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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: 6093458" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>The night passed and in the morning we learned our spells. Once that was achieved, we advanced to the previous day’s vantage point; Felix cast his spells on Longhelim, Drudge and Victor who carried the priest, John and myself respectively. Three Weeping Ravens, in bird form, was sitting on Longhelim’s shoulder. Then we set out, walking across the sky.</p><p> </p><p>We were quite high up, pretty much on the same level as the monastery, so it was impossible to tell if someone spotted us from the ground; we could barely see the camp, never mind any individuals within it. As we approached our destination, Longhelim’s initial description was accurate although it did little to prepare me for the reality of the amazing architecture of the monastery: a series of buildings and towers were literally perched on mountain tops and cliff sides. The rooves of these buildings were red and had peculiar upturned edges; for added drama, a great many of the rooves were covered in clouds, with several of the edges and tops poking out of these, making it look like parts of the monastery were flying.</p><p> </p><p>As I was staring entranced at these extraordinary structures, I almost missed Victor tensing and slowing down; then he hissed:</p><p> </p><p>“Look, those clouds!”</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly I saw the “clouds”, large ones, flying rapidly, towards us. I recognized them immediately and screamed:</p><p> </p><p>“Those aren’t clouds! They’re air elementals! Big ones! Huge ones! We can’t fight these while we are in the air. Down, we need to go down!”</p><p> </p><p>These elementals were normally brought to our plane for specific purposes and these were flying towards us with great speed, showing a mastery of flight that was uncanny; if they decided to attack, then we were in very serious trouble; they were fearsome opponents, with finely attuned senses, enormous strength and an incredible flying skill that was granted to them due to their affinity with their element.</p><p> </p><p>One of them reached Longhelim and took a swipe at him. Well that answered that particular question. The inhabitants of the monastery had obviously changed; they had gone from indifferent and polite to hostile and rude. This did not augur well for any fact finding mission! Rapidly, I cast my spell of invisibility which cloaked all of us.</p><p> </p><p>This did confuse the elementals up to a point although both Felix and John cast several spells; the muttering of their spell casting in turn drew the elementals; as I had mentioned, they had uncanny senses and pursued any noise or murmur relentlessly. Then John cast his spell of magical silence and this allowed us to descend rapidly to the mountain path leading to the monastery. As we landed, the elementals were still flying around, still swiping the air where they thought we would be; by this time, John’s spell ran out and they used the noise made by the armour of the warriors as they moved to track us. They would not give up. We would not be able to run away from these. Poor Longhelim was their favoured victim.</p><p> </p><p>We reached the door of the monastery and John shouted:</p><p> </p><p>“Let us in! We’re friends! We want to talk!”</p><p> </p><p>I was beginning to get ready for battle. My spell of invisibility was going to run out soon. Despite all of this, we continued in the same manner for a little time. John was getting no reaction from the doors. There was an obvious slit in the doors which could be opened and through which the inhabitants could communicate without opening them. That slit remained stubbornly shut.</p><p> </p><p>Everyone was shuffling desperately around me as the elementals would step forward and swing wildly in spaces where they believed to be occupied. More often than not, they missed but a few times they managed to strike someone; Victor, Longhelim and Felix were all thumped in this manner. John then stepped back and cast a spell on the doors; I recognized it immediately: it was a spell that could magically unlock any door; except this one. It remained firmly shut. The rogue than stepped back and I could hear him muttering:</p><p> </p><p>“Just how many locks do they have on that door? More than two anyway……”</p><p> </p><p>The elementals were immediately drawn to the noise of spell casting again but thankfully, John had moved right away. Seeing the inevitable, I moved to Longhelim and gave him the spell which made it so difficult for weapons to penetrate his flesh. Then I moved just in time as an elemental swung into the space which I had just occupied. John, cleverly, took an alchemical thunderstone, designed to make a loud noise for distraction, and threw it behind the elementals; one of them was immediately drawn to the noise. The other continued to strike at a square uncomfortably close to Victor; then, moving slightly it had struck the warrior several times.