Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1531219" data-attributes="member: 9626">The Dead, and the Death-BringersThe journey through the tunnels was again uneventful.  The party, along with Shedell and her two allies, traveled during the day, even when it was impossible to determine night from day here, and stayed at small towns in the night.  Finally, after ten days underground, the party reached the last exit to the surface on the road to Neverest.  Carefully, Rudyard opened the door, while watching the outside world through the ever-growing crack.  He didn’t see any enemies, but what he saw outside was almost as shocking.  There was nothing, as far as the eye could see.  Not the smallest bush, not a scrap of grass, not a single buzzing insect.  It was nothing but cracked earth, rocky hills, and endless horizons as far as the eye could see.  Rudyard involuntarily shivered when he saw it, and Robin, who was the youngest member of the group, literally gave a yelp of surprise and despair when he saw it.  “How could anyone do this?  What would be the point?”Quercus shook his head sadly.  “The undead empire has no use for anything living unless is can be used as food or new recruits.  Making this area livable would just give their enemies an opportunity to attack.  As it is now, if we wanted to attack them, we’d have no cover, we’d have to carry all our food or supply it magically, and we’d be attacked by hungry and desperate predators the entire way.”Robin could hardly move at first.  And for that, millions of plants and animals had to die?  As bad as this Bas was, he knew who he wanted to bring about the destruction of more.  This empire of unlife must fall.A few hours later, the party saw yet another sign of death, albeit a far more mundane one.   A team of wagons was arranged in a circle in front of them, but they had been obviously attacked.  Eager to find survivors, Tal and Robin sprinted towards it, while Seldzar followed cautiously behind them.  All of them were ignoring Shedell’s warnings that the creatures that did this could still be nearby, and that this caravan was likely a Bas supply line in the first place, and any survivors could possibly be their enemies.An initial search turned up nothing living.  There were half-eaten bodies scattered throughout the wagon, and all were drow, but there was no way to determine if they were Benefactors or Malefactors.  On the plus side, if the bodies were still here, that means it wasn’t done by the undead.  Dane and Quercus began to build a fire to burn the bodies, and Rudyard began a search of the camp.  A few minutes later, he dashed out of one of the wagons, yelling, “I found something!  Or rather, someone!” The party gathered around him, and he led them back to the wagon he was investigating.  Underneath a concealed trap door in the wagon, there was a little girl.  A little drow girl, and one who obviously had quite a bit of trouble with the light.“A Malefactor,” Tal said nervously.  Seldzar spit with disgust.  “Wonderful.  So now what do we do?  Little girl or not, I see no need to help our enemies.”  Quercus looked troubled as well, and conflicted over what to do.Tal and Robin looked at them like they were crazy, and Shedell in particular looked horrified.  “How could you say that?  Her parents are dead, apparently killed just a few hours ago, and you want to abandon her?  She is far too young to be dismissed as lost cause!”  She turned to the girl, and looking as friendly as possible, asked, “What’s your name, little girl?”“….” The girl replied.Tal, sensing she was nervous, began to play a calming song.  This had an appreciable affect on the girl, but she still seemed unable to speak.  Instead, she started scrawling a simple picture on the ground.  It looked like a picture of her, with a strange figure next to her.  The girl looked sad in the drawing, but the other figure looked happy.Tal stared at it for a moment, before giving up.  “I can’t figure it out.  Look, I know she could be a hindrance to us as we travel, but we can’t just abandon her either.  I promise I’ll look after her if we bring her along, okay?  She won’t cause any trouble.”Seldzar look reluctant, but agreed.  “Fine.  But don’t expect me to help at all.  I won’t have her get in our way and get us all killed.”The party spent a few minutes scavenging what they could from the wagons, and then finished burning the bodies.  The girl looked on for a few moments, as if compelled to understand what was happening, but soon fled behind a wagon in tears.  Tal tried to keep her calm while Dane finished the horrible work, and set up the now routine stakes.  “Though I doubt any living being will be around to see them,” he muttered to himself.The rest of the day and night passed uneventfully.  Since almost half of the party could now spend a night with only two hours of rest, the party watches at night were well-rested and plentiful, and they had little to fear from attacks.However, the next day was nowhere near as easy.  As the party wandered through a valley early in the morning, before the sun left the influence of the first sphere, two dark figures rose up from behind a hill.  Rudyard glanced at them for just a moment before realizing what they were, and his eyes grew wide in fear.  “Dragons,” he whispered.OOC Notes:  Sorry, I planned on a longer update, but then Gen Con pre-registration came online, and the panicked dash created by that came into play.</blockquote>

Verification