(Lómioldor, the Desolation, 21st September, 1601)
Well after midnight, the festivities wound down, and most people retired
to the back of the cave to sleep. The four Redeemer guards drew lots,
and Glum settled down to watch outside the cave mouth.
Before settling down, Yakov came to speak to the travellers. "My divinations
have revealed that you are pursued," he said, his gaze lingering on Surya
and then passing to the others. "I can discern nothing else but a sense
of deadly purpose and a name: Bramandin". He retired to his bedroll,
leaving them wondering.
Inside, Billy and Sack sat beside the guttering fire, getting to grips
with the changes in their relationship. Paradoxically, it was Billy who
was the most communicative now, his new grasp of the Low Erlyid language
finding expression in seemingly ceaseless speech, interspersed with sign
language from the tongueless Sack. They discussed many things, in their
way; among other things, Sack suggested that, although he had been calling
his companion "Billy" from their first meeting, the big ursine might not
want that as his name; did he have one already, a Bear name? It seemed
he did not; bears didn't have individual names as such, although apparently
the Panserbřrnë did. Billy considered this, and it did seem to him that
perhaps a name might be useful, but nothing immediately suggested itself.
They also discussed Billy's integration into society. There seemed enormous
scope for unwanted bar-fights having a talking bear and a voiceless half-orc
walking around together. Sack suggested they should try and find some
sort of shape-shifting or illusory magic to help the bear blend in. Billy
found this rather offensive at first, feeling that it implied there was
somehow something wrong with being a bear, but agreed to think about it.
Nothing was available anyway; Surya's studies of the Art Magic were progressing
in a fairly off-on manner.
The night wore on.
Around two AM, Sack's eye was caught by a peculiar movement within the
cave. Concentrating, he saw a humanoid shape, about seven feet tall and
translucently misty, emerge from the solid rock wall between two of the
sleeping forms. Once out, it shifted swiftly into a solid creature, and
as it did so the watcing bear and half-orc saw others appearing elsewhere
in the cave.
Behind him, he heard a cry of surprise and the ring of a drawn sword
as Glum was confronted by more of the same creatures, appearing out of
the night as if dropped from the sky.
Signing to Billy to cover his eyes, Sack drew the Blade of the Sun and
triggered the Sunburst. A blast of eye-searing light exploded out
from the weapon, dazzling and offbalancing the monsters, which he saw
clearly for the first time. He recognized their basic stock at once -
trolls - he'd fought them before; but these were warped and twisted beyond
even the distortion of nature that basic trolls were. Arms replaced by
tentacles, they had no true face any more, just a maw of spikes and slime.
The mighty flash of light had successfully woken everyone in the cave,
and with cries and oaths the travellers and Redeemers sprang to their
feet and seized their weapons. Judging the cave inside to be sufficiently
defended, Sack spun and sprang to the aid of the Redeemer guard Glum,
who was frantically trying to fend off two of the not-Trolls while a third
approached from his left. Billy hurdled the fire and raced to confront
this one as the sounds of battle erupted from within the cave.
Surya was afoot in a blink, his swords flashing, and he hacked two not-Trolls
down in seconds. As they fell, he saw Sack across the cave kick the head
of another downed not-Troll neatly into the fire from a good ten feet
away. Glancing down, he realized why; the slashed shreds of the two he'd
"slain" were regenerating, as a normal troll would have done. He mutilated
the remains some more, while Hildraft downed a third monster, and consigned
all three heads to the fire, before turning to aid his comrades on the
other side of the cave.
They had not done so well. Hansen was slashing futilely at a looming
not-Troll, with blood running down his legs from a nasty low blow and
a second monster bearing down on him from behind despite Sigvaldi hacking
at it with a sword as it went. As Surya watched, Yakov blinked out of
view, invisible or teleported he couldn't tell. Inveros Moonflame and
two more of the Redeemer guards - Roman and Denor - were struggling to
affect another creature, and the fourth guard had been rent into shreds
by powerful tentacles.
Next to Hildraft, the druid Blaunchard began a spell to enhance the
allies' morale and effectiveness; the dwarf went for the direct approach
and launched a Searing Light which sputtered out against the not-Troll
about to disembowel Hansen from behind. Next moment, it shrieked in agony
as steel thorns erupted through its' body from inside, skewering it horribly
and killing it instantly. Yakov, thought Surya to himself
At the cave mouth, Sack and Glum had managed to deal with their two
monsters, but Billy was doing badly with just tooth and claw against the
clearly magical creatures, and was badly wounded already. Sack hefted
Bloodfang, and hurled it across the cave; it sank deep into the
monster, distracting it from the nearly unconcious bear towards the half-orc.
Seconds later it was down.
Surya stormed across the cave, and cut down the not-Troll attacking
Roman and Moonflame. He swung to strike the next nearest, but the wounded
Roman was in his way. He swayed, and just for a moment seriously entertained
the idea of simply cutting down the Redeemer to reach his next foe. In
the red fury of battle, the idea seemed strangely appealing, but a moment
later he shook it off and started to move around his ally. A few seconds
later it became irrelevant as Roman was ripped appart by the last of the
not-Trolls, and Surya avenged him by beheading the monster and ending
the fight.
Hildraft and Blaunchard hurriedly distributed healing magic, especially
to the badly wounded Billy, while the others collected the slowly-slithering
remains of the regenerating not-Trolls and consigned them to the fire.
As they did so, the noticed that each had a small bronze disc embedded
in the queasy flesh of its' forehead, with eldritch runes carved into
it. Sack cut one free before burning the head, and showed it to Hildraft;
Yakov came over to look at it as he did so. The Dark Magic scholar was
pale and sweating; he looked positively ill.
Both Hildraft and Yakov were able to read the writing on the disc; it
read Bramandin. Yakov commented that the language was Infernal,
the language of the Nine Hells. Sack looked at him with deep suspicon,
alleviated only slightly by Moonflame's belated contribution that he,
too spoke the Helltongue.
Hildraft drew a bowl of water, and cast a scrying on the disc's
owner. It was clear from the outset that there was some resistance to
the spell, some form of defence or screening; but a blurred picture was
forthcoming, that of a tall, muscular figure, probably a cambion like
Zerhal Avara, dressed in leather armour and armed with at least two swords.
He was in some extraplanar location, and was surrounded by some form of
hounds, though these weren't clearly visible. Then the spell was squelched.
A lively discussion broke out as to which of the travellers' surviving
enemies would have hired this mercenary, and whether there were any benefit
in turning to hunt the hunter - despite no idea where he was or how to
track him.
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