A full moon casts itself across the land, and with it comes the premonitions of Halthor.
"FUCK! This is going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad event."
The party knew no context that would inform them whether or not the moon had any bearing on their environment, but there was some deep rooted gut feeling that told Halthor that whilst the full moon was present, things were only going to get worse. Regardless, the Combative Companions continued their search for Kirk throughout the mountains.
During the middle of the night, the party was awoken by a group of men clad in armor and spears, who came to speak with them. Despite Zanorak's repulsive appearance, he was keeping watch at the time, causing him to be the first to hail them as they arrived, and surprisingly, they respond with no issue to him.
"We have come to this place to search for treasure," he says to Zanorak. But upon trying to further inquire what they are looking for, the exchange is slowly misinterpreted to the idea that Zanorak knows not what treasure is, and the man speaking with him begin to grow agitated over the matter. Not wanting to upset the group, members of the party try their best to steer the conversation away from Zanorak onto one of them, but the leader of the opposing men not so politely tells them to be silent as he speaks with their "master". He was talking of Zanorak, the most chaotically driven member of the Combative Companions, and while some realized who he was referring to, others did not, only exasperating their leader as members of the party continued interrupting the conversation he was having. To make matters worse, Krok, growing impatient with their increasingly rude nature, becomes antagonistic as a result.
"LITTLE MAN NEEDS TO GET TO POINT"
Surprisingly, this somehow made the situation worse.
A sorcerer in their group tried to silence Krok by stealing the air from is lunges, but upon his spell failing, Krok proceeds to point and laugh at the man, further infuriating him. And just like that, what was supposed to be civil discussion that could potentially lead to treasure, falls apart into a skirmish as the sorcerer casts a second spell burying several members of the party under a rain of snakes. Halthor, having an irrational hatred of snakes passed down from generations worth of snake prejudice loudly declares, "Thanks Krok!" as he does what he can to keep the slithering and biting to a minimum. This is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad event.
Axrid, making a complete gamble, tries to process the sorcerer to see if the ring works on things other than monsters, and surprisingly, it worked, but the snakes were not placated with his possession. It helped turn the tide of battle as the sorcerer was commanded to collapse, but even with him not participating further, the party still had a major casualty. Siegfried, swordsman and brother of Viglaf, was slain. To think that they had lost a fellow Combative Companion over such ridiculous circumstances was a tragedy, but the typically mournful Matthias didn't seem to mind as much as he has for the death of others before, including that of complete strangers. No, Matthias was too distracted, as he had realized, with Siegfried dead, there's now an unclaimed sword that he can use. Matthias tried to greedily take the sword of the corpse of his former companion, only for Viglaf to grow furious over the matter.
"You would loot from not only the dead but from your own companion?"
Yes. Yes he would.
With Viglaf threatening to kill Matthias, he begrudgingly gave the man his brothers sword, only realizing how pig headed he was after the fact. Viglaf is now actively ignoring Matthias. On the bright side, they do have a powerful sorcerer now in the form of the forcibly conscripted Milo of Mysia, who knows not merely the two spells he had displayed, but a third spell of divination that could help guide the party to Kirk. Apparently, he was around a day or so away.
Continuing their search, they found more Namekians being controlled by an Aresians commander. The party is battered and bruised from their previous encounter, but the group is already hostile towards them, and at least they'll gain some more ray guns, so the party readies to fight them...AND THEN THE PYRAMID THEY UNLEASHED EMERGES. The entire conflict is resolved before it could even begin as both groups simultaneously decide to run away from the mechanical beast who's laser eyes leave crater inducing impacts.
They manage to escape with their lives, and decide to detour across the shore lines to continue their search without facing the pyramid...AND THEN A GROUP OF ONE DOZEN ARCHERS EMERGES. As said, the party was in terrible condition from their previous encounter, and the idea of them taking on one dozen archers without becoming human pin cushions was unlikely, so they retreated once more. As the archers cheered at their humiliating retreat, several members began to collectively realize just how dire their situation actually was.
Even if traveling to Kirk was only a day's worth of travel the group is so beaten up that there's a good chance several of them will die before completing the journey, and even if they did, the party is running out of rations, which will force them to hunt for days on end whilst in these mountains, which is a dumb idea considering the fact that there's a giant pyramid monster roaming the area. And to top it all of, the full moon was still ever present, which Halthor in his heart of hearts knew was a premonition of worse events to come.
"Fuck this."
Halthor turns away and begins walking back to Lort. This task could be returned to in the future but for now, it wasn't worth it. Some agreed with him and began to follow to return to the town, but Zanorak, prideful as always, begins insulting his lack of resolve and cowardice. He ignores him as he mutters to himself, "Just keep walking." The party travels until the sun sets, and make camp, hopeful to get a good night of rest to help ease their tired and wounded bodies, only for a group of men in wolf hides to appear in the middle of the night, awakening the party. Last time they had dealt with such men they had tried to eat their ox, and one was murdered, turning to ash, but thankfully, these men were not hear to pursue vengeance. They were just as aware as Halthor that the full moon was an utterly dreadful occurrence, so, with no strings attached, they had offered to protect the party for the night. The party agreed, but not trusting the men, most stayed up with them. Nothing bad happened, but now everyone is growing increasingly exhausted.
The next day a group of men in familiar robes and masks akin to the men at the longhouse walking by. The men they had met were for the most part hospitable so long as they believed the party was not to pursue the treasures of the mountain region, but then again the party was bruised, beaten, and tired.
"Just keep walking.."
The were getting close to Lort at this point and decided to set camp for the night on a location on their map suspiciously close to a spot with a skull and crossbones. In their delirious, they had not thought about it before setting up camp. And then skeletons appeared. A lot of skeletons. A lot of skeletons that were shrugging off the volley of arrows being shot at them and a blast from Axrid's ray gun. There was clearly a good reason this location on their map was marked, as they had set up camp in the middle of an incredibly dangerous location. They were going to die if something wasn't done immediately, so, in desperation, Sain pulled out a protection charm and used it on the skeleton warriors. They then crumbled into dust. Well, everyone's awake again. Might as well continue traveling.
Most of the party hasn't slept in days, they've been dealing with horrible encounter, after horrible encounter, and Halthor's feet hurts from all the running they've had to do, but finally, as the full moon transitioned into a new phase, the party found themselves back at Lort. Lort was destroyed days ago however due to the Kraken. This was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad event.
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