Orhan 2 Day 25 TE 6055

Our guide turns out to be Ahnta, our old friend from the last we passed through Nuyom Kom. Small world, eh? He remembers us and we talk briefly about the years that have passed. With little further ado, we begin the journey. We head back down south passed the port and continue on to the temple.

Orhan 2 Day 34 TE 6055

We come to the city of Nom Rul. We pass it by a days travel.

Orhan 2 Day 35 TE 6055

We arrive at the brightly painted temple. It's huge. There are people evacuating everywhere. A caravan is gathering. There are six large wagons with horse teams. There are about five priests with some temple guards, and a pile of refugees. Ahnta brings us to Jhyan, the head priest, second highest in the whole church. Jhyan is pretty harried. Ah, warriors and mages and a Changramai, oh we are saved! He's still packing but should be ready to go in a few hours.

Meanwhile, Oathar is watching the workers prepare the caravan and finds one of them who is somewhat suspicious. It's an ordinary working guy convered with Essense. He tells D. about it, but she can't tell if he's in disguise. Imre looks at him and says, "Hmmm... that's some sort of illusion spell." We talk to the temple guards about the guy. The head guard is named Vhoian. We introduce ourselves to him. He's too busy to deal.

Meanwhile, Kyrik is gathering an army by sprinkling food among the refugees. They flock to him and beg for more. The mob follows him and his warhorse around for a while. The rest of us fuss some more about what to do with the mysterious guy. We go up and Haeraan starts interrogating him. He lies a lot, so Oathar casts spell analysis and discovers that his spell will only last an hour or so, and was cast by a dabbler. Oathar then attempts to pop his illusion. The guy appears to be a woman. She's middling height, and darkhaired. She looks like a Nuyani. Ahnta and a couple of priests and guards run over.

It turns out that the girl is an undercover operative working for Ahnta. He's quite put out by our actions. Bah. Ahnta takes her away into the temple. D. tries to listen but their defenses are too great. Eventually, they come back out and Ahnta gives the woman a horse and sends her off. After a while Ahnta comes back and has words with us. We're here to defend the caravan. We're not here to investigate people sneaking into the caravan. Even if those people are the enemy. It's just not our problem. Leave it all to Ahnta. Fine.

Finally the head of the caravan guards gets time to come over and talk to us. He expects them to not have magic, just piles of mounted attackers. Possibly some hidden infintry. Meanwhile Imre is trying to heal what refugees he can before they leave, and makes or buys spots for the poor people in the caravan. Oathar and Imre get together and create a Circle of Food Production for the poor people as they leave. They chant Imre's name as we depart. D. makes a stirring speech to raise the morale of the people we're leaving behind.

Orhan 2 Day 39 TE 6055

We notice that the spy arrived again, disguised as a guard. We report her to Ahnta, he seems unconcerned.

Orhan 2 Day 40 TE 6055

We notice something coming. Tactics rolls are made and the wagons are circled. We determing that it is lizard cavarly approaching. Mages in the wagons! They attack. Oathar opens with a cold ball and nails a bunch of them. D. throws in some missile fire and takes another. Imre throws a huge vacuum spell at some. Kyrik charges a few jousting style. They close and melee commences. Haeraan let's loose with a strange battle cry. "Rianne Akatu!"

At some point, some people start fussing with the outside of the wagons. D. and Oathar try to deal with them. D. nukes some people with her human slaying arrows. It's pretty grusome. Combat continues. After much carnage, the enemy breaks and begins to flee. We try to pick them off so they don't harass the refugees behind us. Several escape.

While we are cleaning up after our victory, Oathar notices that there is another bird high above the battlefield. Preppeing Tradewind with spells, he leaves his familiar up to the enemy familiar and attacks. The birds fight, and the enemy familar dives at the wagons. When it gets into range, the two wagons that were mysteriously muckedwith suddenly vanish. D., Oathar, and Kyrik manage to keep up with the fleeing familar. After a long chase, they show up at a clearing with 20 guys unloading the two stolen wagons. D. takes careful aim and snipes the mage woman severing her leg fatally with one blow. Oathar puts most of the workers to sleep, while Kyrik and D. hold off the fighters until our reinforcements can arrive. Victory is ours, and we recover the wagons. Yay!