Aporeu chronicles Issue 98: Calea: Contact the Yaxkin
Stories from the adventurers
This week
Making new friends with the Yaxkin.
Calea: Contact the Yaxkin by Idonis
It was time for me to go on another mission. After some weeks of gambling and brothels, I needed to earn some extra money and stretch my legs, I'm getting lazy. So, I went to the Guild and there was a request from somewhere beyond the Gate, from a -for the Guild- yet to be discovered land. Sounds exciting. So, together with Miss Wicky (a Half-Orc) Ruzak the Dwarf, Brynjar, another Dwarf and the Elf Tanar'ri, we made our way to the gate, stepped through and went to look for the contact. After stepping through the gate, we arrived in a wooded, damp, warm place. Not my favorite climate. There were two men working closeby and we asked for directions. It wasn't too far to the settlement. We arrived there fairly quickly and found Lester, the leader, and he told us about our objective: make friendly contact with lizardmen. His people had spotted Lizardmen scouting out their settlement, but everytime they would try to make contact, the lizardmen would disappear into the surrounding flora. So, we went on our way to find them. Seeing as my skills do not lie in the tracking and spotting, I let the others take the lead on that and they did a terrific job at it. Our travel was rather uneventful, yet uncomfortable (it started raining like crazy at one moment and I couldn't find a nice place to sit or find shelter. So I sat on my Shield and just took the wetness). After traversing the jungle for a while, Miss Wicky told us we were being followed. Apparently the lizardmen were keeping an eye on us. We decided to not act too rash, slowly carried on and let the spy spy, hopefully seeing we weren't hostile. At some point we tried to make contact. Mis Wicky with her water magic(making shapes of a lizardman figure and a human figure shaking hands) and Ruzak, by tossing some nice meats towards the lizardman. It didn't really lead to anything. Not long after, we found the village of the lizardmen. With magic I was able to understand them, but couldn't speak back in their native language. So with gesturing and Wicky’s watermagic, we communicated to the best of our abilities. The lizardmen somewhat opened up to us and told us that they had lost two brothers in the 'forbidden place' and asked us if we could retrieve them. As this would be a great way to build trust and start somewhat of an alliance, we told them we would help.
They provided us with two guides who could lead us to the edge of the 'Forbidden Place' and we immediately went on our way.
Soon enough we learned of the dangers the jungle holds, as halfway on our way to the 'Forbidden Place' we were surprised by a swamp-like monster that oozed with acid and gave us a good challenge. Having walked a lot and talked a lot, I was happy to swing my blade again! We brought the creature down and continued on our way, not yet knowing a bigger challenge still waited ahead.
Coming to the edge of the 'Forbidden Place', our guides refused to escort us further, so we went on without them. A dreary place... And all of a sudden, we heard the sounds of heavy footfalls and a low grumbling sound. Through the woods a large creature was storming at us, an enormous crocodile. We fought and fought, the crocodile violently swinging its tail and snapping at us, but staying vigilant I managed to kill the beast!
We looked around and found the two lizardmen bodies, and a crocodile nest. It seems the beast was a mother just trying to protect her young...
We returned to the lizardmen, returning the bodies of their fallen brothers. Though understandably sad, they were also grateful and gave us a symbol of friendship. Understanding we came from the other settlement, they made clear that putting up the symbol in a good to see place, would signal to all Lizardmen that they were allies. We stayed the night and what transpired during that night... I will leave that a mystery...
The next day we made our way home.
We returned back to the human settlement, to Lester, and reported our findings. We handed him the symbol, and he was grateful. Yet, when receiving our reward, I was a bit... It seemed quite... Meager. But then again, we did not ask about it beforehand. Another lesson learned.
The mission itself was satisfying, so that was a sort of reward in itself.
And that was my tale, looking forward to the next one.
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