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Into the Swamp of Bones!


Kyle Aarons

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Note: Ken is very busy and asked me to take over for his character for a few days, so I will be posting for Barrett.

 

Vorador shrugs at Quelten's question as he walks toward the line of horses, "All the real rich kids go to the guilds for training, so they have skills, but not necessarily combat skills. I know Talarc carries a street sword and a dagger, but so do most nobles, so seeing him with them doesn't mean he can really use either. One time he tossed a few Ravens for me to chase, he was in a leather jerkin and his hair looked like he had been sweating, so he might have some combat time with a teacher or two.

 

"One of his best friends, a mean kid by the name of Gothan..." Vorador spits in disgust, "He's a real piece of work if you ask me, goes to the wizard college, and if he is one of them maybe we could let the Orcs keep him."

 

Barrett hears this and shakes his head. This is the first time you have seen or heard Vorador say anything so negative about anyone with this degree of anger. "Now now, Vor, no need to be letting your anger grip you."

 

Seeing Vorador lower his head as if chastised much worse than was really the case, Barrett secures his gear and pats the young Halfelf on the shoulder, "But, should he be one of the other captives, maybe you can let him know whom he owes for his rescue. After all, there are many ways to get a measure of justice and saving him after he has been less than nice to you will cut him as deeply as a dagger would." He then secures his gear and heads out to the horses even as Eghas, Reld, and Innil gets saddles on them. The mount Reld will be riding stands off to the side, a impressive animal with strong muscles and impressive build. It also has studded leather barding for extra protection. It is clear the Legion really WANTS this animal back.

 

It does take a couple of minutes to get everyone comfortable on their mounts, but the Legion has handed over some of the most docile horses they had. While this will allow those who are not riders to ride without problems, it also means the animals will not be good in combat. The scout who has been assigned to take you to where the young noble was last tracked to, says little. You also notice he has bandages on his right arm and his studded leather armor is heavily blood splattered. With a jerk of his head he motions for you all to follow.

 

You ride out of the tent encampment and around the edge of the city, much of it burning or at least smoke is rising from behind the ancient walls. You pass refugees who look up with a mixture of emotions on their faces. Some are more than happy to see armed and armored riders who are not Orakin or Gnoll, others glare since they have been forced out of their homes by "liberating" forces. Most clearly don't understand that what the Legion is doing is very intelligent. By getting the civilian population out, it will be easier for them to purge the city and will prevent hostage taking by Gnolls and Orakin forces. It will also allow them to move into the sewers without worrying about spies getting information to any enemy forces trying to wait out the assault. The problem is, as many of you know, the underground could take weeks if not months to clear out and no matter how careful the Legion is, so enemy forces will stay undetected.

 

On the down side, many of those you pass by have weathered out the occupation and are hungry, and many have little to nothing. The Cloaks help, and at least everyone got some food, but most are without anything in the way of extra food and many have no coin. Those that do, don't have anywhere to spend it although a few try to barter with Legion members with limited success an there is quite a bit of bartering between the refugees who have some supplies and those who have some coin. It also strikes all of you that the chances for heavy snow is a very real threat and more than a few of those you ride by are walking down the road leading to the west with no shoes. The only good thing is the Legion is keeping guard patrols out to protect the refugees from any lingering raiders and protecting them from each other as well.

 

The scout looks back noticing some of you starting to balk, "Ignore them. The King has sent supplies to North Wind and Raven Stone. Once they get there they will have enough to survive. It will not be comfortable for them, but it cannot be worse than living under Gnoll laws!"

 

Still, this causes some of you to cringe, for North Wind is just over twenty mile to the west northwest by road and Raven stone is almost thirty miles to the west southwest.

 

You continue to ride down the road passing two villages that have been all but razed in the fighting. Both look like they were hit hard during the assault three moons ago, and were all but finished off when the legion came in to clear the raiders. Still, there are more than a few picking though the rubble of both, scrounging for anything of value. In some case those digging through what is left are literally stepping on dead and often time totally stripped nude Orakin and Gnolls. In one case you see a boy of about 12 who his striping off the bloody remnants of clothing off a Goblin others had missed. His eyes go wide in victory as he finds a Goblin short sword, sling and dagger along with a pouch. All the items disappear from view quickly, but an older boys moves up to accost the younger one.

