"No! Gods damn it...." Muqaq mutters darkly. Fairly certain that the good brother and the dark stranger are already dead, he steps up in front of Seif and raises his hands wrists together, palms and fingers cupped towards the birds. He says a word and large fan of fire sprays forth from them.
Round 4:
Xanyon steps in a pace and fires his pistol again, hitting the dog sized bird with the shot. Seif[b] switches his weapon to his sling, getting ready to attack the birds at range. [b]Sati summons another dog which snaps at a bird, but missing the agile creature. Muqaq takes a few steps forward, wading through the tall grass and cupping his hands, throws fire at the birds.
At the flames, the birds scatter. The grass takes the flame, as does the nest, causing all to burst into flames. The dog is able to take a parting shot at one of the feathered ones as it leaps into the air. .
Round 5:
"Those two are dead. Everyone back inside, now! If the birds follow, we form up in a doorway and take them one by one. If they don't follow, we come back soon to make sure the whole building doesn't catch fire."
"Muqaq, kile shetani ni wewe kucheza? Sisi ni katikati ya mapambano!"
"Njoo mtu! Wale wawili wamekufa, na sisi wengine wapate kujiunga nao kama sisi siyo makini. Sisi ni karibu mchanga wa rasilimali na wewe ni mmoja tu wa kwetu inafaa kwa kupambana melee. Kupata mlango na kulinda it!!"
Sati raises her crossbow and fires at the nearest bird at which she has a clear shot. .
If only I'd had time to summon Mohgwier!
The dog she had summoned jumps clear of the flames, chasing after one of the birds.
HP = 13/13
AC = 18/14/14
Weapon Equipped = Pistol
Grit = 1/2
Orc Ferocity = 1/1
Bullets = 30/50
Black Powder = 30/50
Alchemical cartridge (paper) = 18/20
Speed = 30'
Status Effects = None
Xanyon withdraws to stand my Muqaq.
"I've a few dozen shots left."
As the group pulls back from the courtyard, the flames continue to spread. While this small garden must have been watered regularly at one time, it is kindle dry now. The flames take hold in the nest most strongly, putting off a dense black smoke. The fire spreads through the grass very quickly, and in a matter of moments, the whole of the vegetation in the area is alight and burning.
The young Geier scatter at the flames, and the two older ones, those who have had their feathers grow in, take to the air. The circle above the courtyard low for a time, at first seeming like they are looking for an opportunity to swoop back in and resume their meal. However, before long the flames take to the bushes and the trees as well, and it becomes obvious that it will take a long time for them to burn down. The birds soar on the rising hot air until they are lost to sight in the darkness of the night sky, but they do not return.
The three younger Geier scatter as well, two to the south, and one to the north. None can fly, and they are awkward creatures on the ground. Chasing them down and finishing them from range is an easy matter. Each time they try to charge close enough to strike, they are easily outrun, and when they attempt to run, they are easily caught. Before long, the three are dead.
The courtyard continues to burn at length, but luckily the flames do not spread to the monastery itself. Within an hour, most of the the grass and small shrubs are burnt out, and the only fires remain around the two large trees, and continue to smolder around the nest, which was thickly packed with sticks, grass, and feathers. The four remaining explorers and warriors watch with grim enchantment as the fire burns, knowing it will be some time before they can reclaim the bodies of their fallen.
Muqaq kicks the wall in frustration. "Kutomba!" he swears in Ignan. "First Gin and now Brother Larvendi! Even as the Dawnflower's light works to rid her house of darkness, the shadows take a terrible toll." His face hovers in a tense snarling frown for several long moments. His eyes fall downcast as he turns to the others. After another pause he speaks with sorrowful determination. "I may have failed us here, but I will not do so again." Muqaq crosses his arms across his chest, then continues.
"We must rest to recover our strength. Once we are in peak condition we can finish our explorations and then return to camp. Lets sleep in the dormitory where we first gained entry. We can use the beds to barricade the windows. Xanyon if you can keep watch for eight hours to allow us to regain our spells, we can watch you in turn for another eight."
