Chapter Two, Part Three
Kathor’s mounted charge meets the line of Ragesians first, and he swings his mighty greatsword at the lead Ragesian. His foe is a skilled rider, though, and swerves his horse around a tree for cover. Kathor’s attack misses, but as his target and another break off from the charge to converge on him, he’s glad that at least he’s drawing opponents away the weaker mages. Kathor and his two opponents drive their horses among tightly packed flaming trees, trying to gain the upper hand in defensive positioning while making quick attacks whenever an enemy exposes himself. Because of the anti-fire balm on his horse, Kathor is able to edge closer to the flaming foliage, giving him an edge he needs while being pressed by two foes.
As the other four Ragesians bear down on the mages, they run into several obstacles. Rivereye had managed to discreetly toss out a bagful of caltrops in a ring around them, so as the first rider closes, his horse jerks in pain and balks, stopping the charge. Diogenes is unsure what kind of defense the Inquisitor might’ve given the soldiers, but he doubts that it would extend to the horses, so he targets a pair of horses with a sleep spell, causing them to collapse and drop their riders. Finally, as one of the Orcs starts to dismount so he won’t have to ride through the caltrops, Rantle charges him and catches him off-guard, nearly killing him.
Torrent, hoping that the Inquisitor might not have his defenses up yet, fires off a long line of spraying ice and frigid water, an arctic blast, but it has barely taken shape before antimagic negates it, wasting Torrent’s spell. Worse, moments later the Inquisitor follows up with a blanketing dispel effect, and suddenly Diogenes and Torrent feel most of their defensive magic cancelled, including Torrent’s fire resistance. No longer even marginally defended against the enemy warriors, Diogenes tries to cast sleep on one of the soldiers, but the Inquisitor counterspells it. Diogenes grimaces inwardly, but maintains his outward confidence.
Rivereye glances back to see why Crystin and Haddin aren’t helping, and though Crystin keeps glancing in their direction as if she wants to help, she seems unable or unwilling to leave her father, who is lying on the ground. Perturbed, the gnome tries to capture the Inquisitor in an ectoplasmic cocoon, only to feel his psionic energies scrambled. The cocoon begins to form around him instead, and in surprise he almost gets trapped in his own power, though he manages to jump away in time.
Kathor by this point is having serious trouble with his opponents. A bad swing ends up lodging his greatsword in a tree trunk, and the blade begins to glow red hot. While Kathor backs off and draws his back-up longsword, his opponents form a pincer around him, and he takes several hits that sting even through his armor.
Rantle realizes that the mages are having a hard time getting of their spells with the Inquisitor watching them, so he makes a tough choice and abandons them, charging toward the Inquisitor. This leaves Diogenes, Torrent, and Rivereye stuck facing four Orcs, heavily armed and armored. Undaunted, Torrent conjures her water axe and tries to fight off the soldiers to keep them away from Diogenes.
Rivereye creates a cocoon of ectoplasm that encases one of the soldiers, who falls to the ground, and Diogenes ducks behind a tree to get out of the Inquisitor’s line of sight so he can cast an illusion spell. Without line-of-sight, the Inquisitor cannot counterspell it, and suddenly a trio of snarling hellhounds burst from the nearby trees, landing and lunging toward the three Ragesian soldiers still standing. Two of them panic and turn to flee, but Torrent is distracted by them too, and takes a cruel upward slash across the face that knocks her to the ground and nearly unconscious. Diogenes makes a note to let his companions know that he can cast illusions so they won’t be distracted in the future.
Stuck between two opponents, Kathor manages to dehorse one when his own mount rears and kicks the Ragesian in the face with twin hooves, and for a moment he only has to fend off one opponent. The two circle in a small clearly, their swords clashing, while only a few feet away, Rantle charges past toward the Inquisitor.
The Inquisitor, realizing his error in not keeping any bodyguards nearby, tries to cast dominate on Rantle, but he shakes off the spell and swings at the bear-masked mage. His blow knocks the Orc off his feet, but simultaneously a chilling blast of energy bursts from a magical shield on the Orc, striking Rantle. It’s not enough to stop him, however, and he leaps upon the Orc with another heavy slash. His blade doesn’t pierce the energy shield, but with Rantle atop him, the Inquisitor cannot manage to cast any spells. Unfamiliar with the shield blocking his attacks, Rantle drops his sword and simply grapples the smaller Orc mage, pinning him in a chokehold while forcing himself to ignore the vicious cold that sears him. The Orc manages to shout for help once, his voice deep and commanding despite his panicked situation, and the two Ragesians fleeing the illusory hellhounds turn to head for Rantle.
Knowing Torrent is about to be cut down by the remaining Ragesian, Diogenes casts a fan of flames from his hand, aiming high so as to not risk hitting the wounded water mage. But the Ragesian manages to evade most of the flames, and he swings down for the killing blow against Torrent. At the same time, though, Torrent casts forth a desperate spray of water upward at the tree branches just overhead. The flames and water clash with a burst of steam and the crack of stressed wood, and a huge branch crashes down just as the Orc drives his blade into Torrent’s stomach. The impact pins the two of them together under hissing and steaming debris, both unconscious, Torrent near dying.
“Help her!” Rivereye shouts to Diogenes as the gnome runs toward the other end of the battlefield where Kathor and Rantle are. Along the way, he stops beside the cocooned soldier and psionically conjures a dagger. Knowing the cocoon will only last a few moments, he delivers a coup de grace to the soldier, then turns his attention toward the endangered warriors.
