Orwin’s Party

The four of them rode hard toward the Spire and Garner, but their pursuers gained on them steadily as the sunset approached. Everyone could see the trail of dust that rose as the Lotharians closed in on them. They had made a few short breaks, but it wasn’t enough to rest, not even close.

“Hey, Val...” Mons started saying, but decided to save his soul from a gruesome fate when she shot him a dark look, “...ena, can’t you, you know, raise some zombies, skeletons or some spooky thing to scare those stubborn bastards away?”

“I could, but the undead only follow simple commands when I’m far away from them.” She replied.

“A bit like you when I’m not around.” chimed in Maia.

Their horses were covered with sweat, wheezing with the effort of many hours being rode on non-stop, and the riders were beginning to tire as well. It amused Valena that the brothers could keep on trading barb regardless of their upcoming battle, but she still was scared. She was not a pushover, but she had a hard time imagining the group surviving a fight as outnumbered as they feared they were.

While the rest of the group argued or looked back in worry, Orwin kept his head on the road, searching for signs of any (further) danger, as if things weren’t bad enough. But this far west in the Realm you could never discount on an ugly surprise, be it magical beasts or mundane bandits. That was why he saw the lonely figure riding on the road ahead of them as they started descending a higher stretch of the road, three horses in tow. He whistled to catch his friends’ attention and pointed to the loner.

‘Shit, I don’t wanna do anything bad, but those four horses would be our salvation right there.’ He thought, loathing himself for thinking about harming a stranger, but he had before, as had the siblings. ‘Needs must, unfortunately, but maybe the man will be smart and accept a generous offer for the animals.’ He hoped.

A quick look, and the siblings understood and agreed, after watching the silent exchange Valena caught on, but she was a bit uncertain about the whole thing, Orwin could notice. ‘Oh, well, we’ll talk about it when the time comes.’

After a while, the black-clad man noticed them, but he didn’t force his pace. As they got closer, Orwin realized that the man didn’t hold himself like a merchant, he was too confident for that, and he wasn’t scared even as the group approached him and his horses.

“Ho, friend,” greeted Orwin, taking charge of the situation while the brothers kept a ways away, waiting for the outcome of the negotiation.

“Ho, travelers,” the man replied, looking Orwin into the eye calmly, “what can I do for you?”

The man was of an average height, shorter than Orwin, but his lithe form passed the idea of restrained violence, as did his eyes. Orwin was weary, but remained friendly, looking back at the raven-haired man with a nondescript face.

“Are you a horse merchant, by any chance?” He inquired. After the man shook his head, he carried on, “Even so, maybe I could make an offer for your animals? Maybe a couple gold?”

The man looked Orwin and his group over, and was clearly not impressed. “I’m not sure I should, yours seem to be in a pitiful state. Why are you in a hurry?”

Orwin breathed deeply, mastering his anger and haste, and replied honestly, for the most part, “Lotharians on our trail, mister. I’m not sure they will make an offer for your beasts, most likely you’ll be out of horses and out of a purse, maybe even your life if you get stupid.”

“So you’re the good guys?” the man sneered. “You think I haven’t seen your eyes the temptation to try and do the same?” He challenged, boldly.

Orwin got serious, deadly serious, and put a hand on his weapon before answering, “Why, you’re any good with those knives you’re palming, mister?”

Valena was about to approach and try to defuse the impasse, but Mons held her arm, gesturing for calm. She couldn’t see any reason why she shouldn’t do something, but the unusually serious look on Mons’ face stopped her.

“Fairly good, if I do say so myself.” replied the stranger, waiting for Orwin to make the first move.

“How much, rogue?” Orwin asked, taking the man by surprise.

“I’ve already told you, no. The horses stay with me.”

“I was not talking about the horses, mister. I’m talking about the price to hire you.” The man looked dumbfounded at the sudden change of tack. “If you have the guts to stand up to the four of us, you’re either very skilled or very dumb, maybe both. So if you’re spoiling for a fight, I’ll even pay you to do it.”

The man seemed confused for a while, but then he grinned. “What the hells. Five gold.”

“Six, and we keep the extra horses.”

“Deal.” they both agreed, and shook on it.

Valena looked on, astonished how Orwin had suddenly spun the situation on its head. “It’s what he does, damn scary.” commented Maia, grinning like her brother.

“We don’t pay me enough if we have that kind of money lying around,” grumbled Mons as they closed in on their leader and new comrade – temporarily at least. “And what’s your name then, you lunatic?”

“Rajpul” the man answered, looking at him strangely.

“Sure, new guy. I suggest we get a move on before they appear and attack us from the high ground.” Mons said, and rode ahead of the others, who followed him.

