Conquering the Barbarian Altanis: Session 153
Adventurers
| Character | Race | Class | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tikatu | Human | Druid level 3 | A dirty little ma with dark and dirty skin, wearing loincloth with no back. “What will be, will be” is his favourite aphorism. |
| Amari | Human | Ranger level 1 | Black hair that shines blue. Scarred like a gladiator. |
| Ambros | Human | Cleric level 6 | Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time. |
| Drokh | Human | Monk level 1 | A tall, lean human monk with piercing eyes, weathered skin, and a warrior’s poise—calm and charismatic, he speaks with purpose and strikes with precision, wielding spear, bow, and blade. |
| Tobias Lindflags | Hobbit | Thief level 3 | A sixth-born son standing to gain nothing from inheritance, so he set out to make his own fortune in the world. |
| Seren | Human | Ranger level 1 | Beardless and blinkless ranger. |
| Heran Marod | Human | Cleric level 4 | Bearded, aging man with shaved head. Follower of Umannah, the Sun God, The Radiant Death. |
| Heinrik | Human | Magic-User level 1 | Muscular mage with short blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. |
| Belegar Grimlisnev | Dwarf | Fighter level 3 / thief level 3 | 4’6”, 150 lbs; white hair; bronze eyes; pale blue skin tone; very hairy. Observant, dependable. |
| Dalkanarion | Human | Fighter level 6 | A youthful specimen in full strength, full of purpose, bluster, and eagerness to prove himself. |
Warmshade 5th, Spiritday
Amari, Seren, Heinrik, and Tobias rushed to a dead-end. There the rangers braced for charge. They heard a loud, angry, protracted bellow moments ago. Prepared, they waited.
⁂
“Oh yeah, you can hack this hack without any issues.” the sword cheered Dalkanarion as he stepped towards the bull-headed man. Belegar followed, shit-caked dagger ready, slinking through the shadowy cave. Ecteri gripped iron piton nervously.
“Athena protects!” the Myrmidon roared.
⁂
“Wait, listen!” Tobias the invisible cautioned the party. Bellowing was now replaced by a familiar voice echoing down the tunnels. “This sounds like Dalkanarion!”
“But which way to go?”
“Hey, let's spend a round listening closely!”
“Sounds good!”
⁂
The beast swung wildly at Dalkanarion, but the warrior dodged. Belegar delivered his coveted backstab, intended for his torturer, straight into the beast's thigh. He was rewarded with a mighty blow to the face, shattering his nose and cheeks.
“You got it! Keep swinging! Stay focused!” the sword cheered Dalkanarion on.
⁂
“This way, I think”
Amari, Seren, Heinrik, and Tobias moved through the caves and tunnels. Indecisive, they moved slower than usual.
⁂
“Even a dull blade can kill in the hands of great warrior like you!”
Dalkanarion stood over dead bull-headed man.
Belegar had curled up in a dense ball of hair and flesh.
Myrmidon checked on the dwarf.
He was dead.
⁂
“Which way to go?!”
“We can't hear him anymore...”
“DALKANARION!”
“DALKANARION!!!”
The quarter stood and yelled.
⁂
“Can you hear that?” Ecteri asked.
“Yes! Yell with me young man! Yell with me if you value your life!”
⁂
Both parties did their best to follow each others voice. Echos made it for a very disorienting experience. Without Belegar, the dwarf, Dalkanarion was much more lost.
⁂
“Wait, wait. Let's pause and listen again.”
⁂
“Sword, do you know they way out?”
“Of course! You just need to ask.”
“Please lead the way out then.”
⁂
“We should go there.”
“No, we should go there!”
“Wait, which way should we go?”
“I am invisible.”
The quarter lost round to being indecisive.
⁂
“Yes, just keep going straight. Almost there. I am, uh, quite sure. Yes, quite sure.”
Dalkanarion kept following the sword, Ecteri right behind him.
⁂
“Hey, I think I know where we are now!”
Amari, Seren, Heinrik, and Tobias were back in the cave with beheaded bull-man's corpse. Bloody head was tied to Heinrik's back.
“I know which way to go now!”
⁂
Dalkanarion could see light up ahead. He and Ecteri moved slowly.
“Yes, just straight.” the sword said.
Grunts and growls could be heard, matched with familiar sounds of screaming, pleading, and crying.
“You led us back!” Dalkanarion whispered through gritted teeth.
They turned around and ran.
“You asked for a way out! This is the way out!” the sword protested.
