To the Southern Continent

[Sareth]

"I sure hope so," Jamie responded, unwontedly serious. "So, what will you do if it doesn't work?"

[Jack Rothwell]

Tamina looked lost at Jamie's question. The seriousness of it had hit home hard, it made the hope she was clinging to seemed a little more frail.

"Well... if Leli's right, we find the Ralkin, find how they're doing it and stop them. They're bad men, Jay-me. Want the land. want the...ahh.... stuff... the... umm..."

"Ree-sor-says." Tallah chipped in, smiling at the teenager from over his burden. Tamina nodded.

"Resources." She rolled the word awkwardly in her mouth. "Magic stuff in nature, pretty stones in the earth, even us..." Her face twisted into ugliness at her anger she felt. "Using us as monsters to drive out the yooman's; before they just used monsters."

"Find them. Kill them." Tallah said, striving to pose as a battle-hardened warrior as he did. His brother looked back and made a remark which conveyed sarcasm even through the language barrier. Tallah replied with a sentence that contained mostly hisses.

[Sareth]

"Yeah... Let's just hope this works," Jamie replied, shifting from foot to foot. She turned and looked at the two who had come along. "Well, what are we waiting for, let's get a move on! Mush mush!"

[Jack Rothwell]

The group arrived back at the kobold village a short while later. Leli stood waiting at the centre of the main circle of ground floor huts, smiling proudly as her tribesmen desposited the still-unconscious feral at her feet. She spoke some encouraging words to the brothers and Alleece in their native tounge which had them preening themselves with pleasure.

"Good work. Very good work. Now let's get this poor soul to my hut. I've been preparing."

The interior of the elder's hut had been cleaned up somewhat in the absense of the hunting party. A space had been cleared in the main living area where Leli had drawn a circle bedecked with tribal runes and diagrams clearly intended to offer some safety for the healers operating within. Tallah and Riiki placed the feral in the centre of the design, cutting it free from the pole and retying its hands and feet in case the poison chose that particular moment to wear off. A trickle of yellowish saliva dribbled out toothy mouth of the semi-monster; its breathing remained constant but shallow. Tamina stared at the creature with something bordering on professional curiousity. As a mage she couldn't help but be facinated by the twisted thing, the feeling even went someway to curbing the trepidation she felt at the task before her.

The elder knelt at one side of the feral and indicated for her pupil to do the same. Tamina planted herself opposite Leli and held out her hands to join with her. She looked over her shoulder and 'Jay-me' and forced a smile.

"Really, really, hope this works."

[Jack Rothwell]

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

Pellen looked at Gabriel with fear on her face. "Sounded like something moving through the undergrowth. Something big."

Gabriel sighed and pulled his gun free of the holster, his forearm made a sting of protest as he did. He made a mental note to check in at that clinic in Grendell when the assignment was over, they'd probably have some kind of jungle salve or something to fix him up. He'd worry about it later in any case.

They trudged on for a few moments in silence. The sound came again and this time the ex-Captain heard it; the crackling leaves, heavy breaths that bordered on snarls. He swung the revolver towards its source.

Gabriel was a cold-hearted bastard, true enough, but even he had a moments pause when the apparition came bursting through the trees towards them. Pellen, the guide, screamed unreservedly as the warped thing that had used to be a kobold came rampaging towards them, snarling incoherantly. Alec's right hand man recovered himself, aimed carefully and fired. The bullet took the creature in the eye and sent it into a slide that deposited it neatly by the man's feet. He looked down in disbelief at the corpse of the thing, then back at the woman who was nearing hysterics.

"What the hell is this thing?"

The woman didn't reply, her hands shook as she clamped them over her mouth out of some primal instinct to keep quiet. Gabriel's mouth twisted in contempt, he walked over to Pellen and shook her roughly.

"Answer the bloody question!"

"I don't know!" She half sobbed. "I've never seen anything like that before!"

Gabriel's temper was rising with speed, he felt his hands bunching themselves into fists and the desire to do some serious harm to the guide nesting in his heart. His future plans however, were interrupted by a half-dozen calls that sounded alarmingly similar to the dead monster at his feet. He cursed and reloaded.

...................

