Master of the Desert Nomads Part 7: Disrupting the Master

 Based on their experience with the so-called "Master," Beatriss and Tetsukichi realized their own adopted homeland was in danger.  Without believing that the Master could pose a serious threat to the Imperial Khan, he could bring misery and destruction to the people of the Zhou Empire, very likely beginning with the Happy Valley.  They asked their proteges Bayan and Timur to accompany Al-Fitar in his efforts to rally defense of his father's lands to the best.  But Beatriss, Tetsukichi, along Hyamsam, Bangqiu, and Bo Jing collectively decided to go east.

On this occasion, the journey home was nearly as trying as the journey out.  The Master's armies seemed to attract strange and terrible monsters-- a multi-headed lizard buried in a pit, a lizard made of flames that emerged from their own campfire.  But they were truly horrified when they reached the Asada River and the ruined village of Pramayama.  A huge contingent of the Master's army was encamped along the banks.  The river was the only thing blocking them from the most peaceful region of Zhou.  And that army, was busy building a bridge to bring their supplies and siege engines across the river.

Thanks to the magic of Hyamsam, Bangqiu,a nd Mustapha, evading the army was easy enough, but as they pressed on they encountered a horrifying advance party of giants, trolls, harpies, gnolls, a fire sorceress, and bloodthirsty barbarians.  The defenders of Zhou determined that this was not just a raiding party, but scouts, seeking the pass by which the army would invade.  In a first skirmish, several of Kafka's archers were killed and the most powerful raiders escaped.

The homelanders regrouped.  Bangqiu took to the sky and found a short cut; the defenders pushed ahead, and sought a place where they wanted to stage a battle.  They chose a high hill on the edge of a plain where they expected the raiders to pass.  Bangqiu approached the raiders invisibly.  The archers started the attack, firing from the top of the hill.  Most of their arrows fell harmlessly among the well-protected raiders who responded by charging the hill.  Mustapha created a troop of illusionary skeletons at the bottom of the hill, giving the raiders what looked  like an easy target.  The fire sorceress made the mistake of identifying herself.  Before she could cause any damage the defenders on the hill, Bangqiu blasted her with a barrage of magic missiles.  He then reverted to bird form to escape the giants and flew back to the hill.

As the raiders reached the hill, the defenders created a wall of fire, trapping them at the base.  As the harpies approached, the archers shot them down from the sky.  The raider's ground troops were divided, with half trapped by flames as the trolls and barbarians circled around the hill.  The powerful fire giant happily waded through the fire and bounded up the hill.  Hyamsam blasted him with a cloud of steam and Kafka finished him off.  Meanwhile, Bo Jing singlehandedly killed one of the trolls with his fiery sword.  As the raiders fell victim to their own homicidal urges at the hands of the calm, well-organized defenders, Tetsukichi noticed that the human leaders of the band were hanging back.  He and Bangqiu led a group down the hill to make sure none of the raiders escaped.  They were successful.

The defenders pressed on toward the Happy Valley, stopping periodically to ensure that they weren't being followed.  There were no raiders in sight.  They reached the Happy Valley and quietly prepared their troops for a possible attack.  None came.  Invisible Victory.

Homecoming Part 9 (Finale and a new beginning)

 The surprise attack on Byxata did not go as the Traldars had expected.  Somehow, the Hutakaans had been ready.  Kfaz was there, leading a well-organized defense.  The defenders targeted Ben-Kraal with javelins and sling stones.  He was knocked from his mount and half-trampled.  The Traldars called off the attack and retreated.  They had the wherewithal to shield Be-Kraal and hoist his half-dead body onto a mount.  A few of the boldest warriors urged their lizards to climb up the town walls to guard the retreat of the main body.  While there were few casualties, the Traldars returned to Ronkan in defeat.

The party received little blame.  There was talk of a traitor who must have alerted the Hutakaans.  But the loudest talk was about Ben-Kraal and his poor decision to lead his warriors into a trap.

Sukh, Ginjo, and Phubi pushed their way intot he tower and Ben-Kraal's sickroom.  They warned him of the seditious talk about him. He shrugged it off.  He would be challenged to a duel and killed and a new leader would be selected.  It was the Traldar way.  After a nod from Ginjo, Phubi pulled out the scroll she had found in the middle. She read it over Ben-Kraal.  In a flash of white fire, the scrool was consumed and all in the room felt fully invigorated.  Ben-Kraal jumped out of bed, fully healed.  He strode down the stairs, but assumed an awkward, wincing gait as he met the crowd outside.

