The weeping valley...

One of the cloaked figures led the old ashik away and spoke to him quietly, the freed slaves could see the old man nodding and then the hooded figure, the watchers could not tell if it was a woman or a man due to the cloak seeming to suck the light from around it, pointed back to the clustered people of the small village next to the muddy oasis and the old ashik returned to them and continued to tell his tale.

The Company of the Cloaked Inix cross the cavern, moving away from the shelled chaos creatures, and entered the tunnel opposite the pool of water. The passageway rose slightly and after seventy five foot they came to a fork in the tunnel, Kank headed to the right and the others followed as quietly as they were able. The passageway eventually opened up into a large natural cavern, the floor of which was littered with detritus. As Kank followed the wall around to an exit at the far end of the cavern the others took a closer look at the rubbish strewn floor and found broken pieces of stone, wood, and torn cloth as well as several gnawed and broken bones. Upon reaching the exiting tunnel Kank checked the floor for tracks and could make out the signs of several hoofed creatures moving in and out of the tunnel.

They discover that the short passage leads to another natural cavern, this one with three exits, Kank stops at the entrance to this new cavern and listens intently but cannot hear anything. He asks the others to wait in the passage while he edges forwards, the floor of the room is covered in the same kind of detritus as the one before and as Kank enters he gets a feeling deep within his gut that there is chaos beyond two of the three exits. He decides to inspect the one corridor that he believes is clear of chaos and discovers that it leads to a filthy dormitory. The big Mul returns to the rest of the Company and they charge across the cavern and into the right hand exit.

As they burst into the smaller cave at the end of the tunnel they find three Beastmen fully armed and armoured ready for battle. The Company do not disappoint them as Arthur, Ferulah, Kank, and Scar charge into the melee while Balboa and Miloch turn and guard the rear of the Company. Arthur slams his lead Troll maul into the guts of the first Beastman and it crumples to the floor, Kank follows him in and brings Earthshaker down in an overhead swing and crushes it's chest killing it instantly. Ferulah and Scar engage a Beastman each and neither lands a blow in the first exchanges, but in retaliation, Ferulah's opponent smashes it's horned head into the feline in Human form and she staggers back a pace.

Ferulah ignores her opponent and leaps to assist Scar knowing that Arthur and Kank are moving in on the second of the Beastmen. Once again Arthur swings hard with his heavy weapon and connects with the Beastman's right arm and the sound of breaking bone echoes through the cave. Ferulah punches with her cestus at Scar's opponent and the powerful she cat practically tears off it's left leg. Working well in tandem with Arthur, Kank sweeps Earthshaker into the Beatman's legs and the creature drops hard to the floor where it breathes it's last. Ferulah flails an uncontrolled haymaker at the downed Beastman and misses badly leaving herself open for a counterattack, which comes in the form of a second powerful headbutt.

Hearing a noise from behind, Balboa and Miloch drop into fighting stances within the passage just in time to see three more Beastmen charge them. Miloch swings first and his iron battleaxe slices clean through the a Beastman’s neck, severing it’s head in a single blow. A heartbeat later and the decapitated beast explodes in a burst of flash and bone fragments. Miloch drops to one knee with a large piece of bone shrapnel sticking out of his left leg, next to him Balboa also drops to the ground having taken shrapnel in the guts. The Beastmen fair no better as one of them dies on the spot and the other loses it leg as a large piece of his herd mates pelvis slices through it.

Ferulah and Scar fall upon the last of the original Beastmen and slice him to pieces. Kank leaps over his fallen comrades and brings Earthshaker down in a killing hammer blow to the felled Beastman. While Balboa heals both Miloch and himself, the others in the Company search the room but find little of interest and Arthur takes a moment to memorise a spot within the cave in case he needs to use it as a fallback position. Once everyone is back on their feet, the Company retrace their steps and investigate the other passageway from the original fork. They follow it eighty feet and find that it opens up into another large cave with a pair of exits leading from it, Kank can feel in his guts that there is chaos in both directions and so the Company sweep left spoiling for a fight.

The tunnel opens up into another large empty cave, Kank can feel that there is something wrong in the room, but seeing nothing he steps into the cave. As he steps across the threshold something dark and gelatinous drops from the ceiling of the cave and envelopes him. Kank stumbles forwards towards the centre of the cave and Scar rushes in after him attempting to thump him with her flaming torch, but missing. Kank points his hands at his own covered face and summons his inner power, flames leap from his fingers and burn the Gorp. Scar swings again with her flaming brand and hits Kank, fortunately Kank’s remaining armour deflects the blow but the Gorp is burnt. Arthur grabs a gourd of oil from his belt and smashes it over Kank head, soaking the big Mul and the Gorp, Kank then once again summons his inner power and casts pyrokinesis, as the flames leap from his fingers he bursts into flame.

