Game Log 2

During the trip to shore, all in the boat, with the exception of Toran, kept eyeing the Dwarf.

"I think he's about to . . ." Kaelin began as the Dwarf opened his mouth and vomited onto Toran's leg.

"Never mind." Kaelin finished. Toran ignored both the Human and the Dwarf, enduring it stoically.

However, as they neared the shore, Toran, with a mighty heave, threw the Dwarf out of the boat to splash a good twenty feet away into the surf. He then jumped out himself, ran through the shallows and proceeded to vigorously dunk the Dwarf repeatedly despite the many weak and choked protests. When the rinsing was complete, the beast man gave another great heave which landed the Dwarf, wet, miserable and exhausted on the shore. After a single attempt to raise himself up, the Dwarf collapsed and lay unmoving and silent except for heavy exhalations.

"Now at least he is clean!" Toran said before wading to shore himself.

The others got out of the boat in a more refined fashion and were even kind enough to put the Dwarf's belongings next to him before the trio headed into the small community of Chassel.

The town consisted of a few dozen buildings that gradually ran up the sand to where the rich, volcanic soil was farmed. Most of the buildings were made of bamboo and topped with roofs of interwoven leaves. The ones closest to the water were on stilts with bamboo floors as well.

Soon after the villagers had noticed them, the town watch began discretely observing them as well. It wasn't surprising really, armed and armoured newcomers were rarely welcomed. At very best, danger followed them.

However, these visitors were at least good for business. No sooner did Kaelin enter the town's market square, conveniently located just off the end of the piers that service the many small fishing vessels, than he began ordering some of the delicacies on offer. One of the enterprising women cooked food for some of the more affluent fishermen and was more than happy to accept a silver piece from Kaelin to cook and serve his most recent purchases.

Xanthia asked the nearest local, who just happened to be one of the town watch, where he could buy things in this town.

"Well, unless your looking for food or craft wares, you'd best head up to the tower. That's the local import/export. Valinus runs it, runs it right well." The watchman pointed.

Without a further word, Xanthia walked toward the old stone tower, one of the very few stone buildings of the town, which he could see on a small rise further inland. The inside was blessedly cool and filled with shelves, boxes and crates. He hadn't noticed the dark shape of Toran move up and take up position outside the doorway. He did notice the hulking form of a guard. Granted this was assisted by the fact that said hulking guard rang a bell on the wall when he noticed Xanthia enter.

"Boss will be with you in a minute." The guard said in a husky voice.

In far less than a minute, a tall, elegantly dressed Eladrin male came down the stairs to the upper floor. He studied Xanthia for a moment and then said in a cheerful, melodious tenor, "you must be new to town. How can I help you today?"

"Yes, I just arrived." Xanthia answered, "I require a staff, helpful in both walking and, perhaps in combat."

"I see." The proprietor said looking more closely at the beast man, "well I don't have anything for someone of your height but I'm certain I can have something made. It will be ready tomorrow. Now, please, could you tell me how you came to be here?"

"Our ship has been damaged and we were forced to come ashore here. The ship is still there and the crew might need some assistance from the town. You can see it from the beach."

"Ah, I see. You didn't have any problems coming along the coast?"

"None, although we only reached the coast this morning." Xanthia was becoming bored with this man's questions and moved to leave.

"Oh, I just mention it because we've had some problems with our shipments. There's apparently some horrible monster that attacks our coastal craft." The Eladrin gave Xanthia another appraising look. "You should talk to Amos down at the docks."

Without answering, Xanthia left.

Toran was well aware that his presence sometimes bothered the druid, so he leaned against the wall to await the druid's return, he could hear any commotion coming from inside the building while continuing to scan for threats outside. As he waited, he noticed a guard; a large guard of undoubted Orcish heritage regarding him closely. The fact that the guard was a female did little to soften the impression that she was evaluating how she could effectively fight and defeat Toran.

