Subject: I wrote this story a while ago. I Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 01:07:04 -0700 From: "Joe Morrison" To: A cloaked figure stirred from the tree it was leaning on. A whisper of wind caused it to shiver slightly. The figure drew forth a bag and fetched a pinch of salt from it. Placing the salt on its palm it uttered a few indiscernible words and licked the back of its hand. A man near the fire noticed this and motioned his other companions, who were preparing to go to sleep. The man was an imposing figure, with red hair spilling down around his shoulders and a beard to make any dwarf envious. Even as he prepared for sleep he wore his chain mail. In fact, he rarely took it off, when he was outside of his lord's castle, except to tend to wounds or perhaps swim if needed. Although he was often found dressed for battle passed out, from drinking more then his fair share of ale in the kitchens of the keep as well. When armored, he bristled with weapons so that even a kender would have to be wary around him, lest a dagger it hadn't managed to avoid prick it. With both his commanding presence and the quickness with which his men followed his orders, it wasn't hard to determine that he was their leader. "Something wrong Mary?" he whispered. "I don't know, I thought I heard something. But now I ca- wait, what's that?" The cloaked figure pointed into the woods and withdrew her hood. She was a stunning sigh to behold. High cheekbones and dark eyes coupled with her seductively pouting lips, which gave her a beauty once unrenowned. Except for a scar, which ran down from her right eye to the corner of her mouth. The eye itself was milky white, with no pupil, the village cleric being unable to heal it fully. Though she could see, she was no longer the beautiful maiden men once thought her. The marring of her face was the result of an encounter with an umber hulk. She wouldn't have survived if it hadn't been for one of her pouches dropping from its place on her belt. The bright flash of sulfur blinded both her and the monster. Feeling along the walls of the cave she distanced herself as far from the howls of the beast as she could. As the people around the fire looked at the spot she was pointing a small patch of air rippled. The ripple moved slowly towards the camp. As it passed a large yellowing bush with broad concealing leaves, a man quickly stepped up behind it. A dagger flashed in his hand and he struck the patch of air that was moving towards his companions. There was a loud high pitch whine as a floating eyeball about a foot in diameter faded into existence. Hovering a second before it plummeted to the ground. Upon impact it exploded in a loud puff of smoke. Smiling Telemachos looked up at the humans surrounding the campfire. "Seems we've been being watched". Grinning, he said, "bout time I get some action. I was getting tired of all this nature". As the thief bent to retrieve his dagger from the ground, there was a bright flash of light and a peal of thunder. A flash of lightning struck a tree in between the companions and Telemachos, throwing both parties backwards. Mary was the first to recover, and was the first to see that a large branch from the exploding tree had impaled Telemachos. His hands were still twitching and there was a surprised expression on his face as he stared down at the branch protruding from his stomach. A spell was instantly on her lips. She still couldn't see the enemy but perhaps she could slow down their advance. Throwing a honeycomb to where the floating eye had been, she mouthed an incantation and gestured upwards with her palm up. A swarm of insects appeared swarming around the area of the comb, searching for more food. The spell was practically harmless but still gave most people a pause. "Seaver!" she cried. "I can't see anyone!" The imposing figure who was in command of the small group of adventurers cried out "Get behind these trees, look for cover, Sylk where what the HELL are we up against?" Sylk, the parties' mage, had teleported himself up into a tree when the explosion hit and donned a ring of invisibility so no one could see him. He uttered a small incantation and three balls of light flew off into the woods. The light gave out his position and an arrow appeared out of nowhere to imbed itself in his back. Voicing a cry of pain he faded into existence as he fell to the ground. Seaver risked being shot as he ran out to aid his friend. "I didn't see anything. T-They got me in the back" Clutching Seaver's collar he whispered in his ear, "They are behind us, everyone is still in their-" He faded into unconsciousness, but his meaning was not lost on the mammoth warrior. By ordering his men to hide behind trees he had placed them in full view of their opposing forces! As if answering his thoughts, several cries sounded through out the forest as arrows pierced his men. Looking around he saw that Mary