Enjoying being back in the saddle, Humus let his mind wander as the miles drifted past. What an experience this had been ! Culdat's words brought Humus' thoughts back to the present. With a worried look he stared at the halfling. Unable to believe what he just heard he whispered "Demon berries ?" Turning to Caladan, Humus whispered, "Did you hear what Culdat just said ? I'm afraid that this adventure has shaken our little 'finder' up. Although, I'm surprised that we are all not speaking of demon berries and the such. Few have actually seen none, and fewer still have lived to tell about it." Hearing the thunder of hoofbeats, Humus instinctively readied his lance and shield. Looking down briefly, he made sure that his sword was unobstructed so he could draw it easily if need be. Looking at the others with a grim expression, "Shall we see what is going on ? I'm not much in the mood for running or hiding."
Hearing the hoofbeats, Kethas quickly rummaged through his pack, searching for his scroll. Not having the time to memorize spells yet, he cursed himself. "Damn ! I'm unprepared !" He found the scroll, two Magic Missiles, and prepared to read them if the encountered individuals were dangerous. Seeing that at least some of his companions were planning on making a stand and concerned about his small friend's behavior and remembering a certain trick Kethas played early in the quest, Da Ghiri turned his attention to Culdat and, praying that this worked and murmuring words of apology to the Halfling in advance, cast his net over the 'finder' and turned his attention to the approaching hoofbeats.
Riding Aistlin in a tight formation, the enchanted barrel rested on the nob of the leather saddle. Jardel needed not hold the reigns of the horse for Aistlin was well trained, so one hand rested on the barrel while the other held on to the Sceptre of Power. Being in the rear of the party, Jardel and Belgrius were among the first to notice the thundering sounds emerging upon them from the North. Commanding Aistlin in a quiet whistle they came to a sudden halt close to some trees near the eastern edge of the road. He cursed himself for his lack of thought. "Damn, I should have fastened the barrel to the saddle, so I wouldn’t have to constantly keep hold of it !" Not having any time to change the situation he made a mental note to do this after the upcoming encounter. Seeing Da Ghiri cast his net on the little halfling did bring a surprisedlook on his face, though he trusted Da Ghiri completely relying on past actions. Quickly he scanned Da Ghiri and Culdat though for any evil intent to make sure no charmed actions were being done. As he noticed an etchy Belgrius behind him he asked him to step down from Aistlin. "Belgrius, please get off. You are a spell-caster and I need all the maneuvrability on Aistlin I can get for succesful horseback combat." Qickly he lowered the barrel onto the ground. "Please keep a watchful eye on this item. I trust my holy life in your hands, for my immediate protection goals aredirected at the Sceptre."
After dismounting, Belgrius looked shocked and actually forgot he wanted to work a spell as he saw Da Ghiri cast the net on Culdat. "Why did you do that ?! He wasn't doing anything to you. Is there something going on I should know ? Now he will be defensless if we are attacked !" Belgrius moved nearer to Culdat, clearly intending to protect him. He recalled the spell of Hold Person with the plan to use it if attacked. Yelling at the others the Paladin withdrew Caliburn into his left hand and held the Sceptre in his right. "Kothas, direct your men to protect our spell-casters and this barrel here. Under no circumstances is it to fall into enemy hands. Do I make myself clear ? Humus, Caladan, care to join me in the front ranks for a defensive stand. I am sure these riders mean trouble for us. Belgrius, Da Ghiri and Kethas can support us through spellcraft. I have a sixth sense that these riders are either drow elves or religious followers to Asmodeus, so make sure that you enable all potential spellcasters first. We stand a greater chance to defend ourselves against cold steel."
Jardel positioned himself between the riders and the new party, able to meet whatever surprise the encounter was to bear. Seeing everyone getting ready for a possible attack, Humus maneuvered Valor towards Jardel. "Kothas, make sure you watch the trees and the rear. We don't want to have any surprises." Lance up and shield ready, he prepared to launch Valor in a charge at the enemy should the approaching hoofbeats bring battle. Kethas turned to Belgrius, "Belgrius, I suggest that you get your Magic Missile scroll out and prepare to dispatch with those hostiles. Perhaps later, you could tell me who helped revive me while I was unconscious, hmm ?" There was no answer as Belgrius was in the process of concentrating on a spell. Caladan sighed as Humus readied his weapons "I had hoped my arms could relax today, but a warriors deed is never done, it seems." Caladan withdrew his sword and turned his mount towards the sounds. As Jardel spoke Caladan saluted him "Off course I will accompany you and Humus in the front, it will be an honor." Da Ghiri noticed several of the party members looking at him oddly, though he directed his comments to Belgrius, responding a bit more sharply than his usual wont, "His behavioor doesn't strike yoou as odd or suspicious ?! If I am wroong I will humbly apoloogize, but I feear that he is mad at best and perhaps poossessed; I have netted him to preevent him from doing soomething to harm himself or interfeere with us. I will protect him, thooough yoour aid woould be appreciated if you wish to give it ..."
