DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Dawn of Revolution
The Outlaw
Two years before the coalition war began...
Baoli Orzat saw the hobgoblin raid party coming even before the nomad tribesmen did, and she was already moving before either side could make a move. As the sun set across the Ayalakh Khanate plains, Baoli yanked on her horse's reins to bring it to a halt, the animal whinnying as it obeyed. Baoli had just a few seconds to land the first shot.
Baoli drew her shortbow in one fluid motion, nocked a griffin-feathered arrow from her quiver, and closed one eye to take aim at thre nearest hobgoblin. She loosed the arrow with a fwap, and her arrow struck true. It pierced the hobgoblin's neck between its iron armor plates, and the creature shrieked as it fell.
Nearby, as Baoli hoped, the nomad tribe's defenders finally sprang into action, shouting and hollering to raise the alarm. Baoli didn't blame them for being slow on the uptake; this region of the Khanate was surprisingly calm this time of year, and this hobgoblin pack really came out of nowhere. Even the pragmatic Khanate nomad tribes could be lured into a false sense of security now and then.
Baoli prepared another arrow as the remaining hobgoblins, at least two dozen of them, spread out and made an all-out charge on the nomad tribe's camp, shouting in bloodlust as they went. The small nomad tribes' warriors met them halfway, with a squad of eight armored centaurs leading the way, their double-bladed halberds at the ready. Behind them, a squad of half-orcs and earth genasi drew their bows and fired, and finally, to Baoli's surprise, a sorcerer leaped into the fray as well. An elderly air genasi man stood firm, his long robe billowing as he charged up his spell and flung it at his enemies. A dozen darts of hardened magical air arced across the battlefield, knocking the hobgoblins off their feet.
Then the hobgoblins played their own ace.
"They shall die," a hobgoblin wizard growled, Baoli barely discerning his words over the din of battle. "They shall all die!" He planted his feet firmly, pointed with his right hand's index and middle fingers, and loosed a deadly bolt of magical lightning. Baoli winced and shielded her eyes from the intense flash of white-blue light, her hair standing on end as the bolt streaked across the battlefield. She heard a few warriors shout in agony, then smelled roasted flesh.
With a shout, Baoili flicked her horse's reins, and it galloped into action, presenting a moving target for the hobgoblin party as the battle raged on. Baoli had to take out that devastating hobgoblin wizard, or this would end very badly for the poor nomads. Baoli bared her teeth and fired an arrow right at the hobgoblin's head.
In a flash of green light, the hobgoblin casually threw out his left hand and blocked the arrow with a circular shield of hardened magic energy. Curses!
The hobgoblin raiders kept pressing their advantage, and to Baoli's horror, the wizard unleashed a second lightning bolt, this time striking one of the nomad tribe's circular tents. The tent went up in flames, its three inhabitants shrieking as they fled.
On and on it went, until finally, the brave centaurs bore down on the hobgoblin wizard, swinging their halberds every which way. The hobgoblin and its shield-bearing allies blocked the assault, but now Baoli was behind them, and not even hobgoblins had eyes on the back of their heads. She drew an arrow, sharply inhaled, and it fly.
Thunk! The arrow pierced the hobgoblin wizard's head, the arrowhead buried deep in its brain. The wizard's failing magic curled from its fingers like smoke as the hobgoblin pitched face-forward, sprawling on the dry grass.
"Get outta here! Retreat!" the pack's captain shouted, crossing blades with a nomad defender as he spoke. The hobgoblins executed a fighting retreat, fending off the tribe's defenders until they broke off the engagement and fled. The nomads, satisfied that they were safe, fell back to the camp, where the lightning-struck tent still burned until the air genasi sorcerer quenched the flames with a quick spell.
That was too close. What would have happened if Baoli weren't here? She didn't even want to think about it. Instead, she trotted over to the nomads, raising a hand as she went. "Don't shoot! I'm not with them!"
The centaurs cautiously met Baoli about thirty paces from the tribe's camp, and the two parties stopped before one another. "Who are you? A mercenary?" one centaur asked, looking Baoli up and down. Baoli was a human lady in her early 20s, with fair skin and sharp features, her black hair held back with a red bandana.
