Head hunters

25th November 5000
Not having much more to do, the company went back to its quarters. Still unsure about which side the dwarves could be with, Griselda and Mulchanor raised some questions about the safety of the boat. But some quick exchange of words with Jack left them aware of the impossibility of going further that night. They needed information but the informants were... studying. Alukel was actually studying really hard as they could hear. The captain was already finished with his own studies or, at least, was keeping it for himself. As expected the room arrangement was kept unchanged and none argued any more this day.

Another day was rising up, the night had been calm and nothing came from the other side of the river. Whatever was there, it has not come to meet them. Nor to fight them. A late breakfast left our heroes full and rested, ready for another day of search. Many questions were still unanswered and they still needed to know more about this Alukel. Why was he alive? How did he escaped? Gathering on the deck, the company decided to intervene and first ask Jack about this Alukel and how he came on boat. As per usual, Griselda started to train at the boat's bow while the rest of them went directly to Jack, who was supervising the daily routines of a second in command.

After their talk, Mulchanor took Griselda apart, she would have to be careful not to be assimilated to the "bad Telchos running wild". After his first warning, Griselda decided to follow the group and show her good will. She was thus walking alongside her companions, a big fake smile on her face. All in her appearance was showing challenge, her arms were still most of the time crossed, her back hold straight and her steps confident. Climbing the stairs, the group gathered around Jack and tried to get the confirmation of Alukel's good will and usefulness. Not much was said that they didn't previously know . Alukel was a Father of the Truth, a priest of one fanatical group. Fanatical and susceptible. The only accepted Valerion religion was to be respected and not challenged.
He came running toward the boat and informed captain Padoka of the enemies running after him and lurking in the dark. The captain dispatched Jack and some cannons to take care of the issue. They managed to kill them, attacking both sides at once. An easy killing. But a Telchos and a Knight escaped with a few remaining giaks. They took a boat and crossed the river. Returning to the safety of the airship, the captain was already studying with Alukel, and no more action were taken that day.
Not satisfied by this explanation, Erleothir took Jack apart, in hope to get more information as he provided little. He didn't manage to learn much, just enough to confirm that the captain's studies were more of an alcohol problem than science. Jack couldn't betray his captain, but a couple of winks confirmed Erleothir suspicions. As far as Alukel allegiance was concerned, it was all for the Father of the Truth. But one thing was certain, he was an enemy of the Dark Lords. Erleothir didn't add anything else when reporting to his companions after their private meeting. There was little to work on but, with Jack's blessing, they were allowed to wake up the two "scholars" in a couple of hours.

As the company entered the cabin, they were confronted with the putrid stench of alcohol, a smell so strong it would have put an Anapheg out of balance. The two mages had “studied”...
“- We said we don't want to be disturbed. Said Alukel has he woke up.
- Yes, that's what we have been told but we are in great need to talk to you. Replied Erleothir
- You don't need to yell. Erleothir wasn't yelling, the after effect of the alcohol on the mage weren't funny to watch.
- We wanted to know in detail what happened to you and how or why you came here. Explained Erleothir, talking as silently has he could.
-You! The dwarf! And he pointed to Gustavius. Bring me something to eat.”

Gustavius wasn't sure if he was mistaking him for a crew member or if he was just a racist, but one thing was certain, he was talking to him and so he left the room, shaking his head. Alukel didn't wait for his return and started his story:
- The fort's fall was caused by a simultaneous attack from the inside and the outside. A Telchos and a Knight have been allowed to enter the fort as guests. No one in the fort expected them to start breaking havoc in the fortification. They were allied to a herd of Giaks, hidden and waiting outside.

What followed was a bit harder for him to explain. He was still trying to understand it as he talked. But what would have been the talk of a drunken man for some, made sense to the team.

- The knight, when the havoc started, he disappeared and was replaced by a bear.”

With this they knew who the knight was, there was but only one person in the whole Magnamund who could be both a bear and a knight. Many holy men fell that day. When the massacre ended, they took Alukel and asked him what he knew of the artefacts. The answer was simple: nothing. He was then dragged into the forest by the invaders. But luck, or God, was on his side. As Jack explained earlier, the crew of the nameless ship had defeated all the Giaks with an ambush. The bear and the Telchos escaped and Alukel was brought to the nameless ship.
At that moment, the door opened on Gustavius, back with sandwiches. He surely took his time. Alukel continued talking as if he had not noticed the dwarf.
-Your next task will be to bring back the head of this fallen knight and of this Telchos. And beware of your one Telchos, she can't be trusted.

