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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Delemental" data-source="post: 1336412" data-attributes="member: 5203">One of the men surrounding them stepped forward slightly.  He was one of the ones in armor, and a large battle-axe swung easily by his side.  “Drop your weapons and surrender!” he repeated.Ehput-Ki strode forward toward the speaker, who seemed to be in charge.  “Who are you?” he demanded.“Drop your weapons!” the leader repeated.“Who are you?”“Drop your weapons first!”Ehput-Ki’s eyes narrowed.  “My grasp on my blade does not prevent you from answering my question.  I would know who you are and what you wish of us.”“I think the first answer would be ‘bandits’,” quipped Alia, “and the second answer would be ‘all your worldly possessions’.”The leader grinned, indicating that Alia’s guesses were correct.“A ruse,” said Myoo quietly to himself, “A ploy to lure individuals such as ourselves here where we would be easy prey.” He half-smiled as he considered it.  “So utterly simplistic, yet effective for its very lack of complexity.  A more devious ploy would have aroused suspicion.  I shall have to remember that.”“Banditry is against the law, and unjust!” shouted Tantu.The bandit leader laughed.  “And what are you going to do about it, Tyrian?”“This.”Tantu raised his arms suddenly, but all around him there was movement.  One of the bandits let up a cry – “Casters!” – even as Niles suddenly vanished without a trace, and two bandits fell with Kiy’s arrows protruding from their necks.  Alia sprang forward to engage a tough-looking woman wielding two swords, while Ehput-Ki and the bandit leader charged toward each other.  Tantu, swearing, lowered his arms and drew his sword.  He’d planned to summon a whirling storm of Tyr’s holy blades, which would have cut down a great number of their enemies in one moment.  But now his companions were mingled in with the bandits, making the spell too dangerous to cast.A bandit charged toward Myoo, who regarded him calmly.  When his foe approached within a few feet, Myoo stared at him and said calmly, “Wouldn’t you rather defend me from my enemies?”The bandit stopped, blinking, then suddenly nodded and turned, laying into one of his former companions with his dagger.  At the same time, a small shape emerged from Myoo’s cloak and began circling around his head.  It looked like a very small beholder, with four eyestalks swiveling atop its leathery skull.  It swooped back and forth, attacking nearby bandits with an energy ray shot from its central eye.Ehput-Ki’s curved blade crossed with the axe of the bandit leader.  They traded blows back and forth, seemingly equally matched.  Suddenly, the bandit leader’s eyes glazed over, and he began to chuckle, then laugh.  A moment later, he was rolling on the ground, screeching with laughter.  Ehput-Ki paused for only a moment at this strange sight, then procured a length of rope from his pack and proceeded to bind the bandit firmly.  Two more of his companions rushed up just as he finished, and Ehput-Ki turned to deal with them.Nearby, Alia whirled and tumbled around her opponents.  Two others had joined the swordswoman, and they pressed their attack on the rogue.  She avoided most of their blows, but she bled from a few minor cuts.  Alia quickly discovered, however, that the other two bandits were extremely poor fighters, and thus focused on the woman with two swords.  As they danced back and forth, the woman’s attention was drawn by Tantu rushing up behind her, which gave Alia the opening she needed.  She whipped around with her metal baton, catching the woman in the upper arm.  Bone crunched, and the shoulder slid well out of its socket.“I’m doing just fine,” said Alia, dropping back to avoid a counter-swing.“I know,” replied Tantu, who brought his blade around and impaled one of the other bandits, a young woman with a small knife.“Go see if anyone else needs help,” Alia snapped.  “I’ll be along shortly.”Tantu turned and scanned the battlefield.  Kiy stood with his back to the obelisk, drawing his bow and firing steadily.  Half a dozen bandits lay dead in a semi-circle around him.  Next to him, Myoo stood calmly, protected by a bandit.  Tantu saw another bandit approach, and then suddenly turn to defend the sorcerer as well.  A triumphant cry of “His soul is mine!” echoed in their heads; though disconcerting at times, they’d become somewhat accustomed to the fact that Myoo could communicate telepathically over short distances.  Niles, of course, was nowhere to be seen.  Ehput-Ki was holding against three bandits, while at his feet the leader struggled with his bonds.  Tantu saw movement in the forest beyond the clearing, and began to step forward to meet these new foes.  But he stopped short once he was able to make out their forms; a pair of gaunt, purple-skinned humanoids with squid-like heads.“Flayers!” shouted Tantu.But his shouts drew less attention that the figure that emerged from the other side of the clearing.  Towering over all the combatants, a minotaur wearing a steel breastplate and swinging a huge flail charged in, nearly knocking Ehput-Ki off his feet.  At the same time, one of the illithids pounced, latching onto the paladin’s skull with a pair of tentacles, trying to draw him in.  The other remained a short distance away.Kiy turned his longbow toward the second illithid, firing arrows at it, but some form of mystical barrier blocked his shots.  Myoo attempted to dominate the mind flayer, but it easily shrugged off his spells, burbling with alien laughter.  