Epic - Saving my People

Hunters Turned Hunted

I called Grelt close and set about trying to convince him of the danger I knew we faced ahead. In the end he agreed to my plan to set an ambush for the ambushers on the basis that if there was a foe then I was right, and if not then I was mad! We made our way up to slope with a little difficulty and then tracking along the contours until we reached a position above the ambush site that I remembered. We stopped and dismounted, as I wanted to observe and not be seen until I knew that the foe was in place. Thankfully I was proven not to be mad, as the Kharash arrived and began to set up the ambush. I pulled back out of sight and gathered our small force, ordering a charge into the foe and to maintain the pressure so that they could not regroup and organise a defence as they had the advantage of numbers.

They were taken by surprise and scattered as we bore quickly down on them, one falling to his death as my halberd lifted him from the rocks. We gave chase and I was grateful to see Fulgar calling to me as we crested a spur on the mountain side. Grelt looked ashen-faced at the sight of the wolf-man closing with us, and I yelled that Fulgar was a friend and to leave him alone. Fulgar asked if we were attacking or fleeing, and I urged him to join us in harrying the foe before they realised how few we were. At that he charged into them and literally ripped one apart! I later learned that Fulgar had spoken to his father about the threat and had been heeded; he had directed them to the sacred valley and they were amassing their pack, but had warned them to stay away from the Githyanki due to the power of their minds and their ability to strike down warriors without fighting. They were gathered on the side of the valley, seeing that the people had not yet been attacked, and Fulgar had come looking for me.

I continued my charge to aid Fulgar, and between us two more of the foe fell dead. I rode into the rear of them, disrupting their line, but urged Grelt to go back and get the runestone and the tiger to the safety of the city. Fulgar was slashed by one of the Kharash weapons, but he swiped at the attacker with his claws and another body rolled down the slope as he moved on to the next prey. One of the monks was killed, and I was stabbed as I tried to get back to support them but kept myself in the saddle. Fulgar took another hit, but thankfully we were about to be reinforced.

Garuk had arrived with the warband he had spoken of, effectively outflanking the foe and leaving them vulnerable. Their leader, Mardhan, conjured magic missiles that struck Fulgar's attacker, killing him. Garuk had spoken to Mardhan about the real reason for their mission, that he was to be captured in order to understand the Githyanki intent and that the rest of them were expendable. Now that he had the knowledge from our adventures there was no reason for lives to be lost and he convinced them that they should head to the valley if they wanted to thwart the Githyanki plans. We were glad of that as they were just in time to stop the Kharash from mounting an effective defence.

Garuk's people, the Githzerai, engaged from the rear; more magic missiles streaked from Mardhan into one of my attackers, and Garuk himself cut a foe in half from top to bottom. Fulgar disembowled another and hungrily ate what I guess he considered to be particularly tasty organs, blood splattering all over him. He then lifted the heart from the body and held it aloft shouting "Shang-Ti in your honour we kill those that don't follow the way" dropping it into his jaws. Grelt and the monks finished off the lone Kharash in their way and started to withdraw as I had directed.

Garuk killed another as Mardhan shouted to the remaining Kharash to surrender or die. Thankfully they saw sense and threw down their weapons and sank to their knees. Fulgar warned that a warband was moving towards the valley, and I told him to go and be with his pack, saying that we would follow as quickly as we could. He changed into his wolf form and loped off. We could see about a score of Kharash riding down the valley looking to slaughter the people there, but Mardhan offered to help me stop them. I took him on horseback to the valley floor and he dismounted to throw a fireball that exploded within the enemy troops. I turned away at the intense flash and a wave of heat washed over me; when I looked back there were only four of the riders left alive and they were not really a threat. I took Mardhan back up the slope to where he wanted to rally his people.

We saw another warband further down the valley, so I dropped him off and spurred my horse to charge at them. Mardhan conjured strands of thick web across the rocks around them and trapped four within them. I continued my charge beyond that, skewering one of the foe and charging past. I shouted, hoping it would serve as a warning to the citizens below (more were still arriving unaware of the danger): "beware the Kharash are here; for Shang-Ti"!

