"Titian is King and Agis and the former slaves are part of the council. Nothing gets done without the councils approval these days."
He shrugs at the question of how far away it is.
"Hopefully your travels will not be to far."
"Well that is not helpful." Manu heads for the door assuming the man has nothing more useful to say to them.
Tydus follows Manu, "Well, at least we have some insight on this Agis fellow. Do we seek he and his representative out or do you wish to follow this lead which may be a road to nowhere?"
"Its very little to go on...just head west until you find some mythical cistern and do something there to find out how it works. I don't know if what we learned about Agis helps us anymore either. According to that fellow though we can't talk to anyone about this or we forfeit his payment. I say we buy supplies for a long trip and head out, perhaps we'll get lucky and find others heading that way who we can force more information out of them."
"Road to nowhere it is..." Tydus almost grins.
You easily gather some supplies for the trip and make your way out.
The sun-scorched hills of the Tyr region stretch before you. A shimmering heat mirage paints the false lure of water across the horizon before giving way to the soaring peaks of the Ringing Mountain to the west. Compared to this desolate wasteland, the chaos of the great, thronging city behind you seems a virtual paradise.
Traveling through the foothills at the base of the mountain like you have been here before you make good time of 4 hours before you come to something that appears to be what your looking for.
Nestled at the base of a large hill, it appears to the untrained eye to be little more than an odd rocky spire jutting up from the hillside.
The endless barren landscape suddenly gives way to a lush patch of vegetation near a large hill. You can see no water source, yet the plant life thrives. A tall, rocky spire juts from the hillside and a cave entrance yawns open below it. The entire valley is filled with a strange noise; a thick whistling that sounds much like the world's largest pair of lungs sucking in a single, great, continuous breath.
Tydus turns to Manu, "You are getting good at finding lush vegetation, perhaps you are a Druid and never knew it? Shall we enter or investigate the perimeter first?"
"I know nothing of spirits or druids save for that Thri-kreen we met at the oasis. Still water has always fascinated me. We seem to be drawn to it by fate if nothing else."
Manu draws his sword and keeps it at his side as he leads the way slowly toward the vegetation and the cave. His eyes move around knowing that where there is this much plant life there is water and where there is water there are monsters that seek to make it their own and protect it from all others.
You make your way into the cave. The whistling shriek of wind echoes throughout this strange cavern. Sunlight lances down from a hole in the ceiling, painting a bright circle of yellow light over a similar hollow shaft in the cavern floor. The porous walls glisten with moisture. Softly glowing runes around the ceiling opening pulse in time to the breath-like intake of air. The cavern air is surprisingly cool, and the floor is slick and wet. Clumps of luminescent fungi grow from the moist ground, adding an eerie green glow to the shadows beyond the bright circle of light.
Tall, emaciated humanoids lounge about the cavern, drinking water from large gourds. Weapons lie close to hand, but these gith are hardly prepared for battle.
Manu crouches as best he can by the entrance and says nothing while he waits for Tydus to assess the situation.
At the groundquaking footfalls of Manu Tydus nearly groans. He opts to deal with less Gith than more Gith and calls upon the Way to assist in the matter.
Sleep
All 6 visible Gith appear to fall into a deep sleep.
Perception . Wild .
"Yours strength in The Way is truly amazing Tydus. I am glad you are on my side."
Tydus you hear some scurrying on the other side of the cave in which you can't see from your passage.
Tydus claspos Manu on the back, "My friend, where the Way fails your power finds the solution. Together we are formidable! I hear something coming from the other side of the cave, quickly we should investigate!"
Manu moves forward sword in hand dispatching any Gith he passes with a coup de grace cut as he looks for the source of the noise Tydus heard, drawing focus on himself so Tydus could follow ready with another mind blast as needed.
Making your way deeper in you see 3 more Giths making their way to their sleeping companion about 30 ft away from you not but they don't' notice you yet.
Tydus will PUSH the closest one backwards to give Manu an advantage in combat.
Psion
The Gith flies backward unaware WTF is going on and falls to his ass the other 2 look shocked!
"Surrender or die." Manu says in his most intimidating voice as he moves in to cut one of the Gith down with his metal blade.
