Interlude
Child’s Play
Marcus was tired, hungry, dirty and cranky. He had been stumbling along behind the lumbering wagon, loaded with squalling babies, for nearly three days. He had been very scared for most of that time…so scared that he soiled his trousers several times…but now his natural petulance and anger were beginning to overcome the fear he had of his captors.
The two dark ladies were scary, especially the shorter one. Her voice was like his mother’s when she was cross with him, whip-like and stern, except ten times so. The taller lady seldom spoke. When she did, she evoked the same feeling he had when tasting honeycomb that had been in the sun too long, sweet at first, then bitter. Even so, they mostly left the children alone - as did the shuffling men and women that obeyed their every word. Marcus recognized some of the faces and even tried to talk to Talmus once, but the militiaman had wandered past without even a glance. Talmus smelled funny and had lots of dried blood on him, but he looked better than some of the others…some of them didn’t even have faces! No, Marcus had grown so used to all of it that he didn’t even stiffen up when one came by…unless it was the Dark Man.
The Dark Man, with his odd-looking armor, closed-faced helm and stiff gait still sent chills down Marcus’s spin. Anytime the man passed, a wave of cold emanated from him. Behind the nasal and eye-sockets of the helm, red points of light shone, evil and malevolent. Even the babies stopped crying when the Dark Man was near, so he spent most of his time by the middle wagon.
The three other ruffians that accompanied the caravan, all unsavory sorts with unkempt hair and scraggly beards spent the most time around the older children. They were quick with a boot toe or the back of a hand if their orders weren’t followed, so most children cringed involuntarily as they passed. One of them drove the wagon Marcus was tied to and the other two kept watch on Mr. Kyndalyn and a couple of others in the last wagon.
There had been five others with Mr. Kyndalyn when the Dark Man had loaded them into the wagon, but three of them where gone. Marcus hadn’t known two of the men, but Mr. Josephus had disappeared last night. Marcus had learned to shut his ears to the screams that came from the Dark Ladies tent when they stopped at night and he wondered if the screams had anything to do with Mr. Josephus and the others disappearing.
Marcus, lost in thought, stumbled over an uneven paving stone in the Lords Road and fell heavily. His bound hands partially broke his fall, but it still scrapped more skin from his already ragged hands and knees.
“Get up, yer little wretch!”
One of the ruffians in the wagon behind him shouted and flicked his horsewhip with practiced ease. The tip of the whip brushed across the lad’s shoulder, ripping the fabric and raising an ugly red welt. Marcus yelped and tried to struggle to his feet before the wagon he was tied to drug him along the hard stone. Britta and Worm reached down to help him up. He managed to stand and stumbled forward as the slack on the rope grew taught. Worm and Britta held firm, so he didn’t fall again. The trio of six-year old’s struggled on to the derisive laughter of the two ruffians.
Britta, blond and pretty except for a shiny black eye, whispered, “Courage, Marcus, we will help you.”
Worm nodded and grinned. Worm wasn’t Drusin’s real name of course, but he could get into or out of almost anything, so the children of Glynden had called him Worm for as long as Marcus could remember. He snuck a look over his shoulder at the ruffians and bobbed his head at his bound hands. “Look!”
Marcus glanced at Worm’s hands and noticed the hemp twine was very loose. Worm grinned at Marcus with a conspiratorial grin and raised a finger to his lips. “Shhhh…”
A shadow crossed overhead briefly, followed by a crating caw. One of the large ravens that followed the Dark Ladies around flapped over Marcus’s head, landed on the shorter lady’s shoulder and started making a racket. The Dark Lady spoke a word and the bone chariot she and the taller Dark Lady rode in – a chariot drawn by skeletal horses – came to a halt. The rest of the caravan closed up, halting on the south end of a large stone bridge over a deep rocky gorge.
The tall Dark Lady turned and snapped an order. “Five minutes. Water and food – children only – let the others enjoy the warmth of the sun.”
The two ruffians in the last wagon grumbled and dismounted, bringing with them a large bucket of water and a bag of bread crusts. “I will be glad when we are rid of these whelps,” one snarled as they ladled out water and distributed the moldy bread to Marcus, Britta, Worm and the four other older children tied to the back of the middle wagon.
The other nodded, but his beady eyes lingered on Britta for an unhealthy length of time. He caught the little girl’s eye, revealed several rotten teeth with a lopsided leer and wagged his tongue at her. The little girl gasped and turned away. He laughed harshly as he moved towards the infant wagon.
After they moved out of the children’s direct line of sight, Worm dropped into a crouch, pulling the others down with him. “Let’s run and hide. Look, there are some bushes over there, we can…”
“Shhhhh…you’re gonna get us in trouble.” Miriam, widely known in Glynden as the worst tattletale around, tried to quiet them.
“You shut up,” growled Braxis the Younger. The lad, son of Braxis the Smith, already showed the promise of his father; broad shoulders and large hands.
The pair began to argue, but a hiss from Britta caused them to fall silent. The Dark Man, chilling cold preceding him, walked to the end of the wagon and fixed his crimson gaze on the knot of youngsters. They cringed and cowered. Apparently satisfied with his ability to frighten small children, the Dark Man turned on his armored heel and headed back to the bone chariot.
Worm swallowed hard and looked at the others with fearful eyes. “Well?”
Braxis nodded, “Do it…but me first!”
Worm slipped his bonds in the blink of an eye and started working on Braxis. His nimble fingers made quick work of the rope. Braxis grinned and moved to Britta, puffing out his chest. “I will free you, Britta.”
