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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sayburr" data-source="post: 1179" data-attributes="member: 92">The Road to XaarumThe banging comes again. I place my forearm across the fat spy’s throat and my finger against the center of my lips. “Remember, your sister,” I whisper. The banging comes again, louder this time. What are they doing down there? Are they trying to let them wake the whole neighborhood? “Answer the freaking door, for Risk’s sake!” I yell. I don’t here the banging any more but I can hear voices. I can’t make out what they are saying but I don’t hear anyone on the stairs either. This waiting goes on for an eternity, it seems. But the fat man is being quiet and Pandora hasn’t made a puddle in the floor even tho she looks at the door like it is a rat, so for right now we are all happy. I am tempted to ask her to go downstairs to see if everything is alright but if anyone down there was the least bit suspicious before they saw her… Well, let’s just say she wouldn’t help matters.At least there is no sound of swordplay, so what could be taking so long either way? Why is there no cry for help or an all clear sign? The suspense is making me edgy. It is good that fatboy is behaving. Under this stress, he might be dead before either he or I knew it had happened. Watcher, give me the strength of your patience. Pandora is not handling it well either, I see. Frozen, she still stares at the door as if it were a rat. At least she is watching the door. I guess that is something.Finally, Amber comes thru the door. I guess it is a good thing it is Amber. Pandora jerked like she had been awakened from sleep when the door opened. If her mouth had been hanging open a little more I am sure she would have been drooling. I don’t know how much good she would have been if it had been someone other than a friend because she hadn’t even moved into a position for a fight. Amber tells us everything is fine. It was just some dwarves looking for Burel, the dwarf Rakis and I rescued from the ogres and resident forgesmithy. She also says that Ars went out to make sure no one is watching the house. I tell our coward to get some sleep because we are hitting the road northward tomorrow. He babbles, pouring out questions about where we are going and what we are doing. I am tired of his sniveling and cut him short, telling him to shut up and just be glad he is still alive and walk out, slamming the door behind me. I normally have little patience for his kind anyway but the edge I have on from the suspense of a few minutes ago makes it even worse. Still, I berate myself on my way to my stinking room. It must be his sister that bothers me so. I personally know what she must be going thru now, to some degree. She must be feeling so alone. Even tho she wasn’t abandoned as I was, the loneliness has got to be there along with her grief and fear. And the pig did refuse us until he knew that she was safe. That has to count for something. And he is not working for Daresh. Or at least I don’t think he is. That alone will probably save him from me. Maybe he is just weak and in a bad position. I just can’t put the sister thing to rest tho. I will have to make sure that he has enuf to support her when he leaves us or if he happens to fall in this madness, then I will make sure she has plenty to keep her up for a while. Sleep does not come easily and for the first time in a while my dreams are not of Risk and Watcher and their game and/or Daresh. They are of a young girl who awakes to find her father dead on the stairs and her brother missing.We pack up the next morning and head for the north gate of Zoa in the rain that started some time during the night to start or 3 day walk to Xaarum. The guard at the gates tells us of the heightened security measures in place because of the threat from the Kalamarians. He asks if we would like to purchase a pass before we leave in order to ease our re-entry to the city. I tell him we have no money for such a pass right now and ask how much would it cost to purchase one upon our return. He says we won’t have to buy one to get back in. We will just have to be subject to questioning, much as we faced when we docked I imagine, so I tell him we will just have to be inconvenienced since we are poor. With all this chatter, he has a chance to look us over pretty good and his eye catches fatboy. “What’s wrong with him?” he asks. I tell the guard that he is just homesick and a little worried about his home with all the Kalamarian trouble and Pandora pipes in, “And not to mention hungover, a little.” as she winks at the guard. “Yeah, first time in a big city and all. You know how it is for these bumpkins.” I add. “Well, move on along. I have 7 more hours on my shift and don’t want to spend it smelling vomit!” So we move briskly along and out the gate. Outside the gate, I tell our chicken that he did very well back there. I tell him that that kind of behavior is exactly what will get him back to his sister and get him back to her the quickest. I tell him that I had planned on putting him on bread and water for the trip but behavior like that will earn him rations just like the rest of us.We traipse along the road northward. We closely keep an out for any trouble, Kalamarian or otherwise. After a short while, the road heads into the