</p><p> </p><p>I moved to Victor and attempted to cast the spell which would make his body hard to weapons but just as I was about to release it, I had to dodge and sway as a misty fist swept towards me; that movement completely spoilt my spell and I had to move back quickly before the elemental decided to give it another go. As I withdrew, I heard some sort of noise from the gate and a voice began to say something but only Victor was close enough to hear the words. He avoided a blow and then said:</p><p> </p><p>“But we’re not from the village. We have come from far away. Let us in!”</p><p> </p><p>Victor stepped away as the elemental swung several into the space where he had been; the senses of these things must have been incredibly keen. Another burst of words from the gate which I couldn’t hear as I was trying to avoid the elemental; the howling wind didn’t help either. Then Victor said in a loud voice:</p><p> </p><p>“We have to fight these. I don’t want to fight them; they are just guardians and mindless but the monks won’t let us in.”</p><p> </p><p>With that, he suddenly took several mighty swings at the elemental. Most of these connected although it was visible to everyone that it was difficult for even the Living Blade of Innenotdar to penetrate the cloud fully. It was definitely meeting some sort of resistance. Of course, as soon as he did this, he became visible. </p><p> </p><p>I sighed. There was nothing for it; we had to fight them. Like Victor, I didn’t want to but we would be unable to move away now and everyone was hurt to some extent; so I moved away, exposing several of the other members of the group. Then I cast my spell of speed on everyone.</p><p> </p><p>As soon as we became visible, the other elemental suddenly flew back with incredible speed. It was confronted by Three Weeping Ravens, John and I. Everyone else was concentrating on the other elemental. Longhelim, Drudge and Victor were laying a wave of steel on the outsider and they needed to; it was also using its massive fists to bludgeon and batter the warriors. Of all of them, Victor was suffering the most. The enemy was concentrating on him.</p><p> </p><p>I cast another spell; this time it was one that was designed to hinder the movement of an enemy, slow him down and stop him from having full movement ability. It was a powerful spell although it was difficult to push through. This time it worked on one of the elementals; the one facing Ravens. This allowed us to concentrate on the other; and we needed to. Victor was swaying, bloody from a continued battering. John had leapt across to try to help the warrior by trying to distract the elemental. Longhelim was also hitting it but like Victor, was finding it difficult to make his blows count fully. I began contributing by shooting my force missiles into it but it was such a tough opponent that it seemed to just shrug them off.</p><p> </p><p>Victor swayed ever more alarmingly and Felix ran to the fighter, staggering as he took a glancing blow on the way. He healed Victor just in time but some pain must still have lingered as the warrior swung wildly and missed a series of blows, allowing the elemental to hit him with two mighty blows. This time Victor burst into flames and collapsed.</p><p> </p><p>Swinging my staff, I let loose a fireball. The elementals nimbly dodged some of the fire but were still singed to the extent that the elemental that had been facing Longhelim and the others finally disappeared, sent back to its plane.</p><p> </p><p>Thankfully, the other was still hindered by my spell which curtailed its movement. Longhelim and Drudge immediately set upon it but poor Victor was still on the ground, wreathed in flames. Felix healed him again, as did John and despite still being badly hurt, Victor was game and moved to the new enemy. He swung a mighty blow and connected, visibly making the creature shudder. I used the fire ball once more; it dodged some of the flame but again it was singed. It hit out at Ravens, who had been facing it from the beginning but then Longhelim and Victor embarked on a sword dance of such skill and might that it left the elemental reeling badly; again and again, the swords of the warriors bit into it with such depth that it could not withstand them; these blows, in combination with another ball of fire, a strong one this time and a series of arrows flashing blue with cold, finally dissipated this enemy.</p><p> </p><p>We took stock and decided we had to leave here as quickly as possible. The spells which allowed Longhelim, Victor and Drudge to walk on air were still functional and as before, they carried the rest of us high up and back to our previous camp site. As we were returning, I turned to Victor, who was carrying me and asked:</p><p> </p><p>“The person in the Temple, what did they say?”