Ehren doesn't see anyone who appears like a leader, though there are many erected tents - its entirely possible that whoever they are, they're inside one of the tents.
The army is nearly entirely tieflings and other assorted humanoids, though there are a few dozen schir wandering around the camp, licking the ends of their disgusting halberds.
In the center of the camp there are some tieflings busy working on what appear to be enormous, intricate magical circles - he is reminded of the efforts he put into the Reincarnation circle for Li'an - though these are considerably more complex. Unfortunately Ehren doesn't know much about the arcane arts, so he can't discern more than that, though he does notice some of the cultists carrying vials full of green liquid and sprinkling them around the perimeter.
Ayavah claps her hands together. "Excellent! I hope that this is a new beginning for you and I. Just please, no more paladins."
Wenduag's mouth thins into a fine line, but Lann smiles warmly. "If you need someone to look after them, we'll do our very best for you. Maybe we can coax them into a change of heart, yeah?"
Wenduag nods. "As you wish, Commander."
The heroes, minus Ary and Ehren, ride out at a breakneck pace across the snow towards Silvershore. Anevia rides alongside them on a lovely grey stallion with brown flecks along its haunches. Ayavah clings desperate to Valaria, clearly terrified at the speed they are going at - her eyes are shut tight as she struggles to not visualize her neck snapping from falling off of the horse suddenly at this speed.
After two hours of travel, Anevia tugs on her reigns, pulling her horse to stop. "Woah, there. See that?"
There is smoke in the distance, coming from an assortment of large tents at least two miles away along the mostly barren, open, snow-covered plains.
You're still a solid 20 or so miles away from Silvershore.
Ehren flies on for another hour. He is passing over a small army of approximately 75 men - mostly humanoids, all heading straight for Silvershore...
The soldiers are on foot and should reach Silvershore in an hour. But for a magically enhanced falcon, he could make it there in a mere twenty minutes. What does he do?
Meanwhile, Commander Ary marches her army forwards - the funeral procession now finished, she leads them along at a hustle to try and make up for lost time towards Silvershore. After an hour though, they need to slow the pace. Will Ary urge her men to continue to hustle anyway?
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Of course, most of the group wasn’t exactly thrilled to meet her. I get that the demons have been a constant threat to Mendev. Hell, my first reaction to finding out who she is was to panic because I thought she might be after me for something. Or that she was a spy of some kind. But is threatening to kill anyone who follows a demon lord actually f*cking necessary? I mean, I get arresting worshipers of Deskari or Baphomet. They’re actively at war with Mendev and the Crusades and they’re trying to take over the world. The vast majority of them are going to be attempting to outright kill innocent people. But that doesn’t make every cult of an evil deity irredeemably evil. Ayavah is a decent person, and her faith is all about redemption and the good that exists deep inside of even the darkest of souls. Frankly, she’s a better person than a full half of the inquisitors who I’ve met in Mendev and Iomedae seemingly approves of those f*ckers, so I don’t see why they’re so intolerant of Ayavah.
Now, that doesn’t really give my friends enough credit. They weren’t thrilled with the idea of a demon cultist hanging around, but they at least were willing to accept that she’s not a bad person and they she’s not here to cause trouble or hurt anyone. Ary was the most put out by far, and I’ve been named her official baby sitter until the great commander decides that she’s trustworthy. I’m not sure if that’s a sign of how much she trusts me or not, but I’m not going to blame her for wanting Ayavah kept under careful scrutiny. I admit I trust her. After all, why in the world would she admit that she’s a cultist if she was planning on spying on us? That’s objectively the dumbest thing a spy could possibly do. But wanting to see that for herself is probably safer for everyone.
