[Game Thread] Chapter 1: Blood on the Sand

[chaosaccountant]

Seeing the wooden abomination forced to swerve, wind drove his wings harder into the air, forcing himself onward. Powering through the sky, he tried desperately to pull himself alongside the dead trees, magic already reverberating through his tight vocal cords.

ooc Assuming wind can catch up to this one, he'll cast Gust of wind directly alongside the ship (with the aim of tipping it over). Just as a note, how big are these ships? I'm guessing Schooners if the crew were able to right them. (Just so I know how much trouble I'm getting into if I decide to take out the rigging...)

[tilbert]

When the discouraged bhuku, struck by both Emeria and her predator cat, drops lifeless into the dust, Taharqua turn his reproachful view onto the woman and heaves a long sigh. "I hope the two lads managed to hold the bhuku captive in the western part of the city. I'd really like to question him." He looks at the wounds of both Cheveyo and Emeria "I could try to channel Ka-Men's power to treat your wounds, if gave me second, provided your heart is pure and good."

Taharqua briefly closes his eyes, his palm draw small circle infront of his body until a bright fire appears. Lifting his hand to point his palm towards his fellows a ray of fire drats towards Emeria, while the ray directed on Cheveyo dissipates half way. "I see." Taharqua mumbles with a knowing tone in his voice.

As they notice the red letters on the wall, while returning to the centre of the Rosemount, Taharqua hesitates. "I didn't realize they raiders made up to this point." He heads towards the back to the place where left the bhuku and the two boy.

ooc Heavenly Fire heals 5 HP on Emeria and doesn't work on Cheveyo

[Silk]

Ignoring the look Taharqua was directing her way, Emeria walked past him and stopped next to Cheveyo, dropping her swords in the sand. As the Asheratis mentioned questioning the prisoner they had Emeria shook her head. She spoke as she stepped on the dead Bhuka and leaned over it to grab a hold of her dart stuck in the corpse, "I have never had much success with getting reliable information that way." Grunting, Emeria twists the dart and pulls. The sound of bone grinding and a wet popping sound accompanies the dart's removal.

Emeria stiffens as Taharqua seems to shoot something at her and Cheveyo, and if he had not mentioned something about healing she would have thought it was an attack of some sort. As the healing energy soothed her throbbing leg to a dull ache she nodded at him, "Thank you." Kneeling down Emeria used the dead Bhuka's rags to clean the dart. Her scimitar and kukuri are similarly cleaned and sheathed. "I will search out the tracks of these raiders and determine the direction they came from." Noticing that Cheveyo is still wounded Emeria delays her leaving and draws close to look his wounds over. They are not sever but she feels she must still ask, "Are you well Cheveyo of the Moax?"

actions: Once she gets her camel readied Emeria will search out the tracks left by the second two sandskimmers and then find the tracks of the first two. If she can find where they seperated that would please her but she will not go to far. Once she has a relative feel for the direction they came from and the direction they are going Emeria will return back to town where she hopes everyone is ready. Rolled 3 times in case you needed the extra rolls. The final results were: 19, 28, and 17. (Purja failed to aid Emeria properly on the last roll.)

[tilbert]

"Really never? Your patience ended shortly before their lives, I assume. Taharqua forces a smile, while he pictures the inexpressible things, the elegant predator might have done. "I though of an more subtle way to deal wit the prisoner. Here's the sketch of my idea. We'll lock the prisoner up. Either Wind or me, disguise as a Bhuku raider - we'll find plenty of loot to make up a disguise. Some time before dawn, the fake-bhuku knocks the guard unconscious and releases the prisoner. During the escape, we'll have to get as much information as possible. And if you're just wondering, I change my shape for about an hour. But if you prefer, we can question him the traditional way."

[orangehatter]

"Are you well Cheveyo of the [Maox]?"

Cheveyo hardly caught the words. His eyes remained glued to the wall, smeared with blood along with his forehead and chest. A tear streamed down his eye, which he ignored, and he numbly stomped his heavy foot into the face of the raider that fell by his hand. The desert-lived farm boy had never seen so much chaos and destruction in his life, and it shook him deeply. With a level of gravity, he dipped to the ground to pick up the raider's body in a hefty hand. Another yell sent the small corpse flying through the air to smack into the blood-scribed wall.

And he wailed.

The giant of a man began to sniffle and cry with the vulnerability of a child. Here, he had never thought that he'd have to witness such deprivation in person. He knew that there would be blood, but never knew there would have been baths full of the red life water. His hair had come undone about his face, and his balling was terse with unveiled emotion. His soul had never known such pain.

I could I have come here and thought that this would have been free of innocent blood?

The question brought a fresh flow of water from his eyes. His eyes fixated on each body strewn along the ground. A husband and wife speared by the same weapon. A baby's cry as they lay underneath their sister's body. The heaving chest of an injured boy, dagger still bloody as it remained held in his hand. It was a living nightmare, and the warrior was broken beneath the weight.

