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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3440109" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 140A PARTING OF WAYSThe rough storm had passed.  As the morning gave way to afternoon, the dense gray cloud cover actually parted to reveal a cool winter sun that shone on the column of riders headed down the coast road from Camar.  The blue sky contrasted with the bracing chill in the air, and the lingering signs of the storm, from the mud that covered the legs of the horses, to the frequent fallen branches and uprooted brush that cluttered the road.  But the road was still much better than traveling crosscountry, and the riders made very good time. There were nearly a hundred riders in the column, clad in heavy wool cloaks over their armor and thick winter clothes.  The majority were clad in uniforms, either the orange and gold of the Ducal Guard, or the orange and brown of the legions.  Talen rode in the van, accompanied by Shay, Pella Dorin, and Baraka Suhn.  The last two, killed in the battle against the cornugon that had ruled Camar as the Grand Duke, had been raised by Licinius Varo and Gaius Annochus in the aftermath of that violent and decisive day.  Velan Tiros had kept his promise to have the men and women who died in that battle brought back to life, even though the cost had been a fortune in diamonds needed to augment the power of the clerics’ spells.  Both had a slightly haunted look to them, perhaps understandable as people who had twice made a journey that almost all mortals made but once. Further back in the column, Allera rode with Ikarus and Serah.  The two healers carried on a quiet conversation as they rode, but the cleric of the Shining Father rarely joined in unless directly spoke to.  Snaggletooth occasionally made an appearance, flying overhead or riding on Allera’s saddlebags; Ikarus seemed fascinated by Allera’s friendship with the creature, and once the tiny dragon deigned to land on the male healer’s saddle to accept the gift of a pear.  Serah would frequently reach up and grab onto her holy symbol, only to hastily lower her hand when she realized what she was doing.  She wore a new shirt of chain links over her tunic, provided from the baron’s armory at Highbluff. Toward the end of the column, Dar rode with a small contingent of men from the Border Legion.  The legionaries were hard-edged men who wore mismatched furs over their rather threadbare uniforms; a traveler might have been forgiven for mistaking them for brigands at first glance.  They spoke little amongst themselves, and rode with the surly mein of soldiers riding off to another dirty, unwanted job. At the very end, last save for the half-dozen riders of the rear guard, rode Varo.  No one made an effort to speak to the cleric, nor did he seek out any of the others.  Even his horse seemed unsatisfied with its proximity to the priest of Dagos, frequently shying in protest as Varo prodded it after the others down the road.  The group grew wary as the ground to their right became marshy and fetid with the smell of mold and rot, and Talen sent out extra outriders to ward their flank.  But nothing stirred out of the Dragonmarsh Lowlands to trouble them.  After a few more hours, they came to a weathered old bridge that spanned a river gorge.  The river, swollen by the recent rains, rushed by thirty feet below in a white froth.  The bridge was barely wide enough to accommodate a wagon, and its heavy boards creaked as the soldiers of the company dismounted and walked across, but the entire group made it to the far side without incident.  On the far side, Talen gathered his people together with the officers of the military contingent.  The soldiers took advantage of the pause to tend to their mounts, and to grab a quick meal.  “All right,” Talen said to the senior officer, a captain named Talemon.  “We’ll be taking our leave here.  Is there anything else you need, captain?”“No, sir,” the officer said.  “We’ve got decent maps of the region, and should be able to find the old ruins of Southwatch without difficulty.  Once there, we’ll start setting up the advance base, and wait for the main force to make its way down from Highbluff.”Talen nodded.  “Send out scouting parties, but don’t divide your strength unduly until Pravos arrives.  And don’t go near Rappan Athuk, not without orders.”“No need to worry about that, sir,” one of the younger lieutenants said.  Talemon silenced him with a hard look, then added, “Good luck to you as well, sir.  We’ll be at the rendezvous, in case you need help.”Talen nodded.  He hadn’t shared many details of their own mission, and the captain, an experienced officer, hadn’t asked.  The knight saluted, and all four officers returned the gesture crisply. A short distance away, Dar was making his own farewells to his troops.  “Right, you lot play nice with the other kids,” he said.  He turned to his senior sergeant, the same noncom who had accompanied him to the camp of the Border Legion, and tossed the reins of his horse to him.  “I expect you to keep Valdes and the other captains out of trouble, sergeant.  Show these city pukes what bordermen can do.”“Yes, sir!” several of the legionaries replied.  Dar grabbed his pack from the back of the horse, and jerked a thumb at three of his men, who had likewise dismounted and gathered near him.  The other fifteen legionaries headed over to join the main force that would be continuing down the road. The young healer, Ikarus, came over to Talen, who was working out a few last-minute details of supplies and marching order with Shay and Baraka.  “Commander?”“Yes, healer?”“I’d like to request that I be added to your group, sir.”Talen looked the young man up and down.  “The military contingent’s going to need a healer.”“With all due respect, sir, you’re going to need all the power you can get, where you’re going.”Talen shot a loaded glance at Allera, who had handed over her horse to a soldier and came up to join them.  “Allera didn’t tell me anything, commander, but it doesn’t take a genius to know that you guys are going to be taking on the cult of Orcus, wherever you are going.”Allera didn’t say anything, but her will was clear in the look she gave Talen. The knight finally shook his head.  “I appreciate the offer, but my orders stand.  