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Fiction Ten Little Treasure Hunters

Discussion in 'Fluff and Stories' started by Warden, Jul 14, 2016.

  1. Bowser
    Slann

    Bowser Third Spawning

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    This was an amazing story, with a great twist at the end there. Perfect primer for your Lustria based Brettonians. Great action, fantastic cast, really well done.
     
    Paradoxical Pacifism and Warden like this.
  2. Warden
    Slann

    Warden Tenth Spawning

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    Epilogue

    The epilogue seeks to answer the following questions, based on some points things I noticed when I reread the entire story before starting this epilogue.

    - Why were the warmbloods able to infiltrate so far into Lizardmen territory without being stopped by unseen chameleon scouts/Lizardmen hunting parties?

    - Why were the warmbloods not killed immediately after the plaque was discovered/stolen?

    - Why were the warmbloods able to (mostly) escape with their treasure, without all being killed in the middle of Lizardmen-held territory?

    and...

    - Did the Lizardmen win?

    Zul-K'an and Canul.jpg


    Another year-cycle of the Great Calendar was ended as the unlucky five-day Uayeb period was drawn to a close. As fate would have it, the recapture of the lost golden plaque was achieved on the final day of the Uayeb; a herald of great import for the coming year.

    Earlier that day, Canul had witnessed the priests return the plaque to its rightful place, deep within the central Temple of Mutal, into the inner sanctum for safe keeping and careful study. Now that the sun had set, the followers of Sotek were besides themselves in excitement. The chameleon chief weaved his way through the throngs of skinks, exultant in victory, who took to the streets in the jubilant celebrations. The new-cycle was heralded by the blood-sacrifice of captives ensnared during the lightning-strike deep into warmblood territory. Canul could clearly see the thick smoke-plumes rising from the shrines of Sotek and the Red Temple, rising high like the smoldering of a volcano as the priests burnt dozens of offerings on the stone altars of the Snake-God. Similar plumes rose from the other temples throughout the city as the new-cycle celebration continued past the evening and into the night.

    He made his way through the streets packed with celebrants and canals chocked with watercraft, silent and unseen by the revelers.

    The chameleon chief had just come from a meeting with Zul-K’an and the priest-council of the city. Attending were the High Priest and all the other important skink temple-priests of Mutal. Their number included Muluc, the tourquoise robed High Priest of Chac-Tzunki; as well as Yax Kuk’mo, also of the Tzunki Temple, Q’uq’umatz, Chief Recorder of the Long Count, and even the ancient and invalid Ah Chun’caan of the Obsidian Shrine. All attended save for Otowik, who sent two underlings in replacement. The High Priest of Sotek was too preoccupied with the rest of the city’s festivities to have time for a war council.

    Canul had relayed his reports for the benefit of the assembled priests, and witnessed the beginnings of the plan for the coming conflict.

    The raid on Nabar had been a resounding success. Few of the Children of the First had been slain during the surprise attack, for the resistance encountered had been scant due to the unpreparedness and corpulence of the warmblood garrison. The plaque had been easily recovered, along with many other artifacts that were discovered within the coffers of the warmbloods of the city.

    All forces of the Jade Host had since been withdrawn, save the usual token scout force under Canul’s supervision. They remained to monitor the warmblood city for future threatening activities, and to identify any additional artifacts that may surface within the city’s black markets. Currently, his spies reported that the city remained in chaos. The peasants and merchants had revolted against the garrison and the noble classes of the city as the Lizardmen had retreated, which served only to further destabilize the region.

    Most importantly in the eyes of the assembled holy-skinks, the remaining five trespassers into their territory had been dealt with.

    Despite their previous escape from the guardians and watchers at Kopan, Canul’s informants had accounted for the surviving thieves within the ruins of the city.

    One, a knight, was positively identified in ruins of a building; the second had been found charred till almost unrecognizable on the burnt wreckage of a ship fleeing the lagoon. The third was found dead by SijakK’ak himself, apparently killed by the fourth warmblood interloper.

    The fourth warmblood, originally believed to be an ally of the others, was discovered to be a traitor and an agent of the Ancient Enemy. Judging by the regurgitated remains of the carcass by the Oldblood’s carnosaur upon its return to Mutal, the warmblood somehow had been reanimated and escaped from the ruins of Kopan without notice. The remains clearly showed the creature had been warped by the taint of corrupting powers, and had been something altogether not human prior to its final encounter with the Oldblood’s carnosaur.

