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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sayburr" data-source="post: 95360" data-attributes="member: 92">Out of the Woods and into the Fire...     We travel the rest of the day leading our horses thru the trees. We make camp when there is not enuf light coming thru the trees and set our guard rotation. That night on my shift, I am just getting up from adding a little wood to our small fire when I notice the air just inside the fire’s light shimmering just like it would directly over a fire. I will Flamesinger into my hand and call to the others as a smoky cloud with wings and claws and fangs appears and attacks me. I slash at it and wound it as it does me and then it disappears. The others are tumbling out of their sleeping rolls now, trying to get to me and the manifestation. I slash wildly at the area I saw it last. It reappears and rakes me with its claws and slams me with one of its wings and tries to bite me too! I had thought the animated shield was bad enuf but this creature has two more attacks to guard against then the shield did. Ars and Pan and Amber are all ready to fight now. I slash out at my invisible foe again. It reappears in a different spot and draws my blood again. Ars and Pan must have been waiting for it to reappear. As soon as it is visible again they lay into it hard. So does Amber.  I can’t wait. I can smell Daresh on this thing somehow. That scent overrides my good sense to follow the good plan Ars and the others are using. I continue to slash at it as quickly as I am able. That is how the dance goes. I attack it wildly and then become the bait to draw it into the open and then the others attack it when they can see it. It works quite well actually. Only my blood is spilled and the apparition is put down after several trades of claw and steel. After the thing falls, I notice a note attached to its body. How do you attach something to a puff of smoke? I take the note off the body. It is from Daresh. The brazenness of that bitch must know no boundaries! It says that we should give up now because all of our efforts will be futile anyway. I think that once I take her down I will see if Amber can keep her alive long enuf for me to build a fire and shovel the flaming embers into the hole where her guts used to be. We must have her worried tho. Why else would she even waste her time sending this thing after us? I wonder how she found us. The last time I could see her finding us. She probably knew what ingredients we needed for the coin and figured the closest place would be Xaarum. We blundered right into that one. We made that one easy for her. But out here? No matter. I would wager a hundred gold against one that she will have no trouble finding the sharp edge of Flamesinger when we do meet.     We make it the rest of the way out of the woods with no problems. When we do clear the trees, we see smoke filling the sky where Xaarum should be. That makes me double glad we avoided it. We continue our march but can’t help glancing that way every so often, drawn by some morbid fascination. After we are too far to watch the smoke’s base anymore, I ask the others if they think it might be a good idea to stop at Soona to book passage on a ship in our names heading north to Skaarna. I think Daresh has had spies watching us for sometime and that has been how she has seemed or been smarter than us. Ars asks what good it would do to take a boat instead of riding. I sigh heavily and say we just book it, we don’t actually take the ship. Maybe even get some ringers to actually take the ride in our places to really make it look good. “Ringers?” he asks. I have to explain that to him as well, maybe he is a goody-two-shoes after all. The others agree that it is a good plan.  The rest of the day is uneventful.       Our second day out of the woods, we meet some dwarves on the trail heading south. Ars looks at me and asks, “Daresh?”. I tell him I don’t think so. We ride on trying to act casually. Pan speaks to them after we get close enuf to do so. They chat for a short time while we sit there. I don’t understand a word of it except that I do hear Xaarum a few times. She bids them good-bye and we ride on. She tells us that they are heading to Xaarum. They believe that the Kalamarians are responsible for its burning. They also mentioned a dragon. We ride on.     On the third day out of the woods, we see something large and white off to one side of the road (didn’t I ask him to keep us off the roads?) far ahead. As we get closer, it looks like a big tent or canvas shelter sitting on the ground. I tell them I am going to see what it is. Ars says he is going to take up a flanking position off to my left. Pan and Amber stay here overwatching us with my horse I just dismounted from. I load a bolt into my crossbow and start to advance. It is no tent or shelter. It is a wagon with the wheels knocked off one side and nearly off the other from the way it sits canted. As I get closer, perhaps within 50 feet, I can see the bodies start to become apparent as well as the tatters and tears in the cover of the wagon. I can also make out the rumps off the horses that pulled the wagon. Whatever did this, I am glad it found them instead of us.  