Blue.
Blinding.
The world is blue and blinding. This is what Hiutotiaco thinks, as he peels his face away from the damp stone of the ziggurat. With her body in pain, she gets up and sees that the 2 sentinels are lying on the ground, the 5 ankylosaurs ran away and jumped into the lake, she sees 3 still fighting to not drown, one of them with 2/3 of its body in the water, its weight dragging it to the bottom of the lake while the beast tries to get out with its front paws. She runs and grabs the beast's harness, begins to pull, slowly, with the help of her muscles, which are tearing in pain, the ankylosaurus begins to come out. She screams in frustration and puts in all her strength. Then the harness is ripped from his hands and a large crocodile drags the ankylosaur to the bottom.
“FFFFFRRRRRRAAAAAKKKKKK.” Hatred burns her body, she turns to the sentries and kicks one of them hard in the ribs. The sound of breaking bones mixes with the scream of pain. The sentry curls into a fetal position. Hiutotiaco looks at the second, still lying motionless on the ground. She picks him up by the neck with one hand and throws him into the lake.
"USELESS!"
The Sentinel, now awake, struggles and swims to the step of the ziggurat and looks on without understanding what happened.
Some of the anger leaves Hiutotiaco's body. Fury is good, but not now. She takes 3 deep breaths, as her master taught, anger without purpose or target is wasted energy.
Everything was fine, the priests had already started the ritual, then the temple started to shake. Fear of earthquake made her look at the mountains in the valley, none of the volcanoes were spewing fire. Then everything turned blue.
Then she woke up face down on the floor.
She runs, climbing the ziggurat stairs to the sacrificial room.
It's empty! There is nothing and no one, they are gone, there is no blood, bodies, nothing, not a trace of scale. She was unconscious for a few minutes at most, there was no way they could disappear without magic.
Damn cursed place!
She leaves the room and looks towards Kebury. 500m from a lake infested with crocodiles, 2 days journey to the city, through treacherous swamps, full of head hunters and 2 useless luggage. She goes down the steps. The sentry she kicked is still on the ground.
“Ma-cu, Limez prepare food, we will leave tomorrow before ½ day.” She looks at them both with disdain.
“Yes, my lady” Ma-cu helps Limez up and the two go up the stairs to the room where the camp was set up.
She sits on the step and thinks. Where did it all start to go wrong? This was supposed to be a chance to grow, gain prestige and power. Her father finally showed the slightest bit of recognition by choosing her as a bodyguard for a temple priestess. The rumors about Hethress, that she was involved in the political “wars” of the temple, on the losing side, and was therefore exiled to a canton of the kingdom. For her, this wasn't punishment, it was a reward. As the only daughter of a concubine who never produced males, moving away from the constant and gratuitous punishments of her superiors and the humiliations of her peers was a prize in itself. A chance to show your worth, a place to start from scratch. Then the attacks began, the training she helped give Lord Szeddisosh D’Verda’s troops made a difference, but things weren’t going well for the other villages. If this region were lost to mantis attacks, it would be a great dishonor for everyone involved. Any chance of redemption and recognition would be nullified. To make matters worse, the Lich rumor emerged.
Now that, go back and inform Lord Szeddisosh D’Verda that all the priests in the region have disappeared, as if they had never existed. A failed expedition.
“FFFFFFFFRRRRRRRRAAAAAAKKKKKK!” she screams once more.
She looks at the lake. How am I going to cross this lake full of crocodiles? The best is before noon. When the fog is still thick and the beasts are still lethargic.
She gets up and goes to camp to eat. She always thinks better on a full stomach.
When she arrives, the 2 sentries who were talking are silent.
“Soon the meat and some tea were ready, my lady.” Ma-cu says without looking me in the eye as Limez stirs the fire and throws tea leaves into the kettle.
I begin to remove the field armor. She would be a burden during the crossing. My sword, a knife and an empty skin canteen to use as a float, that's all I'll take.
We all sat around the fire in silence and ate and drank.
“Madam, what happened, where are the priests?” Ma-cu asks after a while.
