AMG's "The Gods Themselves"

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

And now, after three years of only Star Wars Story Hours...finally some D&D.

The game itself is with a relatively new group, and has only been going for about a year now. Its a homebrew world, with many Gods, peoples, and such completely and blatantly stolen from existing campaign settings. The world itself is a mesh of things both original and not. Details of which will gradually appear as things get moving.

Currently, the plan is to update this once a week, aiming for Wednesdays but a day late(or early) may be possible.

And now for our PCs...

-Cor Lirran - Male Elf Sorcerer 6: Stoic, calm, and, usually, the voice of reason amongst the group, Cor is also the oldest, though this advantage is due to his race more than his specific personality. He has a way with words that can both put people off and convince them that their ideas were his all along in one sentence, but seems to barely regard most others around him with more than a somewhat worrying stare.

-Rennai Imur - Female Elf Rogue 6: A thief, according to her so-called friends. Though she takes offense at the term, never has Rennai actually offered an alternative to the word. She can talk her way out of a crime when all the evidence clearly points to her, but talk, to her, is so much more boring than the thrill of a good fight...and so she has a habit of drawing a blade before any negotiations are over. Arrogant is a word that has been used to describe her, but most that know her well would consider that a terrible understatement.

-Aylana Mandare - Female Human Paladin 6: A holy warrior of the church of Heironeous, she is as strong in her devotion as any amongst her order. Not the most personable of her order, Aylana is a warrior in both heart and mind. She has no qualms of dealing with evil by simply slaying it rather than allowing it to exist and corrupt what surrounds it. Her strong devotion to ridding the world of evils makes her relationship with Rennai tense, to say the least.

-Falen Mandare - Male Human Ranger 6: Aylana's older brother, and only like her in appearance. He is an expert with a bow, but not so much with anything involving the so-called social graces. Easily distracted by new things, especially in towns, Falen is generally uncomfortable in closed areas. He likes to consider himself the sanity of the group, keeping the peace between his sister and Rennai, though more often than not he encourages them both for his own amusement.



Chapter 1: Into the Dark

“It sees us," Cor announced, his voice echoing back to the group in the small room they had just entered.

“Really?!” Rennai rolled her eyes, glad that her sword was in hand as they had taken the steps down the long distance to reach this dark room. Within the darkness, the four could see a pair of red, glowing eyes that had gone wide when they’d stepped into the room...obviously they had surprised this gaunt, humanoid creature as much as it had surprised them.

In the front of their group, clad in so much armour it was amazing that they hadn’t been heard coming down the steps, Aylana turned her head to say to the others behind her, “It is a demon.”

Rennai sighed. That information didn’t really help her. She was planning to stab the thing anyway, demon or not. Deciding not to wait for the demon to come at them first, she slipped around the armoured form of Aylana, drawing her dagger into her left hand as she moved within striking distance of the so-called-demon.

When she got close, she could see it was very thin looking, with sharp teeth and long claws on its hands...which were black as the rest of its leathery looking body. This didn’t matter to Rennai, who lunged out with her rapier towards its stomach. The strike hit cleanly, but Rennai’s blade simply slipped off of its hide, a thick acid sliding off and onto the blade in the process.

Falen, who had been standing behind Rennai and was still on the steps, just sighed at the Elf’s brash actions and decided he might as well follow suit. As he couldn’t find any witty comments worth speaking, for the moment at least, he raised his bow, drew an arrow. He took aim then let it loose quickly. Before he waited to see if it landed, he drew another and shot it at the apparent demon.

“Watch my head!” Rennai cried out over her shoulder as she watched the two arrows have the same affect on the demon as her strike had...namely, no effect.

Reeling from the obvious surprise and then the sudden attacks, the demon snarled a few words none of the four understood. It then immediately struck out at Rennai with a quick pair of slashes from its claws. The Elf attempted to sidestep the first, but still took a strong slash across her right arm that got a yelp out of her, and slowed her reflexes enough to allow the second attack to rake across the armour over her stomach and dig through it.

Seeing this, and knowing, at least in a general sense, what the creature was, Aylana gripped her sword and shield tightly before running in to Rennai’s side. She stepped next to her companion and slashed out with her large, blue-glowing sword towards the demon’s head in an attempt to end things quickly. However, the demon easily saw her approach and ducked under the strike nimbly.

Standing behind, and above thanks to the steps, Falen was Cor, who was already calling upon a spell in hopes that he would be able to do something about this...this...demon. With a quiet speaking to nothing at all in words that the others wouldn’t have understood anyway, he extended an arm over Falen’s head and let loose three bright blue bolts of magic that lit up the entire room before slamming into the demon.

Rennai attempted to take advantage of the impact of the spell on the demon, but when she thrust with her blade, the demon dodged to the side, and even managed to evade the slash of her dagger that followed a half second after. She cursed under her breath and nearly jumped out of her skin when two more arrows streaked directly past her head. One hit the demon’s head and skimmed off before hitting a wall behind the creature, while the other just missed and hit the wall on its own.

“Are you trying to kill me?!” that was probably not the best thing to cry out when a demon was in front of her and it was trying to kill her, but Rennai hated those damned arrows nearly taking her ears off. She liked her ears! But the demon seemed to notice something in Aylana, turning to her and letting loose another quick pair of slashes from its claws at her armoured body. The first strike she managed to block with her shield, the loud scraping of claw against metal causing everyone to wince, but not as much as Aylana did when the second claw found a gap in her armour at the shoulder and took away blood as it finished its swing.

Aylana pushed the searing pain out of her mind and forced the demon back with her shield before letting out with a quick pair of strikes of her own with her large sword. The demon attempted to twist its slender body out of the way but took the sword across its chest twice, leaving two long slashes of bright red against its otherwise black body. It didn’t have a moment to cry out in pain, though, as a long ray of flame shot between Rennai and Aylana and caught the demon square in the chest, burning the newly opened wounds.

This time, Rennai didn’t have a complaint, as they seemed to be actually hurting the thing. She took advantage of its moment of pain to slip around behind it, flanking the demon between herself and Aylana, slashing with her rapier as she moved. Somehow, though, the demon seemed to have anticipated this and dodged the strike, but it moved into her dagger, which dug into its hip and got another good open wound across the creature’s body.

There was the sound of two more arrows and they both caught the still-flaming body of the demon right in the chest. However, they suffered the same fate as the rest and simply deflected away, thankfully hitting neither Aylana or Rennai in the process. The demon seemed to ignore this, suddenly focusing on something else entirely and muttering quiet words that didn’t sound at all friendly. Both Rennai and Aylana saw openings and took advantage of them, but the demon was not a fool, it seemed, and neither strike hit its body as it attempted to cast some spell.

Nothing happened immediately, but that didn’t mean a thing, and Aylana wasn’t taking any chances. She immediately swung her sword at the demon again, attempting another pair of strikes as she had done before, but the demon’s skin deflected the first and only allowed the tip of the blade through for the second. There was only a moment before another ray of flame shot out from where Cor stood, but while this one still managed to hit the creature and none of the others, it only burned for a few seconds before it dissipated, the demon looking angrier than ever, somehow, though.

Not wasting a second, Rennai cursed the thing again and slashed with her sword across its back. The sword went deep, catching the demon near its neck and getting a guttural cry from it before it collapsed to the ground, bleeding profusely. But Rennai wasn’t done, and to make sure, she quickly followed up by driving her dagger into the back of the demon’s skull.

When she removed it, she flicked away the green substance and managed a smile for the others, “What would you three do without me, hm?”

“We’d get a few moments peace,” Falen grumbled, finally stepping into the small, enclosed room and lowering his longbow.

Rennai rolled her bright green eyes, “Mmhmm. And you were doing such a good job. Look...your little arrows are littered all over the room. Can I throw them for you next time?”

“Be silent, Ren,” Cor snapped, obviously not in the best of moods as he followed Falen to the two others. He came to a stop and then leaned to rest on his staff, “What is a demon doing down here?”

Aylana gently touched the creature with the greaves she wore over her feet, then managed a shrug before looking to the male Elf, “I do not know, but I expect it is not a good thing.”

“Is it ever, sis?” Falen asked in a half-hearted voice, ignoring an unruly bit of brown hair that had fallen in front of his face.

By now, Rennai was looking around to find some kind of door or passageway or...well, anything. Over her shoulder, she said, “Sometimes it is good, and then its boring. Now are you three going to stand there or shall we keep going?”

Aylana and Falen exchanged a short glance but it was Cor that spoke up, “Well, they didn’t pay us in advance for nothing.”

“Good point,” Falen smiled and then looked to the female Elf that was currently eyeing a certain dark section of the room that he couldn’t make anything out of, “I’m honestly surprised Ren didn’t just run off with her share.”

“They only gave us half,” she grumbled, sounding more annoyed at that than at Falen. She then pointed in front of her, “Corridor here for those of you with terrible eyesight. You know who you are.”

Aylana decided to ignore that comment, and hefted her sword and shield as she walked over to Rennai and took point as always, “We should stay alert. They said that people had gone missing coming near this old tomb and if it is demons behind that then we should be cautious.”

