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Jod narrows his eyes at the idea, but he’s no fool. Unfortunately, he’s also not much of a rider. His pursuit of Sol is brief...
Sol and Jod turn their horses and gallop back the way they came. But they are inexperienced riders and and three horsemen from the enemy camp overhaul them quickly. They are hideous creatures, men but tattooed and mutilated to look barely human, dressed in filthy leathers and scraps of metal and carrying battleaxes and shields. They howl with glee like rabid beasts as the come on. But perhaps worse are their mounts - the shape of horses but black as night but covered with with red, festering sores. With eyes filled with malign intelligence, their muzzles are distorted by over-sized jaws filled with snaggle-toothed fangs.
”Nay, no one left behind. Ride!”
”Come on, stay ahead of them!”
"Do you have any magic to slow them down or make them fight each other? We could put our backs to one of these boulders and let the horses run back to the army..."
”I don’t like it. Can you make your horse vanish, too? What about your footprints? I can track you when I can’t see you, these guys can probably smell you - they look like they’re part dog.”
Jod's arrow fails to penetrate the beast's leathery hide. The riders hurtle closer, one circling Sol and Jod to cut off their escape while the other two charge at Sol. The horrid mounts demonstrate their unnaturalness as they attempt to bite their foes with fanged mouths.
Feeling the bite of the madman’s blade and knowing he cannot fight three of the and their monstrous horses alone, the young ranger follows suit. If the attackers want to run with us, we will lead them directly into an army. Come on, then!
Jod likewise puts the spurs to his horse and rides all-out.
Jod takes a glancing blow from an axe and is left bleeding by the horse's fangs, but he stays in the saddle and surges away into the mist. But Sol pitches from his mount as he takes several more slashing cuts.
But the berserkers pull their hungry mounts away and one bends over to peer into Sol's face. They talk to one another briefly in a gutteral language before hauling Sol on to the back of one of the horses and trotting back towards the camp.
Jod rides like the hounds of hell are on his heels, focusing on his closest adversary and shouting encouragement to Sol. When he sees the outriders from their army, he finally risks a glance back over his other shoulder and is stunned to realize that Sol isn’t actually there. Gods above, where did he go? Did he turn off the road? And where are the other two trolls.... NO!!
Both arrows find their mark and the berserker yells in fury and charges the nearest scout.
The horse-archer fends off the attacks with her buckler.
He thumps into the ground, although as insensible as he is it makes little difference. It is dark. Someone speaks, this time in Taldane.
"Who is he? He looks in a mess - those are some nasty wounds. Can you help him?"
Sol feels gentle hands lift his head. "By the grace of the Inheritor," someone murmurs, and his body is suffused with a lovely comforting warmth.
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"Mother? I had a terrible nightmare..." a confused Sol rides that comforting warmth to consciousness. It and the darkness draw a curtain of charity between his piight and his awareness. Lifting an arm slowly toward the shadowed shadow cradling his head tears that veil. Thanks to the healing, his pain is not acute, nor in any way incapacitating, but it is a pointed reminder his recent martial exploits.
His arm falls back down, and it is with some little fear in his voice that he asks, " Where am I?"
Jod turns the horse and charges, trying to guide it with his knees as he draws the morningstar and prepares to aid the beleaguered archer. As he strikes, he recalls the feeling of being in the presence of a goddess and prays she guides his aim.
The rider pitches from his mount but the vile creature lashes out with teeth and hooves. It grabs the scout's arm it its mouth and worries at it, more like a rabid dog than a horse.
"Who are you?"
Powered by his anger and fear, Jod plants his weapon between the horrid beast's eyes. There a crack of breaking bone and the horse collapses dead.
One of the scouts looks down at the corpse of its rider. "Flayed Men. This is bad. Do they have the ford?"
