Leg Eaters

Our most uncommon group of adventurers has been in the making for 300 years. Finally, the lord of evil is ready, his pieces are recruited, and he is now ready to play.

The fabric of time and space ripped quietly. The new gods slipped in like a thief in the night, they quickly pulled a land mass from the swirling ooze and nether of the world. With power unbridled they began to throw weather and geography together like a drinking housewife picking out clothes, deserts next to snow laden plains, mountains next large swamps. Then for a while the gods walked around just walked a lot, until one in a fit of lonely delusion and masochistic rage hacked of his own tail and threw across the Land. Springing from this bizarre event was the birth of the race of Kobolds. They reproduced and changed rapidly a new race springing up with every change in weather or location they lived. The other gods saw this and like drunken gardeners, they began to throw races around like seeds of grass. The races grew in this fertile garden, but most had no sense of being, just like those gods who created them. So, lacking any focus they turned to war, "oh what fun", war must be, because they all liked it so much and they always made war against each other. The sounds of Death and the smell of blood could be heard no matter where on the land you were. Why, the gods liked the sounds of war so much, they even gave animals intelligence so they too could participate in war, death, and diplomacy.

In the regular world the true Gods woke up after their long sleep and saw what was happening in the world, they all sat down at the table and watched as the new gods destroyed and used their creations like spoiled children use toys. This angered them greatly and so with a collective effort they fixed the problem. The fix was 2-fold: First, they gathered the new gods in a ball and pushed them back out the rip from which they came. Second: They wiped all sentient life on the land. This may seem harsh but since all the races knew of that land knew was war and death, the gods felt they shouldn't be a loud to corrupt the other races of their world.

That land is known as Khemti. A barren wasteland of desert and rock. There is barely, after 900 years, any life there. It is said though that great treasures can be found there if one can go there, for those who can survive it.

As all began to return to normal things felt good and right again. Except in a little corner where a new evil began to Stir.

History

Leg Eater's

1-3 and 5-7 told by Da'Hak

Journal 1

The Adventures Guild had gotten me along with a few others a paying job which was good .After what had happened with Servina I was broke and needed whatever money I could get to get out of Ferry Village. The people they paired me up with didn't seem like much but looks can be deceiving. Matt Decker needed some people to pick up some cargo in Starshine and bring it back untainted and unharmed. We meet with Decker at the Inn and over a few drinks he gave us half our money up front as well as a scroll that would inform us what we were transporting. We were to meet Harold Padec at the Dusty boar in Starshine, he would tell us where to pick up our package .Lucien one of the crew was even able to up our traveling money before we left, not bad for a guy with a toothpick strapped to his side.

The trip to Starshine was relatively uneventful we swung wide around Halmir, having been informed that it was full of heavy hitting do-gooders. Arriving at Starshine we quickly made our way to the Dusty Boar and meet our contact. A friendly fella who bought us food and drink and told us where to meet him later that night. On the way to the meet we picked up a tail, and quickly laid an ambush. My mace blasted through that kids head like a mallet through a melon oh well someone that sloppy shouldn't have been tailing us just wish we could've asked who he was working for. We made it back to the meet point and picked up our cargo, a bunch of kids in a cage in a wagon under a tarp. As we headed out the south gate Lucien tried to babble his way passed the two militia on duty with little affect. We eventually showed the guards our silver papers and were a-loud to pass out into the night.

Night is really dark, and we soon realized we didn't have the right equipment for traveling in it. So after checking our map the plan was made to use up what we supplies we had then send Slathrack into Halmir to reequip torches and oil for the trip. We got close enough to Halmir and sent Slathrack ahead to get gear; he made it back in record time with no incident.

While we waited for Slathrack to recover from his trek and night to fall, we were attacked by a well-organized gang who tried to free our cargo. Finally someone to hurt, after a quick struggle we managed to overcome the gang and recapture the cargo that had been freed. We quickly set out on our way again.

