These posts are from our DnD group's latest game. The current adventure is a return to the world of Dark Sun. In the previous seasons (the first run by me, the second run by Richard), the party were involved with hunting through Kalak's pyramid, confirming if the Sorcerer-King was truly dead, and retrieving the Orb of Dust. The group is currently in Tyr, fighting against the invading Urik army.
The group were given barely enough sleep to get by on, but with the army a mere day's march away, no one was truly resting much. As they moved out into the chaos of Tyr's streets, they were greeted by one of the guards, and ushered quickly to one of the templars in charge of defence.
"Finally!", was the gruff greeting they received when they arrived at the guardhouse. "You are needed in at least half a dozen places right now - but most pressing is the front gates!"
After last night's fiery explosion, the engineers
had tried to patch up the Caravan Gate as best they could, but it would
not yet stand against an onslaught from the Urik army. At the moment,
they were trying to put the final touches on the strengthening of the
outer layers of the gate, and complete the locking mechanism, but a
squadron of halfling headhunters was picking off the workers and tearing
down the plating before they could finish. Following Pieter, an
axe-wielding man with hair the colour of a late summer sunset, the
group was quickly led through streets packed with folk wanting to escape
the city before the siege pressing against those who had tried, and had
been turned back by the guards. Their task was to hold off these
vicious halflings so that the workers could finish the job, and retreat
inside.
That would have been easy enough, if it weren't for
the silt sharks that a few of the headhunters had tamed and brought
along. These grey, leathery beasts swam through the dirt and sand,
leaving a slippery path of quick-silt behind them, which caught Beren,
and almost trapped others. Their teeth were also most vicious, snagging
Kal'kin at one point.
Still, even with Kulo, away helping put out the
fires raging through the noble section, the team managed to keep the
halflings at bay, and sent a few sharks down to the sandy depths. The
gates were repaired, they moved back inside, and the army scouts were
locked out - for now.
They
had barely finished reporting in when another cry went up - flyers! All
had heard of the mighty Cloud Rays that floated through the skies deep
in the desert. However, none had turned them to warfare before - until
Urik managed to collect some of the young. These creatures - only about
10ft across - made great mounts for the Urik templars. These ones were
surrounded by a handful of hatchlings, dashing through the air, and
launching down at their enemies.
The
now-flying templars strafing attack wasn't the only thing to defend
against - creeping through the shadows below, thri-kreen warriors ran
towards the wall, quickly scaling them and leaping at those atop the
wall. Groups of soldiers, ex-slaves and other volunteers were spread
out along the wall, attacking the Cloud Rays as they drew close, and
trying to fight back the thri-kreen. For a moment, Pieter pondered
leaping atop one of the flying beasts, and the glory of riding the
creature as it crashed to the ground sent shivers down his back.
But
glory was not his for the taking. Instead, he played it safe, and lived
on as just another faceless grunt in the war effort. Still, once the
walls were safe from invaders, he followed Kal'kin outside, and chased
down the war machines being set up outside.
Kal'kin
had always been fast, but now he seemed almost able to outrun a shot
from one of the defiling-empowered trebuchets, as he charged at the
machine, its crew and their guards single-handed. One of the crew fell,
and another was wounded, before the three half-giants turned and
crushed the speedy insect into the ground. Turning to face Kuoroar! and
Beren, they presented a solid wall of muscle and flesh between their
dying friend and Paelias' aid. Taking down a half-giant and reviving a
thri-kreen might not have been as climatic as surfing a cloud ray down
the side of a city's wall, but it was clear that Kal'kin appreciated
Pieter's actions all the same.
Sadly, the other teams did not fare so well. The other six trebuches
fell, but not a single other team returned to Tyr's walls. Many good
(or at least strong) folk were lost that day.
After
taking an axe to his knee, Beren limped slowly off to the medic, with
Paelias only barely supporting him. Kuoroar! and Kal'kin travelled with
Pieter, planning on returning to the temporary HQ, and debriefing
again. That was their plan - but when Kal'kin spotted figures running
through the streets, dashing from shadow to shadow, they had to make a
detour.
The
figures were clearly travelling magically - their forms were bulky
enough that only fell means could hide the sound of their running.
Kal'kin tried to move ahead of them, scouting around to get a better
look, but instead positioned himself directly in the group's running
path, and within moments, found himself surrounded by sturdy dray -
bulky reptilian soldiers created by the sorcerer-king Dregoth. As they
fought, and died...and stood back up to fight again, Kuoroar! and
Kal'kin recognised their abilities from another such fight. Beneath the
pyramid, the ziggurat in the centre of Tyr, they had fought such
creatures. They had dissolved into dust, reforming moments later. They
had taken lethal blows and fought on despite them. They were, in fact,
undead.
As
they killed, rekilled, and killed them again, one phrase was spoken by
the drey. One phrase that, at first, was hidden behind the thickness of
their accent. This phrase seemed to be an urging, a plea, a request,
despite their attacks. And by the time the six drey had been defeated, a
single word had been understood. That word was a name: Thakok-An. The
name of the woman who had stolen the Orb of Dust from beneath their
noses.