Marcus tittered madly as Worm moved to him. Once Britta was free, she grabbed Braxis’s hand and yanked him toward the last wagon. “C’mon…let’s go get Mr. Kyndalyn. He can whoop these bad folk.”
Braxis looked towards the bushes and then towards Marcus and Worm before looking back at Britta. He reluctantly allowed himself to be pulled along by the willful girl. Marcus and Worm grinned at each other and started working on other captive children’s bonds. They had almost freed another boy when a gravely voice froze them in mid-pull.
“Hey!”
Marcus glanced up to see one of the ruffians standing by the back left corner of the wagon; bucket in one hand, ladle in the other and a confused look on his face. All of the terror, pain, hunger and indignation that Marcus had suffered over the past few days welled up in the youngster, who coiled his legs underneath him and launched himself at the man. His head connected with the man’s groin, driving the contents upward and inward. The ruffian let out garbled scream and double over.
(DM’s Note: Anyone who has every been around small kids knows what this one feels like 
)
Marcus looked at Worm, who seemed frozen by fear and indecision. “RUN!”
Worm nodded vigorosly and began to run towards the bushes on the north side of the road. His first few steps took him right into the legs of another ruffian. “C’mere, ya little rat!”
Worm cried out as the man grabbed him by the front of his tunic and yanked him off the ground, and then sank his teeth into the man’s hand, forcing him to let go. Worm fell to the ground and scrambled under the wagon. “Gah…you’ll die for that!”
Marcus glanced over his shoulder as he ran towards the back of the last wagon and saw the ruffian pulling out and loading a light crossbow. He skidded to a halt and cast around desperately for a weapon. He grabbed a plum-sized piece of cracked paving stones, sighted and hurled it. The sharp rock hit the man in the temple and he staggered, loosing his bolt into the dirt. The ruffian yelled again and swung towards Marcus, fumbling for another bolt. Marcus squeaked and ducked around the end of the wagon.
“By the Shadow, what is happening back there?” The short Dark Lady’s keen voice cut through the din.
Any response by her minions was drowned out by flash and roar as a fireball erupted at the head of the column, incinerating a score of undead troops. Another shouted command turned into a cry of pain. Marcus didn’t know what was going on to the front of the caravan, but it didn’t sound good. He crouched behind the end of the last wagon and called up to Britta and Braxis. “Let’s go…they are gonna kill us!”
A shuffling sound behind him caught his attention. There, behind the ponies tethered to the back of the wagon, stood large squad of rotting corpses, awaiting orders. Fear threatened to overtake the lad, but he swallowed the bile that rose in his throat and pleaded with Braxis and Britta.
“Al…most…done!” came the response from above.
A throaty voice, croaking from a parched throat, ordered, “Get out of here, you fool kids…save yourselves!”
Another nearly unintelligible grunt concurred. The sounds of pandemonium echoed from the front of the caravan, with shouted war cries, the detonation of another fireball and a blood-chilling scream. Braxis and Britta teetered on the edge of the wagon for a moment, then a crossbow bolt pierced gunwale next to Britta’s leg. The little girl dropped to the ground and sprinted to the south, Braxis in tow. Marcus started to follow, but saw a large shadow appear around the corner of the wagon in that direction.
He stifled a yelp, turned and ran north, angling for a clump of bushes.
The ruffian standing at the rear of the middle wagon grinned and sighted his crossbow at the running boy, tightening his finger on the trigger. “Goodbye, mangy bastard…”
Another rock hit the man in the head just as he released the bolt. The missile clipped Marcus in the shoulder instead of striking him square in the back. The force of the blow spun Marcus in complete circle, but he somehow managed to keep his feet and dove towards the bushes.
Behind the reeling ruffian, Worm grinned momentarily before dashing after Marcus. The man, head ringing and bleeding from two serious rock blows, dashed the bloody sweat from his vision with the back of his hand. He growled and staggered towards the back of the wagon, shouting at the stationary undead platoon to do something and grasping for another bolt. The undead ignored his command and continued to wait.
Cursing, the ruffian slapped a bolt into the slot and brought the weapon up, aiming it center-of-mass on Worm’s fleeing body. “You shan’t get away, little wor…”
The rest of the man’s spoken thought passed into oblivion as a huge fist lashed out over the tailgate of the wagon and struck the man a crashing blow in the side of the head. A resounding “crack” rose above the tumult for a grain and the man fell without a noise, head lolling on shattered neck bones.
A nearly naked form, a bird-like birthmark marring his broad shoulders, dropped from the wagon and divested the dead man of his gladius. Röse of the Brigantes, his heart filled with anger and spirit soaring at the sound of battle towards the head of the caravan, hefted the newly liberated weapon, let out a war cry and charged!
(DM’s Note: This was a fun session. I made up mini-PC sheets for half-a-dozen of the older children seized from Glynden, gave each one of them a skill or two and handed them to the PCs at the beginning of the session. It gave them a chance to impact the action from the kid’s point of view and was pretty funny. They actually all managed to survive, although several were wounded. They also popped a couple of the human retainers in the head with well-thrown rocks and were able to free Röse. Made for a nice change of pace 
. Unfortunately, I can't find my notes on this session, so the names have been changed to protect the innocent children 
! )
To Be Continued...
Next: Session 23 (Part Five): Turnabout is Fair Play
Enjoy!
~ Old One
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
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