The shattering of the Dura Dai...

The night had passed quietly and before dawn the old ashik joined the sibling herders in checking their beasts. Having rounded up a rogue female kank, the brothers headed back to the small village by the muddy oasis for breakfast, and as they walked the old ashik picked up his tale again.

As the fight continues to rage around him, an injured Kank drags himself clear of the battle only to find himself in the path of another Elf joining the fray. Kank thrusts his hand at the Elf and summons what little mental strength he possesses, a gout of flame leaps from the big Mul’s hand and washes over the Elf. Once the flames clear, Kank is dismayed to see that the Elf is uninjured and all the Mul has managed to do is attract the Elf’s attention.

Scar stands trading blows with Toramund and his four mirror images, the defilers fell magics sowing confusion in the battle. Scar strikes out with the Sword of Kemalok hitting Toramund, but when the Toramund that she hits disappears into thin air she realises that she has only managed to cancel out one of his magical doppelgängers. She dodges a blow from one of the Toramund’s and quickly ripostes with a thrust of her own, this time the Toramund that she hits does not disappear, but staggers backwards with a wounded leg.

Jengi is surprised as Arthur appears out of thin air in front of her, and is surprised further when the heavily muscled Dwarf punches her in the gut with his one good arm. The Elven teenager reels backwards and looks about herself like a frightened Jarbo looking for an escape route. The Elf now facing Kank raises his obsidian bastard sword high and brings it down in a powerful arc, striking Kank a mighty blow in the head. The big Mul slumps unconscious to the floor as the Elf moves onto his next opponent.

Toramund, and his remaining mirror images, swings his bastard sword and hits Scar a stunning blow to her head. The tall warrior woman staggers backwards but does not collapse, however, Toramund follows up quickly and with his reverse swing slices Scar’s leg off mid thigh. This time the mighty warrior woman of the wastes topples to the floor. Miloch, who was standing behind Scar on the stairs, steps protectively over Scar’s prone body and engages Toramund. With the Elven chieftain distracted by Miloch’s attack one of the Dwarves of Kled steps in behind him and cuts him down with an iron scimitar. The leader of the Dura Dai dies by the hand of a warrior of Kled.

As the battle breaks up into several smaller fights one of the Elf guards falls to blows from the Dwarves of Kled. One Dwarf rushes to intercept the Elf with the obsidian bastard sword, but he slips in a pool of blood and lands at the Elf’s feet, the Elf does not ignore the gift and thrusts downwards with his bastard sword and stabs the Dwarf through the chest killing him instantly. Having killed the Dwarf, the Elf steps over his corpse and swings at Ferulah, but the mysterious feline warrior leaps backwards and avoids the blow.

Jengi lunges at Arthur and strikes him with all of her might, her attack hits the stocky Dwarf squarely in the chest but is deflected by Arthur’s magically enhanced armour. Realising that she is out of her depth, the teenage Elf runs like a Baazrag. With a smile crossing his face, Arthur disappears and reappears in front of where Jengi was running. But the wiley Elf has fooled the Dwarf by quickly doubling back on herself and dashing back through the door that Arthur was blocking.

With Toramund dead the remaining Elves flee the battle, all except the Elf with the obsidian bastard sword. Having cut down Kank and one of the Dwarves, as well as being responsible for Arthur’s crippled arm, he is advancing once more on Ferulah. Miloch rushes to intercept him and is greeted by a swing of the Elf’s deadly blade, a swing powerful enough to cripple his left arm. The doughty Human warrior counterstrikes with his iron battleaxe and buries the baked of his weapon to the haft in the Elf’s chest. The obsidian bastard sword falls from the Elf’s dead fingers and silence settles on the scene of the battle.

Balboa steps into the room from the stairwell and surveys the carnage in front of him. The Company of the Cloaked Inix, and the Dwarven guard of Kled lay bloodied from battle all across the room. Balboa moves to Scar’s side and calls upon the Gnomes of the earth to heal her, he then moves on to Kank and repeats the process. Meanwhile, Caelum of Kled heals Arthur and Miloch, while one of the other Dwarves moves through the room cleaning and bandaging minor wounds. But there is nothing that can be done to heal Scar’s severed leg, Ferulah has used all of her power and is unable to heal the warrior woman. So Kank, having a lot of sympathy for missing limbs, helps Scar as they move back down the tower in search of Barunus.

Arthur pauses at Toramund’s body and searches him, he finds a small pouch full of silver coins but nothing else of interest. He follows the others downstairs still grumbling about the fact that Jengi escaped his wrath. At the bottom of the staircase Kank gently sets Scar down on the edge of one of the beds and then picks up the iron scimitar that was being used by one of Toramund’s sons. Arthur removes a silver pendant set with a green stone from the body of Toramund’s wife and then opens the chest at the foot of the biggest bed. Inside he discovers a leather bag full of silver coins and a silver arm torc.

