Divided We Fall, 18,840 words

Divided We Fall, Part One: Differing Interpretations

The minor temple city of Klodorex was a flurry of activity on a routine basis now. Over five decades had passed since Kaitar sacrificed himself to save the city’s Slann. After breaking the enchantment that bound them for centuries and narrowly avoiding death, all four of Klodorex’s Slann were active at the same time (though some were more active than others). This hadn’t happened since the Slann decided to rebuild it from the ruins roughly a millennia ago.

The revitalized Slann came to a consensus in mere decades (phenomenally fast by their usual standards). They had decided on a plan originally conceived by Merestar on how to shepherd the Old One’s youngest children. Unfortunately, Mazdamundi had come to his own conclusions on how to guide the Old One’s youngest children and these plans did not agree.

Klodorex was formerly almost a non-entity to the rest of the First Children of the Old Ones, but now Terradon riders bearing messengers from other temple cities were frequent visitors. It was rare for Klodorex’s own Terradon riders to spend much time in their own city anymore. Hexoatl was trying and failing to get Klodorex to fall in line with the senior most living Slann. Klodorex was trying and failing to rally support for their cause among the younger Slann of other cities. The messengers didn’t know what was in the scrolls they were delivering back and forth but they knew they were important.

The Slann debated amongst themselves how best to correct the erring younger races, but the other First of Klodorex (Skinks, Saurus, and Kroxigor) continued their business as usual. Klodorex was experiencing a relative upsurge in spawnings and Skink Priests were debating the implications of the nuances of the latest spawning of Skinks.

Two Skink priests were discussing minutiae about the markings of the scales of the new spawning’s largest member. The new Skinks were already moved into a barrio, but two of the priests remained nearly twelve hours after the small sized spawning emerged. Arguing well into dusk, most of the city was settling down. The scribe with them was struggling to keep his eyes open. Trying to distract himself from the academic argument, he let his mind wander. He noticed the rippling in the pool while the two priests were absorbed in their discussion.

“High Ones….Look at the water!”

A single Skink emerged, noticeably taller than most.

One priest began asking rapid questions more to himself than to his peer.

“Is this a lone spawning or this an extension of the spawning this morning? What are the implications of a dusk spawning? He seems a bit small for a Skink Chief. Perhaps he will be a priest but I see no marking of Tepok.”
“Silence! His back—the mottling. Kaitar had that pattern too! This Skink will surely be a great leader!”

For months to come, The lesser First of Klodorex were consumed by debates over the implications of the markings of the Skink now named Zat-kai. Unbeknown to them, the Slann were consumed with debates over the fate of the world itself.

Divided We Fall, Part Two: Tests

Zat-kai’s muscles ached fighting the current of one of the Amaxon’s many tributaries, but he refused to slow down. Only two swimmers were ahead of him. He was slowly gaining on the two leaders. The river was getting rockier. As Zat-kai was closing the distance on the second placed Skink, he saw said Skink swim into a large rock. Zat-kai couldn’t see well enough to tell which Skink it was but he had the light blue coloration of the worker caste. He was dazed and sputtering but was not in serious danger so Zat-kai did not pause to help him. He was going to win the race!

He gained enough on the leader to recognize his base coloration. The leader had the dark green scales with a dark red crest similar to his own. That meant he was of the beast caste, and therefore he was probably Belrikt. As Zat-kai closed in on him, the leading Skink turned around and looked to see who was gaining on him. Belrikt’s face was clearly visible, a mixture of surprise and amusement. Belrikt sped up and put additional distance between them. Zat-kai attempted to speed up as well but he was too tired to do so. He passed the Skink scribe along the side of the river and finished second barely staying ahead of another Skink who had nearly caught up to him in the last few yards.

Zat-kai clambered onto the banks of the river panting while the Skink who finished third did likewise. He was Veklay of the Sotek caste.

“Good…swim…Zat-kai.” Veklay panted.
“Thanks” Zat-kai mouthed back
“Yeah, second place is your personal best brother!” Belrikt answered down. Belrikt had already regained his feet and didn’t seem nearly as tired as the other two. Mahrlect! Is anything ever hard for him to do?" His words were polite and encouraging, but his expression was far too smug for Zat-kai’s taste. The three of them and the various observers watched the other Skink leaders exiting the water. Worker caste Skinks observing began distributing gourds of food to the tired marathon swimmers.

Second place was Zat-kai’s personal best in any contest with the Skinks of his city. Fourth in the last foot race was his old personal best. Fifth in the city in blowpipe marksmanship. Seventh with javelins. Tenth in brute strength. The list goes on. Belrikt never placed in anything less than top three in any contest. Belrikt was the first beast caste Skink leader in a very long time who could consistently outperform the Sotek caste in physical contests. Zat-kai represented his caste fairly well. Any other Skink would be content with his performance but Zat-kai was not any other Skink. The whole city expected him to be the embodiment of Kaitar’s legacy, a Saurus who saved the city in their time of greatest need. Anything less than the best felt like failure to Zat-kai. His abilities were well above most Skinks, but compared to other Skink chiefs he struggled to break into the middle of the pack.

“Belrikt is the winner and has earned the right to lead the patrol to the geyser fields!” a scribe proclaimed.
“Thank you, I choose Veklay as my second” Belrikt replied.
“But he got third place in the race!” Zat-kai spouted indignantly.
“We don’t need two beast caste Skinks on this expedition, brother.”

He turned to address Veklay.

“We will need your ferocity cousin.”

Several pairs of gold eyes on the shore darted towards Zat-kai to see how he would react.

“It’s okay, I need you to help our caste brothers capture some live prey. If the new Carnosaur hatchling doesn’t get some real hunting practice to work out some pent up aggression, the next mishap we have with it will be lethal.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

One nice things about beast tending is they weren’t any formal contests for Zat-kai to lose. Zat-kai didn’t feel like the whole city was scrutinizing his destiny whenever he performed his normal duties.

There was still an informal pecking order. There was stories of legendary beast caste Skinks in the past having various beasts automatically submit. Zat-kai was a competent trainer and keeper, but his skills were hardly legendary. Once again he was unremarkable despite his prestigious marking. Possibly slightly behind Belrikt. Belrikt wasn’t the king of the pond among his own caste like he was among the general Skink population, but his skills were still noticeably above average. Tending to the beasts depended on experience and learned knowledge as much if not more so than instinct and raw talent. As the beast castes had the highest peace-time attrition rate, those with the most status in the caste were usually the eldest Skinks, even those not born to be chiefs. Zat-kai watched his charge feeding along with one of the elders of the caste. He and Gerlit looking down into a pen from a safe distance above

A Saurus-sized Carnosaur roared her triumph to the heavens, shaking the walls of the pen before messily crunching on the bones of the freshly fallen prey. The as of yet unnamed Carnosaur hatchling seemed to have a clear fondness for marrow.

“I was hoping that the tallisaurus we threw in would sustain the hatchling for a week, but at this rate I’m guessing we’ll need to throw in our second one into the pen a lot sooner than that.” Gerlit mused.
“I don’t why you insist on watching all the feedings given your…circumstances.” Zat-kai asked his elder.
“My foot will grow back in a week, two at the most. Seems like yesterday I didn’t have my knee. You don’t how good you have it. Back when I was your age the Slann weren’t attentive enough to bother regenerating our lost limbs. Besides the more I study her technique the easier she will be to dodge the next time.”
“It’s frustrating”
“Bah! It’s miraculous how few handlers we lost with this one! When I was your age, there was this Stegadon—”
“I’m not upset about the Carnosaur. It’s me. Everyone’s eyes are always on me. I’m supposed to have a great destiny and I never do anything. I hear the whispers from the other First. That I got the same markings of the old savior of our city, but haven’t shown any potential. Some say my markings were just there to point to Belrikt. That as the last born of the spawning my marks are only there to highlight Belrikt’s destiny. I—”
“Kaitar started out as a nobody—”
“Great! So I’m a nobody….”
“That’s not what I meant. Kaitar surprised everyone. If you do what’s expected of you then you can’t surprise us. Maybe you should try the Trials again.”

The Trials were what was used to initiate Skinks believed to be potential candidates for being priests. Zat-kai unconsciously examined his abdomen, grateful that the bite marks were gone. It was awe inspiring to witness a Slann’s power. He just wished he could have witnessed Lord Laershin use his magic to do something other than stitch Zat-kai’s ruined body together.

“Yeah I’m sure the crocodiles will recognize me as their master the second time around. I’m sure they will be scared to bite me now that they know how stringy my flesh is.”
“No, take the Heavens Trials.”
“What? I’m a beast caste Skink! If I was to show magical aptitude, it would be with the beasts.”
“If you truly hold Kaitar’s legacy it means you’ll do something no one is expecting.”
“I could always tame a Ripperdactyl…no one is expecting that.”
“Let the larger temple cities do that. I asked a messenger from Hexotl about their Ripperdactlyl training. They lose more handlers training Ripperdactlys than all other beasts combined. We don’t have enough Skinks to spare here in Klodorex.”
“I can’t believe I’m hearing this from you?” Zat-kai took on an exaggeratedly wheezy voice, ‘Back when I was your age, we got ripped into little pieces twice before lunch and we LIKED it.’”
“Suicide can be your back up plan. Take the Trials. A failure at the trials will hurt far less than a success at Ripperdactyl training”

* * * * * * *

Zat-kai gazed up at the stars hoping for a sign of some sort. He tried to focus on the mysterious will of the Old Ones written in the sky. He didn’t want to focus on how hungry he was and how much he was looking forward to breaking his fast. He had never been out this far from the city alone before. He didn’t want to think about how long it would take him to find his way back to the city. He really didn’t want to focus on how many predators came out at night.

Dawn broke, the last night of Zat-kai’s supposed vision quest was over. Miraculously he made it back to the city without being eaten. Even more miraculous he managed to get back without giving into temptation to break his fast early given the fact that he used food sources as landmarks to find his way back. I remember I saw a monkey eating grubs here. Don’t stop for grubs….I remember I saw a fish jump out of a pond here. Don’t stop to fish. He did not feel confident that he was sufficiently purified in thought and spirit to enter the Temple of the Stars. Zat-kai hoped he wouldn’t be driven irredeemably insane there. Or worse, have nothing happen at all while there.

Zat-kai was surprised that none other than Karalis, the elderly High Skink, was waiting to escort him into the inner chamber.

“If you are properly cleansed by your sojourn, the Will of the Old Ones will be manifest in here.”
“How long do I go in there for?”
“The test requires that you do not know. I will send someone for you when the time is right.”

* * * * * * *

Zat-kai sat alone in the dark hungry and confused. A part from a small well in the center for water the chamber was completely empty. He didn’t know if he was in the dark chamber for an hour or a week. I guess it’s supposed to mess with your sense of time he thought. He wasn’t sure if he should try to concentrate heavily on the Will of the Old Ones or try empty their minds to make way for the Old Ones to fill his mind and spirit. Zat-kai alternatively tried both and dwelled in the darkness for what seemed like an eternity.

* * * * * * *

Zat-kai woke gagging on the strong smell of rot flower nectar. Sputtering he sat up and found himself on a cot in an infirmary. The nectar was a common remedy to awaken those passed out. He was ravenously hungry. Zat-kai was about to ask for food when a large grub was put in his mouth. It took all the restraint he had not to eat the fingers of his feeder too. I wonder if the Salamanders I feed feel like this every day? Once the rumble in his stomach quieted down from a roar to a growl, he took measure of his surroundings. There was a junior Skink Priest watching over him as one worker caste Skink (presumably a healer) with a large quantity of food. A scribe was waiting patiently behind the Priest, his arms full of scrolls.
“What happened?”
“The High Skink sent me to bring you out of the chamber when he sensed you passed out during your fourth day in the chamber.”
“Great, so I failed.”
“Most who undertake the Trials suffer hardships first. As counter intuitive as that is, passing out may be a good sign. Did you get a vision from the Old Ones?”
“Do the Old Ones send visions of empty darkness?”
“No”
"Then I guess I failed."

