There they were, standing in a large open field, waiting for the enemy to come to them. It seemed almost like the battles of long past that Loda used to hear of, two armies standing face to face, ready to fight. There was definately one army here, but then there was them. A lonely group of heros waiting for what was to come over this hill. Should they hide or stand their ground? They knew there were about ten little goblins; hopefully just enough to put up a fight. But then the ogre stood above them, urging them on. He would be a problem. She stood to watch her comrades and what they would do, then she decided upon their actions.

Loda began to cast her druidic spells upon herself, first making her skin as hard and resilient as the bark of a tree, (1st R) then casting the spell upon herself in which makes her as strong as a bull ( 2nd R) Then summing forth a magical ball of flames that she could willingly throw at any enemy within range. ( 3rd R) Then last she cast a spell to summon to her side wolves that would help them fight these enemies.( 4th R)

( will cast bark skin, then bull strength, then flaming sphere, then summon natures ally II, and summing 1d3 wolves)

The Chakran Mnts
15th day of the 8th month: Temoth Ore
8:21 pm
The muttering and grumbling of the Goblins came closer, and the companions scattered in different directions. They were all preparing themselves for a sure battle, setting traps and readying spells. But before the Goblins arrived on the grassy plane, Thondrek eased to the edge of the rocks and peered down.

The rest of the group was still halfway in their preparations when the duskblade released his fireball. It caught the goblins and ogre completely unaware, and seared the flesh of their bones. The goblins died instantly from the impact, and their scorched remains tumbled down the mountain and the steep path they had almost conquered. Their hides were still glowing with flames as they fell down towards the encampment below. The ogre was still standing, but not for long. He turned and ran down the path without thinking twice of standing and fighting whatever was coming. His cries echoed through the valley: “We’re under attack!”

What had seemed as a victorious annihilation of enemies, quickly turned into the realization that things would look different if the ogre reached the goblin encampment alive. They had wanted a captive to interrogate, not warn the goblins of their presence. And one glance down the slopes of the mountain betrayed the anthill of menace was in an uproar over the sudden blast of fire that had been spotted.

(OOC: This is short, I know. But Thondrek’s fireball did a bit more than expected. That’s not really to your advantage though. You’ve had two rounds of preparation, so any spells you said you would cast in those two rounds have been used. You can now alter your actions for a whole different sort of encounter.)

Elessarae races down the mountain after the Ogre, She remembers Geim had gone down the trail a bit and hoped the Dwarf would be able to stop the Ogre. If not it was a race to down him before others were alerted. Sword in hand she chased the creature down.

One thing is for certain the Sylvari would have to be warned that this vast array of enemies was right over the first range of hills from their lands. So many would die if they boiled over the hills and into Silvaria unwarned. Elessarae could not let that happen. First she hade to stop the ogre and then they would have to erase all signs of then having been there.

All her training came into play as she ran, one eye on the enemy and one eye to the ground where she would put her feet. It was a trick they were taught. One cannot be complacent when running over broken ground, a slip or fall would mean disaster. The fate of Sylvaria hung in the balance.

thondrek watched his fiery little bead explode ina torrent of flame, watched the goblins die in the throes of incendiary-accented agony, and then watched as his main target, the ogre, fled of all things.

"Well now that wasn't suppos'd ta happen." e said with a snort, his little legs already pumping him after the giant-kin tossing up to a trio of fire Bolt's at the Ogre as he chased it down in hopes of felling the creature before it crested the rise.

(So round 1 was bulls strength and move, Round two was fireball, round three is chase and Kelgore's fire bolt, round four is potentially a chase and elgores fire bolt)

If miraculously he and perhaps his teammate's efforts halt the Ogre before it can alert a larger contingent of the little greenskins, Thondrek will vouch to cast a swift Expedious retreat on himself instead for some more maneuverability.

Geim’s bless was off first and then he sped towards the incoming goblin troop. However, his movement to engage the tail of the incoming goblins and Ogee leader are interrupted by a fiery blast. He is not sure what happened in those first instants or who was responsible. He halts as the waves of heat reaches out towards him. The goblins erupt in flames screaming horribly. Several are thrown off the trail into the air in a fiery arch of burning flesh for a long fall into the canyon below. That was all in a space of a moment or two.

