Editing Epic - Journey to Marûn (section)

==Trying to Learn More==

Fulgar sniffed the air and warned that there was another convoy near, but that the river should hide our scent. I suggested that the convoy was an opportunity to stow aboard the strange ship that disappears, but I got a rather strange look from Fulgar suggesting that he wasn't so sure. His way was to wait to strike on the weak and isolated, as we had before, and then seek understanding of the ways of our enemy. I saw the wisdom in this, as it had been what I was trying to do before. The convoy was passing so we had to be quiet for a while. As before there were outriders ahead, a group of warriors leading the wagons, a warrior and a driver on each wagon, warriors to the sides, but a weaker guard behind. The cages held some of my people, some elves, Hengeyokai cats, Bandalok (this is what the baboon creatures were properly called), some half-sized humanoids, and one humanoid like a nomad with their usual desert wrappings but that seemed to be something other than human.

Fulgar warned us that they were strong in spirit and could strike at our minds, so we should not challenge them directly. Although I burned with the desire to do so I had seen his people fall without wounds so I knew he spoke the truth and held myself in check, waiting for the right moment. We followed them at a distance, easily able to wait for them to move out of sight before catching and observing their progress again. This continued for a few hours, but eventually the leader halted them and threw down something onto the floor. At once the strange ship appeared as before out of nowhere. Two riders peeled away and started coming back towards Fulgar, and separately two Kharash and two Githyanki moved away in different directions.

Fulgar was noticed as they drew near, but leapt at the nearest rider and knocked him off the horse. He landed heavily and didn't move. The other one swung his halberd at Fulgar but thankfully just missed him by an inch. Garuk was busy shovelling sand into a pouch. His kind had some weird ways about them. Fulgar turned on him and threw him to the floor. Again a rock was his ally and the rider's head cracked wetly. I had to turn away as Fulgar delighted in ripping them open and eating their organs!

A separate party of two Kharash wheeled to engage us, but the Githyanki they were escorting kept going. They charged, using their horses in an attempt to run us down and then finish us off afterwards, a tactic I knew well. Garuk was ahead and I set my halberd to receive the charge just behind him. I connected solidly, lifting the rider out of his saddle and letting the momentum swing him over our heads and dump him on the ground behind me, dead. The second rider turned and aimed his lance at me, and it broke on my scavenged lame armour leaving just a few shards embedded. This was fortunate, though, as the lance breaking brought him suddenly closer and my halberd struck true again. Another one fell dead.

The strange vessel had disappeared, so it seemed we had no choice but to follow the Githyanki if we wanted any answers. We took what we could from the dead, and Garuk armed himself and took a shield despite complaining that "all the swords were tiny". Fulgar joined us, saying that he respected the fight and that we should enjoy the spoils of the kill. He seemed genuinely grateful when I suggested that he was welcome to eat. In return he offered me Shang-Ti's blessing, which I took gladly, and I was surprised to see my wounds miraculously knit and splinters of the lance were pushed out of my shoulder before my eyes!

We followed the Githyanki as best we could, keeping them in view as much as possible as the ground began to level off and open onto the great steppe. They were heading south or southwest, that much was clear, but where they were going was a mystery. After a couple of hours Fulgar said that he could see some things flying towards us and advised us to hide in the shelter of some rocks until we understood the threat, which was a sound plan. The trail should be easy to follow now they were in open country anyway. Ahead we saw the riders halt and three half-eagle half land animal creatures landed to talk with them. It was not long, though, before they took to the air and continued towards us. We hunkered down and Garuk shed his armour saying that he needed to be free of the metal for this fight. I still could not fathom his ways.

The creature at the centre of the trio called out, having seen us, and they all dived towards us. Garuk threw a handful of sand into the air that turned into a fan of colours as he shouted a word we didn't understand. The first creature entered this colourful display and its screeching call ended quickly as it piled straight into the earth, a broken mess of feathers... Garuk just managed to step aside at the last moment. One of the others grabbed me in its talons, piercing the skin, but it could not lift me as my halberd bit deeply and cleaved almost straight through it. It fell into two pieces, dragging me backwards with its momentum but then coming to a halt in a pool of gore. The last creature made a grab for Garuk but missed and then thought better of fighting and flew off out of sight.

We continued to follow the Githyanki until late afternoon. The steppe grass had started to get more arid and patchy and we saw that the ones we pursued had stopped up ahead. We cautiously approached to a point that we could observe them clearly, but I was acutely aware that night was close and that the temperature would plummet. We waited until it was just about dark, feeling the chill in the air. It was a brilliant starry night, but even then it was hard to keep sight of our prey as the light faded. We could see, though, that they moved off when night fell so we continued for as long as we could in the cold, feeling that the ground was more sandy underfoot. They were moving more slowly this time and eventually stopped to make a fire.