"A mercenary? Sort of. I make my own rules." Baoli fastened her shortbow to her horse's saddle and decided to make a good impression with the universal greeting among Khanate nomads. She gently thumped a fist to her chest twice, once on the right side and once the left. "May the open skies bring you freedom."
The centaurs hesitated, then repeated the movement. "And may the horizon bring you good fortune," they intoned solemnly.
"So, you know our ways," one of the centaurs commented. "But it seems you don't hail from a tribe. No other tribe is close enough so one rider would approach us like this. And we must ask again: who, exactly, are you?"
"I'm Baoli Orzat," Baoli said casually, folding her arms. "And you're right. I don't belong to a tribe, and I'm not exactly a city girl, either. I just..." she motioned. "I wander the Khanate, doing good for others in exchange for supplies and news. I go where the winds take me."
"And outlaw?" another centaur wondered.
"Yup. I guess," Baoli said. "May I trouble you to spend the night with your tribe? We fought well together."
The lead centaur finally cracked a smile. He even chuckled. "That we did, Baoli Orzat. Come, and camp with us for the night. We have little to spare, but enough to fill your belly just this once. We are the Sunmao tribe. We welcome you."
Baoli nodded tersely and flicked the reins again, calmly trotting into the nomad tribe's camp. "Glad to be here."
The Sunmao was a fairly typical nomad tribe, Baoli decided, as she sat around one of four campfires, munching on jerky and vegetables a middle-aged lady had given her. This small tribe was about sixty people strong, and about twenty of them could fight. Hmmmmm. Baoli would almost definitely part ways with them tomorrow morning and make her way toward a hamlet or town, see what she can find there -
"May we join you?" a girl's voice asked.
Baoli turned and saw two tieflings, a young woman and a younger boy, standing there with their dinner in their hands. "Uh... sure," Baoli said. What, should she be rude and say no to the people who let her camp with them for the night?
The three of them ate in silence for a moment, sitting side by side before the fire. Then the girl spoke up. "We saw you fight, uh...?"
"Baoli."
"Yes. Baoli, we saw you fight. Thank you so much for helping us," the girl said earnestly, her eyes brilliantly reflecting the fire's light. "Or that hobgoblin wizard might have wiped us all out. Magic users are so..."
"Terrifying," the boy put in darkly.
"Oh, I know. Every time I come across a hostile magic user, I just run," Baoli explained gruffly, chewing on her last piece of jerky. "I've been in fights before, usually in return for supplies or advice on the local area. But those hobgoblin wizards are nasty. They call themselves devastators. You saw why."
"Well, we're safe now," the tiefling girl said. "Anyway, it's nice to meet you. I'm Kokwe, and this is my younger brother Uyung." She wrapped an arm around her brother's shoulders, holding him tight.
Baoli curtly nodded in return. "Well met. I'm guessing you don't fight?"
Kokwe lowered her head. "We've tried. We want to defend our tribe. But Uyung and I don't have much talent for it."
"Eh, not everyone does," Baoli said. "Some tribes have even fewer fighters than yours, and they survive. Usually."
"I suppose." Kokwe and Uyung fell silent, staring into the fire with their human guest. Then Kokwe timidly spoke up again.
"Baoli, do you ever get lonely? Riding alone?"
Baoli shot her a look. "That's a heck of a question."
Kokwe winced. "I just..."
"Relax. I've got no secrets." Baoli didn't usually like to open up, but Kokwe and Uyung seemed all right. And she'd never see them again after tomorrow morning, at any rate. "Yeah, it's kinda lonely, I admit. Just me and my horse out here. But that's the way it's gotta be."
"Do you... have any friends? Any family back home?" Uyung asked.
Baoli sighed. "Kid, I obviously don't have anyone to return home to. Look..." She shifted around and got comfortable, sitting cross-legged on the blanket she had been given. "I was born and raised in Nagumtor. Y'know, the capital? Ever seen it?"
