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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lars Frehse" data-source="post: 248274" data-attributes="member: 1674">Serpent Amphora part 5Ben went on his knees and examined the corpse: "Hmmmm. There are no wounds. No evidence that any weapon was used. Wait!".He pointed at a part of the Asaath's chest that had been burnt:" Maybe magic. Looks like some form of an energy attack.".Jan scratched his beard:" I wonder whether it was another Asaath who had killed him..."."I don't think so",  Trepat said. He was back at the campsite and was pointing to some tracks:"There was another creature here. From the looks of this camp, this creature had been waiting here for quite a while. I think I even recognize the footprints: it looks like those of a rat. But this rat walked on two legs and was the size of a man!".The friends examined the tracks and came to a conclusion, that this bipedal creature with rat feet had confronted the Asaathi here, and after a little commotion, it had marched on together with the five remaining Asaathi. Not wanting to waste any valuable daylight the heroes now mounted their horses again and rode on in pursuit of the tracks.They rode on until the sun set, and then, by now deep in the Blood Steppes, they settled down for yet another night. All of them were exhausted, and in spite of the horrible encounter last night, they decided to go for single watches this time. After all, now, merely a month before summer solstice, the nights were too short for a good sleep already...Late at night, Trepat, who had the midnight watch, was humming a song, as he noticed something small moving close to Niklas. Taking it for a hedgehog or some other harmless animal, he nonetheless got up to get a closer look. He walked a few steps and gasped in surprise: The small being approaching Niklas was neither a hedgehog nor any other animal. Instead, Trepat saw a tiny puppet that was made from sticks, leaves and stones. The puppet stretched out it's hand, reaching out for the sleeping human and Trepat shouted out a warning.Niklas jerked awake as the puppet touched him and immediatly, electricity raced through his body, almost knocking him out cold. Woken up by the commotion, Torn and Jan now saw that they too were being approached by similar puppets. They jumped up, and, after some of them got shocked by the tiny creatures, they were able to hack and stomp the puppets into the parts they were made of.Looking around, they saw that the saddlebags next to one of the horses were opened. It looked as if the strange puppets had crawled out of them.Carefully touching the remnants of one of the puppets with the tip of his sword, Jan asked: "But when and where did they get in there?"Torn answered:" The only logical possibility is the Asaathi's camp. Maybe they were aware that they were being chased and either they or the "rat" had left those things behind as a little surprise. Those tiny things had plenty of chances to get into the saddlebags when we examined the campsite..."Niklas rubbed the spot of his arm where the construct had touched him and nodded in agreement:" I am only glad you saw that thing in time, Trepat. I sure wouldn't have wanted that little devil to get a better hold of me while I was asleep!".They checked the other saddlebags and once they were certain that there were no more of the constructs, Torn got ready for his watch and the others went back to sleep. It dawned much too early for their taste, but still they got back on horseback and resumed the hunt.For two days they kept on riding, and thy had to settle down for sleep in dangerous terrain for two more nights. Then, on the third day after the assault of the puppets, Trepat noticed a huge, yet almost invisible net between two trees close by. He called out for his friends, and all of a sudden a web was shot from within the crown of the right tree, completely engulfing Jan and his horse who crashed to the ground, caught in the net.The others prepared themselves for more to come as a black spider that was as big as their horses raced towards them. It attacked Niklas, biting him, and the other ones surrounded the beast. Where they hit it, green blood splattered them, but the beast was relentless. It randomly bit at it's attackers, until it was lethally wounded and broke down.After liberating Jan and his horse from the sticky web, the friends approached the trees. Ben embraced the memories of his previous life as a spider, and he climbed up the tree with the precise and deliberate movements of a spider.In the crown of the tree, he found the spider's nest and the mummified remnants of three animals and two humanoids. Ben dislodged those mummies from the branches that kept them in place, and they crashed to the ground.One of the humanoids had been a goblin with six arms and spider eyes, and the other one looked exactly like a humansized rat on two legs. Excited, Torn removed the net- this have must be one of the species that had met with the Asaathi days before.All there was left of the creature was it's dark brown fur and the skeleton. The spider must have sucked all the liquid out of her- a quick glance showed that she had been female. She wore leather clothes and in a belt, she had a dagger- apparently she hadn't been able to draw it when the spider had gotten her.Ben focused on her neck and gently picked up an amulet that was tied to a leather string. The amulet depicted a writhing serpent and Ben said only one word: "Mormo.".Neither one of them spoke much for the remainder of the day, and around noon on the day after, they approached another rock formation. Niklas and Torn scouted ahead, and they came to a small gulley with a cliff-face at the furthest end. There was a small waterfall and it's base there was a small lake with three small slipshod huts. The monk and the rogue hid behind some bushes and observed the area. Now, they saw more ratmen like the dead one they had seen on the previous day. These ones, though, seemed very alive. On top of the cliff, there were two ratmen patrolling, and another two pairs were patrolling the ground. Each of them was equipped with leather armors, scimitars and crossbows.After a while, they returned to their friends, telling them about what they had seen. One thing was clear: if they wanted to get the amphora, they would have to somehow get into this camp.</blockquote>

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