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"Murder, Lies and Civic Duty."
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<blockquote data-quote="Kidjake" data-source="post: 6751020" data-attributes="member: 6776876"><p>Kavos and Gandil meet up on the shore of the Lake, Gandil has a small handcart stuffed with eight ghoul corpses and Kavos is looking considerably more refreshed. Gandil finds Kavos stripping down to his skivvies and folding his clothing into a neat pile.</p><p></p><p>Kavos has Gandil help him arrange the corpses along the river bank and then casts Desecrate over the area, followed by Animate Dead. Eight zombies rise from death and blankly await Kavos's command. </p><p></p><p>Gandil glances around to make sure that they're alone and removes his hat, stuffing it into a pouch so that he won't lose it in the lake. Kavos nearly gasps at his true form. His hands have been replaced by a series of six inch, articulated blades with only enough meat left between them to hold them together and allow use of his ghoul paralysis. Gandil's face is the real shocker though, the lower jaw has been completely replaced by a metal one, filled with jagged, razor sharp teeth. Gandil's upper jaw has been basically carved away for a similar prosthetic. Gandil catches Kavos looking at him and asks "What?"</p><p></p><p>Kavos replies "Nothing." and chuckles to himself, leading his gruesome army into the lake, casting Water Breathing on himself as he goes. Gandil instinctively takes a deep breath before diving into the water, even though his lungs are just for decoration now.</p><p></p><p>The lake is quite large and in only a short time they can't even see the bottom any longer. Kavos casts Light on his staff to give them some illumination down here and then casts Helping Hand, focusing on the locathah he caught before.</p><p></p><p>Gandil is trying to explain the upside to being a zombie swiss army knife as they swim deeper down, until Kavos holds up a hand to silence him. The elderly priest had just seen a shape in the water more than twice as long as a horse, moving fast and beyond their view.</p><p></p><p>Gandil glances around chomping his teeth menacingly when suddenly what looks like a shark snatches one of the zombies in its massive jaws. Sharks aren't well known for their fresh water expeditions however and with a second glance they realize that it's in fact a giant catfish.</p><p></p><p>Kavos casts Cause Fear on the catfish and begins swimming down with his horde. Gandil notices two more of the creatures at the edge of their vision and they appear to have riders, yellow scaled locathah wielding tridents. </p><p></p><p>Kavos breathes a sigh of relief and tells Gandil that it's alright, they're friendly.</p><p></p><p>As they get closer it seems that there are four other yellow scaled locathah with them and they all appear to be charging. Kavos is suddenly not so sure that they are in fact friendly and Gandil leaps into action, sinking his metal teeth into the hilt of one of the rider's trident. Kavos shouts that they're here to negotiate.</p><p></p><p>The second rider spears Gandil with his trident and deals about a third of his overall HP in damage to him with a lucky crit.</p><p></p><p>Kavos casts Comprehend Language to try and reason with these people and hears what appears to be the leader screaming about how surface dwellers are allies of the Tso'Cha!</p><p></p><p>As if on cue, two orange scaled locathah wielding spears appear from below the yellow scaled ones and manage to impale one of them outright. Gandil snatches the trident from his mouth and lunges forward, biting his victims face clean off his body. Surprisingly the fish man hits the spot and he realizes these people are edible. The creature's mount bites Gandil around the legs while the second locathah charges Kavos and slices the priest across the chest.</p><p></p><p>Kavos remains treading water and shouting that he comes in peace. Gandil shouts "I do the biting around here!" and chews through the catfish's spine . The orange locathah kill two more of the approaching yellow ones.</p><p></p><p>"Who is Tso'Cha?" Kavos shouts at his attack, barely dodging its trident. </p><p></p><p>"We are!" calls one of the orange skinned locathah which sounds a bit like the 'ambassador' Kavos was looking for. Kavos nods and motions for his zombies to deal with the yellow ones. Three of them drag the trident wielding locathah off and tear into him while the rest latch onto the catfish and break it apart.