Tarren:
Wary after the latest botched ambush by the Paracount's men, Korian keeps a close eye on his surroundings. Perception:
Tarren:
Once again astride the beast, Ovirid takes a good look around and listens for sounds other than his own breath and that of the camel before following the others.
Perception
All of the party sees lightning crackle from the cloudless sky not far in the distance.
Ovirid:
Skyala:
Tarren:
"Sykala is fighting something, lets go!"
Ixius hurries off in the direction of the lightning.
Tarren:** spoiler omitted **
Ovirid kicks the camel forward to aid the druid, but he shouts, "'at 'phinx is followin' us, lads. 'e's gonna be back at th' worst time, ye know it!"
Asim kicks his mount forward as fast as is managable in the duens, following the direction of the lightning strike. After Ovirid's warning, his eyes narrow and he scans the skies, looking for the Sphinx.
Perception Check: 1d20 + 9
Tarren:
Korian looks back over his shoulder as well and though he narrows his eyes he cannot yet perceive the Sphinx. Yet he has full confidence in his Dwarven friend so as the young mage clicks his heels to his camel to spur it to greater speed, at the same time he begins to prepare a spell to deal with the ariel menace.
[ooc Korian will have a readied spell to summon a Lantern Archon as soon as the sphinx is in sight and will command it to attack the evil flying beast.
And Hey! Just noticed that Pathfinder totally changed the monsters for Summon Monsters! I had been planning to send a Hippgriff to fight the sphinx as that woulda been a cool fight, but, now no hippogriff! : ([/ooc]
Several more lightning blasts appear to the northwest of the party.
Ovirid is following the others and trusting to the camel to avoid holes while I continues to study the sky and the terrain. If'n they laid a trap fer us, 'ey might 'ave planned two. 'n where'd 'at blasted 'phinx get off t'?
Perception
Perception
Perception
The blasts of lightning comes about 200' to the northwest.
Ovirid is following the others and trusting to the camel to avoid holes while I continues to study the sky and the terrain. If'n they laid a trap fer us, 'ey might 'ave planned two. 'n where'd 'at blasted 'phinx get off t'?
Perception 1d20 + 11
Perception 1d20 + 11
Perception 1d20 + 11
Ovirid knows it's up there. Somewhere. Circling around waiting for a dwarf to let his guard down.
The sphinx is not approaching. Are you waiting for him to attack?
When the party reaches the place where the lightning blasts struck the ground, they find one Chelish legionnaire crawling across the sands, another lying in the sand obviously dead. Two Chelish legionnaires kneel, hands behind their backs, awaiting discipline.
Two of the camels seem fine, but the other stands and stumbles and attempts to stand again. The fourth doesn't even bother trying. He just kneels on the sand an wails.
Tarren:
Seeing the condition of the camels, Korian hastily hops off of his own camel and tosses the three sets of reins to whichever of his companions is closest. Drawing his dagger as he moves, he gives the legionaries a glare which makes it clear he will be dealing with them shortly.
Then pausing by the wailing camel with his knife at it's throat he calls out loudly to the air "Sykala, can or will you heal them? Otherwise I shall put them out of their misery now."
His brusque tone movements make it clear that the young mage is in a hurry and impatient for any delay, yet he does not fail to also continue to keep one eye on the sky. Perception:
"Where is the Paracount?!" Ixius asks one of the kneeling Legionnaires sternly.
"Where is the Paracount?!" Ixius asks one of the kneeling Legionnaires sternly.
1d20+3
The legionnaires glance at each other and then look again at the sand.
After ruffling Ixius' hair, the little elemental dives down kicking up sand until a giant arrow is formed pointing in the direction of the paracount. Pausing for a moment to make sure they are paying attention the vortex then heads off in that direction following the trail left by the paracounts party.
After ruffling Ixius' hair, the little elemental dives down kicking up sand until a giant arrow is formed pointing in the direction of the paracount. Pausing for a moment to make sure they are paying attention the vortex then heads off in that direction following the trail left by the paracounts party.
