"Do any of you not have legs?"
He's probably asking if anyone in the group can't ride a horse.
Ahmargane walks among the horses until he finds a sound mount and a decent saddle. He tosses what bags of loot, water and food in saddlebags or whatever is handy onto the mount.
He mounts up and moves forward to scout the path.
Momentum: 4 Doom: 12
Following the path left by Satabus and the asshuri, the terrain gets more chaotic and rough, sloping upwards into low and jagged foothills to the southeast of the ambush site. Following the path becomes more di cult as the nature of the place becomes more apparent — a sprawling city was here, a proud metropolis of carved black stone, set amidst the reddish foothills, its passing marked by the ruins of its long-collapsed structures, stretches of flagstone streets exposed through the ground, squared stones that marked walls, jutting spars of stone that were towers, and even the rough outlines of buildings that are now aught but rubble.
Looking the area over, you see a sturdy white Ophirian warhorse equipped in rich and opulent barding and harness, the armor gilt and the saddle of leather and wood and sturdy enough for a mounted knight. Its hide slick with sweat, the beast is trembling, wide-eyed with fear, nostrils and the edges of its mouth foamed with saliva. Obviously Satabus' horse, it continues to shy away from anyone approaching.
At this distance, you can see the empty sword sheath on the saddle, and the shield is missing from where it hung on the horse’s flank.
Ahmargane, normally quite good with pack animals, caravan horses and working dogs doesn't fare so well with this fine stallion. He doesn't even get close as the beast whinnies and shies away from the stranger...
The Rogue dismounts and starts to observe the area for any signs of conflict and any tracks....
While looking for tracks and other signs of a struggle, Amar keeps glancing over at the fine mount in obvious distress and decides to try another tact...
The Rogue digs through his pack and searches the area for a delicious apple or at least some fresh grass and tries to soothe it again.
Observation (16/3):
Looks like the prince was here. I will look for tracks and see if I can tell where he has gone."
Tracking (17/4):
Krieg watches Ahmargane's attempt to soothe the horse with interest, but doesn't say anything.
Momentum: 2 Doom: 12
As Kern looks around, he hears a slight groan along with the clanking of metals. Searching the area for the source of the sound reveals a man in plate armor, half-propped up with his back to a low wall, broadsword still in hand, the ground stained with his and other blood. The ground around him is almost a butcher’s table, the corpses of asshuri and their horses strewn wildly, almost as if tossed haphazardly around. They bear wounds made by swords or daggers, and something that has ripped and torn gashes across exposed flesh. A particular carrion stench still lingers in the area, distinctive and recognizable to anyone who has been around dead bodies, and unusual because none of the bodies have gone to rot.
With a gasp, Neferet runs forward, dropping to her knees and cradling his head and. The Khorajan prince is barely alive, his face half-covered in blood and his armor streaked with gore. Protruding from his arm, leg, and shoulder are arrows, with the cut shafts of at least two other arrows elsewhere on his limbs. The worst of it, though, is the end of a broken sword blade sticking out of his breastplate, impaling his torso. Aside from the noise he just made as he slowly stirs, he would have passed for dead. As Neferet tends to him, Satabus gasps and cries out in pain calling out a name that sounds not like Neferet, but Amunet.
Signey dashes over and tries to evaluate whether he is within the realms of saving or if a quick and merciful death will be his only salvation.
"By Crom!", the warrior breaths as he sees the ruined body of the prince. He assists Signey in anyway possible, attempting to save the poor man who obviously fought hard to live...taking many a foe with him. Kern is impressed with the prince's fortitude and skill.
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Gauis whistles appreciatively. "Yep. Let none say that the Prince did not give them hell."
Seeing that between Neferet, Signey, and Kern the wounded man is receiving enough attention, Gauis does not fret about it--he will live or die, in the way of things.
Something that he _can_ affect are the bodies strewn about. Specifically if they still have gear and/or valuables that are no longer of use to them. By any reckon they still have a long journey ahead, and their chance of actually seeing payment at the end of it just decreased significantly.
They best find a way to pay themselves, for that may be all they have coming to them.
Healing (9/2)
With some knowledge of battlefield first aid, Kern assists Signey in trying to keep the prince alive.
Momentum: 0 Doom: 12
As Satabus' wounds are treated he stammers and gasps haltingly, his eyes wild with shock, spasms of pain causing him to grind his teeth. Neferet rushes over, kneeling at his side. "Satabus, where's Amunet? Where's my sister?" With some pauses caused by pain, he slowly gasps out his story.
