Starday Morning, Fireseek 15, 591 Common Year

Though it is only a matter of seconds, it seems like days as everyone withdraws back to the tree line and regroups. During the withdraw, the Westkeep Guard start taking hits from Deathwalker arrows, but twice more Gar calls upon his healing power and the wounds vanish as though they had never been.

In the end, once they have gotten past the tree line and out of sight of the enemy archers, only Chief Rahk is still suffering from any wounds, and even he feels much stronger than before. Of the lizardfolk warriors five were lost during the battle. Thanks to Gar’s healing magic, Sergeant Apone and his men have completely recovered from their wounds, but they none of them has more than a single arrow. Fortunately, the Deathwalkers killed in the initial ambush each had a full quiver, so the Guard are able to replenish their quivers.

Chief Rahk insists on leading them all back to the ruins where their packs have been stored. Seven of Chief Rahk’s warriors are left behind, submerged in the bog, hidden among the reeds to watch for any movement of the enemy. Other lizardfolk warriors begin making a fire to burn the bodies of their enemies that they have dragged back to camp. They also begin distributing the rest of their equipment. Chief Rahk gives the dead leader’s longsword to Lt. Raz. Lt. Ahsk takes the leader’s longbow and full quiver. Ten of the lizardfolk warriors take longbows for themselves and distribute the arrows.

Lorindel distributes 60 of the arrows from his magically bottomless quiver and keeps the remainder for himself. The lizardfolk archers now have a dozen arrows each.

While the others are refilling quivers, Rain stealthily slips the sack she found in her pack. Assured that the others will only think she is rummaging for something inside her pack, she quickly checks the contents of the sack. She finds perhaps a 100 gold coins, a simple brown cord necklace with six coin sized black scales, and a straight pin or brooch set with a shiny ruby. She puts on the necklace with the scale disks and slips it under her tunic and armor, then reties her pack.

When Rain comes back, Fingol gives her a couple arrows. “Here, promise me you’ll kill something with them.”

Rain smiles, “Thanks Fin. Dead – got it”

“Yeah… and not me, Okay!” adds Fingol.

Newt says in a quiet, discouraged tone to no in particular, “They were laughing at us.”

Gar points out to Fingol, “The skeletons retreated when I channeled positive energy, milord. The time to push forward for the final assault has come.”

Chief Rahk says, “The warriors will alert us if they look as though they are going to come out after us. If so, perhaps we can set up an ambush for them here.” He nods to the fires his warriors are starting. “There is no need to hide our presence now. If we can warm ourselves enough we may be able to fight them at our full strength, at least for a little while.”

One of the warriors left behind comes back to report. “Chief Rahk, the Deathwalkers are heading over to the small mound. They have blankets and poles and it looks as though they are going to find a way to carry the corpse of that creature back with them into the larger mound.”

Kneeling down to scoop up a dark handful of dark musky soil, Gar breathes deep its rich aroma. Then with one swipe of his hand, he rubs it into Rain’s hair and grunts, “Monster dung good for hair and luck.”

Rain pulls her head back away from Gar’s hand shouting, “What the Hells! Why’d you do that?”

Purposely ignoring Rain, Gar turns away, pulls out his crossbow bolts and steps into Aramek’s personal space to softly say, “I have something for you, milord….” as Gar hands Aramek the crossbow bolts, tacky with dung.

Aramek, taking the bolts and, at the same time looking for water to rinse them with, says sarcastically to Gar, “You’re much to kind and considerate, my lord.” Finding a nearby pool, Aramek dunks the grungy bolts in the water and cleans them off.

Though her hair now stinks, Rain slaps Gar on the back and offers a friendly smile. Somehow she feels he has been but a ghost of his normal self lately and is happy to see him return from his mental journey. She also says to him in a low voice, “If a logical reason does not present itself soon for this crap being in my hair… there will be repercussions.”

Gar smiles innocently.

Then to Newt and Aramek she smiles broadly and says, “Come on Newt… let’s make those bastards choke on their laughter, shall we?”

“Right behind you, Rain!” replies Newt with a wicked grin.

