Eight Era, cycle 1720 – cycle of the incontinent cow, season of Unkh, day 82
They say that no plan ever survives contact with the enemy; well, Moojan wouldn’t know about that as they’d been waiting in ambush for five days and had yet to see the lich. They’d ambushed a train of carriages, finding it suspicious that someone would send a fleet of carriages to the quiet town, but it had been a circus, and Moojan and Mireille had to cover their mistake by pretending to be highway bandits. They’d spent the next two days laying low to avoid the town militia, which had been formed in response. Mireille had actually joined the militia to listen to the town gossip.
The town operated almost as regular as clockwork; the townsfolk knew which day to expect a cart through. Although the cart might be delayed a day or two, but, on the whole, the citizens were reliable and knowledgeable enough that, when Moojan and Mireille noticed the townsfolk placing out the stools and lading them with goods, Moojan and Mireille knew to expect a cart soon.
They had also set up a few wards of their own, to let them know when someone was trundling down the roads. This is why, when their wards were set off earlier in the evening and yet none of the townsfolk had set out any stools to welcome the travellers, Moojan and Mireille started to come to the conclusion that this would be the lich.
‘Where is it now?’ Mireille asked with a quizzical frown.
Moojan checked his arm, which he’d scrawled on; the symbols from his armpit down to his elbow had disappeared. ‘Five marks left, 100 yards a mark, so 500 yards away.’
‘That makes no sense; there are no lights and no sound. Are they on stealth rides or something?’
‘No, they can’t be. That first ward is attached to my wrist glyph. This glyph changes depending on what rides over it. The amount of traffic it detected was considerable; see the pattern? That shows four carts or wagons and eleven mounts. There’s no way they could be this silent; they must have a muffle spell or something.’
‘To get past our stats? We’ve got perception, hearing and touch, as there’re no vibrations; heck, we’ve even got smell, sight, cunning and mental resistance from any spell – all of it is overwhelmed. We’re going to get inhumed,’ Mireille said biting her lip. ‘Let’s go to the verge over there; we need to get a better view.’
‘Agreed; it leaves us a bit exposed, but whatever spell they’re using has cancelled out our plan already.’
The two of them ran crouching up a steep incline, and had to scrabble with their hands up the last few feet. Once at the top, they crawled on their bellies to the lip and looked out. Mireille took out a spyglass, and Moojan cast a spell to create a similar effect.
‘They’ve crossed the 300 yard glyph,’ Moojan announced. ‘I’ve got them… What the heck!’
There were no horses; instead, the carts and riders were all using large, blue tigers with black stripes.
‘They’re using mirage tigers!’ Moojan hissed.
‘Oh wow; I’ve never seen one! This is incredible, but can we take them?’ questioned Mireille.
‘I’d rather be facing mirage tigers than a mage so powerful he can cast a silence spell from 400 yards away.’ Moojan countered.
Mireille chewed her lip. ‘I suppose.’
‘You see that, the one wagon amongst the carts? That’s got to be the lich. The riders are all covered up, but the lich wouldn’t be a rider anyway. The carts are being driven by goblins, and I’m sure if the lich were a goblin, Mino would have brought that up. So that leaves the wagon. We do this quick and dirty, get the lich and ignore the rest,’ Moojan stated, sounding confident suddenly. ‘I don’t have any more of the wards, so, once I set them off, there’s no going back.’
‘I know; I’ve got my staff ready. You realise that, after the cost of the equipment we’re using, we only get a small payout for risking our lives?’
‘Come on, you’ve been saving that staff for so long it’ll go rotten. Okay, when the wagon passes the thistlebush, we go. Ready?’
‘Ready.’
‘Go!’ Moojan screamed, and a blast of electric-blue light exploded from the ground, encircling the riders.
Mireille shot from the ground and brandished her staff; it twisted and writhed in her grip before flying from her hand like a lightning bolt and slamming into the chest of a rider. Then lightning arced out of the rider into the blue tiger he rode on, and over to the two blue tigers pulling the wagon. The lightning tore through the air, turning atoms it passed through into plasma, and leaving behind scorched and cooked flesh on the creatures it arced through.