The bodies are riddled with bolts like mine except they are without feathers. I hear something that makes me look up. Bolting down from the sky are two massive, winged feline forms  with somewhat humanoid or ogre-ish heads. I invoke Risk’s Shield as they descend upon us. One makes for Ars and the other goes for Am and Pan. It isn’t getting very close to Ars I think to myself. Then I see why. It whips its tail at him and 6 bolts like big porcupine quills or crossbow bolts without feathers cover the distance between them in a blink of an eye. I think all but 1 sink into him before I can even pull the trigger on my bow and send a bolt into the beast. I bring up the ghostly hand of Sorcerous Touch as it comes back for another pass, slinging its deadly spines as it does. That silly hag, Pan, is leading the other beast right to us! Ars is starting to look porcupine-esque by now. I take out my wand and add Mage Armor on top of Risk’s Shield to try to keep that from happening to me. The monsters finally land, one on Ars’ side of the wagon and one on Pan’s while I am at the rear of it. I use the Sorcerous Touch to channel Personal Lightning into the beasts while they concentrate on Ars and Pan. These things are ferocious! One almost has to admire their near perfection as mayhem machines. The damage being inflicted upon them doesn’t seem to faze them at all.      For whatever reason Pan brought the 2nd beast to us, she just paid for it. Her blood is splashed all over the wagon from a terrible slash from the monster’s claws and she hits the ground hard and bonelessly. I guess the time for spells is past. Flamesinger leaps into my hand and I close on the beast before it can devour her or take to the skies with her. I slash a huge gaping wound in its side and can’t help the smile that spreads across my face upon hearing its agonized roar. Battle! It is times like these that I know I was born for it. My magical barriers keep me safe from most of the beast’s vicious strikes. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Pan’s form being dragged under the remnants of the wagon. That could be trouble. I didn’t hear any feline death scream from the other side of the wagon and there is no way one of these things could fit under that wreck. I could be between two of these things in a short time. I can think of many places I would rather be. I call for Watcher’s Aim and finish the monster in front of me. I turn just in time to see the other monster cat come around the corner of the wagon in a very foul temper. I call for Watcher’s Aim again as it closes and strike it as if I knew how and where it would approach before it did. Even my defensive spells cannot turn aside all of the damage of this one’s claws. It leaves several bloody furrows across my abdomen and down one thigh. I notice that it does have some wounds, to Ars’ credit, in addition to the slash I just dealt it. I need to finish this quickly so I use Watcher’s Aim again to slice open its belly as I roll under its leaping attack. I crashes to the ground hard as its guts spill out and it doesn’t have the strength left in its legs to hold the rest of itself up. Magnus would be so proud of me! I walk over to the dead thing and dip my fingers into its blood. I draw my fingers down one cheek. I walk to the other and do the same on the opposite cheek. Magnus told me it is a show of respect and brings good luck to be blooded by either a first kill or that of a worthy or dangerous foe. Even tho Risk has told me that the prepared make their own luck, for the most part, I will take all the luck I can get right now. I hope he is looking down upon me now. Even tho I am eager to bring Daresh to her doom, I know there are harsh times ahead of us.     Ars dragging Pan out from under the wagon drags me out of my thoughts too. Seeing her makes me realize that those harsh times may already be upon us. I don’t know how she is not dead. Ars says that he poured a healing potion down her as soon as he got her under the wagon. She is positively gray. She has lost so much blood. Amber rushes over to help her. I go to search the man without armor while they take care of her. I find several gems in his purse. I start to take the largest for myself but leave it with the others and take another one of lesser value instead. Can’t let my greed make me make the same mistakes as Daresh. It takes nearly all of Am’s spells she had left after fighting these things just to get Pan awake. I go back and show them what I found. Even with all that has gone between us and our many differences, I can’t help but feel for her now. It was not that long ago that I lay bleeding to death from wounds from similar claws. I know first hand, the cold –the bone numbing cold- and the lack air no matter how hard your lungs pull she must have felt as her blood ran out of her. Ars asks if we should camp to let her rest. I tell him that if she can ride we would do better to put as much distance between this slaughterhouse and us as possible. No telling what this much blood scent might draw, I tell them. Shouldn’t he know such things? I wonder to myself. We mount up and head out.     