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<blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 4381470" data-attributes="member: 60965"><p>Session 7, Part 3</p><p> </p><p>Neergrog snarled at Shro'kar and hefted his greataxe menacingly. "You must be stupid if you think I'll believe it was only two humans that destroyed the raft camp. Either that or you think I'm stupid. Neither is a very healthy way for you to be," Neergrog said.</p><p> </p><p>Shro'kar was unfazed. "I didn't say there were only two, just that only two survived. We dug up the bodies of two others - a dwarf and a human woman - but didn't find any others. And if you were really going to try to do something 'unhealthy' to me, you wouldn't be paying me so much."</p><p> </p><p>There was some noise from the passageway leading to the outpost's entrance and Neergrog glared in that direction at the disturbance. His eyes bulged. "You! I thought you were dead!"</p><p> </p><p>Grok'nar stood with a chained figure in tow at the junction where the entrance passageway intercepted the passageways leading east to the barracks, north to Neergrog's audience chamber, and west to the rest of the outpost. "I brought a mighty gift to appease you, great Neergrog. I only hope that I might buy your mercy and appease you with a gift."</p><p> </p><p>Neergrog was on his feet, already seeing red. He forced himself to calm slightly and looked over Grok'nar's prisoner. "He doesn't look like anything to me. Explain quickly and well or I'll make sure you die this time."</p><p> </p><p>Grok'nor bowed - the hilt of a greatsword of human make jutting from his shoulder - and gestured to the human who stood, chin thrust out proudly, cooly appraising Neergrog. "This is the one that destroyed the raft camp."</p><p> </p><p>"What?" Neergrog shouted, hefting his axe. "This one? This one alone?"</p><p> </p><p>"He's lying - no lone human could do such a thing," Firon the Advisor said, walking closer to Neergrog's throne. Shro'kar and Dalak moved to flank Neergrog, readying their own weapons.</p><p> </p><p>Grok'nar shrugged. "There were others - two died there and I dealt with the other this morning before I came here."</p><p> </p><p>Hearing the numbers Shro'kar had just told him from another mouth cemented it for him and his vision tunneled on the arrogant human. He let out a roar and charged.</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly, the human's chains were free, a greatsword in his hands. A split-second later two other figures suddenly appeared as well: an elf, already chanting and gesturing towards Neergrog and his entourage, and a huge half-orc with a wicked looking double-blade, stepping up next to Grok'nar and the human.</p><p> </p><p>A bead of fire whizzed past Neergrog's head as he charged and a detonation of heat and flame washed over him from behind. He stumbled briefly, but the pain was washed away in a red wall of rage as he clashed with Grok'nar and his prisoner, Shro'kar and Dalak close behind him.</p><p> </p><p>They slammed into the enemy and Neergrog bellowed for reinforcements. He brought his knee into Grok'nar's chest and shoved him back, distantly felt a slash tear into his shoulder, turned, and swept the human's feet out from under him. The human rolled away before Neergrog could follow up, leaping to his feet and turning to face the reinforcements that closed on the infiltrators from all sides. The elf chanted something else and the barracks tunnel was suddenly enveloped in a chill white cloud, radiating cold so strongly Neergrog could feel it from thirty feet away.</p><p> </p><p>Dalak went down to the blades of the half-orc - a Greywarden some distant, logical part of his mind realized - while the human turned to slaughter the hobgoblins that stumbled, frostbitten and shivering uncontrollably, out of the white fog. Grok'nar planted a iron-shod boot in Neergrog's chest and sent him stumbling back.</p><p> </p><p>Neergrog countered with a blow that split Grok'nar's shield in half, crunched into his arm, and slammed him into the wall, his sword flying from his hand. Neergrog roared triumphantly and lunged forward to finish the traitor off and was jerked to a halt.</p><p> </p><p>He looked down, confused, and saw that Grok'nar had somehow gotten ahold of Dalak's sword. A foot of it was buried in Neergrog's chest. He roared again and swung his axe at Grok'nar's head, but the traitor sidestepped it almost casually and slid the blade in to the hilt, staring pitilessly into Neergrog's eyes as he did so.