It was in the early morning and the members of the camp awoke and began their daily activities. Today they would enter the land that was called scorched earth. This was a land that was occupied by the Eerikye, who were of late, none too eager to welcome any intruders into their territory. Which I guess at this point was more or less irrelevant given our adventurers plan.
The mission was to find the Eerikye and exact revenge for the atrocities committed against the towns of Aberdeen and Goshen. To help provide some semblance of honor to those like Weemus and Deemus and the many others who lost their lives or the lives of their families.
This loss was for no other reason than it was the whim of a chief, at least it was originally thought to be the desires of the Eerikye Chieftain. Syrus and some of the other more experienced adventurers (Magus, Hawk and Captain Skye) now started to think that some other force was behind this situation.
They now started to believe there was some greater evil behind the happenings of the Eerikye. The spirit encounter was the first of many clues which culminated in the presence of an ancient wyvern on the planet. This wyvern was rumored to be in direct contact with the chieftain of the Eerikye only that it was rumored to change into the form of a unicorn.
All of these clues led to one explicable thought for Syrus, Flodius and the others involved in this campaign and that was they were going to be up against something more treacherous than was originally believed. This would be no ordinary birdman they would be up against; this creature would be far more devious and significantly more dangerous than any one Eerikye.
The group followed the tracks most of the day, with Weemus at the lead. It was mid-morning before the little gnome realized that they were most likely not following the major sect of the birdman but instead were probably closing in on some sort of scouting party. The little ranger kept this to himself of course. He also kept to himself the fact that this may happen many times given the highly paranoid nature of the chieftain.
The midday sun was waning when the group heard a loud growl. Weemus picked up his pace as he headed toward the sound. The trail wound its way up a slight incline heading toward a rock outcropping. The tracks of the birdmen followed the trail. The little ranger did not like how this was unfolding.
Another growl was issued from the top of the hill. Intermingled between the growls were sounds of birdmen being hurt. This of course was music to Weemus' ears, so he pressed on, not even looking behind him to see if he had support. Luckily for him the original group of adventures and the group of soldiers from Borensia were not far behind.
The little ranger pushed through a small path that was surrounded on both sides by rock walls. He rounded the final bend as the rock walls gave way to a large open space. Weemus kept his little legs churning as he entered the opening. He was a good twenty feet ahead of the rest of his group.
Immediately he could see the problem as around thirty or so birdmen stood in front of a cave. At the mouth of a cave was a large brown bear, surrounding the bear were the birdmen. These creatures took delight in tormenting the bear which Weemus did not take kindly to although he did not know if the intent was to harm the bear.
Scanning the area Weemus saw a clue as to the intentions of the Eerikye. Off to the right of the bear were three of her cubs, either dead or dying from the wounds the birdman had inflicted upon them. The mother bear was protecting her home and her family. This was all that the little gnome needed to see. Issuing a silent prayer to Baervan and a growl for courage he pulled back his bow.
The little gnomes' bowstring sizzled ending in a thud as an arrow imbedded itself into the skull of one of the birdmen. The creature fell forward quite dead. The two closest Eerikye turned to see what had caused the commotion. Imagine their surprise when they spotted one lone gnome.
Thinking their gods had smiled upon them they turned to face the gnome. Both of the birdmen smiled and laughed at the profound situation that so conveniently presented itself to them.
This pitiful creature that had brought himself into their midst for destruction, the two that had noticed the little gnomes arrival got the attention of two of their friends. There was strength in numbers; they smiled as they thought of his disposal.
The four made their way over to the gnome as he pulled taut his bow. Letting loose an arrow the birdman on the far right stopped in his tracks as the missile now protruded from the front of his chest. The wounded creature reached for the arrow as he fell to one knee. The arrow had penetrated his heart, in seconds the creature would only know darkness.
The shot had removed one of the birdmen facing the little ranger but the other three were now in a dead run towards his position. With only twenty feet between them to start Weemus only had time for one more shot, then he would most likely have to fight the other two with sword and dagger.
