Tales Under a Burning Sun

The burning sun had dropped below the horizon and the worst of the days heat was bleeding away as the twin moons rose into the clear night sky, the old ashik prodded the small kank dung fire with the toe of his sandal sending small sparks drifting upwards and briefly illuminating his weather lined face. The sibling herders look towards him waiting for him to pick up his tale once again. Leaving a tense Rikus to his administrative workload, the group returned back to the Golden Inix to discuss what they would do next, and where they might try to find some Gloomvine. Kank talked through everything that they knew so far about Gloomvine, in particular that it was once farmed by an intelligent subterranean race, Scar looks up and says that the race might well be the ancient Dwarves as all of the ruins of that long lost civilisation have been discovered below ground, including the temple in the Under Tyr. Kank suggests that they could speak to the Dwarves of Kled and see if they know anythin...

The sibling brothers had set out an hour before sunrise, shepherding their beasts towards the distant market. It would be a seven day round trip and would normally be in companionable silence. But not this time. For the old ashik had decided to join them on the trip, and every time they stopped, like now, he would have a mouthful of precious water and continue with his tale. The group of freed slaves; Arthur the Dwarf fighter, Balboa the Mul priest of the Earth, Kank the Mul who believes himself to be a holy warrior of the Earth cult, Miloch the quiet Human fighter, and Scar White of the Wastes wielder of the Sword of Kemalok, collected a pair of kank from the stables and headed out into the deserts, their destination was the City State of Tyr. The unusual, and monstrous mountain lioness known as Ferulah padded alongside Kank as they marched through the night. As they journey, Kank attempts to explain to Ferulah how the people who believe themselves to be civilized, and live in the Cit...

The time had come once again for the sibling herders to guide their herd to market so that they could sell the most recent batch of honey globules and trade the older creatures for young kank. And the old ashik had taken it upon himself to accompany the brothers and continue to regale them with his tale. The shady looking Elf, Sirius, tells Scar that she will need to go to the Drunken Giant tavern near to the Elven Market and present the clay token to the female Elf bartender. He is also very specific that she must go alone. With that, Sirius leaves and Scar is left to contemplate the potential of finally getting some answers to questions that she has had since being a little girl. The following morning the group find that while Kank is improving he is still bedridden and so they leave him to sleep while they venture out into the streets of Tyr to find out how the city is recovering. The city seems to still be in a state of shock, but there is evidence that someone has started to t...

With the young girl’s question answered, the old ashik took a small swig of water to wash the dust out of his throat. His mind drifted back to the days when he never knew where his next cup of water would come from, and he was pleased that he had found this little cluster of homes beside the muddy oasis to tell his tale. And with that thought in his head he resumed his story. Gendrik looked at Fleck and said; I really think that I could do it. If that tall woman comes with me dressed as a Templar then I could easily get one of the trollies and we could load it up with weapons. Fleck looked at him, and deciding that he was being serious he left the guardroom and silently stalked along the corridor until he found Kank and Scar in their hiding place. He relayed Gendrik’s plan, and the tall warrior woman agreed to the plan. Fleck and Kank unbarred the door and the slave and Templar pair slipped through and headed along the corridor beyond. They head past the infirmary, and a couple of...

The young child looked up into the dark eyes of the old ashik with the kind of enthusiasm that is absent in most adults due to the harsh realities of life. The old man could tell that the child was burning up inside with the question that she wanted to ask but didn’t know if she would offend by asking it. With a simple inclination of his head the old ashik encouraged the child to ask her question, the words burst from her mouth;  WHAT HAPPENED INSIDE THE ARENA? Kollus Half-elven knew what they had to do, they had been tasked with getting into the arena and identifying, and holding an exit route to safely evacuate the crowd when the inevitable happened. He had a small team, but he trusted them all to get the job done or die trying. He had been joined by his usual companions Marista the Mul and To-Gahl the Human, but his small team had been bolstered by the mighty Nordin Far, a Mul earth priest and the mysterious Elf, Babinette. They arrived early at the arena and spent much of...