Even though we haven't fully explored the pyramid, we generally agree that we're not going to bother going back in there. A crude tunnel leads out of the treasure room, so we decide to try that instead. Ritha insists that we rest and fix our weapons before venturing out, so we spend the night. The next day, we take the tunnel. It's a bit cramped, especially for Agace, but we make it outside. Ah, outside! Where there's fresh air, trees, and things trying to kill us.

As an example of the latter, Revi hears thumping from the other side of the pyramid. She flies up to get a glimpse, and sees a statue with six arms and a passel of scimitars stomping around, looking for something. Maybe us. She tells the rest of us and we debate sneaking away. Then we hear another, faster thumping, and run for the jungle. Curious Revi goes back to investigate, and sees that now there's another walking statue attacking the other one. Both are powerful and agile, and luckily they aren't paying attention to anything but each other.

We find a game trail and start following it, hoping to be able to find the clearing where our native guides are waiting to retrieve us. However... Agace sees something in the trees. Ritha doesn't see anything until a giant cat-lizard creature starts gnawing on her. Agace tries to attack it, but it dodges (while standing on Ritha), then picks up the injured elf and starts running off. The others chase it... and are chased in turn by a whole bunch of the nasty giant creatures. Revi gets a cramp while flying ("I was startled by a tree!") and falls to the ground, where she's stepped on and then nearly eaten.

Suddenly, half of the creatures are in the trees. Really suddenly. As if they didn't go there of their own volition. And the other half are sunk into the ground like it's quicksand, which it isn't. Our heroes are surrounded by t'skrang with big, big spears. Seems the monsters ran into some rope traps, and one of the t'skrang has magical powers that took care of the rest. We're saved!

Except the t'skrang insist we hand over our weapons and packs (and all that lovely shiny gold), and they put Revi into a small cage. Okay, not saved.

They march us through the jungle for a few days. Agace and Sine catch some jungle flu. Eventually we reach a city where we're washed, given nice clothes, and taken to auction. At least we hope it's an auction and not a sacrifice.

Revi is put into another cage with a second windling, except this one is frozen in a block of ice. So, no witty conversation.

We are all sold, as a group, to a human with idiosyncratic taste in clothes. Who is also remarkably smelly. You guessed it: we finally found Azlos! Turns out he's a remarkably nice guy, surprisingly articulate for a barbarian. He even buys us all our stuff back. Except for the gold and jewels, of course. Actually, when we mention the fact that we used to be carting around almost three hundred pounds of treasure, he immediately starts thinking of ways to ambush those t'skrang and get it back. Well, after his eyes have stopped bugging out.

The new windling gets magically defrosted, and says, "Hi, I'm Raithen! Are you hostile?" The last thing she remembers is travelling to a temple with a group of her adventurer friends, and suddenly being hit with cold. Just to make sure she's not Horror-marked, Azlos asks her to do something artistic, and because she's got other things on her mind (like multiple grievous internal injuries), she totally fails. So we don't let her out of the cage.

Azlos is seriously impressed when he hears about Revi's accomplishment, getting through the maze and binding herself to the Greater Pattern of Chaos. No idea what it means, he just thinks it sounds awesome. He actually mastered the other maze, the Pattern of Worlds, and tells us that we're not actually in Barsaive anymore, but in a Spirit Realm.

We also tell Azlos about the green-eyed Theran jerk we met on the boring island. He doesn't like the idea of Therans knowing where he is; they tend to take over spirit realms. So, Therans? Pretty much a universal thumbs down.

In order to get us our treasure back, Azlos comes up with an idea for an ambush. Since Sine is still sick, she can't come along, which works remarkably well as a way to deal with a character whose player can't show up this week. We hide by the jungle trail until the t'skrang come into sight. Agace runs for the treasure, Ritha and Revi head for the spellcaster, and Azlos takes care of everyone else with his very distracting Three Stooges fighting style. The spellcaster starts casting a spell to turn the tide of battle, but double botches it, so manages to sink himself into the ground. And Ritha kicks him in the head, because she's been told to distract the guy, and gosh darn it she's gonna be distracting. Once Agace has got the treasure, Azlos shouts, and everyone covers their eyes. One flare bomb later, all the t'skrang are blinded, and we get away with the treasure scot free. "That was really easy," says Azlos, completely unnecessarily.

There's not as much loot left as we hoped; apparently these t'skrang already used up most of it to pay off gambling debts or something. And once we repay Azlos (we were actually quite expensive), there's only about ten pounds of gold and a necklace left for each of us. Still, ten pounds of gold. Not too shabby.

Azlos offers to take us back to Barsaive, because he can see we really, really need the help. Raithen finally manages to produce something artistic enough, so we let her out of the cage. We heal, hunt, and gather food for a few days, then set off. Eventually we reach a huge fortified city with all kinds of things for sale, fancy magical weapons, potions, food, and many street performers. This gives Raithen the idea of doing some performing herself (well, this and the fact that she seriously needs cash). Her aerial dance gets her quite a few coins, and she wonders, "Am I wearing panties under this outfit? Is that why I did so well?"

After leaving the city, it's our turn to be ambushed. A group of people with bows pop out from the underbrush, and they shout back and forth with Azlos. Seems they're bandits, and Azlos isn't going to stand for that. So he runs up to them, kicks one in the crotch, and beheads him. This man has style.

Back to the index page

© Megan Jones 2008. This story wouldn't be possible if not for my endlessly entertaining friends, and the Earthdawn RPG originally by FASA.