><p>“There is a nest above,” Arioch spoke to the elemental in its native Auran tongue. “Fly there, grab a feather, and return to me.”</p><p>The elemental lifted into the sky and was quickly lost in the darkness. No more than a minute passed before it came spinning back to the ground and deposited a partially shredded, bright blue fragment of a feather.</p><p>Arioch sighed. “A WHOLE feather!” he commanded. “Go again!”</p><p>The elemental ascended again, and Arioch rolled his eyes. “They’re useful, but dumb as posts. That’s probably for the best, otherwise they probably would have overrun the Prime a long time ago.”</p><p>Minutes passed, but the elemental did not return. Finally, after some five minutes, Arioch cursed.</p><p>“The summoning’s expired by now,” he said. “It’s not coming back. Something must have happened.”</p><p>“Hate to say ‘I told you so,’” Jack said.</p><p>“I’m not done yet,” the summoner snapped.</p><p>He opened another circle and called another air elemental to him. Then he closed his eyes in meditation for a full minute, and when he opened them again, Minion stood beside him.</p><p>“You always bring me to the nicest places,” the eidolon sighed. </p><p>“I have need of you,” Arioch snipped, ignoring the snide tone. “We need a feather, an intact feather, from that nest above. I’m going to have this elemental carry you aloft, and I want you to find one and bring it back. Don’t worry, I’m going to weave an invisibility spell around you. You’ll be safe.”</p><p>“I believe I’ve heard that before,” Minion sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”</p><p></p><p>The nest was huge, fully ten-feet across, and Minion saw immediately what the problem was. There were many feathers in the nest, but they were all shredded, torn, and woven into the fabric of the nest itself. Finding a whole one was going to take time.</p><p>“Keep a sharp eye out,” he told the elemental, though he wasn’t certain the creature understood him. </p><p>The eidolon then set about searching for a single, intact feather. Several minutes had passed when he sensed the elemental moving behind him. He whirled in time to see a truly enormous bird hovering on the wind above the nest. Its wings were a rainbow of color, and the tips of its feathers and its eyes burned with green light. It was only then that Minion noticed the clutch of large eggs at the far side of the nest, and then the elemental was airborne, and the stormbird came screeching in. It landed on the edge of the nest, and as the elemental flew by, buffeting the bird as it passed, she stretched out her neck and snapped at the outsider, ripping a large, wispy tendril from its body. </p><p>‘Master!’ Minion called through the mental link he shared with Arioch. ‘The bird’s back, and it’s a big one! The elemental’s keeping it busy at the moment. I think I might be able to sneak up and snatch a feather.’</p><p>‘Be careful!’ Arioch called back. ‘You won’t last long if it senses you!’</p><p>“Thanks for pointing out the obvious,” Minion muttered to himself.</p><p>He crept forward, still invisible, until he stood just beneath the stormbird. He reached out a hand and carefully gripped one tail feather. Then, with a mighty tug, he yanked. Nothing happened. Rather, almost nothing. He immediately became visible, his aggressive action cancelling the enchantment.</p><p>‘Uh-oh!’ he shouted through the link.</p><p>‘Dismissed!’ Arioch commanded.</p><p>In an eye blink, Minion vanished, returned to his home dimension.</p><p></p><p>“Plan C?” Nessalin asked.</p><p>“Gorak go,” the big barbarian spoke abruptly. </p><p>“What?” Arioch asked.</p><p>“Gorak go up,” Gorak nodded towards the nest. “You make dust devils take Gorak up there. Gorak get feather.”</p><p>Arioch just looked at him for several moments, and then he smiled, his lips peeling back from his pointed canines.</p><p>“You know,” the summoner said, “I think this just might have a chance!”</p><p></p><p>Several minutes later, six more air elementals surrounded Gorak.</p><p>“Hold on tight,” Arioch told him. “It’s a long way back down.”</p><p>Gorak nodded, gripping his sword tightly in both hands. At Arioch’s instruction, two of the elementals grabbed the barbarian, one on each arm, and lifted him skyward. The other four flew quickly ahead, their instructions to keep the stormbird occupied until Gorak reached the nest. In short orders, the elementals came within sight of the nest, as well as the great bird who still sat perched vigilantly on its edge. The stormbird’s lantern-like eyes immediately fixed on the approaching cadre, and it opened its beak to unleash a deafening screech. The leading quartet of elementals scattered, but the sound buffeted Gorak and the whirlwinds the bore him. Gorak felt a wave of vertigo wash over him, jumbling and confusing his thoughts. Suddenly, the elemental on his left released his arm and began to weave drunkenly around the peak, as if it didn’t know where it was. Gorak swung free, and felt his right arm almost pulled out of its socket as the remaining elemental strained to hold him. It careened towards the cliff face, and just as it lost its grip on the half-orc, deposited him precariously on a narrow ledge there. The air elemental then flew away to join its brethren who were already engaged in a fierce melee with the stormbird. The confused elemental, however, came back down and hovered a few feet away from Gorak, staring at him stupidly. To the barbarian’s addled mind, the elemental looked like a smaller version of the stormbird…maybe one of its chicks.