(Author's note. I inaccurately described Helena as getting a medallion with a permanent Shield Spell, it should have been a Medallion of Protection from Normal Missile. Also, I am uploading this chapter early because I will be on vacation next week and won't have a chance to do so.)
I used my Medallion of Thought Projection to mentally tell Dimitri of what I was planning to do and then I lifted up back wall of my tent and crawled out without anyone seeing me. I changed my form once again into a great horned owl, which I had long ago discovered flew faster than any other, and as quietly as I could I rose into the air. I saw the guards look toward the slight noise I had made and I hooted softly, reassuring them that there was not threat present. Once I had reached the height which gave me an excellent view but still allowed me to dive to the ground if necessary I began my aerial patrol, still being careful not to be surprised from above again.
Even without the excellent night vision of an owl, I could have seen our camp well enough because of the magical lights we surrounded it with. In the light of the waning moon I could see the orc camp the fires were burning low and except for some young orcs watching their horses and a few guards there was no movement at all in their camp. I widened my circle searching the ground for my enemies.
It was perhaps only a half of an hour later when I was at the farthest point north of our camps when I spotted strange lights in the distance, curious, I winged over toward them and the marrow froze in my bones. The lights were torches, at least a hundred of them, and I as I swooped down I could see they were being carried by Gnolls! Not every Gnoll carried a torch, so there must have been more than two hundred of them riding their big hyenas and moving fast southward along the river. I could see they were using the river like a rail, following it so they would not get lost. They were on the eastern side of the river, the same side as the orcs and they rode with purpose. It was too much to think that this was a coincidence that this was happenstance. These Gnolls knew where they were going and who they were after.
I turned on my wing tip and flew as fast as I could back to our camp. I dropped down out of the sky at a shallow angle, flaring my wings to break, when I broke the spell in front of a startled Orc guard. With his excellent night vision, he recognized me, but was still startled.
In Orcish I commanded him, "There is a large war party of Gnolls coming from the North along the river! Sound a warning!"
The Orc, still suspicious pulled his sword, one that we had traded him earlier and I said, more angrily this time.
"Do not be stupid! If I was thine enemy, I would be trying to kill thee, not get thee to sound the alarm and raise the camp!"
That simple logic worked and the Orc sheathed his sword and raised his black ram's horn and blew a long guttural blast out into the night. Within moments, the sound was taken up as the other guards joined in with their horns. The Orcs, long accustomed to the danger of night raids, responded admirably. They rushed from their tents with weapons in hand. I ran toward the chief's tent and arrived just as he was shrugging on one of the chain hauberks I had given him.
"I was scouting," I told him without preamble, "and saw a force of Gnarr coming south on their mounts and moving quickly, following the river. They are three times the number of thine warriors, including thine females. They are on this side of the river and will be here before the moon touches the treetops. I will rouse my people and join you."
"How did thou see this Gnarr warband and yet be here to warn us of it?" The chief demanded, his pig like eyes narrow with suspicion.
I raised my hand and cast the dancing light cantrip, extinguishing it a moment later. The Orcs shifted nervously at my display of magic. I then said, "I am a worker of magic and I changed my form to that owl to search from the skies. I flew back here to give thee warning. Thine night guard can vouch that I changed from a great bird to a man in front of him. Now, I must rouse my people and we must prepare for battle!"
I ran to my own camp to find my people already up and ready, having been alerted by the alarm given by the orcs. I called out to them to let them know it was me that was approaching the camp. They were surprised to see me come in since no one, but Dimitri knew I had left.
"We are in the thick of it," I said as I came up to them. "I was scouting as an owl and spotted a Gnoll warband moving toward us as fast as their mounts can run. They will be here in less than half an hour."
"How many?" Brey asked me.
"I estimate over two hundred of them and probably closer to two hundred and fifty."
I could see the shock and fear in the faces of my people, in truth, speaking it out loud in my native tongue sent a wave a panic through me, and my heart started beating faster, but these people depended on me to lead them, and I did not have the luxury of succumbing to my metal weakness, so with one deep breath I dismissed the feeling and began speaking to bolster my comrades.
"Listen," I began, "all is not lost. We have just enough time to prepare for them to come, and we are not weaklings. We are also fortunate that we will have some very strong and very brave allies in our new Orc friends. If we had been caught alone, we would never have survived, but thanks to fortune, or maybe our good priest here, we are fortunate to meet them on a more equal footing. We will triumph over these filth, so go and get your weapons and carry an extra waterskin with you, you will be grateful that you did. When you are ready, we will go and meet with the Kessegh."
