Snippet #932423

After Diloxi's public humiliation, one would've expected tensions amongst the darkling soldiers to increase exponentially...they did not. In fact, there was little talk of the beatings if at all. Three days passed by rather uneventfully, the Civil camp slowly working to gather up supplies and prepare for the long road ahead. Dwarves, Iron dwarves and halflings scurried about the edge of the camp and worked on getting the wagons built and loaded up. The elves and dark elves constantly streamed in and out of the camp, working to gather up herbs and wood suitable for arrows and supplies. Fong had ordered a majority of the humans to go about camp, transporting and inspecting armor and listing who needed what while the others were distributed to do any work they could. Lastly, the deep humans gathered near the center of the camp to perform defensive rituals that would shield the encampment in a cloak of invisibility in their absence. Soon enough though, the day to march came.

By the end of the third day the troops had outfitted the vans and the war caravan was already heading out. Twenty-five fully loaded wagons rolled out, each covered with a gray leather tarp. Dwarf and halfling marksmen sat atop each wagon, which was in turn pulled by rather large beasts of burden; Plains Rhinos. The great things resembled the average rhino, only with a tan hide and even larger than their savanna cousins. About 1500 soldiers composed of every race marched alongside the caravan.

The Avaran brothers silently followed closely behind general Fong near the front of the army, with Diloxi and her ilk not too far behind. Melianth stared daggers at the back of the cold-eyed general for the entirety of the trip, while Belsius constantly glanced back to see how the dark elf queen was faring. Her wounds had been quite severe and due to his station as a captain, he rarely had the time to check up on her in the past few days. Fong had been informed earlier, that the dwarven contingent along with their siege engines would be along barely a day behind his own army.

Sunset soon came about to envelope the world in darkness, and torches were lit to light the way. The torches had to be covered within minutes of their lighting though, as a heavy rain began to fall. The clouds and water-weeping sky appeared seemingly out of nowhere, but then again, the weather in this region was unpridictable. By this time the caravan had entered the Akaldai Pass, it's high walls looming up to either side of the marching body of soldiers. Each wall was over three hundred feet high, and had no small number of caves and rocky outcroppings large enough for several men to stand at once. This was good, because several armed sentries stood upon each one. The Civil guardians of the Akaldai Pass waved down at the passing caravan, wishing them well on their efforts to the war. Of course, between the darkness, the obscuring rain and the height at which the sentries stood, it was impossible to tell whether these were the actual sentries set up by the Civil...much less human.

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Alright...looks like they're in position. Shokunen Helvaras pressed himself against the cliff-face, the cover of darkness and storm enough to keep his sleek form concealed. Slowly, without making any sudden movements the prince unslung his greatbow and materialized a barbed arrow, setting it on the shaft. With a slow draw, he set his sights on the head of the army. During the war council, it was decided that causing confusion at either end of the caravan would delay any coordinated defense due to communication. With a smirk, the lamia loosed an arrow, the projectile hissing through the rain and imbedding itself into the wood of the foremast wagon. The transport exploded into a shower of splinters and random supplies as the enchanted round exploded in a blast of force and sound. The loud thundercrack echoed off of the walls of the canyon, magnifying the sound...

And a loud hissing filled the air for roughly three seconds before a storm of arrows tore into the entire length of the caravan's troops. Screams filled the pass now, confusion and rage, cries of anguish along with orders to mobilize and get ready for battle. All along the walls and stone outcroppings, Savage troops emerged from the caves and hiding in force. Hundreds of brutal soldiers swung down on ropes hooked to the wall and brought the battle to the ground, while the minotaur, lamia and other heavy soldiers literally burst forth from the rock walls near the ground and crashed into the Civil ranks. Merely a day earlier, the Savage druids and shamans shifted the stone to hide tunnels for their troops and made the new wall barely a half inch thick. It proved quite effective. After about a minute of heated and confused combat, the Civil managed to regroup though and formed a ragged line of resistance all around the caravan. It was only to be expected, given that the Civil forces had superior numbers, but with the deadly hailfire and surprise assault, their numbers were about equal at this point.

Shokunen slithered down from his perch and stopped on an outcropping barely twenty feet off of the ground. He unleashed several explosive arrows into the midst of the wagons and their guards, and assed the situation. The enemy was being coralled into a tight circle around the wagons by his troops, although they seemed to be holding. The lamian prince shot three arrows into the sky, subsequently loosing three consequetive claps of thunder. At this signal over a hundred and thirty harpies launched off of the very tops of the cliff and swooped down to abduct unwitting Civil soldiers. Within seconds after ascending once more, the harpies dropped their living cargo and the bodies of humans, elves, dwarves and halflings rained down along with the storm. The archers along the cliff were now joined by what few magic caster Shokunen was given, and they quickly began to launch shamanic energies in the form of lightning and frost down upon the Civil enemies.

The prince tossed his bow up to a low flying harpy and drew his dagger, leaping down into the midst of the enemy to join the fray.