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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sayburr" data-source="post: 1176" data-attributes="member: 92">Betrayal and Death in the JungleWatcher, if I am truly one of your chosen, help me in this. I need some powerful magic to disrupt that disappearing ability. Send me the answer to that in one of your visions. While thinking about this, the doors across the moat swing open. Six tribesmen like the river attackers stand beyond the doors. Two immediately run away as the other 4 prepare some blowguns. One of them chants some spell as I ready my bow and a big crocodile appears in front of Rakis and starts to chew him up. He yells for me to back up and I do, all the way to the back of the room after a plan, surely from Risk, bursts forth into my mind. Right according to Risk’s wishes, Rakis steps out of my way. Then I see Ars slide limply to the ground under a wave of those blow darts. “Take out their spellcasters to take the fight out of them” Magnus’s voice reminds me. But wait that one seems to be casting too. They all have the look of the river priest I notice after I am 3 or 4 steps into my sprint. Risk protect me in this wild gamble you have gifted me with in the vision you sent. I have faith in you and hope yours is not misplaced in me. Now! Up onto the croc’s back and leap with everything you have woman! I did it! Risk be praised! I cleared the croc and the moat! Now to these spellcasters. I call Flamesinger from it’s place in my palm and wade into this new threat. I kill the man directly in front of me first to give me more room away from the edge. The conjurer finds a way past Risk’s barrier and hurts me horribly. I then tumble between two of them to keep from getting flanked. The conjurer then gets to feel my steel slice open his belly in one fluid stroke but I can taste copper in the back of my throat and feel sick to my stomach from his touch. Why hasn’t Rakis come to help me? I will depend on the barrier to protect me from the man with the hand ax while I kill the last magician. Another sickening wound from a mere touch. Kill him now woman or die. He has seen me lay open his friend’s belly so I feint that move only to change Flamesinger’s angle upward to take him under the chin. He will not touch me again. I am so weak. I have to kill this warrior quickly. I cut him but he doesn’t fall. He swings his handax and I feel it hit bone. Just don’t let it break! Backspin and sweep thru his legs….I wake up in a hut on the water. I don’t remember how I got here. I check my arm for a break from the ax’s strike. A nasty wound but no break. Oh no. Only one place I have ever been has this many figurines. We must be at the mad merchant’s place. How did we get here? What happened after I went down? Where is everyone else? Amber comes in later and gives me the story of our escape with the mad merchant and Pandora. That bitch is like a bad copper piece. We rest and heal and then decide to go to the little delta village to try to get a ship back around the coast to Halaan. When we see a ship passing, we light our signal fire. As it draws close enuf to anchor, we see it is flying Kalmarian colors even tho it is bright pink everywhere else. I take a rowboat out to see if the captain will give us passage. I don’t know why the group lets me do it after the wonderful job I did the last time I got us a ride. It will cost us ten gold a piece but that seems a bargain compared to crossing the mountains so I pay him and tell him I will go get the others. Ars asks the captain about the ship’s paint job and he tells Ars that it is by the emperor’s decree. Too much inbreeding in the royal family has got to show up sometime and I think this is that time. Thankfully the trip around the cape is uneventful. Normally I would be so bored and would be eager for any action but lately I seem out of sorts. Like I am changing or just don’t feel like myself. I just have had a bad feeling since we passed the point where we should have stopped for finding Halaan. Damn that Daresh! The captain looks at us in the same way that I am sure we looked at the mad merchant when we tell him we want to be rowed ashore. He tries to reason with us but we know what we must do. The crew wishes us good luck when they drop us off but sound uncertain that it will do any good. I see a few even kissing and rubbing some charms. We head into the jungle. Ars and Rakis lead us along. We travel only a short while before coming to a large castle seemingly in disuse and threatened to be taken over by the jungle. There are the obligatory skulls on stakes, of course. While Ars and Rakis argue over what is and is not a track and is and is not a path, I tell them I don’t need any to follow since I can see the gate from here and make my way thru the tall grass to it. We enter the courtyard and proceed to a door on the castle’s wall. I check it for signs of tampering and finding none open it and we go in. We find a body mostly decomposed in the jungle’s merciless heat and moisture. The room doesn’t look in much better shape than the body. Rakis goes to the door across the room to watch while Amber and Pandora go to the body. As I eye the balcony that rings the room, I can almost hear Risk, “Up little one. Rise to the challenge. Your way is clear, is it not?” I loose my rope and grappling hook and start up. I look around and find a few doors and some stairs. I go back to tell the others. Pandora says she found a door behind a tapestry and Amber says she found a diary or journal of sorts. She reads from it and says that the way to find Halaan is in the highest part of the castle. I repeat that I found some stairs and will follow them up. Pandora says that she thinks we should go thru a door down there to get to the center of the castle to go up. Ars says he will go with me to see where the stairs go. Rakis will stay with Amber and Pandora in case there is trouble down here. Ars and I take the stairs up. We come out in an old armory with a corridor leading off and a door. As we pause to decide which to take, we are attacked by flying creatures. They look like birds with large mosquito heads and too many legs. Three of them land on Ars and stick him with their needle like noses. I begin to take them out of the air. Finally one of them lands on me and begins to feed. Is there anything more disgusting than parasites? I take my hand and squeeze it until it ruptures. We continue to climb. We find a room in which a large battle took place. We keep going up. We come to a door. I check it over and then open it. Another battle scarred room littered with skeletons. We head into the room. We see what Amber must have been referring to. There in the center of the room is a scroll tube. The skeletons start to rise up and head toward us. I seize the chance to be the instrument of Risk’s and Watcher’s power. I present my symbol of power to the undead and shout at them “Damn you! Return to the earth!” and they all