As Kank is burning like a camp fire, Beastmen charge in from both tunnels, Ferulah reacts the quickest and smashes her cestus covered fist into the chest of the first Beastman into the room. The blow is so powerful that it shatters the creatures rib cage and punctures it’s lungs, the chaos beast drops instantly dead to the floor. On the other side of the room Miloch slashes his iron battleaxe through another Beastman’s arm and the appendage drops useless to it’s side. The other Beastman attacking the rear of the Company charges the brave Balboa, this creature is cursed with twin scorpion claws instead of hands and is dripping with ichor, Balboa just avoids the first of the claw attacks but is caught with a headbutt and staggers a little. But the resilient Mul is not to be deterred and smashes his mace into the chaos creatures leg. It is then that Balboa realises that the ichor dripping from the Beastman is a contact poison as he starts to feel it’s effects.

Arthur quickly moves to assist Balboa and Miloch while Scar and the now extinguished Kank rush to support Ferulah. Bank finds the feline in Human form holding the entrance against three Beastmen and a fourth Beastman the size of a Half-giant sporting huge horns. Ferulah grabs hold of one of the Beastmen’s arms and tears it clean off as Kank swings low with Earthshaker and breaks the leg of the other front ranked Beastman. As the Beastman drops to the floor it breathes a gout of flame at Kank, but the pre-roasted Mul sees the fire ripple off of his armour. Ferulah punches the one-armed Beastman and it drops to the floor dead.

Miloch hacks his iron battleaxe deep into the flesh of a Beastman’s leg and it is forced to drop to one knee. The scorpion clawed Beastman snaps again at Balboa, but the defiant Mul’s armour holds. The nimble Balboa then sidesteps the following headbutt, but Miloch is not so lucky and he is forced backwards. Having sidestepped the Beatsman’s headbutt, the unfortunate Balboa is caught by the chaos creatures second claw, more poison rushes into his system and he collapses as his constitution is overwhelmed. Arthur steps over the prone Mul and into the melee with the clawed horror.

Kank hits again with Earthshaker and finishes off the Beastman with the broken leg, and as he does so the towering form of the massive Beastman steps forwards. A voice in Kank’s mind, be it a dream memory or that of Graneggadon, tells him that it is called a Minotaur. Ferulah punches the next Beastman in the face so hard that her fist smashes out of the back of it’s skull, she yanks her arm back and the creatures dead body drops to the ground. Scar snakes in between Ferulah and Kank and plunges the Sword of Kemalok straight into the Minotaur’s guts, and as she rips the blade out blood starts to pump down it’s legs. Ferulah follows up and punches it in it’s injured guts and the massive beast drops to it’s hands and knees. Scar then plunges the Sword of Kemalok between the chaos creatures shoulder blades and it slumps dead.

Miloch receives a powerful headbutt from his opponent but counterstrikes with a tight inner slash, opening up the Beastman’s leg and causing it to bleed badly and it staggers away from the Human. The clawed horror pinches Arthur badly and as the poison courses through his bloodstream the big Dwarf gets tunnel vision and then blacks out completely. Miloch switches targets and brings his battleaxe down in an overhead arc to bury itself deep in the the scorpion clawed Beastman’s head. As the clawed horror collapses, so does it’s herdmate, dying from excessive blood loss.

Hearing Miloch’s urgent shouts, Scar rushes along the tunnel and starts to administer first aid to Balboa. She heals his physical wounds but he remains unconscious, so Kank takes one of his Weezer honey doses and gently forces it into his mouth but still he does not rouse. So Ferulah steps over to him and uses her power to heal him. Scar tends to Arthur’s wounds and brings him around, she then moves on to tend to the others in the Company. Having confirmed that they have cleared out the tunnels on this side of the main cavern, Arthur suggests that they take the time to brew some healing tea and recover their breath after successive skirmishes. Having rested for thirty minutes the Company agree to investigate the main tunnel exiting the vast cavern. 

They follow the huge passage for over two thousand feet until they realise that it is opening up into a wide, steep sided valley deep within the mountains. Kank checks for tracks at the end of the wide passageway and discovers numerous hoof marks and signs of Mekillot wagon tracks. But as Balboa and Kank step into the valley they feel, rather than hear, the sound of crying in their minds. Then the rumbling voice of Graneggadon echoes in Kank’s head;

THE STONES, THE ROCKS, THE VERY EARTH ITSELF IS WEEPING!