Session 11.1 - The Escape

[Griznuq]

Scale turned his attention on the sobbing girl. ?Why are you crying!?? Scale demanded hotly. ?You have lost just one friend! I have lost everything!! Everyone I have known all my life with the exception of Dariooq and his tribe! You have no reason to mourn!?

Scale snarled at the group. ?It is the most foolish recklessness which governs your actions! You have no respect for that which you do not know, and when it is too much for you, you cry and feel sorry for yourselves! You are not dead! Now is not the time to mourn! We must be on our way and out of the sacred lands of the Poison Dusk, before we anger their ancestral spirits! We will not live through that.?

Scale?s glare turned back to Azarian. ?Not even your god would save you for this intrusion. I suggest we be on our way. Spirits walk in the night.?

Scale's demeanor seemed to change from annoyed to that of a man with a job to do; an air of duty. "None of us are safe here."

He extended a hand to the battle scarred Garbh?n to help him to his feet. "Can you fight again?" Scale's tone changed yet again when talking to Garbh?n. "Your strength will be needed if we are to get out of here alive."

[Phineas]

Garbh?n sat with a confused expression.  "Escaped?"  He tried to stand, but the soreness from his wounds kept him seated.  He glanced around at the setting.  "Where are we?"

Garbh?n made no motion or spoke no words of comfort to Erinalia.  He took notice of the other individuals standing nearby.  "Dariooq.  Scale.  Help me to my feet.  Azarian, where are we?"

[fraz]

Erin had fumbled hopelessly with her salves and bandages, clearly flustered, until Azarian?s healing spell took effect.  She then suddenly dropped the paraphanalia on Garbh?n?s chest.

As Garbh?n awakened and sat up the bandages rolled off of his chest and onto the ground.

?We... we have not won... We escaped,? she replied to his question.

A lump formed in her throat and she forced herself to continue.

?T?Riad is gone!? she blurted out.  ?He may be dead...  I don?t know if he made it out of the tent!?

With that, Erin finally broke down.  With shoulders and back slumped and her head hung low, she began sobbing - just mildly at first, and then uncontrollably, as she brought her hands up to cover her face.

The battle had been a horrific scene to her eyes and now, all of a sudden,  distant memories of the destruction of her childhood home came flooding into her mind.  People were murdered... There was so much suffering... And to see this all again, here, so many years later was almost too much for her to bear.

[Phineas]

Garbh?n slowly opened his eyes and stared at the night sky.  He remembered being on a battlefield, and he remembered being hit by crossbow bolts.  That seemed to have happened so long ago.

He sat up, holding his head.  "Is it over?  Did we win?" he asked, looking around.

[Wildfire]

OOC: T'Riad, miles away, thinks, "I could use some healing for this bolt in my arm..."

[Dray]

Azarian held his tongue, attempting to quelch his own anger against the feeling of helplessness.

He let Scale walk away.

With a gaze of incredible frustration he looked to the others. "Does anyone else need further healing?"

[Griznuq]

Scale's outward appearances didn't change at all, though his breath slowed a bit. "I do not trust you, human." Scale turns to the others, "Nor any of you either!" his vioce boomed.

"But my elders allowed you to live and speak your own language under their tents, therefore you are not my enemy." his muscled arms trembled with ire.

"But understand this servant of the gods, I bare no allegiance to you or your people."

He stopped yelling to think. " I am no fool, I know my people are dead now, and if any escaped they will shun me for a coward! And now we stand here in what looks like he ancestral ruins of the Poison Dusk, where we do not belong!"

" I will stay with you long enough to make sure that you get back to your pathetic camp where you can do no more harm, because for some reason, my elders considered you a peer."

"Once you get back there, you pray you do not wander into my path again, for we shall not meet as friends."

Scale hissed and spit on the ground at Azairian's feet, a great act of disrespect in scale's now-extinct culture. He turned his back on the humans and began to walk.

[Dray]

Azarian glared back at Scale, knowing that a barbarian would only listen to a matching show of strength.

"Coward?! Hold your tongue man!" he yelled. "We would be back there now if it wasn't for this damned islands magic!"

Scale made a step towards him, he didn't back away.

"Did you not see that where we stood we were surrounded and of no help to those who were fleeing?! Had this island not destroyed my staff," he shouted pointing behind him at the boulder without taking his gaze off the angered barbarian, "we would have instantly returned to help!"

Azarian looked as angry as Scale. Scale hesitated a moment just enough for Azarian to say one thing more.

"Do not see the enemy in me Scale, see it in those Hobgoblin cowards."

[Griznuq]

"You understand me now you coward!? How dare you forsake my people after they let you stay in their tents!?" Scale began to growl louder. "You must send me back, they are dying! They need me!"

[Griznuq]

:: Bleed... ::

Interestingly, that goes with the avatar..

[Dray]

Azarian quickly glanced at all to assess the situation.

He quickly reached into his spell pouch at his belt and gathered the necessary materials. With haste he cast a spell and immediately started to speak Jhaegra Common. A language that both Dariooq, Scale and surprisingly Erinalia had shown familiarity with.

"Forgive me, I know not what you have spoken thus far Scale." He said solemnly. "And I am so sorry about your people."

He said this and gave the lizard man a look of deepest sympathy. Without waiting for a response he summoned the required devine words and called upon another spell.

A glowing hemisperhical wall of golden energy rushed from the center of his being and in a flash expanded outwards over the entire group. This healing spell had been cast while in battle and was quite effective. Crossbow bolts flew out of wounds that sealed up, and the gaping slashes across Garbhan's chest contracted into mere scratches.

[Everyone here gets 22 hit points from this spell.]

[Griznuq]

The fin on Scale's head began to twitch. "if you don't send me back you squishy pink..." Scale forced himself to stop yelling, but continued his low growl and menacing pose.

[Phineas]

:: Bleed... ::

[fraz]

"Auugh!" Erinalia let out a throaty gasp of pain as she collapsed to her knees at Garbhan's side.  A crossbow bolt that had struck her just moments before Azerian had activated the staff now protruded out from her left leather shoulder pad.  Blood oozed out from beneath the shoulder pad and dripped down along her side.  Though not life-threatening, the wound was deep enough to cause her significant pain as well as some dizziness.  She actually felt as though she were weakening more and more as each drop of blood escaped from her body...

Ignoring the pain as best as she could, the half-elf turned her attention to Garbhan, who lay montionless upon the ground before her.  She immediatley began fishing through her well-organized bag to locate the salves and bandages she would need to stabilize his wounds.  As soon as she had the necessary items in hand she set to work, letting the others worry about figuring out exactly where they were.  As a matter of fact, she was so absorbed in her work on her critically injured companion, that she had taken no notice at all of their new surroundings.

[Griznuq]

Scale became agitated. "What do you mean broken?! You must send me back! My people need me!!" Scale began to growl lowly.