“You and caution,” Rennai muttered, poking the armour-plated woman in the back, “Caution us forward, I’m tired of standing around here.”

Though she didn’t dignify that with a response, Aylana started forward again, anyway.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 2: More Dark

The corridor was tight, horrible smelling, damp, and dark. She could see relatively well thanks to light coming in from behind them, but it was still difficult, and considering the demon before, they weren’t about to give their position away to any other...thing that might be in this place. Best to just survive in the darkness. It wouldn’t be the first time.

The corridor went straight ahead for a few minutes before they reached a door. Aylana had nearly run into the thing, but thankfully saw it in time to avoid the clang of her shield hitting the metal looking door. She wouldn’t have heard the end of that one...but wait. Metal? Hmm. She’d expected stone like the rest of this place. And it didn’t look rusted, either. This was odd.

“Its safe,” Rennai’s voice was a whisper and at Aylana’s feet, which was a surprise. She glanced down to see the Elf girl prone on the stone floor, inspecting the door from a very awkward position. How she could tell it was safe like that was beyond Aylana, but Rennai had proven to be very good at finding, and, on some occasions, setting, traps of most kinds.

So, taking her word for it, Aylana’s shield arm reached over, groped at the door a bit before finding a handle, then turned it easily and pulled...realized it didn’t go that way, then pushed. It opened to reveal a torch lit, circular chamber with a somewhat low ceiling. There were various objects on the ground and red stains that were probably blood, but there were also three figures. Two of them were grouped in front of the third, their backs to the door, and probably Goblins from the way they were standing and their size, and were clad in black and red clothes. The third was human sized, and immediately spun around at the door opening, two red, glowing eyes staring in surprise.

“More fun!” Rennai almost giggled as she slipped past Aylana and went straight to the left of the Goblins, her rapier thrusting in before the creature could even react. It attempted to twist to the side, and half succeeded. Instead of being simply impaled by the blade, the Goblin got a good cut across its shoulder instead.

The little creature cursed angrily, drawing a dagger from its belt and slashing out with it in one swift motion. But the injury slower the attack, allowed Rennai to easily parry the strike with the dagger in her off hand. The other Goblin also drew a dagger, immediately stepping to Rennai and stabbing at her torso. The nimble Elf had no trouble twisting away to avoid the strike, grinning as she did so.

Cor, not nearly as brash as Rennai, took a short moment to look over the situations. He immediately identified the taller humanoid as a greater threat and extended a hand over the shoulder of his other two companions while calling upon a spell. There was a pop, a flash, and then a bolt of disgusting looking green shot out of no where and caught the humanoid square in the chest, splashing acid across him and burning patches of his cloak and armour when it hit.

“Nice shot, Cor,” Falen said over his shoulder as he drew an arrow and dropped to one knee. Down this low, he could shoot past Aylana and not get in the way of Cor’s spellcasting, while being harder to hit, too. Aiming a bit up so as not to hit Rennai, Falen took aim on the humanoid just as Cor had, and then loosed a quick arrow followed by another. The first arrow dug into the humanoid’s shoulder, causing him to stumble back and growl in pain. The movement was enough to throw Falen’s second shot off, and it simply flew past and hit the far wall.

Aylana let out a sigh, then raised her sword and shield and charged in after Rennai. She stopped right next to the manic Elf and, upon seeing the injured Goblin, attempted to finish the job with a good, strong swing of her sword. The poor Goblin, if that could ever be said of such a creature, probably didn’t even feel the strike as Aylana’s bright blue sword chopped straight across its torso and dropped the little thing into an unmoving pile on the ground.

The humanoid cursed angrily and reached up and removed the arrow from its shoulder. Though he spoke no words that any of the group could understand, he turned to Aylana and extended a hand, his fist slowly closing. Aylana could feel the air around her constricting, pulling inwards around her and locking her into place. But she resisted it, trying not to let it lock her in, and suddenly, it stopped and the feeling was gone.

“Show off,” Rennai muttered over her shoulder as the first Goblin hit the ground nearly in two pieces. She quickly turned her attention to the other Goblin, her rapier stabbing outwards as she spun to face it. The blade dug into the Goblin’s torso, causing it to yelp in pain and surprise, and Rennai quickly followed with a slash from her dagger. But somehow, the little Goblin managed to duck so that the smaller blade just went right over its head.

When her blade was past, the Goblin was up again, thrusting its own little dagger to her stomach. But Rennai’s main hand swung inwards, batting the dagger away with her rapier and spinning with the momentum of the strike.

Thankful that he no longer had to worry about hitting Falen with his spells, Cor attempted a safer cast so as not to hit the two women between him and the humanoid who was, somehow, still standing. At his calling, three bright blue bolts of energy shot out, arcing around the room and past the two women to hit the humanoid one after another in bright flashes of energy.

Smiling at the sight, Falen was already drawing and aiming another shot on the humanoid. He let it loose, and the arrow shot straight past Rennai, close enough to her face to get her to cry out in surprise but also missed its target. For his second shot, Falen made sure to take better aim, though with the way Rennai was moving, she was just asking for trouble. Despite that, though, he let the arrow fly. This one went over Rennai’s head, so she probably didn’t notice it, but instead of striking the humanoid in the upper body as Falen had aimed for, the arrow simply grazed the humanoid’s arm.

In the movement to avoid the arrow as best as an arrow could be avoided, Aylana saw something about the humanoid she had no seen before. The light shifted and the shadows changed, and she saw a pair of small horns jutting out from clean-cut looking hair. Another demon.

“More spawns of Hell!” she growled angrily, turning and taking a pair of steps to bring her face to face with the humanoid, her sword thrusting up towards its torso. The blade went straight up and through, impaling the surprised demon-spawn. Aylana gave her sword a good twist before removing it and then spit on the creature’s body as it slumped to the stone floor.

Rennai glanced to her right to see this, and just rolled her eyes. Sometimes that woman was just odd. Of course there were demons. Why was that damned woman surprised? Idiot holy people. Always shocked by the obvious.

But they weren’t finished yet so she’d yell at Aylana for being stupid later. Turning her attention back to the remaining Goblin, Rennai tilted her rapier slightly and thrust it straight downward. There was an odd sound as the sword made contact with its target, and then everything went quiet again, save for some heavy breathing from both Aylana and Rennai.

After a few moments, Rennai stood up straight, looked around the circular room, and slumped her shoulders, “That’s it?”

“It would seem that way,” Aylana said softly as she sheathed her blade over her shoulder.

There were no other doors. A stairway down, a main room, a corridor, and then this. That was it. Nothing particularly interesting looking to Rennai, either. Some tomb this was.

Falen finally walked into the room, with Cor behind him. As they stepped in to look around the relatively empty area, Rennai was knelt down digging through the bodies. Probably looking for anything valuable. While the little thief was trying to find anything of worth, Aylana had turned to a small wooden stand with a book on it that was behind where the humanoid was standing.

Looking to the left side of the room, Falen saw a small indentation in the wall. Slowly and curiously, he walked over to the section of wall, noting it was about the right size for a sarcophagus, which would be expected in a tomb like this...but there was simply dust. Well, not, there were rocks, too. Glancing around the circular wall, he could see multiple similar looking sections, but most seems to have been boarded over or were just as empty. Some tomb this was. Not even an old dead body...just fresh ones.

Cor was stepping past Rennai, who was now scrambling to the second Goblin’s body and looking angry. He rolled her eyes, somewhat insulted by the fact that she, too, was an Elf. But he ignored that annoyance and carefully leaned around Aylana’s shoulder to glance at the book that she had picked up and was looking through, “Something interesting?”

The human woman nodded, a strand of dark brown hair falling in front of her face despite the helmet that was supposed to be holding most of it back. She gave it an angry stare but then shifted the book so that Cor could see the writing more, “I believe it is a log of sorts.”

“Those are summoning diagrams,” Cor commented as he placed a finger on an illustration on one of the pages. He didn’t mention that he couldn’t read whatever language the writing was in, though.

Aylana nodded, “It seems this demon-spawn was involved with a cult of sorts bent on binding Elemental Gods to their service.”

“Elemental Gods?” Falen had made his way over to them and was now looking over Aylana’s other shoulder curiously. After reaching up and scratching his head, he mumbled, “I didn’t know there were Elemental Gods.”

“There’s a bloody God for everything,” Rennai’s grumbled comment came from below and behind them as she was now digging through the pockets of the humanoid.

The three others all gave her a casual glance before turning back to the book. It was Falen that spoke up again, saying quietly, “She has a point.”

Aylana dignified that with only a nod, which wasn’t much considering the heavy armour she was wearing, then turned a page in the book, “I believe that we have stumbled upon more than a simple grave robbing or haunting as the locals thought it was.”

“They’ll still pay us,” Rennai’s voice traveled up to them again, “Probably more, even.”

“Nonetheless,” Aylana tried to move on without sparking similar comments from Rennai, “This log suggests that the demon-spawn here was part of a much larger cult. He seems to have only arrived days ago with these two others. I believe they were simply the beginning of a much large group of similar creatures to come here.”

“And that matters to me...why?” yet again, Rennai cut in, though this time her voice was up higher, though not much since she was fairly short. She’d gotten to her feet and, when Cor and Falen glanced back to her, was idly looking over a palm sized red stone.