 

A Legionnaire Guard, however stops things before it starts. He moves up to the older boy and cuffs him hard on the back of the head, knocking him down while threatening him with hard labor in chins if he is ever seen trying to rob another. The guard then nods to the younger boy while saying, "Nice find! Good for you!"  

 

Shortly after this you turn off the road and head almost straight north, leaving the throngs of people behind. An hour later you enter the edge of the hills leading up to the Swamp of Bones. The scout crosses a nearly frozen over stream and leads up a pretty well established path on the east side of the stream two hills up and you can see the swampy mess of twisted trees and areas of marsh spreading out before you. Even as cold as it is, with larger and more frequent snowflakes coming out of an ever darkening sky, you can smell the rot of swamplands.

 

The path turns away from the stream suddenly and comes to a small clearing. Inside the clearing you see signs of a vicious battle there are over a score of Gnolls and three Hobgoblins are lying from one end of the clearing to the other. on the far side is a much bigger body, a moster you have never seen before, but it must have stood over nine feet and had to have weighed over 500 pounds. The scout jumps down and does a quick sweep to check for ambush before coming back to your group, "The path continues to the north northeast on the far side, right next to the body of the ogre." he points to the monsterous body on the far side. My patrol took heavy damage from thies riaders and were forced to pull back, but we killed all of them The only ones to get away were five to seven Gnolls, three Orcs and the bugbear caster.

 

He turns to Eghas, "I hear you are a Ranger, so the you should be able to follow the trail. As you will be able to see, by the deeper impressions of the Orcs' feet, they were carrying a great deal of weight. So chances are good, they tied some of the kids and started carrying them. The impressions I was able to find says two others were being dragged and force walked, their prints are also easy to follow. I wold say you are now about six to eight hours behind them."

 

He moves back to his mount, "Good luck, but I need to go. I should be with my scout unit when we hit the forces coming out of the woods."

 

Eghas, it takes you only a couple of minutes to verify what the scout told you. The trail is beyond easy to follw, but the snow is getting heavier. You have about three hours of daylight left.

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Reld moves is horse over to the Ogre's body and looks down, "Wow, I'm not a tracker and even I can follow these! And... geesh," Reld actually holds his nose, "if you all were worried about how we smell get close to this thing and it brings a whole new meaning to foul!"

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Nodding to the others as he looks around, getting a clear feeling for the trail that as left behind, he re-mounts his horse, and starts off at a slow trot.  "We should try to make up as much distance as we can.  with as fast as they are traveling, and how fast we can, if we are lucky, we should be able to find them about high sun tomorrow."

 

He takes a moment to make sure everything on his mount is secured, since now they have the chance of snagging things on trees.  once he is satisfied he gently steers his mount forward. 

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Zemzelett's mind reels at the events that have just transpired.  Not more than a few hours ago, he was playing hide-and-seek with gnollish raiders, and more often than not barely escaped by the skin of his teeth.  Now, he is part of an adventuring group, with a very important mission.  He got to meet some very interesting personalities, including a human ranger disguising himself as some kind of demon, two elves, a very scary human gladiator, and most importantly, another half-elf close to his own age.  He's outfitted in semi-decent weapons and armor - accouterments that he has never had before.  He also had his first extended horse ride on a full-size horse, something he decides is not overly comfortable.  Zem briefly wonders if he could get a pillow to protect his delicate backside from the constant bumps of the road.

 

As the party nears the Swamp, the overpowering stench of decay assaults his senses.  Zemzelett might have been part of a traveling Troupe and has been in his fair share of forests or deserts, but the environment was never as primal as this.  His eyes opened in wide horror as he saw a gigantic beast that would have towered over him and could easily snap him like a twig.  So this is what an ogre is, he thinks.  Am I wrong about bugbears as well?

