Nagbur hears a footstep to the rear and wheels around to find himself looking up at two grinning, drooling cubises (cubii?).
"AIEEE!"
His hand reflexively darts out toward one of the creatures...
... but he doesn't connect by virtue of madly backpedaling away from the monstrosities.
The Cubis respond the the illusion made by Almalik and start attacking it. The figure curses and orders them to attack the smaller figures.
Round 5:
- Almalik [2DR/- 16/20]
- Figure [-16hp]
- Nagbur [2DR/- 17/20]
- Cubis Green
- Cubis Blue
- Cubis Yellow
- Ama [13/17 hp; 2DR/- 16/20]
- Fish [11/20hp; 2DR/- 17/20]
Round 6:
- Almalik [2DR/- 15/20]
- Figure [-16hp]
- Nagbur [2DR/- 16/20]
- Cubis Green
- Cubis Blue
- Cubis Yellow
- Ama [13/17 hp; 2DR/- 15/20]
- Fish [11/20hp; 2DR/- 16/20]
In bold may act!
"Cut you moooore!" Ama yells, swinging her nodachi again.
Ama gets very excited when she hits her target a second time. "Fish, Fish! I think I'm getting better at this! What do you think?!"
Almalik snaps his fingers, and the earth elemental crumbles into four smaller figures, who step away from the cubis and move in sync with violent-looking motions. He then rushes southwards to get the hell away from the cubis.
Fish swings and snarls in his rage trying to bash this thing with his shield.
Ama swings and hits the creature, Fish on the other hand misses the creature. Almalik splits the large earth elemental in several smaller ones to try and divert the Cubis's attention. The figure slowly looses its cool and brings down its sword on Ama. He hits and the wound inflicted on Ama seems not to bleed where it normally would. The flesh looks dead and black.
One of the children seems to have left the building unnoticed and is now returning from the desert. The small boy stands at the edge of the village holding a spear.
"I will save you sister!"
He yells into the night.
Round 6:
- Almalik [2DR/- 15/20]
- Figure [-23hp]
- Nagbur [2DR/- 16/20]
- Cubis Green
- Cubis Blue
- Cubis Yellow
- Ama [10/17 hp; 2DR/- 15/20]
- Fish [11/20hp; 2DR/- 16/20]
In bold may act!
>80 = miss
Surprised -- but immensely relieved -- to see the two looming creatures suddenly distracted and turning away, Nagbur closes his eyes and probes the rest of the team. Sensing both Ama and Fish injured, he pulls out his wand and uses it on himself...
... redirecting the healing out to them.
Then, hearing a proclamation shouted in a childish voice, he looks around and calls out, "No! You stay away, be safe!"
Two of the Cubis move away from the group, following the earth elementals. The last one listens to the figure and moves to Ama and attacks her with one of its claws. Ama, wearing the circlet, notices nothing of the attack as it bounces off of the shield.
The child runs into the mayhem and stabs the spear into the Cubis. The spear lights up as it pierces the Cubis's armor and a explosion forms at the tip of the spear. The explosion leaves behind a giant gaping hole in the chest of the Cubis, which drops dead to the ground. The child looks with wide eyes at what he has done and seems to tremble with fear.
Round 6:
- Almalik [2DR/- 15/20]
- Figure [-23hp]
- Nagbur [2DR/- 16/20]
- Cubis Green
- Cubis Blue
- Cubis Yellow
- Child
- Ama [11/17 hp; 2DR/- 15/20]
- Fish [12/20hp; 2DR/- 16/20]
Round 6:
- Almalik [2DR/- 14/20]
- Figure [-23hp]
- Nagbur [2DR/- 15/20]
- Cubis Green
- Cubis Blue
- Cubis Yellow
- Child
- Ama [11/17 hp; 2DR/- 14/20]
- Fish [12/20hp; 2DR/- 15/20]
In bold may act!
Almalik's spell almost falters as he sees the child slam the spear into the cubis.
"Protect that child!" he calls out as his elementals begin moving northwest, leading the cubis away.
Fish is no longer listening to instructions as the rage has taken over and just continues to swing his shield at the mysterious figure.
Ama hears an explosion and turns around to see the kid defeat a cubis. "Well done, now kill the others!"
She's too distracted by the kid's awesome spear to properly swing her own weapon.
"Nagbur think child no need protecting. Cubis need protecting from child!" he breathes, wide-eyed.
"Retreaaaaaat!"
The figure yells at the surrounding and he vanishes from sight in a puff of shadowy smoke.
The child drops the spear and seems to be shaking, his eyes downcast with a terrified look.
Combat over!
