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The Fall of Civilization
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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 4500974" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p><em>Get out fast.</em></p><p></p><p>The sun is sinking towards the west; it is late afternoon. Soon the western seas will swallow it as it continues its great journey through the waters, under and back out, thousands of miles to the east. As it crosses them, it throws the shapes of the Six-Fingered Hand’s ships in stark relief. </p><p></p><p>Chebonnay is on the south side of the harbor. A few miles further north, two great spurs of land offer some shelter to the city’s docks, but they also serve as a choke point. Any naval attack must come through this point- as must any waterborne escape from the city. </p><p></p><p>The daVoi pleasure craft that our heroes have stolen is sleek, with racing sails and lines for speed. The navy folk on board (Vann-La, Nixie and Torinn) are all experienced sailors, and they begin to plot their course for the harbor’s exit. The ships of the Six-Fingered Hand are riding the tide for that same spot. </p><p></p><p>“Oo, are we gonna make it?” the dwarven cook asks. Nobody answers. The navy personnel rush from one sail to another, doing mysterious naval things. The army soldiers (Kratos, Nedyoiv, Heimall and Sta’Ligir) do their best to help, but they don’t even know the terminology, much less the skills that they need.</p><p></p><p>The spurs of land that will allow or cut off escape grow closer. The bottom of the sun’s disc is now touching the far off water. The sky is glowing with pink and orange. Behind them, in the city, the fleeing party can hear the sounds of the Six-Fingered Hand’s army. The investment of Chebonnay has begun. “There’s no going back now,” Sta’Ligir says. “Not that I wanted to,” he adds in a mutter. “Damn army. I’m not even supposed to be here- I should be studying.”</p><p></p><p>“Shut up and tie that line, Stalinger!” Torinn gestures.</p><p></p><p>“It’s Sta’Ligir.”</p><p></p><p>“Staliger?”</p><p></p><p>With a sigh, Sta’Ligir answer, “Just call me Iggy.”</p><p></p><p>The boat races across the water. The spurs of land are now probably only half a mile away.</p><p></p><p>“We aren’t going to make it,” Vann-La announces. “There are some small advance craft that will beat us to it- they’ll intercept us inside the harbor.”</p><p></p><p>“How small?” asks Torinn.</p><p></p><p>“About the same size as this boat, but probably not quite as fast. But also probably with a lot more soldiers than we have.”</p><p></p><p>Nixie suggests, “Let’s try to get past it. We’re in a pretty fast, maneuverable boat.”</p><p></p><p>“We don’t have much choice, I guess,” Vann-La nods.</p><p></p><p>The enemy does indeed reach the straits first, and there are multiple small boats coming ahead, with a huge fleet behind them. Some of them show signs of damage from the battle fought with the Imperial Navy, but it is clear that this fleet is in the throes of victory.</p><p></p><p>The party tries to dodge the first enemy vessel to approach. As they come closer, the goblins on the enemy ship start firing bows, while our heroes toss and fire a few ranged weapons of their own. Vann-La desperately swings the wheel of the daVoi craft, but she cannot evade the enemy completely, and the two boats scrape against each other, each badly damaging the other before deflecting apart. </p><p></p><p>“We’re taking on water!” Nixie screams.</p><p></p><p>“They are too, at least,” Heimall notes with satisfaction. Indeed, it seems as though the Six-Fingered Hand’s vessel is sinking at a precipitous rate. </p><p></p><p>“We may be able to at least reach the mud flats before this thing sinks,” Vann-La says desperately. The other sailors rush to help her and they limp the vessel, slowly sinking, towards the western edge of the land, which ends in broad mud flats. Behind them, a few goblins manage to cling to debris, but most seem to drown.</p><p></p><p>The boat grows more and more sluggish as it gains more and more water. Nixie looks frantically for a bilge pump, but to no avail. Finally, just when it seems that they might have to abandon ship, the vessel runs aground in a thick bar of mud.</p><p></p><p>“We made it!” cries Sta’Ligir.</p><p></p><p>“This far, anyway,” Kratos retorts. “Let us move on out of these mud flats.”