Battle of the Dura Dai...

When they arrived back at the small village by the muddy oasis the old ashik was mobbed by the village's few children. They all wanted to hear more of his story. He gently pushed through the small crowd and took a seat beside the cooking fire that had been lit in preparation for the evening meal, the children followed him and all settled down near him waiting for the adventures that would spill from his lips. And so the old ashik continued his tale that must be told.

The Company of the Cloaked Inix sneak themselves into position, near to the base of the south east tower, without being seen by the Elves on watch on the walls. When she feels that the guards are not watching, Scar dashes the last fifty feet to the base of the tower and starts to climb. As soon as Scar begins to scale the base of the tower, Kank dashes across the open space to join her. He is closely followed by Miloch, while Balboa, Ferulah, and Arthur remain hidden keeping an eye on the guards to see if they raise the alarm. As soon as Kank starts to scale the rough exterior of the tower Arthur disappears from beside Balboa.

As Scar quietly slips through one of the tower windows she finds herself staring at two Elves having a conversation, one with their back to her and one staring straight at her with a look of surprise on his face. Scar draws the Sword of Kemalok as the Elf facing her shouts an alarm to his allies. It is then that the warrior woman hears the shout of two more Elves standing above her on the top of the tower, outnumbered four to one, Scar attacks.

Scar stabs at one of the Elves on the lower level but the female Elf deftly sidesteps the attack. The pair of Elves on top of the tower move towards the ladder to climb down and join the fight, but all this does is present their backs to Arthur who has just materialised out of thin air behind them. The mighty Dwarf swings his massive metal troll maul and the powerful blow knocks the Elf off of the parapet to land broken on the floor below.

The body of their dead clan member falling into their midst startles the two Elves and Scar takes quick advantage of this and strikes cobra swift with the point of the Sword of Kemalok, stabbing the male Elf through the throat and dropping him dead to the floor. Kank rolls in through the window and as he is rising he punches the female Elf fighting Scar in the stomach, she staggers backwards but remains standing. Now that it is obvious that a fight has broken out in the tower and the alarm is being raised, Ferulah and Balboa dash across to the base of the tower and start to climb.

At the top of the tower, Arthur swings once more with his troll maul and catches the Elf in the left arm. There is the sound of breaking bone but the Elf remains standing and weakly swings at Arthur with his bone sword, but the attack is badly aimed and the doughty Dwarf avoids the blow. Arthur then swings back his metal troll maul and smashes it into the Elf’s other arm, once again there is the sound of breaking bones and the Elf drops unconscious to the floor. On the floor below the female Elf finds herself facing three opponents, she stabs at Scar but misses. Scar quickly ripostes and stabs her in the gut, the Elf collapses to the floor. There is a moment of quiet in the south east tower.

The night sky is lit up by a massive blast of flame as the south west tower is attacked by the Dwarf patrol. Suddenly the Elves that were rushing to defend the south east tower have a lot more to worry about and several of them peel off to defend against this new threat. Kank unslings Bone Crusher and moves to defend one of the tower doorways, while Miloch steps over to defend the other. Scar leads Ferulah and Balboa down the stairs to search for Barunus. The first Elf to try to defend the tower from the east wall is met by an overhead swing of Bone Crusher, the stone maul in the hands of the heavily muscled Mul crushes the Elf’s head. The strike is so powerful that a shard of Kank’s beloved weapon breaks off. Miloch is also forced to fight to hold off the Elves from the south wall and a slash of his iron battleaxe removes one of the Elves’ arms.

As Scar reaches the bottom of the spiral stone staircase she runs straight into a group of five Elves, it is obvious from the look of them that they are suffering from some kind of disease. Scar takes a heartbeat to think if they can avoid fighting these Elves but her mind is made up when Ferulah leaps past her on the staircase and dives straight into the middle of the Elves. Shrugging her shoulders, Scar stabs downwards with the Sword of Kemalok and badly cuts one of the Elves legs. Ferulah swings at an Elf with her cestus but the Elf staggers backwards and avoids the attack.

Arthur, who has now descended from the top of the tower, replaces Miloch at the doorway from the south wall and the Human warrior rushes downstairs to join Scar. As soon as he has stepped into the doorway, Arthur is forced to defend himself from an Elf with a bone sword. Arthur counters with a swing of his metal troll maul and the Elf is forced to stagger backwards blocking the way for his allies. Kank swings at the next attacker from the east wall and hits the female Elf in the stomach, she doubles over and falls from the wall.

Scar slashes out again and cuts the Elf’s other leg badly, clearly severing an artery, as blood sprays out of the wound. Ferulah manages to land a powerful blow on one of the Elves and there is a cracking sound as the Elf’s leg breaks. A heartbeat later Ferulah is roaring in anger as she is hit in the head by an Elf spear, she ignores her downed foe and leaps at this new attacker. One of the Elves, seeing that things are going badly, runs off along the tunnel through the east wall and disappears into the darkness.