Unfortunately the ogre leader is still alive and he turns back down the trail his cries echoed through down the mountain track: “We’re under attack!”

Geim sprints after the ogre, trying to close with him. The staunch cleric of Kharox would not let this ogre get away and alert those far below, if he could help it. Otherwise their group would be facing a much huger problem, the thousands of goblins below and who know what else. An army of ants they looked like from up here but to be facing them would be an entirely different mater. Their dire necessity to drop this ogre spurred him on.

The Chakran Mnts
15th day of the 8th month: Temoth Ore
8:21 pm
The ogre fled, driven by fear and a sense of responsibility to warn the encampment at the bottom of the steep path. But he had a long way to go before he would arrive there. Still, his screams bounced off the rocks, spreading deeper and deeper down the mountain. And his feet, wide and clawed made a good solid grip on the gravely path on which he descended. He stumbled a few times, but caught his balance every time.

His pursuers had a more difficult time going down the path. It was tricky and steep, and their vision was only limited in the growing shadows of night. Already they had trouble discerning the ogre from the darkness, his figure a mere moving blur in the distance. But Elessarae persisted, and managed to keep her balance as well, while she sprinted down the path. She wasn’t gaining on her target, but she wasn’t losing him either.

Thondrek also dared himself on the path, going slower and peered at the ogre while readying a spell. But he didn’t focus enough on his footing, and three steps before completing his spell he tripped on a loose pebble and fell face forward on the rocks. He blocked out the pain to maintain his spell. Losing concentration would mean a sure escape for the ogre. Flat on his belly, he aimed and let go of his Fire Bolt. The searing hot stone flew through the air, projected under Elessarae’s pumping legs and hit the running ogre straight between the shoulder blades. The creature let out a scream of pain, but did not stop its flight.
Now the pain of the fall hit Thondrek, and he realized his face was bruised, and his belly was uncomfortably positioned on a sharp rock.

Geimiedefher had been hiding between the rocks on the side of the path. He too pushed himself after the ogre. The rocks were his home, his old companions, and he should not have much trouble mastering them now. But it appeared that he was overly confident of his relation to the materials of the earth, and planted his feet a bit too easily. He too, like Thondrek, fell down, his foot stuck in a small crevice. A second later he noted Elessar’s slender form jump over him and after the ogre.

They were all ready to get up and continue the pressing pursuit, when all of a sudden the vague form of the ogre fell forward. Had he tripped like the two Khords? At first it seemed that way, but he was not getting up.
When Elessarae got closer, she noted a single arrow sticking from the creature’s back, and the ogre was not breathing.

Down in the encampment, a string of torches was forming, and the first dark forms were finding a way up the hill. They were moving fast. Not much time would be left to figure out what to do.

(OOC: You have about 15 minutes until the enemies from the encampment arrive. They are moving fast, even going up-hill. Please tell me your intentions, so next time I can update as they arrive at the ogre or even at the grassy plane.)

As his arrow brought down the fleeing Ogre Malius knew that even though he had been successful in stopping it, the encampment below was still warned. As fate would have it the first to arrive at the Ogre’s body was of course Elessarae. Stepping out from where he had been hiding, bow in hand, a second arrow nocked, Malius made his presence known quite clearly so as not to be impaled upon the Bladesinger's sword. Looking to her as he moved to stand before her he spoke his first words to anyone in a little over a week.

“The creatures below are warned and will be here quickly we must prepare” he began to move to rejoin the others, having known thier location, but unable to greet them, thanks to the arrival of the now dead Ogre and friends. Then stopped as he realized how his sudden appearance may have shocked the Sylvari Sword Mistress.

“I promise to explain to all my absence, and to you my lady most of all, but for now an explanation will have to wait. Our foes are many and they wait not for us to meet & greet.”

As he waited for her to follow him or lead he could not help but flash back to the last week and one day.

