Private Tales Something Amiss

[Saul Talith]

They talked for what seemed like hours, though it couldn't have been more than one. Eventually they came up with what was in fact a very simple plan. There wasn't much to it, use the old tunnels to get archers in place around the fortress, then draw away most of the bandits using a bait force.

The hope was the Lich would keep back his undead, leaving the remaining Templar, and those Rangers still placed around the fortress with just the undead. It would be dangerous, there was no doubt about that, but it was also just about the only thing that they could actually do.

Bar calling for more reinforcements.

”Tomorrow night then.” Saul agreed as Lia nodded her head and both commanders took a break from strategic planning. Leane had been standing and listening of course, but the others had long since dispersed and made themselves comfortable throughout the cavern.

Saul watched them for a moment, sighed, then when to sit by one of the fires to warm his hands.

 

[Kaska]

Lia wasn't given long to rest before Kaska approached her, sword in hand. She nudged Lia's foot in a silent request. Train with her. It had been too long and Kaska was too pent up with energy to do otherwise. Besides, she had missed her and those stupid lessons, they were a challenge to look forward to. Not that she'd ever admit it.

She offered Lia a hand up.

 

[Lia]

Lia crawled up using Kaska's hand, her own sword still strapped across her back.

The last few weeks had been oddly tense within the cavern. The Rangers knew that they were outnumbered, and they had known that whatever Kaska brought likely wouldn't have been enough to fight whatever the Lich gathered.

She was pleasantly surprised by Commander Talith and how many men he brought, but she knew that things were still dire. They were outnumbered three to one, and even with the plan they had devised things would be more difficult than she would have liked to admit.

Without a word Lia put a hand on Kaska's shoulder, leading her towards a more private area in the back of the cavern.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska grabbed a torch as they went and lit it up in a small, smoldering ember of a fire pit that produced weak warmth and light but no smoke. She leaned it against the wall of their private sector, the faint light from the entrance pairing with it to give them enough to see and train by.

She tied back her hair in a silent affair, slightly tense as she allowed the bruises around her neck to be visible for the first time. She didn't know what type of reaction to expect from Lia, in some ways she still felt like a stranger to her. But for some reason she couldn't help but to test the woman, raising her chin and gaze to fall stubbornly on her. Her sword lifted to signal her ready stance as well.

 

[Lia]

The practice, or test, or whatever you wanted to call it went on for what seemed like hours. The sound of ringing swords and battered blades seemed to call through the cave for some time.

Eventually though both Lia and Kaska settled down. The two women joined in quiet conversation about the happenings of the last few weeks, and then they went to bed. The next day wound around quickly, scouts of both Templar and Ranger being sent out towards the fortress.

The number of the enemy was once again counted, and then at sundown they prepared themselves.

Lia wrapped her hands in soft cotton, sliding on her gauntlet a second later as her dozen Rangers made their own preparations. The Templar dressed themselves in their heavy armor, sharpening swords and saying small prayers to whatever deity they believed in.

The plan was ready, now they just had to follow through with it. "Ready?"

She asked Kaska as she pulled her sword onto her back.

 

[Kaska]

No.

"Yes."

Kaska finished tightening the last straps of her heavy armor-- a set she hadn't worn since the day she lost her sword and was forced to depend on her bow. She had a sword now, hell she had even gotten better at using it than her own. It felt both right and weird to put the thick armor back on. She didn't want any repeats on what had happened that day.

She flicked her pony tail over her shoulder, unable to help the way her gaze scanned over the Templar around them.

They better not get themselves killed. Her attention flickered towards Saul, then back away before it could be noticed.

"...You?" She asked, inquiring about Lia's own state for the first time.

 

[Lia]

"More than not." She said quietly, tapping the platemail on her should before glancing back towards where the Templar had gathered.

It had been ultimately decided that most of the men who would play 'bait' for the Lich would come from their group and not the Rangers. This was mostly because the Rangers were better Archers, and thus it made more sense for them to take position on the castle walls.

