Passages
After seeing to the immediate concerns of those who had survived the day’s battle, and getting everyone settled in for the night as best as we could, we met once again with Lord Mathi.
“Lasses, thank you again for coming to our aid when you did. We needed every last hand we had to turn them away,” he said.
His gaze then went distant, as he looked about the settlement, at crumbled walls and the many places that yet smoldered. The woolly mask of his beard could not hide the sorrow that lined his eyes, nor that which touched his heart and his next words from whence they came.
“If only there had been more of us, to stop them in their tracks. Would that there were more goblins and Dourhands lying still in the cold of the night than we who merely defended our home.”
From his heart to mine his words traveled, and they lent strength to that which held it in its icy grasp…
Deverell and I merely nodded, for there was nothing more we could do in that moment.
Mathi continued, “We will get them buried, though. Before the ground becomes too frozen to take them in.”
“Does it normally become so cold this early in the Autumn?” asked Deverell. “I cannot imagine what it must be like in the heart of winter.”
Mathi shook his head. “No, lass. This coming winter will be a trying one, for sure. It’s those blasted cold winds blowing down from the mountains and the frozen land north of them that is the cause.”
“Those winds are never so long-reaching, nor as bitter this early though.” I agreed. “At least I do not remember them to be.“
“We should stay, Kaleigh, and help bury the dead. At least for a day,” said Deverell.
“Of course we will,” I said, squeezing her hand.
Lord Mathi thanked us, and we went to find our rest, eager to put the sorrows of the day behind us.
We spent the next day in toil, with the others who had survived the siege and the battle thereafter, seeking to give rest to those who had fallen. As with the toil we shared in upturning the soil, our sharing with one another the burden of our hearts made that burden lighter for us all…
And, when it was finally time for us to take our leave, the well-wishes we received from those who yet remained and had dedicated themselves toward rebuilding their home made it lighter still…
From Gondamon we then traveled further up the Vale, seeking the counsel of others regarding the cold, and the chill of the winds that blew from the North. And, as we ventured further northward, the consensus of those with whom we spoke told of an unnatural cold, one that pierced both reason and bone.
We reached the northern edge of the Ered Luin and then headed eastward, skirting the southern edge of the Forodwaith, and into the lands of Evendim, north of the great lake.
It was in these lands, within the settlement of Ost Forod, where we encountered some who had fled the Forodwaith, in the wake of a force moving southward. They told of an Angmarrim sorcerer, one of terrible power, heading toward Evendim with his war-band, coercing all they came across into joining them, and slaughtering any who dared to refuse…
That is how we came to find ourselves overlooking a frozen land, seeking to meet this force before it reached the lands it sought to destroy…
We met with those I had befriended in Kauppa-kohta in prior days, who pointed us to the Ja-kuru, where they believed the Angmarrim’s force had encamped within a canyon of ice. We left Dandi and Dancer with them, to stay warm under blankets and near to the fires of these friends, borrowing steeds that were better suited to the tundra that awaited us…
We had barely reached the southern edge of the canyon, when we spotted a scout patrolling its icy floor…
We hid ourselves against the canyon wall and made our plans…
“We are going to have to be cautious, yet sweep through the encampment quickly,” I said. “We cannot allow any foe to escape and give word of our approach, else we bring the whole encampment down upon us.”
“How will be keep them from fleeing from us?” asked Deverell. She gestured to the javelins I had strapped to my pack. “Is that what those are for?”
I shook my head. “I have not the strength to throw them far. I mean to drive these into the snow as we go, to help keep us from losing our way.”
She nodded and then asked, “So how will be keep any from escaping?”
I smiled at her. “We will have to rely on their overconfidence. Those in larger groups, anyway. I can bind at least one that tries to get away. We should be able to cut down any in smaller numbers before they can flee.”
Deverell nodded silently.
“I can tell something is troubling you,” I said. “Out with it.”
She sighed. “It is just that we know so little about this foe, and what we will face. To just storm in seems…” she trailed off.
“Overconfident?” I asked, finishing her thought.
She smiled and nodded. “If only we had more time, we could…” she began to say more, but I cut her off.
“If only we had more time.” I repeated, squeezing her hand. “We could scout our foe from atop the canyon and learn many things, true. But that would take more time than we have, and they may decide to continue southward at any moment.”