The commotion of the dying Eerikye caused a stir in his nearby kin as several of them chanced a look in his direction. Many saw the dying birdman with an arrow protruding from his chest and turned around completely to see the cause.
They saw three of their kin heading for a small figure just in front of the crevice entrance. Several smiled as they now saw a foe they could get too. Many of the birdmen, those farthest from the bear, had little hope of seeing any action. They turned their attentions to the little gnome in the hopes of ending this creature's life.
As the birdmen positioned themselves for an attack on the little ranger their smiles disappeared as through the crevice entrance came several other figures. From the vestments they were wearing even the dimwitted birdmen could tell they were mostly casters which meant they need to be in close range to end any attempt at spell casting.
The only problem with this is that a handful of soldiers including one extremely large and very well armored brute were close behind the cloth wearers and positioned themselves in such a manner that getting to the casters of the group was now not a possibility without first getting through the very formidable fighters among them.
If this situation was not bad enough several archers now moved into position some twenty feet on top of the wall on the left side of the crevice, bows cocked and ready. The birdman facing that direction knew their fate was grim.
They moved to make a hasty retreat when the group realized they were boxed in, and their only hope appeared to lie in the possibility of getting into the cave in the hopes that it would lead somewhere safe.
The problem with this course of action was that in order to get there they would have to get past many of their own kin and a rather large extremely upset bear. In typical Eerikye bravado they all turned to exit post haste running into their kin when necessary.
One of the three closest to Weemus got an arrow in the base of his neck and fell to the ground writhing in pain unable to make all but a gurgling sound. Unable to stem the flow of blood from its wound, even this dimwitted creature's knew its fate.
On the top of the rocky rise, a barrage of eight arrows was let loosed among the Eerykie. As the eight arrows reigned down, seven found there mark, unfortunately with the minimal amount of time they had to coordinate this attack a few of the arrows found the same mark so only five of the birdmen fell to their knees.
The captain ordered a reload of the bows but belayed the order to fire, for this captain knew with a nest of this type of the birdmen they were certain to have a shaman or two within their ranks. Any that knew the Eerikye knew that the shaman were the ones you needed to be leery of as they were the ones that could strike outside of melee range with relative ease.
The captain then nodded to Hawk indicating the turn was his to command. Without missing a bit Hawk ordered the melee into position.
By now all of the birdmen had surmised something was going on and turned to see what the commotion was all about. Most of the ones close to the bear understood the futility of escape as the cave was more like a hole in the wall for which there was no exit. Those that were running towards it would soon figure that out.
It appeared there only option was to fight. They were not up against insurmountable odds most of the birdmen thought to themselves. In fact, it appeared the numbers were still in their favor once they regrouped and formulated a plan of attack.
If the shaman could keep their enemies entertained long enough most of the birdmen liked the odds.
The strategy was sound if these were ordinary men and ordinary soldiers. The only problem with this situation is that the enemy they faced today was anything from ordinary. In their midst were two of the realms most prolific spell casters in Syrus and Magus. Two up and coming and very formidable spell casters in Kyjus and Kelsee, a priest in Deemus a very skilled ranger in Weemus and two very skilled warriors in Hawk and Skarnum.
This was a formidable list of adversaries to say the very least and yet this list fails to include Captain Theodius Skye and his band of very talented soldiers, which currently consisted of eight archers on the top of the crevice wall and the near dozen that was seen within the confines of the rocks opening.
What the birdmen could not see however was the more than two dozen soldiers held in reserve just around the bin of the crevice opening.
The reserves were a double edge sword to the captain at this point. As any good strategist will tell you it is good to have a reserve contingent just in case things do not go well.
However, had all of the men been able to enter the fray or at least had the ability to be seen the birdmen might have realized the hopelessness of the situation and put-up little fight.
As it were these men could not be seen and therefore the birdmen had done their best rationalizing the current scenario.
Unfortunately for the Eerikye the enemy that they faced today knew all too well their battle strategies. Captain Skye scanned the enclosed copse of birdmen for those that were not advancing in some sort of military fashion.
