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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: 6071168" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>The next morning was a bright day; not a cloud in the sky and brilliant sunshine reflecting off the snow and ice. We sat down and discussed our tactics and strategy for the coming battle; talked about the spells which we were going to learn that day; the most advantageous magic which would aid us; the warriors talked about the opponents that they were most likely to face; how do deal with them and co-ordinate their blows and defences; how to fight most effectively against monstrosities such as trolls and minotaurs; Drudge joined in, talking about the range of his bow and the best use of his uncanny prowess with his arrows; certainly, the sphinxes were not going to find it quite as easy to subdue us as they did in Bresk. Personally, I had a feeling that my staff, so attuned to the elemental plane of fire, was going to become particularly useful that day. It also allowed me to take slightly different spells as I had several ideas of my own about our battle plans today; but as ever, everything depended on who the enemy was and how they were going to act.</p><p> </p><p>As prepared as we could be, we joined Hertiage in the city as he mustered his forces and then we joined the army and marched to our section of the line. Horns blared and drums rolled as the town folk cheered us on our march. The army was on the move to defend the homeland!</p><p> </p><p>As we approached the designated battle field, we had our first look at the enemy. There were so many of them! In the back of my mind, I knew that our numbers were roughly equal but just looking at the mass of men and things in the distance brought home the sheer scale of this conflict. Flags and banners flapped in the wind, with designs and arms about which I knew nothing but no doubt each and every one had a meaning; in some cases, no doubt some of these regiments had proud traditions and battle honours going back centuries; and I cursed Steppengaard for the umpteenth time for the madness that caused this conflict. Dassenians should be united against Ragesia, not fighting each other. This plan was code named “Madness” by the Ragesian high command and looking at the forces of men and dwarves arrayed against each other, never was the there a more apt description of what was about to happen.</p><p> </p><p>The enemy was in good order, with their units separated between infantry at the front, archers behind and finally cavalry following up behind. There were also several separate units of other, larger hulking humanoids; it was difficult to tell just what they were, except that they were much bigger than us. Many of the banners also showed the symbols of the churches of Dassen, noting the presence of a variety of priests within the enemy army. Many flying creatures could be seen gliding above the army; sphinxes no doubt. I hoped that there were no more of the type that was able to cast the symbol magic, otherwise it was going to be a very short battle. Thankfully, we saw no sign of the dragon.</p><p> </p><p>Their whole advance was accompanied by drumming and horns, to keep the regiments marching in time.</p><p> </p><p>Arriving in our place in the line, we deployed. Hertiage wasted no time in stretching us across “his patch” as he called it. Victor and Longhelim held the centre; Felix, John and Drudge were slightly further back; Drudge certainly needed to be mobile since he was going to be acting as a sniper. Two chaplains were sitting calmly on horses, ready to ride to lend support to the areas of the line which were going to be stretched. Finally, two mages from Lady Timor’s forces were stationed on either side of Victor and Longhelim. Hertiage wisely had left two small gaps in the ranks designed to give them firing line for their spells. He also designated a guard of four men each for the two mages as the enemy would no doubt concentrate their attacks on them. Personally, I joined one of the mages on the side, close to the firing gap.</p><p> </p><p>Hertiage calmly exhorted, encouraged, persuaded and cajoled his troops, letting them know what would happen if they lost today; what the consequences would be for their city, their loved ones and the land. He also reminded them of their training, their exercises and their orders; and above all, he reminded them that they fought for the Duke and Gallo and that the line must not break! Finally he reminded them semi humorously that they had guests amongst them and that it would not do to let themselves down in front of strangers. All in all, it was a very effective speech as I could visibly see the soldiers being bolstered. I also knew that the enemy was doing exactly the same on the other side.</p><p> </p><p>Then, the drumming and horns stopped! The enemy began to walk towards us, then trot, then suddenly they burst into a full run, charging towards our line! Facing this mass charge, our line suddenly looked very thin. Then the rain of death began; as he said, Gallo had stationed his archers in specially built defences: small circles surrounded by sharpened stakes pointed outwards. There was a special name for them but unfortunately, it has gone out of my mind. Then, balls of fire also began to appear amongst the ranks of the charging enemy; amazingly, I saw that the enemy soldiers were very skilled at avoiding this spell. Their commanders had an instinctive grasp as to where the spells were going to land and shouted instructions at their troops to move! The troops were obviously very well drilled and they managed to avoid a great many of the fire spells by the coordinating their movement. In return, the enemy siege engines began to bombard our lines with rocks.</p><p> </p><p>As the enemy’s charge neared our lines, we were able to see the forces approaching our section: A row of soldiers in a line, led by a large creature with the head of a bull. A minotaur! A legendary being: an enormously strong, powerful warrior with powers over labyrinths. It was the first time I had seen one. It wielded a huge two handed sword. Behind the line were two more figures, one was a priest while another was obviously some sort of officer. Finally, there were two sphinxes flying with them, one at each side, providing aerial support. These creatures had the bodies of lions, wings and the heads of rams.</p><p> </p><p>I was so distracted by the sight of our enemy that I almost missed the large rock that was dropping on top of my head. I managed to move and avoid the worst of it but it still grazed me badly; as I gathered myself, the two mages in our ranks began to cast fireballs from wands at the advancing ranks of the enemy. Their commander managed to pull some of his troops out of the range of them but as soon as the mages saw that, they cleverly began to target the extreme sides of the enemy formation; these poor unfortunates were not quite as synchronized as those troops closer to their captain and therefore they suffered. I also joined in with my spells of fire and rather quickly, we decimated their rank and file.</p><p> </p><p>Unfortunately, this made the two mages prime targets for the sphinxes as they flew over our lines; they both swooped down and raked the mages badly, distracting them from casting any more spells. This tactic however, brought them within range of our sniper; and how he took advantage of that, firing arrow after arrow into the beasts. There was almost nothing they could do about that and one of them quickly almost faltered out of the sky under Drudge’s concentrated archery. Then the minotaur finally arrived at the line! I had seen him drink a couple of potions just before his charge; as I watched him, I missed yet another rock from a siege engine which almost hit me square in the head. As such, it grazed me again, although again it really hurt. Then, horrified, I watched as the minotaur lowered its head and hurtled into Victor. I was amazed as Victor stood there and took the charge; and then used his own falchion to open a bloody gash on the minotaur’s chest.</p><p> </p><p>I stopped looking at that point though as I saw that their priest had stopped and was casting a spell. It was a long, complicated procedure and I realised that he was trying to summon a creature from some hellish place to do his bidding. That would not do so I cast my spell of force missiles into him; he didn’t like that. In fact, he liked it so little that it disrupted his summoning. Simultaneously, out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark ray hit the minotaur; I recognized the weakening spell; I wasn’t sure who cast it but it was very useful.