Kathor’s still-mounted opponent deflects one of Kathor’s swings high, then drives in with a quick thrust at his exposed armpit. The sword doesn’t impale, but it cuts a deep gouge, and Kathor starts to sag. The Orc makes for a killing blow, but Kathor’s horse jumps away at the last second, pulling him out of range, then rearing up to send a hoof connecting with the Orc’s face. The Orc falls off his horse, stunned, and Kathor commands his own horse to perform a special maneuver it has been trained for. His horse rears up and clamps down with both hooves, crushing the dehorsed Orc.
However, before it can kill off that foe, the other Orc manages to recover from his fall, and he drives his blade up under a plating on Kathor’s thigh. Weakened from multiple injuries, Kathor summons his strength for one last blow. He feels a surge of energy pass down his arm, and as he swings, his blow is guided by magic. It strikes true, beheading the Ragesian soldier cleanly.
Nearby, Rantle struggles to move in the grapple, interposing the Inquisitor’s body between himself and the Ragesian soldiers. The magical chill is taking its toll, but as he tightens his grip on the Inquisitor’s neck, he can feel the Orc’s body spasm, and the cold weakens. He holds on tightly with one arm and pulls out a boot knife with his other hand, savagely driving it into the Inquisitor’s throat for the killing blow. However, he is already surrounded by the soldiers, and they begin hacking down at him. He tries to move to make sure his armor takes all of the damage, but as he reaches for his greatsword, one of the Orcs kicks it away.
He tries to trip one of the Orcs to get an opening to roll away to safety, but the soldier dodges easily. Before he knows it, Rantle has been pinned to the ground by one of the Orcs, who is trying to find an opening in the armor to slide his blade through. Rantle struggles to fend him off, but the second Orc moves to fully pin him. Then the air fills with strange white strands, lines of ectoplasm which entangle the Orc still standing. With only one foe to contend with, Rantle manages to keep from getting disemboweled, but he can’t stand up.
Seeing Rantle in trouble, Kathor spurs his horse into a charge. As he closes on the grappling pair, he passes the tree his greatsword is stuck in, and ignoring the heat, he grasps it and tugs it free with the force of the charge. Its heat sears through his gauntlets, but he grits his teeth, lines up his mount, and slashes down as they ride by, tearing a great gouge in the Orc’s side and knocking him off Rantle. Kathor has to drop his sword, but Rantle has enough of an opening that he is able to stand, retrieve his own greatsword, and kill the Orc.
From about a hundred feet away, Diogenes calls to see if they need any help while he pulls the burning branches off the dying Torrent. But they have it under control, and as Rivereye delivers the coup de grace to the other cocooned Ragesian, Kathor drinks a much needed healing potion, and Rantle carefully loots the Inquisitor’s body. Meanwhile, Crystin and Haddin finally approach, and Crystin forces her father to hand over a healing potion to heal the vicious wound in Torrent’s abdomen. It keeps the water mage from dying, but she doesn’t regain consciousness.
Also, the Orc who nearly killed Torrent was only knocked out by the falling branches, not killed, and Diogenes quickly casts a charm spell on him while he’s unconscious, gathering the rest of the group around so they’ll be able to watch the interrogation.
While they wait for the Orc to come to, the group describes the loot they’ve garnered from the attackers. All of the soldiers had a fair amount of Imperial gold coins, but the real valuables – their weapons and armor – are all too heavy to carry effectively. Kathor gathers up a few swords and daggers to carry on his horse, but they leave the bodies in their armor for the forest’s flames to claim. They also decide, to Kathor’s disappointment, that it won’t be possible to bring the seven Ragesian horses with them, simply for logistical reasons. Disappointed to see horses die needlessly, Kathor tries to force the mounts to head toward the northern border of the woods, but most are too exhausted from the heat to budge.
The main prizes, however, come from the Inquisitor. He carried a pair of healing potions, and though they could use them to heal Torrent, they decide it’s safer to save their limited healing capacity for truly dire situations. Even better, apparently the Inquisitor’s bear mask has some sort of magical power, but when Rivereye tries it on, all it does for him is change his voice to sound almost like a deep, growling bear. Since they can’t figure out any practical use for it, they let the gnome keep his toy, which makes his head appear far too big for his body.
Best, at least in Diogenes’s mind, is the Inquisitor’s spellbook. A quick perusal reveals numerous useful spells against fire, multiple dispelling effects, and the crown jewel for an enchanter like Diogenes, dominate person. When Crystin notices the spell in the book, she starts to say something about her not liking that spell, but then she glance at her father and refuses to say anything more.
The surviving Orc finally comes to while they’re getting ready to ride on, and Diogenes has mostly lost interest in interrogating the haplessly charmed soldier. They get out of him the expected information that this group was just a section of those Inquisitors sent to guard the southern border of the Ragesian Heartlands, but most of them are staying out of the forest. Also, to their relief, the soldier is pretty certain that the Inquisitors weren’t after them specifically; they don’t know the group’s identity.
At this point, Diogenes wonders what to do with the prisoner, and he hits on an idea.
“Look here,” he says, producing some random dust from a pouch. “Let me cast this spell on you, and it’ll protect you from fire. I just need you to scout ahead a little ways, to make sure it’s safe for the rest of us, and then you can return to your unit, alright?”
“Oh, um, yes, of course,” the Ragesian soldier says, trusting Diogenes implicitly. “What am I looking for?”
Diogenes shrugs, pointing at a distant area about two hundred feet away where the fires are particularly intense. “Oh, just check out the thickest clumps of burning bushes and foliage, to see if there’s anything hiding in them. Make sure to check really closely.”
The Orc nods eagerly, oblivious. Diogenes helps him up, then sends him on his way. Confident that the fire won’t hurt him, the Orc rushes off to scout, and a few moments later, they hear a brief scream from the bushes. The Orc does not return.
