Helcêh's Corruption

[Br3admax]

"Should I go ahead, as well?" Yalveni grabbed hs wrist, "The only chance to get more armor."

[Hissien]

"Perhaps we should try to go around them or flank them?" Gelnius suggested still enjoying the peace that they had on the way there.

[POMC S117]

"No. We can't the forest is too wide for a successful flanking manoeuvre." whispered Aradir. "If you hide behind that rock, you may be able to ambush them when they come. Everyone, except Eändiré, the marshall, his men and Yalveni, find somewhere to hide."

"And I, of course, play the part of the distressed pensioner, in other words, the bait. Wonderful." said Eändiré quietly, rolling his eyes and getting to a position that made it look as if he had fallen.

[Hissien]

"Very well." Gelnius scaled a tree and drew his bow. The tree was slender and it was likely only a highly trained human or nimble elf could climb it. Snowfire flew away from all of the action to catch himself something to eat.

[Velvet LeChance]

Alva followed the mans advice and after drawing her bow, withdrew to cover behind the rocks with Lasséor.

[POMC S117]

Aradir waited for everyone to get into to position. He drew his bow and kept his eyes trained on the forest.

When John entered the forest, he and his men found it to be empty. There were no bandits. The only sign was some footsteps heading to the right.

[ArmchairCommander]

Spoiler:

Can I join?

[Hissien]

Gelnius, now in a tree, looked down to Arardir and tried to sign out "how many?" in makeshift sign language. The Ugluh was a little nervous, if he was called upon to move quickly, he would have to slide down the tree and reveal himself.

[POMC S117]

Spoiler:

Sure! I still have spaces!

Tense moment passed. Nothing came. No bandits. Nothing.

"I can't see anything!" Aradir replied to Gelnius.

"Well, this was anticlimactic." muttered Eändiré.

Suddenly, there was a yell from the right as about twenty bandits, dressed in leather and furs charged down a hill towards the group. Aradir knocked an arrow and fired.

[Hissien]

Gelnius knocked an arrow and waited for one to come into view, he fired sending the arrow flying at a bandit. "Foul beasts, preying on the weak like they do." He said leith a scowl.

[POMC S117]

The cry of the bandit pierced the raucous shouting of his friends as he tumbled down the hill, laying at the foot of it, arrow piercing his heart. A rock flew from the hand of the bandit and hit a branch beside Gelnius, missing him by inches.

[Hissien]

"Take out the one throwing rocks, I can't get a good shot from here!" Gelnius called down to the others. He knocked another arrow and took a shot at a different bandit.

[POMC S117]

That bandit fell with a long yell.

Eändiré fired a spell from his staff. Fire erupted from the tip of the magical instrument, bursting forth, as if carried on the backs of invisible, elegant creatures, landing straight on the bandit throwing the rock.

[Velvet LeChance]

Upon seeing the charging Hillmen Alva quickly notched an arrow into her bow, aimed at the closest of the charging enemy and fired. The arrow flew through the air, between the branches of several trees and caught the rock thrower in the head, piercing his skull and sending him tumbling to the ground dead.

Alva was about to grab her daggers and run at the enemy when she remembered her lack of armour. This coupled with the fact that she could not leave Lasséor on her own made her rethink her strategy of taking the enemy head on.

"Quick we must find more cover." She said to Lasséor, urgency in her voice. "We are sitting ducks here if the enemy decides to attack." And with that she grabbed her lover by the hand and began to lead her to a more defensible spot, somewhere better than behind a few rocks where she could attackk with her bow without fear of being set upon by the Hillmen.

[POMC S117]

There was a small huddle of rocks a few metres away. Some of the Hillmen were mounted and were racing between the group, attacking them. Aradir threw himself onto one of hte horses, dragging the man from his mount.

[Velvet LeChance]

Alva noticed the huddle of rocks almost straight away but decided against using them as cover, she needed somewhere where she knew Lasséor would be completely safe. Her eyes eventually found the trunk of a large tree which although looked like a difficult climb, she was sure her lover would be able for it.

"Up you go." Alva ordered to her lover as they moved towards the large tree. "You'll be safe up there." Whilst waiting for the other woman to climb the tree, Alva quickly notched another arrow into her bow and fired on one of the mounted Hillmen. The arrow flew through the air at a nice pace, however it did not hit where she intended and instead of killing the Hillman it struck the horse killing the beast instead.

