Grues are afraid of light!  This is why it won't leave its pitch black chamber to pursue me.  Fortunately, you still have some flint and tinder.  You originally brought it with the intention of building a campfire along the journey but things change I guess.  You light a piece of wood and wrap a piece of torn clothing (soaked in cave water) around the middle to help prevent the flames from going to far down near your hands.  You need to move fast as this is not going to last for long and you don't want to be stuck down there without light. 

 
As anticipated, the grue backs away in a feverish effort to avoid the light your flame is generating.  You are pleased to see that the passageway at the end of this chamber has a faint light source at the end (although it is very far away).  Hauling ass as fast as you can, you head down the tunnel towards the light source as your makeshift torch is already beginning to burn itself to completion.  By the time it does, you've already made it close enough to the nearby light source that the grue wouldn't dare follow. 

 

It seems the light is being generated by a series of torches that line a set of tracks.  It is then that you realize this cave is not really a cave at all but a mine occupied by numerous kobolds.  You were always raised to believe that kobolds had beards and wore candles on their heads, but seeing them now you realize how ridiculous that claim actually is.  Who came up with that anyway?  In reality, they are like miniture lizard folk and very scrawny too (even by your scrawny standards).  Staying at the edge of the light source, you decide to observe these creatures for a little while before planning a move.  You are reasonably certain you could handle one or possibly even two in a fight but you most certainly can't charge in or you will be overwhelmed in an instant. 

 
 
 
 

 
Of particular notice is the kobold on the high ledge that is sporting a purple overcoat and barking orders at the laboring kobolds in whatever the hell language these things are speaking.  It occurs to you that these kobolds may very well be working for the Craxil, in which case you would very much like to get your hands on that one in the purple & green coat.  You tire of wandering the mountainside aimlessly, narrowly evading one death after another all the while having no idea where this Craxil actually is.  Perhaps you could find some way of getting to him quietly and making him talk. 

 
There are a few problems with this plan.  For starters, the torches provide plenty of illumination in this region and there are countless kobold laborers that would detect your presence and tear you to shreds if you just went in as things are now.  You entertain the idea of making them chase you back to the grue, but you don't really have enough wood for another makeshift torch.  Even if you were to sneak along the wall on either side, there is still enough light in there to give away your location.  This is going to be tough.

 
You observe them more and try to formulate some kind of cogent strategy when you notice a kobold has to emerge from a nearby storage chamber to bring wood to the torches.  The storage chamber isn't illuminated and you didn't even notice it was there in the beginning.  That gives you a couple of ideas.  For one, you could hide in the storage chamber until the next kobold comes in to keep the torches going, then kill him quickly.  Once the torches go out, you can head to the head kobold in charge.  Alternatively, you can set the entire room on fire, which would undoubtedly create a diversion.  This plan is risky given that the fire would undoubtedly light the place up quite a bit, but it would also eliminate the tinder they need to light any torches later.

You sneak Into Storage Room And Set Fire To Their Supply Of Tinder

There is no point in hiding in the storage room as they may very well send more kobolds in to retrieve the tinder.  Instead, you are going to set it all ablaze.  Even if the distraction doesn't work well enough for you, it will only be a matter of time before the quell the fire and run out of tinder for their torch basins.  You sneak in start a fire using their own flint and tinder.  Soon this fire spreads to the rest of the tinder in the room (with your help of course) and you quickly find your way out of there and out of sight before the kobolds are aware of what has transpired.

 

It isn't long before they take notice and flock over to their storage room.  The taskmaster kobold keeps jumping around shouting "yip yip" or whatever the hell these things say and the other kobolds are struggling to stop the fire.  You manage to slip around the corner and evade the bulk of them and you think you've found the passageway leading up towards the taskmaster kobold.  In fact, you have.  There's just one small problem.  There are two kobolds guarding the taskmaster and you would be foolish to assume the taskmaster is unarmed so that makes three.  At present, the taskmaster is clearly focused on the fire, to the point of ignoring all else, but the two guardian kobolds are still vigilant.  You're going to need another plan.

