Session Thirty-Three: The Journey South
General Summary
21st of Duscar, Before First Light
Whisper was the first out of bed at two in the morning. One by one she shook everyone awake. Without a word, everyone quickly and quietly got up and prepared to break camp. Within a half-hour they were able get on the road heading south away from Asarius. They rode for several hours in silence, Whisper leading the way. The sun slowly rose from the east lighting the vast grasslands with an orange glow before Whisper found a spot off to the side to stop and make breakfast.
It was as if the stop in the familiar grasslands opened the floodgate of thoughts that had been suppressed. Within moments they had gone from complete silence to incessant arguing and chatter, talking over each other as they all competed to get their thoughts out on what to do.
The only person who didn’t seem to have an opinion was Bait, who was oddly silent aside from expressing the desire to climb a nearby mountain, to which everyone ignored.
All manner of thought on the situation in Asarius was discussed, all the way up to abandoning Sir Ret’s quest altogether and returning to Rosohna, which was quickly shot down. Ultimately they decided to press on towards the Many Hosts of Igrathad while simultaneously sending Drezzin’s and Hacket’s respective ‘helper’s back by way of surrogate messenger. There was no sure fire way to know the plan would work, but it was their best option.
Three more days of travel passed as the party made their way south. On the morning of the third day Andy sat atop the vardo fiddling around with his equipment. He grabbed his bag of holding and reached inside, rooting around looking for something when his hand found something most unexpected. He couldn’t tell what it was at first. The edge was jagged and it felt almost like a broken piece of pottery. He pulled the item out and examined it then gasped with realization.
“Oh shit…”
No one seemed to hear him and he set the shell aside and reached back in. As he searched about he uncovered a small hole in the bag.
“That’s strange. I don’t remember a hole in here.” He put his finger in the hole and felt around further, examining the tear. Without warning he felt a strange presence and could hear what wounded like a thousand whispers coming through at once. He caught a strange vision of a cold mountain peak, and as he did so felt a single sharp clawed finger dragging its nail on the back of his pointer finger.
He withdrew his hand from the bag and jumped up with an audible gasp loud enough to draw attention from the others.
“What is wrong with you now, Andy?” Hacket asked.
“Ummm….” he began to explain, holding up the broken shell. “Remember that egg we put the in bag of holding?”
“Oh yeah,” Hacket answered suddenly, curious.
“The one from the windmill?” Whisper asked.
“Yeah.”
“I forgot all about it, honestly,” said Whisper.
“What windmill?” Drezzin asked.
“The one where you met us. It’s not far from here,” Whisper answered.
“You mean the former temple of Zehir?” Drezzin screamed.
“Yeah, I suppose. Well, these guys - Malegg actually - found an egg and Hacket wanted to keep it so we put it in Andy’s bag of holding, but seem to have all but forgotten about it until now.”
“Yeah. It was cool,” Hacket chimed in.
“Are you all stupid?” Drezzin reprimanded everyone.
“Well, it hatched,” Andy said, ignoring Drezzin. “And I think it’s awake. It scratched me.” he sid holding up his finger for all to see.
Drezzin immediately took two steps backward and drew his sword. “Empty the bag. Let’s take a look.”
“I’m not going to empty it,” Andy said nervously. “There’s a thing in there. It scratched me.”
“You’re it’s mom. You pull it out,” Shiro said.
“And maybe take the bag away from the wagon when you do it,” Whisper suggested not wanting to see the wagon and horses destroyed by whatever monster might be lurking inside.
“I kinda have a lot of stuff in there,” Andy protested, still not wanting to be the one to empty the bag.
“How about this? Is there anything else in there?” said Bait in a soft voice.
“Yeah. Lots of stuff.”
“Well give it here then,” Bait said, now invested in the conversation.
“Why?” Hacket asked suspiciously.
“Idea.”
“No,” Hacket protested.
“Well, why not? Bait has very few ideas. I’m kind of curious,” Drezzin said.
“Because they like to destroy things,” Andy said. “I’ll just take everything out one by one and then we can inspect the bag.” Andy then proceeded to empty the contents of the bag on the ground one at a time, ensuring everything was carefully placed out of harm’s reach. Once any precious gear was removed he scurried away to a tree, climbed high up and dumped all that remained. Egg shells fell to the ground, cracking and breaking on the branches and again as they hit the ground. With the bag flipped inside out he could now examine the hole more closely.
“If there’s a hole inside a hole, where might that lead?” Andy asked.
