Friday, September 5, 2008
Legions
Something wicked this way comes.
~Shakespeare's Macbeth~
My return trip to Gloumenwood was on a wing and a prayer for if the Briar King has his way, I will soon be a murderess twice over. I cannot bear yet another death on my conscious but in all honesty, there was little to bolster my hope as I back tracked to the Necromancer's hermitage deep in the wood. He had left me high and dry last time, you see, and yet somehow contorted my perception to believe it a good start. I am not sure his calming sorcery is deliberate or not but I am most susceptible.
I had come to the final leg of the game trail leading to his sod roofed house when the quiet was shattered with a high pitched, yet guttural battle cry. I jerked by young mare about face to locate the source but the skaven got the drop on me. Ambushed!
Those vile half breeds are pure muscle and when it leapt down from its lofty hiding place, I was bunted clear from the saddle. One moment sitting tall and the next pitching to the side where I hit to the hard dirt without one mercy of either soft grass or leaves. Impact knocked the wind out of me and the pain that rip-roared up my side must've dazed me.
The events leading to an intimate view of the Necromancer's boots, periodically obscured by the rustle of his cloak's hem are sketchy at best. He was shouting in a tongue I am unfamiliar with, old and authoritative sounding while brandishing a staff over me.
Whatever he said was taken to heart by the rat man.. who after bobbing its head several times and making good its simpering apologies, scuttled off into the brush. We heard its piercing screams moments after its disappearance as well as what sounded like thick rain, unseen droplets falling from the canopy to patter down on the large leaves of the undergrowth.
Warrick had.. saved my life, I suppose, although when I gained my feet and my wits, I could tell he wasn't all that happy to be hero of the day. He seemed preoccupied and a little put out to have to deal with me and my insistence we find Calliope. My horse was missing, no doubt spooked from the attack.
And so we followed her fresh hoof prints along the path until we came to an immense web, so big it bridged the space between two equally sizable trees. My beloved mare was snared. In her mad dash to escape, she had ran right into it.
I had come to the final leg of the game trail leading to his sod roofed house when the quiet was shattered with a high pitched, yet guttural battle cry. I jerked by young mare about face to locate the source but the skaven got the drop on me. Ambushed!
Those vile half breeds are pure muscle and when it leapt down from its lofty hiding place, I was bunted clear from the saddle. One moment sitting tall and the next pitching to the side where I hit to the hard dirt without one mercy of either soft grass or leaves. Impact knocked the wind out of me and the pain that rip-roared up my side must've dazed me.
The events leading to an intimate view of the Necromancer's boots, periodically obscured by the rustle of his cloak's hem are sketchy at best. He was shouting in a tongue I am unfamiliar with, old and authoritative sounding while brandishing a staff over me.
Whatever he said was taken to heart by the rat man.. who after bobbing its head several times and making good its simpering apologies, scuttled off into the brush. We heard its piercing screams moments after its disappearance as well as what sounded like thick rain, unseen droplets falling from the canopy to patter down on the large leaves of the undergrowth.
Warrick had.. saved my life, I suppose, although when I gained my feet and my wits, I could tell he wasn't all that happy to be hero of the day. He seemed preoccupied and a little put out to have to deal with me and my insistence we find Calliope. My horse was missing, no doubt spooked from the attack.
And so we followed her fresh hoof prints along the path until we came to an immense web, so big it bridged the space between two equally sizable trees. My beloved mare was snared. In her mad dash to escape, she had ran right into it.
Posted by Bryony de Rose at 9:05 AM «|»
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