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The Battle of Bykin Castle
Prelude
On the wall of Bykin Castle:
Nadimus stands looking out at the field, watching the forces of the Amazon women and Selcor set camp around the front of the castle wall and entrance to Bykin and the fields. He somberly smokes his pipe, sending white smoke into the sky. This was the first time that Morduke, Solvay, and Shane had ever seen Nadimus like this in the few weeks they had companionship with him. The three watch him as they wonder why they were awoken and not their other companions and why they were here now, just waiting. Finally, Morduke inquires why he just watching them setting up camp, why don't they do something? Nadimus just looks at him from out the corner of his eyes, smoke still billowing up from his pipe, and from his mouth.
"And what would we do good priest? What actions would we take to stop this? The Battle of Bykin Castle would occur no matter what you and I do. The question you should be asking yourself, is how will History remember this battle? When it's over, who will History remember as the victor? The forces of Good, or the Forces of Evil?" he nods at the army in front of him, saying all this as he continues to puff on his pipe. "But no matter how History will remember this the lessons that we take away from the battle, in victory or defeat, will be passed from generation to generation until one day, when the lessons start to fade. The lessons will start to fade and then soon after they will be forgotten, or regarded as myth. A fairy tale story that holds no weight, just a scary bedtime story to make sure their children wash behind their ears.
Man will have forgotten and many life times after us darkness will cover the world of Aredel, and the lessons that we learned here and now will contain the wisdom needed to bring the light back to Aredel. Man will have lost that wisdom, and in their last days they will realize that they had the wisdom all along, they just never listened. For what is a fairy tale, but a lesson to be taught, a moral to learn." Nadimus says this as he stars off in space, puffing on his pipe with almost every word. The smoke fills the air and the walkway around them as he talks. Finally, he snaps out of it and looks at Morduke.
"You wish to know what you can do. Pray, my good holy man, pray. Pray that men like you and I can find the morals in our fairy tales." he puts his hand on Morduke's shoulder, squeezing as he says this. He suddenly snaps back to his old self as he turns to talk down the stairs into the courtyard. "You want to know why you were called, well I will tell you. Follow me!"
The three follow Nadimus down into the courtyard and almost as soon as the last person puts both feet on the courtyard ground, Nadimus stops and turns to look at them quickly.
"The reason that you have been called, is because the three of you need to leave with haste!" he says as he points his pipe at the three of them. Looks of confusion wash over the three as they start to question Nadimus. "Calm down, calm down. There are reasons that you must do what you must do, and I can not get into them now." Nadimus points at Shane with his pipe.
"Shane, you will return to your clan at the Temple of Light. You must rally them and lead them here to Bykin. The Prince will need their aid, for this war is far from over." points the pipe at Solvay, "Solvay, you will return to your homeland and speak with your superiors. You must convince them that aid to Bistal is needed greatly. Without it the ogre tribes will spread from Svykur and it won't be long before ogres are within the borders of their lands. After you do that, you will join Morduke." He points his pipe at Morduke now, "Now you must go and speak with Cordova and the council. Show them the piece of the ring if you have to, but you must make them understand that what the women are looking for is real. The only knowledge of the Ring of Elements and the Tower are pure myth and there are few that believe it may even be true." Nadimus just stands there looking at their blank faces as he rattles off his instructions. Finally, he moves his arms to make them move.
"Hurry, you must leave in twenty minutes, and you must tell no one." With that, the three go off to gather their gear.
At the Wounded Eye Tribe camp site:
sniff, sniff, sniff
"Hey, don't that smell like an elf to ya?" the ogres question is ended with gutteral sounds as the blade goes through his throat from behind. He falls forward with the sword still in his body, as he falls the rest of the camp can now see a elven man standing behind him. A finely made bow of ancient wood in his hand with an arrow already notched.
"Your blood will bathe the spirits of the earth." is said in elven as the bow is now raised, drawn, aimed and fired.
Bragrar was stunned by the way the bow lit up with golden lights that outline the ancient runes in the wood just before the arrow found it's home in his throat and he felt his life drain from him. The other ogres scream their battle cry as they charge the elf.
His hands move with agility and speed as arrow after arrow is notched and fired with ease. Every arrow finding it's home, and every ogre dying that came with in five yards of him.
Gremoore was barely conscious when he was put on the horse, he barely made out the soothing elven voice before he completely slipped back into darkness.
Adventure Summary:
The group awoke to find that Selcor and his army had taken up camp a half mile away from the castle. They also noticed that Morduke, Solvay and Shane were gone. Watching the army for a while, Cutter rode out about a quarter mile under a white flag and waited for someone to approach for a parlay. Cutter waited for almost ten minutes before his frustration got the better of him and he stood in his saddle, mooning the enemy. Urlich had picked a bad time to join Cutter, as he rides up in time to see the full moon. Realizing that no one was coming out to meet them, Cutter headed back to the castle as Urlich rode down the line surveying the camp. On his ride he noticed the seige weapons and other weapons of war being assembled.
