Secrets revealed...

PART TWO

The Dwarven children scatter in a panic when one of their number disappears below the mud at the edge of the oasis. As they scatter the freed slaves rush towards them to investigate what is happening. Just as Arthur is wading into the mud another of the children is pulled under in front of his eyes but there is no sign of what took her. While Miloch and Ka-Reen herd the panic stricken youths onto firm ground the rest of the group spread out and start to search the thigh deep mud.

After what seems like an age, but in reality is only a matter of seconds a creature bursts out of the sludge directly in front of Kank. It rears up over him and strikes with its feather crowned snake like head, but misses. Kank swings hard with his maul but his unsteady footing means that he misses. The beast strikes and second time and again just misses Kank, by which time Scar is in range but also misses with her spear. The beast then dives back under the mud and is gone from sight. Kank looks across at his friends and says with a broad smile;

Let’s go hunting!

The group fan out a few metres apart and begin to sweep forwards towards the waters edge. Suddenly, the creature bursts out of the mud again behind Scar. It strikes lightning quick and sinks its fangs into her side. In the blink of an eye it has wrapped its massive coils around her lithe form and dragged her under. The others rush to where she disappeared and are just in time to see the creature vanish into the water and under the surface. Kank wades out into the oasis at the spot that the beast was last seen and starts to search for Scar, with panic starting to build.

After a blur of mud, water, darkness, and finally air again, Scar finds herself dumped unceremoniously on a slick muddy shelf in the pitch black. After a dizzying few moments where Scar catches her breath and clears her lungs of oasis water she slowly begins to become aware of her surroundings. Somewhere nearby she can hear the quiet crying of a child, no not one child, two children. Well at least both of the Dwarven children are alive.

It has been minutes since Scar went missing and the group are stood waist deep on the muddy bank watching Kank desperately searching for any clue as to where the beast has gone. Moments later they know exactly where the beast is as it rises slowly from the mud behind Arthur. It strikes again but fails to hit the massive Dwarf. Arthur spins on his heels and swings his maul like a man felling a tree, he connects with a mighty blow and there is a sickening crack as the beast drops back onto the mud with its back broken.

With the imminent threat of attack hopefully gone Kank is able to focus on searching the oasis bank and he stumbles across a hole in the bank a few feet out into the water. When he investigates it he finds a hole roughly three feet across that leads back towards the bank. Kank takes a deep breath and plunges under the water.

In the dark Scar has managed to make sure that the Dwarven children know that she is there, but as she doesn’t speak Dwarven and they clearly do not speak the common tongue she struggles to convince them to calm down. She is surprised when there is the sound of something bursting out of the water and she lunges in its general direction with her dagger. She is grateful that she misses when a heartbeat later she hears Kank’s voice calling her name. Kank quickly explains that the beast is dead and that there is a long, twisting tunnel back to the surface, and Scar then explains about the children. Kank agrees to return to the surface and get Arthur to talk to the children.

By the time that a sputtering and coughing Kank resurfaces, Arthur has gathered as many water gourds as he can find. He is followed by the oldest of the children, a boy called Claodis who has proclaimed himself as the leader of the group. Claodis is still carrying a basket of sugared ants, and when Kank, still coughing water out of his lungs, tries to take one he tells him that they are not for us but an offering for the druid. All of the group turn on the eleven year old and in unison say;

Druid! What druid?

Claodis tells them that the oasis is looked after by a druid and that they are bringing offerings as the water in their village has gone bad. Balboa suggests that the village water source is probably fed by the same source as the oasis and so when the elves poisoned the water here they have also poisoned the dwarfs water supply.

Having regained his capacity to breathe, Kank explains the situation to the others and informs Arthur that he needs to go down there and talk to the dwarven children. Arthur pales, and starts to break out in a cold sweat looking at the water.

I’m not going down there! You can do it. You’ve done it already. And I have brought you the gourds to breathe with. You can do it!

Kank looks at him thoughtfully.

I can’t speak Dwarven!

Arthur, almost stammering now, blurts out;

I’ll teach you some calming words!

Shrugging his massive shoulders, Kank tries to remember the words that Arthur tells him, grabs two of the gourds and ducks back under the water. A minute later he breaks the surface inside the underground cave and calls out for Scar. Scar has not been idle while Kank was away, she has searched the underwater cave and discovered another being, and judging by the ears this one is an elf. Further investigation lets Scar know that it is an unconscious female with an injured leg.

Kank tries to use the words taught to him by Arthur to calm the children, but as he wasn’t really paying much attention it doesn’t work very well. Scar slips into the water and then picks up the female dwarven child. She constantly talks calmly to the child as she straps her to her chest and moves towards the tunnel. As soon as Scar gets near the tunnel the dwarven girl starts to cry and struggle to free herself. Scar stops and calms her again. She gets her to mimic taking a deep breath and once the child does this Scar plunges under the water.