The beast man met her gaze and offered her the respect of returning her appraising, warrior's look. He noted how battered the shield she carried looked, the loose manner in which she carried her cudgel and the light leathers she wore, despite the heat.

He was almost sorry when Xanthia came out and began heading for the market area.

Kaelin was enjoying the food. While there had been nothing wrong with the food on board the Blessed Benetabra, none of it had been terribly fresh. While the food he sampled in the market square was largely simple fare, all of it was straight from the farm. He basically gorged himself waiting for the others to return.

Taking yet another skewer of meat and vegetables from the farm wife as it was cooked, he asked, "I hear that there is a path the Hot Creek and then on to Griffinport. Where can I find it?"

She looked down quickly and just pointed to one of the huts. This one had a high bamboo wall around it enclosing a large yard. Through the entrance he could see the remains of a burned wagon. Above the opening in the wall was a sign with words painted by an elegant hand, 'Weldon Calhoon – Coster'. Below that was a nicely painted picture of fully laden wagon being drawn by horses.

As he wandered in, a man with a wooden leg stood up from the remains of the wagon and looked at him with what seemed to be equal measures of hostility and suspicion. "What do you want?"

"Problems with the wagon?" Kaelin observed mildly.

"Don't get me started."

"Alright," Kaelin continued, "when I asked about the road to Hot Creek, someone directed me to you."

"Did they?" He commented and looked venomously past Kaelin to the throng of people in the market. "Well, I suppose they did the right thing. See, I built that road to help them all get their stuff to and from civilization and how do they repay me, by letting that Tok'rish Valinus burn my wagon!"

"That's awful." Kaelin observed. "But the road is okay?"

"The road is fantastic!" The man, presumably Weldon, was yelling now. "It's a great road, wide enough, hacked right through the jungle! A work of gods bedamned art it is! But no one can use it! Amos loves him monopoly on transport and even though he can't get anything through, he won't let me use my road."

"Why not?" Kaelin said quietly trying to get the man to calm down a little.

"I said, he loves his monopoly!" Weldon did quiet down a bit. "I know it's that Valinus behind it all though. They've set up bandits on the road to make sure nothing gets through."

"Bandits you say," Kaelin commented with a smile.

"I'm pretty sure," the angry man spat, "I had a shipment due in about five days ago and have seen not a sign of it. Must have been taken, Gods blight the Elf!" He spat again.

"My friends and I might be able to do something about bandits."

With an expression of surprise and then something like hope, Weldon regarded Kaelin and finally said, "would you? I'd really appreciate it. If you could find any sign of my workers, two good boys named Hab and Lonnor . . . and my goods as well. There was a bunch of stuff, some . . ."

"I'll try." Kaelin said cutting the man off. "I can promise no more than that."

The trio met up a few minutes later and Kaelin filled them in on what he had heard from Weldon.

"I think that I met this Valinus," Xanthia said, "he didn't seem like an evil man."

"Well I was thinking that since we're probably going to be going along this road anyway we might as well look out for his goods wagon and bandits." Kaelin said, "after all, there is strength in numbers."

"It seems wise." Xanthia said and then nodded. "Very well, we shall travel together along the road and see if we can find these bandits."

There was very little that they needed to do in order to ready themselves for travel. Within five minutes they were on the outskirts of town and then travelling along the road deep into the jungle. The road was indeed well constructed. Fresh gravel along its surface discouraged the rapid growth of plants from the jungle but already, the freshly hacked fronds on the edges were seeking to retake territory lost to the road.

The jungle closed in on all sides and above them so that they travelled mostly through a tunnel of greens and browns. Away from the shore the wind died completely and it seemed that the humid air closed on them as well.

Toran originally recommended that they travel beside the road but, after seeing the thickness of the jungle, all agreed that their pace would have slowed to a crawl. Even on the road, only a few miles from town, they were beginning to weary from the heat and humidity and still there was no sign of wagon or ambush.

