The afternoon of the 25th of Davor, 1329

Droog and Savana had tracked down the traitor-mage at Lok Magius, and were following him and his escort out of Rilan on horseback, when they went toe-to-toe with the traitor-mage and his body-guard – one of the now-infamous Marksmen.

In a mage-to-mage battle, Savana found herself dangerously outmatched by Toirin, a mage with bat themes. Toirin's bat-like concussive blast knocked her out completely, and destroyer her magical backpack, causing its contents to spew out in a fifty foot arc.

Droog manages to take Toirin down with his battle axe, but then falls to the Marksman named Jolve. Jolve cut Droog down to within an inch of his life, and then found himself in a quandry.

Toirin had been floating up away from the dwarven warrior, when the dwarf had let loose his battle axe. The axe had buried itself in the mage's chest, and mage and axe together had gone flying out over the river. Jolve stared out at the slowly rotating, slowly floating-away mage out over the River Galanus. The Marksman finally dug out his heavy crossbow, and attached about a hundred feet of fishing line to the crossbow bolt's end. Securing it to his horse's pommel, he fired the crossbow into the mage, managing to bury the bolt into the mage's leg.

Jolve grunted, glad he didn't kill the blasted mage, and pulled the line in, coiling it as he did so. When he had the floating mage, he ripped the axe out of his chest, and tossed it into the river. The mage was alive, though barely.

The Marksman frisked the mage quickly, and found several potions on him. Hoping one would heal the mage, and not kill him, he quickly unstoppered one and poured it down the mages throat. He tossed the potion's little bottle and stopper into the river, even as shafts of green light began to gleam from within the mage's wounds. Nodding to himself, the Marksman took another of the little glass bottles from the mage's belt, and poured it down his horse's throat, the horse having been hurt in the battle by the dwarf.

Jolve saw dust in the distance – more riders coming. He dropped the potion bottle, lashed Toirin to his horse, and quickly mounted. His orders were simple: make sure the mage made it back to the rendezvous point. With any luck, Captain Hague or even the doom would send reinforcements. If Lok Magius had sent one mage and a dwarven warrior already, then more could be coming.

The Marksman kissed his ring, and then mounted his own horse, taking the reigns to Toirin's mount.

* * *

The Lord Reeve of Rilan, Sir Bridar, pushed his horses as hard as he could. The wizard and the dwarf had left Rilan only moments earlier, and the Lord Reeve and his men were desperately trying to catch up with them.

Sir Bridar was the head of intelligence gathering for Mount Rilan, and the Baron-and-the-Bishop's domain. The drow at the Blue Tyven had told him what had happened, and being able to link the Marksmen to something concrete was a god-send – but not as much as knowing that the Marksmen were working with a traitor-mage. With any luck, they could interrogate the traitor-mage, and find out who was directing the Marksmen.

Word on the street was that an ogran doom known as Rex was running the show, and that another mage, an elf, had managed to kill his wife. The tie between Doom Rex and the Marksmen had been rather tenuous for a court of law – but no longer.

Sir Bridar pulled in on the reins of his horse, and leapt off in one smooth motion. The dwarf and the wizard from Lok Magius were both down. A quick check of their vitals showed that they were alive, but only barely. Someone had knocked the wizard out with magic, but the wounds to the dwarf were more severe, and done with a blade, probably a longsword.

The Lord Reeve directed his other reeves to search the area, and tend to the wizard, while he brought the dwarf around with smelling salts and a quick dose a healing draught that he kept in his emergency kit.

As soon as the dwarf was conscious, he immediately moved to check on his wizard companion, and Sir Bridar approved of the dwarf's loyalty. A quick interrogation revealed that they had bested the traitor-mage – perhaps even killed him – but the Marksman known as Jolve had gotten away after nearly killing them.

The other reeves were able to piece together the aftermath of the battle, and realized that the traitor-mage had either survived, or his body was being taken with Jolve towards the ferry. If they got across the River Galanus at the ferry before they could be caught, then they might very well get away.

The Lord Reeve knew the country well, and realized that he might very well be able to cut straight across a bend in the mountain to arrive at the ferry ahead of Jolve. That country was no friend to horses, and so Sir Bridar left his horse as a remount for the othe reeves, and loped off into the trees and boulders to the east, his bow in his hand.