A greenish ray shot out from empty space, but went wide, causing a mighty aspen tree behind the illithid to dissolve into nothingness.Behind Tantu, Alia decided she’d had enough of her opponent.  She made a lightning fast feint toward the swordswoman’s knees, causing her to bring her blades down in defense.  At the same moment, Alia leapt straight into the air, her jump boosted with magical power and years of training.  Grasping her baton in both hands, Alia paused for a split-second before tucking into a forward somersault in mid-air, utilizing the momentum of her spin to come down hard on her opponent’s skull.  Twitching, she went down.Ehput-Ki was sorely pressed.  He tried to defend himself from the minotaur’s attacks, but it was difficult with an illithid attached to his skull.  As Tantu watched, a third tentacle latched on.  Tantu saw Ehput-Ki call upon his holy power to heal himself, but he knew the paladin would not last much longer.Tantu began to stride forward toward the battle.  “Great Tyr, I call upon you!” he shouted.  “Send me your power to smite this foe and restore balance to this battle!”Fearlessly striding into the melee, Tantu reached out with a gauntleted hand, and smote the minotaur with a hand blazing with divine power.  High above them, the clouds seemed to part slightly, and descending from them came a glittering swarm of translucent shards, hundreds of copies of Tyr’s holy blade forged from magical power.  The stream cascaded down through the minotaur’s body into the earth, cutting away a portion of his life-force with each blade that passed through him.  As the tide of Tyr’s justice subsided, the minotaur was left reeling, barely able to stand.With the minotaur weakened, Ehput-Ki was finally able to deal with his other foe.  Whipping around, he cut deeply into the illithid’s tentacles, forcing the creature to release its grasp.  At the same time, Alia sprang forward, having dispatched her final opponent, and jammed the end of her baton into the mind flayer’s beak.  Across the battlefield, a cheer was heard emanating from empty space as the second illithid finally fell, battered down by the spells of Myoo and Niles.  Kiy turned to survey the battlefield, and casually placed an arrow into the minotaur’s throat, felling the creature.At the beast crashed to earth, the bandit leader rose to his feet, free of his bonds – and was cut down mercilessly by Ehput-Ki and Tantu.  Alia finished off the last illithid, while behind them Myoo let out a cry of protest as Kiy shot one of his two dominated foes, killing them.“What are you doing?” he shouted.“They are bandits,” he replied.  “I’m killing my enemies.”“They were under my control!”“I had no way to know this.”“But I told you!  Didn’t you hear me saying ‘his soul is mine’?  Didn’t you see he wasn’t attacking me?”Kiy frowned.  “In the heat of battle, I was only able to see that they were aggressors, not whom they were or were not attacking.  And the phrase ‘his soul is mine’ is not the same as ‘I have dominated the bandits who stand before me.  Please do not attack them.’  Please be more specific next time.”Myoo’s eyes narrowed.  “You expect me to say all that in the middle of combat?”Kiy glanced down at the slain bandit at Myoo’s feet.  “I expect you to find a way to communicate more effectively, otherwise I promise there will be more misunderstandings like this one.  And one of your captured bandits is still alive.”“You two, knock it off,” said Ehput-Ki sharply, who was crouched down staring at one of the bandit corpses while Tantu healed his wounds.  “We have a problem.”The heroes gathered around the fallen body, that of a young girl.  “This girl matches the description the old woman gave me of her daughter,” he said gravely. *    *    *Later that evening, five figures sat around a small campfire.  Ehput-Ki had returned to Suzail after the battle to report their findings to the Purple Dragons and to have someone send wagons to collect the bodies.  He also felt it was his duty to find the old woman who had asked for his aid and bear the sad news in person.The rest of them had searched the area, but found no sign of any other illithids or their “bandit” thralls.  The obelisk was found to be hollow, and when toppled revealed a hidden passage underground.  They’d decided to wait until morning to explore this cavern, when they were at full strength.  Interrogation of the bandit that Myoo had “captured” revealed their suspicions were correct; he could remember only coming to the woods to check his rabbit traps, when he came upon a strange obelisk in the middle of a clearing.  Then next thing he knew, he was sitting down on the ground in front of the party.  After confirming he was no further threat, Myoo sent him home.“Do you think Ehput-Ki’s gonna be okay?” asked Niles.  “I mean, okay with…” he pointed upward toward the night sky above them.“I’m not sure,” answered Tantu.  “I don’t know much about Horus-Re.  But I believe so.  These people,” he nodded his head toward a spot several yards away, where the bodies had been laid out as well as possible, “were presenting themselves as a threat.  Ehput-Ki only attacked those he could identify as trained combatants.  And the deception was good enough that we didn’t think to suspect they were anything more than bandits.”“Yes, it was rather clever of the illithids,” said Myoo, with a trace of admiration in his voice.“Anyway,” Tantu said, slightly annoyed, “if I were in his shoes, I’d say Ehput-Ki will probably hold vigil tonight over the bodies when he returns.”“Speaking of which,” Alia cut in, “we need to set watches.  