We’ve spent some time in this region, and those soldiers are going to need your help.”“It’s not just injuries, Ikarus,” Allera said.  “That ruin is going to have to accommodate hundreds of men, for who knows how long, and Pravos is going to need your help in ensuring that sickness doesn’t debilitate his men and women.”“I understand,” Ikarus said.  “Good luck to you, then, commander.  Allera.”“And to you,” Talen said. Allera walked with Ikarus for part of the way back to the soldiers, who were already starting to prepare to move out again.  “That was foolish,” she told him. “Why?  Because I want to use my gifts where they will do the most good?”“It is going to be incredibly dangerous where we are going, Ike.”“That isn’t stopping you.  Or do you feel that I am not up to the challenge?”“No, it’s not that.  I don’t know.”He smiled and touched her hand.  “I know.  Still looking out for me, eh?”“I don’t want to see anything happen to you.”“We are in full agreement on that score,” he said, with a chuckle. “Do be careful.  Even when the main body of soldiers arrive, your group is going to be far from safe.  The enemy has potent and terrible allies, and who knows what they will call upon to throw next at Camar.” He nodded.  “I may not have always done my homework, but I have learned to keep my eyes open.”  He dug into his satchel.  “Here.  I want you to have this.”  He presented her with a leather scroll case, which contained a parchment scroll, wound around a slender wand carved with intricate spiral patterns in the dark wood. Allera examined the scroll and the wand.  “This is good work,” she said.“The wand is fully charged, with a cure moderate wounds spell.”She slid the scroll back into the case.  “I cannot accept these; you will need them...”“I have another wand, with a few dozen charges left,” he told her.  “If I can’t go with you, at least I’ll know that I’m able to help you at least in this way.”  She nodded, and the two healers embraced for a moment, before Ikarus headed back to rejoin to column of soldiers that was about ready to move out.  From a short distance away, Dar watched them, his eyes cold.  The two groups split apart, with Talen’s force taking up their packs and extra gear, while the soldiers gathered up in formation again on the road south.  The smaller company, with Shay and Baraka in the lead, set out on foot along the edge of the river gorge, heading west.  In addition to the scouts, this group included Talen, Allera and Snaggletooth, Varo, Serah, and Pella.  Dar and the three legionaries that he’d selected out of his group brought up the rear of the column.  The three soldiers of the Border Legion were named Bullo, Travius, and Kalend.  The first two were warriors through and through, with thick arms and legs, and numerous scars visible wherever bare flesh showed.  Bullo favored the greataxe, while Travius fought with a pair of viciously sharp Legion shortswords.  Kalend, while only marginally smaller than the first two, was more subtle; while he referred to himself as a “finder”, it was quite obvious what he was in fact; he made no effort to hide the pair of thief-brands burned into his cheeks.  All three carried short composite bows in addition to their other weapons.  The terrain to the west of the road quickly grew rough, and within just a few minutes the cavalry column had vanished out of sight behind them.  The land seemed as though it had been smashed by a mighty fist from the heavens; gaping crevices and deep cracks frequently blocked their path, the wider of those requiring them to shift their course to go around them.  Small ridges and canyons likewise appeared across their path, and they quickly found use for both their climbing gear and the coils of heavy rope that they’d packed.  It was clear within an hour that they’d made the right decision in leaving their mounts with the main body of soldiers.  Shay kept them on course by roughly aligning their course with the river gorge, although their wandering route often forced them to lose sight of it for hours on end. They had only covered a few miles when night caught up with them.  The rough terrain worked to their advantage in this one instance, and they were able to find a jutting tor with steep sides and a narrow, defensible gap in the summit.  With so many experienced veterans in the group, they were able to efficiently set up a very secure camp, and after a hasty meal and establishing double watches they retired for the night. Dawn came swiftly, and without incident.  The air was bracingly cold, their breath forming plumes as the companions worked to prepare the morning meal and break down their camp.  But the weather had thankfully held, although an ominous new bank of gray clouds had formed along the eastern horizon.  “If we don’t get to our destination soon, we may have another storm to deal with,” Talen said, looking east. “We should get there by midday,” Shay said.  “Last time, I made it only a few miles before the rapids claimed my boat.  We’ll have to go all the way up here; the river is still swollen with the rains, and there’s no way we could navigate the gorge itself.  I tried to pay attention to where the underground river came out, and I think I can find the landmarks I noted before.”“Things may look different from up here than they did from the bottom of the gorge,” Pella said.  Shay shrugged.  “If we find ourselves in a swamp, we’ll know we went too far.”Talen cinched up his pack and slung it across his shoulders.  “All right, let’s get moving.”By the time that the day had fully broken, the morning sun still shouded behind the line of clouds to the east, their trail had shifted back to the edge of the gorge.  The gorge had deepened as the surrounding land had risen, and the rushing froth of the river was now at least sixty feet below them, its passage making a dull roar that echoed off the walls of the gorge.  The land on the other side of the river was rougher, if anything, than that on their side. There was something else of note on the far side of the gorge as well. “Trolls!” Pella warned, although it was doubtful that any of them would have missed the six hulking forms that appeared around a hillock along the edge of the opposite cliff.  From the harsh cries from that side, it was clear that the creatures had spotted them as well.</blockquote>

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