This last battle was just as quick and just as deadly but the outcome was slightly different. After claws rendered flesh and sharp beaks bit off chunks at a time, the wyvern grabbed the mortally wounded pterrax and flew off with it while continuously stinging it with its tail until the pterrax moved no more.

A large cloud of dust was seen where the other pterrax fell a few hundred yards ahead of the party…

The tall elf reacted quickly: "I think we should have a look at the corpse. After all, there are always some things to take between the bones and the wings." With that, Mendi padded towards the place of the fall, drawing his knife in order to begin the gory job of taking from the pterrax what could be of use for them.

The clamor from the air battle put Aryus in full alert. The windmage drew out his bow and knocked an arrow to it aiming carefully at the wyvern should the creature decide to fly this way. Meanwhile he could not help but feel a bit excited at a battle fought in the great air. There was a feeling of awe to it, almost making him feel oblivious to the apparent danger of fighting a wyvern. As the creature flies away, his companions sigh in relief realizing that the situation could have been much worse. Wyverns were feared creatures throughout any part of the Athasian desert for even the best armed of parties have fallen prey to its deadly poison.

Lowering his bow Aryus points to the direction of the fallen pterrax. "Mendi has a point. I'm sure there's something to salvage from the beast or at least a new type of meat for tonight." Elric stand, a bit stiffly, and follows Mendi towards the downed pterrax. "We will need to hurry in case the wyvern decides to return for seconds."

Tak' gazed at the battle above him, knowing that it was merely another act in the cycle of life. Hunter and prey, locked in mortal struggle, for life and death. His companions and himself all played this game, although for much higher stakes than a mere meal. The great clans of Men were jostling for position, trying to gain an advantage over one another in mercantile war. Tak' had to ponder only briefly before deciding which was the more merciless and brutal of the two struggles.

The Pterrax was dead, and his curious companions were anxious to investigate and plunder what they could. The grisly collection of body parts - already Scrab and Sand Shark being lumbered around by the Pack were already beginning to smell. When would the light of day, the wind on one's face, and water in ones belly be enough? No - the tall folk take as much as they can. Never mind what is left subsumes into the soil or is eaten by scavengers - continuing the all-important cycle of life.

"I agree that we should check this out." With that, the mul begins the trek toward the areas where the dust

is settling from the creature's fall. Koreth followed along with his companions as they looked over the fallen Pterax, his eyes occasionally looking back up into the sky.

Arriving at the place of the fall Elric mumbles to himself as he draws Gaigin's metal knife and begins to gather interesting bits of the creature. "Hmm, Powdered bone of the wing should hold some interesting properties.... Oh and will want one of the eyes certainly..." Coming to the long serpentine neck Elric examines the supple skin. "Hey Mendi, some of this hide should make a fine set of bracers. What do you think?" The trader is still squinting towards the sky and does not hear the warlock.

Once upon the scene, Rayne takes a good look at the creature. Koreth seemed to care little for the creature's remains, giving it only a casual nudge with his boot. His glance occasionally drifted to Elric, his brow wrinkling. He was still angry at the half-elf, even if his companions had attempted numerous times to put him in better spirits. The half-elf's actions had gone against everything he had been taught by Crel. Never start a fight if you don't have to. The noble warrior found himself both angry and sad at the same time. He missed his family, his home, and the delights of Tyr. He sighed.

The pterrax is dead when the group arrives but there is something that strikes them as odd apart from the regular meat-bone-hide. First of, the beast had some clear scar lines along its mouth much like the ones that form on the side of the mouth of any mount; it reminded Koreth of his great crodlu which he hoped was safely back in the stable. The noble warrior exclaims, "This beast is domesticated, it is riding mount of some sort. Those are scars from some sort of bit and harness, I bet my blade on it." Gaigin moves in close to examine, "It appears so and looke 'ere, what's this?" The ex-caravan guard nears the right foot of the dead animal and grabs a hold of a bracelet; a bone and hide bracelet with what appears to be writing on it. The warlock moves in close to investigate, "Well, I can't make out what it says but this is some sort of identification on the beast much like the tattoos on our ugly female companion." Elric chuckles and winks at Rayne. Mendi steps in and grabs his small knife, cuts the bracelet loose and before anyone can say anything else, puts it in his already bulging bag.

Elric finishes off the scavenging as Rayne realizes that the skin is too soft to make any good armor, besides the sandshark's hide should be enough to protect her and she really didn't want to encumbrance herself any more since there was still some walking to do. The warlock manages to get a hold of the following: two eyes, bones from the wings, a vial of Blood, a couple of talons and three teeth from the dead animal.

The group resumes its march south towards Lost Scale with more than one of the companions raising their hand to cover their eyes and look towards the sky…

CAMP

Aryus walks up to Elric and hands him the spellbook. "Great book, without a doubt. Although I cannot say the same for my current magic skills. I rehearsed over the incantation and studied the runes of the second spell last night. Seems to hold potential power and usefulness but alas I was not able to master or rather put together the various components to invoke it. Perhaps you should take a look at it yourself and perhaps you will have better luck at learning it. How was the first spell in the book? Did you have better luck with it?"

Elric nods to Ayrus "The first spell in the tome will prove useful in a fight as it seems to be a ranged spell of an offensive nature. By gathering and focusing the energy of the spell can be willed or thrown away towards a chosen target. I have not had a chance to actually cast it as yet so the visible effects of the spell are still unclear. Once I have a chance to fully document the spell I would gladly share my notes and thoughts on the spell. With my experienced gained on this spell you should have an easier time in mastering it."

