The largest one of the mantis warriors jumps on Koreth. The noble warrior, although wary of the attack, still finds himself with a four-armed, 11-foot long mantis warrior with sharp deadly claws. The warrior brings up his bone bastard sword to no avail. The first two claws swing downwards and slash the warrior's neck and shoulder while the two other claws leave red marks on his torso. The crazed kreen brings in his head, its jaws dripping vile, yellow venom, for a devastating bite. The jaws connect on the warrior's shoulder and his terror stricken face betrays the excruciating pain felt as the venom enters his system. The warrior suddenly spasms and his knees buckle under him; he falls down in a convulsing heap.

Elric's heart jumps as he sees the large kreen leap and attack Koreth. A cry of warning turns to a vengeful roar as Elric sees Koreth go down to the paralyzing bite of the kreen. Elric draws his blades as he charges toward the kreen standing over Koreth. "The pack hunts and you are the hunted kreen!"

Whirling blades lead the way as Elric leaps over Koreth's prone body blocking the kreens path. Time spent with Chit-Zik pays off in well thought out ways. As he engages the kreen, Elric knows to strike at the softer under belly instead of wasting his strength on the hard upper shell.

Elric slashes at the kreens under belly with a vengeful fury. His blade cuts with precision between the scales of the wild kreen. Dipping below a counter attack aimed at his head, Elric chooses to follow through with his most favored attack. His second blade follows in a hard thrust towards the slice previously made. The bone short sword rebounds off a tough scale as the kreen leaps in an unexpected direction. "Arrghh, Run then filthy prey you are weak and will fall to the sand before we are through!"

Elric is attempting to goad the kreen into attacking him solely and leaving Koreth to be dragged out of the way. The wild mantis warrior is thoroughly distracted by the warlock and momentarily forgets about the prey he has felled. The pterran trader, bone sword in hand, sneaks past the kreen trying to aid Koreth. The pterran shoulders the large warrior as a moan escapes from the human's throat. He takes Koreth and leans him over against the side of the narrow valley. He remains relatively calm as he surveys the scene, both kreens are engaged in mortal combat and are no danger to Koreth or himself.

As the kreen make the sudden attack at his companions, Aryus jumps back in shock, hardly believing that he was in the middle of another battle. But any time wasted would not be wise at all. Aryus quickly snaps back to his senses and views the situation. Chit seems to have the other kreen under control at the moment and Elric had just exchanged blows with the larger kreen.

Aryus quickly turns both palms towards the ground and feels the familiar tingle of life energy entering his body. From his many pouches, he withdraws a small piece of glass and a patch of fur while uttering the magical incantations for his spell, Cerulean Shock.

As he says the final command words, the windmage throws the spell components into the air. A breeze catches the materials and sends it flying towards the larger kreen. Instantly blue lightning and bright flashes of mist and cloud engulf the insect and surround its body in a deadly dance.

"I knew those beast were killers, Mendi mutters under his breath. Let's see who's tougher know." A savage light appears in the elf's eyes, as he looks the thri-kreen holding Koreth. "You will taste death soon enough..."

The elf collects his Will and suddenly, in the mindscape, the image of a savage Kirre lunges toward the beast. The feline lunges but the nimble kreen sidesteps the feline and its deadly claws.

Gaigin, his cutter ready, steps into the battle to try and finish off the kreen. While the mantis was being preoccupied by the strange spell on his body, the ex-caravan guard strikes a horizontal swing meant to loop off the head. The kreen suddenly moves and writhes in agony as static electricity discharges on his body. The kreen's convulsions literally saved his neck but Gaigin's bone axe bites deep into the chitin spraying black ichor from the split carapace. A second discharge of blue lighting from within the cloud surrounding the kreen is heard by all and felt by Gaigin. The warrior jumps back but the kreen oblivious to everything in his crazed stage goes after him. The kreen rips the warrior's body with one of his claws and goes in for the vicious bite. Gaigin parries the kreen's head with the shaft of his axe as another minor shock issues forth from the kreen.

TANGLE OF INSECTMEN

The thri-kreen had changed from a state of supposed weakness into one of strength. Just as the Jungle Spider was known to fake death and then strike its unsuspecting opponents, these insects had leapt onto his companions.

Koreth was down, and Chit-Zik was barely holding his own for the moment against the ferocity of the primal 'kreen attack. "Chit-Zik defend yourself! Gaigin Defend Koreth!"

Uttering a battlecry, Tak' begin the hunt in the mindscape, and sought to fell his prey's mind and body.
Reaching deep, Tak' drew on his Will, and created a harbringer to breach and bring terror to the minds of the insectmen. A multi-legged lizard, each limb short and with wicked talons, forty feet long from whip-like
tail to a long snout filled with razor-sharp teeth, materialized next to Tak', and let out a sharp roar.

