Silvanesti Strikes Back

02 Deepkolt 349 AC

Shadow agrees to wait till closer to dawn to let the troops rest from their journey.  He gets some rest and prepares his spells before donning Skulk's garb again. Once the rest of the infiltration team is ready he casts Overland Flight on himself and tucks Spewer into his bag of holding, leaving his head poking out for now. “I am gonna ask you to hide in the sack and when the goblin opens it, I want you to spit in his face. Just make sure it’s not me.”

Ra’ziir visits with Redclaw for a bit, feeding him scraps of meat and brushing him.

“We’re planning to attack some Goblins and Worg riders at dawn… Now, I know we don’t have much in the way of flight time together, but if you’re interested in giving me a ride, it might be a good time to start accruing those hours in the air. What do you think big fella, want to fly me out there?”

The griffon leans in, pushing the top of his head against Ra'ziir's hand and makes a nodding motion.

”Well alright! Rest up, big boy. I’ll be back to gear up later.” Ra’ziir says, scratching the noble beast’s neck and then tossing him a few more scraps of meat.

Kysek goes to Dusk; tends to her stall and feeds her. As he works; he speaks with her. “Dusk; I hope you’re ready. We have a big day tomorrow. We’re going to destroy an army of goblins and some worg riders," he states excitedly pausing for her reaction. “No invisibility this time, but we are going to stay high and out of sight until the show starts. We’ll be watching for reinforcements from all around at all times. Bubo will be closer initially as he is less conspicuous than an elf riding a Majestic Griffon. When the fighting starts; we’ll switch," he adds; pausing again to judge her reaction. “Do you think you could lift a worg and its rider aloft if we had the chance?” he asks, hesitating once more.

She cocks her head to one side, one eye opening a bit wider as if she is raising an eyebrow before giving her head a shake.

“Alright then, are you ready for battle girl? Are you ready to be the terror from above that we both know we can be?” he says with a grin while rubbing her under her chin.

Dusk raises one of her front feet and pushes it against the gate, rattling it against its chain.

After her reaction; the elf sits beside her. He opens his spell book to study and Dusk settles in behind him. He finishes his studies and enters the reverie until it it time to get moving.

When it is just about time to go; Kysek will saddle Dusk up, ensuring everything is 100% secure. Then he looks to her one more time; “Are you ready, Girl? Let’s do this!”, he says just before he mounts and urges her to walk from the makeshift aerie.

After securing everything; the elf looks to Dusk, “That’s my girl! I knew you’d be ready! Let’s do this! Let’s have some fun, shall we?”, the thief says as he mounts the magnificent animal. The two stride from the makeshift aerie as one. Kysek looks left and then right; Bubo upon his right shoulder. “Let’s do this! Let’s lessen our enemies numbers and lay waste to their false confidence! Let’s show them no mercy! Let’s show them we will not go quietly. We will never give up; we will never surrender! Let us destroy our enemies!”, the elven thief turned mage exclaims with increasing volume until he crescendos at the end as Dusk rises from all fours; first, just her front legs rising, until she leaves the ground at the end of the speech. The two then rise into the air and head toward our mission.

03 Deepkolt 349 AC

Raven and Ornforithalas lead their scouts to the chokepoint. They each deploy their troops to either side of the approach while Eilra sets up about 200' to the south. Cassidy scrambles up a tree and takes up a position where he can see the approach and pulls out the wand Shadow gave him.

Commander Parnitha brings her troops as well, placing them at the crux of the chokepoint. Half of them form two rows, long pikes laid out for ready use while the second half ready their bows and wait for the worgs to attack.

Grotto heads about fifty feet up the path and places his "worg stew" in the center of the trail, spreading it across the width of the the chokepoint. He chuckles, "This should slow them nasty worgs long enough for the archers to lay into them and their riders! Then the real fun begins!" Grotto falls back, taking up a position beside Romulus and settles in to wait.

Once he is in position, Romulus casts a stoneskin spell upon himself and lays his staff of fire magic within easy reach.

