Chapter 25: Tooth and Claw

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

"Come now," a seething Cruloc utters, stomping on the forearm of the Pict as he feebly attempts to scoop up his escaping innards. "Do not deny Jhebbal Sag a meal."
He crouches so that their eyes again meet. "Go and meet your cowardly brethren who schemed and skulked and murdered yonder in Cimmeria, and leave your worthless guts here for your howling forest gods to rend and slaver upon."

Rising, he pulls the flint spear from the man's torso, and the savage totters face-first into the spreading viscera. SHLUP!

"I will send more to join you."

A louring grin from blood-spattered Cruloc greets his arriving companions, its menace not having yet fully dissipated. Seeing that their numbers have not shrunk, he wordlessly begins binding the wound on his chest.

He gives aid to all who are injured.

[Urson]

Zahra
Zahra will help bind wounds and secure the prisoners. After this, she will help with guarding the prisoners OR basic camp functions like gathering firewood, fetching water and such. While she does these things, she'll occasionally stop to look around, as if refreshing her memory of the Living World.

[hedgeknight]

Dahinna

The rogue begins pilfering the bodies of the dead Picts. About midway through her searching, she looks up abruptly and says, "If these found us, I wonder if any found Torix? Maybe we should go looking for him."

[ravenn4544]

Amethu points to the bound and helpless prisoner. "what to do with this thing? Can we communicate with him to learn more about them?"

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

"Looking for a Pict in Pictland is like looking for virtue in Shadizar," Cruloc grunts in reply. "You are more likely to find a knife in your back."

Despite a fervid desire to simply choke the life out of the remaining two, he understands their potential value and suppresses the fire in his veins.
Grimly, he arranges the bodies of the dead Picts in a position of peaceful repose, their weapons laid ceremoniously on their chests, knowing they will be found. Despite their notorious barbarism, Cimmerians understand the importance of appearances.
"More than you deserve, dogs," he sneers.

[Inferno]

The Pictish Wilderness, the World of Hyboria
Day Seventeen. Night. 27th day of the month of Qrot, 1280th year of the Age of Aquilonia







The sun sets and the moon rises over the primeval wilderness far from the world of men.

The murderous battle ended, Cruloc staunches the bleeding of his companions and himself. (+1hp to Amethu, Cruloc, Dahinna, Kiri and Zahra)

By the light of the nigh-full moon, Zahra binds and guards their two Pict prisoners. The fearsome beguilements of Amethu and Kiri abate but neither stoic captive seemingly speaks the Hyborian tongue.

Dahinna searches the Picts, the living and the dead.



Unlike Torix and the savages near the Aquilonian fort, these primitives wear masks and jewelry fashioned from human bones and ebon feathers. The Zamoran rogue discovers five half-filled waterskins, eight pounds of dried boar meat (8 days worth of iron rations), a half pound of salt, five short bows, five stone axes, six knives, four flint-headed darts, and 21 black-feathered arrows.

Torix had said that if he did not come back tomorrow, he was dead and they should continue without him. But not long before midnight, the tattooed Pict returns, short of breath and burdened with 25 pounds of raw fish, and much fresh water. (I'll assume Torix brought all the empty waterskins to the river)

Torix finds Zahra miraculously alive and somehow returned to them from the Forbidden City of the Dead! He also finds three blood-soaked Raven Pict corpses lying in the moonlit camp, their weapons laid upon their chests, and two more Raven tribesmen captured alive.

Unmasked and bound hand and foot, the Pict prisoners' eyes widen in disbelief at Torix's warm reception in the camp of their enemies.


Actions?





PC Status:

Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 4/3: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 4/17, Spells: 3/8 1st lvl, 3/5 2nd lvl
Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 4: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 36/54
Dahinna: Zamoran Southwoman Thief 5: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 15/25
Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 3/3: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 15/21, Spells: 1/3 1st lvl, 0/1 2nd lvl
Torix: Pict Savage Barbarian 4: Move: 12", AC: 2, HP: 24/38
Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 4: Move: 12", AC: 3, HP: 21/29

PC Magic:

None currently

Player Resources:

The Struggle To Survive (the story so far)
Mysteries Strange and Deadly (player clues and notes)
An Age Undreamed Of (maps and realms of the World of Hyboria)

[jemmus]

Torix, having trotted for miles and laden with the weight of bountiful but very heavy fresh fish flesh, arrives at camp. He spots the companion who stands lonely watch in the dark in this dark, lonely, silent spot under the trees. He smiles and hand signs greetings to his friend and fellow warrior and desperate fighter from the underground city of the crypt, and the worshippers of death.

He goes into the circle of that camp, approaches the bound and wounded captives. And quickly takes up their remaining 21 arrows and passes seven each to Amethu and Cruloc. And says to the masked and bound cannibal captives, You failed scavenging dogs! Accursed cannibals! And you got caught and bound, didn't you? This Cimmerian and this dead man from beyond far Khitai will decide your fates. Your taboo clan tried-- and you failed. Harvesting the flesh of others... it's evil and taboo, And so this must be your last night under the Moon...

