Catching Up With the Townspeople; Farron Stabilizes
Subject: Re: The Exodus; Black Magic 5
Garyth is no longer under fire from the halflings.
Where were the little savages retreating to? Were they even retreating at all? Pensive snaps the stonesash into a loop and holds it loosely in one hand.
"We should ride back the way we came, Garyth," Pensive says. "There's no telling what traps the halflings may have lain for us-- but we know that at least, that way is clear. Clear of traps, anyway." He nods toward the direction the halfling arrows had been coming from.
OOC: No matter what Garyth decides, Pensive will follow.
From: Mike
Subject: Re: The Exodus; Black Magic 5
Garyth nods. "Agreed," he says.
OOC: He'll still be moving at the best possible speed on the way back.
From: Jake
Subject: Re: The Exodus; Black Magic 5
Osred nods. "The elf's right, captain--we should head back. We've got a responsibility back there, people we've got to see to safety, best we can. God knows what hell the witch has been putting them through while we've been out here chasing halflings" (OOC: I'm right, aren't I, in thinking that the party is completely unaware of the witch's death?)
From: Mike
Subject: Re: The Exodus; Black Magic 5
OOC: You are correct. But I'm not sure if one of us read Scott's post wrong. (Or peradventure I'm reading yours wrong.) Garyth already ordered a retreat, so I think Pensive was just advising on the route, not telling him that they need to get back to the camp.
From: Ty
Subject: Re: The Exodus; Black Magic 5
Yes.
From: Ty
Subject: Two wizards out of town; The wrath of Elise
"Hold on," Sa'id whispers. "Just hold on," he says, then pounds his friend's chest yet again, hoping against hope to shock his heart back into a rhythm of life. [Heal attempt 6 vs DC 15, fail; Farron at -8]
But his efforts produce nothing but a long slow exhale from the fallen wizard. When he puts his head to Farron's chest, he can no longer hear even the whispery beat be previously detected. His friend is dying. Dying in his arms. And he is helpless to stop it.
From behind him, Kasen watches grimly. Another murder to add to Elise's tally sheet.
From: Ty
Subject: The Exodus; Rennik leads the way
Rennik darts across the nearly black landscape, only the faint light of Bragga's torch illuminating his path. There was no time to pick the easiest route. Only to pick one that would get the largest number of people into the woods in the shortest time. Rennik stops to let Bragga catch up, and the old guardsman stands next to him waving his torch back and forth and yelling, "To me, Overlook! To me!"
The town follows in a ragged knot. From the dark are cries of pain and panic, but very few of the townsfolk thought to light torches or lanterns before fleeing, and it is impossible to see what's happening in the inky black.
Rennik gives them only a moment, then turns back to lead the way, yelling for Bragga not to lose sight of him.
From: Ty
Subject: Black Magic 6
Garyth leaps onto Kenneth's horse, and turns to lead his men back to the fleeing town. One short. We go back without one man, he thinks. A man who was under my care. He remembers how Kenneth changed after the big half orc nearly killed him. How he had grown quiet, and withdrawn, asking not to be called by his nickname any more. His brush with death had changed him in some way. And now, before he had time to figure it out, death had come back and ended him. Garyth feels eyes on him, and looks up to see Pensive staring. When the elf has caught his eye, he turns to look in the direction of the mountain. The message is clear. The demon killed Kenneth. Not Garyth. The demon. One more soul on his ledger. Garyth represses a shudder. It's creepy how the elf always seems to know what everyone else is thinking.
Garyth spurs his mount over to Kenneth's body, then jumps down to throw the fallen Falcon over the back of his horse. "Back to our people, men. Ride fast."
After a few minutes of riding, the group reaches the camp. Some fires still smolder, casting a dim reddish light. Around them are small dark shapes. Bodies. More than Garyth had expected. Dozens, maybe more. He can hear the rest of the people not much further ahead. He can hear yells and the occasional scream or cry. This attack had hurt them. It had hurt them badly, and now the town was in a panic. Some would follow Bragga and Rennik, but some would be lost in the dark. And there was no way to round them up. They had to keep moving.
And maybe that was the point. Garyth wondered how many of his friends and family would be going to the mountain tomorrow.
A few minutes of riding catch him up with Rennik and Bragga.
[where to from here?]
From: Karl
Subject: Re: Two wizards out of town; The wrath of Elise
His efforts wasted, Sa'id slumps back on his heels, still kneeling, his hand limply at his sides. He stares at the cold corpse in front of him that once was his friend. Suddenly he is exhausted. The weight of the past weeks comes crashing down on him and he sobs, too tired to sob, and to desperate even to curse the god that seemed so fickle in his blessings. Why me and not him, he thinks to himself.
"Why?" he asks aloud. "Why not Farron? He has done what *I* have done. . . why. . ." He slumps forward in despair, his head on his dead friend's chest. "Why?" he sobs meekly.
--------------------
On his dream ship, Farron searches for the captain, or indeed any of the crew. They must be told he didn't belong here. He didn't sign up for this voyage. They have to turn back. They have to take him back home. Standing on the forecastle, he looks back across the main deck, up the companionway toward the wheel and still not a soul in site.
