War: In the Valley of Peace

Sindel looks around the battlefield and notices Wismerhils’ situation and rushes off to help him shouting a warning about the pit behind him.

Aruna follows heading toward Wismerhil hoping that there is something that he can do to help.
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Pheras moves south, away from the hole, and draws a dagger.  He glances at it then at the size of the hole and shakes his head getting a sense of just how much trouble he is in. ‘This is about as useful as a bowl of noodles in a belching contest.’

Tristan looks like he wants to go help the others, but changes his mind when he realizes that Pheras no longer has any real means of defense against those creatures.

Xedel continues to bandage up his arm while digging in his backpack with his foot. “It’s got to be around here somewhere”, he mutters.

Wismerhil, who doesn't seem to notice what a desperate position he is in, half turns to locate the amber-haired elf as he shouts, "Crane, I'd rather have you on my side than..." He spots Pol Crane picking up his bow, "Right! Just shoot it down if you can then..."

It is at that moment he hears Sindel's shouted warning.  But it is a moment too late as he steps back out of the creatures range and into the hole the creature created.

Wismerhil slips down into the hole he flails his hands outward to grasp the sides of the hole where tangled roots stick out of the opened dirt and he just barely manages to keep from disappearing down into the holes dark depths.  Unfortunately this leaves him wide open for attack.  The creature, sensing easy prey, moves in for the kill. 

Wismerhil is near helpless as the creature’s maw get bigger and bigger as in moves to consume him.   So distracted is he that the sound of thunder booming close by, surprises him so much he nearly makes him loses his tenuous grip.  As it is the roots he is holding on shake violently and he holds on valiantly as clods of dirt and mud shake loose and bounce off of his head and shoulders.

An arrow streaks just over the head of the creature, thunder following in its wake.  The creature lunges for Wismerhil, who instinctively puts his blade between him and the creature.  The Ankheg's mandibles bite down on the blade but can't seem to cut through it.  Unfortunately for Wismerhil, in order to do this he had to move one of the arms anchoring him.  The young man slides deeper into the hole vanishing from sight, leaving behind a frustrated monster trying to bite through his sword.  With his sword wrenched out of his hands, Wismerhil uses both hands to hold onto the length of root that seems to be the only thing between him and a long possibly one-way descent into the darkness.

Pol Crane takes aim and fires again.  His arrow thunders across the field to its target.  The arrow slams into the creature with such an incredible impact that it is literally knocked sideways a dozen feet, despite it's claws digging into the ground to anchor it.

Wismerhil’s sword is flung away from the hole and out of the grasping mandibles of the creature.

The creature turns and lifts the front portion of its body off of the ground to just in time to avoid an arrow piercing its head.  Instead the arrow goes through the relatively soft underbelly, this knocks the creature even further back and injuring it badly.

The creature decides to charge the archer, who readies yet another arrow.  Pol Crane shoots and the arrow flies toward the creature, but only hits a glancing blow before shooting up into the sky.

Sindel reaches the hole and peeks in.  Spotting the young warrior not far down, she reaches down to attempt to help him out.

Aruna fires an arrow at the creature and it just barely pierces its armor-like hide.  But that seems to be more than enough for the archer as he changes targets.  He heads over trying to help out Voreas.
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Bormann swings at the side of the creature opening the wound even further.  The creature picks itself up again.  This time instead of going forward as the creature tries to move away it rolls completely over.  With its slightly softer underbelly suddenly exposed the cagey dwarf plunges his pick deep into the creatures exposed underbelly.  As it rolls over, the pick pulls the dwarf off of the ground and into the air, while ripping through the creatures’ muscles.  As it does the dwarf just barely misses being skewered by an arrow that flies by being chased by thunder. Bormann uses his weight to further rip open the creatures’ sides.

Keegan swings again at the creature only chipping a small bit off of one of the mandibles.  As he prepares for its lunge he watches with some amusement as the creature flips itself over, "Ah! HA!  Choke on your death throws, you pathetic little bug!  That's what you get for trying to make a meal out of me!"