</p><p> </p><p>Speaking loudly, so that the others could hear, he replied:</p><p> </p><p>“The first time, she just told us to leave; that we were not welcome here as outsiders; and to take our curse with us. The next time, she said that they wanted nothing to do with the curse laid on the village below and that until it was removed they wouldn’t speak with us. If we removed this curse of stillness as she called it, then she would ask for an audience on our behalf from the Masters. Frankly, from the way she sounded, she could have cared less if we lived or died at the hands of the elementals. ”</p><p> </p><p>I thought about this. I was still puzzled as to what was going on here. This curse of stillness suggested that the valley was being affected by some sort of magical lassitude, possibly explaining why the Ragesians were not being their usual offensive selves. It did not explain why the air elementals had not attacked them. Those creatures could create a powerful whirlwind and that would soon put paid to any military camp. Possibly, they had been conjured to defend the town or monastery or both; however, from what Victor said, the monk from the Temple definitely did not seem to have any control over them.</p><p> </p><p>Be that as it may, one could indulge in endless speculation about these events; the here and now involved our group being badly hurt and most of our spells being used for the time being. As we landed in our usual campsite, we immediately began healing. This involved using the last of Felix’s and John’s spells as well as some of our rapidly diminishing wands. By the time we finished, we were all still mildly bruised but feeling much better. After that, we settled down, some to watch, others to begin learning more spells.</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly, a while later, Longhelim called everyone to the overlooking ridge. The Ragesians were moving…….</p><p> </p><p>It was only a small group of infantry, no more than a dozen or so, but of greater interest were the two wyverns that rose lazily into the sky. The infantry swept into the town and even in the distance, we could see that they tore into the inhabitants with a fury; as the group passed passive figures, we could see them falling to the ground.</p><p> </p><p>Three Weeping Ravens had been growing more and more agitated:</p><p> </p><p>“Faden, you said you had a spell that can make the recipient fly? Please cast it on me! I must go and defend those villagers! They are innocent and defenceless!”</p><p> </p><p>“You plan to go there and start fighting a whole contingent of Ragesians?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes!”</p><p> </p><p>I looked at Longhelim, who just nodded. Shrugging, I cast the spell on the monk. He turned to us, incredulous:</p><p> </p><p>“Are you planning to let them kill all those innocents?”</p><p> </p><p>I wasn’t having that: “If you’re so concerned with innocents, where were you when so many of them were being slaughtered in Sour Lake Swamp? I certainly didn’t see you or your bunch lift a finger while people were dying because of the goblins, the dragon, the Three Witches…..nor did you do anything while everyone was huddling miserably in the camps near Seaquen. The only person I saw trying to make a difference there was the paladin, Laura Beck; and us, later. You and your lot were too busy keeping yourselves apart! We had to drag you in to talk to the other factions; not quite kicking and screaming but…..”</p><p> </p><p>His face twisted: “That was different. They weren’t fighting Ragesians.”</p><p> </p><p>John was having none of that either: “Dead is dead. Doesn’t matter if it’s done by a Ragesian, goblin or being killed for your blood by a mad tiefling; the end result is the same!”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, I’m doing something about it now!”</p><p> </p><p>And with that, he jumped into the air and, straining as much as he could, he flew into the town as fast as the magic would allow him.</p><p> </p><p>I was watching him, wondering when the first volley of arrows would fly towards him from the Ragesian camp. Behind me, I could hear Longhelim pacing about, cursing and kicking the odd stone on the road; I wasn’t really sure what the matter with him was. Victor was watching developments with me. Then, as Ravens flew over the camp, a strange thing happened; nothing……literally nothing; no arrows, spears, javelins, no spells, or even shouts. He had definitely been seen; I could see one or two figures pointing up at him but there was no action from the camp.</p><p> </p><p>I was still watching with Victor when a voice spoke behind me:</p><p> </p><p>“Coming Faden?”</p><p> </p><p>I turned around and with shock I realised that everyone else bar Victor was already mounted on a horse.</p><p> </p><p>Victor was also watching and he spoke in his usual quiet manner:</p><p> </p><p>“If we go down there, you realize that we trap ourselves, don’t you? In our current state, we have no way out.”</p><p> </p><p>In answer, the others rode past us. Wordlessly, Victor and I mounted our horses. I felt we had just made a truly fateful decision.</p><p> </p><p>Victor and I joined the others and wordlessly we automatically arranged ourselves in our usual formation. In the distance, we could just see that the initial group of infantry continued their rampage in the village. However, as we approached, we saw that the wyverns and their riders banked towards us and swooped to attack.