Chapter One: Peril in the Trees: It was around the time of the Novgorodian Crisis when the Viceory disappeared. With the peace negotiations still hanging by the thread, Thalion had departed the castle of Slezkh to run a convoy of weapons and silver to Ismirala Keep, the Warden's capital. Manpower was low, so he had only his household soldiers with him, a company of around one hundred. Far fewer than was safe to carry such a large cache of valuables. Still it had to be done, the army was assembling and must be ready if peace talks fell through.
They had been travelling now for several days. It was slow going, though the weather was not unpleasant. Thought it was summer in the far north, it rarely rose above 60 degrees. As they passed into the forests that surrounded the bridge of Curaw, however, the going became more difficult. Hills rose up, often with bleak and grey rocks jutting above the tops of the trees, barren and windswept. To complicate matters worse, the last two outriders had not returned, which boded ill.
Thalion was just about to order a halt to regroup and send out a proper scouting party, in force, when they came around the bend to discover several fallen trees across the road. It must have been a very sharp wind that blew these trees over, for as Thalion examined them closer it looked as though they had been felled by an axe.
"Shields up!" shouted Thalion in a loud voice and not a moment to soon as crossbow bolts and arrows came whizzing through the trees. Several men fell. Suddenly his horse heaved and threw him off, he hit the ground hard. Men were now charging down from the trees towards the caravan. Bandits, by the look at them.
Thalion was still trying to get air back into his lungs when a dirty fur clad man stood in the sunlight, casting a shadow over the Viceory. "Your money or your life!" said the man, showing a mouthful of crooked and yellow teeth. His facial expression contorted in pain however when a young squire skewered him form behind with a warspear.
"Well done, Squire!" said Thalion getting his to feet with a wince. The situation was bad, there were still arrows and bolts coming form the trees, pinning down the majority of the men at arms. Most of the knights had already had their horses shot out from behind them. While other small parties of raiders were fighting for possession of the wagons, while other bandits, less patient, were trying to plunder the wagons in the midst of battle.
"This way!" said Thalion, beckoning to the Squire, the sprinted for the circular shield-wall that had been formed, consiting of a mishmash of men-at-arms, knights and everyone else who didn't want to be shot.
"We can't loose the cargo, and we can't turn the wagons and escape with them in this hail of arrows, we've got to get up into those trees and disperse the archers, at least for a while. Do we have any ranged?" As luck would have it there were a handful of archers and huntsmen with their crossbows in caravan. "Good, so here's the plan..."
A moment later the shield wall erupted as a dozen men with shields pushed forward on either side up into the trees, followed by half that number of two handers. The ranged, that were once on the inside of that circle now turned their attention towards the unprotected men raiding the wagons and opened fire. Bandits started to drop quickly. Fortunately the speed of the attack occupied the enemy ranged on each side of the road, and they did not have the time to direct their fire towards the exposed backs of the men advancing on the opposite flank. For had they, things might have gone poorly. As it was, the shields covered the advance, the hurried barrage of arrows and bolts was rendered harmless. The agi-builds in the company then sprinted forward to close in on the archers. Bandits began to fall quickly, and were driven off.
So rapid was the advance, however, that had started as a tight push, was not becoming ragged and spaced out. Thalion gave the order for a retreat and his men began to withdraw. Looking behind him he scanned the woods for sign of the retreating bandits. All he could hear now was the crash of running heading in the opposite direction, how fading from earshot. Hopefully enough bandits had been slain or driven off to give them time to clear the road and get moving again.
Suddenly, he felt a pain in his left shoulder. "By all the Valar..." he said threw gritted teeth as he looked down and saw a crossbow bolt that had made it through his mail and gambeson. The bolt was not buried that deeply but it looked as though he had already lost a decent amount of blood. How long had it been there? Somewhere in the rush of battle, between the adrenaline and the excitement he had been shot and not even noticed. Then he heard a twig snap. A bandit stepped out from the nearest tree, where he had stood concealed behind its trunk. Thalion raised his sword as the bandit crossed the distance and swung a heavy wooden mallet in a crushing blow against the viceroy. He managed to avoided being crushed, though the parry had caused him to stagger back, and loosing his foot on a root began a very quick ascent down into a bramble filled gully that reached out with painful and welcoming arms to embrace him. His head hit something hard and he knew no more.
So, I am in sorta back. Using a borrowed laptop until other arrangements can be made for a new comp. This laptop however, being 10 years old cannot play any of my games. So it will be a little while longer till I am back in full swing. In the mean time, might as well write some RP.
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