"Amunet and I eluded the asshuri and we entered these ruins, hoping we could find some kind of shelter in one of the more intact structures. We swore each other to make one last stand, dying together if such was our fate. Shortly after the asshuri approached, dismounting and surrounded us. They pulled me from my warhorse and when it became clear I would not surrender they shot arrows into me. The asshuri’s leader stepped forth and I felt his blade slide slowly into my flesh and muscle. The Pain was overwhelming, yet I was still able to deal the asshuri a deathblow in return, even as life ebbed from my wound. I fell to my knees and Amunet screamed, clutching at me."
Satanist swallows hard, struggling for breath and his voice before continuing. "Then, perhaps drawn by the sound of battle, a strange and terrible sound emerged from the rubble, chittering and cackling, like some noise out of a nightmare. Immediately after, something came out of the ruins, besetting us from all sides!
They were men, but were not men, their ghastly forms giving o an awful stench, lean bodies topped with faces out of pure horror, long fangs and distended jaws, eyes red and burning. Their clothing was torn and filthy, almost rotting from their frames. Dozens of these dismal, awful creatures tore at the Shemites with their bare hands, bit at them with jagged teeth, and stabbed at them with rough- bladed swords. They pulled the Shemitish horses down, as well, to meet the same fate, and tore at the dying esh with gore-streaked claws and teeth.
I was unable to do anything but attempt to defend Amunet as best I could, but we were both merely watching in terror as the grisly tableau unfolded before us. When they were almost upon Amunet, there was a fearsome bark from their midst, and the largest of the monsters stepped forth. In his hands was a huge club, and in his eyes was a fierce and evil cunning. At their leader’s command, the creatures fell back, and let him approach Amunet. He swung his fist and she was knocked sprawling, senseless with the force of the blow. The creatures then surged forward and pulled her from my side, bearing her away with surprising reverence. Her slender form was the last thing I saw before I collapsed. They must have taken her into their ruins somewhere, no doubt to some ghastly fate."
As he finishes,his expression takes on a pallor of pain mixed with sorrow. He leans forward, clutching Neferet's hand as his eyes fix on each of yours, begging. "Please! You must find her and save her! Anything you ask will be yours!"
"I can ask a lot, but I'm not sure anything I ask of you will be enough to face down horrors as you describe. Perhaps my companions are braver than I." Signey looks to her new-found companions, and Neferet, trying to gauge their reactions.
Once the prince is tended, Kern starts to cast about to find any trace of where these fiends might have taken the girl. He listens to the tale with half and ear, and when Signey speaks, he stops and look towards her.
"I am not sure we can do much against such evil, but I am not willing to leave an innocent girl in their clutches. Let us track these beasts and at lease see where they are and if the girl is still alive."
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Gauis grumbles at their ill luck, finding so meager a grubstake in so large a carnage field. He consuls himself with a long pull form one of the skins, nodding at the fine vintage.
"Aye. The odds of gaining any reward from this sojourn seem to grow less and less. Still, the _reward_ promised on this sojourn seems to grow more and more. I've been given O much less for facing down danger and certain death. Seems no worse a pact to face certain death -and- be promised anything more than I can imagine.
And fear not, O Prince. I can imagine quite a bit.
Besides," he says openly to his companions, but obviously not talking to the prince, "I discount this tale of horrors rising from the ground. I've heard other such tales, and always they are fever-dreams, or delusions from loss of blood. Methinks that our brave Prince lost much in his battles, and his weary body and blood-starved brain conjured these phantoms from naught.
So aye, Kern, let us track down what I'm sure will simply be a cunning band of brigands and then be about the serious business of rescuing fair maiden and living out the rest of our days in leisure!"
"There is more in this world than what you know warrior, and we are ill-prepared against it. Still I'd just as soon not risk the roads alone with raiders about - I will stay with you."
Survival (17/3):
Observation (16/3):
Momentum: 2 Doom: 11
As the sun drifts lower in the sky and the colors above take on more of a blood red hue, the searching seems to be taking on a life of its own. The stone city seems to be more of a hinderance than you had expected at first. Not only has the ground itself seemed to be against you, but Satabus' insistence on accompanying you (with Neferet helping keep him upright even with his bulky armor) has only served to slow down your investigation. Just before the sun is about to disappear behind the ruins, a faint and dismal groan begins echoing from below the ground, followed by some sort of staccato chittering noise, a sound that causes Satabus to cry out that it is the sound the creatures made.
Taking the opportunity to search the nearby ruins for footprints and hopefully helping to determine the origin of the carrion stench that has assailed your nostrils like a fire consuming cow droppings. After several minutes, many sets of footprints are found, both sandaled and bare, unlike those of the booted Shemites or yourselves. The creatures, whatever they are, seem to have converged on the site of the combat from several places in the city, then returned en masse along a single path. Amunet’s footprints are visible within theirs, as if she is being pulled along and even carried partially. Following this trail takes you through stone arches and into a ruined building, where a jagged hole in the floor leads into the earth. Rough-carved steps descend into pitch darkness. It was once some sort of reservoir, but now it is a passage down beneath the earth, evoking a primal and almost tangible sense of dread at what might lie beneath. Echoing from inside the darkness is that shallow groan, muffled as if from a distance, with the chittering bark of the creatures, perhaps speaking to one another.