</p><p> </p><p>As they reached us, they both released their dragon bombs; we recognized these from the attack on Gate Pass. They were a combination of a thunderstone together with several small containers of alchemical fire tied together; they were quite annoying missiles but their greatest threat was to buildings; upon hitting, the alchemical fire was adhesive and continued to burn for some time later. The Knights paid a heavy price for this audacity; as they both flew in to perform this attack, I hit them with a ball of fire from my staff and both Longhelim and Victor managed a mighty slash at the wyverns as they flew by; however none of these were anything in comparison to the devastation that was wreaked by Drudge and his bow.</p><p> </p><p>The Wyvern Knights were experiencing their worst nightmare; they were flying in the air, defenceless, exposed, while facing an expert archer. Both creatures banked, sharply, desperately wanting to get back. I was saving my staff, so I didn’t stick another ball of fire on top of them; Drudge was far more effective with his arrows anyway; not only that, but I had other concerns. One of those blasted bombs had hit me and I was on fire; I had to roll around on the snow to put out the flames around myself.</p><p> </p><p>The Knights picked their least worst option and landed near us; this put them in reach of the warriors and still left them exposed to Drudge but at least now they could attack their tormentors; or at least that was their intention. As soon as the first one landed, Victor stepped forward and employed another of those blows which I had seen him practice endlessly, night after night, by the campfire. Except that this time he used it on a real enemy and the wyvern collapsed after having its throat slashed with such accuracy that it had no time to react; the rider jumped clear but seemingly straight into a volley of Drudge’s arrows. That was the end of his war.</p><p> </p><p>The other also landed, near Drudge and the wyvern lashed out with its tail to hit Drudge; the stinger glistened with the poison but thankfully, the ranger seemed unaffected. The stinger still hurt though. Again, I was still saving my spells and that was the wise thing to do as Victor stepped forward again and walloped the wyvern which again collapsed. The last Knight was then struck by Longhelim, Drudge and Victor so he also lasted a very short time.</p><p> </p><p>Healing was given out quickly to those that needed it and then we resumed our quick advance to the village. We passed the Ragesian camp and receive a most peculiar reaction:</p><p> </p><p>“Hey, you shouldn’t go there! You shouldn’t even be here actually!” said one soldier in a bored, disinterested voice. Others raised their heads but didn’t even say anything. I shook my head; there was something really peculiar going on. It was obviously some sort of magical effect that dampened aggression to a level that made a fighting force completely useless.</p><p> </p><p>Since the soldiers were taking no steps to impede us, we hurried past, through the wall surrounding the town, until we began to reach the outskirts of Eresh; we began to see corpses everywhere, evidence of the passage of the small group of Ragesians that had lost their inhibition against violence.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 6093458, member: 6692807"] The night passed and in the morning we learned our spells. Once that was achieved, we advanced to the previous day’s vantage point; Felix cast his spells on Longhelim, Drudge and Victor who carried the priest, John and myself respectively. Three Weeping Ravens, in bird form, was sitting on Longhelim’s shoulder. Then we set out, walking across the sky. We were quite high up, pretty much on the same level as the monastery, so it was impossible to tell if someone spotted us from the ground; we could barely see the camp, never mind any individuals within it. As we approached our destination, Longhelim’s initial description was accurate although it did little to prepare me for the reality of the amazing architecture of the monastery: a series of buildings and towers were literally perched on mountain tops and cliff sides. The rooves of these buildings were red and had peculiar upturned edges; for added drama, a great many of the rooves were covered in clouds, with several of the edges and tops poking out of these, making it look like parts of the monastery were flying. As I was staring entranced at these extraordinary structures, I almost missed Victor tensing and slowing down; then he hissed: “Look, those clouds!” Suddenly I saw the “clouds”, large ones, flying rapidly, towards us. I recognized them immediately and screamed: “Those aren’t clouds! They’re air elementals! Big ones! Huge ones! We can’t fight these while we are in the air. Down, we need to go down!” These elementals were normally brought to our plane for specific purposes and these were flying towards us with great speed, showing a mastery of flight that was uncanny; if they decided to attack, then we were in very serious trouble; they were fearsome opponents, with finely attuned senses, enormous strength and an incredible flying skill that was granted to them due to their affinity with their element. One of them reached Longhelim and took a swipe at him. Well that answered that particular question. The inhabitants of the monastery had obviously changed; they had gone from indifferent and polite