</p><p> </p><p>The sphinxes were swooping in again but this time Hertiage was ordering his troops to turn their crossbows on them. The creatures were met with a hail of bolts as they flew into range, both being hit by several, as well as Drudge’s formidable arrows. This time, one of them attacked the ranger, hurting him while the other still targeted a magician, wounding his victim badly. Dripping blood, they flew away again. Glancing at the front of the line, I saw a look of dreadful concentration on Victor’s face as he proceeded to carve the minotaur into little pieces. The look of horror on the enemy captain’s face was palpable as he watched this; it was obviously completely unexpected. The look quickly turned desperate though as he himself was engaged by Longhelim.</p><p> </p><p>“Well done, Victor! You killed a cow!” was the irreverent shout from John at that point, as he saw the minotaur drop in front of the warrior; or rather several pieces of it.</p><p> </p><p>Felix had cast a magical silence in the area of the priest. The enemy commander then disengaged with Longhelim and began to make his way towards me. I was concentrating on casting another of my spells at the time so he reached me and stuck his sword into my chest; which really hurt, again! Thankfully, Victor followed him and engaged. That was a short fight.</p><p> </p><p>In the distance, suddenly, I discerned another wave of enemy approaching; or galloping towards us as this was a group of knights; knights and something else: large loping humanoids of some sort, which easily kept up with the horses.</p><p> </p><p>I only had a brief chance to study the approaching enemy as the commander was still trying to slice me into bits but I withdrew while Victor dealt with him. The two sphinxes swooped down again, badly hurt and with bolts sticking out of them; this time they both concentrated their attacks on Drudge and the ranger suffered. Then the unexpected happened!</p><p> </p><p>From high above, a huge, debilitating, soul shattering roar swept across our section of the battle line and all of our soldiers panicked; dropping their weapons and shields they ran! Except one! So did the two sphinxes and the two magicians. This left us, the two chaplains and Hertiage to face the new wave; oh and the one brave individual soldier who somehow resisted the sphinx’s magical roar.</p><p> </p><p>Grimly, we realised that we were now pretty much on our own; holding this whole section of the line!</p><p> </p><p>Thankfully, the enemy wave still had some distance to cover before they reached us. Felix and the chaplains quickly healed us as much as possible; then I cast a couple of important spells at the warriors; it was the spell that made them very difficult to hurt, impervious to a lot of weapons, giving their skin the characteristics of granite. Then, as I had just finished doing this, my heart sank; not only did I see that there were no less than sixteen knights on horses charging towards us but also that the strange humanoids with them were nine feet tall, with long, almost ape like arms and huge claws; their feet had three toes and they had greenish skins with warts and various disgusting lumps. Trolls! Again, I recognized them by their descriptions from books and knew of some of their powers, especially the difficulty in killing them. They were amongst the toughest of all monsters; and there were four of them.</p><p> </p><p>The knights thundered towards us; they actually made quite a splendid sight with their lances held high and pennants fluttering. They cantered at our diminished line in ranks of four, spread out over the terrain obviously mindful of the fireballs that were being cast earlier. The trolls loped in the centre of the ranks but again spread apart for the same reason. Fire was particularly damaging to these creatures. I knew that and that was why I was waiting for the right moment.</p><p> </p><p>That moment came and as the first rank of knights passed a particular point, I waved my staff and a wall of flames suddenly appeared across our whole section the battlefield. The knights, certainly the first two ranks were committed; they would have to canter through it, suffering the fire. As they went through it, I could hear men and horses screaming and the stench of burnt flesh and fur on fire suddenly assailed our senses. Then the first rank burst through and reached us.</p><p> </p><p>The knights realised just exactly who put the wall of fire into across their path and they were eager for revenge; which was why three of them immediately charged in my direction. The next rank rode through and three converged in front of Victor; with his usual calm efficiency, I saw the warrior step up and with two swift strokes, drop two of the knights from their saddles; having done that, he half turned and slashed at one of the horses that was rearing and attempting to hit him with its hooves. Then, I felt the first of the knights hit me with his lance; there was little I could do but try to dodge; those lances hurt! Very briefly I saw another knight fall, with three arrows in sticking out of him, so Drudge was still around and I cast another ball of fire out of my staff, frying another knight; I managed one final action, which was to put another wall of fire across the battlefield, this one much closer to the battle; but then I knew nothing more as more lances were driven into my body.</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly, I felt energy pour into me and I almost sat up but then froze; very close to me stood a troll, sniffing the air and looking at me. I pretended I was still unconscious, lying perfectly still. For an endless moment, it looked at me, still sniffing. I thanked the gods for the stench of burnt flesh in the air; after a moment, it loped away and I was able to open my eyes and look at the situation.</p><p> </p><p>I heard a voice next to me: John’s: “Get up and do something! We’re in trouble!”</p><p> </p><p>I could see that. There were four trolls on the battlefield and a couple of knights; the bodies of other horses and men were lying around everywhere, so the warriors must have been busy. Victor was facing two of the trolls. Longhelim was facing a troll and a knight and Drudge was up in the air, shooting. Commander Hertiage was down, as was the soldier. Felix was between Longhelim and Victor. It was difficult to see the extent, but everyone was wounded, blood flowing freely. Then Longhelim swung his sword and I could see the last knight falling; however, a troll moved forward and struck Longhelim three times; every time he landed a blow, there seemed to a be a little glow coming from the paladin’s skin. Obviously my spell was being “tactically advantageous” to use Victor’s description of long ago. Drudge was being deadly with his arrows and three struck the other troll which actually caused the creature to fall over. From the ground, I cast one of my most powerful spells of befuddlement at the two trolls facing Victor but they just shook off my magic fairly contemptuously. One of them turned towards me, but then Victor stepped forward and struck it twice as I had just distracted it; the other took advantage of this, attacking fiercely but Victor somehow almost wove a mesh of steel in front of him with a series of deflecting strikes of his falchion, actually aiming at the claws as they tried to grab him. Still, one got through but his body also looked as if it glowed slightly when the troll struck it.</p><p> </p><p>Felix then shouted: “Hit them when they are down! They heal!”</p><p> </p><p>I had known this. One of the great powers that trolls had, the one that really made them so feared was their ability to get up from almost every blow, eventually. The only way to kill the permanently was by burning them.</p><p> </p><p>The trolls that were facing Victor suddenly realised that he was by far the greater threat and turned on the warrior; one of them was fended off by the strange fighting style that he was employing but the other managed to seize the warrior in two of his claws which enabled it to try to almost rend the warrior in two. Victor grimaced but then unleashed his own considerable prowess at the troll he had struck previously. At this point, I managed to unleash another spell, this time one that caused a glittery cloud to appear on top of the troll’s heads; both of them thankfully. One of them ignored it, the other suddenly began to flail around wildly; it had worked! Some of the cloud had got into the creature’s eyes, causing it to go blind for a short time. Victor immediately moved a short distance, to get out of its way.