Dreyyn dashes behind Amelia, leaping into the air at the last second to sail through the mass of Eldred and land in a flanking position with Amelia, then brings the sap down on the back of the eldred's head.
The Eldred plummets to the ground.
The one left near Dreyyn and Amelia sics the dog on them while he attacks from reach.
Dreyyn ducks under the spear and the dog bites into Amelia's leg.
The Eldred on the ground next to the others realizes if he gets up he might be clobbered with his friend again or by the crystal sword in the hands of Nethan. Being surrounded and disarmed he says in Elven "I surrender!"
"I have this one!" calls Alþórel to his friends, drawing both his blades, but making no other move. "Go help the others!"
To the new Eldred he nods and in the elven tongue states "Very wise. Your surrender is accepted."
Nethan nods and moves methodically, and dangerously, towards Amelia's assailants to his current position. Unfortunately, Nethan can not charge this round because the remaining Eldred and Dog are not within line of sight.
"Hey Eldred and Pup, I am coming for thee!"
Dreyyn looks to Amelia, saying only "Slide!"
With a quick glance at the fallen Eldred Elise dashes off to the north, hoping Al knew what he was doing. And judging by the flying Eldred just a moment ago she felt inclined to think that he did.
Dreyyn moves into position opposite Amelia to get the back of his opponent.
With a quick set of successive blows Amelia and Dreyyn together knock down the Eldred leaving the dog. Amelia gives it a swift smack with the sap and it begins to whine in pain.
The Eldred all lie unconscious on the ground and a few have already been tied up. Spook slides down the side of the slope and grabs some rope to help out. "You made short work of those few. Having been on your guys bad side before I'm surprised you can show such restraint."
"Eh, a bit of spilled blood isn't worth hearing the complaints from the nice guys later."
"Dead witnesses don't work as well." Al explains. "Now, let's load these up and deal with this spirit."
Nethan shrugs at Spook, "Sorry Spook, I guess we were having a bad day on the day we battled you and before the majority of us all of sudden became conscientious objectors." Nethan nods, "Sounds like a plan, are we only to knock out the spirits too or are we actually going to destroy the spirits? I just want to make sure we are all on the same page?"
Al sighs
"The Siphon? It is a tool. Created, I believe, for a single purpose of terrible evil. I am not so unprepared as I was when we first met it. Circumstance" he pauses thoughtfully "Or the gods... have given us a weapon to destroy it. I have both the Book and the Key of Eþnui."
He looks over at Nethan.
"We've never been so bloodthirsty as you seem to think Nethan. We stunned Spook and gave him a chance to join - and that was the right decision. When attacked by those rogues I told them to "Leave and Live" - and a number of them did. There is a difference between killing monsters, true self defence and... ah, you are going to bring up the fireball again."
"The Key's voice is Eþnui's. At my age the mind wanders, sometimes, and a voice from the long dead past can call up memories thought gone. I was not always as I am now. When I was young I was much like you are now."
I'll admit I was trying to send you a fairyly deadly warning at the time. It's just hard to believe when you wield such power you can also hold such restraint. Knowing myself I doubt I'd be able to. Spook replies musing at your abilities.
The still conscious Eldred overhearing the conversation about the siphon says I'm supposed to believe a bunch of outlaws trying to steal military secrets about this supposed evil thing? You're just terrorists. The Eldred is stating it as a matter of fact as opposed to defiantly. He knows he'd be powerless to stop you at this point.
"And you are an unwitting pawn, adherent to masters willing to kidnap and torture for their own benefit. Perspective is such a fun thing!" Elise commends and heads over to give the conscious eldred some nice new armbands out of rope. Satisfied that their PoW is now secure, Elise holsters her sap. "Shall we head to it then?"
"You don't understand." Al speaks calmly but firmly [b]"The secrets you talk of all but destroyed your precursors. The lives of millions are at stake. When you find a toddler waving a burning branch in a forest, you take it from them. When it throws a tantrum you try to explain - but do not expect understanding. Most importantly, you do not try to hurt the child - you use the minimum of force."
"Our problem is you seem to think that we're only using this much force because that is all we have."