</p><p></p><p>“But where are we going?” asks Nixie. “I mean, really- where are we going?” She gestures. “It’s too late to escape to sea. We can probably still flee our way to the west before the Hand completely cuts off our escape, but where are we going? Where is safe?”</p><p></p><p>“A good question,” nods Heimall. “And for that matter, is ‘safe’ what we are after, or are we looking for somewhere that we can make a difference?”</p><p></p><p>“For now, we need to focus on getting to safety,” Iggy opines. “We can figure out the rest later.”</p><p></p><p>The party agrees that this makes sense, so they slog from the daVoi wreck towards dryer land. Slowly, the hip-deep water that seems average changes to knee-deep, then to areas of muddy land interspersed with ankle- to knee-deep pools and trenches. The sun finishes sinking beneath the waves and Night lays her cloak over the party as they slog through. Behind them, they can hear the roar of the siege that has begun. Their only light is a feeble magic glow conjured by Sta’Ligir.</p><p></p><p>“If we don’t hurry,” Heimall declares, “the Hand will close off our escape route.”</p><p></p><p>But they can only move so fast while moving through the mud. Even in the areas of more solid ground, they sink ankle deep when they step forward. Their progress is agonizingly slow, but detectable, as they advance into an area of scattered cat tail reeds and tall marsh grasses. </p><p></p><p>Things seem to be going too well, and just as Vann-La is starting to think that they might escape without any trouble, she hears a wet squelching sound before the party. <em>What’s that?</em> she wonders. Then her keen elven eyes widen as they catch a strange sight.</p><p></p><p>The mud itself seems to be rising...</p><p></p><p>“LOOK OUT!!” Vann-La shouts.</p><p></p><p>Strange, humanoid shapes have risen from the mud. Before anyone can react, they begin hurling globs of mud at the party! One strikes Heimall. “Agh!” he cries, slowed by the mud. </p><p></p><p>“Stop those things, whatever they are!” Sta’Ligir cries. He fires a <em>magic missile</em> at one of them. The spell blasts some of the mud away, but the strange thing keeps on coming.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the party begins to slog towards the mud-men. Then, suddenly, from a nearby thicket of swamp grass, a group of kobolds and lizard men rise up and begin firing missiles as well.</p><p></p><p>Instantly, Kratos recognizes that the mixture of the two species can only mean one thing: the Hand has found them! </p><p></p><p>The kobolds begin slinging pots of flaming tar at the party. Vann-La takes a shot to the chest and gives a cry of pain. Then, gritting her teeth, she charges at the nearest lizard man and engages him. Behind her, Heimall struggles with the mud that encrusts him; it hardens, immobilizing him completely! He manages to shake his arms free- he can still fight- but his body is held fast. Torinn, too, begins to struggle with the mud coating him; the mudmen are still flinging more globs of wet muck at the party.</p><p></p><p><em>Lester’s arm,</em> Torinn curses to himself. <em>I won’t be killed by mud!</em> With all his might, he shakes his body, and the mud flies from him! He staggers for a moment, then catches his balance and speaks a <em>healing word</em> to help Vann-La, who is on fire and in trouble.</p><p></p><p>He isn’t the only one. Vann-La is pressing the lizard man nearest her, smacking him with her sword and cleaving onto a nearby kobold. Neither one falls, but both of them redouble their attempts to bring the elven warrior down. She tries to shake out the fire, but she’s still on fire! The other lizard man thrusts his spear at Nixie, stabbing her in the calf. She grits her teeth and curses him, then gestures at him and fires an <em>eldritch blast,</em> but the lizard man dodges it.</p><p></p><p>The enemy presses the party very hard. Another quick exchange, and Nixie falls; Sta’Ligir drops to the same lizard man a moment later, but by then Vann-La has taken out one of the kobolds. Heimall cries out, “On your feet, soldier! We need you!!” His <em>inspiring words</em> bring Nixie around, while Torinn uses holy power to restore some vitality to Iggy. </p><p></p><p>Finally, the party’s attacks begin to find their way home. One by one, the enemies start to fall. Cook dances his way into flanking on one of the mudmen and manages to slay it with his kitchen cleaver; then he whips out an iron pan which he begins to swing like a hammer. </p><p></p><p>As Sta’Ligir gets to his feet, the lizard man hulking over him stabs him in the chest, dropping him again immediately! Heimall curses, still immobilized, but before he can use his <em>inspiring word</em> again, the remaining mudman smacks him in the head and renders him unconscious. </p><p></p><p>Torinn and Vann-La together tear through several of the kobolds. Thunder booms as Torinn unleashes his god’s powers. Meanwhile, Nixie lays one of the lizard men low with an <em>eldritch blast.