Wrath of the Righteous - Worldwound Incursion [IC]

[NeoSeraphi]

"Why should we risk such a thing?" Shauna asks. "We have a mage here. Aravashinaal, can you use your magic to see what is happening there?" she asks the elf.

[Kallimakus]

"I lack the power to cast such spells under my own power" Aravashinal says. "But those in my order would sometimes use spells of remote viewing. I observed. And learned."
He produces two scrolls. "I have deciphered and understood the spell, and can cast it from these scrolls, but when they are spent, so is our chance. I... Hoped to be able to scribe one copy into my spellbook, but I struggle to produce some of the intricacies. But the cause matters more than my ambition."
"I think we should cast the spell" Irabeth says. If there is trouble, the garrison could use help sooner than Anevia and Aron can ride back to tell us.
"Yes. We should waste no time. That's the most valuable resource." Nurah says.
"About this. It will take an hour to cast" Aravashinal says, "So the benefits will be mostly for surprise and safety"

[Frosty]

"An hour? That will not be of benefit if we are trying to save the garrison from an attack. Might as well cast invisibility on our scouts and have them take a look."

[Diachronos]

"There's no sense in wasting such a valuable resource when it won't save us any time."

[NeoSeraphi]

"Then be careful, Aron. Anevia." Shauna nods. "Hasten back and we will respond based on your information."

[Kallimakus]

With the course decided, Nurah casts her allotment of spells, rendering Anevia and Aron, as well as their steeds, entirely invisible.
"Best not dismount" she suggests. "Please bring us news of Vilöareth's Ford"
"And stay safe, both of you" Irabeth says.
"Blessings of the Songbird guide your way" Sosiel says.

The two scouts head out as the army prepares to march. There is an air of tension as the group awaits news. Irabeth paces restlessly as she awaits Anevia's return. Half an hour later, there is the sound of hooves and trails of dust on the road.
"You can dismiss the spells, Nurah" Aron says. The halfling nods, and the two riders return to visibility.

"There's been a battle. A host of tieflings has taken the garrison. Many soldiers and civilians have been rounded up. Didn't see many dead." Anevia says quickly.
"Odd." Aravashinal says.
"Not so. Righteous souls need to be properly sacrificed. Such has saved many crusaders from worse fates
"Did you see any proper fiends?" Irabeth asks
"We did. It was among the lesser types but I'm not sure which."
"We have heroes to face the fiend, and an army of the righteous to take the tieflings! We ride!" Irabeth rallies the troops, and they move ahead.

The sight and sound of the approaching crusaders does not go unnoticed. The tieflings, not quite as ragtag as the ones in Kenabres, assemble outside the small settlement. Atop one building, a fiend screeches orders and waves its arms, inaudible to your location. They seem to have a small edge in numbers, but are on foot.

[NeoSeraphi]

Shauna draws her blade and raises it valiantly into the air. "For Galfrey! For Kenabres! For the Fifth Crusade!" she yells to the warriors behind her, before charging towards the fiend with righteous fury.

[Frosty]

Luna smooths down her skirt, and adjusts her breastplate. "Well, I could probably distract them if I were to make my armor invisible, but...let's keep it simple this time. Charge!"

[Kallimakus]

The crusaders roar in assent, charging at the assembled host of tieflings. The undisciplined force breaks ranks as the charge hits home, cut down and trampled, the rear ranks fleeing rather than support those in front. A testament to the potency of heavy cavalry. Seeing the battle turn against them, the Brimorak demon teleprts away without even drawing his burning blade, too cowardly to take a stand. The crusaders break through the tieflings, riding to the garrison, Irabeth leading the way. Some, those more eager to exact vengeance for Kenabres and other places handle the dregs of the tieflings. Few surrender.

"We could use some healers here" Irabeth calls. There are a dozen bound soldiers that had been dragged out to a makeshift altar, still incomplete, though clearly intended to collect the blood of those sacrificed upon it. All of them are injured to some degree, abused by their tiefling captors.

The rear are also brought in. Horgus approaches Irabeth. "We should loot the tieflings for supplies."
One of the nearby Crusaders rises to this. "Taking supplies from an abandoned village is one thing, but to take the tainted supplies of the tieflings..."
Irabeth looks at Shauna and Skerak. "I'd rather not risk taint of our forces."

[Diachronos]

Skerak thinks for a moment. "Is there a way to sort out any supplies that aren't tainted?"

[Kallimakus]

"To answer your question, not really." Horgus says. "I doubt there is any taint though. These were just tiefling scum, not true fiends."
"We can't take that chance" the Crusader says.

[Frosty]

"If it's just poison you're worried about, I believe there is a simple spell that can detect poison. If it's an evil presence, well the paladins can certainly detect evil. Or is taint different that?" Luna keeps an eye out, just in case the brimorak returns with backup or something.

[Kallimakus]

"I doubt even fiends would poison their own soldiers" Sosiel muses, worry showing on his dark-skinned face. "And while you are right, only a fairly major evil stigma is detectable."
"They would try to corrupt their troops to bind them in service of evil." the Crusader says.
"We are blessed with a degree of resistance by the Inheritor, so something we can't detect isn't a big risk. But I think it's too much, Horgus. It's like you said. We must keep ourselves safe, for the same objective."
Nurah huffs and the halfling slips away.

Lily, Luna's friend, is hard at work healing the injured of the garrison. Aravashinal, Anevia, Aron and Emilie pick through the battlefield, looking for clues of why the army was here right now. Enough to block your path, but not arriving early enough to fortify it and pose a true challenge.

As the heroes discuss, they see a glint from a nearby cliff, and it almost seems like there's a figure briefly silhouetted against the sky.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

You rolled well enough on Perception to see this. The second roll was Sense Motive.

