Death Comes Part 1 - A View From Above.

The crew: The Big One [Ian], The Skinny One [Jamie], The Little She [Kevin], The Pretty One [Andrew], The Dark One [Jeff], The Sneaky One [Darryl], The Little He [Chris], The Elf [Shane], with The Blind One [Steven] succumb to the Marmalade and lying about the place.

“Find the intruders” mistress commanded.

Watch the intruders” mistress commanded.

“Follow the intruders” mistress commanded.

“And tell me” mistress commanded.

That witch was so bossy, and sometimes my avian brain could not grasp her instructions. But since we had bonded, I was much better at understanding her. This should be pretty easy; find, watch, follow, report. No problems.

Swooping down from the tower

I swooped down from the top of the watch tower where I maintained my local nest, her instructions still ringing in my head. Her impressions were very strong, she sure was in a thunderous mood. Something must have upset her dreadfully. Probably these intruders.

The upper was dark and cloudy today, and there was wet in the air. A blustery wind was rumbling in from Klibward, rolling over the top of the rim and tumbling down into the crater. It was pushing the surface of the lake into waves and tearing the tops of the waves off and tossing the wet into the air.

A tattered column of black smoke was rising from the end of the island. But it was shredding into streamers as the blustery wind pounded on it. Things were happening. I would start my search there.

Tucking my wings in tight, I dove down towards the smoke and caught the hot air billowing up out of the cave. As I spiralled up and around the outside of the smoke column, I spotted a group of people scattered around the cave entrance. These must be the intruders. Found!

Two nasty gargoyles

They were clustered around two piles of shattered rocks in the small clearing outside the cave. But they seemed agitated about something. The Elf was gesturing up at the sky, away from where I circled, towards the middle of the island. Probably at the two gargoyle sisters who were streaking down towards them. That would agitate me too.

The Elf and the Pretty One flung some missiles towards them, and then the Big One, the Little She, and the Elf all stepped forward to meet them. The Sneaky One and the Little He were lurking in the fringe of the green nearby and began moving cautiously through the green around to the opposite side of the clearing.

The Dark One was standing near the smoking cave, peering into the smoke, and coughing violently as the wind puffed clouds of smoke at him. The Dark One appeared to be distracted though, muttering strange words, and occasionally straightening up and staring directly towards the centre of the island and the distant alter. Strange, there no way he could see that far through the forested hillside.

The Blind One sat on the ground, head down, arms clasped around her knees.

There was a rapid flurry of combat in the clearing and the Big One toppled back and crashed to the ground with a reverberating thump. At the same time, the Sneaky One launched from the green and stabbed his pointy into the back of one of the gargoyle sisters, and retreated back into the green.

The Pretty One stepped over the top of the Big One and engaged with the gargoyle sister. The Pretty One was wielding a large black staff that had suddenly appeared from nowhere.

There was another rapid flurry of combat and the Little She toppled back and rolled to the ground, her pointy flying from her hand and landing near the edge of the green. Little She did not move.

The Little He slipped out of the green and retrieved the pointy. Then Little He slipped back into the green and out of sight.

There was another rapid flurry of combat and the Pretty One toppled back and slumped to the ground. The Pretty One’s leg was badly mangled, strangely bent, and was gushing blood. The Pretty One was not moving.

At the same time, the Sneaky One and the Little He suddenly appeared from the green again and jumped at the gargoyle sisters. The Sneaky One stabbed his pointy into the neck of one gargoyle sister, and the Little He stabbed Little She’s pointy into the thigh of the other.

One of the gargoyle sisters toppled, the pointy locked firmly into her thigh, until she hit the ground and shattered into a pile of rocks. The Little He cackled hilariously and retrieved the pointy from the pile.

The Elf then engaged the remaining gargoyle sister while the Sneaky One and Little He fluttered around the fringe of the mele taking swipes when occasion permitted.

At one point the Little He stumbled and fell into the Sneaky One and Little He’s arms got tangled up in Sneaky One’s legs. So comical. [Chris rolled a 1 on his attack roll, followed by a second roll that would have missed. A fumble. His D20 fumble roll was 7, “Stumble into ally. Both at -4 OV next round”. Chris, the Little He, was at -4 OV for the next round as well, so would be much easier to hit, if the gargoyle went for him.]

During the fight, the Dark One had spun around from the cave mouth and purposely strode off towards the centre of the island. I stayed to watch.

Eventually the battle concluded, the last gargoyle sister being overcome and finally shattering into another pile of rocks. The Elf rushed over to the Pretty One and wrapped her in some white cloth, which immediately stained red.

The Little He rushed over to the cave and did something in the cavemouth with two jar things that he pulled from his backpack.