</p><p></p><p>"We must leave before the Le'uin return!" the ambassador shouts, spearing the last of the yellow scales. Kavos agrees and the creature motions for them to follow as best they can.</p><p></p><p>It swims deeper and deeper until it approaches the bottom of the lake; they can see a strange honeycomb of holes and trenches dug into the lakebed which seeming extends indefinitely in all directions. The ambassador leads them to one of the holes and swims in.</p><p></p><p>Inside are rather tight corridors which the creature traverses by dragging itself along with its upper body, propelling itself through the water and around tight corners with a strange grace. It leads them through a series of twisting passages and they watch as other shades of locathah; blue, green and brown cower before their orange scaled guides and press themselves out of the way as if to avoid notice.</p><p></p><p>After several long moments the passageway which the creature is leading them down empties out into a chamber roughly 40ft by 20ft and filled with others of its kind. The bones of all 10 sheep are mounted reverently on their walls like trophies and the creatures seem to be feasting on strange meat.</p><p></p><p>It takes a moment before they notice that green, yellow, blue and brown scaled haunches are displayed on the creatures makeshift table and several terrified locathah with green and blue scales are chained to a nearby wall. Gandil leans over to Kavos and whispers "Cannibals. Awesome." missing the irony.</p><p></p><p>At the feasting table itself are arranged nearly thirty orange scaled locathah, among which is one that's more than twice the size of his kin who seems to have a place of honor among them. The ambassador swiftly swims to the table, taking a place next to the large locathah and flourishes his arms. "Welcome to the halls of Tso'Cha!"</p><p></p><p>Kavos bows deeply and taps Gandil to do the same, they look up however when what feels like a wake slams into them as the giant locathah launches itself forward with tremendous force. The creature lands before the PCs and their zombie horde and towers over even Gandil.</p><p></p><p>Kavos's eyes widen a bit and he nearly steps back, but attempts to maintain an air of strength.</p><p></p><p>The creature regards the surface dwellers with its cold, dead fish eyes fr a moment before bowing itself; going all the way down to one knee and bending its head. The other locathah seem shocked.</p><p></p><p>"You are friends to the Tso'Cha." it says humbly before rising. "Without your gifts the Le'uin would still own this lake."</p><p></p><p>The other locathah shout and ones who are armed bang their spears excitedly against the floor.</p><p></p><p>Kavos is taken aback, not realizing that a few sheep would mean so much to these people. "I'm glad that the gifts were satisfactory, I've actually come to speak with you on a similar matter I thought you might be interested in."</p><p></p><p>The Tso'Cha patriarch nods and drifts back over to his place at the table. "Of course. Feast and let us speak."</p><p></p><p>The PCs approach and the large locathah clears a place for them on its left hand side. It tears a slab of meat off its current meal and divides it among both Kavos and Gandil before digging back into its food.</p><p></p><p>Gandil attempts to imitate the big locathah and fits as much in his mouth as he can before chewing. They're humanoid enough to fill his belly, but taste like seafood; a delightful change of pace. "Dig in Kavos, it's great." Gandil says between bites.</p><p></p><p>Kavos looks at his food and pushes it aside a bit. "I want to talk to you about a food source for your people, other than your people." he says, glancing at what's being served.</p><p></p><p>Gandil looks at the food before him and the sheep on the wall and asks Kavos "Wait a minute, are these the guys eating Westbankers?"</p><p></p><p>Kavos, glad that nobody here can understand Gandil or vice versa whispers that the green ones were doing it and that the yellow ones told them to.</p><p></p><p>"We are always eager to find alternatives." the patriarch agrees. "When you sent us your meat, we were starving; many of us fell prey to the Le'Uin and their monstrous beasts. Your contribution strengthened our dying warriors and let us reclaim our rightful place." it says, a hint of human emotion creeping into its alien voice.</p><p></p><p>"I'm glad to hear it." Kavos says with a smile. "Your people eat meat, correct? Regardless of origin?" he beckons one of his zombies over as Gandil stands up and slams his hands on the table.