The stonefield was a long, open area with massive blocks of carved stone sitting along the edges in various states of completion. All around were heavy carts filled with tools and pieces of rock. They moved through it quickly, almost two hundred feet from end to end.
Tall stacks of stone slabs sat lined up along a street at the end of the field. They gathered next to one and looked out at a wide avenue of flagstone and cobble fifty feet across and leading away to their left into the mist. The buildings along it were brick and stone; shops, craftsmen, storehouses. There were noises of shouting Dromm and movement echoing through the alleys. The central church could not be seen.
Isiah noticed a different foul smell and heard the snuffling of large animals from across the avenue. “Tem, what’s over there?”
“Oh, yeah, those are the auroch pens. Lots of them.”
A slow smile crawled over Isiah’s face. “Are they like other aurochs? Generally peaceful until they get worked up?”
“Oh, yeah. I stay away from them.”
Cley was following what Isiah was thinking. “Let’s go.”
They picked up from where they were and dashed out onto the avenue. Quickly they crossed the street and ran along the wall of a brick storehouse until a broad alley opened. They turned into it. The smell of the aurochs got much stronger.
They ran between the two brick buildings and came out looking down on a sea of slowly moving humped backs and huge horns. The aurochs were in large pens formed from wooden fences that disappeared into the haze. There had to be well over a hundred of them.
Standing on platforms next to a huge gate were two Dromm with long spears. They turned to look down the alley as the party approached.
Miah and Caelian didn’t hesitate. Miah launched a ray of frost cantrip at the one on the left and Caelian called down holy fire immediately after it. The Dromm barely had time to scream. Isiah set himself and fired off two arrows rapidly, both striking the Dromm on the right and toppling him back over the fence.
Marisol raised a fist and shot a bolt of radiance into the gate. The weakened wood buckled and started falling apart.
The wave of panic that rippled through the herd of aurochs was visible. Backs hunched and legs bolted. Bellowing cries like deep brass horns rang out and became deafening in seconds. The nearest beasts turned towards the ruined gate and surged forward.
Isiah smiled and was about to comment on how easy that was when the gate shattered and huge aurochs came running out, straight towards the alley they were standing in. The thief’s smile evaporated and he shouted, “Run!”
They all turned and ran back up the alley. Miah reached out for Tem but the boy was already leaping up on a stack of barrels. He swung himself through an open window and disappeared. She slowed down. “Tem!”
Isiah grabbed at her elbow. “He can handle himself, Miah. Run!” She turned with him but kept looking back over her shoulder.
The ground shook and dust fell from the walls as they ran. A full stampede was building behind them like a tidal wave of beastly fury. The aurochs were sweeping down the alley smashing everything and knocking into each other with their broad, thick horns.
The party flew out of the alley and slanted right. The aurochs burst out like a dam breaking and spread in all directions. The party kept running towards the center of town. Miah was shouting for them to find a way back into the building Tem had gone into but she could barely be heard over the avalanche behind them.
The next building on their right had a heavily armored Dromm captain coming out the door with a battle axe in hand. Cley, sprinting full speed, angled toward him and shouted, “We have to get off the street!”
The Dromm couldn’t think fast enough to realize what was happening and he stood flat footed as the paladin charged, cast Thunderpoint on his spiked gauntlet, and smashed him in the face. The spell unleashed a crack of thunder that shattered the remaining glass in the windows next to them. The Dromm captain’s head snapped back and his body flew into the room behind him. Without stopping, Cley, Kaspar, Miah, Caelian and Isiah filed quickly inside.
Marisol realized she wasn’t going to make it inside in time. She planted her feet and leapt into a backflip as the nearest aurochs pounded into the ground where she had stood.
Isiah stopped and turned in time to see the monk land squarely on the aurochs’ back and get carried away with the stampede.
He was about to call out her name when he heard more shouting. The others were spread out in a line behind Cley while the paladin was standing over the captain and thrusting down with his longsword, skewering the Dromm between its breastplate and plackart. Beyond them, in the gloomy dark, were more than a dozen Dromm warriors in the process of strapping on weapons and armor.
Whatever the building had been before, it had now been converted into a barracks.
The chaos out on the street was instantly replaced by chaos within the building. The room was long and low ceilinged, maybe twenty feet across with bunks and footlockers lined up along the wall. Tall racks of weapons ran down the center between thick stone columns supporting the floor above. The Dromm roared and bared their fangs.
Cley moved left and Kaspar moved right. The paladin made two quick slashes and dropped one Dromm while Kaspar skewered another with both his swords. Isiah stepped in next to Cley and thrust his shortsword into the side of the next Dromm. He spun away from the warrior’s furious battleaxe slash and Miah came in with a two handed straight thrust from her quarterstaff. The ferruled end cracked into the Dromm’s head and dropped him. Beside Kaspar, Caelian swung her mace and connected an uppercut to the warrior in front of her and knocked him backwards, a spray of dark blood flying from his ruined face.
