A dry desert wind coursed through the sheltered port city of Sarkeslion, making the ten hundred wind baffles on its eastern edge clatter in syncopation to the ten million rustling leaves of its garden forest. Above the gentle roar of steel-drying ovens, the rattling of cart wheels, and the sandy hiss of a spinehair trader's tail, it brought with it snatches of conversation in a dozen tongues – ”Taste this!” ”-infested with glutton globs” ”Give thanks-” ”-tunnels are collapsed!” The desert's sulfurous breath was mollified slightly by the smells of the city – the raspberry tang of a fumelung's smoke and the warm scent of fresh fish burritos - but it was still nose-prickingly dry and acrid.
The Mnarast Plaza, just inside Sarkeslion’s eastern gate and just down from the crest of Souann Hill, has been the meeting place for as long as anyone can remember. It’s where the Latislanders are said to have first made an accord of peace with the Setter peoples, guaranteeing them the right to bring their herds through the city and the fenced farms of its outlying areas. It’s where hotchi children unhitch their herd animals and set up stalls with fruit, corn, and live animals for sale - and then spend most of their time chatting and goofing off with other youths. It’s also where travelers come together to form caravans and seek companions - most of them taking the overland route to Northcity, but a few heading south along the coast to Hammer Village, and a rare number heading to isolated settlements on the eastern slope of the Barrier Wall. A wooden post in the center of the plaza is also the place to post notices requesting travelling companions.
IF YOU DESIRE TO VISIT DISTANT ASADGE THROUGH AN OVER LAND JOURNEY AND ARE:
- CAPABLE OF DEFENDING YOUR SELF
- ABLE TO DEFEND OTHERS
- RESISTANT TO THE HARSH AND DEADLY SANDY WIND
YOU SHOULD BRING ANY MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION AVAILABLE TO YOU
YOU WILL MEET FROG, YOUR COMPANION, AT THIS PLACE ON THE FOUR TENS TH DAY OF THE DRY SEASON
The wind had stilled by the time they reached the first wind baffle, and the whole field of slender silver poles with their pinwheel-like tops hung silent in contrast to the laughter, shouting, and clangor of the city. The yellow sun, directly overhead, made their shadows starkly black against the bare grey road. The road stretches straight on eastwards, slowly gaining elevation as it cuts through cattail paddies and cornfields. Far ahead, the three of them can see the Barrier Wall, the mountain range that holds Sarkeslion like an egg in an upturned palm.
And then Relys, Frog, and Lyra hear, behind, the revving engine of one of those rare ancient devices that moves on its own power. Turning around, they see a brilliant blue car racing towards them, kicking up a thin cloud of dust behind it. The car screeches to a halt about a hundred feet away, and its driver and passengers disembark.
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When the door clicks open, Khaan steps out of the car in a single sharp motion. The loosely fitted poncho covering her gives little away to what is underneath, only a vague outline of her form, though her shoulders seem sharply square. One hand stretches from within the heavy garment, placing the tip of a walking cane onto the ground.
What little of her body can be seen is segmented, like small plates of soft chitin pieced carefully together to form her flesh-like carapace. Her hand resembles that of a life-size puppet, the knuckles formed from bands of silvery metal and bolts. Her face is separated carefully between jaw and upper skull by numerous plates. When her mouth moves, the gaps widen to reveal red, shockingly real muscle working them apart. Her eyes, slightly sunken, are undeniably organic, even if where they are placed seems foreign to them. Her neck is the most plated, shifting against one another as her head moves around, a tessellating pattern running from beneath her chin to her sternum, hidden away within her clothing. They seem to stretch as she moves, demonstrating their pliability.
The hair seems real enough. A reddish chin-length bob cut, orderly and functional. And yet it makes her all the more eerily alien, even by Sarkeslion's diverse standards.
Khaan steps a few feet forward and points with her cane towards the group of three.
"Y O U WOULD LEAVE AS ONLY THREE? A P I T Y. SUCH A JOURNEY WOULD BE FAR MORE DIFFICULT WITHOUT GOOD TRANSPORT AND COMPANY." The voice seems to emerge faster than Khaan's lips and jaw can move. It is grinding, but not impeded by her lagging mouth movements.