I ask Ars about our plan to stay off the roads. He says that this is more like a path. I think to myself that we have already met some dwarves and saw a wagon on this “path”. I start to speak these thoughts aloud but offer up a short prayer instead. I will try to do my part in keeping things quiet. Blooded luck must have something to it. Our day is very calm. We make camp with Soona on the dusky horizon. We might have tried to push on to finish the trip tonight but Pan is still very weak from the fight with the spiny cats. We figure 2 more hours ride, half a day at the most, will put us in the city tomorrow. We make our cold camp as we usually do when in the open and talk about our ship booking and ringers plan before getting to our beds and guard rotation.     That night my dreams are troublesome. I dream of the man who ambushed me in search of Flamesinger. I dream we awaken and start our last leg of our journey to Soona except that the road we travel on is black instead of the brown color of the dirt it should be. I awaken and wonder what these dreams mean but cannot sort them out. I curse my thick-headedness as I saddle my mount and try to shake the edginess I feel.      We have ridden perhaps an hour when we see a moderate sized group of riders off in the distance. A chill runs over me. A black path- a road to death. “Daresh!” I hiss thru clenched teeth. They all look at me for a second since we cannot even make out any details about the riders yet. But then they either feel it too or simply trust my gut feeling. We consider our options. Run? So many of them! Would we really have a chance to get away? And where would we run to? We decide to take as many of them with us as we can. We form up into a tight square with our backs against each other. I put on my Mage Armor and bring up Risk’s Shield. Ars sends his horse away with a sharp slap. I bring my Sorcerous Touch alive and hold onto my horses reins tightly. What is he thinking? There must be 20 horsemen riding down on us! I do not intend to prepare for battle just to be trampled to death under hoof. I will hold my mount until they get close and then send it right out into those who think they might ride me over. Battle! It fairly sings thru my veins! I know I will see other side of this fight safely just as surely as I know what the black path meant now. What I am worried about is how many of the others will make it. Here they come on the charge! Yes, danger comes on horseback today. Look at that formation. These are no street thugs. These men are trained and well lead it seems. A lynx appears of to my left just in front of the front line. Am is busy already.      The first of the riders ride at Ars since he is in the front. Somehow he holds the line, breaking the horse’s focus and making it rear instead of trampling him like the rider must have wanted. Here come 2 for me. “HIIIYAAAH!” I yell at the top of my lungs and slap my mount’s rump hard to startle it forward to break the charge of the 2 riders bearing down on me. I slash on of them as he tries to control his mount and the lights go out. I immediately drop to the ground and tumble back down the road the direction that we came from wondering which of their spellcasters did that. I roll away and come up on my feet and move back some more but am still in the darkness. From the sounds of the chaos in there, I wonder if it was one of their casters. I think that caught everyone off guard. I back up until I am in the light of day again and look around for targets. The darkened area is huge. Perhaps this is the hand of Watcher or Risk. A little help for one of the chosen. My first victim appears from the darkness. I light him up with some Personal Lightning. Amber backs out of the darkness. The sounds of confusion still roll out of the darkness. Another man appears out of the darkness, this one on my side. He is still mounted and I believe he is a leader. He was at the rear of the formation and has the look of a war priest. My mind is made up in an instant. I charge him! I can see him readying to meet my charge. I feint to one side of his horse to draw him out of position and off balance. As he moves to counter my feint, I spin directly in front of his horse and whip Flamesinger around in a backhanded arc. My blazing blade doesn't stop at armor, flesh, or bone. It goes thru all of that and the only thing that saves the horse from injury is the hard leather of its saddle. His leg, from just under the hip, falls from the stirrup to the ground next to me. The rest of him falls to the ground on the other side of his horse. Battle! This is tenfold better than anything I ever stole or any caper I ever ran! Something tells me to conserve my spells for when they will be sorely needed rather than burn them up early on trying to get this over with quickly. I feel that this might drag out for quite a while.     