</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim was now in a duel with the other troll on his side of the melee. Drudge had shot several arrows into the one he had already felled, making sure it stayed on the ground. Unfortunately, the paladin was losing; thankfully, Felix was doing some healing on him from behind. The troll noticed this and was beginning to aim his blows at the priest.</p><p> </p><p>The sighted troll facing Victor turned towards me in a rage, but I managed to get another spell of force missiles into him, which felled it to the ground; Victor then hit it several times with massive blows, making sure that it stayed on the ground for a long time. Then he rapidly moved to help Longhelim. The blind troll still flailed around and the last sighted troll was suddenly confronted by both warriors; not a moment too soon. The troll’s blows no longer produced a slight glow every time they hit; they now produced spurts of blood. Thankfully, the last troll could not stand up to both the warriors together and was quickly chopped apart. That only left the blind one and that again was dealt with quite quickly.</p><p> </p><p>Exhausted and panting, we conferred for a short period of time, with Victor hitting each of the fallen trolls every so often. We put them all together and I then hit them with several fire spells, destroying them permanently.</p><p> </p><p>We looked at each other and looked worriedly into the distance; I was hoping that there would not be another enemy wave. We were in no shape to receive it. We drank several healing potions and made a quick list of what magic we had left. Not surprisingly, we were very short of healing although I still had several useful spells left. As we waited, we could see a rider cantering towards us; fortunately from our lines. It was a courier from Gallo. We were being relieved imminently and our presence was requested at Markhold at our earliest convenience; that was command speak for “NOW”.</p><p> </p><p>Bloody, wounded and battered, we waited until our replacements arrived and then gingerly made our way back. I looked back at the figures of Commander Hertiage and the soldier and hoped that our replacements would take care of them. We had not had the time as Lord Gallo needed us to attend him at our earliest convenience.</p><p> </p><p>We were still concerned that another attempt would be made to breach our section of the line; in the rear, we saw a huge logistical effort taking care of the wounded, supplying archers and catapults with ammunition, moving fresh troops to relieve battered sections of the front and informing the relevant commanders of their orders; the wonder of it was that it seemed to be actually working. There was little chaos and everyone seemed to have an idea of what they were doing. Gallo had trained his people well.</p><p> </p><p>We were taken to his command tent. We were immediately shown inside. Gallo, for once, seemed to have lost his Ducal grace:</p><p> </p><p>“You did it!” he shouted. “You held it! When that bloody sphinx roared and everyone ran, I thought we would have a breach for sure but you held it; and against trolls too; who would have thought that Steppengaard would stoop so low as to use such creatures.” He paced around the tent.</p><p> </p><p>Then he seemed to notice our state: “You! Get some chaplains in here,” he shouted at one of his advisors.</p><p> </p><p>Then he turned to us again: “Gentlemen, your deeds will become known throughout the army and they have given great heart to the men. You have done the extraordinary and shown that the monsters can be beaten. Everyone saw how you co-ordinated your crossbow troops to concentrate on the flying sphinxes and now they are all doing it!”</p><p> </p><p>I wanted to tell him that that was actually Hertiage’s idea but…….</p><p> </p><p>Gallo continue: “Now, to business. Having seen how Steppengaard’s army is fighting, I can now understand his strategy better. The main body of his men would contain my army while the monstrous troops would act as besiegers and shock troops. Imagine what would have happened if the sphinx had roared in the vicinity of the defenders on the walls of the city and together with assaults from trolls and minotaurs. Those monstrosities would have been able to climb siege ladders without opposition and begin to rampage through the city.</p><p> </p><p>However, thanks in part to your example, we are fighting them to a standstill.</p><p> </p><p>But……..just as Konigsmarshall Malkan has his own secret weapons, I have mine. My dwarven allies have constructed a tunnel into the enemy camp, right under the Konigsmarshall’s command tent. We convinced one of our earth elemental allies to scout it out and he found that there is a bunker that has been dug under the tent. The Konigsmarshall is there right now; but he won’t be there for long! You gentlemen, are my secret weapon.”</p><p> </p><p>He paced back and forth, obviously agitated: “You have already done far more than I expected of you; you come out of nowhere and defeat four trolls and sixteen knights! Those are deeds of legends! But if you are willing, then we can breach that bunker from the tunnel and you would have an opportunity to remove Konigsmarshall Malkan himself from the battle. I realize that this is a lot to ask of you, especially after what you have done but this is an opportunity to turn a bloody stand-off or marginal victory at best into a decisive defeat for the enemy. If their commander is removed then their battle line will dissolve and victory will be ours.”</p><p> </p><p>The chaplains had arrived at this point and were healing us as we discussed this.</p><p> </p><p>I was muttering: “There he goes with his opportunities again.”</p><p> </p><p>Felix said: “I would be willing to do it but I am almost completely out of spells; do you think we could cram?”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim asked: “Your Grace, do we have an hour?”</p><p> </p><p>He looked at us and said: “No; it will take you an hour to get there underground and with the other hours your are requesting, it is unlikely that he will be in the bunker for that long; he will need to supervise the battle. We believe he is making some contingency plans to adjust for the fact that he has failed to breach the line.”</p><p> </p><p>I grunted: “So, it’s now or never.”</p><p> </p><p>We looked at each other. There was no choice really. We had to attempt it. If we didn’t then the battle would be fought to a bloody standstill and hundreds if not thousands of soldiers would die; soldiers that should be defending Dassen against Ragesia. The ultimate winner in this conflict would be the Empress Leska. So, we all just nodded.</p><p> </p><p>Longehelim turned to the Duke and said: “Your Grace, we will go.”</p><p> </p><p>It may have been the strain or the fatigue but Gallo for once looked human, relieved.</p><p> </p><p>“You will travel to a tunnel that runs almost under the bunker; once there, magical explosives have been prepared which will blow a hole into the bunker floor. I will send a troop of ten men with you and they will have a ladder. Once the breach has been made, the rest is up to you. If you succeed, then another set of explosives has been prepared to collapse the tunnel to ease your escape. Good luck and gods speed!”</p><p> </p><p>We prepared as best as we could but it was obvious that we had to move fast. A gruff dwarf acted as a guide; he met us at the entrance to Gallo’s tent and then took us across north, across the frozen river. There, in an incongruously small fort, was the tunnel entrance.</p><p>Wordlessly, we met our troop of dwarven soldiers. They just looked at us and nodded. We clambered down the tunnel entrance and began to the long trek to our destination. The tunnel was dark and presumably cold but above all, it was low; it must have been completed very recently and in other words, uncomfortable for my human friends who had to stoop. They all had to crouch and judging by the various bangs I heard, they were all glad to be wearing head gear. Due to the circumstances, the trip took quite some time until we reached the point where our dwarven guides stopped us.</p><p> </p><p>One of them said: “The point of entry is just ahead. Now you are in charge. Tell us what you want to do.”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim replied: “Please wait a few moments and then blow the floor on our signal. Also, please get the ladder ready.”