“My name’s Rajpul, not-“

“Don’t bother, new guy. Maybe after the fight.” Interrupted Maia. Orwin shrugged, and Valena shook her head, happy she didn’t get that treatment too.

They rode on for a little longer, until Mons declared, “Hey, Orwin, that looks like a great place to have a picnic with our Lotharian friends.” It was a part of the road nearly overrun by the woods, right next to a little hill, and Orwin had to agree.

“Tie the horses into the woods. I know this will be rough, but we make our stand here. Let’s get ready...”

***

The Lotharian band pursuing them finally appeared on the hill where the group had met and recruited Rajpul, and they got their eyes on their prey as soon as they noticed the lit torches the foursome was carrying. Ten Lotharian soldiers, their red capes blowing behind them, a slightly overweight lordling and his household’s sorcerer behind them, with a couple of young pages. They arrived in time to watch the alleged witch run for the forest, ignoring her comrade’s cries to stop. Bloodthirstily, they smiled when the warriors turned back towards then, making clear they would make a stand even without the witch.

The road was pretty banged up close to the warriors, probably why they decided to fight there. It could be murder on their horses, so they dismounted and left the animals in the care of the pages. The red-capes drew their weapons and smugly approached the warriors facing them, even as the third one, a female, silently turned back and ran away.

“It’s over,” declared the arrogant lordling, “you are outnumbered and tired. The witch has left you, but we’ll catch her soon. Lay down your weapons, and we might let you go despite the everything.”

“The three of us will never-“ Orwin started saying, but the lordling loudly cleared his throat and raised two fingers.

“The two of you, now.” He smiled darkly, expecting fear and an easy victory.

Orwin looked back, and then to Mons. “Shit.”

“Maybe he’s right boss, and we cut our losses here...”

The lordling’s smile grew larger, as the two thick-headed warriors started arguing, it was clear that their moral was flagging now.

“I don’t know, Mons… You feel like surrendering?”

“To give up, you mean?”

“Yeah, that’s what the word means, Mons. I think so, at least…”

The second man seemed to consider the proposal for a long while, but then his face cleared and he smiled, answering his friend, “To Lotharian scum? Hells no!” He declared, and the pair drew their weapons and raised their shields.

“Oh, I think you made them angry-“ Orwin started saying before he was blasted backwards by a thunderbolt from the sorceress, surviving only because of his warded shield – a smart warrior never left home without one, though they were expensive and could only stand so much. Even though he blocked it, he felt some unpleasant electricity passing through the shield.

“Get them!” bellowed the infuriated lordling.”

But then, there were three.

Maia showed up again on the short hill behind the fighting and released an arrow with the utmost concentration. The sorceress fell down, gurgling and taking her hands to her neck fruitlessly, where Maia’s arrow had unerringly struck. With one arrow, she cut down the Lotharian’s meager magical support.

The situation was still dire, but a little less so.

However, the Lotharians approached in formation as Mons helped Orwin up, raising their shields to take Maia’s chances of thinning their ranks further, and there was no doubt they would be overwhelmed by the five to one odds they were facing – if you discounted the shrieking nobleman approaching, baying to avenge his expensive retainer’s death – his family’s low status would go even lower if he didn’t start getting successful about now. The soldiers closed in, but then there was a blur from the right side of the woods, and screaming as a man collapsed and other was knocked back.

Then, there were four.

A black-clad knife-wielding man jumped out of the woods, and started harassing the flank, striking and running when faced by more than one opponent. One of the soldiers turned to advance on the new foe, but his distraction was met hit with an arrow to the eye, making the man fall, completely limp. Gritting their teeth at the losses, the soldiers reached Orwin and Mons, who had to give ground to avoid being encircled, exchanging attacks and parries frenetically.

Mons saw an opportunity when one of the Lotharians stumbled on the broken ground, and lunged, skewering the man’s chest with his spear. But he was just a bit overextended after the opportunist attack, and couldn't totally avoid a retaliatory spear to his side. The spear pierced his mail and opened a gash, and the warrior had to hunker down behind his shield for a while, blocking a handful of strikes before he got the pain under control. There was little Orwin could do to help him, but his sister started harassing more the ones had to surround him. Orwin received a shallow cut to the temple that hindered his vision, and Rajpul stabbed one enemy's arm, but had his shoulder pierced in return.

All of them were bleeding and hurt by now, and even the cowardly lordling was posed to join the fray.

But then, there were nine.

Valena had ran away at the beginning of the fight to deceive the enemy, following Orwin’s sneaky plan, designed to make the red-capes overconfident. She returned as soon as the fight broke out, and observed from the trees with Rajpul. The rogue wasn’t much for conversation, and so they watched in silence until the man mumbled a low prayer she couldn’t quite hear, and joined the fight, whirling his daggers.

