02/18/2013
Cast of Characters
Aziza Din – 18 year old Human
Fighter, Preserver, Psychometabolic
Cyrus – 26 year old Human Water
Cleric/Psychoporter
Kaza – 30 year old Human Earth
Cleric/Psychokinetic
Renault (Ren) – 16 year old Mul
Psychometabolic
Roan – 20 year old Human Air
Cleric/Telepath
Yaotl – 25 year old Human Fire
Cleric/Psychokinetic
The group began by discussing how the
party got together. He is a short version, until they write up the
full length version. Knowing my players, that may never happen.
They decided that Yaotl, who is
originally from Draj, was causing trouble in Balic. A small group of
templars were casing him. Cyrus, who is a native of Balic, saw him
and sneaked him out of the city.
They traveled together up the Legion
Road, and then the Trade Road, until the came to South Ledopolus.
Here, they thought it wise to cross on a silt skimmer to North
Ledopolus to throw off any pursuit. In North Ledopolus, they came
upon Kaza, who is a native of that village. Their cunning plan to hop
over to North Ledopolus wasn't as cunning as they thought and
discovered Balican templars waiting for them. With Kaza's help, they
were able to escape into the Salt Flats.
Meanwhile, Aziza, who is a native of a
wandering tribe, is a slave in the fields around Nibenay. Roan, who
is a native of Nibenay, sees her being abused by a taskmaster. Roan
slays the task master and flees with Aziza into the Salt Flats. The
groups run into each other just north of the Mekillot Mountains. They
decide to travel together, as they are both on the run. The head
east.
A few nights later, Cyrus falls asleep
during his nightly watch and the group is jumped by gith. They are
captured and hauled toward the Black Spine Mountains, were they are
to become dinner, or possibly sold into slavery.
Pirro and his son, Ren, attack the
small group of gith and free the others. Pirro feels it is quite
auspicious to have a cleric of each type and invites them back to his
reclusive home in the Black Spine Mountain range. There, he begins
teaching them the way.
The story begins one year later.
190th King's Age, Dragon's
Agitation, High Sun, Dominary, Day 3
Yaotl wakes up and, as always,wants to
spar with Ren. Ren, as always agrees. They have been sparing everyone
morning for nearly six months and Ren always gets the best of him.
Yaotl never gives up and continues to challenge Ren day after day.
Kaza leans his shield against Cyrus,
who never gets up before breakfast, and lounges on it. Cyrus doesn't
notice. Aziza sits next to him. Roan stands nearby.
Yaotl throws himself at Ren. Ren,
however, strikes first. Ren's fists slam into Yaotl. One in his ribs
and one on his cheek. The punches hurt Yaotl pretty bad and he spits
a small trickle of blood into the dirt. Yaotl does not give up, he
strikes back at Ren and hits him in his well muscled chest. Ren
barely notices.
Ren strikes again, missing one punch,
but landing the other in Yaotl's stomach. Yaotl fights the desire to
double over and rushes behind the Mul. A quick strike to the back of
Ren's head, sends the Mul toppling to the ground, unconscious.
Kaza, Aziza, and Roan all drop their
jaws in astonishment.
Kaza recovered first and brings Ren
around. The Mul rubs the back of his head. Kaza makes his way to
Yaotl and exhales on his wounds, magically healing them.
“Cheap shot.” Aziza calls out.
“Cheap shot, or not. He defeated me.
You cannot always fight fair, when fighting for your life. Well done
Yaotl.” Ren responds.
“Good fight.” Yaotl replies.
Yaotl gathers some peppers and beans
from the groups small garden. He smashes the beans into paste and
rolls them into a flat bread. He starts a small fire and grills the
peppers. He rolls the peppers in the bean bread and passes them
around to his hungry companions.
Ren and Pirro, their Dwarven psionic
master, sit in the sun. Using their psionic abilities, they gather
nutrition from the sun.
Cyrus creates a gallon of water for
himself, then sets out to find more. Everyone follows suit. Ren finds
a small trickle of water and hurriedly begins to drink. He
immediately spits it out, when he realizes that it is not drinkable
water. He knows the trickle was made by an urinating animal somewhere
above him. He decides not to tell the others of his misfortune.
Cyrus, Roan, Kaza, and Aziza fail to
find any water at all. Yaotl discovers a dirty, but drinkable, puddle
and drinks what he can, then puts the rest in his water skin.
Pirro passes out a water ration when
they return.
“My students.” Pirro begins,
“There is a small village south of here that I often trade with. I
have been told that they are having difficulties with gith. I would
like you to go assist them. You have all been doing well in your
studies and now I believe it is time to test yourselves.”
The group gathers their things and
sets off immediately.
While traveling, Yaotl notices Ren
staring at Aziza.
“Would you like to mate with her?”
Yaotl bluntly asks.
Ren blushes and turns away.
Aziza turns toward Yaotl and growls,
“I don't see how it's any of your business!”
Yaotl thinks for a moment. “I
suppose it is not.”
They walk in silence for awhile
afterward. Ren leads them through the rocky badlands, avoiding
dangerous plants and pitfalls. Soon high sun approaches and Ren finds
them a shaded overhang to wait out the hottest part of the Athasian
day.