</p><p>“Go away, stupid bird!” the half-orc yelled, and he lashed out with one fist, trying to force his tormentor away. </p><p>The elemental easily avoided the clumsy blow, but now its own befuddled brain saw Gorak as a mortal enemy. It rammed the barbarian, coming dangerously close to knocking him off his perch. However, just as quickly, the summoned creature seemed to forget where it was again, and blundered off into the gathering darkness. Gorak shook his head in confusion and began to climb. He couldn’t see what was happening above him, but he could hear the continued screeching of the stormbird, and occasionally he would see an elemental plummet past him before vanishing, banished back to its own plane by its death. By the time Gorak reached the nest, the great bird’s shrieks had become fewer, and weaker. He lifted himself over the edge just in time to see the last pair of elementals slam into the stormbird from both sides, snapping its neck back sharply. The great bird collapsed into the nest, broken and dying, still struggling to shelter its eggs with its body. Gorak stood above it, his head finally clearing. As the stormbird took its last breath, the barbarian reached down and plucked a single feather.</p><p>________________________________________________________</p><p></p><p>As the Bastards made the return journey back to the Pallid Bluffs, they found their path along the shore barred by a quartet of warriors from a local Zenj tribe known as the Ijo. They did not look happy.</p><p>“We saw what you did!” the leader of the warriors shouted angrily. “You killed the sacred Stormbird! We demand retribution!”</p><p>“Oh?” Agnar asked. “Was that your bird? I can reanimate if for you if you like.”</p><p>“Agnar!” Arioch hissed. “That isn’t helping.”</p><p>“Life for life!” the Ijo warrior demanded. “We take one of yours in exchange for Chirok!”</p><p>“How about we just take all of yours instead?” Zavasta snarled.</p><p>A moment later the alchemist let fly with a bomb that had suddenly appeared in his hand. The bomb exploded among the Ijo, and immediately after, Agnar unleashed a sonic burst that sent the warriors scattering in all directions. Arioch tried to calm his companions, but it was too late. Gorak, Nessalin and Ishirou were among the stunned natives before they had a chance to recover from the twin blasts. It was over very quickly, the four warriors laying dead on the ground. </p><p>“Well that could have gone better,” Arioch sighed.</p><p>“I think it went perfectly,” Agnar shrugged. “Look, we are about to embark on a three month journey across a hostile, savage land. If we have to worry about offending every piss-ant tribe along the way because we step on some sacred flower, or drink from the holy watering hole, then the other factions will reach Saventh-Yi weeks ahead of us! You need to get your priorities in order.”</p><p>The priest turned away, Zavasta on his heels. Arioch stared silently after him, and then the summoner’s eyes met Jack’s, and a flash of perfect understanding passed between them.</p><p>__________________________________________________________</p><p></p><p>It was with great skepticism that Nkechi accepting the offerings when the Bastards returned to his cave. </p><p>“Wait here,” he ordered, and then he disappeared into his hermitage for over half an hour.</p><p>When he finally reemerged, the old priest was smiling. He invited the companions inside, and then instructed them to sit in a circle on the floor around a large clay brazier filled with herbs. Nkechi picked up a wooden mortar filled with reddish paste, and proceeded to dray mystic symbols on each their faces as he walked around the circle chanting esoteric words. Finally, he pulled out a pouch filled with some small roots. He ate one piece, then offered the rest to the companions.</p><p>“What is it?” Nessalin asked suspiciously.</p><p>“It will take us to meet Gozreh,” Nkechi replied solemnly.</p><p>“Not me!” the magus shook his head and tossed the root aside.</p><p>Nkechi quirked one eyebrow and looked around at the others. One by one, they looked to each other. Arioch was the first to put the root in his mouth, and then the others followed his example.</p><p></p><p>Almost immediately, the companions fell into a dream-like trance, and saw themselves leaving their bodies and drifting as smoke through the night sky. They could each sense their friends nearby, but could see no one. They could see all of the Mwangi Expanse below them. Slowly, the sky turned red, and their bodies reformed, but as strange spirit animals in pale, translucent colors. Arioch found himself in the body of an eagle, while Jack was a monkey. Agnar was a gorilla, and Gorak was crocodile. Zavasta resembled a buffalo, and Lyrissa and Ishirou were both great cats….a cheetah and lion respectively. In the middle of them all, Nkechi took the form of an enormous crab. </p><p>“I see the unveiling of the ruins of a forgotten city from ancient folklore,” the priest intoned. “Many rivals seek it as well. It is unclear who shall be the first to claim it. Yet there is a darkness with this city, and I see ominous storm clouds gathering on the horizon.”