When Alukel mentioned his doubts regarding her allegiance, Griselda immediately saw red and gripped her weapon. If it wasn’t pointing at the priest yet, she was definitely ready to strike anytime. Her knuckles were turning white.
- What do you mean “there is a Telchos with the enemy, I see a Telchos here… and there aren’t that many Telchos out of their desert” ? Are you saying I’m a traitor and an enemy ?

Alukel was surprised by her reaction and, afraid, he loudly called the guards to arrest her. Mulchanor immediately stepped in to appease them.

- Wowowo. No fighting here. Alukel, she doesn’t mean no arm, Griselda please, calm down. Give me your weapon.

Throwing a dark glare to Alukel, Griselda handed her spear to Mulchanor and crossed her arms, the fake smile came back on her face.

- I am no traitor and you don’t know nothing about this Telchos, I will not let her die on sight, you’ll have to show me proofs first.

- I know you don’t know her as we do, no one knows her as I do and I can tell you that she can be trusted. I trust her and I give you my word, as a dwarf, that Griselda is no threat for us. I vouch for her and you, as dwarves, should respect and listen to that. Added Mulchanor, talking to the dwarves still aiming at Griselda. They slowly put their guns away and didn’t oppose the group leaving the room. As soon as they were out of the cabin, Mulchanor handed the spear to Griselda just as she was reaching out for it.

She was still upset, and so was Leo who wasn’t satisfied with the solution of killing both the Telchos and his fellow knight. Erleothir was shocked, how could kill his old friend? Would Griselda be able to kill someone from her country? While the madman was still rambling about Godly vengeance, Gustavius took one of the sandwiches with a face of perplexity towards the will of God.

-But wouldn't it be better to bring them, ask them why they attack and then kill them? Asked Alast, while trying to control the tone of his voice. He knew that he wasn't in the best position to grow the Holyman.

-No, you will kill them has I command.

It was then that Alast gave up on calming Alukel. His face had taken about the same expression has Gustavius, who was still eating the sandwich. When Alukel asked for it, Gustavius went for another one, slightly embarrassed.

-So, Gustavius? How do you fell about killing two person in the name of a god? Whispered Alast.

Gustavius shrugged, and removed some crumbs out of his beard with an impassible expression.



After little discussion, Gustavius, exceeded by Griselda’s impatience, decided to go back to Alukel with Yesnarel, to plead for further assistance. Mulchanor joined them and took the place of their Ambassador. However, he couldn't convince Alukel of providing him with a working gun for taking off the crusade. His only shot left was with Jack, a fellow dwarf, a companion, brother of arms to whom he still owed a couple of raccoons and who was frankly not interested in providing more guns to an unlucky Mulchanor. Some mariners even commented he was cursed by the gods due to his relationship with the Telchos wench.


- How can I fight properly without a gun? He started. - Use an axe my friend. - Jack! You are one of my countrymen, can't you see I need another weapon? - That, I can see. What I can't see is why I should help you again with this matter. - It's also in your interest that we came here remember that... - I am here under the orders of Captain Padoka, we came here to take you, nothing else, nothing more. - From warrior to warrior, can't you help me? Would you leave a fellow adventurer die weaponless against his enemies? - You have your axe, don't you? - I can bring much more raccoons you know... - I only need one more. - How can I get it, if I am not armed? - That's your problem. You have to pay your debts, you know? - Do not doubt Mulchanor del Shai on this matter master dwarf. I pay my due and will keep my word. You'll have your last raccoon. - Enough said Master Mulchanor. I cannot afford to gamble weapons. Bring me something to trade with, and... He paused, smiled and before Jack could say anything Mulchanor voice went colder: - Do not even mention that Master Jack. I have understood, I see your point. But do... Gustavius interrupted him, holding his fellow dwarf by his shoulder. - Leave this to me Mulchanor. I think I can make a deal. Trust me. - All right, I am out of arguments anyway, I see he won't budge. Stubborn Dwarf... Seeing that they would get any gun, and feeling bored of the discussion, Gustavius, immediately followed by Alast, leaved the room. It was the Erleothir , Griselda and Mulchanor who gave up on the discussion. Yesnarel was now alone, and Erleothir flustered behind the door “good luck”.