Tamina and Leli sat with their left hands pressed paw to paw and their rights on the chest of the unconscious feral in the centre of the diagram. They focused and channeled their mental energies into the sick kobold, Tamina fought back a feeling of revulsion as she began to feel the depth of corruption festering within its body.

Leli took the lead, creating a pathway of energy that Tamina followed the backtrail of in her mind, stopping now and them to cast her mind's eye around for the source of the sickness, sometimes assisting her tutor directly when she came to sorcerous blocks she didn't have the strength to navigate herself. The whole process put the young healer in mind of using a lasso to catch a fish swimming in a darkened pond. Theoretically it was possible, but by the Gods, it was difficult.

"Up." Leli whispered. Tamina focused and pushed towards the creature's mind, the going became harder immediately, signalling that the source was lodged there. Leli made a strained noise, Tamina didn't need to be told what to do. She lent the elder all the power she could muster and watched with detached eyesight as she pulled her lips back and gave another push. The black force resisted... cracked... and finally gave way to the combined power of the kobold mages. Tamina gasped as the shroud of corruption cleared enough to expose what was beneath.

"Silver..." She saw a network of silver lines that coated the monsters brain like a thick spiderweb, although she was far from a veteran at advanced sorcerery she recognised the spell for what it was; mind control. The creature they were healing was possessed by something. Leli pulled them to a halt as they neared the source.

"Have to untangle this." She said. "Let me unthread it. Be ready to back me."

Tamina nodded and watched her tutor drift towards the source, looking for an end to one of threads to begin unravelling. A minute of searching revealed a loose end trailing into darkness. Leli took a deep breath.

"Ok. Here goes." The elder reached towards the source with her mind and tentatively gripped the edge of the thread, preparing to unwind it. The silver line began to peel away from from the mind of the feral, slowly but surely. Tamina smiled despite the stress of the situation, there might be a way out of the horror after all.

A second later her hopes came crashing down.

Leli tugged harder on the strand, it began to flap loosely in the darkness. Suddenly it straightened like a steel bar and lashed at the energy attacking it. Leli made a cry of alarm and released her grip. She signalled for her pupil to break free. Both kobolds did quickly, but not before a flash of force eminated from the spell that arched through the ether and struck the elder in the chest. She let out a cry and fell backwards; breaking contact with her subject. Tamina made a panicked noise and ran to her tutor's side.

"Leli! You k? Please be ok!"

The healers eyes fluttered as she shook off the shock of the sudden attack. She smiled weakly at her student and nodded.

"I'm ok Tammy, it just caught me by surprise, that's all."

"We gonna try again?"

"We can. We'll just have to be-"

She didn't get the chance to finish the sentence. The elder was interrupted by a low, menacing sound in the darkness of the dimly lit hut. The sound of laughter, and it was coming from the feral. Tamina tried to say something but her voice caught in her throat. The creature in the diagrams mouth opened and closed in a way that was oddly mechanical, its soulless black eyes stared fixedly at the ceiling as the low sound resonated with a chill through everyone present.

"FoOliSH PRImiTivEs, YoU ArE OuT oF YoUr DePTh."

The disjointed voice made the young kobold feel like screaming.

[Sareth]

"Ooooooooh," Jamie's eyes were wide. "That's not a good sign, is it?" She looked around the darkened hut. "It kind of reminds me of this guy I had to drop a cave on once."

She sighed.

"So, does this mean it didn't work?"

[Jack Rothwell]

Tamina didn't reply, she was transfixed with horror at the sight in front of her. The feral continued its eerie speech.

"YoUr eFforTs aRe fUtiLe. ThIs oNE is OuRs nOw, aS tHe rESt Of YoU wILl bE sOon."

Leli pulled herself upright stiffly and looked squarely at their 'patient'. She kept the tremor from her voice as she spoke.

"Who are you?"

The feral's head rolled to the right as if on a hinge, its jaw opening and closing in a rhythmic fashion that would've reminded an onlooker of a golem if they'd been familiar with the machines.

"ThE riGhTFul rUlErs oF tHis LaND. RaLKiN."

The kobold's faces set in lines of anger and grim determination. Their old enemies; returned to the area.