"It looks like they are coming to meet us," Dimitri said as he pointed to the Orcs that were splashing across the river."
The chief was in the rear of the group crossing the river while the horses were in front being driven by the youth, who were followed by the females. The sight confused me for a second, and then I realized what the chief was doing. He was going to use the river to limit the movement of his enemies, forcing them to cross the river at the ford. Our makeshift fort was just across the river and would be the focal point for the defense. Already I could hear axes hacking into the trees that grew along the edges of the river.
I turned to Godfrey and gave the following order, "Godfrey, have your crossbowmen set up the pavise shields on top of our ramparts, that will allow them fire over our heads. You will be in charge of taking care of the wounded. Use the healing potions if you have to, but be judgmental about them since we don't have as much as we should. We will keep the young orcs inside our perimeter, as well."
"Good Priest," I said to Amenaruu, "how many healing spells do you have left?"
Amenaruu smiled his benevolent smile and said, "All of them. The Aten, through his servant the Wise Lowen, has given me the ability to recover my spells after only a short time of prayer and reflection. With our good friend's magic hammer, I am ready for whatever may come. Once our enemy appears I will offer you all Aten's blessing to aid you in this fight."
The hammer Amenaruu was speaking of was Karl's Dwarven Hammer of Throwing, which the priest had inherited after Karl's death.
I handed Helena my Wand of Fireballs and said, "Helena, stay up behind the rampart, you do not have any armor, so that will be the safest place for you. When the Gnolls try to force their way across the ford, give them a fireball. Save the spells in your ring for last, they will be more powerful."
"Perhaps we should flee and allow the Orcs to delay the Gnolls," Chai suggested calmly. "Our quest is of the utmost importance, as the Wise Lowen told us, reality itself is at risk."
I looked at Chai, with a knot of forlornness in my chest, but before I could say anything Brey spoke up.
"The fact that there Gnolls this far south of the Camber Mountains is too much of a coincidence. This was arranged by the hidden enemy that has been attacking us. On that fact, I would bet my weight in gold, and that is why we have not been attacked since our companions died. It would be wrong of us to abandon the orcs, now."
"Brey is right," I replied. "Besides, if the Orcs cannot stop them with our help, then they will fall and we will have to stand against the Gnolls by ourselves. Our best chances are to ally with the Kazzegh and win here at the ford."
Speaking of the Kazzegh, the horses being driven by the younger orcs of the clan reached us and kept going. They would take the horses far out onto the plains to protect them. No orc, even the youngsters would admit to being afraid or be denied battle, but by giving them a task of protecting the clan's most valuable possessions, their parents could send honorably send them away to the safety of the open plains and the night, for whatever that was worth. The other young orcs, who I would guess, if they were human, to be in their young teens came next carrying rough hide bags filled with something heavy and then came the women and then the clan's warriors.
"Dimitri," I said to my closest friend, "open my Bag of Holding and distribute out any gear that might be useful to our friends."
Dimitri nodded and ran to do as I had ordered. The crossbowmen were already at work putting up their pavise shields. I heard a tree fall and then another as the orcs worked furiously. The rest of the tribe came upon us just then I went to speak with the chief.
"I am going to create a stone wall between that outcropping of rock and the one to the south," I said to him pointing the geographical features of which I was speaking. His looked at me as if I was crazy but I just said, "Magic".
I stepped forward and I glanced to the North and I thought I could just see a faint glow of firelight in that direction, but perhaps it was just my imagination. I had never successfully formed a wall of stone by magic before, but I was hoping my new found understanding of magic would serve me to do so know. I called out the Arcane Words and with a rumbling, grating sound a wall of limestone came forth from the earth just over waist high and sixty feet (18.3 meters) long and one foot (.3 m) thick in a semi-circle with the apex of the arc nearest our ramparts and the ends nearest the water. This would allow our missile weapons to fire from almost three sides and, hopefully, funnel the Gnolls together and inhibit their actions. I then cast my Stone Shape spell to create dagger-like spikes along the top of the wall.
"Have Thine warriors place the fallen trees at the ends of the wall," I said to the Chief. "As thou can see, it does not block the entire ford. If thine people will cut branches and cover the wall, we may be able to surprise our foes by hiding its presence."
