Chapter Twenty Seven

Attack Of The Worgriders

Jihan's words send panic amongst them all, especially Heimlin.

'Damn!' he exclaims. 'They must be coming to find out why the other company never returned yesterday. Why the hell didn't I think of that?'

'What are we going to do?' he asks of them. 'It sounds like we've got just enough time to get out of here before they arrive, but it would mean leaving a lot of Granny's stuff behind. I don't know whether we've got all of the really useful items or not yet. Should we stay and fight them, or should we get out while we can?'

To the proud band of heroes, fleeing from the Nyemetz is not an option. They quickly start their preparations to meet the attack.

They dash out of the grotto in order to find a suitable site to provide the best chance of covering them in order to ensure that their ambush is not realized until they are ready to spring it, debating tactics on the run. There is some heated disagreement between Yaz and Winnacer regarding the tactics, which results in Yaz dropping his trousers and storming off away from the rest of the party in the worst temper that they have seen him in to date. He takes Giselle, attached to the cart loaded with Granny's possessions, plus the spare horses, and takes them to the copse where Heimlin spent most of yesterday waiting for the battle to be decided. As Yaz leaves, Winnacer is furious and dashes after him trying to get the impetuous half-elf to see reason and assist in the combat. Yaz will have none of it, however, and so Winnacer is forced to rejoin the rest of the party, angry beyond belief.

Heimlin, Bekkah and Granny remain inside the grotto, where Granny's giant badgers will provide some degree of protection, should it be required. Heimlin starts to try and explain the situation to Granny so that she might be able to provide some assistance should it be required.

Looking around, the remainder of the party sees that the hillock, under which lies Heimlin's family grotto, provides probably the best defensive site. The Nyemetz are approaching down the trail from the west in an easterly direction, which means that this hillock provides cover against their advance. Another benefit of this site is that there is some good cover at both the northern and southern ends of this hillock, providing sufficient cover for both Winnacer and Xavier to start the battle mounted.

Winnacer, Corrow and Felibarr hide behind the northern bush, while Xavier, Darius, Faewen'il and Jihan take the southern bush.

Then they prepare their weapons, checking them and keeping low to the ground as they wait for the worgriders to appear.

After just a couple of minutes, the enemy appears. They are disappointed to see that they are already spread out and are approaching the gnome village in a line. They would have preferred that they were approaching in a tighter group in order that their spells could be more effective.

As they come closer, they see them in more detail. The worgs are a terrifying sight, much larger than the wolves that caused such pain and injury in the ruined farmhouse just two weeks ago. They are panting, revealing their sharp yellow teeth as saliva drips from their pink tongues. The worgs seem to be somewhat malnourished. They can see their ribcages poking through their dark gray hides.

In the center of the line is the witchfinder. It is another female human, dressed identically to the last witchfinder that they saw wearing a dark blue cloak. In her left hand is a rod with a gem on the end, which glows dimly as she waves it steadily ahead of her. They recognize the magickal implement as another of the witchfinder's rods, similar to the one that is now in their possession.

At first glance, it appears that the witchfinder is riding on a large wolf. However, as they investigate more closely, they see that she is mounted on a riding horse that is covered by a large wolf skin.

The witchfinder is calling to the worgriders in Nyemetz. They can tell that she is telling them that there is magickal energy around. However, seeing as many of them now have objects that are magickal and thus are affecting the rod, not to mention the large number of illusions in the area masking the entrances to other grottos, she cannot get an accurate fix at this moment. She is telling them all to be cautious. They can see the goblins surveying the area carefully, but they give no indication that they have seen yet.

To her right, is an orc, dressed similarly to the sargeant that Winnacer quickly dispatched the previous day. He wears chainmail and is mounted on an even larger lupine beast than the worgs ridden by the goblins. They remember hearing about dire wolves being the largest type of wolves to be found in Bohavia, excepting the mythological winter wolf, and guess that this is such a beast.

To the left of the witchfinder is the goblin's standard bearer. He is dressed similarly to the goblin which had the gong yesterday, as he is wearing a wolfskin over his leather armor. He does not have a gong though. Instead, a large banner featuring a red grinning wolf's head on a brown background streams behind him. Attached to its saddle on the left side are a pair of small drums, the skin of which looks suspiciously as if it used to be human.

