They move into the underground area below the Oasis 13JUN20
16
JUN/20
New Strangers and New Danger:
The desert heat changed at night. The dryness of the air brought in a chill that could be nearly as dangerous to the exposed, as the heat of the day. Our tribe was well aware of the problem and had a cloth to cover each person. Oni slept in the relative safety and comfort of the oasis. He slept on the cool soft grass. That blanket of grass was so much better than the sand, he normally slept on. This was going to be the best sleep he has had in weeks. He dreamt of clouds surrounding his body, with the gentle warmth of the sun all night long.
He could feel the end of his rest coming. Even in his dreams he was starting to prepare for the day ahead. In his mind he kept going over the whispers he had heard on the wind, “His power into his first bride’s hand, That good and evil then are met.” He did not know if it was desert madness or the power of renewing light speaking out to him. Was he hearing something from the great rebirth? As his mind tried to go over the message and place it deep in his memory, Mar’iya voice blew into his mind. Oni smiled, He is what we call the wind.
“Wake up!” he said. “And wake the others, we have company.” Mar’iya had this formal manor of speech that Oni found strangely comforting. He was clearly a cultured man. Oni had read many stories in his books about cultured men. That made him trust him less. This bothered Oni as he felt comfortable with how he spoke, but each word was a tiny warning sign. This might be the evil of reading. It leads you to, too many thoughts. It makes you not trust your own instincts. Mar’iya was now in Oni’s head, and he would need to deal with that too.
Oni woke up and started to wake up the younglings. He looked over at the older members of the tribe. They were no longer able enough to be awoke. They are now only the elders that must be protected. “Mar’iya told me that there are a couple of men headed this way,” Oni told each of them as he woke them. He then started to point to setup good positions if this went bad. He was hoping it would not, but life in the desert was dangerous and you must always act as if it is your last day.
The two men were Jokhal Largeshaper, and Baldwin. Jokhal did all the talking. He was the shorted man Oni had ever seen. He had tribal marking and a completely shaved head. Oni wondered if he was one of the dwarves that he had heard about. Baldwin watched every move we made. He was the careful eye that had been protecting Jokhal for a long time. Oni looked up at Mar’iya. He had the odd look in his eyes as he spoke within someone’s mind. He should not do that as his opening move. Some group will not take that well. Oni smirked a little as he did not take it well. Mar’iya looked down giving us the signal that they were coming into the Oasis.
Oni shifted as he looked over the area. “Clear a space to make them feel a little safer,” he said. Rain moved a little closer and started to speak in some foreign language. Where had that come from. Jokhal responded in some equally foreign set of sounds. Rain somehow knew the secret language of the dwarves.
We cleared a space and they made camp with us. Jokhal was looking for this very spot. He had some crude form of a map. The paper looked like it was created a 1000 years ago. It had holes in it and scribbles all over it. Oni only had a second to look at, but it was just a mass of nonsense. Mar’iya looked at with a confused look in his eye as well. Oni thought most people would not have been able to read the difference in his look, but Oni had started to study him. Oni was learning him. He could see things others could not. Jokhal points to some set of marking. This is the spot. Those steps lead to treasure.
The rest of the youngsters became excited with the word “treasure”. Oni was not interested at all as the only treasure he cared about was food and water. Nothing else mattered.
Jokhal wanted to dig out the stairs. He moved over to the area and started to use magics to dig them out. Rain told him to stop. Oni just watched in awe. He had read hundreds of stories about wizards. He became as excited as the rest of the group, with treasure. Oni practiced every movement in my mind. Oni saw his power flow through him. Rain’s words finally broke through to Oni’s brain, “he is a defiler.” Oni looked around to all the plants that had wilted. Oni struggled, he hated what he saw, but the power to move earth was making his heart pound. He saw the power.