Garuk restored his mind using a scroll, wary that Githyanki might attack at any moment. I was hit with an arrow as the Kharash started to respond - these were better organised than the last band we surprised. I wheeled around and killed another foe but this time a bardiche caught my armour and unhorsed me. Thankfully it was that moment that the Hengeyokai pack joined the fight and Fulgar made the first kill, eager to lead the attack. I got to my feet and leapt into the saddle again, riding up and down shouting "Shang-Ti protects! The Kharash cowards would attack the innocent, defeat them!", and struck one with my halberd and followed up to kill him as Garuk arrived and felled another.

I was joined by Fulgar and between our blows another Kharash fell quickly, and Fulgar pushed into them, ripping the throat of another open. Garuk killed one too, and the Githzerai were doing damage to the Kharash although they still held. I rode around and thrust my halberd into another, estimating that they were about halved in number. Fulgar was in amongst them now, ripping one apart from behind as his pack fell upon them from the front. The ones left alive threw down their weapons in terror and surrendered, trying to avoid being eaten. I knew the Hengeyokai had honour, but the Kharash might not so when the pack started feeding gruesomely on the fallen some of them soiled themselves.

Turning away from the slightly disturbing scene, I looked across valley and saw both Kharash and Githyanki riding down from the far ridge into my people. I had to do something! Garuk said that he would come with me, so we set off with Garuk holding on desperately. There were some figures left up on the ridge, so I headed for them thinking perhaps they were leaders of some kind. The riders between us intercepted me so I stuck one with my halberd and drove through. Thankfully his own weapon glanced off my armour. Fulgar stayed on the ridge, fearing for his unprotected mind as well as his pack. I charged past their main force and spurred the horse on towards the couple at the back. There were people being slaughtered but there was nothing I could do with just the two of us, all I could hope was that attacking the leaders might draw some off.

I speared what I hoped was the enemy leader with my halberd and he was lifted off his horse and fell dead to the ground. He had braced, though, and I took a solid hit in return. I reined my horse in, hoping that Garuk would dismount to fight the other figure, as it was clear now that he was Githzerai. There was no point, though, as the honourless coward was riding away! Garuk's people were moving carefully into the valley using their minds to attack the Kharash at range, but were wary of being ridden down if they got too close.

I gave chase to the Githyanki and caught up enough to strike with my halberd. Realising he could not escape he turned but aimed his attacks at Garuk rather than me. A mental battle went on between them, and I think he had tried to strike at me in some way but it hadn't worked. He rode off again, with us on his heels, until he reached the sacred caves farther up the valley. He quickly dismounted and rushed into the central cave... perhaps this was another means of traveling between worlds? There was certainly no sight of him and we got a dangerous sense of foreboding if we approached. We could retrieve a fire mouse offering from another cave, but we did not understand how to honour Shang-Ti properly there so we were forced to leave and return to the fight down the valley.

We passed the bodies of innocents slaughtered by the cowardly attack, and struck out to the north in an attempt to head off the attackers before they reached the nobles and priests that would be farther back. We could not face them in open battle with just the two of us, injured as we were. I rode hard and reached the first nobles with troops a mile or so from the valley. I spoke quickly with those that I knew to pass the warning back and managed to muster some defenders, about a dozen of them. We would charge the foe to slow them down and give people a chance to get to safety.

We charged valiantly, head on, and I held my attack to aim at one towards the rear, a magic user by the chanting he was doing. I killed him with the first charge, but it was just too late as a dreaded fireball exploded in amongst the troops behind me. Five fell, along with a couple of foe, and many more were hurt. Garuk was among them, and was severely wounded. We killed a few more, but we needed to get Garuk and the unseated riders out of there quickly. I managed to get Garuk onto my horse, and another brave rider picked up another, but we were so badly damaged that we had to withdraw, less than half of us now. We rode hard away and I sent the others straight back along the rode as I veered off into the mountains to try and split the enemy and draw them away.

A group of Kharash followed with one of the Githyanki. We carried on, drawing them out of sight of the road, then after dropping over a fold in the land I stopped, let Garuk get off, and turned to attack. I charged back and struck one of the riders, carrying on through and headed towards the Githyanki. He ignored me, though, pushing forward and looking for Garuk. Garuk conjured caltrops around himself as a defence against the riders, but the Githyanki was able to reach him anyway. Garuk pulled out a scroll to read and a thunderclap echoed around the mountains as a wave of force pushed out from Garuk in a circle. The Githyanki's horse was killed and its rider badly hurt.

We both suffered strikes from the Kharash, so I wheeled around and finished off my attacker before pulling up on the high ground. It looked like Garuk was trying to strangle the Githyanki, but if he was he was not doing it well as the foe squirmed free. The Kharash were trying to attack Garuk, but were having difficulty and he seemed to be holding his own for the moment. As they turned to ride at him again I charged forward, meeting one and killing him with my halberd connecting solidly as we passed. My horse was in pain, though, and now I realised why the Kharash had been struggling - seeing the caltrops for the first time. The Githyanki had got to his feet but as he tried to back off he stepped on a caltrop and fell, another caltrop pierced his eye and he was dead.

I wheeled and charged again, clashing hard with another Kharash rider. He was unseated, falling awkwardly and breaking his back on the rocks. I rocked back and felt a searing pain as his weapon punched through, but was able to keep myself in the saddle. One of the other riders lost his horse to the caltrops and ended up prone on the floor, and the last rider thought better of continuing the fight and rode away hard. I dismounted and ran to aid Garuk, killing the last foe as he was finding his feet, but I was also damaged by the caltrops and badly hurt with multiple wounds. I stopped moving to avoid any further damage.

Garuk helped me out, knowing where to walk safely, but not before he searched the Githyanki and found a book of spells. There was jewellery too, which he offered to me, but I was not really interested. My main concern was to get out of the death trap here, bind my wounds, and help my people.

Messenger of Shang-Ti

While we were engaged in this fight, Fulgar had moved to investigate the holy caves but was confronted by a serpent of the air appearing out of nowhere. He dropped to his knees, pledging service to Shang-Ti, as this was a messenger from Shang-Ti himself. Fulgar was told that Shang-Ti wished him to hunt those that corrupted the holy place and seek the device they held that could join the path to this place. Not only must he realign the paths in this place, though, but all eleven other temples! He was also told that someone he traveled with could make use of the device, which confused him for a moment, but the messenger meant Garuk... perhaps it was linked to his people in some way?

Suddenly the serpent issued an urgent warning; there were non-living creatures approaching! The "door" had been left open, he said, and then before disappearing: "they come quickly"! Fulgar turned to escape as a misshapen twisted human form emerged from the central cave with two other non-living following behind. Fulgar made it almost to the river below the slope when he saw Kharash to his left on horseback. They moved to avoid the foul creatures behind him, though, and he crossed over the river safely before starting to climb the other side.

The things were relentless, though, and his muscles burned with the climb. Eventually they closed on him and he took damage from one's claws. He punched back hard, smashing a weird boney creature into bits. In the end it was a one-sided fight and Fulgar made short work of them, but he was worried about his wound as it seemed like it was starting to fester. He headed north to look for us, eventually spotting us crossing a valley ahead of him as we tried to make our way back towards the road to see if we could help my people further... and perhaps seek aid from them for our wounds.

He called out as he closed with us, and we were glad to see him return. I dismounted and went to greet him but then noticed puss dropping from his arm which smoked evilly on the ground. I backed away quickly, saying that he seemed unwell and needed aid. Fulgar asked if there were a priest of Shang-Ti that could help, or at least a place to shelter. I said that there were plenty of both, but I was concerned that he might not make it if we could not find aid quickly. Garuk healed some of his wound with his wand, but then watched it crumble afterwards; it was not clear whether it had just exhausted its energy or whether the disease Fulgar carried had affected it.

As we paused, searching for ideas that might help, the air serpent that Fulgar had been visited by before appeared again. It was the first time we had seen it, so my first instinct was to ready a defence, but Fulgar spoke to it as if he were familiar with its form so I relaxed slightly. He told us that it was a servant of Shang-Ti, and I dropped to my knees in deference. It slowly began to unravel its coils drawing them into a loose circle around us, and then we felt strength returning and pain easing as light rose from the earth and passed over our bodies. When it had gone we found that all of our wounds were healed, and Fulgar had been cured.