“What is that?” Cor asked, turning attention to the stone and reaching over to it.

Of course, Rennai immediately pulled her hand in and gave him a sharp look, “Its mine, that’s what it is. Looks valuable, too. About the only thing of worth and I’m claiming it since you three seem so interested in that book there.”

With those sounds, Aylana closed the book and then turned around to see what the question was about. She saw the stone that Rennai was protecting and then connected the object with some of the other pieces of text she’d read in the log, “This fiend here was a new member of this cult. He was sent ahead to prove himself...set up an outpost and then bind a minor being to his service. The log states that he was given a small, red stone as a focus for the binding.”

“Well its mine now,” Rennai pocketed the stone immediately upon hearing this from Aylana. Knowing that noble idiot, she’d want it for some greater good crap. Probably wouldn’t even be willing to sell the thing. Then they’d make barely any money at all on this waste of time trek into some foul smelling hole in the ground.

“May I make a suggestion?” Falen cut into the uneasy silence. When the three others looked to him, he decided that they were going to let him speak, and so, went on, “How about we leave this place, head back to town, and then decide what to do, hm?”

To the surprise of all of them, it was Aylana that nodded first, though the other two soon followed suit. So, a little less cautiously, they headed back the way they’d come.

 

[Angcuru]

Looks good so far. I especially like the Lawful Stupid vs. Chaotic Greedy between Aylana and Rennai.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 3: Within the Temple

Besol was like most small towns. It was...small. While there was a definite town, with a temple, blacksmith, and other simple buildings, most of the population seemed to live on farms that surrounded it. What they were farming was beyond Rennai, but she figured it was probably food. She didn’t know a thing about farming or any of that, she grew up in the north where it was cold and...well, cold.

The worst part about the town, though, was the lack of an Inn. Apparently it had burned down or some other horrible excuse and no one had bothered to rebuild. So they were stuck staying in the local temple, which was fine with Aylana, of course, but Rennai...well...she just never understood why people that claim to talk to Gods weren’t crazy while those that talk to the air were. Not that she didn’t think the Gods were real, of course they were, but it just didn’t seem fair and so she’d simply decided that all clergy, no matter the origin, were best kept away. Besides, they never seemed to be very approving of most of the things she did.

Short, rather unruly black hair covered her head and stopped at her neck, with the points of her ears appearing through the mass of hair to show that she was not a short human, but an Elf. Of course, the slim features and rather pointed, light green eyes would have given this away, too, but Rennai wasn’t usually one to let people see that. She wore simple clothes now, rather than the dark, leather armour she kept for when they went to business. Instead, Rennai simply wore comfortable, loose, and generally boring looking clothes, though on her belt she kept both her rapier and, concealed at the very back of the belt, a dagger.

Rennai was, like most of her kind, short. She cursed the humans who built the temple for making the windows up as high as they were on the cold, stone walls. It made actually looking outside rather difficult. Barely over five feet tall wasn’t that short, but the damned humans who built this place must have been a good foot taller and didn’t think about anyone else.

Sighing, Rennai rested her chin on the windowsill.

“Contemplating existence again?” the soft voice of Cor came from behind her.

She had heard him step into the small room and didn’t bother to give him any attention then, and wasn’t planning to change that now. Instead, Rennai simple shrugged as best one could shrug when their chin was resting on something.

Her ears were better than most, and so it was easy to hear Cor stepping across the room and towards her. His footsteps were rather soft, but he wasn’t making any effort to keep quiet, either, “The priest would like to see the stone you found.”

Slowly, Rennai turned around to give him a very pointed glare. Cor was also an Elf, but sometimes she wondered about that. While she’d grown up in a city in the north, he was, apparently from the forests like most of their kind. He never would talk much about his past, but she could tell from looking at him that he was great deal older than she was. That was something, though, that she knew humans would have difficulty noticing.

Cor was built much like she was, though taller and thinner. The latter, however, was hard to tell due to the impractical, flowing robes he always seemed to wear. At least they weren’t bright colours. Though the top of his staff was an annoying violet colour that drove her insane to no end. In fact, with his dark hair and green eyes, most humans probably assumed they were related.

Idiots.

A loud, deliberate sigh escaped Cor as he met her glare with an annoyed look, “They do not want to keep it, Rennai. But it may be able to give us information about this cult Aylana is sure we’ve found.”

“You don’t believe her?” Rennai asked casually, suddenly curious and glad for the distraction away from what was her’s.

“Falen and the priest believe her.”

Rennai rolled her eyes, “Okay. Her brother and a man that happens to be a part of the same church as Aylana believe her. That’s reassuring.”

Cor shook his head and then turned to leave the room. As he walked out, he spoke over his shoulder, “None of us are in the mood for your act, Rennai. Either you follow me down here or we leave you here.”

She watched him leave the room and stared at the blank, boring looking wall outside the room she was using. More than once she’d considered leaving...but...she...with a sigh, Rennai started after him. Damn that Cor! He knew exactly what to say and exactly how to say it!

Rennai found the others down in the first level of the temple, which was mostly one large, open area. There was an altar near the back, with an elaborate fresco painting of a large, armoured human with auburn hair holding up a sword triumphantly. There were two sets of pillars running near the center of the building and setting up a large path, of sorts, to the altar. Along the walls were various rooms with large, metal doors that were probably locked knowing these people...

The whole damned place looked like a jail to her. They called it a temple, but Heironeous had a hell of a definition for ‘temple’. The built the place like they were ready for some war, and from the looks of things, they probably were. All the so-called priests had swords at their hips. And all of them that she walked past gave her very pointed looks. It wasn’t like she was going to steal anything! Well...not after that first attempt...

It wasn’t her fault they used inferior locks! And really, why lock things if you didn’t want to make people curious?!

Everyone else was standing near the altar, and Rennai felt like she was walking to her death with the looks she was getting...while having to take the ominous feeling route between the gigantic stone pillars to get to them. That was why she hated all these Gods! All the damned theatrics!

Of course, Aylana was standing there in front of them all. She wasn’t in her armour, for once, but that leather padding and loose cloth shirt and trousers she had hinted that the woman wasn’t far off from her armour. Her hair was that same dusty colour as her brother’s, but was straight and long, while Falen’s was rather short and...well, a mess, really. That was another thing about that woman. How in the Hells did she fit all that hair in a plate helm?! Apparently she found a way, but Rennai was sure it was at the expensive of her brain.

Falen, unlike his sister, wasn’t really watching Rennai approach as much as looking around curiously. He’d seemed almost as uncomfortable in this so-called temple as Rennai was. In fact, he looked ready to leave right away. His bow was on his back, as was the currently-closed quiver, and there was even a sword at his hip barely concealed beneath his cloak that had, years ago, probably been green.

Cor was simply standing with his arms behind his back in one of those curios poses that made her wonder about him. He just kept such a haughty air to him sometimes that one day she was going to punch some humility into him. Or at least get him to slouch at least a bit. Something to make him more tolerable.

And then, roughly in the center of the group, was a chiseled looking human male who was far too tall and far too armoured for his own good. The tabard draped over his shoulders sported a fist and a lightning bolt, and Rennai recognized him as, according to Aylana, the head of the Temple in Besol. The man looked like more of a warrior than a priest, and the sword at his hip was in a scabbard that was definitely not decorative. He had short, blonde hair that made him look at odds with the rest of the building as, next to the fresco behind him, his hair was the brightest colour in the whole damned place.

While no words were said, the eyes bearing down on Rennai were enough. She wasn’t in the mood for fighting against this and just went ahead and shuffled the small object from a pouch on her small belt and extended it out in front of her, “I expect it back.”

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 4: Angels and Demons

The priest took the stone from Rennai’s hand and began to examine it. After silently inspecting it and turning it over to look at all of its sides, he raised another hand and made an odd motion over the stone which was coupled with a faint blue glow from his fingertips. In a baritone voice that fit his size far too well, the priest said, “Oraus.”

Magic.

Unlike the Gods, Rennai didn’t really have much of a problem with magic, as long as it wasn’t aimed at her. It was useful enough, and the nice part about it was that it didn’t use people as much as people used it. Unlike certain divine beings who may or may not have tried to kill her before...via their priests. Okay, so magic did cause her some problems, but it was the Gods’ fault.

A look of concentration crossed the priest’s square features and, after a moment, the blue from his fingers faded and he spoke again, quietly, “Its power is fading. However, I believe you were correct, Aylana. The strength of the magic within would have easily been enough to bind a demon to this world.”

Aylana shifted her weight slightly and looked at the stone, “Have you ever seen anything like this before?”

“Not contained within such a small stone,” the priest raised it closer to his eye level and looked at it closely again, “And there is no stone of this red colour in the rocks here.”

“I have never seen a stone such as that in all of my years,” Cor very gently cut into the conversation. Rennai was glad to hear him push the fact that he was the oldest of them all. She may not particularly like him, but she would rather him make a good point than these crazies.

The priest actually regarded this with a very slight nod of his head, “You say you found a book?”

Cor nodded. Rennai knew he was carrying it on him, under those robes most likely, but she noted he didn’t show it, instead simply saying, “I could not read the language it was written in. However, there were runes for summoning creatures and diagrams for...larger such rituals.”