Indranil says to all assembled, “While we had to retreat, it was for good reason to rearm and heal ourselves. We actually accomplished quite a bit. We killed the creature and upwards of half the expected Deathwalker garrison in the shrine.”"I suggest we immediately attack the mound again. I think without the creature to block us, our knowledge of the quicksand trap, and time to warm the lizardfolk we can quickly gain the mound.

“Based on their animating the lizard warrior skeletons I don’t think we want to risk them being able to reanimate that creature.

“I would suggest an assault like this: Chief Rahk will order his warriors into three groups. The first group, composed of four warriors, will provide a shield wall for Fingol, Lorindel, Gar, and the Guard who will be shooting on the move in a fast walk up the path. The second and third groups will be composed of 15 warriors each, who will swim up the left and right sides of the path, keeping pace with the fast walking humans. Fingol, Lorindel, and I will lead the human party such that when the humans arrive at the quicksand booby trap our lizardfolk warrior allies will proceed through single file to skirt the quicksand pit as quickly as possible and then reform their line to reform the shield wall. Then the humans will run single file across and reform behind the shield wall. Once we are all across then race to mound as fast as our lizardfolk allies can run to engage the Deathwalkers in close quarters combat.

“What does everyone else think?”

Rain speaks up, “I agree. Quick action is best, let’s hit them now.”

“Anything that will get me closer to the action,” gripes Lorindel. “At these long ranges, I’m practically useless.”

Laughing, despite the recent carnage, Adelina rejoins with, “Only ‘practically useless.’  Your brother thinks you make a fine shield. I think we should go as a single group, spreading out only enough to avoid getting us all hit by area spells.”

Fingol says to Indranil, “I have to point out that we have expended a great deal of magic in the attack. I am uncertain if we can recover from another such attack. And yet, I feel that we can dislodge the Deathwalkers from the mound. It’s the cleric that I am concerned with.” Fingol takes the remaining 2 flasks of oil from his pack, taking out his journal and putting it into his pack, he slips one of the flasks into the journal’s pocket. “If we see the cleric, perhaps we should use this oil. Father Gar could ignite it.” Indicating Indranil to whom he hands the other flask of oil.

“Father Gar, perhaps you could explain how a priest of evil can drain life. Or at least the factors of how it is done that apply to our situation. If he is distracted, say by being hit by flaming oil, would it disrupt his ability to use the power? Would it also affect his spells?  Would a priest of a god of death have the ability to heal his followers such as you do?”

Gar bows low and says, “Milords, in the same way that I can heal the living and harm undead, the evil priest could present the image of his god and channel negative energy to wound all those near him and empower the undead. Yes, spells might be negated. A priest of a death god would be able to use healing spells but only on a single person at a time, and his ability to do even that would be very limited if he could do it at all. I can heal and repel undead only a few more times today, milords, but I’m ready to lead the assault against the undead if that is your decision.”

Fingo nods and says, “I say, if we attack, we should try to do so when the warriors are encumbered by the creature’s carcass – preferably when they are out in the bog. If we can cut them off, they would fall quickly, and they would have fewer men to defend the mound.”

Indranil says, “Sir Fingol, wise advice. I agree catching them in the bog would be outstanding. Chief Rahk, how soon will your warriors be warm and ready to go?”

Newt interrupts to ask, “But they are moving the carcass now, are they not? And yet, we should wait for the lizardfolk to be warmed properly, or they’ll suffer more losses.”

Fingol responds, “We can at least move to where we can fire some of Lorindel’s arrows at them! Let’s not let them walk away with that thing.”

Chief Rahk looks over to where the lizardfolk warriors are roasting the carcasses of the Deathwalkers. “We are ready to go whenever you are. However, my forces are lizardfolk warriors and not humans. I will give you the ten who now have their own bows to accompany you and your warriors up the pathway. But the rest of us will go beneath the waters where their archers cannot see us. We will emerge on every side of the large mound and fling darts at them and then rush them as quickly as we can. While your forces stop them from bringing in the body of that creature, we will clear the large mound of their archers.”

Indranil says, “Let’s do it!”

Gar growls his agreement.

During the battle discussions Rain leans over to Aramek and says quietly, “Hey, thanks again for that magical barrier you put on me… that is a nice trick.”

