Emerging from the MageGuild, Kobort sent Nosebiter up into the afternoon sky, seeking Sack and Surya. After a while, the little bird located the two, moving uptown with some alacrity, and guided them to where the nomad and the dwarf were waiting.
| Once the group was back together, they returned to the mageguild and got down to some serious haggling. Surya did most of it, throwing in a combination of artful mentions of Archpriest Delloch's patronage and an equal portion of sarcasm. The wizard behind the counter, unintimidated by the tall warrior, seemed to hold his own pretty well. At one point, Surya tried the "we haven't got a lot of money" gambit, to be answered with a rather sarcastic "awwww". His temper bubbled a bit, and he put hand to hilt and cracked 6" of blade into view. Without breaking eye contact, the wizard made the equivalent move for a spellcaster, cocking one hand half-way into the first gesture of a spell. The tension crackled for a moment or two, and then the wizard said, calmly, "Let's start again." | |
Negotiations resumed at a more civilized pace. After some negotiation, Surya managed to manouvere the price down by a fairly impressive 15% - at which point the Tellaran wisely folded and shook on it. Handing over the cash, the bracer and the chain shirt Kobort was trading in, the band left the MageGuild.
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There was some discussion about the possibility of providing armour to fit Nose-biter, but the idea of a Bracer of Defence attached to a small owl was ridiculous enough to squash that line of thought quite early... |
Their next move was to quiz Sigred and Delloch about the likely conditions in the Desolation. They learned that, while the region was desert-like in appearance and terrain, it was not as hot as a true desert, rather more like the ashy ground left after a bonfire. Before the advent of the Dragon, a wide variety of sylvan creatures and spirits lived in and around the forests alongside the elven people. When the dragonfolk razed and ruined the forests of Sildor, the elves fled to Belegond for their final stand. The other denizens of the forests did not, and most were slain in the wholesale destruction. Those few that were not, survived, and in the process of surviving, were .... changed. Such creatures are collectively known as The Curst.
| They spent the next week sorting their equipment and rations, getting to
know the horses Brother Ostler had provided, and generally preparing themselves. Then,
once they had collected their enhanced magical items from the MageGuild, they rode out of
the north gate of the city of Narthal and onto the road towards the Desolation. The first two days, they rode through civilized, cultivated lands, dotted with farms and small villages, peaceful and pleasant. At the end of the second day, they reached the frontier city of Raden. While Narthel was a massive, magnificent metropolis, Raden showed more signs of being prepared for war. Its' walls were high, in good repair and well patrolled. |
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The next day, they left Raden and crossed the border out of Stryre, into the lands which declined towards the ruins of Sildor. As they travelled, the towns and farms faded away, the land gradually changed from cultivated farmlands to open meadows, wilderland, with occasional ruined buildings.
Several hours later, they observed a small mounted group approaching them from the northeast. Making no attempt to hide or evade, they watched them approach. They clarified into six armoured figures. The leader was a grizzled veteran warrior of around forty, wearing a surcoat bearing the arms of the Stryran knightly order Aeglor's Fist over chainmail, and with a greatsword strapped across his back. Behind him were five men, also in mail, with spears in their hands, swords at their hips and shields hung from their saddles; one had a bow. The leader lifted his hand to indicate the band should stop.
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The veteran identified himself as Captain Guthrom, leading a patrol along the fringes of the Desolation, mainly to prevent incursions from the north, but also to keep a watch on movements from Stryre into the lands of the Dragon. Guthrom asked the party to identify themselves (in Sack's case, of course, there was the usual confusion!), and asked their business in the Desolation. He soon deduced, despite their evasive answers, that they were treasure seekers; and he warned them to be careful, as a large bandit group was operating in the area, and had recently sacked a noble's manor. Hildraft puzzled him rather by muttering, "I didn't live to be nine hundred years old by being careful", but Guthorm appeared ignorant enough of dwarves to believe that this was a realistic age for one, and made no comment. |
Leaving Guthrom, the party travelled on, entering a region of increasingly rocky and broken terrain. They became aware of a feeling of being followed, and discerned a shadowy figure, ranging along through the bushes and rocks about 200 yards to their right and following them as they moved.