The priest sighed.

“I am not sure if you passed or failed.”

The priest asked Zat-kai a battery of questions based on the transcriptions of subtler signs of past Skink priests during their trials. Hours passed and the priest had exhausted all the scrolls his assistant brought.

“It seems you did fail, Zat-Kai of the beast caste. Most who undertake the Trials do not succeed. It is no shame to not pass the Trials. Your role for the Old One’s plan is different than mine”

While the healers advised he stay in the infirmary longer, Zat-kai hobbled out as soon as he ate his fill. Zat-kai believed the Skink priest was sincere but that did not reassure him. He failed yet another test to live up to the hype of his prestigious spawning.

As he walked into the city proper he heard a slow rumbling increase in volume. The city was celebrating. Praising the good fortune the Old Ones was giving the city. The last time Zat-kai saw a celebration like that they were commemorating the most recent Skink Priest who past the Trials. I hope they were not misinformed the city about my Trials. Mahrlect that would be embarrassing! “Sorry false alarm, no blessings of the Old Ones for us today, I washed out.” A voice called out to him, fortunately not mentioning the Trials

“Have you heard the good news that happened while you were in the infirmary?”

It was Belrikt. Zat-kai could never tell if his older brother was being encouraging or patronizing. If he’s making fun for me for failing my Trials…

“We’ve had a spawning of Chameleon Skinks! Thirty-five, our largest spawning of the Hidden Ones ever.”
“Oh….that’s great news…”

Zat-kai felt ashamed that he thought the celebrations were just there to embarrass him. Klodorex had not had any Chameleon Skinks since the Keeper of Secrets, Darfiel eradicated the last of the city’s Hidden Ones during the Battle of Kaitar’s Stand.

“Sorry about your Trials. It took real guts to volunteer for a second one.”

Zat-kai winced but tried to put on a brave face.

“No biggie, we all have a role to play. I didn’t know your patrol was back so early. Anything interesting happen?”
“No, that why it was so short. It seems that the Orcs and Goblins of the wasteland have not re-spawned since Kaitar’s army purged them. I feel like an unworthy servant of the Old Ones. Instead of being happy there are fewer Anathama to kill I feel a sense of boredom from a lack of challenging tasks.”

He wasn’t really upset, he grinned to show he was making a small joke.

You are feeling bored? Welcome to my world.
“You remember the story of the lacrey beetle that yearned for adventure?”
“All the priests talking animal fables end the same: ‘and then he got eaten’”

Zat-kai forced a laugh then excused himself to attend the celebrations though he was not in the mood to celebrate the city’s good fortune in the wake of his recent failure.

Over the next few days, Zat-kai tried to lose himself in work. He still was weak from his long fast, so the caste elders politely directed Zat-kai towards fairly simple tasks. Klodorex’s residents hunted or foraged for the bulk of their supplies, but a few creatures were cultivated if they were relatively easy to raise safely and had useful properties. Zat-kai was sent to dump some of the collected vermin to feed the der’lethti. Deralethi are spiders roughly as wide as a human hand.

Deralethi loosely translates into “paradox spiders.” So named because their poison was unique of all the known poisons in Lustria. By itself it led to painful paralysis but it reacted uniquely with most other poisons neutralizing itself and the other poisons it came into contact with. The spiders evolved this way so they could prey on creatures too poisonous for other predators). A poison that heals poison other poisons.

Zat-kai saw a spider biting a frog half before consuming each peace. His memories drifted to when he was bitten in half in first Trials. I guess a long fast wasn’t so bad compared to that. That night he had nightmares were he relived his first failed attempt at the Trials. The visions repeated every night since his second Trials. He kept reliving when he was bit in half and magically stitched together.

He used to have even Sauri watching where he went but the Sauri lost interest. Lord Laershin, the city’s youngest Slann watched his first attempt to see if he was destined to be a priest. The Second Trial, the High Skink didn’t even see him through the whole way through. Many people in the city had lost faith that Zat-kai had a great destiny since he was first spawned. Now Zat-kai was one of those people.
After weeks of suffering through this, his nightmares changed. Zat-kai saw a living Slann wearing a funerary mask. The Slann was ripped in half by an unseen force. Zat-kai was struggling to put the Slann back together. He realized this healing was far beyond him and woke up in despair.

Divided We Fall, Part Three: the Lost City of Yalthera

A larger crowd than usual watched the young Carnosaur feeding today. This was to be the first day the Scar Veteran Nurak would meet his future mount. The handlers decided to name her Bone-Cracker after her favorite food. Several visiting Saurus warriors roared their approval as the Carnosaur disemboweled the latest live prey the handlers threw into the pen. The beast caste Skinks were fairly busy catching live prey these days. Gerlit turned to Zat-kai as Bone-Cracker tore apart her kill searching for her favorite delicacy of fresh marrow.

“You know what little Bone-Cracker needs? A good fight with another predator. Do you think we could catch a bear large enough to challenge her? Warm blooded beasts are always nice and scrappy.”
“What? Oh. A bear, okay.”
“Focus, boy.”

Once Bone-Cracker was showing the first signs of the killing frenzy ebbing and meat drunkenness setting in, Nurak was allowed into the pen. Nurak seemed wholly indifferent to the danger of the task he was doing. Typical Saurus.

The Saurus took a chunk of Bone-Cracker’s recent kill and ate it in plain view. Though she was already full this was a clear predator’s challenge. The young Carnosaur rushed forward to defend her klll. Though Nurak entered the chamber armed at the Skink’s insistence, he proceeded to pummel the young Carnosaur into submission with his hands and teeth alone. The observing Skinks and Sauri cheered him on.

* * * * * * *

Zat-kai sat alone absent mindedly munching on a piece of fruit in a chamber humans would call a mess hall if mess halls had pits of live bugs in them. Gerlit came in rather exuberantly. For an elderly Skink he was moving with exaggerated zest. Nothing like temporarily amputation to make you appreciate having two legs.

“You seem more worn down than a rylok on its final journey, Zat-kai.”
“I’m fine—”

Impulsively Zat-kai decided to stop lying and told Gerlit about his visions entirely.

“I think it’s just me beating myself up over the failed Trials.”
“You shouldn’t beat yourself up about it. It’s an honor to even be allowed to take the Trials and you did it twice.”
“Tell that to my dreams of failure.”
“I don’t think they are just dreams.”

Gerlit and Zat-kai turned to the new unexpected speaker. The mighty Scar Veteran looked down on the two Skinks. It was fairly uncommon for a Saurus to address Skinks outside of the battlefield.

“Kaitar had visions too. You have his marks. Talk to the High Skinks. Find out what lies they are not telling us, then you might be able to help us fix them.”
“Who said the High Skinks are lying?”
“They lied to us about the Slann’s disappearance last time, now you have a vision of a Slann in danger.”
“I don’t want to go back to the priests. It’s bad enough failing two Trials.”

Before Zat-Kai could react, Nurak charged him and lifted him into the air and pinned him against the wall.

“I am sick of hearing what Skinks WON’T do,” the Scar Veteran roared at the trembling Skink.
“I—”
“Find out what the visions mean or I’ll give you real nightmares.”
Nurak dropped Zat-Kai unceremoniously on the floor and stormed out. Gerlit grinned.
“You know what I like about Sauri? Their fantastic diplomatic skills!”

* * * * * * *
Zat-Kai told one of the priests' attendants why he came. Surprisingly he was met by the High Skink himself as well as three junior priests.

“Describe your vision to us please so that we may discern the Will of the Old Ones.”
“Nurak said you would not want to hear it.” Zat-kai said incredulously.
“I do not wish to hear it, but I must. I caused great damage by ignoring Kaitar’s visions. I will not let my pride blind me to danger again. Better to listen to a petty nightmare than to ignore a genuine vision. I bid you to speak.”

Zat-kai described his visions in full. The Skink Priests grew agitated. One of the acolytes spoke up.

“High One, sometimes Skinks dream to sort through their own struggles. Perhaps this is just a metaphor for his current struggles under weighty expectations.”
“Silence, I will not hide in denial.” Korallis spoke to his subordinate.
“Follow.”

He pointed to Zat-kai and they proceeded towards the pyramid where Lord Desserex normally dwelled.

Zat-kai was too awed by being in the august presence of Lord Desserex to become bored by the lengthy honorifics. After the High Skink relayed Zat-kai’s vision. The entire Skink delegation waited expectantly for an hour before the Slann spoke. Finally Desserex let loose a long croak. Zat-kai was never taught the language of the Slann, normally only High Skinks, Slann attendants and scribes were taught the Slann’s tongue. Once more the High Skink directed Zat-kai to follow.

This time they went to the archives. The golden plaques themselves were locked up under heavy guard. In fact, Klodorex did not actually have any sacred plaques in their keeping. The First did make copies of the messages on papyrus. The archives were one of the few buildings in the city that one could describe as being dry. Despite this, the scrolls still needed to be re-transcribed over and over again as soon as the scrolls began to show wear keeping many scribes busy. The aforementioned scribes stopped what they were doing to come to respectful attention once they saw the High Skink’s delegation.

“Zat-kai, are you willing to give anything for the Old Ones?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Your life and comfort?"
“Yes, sir”

Korallis turned to the scribes.

“Bring forth the prophecy of Yalthera and read it aloud.”

“Companions seeking Yalthera shall journey west. They shall find the lost treasure and themselves be blessed.
They shall carry it over the fields of pain to cross a distance wide
And bring healing to the fix the brothers' divide
You will be aided by a Servant of the Old Ones who is favored by the First
You will be aided by a reluctant Servant who is but Cursed
The companions all will hail if they win
Though they shall never return to see their homes again.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Belrikt, I am being sent on a suicide mission and I am choosing some companions to help me. Want to come?”

The Skink chief grinned.

“A generous offer, brother. I accept.”
“Good, you can help me fill the rest of our team. You know the other castes better than me.”

* * * * * * *

The Skink Priests decided ten was an auspicious number for this quest. Ten of the First Children of the Old Ones were assembled.

Of the beast caste there were three. The High Skinks had interpreted Lord Desserex’s instructions to mean that Zat-kai’s destiny was to lead. Zat-kai turned to Belrikt, the golden boy of his spawning for assistance. Belrikt recommended Tal-Lat, the second in command to the Master of the Watch. He was the best hunter and tracker in the city and had been aiding the city’s scouts for years during the time which they had no Chameleon Skinks and when the Terradon riders were largely constrained by frequent messenger duties.

Of the worker caste, there were four. The Skink chief Teklon and two Kroxigor from his spawning, Nal and Tay. Teklon was invited in by Belrikt and Zat-kai largely for his rapport with Kroxigor more than anything else. At Gerlit’s recommendation, the group invited Hyrok. Hyrok was beginning to show his age and not as vigorous as most other Skink chiefs, but he was the only Skink chief in the city who had not thought healer’s arts were for lesser Skinks. A medic who could hold his own in a fight would be invaluable.

Of the Sotek caste there was but one, the chief Veklay. A strong warrior skilled fighters in hand to hand and shooting as one would expect of the most courageous of all Skink castes.

The newly spawned Chameleon Skinks provided one of their number as well. Upon learning that the likelihood of a safe return was low, he took the name Preylot after the Chameleon Skink Stalker who heroically sacrificed himself to allow his spawning brothers to bring crucial warning to the city ago.

The High Skinks asked for a volunteer from their own order to aid the group. The final member of the party was Skarish of the beast caste. In theory, Skink Priests severed their old caste ties, but the fact that the Beast Caste made up the largest group was what encouraged Skarish to volunteer so quickly

Zat-kai was flushed with pride at what he was about to do, but Veklay had misgivings.