 
You consider using your bow again.  You are actually pretty close to the bodyguard kobolds yet still veiled in darkness so you would not likely miss from this range.  Of course, with one dead you would have to immediately focus on the other and subdue the taskmaster all in quick succession lest the entire colony become aware of your attack.  Another, possibly crazier idea is to just run past the guards before they mentally register your presence, grab the taskmaster, jump from the ledge, and just run.  The fall may be considerable for a kobold, but you are sure that as a human you can handle it.

You use Your Bow To Take Out The Guardians Quickly, Then Subdue The Taskmaster

You are going to take advantage of the short range and the distraction you created to shoot down your target's guardians and then grabbing the target himself.  You don't want to just grab him and run as you have no secluded place in mind in which to take him and you certainly don't want to alert the rest of the colony.  It is decided then, you are going to have to use the element of surprise once again and make a risky move.

 
You draw your bow and notch an arrow in the drawstring.  The nearest kobold is so very close.  You aim at his head and for the first time in your life the arrow actually goes where it is supposed to.  The other bodyguard is so in shock at the sight of this that by the time it registers what is going on you already have another arrow drawn back and ready to go.  He turns to run towards his taskmaster and you put one between his shoulderblades.  Its only at this time that the taskmaster turns around and sees what has transpired.  He starts shouting more of his "yip yip" nonsense but given that he had been doing that already since the fire started the other kobolds don't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. 

 
You grab him and pull him back into the passage before the ledge, tear the purple cloth that makes his coat, bind his wrists, and search him thoroughly for any weapons.  The creature looks at you in complete fear and for the first time you are truly taken back by the kind of things you are capable of.  After all, you've just been an underappreciated swineherd your whole life.  And a scrawny one to boot (ok, so you're still scrawny, but that's beside the point).  I guess survival and stress can make people do some pretty crazy things huh?

 
You draw your sword and let the kobold know that if he makes any unnecessary noise he'd quickly regret it.  Like most leaders, he's bold in words and all coward at heart.  You decide its time to begin.

 
"Tell me what you know about the Craxil" you demand.  You're clearly not used to being in such a position of dominance or control but damn if you're gonna let the kobold know that.

 
"Yip, ok.  The Craxil is the organizer, the one that unifed the scattered beastmen thoughout this region of the barren mountain range."

 
"Why did the Craxil do this?  What does it hope to accomplish?"

 
"eee.  The Craxil wants to provide for the beastmen it does!  No likes hoominz that take all nice land and push us back into barren lands yip.  Craxil wants some good lands too yip.  Takes them from hoominz he will.  You'll see"

 
You shove your sword under his neck as if to somehow counter his claim.  "What manner of creature is this Craxil you demand."  

 
"Yip.  Nobody knows, least not us kobolds anyway.  We's gets our orderss from the riders we does"

 
"Riders?"

 
"Yip, humans that serve the Craxil.  Well, at least they used to be human.  Now... not anymore"

 
"The Craxil raised them as undead?!?"

 
"Yip noes, the Craxil does not perform such foul practices.  The Craxil is noble to us beasties he is.  No, the Craxil spends days performing the ritual to break their mind and make them thralls."

 
This last part terrifies you.  You know mindflayers are capable of turning humans into thralls, but they can do so instantly.  They don't require days and a ritual to do so.  Clearly, this Craxil is indeed a creature unlike any other.  You can hear the sound of kobold laborers gradually getting closer so you take the last bit of time you have to ask the most important question.

 
"Where can I find the Craxil?"

 
"Yip!  He resides in an underground cavern accessed from the bottom of a vast canyon up north yip.  Best way is Redridge Pass.  Rocks will be red they wills and cactii too.  Use mine shaft at end of mine that way, it takes you close.  Now let's me go yip!" 

 
The voices are drawing closer and you don't have time for any further answers.  You decide to execute your prisoner and stash the body so you can sneak out to the passageway without alerting the rest of the kobold colony.

