Crossfire Sequence

[Brian]

Lammermore nods at you.  His sword is sheathed, and the point of the scabbard rests on the ground in front of him, his fingers laced together and resting atop the pommel of it.

Kevin is conversing with Radagast, who is speaking in quiet tones and gesturing to one of three birds you see (barely) wheeling about overhead in the darkness.  When you approach, you catch, "...Loremaster Parthipan's seeking did not identify a general yet, and neither have any of my own friends."

Kevin nods tersely, and looks over to you.  "All is nearly in readiness.  We await only the moment of the battle," he says flatly.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn nods soberly.  "You seem concerned, my Lord," he observes.

[Brian]

"How could I not be concerned?" he asks dourly.  "I just hope I don't worry overmuch."  He glances at Radagast.  "Is there any other information we can obtain before the moon sets?"

Radagast shakes his head apologetically.  "Nothing I can think of," he says slowly.  "And ... I need to go prepare the illusion for Lammermore."  Turning to Bjorn he asks, "Is there anything else we need to prepare for?"

[Bjorn]

"Not that I know of," Bjorn replies.  Turning to Lord Kevin, he asks, "Will Sir Breke and I be in the vanguard again, my Lord?"

[Brian]

"No," Sir Lammermore says, strapping the sheath to the baldrick on his back.  "You'll be with me, today."

[Bjorn]

Bjorn nods.  "What will you have us do?"

[Brian]

"Help with the general, with any luck," Lammermore says with a sardonic grin.  "You got his attention last time -- I know few with the skill to try what you did there."

[Bjorn]

Bjorn shrugs and smiles coldly back.  "Well, we'll call it skill anyways."

[Brian]

Lammermore raises an eyebrow, as the men on the ramparts begin shouting, and the moon descends, vanishing from view.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn draws his new dwarven-forged katana, takes Breke's chains up in his left hand, and waits for Lammermore's signal.

[Brian]

The gates rumble open, revealing the approach before you.

With the light of the Keep's great beacons, the field is illuminated clearly.  The worn craters from Radagast's traps are carved into the field, littered with broken scraps of armor, bits of weapons, and other, less identifiable remnants of your foes.  The archers above you on the wall knock and draw their arrows, and across the field, you see one of the ogres in Dwarven armor.  It steps foward, and raises an axe menacingly ... but at its range -- barely even visible -- it can't be reached by bowshot.

Before any of the Lorekeepers can target it with a spell, the tide of normal dreadmarch orcs and ogres sweeps forward, obscuring the potential general from view.

[Bjorn]

Outwardly composed (or so he hopes), Bjorn internally fingers his mindboard nervously.  The lack of his newly acquired combat senses, and the experience of his other-self in swordplay is... an unnerving situation to be in.  

But he waits, and watches, as the Dreadmarch approaches the earthenworks.

[Brian]

The archers begin their work as the tide approaches the earthenworks.  The results are mixed, however ... some of the Dreadmarch charges blindly into the traps and walls, but others quickly (and effectively) scale the walls, running across the top of the walls.

The archers quickly bring focus to those enemies, but their number increases, and the traps are only slowing the tide, not stopping it.  Lammermore is already wearing the guize of the Archon at this point.

At about the point where some of the wall-running orcs reach the middle of the traps, a force of Dreadmarch archers takes up a position outside the earthenworks, and starts firing at the archers.  This is quickly surpressed by a writhing splash of violent electricity from the tower you'd presume Ginrai to be on.  This in turn -- again -- summons the General, who appears by jumping onto the earthenworks, and charging along with the rest of those atop the wall.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn does not touch the smudges he needs -- he slams through them, his touch so quick and violent that without meaning to he finds himself staring through the eyes of Philip and Nathan.  His message is brief and simple... NOW!

And then he lets the mindboard vanish, not even pulling it back from the other two first, to let all that his other-self knew about war come back into his mind.

[Brian]

At the rear of the battlefield, on the very edge of the invisible line that the Dreadmarch doesn't cross while the moon is in the sky, a gate opens, widening until it's as far across as the entire pass, blocking off Dreadmarch reinforcements.

Storm-riders by the thousands boil through, their battlecries echoing across the Dreadmarch, to the barriers of Stormwall Keep itself, and are then flung back across the battlefield again, returned by archers who redouble their efforts.