"We will take you to the pool, where lies something that has killed every Eldred who has fought it. We'll do our best to keep your minds intact when you see it. We will destroy it. We're not doing this so you'll think we're heroes. We're doing it so you can understand just how out of your depth you truly are."
"Well? Will you be tied down and dragged, or will you walk?"
I know the principle He then explains casting magic through it. The mages realise the spell he is actually describing is featherfall though using a different source than the normal spell. [B ] it requires the use of yellow colour magic, I'm not very well versed in it but if one of you become skilled enough in it I'm sure you can fly with them.[/b]
The other Eldred grumbles and follows the group. He doesn't look too convinced but isn't in a position to argue.
Shkya appears to the group and smiles, opening up a path into the woods. It appears to be a very straight path but the group can see that the woods are actually bending to them as they walk through it. As if the path was adjusting to them.
A short while later they see one of the water siphons sat in the middle of a similar lake concentrating on exuding energy. Around it lays 4 smaller apparitions of water guarding it while it works.
"Watching?"
Al chants and points. Red veins of light instantly spiderweb over his skin, like molten steel over a shattering clay vessel. A second later a bead of fire whips out of his finger towards the lake.
"Watching ..." Elise confirmed as her eyes tracked the small, unseemly bead. She also dragged their captive concious eldred closer to make sure he too saw.
"You might want to shield your eyes" Al remarks calmly, fighting not to show the pain.
"EARLIER"
"Very well, I will memorize one control spell but I am not going to weaken myself to a total pacifist since there are things in here that simply need to be destroyed."
Nethan looks at a spear, "I will take a spear as well." Then he walks over to one of the Eldred and looks for any belts or leather he can connect together to use as a sling. After taking the leather he combines the belts or leather, then looks at the group if they are staring at him, "Hey, at least they are still alive. A small price to pay for using deadly force against us."
"NOW"
"Al, I take it you are casting a fireball? I will follow up if you don't kill them outright"
From out the sky a large fireball descends. Crackling forth summoned from the mythic magic that Alþórel provides. In one feel swoop it decimates the siphon's minions and sets the creature ablaze. It writes for a few seconds before the fire burns what little life it has within. Much of the grass around the lake lie scorched and lifeless as the fireball leaves scorched earth. Left behind is a simple orb in the centre of the lake. The lake is shimmering several colours slowly back and forth. Going between red, blue, purple then back to red. The orb seems to be the centre of this strange change in colour. The Eldred stares in amazement before falling back on himself. "What...?"
This small detonation has definitely solved the issue of the siphon. However it has likely caused a stir in the surroundings. Hopefully more pursuers have not seen this and come to investigate, or hopefully shyka's magic keeps them away. Lying nearby around the lake the group find other Eldred out of the range of the fireball but the looked drained. As if all their innards have left them, they are still whole however but their features appear gaunt and frail.
Nethan smiles from ear to ear, "Quite impressive Al for a peace seeker. My father would be proud of such display of magic prowess. I guess I don't have to follow up with my fireball for cleanup." Nethan looks at Spook and Atenzuki, "Any of you two know how to bring life back to those innocent" ... he looks at the prisoner then back to Spook and Atenzuki ... "or are their souls devoured only leaving a shell?"
"Thank you Nethan. I haven't used that variant of the spell since I was a soldier."
Turning to the Eldred he continues in a quiet, polite tone.
"Your people are arrogant. You seem to think you're some sort of chosen ones. That you have some special purpose. You're not. You're cattle, bred to power these siphons. That is your purpose. You are meat."
"Other Eldred will come here. When they do, I want you to tell them what you saw. Not just that we took down your squad without injury or problem. Not just your glimpse of your racial purpose. But that this is what we can do if we choose to. So far you have been an annoyance, but you are on the verge of becoming a nuisance. Don't."
He turns away, then throws in a little postscript over his shoulder "Understand that I know exactly - exactly - how to take down a town like yours in minutes. When you tell them, do try to be convincing."
Nethan smiles at Al's comment to the prisoner Eldred which makes him feel better and some of the increasing bitterness he was starting to feel towards the aggressive Eldred has subsided.
