Preparations are always incredibly important when going on a mission. You have to know some important facts before you can really begin preparing for anything. For instance, how long is the mission? In this case, there was no way to tell. The Sage told him that it could be the rest of his life and he took that as a sign that it would be a long mission, he has good intuition like that. He made his way to his quarters there in the palace and started writing up a list, among those items was a shiny blue pearl that he was given for a mission but never had to use. It was known as a warp marble, and could transport a person or group to a location in the users mind. One simply had to focus on the location, and then throw the marble to the ground. It did the rest of the work for you…
The party felt a severe change in air pressure, followed by their ears popping. The imbalance came in a wave, with those nearest the device affect first. It was for that reason that Skrymir was able to quickly dispatch one enemy, while Laithestel took down the only other to pass outside with them. They had only done this particular maneuver a few times, but they have practiced it well. Skrymir drew his scimitar quickly, and with almost no sound at all, cut through his mark and replaced the blade to its sheath. Laithestel already had an arrow knocked before the warp marble hit the ground; it wasn’t until she saw a different surrounding that she let it loose into her opponent’s heart. This would mark the seventeenth time that they would have barely escaped harm.
“You only got us outside? This was the best you could manage?”
“Hey, I was hit over the head with a full pint of ale, give me a break, my mind is a little fuzzy!”
“Yet you would risk our only means of calm escape?” Laithestel had a “questioning his sanity” look upon her face.
Skrymir gave her a reassuring glance, only to assume that it was just another creepy smile. He really wished there was more time to work on that smile…
“There is no time to waste, we must hurry to the portal!” Laithestel knew that they would be cutting it close with more passengers this time.
“Right, the lot of you, if you want to survive the night, you will come with us.” Skrymir looked upon the weary adventurers and they nodded their consensus with just a twinge of hesitation.
Upon making their way to the forest we could hear the cries of the brigands inside the tavern yelling, pointing out their position as they fled. They had little choice but to lead them on a wild goose chase.
“We will need to wander aimlessly for a bit folks, please bear with me.” Skrymir once more had a smile plastered on his face. The adventurers had a strong look of concern on theirs.
“I promise, I have done this before, we will make it to safety.” This of course, was even less reassurance, as they would have rather hoped he didn’t do this often.
The Estwilds region of The Compendium were a savage land, few who end up in this section from their own worlds survive long. It was a wild forest, with very few clearings, and even fewer maintained roads. Skrymir and Laithestel had taken the only serviceable road from the last lead of their mission toward their exit portal when they happened upon the tavern. If their portal hadn’t been a few more days away, they may not have even stopped. With all of the confusion, they decided the best possible means of escape would be to travel through the thick forest, and hope to shake their pursuers.
After a few days of travel through the dense brush, the party was starting to get antsy.
“Why do we keep changing direction, and what’s with all the moving, we’ve barely had time to eat anything at all!” Gilthe’s stomach was grumbling audibly at that.
“We haven’t eaten because there isn’t anything to eat out here, save for a few plants and what few animals end up here and haven’t already been eaten by the predators.” Skrymir turned and stopped.
“We have not much farther to go, but there is still a party tracking us through these woods. Whomever they have leading the group has been here for quite some time if he has been able to keep up with us. If I were by myself, I would easily be able to remove myself from the situation, but we will have to take it at a different approach.”
Gilthe’s eyes lit up “We get to take the fight to them?”
“Precisely little one.”
“What did I say about your tongue? What did I say? Get out!” The hobbit pointed towards a random thicket.
“Right, so here is the plan…” Gilthe chuckled and then listened for his part.
“We will circle around a bit here, and then take them by surprise from a few different directions. Laithestel, I need you to pick a tree and climb it, keep your eyes open and be ready to warn us. Gilthe, Christopher, and I will lead the forward assault, while Akari and Arash will take second wave.”
“Oh great, he thinks I’m useless even though I’ve already saved his life.” Akari then let out a yelp as Gilthe stepped on his foot.
“Quiet.”
“Alright, with this we should be able to manage, let’s move.”
Laithestel found a tree near a clearing and made her way up, knocked an arrow and then relaxed while keeping her eyes focused on her surroundings. She could hear the party making their way away from her, and finally nothing. It was a long while waiting there, and she was starting to feel left out when she heard the crunching of a branch off in the distance. She pulled her senses in and could hear someone whispering heavily off in the distance. It was at this point that she raised her bow, and pointed it up and toward the noise and let the arrow loose.