</p><p> </p><p>Then Grok'nar shoved him away and he staggered back. Neergrog glanced down at the blade in his chest, snarled at the now unarmed and unmoving Grok'nar, and raised his axe to take the traitor with him.</p><p> </p><p>Something slammed into Neergrog from the side and sent him sprawling. He looked up in time to see the human step over him, grim-eyed, sword and armor splattered with blood, his eyes pale and pitiless as Grok'nar's.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Neergrog's remaining bodyguard wisely dropped his sword the moment Neergrog was dead, raising his hands and backing away from Kezzek. Kezzek growled, kicked the hobgoblin's sword away, glanced around. The remaining hobgoblins followed suit, dropping weapons and quickly distancing themselves.</p><p> </p><p>"Who is in charge here now?" Kezzek said, wandering towards the blackened and smoldering audience chamber.</p><p> </p><p>The bodyguard pointed towards a charred form lying beside the throne. "Firon gave the orders when Neergrog was away. Looks like he's not up for much now, so I suppose I'm the chieftain," he said in rough Common.</p><p> </p><p>Grok'nar walked over to the self-proclaimed chieftain and looked him over. "You're not from here, I don't recognize you."</p><p> </p><p>"Shro'kar, mercenary from the Furnace Tribe."</p><p> </p><p>"Furnace Tribe? I thought the High King wiped them out for refusing to go to war with the Mountain Clans," Grok'nar said.</p><p> </p><p>"Wiped out is an exaggeration, but only just. Those of us who weren't captured and used as orc-fodder scattered. This seemed as good a place as any." He pointed at Neergrog's body. "He was a paranoid butcher with delusions of power, but he paid well and wasn't about to risk himself - and thus myself - in an actual attack on Northmand."</p><p> </p><p>"I imagine you have little love for the High King," Suniel said, looking up from where he sat wrapping a bandage around a wound on his arm.</p><p> </p><p>"Slight understatement." Shro'kar snorted. "The High King wiped out my Tribe for trying to give him tactical advice on the inadvisability of a three-front war. He can have his Iron Ring thugs, march <em>them</em> off into the Cracks or the Mist Tops to prove his dominance."</p><p> </p><p>Harold exchanged glances with Suniel and Kezzek. Kezzek growled in thought as Harold walked over to whisper in his ear. "Sounds like this might be a good one to leave in charge here. If he agrees to halt the attacks on Northmand's mining operations and villages, we agree to leave him in charge..."</p><p> </p><p>Kezzek turned to Grok'nar. "Is he chieftain by law?"</p><p> </p><p>Grok'nar gave a lopsided grin. "The old chieftain is dead. Shro'kar here was the first to make claim, so he's chieftain unless someone else can kill him and make a new claim."</p><p> </p><p>Kezzek nodded and turned to Harold. "It seems legal by the local customs." He walked over to Neergrog's body, picked up the old chieftain's axe, and tossed it to Shro'kar. The mercenary caught it deftly and quirked an eyebrow at Kezzek.</p><p> </p><p>"Chief Shro'kar, I understand your people have been illegally raiding human settlements lately. With your cooperation, might I suggest the following for restitution..."</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Suniel waved to Harold again, finally catching the archer's eye. Harold waited for everyone else to catch up.</p><p> </p><p>"We need to stop," Suniel said. "Our escorts aren't taking the heat very well and, to be honest, I'm not either."</p><p> </p><p>Harold looked at the half-dozen hobgoblins Shro'kar had sent to escort them out of hobgoblin lands as a show of good faith. Their honor guard were sagging in their saddles, looking on the verge of collapse. Grok'nar and the Greywarden rode up to them, Kezzek polishing his Greywarden gauntlet.</p><p> </p><p>"Why we stopping?" Kezzek said.</p><p> </p><p>Harold nodded to the hobgoblins. "I think we might need to travel at night. Otherwise we might end up carrying our escorts home."</p><p> </p><p>Kezzek glanced at them and shrugged. "Works for me. Would probably help their horses too if ours took the restitution money now instead of at the border. Their mounts are much smaller breeds."</p><p> </p><p>"I still don't see why we didn't just take everything. They probably got it all from raids on Northmand anyway," Harold said, glancing at the hobgoblin's bulging saddlebags.