After a decent night's rest, the sound of rain outside the tor began to dissipate and the three new acquaintances decided to travel to Harken Village together to meet the stranger at the Broken Gaol. Outside, the rain calmed down to a drizzle, then finally nothing but a refreshing mist. As the three were finally beginning to dry off, they encountered a river they knew they would have to ford. Before the storm, the river would have been nothing more than a calm stream, but over the night it had flooded into a raging current.
Rayne and Lirael managed to swim across easily, but with his lanky frame, XIII had a bit more trouble. The rapid water whisked him into a boulder a couple of yards downstream and thinking frantically he hurled the decapitated head he had chained to his arm ashore. Rayne rushed over to grab hold of it and it wasn't until both he and Lirael yanked at the thing while XIII attempted to swim to shore that they managed to get him safely upon land.
XIII examined his poor dead and battered head as they all took a moment to catch their breath before carrying on towards the nearest village. But along the way they encountered a pair of men dressed in black cloaks embroidered with a gray circle and some dark scale armor. They both had scimitars hanging from their belts and the three travelers noticed that they certainly didn't look trustworthy.
XIII decided to sneak around them to hide behind a bush while Lirael attempted to invade their minds and search for any clues as to who they were and what they were doing in Harkenwold, for it was clear that they were foreigners. Dark soldiers like them definitely did not belong in a pacifist land inhabited mostly by farmers. Unfortunately, though, the minds of the soldiers were clouded by ale and provided no useful information. So Lirael signaled to XIII to attack. He jumped out of the brush and startled the men, which gave Lirael just enough of an opportunity to attract all of their attention to horrible illusions of horror and contradictions in order to give XIII a chance to summon the fires of Hell.
Suddenly though, in a terrified rage, one of the soldiers lunged at XIII, thinking him to be a demon of maggots and Rayne rushed in as if out of nowhere. With nature's wrath, he assaulted XIII's attacker, who instantly fell dead upon the dirt trail he had been walking merrily along with his comrade only minutes before.
Upon seeing this, the second man shot a bolt from his crossbow at Rayne, which was easily deflected by a shield. Lirael took matters into his own hands and thrust fatal images into the poor soldier's mind until he went mad and clawed his eyes out until he too fell to his knees and succumbed to the cold grasp of death.
Just then, the sound of a woman's screams sounded over the hills and they saw a plume of smoke rising from what appeared to be the source of the upset.
"Ah, a damsel in distress," Lirael noted with peaked curiosity.
"We should go towards the smoke," Rayne said, "There may be townsfolk in danger. Perhaps these soldiers are part of a larger group."
"Perhaps also there are tasty dead people..." XIII commented.
With a brisk pace, they hurried over the hills until they could see where the smoke was coming from. A short distance away they saw a small farmhouse enclosed within a four foot tall stone wall. Besides the house, there was also a barn and a smoldering outhouse which was the source of the pillar of smoke they had seen from beyond the hills. In the yard they saw a few soldiers with the same uniforms on along with a large and fierce looking gray wolf.
"Who are these boneclods and why are they attacking villagers, I wonder," XIII said.
"Yes, surely they must have less than pure motivations," Rayne added.
Lirael crouched down and suggested they try and ambush the group. As they approached the stone wall, however, the gray wolf cocked its ears and turned its head in their direction. Lirael stepped on a twig and it made a quiet snapping sound but the wolf was not deceived by the wall they took cover behind. He snarled in their direction, alerting the soldiers who were preparing pitch-soaked torches, laughing and taunting whoever had barricaded themselves inside the house.
The three of them knew a lost cause when they saw one and so they revealed themselves to the dark brigands who turned to face them. One of them scowled and waved his arm, shouting, "Move on, you three! This is Iron Circle business!"
From inside the house, a woman's voice called, "Business? This is nothing but robbery and murder!"
"We've just made it our business," Lirael replied harshly. And with that, Rayne rushed forward before they even realized they were about to be attacked and slammed his blade into the nearest foe. As his blow struck, he channeled the spirit of the ram to charge and pummel the nearby soldiers.
Lirael walked in through the gate and flipped his scarf over his shoulder and out of the way. XIII moved in to the yard from a short distance behind him. Just as they both began summoning the psionic and arcane magics that fueled them, though, the three brigands pulled out crossbows and began firing, one of the bolts grazing Rayne's shoulder.
