Under a Dark Sun(2nd Ed. AD&D)

[dplax]

Anne

The sudden and overwhelming fear gripped Anne's heart. Her eyes blurred and her instincts took over from her senses. Everything seemed to become sharper, more acute. The sound of a twig snapping close by, sound of rushing feet.

It took Anne several long seconds to realise that the feet moving were her own feet thudding along the trail to the Northwest. Terror had taken over and she was trying to put as much distance between herself and what she was fleeing.

Strangely though, she found that she had no recollection of what had terrified her such.

[PurpleXVI]

Lorath

With speed fueled by pure fear of the approaching, implacable wall of living trees, Lorath reacted faster than everyone else, his arms a blur and the arcane syllables pouring forth from his mouth like an unintelligible mess.

It seems like he got something wrong in his haste, however, or maybe because of the poison clouding his mind. Instead of creating several illusory copies of himself, he created two extremely tangible ones, one of them was bright pink and riven with cracks, while the other was completely translucent.

Before he was even able to register that he'd screwed up, however, some instability in the magic was touched upon and both of the copies literally exploded. The pink one turned out to be made of compressed flower blossoms, which roared across the clearing with a thunderclap like a pink shockwave, and the other turned out to be made of pure crystal.

Before the elf could see the results of his spellcasting, an arm from the crystal copy hit him in the head and he was out cold, slipping swiftly into darkness and not even feeling the ground as he collapsed on it.


Tamora

Crystal shrapnel rained down around Tamora as she raised her bow for a shot, disentigrating to fine dust whenever it made contact with something. That wasn't what made her miss, though, it was the sudden shockwave of pink which obscured Balth and made her arrow fly wide, burying itself in the trunk of a tree behind him.

Thankfully it also seemed to have caught the other elf flat-footed, though, and allowed her to get out her spear and parry his charge, the blade of his scimitar glancing off of the wooden haft rather than hacking through it.


Bas

Bas felt the spirit of the area wrapping itself around him like a mother caring for an injured child. It's presence was like a warm sensation suffusing itself through his body, making everything it touched relax. He was barely even aware that he was falling asleep by the time he slipped cautiously into the land of dreams.


Anne

Anne pounded down the trail, having to fight for every breath as her lungs and throat threatened to close up on her, not daring look back. She could feel her legs and torso aching like nothing else. She knew she was dead if she stopped, even though she could feel that she was going to keep over if she kept up her sprinting pace.

Maybe there was safety just a few seconds ahead, maybe- her foot snagged on a branch, she tumbled foward, hit the ground, literally bounced off the dirt and came to a halt several yards away. She didn't even feel the resulting bruises and cuts as she slipped into unconsciousness.


Tamora

Tamora saw her companions collapse, either into death or sleep, she didn't know which, as Balth attacked again.

The two of them clashed together several times, but she was at a severe disadvantage, the poison was rapidly sapping her strength, she was growing dizzy and her vision blurry, and Balth was too close for her to stab at him with the point of her spear. To her credit, she managed to whack him several times with the shaft of her weapon before he ended up hammering her straight in the face with the hilt of his weapon.

She heard a crack that might have been her nose breaking, but she was too numb to feel for sure. As she hit the ground, and slipped into unconsciousness, she saw her opponent approaching her prone form, weapon sheathed.


Everyone

No one was sure how long they were stuck experiencing feverish nightmares in bright colours, some involving Balth, some completely unexplicable and all displaying the bizarre fever-logic where wearing a bear for a hat makes sense.

Lorath was pursued by the trees even in his dreams, his body feeling as weak as a newborn kitten, his magic useless and his sword breaking on their bark.

Anne was stuck in a gray, shadowless realm where it was hard to ascertain where one thing ended and another begun, as she wandered throughout it, a vague sense of unease slowly ramping up to borderline panic, the very ground, walls and sky hunted her.

Tamora was pursued by Balth, clad as the Grim Reaper, stalking her throughout a forest, what should have been her home field. But shadows offered no refuge, branches cracked under her feet when she tried to remain silent and the beasts of the wild refused to aid her.

