Editing Last Call for Adventure (section)

==How They Met: Guarding the Caravan==

Baraxas vul Mard should have died at the end of Arkis' sword, and that is perhaps what would have happened, had the priest worn his robes of office openly the morning he hired on to the caravan.

His first confidence, however, was to the paladin. "The pilgrims we guard are in danger. I have intelligence of an attack that will take place tomorrow, as we pass beyond these mountains. The bandits are eight, led by two brothers..." Baraxas was not only correct concerning the number and resources of the assailants, but revealed that these were mercenaries in the pay of Seneshwa.

Presenting himself as an outcast of that nation, the priest solicited the assistance of Arkis, Raq and Moondropped in preparing the convoy for the attack. The precious relics were moved, over the protests of the faithful of Heironeous, to Arkis' own person for safekeeping, and at Moondropped's inspired suggestion, the pilgrims were persuaded to cast off their penitents' gowns, emptying the carriage that would be the target of the assault.

Raq? Raq employed no strategy beyond his enormous sword, and it was sufficient unto the day. He cut down the mercenary brothers himself, in a rain of blows. The disciplined ferocity of Arkis and Moondropped did the rest, as Gregory and Baraxas stood atop the carriage in a display of magics that panicked the leaderless band and shielded the travelers.

Arkis was heartbroken at what they found next. Caring nothing for his own injuries, he might have been near tears as he discovered the lightning-bolt tattoos on the bodies of their foes, proof of the corruption that defiled the Church across the border. Baraxas stood by in silence, respecting the paladin's mourning for several minutes.

When he approached Arkis, his voice was no longer the icy, precise one he used every day. "Well might we weep for what your church is becoming. Yet I have a sight for you that will either make your heart sing again, or will force you to kill me. Will you walk for an hour with me into these hills, after we have tended the wounded?"

That was the day they found the old, old shrine consecrated not to one god, but to two--brothers as they truly were, rivals perhaps, but not foes. That was the day that Baraxas revealed himself as a priest of Hextor, and pledged to Arkis that one day, two churches would put aside their enmity, and the Scourge would remove his mask of evil.