"Ahoy!" he calls. "Hello! Is anyone here?" panic rising in his voice. He runs from the bow toward the stern and up the companionway. He reaches the unmanned wheel, amazed to see it turning back and forth, keeping the ship in line with . . . what? Where? He looks ahead and sees a bright light directly in the path of the ship. It is so bright he cannot look at it head on, but he can see that the ship is rapidly moving toward it, despite the slackened sails.
"I am not supposed to BE HERE!" he screams to the air. He grabs the wheel but it continues its rhythmic rocking keeping the ship in line with the light, oblivious to his pulling and pushing. Panic swelling in him he looks for a lifeboat. There is none. As the light grows brighter truth begins to dawn. . . am I. . . I'm not. . . I can't be . . .
"NO!" he screams, running to the stern of the ship. "I SHOULD NOT BE HERE!"
He takes one last glance toward the blinding light before diving into the water below. "I'M NOT FINISHED YET" he screams at he braces for the cold of the plunge.
(Fate Point to stabilize.)
From: Ty
Subject: Re: Two wizards out of town; The wrath of Elise
[Karl, do you read sakeriver still? People had flattering things to say about your last Sa'id writeup.]
From: Ty
Subject: Re: Two wizards out of town; The wrath of Elise
Farron leaps off the stern of the ship, and hits the cold water. It freezes him to the bones, and he sinks like a rock. His last thoughts are of cold and black?
****
Sa'id sits crying, his hands hang helplessly by his sides. On his knees, Farron lies absolutely motionless. Behind him, Kasen clears his throat. "We should move on. The bitch knows where we are, and she may know that her spirits failed to kill us. We are in no shape to fight right now. We can," he pauses uncomfortably, "we can take him. To bury later. If you wish."
Sa'id turns his head slowly to look at the knight. Kasen shifts backward in his saddle involuntarily, shocked by the black expression on the wizard's face. His eyes flash in the dark, and something like a dim fire flickers around his hands. "If you speak again, I will ki-" He stops suddenly.
On his knees, Farron sucks in a huge coughing breath. He does not wake, but his heart beats and his breath is steady. In minutes, his flesh begins to warm.
From: Mike
Subject: Re: Black Magic 6
When they reach the camp, the sight of the bodies hits Garyth like a blow. He pulls up short, his horse dancing about nervously. Here he sees a young girl face down in the dirt, her chest pinned to the ground by one of the halflings' arrows. She's still clutching the doll she must have been trying to save. Over there, the broken body of a man mauled by the tentacles lies in a heap, limbs sticking out in all sorts of wrong directions. A sick feeling comes over Garyth; he retches once, just managing to keep it together. He grits his teeth, trying to suppress the impotent rage he feels building in him, and spurs his horse on.
It's not long before they catch up to Bragga and Rennik. He falls in beside them and reports, addressing them both. "The archers have been dispersed but I lost a man doing it, and they may be back." His jaw quirks a bit. Steady. It was the demon that did this. The demon. Don't make Kenneth's sacrifice less--he chose this life, he knew what it meant. Calm. Calm. "We have no choice but to keep moving."
From: Jake
Subject: Re: The Exodus; Black Magic 5
Ah. I'm the one who was reading wrong, I'm afraid. In any case, Osred's all for retreating at this point.
From: Scott
Subject: Re: Black Magic 6
Garyth's guilt lays in Pensive's mouth like spiderwebs-- he yawns broadly to get the taste of it out, but gets a lungful of pain and fear from the camp instead. He winces.
There are no more attacks from the halfling's arrows.
The camp is empty of life-- some small fires burn in the underbrush where embers have been knocked free of their firepits. Dead bodies are scattered in the dim glow-- Pensive sees the chubby boy that had been so eager to see Yancy beat up Bastorien. The one who had waved to him. Pensive dismounts. There are no arrow wounds on the boy's body. No-- he'd been trampled to death in the crowd's rush to escape.
Escape. . . escape to where? Pensive reaches to close the boy's eyelids. Where were your killers escaping to? Some would have fled with Captain Bragga-- many more would have run off to get lost in the night.
Pensive's heart quickens a moment. What was the purpose of this attack? It was certainly not to destroy the whole town-- there would have been infantry to deal with if that were the case. He had been wrong. He had assumed that there WOULD be a force of undead that would attack after the intial vollies by the archers. He had expected to find zombies shambling around in the dark.
But there had only been the archers and the witch. And the archers had been beaten back. . . or retreated.
Or gone looking for other prey.
Sand. He had been so completely, utterly wrong. This hadn't been an attack at all. It was a raid. He'd seen something like it with the low elves-- one group would lead their sheep to water, and another would try to scatter them and steal the stragglers.
The halflings were after the stragglers. The rightness of the thought thuds into his heart with such finality, Pensive forgets to breathe. But why? What good would they do? More zombies? Was Kor Garesh so starved for an army that he'd pick up women and children to fight for him?
No. Pensive remembers Verul Benardi's words, ". . . you will all sink forever in the scarlet light of my maw."
He shudders. They should have stayed with the camp. They should have kept the town together.
His own guilt tastes no better than Garyth's. He leaves the boy and the rest of the dead on the ground to see what can be done about protecting the living.