Elta says emphatically, "The sooner we are out of the place of debauchery and disgust the better!"
"Indeed." nodded Ghir vehemently, "Once we've secured the cargo, we can be away."
With that Ghir turns to follow Borak who seemed to know where to look next.
Climbing into the truck, and head out leaving behind you a place of death. Soon you get the small family warehouse and present the ID, your let in by the single old man of a worker. You load your boxes onto the back of the truck, the last one drops into place when you hear and alarm start, comin from where you had been. It seems the dead had been found.
The old man looks at you.
"Strangers you best get going, I don't what you did and I don't care, I don't want them to find anyone here when they come, I did not say this I was not here."
he says as he locks up behind you, turning everything off. Its seem there is a street sweep underway. Its not go to you yet but it will, Your in your truck dowered down on the street.
What is you plan?
Elta gets into the back of the truck and begins to hide himself. He says to the others "Let's get out of here before we have to fight off more than we can kill. Anyone know how to use a lasgun if it comes to that?"
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"I've heard that you can stick a dagger to the end of it." Kasit said, somewhat unhelpfully. "Other than that, I'd assume that you pull the trigger." Having given his worthless input, he hopped into the truck, eager to head out before the full weight of their opposition fell upon them.
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Climbing back into the back of the truck, Borak is relieved to see Elta begin to hide himself. Patting Kasit on the shoulder, "He's right, let's get back to the village gate, hopefully we can get out without a fight."
Turning back towards ELta, "I don't know how to use one, but how hard can it be?" As he thought about the guards at the gate he continues, "If we need to fight, hopefully we can kill the Harkonnen without the lazguns, I'm concerned they'll bring too much attention to our retreat." He leaves the obvious desire to kill harkonnen up close, unspoken.
There seems to be some fluster at the gate, now the two Harkonnen toops are stopping anyone leaving and checking papers. There is a peddler in front of you with a cart he is pulling, some persons on foot, they look to be a band of wild desert woman leaving the village now there is trouble, you note that of the Village guards only one is left with the Harkonnen toops. The rest must be doing the street sweep.
You have time to get ready.
As they approach the gate Borak turns toward the two new passengers in the back with, motioning for them to hunker down as he does the same. Whispering, "Kasit is both a skilled driver and communicator, if anyone can get us through this without conflict it will be him." Giving a wolfish smile he, having a gift for stating the obvious, continues, "But be ready to draw blades, just in case."
"That could work, but it's not the only option..." noted Ghir noncommittally, "We could split up and toss the Lazguns over the shield wall under cover of darkness. Risky but I expect it would make getting past the checkpoint easier."
He took a breath, "Or... We could burst through the checkpoint at high speed. Problem with that is the Harkonnens, they'll call for air support."
"No pressure." Kasit muttered to himself as he slowly and carefully drove to the gate. The terrain was smooth and he was moving at a crawl, so there wasn't much that could go wrong...yet. Coming to a stop, he got his papers ready.
Giving off the air of someone who was both extremely tired, as well as bored, he handed the papers over. He waited patiently for the go-ahead to leave, giving off the feeling of someone who wasn't where he wanted to be, and wasn't going there either. Rather, all he wanted was to clock out and go to sleep.
Climbing back into the back of the truck, Borak is relieved to see Elta begin to hide himself. Patting Kasit on the shoulder, "He's right, let's get back to the village gate, hopefully we can get out without a fight."
Turning back towards ELta, "I don't know how to use one, but how hard can it be?" As he thought about the guards at the gate he continues, "If we need to fight, hopefully we can kill the Harkonnen without the lazguns, I'm concerned they'll bring too much attention to our retreat." He leaves the obvious desire to kill harkonnen up close, unspoken.
"Wow Elta, a Freman who likes to watch ... guess we should have put on more of a show."
There's an air of mischief to the young "man's" smile."Let's fix that; these disguises only appealed to the dogs from Giedi Prime anyway."
He begins, once again, to change his clothing, this time removing the accoutrements of its femininity for Borak
"My birth name is Ethan, and my sietch name in Tabr is Lusu, the flourish at the apex of a pillar. Now that we know we could be brothers, use my birth name until we share water."
Ethan turns to Ghir when he is done changing, "I would counsel against too much tossing of lasguns; although the odds are slim, it wouldn't do for one to go off or overload ... that would be a bad thing."
Kasit brings to sand truck to a stop, as the water trader is let throw, but as the 5 wild Freman come to the gate, one of the harkon toops talk to the other in a guttural language, they both bust out laughing, no1 says to the single Village guard.
"Tell them to strip, we want to search them."
The village guard looks shocked.
"Buy they are pilgrims, they carry nothing but their, still suits and water. It is the pilgrimage to the singing caves."
