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Message: <blockquote data-quote="havenstone" data-source="post: 4331510" data-attributes="member: 61094">The Coming HordeONTAYA, PUSHING DOWN her rising berserker rage, barks out, “No one go after him! Once he has cover, he could easily take us out one or two at a time.” The party members gather, stunned, in Kemeras’ cottage to be healed by Meeshak and Ontaya. They search the bodies of the cloaked archers, but find no further clues as to their origin. Meeshak is sure that he heard of Scarth and the Swordsmarks during his time as an acolyte in Velnar... but his pathologically poor memory fails to bring up the details. Ontaya wraps Kemeras’ body in his threadbare bedclothes and the party members hurriedly dig a grave for him, while Kyla and Ash keep nervous watch in case Shect returns. Then the small group hurries south again, shaken but determined to finish their job of warning outliers about the coming Harak incursion.  The trade hall at the foot of the mountain slope is empty. Relations with the barbarians have been strained for several months, and none have been bringing furs or animals to trade. The party turns east along the track that leads to Rim Hall, a small underground colony of dwarrow. Darren has come here many times before with Doggerel, and is fond of the dwarrow for their ingenious devices. Today, however, all the party’s banging at the carved wooden gates does not elicit an answer. Darren picks the lock, an easy trick with his tinker’s tools. Nina stoops to enter the five-foot high cavern, and freezes. There is the faint smell of rot in the air, and old blood. Venturing a short distance into the cave, he finds the bodies of two dwarrow, who have been dead for days if not weeks. Even in the half-light, it is clear that they were killed with gratuitous cruelty -- and by attackers from below. Nina beckons two of his friends after him, and cautiously calls, “Is anyone there?” When the call is met with silence, they quickly depart Rim Hall. Whatever the source of the attack, the dwarrow colony would appear to have no survivors. THE DEATH OF Kemeras and the gruesome mystery in the dwarrow caves leave the party’s mood grim. They return north, passing through the farms by the river to reach the house of Kalitha the bard. As they come close, Kyla hears her foster mother singing -- a song she knows well from her childhood, with the power to pacify. “Mother -- are you safe?” she calls out in sudden alarm. “Kyla!” comes the reply. “Leave your weapons outside the house. We’re all fine in here.” Inside Kalitha and Kyla’s home, the party is amazed to find three haggard-looking Haraks sitting calmly, their bodies painted for war but their axes laid aside. Kyla tries to explain the threat, and the half-Arawai bard nods. “They’ve told me. These are scouts. There are a thousand more warriors coming -- and yes, they intend to wipe out the Five Villages, beginning here. By this evening, we’ll be surrounded.” “Why?” Carwyn demands shakily. Kalitha questions the hill men in the earthy, glottal Harak dialect. “They say they are fleeing another enemy -- the ‘Uluk’ -- who are giants, half-man, half-beast. The Uluk are sweeping through the highlands of Harakra, and the Haraks fear that if they do not unite to break the strength of the Senalline headhunters, they will be caught between two mortal enemies. So they will destroy the town and the guild and take over these valleys, far from the Uluk.” No one has heard of the Uluk before, and the Haraks are unable to usefully clarify their description. “Can’t we do anything to change their mind?” Ash implores. “Surely there has to be some way for us to live together in peace -- even to fight these Uluk together.” “The Haraks and you Senallines have been killing each other in these hills for a long time,” Kalitha says starkly. “I don’t think they’ll be much inclined to share now. I’ll go back with these scouts and try to convince the Haraks to change their plan. But you'd best go prepare the town to defend itself.”</blockquote>

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