And Ary had to go and make it worse. The next day, she decided to question one of her officers if he knew anything about the Cult of the Redeemer Queen. While revealing that Ayavah was a member of said cult. Of course his reaction was to quote crusader oaths about slaughtering any related to demons and reach for his sword. And people get upset when I tell the crusaders that they’ve become overly fanatical and too quick to resort to burning people at the stake… I may have overreacted when I also went for my blades, but after the last few days, I’ve been a bit tense around crusaders who decide to pull their blades. We managed to fast talk him in to believing that Ayavah is a spy for the crusades in the Worldwound’s ranks, so he’s not troubled by it anymore. This just seems to have made Ary unhappy though.
Regardless, that wasn’t the meat of the day. No, we encountered a small group of surviving Condemned fleeing south. It seems that the bridge we were heading to was destroyed and the fortress there was captured by an army of cultists and demons. Oh. And Chaleb was with them. I swear he’s like the common cold. You can next quite get rid of him, but he’s really not much more than an annoyance. At least he seems to have finally gotten some of his arrogance kicked out of him. I wouldn’t want anyone to suffer through watching demons slaughtering a garrison, but at least something good came out of it. We did have to deal with a few of the Condemned who’d been infected with fiendish wasps. Lovely. They weren’t hard to take down, but watching half a dozen people explode into a cloud of wasps is disgusting no matter how you cut it.
So we had to deal with this small army of demons and cultists. Thankfully, we had plenty options. Using Isilme and Xanderghul’s magic, we managed to lead the demons into an illusionary army and keep them distracted while we picked off their leaders and their elite demons. This gave the army a better chance to actually fight the regular troops and to take them down. Overall, it worked out rather well. We killed the vrock and nabasu that were supporting the army and I drove their commander off in a duel which managed to break most of their power. Overall, we only lost five people. There were somewhere around twenty to thirty more injuries that weren’t able to be easily healed, but we also rescued twenty or so prisoners, so we managed to come out of the fight with a bigger army than when we got there. War is weird.
We took ten prisoners, all tiefling cultists, who we had to deal with as well. Xan wanted to have them killed before he even talked to them. Did I, or did I not give a speech about this literally a day ago? Whether they need to be executed is something that’s not really my specialty. But I do know that deciding without having questioned them, without having met them, is completely f*cking unethical. Thankfully, it seems that Isilme got my point and actually went with me to meet them and interrogate them. And Ary took a look at these questions to make her decision. Thank the Starsong. For now, we’re going to keep them as prisoners of war. Having them around when we’re going in to battle isn’t necessarily a great idea, but as long as we’re careful about keeping them under watch, things should be okay for now.
Unfortunately, we now know that the demons are planning another attack on a Kellid town called Silversong just to the north of here. So we’re going to have to go after this force too if we’re going to protect those innocent people. Tomorrow may be another long day.
The cold wind seems unimportant to Val as the party rides north in the morning. She keeps her scarf and furs pulled tightly around her body as she leans over her horse, urging him forward relentlessly. She pulls back on the reins roughly as the smoke pillars come in to view. "That might be exactly what we're looking for. And they're going to reach Silvershore well before the rest of the army if they move out before Ary catches up with us."
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Every single stone on the ground below him is transmuted into a razor-sharp spike, rooted to the ground and partially hidden by the sheet of snow. Once his work is done, Ehren continues toward the village as quickly as he can manage.
Cynosure pulls up alongside Anevia and Valaria as Isilme surveys the scene ahead of them.
"We should bypass them, our job is to get to Silvershore and slow them down along with Ehren's help. We have a good chance of doing so if we move quickly. It would be nice if we had reserved the second sending so we could get a scouting report back to the main army. I cannot imagine Ehren missed this encampment, and this would be useful information for them. I am going to go take a closer look, take Cynosure and head around the encampment, I'll be able to move quickest alone. I will meet you on the other side." With that, Isilme dismounts from Cynosure, taking a moment to cast invoke Desna's blessing upon her, and then casting invisibility, causing her to vanish from sight.
Xanderghul reigns in his horse, taking the reins from Isilme as she dismounts. "I agree with Isilme. Our goal here should be to rally defenders at Silvershore and sandwich the enemy forces in between the city and our army."