THE GOBLIN CAMP

The night is overcast. Shadow, in his goblin guise, and Ra'ziir, astride Redclaw cover the distance between Tarithnesti and the camp quickly. Kysek, riding Dusk, and Cedron accompany them. They pass overhead of Raven, Romulus, Grotto, and the other defenders and see their brethren getting set in their positions.

As they fly above the camp, Ra'ziir slides from the saddle and floats to the ground. Kysek climbs and continues to circle while Shadow and Cedron both drop into the camp beside the Bladesinger who also assumes a goblin disguise.

As he lands, Goblin-Shadow draws plenty of attention. He gambols around, walking hunched over, and slapping his flat goblin feet on the frozen ground. “We finds black skinned elf who wounded in woods and stab him many times. I take his bag and his magics! Sulk fly!” To demonstrate his "newfound ability", he floats about ten feet into the air and lands again. "Come see! Come see in bag!" As goblins draw closer, the disguised drow reads a magical scroll. The thirty-ish closest goblins all begin to nod their heads in agreement with everything he says, and Shadow lays it on thick. “We can do better than Grak and Bläkmeg as leaders! We can command fire!" He jibbers his way through another spell, this time summoning a small elemental out of one of the campfires.

By this time, the proceedings have attracted the attention of goblins who were outside of the initial group, several of whom are shouting at "Sulk" to shut the hell up. The charmed goblins take offense and start yelling back at the new arrivals. This quickly devolves into a shoving match. Weapons are drawn and a melee erupts.

As the fighting erupts, ten of the charmed goblins are quickly felled. The growing riot draws more attention and the goblin-drow orders his charmed troops to fall back (while sending his conjured elemental to start setting tents on fire) as hobgoblins and worgs begin to appear at the edge of the growing firelight.

Cedron joins in, casting an illusion of his own. Off in the distance, the sound of elven horns blowing carries through the woods. Fleeting stags, each bearing a rider, begin skirting the edge of the encampment. The minstrel-priest has several of his phantom riders race through the camp, hooting and hollering. Goblins leap onto worg backs. Arrows begin flying.  Alarms are sounded and the chase begins.

Confusion explodes across the camp. Worgs howl in excitement.

Shadow-Sulk tells his remaining charmed goblins to follow him. Other goblins begin to pursue, crude swords chopping and stabbing as they race after the enchanted loyalists.

Kysek circles above, observing it all.

It doesn't take long for Shadow’s goblins to be overrun by the worgs. Goblin arrows fired into the backs of the charmed faction drop several.

The worgs quickly dispatch the rest.

Shadow and Ra’ziir fly along ahead of their pursuers staying just close enough to make the enemy think that they are about to catch them. The goblin infantry has been lost in the distance but one-hundred slavering worgs are hard on the heels.

As the two elves draw nearer to the chokepoint, the sides of the path begin to close in. The earth-shaping spells cast by Romulus have created high shoulders on both sides of the trail, funneling the riders into a column where they can only pass two or three abreast.

As soon as Kysek sees the elven defenders of Tarithnesti crouched behind their sharpened stakes, sees the archers ready with their bows, sees the spearmen plant the butts of their weapons into the frozen ground as they prepare to receive the charge of the wolves, he casts his web spell.

The lead wolves crash into the magical barrier at full speed and are instantly entangled in the sticky, mystical strands. These wolves trip, tumbling onto their faces as more wolves crash into the them from behind.

Romulus stands and shouts "Gsutvgimm!" The temperature of the entire path plummets instantly. Whatever moisture is left in the air freezes and snow begins to fall. Trees explode as their sap hardens and expands, the sound of thunderous detonations fill the air. He shapes the spell, bending and twisting its edges to confine it to the trail. The entangled worgs and their goblin riders are engulfed in an arctic fury that transforms their very bodies into icy statues. Fully half of the goblin cavalry perishes in an instant.

Then, Raven orders the scouts to open fire as Ornforithalas and Commander Parnitha do the same. Three score arrows fly from bows, sinking into the second half of the worg column. Kysek drops a second web on them, trapping them in place for the archers to pick off at their leisure.

Those few who are lucky enough to avoid the initial attack, turn to flee.