“Andy, come down from there and let me look at that,” Hacket said.
Andy came down, turned the bag over to Hacket, who then examined the bag trying to sort out what it was, and what happened. The only thing he could discern was that whatever was in the egg that it was so intentionally imbued with magic that it could chew through and survive. Not only survive, but that it managed to move to another plane of existence altogether.
“I have an idea,” Hacket said and then tried to dispel the magic in the hole, but to no avail.
“Dammit. Whatever it is in there is divinely touched and it is not fading easily,” he grumbled.
Hacket poked at the hole again. This time he could feel the damp humidity of the northern forest. He could sense a strong presence of evergreens. As he moved his hand we could actually feel the bristle of pine needles. He tore at the hole, now expanding it to twice its size, almost enough to put his entire fist through. He withdrew his hand and gazed into the hole. He could actually see a forest glade now and could feel a cool wind blowing. There’s an amazing heartiness to everything and an overwhelming beauty, that was both lovely and peaceful while at the same time passionate and wild. Hacket gazed overcome with its sheer beauty.
He then began to feel a compulsion from the other side to slip through himself, but quickly shook off the effects. He pulled his hand out and averted his eyes. When he looked again the hole had gone black.
Once again he tried touching the hole, while the others looked in stunned silence. This time the hole revealed a sky burning silver. In the distance was a valley of fog where massive peaks rose jutting high into the sky.
Andy’s excitement and curiosity could not be contained. “What was that?” Andy said. “What do you see?”
“The hole goes to different realms everytime you poke it,” Hacket said.
“Here. Give me the bag. I’m going to see if I can get the ancestors to tell me what it is.”
Hacket handed Andy the bag and he reached out to the ancestors for help. As he held the bag with the amulet near he began to hear their familiar voices. “We, we, we, got, got, got, nothing, nothing, nothing.”
Throughout the investigation Drezzin maintained his distance, watching the party carefully. Seeing no immediate threat he came closer and picked up a piece of the eggshell to examine it. He immediately noticed crackling energy on the inner portion that maintained the recognizable green quality unique to Zehir. However, the energy had faded, and continued to fade in his hand.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” Drezzin stammered. “Hacket, why would you do this?”
“Do what?” Hacket said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Take an egg from the Temple of Zehir? He likes eggs. Do you not see the magical energy of Zehir in this egg?” He held the egg shell up.
“I knew it was a magical egg. That’s why I took it. I wanted to know what it does.”
Bait stood to the side and cast mage hand to mimic whatever Drezzin was doing in the way a five year old would play copycat. Yet their curiosity was itself peaked and they crushed a piece of the shell with their mage hand. As they did so they could feel a magical tingle radiate through their body as their own hand when slightly numb.
“Guys,” Shiro spoke up. “Don’t mean to break up this fun little party, but we have company. There’s a caravan approaching. Maybe twenty minutes out from the south, same direction as we’re headed. If you’re all done playing around with this arcane stuff, we might want to get underway or off the road.”
“Fine,” said Drezzin. “Before we do, does anyone else have any long dead god eggs that no one knows about?”
No one said anything.
“And just to be clear,” he continued his usual leturing “Do any of you know what’s supposed to happen when you tear open a bag of holding? That’s some high level stuff that even I can’t do.”
Andy quickly gathered up his things, putting them into the vardo while sobbing about Yasmine, and now his bag of holding.
“Why is he crying so much now?” Bait asked no one in particular.
He’s just sensitive like that,” Hacket answered.
“What a little bitch,” Bait laughed.
With the wagon loaded the party started south, determined to meet the caravan head on. Everyone felt capable given their status and reputation. A caravan should pose no threat and if it were Dwendalian soldiers or other forces they would rather know now. Chances are, they reasoned, it was just a shipment of goods from the villages.
Within a few minutes the wagons came into view. There were two of them, each driven by drow, and each pulled by a single horse.
“Hold friends,” Drezzin called out, as the two parties approached each other, coming to a stop within twenty yards.
Hacket checked to see if they are in disguise, but could not discern whether they were or not.
“How are you doing? Shiro asked in undercommon. Whisper pivoted her horse off to the side maintaining some distance, while not breaking eye contact with what was transpiring.
Both drow waved and the first called out. “Welcome. Pleasure to meet you. We are just coming through. Anything we should be worried about? We had a couple trees fall back there. How much further to Asarius?
Shiro lowered his lance and called back. “Who are you?”
“Ahh, friend, We are just a family coming through," the drow said pointing to his family who rode in the back, yet who seemed somewhat nervous at the encounter shaping up.