It also meant that the Templar were by far taking the bigger risk, something she knew each of them had already accepted.

"Just have to make sure they don't show us up." She said quietly. "Otherwise we'll never hear the end."

Flashing a smile Lia turned around and headed towards the exit of the cave. "Let's go!"

She called to all of them, the Templar Commander repeating her command a half second later.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska snorted. "Good thing you suck with a bow." It left no chance for that. Lia had long since wanted to take down the Liche herself; the arrival of the Templar's changed nothing, but it did leave her competition on the field. Kaska was sure there would have been tension over Lia joining the Templar ranks, possessing none of the ..."immunity" as Saul called it towards the Liche's magic. But she would have been useless on the wall and it made zero logic to waste numbers. Kaska was sure the stubborn woman would have her way before the night was over.

Either that, or die trying.

She kept to Lia's side, her own bow left behind as they piled out into the dusky night air. She glanced to the stars peeking through branches and wondered if there was a god looking back.

 

[Lia]

The group moved quickly, despite their number. Though as they went on they quickly split into the three separate units that they had all agreed upon.

Largest was of course the Templar contingent that would draw away the bandits. They made their goodbyes and headed directly towards the road which lay to the south. There they would begin to march and draw as much attention as they possibly could. The second group would be the archers.

Most of them were Rangers, though Commander Saul had pulled aside four Templar who were apparently best with a bow.

The last group consisted of Lia, Kaska, Saul, two Rangers and three other Templar. It was small, but they would be the driving heart of the attack. Within just an hour of leaving the cave the three groups had all separate, with their own sitting on a small hill just a couple hundred meters away from the Fortress.

"We'll wait until we see the bandits leave." She whispered quietly, watching the castle walls for signs of the Archers scaling.

 

[Kaska]

The wait was long and tedious, not unlike the night they poisoned the water supply and waited out the effects. Kaska settled down against the ground and tried not to squirm, her armor uncomfortable after all the time out of it. Long, too long later the first change behind the walls could be observed. A frenzy of action kicked up, some yells muffled through the air as they bandits charged out like cat being baited by a string.

Kaska tensed, her fingers tightening on her sword as she looked to Lia for her order.

 

[Lia]

She waited.

Lia knew that they couldn't fight if even half of the bandits remained. Men on horseback and on foot stormed out of the fortresses and headed down the road. They yelled for blood and murder, for overwhelming the enemy. She frowned for a brief second and glanced at the Templar Commander.

Behind his helmet was an expression she wished she could have read. If this went wrong, even a little bit, then he'd committed his men to being slaughtered. "That way."

She said as she pointed to a downed section of the fortress wall. It was not completely destroyed, but enough that they would be able to cross it.

Without another word Lia crept forward, rags stuffed between the plates of her armor to ensure they would not rattle as they sneaked into the fortress.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska followed, a most unsettling round of nerves twisting up her stomach as they moved forward. For a brief moment, she felt like an impostor amongst these warriors. Compared to Lia and saul she abruptly felt ... Incapable, incompetent, and unprepared for a feat like this. She wanted to run. She wanted to flee to Alliria and resume escorting rich merchants from one town to the next. It was safe there. She could do that.

But a glance at Lia and Saul ended that urge. She couldn't understand why, she just knew that out of all the people that got hurt here, she couldn't let it be someone like them.

She held her sword a little more stead before her, trying to adopt the face they both wore as they guided them into the fortress walls.

 

[Lia]

As they came closer to the fortress Lia drew her sword from her back, the others behind her quickly following suite. She moved quickly, crawling up over the downed pile of rocks until she was nearly perched atop them.

Behind her she heard Saul and Kaska come up, her fingers tightening for just a moment.

There were a smattering of torches throughout the courtyard of the fortress itself, though what they illuminated was more grim than she could have thought. Dozens of shambling and broken corpses stood all around the empty space of the Keep. They were not chained or contained, but simply stood there in absolute silence.

Waiting.

Her fingers tightened, hair on the back of her neck stood up. "There."

She pointed to a far tower beyond the courtyard.

