Bate for the slaughter:
Oni crouched over a small dune. He had the oasis in front of him and his family all around. He looked over the oasis to count the Tri-kreen one more time. Four. He thought that plan was good, and they should be able to handle four of these guys. The tribe was depending on it. He took in a breath. He started to think about some of the acting he had done. He wished he could play drums for this but acting was the skill he needed today.
He started to stumble and walk towards the oasis. He was fatigued and tried to embellish that. He staggered a little trying to draw the attention from the Tri-kreen. They did not move. They looked at him with their large insect eye. Thoughts went through his head. Should he have used his powers. Should he have tried to make them friends and draw them out that way. Too late for changing plans. This one was already in play and the team expected him to perform. He thought about his brother. He was clearly likely that his brother was here. He also liked the way his brother looked at him now. The Tri-kreen shifted his direction.
Oni turned back towards the ambush. He picked up his speed a little, but he wanted to make sure he did not break the illusion. He could hear them following him. He loved to use his mind’s eye to track people around him. He was listening for the insect like footfalls to count them. Five. Wait there was four, but now five. He did not want to look back yet, but something was wrong. He had counted four before but now he heard five. They were getting closer. He moved next to Yas and turned. They were on him.
Oni and Yas started to attack them in the sand. Joe, Selise, Rain, and the stranger stayed distant but attacked them as well. Oni took the brunt of the attacks. One of the Tri-Kreen bit him. Oni’s entire body froze in place. He could not move. Had he been alone with the creatures he would have died here and now. That is how the desert is. His friends fought hard, turning the attentions of the Tri-kreen away from him. Joe moved down to defend his brother. This let Oni fight through the poison. He was now back in the fight. Joe smiled at his little brother. Oni was hurt but still good.
The group started to twiddle the Tri-Kreen down. They were down to just a couple when they tried to flee. They ran around the pond hoping to escape from the group. Oni went after one of them, while the stranger went after the other. Oni ran after him and managed to get up close. He did a couple of quick spin kicks and his Tri-kreen was dead. Oni landed from his spinning kick, sand flying into the air. He was covered in sweat, sand, and green insect ichor. He felt good. He looked over to see the stranger loose the last of the Tri-kreen. Oni thought to himself they would need watches.
Oni looked at the stranger with a new light. He was beginning to trust him. He worked well with the team. Oni scanned from the Stanger on one end of the pond and to the group on the other. They had moved across the Tri-kreen like a wave. He thought they should start to call themselves something. Deep within the books Oni had read most of the teams had names. The Fab Five, Dragons Bane, and the even the Righteous Fete. He wanted them to be a team, or family. They needed to have a name. The Stranger needed a name too. Oni watched as the stranger moved around the oasis like a breeze. Moving from location to location. He could hear a song in his mind. He could not place the song. It sat their at the tip of his thoughts but he could not draw it in. He would call the stranger Mariah.
Mariah was talking to Joe and Selise when Oni walked up. Joe and Mariah were talking about going to gather the tribe out of the sand. Oni yelled at them as he came up, “Joe, Mariah.” They both looked up a little confused. Oni looked at them with great pride on his face. “Yeah, let’s get the family.” Yep Mariah was his new name. He knew the Stranger did not know it yet, but he would none be known as Mariah.
They all walked single file back out into the desert to gather up the tribe…
When the tribes away:
Spirits were high as they walked through the sand back to the wagon. Joe had taken lead as the group’s main tracker. Oni wanted to join him as to prove himself. He hung back but made sure he was leading the group as his brother scouted ahead. He was becoming very mindful of how he did every action now. He would make it clear in his own mind why he was taken or not taking any specific action. He wanted to scout with his bigger brother, but he needed to give his brother the space to do his job. Oni looked back across the group all the way to Yas. She was bringing up the rear. She was the right person as her footfalls would smash into the ground with great force. She could not be as quiet as the rest.