"Release her."

"NO. We oFfEr yOu A chOiCe, leAVe, oR yOu wILl jOin OuR rAnKs. YoU wILl sErVe uS."

Leli spoke an old curse in the kobold language, the feral responded with hollow laughter. It began struggling spasmodically with the ropes that bound it, the knots began to fray. The creature's voice rose in volume, picking up a pitch of hysteria as it sought to get free.

"oUR ArMy gRoWS! In GreNdELl iT sPReaDs!! YoUR mEaNS oF eSCaPe WiLl vAnISh! NeW sERvAntS wAkE tHErE eVEn NoW!" It let out a bone-chilling roar as its legs kicked free. "iN HoURs iT wILl bE oURs! LEAVE NOW!"

The ferals ropes came apart with a snap and it sprang acrobatically to its feet. It turned to charge at the elder but the kobold warriors on standby darted forward, spears at the ready, and skewered the creature without hesitation. The feral thrashed mindlessly at the poles pinning it immobile before going limp. Tallah and Riiki stood rigidly wearing identical expressions of disgust as they lowered the body to the ground.

Silence descended on the hut. In the quiet, Tamina's whisper sounded unnaturally loud.

"Grendell. Grendell's in trouble."

.........................


In the quiet of The Clinic of the Merciful Hands a pair of black eyes flicked open.

[Sareth]

"I guess we'd better hurry then. We can go take care of Grendell, then come back and see if we can find a cure." Jamie checked her pistols. "What do you need to grab? And can someone watch Nera?"

[Jack Rothwell]

Tamina made her reply by getting up and scurrying into a backroom of the hut to retrieve her hunting bow. Her tutor said something in kobold speak, Tallah and Riiki went out to round up more kobolds for the trip.

"Hope they were lying." Tamina said in a tight voice.

"You and me both." Leli replied, and held out her hands to Jamie for her adopted child. "Leave the little one with me. She'll be safe under our protection." She looked back at her pupil. "I will reflect on what we've learned."

Tamina nodded mutely, her grip tightening on her weapon.

"Remain calm, stay aware and come back safe."

..............

At that precise moment Gabriel was reflecting on how unlikely things were looking that he'd 'come back safely' to Port Lorrel. He'd cut into an aggressive retreat at the sight of the ferals charging through the trees, emptying his gun at the fast moving targets with erratic success. The woman, Pellen, tried desperately to keep up as the pair sought an escape from the nightmare.

Gabriel reloaded, dropping shells with a curse as he fumbled them into empty chambers. There had to be a way out... somewhere...

His eyes stopped on a low hanging branch of a particulary thick-trunked tree. Could the kobolds climb? Probably. Would they run him down if he didn't climb? Certainly. The ex-Captain holstered his weapon and leaped up to the first branch. He heard the huffs of Pellen catching up behind him, the shrieks of the predators drowning them out in an instant.

He climbed, ignoring the ragged sound of the breath in his throat, ignoring the intermittent sobs of the woman below him. He alighted onto a thick branch a dozen yards from the ground and drew his revolver again, a crazy grin stealing across his face as the first monster made contact with the trunk below. Pellen saw the barrel pointed downwards, made an inarticulate sound and hugged the tree to clear his view. The feral fell even as three of her comrades took her place.

Pellen was just below Gabriel now, she looked up with pleading eyes as the second feral leaped onto the trunk.

"Help me up."

Gabriel fired again, narrowly missing the monster, cursing that he'd had to angle his weapon around the guide he'd hired. He reached down and grabbed her with his free arm, firing the chambers empty at the same time to kill the climbing creature. The remaining pair weren't far behind.

"Climb woman, climb!"

Pellen tried to pull herself up but an ill-timed step caused a leg to slip free. A moment later her she was pin-wheeling over empty space. Gabriel grunted with the strain of the extra weight, suddenly furious. The ferals were catching up and he couldn't reload because this clumsy native didn't have the self-preservation to get out of harm's way. What good was she?

None.

She was dead weight.

Pellen understood immediately, she looked up into the cold, flat expression and knew what Gabriel meant to do. She opened her mouth to make one last plea but by then his fingers had already released her. She made no cry as she fell, there was no breath in her lungs to do it. She thumped onto the jungle floor with a brittle snapping sound, maybe it was a mercy that the remaining ferals fell on her before she woke up.