You continue Sneaking To The Yours Shaft

The kobolds are not alerted to your presence yet; and with most of them trying to contain the fire you started, there aren't very many standing between you and the mine shaft.  You continue down along the tracks in the passageway.  There are multiple passages and mining spots on both sides and even some ladders leading deeper into the ground but you follow the tracks straight as told until you reach the end of the passage.  A single ladder leads up, very far up in fact.  You are beginning to develop a fear of heights just looking at how high you are gonna have to climb and given that kobolds built this place you have serious reservations about how well the ladder is gonna support your weight. 

 
But what choice do you have?  The skeletons and grue you left behind will certainly make it difficult to leave this place the way you came and it won't be long before the kobolds discover the bodies.  You set about climbing the ladder and waste no more time thinking about it.  You just do it.  The ladder reaches higher and higher and higher and looking down you are soon aware of just how extensive these mining tunnels are.  Still, your curiosity about kobold mining practices will have to wait.  You've got a Craxil to kill and a village to save.  Finally, you reach the top and fling open the hatch.

You move On With The Quest

You are glad to have put that unplesant ordeal behind you and now head forth in search of the Redridge Pass.  You are finally beginning to see cactii, which pleases you greatly, and the dirt/rocks are still red.  You get the sense that you must be close so this Redridge Pass is going to have to be somewhere nearby or up ahead.  You shudder when you realize there are rarely ever any formal signs in beastmen controlled territories so how will you know this pass when you get to it?

 

As you ponder these thoughts you notice a small hut up ahead, along your path.  Smoke rising from a brick chimney tells you someone is home though you cannot imagine what civilized being could possibly live so deep within the Craxil's territory.  How would such a person get supplies?  How would such a person survive out here with all the hostile creatures roaming about?  Perhaps this person isn't a person at all but a hostile creature himself that for whatever reason favors the abode of humans?  

 
Despite the fact that it is still daytime, you decide to creep up and look in the window to see who is inside.  All you see is a homely old man with a beard eating plumpdinberry pie in his rocking chair.  An illusion you question?  Or perhaps your time out here in the Craxil's territory has made you jaded.  After some internal debate, you decide to go in.  You've been awake for two and a half days now and eaten nothing but the pork rines you brought with you (which you are nearly depleted on).  At this rate, you won't be able to put up much of a fight at all, even if you do get to the Craxil.  Besides, he might know something about the Craxil or the Redrange Pass and you can't afford to be wandering around aimlessly throughout the Craxil's domain.

 
You go back around to the front door and before you even knock the door opens...

You dun Dun Duuuuuuunnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!

The door opens and the old man is standing there, looking at you expectantly.  He is at least two feet taller than you but looks frail in his old age.  He invites you in and you go in, though cautiously.  The inside of his home looks pretty much like you would expect for a man of his age.  A tad messy, but plenty of paintings of his family and the all too familiar old people smell.  He beckons you to join him for dinner and nervously you do so. 

 
The food is tremendous though in all fairness, its been quite a while since you have had anything but the pork rines you brought with you.  He fills your pack with fruits and breads and now you are starting to feel guilty about it all.  This guy seems genuinely nice and you feel your guard beginning to drop, but still...you have to ask...

 
"Why do you live out here sir?  This is deep within the Craxil's territory and extraordinarily dangerous."

 
"I've lived her since before the Craxil established itself.  I'm pretty out of the way for their usual operations so they don't usually pay me much mind.  Besides, I'm old.  If they find me and its my time then so be it."

 
You're taken back by this strange answer but you accept it and ask further...

 
"If you've been here all this time, that must make you something of a hermit.  Still, you ought know something about the Craxil right?"

 
"Yes, I suppose I am something of a hermit, but only because the visions I have make people suspect I'm crazy.  Still, I've sensed the Craxil in my dreams and I know it is capable of having such visions as well.  That is how it is aware of you and your plans."

 
"WHAT?!" you exclaim.  You've always relied upon stealth and the element of surprise to make up for the drastic difference in power between you and your adversaries.  If the Craxil is aware of you and your plans, how are you going to pull this off?

 
"Indeed, the Craxil knows what you hope to do.  But don't dispair yet, as I've seen a good deal of cleverness in you and even if it knows your coming it doesn't know when.

