Secrets revealed...

The sky was darkening as the sandstorm swept in across the desert. The people of the small village beside the muddy oasis were making sure that the kank herd were sheltered down between the few small huts. As the storm got closer every member of the village gathered in the headsman hut and settled themselves down as the last few remaining holes in the walls were plugged with fresh mud. The old ashik looked out of the door, his wise old eyes scanning the horizon, he muttered to himself about it being the worst he had seen in years and then shuffled inside and took his place within the circle of villagers. He cleared his throat and continued his tale.

With only two of the cyclops still alive the balance of the fight tips towards the freed slaves. Scar slashes at the injured female with the Sword of Kemalok but misses her target. The female cyclops only has an eye for Arthur, as he was the one who killed her mate, and she swipes at him with her bone club but it whistles over his head. The final male cyclops is engaged in a battle with Kank and he swings his club at the Mul and misses, Kank retaliates with a strike from Bone Crusher and there is a sickening cracking sound as the mul’s trusted weapon breaks the cyclops’ leg.

Unable to wield his iron maul, due to his arm being injured, Arthur steps in and punches the female in her right leg forcing her to stagger backwards a step and leaving her open for Scar to stab her with the Sword of Kemalok. Having taken numerous wounds the female cyclops topples forwards to lay dead on the floor. Kank swings at the final cyclops but misses and so Arthur, with a rage upon him, steps in and punches the cyclops in the head. Once again Arthur sets up the one - two blow as Scar steps in and slays the off balance humanoid.

While Scar and Kank search the cyclops, Balboa uses his powers to heal Arthur. Scar finds a pouch of coins and passes it to Arthur and she comments on how lean all of the cyclops appear, as if they have not eaten for several days. Kank has a quick scout around and picks up their tracks heading back into the hills and so the group decides to follow them to see if they had a base in the mountains. But after a couple of hours it became obvious that the cyclops just seemed to be wandering looking for food and water, and so the group gave up and set up camp. They forage for provisions but find scant rations, it is obvious why the cyclops were so thin.

The night passes quietly and the following day the group searches for the lost Face in the Stone. As the day is drawing to a close and they have once again discovered nothing, they all spot a solitary baazrag sitting in the shadow of a rock pile. Remembering that baazrag are good eating the group stop still and four of them pull out ranged weapons. Miloch and Scar nock arrows and bend their bows while Balboa and Kank stones into their slings and beginning swinging them. Scar counts them all down and they all fire simultaneously. Balboa and Miloch both hit and the small creature dies.

Kank jogs over to pick up their freshly killed dinner and is surprised when two more baazrag leap out of the rock pile and attack him. Kank staggers back and swings a punch at one of his attackers, but the small creature easily evades his clumsy blow. Both creatures snap at Kank’s legs but they both miss. Kank swings another punch but once again the beast scampers out of the way. One of the baazrag begins to make a keening wail while the other attempts to bite Kank once again, but this time it is Kank’s turn to dodge. Not believing what he is witnessing, Balboa can’t contain himself and falls over with laughter at the comical situation playing out in front of him. Kank’s other friends, however, rush to help.

As more baazrag scamper out of the rock pile in response to their pack mates keening wail Kank is finally bitten. The bite does not go deep, but the venom in the baazrags saliva quickly moves through Kank’s bloodstream and the big Mul suddenly finds himself unable to move and he topples to the floor paralysed. As his paralysed body falls to the ground Kank thinks long and hard about the ignominy of falling to a rock mouse.

Scar arrives beside the fallen Mul and quickly slices off the head of one of the baazrag. One of the beasts continues it’s wailing keen. Four of the creatures attack Scar and one of them succeeds in biting her, but she manages to shrug off the effects of it’s venom. Miloch arrives beside Scar and swings his iron battle axe slicing off one of the creatures legs as it fails to completely dodge the blow. He then shouts;

I can hear more of them coming!

Arthur arrives and flattens one of the baazrag with a slam of his iron maul. Three more of the creatures appear out of the rocks and one of them bites Arthur but it’s teeth cannot penetrate the dwarfs thick armour. Miloch catches the injured one with the back swing of his iron battle axe and kills it. Meanwhile one of the baazrag makes the most of Kank being down and starts to eat his nose.

Having gathered his wits at last, Balboa arrives at the scene of the skirmish and is immediately dismayed as two of the baazrag dodge past the warriors of the group and attack him. Scar swipes down at the baazrag chewing on Kank and knocks it away from him, while Arthur swings once more and once more kills one of the annoying beasts. The two baazrag attacking Balboa both miss, Arthur and Scar kill a baazrag each and the remaining baazrag flee back into the rocks. All that can be heard is the heavy breathing of the warriors and the quiet chuckles of Balboa.