Sitting on a mud ledge in the pitch black underwater cave Kank wonders how long he should wait for someone to come back and tell him that Scar made it out safely. After what seems like hours Scar bursts through the water back into the cave. Kank breathes a sigh of relief when he hears his friends return, he then copies her actions and straps the dwarven boy to his barrel like chest. The boy starts to panic and Kank makes a pitiful attempt at calming him down, he eventually gets him to take a deep breathe and Kank quickly dives into the tunnel.

When Kank surfaces from the oasis he is carrying a limp dwarf child in his arms. Arthur quickly grabs the child and rushes him to Ka-Reen who takes one look at him and then concentrates. As the dwarf child stirs back into consciousness Ka-Reen collapses from the massive effort of healing the child. A minute after Kank has surfaced Scar slides out of the underwater tunnel with the unconscious elf strapped to her. Once in the light it is clear that the unconscious form is that of a teenage female elf wearing and bone shortsword and a dagger made of steel on her belt. The elf’s leg is injured and appears to be badly infected, her skin is also pale and waxy looking.

Arthur looks around at the rest of the group and says;

A steel dagger. She must be important!

The friends agree that they should make their way to the village of Kled and so Balboa and Kank build three travois to transport Ka-Reen, the dwarf child, and the teenage elf. It is a long day of travelling but by the middle of the following day the group find themselves closing in on a very unusual looking village. From their vantage point they can see a large circular plaza, surrounded by a number of circular buildings, which are enclosed by a circular wall. As they approach Claodis waves to the dwarves that are working on what can only be described as an archeological dig of some ancient buildings.

Claodis leads the group into the plaza where they are met by fifty or sixty dwarves, the dwarven children rush forwards into their parents arms and an impressively ancient dwarf steps forwards and introduces himself as Barunus the village elder. Balboa quickly relays to him what we have discovered at the oasis and how we saved the children, all the while Claodis is nodding his agreement. When Balboa finishes the ancient Dwarf asks;

Who are you? And where are you from?

Balboa artfully avoids the first question and tells him that the group is from the North. The dwarf nods sagely and says;

You have bravely fought the kludz and saved the life of the children of our village. May we tend to your injured?

Obviously the group agree and the unconscious Ka-Reen and teenage elf are moved into one of the circular buildings. The village elder says that they do not have anywhere for the group to stay, but one of the mothers of a rescued child comes forward and offers to put them up in her home. The elder thanks her and says that he will talk to the group in the morning after they have rested and healed. During the night all of the groups armour is removed by quiet moving dwarves and packages are left for each of the freed slaves.

When they awake in the morning they discover that the packages contain new clothes and shoes for each of them, and when they appear from the house dressed in their new attire they discover that their armour has all been repaired and is laid out for them. The group of freed slaves are led to the elders house, which is no bigger than all of the other dwellings, and are warmly greeted by Barunus the elder. The ancient dwarf tells of his village and the fact that they have been digging in the ancient ruins for one hundred and fifty years or more trying to discover a lost piece of their dwarven culture.

They are a peaceful, trading village and one day the soldiers of the city state of Urik arrived. The soldiers camped outside the city for the night and used the villages water supply, before moving on in the morning to attack the Jura Dai. The dwarves could not refuse the soldiers of Urik for fear of being killed or enslaved by them, but the elves of the Jura Dai have taken this as meaning that the dwarves were complicit in the attack and are punishing the village by poisoning the water supply.

The source of the water is at the oasis, which is normally tended to by the Druid T’Klick’Chik, a Thri-kreen. But the Druid has gone missing recently. The villages water reserves are running dangerously low and the situation must be resolved. Scar suggests that we could escort the female elf back to the tribe, assuming that she is Jura Dai, and that may win us favour. As if noticing that she is still injured the ancient dwarf summons forwards a priest who, raising one hand to the blazing sun, reaches out with his other hand to touch Scar’s injured chest. The hand that he touches Scar with bursts into flame, but instead of hurting Scar it heals her wounds. They agree that they will wait until the elf girl is conscious and then talk to her to see if she is of the Jura Dai tribe.

That afternoon the friends take the opportunity to trade with the Dwarves and kit themselves out so that they are prepared finally for tracking across the barrens of Athas. They also manage to get Scar an armoured chest piece fashioned from a large section of chitin. They finish just in time to be informed that the elf girl is regaining consciousness.