Suddenly the wolf charged towards XIII and just in time, Lirael, with a forceful wave of his hand, pushed the wolf back and out of the way before he could get to XIII. As he did so, however, a soldier planted a crossbow dart right in the fleshy part of his forearm.
Rayne put on a watchful eye to prepare himself to intervene if two of the men near him were to attack before drawing his sword back and swinging it down on the enemy nearest him with the strength of a boulder, nearly hacking his head clean of his shoulders.
But again Rayne was struck by a coarse bolt from a crossbow, which sent a shiver of fury to pulsate through his body from his head to his toes. He took on a more beastly form, bearing long and sharp canine teeth, and growled a fearsome roar at his foes. Lirael took his first opportunity to send a shockwave of hellish visages into the nearest unsuspecting human's mind as another hurled himself at Rayne, who dodged a strike of a blade behind his shield. Then he rushed over to Lirael to flank the gray wolf as it passed by. Having it pinned in between them, Rayne threw himself, shield first, at the wolf, pummeling it beneath his earthy weight.
Meanwhile, XIII dodged crossbow bolts, a few of them grazing him here as he was concentrating greatly on the summoning of dark eldritch energy which he shot out of his fingertips at the soldiers. The ribbons of darkness crackled within shadowy electrical auras. As they pierced their way into the flesh of his foes, XIII jumped over the wall to take cover as he recovered his strength.
A brigand went to charge Lirael when Rayne interrupted his attack and unleashed the fury of the earth unto the already battered soldier.
"Nice save, my friend," Lirael paid him a compliment.
"No problem," Rayne replied before calling in XIII's direction, "Get your act together, XIII! We could use a little more of your arcane power." He said with impatience while deflecting blows with his shield and bashing in the rib cages of his friend's attackers.
Lirael focused on his psionic abilities and projected images of worms crawling in and out of his skin to terrify his enemies, causing them to writhe in mental anguish, which left them all quite vulnerable to attack.
Just then, XIII pounced over the wall, unleashing his impish floating eyes upon the wolf who was bewildered by the cheshire grin and evil eyes that glided towards him and sunk their razor sharp teeth into its flesh. With a sickening whimper, the wolf's eyes rolled back into its head as it fell pathetically to the ground.
Rayne yet again hurled himself at an enemy, this time tearing right through his armor and crushing his chest and ribs right into his vitals. With two opponents left, Rayne was able to keep a closer eye on his enemies. As the nearest aimed his crossbow and began to fire wildly at Lirael in a terrified stupor, Rayne leaped up, sword raised above his head, and slashed down on the attacker, slicing his blade from the man's collarbone right down to his navel. Blood and guts seeped unwillingly from the gaping wound before the body even had a chance to crumple to the ground in defeat.
Locating the fourth and final soldier, Rayne rushed up and swung madly at him as well. But he threw up his shield just in time to deflect the blow, although he did fall to the ground and attempt scampering away as he saw the psionic walking slowly towards him.
"Keep him alive!" Rayne shouted.
"It's already too late for him, Rayne," Lirael stated as Rayne parried a blow from the fallen brigand.
"But, Lirael, he could give us useful information about his faction!" Persisted Rayne.
"I am sorry, Rayne. His mind is already polluted with the agony that is my power. Now, you worthless meatwipe..." Lirael murmured as he approached the frightened bandit. He sent another wave of horrors into the man's head with a wave of his arm and the man dropped his sword and shield to tug at his hair in futility, "I'd like to finish you off but I believe I know someone who may find more enjoyment out of it...XIII?"
With a mischievous grin, XIII leaped over to the dead wolf carcass and hurled it at the soldier with glee. He then pounced on it and began savagely devouring it, taking care to be as messy as possible. The brigand began to convulse beneath the weight of XIII and the wolf until ultimately he became still and silent, his skin a sickly gray-green color and an unnatural foam pouring slightly from the corner of his sagging mouth.
Lirael and Rayne, meanwhile, approached the door of the house that they had heard the woman's voice come from behind earlier.
"Your troubles are over, milady," Lirael said in a flirtatious tone, "Please, may we come in to recuperate from our perilous struggle against these brute savages?"
[Outtake of the Day: Lirael, as he approaches the dying brigand - "NOW YOU SHIT PIECE OF BRUTE--"
XIII - "Couldn't you have just called him a piece of shit brute...?"]
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