T Lain - Treachery's Wake

Vadania came striding through the trees, already reverted into her elf form. The druid’s every movement echoed the gentle sway of the wind through the pines. Her natural adornments, the beads and shells in her hair and on her clothing, only added to Malthooz’s sense that the woman was of the forest. She looked at home.

“The group is not far from here,” Vadania reported, her voice low and her tone grim. “There’s a clearing about a mile ahead. It contains many tents and a crude wooden building. Might be an abandoned bandit camp. Gnolls were crawling all over the place. I saw at least a dozen, and that’s not including the guards Lidda saw. There’s probably more in the woods.” She dropped her eyes. “I don’t think a frontal assault is the best choice.”

Krusk was on his feet again. He grabbed his axe from a knot of roots and slammed it into the loop on his belt.

“Figures,” he growled.

Lidda gave the barbarian a sympathetic look and said, “Sorry, Krusk.”

Malthooz didn’t know how much more idleness Krusk could take.

Lidda turned to the wizard and asked, “Mialee, can you work something on the guards?”

The wizard nodded and replied, “Why, do you have a plan?”

Malthooz saw Lidda’s grin and knew that the rogue had something in mind. She gave the half-orc a wink.

“We should move back until after nightfall,” she said. “My plan requires the right conditions.”

Malthooz followed Krusk as the company retreated.

They moved out as darkness settled. Lidda and Mialee would make a move on the guards combining the wizard’s magic with the halfling’s skill, then all of them would head toward the camp. The rogue would infiltrate the place, locate the staff, and remove it from under the gnolls’ noses.

Lidda had to rely on Mialee’s sight until she was close enough to the gnolls to act on her own. The wizard was not slowed by the darkness so much as the halfling. Her eyes were able to see much farther than Lidda’s under the indistinct light of the moon and stars. It was a gift of her elf blood and a trait that she and Vadania shared.

“Remember that the gnolls’ night vision surpasses even your own,” the druid said to Mialee as she dropped to her knees, signaling for the others to do the same.

Malthooz squatted next to Krusk. Dampness soaked through his breeches as he knelt in the bushes. It was getting cold again, and the wetness only added to his discomfort. He felt like he’d been soaked for days.

The darkness of the forest closed in around them as twilight faded into night. It was oddly reassuring to Malthooz the way the shadows smothered all the details of his surroundings, allowing him to convince himself that he was somewhere else. He wasn’t sure, but he felt that he was better off not being able to see more clearly in the gloom, not knowing who or what was out there. Maybe it was Krusk’s presence that calmed his nerves. He fingered the symbol of Pelor through his shirt while watching Vadania and Krusk kneeling nearby. He wondered if the disk would offer him any protection in the worst case or if it would do anything at all.

Malthooz saw Krusk look over at him. The barbarian sneered, but Malthooz didn’t feel it was directed at him so much as at something more general.

“This is all I need,” the barbarian said, showing Malthooz the butt of his axe. He spat. “Not that it’s going to see any use tonight.”

Krusk glared at Mialee and Lidda as they moved off.

“It’ll be easier this way,” the druid said.

“Easier for who?” Krusk growled.

Malthooz saw the beauty in the simplicity of the rogue’s plan, particularly because it didn’t involve a fight. Under the cover of darkness and silence, Lidda would save them all a lot of potential trouble. The idea sounded good to Malthooz, if a bit risky. The only other option was to go straight in and take the thing by force. That was Krusk’s preference. Malthooz hoped that there were no more gnolls in the woods.

“I hope she doesn’t run into whatever left the other set of footprints,” Vadania said as Mialee and Lidda slipped from sight.

Krusk cracked his knuckles and said, “We’ll know soon enough.”

Malthooz had forgotten about the other prints.

“Twelve, thirteen, fourteen…”

Lidda crept silently across the soft earth, counting to herself under her breath. She circled slowly around the guards, keeping them just in sight as she moved from tree to tree. The gnolls were sharing drinks between themselves. The rogue didn’t need to guess at its nature. One of the creatures wiped a long arm across its muzzle as it fell back against a tree and passed a ceramic urn to its partner.

They resembled nothing so much as bipedal wolves. They were roughly humanoid and stood about the same height as Krusk. Matted fur, dark gray with the white sheen of their winter coats, covered their bodies from head to foot. Patches of hair showed through the joints in their armor. Toughened plates of leather covered their shoulders, chests, and thighs. The pieces were held in place with a network of cords and buckles. Their snouts ended in black, canine noses. Sharp teeth lined their elongated jaws.

A pair of longbows rested on a stump nearby, next to bundles of arrows. Each of the creatures had a sword strapped to its side.

“…forty-nine, fifty.”

Lidda finished her count and moved around the tree, praying that she and Mialee had their timing right. As if on cue, a shimmering wall of color materialized in the air in front of the drunken gnolls. One of them shook its head as it tried to figure out what it was seeing. It reached out to touch the shimmering pattern of light dancing before its eyes, whimpering as it pawed at nothingness.

Before it had time to react, Lidda’s dagger found the addled guard’s throat. A second later, it was on the ground choking on its own blood, the urn still clutched in its paw. The gnoll’s companion was so enrapt in the spell, it didn’t even see the first victim fall. Lidda drew her dagger across the throat of the second gnoll and it slumped to the earth.

Her weapon was wiped clean and in its sheath by the time Mialee reached her. Lidda checked through the bodies as Mialee stood watch. She rummaged through the creature’s armor but turned up only a few silver coins. She dropped them into a pouch at her belt. Grabbing the jug that the gnolls had been drinking from, she took a sniff of the contents.

“Strong drink,” the rogue said passing it to Mialee. “A few more pulls and I wouldn’t have needed my knife.”

The wizard tossed the mug aside. “No thanks,” she said. “Let’s get back to the others. We have more to do.”

“The easy part’s done,” Lidda said minutes later as she and Mialee huddled down beside Vadania and the half-orcs. She upended her pouch of coins on the dirt in front Malthooz’s feet. “Bonus pay,” she said grinning. “Take ’em for luck.”

Malthooz reached for the coins but pulled his hand back when he saw the dried blood covering them.

Krusk snorted. “I better see more than that,” he said. “All of this work and I haven’t even seen a proper fight.”

“No offense,” Mialee said, “but if we’re getting paid either way, I’ll take the easy gold.”

Vadania got up, saying, “We should move. I’d like to get this job done and get out of the woods by morning. We’ll have the whole camp on our tail when they figure out what we’ve done. The farther away we are when that happens, the better.”

They moved along under the light of the moon that was riding full in the sky. The yellow glow of its half crescent made it easier to see the land around them and they were not so dependant of the elf women for sight. Lidda moved in the front of the group with Mialee and Vadania. They conferred in hushed tones, going over their plans a final time as they approached the outskirts of the camp.