She nodded again.
“I just do not see another choice,” I said softly.
“Let us be about it, then, so that we can flee this cold,” she replied with a smile.
We crept down the embankment, choosing our steps carefully to avoid slipping on the ice and giving ourselves away, while letting the cold and the falling snow conceal our approach for as long as we could…
We took the first encampment by surprise…
We battled the Angarrim, and the influence they sought over the lands west of their wicked domain…
...and we fought the Dourhands that had joined that evil cause, allying themselves with those of blackened hearts and poisoned minds…
Spirits of the dead rose from the frozen ground to challenge our passage…
…hurling curses and crying out their laments, trying to drive fear into our hearts and turn us away…
But we stood firm, shielding ourselves from their attacks, and we fought them down…
I took one of my javelins and drove it into the frozen ground to mark our passage…
Our plan was working. We took a moment to rest after the battle before pressing onward…
The next encampment was more heavily occupied. We battled a good many of the Angarrim, while also having to deal with Frost Grims, elemental spirits of Ice lured into the service of the sorcerer we meant to find…
They battled us fiercely, but we struck them down. I drove another javelin into the ground before we pressed on, further into the winding canyon…
We hurried onward, knowing we could not allow ourselves to become trapped without shelter when night came. Droplets of melted water falling from icy overhangs stung our faces, seeming to mock our transience and the passage of precious time…
We came to a wide clearing in the canyon…
A Gauradan-shaman leapt down upon us from atop a massive snowdrift as we entered the clearing. He channeled dark power from an unseen source that he then cast upon us…
I staggered under its weight while he called out for the aid of others in order to finish us. Thankfully, no others were near enough to lend him that aid…
With Deverell’s help, I cast off his channeling and engaged him with my stickers. Between the two of us, we slowly wore him down…
He was near to his end when I noticed his gaze move toward to something over my shoulder. He chanted dark words and struggled against me with his last strength…
“Kaleigh, more are coming!” cried Deverell.
I tried to finish off the Gauradan as quickly as I could, but the hope of deliverance had given him a second wind, and he gave his all to remain standing…
“Kaleigh!”
I finally struck him down and twirled away…
…just in time to escape the charge of a massive orc and the host of Gauredain he led toward us. Our eyes and skin stung from the cloud of snow and mist raised into the air by their passage…
They turned to meet us and, in that cloud, we bested them, driving them to the ground where the ice and mist slowly settled upon them once again…
We then crept back to the entrance of the clearing and around a bend to conceal ourselves and catch our breath…
“What do you think?” I asked Deverell, once I was able to speak again.
She looked out into the clearing before answering. “I think that shaman was channeling power from something…”
“Or someone, nearby?” I finished her thought.
She nodded. “Who then sent those others out after us.”
“The sorcerer,” I said gravely. “We are very fortunate there were not any closer to us than they at the time, else we would have been overrun.”
“They came from the northwest, it appeared. There may be a cave or lair hidden from view by the drifts in the clearing.” Deverell mused.
I smiled solemnly. “That is our next task, then. We best be off.”
As if to prove our theory, we now found danger with every step we took in the clearing…
Vents of hot steam would appear beneath us suddenly, sending us into the air only to land upon jagged rock and ice…
The icy winds began to howl even louder, buffeting us with their chill and their force, sending us scurrying to the ground on our own terms, rather than allow ourselves to be upturned by them…
The snow and the wet seeped through our layers, soaking us to the bone, and the winds swept right through us. The steam from the vents caught in our chests, and the hot and cold were sure to make us fall ill soon. We needed to find shelter quickly…
It was then that the Angmarrim came…
We battled them amidst the ice storms, fighting our way closer to the cave from which they came for us…
Finally, the moment came when we had slain the last of them, and no more appeared. We hurried into the cave to take shelter…
We crept further into the icy passage, fearing an ambush at every turn…
There was a warmth emanating from further inside the cavern, one hidden by the twists and bends that lie before us. Droplets of water fell from the mouth of the cave and the low ceiling of ice near to it, drenching us further and obscuring our vision…
…but they could not hide the form of the Watcher that lurked near to the cave opening. It stood, motionless, appearing almost to be… asleep.