As they rounded a bend in a ruined village, Surya dropped lithely - if not particularly quietly - from his horse behind the cover of some more-or-less intact walls, and went to ground while allowing the others to carry on. Stringing his bow, he crouched in cover and watched, hoping for a clear shot at their shadow. For a while it seemed that their wily tail was going to be too far away as he passed the hidden warrior, but then he changed direction to follow the bend in the road, and Surya had a clear shot. The mighty bow sang, and two cloth-yard shafts were on their silent way across the ruined village. There was a heartbeat's pause - and then the shadowy figure was hurled backwards out of sight as the missiles struck home.
Surya loped across the road and over to the prone form. The man, dressed in dirty, scruffy leathers, was stone dead, and the Tellaran cursed - so much for questioning him. A quick search turned up a few copper coins, a cheaply-made short sword, and nothing else. Surya rejoined the party and remounted his horse.
A few miles on, they reached a place where the rocky terrain rose sharply up into a ridge, two hundred feet or so high; the road led through it in a narrow gulley, obviously cut by elvencraft in happier days. Equally obviously to the experienced adventurers, it was a place that screamed "use me for an ambush!" Kobort sent his familiar soaring high over the valley, down to the end and back, and the little owl reported around a score of people, hidden at various levels up the slopes of the gulley; two were perched on a rockfall which half-blocked the valley half a mile in, and four more were guarding the gang's horses, on the other side of the fall.
Never ones to take the obvious route, the band turned south and rode for more than a mile along the base of the slope, until they came to a section of slope pitched slightly less, which they felt they could attempt an ascent of. Shedding their armour, and coaxing the five horses up the gradient, they picked their way carefully up, until they stood on top of the ridge. After getting their breath back, they worked along the top of the ridge until they were past the whole ambush, then descended to the gulley floor and rearmed themselves.
Tethering their own horses where they were, the band moved cautiously up the valley, until they were a hundred yards - confortable longbow range - from the corralled horses. Kobort then moved fifty yards further forwards, to take account of his shortbow's lesser range. Then, on a given signal, they opened up on the bandits.
| Absolute chaos ensued. The four men at ground level, mixed in with twenty panicked horses, struggled to retain their feet, prepare their bows to retaliate, and avoid being shot or trampled. Atop the rockfall, one of the men - apparently the leader, as he was wearing mail and a decent-looking sword - was struggling to call up the valley and to avoid the arrow-storm at the same time. He managed to attract the attention of a few more of his men, before he had to drop out of sight (to gulp down a healing potion, though this wasn't obvious at the time). However, he'd barely stood up again before Kobort tagged him with a magic missile, and Hildraft put a crossbow quarrel neatly into his forehead; and down he went again, for keeps this time. |
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Leaving Sack to keep up covering fire, the other three hefted melee weapons and moved forwards to attack. Surya, shield on arm, drew the Sword of the Dead Legions for the first time in serious anger, and, brushing aside the rather feeble defences of the bandit attacking him with the ever-stained sword, virtually bisected him with two mighty strokes, felling him immediately. Kobort blinked from view as he cast invisibility, coming into view behind a hapless bandit as he cut him down from behind. Hildraft's axe smashed through a shield and felled another opponent.
As the two more bandits closed warily on Surya, their faces drained of colour as their erstwhile comrade, recently falled under the Tellaran's blade, lurched to his feet and picked up his weapon. "Kill him" commanded Surya, pointing at a third man; the returned corpse lurched off towards his directed target. The horror of this dreadful resurrection clearly affected the concentration of the two; they died quickly under the fell blade. But not permanently... moments later, they too were converging on the final survivor. He went down under a slow but inexorable assault from his dead comrades.
The battle over, the others watched nervously as the Returned slashed mindlessly at the felled body for another minute or so, then abruptly crumbled into dust and vanished. Recovering, the party collected some worthwhile possessions from the leader's body, hitched the bandits' horses to their own, and made off down the valley.