"[&@%!]." Alva muttered as she watched the man fall off his horse and into the foliage where she could not see him. Lasséor had still a long way to climb and they were sitting ducks if the Hillman came looking for the woman who had shot at him. "Come on Lasséor you need to move quicker."

Spoiler:

Just a question, because of Lasséors condition is she completely incapable of everything or just speech and general interaction ?

[POMC S117]

Spoiler:

Social interaction.

Lasséor began her slow ascent of the tree. Her hands were shaking. She didn't like bandits. They smelled bad. They were bad. SHe feared what they would do to them if they captured them.

[Velvet LeChance]

Spoiler:

Considering how she's basically the only person that Alva interacts with or who interacts with Alva that's not good news...

Alva swore loudly in frustration again as she looked up to see that her lover had barely moved 3 metres since she'd started climbing over half a minute ago. "Come on you need to keep moving faster Lasséor." She muttered in encouragement, though her muttering were lost in the sound of war around them.

It was only when she turned her view away from her lover and back to the war that she saw one of the Hillmen quickly begin to close in on her. It didn't take her long to recognise the man as the hillman who she had just sent off his horse, his face was covered in a number of weeping wounds that he must have gained from his fall and his left eye seemed to be swelled close.

He let out an ear-deafening roar as he closed in on Alva and strung a huge blade for her head. Alva dived back hoping to avoid the weapon which managed to catch her one her unprotected arm, cutting it open and sending a sharp pain up along her arm and causing that arm to bleed.

"Lasséor!" Alva called as she hit the ground and began to scramble for her daggers. The man was getting closer, closing in on her, she didn't think she'd be able to get her daggers out in time before the man moved in to finish her off. "Lasséor!" She called again.

Spoiler:

And now Lasséor can do something.

[POMC S117]

Lasséor looked at Alva and then at the man. The bandit growled at her, grinning. She cried and lost hope, climbing furiously up the tree, leaving Alva to her fate. The bandit raise his sword, ready to kill Alva. At that point, Eändiré appeared behind the man and, with a quick swipe with his staff, knocked the man out.

[Velvet LeChance]

'That [&@%!] [&@%!]..' Alva thought. Alva rolled away from the bandits body before it collapsed on top of her, one hundred different things where running through her mind at that moment, she'd almost died, yet Lasséor had been okay to leave her to such a faith.

'She's in a bad way at the moment..' A part of her said, trying to argue Lasséor's case, but another part of her mind told her Lasséor didn't have a case, she'd risked her own life multiple times for Lasséor and yet when she needed her most her lover just abandoned her.

Picking her self up, Alva gave a nod of appreciation to the Elf for saving her life before approaching the unconscious bandit and giving him a sharp kick to his chin, breaking his neck and killing. "Little [&@%!].." She muttered loudly as she heard the quite audible crack from the snapping of the bandits neck bone over he battle.

She gave the man's head another kick just to make sure that the job was done and that he was well and truly dead before glancing up at Lasséor who had now made it to the top of the tree. "Let her stay up there for all I care." Alva muttered before notching another arrow into her bow and running into the battle, leaving the other woman to whatever faith the Gods had planned for her.

[POMC S117]

The hillmen slowly lost life and limb and grew demoralised, for they were now leaderless and outnumbered. They scattered into the surrounding lands, fleeing, absconding, losing all hope. Aradir half-heartedly chased them before returning.

"Was that all?" he jested.

Gelnius, being blessed with better eyesight than most as he was of elvenkin and thus more similar to the Valio of old than his mannish cousins, spotted a formation of men coming from the south, about half a mile away. They were approaching fast. From this distance, he could not tell whether they were foe or friend, if anyone could be deemed such a thing in this era.

[Velvet LeChance]

Alva watched as the bandits fled into the countryside, she had taken down a half dozen men with her duel-daggers before they had began to retreat and was now covered once again in others blood as well as a number of new cuts and scrapes that marked her un-armoured body, including one particularly bad one that ran along her left arm, making any sort of movement with it painful.

[Hissien]

"Hold the celebration, it appears we may not be out of the battle yet." Gelnius cried in a warning. "There is a group of men to the south, from here I would say about a half mile from here and they are approaching quickly." Gelnius squinted to see further. "Do we try to escape them or try to meet up with them?" Gelnius asked not wanting to send out snowfire to scout as they would be here any moment.

[POMC S117]

"Into the forest." whispered Aradir anxiously. "We'll see what they are up to first!"

[Velvet LeChance]

Although Alva could not see the enemies herself, she had come to trust her companions judgement and followed Aradir's orders without question. Bow and arrow in hand she made her way into the forest.