There were two of the creatures that hung back from the groups of birdmen and from all indications given appeared to be casting spells. After locating these two creatures the Captain shouted orders to his men. Each of them had their bows cocked and ready but this time the arrows were a bit different from the arrows they would normally use. These arrows were enchanted by Deemus. They were enchanted with the magical ability to guide and penetrate. A very potent magical spell that would help in this particular situation.
It was understood that many of the Eerikye Shaman would have the ability to cast certain spells upon themselves to help prevent normal missiles and weapons from harming them. The gnome brothers had learned this, years ago in their skirmishes with these creatures.
It was that knowledge in conjunction with what they had learned from Flodius that would help them in this and many of the battles to come, against the birdmen.
The captain gave the order for the four on his left to fire. Each archer fixed his eyes upon his target but unlike before the arrows were not fired simultaneously. The captain or rather Flodius had known that simultaneously firing upon this type of shield would not drain it near as quickly as firing the arrows separately, albeit in rapid succession of each other.
So going from farthest to closest each archer released his arrow. The farthest archer from the captain went first, then a brief second later the second archer went and then the third and so on until all four on the left of the captain had fired.
To the captain and Deemus' surprise the first two arrows did not hit their mark but were rather thwarted by the shamans spell. This of course gave the creature an unmitigated and ill-conceived confidence.
Fortunately for Deemus or rather unfortunately for the shaman this confidence did not last long as the third arrow was only partially blocked by the spell and the forth ran fast and true as it penetrated the lower chest and lungs of its target.
The second that the archer closest to the captain released his arrow the order was given for the other archers, to the captain's right, to fire upon the second target. However, this time the order went from the closest archer to the one farthest away.
This creature was not as adept as his counterpart however, as only the first arrow was partially blocked and the other three sped fast and true relinquishing the life from their target.
With both of their shaman down the Eerikye knew they had little chance of survival, so they moved into more of a suicide strategy in hopes of taking as many of their enemy with them as possible.
What was lost in this fight was the bear. The one thing you most likely do not want to do in any fight is lose the whereabouts of a thirteen-hundred-pound Taquka bear. Much like the Kodiak bear on earth the Taquka bear is a formidable opponent but if you add to this formidability the fact that the Eerikye had just slaughtered her three bear cubs, well you can understand that this particular bear was enraged past the point of comprehension.
A swipe of her paw sent the nearest birdman's head sprawling toward the back of the cave. A quick pounce to her left and she buried the recently shot shaman. This was the one that was shot first who was trying to cast a healing spell upon himself so that he could get back into battle.
This particular shaman thinking himself quite clever had backed up a bit into the cave just out of the reach of the archers. He was not the only Eerikye to do this as several others had the same idea as the arrows reigned down from above.
Unfortunately for them the Taquka had not forgotten the birdmen, or the atrocities committed against her den. She relished the opportunity for revenge as she buried the shaman in fangs, paws, and fur.
So stunned was the creature that it stopped casting it spell of healing. Once it realized what was attacking it the birdman reverted to a different tactic in the hopes of thwarting the bear's advances. Unfortunately for him the strength of the bear and his impaled arrows proximity to his lungs made it all but impossible for the creature to concentrate on the task at hand.
Only seconds after the bear had engaged contact with the Shaman a loud crunch was heard by all those near the encounter. The creature's spine and neck was broke as it hung lifeless within the females grasp.
After the Taquka was convinced of the creature's death it released its grasp and with a dull thud it struck the rock floor below.
At this point the three Eerikye within the cave thought it best to face the bear than to enter the din of battle going on just outside the entrance of the cave. Although they no longer liked the odds, they were convinced the encounter would be far better than the fight against the soldiers and who knew maybe with a bit of luck perhaps their kin would kill enough of the enemy so that they would be able to escape.
The three Eerikye advanced slowly toward the large brown bear hoping to find a weakness in the bear's defenses. The Taquka however, was not in any mood for an engaged encounter as her spirit swelled with the anger of losing her cubs.