We’ll set up in a perimeter around the clearing, with two on each watch directly across from each other.  Since Tantu and I can’t see in the dark, we shouldn’t be on watch together.  First watch will be Niles and me.  Second will be Kiy and Ehput-Ki, since he should be back by then and apparently will be up all night anyway.  Last watch is Tantu and Myoo.”The evening passed without incident.  Ehput-Ki returned in the middle of the night as expected, and after serving his watch went to stand vigil over the bodies of the fallen.  In the morning, a contingent of Purple Dragon guards arrived with two empty wagons, and loaded the bodies up to take back to Suzail.The group descended into the cavern, dropping down into a natural stone chamber.  Alia and Kiy took the lead, scouting for potential dangers.  After coming across a large room obviously used as a barracks, they crossed through a narrow hallway lined with weapon racks.  About a half-dozen weapons of various sorts rested on the racks.“They look well made,” commented Alia as the rest of the group caught up with them.“Any of them magical?” asked Tantu.“Unlikely,” said Myoo.  “However…” he spoke a few arcane phrases, and concentrated for a moment.  He seemed slightly surprised.  “They are magical,” he said.  “All of them.  Some of them have quite potent enchantments.”“Interesting,” said Alia.  “But let’s keep moving.”Soon the party had explored the entire cavern, and found it to be empty save for the weapon racks.  However, in the corner of one chamber, the floor sloped downward to a pool of water.“How far back do you think it goes?” asked Niles.  “Can mind flayers breathe water?”“I’m not sure,” replied Alia, “but I don’t think so.”  She began pulling her pack off her back, and tying back her long hair.“What are you doing?” asked Tantu.“Well, only one way to find out if it goes anywhere, right?”  She pulled two empty water skins from her pack, and inflated them before capping them off.  Then she tied a rope around her waist.  “Last time I checked, I could hold my breath for a count of two hundred. These air bags should extend that, but I’ll stick to a hundred-count out before I start back.  I’ll pull once on the rope to let you know I’m coming back safely, and two pulls means get me the hell out of there.”  She picked up a couple of loose pebbles.  “Can I get some light, guys?”Both Myoo and Ehput-Ki stepped forward, touching the stones as they called upon their celestial blood to infuse them with power.  Myoo also uttered a few arcane syllables and touched Alia.  “You’ll be able to move along the stone walls more quickly if needed,” he said.  “Your hands and feet will adhere to any solid surface.”“Great,” said Alia.As Alia prepared, Kiy slipped away wordlessly, returning a moment later with a trident that had been mounted on the weapon racks. “Here,” he said to Alia, handing her the trident.  “This will serve you better underwater than your baton.”With the trident in her hand, Alia descended into the dark water.  Soon the light from her two stones faded from view.  Everyone waited, counting silently to themselves.  Tantu and Niles exchanged worried glances when the count reached one-fifty with no sign.  At one-seventy four, however, Ehput-Ki felt a single pull on the rope.  Moments later, Alia emerged, dripping wet but with a smile on her face.  Tantu tried not to stare as Alia’s black suit clung to her skin.“The chamber goes on for quite a while, and doesn’t seem to go anywhere,” she said.  “But on the way back I saw an opening in the ceiling.  There’s a whole stash hidden up there; chests, barrels, and crates.  It’s within a fifty count; I wedged one of my light-stones into the opening to mark it.”A few minutes later the party was gathered in the small chamber, examining the ill-gotten goods.“There’s no way this all came from those townsfolk at the obelisk,” said Niles.“This could be treasure taken from others over many months, even years,” Ehput-Ki mused.  “Who knows how long the illithids we slew had played this game, and in how many locations?”It took a few hours to remove the various chests and boxes from the underwater alcove to the surface, and then sort through it for the choice goods.  On the way back to the city, Niles suddenly groaned.“There’s no way we can get all of this identified and sold before we have to leave,” he said.“Can’t we just take it with us?” asked Ehput-Ki.Alia shook her head.  “Three months hauling this stuff around?  With a bunch of snooping caravan guards and greedy merchants?  Might as well have just left it in the cave.”“Well, I don’t see what choices we have,” said Niles.“Why not?” asked Alia.  “I mean, I’d like to think that we’re a somewhat competent, if disorganized group of adventurers with a variety of skills.  We don’t have anything we could use?”After a moment of contemplation, Tantu spoke.  “Well, my god has given me knowledge of an invocation that transforms people into a magical mist that can be moved at high speed by Tyr’s breath.  I believe I have the strength now to affect all of us with this ritual, including our mounts.”Alia blinked.  “Exactly how fast are we talking?”“How far is it to Waterdeep?” he asked.“By road, about sixteen hundred miles,” said Niles.  “Twelve hundred as the wyrm flies.”Tantu did some quick calculations.  “Barring any delays or interruptions, about three days.  Two if we press it.”The rest of the party stared at him in silence, until Myoo spoke.“It might have been handy to know that earlier,” he said quietly.</blockquote>

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