to hostile and rude. This did not augur well for any fact finding mission! Rapidly, I cast my spell of invisibility which cloaked all of us. This did confuse the elementals up to a point although both Felix and John cast several spells; the muttering of their spell casting in turn drew the elementals; as I had mentioned, they had uncanny senses and pursued any noise or murmur relentlessly. Then John cast his spell of magical silence and this allowed us to descend rapidly to the mountain path leading to the monastery. As we landed, the elementals were still flying around, still swiping the air where they thought we would be; by this time, John’s spell ran out and they used the noise made by the armour of the warriors as they moved to track us. They would not give up. We would not be able to run away from these. Poor Longhelim was their favoured victim. We reached the door of the monastery and John shouted: “Let us in! We’re friends! We want to talk!” I was beginning to get ready for battle. My spell of invisibility was going to run out soon. Despite all of this, we continued in the same manner for a little time. John was getting no reaction from the doors. There was an obvious slit in the doors which could be opened and through which the inhabitants could communicate without opening them. That slit remained stubbornly shut. Everyone was shuffling desperately around me as the elementals would step forward and swing wildly in spaces where they believed to be occupied. More often than not, they missed but a few times they managed to strike someone; Victor, Longhelim and Felix were all thumped in this manner. John then stepped back and cast a spell on the doors; I recognized it immediately: it was a spell that could magically unlock any door; except this one. It remained firmly shut. The rogue than stepped back and I could hear him muttering: “Just how many locks do they have on that door? More than two anyway……” The elementals were immediately drawn to the noise of spell casting again but thankfully, John had moved right away. Seeing the inevitable, I moved to Longhelim and gave him the spell which made it so difficult for weapons to penetrate his flesh. Then I moved just in time as an elemental swung into the space which I had just occupied. John, cleverly, took an alchemical thunderstone, designed to make a loud noise for distraction, and threw it behind the elementals; one of them was immediately drawn to the noise. The other continued to strike at a square uncomfortably close to Victor; then, moving slightly it had struck the warrior several times. I moved to Victor and attempted to cast the spell which would make his body hard to weapons but just as I was about to release it, I had to dodge and sway as a misty fist swept towards me; that movement completely spoilt my spell and I had to move back quickly before the elemental decided to give it another go. As I withdrew, I heard some sort of noise from the gate and a voice began to say something but only Victor was close enough to hear the words. He avoided a blow and then said: “But we’re not from the village. We have come from far away. Let us in!” Victor stepped away as the elemental swung several into the space where he had been; the senses of these things must have been incredibly keen. Another burst of words from the gate which I couldn’t hear as I was trying to avoid the elemental; the howling wind didn’t help either. Then Victor said in a loud voice: “We have to fight these. I don’t want to fight them; they are just guardians and mindless but the monks won’t let us in.” With that, he suddenly took several mighty swings at the elemental. Most of these connected although it was visible to everyone that it was difficult for even the Living Blade of Innenotdar to penetrate the cloud fully. It was definitely meeting some sort of resistance. Of course, as soon as he did this, he became visible. I sighed. There was nothing for it; we had to fight them. Like Victor, I didn’t want to but we would be unable to move away now and everyone was hurt to some extent; so I moved away, exposing several of the other members of the group. Then I cast my spell of speed on everyone. As soon as we became visible, the other elemental suddenly flew back with incredible speed. It was confronted by Three Weeping Ravens, John and I. Everyone else was concentrating on the other elemental. Longhelim, Drudge and Victor were laying a wave of steel on the outsider and they needed to; it was also using its massive fists to bludgeon and batter the warriors. Of all of them, Victor was suffering the most. The enemy was concentrating on him. I cast another spell; this time it was one that was designed to hinder the movement of an enemy, slow him down and stop him from having full movement ability. It was a powerful spell although it was difficult to push through. This time it worked on one of the elementals; the one facing Ravens. This allowed us to concentrate on the other; and we needed to. Victor was swaying, bloody from a continued battering. John had leapt across to try to help the warrior by trying to distract the elemental. Longhelim was also hitting it but like Victor, was finding it difficult