Jokhal stopped the magics. They all decided to fall back to the camp and rest. They would all help dig, so that Jokhal could stop defiling the land. We all started to work together. Jokhal’s magic even without destroying the land was impressive. Secret conversation moved throughout the group. Mar’iya and Oni started to make a plan to search their supplies. They knew information about him, and he wanted to know what it was. Joe was almost trembling as angry flowed through him. He could not stand this defiler anymore. Oni started to calm him down. Oni now knew these guys had to die, just not yet. Oni moved over to Selise. He moved the plan forward as she was the right person to search their stuff. Oni, thought sign language would really help here. As Selise moved off to search Oni fell back to lead Joe off the murder ledge.
After a few minute Selise pulled Oni over. “they have a bunch of empty waterskins and a necklace of fingers,” she told him with mild fear in her voice. Oni looked at her and was about to storm off. He was about to kill Jokhal. “So they had a bunch of water on them,” he asked. She nodded in almost complete confusion, “No, those are empty.” Oni looked at her, “so you are concerned about a necklace of fingers, who cares.” They looked at each other for long moments. They were completely unable to communicate to each other at the moment. Oni started to walk off, “I will get Mar’iya and see if one of the fingers is his.”
Oni told Mar’iya about the fingers and headed over to be by his brother. Oni mouth opened to start the words again. He saw his brother twitch and knew where this was going. He wanted to yell for him to stop. It was too late. Joe attacked Jokhal.
Joe Can’t Take It Anymore:
Whispers in the Night:
Oni looked over the oasis and the tribe. His young friends were unpacking the camels and going over their contents. Oni was running empty waterskins to the other side of the pond, giving them to Agis. He was having the tribe fill them. This place was life of the tribe. At some point staying here would be death as well. They needed to find a place to move the tribe, to protect them. This water supply might be too dangerous to stay here. Plan to stay and plan to leave.
Oni looked over at the stairs. He thought he could hear the pleasant songs of the Hurrum beetles coming from below. They were planning to continue digging them out the next day. He could not shake his hope. Maybe they could move there and be safe. He then looked at the tribe, his family, knowing he and his group were about to leave them. The Sun’s rebirth has made it clear they could no longer stay with them. They had to bring the rebirth, and they would need to leave the tribe to make that happen. Joe was so dedicated to the tribe, Oni hoped he would understand the need to leave them behind. He worked through the conversation in his own mind.
He looked at his clothes. They were burnt on the edges, where that fireball had nearly killed them all. He was glad the rest of the tribe had not been there, as they would not have moved fast enough to get out of the way. He needed to have another conversation with Joe. He knew even at the time he wanted to back his brothers desire to attack the wizard. He needed to explain to Joe, he was just waiting, trying to make it the right moment. Oni hated the defiling as well. He was to gather Joe and Selise and make some sort of pact to destroy those that would defile our injured land. If they agreed, he would move on to rest of the group. ending the rein of the defilers was going to be their goal.
Selise announced that she found his book. Oni perked up. He wanted the book and wanted to make sure Mar’iya did not get it. He announced it really loud, “I want the book.” Joe looked at him with scorn. Joe was clearly working through some confusing thoughts about Oni, and this placed a disturbing mark into those thoughts. Oni new he had said it too loud and with too much excitement. Oni again knew he would need to talk to his brother. He had to reassure him, that he was not going down the wrong path, and he would not become a defiler.
The book had a lock on it. It had a bunch of writing on it, making it look like a journal. They all knew it was no journal. Oni yelled down to her as she started to examine the lock, “be careful Selise, those are often trapped.” Everyone except Mar’iya locked at Oni, but it was again the way Joe looked at him that bothered him. They all looked at Oni, trying to figure out how the town drummer, knew, or thought he knew about such things. Selise tried to open the lock on the book and passed out.