Kokwe and Uyung shook their heads.
"My parents fought in the military's elite cavalry unit, the Khan's Hooves. But when I was 13, they both got killed in a nasty border dispute with the Illaran Kindom. Damn wood elves shot 'em dead and butchered their whole battalion. I had no one else to take me in, and I was young, so..." Baoli gestured. "I turned to petty theft and other crimes to get by. Nagumtor ain't so nice to orphans, let me tell you."
Kokwe clapped her hands over her mouth, tears watering in her eyes. "I... I had no idea. We shouldn't have asked."
"We're sorry," Uyung added quickly. "We'll leave you alone." He started to get up.
Baoli held out a hand. "Wait."
The brother and sister gave her a confused look.
"It's all in the past. I don't like opening up about it too often, but I've moved on. I'm doing fine," Baoli assured them. "And it was my pleasure to help protect you from the hobgoblins. I've seen a lot of people suffering, and I used to be one of them, too. I fight so others don't have to end up like me."
"So... you're like a vigilante hero, right?" Uyung asked excitedly, all awkwardness forgotten. What a good kid. "Running around, saving the day? We've heard folk tales about mysterious heroes running across the plains, slaying devils and blessing people with the grace of the gods..."
Baoli snorted in amusement. "I don't bless anyone. An arrow between the eyes is how I save you fine folks from monsters." She finished her dinner and rubbed her hands together to get the crumbs off. "So, what about you two? What's your story?"
"It's, uh... a bit like yours," Kokwe admitted. "We are so fortunate to have this nomad tribe to take us in and support us."
Baoli blinked. "You weren't born into the Sunmao tribe?"
Kokwe shook her head. "Uyung and I were raised in Kensog, a small city to the south of here. Our mother died when we were young, and then our father was killed in a robbery. Stabbed to death." She reached out and held Uyung's hand. "It was tough even with our father around, let alone after his murder. We were poor and couldn't afford to move anywhere else, but our neighbors hated us for being two tiefling mouths to feed, so we ran. Uyung and I would have starved out here or been gobbled up by devils if the Sunmao tribe hadn't found us."
Baoli nodded grimly. Every Khanate town and city, and many of the tribes, harshly rejected the tiefling people for being descended from devils. With devils being such a plague in the Khanate, the tieflings were considered the embodiment of evil. Baoli had seen tieflings beaten half to death for the smallest things, with no one coming to their aid.
"You two are all right in my eyes," Baoli said, and she finally let some real warmth infuse her voice. She offered a small smile. "I'm glad you still have each other and this tribe. I wish you well."
"Thank you so much," Kokwe said, her voice choked. "But it doesn't feel right. The Sunmao tribe's people fight so hard to protect us, and we offer little in return. Uyung and I never learned a serious trade, so we just do odd jobs like loading the horses when it's time to move." Sh clenched a fist on her lap. "I wish we could do more!" she cried, raising her voice. "I wish we could fight and help protect these people!"
"Yeah. We're not strong enough to be real warriors, but it would be awesome if we were like... like you," Uyung said, gesturing at Baoli.
"Me?"
"I mean, as a vigilante warrior and stuff," Uyung said. He raised his fists. "You're awesome, Baoli! We owe you our lives. I wanna get stronger and pay you back."
Baoli shook her head. "No need, kid. Having a safe camp for the night, and good company, is enough."
"Yeah, but..." Uyung lowered his fists. "We've gotta do something."
"If you ask me..." Baoli got up and cracked her neck. "You're doing plenty, just by being respectable people and loving your tribe. See you in the morning." She turned on her heel and marched into the tent set aside for her. It was a fine nomad tent, ten feet in diameter with creaky wooden frames set up to keep it in shape. Baoli lay on her bedroll, an arm draped over her forehead, her dark hair spilling out around her.
It took longer than expected to find sleep.