She charged the creature on her far left pinning it up against the rock wall. The pinned creature managed to stab with his sword, but the bear's thick hide coupled with the fact that the birdman could not muster any force behind the blow, meant that the sword's tip would not penetrate the female's defenses.
The Eerikye to the bears immediate right had better luck as he was able to muster more strength behind his blow. The sword bit deep into the bears hide but was not able to penetrate the bear's ample layers of fat and therefore the strike was not able to pierce any of the Taquka's vital organs.
That did not mean that the strike did not hurt as the bear roared in pain but only partially relinquished her hold on her current captive to deal with this newest adversary.
Had the sword piercing Eerikye thought his plan of attack through a bit more thoroughly he might have thought of a better strategy but unfortunately for him he did not. His current strike put him well within striking distance of the raging female.
With a roar of agonizing pain, the bear turned her focus, quickly sizing up her opponent she let go with a back hand of her right paw. There was enraged power behind the blow as it landed perfectly upon the head of Eerikye sword wielder.
With a loud snap the birdman's neck snapped and lulled off to the side.
The third of the three birdmen, after witnessing one of his kin fall lifeless to the ground and the other being mauled to death against the cave wall, had now decided that the choice to stay under the canopy of the cave ceiling was no longer a good one.
With all haste this creature fled, to what he had hoped was safety in numbers, to the encounter occurring within the rock courtyard.
Unfortunately for this poor creature his kin in the courtyard were fairing just as poorly as those that were within the cave.
Skarnum, Hawk and the other soldiers made short work of those birdmen they could easily get to and the mages along with Kelsee made even shorter work of the Eerikye that were in the areas closer to the cave.
Large area spells would have been nice in this situation, but no one wanted to take a chance on hurting the Taquka and in honesty with the odds in the adventures favor (not necessarily in number but definitely in skill and experience) they saw little need for such a risk.
Kelsee' first series of spells were in the form of bolts of electricity. The bolts arced from her wand, as she finished the incantation, racing towards their intended target.
One, two then a third bolt slammed into the chest of an assailant near the back of the mix of Eerikye. Wisps of smoke wafted from the clothing of the pitiful creature as the area around the birdman's chest, face and hair was now blackened from the soot of the bolts.
Kelsee turned toward Kyjus to see if she could gather what the young mage was trying to accomplish. She smiled as she saw the birdman that she had struck with electrical bolts of energy, fall to the hard rock of the cave floor.
Kyjus was gathering the components for his first spell out of his satchel when the bolts of electricity arched from the princess' wand. Magnificent streaks of energy that slammed into the chest of her target.
Kyjus smiled at the effectiveness of her spell. That spell was very similar to his magic missile spell only it was a bit more effective; Kyjus frowned at the thought as he knew he still had a long way to go to reach his goal of becoming a Battle Mage.
However, luck (or perhaps it was prepared chance) was with Kyjus on this day as he had decided to go against casting something from the magical or arcane portion of his spell book. You see, the young mage remembered from his readings that the birdman were more susceptible to the fire lines of spells.
For his first spell the young mage decided on Flaming Arrows. "Incendie Projectilus", he said as he singled out a target very near to the one that Princess Kelsee had just struck down.
Arrows of fire screeched forth from the young mages staff, three in all in very rapid succession. Each arrow smashed into the stomach and chest of its victim. The impact of the arrow was solid enough but the fire from each impact burst into a ball of flames and engulfed its victim.
The flames were so intense that they leapt from the intended target onto a few of the other Eerikye close by. The fire itself was very short lived and therefore did no real damage but it did cause a commotion and a distraction that the adventurers could use to their advantage.
Syrus looked to Magus Shepplin who nodded toward the back. He had the same idea that the Magus had and that was they had more fire power than was needed to dispose of this group of hostiles, so it was time for those who needed practice, to get it. They had both decided that they would silently watch and observe the two up and coming spell casters, in Kelsee and Kyjus.