I motioned to Deverell to back away and advanced upon the creature quietly, hoping not to disturb it…
…but when I came too close, it began to awaken. I drove my sticker into its wooden flesh with all my strength…
It was a wood troll, and likely an ancient one, from an earlier age when these lands did not suffer the chill of severe winter year around as they now do, with the passage of time. The sorcerer had bound it to sleep, only releasing the binding when we approached…
The sounds of our battle, though muffled by the cold and snow, surely traveled deeply into the cavern. There was little we could do for that, however. We bested the troll and warily moved on…
Further into the cavern, my footing gave way, and I nearly stumbled into a hollow within what we discovered to be a saber-tooth den. From the snow rose the massive saber-tooth pack leader…
His lightning-quick lunge at me missed by the smallest of margins and had my heart in my throat…
Neither Deverell nor I wished to battle this creature, but once disturbed, he would not let us be free of him…
Once we had incapacitated him, and given him as merciful an end as we could, I could not help but wonder if this was another of the Sorcerer’s minions, or was it simply a creature that merely wished to live its own life, but found itself caught between opposing forces warring within its own domain…
Deverell walked up alongside me, to look at the creature and then lay her hand on my arm…
“Come, Kaleigh. We should away.”
I nodded and, together, we silently made our way further into the cavern…
We felt more warmth as we delved further, until we finally came to an ending chamber. At the far end stood a man and, beside him, a mammoth that must have been thirty feet tall…
“The winds of Forochel will sweep onto the shores of Evendim and freeze the lake solid!” the man shouted, his voice filling the whole of the chamber…
I quickly looked behind us, to be sure there was no ambush coming, and then stepped further into the chamber, with Deverell behind me…
He brandished his staff before us with an arrogant flair as we came closer. What he said next brought a chill to my heart more deeply that any degree of weather or clime…
“The last refuge of the Rangers shall fall before my frozen blade!”
And it all finally made sense…
The cold, northern winds blowing, the early signs of Winter…
It was all due to a dark sorcerer of near-limitless power, who would summon the icy chill of the Forodwaith unto himself and cast it southward toward the great lake of Evendim, thus freezing the lake and creating a pathway for his minions to assault the stronghold of the Way-watchers in Tinnudir…
“You will be a suitable exercise. Prepare yourselves!”
Before he gathered any more to him, before he made his way any further southward, he needed to be stopped…
He needed to be stopped this very day…
I drew my stickers and sprinted toward him, Deverell following behind…
He shielded himself behind his magic as I neared, and the mammoth reared up at me…
“Mammoth! Awaken and destroy them!” the sorcerer demanded…
The sorcerer’s shield was absolute. No strike I inflicted upon it pierced it in any way. There was naught we could do, save for to battle the mammoth and hope the sorcerer’s strength might fade…
We stood our ground and, after a time, the mammoth began to shy way from my blades. I saw the sorcerer drop his shield and lit out toward him…
With the utterance of a dark word, and a thrust of his staff, he sent me into the rocks at the far end of the cavern…
“Kaleigh!”
I turned to see that some of the sorcerer’s minions had come to the cavern. Deverell ran to me and helped free me from the rocks. We battled the sorcerer’s minions as he looked on, his laughter filling the chamber…
Once we ended the last of his minions, I engaged the sorcerer once again…
His curses, his hexes, and the strikes from his staff were withering. It was only due to Deverell’s presence that I was able to stand up to him…
When he realized we would not fall as easily as he would have liked, he summoned his mammoth to the fight once again, shielding himself within his magic, as he did before…
The mammoth attempted to stomp us into the snow, but we proved too quick for it. Its wounds from before had sapped its fighting spirit, and we inflicted new ones now, causing it to flee from us far more quickly this time…
The sorcerer cursed and lowered his shield. He summoned more minions that appeared at the mouth of the cavern…
We fought through the lot of them and then turned once more toward the sorcerer…
“You will pay for breaking my concentration!” he screamed…
…but neither his words nor his voice conveyed the same overflow of confidence that they had earlier. I kept as close to him as I was able, staying inside the space where he could better swing his staff…
He quickly glanced over his shoulder and cried, “Mammoth, awaken and join me in their destruction!”
