Secrets revealed...

The younger of the herders was drifting off to sleep, the voice of the old ashik was soft and soothing. His elder brother elbowed him in the ribs to startle him back to full wakefulness. The old ashik allowed himself yet another wry smile, gave a little cough to clear his throat, and then continued with his tale.

As the body of the final cyclops hit the floor it seemed that silence fell with it. The only noise was the panting of the former slaves and the dying groans of the cyclops. Kank drew his bone knife and moved around the bodies of the cyclops making sure that they were all dead. Meanwhile, Scar, Miloch and Balboa moved out and made sure that the rest of the complex was empty. All they found was evidence of half eaten corpses and cracked human thigh bones with their marrow sucked out. Arthur, his arm still hanging limply by his side, returned to Ka-Reen and she bandaged and set it in a sling but was unable to use her inner power to heal him.

The group reunite in the largest of the caves, Ka-Reen bringing the three cyclops’ slaves with her, and they begin to search through the cave. They discover two large wooden barrels full of water and a small wooden coffer with a broken lock, when Scar opens the coffer she discovers that it holds twenty pieces of silver. She passes them across to Arthur. The group decide that they need to wait until the recently freed slaves have had time to gain some strength and rehydrate themselves, so Kank heads back outside to go and collect Stanley the kank.

Arthur finally gets a good look at the freed slaves and is taken with Balem Rem-Edy, the female dwarf. She is not what you would call a stunning beauty, but she is clearly strong of arm and broad shouldered, fine traits to a dwarf. The others set up camp in the lower of the two cave mouths, as it is more open to the elements and so cleaner than the other caves. Balboa confirms that he has counted seventeen skulls within the cave system, and that tallies with the number of people missing from the ambushed slave caravan. When Kank returns they stable Stanley in one of the derelict buildings and set up watches for the rest of the night.

When the sun is above the horizon the following morning, Ka-Reen moves through the group making sure that everyone’s injuries are tended to. She heals Scar using her powers and then turns to Arthur’s limp arm. She lays hands on him once again, but this time her power flows into Arthur and he regains the use of his arm. Arthur thanks Ka-Reen profusely and Ka-Reen heads off to rest and regain her strength. As the sun sets and the twin moons rise the group set out, Arthur allowing Ka-Reen to ride on Stanley, the group head out on the short journey to the waystation.

Scar and Kank push ahead of the main group and attempt to sneak up on the waystation to confirm that the Gith have not returned. They find that it is empty and once Kank has checked the surrounding area for tracks he confirms that there has been no one here since they left a couple of days beforehand. The group arrive and they rest during the day awaiting dusk. As the cyclops slave sleep the rest of the group discuss what they will do with them. Arthur advocates that they should be allowed to join The Free, especially Balem, and the rest agree. But Balboa points out that they should not take them directly to the Hidden Village as they cannot confirm if any of them are spies. Scar comes up with the idea of heading for the initial meeting point that the group were given by Kollus the Half-Elf.

The group camp in the rocky badlands the following day and by the middle of the following night they have made it to the old rendezvous location. They set up camp and await a patrol from The Free, they do not have long to wait for a couple of hours after dawn a patrol greets them and Balboa informs them of what has happened. The patrol head off to make a report to the Hidden Village and the group sit tight waiting for more information. They are very surprised when a day later a group of figures emerge out of the predawn darkness.

The group is led by the friendly faces of Marista and Kollus who are followed by a Dwarf that the friends do not know. That Dwarf is followed surprisingly by Major Drog and General Charanim, two of The Free’s most important commanders have come to question the slaves which proves to the friends that they are taking their security seriously. The three slaves are questioned by General Charanim and after a short while she speaks quietly to Major Drog and he turns to the friends and says that they will allow the freed slaves to join The Free, and waves for everyone to join them in heading back to the Hidden Village.

As they are heading home Kollus drops back to the friends and tells them that General Charanim is a psionicist, and is able to read minds. Arthur seems unsurprised by this information but the others are impressed. Kollus goes on to question the friends about their mission and is pleased with what they tell him. As soon as they arrive back at the Hidden Village the three new slaves are rushed away by the Earth priests for further healing while the friends are taken to see Watch Commander Falcar for a full debrief. Falcar is very pleased with the outcome of the mission and says that there will be further work for us to do. But for now, the group is to focus on their training.

Arthur gives Balboa thirty pieces of silver from the groups small horde so that he can pay to have the Earth temple teach him new spells. Arthur also gives him a few extra silver so that Balboa can pay his tithe to the temple, and with the silver in hand Balboa heads for the temple and Brother Moran Gore. Ka-Reen heads to the oasis outside of the village walls to meet Sister Veranitha and continue her training with her. Kank, Miloch, and Scar are moved from gate guard duties and allocated to the patrols that range out of the Hidden Village and keep a watch on the comings and goings in the surrounding area. Whilst on patrol, Kollus takes the opportunity to train the friends in surviving the harsh conditions.