Back at the castle, Toglard had suggested that they start using the billista to fire javelins and spears at the camp. It wasn't long before Toglard had the men firing flaming spears and javelins at the enemy. For almost five hours the ballista fired what ever it could at Selcor's line. Around 9pm three riders approached the castle wall under a white flag. When they arrived at the castle wall they were stopped by Olown who was watching the field from just outside the castle. They made thier offer 'Surrender that castle and the bkyin fields and no one would die'.
Cutter was more then happy to surrender to fields to the men. Cutter took one of the men in into the bykin fields showing him that the fields were gone and that they would not be restored until the royal family was back on the throne. The man just looked in amazement to see the fields gone, telling Cutter that he would be back in the morning with an answer.
As the sun came up on the new day, the rider from the night before approaced alone. Olown was still at his post outside the wall and was the first to recieve him. As the rider got closer Olown could see his hands where tied to the saddle horn, and that there was a note pinned to the mans chest with a dagger. The note simple said "We do not care about the plants, Selcor's not in charge. We are." The group could see the forces moving forward, and they took their positions.
As the army got closer the traps laid by the party went off. At a quarter mail out, 30 foot wide section of earth collasped. Sending all the siege weapons, half of the Amazon force into the 30 foot deep pit with spikes at the bottom. soon after that when the army was about 500 feet from the castle wall the other two pit traps went off, causing more men and equipment to fall to their death. Between the javlins and the pits, the force of 6,500 men and women was soon down to about 4,000. As the battle commenced, archers and balista crews fired over and over into the slow moving army. Toglard waited on the other side of the doors for the army to get close enough to their finally trap, while Cutter, Urlich and Olown fought from the castle wall. During the battle Ulrich noticed a rider coming from behind the enemy forces. A single rider, on a horse of misty grey, carrying a sack. At first the party thought the man was the enemy and the Prince was in the sack to be used as a bargining tool. When they requested Nadimus to bring the man to them, Nadimus just smiled and said 'Let'em ride through, it will be much more fun....for me atleast'.
When the rider was about 10 feet from the back line of the army, he drew two swords and leaned back in his saddle. It was at this point they could see the sack was tied to him, and the front was covered in a chain mail blanket. As the rider rode through the enemy lines, his swords moved with blindly speed and accuracy. Men fell all around him as he rode through. The horse never broke stride as it lept over the pits in it's path, making his way to the city walls and through the door. Once through the door he cut the sack free and set it down gentley to reveal the Prince, unconscious. The morale of the men began to rise even more, seeing their soon to be king was still alive.
While Cutter, Olown, and Ulrich fought, four large rocks of fire came streaking at them. While they were not hit directly the rocks exploded over the castle walls sending men falling and setting others on fire. Looking at where the spell could have come from, they saw no one. Suddenly the area they were watching filled up with a fireball unlike what they had ever seen (if Toglard was on the wall and could see it, he would've been impressed). As the fireball went off, they could now see the shimmer outline of a man standing there. Ulrich was the only one to notice the look of pure suprised and even fear on Nadimus's face just before Nadimus started to mutter words under his breath.
Seeing where the wizard was, Olown's legs moved faster then his brain as he jumped over the side of the wall, hitting the ground in a run as he headed straight to the wizard, stopping only to grab one of the spare gem rods. As he fell to the ground he could barely make out Nadimus's warning. As he ran towards the wizard he could feel a warm glow around him, giving him the feeling of safemess, as did the other as Nadimus finished his muttering. Olown was amazed at how close he was getting to the wizard without resistance. The wizard only stood there, Olown thought he had a smile on his face as he just stood there. when Olown was in range, he threw the gem rod towards the wizard, who seem to finally cast a spell only to watch the engery get absorb by the rod, just seconds before a lightning bolt hit it. The blast covered almost a 30 yd radius around the rod, sending Olown way back on his ass and the wizard was no where to be found after the explosion. It wasn't soon after that before Toglard let loss with a magic missle into the crystal rod maze in front of the city walls. The blast was incredible, sending a cone of power through Selcor's forces.
Selcor was spotted fighting still, and the group began to move in on me, all while Ulrich fired arrows and Toglard cast a spell or two on him. Between his battle wounds and the attacks from the party, Selcor fell to his death with one of Urlich's arrows in his heart. With Selcor dead, and the Amazon forces pulling back many of the men in the southern army began to drop their swords and surrendered or turned arms against those still fighting for Selcor's cause. Cutter was not about to give up the fight that easily as he quaffed a Jump potion and lept after the women. Between his speed and the potion Cutter was able to catch up to one of the lagging women. The fight was short but sweet, the Amazon was able to get in a few good shots before passing out from her battle wounds.
As reports of the battle came in from all over the walls, Ulrich turned to the strange elven archer, who was just sitting there polishing his bow. Asking him in a typical Bravo manner who he was, the elf just look up at him and said
"KeirMan"
Although Urlich thinks he saw a slight bow from the elf as he said this.
Experience: