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By Scott Kujawa
Part 5
Date: 8th day of the 1st tenday of Mirtul in the year 1375 - The Year of Risen Elfkin
Time: Early Morning to Evening
Location: Wilds outside of the mercenary settlement on the way to Shadowdale.
Weather: Temperate and slightly overcast.After having dawnfry again, the caravan headed towards their destination for another day. About midday, the ground around the last wagon erupted and eight medium-sized skeletons pulled themselves from the ground.
Seeing the undead crawl out of the ground, Ragnar grabbed his flute and he started playing an inspirational tune on it.
As she saw the skeletons erupt out of the ground, Caerlin dismounted from her horse and pulled her longsword before she moved towards them, and slashed at the one that is closest to her but her aim was off just a fraction and it passed through the chest cavity instead of hitting bone.
The attacks of four skeletons were absorbed by Caerlin’s armor and another two attacks were blocked or missed at the undead attacked the other members of the Unit. However, the claws of a seventh skeleton dug deep into Caerlin’s armor and into her body while the claws of the eighth skeleton dug two of its fingers into Luie’s leg, giving him a minor wound.
With a roar like thunder, the Gondsman pulled his gear-shaped holy symbol from its pouch and slipped from his horse. "By the will of the Wonderbringer," he intoned, charging towards the undead with his hammer in one hand and his god's symbol in the other, "let the dark bindings that have made you be undone!" As he moved forward, he felt Gond’s power flow into him as well as a little energy from the positive energy plane and it lightly harmed the skeletons.
Seeing the undead sprout forth from the very ground, William drew his rapier and blended into the shadows. He moved closer to Caerlin and planted his blade into one of the skeletons, making it stagger and almost return to its bone parts.
Catching Caerlin’s problem out of the corner of his eye, Luie yelled, "Use the flat of your blade or bash them with the pommel!" He was worried that she was swarmed by four of the foul things and he ignored the pain in his leg to go to her aid. He made a feint to the left before he darted between the legs of the skeleton that harmed him and he started to distract the skeletons around Caerlin.
"Ah good, well, no not really. What I mean is that at least I didn't squeeze into this leather armor for naught!" the priestess said with a dry laugh as she shook her head. "That reminds me," she reached up and began to pad herself down. Her movements were fast at first and then as she slowed down, she smiled obviously enjoying herself. "Now where did I place that?" After a moment of fondl... err, searching, the female produced her holy symbol and directed it at the undead as she channeled positive and divine energy towards them, which made all eight of them shatter into fragments.
When the skeletons shattered, Caerlin used her buckler to deflect most of the flying pieces. She turned and smiled at Luie, "Thanks for the help." Her smile then turned to a look of concern as she noticed the blood on Luie's leg. "Are you alright?"
Luie limped a little closer to her. "Not really. I think it left a digit in me," he spread the wound open, "I was right." The hin sat down with an “umfff” noise.
Caerlin looked at the wound before she dashed over to her horse and got some clean cloth out of a saddlebag. She returned to where Luie was sitting and sat next to him and bandaged his wounds. While was doing so, she realized that her leathers were starting to get wet with the blood that was flowing out of her chest.
Caer checked her own wounds and then smiled at Luie. "It looks like I need to work on myself as well." She took what clean cloth is left, and tried to bandaged herself but it was hard for her to see her chest and the wound was to deep, so the wound continued to leak blood.
Addoc turned from the skeletal remains and he looked looking a bit disappointed. Once he saw the injured pair, he dropped his hammer to the ground and knelt beside them. "Would the two of you object to a bit of the Smithlord's mending?"
“No objections from me; but, attend to Caerlin first. I can wait.”
Caerlin looked up from where she is trying, but failing, to bandage herself. "Thank you Addoc, I have no objections at all." She smiled at the cleric before she looked down at her clothes and sighed. "I'll have to clean the blood out of these soon, before they get ruined."
Addoc nodded slightly at the hin, and said his healing prayers over Caer before he healed the hin’s wounds.
After Addoc healed Caer, she smiled at the Gondsman a second time. "Again, I thank you and it’s amazing how one's own pain is ignored when a friend is injured."
"Aye, blood stains tend to run people off, or give them a bad idea about you. Let’s hope that there is time before our luck turns and more baddies head our way,” Auy said.
After the encounter with the skeletons, the caravan continued on and as eveningfast was being served, six small red-winged creatures with long probes flew out of the grasslands and attacked the mercenaries but only three of them started to hone in on the Unit.
