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Excerpts from the Journal of Avash

This page will eventually contain numerous descriptive excerpts from the journal of Avash. The articles will be in chronological order with a table of contents that can be used to link directly to the article of choice.
Included with the journal will be links to the adventure details used by the Games Master to make the adventure. Each of these journal excerpts are the adventures of Avash and Plarge as they make their mark on the world. Some are written by Avash in story form.

Visit these other pages when you're finished :

...The Adventures
...Avash and Plarge's RIFTS World
...The Golden Claws
...The Heroes of Pre-Rifts Earth
...The stats of Avash and Plarge

Journal (in chronological order) :

1. First Blood
   
2. Child Stealers
   
3. The Motorcycle Crash
   
4. The Follower
   

   

   The Beginning :
   

   I was a young boy when I met Master Tribane. He was a tall stately dressed man after the fashion of the pre-rift '30s. All of his life he had been a keen Pre-Rifts historian who secretly met with scholars and scientists to discuss and exchange ideas and items of the 2oth century. He was also a remote studier of the line walking art. This side of his life was hidden from the coalition and the citizens of the city Nubeena. Publicly, he was a well respected doctor who later became Mayor. During his stay at Nubeena he was secretly employed by the Council of Learning as the head of a major spy ring to infiltrate the Coalition.
   When we met, Master Tribane instantly knew I was a battery of P.P.E.(Potential Psychic Energy) and with his limited knowledge he began to teach me to harness and control the abilities of a Line Walker. When he came close to the end of his knowledge he sent for a friend to extend my teachings. This friend, Jarvis Blates, was an unknown entity to both the coalition and Lazlo, as were I. I was also trained in martial arts and intelligence.
   After many years of training, I was allowed to test my abilities as one of Tribane's spies. My added Line Walking magic and skills helped to make me his best student.
   

   First Blood :
   

   During my career as a spy, I encountered few enemies and gained large amounts of information and data to help the Nubeena Spy Ring. Only once had I reason to kill a man, a normal grunt, who was unlucky enough to get duty the night I infiltrated an enemy base. The information I was given had indicated no resistance but the dead boy attacked me relentlessly and, caught off balance, my only chance at winning was to kill him with his own weapon. The death filled me with a battle lust I had never felt before, but the attention received due to the shot gave me cause to run away, my only prize, the rifle that had lost me over 50,000 credits worth of information. Not impressed with the loss, I found solace in knowing I could handle myself in combat.
   Journal Index
   