    Of the fifth and final warmblood intruder, the spawnling, the chameleon chief reported that his hand was found among the warped remains of the tainted one. Most likely the rest of his body had either disintegrated or else been digested within the carnosaur’s stomach.

    At the close of his report, the priests of Sotek immediately clamored to launch campaigns to retake of the rest of the ancient holy sites along the coast, now overrun by the encroaching warmbloods. The recent expedition to Nabar had shown that the warmbloods had spread themselves like locusts over ancient Lizardmen territory, overrunning ancient ruins and sites of power.

    Canul left long before the priests began their furious debate over the way ahead. Leave that for the priests to argue over. He knew they would divide as usual. The Cult would call for action without delay, and the Old Guard led by the implacable Muluc would adamantly refuse to interfere with any intruding species outside the city’s immediate borders. Meanwhile the master politician Zul-K’an would play both sides to curry favor amongst the priestly ranks and preserve his power as the High Priest.

    Canul knew that the momentum of the Cult would be hard to slow. Indeed, he had not reported that the additional invasions demanded by the priests of Sotek had already begun. Many cult-operatives had sprung into action upon receiving word at the victory at Nabar, and even now cohorts of the Cult of Sotek had begun storming and besieging the outlying peasant-villagers and isolated castles along the entire Scorpion Coast. In some cases they had even begun capturing additional captives to be sacrificed to the Snake-God, to augment the number previously captured at Nabar.

    Canul also knew the warmbloods would be slow to act initially, but once roused their retribution would be strong indeed, owing to his knowledge of their strong martial legacy and heritage. He also knew that for all his own species territorial and magical supremacy, they could not meet the warmbloods on a numerical level. Spawned as they were, the Lizardmen population grew and spawned new generations only as the cycles of the Calendar demanded; the warmbloods had no such restrictions. In his spies own best estimates, the Lizardmen of the Scorpion Coast were easily outnumbered at least ten-to-one, and that did not account for the new arrivals landing daily in the coastal ports, bringing new nobles, peasants, and mercenaries with them from across the World Pond.

    Far on the opposite side of the temple-city, Canul finally reached a quieter and less densely-populated district of the city, far from the epicenter of the jubilant celebrations of the followers of Sotek. Plumes of smoke still rose from the temple quarters, but these were thin and ceremonial, the signs of respect paid to the coming of a new cycle long planned and prepared for.

    Still camouflaged as to be completely invisible, Canul climbed the stairs of the Double Temple of the Moons.

    The structure was a unique construction. Like nearly all temple pyramids, the structure had been rebuilt and refurbished many times in the city’s history. But this temple was different when compared to the carefully planned and aligned temples of the rest of the city. The temple appeared haphazardly constructed, for the design for the double-topped temple was not in the original plan. The original structure, the House of Silver, was built to honor the original Old Moon, and house the scholars and students of lunar calendrical history. The second temple, the House of Jade, had been constructed later, to house the skink priests who had been given the difficult task to study the New Moon, the Chaos Moon, the accursed Morslieb. In fact, during the bygone attempt by the Slann to knock the evil moon out of orbit, the lunar skinks priests of both palaces had spent all their efforts to help the Slann to turn it, but to no avail. No amount of prayers, sacrifices, or well-wishing temple-construction could really be of use to demi-gods attempting to reorient nature.

    Stealthily Canul entered the House of Jade, where two saurus temple guards stood watch while the skink priests stood in the main hall, debating recent events amongst themselves. The priests were dressed in the jade and blue robes of the Green Moon, and bore identical glyph markings as the guardians at their posts.

    Both skinks jumped when Canul revealed himself in their midst. They immediately bowed low and reverently has he swept through the hall. Neither of the temple guards flinched, nor made any sign that they had monitored the chameleon’s progress during his entire way up the temple stairs. Moving past the temple attendants, the chameleon continued down the shadowed corridors and passageways of the temple.

    In silence he reached a room deep within the heart of the temple’s stone structure. The room was small, blocked off from the rest of the temple, with its walls and door completely covered with mirror-polished black stone. The dripping sounds of leaking water that had been present in the corridor disappeared as soon as Canul entered the secret chamber, for no light, sound, or thought could pass through the walls of this room that did not exist.

    Alone in the darkness, Canul lit the ceremonial burner in the center of the floor. The burner appeared to be of Lizardmen origin, but was peculiar in design, depicting a riot of contorted and twisted faces on its form. As he lit the offering within the burner, the embers glowed red, then subtly changed to blue. The eyes of the faces on the burner glowed with magical power, flickering as though they were just waking up.

