Told by TarhounAs we're getting ready to move out, we realize that we need to deal with the idiotic camels. The useless beasts are apparently named Farad and Princess. As I try to mount Farad, (the more friendly of the two, Ha!), the stupid beast tries to kick me. I manage to get on Farad, with Elrika doing something to calm him down. Despite some unhelpful intervention by that busybody Abdul, Elrika manages to load a bunch of supplies onto Princess and we're finally on our way. We head off in a north-westerly direction as the sun begins to rise, and the others begin to seem a bit overheated.
There are cacti and other dry vegetation about. Elrika puts some kink of leaves on her head and Gairten does something that makes him puff up a bit. He says this is air armor and that it will help keep us all cool, he casts it on us as well. As it starts to work my armor starts to come unstrapped and my damn undershirt is riding up. Gairten cancels the spell and casts resist fire instead, the sun doesn't seem as harsh anymore. Valdara has us stop around noon near the ocean and tells us to lunch and rest. She sets up large light colored tents and ties down Farad and Princess. I take the first watch, although I don't see anything except more sand. Gairten and Syf seem to do their karma rituals and Elrika spends some seemingly unrewarding time with the stupid camels trying to get them to like her.
As As we move on, it begins to get colder, and several hours past nightfall we stop. I volunteer for first watch again, I hate being awakened in the middle of a good sleep. Two and a half days of travelling pass uneventfully while Elrika plays with that pet rat of hers, and announces that she's making progress with the abominable beasts.
We pass through several small villages and begin to head due north. If I'm not mistaken, we're heading straight for Rancara. There is a steady flow of people travelling towards the same city. Soon enough we come within viewing range of Rancara and are struck by the brightness of the brass walls, which must reach to a height of about thirty-five feet. The city is octagonal and quite large. A floating castle is, …floating. We approach the guard station and realize that it's going to be a bit of a chore. I engage a dwarven woman in a conversation and tell her that we are delivering a shipment to Faltar the smith. After paying to update my city pass and registering everyone's weapons, getting them passes as well, we were let into the city. Valdara and Syf stayed with the camels, saying that they would meet us on the other side of the city, though we took Princess with us.
There are people everywhere and there is some strange group singing incomprehensible words quite loudly. Many people appear to be dressed completely in black, and we quickly walk past a slave market. Some humans are leading a chain of people towards the slave market and I suggest that we go to Faltar's Forge. Faltar is an old friend of my family's and an excellent smith. When we arrive at his forge, Faltar tells us the story of the river. A long time ago, there was a land called Bakhar where the people were refugees from a place called Creanna. That is three weeks away across a sea, then a dessert, where there is a great river. They say they brought the river with them. The land became wondrously beautiful, magical, like a fairy tale. Faltar expresses doubt about some of this, and there were river people in the river, like lizards or big Geckos that we traded with. Then times became hard and children began to see strange things and go mad. Women began to give birth to daemons, and it began to rain acid. Some of the elders said that we should return to the liferock, but flesh cannot go back into the rock. Then the Therans came and said that they would protect us in exchange for elements. A deal was made, but the Bakharans resisted. They spoke to a dragon in the desert. The dragon fought the Therans but the Therans were able to kill it. The Bakharans thought that Martek would come to save them. They had a king, Pelzamon, they called him a Pharon. When the Therans marched against him, he cursed the land and tore his own heart out. Everything seemed fine, but when the Scourge lifted, the river was gone and the desert was growing.
House Crand is very in studying the desert. Gairten asks Faltar about elementalists in the city and he suggests he look for merchant booths selling fire pots or cold boxes or other things like that. Elrika wanders off muttering something about Jaspree. Faltar agrees to train me in exchange for delivering some goods to Bralizas. Gairten asks me to come with him to meet with some elementalist. When we do, he is gambling, but I convince him to talk with us. Gairten learns a dangerous sounding spell from him called conflagaration and pays him some money for it. Later on, when everyone has met outside the city, I ask them if they would be willing to take a short side trip and travel to Bralizar. They agree after checking with Valdara, and I begin my training the next morning.
We are in a very dark place, it's pitch black and I can't see anything. Then there is a bright red star above us, which changes to green, then blue, then a dull rosy brown, and then more stars fade in. There is a horrible wailing and we see each other standing on a sand dune with a glowing multi-colored flame in the distance. We all suddenly feel as if we're actually there. Elrika takes some sand and puts it in a pouch. There is more wailing and we decide to approach both it and the wailing. We see a man with four figures around him. One is a pillar of flame, grabbing and tearing the persons arm. Another is a black locust eating the man's right leg, another is a maggot eating his other arm, and the fourth is a beautiful naked woman with long hair that is slowly pulling the flesh off of his left leg. Elrika asks the creatures, "Why are you doing this?" The woman looks up but has no face, Elrika asks her, "Who are you?" The woman looks up and says, "I am whoever you want me to be." She changes her form into a handsome muscular figure and says he/she can take us to "a better place". Syf makes a circle of light around us and the figure begins to hiss, backing away, growing wings on her back and flying up to Syf. I hit her with my axe but she seems to heal immediately. Syf flies out of the circle, swiping at the figure which then makes an unsettling sound. Gairten misses with an ice mace and chain, but Elrika runs for her sword, cuts her hand , pours part of a pouch containing ashes and smears it on her head and sword invoking some all-powerful something or other. Syf slashes again and the thing falls into two pieces. Gairten hits the pillar of fire with an ice mace and chain while Syf surprises it from the rear. While I am attacking the maggot, it spits tiny maggots at me which climb all over my body. We attack the maggot and locust and are eventually able to defeat them, though Gairten's fire seems to have no effect on either of them. Wow that was freakish, there are still some small maggots on the ground but I crush them. When we look at the man, he looks up at us with a skeletal face and says, "you must help me, I am barred from the land of the dead." I wake up, as do the others. When I look at them, Syf still seems singed from the fire creature and Elrika still has smeared ashes on her forehead and sword, and there are dead maggots all around the room. Finis
What's New Main Page Disciplines Eternal Library Campaign Web Guide Links
Questions? Comments? See something that's missing? Contact the Webmaster.