   Child Stealers :
   Plarge could smell something supernatural in the next room. The fur on the back of his neck stood on end and the taste of his own saliva filled his mouth.
   He new the feeling. He recognised the scent.
   As a coalition dog-boy from the Lone Star facility, Plarge had encountered this feeling many times before. Now his keen sense of smell easily picked up the trail. Over the last few years he had tracked and encountered many creatures throughout the lands. Through his travels he had entered citadels, caverns, forests, towns and cities searching for the smell and feeling he could pick up now.
   His canine eyes adjusted to the gloom. He stood in an abandoned storehouse. Crates, empty or broken, were scattered or piled haphazardly around the room. Above him the storehouse stretched high towards a ceiling cluttered with wires and broken lights. Plarge scanned the room quickly, but moved slowly moved in.
   On the other side of the storehouse, stood a door with a massive window running along the remaining wallspace. The unbroken glass was smudged and dirty, two meters high and three meters long.
   Plarge jumped at the sight of his distorted reflection, his gun poised, ready to fire upon the enemy. When he recovered, he noticed the large gash in his neck caused from a glancing blow that had bounced off his armour. Blood was still seeping from the flesh wound, but Plarge had nothing to stop the flow. Instead, he contemplated his next move.
   The smell and feeling were allot stronger here, indicating an increasing closeness to whatever supernatural creature hid in the next room. But, something was different. This wasn't the same creature, but it was definitely the same race.
   Two little monsters to deal with, thought Plarge, as he pulled back his lips in a wicked lupine grin. His ears twitched in excitement as he leaned against the door to listen. Inside he could hear small, light movements. Smiling he leaned back and kicked the door in.
   His powerful leg smashed the door to splinters, just as a small, solid, upright creature wearing children’s clothes, smashed through the glass window. Plarge turned to shoot, his finger closing on the trigger when another monster, the first he encountered, crashed into him from above. He dropped his rifle and flung the creature off him and into a nearby pile of crates. As the second creature advanced to join the fight, Plarge drew his vibro-sword.
   The slight hum from the blade, sang like music in his ears. He swung the sword at his attacker. With a side-step and a lunge, the skinny monster evaded and scraped his armour just below the heart. With a growl, Plarge counterattacked. Swing after swing connected with the creatures arms and upper body, long thick gashes oozing blue blood.
   Behind him, the other monster climbed to its feet and crouched ready for an attack. With a crazed screech, it launched itself at Plarge, just as a rapid succession of bullets, ripped into it's hide.
   The creature screamed in pain and fell to the floor twitching, its left arm severed and bullet wounds in the face, neck and chest.
   Plarge, startled at the assistance, scanned the room for his helper, and felt the presence of magic not in use. Just as he remembered the second monster, the wind was knocked from his body as the creature kicked him with both legs. The attack sent him sprawling to the ground, but he held onto his sword and quickly raised it for protection.
   As he guessed, the monster launched itself at him for a second attack. Quickly, Plarge rolled to the side and the monster barely scraped the back of his armour. He swung the sword back at his assailants heel, and heard the bone crunch, just as a fiery bolt flew through the air and blasted the creature off its feet.
   The second monster lay dead and smouldering beside its bullet riddled ally. Plarge got to his feet, returned his vibro-sword to its sheath and retrieved his gun.
   "There all dead, Avash," he said as he scanned the room, "You can come out from your hiding place now."
   "I wasn't hiding." Said a deep voice from the shadows.
   A man stepped out into the light from the broken roof, and walked slowly to Plarge. He was a tall man, around 6'3" dressed in dirt stained camouflage pants, black boots, fingerless gloves and a green work shirt. his long hair and thick beard, both blond, spilled down his front and back. The beard was heavily divided into several plaits. His dark green eyes peered fiercely out from under his black baseball cap. In one hand he held a heavy assault laser rifle, its previous owner, an ex-grunt from the coalition, had unsuccessfully tried its use upon Avash, and now it belonged to him. In the other hand he held a pair of dirty and stained sheets.
   "Lets roll these D-bees onto the sheets and show the lovely townsfolk their bogeymen," he said.
   "The townsfolk don't know what’s happened," replied Plarge. "If we bring them only one we can up the ante on the second one."
   Avash smiled, "It's more likely they'll pay us less than half and try to kill the second one themselves."
   For a response, Plarge merely rolled the charred alien onto one of the sheets, the bullet riddled one on the other and dragged the bodies through the massive front door.
   Outside, a small crowd gathered around the aliens with looks of disgust and anger. Some of the townsfolk spat on the corpses, while ladies cried into the shoulders of their husbands. One lady walked forward and kicked the charred beast.
   "May you rot in whatever hell you came from." Tears coursed down her face as she continued to kick the creature. Other townsfolk gathered around and escorted her away.
   The town's elected mayor and treasurer, drove into the clearing in the town's only ute. The rusted pre-rifts bomb had long since lost its name plate and Avash new nothing of modern day vehicles, let alone pre-rifts relics. The two men he did know. They came forward with stretchers to lift the two bodies onto the back of the truck, and with Plarge's help, they buried the creatures before dark.
   In the evening, a feast was prepared and a party held outside the town hall. Avash met with the parents of those who had lost children as well as those with children left, each thanking him for finishing off the town menace. Plarge, however, felt uncomfortable with the prejudiced looks of fear from the townsfolk. Although the D-bee creatures were totally unrelated to Plarge, the giant elkhound could understand. The only creatures they had come into contact with for years, had nearly wiped out the town's next generation. For all they new, Plarge could be another creature out to kill their children.
   Plarge headed away from the town hall pavilion area, in search of their equipment and sleeping gear. His Mountaineer ATV lead him in the right direction, and he soon found himself in their tent. He ate an apple he picked up from the celebration, before sitting down and cleaning his rifle. He hadn't fired it over the past few days, but each night he dismantled and cleaned the entire weapon. By the time Avash had returned to the tent, Plarge was asleep.
   