 

As the party slows down, Zemzelett takes the opportunity to pluck off a swamp rose from the side, and stuffs its petals into his component pouch; during the journey, he's also managed to take a little bit of fleece that was stuck to a bush.  These just might come in handy.

 

So there is three hours left before sundown.  As a half-elf, Zem has infravision and thus the dark is not as frightening to him as it was for humans, dwarves, and halflings.  Still, this was a pretty dangerous area, so the half-elf refuses to lower his guard.  He decides to stick closely to the adventuring group.  Let Eghas take the lead, and Innil bring up the rear.  He'll be sticking with the squishy spellcasters in the middle.  Zem was eager to learn about what cantrips and other spells they know about.  

 

"Hey, what spells and cantrips do you have?  Do you think there's something we can use to rescue the boys?  I've got this Minor Illusion.  Maybe I can generate a sound to fool them into thinking an army is encircling them from behind.  That way they come to us, thinking we're easier to fight, instead of us having to chase them. It lasts only a minute though, but think it will work?"

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After watching Zemzelett squirm uncomfortably on his horse, Innil approaches when the scout stops. He leans over to whisper to Zemzelett, "Sit on one cheek and occasionally shift from one to the other. It will keep your backside from getting as sore and will be more comfortable for both you and the horse. Also if the horse starts to piss stand in the stirrups; It is better for the horse. And I have three cantrips but it would be best to discuss them and make plans when we stop to rest." Then Innil drops to the rear of the group again.

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Reld moves up beside Eghas, "Look I'm not tracker, but shouldn't we move as fast as we can to catch up before the snow really starts falling?" he turns back to look at the others, if we don't get to them by nightfall those creature may do real bod things to some of them and we are getting paid to bring the rich kid back in as close to one piece as possible! We should rind as fast as we can follow the track now, right?"

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"Normally i would say yes."  He says, without slowing his pace.  "And i will defer to others if they disagree, as i have never actually done something like this.  However, the reasons i am not pushing hard are, we have some riders who are not experienced, riding through a swamp is difficult in the best of circumstances, with inexperienced riders, it could be even more difficult.  Also, i guess it depends on if we want the element of surprise?  If we push hard, they will certainly know we are coming, and possibly ambush us."  He pauses for a moment, then thinks about it.

 

"However, on the other side of the coin, they will most certainly be tired and injured form the battles they have been in.  while we are not in the best of conditions, none of us are nursing wounds.  perhaps you are right."  He turns in his saddle and looks to the rest of the group.  "What say you.  do we go cautious, or do we go after them, and try to hit before nightfall, and the snow gets too deep?"

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post-65-0-63645600-1419219301_thumb.jpg (Barett)

 

'I agree with Eghas and Reld, we move as fast as possble and we make as much noise as possible. If they think a whole company of legionaires are chasing them by the time we reach them they will be exhausted. Eghas and Reld have the lead followed by Quelten and I. Vorodar I want you to stay close to Quelten and I. Followed by Elan'fal and Innil. Zem you bring up the rear and keep an eye on our backs. Eghas when ever your ready lets ride."

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"While an ambush would be unpleasant, I'm much more worried about the boys," Quelten interjects.  "The bugbear might very well decide to kill them rather than allow rescue.  Also, while I would much prefer to cleanse the land of these scum, our mission is to rescue, not kill.  Every battle we fight is a waste of resources that we may need.  Strategy over tactics, whenever possible.  We don't have enough information by half to suit me."

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"Moving fast could give us an advantage by leaving them little time to prepare. I would suggest one change though. Have Elan'fal ride next Vorador and I will ride next to Zemzelett. He is too inexperienced to bring up the rear by himself and my offensive cantrip and longbow are just as effective from the back."

 

"Our best chance of returning with the boys intact is to insure we can't be followed and harrassed on our return trip when the horses will have to carry double mounts."

