Tavern Tales 3
You remember the elves I was telling you about before, well this time they aren't the heroes. You see, 'bout a few weeks ago, a patrol from the steel guard arrived in Serrice led by one Corporal Stenid. Some of you may have encountered him as he often took small groups of the guard around. Not the nicest of men, but he didn't deserve what was about to happen. On arriving in Serrice, Stenid instructed the villagers to take cover in their homes saying that a group of murderous elves were in the area. The villagers were scared, but Jules, the local priest, got them into their homes.
Stenid ordered his men to picket their horses a little way out of the village, and then find begin preparing for if the elves arrived. Though there is a tower in Serrice it isn't accessible, so they met in the middle of the village to work out where to position themselves. While discussing their plans one of the soldiers, Nijyn, suddenly jerked forward with an arrow through his back. Though the rest of the steel guard reacted quickly, several more were struck by arrows before they could find cover. Shockingly this barrage came from a single archer, and as it turned out he was just a distraction. As they moved to engage the archer, a mounted warrior rode several of them down, and a barrage of magic, dropped several others. Though Stenid tried to rally his troops, he only succeeded in calling attention to himself, and was swiftly ridden down by the knight. As if this was not enough of a blow to the guards' morale, the elven wizard had somehow gotten to the top of the tower and was unleashing blasts of energy that unerringly struck their targets.
Understandably several of the men broke and tried to flew, but several kept good order and tried to carefully advance on the archer, staying out of range of the Mage. It was to no avail. Dropping his bow, the archer toyed with them for a while before using his sword to slice open their throats. As for those who tried to flee, they were blasted with magic from behind and run through with a lance. No mercy was shown to any in this cruel ambush. Afterwards, the elves casually stripped those they had massacred, piling the spoils in their wagon. They then demanded everything the poor villagers had painstakingly recovered from the ruins, offering not a coin in recompense.
Not satisfied with the casual slaughter of a patrol, they then defiled the ruins, breaching the wards so carefully prepared by generations of priests. Even now restless spirits wander the village at night, terrifying anyway foolish enough to be out at night. Lacking any other recourse, the village of Serrice has now chosen to appeal to Avarin Drak, Lord of Mikel's Town for his protection, which he has graciously granted. With the threat of the elves, who doubtless had a hand in the brutal murder that occurred in Breen, can any village afford to stand alone?
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