</p><p> </p><p>"We don't need to go over that <em>again</em>," Suniel said. "It took us hours to get it all sorted out in the first place. Let's just rest here until tonight and head onwards tonight."</p><p> </p><p>"Well..." Harold began, but Kezzek dismounted and motioned for the hobgoblins to do likewise. They looked up wearily, Grok'nar explained to them, and they almost fell off their horses in their haste to find the nearest shade.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Harold had chafed at the slow pace they were forced to take with their escorts along and was glad to be back in Northmand territory. The mission had gone off nearly without a hitch and the ambassador would be pleased.</p><p> </p><p><em>We need Northmand, anything we can do to sway them to our side,</em> he thought. <em>Any ally against the Ashen Tower.</em></p><p> </p><p>His mind fell to rehearsing how to best present this, to maximize the Crystal Tower's accomplishments on this journey in the telling of it.</p><p> </p><p>He was lost in thought when Kezzek rode up to him, staring skywards. "Any idea what that is?"</p><p> </p><p>Harold's eyes shot to the sky, scanning the area in the clear blue where Kezzek pointed. A moment later he saw it, still a black spec, but closing quickly. He groaned. "Why now?"</p><p> </p><p>Suniel joined them, hand shielding his eyes against the sun. "Maybe if we talk to it this time, we can figure out what it is and why it wants Ming's amulet," the elf said, with a pointed glance in Harold's direction.</p><p> </p><p>Harold sighed and reined in his horse. "All right, question it all you want. Nothing useful will come of it, I'd almost wager on it."</p><p> </p><p>"Well, if you destroy this one too, we'll never know, will we?" Suniel said, waving to the thing and riding forward a bit as the Gem Eye descended. Grok'nar and Kezzek stayed back a ways with Harold.</p><p> </p><p>"At least I'll never get bored traveling with you," Grok'nar said, squinting at the Gem Eye. "No shortage of strange and interesting things seem to seek you out."</p><p> </p><p>Harold grunted.</p><p> </p><p>The Gem Eye stopped ten feet away from Suniel and studied him for a long moment as they did the same.</p><p> </p><p>Finally, it 'spoke' in a tinny-voice nearly identical to the last one's. "Sherguz werkal?"</p><p> </p><p>The half-orc and the hobgoblin glanced at Harold. He rolled his eyes and said, "Now we get to start all over. Told you so."</p><p> </p><p>Suniel raised his hand in a sign of peace. "Hail," he said in Common. "If you will speak with me, I have questions..."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iron Sky, post: 4381470, member: 60965"] Session 7, Part 3 Neergrog snarled at Shro'kar and hefted his greataxe menacingly. "You must be stupid if you think I'll believe it was only two humans that destroyed the raft camp. Either that or you think I'm stupid. Neither is a very healthy way for you to be," Neergrog said. Shro'kar was unfazed. "I didn't say there were only two, just that only two survived. We dug up the bodies of two others - a dwarf and a human woman - but didn't find any others. And if you were really going to try to do something 'unhealthy' to me, you wouldn't be paying me so much." There was some noise from the passageway leading to the outpost's entrance and Neergrog glared in that direction at the disturbance. His eyes bulged. "You! I thought you were dead!" Grok'nar stood with a chained figure in tow at the junction where the entrance passageway intercepted the passageways leading east to the barracks, north to Neergrog's audience chamber, and west to the rest of the outpost. "I brought a mighty gift to appease you, great Neergrog. I only hope that I might buy your mercy and appease you with a gift." Neergrog was on his feet, already seeing red. He forced himself to calm slightly and looked over Grok'nar's prisoner. "He doesn't look like anything to me. Explain quickly and well or I'll make sure you die this time." Grok'nor bowed - the hilt of a greatsword of human make jutting from his shoulder - and gestured to the human who stood, chin thrust out proudly, cooly appraising Neergrog. "This is the one that destroyed the raft camp." "What?" Neergrog shouted, hefting his axe. "This one? This one alone?" "He's lying - no lone human could do such a thing," Firon the Advisor