To each side of the command group are four goblins, each dressed in leather armor. In their right hands, they are each carrying spears, pointing forwards in a sick parody of gallant knights. On their sides they each have a shortsword. They are very disappointed to see that each goblin also has a short bow hung over their shoulder and a quiver of arrows attached to the saddle. They realize that things are not going to be totally in their favor if the battle turns out to be more of a firefight than a melee.

As the worgriders carry on forwards, the worgs start to sniff at the air. They can smell something. Their horses start to pull at their reins and get still more jumpy as they sense the worgs' evil presence getting ever closer.

The worgs can clearly smell the horses now, as they start to howl with excitement. They start to surge forwards in the party's direction. Seeing the fact that the worgs are about to charge, the orc sargeant barks out a command. The goblins pull on the reins hard trying to keep the worgs under control. Some of the worgs snap at the goblins on their backs as they do so, but are unable to reach their masters.

Sweat starts to pour from their brows and they have difficulty keeping their hands from shaking as the worgriders continue their advance upon them . It's very tempting to unleash their bows on them now, but they know that they must let them come within 30 paces of their position so that Faewen'il and Corrow's magick will be within range.

As they come closer, the worgriders know that there is some threat out there, but try as they might, they are unable to spot any of the party in their hidden positions. The party members watch each other, waiting for the signal that the enemy is within range so that they can unleash their arrows.

Fifty paces…forty paces…THIRTY PACES!

Winnacer gives the signal and the air is suddenly filled with arrows, all heading towards the witchfinder.

Four missiles, from Darius, Felibarr, Jihan and Xavier all soar towards the witchfinder. However, whether as a result of witchcraft or sheer bad luck, none of the arrows find their mark. Winnacer has even less luck, as his bowstring snaps, rendering his shortbow useless.

Having been watching the area carefully, the worgriders spot the party's position. The orc sargeant screams out an order and the goblins loosen their reins on the frothing worgs, which start bounding towards them.

The witchfinder, seeing that she is the intended target for the missiles looks around for cover. Seeing none, she attempts to dismount.

She is not quick enough to stop a second wave of missiles coming towards her, however. The archers have now found their mark on the witchfinder after adjusting their aim to compensate for the wind direction. This time, each of their shots hit her and she quickly resembles a pincushion. She tumbles from her saddle, very much dead. Her horse bolts away from the party, panicked by the fall of its mistress.

Although one of the major threats has been neutralized, the worgriders are just as dangerous and the missiles do not panic the riders, who are simply hanging on to their mounts as they charge forwards.

With her eyes firmly set upon the orc sargeant, Faewen'il starts her familiar gestures and utterings and then tosses a small handful of sand in the direction of the sargeant and his mount. As she does so, both the orc sargeant and the standard bearer slump in the saddles of their mounts. However, to her great disappointment, neither of the great beasts lay down, but continue to charge forwards.

Corrow realizes that the emergency that he was waiting for before using his sleep ensorcellment has already arrived. The seven of them versus ten worgriders and eight goblins are far from being ideal odds. He quickly copies Faewen'il's gestures and incantation and tosses sand towards the closest of the two worgriders.

His spell has slightly more success than Faewen'il's, as one of the worgs falls to the ground along with its rider. The next goblin to it also slumps in its saddle.

However, there are still nine worgs (including the dire wolf) and six goblin riders bearing down upon them.

As the worgs leap towards their positions, Winnacer's horse, Warwinner, and Xavier's mount, Riverdancer, both pull at their reins, trying to escape from the worgs.

Winnacer just manages to keep hold of Warwinner's reins, taking all of his strength and skill with horses in order to to control the terrified animal.

Riverdancer, however, is beyond control and Xavier is powerless to rein him in as the horse bolts away from in a WSW direction, taking him along the path to the east.

Jihan and Felibarr both loosen arrows at the approaching goblins coming towards them. However, the worgs are moving too quickly for them to have much chance of finding their marks. Seeing the beasts nearly upon them, they drop their bows and draw their blades.

Faewen'il points her hands towards the on-coming goblins and starts uttering some arcanities that the others have never heard her speak before. As she reaches her climax, a stream of bright light launches from her outspread hands and heads towards one of the goblins. The light is, however, deflected by the goblin's leather armor, and simply dissipates into the air. Having little left to contribute to the party, the plucky lass throws herself into the bushes in front of Darius and Jihan.

Darius stands up from his position and screams something in goblin to the riders. All of the six goblins that are still awake react to Darius' screams, apart from one who ignores him totally. Visibly panicked, they desperately try and rein in the worgs. Two manage to get the worgs under control and turn them around, heading back from where they came from. The others fail to gain control of their beasts, intent upon feasting upon horseflesh and they carry on towards the party.

