Koreth screams out a dwarven war cry as he launches himself at the strange halflings. The warrior merely charges into the halfling trusting his mass to bawl him over. The halfling rips his spear into the warrior but can do nothing else once Koreth is close. The blades of Koreth's wrist razors sink into the sides of the halfling as he is pushed back by the large warrior. The hit is so deep augmented by the warrior's strength that Koreth swears that he heard both blades clash into each other inside the halfling's body. The red stain of blood drips from his blades as he draws them back, moving in for another strike. The halfling warrior slumps down to the ground dead from the onslaught while Elric is cheated out of a fight.

ROUND 3

Tak’ could not even allow himself a wince as blood continued to drip from his wounds, for the foe he faced would allow him no quarter. Tak’ dodged another viscous thrust, and noted that Chit-Zik had entered the melee. Uttering a short whistle - and hoping that his thri-kreen companion understood, Tak’ rolled to his left, placing the renegade halfling squarely between the two companion. Lashing out with his life dagger, Tak’ kept his other weapon close to his body - as to protect himself from the spear that had twice already drank his blood.

Tak’ moves quickly, slashing downwards before the renegade has a chance to withdraw his thrust. The dagger slices the just above the halflings wrist, and soon the grip of the renegade halfling on his spear was slippery with his own blood. The renegade makes a clumsy lunge toward Tak who parries the spear with his dagger. The halfling has overbalanced himself and he sees the kreen move in behind him. Chit announces his swing too much and the nimble fighter steps within close range of the mantis warrior. That was when the kreen opened his mandibles wide and connected with the renegade's neck. The small warrior shakes loose out of pure instinct throwing his arms up in the air and letting go of his weapon. Unfortunately for him, it was too late as could be witnessed by Chit's mandibles dripping vile, green venom. The halfling immediately dropped to the ground in a convulsive heap loosing all control of his body.

Mendi was unsettled to have missed his opponent twice. He told to Ptellac, "Cover me!", and side-stepped out of the short halfling's reach.

MINDSCAPE

Meanwhile, in the mindscape, a terrific storm gathered, run by the Will of the elf. It swelled with every passing moment and moved toward the creepy mental figure of the halfling, and let loose its whole power, lighting crackling in the air and wind blowing furiously. As the storm advanced on the halfling, moving with a definite smell of ozone, the halfling tried to flee but it reached him and overwhelmed him temporarily, striking his mental defense with the savagery of a lighting storm above the Sea of Silt. The elf's mastery of the Will was far beyond the puny halfling defenses. (DM note: the halfling's mind is opened.)

Mendi concentrated and gathered his will. In the mindscape, the halfling figure was crawling and crying; the elf's attack had shattered the halflings defense. The elf concentrated and tried to throw a heavy hood on the halfling figure, but he was unsuccessful, for the halfling proved as nimble and agile in the mindscape as he was in the real world.

Back in the room, Ptellac lunged again with his spear seeing that the halfling was somewhat disturbed. The renegade parried with his own spear but was not quick enough to strike back as the trader stepped back out of reach putting his weapon in front of him.

Striding back to the room center, "Koreth! How can we become the grandest fighting pair in Athas history if you keep finishing off the enemy before I get there?! Or are you pushing yourself to greater deeds in an effort to impress the High Templar?"

Standing over his bow, Elric looks out the door to insure the halflings are indeed fleeing and not regrouping outside of the door. Seeing that the halflings have left down the hall. Elric steps forward swords ready to help his companions against the remaining two halflings.

Koreth grunts in pain as he stumbles over to where Rayne is guarding Gaigin. His eyes watch over the battle, preparing to leap into the fray should any of his companions fall. He resisted the urge to chase the fleeing halflings, < One wounded man against three bowmen. > Koreth shakes his head as he thinks to himself < We shall have to face them again, but for now they can run. >

Rayne reaches out to Koreth as he approaches . . .

MINDSCAPE
Koreth is somewhat surprised as he finds himself in the mindscape setting of a tent with a child mul resembling Rayne and an old man. (Speaking dwarven) "Marteu my friend needs yer healing." Marteu responds in dwarfish as well "very well little one (to Koreth) please sit a moment, this won't hurt a bit." With a smile and a wink Marteu gets to work cleaning and healing Koreth's injuries.

The High Templar sputters loudly, peering after the fleeing halflings. Struggling to rise, Gaigin shakes his fist rather feebly after the little cowards. Rather annoyed with this ending to an otherwise fine match, Gaigin turns and addresses his Junior angrily.

"What fool, in the name of Kalak, left the gates open? The gith-spawned idiot should have known the little savages would run for it. Have the Templar responsible soundly beaten, then have him set him to work cleaning out the latrines in the Half-Giant barracks."

Finally managing to stand, Gaigin leans heavily against the wall. Trying to look as imperious as he can in his weakened state, the High Templar continues to glare after the departed halflings, still perturbed that his leisure had been so abruptly cut off.

Ayrus smiles at Gaigin's words. The windmage has his spear ready to help out in any way needed but lets the warriors handle the situation.

ROUND 4

After Chit makes sure that the halfling moves no more by slicing his throat with his gythka, Tak’ breathed a sigh of relief, but quickly moved into action. "We must move quickly - even renegades do not give up three lives for nothing - they were meant to slow us down and I fear they have succeeded."

Chit agrees with the halfling and is eager to start the hunt but quickly remembers his missile weapons. His mandibles working quickly and his speech becoming slurred with the venom still dripping from them, "Wait, let me get my chatkchas and then I will follow you." The kreen retrieves both his throwing wedges and quickly follows Tak. Ptellac disengages as Elric and Koreth take over and follows the hunters. Ayrus spots the group leaving, quickly counts who is left in the room and steps behind the hunters as well.

