The city of the dead...

The outer door to the slave cages in the lower deck of the Mekillot slave wagon burst into hundreds of wooden shards as the head of a massive Troll maul smashed through it from outside. The old ashik thought to himself 'about bloody time', and then continued to tell his tale to the shell shocked slaves within the pens with him.

Scar lunges at the larger of the Braxat with the Sword of Kemalok, but watches on with disappointment as most of her blow is deflected by the creatures very thick hide. Arthur swings hard with his Troll maul at the other Braxat but the creature proves to be very nimble for such a large beast and dodges the attack. The larger Braxat swings it's immense club at Scar but the lithe warrior woman ducks beneath the arc of the weapon, the missed swing leaves the beast open for Kank to smash Earthshaker with a bone cracking strike into the Braxat's leg, and the creature drops to one knee. Balboa steps to Arthur's side and calls upon the Gnomes of the earth to protect him as Miloch slashes his iron battleaxe across the smaller Braxat's arm as Ferulah punches it twice in the legs with her cestuses.

Scar stabs again at the largest Braxat, this time the Sword of Kemalok's magical edge slides between the fleshy plates of armour and injures the beast badly. Balboa gently touches the small of Ferulah's back and calls out to the Gnomes of the earth to grant her protection, the Gnomes listen and Ferulah feels the magical armour envelope her. Arthur sweeps his lead Troll maul low at the smallerBraxat's legs and is rewarded with the cracking sound of the creatures legs breaking. The Braxat drops to the sand like a felled tree and lays there unmoving. Kank misses the larger Braxat with Earthshaker, but his attack leaves the beast open for Ferulah to leap on it and stab the claws of her cestuses deep into it's back. It, too, drops to the sand unmoving.

With the night quiet once more, the Company drag the bodies of the Braxat out into the dark to be eaten by the wild beasts of the Athasian night, and return to their watches. The rest of the night passes quietly and the following morning the Company of the Cloaked Inix continue their journey south. It isn’t until dusk on the fifth day out of Tyr that anything disturbs that quiet.

Balboa had spotted an ideal place for the Company to camp and was leading them towards it when a pair of giant scorpions burst out of their hiding holes in the deep sand, one to either side of the Company’s line.  Before the Company can react the first of the scorpions attacks Kank and badly injures one of his legs, dropping the big Mul to one knee. The second of the scorpions viciously attacks Ferulah with two quick snaps of it’s claws. Quickly recovering from the surprise attack the members of the Company draw their weapons and prepare to defend themselves. The first of the scorpions misses Kank twice, but the second one manages to hit Ferulah once again, this time in the head. That is enough for the shape shifting mountain lioness, she launches herself at the scorpion and strikes it twice with her cestuses. Scar steps in to attack the first of the scorpions but the creature scuttles aside and dodges the strike. It is then that both scorpions strike out with their tail stingers, but fortunately both Ferulah and Kank manage to dodge the attacks.

Scar lunges again with the Sword of Kemalok but sees her attack glance off of the scorpions think armour plating. Ferulah attacks twice and badly injures the second of the scorpions and then Arthur, who has dismounted from his kank, slams his lead Troll maul into the beasts back and kills it. Kank uses the power of Earthshaker to imbue himself with magical protection and just in time as the scorpions claw closes around his head but fails to penetrate his magical improved defences. Miloch sweeps his iron battleaxe at the first of the scorpions and severs it’s left claw. Scar then slashes with the Sword of Kemalok and slices off the creatures poisonous tail, before Ferulah leaps upon it and finishes it off with twin punches from her cestuses.

While Balboa calls upon the Gnomes of the earth to heal Ferulah’s deep wounds, Scar first aids Kank and succeeds in getting him back onto two feet. During the nights watches Kank donned his sheepskin cloak, and once he had worn in for the night has was able to call upon the spirit of the cloak to heal the rest of his wounds. The following morning the Company of the Cloaked Inix set off south once more heading for Kalidnay, City of the Dead. Or more precisely, the Lost Oasis a days travel from the city of Kalidnay.

During the ninth day out of Tyr Scar scaled the largest dune that she could find and scanned the horizon with her telescope. Far to the south, poking up above the horizon, she could see the towers of Kalidnay. And more ominously, she could see a heavy dark grey green cloud bank hanging very low over the city, so low that it touch the tallest of the towers. There was nothing natural about those clouds. The orienteering Balboa took the time to get his bearings and then pointed southeast and said;

The Lost Oasis lays that way!