“Why aren’t we taking at least one Saurus with us?”
“I’m not supposed to share this, but I figure since we are predicted to never return I might as well let you in on a Slann secret. We can’t take any Saurus champions because there are none to spare. Itza has required we send an army to aid them. Over half our Sauri are preparing to come to their aid. The rest are required to stay to guard the city.” Skarish the priest replied.
“That’s absurd! Itza has an army a hundred times our size! Surely they don’t need our help.”
“They don’t. Lord Chuqxlata of Itza believes Merestar's interpretation of the Great Plan is defying Mazdamundi, and he wants to tie Merestar’s hands by tying Klodorex's army down.”

All seven of the chiefs stood at stared at Skarish (Nal and Tay did not seem to grasp how big a revelation this was). Zat-kai heard the priests of the beast caste were known to be far less formal than the others, but this candor floored him. Tal-Lat the hunter broke the silence.

“That’s not our concern. Our path is going through swamps and a Saurus would slow us down. We need to continue loading up on supplies.”
“I don’t think we need that much Deralethi venom unless you are expecting us to accidentally shoot ourselves with our own darts. Or are the forces of Itza going to be shooting at us?” Hyrok interjected.
“We are guaranteed to have to take some beasts down. If we shoot something down with poison, we’ll need Deralethi antidote in order to eat our kills. Then we won’t need to waste much time foraging. I’ve been out in the jungle more than the rest of you combined and I’d appreciate not being questioned.”

There were a few more minor arguments, but the team finished stocking up on supplies fairly smoothly. As they were about to leave the city, a Skink priest stopped them. His aides gave them three magical items from the temple vaults. The first was a necklace of warding which Zat-kai bestowed on Tal-Lat who would be taking point. The second item was a pair of lethal obsidian daggers called the Fangs of Sotek. Zat-kai gave these to Veklay, the group’s best warrior. The final item, the Amulet of Chotec’s Wrath, Zat-kai kept for himself because...the idea of magically burning things seemed too awesome to share.

They quietly exited the city. The quest wasn’t exactly a secret, but it was done without fanfare. Nal and Tay were carrying over half the supplies which was not a problem for Kroxigor seldom complain about doing their duty.

* * * * * * *

The party traveled for two weeks before facing any difficulties. Tal-Lat was familiar with the first leg of their journey and was able to help everyone avoid many natural hazards. The first mishap was a run in with a carnivorous plant that tangled the Teklon’s legs. They plant was quickly chopped into mulch by Tay, but Tay then had to carry Teklon while the gashes on his leg healed.

A roar echoed across from the north.
“Mahrlect! That’s a full-grown Carnosaur we have to get out of here!” Zat-kai exclaimed.
“Hardly, this is the safest place in all of Lustria right now.” Tal-Lat explained.
“How do you figure that one?” Belrikt asked.
“Carnosaurs only roar like that when they killed something big. That means it’s got a giant pile of meat right now. Carnosaurs only go after things small as us when they are very hungry. It’s the smaller predators we need to look out for and the Carnosaur roar should have scared them off, at least for a short while.”

Three days later the smaller predators came for them. As the jungle floor grew darker ahead in an area of an especially thick canopy, a pack of cold ones attacked. They attacked Nal first who was in the back. He began wrestling with two Cold Ones as all parties involved tried to bite the other.

“Tay, level the Cold Ones!” Teklon yelled from the shoulders of the other Kroxigor. From his perch he began shooting darts into the attacking pack but was having trouble getting a shot through their thick hides unable to aim effectively in the dark.

Veklay leapt into the Cold Ones and began slashing through them in wide arcs. Skarish awakened the beast within all his allies to bring them to a fighting level approaching that of Scar Veterans. He normally only used this spell on one individual at a time, so the effort of extending his spell over the whole group caused him to collapse to the ground. Belrikt followed Veklay into the fray brimming with magical power from Skarish’s spell.

Tal-Lat tried to aim a javelin but found his allies in the way so eventually charged. Preylot remained unseen but one of the Cold Ones dropped mysteriously a with dart in his eye. Hyrok stayed in position figuring he should stop the Cold Ones from savaging Skarish’s barely conscious form. Zat-kai chose a more unorthodox fighting method. “Chotec-kasnar!” Zat-kai shouted incinerating two Cold Ones with a gout of flame. It was as satisfying as he hoped it would be.

The Cold Ones had the fight beaten out of them and turned and fled. Zat-kai tried to fire on them with the amulet again as they were leaving but nothing happened. He remembered it took time for his amulet to recharge between uses.

Hyrok assessed the damage. None of the Skinks were seriously injured since Skarish’s spell had toughened up all the Skinks before the Cold Ones first attacks on them landed. Nal’s thick hide saved him from the worst of the wounds he suffered, but Hyrok insisted that Nal’s load be divided up between the Skinks while he recovered. Nal insisted he could handle it, but Hyrok was not about to let the Kroxigor’s stubbornness get him killed.

“Sorry I should have been able to see this coming.” Skarish mumbled from the ground.
“You’ve had the Blessing of Huanchi and didn’t see fit to tell us!” Veklay angrily questioned him.
The Blessing of Huanchi was a rare trait that some Skinks were born with. Those with the blessing had very good vision in the dark but were less able to cope with bright sun than other Lizardmen.

“No, but I could have used the cantrip of ‘serpent sight’. It enhances my sense of smell to a phenomenal degree, but I lose my sense of hearing while it’s active so I don’t like use it very often.”
“I think the rest of us of have enough working ears to pick up the slack. We’ll make camp and rest up here. Then you take point with Tal-Lat and be his nose” Zat-kai said.
“Excellent, it’s been ages since I had any Cold One meat. You guys are in for a real treat” Tal-Lat exclaimed.
“We need to do more than rest and eat. We were pathetic today.” Hyrok interrupted.

He drew angry glares from the other Skinks but he continued. Even Prelyot uncloaked himself so Hyrok could see him glaring. Hyrok fought in the Battle of Kaitar’s Stand and was not about to be intimidated by the headstrong youth.

“We are supposed to be the best of our spawnings and a pack of dumb predators nearly killed us”
“Domesticated Cold Ones are a lot slower witted than their feral counterparts, to judge the ones we fought by the ones in the city—” Belrikt stated.
“Not the point. We fought like individuals, not as a unit. As beast caste Skinks, you should know all about pack fighting. The Cold Ones were a coordinated pack, we all just did our own thing like a dispersed swarm of stegawasps”

Veklay fingered the Fangs of Sotek agitatedly, but he restrained himself from unsheathing them. Zat-kai decided he better break the tense silence before his supposed team came to blows.

“He’s right. We are going to make camp a few days here and work on some basic drills and formations. We should be able to cover each other so we can fight, so we can stay alive next time without relying on magic—not that I don’t appreciate what you did Skarish, but that looked like it took a lot out of you to get the spell on all of us, and we can’t afford to do that each time we encounter a hostile creature.”

* * * * * * *

For the next few days they operated as an effective team. Skarish could smell predators and Tal-Lat could figure out how they would attack. When they came they closed ranks with the Kroxigor swinging their giant axes over the Skinks. Each predatory encounter was a learning experience. The party got better at coordinating shooting attacks with their melee weapons. Unfortunately a magic nose couldn't find all dangers.

Skarish signaled everyone to stop and cancelled his cantrip while they were crossing a large swamp.

“I Smelled a large flock of birds the size of Skinks coming from the southeast.”
“Those are rylocks. I heard them cawing, they are just carrion eaters, they’re no threat.” Tal-Lat reassured him.
“And the tunneling lizards?”
“Kroloqs, also carrion eaters.”

Zat-kai broke in.

“There’s a lot of death flies too…wouldn’t you say all these carrion eaters in one place is a little suspicious?”
“There are lots of fresh kills in bog to the east” whispered Preylot from an unseen quarter.
“I see them…only the livers were eaten. Everyone out of the swamp now, we need arial cover! We got R—“

Tal-Lat’s words were cut short as a Ripperdactlyl swooped down and lifted him off.
“Rank up! Chotec-casnar!”
“What are you crazy?”

The others closed tight but Berlikt had shoved Zat-kai into the muck as he shot a fireball into the sky.

“What in Chaos are you doing! You just burned Tal-Lat to death! To think I thought the marks actually meant you’d be a good leader”
“I dispersed the flock and saved all of us golden boy! I suppose you wanted to shoot at them with darts while the others ripped apart the whole group!”

Hyrok made an impressive roar for a Skink.

“Shut up! You are acting like tadpoles!”
There was a groan a short ways away, just barely audible over all the carrion feeders munching on the Ripperdactyls older kills. The groans originated from Tal-Lat.

“Mahrlect, That smarts!”
“You’re alive?!” was the response from three Skinks.
“That’s a good amulet the High Skinks gave us. Only minor scratches and burns. Didn’t help with the fall though…ouch.”

Relief that they didn’t lose a companion ended the argument, but the next few days saw frequent bickering between Zat-kai and Belrikt as every minor decision became a test of wills. Hyrok broke up so many disputes, he emerged as the group’s leader in all but name.

With Skarish smelling out danger, the group made it to the outskirts ruins of Yalthera without running afoul of any more predators. Yalthera was completely overgrown except for the spawning pools. Yalthera was one of the many minor cities whose pools were irreparably tainted by the Skaven before the coming of Sotek. The spawning pools which were surrounded by lifeless fallow earth. Supposedly the polluted pools still occasionally produced spawnings, but the sickly creatures who emerged die within hours. None of the First of the living temple cities bothered to send witnesses to watch the cursed spawnings anymore. No remedy to help them seemed to work.

“Skarish, do you smell anything around?”
“He’s can’t hear you right now dummy.”

Zat-kai scowled at Belrikt as he poked the Skink priest who turned and flicked his long forked tongue tasting the air. Even Skinks are a little unnerved when their friends sprouting snake tongues. Zat-kai pointed at his ears. Skarish nodded and dismissed his cantrip.

“I don’t know what to make of anything. It still reeks of pollution here, but I don’t smell any large creatures. We just need to figure out where the orb or sword or whatever is so we can get out and get it back to Klodorex quickly This place gives me the creeps, but I don’t think there is anything alive here to worry about.”

Unseen nearby, a dead man watched them and listened. The ancient wraith hadn’t seen a living Skink since Turoclitan stood. He snuck away as completely noiselessly as only an incorporeal being could to find his mistress, the Fallen priestess Kayishen.

“Mistress, a small party of Skinks has entered our new domain.”
“A small boost to Renliss’ army I suppose"
“I heard them speak amongst themselves. They are from Klodorex, mistress.”
“The home city of Lord Merestar? Perhaps we shall keep these tadpoles for ourselves then…"


Divided We Fall, Part Four: Unexpected Meetings


Technically Yalthera was a kahoun, not a full city, but it was still much larger than Klodorex. There was a lot of ground to cover searching the ruins, but Zat-kai insisted that their team not split up. Skinks learn the value of strength in numbers early in life. Zat-kai did not trust the empty ruins. If he had hairs on his neck they'd be standing up. The reptilian equivalent is hard to quantify in human terms. The problems is that the empty ruins of Yaltharis seemed just that, empty. If the spawning pools create dying Skinks and Sauri and there are few beasts here, shouldn’t we see some more bones around here?

“What are we looking for anyway?” Veklay finally asked in exasperation as they searched the third building.
“I’m Afraid that Lord Desserex didn’t explain what ‘the treasure' looks like. The Slann often have difficulties communicating with lesser beings such as us, particularly when it comes to mundane details. It’s also possible he doesn’t even know what the artifact is. My mentor once explained that the Slann have the same difficulties interpreting the Will of the Old Ones that we have interpreting the will of the Slann.”
“Great. If we do make it back home, what would your punishment for telling us the Slann aren’t always right? Death or banishment” Zat-kai asked.
‘Nothing so crude. Plenty of scut-work to do in the temples for thirty years. You do not want to be the High Skink’s go-for.”
“Did your fancy forked tongue interpret anything before?”
“This building smells of desolation and rot whereas the first two smelt of rot and desolation.”