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Frog is a 4 foot tall, pale blue girl with short, curved horns. Her body is striped with darker shades of a bluish-purple that band around her horns, arms, chest, and everything else that could be considered Frog territory. The streaks stop at the sides of her face, conjoining on each other like spikes. On her back is a large, jagged shell of the same bluish-purple. She has a long, messy bob cut of black hair-you can see some of the bluish-purple stripes through her unkempt bangs-, and big yellow eyes. On the side of her neck are gills, and below that she is wearing a hakama. A loose, white shirt that covers- you can tell from the ends of the sleeves and slightly poking out of the collar- some practical leather armor, and is tucked into a pair of red pants so puffy they look like a dress. There are small cords hanging lose from the cuffs of these jnco-like barrels of cloth. She isn't wearing anything on her feet.
Kopokopo, her dire axolotl, is a vivid sea green amphibious friend with speckles of gold crawling over her body. She seems to be shimmering under the sun, somehow still covered in what is ostensibly water even in the heat. She has no eyelids and is thus unblinking, but some sort of protective mucus covering keeps them safe enough from the elements and drying out. Her external gills are a deep, dark green. She is adorned with a riding saddle and bags of feed that dangle from the sides. Her expression seems to be in a constant limbo, somewhere between vacancy and satisfaction.
Frog sits on top of her slime horse with a visible frown and an intense stare.
"Well I don't know about you," the girl remarks pointedly, her eyes fixed on the robot before her, "but I can't languish in the sun all day. I've got places to be."
She pats the side of her mount and brings her expression to a more amicable place as she continues staring at the new arrival. "Did you bring us some water?" Kopokopo responds to her caretaker's pats with a series of low 'pthpthpthpth' noises.
"WE HAVE OTHER BUSINESS, AND I AM UNSURE WHAT YOU MEAN BY BEING LATE. WE ARE NOTIONALLY ON TIME. OUR DRIVER ENSURES THAT." Khaan points towards the honking shadow person.
"I TAKE IT YOU ARE ON THIS ROAD FOR A REASON. TO REACH ASADGE, CORRECT? OUR DRIVER WISHES TO GIVE YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO JOIN US. IT WILL BE MUCH EASIER GOING, AND WE CAN KEEP PACE WITH YOUR...M O U N T, I'M SURE OF IT." Khaan smiles. "WE HAVE DRINKING WATER. THAT'S ALL."
"Yes we are, and like my scaly friend has stated I too would not like to be in the sun all day. I've already done enough waiting as it is. But don't worry, I won't be taking of your water if thats fine by you. I personally don't like the stuff." She says jumping into the back of
The device.
Rivek opens all the doors and waves the newcomers in, mimicking the sound of the car's horn beeping twice. He stands by patiently with poise and posture, hand resting on the rear passenger-side door.
It seems readily evident that the axolotl is slower than the car, though it could potentially ride atop the vehicle's hood if needed. It is also readily evident that the inside of the car will be cramped with all six people inside, but not so cramped as to risk injury.
Ler'Zet looks over the now-assembled group, his unblinking ophidian stare taking each member in as he turns his head. A most interesting group, though from the elders' tales, far from the strangest to ever travel from Sarkeslion.
"Ssun's warmth to you," he says, his voice soft and dry. "Perhapss we should begin the introductions onsse we are on our way."
Just at that moment, the wind gusts again. The ten thousand baffles first tinkle and creak, then slowly accelerate, compounding into a rattling cacophony. Looking either north or south, the group sees a silver-blue sky of spinning metal, across which plays strange patterns as baffles sync up to and syncopate with each other.
Khaan nods, taking her seat in the car once more.
"WHEN YOU ARE R E A D Y, RIVEK."
Ler'Zet looks at the group and then the car. "Perhaps I might rid partly on the outsside, or ssimply sslither mysself, should thiss... vehicle become too crowded."
Their numbers now doubled, the group resumes its eastward travel*. The car chugs a little, both laden with passengers and moving against the wind. It passes dozens of little farms, which are at first predominantly above-ground, before giving way to the hunkered dugouts and huddled-together barns of the hotchis. The fields also transition, from marshy plants like rice and cattails to more drought-tolerant species like corn and apricot. The road is fairly bare - the morning traffic of farmers heading into town to sell goods has almost completely dried up, while they have not yet begun the journey home. Only a galloping ox-riding Setter and a lizardbird-drawn cart of drunk-looking halflings cross paths with the car on its way eastward.