"I don't know. When I went to the sacrifice room, there was nothing there. As if they had never entered that room.”
“This place is cursed, we are going to die.” Limez says through tears.
“I can't die. I have a duty to fulfill. Now sleep, tomorrow we’ll get out of here.”
I get up and go to my sleeping bag. I say my prayers. And I begin to plan what I will say to Lord Szeddisosh D’Verda.
After a while I enter a state of semi-meditation, as I was taught, it is a state in which you can rest but your body remains alert, like a trap trigger, in this case the trigger is always something that is outside the pattern of each environment. , it could be sound, smell, vibration or all of these. In this room, the pattern is easy to acquire. This training has saved my life several times. After 3 days, it starts to lose its effectiveness and in 5 days it completely loses it.
In the middle of the night, the “trigger” goes off. Like a whip I turn and see Ma-cu with a sword in his hand already raised to strike and right behind holding a knife comes Limez.
“HOLD!” The magic hits Ma-cu, who falls face down like a stone statue. Limez advances with his knife raised, but his blow is weak and I can easily dodge it. When he recovers for a second attack, my knife is already stuck under his mouth, through the palate and into the middle of the brain.
I preferred live bait, but they will be bait anyway.
First thing in the morning. I go up again to the sacrificial room. Nothing, empty, I shake my head and go back down. I drag the 2 bodies to the step closest to the water, throw a bowl of Ma-cu's blood into the water, wait for some time and throw his body tied to a buoy made from a skin canteen, at the northernmost end of the ziggurat. I wait until I see movement approaching across the lake, then I run over to Limez's body and do the same thing, his body falls to half the size of the ziggurat, 50m from Ma-cu. When I see movement in the water, I run to the opposite end of the two bodies and I enter the water. Using the “buoy” I start swimming frog style, to avoid stirring the water too much and towards the nearest bank.
The water is cold and dark and home to much worse things than crocodiles.
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“Lady Hylasis, give strength and protect your servant.” It's the mantra I recite until I reach the shore. I go out and check that my sword and knives are securely strapped to my body. Several leeches cover my legs and arms. Taking advantage of the fact that my skin is numb from the cold of the lake water, I tear them off my body as I head towards Kebury. I start running. If there are no problems on a race day I will arrive at the village. But there are always problems in the Valley of Shadows.
After 6 hours of running with sword in hand, the wounds from the leeches have already closed and the scratches and small cuts are healed within a few minutes after it happens, The Lady is Good and Fair, my body has large scars on my back, arms and legs, in these parts, my scales which are dark green with light green edges, are a mottled gray color, these are marks from before the Goddess gave you her gift, if you are worthy, one day the Goddess will erase all the marks, but for now its grace only prevents new marks. The fog is very thin, a breeze runs and brings the smell of rotting meat, about 100m in the sky scavenger birds circle, directly in the direction of my route.
I continue running and soon I see why, parts of a dororo's body are hanging from a tree, only the thin wings and the neck held together by a piece of leather remain. Getting closer you can see that he has been tamed, wrapped around his neck are the straps of a harness.
So that's what happened to the messenger.
I don't see the messenger's body. Mantis tracks are everywhere. I don't have time for this, tracking mantis. I keep running. It's already night when I smell meat on the fire. Only someone crazy would start a fire in the middle of the forest or mantis. The smell gets stronger the more I run. Until I see a flash in the fog, about 30m away. I approach slowly and climb a nearby tree. From the top I see the following scene.
Two mantis are feasting on a carcass of one of the serpent people, which is skewered and being roasted over a fire, 3 bundles made with jacu leaves, a plant known for its preservative properties, lie roasting on stones in another fire. I found the 4 sentries. They must be the ones who attacked us. Mantis always hunt in groups of 5 or more. We killed 1 that night, they must have lost the other 2 before they attacked us, They are young males, their carapaces do not have spines, they must not be more than 5 years old. My duty dictates that I follow and ignore the scene. My fury says no.
I get down from the tree and crawl closer. Mantis can see in the dark and their faceted eyes see in all directions, but they are bad at seeing things that are still or moving slowly.
