The day was a cloudy one and only the greater moon was easily discernible in the sky. Down a lonely road leading to one of Surdana's many burgeoning rural communities, a pair walked, burdened by the heavily laden cart the man pulled. After crossing one of the many newly built bridges, a man stepped from behind an outcropping of rock directly into their path. The tall, dark-skinned farmer stopped and wiped the sweat from his brow. His wife, a small woman with deathly pale skin, stepped timidly behind her husband's back. The stranger nodded slightly with a sardonic smile and began to speak.
"If you would be so kind as to unburden yourselves with them good there it would save me friends and I a lot of work," the man's smile widened to reveal a mouth full of rotten teeth.
The farmer looked behind the cart and saw that a pair of men had appeared from whatever holes they had hidden. The men wielded heavy iron cudgels in their hands and long knives graced their belts. White teeth flared in the dark man's face as he turned with a smile.
"I think you men have a pressing engagement," the farmer spoke with a husky accent.
The bandit in front of them produced a shortsword from behind his back," And where would that be friend?"
"In the Palace dungeon," the farmer held up a circular emblem that caused the bandit leader to blanch slightly," Come along quietly and no one has to die today."
"But me thinks they do!" a heavily accented voice came from behind the outcropping.
A wartok, as huge and terrifying as any of its kind, stepped from the same cover the bandit had used. Its armor was scratched, dented and generally badly maintained, but the battleaxe it wielded looked very well tended. The dark farmer calmly looked the wartok over before pursing his lips as he found the beast wanting. The wartok snorted and several grull sprang from hiding around the husband and wife. The bandit leader looked decidedly uncertain as neither the man or his wife seemed at all afraid of the forces arrayed against them.
"Smash them!" the wartok roared, brandishing his axe.
"Time for killing, Crayla?" the man asked, almost jovially.
"You know it, Ramn," the wife answered in the same tone.
Ramn uncovered the mithril scimitar and shield the pair had secreted along the cart's side. He heard the snap of a bowstring behind him and knew his partner was putting her newly acquired Bow Of Light to good use. The four grull were charging at Ramn with iron clubs held high. Ramn shook his head and took three long steps forward. The warrior calmly assessed his opponents as they raced towards him. Subtle shifting of his feet preceded the movement of the scimitar to a relaxed position at Ramn's left side. The heavy blade tip rested just above the ground and wavered not in the slightest.
The first reached him and was dead from a nearly severed head before its weapon moved a centimeter. Ramn turned with the force of his upward slash and slit open the belly of the grull on his right. The scimitar reversed direction faster than the eye could follow to dance along the bulbous throat of the grull on his left. Blood splashed from the grull's gashed throat and made the ground slick as it began its death throes. His mithril shield blocked a blow from an iron mace. Shield edges made good blunt weapons the and the grull was unconscious before it could utter a single squeal. Ramn smiled slightly and stood to his full height. The human bandit paled even more and turned to run. His wartok partner was too busy frothing at the mouth to notice.
"Crayla! Switch!"
The pair twisted around each other until they were once again back-to-back. Ramn saw that Crayla had only injured the humans enough to prevent them from running. Both men lay groaning on the ground with shafts through their legs. His partner had also taken out a pair of grull before they could take cover. The remaining two sprang from cover just as Ramn got into position. Ramn casually dodged the wild swing of an iron mace and slashed the back of the grull's neck. He crouched slightly to block a blow with his shield and then sprang forward to shieldbash the grull in the face. The cowardly creature scampered backwards on its ass before scrambling to its feet to run. Ramn had no compunction about neatly slicing its head in two.
"Ramn!"
Ramn turned quickly at Crayla's excited cry and ran back to her side. Ramn reached her just as the wartok came within range. Several shafts protruded from the beast's armor but none had managed to penetrate deep enough to do much damage. Ramn went left and Crayla went right. The small, incredibly tough woman had grabbed her mithril longsword and shield from the compartment in the side of the handcart. They could handle a lone wartok by themselves.
The wartok took a might swing at Ramn and he barely managed to skip backwards out of range. Crayla darted in and ducked beneath the whistling axehead as the wartok spun like a whirlwind. The small woman gave a piercing battlecry as she drove a foot of her longsword into the wartok's chest. Sparks flew as the steel gave way to the stronger mithril with a ear-rending shriek. A huge roar rolled from the wartok's mouth, along with a geyser of blood, as it backhanded Crayla away. Ramn's partner flew through the air and smashed into the rock-face on their left. A growl escaped Ramn's throat as he leapt onto the monster's back.
"Die!" he screamed and drew his scimitar across the thick neck.
The blade cut deep and blood gushed forth to cover the warrior's arm. Ramn stood on the creature's back, kicked off, flipped once and landed to watch the wartok stumble forward clutching futilely at its throat. The triumphant warrior waited for the wartok to fall on its face before checking on his partner. Ramn was shaping a rune of healing even before he reached Crayla's side. His potential for learning magic was small but he had coaxed the Jade Sorceress into teaching him a few healing spells for a hefty fee. Ramn knelt beside his friend and pushed the magic into her. She coughed and grimaced as the magic healed her wounds. The mithril scale they wore under their clothes had protected her well.
"Today was a good day to be us," she said with a laugh as Ramn helped her up.
"