The entire group basically reformed its marching order in reverse, making those that were in the back now in the front, except for Jardel who now sat in the front, while Belgrius moved aside to protect the halfling from harm, who continued rambling and thrashing madly in the net, but was unable to get out.
The hoofbeats came to substance as a very large group of humans, very well armed riders, came riding around the bend. Each rider wore black livery over chainmail and the first 10 carried longsword and shield behind the heavy warhorse lances that were set for charge. In the middle of the group was a large human wearing black platemail and carrying a black sword. He resembled the dark warrior that had been previously defeated in the Caves of Wind. His highly visable new scar crinkled when he smiled maliciously as he rounded the bend. Beside him was a slight figure dressed in black robes from head to toe, no face visable under the hood, but laughter could be heard from him. A voice in everyone's mind boomed with laughter, "Your little friend was easy to turn against you, even from a distance. Return the Scepter to us, and we will let most of you leave alive. Some will perish as a debt to this man and the priests lost vainly in battle in the caverns below this bright world."
Parallel arrows were launched from the archers riding directly behind the two men in the center. There were 20 soldiers overall, 10 heavily armed in the front, and 10 in the rear firing the arrows, who were also armed with longswords and a shield. The group was yet approximately 100’ to the north of the party, waiting for the missiles to reach their targets. All arrows missed except one, which struck Jardel in the left arm, the scepter arm, for minor damage. Belgrius loosed his hold person spell on the front soldiers and three warriors were held in their saddles.
Kethas read one of the Magic Missile spells on his scroll, trying hard to get all of the inflections right. He focused the darts at a single rider up front and anything behind him. While searching his backpack for further scrolls and his spellbook he called out to the guards. "Protect me from harm." Lowering his voice so that the immediate company may hear, "I am going to try to scare this bunch. I don't expect it to work. It will be a quick 'fling'. Ha ha ha."
Wincing from the immediate pain in his right arm, Jardel ignored the sting and sized up the assaillants charging from the North. His mind raced for a posibility to slow down the riders and reduce their ranks considerably. Due to the still present distance to the closest lancers he at least had all options for ranged attacks open. Upon hearing the vile threats he yelled back at them accordingly "NEVER ! You all shall die trying to pry the Sceptre from my grasp ! May the benevolent power of the Sceptre grant us protection against all evil and aid us in your destruction." Pointing Caliburn in the general directionof the evil group, Aistlin remained poised and skittered sideways in an anxious mood, already smelling the foreign horses approaching. Quietly his lips uttered arcane words as he once more invoked the magic of the helm. "Decido a feuris et voldo." The Helm of Brilliance glowed briefly before Caliburn erupted with a flash of bright white light. Immediately the sword seized shining brightly as a flaming ball of fire flashed towards the group of evil powermongers. It covered the distance quickly and exploded directly amid the human riders bathing them in sparks of fire and charring exposed skin. Whisps of black smoke rose from the scene, dealing fire to any and all caught in the area. No differences were made between the riders, the mounts or the soil.
Caladan lifted his sword and charged towards the ranks of the warriors, He pulled his horse to a stop when he saw the ball of fire speed past him. A grim smile covered his face as he paused, planning to charge straight through any surviving soldiers and straight into the Black Knight.
Watching as Jardel's fireball leapt out and engulfed the enemy and Caladan charges the lead knight, Humus dug his spurs into Valors flanks into a charge. Not wanting to bother with the ones held by Belgrius' spell, Humus angled his charge towards the wizard. Sunlight glinted off his shield as he braced himself for any impact with his lance. The Halfling netted, Da Ghiri turned his attention to the enemy. He took a small metal ball from one of his pouches and chanting in a strange tongue, held it towards the attackers closest to Belgrius who hadn't already been dealt with, hoping to aid Belgrius' flight to safety with the helpless Culdat. Given the chance he wanted to repeat this strategy on the next nearest opponents.
Belgrius saw the effects of his spell and realized there was still a large group of enemies coming his way. Chancing that he was still be able to get Culdat out of the way if he stayed for one more action before breaking for the trees, he reached in his backpack. Coming forth with his portion of the scroll found earlier in the cavern, he made sure none of the party members were in his way as he started reading the scroll aloud. Trying to concentrate on the area around the leader he hoped the spell would affect several, including their leader. He read as clearly as he could and once the spell was activated and on the way he grabbed the horse carrying Culdat and raced for the bushes and trees trying to get out of the direct line of harm.
Caladan lifted his sword and yelled "I was just thinking how sad it was that my sword only got a few drops of evil blood when we met the last time ... would you ladies care to dance ?" Caladan pointed his sword at the black knight and resumed his charge.
Being that all were close together, Jardel’s fireball hit the entire group of marauders, including the archers in the back, who took the majority of the damage, but were all still standing, though now most of the horses had dumped their riders and charged off away from the battle. Some were injured worse than others though the wizard was unaffected. The archers regrouped and took aim once again as they fired a second volley of arrows, this time hitting several targets. Three of the kings guards in the rear were pinned, as was Humus, though it just bounced off his armor. Culdat was pierced in the thigh and Belgrius took an arrow directly in the ribs.
