For now I am the hunted

As bad as things were, the arrival of the stranger quickly proved that things could be even worse. After petrifying poor Onvyr, he turned his attention to us. Alistan quickly turned to charge in on him, but sadly this only gave the Yeth hound an opening to bite down hard and knock the wind out of him. Liliana attempted to intervene but sadly she received the same treatment from it. Fortunately, Edward and Ileas were nearby in order to get them back on their feet. One with a goodberry I had handed out earlier and one with some quick spells.
 
Hayley attempted to persuade the stranger to cease this attack, but he simply ignored her as he took aim and shot me with an arrow. When I came to thanks to Elsa’s healing, I noticed that things had not improved. Our amnesiac traveller had just given Hayley another goodberry in order to wake her up. Judging from her injuries, the Yeth hound had taken a nasty bite out of her. At that point the stranger took aim once more and shot both Dadroz and Ileas. Taking them out of the fight. As you can guess, saying that things were not looking good was somewhat of an understatement. A notion that was pointed out by Edward as he voiced out his concerns that this fight was beyond us. All the while moving to stand closer to his sister.The Yeth hound turned its attention to me once more. Causing me to take some distance from Elsa for her safety. And sure enough, the damned thing decided to follow me.
Enraged by the sight of his friends going down, Luke channelled as much arcane energies as he could muster and blasted the stranger with an unparalleled firebolt that enveloped him in flames. However this was not without cost. For when he released the spell, the staff that he was holding shattered. Causing some of the flames to engulf him as well. But to his credit, he endured the full force of that blast and remained standing. If only barely. Meanwhile Dorr, our dwarven companion, moved to the remaining horses and attempted to unshackle them from Robert’s carriage. Now I should point out that I have to give an apology to Dorr here. For upon seeing this I was positive that he had decided to cut tail and run. But instead he was planning on sending the horses on a charge against the stranger.
 
Then from a distance, a ray of hope appeared. Sylvesse came charging forward out of the bushes, to our rescue. Though seeing that he was already bloodied, did diminish that hope slightly. Sadly however this created another opening, causing the stranger to once more take aim. This time hitting both me and Elsa with his arrows. And not having fully recovered from my previous wound, I went down once more.
Next thing I remember, was waking up to Hayley feeding me another goodberry. Sylvesse had just taken down the Yeth hound in a deadly charge and told us to run. And while it pained me to leave my friend and mentor behind, that was indeed the smart choice. So we did, praying that Sylvesse would be able to flee when he had gained enough distance.
 
We had mostly fled in two distinct groups, which meant that it took us around half an hour in order to find each other again. We waited a bit longer, before deciding to head back to our wagons. As you can imagine this was not exactly the safest choice, as the stranger could still be there waiting for us, but we had little choice. For without our supplies, we would not get far. Fortunately, the stranger was no longer there. And even better, no obvious sign that Sylvesse had fallen to his hand. My hope that Sylvesse had managed to give him the slip when we left thus remained strong.
 
As we gathered our supplies, Hayley, Liliana and I attempted to search for poor old Robert. But sadly his trail quickly grew cold. Hayley did sent her raven out with a message in hopes of finding him, but if I am honest with this mist I did not have much hope. Meanwhile Dadroz, Ileas, Alistan and Luke went out to find Thorin, the horse we had been given back in town. And while I understand that on a survival basis having two horses instead of the one we had remaining at that time was indeed a better option. The fact that more individuals went out to search for the horse instead of our missing travel companion was a bit odd to me. Especially because I thought that Robert was rather liked. But then again, Thorin was a very good draft horse. And as luck would have it, it didn’t take them to long in order to find him.
 
With two horses in tow, we decided to take the Colline carriage with us. It was without a doubt the largest of the carriages that could be pulled by our two horses and the soft padding of the interior would serve well to keep the statue of Onvyr in one piece. We did however decide not to take any supplies from Robert’s carriage. We hoped that if he found his way back to this place, he might use them to find his way to Logvale or back to Hillfield.
We then continued our travels towards Logvale, though at a much slower pace. Hayley asked me if I had any idea how this stranger, this hunter was. Seeing as he seemed to have a keen interest in me especially. But sadly I had never seen or heard of him before this. Thus his identity would continue to remain a mystery for now.
 
Another discussion that started around this time that I should point out is that Alistan, Luke and Liliana were arguing that we made a mistake with falling back when we did. They believed that with the combined might of Sylvesse, we would have been able to overwhelm the hunter with sheer numbers. But I remained sceptical of this however. While it is true that we had numbers on our side, none of us were really in a fighting condition at that point. The battle against the Dianios had taken more out of us than we would like to admit. Not to mention the Yeth Hound witch had caused us to use a lot of our magical potential just to hold it back. So sadly I believe that that was wishful thinking on their part. Not to mention that when a creature like Sylvesse tells you to run, you listen and run. No in my humble opinion, I think we made the right choice.
 