When Jod finishes the search and has completed the telling his tale, he gestures to the outrider that got bit. "That looks nasty. Do we need to bandage it?" When he does so, he realizes there is quite a bit of blood on his own hand and, with the adrenaline of the flight well worn off by now, the realization of how hurt he is sinks in. He stands staring at his wounds for a moment, pondering what he can do.
Jod reaches the column after a few minutes of riding. His news is swiftly relayed and the army halts and immediately begins to form up for battle. Jod is taken to Irabeth for an impromptu council of war, including Krimmos, Orwem and the others.
"Tell me what you saw," says Irabeth, "We may not have much time."
”We failed to keep a proper lookout, ma’am. As we rode, we came upon a low rise in the road we were following and what seemed to be a fogbank just over the hill. We rode into the fog carelessly, but it suddenly cleared and we found ourselves on the very edge of an encampment.
I saw a river a few hundred yards ahead. Near the water were some low structures, perhaps defensive bunkers, and the road seemed to disappear as it approached these buildings. Camped around them, like they’ve been here for a while, was a large army. Those I saw appeared to be men and women and the like, but it was only a quick glance before we wheeled around and headed back for the main column. Sol and I were easily caught by three of their soldiers, but I thought we had successfully put enough distance between ourselves and them to reach help. As I rode, one of the men was just off my right shoulder, too busy riding to attack, and I thought Sol was just off my left shoulder. When I saw two of our outriders, I risked a glance to my left and realized that Sol was not there. The outriders engaged the flayed man and I regained my wits and circled back to assist. They fought well and he was quickly defeated, along with his devil-horse.
One more thing: I saw in the center of the camp a terrible display. It appeared to be the corpse of a man hung on a T frame, his insides pulled out and hanging free.”
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Sol coughs while he considers his answer.
"Not willingly. At least not me. My friends and I kind of fell into adventuring during the demon attack on the city. Since then every able-bodied person has been pressed into service in the crusade, or has fled. We were sent north to scout for the demon forces while the army regroups."
"Jod, I have a wand to help with your wounds."
"So not much chance of rescue, then." Kamilo sounds disappointed.
“Yes, Commander,” calls a voice and an armoured knight pushes forward.
“Describe it.”
The man nods and thinks for a moment. “There are three main bunkers, dwarven-built, joined by underground passages. They have arrow slits all round covering the ford and road, plus heavier weapons like ballistae, and are very difficult to enter given the doorways can be blocked with lowered stone blocks. They are well-supplied with food and there’s also a well. If they know you are coming, the place is nigh impregnable. I can only assume they were taken by surprise. And another thing - it’s designed to be held by a small force. There’s deliberately not a lot of room inside. Most of the enemy army won’t be able to get in, they will have to camp outside.”
“Any other ways in?”
He nods. “There’s a sally port that comes out in rocks above the road through a secret door, and from there an underground passage leads to the bunkers. But I think it’s trapped – I don’t know the details as I never used it.”
“Very good,” says Irabeth. “What’s your name?”
“Sulliver, ma’am.”
She nods and turns to her officers. “Captain Krimmos, Captain Orwem, we appear to have lost the element of surprise. Nevertheless, the enemy is in the open and has had little time to prepare. We will charge their camp with lances – get your men into formation.” Krimmos and Orwem salute and move off to find their men. Irabeth turns to the adventurers.
“I’m afraid I cannot spare you to search for one man. Hopefully, Sol can look after himself. If not… Well, there is little we can do about it. I need you to take the bunkers. We cannot have the enemy entrenched to our rear. Sulliver will accompany you and show you where to find the entrance to the sally port. Any questions?”
Once outside she will heal Jod with the wand anyway.
He thanks Kira for the healing and whispers to her, ”I have hope. When I came back to fight alongside the two outriders, I landed two devastating blows with the mace. I felt the goddess guiding my hand. Surely she is with Sol as we speak.” There is a light of certainty in his eyes as he shares this, but, ”I didn’t say so to everyone because I don’t want to sound crazy.”