</p><p></p><p>"Where do these green bastards live? I demand restitution for my fallen comrades. I demand vengeance, I deman-" Gandil shouts, but is easily ignored as nobody save Kavos can understand him.</p><p></p><p>"We have never been choosy." the patriarch nods, whatever else he said being drowned out by Gandil's call for blood.</p><p></p><p>Kavos leans over and says "Gandil! The green ones have already been caught, they're being punished!" he hisses, indicating the creatures in the corner and on the plate.</p><p></p><p>Gandil stares down at his plate in horror. "But if the green ones eat Westbankians...and I eat them...then that makes me...a cannibal!"</p><p></p><p>Kavos just looks at him.</p><p></p><p>"I have to get out of here!" Gandil shouts and flees towards the exit.</p><p></p><p>Kavos smiles at the Tso'Cha and explains that Gandil's water breathing spell was about to expire and he had to get back to the surface. The patriarch understands and offers to send a guide with Gandil. Unsure of how Gandil would react, Kavos declines.</p><p></p><p></p><p>This turns out to be a problem. Gandil doesn't quite know how to get to the surface and just starts taking any turn that the finds, pressing deeper and deeper into the locathah city.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Back in the feasting hall the patriarch asks Kavos "Now what is his problem you have?"</p><p></p><p>"No problem." Kavos assures him. "Only an opportunity. A town on the river has become somewhat disagreeable. All of the people have forgotten how to listen and I wish to rescind my protection. Your people may eat all you can catch from this town." as he says this Kavos bites into his section of meat, finding that it's not actually that bad.</p><p></p><p>The patriarch nods. "Humans are dangerous to our kind, we don't move so good on land." it explains. "but if we can lure them to the water they will perish. If we can't, we will snare them."</p><p></p><p>"There's just one problem, and it would be wrong of me not to bring it up to you before you went about your devouring. The humans in this town have gone through a change. Your people may not be the most picky of eaters, however this change they've gone through is questionable to say the least. I have no idea how they will taste, however, it will certainly not be as you remember." Kavos explains.</p><p></p><p>The patriarch tilts its head. "They are like these?" it asks, motioning towards the zombies. "Rotting things?"</p><p></p><p>Kavos purses his lips and nods.</p><p></p><p>The patriarch seems uncertain. "We have seen some of the Le'Uin eat these before; they sometimes make our people sick. Sometimes they make them forget themselves..." he says solemnly.</p><p></p><p>"Your people go through the change as well?" Kavos asks surprised.</p><p></p><p>The patriarch nods. "We have differences surface dweller, but we have sames too."</p><p></p><p>Kavos nods, surprised to find that the locathah have a strangely human intelligence. They can be quite insightful.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Meanwhile Gandil finds himself in a 20x20 room filled with mud and blue scaled locathah trying to drive him off with sticks. Gandil flashes his teeth and claws threateningly and the smallish locathah do the same. With a stroke of brilliance Gandil scoops up a handful of mud and flings it into the face of one of them.</p><p></p><p>They don't seem to like this and commence to beating Gandil with their sticks. Gandil doesn't seem to like this and starts biting and clawing anyone in range. The injured locathah flee down random tunnels in a panic and somewhere someone makes a horrible noise like an underwater trumpet, Gandil can't see who did it however because of the growing blood cloud.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Back in the feasting hall Kavos continues negotiating with the locathah. Despite the fact they can't reliably eat the ghouls they agree to do what they can to drag them down into their element. In return Kavos promises more free meat and their alliance seems pretty well cemented.</p><p></p><p>Then they hear the horn.</p><p></p><p>The locathah glance at each other and then to the patriarch. "The Asch'al are being raided." the patriarch says. "They call for their kin."</p><p></p><p>The creature seems to grin if that's possible and turns to Kavos. "Join us for a hunt surface dweller?"</p><p></p><p>Kavos nods and follows the swarm of creatures through their intimate tunnels, through several twists and turns until finally they empty out into an enclosed area filled with mud, blood and screaming blue scaled locathah.