Vashe and his menagerie

Log 01 - CALI 3-3: "Agony of Almraiven"

CALI 3-3: "Agony of Almraiven"

To be a hero... that’s my goal. I have big shoes to fill... dad... grandpa... I am descended from great heroes on both sides of my lineage. None are as great as my father, who not only gave his life, but gave his soul to stop the tyranny of an evil god, Kentako.
From a young age, I have had companions to help me in my destiny. I have travelled with my sister Panne’, my best friend, Ai, my wolf companion, Hero, my blink dog Cain, and my giant ant mount, Leoric. I also have travelled with some others, one of great renown was known as ANGON. An anicent golem with a human soul inside.
These have been my friends, but for now I go travelling only with my beast menagirie.

My current travels and training have brought me to the deserts of Calimshan. For the second time. I did not record my first journey, but it involved finding news of a magic cloak for a gentleman named Alah-Amar, whose goal was to end slavery in the desert region.

Alah-Amar had called upon me again. I was at an inn when approached by a messenger. As soon as I read the letter I knew I had to help. Ending slavery would be a great accomplishment and make me worthy of being called a hero.

I arrived at the Thirsty Camel tavern, and Mamoon brought myself and the others food, figs and such, and some drink. I declined the ale, but asked for water. A much more precious drink in the desert. Plus Hero and Cain couldn’t drink ale. Leoric was under the table, and I snuck water to him, as well.

Mamoon told us shortly after our refreshments that we were requested downstairs. I took my creatures with me, and I once again met up with Trayvar the Paladin, and Dewdrop the Pixie. I rememberd them from another journey. While they had their moments, they were good allies. The newcomers were Kray, a dirty female half-orc, and a Genasi named Brazen Fire-Leaprer. He was taller than me... maybe 6’2 with red skin and black tattoos on his face. Genasi in this region were feared... they had a lot to do with slavery... but this on seemed decent enough.
There was also a tree person... strange enough... in the desert.

Mamoon gave us the actual cloak of legend, and told we were to finish one last task in Almraven. With the task completed we would end slavery in all of Calimshan with Alah-Amar’s plan. The Genasi and the Efreet would be at war with each other, both enemies, we would not feel loss in the battle.

After being shown a map of the quickest way to Almraven we were told to ignore the easiest paths. The Crimson Guard would be patrolling them, and to be discovered by them would be bad. It would be impossible to teleport the cloak any closer... because of its innate magical properties it was unable to be ported even a short distance. Brazen was then given a fake cloak. Kray got the idea to fashion as all fake cloaks... so we could all easily be the target, but less likely to be the right one.

Mamoon, the Tiefling Emissary unlocked a mechanism on the far wall, and it led us on a path thirty minutes undeground. We were led to a cavern with six horses. Palaminos, someof the best. Spotted in color, they were beautiful.

Trayvar summoned his celestial warhorse, and I had Leoric.And Dewdrop had... well she had her blink dog, Cyborgy... strange name. We rode of into the desert from Memnom. Not long after departing we spotted three pinpricks of light in the distance. Realizing they were Efreet of colossal size we sped up and rode into the night. When we finally rested we found the Efreets never stopped coming. So then we travelled for a week, barely stopping for more than an hour when we absolutely had to.

Enduring the heat, and the horrible terrain we took well timed rests and were relieved when we saw a village of nomads in the distance. We deicded we would take a brief respite there. Hopefully getting new supplies. As we approached an Eladrin rode up to us on a horse. She asked us what brought us to her humble tent villae.
It was explained that we needed provisions and we were willing to barter for what we needed. I specifically looked for sweets for Leoric, of course finding water for Cain and Hero as well.
I met an older Eladrin who was mopey and seemed less able to take care of himself. He seemed very interested in Leoric and offered crushed grapes for him. Leoric was happy as an ant in the desert could be. Necter from grapes. The family of the old eladrin man were happy so they let me rest in their tent. It was nice to find shade and not to be attached to the back of an ant for a while. No offense to Leoric of course.

After a short while the horses were still not rested well and it was determined they may not make the journey to Almraven. And if they did they would not be capable of making the return trip for some time. My companions could trade them for new horses, which the Eladrin were willing to do, but the new ones were much slower and the Efreet were much more likely to catch us.