The gruesome violence of the fighting, lives being taken right in front of her, terrified the mage, even if she was a mage of the dead. Never before she had fought for real, kill or be killed, as she would have to do now. But she steeled herself, ‘I will not fail my friends now, not when they risked their lives to save me at Green Knoll…’. Unseen, she advance through the dense woods carefully, afraid to blow their plan, but no soldier noticed the necromancer as she went back to the road, right next to where the sorceress had fallen.

The pages started shouting, trying to warn the others, but no one heard them, and they started running towards Valena. She didn't pay them any mind, and took advantage of the distraction of the soldiers, starting to chant and to pool her magic. She chanted, and the energy started heading into the body besides her, making a body move when it should never do so again. Valena raised the dead woman as a wight, an undead that retained some of its previous abilities, even though it took a lot out of her.

The pages, young men in training under the lordling, reached her, but her wight sprung up, and attacked them, knocking one of them down with a swing of her staff. Valena left the two to her wight, and advanced on the battlefield as her comrades retreated, hounded by the Lotharians, closing in on the slain soldiers.

Taxing herself heavily, she raised three more undead, another wight, and two shamblers. The pages were knocked out, and the wight rejoined her side, a growing number of undead around her, both wights carrying spears now, while the shamblers were armed only with their teeth, not possessing the wherewithal to use weapons. As her friends got on the verge of being overrun, Valena acted, willing her minions to attack with a pulse of magic.

The undead surged behind the Lotharians, who were taken completely by surprise. The soldiers turned to meet the unexpected onslaught and were even more shaken to have to face their own dead comrades. Orwin and the others took the offensive, and sandwiched their enemies, trapping the Lotharians between the living and the dead. Even if their numbers were close to even now, their moral was not. The Lotharians started panicking, but they were surrounded.

It was bloody work, but completely one-sided, with Orwin’s group losing only one shambler. Soon, Valena was recovering her energy, absorbing everything released by the death throes of the soldiers. It didn’t take long they were all crushed, being outflanked ant demoralized. The lordling saw that the tide had turned, and tried to make a break for it. Valena didn’t let him, and one wight and a shambler bore the man down, holding the screaming man losing his nerve.

Orwin’s plan wasn’t to merely survive, but to utterly crush their enemies, and acquire information in the bargain. ‘What a terrifying man’ She couldn't help but to think.

The fight over, everyone started gathering around the panicked lordling and the necromancer, some slower than the others. Valena ordered her free minions to stay away from the group, not knowing how the group would react to the undead. Mons was holding his side, Rajpul winced as his shoulder throbbed and Orwin was limping, a gash on his shin, only Maia was free of injury, walking with a spring on her step.

“That was fun! We should do it more often.” She declared, to a sour look of her brother. Orwin just shook his head, but Rajpul actually nodded.

“You can bound the man if you’re feeling so smug, Maia. And you can shut up, lordling.” Said Orwin.

“Or I will kick you until you do.” added Mons, feeling helpful. He only had to do it twice.

“Here's your money, Rajpul,” continued Orwin, throwing him a sack with the six coins agreed before.

“Thanks, it was fun. I’ll stay until I see what this pig has to say, if you don’t mind.”

“We don’t, Rajpul,” replied Mons, acknowledging the man finally.

“Come here, you oafs, let me take a look at those scratches.” said Valena to the three injured fighters.

“Oh, you know something about healing, Valena?” asked Maia, finishing to tie the now limp lordling below the two undead.

“I do. I once was a doctor’s apprentice, that’s where I fell in love with necromancy. I bet they don’t tell you that that happens from time to time.” She answered as she started on Mons, the one with the worst injury.

“Yeah, I thought that doctors always became healers when they had aptitude for magic.” replied Maia, while Valena sewed the cut on her brother’s side.

“Most do. But some just… feel more connected with the dead bodies than the living ones. It’s not a bad thing to repurpose dead creatures and enemies…”

The group didn’t notice at first, but they all relaxed after finally dealing with their pursuers at last. Rajpul rounded up some fine horses from the soldiers, and Orwin dragged the unconscious pages next to the lordling, tying them all together. The group got together to drag their enemy’s corpses back into the woods, Valena saying that the animals could have them. After that, their fatigue finally got to them, the many hours of running and the fading adrenaline from the fight, and Orwin decided they should stop for a while. They made a haphazard camp a bit away from the road, leaving their prisoners under guard of the remaining undead. Rajpul decided to stay with them, for now, so they could interrogate the lordling the next day.

Soon, everyone was deep asleep, only the prisoners remained awake, afraid of what tomorrow held for them.