   Journal Index
   

   The Motorcycle Crash :
   

   "Do you think the bandits are going to be any easier than those rotten bugs?"
   Avash and Plarge stood outside their mountaineer ATV, and Plarge, who had asked the question, scratched idly at the back of his neck. They were parked at a junction in the road they had been following, and now Avash stood peering intently at a hand drawn map. A local from the last town had drawn the map, showing important information on the local area west of the town. The map indicated,using drawings and small, nearly illegible writing, that the northeast road bordered a hive for an alien race of sentient insects, called Xiticix. The southmost road was apparently owned by bandits, who hadfled the justice of the Coalition. They were said to be viscious killers and the picture supplied, showed that they owned some sort of power armour or robot.
   "What's so great about going along the south road?" Plarge asked. "The map says that both roads lead to small cities, and the two tracks meet up later."
   "We need to go to Noshrax so I can see a friend of mine who will help us out a lot." replied Avash. He folded the map up and tucked it into a pants pocket.
   "Well," said Plarge "We'll have to recharge out weapons and get some more equipment and," he tapped his armour just below a nasty gash "Fix up our armour. There's less chance we'll have to fight if we go north. The south road is 'owned' by the bandits, remember?"
   "Ok! You win. Let's get into this bomb and get a move on."
   Avash turned and walked to the ATV.
   "There's another thing", said Plarge, as he followed "We need fuel. All the cans are dry, and she's only got half a tank left now. If your master didn't live so far away, it wouldn't cost so much to see him."
   When they were both sitting in the cabin, Avash replied.
   "You saw how he was, he's old and his wits are going. He thought the coalition knew were he was and he needed an excuse to leave everything behind. Soon he'll become the local old crazy man, scaring the townsfolk with his voodoo and witchery. They'll never know him as the powerful man he once was. Age. Ah well, if our lives keep up at this pace, we'll never need to worry about it."
   With a nod, Plarge started the vehicle and drove off along the northern road. In his mind he tried to add up how much it would cost to resupply the two of them, so far from dense civilisation, but the thought of their last meeting with Avash's master clouded his thinking.
   

