Sworded Tales

As the sun descended toward the horizon, a chill began to seep into the air amidst the lengthening shadows. The horses stamped with unease, hooves muffled only slightly by the damp underbrush of the scrubby terrain.  Haron did his best to keep the animals quiet, steaming breath pouring from flared nostrils as the boy gathered reins and patted necks in consolation.

Zulian continued her circular sweep of the area, her lithe form disappearing for brief instances behind clusters of evergreens or thick uprisings of shrubbery.  She carried the shortspear loosely in her hand and remained wary of the nearby sounds and sights of the sparse wood.

Borlak waited for the majority of the party to reach a suitable vantage point near the broken trail that has served well thus far.  A subtle nod from Kurn was all the signal the big Sunari needed, but he still waited for a few heartbeats until the wind had gathered sufficient force to carry his scent away from the area of the nest.

Moving with cunning woodland silence, the warrior made his way toward the uncertain site, saber blade gleaming potently in the fading light.

As Borlak negotiated his way across the overgrown terrain, he paused for an instant only a few feet shy of the corpse he originally spotted.  Squatting down to take a closer look, he stopped moving and cocked his head to one side.  Then everyone near Borlak sensed it.

A tremor in the earth.

Before anyone could voice a shout of warning, Borlak threw himself away from the site as great clods of earth and debris erupted into the air with explosive force.  Great, dusky carapaces burst into the open air from within several different sprays of mud, menacing pincers and multiple appendages flailing at any living thing nearby.

One of the writhing creatures snatched at Borlak who avoided the pincers, rolling clear to one side.  A second attack came at him however and though he raised his steel shield to fend off the blow, the pincers latched on to his shield arm just below the elbow.

Borlak responded instinctively with a wicked slice of his saber, but the odd angle presented as he wrestled with the great insect caused the blade to glance off the hard shell with no effect.

On the other side of the chaos, Zulian closed some of the distance toward the surfacing beasts.  Her free hand drew a keen looking sickle as her other hand reached back to hurl her shortspear.  Presently unaware of Borlak’s plight, she launched the spear at one of the beasts closest to her, but the spear ricocheted off of the insect and embedded in a nearby tree trunk.

Cheskith raised his free hand, summoning forth the power of his words as he called forth an energy that washed over and invigorated all of the party, save for the distant Zulian, beyond its reach.

Unwilling to leave himself an obvious target in the wake of this act, he slunk ahead and to the right, ducking half-behind the cover of the trees.

Invigorated by Cheskith’s chant, Kurn’s immediate task was to help relieve Borlak, who was at risk of being quickly flanked by the giant insects.  Kurn couldn’t help wondering how many insects may eventually pour forth from that nest and tried to keep the uncountable numbers of ants he had seen in normal-proportioned anthills out of his thoughts.  He had to hope such large creatures could not propagate in truly large numbers, given their greater requirement for food.

Kurn moved quickly — aided by the spell — to come up beside the rear of one ant and assist Borlak without blocking Rôhn, should the Dwarf also intend to charge to assist, and leaving the two southernmost ants open for any area-effects the might may be able to throw.

As Kurn closed on the giant insectoids, he saw they were closer to resembling the praying mantis in structure than the ant.

Kurn’s sword drove forward hard, seeking to punch through the ant’s carapace and do fatal harm to its organs beneath.  Kurn then twisted and; without losing his momentum; reversed his direction and fell back five feet, putting a tree at his back and not permitting the ant to take an easy retaliation against him, hoping to draw it to him and away from Borlak.

The Ankheg furthest from the main party skittered westward between the trees and out of sight, but in the general direction of Zulian.  The southern most creature scurried five feet eastward and five feet northward, glistening pincers snapping down at the already engaged Kurn.  The fighter managed to block the incoming blow with his shield, but suffered some minor blunt trauma in the process.

Four arrows of shimmering green energy sizzled through the air from the east, one pair burning into the Ankheg latched onto Borlak and another pair searing into the insect that was skewered by Kurn’s blade.