"Let's go. Time is of the essence."
Isilme creeps along tangentially to the encampment and eventually meets back up with the other heroes.
The army appears to number approximately 100 (it is half the size of the crusader army) and is mostly composed of tiefling cultists, though there are a couple dozen schir also. There isn't much else to see here, since your line of sight is blocked by the tents and bodies. There are several tieflings keeping watch, but none of them notice your footprints in the snow.
On the other side there are hundreds of footprints in the snow, heading out from the encampment in the general direction of Silvershore.
Ehren flies away from the army, pausing only to leave a nasty trap for their approach, then heads immediately towards Silvershore. He finds the little Kellid village still intact, the villagers busy preparing to head out onto the lake with their great nets and toil the day away.
Isilme reappears next to the others, patting Cynosure on the side before climbing back into the saddle. "There seem to be far fewer soldiers in the camp than it is set up for. Only around 100 now, which the army can probably handle without too much trouble. It seems like only a few Schir, and the rest are cultists or tieflings."
"Shall we continue?" she asks the others as she takes the reins and attempts to orient herself.
"Rydych chi i gyd mewn perygl ofnadwy. Byddin o gythreuliaid a'u caethweision ar eu ffordd i'r pentref hwn ar hyn o bryd. Byddant yn cyrraedd o fewn yr awr."
Xanderghul examines the tracks, his brow furrowing. "It seems that heading to Icerift gets less and less intelligent-sounding the more we learn. More than a thousand soldiers have passed through here. We've defeated, what... 200? And there's another 100 that we just passed? That leaves 700 unaccounted for, and I hope that we're not about to find them all on the shores of Lake Silver, teabagging dead Kellids."
He spurs his horse on though, knowing that they have to get to Silvershore soon if they are to help the men and women there.
Ary will have the troops move at a moderate pace, not rushing, as Isilme's intent in getting ahead was to stay ahead and come back in the event of some sort of emergency or important change of plans... and with the size of the scouting party, sending at least one back wouldn't be difficult.
Ary will definitely be riding at the front, however.
"I really hope that they've gone ahead to the nice abandoned castle north of here where they're well out of our way. Then they can sit around being cold until we can come back with a bigger army. Or send a bigger army led by someone else. Depends on how much we have to do later I suppose." She looks back at the terrified tiefling clinging to her waist. "Hang on tight Ayavah."
"They are probably intending to take Vilareth ford and then to move on to the castle I imagine. Assuming we succeed today, we might be able to use the same sort of tactics to slow them down tomorrow. They have a long march ahead of them."
The heroes agree to continue riding towards Silvershore as fast as they can.
Meanwhile....
The kellids' eyes widen at Ehren's sudden appearance, a few kneeling reverently.
"A priest of the Green!" one exclaims.
A large, burly man stands tall. "How many demons? We will fight for our homes!"
Many of the other kellids murmur in agreement.
"Ha! Seventy-five? I, Onsig the Bowmaster, could slay ten demons before they rode on Silvershore. Let them come." proclaims the large man.
Ehren's arrival draws a crowd as the various villagers come out from their homes to investigate the new-comer.
"Ehren? Is that you?" Ehren spots his cousin, Mera, in the crowd - she pushes her way to the front to give him a warm embrace. "By the Green, you've grown like a weed! So tall and handsome." She smiles. She has an infant swaddled to her chest. "Ah, meet Celia, your new baby cousin." She gingerly unstraps the little one, so that Ehren can see. She has the same hard grey eyes as her cousin.
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His smile falters as he says the last, only to widen when he realizes that Mera was carrying precious cargo. For a brief moment his mouth is agape as he stands there, trying to put his feelings into words. "She has good eyes," he remarks finally, idly wiggling a finger in front of Celia's face. "They're nice and strong."