It takes about an hour to reach the point where the rolling plains shift into an unmistakable upward descent. Here, the vibrant cottonwoods and cedars of the lowlands are thin and spindly. A coniferous tree that Ler'Zet identifies as the perij now dominates, casting wide, dense shadows that lizardbirds in particular gravitate towards under the intense sunlight.
Beginning to climb the zigzagging road up the Barrier Wall, the group comes to a broken-down cart that blocks about half the way. The other half of the way is blocked by a distraught-looking oversized deer and two hotchi children. One is significantly smaller than the other. Both look up at the approaching vehicle with mixed expressions of wonder and despair.
Ler'Zet nimbly slithers out of the car and takes the scene in, noting the child running off to the side. He moves to follow.
"It sseems they have losst one of their animals," he comments to the others, in explanation for why he is going off the side of the road.
Frog has been forced to ride in the middle seat. Both uncomfortable and frustrated at the halt in travel, Frog peers out of the closest window to see Ler'Zet now wandering away. Unable to hear his hiss and missing every sign, she grumbles, "なに？ Why are we stopping for?" She jostles around a little bit, clumsily, and accidentally elbows the people riding next to her, trying to stretch her head out of the window.
"Well, mighty as well help them. The sooner they get their animal, the sooner we can continue. "
As she finishes talking, she exits the car she starts walking towards the creature to help the child.
Khaan looks out of the car and at the state of the vehicle.
"I AM NOT GOOD WITH C H I L D R E N. OR ANIMALS."
She puts on a pair of shaded bifocals and leans back into her seat.
What does Khaan recognize about the damage and state of the cart?
Rivek kicks the cart, but only gets a sore foot for trying. Maybe that trick only works on more complex machines.
As Relys approaches the deer in the remains of its harness, the wind catches her papery form and causes her hand to flutter rapidly. The deer rears back in surprise, breaking the grip of the tallest hotchi child. The smaller hotchi tumbles out of the way of some rather large hooves just in time as the deer lunges for the downward side of the road, straining to drag the cart behind it inch by inch.
Khaan can immediately see, from the way the cart grinds across the road, that its yoking system is broken. Hotchi carts usually connect the tongueshaft to the front axle, but in this case, the tongue has snapped in two, with the fore piece only held to the back by the remains of the harnessing. She knows a good way to rig up a sort of splint for the tongue, but she'd have to look more closely at the harness to figure out how to fix it.
Making a decision, she slowly walks towards the larger of the two hotchi children next to the cart, and in the hotchi language she says, "What's wrong?"The tallest hotchi has tears in their eyes as they look up at the imposingly dressed catfolk and her raven. The smallest hotchi hides behind them, now. "Ban just bolted suddenly, and the cart broke!"
"Is that a friend of yours down there?"
"Yes, my sibling. Ealykam was trying to catch Ban. Who are you people?"
They point downhill to indicate Ban (the deer, apparently), but at just that moment, their eyes widen even more and their spines flare upwards.
Ler'Zet has now reached Ealykam, the middle-sized child with the blue feathers. He's lost sight of the deer, but is just on the edge of the cornfield where it was grazing. The stalks do not yet bear mature fruit, but pollen blows off the tassels in a gust that also sets the stalks to rustling.
Or, no, that's not the wind. A canine snout emerges from the cornfield, and a whole calico-colored dog body follows it. The animal raises its head, opens a mouth of sun-glinting teeth, and emits a series of high-pitched yips.
The deer starts straining its way down the gravel on the side of the road, its breathing labored and its burden nearing the edge. The party sees the dog emerge from the cornfield. Then, they hear a dozen more yipping voices resound off the hillside all around the party. The deer screams.
The hotchi child looks up at Lyra again.
The car kicks up another puff of dust as it exits the field of wind baffles and enters the lush farmland outside Sarkeslion. The blue-green of the dire axolotl, and the chrome-blue car that bears her, contrast sharply with the yellows and emeralds of marshes and apple swamps on both sides.
Inside the car, space is at a premium. The living shadow sits in the driver's seat, with the golem-person riding shotgun. Sitting above the gear shift is the painting-lady, who blocks the center mirror if she's facing forward. In the back seat, the snake-legged man rides on the driver's side, and the cat-eared lady has managed to snag the passenger's side for herself. Her raven perches on her headrest. In between the snakefolk and the catfolk is crammed the bulky-shelled, horned teen.
