After two days heading south from Triinu’s island, the party heard sounds in the distance. Sounds of weapons clashing in the twilight. The party instantly spelled up, with Liulf casting invisibility on the party. Edward flew ahead to scout the area and assess the strength of their quarry.
Ten minutes later Edward returned. "Five Ravagers," he reported. "All of great apparent power. This will be a dangerous fight. Yvonne, Isembard, Liulf, Childeric, Clothilde: stay back. This is a battle beyond your powers. Merovech, assist me. Our plan will be simple: attack and destroy! Let none remain alive."
Slowly the party advanced on the site of the enemy’s encampment. Childeric and Merovech spelled up defensively, while Edward prepared a full array of offensive and protective spells for himself.
The party attempted to move silently toward the Ravagers, but one of the followers stepped on a dry branch. The enemy were alerted!
Instantly Edward shouted, "Surrender or die, villains!" while readying a blow against the apparent leader of the Ravager band. Another of the barbarous minions of Erythnul, however, was in no mood to negotiate, instead flying into a rage and hacking at Edward with a greataxe. Edward shrugged off the damage, while Merovech followed up with a luminous lance that left the barbarian blinded and dazzled. Liulf threw in a magic missile barrage for good measure. Meanwhile, the target of Edward’s readied action took a step in Edward’s direction and called out to the barbarian, now identified as "Urm", but immediately suffered the consequences of his aggression, as Edward rained blow after blow on him, dealing huge damage to the apparent leader of the band. Childeric fired his crossbow at Urm, striking for minor damage. In turn, another of the Ravagers ran straight at Childeric! Still another charged Edward, landing a slashing blow. Yvonne fired at the Ravager charging Childeric, but missed. Another Ravager suddenly turned invisible, while Isembard smote the villain charging Childeric, landing a telling blow. Clothilde shot at him as well, but also missed.
But Edward was not to be denied, especially in battle against opponents as completely evil as Ravagers of Erythnul. He slashed at Urm twice, cleaving the barbarian into quivering chunks of flesh, then devastated the leader with two huge blows that dropped the villain in his tracks! Two kills in a mere moment for the mighty paladin!
Merovech, meanwhile, cast dominate at the Ravager charging him, whom one of the others had named "Ozur." Ozur struggled to keep his composure, but suddenly roared "Throst! You die!" and attacked one of his companions. Liulf directed another magic missile at Throst. Childeric shot at Throst, but missed. The Ravager, now under attack from all quarters, attempted to flee the battle and save himself.
Edward then quaffed a potion of mirror image, but unfortunately, the potion failed to take effect due to an adverse interaction with a previously quaffed potion! He then flew toward the fleeing Throst and hacked him down. Ozur, now under the control of Merovech, surrendered to him without further struggle. The invisible Ravager, however, was nowhere to be found, or even magically detected. He appeared to make good his escape.
The party searched the bodies of the dead Ravagers, taking a significant quantity of booty. Then, Ozur in tow, they set off back through the Mistmarsh and ultimately, after about a week of relatively uneventful travel, made their return to Greyhawk. They turned Ozur over to the Church of Hieroneous, along with the portion of the booty which would ordinarily have gone to Edward – he was still, after all, on penitential duty! The Church officials, in turn, questioned the Ravager and then handed him to the Greyhawk authorities, who dealt with him as they saw fit.
Later, Edward met with his followers and his cohort. "A fine performance by all of you on this mission," he said, congratulating Merovech and the others. "You have acted as followers of Hieroneous should in all regards." Merovech nodded. "Never thought I’d run into undead plants, though. That’s a new one!" The others laughed. "Looks like we’ve added to the store of knowledge on top of everything else." "Indeed you have," answered Edward. "Between vampiric trees and a nymph lich, we could add an whole new chapter to the book. But now," he continued, "it’s pay-off time!" And with that, he handed out the various shares of the booty to his group. Merovech’s power had grown, and the others had gained valuable experience that would eventually serve them well when their time to venture independently arrived.
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