The reality of their situation soon rushes back to him... but he can't quite stop smiling, now. "By Onsig's count, we only have sixty-five demons to worry about. How many here can help us handle the rest?"
Little Celia reflexively grasps his finger. She is a strong infant, though she hasn't quite mastered how to let go. Ehren has to pry his hand away so that Mera can reattach her child to her chest.
Mera's husband, Osfrith of Clan Mistdrifter, draws an axe. "By my reckoning we should have fifty or so strong men and women to defend our village. We are proud northern folk, and the demons have already taken our lands - they will have no more!"
"We should move quickly to get to Silvershore, the army that is headed that way might already be there and Ehren might need our help," Isilme says as she spurs Cynosure to hustle. She leans forward and pats the horse's head, whispering to it "Sorry Cyno, I promise I'll heal you up when we get to Silvershore, just hang on for now."
As she takes off, she adjusts her course to stay far to the left of the trail left by the soldiers, knowing that Ehren likely left a surprise for them at some point along the way.
The kellids get to work arming themselves in preparation for the incoming attack on their town. The children, elderly, and infirm are garrisoned in the Clan Hall.
After the talk with the Underfolk, Ary returns to the Tieflings. "In the morning, you'll be released... at least mostly... into the hands of the Underfolk. Each of you has spoken about how your past has been filled with people who looked down upon you for what you are, rather than who you are... I think you won't have that problem with the Underfolk. Please be as gracious as you can, do not take advantage of them, and please do not refer to them as Mongrels in any way. They're good people, and they'll take care of you if you're good to them."
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"Ary, while I understand your desire to offer the tieflings a path to redemption, I am very concerned about releasing them into the care of the underfolk. These prisoners are our responsibility. We made the argument that they should be spared due to the information they have provided, but that information has yet to even prove true or useful. We should keep them shackled until the situation in Silvershore is resolved. Afterwards we will have proof that they aided us, and that therefore they might be redeemable."
"You should listen closely and consider your actions from here on very carefully. The commander is offering you something that very few people have been offered." Isilme says, pausing to make sure they understand the unique nature of this situation.
"The world may have treated you poorly before now..." She looks at each one, thinking back over the brief stories they'd shared. "You will hear no argument against that from me, and it was likely truly unjust treatment. But that cannot excuse your actions in the service of the demons. Here on out, however, you can prove that you are capable of rising above all of this, that you can redeem yourselves against the evils you committed and show those who heaped scorn upon you that you are better than them. Not in power or wealth, not in physical strength or ability to intimidate, but in spirit and heart. We will be here to help you, but no matter how much we do, this is a battle you must choose to take on, and that you will need to devote yourself anew to each and every day going forward."
She studies the tieflings for a moment, wondering how many of them had the courage and fortitude to truly persevere through the challenges ahead. The temptation to fall back to their old ways was likely to torment them each and every day. Still some among them might have a chance to make it if they made an effort. Surely such a thing was worth pursuing.
"Going forward you have a chance to take a different path than the one you have been walking down. It will not be easy, taking the high road never is, but it is worth it if you are willing to try. Your masters may have promised you money, power, respect, but the truth is the only thing they have for all of us is suffering and death. We cannot offer you great wealth or power, but if you will give your all to redeeming yourselves, you will earn the trust and respect of us and those around you."
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Riding was awkward. It was not really comfortable at low speed, but it simply got worst once they launched themselves at full speed. Luckily, complaining was not into Hinagiku's nature. So, she instead focused on mastering the skill at the best of her abilities. She was used to taking things more slowly, as the Master of masters taught, but sometimes it was not possible. Barely watching the scenery, the monks grips on tight with her legs and holds the reins firmly.
Hinagiku is thankful for the respite she gets when Isilme joins back with them, though the pause might be short, its just enough for her to take out her wand and heal her wounds from the previous day.
"Seems wise miss Isilme." she says, patting the already sweaty and steamy neck of Grace.
