Rashemen - RP Thread

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Gesed opened his eyes. "Yes, Claw. I do remember you!" He thrust the two daggers up, one into each of Claw's forearms, and heard a satisfying sizzling sound. As Claw screamed, Sepp thrust his white hot sword into Claw's back. He could feel the Fire-Ones go crazy as they turned the inside of the man's lung into a bomb. Red steam erupted from Claw's mouth, nose, and ears.

 

Gods be cursed! Couldn't Claw do anything right without him constantly there to watch every move? Now Midnight Death would be furious that he had let Claw get killed. As if he could do anything about it. Shank quickly moved into the room and grabbed the standing halfling's hair. Pulling back on his head he went in for the perfect ear to ear throat slit.

 

Sepp tucked his chin to his shoulder. He felt the dagger bite into his forehead, and a large part of his scalp get sliced off like a tuber peel. Before he started to feel the pain, he swung his axe into the mans bicep. Again there was a satisfying sizzle. Shank dropped his dagger, shook the axe out of his arm, then took a flying leap out the open window. Sepp could have sworn that he saw the man dissappear into the smoky air before blood flowing into his eyes blinded him.

Gesed quickly wrapped his blanket around Sepp's head.

 

Jex waded through the undead. He was bleeding from minor wounds a few cuts and scrapes. But he was enjoying himself. He had stuck close to the tavern, not wanting to allow the undead to get into the safehold. He watched in awe as Attins army of rats and dogs tore into the ranks of the undead.

 

"Hey, that one was mine!" Del yelled as the Fellow whose head she was about to crush with her bow suddenly fell to a large furred form. "Now I have to find another one."

Spying a Rashemenian struggling alone against one of the monstrosities, she started off towards him. "Worry not, good sir, help is on the way!"

 

Black had a zombie's arm in his mouth, and a large goatherd dog had the other arm in its mouth. They started shaking and both arms tore off.

 

Horvath's axe split open the head of the last remaining enemy, a Yuan-Ti that had been missing an arm at the beginning of this battle. As its body dropped to the ground, Horvath looked around the street in front of the tavern. It was littered with bodies. The two huts had settled in to a nice burning fire, but there was little danger that they would spread. He coughed twice, getting the last of the bitter green smoke out of his lungs.

"Alright, let's see what price the reaper took this time. Caleg, go get your mother and have her bring her healing kit. Tell her to set up in the tavern. Anyone wounded get into the tavern. Balashz and Yushen, you help any wounded who can't walk get into the cavern."

He took a look at the bodies of the first wave of enemies. They were fresh, probably less than a day old. He called over to a fisher friend, "Hey Iand, what do you think, would these fresh ones make good bait?"

Iand replied, "Yeah, that's just what I was thinking."

"Okay," Horvath said, "You and Gorv start chopping them up. Branheth and Shorty, you drag anyone recognizable, like poor Hepnek there, back down to the burial grounds."

He looked around and spotted the druid, "Hey, Forestboy! Can you get these dogs and rats to take all the rotten corpses and skeletons that we're not going to use as bait down to the river's edge and dispose of them there? Thanks."

Next he saw the drow with the scimitars and the black woman with the bow. "Hey, you two. Thanks. We'd probably have a lot more dead fishermen without you." He winked at the woman, "And I think I owe you my life. You smashed that one with the axe just at the right time. You'll have to let me pay you back later. Could the two of you check the rest of the village to make sure there are no other nasty surprises waiting for us? Thanks."

Shorty came up to Horvath dragging a snake robed human. "Hey Horvath, isn't this Ivorshag's youngest son, the one that dissappeared last fall? What do you think, should we bury him with his dad, or use him for bait?"

Horvath thought for a moment, "Ah, let's put him next to his dad, he wasn't such a bad kid."

He spied the barkeeper going back into the tavern. "Hey, Sort! Bring a couple kegs of ale out here. All this work is making us thirsty!"

 

Sepp walked out of the tavern with half a bloody blanket wrapped around his head. He called out to the crowd, "Excuse me people. Could you please look for a piece of my scalp while you're cleaning up? We couldn't find it in the room, so the man in black must have had it when he jumped out the window. It would make it a lot easier for me to heal if I could find it and put it back on my head. Thank you all."

He started looking around the ground underneath the window.

 

Unhurriedly restringing her elven bow, Del winked back. "Aye, I'll go scout the perimeter, but I expect an ale to be awaiting me when I return." She then disappeared into the night without a trace, her wry smile the last thing to vanish.

 

Nakia sat down tiredly in a quiet shadowed spot. She pulled out a drink and honey cakes and relaxed. Those undead had come seeking them but villagers had been killed. They should leave as soon as possible but she was now dirty again and tired with various cuts and bruises.

