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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Cafu" data-source="post: 6059606" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>When we left Gallo’s Fend, the horses were obviously slightly spooked and restless as the snow did not sink beneath them as they were expecting but it did not take them long to get used to this strange firmness and they rapidly settled down. Commander Hertiage did not say anything but I could see his mind working; I was not sure if this use of the spell had been seen by his own priests but I suspected that it either had been or if not, it would rapidly become a common use.</p><p> </p><p>The landscape was bare, snow covered and flat. There was little cover; Hertiage told us that the area above the Gap was a plateau and that the outposts were built into the cliffs overlooking it, thus providing a very efficient lookout system. </p><p> </p><p>The first outpost was only a short distance away and at our rate of travel, it would not take a very long time to arrive.</p><p> </p><p>As it was the first one, we all paid a great deal of attention to it. It was quite simple: basically a squat, stone tower, not particularly tall but sturdily built. It was partially hidden under the snow and earth on the cliff side. A switch backed path led up the steep cliff to the door. As this one was so close to the Fend, we took slightly lesser precautions than normal and rode up to the gate, hailing them.</p><p> </p><p>A soldier bellowed out from the roof of the structure:</p><p> </p><p>“Commander Hertiage, we weren’t expecting you, sir”.</p><p> </p><p>The dwarf replied: “Ah lad, it is good to see you’re alert; be a good fellow and let your chaplain know we are here. We bring news.”</p><p> </p><p>The gate was opened and we were quickly ushered out of the cold; inside, we met the garrison of dwarves with their human chaplain. We introduced ourselves and imparted our news about Steppengaard’s march. Everyone looked shocked and began babbling questions…..</p><p> </p><p>“…..the king is mad! He marches against the Duke?”</p><p> </p><p>“……the Ragesians are behind this; mark my words. Now they’ll be coming as well. We have to be more alert than ever.”</p><p> </p><p>“….what are the other Lords doing? Is it to be civil war again?”</p><p> </p><p>“…..has the Book of the Eight Lands failed?”</p><p> </p><p>That last question did trigger something in my thoughts; it was quite true; this was the legendary artifact that recorded all the births and deaths in the families of the Great Lords of Dassen and simultaneously guarded them against any sort of mental compulsion; maybe it was failing as one of the soldiers was speculating; or maybe its fabled power was just a hoax; or the King was not being mentally manipulated; rather he was just insane.</p><p> </p><p>Anyway, Longhelim waited until the questions died down and then finished:</p><p> </p><p>“So, these are the news that we bring you; I am sorry but we do not know any more than this but if you have any more questions, please direct them at Commander Hertiage. Be warned though, we must leave in a short while and continue checking on all the outposts.</p><p> </p><p>Now, has anyone seen anything suspicious?”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim looked at them and they all shook their heads.</p><p> </p><p>Remembering dragons and Wyvern Knights, I added:</p><p> </p><p>“What about any strange flying beasts or creatures?”</p><p> </p><p>Another soldier replied: “No, nothing like that although you can he assured that there are always men on the roof, manning the ballistae.”</p><p> </p><p>“Ballistae?”</p><p> </p><p>“Well seeing as you are with commander Hertiage, I see no reason not to tell you; there are two ballistae on the roof, specifically for flying creatures serving the enemy.”</p><p> </p><p>I was beginning to see why Gallo had emphasized the importance of these outposts; by themselves, they would not be difficult to take for an army of forty thousand, but…..they had to be subjugated; otherwise, as well as acting as the eyes and ears of Gallo’s Fend, they could cause a certain amount of disruption in the rear of an advancing army; and subjugating them would take time; and time was always precious for both an attacker and a defender.</p><p> </p><p>“Thank you for your co-operation; unfortunately, we must go now.”</p><p> </p><p>After that, we left and continued to our next destination.</p><p> </p><p>The journeys to the next two outposts were pretty much the same as the first one with slight variations; mostly in that the garrisons were a grater mix of human and dwarf; however, pretty much everything else remained the same.</p><p> </p><p>As we left the third post, Longhelim, John and I had a conversation.</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim began:</p><p> </p><p>“Right, it’s all been too easy so far; but, if the Ragesians have done anything, it is the last three outposts that are the most vulnerable. We had better take far more precautions from now on.”</p><p> </p><p>John nodded and said: “Drudge is the best of us outdoors; hopefully he may be able to tell if something untoward has happened; I’ll ask him to scout the paths.”