Part 8: Breaking The Bad Ape

Alena started heading into the forest at dusk with the party at her heels and with her intent in locating the riches at the forefront of her mind. She quickly found the trail of the priests of Set and began following them relentlessly. Jorta was following but not looking well. The affects of the yellow lotus still bleeding her dreams into reality. After hours of walking Alena came across some rocky ground where the tracks seemed to disappear. The party hunted for as long as they could spare for the tracks but could not find them again. They continued forging a path north through the forest. During the dark march the yellow lotus takes a hold of Jorta and she wanders away from the party thinking she is following Lord Cyrill. A distressed Lord Cyrill alerts Dunk who thinks he can quickly bring her back. Unfortunately for him she is a lot stronger than she looks and her passion for the squirrel much greater. The party becomes separated.

Alena, Maheen and Arcandur is tirelessly trying to track down the trail of the priests and don't notice the others are missing for hours. When they do it is around 3am and the party are exhausted. They also hear the sounds of horns in the distance. They decide to sleep for a few hours in a tree and hope to locate the missing members the next day.

The party awakes at dawn and begins marching north again and stumble upon an old road. While walking upon this they hear the horns again. Arcan uses his powers to divine what is coming and is very afraid. He grabs the other party members and tells them to run!! They do. They run hard and fast. Soon ape like men appear on the road behind them chasing them down.

The party runs into a vine-covered stone ruin not far from the old road just as the four beastmen in the war party overtake them. The structure has no roof, but the walls look to be about two feet thick, and still stand about 10 feet tall. There are several old embrasures choked with vines looking out toward the road. The embrasures are awkwardly high for humans, at least 5 feet above the ground. It looks like as good a place as any to make a stand against the beastmen! The fight is on.

Alena spins and draws her swords. The beastmen are on her. She fights furiously her swords cutting swaths through her enemies. She is not fast enough to avoid their blows though as they begin raining down on her. Arcandur also is struck with a club. Maheen remains too far away to be hit.

Maheen draws her bow and fires at the creatures while Arcan unleashes his crossbow. They pick away at the creatures but are fighting a losing battle. Alena is taking heavy blows with the creatures' giant obsidian spiked clubs but manages to put one of the creatures down with the help of Maheen.

Arcandur steps forward with a small packet of clear crystals in his hands. He raises them in the air in front of the oncoming attackers and then throws them on the ground with all his might. As they strike the ground they explode in a huge calamity of force that throws two of the three standing beastmen back across the ground... and Alena. The two beastmen do not get back up.

The remaining beastman is notably larger than the other three were. He launches forward at Alena and impacts her skull with his huge club. A loud crunching sound corresponds with the blow. Alena drops to the floor, lifelessly.

Maheen manages to get a shot off at the huge hulking creature before it begins to smirk at her. Then giggle at her. The laugh at her. Then it drops to the ground laughing and giggling uncontrollably. It stares up at the sky in primordial fear as Arcandur walks over to it, takes his back pack off and starts to rifle through it. He pulls out a small bag full of some yellow powder that he decided to take off of the priest’s of Set boat. He begins to sprinkle it down over the inhaling laughing maw of the creature. It has no choice but to breathe in the powder. More and more of it is poured onto its face. Its eyes begin to water and go blood shot. Soon its nose is dribbling yellow mucus, and then blood. It continues laughing. Laughing with its whole body except its eyes. Its eyes filled with fear… and then death.

Maheen and Arcandur stabilise Alena and then put her over Arcandur’s shoulder as they carry her away from what is left of the huge creatures. They walk west for about an hour until they find a clearing at the base of a hill and prop Alena under a tree to rest.