The Sneaky One dragged The Pretty One out of the clearing and into the green, while the Elf did the same for the Big One and the Little She. The Blind One staggered over to join them in the green.

“Follow them” the witch had commanded. Most of them were clustered here in the green, and the Dark One was on the move. I would follow him now.

Leaving the updraft of the smoke column I glided above the Dark One as he strode purposefully along the narrow trail towards the centre of the island. As he started the shallow climb towards the top of the rise and the witch’s altar there, I spotted the Skinny One ahead, crouched in the green at the side of the altar clearing.

The blood stained altar

The clearing was otherwise empty. The altar had been recently used, fresh blood pooling on the top of the alter and trickling along the carved gutters and down the sides. The witches had been busy. The Black Pit was closed.

The Dark One crested the rise and went straight to the alter. He obviously did not see the Skinny One, but the Skinny One tracked his every move. As the Dark One crouched down at the side of the alter and placed his short pointy into a carved depression in its side, the Skinny One emerged from the green and crept hurriedly forward with a jar thing in each hand, and a smouldering stick hanging on his belt.

Just then a large boom sounded from back towards the cave and I noticed a new concentration of black smoke reinforcing the rising column. Something had exploded back there, but I was watching the unfolding events just below and could not worry about that.

The Dark One was intent upon his short pointy and paid no attention to the distant boom, or to the Skinny One’s approach. Seconds later the Dark One moved across to the Black Pit and effortlessly raised the solid black stone panel, revealing the shaft of the Black Pit dropping away into depths.

The Skinny One was right behind the Dark One at this point and the Skinny One hurled both his jar things down into the Black Pit and they clattered into the darkness. The Dark One definitely noticed this, and he swung his short pointy towards the Skinny One who swayed back out of the way.

The Skinny One then blew on the smouldering stick and tossed it down into the Black Pit after the jar things, and threw himself backwards. The Dark One moved forward to attack him again but was blown off his feet as a huge explosion blew a gout of flame and smoke up out of the Black Pit. The shockwave of heated air radiated out from the Black Pit and tossed me up and away from the alter clearing, tumbling over end for end.

As I tried to regain a stable flight posture, I noticed the Dark One and the Skinny One both pulling back from the second column of black smoke billowing out from the Black Pit. They spoke briefly and then turned towards the cave and hurried off that way together.

Good, the two groups of intruders were likely getting back together. I would follow these two and see what has happened back at the cave.

Halfway there, the Skinny One and the Dark One met the Elf, who was dragging the Pretty One, with the Little She draped over the Pretty One’s body, along the ground towards the alter clearing. They all spoke briefly and then the Elf turned back towards the cave. The Skinny One and the Dark One assisted the Elf, and they dragged the Pretty One and the Little She back down the trail. I could not understand what they were doing.

Smoke billows from the island cave

As they arrived back at the cave clearing, with me gliding along above and behind them, I spotted the Little He throwing some more jar things into the mouth of the cave. This caused another great explosion of noise, flame, and smoke to billow out from the cave and roil up into the sky.

Just before the explosion I had noticed some shadowy figures appearing at the cave mouth. I suspect that they were the mistress’s allies. Probably the Orc troop that mistress’s sister had living at her big nest. There was much screaming in the cave, but it quickly fell to silence.

The Sneaky One was throwing some cloaks over the heads of the fallen ones. They had all been dragged together into a group, their heads all touching in the middle. The Elf had strangely lit up a fat smoke stick and was puffing out small clouds of smoke, and then he thrust it below the cloaks.

Was he trying to burn his comrades?

Then the others all poked their heads under the cloaks too!

I circled into the fringe of the rising black smoke and rode the updraft to gain some altitude. I circled a few times before there was a great stirring from the intruders. They all leapt up, even the Big One and the Pretty One. The Pretty One’s mangled leg looked fine now. She unwrapped the blood red bandages from her leg. There were no wounds.

What was that smoking stick?

The intruders then all rushed up the trail towards the altar. I follow.

They gathered at the Black Pit, a small quantity of smoke still drifting up out of the shaft. The Pretty One took a drink and disappeared!

The others were all peering down into the Black Pit.

The Sneaky One was running around the clearing dragging some bushes across the ground. Had he gone mad? Ah, no, he was brushing away all the tracks that they had made. Very clever. If I was not circling above watching it may even have been brilliant.

After about five minutes the intruders started clambering down into the Black Pit. First the Elf, followed by Little She, the Skinny One lowered the Blind One in and followed, then the Dark One, Little He, the Sneaky One, and the Big One last. He glanced around the clearing before lowering the solid black stone panel down behind him with a thunk.

I glided down to the ground and landed on that stone. All was quiet. I could no longer follow. Mistress would be pissed.

The angry mistress

<Sigh>