Much to their surprise, they see a thick mist seemingly appear from behind the northern edge of the hill heading towards the worgriders, and they believe that they can see mysterious winged figures amongst the white swirl.

'Where the hell did they come from?' theywonder to theirselves.

Then, they see Corrow standing behind the bushes with a piece of fleece in his hands, waving his arms around in a familiar manner. They guess that it is another one of his illusions.

This panics the goblins even more than Darius' screams - apart from the cocky bastard that ignored Darius, who screams at the other goblins in his native tongue. Not that it makes much difference to them. They have their work cut out trying to rein in their worgs, still with no success.

Four worgs, two with terrified goblins hanging on to them, and two which are asleep in the saddle head towards Winnacer on Warwinner.

Two worgs with goblin riders and the dire wolf ridden by the sleeping sargeant charge after the rapidly departing Xavier on Riverdancer.

Bravely, Winnacer brings Warwinner under control and tries to charges around the side of the worgs heading for him, waving 'Old Bohavia' around his head. In a furious whirl of steel, Winnacer hacks the first petrified goblin, and then the second in two, killing them both in an instant. That's the goblins sorted out, but the four savage beasts are sure to prove more tricky opponents. Although Winnacer tries desperately tries to take on one beast at a time, in the chaos of the battle it proves to be impossible as the worgs track their every move, pouncing forwards not matter how skillfully Winnacer attempts to maneuver Warwinner.

Viciously, all four launch themselves at the unfortunate Warwinner. Two of them connect with the horse, one of them ripping out the mount's throat. Warwinner buckles to the ground as he dies, throwing Winnacer to the ground. As this is not the first time Winnacer has been thrown from a horse, he manages to bring his leg over just in time, and manages to stay on his feet.

Coming to his aid, Felibarr, with shortsword in hand, launches himself into the mass of fur and teeth that is the worgs. His aim is true, but he only manages to score a small cut on one of the large beasts.

Riverdancer gallops away from the wolves as fast as its four legs will carry it, with Xavier gripping on for dear life. The two mounted goblins and dire wolf chase after them, but the terrified horse is quicker than they are.

Seeing that they are in no immediate danger, but that Xavier could need some help, Darius and Jihan pick up their bows again and aim at the rapidly departing goblins. Darius' shot fails to penetrate the goblin's armor, however, and Jihan's arrow is off target.

Winnacer strikes at the closest worg with 'Old Bohavia', but his blow slides off the beast's mangy hide. The beast snaps back at Winnacer, but the young lord manages to avoid its jaws.

Felibarr tries to get another blow at the worg he previously injured, but misses this time. The worg strikes back at him and sinks its teeth into the halfling's throat, ripping it out. All that can be heard from the halfling is a sick gargling sound as Felibarr suffocates to death. As his last remaining breath escapes, it appears that he is smiling, happy to have atoned for his sins through his death.

The other two worgs start to gorge themselves upon the flesh of Warwinner, snapping at each other as they devour the choicest areas of the horse's flanks. The worgs seem to be ignoring the others close to them, concentrating only upon gorging themselves on horseflesh.

Corrow is concentrating on making the illusion of the mist look as convincing as possible. Needless to say, its presence is having zero effect upon the worgs, which are far too hungry to bother with such things

The two worgriders which Darius managed to scare in some way turn their worgs around some 150 paces from the melee and watch the ongoing chaos for a few seconds, then dash off, heading in the direction from whence they came.

Xavier on Riverdancer continues to gallop down the pathway to the East. Little does he realize it but he is heading very close to where Yaz is waiting, along with the delicious smelling Caelli, Wisenose, the spare horse, Giselle and the cart full of Granny's possessions.

Only Yaz and Prirodna know why had chosen that particular moment to get down out of his tree and hurry towards the melee. As he emerges from the copse, he sees Xavier finally bringing Riverdancer to rein, attempting to turn his terrified mount towards the charging lupines.

Seeing that Riverdancer could be the next horse to become worgfood, Yaz springs into action, starting his familiar gestures and incantations. As the two worgs and dire wolf are almost upon Xavier and Riverdancer, Yaz unleashes his spell. As the spell takes effect, and the grass starts to swirl as if it has taken on a life of its own, Yaz sees that his spell is right on target - well for him anyhow.

Not only does the long grass wrap itself around the clawed paws of the worgs, but also around the hooves of Riverdancer, which is just inside the area of the spell's effect.