to make his blows count fully. I began contributing by shooting my force missiles into it but it was such a tough opponent that it seemed to just shrug them off. Victor swayed ever more alarmingly and Felix ran to the fighter, staggering as he took a glancing blow on the way. He healed Victor just in time but some pain must still have lingered as the warrior swung wildly and missed a series of blows, allowing the elemental to hit him with two mighty blows. This time Victor burst into flames and collapsed. Swinging my staff, I let loose a fireball. The elementals nimbly dodged some of the fire but were still singed to the extent that the elemental that had been facing Longhelim and the others finally disappeared, sent back to its plane. Thankfully, the other was still hindered by my spell which curtailed its movement. Longhelim and Drudge immediately set upon it but poor Victor was still on the ground, wreathed in flames. Felix healed him again, as did John and despite still being badly hurt, Victor was game and moved to the new enemy. He swung a mighty blow and connected, visibly making the creature shudder. I used the fire ball once more; it dodged some of the flame but again it was singed. It hit out at Ravens, who had been facing it from the beginning but then Longhelim and Victor embarked on a sword dance of such skill and might that it left the elemental reeling badly; again and again, the swords of the warriors bit into it with such depth that it could not withstand them; these blows, in combination with another ball of fire, a strong one this time and a series of arrows flashing blue with cold, finally dissipated this enemy. We took stock and decided we had to leave here as quickly as possible. The spells which allowed Longhelim, Victor and Drudge to walk on air were still functional and as before, they carried the rest of us high up and back to our previous camp site. As we were returning, I turned to Victor, who was carrying me and asked: “The person in the Temple, what did they say?” Speaking loudly, so that the others could hear, he replied: “The first time, she just told us to leave; that we were not welcome here as outsiders; and to take our curse with us. The next time, she said that they wanted nothing to do with the curse laid on the village below and that until it was removed they wouldn’t speak with us. If we removed this curse of stillness as she called it, then she would ask for an audience on our behalf from the Masters. Frankly, from the way she sounded, she could have cared less if we lived or died at the hands of the elementals. ” I thought about this. I was still puzzled as to what was going on here. This curse of stillness suggested that the valley was being affected by some sort of magical lassitude, possibly explaining why the Ragesians were not being their usual offensive selves. It did not explain why the air elementals had not attacked them. Those creatures could create a powerful whirlwind and that would soon put paid to any military camp. Possibly, they had been conjured to defend the town or monastery or both; however, from what Victor said, the monk from the Temple definitely did not seem to have any control over them. Be that as it may, one could indulge in endless speculation about these events; the here and now involved our group being badly hurt and most of our spells being used for the time being. As we landed in our usual campsite, we immediately began healing. This involved using the last of Felix’s and John’s spells as well as some of our rapidly diminishing wands. By the time we finished, we were all still mildly bruised but feeling much better. After that, we settled down, some to watch, others to begin learning more spells. Suddenly, a while later, Longhelim called everyone to the overlooking ridge. The Ragesians were moving……. It was only a small group of infantry, no more than a dozen or so, but of greater interest were the two wyverns that rose lazily into the sky. The infantry swept into the town and even in the distance, we could see that they tore into the inhabitants with a fury; as the group passed passive figures, we could see them falling to the ground. Three Weeping Ravens had been growing more and more agitated: “Faden, you said you had a spell that can make the recipient fly? Please cast it on me! I must go and defend those villagers! They are innocent and defenceless!” “You plan to go there and start fighting a whole contingent of Ragesians?” “Yes!” I looked at Longhelim, who just nodded. Shrugging, I cast the spell on the monk. He turned to us, incredulous: “Are you planning to let them kill all those innocents?” I wasn’t having that: “If you’re so concerned with innocents, where were you when so many of them were being slaughtered in Sour Lake Swamp? I certainly didn’t see you or your bunch lift a finger while people were dying because of the goblins, the dragon, the Three Witches…..nor did you do anything while everyone was huddling miserably in the camps near Seaquen. The only person I saw trying to make a difference there was the paladin, Laura Beck; and us, later. You and your lot were too busy keeping yourselves apart! We had to drag you in to talk to the