But I had been waiting for that moment. When he lowered his shield, I spoke the word of binding I had prepared…
…and Deverell and I cut the mammoth to the ground while its master was still bound…
We advanced upon the sorcerer…
Though we had the upper hand, I was careful not to let overconfidence become our undoing. But no more minions came, and all he spewed at us now was filth, powerless but vile…
We should have been lost, pure and simple. All I could think of, as we brought this man to his end, was how powerful a force for good he might have been, had he not given himself over to something else…
For there comes a point when there is no turning back…
…and for him, that time had come…
The sorcerer fell to the ground and breathed his last…
[While running the ‘gauntlet’, a permanent death rule applies. Any that are forced to ‘retreat’ have instead died and are forever lost from these lands.]
[The Icy Crevasse. Size: Duo. Tier: 3, battle fought and renderings taken before Helm’s Deep]
“Kaleigh, I cannot believe…” Deverell said, before trailing off.
I gave her a quick smile before turning away, to hide the pain I bore in my chest…
We took shelter within the cavern of the Ja-kuru that night, and then made for Kauppa-Kohta the next day. Its people could scarcely believe us at first, when we told them that the sorcerer was no more. We sat, wrapped in blankets and near to the fire, with mugs in hand filled with a special brew of the Icepeople’s that brought warmth to body and spirit, and we told them of our ordeal, and how it came to end…
They gifted us in so many ways that evening. Furs and charms and jewelry made of the things they held precious, so many things that we had to turn most of it away, for we could never hope to bring it all with us when we were to away…
But it was their smiles, and the look of peace they now shared that brought us the most warmth of all, and that warmth did much to help us recover. For two days we rested, to shake the chills and the fever we had brought back with us…
And then it was time to away…
We traveled dark places on dark roads. War was in the air, and it had begun to be battled on many fronts. We watched for signs and looked for ways in which we might turn the tide in those places, to make a difference…
But the greatest enemy was that of time, and its passage saw most of those opportunities lost before we came to realize them…
We quickened our pace, heading south and east toward Bree-land, where we hoped to hear word of places we might go and lend our aid. Little did we know that we would find one so soon…
…for while war raged in the South and the Rangers of the North were absent, brigands and ruffians had taken the opportunity to wrest control of Bree-town and the lands that surrounded it. The Watch had been driven out of town and held only the land to the south.
We walked through their encampment, raised upon the snow-covered ground of an early Winter, hearing tale of how the brigands had made their assault. It had been a focused, disciplined attack, and it was believed that someone had rallied the many bands of brigands together into a more sizable and more threatening force…
Second-watcher Heathstraw had led the last attempt to retake the town and been wounded. Stubborn as he was, he refused to leave the front line. We went to meet with him at his tent not far from the town’s southern gate…
He looked up at us and smiled wearily as we approached. “Ah, good. The reinforcements have arrived. It is good to see the Free Peoples rising up to support Bree.”
“Greetings, Second-watcher,” I said to him. “You are wounded. Why do you not come off the line and let others like us do their part?”
“Because I wish I could help. I stormed the gate thirty minutes ago and got this wound for my trouble,” he winced, clutching at his shoulder.
I looked to Deverell and, when she nodded, I said, “Why not let us have a go at them? At the very least, we can give you and the Watchmen some time to rest and recover.
He did not wish to let us go on our own, but we finally convinced him it was for the best…
“The enemy is greatly entrenched. Their defences extend from the South-gate back to the Town Hall,” he told us. “And they have made pacts with sinister things, and brought them into town.”
“Have you any more idea of who it is that leads these brigands?” asked Deverell.
“None,” sighed the Watcher. “The few we have captured will not speak of it.”
“Perhaps the two of us can loosen their tongues,” I said.
We made ready for battle and set off toward the southern gate…
From over our shoulder Watcher Heathstraw called to us…
“It is up to you now. Reclaim Bree for the Free Peoples!”
