Vadim is wandering through the mist...
He smells the boiled-cabage scent of a gorgon...
He goes kackle-mode and follows the scent...
He finds a gorgon, stuck in the mud, bellowing...
He freezes the ground and tries to free the creature...
Swarms of landsharks are around...
We all awake to Vadim bellowing (waking from a dream)...
There is white dust on Vadim...
We are in the mudflats left behind after the monsoon tarns...
Burning cursed Khort keeps the Holy Mountain Beasts coralled...
We see Altan running for the herds...
Vadim bolts out the door...
"I guess this is a no pants day"
Wettooth peas growing around the corrals...
The big bull HMB rears and stomps...
The mamas stand guard over the calves...
Except in the HMB corral, where they appear dry...
Like something feeding on their roots...
Khut rushes in, sight obscured by the smoke...
Lights a torch and shoves it in a crack in the mud looking around...
Squee rushes in and finds a blood-trail leading to one of the calves...
Heals him quick-like...
The mudflasts buckle in a line heading for the HMB calf...
Barruk rushes in and stands right in the path...
A fully grown, emaciated landshark breaks the surface...
Barruk lands a solid swing on it...
Then it crashes into the baby...
Only to anger the mama who starts stomping...
Knocking everyone flat...
It hurls past Barruk, and Ithunn who tries to look scary...
And CHOMPS the calf...
Khut instinctively runs for high ground...
The highest ground is obviously the Bull...
He tries to climb it...
and narrowly avoids getting stomped...
but the big feet open up the tunnels below...
Khadagan leaps at the landshark and, Raging, tries to hold its jaws shut...
Barruk leaps onto its back, and hacks at its neck...
Squee does a hilarious hippo impression...viciously mocking the landshark...
Ado leaps into the Landshark's mouth...and sings a lullaby to the calf...
Who shall henceforth be known as "THUMPER"...
Ithunn leaps in and kicks the landshark backward away from the calf...
Right under the feet of the stomping Bull...
Khadagan leaps in after it...and stabs it in the pants...
Its viscera spill out into the muck...but it keeps coming...
Barruk tries to leap out...and falls on its head, decapitating it...
Khut runs and knocks over the nearest bundle of khort...
Choking and hacking as he does it...
Vadim makes friends with the mama....
rides the HMBs off to get some fodder...
Sorq and Ithunn collect a lot of landshark eggs from the holes....
and make lots of omelets...
Khut cuts up the adult and makes a really, really nice cloak...
Ado takes Thumper to meet Ganbaatar...
suggesting that Thumper could be trained for war...
We go talk to Altan...round up his herd and the second brood HMB...
We head south to seek out the Gray Lady...
AND a sleeping landshark that Vadim detected...
Khut rides off to try to wake up and draw the shark's attention...
Then Ado drops a Thunderwave to draw it in on himself...
The Shark bursts up, swallows Ado whole, and dives...
Khut and Ithunn dive down the hole after it...
Ithunn lights up a huge chamber...
The back wall glistens with hundreds of eggs...
The big, mama landshark digs its claws in...
AND Ithunn grabs its tail and chases it up out of the whole...
Barruk and Khad swing for it, and create a mighty breeze of whiffing...
AND Vadim rushes in on his Rhino...knocking it down and stomping it...
Vadim leaps in the hole as the Rhino goes over...
AND belly-flops in the mud...
AND Squee jumps down and lands on him...
Ado gets up and uses them as a human ladder to climb out...
and narrowly avoids getting eaten again...
Sorq's cat, Alev, leaps into the launches some flames at the eggs...
Khut runs over and shoots up out of the hole...
Tagging its tail as it swings past over the hole...
AND Khadagan slides in and opens its belly...
We climb down and collect the eggs...put them on ice...
With the intent of leaving them as traps (17 live eggs)...
Khut cuts up mama for food...
AND discovers that Landshark eggs are THE MOST DELICIOUS THING EVER!
We catch the Gray Lady a half-day's journey outside of Vohu Mana
Ado leads the way in...and runs into Krokodile outriders...
Who inform him that they are STARVING...
They've lost several people...
We roll in and cook up some Landshark soup...
Vadim brings a hardboiled Landshark egg to the Gray Lady...
Turns out they've been living on Krokodile eggs for a few days...
The Gray Lady is pissed off...
We negotiate food & transport to Vohu Mana & 2 mating HMBs...
The Gray Lady quickens "Little Foot"...
Lots of bad smells, sacrificed eggs...
and she's nearly unconcious after...
We hear a ruckus from the Krokodile...
Find out that 24 of their hornbeasts have been stolen...
Khut looks for tracks...
finds that the Warbler curse markers have been bypassed...
Blob of reddish paint...
Clear tracks hornbeast tracks...and one stepfolk mocassin print...
Khut hits the ground running...and chases down a small Malik caravan...
2 wagons...6 Malik guards...2 massive 10-ft. tall lumbering Malik...
AND the carve-horned, giant malik are clearly not alive...
AND they have way more hornbeasts than they should...
Definitely the stolen ones, but only 6 of them
Barruk and Squee ride in and greet them...
The black-robed leader-malik refers to things in the East as...
"deeply untroubled"? (does he like the Empty Circle?)
Says he bought the hornbeasts for "a song" from...
Red-skinned, horned steppefolk...who lit out north...
Barruk mentions "Brands"...
AND Khut rolls in at full speed and smears a guard with a Rhino...
AND Barruk clocks the Malik-sorcerer with a branding smite...
The sorcerer disappears...reappearing and blasting Khut off his beast...
AND then Ado silences him...
Sorqutani vanishes, reappears right beside the sorcerer...
AND he goes rigid...and Alev climbs into his robe and starts biting...
AND Khadagan leaps into the silence and guts him...
Barruk is surrounded by five dudes and two zombies...
AND wrecks a zombie with his flaming hammer...
A guard retaliates...and Barruk turns to water for a second...
AND the axe splashes through him harmlessly...
BECAUSE the spirit of Drowned River loves us...
Vadim rushes in and smears a zombie with a Rhino...
Squee calls up clouds of swirling daggers around Barruk...
Ado thorn-whips a zombie through the blade barriers...
AND then Vadim crushes it with his Rhino...
Ado, who has been being beaten on by two of the guards...
RUNS and hides under a wagon...but still gets a javelin in the ass...
He tries a shot at one of the guards...and knocks out Barruk instead...
NEXT TIME:
Interrogate 2 captured Malik guards - from Vahu Mana
Chase down Hellhorns...
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