other factions; not quite kicking and screaming but…..” His face twisted: “That was different. They weren’t fighting Ragesians.” John was having none of that either: “Dead is dead. Doesn’t matter if it’s done by a Ragesian, goblin or being killed for your blood by a mad tiefling; the end result is the same!” “Well, I’m doing something about it now!” And with that, he jumped into the air and, straining as much as he could, he flew into the town as fast as the magic would allow him. I was watching him, wondering when the first volley of arrows would fly towards him from the Ragesian camp. Behind me, I could hear Longhelim pacing about, cursing and kicking the odd stone on the road; I wasn’t really sure what the matter with him was. Victor was watching developments with me. Then, as Ravens flew over the camp, a strange thing happened; nothing……literally nothing; no arrows, spears, javelins, no spells, or even shouts. He had definitely been seen; I could see one or two figures pointing up at him but there was no action from the camp. I was still watching with Victor when a voice spoke behind me: “Coming Faden?” I turned around and with shock I realised that everyone else bar Victor was already mounted on a horse. Victor was also watching and he spoke in his usual quiet manner: “If we go down there, you realize that we trap ourselves, don’t you? In our current state, we have no way out.” In answer, the others rode past us. Wordlessly, Victor and I mounted our horses. I felt we had just made a truly fateful decision. Victor and I joined the others and wordlessly we automatically arranged ourselves in our usual formation. In the distance, we could just see that the initial group of infantry continued their rampage in the village. However, as we approached, we saw that the wyverns and their riders banked towards us and swooped to attack. As they reached us, they both released their dragon bombs; we recognized these from the attack on Gate Pass. They were a combination of a thunderstone together with several small containers of alchemical fire tied together; they were quite annoying missiles but their greatest threat was to buildings; upon hitting, the alchemical fire was adhesive and continued to burn for some time later. The Knights paid a heavy price for this audacity; as they both flew in to perform this attack, I hit them with a ball of fire from my staff and both Longhelim and Victor managed a mighty slash at the wyverns as they flew by; however none of these were anything in comparison to the devastation that was wreaked by Drudge and his bow. The Wyvern Knights were experiencing their worst nightmare; they were flying in the air, defenceless, exposed, while facing an expert archer. Both creatures banked, sharply, desperately wanting to get back. I was saving my staff, so I didn’t stick another ball of fire on top of them; Drudge was far more effective with his arrows anyway; not only that, but I had other concerns. One of those blasted bombs had hit me and I was on fire; I had to roll around on the snow to put out the flames around myself. The Knights picked their least worst option and landed near us; this put them in reach of the warriors and still left them exposed to Drudge but at least now they could attack their tormentors; or at least that was their intention. As soon as the first one landed, Victor stepped forward and employed another of those blows which I had seen him practice endlessly, night after night, by the campfire. Except that this time he used it on a real enemy and the wyvern collapsed after having its throat slashed with such accuracy that it had no time to react; the rider jumped clear but seemingly straight into a volley of Drudge’s arrows. That was the end of his war. The other also landed, near Drudge and the wyvern lashed out with its tail to hit Drudge; the stinger glistened with the poison but thankfully, the ranger seemed unaffected. The stinger still hurt though. Again, I was still saving my spells and that was the wise thing to do as Victor stepped forward again and walloped the wyvern which again collapsed. The last Knight was then struck by Longhelim, Drudge and Victor so he also lasted a very short time. Healing was given out quickly to those that needed it and then we resumed our quick advance to the village. We passed the Ragesian camp and receive a most peculiar reaction: “Hey, you shouldn’t go there! You shouldn’t even be here actually!” said one soldier in a bored, disinterested voice. Others raised their heads but didn’t even say anything. I shook my head; there was something really peculiar going on. It was obviously some sort of magical effect that dampened aggression to a level that made a fighting force completely useless. Since the soldiers were taking no steps to impede us, we hurried past, through the wall surrounding the town, until we began to reach the outskirts of Eresh; we began to see corpses everywhere, evidence of the passage of the small group of Ragesians that had lost their inhibition against violence. [/QUOTE]
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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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