Rayne checks through her gear to make sure everything is okay. Relaxing for a bit, she sips sparingly from her water skin and stretches her muscles. After some time, she looks about the group and decides that Koreth, Gaigin and Mendi must again make the journey to Marteu's tent for some healing. It was good to see the group feeling so much better after all they had been through, and the mul settles down for some meditation before she is needed for any camp duties.

Dinner is eaten and each of the companions start to speak about themselves, their likes and dislikes as well as past experiences. It seems the group has some peaceful times and the seeds of friendship and trust are growing. (DM Note: I will clean up the questionnaires and put them on the website when I have all of them.)

After the meal, Koreth walked over to his pack and unrolled his red blanket. He traced its patterns with his eyes for a moment, their lines comforting in the way they reminded him of his friends. He sat down upon it cross-legged. The noble warrior closed his eyes and began to meditate, trying to push aside his hotly running emotions. No matter how hard he tried, his thoughts always drifted, always brought back up his anger and sadness.

After a small chat with other members of the party around the fire, Mendi went to his bedroll and sat there, cross-legged. A curious, dreamy expression his companion knew well, for it meant that Mendi was meditating, soon crept on his face. From the corner of his eye, Tak had seen a brief flash in Mendi's hand, and had seen what looked like a gem.

In the Mindscape, Mendi saw a representation of the gem in front of him. There was a kind of flame, or nexus, in the gem's center. Mendi began to concentrate on the nexus, and tried to attune himself to the gem's vibrations and mental flows. The trained mind of the Elf was soon able to find a way to enter the nexus, and Mendi tried to fathom what help the gem could offer to a master of the way.

Mendi is totally drawn into the gem psionically and does not feel anything different, just a very deep calm. The gem that the elf holds in his hand starts to glow with an inner light that shines forth as a beacon in the dark night. You fathom that this light can be seen from far away and you are afraid that it will call the attention of predators as a candle flame attracts moths.

As if this were not bad enough, Mendi starts humming softly at first but then louder as time passes by. His eyes roll to the back of his head until only the white shows. The elf peddler hums a mysterious melody and his body starts rocking back and forth all the while his face shows the most serene of pleasures. The large green emerald glows bright and flickers in tune with the elf's singing...

Mendi often went into trances - the elf preferring to dwell on problems and gain some rest in the mindscape. However, something was wrong. Tak' could quite place it, but the gem he was holding appeared to be a large piece of the puzzle.

"Watch him," Tak' says hurriedly, his mind racing preparations for a journey to the mindscape, "if anything goes wrong, try and wake him. I will do what I can in my way." With that, Tak' closed his eyes and entered the mindscape and Elric moved into position ready to grab Mendi if the need arises.

MINDSCAPE:

Mendi and the gem were easy to find. The flame that had the elf transfixed was a peculiarity - one that Tak' was innately cautious of. Summoning the mountains of his home, the halfling placed himself atop a huge craggy peak - as impervious as it was massive. From this position of safety and strength, Tak' called out. From there the halfling hunter called out to the elf. Mendi did not heed the calling nor did he seem aware of anything, he only stared and hummed to the inner light of the emerald or was the emerald flickering to the elf's humming…

Tak was not quite satisfied and moved in closer to where the elf sat with the gem in its hand, much like in the real world. Back in the camp site, the green light shone out towards the surrounding but here in the mindscape, the green light permeated Mendi until his psionic self took on a greenish tint. Mendi did not seem to be aware of anything and his face radiated an inner tranquillity that Tak had not felt since he meditated back with his mentor in his forest homeland. It was this memory that kept the small hunter from interfering although he still kept a close watch over the elf.

Elric and the others eventually went to sleep but whoever was guarding at the moment was extra careful in watching the humming elf who sat cross-legged all through the night. Rayne and Koreth took their turn together and the noble warrior's dour face cackled with glee as Rayne sat down next to the elf cross-legged, rocking her body back and forth and making loud humming noise just like the elf peddler was. (DM Note: Vincent: look for a private email about the gem.)

Expedition Day 17 - Year of the Desert's Fury of the 190th King's Age (Free Year 11)

Scrublands - Somewhere in the Hinterlands

MORNING

The morning march was broken by the discovery of a pond. Here the group washed some of the sweat of their bodies and refilled their waterskins. It felt strange to overindulge with water but many of them came away with large bellyfull of the precious liquid, something they hadn't done since Tak guided them out of his homeland. The scrubplains still sported long brown-greenish grass just about everywhere and large herds of animals could be seen in the distance. No one wanted to steer to far from the path that Ptellac had shown them and they still had plenty of food, at least for one more night as the aprig had proved to be a lot heavier than it had seemed at first. Elric was still logging around half a pig on his shoulder and his nostrils had become permeated with the smell. Rayne would bring out a chuckle every once in a while as she snorted like a pig when she neared the warlock.

Clumps of trees stood out from the plains and some of these had quite some girth on them reminding Gaigin of his slaving days when he performed duties on a logging caravan near the city-state of Raam. They neared one of these oasis from the sun for a short rest when Tak found some large, clawed tracts. The group quickly decided against spending anytime near those trees and sweated some more under the red sun. According to the pterran lizard, they should only be three days away from his village…

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

Gaigin (H)

Koreth (H)

Ayrus (H)

Tak (H)

Rayne (H)

Mendi (H)

Elric (H)

Whisper (H)

GENERAL

Hum… too many people healthy here, maybe it is time for a little action…

OK, please take it from here. I know it is not much but you all wanted to roleplay. I have one more encounter before reaching the village. I will do this either next turn or the one after depending on how you guys enjoy these non-event turns.

Remember that each of you is supposed to be learning some sort of skill. Remember the mock drills and psionic battles that you wanted to have. Well, now seems a good time for them.

Questions, comments, and suggestions please.

L8r,

Fabian