The tieflings have no idea who the 'Underfolk' are, but they are obviously surprised at the news that they are to be let free from the cells.
"Really? Well, hows about that," Abet says incredulously. "All I was hoping for was to live another day."
The cultists listen to Isilme's words, their expressions mostly unreadable - they don't say anything, likely aware of how fragile the situation is and unwilling to jeopardize it any further.
The heroes spur their mounts forwards, urging them to continue running at full speed towards Silvershore. A mere fifteen minutes past the encampment they can see a large group of people also moving towards Silvershore off in the distance.
Xanderghul, tired from all of the riding, yells out breathlessly, "We should skirt around them! They don't seem to be mounted, so we can probably outrun any... but we don't want to get too close. It's important that we get to Silvershore ahead of the enemy army!"
"Agreed. We're good, but not fight an army alone good."
"I concur as well, let us make haste to join up with Ehren and see if we can prepare the town to hold off the army." With that she cracks the reins on Cynosure and urges him onward.
The heroes send their horses on a blazing pace, moving far and away from the army in the distance while passing them. They ride for nearly a half an hour more before Lake Silver appears on the horizon. Riding into the little fishing village on the lake's southern shore, the heroes find that Ehren is already there, and surrounded by a crowd of kellids. Next to him is a young woman with an infant strapped to her chest.
Hinagiku lifts her eyes from her mounts neck to look at the horizon, and see the army in the distance.
"Yes Mr. Xanderghul, it would be wiser." she says as they go on riding.
Upon arriving at Silvershore, Hinagiku dismounts as quickly as she can, yet for onlookers, it seems as though she slowly, gracefully does so. Patting gently Grace, she slowly makes her way to the crowd while considering how long it will take for the Oni army to reach the villages.
"Miss Isilme, we don't have much time for preparations." she says, not certain how much exactly, yet her voice is as calm and gentle as usual.
Isilme rides up alongside Ehren, dismounting carefully as Cynosure comes to a rest. She rubs the back of his neck and gives him a pat before turning to Ehren and the others.
"We passed the cultists on the way here. You're right Hinagiku, we only have about an hour and a half before they arrive on foot," Isilme says. "We should prepare as much as we can in the intervening time." She turns to the kellids and continues "But before we get started, I suppose some introductions are in order. I am Isilme, I will allow the others to introduce themselves. I assume Ehren has informed you all of what is coming."
Isilme gives the others a chance to introduce themselves before addressing the kellids. "We should attempt to set up some barricades to fight behind. Anything that would help provide some sort of cover would work well, and to reduce their ability to press past and surround us. The narrower the spaces, the easier it will be for us to hold them off."
"Anevia, would you go do a quick scout around the edge of the town to make sure we are not missing anything else incoming? In an hour you and I will scout ahead again to make sure the army is approaching as expected."
"Any of you have any suggestions for how to better prepare, and what to do once they arrive?" she says looking at Ehren, Val, Hinagiku and Xanderghul in turn.
Xanderghul heaves a leg over the side of his horse and drops heavily to the ground. He waves at Ehren, and acknowledges Hinagiku's statement. "Yes, agreed. We should have about ninety minutes until the cultists and demons arrive. Is there anything we can do to prepare? Traps we can lay? Civilians we can evacuate?"
"In thirty or so minutes, there are a few preparatory spells I can cast, but other than that, my utility is good in battle."
"I have an illusory wall spell that I can use to block off a section of the approach to town, slowing down attackers. I can use shadow conjurations to create fake web spells, that will do the same thing. Enemies whose will is weak will have to struggle through in order to approach - any ranged attackers that we have can take the opportunity to riddle the enemies with arrows."
"I can scribe a symbol of mirroring so that we can fight with illusory doubles the whole time..."
"Oh, and I am Xanderghul, an illusionist, Pathfinder, explorer, Crusader, and adventurer." He concludes with a little bow towards the Kellids... though he knows better than to expect admiration from them.