As night fell, we managed to find an old ruined tower where we could set up camp. Well I say tower, but the remaining walls were barely higher then Dorr’s chest. But it did offer some comfort. Despite the risks involved, we decided to make a small fire. Our hope was that the mist would hide it from view and frankly we could all make use of the comfort at that point. Sadly however this proved to be our mistake. For during the second watch, Dadroz and I noted multiple Dainios exiting the forest. We raised the alarm, but before either of us could do something, Luke launched a potent firebolt at the leader and burned it to ash. This was then followed by Alistan beheading one of the ones that were trying to flank us. Liliana however had a different tactic and pushed one of them into the small pond that was near the tower. But sadly this did little to discourage it.
 
Now admittedly, unlike this afternoon there were less Dainios to contend with this time. But that is not to say that we were not at a disadvantage. For having been roused from their sleep, many of us were not wearing any armour. Something that Alistan sadly experienced firsthand when a Dianios blade found him in his gut. Fortunately Ileas had one more goodberry remaining and was able to close the wound before he bled out. I would like to point out that I was very pleased with myself that the notion of casting that spell just before I retire for the night was proving to be this effective. Though I did figure that I should keep some notes as to who had been given how many just to keep an oversight of it. Something that I was certainly going to do should I survive this night.
 
It was at this point however that we heard Dadroz should out the one thing that we did not want to hear. The hunter had returned once more. Just as that chilling feeling was taking hold of me once more, Ileas used some of his bardic abilities on me. Causing me to be filled with a warm feeling of inspired confidence. Which was good as the hunter took another shot at me that I was only barely able to dodge.
 
Considering that we were all exhausted and in even less of a shape for a fight then last time, I decided that it was time for some cold hard calculus. As Hayley pointed out, the hunter was interested in me in particular. So we either had eleven victims, Onvyr included as we still held hope that we might be able to undue his petrification, or only one victim. An easy choice to make I think. Especially if that one victim is yourself. So I shouted at the rest to get out of here before calling out to the hunter to come and get me, just as I dashed into the forest.
 
Now don’t misunderstand, I had no illusions on my chances of survival here. Especially a fight with the hunter would be straight up suicidal, even if I was fully recovered from earlier. But a straight up elf to fey fight was not what I was planning. All I needed to do was lure him away from the rest and then get away myself. Not an easy prospect in the slightest, but also not an impossible one. For while he was undoubtedly more skilled then I at the time, I was counting on three things to even the playing field for me. First of was this infernal mist. My hope was that if I gained enough distance, it would prevent him from attacking me with his bow. Secondly was the fact, guessing by his injuries, I figured that he had not yet had much rest after his battle with Sylvesse. Perhaps an hour tops. Whereas I was able to trance for a few hours. Meaning that while I might not have fully recovered, I was in no immediate danger of falling to exhaustion. So I hoped that I might have an edge when it comes to endurance. And the last stake I was gambling on was the hunter himself. Every action that I had seen the hunter take was always calm and even slightly casual. There was no doubt that he was a confident hunter, I mean you could see this in his every movement. But too much confidence can lead to arrogance. And this was what I was hoping for. That if I could stay away long enough, he would make even the slightest of mistakes that I could capitalize on.
 
So that was my plan, gain distance on him, hide and then wait for an opportunity to present itself to escape. Then use the Tarnstone in order to contact the rest and group up in Logvale. Where we might come up with a plan in order to deal with him for good. Not the best plan I admit. But all I had at the moment I’m afraid. All that it required was that I just simple maintained enough distance from him in order not to die.
 
But sadly as I turned around to confirm that I indeed had the attention of the hunter, I saw that this might be a bit more more difficult than I had anticipated. For while he did indeed follow me deeper into the woods, so did Luke, Alistan, Hayley and Ileas. With Liliana and Dadroz following close behind. Those fools, those damned beautiful fools. Sadly however this almost proved their undoing as the hunter turned his attention towards Luke and Alistan and casually struck them down from behind as they stumbled through the darkness.
 
Slightly cursing, I turned back a bit closer to the hunter in order to call out to him once more. This time succeeding in getting his full attention as he slowly started to chase after me. I started to run again. And as I looked over my shoulder once more, I could see the rest pulling Alistan and Luke out of the forest. Meaning that part one of my plan had worked. Now, with the hunter closer behind me then I would have liked, I just needed to survive part two long enough in order to reap the rewards in part three.