Chapter Twelve: Tembo

Vex asks Xa'oc to describe the temple with the book in the gray.  Vex knows that there is a library in Tyr that belonged to nobles and is now open to everyone. We agree to do research on the Gray and the book before returning to the village

                  Hasani is waiting for us at the village.  We say that the halflings are mostly dead, or somewhere else, and not coming back.

                  We question Risi.  She actually doesn't know Ramas.  She thinks everyone will end up in the pit.  She says most things come back from the pit.  They throw food and weapons into the pit and they get things back, like coins and rocks, and beetles.  She hasn't seen the sword before, but she knows it belongs in the pit.  The sword's important, she can just tell.

                  "It's like the pit tells us, we know things that the pit wants us to know."  The most important thing is that everyone belongs in the pit, but some people more than other people, like us, but not her, she can just tell.  "You go somewhere else sometimes when you go in the pit."

                  She asks why going into the pit didn't work for Xa'oc.  "It wanted you specifically, so it should have taken you."

                  "You didn't give yourself over, you ran out."

                  We ask Hasani what to do with the halflings.  He wants us to kill them.  We ask Hasani about Ramas.  They found Ramas wandering out.  He had heard about the village and wanted to check it out.  We offered to let him stay, but he didn't want to.  He said he could solve our problem.  It was weird that he was up here, it was weird that he offered to help.  “We think he's some kind of pit... guy"

                  We offer to do work in the future.  We can be found at the Simple Squirrel.

                  We toss the halflings in the pit, rather than kill them outright.

                  We do not cover the entrance to the pit, as we might want to return for the book. We take a long rest.

                  We head back to Tyr with the intent of kidnapping Ramas, whom we think will not expect to see us and will not intend to pay us.  However, on the way home walking through the ravines of the mountains we are attacked by four beasts called tembo.  Vex and Tenneth know that these are ferocious creatures that people try to run away from, they can teleport and cast spells, they kill for fun, they speak common but choose not to speak to people.  We kill one and the other three try to steal stuff and run. One stole a honey from Xa'oc, but Vex kills it.  One stole a healing potion from Kriv, but Xa'oc kills it.  The last one teleports away.  Kriv starts skinning the creatures and harvests their claws, fangs, and furs. Aruna climbs the ravine to look for it but doesn't find it.

                  We try to take a short rest in the ravine while Vex fails to keep watch. Our rest is interrupted by three more of them, and none of them look familiar.  Aruna and Tenneth are knocked out in the ambush.  We kill one and hurt the others, so they start running away again. One teleports away.  One runs away.

                  Kriv leaves three of the tembo heads shelved on the rocks.  Kriv uses the other head to make a banner.  He intends to create a wind sock of the tanned head mounted on a pole attached to our cart as our company's standard.  Kriv only takes the paws (for the claws) not the hides.  Kriv casts pass without trace so that we won't be easily tracked to our eventual campsite.  We arrive in Tyr without further incident.

                  Our plan for Ramas: we will jump him outside the Simple Squirrel without announcing our presence in any way.  We should have helped Aruna track down the first tembo that escaped.