crumble to dust under the power of my deities. Ars’ expression is priceless. I have felt his disdain since the days of the vaults. Like I wasn’t good enuf for his group since I didn’t have his or Rakis’s skill with a blade or his precious Pandora’s arcane skills or Amber’s awsome power over undead and her healing gift. Maybe this wasn’t as good as Amber but I don’t think he thinks of me as merely a dirty little street thief anymore. Almost as if reading my mind, or maybe MY expression, he asks, “You have been holding out on us, haven’t you?” I tell him I have been watching Amber closely. That is all he needs to know. He doesn’t need to know about our conversations after dark or while we are away from everyone else. I start toward the tube again and a whirlwind starts in the room. Ghostly images appear and I hope I haven’t used all of their power for today as I present my symbol and damn these too. The images fade and the whirlwind blows out. Ars grabs the tube and I, hearing drums like those in the Rain Tiger temple, look out the window. There must be a lot of something out there for me to notice that much movement from this far up thru that much jungle. We hurry back downstairs.We notice right off that they are not where we left them once we get back to the balcony. The door that Rakis was guarding stands ajar. I call to them. Amber? Rakis? They call back from the other room. We find them in a sad state. There are dead rats everywhere. Pandora lays unconscious. We show them the scroll tube and tell them we think it is what the diary refers to. We try holding it and saying Halaan’s name and a few things like that but it doesn’t bring him so Ars and I decide we will go back up to see if we missed anything. Gives us five minutes to get there and look around. The drums are making everyone nervous I think to myself. Ars and I rush back upstairs. We look thru the scroll tube room again and find nothing else. We decide to look thru the other battle scarred room. I go over to look at the fire consumed man and Ars checks another part of the room. I hear a rumble and a cry of surprise. I look to the sound and see only a hole in the floor. No Ars. I get as close as I dare without causing another cave in and look down. I tell him I will lower my rope. I hook the grappling hook on the corner of the fireplace and throw the rope down to him. He isn’t climbing up. Come on I say. Come down he says. I am not coming down there and get caved in on I tell him. He says he sees some really nice doors and he is sure there is treasure behind them and we have not found much of that since the vault. That creepy feeling washes over me again. I want to tell him again that I am not coming down there but there is a faint voice. I can’t make out what it is saying. Go or don’t go? Which was it? Come on he calls. Over I go. We go over to the doors together. I check them out. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, I open them. Inside we find an ornate room to exceed the doors and what immediately commands your attention is a very nice chest on which sits a black cat. Now I know what was giving me the bad feeling. Witchcraft! Ars walks in like he doesn’t know that black cats are witches demons or that he doesn't care. He tells me to see if the chest is trapped. I get close to look and the damnable beast scratches me. We kill it. I go to check the chest again and the beast returns to life somehow and scratches at me again. We kill it again. I tell him to open it this time. The demon returns to life again—noticeably bigger this time. It puts Ars down with its attack. I take a hit from it to drag him to safety. I stabilize him and go get the others. I explain what has happened so far and tell them that it didn’t follow us out of the room so maybe we can shoot it with our bows from out here. We try that but it comes out after us. We kill the thing again. I am determined to see what is in the chest now. What could such a thing be guarding. We go for the chest again. The thing reappears of course but by now it is a large panther. We set to fight it again even tho we are both already bleeding from its previous attention. We hear a door crash in and Amber screams, “Natives!”. I tell Rakis to go help Amber and close with this hellish beast again. Using Watcher’s wisdom in the ways of battle I make the demon feel flame and steel in spite of its unnatural quickness. I just pray I can kill it one more time so I can get away from it to help Rakis and Amber before it kills me because I know I don’t have 9 lives like it. Without Watcher’s insight my next blow misses. I think I have made it miss me and will have one more chance to put it down before I realize that I didn’t dodge well enuf. It is just because the demon’s claws are so sharp that I did not feel the hit. My leg is so hot. I look down to my once beautiful thigh to see blood spurting from the four large furrows that have nearly reached the bone. I feel the chill of death like a shroud around my shoulders and upper body in such stark contrast to the heat flooding over my leg. I am still awake when I hit the stone floor but I know I am dead because the cat doesn’t even look my way. It just curls up on the chest, nearly covering it. Then the blackness covers me like the cat did the chest. From the darkness I hear (is that the right word?) “What is she doing here?”“ I don’t know. Alicia is Watcher’s eyes and Risk’s revenge…”“ Alicia, come to me my child.”At that point all that was complete darkness is now replaced by complete light. I am still just as sightless because the light is overpowering, blinding. I then hear/feel/perceive the voice again.“Why have you come before me?”“Her destiny was to avenge me.”“ Her destiny was to see for me.”“ She had to much greed.”“Yes, she failed the test.”“Yes, but maybe she learned…”“ Maybe she can still fill her destiny…”“ Alicia, we know you…you are to return to the world of the living… your future has not ended but your time here has. Away with you now, but take care not to return before it is time.”“ She was once ours, now she has been taken by greed, she must be stopped.”I wake up in a church of Risk’s. There is a priest of considerable rank standing with Amber, Ars, Rakis and Pandora around me. “ I do not know what the meaning of the words were that your companion spoke and I doubt she would know either. Sometimes death does not want to let go of someone and words are brought back from beyound with the soul of the deceased. Do not be concerned for the words usually have no meaning. I am sure the words had nothing to do with this ‘Daresh’ fellow. Please leave your donation to Risk on your way out,” the priest says. I climb shakily to my feet with some help. “I think I should leave these with you, brother.” I pull out 7 one thousand gp gems and place them in his hand. “Thank you, brother. And thank you all, my friends.” When we are outside I will ask Amber what I said.</blockquote>

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