"That's where he is." They had to get there without alerting the ghouls...hopefully.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska let out a shaky breath, wiping her palm on her leggings as she scanned the graveyard before them.

"...You got any.... 'not magic' tricks up your sleeve for getting past them?" She asked Saul, hoping something in their Templar training prepared them for circumventing this many zombies lingering about. There wasn't even ten of them, they didn't stand a chance against this, how could they reach the Liche?

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul shook his head. "No."

There were Ghouls, any of them could see that. Though they were being kept alive by some string of magic, they were not inherently magical themselves.

The things worked off of sight and sound, nothing less.

"Keep low, move quietly." He touched his sword, notably still in it's scabbard. "The things are dumb as rocks and not very observant."

Slowly the Templar stepped forward. "Follow me."

 

[Kaska]

She gave Saul the heaviest look of disbelief.

"...Dumb as rocks? At least the things we fight have brains," she murmured to Lia, not putting away her sword as she crept after him. They walked around the wall, her breath held tight in her chest as they crept around the oblivious creatures. Every step was carefully taken, utter tension in the air as every member feared kicking a rock and causing the fuss that would screw them all.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul watched the ghouls like a hawk.

He knew better than almost anyone here that these things could be deadly. A single ghoul could be killed by a child with a pitch fork, but a dozen? Two? They could bring down an entire town. The panic they created, the fear. That was their true danger, not their ability to fight.

In the courtyard below there were nearly fifty of those creatures. Corpses that had been pulled from their graves and brought to this place for a sinister purpose.

Saul didn't want to fight them, not now, and especially not when the Lich was still controlling them. Slowly the group crept forward, moving around the tower. Then he heard it. It was a crack, not a falling rock, not a mistake...but an accident. A stone at the base of the wall shifted from the weight of those above, and then it cracked and fell.

The sound echoed through the silent courtyard, and the ghouls turned.

 

[Kaska]

Adrenaline burst through her gut in an instant.

Ideally they would all run for the tower and overwhelm the Liche together, but Kaska knew that that plan was no longer in place. In a moment, the eight of them would be overwhelmed by fifty, and the space would be too crowded by the undead for any to reach the Liche before he could turn the tables on them all.

So she did what she knew was needed before she could even think it through.

"Run," she snapped, pushing on Lia. And then she jumped, breaking the clamoring fall with a roll that would need to be nursed off later. She charged on the ghouls, drawing their attention away from the tower and giving them their opening.

 

[Saul Talith]

"Follow her." The Command snapped from his teeth in an instant and was quickly followed by the three Templar that had joined him.

Four against fifty wasn't great odds, but it was better than one against fifty. At the very least they would be able to pull more attention for longer instead of being overwhelmed in a matter of seconds.

Lia, to her credit, called out to the archers up above.

They had been positioned originally to take down any Bandits that came back to the Fortress itself, but in this case it was just as valuable to have them fire at the ghouls. Killing them from above wouldn't be easy, an arrow to the eye would do it and no less, but it was still helping.

For his part though, Saul simply began to sprint down the side of the wall.

He had his goal in mind, and as he reached the tower his boot slammed against the closed wooden door.

 

[Kaska]

The fate of Lia was quickly lost to her, a fact she hoped wouldn't come to haunt her later. For now, all she could do was her part-- fending off the undead with the other Templar at her side. She heard the arrows rain down on the ones in the back, but countless numbers of all the others engulfed her attention.

"Their heads, remove them," she heard a voice besides her grit. A quick glance up showed her it was Leane fighting fiercely at her side. Another stood to her right, and the last to their right as well. Together they formed a circle, protecting each other's back and assisting where a sharp pain or late swing might almost downed another.

Kaska was in awe to the comradery, but she quickly adapted to it, her blows more effective and leaving bodies in it wake.

 

[Saul Talith]

The Lich seemed to be laughing.

It's voice was a dry rasp, like two twig rubbing against one another in the middle of a sun scorched desert. The thing stood, cloaked in black and wearing armor that seemed to form into abyss against the place skin which decorated it's skeletal structure. It turned, facing the Templar.

