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Message: <blockquote data-quote="megamania" data-source="post: 7606772" data-attributes="member: 9255">DARKSUN: THE ELEMENTS OF EVILSEGMENT 003“GITH AMBUSHERS & HOUSE TSALAXA”05/07/19SEASON: FRIEND’S VENGEANCE  YEAR 24MONTH: NOBLEDAY: 15KA: 190Moving on, the Thri-kreen spots movement ahead of them.  Gith.These hunched over gaunt creatures wield thick obsidian heavy spears that are equal parts spear and club.  There are seven of them and they have their backs to them.  Poe and Olan are beginning to back-up and away from them when Choro has a misstep on the rocks and creates a loud crack sound.   Not that it mattered, Drak’Chka was already moving in to attack.  He leaps up onto a large boulder and moves in throwing his javelins.The four of them make short work of the gith.  Looking further ahead, they can see the King’s Road and a caravan.  If they hurry, they can reach the caravan before it passes them.There are four heavy Crodlu, two with riders that are pulling wagons and two that have a few extra bags on their saddles.  The two riders seem nervous as they are searching the boulder fields for trouble.The four of them walk slowly from the rocks and boulders to the edge of the road.  The two riders seem uncomfortable with a half-giant and a thri-kreen coming to them but they slow down and stop anyway.  The crodlu are restless and requires effort to keep them steady.“Have you seen any Gith near here?” commands a bearded man with a thick compound bow and a longsword (metal!) at his side.   “They are raiding again and I fear they have killed most of my riders and their mounts.”“Yes.  We just encountered several of them.  They were watching you from back there.” Choro says while pointing behind him.Koe looks at his house flag.  Black with yellow serpentine eyes….. Draj’s House Tsalaxa.“I am Yaesha Tsalaxa.  I offer you employment.  I have need of new guards to get us and this cargo to Draj.  If you agree, I can pay you well.”Three of the travelers look at each other.  This is what they had hoped for so why are they not jumping at the opportunity?  Koe looks at him.  He has done some caravan work before.  No house can be truly trusted, especially House Shom.  Tsalaxa has some dark rumors….. “Very well.  If you then get us into Draj also.”“Agreed.”No one speaks for the first hour as they ride on.  The caravan is moving slower than Yaesha would prefer.  The half-giant is too big and heavy to ride these already tired crodlus.  Koe also refuses to ride.  Drak has no problem moving ahead of the caravan.  He remains always within fifty feet however.  If the gith are hunting, it is important to stay together.And it was a wise decision on his part as the Thri-kreen spots a Gith ambush.    He calls out the warning and moves towards the gith hiding behind a few boulders.   Over 20 gith are hiding and ambushing the caravan.Yaesha begins to call out orders as silt and dust rise into the air (Obscuring Mist Darksun style).  Koe quickly moves up and defends the caravan leader.  The others move to the edge of the cloud to defend the remaining portions of the caravan.Yaesha is surprised as he witnesses the mul stand his ground then punch, kick and swirl about like a dancer.  The whole time Gith are dropping with broken necks and crushed ribcages.  The Thri-kreen takes down a few with his javelins until he is out of them.    With klic-klak of his mandibles, he beckons the gith on.  Olan throws daggers at anything that moves.  The half-giant animates a spear held by the leading gith whom stops to control his own spear.  This draws the attention of a specific gith.  Several more duplicate gith appear and encircle the half-giant.The battle goes back and forth with no clear winner until the Thri-kreen welcomes his hunter’s rage and attacks.  His four clawed arms tear into gith dropping them in his path.   Yaesha goes for his sword which beckons on a stronger looking gith.  Koe steps between them.The psion is forced to back up as he finds himself without the mental energy to continue his psychic attacks.   He surprises even himself as he downs gith with a single blow from his normal sized staff.  When the second caravan rider tries to run over gith in the way of his mount and wagon, their “wall” of gith breaks apart.  Drak and Koe clean up the gith quickly.  The magic user sees what is happening and calls for a retreat.Only he escapes and that is after the thri-kreen has attacked on illusion (Mirror Image) instead of the real gith.Tired and slightly beaten, the caravan camps a few hours out of Draj.   Draj would have closed their doors before they reached the mud flats so it is better to camp here.With renewed respect for their abilities, Yaesha  offers food, water and bandaging.  Drak turns him down.  The thri-kreen is happily eating gith and giving the bones to Olan to craft new replacement dangers made of bone.The caravan leader learns a little bit about each new member.  Some of this is outright spoken and other bits are deduced by tone and reaction.  Koe has caravan experience.  He doesn’t like House Shom and has mixed feelings about being in a caravan.  Drak is like any kreen.   So long as he hunts and has a click to belong to he is happy.  Choro is a mindbender.  Despite being a half-giant, his talents are psionics but he doesn’t seem to have much for combative abilities.  Olan is a mystery.  He is a new race (Tiefling- NOT a new race) and has a focus on skills.   This is not a bad thing. He also admires the New Race’s crafting ability of bone daggers.From talking to Yaesha Tsalaxa, the group has a sense he is an honest man but capable of hiding the truth.  He is a house leader after all.  Olan really wants to check out the carts but never gets a chance to.Before they know it, they sleep with Drak watching over them and happily- there are no undead this time to interrupt him.</blockquote>

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