His wide palms wiped his face as he sobbed. Heavy steps brought him over to the wall where the deceased family lay beneath. Abruptly, his tears stopped flowing while he looked into each of their empty faces. There was no hope for them. Nothing that could have saved them. Except us. He knelt on one knee, ripping out a strand of hair for each body against the wall. Methodically he tied the strands into a thick knot. "This is the oath of Cheveyo Dezba." He repeated the mantra in a low, priestly voice while thick fingers began to steadily dig a hole into the sand. It was ready. A single fingernail ran with blood while he took the ball of hair and placed it within. "You will be brought to peace. These fiends will have justice." It felt to him as though it wasn't his own voice speaking. Or even his own body working towards this short ritual. It had been an ancient tradition for a warrior's revenge within the Maox tribe.

Slowly he stood to his feet, a sigh moving the wet strands of hair from his face. We must first help these people. Then...

He jogged over to where a group was carrying the injured to a temporary refuge. As he helped a man to his feet, he concluded his goal.

...then these raiders will taste vengeance.

[chaosaccountant]

As the magics whipped the boats away from his reach, wind screemed defiance at them. Though the ache was begining to tell in his wings, he returned to scoure the ground where the ship had been upset, hoping to find some prey that did not now ellude him. Burning in the back of his mind was the knowledge that his colony still hunted, as the lynx trailed it's prey. On his thin lips, he tasted the blood of the raider he had felled. They would meet again, and no foul desecration of the air would save them.

[Silk]

"Really never? Your patience ended shortly before their lives, I assume.

This comment brought Emeria's attention from Cheveyo to stare steadily at Taharqua. But his observation was not far from the mark and she dropped her gaze and sighed while he filled her in on his plan. "You are right. I am too hasty for such. For your plan I fear we may have little..." She was interrupted by Cheveyo's wail and Emeria stepped back in surprise. But then she understood. The same rage, the same helplessness. It raged through her years ago. She watched Cheveyo and felt herself being brought back to those bleak days. As he forced himself into action, to avenge, to help, Emeria looked away.

Her throat works as she swallows her own tragic memories. Emeria blinks and looks up at Taharqua speaking in a subdued voice, "The morning winds will scour the sands of tracks. Better if the Bhuka escapes himself to be followed." Looking back at Cheveyo she clenches her jaw and nods, "He will be alright. I'll go scout now." It seems as if Emeria is in a hurry to leave. Purja gives a final lick at a bloodstain before following his companion.

[Eviltedzies]

As Kethy felt his body jolt with force his thoughts were disrupted by an abrupt pain. "Ahhhh... crap... that hurt." Silently berating himself for failing, Kethyr slowly pulled himself out of the sand, letting the excess sand drain out from his fullplate. "Looks like I need to practice jumping..... off a quickly moving sandworm onto and equally quickly moving vehicle. Eh.. at least I didn't hit the mast." Looking around, Kethyr's elven eyes gave him slightly better view of his surrounding, but he was in no mood to take chances. Drawing his flachion, Kethyr looks around at the shapes in the sands, trying to discern friend from foe. "I hope we managed to save even a few more villagers."

Nearby, Ama eyed the fleeing raider with irritance before turning her attention to to battered and bruised raider. With a short roar, Ama slithered towards the raider and brought her sharp stinger down upon the foe with deadly precision.

Actions Kethyr will stand up and draw his flachion as he scans the area. Ama is attacking the one lone raider. Amarah's Attack Roll: 35(Possible Crit, 18 to back it up.) Damage: 12 Amarah's Stats: HP:66/66, AC:23, Saves (Same as Kethyr's

[Avelestar]

After one final savage attack from Ama, the battle finally begins to wind down as muscles relax, adrenalin drains and everyone's heart stops racing. Eager to help the people of Rosemount in anyway possible, each of the five worked diligently at whatever they could find to do.

Kethyr and Ama brought a pair of young children and their mother back to town, finding them cowering behind a sand dune nursing their bruises and cuts after being thrown from the speeding skimmer. Riding on the huge ashworm calmed the children down, as they shouted and wooped with joy at the high speeds of Ama. The mother though cautious also started to come out of her shock, ashworms were regularly used at the mines anyway.

Whilst Emeria and Purja left the town, following the track of skimmer and raider as best they could, Wind and Lynx did the same. Though the distance between druid and lynx was great, the pair stayed in contact through emotion and thought, and the two beasts and their masters returned to town after an hour or two of searching. In their haste to escape, and probably not really expecting much retribution from the undefended mining town the tracks were easy to follow and very obviously led to the only stone hill in the area.

Finally back in Rosemount we come to Taharqua and Cheveyo. One lost in grief, but still giving his all to help the townsfolk. The other disappointed to find the two young lads had slain the raider, accidentally killing him as the bhuka tried to escape.

