Another proclamation was made during the next day. The Crimson Bat cult would make
a special feast after two days, where people could join the Crimson Bat cult. Late in the
afternoon, the A-TEAM had a meeting of their own. Kaid-aw had been to the city council
meeting and spoken with them, Dolxx had been talking to Gaviel Latish, from the Lhankor Mhy
temple. Gaviel Latish had told Dolxx, that every time the Lunar occupiers had threatened with
the Bat, it had actually arrived, no regards even if any prior requirements had been filled.
Merlox had been also gathering information, and he had found out about a long forgotten clan
and the story "How Blue became Crimson". This was a story about a small clan that could
stand against the Bat, due to a HeroQuest the clan made every year. The Lunar empire
eventually got an agent into the clan and he eventually became the leading warrior, and thus
he should make the HeroQuest. He almost made it but changed it in the end and the Lunar
could use the Bat to eliminate the clan.
Follow the guide over the river. When at the precipe, sharpen all your senses and jump on
the Crimson Bat as it flies near the precipe. Fly with it to the moon and jump to the pool in the
middle of the forest. Meet the friend and have a good meal with him, after which he shows the
way to the place where the Orlanthi jumpers are stopped with many spears. In the evening put
a fire of living surrounding and it will show the way further. On the long walk between the sea
and the mountains, pick up some sleeping plants, as they will be needed later. In the evening
listen to the mourning souls in the wind. On the fourth day climb up the mountain. A monster
will attack you, so be prepared. On the way down disguise yourself to make yourself invisible
for the batsense. In the big hall show the sign to the bat.
Here the Agent did differently and he broke the seal, and was eaten by the Crimson Bat.
The HeroQuest has three different stages that have to be made before the actual
HeroQuest could start. Firstly a sign had to be chosen to symbolise the power over the Crimson Bat. This could be anything, it is just a symbol, but it is necessary to get the protection against the Bat. Then a
bat spirit had to be summoned, and the bat had to fly around the sign during a ceremony.
Secondly the sign had to be blessed by the Crimson Bat cult. And lastly a blue bat had to be
captured alive from a Holy ground, normally it had been from the Pap's, and the bat had to
branded with the sign and the released alive again.
After all this information it was evident that the A-TEAM would be the savers of Pavis.
They had all the courage, information and skills needed to succeed in the HeroQuest. To
show the might of A-TEAM, Dolxx's, Kaid-aw's and Merlox' seal rings with the A-TEAM symbol
was chosen as the sign needed.
The next day Dolxx, Kaid-aw and Merlox got each a summon spirit matrix from their
respective sources. After that they would go to the cave system where they had defeated the
Schestokost Vampire, as there was a cave with many, many
bats. There they would have the biggest change of summon a bat spirit.
Early next morning they left to the cave to make a fifteen hour ritual for the summoning
of the bat. All of the succeeded in summoning a bat spirit, but Dolxx was not able to make the
ceremony needed. Kaid-aw and Merlox had no problems, so the first stage was successful.
It was Kaid-aw who had been chosen to be the one to get the blessings for the seal
rings. He then joined the next day the Crimson Bat feast. The feast was held on the main
market square, the Founders Market, of Pavis. It was sealed off for everybody else, and
people who wanted to join had to go to one of two queues. One fast queue for Lunar citizens
or Lunar worshippers, and a slow queue for everybody else. The people in the Lunar queue,
got ceremonial robes to be put upon their normal clothes, but everybody else had to take off
everything, including all jewellery. Some of the people were even searched thoroughly. Kaid-
aw made the only decision and put the rings in the only place where they hopefully would not
be found. He got the rings there and they were blessed at the same time as he was during the
ceremony. During the day a sable nomad was hired as guide to Pap's and water, food and
zebras were bought.
