A pair of Githyanki mages and a Githyanki knight riding a red dragon soared through the smoke choked sky. The small band seemed to be scanning the ground below for enemies, secure in their aerial superiority over all that cowered below them. The Griffon riders that challenged them, despite their earlier successes, had mostly retreated back to the Citadel of the Snow Lion, and the skies above were theirs. Suddenly from out of the smoke and the mist of the burning city, a colossal red shadow burst from the heavens and descended on the patrol. The skies above Sasserine was briefly lit by a second sun. In a second, the astral mages and the knight were incinerated by a white hot blaze that engulfed them. While the red dragon mount survived the initial fiery assault, its reprieve was quickly ended as massive claws seized it and tore it apart in a single violent ripping motion. Almost as fast as it began, the huge shadow retreated back quick into the clouds, ominously out of view.
Kit knew that despite their parting of ways, Madeline was still keeping a low profile in hopes of luring out the enemy's astral fortress. Though instead of foolishly challenging them directly she was employing hit and run attacks. Kit guessed the clever use of spells or shapechanging had stymied the enemy's efforts to locate her thus far. She smiled at the carnage above and considered waving at the gigantic red shadow, but she concentrated on the task on hand. She scanned the streets again looking for any immediate signs of her foe. Though the din of battle still echoed through the air, the squire noticed through the smoke that the crowded alleys and boulevards were oddly deserted. Normally Kit would have thanked the gods, Koryis, Nirrodin, or even the pantheon of Vinnraj, for the safely guiding her band through the war torn city , but something about this seemed wrong to her. Ordinarily she considered her own sense of direction impeccable; she doubt she was lost; but Kit knew that the main barracks she approached should have been swamped in conflict instead of the eerie silence that greeted her.
Kit held out her hand and signaled her small group to stop. Even without looking she heard a rustling behind her and could well imagine Sir Jose and the remaining guards hunker down at her signal. Satisfied that her charges were safely under cover, the squire hopped some crates onto an overhead beam before jumping precariously on a clothesline to swing atop the roof. Kit felt increasingly secure in her city climbing and jumping skills and briefly wondered if there was any work besides being a cat burglar that used such a skill set. Was there a demand for urban vigilantes she wondered, before dismissing the foolish notion.
From her new view Kit saw the militia barracks was deathly quiet, with several small plumes of smoke . The squire frowned at the realization that the reason for the calm was that the battle was probably over here. She could well imagine the slaughter that the hobgoblins and giants perpetrated, and shuddered. Not at the death of the guards that died in their duty defending the city, but at the wrath of her lord when he found out. Her master was normally quite stoic, but could get quite melodramatic when properly motivated. Kit remembered the first time she heard one of his angst filled soliloquies of vengeance and suppressed a groan.
As Kit considered Jose's ramblings, she heard a rustle behind her and quickly ducked, sidestepped and spun around to face her startled opponent.
"Your peripheral vision is improving," smiled Maid as the Innkeeper slipped out of the smoke and curtsied in deference. Kit was surprised that she detected her friend; it was the first time since she met her that she was able to.
Even though Kit accepted the compliment gladly, the squire suddenly noticed the light flowery perfume of Maid. "How, how did you do that? The scent I mean," questioned the squire in surprise. " I know people that can slip in and out of the darkness, but I've never known anyone that can turn their smell on and off."
Maid rolled her eyes and made a slight brushing motion with her hands. "I'll explain later, but did you notice anything odd around here?"
Kit nodded. "It's quiet, but I'm guessing that's due to the barracks falling," she commented as she pointed to the silent building. "My guess is that the remaining enemy is moving against the citadel and are going to support the enemy there, which means we should get a move on to."
Maid shook her head. "No, that's not the case. While the keep seems deserted, it isn't. I've seen some guards but not many. They are undermanned but there are a few militia men still defending their positions. Also the streets aren't as empty as you think. I checked closer and saw a company of goblins and some giants nervously holed up in a nearby square a few blocks away. No snipers, no patrols though."
Kit puzzled over her friends scouting report. "Wait, why aren't the hobgoblins pressuring the barracks, or keep or whatever you want to call it. If it's so undermanned it shouldn't be a problem to overwhelm them. From what I've seen , the goblins will send hundreds to die against a well-entrenched foe , surely they won't balk against a weakened one?"
