“We set the woods to the south on fire,” Uden suggested. The dwarves nearby nodded, but everyone with Ondi-Ne blood in them cringed.
“Wasting the land is not an option,” Heather replied from atop her mount, who was currently having a casual staring contest with Russ. “At least not intentionally. Besides, if the fire grows, we’ll suffocate unless our Wind Mages turn the smoke, then they’ll be too occupied to help with defence and communication.”
“You could have simply said it wasn’t a good idea,” Uden muttered.
“I will call a haunting mist and send it around the outer edge of the moat,” Kinso said, closing his eyes and muttering words of power under his breath so quickly that I could barely make a single one out.
“What’s a haunting mist?” Uden asked as Goler shouted; “Loose!” again, sending another volley of arrows arcing towards the enemy’s general location.
“It’s a high level spell that creates a, well, mist that invites souls to live in it for a while so they can scare the living with spiritual attacks,” Russ explained, quoting the short form description of the spell from the rule book I wrote. His attentions had switched to Hunker, who nosed him for some chin scratching while Ilsa paid more attention to the conversation from atop his back.
“Don’t tell me you’re a learned one as well?” Uden asked.
“I’ve read everything Grant’s written down more than once,” Russ replied with no small amount of pride.
Kinso stepped out from behind the Dwarven building, took a long, slow breath that seemed to last minutes, then exhaled for just as long, pushing grey mist through his lips to the south, then the east, north and west. It crept across the grass, between our soldiers and the tower, leaving none of itself behind on its way to the outskirts of our camp. Once it was past the moat surrounding the small field around the tower, it rose in a ten foot tall wall of obscuring dark grey with shifting shadows in it. He staggered, and Goler caught him. “Are you all right?”
“Just a little dizzy. That was a lot of damp air,” he replied with a smirk.
Goler turned back to the archers. “Nock! Draw! Loose!” he shouted.
“I think that’s enough, they’ve stopped firing back,” Vand said pensively.
“True,” Uden agreed. “Your targets have certainly moved out of range or to the side by now.”
“We have plenty of arrows left, there’s no harm in…” Goler’s protest was interrupted as we heard a clamour in the woods to the south.
“Whatever’s coming doesn’t care about the spirits or the mist,” Kinso warned, his eyes wide and wild. “They are undead.”
“Shields ready! Blunt arms, ready!” Uden called as he drew his war hammer and moved to the rear of his lines. “Good thing you have a holy sword, Lord Champion.” he told me at a lower volume.
“Fire! Anyone who can cast fire or purifying magic, get ready!” Heather called as she rode out behind the lines of Dwarves then blew her whistle again. I couldn’t hear it, but the dogs in her pack could for leagues.
“Are these the undead you raised, only with new masters?” Goler asked Kinso.
“No, these are constructs. Did you see them when you peered with your unnatural gaze?’ Kinso asked me.
“There was no sign of undead, these are new. I didn’t even see anyone who looked like a necromancer.”
“Necromancers can look like anyone,” Kinso scoffed.
The sounds of breaking branches and rustling underbrush moved from the south to the east, and half the shield wall turned to protect from that direction. They didn’t move the whole line to the east side of the tower, however, and as I saw that as a major gap, the first of the beasts broke through the tree cover. They must have had more than one necromancer in their midst.
A chill ran down my spine as the recently unearthed skull of a minor giant emerged from the mist. Let me be clear; when I say ‘minor giant,’ I’m using a technical term. It means it’s not a fifty foot tall mega-being, but still definitely big. Really big, like you couldn’t hide one in your average two-car garage. The skull alone was five feet tall from upper teeth to the crown of his head. Its body was a collection of bones from his kind and that of many others in the forest, bound together with twisted branches that looked like raw sinew, partially covered with thick green-brown moss. Its right arm ended in a massive piece of flint that was tied to his wrist with roots. Its three foot long edge was razor sharp as though freshly knapped from the side of a nearby stony hill. “Whoever made that has Earth and Spirit Weaving magic,” I said, hoping that would help some of the casters.