The Behir, a rare inhabitant of the forest raced towards one of the insectmen, deceptively quick and with considerable momentum. The Behir, faced with a multi-armed thri-kreen slowed for a fraction of a second,
and then opened its mouth and spat out a crackling both of electricity. The bolt sizzled into the insectman, throwing it on its side, and the Behir rushed forward to rake the carapace with claw, and rend chitin with tooth.(DM note: The kreen's mind is opened.)

The battle with another kreen was to be fast, furious, and deadly. Chit-Zik, seeing his opponent has already lost some of his face armor and the ability to bite, strikes hard for the beast's head again, hoping to finish it. The gythka strikes on the kreen's upper shoulder as the agile insectman jumps towards Chit. The durability of his enemy surprises even Chit-Zik, and he bites down on the remainder of the head, hoping to finish the job. The kreen's jaws bite on empty air as his opponent lunges forward. A flurry of sharp appendages assaults Chit and his chitin is ripped apart by two lethal claws.

OTHER ROUND

Elric focuses on the towering kreen as he dodges to his left. Attempting a move learned from his experience with the sandhowlers and Koreth. Elric sets himself and his blades for a thrust just as the kreen gets ready for the attack.

Ptellac still does not get involved as he picks Koreth up and leans him against the rocky wall. The warrior does little more than moan and would have slump down if it weren't for the pterran holding him up. The deadly cloud of sizzling energy still enveloped the kreen. The windmage and Gaigin watched expectantly mesmerized by the spectacle. The warrior was a bit hesitant and remained in a defensive position with Elric not wanting to cross the kreen again. The kreen looked about bewildered at the lighting around his body and lunged for the warriors again. A sharp crack was heard and the kreen dropped to the ground. The stench of burned chitin and black ichor was soon unbearable…

TANGLE OF INSECTMEN

In the mindscape and smiling evilly at the thrashing and defeated thri kreen at his feet Tak' summoned more mental energy and constructed the Sloth, the most dangerous of all the beasts in the forests to halflings. The squat body of the Sloth leapt onto the thri-kreen but oddly enough the mantis warrior had sufficient energy left to avoid the onslaught. The wounded kreen, fear showing in his bulbous eyes, leapt away from the beast and was momentarily safe.

Back in the real world, two dangerous kreens played a deadly game in quick, vicious thrusts. The kreen went in first slashing madly with all four claws; his instincts still made his jawless head go in for the bite. Two of the four arms ripped and shredded chitin as Chit gasped in horror; nothing better than his own race to find his weak spots. Chit swung his gythka merely out of instinct now that his strength was quickly ebbing from him. The gythka was way out of range and never reached its intended target as the druid succumbed to his many wounds; his limbs strewn out in the rocky floor in odd angles…

Ayrus looks up into the mountain, his eyes drawn by the rumbling coming from the peaks. He quickly yells out and soon everyone's eyes are staring at the strange sight. As if the display of dark clouds with crackling lighting was not odd enough, a huge volume of water came roaring down from the mountains; the only path down being the narrow valley the heroes now stood in. The white froth leading the onslaught and the sound were nearly deafening. Ptellac looked up and yelled, "Flash flood! Grab onto something or it will sweep you down. Help me with Koreth, he still hasn't come about." The pterran continued gesturing towards the oncoming water from the peaks above as he struggled with the noble warrior; his voice was lost in the thunderous clamor.

Your actions…

OUT OF CHARACTER

HEALTH STATUS

Remember the scale:

Healthy (H) 100% hitpoints remaining

Slightly Wounded (SiW) 75% to 100% hitpoints remaining

Wounded (W) 50% to 75% hitpoints remaining

Seriously Wounded (SeW) 25% to 50% hitpoints remaining

Mortally Wounded (MW) 0% to 25% hitpoints remaining

Ptellac (SiW)

Koreth (W)

out of action (paralyzed)

Elric (SiW) Kreen 1

Ayrus (H) dead

Gaigin (SiW)

Mendi (H)

Chit (MW) Kreen 2 (SeW)

out of action (unconscious)

Tak (W)

You have about 1 round of actions before the flood is upon you. Please give actions for that round. It will probably be a quick turn around recap. I am sorry that two of you (Trevor and Larry) will not be responding but the game is the game and I want to be fair to everyone.

We have not come upon this situation yet but something tells me that these conditions warrants the following warning. Maybe some of you will not make it through the campaign with the character. I want to make this game as real as possible and death is a very tangible part of Dark Sun. I know we all get attached to characters (I do myself) but we are all adults and these things happens in games. It would not be real if you played your characters without the fear of death hovering at your back.

I have stated this before but will repeat it. If a character dies, then the player will be asked to come up with another one if he so wishes to be introduced into the game as soon as possible.

Sorry to be so pessimist but it is best said before hand. Think about those responses and how you can get out of this one.

Questions, comments, and suggestions please.

L8r,

Fabian