Messengers of the Gods

Day 3: Mysterious Island

Their retreat from the cave of insects and hurried ascent further up the waterfalls had left them in need of some rest. They made camp while setting up a rotation for keeping watch.  There was no denying this island was beginning to explain the reason behind some of her legend.

After resting and eating for about an hour, they packed up and continued their journey deeper into the island's interior. There was a strange primitive predatory feeling that seemed to be having it's impact on each squad member.  As Togorians it was a welcome feeling to be sure.

Ahead of them lay more mountainous jungle terrain with waterfalls scattered throughout.  One thing was for certain, this island wasn't going to just hand over any of it's secrets.

Krasp had found them a nice safe location to make their camp and the night had passed by without any incidents.  The morning of the third day brought with it a surprise.  A group of about 100 native humanoids on the island had discovered their encampment and had apparently never seen anything like a Togorian before.  The natives had gathered at a distance and laid out a presentation of offerings!  Consisting mostly of various local fruits and cooked foods with a few odd items scattered among the various dishes.

Remarkably they spoke an older and slightly off form of Galactic Basic. Maligaant was able to pick up their dialect within the first couple of hours, with only a few odd misunderstandings. They had no name for their people but worshiped a plethora of gods. Believing their gods communicated to them in a  number of ways one of their beliefs spoke of messengers from the gods taking the form of animals.  This is apparently who they believed Maligaant and his squad to be, messengers from the gods taking animal form.  He'd been called much worse so Mal saw no reason to debate it with them. These people were of average height for humanoids, roughly about 1.5 to 1.8 meters, so Mal and his squad towered over them.  Eventually the entire squad was invited to come stay with them in their city.

The city was buried deep in the interior of the island jungle and basically completely hidden from any prying eyes by the jungle canopy.  Though very old by it's appearance it sprawled out, under the covering canopy, at least a kilometer in both width and length. Many of it's structures mingled right in among enormous trees. The largest structures resembled some of the old ziggurats found on Togoria. Even more remarkable was the expansive system of caves they had inhabited and built into.

As they were led through the city, they were met with astonishment by it's citizens.  Some standing in awe while others immediately dropped to their knees and began chanting. Eventually they made their way into one of the ziggurat like structures and were introduced to Thundrarg, their warrior chief.

Thundrarg - warrior chief

His eyes ablaze with curiosity, Thundrarg's questions seemed ceaseless.  Finding out that we were travelers from the stars only seemed to confirm his and his people's belief that we were messengers from the gods.



[Excerpt from Maligaant's personal journal: Thundrarg honored us with a hunt today.  A truly magnificent being, for a humanoid, his ability to move undetected was impressive!  We hunted what he called a Corpse Eater.  Thundrarg spotted the sleeping beast and using a poison tipped dart and a blowgun killed it easily.]