“What? What kills it?” Kinso asked, shocked at the sight of the fifteen foot tall thing.
I started moving towards it, aware that I probably had the most powerful holy sword there, but Vand put a hand on my chest, asking; “Where do you think you’re going?”
That wouldn’t have halted me, but Uden shook his head at me as though I was the last person who should rush to face the monstrosity. “You’ve got the best idea of what’s going on. You go down, our chances of being on our feet at the end of the day go down with you.”
“What the Dwarf said,” Vand said.
Heather and Ilsa were about to charge, but I stopped Ilsa and offered her Nerxis. “You might need something with a heavy blessing on it.”
“I’ll be back if I need it,” she replied, pulling a spear from her saddle quiver. Heather rushed off with Ilsa behind her riding less expertly, but solidly. Heather rode across its path, sending a jet of flames at its knees before she was interrupted, forced to dodge an attack from its great axe hand, which cleaved the earth deeply. Ilsa rode past after her, throwing her spear at the thing’s eye, where it sank deeply to no effect. It stuck out of its dark, moss filled socket like a thorn. The giant swung it’s great hand-axe, narrowly missing Ilsa and Hunker.
“Get out of the way!” called a magician from the top of the tower.
Several human sized constructs that were similarly made leapt across the moat to the east, as though they could see through the illusion that hid it. They landed already running and rushed towards the tower. The three groups of adventurers who were tasked with guarding the door there came together, their melee warriors presenting shields, wielding weapons that were heavily enchanted while each of their healers began to cast. Before the undead men could reach the base of the tower, they were assailed by bolts and bursts of white and red purifying magic and fire. All but one of the smaller constructs collapsed, spreading out into a pile of sticks, roots, and bone. The remaining one was met by a small wall of shields, the thrust of a holy spear and two hammers wielded by the warriors. It was beaten to pieces in short order.
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was distracted by the spirals and bursts of white and yellow magical attacks as the magicians on the top of the tower cast attacks at the giant, who began his march. He roared at the tower, slashing its flint hand-axe through the air, narrowly missing Heather, who almost rode too close as she hurled a pair of fireballs at it. Her spells were working, but slowly. The wet moss was protecting the unnatural creature, and was only just starting to steam at her attacks. “We have to fight from cover, Heather!” Ilsa shouted, struggling to keep Hunker out of the giant’s range. The giant dog bared its teeth at the unnatural thing, spoiling for a fight.
“My art is more potent up close, and the abomination is starting to dry out!” she cried as the giant turned towards her and started to chase.
Its legs didn’t move quickly, but the stride was so long that she wouldn’t be able to outrun it for long. “With me! My squad! With me!” Uden cried as he charged into place in front of Heather and her mount. His shield bearing Dwarves moved into a line in front of him that was fifteen across, and she leapt over them easily. He cast a blessing that enchanted their shields with a holy barrier as the giant construct brought his flint axe down. The impact knocked a pair of dwarves aside, but the shield Uden cast shattered the axe head. “Attack! Bring it down!” Uden cried before swinging his hammer through the air, flinging a surge of white light at the construct’s head, stunning it.
His Dwarves surged forward with hammers, swinging at its shins, cracking the bones. Some of the paladins charged their weapons with purifying fire and hurled them up into the thing’s branch and bone ribs. Its scream shook the air as it began to burn white and blue from within. That’s when I suspected that the undead were only a distraction.
I was about to look to the south when Uden shouted; “Look out, Daffod!”
“Don’t let it get you!” Kinso added as the giant construct stumble-stepped, stomping a Dwarf into the dirt. As it ground its heel, the construct grabbed another right off his feet then threw him at the top of the tower, where he collided with the magician standing right beside Laylen, a young woman who had come with one of the adventurer parties. He managed to cast Slow Fall on her as she was flung over the side, but the Dwarf who struck her continued on to the other side, where he struck the ground at full speed. I didn’t see it then, but he was narrowly saved from death by one of the adventurer healers.