I said "Shang-Ti be blessed!" in awe, echoed by the others. The serpent seemed unmoved and introduced himself as "Yang-Ti, avatar of Shang-Ti and his servant in this place". He warned that the gate in the temple (which I knew of only as the holy caves) was open but that the path was not correctly aligned. Those that would desecrate this land must be stopped, he said, and asked "will you do this"? We quickly and eagerly affirmed that we would gladly enact Shang-Ti's will, and then Yang-Ti disappeared in a wisp of air.

We were left to ponder what we had just agreed to, and how we might achieve it. Garuk sought leave to join his clan, but worried that Fulgar's vision was the true way to oppose those that would fight the Gods themselves. He had no clear path now... but Shang-Ti had offered one that made sense. We agreed to follow Shang-Ti's guidance together.

This was cut short as a massive floating ship appeared above us. I had not seen the like, even counting the floating ships we had seen before. This could have been as much as three hundred feet long, and equally tall with its masts and rigging. We dove into rocks in an attempt to hide. Garuk took off his backpack and sought out a phial which he unstoppered and a mist rose to form the shape of a tent. The ship was descending silently into the valley and we could see three riders making their way to meet it. I slapped my horse to make it ride off and ducked into the tent with the others, trusting Garuk that it would hide us in some way.

It did seem to, as after an hour we were able to emerge undetected. It was getting darker but Fulgar could smell horses north of us, and he led the way towards them. I was excited as we got closer as I realised one of the riders was Chimeg the traitor! She was with Gask and an escort. I urged an attack, eager to avenge the fallen innocents, but the others were wary and it was too dark for me to take the fight to them alone. A Githyanki appeared and something was passed from Chimeg to it, and then another (smaller) ship appeared and each party departed.

Garuk conjured the tent again, in the same way, but I was angry and frustrated and sought only to run through some martial drills in an attempt to take my mind away from the missed opportunity. Curse it! After an hour or so of training I felt a little calmer and we discussed our next steps. It was important to me to save the city, but it was also important to retrieve the runestone if we were to close the gate to death that the evil bitch Chimeg had opened in our sacred valley. Fortunately the site where we left Grelt and the tigress was on the way so we would head there first.

Our route took us back above the valley with the temple, and we could see nearly a score of undead near the cave where Fulgar had first encountered them so we gave it a wide berth. We headed towards the road instead, hoping to make better time, and encountered those of my people that were still alive trying to grieve or tend to the dead. I tried to urge them to return to the city and safety, but an armed patrol arrived and informed us that the city was under siege. I also learned that my father was dead, killed on the battlefield defending our home. Doubtless targeted on the orders of Chimeg to remove a claim to the city that might interfere with her plans. Yet another reason to see her dead.

Khat's Tale

After a couple of hours we were nearing the original ambush site and then Fulgar raised his head and warned that he had caught scent of Kharash with horses nearby. We headed up the slope towards where he suspected them to be so that they could not ambush us with a height advantage, and as we drew near we could see some of them up ahead on the snowline on foot. One seemed to be inspecting the ground, perhaps tracking... the tigress? That had been our plan and it seemed we were not the only ones to consider it. They spotted us as we had got about halfway up the slope.

Fulgar was fast, though, having pulled ahead of us easily, so he engaged the first one before they could do anything to stop him. He raked him with his claws and then struck his head so hard I think I heard his neck snap. He fell to the rocky ground, but now there were four Kharash visible and moving to engage us. The snow did slow some of them down, which enabled us to at least get to Fulgar's level and support him. Fulgar slashed another one that had stood close to the first, and I stabbed another with my halberd as he came down to meet me to Fulgar's right. Garuk joined Fulgar and used his huge sword to cleave the injured foe's head off, sending it bouncing down the snowy slope with a crimson trail behind.

Fulgar moved on and up into deeper snow, mauling the Kharash that had been trying to track before he even lifted a weapon. Garuk joined me and cut deeply into my opponent with his sword; somehow the Kharash stayed on his feet for a moment, so I ran him through to finish him off. Another opponent attacked, though, and I suffered two powerful blows that left me in some pain. Fulgar took a moment to search the tracker's body and took a small sharp knife for skinning, a crude map, and a pot of ointment. Once he was satisfied he had not missed anything he came bounding back down to join us, striking my foe from the flank. Garuk joined as well, landing a killing blow, but was just a moment too late to stop me being hit once again.