We saw firsthand what the Watcher had spoken of, when he had mentioned pacts and bargains that had been struck amongst the bandits and fouler things, for not only was there a band of brigands guarding the southern gate, but a wood troll stood with them, peacefully…
We advanced upon the gate. I used a word of power to bind the troll while we dealt with the others, leaving only him to combat once the binding gave way…
That such things could stand without resistance upon the very threshold of Bree-town in these days…
It was a perilous dance in which we partook, the seeking of opportunity within the heart and strongholds of the Enemy, as they surely sought the same in ours…
We bested the troll and gained the Southern gate…
The commotion we made had been heard by others, and we were met by more brigands as soon as we stepped foot inside town…
They battled fiercely and would not surrender to us, even when we proved to have the upper hand. We were forced to end them…
Seeing no other sign of the bandits, we continued on, approaching the auction hall…
…where I was greeted by the hammer of a giant and sent flying back the way we had came…
We battled the giant out in the streets, choking from the dust raised by his hammer-strikes and tripping on the broken cobblestone that took the punishment meant for us…
Finally, he fell to the ground, shaking the lampposts and ratting the doors of every building nearby. What little hope there was to continue on in stealth had surely become lost to us…
…and from behind us not a moment later, we heard a door open…
“Knock it off with the ruckus!” bellowed a man on the step of the house nearest the auction hall…
It was Ned Ashleaf, one of Bill Ferny’s cronies and a likely conspirator in the events leading up to Bree-town’s capture…
“Who is that?” whispered Deverell to me.
“Someone with some answers,” I whispered to her…
Ashleaf turned and saw us watching him. He spit on the ground and drew his stickers…
He whistled at us. “So you want a fight?” he mocked, in a cat-calling tone…
“We need to capture this creep,” I told Deverell and then lit out for the stairs…
Ned and I battled atop the stoop of the house he had been looting. We maneuvered back and forth, while trying to avoid the others’ attacks and slipping off the stoop toward a tumble into the snow…
I slowly steered him toward the edge of the stoop, away from the house, and then feinted a charge. He stepped back with one foot and slipped, causing him to fall forward. I caught him under the chin with my knee and then kicked his stickers away once he had fallen, twisting himself onto his back…
I gave him a moment and then told him to stand…
When he did, I poked him in the belly with my sticker to keep him still…
“Hands out and away from you,” I said, beckoning toward Deverell to join us and keep an eye on him.
He held his hands out and grinned. “If ya wanted me to hug ya, all ya had to do was ask,” he smirked.
I rapped him across the forehead with the flat of my sticker before poking him in the gut with it once more. His smirk disappeared…
“Who is behind all of this?” I asked him.
“The new mayor, no doubt,” he scoffed. “He’s cleanin’ things up in town.”
“So who is the new mayor, then? Ferny?” I asked, playing along…
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” he scoffed and looked away.
“I bet it is,” I said, nodding toward Deverell. “And I bet Ferny has you slaving for him like a dog.”
“Bah! Ferny ain’t no better than me! It’s that Shar…” he stopped himself.
I gave Deverell a quick look and then turned to regard Ashleaf with a smug smile. But, when I saw a fear in his eyes that had not been there the moment before, I stopped myself…
“Who is this person?” I asked him.
“I ain’t sayin’ nothin’ else. Besides, you’re gonna be late for the round-up,” he chided.
“What do you mean, creep?” asked Deverell.
“They’re roundin’ up folk for questionin’ at town hall. And the ones that don’t answer so good…” He started to make a gesture with his hand, until I stopped him with another poke in his gut.
“This is happening now?” I asked him while pushing a bit on my sticker.
“Yeah, yeah! You best get goin’ now!”
Deverell looked at me and said, “We better go, in case he’s not lying.”
“I ain’t lying, I swear!”
“What do we do with him, though?” I asked.
Ned started to give his opinion on the matter, but another rap on the forehead quieted him…
We stood silently for a moment while thinking, but we had no time to lose…
“Let’s run him to the gate and give him to the Watch quickly,” I suggested, to which Deverell nodded.
“No, no, no, you ain’t got the time, lasses,” Ashleaf suggested. “I’ll turn myself in. You both go and save the townsfolk, before it’s too late!”
Deverell and I shook our heads and dragged him toward the southern gate. I called out to Watcher Heathstraw and waved, before placing my boot on Ashleaf’s backside and kicking him out of Bree-town…
I then turned toward Deverell…
“We have to fly.”