Should the need arise, they would be at the ready and if it never did, they would let the younger casters get in some valuable and needed experience.
Deemus also had a similar idea as he inched back to meet up with the two of them. His services may be needed in this battle, but he was willing to bet it would be to help heal the injured and not as an asset during the battle, so he too was quite willing to be a spectator.
The bulk of the soldiers, including Hawk and Skarnum, were now deeply entrenched in hand-to-hand combat. It was sword clanging on sword or shield as the battle ensued.
Through the sheer terror of his massive frame and bellowing voice, several of the birdmen around the large Hybonian Prince, simply froze unable to move.
Unfortunately for them Skarnum had no such problem and with a quick swipe of his large sword, two of the Eerikye Warrior's heads rolled upon the rock floor. This was not enough blood to spill for the prince however as he quickly halted the swing of his sword and reversed its direction. Adjusting his wrists position on the pummel he plunged the sword forward, deep thru the chest of the third adversary that stood to face him.
The sword was nearly buried to its hilt such was the strength of the blow that Skarnum administered. The birdman fell to the floor sliding down the length of the blade. It made a sucking sound as the creature left the blades tip and plummeted the remaining few feet to the hard rock floor.
Hawk was busy fighting three of the birdmen as he watched the spectacle. "Control your rage my young friend, let it become a part of you, but you can never let it own you," the Elven teacher said above the din of fighting.
The prince thought it odd that he was receiving instruction from someone who had not even disposed of any of the birdmen. Then he thought again of all of the long hours of sparring in the gym and of all the times that he had ended up with the point of an all too familiar looking sword at his throat.
The prince nodded his understanding of the comment and took a calming breath as he waded into the three foes that Hawk was now facing.
The Elven master began to backtrack as the proud young warrior made his way into the fray. Thinking that they had the Elf on the ropes the three pressed in upon what they hoped would be their first victim.
Had they known the name and reputation of the Elven Warrior they were attacking they would have known the futility in their actions. They would have known their opponent was only toying with them keeping them at arm's reach just until someone, say a young warrior, could come and dispose of them.
Skarnum wasted little time in making his presence felt as he brought his sword out in wide sweeping arc and then up and straight back down upon the closest Eerikye.
The birdman must have seen the movement out of the corner of his vision as he turned holding his sword up to block the swing of the Hybonian Prince. A smarter adversary would have tried to dodge the attack but not one to doubt their own strength and fighting skills the birdman had no reason to think he could not parry it.
The swing came impossibly fast and with more force than the victim could have anticipated. The force of the blade went through the Eerikye's blade cleaving it into two pieces.
The blade did not stop there however, but rather it kept going as it plummeted into the thick skull of the creature the prince had labeled as his intended target.
There was a problem that the prince was quick to discover and that was such was the force of the blow that the blade buried deep into its targets skull, quite stuck.
Cursing his luck Skarnum withdrew his dagger. The weapon was two feet long, nearly the length of Weemus' sword and wielded in the hands of the young prince it was still formidable but still the prince cursed his luck in all of this as he moved in toward the remaining adversaries that stood in front of him.
Hawk not knowing how well the prince could fight with the dagger versus broadsword did not want the young prince to hurt as a result of the game he was playing so he had decided to even the odds up a bit when he saw that the prince was not able to retract his blade after his last blow.
The veteran warrior baited one of the somewhat less experienced opponents with a wide reaching high arcing swing. Seeing that the Elven Warrior was now vulnerable or so the birdman assumed, he came straight at his target with as much strength and agility that he could muster.
Knowing full well the course of action that the Eerikye Warrior would take trying to strike at him Hawk smiled at the unfairness of it all.
With a quick flick of his dagger and a slight sidestep to his right the veteran warrior easily sent the Eerikye's sword glancing wide to his left. As Hawk brought his sword hand in an underhanded arc back in towards his body; reversing the grip on his sword the veteran elf plunged the blade deep into the chest of the Eerikye that had just gotten back into his fighting stance position.