Unless, my friends, we take these two bound captives.... Into the Crypt of the God of Death itself? To fight and against the God of Death itself, and stand or quake before it.... He stands before the friends, ready to hear their words, or to mercifully end the lives of the bad human-hunting Picts.

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

"Crom's blood, I am gladdened by your return!" Cruloc shouts, welcoming Torix back to their gore-strewn camp. "Your man-eating kin found us, but with food scarce, we split their bellies so that they might feast on each other! The remaining two seem displeased by our hospitality," he adds with mock disappointment.

With a nod to the Pict's judgement, he adds, "Send their filthy souls to the land of shade. They will burden us and hinder our recovery. Leave their corpses here for the wolves."

"Three days, no less, of rest we require before we dare the City of Death again," Cruloc intones, his presence formidable, though his wounds betray the fierceness of their recent struggles. "Did you espy a cave, perhaps, where we might seek refuge? To stay here is to die."

He motions to the Verulian woman, a second gift delivered by the forest. "Zahra has returned, and she needed her sword, as I do mine," he declares, his voice a low growl. With both hands, he holds out the flint spear to Torix. "Will you trade it back?" There is no hint of a threat in the Cimmerian's tone.

[hedgeknight]

Dahinna

The rogue gathers the items, placing them in piles for everyone to see. She refills her quiver of darts (4 darts) and takes two of the iron rations. She tastes water from one of the skins and decides it isn't poisonous.
When Torix returns, she is relieved and tells him so. "Mitra's grace continues to smile upon us since we left the city of the dead. Do we indeed have to return?" this last question to Cruloc.

[ravenn4544]

Amethu welcomes the return of Torix with a nod, and especially his acquiring much needed supplies. "Torix, Cruloc I leave it to you to dispense justice to these tribesman. I have not been able to get anything else valuable from them."

[Inferno]

The Pictish Wilderness, the World of Hyboria
Day Seventeen. Before Midnight. 27th day of the month of Qrot, 1280th year of the Age of Aquilonia







Beneath stars without number across the infinite gulfs, the adventurers are reunited in the uncharted wilds of Pictland.

Torix sets down his weighty catch of salmon and berates his unmasked, captured countrymen.



Eyes filled with impotent rage, the tribal-scarred Picts hiss, "Traitor!"

As those seething, murderous eyes look on, Dahinna and Torix divide the Raven Picts' belongings among the company. Cruloc requests his sword back from Torix in exchange for the primitive's spear.

Torix had seen no cave on his hunt, nor did the others in their journey from the Forbidden City of the Dead. Dahinna wonders aloud if they need tempt fortune again and return to that doom-haunted site of ancient necromancy and horror.

In the Hyborian tongue, Torix, Cruloc and Amethu weigh their two captives' dark fate.


Actions?!





PC Status:

Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 4/3: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 4/17, Spells: 3/8 1st lvl, 3/5 2nd lvl
Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 4: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 36/54
Dahinna: Zamoran Southwoman Thief 5: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 15/25
Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 3/3: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 15/21, Spells: 1/3 1st lvl, 0/1 2nd lvl
Torix: Pict Savage Barbarian 4: Move: 12", AC: 2, HP: 24/38
Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 4: Move: 12", AC: 3, HP: 21/29

PC Magic:

None currently

Player Resources:

The Struggle To Survive (the story so far)
Mysteries Strange and Deadly (player clues and notes)
An Age Undreamed Of (maps and realms of the World of Hyboria)

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

Cruloc looms predatorily over the bound cannibals.
"No words, eh? Maybe your mouth will flap freer with fewer teeth in it!"
With a meaty slap, he cuffs one mightily across the face.

"See what you can learn from them, Torix. They can die like men or like dogs. This is the bargain I offer."

He gives his comrade space for the interrogation, moving a half dozen strides away to squat menacingly in the spectral moonlight, an ominous silhouette against the night's silver veil.
"Remind them that I am Cimmerian," he snarls.

[ChubbyPixie]

Kiri snaps out of a fit of nausea caused by his first time casting the Skull Spell. He’d heard grandfather speak of it while he was alive, but hadn’t been prepared for the intensity. Many didn’t realize some magic has a cost. And some of it… is really gross. He slowly sheds his disgust, playing it off as if nothing had happened.

Moving to the pile of gathered loot, he picks up two of the rations and puts them in his pack, but without really looking. His stomach couldn’t yet handle that.

“Our reception so far has been… unencouraging, Torix,” he says. “What do you propose?”

[jemmus]

Torix takes the flint spear back from Cruloc and presents him the sword in its sheathe. He reflects for a moment. He's a warrior and a killer, but not a murderer. Even of cannibals. Let the gods judge for their crimes against nature. He says to the Raven tribemen in the language of the Picts, The Cimmerian says you can die like men or dogs. Tell me what you know if this area. What humans, animals, or other beings live here? Where did you find the boars? Where are there plants or animals harvest in this area? Speak the truth, and I will let you live. But the Cimmerian may still kill you. He tells the group in his broken Aquilonian what he said.