   The old man, Master Tribane, had built a solid hut and a large vegetable garden, far from the reach of the Coalition, with the help of an iron golem he had created before his departure. The golem was very strong and tireless. It's eyes, onyx's worth well over a thousand credits each, stared numbly as it trudged through its daily routine. Plarge had marvelled at the moving statue, noting the size of the stones it used as fencing and low walls. Some of these rocks were so big that Plarge doubted that even he, with all of his muscle from both training and mutation, would be able to lift them.
   The idea of using a Golem was one of the many shocks the old man had given the city folk and city council of Nubeena, as town mayor. He had gotten the position after he left the city of Lazlo to establish a spy network into the Coalition states. He moved into Nubeena and soon became known as the towns leading body fixer. After nearly a decade of doctoring and supplying Lazlo with Coalition information, he became a well-respected spokesperson and was elected as city mayor.
   Only recently his position and wits had started to weaken. The latest Coalition rumour to reach his ears was of a Coalition move to finally silence the head of the Nubeena spy ring. Lazlo, who were ready to replace him with a new member for Nubeena, let him go and he quickly left them all behind with only a small message for Avash.
   During Mayor Tribane's life in Nubeena, he had befriended and trained Avash. Avash was his best student, but he kept his identity from those in Lazlo, and was trained in Ley-Line walking, martial arts and espionage techniques. The Mayor used Avash's abilities to help him spy on the Coalition, receiving information vital to both Lazlo and the Mayor himself. Avash frequently visited Coalition towns and cities, using his psychic abilities to pass himself off as a normal human being, where he met with sympathetic Coalition grunts, officers and civilians.
   It was at one such meeting that Avash and Plarge were introduced.
   A fight had started between patrons, at a bar Avash was visiting, that soon erupted into a massive bar brawl. Avash had saved Plarge from a fatal knife wound by using his magic and soon the both of them were running from disgruntled patrons. Over the years Avash and Plarge kept up communication and Avash convinced Plarge to leave the Coalition and come with him to serve his master.
   Plarge and Tribane hit it off immediately and Plarge became a soldier in the city militia. Together they trained under Avash's martial arts instructor, and ran secret missions for Tribane.
   Tribane's letter instructed Avash to bring Plarge along for their latest mission, after which they were to be freed from service.
   Within a day both of them had packed and were ready to go. They took Plarge's ATV and left Avash's motorcycle behind. Evening, three days later, they were parked in front of an iron golem holding a large plough, their headlights sparkling in the multifaceted onyx eyes. When the familiar figure of the Master came out to usher the golem away and wave them in, they got out of the ATV and headed inside. Outside, the golem returned to its gardening.
   After greetings and dinner were squared away, the three of them sat out the front of the solid log cabin, smoking the last few cigars from the Mayor's personal collection. They chatted over a few trivial things before the Master began to tell them the plans for their next mission.
   He began talking about a friend of his who, like Avash, was unknown to both the Coalition and Lazlo. His friend had fled many years before Tribane had become Mayor, with evidence of members of the Council of learning under the paid service of the Coalition. Tribane and his friend, Jarvis Blates, had come across the information early in their careers but lacked the complete evidence, and were powerless to do anything until they knew whom was behind the conspiracy. Jarvis employed the services of a cyber-doc and was soon fitted with a cybernetic disguise, totally reshaping his face. Together Tribane and Blates had developed a way to contact each other, and regularly kept each other informed on events and discoveries.
   With a new face, a new identity and the evidence, Blates moved to a small town far from Lazlo, and with the money supplied to him by Tribane, set up a tavern.
   Over the last year Tribane had discovered the names of those on the Coalition pay list as well as their leader, a man called Quincy Faran, and was now ready to reveal the secret both had kept for nearly a decade.
   Master Tribane had given the lasts bits of evidence about the conspiracy, to Avash, as well as the information connecting the conspirators with the evidence Jarvis Blates held. He also gave detailed instructions on how to contact the man now known as Faran Clint.
   Fortunately Blates, aka Clint, was many years younger than Tribane and strong enough to confront Quincy and the Council of Learning with the damaging evidence. Avash and Plarge were to journey to a town called Gaothe, and contact a man that owned and operated a motorcycle mechanics shop called, "The Last Stand". With a simple password the man could tell them where to go.
   