Getting up she went into the tavern and upstairs to the room with Gesed. The room was bloody and there was a body of one of the snake people. Gesed told her what had happened.

Managing to get a tavern worker to help she got the body downstairs and outside. Returning upstairs she got a rag and cleaned up the blood as best she could. Sepp was out looking for the piece of scalp he had lost. Maybe she should help him but she felt so tired. She just needed to rest a little so she sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall.

"Just close me eyes and rest a bit."

 

Sepp gave up looking for his piece of scalp after thoroughly searching the square. He went into the tavern and helped Caleg's mother, Harahel, care for the wounded.

 

Atten stared increduously at the brash townsman. After all he had just done, they still did not consider the animals to be beasts who could be ordered around. Atten still could not understand why the townspeople could be so disconnected from nature. Atten resolved to leave the town again as soon as he could.

"I have no control over these animals. I cannot tell them what to do. They did what they did to protect their homes, and even out of loyalty to some of you."

Atten shook his head and returned to the tavern to find out what was going on.

 

Jex silently nodded to Horvath and with a parting look at Del he broke in the other direction. Quickly becoming nothing more than a shadow.

 

Horvath looked questioningly at the druid, "Well what good are having beasts around if you can't control them? Well, thanks anyway, they did give us a hand in the battle. Hey, Shorty, go get your dad's wagon so we can put these rotten corpses in it and take them back to the burial grounds." He went and got himself a large mug of ale from Sort. He sat down on the ground and drank it in one shot. "I wish the priestess hadn't disappeared like she did, how are we supposed to know what to do now? The dead rise from the ground. Those fellowship bastards attack us. Next thing you know, the fish will stop biting."

 

Atten wandered back into the tavern which was a chaotic mess of wounded and frightened townspeople. Atten stopped to provide some discreet healing to a few of them but quickly moved on if anyone saw what he was doing. He needed to find the others to see when they would be able to resume the hunt for the Heart of the Earth.

 

Del came back from her scouting trip just about the same time that Jex came out of the night with Maron, the winged elf they had last seen at the first battle with the Fellowship of the Serpent. They all exchanged glances with Sepp and Atten, who had pretty much finished up tending to the wounded, and soon the whole group met back in the upstairs room. They found Nakia sleeping on a blanket, with Gesed and Black watching over her. There were still some blood stains on the floor and a faint smell of burnt flesh in the room, but it was mostly cleaned up.

Maron said, "I suppose I'll start. I owe you an explanation. When Viper's Fang opened up his magic portal, the power of it caused me to slowly pass out. I could tell I was going to quickly faint because of a horrible pain in my temples, and not knowing how the battle was going to turn out, I didn't want to be unconscious in the middle of it, so I flew off to a high tree. I just recently woke up, and made my way to the village, which I could clearly see from the burning houses. That's when I found Jex."

Jex said, "I didn't find any other enemies, but I did find Maron. I'm glad she's alright. I was wondering what had become of her."

"Well, I didn't find any enemies either," Del said, "but I found where some went. I found five tracks, leading out of the village in different directions, but they all circled around and met up at the river south west of the village. There were signs that they put a boat into the water there. I'm afraid I can't track them on the water. They could be anywhere, straight out into the lake, up the north shore, down the south, or even back up the river. There's no way to know for sure."

"What I want to know," Sepp said, "Is why those snake people didn't stay dead. We killed most of them yesterday, shouldn't once be enough?"

"Yeah, I was wondering about that too," Gesed added.

"What we need to do now," Black projected, "Is figure out what our next move should be. I know Atten wants to go get the Earth's Heart, and I would like to too, especially if it could turn me back into myself. But maybe we should try to finish off these cultists first. What do you all think?"

 

Del was the first to rise to Black's challenge. "The cultists must all perish! The Heart will wait; it's not going anywhere."

 

Nakia shook her head. "If that Earth's Heart has power those creatures will keep looking for it and may find it. They must have a cleric with them since they were able to raise the dead and we know they have mages. If the Heart is returned to where ever it belongs that may weaken them."

Turning to look at Gesed she continues, "I don't think Gesed is safe here. Maybe that temple will take him in and tend him. Sepp and I still have some gold to pay for his care."

 

"If the Heart of the Earth is not restored, the imbalance in the forces will only continue to get worse. You have already seen for yourselves how the imbalance between life and death is being manipulated for evil purposes. That is only the beginning......"

 

"Perhaps we can do both. The Fellowship is searching for the Heart of the Earth. And if we found it before them, it would make our battle against them that much easier." Jex said quietly as he stared out of the window. "I mean why not kill to birds with one stone, or in our case, kill two snakes with one stone."