We stopped as well, unwilling to attack at night, and huddled together with bedrolls covering us to share heat for the rest of the night. Fulgar had a way of resting quickly that I did not understand, but it allowed him to watch the enemy as Garuk and I fully covered ourselves and sleep. It was early morning when Fulgar became aware of a galloping horse coming from behind, although the ones we had followed were still in the camp ahead. He woke us up and muffled any noise we made until we were aware of where we were and the need to be quiet.

I grabbed my halberd and looked with the others; a horseman without armour was approaching, clearly visible as he had a lantern to help him find his way. He seemed to be making a noise to alert those in the camp ahead, but didn't seem to have noticed us. We flattened ourselves on the ground and let him pass, listening as the rider was challenged on approaching the camp. He stood up in the saddle and leapt down from his horse, running into the camp and dropped to one knee. He said something like "You are off, they have moved". One of the Githyanki ran to a satchel and pulled out a parchment that they then rolled out whilst stoking the fire for light. Then they looked up at the stars, saying "here then", and made some notes. The rider urged them to hurry and then returned to his horse, riding back the way he had come. The others made ready to move and mounted up. We had to rest a little more before we were ready to follow, though.

We all had various disturbing visions in the night - were these from Shang-Ti or the spirits? Something was trying to guide us, anyway. I woke with a start shouting "the bitch!" as I had seen that Chimeg had betrayed my people and probably sought to claim Batuhan for herself! There was more though, involving the runestones and the Gods. There was much to think on, and I started working through my usual exercises to clear my head. Fulgar wanted us to move quickly to follow the departed riders as the scent grew fainter, and he too would like to exercise properly but it would have to wait. The day was getting quickly warmer as the sun rose so we started at a fast pace, running intermittently to keep our speed up.

After a couple of hours the terrain became more difficult and we were hopping across fissures and boulders, climbing at times to clear obstacles. At one such rise we hopped up to find a large black snake in front of us! It was a good fifteen feet long and its head reared up at the vibrations from our arrival. It was black with a purple underside and looked dangerous. It had been laid in a slight depression in the rock, but its body lifted up and tried to wrap around Fulgar. He was able to escape being grasped but certainly felt the power of the blow as its bulk struck him. He responded incredibly, though, leaping forward away from its coils to attack the head. He punched it so hard in the face that it slumped back in a daze, rolling back into the hole it had risen from.

I thought that the end of the encounter, but Fulgar was concerned about the gaze of the snake and asked if anyone else felt that it had affected them. Garuk believed it had, so Fulgar laid his hand on Garuk's shoulder and called on Shang-Ti to purge him of illness. Fulgar seemed drained by this act, but insisted that it was worth it to purge them of any ill spirits. We continued for another hour or so, then Fulgar dropped and we reacted at once, seeking cover. Fulgar whispered that the scent had become strong so the Githyanki must be close. As if to reinforce this we heard the snort of a horse from a short way ahead.

Fulgar stalked forwards quietly, seeing the two horses sheltered in a bowl of rock with a pool of water at the bottom that they were drinking from. There were a couple of cacti on the far side but no sign of the Githyanki. Suddenly several streaks of light flashed into Garuk's back, causing him pain! A moment after this an armoured Githyanki leapt from the rock beside and above me, flaming sword swinging. I tried to dodge but the swing still caught my side and its flames set my backpack on fire! I dropped the halberd and threw off the remains of the pack, drawing my Khopesh and shield to defend myself. I was safe, though, as Fulgar unleashed his fury on the foe from behind - first with a powerful punch that staggered the foe and then a flurry of clawed blows that left him dead before he could react.

This victory was short-lived as the other Githyanki chanted something and a bolt of electric discharge leapt into Fulgar; he crumpled to the ground smoking slightly and smelling of burnt fur. He was still conscious but obviously in great pain. I leapt down on top of the mage and bashed him with my shield, putting my weight behind it as I landed, knocking him to the floor unconscious. Garuk put his sword to his neck in case he recovered, and I was surprised to hear Fulgar howl in pleasure for our victory despite his wounds, and he added: "Now we feast"!

I stamped out the fire on my backpack as best I could, but there was not much left. Garuk announced that I had actually killed the mage when I landed on him, which was disappointing as we had nobody left to question. Fulgar had seen some saddlebags on one of the horses, so we resolved to catch it so that we could search them. Garuk circled around but they got spooked so Fulgar and I sprinted for them before they could get away down a gully on the far side of the bowl. Fulgar grabbed the bags as I leapt onto one, fighting with the reins to keep it near Fulgar.

One we had the bags we let the horses go; these beasts were as foul as their riders and wouldn't respond to us anyway. Garuk had found a strange piece of parchment with directions that seemed to depend on the stars, so we took time to rest, drink, and train for the fights to come. Once the stars were clear enough to see we followed Garuk as he matched the parchment to the heavens and started off in what we hoped was the right direction. We had to move swiftly as if going at the pace of the Githyanki riders, so it would be hard work... but at least we would be warm as we traveled.

