347
You collect your horses from the tavern’s stable and you are pleased to see that Tzu’s son, Jeng, has done a fine job of looking after them. They have been fed, watered, groomed and are both well rested. Anseng tips the boy 20 Ren and he beams with joyful appreciation. He wishes you both a safe journey as you mount up and begin your long ride to the town of Vabou.
The weather is fine and sunny as you make a gradual decent through the hills beyond the village of Zang. But by the time you reach the Huzang Plain, heavy cloud has moved in from the west. It brings with it more rain. Anseng peers out from beneath the dripping rim of his straw hat and casts a sceptical eye across the great expanse of lush grassland to the east of the muddy highway.
‘We’ll be lucky to reach Vabou by nightfall,’ he says, pessimistically. ‘But try we must.’
You ride all morning in the heavy rain. The highway has been reduced to a muddy morass in places, but your horses are sure footed and you make good progress despite the foul weather. Several of the farmsteads that you pass along the way are busily preparing for the coming storms that hit H’lau overnight. Farmers are hurriedly securing loose roof shingles and boarding up their windows. A few have decided to abandon their farms until the storms have passed. They are loading their wagons and preparing to abandon their homes to seek shelter with relatives in Zang and Vabou until it is safe to return.
It is mid-afternoon when you come to a small spire of stone at side of the highway, close to a wooded copse. Its metallic tip gleams dully in the poor light. Anseng says you should stop here for a short while to allow the horses to rest. You may now eat a Meal from your Backpack, or you can use your basic Kai Hunting Discipline to forage enough food for one Meal in the rice fields hereabouts. You are getting ready to remount and continue when a lightning storm breaks directly overhead. A crackling bolt of lightning strikes the tip of the stone spire, followed almost immediately by a deafening crash of thunder. The muddy ground shudders, but it is not the storm that is causing the sodden earth to tremble. From out of the copse comes a stampeding herd of Wild Guanza! These large bipedal lizards are wide-eyed with terror as they come racing towards you. Anseng screams a warning but the crazed Guanza pack are upon you before you can turn your horses about and evade them.
Wild Guanza Herd: COMBAT SKILL 42 ENDURANCE 38
These creatures are pack hunters. They are in a frenzy of fear induced by the deafening thunder and close lightning strikes. They are also very hungry and the scent of your horses is enough to override their primeval panic.
If you possess the Kai Grand Master Discipline of Animal Mastery, add 2 to your COMBAT SKILL for the duration of this fight.
If you win the combat, turn to 201.