The tribe:
After a week of preparation, the elders finaly blew the horn that signaled the whole tribe that time for departure was come. Wagons were pulled, some by Kharmanathi, others by Nacka-Rachti themselves.
The extreme cold, and the greedy hunt of the people had put enormous strain on the local fauna and flora, and it would surely take years until this area had completely recuperated.
Celsius group:
Not willing to wait any longer for the tribe to arrive, Celsius left a single thalon in the tower with a message and instructions on what t do with it, in case the tribe arrived before she returned. She and her group make their way southwards, towards the edge of the barren wasteland. She knew that something dangerous was in there, as it was at least fast and aggressive enough to be able to catch a Thalon mid-flight. Not wanting to take any unwise decisions, she summoned a swarm of 12 thaloni, and sent them to scout the omnious city in the middle of the wasteland. Their task was to gather as much knowledge about that place as possible.
one week later
"So, what news do you bring me, Thalon?"
"There is a group of hooded figures around the temple in the center. they are about as big as humans. Apart from that, the land is completely deserted. No water. No animals."
Celsius pondered that info for a second. A group of hooded figures, out in the wasteland, hardly any water or anything edible. Surely this city was not their usual living place. A simple group of occultists, using the temple in the deserted city for all sort of incantations and rituals. Probably all sort of magic trickery, and maybe horrible demonic summons would await them.
But it seemed easy. Maybe they could even catch a few of them alife, as donaria for the unsanctuary.
The Thaloni had been searching that city for a whole week now, and it was time to act. there was no hint that they shouldn't be able to have some fun in that city.
Carefully they approached the city in the wasteland, only traveling at night, to avoid any curious eyes that might try to look at them. In tow with them came a deer that they had caught while waiting for the Thaloni to report in. It would serve as a channel for eventual summons, if they needed them.
The city, build of stone and brick houses towering at usualy 3-4 stories was completely surrounded by a high wall. A single gate in the northwest led to the main road directly pointing at the center of the city. But taking it would have been way to open. Letting a Thalon scout the streets before them, the group made it through allies and side-streets coser to the center of the city. It took not long, and they saw a hooded figure walking along the main road. It had not noticed them yet.
Quickly the group entered a house right next to them, thinking of a way how to deal with this creature. When they heared it. Very audibly the hooded creature was...sniffing ?
Immediatly Celsius knew she had to act. A distraction....a distraction. Suddenly, she got an idea. She quickly tied a noose out of a rope from her backpack, then sent out the deer out of the door.
The creature under the hood seemed to be caught in bloodlust. As soon as it saw the deer, it charged at it, baring big claws from underneath it's coat. Claws like steakknifes, easily as long as a hand.
Just a little closer....closer... At the perfect moment, Celsius threw the noosle in front of the creatures feet, like she had done so many times before.
What followed happened all in a flash, not even taking more than 3 seconds.
Without losing any momentum, the creature jumped into the air, dodging the noose, using it's claws to hold to the wall in front of Celsius. With a thrust of it's legs it shot forward, so fast that Celsius could barely follow it with her eyes. Only her reflexes that she had trained for years barely saved her life, as the creature clawed out at her face, still in mid-flight, slashing across her face. The cut was not deep, and din't bleed much, but she nearly lost an eye.
Impacting into the room like a rocket, the creature ripped apart one of he hunters that stood behind Celsius, and already ran out of the room into the bowels of the building, before the hunters could even realize that something smashed through the door.
Whatever it was, it was fast.
And inside the building, it could attack from all directions, without warning.
"Get out of here!"
Quickly the group hurried out of the house, towards the open street, into another alley. From here they enemy would have only 3 directions to attack, the front, the back, and above, and for the two later, it would have to cross the street. No matter what, they would have to see it coming, and their arrows were already waiting for them. While the other hunters kept an eye on the creature, Celius poured some water from her waterskin over her wound, freezing it shut.
She had completely misjudged the situation. These were not cultists, they were wild beasts. All their movements were unnatural, likely they were some sort of daimonoids, a merge of a human and a demon. Such creatures often lose their minds and blindly kill anything in their path, like this monster did.
In the ally on the opposite sid eof the street, there was some movement. The angle was bad, so they couldn't exactly see what was going on. Still they readied their arrows, ready to shoot whatever would come through that ally. Another move, and arrows cut through the air. the arrows hit, and the creature let out a shriek of pain. Another bit of movement they could barely see in the dark alley across the road, and the movement stopped. The hunters sighed in relieve, but Celsius was not satisfied. That was too easy, it went too smooth. She signaled the hunters to once again ready some arrows, and sent one of the kharmanathi to retrieve their prey. Just as the demon was about to reach the corpse in the alley, something went flying at the group. Out of reflex, they immediatly shot it. Only too late they realised, that it was the severed head of their fallen comrade. From the other side of the road came a gutturous laugh, then a few fighting noises, then silence. The kharmanath was never seen again.
"This is bad...like this...how can we get it out into the open..."
Celsius had an idea. It was somewhat despisable, but in such a situation, the dead had no need for rest.
Taking the head of her fallen comrade, she drew a 7 pointed circle out of it's blood. Another drop of her own blood, and emerging from the head was a fouly, green-ish blue mist, that quickly took the form of a cruely misfigured human. Celsius did her best to shield it from the view of the biest, but in such a situation it was not easy. Whispering, eventhough it was unlikely the creature understood elven to begin with, she gave the demon her task.
Find that creature on the opposite side of the street, and drive it out onto the main road.
The etherreal creature, possessing now worldy body, sunk into the ground. A few minutes later, it returned, having found nothing.
That was odd. Usuzureelya possess the 7th sense of the hunter, a gift by Nagarach that allows them to "feel" the presence of any living being, even over considerable distances.
As it seemed, the creature had...left ?
No, they could not take such a risk...or could they ?
The grouped needed to get out of this town, fast. There were dozens more of this creature, and a victory was far out of their possibilities.
"We will make a run for it. The city gate is only a few hundred meters from here and the Kharmanathi will hold our back free. On my count:
1
2
3 !
Like a group of madmen being chased by illusionary lemons with syringes as theeth, the hunters made a mad dash towards the gate. Hung from the gate, by celsius own noose was the deer the brough in, arrows sticking in it's side. For a moment celsius was sure that there was a trap, but stranegly enough, they were able to run for it safely.
Turning back, Celsius looked at the city with a hatred that could kill someone without even touching them. She had been hunted, humilated and was driven into flight.
She would get revenge, and it would be painful, torturous revenge.
that's for sure...
((after being utterly defeated, Celsius group goes back north to the tower))
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Kasshyks turn:
The eastern scout marchs northwards, carefully mapping his surroundings.
The western scouts returns to the capital to tell them about the tower they succesfully "sieged"
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((The glacier, now no longer in the radius of the artifact begin to melt, leading to a sudden flashflood downwards the river. The land, already soaked by the storms of the last months, can't take all that water and the results are disasterous. I will leave the decision to Nahkh, how many Ipetians died in that catastrophy. On the upside, the storms have ceased.
I took the freedom to remove dwarfaholics messengers from the map. They weren't moved for a few turns, so we can assume they returned to the glade, and reported what they found or in some cases were taken prisoner. I also added Kasshyks ship to the map, since he forgot it))
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Topic: Battle of the Gods III+ (Read 62712 times)