</p><p>Suddenly, a monstrous serpent appeared in the midst of the companions. It immediately struck out at Arioch, and the summoner felts its fangs, and then a burning poison invaded his flesh. As the snake began to wrap its coils around him, however, Gorak leaped on its back, hammering at it with his fists. Then Ishirou was there, pouncing like the king of beasts he resembled, clawing and tearing with his claws. Finally, Gorak clamped down on the serpent’s neck with his powerful jaws and shook until its head severed from its body. The creature began to writhe and thrash violently before it gradually faded away. As it did, Arioch abruptly recognized the markings on the snake’s body: they were the same as those of Yarzoth, the serpentfolk priestess that had marooned them on Smuggler’s Shiv. As the trance began to fade, the summoner had one last revelation: the dream snake’s death throes were reminiscent of the decapitation of the ancient snake-god Ydersius.</p><p></p><p>Nessalin watched as his companions broke free of their torpor. Nkechi looked around and nodded his head decisively. </p><p>“I will guide you,” he said. “Whatever you face is a threat to Gozreh, or at least to what Gozreh holds sacred. Gozreh commands me to make this journey with you. When do we leave?”</p><p>___________________________________________________________</p><p></p><p>Three days later, the Bastards, along with Ishirou and Nkechi, were finally ready to depart Eleder. Dargan Etters met with them one last time. He instructed that they should travel several days ahead of the main expedition, blazing the trail so to speak. He provided them with a map of Sargava and the southern Mwangi Expanse. He suggested that they travel light, and stop in the city of Kalabuto to restock on supplies. The Aspis Consortium had contacts there who would make arrangements for the companions stay there, and their continued journey. Etters warned them not to stay at the inn in Kalabuto, and to limit their interactions with the locals, who might be working for the rival faction. Instead, they were to make contact with a dwarf named Cheiton in the Shrunken Head, one of the city’s most popular taverns. He would be recognizable by a distinctive cave-and-pick tattoo on his shoulder. According to the map, the fastest route to Kalabuto lay in traveling overland through the wild scrublands and savanna, along the older trade routes that skirted between the Bandu Hills and the Laughing jungle. The remoteness of the routes would lessen the chance of the Bastards encountering the allies of rival factions seeking to block or sabotage their mission. The trade routes led to the edge of the M’neri Plains, and from there to Kalabuto. Beyond the city, Etters advised them to follow the Upper Korir River north into the Screaming Jungle, and then to the northeastern Bandu Hills until they reached the southernmost reaches of the Mwangi Jungle. Somewhere beneath those trees lay the supposed Azlanti outpost of Tazion which, they hoped, would show them the way on to Saventh-Yi.</p><p>______________________________________________________</p><p></p><p>After five days of travel through the foothills between Eleder and the Bandu Hills, the main trail the companions followed snaked northeast around a tall section of hills, and then detoured north connecting with several of the region’s more profitable and still operating mines. However, the map showed the location of an abandoned mine to the southeast, marked as the Fzumi Salt Mine. It appeared to lead to the edge of the M’neri Plains. </p><p>“This route, it be shorter by a day,” Nkechi remarked as the group paused at the fork. </p><p>“What do you know of the mines?” Arioch asked.</p><p>“Nothing,” the old priest shrugged. “I'm just saying it's a shorter path.”</p><p>The summoner sighed impatiently, then looked at the others. “Fine,” he snapped. “We’ll take the short cut.”</p><p></p><p>Soon after they’d set out into the hills, Gorak, who’d been leading them, abruptly came to a halt, he head up and his nostrils flared, sniffing the air. Suddenly, a woman leaped out of the trees beside the trail. She stood nearly six-feet tall, with a perfectly muscled figure and stunning features. Her dark hair was woven into clumped tangles, and she was dressed in scraps of animal hide. She bore a pole-arm crafted from the toothed jaw of some fearsome jungle beast. Crouched behind her was a bipedal reptile the size of a man, and with a mouth full of sharp teeth. </p><p>“You no belong here!” she hissed in Polyglot. “This my land! No hunting here!”</p><p>“What did I tell you?” Agnar sighed.</p><p>“I assure you, Madame,” Arioch said, inclining his head slightly, “we are not poachers. We are merely passing through. Now, if you’ll stand aside then we shall be on our way.”