</p><p></p><p>Gandil is pouncing on anything within reach like a rabid cat, he lifts the broken corpse of a blue locathah to his mouth a and chews through one of its arms with a single mighty bite. The remaining blue scaled ones seem terrified and cower nearby.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly more than a dozen of the blue creatures flood the room, wielding sharpened sticks and with their faces contorted into a vicious battlecry.</p><p></p><p>Kavos, Gandil and the orange scaled locathah ready their weapons and the blue locathah's battlecry turns into a pathetic squeal and the flee into a random assortment of tunnels without even losing momentum.</p><p></p><p>The patriarch laughs as his entourage breaks up and follows after their squealing prey into the walls. "A creature after my own heart." it says, indicating the gore covered Gandil.</p><p></p><p>"These...aren't your allies?" Kavos asks.</p><p></p><p>The patriarch seems amused. "They are Asch'al. Builders. Prey."</p><p></p><p>Kavos looks around, understanding the culture a little better. Seeing that the hunt seems to be crowded as it is, he asks the Tso'Cha patriarch if a guide could take them to the surface and the large creature has the 'ambassador' take them. </p><p></p><p>Under its guidance they find their way free of the city in only a few short minutes. Once they say their goodbyes Kavos casts Water Walk on himself, Gandil and the zombies and they shoot up through the depths in record time.</p><p></p><p>They take a moment to collect themselves and they Kavos half buries his remaining zombies along the edge of the lake beneath the waves so that they're there when he needs them. He then reminds Gandil to put his hat back on as they walk back to town.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Once back in town Gandil heads to Rambalt's lab carrying a pair of sticks, he explains to Rambalt that he's going to teach Junior how to sword fight. Rambalt thinks that's a fine idea so Gandil approaches the childlike flesh golem who's sitting cross legged on the floor seemingly fascinated by a book on animal husbandry.</p><p></p><p>"What'cha got there Mr Baby?" Gandil asks and Junior shows him. Impressed that he's already reading, or at least looking at pictures, Gandil decides to quiz the golem to see if it's retaining any knowledge. "What's the book about?" he asks.</p><p></p><p>Junior looks up with a vacant grin and makes an O shape with one hand and repeatedly inserts his index finger into the opening. Gandil's eyes widen in shock and he slaps the book out of Junior's hands.</p><p></p><p>"No!" Gandil shouts. "That is an inappropriate book for someone your age!" the prudish zombie declares. Forgetting about his desire to teach Junior sword fighting Gandil instead spends the rest of the night teaching him the ways of the hero; lecturing him on his own adventures, or at least how he remembers them.</p><p></p><p>Kavos checks the fortifications and then heads to bed.</p><p></p><p>As soon as the sun rises Kavos prays for his daily spells and then sets out for the graveyard that supposedly holds Longarm's body. It doesn't take much effort to find Longarm's grave though it seems odd.</p><p></p><p>The headstone is there, but Kavos realizes that the grave site itself doesn't seem to have ever been disturbed. Nothing could be buried here because it was never dug up. He feels around in the dirt to make sure, but it's tightly packed.</p><p></p><p>In fact, almost none of the grave sites seem to have been disturbed.</p><p></p><p>Suspicions confirmed, Kavos heads to Elder Hadran's house to discuss the locathah. He explains their situation with the Tso'Cha and asks for Hadran to smooth over things with the town. Elder Hadran agrees that they need allies desperately and vows to put a good spin on their new relationship.</p><p></p><p>Kavos thanks him and then sets out among the people to comfort and inspire them as he can.</p><p></p><p>Gandil spends the day following through with his intention to teach Junior swordfighting and by the end of the day the excited golem can hold a tree branch almost like a sword. He's clumsy and stiff, but unbelievably powerful. Gandil considers it a smashing success and asks Rambalt to work on fashioning a proper weapon for Mr Baby. He includes a sketch of what he'd like made.