The day just seemed to grow hotter, especially for Xanthia, and after hours of walking, he relented and took off his armour. The rigid leather trapped heat next to his fur and he had begun to feel dizzy. With the armour off he felt like he could finally breath freely again.

"And if an attack comes?" Toran said looking at the armour that Xanthia was placing in his pack.

"Then I shall deal with it without my armour's benefit."

Toran grunted unhappily but could do little more.

They continued walking and it only grew warmer with a brief, light afternoon rain shower. As the light began to dim with evening, the trio began to think that no attack would come.

Of course, this was precisely when it did.

With no warning at all, a blade sliced into Xanthia's back, drawing a line of red as it passed. Only Xanthia's instinct, causeing him to rush forward, avoided a crippling wound to his backbone.

The noise caused Kaelin jump away from the danger and hide in the gloom, waiting for a chance to spring his own ambush.

Toran, who had been travelling a little way ahead, turned and charged the threat. His target was an Elf or Eladrin wearing camouflaged clothing and carrying a wickedly long knife. His response obviously caught the fey by surprise. Toran's axe came up and connected solidly, sending the ambusher sprawling ten feet beyond wounded and scrambling to his feet.

Toran was already moving for another charge when Kaelin drew his sword and began summoning his inner darkness. The Eladrin revealed his nature and stepped back into the fey world, vanishing from sight.

"Be careful," Xanthia said picking himself up from the road where he had fallen, "he will not have gone far. The fey realm can . ." He was interrupted as a second ambusher revealed himself in the jungle by the roadside, as this one advanced; he drew a powerful longbow and fired an arrow which thudded painfully into Xanthia's shoulder.

Orienting toward this new threat, Toran tried another charge but the Elf fired arrow after arrow with near supernatural speed forcing the beast man to leap from side to side before he could get a solid swing. In fact, two arrows were broken by powerful swings of Toran's axe, just before they would have hit him.

Xanthia had better success throwing an explosive seed which, while not hitting the Elf, the burst of flame caused the him to move quickly before being burned. Xanthia was about to throw a second when the Eladrin reappeared from the jungle behind him and again his blade bit into the Druid's back.

However, Kaelin had not been distracted by the second attacker and had noticed the Eladrin's return just too late to prevent his attack on Xanthia. The assassin's eyes went black and deadly shadows emerged from the jungle, grabbing the Eladrin right after his attack. Around his neck the shadows jerked him back and with an audible crack, his neck snapped and he flopped lifelessly to the ground.

The Elven archer, hard pressed by Toran's seeking axe, gained quick respite by moving agilely around jungle plants where Toran had to hack and push his way through. On the road, he saw Xanthia near his dead, fey companion and decided on revenge. From less than ten paces away, as he moved, he took careful aim at the druid's head, which would surely be a death shot.

As he released the bowstring, Toran saw the danger and threw his heavy axe. The weapon was in no way balanced for throwing but miraculously hit the Elf's hand, it's heavy axe head painfully slamming into the hand and forcing the aim high and to the Elf's left. The arrow flew off into the jungle.

With his hand bleeding, the Elf tried to gather another arrow and aim it at Toran but the beast man was too quick. In a fluid, rolling motion, Toran snatched his axe from the road where it had fallen and in the same action brought it down on the frantically moving Elf. The blade hit in the collarbone as the Elf was just bringing up his bow, the blade biting deep, cutting through ribs and tissue. The Elf's final shot was forced low and rattled off of the gravel of the road before he fell back and died with a single, shuddering breath.

The trio looked around in the suddenly quiet jungle. No new attack came and slowly, the sounds of bird calls and insect squeaks resumed.

"Agghhhaaah!" Xanthia yelled as he pulled the arrow painfully from his shoulder.

Toran came forward and looked at the twin wounds on the druid's back. "I don't think they are serious but you will want to cover them."

"I will," Xanthia said in a growling tone and began pulling his armour out of his pack, "with my armour this time. But first, please, put some cloth on the wounds of my back for me."