We turned and lit out toward town once again…
The brigands had barricaded most of the streets, forcing us to take the long way toward town hall, and we encountered more monstrosities as we made our way further into town…
We met a troll near the crypt in the back alley leading toward the Hunting Lodge…
I made my attacks with all speed, abandoning any pretense of protecting myself, with the hope that Deverell could keep the two of us fighting on…
We found more brigands further down the alley, near to the Hunting Lodge…
We struck them down, but not before they had called out our presence. More appeared through the gate leading toward the jailhouse…
We fought through their counterattack and bested them, but the effort took too much time…
I began to see our foes not as living beings, but merely as obstacles. Obstacles to our passage…
“Deverell!” I cried…
…and I lit off into the alley leading to the jailhouse, with Deverell right behind me…
We charged into the square and met with an orc…
It lurched toward me and lunged, like the drunken passes that the patty-cakers in the Pony often make. I spun myself away and ended him…
The brigands in the square called for aid and then set upon us…
Together, men and half-orcs fought against us, in order to keep hold of Bree-town for themselves and their master. It made my heart run cold…
…but they were all obstacles in our path. Every one of them had to be struck down…
We passed through the barricade and into the town hall square, where we were met by more brigand guards…
Snow drifts and a barricade prevented us from seeing what was happening directly outside town hall, but we began to hear cries for aid and the screams of those in agony…
I battled to strike the brigands down with all that I had in me, that we might come to the aid of the townsfolk before it was too late…
We sprinted for town hall once free of the bandits. Another giant lay in our path…
I charged him, knowing his strike would come too slowly, and that he would make himself vulnerable…
…and I drove my stickers into him as I sped past. I did not slow…
“Kaleigh, the giant!” Deverell cried, but I beckoned for her to leave it and follow…
I ran to a gap in the barricade, and I spied a large half-orc standing before a man pleading for his life. Another orc looked on with glee…
Beckham…
“No!”
I hurled myself over the barricade toward them…
The half-orc turned toward me…
“Bree belongs to us now!”
And then he turned back toward the man and swung his sword completely through him. I came to a halt merely inches away…
I had failed once more…
The half-orc watched the man crumple to the ground and then turned toward me…
“Looks like some more meat for the slaughter!”
I backed away and readied a word of binding as the orc and the half-orc advanced…
I bound the leader with a word of power and turned to battle the half-orc…
We struggled against one another for a long while. I continued to bind the leader by word whenever he began to free himself, hoping that he would not find a way to resist, else we be lost…
After a long battle, I finally created the opening that I had worked for, and I plunged my sticker deep into the orc’s chest, piercing armor, flesh and bone…
The leader came to as the orc fell at my feet…
“You shall be torn asunder!” he shouted…
We battled back and forth across the courtyard, each looking to find a weakness in the other…
The bodies of the slain lying in the snow reminded me of the plight of Gondamon and its people…
We could not fail. We had to stand, and stand together…
I knocked away the half-orc’s sword, leaving him open to attack…
…and I drove my sticker into him, ending our battle…
“Sharkey, forgive me…” breathed the creep with his last…
But I knew these would not be the last to fall, on either side of the fight. We had recaptured the southern part of town, but the brigands still held parts as well…
We left the courtyard, finished off the giant, and went to fetch the Watch…
Second-watcher Heathstraw marveled at what we had accomplished…
“You did it! The south of Bree is free once more! Thank you.”
[Thievery and Mischief. Size: Small Fellowship. Tier: 3, battle fought and renderings taken before Helm’s Deep]
“We have more to do yet,” I said.
The Watcher nodded. “The brigands will surely mount a counterattack soon. I think we should round up all the citizens we can and bring them to the Pony. There we can keep watch over them as we drive the brigands the rest of the way out of town.”
“We will do everything we can to assist you,” said Deverell, and I nodded my assent.
The Watcher pulled his eyes away from the dead lying in the snow.
“Let us see to it, then.”
Later that evening, during a quiet moment before rest, I recorded our passage from Gondamon to this point. We had traveled far to find the enemy, only to meet him on our doorstep…
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The Spirit Gauntlet Saga
Defense of the Prancing Pony (19)
Also, the entire saga, with full-sized renderings, can be found here!
The full Spirit Gauntlet Saga with full-sized renderings
(The full renderings make for a completely different experience!)
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Epic saber-tooth cat rendering. The action has certainly picked up in recent installments.
Wow, nice work on this installment, Kaleigh! There are some really awesome images there, and in plentiful supply!
They have been busy busy bees!