As predicted, there was a challenge.  The two men stripped naked and began to fight.  Ben-Kraal sustained a couple punched, shook his head and then took hold of his challenger and threw him to the ground.  His challenger stood up only to be punched in the face and knocked to the ground again. The challenger pulled himself to his feet and the crowd took a breath, expecting Ben-Kraal to finish him off.

Instead the sturdy warrior took a few steps back.  "Today I learned the value of mercy.  Maybe some of you."

Some were angry, some were inspired, most were confused, but all had to respect Ben-Kraal's decision not to finish the fight.  The challenger knew better than to claim the mantle of leadership.  It would stay with Ben-Kraal.

The next day, Sukh and Ginjo pressed Ben-Kraal with the urgency of returning to the temple. In his study of the books, Ginjo read about a powerful enemy of the ancient Hutaakans, one who had lived for centuries and whose power, it seemed, still lingered.  This was an evil mage named Acererak.who after transforming himself into an undead being, had continued to develop his arcane powers. Also for centuries, the Hutaakans had been researching how to destroy him and had developed certain magic items for this purpose.  Sukh and Ginjo wanted to visit the temple once mre, with the key, find the Hutakaan treasury, and hopefully those items.

Ben-Kraal was surprised that Sukh was no longer pressing him to make peace witht he Hutakaans but instead plotting to loot their temple.

"I know them and I know you.  You are honorable.  When we visited the temple together, you fought beside us."

Ben-Kraal agreed that Sukh and Ginjo should loot the temple.  "But do not return here."  He apologized to the bakemono for their rough treatment. "If there are other people outside this valley that are more like you than like us, than your promised land must also be elsewhere. Leave us to our petty war."

There was no public goodbye.  Ben-Kraal insisted that the Traldars must believe that the party would be returning that night laden with treasure.  He provided four lizard mounts to help carry the load.

So the party returned once more to the temple.  They found the treasury behind the altar and used the key to gain access.  Ginjo was disappointed at the lack of weapons, but compensated himself by collecting thousands of gold coins and ingots, filling up a dirty old sack that was conveniently draped over one arm of an ornate wooden throne.  He was even more disappointed later when he opened the sack later and found all of his treasure had disappeared.  But rather than cast it aside, Sukh suggested that it might come in handy someday.  They were also puzzled by a wooden rod, light and brittle, and carved with a single magic sigil.  A mystery for another day.

The party loaded the food and supplies that would be the bulk of their treasure, plus a small coffer of gems that Sukh had deliberately not placed in the devouring sack and said goodbye to the lost valley.  They climbed on top of the temple and that up the side of the valley, taking the same trail by which they had seen the Master's minions arrive and depart. 

With the help of the giant footpad lizards, scaling the peaks of the Lost Valley was an achievable feat.  The travelers descended into an oven-hot sandy desert.  Traversing a nightmare landscape of burnt-out villages and rotten oases, the party soon became homesick for Ronkan.  As their water supplies ran low, they realized it was too far to go back and they could only press forward.  By powers beyond their ken, they encountered a party of riders who, after some initial wariness, took ity on the strange wanderers.  They shared water and explained they were scout in the army of Barack Al-Fitar, fighting a desperate hit-and-run-run-run campaign to defend their land against the depredations of a sinister warlord, called by his minions by only the name "Master" and with no knowable objective other than destruction.

Ginjo offered that he and his friends had also encountered and fought against the Master's minions.  And he was eager to continue to fight against them.  

And so the party was introduced to al-Fitar and, inducted into his army.  Al-Fitar showed himself to be "tough but fair," demanding strict discipline among his troops, but granting the party latitude and autonomy based on their experience and willingness to commit to the the cause.  In particular, he made it clear that although the four bakemono shamans resembled many of the Master's minions, they should be judged by their individual characters, rather than this resemblance.  He excepted the party from the most demanding aspect of army life, while warning them that he would soon be asking them to perfomr a very dangerous mission.

Homecoming Part 8

 Ginjo and Sukh spent several weeks resting in Ronkan and giving their retinues the chance to celebrate their accomplishments. The Traldar cautiously ventured outside their houses after nightfall, relieved that the walking dead had finally found rest. But there was clearly still a great evil to confront.  As Ginjo had predicted, the tentacled monster became more active.  Sukh and Ginjo, after conferring with Ben-Kraal, decided that they should give the Hutakaan a chance to join in destroying the common enemy.

So one fine day, Ginjo, Sukh and company made their way to Byxata.  They were welcomed.  "We knew that you would come when you were ready for the truth."  Several Hutakaan families opened up their homes.  The high Priestess Kfaz invited the bakemono shamans to share her dwelling.