ONE WEEK EARLIER.

Malius had kept himself out of the village for more reasons then scouting were he to be honest with himself. The murder of a full village of his race had hit the Sylvari Ranger hard, harder then anything, but one goodbye, had ever hit him before. The remembered pain from that time haunting him again he had remained in the woods till everything was done.

Only when the time for the funeral rites had come and passed, the Sylvari from the other surrounding towns had finally left, did Malius move to rejoin the rest of the party once more. Trying not to look at the others of the party, not willing to show his true feelings, he nonetheless caught the stern look from Geim. But nothing prepared him for the dwarf’s words a few moments later.

“Seems us Khords and this one young Sylvari lass were the only ones to take care of the dead. Did you hire us to do this job and somehow I missed knowing about it? His eyes went to Draven, Malius, and Alyssia. Draven, one can never count of you unless whatever it is pleases you. I expected no more. It seems common sense have deserted you as well."

Geim rounds on Malius next, his heated words unstopped. "But you Malius, I expected more from you. These were your people and you disappeared and left the whole burden on a young lass who cried her eyes out silently every time she had to pick up a child and carry them out to the wagon. She took time for find each one a toy and wrapped whatever it was up in blankets with them. You should have been there, they were your people.”

As the Ranger watched Geim and his fellow Khords walk away he caught the look of sadness in Elessarae eyes as she looked to him and then turned away to follow the rest. Malius could only assume it was due to his lack of help burying the dead and did not move after her to explain. That night sleep did not come easy in Malius mind his feelings raged between guilt and the horror of the way the town’s folk died, yet somewhere in the night he finally slept a decision made.
The next morning the Ranger was gone, two notes and all money and items given to him by Granite left behind. With two notes left behind he moved out of town and headed deeper into the forests of Alloryen his intent to head to the pools of The Lindelea Elin and with the help of the music created there by the water sprites try to regroup and lessen his feelings of pain and guilt.

With his arrival at the pools a day later he found himself a quiet place devoid of anyone and began an inner search. The music was such that he was drawn so deep into himself that it appeared to him as if were outside his body gazing down upon it as he sat crossed legged by one of the smaller pools. Malius relived the death of his former love, the death of the village, the harsh, but deserved, words of Geim, the look on Elessarae face perhaps pity, perhaps disappointment. He searched for the real reason for his leaving and with his mind and body caught up in the music it came to him as if a burst of light the truth of why he left… fear.

Funny thing fear he could stand up to the greatest of beasts as he had done against the mutant maggot but he could not face the truth about his feelings, feelings that he had not felt since the death of his wife Mira’Élan. On top of everything else these feelings were directed at yet another Bladesinger as if by some twist of addiction or perhaps fate he was drawn to her. Using the pain of the villagers death as an excuse he had fled THOSE feelings as he could not admit his attraction to Elessarae especially to himself much less her.

Opening his eyes, his soul, mind, will, whatever you wanted to call it, returned to his body and once again he knew his course and it lay not here. His things gathered in moments Malius was once again quickly headed back to Hith Elee to pick up the parties trail. Once there he easily found it and followed it to the east to catch up with them.

Now a week and one day since he had left he stood before his fear awaiting any response from her to his renewed presence.....................

Loda could only watch as the ogre fell and a familiar face made his way back. She did not react that much when he showed up, only looking down to the marching enemy that will soon be on them. She prepared herself, grabbing her axe and shield and waited for the enemy. She will wait until the enemy get a lot closer, and then cast bulls strength upon herself, readying for combat. She stepped closer to the coming horde and watched as the impending fight came up from below.

The Ogre had fallen, but the entire encampemnt below was already on the move, and in a few minutes they would come pouring over that hill and all hell would break loose. Thondrek picked himself up from his trip, and rubbed the bruises the jagged rocks undoubtedly left upon him.

"Aye that'll leave a mark."

Thondrek mentally went over his spell rpetoir, and checked his new axe. There would be penty of goblin skuls to crack tonight.