⁂
The rangers led the way back to the cave with three exits, the one close to the three flayed corpses.
They readied themselves as they could see the light approaching from the long tunnel.
⁂
Dalkanarion and Ecteri ran as fast as they could, but these deep, underground tunnels are quite treacherous and uneven.
Heinrik, Seren, and Amari saw a large, naked, bloodied man running towards them, sword swinging. Luckily Tobias had recognised Dalkanarion
from before.
“You are alive!”
“I am!”
“Where is Heran?”
“Alas, he has been captured and broken. His god will take care of him.”
“Do you know a way out?”
“No, do you?”
“We think so but are not sure...”
There was little time to rejoice.
Wounded and spent, the rejoined party roamed the tunnels and caves.
Eventually they passed the familiar flayed corpses, and reached a four way intersection with upside down corpse in one of the dead ends.
“This is familiar...”
“Yes, you pulled me out of the cave just up ahead and then to the right.”
Meme by MLord.
“Brace yourself!”
The party was not surprised by three large bull-men rolling up behind them.
Drokh shoot arrows; striking true. Others braced for the charge.
Bull-men fell back into the tunnel.
Adventurers discussed what to do.
“They must be circling us!”
No one heeded Seren's warning. The ranger chased into the tunnel, but was checked by a single bull-man waiting around the corner.
“Behind! Watch out!”
Two bull-men came running from the opposite side of the intersection. It was a total whirlwind now, everyone fighting in the center of this cave. Dalkanarion slashed, and Amari stabbed. Little Tobias finished what others had started—he took of his ring, and stabbed the bull-man right into his heart.
Seren was duking it out with the bull-man in the tunnel, ensuring that his party does not get overrun. The beast was wearing him down, quick.
Drokh went down in one of the exchanges. Amari and Dalkanarion were consistent in their efforts. Large bull-headed men fought with ferocity. He swung his great-axe with awesome violence, caring little for who or what he hits.
Ecteri, emboldened by the fight, also joined the fray. He was promptly cleaved in half. His business plans would never come to life.
Heinrik, the Magic-User Who Should Have Been a Fighter, leaped on the wounded bull-man, grabbed his neck with his left hand, and stabbed him in the throat—repeatedly—with the dagger in his right hand.
Beast fighting Seren backed off and disappeared into the dark caves.
“Check on Drokh...”
The monk was still alive, but battered and injured. He would require some serious bed rest.
“We must go back... That must be the way out! Maybe we took the wrong turn somewhere?”
Adventurers limped back to the crossing with flayed corpses. And then they had seen the light to their left. Shouts and grunts accompanied them.
“Hunt! Hunt! Hunt!”
Ecstatic growls and howls echoed.
“HUNT! HUNT! HUNT!”
“Screw this, go back!”
“I could smell fresh air in the cave where I found this sword.” Dalkanarion shared.
“Oh. I can take you there if you wish. Just ignore that basket full of copper pieces—it is a trap for less intelligent men.”
Amari, Dalkanarion, Drokh, Heinrik, Seren, and Tobias turned around, went straight, right into the junction, straight, then right, ignored the basket to the left and went right, then left through narrow opening and into the dead end cave with fresh air.
“Hunt! Hunt! Hunt!” echoed from all directions. Growling and howling was without break. Bull roars could be heard intermittently.
“Spread out! Look for secret entrances and passageways!”
⁂
Ambros was deep in prayer.
Tikatu fiddled and fidgeted.
Decarili sat in silence.
Morning and noon passed, and Tobias and his team had not returned yet.
The trio waited patiently, hidden in the crevice an hour or so away from the Wyverns' Crag and Bull God's lair.
It was evening in a sunny, hot Altanis. The sky was clear. Sun was beating down mercilessly, showing no signs of abating any time soon.
All three men looked up simultaneously.
Decarili squinted.
Sky rapidly transformed from pinkish into bright orange.
Sun raced across the sky—as if it had been ridding a chariot of stars—until it was almost directly above the hills.
Then it became larger and larger and large until it was a blinding fireball covering all of the sky, forcing the men to cover their eyes.
It vomited a great beam of pure fire, blasting straight on top of the Wyverns' Crag.
Ghinarian hills shook violently as the sun blasted the rock.
Beam slid south-wards.
⁂
Heran was warm, content.
He was bodyless; immaterial.
Umannah had seen him; Umannah had heard him.
The burning eye gazed into his very existence.
This was Heran's final test; his final chance to prove the weight of his soul.
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