Smiling, Aramek says, “You’re welcome, Rain. You’ve certainly come to my rescue a time or two and, while I may not have your skill with weapons, I do have a few tricks up my sleeve to offer help to a friend.”

Indranil wraps the meeting up saying, “We are all agreed then. We attack immediately.  Hopefully our allies are warm enough. But we can not wait and let that creature be animated.”

 “To Battle! Ehlenstra!” Indranil shouts to rally them. He leads the march back to the end of the tree line and then oversees the deployment of the assault force according to his plan.

Aramek says to Indranil, “Please don’t forget we have the invisibility potions, if they can be of any use.” Indranil and the others are too preoccupied to respond however.

Rain, though, hears Aramek and with a wide smile says, “I’ll take and put them to great use!”

Another of Chief Rahk’s warriors reports to him. Chief Rahk nods and turns to Indranil with his mouth open in a reptilian smile. “My warriors have found a way into the bog that cannot be seen from the large mound. I will go with them and we will swim under the waters to the large mound and attack it from all sides. We will start as soon as you are halfway up the path.” Chief Rahk then leaves with his warriors except for Lt. Ahsk and the ten lizardfolk archers.

Soon Lt. Ahsk and his archers are moving swiftly up the pathway, with the Keolanders led by Indranil behind them. At the small mound they see a group of Deathwalkers trying to rig up a litter and a raft to bring the carcass of the dead creature back into the shrine. As soon as they see the charging lizardfolk they drop what they are doing, take up their bows, and jump for cover.

Arrows come in from both the large and small mounds. Both Lt. Ahsk and six of his warriors take hits. As soon as they come up to the halfway mark on the pathway they begin returning fire, as do Fingol, the Marinus brothers, and Sgt. Apone and his squad. Five of the Deathwalkers on the small mound are wounded.

Indranil yells, “Lt. Ahsk, have your warriors fire on the large mound while you advance on it. The rest of us concentrate your fire upon the Deathwalkers on the small mound until we kill them. Then we will advance on the large mound to support our lizardfolk allies! Aim your shots, we must increase our accuracy!”

Rain kneels down next to Gar and targets the same Deathwalker, saying “Aramek, same target – let’s take this guy down!”

Aramek replies, “You got it!”

Newt crouches down behind Rain and asks, “What should I do? How can I help?”

Indranil who is standing nearby and over hears says while he is shooting, “Adelina is there anything you can do that you have yet told us about? Now would be a good time!”

Adelina responds, “Sorry, milord. I’m not accustomed to battles.”

Lt. Ahsk leads his archers forward, firing as they go though they can’t seem to hit anyone, just as Chief Rahk and his warriors burst out of the bog at the edges of the large mound. They hurl their darts with their atlatls at the archers on the small mound managing to wound two of them, and then turn to charge up the sides of the large mound. Rahk’s second dart hits the leader on the large mound in a joint in his banded armor.

The Deathwalker archers on the small mound turn their fire on Segeant Apone and his men. All except Sergeant Apone are wounded, Dale grievously though he is able to continue fighting for the moment. A Deathwalker leader in banded armor on the small mound fires and strikes Indranil, an arrow that penetrates his chainmail and lodges painfully in his side.

Ignoring the pain, Indranil fires back to wound one of the other archers, for the leader has ducked behind the willow tree. Gar’s crossbow shot takes one of the archers down. Rain also manages to wound one. Seregeant Apone and the Guard manage to wound two others.

Fingol shouts, “Sir Indranil, they have good cover. Let’s either bypass them or have the lizardfolk swim over and attack hand to hand.”

Indranil shouts back, “Sir Fingol, a few more aimed shots should eliminate them. I do not want them shooting us in the back.”

Rain yells, “Sir Indranil, we should step into the bog for cover!”

“Good Plan Rain! Everyone step back into the bog by the path. Father Gar we need your healing to finish this! Keep firing from cover, we almost have them!”

On the large mound the Deathwalker leader and his archers all retreat back inside the mound, Chief Rahk and his warriors have now taken it and are beginning to beat and hack at the doors they find concealed in the underbrush halfway up the mound.