I went to a knee, praying to Huang-Ti for guidance and to forgive me weakness as Fulgar called on Shang-Ti to aid me. Many of my wounds knitted as I felt the now familiar warmth from his blessing. Just then Fulgar heard a howl, which he answered, but when he did so he noticed a low growl from close by and warned us to be ready. He headed to our right at an incredible pace and almost jumped right over Khat as she hid between rocks. She was no longer just a tigress, though, but had taken a half-human form - she was Hengeyokai! I was surprise, slightly ashamed, but also glad that Fulgar had found Khat.

The sight of Garuk caused her to snarl powerfully, but Fulgar was able to reassure her that he was "with Shang-Ti" despite looking and smelling the same as the Githyanki. She also seemed a little more relaxed when she saw me, for which I was grateful. I sank to me knees and apologised for our misunderstanding - we would have sacrificed her in our ignorance! She did not reply but turned smoothly and quickly back into her tigress form as a young wolf approached us from up the slope. The wolf was bearing a message for Fulgar to join his father, but Fulgar was rather short with him and gave him a message to take back, sending him scurrying off. He basically updated him on the situation and what we were trying to do, and why it was too important to leave at the moment.

Once the young wolf had gone, Fulgar warned us (although from the growling I guessed that Khat had said something to him) of more Kharash approaching. We moved up quickly to crest the ridge, following Khat's lead as to where we might find Grelt and hopefully the runestone. As we gained sight of the other side of the ridge we could see that the Kharash were coming from two different directions, one lower than the other. Fulgar was fast enough to reach Grelt first, though. He had been captured and badly hurt, then left near their horses. Fulgar called on Shang-Ti, healing some of his wounds, but it seemed that his left arm was useless and beyond help. As soon as Fulgar freed him he dropped on top of a pouch on the floor - I prayed to Huang-Ti that it still contained the runestone!

Fulgar encouraged Grelt to head towards me for his own safety, and he fled in our direction with a look of terror in his eyes. He was just ahead of the Kharash, who spurred their horses forward to attack but were slowed by the steep slope so they couldn't reach a full charge. Fulgar was speared, but Garuk cut down the horse so the rider was forced to fight on foot and was immediately mauled by Khat. I was struck too, but I was also able to cut down the horse; the rider landed heavily and I ran him through before he could regain his feet.

The remaining Kharash wheeled around for another attack, and again Garuk and I were able to kill a horse each. Khat bit one of the dismounted riders nastily and mauled him to death whilst pinning another to the ground. Fulgar and I moved to defend Grelt, intercepting another Kharash, whilst Garuk finished off the one that Khat had pinned. I dodged the attack against us and ran the foe through. The fight was over almost as quickly as it had begun, and Grelt sank to his knees saying "Shang-Ti be praised, there are Kharash everywhere!"

We moved back to higher ground to take stock. It was clear that Chimeg was drawing power from the gateway to death that she had opened, so we sought to find a way of closing it if possible. We did not have the mechanism, but Grelt still had our people's runestone. I convinced him to give it to Fulgar, as the most devout follower of Shang-Ti that I knew and trusted, for safekeeping. Grelt seemed glad to be rid of it given all that he had been through. The only place we knew that might be safe for Grelt and Khat was the monestary near Cron, where Khat was raised. We decided that it was the best place to rally the forces of good while we tried to restore some balance to the forces of the Gods here, and started to do what we could. We left Grelt in Khat's safe keeping to travel north first of all, and they departed at once. We also spent some time dedicating the battlegrounds we had just fought on to the Gods - both Shang-Ti and Huang-Ti. I left a pile of burning Kharash heads as an offering and a marker to warn others that they would not escape the judgement of the Gods.