Gustavius was still casually chatting with Jack, holding him by the shoulder

-"Now, I don't exactly know what you want these raccoons for but... you know, the jungle is a dangerous place"
-"indeed"
Gustavius threw his head back for a moment and went on
-"I am glad you agree with me. I see we both share the same opinion, walking around in that jungle without weapons would be foolish" As Jack acknowledged he went on "so, by lending a gun to our good friend Mulchanor over there..." he underlined his words by gesticulating towards the toothless dwarf who waved back shortly and went on detailling Griselda's body "... you would raise his chance of survival and as a consequence your chance of getting your, errmmm.. 'wares' quicker and safer." Gustavius could feel Jack's stubbornnes slowly cracking and continued "as you can see, lending him a gun is in our common interest... so, what do you say?"

Jack scratched his beard pensively while a smug grin was slowly appearing on Gustavius' face "hehe got him..."
- "well, actuallyyyyyy...... NO." was Jack's reply after a short moment. /i"damn this.. it can not be true" sighed Gustavius for himself. "what am I doing here ? it's not my problem if Mulchanor gets killed down there, but as i just said it is in our all interest for him to survive. and this can only be assured with the best equipment. but why does it have to be my problem ?" he snarled slightly for himself, about to give up. Letting his eyes wander upon the deck he noticed a few dwarves playing a card game for money while another nearby was reconstructing his own rifle and suddenly an idea struck him.
- "Jack, I just have a brilliant proposal..."
- "I've heard enough brilliant things from that priest for the next two years" mumbled Jack while pointing at the reeking captain's cabin "now, impress me...."
Gustavius chuckled
- "oh, you'll love this, trust me ! and the best is: noone of us is loosing" and with those word he dragged Jack out of reach of curious ears

From the distance, Mulchanor could see his two fellows discussing in a very agitated manner, Gustavius gesticulating wildly and Jack nodding in approbation while throwing quick glances on deck around him. Soon it was clear that they had started haggling, both posing, acting offended and performing the usual acting of dwarves finally agreeing on a business. He could simply hear a loud "15%, deal !", see a piece of paper beeing exchanged and a vigorous handshake.

With a self-satisified smile Gustavius walked back to Mulchanor
-"you can rejoice mate, I got you a gun... you can rent it for hundred gold. I do know that you have no money so I'll be advancing you this sum. You'll simply have to work it off by crafting for me"
Mulchanor's face brightened with a wide smile but before he could express his thanks Gustavius went on...
-"of course you'll have to provide your own materials, but do not worry. I will not rip you off, your debt is exactly hundred gold pieces, not more, not less. Unless, of course, you destroy the gun... then you'll have to pay off the full price of this rifle to me. This would be around four hundred gold in that case."
the bright smile on Mulchanor's face faded away
- "four hundred ?!" he exclaimed
- "you know just like me that such an advanced weapon costs that much, I merely rounded it up to twenty gold 'transaction costs'. Now, don't look that way. You wanted a rifle so badly, now you have to take the responsability for it..."

less than an hour later the whole group was about to leave the skyship again, their plan was simple: crossing the river, finding the tracks of the fugitives, hunt them down and then improvise a lot...
Erleothir tunred around
-"Jack, we'll have to cross the Boari. I expect you have a small embarcation aboard, could you please provide it to us ?"
-"oh naturally, replied the first mate, we will provide you one for..." he intercepted a slight cough coming from Gustavius "... for free of course."

After our company lowered the boat, they crossed the river. To make sure that nobody would be able to escape, they hid their own boat and pushed the one of their enemies into the water, never to be seen again.
Tracks were soon found and Alast decided to climb into a tree from where he would have a clear view of their surroundings. He discovered a little filet of smoke in the distance, to his eye not more than the smoke of a pipe, but he managed to tell it was about 1 hour walk away.
After a walk through the thick branches of the jungle, the company got close to what was in fact a camp and Griselda scouted to see what the company could expect. She saw a little campfire with a Telchos Warrior and a Knight sitting nearby. Close to them, was a small tent and then, there were 3 groups of 5 Giaks each. After the rest was informed of her observations, they had to make a plan, to decide how they were going to proceed. Several tactics were discussed and rejected again, but in the end, they came out with the following – and rather daring – plan.