- Almalik [2DR/- 14/20]
-
- Nagbur [2DR/- 15/20]
- Cubis Green
- Cubis Blue
- Cubis Yellow
- Child
- Ama [11/17 hp; 2DR/- 14/20]
- Fish [12/20hp; 2DR/- 15/20]
In bold may act!
"Let me know if we want to kill these things, otherwise I'll have them just zip off!"
Ama shrugs and sheaths her nodachi. "Nah, I'm fine."
"Does that spear have the shield's runes?" She moves over to the kid and the spear and picks to spear up to inspect it. The inspection's rather brief, as Ama doesn't even know what to look for, and she hands it over to one of the casters.
"You're very small for a human," Ama tells the boy, never having met a child before. "How come?"
The Cubis disappear into the distance with Almalik's handy illusion trick. Whilst he is busy distracting them Ama walks up to the child and grabs the spear from the ground, handing it over to one of the casters.
Once spoken to the child shies away from Ama still terrified at what happened. He also doesn't quite understand what she meant by what she said.
Almalik finally drops his hand, his face covered in sweat from the heat and the concentration required. He smiles wearily at Nagbuar, Fish, and Ama.
"That was a very difficult battle; well done."
He approaches the child cautiously, being the only human in the group.
"Be not afraid little one, you have done a very brave thing. The bad monsters are gone. My name is Almalik. What's yours?"
Fish growls and circles the area where the figure was a few times before snapping back to his senses. He sits down a moment to catch his breath and just nods at Almalik's comment.
"That was a very difficult battle; well done."
Nagbur scoffs as he approaches the others. "Me no help this time, it be all Fish and longshankses," he says with a frown.
"Fish, you muchly hurt," he observes, pulling out his wand and resting it on his friend's shoulder.
Healing done, he looks Ama over. "You hurt too."
Then he squints up at Almalik. "You look okay. What about little longshankses, they be hurt?" He starts to advance toward the boy but stops short when he sees the child shrinking back.
"Me no hurt little longshanks, you bigger than Nagbur anyway!" He gives the child a big reassuring smile, but his jagged, razor-sharp teeth -- not to mention the huge expanse of them -- work against him. The boy makes a tiny panicked sound and begins shaking. In response, Nagbur puts his hands up, palms facing the child, and backs away. "No no, it be okay, see? Me going, me going."
The child gets even more scared from Nagbur but softens a bit to Almalik's words. He calms down a bit and looks away from him when talking, as if ashamed.
"I am Elard..."
He responds very softly.
"Will you tell them?! I... We... I don't want to get into trouble any more."
He suddenly says in a loud and alarmed voice, looking back at the girl.
His clothes look different from the village you started your quest. These could well be clothes from the village you are headed. They look well worn and seem to have been worn several days on end.
He fancies the girl. His voice implies that they have left the village they are from for a reason.
"Aha! I see, I see..." Ama does indeed notice all the signs, but she has difficulty interpreting them.
After about a minute Ama finally connects the dots, and continues to talk to the boy. "Aaah! Your clothes are different from where we came from! Are you from the village we're heading to, little human?"
"Wait, do you even know where we're heading to...?" Ama retrieves the map and shows it to the boy. "It's here. You from there?"
Ama stores the map again. Her eyes move from the boy to girl, and back. "I sense some kind of bond. Do you belong together?"
The child looks profoundly confused at Ama.
"What village?"
Ama shows him the map and he nods.
"I think we are from there yes."
He looks a bit unsure seeing that the map doesn't show a lot of detail. Ama sees that the two seem to be connected and he blushes.
"I.. Uh.. We are.. Sort of yes."
He avoids eye contact with the group members.
"Will you force us to go back?"
He says after a while in a bit of a sad voice.
"I know it is dangerous here but..."
He trails off and doesn't finish his sentence.
Almalik remains crouched and fills his waterskin from his wand before passing it over.
"Have some water. Why did you leave? What happened?"
He takes a mouth full of water and starts answering Almalik's question.
"I.. We.. couldn't be together. They promised us..."
He trails off a bit and continues with his story.
"We had to get away. We wanted to be together."
You see resolve get back into his eyes.
"They wouldn't accept our choice. So we left."
"Fish thanks friend Nagbur for healing. Nasty fight left Fish tried." Fish catches his breath as he listens to the conversation with the kids. "Hatchlings not stay here, to dangerous. Go back, go to other village, or go to oasis. Only options unless hatchlings want to die."
Almalik looks at the children sternly.
"You must respect your parents, even if their wishes seem cruel. Please come with us, and we will tell your village of your great bravery. Perhaps they will let you see each other then. But to stay here is to die."
Ama points at the spear. "Where'd you get this?"
"Shame on you!" Nagbur scolds Almalik and Fish from a distance. "No be messing up young love! Leave them be! They got this far."