</em> Finally, the tide turns. The morale of the remaining kobold and lizard man breaks as Cook slays the second mud man, and they try to run. Nixie isn’t having that; she hits the lizard man with <em>witchfire,</em> killing it. Vann-La, meanwhile, kills the last kobold. </p><p></p><p>Quickly, Torinn squelches over to where Heimall lies bleeding in the mud and begins binding his wounds. Shortly, using the divine powers of Lester that are his to command, he manages to bring the soldier around. They rest for a few moments, then loot. They find a few coins and a potion. Then they march on through the night.</p><p></p><p>“Where are we going, anyway?” asks Sta’Ligir, who has also been healed and revived. </p><p></p><p>Kratos shakes his head. “Anywhere but here, to start,” he says.</p><p></p><p>“The wizard is right.” Nixie looks at the others. “We do need more of a plan than we have. We could just run into a Hand army the way we’re going about this. We certainly don’t have the manpower to fight a large enemy contingent. Where can we go that is safe?” </p><p></p><p>“You boys are the landlubbers,” Torinn tells the soldiers. “You probably have a better idea of the geography than we do.”</p><p></p><p>Kratos takes up a stick and begins drawing in the mud. “This is where Chebonnay was,” he says. “Down here is The Mindil Wood. There are some cities in the forest interior we could go to, but they’ll be small. On the other hand- no pun intended- there is a range of mountains here, to the west. There’s a tunnel that leads through a xvart city and out the other side, where there’s a city that probably hasn’t been hit by the Hand yet.”</p><p></p><p>“Fandelose,” Heimall nods. “Decent-sized, a reasonably strong military presence, good walls... I learned about it during leadership training.”</p><p></p><p>“Sound good to me,” agrees the cook.</p><p></p><p>“Then let’s move on.” </p><p></p><p>The party does so, marching all through the night and late into the next day. They finally take cover and rest in the late afternoon, exhausted. But they still set watches, with Torinn taking the first one.</p><p></p><p>About fifteen minutes after everyone else is asleep, he suddenly wonders, <em>What the hell is a xvart?</em></p><p></p><p><em><strong>Next Time:</strong></em> Our heroes travel towards the xvart tunnels!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 4500974, member: 1210"] [i]Get out fast.[/i] The sun is sinking towards the west; it is late afternoon. Soon the western seas will swallow it as it continues its great journey through the waters, under and back out, thousands of miles to the east. As it crosses them, it throws the shapes of the Six-Fingered Hand’s ships in stark relief. Chebonnay is on the south side of the harbor. A few miles further north, two great spurs of land offer some shelter to the city’s docks, but they also serve as a choke point. Any naval attack must come through this point- as must any waterborne escape from the city. The daVoi pleasure craft that our heroes have stolen is sleek, with racing sails and lines for speed. The navy folk on board (Vann-La, Nixie and Torinn) are all experienced sailors, and they begin to plot their course for the harbor’s exit. The ships of the Six-Fingered Hand are riding the tide for that same spot. “Oo, are we gonna make it?” the dwarven cook asks. Nobody answers. The navy personnel rush from one sail to another, doing mysterious naval things. The army soldiers (Kratos, Nedyoiv, Heimall and Sta’Ligir) do their best to help, but they don’t even know the terminology, much less the skills that they need. The spurs of land that will allow or cut off escape grow closer. The bottom of the sun’s disc is now touching the far off water. The sky is glowing with pink and orange. Behind them, in the city, the fleeing party can hear the sounds of the Six-Fingered Hand’s army. The investment of Chebonnay has begun. “There’s no going back now,” Sta’Ligir says. “Not that I wanted to,” he adds in a mutter. “Damn army. I’m not even supposed to be here- I should be studying.” “Shut up and tie that line, Stalinger!” Torinn gestures. “It’s