</p><p>“No!” she shouted, as she leaped into the middle of the trail.</p><p>“I’ve had enough of this!” Nessalin hissed, drawing his scimitar from its sheath.</p><p>Before he had it clear, however, the woman charged. She thrust the sharpened point of her pole-arm into the magus’s gut, and he doubled over from the force of the blow. At the same moment, the dinosaur leaped into the air, clearing the distance between itself and Gorak easily. It landed upon the barbarian like a cat, ripping and tearing at him with tooth and claw. The feral woman stood over Nessalin, preparing to finish him off, when Agnar hurled her back with a sonic blast. As she staggered, Zavasta hit her full in the chest with a flaming bomb. She screamed in pain, and flailed about like a wild animal. Nessalin, his sword still in hand, stumbled towards her, howling in rage. As he swung, his blade sparked with electricity, and as it struck her across the brow, she fell dead in a heap. Meanwhile, Gorak hurled the snarling dinosaur from him, but it quickly gathered itself for another leap. Before it could, however, Ishirou drove his katana through its spine from behind. The beast squealed and thrashed on the ground for several more moments before it was finally still.</p><p>From further down the trail, Nkechi watched the entire battle through heavily lidded eyes. He shook his head slightly when it was over.</p><p>_________________________________________________________</p><p></p><p>“Is that really necessary?” Jack asked, nodding towards Gorak.</p><p>“Absolutely,” Agnar laughed. “If it bothers you, don’t look at it.”</p><p>“It’s not the looking,” Jack groused, “it’s the smell.”</p><p>“Gorak not mind,” the big barbarian said as he shifted the carcass of the velociraptor to his other shoulder.</p><p></p><p>The group had finally reached the site of the old mine. The sagging and overgrown remains of a small camp encircled the gaping entrance visible in the hillside adjacent. It didn’t look like anyone had been there for many years. Most of the buildings were ruined and empty, but inside what had seemingly been a small office, Zavasta found a moldering logbook. The last few entries were dated fifteen years ago, and documented the mining company’s downfall. It appeared that the mine’s owner, a man named Feran Crinhouse, was looking for new salt deposits and decided to secretly try connecting his mine with another mine of the far side of the hills, abandoned earlier under mysterious circumstances and rumored to be haunted. Just as the miners broke through to the abandoned mine, they unearthed a strange orb that glowed with a pulsing blue light. Crinhouse decided to go down into the mine to personally investigate. The final entry was in a different handwriting, and read: “They’ve come up from below! They’re all dead, and their touch withers the flesh! May the gods have mercy on us!”</p><p></p><p>The wooden beams supporting the mine’s main entrance were weathered and sagging. Water trickled down the sloping floor among the wooden footholds leading down the main shaft. The group made their way into the darkness, two abreast. As they crossed a partially flooded cyst in the shaft, the water in front of Jack suddenly began to roil, and the rogue cried out in pain, and then went completely rigid, unmoving. Some…thing reared up out of the water, looking like nothing so much as a crystalline amorphous blob. Gorak, walking next to Jack, was startled and taken aback by the sudden appearance of the creature, and he reacted the way he normally did when caught off guard…with rage! </p><p>“Get out of there, you half-wit!” Zavasta shouted as he hurled a bomb at the ooze.</p><p>The incendiary struck and splattered across the creature, but its semi-liquid form quickly extinguished the flames, leaving not even a scorch mark. Ishirou quickly made his way to Gorak’s side, and the pair of warriors hacked and chopped at the blob, unsure if they were actually causing it any harm. Suddenly, a pseudopod lashed out at Ishirou, and he too was instantaneously paralyzed. Behind them, Arioch called a pair of elementals from the paraelemental plane of mud. The creatures looked like slime covered dwarves, but they moved through the flooded chamber with ease, and quickly flanked the ooze. Their muck-covered fists rained blow after blow down upon the creature until it finally sank back into the water and did not emerge again. Agnar moved quickly to Jack and Ishirou to examine their condition.</p><p>“They’ll be fine,” he pronounced. “It’s a temporary toxin. I imagine the ooze used it to immobilize its prey before it dined. Fascinating!”