Flint quickly moves out of the way, as Gwydeon and Gedai appear to try and hack at the now rolling mass.  All three of them retreat, as the legs from the creatures other side roll over the top and come down near them thrashing wildly at the sky.  Within moments the thrashing slows and stops and they spot Bormann Grimm on top of the creature at the end of a long gash ripped into the creatures side.  The dwarf seems to be having trouble removing his footman’s pick from the creature's side.
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The creature charges Voreas forcing him to consider a strategic withdrawal.  It looks as if Voreas will have no other choice, when the familiar sound reaches his ears.  The mighty commander swings wildly, deliberately forcing the creature to recoil and avoid his attack.  And as he completes the swing he reaches out and catches the saddlebag and vaults up onto his horses back.  While not a clean vault, it is enough to get him on his horse and out of harms way as the horse gallops away from the creature.

Seeing the large juicy horse the Ankheg starts to give chase ignoring the arrow that digs deep into its side from Aruna's bow.  Nor does it notice the slight discoloration in the area around where the bow penetrated.

Asura, Crow and Stash move quickly to intercept the retreating creature, which after being left in the dust by the horse, realizes that the three of them will make a better meal than a horse that is long gone.  It quickly turns on them and attacks.  Asura holds her sword up and it suddenly glows a brilliant yellow.  The light grows until it engulfs the three of them.  The anhkeg recoils from the light and turns away.  It quickly begins digging a hole tossing dirt over at the barrier of light.  The dirt bounces off and hits the ground in front of it.  Within mere moments there is a large mound of dirt outside the light and the creature has vanished into its hole.  The dirt it kicks up quickly blocks the entrance.

Xedel, who has finished bandaging himself, plunges a knife into the head of nearest creature, which promptly wakes up for the last two seconds of its life before expiring again.  He then proceeds to cut open the belly and gently cut out the stomach.  Producing a glass jar, he carefully pours some of the stomach acid into the jar.  There isn't much and Xedel seems upset that there isn't more.

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Chapter 26: Retreat

Pol, realizing that he can't get another arrow off before the creature is upon him drops the arrow in hand and plants his huge bone bow into the ground.  He holds it awkwardly like a pike man awaiting a charge.  He yells, "Hang on Wismerhil, I'll be there as soon as I can." 

The creature charges blindly into the tip of the bow, but Pol makes a critical mistake judging the height wrong and the tip of the bow scrapes off the top of the creatures head, injuring it, but only slowing its charge a small bit.  Within moments the bow is straight up and the creature is right on top of him.  The creatures’ mandibles close on the warrior who screams in agony as he feels the pincers cutting into his sides, the large bone bow, the only thing between him and the creatures’ ravenous maw.

Aruna turns his attention to the last remaining monster and watches in horror as it grabs Pol and begins crushing him.  He turns and begins firing at the creature, but his first two shots bounce harmless off the creatures back.  One lands nearby, nearly skewering Wismerhil as Sindel pulls him out of the hole.

As the creature threatening them vanishes underground, the light from Asura's sword fades to its normal luminance. 

Stash hears the screams of Pol Crane and wordlessly turns and rushes to the man's aid.

Crow and Asura follow quickly in his wake.

Once Wismerhil is safely out of the hole, Sindel charges the last monster getting there before anyone else.  With a mighty yell she delivers a devastating overhead slash to the back of the creature.  The sword seems to know exactly where to go as it hits a chink in the creatures’ armor and cuts into it exposing the creatures’ insides.  Apparently the damage was enough to get its attention as it drops Pol Crane, who lands on his feet but no longer has the energy to stand as he falls backward with his bow landing on top of him.  The creature turns toward Sindel, wrenching the sword from her hands.  The brave warrior is forced to retreat without her weapon of choice, but she is not defenseless as she pulls out a short sword she had strapped to her back.

The creature takes a step toward her before an arrow pierces its eye and the creature freezes.  It slowly turns and stares at Aruna the archer with its one good eye before it suddenly starts shaking.  At first only its head is shaking then its entire body before it falls over its legs in the air twitching violently.