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Zemzelett considers Inni's advice, and after some experimentation, finds a workable arrangement by alternating sore cheeks in between gallops.  Now I know why we're called Cantertrot and not Cantergallop, he thinks.  He thanks Innil in Elvish: "My thanks for your sage advice, Sir Innil.  Already I am feeling this arrangement is better than before!"

 

Suddenly, the group stops, torn between erring on the side of caution and wanting to rescue the hostages.  It would be most unpleasant to spend even a night as captive among gnolls, Zem shudders.  But then, he reflects, they were taken as hostages and not prisoners.  if the bugbear has even an ounce of self-preservation, he would not kill Talarc - the lad's angry father would ensure his life is forfeit.  That is of course, the half-elf mutters with a groan, the creature realizes who exactly his captive is.  Would the boy have already spouted out his upbringing to threaten his captors?  That might afford the boy some degree of protection, but then again it might irk his captors as well.  And what of Talarc's playmates?

 

Finding his thoughts starting to go in a circle, the half-elf spurs his horse to hold up the rear besides the kind elf.  He decides to err on the side of rescue - after all, he himself knows the pain of being separated from one's family. 

 

"if I may," he speaks up, "I think Rend is right, we should try and catch up as fast as we can.  We just don't know if the gnolls will eat some of them tonight.  I do have one question: how well can the bad guys see in the dark?  Some of us have infravision," he motions towards the Elves and Volador, "but the four humans do not.  While we should make haste, it benefits no one if we are cut down easily by the enemy."

 

Turning to the kindly Innil, Zem smiles and talks in Common for all to hear, "If we agree that time is of the essence, we should know what resources we can bring to bear against the bad guys and start drawing up a strategy!  You and I are spellcasters, so we should strategize together!"  The youngster's eyes gleam with excitement - he is proficient in DragonChess, and the prospect of drawing up and implementing real life strategies excites him to a great degree.

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Eghas nods then turns and looks at the trail for a long moment.  finally he spurs his horse, and sets a pace as fast as he can go, while still keeping his eyes on the trail.  He draws out his long bow, and knocks and arrow.  thankfully this horse is trained well enough to where Eghas does not need to use the reigns, instead using his legs to direct the horse.  "The strategy, at this point is simple.  We find them, and kill them.  the first target must be the spell casters.  Reld, when we find them, i will drop back as i am not as skilled in close combat as i am in ranged.  if you can keep them off us, create a wall if you will, we can drop them quicker.  get what you need to enter combat quickly, but remember, other then Reld's horse, none of these will be very good for combat.  what they do give us though is the advantage of height, for those of us who use ranged weapons.  Finally, those that do know close combat well, move up to support Reld if it looks like he needs it."  The entire time he is speaking, he did not slow the pace that he was setting, making sure that he spoke loud enough for all to hear. 

 

"If anyone has a problem with my plan, or wishes to make changes, you best do it now, since i plan to hit the enemy as quickly as we can.  Give them no time to rest!"

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Zemzelett launches into a reprise of the "group anthem" as the group spurs their horses along at the pace set by Eghas.  Hopefully his good sense of balance will be sufficient to keep him on the saddle!

 

♪ Through the Swamp of Bones, the Stink Brigade of Eight is riding!

We've nerves of steel and iron will,

We stink, but who's complaining?

 

We ride to the rescue, day or night

Let our stench snuff out your might 

We will do the thing that's right!

We will stand and fight!

Let bugbears run in fright!

 

Stink Brigade!

Let us go!

Hup!  Ho!

Stink Brigade!

Let us go!

Hup!  Ho!

 

Beautiful!  Powerful!  Dangerous!  Rank!

Does it really matter that we stank?

Stronger than one!

Stronger than ten!

Stronger than a hundred men!  Hup! ♫

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Innil laughs and joins in the song at 'Stink Brigade! Let us go!' Then he grins real big at Zemzelett as he lays an already loaded croosbow on his lap. "A gift for you" he laughs and holds a notched bow and arrow in his hand and keeps his right hand free to cast his cantrip.

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It was a rough ride to the swamp but Elan'fal is no stranger to roughness and survival and it is not the first time he has riden a horse so even though he is almost starving and without rest he does not show it.

