The Branchalites go East

Chapter 35: Recruiting at Langtree.

He turned his attention to his duty then, watching and listening around their camp, the sound of the rushing water soothing his wrinkled brow, the insect life ceding the primacy of background noise to the warble of small amphibian life. Sedgwick had already seen to his horse, so he patrolled the perimeter for the period of his watch, before heading over to Mark to notify him that the second watch was starting.

The group were undisturbed overnight, and crossed the river as the sun breached the horizon, clouds disbursed during the night, yielding a rainbow in the spray from the river. Sedgwick couldn't help but smile. Thrinzia swam across the river without hesitation, but the horses required some enticement. All the same, the team were heading northwest along the north bank shortly after dawn. They passed Shrentak in the middle of the morning and with Layla scouting ahead made good progress along the river until the middle of the afternoon. Mark called out and pointed to the east where five, black-scaled humanoid creatures were flying toward the group, from the direction of the ruins of Vantal.

"Let's dismount," Sedgwick told Mark, using the Camptalk language, as he slid out of his saddle and landed on the soft ground. "You should let Layla know to stay out there for a bit. These guys can fly as fast as her. And we should establish our defenses." His eyes strayed over to the giant, scaled lady standing nearby. "Well, those of us that have spells should." He flashed her an apologetic smile and then turned his focus back on the approaching fliers, even as he framed the spells he wanted to deploy in his mind. Mark had dismounted and was pacing away from his horse, so that it wouldn't get caught in any area-effect spells. Sedgwick gestured to a spot where he'd like Thrinzia and she moved that way as he stepped away from his own horse. They formed a triangle more than a line, Sedgwick at the prominence, aiming toward the irregular group of scaly folk heading their way.

One of the scaly humanoids flew up closer and shot an arrow toward Sedgwick. It was stopped by the arcane shield Sedgwick had set in place, but the creature was a skilled archer, getting the arrow close even at such a distance. Three of the other scaly humanoids flew closer and sent arrows toward Sedgwick and one of them sliced open a wound on his right leg. The last of the enemy flew closer but appeared to be casting a defensive spell that caused their outline to become blurred. Thrinzia called out in Camptalk, "They're black dragonspawn," and pulled the string on her bow sending an arrow toward the rightmost of the leading elements. Her arrow failed to penetrate the scales.

Sedgwick took a moment to review what he knew of dragonspawn. Typically human to some extent, they were engineered by a dragon overlord into a new creature through the use of magic, alchemy, and a shard of a draconian's spirit. The scales they acquired overlaid their mammalian form and gave them significant protection. They were under the direct control of an overlord, but if they survived the overlord's passing they would either go mad or became independent. Sedgwick guessed these were the latter. Given the scaly armor, Sedgwick used a blessing from Shinare that would facilitate a morale boost to himself, Mark and Thrinzia during their attacks. They'd need the assistance. He ignored the injury to his leg and drew his blue two-handed sword, wondering if it's efficacy against dragons would extend to dragonspawn. Mark drew his dull-sheened broadsword, holding it ready in his left hand, while he inscribed letters of green fire in the air in front of him. Massive chunks of ice fell from ten feet above the opposition and hit four of the enemy who were thirty feet above the ground. Those four dragonspawn all appeared to be injured by the icy assault, for which Sedgwick was grateful.

The archer on the left peeled off from the main group and approached more cautiously, sending an arrow toward Mark who was out of Sedgwick's view. Another one of the group headed in that direction, adding his own arrow directed toward Mark. The third in the front line headed toward Sedgwick, sending his own projectile that sliced into his left arm, causing him to wince. The fourth in the front line, furthest to the right and the fastest, flew on toward Thrinzia, sending an arrow in her direction, but she was also behind Sedgwick's line of sight, so he couldn't tell if she was injured. The last of the enemy, the one that hung behind the others and had previously cast a spell, cast another spell which Sedgwick identified as being an energy protective effect, doubtless deployed against any more of the cold attacks from Mark. Sedgwick heard the sound of Thrinzia drawing her massive sword, so big it required both of her huge hands to wield. Retaining his own two handed sword in one hand, Sedgwick pulled a stick and fired off three glowing green darts at the spellcaster to the rear of the enemy's group. They fizzled out against an invisible shield and Sedgwick frowned. "She's got an arcane shield up," he called out to the other two, restoring two hands upon his blade, letting the wand fall to the ground for now. Sedgwick heard Mark spellcasting again, and this time a bolt of lightning flashed out toward the spellcaster at the back of the group of dragonspawn. She dodged the worst of the bolt, taking little damage from it, and appeared very weak after the attack.