They go in to see her and she tells them that her name is Jengi Silverhand, and that she is the youngest daughter of the chief of the Jura Dai. Balboa asks how she ended up in the lair of the kludz and she tells them that she was part of a party of elves that was attacked by a group of Gith, vicious raiders and opportunists, she got separated from her group and staggered injured to the oasis. The next thing that she remembers is waking up in this Dwarven house. Arthur tells her that we will escort her back to her tribe as we wish to discuss the issue of the Jura Dai poisoning the oasis. The elf girl tries to hide a sly smile.

Barunus, the ancient Dwarf elder of the village, asks the freed slaves to accompany him to his home before we leave. He is very grateful that they have agreed to help, and that they have been so willing to assist people that we do not know or owe a debt too. He tells them that the villages water reserves are running dangerously low and it is imperative that we move swiftly, everyone gives Arthur a sideways glance, and he says that he has gifts for them. Other Dwarves bring in three gallons of clean water and enough cactus to feed the group for four days. He then reaches into a stone chest and produces a beautiful item.

The ancient Dwarf holds aloft a steel shortsword. It has interwoven Dwarven runes running down the length of its blade and as he turns it over in his hand the sun glints off of the sharpest of edges they have ever seen. The ancient Dwarf intones;

Behold the Sword of Kemalok! Once the blade of Dwarven kings.

He turns the sword in his grip and offers it to the group, hilt first. After a moment's hesitation, Scar steps forwards and accepts this most fabulous of gifts with the reverence that it deserves.

Scar is still holding the Sword of Kemalok as the group cross the rocky barrens and move out of sight of Kled following Jengi towards the home of the Jura Dai. They travel all day and as the sun sets Jengi finds a place for them to camp and the group settle down to watch, as much keeping an eye of Jengi Silverhand as the surrounding barrens. The trek has led the freed slaves to believe that Jengi is pleased with the efforts of the Jura Dai to poison all of the water sources in the area, and that she would be happy if the dwarves died of thirst because she truly believes that it was the dwarves who informed the forces of Urik where the Jura Dai stronghold was located.

The first sign of trouble was during Balboa’s watch. It was a small thing but made Balboa doubt his own senses. He was sure that he saw one of the boulders on the rocky barrens move. When he looked a second time he was positive that one of the boulders was charging towards the group. He quickly jumped from his vantage point and slid down the scree slope towards the camp shouting an alarm. At that moment Balboa feels another mind assaulting his own, but the attack slides off of Balboa’s iron hard mental shields.

Balboa’s shouting wakens Kank and Scar first, Kank reaches for his beloved maul while Scar grabs her new spear. As the pair roll to their feet Scar grabs her head and goes slightly weak at the knees, another mind attack. Scar fairs better than Miloch, who was also woken by Balboa’s screams, he drops his sword and grabs his head in both hands and grunts like he has been punched in the gut. Then the boulder, or rather beast, launches an attack on Balboa.

By this time, everyone is awake and trying to get to their feet. The creature attacking Balboa misses with both of its claws and Balboa’s counter strike also misses. Suddenly a second of the creatures bursts out of the darkness and launches an attack at Scar. Two skirmishes break out, Balboa and Kank fighting the original beast, and Scar and Arthur defending against the second beast. The sound of battle is cut through by the sound of Miloch screams as he continues to grab his head and drops to one knee.

Now that the group of freed slaves were awake and had regained their senses the battle began to swing in their direction. Scar managed to strike the beast that she was fighting in its front leg with her spear, and Kank finally manages to connect with his maul hitting his beast a glancing blow in its hind leg. And still Miloch screams out in pain and sinks down to both knees. Arthur staggers as his mind is assaulted and finds that he is not strong enough to wield his maul, and it drops from his weakened fingers. He fumbles at his belt trying to draw his dagger.

Kank frees his arms and swings his maul in an overhead arc that crashes down into the back of the creature that he and Balboa are fighting, the beast drops to the ground dead and Balboa smiles and says;

The stone protects!

Arthur, dagger now firmly in hand, lunges at the creature that he and Scar are fighting and plunges it to the hilt in the beasts leg. This time Miloch lets out a grunt of pain, and the difference is enough to make Kank look over his shoulder. He sees that Miloch is being physically attacked by a smaller beast but similar to the one that he had just killed. Kank leaps in and swings his maul but the little bastard nimbly avoids the blow.

Scar spins her spear, reversing her grip, and slams it down through the beasts skull transfixing it to the ground and killing it instantly. Arthur and Scar rush to assist Kank in keeping the smallest of the creatures away from Miloch. Their combined efforts finish it off quickly and finally the night is quiet and still once more. Scar looks around and takes in that Arthur looks weakened, Miloch looks exhausted, but Balboa and Kank both look well. It is then that she realises that the elf girl has disappeared.