"I will keep the watch. It'll be no different than a night shift at the factory back home."
Retiring back to the dormitory area, the team finds a few areas that might work for shelter.
The room through which you initially entered presents a good choice, as the roof is in tact. However, there are presently a few baboon bodies on the floor that have been bleeding out for some time, resulting in a bit of a mess to clean up. In addition, the room has two windows and three doors, including one that is jammed shut with mold and has not been explored, making for a number of possible entrances a concern.
The room the in which the baboons nested is another good option, as it has only one entrance and has a solid ceiling. However, the smell...
The mess hall has numerous openings in the ceiling but is otherwise fit, and the kitchen could work if you didn't mind sleeping in close quarters. Finally, there is the room around which dozens of torn books are scattered; presumably a library, but the doors are still closed, and it too lies unexplored.
Seif-al-Din wrinkles his nose.
"Let's avoid sleeping in the room with all the baboon corpses. Perhaps we could sleep in the kitchen area? At least the roof is sound, and it is highly defensible..."
"Agreed. I had forgotten the offal in my distress. Kitchen it is."
"Our loss is truly a blow, but we all knew the dangers; if this task was easy, after all, it would have been done before now. At least Tarin died attempting save another, and we were able to provide him with an impromptu (if accidental) funeral pyre."
"This is a savage land. Is it all like this? Blood and death? The wastes outside my home were deadly but in this place it seems worse, if that is possible."
"All life ends in death. In the desert the cycle seems to be much shorter and less forgiving than in other places. Varisia is soft as a mother's breast compared to this, my ancestral home." Muqaq answes Xanyon, "But even as I ramble, I grow weary. I would rest my eyes friends. If you'll excuse me."
Muqaq makes his way to a corner of the kitchen and sits down, leaning his head against the wall and closing his eyes.
The rest of he night passes uneventfully. You arise in the morning feeling rested, though a bit sore from the awkward positions the small room forced you to sleep in.
During the night Muqaq is visited by a terrible dream. He sees Tarin and Gin walking away from him, and calls out to them, begging them to come back. He runs after them but they seem to get ever farther away in the inky blackness of the dream world, ignoring his cries. Finally they disappear, and Muqaq falls to his knees crying out in shame, "I'm sorry. I should have been a better leader." There was no reply from the emptiness. "I'm sorry!" he repeated, in a bitter, echoing shout.
"Not sorry enough..." comes the reply from behind him. Turning, he sees Tarin and Gin standing there. Tarin's clothing ignites and burns away, revealing the scarred man beneath, who also starts to bubble and burn. Gin's body is smashed and broken, as he was when they found him under the rubble. They speak in unison saying, "You have failed us Muqaq Al'Varisi. Us and so many others. You had it in you to do better, but you FAILED!" Muqaq scrambles backwards as the apparitions advance, dead hands grasping at his feet. More figures appear out of the darkness, all the people that he has allowed to die. The figures are dark and undefined, though many of them appear to be hideously burnt. They crawl towards him in a great horde whispering, "Failed....failed.....you have failed us!"
The scarred dead hands crawling up his legs send Muqaq into a panic and he cries out to the darkness, "Sarenrae! Oh beauteous lady, forgive me my sins! Spare me from the torment of my failures!" For a tense moment the hands continue their clawing advance, and Muqaq can feel a pit of terror open in deep in his core. But in the instant before all hope is lost, a beam of pure, bright sunlight pierces the gloom. It strikes Muqaq full in the face with the force of a punch.
Awaking with a start, shaking and sweat streaming down his face, Muqaq finds himself clutching his mother's holy symbol. He looks around in a moment of fear, before the sights of his sleeping companions and Xanyon's back across the small kitchen reassure him. Better. I can do better. I MUST do better.
Pushing himself slowly to his feet he walks over to Xanyon and puts a hand on his shoulder, saying quietly, "Thank you Xanyon. Why don't you get some sleep? I can take over for a while. Bad dreams, and it's time for my morning prayers anyway." Muqaq's smile appears strained, dichotomous with the beads of sweat streaming down his normally dry face.