</p><p> </p><p>Our last spells were cast on us. I still had a some defensive magics to cast on various people but they were a pitiful few. Moments later, Longhelim gave the signal and the explosives were activated.</p><p> </p><p>A tremendous crash resounded through the tunnel, almost deafening me but the bottom of the chamber had been blown. The dwarves rushed forward and prepared a ladder for us. John shot up it, having the fastest reactions as usual. He was quickly followed by Victor, then Drudge, Longhelim, myself and finally Felix. As we rushed up, we saw that the bunker was surprisingly empty. There were a few tables and chairs as well as several bunks; there was also a hole in the ceiling in the far corner to the right of where we had emerged. As regards people, there were only two dwarves there, both wearing holy symbols. At the far end of the room, beside a table on which lay several maps, was a tall human, richly dressed, with a quill on one hand, with a surprised look on his face and next to him was the gnome wizard, Nina Glibglamer. She also looked surprised.</p><p> </p><p>Victor was immediately next to the priests and moving forward rapidly, struck one with his falchion, opening a deep gash in his side. Drudge was already inside and fired an arrow at the human, Konigsmarshall Malkan, we assumed. We did manage to get nearly everyone into the room before they were able to react. Once they did, it was decisive. Two spheres of silence rendered this end of the room impossible as regards spell casting; Malkan snatched up a large heavy crossbow from the table and shot into Victor. I saw that it was like mine; it had a magazine so it could fire multiple bolts without reloading. Nina – well Nina did the most surprising thing. She became transparent, translucent; I recognized the effect. She became incorporeal, meaning that there was far more to her than met the eye; that power required a level of magic which was far beyond us at this time. The priests were also shouting as if the gates of hell had opened up beneath them.</p><p> </p><p>The priests formed a rank in front of the Konigsmarshall, and one of them touched the other, healing. Victor had moved up next to the priest and managed to hit him again but he had been healed so he did not manage to remove him, to paraphrase Lord Gallo. I stepped up into an area that was not covered with the magical silence and managed to cast my speed spell, which caught everyone thankfully. Nina, well Nina was…..giggling. That seemed very odd; as before, it was obvious that there was a lot more here than met the eye but I just didn’t know what! The Konigsmarshall had switched targets and was firing at Drudge since the archer was the only one capable to hurting him while the priests were blocking the warrior’s path to him. I could have told him that engaging in an archery duel with Drudge, especially when the latter was in receipt of a speed spell was not going to end well for him. Then something strange occurred: Victor turned to me, a glassy look in his eyes and hit me; very, very hard!</p><p> </p><p>When I woke up, I groaned. I could still feel that falchion slashing into me. I wasn’t sure what had happened but I could see that Felix was next to me. I was still on the ground at this point but I could see that both the priests had retreated to be nearer the Konigsmarshall. Nina was by the far wall as before, incorporeal and still giggling; and there were shouts from above.</p><p> </p><p>The Konigsmarshall had dropped the crossbow and had drawn a golden flail. As he moved, I could glimpse a flash of beautiful silver armour under his clothes. The priests had again drawn ranks in front of him but I could see that now they were both quite hurt. Longhelim had just finished dealing a couple of severe blows to one of them and then Victor, stepped up and almost ferally sliced once, twice, and both priests were…….removed.</p><p> </p><p>More arrows from Drudge hit the Koningsmarshall and still Nina did nothing, just watching until suddenly I saw her step through the wall. The Konigsmarshall tried to fight against the two warriors but he was badly overmatched. I am not sure how good a strategist he was but he was certainly only a middling warrior as both Victor and Longhelim tore into him. He did not last very long but then suddenly, an armoured figure dropped through the hole in the ceiling, which presumably led to the surface; obviously the first reinforcements from the camp.</p><p> </p><p>Although this individual fell down the hole, he got up as quickly as he could and then charged into Longhelim and Victor. The paladin took a moment to begin making signs to get down the hole. We had achieved our objective. The Konigsmarshall had been removed; to make sure that this was so, Victor put a slash of his falchion into him as he finished dealing with the knight who had fallen down the hole. While the others were making their way down the hole and others were dragging Malkin’s body towards it, I put a spell under the hole. It was a mildly poisonous cloud; at best it was an inconvenience and at worst it was worst it was something that would bring up someone’s stomach contents and unsettle them quite badly for a short period of time.</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim covered the retreat while the others converged around the hole in the floor. Another knight jumped down the hole and engaged the warrior; Victor was shouting for everyone to get away while he fenced with this individual; then, glancing behind him, he could see that almost everyone was down the ladder, he gave a cunning twist to his sword and the knight fell. After that, Victor slid down the ladder and the dwarves removed it expertly.</p><p> </p><p>Nearly everyone else was down the corridor at this point and Victor ran down it, shouting: “Blow it now!”</p><p> </p><p>Then we all sped down, taking Malkan’s body with us. As we turned a corner, we heard another mighty explosion and an avalanche of dirt behind us. We still sped down the first part of the corridor as fast as we could. It should have been difficult to remove all that dirt behind us but one never knew what tricks the enemy had……as was proved in a moment.</p><p> </p><p>As we sped down the corridor, suddenly Nina walked through the wall. She was clapping her hands and smiling gleefully. We could hear her shouting: “Well done boys, well done! You were magnificent!”</p><p> </p><p>After that she just walked through the wall again.</p><p> </p><p>As before, I really didn’t know what to make of that.</p><p> </p><p>The return journey through the tunnel was made at a slightly more leisurely pace. The tension had gone and the dwarves were now joking and one of them had brought out a wine skin which he passed to everyone. Everyone knew that we had done it and that the special mission had succeeded. One of two of the dwarves even began to sing, a martial tune, cheerful and full of brim and joy. This was a mighty victory and quite rightly their reputation would soar after their participation in it.</p><p> </p><p>We were also elated; we had just saved thousands of lives. The thought of the armies battling themselves to a bloody standstill was the reason why we engaged in this mission in the first place. I just hoped that Gallo would be able to negotiate a reasonable truce from a position of strength and one that could somehow ameliorate the suffering of the relatives who had lost someone in the battle.</p><p> </p><p>Our journey back took a little longer because we did not have the sense of urgency we had when going there. However, as soon as we reached Gallo’s command tent, he was there, outside. He was effusive in his praise.</p><p> </p><p>“You have done it! The enemy offensive is breaking up. It has lost cohesion. It began a little time ago but one can already see it. It doesn’t have the drive or confidence it had. All we have to do is hold and their battle line will break up.</p><p> </p><p>Gentlemen, you have my gratitude. You have saved the lives of thousands of my men. I will never forget; nor will I ever forget my promise to Seaquen.</p><p> </p><p>You look hurt and badly in need of succor. Please go back to the camp and rest. I will send chaplains to deal with your wounds; and thank you again.</p><p> </p><p>We will speak in the next few days. I have things to organize.”</p><p> </p><p>We took him at his word and first went back to our camp. There, the chaplains dealt with our wounds and after that, we went back to Gallo’s Fend, where we went back to our house. There, we slept as if we had not slept in a week.