The party sees a large plume of sand, shoot up and travel north.
|
Asim watches the interaction with the men, but when Sykala points the way to the Paracount, he calls to the others while pointing at the men. "Take their Camels and supplies and leave them to find their own way back. Give them some water and rations and let's be on our way. I have an Axe Blade here that hungers for that man's neck."
With that, he starts off slowly in the direction that Sykala indicated, mking sure that he doesn't get too far ahead while the rest of them deal with the Soldiers.
As he speaks, under his hand the camels suddenly become healed. Smiling slightly and briefly to himself Korian puts away his dagger at pats the beast's neck affectionately as it rises.
Moving towards the legionaries his face becomes a mask showing not one once of sympathy as he says to them "You are fortunate my comrade is so merciful. In my tribe, Desert Justice would have meant leaving you with no food, water or even clothes. Consider yourselves blessed indeed to retain what you do."
He then calls for one of his allies to aid him and proceeds to quickly divest the mean of Everything he can find on them except 2 day's worth of water and food each, dividing up everything else between the four new camels the party suddenly owns. Perception:
He also occasionally continues to glance up at the sky and the feeling of having a hidden crossbow pointed at his back makes him more surly by the moment.
As he speaks, under his hand the camels suddenly become healed. Smiling slightly and briefly to himself Korian puts away his dagger at pats the beast's neck affectionately as it rises.
Moving towards the legionaries his face becomes a mask showing not one once of sympathy as he says to them "You are fortunate my comrade is so merciful. In my tribe, Desert Justice would have meant leaving you with no food, water or even clothes. Consider yourselves blessed indeed to retain what you do."
He then calls for one of his allies to aid him and proceeds to quickly divest the mean of Everything he can find on them except 2 day's worth of water and food each, dividing up everything else between the four new camels the party suddenly owns. Perception:1d20+10
He also occasionally continues to glance up at the sky and the feeling of having a hidden crossbow pointed at his back makes him more surly by the moment.
"Bastards! You'd leave us to die? You're as bad as the Paracount!" mutters one of the legionnaires, spitting at the ground.
"Don't waste your water," cautions one of the others. "We may have a slim chance of making it back to Sothis."
The legionnaires wear no armour and carry sais.
Korian seems to be oblivious to the comments, walking away without expression, yet suddenly he spins about, wrath evident on his face
"You Dare to speak to us so! We show you mercy and you Dare to pass judgement on Us! You, invaders from another realm, come to sully our soil and steal our natural treasures! You take orders from this Paracount and would have gladly spilled our blood into the sands! And for what? For the paltry coin he pays you! You are worse than he, for at least he has a purpose! You are nothing but dogs who bark at his command! Leave my sight! NOW! Before I gut you where you stand!"
From his expression, stance and the glinting shortsword that is suddenly in his fist, it is clear the furious young man is deadly serious about every word he says.
The dwarf stands watching the scene, arms folded. After Korian's outburst, he addresses the soldier with the attitude. "Ye best be listenin' t' yer friend. Two days o' rations, used smart 'n wit' yer friends 'elp, 'n ye'll 'ave a chance o' seein' yer 'omeland ag'n. If'n ye 'ave a problem wit' th' arrangements, we'll give yer share t' yer friends 'n Ah'll kill ye quick now so ye don't 'ave t' suffer. 'tis th' best Ah can offer ye."
Drawing an axe and making a show of examining the blade, he says, "We 'r in a 'urry to see a man about some business, so ye need t' be fer decidin'. Unless ye can buy more rations with better information - 'at might be an option."
The other one, the one with the common sense not to spit, speaks up now, "We'll trade you: information for two of the camels. We owe the Paracount nothing."
"One camel, if we like what we hear"
The other one, the one with the common sense not to spit, speaks up now, "We'll trade you: information for two of the camels. We owe the Paracount nothing."
"Ah'm fer thinkin' we 'ave an extry camel 'r two. What d'ye 'ave fer us? We'll 'ave t' decide 'ow many camels it be worth."
