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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 6256233" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 100h - Noises OffThough all the evidence suggested that they were unlikely to have preserved the element of surprise, Professor Ludo Marcione of Unit B maintained the hope that this would be his chance to prove himself to his superiors at the RHC: to drive any Ob defenders back to the main gate and join Korrigan and his strike force in rooting the Obscurati out from under the Hill.  The cheery and optimistic Lt. Dale seemed to be a capable ally, if a trifle overbearing, and his men were well-trained and had dealt with all manner of Bleak Gate horrors during their patrols on Cauldron Hill.  Ludo had placed Captain Theren and his brother on the first barge along with Lt. Dale and twenty of his troops.  The Professor was in the second barge with Doctor Stanmore and Niniel and twenty more men.  A further twenty occupied each bank, with Sevitar ranging ahead of them. It took over an hour for them to pass underneath the first four bridges, and gnawing apprehension stretched the time out unbearably.  All they could hear during that time were the rhythmic footsteps of the yomping men, the sloshing of canal water around the prow of the barge, and cries in the night throughout Flint.  For a long time they were left alone with their thoughts and it became possible to imagine that their mission might be a straightforward one.  Wil said it reminded him of the jungles of Yerasol, waiting for a Danoran assault.Then they reached the final bridge, and all hell was let loose.As soon as the first barge passed fully into the Bleak Gate, they saw a dozen Obscurati riflemen drawn up on either bank, with more on the bridge.  Before they scrambled to their feet, loaded and opened fire, they could have been engaged in melee by the soldiers on the towpath, but their way was blocked by two monstrous shadow trolls, creatures of the haunted Hill, who lurked beneath the final bridge and tore into the ranks of soldiers with their teeth and claws.  The Obscurati riflemen trained their fire on the first barge, taking out the steersman and causing it to veer and scrape against the bank, slowing down the second barge which had not yet entered the Bleak Gate.Lt Dale and Captain Theren reacted with admirable presence of mind, despite the withering gunfire.  Dale jumped off onto the left bank and used his knowledge of shadow creatures to baffle one troll for a moment. He was joined from out of nowhere by Sevitar who had already sown alarm among the riflemen on the bridge.  (One had a wand hanging visibly from his belt.  Sevitar had killed him with two well-placed blows, taken the wand and disappeared.)  Theren leapt off on the other side and tied down the second troll - with supporting fire from his brother Brajham, whose bright life-magic was greatly harmful to the shadow beast - allowing the soldiers on his side of the bank to charge past and engage half of the riflemen.  But the Obscurati guards were well-trained and well-equipped and switched to melee effortlessly.By the time the second barge crawled through into the Bleak Gate and Ludo could see what was happening, twenty-five men were already dead. Each time he used his Ob wand to fix a man in the Gate, he wondered if he was handing out a death sentence.  Sevitar threw his pillaged wand to Wil, who made sure all of the unit were fixed in the Gate too, while using his magic to take out the rest of the guards on the bridge.The fight against the trolls was going badly: the trolls claws tore into their adversaries and weakened them with necrotic power.  Sevitar was the first to suffer their worst – a troll grabbed him and tore his shadow away.  It writhed momentarily and was absorbed into the troll’s body.  Sevitar fell back, but with customary relentlessness resumed his assault a moment later, though his wounds would have killed a normal man. However, he soon discovered that his attacks could no longer hurt the troll, as if absorbing his shadow had rendered it immune.  So he turned and charged the riflemen on his side of the canal, only to be cut down by a hail of gunfire.Without Sevitar’s help, Lt. Dale began to falter.  Weakened by the troll, he found that Niniel’s healing words provided no help, and soon the riflemen began to target him too.  But Prof Marcione and Doctor Stanmore focused their mind-affecting powers on the guards and began to thin their ranks.  Dale’s men from the second boat charged ashore to join them in melee and for a moment the battle seemed to be going in Risur’s favour.  When Ludo received Korrigan’s warning of more troops heading their way, he shared the information with Stanmore alone.  The good Doctor urged him to withdraw, but Ludo opted to stand fast to receive the second wave.Then the second troll landed an attack on Theren and ripped his shadow away too.  Niniel could not help him; her restorative magic would not work.  Theren withdrew to try to gain a moment’s respite, but he could not get his breath back before the troll was upon him again.  Brajham scoured the beast with bright life magic and it recoiled before him.  Wil advised Theren to light a sunrod, of all things, to chase away the shadows that were clinging to him.  But before Theren could reach into his pack, the troll swung again, catching him a blow that hurled him bodily against the upper arch of the bridge, from whence he tumbled like a broken rag doll to lay upon the deck of the barge.  Niniel went to him and tried to give him aid. Moments later, in a quavering voice, she told the others that he was dead.Brajham cried out in grief and anger and launched himself at the troll, blazing with bright white fire.  The troll roared and fell back, and Ludo and Wil switched their attacks from the guards to try and drop the troll, but the nightmarish creature’s regenerative powers proved too much for them to overcome.  Then, one after the other, both Lt Dale and Brajham fell before the trolls, and the creatures waded into Dale’s soldiers without anyone to stop them.Thankfully, both Brajham and Dale were still alive, though gravely wounded.  Niniel and Wil dragged Brajham back onto the barge, while two of Dale’s men helped him.  But Niniel had no more healing magic left, and by now the reinforcements had arrived.  The Professor was determined to hold out at least until the new arrivals had been forced to commit themselves, and he and his allies rained down as much fire as they could upon the trolls and guards while to the left and right of them Dale’s soldiers continued to drop. There were only a handful of men left of the eighty who had entered the gate, and the rest of those now began to return to the real world, as no more wands had been captured.  The unlucky few who had been ‘fixed’ tried to make it to the barge and were cut down. Captain Theren was dead, Sevitar was gone too, and Lt. Dale and Brajham were unconscious.  Ludo and Wil tore their fallen comrades' charm bags and sent them back to Flint.  Then they began to high-tail it back down the canal bank, with Niniel alongside them, to draw the defenders away for as long as possible.A troll and several Ob guards gave chase, though their pursuit was hampered by mind magic.  Wil also conjured an image of himself which he planted defiantly on the far bank, causing further confusion and buying them some time to hide beneath the third bridge.  They took their charm bags from their pouches and prepared to tear them. As they did so, Niniel let out a gasp and a groan.  A figure had emerged from the shadows of the bridge and struck her a heavy blow between her shoulder blades.  Just as they made the disorienting transition, she fell lifeless into Doctor Stanmore’s arms.  The last thing Ludo saw in the Bleak Gate, before he appeared back in Flint, was the face of her assassin: the Obscurati agent known as ‘Norm’.</blockquote>

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