Trefalgr\'s Secret...

[Ravenmaster]

(OOC: To tasadar: You should post that sort of question in the Trefalgr\'s Secret OOC thread.  However, since you did post here, I will answer you here. NO. You can\'t join.  For reasons, ask at the OOC thread.)

Zahtek wipes his blade clean on the shirt of a bandit corpse and walks over to the others.  \"We can\'t make it to Letranech today,\" he says, \"Look at the sun; we have only two hours, tops.  My suggestion is that we  leave the vicinity of Nemorea, so as to not cause these civilians any grief.  Once we are safely out of range, we should find a sheltered area such as a cave or a cliffside so we can have our backs to a wall and not be surrounded. Then we should set up a defense and post two or three sentries at a time.\" He pauses for a moment and then says, \"As for your question, Rantal, the demons seem to be unlimited. They just keep coming. There surely is an end to them, but we would have to fight for weeks to see it.\"  Zahtek shieths his sword and walks up to his stout horse, whose late rider had been decapitated in the first run and hops on.  \"Let\'s go. Time is one thing we haven\'t too much of.\"

[Wormtail_]

Rantal shrugged. \"Well, you happen to know more about things than Aruneko and I do. But perhaps once we are out of the vicinity of Nemorea, we might have trouble looking for a sheltered area. So perhaps we can use your idea first, but if we find no nearby sheltered areas, then perhaps we can then use my suggestion. However, a good night of rest is always good to have. Anyway, how are we to inform Dandor of our trouble? He\'ll probably be at the next city by nightfall, so we might want to summon him sooner or later. But we can discuss things while riding, though perhaps not as efficiently. And I do have the medallion that Dandor gave me, by the way.\" Rantal attached his staff to his belt, and rode foward a couple of feet.

[Aruneko]

\"Too many perhapses,\" Aruneko muttered under his breath.  \"Do they even have a destination or are they simply running away?\"  Aruneko paused a while in thought, then he remembered what Rantal had been saying.  \"Who is Dandor, and what\'s so important about his medallion?\" he asked.

[Wormtail_]

Rantal said, \"Actually, I\'m not too sure of who he is, either. However, he is a wizard with many abilities, and seems to be very wise. Trefalgr must know more about him than I do, as well as Kinoss. The medallion is to summon him to our aid, if we get into any kind of trouble. He rides a pteasaur, by the way, so don\'t shoot any flying people coming towards us unless there it is not a pteasaur.\" Rantal fiddled with the medallion of Dandor.

[Trefalgr]

\"I know as much about Dandor as you do,\" Trefalgr spoke back over his shoulder as he rode along. \"I met him at the inn the morning after I met Zahtek and Kinoss. All I know about him is that he fights for my cause. Speaking of such things, I think we shall need Dandor\'s help before the next dawn\'s break. When the sun touches the horizon, we shall search for a shealter. Kinoss, you seem to be the map maker, do you have any of this region? If so, it they might give us more of an idea where to make for.\"

[Kinoss]

Kinoss then pulls his pack over his shoulders to look through its contents. After a while of searching he pulls out a map that seems to have some information of the area that they are in. \"This is quite interesting!\" Said Kinoss with a excited voice, \"Amazingly there is an abandon fort nearby that is walled with stone. This would be an ideal place to rest for the night.\" Kinoss said as he began rolling up the map and putting it back into is pack. \"It lies only a few miles Southeast of here.\"

[Ravenmaster]

After a little less than half an hour the party spot the fort in the distance.  As they approach the fort a powerful wind begins to blow and a flock of black birds gathers over head.  The flock lowers to the ground and forms into the body of a man, cloaked in a dark robe.  Only his glowing eyes are visible beneath the robe and he clutches a gnarled staff in his left hand.  Aruneko draws his bow and shoots at the figure, but the wind tosses the arrow aside, useless.  Zahtek holds up his arm and says, \"Don\'t shoot.  He\'s a friend.. or something..\"
\"There is powerful magic working against you,\" the figure speaks in a sinister, raspy voice, \"These walls already house the enemy from which you wish to flee. There is no escape now. You will fight, and all the good creatures of the night shall fight along side you.\"  As he speaks, the sun sinks below the horizon, only a slight light remains. As the darkness envelopes the world, the figure seems to grow in power and size.  The wind increases and the figure raises his hand slowly into the air.  As he does, all sorts of nocturnal creatures leap from where they had been hiding and surround the party, eyes glowing with an unnatural power.  
\"These are your guardians.  They will fight with you to their death... or yours, but I will see to it that the numbers of demons slain far surpasses your own casualties, whatever the end be.\"  With that, the Ravenmaster crouches down and leaps a good thirty meters over the fort\'s walls.  The unnatural wind ceases with the Ravenmasters departure.  The screech of a dying demon is heard, immediately followed by the sounds of a feroucious brawl behind the walls. The second battle has begun.

[Wormtail_]

Rantal jumped in surprise as a mysterious figure popped out of nowhere, gave them a message, and vanished. He said, \"Well, that was odd... Say, how many creatures do we have here? I\'m thinking of another strategy, but I can\'t think properly unless I know our strength and theirs. I don\'t want to rush into their traps; I want them to rush into ours. Okay, maybe this is another ambush, but why not? Still, lets each command a certain number of animals so we can lure, trap, ambush, harass, and so on to the demons. What do you say?\" Rantal took out his longbow and notched an arrow to the string. He preferred fighting at as much of a distance as possible, and the longbow had the longest range out of all his weapons, which were namely spells. He dismounted as well.

