Secrets revealed...

The brothers were clearing away after their meal and wondering what to do next, it always felt strange to them when they did not have a herd to watch over, and the old ashik was still telling his tale. In fact, the old man had barely paused while he ate his meal, it seemed that he really wanted to finish his story.

The group approach the small, derelict building at the top of the steep sided valley. Like the other buildings that they had searched in the vicinity they find that it is empty except for smashed furniture and rotted roof timbers. Kank searches the area around the building for tracks but finds none, and so the group move as quietly as possible towards the last of the buildings which is next to the higher of the cave mouths. This cave mouth is ten foot high and twelve foot wide, and once they discover that the building is empty Kank checks the front of the cave mouth for tracks. He discovers the footprints of a large bipedal creature, smaller than a half giant but larger than a man, and a moment later he confirms that there are more than one set of tracks.

Kank, with Scar closely behind, stalks up to the mouth of the cave and listens. When he doesn’t hear anything he begins to move forwards but is stopped by Scar’s hand on his forearm. Kank looks confusedly at Scar, in reply Scar cups her hand to her ear. Trusting in his partner Kank listens for a moment longer and can just hear the sound of something large snoring gently. Kank signals to Scar that they should retreat back to the others and when they arrive he convinces everyone that they should find a hiding place on the other side of the valley so that they can watch and see what they are facing. Begrudgingly, Scar agrees as do the others and so the group retrace their steps and collecting Stanley the kank they climb the far side of the valley.

As the sun rises and the twin moons set Scar, from her position in the hidden dip that the group have set up watch in, spots something emerging from the shadows of the lower cave mouth. As the creature steps out of the darkness it blinks it’s single large eye in the bright light of the rising sun. The beast is seven foot tall, powerfully muscled and carrying the leg bone of a giant beast as a weapon. And rising from it’s forehead above it’s lone eye is a short horn, it is the first time that Scar has seen a cyclops and she watches as it crosses to the derelict building and relieves itself against the low wall. The cyclops then returns back into the darkness of the cave.

Scar wakes the rest of the group and tells them what she has witnessed. An hour later and another of the beasts comes out of the upper cave, it is followed by what is obviously a female of the species. Again both creatures use the ancient building as a latrine and return back into the dark of the cave. The group continues to watch for the rest of the day but see little else except for the male exiting the upper cave once again, but this time he is followed by a smaller cyclops that looks like a child. During the day Balboa comments that there has been no sign of the slaves taken from the attacked caravan, and he wonders aloud where the cyclops are keeping them.

As the twin moons rise six slightly noisy silhouettes stalk towards the lower cave mouth. The group had decided that as they had only seen one cyclops at the lower cave then it was likely that it was where they were keeping the captured slaves. They stop by the ruined building and wait for thirty minutes to make sure that they haven’t disturbed anything within the cave. Hearing nothing, Kank sneaks forwards to the cave mouth and then he moves ten foot into the cave. He is followed by Scar and then Balboa, who is holding an unlit torch in his offhand. Next comes Arthur, Ka-Reen and finally Miloch. Ka-Reen is also holding an unlit torch. As soon as everyone has made it to the cave mouth Balboa and Ka-Reen light their torches.

As the light from the torches floods into the dark cave it reveals a large circular cave with two exits running out from the back of the cave. Sat at the junction of those two exits is a male cyclops staring unblinkingly at the group. As the cyclops quickly climbs to its feet Balboa spots that the floor of the cave is scattered with human bones, and laying next to where the cyclops was sat is the half eaten remains of a human leg. The cyclops shouts at the group;

WHAT YOU WANT? GET OUT!

Not waiting for an answer, the cyclops charges at Kank. Kank meets his charge and ducks under the cyclops first wild blow, he then counters with Bone Crusher but the cyclops manages to parry with its large bone club. Scar nimbly slips past the combatants and hamstrings the cyclops with the Sword of Kemalok. As its leg buckles underneath it the cyclops swings once again with its bone club but misses and Kank slams Bone Crusher into its unguarded side breaking its right arm and crushing its ribs. The cyclops lays unmoving on the floor.

Knowing that they might be discovered at any moment the group quickly head down the right hand tunnel, but they find that it runs for one hundred and fifty feet and ends in a deadend. It must be one of the abandoned obsidian mineshafts. They retreat and head down the left hand tunnel, it runs for seventy foot and opens up into a small junction cave that has two further exits off of it. Again they go right, and again they find a deadend after one hundred and twenty feet. They retreat and follow the last of the tunnels. It opens up into a large cave after fifty feet, the cave is thirty foot across and more than one hundred foot long. Looking up there is no sign of the ceiling, the cave looks more like a fissure in the rock, and as they look up Balboa spots another tunnel entrance fifty foot up.