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Then Gandil has an idea. Junior needs to go to school, he can't spend his life in Rambalt's basement. He does a head count and finds about 14 kids in town of various ages, not counting Junior. Gandil asks around and Mrs Boddan at the inn is willing to teach, she doesn't even have a problem with Junior; she'd heard of the contributions he'd made during the siege and Gandil explained that he was a simpleton they'd found in the woods with the mind of a child. Knowing Gandil this might be how he remembers the events.</p><p></p><p>Gandil declares that he'll whip the children into physical perfection and teach them survival techniques. Rambalt is unknowingly volunteered for a variety of subjects and once Kavos hears about it decides that he'll volunteer his services for a weekly class devoted to Arcana and Religion.</p><p></p><p>All in all, Kavos figures it's a pretty good way to scout for new talent.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kidjake, post: 6751020, member: 6776876"] Kavos and Gandil meet up on the shore of the Lake, Gandil has a small handcart stuffed with eight ghoul corpses and Kavos is looking considerably more refreshed. Gandil finds Kavos stripping down to his skivvies and folding his clothing into a neat pile. Kavos has Gandil help him arrange the corpses along the river bank and then casts Desecrate over the area, followed by Animate Dead. Eight zombies rise from death and blankly await Kavos's command. Gandil glances around to make sure that they're alone and removes his hat, stuffing it into a pouch so that he won't lose it in the lake. Kavos nearly gasps at his true form. His hands have been replaced by a series of six inch, articulated blades with only enough meat left between them to hold them together and allow use of his ghoul paralysis. Gandil's face is the real shocker though, the lower jaw has been completely replaced by a metal one, filled with jagged, razor sharp teeth. Gandil's upper jaw has been basically carved away for a similar prosthetic. Gandil catches Kavos looking at him and asks "What?" Kavos replies "Nothing." and chuckles to himself, leading his gruesome army into the lake, casting Water Breathing on himself as he goes. Gandil instinctively takes a deep breath before diving into the water, even though his lungs are just for decoration now. The lake is quite large and in only a short time they can't even see the bottom any longer. Kavos casts Light on his staff to give them some illumination down here and then casts Helping Hand, focusing on the locathah he caught before. Gandil is trying to explain the upside to being a zombie swiss army knife as they swim deeper down, until Kavos holds up a hand to silence him. The elderly priest had just seen a shape in the water more than twice as long as a horse, moving fast and beyond their view. Gandil glances around chomping his teeth menacingly when suddenly what looks like a shark snatches one of the zombies in its massive jaws. Sharks aren't well known for their fresh water expeditions however and with a second glance they realize that it's in fact a giant catfish. Kavos casts Cause Fear on the catfish and begins swimming down with his horde. Gandil notices two more of the creatures at the edge of their vision and they appear to have riders, yellow scaled locathah wielding tridents. Kavos breathes a sigh of relief and tells Gandil that it's alright, they're friendly. As they get closer it seems that there are four other yellow scaled locathah with them and they all appear to be charging. Kavos is suddenly not so sure that they are in fact friendly and Gandil leaps into action, sinking his metal teeth into the hilt of one of the rider's trident. Kavos shouts that they're here to negotiate. The second rider spears Gandil with his trident and deals about a third of his overall HP in damage to him with a lucky crit. Kavos casts Comprehend Language to try and reason with these people and hears what appears to be the leader screaming about how surface dwellers are allies of the Tso'Cha! As if on cue, two orange scaled locathah wielding spears appear from below the yellow scaled ones and manage to impale one of them outright. Gandil snatches the trident from his mouth and lunges forward, biting his victims face clean off his body. Surprisingly the fish man hits the spot and he realizes these people are edible. The creature's mount bites Gandil around the legs while the second locathah charges Kavos and slices the priest across the chest. Kavos remains treading water and shouting that he comes in peace. Gandil shouts "I do the biting around here!" and chews through the catfish's spine . The orange locathah kill two more of the approaching yellow ones. "Who is Tso'Cha?" Kavos shouts at his attack, barely dodging its trident. "We are!" calls