Joe put his hand up in the air. That was his signal that we needed to be quiet and slowly come to his location. We all made our way up to where he was. I was there is seconds, but it was long minutes before Rain and Yas made it up to the rise. Joy and pain were like the ripples of the sand dunes. Moments earlier we were joyful and even excited about the oasis being cleared out. Now the pain of the scene in front of us was too much to bare. The wagon was destroyed, and our tribe was either dead, or gone.
We all crouched in shock and horror as Yas spoke, “I know these guys.” Our tribe was gone but three humans were here in their place. The one in the center was the leader and he was surrounded by two henchmen. We thought we were hidden from them but like a mental connection the leader spoke, “Did you find Nessy, Aya.” It became clear, the reason Yas knew them was that she used to be one of them. Hopefully used to be one. Oni looked at her. He had trusted her so completely. He was not trusting Mariah and had to trust her. At the time he had to show Mariah just how untrusted he was, by trusting Yas so completely. Oni scanned her looking for betrayal, and finding none.
Yas yelled over the dune as she stood up and started to walk closer, “Nope. Did not find her, as she was already dead. She died for these guys.” The leader guy looked at her, scrutinizing every inch of her body, “So, are you still with us, or have you joined them too.” We all came off the dune to stand by her side. We had been in battle with her and now were about to do it again, if that is what she wanted. She peered through him, seeing the battle as it was about to unfold. She was making plans on who to kill first. Should she do the smart thing and take out to the two guards, or just go for him. She charged him.
Oni followed her but moved in to take out one of the guards. Better to thin the herd he thought. Some folks just can’t be reached, and these are those folks. They all worked together to take out the three. They were now falling into their individual roles. Oni and Yas moved in while the rest attack from the edges. Oni liked being the one in danger. As he watched Yas tear into her foes, he was glad she was on his side.
With the slaver’s dead, they all looked at Yas. They started to ask her questions. She was clearly pained by them and did not like answering. Oni had to help her. He had to move them through this quickly and on to the next thing. He scanned the area and yelled, “Grab all the water and supplies you can carry. We are leaving shortly to find out family. Joe, go scout for tracks.” They gathered up as much water as they could. Joe moved to the north and slightly west as he followed the tracks. These guys were going to pay.
The rescue of Paulu and Agis:
The tracks were easy to follow and led straight to a small rock outcropping. What was left of the tribe was there. The tribe was looking bad. Joe, Selise, Oni and Rain were now the only hope for the tribe to live on. The older adults including Paulu and Agis were down to eight. The entire group was now made up of twelve people. Just like the sun bakes the watery life out of the planet, life was being baked out of the tribe. It was done.
They quietly moved up to hide in some rocks on the south side of the camp. They needed to assess the enemy camp before moving in. There were three humans, one half dragon, and five kobolds. Tiamat had blessed this group with a Kobold from each of the 5 colored clans. Oni remembered reading that Kobold were weak and quietly shared that with the group as the hiked up. The Kobolds were patrolling the camp, many were out of site from time to time. They were spotted by the red one.
Yas moved over to Oni to make it look like she was struggling just a little with a prisoner. Afterall from their perspective, she was one of them. As she came up with such force, Oni worried it was true. He thought maybe they should have pretended to be prisoners to enter the camp. His thoughts drifted around the idea working out every moment in it even if they could not possibly do it now. Ideas were like puzzles to Oni, he loved working through them, even the now defunct idea.
Yas’s idea worked and the Red headed over to her. Oni slipped away from Yas, hoping to look like she had thrown him, just out of sight. He wanted to draw the Red to him in the hidden location. The Red came into the party killed zone, where they did just that. It was not easy as the books had said. Yas had already none better, but Rain, and Joe looked at Oni. They had concern in their eyes. Oni had been driving them to this spot and had mostly been right about every move. Now with this grave error, were they all going to die.
Selise hid, hoping to get a good view of the camp. The white Kobold came up, seeing the action around the red. He was still convinced he could help Yas. He walked up to his own death. Selise whisper yelled back to the group, “they are killing the tribe.” They had seen us. It was time to move. They could no longer try and take out the kobolds in secret. Selise took off running south, “Give me a distraction.” Oni could give her that. He would distract them while she saved what was left of their people.
