Seglun threw off her winter furs and snowshoes, and the others followed suit quickly. Varrid kept her furs on for a moment relishing the warmth of the new landscape. Brightly colored flowers decorated the trees and underbrush. The air was full of the the ringing cries of parrots and macaws. In the distance, the howls and whoops of countless jungle animals cut through the air.
Ralom asked if there was need for healing and small amounts were administered. Suddenly, a running woman burst from the jungle. She was slightly built, dark-skinned, and dressed in fine clothes that have been torn and tattered by her seemingly mindless dash through the foliage. She clutched a bundle of cloth in her hands and blood ran from a series of parallel slashes on her face. Her eyes were opened wide with terror. Whatever was chasing her was close behind and tearing through the jungle at a fantastic speed.
Just as the party looked up a beast burst from the undergrowth and pounced on the woman. The impact sent her crashing to the ground, sending the package tumbling through the air. The great tiger turned its attention to the party as it pressed a great paw down on the woman's head.
Baru dashed at the monster with great speed. Just as the rest of the party looked to attack, more tigers, not quite as large, emerged from the jungle and headed for the party.
Lightening fast claw attacks followed by a monstrous bite soon found Baru and Drovic grappled and raked by the creatures rear claws. After one attack Arvien thought better and dimensional stepped to a treetop where fired rays at the large monster grappling Baru. Varrid moved around to clank the awful creatures inflicting her sneak attacks. Grunyar was firing arrows, Seglun attacked with her sword and raged. Ralom caste Blessing of Fervor on the party to improve their chances. The great tiger's attacks were efficiently tearing large holes in Baru while Drovic merely tried to escape to no avail as more raking was done to him. Summergale retrieved the package from the ground in front of the prone woman. The party was shocked as Baru fell to the attacks of the great Tiger. Drovic went gaseous to escape the claws of his tiger, which swiped at the mists. Seglun and Varrid conquered two of the tigers as Grunyar kept backing away and fired arrows almost continuously. As the great Tiger moved toward the rest of the party Arvien let loose a fireball. Ralom, now under attack fought back merely moving around to allow Varrid to have flanking.
The battle started to turn to the party but Seglun now found herself in the hold of the great Tiger, taking massive damage. Arvien kept firing rays at that tiger while Drovic, seeing his tiger move toward Grunyar, became physical again and stabilized Baru.
Finally the great Tiger died from the rays of Arvien and as it hit the floor of the clearing, transformed into the shape of a dead man. He was dark-complected, powerfully built with a colorful tattoo of a roaring tiger on his back. The party then killed off the last of the tigers and hurried to Baru to bring him back to consciousness. The woman was found to have broken her neck as the Tiger had pounced on her. Major healing was needed as many of the party took great amounts of damage.
Arvien opened the package that Summergale had brought her. Inside a wrapping of several layers of cloth, she found a ceramic figure of a tiger. It was certainly well protected by the wrapping.
Once everyone had been brought up to par, Summergale flew up above the tree tops and scouted for any direction to head. She reported that there was a settlement, town or village to the west. It appeared to be surrounded by cleared fields. So the party set off toward this area carrying the body of the woman.
As they approached the small city, they found rice paddies, being tended by a few thin workers. On the far side of the paddies was a river, with a bridge heading to the city on the far bank. Once they arrived at the bridge, they found no wall around the city, no guards on the bridge, nothing to stop their entry into the place. They entered the small, crowded city. The streets were narrow and filled with slightly-built people moving to and fro about their affairs. The street was filled with trash and squalor, there were rail thin people apparently living on the streets. It appeared that poverty was widespread, along with disease and suffering.
Wherever the party moved, people took care to keep away from them. No one spoke to any of the party and the citizens took great care to avoid giving more than a passing glance. Even if the party separated from each other, no one would so much as look at them.
Baru was scanning the rooftops for evidence of a temple. Towards the middle of the city were towers, so the group headed there. It appeared to have been a splendid place, but the building had fallen into disrepair. Old attempts to maintain the building were obvious but even they were long abandoned. Baru entered carrying the woman, several priests saw him enter, but they quickly turned their backs and moved away from him.
"Who is this woman?" Baru bellowed. When he received no reply, he pointed his horns at the group and growled, "Who is this woman and what should we do with her?"
In reply, though with a strange accent, came a small voice, "Dark Sister, take her away!"
At this point Grunyar entered and pulling himself up to his greatest height spoke authoritatively, "What is this place? Where should we take this woman? She was attacked by a weretiger!"
"This is Pakat. She is a Dark Sister obviously killed by the Stalkers. Please take this horrible Kali worshiper away from here," came a meek reply. The priests then filed out of the main temple with no further discussion. The party determined to rest for the night in the main nave of the temple.
DM's Notes: The party earned 3,657 XP for the night and now have 84,836 XP.
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