Matt Unchained

There was magic in this world once, but they stole it all away.
 
The brothers gathered around the captive. Tage regaled them with a tale, of the time he had visited a local orphanage and granted a child the gift of darkness and caution. Would he be leading the interrogation?
 
They doubled the guard on the outside of the place. The captive, given a little time came to.
 
‘Sarath’ was not very happy to be captured. They were merely patrolling, trying to keep ‘you people’ off the streets. Her official rank was Sergeant, and in her immediate vicinity only 1 other Gith ranked higher: the wizard who had given Tage a quick rabbiting.
 
Apparently, despite being a matriarchal society, the leader of Gith in the Palace was ‘Exceptional’, thus his higher rank. The Gith aimed to ‘take their rightful place as the rulers of this plane’, after eliminating the stepping stones to taking the reins as it were.
 
Korric decided to jump right to finger removal, rather than a more patient and practical approach. Her haughty demeanor was not much changed by the reduction of a digit.
 
When asked the right question, she was a little more forthcoming: The specific point to which the portal was keyed, their immediate goals (the long-term goal of Domination over ‘Lesser races’ was evident). Korric noisily slurped on her finger, pondering whether to take another.
 
She claimed that ‘K’, the wizard was being too kind to the Sultan, and her own choices would be ‘less generous’. Tage attempted to anger her by suggesting that her various plans and strategies were ineffective: “Looking for magic, in all the wrong places. Tsk tsk.”
 
Apparently they needed to be able to access enough room to allow for their ‘astral skiffs’ to come through, and thus they were entering at the Northern outskirts of the City. When Tage suggested that ‘others’ had come with similar plans to the Gith and were further along, she indicated she was aware of ‘others’ who had come through, who were mere obstacles standing in her way.
 
John suggested to Tage that he retrieve their Vampire friend, for a little additional persuasion. The Gith seemed a little taken aback by the fact that they had a vampiric ally, but was hoping it was merely a bluff. Did Gith blood taste tangier than that of Humans? All that arrogance.
 
John attempted to use his guile and wiles, while Yuttosk suggested that he had been present when the magic from the world was eaten away. Her reaction was at first one of curiosity. Yuttosk regaled her with the abbreviated tale, and she was less-than-impressed. Thy’lek attempted to use his guile to convince her to assist them with information.
 
She was offered a quick death over a terrible long one, or perhaps even her freedom. Skeptical was a great way to describe her reaction. Thy’lek offered a warm embrace, and cloak to cover her under-clothing: “To preserve her modesty.”
 
Shortly after, Tage returned with his vampiric chum. Good thing the paladin had been distracted by a night on the town with Kiss-Kiss. Unfortunately, the Priestess of Amon-Re was a little mortified by the arrival of his pale friend. When he tried to smooth things over with her, she was pacified for now. The greater of two evils and all that. She mentioned she had several “Sunny” spells prepared if he decided to act up.
 
He complained that the captive was even thinner than the last one. An otherworldly, ethereal aroma, not unlike the sandalwood taste of an elf. John suggested that drawing out the tasting would be perhaps a better choice.
 
The presence of a higher ranking officer such as herself on a mere patrol did seem a little suspect.
 
He sampled some of the blood that had been extracted from the footsoldiers, a strange flavor.
 
The vampire gave her some serious eyes, and she became much more agreeable.
 
Her specific role was to watch over ‘K’, and ensure he didn’t screw up. Again. Her efforts were to shore up the control of this specific area of the Giovan Dunes. Her goal, was apparently something especially interesting which was no longer concealed once the veins of magic in the world had been sucked dry. The specifics of what that thing is, were not knowledge she was privvy to. It’s no coincidence that she was following our group after the failed assassination attempt: her goal was to ascertain the base of operations, and since we had brought her there she was succesful. She really didn’t want to tell us what she’d do with that information, but a little more convincing from our vampiric friend convinced her.
 
Multiple strike teams would be sent to their base once the location was ascertained.
 
