When the Crusader Knights had finished off the last of the ghouls and made sure that the vault was no longer unhallowed, they returned to the army encampment for a night of well-deserved rest. Each of them dreamed that night of the spirits in the cemetery showing them gratitude for removing the befouling influence of the berbalang. When the woke the next morning they all felt heartened and experienced the demoralizing quality of the Worldwound a little less.
The Knights had come to the conclusion that after clearing the cemetery their next step should be to take control of the Ahari Bridge that crossed over the dry river and led to the Citadel. During the previous evening Anevia and Aron had scouted the bridge. They had found that in addition to a small force of tieflings holding the bridge's watchtowers, there were also four large creatures chained to the piers beneath the bridge. But Anevia and Aron had been unable to determine the nature of the creatures.
Jiro and Shim decided to undertake a reconnaissance mission to find out more about the chained beasts. When they crept up within sight of the bridge Shim recognized that the beasts were aurochs, but these four were no ordinary herd animals - they had been magically enhanced to become man-eaters, which would make them tougher, stronger, and smarter than ordinary aurochs. He and Jiro also observed that the aurochs were yoked on heavy chains perhaps 30 feet in length, which led them to realize that the aurochs were there to pull the bridge down if a force attempted to cross it to attack the fort.
The pair returned to report this to the rest of the Knights, which provoked a discussion of whether they should attack the bridge defenders first or try to eliminate the man-eating aurochs. In the end they decided that they would approach the bridge and defeat the tiefling defenders before taking on the aurochs. Their hope was that they could find whatever would be used to signal the beasts to pull the bridge down before the defenders could sound it. They also planned to approach the bridge directly rather than climbing down the river bank, relying on Asami's magic to hide them from sight.
Asami used her divinely-granted power to cast a spell that her spellbook didn't contain and surrounded the group with a sphere that rendered them invisible as long as everyone remained close to her. She and her four friends, along with Shim, Aron, and Sosiel approached the bridge cautiously, making every effort to remain quiet as her spell only hid them from prying eyes but not from ears. Fortunately even when Zosta stepped on a stone they went unnoticed by the tieflings guarding the bridge.
The Ahari Bridge was lined on both sides by walls 10 feet high, with a watchtower mounted above each of the support piers to which the aurochs were chained. A heavy gate barred easy access, but Shim had little trouble unlocking it. After they passed through the gate, Shim opened a door that gave access to the watchtowers along one side of the bridge to allow Zosta, Aron, and Sosiel to enter. The rest of the group remained on the bridge outside. As soon as they stepped onto the bridge, a volley of arrows met them, though none found their target. Then the area was swallowed in unnatural darkness. In the narrow corridor than ran inside the wall, Zosta knocked down a tiefling and left him behind.
A group of tieflings stood at the opposite end of the bridge, armed with bows. As Jiro raised his pole lantern to dispel the darkness, Asami cast a protective spell on herself, granting herself some of the blessings of an angelic being. Shim heard one of the tieflings casting a spell that he recognized as a summoning. Runa moved toward the midsection of the bridge to attack one of the defenders. Shim followed her. More tieflings ran out onto the bridge, leaving the interior of the wall almost devoid of defenders.
Asami began to summon an ally from another plane to aid them. When she completed the spell Shim was startled to see a a thorny being of wood with a dog-like face wielding a large sword which it used to slash one of the defenders. The sword was made of wood but inflicted harm like a steel sword. After this being arrived Asami sent a bolt of lightning the length of the bridge at the cluster of archers, but she was dismayed to see that all of them nimbly leaped out of the way. Jiro called a tetsubo and a great katana into existence to attack the tieflings, just as three dretch demons appeared on the bridge between the Knights and the cluster of tieflings. Jiro saw that they had been summoned by a shadowy figure among the tieflings, but no one else observed this. An arrow of acid struck Asami coming from the same area.
Inside the wall, Zosta and her two companions broke through door after door as they headed toward the far end. Outside, the tiefling that had been attacked by Asami's summoned ally withdrew to the safety of his comrades and one of the archers fired an arrow at the otherworldly wood creature, amazing Shim when the arrow bounced off its wooden flesh. Asami retaliated by sending a ball of burning wood into the group of tieflings to explode in a blast of flames. The flaming globe struck the spellcaster full in the face. Runa called on Iomedae and a flare of dazzling radiance engulfed one of the tieflings and the three dretches, leaving one dretch blind and the other two seeing sparks and all three of them writhing in pain from the divine magic. One of the dretches released a cloud of nauseating gas which surrounded Runa, Jiro, Shim, and their summoned ally. Jiro and Runa had prior unpleasant experiences with the noxious gases exuded by dretches; this time was not as bad, but the gas did obstruct their view of the group of tieflings at the other end of the bridge.
