Session 5 - In Which a Meal is Enjoyed

The group collected themselves before pronouncing their adventure finished, stones or no stones. They traveled southwest until they reached a familiar stretch of crater wall. They began to prepare for their climb back down until Vulcan asked if they had swam 'round the land initially, since there was no boat in sight. Sighing collectively, they marshalled their equipment and hugged the crater wall. They walked for two days along its rim until they spied land below.

The climb was treacherous, especially with their fatigue, but the warriors were deliberate in their motions, risking as little as possible until they reached the steaming jungle below. After another three days of careful marching, the thick jungle ended abruptly, yielding to a vast expanse of clean stumps and gutted soil. The mist dared not pass these boundaries, so the warriors were granted a sight distance of several miles. To the northwest, a pillar of smoke rolled into the sky.

Weapons unsheathed, the six arrived upon a freshly constructed caravan, around which Goblins busied themselves with loading various provisions. Utterly baffled, they resheathed their weapons and called to the caravan, startling the busier of the bunch. A gruff, middle-aged Goblin poked his head out from behind a curtain in one of the vehicles and flashed a toothy smile at the six. Polishing a pair of brass-rimmed eyeglasses, he hopped down the steps and walked toward the adventurers with a look of curiosity on his face.

"What happened to our lands?!" Minas demanded.

Frowning with incredulity, the Goblin pulled his spectacles onto his face. "What happened? Isn't it obvi--- oh!" He caught himself and beamed another smile at the group. "You're the young warriors!" He laughed, obviously pleased. "You've returned. That's such great news. Yes. A lot has happened since you left."

He informed them that his name was Sargle and that it was fortunate that they had arrived when they did, for the Goblins had been making ready to leave, themselves. Apparently, nearly a week ago, there had been a massive earthquake, after which the skies had darkened, turning the sun a deep red and the moon a dirty yellow. The Orcs had taken the red sun as the symbolic Eye of Gruumsh, a command of war and bloodshed, while the Gnolls had seen the yellow moon as the Eye of Yeenoghu, a symbol of chaos and death. Being that the moon had been nearing the sun for the past few nights, the two races took this as a sign that they should war and began slaughtering each other in droves.

The fighting lasted for two days until Flaygh, the mighty Shaman, descended upon the battlefield with the might of the remaining races at his side. He split the battlefield into a wide rift with a wave of his hand and commanded their attention. He said that there was an ancient prophecy which bespoke that should the gaze of Gruumsh and Yeenoghu ever fall upon the tribes in unison, that the Great Divide would be sealed, and the tribes would retake the land of their birth in a hurricane of glory and slaughter. He had seen the future, and it was theirs.

Sargle was regretful that the six did not get to witness the tribes embracing as one. He explained that the local resources had been devoured in two days' time, constructing machinery and weapons of war before carving a vast warpath Northward, towards the Great Divide.

Being traders by nature, the Goblins had profited immensely from this turn of events. Wealthy beyond previous measure, Sargle began to feel charitable towards the six warriors, trading them their finest goods, weapons, and armor for a mere pittance. Normally, their respective tribes would have gifted them ancestral relics upon their return, but their tribes had left. Sargle only asked their mediocre surplus in return to "keep things honest."

Feeling much ingratiated towards the Goblins and Sargle, the warriors began to walk the Warpath northwards. The path drove directly through the earlier battlefield, and the warriors frowned at the sight of hundreds of slain Orcs and Gnolls, left to rot in the sun for a greater goal. Ashpaw voiced his discomfort at not having eaten anything. The stench of rotting meat filled him with remorse at how much war could waste.

Reaching the edge of the tree line, the group caught sight of the Great Divide, or what was left of it. What formerly separated the tribes from the main continent by miles of sea between sheer cliffs now only spanned sixty feet.

At the Divide's narrowest gap, a great bridge had been driven into the cliffs, six-men broad and supported by struts made of whole trees. It had clearly been built to carry the weight of war. Idling on the bridge, armed and bored, a group of seven spotted the warriors. The Orc nearest the front stood from his sitting, cracked his back and waved lazily to the party. As they approached, though, a Hobgoblin at his side shouted a warning, and he took a closer look. Suddenly moved to action, they drew their weapons and formed a phalanx at the mouth of the crossing.

"Halt, treasonous worms!" Spat the Orc.

Confounded again by surprise, the warriors convened momentarily before sending Ramfell and Minas ahead to speak with the guards. They quickly learned that they were not to cross the bridge with the tribes. Flaygh, in his vision, had seen their traitorous actions and had paid the guards to keep them from crossing by any means possible.

"But what was our crime?" Minas asked.

Sneering, the Hobgoblin replied "You turned your backs on the tribes and renounced your allegiance to us and to our gods."

Ramfell scoffed, growing increasingly more frustrated. "Ridiculous! We did no such thing!"

The Orc interjected. "The lies of traitors are worth nothing! Crawl back into the sea on your bellies. You do not deserve to die as warriors."

Minas took a step backward and drew his spear as Ramfell's axe bit deep into the Orc's shoulder. The rest of the six had heard the slanderous claims and bore the insult badly. They charged the guards, tearing against their defenses with furious determination. Unprepared for the progress that the warriors were making, one of the guards nearest the rear shattered a bottle of kerosene on the bridge and set it alight.

Due to the drying heat of the past week, the middle of the bridge rose into a wall of fire within moments. Howling in fury, the warriors created a breech between the defenders and charged towards the fire, braving the hailstorm of arrows which tore through the flames at them. They met the rear defenders across the bridge like a hammer. With practiced opportunity, they soon had the guards' backs to the fire while Torym whipped arrows from his quiver by twos, keeping the straggling defenders from surviving the trek through the fire.

Smelling cooking flesh, Ashpaw cornered the outspoken Hobgoblin who had successfully crossed the bridge with them. Snarling with hunger and offense, he licked his dagger. "I've chosen my meal, tonight, Hobgoblin!" He grinned. "Work hard at being delicious." The threat surprised the smaller foe, and he stepped backward to distance himself from the Gnoll. This motion motivated Ashpaw to sickening speed as he rammed the creature into the fire, where he was promptly murdered in a theater of flames.

The rest were quickly dispatched and thrown into the chasm. As the bridge buckled from the middle, the inferno spread to the dry grass on the land which the warriors had just left.

"He had a vision, he said." Mahog frowned. "Flaygh has branded us as traitors to keep us from interfering in something."

Torym patted his pack. "It might have something to do with this orb. Those stones were destroyed by it."

Picking meat from between his teeth, Ashpaw tossed the mangled Hobgoblin into the divide. "You know, if he's so great at seeing the future. You'd think he would have seen us winning and saved his guards the trouble of dying for nothing."

Irony was not lost on the warriors, but their mood had darkened. The fire across the gap had reached fable-worthy proportions as the party thought of the Goblins they had left behind, now with the barest hope of surviving the wildfire.