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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2713157" data-attributes="member: 1210">“Hsst!  Wake up!”“Huh?”  Sir Cedric mumbles.  “What ith happening?”  He sits up, rubbing his eyes. “Tydonians!” Goer murmurs.  “In the fields!  I heard them.”Sir Cedric pulls himself up.  “Quickly, thquire!  My armor!”  Goer immediately begins strapping his armor on.”  The others are already drawing laces tight, strapping blades on and otherwise making ready.  Otis scowls into the darkness. “I don’t see them,” he remarks tensely.Kyle suggests, “Master, perhaps if you were to cast a spell of light onto a stone, I could sling it in their direction.  That might reveal them!”Otis nods, and in a moment the plan is carried out; but where the stone lands, no Tydonians are revealed.  “They must be further back,” Dahlia states.Then a light streaks in from the darkness- a little bead of glowing red- into the midst of our heroes.  It takes but a moment to reach them, traveling at incredible speed, and then it detonates in a roar of flames.  Sir Cedric catches the blast squarely, giving a shout of pain, while Otis manages to stumble away from the worst of it.  Kyle throws himself flat below the fireball and manages to avoid even being singed!Off in the fields, another light is becoming visible: a fire starting to crackle in the wheat.Dahlia grits her teeth and mumbles to herself.  Suddenly eldritch green fire outlines a pair of soldiers near the burning wheat.  “There they are!” she cries.  “Get them!”Sir Cedric springs into the saddle and kicks his heels into Thunderpuss.  The rest of the party begins running forward, and Cara- whose pregnant belly is beginning to distend- starts to sing to instill her companions with confidence.  Meanwhile, Dahlia continues to murmur, waving her hands around.  She seems to be almost in a trance.  The plants near the glowing soldiers begin twisting about, grabbing them around the ankles.  Wheat stalks begin twining around their arms, entangling them.  Otis fires off a pair of magic missiles, but he has misjudged the distance: the Tydonians are out of range.  With a frown he begins hurrying forward reluctantly.The thundering of hooves announces the arrival of the Tydonian knight, moving with lance cradled in his elbow to charge Sir Cedric.  The two rush together in a blur and a clang of steel, and when they part the Tydonian is badly wounded.*  Meanwhile missiles are starting to whiz by- arrows and stones from our heroes, several finding their mark.  The Tydonian men-at-arms begin to fall.  Cedric, from his position, can see that a pair of Tydonians are flanking some kind of wooden box in a cart.  One of them shouts in Tydonian, a language a few of our heroes understand: “Now!  Get them!”  Suddenly a volley of magic missiles shoots into Cedric, coming out of the box!  He gives a cry of pain as the knight swings in for another pass at him, and they meet again in a clash of weapons and hooves and a spray of blood!Otis raises an eyebrow and fires another volley of his own magic missiles at the soldier who yelled, dropping him in a single spell.  Satisfied, he nods to himself.  The momentum of the battle has clearly turned against the Tydonians as Thunderpuss lashes out and knocks the enemy knight unconscious, and in only a few more seconds they surrender.  Dahlia, meanwhile, has turned her attention to the burning wheat and manages to put it out with a series of create waters.“Tydonian scum!” barks Cara, slapping one of them.Our heroes disarm the survivors and bind them.  Sir Cedric applies some first aid to the knight, who he recognizes as Sir Guisome the Sickly of Tydonia, and wonders what a knight’s ransom will be.  I can claim it for father and I, he thinks in delight.Meanwhile, Jorgen intervenes as Cara continues to abuse the prisoners.  “There’s no need for that,” he insists, and eventually- reluctantly- she gives way.  “These scum attacked our town and burned my house!” she spits.  “Just don’t try anything!” she warns the prisoners.“What about the box?” Kyle asks.  “We should open it!” “Why?  We know what’s in there- a wizard,” Jorgen points out.  Meanwhile, Otis has begun searching the dead and the captives.  “Well, are we sure?” wonders Kyle.  “And why would he be in a box?”  Turning to the box, the apprentice wizard softly calls out, “Hello?  Is there anybody in there?”  He starts to reach for the latch.“Hold on a second, I’m not so sure about that,” Dahlia says quickly.“Listen to this!” Otis announces.  He is holding a note that he found on the knight.  Everyone turns to him.  “Meet our friends in the graveyard on 7/16.  They will have a few interesting items for you in trade for the elf.  They serve our cause.”Everyone’s eyes turns to the box.“No,” Kyle breathes.  “An elf?”“We should open it,” Dahlia declares at once.“Hello?” Kyle calls again, this time in Elven.  “Is there anyone in there?  Hello?”  he cocks his head to listen, but all he hears is breathing and a faint whimper.  Wide-eyed, he turns to the others.  “We’ve got to open it!”“All right,” Jorgen agrees reluctantly.  “Go ahead.”Slowly Kyle’s hands work the latch.  “We’re opening the box,” he says again in Elven.  “We’re friends.”  Then he swings the lid open. Within the box is a strange, slight figure- almost gaunt.  It matches the descriptions of elves in all the stories almost exactly: tapered, pointed ears; large almond-shaped eyes; pale skin.  Except, that is, for the stumps where his arms and legs have been hacked off. Next Time: What do our heroes do with the elf?  What happened to Cur?  And what about the wedding of Sir Cedric and Cara Reed?</blockquote>

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