Secrets revealed...

The old ashik looked around at the faces staring expectantly up at him. The sibling herders had told their family and neighbours of the old ashik’s tales, and they had all settled around the firepit beside the muddy oasis waiting for him to weave his magic. He thought hard for a short while, wondering how he would introduce those new faces to his tale without retelling all that he had already spun, and then a thought came to him. He looked up and said in his quiet but unusually strong voice, ‘Let me tell you of the skirmish on the mountain path. For that was the day that Kank slayed an erdlu with a single punch!’

The group of freed slaves were travelling from the Hidden Village of The Free to the City State of Tyr in order to make contact with a spy within the city in order to gain some unknown, but vital information. They are travelling by night and resting up under cover during the long, hot day. They are a three quarters through their third night of travel when a huge sandstorm blows up from the east and they are forced to take shelter early, they hunker down for the rest of the night and well into the following morning, but finally the storm breaks and the wind starts to die.

As the howling of the storm lessens Kank and Scar become aware of the sound of voices nearby. Scar quietly stands and scans the area around the groups shelter, through the lessening sandstorm she can see three heavily cloaked humanoids a hundred yards away investigating something on the floor. Scar drops back down and tells the others what she has seen, they quietly creep forwards to get a better viewing angle and finally Arthur spots that the three figures are gathered around a fourth figure on the floor. And most surprisingly, the humanoid figure on the floor appears to have an injured wing.

Arthur and Balboa approach the individuals with their hands empty and in plain sight, while Kank and Scar move towards the flanks but keep their distance. Arthur and Balboa get to ten yards away from the group, and at that distance can see that the humanoids are heavily cloaked and have their faces wrapped in cloth, possibly to protect from the sandstorm. Balboa speaks first;

Greetings fellow travelers!

One of the figures steps forwards and greets Balboa in kind. The other two standing figures take up a defensive stance around their fallen comrade. The figures are all holding long wooden quarterstaffs, but they are holding them defensively and so Balboa continues;

It seems that your friend may well be injured and we may be able to help.

The lead figure is quiet for a moment and then replies;

If you could help us then it would be greatly appreciated.

Balboa asks;

May I approach?

The lead figure steps out of the way and Balboa gets his first good look at the figure on the floor. She, for it is unmistakably a female, is a feathered humanoid with grey and blue plumage and one large wing held at an awkward angle. Balboa inspects the wing and it appears dislocated, he looks up at the lead figure who had removed his face wrappings and asked;

What are your religious beliefs?

The creature cocked his head to one side, in a curious avian kind of way and so Balboa continues;

Your opinion of magic?

Understanding crosses the birdmans face and he replies;

Our people are magic by nature!

Balboa tells them that he can call upon the gnomes of the earth to heal their friend and the lead figure says;

Ah! So you are an elementalist! Good!

With a smile on his face, Balboa draws an earth rune in the sand around the prone birdwomen and attempts to summon his power, maybe because he was nervous or unfocused but the gnomes failed to heed his call. He composed himself and ran through the litany of the earth before attempting casting once again, this time the gnomes were pleased with him and the power flowed through him and into the birdwomen healing her wing in full.

Arthur passes the time in conversation with the leader of the bird people, they have travelled from Tyr and were forced down due to the storm which is where one of their group injured her wing. They are headed to Kled and are in the process of negotiating trade routes for their people. The leader also tells Arthur to be careful in Tyr, he says that the Templars and rigidly enforcing the laws of Tyr and arresting anyone who even so much as bends them. Once Balboa has finished the lead birdman hands him a single gold piece as a thankyou for his efforts. The gold piece is in Balboa’s hand for about a second before Arthur says;

Shall I look after that for you?

Balboa smiles and hands over the coin to the groups self appointed treasurer. The bird people wish the group safe travels and then one by one they launch themselves into the now clear sky and fly away. The group decide to rest up for the remainder of the day and as the sun sets and the twin moons rise they set off once again headed for the mountain path. It is Balboa that spots it first, nothing more than a kank track headed up into the mountains, and at the foot of it he finds an excellent place to stash the water and food for their journey back. The group say goodbye to Marista and Tor-Gal as the pair head back towards the Hidden Village with the kank. Arthur stares after them until they are out of sight, possibly wiping a tear away as Stanley the kank disappears out into the dunes.