Kfaz was reluctant to join with the Traldar for any reason.  "It was their ancestors who released the monster in the first place, why should we expect a better outcome this time?"

An agreement was made that the party would meet Kfaz at the temple.  And the party would travel via Ronkan so Sukh could ask Ben-Kraal to contribute help.

As Kfaz had predicted, Ben-Kraal refused. "We risked our neck with the ghosts and zombies, it's their turn!"  He also warned Sukh against leaving the temple with the Hutakaans during thenight. "Enter in daylight and leave in daylight."

So Sukh and Ginjo together with their followers, met the Hutakaans and entered the temple.  Sukh had made a careful and so they explored the crypt and other places the party had visited with the Traldars.  There was no obvious way to track down and fight the tentacled monster, except by going into the dark pit.   In discussing various options, Kfaz learned that Ginjo had taken books from the temple library and the two began to argue.  The argument seemed ready to come to blows when Sukh noticed several tentacles emerging from the pit. Dripping with sticky slime, one tentacle caught Irak and another caught Dew Blossom.  Immediately their companions charged with their weapons and began hacking at the hideously writhing appendages.  The tentacles were like thick, slippery leather.  All but the strongest blows slid or bounced off harmlessly.  Meanwhile additional tentacles emerged until the entire monster, a huge green mass, a bloated stomach studded with teeth and dripping slime and acid, crawled out of the pit.  The heroes charged toward this horror, shielding their helpless friends from the gnashing teeth while hacking at the disgusting monster.  One-by-one, they cleaved the tentacles from the body of the monster, leaving it helples and then stabbed it with spears until it fell still.  Only when the monster was dead, did the Hutakaans approach it.  They had seen the large key embedded in its gullet.  And when Ginjo also reached for the key, a struggle ensued.  Ginjo slipped out of the Hutakaan's grip and dropped her onto the body of the monster.  The gelatinous mass jiggled and slid into the pit, carrying the hutakaan with it.

Later, Sukh was say that more outrageous than anything else was Kfaz's cavalier attitude with regard to her own assistant.  The high priestess sniffed, "It seems the key will remain in the temple for now."

"Don't you want to do anything about this?"  Sukh demanded.  And then Sukh asked for assistance in getting into the cage.

They lowered Sukh into the pit and a darkness so deep, he couldn't see his own legs.  He asked them to lower him under and then pull him right back up.  The darkness, below the top of the pit, was complete, even with a torch, but Sukh re-emerged unscathed with the torch still burning.    He asked them to lower him further and then to pull him up when he shook the chain. Bo Jing and Saw turned the winch until the chain went slack.  A few seconds later the chain began to shake and they winded it back up.  

Sukh was relieved but disappointed.  "I reached the bottom and it was still dark.  I couldn't see anything and the ground was slimy beneath me.  I listened for the breathing of our companion, but heard nothing.  Sadly, she must be dead."

Kfaz and the other priestess shrugged and left the temple.  The sky, visible through the hole in the dome, was still dark and so the party, remembering Ben-Kraal's warning, remained in the temple to wait the dawn.  

As the Hutakaans were gone, Sukh began laughing and pulled out the slime-cvered key that he'd tucked into his tunic.  It was dark at the bottom of the pit, he confessed, but not pitch black.  In the flickering light of the torch, he'd seen the crumbled body of the unfortunate hutakaan priestess, and , emerging from the dissolving  mass of the monster, the large, oddly-shaped key.  Phubi revealed that sshe, too, had located, a fantastic schedule, a set of scrolls with powerful healing powers, including a chant for calling someone back from the brink of death to full health.

About an hour later, as the sky turned pink, the party left the temple, very cautious and weapons at the ready.  They were ambushed-- badly-- by a group of Traldars waiting on the roof.  One spear glanced off Gentle Foot's shoulder.  The Traldars called out an apology.  Sukh was angry and suspicious, but accepted the Traldars' apology on the condition that they return to Ronkan with the Traldars leading the way.

The Traldar complied, and by their conduct when they reached Ronkan, proved that they were not shapeshifters.  Most of the warriors of Ronkan were gone, and those that remained were in an expectant mood.  The reason, one giddy Traldar matron revealed, is that the day had come to extinguish the Hutakaan.  Having learned that Kfaz was gone from Byxata, Bem-Kraal and a large party had rode out at dawn to attack the Hutakaans.  Without their leadere to protect and lead them, the jackal-headed tyrants would be slaughtered!  Every dog bitch and pup!

Sukh resolved not to tell the Traldars about the key.