At dawn they left for Pap's through the Long Dry, a hazardous desert. A couple of hours
before sunset, a corpse of an animal was found. Unfortunately also ten Hyenas had also
found it, and did not want to share their food. The hyenas attacked the A-TEAM. Merlox cast
two palsies and two of them never came even close to attacking. On the first round of fight it
was only Dolxx, who killed or maimed of the Hyenas. He had divided his attack into two, and
thus got two of the Hyenas of the fight. On the second round Dolxx killed the last one attacking
him, as also Merlox did. Kaid-aw wounded one Hyena. It took the two rounds for Kaid-aw to
get rid of the rest of the Hyenas attacking him. The sable nomad looked very surprised of the
effectivity of the A-TEAM in combat. At sunset a camp was made. Dolxx felt in his bones that
the next day there would be a very bad storm approaching them in the afternoon.
At midday they stumbled across a tree on a hill in the middle of the desert. There were
bound gifts to the tree, in long ropes, which made the tree look very peculiar. When they came
closer, they saw a shaman sitting beside the tree. The shaman was hunting the Waleecu
spirit, the nomad read from the ropes. Everybody made a sacrifice to the holy tree. When the
storm was approaching, suddenly Dolxx saw a cave on a south side of a ridge. They all went
to the cave, which was uninhabited and big enough for all of them and their riding animals.
Their tent was put with ropes in front of the entrance. They had found the shelter at the very
last moment for soon the storm was over them. I became dark and the wind howled outside. A
fire was started to give some light and warmth into the cave. Suddenly six Scorpion men
rushed into the cave and attacked the A-TEAM. The nomad had been behind with the animals
and he could not fit in the fight. The fight started badly for the A-TEAM. Dolxx fumbled his first
parry really badly, but luckily the very big Scorpion man could not pass through Dolxx excellent
armour. Neither Kaid-aw nor Merlox could do anything to the Scorpion men and it was only
their good armours which saved them. One of the Scorpion men against Merlox had five
stingers, with which he attacked. On the second round the largest Scorpion man made a
heavy hit, and Dolxx could not even parry it, because of his fumble last round. But the it was
Dolxx turn to hit back. He hit a huge hit and even if the Scorpion man parried, the hit went
through the shield and armour and finally severed the right arm. The Scorpion man collapsed
of this shock. And then Dolxx hit the other Scorpion man facing him with a even bigger hit,
which cleaved the Scorpion man into two at the waist. Merlox had against him a critical, but
the magic's of Merlox saved him. It was on the third round that Merlox killed one and Kaid-aw
got one, and the odds turned for the A-TEAM. On the last round, first Kaid-aw killed one really
tiny Scorpion man and then Dolxx killed the last one. The nomad wondered into what kind of
superhuman people had come to work to. Head was sure that it would be his last day when he
saw the six Scorpion men. The storm went soon over and the party continued the journey. At
nightfall they made camp again.
This third day would be the final day passing the Long Dry, and already after midday the
mountains of Pap's became visible. The ground also got greener and vegetation started to
appear. Late in the afternoon a line of Totem poles were placed. The nomad told that they had
entered the Pap's area now and that they most probable would meet other nomads. It did not
take very long before a group of about 60 nomads appeared on Llamas. Four out of them
started to ride closer. They put a lance standing from the ground and started to ride in circles
against it. The Nomad told that this was a meeting ceremony for the nomads and soon one
the riders would make an attack against them. They had to disarm him and by the way they
did it, would show their courage. Dolxx chose to bee the one attacked and went a little
forward. He stood there with his Greatsword, 
, in his hands ready for the eminent attack,
Suddenly one the riders took the lance and rode against Dolxx. He tried to hit Dolxx with the
lance , but Dolxx mad a critical parry and then a special attack against the lance. This hit was
too much for the attacker, and he lost his lance. He them jumped off his Llama and took his
broadsword and shield. Dolxx turned around ad waited for the warrior. He hit first once against
the warriors weapon, but could not get it wrestled away. Then Dolxx easily parried the warriors
counterattack. On the second attack to the broadsword Dolxx hit harder and this time the
warrior could not keep it anymore in his hands. The warrior the got on his knees and showed
his breast for Dolxx to kill him. Dolxx did not so it, but put away his sword and took some
earth between his hands. This gesture was accepted by the warrior and he invited Dolxx and
the others to their camp. The Sable nomad had ridden away when the epic fight had
happened. In the evening they came to the High Llama camp and talked to the chieftain. As
they had known the ways of the nomads, they were well taken care of. During the evening
they asked the nomads if they knew where Blue Bats could be found, but they did not know.