Behind him came Lia, then one of the other two Rangers. The Lich laughed, it's fingers twisting slightly as a black ooze began to form within it's hand.

"You've made a mistake following me here, ranger."
​

There was contempt in it's tone, anger, but Saul ignored it.

He stepped forward, finally drawing his sword as he moved into the large ante-chamber of the tower. His blade seemed to sing as it burst from it's scabbard, the Lich's laugh suddenly cutting off as it saw the sword.

Saul didn't give the creature a chance to fight. Within a breath of his sword being drawn he burst forward. The black ooze lashed out at him, the Lich roaring as he lashed out with his magic. The Templar's hand rose, a pulse seemed to ring through the room, and then the ooze seemed to shatter before it even struck Saul.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska's head snapped up to crane at the tower, the strange pulse felt by her, even startling her as she flailed for a moment to find the source of the ...

Leane sword flashed out, blocking an attempt to cleave Kaska in half. "Anti-magic," came the quick explanation. Kaska faltered for a moment, trying to grasp if that meant their people were in danger or not. Leane's calm demeanor towards the fact quickly soothed her and she dismissed the strange tingle to the air that tugged at her senses.

A third of the Ghouls were already fallen, all four of them still stood. Kaska raised her sword to another attack and brought down the stupid creature were it stood, a pile of bodies being created.

 

[Saul Talith]

Shock dawned on the Liche's face, something that spoke of not understanding what had just happened.

Not that it had any time to focus on that.

Saul's sword flashed forward, slicing from low to high and aiming to cleave the monster in half before it could even respond. Despite his swiftness however the Lich was still an inhuman thing, and it could move faster than Saul could ever hope to. Black sword met blessed steel, blue sparks casting over the room.

Lia followed up behind Saul a moment later, he sword stabbing forward as the Lich dashed to the left to avoid the blade.

The three flowed into combat. The lich moved like a snake desperately trying to wiggle its way from harm. Saul and Lia pressed as fast as they could, blades flashing forward, defending, slicing at what they could as the Lich was forced back time and time again.

 

[Kaska]

The four were driven back, towards the tower to make room for the fighting and the fallen that never seemed to end. Even with the lack of skill the creatures possessed, their numbers were overwhelming. One blade could not fend off multiple. Energy waned, wounds bled. The creatures were ceaseless, only precise hits removing them from the numbers as they forced the humans back against the wall itself.

A blade clashed and caught on her armor, Kaska kicked back the creature, forced to take several more bruising blow in exchange for blocking one to her face. She stumbled down. Someone yanked her up. Another one of them fell down, two moved with swords to keep them safe.

 

[Saul Talith]

The fight continued, back and forth they went, the three of them. Each time the Lich was pushed back it would suddenly leap forward and strike forth.

Neither side could gain an inch of ground.

Then it happened. A mistake perhaps, a single misstep, though Saul couldn't have called it that if he tried. The creatures blade slashed forward and ripped against his armor. Metallic plating scrapped away and screeched as black steel met its runeforged map.

The sword bit into him, but as the Lich tried to pull the weapon free he found it stuck.

That was all the opportunity required.

Lia let out a roar. There was no other word for it, and with a quick flick of her wrist the blessed blade found deep in the Ranger Vault's flicked back, and then thrust directly into the Liche's chest.

For a second nothing happened, the creature smirked, hand reaching towards the handle of the blade. Then suddenly smoke began to erupt from the sword's blade, a light began to shine, and pain lanced through the undead. The Lich began to scream, thrash, the bindings of magic that had held the ghouls unraveled and corrupt magic began to ooze from it's being.

Saul scowled, grasped the handle of the blessed sword, and then yanked it free.

As the blade dislodged from the Liche's chest it seemed to collapse in on it's. The rend within it's body pulled at the rest of it, and whatever dark power had kept it whole broke free. An explosion erupted from it's body, sending both Saul and Lia flying against the far walls.