Hyrok flipped over a cracked tile mosaic to look under it and sighed.

“Whatever we are supposed to be looking for, we’ll probably know it when we see it”

Belrikt turned to Zat-kai.

“This is too slow, we should start with the temple vaults instead of going through the old service buildings one by one!”
“We don’t have any idea where what we are looking for is, so the only safe plan is to go through every single ruin. If the item we were looking for was in a vault a warm-blood would have looted it by now.”

Even Nal and Tay rolled their eyes as this newest argument between the two beast caste Skinks escalated. Hyrok intervened again.

“We can do both. We should check every building thoroughly, but there’s no reason we need to start on the edge of the city and work our way in. We’d probably have better luck if we started in the city center and worked our way out.”

Zat-kai wanted to object, but the others were nodding in agreement with Hyrok. Belrikt was doing a poor job at not looking smug about this.

“Very well, after we finish casing this building we’ll try the main temple next.”

The main temple was not hard to find as it was both the largest and most intact building in the ruined city. Teklon supervised enough masonry jobs to recognize that some of the temple was rebuilt at least once, but the inhabitants had given up restoring the city when the spawning pools could not be cleansed. Thus it was abandoned twice. The pyramid entrance was at the top so they figured they ought to search downward to be thorough.

“The temple doesn’t seem to have been disturbed by looters. Either the vaults were left undisturbed or the most recent inhabitants peacefully emptied them before abandoning the city again.” Teklon explained as the others searched the many chambers. Eventually they found the vault. They managed to wedge in a long piece of wood into the crack between the two doors. Under the Skink’s direction Nal and Tay were able to use the plank to pry open the ancient stone doors revealing….a vast empty chamber. Zat-kai addressed his companions.

“This is not entirely unexpected, as long as we are here why don’t you try your snake tongue cantrip again Skarish.”

Skarish chanted his prayer to the Old Ones. Then flicked his tongue about the chamber. He hissed angrily and wretched, cancelling the transformation abruptly.

“It stinks a hundred times worse here than in the rest of the city!”
“That odd, it looks clean enough in here.”
“It’s coming from the upper levels.”
“But we already inspected those levels and didn’t find anything.”

Preylot entered from outside the chamber, the different shade of gray making him visible.

“I hear several creatures coming in from the upper levelsss!”

Zat-kai’s felt more nervous than he had been during the Ripperdactyl incident.

“We need to get out of here before we are trapped.”

It was not long before the fleeing Skinks could hear the scratching footsteps and smell the encroaching stench themselves without heightened senses. Facing the companions were at least a hundred severely stooped, emaciated-looking Sauri. Most were unarmed, but their teeth looked as dangerous as ever despite being crooked and rotting. Their flesh had a greyish tint and most were missing scales in a few places, revealing oozing sores. The normal reddish purple color of Saurus blood had congealed to a dark putrid brown. The normally golden eyes that most Lizardmen share were instead a dull red.

None of the twisted spawnings in the wake of the Skaven poisoning of the city had survived more than a few hours. Then the vampire lord Renliss learned of the pools and changed things. He found that if he infused his own dark power in the pools around the time of their spawning that some of the creatures that emerged would take on a state halfway between life and true undeath. He named these unique Lizardmen ghouls the Quatlixa (Kwa-TLEE-shah), which translates into the lesser Lizardmen tongue as “blood servants of vengeance” (if you overlook Renliss' shaky grasp of Saurian grammar). Unable to predict when suitable tainting spawnings would emerge, he left minions to watch over the Skaven blighted cities which he was aware of.

Even the two Kroxigor were not eager to charge the abominations. Zat-kai incinerated at least four with a blast of flame from his amulet, but there were so many Quatlixa swarming in that it was like bailing out a river with a drinking gourd. The other Skinks unleashed a barrage of darts which stuck ineffectually in the false Saurus warriors’ putrid hides. Their usual poisons had no effect at all. Besides Zat-kai, only Tal-Lat managed to actually slay a Quatlixa. He alone had brought javelins. One slumped to the ground with a javeling through it's neck. The others figured at the point of their departure that blowpipes were preferrable because it would be less weight to carry on their long journey. It hadn't occurred to them that their poison would fail and they would need something heavier

“Too many to fight through, we need to go back to the vault and force them to bottleneck!” Zat-kai ordered.
“Then we’ll have no way out and be trapped!” Belrikt argued.
“You insisted we hit the central temple first!”
“Both of you shut up!” came the reply from half the rest of the party.

The Quatlixa were no faster than ordinary Saurus warriors, so the Skink party had little trouble outpacing them as they ran deeper into the temple.

They hastily decided to try to make a stand at a narrow hallway that opened into a wide chamber. Forming ranks to take advantage of the narrow opening, they had struck down over a dozen of the Quatlixa before deciding to leave once Teklon dropped. He fell prone after only receiving a small scratch.

They companions dragged their unconscious friend to the vault and squeezed through the narrowing opening in the doors they made. Preylot impressed all with his foresight by bringing their makeshift pry bar inside with him to prevent the Qualixa from prying open the door. Once all were inside the two Kroxigor closed the doors just in time for everyone to hear the thumps and scratches of their attackers on the other side. Tay looked down towards Teklon then Hyrok.

“Teklon hurt. You heal him.” Tay uttered softly
“Get the Deralethi venom, he’s been poisoned!” Veklay demanded

Hyrok examined the prone Skink.

“It seems to be an infection not a poison…”
“Then give him whatever you use for infections!" Tal-Lat yelled.
“It’s too late, he’s dead.”

Nal and Tay growled and went for the doors.

“NOOO!!!” shouted the entire party of Skinks at once.

“That won’t help Teklon now you two.” Zat-kai said.
“We need to make a plan before we can avenge him.” Belrikt added.

Feeling powerless was not a sensation Kroxigors normally experienced. Nal and Tay slumped to the ground in defeat. What they did next stunned all the Skinks in the chamber: the two hulking Kroxigor wept for their lost friend.

Preylot was the first Skink to recover from what he saw. He deactivated his camouflage and gave the silent salute used as a farewell by his people. Skarish replied next.

“Old Ones, take unto yourselves your loyal servant now that his work for your plan is finally complete.”

A moment of silence followed, marred only by the scratching at the other side of the vault doors. Veklay broke the silence.

“So about forming a plan and all...” Veklay said.
“Skarish, can you bless our poisons to harm the undead?” Hyrok asked.
“No, that ritual is performed by the Priests of the Stars, they never teach it to the Priests of Beasts. I’ve seen the ritual enough times I might be able to improvise something but we don’t have any of Chotec’s sacred plants in this chamber.”
“How many javelins do we have?” Zat-kai asked.
“I got one left, and there should be five more in Tay’s bundle.” Tal-Lat said.
“That’s…not enough. Maybe we should open the doors and fight our way out. That’s better than sitting in here waiting for our water to run out.” Veklay said.
“Or the air to run out, temple vaults aren’t exactly well ventilated.” Hyrok gloomily added.

The group sat in silence again contemplating their hard choices. Preylot’s whisper broke the quiet.

“I don’t hear any more scratching at the door…”
"Greetings servants of Merestar! Thank you for holing yourself up in a place with no exit so quickly! I feared it take you weeks to get here at the rate you were searching the other buildings."

The words reverberated across the chamber walls and penetrated each listener. Zat-kai felt violated by her every syllable. The words stung so much as if the very words themselves were trying to burrow into his brain to lay eggs like a gorzec wasp. Kayishen, the priestess turned witch turned specter had lost much of her unholy power since being tormented in the Chaos realms for centuries. The only one her powers that she had not lost was her enchanting voice, though it had become twisted by pain and hatred.

“You have no chance of escape! Your lives are forfeit, but if you answer my questions, I will spare you eternal torment.”
“Drown in mud you abomination! I’ll cut you into—” Veklay bellowed defiantly.
“It takes lungs to drown tadpole, your traditional curse is meaningless.” The banshee teased.
“Let’s at least hear the questions.” Skarish interrupted
“Why?!”
“Lord Merestar’s command to understand our foes’ motivations.”
“DO NOT MENTION THAT TREACHEROUS SLANN’S NAME IN MY PRESENCE!”

All nine Lizardmen winced in pain at her amplified words.

“What do you want? How do you know of the Slann—and our language?” Zat-kai demanded.
"I ask the questions. Is the fat toad awake once more?"
“We’ll tell you nothing!” Belrikt yelled at the voice. The others murmured agreement.
“Perhaps after I kill some of you that will loosen the tongues of the survivors. The light green one can go first.”
Veklay snarled.

“I dare you to come through the door here and try something!” he challenged.
"Beware what you ask for lacrey, lest you find yourself eaten!"

The Skinks and Kroxigor tensed for battle. There was nothing but silence.
“Why isn’t it trying to get through the door?”
The voice screamed, this time from right behind them. All the Lizardmen writhed in pain, the two Kroxigor were bleeding from their ear holes. They turned to face Kayishen and two of her spectral guards floating at about a Kroxigor’s eye level towards the ceiling. Zat-kai was curious as to why human ghosts were bedecked in the feathers and loin clothes similar to those of high ranking Skinks, but this mystery would have to wait till after they escaped mortal danger.

"I require no doors."

Three human wraiths in clothing reminiscent of Skinks floated towards the ceiling. Their feet were at a Kroxigors eye level. Six javelins passed through the wraiths. Tay swung his giant axe through Kayishen and put a large gouge in the brick wall behind her. The ancient undead didn’t even blink.

“Chotec-kas nar!”

Zat-kai watched Kayishen flick her hand in contempt. Harmless smoke poured out of the Amulet of Chotec’s Wrath.

"You cannot hurt me with a bound spell, you cannot hurt me with any of your pathetic toys!"
“Skarish, use your strengthening spell to make us strong enough to hurt that witch!” Belrikt yelled.
“It won’t work, only the Fangs of Sotek can hurt it! Tay give Veklay a boost!”

Kayishen took a breath to scream, and Tay leapt in front of her with his massive arms outstretched.

“Dead warmbloods not hurt my friends again!”

Tay collapsed to the ground bleeding profusely from his ears, clearly dead. Most of the Skinks were wincing as their own ears bled. Veklay used Tay’s dead body as a stepping stone and leapt at Kayishen. The two dead Maylar guards finally decided to stop watching the fight and join it in. One of the male wraiths moved in front of him to defend his mistress. He parried the left dagger but took the right one to his abodomen leaking ectoplasm. The two guards began trading blows and parries in earnest with Veklay and his magical daggers.

Kayishen began marshalling her power for another scream. Zat-kai had a sudden burst of inspiration.

“Skarish, try to put your Serpent Sight cantrip on all of us, starting with Veklay.”
“Why?”
“Just do it!”
Veklay had reduced one of the wraith guards to vapor, but he was barely standing as the other wraith stuck his hand through his chest and squeezed on his heart. Kayishen turned towards him, the only Skink with a weapon capable of harming wraiths, and proceeded to give him a full blast from her keening.

It did nothing all.

Stunned, she was barely managed to dodge Veklay’s next magical dagger strike. She flew to the very ceiling, but her remaining guard was too slow. Veklay reduced him to ectoplasmic vapor with two arcing slashes of the Fangs of Sotek. She raked the room with her piercing wail hitting every Lizard but causing no noticeable effect at all.