Luckily the chieftain agreed on sending some scouts the next morning.
After a couple of hours one of the scouts came back and told that not very far from the
camp was a cave filled with Blue Bats. The A-TEAM thanked the chieftain for this, and the
chieftain gave them as present a rope with writing that they were friends of the High Llama
tribe. When they entered the cave, Merlox prepared some Palsies and cast them against
some Bats. Dolxx and Kaid-aw catch the Bats before they hit the ground. They then did he
third part of the ceremony, the branding a bat and releasing it alive again. After this they
started towards the Pap's itself, to get more water for their journey home. It proved to be no
problem as they had the friend symbols to show. After that they left for the Long Dry again.
This time the had no problem in passing the desert.
The next day was Orlanth's holy day and Dolxx went to celebrate it. He also got more
powerful that day. They had agreed on that the next day, they would start the
real HeroQuest. Early in the morning they left Pavis to a field outside a couple of hours away from Pavis.
There they started the ceremony and it started to become misty around them. They started
walking through the mist forward. The mist got thicker and thicker as they walked. After
walking some time they arrived to a river. The visibility was only about 15 meters. Over the
river went a bridge, on which a 2½ meter high Humakti was standing. Humakt doesn't want
people to pass to the HeroPlane, and at all known places to pass, he is guarding and stopping
people from passing. Dolxx, Kaid-aw and Merlox agreed to go right and follow the river. After walking fifteen
meters, and barely seeing anymore the bridge, a blue bat appeared to them and started flying forward
along the river. It was obviously the guide they should follow. The party started to follow the
bat. It flew only about 10 meters after which it turned and started to fly over the river. When
the party looked out to the river, they saw stones on which it would be possible to pass the
river. They jumped on the stones and came across the river, and started again to follow the bat. After about
fifteen minutes, during which the mist became thinner, they came to a precipe. As they were
sure they were on the HeroPlane now, they cast all their magic on them as there is no time on the HeroPlane.
Also here they should sharpen their senses and jump on the Crimson Bat. The problem was
how to know and how to co-ordinate the jump to get it simultaneous for all three of them?
They agreed to take each hands and when the first heard, everybody should run and jump.
Dolxx heard that the Crimson Bat was coming and they all ran and jumped into the air. Dolxx and Merlox
made the jump, but Kaid-aw missed the Crimson Bat and started to fall down. Dolxx then used
his will to change the air, and suddenly a very strong wind started to lift Kaid-aw upwards and
towards the Crimson Bat. He then jumped on the Bat and they started to fly towards the moon.
The flight did not take more than a couple of hours before they came over the moon. There
they should find the pool in the middle of a forest. Merlox and Kaid-aw saw the pool after a while
and the jumped again. Dolxx was the only one to hit the pool, as both Merlox and Kaid-aw
used different methods to come down. Merlox started to fly downwards, while Kaid-aw used a
special item he has and tried to hit the ground instead. He eventually landed on some branches of a tree
without any damage. Dolxx, again hit in the middle of the pool with a great splash and sank immediately to the
bottom of the pool. He started then to walk up along the bottom holding his breath. As he had
his big mobility and he was strong enough to overcome the resistance of the water, it took
only two rounds for him to walk up from the pool. The forest around the pool was very dense,
but they tried to continue in the direction the bat flew. After walking some time they arrived to a
opening in the forest. A humanoid was sitting in the other end of the opening under a red
special glass. He was eating light, which became drops under the glass, while the light also
became red. Kaid-aw got mad at this eating light and took his crossbow and fired a
multimissiled arrow at the humanoid. One of the hits was a critical, while two other arrows hit.