Unlike the others, Bas' dreams were less nightmarish, he still felt weak in them, like they did, but rather he had an anxious feeling throughout. Like butterflies in his stomach, awaiting something he wasn't entirely sure if he desired or dreaded. Mostly his dreams consisted of searching for someone he couldn't remember who was when he awoke.


Time passed.

Bas and Anne were the first to awaken, their heads aching, their mouths dry and their eyes sore.

Upon surveying their surroundings, they found that they were still lying on the trail, but not where they had fallen. Judging by the torn state of their equipment and the soreness of their bodies, someone had dragged them an unknown distance and left them where they were.

Their first glance at the sky made it seem like it was nightfall, like they had lost half the day to the poison, but then they looked again and saw the sun rising in the east, from behind the mountains, they had lost both a day and a night.

And as they inspected themselves, that wasn't all they'd lost.

Every single piece of metal they'd had, had been stolen. Even Tamora's arrowheads had been snapped from their shafts, the only weapons they'd been left with were whatever they had that wasn't metallic, which included Lorath's bizarre sword, someone had even re-wrapped it.

It looked, however, as though the thief had been careless with his bounty, several arrowheads had been dropped on the eastern edge of the trail, so it was possible to get an idea of which way he had gone.

Eventually, Lorath and Tamora stirred as well.

[ 05-25-2007, 09:09 PM: Message edited by: PurpleXVI ]

[Kazilan]

Bas shook his head to clear it of his dreams and rose shakily to his feet.

"Is everyone alright? I believe I have the strength for a healing spell." The druid checked the others for wounds before lifting his staff and scanning the treeline.

"Strange, it seems our enemy was only after our belongings." The druid's hand strayed to the spot on his belt where his sickle would have been. "Balth certainly was not what he seemed." After a moment of thought he turned to his companions.

"If you are up for it, I say we pursue him. His altered appearance certainly represented a perversion of nature. We should destroy him before he tries to attack other travelers, or worse, enters our own world."

[dplax]

Anne

Her head throbbed and her arms and legs felt bruised, no doubt from being dragged along the trail while she had been unconscious. A quick check of herself showed that apart from everything metal, nothing was missing. The loss of the stiletto and her twelve silver pieces did not really bother her. She did miss her trusted dagger, which she had used for more than four years.

It took her several minutes to realise that the silver cup was also missing. She was actually half glad not to have it with her any more. Ever since she had learned of its origins from the elven merchant, it had been a burden on her conscience. Hopefully now it would burden the thief.

"I'm fine Bas. Only a few cuts and bruises." Anne glanced at Tamora and Lorath, who were just stirring. She sincerely hoped that they had not been badly hurt.

Shame coloured Anne's cheeks a faint hue of red. Instead of standing her ground during the battle, she had fled like a coward.

She waited for Lorath and Tamora to stand up and check their own belongings before she spoke.

"I am so terribly sorry. I should have stood against Balth by your sides, but I thought of only myself. I would understand if you thought less of me after this, but I beg for your forgiveness. I do not know what overcame me."

Anne sat down in the middle of the path and took out her flute. She blew air through it a few times, to clear it of the dust it had gathered since she had come into this new world and blew a few notes to test it. She then started playing a slow, sad tune, which her mother had taught her just a few weeks before she had committed suicide.

The tune lasted several minutes. Finishing, Anne placed her hands on her knees and looked up at Tamora.

"Has he taken the map?" she asked.

[Armen]

Tamora

Tamora shook her head as if to deny Anne’s apology. “There is no need Anne. If we had all run in different directions then there might have been a small chance of Balth not finding one of us. If anything the fault is mine for accepting the flask first.”

She looked sadly at the ruined arrows scattered around her. Such a waste, she thought, gathering them up. They were useless now but she would cannibalise them later for the flights – although that was going to be tricky without even a knife. She stowed her now useless bow for travel and picked up the shaft of her spear. It would have to do for now. She walked over carefully to the dropped arrowheads and looked into the east. Behind her she heard Anne’s music, smiled and picked up what Balth had dropped.