"This isn’t over!"
She flew away with all due haste, but her defiant words fell on deaf ears, literally. Eight hissing forked tongues waved at her in mockling contempt as she left. Zat-kai flicked his tongue and was overwhelmed by the sensation. He could taste the air. The stench of the Quatlixa was almost more than he could stand unused to the heightened senses, but the smell was rapidly receding. The Quatlixa were fleeing...or regrouping.

Most of the Quatlixa fled with their mistress but Kayishen’s control over them was far less than absolute. Not having innate abilities of a vampire or the years of training of a necromancer, a fair number of the Saurus ghouls had slipped her leash overcome by their perverse hunger or simple confusion. Bleeding and exhausted, the eight remaining Lizardmen were too vengeful to be distracted by their deafness or internal divisions. They sniffed out and eradicated all the remaining Saurus ghouls from the ancient temple in short order.

Once they were certain the immediate area was clear of foes, Skarish dropped his spell. He was stumbling from exhaustion. The effort to stretch his cantrip over eight people was something he never even thought of attempting before. Nal was limping badly (he sustained a non-infectious bite and was even nicked by the edge of one of Zat-kai’s fireballs. Everyone’s ears hurt and most had headaches. Teklay’s natural fury was muted. He was still weak, having yet to recover from when the wraith had squeezed his heart.

“What next?” Belrikt asked Zat-kai sadly.
“We dispose our dead brothers with honor, then rest.”
“Agreed, but the usual rites would be disrespectful here.”

The usual funerary rite was to fertilize the deceased one’s spawning pool with the corpse to return his strength to his brothers and aid the next generation. The usual rite would be blasphemous in a place where all the spawning pools were defiled.

“Dirt” Nal said softly.
“What?”
“My brothers did much digging for our city. Teklon liked Huanchi best. Tay and I do as Teklon does. Huanchi Old One of earth, not water”

The Skinks chose to follow the Kroxigor’s advice. They prepared to dig a grave for their friends in the earthen floor of an old shrine to Huanchi. Skarish performed a brief funerary service, then the surviving companions began digging a suitable hole. Just when they had deemed the hole nearly deep enough, Zat-kai found something metal in the bottom hole. A thin gold ring, roughly as wide as a Skink’s arms linked in front of him. It shrank to less than half the diameter after Zat-kai picked it up.

As soon as he picked it up he was overwhelmed by anger and despair. Several voices at once spoke into his head overlapping.
I miss my brothers
I’d love to hunt down that spectral witch
Is it true we’ll never go home again?
I shouldn’t think of this while burying our dead but I do NOT want to look through all these ruins…

Zatkai dropped the ring and his tide of foreign emotions and the swirls thoughts abated. This ring lets me read the thoughts of the others…

"I think we found what we are looking for. Skarish can you check this out?”

The Skink priest dropped into the hole and picked the item up. He gasped and dropped it immediately.

“Too much power, I would need a Slann’s willpower to control this. I can’t carry it.”
“Why was I able to touch it?”
“You don’t have innate magical abilities for it to interfere with. Perhaps that’s why the Old Ones marked you for this quest”

Zat-kai took a deep breath and tried to focus. With concentration he could focus on one person’s thoughts at a time. Naturally he wanted to see what Belrikt was thinking.

The marked one is hoarding the best treasures again. I wonder which one of us will be set on fire next.

Time for diplomacy.

“If your magic makes you at risk with this disk. Perhaps I shouldn’t be carrying the Amulet of Chotec’s Wrath. It might mix poorly. Why don’t you take it, Belrikt? You’ll probably show better discretion with the fireballs than I would anyway.”
“….That is a good idea…thank you.”

Tal-Lat broke the awkward silence that followed.

“What are the odds that we dug a random hole and found what we are looking for.”

A booming voice shook all who were present.

"That was no coincidence, young one, it was fate The Crown of the Brothers' Bridge can only be found by friends who overcome sorrow together"

Like the words of Kayishen, these words seemed to come from all directions and permeated the insides of all the listeners present. Whereas the banshee’s words felt like a violation, this speaker’s words were soothing and comforting. Though it was dusk, the reptiles felt as warm as content as they did on a sunny afternoon. The Skinks looked to find the mystery speaker. Skarish was the first to speak as all the companions bowed low in awe and reverence.

“Thanks be to the Old Ones who see fit to bless servants as lowly as us with your majestic presence.”

The Coatl folded its great wings to dim its majesty slightly and spoke softly to the Lizardmen.

"Rise my children. You have done well. Know that you are favored of the Old Ones, but you must also know that to be favored by the Old Ones means you must bear a great burden. It took great suffering to recover the Crown but you must suffer through greater hardship to take it where it must go."

After a brief pause, Zat-kai spoke followed by all the others.

“We will make any sacrifice to aid the Great Plan, majestic one.”
“I agree” Belrikt spoke.
“Our duty is absolute.” Skarish declared.
“Our fallen kin demand no less from us” intoned Veklay.
“We knew what was coming when we volunteered for this” Hyrok stated.
“Nothing will stop us.” Tal-Lat added.
“We will level all in our way!” Nal bellowed.
“Yessss” said Preylot.
"I have been in Yalthera long. My powers are insufficient to cleanse these pools but they can still cleanse much. I can aid you brave Children. Hyrok, the healer, bring forth the venom that cures."

Hyrok pulled the bladder filled with the Deralethi venom from his pouch and nervously walked forward and placed it before the rainbow serpent. The Coatl sadly examined the Skinks' faces and several large silvery tears fell from it's golden eyes into the pouch of venom.

"The venom will now serve as an agent of purification that will aid the Children of the Old Ones and harm the Fallen and Anathema. Take the Crown where it is most needed. Know that your greatest challenges lie yet ahead."

The Coatl unfolded its wings and then took to the air, sweeping Nal and the Skinks to their feet with a gentle buffet of wind. As the gentle breeze wafted over them, their wounds from the battle with the undead were all fully healed. The Coatl flew away and melded into the tree line some distance away.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The companions traveled back to Klodorex for weeks with no incident. They were heartened when they found a hut on stilts. It bore the mark of Klodorex. It was an empty outpost built by Klodorex. It was one of many outposts built so land based scouts could have some shelter and restock supplies. It meant that Tal-Lat’s navigation was spot on and that home was close.
“Why do we want to sleep here, doesn’t that just put us at a good biting height for things?” Veklay asked. “Of the things that will hunt Skinks, the tall things and flyers hunt during the day. It’d be nice to let our night watchers not have to keep the little creeping biting things away for a change.” Tal-Lat answered with the mildly condescending tone he used while demonstrating his knowledge of the jungle. Hyrok pre-empted him from giving a further biology lesson.
“It probably has some more supplies stowed in it too. I think we should stock up on javelins if we can. I doubt we’ll be lucky to enough to have the last patrol have left us some geltow root. The patrols aren't usually that detailed oriented…no offensive Tal-Lat”
Zat-kai and Belrikt had the second watch that night. Zat-kai found if the Crown wasn’t in skin to skin contact with him, he couldn’t read anyone’s thoughts. He let go of the crown since he thought it would be grossly unfair to do so during the conversation he had mind. Finally he willed himself to speak.
“I need to apologize, I should have listened to you more. You have a good head on your shoulders and I’m a bit too impulsive, especially with fire apparently.”
“The impulsiveness has it’s uses, I never would have thought of deafening everyone against the scream attack, that’s worthy of Kaitar himself.”
“Thanks, but that doesn’t make up for my screw-ups. I’ve been trying to shut you out because I was jealous of you being the chief everyone looked to at home.”
“I appreciate that, but I was out of line questioning you all the time. In Klodorex, I felt like I was living in your shadow. No matter what I did, you got more attention because of your marks. That made me resentful against you this whole quest.”
“Me living in your shadow? You beat me at every contest!”
“That was small grubs compared to this quest. We don’t have to worry about this anymore. We will overshadow the others together, brother.”
“Indeed brother. All hail the Skinks of the beast caste!”

After the laughter ended. Belrikt looked worried.

“Do you hear that, Zat-kai?”
“I don’t hear anything.”
“Exactly, when is the jungle ever this quiet?”
“EVERYONE WAKE UP! WE GOT TROUBLE!”

The Skinks ambled down the ladder out of the hut, Nal chose to simply jump down hitting the ground with a wet thump.

“What’s going on? I don’t see or hear anything” Skarish said groggily.
“It’s too quiet, something unnatural approaches.” Tal-Lat responded, instantly alert.

Hyrok pulled out the blessed Deralethi venom. Not wanting to waste a drop, he carefully administered a minute amount on the exit tube of everyone’s blowpipes and the tips of their javelins, then put three drops on Nal’s axe.

“They are all around usss!” Preylot hissed.
“Preylot, Hyrok, Skarish and Tal-Lat, into the hut for a firing vantage point. The rest of us will fortify the base.” Zat-kai said taking charge of the situation.

Lumbering undead Cold Ones moved to surrounded them first. Staying just outside of effective blowpipe range. Flying above them were dozens of giant Fell Bats and swarms of smaller bats beyond counting.

Cutting off the approach west, between the Lizardmen and their home city, was the vampire Count Renliss. Now draped in jaguar furs as decades of jungle living had ruined the last of his Sylvanian finery. He stood at the head of armored human skeletons carrying massive axes and bearing skull helmets of dinosaurs in a blasphemous parody of Temple Guard. Kayishen the banshee witch floated by his side. A massive zombified Stegadon towered over all present brimming with mystical power. Ranks and ranks of zombies and skeletons of at least six different races stretched back as far as the Skinks could see in the moonlight.

Renliss addressed the Lizardmen in their own tongue, though his pronunciation was even worse than the ghost’s.

“First Children of Klodorex, well met. You will not survive this night but if you cooperate you needn’t join my army and suffer eternal torment.”
“The ghost made the exact same threat, are you two mates? I can never keep straight out warm-blood courtship rituals. Do undead even take mates?” Veklay asked mockingly.

Both the undead in question looked visibly annoyed.
“I will ask the questions, Skink!”
The ghost said that too. Zat-kai decided it might help to know what the vampire wanted so he slipped his hand into his pouch surreptitiously and grasped the crown. His mind was harder to penetrate than the Skinks’. Zat-kai didn’t know if that was due to the fact that he was undead, a warm-blood, the fact that he spoke a different native tongue, or because he was a powerful wizard.
The vampire is mad at the ghost for not reporting us immediately…and something else.
“I know you wouldn’t have gone that far from home without good reason and I know your ruins hold great treasures. Yield your spoils to me now.”
“Grow some lungs and then drown in mud!” Veklay yelled back.
“If we take out the leader the army will crumble!” Hyrok instructed.
“Chotec-casnar!” Belrikt yelled. The fire streaked towards Count Renliss but he deflected the stream of fire with his fist and it exploded in the air between the Skinks and the undead. The hut was nicked by the edge of the blast radius and began smoldering.

“If that paltry item didn’t harm my servant, how would you expect it to harm me?”
Zat-kai, this is Skarish, I know you can hear my thoughts. Stall the vampire as long as you can then get everyone on my back, and we’ll try to force our way through. I’m about to attempt my most desperate gambit.

Zat-kai answered out loud without realizing it. Renliss assumed he was speaking to him.

“I don’t understand. How can we possibly fight through this army?”
“You can’t possibly fight us, Skink. Yield your treasures to me!”
“We don’t have any treasures. We decided to abandon the search early and leave after the ghost tipped off your presence.”

Renliss snarled at Kayishen who floated a way a few feet away from him nervously. Zat-kai heard Skarish chanting quietly and hoped Renliss didn’t notice.

“What were you searching for then?”
“A weapon against the undead. The…uhh…Spear of….the Old One…Deralethi”
"Lord Renliss, There is no Old One named 'Deralethi'."
“How would you know about the Old Ones, witch?”
"I know more about your false gods than you do, tadpole. I am Kayishen, high priestess of the true Old Ones![/cyan]"

Zat-kai was getting a headache as the banshee’s anger was causing her words to increase in volume threatening to take lethal intensity. He decided to keep provoking her to hide whatever Skarish was doing.

