Turn 6.75;Not my arm again!Action: Start going on the offensive by lobbing fireballs at bandits, whilst keeping an eye out for Gerald.
The rain steams off your skin, and with a blast you launch the first projectile off into the fighting. It screams through the air and blasts into the back of a deserter. He shouts in surprise, and attempts to pat the flames out. A nearby knight takes the opportunity to relieve him of his head; however your flames die off rapidly in the rain. Taking careful aim you shoot at the men who are in the middle of combat, causing enough distractions that the fighting slowly begins to turn in the knight’s favor. With the amount of rain, even direct hits to exposed skin appear to be causing little more than mild burns. The torrential rain is sapping at your strength, your flesh burns hot but the rain is unending. Casting about for more energy you quickly absorb what is left of the once raging inferno. As the last of the fires die, the camp is plunged into the darkness of night. You stagger unable to see after having stared into the heart of the flame. Attempting to light up the night with your power, any flames you bring forth quickly fizzle and die away. You feel the last of the power drain from the amulet and your body, and with a whimper of pain you fall to your knees in the mud. Blinded and powerless you watch the last bits of fire spark out between your fingers, jumping as Gerald lay’s his hand on your shoulder. With his help you rise to your feet, and take ahold of his arm. Slowly he helps you out of the fighting towards the edge of the forest, relieved you begin to see indistinct shapes in the darkness and he sets you down on a rock at the edge of the field. Looking up at his dark form you hear him say, “It looks like the last few deserters are making a run for it now that the fires are gone… however there is nothing left in what was once the camp. There are only perhaps 12 soldiers alive and staggering around, and I can’t see an unburned structure. We need to get back to the village soon or at least out of the rain.” Just nodding your agreement you slump over against his arm, completely exhausted. By the time your vision has returned enough that you can see without the fires, all the survivors have joined up with you and Gerald at the edge of the field.
-Drained of charge
Action: Continue my efforts to guard Bree, and perhaps generate some wind magic if it helps smother out flames harming myself or allies.
Standing watch, you begin concentrating on the air currents and patterns. The torrential rain pattering against your skull makes it hard to focus, though you feel the wind shift and begin blowing away from the center of the camp. Impossibly the wind begins blowing outwards gently in all directions, with the air and rain coming down together at the center of the camp. Focusing on guarding Bree and maintaining the control of the air currents at the same time is taxing, and you barely manage to notice the man sneaking up behind you. Spinning with your hammer in your hands you swing wildly at the man behind you, he leaps backwards out of range while shifting the dagger in his hand to fight. The fires around the camp are quickly fading in the torrential rain and it is hard to see where he is until he gets very close. Barely avoiding his blade as he slashes at your arm, you pivot and swing with your weight behind the hammer. The man is far quicker than you and the momentum causes you to stagger forward. He raises the dagger above his head and swings down towards your neck; dropping your hammer into the mud you grab his wrist just inches from your exposed flesh. Standing back up straight you bend his arm downwards forcing him to his knees and with a single punch from your free hand you send him sprawling in the mud. Retrieving your hammer you move to finish him off, but find that he bolted into the night when you weren’t looking.
Looking around the camp just as the fires begin to die away, you see that there is nothing left of the tents or any other structure. The surviving deserters are fleeing into the darkness now that the fires and smoke has been blown away, and all you can see of the soldiers are 14 men in a group near the center of the field. Two you recognize as Jim and Marcus, shuddering at the sheer amount of dead and dying scattered around the camp you look back to Bree. Seeing her shaking with exhaustion you protectively place your hand on her shoulder. Guiding her to the edge of the field to be sure that none of the deserters are still alive and dangerous you sit down next to her on a rock and say to her;
“It looks like the last few deserters are making a run for it now that the fires are gone… however there is nothing left in what was once the camp. There are only perhaps 12 soldiers alive and staggering around, and I can’t see an unburned structure. We need to get back to the village soon or at least out of the rain.” After a few minutes your eyes adjust enough to the night that you can see somewhat without the fires. Eventually Jim, Marcus and the surviving soldiers join you at the edge of the woods. The soldiers look to be in bad shape, though none have life threatening injuries.
+1/10 hammer skill
-3 Mana
hmmm demon you say?
follow and assist Sir Erwin, have my dagger fly around above me hidden in the smoke and use it to slit the exposed throats of deserters who try to engage us in combat.
((you forgot to add the shield Sir Erwin gave me))
Sensing the magic infused dagger in your pack, you levitate it out of your pack and send it into the air. Strapping the shield to your left arm and readying the sword with your right you follow behind Sir Erwin. The knight moves like a man possessed and you can barely match his speed, he scythes through the night and slaughters the deserters he encounters with a single blow. Though as you work your way closer to the center of the fighting you notice that most of the knights seem incredibly sluggish, and as you watch one of them falls to his knees and retches into the mud. Seconds later he collapses onto his side and twitches for a second or two before dying. Hearing Sir Erwin mumble about poisoned food and weaponry you raise your shield nervously. Few of the soldiers are left alive as many fall to the poison after just a minor cut, you then realize that Sir Erwin is covered in small cuts and yet seems to be perfectly fine. However before you manage to contemplate it, a number of deserters attack you and Sir Erwin, as the knights they were fighting collapse into the mud.
