Entitas Writes

014 - Olgar's Last Stand

Solana wastes no time. She’s not sure there’s a plan beyond pure defense, but she’s going to go in there and stop these boneheads from causing too much trouble. Cracking her knuckles, she sprints towards the battlefield, right to the first bonewalker she sees….

…For it to jerk its head to stare directly at her, as though it knew she was coming all along. Rather than charging at her, it raises its head for an unholy screech… and the ground beings rumbling and deforming. Something’s trying to dig its way out! Solana tries to take its opportunity to summon as an opportunity of her own: namely, taking it out before its backup can arrive. She runs, knowing she can’t handle whatever swarm emerges on her own: She needs to warn the militia.

Finally reaching the edge of the action, she’s immediately shocked at the battle scene: the guards seem outnumbered almost two to one! Did she really take so long to stop this, or was it that they were risen quickly? She waits for just a moment to find an opportunity to help two guards against a gang of skeletons. Emboldened by the sight of her, and her power, the pair of guards redouble their offense. These vile undead are no match for Solana’s fist, and even less of a match for the power of iron. Something about these ones don’t seem nearly as tough as that first battle, way back when. No time to muse about that, though, she’s quickly given the order to head to the town gate, in case things really go bad, and to find the captain of the guard.

The battlefield has degraded from what was probably once formations into just chaos. Amidst the confusion, she hears a familiar shout nearby. Wait a minute, that’s Olafur, the axe-using guy she beat in a duel! Solana turns to see him stumbling backwards, a pack of bonewalkers upon him. Jerk or not, he needs her help! With more a full-body flying tackle, Solana knocks over most of the group and staggers the rest. Olafur recovers baffled, and then irritated at seeing her. A brief attempt at some cooperative bone-crushing gets her an irritated jab and a shove. He’s got this, she needs to go and be useful somewhere else! Okay, okay, jeeze.

There are panicked shouts behind her, with a loud rumbling. Before she can turn around, she’s knocked to the ground herself. The ground is bursting open, and the smell of rotten flesh is followed by the sight of it, as new horrors emerge around her! Solana may be unnaturally talented to handle more than one foe at once, but no person alive could handle six against one. There’s not much she can do than try and back away to nowhere, surrounded as she is. Suddenly, along comes Olafur, cleaving some of them effortlessly while they were distracted with Solana. Some choice, harsh words to her and her window to retreat is open. Jeeze, he took that loss PERSONALLY, didn’t he?

Finally making it to the gate, Solana isn’t really surprised to see the fight is here, as well. What is he surprised is at the bonewalkers: armed with rusty, worn armor and long-unmaintained weaponry, alone significantly better geared than the usual bonehead, they moved and acted with an intelligence unseen before. This elite force clashes with a group of guards, and the Captain himself! A sudden reinforcement is just what they needed, although Solana found herself to be not much more helpful than a distraction. Why are these things so much tougher?

In a quick exchange of words, Solana reports that the fight seemed to be slowing down before the sudden, underground reinforcements. With the gate secured, the Captain decides it’s time to move the gate forces out to clean things up.

The dust has settled. Nothing else seems to be coming. As paranoid as everyone is that something could emerge at any moment, there’s a need to relax and consider this a victory. People are regrouped, the wounded are… still wounded. They simply aren’t healing, the tinctures are no better than water, the salves worthless pastes. The unharmed or better-off do what they can to get the injured back into town, presumably to rest and hope natural healing works.

Solana thinks back to her visions. The town is safe, but the hurt guards aren’t getting better. If the two visions could be described as destruction versus dominance, did she avert one to assure the other? She needed to end this, now. And there was the matter of the third, vague sighting…

She asks the captain if he knew from about what direction this swarm came from. The first sighting was from a southeastern scout. To the southeast? The only place Solana knows around there is Bittermoor, more of an outpost, the de facto border between the Havens and the justifiably-less-habitated Flooded Lands. This seems like the right place to go next. Solana prepares for what might be an unpleasant journey.