Dromm were from an ancient Abyssal bloodline long forgotten by even the best scholars and they existed only for destruction. Their groupings, which they called charnels, were loosely formed by demons and other powers that needed instruments of chaos. The more powerful the master, the larger charnel it could create. Dromm by nature were not a cooperative species and their tactics were crazed and savage. When up against a coordinated and experienced foe, they drove themselves into a bloodlust of uncontrollable rage.
With five of their own dead on the floor and a line of humans advancing into the room, that’s exactly what happened. The remaining Dromm launched forward in a whirlwind of claws, axes, and teeth.
Cley blocked an axehead that swung towards him but took two raking claw hits on his thigh. A spear came through the wilding mass and scored across Miah’s shoulder. Isiah could only dodge so many attacks before he bumped up against his sister and a battleaxe slashed his side. Kaspar was forced back a step, parrying as fast as his arms could move. Caelian smashed another Dromm in the head but left herself open to a jab from a spear in her midsection.
Cley stabbed a Dromm and then pushed his longsword through its neck, knocking the body over onto a rickety bed. Miah raised a hand and cast her shocking grasp cantrip. One of the warriors in front of her seized up with a snap of lightning running through him and Isiah decapitated him with a backhand slash, blood pumping up in a spray that hit both the twins. Kaspar used his swords like scissors across the chest of a Dromm and dropped him with gaping wounds pouring gore all over the stone floor.
The dead warriors were immediately replaced by another howling wall of fury. The spear that had jabbed Caelian slashed down into Kaspar’s thigh. A broken piece of a chair was swung at Kaspar’s head and connected, leaving a gash in his forehead. Isiah was bitten in the leg. Miah took a claw strike. Cley shouldered aside a warrior trying to bite him and was slashed in the other shoulder by an axe.
They could now see that behind the Dromm were two enforcers. Brutes with whips and iron helmets. They were shouting and lashing at the Dromm, driving them ever forward.
Back at the front door, an aurochs smashed into the building and got its horns caught up in the woodwork. It thrashed side to side and bellowed a booming horn blast into the cacophony.
Cley slipped on the bloody floor and went to a knee. The Dromm next to him grappled him and bit down on his arm. The paladin steadied himself and pushed up hard, sending both of them over onto a shattered bunk. Three Dromm next to them turned and leapt.
Miah jumped in between them while casting Shield. All three Dromm were backed up, slashing and biting at her. A layer of magical force took all the blows but she was beaten down into a crouch, holding up her glowing quarterstaff to block the fury.
Isiah hacked wildly at one of the Dromm beating down on her. His sword bit deep into the warrior’s back, killing it. From the back of the room, one of the enforcers strode forward and snapped its whip. The lash snaked out and struck the thief’s side.
Caelian swung her mace two handed and slammed one of the warriors into a support column with a flash of holy light. Kaspar grabbed another Dromm that had gotten too close and threw it into a rack of long knives. The fighter took a gauntleted fist to the side of his head, staggered, and went to his knees.
Only a few Dromm warriors were left. The two enforcers stepped forward, each lashing out at Caelian. Both whips scored her arms and entangled her. The enforcers yanked hard and she went flying towards the back of the room. Kaspar got up and pushed both swords into the Dromm that had hit him.
A door at the far end of the room broke open, flying off its hinges. A huge Dromm savager rushed through. He held an aurochs horn that looked like it had just been ripped free of its host. Two long strides brought him into range and he swung the horn into Caelian’s side as she tried to get up. The cleric tumbled over and slid under a bunk.
Cley kicked himself free and slashed open one of the Dromm attacking Miah. The other snarled and stabbed him in the thigh with a spear. Isiah thrust his shortsword into the last warrior and Miah cast her ray of frost cantrip to topple it over, dead and frozen.
The paladin ran at the savager as it swung its horn at Kaspar. Kaspar blocked it and spun to strike twice with his swords, both hitting. The savager just roared and swung again, hitting Cley.
Isiah was behind the paladin and dodged to move in close to one of the enforcers. It tried to whip him again but he got inside the arc of the lash and stabbed it in the chest, pushing it all the way through to the wall.
The savager flipped the horn around and lunged with it like a spear. It caught Cley beneath the edge of his half-plate armor and stabbed deep, lifting him up off his feet.
Miah stood, planted her quarterstaff, and cast Magic Missile. Three sizzling bolts shot out from her fingertip and blasted the savager in the chest. It dropped Cley and fell back, hitting the floor just in front of the last enforcer.
Caelian had pulled herself out from under the bunk. She saw the savager fall. Taking a long stride she leapt onto its back and launched herself up over the body, swinging her mace with both hands and splitting the last enforcer’s head open.
They all stood amidst the blood and severed limbs, breathing heavily. All the other sounds were far away, outside the building. Even the aurochs stuck in the front door paused and snorted.
Cley put his hand out and leaned against the nearest wall. Somewhere in the fight he had lost his cloak. He groaned and lowered his sword tip to the floor. “That was ugly.”