“It was also a log,” Aylana added, “There was very little information within, but it pointed to a much larger group than one lone evil creature. It seemed to imply that there was a large cult ultimately attempting to bind a group of Elemental Gods to their service.”

By now, the priest seemed to be just idly examining the stone, not really looking for anything in particular. Finally, the very large human lowered it again and extended it out to Rennai, who snatched it back and immediately pocketed it. But the priest didn’t seem to take notice, “We receive reports weekly and I have heard of no such organization. Most of the evils of our world are not foolish enough to trifle with directly with the Gods.”

“I’ve never heard of any Elemental Gods before,” Falen finally spoke up, though he was still idly looking around and the question was asked in the direction of a red-haired female priest walking past.

The priest turned to look to Falen, seeming to take notice of the human for the first time despite the fact that he’d been there since before Rennai had come, “There are many powerful forces. The Elemental Gods of which you refer to were present at our world’s creation and gave it shape and form. But after that...” he trailed off and simply shrugged, “They simply seemed to disappear.”

Rennai was now watching the priest more carefully. One thing she’d learned about these priest-types over the years was that they rarely knew, or cared, much at all about the other Gods. That always seemed odd to her, but then again, it made sense with all the rivalries and the infighting that went on amongst the various churches. It always seemed to her, though, that it made sense to pay attention to all of them rather than just one, but now, upon seeing a priest that at least knew something about other Gods that was meaningful, she was suspicious.

“Not hearing anything is not the same as nonexistence,” Cor suggested with a slight motion of his hand, “And it would seem that someone does not believe that these Elemental Gods disappeared completely.”

Falen finally turned to give the rest of them his full attention and raised a valid question, “But then why summon and bind demons or...whatever those things were? I don’t see the connection.”

The priest was still looking at Falen, and was now leveling the young human with a critical gaze, “Demons are powerful creatures. It is even possible these two things are simply not related directly.”

“That would seem unlikely,” Cor slipped into the conversation again with ease, “With a God bound, why waste your time with simple demons? No, I believe it is something else. And I believe it is something you are not comfortable with.”

By now, Rennai was fighting back a grin. This was why she hadn’t just robbed and killed Cor by now!

The other Elf made a quick glance to her and she knew that Cor saw her reaction, though that didn’t seem to affect what he was saying at all, “Demons are very knowledgeable creatures. Many are older than some of the Gods themselves. If these Elemental Gods disappeared, it would seem to me that the demons would be likely candidates for knowing their last location and, perhaps, where they are now.”

A metal clank on the stone floor as Aylana turned to look at Cor indicated she was still wearing those damned plate boots, “I would think that an Angel would be more trustworthy with such information.”

“An Angel would not divulge such information,” shaking his head, Cor began to lean on his staff again, “But a demon...selfish creatures. Where an Angel would die to protect information like this, a demon may simply give a piece in hopes of learning what its captors are after...and likely using that to kill them and escape.”

“Demon. Angel. God. It doesn’t matter. What we should be looking for is more of this so-called cult.”

Everyone went silent.

That was because it was Rennai who had spoken that. And now, with all of the eyes on her in surprise, except for Cor’s, and that bothered her even more, she let out a dramatic sigh and rested a hand on her hip before deciding she might as well explain her sudden change of heart, “Yes, that was me. It’s a bit obvious at this point that you three are set on getting to the bottom of this, and until I get a better offer I’m sticking with you. So, we’re going to do this right instead of arguing about semantics that don’t even matter right now.”

A hint of a smile tugged at Cor’s lips, “I must say, I agree with our little thief.”

“I am not a thief,” Rennai grumbled.

But he just shrugged at that, “You have no reports specific to what we have found, sir, but tell me this...have you heard anything similar to what you asked us to help with here? A simple haunting that the locals are doing their best to avoid?”

A haunting which you, mighty warrior, left alone.

Rennai didn’t say it, but she thought it hard at the priest. Not that it would get through his thick skull...but she felt good trying it, at least.

The priest thought about this for a moment. He then looked to Cor, “Actually, we received a call two days before you arrived here from a nearby town that spoke of farmers reporting sightings of evil creatures...and dead livestock.”

“Then that is where we will go,” Aylana said firmly before anyone else could get a word in.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 5: Smoke on the Horizon

Three of them were glad to be out of Besol. Well, no, all four of them were. But while Aylana was focused on the task ahead, she would gladly have stayed if she could have. The others...though they wouldn’t speak it, both Cor and Falen couldn’t help feeling like Rennai did. The Temple was too much a fortress for their tastes, and it felt like a jail with the way everything was locked down. Both Cor and Falen were simply happier in the open air, though for different reasons.

Cor had grown up in the forest to the east, far from where they were now. But he could close his eyes and see it all again. It was the best he would have, though. Though many of his people chose to leave their protected kingdom, Cor hadn’t left on the best of terms. Though it was well over a century later, it was unlikely he would be welcomed back by anyone.

Falen, however, had not grown up in the forest. He and Aylana were born in a rather small village to the south. He had done what most children did on a farm, and helped his father with the chores, but as he’d grown older, Falen wandered more and more, to the dismay of his father who truly did need the help. By the time Falen left his home, he was fairly sure his parents saw him as a disappointment. Their oldest son had left with no real goal or aim, simply taking the bow his father had given him a year before. He looked even worse when compared with Aylana...who seemed to be the perfect child.

But Falen didn’t resent his sister. It was his younger sister, and no matter what else she became, that would never change. In fact, it seemed like she had more difficulty with being around him. For some reason, Falen got the feeling she was always trying to prove herself and show she was worthy of being with them, which made no sense, as she’d tracked him down years ago.

“That thing is looking at me like I’m food again,” Rennai mumbled warily from behind.

And then there was someone else. Falen smiled as he looked down to his side where Convel was calmly walking, though, currently, looking over his shoulder and back towards Rennai...who was standing behind Cor and peering around carefully.

Convel was a grey-furred wolf that Falen had tamed barely a month after he’d left his home. Since then, the wolf had been his closest friend and a loyal companion. He’d been initially cautious of the others, especially Aylana, but warmed up quickly enough. But with Rennai, the wolf seemed to enjoy...toying with her. Falen knew that Convel would never hurt her, but he seemed to enjoy making her hide like that.

Falen couldn’t blame him, and so simply reached down to give the wolf a good scratch before saying to Rennai, “He’d probably stop doing that if you’d grow another inch or two. Right now you’re the only one of us the perfect size for him to get a meal from.”

“One more crack about me being short and I’ll—“

”And you’ll what? Stab me in my sleep?” Falen laughed and motioned to Convel, “I don’t think he’d like that. Besides, who’d stop Convel from eating you if I wasn’t around.”

Rennai matched his smile with a glare, “I truly dislike you and that beast of yours.”

Convel growled at her.

“Must you do two do this every time we travel somewhere?” Cor was looking at the sky as he spoke, as if it was the only thing that would possibly bother listening to him anymore.

Currently, they were walking to the town of Eschilar, just a few miles out from Besol. The road was more of a narrow dirt path, and they’d encountered no one else while walking. For the first mile, they had passed fields and crops and other things that hinted at the fringes of civilization, but soon it was simply grasslands and rolling hills. Far ahead of them, to the north, the shadow of a pair of mountains could be seen, but that was very far away and, according to the priest back at the temple, they would reach Eschilar long before the mountains.

“Falen...” Aylana, who had been silent for most of the way, reached over and touched him on the shoulder as gently as one could when incased in plate armour.

Stopping, he turned and looked to his sister, “Hm?”

“Smoke is rising over that hill,” Cor said in his usual monotone voice, his eyes catching it before Falen did.

It was thick, black smoke, just off to the west and away from the current direction of the path...though, after looking around again, Falen noted the path broke off and there was a sign not far ahead of them. He turned and looked to the two Elves behind him, “You do not think...”

“I suggest we find out quickly,” Cor spoke as he started walking again, but at a very brisk pace.

There was no argument from the others, who quickly moved to catch up and then match his speed as they first followed the road to its break. The sign had only one arrow, pointing to the west-going path. It read what they didn’t want to see: Eschilar.

Aylana was the first to start running down the road towards the smoke, with the others right on her feet. Rounding a corner took a grassy hill out of their way to show a town...or at least, part of a town. But instead of buildings and people, they saw flames. Fire consumed everything in the town, black smoke billowing up from the tops of the buildings.

“Where’s your stupid bird to warn us of this?” Rennai growled at Cor.

Not even looking at her, Cor simply responded, “He wished to explore. He will return to us when he is ready.”

Rennai just rolled her eyes, drawing her sword and dagger as she noticed Aylana had pulled out her sword and holding her shield up. Falen was readying an arrow and his bow was out. They saw something...and when Rennai looked past the taller members of the group, she saw it, too.