 

He listens to his companions and Eghas closely and thinks it through before talking.

 

"Eghas, I think you are correct. We must strike them and strike them hard before they know we are upon them but doing so without information could spell doom for both us and the boys. I think we should split up. Me Innil, Zem and one of the clerrics should scout ahead, maybe find a higher ground position on their flanks, learn their numbers and strike them from there while the rest of you charge in with the horses and take them head on with us providing support and cover fire from on high. Like this we have one melee support in case someone engages us and you have one magic user. A balanced act that may prove useful and possible information that may prove invaluable." He says and gives some of his ration to Zem.

 

"Looks like you need more than I young one." He tells him.

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Zemzelett's eyes widens as Innil drops the light crossbow on his lap, along with the ammunition.  Was his greed too evident, or was the elf just that observant?  Nonetheless, the half-elf thanks the elf profusely.  

 

"I am gratified that you were kind enough to bring me a crossbow, Sir Innil.  This is a kindness I do not deserve!  However, still must i ask you for an additional favor, for I fear I am at the limit of what I can carry."  Pulling out all but two of the six daggers from his bandoleer, the half-elf thrusts them to Innil's hands.  "Could you hold these for me, sir?"

 

Take: Light crossbow and 20 bolts from Innil (encumbrance +6.5 lbs)

Give: Four daggers to Innil (encumbrance -4.0 lbs; total encumbrance 49.5 lbs)

 

As Elan'fal hands him some daily rations, Zemzelett politely declines.  "Sir Elan'fal, you are most kind to share your rations with me.  But as I have already partaken of some victuals before we departed, perhaps we can save them for the hostages we are going to rescue?  I am sure they will be most terribly hungry."  

 

Zem frowns as the idea of splitting the party was floated.  Far too many times in DragonChess, Zem was swiftly punished for doing so - he wasn't ready to tempt fate in real life.  "I am not sure splitting up is a good idea, sirs.  Perhaps if the ones we are pursuing are the only creatures other than ourselves in this Swamp, it might be a sound strategem. But I do not think this is the case." He shudders involuntarily as he suddenly recalls the gigantic slain ogre they passed by at the copse.

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"Keep your daggers, Zemzelett! Hang your pack on the horn of the saddle for battle and that will releave you of some of the weight. You should accept what Elan'fal has offered we have plenty for the boys if they are hungry. You have missed too many meals already; you will need your strength."

On the matter of splitting Innil keeps silent. He can see good and bad in each decision; he waits to see what Eghas and Reld think.

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The group pushed on past dusk and an hour into the night. Having the horses has allowed you to gain a great deal of ground, but with night and colder temperatures, the snow is starting to accumulate making the trail a bit harder to follow. The snow is also getting quite a bit heavier and you get the feeling this very well might be a big late winter storm. Still, there was no way the group you are tracking has a ranger or if they do, they flatly don't care about the trail they are leaving. As the tracks get harder to see, the snapped twigs and beaten down brush is so unmistakable, a first year trainee would be able to follow it most of the time.

 

Two hours after sundown, you all stop as you spot the unmistakable glow of a fire over the next hill.  Even Vorador is understanding enough to glance at the others, "Really, a wide open fire out here? are they stupid or crazy?"

 

Reld shrugs, "Maybe neither. It's possible they think no one would follow or maybe this is a trap. One way or the other one of you who can sneak ought to go take a look. It'd also be a good time to rest the horses and left them do some grazing on whatever they can find."

 

Vorador nods nervously and offers to go take a look. He removes almost all his weapons and slithers forward into the brush. His movement is nearly silent and you all loose him within just a few seconds.

 

Your nerves are starting to eat at all of you after nearly forty minutes, but Vorador reappears just as quickly and quietly as he vanished. He gulps as he gives his report, "It's not what we expected, at least not what I think we thought we expected."