After this we climbed to the top of the ridge and Fulgar howled regularly until a younger wolf approached to answer him. Fulgar asked to be taken to his pack so that he could tell them to move north and join the human forces for good. We let him go, heading towards the Kondii where we would meet him above it. He later told us that he had followed "Lightning Claw" (the young wolf) to meet "Fang" and found many of his people to have been wounded in the hard fighting across their territory. Fulgar warned them again of the danger that the Githyanki posed, but also took a moment to offer Shang-Ti's blessing and heal some of the more serious wounds. He then urged them to gather ALL of the Hengeyokai and head north to Cron to join forces against the Kharash. Despite this he had been asked to speak to the fish Hengeyokai himself as they were unwilling to heed the pack's call, so he had diverted to the source of the river we had visited in what I suppose was an alternative future. They had received his message in good faith, although they made no promises, and had given him a blue gem to call on the power of water if it was required at Kondii, knowing what faced us there.

Meanwhile Garuk and I met a couple of Githzerai on our journey, standing amongst a pile of bodies. They had fought hard, but the rest of their raiding party had fallen. We offered them aid with what healing potions we had and then they departed with the bodies of their kin, wishing that Zerthimon be with Garuk. He pledged to take the battle forward on their behalf and defeat the foe. They did leave a sword for Garuk, though, which he seemed pleased with and he immediately discarded the one he had been using up until now. We continued on to the Kondii and waited for Fulgar, who joined us once his meeting with the fish folk was concluded.

Closing the Gate to Death

We could see undead still milling around in the valley, feasting on the bodies of the dead but without any direction or purpose. After waiting for a time a small Githyanki ship appeared, a narrow ramp was extended and a few of their kind descended towards the temple cave. Fortunately Garuk and Fulgar had the means to make us fall gently so we could jump straight off the cliff and land gently right before them. I ran forward once I had solid ground under me and engaged them, landing the first hit. There was a battle of minds going on that I was unaware of, but what I certainly did notice was a fireball exploding that badly burned Fulgar, although Garuk seemed to just ignore it. Fulgar still ran forward, though, slashing the foe holding the device we knew that Chimeg had used from the visions the Gods had blessed us with.

Between my strikes and Fulgar's ferocity we were able to fell the device wielder. We paid a price for it, though, as I was hit twice and Garuk once; these foes were quick on their feet and hit with surprising strength. Suddenly the device flew out from the body at our feet towards the ship, but Fulgar seemed to be half expecting this and leapt forward, snatching it out of the air in a beautifully dexterous dive that ended in a roll that put him back on his feet! A Githyanki mage had been stood at the side of the boat and had tried to take the device by some dweomer, but now he was forced to join the fight and Fulgar struck him with his free paw. Garuk and I suffered more damage, and I redoubled my efforts to clear a path to Fulgar.

Then things took a dark turn as Garuk was compelled by some mental domination to attack Fulgar, striking a powerful blow at his exposed back! I was able to kill my attacker, at least, which left just the two Gith and one of the foe had been badly injured by Fulgar. I moved quickly and used the reach of my halberd, lunging forward and gutting the mage. Thankfully this seemed to release Garuk and he stepped back away from Fulgar. The last foe disappeared, then we caught a glimpse of him as he reappeared on the vessel just before that disappeared to leave us alone.

Fulgar snarled at Garuk and ran off, heading around and back up the valley side. I managed to catch up with him just enough to tell him that Garuk had his own mind back and was no longer a threat, which made him pause. Garuk approached gingerly, placing a healing ointment down as a peace offering. I said I would get it for him, making my way back, and found Garuk looking very ashamed at his mental weakness, as he saw it. He followed me towards Fulgar, but as I walked back up an eddy formed in the snow in front of me, and I heard a voice say "well done".

The world seemed to fade slightly and then there was a flashing image of a demon as if it were right before me, but it exploded in fire and a vacuum appeared that condensed into a blue stone. Then I realised that the stone was real as it fell into the snow and started to melt the stone around it. I picked it up carefully as it was clearly hot, but it was cooling rapidly. I showed it to Garuk... perhaps the Gods had given us a way to close the gate? At any rate a gift from the Gods was valuable and I put it away to keep it safe.