There was a cart off to the side of the road, and it was the only thing made of wood that they could see that wasn’t consumed in fire. And there, around the cart and throwing torches onto the nearest of the buildings, was a large group of humanoids. They were all slightly slumped over, though still likely taller than Rennai was, holding large, slightly curved swords in their hands. And farthest up the road, nearly in the middle of the flames between two of the buildings, was a huge creature well over ten feet tall. It was facing the other direction, into the burning ruins of the Eschilar, pointing at something and shouting orders in a language that sounded more like growls and grunts than anything. In each hand, was a large, Rennai-sized spiked club...and when it glanced around, all of them could clearly see it had not one, but two heads.

“Orcs,” Falen said in a hushed voice, though still loud enough for the three others to hear, then said more softly to the wolf running at his side, “Convel, stay close to me.”

The wolf made an interesting sound that was probably an acknowledgment.

“Ten creatures could not possibly burn an entire town!” Aylana snapped angrily, more speaking to herself than to the others, “Where, in the name of all that is holy, are the town guards?!”

“Put that out of your mind. For now I suggest we use our short moment of surprise to deal with these beasts,” Cor announced, sounding surprisingly ready for battle. Usually he was the type to at least stop and talk before diving in with a weapon or a spell. Of course, there usually weren’t Orcs involved. Planting his feet, Cor shifted his staff to his left hand and then extended his right arm, “Melten baria.”

A bolt of lightning, accompanied by a deafening crack of thunder, sprung to life from Cor’s fingertips and shot out at blinding speed towards the Orcs. The bolt went straight for three of the Orcs, catching the first and shooting right through him to take down the second, and then the third before ending its path by striking the nearest building...and adding to the flames that were already engulfing it.

“I believe we should avoid encouraging the flames, Cor,” Falen said, the hint of a grin on his features as he came to a stop next to the Elf. He raised his bow, arrow already help in place at the ready, took aim at the nearest of the Orcs to have been lucky enough to avoid Cor’s attack, and then let the arrow fly. It caught its target in the torso as the Orc turned to see the attackers, sending him into the grass at his feet immediately.

“Show offs,” Rennai muttered before sprinting for the nearest of the Orcs, who was next to the cart and already raising his sword in preparation for her attack. When she reached it, the Orc swung his large blade to take off her head. Rennai ducked under the strike, thrusting with her rapier as she continued her charge. The blade went up through the light layer of armour worn by the foul-smelling Orc, and Rennai’s momentum skewered the creature to the cart before she removed her weapon and looked to her right where another Orc was already swinging at her.

The Orc let out an angry battle cry and swung its blade at Rennai, who avoided the vertical swing by twisting to the side and letting the Orc drive his sword into the dirt. Just as he was pulling the blade up for another swing, Aylana charged in, her blue and white-glowing sword in hand and swinging across at the Orc. The large sword cut across the Orc’s torso, leaving a trail of ice on the wound that nearly cleaved the creature into two pieces.

Where one Orc suddenly came around Rennai from behind the cart, surprising her as she hadn’t seen it coming, the two remaining turned and raised crossbows. They took a short time to aim, and both let loose a bolt in the direction of where Falen and Cor still stood. One bolt went far, hitting the ground behind the two, while the second dug in at their feet, a little too close to Cor’s robe for his comfort.

It was then that the giant, two-headed creature spun around, made an angry motion and ran towards the cart where Rennai and Aylana were, weapons in both hands raised and ready while the two heads seemed to be growling and snapping at one another.

Seeing this, and not trusting his aim to hit the large creature and not Aylana or Rennai, Cor instead trusted to the true aim of his spells. Keeping his voice low this time, and raising his arm again, he felt the gathering of magical energy...then, with an odd pop of sorts, three bright blue missiles appeared and arced in three different paths straight to the two-headed giant, all striking different sections of its barely-armoured torso precisely.

“Much better,” Falen said, now openly smiling and enjoying this. Fighting in a tomb was so...restricting. It was nice to be out in the open where he could take full advantage of his skill with a bow. His eyes darted across the three remaining Orcs...one behind Rennai and swinging its blade, and the two others beyond the giant and reloading their crossbows.

Setting their positions in his mind, Falen took aim at the first and let loose an arrow, with two others following in quick succession. The first arrow struck perfectly, catching the Orc behind Rennai in its skull and flattening it against the cart next to the Orc that Rennai had run through. His eyes followed the same path from before, seeing his second target take an arrow in the chest and dropping it at the third’s feet...and then his last arrow whisking over the head of its target and sticking into a burning building.

By the time Rennai had turned to see the Orc coming up behind her, an arrow went through its skull. She blinked, looked off to the side to see Falen looking another direction, and decided not to say anything. It had been a good shot. Moving on, she spun back around to see the giant bearing down over Aylana. Not one to let the armoured-up human have all the fun, Rennai ducked around Aylana to get close to the giant. One of its heads immediately saw this, growled something incomprehensible, and its left arm swung a spiked-mace down, catching Rennai across her back as she moved.

She let out a cry of pain, knowing that the spikes had cut through her chain armour. But she focused through the slight red-tint of her vision and attempted to drive her rapier up to its currently-exposed side. Rennai got her own revenge as the point of her sword cut through the giant’s armour and into its side.

Hearing the cry over her shoulder, Aylana spun around in time to see the blood from Rennai’s back splatter the dirt. Aylana clenched her teeth and raised her shield, taking only a single step before swinging her very large sword upwards at the giant. While one of its heads had been watching Rennai, the second was on Aylana, and its right arm moved its second weapon in to parry her strike on the long shaft of the spiked weapon. Aylana did not let this deter her, however, and quickly reversed the momentum of her swing to bring the blade back down. The back swing cut across the giant’s leg, and the magic imbued in her sword left a trail of ice in the wound that it cut open, sending freezing cold pain up the giant’s body.

A loud twang signaled the last of the Orcs firing his crossbow. Falen had been distracted by Rennai’s cry, and then suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right leg. Gritting his teeth to hold back any sound, Falen still grunted in pain. Before Cor could say anything, however, Falen reached down and pulled the crossbow bolt out of his thigh, getting another grunt from the human and a whining sound from the wolf at his side.

“I assume that means you will be alright,” Cor said simply to Falen. The human didn’t say anything, and there was a pained, but focused look on his face, but he did nod. Having gotten a response, Cor returned his focus to the magical energy he was still drawing around him. Weaving a circle in the air in front of him, Cor focused the energy, then pressed his hands together, releasing it in a sickly, green arrow that shot out and slammed into the giant just under its head, splashing the acid all over its torso and face and getting another growl from both of its heads.

Falen was in the process of taking in the two last targets, making sure to correctly place the Orc in his mind before letting loose another series of three arrows. This time, his arrow struck the Orc high on its torso and dropped it, the heavy crossbow slamming onto its unmoving body. The last two arrows both hit the giant, one another after going straight through its thin layer of armour and lodging into its torso where the acid from Cor’s spell was still burning away.

Still trying to see through the pain, Rennai used the distraction of other’s injuring the giant to step around behind it, thrusting up with her dagger at its back and slashing her dagger towards its leg. But both strikes did nothing but catch the creature’s armour, neither digging through it...the pain was distracting her...

The pain, however, was not distracting the giant. It twisted slightly so that the head following Rennai could see her, and swung one of its massive weapons down on her, while the other head aimed a strike down on Aylana. Rennai was able to just barely avoid being crushed by another blow, stepping to the side as she had done earlier but nearly losing her balance in the process. Aylana, however, wasn’t as lucky. Though she managed to raise her shield, the giant’s weapon came down right on shield, nearly driving her down to the ground and the force of the blow wracking her within the armour she wore...and, for a moment, causing her to wonder if her shield-arm had been broken.

Lowering her shield, Aylana tilted her head up to see the creature’s snarling face, the one that was looking at her, at least, watching her angrily. Tightening her grip on her sword, Aylana swung upwards again, simply grazing the giant’s armour and leaving no wound at all. Though she had become rattled from the blow to her shield, she still attempted another strike, swinging her sword back across its torso...but somehow, the giant managed to shift its body and completely avoid being hit.

By now, the giant was looking terrible. It was bloodied, iced in one place, and had green acid eating through both armour and skin. Cor took a moment to see this, and decided to resort to letting loose another trio of magic missiles to, hopefully, finish the creature off. Again, the three blue bolts shot out from, seemingly, nothing and impacted the giant hard. It was enough force to dig into already opened wounds before sending the creature to the ground, toppling into the cart behind it and crushing it beneath its weight.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 6: Through the Fire

There was no silence when the short fight ended, only the roaring of the flames beyond. As they all recovered and the adrenaline began to, slowly, fade, Aylana moved over to Rennai, already beginning the incantations of a healing spell.

But Rennai raised a dagger, not threateningly, to stop her, “Save it...I’ve had worse.”

She had, in fact, had worse. Aylana remembered their first little adventure together, deep in a mine underground...a Kobold came around a corner in the dark and drove a spear straight through Rennai’s torso, pinning her to the mine wall behind as archers began firing from murder holes. It had been...well...to himself, Falen suspected it was those events that kept them all together. Any internal bickering was minor after what they’d gone through back then.

“At least drink this,” Cor said after he’d walked over to the two women of the group, holding out a small vial with a blue-green liquid within it.