Caerlin quickly strung her bow and her first arrow entered the first creature, causing it to flutter to the ground and flap around. William merged with the shadows again and planted his dagger deep into one of the creatures and his attack went right through it.
Luie whirled his sling real fast while he screamed, "They taste like chicken!" His bullet connected with the flying creature and the bullet hit with a thud, which made the flying thing veer off course.
Upon spotting the creatures, Ragnar snatched up his crossbow and sent a bolt their way as he muttered something about having bad timing for a musician. However, the sun was in his eyes, or something else distracted him, and his bolt flew wide and out past the flying creatures.
Auy lightly giggled as she heard what Ragnar muttered. "And in the company of women too, such language!" the priestess teased. “This time I think I'll let you men with the big weapons enjoy yourselves since the last time I stole all your enjoyment with Sharess’s power and the use of positive energy! Though, seeing these flying things does make me think that I've figured out the reason for your high turn over rate. You can't go three steps without finding something that wants to kill you! I swear, I've been all over this mercenary company and your, err our unit has the worst luck!”
"Too much talk," the giant rumbled, crouching slightly as he waited for one of the winged menaces to fly close enough for him to take a swing at.
Caer dropped her bow and drew her sword. "I hope that I can hit these better than those skeletons," she muttered under her breath. With a strong slash, she dug her sword into the bodies of one of the creatures, and split it in twain. William continued to use the shadows and he dagger attack entered another, which made it flutter to the ground.
Auy chuckled as she stood near Caerlin and the priestess was armed with only her claws. She kept back from the fighting but close enough to aid one of the members of her Unit should one of the attackers harm her party members. Addoc’s attack with his hammer was a little out of range because one of the injured flyers fluttered upwards at the last moment and in the back of his mind he began to wonder about some sort of suitable ranged weapon for a cleric of the Smith Lord. Luie made a feeble attempt at killing one of them and as he missed he thought, Oh, this isn’t good. Auy tried to hit with her claws but she wasn’t used to fighting that much, as she said. Ragnar’s attack on the flying creatures only seems to agitate them instead of killing them.
One of them attached its probing snout into Luie’s arm and it started to drink his blood while the other two just fluttered around the group.
“Tluin! I should have used a flyswatter instead!” Ragnar exclaimed.
Caerlin’s and William’s attack took out the two that were flutter around, leaving just the one that is attached to Luie. Luie winced and thought, “I’m glad that it didn’t attach itself to my injured arm.”
"Now you have a set," the giant rumbled. He let his shield and hammer slip to the ground before he reached out to the creature attached to Luie's arm and squeezed the life out of it with his bare hands, which covered his hands and arms and part of his chest with Luie’s and the creature’s blood.
With a face that was covered in layer of blood and just the white of Luie’s eyes shining through, the hin said, “Now I know how a Silverymoon mime feels.”
"I have a needle in case the wound needs stitched," Ragnar said.
“By Akadi, I am glad there is no wind. I might feel compelled to run...” Luie said. As Ragnar offered an arm to Luie in case the hin was wobbly from the blood-loss the halfling took the offered arm and his grip was weak. “...against the... oh, there is a rabbit in those clouds.” Luie passed out from the loss of blood and the hint of a smile on his lips vanished.
Caerlin glanced around and then ran to grab the nearest torch, which gave the healers some light as they ministered to Luie's wounds. "He's going to be alright, isn't he?" she asked before she mumbled a quick elven phrase under her breath.
”He’d better be.” Ragnar mumbled. ”I’ve been sewing on my own buttons for the past five years.” He looked at the two clerics in the group. “You’ve still got some healing magic left? Right?”
"Aye, I have some left." The priestess nodded as she moved over to the hin. She knelt down beside him and looked over his wounds and then she quickly put away the dressing she had pulled out and instead she used Sharess’s divine magic to heal the hin. She held her small hands over one of the larger gashes and the red-orange and grey energy flowed into the hin’s wounds. After the energy faded, the priestess cleaned away some of the blood and she saw that the bleeding has stopped.
For his part, Addoc turned from the scene and spat, trying to clear his mouth of the taste of blood. "Pfaugh! I was always told that the country was a restful place!"
The rest of the night passed peacefully and the camp got a fairly good nights rest.
The content of Champions of the Silver Wyrm is the property and copyright of Scott Kujawa and is not to be published or redistributed without permission.