[Aruneko]

\"I don\'t know anything about these...\" Aruneko glanced at the variety of creatures, their bodies illuminated by their glowing eyes, \"...things...  But I do know we\'d best hurry.  Whoever is fighting over there will need as much help as they can get.\"  Aruneko grimly drew another arrow from his quiver and fit it to his bowstring.  \"We will have no way of knowing the enemy\'s strength, but no matter how strong they are we\'ll have to fight them.  Lets just get this battle over with, and hope for the best.\"

[Ravenmaster]

As various members of the party situated themselves and looked about nervously, Zahtek jumped off his horse, grabbed his sword in his right hand and his horse\'s reigns in his left and ran towards the wall of the fort, yelling, \"We may as well get as defended as possible!\"  He turned around to see what the others were doing and screamed, \"Kinoss, get down.\"  He threw his demonsword through the torso of the first attacking demon.  The corpse fell on top of Kinoss, knocking him off his horse. A second demon screeched as a pack of raccoons pounced on it where it hid in the grass.  \"Where are they coming from?!\" Zahtek yelled, running to retrieve his sword from the fallen demon.  Before he could make it a third demon leaped from below him.  He punched it in the face, but immediately two more tackled him.  A moment later, about thirty demons popped up from the grass surrounding the party.  The fight was on.

[Aruneko]

(OOC: This doesn\'t mean that this was all that had happened during that time.  Aruneko was not the only one who acted, but I\'m only including his actions in my post.)

Aruneko instantly fired an arrow into the back of one of the demons attacking Zahtek and drew another from his quiver.  Their gaurdians met the charging demons head on, though they were more annoying to them than they were deadly.  Aruneko fired another into the same demon and it stopped moving, but a moment after he was knocked to the ground by a demonic claw.  Aruneko slashed his blade out at the demon\'s feet and rolled to the side.  He rose and dodged a punch from his attacker, and swiftly thrust his knife deep into the demon.  It raised its hand to strike again, but was stopped by the fierce attack of a rather large owl.  Aruneko swiftly tore his knife away and cleanly slashed the demon\'s head off, and the corpse fell.  It was soon replaced by another demon, and the large group surrounding everyone was now closing in.  Aruneko felt unsure that they would survive.

[Wormtail_]

Rantal, seeing a demon for the first time, felt unsure of what to do. As his strength was in magic, and not in hand-to-hand fighting, he decided to use his strengths to cover his weakness. He concentrated on using his Magical powers to their extent. So Rantal concentrated on something, and out of his staff came a sudden blast of white light, affecting those within a few feet and facing the source.

Rantal, thinking that was not the best of ideas, threw one of his hands to protect his eyes. Several nearby demons were thrown back a few paces, as well as a nearby cat and other such creatures. Two demons were not happy with that. They charged at Rantal. Rantal cursed siilently as he threw his magical bag to the ground and prepared to cast another spell. He then realized painfully that his first spell was battlefield wide, although those closest to him and facing him were affected the most. Rantal sighed as he also realized that about a third of his energy that was free was sapped. It was so sudden, that he felt weak. He prepared to cast a spell to deter the advance of the two charging demons, or to at least damage them. The nocturnal guards, though, were to be helpful, as several bats flew past his head...

[Ravenmaster]

Zahtek, seeing Rantal\'s immidiate danger, kicked the demon he was fighting in the chest and rushed to help his newist comrade.   He easily mowed down to demons during his charge.  As he rushed up behind one of the two demons approaching Rantal, he felt a searing pain in his left shoulder and fell forcefully to the ground.  He looked up in time to see the demonlord whose sword he had stolen, weilding a two-pronged spear.  The demon grabbed Zahtek by the neck and lifted him into the air.  Zahtek swung his sword at the demon\'s throat, but the it was deflected by the two-pronged spear.  The demon threw Zahtek into the air and caught him through the stomach with the spear on the way down.  

One of the demons approaching Rantal was deterred by a pack of raccoons, and as the second one neared, he was knocked unconcious by mad swing of Rantal\'s club.  However, the demons only seemed to be increasing.  Suddenly, from above a high-pitched screech was heard.  There was a blinding flash of light, and an explosion.  A mob of demons flew into the air in pieces.  A giant winged reptile and its rider landed on the ground.  Some demons actually fled, but all were noticably afraid.

[Maia]

The winged monster and its rider settled to the ground. It stared at the adventurers, and drew a sword that pulsed bloodred. It urged its mount forward, chanted in an unidentifiable tongue, and rode its mount forward toward the adventurures. The remaining demons followed it, unearthly battle cries ripping the air. A battlecry just as unearthly as the demons\' answered it, and the kran eating some of the stones lining the walls heaved rocks at the twenty or so demons. The rocks crushed three of them and sent the rest diving for cover.

The rocks ceased, and the demons stood back up, only to see an enraged kran shaking the earth as it charged at them. It held a mace that could not have weighed less than seventy pounds. The demons stood their ground. The kran pounded into their midst and spun around, mace out. Demons flew through the air, and the swords slashing at the kran only appeared to make him angrier. A magical storm of crystals spun about it, plinking off of its skin. Eight demons fell before the rest began to run. Three more fell before they managed to make it away.

The kran turned toward the lizard and its rider, and pounded after it.