“You didn’t know that the First Children of the Old Ones were immune to your screaming.”
"[color:cyan]Immune! How did I kill your hulking bodyguard then?"
“He was already severely wounded. It just looked like the scream killed him” Belrikt added, sensing what Zat-kai was trying to do.
“I must admit I am curious how you all survived. If you explain that satisfactorily I’ll allow one of you live” Renliss mused.
“A warm-blood scream will only hurt warm-bloods.” Belrikt explained calmly.
"That’s absurd! Master, destroy them!"

Skarish leapt out of the hut surrounded by a nimbus of scarlet light.

“Sotek and Itzl, let your strength flow into me, the willing vessel of your power in this world!”

Kayishen moved forward to attack, but Renliss held up his hand.

“Stay back, this problem will resolve itself.”

The few free willed undead and all the Lizardmen watched with fascination as the Skink Priest fell to all fours and writhed in pain. His limbs widened, his tail lengthened. The diminuntive Skink kept growing and growing, his hide thickening. In less than a minute the largest Stegadon any had ever seen stood before them. The nimbus of red light grew brighter.
“Everybody onboard!” Zatkai ordered.

Nal and the Skinks clambered onto Skarish’s back. Even with a Kroxigor, there was ample room. Skarish pawed the ground and prepared to charge forward. Then the nimbus of light changed colors from red to a sickly purple as the magic he unleashed warped out of his control. The light became a flame which enveloped the Lizardmen causing them to vanish. Renliss laughed.

“The tadpole called on more magic than he could handle. The clumsy fool miscast. I do thoroughly enjoy it when my enemies destroy themselves.”
"I thought you wanted to drink the priest’s blood and steal their magical items."
“Mahrlect!”

* * * * * * *

“You teleported us out! That’s amazing, you saved us all!” Zatkai exclaimed.

A telepathic voice answered.

No, I worse than killed us. This is the Chaos Realm….

Divided We Fall, Part Five: Journey’s End

The Skinks and Kroxigor looked about the surreal landscape. The outlay of the hills and pits seemed to make no sense. There was ugly sparse plants. Thorny, fungus-looking plants, To the east (west? north?) the foliage became thicker. Many of the plants swayed without any wind, looking more menacing than the worst carnivorous plants Lustria has to offer and as vile as the worst most Skaven blighted wastelands. To their opposite side the scrubby plants gradually disappeared leaving a barren desert filled with sharp spikes and warping landscapes bathed in ominous red light and raked with lightning and fire.

Zatkai put the crown on his head to read the thoughts of his Stegadon companion easier. It wouldn’t have shrunk from Slann-sized to Skink-sized if he wasn’t supposed to use it right?

“Skarish, have any escaped the Chaos Realms before?” Slann manage to find their way back nearly half the time.
“And the lesser Children of the Old Ones?”
Oxyotl of Pahaux made it back.
“And?”
That’s it.
“How did he get out.”
I don’t know
“Preylot, did you hear how Oxyotl escaped the Chaos realms”
“No, he did not share his tale, and the SSSlann were unwilling to probe his mind lest the taint of Chaos dwelled in his thoughtsss.”
“How do the Daemons get to us then?” Hyrok asked.
They cross over in areas saturated with magic when they invade the material realm.

Zat-kai relayed the telepathic answer from Skarish.

“Let’s find an invasion party and follow it out.” Belrikt said
“What are the odds the invasion party will be going to Lustria?” Veklay asked.
“I’d rather figure out how to get back home from human or elven lands then dwell here a second longer than necessary” Zat-kai stated.
Very well, I will look for a Daemon army for our salvation….what a terrible thing to say.
“Stay in this border area Skarish, I don’t fancy our chances facing the storms or that jungle of vile fungi” Tal-Lat suggested.
They rode on Skarish’s back for about an hour before Zat-kai got over the weirdness of his surroundings and began to examine Skarish clinically as a beast caste Skink would examine a regular Stegadon.
“Skarish you are burned. We should stop to treat your wounds”
It’s not as bad as it looks, we need to keep moving, if we stay too long in one place the Daemons will find us.

They rode in silence for another twenty minutes when a score of small bird-like Daemons flew overhead. Zat-kai heard their primitive thoughts in his head.

Intruders! Masters reward lucky Furies who find intruders!
“Shoot them down!”

Each blowpipe dart carried enough of the Coatl’s blessing to strike down a Fury with a single hit. Unfortunately even crack shots can’t easily hit fast moving flying targets at long range. Over half the Furies made it back into the strange forest safely.

Skarish increased to an all-out sprint in an attempt to outdistance their flying pursuers. Half an hour later Skarish and his passengers found themselves running towards a new group Daemons waiting for them. At least four dozen grotesque soldiers, roughly the size of Saurus Warriors. The largest and best armed Daemon spoke.

“The Slann are kind to send such gifts to us! We cannot be bought with lovely gifts. You should tell your masters that this will buy them no avail.[/brown]"

The plaguebearers laughed sycophantically making a sick gurgling sound. Zat-kai sensed the Herald’s bravado telepathically, but there was something else too….fear. Daemons were not used to earthly beings in their realm, especially not in numbers. They only knew about Lizardmen from hearsay, so were unsure what their capabilities were. Zat-kai decided to use this to his advantage.

“You can tell the Slann yourself. They are coming shortly! They are tired of your incursions and are taking the fight to you. We are just the scouting party. Why else do you think we’d take a dinosaur this small? To the attack brothers! If we don’t strike now our kin will leave us no Daemons to kill!”

The Plague bearers panicked and scattered. The Herald tried to rally his brethren but few stood their ground. Skarish flattened the Herald personally making a sickening SPLOOSH under his massive flat feet. Blessed darts struck down over a dozen Daemons while Nal was slicing two in half foolish enough to move within his reach of his massive axe.

“If we are lucky they will all be that dumb!” Belrikt exclaimed happily.
“They won’t be. We bought some time, I need to try to treat Skarish, he was wounded by some of the Daemons on top of the burns he got from our arrival.” Hyrok said gravely.
No! It won’t work. I can’t maintain this much longer. When my spell wears off, I will be a Skink with Stegadon-sized wounds. No less than I deserve for getting you all into this. You better dismount. You will attract less attention on foot anyway. Zat-kai, tell the others I am sorry.
“There’s nothing to be sorry for. You saved all of us many times over…we will help you…we…”

Skarish the Stegadon slumped to the ground in pain.

“We better dismount.”

There were no dry eyes as Nal and the Skinks watched the wounded Stegadon shrink into a small dark green Skink, bloodied, burned and oozing with infections.
“Old Ones have mercy on your bravest servant and take him into your presence.”
Hyrok drizzled some Deralethi venom on his corpse. Three drops was sufficient to cleanse the foulness away but could not restore the dead.

“Nal, put him in your pack. No one will be left behind here if we can help it.”

* * * * * * *

Some time later, minutes? Hours? Weeks? The Skinks continued to wander.

“I hear something coming from the foressst.” Preylot hissed.

Soon an excited gurgling bark was audible to all the Skinks.

[color:brown]Yay! New friends to play with us! Yay![/brown]

Zat-kai was reminded of juvenile warm blooded beasts. He had worked with enough jaguar cubs who drew blood on him with their playful nips. The two creatures partially quadruped, partially slug-like were roughly the size of Kroxigors if Kroxigor did not walk upright. Many times bigger than playful jaguar cubs, they moved surprisingly fast for something so large and misshapen. The stunted plants withered and died at the monsters’ passing. The Skinks didn’t need an order to shoot.

Belrikt hit one dead on with a fireball but it seemed to have no effect at all. The wounds where the darts struck glowed with faint white light. One of the Beasts of Nurgle slumped to the ground and began melting into a pile of sickly brownish green goo. The other one kept moving forward.

[color:brown]New friends bite hard, I bite harder, show playmates who is best!

Even Nal recoiled from the monster with the Skinks though Veklay leapt forward towards the revolting beast.

“Die monster!”

He sliced large pieces off the twisted beast, but got bitten by its triangular mouth before the beast lay still.

“Sotek caste claims victory…” Veklay proudly but weakly claimed before slumping to the ground.

The creature got up and roared unexpectedly and lunged for Veklay. Nal stepped across quickly and smashed the beast into a slimy spot in the ground. Hyrok dripped Deralethi venom onto Veklay’s wounds which sizzled but nevertheless expelled the sickly ichor.

“You should live, but we should have Nal carry you for a while you recover”
“I’m perfectly capable of handling this! I suffered through worse.”
“No you haven’t!”

The bright red crested Skink scowled, but acquiesced under Zat-kai’s and Hyrok’s stern glares.

* * * * * * *

Another indeterminate amount of time later, a new threat emerged. This time from the desert rather than the forest. Roughly a dozen red streaks came towards him. Zat-kai probed their minds and found nothing other than a single-mnded desire to kill the source of an offending scent, mortal lizards. The creatures reminded him of a cross between a Salamander, Razordon, and an oversized Huagordon (small dinosaurs the beast caste used as blood hounds).

These beasts were a little thicker skinned than the last batch, and they were very fast. The fireball Belrikt launched dissipated inches away from them, their strange collars glowing. Less than half of the flesh hounds were struck down by darts or javelins before they were upon the Skink party.

The Skinks managed to blunt the fury of the hounds with their swords and shields, but about half the survivors of the shooting onslaught decided the Kroxigor was the most worthy prey. Veklay jumped down from Nal’s shoulders as the mighty Kroxigor was dragged down to the ground. Nal lost hold of his giant axe but did not stop clawing and biting his attackers. Veklay drew off some of the hound's attention but couldn't save the Kroxigor. Nal crushed two of the beasts' heads barehanded just before another beast ripped his throat out. Veklay decapitated the offender’s head before collapsing from the combination of wounds from the Flesh Hounds and the Beasts of Nurgle before.

Hyrok tried fruitlessly to bind Veklay’s wounds before he bled to death. The oldest Skink turned to his companions, his face ashen with despair.

“They are just going to take us out one by one aren’t they?”
“I read their minds. We seem to be very easy to find. Our scent stands out to Daemons like mallisaurus musk after a fresh rain.” Zat-kai explained.
“Then we hide our scent. We need to smear these things’ blood on us. We’ll also need to go a little bit into the forest for cover. I’ll take point, hopefully the amulet will help me survive a misstep.” Tal-Lat said.
“We aren’t strong enough take bodies with us anymore without Nal carrying them for ussss.” Preylot added sadly.
Belrikt removed the packs and gear from their two fallen allies, the Skinks divided up the supplies as best they could. The Skinks didn’t hunger or thirst as much as one would expect but their supplies were still running low. They used some Deralethi venom to purify some water from a stagnant pond they found in the border area, but they hadn’t resorted to eating local flora and fauna yet. Zat-kai sensed Tal-Lat was briefly considering eating Nal, but he was too ashamed to suggest eating a Kroxigor. He’d prefer to go hungry. Zat-kai was inclined to agree. Then his reverie was interrupted as Belrikt shot the corpses with a fireball.

“I don’t want the Daemons to do anything with their bodies” he said coldly and sadly.
“Wait!” Zat-kai said.

He cut off both Nal’s and Veklay’s heads.

“We’ll take their heads with us, the Daemons here prize skulls above all else. You are right though, this is the best we can do for our friends. Belrikt, take the Fangs of Sotek, you are the best hand-to-hand fighter we have left.”

Zat-kai knew this was for the best. He knew this would thwart what the Daemons were hoping to do, but he was privately unnerved on how easy this action was for him to perform. He did not like how easily he understood what the Daemons wanted, it made him feel unclean.