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"I AM KHAAN. I AM...ON BUSINESS FOR MY FAMILY." Khaan looks out towards the desert.
"CHAUFFEUR. FOR RIVKET HERE. BUT THIS BUSINESS ALSO EXTENDS TO ANY AND ALL HE INVITES INTO HIS CAR."
"YOUR ELBOW HAS ENTERED MY PERSONAL SPACE, R I V E T. DO BE CAREFUL."
Khaan's hand emerges from the poncho onces more holding a book with a bookmark placed inside. She flips open to the bookmark and begins reading.
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Ler'Zet watches the interaction with his unblinking, ophidian gaze. "I am Ler'Zet," he says, looking over at Lyra. "There is always something of interest in the land, if one looks close enough. Familiarity can make one blind to what one sees."
"Hello I'm Relys, nice to meet the two of you and might I say that was a wonderful tune you whistle there Rivek."
Frog sits pretty quietly in the back, and glances over the business card as it gets passed back. It takes her a hot second to read the card, but she understands it. She tries to pronounce the driver's name:
"Reebek? You didn't come to escort us?"
Rivek shakes their head no.
Ler'Zet nods back at the raven. "Travel is good, yes," he says, turning back to Lyra. "I too will be glad to see deeper into the desert than I have before."
Their numbers now doubled, the group continues its eastward travel. The car chugs a little, both laden with passengers and moving against the wind. It passes dozens of little farms, which are at first predominantly above-ground, before giving way to the hunkered dugouts and huddled-together barns of the hotchis. The fields also transition, from marshy plants like rice and cattails to more drought-tolerant species like corn and apricot.
The screaming of the deer, the yipping howls of the dogs, and the grinding of the cart against the road echo back from the hillside after a brief moment of strange silence, adding to the cacophony of sound. The smaller hotchi begins to sob. And the people from the shining blue car step into action.
In this Initiative, Khaan and two of the dogs above the road get to act first in the >20 Initiative phase. As soon as GTW's posted for Khaan and I've posted for the dogs, Lyra, Ler'Zet, Sterling, and a bunch of NPCs have actions to take in the 20-15 Initiative phase. All players are welcome to post actions in advance of their phase - just remember that those actions won't happen until their turn in the order above.
A grey-furred and a white-spotted black dog jump out of a bush near the roadside behind the party. They run towards the back of the car in a yipping frenzy, and Kopo makes a grumbling burble of alarm.
On the downhill gravel edge of the road, the other deer is straining, pulling the cart westwards towards the edge of the road. Rivek stands about ten feet south of the cart, on the eastern side of the road. Relys is near him, but closer to the western verge of the road. South of Rivek another 10 feet are Lyra, Sterling, and the tallest and shortest hotchi children.
South of Lyra about 30 feet is the car, on which Kopokopo is lying. Inside the car, Khaan sits shotgun, and Frog sits in the middle of the back seat.
Five feet behind the car are the grey and white-spotted dogs.
East of the road, hidden somewhere in the underbrush no more than 60 feet away, are at least 9 more dogs. You could try to pinpoint a dog's location with a Perception check as a move action.
Khaan sighs and steps from the car, twisting her cane as she does so. With a click, the false sheath falls from the cane, revealing that it is, in fact, a sword.
"AS I SAID, CHILD. I AM NOT GOOD WITH ANIMALS. I'LL TRY TO SCARE THEM OFF, BUT I WILL NEED YOUR H E L P."
Khaan tries to bap one of the dogs along its rump, but it doesn't connect. She seems to be holding back from hurting it too much, resulting in a poor blow.
She is however in a dueling stance.
Ler'Zet rears up, lifting himself as high as he dares. He hisses threateningly at the dogs, trying to scare them off by playing on their natural fears.
Lyra leaps across the road and scrambles down the gravel slope, coming up a bit behind Ler'Zet and Ealykam and firing off her crossbow. The dog seems spooked by the missed shot, but it outright jumps when its attention shifts back to what it mistook for a weak human - but is actually a massive snake.
The deer on the road continues making its ill-advised escape downhill. It drags the cart to a point of perfect balance on the edge of the road, and then springs further downhill, bringing the cart crashing down after it.