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JollyDoc, post: 5680663, member: 9546"] [b]...Ask Questions Later[/b] As the Bastards neared the rocky outcropping of Gozreh’s Crest, the sky darkened menacingly and rain began to fall heavily. As Nkechi described, the Crest sat at the very edge of the peninsula, an ominously scarred chunk of dark granite worn into a steep, wave-like shape by centuries of wind and rain. Its face caught the ocean, creating a natural wind tunnel that amplified the wind and created howling updrafts. Overhead, large seabirds rode the winds, hovering above the waves in search of prey. It seemed that Nkechi exaggerated the simplicity of the task he set the companions, as the nest of the stormbird sat some three-hundred feet above the water, at the very peak of the crag. The climb looked to be a daunting one, and the howling wind and driving rain didn’t make the prospect any more appealing. “All we need is one feather, right?” Arioch shouted over the wind. “Yes. So?” Nessalin asked. “So why don’t I just summon an elemental, have it fly up there and get us one?” the summoner shrugged. “That sounds far too easy and reasonable,” Jack shook his head. “I’m sure it won’t work, but what do we have to lose?” Arioch nodded and opened a circle. A moment later, a halfling-sized whirlwind came buzzing out. “There is a nest above,” Arioch spoke to the elemental in its native Auran tongue. “Fly there, grab a feather, and return to me.” The elemental lifted into the sky and was quickly lost in the darkness. No more than a minute passed before it came spinning back to the ground and deposited a partially shredded, bright blue fragment of a feather. Arioch sighed. “A WHOLE feather!” he commanded. “Go again!” The elemental ascended again, and Arioch rolled his eyes. “They’re useful, but dumb as posts. That’s probably for the best, otherwise they probably would have overrun the Prime a long time ago.” Minutes passed, but the elemental did not return. Finally, after some five minutes, Arioch cursed. “The summoning’s expired by now,” he said. “It’s not coming back. Something must have happened.” “Hate to say ‘I told you so,’” Jack said. “I’m not done yet,” the summoner snapped. He opened another circle and called another air elemental to him. Then he closed his eyes in meditation for a full minute, and when he opened them again, Minion stood beside him. “You always bring me to the nicest places,” the eidolon sighed. “I have need of you,” Arioch snipped, ignoring the snide tone. “We need a feather, an intact feather, from that nest above. I’m going to have this elemental carry you aloft, and I want you to find one and bring it back. Don’t worry, I’m going to weave an invisibility spell around you. You’ll be safe.” “I believe I’ve heard that before,” Minion sighed. “Let’s get this over with.” The nest was huge, fully ten-feet across, and Minion saw immediately what the problem was. There were many feathers in the nest, but they were all shredded, torn, and woven into the fabric of the nest itself. Finding a whole one was going to take time. “Keep a sharp eye out,” he told the elemental, though he wasn’t certain the creature understood him. The eidolon then set about searching for a single, intact feather. Several minutes had passed when he sensed the elemental moving behind him. He whirled in time to see a truly enormous bird hovering on the wind above the nest. Its wings were a rainbow of color, and the tips of its feathers and its eyes burned with green light. It was only then that Minion noticed the clutch of large eggs at the far side of the nest, and then the elemental was airborne, and the stormbird came screeching in. It landed on the edge of the nest, and as the elemental flew by, buffeting the bird as it passed, she stretched out her neck and snapped at the outsider, ripping a large, wispy tendril from its body. ‘Master!’ Minion called through the mental link he shared with Arioch. ‘The bird’s back, and it’s a big one! The elemental’s keeping it busy at the moment. I think I might be able to sneak up and snatch a feather.’ ‘Be careful!’ Arioch called back. ‘You won’t last long if it senses you!’ “Thanks for pointing out the obvious,” Minion muttered to himself. He crept forward, still invisible, until he stood just beneath the stormbird. He reached out a hand and carefully gripped one tail feather. Then, with a mighty tug, he yanked. Nothing happened. Rather, almost nothing. He immediately became visible, his aggressive action cancelling the enchantment. ‘Uh-oh!’ he shouted through the link. ‘Dismissed!’ Arioch commanded. In an eye blink, Minion vanished, returned to his home dimension. “Plan C?” Nessalin asked. “Gorak go,” the big barbarian spoke abruptly. “What?” Arioch asked. “Gorak go up,” Gorak nodded towards the nest. “You make dust devils take Gorak up there. Gorak get feather.” Arioch just looked at him for several moments, and then he smiled, his lips peeling back from his pointed canines. “You know,” the summoner said, “I think this just might have a chance!” Several minutes later, six more air elementals surrounded Gorak. “Hold on tight,” Arioch told him. “It’s a long way back down.” Gorak nodded, gripping his sword tightly in both hands. At Arioch’s instruction, two of the elementals grabbed the barbarian, one on each arm, and lifted him skyward. The other four flew quickly ahead, their instructions to keep the stormbird occupied until Gorak reached the nest. In short orders, the elementals came within sight of the nest, as well as the great bird who still sat perched