“Thank the mighty earth for
providing us shelter!” Kaza proclaims.
Cyrus creates a gallon of water for
Roan and Kaza to share. He then lays down to take a brief nap while
they wait.
As high sun passes, Ren leaves the
group to find some water. He finds some drinkable water, with only a
little bit of sand in it, and brings it back for he and Aziza to
share.
They walk for a few more hours. A few
hours before sunset, they find the small village. It is obvious that
the village had seen better days. Most of the buildings were heavily
damaged and few people roamed the square.
Yaotl walks into the village. A man,
holding a spear jogs up to him.
“Who are you?” He asks.
Yaotl holds his hands to his side,
showing him that he is not holding a weapon. “We are followers of
Pirro. He has sent us here to help with your gith problem.”
“We can use your help.” He admits.
“They have taken a good deal of our food and carried off several of
our people.”
“We will help. I am Yaotl.”
The man smiles, “I am Ishak and I
appreciate any help you can give us.”
“I noticed a small stone wall around
the village, but it is in poor shape.” Kaza began, speaking to
Yaotl. “I think we can expand it.”
“Gith are known to be good jumpers.”
Ren interjects.
“We have to do something.” Kaza
replies.
Ren shrugs in agreement and they begin
gathering stones from the nearby mouth of a canyon.
“I'll keep watch for the gith.”
Cyrus declares, as he sits down in the shade.
As the word spreads, the villagers
come out of their homes to help. A small kank drawn cart allows the
group to carry more stone and extra pairs of hands speed up the work
significantly. The sun sets two hours into their work. They continue
to work for another hour, building up the wall where the gith attack
most often.
“Gith!” A villagers voice shouts
out. “They're coming!”
The villagers scramble, grabbing the
few weapons they have and falling back to protect their loved ones.
Yaotl, Roan, Aziza, Kaza, and even Cyrus scrambled behind the small
wall they had constructed. Ren was still at the mouth of the canyon,
collecting rocks. He heard the cry and began running back to the
village.
Cyrus and Roan use their longbows to
fire arrows at the group of gith. The villagers gasp as Aziza draws
magical energy and fires a magic missile into the gith as well. None
of the gith fall to their initial attacks. Kaza uses the way and
begins drawing energy for static discharge.
As the draw closer, Cyrus and Roan
continue to fire arrows into them. Roans kills one and Cyrus causes a
vicious wound in a gith's arm, forcing him to drop his wooden spear.
The gith leap over the short wall and
engage the group, using wooden spears. They attack clumsily, but
score shallow cuts on the defenders. Most of the defenders shrug off
the minor cuts, but Roan is stabbed in his right arm and drops his
bow. Ren arrives, but hesitates as he fails to activate psionic
accelerate.
Kaza then slams a gith with his static
discharge and burn it badly on it's chest and left arm. Cyrus
activates his psionic ability of blink. Aziza strikes a gith with her
singing stick in the shoulder. Roan retreats over the short wall and
heals himself. Yaotl attacks with his scimitar and slashes a gith
across it's thigh. Again, Ren hesitates. He fails again to activate
psionic accelerate.
The gith attack again, scoring minor
hits on most of the defenders. Yaotl takes two deep cuts on his back
and left shoulder. Aziza now has another gith to deal with, as the
one attacking Roan moves to her instead.
Cyrus blinks a safe distance away and
fires an arrow, striking a gith in the stomach. Aziza strikes a gith
with her singing stick again, this time on it's chest. Kaza slams his
mace into the face of the gith he shocked and kills it. Roan moves
forward and heals Yaotl, who was bleeding badly. With renewed
strength, Yaotl slashes a gith across it's stomach. It's entrails
spill out onto his sandals.
The gith continue their attack,
scoring another round of minor hits. The group is slowly being worn
down. The fight is beginning to look poorly for the defenders.
Ren finally succeeds in activating
psionic accelerate.
Aziza smashes in the head of a gith
with her singing stick. Ren rushes forward and leaps over the short
wall. He smashes into an injured gith, whom he kills. He quickly
lashes out and strikes a gith with three punches, killing it. Then,
he head butts another and wounds it. Kara turns and strikes the same
gith, as it stumbles back, trying to clear it's head. His mace
smashes into it's knee and shatters it. Cyrus attempts to fire his
bow at one of the gith, but his bow string hadn't been maintained
properly, and it breaks. Roan holds back and catches his breath. All
the spell casting he had done was wearing him out badly. Yaotl
slashes his scimitar into another gith and wounds it's arm badly.
The gith saw the tide of the battle
turning and begin to flee into the nearby mountains. The gith with
the shattered knee tries to follow, but it is quickly surrounded.
Aziza knocks it out, with a strike from her tortoise blade shell.
They tie him up, just in case.
They loot the fallen gith and find
twenty six ceramic pieces and eight wooden spears. They decide to
give them to the village.
Kaza gives the ceramic and spears to
Ishak. “This is to help defend your village and pay for what they
took.”
Confused, Ishak nodded his thanks.
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