Nomen Infernale XLXVII: When Reshpu Saw That There Was Respite, He Hardened His Heart
General Summary
The pitched battle between the Yafwad Wastelanders and the Dervishes of the hermitage had turned in favor of the Dervishes and with the injured Elissa and Teleptyon safely in the chapel, the other members of La Compagnia renewed their focus on the remaining enemies in the courtyard. The leader of the charge, besotted with Alex due to a potion, passed too close to Asbjørn in his distraction. Asbjørn lashed out with his khopesh dragging the tip of its blade down one side of his back. The leader continued as if it was a scratch, hoping to find Oameni he thought was a child caught up in the thick of battle. While Asbjørn was slicing at the leader, the wild woman swung at him, but caught the stone wall behind him instead. The other hunter attacking him also missed as the enraged barbarian movements were jerky and unpredictable.
One of the warriors saw Elissa re-appear near the open doorway of the chapel as she tried to calm Yahi's terror. The warrior ran for the door, but Elissa caught his movement in the corner of her eye and slamed and barred the door as he arrived. He pulled his axe and began to break down the door.
Alex felt guilty for the state of the leader and moved to intercept him. He saw blood running freely down his back and pulled a small sack of chalk from his belt, dusting the wound and watching it turn from white, to crimson, to brown as the particulate helped the blood cake. While he was tending the wound he attempted to surruptitiously check the leader's pockets, but the leader was not so stunned by the massive wound that he did not notice and chided Alex like a child engaged in unacceptable play.
Riven loosed two arrows at the back of the man attacking Asbjørn that he might be free to test the mettle of the half-ogre who had struck her. Her first arrow struck the man in his buttock which distracted both he in pain, and Asbjørn in wild mirth, and the second entered his rear portal, bringing him very near death. Asbjørn did not let him suffer long that indignity as he bisected the man from shoulder to waist, and hooked him round the back of his neck with the curve of his blade to pull the two pieces apart.
Theo saw the warrior who had charged the door and chased after him, beating him about shoulders from behind. In the Yafwadi warrior's zeal he was unperturbed even by the maiming of his limbs. Kegho sees the half-ogre move deeper into the courtyard and spins Wraithcleaver into him. The cut damages the half-ogre who swung a meaty fist at the Steppelander and rings his bell somewhat. Riven shoots the wild woman attacking Asbjørn who then swings his khopesh cleanly through her at the waist. She continued blinking in shock as her upper half slid into the sand and her legs crumpled in the opposite direction.
The leader tries to pull Alex away from the fray, but slick with blood, Alex slips free. The leader falls flat on his face in the sand. Alex, still feeling guilty helps right him before running into the courtyard. He found Kegho facing off against an half-ogre, Theo battering an attacker near the chapel, Asbjørn looking wildly for the next enemy and another attacker trying to kick down the door to the chapel.
The warrior Theo was attacking could ignore the blows no more and turned to strike back, but his attack sparked and glanced off Theo's armor. A second warrior reached the door and tried to kick it down, but it was made of sturdy wood and he injured his foot. He pulled his axe and decided to be more proactive. It bit into the door and Elissa began searching the room for something to reinforce it, eventually deciding to disassemble some tapestries and use the hanging rods to reinforce it. She kept the tapestries nearby to ensnare the first enemy who breached the room.
Keg struck again at the half-ogre, his axe slowed by the fat of the thing, but still cutting into the muscle underneath. The half-ogre brought two fists down on Kegho, who was ready for the strike and remained undazed. Riven targeted the half-ogre as Asbjørn joined the same battle. Her arrow flew true and wounded him, and Asbjørn swept across the ogre's achilles tendons and as he fell used the backswing to end him. Theo and one warrior remain trading blows with Theo getting the best of him at each turn. Riven begins shooting the warrior at the door but though she gave the arrow, Keith, the affirmations it needed to reach its target and puncture a lung, the one at the door continued trying to break it down. Alex missed with an bullet. Asbjørn felled the warrior fighting Theo and Alex finally loosed a bullet that burst the warrior at the door's head like a ripe camel melon.
He turned to see the leader's face deeply perplexed a few feet away in the courtyard. The attacking enemies were all dead. Dervishes pulled their swords free of the last of the fallen bodies and began to gather in the courtyard. In the distance the rumble of more feet could be heard laced with war drums and hooting. Riven pointed to vultures circling on the hot air. Theo chided that of course vultures would be near a battle site with all of the corpses, but Kegho stopped him "Too soon for vultures." Alex called for Yahi and Alim to parley with the leader while Theo begged the injured to come quickly to him that he might minister Lamos's blessings. Elissa, Asbjørn and Teleptyon were each given Lamos's healing touch. While Yahi began a guttural conversation with the leader. Alex asked a few quick questions finding out that there were two more waves of enemies and the third wave was backed by those who wield the Ar. The Yafwadi came with a two-fold purpose: to stop the Dervishes from opposing Reshpu's will and to retrieve a powerful artefact. At the mention of a powerful artefact, Alex lolled his head to face Alim with eyebrows raised in most urgent questioning, but Alim pretended to be engrossed in any tactical advantage they could glean.
Theo asked if there was anything they could do to stop the onslaught. The leader laughed uprioriously, his laughter occasionoully interrupted by a wet cough. He told them that death and disease and decay were inevitable and one could slow it but never stop it. That Reshpu was inevitable and they managed that decay by placating the plague god with sacrifice. He in turn asked Alex were they not too followers of Reshpu? Alex again wondered what necrotic scars Nekhtebu's incursion had left on him but saw the leader admiring Kegho's withered face instead. With Teletpyon's newly decayed flesh, the two parts of the infernal name and Kegho's face, and the trail of dead bodies left in their wake, he supposed they really might be emissaries of death. He carefully chose his response "we are not naïve, we know death is inevitable, but to submit to the inevitable seems very boring." "Very interesting," the leader responded smiling, his face slipping minutely between patronizing and serious consideration, "but how comes this group of warriors to be led by a mere child?"
The war drums and stomping feet reached the Eastern wall of the compound. Theo, and Kegho argued tactics, Riven found high ground, Asbjørn flexed menacingly, Tele and Elissa retreated back into the building Yahi lingered to hear relay Alex's response before following them back into the building "If you join us, I think a great many things will surprise you." Alex set off at a run to find high cover and pick off those trying to mount the walls. Yahi yelled after him "He says he won't kill his allies but will also not act against you" before scurrying into the chapel and barring the door.