"Well now what? Do we descend to our Doom to rescue this damsel, or cut our losses and take the prince and his bride out of here? For myself, I would hunt this beast and remove its foul stench from the land. What say you?"
Kern hefts his blade as he turns to see what the others have to say.
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Gauis nods at Kern. "Aye. We've no pact that the foul beats will not ambush us just as easily on the way back. And I'd not leave a woman to their unholy grasps so long as I could help it.
But soft, 'tis dark down there, and I would lith have weapons in both my hands. What say you, Signey, or you, sweet prince? Can your hands carry torches so we might see what soft and tender places we can stick our STEEL into yon beasts?"
"I'll carry a torch, and hope you'll protect me if whatever lurks below is drawn to my light." Signey looks around for a torch, or the makings of one.
"Indeed, I shall watch over you as well M'lady. You shall be the bringer of light to a dark place, and we shall be your avenging warriors. Now then, anyone else care to join us?"
Signey smiles half-heartedly, "Onwards then."
Momentum: 2 Doom: 10
As you head forward, suddenly a woman's shriek cuts through the darkness, seemingly from somewhere above ground. Satabus and Neferet both call out Amunet's name as they look around fearfully trying to find the source.
The darkness is suddenly split with the peel of a horn, much like the ones used by the asshuri to signal across distances to one another! The clack of hooves on stone is unmistakable, and distant shouts indicate that the Shemitish forces have arrived in the city, likely searching for their royal prize.
Satabus looks at Neferet and then at you, “They have come for me. Go now... I will draw them away... they will ransom me... but you they will kill. Find Amunet... return her to Khoraja!” At this, he lurches away, staggering through the ruins, his armor clattering against the rubble as he leans against a wall for support, then continues in the direction of the approaching forces.
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Gauis' head rotates on a swivel, desperately trying to take in the rapidly changing situation.
"Kern, Signey, can either of you tell where that scream came from? If not, we might find ourselves lost down here, tromping around for days.
Mind you, not that I shirk from such a task. 'Twill give us more opportunity to slay more of these monsters that inhabit the caves! 'Tis no lose to this deal that I see."
He watches the prince bravely sacrificing himself with a sense of sadness. 'The fool could have just stayed with us.'
But he's as like to understand royalty as he is the birds of the sky, so he thinks no more on it.
Observation 16(3):
Gaius points vaguely over in one direction which helps Kern narrow down the location of the screams, but he still cannot pinpoint it. He looks over to Signey for any insight she may have.
"That way" she points, waving the torch in the direction, with more confidence than she feels.
Momentum: 2 Doom: 10
The scream seems to have come from further to the south, slightly uphill in the cyclopean ruins of the black city. Going above ground after the source of the scream or further and deeper after the tracks of the ghoulish attackers.
Neferet seems torn between following following Satabus or remaining with you. "My sister means more to me than my own life. If that was her voice, then we must attempt to relieve her suffering or else avenge her. It is possible that that was not her, and another unfortunate soul. Your decisions will be mine."
"We go, but you princess must stay here and hide! We will come back with her, or make the creatures pay in blood."
"Towards the scream, whoever's screaming may still be alive.", though Signey won't push it if the warriors think elsewise.
"Indeed, my thoughts exactly. Lets go, but cautiously..we still do not know what we are getting ourselves into!'
Momentum: 2 Doom: 10
As you move through the ruined building and various outcropping, the sun begins descending lower and lower stretching the buildings shadows to the point of blending with each other into total darkness. Pausing for a moment to let your eyes adjust to the lower light levels, you begin to be able to make out your path with just the starlight to guide you and the inky darkness showing you the remnants of the more solid structures and stumbling points. Cautiously continuing forward, you round the corner of an outcropping and come face to face with a pair of asshuri searching for either yourselves or the source of the screams, or just by chance.
Startled, but knowing the inevitable intentions of each other, you hands grab your weapons firmly in preparation to strike. Suddenly, before you can close the distance with your opponents, there is a crumbling sound as of dirt being scraped aside and a cracking noise as if rock or the earth itself shatters with hands reaching up through the ground to grasp bare flesh. The Shemities each have frightened looks on their faces and before they can even utter more than a gasp, disappear forcefully into the ground at their feet, leaving behind only and empty hole with muffled screams disappearing into deathly silence beneath your feet.
Those sounds as well as the previous screams seem to be leading toward the silhouette of a stone Ziggurat ahead of you.
"If we hear that noise again, scatter like the four winds."
Observation (16/3):
Kern stops to listen, but the sight that had just unfolded before him had the warrior slightly rattled.