vigilantly on its edge. The stormbird’s lantern-like eyes immediately fixed on the approaching cadre, and it opened its beak to unleash a deafening screech. The leading quartet of elementals scattered, but the sound buffeted Gorak and the whirlwinds the bore him. Gorak felt a wave of vertigo wash over him, jumbling and confusing his thoughts. Suddenly, the elemental on his left released his arm and began to weave drunkenly around the peak, as if it didn’t know where it was. Gorak swung free, and felt his right arm almost pulled out of its socket as the remaining elemental strained to hold him. It careened towards the cliff face, and just as it lost its grip on the half-orc, deposited him precariously on a narrow ledge there. The air elemental then flew away to join its brethren who were already engaged in a fierce melee with the stormbird. The confused elemental, however, came back down and hovered a few feet away from Gorak, staring at him stupidly. To the barbarian’s addled mind, the elemental looked like a smaller version of the stormbird…maybe one of its chicks. “Go away, stupid bird!” the half-orc yelled, and he lashed out with one fist, trying to force his tormentor away. The elemental easily avoided the clumsy blow, but now its own befuddled brain saw Gorak as a mortal enemy. It rammed the barbarian, coming dangerously close to knocking him off his perch. However, just as quickly, the summoned creature seemed to forget where it was again, and blundered off into the gathering darkness. Gorak shook his head in confusion and began to climb. He couldn’t see what was happening above him, but he could hear the continued screeching of the stormbird, and occasionally he would see an elemental plummet past him before vanishing, banished back to its own plane by its death. By the time Gorak reached the nest, the great bird’s shrieks had become fewer, and weaker. He lifted himself over the edge just in time to see the last pair of elementals slam into the stormbird from both sides, snapping its neck back sharply. The great bird collapsed into the nest, broken and dying, still struggling to shelter its eggs with its body. Gorak stood above it, his head finally clearing. As the stormbird took its last breath, the barbarian reached down and plucked a single feather. ________________________________________________________ As the Bastards made the return journey back to the Pallid Bluffs, they found their path along the shore barred by a quartet of warriors from a local Zenj tribe known as the Ijo. They did not look happy. “We saw what you did!” the leader of the warriors shouted angrily. “You killed the sacred Stormbird! We demand retribution!” “Oh?” Agnar asked. “Was that your bird? I can reanimate if for you if you like.” “Agnar!” Arioch hissed. “That isn’t helping.” “Life for life!” the Ijo warrior demanded. “We take one of yours in exchange for Chirok!” “How about we just take all of yours instead?” Zavasta snarled. A moment later the alchemist let fly with a bomb that had suddenly appeared in his hand. The bomb exploded among the Ijo, and immediately after, Agnar unleashed a sonic burst that sent the warriors scattering in all directions. Arioch tried to calm his companions, but it was too late. Gorak, Nessalin and Ishirou were among the stunned natives before they had a chance to recover from the twin blasts. It was over very quickly, the four warriors laying dead on the ground. “Well that could have gone better,” Arioch sighed. “I think it went perfectly,” Agnar shrugged. “Look, we are about to embark on a three month journey across a hostile, savage land. If we have to worry about offending every piss-ant tribe along the way because we step on some sacred flower, or drink from the holy watering hole, then the other factions will reach Saventh-Yi weeks ahead of us! You need to get your priorities in order.” The priest turned away, Zavasta on his heels. Arioch stared silently after him, and then the summoner’s eyes met Jack’s, and a flash of perfect understanding passed between them. __________________________________________________________ It was with great skepticism that Nkechi accepting the offerings when the Bastards returned to his cave. “Wait here,” he ordered, and then he disappeared into his hermitage for over half an hour. When he finally reemerged, the old priest was smiling. He invited the companions inside, and then instructed them to sit in a circle on the floor around a large clay brazier filled with herbs. Nkechi picked up a wooden mortar filled with reddish paste, and proceeded to dray mystic symbols on each their faces as he walked around the circle chanting esoteric words. Finally, he pulled out a pouch filled with some small roots. He ate one piece, then offered the rest to the companions. “What is it?” Nessalin asked suspiciously. “It will take us to meet Gozreh,” Nkechi replied solemnly. “Not me!” the magus shook his head and tossed the root aside. Nkechi quirked one eyebrow and looked around at the others. One by one, they looked to each other. Arioch was the first to put the root in his mouth, and then the others followed his example. Almost