Two more fireballs later, the bodies of their companions were little more than ashes. The Skinks scattered their powdered bones sadly after purifying them with a few drops of Deralethi venom. They continued on their way, still not sure of where they were going. They just hoped that if they traveled far enough they’d find a way out. On the plus side, the few Daemons they saw were no longer heading towards them so the blood must have hidden their scent successfully or perhaps it was the overpowering stench of so many of Nurgle’s favored plants hiding them. That was little comfort given how the blood burned their skink uncomfortably like a bad sunburn.

The edges of Nurgle’s Garden conformed to enough norms of forests in the material world that Tal-Lat’s experiences and honed instincts let him avoid most dangers. The plants that were developing rudimentary sentience were harder for Tal-Lat to avoid but Zat-kai was able to steer the group to safety by reading their proto-minds. Of the few things Zat-kai and Tal-Lat couldn’t avoid, some of them were stopped by Tal-Lat’s amulet, the rest were fixed with Hyrok’s bag of blessed Deralethi venom. Zat-kai sensed that Hyrok was worried about running out of the disinfectant. Thanks to Hyrok’s carefully measured tiny doses, they still had half the blessed venom left but they had no idea how long they would be in the Chaos Realm.

After another indeterminate amount of time came a most unexpected new threat. Eons ago, Tzeentch had given Nurgle a gift for his garden in return for services once rendered. This gift was known as the Tree of Living Nightmares. The original Tree was in the center of his garden but Nurgle had cross bred it with many of his lesser plants. One of these lesser trees shot Preylot in the face with a cloud of spores. He began changing into bright glowing colors that shifted rapidly into entrancing patterns. He began twitching as foul whispers filled his mind. Then he began thrashing about hitting himself with his diminutive fists while screaming

“NOOOO!!! I’m going to die! I’m going to die! They can see me!”
“Who?” Belrikt asked.
“Everyone!”

Preylot ran off screaming louder than any thought a Chameleon Skink was capable of and bolted off. The other Skinks looked bewildered.
“I got this.” Tal-Lat said and tore after him…he was not hard to find. Tal-Lat bashed him on the top of the head with his fist. He then carried the small Chamleon Skink back slung over his shoulder and hauled him back moaning.

“Was that necessary?” Hyrok asked.
“I didn’t hear anyone else with any better ideas. Let’s see if you can get him to swallow a drop of the Deralethi venom and see if that helps.”

After pouring a few drops of the purifying venom into his mouth. His color changed to a dull grey. Then Hyrok woke him up with the pungent order of some rot flower nectar. He jerked awake and moaned.

“I…can’t hide anymore. I’m too weak to contribute if I can’t hide. I shouldn’t have been on this quest. If I could shoot like a real Chameleon Skink, Nal and Veklay would be alive….I’m dead weight to the team.”

After a stream of relentless encouragement from the others Preylot agreed to keep going, but he walked closer to the other Skinks than he usually did. Periodically he’d issue a dry sob. He began blending with the landscape again, but it was far less effective than normal. Every color he changed into had a gray tint, so he was barely more concealed than the other Skinks. Zat-kai was glad he had gained greater ability with the Crown of the Brother’s Bridge, so he could now filter out Preylot’s self deprecating thoughts. The voices in his head were gone but the memories remained. Preylot gradually improved over time but he was still skittish, even by Skink standards. Zat-kai did not hold this against him considering where they all were, a little skittishness was to be expected. After some time he whispered something other than how much despair he felt.

“I hear several creatures coming, we should hide now.”

The Skinks took up hiding places in a cluster of trees that they were fairly sure wouldn’t harm them and watched silently as hundreds of plaguebearers marched past.

“If they aren’t here for us, they are likely an invasion party. We need to follow them. Good work spotting them before the rest of us. I’m glad you are with us, Preylot” Zat-kai said.
“We’re all glad you’re with us, cousin,” added Belrikt.

Preylot seemed to gain some measure of his confidence back. He picked out most of their hiding places as they leap-frogged from one hiding place to another shadowing the slow moving unit of disease ridden soldiers from a distance. Zat-kai tried to read the minds of the soldiers.

“They are planning to make war on the First, if we can find their exit point we can go home and help defend our people at the same time!”
The party stopped when the marching Nurgle soldiers headed out into the open ground of Khorne’s desert territory.

“I can hear them awaysss away. We’ll have to keep them at a much greater distance now to not be ssseen.”

The Skinks grew nervous as they saw the soldiers they were follow met up with still more Daemons. They were forming an army. More eyes to spot them and more ears to hear them. The army swelled to over a thousand. The one silver lining is that the storms and natural hazards of this section of the wasteland seemed to be attracted to the masses of Daemons, so the Skinks didn’t have to fight the land itself like they did in Nurgle’s Garden.

Once there were no more new units to join the army, the Skinks saw the army in the distance slowly shrinking. They had reached an exit into the material plane. It must have been a small exit, so the army had to bottle neck. While waiting for their turn to go through, some of the giant putrid flies launched in the sky and began patrolling to burn off pent up energy of their excited riders. A short while later a small piece of the army (about a hundred soldiers) broke off and headed towards the Skinks.

“Mahrlect! They spotted us.”

The Skinks scrambled and tried to find a place with spikes and pits and the like to force the enemy to bottle neck but they couldn’t do much better than stake out a spot about ten Daemons wide, not a very good position. Zat-kai reached out telepathically with the Crown to figure out what they were facing. There were about fifty of the basic Plaguebearers and about fifty of the Bloodletters each lead by a Herald. It dawned on Zat-kai that the entire army bore allegiance to Khorne or Nurgle. They sent an equally sized contingent because neither side wanting to let the other monopolize the joy of early lizard killing. A cluster of the tiny Nurglings followed the two groups of soldiers at a safe distance watching and giggling. Once within shouting distance, the Herald of Khorne began to speak. Daemons seem awfully chatty when in their home territory. I suppose in the material plane they have language barriers with mortals, so they don’t get a lot of opportunity to play with their food in that manner.

“I would like to thank you reptiles. My master, Locklirist of the Hated Lash, was having trouble finding allies to help him fight your people until you started tearing up Nurgle’s Garden. Now we have the aid of the mighty Korshalork of the Putrid Waves on our side to devastate your jungles. As reward for your aid, your skulls shall have a place of honor in Locklirist’s personal collection.”
“For every one leaf of Mother Nurgle’s plants you disturbed in his Garden, we will infect a hundred of your trees and slay a hundred of you lowly Skinks!”

It was nauseating just listening to the gurgle each time a Nurgle Daemon spoke. He also sensed that beneath their friendly façade, the two Heralds did not enjoy working together. Belrikt aimed the Amulet of Chotec’s wrath but Zat-kai quietly whispered for him to hold his fire.

“I can see why you are happy to have Nurgle troops with you. The Nurgle troops gave us a lot more trouble. I’d say the hounds we fought were about as problematic as one of the fungus plants. You are very lucky to have Nurgle aiding you since you would have serious trouble getting any skulls without their help.”
“Well, That IS true.” the Nurgle Herald blushed a sickly shade of green with false modesty.
“You disgusting sack of puss! I’ll show you who is stronger!”

The two heralds began fighting each other. A heartbeat later their soldiers also began fighting each other. The fighting mass still headed in the gradual direction of the Skinks, but they were far more interested in fighting each other than the Skinks. The few who realized who their true enemies were and broke away all faced a hail of darts and javelins once they closed into range.

“Concentrate your fireballs on the sickly ones, brother. The red ones are magic resistant, we’ll stick to poison for them.”

Preylot nervous shaking had stopped, and his desire for vengeance at his violation drove him to a cold fury. Every dart he fired hit a Daemon squarely in the forehead or chest. Whatever wasn’t stopped by the Daemon’s innate protective power instantly slew them. The blessed Deralethi venom caused the plaguebearers heads to pop like giant slimy postules, or the Bloodletters head’s to catch on fire. The few Daemons that survived the hail of missile fire and reached the Skinks were quickly dispatched by Belrikt wielding the Fangs of Sotek.

“Another skull for Khorne!”

The Herald roared proudly having just decapitated his Nurgle counterpart, then turned towards the Skinks. His left side had a wound that was slowing him down with a virulent infection. Tal-Lat threw a javelin with all his might that struck the Daemon warrior’s chest. He slumped to the ground wounded but bellowing his defiance. The Nurglings began giggling very loudly then yelling in pain and ecstasy as they melted into a large amorphous puddle.

The dozen or so remaining Daemons stopped fighting and backed away nervously from the bulging puddle. Figuring that whatever scared Daemons like this could not possibly be good, Belrikt attempted to launch a fireball at the undulating mass only to have harmless smoke billow out of the amulet. The mass formed a rough face which grew more defined and began sprouting a torso and head already larger than the combined mass of the various Nurglings that once stood there. Apparently, the Law of Conservation of Mass is one of the many natural laws that do not apply in the Chaos Realms.

Half again as tall as a Kroxigor Ancient and twice as wide, Korshalork of the Putrid Waves looked down on all present.

“You have been very naughty fighting amongst yourselves at our moment of triumph. I do not like that I had to be pulled off from the real battle to deal with this annoyance…not one bit.”
“Mighty one! It was your treacherous Herald, I tried to explain our common mission to him, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“Your kind have never been good at lying Khorne-ling.”

The Unclean One waved his hand and a sticky mist shot out and caused the Khorne Herald’s wounds to burst forth slimy putrescence which burned him like acid until he melted into a pile of curdling blood. Then the remaining Bloodletters all found themselves covered in growing tumors which burst open and then burned them likewise. The Plaguebearers cringed under the Plague Lord's gaze.
“I hold you just as accountable. Go. Attend to the main battle, I will come up with a suitable punishment for all of you later.[/brown]”

The Nurgle soldiers ran away as fast they could towards the main army. They were going to try their absolute best to make sure they died at the hands of an enemy later rather than have to face their master’s wrath. Korshalork turned to the Skinks.
“[color:brown]You have caused me much distress and slain two of my most beloved pets. Fortunately for you, I am both merciful and generous. I give you my greatest gift, a sickness never experienced by a reptile before!”

He exhaled a cloud of mist towards the Skinks. Zat-kai frantically sent a telepathic message to his kin.
Skarish once told me that you don’t have to be a wizard to stop a spell, everyone concentrate your will on dispersing the mist!
The mist slowed down very slightly but would not be deterred completely. Hyrok dunked his hand into the pouch of Deralethi venom and flung several droplets into the sickly mist mostly dispersing it. Unfortunately he breathed a small portion of the vile vapors. His forehead began to grow very hot. Fevers are not an ailment cold blooded beings normally have to deal with, but Hyrok didn’t feel as impaired as he thought he would.
“You dare refuse my gift!?! I hate healers. I was hoping to spare you the humiliation of being defeated in personal combat, but now I must eat you. Once I digest your medicinal knowlege I will create new ailments which will resist your every remedy. The jungles of your people will face plagues the likes of which will make the Skaven’s best efforts look like the sniffles![/brown]”

The bulky Daemon charged forward surprisingly fast. The darts and javelins that struck him seemed as little more than mosquito bites. Hyrok broke away from the other Skinks and charged straight for the Unclean One.

“We have to stay as one unit!” Zat-kai yelled.
Hyrok stabbed at the Daemon who blocked his sword with his own meaty hand. The Sword went in up to the hilt but this didn’t seem to bother the Daemon lord in the slightest. He wrenched his hand away, sword included, disarming the Skink chief. Then he lifted Hyrok up by the scruff of his neck and began moving him towards his gross distended maw.
“[color:brown]Now, I eat you annoying healer!”
“Eat this!”

Hyrok opened his bladder full of blessed venom that heals and poured its entire contents down the Daemon's throat.

