Chapter 8 – Part 10

The attack came about an hour before sunset.

A group of a dozen prospectors, accompanied by twenty soldiers, including the spellcaster Foallus, had gone out shortly before dawn. They’d left to collect a rich deposit of Khyber shards that a dragonmarked human had detected. The reason for the large accompaniment was that the shards were a good twenty miles from Blood Crescent.

Twenty miles through the Wastes. Delegado and Orphan had traveled through far more than that, but the fiends and the Carrion Tribes watched Blood Crescent with a wary hatred. What ventured too far from it was subject to attack.

But, each Khyber shard that was brought back was worth thousands of gold galifars, so Tharashk went.

Around noon, Foallus cast a message spell to Baruk. The hag’s forces had encircled them, and they’d lost half their number. They had finally broken through, and they were fleeing back to Blood Crescent.

Baruk summoned all hands, and called forth riders to meet the hag’s forces halfway. When he was still explaining what had happened in his booming voice, Orphan had bolted out of the gates.

“What is the Dancing Orphan doing?” demanded Baruk in orcish to Delegado, who was mounting a horse while sending Feather ahead to scout.

“Dancing Orphan can run faster than any horse!” Delegado bellowed back. “I will follow him now to use my mark to find the survivors! Come after our trail!” And with that Delegado’s horse bolted for the gate as well. Behind him the hooting cheers of orcs, half-orcs, gnolls, and humans could be heard.

The wind felt good on Delegado’s face as he bolted across the cold, bleak landscape of the Wastes, but once his visage could not be seen by the defenders of Blood Crescent, his mien grew more troubled. Orphan, do you realize that you’re trying to take on a hag single-handedly?