Kank headed further downstairs entering the lower portions of the main tower, the chamber below held a sick Elf on a dirty cot and Kank gave him a wide berth before continuing downwards. In the lowest level of the tower Kank discovered a well, and tied up next to the water hole was a badly beaten Barunus. The big Mul quickly untied him and, throwing him over his shoulder, carried him back up the stairs to the others. As soon as the Dwarves of Kled saw their leader one of them rushed forwards and called upon the flames of the sun to heal Barunus’ injuries. Even healed, the mental scars of Barunus’ ordeal kept him subdued.

While Barunus is recovering the Company of the Cloaked Inix agree to search the main tower as they believe that the Dura Dai clan should have more wealth than the coins that they have found. They start at the top of the tower, and it takes them a while, but when they get back to the bedroom with the chest in it they discover that the chest has a false bottom. Arthur prys it open and discovers nine bone tubes capped with leather and a small bag of gold coins.

Balboa and Arthur continue the search in the lower chambers while the others remain in the bedroom. It is then that one of the Dwarves of Kled comes down from the chamber above and says that the Elves have completely abandoned the fort and that Barunus is fit to move. He then looks about and asks;

Where is Arthur and the little fella?

Kank points down the stairs and the Dwarf nods and says that they will be moving within ten minutes. Kank shouts down the stairs to the others and not long after the Company of the Cloaked Inix and the Dwarves of Kled have collected their kank and are setting out across the desert heading for the Dwarves home.

On their journey back to Kled it becomes apparent that two of the Kled guard and the big Mul, Kank, have contracted the disease that was running rife through the Elves of the Dura Dai. Kank reaches into his pouch and quaffs one of the Troll’s cure disease potions. Arthur and Scar both sacrifice one of their own potions for the two Dwarves and the group arrive in Kled a day and a half later free of the illness.

The Company are shown to an empty home within the town’s low wall and are told that they can use it while they remain in Kled. They decide to rest up for a day and recover, during which Scar inspects the bone tubes recovered from Toramund’s chest. She discovers that they all contain sheets of vellum, each of which are written on in a different hand, and eventually she realises that it must be Toramund’s spell book.

A day later and the Company are invited to an audience with Barunus and the leader of Kled asks them to tell their side of his rescue. Balboa steps forwards and leaves nothing out, when he has finished Barunus tells how he was captured and how his guards were ruthlessly slain whilst they were unarmed and bound. Barunus asks the Company what was bringing them to Kled, and Balboa responds;

We seek the hammer of the Dwarven hero Hrothgurtun, Earthshaker!

Much to the disappointment of the Company, Barunus says that he has not heard of Hrothgurtun. Balboa relays the thoughts of Thrassos and is happier to see the Dwarven archaeologist nodding at the thought of Hrothgurtun’s tomb being located on Ledo. Barunus says that they should seek out his fellow archaeologist in South Ledopolus, a lady by the name of Sabatine. He goes on to say that he and Sabatine are not on good terms and so he cannot provide a letter of introduction. He also says that Sabatine is not very friendly to those that she doesn’t know and may well require a task completed before she will help the Company.

Barunus thinks for a moment and then distractedly says;

Of course the real problem will be getting across the silt sea to the island of Ledo. Well, that and the Giants that live on the island!

Barunus then seems to snap back to the present and asks why the Company are seeking the hammer of a long lost Dwarven hero. Balboa explains the freeing of Nurkel-Malia, mistress of disease, and the fact that she is one of the old gods. Barunus is a little sceptical, but is fascinated by the story and probes the knowledgeable Mul for everything that he knows, Balboa happily tells all with the exception of the Troll encounter.

Once they have left the meeting with Barunus, Ferulah has regained enough energy to attempt to regrow Scar’s severed limb. The female former feline’s sorcery is successful and Scar’s stump immediately starts to itch as the tissue and bone begin the process of regenerating. And once done the Company agrees to visit the Druid once again to pay their respects before moving on. When they arrive at the Silver Spring oasis they are once again greeted by Thrassos, who quickly asks for the Company’s story of the Dura Dai raid.

While Balboa is once again telling the tale, the Thri-kreen Druid T’Klick’Chik cross the bridge and immediately engages Ferulah in a mind speech conversation. Ferulah and the Druid cross back across the bridge and disappear from sight, it is two hours before they reappear and when they arrive the Druid mind speeches with Balboa and asks if he can provide any assistance to the Company as a sign of gratitude for their involvement in decimating the Dura Dai clan. Balboa asks if the Druid has any healing herbs and the Thri-kreen hands him several doses of herbs that he tells Balboa to brew in hot water to create a cure.

T’Klick’Chik asks where the Company is travelling and Balboa informs him that they are journeying to South Ledopolus. The Druid tells Balboa of the caravanserai at the next oasis on that road, and that they will need to pay for water there, Balboa thanks him greatly for the information. The Company leave their tribute and, wishing Thrassos and T’Klick’Chik farewell, head back to Kled. On their journey back, Miloch voices his concerns of heading out of the area controlled by Tyr whilst still being branded as a slave. Ferulah listens carefully and asks to see the brand, when Miloch shows her, she says that she will be able to deal with them but that she will only be able to deal with one per day.

And so the Company agrees to spend five days in Kled resting up before they continue with their quest.