“I agree that we should stop Balth Bas,” she said. “I do not know whether to trust what I saw but he is a danger for sure. What worries me is that now it’s clear how valuable steel is here he will return to his tribe with news of the portal clearing that must be as a goldmine to those here. We should prevent that if possible. I would say that he is long gone by now but the fact that we have seemingly lay unconscious for a day and a night without scavengers attacking us makes me wonder if he stayed the night – for what purpose I don’t know”

She looked again to the east. “He must know that I can track him and he knows we were heading east so I’m not sure I trust these ‘dropped’ arrowheads. And unless everything he has said is false his people lie to the west. Give me a moment and I shall see what I can learn.” She set off to circle their position looking for traces of Balth’s passage. As she passed Lorath she smiled apologetically, “I am sorry Lorath that we introduced you to such an evil creature.”

Tamora traced a fast circle around their position to the soundtrack of Anne’s flute. She made a noise of surprise as she passed north of where the arrowheads had been dropped and walked off in that direction for a moment before completing the circle and returning to Anne’s position in time to hear her question.

“No, we still have the map. I have found what I think is Balth’s trail. He has moved into the trees to the north here.” She indicated with a wave of her hand. “His tracks appear recent and he only appears to be walking. Maybe he expected the poison to last longer or he doesn’t fear us now.” She looked to the others. “Shall we go?”

[Man Who Fights Like Woman]

Lorath got to his feet and waved his hand to indicate he didn't need any healing. "Except for being very tired and a throbbing headache, I feel fine. Well, physically." He crossed the clearing and snatched up his sword, then put on his robe and wizard hat. Then he wrapped his length of rope around his body from shoulder to waist, and hung his pecilular sword from his waist. "No point in trying to hide it anymore," he muttered.

As the conversation progressed he spoke up. "Will you stop blaming yourselves? It's nobody's fault except for Balth's that we're in this situation." He gathered up his quarrel tips and placed them back in their box, then let out a long sigh. Before going any further he made sure that his spellbook's pages were still undamaged, though the clasp had almost certainly been ripped out of the cover.

"I don't think that anything he's said can be trusted now," he said, "not even basic information about where his people live, or that he even has a tribe. Hell, I'm not even sure if his name is Balth. But whoever he is, we should track him down and let him know that we don't appreciate his gesture." Going through his pack, he noticed that, for some reason, the portable portal hadn't been taken along with their equipment.

"Lead on, Tamora, if you think you've got his trail. I can stand a while longer outside of civilization if it means putting my boot up his ass. And if we need a place to rest, we for some reason still have this." He showed them the portal. "I wouldn't use it for sleep though, there's something a little off about an overnight stay on the other side that I don't like."

[Armen]

Tamora

Tamora nodded to Lorath. “Ok,” she said. “I’ll go as fast as I can but I need to track. I’m still not convinced that he’s made it this easy for us. We should beware of him doubling back for ambush too although he had a chance to kill us all last night and didn’t.” She looked thoughtful for a moment. “We should agree what we are going to do when we find him. We want our gear back certainly but we have no way of restraining him. So are we hunting him to kill him on sight?”

[dplax]

Anne

"Kill on sight."

The three-word statement was delivered in a much more ruthless tone than any of them had heard Anne speak in. Had they known her, they would have known that it was the tone she adopted when on a 'job'. Her eyes seemed to be more focused than they had previously been. Indeed to even a casual observer it would have rightly seemed that Anne was intent on accomplishing this task.

"I never really liked him anyway."

[Man Who Fights Like Woman]

"I don't think he actually wants to kill us, so we should be safe from an ambush, at least one orchestrated by him," Lorath replied. "Apparently he just wanted our metal equipment." He made an effort to conceal his rope under his robes. As long as they believed there was no way of restraining him, he was fine. "I agree, let's kill him on sight. If we can catch him flat-footed or otherwise unaware, even better."

[Kazilan]

Bas glanced at the others as they voiced their desire to kill Balth. The druid felt that their enemy was a significant danger, and obviously a perversion of nature, yet he didn't like the idea of deciding to kill someone before an encounter.

"I feel we should speak with him first, try to find out the truth, any truth about him and this land. I wonder now if the creature he was fighting when we met him was as evil as it appeared."

Bas shook his head and turned his gaze to the path at his feet.

"Let's get going as soon as we can. I will use my magic when necessary, rest assured."