The knight cuts his way forward deeper into the combat and leaves you facing off against three men. The first charges forward with his hand axe swinging, and you instinctively bring the dagger out of the smoke and send is flashing through his raised arm. He drops the weapon into the mud and screams in pain, his arm falls limp by his side and he runs off into the darkness in fear. The other two stagger backwards before charging you as well. You bring the dagger flashing back out of the smoke and strike one of the two in his chest, he grabs ahold of the hilt as you try and pull it free with your power. The dagger breaks and the glass shards go slicing through his hand and body. With a gurgle the man crashes to the ground and you lose control of the dagger as it disintegrates into a cloud of glittering dust. Barely reacting in time you block with your shield, and the force of the impact from the last deserters mace sends you staggering backwards a step. His attacks are unfocused and panicked as he continues to slam the mace into your raised shield, you trip over a body and fall into the mud. The deserter leaps towards you and slams the mace onto your raised shield, and with a crack the shield breaks apart and you feel a shooting pain through your arm. Just as he raises the mace once more you bring the sword up and slash it deep into his armpit, cutting through his ribcage and into the man’s lungs. The man sputters fresh blood onto your face before collapsing on top of you. Groaning in pain as he traps your hurt arm between the two of you, you struggle futilely to free yourself.
You can see the light from the flames disappearing as the rain continues to fall onto your upturned face, your struggling churns up the ground beneath you as the water from the torrential rain raises in large puddles. The mud and water begins rising above your ears and for a second you panic that you will drown in the middle of the battlefield. Just as you start to feel water leaking into your mouth as the weight of the massive dead man pushes you ever deeper into the mud, the weight suddenly disappears and you see Marcus standing over you. He helps you to your feet and you see that the battle is over. Only twelve of the soldiers are left alive, and it seems the only proper knight left alive is the man you saved initially. You go to remove the last bits of your broken shield that is still attached to your left arm and find that you are barely able to twitch your fingers, and the bone is at least fractured if not broken. As painful as it is, you manage to free your arm and stagger with the rest of the survivors to the edge of the battle field. On the way Sir Erwin thanks you for the help, and explains to you how the deserters killed all the wounded, even their wounded, as they fled. The idea of the complete lack of any mercy makes you momentarily sick though you can’t help but notice that even though Sir Erwin’s armor and cloths are in tatters, he appears free of poison and completely unhurt. You then realize that even the slash that you saw him take to the side is caked in blood but looks to have sealed itself shut during the fight.
Cautiously you ask him “Sir Erwin, are you wounded at all?”
“No, but you are. We’ll need to get you a split or something like that… unless you have more tricks that I don’t know of.”
“Do you have any tricks I don’t know of?”
“Kid, you live long enough and you might find out. Don’t bring it up again tonight.” You see an angry glint in his eyes and shudder, stepping away from him a bit you relax against a large boulder that Bree and Gerald are sitting on. The group of soldiers mill about a bit, some talking in hushed voices with Sir Erwin while others bandage up each other’s wounds.
Lost Shield+Dagger
+Fractured Arm
-3 Health
-2 Mana (Dagger Shattered and caused feed-back on your power)
Actions:Avoid the deserters and follow the smoke back to the camp. If the fires are as out of control as they were, attempt to repress the flames with Water or Earth magic. If that is possible enter the camp and try to guide as many of the knights to safety as I can.
Managing to work your way back into the camp, you wait for a minute at the edge of the woods. The heavy rain is quickly putting out the many fires, and it looks like a lot of the grasses have already burned away to the dirt. However you still attempt to put the fires out quickly and focusing yourself you try and imagine the fires being buried underneath the mud. You feel energy leaking from yourself into the surrounding area; however you don’t notice anything different in the rain or ground. Deciding to just attempt to help the surviving soldiers you hurry past the rapidly fading fires and through the torrential rain into the battle. You tell Ash to hide himself inside your backpack, and once he is hidden from sight you enter into the main part of the battle. With the walls of fire gone, the deserters are mostly fleeing from the camp in all directions and many pass you quickly without a glance. Deciding to help those alive as opposed to trying to kill the fleeing you rush into the combat. All around you soldiers are falling from poisoned blades, while even more deserters are fleeing or dying to the trained men. The knights who are not wounded ignore your attempts to lead them from the camp, and the wounded ones die before you can manage to summon any of your power. Just then you notice a live man trapped underneath a large corpse, and moving the body aside you find Jim sinking into the mud. Pulling him free from the churned ground, you help him from the combat as the last few deserters flee into the dark of night. In very little time the battle is over and the last of the soldiers have gathered beside your group.
Looking about you see that the devastation of the fire, though short lived, was utterly complete. None of the camp is still standing, and the torrential rain is quickly turning the ground to ankle deep mud. Realizing that the mud is due to your own magic, you attempt to break the enchantment on the field but find that it’s utterly impossible to remove at your current strength. Looking about it seems as though the water is either rising unnaturally fast or the ground itself is slowly sinking downwards. It’s hard to tell what is happening in the darkness and rain, though the ground at the edge of the field is still very solid.
-2 Mana
Author
Topic: Hunted Magi -Turn 7 (Read 7874 times)