Rennai sheathed her dagger and took the potion, drinking it and trying to ignore the terrible taste of the liquid as it ran through her body, gently healing her wounds. She then handed the empty vial back to Cor, who stashed it in a small bag that was clearly bigger on the inside than it seemed to be.

“What about you two?” she asked, looking to Falen’s bleeding leg and the way that Aylana looked to be having trouble holding her shield up.

Falen simply knelt down and tore off a piece of his cloak before wrapping it around his leg over the wound and tying it off tightly. As he stood back up another moment later, he said simply, “I can walk.”

“And I shall recover, as well,” Aylana nodded her head in thanks to Rennai. Combat was one of the few times that they all seemed to get along...usually, at least.

Cor was looking beyond the cart and down the road. The town of Eschilar was a small one...a single main road going up the center and only a pair breaking off at different places. After that, grasslands again. But all of the buildings, they could see were consumed in flames still, and though the town was small, there were well over ten large buildings there, and, on the other side of town but sticking up higher than the others, what looked to be a Temple spire that was, as everything else, covered by fire.

As the road went farther into the town, the flames began to cross it, and, finally, Cor could see bodies. They looked to be mostly human, though a couple of smaller bodies hinted at either children or Halflings. Still no sign of the town guard, though...or any reason why Orcs and a Giant would be burning it to the ground...

“There are more creatures,” Cor said. Much farther down the road, he could see figures moving. Both flames and buildings were in the way, but he was sure of it. When they all looked that direction but obviously couldn’t see, he clarified, “On the opposite side of the town. We could go around and—“

”No,” shaking her head, Aylana pointed with her large, glowing bastard sword down the street, “The fires can provide us with cover.”

“They can also burn us,” Rennai mumbled, though her dagger was in hand again, but she did make sure to quickly add, “You’re all packed and ready to be cooked, though.”

Falen looked down to the wolf that had obediently stayed at his side, “There will not be much open space in the middle of the buildings. But I agree on the direct approach.”

That was all they needed to hear. Aylana and Rennai started down the road, with the two others and a wolf right behind. They all had to pull in a bit closer to the center of the road to avoid the fallen pieces of wood from many of the buildings, along with flames that were extending out into the road. An Inn...stables...a pair of houses...a blacksmith...an unmarked building...a town hall...and then they reached the first crossroad, with a road breaking off to their right.

The entire road to the right was covered in a wall of fire, which extended from the town hall on one end of the road to Eschilar’s Temple on the other. The Temple looked to be stone, but wooden doors were thrown to the ground and the interior was burning. There was no symbol, likely torn down, from the state of the building, before it was set alight.

And up in front, along the main road, were three Orcs, all much better armed than the previous ones, and a pair of large, single-headed, hulking giants. Ogres. Two of them. With huge clubs. And together with the Orcs, who were using axes, while another carried a very large polearm, the Ogres were smashing things. More specifically, people.

“The town guards...” Aylana spoke softly, immediately noticing how well armoured the victims were, and the fact that the last of them had been putting up a fight with a glaive before a swipe from an Ogre’s club sent him flying across the road and into the stone Temple.

“Kr’korosh!”

The voice came from the side road to their right. Though the flames that covered the entire road on that side obscured their view, they could make out at least four more Orcs on the other side...and the Orcs had, apparently, seen them, too.

Rennai looked ahead of them at the two large Ogres and the three well-armed Orcs...then to their right, through the flames where four more Orcs had just spotted them. Making a quick decision, she looked forward again and ran, dodging falling debris from the building across from the stone temple at their right, and moving straight for the nearest Orc.

The nearest of the two Ogres made a grunt, raised its club, and swung down at Rennai over the Orc she was preparing to strike. She caught sight of movement above, and saw a club bigger than she was dropping down. Quickly, Rennai dropped to the ground and rolled to the side, but the club slammed into her shoulder when she was getting back up, the Ogre having somehow anticipated her move...the force of the blow nearly sent her back to the ground again, and she was sure at least one bone had broken from the impact.

The second Ogre, farther back and somehow not as ugly looking, reached over to the ground and ripped a long javelin out from a body it had been lodged in, before holding it up, taking aim, and throwing the massive weapon. It flew through fire to surprise both Cor and Falen, and in another second, caught Falen hard in the shoulder and send him onto his back, vision blurring at the intense pain.

As Rennai ran off, Aylana turned to the four others at the right. She took in a deep breath, let it out, and then ran straight through the flames to the nearest of them. The fire singed her armour and caught onto her cloak and the cloth between the plates of metal, but she ignored the pain of the fire and swung her huge sword at the nearest Orc, easily taking the monster’s head off of its body, which simply collapsed to the road under it. As the Orc dropped, she heard a cry of pain from behind, and turned to see, through the dancing flames, Falen dropped to the ground by a huge javelin.

While Falen scrambled to pull the weapon out and get back to his feet, knowing he couldn’t simply lay there for long without being killed, Convel took action. The wolf, shocked at the sudden attack on his friend, immediately moved to help, gripping the javelin in his teeth and trying to pull the weapon out. Falen did his best to smile, but it was hard to through the pain, so instead he reached to the weapon and helped the wolf remove the weapon.

Trying to ignore the blood and the continued pain, Falen let the javelin drop to the ground and said through gritted teeth, “Go get ‘em, Convel...”

As the wolf made a sound of acknowledgment and then sprinted off to Rennai’s side, Falen pulled himself up to his feet again, readying an arrow, taking aim, and letting it loose it towards the Ogre that had hit him. But the injury was in his right shoulder, the arm that was pulling back the bowstring...and he simply couldn’t find the strength, barely getting the bow back before crying out and releasing it, the arrow simply flying a few feet before hitting the path.

Seeing the injury to the man next to him, Cor quickly reached into the bag at his belt, digging through quickly and finding what he was looking for. He retrieved a potion and then handed it to Falen, “Drink this.”

Falen didn’t say anything, but he took it at least. Seeing this, Cor returned his focus to the large Ogres ahead of them. Finding an opening, though Rennai was in the way, he made a quick motion with his right hand, reached out with it, and called out, “Watch your ears, Rennai!” he then lowered his voice and spoke firmly, “Melten baria.”

Just as before, with a crack of thunder a bolt of lighting sprung forth from Cor’s hand. It sparked through the air, shooting straight through a group of flames and towards its intended targets.

“What are you—?” Rennai cut herself off when she saw the bolt of lightning arcing straight for her. Eyes went wide, but her body took action and she dropped to the ground. The air went white hot above her, and the bolt went straight through the Orc in front of her, burned the arm of the Ogre that had previously injured her, and finished its path by hitting a second Orc square in the chest. Both Orcs dropped, and though the Ogre still stood, he looked surprised and unsure of what to do.

When Rennai got back to her feet, she prepared to scream back at that stupid Cor for nearly kiling her, but a bestial roar got her attention. She spun back around in time to see the only remaining Orc near her swinging a huge, bladed glaive at her. Rennai jumped back just in time, and the bladed end of the polearm cut only the air she had previously occupied.

Seeing her chance to make a quick remark before being killed, Rennai screamed back towards Cor, “Don’t think I won’t deal with you once these beasts are dead, Cor!”

She then turned her attention to the Ogre, which obviously had better aimed than this Orc. Rennai took a quick step in closer to the Ogre and thrust up with her rapier. The thin blade went up through a thick layer of leather armour, digging into the Ogre’s lower torso. Rennai removed her blade, shifted her footing, and then sent her dagger up, too, which she managed to drive straight into its upper chest thanks to the Ogre’s terrible posture. With the blade still lodged in its victim, Rennai twisted it, then slashed to the side...and that was enough, the Ogre finally succumbing to its wounds and falling off to the side with a powerful thud.

Seeing its companion drop, the second Ogre roared in anger, shifting its heavy club into its main hand and taking two powerful steps around the remaining Orc before swinging its club at Rennai. Despite the heavy footsteps alerting her to the attack, Rennai was slow to act, turning in time to see the club swinging straight into her. It caught her squarely in the torso, the force of the blow knocking her out and then to the ground.

Aylana, still on the other of the flames and still on fire herself, attempted to bat down the flames while not leaving herself open. But the three Orcs in front of her were not willing to give her the chance. Next to her was a very well-armoured Orc carrying a glaive of his own, but seeing how close she was, he dropped the polearm to the ground and drew a large, curved blade from his side, slashing out at her in the same motion. Despite the flames that were still covering her, Aylana was able to bring her shield up in time, the Orc’s blade simply scraping loudly across its metal surface.

As she was shielding herself, the two other Orcs were charging around to her unshielded side, huge axes swinging down in the process. Attempting to bring her sword arm up to parry the axes, Aylana was just too slow. The first of the two Orcs brought his axe in horizontally at her back, hitting her squarely against the plate armour pieces and actually through it and into her back. The cut caused her to arch her back up, and this opened up her stomach area for the second Orc’s axe to come in and cut into, despite the armour that should have protected her.

Without the armour, both strikes would likely have simply cut her in two. Aylana tried to focus on this fact rather than the pain in both her back and her stomach, gritting her teeth and looking at the better armoured Orc in front of her, swinging her bastard sword down The blade cut through a layer of crudely crafted plate armour and dug into the Orc’s shoulder, staggering the creature. Aylana saw this and used it to her advantage, pulling her blade up and then changing the angle for her second swing...and easily removing this Orc’s head from its body as she had done to the other.

