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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Beale Knight" data-source="post: 1845650" data-attributes="member: 7033">02 - 02  Into the Wild02-02Nearly an hour passed with the three groups giving each other suspicious glances before anyone moved. Finally the redbreasts from Ballos gathered their gear and headed out. Ren wandered to the edge of the fort’s gate and watched as they marched due north. “Good,” he said to himself, “not the direction we’re going.” Ren couldn't help sneering as he watched them go. There was just something about them. If he ever laid eyes on them again it would be too soon. He watched until they disappeared into the haze of the horizon and then nodded to the others from Vaunth-on-the-Lake. Bessie, Madge, and Killian gathered their gear and readied Jimmy and the cart. Across the compound, the group from Kern was doing the same. “Best of luck with the Chakta,” Bessie said to them on the way out. Another few steps and they were outside the fort’s perimeter. They took bearings, confirmed northwest, and were on their way. The adventure had really begun. They now had eighty-nine and one half days to find something worthwhile, and return. ==============================================================================================================================Killian blinked against the unrelenting sun. “Are we really going anywhere?” he asked to anyone. “It’s hard t’ tell in this place.”Madge, leading Jimmy, shook her head. “Watch the ground. It’s plain we are.”Bessie chuckled. “Plain we are,” she repeated. At glances from Killian and Madge, she shrugged. “I see his point though.” She waved her hand around. “There’s nothing but flat grassland as far as the eye can see. An endless see of ankle high grass. It’s no wonder people get lost and wander in circles until they die out here.”“There’s something else,” Ren said. “Right up ahead.” He had been scouting about twenty yards ahead since the fort fell out of sight, and this was the first time he’d come back to the others. “It’s not a pleasant sight though,” he added, his face pale.He led them to a horrific landmark. A line of poles, twelve feet tall, stretched out of sight to the group’s left and right. Impaled on each pole was a chakta body. From the decay, these weren’t dead a month.They simply stared, open mouthed for several long minutes. It was Madge that spoke first. “See how it runs,” she said, pointing up and down the line. “Generally northeast to southwest. Like the edge of Maissen.”“This is how we mark the border?” Bessie whispered.“A warning.” Killian said.Ren shook his head. “I’m thinking it wouldn’t do the job,” he said. “If I saw my family put up on poles all it’d do is make me want to attack whoever did it all the more.”“You’re right,” Madge said. “This won’t dissuade the chakta. All it does is make the army and council feel intimidating.”Bessie turned away and gazed north. “Let’s get back on our way, please.”==============================================================================================================================“That’s not right,” Ren whispered to himself. Once again ahead of the others he’d just noticed a strange groundswell. He held a hand up to tell the rest of the group to hold their place a moment, then crouched down for a closer look. There was a tiny rise just about twenty feet ahead. Tiny but neat, almost exactly the height of his little finger and flat as the surrounding ground. Ren tilted his head, then scurried back and around the rise, keeping his distance even. What he saw confirmed his suspicions, unbelievable as they were. The rise was a circle. Not exactly, but close enough to suggest a burrowing animal. What made it unbelievable was that no burrowing animal made a lair like that, nothing larger than an insect anyway. Ren drew a deep breath, and then his eyes fell on another rise just like the first. This one just twelve or fifteen feet away from its mate. Then it made sense. Walking as softly as he could manage, Ren made his way to the others. “Ambush,” he whispered. “Two covered up pits up ahead, maybe with chakta waiting inside.”The others nodded. Bessie secured Jimmy and the goat and pulled out her unique crossbow. Ren and Madge readied their bows. Killian smiled and began to flew his fingers. They spread out, Ren and Killian flanking the first pit, Madge and Bessie further away but dead ahead. Weapons and magic ready to go, they all began to stomp the ground as they approached the pit. Fifteen feet away they saw what they expected; the pit cover flew open. Then everything they’d assumed was proven wrong. No chakta came out.It was a monster. A spider with a body as large as a dog and legs as long as a big man’s. The spider jumped from the pit and charged at Madge. Then a second spider, just as large, sprang out from the second pit and ran for Bessie. Arrows and a bolt flew into the first monster spider, and the air sizzled with fire from Killian. The spider made it almost as far a Madge’s feet before the ranger put another arrow into it, dropping it dead to the ground. Ren and Bessie had already turned their attention to the second spider. It was nearly on Bessie before they got their shots off, but even with the arrow and bolt in it, the moster barely slowed down. Killian ran a few steps to one side and sent another fan of flame to it. Every strand of the spell-born fire struck the spider, and the hair of its back caught and began to burn. Ren sent another arrow into it and Bessie plunged her dagger right into the center of its eyes. The spider made a weak attempt to bite its chosen prey, but fell dead with its fangs barely scraping the druid’s leathers. Bessie jumped back and retrieved the crossbow she’d hastily thrown down, then fired a bolt into the burning spider’s head. “Unnatural hellspawn!” She took a breath and looked to the others. “Spiders should never get that big! It isn’t the proper way of the world.”Ren suppressed a joke about reporting the spiders’ violations to the church (maybe they’d impose a fine) and walked up to the first spider. As Madge led Killian and Bessie in putting put the fire on the other one; “no sense calling attention to our presence,” she said, Ren dug out his knife. After a struggle he flipped the spider carcass over and cut into it. If it was built the same as a normal spider, it would have a poison sack of some kind that he could retrieve if he were careful. After a few moments the hunter found what he sought. A few more minutes of careful cutting and he lifted out a fist sized sack from the spider’s body. This he tied off and proudly presented to the others. “May not last more than a week,” he said, “but it could end up as good to have.”Others had wandered too close to the spiders in recent days. With Bessie holding the rope and the others standing guard, Madge went down into the two pits. Each held bits and pieces of bone that were once people, and she found a small gem in one, but nothing else. “Probably chakta,” she said. “This is too far out for any Maissener to wander out.”