Balboa manages to stop laughing long enough to heal Kank, but can do nothing about his paralysis. The group search the rocks and find a dip that the baazrag must have hidden in, they agree that it would make a good campsite and so they drag Kank into it and settle down. An hour later they hear Kank groan and see him push himself to his feet. Kank looks a little abashed and busies himself building a fire and cooking the baazrag, he also manages to forage for a few desert herbs and presents his friends with a tasty baazrag on a stick each.

The following day the group of friends believe that they have eliminated several of the narrow canyons from their search and so settle down to a quiet night with the first satisfied feeling for several days, this is helped by the fact that they have enough dead baazrag for another good meal that evening. The following day does not go as well and by the end of it they settle down in a good campsite found by Scar, but they are further demoralised by the fact that they find no forage that evening. As they are settling down they tot up how much food and water they have left and confirm that they are down to their last two days worth. Something has to change.

That night, during his watch, Arthur hears something large moving around in the darkness beyond their campsite. Eventually he spots several wild kank moving through the darkness grazing on the scant vegetation, Arthur wakes the others and they all agree that it is best to just let them pass and so they stay hidden and wait for them to pass. The following morning they agree that they need to take a different approach. They spilt into two groups, with Arthur and Miloch spending the day foraging while Balboa, Kank and Scar continue to search for the Face in the Stone.

The group have a successful day with those searching for the Face in the Stone managing to eliminate more of the deep canyons while Arthur and Miloch found enough forage to sustain the group for a day. That night they settled down pleased with their new approach. The following day they continue with their plan but things do not progress as well, the group searching can not be sure that they have covered all of the areas for that day and the pair looking for food and water only find enough for half a day. That night they make camp with the high spirits of the previous night long forgotten.

That night Kank is woken by Balboa, who was on watch, and told that Balboa can hear something moving about in the dark. Kank grabs Bone Crusher and stares out into the night while Balboa leans over and starts to wake Arthur. The next thing they know rocks are landing in their campsite. Balboa shouts a warning and the three of them dive for cover. Realising that Miloch and Scar are still asleep Kank begins to move in the vague direction of the missiles, he is hit in the chest for his troubles and with a roar dashes in the direction of the rock throwers drawing their fire.

As he rushes forwards, knowing that his friends will be only seconds behind him, Kank dodges the rocks being hurled in his direction and as he gets closer to their attackers he gets his first look at them. It is a group of four cyclops hidden on a low rise just above the groups camp. Kank continues headlong at them and the cyclops grab their clubs and rush down the slope at him. He meets the largest of the males with a powerful swing of Bone Crusher, the power of the Earth ring lending him extra strength, and knocks him backwards with a broken arm.

As Kank dodges the blows from the other cyclops he wonders when his friends will arrive and then he spots an opening and smashes the injured male in the leg, once again the sound of breaking bone can be heard and the cyclops drops to the floor. At that point Kank’s luck runs out, the female cyclops lands a crunching blow against Kank’s right arm forcing him to drop Bone Crusher and then a second smash from one of the other cyclops thumps Kank in the chest, cracking his ribs and knocking him unconscious.

Balboa, Miloch and Scar crash into the cyclops. Scar misses with the Sword of Kemalok, but both Balboa and Miloch lands blows. Miloch catches his in the left leg with his iron battle axe and Balboa strikes his in the chest with his stone mace. Miloch reverses his grip and hits his again with his backswing, the large female cyclops lands a heavy blow against Scar’s leg and it buckles beneath her and she staggers backwards leaving a gap for the puffing Arthur to step into. Arthur batters the female cyclops’ legs out from under her with a slam of his iron maul and she lands heavy on the ground. Miloch catches his with a glancing strike in the chest, but the beast refuses to go down despite bleeding from several wounds.

Both Balboa and Miloch dodge attacks from the cyclops that they are facing and then Miloch finally cuts his down with a low slash of his iron battle axe to the creatures leg. Arthur slams his iron maul into the prone female cyclops but she parries his attack with her club. The cyclops fighting Balboa misses and then is attacked by Miloch from the side, Miloch cuts one of the cyclops’ arms off and while it is distracted Balboa breaks it’s leg with a swing of his stone mace and the beast dies. Arthur finally manages to breach the female cyclops’ defence and crushes her head with a powerful overhead thump.

Balboa rushes to Scar’s side and fully heals her by the power of the gnomes of the earth. He then moves to Kank and does the same for him, but unfortunately for Kank his arm is so badly crippled that Balboa cannot heal it. Stoically Kank binds his useless right arm across his chest and looks up at his friends;

Where were you?

There are mumbling about the big Mul being foolish to charge four cyclops alone, Kank just shrugs and joins Scar searching the bodies of the dead cyclops. As with the others that they have encountered, these creatures are thin with malnutrition and all Scar finds on them is a pouch containing a pair of bone dice.

Kank removes the Earth ring from his finger and offers it to Arthur once again, but the dwarf shakes his head;

You can still punch with one arm can’t you?

The big Mul nods.

Then you best keep the thing!

Kank smiles and places the ring back on his finger once again.