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The sonic boom from the staff’s lightning form scarred the remaining blue tigers, which were outside of the containment spell Moojan had activated, and Moojan and Mireille sprinted at the wagon with its lone and stunned driver.
Mireille surveyed her battle log.
Battle log:
Hit level 31 haradrim rider for 12,000 damage points
Level 31 haradrim rider dies
Hit level 21 blue tiger with collateral damage for 1,200 damage points
Level 21 blue tiger dies
Hit level 28 haradrim rider for 1,200 damage points
Level 28 haradrim rider dies
Hit level 26 blue tiger with collateral damage for 1,200 damage points
Level 26 blue tiger dies
Hit level 18 blue tiger with collateral damage for 1,200 damage points
Level 18 blue tiger dies
Hit level 25 blue tiger with collateral damage for 1,200 damage points
Level 25 blue tiger is affected with stun for 180 seconds
Level 25 blue tiger is affected with cripple, two of its legs no longer work
Level 25 blue tiger is affected with confusion for 90 seconds
Level 27 blue tiger is hit with sonic boom and affected with fear for 70 seconds
Level 21 blue tiger is hit with sonic boom and affected with fear for 30 seconds
Level 17 blue tiger is hit with sonic boom and affected with fear for 170 seconds
Level 28 haradrim rider is hit with sonic boom and affected with fear for 20 seconds
Moojan pulled his sword free and stabbed a blue tiger in the neck; it let forth a whine so shrill that it made Moojan’s teeth ache. He pulled his sword free, stabbed it in the neck again and again, and then sunk his blade into one of its eyes.
There was a growl from close by as one of the blue tigers recovered from fear, and, with its rider, it ran at the barrier and leaped, passing over Moojan’s barrier. The blue tiger landed and rolled; somehow, the rider lay flat against the blue tiger and was unharmed by the roll. The blue tiger and its rider turned to face Moojan.
At that point, Moojan wished he’d spent some more money and learned the dome-shield spell instead of the barrier. The blue tiger charged, a bolt from the night slammed into the side of the blue tiger and caused it to stagger, and then Mireille pounced and pulled the rider from its mount.
Moojan turned and climbed onto the wagon, pulling the dead goblin from the wagon and clambering over the charred bench. Moojan drew a cloth door aside, pulled a torch from his pocket and sprinkled a powder over it, which made the torch catch alight immediately. The inside of the wagon was cluttered, but devoid of any lich. It wasn’t so cluttered that the lich could hide, except for perhaps in a long box similar to a coffin. Moojan looked around again to make sure it wasn’t hiding somewhere and then approached the coffin, looking it over for traps. He placed the torch near the coffin, pulled out his sword and held it high, pointing it downwards and ready to strike. He braced one hand on the coffin lid, took three steadying breaths, and flung the lid open. Someone was lying in the coffin, and, without further thought, he plunged his sword down and into the sleeping occupant. Its eyes flung open and it let out a scream. Moojan staggered back, and the lich pulled the sword free and flung it away. It rose from the coffin like it was on wires, and hovered above the ground. It screamed again, cupped its hands together and unleashed a blast of power.
The wagon exploded; Moojan was thrown through the air and skidded over the ground before coming to a rest. He rose up on his elbows and coughed; his chest ached, and his left arm was hanging loosely and Moojan was unable to make it move.
There was a cry of an animal in pain, and Moojan looked around and saw the blue tiger hobbling around with a large chunk of the wagon sticking out of its gut. Moojan looked around further, trying to find Mireille, and, finally, he spotted her sprawled out on the floor, with a large chunk of flesh missing from her side.
The lich screamed in fury, and Moojan pulled out another sword and readied himself for the fight. However, the lich was enraged by being failed by its servants, and cast a spell that ripped the air apart and left a shroud of dark energy humming like a rent in the fabric of space. As it turned out, that was exactly what it was, as the lich flowed through it and disappeared. Moojan watched, glanced over at Mireille and, with a shout of frustration and fear, he charged through after the lich.