</p><p> </p><p>I added: “Well, if anything has happened, it will have been in the last outpost; it is the most logical for the enemy to strike and therefore the most vulnerable. I think we should save most of our important scouting magic for that one.”</p><p> </p><p>The next two outposts were also in Dassenian hands although it took us longer to confirm this as we were far more careful in our initial approach. It was slow and painstaking, with Drudge ranging ahead of us and checking the paths for any unusual tracks or features. Commander Hertiage did not say anything and he certainly did not object to us taking all this time, despite the fact that each time the garrison was proved to be friendly.</p><p> </p><p>Finally we approached the most forward outpost; this was the one that most realistically could have fallen to the enemy and therefore the one to be approached with the most caution.</p><p> </p><p>With this in mind, Felix cast a spell on John, enabling him to fly while I made him invisible; the intention was to fly up to the watch tower and survey it from the outside for anything out of place. John flew off and we waited; not for very long as it turned out. The scout was back very quickly:</p><p> </p><p>“Right, we’ve got trouble. There is a large dragon thing on the roof; with two Ragesians; one in armour the other in leather; I don’t think it’s a full dragon, more one of those wyverns we saw in Gate Pass; probably means that the armoured man is one of those Knights? Anyway, it means that the garrison is most likely dead and there are probably a great many Ragesians below.”</p><p> </p><p>“With an Inquisitor or two no doubt,” I chimed in.</p><p> </p><p>Commander Hertiage spoke up: “So, my Lord was right. The Ragesians are up to mischief. Well, if we can get a couple of Ragesian corpses or even just their heads, then that would certainly help to convince the other Lords to ally themselves to us. Of course, if we can recapture the outpost and return with Ragesian corpses, that would be even better; and if we return with an Inquisitor’s Mask, well then that would be at least some sort of tangible evidence; it would not be cast iron proof but if there are no surviving witnesses, it’s the best we can hope for.”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim said: “So, John, you have seen the situation; can you devise a plan to get us in there?”</p><p> </p><p>“I would need to know what magic we have at our disposal first.”</p><p> </p><p>I began to tick it off on my fingers:</p><p> </p><p>“If Felix and I cram my spells here for an hour, between us we can make everyone fly, I can make an area around someone invisible so that we can all get in there unseen; I would be able to cover part of the tower with a thick viscuous fog which would at least give us a little time to assault the wyvern; hopefully that would allow us to concentrate our force on the lizard.”</p><p> </p><p>Felix then chimed in: “I can cast a magical silence as we fly in, make both Longhelim and Victor both very difficult to contain and stop with magic as well as very strong and make everyone immune to poison for a time.”</p><p> </p><p>Then I added: “I can also make Victor very resistant to enemy weapons. It is an expensive spell but worth it in this case, I think. You have to bear in mind though, that both Felix and I will be out of our best spells by this point.”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim just nodded and then said: “Right John, those are our resources, now how are we going to do this?”</p><p> </p><p>John thought about it for a time and then the first thing he did was draw a rough sketch of the roof of the tower, with the positions of the enemy as he remembered them. Then he said:</p><p> </p><p>“Commander Hertiage, it would be best if you stayed here for the time being.”</p><p> </p><p>Then, led by John, we all be began to plan our path to the Tower, the sequence of spells we would cast on whom and when, and the actions we would be taking to capture or kill the enemy.</p><p> </p><p>It didn’t take very long. After all, one could only plan so much; if our plan worked, then we would be able to approach the tower undetected and land a surprise strike against the wyvern; after that, well, we would have to see how things developed. I knew what I wanted to do; I just wasn’t sure if it was going to be possible.</p><p> </p><p>So, an hour passed as Felix and I crammed spells. I felt very tired, with a pounding headache but I could only imagine how awful Felix must have felt as he had done this twice in quick succession. Then, we were finally done and all the spells were cast on various individuals. Thus nearly everyone bar myself and John were given a temporary immunity to poison as we were the least likely to face the wyvern; Victor, Drudge and Longhelim were given the ability to fly and they would carry everyone else; Felix would be the centre of an invisibility spell which would hide all of us; finally, I cast that expensive but powerful spell on Victor which hardened his skin, giving him an uncanny resistance to weapons; it would last only for a certain amount of time but it would be priceless while it did. Both warriors stared in wonder as they struck some quite hard blows against Victor without doing any harm. It was the first time I cast that spell on him and I hoped he found it “tactically advantageous” to use his own words.