 
Somehow that last statement doesn't offer you much consolation but after coming as far as you have you don't really see that you have any other choice than to stay the course.  After a filling dinner you lie down on a mat and get the best sleep you've had in a long time.  During this nap, you are visited by a strange dream...

You strange Dream

You saw a soft mist of white and purple against a pitch black surrounding.  You could sense there was something or someone in the room with you but you could not see who it was.  You could not sense whether or not it was good or evil, kind or malevolent, all you could sense was its presence.  It hits you that this presence is the Craxil, and it is watching you intently as you stumble around in the darkness. 

 
 
 
 
 

You sense one more presence, one which you are very familiar.  It's your sister!  You see her only breifly before her likeness disappears back into the darkness.  You sense fear followed by supplication coming from her.  You are now moving faster through the darness, stumbling over rocks and nearly twisting your ankles on rivets in the ground.  But no matter how quickly you move you cannot get a visual on either your sister or the Craxil, you only sense their presence. 

 
You wake up sweating feverishly.  "That was quite a dream you had young man" the old man starts.  "You were shouting so loud I thought you were losing it.  And here people thought I was crazy..."

 
You aren't really sure what to make of this dream.  Was it a vision or just a nightmare?  Was the Craxil really watching you the whole time?  And what of your sister?  You last saw her being drug off by humunculi so you assumed she was dead.  Could she still be alive somehow?  She looked a lot different in that dream too.  Not the shy, reserved younger sister you knew but rather a fierce looking warrior in battle garb.  The hell is that about?  Your dream seemed so vivid you can't help wondering if it was a vision, but your logical mind tells you that the power of suggestion is at work here and its all bullocks.

 
Feeling full, refreshed, and well stocked on supplies you thank the old hermit for everything and really appreciate what he's done for you.  He tells you that the Redrange Pass is just over the peak to the northwest of his hut and you immediately see what he's talking about.  Its still a long way from the pass to the canyon, but you have a very clear idea of where you are going now.  Once you get to the Redrange Pass you just follow it northwest of your current position and it will EVENTUALLY lead you straight to the canyon, which you're told is hard to miss.

 
"Good luck young man, I'm rooting for you".

 
"Thank you sir, and again I appreciate it."

 
Nice guy.  He's the first to address you as something other than "pencil arms", "scrawny one", "bone boy", or the like.  You head out towards the peak and begin the lengthy climb upwards.

Up The Peak

You climb the peak and though it takes a considerable amount of time to get to the top, it isn't nearly as tiring as you expected it would be.  You are now standing on an even higher plateau on the mountainside and the Redridge Pass is precisely where you expected it to be.  You are thrilled to have finally found the pass, which is really more of a trail than a pass, but you still have a lot further to go.  As you move forward you suddenly get wind of a foul stench and hear a lot of loud, obnoxious grunting noises up ahead.

 
You immediately get off the beaten path and find a good hiding spot.  It is midday now so there isn't a lot of darkness to aid you.  Still, you manage to crawl forward unseen until you see a small group of orcs.  This is VERY not good you think you yourself.  Orcs are exceptionally strong.  Even one on one you stand no real chance of defeating one.  There are about five blocking the path forward so you are going to simply have to sneak around them and continue on your journey.  You've interrogated lesser creatures, but if the Craxil is commanding these creatures then just how strong is the thing?  No, don't dwell on such thoughts.  You need to focus.  You've come this far and you're sure as hell not gonna let yourself be intimidated now.

 
Returning to the task at hand you see a couple of different options.  There is a river that runs down the middle of the orc group's position and some hollow reeds close to you.  You remember one time during capture the flag where you moved through the river underwater and breathed through reeds very similar to these.  That was an epic maneuver worth remembering, perhaps it will serve you again here?  The orc camp and you are at the same elevation; but there is a ditch that runs from your current position, along the side of the camp, and out the other side.  Presumably, if you hug the side of the ditch closest to the orcs and move along quietly they shouldn't be able to see you.  Alternatively, you still have plenty of poison.  Even if you applied it to all your remaining arrows, you wouldn't even have used half the bottle.  Orcs are large and there are only five of them... 