If there's time and boulder's enough to allow for it, Thondrek will suggest movin to a higher position and rolling boulders down the hill into the valley below to try and pick off and scatter as many goblins as they can before actively engageing them. He's even willing to Dimension hop some boulder's from their resting places into the air to allow for some inertia to start the rolling motion if needed (if strength isn't able to move them)

(If not, he'll still move to a higher more advantages position.

"If the boulders aren't an option, I suggest we still move ta higher ground, take cover and utilize our ranged weapons till they get closer. wedge between rock outcroppings and boulders o limit their numbers advancing at a single time; an get them inta lines and straights for Alyssia ta tear a hole through with her lightning. I've got a single fireball left and a bunch of firebolt's I can call forth, but I'm thinking we need ta be thinkin more along the line's o defensive measures here people."
(will cover plan again in mechanics terms in q/a)

After he tripped Geim clammered up off the steep trail and took off after the ogre again. It seems fine Dwarven plate so good for protection had hindered his agility over rocky steep ground. The Bladesinger was ahead of him so hopefully she could engage him long enough.

A bit further down the trail Geim came across the Bladesinger and he was surprised to see Malius standing there bow in hand. The orge, thankfully, was down.

“Good for that,” Geim thought and he moved closer

“Malius lad, It is good to see you. A timely arrival.” The Geim kinda of coughed a bit clearing his throat. Malius lad,....ah....I was hard on you lad back in Hith Elee. Can you forgive my harsh words.

Geim looked down at the encampment below. Watching the activity below, he turns to the two elves. “We have to get moving and quick. We may have been sent up here to find out what happened to the dwarves here in the Chakran Mountains but we have business that is more important now. The Sylvari must be warned.

Geim looks at the body, “Malius help me just dump this body down the canyon.”

Geim turned back uphill and headed back to the others. . Back at the grassy meadow, Geim calls out to the rest of the group. “We need to get out of here and back over the mountains to warn the Sylvari. That takes precedence over finding dwarves missing for a hundred years or more.

We also need to find a way to stall them coming after us. Something fast and quick but will take them a long time to by pass. It might give us the edge we need to make it back. Perhaps I can start a landslide down that path or find a way to wipe out a big portion of it. Wish, I was high enough to cause an earthquake. Maybe cause that canyon to fall down on those below. Wouldn’t that be nice? However, wishes won’t get that done. Put your brains to our problems people and let’s get cracking.”

An idea struck Thondrek and he moved to the Ogre's felled body, and placed a trio of Axe marks into the Ogre, particularly hiding the arrow wound. Then falling into a ghost sound he replicated the Ogre's yell. (In goblin kind for autenticty of commanding the lesser races)

"Run! The Chakran Dwarves have returned! And They've brought Terrible beasts! The spirits of the fallen have returned! Argggg!"

Then with the help of those around he dumps the body down the path into the valley Next, He duplicated the Roar of a pack of wolves, and to top that off, fell into another Ghost sound (the third one) replicating the roar of a Dire Tiger.

To make the illusion seem even more impressive, Loda and Thondrek, along with gothard by their side pickd up the bodies of the charred and slain Goblins, and with a fourth Ghost sound Thondrek made it sound like a contingent of twenty Dwarves Chanting "Death to the Tresspassers!" Before They tossed the bodies down into the valley and ducked out of sight.

As much as she would like to run back and warn the Sylvari, it would take her away from the group, and her orders to find out what the Goblins were up to. As others offered suggestions, she shook her head at the idea of fighting. Yes, it was a steep trail and it offered opportunities for mass damage, but what they need to do was give themselves time to get away.

Making it seem like the spirits of the Chakrandum was one thing, but letting any of them close enough would give that ruse away. Added to that was that fact of attrition, there were only 7 of them and who new how many thousand there were of the enemy.

“Geim, as much as I would love to warn my people, they are too far back. I am hoping the Empire has been roused and the there are others on the border keeping watch. I am thinking if we can find enough dead wood and some of the pine branches we can build a pretty big fire that can bee seen for a long way. It may give some warning to watchers at the borders that there is something to take note of up here.”

