Part 1
The armor was hot, and made Geoff of the Rhug’Tor town guard sweat under the summer sun. He tried to air out his collar, but it just let more hot air in. Relief didn’t seem in sight. He looked up at the sky, watching the Rhug’na’ru pilots soar as they tried out the newest biplanes off the assembly tower.
Geoff thought they looked smooth as silk. He cursed his genes, knowing as long as he wasn’t a Rhug’na’ru immutable they would never let him into the cockpit.
Geoff watched the Zepplins make their lazy circles around the production tower. It was a typical day in Rhug’Tor and many were busy at their tasks around town. Geoff sighed knowing he wasn’t seeing the sky anytime soon. If he was lucky and he kept doing his job of town guard, one day he could own his own home and find a nice hot Olgog gal to settle down with.
Geoff heard the loud sound of drumming as a group of tribal olgogs ran towards Rhug’Tor. Their drums sounded again and again, warning in a primal way. In the distance, Geoff could see the fiery tornado funnel on the horizon. The tribal olgogs barked, “Der’na, Der’na, Der’na, Tor, Tor, Der’na, Der’na.”
Geoff quickly translated (Earther was his first language, his own native Olgog language a second he had learned as an adult). His eyes widened and he began to yell, “Flamewinds! Flamewinds!”
A peasant turned towards him and yelled, “What are we supposed to do?”
Geoff honestly didn’t know. No plan had been set forth for the people to follow by the Rhug’na’ru.
He looked up to see at least the alarm had reached the airfields. The Biplanes began to take off, one row after another, seeking safety in the sky far away from the flamewinds.
The Zepplins turned on the wind and began fleeing the oncoming firestorms.
The firestorms struck the outlying homesteads, burning crops and structures equally quickly. Geoff had never seen such destruction in such a short time, and it was racing towards them. The airfleet had escaped Rhug’Tor but the rest of the town was going to burn.
Then as the firestorm was about to rush down upon his position, Geoff saw a strange nightmare man step from a burst of shadows. The nightmare man raised his hands and a huge shield raised over the entire town of Rhug’Tor.
The fire storm blasted down into the shield, and there was a sound like a thunderclap.
When the flash ended, the winds had died down.
Geoff waited until the ringing in his ears finally stopped. He approached where the Nightmare man had stood. He found the creature curled up in its cloak. Pulling back the cloak he revealed Uriel sitting meditating, trying to focus his mind. Blood poured from Uriel’s eyes and ears and mouth, making his already strange form look hideous.
Geoff looked down, at a loss for words.
Uriel coughed up a little blood, wiped his lips and said, “The word you are looking for is thanks.”
Part 2
Mihael Yonik had been riding with Godart’s gang across the deserts of Unen for over a year. They had amassed a nice fortune in trade goods after taking a Petrol Refinery months ago. Many of the Pirate fleets and the Unen truckers relied on the extra boost that Godart’s petrol added to their engines. There was even a parts manufacturer in Port Unen who used the petrol to create plastic replacement parts for high and ultra-tech gear. Gimgo’s Parts and Sundry if Mihael remembered it right.
The trade was brisk, that is until the day the flamewinds came.
Before the flamewinds hit, Mihael had heard the drums in the night. They had been partying with Carvan Merchants who traded Godart’s Petrol on the black market, and the Maklal Liquor had flowed freely. Mihael had woken everyone up, and gotten them on the road.
Godart was livid knowing the full value of the Petrol refinery. The spinning tornado of fire swept down on their position. To Mihael’s sadness the carvan guards had tried to escape with their haul. Down the road when the flamewinds struck them, the petrol tanks they carried erupted in flames. They added their heat to the flamewinds, and added clouds of shrapnel to the now scything wind.
As the flamewinds roared down, Mihael was sure they were doomed.
But instead a dark cloaked nightmarish man stood between their fuel depot and the onrushing storm. The army trucks of the Godart gang were parked on an overlooking hill. Mihael watched in surprise as the shield sparked to life around the fuel depot. The Storm ground into it, setting sparks across the sky.
Then all was still and quiet.
A few moments later the nightmarish man limped to his feet and teleported away.
Part 3
The tribals of Og-orol held their belongings on their back. Riding the Lal sand disks across the dunes, the many families of Karovian nomads were making their seasonal migrations away from the Ruins of Karov and deep into the canyonlands. The traditional Karovian migrations took them to the deepest canyons where the caves provided much protection against the Flamewinds, and often had natural sources of water.
On their fast discs they quickly outpaced one tribe of nomads following Kilma Ur’ab.
Off to their flank the Og-orol Lal disc riders could see the large brown hull of the Landship of Tor’og Urrgh, where it made its way south to return to the safety of underground Tla’loc’al.
Still further the Og-orol flew on their Lal discs, sliding across the sand with a smooth soundless ease.
Then suddenly the horizon was in shadow as a multitude of Mighty Yadols rose above them. The Yadols had been driven to madness from fear of the Flamewinds, and with it moments behind them, they were in frenzy.
They knocked the Og-orol from their discs, and especially the young found themselves half-buried under the sand. Their bodies wounded by the spear-like legs of the Yadols with small punctures that dyed the sands red.
The Yadols were doing no violence on purpose and continued fleeing across the harsh terrain. The Great Uhryu Og-Orol stood forth to defend her people as the Flamewinds lashed down upon them.
Suddenly a nightmarish man was standing in front of her. He raised his hands, and a shield erupted around the tribe of Og-Orol. Then the storm struck and Uriel nearly reeled. Since he had started this plan, he had been in constant motion, defending tribes across the Goblin Lands.
The storm dissipated but Uriel felt his head begin to swim. He teleported back to the VLAD base hidden in Port Unen and passed out on a medical gurney bleeding from all orifices.