Harkonen No2 walks over to the Village Guard and punches him hard in the gut. The Village guard dubbles up. Harkonen No2 pulls his knife,
"Question us again and I will spill you guts on the sand, filth."
Then Harkonen No2 walks up to one of the elderly freeman woman.
"Strip or die."
The leader of the woman looks at the others, and nods ones.
Without and with great dignity they all strip, folding thire suits and placing them in the ground. Five weathered old Freman woman stand there in nothing but there under full body garments.
"Now you can carry on your pilgrimage, or die"
Without a word they all walk out of the village in the sands.
Kasit pulls the truck up, and Harkonen No2 walks up and checks your papwers,
He goes to look around the truck when his fellow calls him over.
He seems to have found some raw space in the womans clothing.
No1 waves you past. As you head out the village you free the five
old freman woman walking a head of you.
Kasit watched impassively as the ‘others’ were victimized. He didn’t truly care, as they were not kin nor were they allies. One didn’t survive on his world by caring too much for others. What mattered was that he and his were safe. Once flagged to go, he nonchalantly drove away, going at a steady and normal pace. No need to raise alarms once they were in the clear.
Swearing an oath to himself to kill what Harkonen he can when he can, Borak realizes there isn't much they can do at the moment. Instead, he focuses on what they may tell their new 'employer' about why they returned with two 'new' faces, hoping the Lazguns and their story will sooth over any doubts.
Knowing that his kinsmen’s morals (somehow) extended beyond kith and kin, Kasit called back to them ”We stop now and we’re as dead as them. The bastards will certainly search us, and by then the bodies we left behind will be found. Our only chance at surviving is to drive away like nothing happened, so that we won’t be the suspects.” As an afterthought, he added ”If it makes anyone feel better, kill a Harkonen or two in their name.”
All this twisted his guts up and Ghir swore softly several times before saying, "I know we can't compromise the mission but without suits they won't last long. Maybe we can drive out of sight and then I can head back on foot to help."
Ghir didn't really have a notion of how he could help beyond bringing water.
Nodding in agreement with Ghir, "We could stop long enough to pick them up and take them someplace safe before we take the lazguns back."
Kasit bit his lip. Wanting to lecture his kinsmen about the priority of staying alive, he decided that it wasn't worth the fight. "Right. At the very least, there is no way they would suspect us of killing all of those people when we stop to help a bunch of strangers. That alone should buy us some time..." Thinking it through, he could see some possible upsides to stopping the vehicle. He did not want to drive ahead and hide, lest the enemy begin searching for the killers. If they sent anything by air and saw them, then they'd certainly be pursued at best, or blown up by air at worse.
Still driving like nothing was wrong, he slowly and deliberately turned around to stop next to the victimized people. Putting the vehicle in park, he turned to his kinsmen and said "It's your show."
The lights on the sand truck pick out the woman as they walk sockly to their fate, So you stop or not.
Your truck somes up to them, none of them move as you start to pass.
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...Still driving like nothing was wrong, he slowly and deliberately turned around to stop next to the victimized people. Putting the vehicle in park, he turned to his kinsmen and said "It's your show."
Your truck somes up to them, none of them move as you start to pass.
Realizing they were taking a gamble, Borak quickly throws the back door of the truck open. Gesturing, he adds, "We'll not see pilgrims die at the hands of the Harkenon, not if we can prevent it. Get in."
As the older women climb in the vehicle, he wonders what they should do next. Believing it may be better to drop them off somewhere than take them back to whence they came he asks, "Is their someplace we can drop you off?"
The leader of the woman looks at you, then waves her sisters in quickly.
As you look back you see one of the Harkenon troops calling the other over and points you way. The last one in the truck is the leader.
They move fast for old woman, but its clear they are.
"Thank you sand brothers, we will not see you harmed for our faith but we will take aid when offered. Such is Shai-Hulud will."
The all make the sign of faith. As you speed away you don't see any lights behind you. Soon your into the sands and before you the mountin or rack making the shield wall looms.
"If you have still suits to spear we will pay the water deabt."
Its then you see two of the woman have many water rings around there necks
"But we would also pay more for a safe place."
Your comms pich and the carry all is coming to the place it will pick up the sand truck.
Nodding politely as the women climb aboard Borak shuts the door behind them. As the leader speaks, he wonders if the 'smugglers' will have 'extra' still suits or be as understanding. Seeing the women's wealth Borak realizes, as they approach the sand truck, they will soon learn if they have attacked themselves to true fremen or just thieves and murderers. Wanting to be as honest with the women as he can, he gestures towards the truck, speaking loud enough for Ethan and Elta to hear as well. "We have newly joined our selves to these off world smugglers, this job was our initiation. I trust Shai-Halud that they are honest fremen and will accept our choice to bring you with us." He shrugs, "IF not we will not sell our water cheaply."