“I do think we do should do something to slow them down, if we can perpetrate the ruse of avenging spirits all the better, but we can not let them get up here and see us.”

“Now a question of the Khords, Do you know where we have to go? Do we have to go down in the valley or can we go around it?”

Geim shakes his head indicating negative. "Sorry, we were sent here to find out what happened to them but we were not given no particular direction. You SYlvari could start your run back, being faster than some of the rest of us. You should be able to keep ahead of them. We could try holding them off Since it seems that they have to get up here to get us"

"Your idea about fire ain't to bad. Pine cones make great fire bombs. Easy to start on fire but they last long So does bark of pine and fir trees. A log fall would be nice but it would take to long to stack enough to make it work, Landslide could also work. Get the rocks to rolling and let them do the work for us.

"Geim, it would take days of running to get to the castle and then back again. You can not hold this path indefinately."

"As far as rock falls, I can see outcropping of boulders, but they are big and would be hard loosen. Archers would soon be out of ammunition, you would soon be out of spells and and I do not think they will allow you the courtesy of an uninterrupted rest long enough to regain your spells. They can win in a war of attrition."

"As I said, do what we can quickly and the leave, covering all track of non-Khords as best we can to perpitrate the ruse. AS for a message to my people, the sky is clear and a bonfire in the night sky can be seen for miles, it is the best warning we can send Sylvaria right now. We already know of the Goblin threat, but those who sent me want to know more about it. Like who or what is the driving force to it."

She looks about at the more warlike members of the group.

"For the love of the Gods of Good, we are not an army.

"Malius," she turns to the returned Sylvari ranger, "tell him that running back to the Moonlit Castle is just too time consuming. Time that we could use finding the reason behind this all."

Their is a look in her eyes that draws him, and no hint of any ill-feeling at his not helping in burying the dead of Hith Elee, or of leaving the group. She just folding him back into the group as if he had never been gone. She steps up beside him needing his support of her plan.

As Malius waited for what was sure be a happy or unhappy reunion he was surprised that the first words spoken to him were not from the Bladesinger but from Geim.

“Malius lad, it is good to see you. A timely arrival.”

Geim then kind of coughed a bit clearing his throat.

“Malius lad...ah....I was hard on you back in Hith Elee. Can you forgive my harsh words?”

“The words spoken then are done my friend and I hold you not to blame for them, I just hope you can accept me back among you”

With his reply given Malius held out his hand (I assume it will be taken) with a quick shake and release Geim looked down at the encampment below. After only a moment the dwarf turned back to the two Sylvari.

“We have to get moving and quick. We may have been sent up here to find out what happened to the dwarves here in the Chakran Mountains but we have business that is more important now. The Sylvari must be warned. Malius help me just dump this body down the canyon.”

With Geim’s help, and after Thondrek's artistic additions, the Ogre he had killed was tossed down to where the oncoming horde was approaching. With a loud theatrical rendition, again by Thondrek, they were joined by the rest. Malius thought it strange at first that none other then Geim had acknowledged his presence once again amongst them but with the threat at hand he could understand the reason for a lack of greeting from most.

Once all were together the debate of what to do next started and as he had just returned to them he at first remained silent, as too did Draven and Alyssia.
Only when his name was spoken did he turn to take note of such.


"For the love of the Gods of Good, we are not an army. Malius, tell him that running back to the Moonlit Castle is just too time consuming. Time that we could use finding the reason behind this all."

Malius with Elessarae’s first words to him found himself on the spot to either agree with her or to disagree, not exactly the first words he had hoped to hear from her. With a deep breath he replied at last knowing his words would not sit well with her.

“If we run now, all of us, will not to make it. Draven, Alyssia, myself and you Elessarae would most likely be able to out run the horde but that would mean leaving Geim, Loda and Thondrek alone to die as they will not, without magical aid, be able to keep up with us and out run the goblins. Unless we have such a way to do so then I feel it is best for the majority of us to stand and fight giving one of the four fastest enough time to get away to warn the races in the hordes path. Maybe if we are lucky we can hold them off long enough to survive.”