</p><p> </p><p>Then, John put a spell of magical silence on a pebble which would make sure that the guards on the top of the tower would not notice a clank from a stray piece of armour swinging in the wind. Finally, I cast some minor defensive spells on myself.</p><p> </p><p>In the meantime, Felix also cast a spell on everyone which allowed them to walk unhindered on snow as well as the powerful spell which countered paralyzing effects; unfortunately, that could only be cast on the warriors; the priest also increased Victor and Longhelim’s strength greatly for a short period of time, while Victor handed the magical gauntlets to Drudge.</p><p> </p><p>So, finally ready, the three fliers launched into the air, carrying everyone else and we flew to the tower.</p><p> </p><p>The flight there was short even though we flew around the tower rather than approach it directly; as planned, we landed next to the wyvern and then the warriors let loose; both Longhelim and Victor managed to take the creature by complete surprise and it suffered, especially as Victor nearly severed one of its legs with a vicious swipe. John then threw the magical silence pebble away and I was able to cast my fog spell on one of the Ragesians and one of the two sets of stairs leading down; so that also went as planned. Felix also cast a paralyzing spell on the last Ragesian soldier but that had no effect.</p><p> </p><p>The wyvern hissed and writhed, desperately trying to attack the warriors but then Drudge shot it with several arrows and it succumbed; the last Ragesian began to shout an alarm and charged; he was met by the two warriors; a brave man or orc I should say; he was dressed in leather, looked as if he was one of their scouts and he was charging two heavily armed warriors; we all realised that speed was of the essence so I cast missiles of force into his body, causing him to stagger and then Victor, almost casually slashed him with his falchion and that was the last of him. The last soldier was still in my magical fog, as planned. Quickly, we took stock and then I moved away while the two warriors led by Felix and Longhelim moved towards the other set of stairs on the far side of the tower.</p><p> </p><p>We miscalculated the size of the tower a little and while the fliers were able to get there very quickly both Felix and I were struggling with the distance, I more than most. Briefly, as I was beginning to move, the Ragesian soldier, this one dressed in much more substantial armour, emerged from my fog. With a brief deviation, Victor swooped to meet him and landed a huge blow on him which almost decapitated the fellow. Then he immediately flew to help the others.</p><p> </p><p>Everyone else had gathered at the top of the stairs. I could see Drudge slightly in the air and firing his bow down there so there must have been further contact with the enemy. Poor Longhelim also jerked several times and involuntarily stepped back, several wounds visible on his torso. I was still hurrying to the stairs myself as the sniping duel continued. Drudge was still firing down the stairs and having some success, judging from John’s shouts of encouragement.</p><p> </p><p>Finally, I reached the stairs and I unlimbered by staff. I stepped up to top of the stairs, steeling myself to a hail of missiles but before then, I let loose a huge ball of fire from my staff. It engulfed the only person on the stairs I could actually see but the fire also spread into the corridor at the bottom of the stairs. I wasn’t sure if it caught anyone else but Longhelim gave some quick instructions:</p><p> </p><p>“Victor, go! Felix, a little healing please! Faden, we saw another three Ragesians beside this one; there was also one who seemed substantially tougher than the rest! No sign of an Inquisitor as yet!”</p><p> </p><p>Victor was already flying down as Longhelim was finishing. He stopped briefly to deal with the badly burned Ragesian on the stairs and the continued down, followed by everyone else; Victor flew around the corner and very quickly we heard his shout:</p><p> </p><p>“Five enemy with an Inquisitor!”</p><p> </p><p>I ran down the stairs; as usual, I was the last but even from that distance I could hear the clash of swords; then the sounds stopped as if cut off abruptly and immediately I realised that a magical silence spell had been cast or produced somehow; I just wasn’t sure whether it was on our side or theirs.</p><p>As I approached the corner, everything went silent; turning the corner at the bottom of the stairs, I saw a long, central corridor with various doors leading off; from my experience with the other towers, I knew these led to living quarters on my right and a large entrance hall accessed by a single door on the left at the far end of the corridor.</p><p> </p><p>I had to stop my inspection as Longhelim and Victor were fighting two Ragesians; another Ragesian was already on the floor and I was just in time to see Victor drop two more of them each with a single swing of his falchion; whatever strength magic Felix had put on him was really working!