Then he looks over at Elard and speaks more kindly. "They right though, desert be much dangerous. You got spear, you be okay. But maybe one day you not have spear when cubis attack. Or they attack while you sleep. Then no more Elard. Who protect her then?"
The boy looks from the spear to Ama.
"There was a tomb a little north of this village. The top was uncovered and I was curious what such a square rock was doing in the middle of the desert. I found that in a little chamber underground."
He says as he point at the spear. Nagbur starts berating him on the dangers of the desert and Elard looks really sad but determined.
"The village isn't much more safe. And they force us away from each other."
He looks at the girl again and silently makes a decision.
"I don't want to go back. We got this far and will make it out of the desert!"
Almalik tries again to convince the boy and it looks like it is working this time.
"I.. I don't know. It's a hard life in the village. And there are not a lot of people left, still they don't want us to be together. They also think me too young to help defend the village! They won't let me do anything I want there."
He is on the verge of joining you.
Damn kids.
Almalik gives Nagbur a glare that could freeze the desert before looking back to the child.
"A moment, young one."
He then looks over to Nagbur, Fish, and Ama and quietly moves to them.
"This child cannot be left alone in the desert. He is unsure of himself - however, he is willful and life here is hard. I am concerned for his continued safety. Also, he found us the spear and killed a cubis. He is a hero and should be rewarded. What do you think of taking him from this brutal place so as to find him adoptive parents, or even a job at the guild?"
"You mean they both live with us?" Ama asks, then shrugs. "Sure, why not?"
"But if we first go to the village, do they come with us there? They don't want to go there. Maybe they could stay at the oasis while we go to the village. We can pick them up on our way back to the guild."
Ama points at her backpack. "We have two tents anyway, and the oasis is safe. There's also enough food and drink stuff there."
Almalik nods affirmatively and then turns to the children.
"You have been very brave and it is a hard life here. For your heroism we will offer you a chance to come with us. We will try to find you a new life so you can be together, and maybe have a good job. But we must go to your village; we will bring you to the oasis where it is safe until we can come get you. Do you agree?"
Nagbur considers Almalik's suggestion. "Desert be much dangerous place, true. But short happy life better than long miserable life."
He thinks some more. "More better is long happy life. Nagbur think Vaara be okay for longshanks. Me bet she no be keeping them apart either. And guildhouse much safe."
After a bit more consideration he nods. "This be good plan."
Elard with his determined looks runs to the building his girl is in. A few moment later he returns with her.
"We are going with you."
He says with a bit of a shy smile.
Fish nods, "Ok but they your hatchlings Almalik. Fish not raise human hatchlings."
Almalik smiles back at the young teens.
"Then let us get walking, we have many days of travel."
He then smirks over at Fish.
"You call them hatchlings. Fish not raise human hatchlings."
The group sets out towards the oasis to drop off the children. The nights are cold and the days are hot. You encounter several Cubis but the spear makes short work of them. After several days of travelling and much use from the create water wand you end up in the oasis.
You replenish food and water from the safe haven and set out again towards the final destination, leaving behind some rations and a tent for the children. More days pass and finally after seeing sand fore mile upon mile you come across jagged mountains. You seek your way into the passes and early in the afternoon you end up at the village, your final destination.
Before you is a large brick wall with a wooden gate. There are guard towers on each side of the gate, currently unmanned. You are able to hear people on the other side of the wall.
"Huh," grunts Nagbur as he looks up at the gate and wall. "Maybe Nagbur hide before you yell for door to open? Stupid longshanks maybe think me be goblin, not let you in."
"Do what you will," says ALmalik as he approaches the gate. He slaps on it loudly with his hands and calls out.
"HELLO! We are travelers!"
Nagbur blinks at Almalik's reply, stopping where he is and crossing his arms over his chest. "Hrmph!"
Ama stares at the wall and its gate. "Where's the doorknob? How do we open it?"
Fish looks around nervously for anyone along the top of the wall. "Door there to keep things out. Can only open from inside."
The others side of the walls suddenly grows quiet. Someone appears in one of the guard towers atop the wall.
"Who calls?"
Calls the woman from the tower.
"These be dangerous times to travel through these deserts."
She eyes you up and waits for a reaction.
You are feeling the same eerie feeling again you had earlier in your journeys, like a storm is brewing.
If you divert your eyes from the walls and look behind you:
In the distance you see a sandstorm coming. It should arrive at your location in a few hours.
The hairs on the back of Nagbur's neck would be standing up, if he had any. Something... He looks up at the guard tower, around to either side, then behind him.
Eyes widened, he rushes forward to Alamalik and tugs at the man's trousers. "We got storm coming again," he says quietly but urgently.
"We were hired to help you!" Ama shouts up the wall. "We're from the Pathfinder Guild!"