A Death in the Family

3-8-09

-The party fights onward in spite of terrible exhaustion and overruns the Ruk Shol ballistas, capturing them all. They send their 11 soldiers and 4 mercenaries back to Neshuza with the ballistas at speed.
-The party encounters a red dragon breaking out of its bonds. A protracted engagement ensues and Abel is slain. Eldeth nearly burns to death, but is rescued by Azariah and Kas-ham'Dul. The dragon is finally slain.
-Abel's staff is seen hovering above the pool of tar he died in, glowing a brilliant white light.

Carnage

Azariah halted as a massive fireball conjured by Abel rolled between him and his prey, igniting a tar pit as hit went. Azariah was beyond civility now; his blades were greased with Ruk Shol blood, and in he loved nothing more than to slake their thirst for more. He shot Abel a feral look for interrupting his feverish hunt and turned back to see Andreas hurl a throwing axe at the Ruk-Shol shaman, the hatchet burying deep into his head. The burning sphere disappeared in a shimmering wave of heat. They picked up their hostage and went along stealthfully, with Azariah and Nobo'ru in front. Hearing the footsteps of something huge coming, Nobo'ru signaled and the battlefield was lit up again by Eldreth and Andreas' swords. Azariah, caught in plain sight, doubled back to a stone platform sticking out of the ground as he saw a massive Ruk-Shol like the one they fought at the Urash tree bounding towards them with all its might. Nobo'ru was gone, sweeping forward into the Ruk Shol's back line. An archer missed him by a hair's breadth, and without a murmur Nobo'ru stabbed the archer in the foot making him double over in pain and then he brought his short sword up to slash his throat open on one smooth double motion. The archer fell with gargle on the matted earth and he looked for the other one he saw with his keen eyes a moment before.

With a challenging curse that would rattle the most jaded veteran, Eldreth cowed the giant Ruk Shol as it charged in, but not before Abel burst fire all around the monster and a smaller Ruk Shol next to him who seemed insignificant. Working in unison as they had before at the Urash tree, Andreas and Azariah worked to surround the creature as it crashed into Eldreth. Kassam'dul brought potent magics to bear against the monster, but it seemed that with every wound made, another would heal. Azariah did as he had with the last creature like this and jammed his scimitars into its side to the hilt before ripping them out sideways with a rending tear. The giant Ruk Shol fell just as the last one at the tree had, but Azariah had no time to smile grimly at his handiwork. A battle frenzied Eldreth cried, "That's not good enough!" and with a cry that shook the stones on the ground she hacked into the creature's neck with her greatsword. Seeing another Ruk Shol charging in with its mane of hair still on fire, Andreas roared, 'HOLD FAST!' as he planted his banner in the foot churned earth. The frenzied Ruk Shol drove into them, its axe sweeping in berserk arcs.

Unseen by anyone but the archer he hunted, Nobo'ru pursued his prey relentlessly. The second archer drew away to fire a shot but from fear and adrenaline missed wide. Nobo'ru swept in and leapt from a stone into the air with his short sword in two hands as the archer nocked another barbed arrow. As Nobo'ru came down, his short sword drove straight through the archer's skull and toppled him over. Nobo'ru rode the corpse to the ground and tumbled over him, withdrawing his short sword as he rolled. Seeing his friends gathered around a single Ruk Shol, he charged back to them in time to see a decapitated monster rise from the ground, its nearly severed head sewing back onto its shoulders.

This Ruk Shol which had seemed insignificant before proved to be anything but. With its muscles straining as though they could burst out from its body, the frenzied creature swung about wildly, brutally glancing off of Eldreth's armor and nearly decapitating Azariah in a narrowly missed stroke. Kah-sim'Dul knocked the creature prone and Eldreth swung her boot in for a kick below the belt, but drove her boot into the tip of a rock mostly buried underground. Nobo'ru and Kassam'dul hemmed in the resurrected monster and with a flurry of strikes vanquished it again. Stepping to its feet with a roar, the Ruk Shol continued to fight, its swings even more powerful than before. Azariah weaved back and forth in coordination with Andreas, keeping the creature off balance and exposed to attack from either side. In quick succession, Andreas gouged its left leg causing it to stagger, then Eldreth buried her greatsword from the Ruk Shol's right shoulder halfway into its torso, and ripped it out, but it still was standing. "That's not enough!" Azariah said as he brought both of his scimitars into a double overhanded blow that punched through the Ruk Shol's back and out of his chest, and then dragged both blades down. The Ruk Shol fell over on its face, dead.

Turning toward the din of the battlefield ahead, the heroes steeled themselves for what was to happen next.

There's a Fire Burning...

As your ears cease to ring from the din of battle and become adjusted to the relative silence, the sound of a great battle is heard from across the open plain. Peering at the corpses of the massive figures the party has just felled, they seem blood-soaked, grimy, and reek of death and rotting flesh… Everything as expected from Ruk-Shol, though these fearsome foes obviously have more than just Ruk-Shol blood coursing through their veins. The din of battle from across the plain is loud, and concerned for your fellow brothers-and-sisters-in-arms you nearly dismiss something unusual about the corpses. There are scars and burns covering the flesh of the beasts, as would be expected, except that some of the burns seem to be scars from injuries in the distant past. The larger Ruk-Shol has nothing in the way of scars, but the smaller one has many and they all appear to be burns. The same is true of the two archers, who appear, as other s you have fought, to be fey judging by their features and frame, except for the usual black skin, white pupil-less eyes, and shock of white hair.

Peering out at the dimly lit horizon there is a vague ambiance in the sky. Scanning the breadth of the open horizon, there are six strong points of light, presumably magic that was involved in the attempt to confuse the Ruk-Shol. But there is another point, straight ahead where the battle is raging somewhere far beyond the range of your sight. It appears to be a warm red glow, contrasting sharply with the blue-white star-like ambiance shed by the magic of the sunrods. The sight is foreboding and for a moment you wonder “Have the others gotten to the villages and already begun to raze them? “ But an uncomfortable knot in your stomach seems to say otherwise.

Suddenly, you notice a loud, slow, creaking sound much closer to you and see eight fires lit across the span of the horizon. It’s not until the sound of rushing air is heard and the dots seems to grow larger that one of the troops shouts “INCOOOOOOOOOOMING!”

Fight On

-We're still attacking the encampment! Loud thunder noises were heard in the distance that did not sound like the cavalry ahead of us. We fought two encounters, and finished the second fighting an elite Ruk Shol warrior. We are continuing forward to the Borad-Elamites. That is all.