</p><p> </p><p>Drudge had been shooting at a figure at the rear; his target had the characteristic bear mask on and already had several arrows stuck in him. I was just in time to see him open the door and get out of the corridor. As Victor created a gap in the Ragesian line, Drudge took the opportunity to fly through it and avoiding desperate swings by the other Ragesians, he reached the door and opened it; whatever he saw, it didn’t deter him and he flew through it. I waited for Victor and Longhelim to finish the last soldier and then we followed up, intending to help Drudge in his battle; only to find the ranger with his bow aimed at a figure fallen at his feet with several arrows sticking out of it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 6059606, member: 6692807"] When we left Gallo’s Fend, the horses were obviously slightly spooked and restless as the snow did not sink beneath them as they were expecting but it did not take them long to get used to this strange firmness and they rapidly settled down. Commander Hertiage did not say anything but I could see his mind working; I was not sure if this use of the spell had been seen by his own priests but I suspected that it either had been or if not, it would rapidly become a common use. The landscape was bare, snow covered and flat. There was little cover; Hertiage told us that the area above the Gap was a plateau and that the outposts were built into the cliffs overlooking it, thus providing a very efficient lookout system. The first outpost was only a short distance away and at our rate of travel, it would not take a very long time to arrive. As it was the first one, we all paid a great deal of attention to it. It was quite simple: basically a squat, stone tower, not particularly tall but sturdily built. It was partially hidden under the snow and earth on the cliff side. A switch backed path led up the steep cliff to the door. As this one was so close to the Fend, we took slightly lesser precautions than normal and rode up to the gate, hailing them. A soldier bellowed out from the roof of the structure: “Commander Hertiage, we weren’t expecting you, sir”. The dwarf replied: “Ah lad, it is good to see you’re alert; be a good fellow and let your chaplain know we are here. We bring news.” The gate was opened and we were quickly ushered out of the cold; inside, we met the garrison of dwarves with their human chaplain. We introduced ourselves and imparted our news about Steppengaard’s march. Everyone looked shocked and began babbling questions….. “…..the king is mad! He marches against the Duke?” “……the Ragesians are behind this; mark my words. Now they’ll be coming as well. We have to be more alert than ever.” “….what are the other Lords doing? Is it to be civil war again?” “…..has the Book of the Eight Lands failed?” That last question did trigger something in my thoughts; it was quite true; this was the legendary artifact that recorded all the births and deaths in the families of the Great Lords of Dassen and simultaneously guarded them against any sort of mental compulsion; maybe it was failing as one of the soldiers was speculating; or maybe its fabled power was just a hoax; or the King was not being mentally manipulated; rather he was just insane. Anyway, Longhelim waited until the questions died down and then finished: “So, these are the news that we bring you; I am sorry but we do not know any more than this but if you have any more questions, please direct them at Commander Hertiage. Be warned though, we must leave in a short while and continue checking on all the outposts. Now, has anyone seen anything suspicious?” Longhelim looked at them and they all shook their heads. Remembering dragons and Wyvern Knights, I added: “What about any strange flying beasts or creatures?” Another soldier replied: “No, nothing like that although you can he assured that there are always men on the roof, manning the ballistae.” “Ballistae?” “Well seeing as you are with commander Hertiage, I see no reason not to tell you; there are two ballistae on the roof, specifically for flying creatures serving the enemy.” I was beginning to see why Gallo had emphasized the importance of these outposts; by themselves, they would not be difficult to take for an army of forty thousand, but…..they had to be subjugated; otherwise, as well as acting as the eyes and ears of Gallo’s Fend, they could cause a certain amount of disruption in the rear of an advancing army; and subjugating them would take time; and time was always precious for both an attacker and a defender. “Thank you for your co-operation; unfortunately, we must go now.” After that, we left and continued to our next destination. The journeys to the next two outposts were pretty much the same as the first one with slight variations; mostly in that the garrisons were a grater mix of human and dwarf; however, pretty much everything else remained the same. As we left the third post, Longhelim, John and I had a conversation. Longhelim began: “Right, it’s all been too easy so far; but, if the Ragesians have done anything, it is the last three outposts that are the most vulnerable. We had better take far more precautions from now on.” John nodded and said: “Drudge is the best of us outdoors; hopefully he may be able to tell if something untoward has happened; I’ll ask him to scout the paths.” I added: “Well, if anything has happened, it will have been in the last outpost; it is the most logical for the enemy to strike and therefore the most vulnerable. I think we should save most of our important