Baoli felt more relaxed the next morning than she expected, and she didn't mind helping the Sunmao nomads pack up their camp and load everything onto their horses and oxen for the day's journey into the unknown. Baoli even indulged Kokwe and Uyung in a little small talk, savoring the peace while she still could. The trip toward a nearby town on horseback was similarly calming, and Baoli arrived at the town in unusually high spirits with the rest of the nomads.
As expected, the Sunmao nomads visited the town's shops to barter for supplies, leaving Baoli to curiously wander the town for about an hour, keeping an eye out for trouble. She saw none, until...
"Hey! Baoli!"
It was Uyung, and he looked deeply concerned when he hurried over to his human friend, panting for breath. He doubled over forward, hands on his knees.
"What's wrong?" Baoli asked, tensing up. She knew it; there was always trouble, sooner or later.
"I can't find my sister," Uyung panted. "Have you seen her?"
Baoli's insides went cold. "No. Not since we got here -"
A girl's cry erupted across the town. More than once, actually.
"Wait here!" Baoli told Uyung sternly, then sprinted through the town's streets toward the cries. She and several townsfolk stared in horror as a squad of six or seven robed cultists dragged three Sunmao tribe girls away, Kokwe among them.
"Three more for the master!" one cultist said gleefully. He and his fellows wore dark purple robes with red flame patterns on the hem and black cloth belts. And they were all armed with scimitars. "Come on, hurry!"
"No one move! Or you'll get it!" another cultist, a burly earth genasi woman, snarled as she waved her scimitar around. Oddly, that scimitar had a bright red blade, not a silvery steel one. "Master Kimkai will burn this pitiful town to the ground if you interfere!"
The townsfolk muttered darkly to themselves, but none dared interfere, and Baoli didn't blame them. She knew the stories of Kimkai the devil, each story nastier than the last. Kimkai was a horned devil who roamed the Ayalakh Khanate, abducting people and forcibly converting them into servitude in exchange for giving them power. His name struck terror into the heart of every Khanate citizen, city dwellers and plains nomads alike. And no one knew where his lair was, so once his someone was dragged to his hideout, they'd never be seen again.
Baoli felt her throat tighten with indignant rage. She had to do something! But the cultists would sooner kill the three captives than let them go, and if Kokwe died because Baoli made a careless move...
So much for those warm, fuzzy feelings.
Baoli was about to turn and go when she heard a familiar boy's cry. It couldn't be -
"Uyung! Don't! Get out of here!" Baoli shouted when the tiefling boy sprang from between two houses, a simple shortsword in hand. He tackled one of the cultists to the dusty dirt road, the two of them grappling viciously. trying to slash the other with their blades.
Baoli barely had time to draw her bow when the Sunmao tribe's eight centaur warriors dashed onto the scene, double-bladed halberds held at the ready. "You fool, Uyung!" one of the centaurs shouted, but e also looked impressed. "Now let us finish this!"
"NO!" the earth genasi cultist seized Kokwe and held her red-bladed scimitar to the tiefling girl's throat. "Leave, or this tiefling trash dies by my hand! Do you know what this sword is?"
Baoli saw the elvish runes etched onto the scimitar's blade, and her jaw dropped with shock. Impossible! That was Bara-shun, one of the four Noble Swords. Those swords were nigh-indestructible and each wielded unique, and incredibly powerful, elemental magic. With one swing, Bara-shun could wipe out a whole pack of gnolls with its thunder magic. But Baoli had no idea that Noble Sword was here in the Khanate! Last she heard, some elvish weapons collector owned it in the Illaran Kingdom. But now Bara-shun was here...
The centaurs backed off at once, baring their teeth in rage, unwilling to risk Kokwe's life but also terribly reluctant to just let Kimkai's thugs have their way. The two sides were in a total standoff as Kokwe and the other two captive girls struggled in the cultists' grip. Tears ran down Kokwe's face, and at the same time, a cultist kicked Uyung away. The tiefling boy tumbled to a halt, unable to fight on.
Then Baoli felt the weight of the shortbow in her hand. She subtly motioned to the centaurs, who got her meaning and acted accordingly.
"Do you have any demands?" one of the Sunmao centaurs offered to distract the cultists. "We can give you anything in return for those girls' release. Please, let us bargain for their lives."