I continued up to Fulgar with Garuk where they were able to make up despite some initial wariness. We rested for a few moments, tending our wounds, and discussed the gift and how we might close the gate now that we had the device. We quite quickly realised that it would only work if we were inside the gate when we closed it! Despite this unnerving us a little we resolved to do what we must and went back to the cave together. I retrieved a golden platter and we arranged ourselves, me with the Runestone and Garuk with the device as Fulgar entered one of the side caves to retrieve a wooden dog then made an offering of it in the right cave. As he did so he actually seemed to become even more dog-like, although we would not have thought it possible before - he had become the embodiment of Shang-Ti's dog essence and now we were ready to enter the central cave.

We crossed into the central cave in a similar formation and the runestone on the platter glowed golden yellow without any heat. At once we felt a shift and stepped into a different place, a corridor of black basalt with shifting carvings glimpsed within. The corridor ended in a room with a glowing green tube that contained a wooden creature inside, about eight feet tall, which was the source of the light. The stone worked in the device, with Fulgar using Shang-Ti's healing power to activate it, but as he did so his life essence was sucked into it, as was Garuk's, and they were both weakened... at least the gate was now closed, or we thought it was anyway - we had faith! The stone crumbled after this, leaving the device intact but without power.

Both the runestone and the device were warm, having had power channeled through them, but I put it away quickly and readied my weapon. A couple of animated skeletons appeared and rushed at us, holding bucklers with flames seeming to flicker within them, and wielding swords. We tried to get past because we wanted to release the wood creature rather than fight them ourselves. Garuk was first to do so, although he was cut by a sword as he did so. I slammed my head into the other skeleton and that sent it slamming to the floor, its sword skittering away. That freed Fulgar to approach the tube. He saw runestones in walls - aspects of life and death on opposite sides. Garuk tried my approach and headbutted his attacker, but unfortunately that was enough to destroy it!

Fulgar activated the rune on the wall, again with Shang-Ti's healing energy, and the glass tube dropped. The wooden creature was free and it immediately went for the last skeleton, pushing Garuk out of the way so hard he was physically thrown off his feet and slid back into the room. It rammed its arm into the skeleton, lifting it up, and then bone exploded everywhere leaving the creature's arm aflame. As this happened the outline of a door appeared wreathed in glowing flame, although still appearing like stone in the wall near where Garuk had landed. Fulgar shouted to us that we needed to leave and headed towards it.

Fulgar paused to study the outline, as the wall was still solid. There was a little stone projecting out at the top with a tube that suggested something was meant to flow, but nothing was coming out. Garuk stepped up to join him and sent flames shooting at the device. This seemed to work as what looked like lava started to squirt and flow down, some of it catching Garuk in the initial burst. As it flowed the door physically split into two with a flare of light, and when the flow stopped the two sides swung open away from us. I parried the attack of the wooden creature to give the others a chance to get through the door now that there was a way through.

Fulgar healed Garuk's wounds with a blessing from Shang-Ti and then they stepped through. There was an archway ahead at the end of another corridor, but it was flanked by ironclad golem-like creatures that came alive at their approach and slowly clanked forward, filling the corridor. Garuk tried throwing sand at them, but funnily enough it didn't really penetrate the iron in the way that we needed in this particular elemental challenge. Garuk was punched for his efforts, and an ironclad fist can really do some damage... he was badly hurt after taking a couple of punches, so Fulgar and I stepped up to parry and protect him whilst he worked out what to do. I did manage to block one punch, but another got through and he was injured again. He turned his fist into stone, hoping that it might help.

That wasn't helping much either, so finally he ducked back into the last room and turned my Khopesh into a hard stone instead. Fulgar backed off to protect Garuk, so it was just me now! I cut into one and it instantly disappeared, which was great, but... my Khopesh disappeared as well! I backed off, using my shield to defend myself against the other one, until Garuk handed me a dagger that he had turned into stone. I stabbed into the other iron thing and thankfully that disappeared too. That was too close!

I asked Garuk when I would get my Khopesh back, but he didn't seem to have an answer. He had been badly hurt, though, and Fulgar tended to his wounds. Thankfully the wooden creature had returned to its tube when we left the room, so we had a moment to take stock. We were expecting to have to introduce metal to water next, so we each took one of the tent pegs Garuk carried in case they became useful. Fulgar and I stepped through the archway first, although I couldn't see anything as the room was pitch black. Fulgar went ahead, seeing that there was a bowl in the centre that was cooler that the room around it. Water flowed down on us from above, then suddenly a metal sheet slammed down to seal us in and separate us from Garuk. The flow of water seemed to increase as well.

