Chapter LII
in which the Silver Foxes build a Death Box
Fields on Fire
As they fly south, Glad is surprised to learn that the book he'd dropped over the Dionastran mountains was actually picked up. Frax doubts the user is a Dionastran or someone not generally fucking with Glad because no name is given, but Glad and Haas posit that the guys demeanor and caginess lines up with what they know of Dionastra's followers. The sky grows more ashen the further south they fly, until eventually they come upon a burning village. Glad flies down for some quick recon and reports that a battle occurred with some actual Westerner losses, though no Westerner bodies remain. His necromantic investigation leads him to rough estimates about the size of the battle. The rest of the gang checks out the town. Haas and Red are able to further deduce that the Westerners set fire to the village and fields after the battle and that the dozen or more survivors set off southeast afterwards with a handful of prisoners. There's also a distinct signature of failed reaping.
The SF detour to save the prisoners from what are, hopefully, still wounded Westerners. Their rough battle plan is to sneak in under cover of darkness, using Glad and the airship as an obvious distraction while the ground forces, riding Doug and concealed by Maus, flank the Westerner party.
An Earthen Box of Infinite Dying
There plan works exceptionally well. Haas tracks the camp, notifying Glad on the airship to move in. She notices one of the three watchmen going on patrol alone and eliminates him. Before the other two can investigate, they notice the airship and alert the camp. Haas uses the commotion to shapeshift into a dragon and secure the prisoners. Once gone, Glad throws the scrambling camp into disarray with a lightning tornado. A couple of the more present-minded Westerners get shots off on Haas. Glad is able to kinetically rebuff one, but the other arrow embeds itself in Haas' side and digs deeper. She has the more present hostage try to dig it out, but he's still too wounded and out of it to remove the arrow. His help damages her more. On the ground, the SF begin their assault in earnest. Red and Frax fuck with the terrain with their earth and plant magics, trapping their foes within an earthen wall on a field of dry grass. Maus uses his illusion magic to make it harder for the Westerners to climb the wall. Once he gets the signal, Glad lets loose fire arrows that he hopes ignited the grass. No one can really tell because Maus makes the walls seem like they're growing infinitely high. Within the walls, the Westerners also have to deal with Maus' fear and frenzy mind effects, Red's constant reinforcement of the walls, and Glad's lightning storms. Wherever cracks appear, Frax grows gigantic lavender trees to hold the wall together. When Haas returns, they also have to deal with her strafing poison everywhere.
All in all, the Silver Foxes throw enough magic at their enemies to kill them ten times over. They can't even recover with reaping. Red stops their one attempt. Naturally, the Westerners yield. Three of their members are still standing. Five are knocked out. And four didn't survive the Foxes' kiln. Once handled, Red gleans information about the prior battle from their leader's mind. He learns that they met unexpectedly competent resistance from the Vormyllean's and took prisoners they thought worthy of re-attunement. But he can't glean any tactical information about the army except the general size, which is 10 legions or about 10,000 large, and the name of the group's legionnaire, Asoth. Glad mentions being touched by some ice-handed phantasm, but the Westerners don't cop to that one, leaving him worried about whoever was watching him. Haas observes the Westerner's burial ritual from the spirit world which involves Westerner women garbed in red carrying the bodies away until they disappear.
The Felspar escort arrives and are accompanied back by the Foxes. On the way, Glad gets in contact with Imbri. The gang becomes increasingly suspicious that they're not talking to Imbri, or at least Imbri in his right mind, but can figure out a way to force their communicator to slip up and reveal who he is.