“They are not who they appear to be,” Hacket said quietly to Drezzin.
Hearing that, Drezzin cast detect magic and suddenly the entire lot of them appeared bright white. Whoever they were it was clear they were not a drow family. Additionally, the magic indicated that they were carrying something of significant value.
Hacket had enough of the charades and cast dispel magic on the strangers. Almost immediately the magic that maintained their disguise faded from their faces and bodies revealing a small but well armed squad of Dwendalian soldiers.
Drezzin and Whisper drew their blades and leapt from their horses. Whisper slapped her horse on the side so it would run off a safe distance. She then turned to the squad and attacked without hesitation. She rushed forward as she screamed “For the Bright Queen!” as though it were a battle cry compelling everyone to take up arms.
She swung her blade at the solider furthest to the outside, but it was deflected by his armor which was stronger than she had expected. She struck again this time finding a chink and drawing first blood. She flipped her katana around and punched the solider with the force of her ki. She felt the mithral armor crumple, but only a little bit. She spun and managed to make her way back towards Drezzin.
“These are no ordinary soldiers. They’re harder to hit than you think!”
“Leave two alive!” Drezzin commanded as he moved into strike. He looked at them and smiled as he taunted them. “Fortunate for you to know the day of your death!” He then dropped an explosive fireball into the middle of their caravan sending pieces of burning wooden shrapnel flying in all directions. Two of the men screamed out in agony, but all maintained their wits.
“I’m going to fuck em up!” Bait said excitedly. “I really am.” as they cast a spell of sickening radiance on the entire group of the soldiers, leaving none to spare. Radiant energy burst from the bodies of the soliders, but yet they contineud to hold their ground.
“Tougher than a boiled rooster they are,” Bait muttered.
Andy had disappeared from the central battleground as usual, but made his presence known as he followed up Bait’s attack with two crippling eldritch blasts launched from the top of a nearby tree. Both hits were dead on and killed the soldier nearest to Whisper.
Without warning, the soldiers regrouped and surrounded Drezzin and Shiro, separating the both of them as they flanked their sides. They attacked viciously and hit both Shiro and Drezzin hard. While they did their best to deflect the damage it was once again clear that these were no normal soldiers and whatever mission they were on was one of great importance.
From the sidelines Whisper watched for a brief moment and saw how hard they could hit. Hacket was firing with his cannon, but half of his shots were deflected. Shiro too was swinging and barely connecting. Drezzin appeared to be in the most danger with four of the fighters on him.
She flashed across the battlefield to Drezzin’s rescue, sheathing her blade only to attempt to grapple and throw the first one away from Drezzin. Her strategy paid off and Drezzin was free. But now Hacket was surrounded and Shiro was taking hits.
“I was fine. I had it handled,” Drezzin kindly acknowledged Whisper’s attempt while at the same time assuring her that he needed no rescue.
She grimaced. She knew she had overplayed her hand and should have left Drezzin to fend for himself. Within any second he would teleport himself away in a flash leaving her alone with three soldiers. From what she had seen so far, they didn’t miss when they swung. She was pretty sure she could hold them off for a few seconds, but if she couldn’t manage to get out of the thick of the fight, she knew this would be where she would die.
As soon as Drezzin flashed away the soldiers did exactly as she had predicted. They turned on her with the fury of a mob and struck over and again. Whisper tried her best to parry and dodge, but with every twist she found herself at the end of a fist or the butt end of a mace. Her jaw cracked, then a rib snapped. She coughed up blood and her vision went blurry. Her knees felt weak, but she resisted the urge to crumple and pass out.
The soldiers looked at her, amazed she was still standing. She took advantage of that moment to channel her ki and shake off the pain. Pure adrenaline coursed through her and she attacked swinging sloppily, but effectively over and again as she cut and slashed, kicking and punching at each of her attackers, struggling to find an opening for escape. She finally found it. As they reeled in pain from her attack she darted pass them to and the treeline to find a moment to recover before re-engaging.
There was no time for recovery. While she was escaping the battle Hacket was taking the beating of his lifetime. Shiro had it no better. The soldiers ripped him from his horse and were kicking him while he was down on the ground. Shiro tried to crawl away, his arms protecting his head, but the soldiers wailed on him until he fell lifeless and no longer moved.
Blood dripped from the corner of Shiro’s mouth as the soldiers continued to punish him well after he had fallen unconscious. Drezzin reacted violently. He looked at Whisper. “Get the fuck out of here. I’ve got this,” he said.
