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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 5446305" data-attributes="member: 9546">THE LEGEND OF ARMAGA thorough search of the keep revealed no further survivors of Drelev’s regime, just several scared but grateful servants.  A search of the library, however, did reveal several interesting facts.  Foremost among these was that Stroon had marked a map of the Slough with the warlord Armag’s current campsite, an ancient Hallit tomb located several days north of Fort Drelev. Included in the margins of this map were notes about Armag himself, or rather, the original Armag.  It seemed that in the earliest days of the Tiger Lord’s history, a man named Armag led his people out of the Realm of the Mammoth Lords and into southeast Numeria. They clashed repeatedly with other barbarian tribes, eventually pushing through the Rostland plains to come up against the Iobarian warlords and centaur tribes of Casmaron. These conflicts forged Armag into a timeless champion who earned the direct favor of Gorum, the Iron Lord and God of War. As it turned out, pride was Armag’s weakness.  He boasted he would live forever, that death herself could never slay him.  Pharasma heard his boasts and was offended.  She sent several of her minions to aid Armag’s enemies to lay him low.  This angered Gorum, who had come to enjoy Armag’s audacity and brutal nature, and as Armag fought against his enemies, Pharasma and Gorum engaged in a battle of wits over the ultimate fate of Armag’s soul. When Armag finally succumbed and died on the field of battle, laid low by a mighty red dragon, Gorum intervened and infused Armag’s soul into his sword, Ovinrbaane, preventing it from entering the Boneyard.  He then sent visions to shamans of the Tiger Lords, inspiring them to construct a fitting tomb for the Iron Lord’s champion.  In recent years, a prophecy had surfaced among the Tiger Lords, which foretold of the coming of Armag the Twice-Born.  It said that this person would be a child formed from the spirit of the original Armag, and he would return the Tiger Lords to their former glory.___________________________________________________________Mox stood before the gates of the keep as she addressed the people of Fort Drelev.“And so I vow to you,” she pronounced as she finished her proclamation, “that we shall return and help you to rebuild your town, but first we will return your missing daughters to you.  In doing so, we shall also deal with the Tiger Lords and their misbegotten leader, so that you will never have to worry about them invading your home and stealing your children again!”The crowd erupted into cheers and applause, men and women alike weeping openly.  As Mox and her companions mounted their horses and rode out of town, they were escorted by a throng of potential new Kardashians._____________________________________________________________As the group set out across the grasslands that bordered the Slough proper, Stevhan found signs of a large predator travelling parallel with their route, a large cat of some sort, or so he judged.  Eventually the trail led into a narrow valley filled with thorny plants nestled between two sharp-sloped hills. Stevhan’s senses were on high alert.  This was just the sort of terrain that hunting cats liked to hide in, so that they could take their prey unaware. He was just about to say as much to his colleagues, when Velox gave a cry of alarm.“Watch out!” the oracle shouted.Stevhan turned as his horse reared, and a tan blur larger than his mount leaped from a nearby tree. It was a smilodon, known more commonly by locals as a sabre-toothed tiger.  It tore the ranger from the back of his horse and bore him to the ground with its jaws clamped around his neck, and its claws tearing through his mail. Stevhan scrabbled for his sword, but his vision rapidly grew dark. The cat shook him like a ragdoll before tossing him aside. He fell limp and didn’t rise.Velox and Davrim quickly dismounted their horses and moved to flank the beast. It spit and hissed as it spun in circles, trying to swipe at both of them. Velox darted in when its back was to him, driving his sword deep into its side. When it whipped back towards him, Davrim moved in to attack, and the cat yowled in a pain-maddened frenzy. Davrim stepped back as it charged him, but as it leaped, an arrow streaked past the inquisitor’s ear, and straight into the smilodon’s left eye. It fell in a lifeless heap. Davrim turned to thank his savior, and was stunned to see Stevhan standing there, bloodied, but alive. The ranger tapped his breast plate.“That little enchantment you suggested I get last time we were in Veritas was well worth the gold,” he panted. “Breath of Life indeed!”_____________________________________________________________With another day’s travel behind them, the companions could see the foothills in the distance, in which, according to Stroon’s map, Armag’s tomb lay.  