Sta’Ligir.” “Staliger?” With a sigh, Sta’Ligir answer, “Just call me Iggy.” The boat races across the water. The spurs of land are now probably only half a mile away. “We aren’t going to make it,” Vann-La announces. “There are some small advance craft that will beat us to it- they’ll intercept us inside the harbor.” “How small?” asks Torinn. “About the same size as this boat, but probably not quite as fast. But also probably with a lot more soldiers than we have.” Nixie suggests, “Let’s try to get past it. We’re in a pretty fast, maneuverable boat.” “We don’t have much choice, I guess,” Vann-La nods. The enemy does indeed reach the straits first, and there are multiple small boats coming ahead, with a huge fleet behind them. Some of them show signs of damage from the battle fought with the Imperial Navy, but it is clear that this fleet is in the throes of victory. The party tries to dodge the first enemy vessel to approach. As they come closer, the goblins on the enemy ship start firing bows, while our heroes toss and fire a few ranged weapons of their own. Vann-La desperately swings the wheel of the daVoi craft, but she cannot evade the enemy completely, and the two boats scrape against each other, each badly damaging the other before deflecting apart. “We’re taking on water!” Nixie screams. “They are too, at least,” Heimall notes with satisfaction. Indeed, it seems as though the Six-Fingered Hand’s vessel is sinking at a precipitous rate. “We may be able to at least reach the mud flats before this thing sinks,” Vann-La says desperately. The other sailors rush to help her and they limp the vessel, slowly sinking, towards the western edge of the land, which ends in broad mud flats. Behind them, a few goblins manage to cling to debris, but most seem to drown. The boat grows more and more sluggish as it gains more and more water. Nixie looks frantically for a bilge pump, but to no avail. Finally, just when it seems that they might have to abandon ship, the vessel runs aground in a thick bar of mud. “We made it!” cries Sta’Ligir. “This far, anyway,” Kratos retorts. “Let us move on out of these mud flats.” “But where are we going?” asks Nixie. “I mean, really- where are we going?” She gestures. “It’s too late to escape to sea. We can probably still flee our way to the west before the Hand completely cuts off our escape, but where are we going? Where is safe?” “A good question,” nods Heimall. “And for that matter, is ‘safe’ what we are after, or are we looking for somewhere that we can make a difference?” “For now, we need to focus on getting to safety,” Iggy opines. “We can figure out the rest later.” The party agrees that this makes sense, so they slog from the daVoi wreck towards dryer land. Slowly, the hip-deep water that seems average changes to knee-deep, then to areas of muddy land interspersed with ankle- to knee-deep pools and trenches. The sun finishes sinking beneath the waves and Night lays her cloak over the party as they slog through. Behind them, they can hear the roar of the siege that has begun. Their only light is a feeble magic glow conjured by Sta’Ligir. “If we don’t hurry,” Heimall declares, “the Hand will close off our escape route.” But they can only move so fast while moving through the mud. Even in the areas of more solid ground, they sink ankle deep when they step forward. Their progress is agonizingly slow, but detectable, as they advance into an area of scattered cat tail reeds and tall marsh grasses. Things seem to be going too well, and just as Vann-La is starting to think that they might escape without any trouble, she hears a wet squelching sound before the party. [i]What’s that?[/i] she wonders. Then her keen elven eyes widen as they catch a strange sight. The mud itself seems to be rising... “LOOK OUT!!” Vann-La shouts. Strange, humanoid shapes have risen from the mud. Before anyone can react, they begin hurling globs of mud at the party! One strikes Heimall. “Agh!” he cries, slowed by the mud. “Stop those things, whatever they are!” Sta’Ligir cries. He fires a [i]magic missile[/i] at one of them. The spell blasts some of the mud away, but the strange thing keeps on coming. The rest of the party begins to slog towards the mud-men. Then, suddenly, from a nearby thicket of swamp grass, a group of kobolds and lizard men rise up and begin firing missiles as well. Instantly, Kratos recognizes that the mixture of the two species can only mean one thing: the Hand has found them! The kobolds begin slinging pots of flaming tar at the