* * *

One of the horses from Lok Magius had had its leg broken in the mage battle with Toirin, but the reeves recognized its brand, and realized that the horse was actually worth whatever healing draughts they might have. Once the horse's bone was mended with potions, Droog and Savana mounted up immediately, and set out in pursuit of Jolve and Toirin, with half a dozen reeves to assist them.

Neither Droog nor Savana wanted to get caught without backup, again, so despite the magical natures of their horses and their incredible speed, they held back so that the reeves could keep up – though they did have to change mounts often.

At one turn in the bend, the river bank built up to their left, and occasional boulders along the road, they caught sight of someone. Spurring their horses to catch up, they realized at the last possible moment that Jolve was not alone, and had brought six Marksmen with him – and there was no sign of Toirin.

The two sides quickly engaged in a fierce but brief battle. Savana and Droog together were not enough to take Jolve down, and a lucky sword slice from one of the reeves managed to lop the Marksman's head off.

Three of the reeves went down, and two more Marksmen, before the remaining Marksmen quickly withdrew, and sped away from the scene of the battle.

Only two reeves would be able to follow Droog and Savana as they gave chase, the remaining staying behind to care for their wounded and send word back to Rilan for reinforcements. Droog and Savana quickly searched the Marksmen's bodies, and discovered bits of rubies, and strange rings on the warriors' fingers that almost hummed with magical power.

* * *

Sir Bridar managed to get to a rise in the mountain from which he would have been able to see the ferry, were it not for the thick forests in the area. What he did see was the plume of dust still ahead of the dwarf and the wizard, and so he loped on down the mountain as quickly as he could, drawing and knocking an arrow as he did so.

His first shot was made at a a relatively close distance, and managed to hit the lead Marksman rider with such force that the man was knocked from the saddle and hit the ground hard, rolling before he slammed into a large rock.

The other riders pulled up, even as the rear rider fired his heavy crossbow at the dwarf following him. The wizard let loose with a wand of magical fire that was oddly pink and fuscia, and the dwarf roared with laughter at that for some reason.

Droog grinned, realizing that Thedlar the barbarian-mage at Lok Magius had taken his revenge on Savana by giving her a pink-colored, feminist wand of magic. Savana, for her part, ignored the color of the wand's power, and continued using it to blast the Marksmen.

The battle was short and furious, and the Marksmen were defeated by the combined firepower of Sir Bridar, Droog, Savana, and two more reeves. Sacking the Marksmen for weapons and equipment and remounts, they quickly took up the chase towards the ferry.

The Galanus River was almost a thousand feet across at the ferry, and fairly deep. The ferry itself used a heavy rope system to pulley back and forth across the river.

Droog and Savana ran their horses up onto the banks of the river, and then Across The Water – the magical horseshoes keeping them from even touching the deep waters beneath them. Droog raced across to the other side of the river, even as Savana recannoitered, and then retreated. The ferry was already half-way across the river, with three Marksmen onboard – and Vadrus Hague, their captain. The ferryman was cowering on the deck as the Marksmen began to fire on Droog and Savana both.

Another half-dozen Marksmen waited on the near shore, and opened up with their heavy crossbows on Savana.

The torrent of bolts from those crossbows was frightening, though it barely slowed Droog. The dwarf managed to cut through one set of thick ropes, and the ferry began swinging back towards the other shore, even as the line fed out, keeping the boat in the middle of the river until the far-side Marksmen managed to get their hug warhorses involved in dragging the ferry back.

Sir Bridar advised a retreat. Nine Marksmen – and Vadrus Hague – was nothing to laugh at. Savana had spied Toirin, unconscious or dead, on the ferry with Captain Hauge.

They decided to quickly retreat back to Rilan, and then use the teleport circle in the Silver Gauntlet to get back up to Lok Magius, request the aid of the battle-mages, and teleport in ahead of the Marksmen.

At Lok Magius, they briefed Reed on what had happened, and were given the support of five battle-mages and Thorfinn Stoneskull, an odd dwarf with all-black eyes (even his schlera) and a mean disposition. Thorfinn would lead the group, and ensure their safety. One of the battle-mages would have a token for the Eye of Galgiran, as well.