On the other side of the fire, Falen uncorked the vial of what he assumed was a healing potion, and drank the terrible tasting stuff...at least it made him feel better, even if it left him sore. He then simply dropped the vial to the ground, looking ahead in time to see Rennai dropped to the ground with a massive blow from the Ogre. That couldn’t have been good.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 7: Wolves and Orcs

“Keep them off of her, Convel!” Falen yelled out to the surprised wolf now right next to Rennai’s unmoving body. He then raised his bow again, taking aim at the Ogre and attempting to let loose an arrow that would actually reach its target this time. This time, he was able to pull back the bowstring with little trouble, and let the arrow fly towards the large Ogre. It dug into the giant’s large torso, causing it to reel back in surprise and pain.

This was enough time for Convel to take action, diving forward at the Ogre’s leg with jaws wide open. The glaive-wielding Orc attempting to use this open moment to strike at the wolf, but Convel moved so fast that the glaive simply dug into the dirt road. And by then, the wolf’s powerful jaws had sunk deep into the Ogre’s ankle.

“I do not believe Rennai is dead,” Cor said firmly as his hands worked through a spell, “She looks to be breathing still.”

Falen couldn’t help but wonder how he could see this. There was fire and a good distance between them. But before he could say anything, a sickly looking arrow of acid appeared and darted out towards the giant. But the magical arrow of acid missed its target, flying overhead before disappearing completely a short distance later. After the attack flew past, the Orc attempted another strike at the wolf, but Convel dislodged himself from the Ogre’s leg and jumped back in time to avoid another strike...which nearly hit the Ogre instead.

The flames continued to burn away at Aylana, reaching her skin beneath the clothes she wore and finally beginning to cause a great deal of pain. She did her best to fight through it, turning to face the other two Orcs, both of which were swinging their huge axes in again. Raising her shield up high, Aylana caught the first axe perfectly, and barely felt the jolt of the impact rock through her arm. But she was unable to avoid the second axe, which dug into her side and found an unprotected section between plates to dig deep into.

Pushing through the pain, Aylana lowered her shield and swung in with her sword at the first Orc. It easily sliced through the flimsy looking breastplate, cutting deep and dropping the beast with one swift strike. She reversed the momentum of her swing and cut down at the second Orc, the sword slicing it from shoulder to its mid section before she removed the blade and the Orc dropped next to its fallen comrades.

Feeling the need to end this quickly before one of the two remaining creatures dealt a final blow to the downed Rennai, Falen took aim and let loose a trio of arrows one after another. The first two arrows both struck the Ogre, driving deep and dealing a fatal blow that brought the giant down next to the first Ogre. The last of the Orcs spun to see this before the last of Falen’s arrows hit their mark, striking the Orc in his side, where no plate armour pieces covered. And just as the arrow hit, Convel struck, jumping up at the Orc and biting deep into his right arm.

Cor was watching this carefully, already puling together a spell and focusing its energy into his hand. He clenched his fist, extended his arm, and then opened his hand. There was a blue flash and three magical bolts of energy shot up and hit the Orc hard, just as he had managed to dislodge the wolf from his arm. The force of the trio of impacts was strong enough to send the Orc to the ground...and after a very long moment, it was obvious that the creature was no longer moving.

Shifting his bow onto his back, Falen took a quick glance through the flames to see that Aylana was still standing, then ran to Rennai. Convel was sitting over her unconscious body, sniffling at her and looking confused. Immediately, Falen dropped to one knee next to Rennai’s unconscious form, seeing blood escaping from a wound on the back of her head that she’d likely taken when she hit the ground. Taking a small piece of cloth, he wrapped it around her head to stop the bleeding.

As he held it there, Falen looked up to the wolf and said quietly, “She will be alright, friend...you did well.”

Convel dropped to the ground to rest his head right next to Rennai’s, sniffling at her ear and then making a soft, almost inaudible bark. It always made Falen smile when he was like this. To think, his parents had never let him have a dog, then he runs off and finds a wild predator that acts more like any dog Falen had ever seen.

Cor watched this for a moment from a distance then turned to look to Aylana through the slowly-dying fire in the road. Before he could say anything, though, she dropped to the ground. Thinking she’d succumbed to wounds, as he’d heard vicious fighting that direction, Cor immediately steeled himself, closed his eyes, and ran through the flames.

Thankfully, none of his clothes caught fire, and when he felt the heat around him fade, Cor opened his eyes to see that Aylana had dropped to the ground and was putting out fire that had caught onto her cloak and, from the looks of it, scorched her once-clean armour. She had pulled off her helmet, and it was off to the side near the bodies of Orcs that she must have slain. Cor extended a hand down to help her up, which she took...and, pretty much picked herself up, as Cor wasn’t much use in lifting the added weight of all of her armour.

“You look terrible,” Cor said flatly, noting that her face looked to have been burned as well as her shoulders...not to mention a few deep gashes in her armour that were still bleeding slightly.

Aylana reached to her side and pulled her sword out of a place where it had been driven into the ground, then sheathed the glowing blade on her back, “I will live.”

Cor nodded as he picked up her shield, which was laying on the ground on top of another Orc, and handed it to her, “Though she would not ever speak this, I believe Rennai could use your skills as a healer.”

It was the way he said the words that told Aylana something was wrong. Instead of making any comment on that, she slid the shield onto her back and retrieved her helm from the ground before looking to the flames in front of her. After staring at the fire for a few short moments, Aylana looked to Cor, “Though it may be dangerous, I have no had the best of luck with fire of late.”

So they went around. Thankfully, there was only that single temple and a storehouse at that end of the tiny little town, and so they simply had to walk around the still-burning temple to reach where Falen and Convel knelt in front of Rennai’s unconscious body...with Ogre and Orc corpses strewn out in front of them.

As Aylana approached, Falen looked up to see that she didn’t look to be walking very steadily. But instead of getting up to help her, which he knew would be a bad idea, Falen simply sent a concerned expression in her direction. Once she reached them, she dropped to one knee next to Convel, who was still laying there with his head resting on his paws, and Falen spoke up, “An Ogre decided she was more trouble than she was worth.”

Aylana nodded and looked down at the Elf. She had definitely taken a beating, but from the looks of the bodies around her, she’d given out more than she’d taken. Her voice held steady despite a somewhat light headed feeling, Aylana said, quietly, “I believe it is our decision to make, not an Ogres.”

She then closed her eyes to focus, and very quietly uttered a prayer, her hands coming down to rest on Rennai’s shoulders. After a short moment, Aylana’s hands began to glow gently, before the light faded and many of Rennai’s wounds began to fade.

Both Rennai and Aylana opened their eyes at about the same time. But where Aylana was simply feeling light headed and roughed up, Rennai managed to look completely confused. Her eyes looked back and forth over the figures around her, and then locked onto a certain pair...and the muzzle attached that was right in her face, nearly touching her nose.

Convel sniffed her.

Rennai shrieked, jumped up to a sitting position and dove away from all of them in surprise. While the three others grinned at this, Convel was just as surprised and jumped up to his feet, keeping his body low and ears up as he stared at her in shock.

Slowly, though, Rennai began to take in the situation, seeing the bodies around them, “...we won?”

“And your best friend here held an Ogre and an Orc off of your unconscious body,” Falen smiled and reached over to gently pat Convel’s head in hopes of calming the wolf’s startled state. He then got to his feet and looked to the burning building near them, “How about we take a few steps back before we sit down to recover and figure out what just happened.”

Aylana nodded as she got to her feet slowly, “I have seen no other creatures...”

“Nor any survivors,” Cor finished the unspoken end of that thought, his eyes scanning the grass near them where many bodies were piled...most looked to be the town guard.

Rennai shook her head, took in a few breaths, coughed thanks to the smoke, then managed to get up without falling over completely. As they all very slowly retreated to a safe distance, the feeling that they should stop the fire was in all of their hearts, but so was the knowledge that, currently, they were in no state for that, nor did they have the tools. Besides, it looked as if they were too late to find any survivors.

So, now a good distance away and up on a hill over looking the dying flames that had been set over the tiny little town, they sat, bandaged wounds, and allowed themselves time to figure out what to do next.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Chapter 8: Recovery

“I’ve noticed something,” Rennai spoke up in a voice that announced to the world that she was about to speak a great truth and everyone should listen or she’d stab them.

The three others, though, were used to this voice of epiphany and weren’t impressed. Finally, though, Aylana was the one who said quietly, “And what is that?”

The Elf woman gave Falen a rather rough kick in the back, “Your brother here. He’s always advocating we run away.”

Falen rolled his eyes, ignoring the kick and simply looking over his shoulder to her, “Could we, perhaps, have one day where you aren’t a complete pain?”

“No,” Rennai snapped at him.

No one said anything else. They had moved to a hill off of the road just west of Eschilar, still close enough to clearly see the tiny village. It had been a few hours, and the fires had mostly died down. Cor’s bird had arrived not long after they’d set up camp, and after a short rest, he sent his familiar to check the burnt village for survivors or anything interesting. Of course, the bird still hadn’t come back yet. On the bright side, there had been no more Orcs or Ogres or Dragons or Demons or evil Gods or zombies or...well, there hadn’t been anything else.