Manu chops one of the Giths clean in half and the 2 left look completely stunned with one on his ass. They hold their hands in the air dropping the spears they had in hand to the ground scared for their life.
Tydus grins, "Now, talk tell us what this place is and what you have found else my companions' sword collects two more souls..."
You take in the cavern a bit more now that combat is over and you see a 10' wide hole in the center. Moisture from the trap collects and trickles through this 10' hole into whatever is beneath it which you could only assume is the cistern.
The two Gith looks confused as if they really don't understand what your saying.
"I don't think they know anything useful or they don't speak our tongue."
Tydus sneers, "Then they are not much use are they? Should we tie them up or simply put them out of their misery?"
Manu thinks for a moment before he executes the Gith. "I don't like leaving enemies behind us as we delve deeper. I certainly don't trust Gith. They were likely just squatting here for the water and shelter."
The two Gith look at you confused as you converse with each other obviously they don't understand the common tongue. These must really be feral ones. There is nothing else here in this cave besides the hole and their bone spears.
Manu slices and dices all the Gith making sure all are dead.
Manu then goes over to examine the hole in the center of the room looking down.
The hole looks to deep to just jump down into if you wish to go down and rather dark as you can't see the bottom. Looking around you could easily make a makeshift rope with some of the Giths materials or attempt a climb down.
Tydus looks up at Manu, "Do you think those ropes could hold you big fella?"
"If it is giant hair rope...yes. If not....I don't think so." He drops a stone down the hole checking for when it hits bottom and if anything down there moves.
The rock clangs to the bottom it's not a very fall drop down you could possibly even jump down being as big as you are (with a successful athletics TN 10 check to not hurt yourself).
"I guess we go down." Manu Jumps down the pits sword in hand ready to activate Catfall in case he needs to.
Tydus will try and secure the rope to climb down, after all, they need to get back up later!
The bright light and howling winds above give way to the cool darkness of the cistern. The only light here is a wan, greenish glow produced by clumps of fungi that does little to dispel the gloom in this cramped space. The cistern is obviously not full, although you've never seen so much water in one place. A wide, irregularly shaped pool divides the cistern in half; its waters are still, clear, and only knee-deep.
To the far side of the cavern you see a horrific beast which roughly the size of an erdlu, quadrupe dal, and covered in a rock-like hide with jutting spikes of stone and crystal. Its cat-like head has large ears, greenish eyes, and a wide jaw. The beast is armed with formidable talons and a massive set of dagger-like fangs. However, despite the beasts terrifying natural armaments, the obvious, malign intellect behind its glowing, red eyes is even more horrific.
Tembo
Initiative .
Round 1
Tembo - 19
Tydus - 13
Manu - 8
The creature lunges at Manu racking with 2 claws.
The first rake of the claws strikes but Manu's tough skin absorbs the blow. The second one however draws blood!
Tydus takes a shot at the creature with the sword he so rarely uses. Plunging it into the beasts exposed flank...
Sword Attack
Sword Damage
Manu lets outs a roar of pain as the Tembo rakes its claws over his body, twisting to throw it off before it does more then long red scratches that will no doubt leave a mark. As he struggles to find footing in the water he grips his sword tightly and brings it down in a two handed cut at the monster's neck.
Tydus slashes down with his sword an hurts the beast a bit.
Manu unleashes his fury after he was cut and finishes off the beast with a mighty blow!
Manu stands there in the water covered with blood both his own and the Tembo as he lets the all out attack's fatigue on his body pass. It really took a lot for him to go all out and if he hadn't finished the creature swiftly he has no doubt he would be the one cut down in the pool of water at his feet now. "Water is life. I am sure there may be even more creatures drawn here to this place like the Gith and the Tembo."
Manu looks around his surroundings now that he has more of a chance and looks to see what sort of light sources are down here.
Tydus nods, "Hopefully none as fearsome as this beast".
"Shall we explore further?"
Looking around there doesn't appear to be any other exits or entrances besides the hole you dropped into. This is really a marvelous work of art though. The area above is able to generate renewable water that flows down into this area. A never ending supply of water for whoever controls it even if it's a slow process. Water is life on this world and whoever controls this will definitely have power over those who do not because even the biggest Oasis eventually dry up.