Day 1, Solar Month, 757 years since the Fall of the Gods, beginning of summer
Baer’s Tower army was surrounded by a Goblinoid Horde at least five times bigger. Arrows started to rain, while a hidden beast threw boulders over the troops, which were quickly divided in three defensive clusters. Each boulder launched was marked by the falling of red lightning.
The Road Marshal’s men and the Ashkatani amazons were separated from Baer’s Sentinels by one of the boulders. At the rear, another boulder blocked the path of the dwarven mercs from the Erased Rune.
Between both those groups, together with the Sentinels, were the Circle of El’dar and the Hammers of the Dawn. Hilguen, Drícia, Nogard and Garet quickly rallied the leaderless Sentinels. The gnome bard Ruudninb, the Rotund (from the Circle of El’dar), climbed a wagon and summoned the remaining soldiers around him. Heian was close to him. Finally, the thriller-seekers Knights of the Mug went to the front.
Weave after weaves of goblins and bugbears attacked, and then ogres begin to appear – one of the brutes carried a goblin warlock in an iron cage strapped to its back. The warlock seemed to be the leader and was aiming the ogre’s wrath against the Heian. The elf wizard took crowshape to escape, but the warlock went after him by shapechanging into a bat swarm. While the arcanists “bravely” flew in circles over the battlefield, the remaining Hammers and the Knights of the Mug pushed the horde back with technomagic bombs.
During these skirmishes, Garet fell unconscious to bugbear blades while trying to save a female halfling name Corbie. Heian managed to flee from the bat swarm by reaching the Eye of the West. Calling for help, he witnessed the lighthouse’s gates opening – only a lonely female warrior came out. Clad in golden full plate she charged alone the horde. Heian noted that there was something different about this warrior, but couldn’t figure out what.
The goblin warlock, having missed the fey, concentrated its assaults over the Hammers. Drícia tried to keep him way with her holy armor’s solar powers, but without success. At this moment a huge explosion shook the battlefield, and the party saw – with relief – the Erased Rune blowing the boulder that blocked their path. But the victory was short-lived, for the goblinoids abandoned all regard for sanity or order – the entire horde went berserk. While many goblins at the front died in these suicidal attacks, there were always more behind. During the chaos Corbie managed to save a comatose Garet. Many duels between champions of both armies were fought, resulting in casualties like the young half-elf warrior Jargas, leader of the Circle of El’dar. He was killed by an enormous ogre, who was later defeated by a reawakened Garet and his riding-dog Higgi.
The last boulder – separating the heroes from the army’s vanguard – was finally sundered by the mysterious golden warrior. Regrouped, the troops started their retreat to the Eye’s gates.
Heian and the goblin warlock met a second time over the sundered boulder. The wizard couldn’t damage the tattooed goblin, but succeed in blinding him inside a globe of darkness, giving Drícia enough time to summon one of Mitra’el’s firebirds. Severely wounded, the warlock took swarmshape and fled.
At the same moment, Hilguen and Nogard met with the golden warrior and were healed by her. Her name was Raniasha Midriara and she was a drakzya paladin from the far eastern nation of Khazantar. The drakzyna (plural for drakzya) were descendents of half-dragons from the golden moon of Samerash, famous for the value and honor. Seeing that many Erased Runes and Sentinels were still far behind, Hilguen summoned his Divine Spark to lift and throw one half of the shattered boulder, opening a path for his allies’ retreat.
Red lighting again shook the road and the heroes saw its source: a giant ogre with spiked armor and red skin called Gór. Hilguen sensed in him the Divine Spark – a fellow Luminar and a dangerous adversary. Raniasha, the Hammers of the Dawn, the Red Wolves and the Avengers of the Gôteintor joined forces against the half-god ogre and his retinue.
Strange and unnatural green clouds began to gather over the battlefield – acid rain summoned by the unseen master of the Horde. The army’s wizards (including Heian) started a joined counterspell and managed to dispel the ritual before it fell over the troops.
Gór was severely wounded and forced to flee his Divine Spark. The half-giant disappeared amid red lighting, but not before killing the Red Wolves’ leader – Lysurg Chief-Father. Although both Hilguen and Nogard reached the dying barbarian, in his last breaths he asked for his daughter, Beltia Greylady. Kneeling close to her father, she started a strange vanyr ritual that culminated in Lysurg’s body being consumed by flames.
The death of Gór and the acid rain’s dispelling shattered the Horde’s will, enabling the army to reach the Eye of the West. There was only the odd fact that the goblinoids still outnumbered the humans and their allies by 5 to 1. Why the retreat?
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