After the first hordes have passed under the gatehouse, and crossed the bridge, the enormous, eloquent Sakkarot with his flaming axe emerges from the forest. While his horde streams through the fortress and the town beyond, he stops in front of the gatehouse, and rests his giant fists on his axe. His creepy smile exposes sharp, yellow teeth, but before long, a thunderous laughter shakes his belly and he salutes you with nothing but respect for your accomplishments.
"Well done, friends. Exceptionally well done. I'd love to tell our Cardinal exactly how much of a warm welcome you've given us, but -heheh- first, I'd rather enjoy it a little bit first. May we meet again, and may your efforts be rewarded!"
He bangs his fist on his chest, where the Asmodean pentagram proudly shows his loyalty.
He grunts, content with your answer. "Hm. Very well. Our Cardinal has faith in you; if you weren’t his best, he wouldn’t have sent you. You must be the ninth. " He stands up. "Do this, and your names will be legend. Hail Asmodeus!"
As he moves out of the tent to see which of his soldiers remains standing, he tells you: "You may rest here tonight; but please, excuse me for now."
As the evening progresses, most of the army is asleep. Outside only the rowdiest of the bugbears remain, and the sounds of the inevitable fistfights are easy to recognize.
The expression on Sakkarot's face is one of pure annoyance. He raises his hand to Caladwhen, to apologize for the interruption of the most interesting conversation of the evening, grabs one of the axes you brought on your ship, and heads outside.
You're not alone for long, as Sakkarot only takes a minute to quell the fighting.
While evolution receives some assistance on the field, Sakkarot comes back into his tent with a grim face. His mood improves somewhat as soon as he sees you again, but he remains very serious. "My apologies. There will always be some rotten apples in a group this size." When the screams of a dying bugbear reach the tent, Sakkarot smiles, "but a couple less so now."
He sighs. "Tomorrow you must depart this camp. It will never be truly safe for you here. Over the next week, more tribes will rally to my banner. I will promise them human blood and give them your steel. Then, at last, I will be ready to march." He once more sips the excellent wine. "A week after that, I will be poised to strike. I will move my horde to the valley just east of Balentyne. There, we will wait for your signal." He reaches into a nearby crate, and passes a cylinder to Aerent. "Fire this rocket into the air, and within the hour, we shall attack. You just make sure that the way is ready."
"After we gather, my horde will be idle and start to grow anxious. I can hold them together for another two weeks. After that, I expect desertions and squabbling. Get your work done before then." He looks each of you straight in the eyes and finishes his plea, "You have one month to infiltrate and destroy Balentyne. Can you do this? Can you break the Watch Wall?"
He chuckles. "hm-mhm, indeed, although I'd rather live. We met, years ago, when he came to these woods in exile. He actually made me this axe out of Hellfire." He holds up and twists the brilliant axe, reflecting the light of torches in an unnatural but hypnotizing manner.
"He spent some time here, in the gloomiest of moods. I remember one evening, when he suddenly stood up, and laughed long, loud and terrible, and said his goodbyes, telling me he'd finally conceived a way to honor his oats to the Dark Lord and have his vengeance on Andoran."
Oret Stonechild wrote: "That said, Chief, how is it that you know so much about the Cardinal's plans, when we have been told so little?" The FireAxe's eyes start to twinkle, as he enjoys your insightful remark. "One's mind needs things to ponder upon when one's surroundings prove so meager a challenge."
He stands up and yells in
Moments later, a probably very attractive (but who knows, really) bugbear-es brings in a tray with a couple of cheese wheels and places it on the table. She leaves in a hurry.
" I knows a little about Cardinal Thorn’s past. For instance, did you know that Thorn was not always his name? And that, once, he was a cardinal of the Sarenraean faith? As to what his name was or why Thorn betrayed the faith of the Shining Shazaam, I can only guess."
Arryn Lerash wrote: "I was eventually betrayed in one of the greatest heists yet." Sakkarot bangs his fist on the table and points at you
" I thought I recognized your name...You're the one who broke into that temple, right? PAAAH!! I always thought that whoever tried to pull that stunt was a bloke - no offense, but I never thought it possible that a woman could have the balls for something like that. My lady, I salute you!"
Aerent Sephim wrote: "But what of you? Cardinal Thorn helped us escape death, and in return we chose to serve him. How does the Chief of the largest humanoid tribe in this part of the world know the good Cardinal?" Sakkarot pulls aside his great breast-plate and reveals the holy symbol of Asmodeus burned into his chest. "We all have our scars. But dear gods I'm starved for decent conversation. So tell me - which are you? the fourth? seventh? or ninth?"
Talon wrote: Do you know of my kind? "You, my friend, are a puzzle indeed. I've heard of the temper of dark flying creatures before, but I always thought them demons or devils of some kind. You, however, are clearly neither. I'm curious. What's your story?"
That evening, Sakkarot holds a feast in honor of the weapons shipment and his new allies. The feast is a brutal, savage affair with bugbears fighting each other and all manner of monsters in attendance. The highlight of the party is when a great shaggy dire boar recently captured from the southern woods is brought in shackles.
One ton of angry pig is led in by a dozen bugbears who drag the beast before Sakkarot. Sakkarot beheads the already wounded animal in one mighty stroke with his fire axe. The beast is then spitted and roasted in a great open pit.
You all sit at the Fire-Axe’s table – a front row seat at this spectacle of savagery. As the evening progresses and the raucous bestial festivities of the bug-bear tribes die down somewhat, Sakkarot turns to you, and says: "I would speak with you alone."
He summons you into his private chambers, and dismiss his many followers and concubines with a deep growl.
"You are traitors to your own kind; you must know that. When the fortress Balentyne falls, and my horde pours through its shattered gates, we will slaughter the Andorans by the thousands." He takes a few seconds to pour you all a glass of the excellent wine he's been keeping for a special occassion just like this, and finally he savors the aroma from his own glass. "Yet, I see no regret in your eyes. Tell me, how can this be?"
Sakkarot is not an ordinary bugbear. Well-spoken and quite intelligent, he is anything but the typical brute. Sakkarot does not look down upon you for betraying your own kind. Sakkarot Fire-Axe is as much an outsider and an outcast as you are - He just wants to know more about them, and is happy to finally be in the company of educated people once again.
At that answer, he smiles a toothy grin. "Then you are welcome here."
He turns to the somewhat stunned throng of bugbears who were getting ready to storm the boat and eat the occupants. "These humans are my guests. I will deal with anyone who harms them. They are our allies!" He walks over to the boat, with great, pounding strides, and rips open one of the crates revealing finely made axes within. He tosses one to a nearby bugbear warrior who until this time only had a crude club to wield. "Behold, they bring us steel!"
A terrifying chorus of growls and cheers rises from the monstrous assembly.
A great black-furred bugbear approaces. He is a fearsome beast wielding an axe of flickerling flame. He points the axe at Aerent.
"Who sent you?" Sakkarot demands in perfect, flawless, unaccented common.
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