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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Black Omega" data-source="post: 1020312" data-attributes="member: 79">The line of illusionary Crab cresting the hill behind the flank of the Cyricians certainly did catch their attention. Toshiro’s thundering voice delivering that challenge did even more.  The cavalry on the left flank were panicked by the sudden appearance of a hundred samurai behind them, and fled from the field.  While the horse archers on the right flank were caught in a tangle of plant growth, courtesy of Mir.[GM Note:  Toshiro’s player rolled a natural 20 on the Intimidation check for his dramatic entrance.  That was worth some undisciplined follows of Cyric panicking and running away.]The dramatic entrance also drew a swift response from the Cyricians.  40 of the Yabanjin hunters, with a few clerics and one wizard, were sent up to assail the small force of Crab samurai.  As the wizard’s first fireball fell among the gathered samurai, the halforc wizard quickly realized what had already been suspected.  An illusion.“It’s a trick!  Charge up there and kill them all!  There’s only a few of them, the rest is illusion!”  the wizard shouted, before falling into silence as Mir’s ‘raven’ familiar flew in, enchanted with a spell of Silence and Invisibility Purge.The samurai might have been illusion, but Volar’s next trick was not.  A boiling cloud of foul smelling fog engulfed the charging barbarians, and barely half staggered through, surviving the Cloudkill.  Even twenty Yabanjin with axe and shield were nearly enough to overwhelm the party, though.  Naga was badly wounded protecting Mindra as the monkey dashed from point to point, healing the fighters.  Mir was distracted from the combat for a time as the wizard retreated from the area of Silence.  A Conjuring Bolt not only injured her familiar badly, but it created an evil looking hawk to chase the bird all over the field.The battle was bloody.  Volar was conserving spells for later battles and Mindra was forced to summon up a Dire Ape to help out Kaz.  But slowly the tide turned as Verick, Toshiro and Kaz took a toll on the Yabanjin.  Their flashing katana cutting down one or two at a time.  After a solid minute of hard fighting the Yabanjin had enough and withdrew quickly from the battlefield.Mir’s ‘raven’ familiar was doing the exact same thing, flying as fast as he could back to Mir while trying to dodge the fiendish hawk in pursuit.  A magic missile from the wizard almost finished off the poor bird before it flew behind Mir, currently invisible.  With a thud the fiendish hawk flew straight into Mir, falling stunned from the impact and easily finished off.  With his troops in retreat, the halforc wizard picked the better part of valor and retreated with them.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Their illusion revealed, it was just the party now moving along the back edge of the battle field.  Here and there, they encountered small groups of bandits.  But nothing that could threaten such powerful warriors and spell casters.  Thanks to Mir’s healed up familiar, they had a bird’s eye view of the battle as it developed.  The first line collapsing under the Unicorn assault.  The second line holding firm in the beginning but then starting to fade under the relentless pressure.  Drums pounded behind the Unicorn lines and banners waved, directing the assault as a other wave of fireballs exploded among the bandits, triggering a weaker, mixed assault of lightning and fire back from the bandit wizards.Now Mir’s familiar started to notice, the air over the battlefield had gotten more crowded.  There had been several birds flying over the battle, assumed to be wizard’s familiars helping them keep track of what was going on.  But now there were twenty or more hawks, with some eagles circling the battlefield.  Until an unseen signal was given and the hawks attacked every other bird in the air, including Mir’s thrush.  As this began, the eagles swooped down low, forms twisting as they pulled up to a near stop and changed tohuge bears and other forest animals who began an assault on the now trapped Yabanjin hunters.Mir’s ‘raven’ was forced to retreat quickly to the safety of Mir, needing a little more healing before being sent out again.  Instructed fly low and stay out of trouble, Mir’s familiar was to find Shinjo Yuji and stay close, so they could relay messages to him.  The second line of the bandits was broken, it’s cohesion lost as the battle went on.  Some of the hunters simply withdrew.  Others retreated to the third line, ready to fight again.  Banners rushed from place to place on the Unicorn side as they took advantage of the lull to move forward fresh samurai to the front lines, withdrawing battered units to the reserve.  And then the battle began anew.  The final line of Rodrigo’s bandits held firm against the attack.  Viktor even pushed forward a little, anchoring his flank against the plant growth dropped there by Mir.Once the battle was fully joined, a shadow fell over the field.  Skeletons and zombies began to rise from the spots of the battlefield they were buried.  On the right flank twisted creatures that could only be Oni came into view, swinging around the plant growth to attack with fearsome force.  While on the Cyrician side, the Bloodspeakers rode into view.  More undead leading the way, followed by four riders in icy black armor, Shahai’s Iron Lords who spread fear all around them.  And finally Shahai herself, with other maho-tsukai, dealing out terrible spells that left brave samurai clawing out their own eyes in horror.And behind it all, the party circling around toward the middle, toward the gruesome banner that held Toshiro’s fiancé.  But they weren’t the only people back there on a mission.  And as some smoke swept over the battlefield, another group came into view just a hundred feet away.  A squat, heavily armored cleric of Beshaba.  A ronin in lion colors, with a fur trimmed haori, a sleeveless jacket worn over armor.  A wizard in a mask showing spread wings.  And someone the party recognized easily.  Taka, Verick’s old double sword worn slung over his shoulder, his trusty bow in hand.  As soon as they spotted the group, they attacked.  The ronin and cleric charging forward as Taka began to pincushion Verick.  And the wizard gestured, evoking a fiery blast that engulfed the party.</blockquote>

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