With a gush of blood and an expelling of breath, the birdman fell to his knees a look of shock and dread mirrored in his face.
One on one the birdman facing Skarnum had hoped to simply chop him down. With amazing strength and surprising speed, the Hybonian Prince caught the arm of the birdman, holding it in place. Reversing his hold on the dagger Skarnum brought the blade to bear upon the neck of his victim. With a slashing toward his right, he slit the throat of the birdman ending the encounter only seconds after it started.
All total thirty-two birdmen died late that afternoon or early evening. Compared to a lone Borensian soldier who stumbled upon some blood that lay upon the rock. As he attempted to gather his balance, an Eerikye was quick to react to this error, running their blade through his chest and beating heart killing him instantly.
Such is the way of things in war but with the battle over the wounded and dead could not yet be addressed. The Taquka towered over Skarnum and the other soldiers as it roared issuing a challenge to the invaders of his home.
The bear understood that the men in his home were not responsible for the death of her three cubs. Yet still they were here and in her highly agitated state she was unable to sort things properly.
The soldiers in the front of the line and those behind them retreated giving some ground hoping that the bear would calm down and come to understand that they meant no harm.
One among the adventures and soldiers did not retreat from the bear, however. A rather unimposing sort was Weemus as he dropped his bow and sword on the hard rock near the crevice entrance where he was standing.
Slowly and cautiously, he made his way towards the angry female Taquka. At first the bear did not know what to make of the situation, she was still running on raw emotions at this point and was primarily looking for something to swat.
As the moments ticked by though it became painfully obvious to the female bear that these were not the same creatures that had taken her precious cubs from her and to hold them accountable for those actions would be wrong.
She was most curious as to why most of them were backing away from her. The female Taquka had seen them fight and although she was a match for a few of them she was in no way a match for all of them.
What was it that drove those actions, did they desire to not fight she was confused by this? And then she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Instinctively she growled as she moved her massive body to meet this uninvited guest.
Oddly enough it was one of the smallest of the enemy and he had appeared to have dropped both of his weapons to the ground. And then it happened, at first, she thought she must have imagined it but then it happened again. For the first time in the female bears life, she understood what a two-legged walker was saying.
She was elated as she came down on all four paws and sat down as unintimidating as a creature weighing over a thousand pounds can be.
She listened as this little creature explained how he was sorry for the loss of her cubs and how it was not right for those evil birdmen to act the way they did.
He then explained to her that even though it was evil and not right it was not entirely the Eerikye's fault. He further explained that the creatures that attacked her as well as many, many others of the Eerikye nation were being controlled by an unspeakable evil. These kinds of random acts of violence would continue until this evil presence was removed and dealt with.
Lastly the little gnome explained that he and his fellow adventurers were out to do that very thing. This excited the bear for once again she felt like she had a purpose. She knew without a doubt that she could trust this stranger and that his intentions and his heart were pure, it was if he were in direct contact with Artaius, (God of the Bears and was rumored to be the first mother bear and the start of all that is bear.)
The men prepared the camp for the evening of their second day on the trail after the Eerikye. Deemus went about healing the wounded. The dead of all (the Eerykie, the cubs and the lone soldier) were buried down the path and deep into the woods behind them.
The adventurers had noticed the demeanor of the bear had changed greatly after her conversations with Weemus, but they were still not at all fond of having their campsite to close to the large predator. The soldiers were even far less enthusiastic about the matter.
As the moons light bathed the sky the camps were finished, in the end only the adventures that originated from Syrus cottage laid with the bear in her cave. The rest were in tents out in the stone courtyard.
Weemus spent much of the evening conversing with the bear collecting information, more of it in fact then he thought possible. When the sun broke the horizon the following morning and the contingent of men headed out past the crevice wall and down the small mountain pass, they were plus one as the bear was now leading the way.
Weemus, Deemus and the other little group of adventures followed close behind. Kyjus noted concern on Syrus face as if he knew some bit of news that disturbed him. The young mage vowed to keep his ears opened hoping that he may hear a word or two about what was going on.