After a few hours of hard work, reassuring words and promises of vengeance the group meet once more at their house to debrief and get some rest. Whether for want of vengeance, or simply a bigger payment from Karn it was clear tomorrow's goal was to head to the bandit's lair and destroy them once and for all. Mentally and physically exhausted, the group slept fitfully for only a few hours, dreams haunted by visions of fire and slain families. Rising before dawn as usual

OOC: Both Emeria and Wind know where the bandits are headed, able to pick up the changing terrain and work out the raiders were headed towards a rocky outcrop off in the distance, the only real land mark other than the silver mines for miles around. It'll take you just over two hours to reach it at a normal marching pace, and everyone has had 3-4 hours sleep. You gain only half the usual benefits of an eight hour rest, (half the hp, spells back etc) unless you've got one of those fancy rings where you only need 2 hours sleep . But assume between Winds healing spells and Taharqua's healing rays you're all back at full health.

[chaosaccountant]

ooc Bear in mind wind actually has only 3d8+11 worth of healing. How large are the skimmers? (ie how many Warp Wood spells will I have to use to mess one up?)

The smell of blood drawing on his keen senses from where he had been circling, wind landed heavily on the top of one of the low nests. The expanse of black skin covering a good part of the space, he hung his head over and scratched a bony potrusion on the end of a beam. Turning his head to face the angry, vengful hunters, he screeched peircingly and lept from the height and onto one of the fallen bhuku, grasping it in his oversized talons and, with a single beat of his great wings, bearing it onto the top of a nest opposite. There was the sound of bones crunching.
The first lightening of the sky found wind letting himself down from the roof, sticky blood still smeared into his hair and under his nails. He didn't venture to say anything as the others emerged from their nest to face the daym, but watched them silently and impassively.

[Avelestar]

OOC: People didn't take that much damage, so don't worry about it too much. I guess they're huge size? Hadn't really thought about it too much, but they are able to carry a dozen captives, with raiders hanging off the sides.

[Silk]

Weariness dragged at Emeria as she rode her camel back to the little mining town of Rosemont. Her camel had not enjoyed the noise and sent of blood the battle caused and he had been difficult to ride. Emeria sighed as she stabled her unruly animal, leaving her saddle laying on the ground next to the stall door. Purja stayed out in the dunes where he preferred to stay. By the time everyone had gathered at the visitors house, the adrenalin from the battle had left her and Emeria was very tired indeed. But even with only a few hours of sleep she still managed to inform everyone of the direction the raiders came from in detail and even objected when the decision was made to rest up first instead of heading out after them. When it was pointed out that everyone needed a little bit of rest Emeria sighed, "You'r right." And with that she stiffly gets up and falls into her bed. Before unconsciousness claimed her she thought to herself, 'Tracked half asleep before, harder with others I guess.' This comment she kept to herself so as not to upset her companions.

In the morning, after only a couple hours of sleep, Emeria raises at the small noise of Wind's entrance. She was tired last night when she spotted Wind in the form of a large bat whisking a raider corpse up on top of the house to eat. In her tired state she had pushed it to the back of her mind but at the sight of the blood splattered in his hair it brought it all to the forefront of her mind. With a stoic expression Emeria looked at the Bhuka steadily for a moment. Then she blinked and went about the business of re-armoring and arming herself. Their are several ways to handle disturbing news. Emeria chose to simply ignore it until it became a problem.

[tilbert]

Those teens would get along fine with Emeria Taharqua thinks when he finds body of the slain Bhuku. He was about to burst out into anger, shouting the young men, but he remembered, in time, that they had lost friends or family just this night - it was just too much, to expect mercy from them tonight.

Walking back to meet the others, a small cloud of sand separates from the ground and starts to circle around his legs, until it slowly becomes more dense and starts to take the form of a tiny cat - Baseth. "There you are, my dear" he bows down and waits briefly with outstretched arms, until his familiar jumps into his arms. Petting Baseth he enters the house - with every stroke a pinch of sand trickles onto the floor.

"I need to catch some sleep, before we can chase after those raiders" Taharqua says upon retiring to his bed.

[orangehatter]

Cheveyo had been awake for a long, long time. The ring that never left his finger gave him the energy he needed to go without sleep. Despite this benefit, his body seemed more tired than before he fell asleep. He stood outside on the sand, facing the rising sun as he spent the next hour in passionate prayer. His mind was still bathed in the blood of battle, and his eyes were filled with visions of violence. It was not something that was easily dismissed over time.

His eyes were markedly stressed with red veins as he dipped back into their "safehouse". He was first met with the sight of the blood-soaked bhuka (from the night before, right?), then the feline Emeria. Horrible feelings or not he was rarely without manners. "Good Morning," he offered to the two of them while stretching a smile across his face. That same smile was replaced with something cold when Taharqua spoke his piece.

"I need to catch some sleep, before we can chase after those raiders."

"Then I hope you can catch up," he said sternly. "We're not waiting for you to catch your beauty sleep." Cheveyo's tone was not cruel, but it was forcible. He still ached for justice to be delivered, and the delay did not seem to appease him. Looking to everyone else, he asked, "When do we leave?"

[chaosaccountant]

"When do we leave?"

"The sun soon devours the cold of night. The wind sweeps by on the dawn, and sun and wind leave death in their wake."
The bhuku squatted in the dust, heedless to those waking up around him, or the path he blocked. His eyes stared past those who were already awake, to fix on the darkness leading to where the others denned.