Only the critical arrow did damage, but not enough. The man spit red light out of his mouth
against Kaid-aw, but it did not damage Kaid-aw, who instead charged. It did not take long for
Kaid-aw to kill the man. He also crashed the red glass. The man had a ceremonial spear, when cast to
the air it showed the way to a holy place. It had to be the place where the spears against the
Orlanthi jumpers were, and they started to follow the spear, by throwing it into the air and
walking in the direction it showed. After walking about 30 minutes, they arrived to a small
knoll, on which there were lots of spears pointing to the sky. Dolxx took all of the down and
broke each and everyone of the spears. It took more than an hour to do it, but in this way
Dolxx would help Orlanth against Lunars. They walked forward, but the forest was were dense and
it was difficult to progress forward. The problem was also that they did not know were the place to put up the
fire of the living surrounding would be. It started to look bad. Then when the evening arrived, Kaid-aw
sang a food song, and they made fire of living branches of trees. As they started to take the
branches, suddenly lots of tiny bats flew up from the trees and made a swarm of bats. This was
a good sign, as now they have the following guidance. The fire was started and the party slept
through the night.
In the morning the bat swarm started to fly through the forest and soon came up to a
road, which they started to follow. After four hours walking, when they came round a bend,
they saw 30 Lunar Elite soldiers walking towards them on the road. Dolxx, Kaid-aw and Merlox
immediately jumped in cover behind rocks and shrubbery by the road. Luckily the soldiers did
not see the party. When the soldiers had marched by, they came back on the road and
continued to follow the bat swarm. This group of soldiers was not mentioned in the HQ path
they had been following. Apparently they had changed the path, when they killed the friend
and destroyed the spears on the knoll. In an hour they came out of the forest and continued
following the road. They then walked four days between the mountains and the sea, and found
sleeping plants during the walk.
On the fourth day the swarm turned up the hillside along the road. Dolxx, Kaid-aw and
Merlox tried to climb at the same place, but could not do it, because it was too steep for them.
Kaid-aw found a better place to climb up a little further away and they climbed up and followed the
swarm again. A little before dark, they noticed three monsters behind some rocks they had to pass.
As they came to them, they were attacked by the monsters. Dolxx needed only one huge hit
with his mighty greatsword, , to kill the
monster. Kaid-aw wounded the monster with his first hit, but not enough, while Merlox completely missed the
monster. Luckily for Merlox, was that his armour stood against all three attacks of the
monster. Kaid-aw killed the monster with his second hit, and Dolxx chopped off one of the legs
of Merlox enemy, but it continued to fight regardless of this. Dolxx then killed it on his next
attack with . Again they could
see that they had changed the HeroQuest path, as there were three monsters attacking them,
and not one as it had been in the HeroQuest path they had been following. The only question was, had they changed
the path too much and would they reach the Crimson Bat to show the sign to it. They
reached the top of the hill and started climbing downwards. Very soon they saw a small
crevasse, where there was a carcass of a dead animal. It attracted lots and lots of flies in a
dense swarm. The flies again attracted many bats into the swarm. This was probably the way to
make themselves invisible for the batsense, so they took with them the carcass, even if it
smelled horrible.
They climbed downwards for about two days until they reached the Crimson Bats cave.
At the entrance there were eleven Death Fliers guarding the entrance. This was probably
where the clan had used the sleeping plants, but there were too many of the Death Fliers, that
they could put them all into sleep by using the sleeping plants. A different strategy had to
used, so Merlox prepared ten Venom's against the Fliers. Kaid-aw would use his crossbow
with multimissile against the last one. Dolxx and his allied spirit and Merlox familiar wuld be ready with disruptions if any of the venom's would fail. When they attacked, only six of the venom's were
lethal, four Death Fliers could stand against the poison. Kaid-aw got the one he was aiming at.
Merlox familiar and Dolxx's allied spirit killed one of the four, but the three remaining Death Fliers
started to fly into the cave. Thanks to the huge mobility Dolxx had thrown on everybody, they
could catch the Death Fliers before they reached the Crimson Bats great hall. The problem was that the Death Fliers
were flying high over the ground. Dolxx once again used his will and took away the air from
the Death Fliers wings, and they dropped to the ground. Dolxx and Kaid-aw then swiftly killed two of
the Death Fliers, but the third was raising up again into the air. Dolxx made a superhuman
move and killed it with one blow from before it could raise too high into the air. They walked now fast but
cautiously, as they did not know when they would arrive into the great hall. They released the
small insects around themselves and then the small bats surrounded them and disquised
them. Very soon they arrived to the great hall. Here they then cautiously walked towards the Bat. Dolxx was not afraid of it and led the way.
