Editing Epic - Saving my People (section)

==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.