</p><p> </p><p>The next day, I memorized several spells which would allow us to find out about our various spoils of war. We had found several interesting objects and pieces on Malkan and Thravanvost, including rings, wands, weapons, armour and the flashy skull cap, which would be of great use to me. All of this took several hours and also provided a restful day. We did not know what was happening outside but there were no messengers rushing to our door which we took as good sign.</p><p> </p><p>I was certain that Gallo had not forgotten us.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 6071168, member: 6692807"] The next morning was a bright day; not a cloud in the sky and brilliant sunshine reflecting off the snow and ice. We sat down and discussed our tactics and strategy for the coming battle; talked about the spells which we were going to learn that day; the most advantageous magic which would aid us; the warriors talked about the opponents that they were most likely to face; how do deal with them and co-ordinate their blows and defences; how to fight most effectively against monstrosities such as trolls and minotaurs; Drudge joined in, talking about the range of his bow and the best use of his uncanny prowess with his arrows; certainly, the sphinxes were not going to find it quite as easy to subdue us as they did in Bresk. Personally, I had a feeling that my staff, so attuned to the elemental plane of fire, was going to become particularly useful that day. It also allowed me to take slightly different spells as I had several ideas of my own about our battle plans today; but as ever, everything depended on who the enemy was and how they were going to act. As prepared as we could be, we joined Hertiage in the city as he mustered his forces and then we joined the army and marched to our section of the line. Horns blared and drums rolled as the town folk cheered us on our march. The army was on the move to defend the homeland! As we approached the designated battle field, we had our first look at the enemy. There were so many of them! In the back of my mind, I knew that our numbers were roughly equal but just looking at the mass of men and things in the distance brought home the sheer scale of this conflict. Flags and banners flapped in the wind, with designs and arms about which I knew nothing but no doubt each and every one had a meaning; in some cases, no doubt some of these regiments had proud traditions and battle honours going back centuries; and I cursed Steppengaard for the umpteenth time for the madness that caused this conflict. Dassenians should be united against Ragesia, not fighting each other. This plan was code named “Madness” by the Ragesian high command and looking at the forces of men and dwarves arrayed against each other, never was the there a more apt description of what was about to happen. The enemy was in good order, with their units separated between infantry at the front, archers behind and finally cavalry following up behind. There were also several separate units of other, larger hulking humanoids; it was difficult to tell just what they were, except that they were much bigger than us. Many of the banners also showed the symbols of the churches of Dassen, noting the presence of a variety of priests within the enemy army. Many flying creatures could be seen gliding above the army; sphinxes no doubt. I hoped that there were no more of the type that was able to cast the symbol magic, otherwise it was going to be a very short battle. Thankfully, we saw no sign of the dragon. Their whole advance was accompanied by drumming and horns, to keep the regiments marching in time. Arriving in our place in the line, we deployed. Hertiage wasted no time in stretching us across “his patch” as he called it. Victor and Longhelim held the centre; Felix, John and Drudge were slightly further back; Drudge certainly needed to be mobile since he was going to be acting as a sniper. Two chaplains were sitting calmly on horses, ready to ride to lend support to the areas of the line which were going to be stretched. Finally, two mages from Lady Timor’s forces were stationed on either side of Victor and Longhelim. Hertiage wisely had left two small gaps in the ranks designed to give them firing line for their spells. He also designated a guard of four men each for the two mages as the enemy would no doubt concentrate their attacks on them. Personally, I joined one of the mages on the side, close to the firing gap. Hertiage calmly exhorted, encouraged, persuaded and cajoled his troops, letting them know what would happen if they lost today; what the consequences would be for their city, their loved ones and the land. He also reminded them of their training, their exercises and their orders; and above all, he reminded them that they fought for the Duke and Gallo and that the line must not break! Finally he reminded them semi humorously that they had guests amongst them and that it would not do to let themselves down in front of strangers. All in all, it was a very effective speech as I could visibly see the soldiers being bolstered. I also knew that the enemy was doing exactly the same on the other side. Then, the drumming and horns stopped! The enemy began to walk towards us, then trot, then suddenly they burst into a full run, charging towards our line! Facing this mass charge, our line suddenly looked very thin. Then the rain of death began; as he said, Gallo had stationed his archers in specially built defences: small circles surrounded by sharpened stakes pointed outwards. There was a special name for them but unfortunately, it has gone out of my mind. Then, balls of fire also began to appear amongst the ranks of the charging enemy; amazingly, I saw that the enemy soldiers were very skilled at avoiding this spell. Their commanders had an instinctive grasp as to where the spells were going to land and shouted instructions at their troops to move! The troops were obviously very well drilled and they managed to avoid a great many of the fire spells by the coordinating their movement. In return, the enemy siege engines began to bombard our lines with rocks. As the enemy’s charge neared our lines, we were able to see the forces approaching our section: A row of soldiers in a line, led by a large creature with the head of a bull. A minotaur! A legendary being: an enormously strong, powerful warrior with powers over labyrinths. It was the first time I had seen one. It wielded a huge two handed sword. Behind the line were two more figures, one was a priest while another was obviously some sort of officer. Finally, there were two sphinxes flying with them, one at each side, providing aerial support. These creatures had the bodies of lions, wings and the heads of rams. I was so distracted by the sight of our enemy that I almost missed the large rock that was dropping on top of my head. I managed to move and avoid the worst of it but it still grazed me badly; as I gathered myself, the two mages in our ranks began to cast fireballs from wands at the advancing ranks of the enemy. Their commander managed to pull some of his troops out of the range of them but as soon as the mages saw that, they cleverly began to target the extreme sides of the enemy formation; these poor unfortunates were not quite as synchronized as those troops closer to their captain and therefore they suffered. I also joined in with my spells of fire and rather quickly, we decimated their rank and file. Unfortunately, this made the two mages prime targets for the sphinxes as they flew over our lines; they both swooped down and raked the mages badly, distracting them from casting any more spells. This tactic however, brought them within range of our sniper; and how he took advantage of that, firing arrow after arrow into the beasts. There was almost nothing they could do about that and one of them quickly almost faltered out of the sky under Drudge’s concentrated archery. Then the minotaur finally arrived at the line! I had seen him drink a couple of potions just before his charge; as I watched him, I missed yet another rock from a siege engine which almost hit me square in the head. As such, it grazed me again, although again it really hurt. Then, horrified, I watched as the minotaur lowered its head and hurtled into Victor. I was amazed as Victor stood there and took the charge; and then used his own falchion to open a bloody gash on the minotaur’s chest. I stopped looking at that point though as I saw that their priest