I will try to stay close to the edge of the darkness to catch them unaware and take advantage of the time it will take for their eyes to adjust from dark to daylight until there are too many of them for that strategy to hold its advantage. A strong compelling voice booms from the darkness. It is barking orders to try to regain the composure of the unit broken by the sudden midday night. We have to press that advantage. We must kill as many of them as possible as individuals before they can regroup and not only have a decided numbers advantage but the advantage of a seasoned combat team. I engage and kill several at the edge of night before several come out together and give me cause to give some ground. Everything is so clear to me. It is almost as if everyone else moves in slow motion. I can see some of them lose their nerve as I face them. My cheeks hurt from a smile so big that it must resemble a death’s head visage. This is home, I realize in a startling flash. The battleground that so many fear and dread is the place where I rest my head. The chaos and confusion and distractions that confound so many others, simply serve me to clear the dull cheap glass thru which my senses usually view the world.  I fall back from the Stygian sphere engaging 2 men to keep from being badly outnumbered immediately should more emerge. I slash them unmercifully as I retreat.. I put one down and a few seconds later I drop the other. Just as I do, one of the leaders, steps from the darkness. Perhaps he is the owner of the booming voice. He certainly is big enuf. He reminds me of the berserker half-orc we faced in the streets of Zoa.  I see no need to let him get started. I slap him with some Personal Lightning. He must have someone else’s attention too because he stops in mid stride. I decide this would be as good of a time as any to loose the bolt I had in my crossbow. I take aim and send it into his massive chest. Two more come out of the darkness so I drop my now empty ’bow and close to meet them halfway since the berserker seems out of it for a while.     Some of the men have come out of the darkness away from me and seem to be heading after Amber. Brother, will they be sorry. Bad decision, my not-so-friends. Even above the ringing of our steel, I can hear the battle screams of Am’s lynxes mixed with some human screams of pain. They are learning just how bad; the hard way. Another man has emerged from the darkness. He is so smooth and calm. He even smells of power from here. He might be the leader of all these men. He starts firing arrows from his position around the blood soaked ground. I am near the end of my dance(yes, that’s it; battle is so much like the dances I used to love at my birthing celebrations) with these men. One is down and now the other. Just in time too. The berserker has shaken off the effects of the spell which held him. I charge him and wound him horribly. His might is awesome. I can feel him punch thru my magical barriers with his steel. Now! Now is the time. I use Watcher’s Aim and know he will try another power thrust again since he brought blood with the last one. I simply let him come to me. When he draws back, muscles bulging, ready to drive his steel thru my chest, I simply am not there any more. I have pushed my sword up and to my left, away from him actually, since it is not my strike. It is only the start of my spin. I use that momentum to swing me and Flamesinger around him to his left and behind him. That spin ends with the blazing blade slashing into his unprotected side and a huge got of blood so dark that it is almost black. He is done for. Magnus told me that blood that dark only comes from a vital spot called the liver. If you see black blood, death is only seconds away he said.      