one of the orange skinned locathah which sounds a bit like the 'ambassador' Kavos was looking for. Kavos nods and motions for his zombies to deal with the yellow ones. Three of them drag the trident wielding locathah off and tear into him while the rest latch onto the catfish and break it apart. "We must leave before the Le'uin return!" the ambassador shouts, spearing the last of the yellow scales. Kavos agrees and the creature motions for them to follow as best they can. It swims deeper and deeper until it approaches the bottom of the lake; they can see a strange honeycomb of holes and trenches dug into the lakebed which seeming extends indefinitely in all directions. The ambassador leads them to one of the holes and swims in. Inside are rather tight corridors which the creature traverses by dragging itself along with its upper body, propelling itself through the water and around tight corners with a strange grace. It leads them through a series of twisting passages and they watch as other shades of locathah; blue, green and brown cower before their orange scaled guides and press themselves out of the way as if to avoid notice. After several long moments the passageway which the creature is leading them down empties out into a chamber roughly 40ft by 20ft and filled with others of its kind. The bones of all 10 sheep are mounted reverently on their walls like trophies and the creatures seem to be feasting on strange meat. It takes a moment before they notice that green, yellow, blue and brown scaled haunches are displayed on the creatures makeshift table and several terrified locathah with green and blue scales are chained to a nearby wall. Gandil leans over to Kavos and whispers "Cannibals. Awesome." missing the irony. At the feasting table itself are arranged nearly thirty orange scaled locathah, among which is one that's more than twice the size of his kin who seems to have a place of honor among them. The ambassador swiftly swims to the table, taking a place next to the large locathah and flourishes his arms. "Welcome to the halls of Tso'Cha!" Kavos bows deeply and taps Gandil to do the same, they look up however when what feels like a wake slams into them as the giant locathah launches itself forward with tremendous force. The creature lands before the PCs and their zombie horde and towers over even Gandil. Kavos's eyes widen a bit and he nearly steps back, but attempts to maintain an air of strength. The creature regards the surface dwellers with its cold, dead fish eyes fr a moment before bowing itself; going all the way down to one knee and bending its head. The other locathah seem shocked. "You are friends to the Tso'Cha." it says humbly before rising. "Without your gifts the Le'uin would still own this lake." The other locathah shout and ones who are armed bang their spears excitedly against the floor. Kavos is taken aback, not realizing that a few sheep would mean so much to these people. "I'm glad that the gifts were satisfactory, I've actually come to speak with you on a similar matter I thought you might be interested in." The Tso'Cha patriarch nods and drifts back over to his place at the table. "Of course. Feast and let us speak." The PCs approach and the large locathah clears a place for them on its left hand side. It tears a slab of meat off its current meal and divides it among both Kavos and Gandil before digging back into its food. Gandil attempts to imitate the big locathah and fits as much in his mouth as he can before chewing. They're humanoid enough to fill his belly, but taste like seafood; a delightful change of pace. "Dig in Kavos, it's great." Gandil says between bites. Kavos looks at his food and pushes it aside a bit. "I want to talk to you about a food source for your people, other than your people." he says, glancing at what's being served. Gandil looks at the food before him and the sheep on the wall and asks Kavos "Wait a minute, are these the guys eating Westbankers?" Kavos, glad that nobody here can understand Gandil or vice versa whispers that the green ones were doing it and that the yellow ones told them to. "We are always eager to find alternatives." the patriarch agrees. "When you sent us your meat, we were starving; many of us fell prey to the Le'Uin and their monstrous beasts. Your contribution strengthened our dying warriors and let us reclaim our rightful place." it says, a hint of human emotion creeping into its alien voice. "I'm glad to hear it." Kavos says with a smile. "Your people eat meat, correct? Regardless of origin?" he beckons one of his zombies over as Gandil