Keburry has a typical shape of the settlements of the serpent people, I later learned, rectangular, with a central street that divides the settlement in half, at one end is the entrance gate and at the opposite end are the fishermen's docks. Some houses are built on stilts and made of adobe, although the Temple and the Great House have half a stone wall with the rest also made of adobe, the village is entirely on dry land. It is protected by an earthen wall 6m high and surrounded by a moat, 4m wide and 1.5m deep, fed by the river. In total, more than 60 two-story houses with roofs made of vegetable fibers are inside the walls. With another 60 wooden houses, around the walled city. In the center of the village there is a square and in the middle of the square is a 10m high dunghill that is the entrance to the village's Formica colony. Around are the fields of fungi that the formics use as food, the fruit trees and the enclosures of horned rabbits and wild pigs.
But all of this now has the patina of war, several of the houses are burned, or still on fire. And the bodies of mantis are everywhere. Strangely, there are no bodies of the serpent people in sight.
Hethress stands up, around us are the intact bodies of the mantis and a few unfortunate serpent people who were hit by my devastating magic.
The serpent person that Hethress was healing was lucky, he was just beyond the area of effect of my magic.
I assume my serpent people form again, the most incredible thing is that my clothes come back with it, magic is a very cool thing.
"Hethress, I'm sorry..." But really I only feel a little guilty, like when you bump into something that falls and breaks. But nothing like what you would expect after having killed hundreds of beings. A warning appears in the back of my mind. But so much is happening that it's hard to stop and analyze it.
She looks at me, her yellow eyes full of pain, but when she focuses on me. The shadow of a smile appears.
"War is always a mess, at least they had a quick death, instead of being devoured alive by the mantis."
Ahead of us the gates open and two people come out.
One wears lamellar armor, a hussar-style helmet, a curved sword at her waist along with a rondel dagger, and on her left arm a round shield the size of her forearm, sabatons, and metal shin guards. She is tall, 1.8m to 1.9m, her armor has several loose plates or empty spaces, her shield has dents, and she is covered in dried splashes of the white stuff that mantises have as blood. Beside her is clearly a male of the serpent people, wearing a light blue tunic, which is dirty with mud, soot, and red blood, high leather boots, a wide leather belt with pockets attached to it, and long gloves. His head feathers are black with gray spots and his scales are mustard-colored, and his eyes are yellow. Soon he passes by the figure in the armor and approaches us, running across the muddy ground.
"Mistress? Is it really you, milady?" Tears begin to run down his face. “Hiutotiaco, I said that milady had died!” he begins to sob.
Hethress puts a hand on his shoulder. “Sriltos, It’s okay, I’m fine. Let’s go in, I have a lot to talk about.”
Hiutotiaco arrives with heavy steps, takes off his helmet and lets it fall to the ground, falls to both knees, pulls the rondel from his waist and hands it to Hethress “Milady, my dishonor is immense, only my life pays for this failure.”
Hethress takes the rondel and hits Hiutotiaco on the head with the handle “Hiutotiaco, Idiot, get up, you did nothing wrong or dishonorable.” As soon as she gets up Hethress hands him the rondel, she turns to me. “My lord, follow me please.” Then we pass through the entrance followed by the 2 plus a group of tired guards. Hiutotiaco and Sriltos exchange glances and follow us. As we pass through the gate, I feel stares and turn my head back and see a group of guards, on top of the wall, and a short, fat figure, a male of the serpent people. He has no feathers on his head and wears armor, a Brigantine, on his waist a falchion. His gaze, I realize, is not directed at me, but at Hethress.
The village has several fires and several people run past, carrying buckets to put out the fires, both males and females, of various ages. Others carry wounded people in the same direction we are going, the Temple. I notice that the scales vary between green, brown, mustard and another black or red, most have green scales. The feathers on their heads vary between green, red, black, white and gray and one or two are blue.
We arrive at the temple, the base is made of stone, slate slabs stacked with some kind of plaster as an alloy and then go up adobe walls. The temple door is open and the temple is packed with people, children, women, elderly people, on one side and on the other side, several people lying on mats, wounded from the fighting. The guards who accompanied us stay in the nave of the temple, some go to talk to the civilians and others to their comrades in arms. We pass through the crowd, heads turn, both on the side of the women and on the side of the wounded, especially on the people in blue robes like Sriltos. We pass by the altar, a simple pulpit on a platform, both made of wood. We pass by the sacristy and enter the office. “Sriltos, prepare a bath and food for me, and summon the surviving priests from the other villages and hamlets, in... 3 hours.” He looks at me anxiously. “Go! We'll talk later, when you leave, close the door.” “Hiutotiaco, tell me everything that happened since I “disappeared”".
“Yes, my lady. I woke up face down on the floor without knowing how or why. I went up to the temple looking for you and when I entered the sacrifice room it was empty, there was no one or anything, as if you and the other priests had never been there. The room was completely clean. I waited for 1 day and then returned to the village. When I got here, I reported to the Lord. I would say that, on the one hand, he was happy with your death, but he was very angry with the death of the priests. He took advantage and placed all the priests under the command of the Kebury temple, also taking command over the guards of the other towns and villages.”
“He did that?” Hethress asks in a tone of disbelief.
“Cōpa.” Hiutotiaco says.
“Cōpa, of course.”
Sriltos opens the door and announces. “Madam, your bath is ready.”
Hethress gets up from the chair where she was and speaks looking at me and Hiutotiaco.