Griselda and Erleothir would walk into the camp, to approach the duet. Griselda would put a poisonous dart into the Telchos' neck, upon she would fall unconscious. Erleothir would use this moment of distraction to hit his fellow knight Eolfrid at the back of his head, hopefully rendering him unconscious as well. They would then drag them away from the Giaks. Meanwhile, the rest of the company would surround the camp and fight the Giaks after both the Telchos and Knight would be taken care of. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

That was the plan. Just to make sure, Yesnarel gave Erleothir a thunderstone: “Use this as a signal if things go wrong and we need to attack the camp sooner”. On those words, the rest of the group departed silently and started surrounding the camp. After Erleothir and Griselda waited long enough for them to take position, they finally dared entering the enemy camp. As they were walking towards the campfire, they saw how demoralized the Giaks and their company were. All staring into the light provided by the little campfire, they were clearly wounded and battered from a previous fight. Griselda and Erleothir grinned discreetly to each other, thinking that it would be much easier than expected.
From the bushes, the others looked at their brave comrades, but from the distance, they couldn't hear the discussion. It was only clear to them that Griselda knew the other Telchos Warrior and Erleothir sat directly next to a knight from which they could only think that it was Eolfrid.
They were waiting to see Griselda poison her friend, but a such thing wasn't happening. Then, suddenly, a disgusting scent filled the air. Erleothir knew what was coming towards them as he was smart enough to gain some information in the Kai Monastery about the Boari Jungle. Eolfrid shouted: “he is coming!” The Telchos Warrior shouted some orders in the Giak language and immediately the Giaks forgot about their pains and stood ready to defend themselves. Yesnarel understood what was said, but he was standing too far away to inform the others. Now Erleothir and Griselda were standing alone in the camp, all their enemies were prepared for battle, but they did not attack the two.
“What is going on?” asked Griselda to Erleothir, but his eyes were filled with fear of what was to come. “Come on, get a hold of yourself and you'd better do it quickly!”. Erleothir just pointed his finger towards the jungle. No creature could be seen yet, but thick branches started to snap as it came closer and closer.
Erleothir wasn’t able to say much anymore. Finally he managed to say one single word.
“Anapheg”


XP!
Yesnarel: Global playing 100xp,100xp for the plan to attack the giak camp, 100xp for being the ambassador of the team with Alukel,
Mulchanor: Global playing 100xp, 50xp for defending Griselda, 100xp for trying to get himself a gun while broke, 100xp for the plan to attack the giak camp,
Gustavius: Global playing 100xp,100xp for the plan to attack the giak camp, 100xp for dealing a gun for Mulchanor, 50xp for making a sandwich for Alukel, 50xp for eating it,
Alast: 50xp pour memorables moments adds,Global playing 90xp, 100xp for spotting and climbing when needed, 100xp for the plan to attack the giak camp, 100xp for trying to calm Alukel,
Griselda: Global playing 90xp,100xp for the plan to attack the giak camp, 100xp for the bold move to get into the camp, 150xp for blog entry and correction
Erleothir: Global playing 90xp,100xp for the plan to attack the giak camp, 50xp for the private chat with Jack, 100xp for the bold move to get into the camp, 300xp for blog entry

better late than never

22d of November 5000

Still half deaf after the detonation of Gustavius's gun Alast climbed down from the now dead body of the tiger. A discussion aroused as the battle plan were followed on a very personal note by each of them. Team work still had to be improved. Taking off the tiger from above Erleothir Mulchanor look puzzled to Alast still convinced that his backstabbing prowess was a good idea. Cleaning his swords they both tried to find something useful to betaken for the animal carcass. Once again Griselda went forward and start to walk toward the jungle.

Griselda called the others to follow "Come on! We don't have all day! We need to move." But the others were more interested in what to do with the tiger. "Can we use his teeth for some weapon smiled Alast to Gustavius?" After a trenendious usage of his brainpower he(?) replied: "We need to get rid of the body, it may attract animals. Bigger ones." In the end, the hazardous company decided to trust the expertise of the Telco and not to lose time with the dead tiger.