[Frosty]

Luna points out the figure to Irabeth and the others. "Hey, I think we're being watched by someone on that cliff. I'm sure they'll be long gone by the time we get there, but we should still keep our guard up. We've had people sneaking into our encampment before. Maybe they'll try again."

[NeoSeraphi]

Shauna looks out towards the cliff. She waves her hand to the creature. If they were friendly, they would advance. If they were an enemy, they would make themselves scarce.

[Kallimakus]

The figure bolts, again briefly visible in silhouette against the sky before disapparing over the far side.

[Frosty]

"Yeah, definitely keep extra watches tonight." Luna says before she turns back to Irabeth. "Irabeth, I understand that you want want to be careful. So we I. How about this? We take the provisions and we keep them separated from the other supplies for now. We have a while before we use up our initial food. We can use that time for Aravashnial or someone else qualified to study the supplies and make sure it won't do us any harm. It's better to take it so we have the option of using it later."

[Kallimakus]

Irabeth nods. "That seems an acceptable compromise. Lord Gwerm, see to it."
"Yes, yes, more work for me." Horgus says, setting off to sort things out with a few drafted Crusaders.

"We'll need to talk to the survivors, to learn anything we can of our opposition" Sosiel says.
A woman among survivors bears insignia of a sergeant, most likely the one in charge of the garrison.

[Frosty]

"Thank you, Irabeth. Lord Gwerm, this is exactly your area of expertise. No one can do it better than you can!" Luna knows the effectiveness of strategic ass-kicking and puffing of egos.

"Alright, let's go talk to that sergeant over there." says the cleric as she walks to greet that survivor. "Greetings. I'm Luna. I'm glad we got to you in time before things got worse. Are you and the others doing alright? Can you tell us what happened?"

[NeoSeraphi]

Shauna smiles warmly at the woman. "I'm glad to see you survived. Are you hurt? Has anyone soiled your honor?"

[Kallimakus]

"Sergeant Dann" the woman says. "Damn demonkin came to us in the dark. First we knew our sentry fires went dark. Not just out... they were warm, but there was no light. Didn't stand a chance. They murdered our commander and priest, consecrating that... thing" she says, pointing at the altar. She turns to Shauna. "I'm fine. Some others were made to entertain our captors. They didn't make it."

She thinks for a moment. Their leader said that they would only need to hold this town for a moment before the bulk of their forces from the Keeper's Canyon could arrive."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

You can roll knowledge (geography) or just ask.

[Frosty]

"I'm glad you're alright, Sergeant Dann. We will mourn for your fellows that perished. For now, it sounds like we don't have much time. Where's Keeper's Canyon? If this place is about to be under attack, is it a defensible position we can fortify?"

[Kallimakus]

"Keeper's Canyon is where Ahari river once joined the Sellen River that runs here. It dried up following the fall of Drezen, and forms a sheltered path to and from the fallen city." Dann says. "It's about a day's ride away. Our patrols usually don't go so far, for risk of getting caught out."

"While this place serves as an adequate defence, they can circumvent it." Irabeth says. The place isn't fully walled, with some watchtowers, and a sturdy fortified structure in the middle of the town. "We need to take the fight to them. We fight best on the attack."

"Nurah, do you know if the place is fortified somehow?" Sosiel asks, looking around, realizing only now the halfling had left. "Hmm... I'll tend to the survivors and set them at ease. As a historian, Nurah is probably most familiar with what lies ahead."

[Frosty]

"We need to have scouts out, since we don't know when the enemy might come for us. That said, if nothing else, we should move out soon because we don't want to waste supplies just sitting here anyways. Sergeant, are there any supplies and food we can take with us? We are going to retake Drezen, if you'd like to join us."

Luna looks around. "Nurah is gone, yeah. We could use her advice yes. I guess I'll go look for her." She do so after listening to Dann's answer.

[NeoSeraphi]

"Do you mean to take our entire force, Irabeth?" Shauna asks.

[Kallimakus]

Dann nods. "We need only enough to survive until stores can be brought from Kenabres." she says. The supplies here that could be taken for the army would be enough for an additional day. So far, their original supplies were still mostly there thanks to their foraging.
"As for joining you... We can't abandon our post."

"I do" Irabeth says in response to Shauna. "The river is the only avenue of attack. As we move towards the demons, they cannot go past us even if they tried."

What she leaves unsaid is that any foe able to circumvent their force could also defeat any token force they would leave here. Best to move out in force.

Luna finds Nurah near where the horses were gathered, heading back to the garrison.

[NeoSeraphi]

Shauna nods. "Only one chance then. We must use it to our full advantage. I am ready to leave when you are."

[Frosty]

"Hey Nurah, there you are! I'm wondering what your thoughts are on the defensibility of this place. It seems like trying to split our forces to leave a guard at this location might just make it easier for the demons to defeat us in detail. We might just take the survivors with instead."

[Kallimakus]

The halfling looks a little surprised to come across Luna here. She thinks on the question for a moment.
"It would be best to take them with. Stronger together, and all that."

She seems reluctant to go against Luna's thought, hesitating briefly before saying "Unfortunately, they lack steeds. Our pace would be halved. Best they remain, alert, or return to Kenabres along the road we made safe."

Irabeth shakes her head at Shauna. "We best wait until everyone is ready. We'll ride the full distance, just camp later."
"I can go all the way to the Canyon, scout it out so we'll know what we're getting into tonight" Anevia says.

[Frosty]

"We don't want to be slowed down that's for sure. I'll talk to the commander and see what we can do about that. Thanks Nurah!" With that, Luna will return to Irabeth and bring up the problem with the lack of mounts for these survivors. "I think we should double up. Two smaller people should ride one steed. We can't leave the survivors behind. They'd get killed."