Taking a short break before pushing on to Ferry Village Raith heeding the call of nature managed to stir up a little cute cuddly bear and her huge pissed off mother. We almost all bought it on that one let know one tell you different bears pack a hell of a punch. After the fight we managed to catch the cub, I hope to train it to ride I've seen it done before. We made it back to Ferry Village and Mr. Decker who says he will have more work for us in a bit.

Journal 2

Decker was as good as his word; he called us in for another job. This time another employee of Mr. Decker's had been captured by some Kobolds in the mountains a few days ago. We were to return that person to Decker in one piece.

Gathering our gear we quickly set out. The journey to the caves was uneventful to say the least. When we got there it was pretty straight forward beating the crap outta a lot of Kobolds they make up for their lack of skill with numbers , and I do mean a lot of them . It wasn't long before we were all covered in the little bugger’s blood.

The Masacare of the Black Hand Kobold tribe. 22 March

We followed Rafe's lead as he said he had some insight as to where the person we were looking for would be in these caves, well after many a wrong turn do to his insightful leading we finally found ourselves crawling along a ledge over a deep chasm. Rope bridges went from one side to the other. We beat the crap out of another group of scaly bastards who seemed to be protecting a room with runes on the floor. Well after much trying and more insight on Rafe's part we couldn't get into the room so we gave up and decided to go across the bridge. Lucien went over and found our guy busted up pretty bad in a cave at the end of the bridge , so he quickly rigged him up using his backpack and other materials so he could carry him back across ,seems broken legs are hard to walk on . Now my job was just go over and make sure they had a safety line, well, let me tell you nothing can prepare you for hanging upside down over an endless fall, makes you think about a lot of things like people you still need to kill anyway. I finally got my ass over there and got them tied up and they made it back and we headed back to Ferry village to meet Decker. When we got back after making this prick as comfortable as we could and healing him up the whole way home ,what does Decker do he kills him. Not that I care mind you but could have saved us a lot of time and effort if we knew all we needed was the tattoo of this guys back.

Journal 3

So after doing well on our last job Decker gave us some info about some abandon dwarfed delve where they had lost some unknown artifact . He gave the info and said have it , well we quickly set out to find it in the Grind mountains . Our trip was fast and safe for the most part we where set upon by some kinda grey tree wolf spirit thingys that got most of us rilled up though we did manage to destroy them . We made it to the "abandon delve" well it appears that it's not as uninhabited as we were led to believe the dwarfs were in the process of moving back in , and had set up a work town above it . We spent a few days trying to gather some info on the artifact and the delve ,before we decided to head down . Since we didn't want to have to fight our way through a bunch of beardys on the way out , we told them we were going into the delve to collect the artifact . The dwarfs had no problem with us going down after it ,but the did try to rob us right to our face with outrages prices on spelunking equipment . I would rather have to did my own tunnel back to the surface with a spoon than pay the prices they were asking. So after a general kiss my butt they lowered us down a long elevator shaft and we began what seems like it's going to be a very long time don here.

Journal 4 Told by Knock

Some developments happened last night that will affect you and should know about.

We (Grizzle, Lucien and Knock) explored the second level again to see if we can find anything else. Grizzle was able to defeat the trap to the dwarven lord's room and I unlocked the inner chamber. There on three tables we found a ring of the actor, a ring of defense, a potion of dark-vision, a potion of fire resistance, a bag of coffee grounds, a bottle of sustaining, and a bottle of spiced beer.

Lucien took water from the fountain in the first level and poured it in the channels that had the grey-blue residue. Rays of light began to glow from floor to ceiling and when Grizzle tried to pass through one his soul seemed to be stretched from his body. Somehow Grizzle seemed diminished after the event.

We fought some kobolds in the big cavern that is strewn with large debris. As normal my battle skills need improvement (OoC - didn't help the DM rolled 18, 17, 20, 19 against me and rolled crappy against everyone else)

As we continued we came to a room that had a small offset room that the handle was hot. Lucien used the potion of fire resistance and entered the room. Once inside he found some kind of wheel and turned it. The whole dungeon trembled as some great mechanism opened or closed.