With any luck, they would reach them by the next morning. The shadows began to grow long as evening approached, but to Velox, they seemed to be lengthening too rapidly. He glanced towards the sky, and gasped as he saw three very distinct shadows closing quickly towards them. They resolved themselves into horrific, winged creatures that somehow combined the worst features of goat, lion and dragon. Chimerae.Velox didn’t have time to warn his friends. Instead, he wove a wall of fire about them all that extended twenty feet into the air. The chimerae couldn’t halt their momentum, and they flew directly into the flames. As the monsters scrambled for altitude, Davrim unlimbered his bow and opened fire. The beasts wheeled about, and all three of them opened their draconic mouths and breathed gouts of acid down upon the companions. Stevhan dove from his horse to evade the caustic liquid, pulling a small bead from a necklace that he wore. He hurled it into the air, where it exploded into a fiery ball, engulfing all three of the chimera. One of them tumbled to the ground, a charred husk. Mox cast what was rapidly becoming her signature spell upon another, sucking the air from its lungs and sending it crashing. The last succumbed to another hail of arrows from Davrim’s bow._____________________________________________________________The companions literally stumbled into the encampment of the Tiger Lords, and were just as surprised to see the barbarians as the savages were to see them. The barbarians’ camp was settled in a small box canyon, situated at the edge of a small forest at the base of a high, cliff wall. A dozen or so small yurts were spread out about the clearing, with a fenced-in area for horses on one side, and a large, wooden cage in the center. Within this prison held five young women, dirty and harried-looking, but otherwise seemingly healthy.“Gentlemen!”  Mox announced. “We’ve come to escort these ladies back to Fort Drelev, but before we go, we’ve business to discuss with your chief. Now if you’d kindly step aside…?”Momentary silence greeted her proclamation…followed a moment later by the battle cry of a dozen Tiger Lord barbarians.Davrim sent three arrows flying at the nearest of the warriors simultaneous with Velox’s charge towards the man. By the time the shafts struck, the oracle was in the barbarian’s face, his sword taking him through the gut at the same time the arrows took him in the chest.  He was already dead and falling as Velox ran towards his next target.  He ignored another of the barbarians closing towards his flank.  His faith in his comrades was well-placed as a pair of shafts from Stevhan’s bow dropped the brute in his tracks.  Velox passed another falling barbarian as Davrim opened up with his bow again, his focus on a bear of a man standing next to the women’s cage. The barbarian raised his axe, preparing to fend off the oracle’s blade, and so it was that he was taken completely unaware when a beam of light as bright as the sun lanced from Velox’s hand and struck him in the chest, burning his heart instantly to ash.The Tiger Lords saw the threat clearly, and three of them broke off from the pack to surround Velox. The others all drew throwing axes from their belts and hurled them towards Mox and company.  Fortunately, in their haste, they made their throws from too far away, and the axes fell short. That did nothing to help Velox’s situation. Instead, Davrim and Stevhan loosed their shafts yet again, and two of Velox’s foes went down. Half the Tiger Lords were dead, yet those remaining showed no sign of quailing. One of them broke for Davrim, forcing the inquisitor to drop his bow and scrabble for his sword. The barbarian’s axe chopped down towards his arm, but Davrim turned at the last moment and took the impact on his side instead. Stevhan moved to help his friend, but a thrown axe from another of the warrior’s grazed his forehead, momentarily dazing him. Instead, his wolf, now grown to the size of a small horse, leaped on Davrim’s foe and bore the man to the ground, its jaws locked around his jugular.Mox stepped forward and her mandible seemed to unhinge as she opened her mouth to spew a gout of bilious acid at another charging Tiger Lord. The man continued to scream until his throat dissolved along with the rest of his head. Selena tossed a precisely aimed fireball at another pair, and while they twisted and turned, trying to extinguish themselves, Davrim ran one of them through with his blade. Under the distraction of the destructive magic, Velox closed with the remaining three warriors, including the one that was still smoldering. In a truly dazzling display of swordsmanship, the oracle rapidly disarmed the trio of their weapons. Before they could reach for the hand axes at their belts, Mox killed two of them with another blast of her caustic breath, while Davrim neatly decapitated the last._____________________________________________________________-“Your fathers all send their regards, ladies,” Mox said as Davrim released them from their prison. “Rest assured, we shall escort you back to them as soon as our business here is concluded. In the mean time, I trust you will be comfortable with the accommodations.”She gestured towards the magnificent pavilion that Velox had conjured using a magic rod he had taken from Baron Drelev’s mistress.The women bowed and curtsied to the Queen of Kardashia, ensuring that the legend of Mox and her companions would only continue to grow.</blockquote>

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