    Canul knelt down and prostrated himself in the center of the room. Had he dared to glance up, the chameleon chief would have been able to witness a cloud of magical energy forming about the burner, smoking and glowing brighter as the set of eyes within the mist began to coalesce. Under the unflinching gaze of the vision forming before him, the chameleon began chanting the ritual rite of supplication.


    Vucub-Caquix Itzam Yeh K’inich Ahu’a Hu’a’xibalba Cuaqtec-Itzatl Tehetectenx Xhalanx-tzin!

    “Honorable and Holy Outsider, Seven Macaw, Supernatural Celestial Bird! He who keeps the True History of the First and Eternal Ones! Holy Lord of the Hidden Place, and Master of its many Secret Ways! He who knows the True Words, Master of the Root of Magic, Wielder and Interpreter of All Pure Winds! Most Devoted and Studious of the Disciples of Change…”


    As he continued his chant, a mark of purple flame appeared over his left eye. Canul willed his skin to turn aqua-blue, in a devotional gesture of loyalty.

    The vision took the form of a monstrous creature, with great wings and a serpentine body, harkening to the form of one of the hidden and illusive coatl guardians of the sacred jungles. Its skin was scaled, but also rough and coarse; its feathers stained black and purple, and with a great head and beak like a vulture.

    Gradually Canul felt his extremities grow cold. His limbs went numb, and he felt as though a great weight was pushed on his chest keeping him from breathing. Time seemed to grow slow as he stumbled through the words of the rite. He felt the presence of the Other in his mind.

    He felt the entity searching for information through his memories. His vision fragmented, and he soon was lost in a wash of streams and images too complicated and alien for his fragile mind to fully comprehend.

    All at once he was again in the room with Zul-K’an and the priests, watching them discuss the coming war and the debate over the preparation of the saurus hosts. He watched the cultist pawns strike at the outskirts of the warmblood-held lands, and saw forward in time to the crusade of vengeance called in response.

    Simultaneously he was back in the jungles and ruins of Kopan. He watched as his agent in the warmblood company pretended to follow along with his band of fortune seekers, leading them down the exact route he had taken four hundred calendar-cycles previous, when the agent had first chosen enlightenment and entered the service. It was a special moment for his agent, and fleetingly reminded Canul of his own enlightenment when he was newly spawned and gifted beyond all his spawn brothers.

    He watched as the warmbloods made their way through the jungles under the constant eyes of the chameleons. The invisible chameleons watched every step of the warmbloods’ progress, but by their orders did nothing to interfere, long before the identical order came from the priests at the temple-city. He watched through the eyes of his scouts as the spawnling warmblood discovered the plaque, all the while carefully observed by their agent in the party, spying from a distance. He saw again as his scouts ran before the powers of the warmblood wizard, and gave wide berth to the escapees to ensure they made a successful exit. It had been difficult to obscure the tracking abilities of YaxumBalum’s cold-one outriders, but the chameleons were experts at their craft. The warmbloods escaped and were far from the ruins before they could be caught.

    His vision was then filled with the invasion of Nabar, watching the hosts of the First Children run rampant through the streets, slaughtering all opposition. That the mighty Tzlan Himself had called the might of the heavens down on the city to decimate the warmblood squatters on Lustrian soil was only the greatest stroke of fortune, furthering his efforts to come to fruition.

    Suddenly he found himself back watching the Oldblood ultimately strike down the reincarnated servant. He watched as the Oldblood recovered the plaque from the terrified human morsel at his carnosaur’s feet, then let out a roar of victory loud enough to be heard in the Other World.

    True, it was a disappointment that he could not claim the plaque yet, for it was returned to the care of the Tzlan in the inner-chambers, hidden from view, but that was but a small problem to be fixed later. For now, three of the keystones had been found, only two remained to be rediscovered. The loss of a valuable agent was nothing when viewed under the many-facets of the ever-changing currents of the Great Plan.

    In an instant the vision was done, and the smoke and embers disappeared. Canul found himself in total darkness. He broke off his chant, and offered final word of praise and gratification for being granted such a vision.


    Clearing his mind, Canul rose, reverting his coloration back to his normal scale-tones, and left the chamber. The Ancient War was now swinging in their favor, but there was still much to do...

    Mutal Skull.jpg
     
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2019

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