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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 3502216" data-attributes="member: 1210">Kain leads the party through the jungle, along the trail. The air is thick and humid, pregnant with moisture. The songs of hundreds of brightly-colored birds fill the air. Barouk notes that Kain has removed the armband that he wore, much like the rest of Bors’ men- an armband with the symbol of a longsword. Insurgents, the dwarf muses.Eventually the party reaches the Alathion Canal and the trade road that parallels it. They turn to follow it to the right, heading away from the city of Alathion from which they came. Wagons and walking farmers head both directions on the road; traffic is fairly heavy.“How far do we have to go?” Kifla asks.“It’s about a day’s journey from where we met,” Kain replies. “We follow the road until we get to the split tree. Be patient. We’ll be there soon enough.” The group walks along. They pass a dwarf with a plodding beetle bearing many saddlebags stuffed with goods; yet more are netted to its back. A trio of elves walks silently by in the other direction. A family of peasants, chattering about the market. A messenger rides a kocho, a large green flightless foul-tempered carnivorous riding bird. He moves by at a gallop. The party draws near a wagon driven by a half-elf in green, with eyes of dark jade to match his garb. He glances over at Allyendra. He stares at her, his face changing into a look of surprise. “Excuse me,” he calls.Ally looks at him. “Yes?”“What’s your name?”She answers, “Allyendra. Ally, they call me.”“You... look familiar.”Ally blinks. “I don’t recognize you.” She shrugs.He stares at her intently for a moment. Slowly, he says, “Be careful, Allyendra. Here, I have something for you.” From his belt, he draws a dagger and hands it to her.“Thank you?” she says, quite puzzled.“Be careful,” he repeats. “This may help you with a foe you might otherwise not be able to hit.”“Thank you.” She sounds more sure this time.The half-elf twitches the reins, and his garen draw his wagon away. “Did you know that guy?” Kain asks.“I don’t think so,” Ally shrugs.“Weird.”Barouk looks the dagger over. “I think it’s adamantine,” he says. “Hey, look!” Kifla gestures ahead of them. “The split tree!”Indeed. Another quarter mile sees them to the tree. It is more forked than split, and at it, Kain leads our heroes into the jungle. It begins to rain as Kain and Ally hack a trail through the thick vegetation. “Damn this rain,” Barouk growls. The party breaks into a clearing, where they encounter a pair of red colored beetles that Ally charges and slays immediately.*“Well, I didn’t even break a sweat on that one,” Barouk observes.On the party goes. Another hour, and they stumble upon some of the promised bandits. Through some brush, our heroes spy a figure (they can’t discern much). At the same moment, they hear a voice cry out, “Hey, there’s someone here!”Battle! The bandits and our heroes move around the brush to engage in combat. Kifla sleeps two of them, but there are still four more! Ally charges in. She slashes one of the enemies- who turn out to be mostly human- and wounds him. He tries to move back, but Ally decapitates him as he tries to fall back. Another of the enemies attacks her, but he fumbles and drops his sword! A most comical look of dismay comes over his face. The third of the bandits hurls a throwing axe at Ally, hitting her in the shoulder. She growls as it wounds her. Behind the first three bandits, the fourth begins waking up yet more of them. “This is trouble,” Barouk says. Kain moves in, thrusting with his shortsword, but he misses. His enemy attacks and then retreats, and Kain makes another attempt at landing a stab, but again he misses. Still, he harries his foe, attempting to get into flanking and land a blow. Ally is a whirlwind, slaying bandits left and right. Barouk begins throwing punches as well, but he calls out, “Remember, keep one of them alive!”Things are going pretty well, even as the new bandits are getting up, until the really big half-orc goes into a rage. “RAAAGHHH!!!!!” he roars, and charges Ally! His bastard sword whirls in- and hacks into her pelvis, shattering it and killing her instantly.The half-orc howls and whirls to face the rest of the party.Next Time: Holy crap! Can our heroes get their bandit- or will their bandit get our heroes?*She killed one, cleaved and killed the other, all on the first full round of combat.</blockquote>

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