“Look south!” I shouted as I heard the rustling of people breaking through the woods there. It was a charge on foot.
“Strike them with doubt and fear,” Kinso said as unnatural shadows swiped at the mercenaries who were fighting their way through it, swinging their swords and jabbing their spears at the apparitions that tested their morale and sanity. The first man to push through the mist had empty hands, was horror-stricken and fell through the illusionary ground into the moat.
For a moment, all other sounds were drowned out by the collapse of the giant moss, wood and bone construct as he was defeated. “See to the wounded!” Goler ordered.
“Nay! Hold!” Uden shouted back. “We can tend to the dead when this is over. Damn, I’ve never seen a more rusty bunch of paladins in my life!” he cursed at his men. “Remember your training and prove your worth!”
The few who had flung their weapons into the body of the undead giant reclaimed them hurriedly and joined the line of dwarves facing south in a shield wall that was twenty-eight paladins wide. None of them so much as suggested an objection to Uden, including Goler, who was shaking with fear behind all the other dwarves, staring at the mist.
“Perhaps you’d be of more use in the tower?” Vand asked him in a whisper.
“I’m my Lord’s chronicler, and an officer; this is my place,” Goler replied.
Mournful howls began to drift to us from the mist, it was a chilling sound that made Kinso smile. “Good, the spirits are halting them, confusing them. The soldiers don’t know where to turn, they are giving in to their terror.”
Just as I was starting to think that I didn’t know what we’d do without him, Kinso’s mist was swept away as though it was caught by a powerful wind. A couple hundred footmen were revealed as he flinched. A few of them were fighting each other and stopped. “Dispelled! Someone dispelled my mist! The spirits return to their wandering.”
“Charge! Charge you feeble minded shits!” Fredrick cried. I could hear him clearly enough, but couldn’t spot him.
“He’s using a voice projection spell,” Russ and I said at the same time.
“When do I start splitting skulls?” Doan asked through gritted teeth, his hands wringing the handle of his great hammer.
“Very soon,” Vand said, taking both of his axes in hand.
The soldiers were quickly forming up and about to charge across the moat.
“Goler!” Uden called, drawing a stunned look from the man. The chronicler’s nerve was gone, crushed by the sight of the undead giant.
Uden shook his head then and took command of the archers. “Fire at will! Cut those whoresons down!”
At first, I thought that order would lead to a waste of arrows, since the mercenaries were about to try to cross a moat that should be hidden by an illusion of solid ground, but then I realized that the volley would be a perfect distraction. It would convince the enemy that there was nothing strange about the situation. If the archers held back like the mages atop the tower were, then the mercenaries would definitely suspect something was up.
I’ve never seen real war before, not personally. The most grisly newscasts and special effects couldn’t have prepared me for the sight of soldiers being pierced by arrows. Few archers missed since they were firing into tight groups of charging mercenaries who caught shafts in their eyes, cheeks, and necks. Many were luckier, their helms, shields and other armour minimizing the penetration of the arrowheads or turning them away altogether. They stepped over the ones who weren’t so lucky in the front, swords and axes at the ready as they started to clear the last of the tree line.
These were hardened soldiers, and their determined, sometimes malicious expressions reinforced that. They were here to kill most of us, capture a few and take what we had. By the time the first few fell through the illusionary soil, I didn’t have much sympathy for them anymore. Aggression was replaced by surprise and dismay as the first two lines of the mercenaries plummeted into the moat. The shouts of surprise were followed by cries of agony as they impacted on the stone spikes at the bottom.
If these were peasants and barely trained warriors, our trick would have gone off without a hitch, but the mercenaries’ charge halted quickly, only a fifth of their number gone. Even as arrows rained down on them thirty and more at a time, several shouted back; “There’s a pit!”