While the two beast men worked, Kaelin moved forward and began regarding the Eladrin he had killed with his power over shadow. He regarded the man's face in the gathering gloom, using his boot to turn his head forward and in profile. He then began removing the man's camouflaged wrappings.

After a thoughtful pause, Kaelin moved toward the other two. "Uhh, look. We've helped each other out a few times now and I don't want you to get the wrong idea about me. I'm going to do something now, but I assure you that I am still myself and mean you no harm so please, try not to be alarmed." With that, his face seemed to melt and shift; his hair lightened, shortening and within seconds the change was complete and looked identical to the Eladrin that had just attacked them.

The two beast men looked for a moment and then Toran said to Xanthia, "if I put this piece of cloth here, your armour will rub less when you move." Xanthia nodded, both were clearly unimpressed by Kaelin's transformation.

After a short time, Kaelin said, still wearing the Eladrin's features, "I must admit that I'm both distressed and relieved that you take my Changeling nature with so much ease."

"In Human lands, we are often regarded as less than people." Toran said, "the truth is that I myself feel better that you are not entirely Human. It is they're fear of all things different that causes this mistrust. You, being what you are, probably know this better than I do."

"But it is a little impressive is it not?" Kaelin said as he changed again, this time into a replica of Xanthia.

Xanthia smiled, "you still smell the same; and besides, I can change myself." With that, he adopted his bestial form of a shadow wolf.

Kaelin got on all fours and managed something of an approximation of the wolf but was lost when Xanthia scratched his own pointed ear with his back leg. Kaelin, trying to mirror the movement fell awkwardly on his side and laughed. "All right, you win." He said as he grinned and turned back into the Eladrin attacker.

Xanthia let out a soft howl of success.

While they were occupied, Toran began moving the bodies off of the road. As he did so, he noticed a smell coming from nearby. Following this, he soon uncovered a wagon, the stays broken and one of the wheels badly cracked. The smell came from four corpses; two were horses that were hastily covered with foliage near the edge of the road, the other two were all too human. One lay in the otherwise empty bed of the wagon, the other was pinned to the side by two arrows imbedded in its chest.

A little later, Kaelin noticed that there was a trail near where the Elven archer had started shooting at them from. Their guess was that this is where the camp of the bandits was and probably where they must have taken the stolen cargo.

"We can't bring his worker's back, but we can probably bring Weldon's cargo home for him."

"Yes," Toran nodded, "but there are almost certainly more of them there. We should be cautious."

Putting on the leafy camouflage and making certain of his disguise, Kaelin said, "we may be welcomed as friends. Stay a way behind me, out of sight but be ready to come if you hear my signal."

Kaelin soundlessly followed the path, stealth came naturally to him and while the jungle was foreign, he knew well how to use the darkness to best advantage. Well behind him he could hear the others. While their bestial eyes could see far better in the gathering night and they knew how to move through foliage, they didn't do so quietly. Twice, they nearly caught him up despite their slow walking pace.

In the end, Kaelin came to the end of the path, which had petered out into a slight parting of the thick jungle on all sides. The path just stopped at the drooping foliage of a large tree.

Looking around, Kaelin was confused. He was fairly certain that the bandits used this path but where did they go from there? He looked up, in case there was some rope or ladder they climbed, he then tried looking at the ground in case there was some hidden trapdoor to an underground lair. Nothing. In growing desperation, he began to search inside the foliage to the side, and that was when he saw it, a twisted vine rope, clearly worn from use.

With some caution, he pulled the rope, tentatively at first but then with more strength. He was rewarded by a whole section of foliage moving down and revealing a large wooden ramp leading up to a platform around a tree. He could just see a rope companionway leading similar platform further up in another tree.

This was obviously the bandit's hideaway and for something this size, there were clearly more than the two bandits they encountered on the road.

Wearing the face of the Eladrin bandit he had killed, Kaelin started up the ramp.