Stash, Crow, and Asura reach Sindel, but it is obvious that the battle is now over as the creature lies before them twitching heavily in its death throes.  Asura leans heavily against Crow, who moves to support her, and smiles brightly.  All are seemingly relieved.
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Keegan laughs heartily as he kicks the corpse of the ankheg that tried to eat him and says, "Stupid insect don't you know that I am Keegan the Mighty!  I travel with my not-so-merry band of warriors (who aren't as good as I am) and we vanquish stupid creatures like yourself.  While I prefer actual orcs, big ugly monsters like this one will do in a pinch."  He puffs his chest out and says, "Hey Bormann! Flint!  You guys still alive out there or did you get crushed underfoot by the big bad monster!  He hears cursing off to one side and watches as the old man cuts open one of the corpses.  Keegan looks at the old man curiously.
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Xedel is not a happy man.  One arm bound and carrying a knife, the other carrying a jar of some sort, he resolutely heads to the second corpse and cuts it open.  He begins cursing as a piece of the tough skin bangs against his shredded arm.  He finally gets to the point where he can start collecting stomach juices only to find that there is still relatively little to collect.  Once again he starts cursing.

Voreas begins trotting back on his horse judging from the amount of foliage sticking out of his armor, he had a bumpy ride through the trees. "Is everyone okay?  We must hurry.  We have lost valuable time.  Priest Stash, please heal whom you can and anyone who can bandage wounds does so.  We are supposed to be the forward scouts and I'm sure we have already fallen behind the main force.  If they walk into an ambush it will be our fault."

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Chapter 27: Grumpy Old Man

Asura looks around as if she wants to be helpful, but doesn't actually move away from Crow who seems to be sharing a private joke with Gedai.

Stash checks over Pol Crane, he bandages the arms where creatures’ mandibles had cut through to the bone.  Afterward he offers up a prayer to Solutious.  From everywhere at once there is the sound rushing water like a bubbling stream.  Pol sputters as he suddenly finds himself drenched head to toe.  He tests his arms and winces, quickly realizing that while he feels better, he isn't anywhere near 100% yet.  Stash also checks out Voreas who protests quite a bit, but finds that even with his great strength he is unable to resist the priests’ ministrations.  Then Stash turns his attention to the old man Xedel. 

Xedel, for his part, has finally found enough of the elusive stomach acid he has been searching for to fill his container.  Pheras bravely asks him what the liquid is for, to which he responds, "Silly fool what else is stomach acid good for!  Devouring things, if used correctly. He! He! He! Perhaps if you're lucky then I'll demonstrate for you one day."

Pheras smiles worriedly realizing that such a day would probably be an unlucky day.

Xedel is interrupted as the jar is abruptly removed from his hands.  Xedel angrily turns upon the culprit and shouts, "Okay you silly priest what do you think you're doing with my property?"

Stash smiles, sets the jar aside and says, "Absolutely nothing.  I need to tend to your wounds."

"Oh no you don't!" as Xedel decides to resist the priest ministrations as his work is much more important any silly little wounds.

What follows is a rather brief battle in which Stash over powers the weakened Xedel and examines his blood soaked bandages. Stash shakes his head, "This will not do.  If I had left you alone you would have bled to death."  He pulls out a mug and pours some ale from a wineskin into it.  Next he takes a vial of blue liquid and adds a drop of liquid to the ale. "Drink This."

Xedel holds the mug suspiciously, "The ale smells alright, but what did you add to it?"

"Holy Water."

"Holy Water?!  What kind of fool puts holy water in an alcoholic drink?"

"A fool who follows the elemental lord of liquids!" Stash counters, "Ale is as much a liquid as water or mead.  Drink it, it will probably taste better anyway."

Xedel looks at it suspiciously until Sindel walks up behind him grabs him by the nose, forcing his mouth open and pours the proffered drink down this throat!  Before he can do anything else she clamps his mouth shut until he swallows twice.  Finally she relents and says, "Stop acting like a big baby and just take your medicine for once.  Now take your toy and get ready to go."

Bormann Grimm cleans off his footman's pick, wondering what sort of freak show he has signed on with.

Tristan approaches Voreas, "Seems Pheras needs a new weapon.  His was snapped in two during the attack... Might you have another one?  Or maybe someone else?"

Voreas shrugs, "I only have a dagger as a secondary weapon."

Pheras talks with Sindel for a few moments, then she lets him use her short sword with the warning that if it gets broken, "I'll break you!"