“Illusions cover a pit!”
“Moat! Sire!”
“Take cover in place!” shouted Fredrick’s voice from somewhere in the rear.
Moments later a shiver of magic surged from the south, and I could hear the shouts of our magicians trying to counter the grand spell, but they failed. I suspect that several magicians from Fredrick’s side cooperated in casting a massive dispel illusion spell, and it worked.
The moat the Earth Magicians dug around the field surrounding the tower was clearly visible, and I was pretty sure what was coming next. “Get ready for a charge,” I said to Vand, who repeated my words in a shout everyone could hear.
“Aye, that’s what I’d do,” Uden said before instructing his archers to keep firing.
Few of their shafts struck flesh, landing on shields instead. The desperate cries of the ones who survived being impaled on the spikes at the bottom of our trench were just loud enough to reach my ears, and I tried not to think of what it would be like to be in their place. “They have Earth Magic!” Uden shouted.
Looking in his direction, I saw him drop into a stable stance and reach out with grasping hands to the south. Two other paladins did the same and the earth began to tremble under our feet. The edges of the moat shuddered, loosing some soil as the people who survived their fall shouted more urgently. “Don’t close it!”
“Get us out!”
“No! No! Stop!”
Several magicians atop the tower started casting counterspells, I could hear the words of power as they were shouted. “The trees, the roots! They’re going to make bridges!” Itan, the young sorceress from Vand’s group shouted before calling her own counter-curse at the enemies to the south. “They’re out of my range, only the best of us can stop their magic.”
Willa, the healer from that group, raised her hands, twisted her fingers in symbols that I only recognized the instant before her curse was flung at the soldiers. She was the more powerful of the two casters in that party, and her spell stopped over forty of the mercenaries from breathing. As long as she channelled her energy into that curse, they would be unable to inhale. “I should do something, I must do something,” she said to herself.
Russ realized what was going on only a moment after I did, spotting several of the mercenaries as they grasped at their throats, struggling to breathe. The ones who weren’t affected tried to assist their fellows, holding their shields up to fend off the arrows that kept on falling. “This isn’t how I imagined magical warfare,” he said. “It’s a cheap spell, easy to cast, but she’s throwing it like a wide net over all of them. Anyone who can’t resist it is dying.”
“Smart casting,” Vand said, nodding, misinterpreting his quiet horror for appreciation.
“It’s worth nothing if the rest of our mages can’t counter the Earth and Weaving magic,” Willa said.
Our dog riders started returning then, leaping over the moat to the west and north to avoid the enemy. Sweat started to run down Uden’s cheeks, and he shook his head. “We can hold the moat open, but whoever is forcing the trees and roots to stretch, to grow flat, is going to win.”
“We’re not close enough to help. We have to go down to get in range!” shouted Olson from the top of the tower.
“Stay there, for glory’s sake! You come down, and you’ll get cut down if there’s a charge!” Uden called back.
An instant later the trees near the moat bent down with a chorus of groaning wood to start forming a bridge. Roots pushed up from the dirt to hold the trees down and bind them together. “Be ready! Charge coming! Cavalry charge coming!” I shouted as the thunder of hooves began. The bridges were flat enough for horses to cross, and if I wasn’t steeling myself for the fight ahead, I would have been impressed.
Uden and the Earth Magicians gave up on holding the moat open, and the cries of soldiers who were trapped there were silenced as the trench closed roughly, leaving a shallow ditch instead. I wiped my palms dry then took firm hold of my sword as I watched Heather order her riders to get ready to harass men on horses.
Taking a quick look around me, I was sure we didn’t have the numbers to win the battle. There were thirty of them and hundreds of horsemen, most of which would make it through whatever magical barrage we could counter with. Behind them were over a thousand soldiers. “Decide,” Kinso whispered to me. “You see, you hear, you know more than anyone else. Tell us what to do. You have the most important power here, Portal Master.”