The Scarab

[Manzanita]

Casandra

"It does seem like a sacrifice. Perhaps the Kobolts worship some huge lizard. In any case, it seems to have sated its appetite at least temporarily. If we can get this over with today, it may not need to worry us. Let's see what the dwarf has to say, then lets head for the pyramid."

 

[Mytholder]

Once the other dwarf is on board, Khulmbanos relaxes for a moment. He listens to the conversations for a few minutes, then potters around in the hold of the Diana. He's looking for (a) a carcass, barrel of salted pork or some other suitable bait and (b) a convieniently large bottle of poison.

He returns to the deck after searching.

"Going in through the pyramid's probably the most direct route, but also probably fulla traps. I'm guessing the kobolds live in the caves over there...or maybe the kobolds live in one cave, and their lizard god's in the other. Riss, can you tell where those tracks actually go? 'cos going in the other direction seems like a plan."

 

[Badger]

As his world faded to black, Delg was confident he was headed to the fertile valleys of the afterlife, and tried to take solice in that fact. Slowly, he allowed his body stop fighting to hold onto the slight grip he had on his old life and began to relax and reach out into the soft wind that was cooling his heat ravaged soul.

He felt a cooling touch against his chest and then slowly pain began to return from his body. However, the soothing touch was quickly drowned out by his body reminding him of his attack at the hands of the horde, and of his ineffectiveness to stop them from overpowering him.

Opening his eyes slowly, Delg saw the face of a beautiful human maiden and wondered if perhaps he had died after all. Her face was uncovered, an act unheard of in Kezz, and she wore clothes of a make he had never seen before.

An elf approached him, also uncovered, and spoke to him while offering him a skin of some kind. Trying to follow the elf's speak was confusing, but the offer was water understood in the end.

"Aye, and I be thankin' ye fer this drink sir.", Delg answered as best he could through his raw throat.

Taking a drink, but being careful on drinking too much at one time, Delg tried to hand the skin back only to realize the elf was now talking to someone else about a person named Jake.

More confused than he had ever felt, Delg looked to see those around him, and took a comfort that their was a forge heart among their numbers.

Mind numb, Delg allowed himself to be guided to a ship in the middle of the desert. His mind could not comprehend what such a vessel was doing here, but for the moment, he contented himself with just being alive.

Looking over to the female who was there when he opened his eyes, Delg clasped his hands together and knelt slightly in greetings.

"I'm not t' be knownin' ye name, but if'n ye were the one t' bring me back from the valley's grasp, I'm t' be owin' ye me life. Me name is Delg, and I be at ye service."

 

[Jarval]

Osric picks up one end of the snapped rope, and glances at the tracks.

"The kobolds worshiping some big lizard holds water as an idea, but maybe something else happened? Could the creature that made those track have been tied to the statue, and escaped by braking the ropes?"

He kicks at one of the bones lying around the statue. "Although all the skulls point towards something having been snacking on the locals..."

Once the dwarf has been taken aboard the Diana, Osric heads back to the ship. He watches Delg with interest, but lets Casandra handle the questioning of the newcomer.

 

[Festy_Dog]

"Riss, can you tell where those tracks actually go?"

Riss gives a quick nod and goes back to ascertain the direction the creature was headed, not willing to go too far from the ship though. He also examines the remains lying about. Are they whole skeletons or scattered pieces? If they are whole what does the position and general locations of the bodies suggest?

"So Delg seems to be alright I'll take it?" he calls back to noone in particular.

Riss starts to stroke the tuft of wiry fur on his chin as he starts estimating what happened the night previous.

 

[UniversalMonster]

Khulmbanos: Although there is no carcass or obvious meaty-bait snack to be found on board the ship, there have been herd animals sighted around the desert.

The ship doesn't have a huge bottle of poison, but it does have certain ingredients, and there are certain ingredients available in the wild. Someone with wilderness lore and someone else with alchemy might be able to do something.

Riss: The giant lizard tracks are easily visible in the dusty area around you, now that you recognize them. It seems to have come from the South and gone back south, into the desert, where its prints are lost in the sand. I can run a special check if anyone wants to track it, but the difficulty will be high.

Delg is ok, but needs either healing or bed-rest.

Skeletal evidence: it is hard to say; many of the bones show gnaw marks made by comparitively small teeth. Many of the bones show evidence of butchering (hack-marks, as if made by a knife). Many of the bones are really old. There is blood on the statue, including dried blood, in several places. Casandra picks up a grisly human femur which has recently been snapped in half with incredible force. No kobold could have done that.

------------------OOC------------------
Again, this is one of those junctures where everyone should agree on some course of action... I can answer any questions you like!
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[Old Fezziwig]

Ashan nods at Riss, "He seems to be better. Hell, he's got my waterskin, so he better be." Ashan laughs — an odd, bitter, tired laugh. "Anyhow, what do you think? Once we get that dwarf settled up, maybe we should make a try for the dingus. I can't think that we'll want to stay around too long with that thing around." Ashan points at the tracks.

 

[Festy_Dog]

Riss explains his findings to his comrades and the newcomer.

"These sacrifices have been going for a very long time. The mixture of remains down there makes it hard to determine what has happened when, you'd need a foresic and an archaeological team to separate everything and figure it out exactly. The beast on the other hand came in from the desert and left the same way. Though the tracks are enormous the shifting sands would make it incredibly difficult to follow now," he says, "I suggest we go in through the entrance just there. It may take some time before we find another entrance, if we find one at all. Wandering the tunnels in the rockface might take a while as well. Also, if we wanted to shut down the cult ourselves to make life easier for those who live nearby I'd suggest trying to kill the big critter, that way the cult would break apart. Having their god defeated kinda ruins their religion I'd assume."

 

[Mytholder]

Khulmbanos: Although there is no carcass or obvious meaty-bait snack to be found on board the ship...
The ship doesn't have a huge bottle of poison...

Bah, who packed this ship anyway?

Originally posted by Feisty_dog
"Also, if we wanted to shut down the cult ourselves to make life easier for those who live nearby I'd suggest trying to kill the big critter, that way the cult would break apart. Having their god defeated kinda ruins their religion I'd assume." said Riss

"Y'know, let's not try any plans that involve us going up against anything big with lots of teeth. Small and lots of teeth, or big and plant-eatin', fine, but otherwise...

"Anyway, I'd say we either sneak in through the pyramid, or else head off, gather a load of firewood, smoke the kobolds out and then skewer 'em from the air."

Khulmbanos glances around. "Of course, finding that much firewood in a desert might be tricky."

 

[Arknath]

Hremelan has been quiet all this time. His paranoia has gotten the best of him and now with all this talk of big lizards he has yet to close the slack jaw which now hangs loosely from his mouth.

"Ye mean t' say that there 's somethin' bigger out there?" He looks off into the desert and squints, as if he expected the large reptile to crest the horizon before his very eyes.

"Ef tha's the case, we'd be'er make a decision and quick. I don' like bein' out in the open where anythin' can see us."

He looks to his shoulder for Adly, but notices that the sparrowhawk has gone back into his place in the backpack.