Day Three of the Odinsleep (The Plains of Vígríðr - Ride of the Dark Elf Cavalry Part 5)

Day Three of the Odinsleep – 9:40 am

The surviving Svartálfar broke and ran.  All hell broke loose.  Raven dashed out onto the field, leaping into the saddle of the one horse that had been rendered riderless during the short-lived earthquake.  After more than a dozen years, he was back in the saddle and drawing back his bow the way he did when he had served with the Riders of Mistledale.  Only now, the bow, though more powerful, was oversized and the horse’s head and neck were in the way, keeping him from gaining a full draw on the string.  Cursing under his breath, he loosed his arrow anyway, sure that the distance between him and the nearest fleeing rider wasn’t enough to make him miss.  His shot passed just over Shadow’s right shoulder and sank into the calf of the running Svartálfar.  The corpse-pale runner stumbled and fell to the ground as Raven kicked his heels into the horse’s flanks to get it moving.

Arthur called upon his helm once more, the last time he would be able to do so for the twenty-four hours and teleported in front of the other runners.  Malazzarr’s paladin swung his holy sword across in a lethal arc that struck the head from his surprised foe.

Ra’ziir reached out through his expanding connection to the earth and asked the ground on the right flank to soften and spread.  The loam and gravel were happy to oblige and loosened their hold on each other, enough to slow the two Svartálfar fleeing across them to sink into what was rapidly becoming a shifting morass of sod and stone giving the summoned elementals a chance to catch their fleeing prey.

With the battle all but over, Drax willed his spell to end, wiped the blood from his face and began making his way back toward the front line.  He stopped at a few of the bodies to check them for loot but apparently, whoever this Loki fellow is, is not a generous master.  The assassin found no coin or other forms of material wealth and the armor and weapons, while well-made in and of themselves, were nothing to write home about either.

Kysek thrust his sword, Blackflame, into the scabbard hanging at his hip and quickly drew a thin oaken wand from a fold in his jacket.  He leveled the weapon at the same Svartálfar running from Shadow and spoke the command word, “Лигхтнинг Болт”.  An actinic bolt of lightning roared from the tip of the wand and across the field in less than a moment, flash-frying the fleeing rider before he could rise from the spot where Raven’s arrow felled him.  For a brief moment, the rider’s skeleton was illuminated through flesh, clothes, and armor and in the next, naught but ash remained.

Korbin’s ebony feathered wings carried him swiftly across the field, his dagger still clenched in his talons.  His sharp avian eyesight told him that only the two rider slowed by Ra’ziir’s softened earth were left alive and he angled sharply toward them.  His blade gleamed as it slashed a deep gouge across the Svartálfar’s face as Grotto swooped in to tackle the other to the ground.  The Svartálfar squirmed and wriggled in the dwarf’s grasp but the scarred war priest was having none of that and twisted the cavalryman’s wrist backwards and then pushed it up, flipping the rider onto his face and held him there.

Niklas took aim against the last fleeing rider, the one with the cut face, cracked his neck and blew out half of the breath he was holding and loosed his arrow.  The shot was one of the finest in his life.  He had led the dark rider just enough for the shaft to take him in the ear and punch deep into his brain, killing him instantly.

Cedron grabs the edges of his cloak and rises into the air, racing toward the last Svartálfar to keep him from fleeing just as his conjured staff cracks down on the back of the rider’s head that Grotto’s hold had conveniently left exposed.

Grog yells at his summoned pig, “Go!  Chase Bad Elf!” and the celestial swine squeals and races across the broken field toward the pinned rider.

Just then the nearest of Ra’ziir’s elementals reaches the downed rider and stomps heavily on its head.  Grotto is forced to jump back to keep from being crushed.  Even the softened earth doesn’t have enough “give” to lessen the impact of hundreds of pounds of stone on the back of the Svartálfar skull and in a moment, the last of the second of attackers has breathed his last.

= = = = = =

• Everyone: Prayer from Cedron: (7 rounds remaining, +1hit/dmg/skill/save, enemies -1 hit/dmg/skill/save)

• Arthur: 94% health;

• Bubo: 100% health;

• Cedron: 93% health; Spiritual Weapon (8 rounds remaining)

• Desmond: 100% health;

• Drax: 100% health;

• Grog: 100% health; Summon Monster III (9 rounds remaining, Celestial Boar 100% health); Summon Swarm (2 rounds remaining)

• Grotto: 100% health; Divine Favor (6 rounds remaining, +2 hit/dmg); Fly (8 minutes, 8 rounds remaining)

• Hansuke: 94% health;

• Korbin: 100% health;

• Kysek: 100% health; Stoneskin (77 minutes, 4 rounds remaining)

• Morn: 100% health;

• Niklas: 100% health;

• Raven: 86% health;

• Ra’ziir: 100% health; Stoneskin (157 minutes, 4 rounds remaining); Elemental Swarm (8 Large Earth Elementals, 1 Huge Earth Elemental, 1 Elder Earth Elemental – by the time the Elder arrives, 139 minutes, 3 rounds remaining)

• Shadow: 100% health; Overland Flight (14 hours, 38 minutes, 5 rounds remaining); Iron Body (DR15/adam, immune to blindness/critical hit/deafness/disease/drowning/electricity/poison/stunning and effects that affect physiology or respiration, Str 21 (+5)/Dex 16 (+3) attack bonus/penalty cancel out, gains +3 damage, ASF 50%, -8ACP, 12 minutes, 4 rounds remaining);

• Spewer: 100% health;