Maid shrugged. "We should tell Sir Jose. Something's up, but I don't know what. "
Kit agreed and the paired rappelled down the building to the paladin. While Kit jumped and hopped from wall to window sill to break her fall, the Innkeeper simply dropped straight to the ground and somehow managed to spread her arms and landed lightly at the last second. Kit was about to voice her amazement at the feat, but decided to save the questions for later.
"Something's not right here. There are people in the barracks, but not many. There's a lot of enemies nearby, but they seemed to congregated in a nearby town square. For some reason the battle has stopped, but I don't see the reason why," explained the squire to her master.
"Are the enemy close?" asked the knight.
Maid nodded and pointed in the direction of the enemy she spotted. "I think we can avoid them if we wish to reach the barracks. They aren't sending out any patrols. "
Jose regarded her statement cautiously." Well, let's make it to the barracks and see what's going on."
Kit lead the group through the alleys and boulevards to the barracks. Though she felt little risk in taking the main streets, the desolation of the area still spooked her and she chose not to chance it.
Kit noticed piles of slain goblins and guardsmen littering the streets, many with weapons still in hand. The squire saw the results of vicious hand to hand fighting and guessed that the guards fought the invading horde block by block, street by street; making them pay dearly for every foot of the city they conquered. This did not surprise Kit since this was what she imagined typical city fighting to entail, though she was curious on why they weren't looted. Even the Southern Gatehouse, which they recently liberated, had similar scenes around the structure but she did note that most of the slain had been thoroughly stripped by one side or another. She disregarded that detail and assumed the reason was that the battle here was recent and concentrated on the stillness around them. While the superficial signs of battle were still here, a tense quiet dread seemed to fill the air.
As the group neared the keep like barracks, Kit noticed a large breach in the fortress like structure that was currently filled with wooden rubble. From the dead giants and shattered battering rams in the area, Kit quickly deduced that the enemy breached this point at great cost but were repulsed by the defenders which quickly filled up the hole with any debris or smashed furniture they could scrounge from within. Kit was quite surprised that the enemy hadn't put any more pressure at this obvious weak point, and wondered if Maid's assessment of the keep's situation was inaccurate.
If the defenders were still strongly entrenched, that would explain why the enemy had retreated. Kit wondered if they were playing skink, red panda, possum or whatever the locals here called it, and was hiding their strength to entice another disastrous attack by their foes. It would be tactically sounder to send sallying skirmishers to harass the reeling enemy like Trent had done earlier, but the defenders might not have been too keen to press their foe. War weariness could have ended any further attacks.
Despite her speculations, the entire situation did not seem right. Her eyes spotted that the breach didn't seem to be caused by the giant's crude siege weapons but curiously by great claws. Many large rends that gouged into the stone seemed to have been torn the hole in the thick stone wall. Kit guessed that the giants weakened this area, before whatever monster the goblins had was unleashed on it. Having fought many lower planar creatures under her former master Mogombo, and having crossed paths with the wizard Gregor before, she knew that the likely cause of these claw marks was demon; though she did have trouble identifying the exact type.
Sir Jose seemed to notice the marks as well and walked up and examined them. "They look like a lizard's claw or possibly some giant frogs," he commented gruffly.
"Possibly a Herzrou demon, "noted Kit from experience. Demons were one of her favored enemies and she didn't want to be showed up by Sir Jose, regardless if he was her lord or not. "Though a toad demon's claws are much bigger than this. "
The paladin frowned. "I know what a Hezzyrou is. I use to be a professional demon hunter you know, I worked with Martinez, Raoul , and Lady ….", he stammered but stopped in midsentence.
Kit and Sir Jose both paused and unspoken truce settled between them. Regardless of how much they enjoyed their playful verbal sparring they knew this was not a subject to be brought up . Not so soon, and not with Kaeda within their midst.
Fortunately the awkward silence between the pair was broken when a shout came from the other side of the make shift barricade. "Reinforcements? Reinforcements! We're saved!"
A large plank was lowered and the paladin and his retinue quickly scrambled over it to get inside the keep. The squire and her master watched as Pig Iron, Grinder, Trent, Maid, Kaeda, and the roughly twenty surviving guardsmen they brought scramble through before they went inside themselves. When Kit reached the other side she saw bodies sprawled around the small courtyard and amongst the walls and battlements. She saw that the gates to the inner keep was still open and not secured and quickly motioned some of the militiamen to close it. Kit counted the bodies of both men and hobgoblins , and even a single ogre sprawled on the ground, and guessed the attackers breached the wall but were swiftly repulsed. She was impressed by the tenacity of the defenders but was disappointed to see there were only three guards holding the keep. Besides their dangerously low troop levels, she was surprised at the state that they were in.