Nethan watches Al pick up the stone, "You want to place the stone in my bag of holding Al?"
Dreyyn listens to Al's speech to the man, content that Al said everything Dreyyn himself wanted to say, but much more eloquently than he could have said it himself.
Aww ... Elise was sort of disappointed. She had been looking forward to a fight. But on the other hand, the spectacle was worth it!
"You seem to have some people to take care of ..."
Elise nods at the fallen while speaking in broken elvish to their captive.
"... and some thinking to do."
Shkya smiles at Alþórel as he walks off. She feels no need to add anything as the shock on the Eldred's face seems to be enough for her. She doubts many will come into these woods for a while.
Atenzuki shrugs at Nethan "My blood seems to have powers I'm unaware of but I could try feeding them some of it to see if it brings them to life.. I don't know."
Spook ponders for a moment before answering "I haven't had the time to get myself a new companion that allows be to do otherworldly magic. I do have a spell that "gives them life" so to speak." He begins describing a spell that the mages recognise as similar to speak with dead. "I can inhabit their body for a time and let them speak. However it requires me to leave mine behind, which I need to trust you look over. If I had a companion I'd have just drawn his magic out but alas not had the opportunity."
Daeron nods to Amelia. "It does appear to be colour magic.. but why is it appearing after the siphon is dead? As to what it means I don't know, it's just the raw colour by the looks of things." Daeron muses.
"Pah. Isn't this colour magic what the eldred is stuffed with? Probably just what's missing from all the bleak crones out there." Elise shrugs and points to the drained eldred. "I mean, if they are cattle their slaughter must be worth something, right?"
Daeron puts a hand between his shoulder and neck then twists his wrist a little. "'Stuffed with' is a rather crude manner of putting it. I don't like to think myself as a bundle of magic."
Spook scratches his head. "Didn't you say that the King of Whispers was at war with someone? I would've thought he needed an army but this seems rather odd." Spook is unaware of the undead nature of Tar-Baphon, dead Eldred likely serve him as much as living ones do.
Nethan looks at Atenzuki, "Atenzuki, Only use your blood if you know it will work and will not bring harm to you." Then he looks at Spook, "Possession is cool and all but I am not sure that will bring them back to health unless you want to jump in each one of them and do it the human or in this case, the eldred recovery way. And that is if these eldred still have their souls or are they shells of their former selves?"
"Necromancy. In the legends, he used the dead to wage his war. So their condition is probably just a bonus ..." Elise grimaces. She wasn't sure if it was right to admire the efficiency of such a thing, but she did. And it sickened her.
"... On that topic, what is the customary way among Eldred to dispose of their dead?"
"Oh." Elise looks a bit surprised by Amelia's reaction. It takes a few moments for her to put one and one together. "No, I was just thinking if there were vast mausoleums laying about just waiting for the Whispering Tyrant to defile ..."
"Each house is different. However when we can not get access to the tools...or animals in some cases... most houses destroy the bodies with either fire or acid whichever they have the ample supply of at the time." Spook replies to Elise.
Amelia approaches the Eldred to see if their alive. Examining for basic life signs and poking them with a long stick. She doesn't here any breathing. There isn't any reaction from their reflexes, however Amelia can hear the faint sound of a heartbeart. It isn't regular, it beats approximately twice a minute. Not enough to keep someone alive, yet they haven't become much paler than their already pale complexion. Might be hard to tell. The heart beating on its own is rather unsettling especially when everything else points to the Eldred being nothing more than corpses.
If the group is going to dispose of the bodies then Spook is willing to torch them.
Nethan having suggested carrying the orb in his bag of holding takes it carefully and places it safely away.
Nethan takes the orb from Al, wraps it up and places in the bag of holding along with everything else that can fit. As he puts it away, "Atenzuki, I do not know how you feel so it is totally up to you. Do you want to see if one drop of your blood is good enough to bring some color into one Eldred's face of your choice. If you feel it is a waste or you do not have the strength, then please don't do it?! We can hold the Eldred down if you feel it would be safer?"