“NOOO! Nurgle help your favorite son! Purge me of this foul substance. I—”

His words turned into an inarticulate scream as his midsection began glowing with white light. The blessed purification of the Coatl was completely incompatible with the putrescence of an Unclean One. He glowed brighter and brighter until he was painful to look upon. Korshalork and Hyrok were both vaporized instantly leaving a steaming crater in the ground.

The remaining four Skinks stood in stunned silence broken by Zat-kai.

“We still have to get through the doorway. Most of the Daemon army is already through and we don’t know how long it will stay open.”

They saw the opening, a sliver of natural sunlight breaking the reddish haze of the present portion of the Chaos Realm. The Skinks all walked through one after the other.

Despite all they had suffered through, the Skinks were glad to be back in the jungle. There wasn’t a Daemon in sight but there was a clear path showing the way they went. The Khorne Daemons sliced through all the foliage they saw and the Nurgle Daemons left a trail of defoliation.

“What do we do now?” Preylot asked.
“We follow the army, we still have a duty to defend all of Lustria from these creatures.” Belrikt said.
“No brother, they are many and we are four. We will pray for the souls of our fallen kin, then we will continue our original quest to get the Crown of the Brother’s Bridge to the Slann as the Old Ones intended.” Zat-kai answered.
“Perhapsss we can follow them at a distance, it’d be good to know where the Daemonsss are.” Preylot whispered.
“If we move parallel to their path we can use the jungle as cover while tracking the Daemons, at least until I figure out where in Lustria we are.” Tal-Lat said.
“Agreed.” Zat-kai said, removing the Crown and placing it in his pouch.

The Skinks did the best improvised funerary rite they could lacking a presiding priest and having no bodies at all. After this, the party began trekking through the jungle. Tal-Lat seemed agitated.
“I don’t recognize this purple flower and it’s everywhere here.”
“Is the flower going to eat us?” Belrikt asked.
“Of course not.” Tal-Lat answered.
“Then why is it a problem?”
“It means I have no idea where in Lustria we are. I thought I’ve seen it all.”
“It’s a big jungle, you aren’t that old, so you can’t possibly have covered everything.”
“I know it’s just—there look at that!”
“It’s just a common jungle squirrel, Tal-Lat” Zat-kai said patiently.
“But it had gray spots! Have you ever seen a squirrel with gray spots before.”
“No, but unlike you, I accept that I can’t possibly have seen everything there is to see in Lustria. I’m not bothered by a squirrel with spots.” Belrikt said.
“There’s another one! And another! What if this is some sort of second Chaos realm!”

The group stopped walking.

“You need to calm down; it’s just flowers and squirrels….” Zat-kai said.
“Yeah, you didn’t breathe in any of those tree spores did you?” Belrikt asked.
“Not funny” Preylot hissed.
“This isn’t Lustria!” Tal-Lat declared.
“A few cosmetic differences doesn’t matter. If it looks like a Salamander and burns like a Salamander…”

The shadow of some Terradons with riders passed overhead, it was following the Daemons’ trail. Zat-kai spoke again.

“Good, I don’t have a problem chasing the Daemon army if the First are already engaging it. We can help them fight and they can tell us where we are. I bet we are somewhere south of Itza, that’s one of the places you say you’ve never been, right, Tal-Lat?”

As the four Skinks ran across the Daemon’s trail of destruction, they saw two of the giant flies crashed on the ground. One was still twitching so they stabbed it several times to be safe. Zat-kai paused in confusion.
“These Daemons are full of arrows….”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Belrikt asked.
“We have one bow in the armory at home and they only kept that one around because it’s magical. I don’t know anyone who trained on it.”
“Perhaps the Prodigals are aiding us.”
“How often does that happen?”
“Maybe we are down south, I hear the Culchan Skinks sometimes use bows. I suppose the extra range would come in handy when fighting in open plains.”
“Does this look like the open plains to you?”

They followed the trail some more until they heard signs of battle. They saw a massive lightning bolt strike ahead of them. A good sign that at least one Skink priest was nearby. They eventually saw several Cold One riders ripping through a unit of Bloodletters. The Skinks ran to join their brethren. By the time they arrived the battle seemed to have become a mop up situation as the First Children of the Old Ones were finishing off the last of the Daemons. Before undertaking this quest, Zat-kai would have been upset at missing the action, now he just felt relieved he didn’t have to fight any more. Something was a bit odd though. The cavalry seemed to be ridden by the smallest, scrawniest Sauri he had ever seen. They were Skinks riding them!

Eight Horned One Riders veered off towards the four questing Skinks. [b]Eight Horned Ones! Klodorex had two Horned Ones, and they were considered lucky. The thought of any city having enough Trained Horned Ones to field a unit of them was almost absurd. Itza probably had that many Horned One riders but to use them all at the same time seemed odd. More Skinks and a small number of Saurus began heading their way. Their scale coloration was unlike any Zat-kai had seen before.

“Identify thyselves strangers!” said the largest Skink rider.
“I am Zat-kai, this is Belrikt, Tal-Lat and Preylot. We are on a quest for the Slann of the Temple City of Klodorex.”
“I know of no city entitled Klodorex.”
“Bevare, look at the colors of their scales. Zey are colored strangely and the tongue of these strangers iz quite strange.”
Our tongue is strange?
“Perhaps zey are shapechanging Daemons sent to cause us woe…”

Preylot lost his temper and started yelling.

“You think we are Daemons? We’ve killed more of the ancient foesss than you could imagine!”
“Exzactly! Whoever heard of a Hidden One raising his voice?”
“Enough” came the voice of a purple Skink.

The funny talking Skinks all stood silent. The purple Skink was bedecked as a priest and was clearly respected as one of high rank. Zat-kai had never seen a Skink with purple scales or a purple crest that wasn’t a priest, but he couldn’t be sure. Before today, he had never seen a solid yellow Saurus before and all the Sauri here were yellow.

“You must speak to Slann Lord Trawlikshen. He will determine the truth of zese strangers. Follow,” the mystery priest said imperiously.

The four Skinks followed the priest and his delegation for some distance. A block of Saurus Warriors guarded one flank while a large Skink/Kroxigor cohort guarded the other. Is Itza THIS suspicious of Klodorex now?

As they entered the city, the faster elements of the army began joining them. There were several units of Horned One Riders. Also there were several Ripperdactlyls which became surprising when they found out how small the Temple City they were going to was. Far too small to be Itza.

The party was brought before the Slann Trawlikhen and told to tell their story. After which Zat-kai placed the Crown of the Brother’s Bridge at the Slann’s feet. After a long pause the Slann gave a fairly lengthy answer. Zat-kai couldn’t speak the Slann language but was pretty sure the word “Skink” came up several times. The Skink Priest relayed the Slann’s message.

“The four of thee have unknowingly traveled across the World Pond. Lord Trawlikshen is pleased to know the First on the other landmass are still strong. Thy quest proves thee are truly favored of the Old Ones. Ve do not have the means to return thee home. Belrikt, Tal-Lat, and Preylot, ve hope you vill come to consider this place to be thy home.”

“What about Zat-kai?” Belrikt asked.
“Zat-kai has repetitively probed the minds of Daemons. He must be destroyed lest he carry their foul taint here.”
“No!” said Belrikt, Tal-Lat and Preylot as one.
“It’s okay” Zat-kai said to the stunned silence of his friends.

After a pause he spoke again.

“I am terrified by how well I understood the Daemons. I accept your judgment, Lord Trawlikshen.”

He bowed low and the Slann spoke once more which the Skink priest relayed.

“Thee are truly favored of the Old Ones, but sadly that provides trifle protection. Fare thee well.”

The Slann lifted his hand and Zat-kai was incinerated to ash by a beam of white light. Belrikt thought he saw the shape of a Coatl rise from the smoke, but he figured he probably imagined it. He couldn’t see clearly through the tears in his eyes.

“His willing sacrifice has probably cleansed the Crown of the taint of Chaos, but we will cleanse it in the temples to be sure.”

The three Lustrian Skinks glared at the Slann through tearful eyes in a way none had dared to before, then were dismissed.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In Lustria, Chameleon Skinks looked to their legendary forebear Oxyotl for inspiration. Though Preylot told the First of Southlands about cunning Oxyotl, Preylot became the standard to which the Southlands Chameleon Skinks aspired to be. His cunning, patience, courage, and marksmanship were second to none. Unlike most Chameleon Skinks, he did not stand aloof from the other Skinks providing contributions as he saw fit, but he planned and collaborated with them. Under his leadership, the Chameleon Skinks and common Skinks coordinated their war efforts carefully. All across the Southlands Chameleon Skinks followed his example. He lived long and became a legend in his own lifetime remembered for generations afterwards.
Preylot remained stern and aloof in his mannerisms. The whispers from the Tree of Living Nightmares were long gone, but he would never forget the words that were said. Rather than bask in the admiration he received from the other Chameleon Skinks, he was always focused on his next mission. His admirers believed this was due to his dedication to the Old Ones. In truth, he simply that he always felt that his accomplishments were not enough since he failed to save so many of his friends.
Tal-Lat passed the knowledge of generations of Lustrian hunters to the beast caste Skinks of the Southlands. He was quickly able to learn the lore of the Southlands hunters and became the preeminent wilderness expert on that continent. He visited every Temple City on the continent great and small. Everywhere he went, the scribes eager to record his wisdom and experience. Tal-Lat understood the jungles of the Southlands very well, but he never stayed long in one place for long since no place he walked felt like home.
Under Tal-Lat’s guidance beast caste Skinks around the continent began cultivating a wide variety of creatures they hadn’t even considered raising before, thus leading to the beast pens and farm sections of all the Southlands cities being expanded. He was particularly adamant that every city cultivate Deralethi spiders. If Tal-Lat had one eccentricity for the other First to overlook, it was the fact that Tal-Lat was obsessive about seeking out the Coatl. Every free moment he had was spent searching for them until the day he died.
Belrikt’s strength, ferocity and cunning quickly let him make a name for himself. Given how few Sauri the Southlands had, it was easier for a Skink Chief to command respect and prestige. He added ridership to his great list of skills, being equally at ease on a Ripperdactlyl, Terradon, Horned One or Stegadon.
He became the youngest Skink chief ever to serve as general. Multiple temple cities would call on his expertise and he led many armies of the Southlands cities to victories over the Khemrians, Skaven and many others. Originally known as Belrikt the Outlander, the other Skink chiefs began calling him Belrikt the Pious due to the fact that he spent most of his free time in various temples of the Old Ones to make offerings. Unbeknownst to other chiefs, the prayers and offerings were all bent towards a single purpose: to beseech the Old Ones to protect the souls of his fallen friends. Despite decades as a celebrated general, Belrikt refused to ever give a report directly to a Slann, instead operating through the Skink Priests.
All of the three Lustrian outlanders generally avoided the Slann, so they never found out the true impact their quest. They did not know that back home, the names of all ten questers were enshrined along with the names of Klodroex’s greatest heroes. They did not know that across the World Pond in Lustria, many Slann were attempting to curry Klodorex’s favor.
A year after their arrival, Tralikshen deemed the Crown of the Brother’s Bridge sufficiently cleansed to use. As he grasped the Crown, the thin ring expanded to the size of head. He placed the Crown on his head and ascended to the highest temple in the city, reaching out telepathically for Lord Merestar of Klodorex.
Greetings brother, it has been too long since we talked.
It has been too long indeed.
Though we cannot meet physically, we can once again speak. It is time our two continents act as one body to fulfill the Will of the Old Ones.
Yes, there is much for us to do

---

I wrote this piece all the way back in 2013, but I edited a lot.
This is intended to be a standalone story for those familar with Warhammer Fantasy lore, especially Lizardmen and Daemons of Chaos, but this also touches on my wider narrative.

Show spoiler

The big narrative changer here is that telepathic contact is opened up between Lustria and the Southlands and Klodorex is the conduit for which the two Slann populations talk to each other.