"Ambush tactics," Val says. "We're outnumbered, but we have reinforcements on the way. We need to fight smart, hit and run until the crusader army arrives. The locals must know the town and the lay of the land well. We need to take advantage of that."
Ehren raises his brows slightly, clearly surprised that the others had arrived so soon. He had been under the impression that he had a bigger lead on them... not that he was complaining.
"Do we have to fight them here?" he asks with a frown, glancing toward the village. "They have the advantage of numbers, but only barely. We could put up a distraction, assail them from afar, and then just charge in. The village itself need not be at risk at all. I do not think they are expecting to be on the defensive."
"I believe we have too many to use hit and run tactics," Isilme says, looking at the large group of Kellids Ehren had managed to assemble. "Your suggestion we ambush, however, gives me an idea Val."
"I could use silent image to provide piles of hay or somesuch for all of our forces to hide within just outside the city. IF we assemble barricades and have Xanderghul station an illusory force there, we can bait them into charging straight for them. Then we can rush out from our cover and flank them. If you could hit them with some sort of large area damage spell just before we go, we should be able to catch them unable to respond effectively."
"Mister Ehren, you flew over the army, could you tell us its composition? Were there dangerous onis we should be aware of?" Hinagiku adds, hoping the answer might help their celestial strategist with her plans.
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Ehren shakes his head. "Nothing that stood out. I expect that they anticipated Silvershore being an easy target."
"That is good news for us then. Val, do you believe you can provide inspiration to one of the two groups? I can head to the other and boost their morale during the fight. I suggest Hinagiku and I head to the left group once the battle starts, and you can head to the right group along with Ehren and Xanderghul perhaps?"
Mera smiles warmly at the newcomers. "Cyfarchion, friends of Ehren. We appreciate your help. So you are all crusaders?"
"I believe I can do that easily enough."
"Nope!" says Xanderghul cheerily. He points at himself, Anevia, Isilme, and Hinagiku. "Just the four of us. I think. I'm not a hundred percent on Hinagiku there," he says, indicating the Tian monk. "There's a lot more Crusaders on the way, hopefully going to waylay many more cultists and demons... so I suppose all told saying that "all of us" are Crusaders is basically correct, because out of two-hundred-plus people, maybe fifteen aren't Crusaders."
Anevia nods. "All right! I'll be back shortly, everyone! Don't get into any fights without me!" She mounts her horse, the poor beast is very tired but it responds to her spurs anyway.
While the heroes deliberate on a plan of action, Sosiel's familiar voice suddenly intrudes on your thoughts.
"Ehren? Have you reached Silvershore? The Commander requests a status update."
"Here, in case you need to hurry back quickly." Isilme takes a moment to dig out her wand of cure light wounds. She reaches out and places her hand on Anevia's mount, washing away the pain from the hard ride that had gotten them there.
While Xanderghul kindly introduces her, Hinagiku politely bows to Mera, still trying to know whether the first word the Kellid spoke was from obscure Taldan or whether she misunderstood what she had said.
"Mr. Xanderghul is right, I am not pledged to the crusades; I am here to slays onis though." she says, her gentle voice clashing slightly with the content of the discussion.
Ehren cocks his head to the side, quickly realizing that he was receiving the sending they had planned on. He speaks in a low but clear voice, not appearing to direct it to anyone in particular.
"All six of us are here. Seventy-five march on the village, with a hundred more encamped behind them. We have fifty defenders."
After a moment, he turns back to the others, speaking normally again. "That was Sosiel. Hopefully, our reinforcements reach the other army before they reach us."
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"If the folks from Silvershore have any sorts of hunting traps they'd be willing to use, then those could come in handy. Also, nets are a poor man's web spell. It won't really stop them, and it'll wreck the nets, but we can rig those up with stakes to create spaces that are more difficult for them to pass - should outright disable any sort of cavalry they have. Speaking of... you should probably put the horses somewhere safe."