Mendi sees both fighters move in to try and finish what Ptellac and himself had almost started. He goes back into the mindscape and tries again to throw a heavy, dark hood over the halfling's harbringer. He sneaks up on him battered from the storm he just endured and successfully completes his intent. The halfling found himself abruptly blind. His stroke became clumsy and a veil of despair fell on his face. In the mindscape, a heavy hood had fallen on its head, and though the mental figure tried to throw it, he was unsuccessful.

Koreth charges in to his companion and pushes him out of the way, the psionic strength burning in his muscles. "Ptellac, get out!" he shouts as he moves into close range with the halfling. He thrusts one arm at the halfling's chest and the other at his feet....

The blind halfling could not avoid the swing coming at his legs, and Koreth's other wrist razor slammed into his side. The razors sliced deep into the halfling's side, spraying blood onto the arm of the noble warrior. The wounded halfling stares everywhere at once holding his spear ready and thrusting it at empty air. It was Elric's turn now and without any pity whatsoever at the advantageous conditions, he moved in for the kill. The warlock sliced low with his first swing and connected just as the renegade lowered his guard. That was all Elric needed; he proceeded to cleanly lop off his head with his second swing of his bone short sword.

When Rayne's attention turned back to the mindscape, she gives Koreth a wink and her all-to-common smirk. "What's say we make the "high templar's" show go on the road? Elric! Let's follow the party! C'mon yer high and mighty, stay at me back and enjoy the show." Rayne pulls Gaigin to his feet and places him behind her. "It's the latest craze in arena shows. All the high templars follow the combatants, but the key is to stay out of sight of the enemy - in this case the halflings. It's the best way to see the show!" Rayne attempts to coax Gaigin to follow.

The High Templar looks at Rayne, his eyes narrowing.

"How stupid do you think I am? A new arena game? One which I, who am High Templar of the King's Games, have never heard of. I know your ploy...lure me off and assassinate me! I think not, my dear. One does not become High Templar for nothing."

Gesturing to his bodyguards for assistance, Gaigin begins to form the words to a spell.

"Kalak, here my cries! Smite here this..!"

The Mul looses her patience and knocks Gaigin out with her fist. Heaving him over her shoulder, "He'll feel that one later, but I am sure he'll thank me fer it."

The High Templar's incantation comes to a sudden halt as a rather effective fist cracks into his temple. Crumpling to the floor, Gaigin mutters something rather un-aristocratic in Dwarven before sinking into the dark unconscious.

Winking at Koreth again Rayne heads off for the door the halflings headed out. "Elric, ye gonna get that door fer me er what? Who taught ye how to treat a lady?" She finishes with a smirk and a wink at the half-elf that she has quickly become friends with over the last few days and heads for the door.

Mendi starts mumbling coarse words (colorful curses, to say the least) witnessing that. "Here we are, in the middle of a fight, and our glorious ex leader believes he is a High Templar from a deceased Sorcerer King'" He looks at Elric and Koreth and adds, "And these two who want to become the greatest fighting duo... ridiculous!" The elf follows the rest of the group towards the exit.

THE COMPANIONS SPLIT

The companions have split up into two groups to try and track down the fleeing renegades. The hunter group (Tak, Chit, Ptellac and Ayrus) and the warrior group (Rayne, Koreth, Elric, Mendi, and Gaigin).

HUNTER GROUP

The hunter group turns south following the footsteps of the halfling leader, hopefully to find the twins as well. Tak leads them through the narrow halls while Ptellac brings the rear. The stone looks very much like the everywhere else in the other buildings. The group follows the hallway to its end passing by another door that apparently was left untouched. They open up the last door just in time to see Elric enter another well-lit room a bit further north. The door opens up and an earthly smell pours forth from this room. The room is dark unlike the rest of the building and a faint scratching can be heard from its inside

Your actions…

WARRIOR GROUP

Koreth leads the group around the corner where Elric had told him the bowmen had fled to. They round the corner and see a small opening that had been left open. Mendi nears the opening and discerns noises from within but he is not sure what is making them. The noise sounds like bare feet as well as claws scraping on the floor. The group steps in and sees a chamber the approximate size of where they were ambushed by the halflings. The chamber features fountains of vibrant stone. The fountains into great sweeping sculptures that seem elegantly thin and impossibly curved. The water flowing from them is barely a trickle, but once great quantities of cold, clear water danced in those beautiful fountain-sculptures. Some of the fountains are shaped like sea creatures that no longer exist on Athas but some of them are simply artistic impressions formed by fantastic impossible shapes. There doesn't seem to be anyone else in the room just as Gaigin starts moaning and waking up. (DM note: Wake up Gaigin as whoever you want Polonius, I will let you choose.)

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

HUNTER GROUP

Ptellac (W)

Ayrus (SiW)

Tak (W), (SiW) PSPs

Chit (H)

WARRIOR GROUP

Koreth (SiW), (SiW) PSPs

Mendi (H), (W) PSPs

Elric (SiW)

Rayne (H), (W) PSPs

Gaigin (MW)

Gaigin will recover full hitpoints gradually in 5 days time notwithstanding any magical healing

The group has split up. If we continue split for the moment then please forward your mail to those in the group ONLY. I will put out different turns (smaller) for each group until we are back together again. The hunter group knows where the warrior group is but not vice versa.

Questions, comments, and suggestions please.

L8r,

Fabian