Yaz, for an instance, raises his hands in triumph - until he hears Xavier screaming at him in Saxon.

'GOTT IN HIMMEL, DUMKOPF!' screams the knight, who is totally against all forms of magickal intervention ''YOU'VE CAUGHT ME AS WELL!'

'RIVERDANCER IS SAFE' shouts Yaz, 'AND YOU CAN DISMOUNT WITHOUT THE GRASS CATCHING .'

Xavier looks down and sees that he is right on the edge of the entangled area, so he could easily leap outside the area. But then he looks back at the beasts. Although Riverdancer is stuck firmly in the grass, the dire wolf and one of the two worgs are slowly making their way through the grass, despite the spell.

To make matters worse, the two awake goblins on the back of the two worgs, who were totally surprised and panicked by the grass, are reaching for their shortbows in an attempt to shoot their way out of the combat.

Yaz is beside himself as he sees that the beasts have somehow not fallen for the effects of the spell, utterly stunned at his misfortune. He sees that helping out the conflict on the hillock will have to wait, as Xavier and Riverdancer are sorely outnumbered. Xavier remains mounted upon Riverdancer. He draws the mighty 'Justifier' and prepares himself for the worgs' attacks.

Meanwhile…

On the hillock, Winnacer is in a world of hurt after seeing the death of his steed, Warwinner, and the halfling, Felibarr, inside a period of just two minutes. Although he is angry, he sees that his horse may not have died in vain, as its mangled corpse is keeping the worgs occupied, perhaps allowing him to take them one at a time. Moving to the side of the gorging pack, he hacks into the closest worg to him, but 'Old Bohavia' does not manage to penetrate the hide of the beast. Snarling, the beast retaliates, but Winnacer easily dodges its jaws.

Winnacer is somewhat relieved to see that the other three worgs are paying no attention to his fight with the other, but are busy tearing Warwinner's corpse to pieces.

'SHOOT THE EATERS! SHOOT THE EATERS!' cries Winnacer across the hilltop to where Darius and Jihan are situated.

Jihan acts as requested and fires into the crowd of swirling worgs, but both shots miss their targets.

Darius has other ideas, however. Rather than firing at the worgs, he dashes out from his position in the direction of the sleeping worg and rider.

Corrow keeps the illusion of the mist going. The swirling white cloud, so thick that it is hard to see through, moves slowly towards where Winnacer is fighting for his life against the worgs. Tendrils of mist writhe and slither along the ground, and strange shapes rear up within the cloud, then dissolve into nothing again. They see the forms of giant men, strange alien animals, and abstract sinuous forms all loom menacingly over the worgs. The illusion is truly a work or sorcerous art, however there is no enemy but for the worgs awake currently for the illusion to spook, as the only alive goblins are caught in Yaz's entanglement, some distance away. The two worgriders Darius panicked earlier are now out of sight after running over one of the hills.

'If only I could create illusions of smells rather than sights' thinks Corrow to himself. 'I could get us all out of the mess easily.'

Out of spells and out of ideas, Faewen'il stays hidden in the bushes behind Jihan. She quickly strips one of the gnomes' small sheets into bandages and digs out her pack of herbs getting ready for the seemingly inevitable casualties.

Back at the entangled area, Yaz rushes towards the area in order to come to Xavier's assistance. As he comes towards them, arrows fly towards him from the two goblins. He avoids the arrows without too much difficulty and hurls one of his knives at the closest one, but his knife is also off target, and gets swallowed up by the grass.

The dire wolf, with the snoozing orc sargeant still in the saddle, comes with range of 'The Justifier' borne by Xavier. He lashes out at the dire wolf, but his attack is just short. The dire wolf lunges at Xavier, but he is saved by his mail.

On the hillock, Winnacer again strikes at the first worg, but just fails to penetrate the worg's hide again. The worg, scared by the close miss, loses its footing and topples over.

Jihan launches another couple of shots into the mass of worgs. Cursing his bad luck, he again sees both arrows failing to hit.

Darius reaches the sleeping worg and goblin. In one clean movement, he lops off the sleeping goblin's head with his shortsword. He then starts to unbuckle the goblin's saddle harness and throws the goblin's body onto the ground beside the still sleeping worg.

Furious now, Yaz throws his remaining two knives at the goblins. This time he is more successful. His first knife hits the goblin on the entangled worg right in the face, killing it instantly. The second hits the other goblin in the arm, resulting in a cry of pain, but little in the way of damage. Out of knives now, he draws his scimitar and rushes over to help Xavier out in the melee on the edge of the entangled area.