party. Vann-La takes a shot to the chest and gives a cry of pain. Then, gritting her teeth, she charges at the nearest lizard man and engages him. Behind her, Heimall struggles with the mud that encrusts him; it hardens, immobilizing him completely! He manages to shake his arms free- he can still fight- but his body is held fast. Torinn, too, begins to struggle with the mud coating him; the mudmen are still flinging more globs of wet muck at the party. [i]Lester’s arm,[/i] Torinn curses to himself. [i]I won’t be killed by mud![/i] With all his might, he shakes his body, and the mud flies from him! He staggers for a moment, then catches his balance and speaks a [i]healing word[/i] to help Vann-La, who is on fire and in trouble. He isn’t the only one. Vann-La is pressing the lizard man nearest her, smacking him with her sword and cleaving onto a nearby kobold. Neither one falls, but both of them redouble their attempts to bring the elven warrior down. She tries to shake out the fire, but she’s still on fire! The other lizard man thrusts his spear at Nixie, stabbing her in the calf. She grits her teeth and curses him, then gestures at him and fires an [i]eldritch blast,[/i] but the lizard man dodges it. The enemy presses the party very hard. Another quick exchange, and Nixie falls; Sta’Ligir drops to the same lizard man a moment later, but by then Vann-La has taken out one of the kobolds. Heimall cries out, “On your feet, soldier! We need you!!” His [i]inspiring words[/i] bring Nixie around, while Torinn uses holy power to restore some vitality to Iggy. Finally, the party’s attacks begin to find their way home. One by one, the enemies start to fall. Cook dances his way into flanking on one of the mudmen and manages to slay it with his kitchen cleaver; then he whips out an iron pan which he begins to swing like a hammer. As Sta’Ligir gets to his feet, the lizard man hulking over him stabs him in the chest, dropping him again immediately! Heimall curses, still immobilized, but before he can use his [i]inspiring word[/i] again, the remaining mudman smacks him in the head and renders him unconscious. Torinn and Vann-La together tear through several of the kobolds. Thunder booms as Torinn unleashes his god’s powers. Meanwhile, Nixie lays one of the lizard men low with an [i]eldritch blast.[/i] Finally, the tide turns. The morale of the remaining kobold and lizard man breaks as Cook slays the second mud man, and they try to run. Nixie isn’t having that; she hits the lizard man with [i]witchfire,[/i] killing it. Vann-La, meanwhile, kills the last kobold. Quickly, Torinn squelches over to where Heimall lies bleeding in the mud and begins binding his wounds. Shortly, using the divine powers of Lester that are his to command, he manages to bring the soldier around. They rest for a few moments, then loot. They find a few coins and a potion. Then they march on through the night. “Where are we going, anyway?” asks Sta’Ligir, who has also been healed and revived. Kratos shakes his head. “Anywhere but here, to start,” he says. “The wizard is right.” Nixie looks at the others. “We do need more of a plan than we have. We could just run into a Hand army the way we’re going about this. We certainly don’t have the manpower to fight a large enemy contingent. Where can we go that is safe?” “You boys are the landlubbers,” Torinn tells the soldiers. “You probably have a better idea of the geography than we do.” Kratos takes up a stick and begins drawing in the mud. “This is where Chebonnay was,” he says. “Down here is The Mindil Wood. There are some cities in the forest interior we could go to, but they’ll be small. On the other hand- no pun intended- there is a range of mountains here, to the west. There’s a tunnel that leads through a xvart city and out the other side, where there’s a city that probably hasn’t been hit by the Hand yet.” “Fandelose,” Heimall nods. “Decent-sized, a reasonably strong military presence, good walls... I learned about it during leadership training.” “Sound good to me,” agrees the cook. “Then let’s move on.” The party does so, marching all through the night and late into the next day. They finally take cover and rest in the late afternoon, exhausted. But they still set watches, with Torinn taking the first one. About fifteen minutes after everyone else is asleep, he suddenly wonders, [i]What the hell is a xvart?[/i] [i][b]Next Time:[/b][/i][b][/b] Our heroes travel towards the xvart tunnels! [/QUOTE]
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