Earlier in the evening, Falconer was watching as the Vixens headed down the road, loudly talking of drinking and men. The ten fighters taking over the small camp settled in for a long boring night. They complained about the lack of beer, the lack of food, and the lack of entertainment. They also complained about the weather, Brandon, why Timmy's crew got to do a dungeon and they didn't, and life in general. Falconer listened to it for a half hour and then decided they needed something else to think about.

  He ran his hands down his falcon's feathers and talked to it. "OK, I know you're fast as shit right now, but still be careful. The chances of one of those assholes seeing you is slim. And hitting you with a crossbow is even slimmer. But it would totally ruin your day if you run into a metal stick while stooping at 220 mph. Physics says so."

  The bird looked his way, but said nothing.

  "I want you to come in from the west, end your stoop about fifty feet up. You're aiming for the center post, and then bank immediately and head towards Sedgewick."

  The bird ignored him completely, turning to stare at the small tent full of people they were watching.

  "Sigh, yes, you're in charge. That's why I want you to be careful, so you can stay in charge! This is the last mission for the night and then we can go get a barrel of food into us and take a nap."

  The bird flew off into the night. Anyone who actually saw the bird, and knew anything at all about hawks might have found this strange behavior for a diurnal hunter. Certainly none of these players saw the bird come down from on high at over two hundred miles an hour. The hawk pulled up sharply, and let loose a scream accompanied by a huge bolt of lightning from it's mouth. The bolt was on target, hitting the center post that held up the middle of the tent.

  The pole was a beautiful thing. Made of heavy wood, there was an iron ring around one end to reinforce the end of the caber. If you looked closely along the length of the pole, you could just make out some intricate carvings. If you were able to sense magic and look at it just right, you might realize it was a magic item. Three heavy coats of black paint laced with ground lead had been applied to the wood to make either of those things difficult.

  The War Caber of Olgerd the Strong soaked up the lightning from the falcon's magical strike, and struck out at everyone nearby. The falcon had been turning towards the village and pulling up as it made it's strike. So the burst of electrical energy from the caber sent it up and tumbling in that direction, ultimately saving it's life from what was to come.

  Natural lightning follows some rules. Power builds and then flows to where there is less power. Magical lightning does the same, but often has options that the natural stuff can't do. Like wands of lightning bolts, creatures that eat wands of lightning bolts and gain electrical breath, and twelve foot long chunks of wood that are enchanted to spread out the energy.

  As soon as the hawk's breath hit the War Caber of Olgerd the Strong, it was shared to all the targets in a large area around it. If you were just looking at the carvings you might think that was a small area, maybe ten feet. It was actually everything within about eighty feet. Every single mercenary took a large jolt of lightning from the hawks strike. One level 3 wizard with a low CON was critically hit, and died outright from the blast. Everyone else was injured.

  The hawk was injured and smoking, thrown into a tree quite a ways from the tent. Even after it's stoop it was still moving at 60 miles an hour when it got hit. Falconer sprinted to the tree, and as the bird fell, bouncing off of many limbs on the way down. He managed to catch his bruised and burned pet. The bird was unconscious and hurt. "Dammit, I didn't like this plan from the start." Behind him the tent suddenly glowed with the light of a million candles and an immense noise and pressure knocked him off his feet.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  The burst of lightning from the caber had hit one of the rune carved monoliths guarding Gadobhra's entrance. This monolith and it's twin responded when someone dared try to damage them or sneak past. The monolith tossed it's own bolt back at the caber. The caber was happy to take this stronger bolt, and distribute it out to the poor mercenaries below, and to toss it back at the monolith as well. This started a magical pissing contest between the caber and the monolith as magical energy flowed back and forth from one to the other.

  All of the mercenaries died in the first second after a half dozen zappings. The War Caber of Olgerd the strong was shining brightly, the paint had exploded off of it at the first strike. The iron ring at it's top was glowing red, but the ancient weapon was good for a few more rounds. Lightning alternated back and forth between the monolith and the caber.

  That's when the storm clouds up high decided to join in the game. In the same way that a storm is attracted to a transformer because of the negative/positive flow of alternating current, so was the storm attracted the caber after it shifted a large amount of power back to the monolith. The rock and the stick didn't know what hit them. Storm clouds don't screw around. A typical lightning bolt is over a million volts. In game terms that's one metric-shit-ton of damage. The caber managed to toss about half of it over to the rock before the wood exploded and the iron ring melted.

  The rock was made of sterner stuff, but it was having a bad night, already having taken a couple dozen small punches from the caber. Chunks of rock flew off, runes went dark, and while the runic circle around the cursed city still held, it was significantly weakened. The clouds once again proved their dominance of electricity.

  If anyone saw the half destroyed monolith, they might be worried. But of more immediate concern would be the massive explosion that destroyed the tent, vaporized the players bodies, and destroyed hundreds of tree trunks and timbers that had been stacked at the gates of Gadobhra to replace the trees that had been cut. Following the massive lightning strike and pyrotechnics a river of dark magic poured out of the area enclosed by the forest and down the convenient road to the waiting town and it's dungeon.

  Falconer wasn't really paying attention to what was happening. He'd already raced down the road, cradling his injured bird and wanting to get his pet to safety.

  Sir Timothy was asleep when his head nearly exploded with the sound of ringing bells. As he sat up, the sound faded back into a dream. And then he smelled it. Rotten meat and bad magic. He'd smelled it before.

  The Darkness Rises! (Again!)

  Once again Dark Magic is loose in the world. As a of the Light you are called upon to face the forces of Dark Magic when it rises in the world. Will you join the Crusade against the Dark? (Y/N)?

  "Joey, help me get my armor on! It's Demon slaying time!"

  War Update!

  Famco Casualties:

  Killed by flaming pumpkin: 1

  Killed by bunnies: 2

  Killed by thudthudthud: 3

  Killed by falling log: 1

  Killed by lightning: 10

  Removed from the Board: 7

  Penalty: Unprovoked attack with intent to slay upon Contract-Worker.

  Penalty: Provoking Contract worker to further violence.

  Remaining active fighters: 36

  Leader: Brandon

  2nd in Command: Sir Timothy

  ACME Casualties

  Leader: Fearless Leader

  Second in Command: Bennie T Bunny

  Remaining Active Fighters: 7

  Fearless Leader

  Bennie T Bunny

  Greenberg

  Falconer

  Smoke

  Silk Ninja

  Silk Ninjette