 

Seeing everyone eyeing him, he takes a nervous breath, "There is a fire, but behind the campfire is a crumbling old tower, just sitting there with nothing else around it. The top part looks like it fell off to the side, and there are only a couple of the dog headed Gnoll things around the rubble with a smaller fire. There is also some flickering light coming out of the second story window of the tower facing us. and I saw some light move around in the first floor, but it was like a candle or something else small. The fire let me see the tower has a door. It looks like it is wood, but I didn't want to get too close so I can't be sure. The real thing is the wind is blowing toward the tower and I remember Eghas say the dog head Gnolls can smell real good. I didn't want them to smell my stink until I know what you what to do. I can, if you want go all the way around, but it will take me some time cause the junk tower is in a clearing and I would have to make my way all the way around. Also, the big fire out front don't make no sense to me. They weren't using it for getting warm and there was no food over it.

 

Reld forces a grin and his voice is full of humor, "Well, if worse comes to worse some of you can shoot the Gnolls while I go up and knock!"

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"I am thinking that this may be a trap."  He says with a haphazard grin as he's stating the obvious.  his face gets serious then.  "I would like to take Vorador, and one other to sneak around to the backside of the tower, and see if there are tracks leading away.  they may have left a few here, in hopes of slowing us down while the others and their prisoners get away.  what say you?"

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A crumbling tower, in the middle of the swamp? Zem's no ranger, but there's something mighty suspicious about it. Still, there's the question of how exactly they are to proceed. A direct approach will betray their approach for sure, and may even endanger the hostages.

"Well, either we go to them, or they come to us. I'm not so bad at sneaking around, so I'll go with Eghas. If you can get me within casting range downwind and behind the tower, I just might be able to put the lookouts to sleep.  That is, if we don't see any tracks leading away from the tower."
 

Zemzelett looks around, and prepares to head off with Eghas.  He stows the crossbow and readies a shortsword.  He leaves four daggers behind with the horse - the crossbow will suffice - and munches on some rations as the group decides on the next steps.

 

"But... we may need to communicate in some way.  It took Vorador a long time to scout around, and it will surely take us longer.  By the time we return, it may be too late.  Or of course we could all go together, as quietly as we can."

 

Inventory: Reduced by 1 daily ration

Relevant Skill Notes: Zemzelett has Stealth skill modifier of +5

 

Sleep 

Spell range: Affects all creatures within 20 feet (6 meters) from the center.  Center must be within 90 feet (27.4 meters) of caster

Attributes: Vocal, Somatic, Material - Vocal incantation, free hand to gesture, Rose petals

Duration: 1 minute

Effect: Roll 5d8.  Total amount is how many creatures in terms of hit points will be put to sleep.  Effect ends if sleeper takes damage or is awakened.

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"If this is a trap, it's a singularly clumsy one," Quelten points out.  "It's too obvious.  Not only did they not try to hide their tracks, they went and built a fire to announce their presence.  They aren't trying to hide at all, they want to be found.  And if that doesn't worry anyone else, by Pelgrim it worries me enough for all of us."

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Eghas looks at Quelten with a raised eyebrow before a small grin crosses his face.  "You know, back where i grew up, we had a saying for when someone said something like you just did.  it went "Thank you! Captain Obvious"

 

He then looks around at the rest of the group.  "So would anyone like to join me for a little snooping?"

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(Barett)

 

"Best way to over come a trap is to spring it. I say we attack. That should surprise them take the advantage and even if its just a few of them we can't go around and leave them. We would then find ourselves seriously outflanked with enemies to the front and rear. Archers can hit the two guarding and Reld, Myself and Queltin can assault the tower. Once we are in the archers can move up and support us in melee."  I smiled a big smile. "As my combat instructor always use to say when in doubt, Attack"

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Eghas smiles in surprise but then shrugs.  "So be it!"  He strips off his pack, and makes sure his weapons are as ready as they can be.  he knocks an arrow in his long bow, then looks around.  "Well it ain't gettin any lighter, or warmer.  I heard it says that exercise makes the blood pump.  this could be a good work out to warm us all up!"  He looks around to see if anyone else is getting ready.

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