Pheras gleefully shows Tristan the new borrowed sword, which he quickly admits is much better than his old sword.

Voreas calls them together and they head north moving quickly trying to make up for lost time.  He sends Gwydeon to check on the progress of the main group and the elf quickly vanishes into the forest.  He returns somewhat later with an unusual report.

"I found the trail of the caravan and there has been at least one other battle with those bugbears.  But I only saw one body and it looks like they didn't stop.  In fact I'd judge that they were going at almost full gallop."

Voreas frowns at the news.

"Also from the looks of things that creature we saw earlier is following the caravan and he isn't alone.  Something else joined him.  This one also had hooves, but only two of them, not four like the creature we encountered.  I'm not sure if those creatures are chasing them and that's why they are moving ahead so fast or if there is another reason.  Either way, we are all alone out here.  They are long gone by now."

Voreas considers the options trying to go over in his mind a reason as to why that this might have occurred.  And he doesn't like what he comes up with.  He signals the others to change direction and takes them back to the hidden road, "We are pretty far behind them men, and this is the only way to catch up.  Be on the alert for anything that might attack us!” 

Once they hit the road they see the truth of the elf’s words.  A short while later they find the remains of a battle all that remains are a couple of bodies, but it is obvious to all that the caravan didn't stop here.

Voreas examines the tracks of the two creatures that appear to be neither bugbear nor soldier.  They seem to follow the path of the caravan at a good clip.

Shortly before dusk, when the sun is low in the sky, there come several shrill sounds from the forest ahead and to the left of the group.

Voreas stops the group as he notices that the tracks of the two creatures has moved into the woods, while the caravan's tracks are still going straight.

He turns back and says "Men be on your guard. Those creatures could be anywhere."

Almost as if summoned by his word two creatures appear in the path from the woods.  But not the creatures they were following.  In the road ahead is what can only be described as two six-foot tall praying mantises.  As the mantis look in the groups direction one of them rubs its arms together and produces a shrill sound.

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Chapter 28: Swift and Deadly

Xedel, still grumbling about his treatment at the hands of his sister, doesn't notice the two newcomers and doesn't stop when the others do and nearly collides into Sindel as she draws her sword.

Voreas signals for a stop as his horse prances around in pain from the high pitched sound.  "Do not attack unless attacked.  Since they didn't attack at once, let's just try and move around them.”

The two mantises are suddenly incredibly still, not moving an inch.

Following their leaders orders they begin to file along the right side of the creatures, which don't move at all.

As Boorman passes by the creature, quick as a flash it turns and grabs the dwarf in it is pincers and rears up.  As it rears up on its back legs the dwarf is lifted higher than Voreas mounted upon his horse! 

The other creature turns its head slightly and its eyes glow Sindel suddenly goes flying eastward as if knocked by some unseen force.  Pol Crane grabs hold of her and the pair go down intertwined.

Flint and Keegan rush to Boorman's aid, but the Mantis flaps its wings and leaps backwards dropping its prize onto his would be saviors.  Voreas turns his horse around and draws his sword.  He kicks her sides and charges, but he suddenly goes down backward horse and all as whatever forces the two creatures are using hit them. Zhephyrous neighs pitifully as smoke rises from a horrible burn in its side.

Asura draws her sword, and concentrates.  The light of the sword flares brightly engulfing Asura, Crow, Stash, Pol, Sindel, Aruna, and Wismerhil.

Gwydeon who had been concentrating on the creatures winces at the bright light.

The light also evokes a reaction from one of the mantis.  It suddenly spread its wings and leap over the remaining fighters landing on top of the glowing sphere of light and attempts to break shatter it.  The other leaps over the group to land south of the sphere of light.  It's eyes glow red and an answering glow appears in a small circle on the side of the sphere of light.

The forest shakes with the sound of a bestial roar.

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"Interesting", an image of Mizar appears near the southern edge of the inside of the light shield.  He is examining the point of red light caused by the Mantis attack.  "This is a light based attack.  This creature seems to have the ability to focus light to a point and harness its great destructive power.  He looks back sadly at Asura, "You don't yet have enough skill to hold it off for long.  You'd better think of something."

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