With a loud "splash" Erleothir and Mulchanor trown the tiger into the river. Rapidly dissapearing in a now red water. Mumbling and complaining they followed the Telchos which didn't let them get to close from them.

The company quickly resumed walking along the river. If the way was almost clear of branches and tree roots, it slowly started to get rather swampy. Still leading the group Griselda at first didn't notice her companions struggling to keep their footing and raising their knees every step a little higher. The dwarves started walking closer to the trees, Alast and Yesnarel followed their examples. So did the knight. When Griselda looked over her shoulder to check on the progress she realized she was the onyl one still easily walking in the mud. Not to waste time and take useless risks, Alast suggested climbing on a tree to check the path ahead. With his pirates skills, it was done in a no time and he proudly came back down with information.

The swamp area was stretching to the North and they would need to walk around it, going more West. Things are never easy and before the company could breath a "ok, then, let's go" they heard the dreaded "but" word. There was indeed a little problem : a column of smoke was coming from the same direction. No it didn't look like another attack ( what could be attacked in the area anyway ? As far as they knew the fort was the only sign of civilisation kilometers around ).

As usual, a animated conversation started. As usual, no leader could give a clear answer but they managed to agree on sending Griselda and Alast to scout. The company would follow them a few hundreds meters away. About 200 hundreds meters away from the source, it became clear that they shouldn't move any step closer. It was a giak camp.

Griselda motioned for Alast to go back to the group and asked him to get them to be quiet and ready to battle if it came to the worst. Left alone, she carefully crawled closer, trying to count the giaks, look at their equipment or any other element that could be proved useful.

She came back to the group, surprised to see them walking in the camp direction, contrary to the instructions left. She shut them up and lead them away, briefly explaining to Erleothir and Mulchanor the reason of this change. No one questioned her as it was clear they were not standing a chance in front of 20 giaks knowing their way around.

The walk from the camp to the ruins was about two hour long. The view was a sad one. Nothing, absolutly nothing remained from the fort, it was burnt to the ground and the soil was littered with bodies, human and giak. That was a least a little confort, they didn't go down without a good fight, taking some enemies with them.

Griselda discovered bear tracks and that led to the discussion wether to clean the Giak camp first or to follow the bear. Obviously the bear was more interesting. But having lots of Giaks running around would have imposed the danger of the Giaks falling in the back of the company. So the decision was made to clean the camp first and have the advantage of supprise on their side.

The company headed for the Giaks. But the sun was already setting and they would arrive tired and at night. The attack on the Giaks was postponed to the next day. 1 hour walking distance away from Giak camp the group prepared for the night stay.

Griseldas sharp eyes spottet a racoon. She tried to capture it alive, but the racoon hat not in mind to be captured. Eye in eye with the Telco the racoons skills outranged hers and the racoon ran away. Almost. It was Yesnarels Quarterstaff that stopped the racoon by a quick punch on the racoons head, knocking out the poor racoon. The racoon was tied legs up to Griseldas stick. Finaly after this dangerous battle the company found some sleep.

Griselda and Mulchanor had the 1st watch. A monkey misused Griseldas leg like a tree to water it with pee. Griselda pushed rudely the animal away with her spear. Lucky Monkey, he was not bitten in the ear. Other monkeys around startet to make noise. It seemed like the whole forest is awakening. More and more mokeys came and the group was alredy frightened of beeing overrun by the monkeys. The noise of the monkeys was topped by a gorillas roar. Even the strongest knights stayed silent in this situation - a wise chocie. Gustavius threw a fruit to lead the mokeys away from the group and fortunately the monkeys passed by without attacking the group.

The next morning, the Telco made up to scout the Giak camp, but when she came back, she only had to report that the Giaks were gone.

Adventure expirienced, the Hazardous Company expected it could be an ambush. The group fell back while Griselda(?) checked the surroundings for signs of an ambush, but it was all clear. Then the group inspected the camp, finding bear tracks again. Yesnarel climbed quickly a tree. He saw a column of smoke, this time nearer to the skyship than the former Giak camp.

