Day 4-10: A Glimmer of Hope

2022-12-10 New Entry (self link to subscribe to for updates)

Urtuk woke up and realized it was dark. They had been exhausted, after having barely escaped with their lives. They would need to be more careful going forward. The lands were treacherous. Death lurked at every corner. Urtuk tossed and turned. He noticed Hayyel tending to his wounds. Pelenne was fast asleep. Urtuk didn't know where Beryth had gone. His belongings were still in a corner; he must have gone off for a stroll in the dark. Darkness... It was hypnotizing. Urtuk turned over and his eyes closed again while he was doing so...

The group traveled on, past a group of mercenaries. The group was too big - Urtuk saw to it that they would stay out of sight to not become easy prey for such a large host. After another day's journey, they encountered a collection of tents. This was a group of merchants, but all their goods were priced beyond what they could afford. Some nice armor and weapons... even a few mercenaries looking for a hire. And one merchant was offering a bottle of medicine - but it was way too expensive; the group didn't even have half the money it would cost to buy the precious commodity.

So they ventured on. Eventually they came across a village. The village was guarded - they spied about 7 scavengers - almost twice their numbers. It was desperate, but Urtuk and the group needed supplies and money, so they gathered their courage, checked their equipment, and approached the elevation that the village was on.

The group was quickly surrounded, but they stuck together and focused their efforts on one guy with a large hammer, chipping away at his armor. Pelenne took a series of the first hits, but was still standing. Urtuk managed to sneak up behind him and took a series of swift strikes that injured the hammerman to the point that he was only bare standing, and bleeding all over. As swiftly as he had snuck up behind that foe, Urtuk retreated back to where the rest of the group was to keep himself out of harm's way. Another scavenger warrior with a giant blade stepped into one of Urtuk's traps and collapsed quickly after a couple of more strikes.

Another hammerman was approaching from behind the group - he must have been outside the village when they first attacked. Fortunately, Hayyel had hidden a trap somewhere, and the hammerman stepped on it, getting caught in it and unable to catch up for now. In the meantime, everyone was retreating again, Pelenne head first. Beryth had taken several hits and was bleeding. They would have to retreat and maybe return later.

As they were retreating, a spearman managed to get a hit in on Beryth. For a moment, it looked like the bloodknight was collapsing, but then he took his giant blade in a desperate swing at the nearest foe, and he was standing on his feet again.

The defending scavengers were down by 2, but there were still 6 of them. The group realized this was their only opportunity to escape all of them together without losing one of them, so they ran until the screams of the scavengers faded behind them.

Urtuk gathered everyone. While they hadn't been able to find any loot, they had done better than the last time. There was a glimmer of hope. They would eventually return to finish their liberation of the village, but first they would tackle some other task... A nearby merchant caravan was under attack they heard...