The man begins, hesitantly, "It started for me in Corentyn. My unit and I were... uh ... ordered to board a ship bound for Sothis, accompanying, uh, a Paracount who we'd ... uh ... never previously met. All we knew is that he reported ... um ... to Queen Abrogail herself. We ... uh ... met the Paracount on the ship along with that strange lot of ... uh ... mercenaries -- or whatever you'd call them, ... riff-raff ... tomb-robbers ... adventurers like yourselves -- that he hired on. It wasn't until we were on the ship that we found out that ... uh ... our purpose. The Queen ... uh ... I mean, Queen Abrogail ... uh ... believes that ... believes that ... the power of the ... uh ... ancient Pharoahnic -- is Pharoanic a word? -- dynasties ... uh ... of Osirion ... Ancient Osirion ... uh ... is admirable ... something that we ... I mean, Cheliax, ... can repeat. This has been ... uh ... going on for the last few years. It's been, at least a couple of years, wouldn't you say?"
He asks this last question to the guard beside him who nods.
He looks like he's going to continue if you let him.
Ovirid doesn't say anything, just gestures to encourage him to keep going. He does scowl a bit at the association between tomb-robbers and ourselves.
"So, ... uh ..., as I was saying, ... uh ..., the Queen ordered the Paracount to travel to Sothis, ... uh ..., to dig up, quite literally, anything that he could on the ancient Pharoanic powers. There wasn't really any particular destination in mind, I think. The Paracount was haughty and avoided confiding in us, but that half-orc that accompanies him was friendly with the men and, ... uh ..., sometimes joined us for training. We arrived in Sothis two weeks ago and the, ... uh ..., Paracount spent most of his time shaking down merchants for any news about, ... uh ..., recent digs. It was about one week ago that that Esteban character joined us. He later said he knew, ... uh ..., some of you, is that right?"
The man waits before continuing.
Korian scowls at his Ovirid as the Dwarf looks to show the men even more mercy, yet even in his furious state, the hot-blooded young tribesman can see the sense of what his friend and Ixius are about. So he says nothing but directs his scowl, and his weapon point, at the men kneeling in the sand.
The man waits until Korian raises his blade and directs an even sharper look at him and then continues, "So, yes, ... uh ..., this Esteban has had business with the Paracount before and soon joined our party. He, ... uh ..., consults in secret with the Paracount but I did overhear one snippet of conversation one day while I was bringing the Paracount receipts from the day's purchases."
"Esteban said, '... raise the barge and more gold than you can imagine'. You wouldn't have to return to Sothis and pay taxes on whatever you find in the desert, so it's worth your while twice over, my friend'."
"To which the Paracount replied, 'And what would I do with a fortune in gold in a backwater like Bloodcove?'"
"Esteban, in that wheedling voice of his answered, 'Buy Bloodcove! With that much gold you could buy the town and dedicate it as a distant port of Cheliax. Appoint me governor ... deputy governor ... and we could ...'."
"At this point, the Paracount noticed my presence and waved at Esteban to be silent. That was about 11 days ago. The Paracount did seem interested but this was still before we heard about the Four Pharoahs."
He waits for questions.
"The part about the barge and the gold is true," Ixius tells the other two "I was there."
"It wasn't until days later that I realized the Paracount had taken Esteban's plan under consideration. We have left with enough supplies for a much longer trip than we intended to be making. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Shortly after we met Esteban, ... uh ..., the Paracount learned that the shifting sands had unearthed a complex of pyramids unseen in decades. His research told him that if one could stand amongst these four, ... uh ..., pyramids and had the right, ... uh ..., key, one could call a, ... uh ..., fifth pyramid from a demiplane where it is hidden. None of Lonicera -- I think you know her as Neferet -- or the Paracount's research told us what form the key would make. We went to the auction, ... uh ..., where we first saw you, ... uh ..., in hopes of uncovering the key. It turns out you did that for us."
The man pauses for a bit and then croaks, "I'll tell you more, but first I need some, ... uh ..., water."
The legionnaires wear no armour and carry sais.
The man waits then begs again, "Just a little bit of water...."