Xavier again lashes out at the dire wolf, but is way off target, but luckily so is the dire wolf. The other worgrider, which has reached Xavier and Riverdancer's position despite the arm injury inflicted by Yaz, draws its shortsword and lunges at Xavier. Xavier's chain takes the full impact of the goblin's blow, however. The worg beneath the goblin tears into Riverdancer, but doesn't manage to connect.

Winnacer tries to take advantage of the fact that the closest worg is prone by taking a couple of aimed shots at the beast. It is back on its feet sooner than Winnacer expected, however, and both attempts fail to connect.

Jihan offers a quick prayer to Prirodna to guide his arrows towards the worgs. His prayers are answered as he sees one strike one of the worgs, imbedding itself in its side. The worg roars with pain and looks up from his equine feast to see where the shot originated. It sees Jihan and starts to bound towards him.

Darius sits in the saddle of the worg and straps himself in. He then gives the worg a big smack on the head with the pommel of his shortsword, which awakens the beast. It is sluggish at first, but another blow from Darius wakes it up in no time. The worg has no idea that he has been subject to a change in ownership while it has been dozing.

Looking up, Darius sees one of the worgs bounding towards Jihan and Faewen'il. Believing that Winnacer is better able to take care of himself than the elf and Faewen'il, he attempts to maneuver his worg into an intercept position. The worg he is riding, however, has different ideas now that it has smelt the delicious scent of horseflesh. Despite Darius' best efforts, he has not had the training to control these headstrong animals and is powerless to resist as the worg heads towards the remains of Warwinner.

Xavier, once again, tries to strike the dire wolf with 'The Justifier 'but, again, his attack is off target. The dire wolf, however is successful in sinking its teeth into Xavier's leg, leading to a cry of pain from the Saxon. Yaz joins the fray, swinging his scimitar towards the worg in an attempt to stop the beast from feasting on the horse. His aim is right on target and he tears a large gash in the worg. It's a huge beast, however, nearly as big as the dire wolf, and will not go down easily. The worg roars in pain and bites through Yaz's orange armor in order to exact its revenge. The worg tears a mouthful of flesh from Yaz's chest leaving him crying in agony. The goblin rider also attempts to strike at Yaz, but fails to get in a shot.

Winnacer strikes again at the closest worg, now up on its feet again, but again is unsuccessful. The worg also fails to connect with Winnacer. As the melee ensues, Winnacer notices that the rider on the worg's back is starting to awaken.

Seeing the worg bounding towards him, Jihan, hands trembling, tries to fell the beast with his next two shots, praying to Prirodna for his salvation with total devotion. His first shot sinks deep into the worg's flank, maddening the beast with pain. As the beast gets ever closer, Jihan fires one last arrow at the creature before he goes to drop the bow and resort to his daggers. The arrow flies as straight as a die, and embeds itself in the worg's head, killing it instantly. The elf feels like dropping to his knees in praise to Prirodna, but realizes that this will have to wait.

Darius clings on for dear life to the worg as it charges towards the remains of Warwinner. As it gets to its feast, Darius strikes out at the worg next to it, but misses. The worg is infuriated at this disturbance and bites deep into Darius' flank. The goblin, still far from recovered from yesterday's duel with the shaman, immediately loses consciousness.

Winnacer sees Darius go limp in the saddle and calls out to Corrow, who is standing just a few yards away from the melee, to assist Darius as Winnacer is very much preoccupied with the furious worg and waking goblin.

Corrow immediately drops his illusion as he considers the quandary. Should he try and drag Darius away from the snarling wolves? He hesitates for a moment, but realizes that Darius will surely die if he does not assist. Gingerly, he steps out from behind the bush and tiptoes up to where the worgs are squabbling over the dwindling remains of Warwinner, nervous as to whether he will get his head bitten off at any second. He reaches Darius' position and, as gently as he can, cuts away at Darius' leather bindings keeping him in the saddle. Realizing that he has not the strength to lift the goblin out as he is wearing chainmail, he holds his breath as he pulls Darius' motionless body from the saddle. As Darius falls to the ground, the worg looks round to see what is happening. Corrow is staring death in the face. But then the aging illusionist breathes a sigh of relief as the worg goes back to gorging itself on the horse's remains. Corrow drags Darius behind the bush and starts ripping at his cloak in order to bandage up the goblin.