The group of them went through the Eye of Galgiran at Lok Magius to a point on the road east of the ferry, and about as far as the horses of the Marksmen could have gotten at a hard pace. Thorfinn put them atop a nearby spire of rock to have a good view, while one of the mages' familiars, a hawk, went out to investigate towards the ferry and perhaps find the Marksmen.

Meanwhile, Sir Bridar and his men would be heading north from Rilan with a sizeable force. Between the two forces, there was really nowhere to go; the Marksmen couldn't cross the river, and the mountains were inhospitable to horses.

Droog, for his part, was almost shaking with anger. They had been very close to capturing the traitor-mage at Lok Magius, and had failed. If they could catch Toirin again, or Captain Hague, then they could perhaps find Doom Rex. They wanted Doom Rex's boss, whomever that was, because Doom Rex's boss was almost destroying Rakore from within. Traitors…

Droog began praying, his holy symbol in his hand, for vengeance…

Blue and black flames slowly licked their way up from Droog's feet, and Thorfinn growled that the flames would be seen from a great distance. Droog realized that the flames' color indicated that the God of Vengeance was listening to the dwarf.

K'Tath, whose favored weapon was a battle-axe, and whose church inspired vengeance and battle, was not a god for Droog to follow. K'Tath's followers tended to be anything but good, and the god had been known to encourage theft, murder, and other, less divine forms of vengeance.

Droog was angry enough not to care. He continued his prayers, not to K'Tath, but to any god that would listen. Droog wanted Vengeance, for all Rakore, upon the Traitor.

The blue and black flames slowly crept up all over the dwarf's body as he continued to pray.

The familiar-hawk returned at a break-wing pace – behind it were roc-hawkes, closing fast, and no sign of the Marksmen.

One of the mages broke the token, and almost instantly, a tiny blue star winked into existance. The battle-mages were no match for one roc-hawke – let alone four. When the Eye of Galgiran had opened fully, they ran through its inky blackness. Last through was Droog, snarling, hoping to lure one of the massive bird's heads into the ring, such that when the Eye of Galgiran closed, the head would be cut off.

Droog had no such luck, and was irritated and annoyed and irked and pissed off at the whole situation.

Early the next morning, Reed summoned them to his office, to show them an intelligence update. The parchment indicated that the rocs were operating out of the forests north of the river and Mount Rilan. There was a no-scry zone there, much like what was found further out into the desert, behind the ogran lines.

Reed told them that they would need to do a reconnaissance, find the roc-hawke nest, get Toirin if necessary, and then be able to report back. They would have a token for the Eye of Galgiran, like before, and several message tokens.

Savana looked at the man like he'd gone insane: he was sending one dwarf and one human into a nest of ograns. He wasn't sending them in unprepared, though. The Hoard had mostly been emptied, already, by the war – but they were each to gather a handful of things from the Hoard, at Thedlar's discretion, and outfit themselves for the reconnaissance.

Reed assured Savana that they would have one Shield Guardian, as well. The man-sized golems had enormous shields with which they could protect mages, and a big fist to smash opponents. They were notoriously hard to kill, and responded well to verbal commands, even if they were not that bright.

So ends the early morning of the 27th of Davor, 1329.

We met at James' house, and his daughter, bless her heart, kept wanting her father's attention. She's a cute lil girl, and hard to ignore, but that makes it doubly hard to get in character or play. I think next time I'll tell me to meet me at my apartment – no kids to distract them, and it's close enough by that if there's any trouble at home, they'll be able to respond in a hurry.

They're each being allowed to pick four items from the Hoard by Thedlar, and essentially everything left in the Hoard is only worth about 15,000gp by this time. The other battle-mages and survey teams and reconnaissance teams have mostly cleared out the Hoard, although a few more valuable items are still there. Thedlar made sure to give each of them a cloak of blending for the mission.

The battles were quick, viscious, and intense; give, and take, run, and fight. James and Erin did an excellent job that night. Good job, guys.

2,000. (total XP awarded to date is 12,000)