The three friends are separated and placed in different patrols, which means that they do not notice that Arthur is not journeying out from the Hidden Village. If they had known this, then they may have spotted that Arthur was sleeping through a lot of the day and was spending the nights in a trance-like state looking inwards rather than focusing on what was taking place outside of his mind, or rather outside of the mind of General Charanim, for Arthur was spending his time building his psionic powers.

Ten days later the group of friends find themselves all off duty at the same time and catch up with each other as to what has been going on. Balboa explains that he has worked with Brother Moran Gore to learn some new spells, his eyes go wide with remembered awe when he describes the moment that the Brother summoned a huge and powerful earth elemental and then taught him how to work in conjunction with the elemental to cast spells of healing. He also shares the gossip that Brother Moran Gore and Sister Veranitha are lovers, something that does not surprise Ka-Reen who has been working closely with the good Sister.

Mid-morning the group are summoned to see Watch Commander Falcar who is ready to share the details of the next mission that he has for them. In the Watch Commanders room there is a large table and laid out on that table is a large map of the area, when the group arrive the Watch Commander indicates a point on the map and says;

This is where you discovered the newly uncovered mausoleum and freed the water elemental, and thus created a new oasis. We believe that the Black Sand Raiders have taken this opportunity and have set up a temporary bazaar at the mausoleum where they are trading in slaves with merchant houses from Tyr in order to avoid paying slave taxes in either Tyr or Urik. We believe that the Black Sand Raiders are being commanded by Praden Vlock, a dangerous man.

Falcar goes on to inform the group that The Free have an ally in Tyr who has identified a caravan that is leaving Tyr and travelling to the mausoleum to trade goods for slaves. The caravan is from the small Merchant House Ianto and will be carrying spices and silks to trade, it is estimated that they will have enough to get approximately twelve slaves.

Around the map table with Watch Commander Falcar are the Half-Elf Kollus and the Mul Marista, and Falcar carries on;

We would like you to intercept and hijack the Merchant House Ianto’s caravan, and then posing as them travel onto the mausoleum oasis and reconnoiter it.

He then nods towards the Half-Elf and says;

Kollus will accompany you as he can drive the wagon and act as the trader, while you will all take on the role of caravan guards. Which is why Ka-Reen will not be travelling with you on this mission.

The rest of the friends look around at Ka-Reen and it slowly dawns on them that there is no way that the slight and beautiful Ka-Reen could pass as a caravan guard, and so they nod their understanding. The Watch Commander goes on to say that they want the group to assess how many guards there are, how much water is left, what resources they have, the general layout of the bazaar including where the slaves are being held, how many slaves are passing through the bazaar, and what Merchant Houses are trading there. All with a view to a possible attack by The Free on the mausoleum oasis. Watch Commander Falcar then looks around at us all and states;

If the opportunity arises, and you can do it without being caught, kill Praden Vlock!

Before the request has time to settle in the groups minds he points back at the map and tells them that the caravan will be leaving Tyr in three days time and he indicates the route that the caravan will take. It will take them eight days to get from Tyr to the oasis and so the group agree that they should intercept them four days out from Tyr to give them as much time as possible to hijack the caravan.

Given the speed with which we will need to move, Arthur requests the use of Stanley the kank once again and Falcar agrees. Marista agrees to ride with us to the point at which we will hijack the caravan and then she will be able to bring Stanley the kank back to the village. It is also agreed that once we have purchased the slaves then we will be bringing them back to the original rendezvous location so that they can be vetted before being allowed to join The Free. The Watch Commander dismisses the group and tells them that they have two days to prepare.

As the group leave the presence of Watch Commander Falcar they are greeted by a messenger from the Earth temple who says that Priestess Brintar seeks a moment of our time. Balboa suggests that it is unwise to keep the priestess waiting and so the group head to the Earth temple. When they arrive Brintar informs them that she has finished examining the black stones that the group found in the Howling Tombs. She tells them that they can be used to store magical power to be used at a later date to power spell casting, but that the user has to attune to the stones first.

Balboa thanks her on behalf of the group and Brintar hands the four stones back to him and then leaves. Both Scar and Ka-Reen take one of the stones and Scar instantly attunes to hers. Arthur asks if there is anything that the group wish to buy from the artisans of the Hidden Village before they depart on their mission, Scar wishes to purchase chitten armour for her right arm, she is clearly fed up with it continually getting hit and taken out of action. Arthur also purchases every member of the group a lodestone to help with navigation.

Six days later, as the group are crossing the edge of the desert heading for the point they have identified for the ambush of Merchant House Ianto’s caravan when the ground in front of them erupts in a gout of rock and sand. Both Arthur and Marista, who were mounted on kanks, tumble from their saddles and hit the ground hard as a giant scorpion bursts out of the ground and attacks.