had stopped and was casting a spell. It was a long, complicated procedure and I realised that he was trying to summon a creature from some hellish place to do his bidding. That would not do so I cast my spell of force missiles into him; he didn’t like that. In fact, he liked it so little that it disrupted his summoning. Simultaneously, out of the corner of my eye I saw a dark ray hit the minotaur; I recognized the weakening spell; I wasn’t sure who cast it but it was very useful. The sphinxes were swooping in again but this time Hertiage was ordering his troops to turn their crossbows on them. The creatures were met with a hail of bolts as they flew into range, both being hit by several, as well as Drudge’s formidable arrows. This time, one of them attacked the ranger, hurting him while the other still targeted a magician, wounding his victim badly. Dripping blood, they flew away again. Glancing at the front of the line, I saw a look of dreadful concentration on Victor’s face as he proceeded to carve the minotaur into little pieces. The look of horror on the enemy captain’s face was palpable as he watched this; it was obviously completely unexpected. The look quickly turned desperate though as he himself was engaged by Longhelim. “Well done, Victor! You killed a cow!” was the irreverent shout from John at that point, as he saw the minotaur drop in front of the warrior; or rather several pieces of it. Felix had cast a magical silence in the area of the priest. The enemy commander then disengaged with Longhelim and began to make his way towards me. I was concentrating on casting another of my spells at the time so he reached me and stuck his sword into my chest; which really hurt, again! Thankfully, Victor followed him and engaged. That was a short fight. In the distance, suddenly, I discerned another wave of enemy approaching; or galloping towards us as this was a group of knights; knights and something else: large loping humanoids of some sort, which easily kept up with the horses. I only had a brief chance to study the approaching enemy as the commander was still trying to slice me into bits but I withdrew while Victor dealt with him. The two sphinxes swooped down again, badly hurt and with bolts sticking out of them; this time they both concentrated their attacks on Drudge and the ranger suffered. Then the unexpected happened! From high above, a huge, debilitating, soul shattering roar swept across our section of the battle line and all of our soldiers panicked; dropping their weapons and shields they ran! Except one! So did the two sphinxes and the two magicians. This left us, the two chaplains and Hertiage to face the new wave; oh and the one brave individual soldier who somehow resisted the sphinx’s magical roar. Grimly, we realised that we were now pretty much on our own; holding this whole section of the line! Thankfully, the enemy wave still had some distance to cover before they reached us. Felix and the chaplains quickly healed us as much as possible; then I cast a couple of important spells at the warriors; it was the spell that made them very difficult to hurt, impervious to a lot of weapons, giving their skin the characteristics of granite. Then, as I had just finished doing this, my heart sank; not only did I see that there were no less than sixteen knights on horses charging towards us but also that the strange humanoids with them were nine feet tall, with long, almost ape like arms and huge claws; their feet had three toes and they had greenish skins with warts and various disgusting lumps. Trolls! Again, I recognized them by their descriptions from books and knew of some of their powers, especially the difficulty in killing them. They were amongst the toughest of all monsters; and there were four of them. The knights thundered towards us; they actually made quite a splendid sight with their lances held high and pennants fluttering. They cantered at our diminished line in ranks of four, spread out over the terrain obviously mindful of the fireballs that were being cast earlier. The trolls loped in the centre of the ranks but again spread apart for the same reason. Fire was particularly damaging to these creatures. I knew that and that was why I was waiting for the right moment. That moment came and as the first rank of knights passed a particular point, I waved my staff and a wall of flames suddenly appeared across our whole section the battlefield. The knights, certainly the first two ranks were committed; they would have to canter through it, suffering the fire. As they went through it, I could hear men and horses screaming and the stench of burnt flesh and fur on fire suddenly assailed our senses. Then the first rank burst through and reached us. The knights realised just exactly who put the wall of fire into across their path and they were eager for revenge; which was why three of them immediately charged in my direction. The next rank rode through and three converged in front of Victor; with his usual calm efficiency, I saw the warrior step up and with two swift strokes, drop two of the knights from their saddles; having done that, he half turned and slashed at one of the horses that was rearing and attempting to hit him with its hooves. Then, I felt the first of the knights hit me with his lance; there was little I could do but try to dodge; those lances hurt! Very briefly I saw another knight fall, with three arrows in sticking out of him, so Drudge was still around and I cast another ball of fire out of my staff, frying another knight; I managed one final action, which was to put another wall of fire across the battlefield, this one much closer to the battle; but then I knew nothing more as more lances were driven into my body. Suddenly, I felt energy pour into me and I almost sat up but then froze; very close to me stood a troll, sniffing the air and looking at me. I pretended I was still unconscious, lying perfectly still. For an endless moment, it looked at me, still sniffing. I thanked the gods for the stench of burnt flesh in the air; after a moment, it loped away and I was able to open my eyes and look at the situation. I heard a voice next to me: John’s: “Get up and do something! We’re in trouble!” I could see that. There were four trolls on the battlefield and a couple of knights; the bodies of other horses and men were lying around everywhere, so the warriors must have been busy. Victor was facing two of the trolls. Longhelim was facing a troll and a knight and Drudge was up in the air, shooting. Commander Hertiage was down, as was the soldier. Felix was between Longhelim and Victor. It was difficult to see the extent, but everyone was wounded, blood flowing freely. Then Longhelim swung his sword and I could see the last knight falling; however, a troll moved forward and struck Longhelim three times; every time he landed a blow, there seemed to a be a little glow coming from the paladin’s skin. Obviously my spell was being “tactically advantageous” to use Victor’s description of long ago. Drudge was being deadly with his arrows and three struck the other troll which actually caused the creature to fall over. From the ground, I cast one of my most powerful spells of befuddlement at the two trolls facing Victor but they just shook off my magic fairly contemptuously. One of them turned towards me, but then Victor stepped forward and struck it twice as I had just distracted it; the other took advantage of this, attacking fiercely but Victor somehow almost wove a mesh of steel in front of him with a series of deflecting strikes of his falchion, actually aiming at the claws as they tried to grab him. Still, one got through but his body also looked as if it glowed slightly when the troll struck it. Felix then shouted: “Hit them when they are down! They heal!” I had known this. One of the great powers that trolls had, the one that really made them so feared was their ability to get up from almost every blow, eventually. The only way to kill the permanently was by burning them. The trolls that were facing Victor suddenly realised that he was by far the greater threat and turned on the warrior; one of them was fended off by the strange fighting style that he was employing but the other managed to seize the warrior in two of his claws which enabled it to try to almost rend the warrior in two. Victor grimaced but then unleashed his own considerable prowess at the troll he had struck previously. At this point, I managed to unleash another spell, this time one that caused a glittery cloud to appear on top of the troll’s heads; both of them