The Sword of Retribution

Departures - Part 1

Resalintas was pleased to see that the crowds of injured and wounded around each of the city's surviving temples had shrunk considerably since the fighting had slackened off. The city's priests were finally able to heal injuries faster than they were caused, and if the lull in the fighting carried on for a few more days they might actually be able to heal everyone who needed healing, dividing the city's population neatly into two groups; the fully healthy and the irrevocably dead. It was a trick, of course. The enemy was up to something, but for now they were simply grateful for the chance to heal their wounds and get a decent night's sleep. If the Shadowsoldiers were planning some kind of nasty surprise, it would soon become evident what it was and they would worry about it then, not before.

The questers, had they been there, wouldn't have recognised the streets of Fort Battleaxe. It had been bad enough when they'd left for Pargonn to begin their mission and the city's condition had deteriorated sharply since then. Hardly a single building in the outer circle remained untouched from the enemy's bombardment, which consisted mainly of catapulted boulders with delayed action fireball and poison cloud spells cast on them. The inner circle had fared little better, having been struck by projectiles that carried no magical charge of their own but that had been thrown and set on fire by magical means. Several fires still blazed out of control in many areas, raising a black pall of smoke to block out the light of the suns and plunge the city into darkness even in what should have been the brightest hour of the day. There simply wasn't enough of either manpower or water to put them all out. Most of the city's population were employed in trying to clear the rubble that choked even the widest streets, in places so thick that soldiers trying to get to and from the inner wall had to clamber over it, risking a sprained ankle or a nasty cut from broken glass in the process.

At least the magical bombardment wouldn't resume, though, even if the lull in the fighting came to an end, mused the elderly priest as he picked his way past what remained of the Grinning Goblin tavern. The outer circle of the city, together with the supposedly impregnable outer wall, had finally been abandoned to the enemy, the defenders retreating to the inner wall a few hundred yards further in, where they were protected by the anti-magic field generated by the Orb of Proofing.

Many people thought it had been left too long, pointing to the devastation wrought by the enemy's magical attacks and the number of civilian casualties, but Resalintas only wished it could have been left a little longer. Ceding even a single inch of ground to the enemies of Samnos pained him and made him grit his teeth in helpless anger. Now that they were finally able to benefit from the Orb of Proofing, though, they had been killing the enemy faster than ever before, with more than ten Shadowsoldiers falling for every defender they lost. The enemy had fought with no less ferocity, though, and the wrecked remains of dozens of siege towers stood against the inner walls, built from the beautiful apple orchards that had so recently graced the surrounding countryside.

Arriving at an intersection where a street clearing detail was busy clearing rubble, Resalintas joined in to help them for a couple of hours, that being good for morale and the raising of men's spirits. They always appreciated it when an officer got his hands dirty along with them, and when that officer was Captain Resalintas himself, they were spurred on to even greater enthusiasm and worked with twice the effort, continuing to do so long after he'd made his excuses and left. He did the same at two other places he came to where details were hard at work trying to get the city back into some kind of order before returning to the tower at dusk for his daily meeting with the city's commanders.