Instead of the war weary soldiers that she had expected, the remaining defenders seemed more akin to escapees from a mental asylum then militia men. The largest man was about the size of Sir Jose and wore heavy plate greaves but was stripped from the waist up. He had bits and pieces of what Kit assumed was once a well groomed beard, and from the bloody dagger he still held it appeared that he had cut his own chest and arms in bloody Xs. The second man still wore his guard uniform, but was drenched in blood. He had a nervous look to him and shivered uncontrollably as the party approached. The last man seemed more like a boy. He was a tall individual with short blonde hair in light infantry armor and a bloodied tabard. Kit thought he looked familiar but could not tell since he was curled up in a ball in a corner slowly rocking back and forth.
"Ribbit, ribbit, croak, ribbit….. Ribbit, ribbit, croak, ribbit….. Ribbit, ribbit, croak, ribbit….. ," the boy repeated to himself.
As the boy repeated his mysterious mantra, Kaeda was busy examining the dead. "This one is severely injured but he isn't dead! Neither is this one" she exclaimed as she begun quickly sorting through the bodies. Trent on the other hand seemed mesmerized at the sight before him, and the Halfling had his weapon in hand.
"What's going on here? Where's Lord Todderly? "Demanded Grinder as the druid began separating the fallen from the still living bodies. Kit still wasn't sure if he was simply a mercenary, a guard, or perhaps a knight, but the grizzled warrior seemed more disgusted than shocked by the state of the remaining militia.
The man that was shivering backed himself further in a corner and cowered under Grinder while the rocking boy continued his nonsensical chant.
"Big fight, big croakers, "grimly answered the half armored man with the bloodied Xs.
Trent paused and seemed disturbed by the remark. "Wait, big croakers? You mean Slaad? Big frogs?" pressed the Halfling.
At the mention of the word frogs, the blonde boy shrieked a blood curdling scream. He sprang up from his squatting position and bolted into the interior of the keep. He pushed past one of the militia struggling to close the door, half tripping over a prone body in the process as he ran gibbering into the darkness. Maid began to chase after him but Grinder waved him off.
"Let him be. He'll be easier to handle when he settles down a bit. War can be hard, especially for green militia. Chasing pick pockets and roughing up drunks doesn't prepare one for bloody hand to hand combat. That's the worst case of combat fatigue I've ever seen," sighed Grinder at the fleeing youth.
Sir Jose snarled audibly, reminding everyone who gave the orders here.
"Maid, take some archers and secure the battlements. "
The Innkeeper nodded. She pointed at some of the militia's archers and then indicated where she wanted them posted. She then vanished and in a few seconds seemingly reappeared on the roof of the barracks.
"Kaeda, continue to check for survivors."
The druid attempted a curtsey for Jose's benefit but almost stumbled in the execution. Red faced with her blunder she resumed her methodical examination of the bodies scattered around the courtyard. A grim task since some of the casualties on both side seemed to be torn apart by some feral animal.
"Grinder get some guards to help you clear the courtyard of corpses."
The grizzled warrior waved some of his boys towards him, and they reluctantly waited on Kaeda to finish examining the bodies. To his credit, even after having rank pulled on him by Sir Jose, he took his task seriously and kept his weapons at the ready; wary for any sign of danger.
"Kit, go after that crazy guy, we need to question him."
The squire smiled approvingly at her lord's orders and readied her kukris. On the battlefield he exuded a commanding presence that instilled confidence and courage in his charges but away from battle he was typically sullen and often moody. Kit thought it was good that he stepped out of his comfort zone and showed everyone the leader he truly was.
"Trent, take some men and secure the keep ."
The Halfling sergeant seemed to share Kit's sentiment and grinned at the paladin. He spurred Fluffy 2 to step gingerly over some bodies and entered the keep with his men in tow.
Sir Jose scanned the breach and the warzone and shook his head. "Lady Ogela should have spared some of her Lion knights or at least landed some Griffon Knights to help with the defense here. They can't expect green guardsmen to properly repulse a siege."
Grinder snorted and pointed to a fallen banner. "Some of these boys were militia but not all of them."
Kit thought the comment curious and turned around before she fully entered the keep. She glanced at the banner that Grinder had now retrieved and planted. It was a pale flag with a proud white lion emblazoned on it. Suddenly the squire realized who the boy she was pursing was and why he looked so familiar.
"Rasmus….," she said sadly.