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Kasit grit his teeth but held his tongue. It was one thing to risk their lives to help others, it was another to throw his life away telling strangers about the smugglers they had joined. If word spread they would all only be worth the water that could be drained. He forced his hand away from his knife, and tried to not think violent thoughts. Bound as he was to blood and family, he held his tongue.
"There's also the Siche, if needs be." remarked Ghir.
As you talk you hear the sound of the carry all, it looks to be heading to the space fields but at the last moment it swops down and stips, a magantic camp locks of to the top for the sand truck and your lifted into the are, everyone holds on. It happons so fast, then you can see your up over the shild wall, and soon heading past it.
Then the truck comms light up.
"This is carry all HG1 to guests, sorry we have a Harkenon picket Thopter coming our way. We can't risk being seen carrying you out, Brace yourselves"
And with that everything lefts into the air, as the sand truck is dropped.
Elta hears about their guests remains quiet in the back hidden among the crates. When they are dropped he makes himself ready for the impact. He shouts "Brace yourself!"
Cursing under his breath, Borak braces for a collision.
*Forgotten Ninja Trick - 2 ki
*AcroMaster - 1 ki
*
The boy seemed almost still in the rippling chaos, his movements seeming to conjure the way of the sayyadinas.
“I live in balance. Balance is the mind-healer. Balance is the little-life that brings all life into clarity. I will hold my balance. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it is firmly rooted, I will turn my inner eye upon its path. Where balance is rooted , all is possible. From there I become unstoppable.”
As they fell, Kasit yelled out a string of particularly vile curses. It helped him concentrate on the task at hand, which was to not die in a fiery wreck.
Ghir yelped in surprise and out of pure reflex he leaped to grab hold of something firm as he braced for the inevitable impact!
Kasit look at the drop, but he spots something, as the ground comes up fast, falling some 400 feet, he sees they are going to hit the farside slop of the shield wall. In the moment they hit, he could point them at the slop and try and ride it down.
There is a bone jarring stop to the truck but it yakes to the right,
Everyone takes 1d3 impact DMG, but some how, some how Kasit is drving the truck down a near shire cliff.
All those who made the Acrobatics or dex roll can act to save the old woman, they are hurt but you all pull them into safe space.
Kasit drive roll DC 16
Luck. Luck had kept them alive, of that Kasit was certain. Gripping the wheel with white knuckles he prayed that their luck continued.
by some miracle Kasit gets the old junker truck to less and less steep slope, your speed starts to slow, as the bumpy ride gets less so, one final bump and the truck flips onto its side. Sledding finally to a holt. Outside dawn is coming, behind you, you hear rocks hitting the truck, looks like your fall has destabilized the cliff face. Who knows how long you have before a full rock fall comes.
the old woman look hurt but are also getting up.
The leaders pats Kasit in the drivers seat,
"You are blessed, son of the sand. But we must get under cover, I know of a safe cave close to here."
Realizing, between the imminent rock fall and the Harkenon picket Thopter, they were literally between a 'rock and a hard place' Borak throws the doors of the 'truck' open. "Mother, I hope the cave is near enough."
Gesturing to the others, "Grab an end of the lazguns crate, we can't leave them hear."
As he jumps from the 'truck' he drags one end of a crate. "Someone grab the other end."
Still not certain that he was alive, Kasit got out of his seat only to find that his hands were shaking. Forcing them to close around the crate of guns, he followed his kinsmen and the people they had rescued towards the waiting caves.
"Wow!" Ghir clapped Kasit on the back, "That was incredible! Some of us would have died for sure if it wasn't for that miracle you just performed."
He followed them out ready to take his turn carrying the crate if one of them got tired.
Elta gets out of the truck and starts dragging the crate away. He says "That was some good driving. We all came out alive. I wonder if we can flip it back over and continue."
As rocks fall you look out across the open sands of the south.
As you look you see worm sign, and a big one, seems you crash and bright attention.
The woman get out, most are hurt but they can walk. They have grabbed work clothing, sack cloth to tarp covers. Using them, they cover thier skin.
The leaders points to a rock bulge come 1000m away,
"There, there is a small cave there we can head too"
between you and that rock are three smaller Bulges
pausing, Borak peers off into the deep sand, turning back he blurts, "Worm sign, we need to move."
Good rolls its going to be tight, the worm is coming for the truck,
1:You think you could set the thumper and try and get the truck back on its side, but the cliff looks unstable AND the harkonnens
OR
2:You could just all risk trying to get to the have and hope the Worm goes for the truck. They are very territorial so its unlikely there will be others about but you never know, smaller makers wait by the rocks. But you would have to leave the laz guns and old ladies.
