Session 10: The Battle At Byron Valley, finale

The Beardians and their goblin allies were still engaged in open battle with Dokt'mahn Haeten and his orc army. A number of orcs had already fallen to goblin traps and Chauncey's magic, but the corpses of these fallen were being collected into a pile by a couple of orc necromancers. Meanwhile, on the other side of the wind-swept fields, Dokt'mahn Haeten was attacking Chauncey and dealing serious damage, even as he was being surrounded by goblins and Beardians. He swiped at the wizard again -- she managed to dodge -- before shooting up into the sky, a barrage of goblin weaponry raining into the spot he'd just been. He flew across the field and alighted upon a cliff overlooking the group.

At the same time, Andy and his warriors advanced hurridly on the necromancers' corpse pile and were greeted by three barbarian bodyguards. Though the druid was stalled, the other Beardians' attention had also been drawn to his target, and arrows came flying at the necromancers. The missiles flew past or bounced off their decorated armor as the necromancers started their work: the first cast a fine powder across the corpses and the second placed a dark gem into each of their skulls. As each gem was set, the skeleton of the corpse broke free of its charred flesh and stood tall, battleaxe in bony hand. The small undead army began its march towards the foe.

And then the other shoe dropped. On the cliff overlooking the whole battlefield, Dokt'mahn Haeten stretched out his hands and a gale of icy death hailed out. Something like three quarters of the Beardian-goblin army were caught in the blast -- most of the goblins were immediately frozen to death as was one unfortunate wizard. Chauncey the anonymous elf popsicle teetered over and smashed against the ground, icy bits of her breaking off as her lifeless face looked on in frozen horror. The ogre mage cackled and again rose into the sky.

Below, Eddi shrugged off the death of his comrade to focus on surviving himself. He slid down the cliff he'd been standing on overlooking the necromancers' activities and raised his holy symbol, the sign of Kord gleaming in the sunlight. That gleam turned into a white light that scorched the bones of the skeleton army, yet they continued to advance. In retaliation, one of the necromancers pointed at Eddi and the cleric felt his body go numb -- the now familiar feeling of a paralyzation spell.

Meanwhile, Andy and his goblins had taken heavy damage from Haeten's attack, and they retreated from the nearby barbarians. Now the barbarians' closest target was Eddi and they advanced quickly. Grunting, Kerrac, who'd been backing up the cleric, jumped down from the above cliff and launched his sword at the orcs. But by now one had already taken careful aim at the helpless Eddi and its axe came streaking down-- and then the cleric lay in pool of his blood, a gaping wound in his neck.

Now Andy and the remaining goblins were gathering upon the cliff overlooking this scene, the ogre mage all but forgotten as they tried to rescue their healer unit. As Kerrac struck down the orc who'd attacked Eddi, Andy joined him below -- the druid rushed to the cleric and reached out with a curing spell. Skin suddenly regrew over the neck wound and the bleeding stopped -- Eddi returned to his feet with a sigh of relief and his holy symbol in hand. He raised it again, and this time the light passed over his allies, whose wounds closed similarly. Crisis averted, he, Andy, and Kerrac now turned to the six skeletons surrounding them.

Above them, a group of surviving goblins squealed in terror as Dokt'mahn Haeten's greatsword cut through their ranks. Their leader, another hobgoblin like Kerrac, barked out commands at them -- to attack the skeletons below while he held off the ogre mage. As the hobgoblin valiently deflected Haeten's attacks, two of the goblins gave a battlecry and launched two flasks of acid at the undead nearing the cornered Eddi and Andy. The flasks broke against the bared bones, smoldering green liquid splashing over the group of them ...

And that was it. The last strength of the bones, already disintegrated partly by the holy light of Eddi's symbol, gave out under the acid and the skeletons fell apart at the Beardians' feet. Andy wiped the sweat from his brow.

The remaining threats were taken down swiftly. As the drama by the southern cliffside had unfolded, K'Phalvius and his entourage of archers had been sitting out of reach on the northern cliffs, methodically sniping away at orc stragglers and the necromancers, who finally fell to the missiles. All that were left were a couple barbarians and skeletons who had not fallen to the acid, but quickly did to the Beardians' next attacks.

Dokt'mahn Haeten made a last ditch effort to save the situation. He stood above Eddi and cooed magical words at the cleric, speaking out a charm spell, but the cleric's hosility was too great and he resisted the mind trick. Now outnumbered and his defeat probable, the ogre mage chose to retreat. Like a rocket, he jetted into the sky, cursing and yelling out threats of vengeance until he became no more than a dot on the eastern horizon.

Of the once proud goblin tribe that had attempted to ransack Byron Valley, not enough were left to ransack an outhouse. There seemed little cause for celebration as the Beardians gathered around the black and blue corpse of their wizardly companion and Kerrac surveyed his decimated troops. Many had fallen in this war -- but not as many as might have if the orcs had won, and now, finally, Byron Valley was safe again.