(Fire Season 1615)
Orlkensor, fuelled by memories of his families’ slaughter and driven by the inner fire of revenge led the charge down the dry riverbed, closely followed by his ever present and likeminded brother. Kenstral followed swiftly behind, and Kulbrast, with a brief look toward Orstanor and Aransar, turned and rode his horse after the others. Aransar and Orstanor, their faces masked behind their helmets cast an inhuman and unfathomable visage as each surveyed the scene with a bronze-faced impassivity. None who saw them there could tell what thoughts coursed through their minds.
At the foot of the salient leading down into Maregraze Vale a terrified horde of Grazelanders, mostly women, children and the elderly, were vainly attempting to flee assailants mounted on predominantly on horseback, but led by one distinctive sable rider in bright red enamelled armour. His helm was a ghastly mask of hate, and Kenstral, steeped in the lore of the world, identified the mask as an effigy of the Goddess Yara Aranis, The Horse Eater and Goddess of the Reaching Moon.
They charged downhill, each showing expert horsemanship, and Orlkensor hailed the refugees, but none could hear him over the clamour of panic and combat. He dismounted to the right of the riverbed, behind some boulders, and Branduan, taking the lead from his elder sibling took a similar position on the left. Kenstral joined Orlkensor, but as Kulbrast charged down, the characters perceived that amongst the refugees were several warrior types trying to break free of their own kindred in order to take the fight to their assailants. Heedless of the danger to himself, or to the refugees for that matter, Kulbrast charged through the huddled mass of bodies to join the charge. His apparent onslaught struck yet more panic into the Grazers in spite of Orlkensor’s frantic shouts for them to start up the slope. Then, his voice clear and commanding, Kenstral offered an impassioned and fiery imperative that finally spurred the panicked civilians into starting up the slope.
Orlkensor had his bow strung and arrows imbedded in the dirt around him, and even as Kulbrast charged down, steering toward the sable mounted warrior, he took aim. Branduan readied his bow, as did Kenstral. Kulbrast was focussed entirely on the charge, and it was only his consummate skill in the saddle which saved his life. Calling on the fell power of his ruthless deity, the Yara Aranis worshipper called down magic which severed the spirit of Kulbrast’s mount. It collapsed from under him, blood frothing from its mouth, and as it stumbled, Kulbrast felt the telltale signs of a stumble, and swung from his saddle. The horse collapsed in a bloody spray of dust, the warrior’s treasured possessions littering the ground around him, but he was safe – relatively speaking. The warriors were now more visible – Char-Un mercenaries, riding with the cult of Yara Aranis out of fear, hoping to assuage the wrath of the Horse Eater through supplicant worship and to direct her divine hatred at the horses of the Grazer herds.
The Grazer warriors, unprepared for a cavalry charge turned away, skirmishing with bowfire, and managed to divide the Char-Un as some chased after the more apparent threat. The red warrior charged at Kulbrast, who braced his long spear against the ground to meet the charge. Both strike and counterstrike were parried away, but as the priest of the Reaching Moon, for that is what he was, wheeled his mount to charge again, he had unknowingly strayed into bowshot range of the characters. Orlkensor loosed his shot with a studied calm, and the arrow, enchanted with multimissile repeatedly struck the sable, downing it almost immediately with an impaling shot to the beast’s hindquarters. The priest’s face was inscrutable behind his mask, but behind this fearsome visage, we can rightly imagine that for the first time in a long while, fear entered his heart. He now stood across the plain from the heavily armoured Kulbrast, equally inscrutable behind his death’s masque helm.
The other Char-Un charged the refugees, baying for the blood of innocents. They came under bowfire from above, and, although some continued in their bloodlust and need for slaughter, a wiser few tried to force their way through the terrified crowds to come to blows with these new attackers. Branduan and Kenstral readied for melee, but Orlkensor, heedless of the approaching danger, though well aware, steading his arm and took careful aim yet again.
The fight below was rapid and vicious. Both fighters had cast much defensive and offensive magic on themselves, and their repeated blows, though terrible, failed to tell on either the armour or the protection spells of the combatants. The priest was looking for any opening that would allow him to use his magic, but, alone and isolated, and under the fury of Kulbrast’s constant assault, could ill afford to take the time to swap melee for magic. Even so, Kulbrast would confide later that he knew in his heart that it was only a matter of time before the skilful warrior priest prevailed.
On the slopes above the barbarian warriors were closing on the other characters. Branduan was closed down and engaged by an evil faced Char-Un who was better armed for this battle. Another closed on the kneeling form of Orlkensor, who steadfastly ignored the oncoming attack. It might have gone badly for him had Kenstral not attacked the Char-Un, his spear punching through the warrior’s armour and mortally wounding him. Orlkensor had put his heart and soul into his bowshot, taking a measured but near hopeless bead on the potential weakpoints on the back of the lunar warrior’s distinctive armour. He loosed his arrow, but the luck of the heroes was not with him (although it may have been with Kulbrast who was not hit by his comrade’s arrow) and he missed. Undeterred he made for his mount and yelled for Brand to follow him.
Kenstral had headed down the slope in an attempt to aid the Grazers who were under attack. In spite of his more studious upbringing, he showed his Orlanthi warrior spirit as he attacked from within the crowd, felling not one but two of the Char-Un, halting their bloody business. In campfire jests at later dates, he was referred to as ‘The Lethal Librarian’ for his part in this battle – jests with smiling faces but hearts full of respect.
The charge of Orlkensor and Branduan brought the fight to an end. Kulbrast was hard put to defeat the priest, and was slightly on the back foot – although all agreed that he had performed with credit by holding his own against a war-priest. The lunar could not react in time to two charges, even with magic, and although he deflected Orlkensor’s blow, Branduan caught him with the full force of his charge, and slew the crimson warrior outright.
The death of their leader put fear in the heart of the Char-Un, and fire in the bellies of the Grazers, and whilst the lunar allies turned tail and fled, the party three Orlanthi took revenge on the corpse of their fallen foe. In contrast, Kenstral walked among the injured grazers, using the healing crystal he had received in the eye-cavern of the Red Dragon to good effect. Orlkensor tied the armour-stripped body of the Yara Aranis priest to a nearby tree and took monstrous pleasure in carving the runes of Orlanth the Warrior in the flesh of the lunar. They looted enchanted iron and crystals from the body of the priest. Kulbrast took the unattuned iron, all but losing his proficiency with magic, and Orlkensor and Brand took rings with spirits contained within. What these spirits are, and why the priest didn’t unleash them on the characters is currently a mystery.
From amongst the milling throng of Grazers, some touched by tragedy, others filled with elation at a death deferred came a friendly and Sartarite voice. Kenstral met an Orlanthi Storm Voice, in this incongruous location, he claimed, by virtue of missionary zeal. He quickly informed Kenstral that the Lunar army had invaded Maregraze Vale some five days previous, heading out of Dunstop. They had been preceded by hordes of Char-Un mercenaries and raiders, as well as the cult of Yara Aranis. Maregraze Vale and North Post had all but been razed, and most of the Grazer forces had fled to the south, following rumours of the return of Ironhoof at the wild Temple.