Kaid-aw and Merlox stayed behind and did not come close to the Bat. When Dolxx was only
ten meters from it, he threw away the insects and stepped out of his disguise. The Crimson
Bat had started to focus on Dolxx, but as he put out the sign, the A-TEAM seal, against the bat
it lost the sight of Dolxx. It slowly started to move itself towards the tunnel leading out of the
cave and it stretched out its wings. When the Bat came to the place where Kaid-aw and
Merlox were, they tried to hide as good as possible inside the bat swarm and against the wall. They suddenly
understood how to get away from here, and Dolxx started to run, as Kaid-aw and Merlox also
did, and they jumped on the back of the Crimson Bat. It was the way to fly back to Genertela, which
was not written in the script they had read.
They flew for three days over Genertela, over different locations. On the third day they
recognised Prax and wondered how to get off the back off the Crimson Bat. The bat then
suddenly dived down against a nomad camp. As the bat was really close to ground and before
it was actually eating half off the camp, they jumped off the back. Then they hurried in front of
the camp before the Bat would eat the rest of the nomad camp. They stood there all three of
them and put up their fists with the sign against the Bat. As it was on its way down to eat the
rest of the camp, it suddenly stopped its attack and started to fly up against the moon. Now
they were really sure that the sign did work and that the A-TEAM could save Pavis from
the Crimson Bat. They looked a little closer on the camp and tribe, and to their big surprise
they saw horses in the camp. To their knowledge there were no horses in Prax and no tribes
who herded horses, on the contrary, the nomads killed all horses they found. Now Dolxx,
Kaid-aw and Merlox really understood that they had changed the history of Prax. They left the
camp and tribe without saying anything, as they did not want to interfere with the nomads
more that they already had done. In the end of the second day after walking through the desert, a
sand storm surrounded them. When the storm died out they noticed that they were on the
same place where they had started the HeroQuest. They then walked to Pavis and saw that
everything looked normal, exactly as before they had left to the HeroQuest. The first thing they did in
Pavis, was that they went to a bar and had a great meal, as they felt themselves very hungry, even
if they had been away only for a day.
Dolxx went on during the remaining two weeks and convinced the Orlanthis not to leave Pavis when the Bat would arrive. Kaid-aw talked to all Yelmalios people the same, but people started to leave Pavis a few days before the Bat was supposed to arrive. Brygga Scissortongue held speaches to the people to ensure Pavis will defeat the Bat and they should not be afraid, but people did not believe her very much. Unfortunately all the Lunar leaders and officials 'had' to leave Pavis for a meeting two days away from Pavis.
The Bat arrived from the north exactly as it was supposed to do. Dolxx and his people had taken place at the City Court, while Kaid-aw was at the Yelmalio temple. Merlox was with his friends near Founders Market. It then started a dive against Pavis and when it was only fifty meters above Pavis, three beams shot from the A-TEAM rings on the Bat, which immediately turned its dive and flew away. People started to scream and shout in joy, as depending who you asked, Orlanth/Yelmalio/Pavis had defeated the Bat.
The following day all the officials and leaders of Lunar came back to town, even if their meeting should be that day. Armanius Geddon gathered all the people and held a speech the next day about that this was a warning exactly as they had said three weeks earlier and that they had got back what they wanted and therefore the Bat had not eaten up the City. Rumours in the City said a completely different story. It was the A-TEAM who had saved Pavis from the evil plan the Lunars had to wipe away the City.
Lord Skyppen made a BIG mistake annoying the A-TEAM and had to pay for it with his life!
Did you read how the A-TEAM solved The Murder of Duke Raus of Rone?
Copyright © 1998-2005 by Kim Englund. All rights reserved. How to contact me. Last modified 01.01.2005.