Because the whole dungeon trembled with the mechanism new cracks have opened up and purple ooze leeched out and began attacking us with acid. one of the oozes grabbed Lucien and had him pinned, I saved his life and killed it.

The most important part is now here. We explored the long elevated platform that extends out into a large cavern. At first it seemed just a large dark cavern, but if the light was removed you could begin to see the stars. These stars are not like ours which roamed the sky in random patterns. These stars all traveled across the sky predictably and groups of stars formed patterns. The stars also traveled at an accelerated rate and repeated to show us the history of the stars. We looked through the hollow cylinder to view the stars and the patterns began to emerge into shapes, but were still indiscernible. I polished the cylinder and again we viewed the stars, this time we could see definite patterns emerge in the stars. We saw the man with a kite shield of gold and the drop of blood. We also saw a diamond with a drop of blood.

When we could discern no more and were about ready to leave the cavern a large dragon landed and blocked our path. Lucien (OoC - controlled by Darth Sethius) challenged the dragon in a battle of wits and tried to impress the dragon. Lucien was ill prepared and reverted to selling his soul to the beast; along with ours. Lucien is now a servant to this dragon named Damavan and the dragon believes we follows Lucien.

Finally we entered the third level.

Journal 5

So we have been down in this empty dwarves city for quite some time now. We have been attacked by many things and begun to learn who in the party has what it takes to make it. Rafe is invaluable as he provides healing, and Slathrack is as vicious as they come , Lucien well he provides a lot with his team that follows him around though he treats them like real people not property, very strange for a high and mighty Lord to do that but oh well unless it endangers me, who cares.

We easily dispatched the lurker in the dark that the dwarfs were so afraid of but got our asses handed to us by some damn beetles that almost bled us dry. So some of us needed to rest while others pushed on we managed to pick up 2 new members while down here ,sure is populated for an empty place. Well the other group with new members went out while some of us rested what exactly happened not real sure Knock told us a story that sounds far fetched and I kinda hope isn't true cause if it is I'm gonna have to put Lucien down,deals with Dragons just don't work into my long term plans.

Anyway when the other group got back we had a visit from the mythical Grinch who delivered beatings and presents to all. Afterwards we all headed out together again, we came upon a large stone work room and set about looking around. Most of the party became fascinated with a rapier stuck in the wall for some reason not sure why, my grandma uses toothpicks that will do more damage than one of those needles, but they all seemed to want it really bad. While walking around Slathrack developed some kinda nervous tick for some reason. Then we where attacked by invisible air creatures of some kind, They had us dead to rights there for a minute if only we would have gotten a warning before they attacked we could have been ready. We quickly rallied and beat them back into the nothing from which they came. Afterwards Rafe set about with his magic finger and healed us all back up. We gathered up and set out again most of the areas we investigated yielded nothing other than ash from the dormant volcano which covers most things down here in a fine layer of dust. The further we went in the more dust and more spider webs we began to find everywhere. We thought we would be ready for the little bugs when the showed but we weren't, one they weren't so little almost the size of dog and two who knew spiders could run on the ceiling. Well these bastards where tough to say the least, never been so scared of a bug in all my life one minute I'm hacking them to pieces with my sword the next I'm running like a woman down the hallway along with a lot of my party members. Some of us were able to rally and come back and finish off the eight legged freaks, but eventually everybody made it back and we stomped them good.

We needed a quick rest but right after we decided we should find and kill the mother of these things just on the principle that we looked like fools, so we quickly located what we thought to be her lair and began to assault it well it didn't take us long before we all ran like woman again. Deciding bugs aren't our strong suit we blocked up the access to us and set off to see the rest of the delve.