thankfully. One of them ignored it, the other suddenly began to flail around wildly; it had worked! Some of the cloud had got into the creature’s eyes, causing it to go blind for a short time. Victor immediately moved a short distance, to get out of its way. Longhelim was now in a duel with the other troll on his side of the melee. Drudge had shot several arrows into the one he had already felled, making sure it stayed on the ground. Unfortunately, the paladin was losing; thankfully, Felix was doing some healing on him from behind. The troll noticed this and was beginning to aim his blows at the priest. The sighted troll facing Victor turned towards me in a rage, but I managed to get another spell of force missiles into him, which felled it to the ground; Victor then hit it several times with massive blows, making sure that it stayed on the ground for a long time. Then he rapidly moved to help Longhelim. The blind troll still flailed around and the last sighted troll was suddenly confronted by both warriors; not a moment too soon. The troll’s blows no longer produced a slight glow every time they hit; they now produced spurts of blood. Thankfully, the last troll could not stand up to both the warriors together and was quickly chopped apart. That only left the blind one and that again was dealt with quite quickly. Exhausted and panting, we conferred for a short period of time, with Victor hitting each of the fallen trolls every so often. We put them all together and I then hit them with several fire spells, destroying them permanently. We looked at each other and looked worriedly into the distance; I was hoping that there would not be another enemy wave. We were in no shape to receive it. We drank several healing potions and made a quick list of what magic we had left. Not surprisingly, we were very short of healing although I still had several useful spells left. As we waited, we could see a rider cantering towards us; fortunately from our lines. It was a courier from Gallo. We were being relieved imminently and our presence was requested at Markhold at our earliest convenience; that was command speak for “NOW”. Bloody, wounded and battered, we waited until our replacements arrived and then gingerly made our way back. I looked back at the figures of Commander Hertiage and the soldier and hoped that our replacements would take care of them. We had not had the time as Lord Gallo needed us to attend him at our earliest convenience. We were still concerned that another attempt would be made to breach our section of the line; in the rear, we saw a huge logistical effort taking care of the wounded, supplying archers and catapults with ammunition, moving fresh troops to relieve battered sections of the front and informing the relevant commanders of their orders; the wonder of it was that it seemed to be actually working. There was little chaos and everyone seemed to have an idea of what they were doing. Gallo had trained his people well. We were taken to his command tent. We were immediately shown inside. Gallo, for once, seemed to have lost his Ducal grace: “You did it!” he shouted. “You held it! When that bloody sphinx roared and everyone ran, I thought we would have a breach for sure but you held it; and against trolls too; who would have thought that Steppengaard would stoop so low as to use such creatures.” He paced around the tent. Then he seemed to notice our state: “You! Get some chaplains in here,” he shouted at one of his advisors. Then he turned to us again: “Gentlemen, your deeds will become known throughout the army and they have given great heart to the men. You have done the extraordinary and shown that the monsters can be beaten. Everyone saw how you co-ordinated your crossbow troops to concentrate on the flying sphinxes and now they are all doing it!” I wanted to tell him that that was actually Hertiage’s idea but……. Gallo continue: “Now, to business. Having seen how Steppengaard’s army is fighting, I can now understand his strategy better. The main body of his men would contain my army while the monstrous troops would act as besiegers and shock troops. Imagine what would have happened if the sphinx had roared in the vicinity of the defenders on the walls of the city and together with assaults from trolls and minotaurs. Those monstrosities would have been able to climb siege ladders without opposition and begin to rampage through the city. However, thanks in part to your example, we are fighting them to a standstill. But……..just as Konigsmarshall Malkan has his own secret weapons, I have mine. My dwarven allies have constructed a tunnel into the enemy camp, right under the Konigsmarshall’s command tent. We convinced one of our earth elemental allies to scout it out and he found that there is a bunker that has been dug under the tent. The Konigsmarshall is there right now; but he won’t be there for long! You gentlemen, are my secret weapon.” He paced back and forth, obviously agitated: “You have already done far more than I expected of you; you come out of nowhere and defeat four trolls and sixteen knights! Those are deeds of legends! But if you are willing, then we can breach that bunker from the tunnel and you would have an opportunity to remove Konigsmarshall Malkan himself from the battle. I realize that this is a lot to ask of you, especially after what you have done but this is an opportunity to turn a bloody stand-off or marginal victory at best into a decisive defeat for the enemy. If their commander is removed then their battle line will dissolve and victory will be ours.” The chaplains had arrived at this point and were healing us as we discussed this. I was muttering: “There he goes with his opportunities again.” Felix said: “I would be willing to do it but I am almost completely out of spells; do you think we could cram?” Longhelim asked: “Your Grace, do we have an hour?” He looked at us and said: “No; it will take you an hour to get there underground and with the other hours your are requesting, it is unlikely that he will be in the bunker for that long; he will need to supervise the battle. We believe he is making some contingency plans to adjust for the fact that he has failed to breach the line.” I grunted: “So, it’s now or never.” We looked at each other. There was no choice really. We had to attempt it. If we didn’t then the battle would be fought to a bloody standstill and hundreds if not thousands of soldiers would die; soldiers that should be defending Dassen against Ragesia. The ultimate winner in this conflict would be the Empress Leska. So, we all just nodded. Longehelim turned to the Duke and said: “Your Grace, we will go.” It may have been the strain or the fatigue but Gallo for once looked human, relieved. “You will travel to a tunnel that runs almost under the bunker; once there, magical explosives have been prepared which will blow a hole into the bunker floor. I will send a troop of ten men with you and they will have a ladder. Once the breach has been made, the rest is up to you. If you succeed, then another set of explosives has been prepared to collapse the tunnel to ease your escape. Good luck and gods speed!” We prepared as best as we could but it was obvious that we had to move fast. A gruff dwarf acted as a guide; he met us at the entrance to Gallo’s tent and then took us across north, across the frozen river. There, in an incongruously small fort, was the tunnel entrance. Wordlessly, we met our troop of dwarven soldiers. They just looked at us and nodded. We clambered down the tunnel entrance and began to the long trek to our destination. The tunnel was dark and presumably cold but above all, it was low; it must have been completed very recently and in other words, uncomfortable for my human friends who had to stoop. They all had to crouch and judging by the various bangs I heard, they were all glad to be wearing head gear. Due to the circumstances, the trip took quite some time until we reached the point where our dwarven guides stopped us. One of them said: “The point of entry is just ahead. Now you are in charge. Tell us what you want to do.” Longhelim replied: “Please wait a few moments and then blow the floor on our signal. Also, please get the ladder ready.” Our last spells were cast on us. I still had a some defensive magics to cast on various people but they were a pitiful few. Moments later, Longhelim gave the signal and the explosives were activated. A tremendous crash resounded through the tunnel, almost deafening me but the bottom of the chamber had been blown. The dwarves rushed forward and prepared