The rest of the orcs were looking at my handiwork, suspicious, as they always were, of magic. The chief barked out some orders and they ran to fulfil his orders and sooner than I thought possible the wall was covered. The trees that were cut down were dragged over to block the ends of the wall where there were gaps. Each tree had its branches were cut down and then the stubs sharpened to form a crude, but effective, abbatis. This had barely been done when the yowling of the great hyena dogs the Gnolls rode began to break through the night. I asked one more thing from the chief, I had his strongest warriors carry a large rock from the river bank and set it in front of the wall. I arranged the white stones I had been carrying in a circle just behind this rock.
The Chief organized his warriors into two ranks behind the wall with the first rank laying their shields on top of the wall between the spikes to form battlements. Females with long spears and short bows were behind the warriors. The small bows were made of horn bound with sinew around the yellow wood of a hedge apple tree. They were powerful enough to punch through mail at close range, which is why Orcs put them just behind the front ranks. Many an orcish foe has engaged with some frontline warrior only to find an arrow sticking out of his throat from a female orc a moment later. Dimitri had given out our Javelins of Lightning to the female orcs, as well. The younger orcs who were armed with slings, the heavy bags they had carried were full of smooth river stones, were placed on the ramparts of our camp with our crossbowmen and there was perhaps twenty of them, all told. Gnolls are not master strategists, they would use their weight in numbers and their momentum to try and carry the day. That is why I had created the wall, if we could stop their charges, we had a chance. As for my party, they stood in the center of the line and close together so the spells that would enhance our fighting capability. I was in front of the wall, next to the circle of white stones, but next to wall, which was loosely covered in cottonwood branches.
The leading element of the Gnolls broke into sight to the north, their vanguard giving a great shout when they saw the camp. They rode through the orc village, throwing their torches into and onto the tents to set them ablaze. Soon, the area was lit with fires of the burning orc village, and the Gnolls spotted us, but did not attack, as they waited for their main force to arrive.
The main force was not long in coming, and we could see Gnoll riders heading back to their leaders to inform them that their quarry had not been taken by surprise as they had thought they would be. The main body turned west and went up the slight rise behind the now burning village. I could hear the yipping barks that passed for their language as they argued about what to do next.
"Barrim," Dimitri said to me in a worried tone, "I think I see a spellcaster next to the biggest Gnoll in the middle.
I looked and I too saw a person dressed in a dark cloak with the hood pulled up around their heads so that I could not see their features, but they were obviously not a gnoll and they wore no arms or armor that I could see.
In a low voice so that it would not carry, I told all of my people the spellcaster was the highest priority. I repeated this to the chief and he nodded and passed the word to his people as well.
"Unclean spawns of Set," the priest spat out.
Beastmen, of which Gnolls are but one species, are hybrids created by dark powers for the purpose of causing pain and suffering in the world. A natural species have control over their actions by reason, but beastmen, while still having at least some of the intelligence of a man, are mostly governed by instincts and hate.
"It looks like they have made up their minds," Brey said as he nodded toward our foes. They were organizing themselves into a line with much yelling and the snapping of hyena jaws that brought snarls of anger and pain from whatever animal found itself bitten.
"Now, priest," I said to Amenaruu.
The priest began to chant his blessing as I cast my Haste spell that I immediately followed with my Extension spell, giving us the benefit of faster movement for a longer time than the base spell commanded. I felt the both spells take effect, and the Bless spell of the priest calmed my frazzled nerves, which so far, I had kept hidden. I turned from my companions and cast my Levitate spell on the large rock the orcs had placed there on my suggestion. I then stepped back and started chanting a summoning spell.
If the Illios star was weakening the barrier between the planes allowing our enemies to summon elementals more powerful than usual, I figured I would take advantage of that and I cast my Conjure Earth Elemental spell. Inside the circle of white stones a crude, rocky head and shoulder's appeared, appearing to me like a swimmer in a pool of water.
"When those Gnolls cross the river," I ordered the elemental, "I want you to push that floating stone into them as hard and as fast as you can, and then I want you to kill as many of them and their mounts as possible. Is this understood?"
The crude head nodded and in a rough grating voice like two millstones being ground against each other said, "Yes".
Most elementals were too stupid to talk, so this must be one of the more powerful ones to have the capacity for speech. The barriers between planes must be weak, indeed. With my orders given to the elemental, I hopped over the wall to the other side to join my companions as the Gnolls sounded their charge.