 
Time for a decision.  What's your plan of action?

You breathe Through Reeds And Move Slowly Underwater To The Other Side

Of course!  The reeds will enable you to breath from underwater.  The river water is opaque so you will not be seen and because orcs have an exceptional sense of smell, this is probably the safest way to get past them without being seen.  You quietly slip into the river water from a point that can't be seen by the orcs, get one of the hollow reeds to act as a snorkel, and slowly begin moving through the water.  You intend to move slowly, so that if any of the orcs do notice the moving reed it will look like it is just drifting downriver.

 
The idea is working.  You can hardly see where you are going, but you got a very good look at where the river goes and the approximate distances before you got in so you have a pretty good estimate of where you are.  Soon, you can hear the orcs talking and you know you must be in the middle of them now.  As fate would have it, a snapping turtle decides to be a pain in the ass (literally) but despite the pain this hissing bastard is inflicting you manage to keep your cool and continue moving slowly through the river.  Eventually you, make it to the other side and emerge out of the orc's view.  You pat yourself on the back for that one, this maneuver is definitely one of your favorites.

 
Just then the hissing bastard that bit your ass makes it known that he's still attached by tighting his bite and inflicting more pain.  You put a drop of the poison in his mouth and within moments he's off of you and squirming on the ground.  Looks like this stuff Brandolf gave you is legit after all.  You massage your sore bottom and try to walk it off.  There is a welt on your right butt cheek that still stings but you figure you will eventually get over it.

You get Over It And Get On With The Quest

You rejoin the Redridge Pass and continue northwest towards the canyon you hope to find.  You hear a shuffling noise and you could have sworn that the vines stemming from that rather bizarre looking cactus just moved.  Nah, just a vine on the ground... from a cactus... on a mostly dry and rocky mountainside... makes perfect sense.  You continue to rationalize this in your head as you walk along only to notice a similar movement from another cactii vine up ahead of you.  Suddenly you feel one of these vines wrap itself around your left ankle and sting you.

 

You pull and draw your sword but other vines have taken up the call as well and you are getting grabbed and stung all over.  You still have limited movement with your limbs, but you are out of balance.  The stingers must have injected you with something because you are feeling nausious.  You need to focus and get out of this mess before you black out or you might not wake up.  You look over at the cactii these vines are coming from and they have inexplicably moved closer to your position.  Very close in fact.  The needles jutting out from them seem to have perked up and gotten longer.  Whatever these things are, they've got you and you aren't about to become their prey.

 
You are still able to reach your sword, but with vines slowing your arm and your lack of balance you aren't sure you will be able to sever the thick vines that are holding you in place.  You could always apply some poison to it first, but just reaching the poison is going to be a challenge as you've stored that in your backpack.  You still have flint in your front pocket and a few pieces of tinder left, perhaps if you can get a small fire going you can push them back.  Whatever you do though, it has to be quick.  You can feel the venom from the many stingers affecting your mind and it is taking all your discipline to maintain your focus right now.

You just Draw Your Sword And Try To Cut Through The Vines

It would take too much time and energy just to reach the backpack and rumage through it for the venom right now, and you need all the time and energy you have to try and free yourself from this trap you seem to have landed in.  You are able to reach your shortsword within a short while and begin raising it against the vine holding your left arm.  You bring it down as hard as you can, but with the vine holding your right arm and the others keeping you off balance, you don't cause nearly as much damage as you would like to.  The same happens when you try again.

 
You decide to start using your sword like a saw instead, running the edge of the blade back and forth against a singular point on the vine holding your left arm.  It takes a while but you are about halfway through the vine when it suddenly responds.  The vine recoils abit so that the part you were working on is now out of your reach.  You are greatly disheartened by this, but set to work on it again in a new spot.  The creature's vine responds the same way again and by now the venom has clouded your mind so much you are barely able to maintain your conciousness.  You realize now that it is over.  You have no idea what they did after you blacked out, because you never woke up again.

 
THE END