Balboa starts to use his power to mould ladder handholds in the fissure wall up to the other tunnel entrance, while he is doing that Kank heads back to the lower cave mouth to make sure that they haven’t been heard. Kank is pleased to find that all seems quiet and by the time he returns to the others he finds that Balboa is already starting to climb up his ladder with a rope tied over his shoulder. As Kank looks up Balboa slips and falls twenty five foot to the floor below. He lands heavily and Ka-Reen rushes to his side and heals him. Dusting himself off, Balboa tries again and manages to get to the tunnel entrance and Scar ties herself onto the rope and starts to climb the ladder.

When Scar is halfway up she also slips and starts to fall, but she is tied onto the rope and Balboa is taking her weight. But he can’t hold her and lets go of the rope and she falls to the floor of the fissure. Once again Ka-Reen is called upon to heal fall damage and Kank grabs the rope and hauls himself up to the tunnel entrance. With both Kank and Balboa at the top they are able to pull everyone else up to the tunnel entrance without further mishap. The tunnel runs one hundred feet back in the direction of the upper cave and ends where it is blocked by a single large boulder pushed into the tunnel entrance.

Arthur and Kank put their massive shoulders to the boulder and push it aside, beyond they find a small cave and can hear the sound of whimpering. Once Balboa enters carrying the torch they can see three slaves cowering inside. Two are male, one Human and one Mul, and the other is a Dwarf female. The only other exit from the cave is also blocked by a large boulder pushed in from the outside, Kank and Arthur take up guard next to it while Scar and Ka-Reen see to the slaves. Scar gives them food and water while Ka-Reen tends to their wounds. Scar asks them what happened and they tell her that they were slaves in a caravan being transported to Tyr, and that the caravan was attacked by cyclops. One of the cyclops somehow controlled the caravans mekillots and they captured everyone and herded them back here.

Scar asks them how many cyclops there are and is told that they believe that there are between five and seven of them, but not all of them were adults. Balboa asks about the rest of the slaves and is told that they were all taken out through the other blocked entrance over the last few days, never to return. The Human is called Greedon, the Mul Koroth and the Dwarf Balem Rem-Edy. Ka-Reen says that she will stay with the slaves and try and get them into a state that they can be moved safely, and Arthur and Kank once more put their shoulders to the boulder.

The tunnel beyond leads to a T-junction Kank turns right and heads, he believes, further into the abandoned mine. Kank stops at the first entrance he comes across which appears to open up into a large cave, he listens and can hear the sound of someone mummering, possibly muttering in their sleep. Kank signals to Scar and the others and they charge into the cave hoping to catch its occupants unaware. As the light from Balboa’s torch lights up the room they can see at the back of the cave four cyclops on dirty sleeping pallets. There is a large male and female, an adolescent female and a male child.

The male cyclops looks up at them and shouts in common;

INTRUDERS!

The group rush in to attack. Kank and Miloch charge at the big female while the others launch an attack against the large male. Arthur attacks first and swings with his maul at the male catching it with a thumping blow that mangles its right arm. Miloch slices at the female with his obsidian axe and cripples her leg, Balboa swings with his stone mace but misses his target. The large male cyclops swings his bone club one handed, but it sails over Arthur’s head. The large female swings at Miloch but also misses, the adolescent female steps to her mother's side to support her.

The large male swings his bone club again, but this time he catches Arthur with a mighty blow knocking him backwards and crippling his arm. Miloch slashes down at the large female with his axe and kills her, the adolescent female leaps at Miloch but is smashed out of the air by Bone Crusher. She lands in a dead heap against the wall of the cave. The child then leaps at Kank, but again Kank smashes it out of the air with Bone Crusher. Seeing its mate and children killed drives the male into a berserk rage and it flails about with its bone club. Balboa darts in under the club and strikes it in the leg and then Miloch catches it in the guts with his axe and it collapses dead on the floor.

As the large male falls the group all turn on their heels as they hear the sound of running feet in the tunnel outside. They ready themselves as another male and female cyclops charge into the cave. Scar dances in under a blow from the male and hamstrings him with the Sword of Kemalok, as Miloch decapitates the female with an astounding swing of his obsidian axe. Kank then steps in and smashes the male in the chest with Bone Crusher cracking its ribs and killing it.

For once on this violent world it is the group that are trying to kill everything...