immediately, the companions fell into a dream-like trance, and saw themselves leaving their bodies and drifting as smoke through the night sky. They could each sense their friends nearby, but could see no one. They could see all of the Mwangi Expanse below them. Slowly, the sky turned red, and their bodies reformed, but as strange spirit animals in pale, translucent colors. Arioch found himself in the body of an eagle, while Jack was a monkey. Agnar was a gorilla, and Gorak was crocodile. Zavasta resembled a buffalo, and Lyrissa and Ishirou were both great cats….a cheetah and lion respectively. In the middle of them all, Nkechi took the form of an enormous crab. “I see the unveiling of the ruins of a forgotten city from ancient folklore,” the priest intoned. “Many rivals seek it as well. It is unclear who shall be the first to claim it. Yet there is a darkness with this city, and I see ominous storm clouds gathering on the horizon.” Suddenly, a monstrous serpent appeared in the midst of the companions. It immediately struck out at Arioch, and the summoner felts its fangs, and then a burning poison invaded his flesh. As the snake began to wrap its coils around him, however, Gorak leaped on its back, hammering at it with his fists. Then Ishirou was there, pouncing like the king of beasts he resembled, clawing and tearing with his claws. Finally, Gorak clamped down on the serpent’s neck with his powerful jaws and shook until its head severed from its body. The creature began to writhe and thrash violently before it gradually faded away. As it did, Arioch abruptly recognized the markings on the snake’s body: they were the same as those of Yarzoth, the serpentfolk priestess that had marooned them on Smuggler’s Shiv. As the trance began to fade, the summoner had one last revelation: the dream snake’s death throes were reminiscent of the decapitation of the ancient snake-god Ydersius. Nessalin watched as his companions broke free of their torpor. Nkechi looked around and nodded his head decisively. “I will guide you,” he said. “Whatever you face is a threat to Gozreh, or at least to what Gozreh holds sacred. Gozreh commands me to make this journey with you. When do we leave?” ___________________________________________________________ Three days later, the Bastards, along with Ishirou and Nkechi, were finally ready to depart Eleder. Dargan Etters met with them one last time. He instructed that they should travel several days ahead of the main expedition, blazing the trail so to speak. He provided them with a map of Sargava and the southern Mwangi Expanse. He suggested that they travel light, and stop in the city of Kalabuto to restock on supplies. The Aspis Consortium had contacts there who would make arrangements for the companions stay there, and their continued journey. Etters warned them not to stay at the inn in Kalabuto, and to limit their interactions with the locals, who might be working for the rival faction. Instead, they were to make contact with a dwarf named Cheiton in the Shrunken Head, one of the city’s most popular taverns. He would be recognizable by a distinctive cave-and-pick tattoo on his shoulder. According to the map, the fastest route to Kalabuto lay in traveling overland through the wild scrublands and savanna, along the older trade routes that skirted between the Bandu Hills and the Laughing jungle. The remoteness of the routes would lessen the chance of the Bastards encountering the allies of rival factions seeking to block or sabotage their mission. The trade routes led to the edge of the M’neri Plains, and from there to Kalabuto. Beyond the city, Etters advised them to follow the Upper Korir River north into the Screaming Jungle, and then to the northeastern Bandu Hills until they reached the southernmost reaches of the Mwangi Jungle. Somewhere beneath those trees lay the supposed Azlanti outpost of Tazion which, they hoped, would show them the way on to Saventh-Yi. ______________________________________________________ After five days of travel through the foothills between Eleder and the Bandu Hills, the main trail the companions followed snaked northeast around a tall section of hills, and then detoured north connecting with several of the region’s more profitable and still operating mines. However, the map showed the location of an abandoned mine to the southeast, marked as the Fzumi Salt Mine. It appeared to lead to the edge of the M’neri Plains. “This route, it be shorter by a day,” Nkechi remarked as the group paused at the fork. “What do you know of the mines?” Arioch asked. “Nothing,” the old priest shrugged. “I'm just saying it's a shorter path.” The summoner sighed impatiently, then looked at the others. “Fine,” he snapped. “We’ll take the short cut.” Soon after they’d set out into the hills, Gorak, who’d been leading them, abruptly came to a halt, he head up and his nostrils flared, sniffing the air. Suddenly, a woman leaped out of the trees beside the trail. She stood nearly six-feet tall, with a perfectly muscled figure and stunning features. Her dark hair was woven into clumped tangles, and she was dressed in scraps of animal hide. She