forest between Zoa and Xaarum. We finish the day’s march even quieter than it began. We discuss the new watch after we pitch our camp (quite quickly since the dragon helped us by lightening our load of non-essentials) and as we are eating. We finally decide that one of the spellcasters will take the first shift each night, alternating nights between them. I will take the second two hour stretch each night since it doesn’t bother me to have my rest in increments and I don’t have to prepare like they do in the mornings to receive their spells. Ars says that those four hours or so are all he needs to rest so he will take the remainder of the watch each night. This suits us all and we put it into practice this night after tying our captive to a tree and bed down for the night. When I wake up the next morning, I nearly will Flamesinger into my hand as soon as I open my eyes! There is a large wolf in camp! Sitting right next to Ars as he eats his morning meal. Neither acts if anything is amiss. I guess for all my doubts Ars is a woodsman after all. We untie the chicken and Ars lets him answer the calls of nature in his company. I make sure the fat man gets a meal just like the rest of us this morning just as I did last night. I am hoping this will ease fears and perhaps abort some of his ideas of escape, if he has enuf backbone to have any such ideas. We quickly break camp and get back onto the road.We travel half of the day, picking up a creek which flows along beside the road early in the morning. We are all talking about picking a site to have our mid-day meal when, out of nowhere, a flying log with an orc riding it smashes into Pandora, knocking her off her feet and into the creek. Before I can do anything, another log riding orc smashes into me but I roll with it to keep from being knocked into the creek. Two more such projectiles fly thru our column, but I can’t tell if Ars or Amber gets hit. They are not flying after all. They are bound with ropes to swing like pendulums! I will take care of that on their next pass! I scramble into a ready stance and bring the blazing sword into my grip. I breathe the words of power to guard myself from harm and wait for the orc to swing in again. As he approaches in his descent, I advance myself. I run to make my leap to clear the log and sever the rope that holds the log. I misjudged the speed of the log or I started too early to close the distance. Instead of clearing the log while it was low, I jumped before it got close enuf to go under me and took it in the chest. It picked me up and deposited me in the creek with Pandora. What is she doing still in here? I push myself to my feet and fel the mud sucking at my feet. More than sucking at them! They are trapped in what was once mud but now is as hard as stone. Two of the logs now swing empty. One lies at Amber’s feet with its head lying at an impossible angle to be healthy for it and one is stuck by its guide hook in the trees. The other two orcs finish their swings by leaping off on the other side of the creek. Some more have stormed out of the cover of the trees onto the path to rush Ars and Amber. I can hear screaming and look to find the source. Our coward is making all the fuss and is running off down the path the way we came. I am trying to free my feet and dodge the javelins the orc on the bank is tossing at me. I am succeeding at neither when I notice Pandora nearly fall over face first into the creek almost breaking her legs. It is then that I notice what would be worth breaking a leg over. Her maneuver just barely kept her out of the jaws of death. A crocodile just tried to bite her and, missing her, is now focused on me. I try to block out the orc on the bank as I await the croc. I speak the words to guide my aim and when it is close enuf I thrust the sword downward towards its head. I hit it hard but the bony case of its skull and its tuff hide prevent me from running it completely thru. It opens up and bites my leg as I try but can’t escape. I speak the words again and push the blade thru its head. Ars is now stuck in the creek to and he is yelling something about there still being one left over there in the trees. I pull my steel dagger from its sheath and throw it at the orc on the bank while it is distracted by Pandora’s squab. It falls. Now I can take the time to see what he is yelling about without getting killed while doing it. Where is Amber? Ahhh. There you are my pretty. Whatever you are, you are too far for a dagger throw. Perhaps if I could reach one of those javelins. I have it. I have never thrown one of these so I will ask Watcher to guide my aim and I throw it as hard as I can. A good solid hit! Watcher be praised! That at least distracted him from Ars and the wolf for a moment. The wolf is working it hard tho. The humanoid beast falls to the four-legged beast finally. Amber comes trotting back up the trail but without the chicken. Ars sends her to get the weapon the bear man was trying to smash the wolf with so he can smash himself free. Amber gets it and says she will make Ars stronger to help him free himself and us. She says a few words and touches him and then she goes after the coward. Ars sends the wolf after her. Ars goes to work on the stone around his feet with a vengeance. In the course of freeing himself he covers himself with the muddy water that he has stirred