In the branches, Gabriel finished reloading.

[Jack Rothwell]

[OOC Just setting the scene in Grendell. Is Jasmine around?/OOC]

Captain Rigby sat on the stool of the waterfront tavern in Grendell more than a little crookedly. It had been a stressful day and he was taking some hard earned time off. He tilted the glass full of amber-brown liquid to his mouth and took a deep draught. He grinned, life wasn't so bad, true, he'd been half-throttled by an irate kobold the day before and forced to make the southern continent trip ahead of schedule, true, he'd been boarded by that crazy teenager's mum and accused of kidnapping, but at least now he had a couple of days to unwind before the next trade took place and the trip back to Port Lorrel.

The crew were around of course, they'd departed The Clark and fanned out like so many wolves on a scavenging hunt, but most had inevitably found themselves drawn to the bar and were endeavouring to catch up with their leader. Slurred cursing, off-key songs and audible snores punctuated the peace of the Port settlement.

Suddenly a cry cut through the din.

"Captain! Cap-tain!!"

Rigby rolled his eyes and looked over his shoulder at the young man who run up behind him, that blasted boy, Wedge.

"What? Can't you see I'm trying to get horizontal?"

"Sir, there's something going on outside."

"I don't care."

"But Captain, there's a group of nutters running around! They're killing people!"

Rigby turned and looked fully at his crewman for the first time. The boy's eyes were wide with fear, his hand trembled as it gripped a shortsword. Slowly, the Captain became aware of the volume from outside, cries which he'd mistaken for general celebration sounded more like shouts of panic, the sound of a bullet being fired did more to sober Rigby up than a pint of coffee.

"Bugger." He grunted and levered himself off the seat, picked up the oversized blunderbuss which served both as a weapon and a crutch for his periods of inhebriation and made his way to the front door.

The scene which greeted the Captain was so different from the one he'd arrived in that at first Rigby thought he'd walked through some kind of magic door which lead into a alternative reality. As a group of people fled past his vision the truth of Wedge's words became revealed. He saw bodies on the ground, screaming people diving into their houses and barricading the doors shut, some people crowding around the locked portals to hammer on the frames. As he watched he saw a mob of ferocious looking individuals, clearly either rabid or insane, come tearing round a corner and bear a native weilding a pistol to the ground. His cries for help were cut off in an instant.

Rigby's jaw hung open, he looked over at Wedge, who seemed rooted to the spot with fear.

"I think we'd better go back inside."

.....


Elsewhere, some miles from the erupting scene of violence in the Portside town. A man stood before a cloudy crystalline mirror in a stony underground chamber.

The location had been a meeting hall for ancient tribes hundreds of years ago. The tall chamber was reinforced by huge stone columns that disappeared into the darkness of the cieling, illuminated by torches resting in intermittent holders that ran the length of the long room. The man stood in the centre of it all, focused entirely on the device before him. Someone schooled in the arts of magic might've recognised the work being done here, that being some kind of long-distance communication. The mists swirled within the polished surface of the apparatus in front of him. He opened his eyes, the mirror went dark.

The man smiled, underneath the hood of the black robes he wore was a face that appeared unwell, yet despite the washed-out appearence there was a hint of some kind of unnatural vitality, some hint of an energy drawn from an unseen source. He pivoted lightly on his heels and turned to face the two men behind him. They were similarly dressed and standing on the opposite sides of another curious feature. The object in question was an ornate decorated altar with an enormous chunk of green crystal as its centrepiece. Every inch of the stone was covered in intricate runes and lettering, it fairly pulsed with barely contained power.

"I have delivered the message." The tone of the speaker was curiously light, even effimate given the morbidness of his dress sense.

"It is well." Said one of the men standing around the stone. "The plague is taking hold in Grendell. We directed the assault as you spoke."

"They'll be caught between two foes." The other added. "We've set the human's the task of infecting more of their kind after the initial assault. The rest of the terrorities here will fall within the week."

"Excellent work." The returned smile was as dead looking as the face it lay on.