stands up and slams his hands on the table. "Where do these green bastards live? I demand restitution for my fallen comrades. I demand vengeance, I deman-" Gandil shouts, but is easily ignored as nobody save Kavos can understand him. "We have never been choosy." the patriarch nods, whatever else he said being drowned out by Gandil's call for blood. Kavos leans over and says "Gandil! The green ones have already been caught, they're being punished!" he hisses, indicating the creatures in the corner and on the plate. Gandil stares down at his plate in horror. "But if the green ones eat Westbankians...and I eat them...then that makes me...a cannibal!" Kavos just looks at him. "I have to get out of here!" Gandil shouts and flees towards the exit. Kavos smiles at the Tso'Cha and explains that Gandil's water breathing spell was about to expire and he had to get back to the surface. The patriarch understands and offers to send a guide with Gandil. Unsure of how Gandil would react, Kavos declines. This turns out to be a problem. Gandil doesn't quite know how to get to the surface and just starts taking any turn that the finds, pressing deeper and deeper into the locathah city. Back in the feasting hall the patriarch asks Kavos "Now what is his problem you have?" "No problem." Kavos assures him. "Only an opportunity. A town on the river has become somewhat disagreeable. All of the people have forgotten how to listen and I wish to rescind my protection. Your people may eat all you can catch from this town." as he says this Kavos bites into his section of meat, finding that it's not actually that bad. The patriarch nods. "Humans are dangerous to our kind, we don't move so good on land." it explains. "but if we can lure them to the water they will perish. If we can't, we will snare them." "There's just one problem, and it would be wrong of me not to bring it up to you before you went about your devouring. The humans in this town have gone through a change. Your people may not be the most picky of eaters, however this change they've gone through is questionable to say the least. I have no idea how they will taste, however, it will certainly not be as you remember." Kavos explains. The patriarch tilts its head. "They are like these?" it asks, motioning towards the zombies. "Rotting things?" Kavos purses his lips and nods. The patriarch seems uncertain. "We have seen some of the Le'Uin eat these before; they sometimes make our people sick. Sometimes they make them forget themselves..." he says solemnly. "Your people go through the change as well?" Kavos asks surprised. The patriarch nods. "We have differences surface dweller, but we have sames too." Kavos nods, surprised to find that the locathah have a strangely human intelligence. They can be quite insightful. Meanwhile Gandil finds himself in a 20x20 room filled with mud and blue scaled locathah trying to drive him off with sticks. Gandil flashes his teeth and claws threateningly and the smallish locathah do the same. With a stroke of brilliance Gandil scoops up a handful of mud and flings it into the face of one of them. They don't seem to like this and commence to beating Gandil with their sticks. Gandil doesn't seem to like this and starts biting and clawing anyone in range. The injured locathah flee down random tunnels in a panic and somewhere someone makes a horrible noise like an underwater trumpet, Gandil can't see who did it however because of the growing blood cloud. Back in the feasting hall Kavos continues negotiating with the locathah. Despite the fact they can't reliably eat the ghouls they agree to do what they can to drag them down into their element. In return Kavos promises more free meat and their alliance seems pretty well cemented. Then they hear the horn. The locathah glance at each other and then to the patriarch. "The Asch'al are being raided." the patriarch says. "They call for their kin." The creature seems to grin if that's possible and turns to Kavos. "Join us for a hunt surface dweller?" Kavos nods and follows the swarm of creatures through their intimate tunnels, through several twists and turns until finally they empty out into an enclosed area filled with mud, blood and screaming blue scaled locathah. Gandil is pouncing on anything within reach like a rabid cat, he lifts the broken corpse of a blue locathah to his mouth a and chews through one of its arms with a single mighty bite. The remaining blue scaled ones seem terrified and cower nearby. Suddenly more than a dozen of the blue creatures flood the room, wielding sharpened sticks and with their