said, walking closer to Neergrog's throne. Shro'kar and Dalak moved to flank Neergrog, readying their own weapons. Grok'nar shrugged. "There were others - two died there and I dealt with the other this morning before I came here." Hearing the numbers Shro'kar had just told him from another mouth cemented it for him and his vision tunneled on the arrogant human. He let out a roar and charged. Suddenly, the human's chains were free, a greatsword in his hands. A split-second later two other figures suddenly appeared as well: an elf, already chanting and gesturing towards Neergrog and his entourage, and a huge half-orc with a wicked looking double-blade, stepping up next to Grok'nar and the human. A bead of fire whizzed past Neergrog's head as he charged and a detonation of heat and flame washed over him from behind. He stumbled briefly, but the pain was washed away in a red wall of rage as he clashed with Grok'nar and his prisoner, Shro'kar and Dalak close behind him. They slammed into the enemy and Neergrog bellowed for reinforcements. He brought his knee into Grok'nar's chest and shoved him back, distantly felt a slash tear into his shoulder, turned, and swept the human's feet out from under him. The human rolled away before Neergrog could follow up, leaping to his feet and turning to face the reinforcements that closed on the infiltrators from all sides. The elf chanted something else and the barracks tunnel was suddenly enveloped in a chill white cloud, radiating cold so strongly Neergrog could feel it from thirty feet away. Dalak went down to the blades of the half-orc - a Greywarden some distant, logical part of his mind realized - while the human turned to slaughter the hobgoblins that stumbled, frostbitten and shivering uncontrollably, out of the white fog. Grok'nar planted a iron-shod boot in Neergrog's chest and sent him stumbling back. Neergrog countered with a blow that split Grok'nar's shield in half, crunched into his arm, and slammed him into the wall, his sword flying from his hand. Neergrog roared triumphantly and lunged forward to finish the traitor off and was jerked to a halt. He looked down, confused, and saw that Grok'nar had somehow gotten ahold of Dalak's sword. A foot of it was buried in Neergrog's chest. He roared again and swung his axe at Grok'nar's head, but the traitor sidestepped it almost casually and slid the blade in to the hilt, staring pitilessly into Neergrog's eyes as he did so. Then Grok'nar shoved him away and he staggered back. Neergrog glanced down at the blade in his chest, snarled at the now unarmed and unmoving Grok'nar, and raised his axe to take the traitor with him. Something slammed into Neergrog from the side and sent him sprawling. He looked up in time to see the human step over him, grim-eyed, sword and armor splattered with blood, his eyes pale and pitiless as Grok'nar's. *** Neergrog's remaining bodyguard wisely dropped his sword the moment Neergrog was dead, raising his hands and backing away from Kezzek. Kezzek growled, kicked the hobgoblin's sword away, glanced around. The remaining hobgoblins followed suit, dropping weapons and quickly distancing themselves. "Who is in charge here now?" Kezzek said, wandering towards the blackened and smoldering audience chamber. The bodyguard pointed towards a charred form lying beside the throne. "Firon gave the orders when Neergrog was away. Looks like he's not up for much now, so I suppose I'm the chieftain," he said in rough Common. Grok'nar walked over to the self-proclaimed chieftain and looked him over. "You're not from here, I don't recognize you." "Shro'kar, mercenary from the Furnace Tribe." "Furnace Tribe? I thought the High King wiped them out for refusing to go to war with the Mountain Clans," Grok'nar said. "Wiped out is an exaggeration, but only just. Those of us who weren't captured and used as orc-fodder scattered. This seemed as good a place as any." He pointed at Neergrog's body. "He was a paranoid butcher with delusions of power, but he paid well and wasn't about to risk himself - and thus myself - in an actual attack on Northmand." "I imagine you have little love for the High King," Suniel said, looking up from where he sat wrapping a bandage around a wound on his arm. "Slight understatement." Shro'kar snorted. "The High King wiped out my Tribe for trying to give him tactical advice on the inadvisability of a three-front war. He can have his Iron Ring thugs, march [I]them[/I] off into the Cracks or the Mist Tops to prove his dominance." Harold exchanged glances with Suniel and Kezzek. Kezzek growled in thought as Harold walked over to whisper in his ear. "Sounds like this might be a good one to leave in charge here. If he agrees to halt the attacks on Northmand's mining operations and villages, we agree to leave him in charge..." Kezzek turned to Grok'nar. "Is he chieftain by law?" Grok'nar gave a lopsided grin. "The old chieftain is dead. Shro'kar here was the first to make claim, so he's chieftain unless someone else can kill him and make a new claim." Kezzek nodded and turned to Harold. "It seems legal by the local customs." He walked over to Neergrog's body, picked up the old chieftain's axe, and tossed it to Shro'kar. The mercenary caught it deftly and quirked an eyebrow at Kezzek. "Chief Shro'kar, I understand your people have been illegally raiding human settlements lately. With your cooperation, might I suggest the following for restitution..." *** Suniel waved to Harold again, finally catching the archer's eye. Harold waited for everyone else to catch up. "We need to stop," Suniel said. "Our escorts aren't taking the heat very well and, to be honest, I'm not either." Harold looked at the half-dozen hobgoblins Shro'kar had sent to escort them out of hobgoblin lands as a show of good faith. Their honor guard were sagging in their saddles, looking on the verge of collapse. Grok'nar and the Greywarden rode up to them, Kezzek polishing his Greywarden gauntlet. "Why we stopping?" Kezzek said. Harold nodded to the hobgoblins. "I think we might need to travel at night. Otherwise we might end up carrying our escorts home." Kezzek glanced at them and shrugged. "Works for me. Would probably help their horses too if ours took the restitution money now instead of at the border. Their mounts are much smaller breeds." "I still don't see why we didn't just take everything. They probably got it all from raids on Northmand anyway," Harold said, glancing at the hobgoblin's bulging saddlebags. "We don't need to go over that [I]again[/I]," Suniel said. "It took us hours to get it all sorted out in the first place. Let's just rest here until tonight and head onwards tonight." "Well..." Harold began, but Kezzek dismounted and motioned for the hobgoblins to do likewise. They looked up wearily, Grok'nar explained to them, and they almost fell off their horses in their haste to find the nearest shade. *** Harold had chafed at the slow pace they were forced to take with their escorts along and was glad to be back in Northmand territory. The mission had gone off nearly without a hitch and the ambassador would be pleased. [I]We need Northmand, anything we can do to sway them to our side,[/I] he thought. [I]Any ally against the Ashen Tower.[/I] His mind fell to rehearsing how to best present this, to maximize the Crystal Tower's accomplishments on this journey in the telling of it. He was lost in thought when Kezzek rode up to him, staring skywards. "Any idea what that is?" Harold's eyes shot to the sky, scanning the area in the clear blue where Kezzek pointed. A moment later he saw it, still a black spec, but closing quickly. He groaned. "Why now?" Suniel joined them, hand shielding his eyes against the sun. "Maybe if we talk to it this time, we can figure out what it is and why it wants Ming's amulet," the elf said, with a pointed glance in Harold's direction. Harold sighed and reined in his horse. "All right, question it all you want. Nothing useful will come of it, I'd almost wager on it." "Well, if you destroy this one too, we'll never know, will we?" Suniel said, waving to the thing and riding forward a bit as the Gem Eye descended. Grok'nar and Kezzek stayed back a ways with Harold. "At least I'll never get bored traveling with you," Grok'nar said, squinting at the Gem Eye. "No shortage of strange and interesting things seem to seek you out." Harold grunted. The Gem Eye stopped ten feet away from Suniel and studied him for a long moment as they did the same. Finally, it 'spoke' in a tinny-voice nearly identical to the last one's. "Sherguz werkal?" The half-orc and the hobgoblin glanced at Harold. He rolled his eyes and said, "Now we get to start all over. Told you so." Suniel raised his hand in a sign of peace. "Hail," he said in Common. "If you will speak with me, I have questions..." [/QUOTE]
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