Journal 6

So after a quick retreat from the spiders cause they were scary. We moved down to another level. The dwarf craftsmanship was amazing on this level carving all over the walls telling of what appears to be the founding of the dwarf race and how it took its place on this world, though one race appears to have disappeared. We searched many a room and came up with not a lot just a few items, we finally came upon a diorama of a wedding Lucien remembered the wedding from the last time we were in town and soon we all began to recognize figure from our time in town, we read a small inscription and began to set about solving this puzzle it took us a little longer than we thought cause dwarfs call miniatures "statues" for some reason but we got it figured out and the diorama came to life. We were able to remove the tabard from the groom which proceeded to blast both Lucien, and Rafe making them very sick just from touching it. Using some tools I got it packed up into my backpack.

The next place we came upon was a huge door with many hammers on it we could tell just by looking at it, it was trapped. Grizzle stepped forward and with ease he picked the lock inside was a broken lift that led down into the mines. We all wondered the same thing "Did the dwarfs dig to deep". Deciding against destroying the lift for no other reason than it might block us going down we moved on.

Searching a lot of rooms and not turning up much, we came across a room filled with Tapestries which Rafe set out to explore…why he keeps putting himself up front I don't know. Moving through the tapestries and not paying attention Rafe knocked over a glass statue of Typhoon with its foot nailed to the floor. Well a few of us started to try to get the major pieces back together and get the nail out of the foot. When the nail came free it flew out of Grizzle's hand and went right through Slathrack's foot and into the floor nailing him there. We finally managed to get his foot free and move on.

We came across a few rooms with what appear to be symbols and references to evil goods but most of the riddles seem out of out of our understanding. Slathrack seems to be acting a little strange if I didn't know better it seemed like he was going to attack me in a fit of rage when we both stayed in a room trying to figure the riddle of the Pillars, but he didn't so we moved on ….though I will have my eye on him.

After a few more hours of going through the dwarfs rooms we came across a large iron box, bound with chains. We knew there had to be something good in there so we set about opening it, inside was a man wearing a strange helmet or mask who came to life when we touched him. Again I feel weak and shamed that I spent more time running from this thing than actually fighting it but we did finally overcome it. After resting again we moved further in finding the dwarves tombs , we set about opening them which was a good thing dwarves seem to bury some nice things with their dead. When we tried to leave the tombs the dwarf’s guardians set upon us, but they were quickly overcome.

Journal 7

Duriel's screams echoed throughout the pitch black tunnel. Slathrak could see perfectly despite the darkness. He could see Duriel's lower half of his leg was connected to Duriel's upper half of his leg by a thick strand of meat. He could clearly see bone protruding from both the upper and lower sections of leg.

"Sssssilence you fool!" He whispered, his own vision hazy and blurred from wounds inflicted by the cart. He looked around, and he hissed as he witnessed his own tail flopping around. Like Duriel's leg, it had been cut from his body and it lay a few feet away. Slathrak looked at Duriel's leg, blood flowed quickly. Slathrak knew that only great magiks could repair the damage, and the medic human did not possess great magiks. Thinking upon his knowledge of medicine, he knew the rest of the leg had to come off. The smell of Durial's warm blood was intoxicating. He saw light moving at the end of the hallway and knew he had to act quickly.

Something feral in Slathrak awoke and he snapped at the bit of meat that connected the two sections of leg. His eyes rolled back in his head as he remembered the flavor he hadn't tasted in so long. His sharp teeth mostly severed the meat on both sides, he only had to tug gently and the lower part was free. Duriel's screams fell silent. The human had finally succumbed to the pain and passed out. A part of Slathrak had hoped he would have stayed conscious. A part of Slathrak had hoped Duriel could watch his own leg be eaten.

Slathrak had time for a few quick chews, and quickly swallowed the blood soaked chunk of flesh in his mouth. He called out to Da'Hak and guided him to the scene.

Moments later, the humans arrived with their wretched light. The healer bent over and began inspecting Duriel's stump. Slathrak produced the leg, and muttered something about finding it across the way. The healer said "I can't attach it, do what you will with it." Slathrak grinned and put it in his food bag, already stained deep red with the blood of the local denizens he had already eaten. He stumbled over to his tail, picked it up and put it in the bag as well.

Once safely off the rails, Da'hak said it was time to rest and heal the wounded. The group agreed.