Seif-al-Din awakens just before sunrise, as is his wont, so that he can conduct his morning prayers facing East, towards the rising sun. It is normally a time for peaceful reflection, but this morning, it is tinged with bitterness, with the occasional whiff of smoke a stark reminder of what has been lost.
Everlight, I only knew Tarin for a short time, and I never had the opportunity to learn the stranger's name, but I hope that they find peace. If it is within your grace to grant it, I beseech you to make sure that their souls find their way, untroubled, to the Boneyard.
His quite prayers are disrupted by the sound of Muqaq's troubled dreams.
It would appear that I am not the only one troubled by what has happened. Still, wisdom comes with experience. I hope that we all survive long enough to find some small measure of it.
When Muqaq joins him, he nods gravely, but otherwise leaves the man alone, trusting that if he wants to share, he will do so in his own time, and way.
Upon returning to the others, he nods to Xanyon.
"Thank-you for watching over us last night. Tell me, did you ever discover what was in that 'treasure box' you found up in the rafters?"
Outside and facing the dawn, Muqaq kneels next to Seif. Today is different from other days though. As he prays silently next to the suli he feels a new kind of knowledge streaming into him through the holy symbol. He suddenly knows he's been given a bit of heaven's power to channel as his own. The rays of the morning sun, and the wide blue sky seem to be their own teachers as epiphanies of new and different sorts of spells soak into his brain.
As the experience subsides he turns to Seif and says quietly, "I think the Dawnflower touched me last night." Reaching out a hand, he gestures and several feet away a handful of sand is lifted into the air, and poured slowly back out. . He raises the other hand, and the snaps his fingers and the sound of Varisian songbirds fills the morning air . Clapping them both together a gallon of water splashes into the sand .
"I could do none of these wonders yesterday. There are still more things I feel are within my ability now. Tell me, how was it when you gained your powers?"
Listening to Muqaq, Seif-al-Din nods gravely, and then smiles.
"I will take that as a good omen; that the Everlight is taking some small interest in what we are doing here. I am truly glad for you, Muqaq."
When Muqaq asks about Seif-al-Din's powers, a momentary look of pain crosses his features.
"I actually know not where the motive force for my powers comes, although I suspect it has something to do with my blood, and the elemental beings from whom I am descended. Suffice to say, their manifestation had more to do with 'delving too greedily and too deep' in the search for knowledge, than anything else.
From a young age, however, I was raised to follow the teachings of the Dawnflower, and when I was in extremis, confused and alone, it was with Her clergy that I sought refuge. Since that time, I have devoted myself to Her creed, and do what I can to spread Her Light, even as I continue to search for answers."
"Then we shall search together brother." Muqaq says, grasping Seif by the forearm and laying one hand on his shoulder in a gesture of affection. "Lets go in and check on Sati."
Muqaq will then follow Seif back inside, and listen with interest to Xanyon's reply to Seif's question.
"I suppose you're right Muqaq, but it's still hard to take."
"You're welcome Seif. Nothing happened, I think everything was scared away by the fire. The box? No, I forgot all about it in the excitement with the bird. We should open it now, yes?"
Within the box are a few items; a unadorned golden ring, and a small gilded box, no bigger than a joint of a thumb, a brass and silver amulet, a finely cut green stone, and a handful of platinum coins . The tiny box is lined in gold and bears a fine braided leather thong by which it could be worn.
Seif-al-Din concentrates, and whispering a brief benediction to the Dawnflower, casts a spell.
The golden ring, the tiny box, and the amulet all register as magic. The stone and the coins do not.
"I think someone else may need to take a look at these, as well..."
Muqaq will take a look as well. "Hmmmm...." he says, examining the objects.
Seif is able to identify the ring as a Ring of Feather Falling. Muqaq confirms this. Neither of you can identify the tiny box, but Muqaq is able to recognize the amulet as an Aegis of Recovery.
On inspection the tiny box is revealed to be full of slips of paper. Each with a small prayer from Sarenrae's holy book written upon it.
"Magic?"
Xanyon quickly backs away from the magic items.
"Are they dangerous?"