Using bushes to get closer, I get a good distance away and attack, channeling divine energy into my Kilij, I cut the first mantis in half, my magical Kilij, charged with the Goddess' fury, leaves a dark blue trail in the air, the second mantis arms his scythes and before he can position himself, my blade cuts off half of his head. I cut the scythes off the 2 mantis and throw them into the fire. This is a great dishonor to your people. They go to the afterlife unarmed like defenseless larvae. I say a prayer to the sentinels, they have nothing I can take families to be thrown into the “blood” of the Goddess Hylasis. The most I can do is let them turn to ashes. So, I head to the village.
Just another 15 hours of running.
Finally at dawn I arrive at the village, my clothes in tatters, only the gift of the Goddess brought me here.
When I get close, the village gates are already open and the captain of the guard is already waiting for me.
“Catzina.”
“Hiutotiaco… are the others coming?” I see a ray of hope in your eyes. I nod lightly.
“I must introduce myself to Lord Szeddisosh D’Verda…the news is not good.”
He blinks several times, “Men, escort Lady Hiutotiaco to the temple and then to the Greater House.” He turns to me. “I will notify Lord Szeddisosh D’Verda of your arrival.” He turns and heads to the Great House with 6 guards, 4 of whom accompany me. I head to the temple. I knock on the door and Sriltos, Hethress's favorite opens the door to the temple, he blinks several times, surprised, then stands on tiptoe and looks over my shoulder, I'm taller than him. “H-H-Hethress,...the priestess, where is she?” I push him and enter the temple, he follows behind. “What ha-ha-happened?” I go to my cell and look for a simple cloak, easy to wear and clean. “Dead!”
He falls hard to the floor.
I take a deep breath, I don't have time for this. I step over him, lying on the ground and go to the guards who are waiting for me at the door temple. I pass by them and they promptly flank me on the way to Great House. We passed through the inner courtyard and headed to the main hall. Only my escort, the guards who followed with Catzina and the head butler, Cōpa, are present in it. The Lord is not here.
“His grace, Lord Szeddisosh D’Verda, will receive you soon, Lady Hiutotiaco.” Cōpa, perfection in the matter of chief butler intones the comment, standing next to the chair where Lord Szeddisosh D’Verda presides over his duties.
So Cōpa on the right side of the chair, Catzina and her guards on the right side of the hall and me and my escort on the left side, we wait. Some time later the doors to the hall open and, escorted by two guards, the massive figure of Lord Szeddisosh D’Verda enters the hall. Its body is more than 10m long and 1m in diameter, scales forming light brown and dark brown diamonds cover its body, its head, more than 1.5m long, rises 2m from the ground. He snakes over to his chair, which creaks under his weight, curls around his own body and rests his immense head. His tongue whips the indolent air.
“Your grace Lord Szeddisosh D’Verda, first of your name receives you.”
His green eyes with vertical pupils look at me with boredom. The bow of red feathers on her head is glued to her.
Hiutotiaco
Paladin of Fury 10
LE Medium monstrous humanoid, female
Init +6; Senses darkvision 18m., scent; Perception +9
AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+2 Dex, +1 natural, +2 shield, +3 armor)
HP 115 (4d8+10d10+42)
Fort +8, Ref +9, Will +9
SR 14
Speed 30 ft.,
Melee +1 keen scimitar +14/+9 (1d6+4/15-20)
Special Attacks: poison
Special: Smite, Divine Grace, Lay On Hands, Aura of Courage, Divine Health, Mercy: no longer exhausted, fast healing 3
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th) cha base. 1/day—animal trance (DC 13), cause fear (DC 12), charm person (DC 12), darkness, entangle (DC 12).
Str 16, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 12
Base Atk +10; CMB +13; CMD 25
Feats Alertness, Blind-Fight, Channel Smite, Combat Expertise, Improved Initiative, Lingering Smite, Power Attack, Toughness
Skills Acrobatics +9, Disguise +6, Perception +9, Sense Motive +3, Stealth +13, Survival +1
Languages Yuan-ti, Common, Draconic, and Abyssal.