   As Plarge was thinking, his tongue lolling from his mouth, Avash drifted off into sleep. When he awoke, he noticed the ATV had stopped and Plarge was gone. He quickly stuck his head out the window and looked around. Almost immediately he spotted a busted motorcycle wrapped around the trunk of a massive tree. The ATV was parked on the side of the road and Plarge was stood bent over a body.
   Avash stepped out of the car and climbed down to the road. Wiping sleep from his eyes, he walked over to the body. Up closer, he noticed the body was missing its head, and the legs were bent askew, broken in several places. Quickly he cast the Armour of Ithan spell upon himself and returned to the ATV to retrieve his rifle.
   When he returned, noting Plarge's alertness and readied rifle, he scanned the area. Nothing seemed to stir, and as Plarge went over to investigate the motorcycle, Avash leaned over the body for a better look at the headless body. Up close Avash realised the corpse was female and pregnant. He cursed under his breath and scanned the area with his binoculars again. Nothing. In her bag he found clothes and a picture of a man. His tall, well-muscled body indicated a soldier or adventurer, the face was strong yet filled with life, his sandy-blonde hair, dishelved and messy made him seem unkempt, but the fire in his eyes showed power. He scanned the area again. Far off to the east, the laser distancer registered one and a half miles, he noticed movement. Quickly the binoculars focused and Avash recognised two Xiticix.
   "You're gonna feel something soon, pal." Avash said, laying his hand upon the dog-boy's shoulder and casting another Armour of Ithan spell -this time on Plarge-, just as the mutant dog twitched his nose and growled.
   "Xiticix for sure." he said. "They're coming."
   "From which direction?", Avash grinned smugly.
   "North?", replied Plarge. "Yeah, North."
   "Amazing." said Avash over his shoulder as he ran to the south side of the road, "You can bet they've smelt this lady," He indicated the corpse ",and now they've come to check her out."
   Plarge hesitated slightly before he followed, laying down in the shrubbery beside Avash and clicking his rifle off safe.
   "What about the car?" He asked.
   "Don't worry.", replied Avash switching his rifle off safe. "The xiticix might examine it but will more than likely leave it alone. Before that they'll inspect the body. That's when we attack. They'll be on foot so we should get about two bursts in before they can return fire."
   Plarge breathed deeply and relaxed, then sighted his gun over the body.
   As Avash predicted, both xiticix headed straight towards the corpse, ignoring the ATV and motorcycle. The creatures looked like giant bipedal bugs, with segmented bodies, six appendages, wings and mandibles. They both stood around seven-foot tall, a few inches shorter than Plarge. Avash and Plarge both knew that the thick exoskeleton bodies were as strong, and sometimes stronger than modern armour. A pair of the arms held onto a massive gun while the other pair held onto a wicked looking spear.
   The xiticix closest to the ambushers, prodded the body with its spear just as Avash gave the signal and the ambushers pulled there triggers. Most of the shots ripped into the creatures body, only a few missing. Both xiticix jumped into the air as another volley of laserfire shot through the air. The second blast blew the creature from the sky.
   The surviving xiticix, after seeing its fellow blown away, didn't hesitate before launching a wild burst in the direction of the attack. Avash and Plarge stood their ground and returned fire, the enemy bullets stopped by the Armour of Ithan spells. Their third attack was more concentrated than the previous two and the bug hit the ground hard and died.
   When both creatures had stopped moving, Plarge walked forward and shot them twice in the head at point blank. Avash slowly moved over, a vibro-knife in his hand, and inspected the kill. With a few cuts, Avash held a thick, heart shaped organ flowing with a pungent blue fluid, up for Plarge to see. Plarge held a paw to his sensitive nose.
   "Gawd!" said Plarge "What is that smell?"
   "It's what were going to use to get to the next town, fearless of another xiticix attack." Avash rubbed some of the fluid between his fingers. "Xiticix scent gland, so you too can smell like your favourite sentient bug."
   "I thought that was just a rumour." Plarge pleaded. "Surely we're not going to rub that on ourselves."
   Avash started to walk over to the ATV.
   "Of course not." he responded "But the car's not going to smell too good on the outside. For a while at least."
   With that, Avash started to rub the gland over the windows and around the vents leading into the cabin.
   "Come to think of it." Avash smiled. "It's not going to smell too good on the inside, either."
   After he was finished, Avash threw the remaining part of the gland over to the side of the road and with Plarge, dragged the two xiticix bodies off the road.
   "What can we do with her." Avash indicated the corpse.
   "Nothing I know of, we shouldn't stay here any longer in case some more bugs turn up. We'll have to burn the body. That way nothing is going to eat it..her." Plarge picked up the corpse and carried it into the trees. When Avash had finally wiped most of the fluids from his hands he looked up to see Plarge returning.
   "You do it." he said "I don't want to have to smell that, and you can just whip up a flame and get rid of her. The poor thing, what could have happened to her?" He shook his massive, shaggy head.
   "It wasn't the xiticix, that's for sure." concluded Avash, "Maybe we'll find out when we get to the next town." With that he headed into the woods and knelt beside the body.
   He held the woman's hard, cold hand.
   "If I find out who did this to you," he whispered "I'll repay them a hundred fold."
   With a few muttered words, the body began to smoke, than caught fire. By the time Avash and Plarge had left, the body was ashes.
   

   Journal Index