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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tormenet" data-source="post: 2017666" data-attributes="member: 15690">Session 1, Part 3: Ajax of HaigonopolisWe got to the town at about dusk and I suggested that we wait for morning. It was odd enough that three dead people would be walking into town; we should at least do it in the daytime. I sat down out of habit, but I didn’t even have to do that. Zaveon stood the whole time, at first I thought it was just because he seemed very tough and disciplined, but it was actually just because he’s dead and his muscles and joints don’t get stiff. At dawn we entered the town. The people were kind and gave us clean clothing. The food they prepared must have represented a substantial part of their wealth. We were brought before the head of the town, Alkimus the Ishfar, an ethnic Median. Nice enough guy in a provincial sort of way. They even brought out the town priest to tend to our wounds. This, I realized was about to get sticky. The priest went straight for Zaveon, obviously the most badly wounded, but he declined help. He came to me next and I tried to turn him down too, but I felt his hands on me and the next thing I was on my knees screaming. “Take them to Him,” Alkimus said. We were then escorted by a group of the town’s warriors to a central square. At the square, one man towered above them all. He was Ionian and powerfully built. His armor was intricately engraved with scenes depicting Draco, the all-conquering leopard of Iona. His spear looked sharp. He seemed to be guarding the entrance to a cave, more a mound that protruded from the ground. Another man was staked out in the sun, being tortured as the desert sun cooked him in his iron armor. A woman was curled up on the ground nearby. “We found some more, Talos,” one of our escorts told the man. “Leave us,” Talos replied. Talos was the name of one of the five Athanatos leaders, who I believe are responsible for the green wave that killed me. But it couldn’t be him here. Nothing could have survived that blast. Besides, if the blast was intentional then he would be immortal, which had been their goal. Why would an immortal stand around in some tiny town in the middle of nowhere? Jamili stepped forward and started talking to him. “Abominations” is what Talos called us. “The Desert of Abominations” was the place where we had just come to life. I barely listened as Jamili tried to reason with him and explain why he should not kill us as he did all the other abominations he’s encountered. This was the same Talos who was in the Athanatos. He talked about someone called the Scourge of Avasara, which I knew to be the title of one of the other five Athanatos leaders. He was one of the five. One of the group which had caused the green wave, which everyone seemed to call The Catastrophe. His group had sown discord in the whole region and thousands had died as a result of their efforts. It was through their actions that the Ghinn had re-entered the world, so he is responsible for the war the Ghinn started. He killed me. I wanted to kill him now. “Ajax.” Hearing my name made me pay attention again. “Ajax, tell him how you died,” Jamili said. Well, he asked. “I was one of the group that killed the guards you had posted around the Eldritch gate and the oracle,” I told Talos, looking directly at him. “I was one of the group that burned your bloodwort. I was killed in the green wave that you set off.” “If that were true, I should kill you just for that.” I couldn’t believe I was standing here talking to this man. “You could try,” I said. “Reach for your weapon.” My hand dropped to the hilt of my sword. I’m quicker than most people, so my plan was to stab him before he knew what hit him. I mentally recorded each place where his armor seemed weak. As I tilted my chin up to look at him, his spear pierced my throat.</blockquote>

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