[hedgeknight]

Dahinna

Leaving the interrogations to the men, the rogue asks Zahra, "Should we get a fire going to smoke the fish? I wonder if fire is even a good idea out here in the middle of nowhere. Will it give away our position?"

[ravenn4544]

Amethu suggests, "As much as a fire would be welcome, it would only serve to alert others in the forest, I fear. Let us make do with this new found feast as best we can."

[Urson]

Zahra
If we cannot smoke the fish, perhaps we can begin salting it.

Zahra collects her share of the spoils from the Picts, and settles down to begin clumsily salting the fish. She knows it can be done, but isn't sure of the process.

Torix- you suggested taking them along when we return to the City. That would be a bad idea- we would be risking them turning on us at the worst moment.

[Inferno]

The Pictish Wilderness, the World of Hyboria
Day Seventeen. Before Midnight. 27th day of the month of Qrot, 1280th year of the Age of Aquilonia







Within the savage beauty of Pictland, a cold-blooded murder draws near.

Torix speaks with the two Raven tribesmen in the language of the Picts, "The Cimmerian says you can die like men or dogs. Tell me what you know of this area. What humans, animals, or other beings live here? Where did you find the boars? Where are there plants or animals to harvest in this area? Speak the truth, and I will let you live. But the Cimmerian may still kill you."

The older captive snarls, "Fool! Your Cimmerian master will never let us live."



"So we would rather die as Men, than live as his dog... as you have chosen to do. Unless you come to your senses and remember who you are! The Cimmerians are the mortal enemies of our people... your tribe! You have betrayed your people and yourself! At this very moment, the Panther clan joins my people and all the tribes at the invaders' fort in Conojahara! Your own brethren make war right now against white men like these! How can you ever go home?!
"Turn back from this fatal mistake! Free us... and free yourself. It's not too late to save your soul!"


Actions?! (and Torix please confirm which, if any, of the Pict's words you translate into Hyborian. Thanks!)






PC Status:

Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 4/3: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 4/17, Spells: 3/8 1st lvl, 3/5 2nd lvl
Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 4: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 36/54
Dahinna: Zamoran Southwoman Thief 5: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 15/25
Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 3/3: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 15/21, Spells: 1/3 1st lvl, 0/1 2nd lvl
Torix: Pict Savage Barbarian 4: Move: 12", AC: 2, HP: 24/38
Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 4: Move: 12", AC: 3, HP: 21/29

PC Magic:

None currently

Player Resources:

The Struggle To Survive (the story so far)
Mysteries Strange and Deadly (player clues and notes)
An Age Undreamed Of (maps and realms of the World of Hyboria)

[jemmus]

Torix replies to the Raven tribe man. I set out on a spear quest to gain experience in combat and to try to improve my fighting skills. But I've gained some wisdom as well. I've learned that a man, though a Cimmerian, may be a brave man against blades, and before the evil supernatural hidden world as well. And maybe a generous man too. Even though a Cimmerian. To a wolf a panther is evil, and to a panther so is a wolf. Because they will be enemies forever, fighting for the same food and to protect their old and their young from each other. But is an wolf or a panther evil in its heart? Or just evil to its enemies. When I finish this quest, I'll go to fight against the Aquilonians with my tribe and the Picts. And against the Cimmerians too, if we again fight over the same food or if they again threaten our old and our young.

Since you've chosen to die men's death, you'll get quick, clean, honorable ones. You won't be sent to your afterlife wearing mutilated bodies, and your won't be hidden in rocks or a swamp to deny them receiving burial. They'll be laid out in plain sight for your kinsmen to find.

He turns to Cruloc to see if he's ready to do the deed. Then lays the ancient, mysterious, and likely ensorcelled spear from the City of the Dead on the ground. And raises the flint-headed Pict one.

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

The Pictish words slosh about in Cruloc's ears, incomprehensible.

With slow, deliberate calm, he begins building a cooking fire in front of the prisoners and finds thin branches with which to skewer the fish. He positions them over the fire and anchors them with stones.
"There. That'll be a tasty meal."
After a moment more adjusting the fillets and sniffing the air, he rubs his calloused palms together.
"The animals will be here soon."

His eyes then bore into the elder Pict.
"Crom tells me when deceit taints the air."
He leans closer.
"We come to Pictland in search of a Lost City, abandoned and left to rot, but rumoured to brim with gold and treasure. Tell me the direction in which it lies, and your death will be quick and by this spear, and not by wolves tearing at your innards. May the gods strike me if I lie to you."

*OoC* Of course, Cruloc knows the answer to this question. If the Pict answers truthfully, he thrusts the tip of his spear into the man's chest, where his blackened heart ought to be, ending his life quickly. If he answers with a lie or an insult, Cruloc will first muzzle him, then draw the spear across one of his Achilles tendons, severing it. This will render him useless to his tribe and likely to suffer a dog's death.
He'll then turn to the younger captive.
"I kept my word to him, and I'll do the same with you. Die like a man or like a dog. Speak, where is the nearest cave suitable for sheltering?"