Arthur shatters another Elf’s leg with a sweep of his metal troll maul and then sidesteps an attack from the next Elf on the wall. He then reverses his troll maul and hits the first Elf again, killing it. Blows rain in on Arthur, but all of them glance off of his magically enhanced armour. One of the Elves tries desperately to reach the immovable Dwarf, but in their eagerness they overreach and slip from the wall to fall to the courtyard below. Kank swings hard, but the Elf ducks beneath the blow and stabs with his bone shortsword. Fortunately for the big Mul, the attack glances off of his chest armour.

Ferulah punches the spear wielding Elf with all of her might, the ferocity in the strike throws the broken Elf backwards into the wall where it slides to the floor unmoving. Balboa and Miloch step off of the stairs and into the fight, Balboa swings with his iron banded mace and solidly hits one of the Elves. Both Miloch and Scar manage to score hits against the two remaining Elves, but the pair continue to fight. Then the mighty Balboa smashes one of the Elves in the chest, the powerful blow crushes the Elf’s ribs and he drops to the floor unconscious. Scar swings hard, but overreaches and her helmet slips down over her eyes blinding her. The Elf takes advantage and sinks his sword into the flesh of her thigh, as Scar staggers backwards the magnificent Balboa steps in and once again slams his mace into the chest of the Elf killing the final foe.

Still holding the two entrances into the tower, Arthur and Kank can both see that the Elves further along the wall are starting to abandon the defences and flee into the night. Kank slams Bone Crusher into the next Elf attempting to attack the tower and turns the Elf’s head into something resembling a crushed cactus. The Elf behind darts in with his short sword and strikes a glancing blow off of the big Mul’s head. The final attackers decide that it is too dangerous to try and gain entry to the tower and turn tail and run. Kank shouts at Arthur;

I’ll hold the doors! Go help the others!

The big Dwarf doesn’t need to be asked twice and rushes down the spiral staircase just in time to see Balboa light a torch and discover that the oubliette is empty. Crestfallen, the Company quickly recover, and leaving Miloch to hold the entrance into the tunnel leading through the east wall, they quickly rush down the stairs to check the cells at the base of the tower. But once again they are disappointed to find it empty. Returning to Miloch they shout for Kank to join them and once they are all together they prepare to attack the north east tower. The tower that they expect to be occupied by the leaders of the Dura Dai clan.

The Company moves swiftly along the passageway and Kank knocks on the door at the end of the corridor violently with Bone Crusher. The door flies backwards off of it’s hinges and the eager Mul launches himself through the portal, he is greeted on the other side by several Elves who are stood ready to receive the attack. Two arrows strike against Kank’s chest but they are deflected by his armour, Kank steps to the left towards Toramund, Chief of the Dura Dai and is greeted by lightning shooting from the Toramund’s fingers and electrocuting the big Mul through his armour.

Arthur rushes into the room and steps to the right swinging his metal troll maul viciously at one of the Elven attackers. He catches the Elf in the chest and it flies backwards crashing into the wall and sliding down dead. The Captain of the Elven Guard slices at Arthur with an iron scimitar, he hits him in the abdomen and the big Dwarf is forced to take a step backwards.

One of the other Elves steps into the fight and smashes Kank in the head with a warhammer, the big Mul drops like a felled tree. Scar rushes through the doorway in time to see Kank go down and leaps to stand over him and fight the Elves. Balboa follows Scar into the room and attempts to touch Kank, lightning leaps from Toramund’s fingers again and strikes Balboa, but the electrical attack ripples off of Balboa’s magical armour. However, the arrow fired by one of the other Elves hits Balboa in the chest and forces him back out of reach of Kank.

Scar slashes at one of the Elves with the Sword of Kemalok and the ancient Dwarven blade slices clean through the Elf’s leg. One of the other Elves steps forwards and slams his hammer into the tall warrior woman forcing Scar to stagger backwards. Miloch is next through the doorway and like Kank and Balboa before him, he is greeted by a lightning attack from Toramund. Miloch’s magical armour soaks up most of the damage. Scar leaps back into the fight and slashes again at the first Elf with the Sword of Kemalok, the blow is lethal and the Elf drops dead.

Arthur is hit once again by the Captain of the Elven Guard, this time in his best leg, Scar is also hit again by the hammer wielding Elf but she continues to push forwards. With Scar advancing, Balboa reaches Kank and calls upon the gnomes of the earth to heal his wounds. The big Mul climbs back to his feet smiling and locks eyes with Toramund, Chief of the Dura Dai. It is then that Kank hears a voice in his head that he cannot resist. Toramund points at Miloch, and the irresistible voice in Kank’s head says;

KILL HIM!