was on the ground not five feet away, her leg struck by an arrow, lying flat to make as small a target for the enemy as possible. "Behind us," he mouthed to her. Mary nodded and pulled out a small pick. Balancing it on the ground she started chanting as she tapped the pick with her forefinger. The ground began to tremble, The arrows stopped and questioning voices arose from the attackers. Seaver picked out his targets as the ground rolled back and forth, the intensity of the earthquake increasing. Taking a small crossbow from his belt he picked out a foolish warrior who stood up during the quaking and stumbled into view from behind a tree. Feeling the tempo of the ground so he could try and get a clear shot, he loosened the bolt with stunning accuracy, pinning the leather-clad man in the neck. The man seemed to steady himself and gazed around, as if wondering where the bolt had sprung from, before he collapsed on the ground, dead. One down, thought Seaver, but how many are left? "There are at least two more out there. How are we holding up?" "Not well," came the voice of Mary. Seaver looked for the source and saw a small lizard resting about a foot from where he lie. "Half our men our dead, it's time to sound the retreat, judging by the arrows they had twice as many as us to begin with, that means four times as many now." Seaver blinked twice to make sure he was hearing correctly. Had the lizard just spoke? With Mary's voice? "Don't just sit there gawking you idiot! Get us out of here!" It was Mary alright. Seaver didn't need any further provocation. Once he got over the lizard-Mary it wasn't hard to judge who would win a twenty on five fight, especially when one of their magic users was down and they needed the other one to help get them out of there. Crawling over to Sylk he dragged him behind a large oak, which would allow some protection. Sounding the retreat he drew a compact bow from the satchel at his waist to give cover to his men. "To me!" he shouted. Drawing the bow he began to fire blindly in the general direction of the enemy. As the remaining thee troops crawled towards him, Mary reassumed human form to tend to Sylk's wounds. "They poisoned the arrows, The bastards". She had already quaffed the one potion of curing she had. There and there was no time to prepare the necessary spell that would drive the poison from the mage's body, It'd have to be done later, at the risk of him possibly loosing his mind or being paralyzed for the rest of his life. Seaver looked over at Mary and said "I need to activate the device to get us out of here can you distract them? And what about that arrow in your leg?" Still concentrating on poulticing Sylk's wounds, she muttered to herself "Mary do this, Mary do that, Mary why don't you just become one of the gods and kill everyone for us? Takhisis' grave, I should be given a months' pay for this. My wound's my concern, now get us out of here." Finishing the poultice with a quick twist of the turnacit, She pulled out a small vial of crystal clear water. Uncorking the stopper she cupped one of her hands and poured it in. Covering the water with her other hand she uttered the words "Izekla Bihrilia" and blew into her hands. Unfolding the cup she had made revealed a small ball of ice, which she hefted in her palm as if to throw it. The next spell was extremely difficult, quite possibly the most powerful one that she knew. Placing one hand on the ground and raising the other in the air she pointed it palm out, holding the ice towards the on- coming enemy, who were now darting in between the trees to center in on the last bastion of their victims. Turning her mind to the earth she felt the power of her surroundings, pleading for it to give her strength. Coaxing the energy to gather the water in the air and foliage around her into her hand, she poured her effort into making the ball of ice as dense as possible with as much ice as she could gather water for. The ice remained the same size but grew darker as it became more compact, then pulsed as Mary turned her attention into releasing it in a form which would not only distract their ambushers, but might dispatch a few as well. Meanwhile two of the party members had made it to the tree, the third being pinned by over a dozen arrows when she panicked and attempted to run to safety. Seaver handed his bow to one of the soldiers who began to fire the bow as fast as he could while maintaining as much cover as was possible. Drawing a small broach from a hidden pocket inside his chain mail he knelt on the ground and began to concentrate on the main hall of His lord Bodie's castle. A cry of pain sounded as a crossbow bolt buried itself into Mary's arm, causing her to loose grasp of the ice. The magic disrupted the ice hit the ground and burst into a fine mist, freezing everything it touched. Seaver, lost in his concentration didn't notice as the mist silently approached him.