scouting magic for that one.” The next two outposts were also in Dassenian hands although it took us longer to confirm this as we were far more careful in our initial approach. It was slow and painstaking, with Drudge ranging ahead of us and checking the paths for any unusual tracks or features. Commander Hertiage did not say anything and he certainly did not object to us taking all this time, despite the fact that each time the garrison was proved to be friendly. Finally we approached the most forward outpost; this was the one that most realistically could have fallen to the enemy and therefore the one to be approached with the most caution. With this in mind, Felix cast a spell on John, enabling him to fly while I made him invisible; the intention was to fly up to the watch tower and survey it from the outside for anything out of place. John flew off and we waited; not for very long as it turned out. The scout was back very quickly: “Right, we’ve got trouble. There is a large dragon thing on the roof; with two Ragesians; one in armour the other in leather; I don’t think it’s a full dragon, more one of those wyverns we saw in Gate Pass; probably means that the armoured man is one of those Knights? Anyway, it means that the garrison is most likely dead and there are probably a great many Ragesians below.” “With an Inquisitor or two no doubt,” I chimed in. Commander Hertiage spoke up: “So, my Lord was right. The Ragesians are up to mischief. Well, if we can get a couple of Ragesian corpses or even just their heads, then that would certainly help to convince the other Lords to ally themselves to us. Of course, if we can recapture the outpost and return with Ragesian corpses, that would be even better; and if we return with an Inquisitor’s Mask, well then that would be at least some sort of tangible evidence; it would not be cast iron proof but if there are no surviving witnesses, it’s the best we can hope for.” Longhelim said: “So, John, you have seen the situation; can you devise a plan to get us in there?” “I would need to know what magic we have at our disposal first.” I began to tick it off on my fingers: “If Felix and I cram my spells here for an hour, between us we can make everyone fly, I can make an area around someone invisible so that we can all get in there unseen; I would be able to cover part of the tower with a thick viscuous fog which would at least give us a little time to assault the wyvern; hopefully that would allow us to concentrate our force on the lizard.” Felix then chimed in: “I can cast a magical silence as we fly in, make both Longhelim and Victor both very difficult to contain and stop with magic as well as very strong and make everyone immune to poison for a time.” Then I added: “I can also make Victor very resistant to enemy weapons. It is an expensive spell but worth it in this case, I think. You have to bear in mind though, that both Felix and I will be out of our best spells by this point.” Longhelim just nodded and then said: “Right John, those are our resources, now how are we going to do this?” John thought about it for a time and then the first thing he did was draw a rough sketch of the roof of the tower, with the positions of the enemy as he remembered them. Then he said: “Commander Hertiage, it would be best if you stayed here for the time being.” Then, led by John, we all be began to plan our path to the Tower, the sequence of spells we would cast on whom and when, and the actions we would be taking to capture or kill the enemy. It didn’t take very long. After all, one could only plan so much; if our plan worked, then we would be able to approach the tower undetected and land a surprise strike against the wyvern; after that, well, we would have to see how things developed. I knew what I wanted to do; I just wasn’t sure if it was going to be possible. So, an hour passed as Felix and I crammed spells. I felt very tired, with a pounding headache but I could only imagine how awful Felix must have felt as he had done this twice in quick succession. Then, we were finally done and all the spells were cast on various individuals. Thus nearly everyone bar myself and John were given a temporary immunity to poison as we were the least likely to face the wyvern; Victor, Drudge and Longhelim were given the ability to fly and they would carry everyone else; Felix would be the centre of an invisibility spell which would hide all of us; finally, I cast that expensive but powerful spell on Victor which hardened his skin, giving him an uncanny resistance to weapons; it would last only for a certain amount of time but it would be priceless while it did. Both warriors stared in wonder as they struck some quite hard blows against Victor without doing any harm. It was the first time I cast that spell on him and I hoped he found it “tactically advantageous” to use his own words. Then, John put a spell of magical silence on a pebble which would make sure that the guards on the top of the tower would not notice a clank from a stray piece of armour swinging in the wind. Finally, I cast some minor defensive spells on myself. In the meantime, Felix also cast a spell on everyone which allowed them to walk unhindered on snow as well as the powerful spell which countered paralyzing effects; unfortunately, that could only be cast