Lt. Ahsk and his archers also move into the bog to use the pathway and the reeds growing alongside it as a cover and since the Deathwalkers on the large mound have gone inside they fire once again upon the small mound. Three more Deathwalkers fall to arrows from the lizardfolk or the Guard. The rest, seeing that the large mound has been closed to them and that their position is untenable, begin withdrawing from the small mound into the bog.

Indranil yells, “Lt. Ahsk, swim your men over to the small mound and dispatch any wounded Deathwalkers you find! The rest of us back to the path and on to the main mound!”

Lt. Ahsk nods happily. He and his warriors leave their bows on the pathway and take to the water. Not too long afterwards, the six Deathwalkers and their leader who were wading for the tree line are pulled under the waters of the bog.

Rain mutters to those closest to her, “Finally!”

Newt waits in the reeds for Rain, and then follows her, “Now we’ll get this done!”

Indranil calls over his shoulder as they advance down the path, “Aramek we now lay siege to the mound itself. Perhaps those invisibility potions will come in handy!”

Rain pipes up with excitement, “I have them… want me to take one and head up to do what damage I can?”

Indranil says, “Not yet Rain. Let’s gain the Mound and take stock of the situation then decide how best to penetrate the interior. I suspect the unique skills you gained growing up will come in very handy indeed in the next few hours.”

Rain smiles wickedly at Indranil’s comment.

“Damn it! I’m tired of wasting ammunition,” huffs Lorindel. “I’ve got to move in and stay swift else it is as if I’m flicking sewing needles at a mountain side.”

Indranil and the others now come up to the quicksand pit. Without anyone firing upon them from above, it is a simple matter to find the solid ground on either side of it and walk across to the last dozen yards of the pathway – the part lined with skull topped polls. As they make room for one another, though, the skeletal lizardfolk warriors rise again out of the bog and begin to climb up onto the path.

Indranil stows his bow across his back, draws his sword, and lowers his buckler into a defensive ready posture. He shouts, “To arms! Prepare for close combat! Ehlenestra!”

Rain drops the bow behind her and draws rapier and shortsword, still with a wicked smile on her face.

Gar immediately holds forth his little Green Man and booms, “May the power of Obad-Hai repel these undead and heal my friends!”

Indranil and the Guard members who were wounded immediately feel their wounds close. At the same time the skeletons recoil from the Green Man and begin heading away out into the bog.

Gar smiles at Indranil. “The way is open for you now, milord.”

“My arrows are useless against those creatures,” says Lorindel. “I’ll press on.”

Rain begins looking around the mound in front of her, carefully searching for any further traps on the way to the concealed entrance.

“To the big mound!” growls Gar, “I want a piece of evil priest.”

Indranil bows low to Father Gar and says, “Again we thank you! May Obad-Hai smile upon you and yours for many generations to come my friend, it is an honor to campaign with you; but be ready, as we still have not encountered the depraved priest. I suspect the worst may still be ahead of us and we will need all of your wit and strength to see us through to victory.

“Let the skeletons go, they are no immediate threat to us. I suspect once we finish off the vile cultists inside those skeletons will rest in peace of their own accord. Sgt Apone, have one of your men watch our rear in case they return. I would not want to be surprised.

“Form up in ranks. Secure your bows, as we may still need them. Ready your combat arms. We march to the mound but proceed carefully looking for more traps. Now that we are not under immediate attack let’s take time to be careful.

“Lt. Ahsk, return to us!”

Lt. Ahsk and his warriors begin slogging back to the pathway, though they give wary glances at the skeletons retreating across the bog.

“Chief Rahk, have your warriors secure the entrances across the mound to prevent them from coming out. Do not attempt entry at this time. Please meet us at the top of the mound to hold one last war council to determine our final assault on the inside to scour this wicked nest once and for all.”

Chief Rahk leaves at least two of his warriors at each of the four concealed entrance found on the four sides of the mound, and then heads up to the top of the mound with the rest.

Gar speaks up, “Milords, if you give me that other invisibility potion, I’ll serve roast cleric to our lizard friends for breakfast today yet.” Gar does not appear to be jesting.

Adelina recoils, “Ugh!  That’s disgusting!”

Indranil looks over his shoulder at Father Gar and says, “Father Gar, your courageous volunteer spirit is noted. We have two potions at our disposal. Let us not be hasty. First we gain and secure the mound and discuss what we plan to do next.”