Grave Robbers (Svad, open)

It seemed like a easy enough job, if not a well funded one by there mysterious employer. The convoy of mercenaries had there orders. Travel down the old supply road to the abandoned wooden fort built shortly after the dragon crusades ended. Occupy the fort and dig in. They were then tasked with spreading out to search for anything of the magical nature left by the dragons that use to live there. Anything else of value found could be kept for themselves.

It all seemed well planned and straight forward, but no plan ever is. Richard was sitting in the back of a horse drawn wagon with no fabric covering it. The long convoy of wagons came to a stop and someone whistled from the front of the line. "Another bloody fallen tree." A mercenary grumbled and took a axe in hand to hop out the back of the wagon with Richard. "Well what do you expect", Richard replied with a smile. "This is a forest."

"Keep your forked tongue quiet". The man barked clearly not amused by the comment. "Lets just get this over with". It did not take long for Richard and the other to chop the trunk up enough to roll out the way. With no human traffic coming through the area nature was already reclaiming everything. It did not leave Richard hopeful to the state of the fort when they got there.

Hours later the convoy of wagons finally made it to the abandoned wooden fort. Much to Richards surprise it appeared to actually not be rotting apart. But that was just upon first glance. He would have to inspect the walled structure later. The leader of this band of sell swords did not waste time in barking orders. "Alright lads start offloading the supply crates from the wagons! Not later, not tomorrow, now! I want everything inside the fort and men on the walls before night fall!"

"Hey snake eyes!" The expedition leader barked and pointed. "Yeah you, stop looking over your shoulder and acting like I'm talking to someone else. I have a special job for you". Richard did not like the sound of it already. Taking a shovel off the side of a wagon the leader tossed it for Richard to catch. "You have the most important job of all today. Digging us a latrine, I want it done before nightfall."

"Lucky me...." Richard grunted and headed inside the fort.

The fort might not have been rotted, as one might have expected. But it was by no means abandoned. No, it was now home to a colony of Skeir. Skeir did not live in colonies, of course, just pairs or groups of three. But it so happened that the hundred inhabiting this fort now all liked it, and had no problem sharing. And so it only made sense to refer to them as a colony. The colony, nocturnal by preference but certainly not by nature, were alerted to a human presence amassing outside their home. How such small creatures could be so noisy was a mystery to everyone--and an annoyance to beings that navigated the world and hunted primarily by sound. The Skeir did some amassing of their own, running out of the fort and attacking the convoy of humans seeking to pillage it...

The Kryoan was half a day behind the convoy. He had not been late, mind you, it was a mutual decision. He couldn't abide most of the mercenaries that had been selected for this job, and none of them liked having an assassin among them. Svadilfare was rather amused by the thought of them sleeping with one eye open, even if he were half a day away. Svad stopped when he found a suitable place to set up camp. Well... suitable in the sense that he would likely go unnoticed by any of the monsters that favored humans as their food source. He left his horse near the road while he settled a short ways into the woods. He hadn't lost his beloved horse--which he'd had since he was a boy--to anything yet, and hoped that would continue to be the case. As Svad ate a modest meal of smoked spazfish and a hunk of bread, he wondered if the convoy had made it to the fort yet.

"Monsters!" Someone cried out. That one word that everyone hated right up there along with dragons. But monsters was not how Richard would have described it. It was more of a horde. While he did not know the exact number, it was safe to say things did not look good.

Everything erupted into chaos as the huge bat like creatures tore into the group. Richard ran toward a comrade screaming in pain on the ground as a Skier had them pinned and was biting away. "Hey Ugly!" Richard barked as he got closer. When the skier looked he struck it as hard as he could across the face with the shovel. Richard did not know if he killed it but it collapsed on his comrade and stopped moving so that was good enough for now.

There was nothing he could do for the sell sword. There wounds were to great. Tossing the shovel aside Richard picked up the fallen mans mace and shield.  Seeing a monster nosing around the wagon Richard banged the mace against the shield face. "Over here beast!" It was a challenge the monster accepted as it grabbed a ox and threw it through the air.

"Are you kidding me!" Richard cried out as he dove to the side to avoid the animal. Getting back on his feet he let out a battle cry that sounded mostly human but had a subtle tone that was not. "RAAAAAAAAA"  Charging at the skier he dropped down and slid on the dirt between the beasts legs just narrowly missing a swiping talon from its wings.

Standing up no Richard slammed the mace on the towering monsters right clawed foot causing it to raise it off the ground in pain. He then struck the creature with as much force as he could at its left ankle and got a satisfying crack forcing the upright monster to the ground on all fours. Seizing on the chance with its head now in reach Richard smashed, and smashed away at its skull until it finally caved in.

Breathing heavily he gave a sigh. 'Wow, these things don't die easy', he thought. Things were not looking good. The leader of the group managed to rally survivors though in the chaos with his voice. "Fall back into the forest! Fall back I say! Leave the wagons!" The boss man did not have to ask Richard twice. He liked fighting as much as the next guy. But he liked fighting battles he could win. This was not a fight they could win.

For now the monsters won. But in the thickly wooded forest the humans could escape as the tightly packed trees would slow the monsters. They would have to regroup and take account of who lived and who did not. More importantly they would have to seriously rethink if this job was worth there lives.

The Skeir that the sell-sword had tried to hit in the face with a shove went unharmed. A human-sized shovel could scarcely do damage to a creature 30ft tall. To such a beast, the shovel was more like a bug. The bat-like beings suffered only one death--one human was lucky enough to fell a Skeir. But the humans lost half of their force, and only because they were smart enough to realize that trying to fight something significantly bigger than you is useless if you don't have decent weaponry. Humans did not have decent weaponry for fighting the monsters. They could just barely manage fighting monsters who were around the same size as them. As the human known as Richard retreated toward the wood, a Skeir plucked him off the ground and flew up into the air. However, its grip was not secure and the human was dropped from a height of 15ft.

Richard did not know what happened. One minute he was running towards the forest line that were now only a few steps away. The next he was off the ground with a sharp pain in his left shoulder. You would not think a man of his size could let out such a high pitched shriek, but yet he managed.

Just as suddenly as was up in the air gravity took hold and Richard went falling. By fate or luck he went falling into the thick vegetation. A blessing as the height he was falling from could very well kill him. Thankfully there were trees to slow him down, along with each and every branch he hit on the way down. Richard hit the forest floor on his side and groaned to roll onto his back. Looking up his eyes widened.

His mace was still falling and Richard split his legs apart just as the heavy end of the mace hit the ground between his legs with a heavy thud. "Heh, that was a close one. Whooo." Richard sighed and struggled to his feet. "Dang, cracked or broke a rib". He grumbled at the all to familiar pain of a fire poker jabbing him in the side. It was nothing he had not dealt with before. It was a annoyance at the least, life threatening if he ended up coughing up blood later. Dusting himself off the sell sword raised his shield and continued running into the dense forest, the shield protecting his face from low lying branches hitting his face.

Going through some thick vegetation the ground disappeared and Richard realized to late he went off a ledge and went rolling down a slope and cracking his head pretty good on a rock in the process. At some point he had lost his ram horn helm. More then likely during the fall from the monsters grip.

Night was almost upon the world and the light was almost gone. With a fading vision and aching all over he crawled through the forest floor towards some overgrown dragon skeletal remains. Its skull would do for a shelter in a pinch. Sitting down and using his shield as a brace and support for his back Richard took a moment to rest. "Just rest my eyes for a minute....." It was the last thing he remembered before the black took him.