G01 — Session 13

1626

---

Season, Week, Day

Events

Meanwhile, back in Blackspear, Serala and Arim questioned the resident Humakti on the art of dragon-fighting, and somehow ended up recounting the Battle of Queens to the elders. They got a good description of the land around the tomb they were seeking, and headed on to Apple Lane to rendezvous with the rest of their party.

Seeing smoke, they arrived in Apple Lane at a gallop expecting the worst, but found the smoke was coming from a single hut to the east. Serala joined Finarvi and a group of locals who were discussing what to do about the Tusk Riders.

The villagers recounted that the Riders had come down the North Road, looped around the settlement and fled northeast when the Horsemaster (the Grazelander horse breeder Serala had heard about back in Clearwine) cast Shining Light on them. The priestess of Ilyria stated they would be back. The fyrd had been sent for, but not yet arrived. The locals were, on the whole, not fighting types. Henderost, the Horsemaster, sent a stable boy on horseback to Blackspear for help.

Ivalla scouted the area, finding the tracks of 8 large boar. Serala sent her hawk up and spied eight Tusk Riders lying in wait down the track.

The Grazelanders drew on their past experience fighting Tusk Riders as part of the rebel army, knowing their morale could be quite brittle. Jorrim began casting Warding around the Tin inn, judging it the most defensible building in Apple Lane, and the three Grazelanders determined to engage the Tusk Riders on the road to buy them more time to prepare. Arim laid out for Jorrim where the warding should be, and patrolled the village to make sure he knew it.

Ivalla and Uhnta climbed the tower of the Temple to All Gods with her bow, and on her recommendation, the remaining villagers who could not fight fled into the woods.

Using Farsight, Serala confirmed the Tusk Riders were not armed with bows, and chose the perfect ambush spot to make full use of their horses’ maneuverability to harry them. Serala rode forwards to engage, and Henderost and Finarvi wheeled and retreated, readying their bows. Serala’s arrows speared the lead Tusk Rider, causing him to drop his lance and halt to heal his wounds. She turned and galloped past Finarvi and Henderost who engaged the remaining Tusk Riders, felling one. The attack managed to enrage the Riders enough that four of them were drawn into chasing the annoying Grazelanders, but their leader, having healed himself and cast haste magic on his mount, rejoined and led the rest of the charge into Apple Lane.

Up in the tower of the temple, Korina joined Ivalla and offered to give her a better vantage to engage in the battle. She floated Ivalla into the air on a column of wind above the unsuspecting boar riders.

At the inn, Jorrim finished casting Warding and retreated inside the inn’s gate, where Arim, a lone spearman and a Durulz named Gooseberry stood ready to defend. Arim and the others had constructed a hasty shooting platform at the inn’s wall with a barrel for Gooseberry, who wasn’t tall for a duck.

The remaining three Tusk Riders, including their leader, barreled down the road to Apple Lane. The four chasing the Grazelanders fell foul of the horse-mounted archers’ tactics of ‘shoot and scoot’. They ran rings around the less nimble boar, but the Tusk Riders’ large shields proved effective against the Grazelanders’ arrows. Finarvi shifted tactics, circling to attack the one chasing Serala and catching him by surprise.

From atop her tornado, Ivalla shot another of the Tusk Riders in the head. It didn’t slow him.

The three lead Tusk Riders charged into Apple Lane. At the inn, Gooseberry and Arim let rip with their slings, Jorrim’s javelin destroyed the shield of one of the Riders. His second javelin pinned the Rider’s leg to his boar, which squealed in pain and ran blindly into Jorrim’s Ward. The Rider was knocked off the pig – all but his leg, which was still firmly pinned to his mount. The pig kept going. The second Rider charged through the ward and rammed the inn’s gate, which held.

Arim drew his greatsword and engaged the remaining Tusk Riders, backed up by Gooseberry and the village’s lone spearman. Jorrim severely wounded one of the Riders with an axe and Arim finished it with a decapitation so impressive the head was not found afterwards. The last Rider veered away, blowing a horn, but none of his comrades rallied. Just outside the village, Ivalla and the three Grazelanders were finishing off the last of his band. He fled.

The villagers returned jubilant, and an hour later, the fyrd arrived. A little while after, some Humakti turned up too. Apple Lane hosted a feast to celebrate.

Jorrim spoke to Korina the God-talker and the Ernalda initiates about Red-Eye the Giant Boar. They thought the Tusk Riders lived up there too, and regarded Red-Eye almost like a god. Killing the Tusk Riders should make dealing with Red-Eye easier. He asked the Ernaldan initiates how best to propitiate Ernalda.