Fulgar thought that we needed to introduce metal into the bowl of water, but a peg didn't do anything. He had the idea that metal shavings might better introduce themselves to the water and I offered my whetstone to help. I couldn't find it myself in the dark, but Fulgar dug around in my pack to find it. He grated away at the peg I gave him, but as he was adding it something started to rise out of the bowl, swirling the liquid as it did so, and a strange hissing sound like rain striking a window filled our ears. The things continued to grow and began to attack Fulgar; in response he invoked the name of Shang-Ti and held aloft the gift from the fish Hengeyokai, and suddenly the liquid calmed and the creature was gone. The water stopped falling on us as well, so whatever he had done we were safe for a moment.

Garuk had created a hole in the door, but he didn't use stone to do so. This was a mistake as when he tried to climb through to join us he disappeared! There was nothing we could do about that for now, so instead we started a small fire to heat the liquid with the metal filings in it. This took a little while, but at least gave me some light to see by. Looking around we could see doors in each wall, but we were looking for the law symbol in particular, finally noticing that it was on the ceiling. Anticipating that we would have to go that way we tied ourselves together with rope and scooped a bit of the liquid up in my helmet. I climbed onto Fulgar's shoulders and splashed the liquid onto the ceiling, which opened a hole that we were sucked upwards into. We only rose so far, and then the stone began to close beneath us, forcing Fulgar to lift his legs up to avoid being trapped. As soon as it closed we were dumped onto the new floor, but we had taken another step forward.

We decided to light a lantern, despite it being a risk with fire being involved, because we needed to understand the way. We were in a twenty foot square room with corridors leading away, and could feel that the air was swirling gently clockwise around us. There were carvings of vines around each passageway and runestones by them, and a cascading canopy of leaves was above us. All of this was carved in stone but looked almost as if it were real. There was an eye inside a pyramid on the floor beneath us. We worked out what to do, needed to introduce water into air we used my pots to heat some water and let the air carry the steam onto the leaves above the passageway we needed to follow.

Unfortunately when we started it triggered another guardian and this was an air elemental that attacked at once. Fulgar's blows just passed through, so I went to meet it while he kept working on the steam. It used its mastery of the air to extinguish our lantern, and then ripped my halberd out of my hands! Fulgar was able to create another fire, but I had to let it keep hitting me, unable to respond, as I edged my way around to where the halberd had fallen. Thankfully the steam finally caused a reaction in the tree, causing it to suddenly grow and shoot branches into the air creature to draw it into the tree.

That was a relief, but it was short lived as the tree kept growing and the growth started to close off the passage! Fulgar ran and slid through the gap with the lantern, branches slashing at him as he did so, and I grabbed my halberd and followed just in time. Fulgar blessed me with Shang-Ti's healing after the punishment I had taken from the elemental, but once again we had found a way to progress; I just hoped Garuk was making his own way forward. We were in a room that contained a pagoda made of ice; in the center of this was a horizontal grill about halfway up, on top of which was a stone crucible touching each of the four ice pillars of the pagoda and holding wood inside. There were iron-bound wooden chests either side of the corridor we had just entered from. The roof was domed with birds carved in relief within a blue background, like the sky. There were runestones on floor: Evil, Chaos, and Good but a Neutral runestone on the wall.

We decided to wait to see whether Garuk would find us for a few minutes... and sure enough he appeared from the opposite side of the room not long afterwards! Fulgar was initially wary of a trick, so he asked him some questions and asked him to produce some items, but was eventually convinced that it was indeed Garuk. Together we agreed how to activate the pagoda, which opened a door in the wall. We saw that it led to the Heart of the Prime, which was perfect... but there were thirteen Githyanki inside conducting a ceremony! After a moment of anguish as to whether we should intervene or not, and deciding that it would probably be suicidal, we ran quickly to the exit we had used last time. I was torn, desperately wanting to challenge them, but I had underestimated them before and I had to think of the lives of the others, so I followed.