Various members of the brothers went to work securing the base: Hug-Hug and other easy targets were secured in the bunkers beneath the warehouse. The ‘vast experience and wealth of knowledge’ of their vampiric friend had sped things along nicely, along with his gaze of course.
 
Tage suggested they string up the corpse like a marionette, and use her to entrap and/or enrage her fellows. John went with the medium approach of disguising Tage as her with a tonic of Alter Self and Tongues to simulate her language.
 
The brothers prepared for the assault, hoping to turn one trap into another.
 
A squad of human guards appeared, offering a warning of the approaching Gith. John attempted to warn them off so they would live, but he was too late. The Gith strike teams had arrived!
 
Alone in the room with Thy’lek, Tage was asked if her mission was successful: her response was “One has already come under my thrall!” “We just needed the gear from the Orc and lizardman, but we need the Huge man alive. Maybe the handsome one could be useful for bait' “Leave the worthless guards alone, it’s not yet time to make our move against them.”
 
John sipped a delicious cup of tea, growing in size and gently shuffled the guard behind him suggesting: “Things are about to get hairy. Stand back, friend.”
 
Korric ran out the door, cutting a Gith in half. Thy’lek daintilly stepped past the Gith and into the next room dancing about. One of the Gith smacked himself in the head with his dagger, and another swung his chain-dagger around at John, attempting to trip him: unsuccessfully. A trio of Gith ran at John wielding greatswords. He plucked one of them up and hurled him at another, they both collapsed into bloody heaps. The third slipped, and fell onto the floor eating a great deal of dirt.
 
Tage slipped into the room behind one of the chain wielders, slipping his blade into his back: twice. He didn’t get back up. “Take him captive, you fools!”
 
John hurled another Gith at his chain-wielding friends, Korric slammed into a dazed Gith: cutting him down. Thy’lek staggered into the room, rushing to the nearest Gith: striking a glancing blow.
 
One of them tried getting up next to John, and he’d never get up again. Yuttosk ran another one through, then John hammered one into the floor. Korric rushed into the nearest gith, and then only a few remained.
 
Thy’lek hurled a dart at the last chain wielder, landing right in his right eye. Tage demanded to know where her reinforcements were?! And the shocked response was: There aren’t any reinforcements, team two is after the others!
 
Would the Beta brothers be safe? We hoped so. .
 
The lone remaining guard was surprised that the gith were not successful. They had come as soon as the sultan learned of what was happening. The sultan definitely wanted an audience, and the guard hoped to expedite the process. Apparently there had been a development, though he was not entirely sure what had happened. It seems the sultan had been contacted by someone or some… thing else, and wanted the brothers immediately. They set their minions to secure the corpses and their belongings, as well as start cleaning up: didn’t want those organs to go to waste.
 
Through the side entrance of the palace, the brothers were hastily escorted to a guest house in the palace to maintain appearances.
 
With the Sultan were his own team of bodyguards as well as a gnoll, a dirty dark elf, a slightly less dirty elf, and a dwarf. Also decked out in gear from fallen Gith.
 
The sultan explained: “These folks are part of a coalition which has been formed to combat the Gith menace across the continent. Some portions of the world are more infiltrated than others, this one actually being fairly light. Through the networks though, their influence has spread. Apparently some android with a gun had made contact (L-546).
 
He wanted to ensure that the Bandolier brothers were: A: Real B: As good as tales have told and finally C: We wished to join the coalition against the Gith menace. The drow had been attacked in by Gith as well, it seems the Gith were looking for something.
 
Yuttosk regaled them with his dark tale of dread, and they were sceptical at best. Some day his tale would be believed, some day.
 
At this point, a near-death guard stumbled in the door proclaiming: “The palace has fallen!” John offered a tonic of transformation to the sultan, who was unfortunately allergic to strawberries: The extract that John had used to flavor it. He was disguised, but also with an unfortunate rash. He was to be ushered to their base, and bring word of caution.
 
He offered the most secret of escape tunnels. The brothers steeled themselves, before heading underground through ancient royal catacombs.