Session 10: The Battle in the Ruins

As the six Nalshbori scouts streamed into the ruins, Tanurendal rushed to meet them while Vanera attempted to quietly alert their comrades. In this he was not as stealthy as he would have liked to be, and one of the Nalshbori sharpshooters put an arrow between his shoulder-blades that hampered him throughout the rest of the fight, though the scholar managed to keep on his feet. Surrounded, the two companions fought off all six of the Nalshbori, Tanurendal standing in front of the wounded scholar and taking several heavy blows that would have surely killed anyone wearing less armor than himself. At last, Tanurendal fell unconscious, grazed by a poison arrow, though Vanera managed to cut one of the attackers down.

Such was the scene when Anaris, Tengelbur, and Reiana returned, hastening back from their exploration of the crypt: Vanera the scholar, with an arrow in his back, standing over the body of the fallen Tanurendal as three Nalshbori spearmen closed in around him and two Nalshbori archers kept up a steady rain of arrows on the companions. Between them, Anaris and Reiana cut down one of the spearmen -- the former hamstringing him with her spear, the latter severing his head from his shoulders -- as Tengelbur rushed the archers and cut them down. Reiana finished off another one of the spearmen as Tengelbur and Anaris rushed the last Nalshbo, Tengelbur slaying him with a heavy two-handed strike to the back as the Nalshbo was busily occupied trying to ward off Anaris' spear. 

In the aftermath of the battle, the party looked to their wounds:

• Reiana rather clumsily removed the arrow from Vanera's back, and though she did her best to dress the wound, it will need serious attention soon before it can begin to heal.
• Vanera had better luck awakening Tanurendal from his stupor by means of a hot, spicy broth. Either the poison on the arrow was not particularly virulent, or the beefy Cheibori's strong constitution was enough to shrug it off.

During the battle, Reiana had noticed (being well-versed in the lore of her ancestral enemies the Nalshbori) that the scouts they had fought came from two different tribes: The Blood-Hand and the Grayfox. 

Wound seen to, the Company purposed not to leave the place until the unholy altar had been broken down. This was no easy matter: to do so in such a way that would render it unfit for future sacrifice, the altar would have to be disassembled, all combustible parts burned in a bonfire, and then the ashes and the stones of the altar scattered in running water. Reiana and Tengelbur undertook to do this (the others were too daunted by the evil and corruption of the altar), and over the course of two hours they managed to disassemble the altar, haul its pieces up to the surface, build a bonfire, and collect the ashes and stones, which were divided among the company. As they did this, Tengelbur sang the lay which is known as The Last of the Stone-kings, which in the liturgy of the Sacred Well is often sung to accompany ceremonies of cleansing. 

As they finished this work, Reiana heard the sound of movement in the woods to the Southeast, and the Company guessed that the fire must have been seen, and that the Nalshbori warbands (whose scouts they had killed) were now upon them. Moving at a run through the withered wood, the party narrowly managed to escape the clutches of their enemies without losing their way in the maze of trees. 

With half the Company wounded or weary, they have arrived at last at Galal-i-Yalir, where Reiana has business with Sir Ralus himself...