a ladder for us. John shot up it, having the fastest reactions as usual. He was quickly followed by Victor, then Drudge, Longhelim, myself and finally Felix. As we rushed up, we saw that the bunker was surprisingly empty. There were a few tables and chairs as well as several bunks; there was also a hole in the ceiling in the far corner to the right of where we had emerged. As regards people, there were only two dwarves there, both wearing holy symbols. At the far end of the room, beside a table on which lay several maps, was a tall human, richly dressed, with a quill on one hand, with a surprised look on his face and next to him was the gnome wizard, Nina Glibglamer. She also looked surprised. Victor was immediately next to the priests and moving forward rapidly, struck one with his falchion, opening a deep gash in his side. Drudge was already inside and fired an arrow at the human, Konigsmarshall Malkan, we assumed. We did manage to get nearly everyone into the room before they were able to react. Once they did, it was decisive. Two spheres of silence rendered this end of the room impossible as regards spell casting; Malkan snatched up a large heavy crossbow from the table and shot into Victor. I saw that it was like mine; it had a magazine so it could fire multiple bolts without reloading. Nina – well Nina did the most surprising thing. She became transparent, translucent; I recognized the effect. She became incorporeal, meaning that there was far more to her than met the eye; that power required a level of magic which was far beyond us at this time. The priests were also shouting as if the gates of hell had opened up beneath them. The priests formed a rank in front of the Konigsmarshall, and one of them touched the other, healing. Victor had moved up next to the priest and managed to hit him again but he had been healed so he did not manage to remove him, to paraphrase Lord Gallo. I stepped up into an area that was not covered with the magical silence and managed to cast my speed spell, which caught everyone thankfully. Nina, well Nina was…..giggling. That seemed very odd; as before, it was obvious that there was a lot more here than met the eye but I just didn’t know what! The Konigsmarshall had switched targets and was firing at Drudge since the archer was the only one capable to hurting him while the priests were blocking the warrior’s path to him. I could have told him that engaging in an archery duel with Drudge, especially when the latter was in receipt of a speed spell was not going to end well for him. Then something strange occurred: Victor turned to me, a glassy look in his eyes and hit me; very, very hard! When I woke up, I groaned. I could still feel that falchion slashing into me. I wasn’t sure what had happened but I could see that Felix was next to me. I was still on the ground at this point but I could see that both the priests had retreated to be nearer the Konigsmarshall. Nina was by the far wall as before, incorporeal and still giggling; and there were shouts from above. The Konigsmarshall had dropped the crossbow and had drawn a golden flail. As he moved, I could glimpse a flash of beautiful silver armour under his clothes. The priests had again drawn ranks in front of him but I could see that now they were both quite hurt. Longhelim had just finished dealing a couple of severe blows to one of them and then Victor, stepped up and almost ferally sliced once, twice, and both priests were…….removed. More arrows from Drudge hit the Koningsmarshall and still Nina did nothing, just watching until suddenly I saw her step through the wall. The Konigsmarshall tried to fight against the two warriors but he was badly overmatched. I am not sure how good a strategist he was but he was certainly only a middling warrior as both Victor and Longhelim tore into him. He did not last very long but then suddenly, an armoured figure dropped through the hole in the ceiling, which presumably led to the surface; obviously the first reinforcements from the camp. Although this individual fell down the hole, he got up as quickly as he could and then charged into Longhelim and Victor. The paladin took a moment to begin making signs to get down the hole. We had achieved our objective. The Konigsmarshall had been removed; to make sure that this was so, Victor put a slash of his falchion into him as he finished dealing with the knight who had fallen down the hole. While the others were making their way down the hole and others were dragging Malkin’s body towards it, I put a spell under the hole. It was a mildly poisonous cloud; at best it was an inconvenience and at worst it was worst it was something that would bring up someone’s stomach contents and unsettle them quite badly for a short period of time. Longhelim covered the retreat while the others converged around the hole in the floor. Another knight jumped down the hole and engaged the warrior; Victor was shouting for everyone to get away while he fenced with this individual; then, glancing behind him, he could see that almost everyone was down the ladder, he gave a cunning twist to his sword and the knight fell. After that, Victor slid down the ladder and the dwarves removed it expertly. Nearly everyone else was down the corridor at this point and Victor ran down it, shouting: “Blow it now!” Then we all sped down, taking Malkan’s body with us. As we turned a corner, we heard another mighty explosion and an avalanche of dirt behind us. We still sped down the first part of the corridor as fast as we could. It should have been difficult to remove all that dirt behind us but one never knew what tricks the enemy had……as was proved in a moment. As we sped down the corridor, suddenly Nina walked through the wall. She was clapping her hands and smiling gleefully. We could hear her shouting: “Well done boys, well done! You were magnificent!” After that she just walked through the wall again. As before, I really didn’t know what to make of that. The return journey through the tunnel was made at a slightly more leisurely pace. The tension had gone and the dwarves were now joking and one of them had brought out a wine skin which he passed to everyone. Everyone knew that we had done it and that the special mission had succeeded. One of two of the dwarves even began to sing, a martial tune, cheerful and full of brim and joy. This was a mighty victory and quite rightly their reputation would soar after their participation in it. We were also elated; we had just saved thousands of lives. The thought of the armies battling themselves to a bloody standstill was the reason why we engaged in this mission in the first place. I just hoped that Gallo would be able to negotiate a reasonable truce from a position of strength and one that could somehow ameliorate the suffering of the relatives who had lost someone in the battle. Our journey back took a little longer because we did not have the sense of urgency we had when going there. However, as soon as we reached Gallo’s command tent, he was there, outside. He was effusive in his praise. “You have done it! The enemy offensive is breaking up. It has lost cohesion. It began a little time ago but one can already see it. It doesn’t have the drive or confidence it had. All we have to do is hold and their battle line will break up. Gentlemen, you have my gratitude. You have saved the lives of thousands of my men. I will never forget; nor will I ever forget my promise to Seaquen. You look hurt and badly in need of succor. Please go back to the camp and rest. I will send chaplains to deal with your wounds; and thank you again. We will speak in the next few days. I have things to organize.” We took him at his word and first went back to our camp. There, the chaplains dealt with our wounds and after that, we went back to Gallo’s Fend, where we went back to our house. There, we slept as if we had not slept in a week. The next day, I memorized several spells which would allow us to find out about our various spoils of war. We had found several interesting objects and pieces on Malkan and Thravanvost, including rings, wands, weapons, armour and the flashy skull cap, which would be of great use to me. All of this took several hours and also provided a restful day. We did not know what was happening outside but there were no messengers rushing to our door which we took as good sign. I was certain that Gallo had not forgotten us. [/QUOTE]
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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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