The earth genasi cultist scoffed. "Are you a fool? We're not holding these girls for ransom! We're not after money. Master Kimkai has much need for new thralls, and these girls will do just fine."
That was all the time Baoli needed to draw another arrow, take careful aim, and let loose.
Her arrow punched right into the earth genasi woman's right shoulder, and at once, the cultist dropped Bara-shun as she cried out in pain. Kokwe squirmed free of her captors' grip at once and seized the Noble Sword, slashing her foe with it without hesitation.
Baoli yelped in shock as the very air shuddered and cracked from the strain of Bara-shun's mighty thunder damage. Baoli swore she saw rippled fracture lines in the very air, and a split second later, a terrific wave of deafening force threw the cultists onto their backs in a confused heap.
"YAAAAAAAH!" the centaurs charged once again, and this time, the cultists didn't stand a chance. Blood spewed into the air as the centaurs' double-bladed halberds slashed them apart, and their trampling hooves finished them off without mercy. The captive girls shrieked and fled for cover, Kokwe still gripping Bara-shun in her hands.
It was over as soon as it began. The eight centaurs prodded the cultists' bodies to confirm their deaths, then fanned out to patrol the area for more enemies, only to find none. Once she got a chance, Baoli rushed over to the three girls with Uyung, and Baoli stood guard as a tearful Uyung wrapped his arms around his big sister.
"I'm all right! We're okay!" Kokwe cried out, more tears gushing from her eyes. "You don't have to be scared anymore, Uyung!"
"I thought you were scared, too!" Uyung wailed.
"Okay, I kinda was, too!" Kokwe admitted, and they laughed nervously.
It still probably wasn't safe to stay here for much longer, though, so the Sunmao tribe decided to hastily finish trading for supplies here and resume their trek across the endless plains. Baoli, for her part, traded for a few goodies at a local shop, then met up with Kokwe and Uyung.
"I suppose this is where we part ways," Baoli told them. She bowed her head. "It was a pleasure meeting you. And I'm so glad you're both safe."
"We owe you our lives. Again," Kokwe said in quiet awe.
"You're the best, Baoli," Uyung said, saluting her. "I wish you were my big sister, too."
"You've got a fine sister as it is," Baoli said warmly. "Be well." She turned to go.
"Hold on," Kokwe said.
Baoli turned back to face the tieflings. "What is it?"
Kokwe humbly offered Bara-shun, holding it flat across her hands. "I want you to have this."
"I can't."
"You can," Kokwe insisted. "It felt exhilarating to wield a real Noble Sword in battle. But I'm not a warrior yet. You are. I can't think of anyone better to own Bara-shun."
Baoli twanged her bow's string. "This is the only weapon I need aside from some backup daggers."
"Take it! Please!" Kokwe cried. "I used it first, but I'm not worthy. Just keep it safe for now."
"For now?"
"When Kokwe and I are real warriors," Uyung said confidently, "we'll find you and ask for it back. We promise we'll make you proud someday, Baoli, I promise."
Baoli clapped a hand over her mouth, her heart racing. These tieflings... Kokwe and Uyung trusted her so much! Perhaps in their eyes, she was a part of their closely-knit tribe, even family. Baoli and the tieflings knew what it was like to feel alone, mistrusted and unwanted until the right people came along...
"Okay." Baoli humbly accepted Bara-shun and holstered that legendary weapon on her leather belt. "I never thought I'd end up with a Noble Sword. But... here we are." She spread her arms wide. "Kokwe, Uyung, I vow to survive and continue being the great warrior you think I am, so one day, you'll surpass me and rightfully claim this weapon as yours."
Kokwe beamed. "It's a promise!"
"Promise!" Uyung added, waving his hands over his head.
There was no more to say. Baoli tried to play it cool like usual, but as she rode off into the plains alone on her horse, she wondered if she had been grinning her head off like a happy-go-lucky fool when saying her final goodbyes to Kokwe and Uyung. To her astonishment, she realized she didn't mind at all.