Mariah somehow just walked across the gap and no one seemed to notice. He had crazy powers. Oni needed to investigate further. Oni jumped down to kick one of the humans in the back. He hurt him, but he was still standing. The man swung with a weapon just as Oni ducked and finished him off. He thought for a long moment, that these humans were far easier to kill then the Kobolds.
Yas moved to attack the Blue and Black Kobold. She was outnumbered but not out matched. She was going to make them even more black and blue. She moved and dodged as they stuck her. She lined them up. She took in a big breath with all of the desert heat. Taimat’s gift to the Dragonborn came out onto the kobolds. She screamed out in rage. Working the last of those two into dust.
Selize moved around the other side of the camp. Mariah worked his way up onto a large rock on the south west side of the camp. Oni and Joe moved in from the east making the biggest target they could. The last kobold came into camp and attacked them. The brothers worked together to hold the attention of the camp. They had to stay and fight until something changed. Maybe the tribe would sneak out to the west, maybe Yas would finish her foes and join them, maybe the slavers would just give up.
What was not supposed to happen was for Paulu to join the fight. She was supposed to sneak out. She saw her two baby boys fighting. She could not stand the danger they were in. She gathered up her resolve and moved in to fight with them and protect them. She was trying to the rescue her rescuers. She was ruining the plan.
Selise came out of hiding shooting her crossbow. Oni’s entire family was now in mortal danger. He moved up with greater vigor. Trying to get Paulu to run. She would not. The leader moved by Selize giving her a grievous wound as he headed over to fight Oni, and Joe. Selize was hurt. She might not recover. She staggered out of the combat zone, shooting her crossbow as she did. She might now die, but she was going to help.
Rain and Mariah were using their great powers to help finish off the battle. Yas finished off her two Kobolds and headed back into the fight. A fight that started out as a rescue and run mission was now a total domination. As the last the slavers died, the pain of the loss became clear. A quick count of the tribe was now six plus the youngsters. They were destroyed, but at least a few survived.
Oni surveyed the area with a new resolve. His hope of saving the tribe was now gone. His only hope was to preserve it somehow. He remembered the words of Ippi before he died. The written word is not evil, it is history. Ippi’s words were now clear to Oni. He would preserve the tribe and hope someone someday would read the words and love them as much as he loved them.
They headed back to the Oasis.
That night back at the Oasis:
Oni started to walk around the Oasis. It was a strange place. He had not been out of his tribe before, so he wondered if the whole world was this strange. The entire area was mostly surrounded be sand. This one little patch of green was the lushest thing he had ever seen. He slid his shoes off to walk on the soft grass. The water from the small pound was as fresh as rainwater. Giant trees grew all around the pond filled with fruit. It was a magical place of life surrounded by death.
On the north east side of the pond were the remnants of some structure. It was made of wood but had been in the desert so long the wood turned to stone. He could not make sense of it. He searched his mind. Pouring over every book and description from those books. He knew the answer was there. He ran his hand down one of the long beams trying to imagine what the structure looked like. A ship came to his mind. That is what it was. In those books, they talked about huge bodies of water. They were so large they needed big ships to move around them. This was one of those ships.
He looked up trying to see the water that must have been here so long ago. What happened to it? Why was it gone? As with his rebirth, could this land be reborn again. Could the seas come back and fill this space again? He hoped yes. He believed yes. He was struggled to find a way for the life-giving water to come back. He knew better than to pray to the unforgiving Tiamat, but he felt that he should pray. He was just not sure to who or how.
“May this world be reborn.
May I help bring the rebirth
May that rebirth bring the seas of life.”
Oni still wandered around the place. On the south east side were some stairs that led down into the sand. The steps went down to where a beam had been smashed. It was now full of sand. Oni, even with his limited tracking abilities could tell the beam had been smashed recently. Someone had done this. He thought about a sea over this place and looked at the stairs. The two things did not mesh. This could not have been a sea and have stairs to an underground. How could he make sense of the two things? The answer for tonight was that he could not.
Oni joined the tribe for a meal and went to sleep. Tomorrow he would figure it out…..