Asami, who was far enough behind her friends that the gas didn't reach her, summoned a flowing river of strong wind through the area occupied by the gas. It didn't blow all of the gas cloud away but the center portion began to clear. Jiro called on healing spirits and then drew his weapon and moved forward. The gas cloud had cut off his line of sight to his weapons and they returned to hover at his side. The cloud dissipated and Runa set off another blinding radiance. Some of the tieflings withstood the light and fired at Shim. They could all hear someone in the defender group shouting in the language of the Abyss, as if ordering a team to pull a wagon. They realized that the shouter was ordering the aurochs to begin pulling.
Inside the wall, Zosta knocked down a tiefling she encountered near the far end of the structure. The tiefling darkened the area and rose to his feet again. Some of the darkness bled out through a nearby murder hole, letting her friends outside see a little of what was taking place inside. Asami threw a spear at one of the dretches. The creature she had summoned, a hound archon despite its unusual appearance, vanished as it took too many wounds to remain on the Material Plane. A ball of fire flew toward Asami and she barely avoided taking the full brunt of the blast. She called a storm of icy chunks of wood to rain down on the tiefling defenders, creating an area of poor visibility around them and making the ground difficult to walk on. While she did this, Jiro used his magic to help him climb up to the top of the wall. He wanted to see what the aurochs were doing, and he had taken a great deal of harm from the wounds suffered by his friends. When the tiefling sorcerer aimed two rays of fire at him he was barely able to summon a shield of stone to deflect it.
Zosta finished off her foes inside the wall and opened the door to the outside. Three arrows embedded in the wood frame of the door. Zosta charged out, knocked the archer's feet out from under him, and punched him to death. Behind her Aron and Sosiel emerged to join the battle with the last of the tieflings.
Bohgong pulled a vial of oil from Jiro's pack and applied it to his wounds. Down below the wall, Zosta's fists eliminated another tiefling, this time the sorcerer who had just attacked Jiro. Jiro climbed down from the wall, lost his footing and fell, but he used his ancestral power to heal Shim and then asked Bohgong to deliver more healing to the half-elf, who was near death. Asami encouraged Kirara to give her divine healing to Shim as well, but the flying cat refused and instead healed Asami. Aron brought down the last of the tieflings. Zosta then began to shout in the Abyssal tongue for the aurochs to stop, but they could still hear the beasts' chains clattering as they were drawn out to full extension.
Runa took out the silver dragon scale she carried and used its power to transform herself into the likeness of the hunchbacked tiefling sorcerer. Mimicking his voice, she shouted for the aurochs to halt. While she shouted at them, Asami examined the sorcerer to see if he carried any object or device to exert control over the beasts. Kirara flew up beside her and murmured in her ear that the tiefling's cloak and amulet were magical. There was also a wand that had fallen from his hand when he died. Asami examined the amulet, but it carried only an enchantment of protection.
One of the aurochs stopped in response to Runa's orders, but the other three continued to haul on their chains. Shim clambered down one of the piers and began trying to distract an aurochs by presenting himself as potential food. The aurochs that had stopped pulling seemed confused. Runa jumped down to join Shim on the dry riverbed, but landed badly. Zosta vaulted off the bridge and landed on top of one of the aurochs on the other side. Jiro meanwhile encouraged Aron and Sosiel to throw the corpses of the dead tieflings off the bridge to distract the aurochs, but the animals showed no interest. The aurochs nearest Runa tried to gore and trample her. Zosta's aurochs fell, but she rode it down and killed it with her bladed knuckles. She shouted out to the other Knights that the aurochs weren't as difficult to slay as they had feared. Asami flew to the top of the wall and hurled a spear at one aurochs. Shim realized that now only one aurochs was still pulling at its chain and tried to attract its attention, but it ignored him. He stabbed it and it began to stagger. Asami flew down and threw another spear. Jiro joined Zosta in attacking the remaining aurochs on the opposite side of the bridge. Finally with Shim and all four of the Knights working together the aurochs were vanquished. The Knights had taken control of Ahari Bridge.
Next: part 31, Taking the Tower
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