There is a man menacing Pan who must be out of spells because all she is doing is retreating and firing her crossbow at him. He is getting to close. I step between them. I slow him down considerable with a few wounds and hope that I am giving the impression that he has all of my attention. In truth, I am using him as a ploy to gain position on the man I think of as captain of this troop. When I feel I am in the right spot, I break from this man to charge the captain. I am pleased to catch him off guard by my ploy. I am on him before he can use his bow against me even as I cross the open ground between us. Power indeed. Even tho I call for Watcher’s Aim to aid me against this man and even tho it guides my blade to where the man will be I can feel my blade turned aside at the last instant by his own magical barriers. Another battle mage! Another? I am no battle mage. I am a priestess of Watcher and Risk. “All will be revealed to you…” floats thru my mind in Risk’s voice. Can it be? It will do you little good either way if you let this man kill you, I chastise myself and then redouble my efforts. Focus, Jza, focus.     I parry several of his attacks but a few get thru to give me minor cuts. I decide to use every spell I have left. I assault him with a terrible cold fury. He manages to turn aside one more of my divinely guided slashes but all the rest find their mark. His blood spills from 4 deep scores in his skin. I have a few more of my own by now too, but nothing I cannot grit out. I see his resolve break on the last one. He retreats into the darkness. I slash blindly thru the edge close to me just in case he had some cute ploy of his own in mind. I hit nothing and decide to gamble a glance to see how the others are doing. Am is aiding Ars amid a pile of bodies and Pan looks quite shaken but is still sweeping the edge of the darkness in case someone decides to step out. That was no ploy! That was a retreat! I can’t see him thru the darkness but I can see into his mind somehow and know he is on the run. I cast Fleet Feet and pick up my crossbow from where I dropped it earlier. I sprint around the dark sphere. I get to the other side to find him climbing on a horse. I call for Watcher to guide my aim one last time as I draw down on him on his galloping mount. My bolt sinks deep into his back but he doesn’t fall. I race after him to keep him in range. I can keep up with the horse for a short burst but can’t do much else. I feel my speed ebbing so I drop to one knee and reload and fire one last shot. It falls short as he gallops away.     I look of into the distance ahead of him. I can see a large group of riders heading this way from Loona. Time to go. I make my way back to the others. I tell them of the riders approaching and suggest we leave now. As I talk to them I notice a shape sort of squatted in an area of twisting tangled up grass just off from the darkness. I walk over close to him and raise my crossbow to my shoulder after loading it. He pleads with me not to fire since he is helpless and obviously defeated. He says that it was nothing personal between us. He is only a merc trying to make a living. I drop my aim. “Throw your weapons further into the tangles,” I tell him. He does so. “I will pull you out and let you live if you will tell me who hired you,” I tell him. He asks how does he know I won’t kill him anyway. I raise my ’bow again. “Okay, okay! Sure. Toran hired us. Toran that’s who,” he says. So Daresh’s little minion has a name other than dirty little minion bastard. I take the bolt from my ’bow and hold it out for him to grab onto. It takes some doing (what is that mess and where did it come from?) but I pull him out. I tell him he had better get out of here quick because my friends are not so nice as I am. He is running before I finish.      “Where did that… whatever it is come from?” I ask. Ars says he used his nature powers to animate the growth to help slow the enemies. “Nice trick,” I say. “Where did that false night come from?” I ask while I am looking for the closest horse. “Did I do well? Did blocking out the sun help like I thought it would?” Am asks. I surprise myself by going over and kissing her full on the mouth before exclaiming, “Help? Your darkness did what all of our blades and bows probably could not have done! It changed them from a well-trained, highly disciplined, tactical unit into a confused broken group of individuals. It leveled the battlefield and probably saved  2 of our lives at least.” Her modesty always amazes me nearly as much as her divine power.      As we ride away, I reflect on my battlefield revelations. Battle mage…No wonder I can’t bless water to make it holy or cast healing spells. And I think more about battle as a dance. The more I think about that the more I think it is more like a present Fo, I mean my father brought to me from a wealthy Kalamarian trader. I think he called it a kaleidoscope. You look thru one end and twist the other and it creates a rapidly changing shifting series of images, colors, and/or  shapes. Yes, I like that better. Battle is a human kaleidoscope and I twist the end of it. It can be confusing and flashy and hypnotizing unless you control or at least understand the pattern… Yes, much better. Battle is a human kaleidoscope. Praise be to Risk and Watcher…Now let’s get the hell out of here…</blockquote>

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