bore a pole-arm crafted from the toothed jaw of some fearsome jungle beast. Crouched behind her was a bipedal reptile the size of a man, and with a mouth full of sharp teeth. “You no belong here!” she hissed in Polyglot. “This my land! No hunting here!” “What did I tell you?” Agnar sighed. “I assure you, Madame,” Arioch said, inclining his head slightly, “we are not poachers. We are merely passing through. Now, if you’ll stand aside then we shall be on our way.” “No!” she shouted, as she leaped into the middle of the trail. “I’ve had enough of this!” Nessalin hissed, drawing his scimitar from its sheath. Before he had it clear, however, the woman charged. She thrust the sharpened point of her pole-arm into the magus’s gut, and he doubled over from the force of the blow. At the same moment, the dinosaur leaped into the air, clearing the distance between itself and Gorak easily. It landed upon the barbarian like a cat, ripping and tearing at him with tooth and claw. The feral woman stood over Nessalin, preparing to finish him off, when Agnar hurled her back with a sonic blast. As she staggered, Zavasta hit her full in the chest with a flaming bomb. She screamed in pain, and flailed about like a wild animal. Nessalin, his sword still in hand, stumbled towards her, howling in rage. As he swung, his blade sparked with electricity, and as it struck her across the brow, she fell dead in a heap. Meanwhile, Gorak hurled the snarling dinosaur from him, but it quickly gathered itself for another leap. Before it could, however, Ishirou drove his katana through its spine from behind. The beast squealed and thrashed on the ground for several more moments before it was finally still. From further down the trail, Nkechi watched the entire battle through heavily lidded eyes. He shook his head slightly when it was over. _________________________________________________________ “Is that really necessary?” Jack asked, nodding towards Gorak. “Absolutely,” Agnar laughed. “If it bothers you, don’t look at it.” “It’s not the looking,” Jack groused, “it’s the smell.” “Gorak not mind,” the big barbarian said as he shifted the carcass of the velociraptor to his other shoulder. The group had finally reached the site of the old mine. The sagging and overgrown remains of a small camp encircled the gaping entrance visible in the hillside adjacent. It didn’t look like anyone had been there for many years. Most of the buildings were ruined and empty, but inside what had seemingly been a small office, Zavasta found a moldering logbook. The last few entries were dated fifteen years ago, and documented the mining company’s downfall. It appeared that the mine’s owner, a man named Feran Crinhouse, was looking for new salt deposits and decided to secretly try connecting his mine with another mine of the far side of the hills, abandoned earlier under mysterious circumstances and rumored to be haunted. Just as the miners broke through to the abandoned mine, they unearthed a strange orb that glowed with a pulsing blue light. Crinhouse decided to go down into the mine to personally investigate. The final entry was in a different handwriting, and read: “They’ve come up from below! They’re all dead, and their touch withers the flesh! May the gods have mercy on us!” The wooden beams supporting the mine’s main entrance were weathered and sagging. Water trickled down the sloping floor among the wooden footholds leading down the main shaft. The group made their way into the darkness, two abreast. As they crossed a partially flooded cyst in the shaft, the water in front of Jack suddenly began to roil, and the rogue cried out in pain, and then went completely rigid, unmoving. Some…thing reared up out of the water, looking like nothing so much as a crystalline amorphous blob. Gorak, walking next to Jack, was startled and taken aback by the sudden appearance of the creature, and he reacted the way he normally did when caught off guard…with rage! “Get out of there, you half-wit!” Zavasta shouted as he hurled a bomb at the ooze. The incendiary struck and splattered across the creature, but its semi-liquid form quickly extinguished the flames, leaving not even a scorch mark. Ishirou quickly made his way to Gorak’s side, and the pair of warriors hacked and chopped at the blob, unsure if they were actually causing it any harm. Suddenly, a pseudopod lashed out at Ishirou, and he too was instantaneously paralyzed. Behind them, Arioch called a pair of elementals from the paraelemental plane of mud. The creatures looked like slime covered dwarves, but they moved through the flooded chamber with ease, and quickly flanked the ooze. Their muck-covered fists rained blow after blow down upon the creature until it finally sank back into the water and did not emerge again. Agnar moved quickly to Jack and Ishirou to examine their condition. “They’ll be fine,” he pronounced. “It’s a temporary toxin. I imagine the ooze used it to immobilize its prey before it dined. Fascinating!” [/QUOTE]
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JollyDoc's Serpent's Skull-updated 11/6/2011
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