Rain came over to aide her and help her recover. Oni thought back to the fight earlier and about the conflict now between Rain and Mar’iya. Oni needed to work on resolving that conflict making them a part of the team. If they were going to go out into wild, to bring the Sun’s rebirth he would need them both. Rain brought the gifts of water and healing, and Mar’iya knew about the world. Even if Mar’iya could not yet remember, he knew about the world. Rain had stopped him from learning more about it, and that was lost, but they could not loose those chances again. Oni needed to talk to each of them. He grimmest a little as he wished he had a book or journal to write down his own notes. He now had to remember to have four conversations. That was just the start. He also needed to start to make notes about the rebirth. He needed a book to write in.
Oni heard Mar’iya talking to Joe. They had heard whispers in the night as well. Oni jumped down from the rock to join them. As he gathered the group, everyone had heard whispers, but they had heard different things. Again, he wished for a piece of paper. He pulled the group over to the other side of the rocks and grabbed a stick. He handed the stick to Mar’iya. Mar’iya looked at the stick in his hand. Oni explained, “I did not want the tribe see you write.” Oni continued as Mar’iya started to understand. Write the words in the sand. Mar’iya did and started to place them in some order. Oni knew this must mean something.
Rain – “Open the gates to my sphere of power And put off evil in its appointed hour.”
Yas – “To my tomb be borne hither And a hope shall not wither”
Joe – “Then as needs be The Star Gems three”
Selize – “two more of lesser colors, make five like our great mothers”
Oni – “His power into his first bride’s hand, That good and evil then are met.”
Mariah – “When the evil walks our land again, will Nomadic princes come to Set”
Mar’iya moved their order around several times and finally placed in the order of our watches. Some force is trying to tell us something. We are a part of something. Oni read it but tried to keep the same confusion on his face as everyone else. Joe leaned over to him and whispered in his ear, “I know you can read, stop hiding it.” Oni did not know how to take it. There was a slight contempt in his voice, like he was placing Oni in the same bucket as the Defiler.
Not knowing what to make of the messages in the night, they went back to the stairs. They continued to remove the sand and stone. The defiler, although evil, really had done the bulk of the work. He had done as much work in minutes as they could do in hours. They were hardy desert people and worked to remove the rest of the sand to make a passage into the worked cave system below. He wondered if the whispers were telling them to head down into Taimat’s abyss.
Into the Underground:
The small group moved into the tunnel. Not knowing what to expect below, they moved with extreme caution. Joe led them into the worked tunnels. Rain cast light but stayed in the back to not give away their approach. Selise, Yas, Oni, and Mar’iya followed Joe between him and Rain. They moved as quietly as they could. The Defiler wanted something down here, and the whispers in the night might have wanted them down here. Neither suggested that might be pleasant or safe.
It opened up into a large chamber. It had a passage that worked its way around the entire room. A large door was worked into the stone on a wall close to wear they entered. A worked pit filled the center of the room. Oni look over the edge. He grimiest expecting to go down the pit. Inside he hoped they did not go into the pit, but he knew they would need to go down there at some point.
Selise moved up to the door. She had the keened eye for details and wanted to examine it before opening it. She gave the all clear. We all moved around to either side of the door as she opened it. The door moved surprisingly easy. It looked like no one had been down here for a very long time. This might be a good sign, or it might be a really bad sign. As the door slid open, it revealed a room beyond.
The room was filled with living dead. Ancient dwarven warriors, now in skeleton form moved up to attack. They moved with tactics. Half moved up to engage the group direction while the other half stayed back to us distance weapons. Oni would have expected unintelligent moving piles of bones, but they had intelligence. Oni had read about them but did not believe the stories. The clicking from their bone feet moving on the ground echoed throughout the chamber. Oni wondered why no one had ever mentioned that in their descriptions. If he started a journal, he would add this detail.
Once killed they moved into the room to see what they were protecting. Killed might not be the correct term. They were not alive, they were undead. So, they were not killed, they were just no longer undead. They were now just dead. The room was mostly dead as well. The only objects that survived the onslaught of time were a couple of chests in the corner. They must have been preserved in some way. Everything else that was once in the room was now nothing more than crumbling bits. The defiler’s treasure must be here.
Selise moved up to examine the chest….