It starts as a barely perceptible shake, a small rumbling in the ground that gets louder and stronger with each passing second. Suddenly, the earth starts buckling like a wild crodlu trying to toss a rider off its back. Rock and stone slide apart and crunch together and loose debris falls from the peaks above you.

Everyone makes a mad rush for safety as the rocks, pebbles and sand fall on the canyon and threaten to bury everyone alive. The heroes were instantly split as Chit, Gaigin and Tak, who were in front, merely rush forward trying to avoid the stones from above while the others backed away towards the entrance of this rocky maze.

Finally the dust settles and the rumbling dies away to silence…

Koreth curses as the dust begins to settle from the slide, "Blood and ashes! Hurry we have to dig them out! Tak! Chit! Gaigin! Can you hear me!?" He rushes up to the rubble, and begins to clear it away. He throws some rocks that he can lift away from the pile some distance, and lets the others roll back down away from anyone below. The noble fighter scrambles over the pile blocking the canyon.

A loud stream of curses and swears pours forth from Gaigin's mouth, ranging into Dwarven, and even some exotic elven phrases better left untranslated. Finally, coughing and wiping his eyes clear of dust, the big fighter looks around, examining his condition. Still vertical, thankfully, he was buried to the waste in loose rubble. Around him, as far as he could turn, he could see some of his companions stuck in similar situations, and others milling about, trying to lend a hand where they could. Muttering something about early retirement, Gaigin tries shifting a little, testing the rubble. He found that he could move a little, thankfully, but his left foot was trapped under a particularly heavy boulder, and he couldn't get it to shift for the life of him. Next, he checked his equipment, his axe had survived, and what parts of his pack were visible had as well, but one of his waterskins had been lost in the tumble, and another had burst at the seams, leaking a stream of precious water down Gaigin's buried thigh.

Unfortunately, Gaigin's new spear was snapped, half of it buried under the rubble, the other still stuck through his pack where he had held it for traveling. This elicited yet another stream of curses, as the warrior took the remaining half of the spear, which thankfully included the valuable metal spearhead, and carefully tossed it to safety.

As riled now as a startled mekillot, Gaigin flexed his thick, powerful arms once then set to work with a fury, tossing rocks and rubble left and right. Soon, a small depression had formed around the trapped warrior, though he had to spend as much time digging through rubble that slid into the depression as he did in attempting to free himself further. After long moments, he was almost free and managed to clear one of his legs from the rubble. With his other foot still trapped, Gaigin could not escape completely. Turning back to his companions, he called out.

"Oy, when you get a chance, gimme a hand...I need something to pry this Dung-Ridden rock off my sandal."

Elric nimbly scrambles up the rock slide, being sure to dodge the small boulder Koreth is tossing around. From the top of the rock mound Elric sees Gaigin buried to his waist in the rubble. Moving slowly down the rubbles surface Elric goes to Gaigin's side and begins to help move the huge boulder trapping Gaigin. "Where is Tak, I see him not. Chit have you seen Tak, can you find him?" The kreen hears Elric but does not seem to understand him; he is still shocked by the experience.

The warlock scampers over to Gaigin and suppresses a grin at the status of his companion, he chuckles, "Ye have been kind of… static lately". The warlock ducks out of the way of a small pebble playfully tossed by Gaigin, "I'll show ye static, warlock. Just shut up and get me outta here." Elric continues to work quickly making a depression around the caravan guard. They finally uncover the large rock under Gaigin's foot and, between the both them, push it aside. The warrior finally gets out of the pile of debris as he steps hard on his foot testing it for any unseen injuries.

The sea of rocks Tak' was immersed in were not packed tightly, but the sheer volume of them made for a pressing weight, which would make excavating himself very difficult. The cut to his forehead was bleeding
profusely, and the blood running down his face served to make seeing and concentrating difficult.

Reaching up Tak' pulled at a larger stone, trying to work his way upwards and out of the rock pile. His action however, had unintended consequences. The stone he pulled on gave way, falling down to batter
the halfling, followed by a shower of smaller rocks. Shielding himself as best he could with his free arm, Tak' grimaced in continued pain.

Realizing that his enthusiastic companions may very well rush to his aid, Tak' shouted as loud as he could manage. The eerie voice, muted by the rocks was still audible to his companions, "The rockslide is
unstable! Move as little as you can, I will try to excavate myself, Gaea willing I will see the sun again!"