After a short break, the group followed the bear tracks wich led them closer to their airvessel. The next Place were the Giaks camped was not far away. Again, Griselda and Alast scouted and again, she send Alast away.

"Lots of dead Giak bodies" reported Griselda thistime. They were killed by guns. Everybody joined at the former battlefield. Only dead Giaks were all around, but no corpeses of the attackers were to be seen. The way the dead bodies were lying around and the way of the bullets in the bodies prooved that the giaks were killed in an ambush by fire from two sides.

A discussion arose wether the attackers were the dwarves were "our" dwarves from the skyrider our if there is another group of dwraves around. The absence of dead attackers, which you could expect by such a large group of Giaks, proved that the ambush was done from a safe distance - like fireing from the skyship down on the Giaks. But on the other hand, the company had found evidence that the ambush was done by attacking the Giaks from two sides. Who were the Dwraves on the other side? But what sould other dwarves do right here? Many questions, no answers. At least no answers so far.

From the battlefield new tracks led away. A couple of Giaks had escaped, but the more interesting were the tracks of 2 Humans and a bear. Our troop followed the tracks for a while, but suddenly they stumbled upon a big surprise when they saw that the tracks split up. The giaks, the bear and 1 human went to the left towards the forest. The other human track went towards the skyship. “Well, that’s just great”, Alast thought. “So we either follow a little army or 1 man who is maybe powerful enough to make us bleed with a snap of his fingers.”.

In order to get a clear overview, the still pretty inexperienced Yesnarel decided to climb upon a tree. Without much trouble, he managed to get to a branch from where he could easily see his surroundings. From here he was able to see the unnamed skyship, but his attention was caught by something else. At the riverbank on the other side of the river, close to the skyship, he saw a little boat; small enough not to catch too much attention, but big enough for a little company. Yesnarel jumped down the tree carefully and informed our heroes of his discoveries.

Nobody knew exactly what this would mean. Who was on the ship? Why is it so close to the skyship, but on the other riverbank? And more important, where are they now? Soon it was decided that our heroes would go to the skyship and see if the dwarves have noticed anything unusual. “But what if the dwarves double-crossed us?”, asked Griselda. Gustavius and Mulchanor were somewhat were hurt in their proud and answered quickly that these dwarves would never dare to do that to them. However still not sure what role the dwarves played here in the Jungle, the team decided to split up. Griselda, eager to stand in the front line, went first followed by Erleothir and Mulchanor. The rest decided to wait near the trees, much to Gustavius’ dismay, because of his earlier experience.

Griselda arrived first at the boat and Jack recognized her soon after and dropped a ladder for her to climb up. When she arrived on top of the boat, she could not recognize any danger and gestured to Mulchanor and Erleothir to follow her example. The three did take a good look and even though Captain Padoka was not to be seen, he was still to be heard. In fact he was singing so loud it was clear that the atmosphere on board of the nameless ship was very good and no danger would come from them.

The ones waiting in the forest quickly joined them on board. Jack instructed them to follow him towards the captain’s office. When they arrived at the door, Captain Padoka opened the door wildly with a glass in his hand where some ale used to be in it. What happened with the ale was quite clear when the captain already prepared for another drinking song. However he was interrupted by a hand on his shoulder: “whozze friends you haved there on your shippeth?”. “Oh no, another drunk man we have to babysit.”, thought Gustavius, but before he was even able to express his thoughts, Yesnarel stepped forward and said: “Aaahhh, so nice to see a friendly face in these regions. Tell us your name, Father of the Truth and tell us your story on how you came on board”.

The rest of the company was just speechless. It appears that Yesnarel again knows with whom they had to deal with. A Father of the Truth, one of the rulers of the Theocracy of Valerion, a strongly religious nation with leanings toward fanaticism. “Ah, finally I meet the guys with the keys and safes and stuff.”, followed by a big burp was not quite the answer they expected. “How did you manage to get here unharmed?” asked Erleothir. “Ah yes, a very interesting story!”, he answered. “Provide me with a drink and I’ll tell you.”, followed by a big *clunk*.

Father of the Truth or not, he was not very susceptible to ale. He was lying on deck of the nameless skyship. Our heroes decided to have a good night sleep and try to get more information the next day. How little did they know that there was a grave danger coming towards the ship.