And so the members of the group head up the kank track with, ironically enough, Kank leading the way. Ten yards behind him follows Scar with her bow in hand and an arrow nocked, ten more yards back are Balboa and Arthur side by side with Miloch bringing up the rear. The main kank track jags back and forth following the line of a deep crevice running up into the mountains, and the group pass several even narrower pathways angling steeply up. After a couple of hours Scar sees Kank ahead of her throw up his hand in a quick signal to halt. She mirrors his signal stopping those behind her. Arthur, Balboa, and Miloch freeze in place next to one of the narrow side tracks.

As Kank was rounding a corner in the kank track he had caught sight of movement ahead of him, it was difficult to make out in the dark but the light of the twin moons showed him a widening of the path where several other paths met. He also saw two soldiers on foot leading erdlu, while a third sat mounted nearby talking to possibly more soldiers out of sight. The two soldiers on foot seem to be examining the ground, Kank moved very slowly backwards waving for the others to head up the side path. As the others started to move, one of them made a noise and Kank heard one of the soldiers say;

Did you hear something?

Kank turns and starts to run, as he does so he hears one of the soldiers shout out and the sound of erdlu claws running on the path behind him. Miloch, Balboa, and Arthur rush up the side path and try to get out of sight, while Scar steps into the mouth of the side path and crouches with her bow ready. Knowing that he has already been seen, Kank sprints straight past the entrance to the side path in an attempt to draw the soldiers away from the others.

The first of the erdlu riders is taken in by Kank’s plan, but the second spots Scar crouched and wheels his mount towards her. She instantly looses the arrow that she has nocked and hits the soldier in the abdomen. As fluid as quicksilver Scar draws another arrow and lets it fly hitting him once again in the chest, but his armour deflects the worst of the blows and he stabs down with his long spear barely missing her. Hearing the giant birds footsteps closing in behind him, Kank spins on his heel and readies Bone Crusher whilst calling upon the power of the earth ring to increase his formidable strength.

The erdlu rider lowers his long spear for the strike and it slams into Kank’s left arm rendering it useless and forcing Bone Crusher to fall from Kank’s grip. The mounted soldier reins his erdlu backwards preparing for another charge and Kank spots that both bird and rider are shimmering making it hard to hit cleanly. Scar dodges both the soldiers attack with his long spear as well as the erdlu’s strike with it clawed foot, as she does so she drops her bow and draws the Sword of Kemalok.

The first soldier charges Kank once more but misses with his long spear, Kank draws back his good arm and throws a mighty punch at the head of the riders erdlu, and in spite of the shimmering, he lands a powerful blow dropping the erdlu dead, literally, in its tracks and catapulting the rider out of the saddle and over Kank’s head. But the rider lands in a roll and is back on his feet in an instant. That was when Kank heard another erdlu rider charging up behind him, he spun to meet it but the soldiers long spear strikes him in the head and Kank collapses unconscious like a stone.

A fourth erdlu rider joins the one fighting against Scar but is surprised when Arthur leaps out of the dark and smashes one of the soldiers legs with a huge overhead smash of his maul. Balboa and Miloch, who have followed the narrow upper path and circled around to behind the soldiers rush in to attack. But as Miloch swings his obsidian battle axe the leather thong tying back his hair snaps and he is blinded by his own hair, the soldier he was attacking strikes back with his long spear and catches Miloch in the arm. Balboa rushes into the melee as Miloch staggers backwards.

Scar slashes out with the Sword of Kemalok and slices through the chest of one of the soldiers, the soldier slumps dead in the saddle but his bird kicks out at Scar just narrowly missing. Arthur swings with his maul and strikes the second of the soldiers once again, crushing his abdomen and killing him. Once again the soldiers riding erdlu kicks out and this time catches Arthur in the balls, but the stoic dwarf remains standing.

The rider that felled Kank wheeled around and charged towards Arthur and Scar, he was joined in his charge by the sixth of the soldiers. Arthur swings again but misses and this time is clawed in retaliation by the riders erdlu. As the skirmish rages on blows are thrown and blows are dodged, Balboa takes a glancing strike to the head and both Arthur and Scar dispatch two more of the soldiers. The soldier who’s mount was killed by Kank rounds up one of the loose erdlu and escapes, but the final soldier is not so lucky as he is trapped between the members of the group and they strike him down, but not before he manages to hit Balboa once again.

The riderless erdlu scatter and while Balboa heals himself and Miloch, Scar and Arthur search the area and corpses. They find Kank unconscious and bound, Scar frees him and carries out first aid on his head wound. Kank regains consciousness but is still badly injured, that is until Balboa calls upon the gnomes of the earth and heals him fully. Kank gives thanks to Balboa, and then spots Arthur eyeing up the erdlu’s drumstick.