“At least they don’t work together,” Killian said. “I say let the spiders have all the chakta they want. Let’s get back to it.”==============================================================================================================================The rest of the afternoon was trouble free. All around the group was endless grassland, a prairie unbroken by any landmark.Except one. As evening approached the group came across a wide swath of dead ground. A twenty foot wide stripe ran out of sight from the northeast to the southwest. Between the three of them, Bessie, Madge, and Ren determined the land had been stomped from grassland to dirt by scores or hundreds of bison – probably with riders. Chakte. Headed southwest not fourteen hours ago. It was a chilling reminder that they were deep in someone else’s land.=======================================================================================Late on the morning of their second day outside Maissen, the four Heroes noticed spot in the sky were moving about. As they got closer they were able to make them out as birds, and soon after they realized they were buzzards - scores of them, circling an area as they do when waiting for a meal to finally give up and die. By then they could also see the smoke rising from the horizon, and smudges in the distant haze that suggested buildings. Like the buzzards, they were dead ahead. “Civilization?” Killian asked.Madge shook her head. “Chakta camp. It must be.”“So,” Ren said, “are we sneaking up to raid it or sneaking around to avoid it?”“We have more immediate problems,” Bessie said. She pointed off to the southwest. The others turned to see two forms. As they focused, the Heroes could tell that they were bisons, and there was a shadow of a rider atop each. They were headed north, but not toward the Maisseners – they hadn’t appeared to have even noticed them yet. No one had to say it. These had to be chakta. And their destination was obvious. “They’ll see us soon,” Madge said. “We have a chance to take them,” Ren said. “The grass is too low to hide Jimmy and the cart, but if we crouch down it can hide us. Three of us hide and wait, the other makes it look like there’s a lone Maissener wandering lost through the grassland.” “Hah!” Killian said. “I like it, but who’s y’ have in mind t’ play target?”“I’ll do it,” Madge said. She took Jimmy’s lead and waited as the others spread out and dropped out of sight. Madge then stood and took a long slow drink from her waterskin. By the time she put the skin away, the riders had noticed her. Ren could only see her feet from his position, but he saw them turn and then plant. He imagined Madge standing as if afraid, putting a look of horror on her scarred face. Then her feet turned again and she began to move. She limped! Brilliant, Ren thought. The chakta would be expecting an easy target.Ren nervously waited as Madge limped away. He began to feel something and realized it was tremors. The chakta must be charging. He gripped his spear a little tighter and waited.“Now!” Madge shouted. Ren jumped to his feet and spent exactly one heartbeat taking in the situation. The chakta had separated and were coming at Madge from either side. One was in perfect range. He threw his spear at the rider. It was a blessed throw. The spear flew dead on target, hitting the chakta rider’s chest and piercing through his back. Madge launched an arrow at the same rider, hitting him in the leg. Desperately hurt from the two attacks, he fell from his bison and landed hard on the ground. Bessie shot at the second rider, nicking one of his arms. Killian was jogging closer to the scene, cursing that the chakta was out of range. That rider was bearing down on Madge, a long spear in his hand and an evil look on his face. Madge spun back to face him, readying another arrow. Ren pulled his bow around, knowing he’d never get an arrow off before this rider was trampling Madge. As the bison closed, Madge made a desperate jump to the side.The chakta’s spear cut her cloak but touched none of her flesh. The rider then had to release the spear and turn his mount, which was headed right for the other bison. With no rider, the first bison had simply slowed to a stop and was now standing there, directly in the way of the second. As he turned, Madge and Ren fired. Both arrows hit the chakta and he fell from his bison. A third shot from Bessie hit him on the way down, and the fall did the rest. The chakta landed wrong and when Ren and Madge ran up to him it was clear he was dead. Ren walked to the first rider and saw he was still breathing. The spear had been pushed most of the way back out when the chakta hit the ground, which probably made the impact all the more painful. Ren grabbed the shaft and the chakta stirred. “Not good getting ambushed when you’re ganging up on someone, you think?” Ren said. The chakta muttered something, spat on Ren’s spear, and then fell back – dead. “Cur Spran?” Ren repeated. Wondering what that meant, Ren pulled his spear free. “Y’ should have given me a chance t’ do something!” Killian shouted as he ran up. “”Next time hide closer,” Ren chided with a smile. “Enough,” Madge said. “We’re going to have to get moving. These bison can probably be seen from that camp up ahead, and they’ll probably send someone to come take a look before long.”“Shouldn’t we examine what they have on them?” Bessie said. “Getting things is the whole reason we’re out here after all.”“Don’t take too long,” Madge said. Ren was scanning the north horizon. “While you do that, I’ll sneak up onto that camp so we can know what we’re facing.”“That’ll take too long,” Madge said. “By the time you get there and back we will certainly have been seen by them.”“Head that way,” Ren said with a point to the northwest. “Skirt the camp wide and I’ll catch up as you’re going.”“It’s too dangerous.”Ren smiled. “Keep a watch that way. If I get noticed I’ll run and scream so you can rescue me.” Madge frowned but didn’t say anything more. Ren gathered his gear and dropped low, ready to crouch, crawl, and slither his way to the chakta camp.[Story continues on Post 44]</blockquote>

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