Trayvar decided the group would have to make due wth their own mounts. Leoric was tired too, but certainly could make the trip. We then warned the Eladrin of the Efreet that were coming and that they would need to pack up and flee, lest be destroyed by the godly immortals.
It took them less than fifteen minutes to pack up the entire tent village and disappear as if they had never been there to begin with.

We left the area as well, and thankfully, the Efreet continued after us and did not alter the path to track the Eladrin. That would have been a guilt to great to bear. Soon after leaving we encountered a sandstorm.There were caves just over the ridge ahead but we found a large Brass Dragon in a net, surrounded by Thri-Kreen (Insect men). They were all dressed in hide and leather armor, some wielding small throwing blases and others had large pieces of steel strapped to their forearms, creating makeshift swords. One in the back was in robes. Battle 101 taught me to always go after the magic users. We couldn’t just let the Thri-Kreen scum kill the Dragon, and the Sandstorm was coming... we had little time.

Brazen charged up on his horse, chopping into a Thri-Kreen, and killing itm beginning the assault. Dewdrop followed suit on her blinkdog, and gets smacked for doing so, but she exchanged blows equally enough. How a four inch pixie was so tough, I could never understand, although I too, am Fey.
The blade throwers threw their weapons at Dewdrop and Brazen. Brazen easily dodged, but Dew didn’t see it coming and got hit twice by blades the size of her body. Kray, the KRAY-zy half-orc (See what I did there?) ran up and got stabbed in the side but she was able to deal as much damage to the Thri-Kreen arm blader.  Rashia, the Wilden (tree person), yelled for me and Trayvar to charge. She then healed Dew as we both charged atop our mounts at the nearest Thri-Kreen threats. That was when the robed Kreen decided to get involved. He drew two sticks and blasted lightnng at me, which I fell side saddle to avoid. My hair stood up as the crackling electiricty passed over. I focused on the Thri near me and charged again, calling Hero and Cain to my side. Trayvar ran up and trampled, and killed two Thri-Kreen throwers but the Mage jumped out of the waty. Tray became the new target for the Kreen’s with throwing blades.

The sandstorm had caught us, and advanced within feet of me. Brazen moved past a Kreen ignoring it, and getting stabbed, but ordered Tray to quickly attack the robes Kreen before it could cast again. He stabbed it in one of its legs, and Dewdrop followedby charging as she always did another unfortunate Kreen. Kray, the spellsong, aka dirty orc, slashed and drew blood, staining the sand near another enemy, then roared in its face trying to scare it away but it didn’t falter.  Rashia avoids the storm and calls for us to move forward. We had to stay out of the storms reach, lest we be lost forever and have the flesh ripped from our bones. The mage zapped Dewdrop and the static discharge electrified me as well. The pain only caused me to become angrier. Trayvar lifted his sword and began glowing, trying to catch the attention of all of the enemies.

The sandstorm was on our heels as we moved forward. Brazen healed Dewdrop, who was in bad shape after being electricuted, then he called for Tray to attack the mage again. Dew ignored the order to move forward and charged the same enemy once again, trying to kill it. Kray became the target of another attack, but she dodged and yelled at Dewdrop to get out of the way of the storm. Rashia came up to me and Dew and cast a healing shamanic spell on us, then tried to heal the Dragon which we had done nothig for yet. The dragon trashed in the net with more vitality but still could not break free. I stabbed the small Kreen blocking my way and tried to cut the netting with my Longspear. It didn’t do much but untangled the Dragon a little. I moved Cain and Hero out of the way of the storm. The throwers hurled blades at everyone but me and my animals. They didnt even seemed concerned a deadly sandstorm was coming straight for us. Trayvar stopped glowing, needing to no longer draw the attention of the Kreens.

Dewdrop and Rashia were suddenly engulfed in the advancing storm. I reared around on Leoric and stared in horror, no longer able to see them. But from within Dew burst forth from the dust, Rashia still stuck. I knew I could do nothing for Rashia, so I focused on the Dragon. I grabbed the net and used the momentum of Leoric running forward to pull a good portion of the net out from under a boulder holding it down. And I once again skirted the edge of the storm.
The Kreen blade throwers finally decided to flee the storm that had nearly swalloed the dragon, their prize. Suddenly everyone but myself, and my pets were swalloed in the sand. Brazen and Kray stumbled out of the sand in the nick of time. I yelled for Cain to get near the dragon and try to have it teleport out of the net. Cain got swalloed, but I knew even if he fell, he could be summoned back from the Feywild. The dragon used the advantageous position and teleported half-way out of the netting, but was still caught. It rolled into a ball and tumbled a few feet from the storm. Then it was able to teleport again and flee. We all fled down the ridge and into the caves to avoid the storm, brass dragon at out side.