The cart's walls and bottom come apart as the deer careers down the gravel, old nails poking out of the exposed joints and the left wheel outright shattering. The cart's contents, a dozen dense bales of wool, scatter into the prickly grass at the base of the road. The deer then swerves north, away from the calico dog, and runs parallel to the road dragging about a third of the battered remains of the cart behind it.
Ealykam sees this and puts their hands to their head, looking upward in abject distress. "Au sai na ri. Tae yeung ban thveuavei khleah daembi thveu aoy anak teusa chetd?" They pull on Ler'Zet's hand, and in Orc say, "Can you get me close to Ban? I can try to calm it and bring it to safety."
"Nab" slows to a trot almost immediately, though its tail is still twitching in fear every half-second. "Karngear la jaml!" the smallest hotchi shouts.
The smallest hotchi is taken utterly by surprise as the dog bites its leg, which bruises immediately. However, the only blood shed so far in that small altercation seems to be from the dog, which got a noseful of spine wounds.
Frog steps out of the car reluctantly. She lifts up her arms as big as she cans and attempts to shout at the dogs that have just appeared.
The little white dog turns its head to regard the bellowing anthrozoan. Its eyes grow wide and black with terror. The larger yellow and red dogs seem not to care, however.
Rivek dodges out of the way without giving the dog a good opportunity to snap at them, and runs halfway down the gravel berm. They don't yet sense the long-escaped deer in range of their telepathic senses, but they do sense the other deer towing the cart's remains, as well as the dogs on the road and the one in the field. They begin a pure harp melody of sleep - but the magic won't be complete until the wind section joins.
Kopokopo stays put on the car, making the hood creak as she looks back and forth between the assembled carnivores. She draws her tail up out of the way of Khaan, but otherwise stays put.
Five more dogs jump out of the bushes, scramble up the ditch, and run over the road towards the northernmost deer that Jaml managed to halt. A 40-pound bluish-gray dog diverges from the pack and focuses on Jaml themself.
Jaml cries out, "Help!" in pained Orc, falling backwards onto the road under the dog's force.
That calico dog turns in a millisecond and flees southwest into the field, yiping despite being completely uninjured.
The smallest hotchi steps back from the white dog and curls up into a ball with their face to the pavement and their limbs tucked under their torso, leaving only their sharp inch-long spines visible.
Relys, having no other option seeing that the dogs are attacking the children, will grow to a monsters size and grow a pair of claws with her.
The grey-furred dog circles around Khaan, nipping at her heels, while its companion, the white-spotted black one, charges in and lunges for her cane arm. The yipping across the ochre hillside is getting cacophonous, echoes building the real thing into a hair-raising ululation that threatens to drown out Rivek's psychic song.
Seeing the grey dog come close enough to the car, Kopokopo does a rapid spin and lunges down to snap at it. It manages to hop out of the way just in time, and growls at the axolotl.
About 50 feet north of those three (so on the same latitude as Ban), but in the brush between field and road, is the most recently escaped deer, named Nab. It is dragging part of the cart's remains, but was still moving very quickly until the tallest hotchi, Jaml, calmed it down. Four dogs have surrounded Nab - three standing on the gravel, one nipping at the deer's footlocks from behind.
Jaml is on the road above and 20 feet to the west of Nab, and is lagging about 20 feet to the south of it. They are injured (3 damage) and sitting on the ground, with a bluish-gray dog (1 damage) right up in their face.
Rivek is about 30 feet south of Jaml, or on the same perpendicular line to the road as Ealykam, but westwards halfway down the gravel berm. The deer Ban is about 105 feet away from them, to the north-west. The yellow dog is about 20 feet east of them, up on the road
About 10 feet south of Rivek's level, up on the road, are arranged Relys, the red dog, the smallest hotchi (1 damage), and the small white dog (1 damage). Relys has seen a sandy-colored dog in the ditch to the east of the smallest hotchi, but has not yet revealed this information.
South of the white dog about 20 feet is Frog, who is standing right in front of the metallic blue car, on which Kopokopo (Frog's dire axolotl) is lying.
Directly behind the car are the small grey dog and Khaan (sharing the same square, if Khaan didn't knock it out with her Attack of Opportunity). Southwest of Khaan is the white-spotted black dog.
Seeing the animal is clearly wild and intending violence, Khaan chooses to apply lethal force.
As she is bitten, Khaan spins around to her companion. ”IF YOU SEE ME GO DOWN, DRAG ME INTO THE CAR. I AM SOMEWHAT LIGHT.”