OR
3: you could divert it with a thumper, if anyone has one.... But who ever sets it may run the risk of being seen by the harkonnens
Or
4:Something clever you come up with to thuot the evil gm MUHAHAHAAHA
As you look at all the hazards, the Rock slade, Sand worm, harkonnens, while carrying a crate of Laz guns, and sheppereding 5 old ladies to safty, a Freman saying comes to mind...
"God created Arrakis to train the faithful.”
Now that Borak had pointed it out, Ghir saw the wormsign too and it was unmistakable. Thinking fast he said, "Assuming you get safe and leave no tracks, part of me thinks it would be for the best if the maker took the truck. That way the Harkonnens would assume we're all dead. On the other hand that crate is heavy and where we're going is a long way on foot and then there's the women, quite the dilemma."
Pulling a Thumper out of his pack Ghir said, "Whatever you're going to do, you need a diversion. I'll provide that and Shai-hulud willing I'll catch you up later."
With that he set off out into the sand towards the oncoming worm using the special rhythmless gate they were all taught from childhood. After a while he placed the thumper and turning ninety degrees from the line between the cave and the worm, he hurried away using the same rhythmless gate. All the while he was careful not to disturb the sand too much which would otherwise leave a trail easily visible from a thopter.
Ghir's plan from here was to loop back either towards the caves or the truck based on what happened next. And if Harkonnens came for him, well he was determined they'd never take him alive, the secret of the water cache would die with him.
Nodding towards Ghir, Borak agrees, "Good thinking Ghir, we will continue towards the caves."
Regripping the gun crate, he continues heading towards the caves, hoping his relative will be able to join them soon.
”Be swift and fortunate.” Kasit said to his kinsman as he helped carry the gun crate. Having just snapped out of the horror and surprise of their descent, he was glad that his kinsmen were there and proved themselves once more. Despite their morals, they had good heads on their shoulders, which was needed to survive on their world.
As the old woman leader leads you across the sand, walking with out patton, You see the worm comming, the sand sakes and the
THUMP.....THUMP......THUMP.....
The sound of a thumper close to the truck, you can see Ghir moving to catch you up, then over head a search light comes on, an Harkonnen Thupers has also seen the worm sign.
"Come we must run, The leader of the woman says"
And you do, as the dawn comes you run for a rock out crop.
W1 no need to roll
W2
W3 no need to roll
W4
W5 no need to roll
One of the woman hurt by the truck crash os helped by the others, They may it to the rock out crop.
Realizing the danger he's in, Ghir puts on a burst of speed and had no time for anything beyond moving as fast as he can across the sands.
Struggling with the guns, Kasit did all that he could to keep going. He hoped that his adrenaline would see him through.
Elta continues on toward the rocks.
Keeping his legs pumping, Borak, moving slower helping Kasit with the crate of guns, is relieved to see even the wounded of the women making it to the rocky outcrop. Now he just has to hope the caves will be cool enough they don't lose too much moisture.
You run, you run for your lives, behind you, you can feel the ground sake as the worm comes, they vibrate turning the sand into a Fluid. Now the ground vibrates, then you start to slid back, just when you think your going to fall into a bottles whole, The warm comes, up out the ground, the sand truck at the center of a vast mouth, Up and up it comes, a bulg of sand pushing you all way, as the stench of raw space washes over you, you roll fall, get up and keep running as you head the body of the warm slam into the cliff face, now rocks gall, thundering down hitting the worm, hiting the sound. Rocks the size of houses fall all round you As you dash to the 1st out crop of rock. You make it can move around placing it between you and the now falling back worm. What you see next is a line of bright iredance light, coming from the ground and hitting the worm, But where such laz fire cuts rock like butter, The Laz runs over the surface of the worm burning into it but not in anyway slowing its fall back. It cust down again and again, you see the lines it burns, but Shai-Hulud dose not stop and sinks into sand, A few more beams come down criss crossing the sand, one passes over the rocks you are under. But then they stop and you hear the Ornithopter move away can back over the shield wall.
Sall is now silent but for a few falling rocks form the cliff face,
The old woman stand on make signs of supplication to the father of the sand.
"Bless the Maker and His water. Bless the coming and going of Him. May His passage cleanse the world. May He keep the world for His people."
The leader of the woman looks at you.
"Came the cave is close"
You make your way a small cave entrance and soon pass an air seal. What is inside is a group of other Acolytes, who fuss over the 5 woman but pay you no attention.
Of of the says to the leader,
"You got out alive, council leader, our revisered mother waist for you."