Kethas magic missile killed a warrior with lance on impact. Belgrius loosed four darts at the scarred Black Knight and his minions and all hit, but they did only minimal damage. Da Ghiri cast a hold person spell and the remaining warriors of the front ranks were either dispersed, held or dead.
Belgius dashed madly for the woods with Culdat's pony in tow. Humus, Caladan, and Kothas rode into battle, moving held and dead soldiers out of the way, directing their attacks on the remaining mobile soldiers before they were able to reach the leaders. Humus charged a warrior in the second rank, impaling him and ending his life in one fluid motion. He pulled his lance from the dead man's body and charged the Black Knight, but missed as he himself got hit in the back, cutting deep, with the large mans two-handed sword as he passed.
Caladan charged a lancer, who was awaiting such an attack and swung back at him, but Caladan was barely able to put his sword between himself and the deadly blade before twisting in the saddle and cutting a deep gash into the side of his opponent, nearly killing him. Kothas rushed another scarred lancer in the second rank as he yelled to his guards, "Stay back and protect the group from anything in the rear." He swung at the soldier and cut his torso badly, but his foe was not dead as he made a feeble attack and missed Kothas.
The black mage held his hands up and pointed a finger at Humus. After a few arcane words a white hot dart flew from the tips of his fingers and struck the Cavalier in the back, right on top of the deep gash just cut by the Black Knight, causing him a great deal of pain and knocking him from his mount.
Feeling a great deal of pain from being blasted in the ribs, Belgrius tried to shut out the pain but was only partially successful. He held on to the reigns of Culdat's horse and fled east for the cover of trees. He watched the fight to see if anyone was chasing after him. Seeing no one followed, he retrieved a parchment and read it’s powerful magic content.
Snarling in anger and pain, Humus groggily stood up after taking a tumple on the grass, leaving the lance on the ground. Holding up his shield to block any further attacks, he whistled for Valor to return. As the warhorse approached, Humus grabbed the reigns and vaulted into the saddle. He spurred his warhorse on towards the Black Knight. Drawing his sword of sharpness, he growled in pain and anger at the warrior, "A hit such as that should be repaid in kind." Tightly gripping his shield, he prepared for the onslaught as he raised his sword to press the attack. Briefly thinking back to the mage, he hoped that someone else took care of him. Caladan, having heard Humus, charged the mage yelling "Thy evil stops today !" Da Ghiri raised his metal sphere and began chanting again, this time targeting the wizard and his direct bodyguards.
"Ha Ha Ha." Jardel laughed out aloud hysterically, feeling the rush of power coarse through his body. "Feel the wrath of the gods !" Sizing up the tatctical situation of the battle, he did feel sorry for having burned the horses with his fireball, yet ergo it seemed as if the battle had evolved to a stationary basis. Seeing the horses flee and the archers recover from their falls, left the enemies fairly busy and immobile. As Humus was fighting his own battle with the Black Knight and Caladan had reached the Mage, no other adventurer had yet infiltrated the front ranks towards the rear. As none of the archers had perished yet and their sheer numbers were trouble enough, he once again recalled the powers from the Helm of Brilliance. The Paladin evaluated the range and diameter of the first invocation, which gave him a fairly safe sense in finishing the archers in the rear ranks. "Decido a feuris et voldo." His voice quietly rumbled in a deep baritone note. Calibrun briefly flashed a bright white light, before sending forth yet another horrible ball of hot fire towards the rear ranks of the attackers. Wavering tails of flickering flames followed the ball as it trailed dark black smoke in it’s path, seemingly flying right past the last archers in error but surprisingly exploding withing a short distance behind them, trying to omit Humus and Caladan as a target within the area of effect. In victory Jardel raised the Sceptre, visible to all, and spurred Aistlin into motion.
Quickly he rode past the left side of the front ranks, whose members were all held, and he engaged into horseback combat with the scarred warrior. His tactic was to attack the foes backside while Humus penetrated his defenses from the front. Wielding Calibrun viciously, he hacked away trying to penetrate the brutes armor. At all times he positioned the Sceptre away from the enemy, herewith preventing the object from being wretched free of his tight grip - be it from a hard crushing blow or from a severing strike of a blade ...
Kethas ran forward no more than 10’, but not ahead of his friends who were taking care of the front ranks, and unravelled the last piece of Enchantra's parchment. Belgrius and Kethas both fired their magic missile's from their scrolls at the same time, both striking the mage, knocking him from his horse in a gorey flash. He hit the ground screaming, and moaned into a semi unconscious state, rolling around, but unable to attack.
Belgrius' wound was bad and just as he hit the side of the road, he prayed to his god. A pale blue light momentarily brightened the wound on his ribs. Though not entirely gone, the flesh was pink now instead of the angry red. Just as he reached the edge of the tree's, a crossbow bolt struck him in his shoulder, as a volley of bolts came rushing from treeline to the east where he and Culdat ran towards.
Several of the guards were hit, one of them falling unconscious to the ground. Culdat began mumbling that he was blind while trying to escape the net. Kothas threw his arms to his eyes and he too shouted that he was blind. Jardel joined him and Humus, who both yelled out to suddenly being blind.
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