Sunder and Lightning
Heading towards the town that is our only remaining clue turns out to be a good omen. Well, perhaps not for the town itself, as it is almost completely on fire, but this seems like a good indication we're on the right track. With a couple of buildings not quite on fire yet we hustle towards them. The sound of panicked folk in a barracaded barn sets us in to motion to try to release them, but as we move closer to the barn we are interrupted by an evil cackle.
The town captain greets us from the other non-burning building, standing in the hayloft next to some guards. But there's something odd about the way they are standing. The town captain has an evil look on his face as he calls out to us, telling us that everyone is dead and there is nothing more we can do. It is at that point we realised what is wrong with the guards: they all have nooses around their necks! The turned captain pushes one to punctuate his speech and we are forced in to swift action.
A couple of quick bow shots don't manage to sever the rope holding the guard, but Tal is quick on his horse and supports the guard whilst he cuts the rope. As we spring in to action in this direction, Dexter heads over to the barn full of innocent townspeople, having seen it surrounded by flammable materials and with the heat of the burning buildings all around likely to be ignited. He begins cutting a hole in the side of the barn, as others engage the evil captain.
The battle looks heavily weighed against us, particularly with a weapon-dissolving demon as an ally to the captain, but Tal has an idea to even our chances. With a mighty swing of his falchion he strikes the captain's battle axe, sundering it in to many pieces. 'My weapon! You've destroyed my weapon!', cries the captain.
'Aww, what are you going to do about it? Hit me with your axe?' Tal laughs heartily as his falchion swings down again on the weapon-master-trained captain, now without his primary means of attack. The captain reaches to get a back-up weapon but without his axe he is significantly weakened. It is not long before he is defeated, and the efforts to rescue the people in nooses and peasants in the barn have saved all their lives.
One of the rescued guards lets us know what happened, with the captain gone mad and killing nearly all of his own guard and destroying the town after coming back from an ancient temple 'over in yonder direction, where the sky is full of whirling red clouds.'
Hey, let's head there next!