Koreth clears away the rubble like a mul, sweat dripping from his face and staining his shirt. He could hear Tak calling from inside the rock pile and it drove him to work harder, tossing aside head sized rocks as if
they were children's toys.

Tak' needed to trust his instincts here, to judge what movement was safe, and what was not. Drawing on his Will, Tak' let his mental reservoir fill, and then he slowly started to channel that force. Letting his Will flow through him, exploratory in nature, escaping through every pore in his body, Tak' felt the rocks around him, the blood coursing over his face and through his veins so clearly. But most of all, Tak' was in touch with his instincts, a strong feeling of what was dangerous, and what was safe.

Slowly and carefully, moving by instinct, Tak' started to move rocks and inch his way upwards. Moving as delicately as possible, and moving the rocks only when absolutely required progress was slow and certainly not without risks. The wound on his forehead still bleeding, and his mental strength being depleted as quickly as his physical strength, Tak' knew that he must succeed.

Koreth quickly made small depression where he heard Tak's voice; he could see movement and hear the halfling labored breathing. Ayrus, Ptellac and Chit all looked expectantly but did not help the warrior for fear of too many people might bring the whole pile of rocks crushing onto the halfling hunter. After a couple of minutes of excruciating work, Koreth was almost spent. His tunic was soaked and the dust had plastered on his body and hair. Finally, the fighter got a hold of Tak's hand and tried pulling him out. Tak squirmed and tried to get his body through the small opening to no avail. Koreth pulled back his bloodied hand and continued pulling out stones and rocks to make the opening a bit bigger. After a few more minutes and a couple of close calls, a thoroughly dirtied and choking halfling came out of the pile were only moments ago he was buried alive.

Tak apparently had all his equipment but frowned when he checked his quiver; 6 of his arrows had splintered and become useless and 3 of those were the ones with metal tips. His two waterskins were there but one was suspiciously deflated as the water slipped through the seams. Ptellac offered the halfling hunter a rag with which to staunch the blood flow from his forehead as the halfling checked himself again for injuries.

Elric noted the landslide on his map while the companions readied themselves for traveling once again. Ayrus muttered a prayer to his wind lords and relished in the fact that the air had turned cooler, it was different air that he was smelling altogether. Chit merely shook the dust of his chitin and was set again; none of his equipment had resulted damaged. The majestic mountains were there in front of them once again.

SET UP CAMP

Camp is set up and the usual tasks that were becoming part of the routine for the companions are quickly done. The heroes found a shallow cave that served to shield some of the cold wind coming from the higher mountains. They had steadily made it up the mountain and Tak assured them that by tomorrow night, they should start their way down towards the forest ridge. The excitement on Tak's face was difficult to hide as thoughts of his homeland fluttered about his head.

The campfire was set up and there was still some left over sandhowler meat to put on the pit. Both hunters knew that new game must be found soon or the pack would go hungry. It was enough that for tonight they had managed to find some grall cacti. The squat thorny cactus did best in these rocky areas. The two cacti found each had two bulbous fruits hanging from their thorny, thick stems. Ptellac had a bite at the fruit at Elric's beckoning. The pterran trader's face cringed at the strong bitter taste. The warlock laughed but promised that he would treat Ptellac to the strong "cactus blue" ale when next they were in Tyr. After the companions relaxed and had the fire going, a small movement was heard from beyond the light of the fire.

A tall gaunt elf appeared with his crossbow cocked and leveled at everyone in the group at once as he panned the group with the readied weapon. His hand fidgeted on the trigger and a jet balck obsidian scimitar was kept close at his side. The stranger had his hair short, and wore a turban-like scarf around the neck. He had loose pantaloons, and a light waistcoat. A leather vest with pieces of kank chitin completed his outfit.

Everyone tensed instinctively and suddenly weapons were drawn The air was thick with anxiety as everyone waited for weapons to be put down. The strange elf looked confused as if expecting to find someone else, he slowly put his crossbow down but did not put it away quite so readily.

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

Koreth (H)

Elric (SiW)

Ayrus (H)

Chit (W)

Tak (W)

Gaigin (SiW)

Ptellac (SiW)

Everyone is back together once again. Good roleplaying situation set up here so I expect your usual great stuff!

Questions, comments, and suggestions please.

L8r,

Fabian