The Hand gets Bitten

by Jarl Skalder

The water elemental guided the boat to rest on what we thought to be a triangular mark on the edge of our ancient map. Donning on our armor we head in towards some ruins visible through the mangroves. The island is small but thickly wooded - and no sooner had we started a exploring that two Lightning Lizards attacked.

They took us by surprise, hidden as they where in their territory - and within seconds Ivor, Ahmok and myself were eating the dust as electrical damage ran through us. The combat was short but ferocious - we had faced these creatures before and we tried to exploit their weakpoints. After our initial setback we gained ground again - soon their dead carcasses were being cut up for teeth and eyeballs - they will fetch some gold if we can make it out of this swamp. Ahmok had a few nasty wounds from this combat as well - his experience with death just a few hours previous aggravating his state. Myself, I ended up unconscious.

We decided to settle in for the remaining of the day - setting up the bedrolls and exploring the island and the ruins. Ivor found strange true earth shards, oddly shaped and seemingly magnetic and definitely part of a larger item that had shattered into pieces. Using my elementalist half magic to sense for more of the shards I was rewarded with quite a find - a true fire ring buried in the forest floor. As we looked around for firewood we realized the forest is made from ironwood trees - very rare and valuable.

The night passes uneventfully - we spend the morning healing our wounds and making sure there is nothing else of note in the small island. Nothing found, we are just about ready to leave when drums in the mists freeze us in our tracks - one of the pirate ships has found us. In a frantic scramble we hide the boat, cover the signs of our camps and hide ourselves in the ruins. I stay some distance away earth-melded. The drumming had stopped - to be replaced by footsteps. A group approaches led by Maildance the pirate dwarf. He is talking to a female nethermancer who looks in charge - he is very eager to leave and after confirming again to her that we are definitely on the island - he heads off. The female and 5 warriors move forward towards us - fanning out through the thick woods.The female calls out for us leave our hiding places. She is still flanked by three warriors. Tense seconds pass by, I try to call out to Ahmok - big mistake - as we are immediately pounced upon by the remaining archers hiding in the woods. A huge combat breaks out.

We are outnumbered, but our opponents are spread out and the ruins offer cover. Cerellion sprints across the combat ground and engages the female nethermancer, Ahmok attacks two warriors in the middle of the ruins, I am locked in combat with a heavily armored double axe wielding human who pounced on me from behind. Ivor takes one of the archers with his fiery hammer and Elessar uses his nethermancer skills to spread fear in the hearts of our opponents. After our initial setback we soon gain the upper ground. Cerellion inflicts brutal damage against the female - who fails to use her own skills as well as our own Elessar. Later Elessar tells us she was a definite member of the Hand - from the time he was an undercover agent with the sect. Pretty soon she is gurgling in her blood as Cerellion embeds his spear in her throat. Over in the middle of the ruins Ahmok has sent one of the warriors to the ground but his guard is down and he has taken a lot of injury already. The second opponent lands a lucky blow to his head - sending him out - dead. Luckily the rest of the combat slowly but surely goes our way. The death of their leader and our Elessar's nethermancy sends the remaining warriors in disarray. One of them manages to open a Rift and escape, but the rest are not so lucky and we hunt them down.

Combat over, we turn our attention to Ahmok - once again we open a last chance salve and for the second time in three days, our T'Skrang breathes in heavily as he comes back to our world. Slowly, he comes back to his feet. We take care of our wounds and proceed to loot our opponents. We strip their valuables off, and its quite a haul of good armor, weapons, potions, gold and gems. Also a pair of true air coins. Most importantly the female had the remaining piece of map we did not have. Pleased we head off towards the coast where we find the attacking party's small boat with more supplies.

We look at each other and towards the mists - we are looking weary, the swamp is taking its toll, and Maildance can seemingly find us at will. We have no exact plan except to explore the remaining points of interest on the map - a task which might take us weeks. First - we bury the dead and hide our tracks again.