Seif-al-Din chuckles when he sees Xanyon's reaction.
"No my friend, far from it. This ring will slow the wearer's descent if they ever fall from a great height. That amulet will pump the wearer full of healing energy if he should ever go unconscious (and then crumble to dust), whilst that small box is designed to worn on the forehead, and will grant the wearer a premonition of whether an action he is about to take will push him away from being aligned with his deity's ethos."
"Seif, you should probably wear that amulet. You have the most healing capabilities out of our group. Should you go down, we'll need you back up immediately. If only Gin had been wearing that ring..."
Seif-al-Din smiles, and shakes his head.
"I disagree, Muqaq. You now have just as much healing potential as I do. Moreover, Almah has technically appointed you as our leader, whilst I am simply a foot soldier; it would set a bad example if you were to die, whilst I am ultimately expendable. For the same reasons, I feel that the phylactery should go to you, as well."
He then shrugs.
"I have no strong opinions regarding whom should receive the ring; know simply that I do not wish to lay claim to it."
"I suppose you may be correct. Sati, Xanyon, how do you feel?"
"I can't use most of that, go ahead. I'm not always comfortable with magic. We had it in Alkenstar but learned not to rely on it."
Not that we're in the Mana Wastes here...
Sati finishes her own prayers before approaching the others. (Apparently she was out of sight, and no one noticed her going through her morning routines.)
"Those items favor those who approach their adversaries in close. I would prefer to hang back in most cases and allow my celestial friends to attack. I think the Phylactery should remain with one who serves the Dawnflower more directly than I. I am dedicated to her, wholly, but my power is not drawn from her as yours is. Mohgwier can wear magic items, so there may be occasion when using the ring would suit him, but it is not strictly necessary for him to wear it all the time."
"Seif will wear the ring then. I will wear the phylactery and the amulet. Seif should also wield the small magical hammer until we have a chance to sell it. We might cross a foe who is resistant to normal weapons."
"Alright, lets finish exploring this place and get back to camp. I'd have Mohgwier go first, since she can always be re-summoned tomorrow should the worst occur. The rest of us stay together, ten paces back from Mohgwier ." Muqaq instructs after everyone is ready to go. "Alright people, lets move out."
"I have some ability with devices, keep your eyes open for such traps as the pugwampis left. Maybe we should start with...the nest?"
"Lets be thorough, we'll get there in time."
Returning to the dormitory room through which you first entered, you see again the door exiting the east side of the room. There are no other entrances into the chamber, either from the hall or windows from the outside. You do recall seeing from the outside that the room was the floor level of what used to be a tower, now collapsed. As such, there is no roof on that section, and so it might be accessed by climbing a wall from the outside, if necessary.
The door itself is covered in a thick layer of mold, so much so that the original features of the door, or the door handle, cannot be seen any longer.
Seif-al-Din pulls out a crowbar, scrapes away the mold until he can find the edges of the door, and then attempts to wrench it open.
After more than a few moments of trying, Seif feels the door start to move at last (on the fifth attempt). It grinds slowly open, revealing the chamber beyond. Mohgwier moves into position and moves into the room first.
The mold covers much of this room. It is perhaps 15 ft by 20, and has a large descending staircase on the northern end of the room. This appears to be where the mold is coming from. It creeps up the stairs and across the floor to the door, where it encrusted it as was previously seen. The roof is entirely missing, and the bright blue late afternoon desert sky can be seen above. At the southeast corner of the room there is a small alcove with a ladder, likely leading to the tower that used to stand in this spot. While it leads to no tower now, it would allow one to easily access the roof of the monastery.
Seif-al-Din glances around the room.
"Shall we finish this level before trying the staircase?"
"Yes." Muqaq replies. "We should also pile up all the bodies outside and burn them before they attract something hungry."
Seif-al-Din shrugs.
"Fair enough. We don't want the carrion attracting carrion eaters. Dealing with whatever is here will be dangerous enough."
"I think we'll need to clear out this mold before we can inhabit the place."
Xanyon will begin moving bodies and parts of pugwampi traps.