Taking the knowledgeable Mul’s lead the end of the day sees the Company come within sight of the Lost Oasis. Ferulah and Kank push out in front of the rest of the Company to scout out the oasis and make sure that it is safe. As they arrive they can see that the water of the oasis is bubbling and stinks of rotten eggs, Kank also believes that it may well contain a geyser. As they are watching the surface of the oasis bubble an elderly man steps out of a stand of palm trees further along the waters edge and stands there staring at the pair of newcomers. With has arms out to his sides, and his palms held open to show that his is unarmed, Kank approaches the old man and introduces himself. The old man tells Kank that he is called Lionnus and asks Kank what they are doing this far out into the desert. Kank replies;

We are seeking an ancient evil!

Lionnus thinks for a moment and then asks Kank to follow him as he has something to show him. He leads the big Mul to another grove of trees, and tangled within the roots of the trees, almost as if the trees had come to life and entangled the beasts, hang the dead bodies of three goat headed humanoids. Kank instantly recognises them as creatures of chaos. Lionnus tells Kank that the three creatures arrived three days ago, and that they had travelled from the direction of Kalidnay. He also confirms that they are the first of their kind that he has ever encountered.

Kank thanks Lionnus for the information and offers the Company’s help in taking the dead bodies of the chaos beasts out into the desert to burn them, Lionnus thanks him and offers to show Kank a good spot for the Company to rest the evening. The rest of the Company of the Cloaked Inix join Ferulah, Kank, and Lionnus at the Lost Oasis and Arthur asks if the old man is the druid of the oasis, Lionnus laughs a no and says that he assists the druid Durwadala who protects this oasis. Arthur asks a few more questions about Durwadala, but Lionnus is not very forthcoming with information, he does however impress upon the members of the Company that they must not remain within Kalidnay after dusk because the dead walk the streets once the sun sets.

In discussion with Lionnus the Company agree to rest at the Lost Oasis for the night and the following day then travel overnight, following the dry river bed to give them some cover, with the aim of arriving at Kalidnay just before dawn.

As dawn rises on the eleventh day out of Tyr Arthur and Scar crawl up to the edge of the dry river bed and scan Kalidnay with their telescopes, not seeing any movement within the city the Company agree to first circumnavigate Kalidnay to see if they can see any activity. As they traverse the outskirts of the city of the dead they pass the location of the pyramid within the walls, they can see that some destructive force has caused massive fissures in both the pyramid and the surrounding walls and streets of the city. They move onwards and see some smaller buildings outside the city walls near the city’s southern gate and decide to investigate them.

Inside one of the smaller buildings Kank discovers signs of bipedal hoof prints, the big Mul cannot ascertain how many creatures there are be he can tell that the chaos beasts heading through the southern gates of Kalidnay. It is clear that one of the out buildings has been slept in, and when they check out the building nearest the gates they discover the dead body of one of the goat headed humanoids, it is hard to judge but Balboa is sure that it died of fright. And with that thought in their heads the Company of the Cloaked Inix head into the city of the dead.

Visibility within the city walls is not good due to a curious mist that starts at the city gates, and with the low hanging cloud cover it creates an oppressive and ominous feeling. The streets are cobbled and so Kank cannot find any sign of the chaos beasts passing and so Balboa suggests that they head to the crossroads and then turn left to search. But when they reach the crossroads, Scar hears a scraping sound further into the dead city and so the Company slip between the buildings moving quietly in the direction of the sound. As they draw closer to the sound Kank start to get the feeling of unease within the pit of his stomach, the newly appointed Champion of Gnorieth asks Graneggadon if it means that chaos is near and the spirit of Earthshaker responds;

WHY DO YOU WAKE ME WITH SUCH OBVIOUS QUESTIONS? YOU ARE A POOR SHADOW OF YOUR PREDECESSOR!

And with those words of wisdom Graneggadon slips back into it’s rumbling slumber. Scar stops in the shadow of a building and holds up her hand for the others to halt. Across the street they can see a large circular structure with four towers set at the cardinal compass points. Between each tower are three archways and Scar can see movement beyond the archways in the centre of the circular building.

The Company retreat back into the shadows of the alleys between the buildings and manage to convince Arthur to attempt to teleport to the top of one of the towers. The big Dwarf, with a scowl on his face, disappears only to reappear a heartbeat later at the top of one of the towers. He breathes a sigh of relief when he realises that he has picked one of the towers that actually still had a bit of floor for him to stand on. From his vantage point he can see what appears to have once been an ornamental garden laid out in the theme of a giant compass, in the centre of the compass a large hole has been smashed into the undercity, and a sturdy ladder descends into the dark. Stood around within the circular building are eight of the goat headed humanoids, but they do not appear to be very observant.

Once more Arthur disappears and reappears next to the rest of the Company of the Cloaked Inix. He tells them what he has seen and just before midday the Company begin to plan their attack.