on the warriors; the priest also increased Victor and Longhelim’s strength greatly for a short period of time, while Victor handed the magical gauntlets to Drudge. So, finally ready, the three fliers launched into the air, carrying everyone else and we flew to the tower. The flight there was short even though we flew around the tower rather than approach it directly; as planned, we landed next to the wyvern and then the warriors let loose; both Longhelim and Victor managed to take the creature by complete surprise and it suffered, especially as Victor nearly severed one of its legs with a vicious swipe. John then threw the magical silence pebble away and I was able to cast my fog spell on one of the Ragesians and one of the two sets of stairs leading down; so that also went as planned. Felix also cast a paralyzing spell on the last Ragesian soldier but that had no effect. The wyvern hissed and writhed, desperately trying to attack the warriors but then Drudge shot it with several arrows and it succumbed; the last Ragesian began to shout an alarm and charged; he was met by the two warriors; a brave man or orc I should say; he was dressed in leather, looked as if he was one of their scouts and he was charging two heavily armed warriors; we all realised that speed was of the essence so I cast missiles of force into his body, causing him to stagger and then Victor, almost casually slashed him with his falchion and that was the last of him. The last soldier was still in my magical fog, as planned. Quickly, we took stock and then I moved away while the two warriors led by Felix and Longhelim moved towards the other set of stairs on the far side of the tower. We miscalculated the size of the tower a little and while the fliers were able to get there very quickly both Felix and I were struggling with the distance, I more than most. Briefly, as I was beginning to move, the Ragesian soldier, this one dressed in much more substantial armour, emerged from my fog. With a brief deviation, Victor swooped to meet him and landed a huge blow on him which almost decapitated the fellow. Then he immediately flew to help the others. Everyone else had gathered at the top of the stairs. I could see Drudge slightly in the air and firing his bow down there so there must have been further contact with the enemy. Poor Longhelim also jerked several times and involuntarily stepped back, several wounds visible on his torso. I was still hurrying to the stairs myself as the sniping duel continued. Drudge was still firing down the stairs and having some success, judging from John’s shouts of encouragement. Finally, I reached the stairs and I unlimbered by staff. I stepped up to top of the stairs, steeling myself to a hail of missiles but before then, I let loose a huge ball of fire from my staff. It engulfed the only person on the stairs I could actually see but the fire also spread into the corridor at the bottom of the stairs. I wasn’t sure if it caught anyone else but Longhelim gave some quick instructions: “Victor, go! Felix, a little healing please! Faden, we saw another three Ragesians beside this one; there was also one who seemed substantially tougher than the rest! No sign of an Inquisitor as yet!” Victor was already flying down as Longhelim was finishing. He stopped briefly to deal with the badly burned Ragesian on the stairs and the continued down, followed by everyone else; Victor flew around the corner and very quickly we heard his shout: “Five enemy with an Inquisitor!” I ran down the stairs; as usual, I was the last but even from that distance I could hear the clash of swords; then the sounds stopped as if cut off abruptly and immediately I realised that a magical silence spell had been cast or produced somehow; I just wasn’t sure whether it was on our side or theirs. As I approached the corner, everything went silent; turning the corner at the bottom of the stairs, I saw a long, central corridor with various doors leading off; from my experience with the other towers, I knew these led to living quarters on my right and a large entrance hall accessed by a single door on the left at the far end of the corridor. I had to stop my inspection as Longhelim and Victor were fighting two Ragesians; another Ragesian was already on the floor and I was just in time to see Victor drop two more of them each with a single swing of his falchion; whatever strength magic Felix had put on him was really working! Drudge had been shooting at a figure at the rear; his target had the characteristic bear mask on and already had several arrows stuck in him. I was just in time to see him open the door and get out of the corridor. As Victor created a gap in the Ragesian line, Drudge took the opportunity to fly through it and avoiding desperate swings by the other Ragesians, he reached the door and opened it; whatever he saw, it didn’t deter him and he flew through it. I waited for Victor and Longhelim to finish the last soldier and then we followed up, intending to help Drudge in his battle; only to find the ranger with his bow aimed at a figure fallen at his feet with several arrows sticking out of it. [/QUOTE]
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Story Hour
The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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