A few hours in we noticed that some of the bushes near us started to move as things approached us from all sides. Four large beetles with a glowing red chest area and orange glowing rears emerged looking quite threatening. One of them collapsed to the left of Garuk ahead of us and I took the opportunity to jump on and over it to run forward, judging that we could outpace them, and urging the others to do the same. As I stepped on its carapace some nasty liquid belched out near Garuk, but luckily he was able to avoid it. Unfortunately the beetles were on the others before they could move away, so I had to stop and turn back.

One buzzed into the air and weaved its way towards me at about head height whilst the others attacked on the ground. A glob of the liquid Garuk dodged landed near me, spurted out by the flying beetle, so we would need to kill them quickly. Fulgar took the first kill, landing two solid punches to the head of one that had tried to bite him, and another beetle collapsed near Garuk leaving just the flying one. Garuk leapt up and hit it with his body, but it just moved back in the air without coming to harm. I tried to get under it to stab up with my halberd, but it bit me as I did so and I immediately passed out! Thankfully while I was unconscious Fulgar was able to smash it down to the floor and kill it.

Garuk finished off the beetles that had collapsed as Fulgar picked me up, meaning to carry me away. He might have underestimated the weight of me and my equipment, though, so found he could only move very slowly and at great effort. Garuk called over "How is our friend?" to which Fulgar's reply was: "Heavy"! They got together and started to share the load of equipment and body but then realised that there was nothing to run from and instead examined me to see if they could aid me. Sadly they had no means of doing so, but fortunately I came round a few moments after they had resigned themselves to waiting.

I regained my strength almost immediately, if not my health, so whatever venom was in the bug's bite was short-lived. I interrupted my new friends' debate about whether to rest with me or press on to say that I was strong enough to continue and we needed to keep the pace up, so we set off south again. We could not continue all night, though, especially having been awake the previous day and eventually we were exhausted and had to rest. Thanks to the saddle bags we had retrieved we now had a tent and were able to eat and rest properly, with Fulgar meditating in his usual manner. It was Fulgar that awoke us - the sun was rising so we were late! We gathered our things, said a prayer to Shang-Ti with Fulgar that refreshed us a little, and continued at a fast pace again.

After a couple of hours the gorse we had been making our way through began to thin out and there were more cacti, so we started looking for a pattern of three that might match that recorded on the parchment. It wasn't long before we saw a Kharash warrior ahead, on horseback, that seemed to be moving around three very large and distinctive cacti... this could be the place! Fulgar ran forward, but ducked behind a cacti as the Kharash charged forward with a lance. After it had passed Fulgar gave chase, as the horseman was focused on Garuk instead. I had set my halberd but he deliberately avoided me so I gave chase as well. Garuk was able to dodge the lance, thankfully, and the Kharash turned tightly around to come back at him.

This time he found his mark and left a deep wound in Garuk's side. I stood by him to protect him, but seeing that the Kharash drew a bow instead and circled around. Fulgar headed towards the three cacti whilst the attention was away from him. The Kharash was too close and Garuk sprinted at him and managed to reach him before he could spur his horse away. Garuk tried to grapple him off the horse but his grip slipped on the smooth armour and he got away from him. An arrow pinged off my armour as he tried to take us down from a distance, but Garuk suffered more and collapsed as an arrow hit him hard.

I saw that the Kharash had looked the other way and sprinted for him, catching hold of his arm and managing to hold on despite the frantic movements of the horse and my opponent. Fulgar headed over to help Garuk and called on Shang-Ti to aid him; the arrow popped out of the wound and he jerked to life! Garuk grasped Fulgar's arm and thanked him for his help, using his support to get up. I lost my first hold, but managed to lunge and grab the Kharash again, getting a better hold this time. Garuk ran up to help, trying to hit the horse to bring them down, but it was moving too much and even fighting back so he wasn't able to.

I managed to drag the rider to the ground whilst Garuk kept the horse entertained with his sword. I challenged him, readying my Khopesh, looking forward to the challenge of a fair fight. But the coward was too scared and lacking honour to face me and ran back to his horse and fled! Scum. Fulgar called us over, distracting me from this insult, as he had found something near the cacti. 

Fulgar had found a dull yellow metal symbol on the side of a rock to the west of the cacti. It had vibrated with power as he picked it up, and he found that the centre of the decorated part could be depressed, although he was wary of pressing it. We gathered together, keeping an eye on the Kharash rider (although Garuk seemed reluctant to let the Kharash live - he was worthless in my eyes though, a man with no honour did not deserve our attention). Fulgar took us to the exact place he found it in, wrapped his arms around us and pressed the button. In a moment we found ourselves in a completely different place and time!