faces contorted into a vicious battlecry. Kavos, Gandil and the orange scaled locathah ready their weapons and the blue locathah's battlecry turns into a pathetic squeal and the flee into a random assortment of tunnels without even losing momentum. The patriarch laughs as his entourage breaks up and follows after their squealing prey into the walls. "A creature after my own heart." it says, indicating the gore covered Gandil. "These...aren't your allies?" Kavos asks. The patriarch seems amused. "They are Asch'al. Builders. Prey." Kavos looks around, understanding the culture a little better. Seeing that the hunt seems to be crowded as it is, he asks the Tso'Cha patriarch if a guide could take them to the surface and the large creature has the 'ambassador' take them. Under its guidance they find their way free of the city in only a few short minutes. Once they say their goodbyes Kavos casts Water Walk on himself, Gandil and the zombies and they shoot up through the depths in record time. They take a moment to collect themselves and they Kavos half buries his remaining zombies along the edge of the lake beneath the waves so that they're there when he needs them. He then reminds Gandil to put his hat back on as they walk back to town. Once back in town Gandil heads to Rambalt's lab carrying a pair of sticks, he explains to Rambalt that he's going to teach Junior how to sword fight. Rambalt thinks that's a fine idea so Gandil approaches the childlike flesh golem who's sitting cross legged on the floor seemingly fascinated by a book on animal husbandry. "What'cha got there Mr Baby?" Gandil asks and Junior shows him. Impressed that he's already reading, or at least looking at pictures, Gandil decides to quiz the golem to see if it's retaining any knowledge. "What's the book about?" he asks. Junior looks up with a vacant grin and makes an O shape with one hand and repeatedly inserts his index finger into the opening. Gandil's eyes widen in shock and he slaps the book out of Junior's hands. "No!" Gandil shouts. "That is an inappropriate book for someone your age!" the prudish zombie declares. Forgetting about his desire to teach Junior sword fighting Gandil instead spends the rest of the night teaching him the ways of the hero; lecturing him on his own adventures, or at least how he remembers them. Kavos checks the fortifications and then heads to bed. As soon as the sun rises Kavos prays for his daily spells and then sets out for the graveyard that supposedly holds Longarm's body. It doesn't take much effort to find Longarm's grave though it seems odd. The headstone is there, but Kavos realizes that the grave site itself doesn't seem to have ever been disturbed. Nothing could be buried here because it was never dug up. He feels around in the dirt to make sure, but it's tightly packed. In fact, almost none of the grave sites seem to have been disturbed. Suspicions confirmed, Kavos heads to Elder Hadran's house to discuss the locathah. He explains their situation with the Tso'Cha and asks for Hadran to smooth over things with the town. Elder Hadran agrees that they need allies desperately and vows to put a good spin on their new relationship. Kavos thanks him and then sets out among the people to comfort and inspire them as he can. Gandil spends the day following through with his intention to teach Junior swordfighting and by the end of the day the excited golem can hold a tree branch almost like a sword. He's clumsy and stiff, but unbelievably powerful. Gandil considers it a smashing success and asks Rambalt to work on fashioning a proper weapon for Mr Baby. He includes a sketch of what he'd like made. Then Gandil has an idea. Junior needs to go to school, he can't spend his life in Rambalt's basement. He does a head count and finds about 14 kids in town of various ages, not counting Junior. Gandil asks around and Mrs Boddan at the inn is willing to teach, she doesn't even have a problem with Junior; she'd heard of the contributions he'd made during the siege and Gandil explained that he was a simpleton they'd found in the woods with the mind of a child. Knowing Gandil this might be how he remembers the events. Gandil declares that he'll whip the children into physical perfection and teach them survival techniques. Rambalt is unknowingly volunteered for a variety of subjects and once Kavos hears about it decides that he'll volunteer his services for a weekly class devoted to Arcana and Religion. All in all, Kavos figures it's a pretty good way to scout for new talent. [/QUOTE]
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