Aylana had been silent since they’d made camp. She wasn’t happy with simply retreating like they had, despite realizing it was necessary. Both she and Rennai had been in very bad shape, and had there been any other Orcs within the buildings they would have searched, it would not have gone well. Still sore from the fighting and the burns that had gotten through her armour, Aylana was contemplating heading back into the town to at least find out what they could. It was likely too late for survivors, and that, alone, caused her a great deal of conflict.

It was her duty to protect them...but where was the line? She’d give her life in a second to protect others, especially innocents like the townspeople were. But if she died protecting no one, saving no one, what good was that? She sighed heavily and lowered her head into her hands. Doing the right thing was not nearly as easy as it should have been.

A moment later, Aylana felt a hand come to rest on her shoulder. Though it was on the armour she wore, she could still feel the change in weight and glanced up to see Falen managing the best smile he could, “We did all we could.”

Aylana was a warrior in the service of Heironeous. She was strong, a good fighter, and was everything she was supposed to be. And yet...underneath all of the heavy, plate armour, the simple clothes worn under to keep her from getting too bruised, and then that strong, extremely devoted exterior, was Falen’s younger sister. The little girl who had, like all younger sisters, idolized her older brother as a child and had always run to him before anyone else to protect her. And he always did.

Slowly, Aylana leaned over to rest her head on Falen’s shoulder, though she said nothing at all. Falen tried to ignore the fact that the armour Aylana wore probably weighed as much as she did, and simply did his best to comfort his sister. He never thought he was any good at that, but she’d never once complained so he must have always done something right.

It was a testament to the fact that Rennai didn’t completely despise Aylana that she said nothing at all. In fact, all of them remained quiet. Even Convel simply lay on the other side of Falen, idly watching the small town like the rest of them. For a wolf, he was rather tame most of the time.

A screech filled the air a few minutes later, and all of them simply looked up, knowing the origin of that sound. Even the wolf simply glanced upwards, though his ears raised a bit at the sound. In the sky, flying not far above the ground, was a brown coloured hawk, which circled them for a moment before descending and landing expertly on Cor’s left shoulder. The large hawk shifted slightly to position itself on the padded section of Cor’s cloak, then turned and looked at him and began to make some very odd caws and screeches.

Soon, they stopped, and Cor said softly to the bird, “You have done well, friend,” he then raised his voice and spoke to the others, who were now all looking intently at him, “Suryl found nothing alive beyond rodents and other small animals.”

Fittingly, Rennai rolled her eyes and leaned back to rest on her elbows while staring up blankly at the cloud-dotted sky above, “Did your bird find anything useful that we weren’t already sure about?”

“Yes,” Cor answered in a tone that suggested he didn’t even hear her sarcasm anymore, “About a mile to the east of town is an encampment. Tents and other crude structures walled up against a rock wall just across the river.”

“Probably where those Orcs came from,” Falen suggested, thinking out loud and stating what all of them were thinking.

Aylana sat up straight again, then turned to look to the two Elves, “We must go there...find out why they would attack this town so mercilessly. Even for such beasts as Orcs and Ogres, this is...unlike them. We need to send word to Besol and let them know what happened, also.”

Cor nodded and retrieved a small quill and piece of parchment from his pack. After jotting down a short and simple note in Common, he rolled it up and very gently tied the note to Suryl’s left leg, “Take this as quickly as you can, my friend.”

The hawk made an odd sound that was almost a word, spread its wings, and in another few moments, took to the sky.

They all watched the hawk fly off, with Convel very intently focused on the creature before it disappeared. As he watched the bird fly away, a thought appeared in Falen’s mind.

And, as he usually did when something important came to mind, Falen spoke up, “Weren’t we supposed to look for this cult thing?”

Eyes shifted to him, and at his shoulder, Aylana’s head turned slightly so she could look at him and answer, “You would have us leave a settlement of aggressive monsters so close to Besol?”

“You act like those priests aren’t ready for a fight,” Rennai grumbled, and when a sharp look from Aylana was leveled on her, the Elf shrugged in response, “Its true and you know it.”

To Rennai’s surprise, Aylana didn’t argue this. Instead, she simply inclined her head as best she could while still resting on Falen’s shoulder. When she spoke, though, Aylana completely avoided that point and returned to her brother’s original question, “If there is a camp of more creatures so aggressive nearby, we must deal with that before anything else.”

“And, slim as it may be, there is a chance the two are related,” Cor cut in, with a casual shrug as he pulled himself to his feet. Taking a moment to dust himself off, the elf narrowed his eyes as he looked across the horizon towards the east, “I can see the river from here, it does not look to be too far.”

“Here’s hoping there’s a bridge,” Aylana’s comment was accented by the loud noises caused by her armour as she, too, got to her feet.

Rennai grinned devilishly, “If there isn’t, we can just see how long you can hold your breath for.”

This was dutifully ignored as the four of them gathered their things, strapping weapons back to belts and collapsing the tent they had set up in case they decided to spend the night at the relatively calm spot. It took a good half an hour before they were all ready to leave and by then, both Rennai and Convel were getting antsy.

The sun was beginning to set in the sky, but that was usually a slow enough process that they had another few hours of passable light before torches were necessary...well, for the humans. They had returned to the road, which did head west from one of the breaks in the now-destroyed village of Eschilar. The hope was that it in, generally, the right direction and thankfully that seemed to prove correct. In a rather short time, considering the distance, they reached the small river that Cor’s bird had, apparently, told him about. Not only that, but there was, indeed, a bridge...though it was old looking, wooden, and probably on its last legs.

Very carefully, and with Aylana going first with Falen ready to help if necessary, they crossed the bridge. It creaked and almost gave at certain points, but held. However, on the other side of the bridge, they all noticed the grass that should have been there was no where to be found...only dead, brown dirt. Some patches of the ground even looked burnt. And then there the bodies...

“It is likely this is...the rest of the town guard...” Cor spoke softly, his eyes taking in the scene around them.

There were so many bodies, some in armour like the others and some not. There were weapons everywhere, too, some still stuck in bodies while others were just off to the side, fallen like their wielders. And amongst the human bodies, there were others...orcs, definitely, and even small green-skinned creatures that looked to be goblins of some sort. There was even a large dead Ogre off to the side of the road, pocketed with multiple arrows and at least one very large spear.

“This was before the town was burned,” Falen said, having already moved to one of the nearby bodies, kneeling next to it and doing whatever it was he did. Aylana was caught up in her own thoughts, Cor was checking the area to make sure it was safe, and while Rennai was watching him...she didn’t like to think about what he might be doing that close to a rotting corpse.

“You are sure?” Cor asked, still looking off another direction. He trusted Falen’s judgement on those kinds of things, but he felt the need to check anyway. The timing on the fight that had caused all of this carnage could tell a great deal about what had really happened to Eschilar.

Falen nodded, though only Rennai saw it, “Very sure. These ones are already decaying and it looks as if some of the local wildlife has had a taste...”

Immediately, Rennai looked down to Convel, who was pacing near her and making her nervous. The wolf caught the glance, barred its teeth at her, and made an almost-threatening noise before padding over to Falen and sniffing the human’s cloak idly.

That was enough.

“Weren’t we looking for a camp, not a decaying pile of bodies?” Rennai grumbled, still keeping her distance. She never liked dead bodies...they had a habit of rising and causing trouble.

“I believe I see the camp,” Cor said in his usual aloof voice, staring off towards a very faint light near the horizon.

There was a shifting of metal that signaled Aylana was moving, “Lets keep moving. If there are more creatures still alive then they are obviously aggressive. The more time we stand here, the more chance they will kill like this again.”

And then she started walking. Cor glanced to Falen as the two shrugged and then started after her, moving through the bodies and after the surprisingly quiet Aylana. The scene seemed to cause her to close off again, getting that determined focus she always did when she was sure something bad had happened and the wrong had to be righted.

Rennai, however, was still standing and watching the bodies. After the others had passed through the largest group of them, she took a deep breath, and sprinted through them, making sure to barely touch the ground so that, should any of them rise to life, she would be extremely difficult to catch. In a short few moments, Rennai had caught up, was walking perfectly normally behind Cor and Falen, and had made the run quietly enough that neither of them even turned around.

Perfect.

“Cor,” Falen had stopped completely, causing Rennai to nearly run into him and Aylana to get a few steps ahead before stopping when she heard the very serious tone of his voice.

The elf next to Falen turned and looked to him curiously, “Yes?”

“Your eyes are better than mine are, especially in this light,” the fact that Falen was speaking in a tone rather unusual for him was worrying, “What is that?”

He pointed up towards the sky, not far in front of them but high enough in the air that all of them could, at the very least, see a small blur moving. Cor took a few steps forward and tried to look more closely. After only a few seconds, Cor spoke, “It is far too large to be a bird...and very fast.”

“And you’ll get a closer look in a few moments!” Rennai growled, drawing her daggers already, her eyes just as good as Cor’s, though she was never asked to actually look for things, “It is coming straight for us and those looks like very large claws.”