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-----Raven gets off his horse at the first sign of trouble. With arms wide spread Raven says to the man, "Aye, what she is saying is hard to believe, but true. These two pieces of shit are under Ms. Night's control. We are hoping to use these two to gain entry into their camp of evil and then stop the evil that is breeding there." When Raven sees them draw their weapons, Raven says, "OoooKay then, we'll camp somewhere else. Please tell your family to stay where they are. If we wanted to cause you harm, would we have just rose up here like we did? I can understand you wanting to defend yourselves, but there is no need to have to turn to someone dying." Raven locks eyes with the old man to see how he answers.
-----All Sol could do was lower his head and cover his eyes with one hand in embarrassment. During Sarah's speech, his head slowly shook from side to side. As Raven finishes, Sol's hand wipes down over his face to rest upon his jaw. He points at Raven and adds, "What he said."
-----"Actually she’s not under my control," Sarah says, giving Thalog a meaningful look.
-----The old man then looks from Sol to Raven and the mischievous twinkle returns to his eye. "Someone dying?" he asks and somehow his voice doesn’t sound so rural as before, "Someone is always dying."
-----A sudden fluttering causes everyone to turn. A flurry of feathers is over Zentil’s head as a large blackbird descends above the elf. Zentil throws his arms in the air to ward off the bird.
-----A voice from the window hisses a word that sounds like ‘strike’ and a small blast of magical energy shoots forth toward Sarah. It strikes her squarely in the chest causing her to throw her head back in pain. It dazes the young mage and Gabe, sitting beside her on his horse, grabs to steady her. "Mistress Sarah!" he cries in shock and alarm.
-----Turning back to face the ‘residents’ of the cottage, the old man and the girl with dirty hair each hold something out in front of them. As their voices rise to chant, everyone can see they hold black disks!
-----As the ensuing spells wash over the adventurers, Mistress Dreda leaps from her horse to the left where Heiros stands. Sol and Zentil immediately run from the scene to the south, fear evident on their faces. Sarah, a few moments ago reeling in pain, now sits on her horse too terrorized to move. Miraculously her steed was not affected.
-----As Raven, Rand, Thalog, and Gabe stand unaffected, the young woman, dressed in chain, raises her sword and advances.
-----Raven blinks twice, then his right eye starts to twitch. Raven draws both his swords and lets out a low growl. All Raven says is, "I'll show you darkness..." With that Raven starts toward the man in front of him.
-----Thalog quickly drops his rose petals and intones a spell. The young man within the window and the dirty-haired girl suddenly relax and they fall to the ground unconscious. Luckily it occurs just as the girl was about to draw a short sword.
-----Rand steps forward pointing toward the old man. In a commanding voice, he says, "Surrender!" Unfortunately it appears to have no effect on him.
-----The old one now holds forth his dark disk once again and intones a different spell. Suddenly a huge sphere of darkness envelopes Thalog, but the mage calmly walks out of the sphere. Thalog raises one eyebrow looking down his nose at the man as he emerges.
-----Suddenly Sarah is dragged off her horse. She finds herself on the ground looking up into the face of Dreda who has Sarah by the collar of her cloak. "Give me my amulet, wench! You thought the spells of your friends would work on me?" Dreda begins to laugh.
-----In her terror, Sarah can hear Heiros behind Dreda saying in a confused voice, "No, leave each other alone!" He comes around to the side and looks at both Dreda and Sarah as if he is confused who to be loyal to.
-----Suddenly a pair of hands roughly grab Dreda’s arms and forces her to let go of Sarah. "You be leavin’ me Angel Sarah be, you damn witch!" As Sarah falls back, she can see Gabe gallantly struggle with the Dark Mistress.
-----Raven’s path is cut off by the strong girl armed with the long sword. A vicious look comes over Raven’s face and before the girl can thrust in with her weapon, he attacks. This time, he leads with the short sword in his off hand. Throwing the girl’s balance off, the gleaming weapon slashes across her collarbone ripping into her muscular skin. With a forceful lunge, Raven’s long sword impales the woman in the gut and she falls dead to the ground.
-----"Your brother, Heiros!" Dreda shouts as she locks arms with Gabe, "kill him and his friends!"
-----Sarah steps back and looks at Heiros pleading through a voice wracked with pain, "Heiros, that woman Dreda has deceived you. Aid her not." Then, fighting the urge to collapse she yells, "Sol! Come back here, quick, we need your help!" Knowing that her darts will probably hurt her bandit friend, Sarah takes aim at the old man and tries to fling all three darts right at his face. Tears begin to well up in the corner of her eyes. In her fright, the darts do little more than fall from her hand.
-----Raven steps over the dead woman on the ground and scans the area like a lion looking for his next prey.
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