Normal arrows don’t really make much of a sound, at least, not the kinds that are used for defending those who are defenseless. However, this particular arrow was meant to sound the alarm and let those who were paying attention know that what they were looking for was nearby. This arrow was one of those. The arrow itself was larger than most, and hollow. It really resembled a flute of sorts, with several holes in it in key parts. As the arrow zipped through the air, it made a charming cacophony of high pitched chirpings…
Skrymir and the others made a path away from Laithestel and then started to slowly circle around. They were in quite the hurry as they needed to make their way into the correct position before their captors would arrive. With as much effort as could be made, Skrymir, Gilthe, Christopher, Akari, Arash, and Angerona made their way around, made a few sharp turns here and there and most of them were completely lost by the time they heard the wailing of the signal arrow, followed shortly by the wailing of a man being hit by the signal arrow.
“That’s our queue.”
The party made their way towards the edge of the clearing, being ever so cautious, and found a delightful scene…
Laithestel was pretty accurate with her shots, but she could easily count on her fingers the number of time she had hit someone while signaling someone else. It wasn’t often that she could be that precise with a signal shot, but she was very pleased with herself. She started make her way down the tree when the search party burst into the clearing, carrying the wounded man. She stilled herself, as she was taught long ago by her kind and waited it all out.
“Right, get him here in the middle, poor bloke.”
“AAAAHHH! Me only good leg! Why did it have to be me only good leg!” The man was obviously bring a ham.
“Relax there Sal, it’s barely a flesh wound.”
“I can’t feel me leg!”
“Right, we don’t have a lot of time for this, they are obviously nearby, leave him here.”
“No, I think the feeling’s comin back. Yea, it’s all better now, I think I can go on.” It was about that time that Laithestel fell out of the tree with a thud…
As Skrymir and the others saw the scene unfold, they couldn’t figure their luck any better than it was until Laithestel fell from the tree. It took about two seconds for Skrymir to draw his blade and be within feet of someone, and the others were not very far behind. It was almost over the instant that it started. Skrymir lunged forward and took one of them down from behind, he screamed out just in time for another to turn and receive a dagger to his chest. The rest scattered, but it did them no good. Gilthe took one by the legs, surprising him nearly to death, while Christopher jumped from a nearby tree onto another scaring him completely to death with his sheer size. One last one remained, and by remained, it is implied that he was alive; he only received a few shuriken to his arms, rending them useless. Angerona stood over this one making sure he didn’t try and flee. The air settled just as Laithestel managed to regain her footing. It was a tall tree. Skrymir went to the lone survivor and knelt by his head.
“So, let’s make this easy shall we?”
“I don’ know nuffin!”
“So you know something then? That makes this easy. Here’s the game, I ask you a question, you tell me an answer. If I don’t like what I hear…” Skrymir eased in real close to his ear and whispered “You’ll lose something.”
Laithestel looked displeased, but held back any issues she may have had with the threat.“First question then, who sent you?”
“The boss did, I swear it.”
“Good. Second question. What is his name?”
“He don’t have a name, he’s just the boss.”
“And what does this man want from us?”
“I don’t know, I’m hardly told anything!”
“Wrong answer!”
Skrymir bent down and grabbed the brigands hand. He first started by bending the pinky digit backwards, slowly. With his other hand he had pulled a dagger from one of his various hiding places and was positioning it so that the brigand would get the idea.“Please, Please! I swear, I know nothing! He just wanted us to track you, the leader of our group had more orders but he’s dead now! Please, I beg of you, spare me life.”
“Let him go, he can’t do us any harm. We saw our mark leave this world, we should try and find where he ended up.” Laithestel looked concerned that things might go sour any moment.
Skrymir let the man go, kicked him once for good measure, then turned and waved him off.“We have more important things to be worrying about. Leave us.”
The man, genuinely relieved, stood and hobbled off into the forest, roughly in the right direction. There is no telling if he lived to tell the tale.“Right, we have another day’s travel ahead of us. There should be another clearing where we can strike a camp not too far from here near a river. That is assuming that the Estwilds haven’t changed much over the past few years.”
Laithestel and Skrymir took point and moved out into the forest once more. The rest followed, still unsure that they were in fact following good people. They made it to the next clearing without too much trouble, and noticed that the forest had cleared up a bit. They all stopped near a river to get some fresh water on the edge of the clearing. The party hurried to the riverside when they heard it in the distance. Fresh water was truly a blessing at this point as hardly anything in the Estwild Forest could be called fresh.
In their haste, they missed something crucially important though. They hadn’t checked the clearing first, and it was only when they heard the growl of the beast as it grabbed one of them, followed by the screams of a comrade that they realized their mistake…
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