“Wait here, Sriltos bring tea and something to eat for my guest.” Through the mental link she says to me, “With your permission, my lord, I’ll be right back.” Then she leaves.
Hiutotiaco and I look at each other, but we wait in silence.
After a short while she returns. In a changed tunic, one with batik dye, light blue and dark blue pattern. She sits down and says to Hiutotiaco, while Sriltos brings the tea and food, thin strips of raw meat marinated in some sauce that smells of mint.
“First a few things to be clarified. The ritual was a success, the gods sent us a champion.” She says and points to me.
My head whips around to her.
“My lord, this will be easier.” She says through the link.
"Hiutotiaco you have done nothing wrong or shameful.”
“Your name is Crixus.”
I nod to both of them and they return with a bow.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
“But the Goddess demanded a greater sacrifice, the others were taken by the Goddess and are now in her arms.”
I don’t know about the others, but even to me it was obvious that she is hiding something. She is not a very good liar.
Hiutotiaco and Sriltos look at me and Hethress. Yeah... it was obvious to them that they noticed it too. But no one forces the subject.
“Continue Hiutotiaco, and Sriltos, close the door, as my 1st novice you must stay away from everything from now on.”
“5 days after I returned, the mantis attacks intensified, the wave of refugees increased, the village now has +1000 people and in addition to the mantis attacks, survivors have told stories of skeleton attacks, led by a burning skeleton, which by all indications is intelligent.
“It must be the Lich’s doing.” Hethress says, making her 2-finger gesture on her forehead.
“Yes my lady, up until 2 days before your return, a large swarm of mantis attacked us, the formic soldiers were decimated, but they managed to give the refugees time to enter before we had to close the gates. Since then we have been besieged and have repelled the attacks with great casualties, the priests are overwhelmed, if the champion had not appeared today, the village would probably have fallen by night.”
“What is the death count?”
“Of the 10 villages and towns in the region, 6 no longer exist and all the others have been evacuated to Kebury. Our Formic troops have been decimated in the other villages as well, it will take 1 month to replace the Formic troops and 30% of the village guard has died or is out of action. But before that we will die of hunger, the supplies, with the current population, will only last 1 week.”
Without looking at me and still with his fingers on his forehead. “My lord, it would be of great help and would bring us great benefit if you could perform a great feat.”
I think. How could I help? “Psicrystal Assistent, is there any way I can help these people?” I think.
“Yes, Life spell.”
“How does this work?”
Psicrystal Assistent
Conjurador assitent: ativar y/ no
"YES."
Life
School conjuration
Level: 10
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Components: V, S, M(something worth 100,000 gp ) Epic Mythic Eschew Materials feat)
Range: emanation centered on you
Area: long (150m. + 10m radius./level)
Target: see text
Duration: instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell : yes (harmless)
Life enables you to channel positive energy into all creature, within the area of effect, to wipe away injury and afflictions. It immediately ends any and all of the following adverse conditions affecting the target: ability damage, blinded, confused, dazed, dazzled, deafened, diseased, exhausted, fatigued, feebleminded, insanity, nauseated, poisoned, sickened, and stunned. It also cures all hit points of damage. Life remove negative levels and restore permanently drained ability score points.The subject’s severed body members (fingers, toes, hands, feet, arms, legs, tails, or even heads of multi-headed creatures), broken bones, and ruined organs grow back. After the spell is cast, the physical regeneration is complete in 1 round. If used against an undead creature, Life instead acts like harm spell.
Psi Power Slot 10: 4/4=>3/4
Activate: y/n
"YES."
>>>DANGER<<<
Detected life forms potentially dangerous to the user. Possible actions to be taken:
Cast magic anyway: A
Abort Magic: B
Cast magic selecting targets, “allies only”, (requires use of Selective Spell feat (this option requires physical manifestation of Psicrystal Assisten)): C
Activate: Y/N
“C, yes.”
At the height of my face, in front of me, a pink crystal shard appears, about 25cm long and 10cm in diameter.
Psicrystal Assistent
Select name:»»»???«««
“Jeannie.”
As soon as I select the name, a wave of blue energy explodes from within me and sweeps across the room and passes through the walls.
Hiutotiaco, Sriltos and Hethress look at me with wide eyes, and soon after the screaming begins.
Hiutotiaco runs to the source of the screaming, followed by Sriltos, Hethress, me and the floating crystal.
When we arrive at the temple nave, we see that the reason for the screaming is a mixture of joy and surprise. The people who were injured are now fine, some who were missing limbs now have complete limbs, the novices look at their patients without understanding and then notice the priestess entering the temple nave and now look at her trying to understand what happened.
“Come, quickly.” she says via link and pulls me by the hand to the temple pulpit.
With her trained voice and the acoustics of the temple, she draws everyone's attention. The shouting calms down, and as soon as it becomes a fair-like hubbub, she speaks.
“Brothers, you all know that I went on a journey with the other priests to ask the Goddess for help. The news of my death was hasty. But the most important thing is that the Goddess answered us and sent her Champion. He was responsible for the grace you have now received. KNEEL AND PRAISE THE GODDESS’ CHAMPION.” She lets go of my hand and stands in front of me, then prostrating herself on the ground. Like a wave, everyone does the same. I look at everything and everyone, not knowing what to do or what to say, paralyzed.
At that moment, I see soldiers running down the street, led by the short, fat figure of the individual wearing the Brigantina.
He stops at the door of the temple, looks at the crowd, kneels and then looks at me.