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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eccles" data-source="post: 3236734" data-attributes="member: 5675">Morning came, and we broke camp. Chloe, the little girl, was devastated to see her mother as a statue, and was only mollified when she was seated on Allustan’s horse with the petrified parent carried in her line of sight. Clive the ape was deputised to carry Chloe’s mother, and the simian’s muscles heaved, and he was able to carry the statue alongside us.We knew that there was a group of bandits up the road, and we road gingerly from the swamps into hillier terrain, preceded by Endo’s raven familiar. After half a day, the bird returned squawking. After a few minutes’ communion with the bird, Endo announced that 6-7 people were on the road ahead; the track itself blocked with wagons. Whilst Endo cast his sinister spells of preparation, Flynne slipped into the undergrowth.My roguish companion returned after a short while to announce that there were 9 bandits in total; 5 in the centre of the road and two more on either side. We made our preparations, and rode forwards, leaving Chloe in the care of Allustan behind us. As we drew near, the largest of the 5 bandits hailed us.“There is a toll for travelling on this road, sirs!”We looked at one another. No way a group of mere bandits could stop us. We had killed an Overgod. And now we were festooned in magical trinkets, more skilled and powerful than before. Simple bandits daring to stay our path? How dare they. They would fall before our swords, no matter how sharp their blades looked, and no matter how shiny their armour appeared.I couldn’t resist tweaking the noses of these bandits, by shouting back “So the road belongs to you, does it?”“We’re not your average cutpurses and robbers,” came the reply.I turned to Endo, Igmut and Malachite, who were standing beside me. “No ordinary cutpurses and robbers,” I exclaimed. “This lot have managed to save up and buy a road. Hark at them!”“We have the strength to back up our threats,” threatened the bandit. To either side of the road came a brief chanting and papery rustling noises – two huge globes sprang into existence safeguarding some unseen wizards. At the same point, I turned back to the head bandit with a view to continuing the debate a while further to gauge the true extent of their potency..oOo.My plan was thwarted within moments, as a twang came from my right where Flynne was concealed. His arrow arced high into the air and fell to earth amidst the bandits. Their leader looked down at the arrow which had fallen at his feet, looked up at us, and drew his gleaming sword. “Kill them!”The next sound was a bellowing from Clive on the left bank. The massive ape surged towards one of the flanking groups taking them by surprise as per our plan, and why I had cast a spell of invisibility on him a few minutes earlier. Then, the sword-wielding lead bandit leapt onto one of his wagons and pulled something from his belt pouch, tossing it to the floor at my feet. There was a colossal bang, and I was abruptly struck deaf. Judging by their looks of horror, so were Endo and Malachite. Igmut was the next to move – I could only watch as he dashed forwards with his mouth open in an obvious war bellow which I couldn’t hear. He swung his heavy sword and hacked deeply into the leader, who opened his mouth in a silent scream of pain, but kept on fighting.Things went from bad to worse as a golden streak leapt down from the right bank and exploded into flames in our midst. To our left, we could see a white stripe of lightning hurtle up into the sky.Unable to hear myself speak or sing, I snatched at my necklace and flung the enchanted item at the group of bandits. It exploded in my sight as a pair of less impressive explosions, scorching a few of the fighters beyond Igmut. As I pulled back away from the fight, I was caught in the edge of a spell cast by Endo, and time slowed for me. Still silent, I could see the enemies move as though through molasses; suddenly they were faced by a massive lion summoned by Malachite who surprised me no end by abruptly turning into a feral looking wolverine.Still deaf, I saw a silent vision of fury break out in front of me. Igmut was buried in a whirling tempest of steel blades, but he shrugged off many of the blows and rose out of the pile of foemen, flinging them to the side as he stood.To my left, the trees shook as Clive collapsed to the floor, freeing up 2 of the bandits. I dashed back in, marvelling at the speed granted to me by Endo’s spell, then tried to cast healing magic on Igmut. I could feel the words going wrong in my mouth; my deafness thwarted my attempts to frame the spell properly and it failed completely. .oOo.Despite wolverine-Malachite’s savaging of one of the bandits, and the lion attacking another, none of them fell. To the right flank, Flynne hurtled out of the tree-line madly pulling a potion from his belt as he fled from the enemies. Igmut took a step up onto the wagons and swung his greatsword once again, cleaving through the lead bandit and one of his followers before nearly killing a third in a second swing of the sword. As though in response, lightning slammed from the surrounding hills, killing the wounded bandit and taking Igmut to the floor.I stepped forwards and cast a spell on Igmut, whilst uncorking a potion with my left hand and tipping the liquid down his throat. At the same instant, Endo collapsed to the floor behind me, a heavily enchanted arrow protruding from his chest. Igmut was struck with a number of magical missiles, but stayed on his feet. Another arrow hurtled out of the trees and exploded on contact with Malachite, who keeled slowly over onto the floor bleeding heavily. Another of my dwindling spells was enough to bring Endo back to his feet, and he in turn cast his sinister flesh-rending spell on the archer who was menacing the still retreating Flynne. Clutching the mystical rod, he cast another spell in rapid succession, shrinking down to half his height.Mid flight, Flynne spun around and fired an arrow into the man chasing him; his wounds torn wider by the cluster of tiny spirits surrounding him. Bleeding profusely from a number of wounds, Igmut dashed across a short gap, grabbed one of the wizards by the throat and slammed him to the floor. His muscular frame lifted the enemy wizard over and over again, slamming the mage’s head onto a nearby boulder until the foeman lay still.We were heavily wounded, but not yet beaten. Many of the enemy were in a worse state, but there were still 4 almost entirely unwounded and in a position to threaten us. From nearby, I could see Endo shouting something up at the enemy, and there was a brief pause – I couldn’t hear what response they gave if any.The next I could see, Igmut had laid his sword down and backed away, casting healing magics on himself. The remaining bandits turned and fled, and we turned to healing our wounds. I was delighted to see Igmut standing from the undergrowth and giving a broad fanged smile and thumbs up, indicating that both Malachite and Clive had survived. The roadway was cleared, and our devastating foemen were swiftly stripped of anything useful to us. We reunited with Chloe and the magus Allustan, and set off back down the road towards our destination…</blockquote>

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