The young Brass Dragon talked about a sphinx it got into a spat with about a riddle. And although it defeated the Sphinx, when he woke up he found himself in a net thrown over him by the Thri-Kreen desert bandits. We asked the Dragon to come with us to Almraven. Never a bad idea to have a Dragon on your side.

As we exited the caves after the storm passed we saw the pinpricks of light had became quite large. The Efreet were not slowed by the storm at all. We continued on quickly and before we went far we found an oasis with a bright blue pond. It looked so refreshing, but it was obviously some sort of illusion or mirage. We saw a respite from the sun... a HUGE tunnel in the sand. 35ft in diameter. It was the tunnel of a great sandworm. We could travel through it, in the shade and possibly throw off the Efreets but if we ran into the worm, we would certainly be devoured. We had to pick out poison, so we decided the tunnel to be the best bet.

Using our knowledge of caves, sand and worms we travelled into the cavern, dragon still with us. Kray stayed back and foolishly collpased the exit of the tunnel, nearly caving it in on all of us.
It took us a couple days to travel through the Sand Worm tunnel and we finally exited out the other side and foudn we were still going in the right direction. But we were running low on food and water.. ½ a days left, and 2 days of travel to go. We were lucky enough to find some minor provisions; cactus water, etc. and divey them up between us.

Almraven soon came into the distance, no more than two miles away. The Dragon, whom we never learned the name of said he would wait for us for 2 days outside of the town, case anyone wanted a conversation with him about his aid against the Efreet and Genasi.

We approached the town and a man on camel rode up to us. He introduced himself as Juma-Hussein. He attempted to convince us our benefactor, Alah-Amar was responsible for the murder of his brothers. He became friends with them and then tried to escape as a slave and the punishment for attempting escape is your friend is killed and if you actually escape, two of your close friends are killed, in this case being Juma-Hussein’s brothers. He propoed that we join his cause. If Alah-Amar makes his ‘brash’ move then many will be killed and he will invoke the wrath of Memnom, the grand Efreet, himself, killing everyone.
Trayvar, bearer of the cloak swore he would not go back on his word to Alah-Amar.

We passed up Hussein and went into Almraven and a man right in the gate was selling water. Beautiful, wonderfully delicious water! We each bought some before Kray dunked her filthy head in causing the water to become undrinkable. In the center of the square up a group of armed soldiers surrounded us...
Oh boy...
Leoric and Hero were drinking from the fountain, so I reared Leoric up and told Hero to be on guard. I could see in the distance snipers were on rooftop. This was going to get ugly fast..considering citizens were all around us, unknowing of what was about to happen.

I watched Dewdrop disppear into the market stalls, hopefully going for help. Which Rashia promptly screamed for. The armed men then started using citizens as shields and began shooting crossbows at us. Cain bit at a the one with big bastard sword who ran past. I followed the bastard and ordered Hero to use his seismic strike skill, stomping the ground and knocking the guy on his rear-end. And then I called for Hero to tear into him. He ripped into the unfortunate man, a wolf of great strength... I felt sorry for him... almost. Brazen then leapt over the stall we had cornered him behind and slaightered the man on the ground with the sword before he could do much of anything. The obvious leader down I hurled my longspear at the guy on the roof 100ft feet away and pinned him there. Dewdrop killed him from out of nowhere (thats where she went to!) and my magic spear returned to my hand.

I rode Leoric into the center of a group of enemies and as Trayvar was about to be attacked I disrupted with my spear and slashed into the guy. Trayvar quickly got him to give up before I killed him.

The guards arrived a few moments later, and there was a great deal of confusion and we were about to be charged with murder when Alah-Amar’s people showed up and explained the situation. The guards let us go into their custody and we were led to Alah-Amar’s home, where a feast was prepared.  Before I could even ask who for, the less polite of the party and the animals tore into the food.

Alah-Amar himself was concerend little with that and asked if we had the cloak. Trayvar questioned him first about Juma-Hussein’s words. It was all a matter of perspective and Trayvar determined him honorable enough and in the right. So he put the cloak on Alah-Amar and it began to glow, proving that he was indeed the proper heir to the throne. If the lore was true that is...

Alah-Amar, satisfied, paid us, and told us of the war that was soon to come....