Nomen Infernale XLXV: Your Enemies Will Hem You in on Every Side
General Summary
As the party accepted the uneasy hospitality of the the Ayadi cenoby, Alex became distracted by the banners on the wall. Once showed a hand upraised and open, palm facing the viewer and the other one finger pointing upward to the sky. The flourished script was beautiful, but Alex could make neither heads nor tails of it. He caught Elissa's eye, raised both eyebrows in question. She raised one eyebrow archly as if to say "I was only with the Bani Satra for a short time and for most of it had a fever." Alex grunted his resignation and copied the script as best he could below the transcription of the evening prayers he had eavesdropped on earlier and planned to get them translated next time he was in a more cosmopolitan venue.
In the morning, Alim and two wirey men, one stooped with age but still visibly strong entered to discuss the the future. He stated that they were friends today but could meet on the battlefield in the future. He laced his compliments of the party as being visibly dedicated to the restoration of order and defeat of the corruption seeping into the lands. He stooped down besides Alex and put a hand on his shoulder "and it seems you have even won once or twice" and laughed. Alex laughed with him convivially while deciding not to mention Ghamdi the Lifetaker's role in disentangling the essence of Nekhtebu from his own soul. It quickly occurred to him that they had said nothing to Alim of that ordeal and he wondered what invisible scars Nekhtebu's invasion had left on him.
Theo pretended not to notice as Alim commented on the Ouranic Church's failure to act against those in its midst who were trafficking with miasmatic forces. He further suggested that their search for the Rusati was impossible, believing that they had long since left this plane of existence. He hoped to enlist La Compagnia's aid in severing a point of control over the Tribesmen of the Yafwad Wastes. he describes a point where a demon fell from the heavens and burrowed into the earth, where the Yafwadi slavers performed black rituals on youths and maidens before feeding the to the demon in the pit below. The party knew he spoke of the black crater they had passed near. Alim believed they could slay or exorcise the demon and break the Cult of Reshpu's hold on the wastelanders.
Alim led his cenobites to the courtyard to engage in a martial dance with sword and shield while the party argued amongst itself. Kegho emphatically stated "No like slavers." before standing in the doorway to watch the technique of the Tariqites. Asbjørn had bristled when Alim had said "burrow" but seemed perfectly happy with finding buxom mythical elves or slaying slavers and burrowing demons. Alex noted that Alim did not have the staff or the knowledge they had gained from the crypt. He suggested they find the Rusati first lest they bring the two syllables of the infernal name to a potential agent of Reshpu. He asked Riven and Tele to repeat their visions and signs. Theo was torn by his mix of zeal to dispatch slavers engaged in depraved worship of a plague god and his worry that carrying the name longer would create more chances for it to fall into the hands of the cultists and empower them.
While they weighed their options, Kegho felt the familiar trembling of the ground of a horde rushing toward them. He called the Ayadim and La Compagnia to arms and to their credit they asked none hesitated to take up weapons to defend the compound.
Kegho immediately strode to the top of the western gate tower while Asbjørn went to gather large stones to drop from the wall-tops. Kegho began relaying what he saw which included an ogre, a dozen men carrying axes and javelins, twisted by the corruption of inbreeding and miasmatic worship, and a wiry man with sunken features holding a staff topped with a skull, wearing a necklace of the skulls of adolescents or adult Oameni and wearing a bone helm. Asbjørn abandoned the stone he had just lifted and ran to the ramparts of the eastern gate tower as grappling hooks sailed over the ramparts and bit into the stonework. Asbjørn and Kegho begin hacking into the hempen ropes taught with the weight of wastelanders climbing them and were rewarded with the satisfying thump of them falling back down to the ground. Alex and Riven each traveled to the tops of a tower ready to rain down projectiles on the invaders, but Alex thought a potion of control person used on the necromancer or the ogre could really turn the tide of battle and quaffed one and tried to catch the eye of the shaman, but failed to attract his attention. Riven decided her priority was to cut the rope, but notched her handaxe on the stone instead. A wastelander woman climbed over and attempted to grapple her.
The ogre with his club and the axemen in the front beat on the acacia wood door, it bulges and splinters but holds fast. One wastelander clears the wall and makes to head toward Theo.
The shaman completes a bleak incantation and the western tower becomes engulfed in total darkness.
Riven heaves the axewoman grappling her off the tower and hears her land with the satisfying thud of bones breaking, but her wail of pain is drown out by the ogre and axemen shattering the gate. A Yafwadi cleared the parappet and lunged for Kegho just as the shaman's spell had been cast. Kegho and his attacker were evenly matched for a moment grappling in the unnatural darkness.
Alex hoped his mental map is right as he launched himself over the crenelation and onto the three-foot wide stone arch of the doorway. As he came out of the darkness and tried to lock onto the shaman, he saw a clay pot of eknoi fire sail through the air, taking into account local windspeed and any updraft created by the hot sands. It cracked open on the top of the shaman's bone helmet. Nothing happened for the briefest of seconds as the viscous oil splattered in all directions and dripped down the confused shaman. As it caught the air the shaman was engulfed in explosive flame, he flailed and screamed as the conflagration stripped the air from his lungs. The axeman next to him was also swallowed by the flame. Some splattered on the ogre but not enough to damage him, two more axeman near the gate caught larger splatters and also burst into flame. Alex traced the arc of the pot back to Riven standing on the gate house impassively staring as reflected flames flickered in her eyes.
Theo chased after the wastelander who had cleared the wall and brained him with his mace while Tele also loosed a bolt of Ar at the wastelander for his temerity of being first inside the wall. Asbjørn launched himself over the parappet in order to mow down some wastelanders from behind but twisted his ankle in the landing.
Alex did not think he would be able to get the attention of the enkindled shaman and took the risk of slinging a stone at the head of the very nearby ogre who had just shattered the door. From his height and angle, Alex was able to strike him in the head. They locked eyes but the ogre was able to shrug off the effects of the Oameni's gaze. Alex unfortunately had the ogre's full attention and wondered how sturdy the stone arch was.