up. No matter, it will wash off quickly in the rain. He then comes and bashes me free. While he works on Pandora, I go to search the bear man. It has the wand Ars said it used to turn the mud to stone, and another one as well. I slip the other one up my sleeve. He also has a belt pouch and a golden clasp on his tunic, the symbol of his evil deity I suppose. I hold up the unhidden booty and say, “He had this stuff too.” I take the stuff over to them where they can see me open the pouch right in front of them.It has some parchments and a few silvers and a few coppers in it along with some pretty good drawings of us. I can’t read either of them and pass them to Ars and Pandora to let them see them. Neither of them can read them. Ars finishes freeing her and we wait for Amber and the wolf. They come back with the sullen spy. I show Amber my many wounds and ask her if she can help me with her healing powers. She says she is almost out of spells. She says she can help me with the nastiest one, the croc bite, which went deep into my calf muscle or she can take care of all the smaller injuries but not both. I ask her to take care of my leg. We ask her see if she can read the two parchments. She says she cannot but she will ask Mother for help if we want to know badly enuf. We do. She chants a little and then looks at the pages again and reads them to us. The first one says “Report to General Daresh for special operations orders – Radkke” and the second says “travel to Zoa, locate and dispatch Ars, Amber, Pandora, Rakis, and Jza. Sketches of each enclosed – Daresh.” We spend a few minutes each cursing that bitch to a long slow rotting death on some lower level of the Hells from where she was obviously conceived before starting to round up our hard earned spoils. There is quite a bit actually. Bulky and cumbersome and heavy as it is, it is still treasure to us. Ars and I carry all but one of the suits of scale mail. We put one on the fat man. He nearly staggers under its weight. We’ll see if he tries to run away carrying that. Am and Pan drag the axes split between them. Ooooof. I was making fun of the fat man but I am the one staggering now. Down the trail we struggle.Other than the mite tunnels, the afternoon might have been the worst half of a day’s work I have ever done. My training in tumbling and acrobatics and my gloves may have saved my hands but my shoulders are sore and even blistered from the shafts of the javelins we carried the armor on. I should sleep well tonight. I can hardly wait to eat and hit the ground. I tie up the captive after feeding him and go to lie down. It seems like I had just closed my eyes when I hear Pan screaming and Ars yelling about intruders. I just have time to stand up before two foes come rushing to me. I leap into the air to bring every ounce of force I can down on the first man’s head. I timed it just right! Flamesinger cleaves the man all the Way down into his shoulders. I slide it free of his corpse as he slides to the forest floor and turn my attention to the second man. He is much more careful after witnessing his buddy’s demise but since we have already encountered some of Daresh’s agents today I redouble my efforts. I would hate to die again for any reason but to fall at the hands of one of her minions would shame me too greatly. I trade slicing open his belly for a cut across my bicep. I trade nearly severing the big muscles in his thigh for a cut on my heaving flank. As injured as he is it is not hard to lay his throat open with my next swing. I leap to help Amber with her two. Since they think their partners have me, I flank one of them easily and open his side up before he realizes his buddies are down. He will be soon, too. Without two on her, Amber quickly turns the tables on the one I left for her, too. Ars and his wolf pull Pan’s fat out of the fire. Ars says he and his wolf will try to track these guys back to their camp. He says he will be back soon and for us to stay here.He comes back after a short while looking much the worse for the wear but he is leading twelve horses. We tether them and get back to the business of resting. It has been a full day.We sleep later than normal in the morning, making sure that everyone is well rested and Amber does some much needed healing on Pan, Ars, and herself. We decide to load the horses down with the loot and bodies to try to throw off any other teams the Bitch might have sent after us. We will dump the bodies we before hitting Xaarum’s gates. When we get there it doesn’t look like much. A city, for sure but run down is the first word that springs to my mind. We decide to sell all the stuff we can except Ars is keeping the strength bow and Amber is keeping the morningstar. We take our stuff to the bazaar and sell the mundane stuff and decide we will pay to have the wand identified before splitting the swag. We locate a mage and he tells us that it is a wand that transmutes mud into stone, that it has 14 charges left, and that he will give us 18,000 gp for it. Sold! We say. After that, we head to a nice looking inn. We get some rooms and divvy up. 5885gp each! I tell them I am heading to find my church here. I tell them I will get back with them tonight so we can make our plans.I head back to the mage who identified the first wand.</blockquote>

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