“I’m not going to leave them,”
“You have a daughter,” she could almost hear Shiro’s voice in her head. But in spite of that she was a trained solider herself. She couldn’t run. Nor would she. She would fight to the death if need be.
Drezzin’s eyes flashed red and he loosed a wave of lightning energy crushing the soldiers with electrical energy that wracked their bodies in pain. One of the soliders exploded from the direct impact of the energy, their blood and guts bursting, covering Bait who had rushed to Shiro. Bait paused, sniffed, but then sneezed violently their beard of feathers flying everywhere.
Then Bait cast Chaos Bolt, killing yet another solider.
To an outsider the fight might have appeared evenly matched. But with both sides taking casualties there were no assurances for escape or survival for anyone.
The captain of the soldiers paused and shouted, “Either you surrender or we kill your friend.” He somehow had managed to grab Bait by the scruff of thier neck and was threatening to kill them outright. “I know you may kill us regardless, but you won’t be able to save your friend.”
“I will fuck your mother and toss your salad. Get out of here!” Bait growled.
“Have it your way,” the captain said, then took his knife and cut Bait open. Bait looked somewhat surprised as their body went limp and collapsed to the ground lifeless, blood flowing into the earth.
The captain cracked a hardened grin. “I think I might have just done you all a favor.” He then looked at Hacket.
Another solider rushed to Shiro’s unconscious body. One look and anyone could see he only had moments to live. Another soldier put his blade to Bait’s neck.
“Well, what will it be?” You surrender or we’ll finish them both off.
Hacket looked around. Drezzin had gone invisible. Whisper was badly hurt and on the verge of bolting away. Andy was hiding in the trees and Shiro and Bait were one paper cut from death.
“Fuck you guys,” Hacket said as he dropped his gun and held his hands up as a sign of surrender.
“Hacket… What the fuck??” Whisper yelled rushing in from the side.
She didn’t get close, but drew her Ray of Frost gun from its holster and pointed it right at the captain’s head.
“I’ll fucking kill you,” she said gritting her teeth as she spat more blood on the ground.
“Not before I kill them.”
“You make one move and I’ll blow your fucking head off. Now I’m going to make you a deal. You take your men and you step down. Leave here now. Go wherever you mean to go. I don’t care. But leave here and no more harm will be done.”
“You expect me to believe that?” he almost laughed at the proposal.
“Believe what you want,” Whisper snapped. “But you’re the one with a gun pointed at your head. “And I still have two very powerful casters ready to murder you here and now. You kill them and you won’t live to see the sun set. Your choice asshole. You stand down and we’ll stand down.”
The captain paused and considered her words. While he wouldn’t admit it, he knew she was right. And he knew he was hurt far worse than he was letting on.
He lowered his sword and stepped back, motioning for his men to do the same.
“Now you step away,” Whisper said not wavering the gun for a moment. “And when you do it you do it slow, and you do it cool.”
“We’re cool,” the captain said slowly moving back. His men showed their hands and slowly made their way back. Once the soliders had moved thirty feet away Whisper slowly began to lower her gun when a flash erupted.
“Oh shit…” she said. She knew that flash was Drezzin and knew he would let none of them live. Drezzin’s vampiric form took shape as he came out of invisibility and unleashed a swarm of insects upon the soldiers. Two were instantly eaten alive. The last - the captain - stood shocked.
“But she said…” he began to plead.
“Yes. She said, didn’t she? But I said nothing!” And with that Drezzin bit into the captain’s neck drawing blood as he took the last of life from his body.
The captain looked into Drezzin’s eyes as he felt death overtake him. “You have made a terrible mistake,” he said as his body felt limp.
Whisper looked away, disgusted and angry. She had given her word. She had parlayed for the life of her friends. To kill after a truce amounted to a war crime. Yet even war crimes did not seem to phase the vampire.
Andy and Hacket rushed to the aid of Shiro and Bait, administering healing potions to bring them back.
Bait came to and looked around. “Fight’s still on? Okay. I’ll get back in the fight,” they said as they attempted to get back to their feet.
“There’s no fight. Not anymore,” replied Whisper.
The fight had lasted just over a minute, but two wagons were smoldering and the corpses of dead Dwendalian soldiers lay strewn across the roadway and the grass fields. It was hard to say what lay on the path ahead. The incursion was more widespread than any of them suspected and if there were more patrols of this strength or stronger, then the Kryn Dynasty was truly in danger.
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