Adi was dead tired by the time she trudged back to the makeshift camp. It would have been a far easier trek had she climbed in the saddle and ridden out, but after the hard days of riding behind her the poor animal needed his rest too. It must have been some ungodly hour of morning, as everyone had gone to sleep without her. Even Gwynne had beaten her back to the camp, though that was hardly a surprise. She couldn’t be expected to wait on Adi after she stormed off like that.
She saw that her horse was hitched over near the others. Thankfully she was not the only of the group to have a mount, but for certain the group as a whole would not be horseback mobile for now. All of her things: food rations, armor, weapons, clothes, a canteen; were still stowed where she left them. Having checked her stuff she couldn’t bear to stand much longer. She haphazardly tossed down a blanket so she wasn’t on top of cold dirt, and fell back onto it.
Orange morning sun broke over the camp, beating back the chills of the night. The cacophony of birds in the stands of trees around the ruins sang their morning symphonies. Even amidst the remnants of destruction, life carried on. Wisps of smoke curled whimsically upward from the still-glowing embers of last night’s campfire, having gone out at some point overnight while the ragtag band had turned in for the night. The lighter sleepers began to stir from their slumber as the rest of the world woke up around them.
It seemed quieter ...
too quiet. It was the birds, the birds had gone silent. Adrianna had cracked an eye from the sun blazing in her face, groggily coming back to consciousness and taking her a moment to even notice. Her mind, still in a groggy stupor, was unable to tell just what was out of place. Nonetheless she detected an uneasy stillness in the air; the others would no doubt feel it too.
The silence gave way to more subtle sounds that were normally missed: the trickle of a creek in the distance, the pitter-patter of morning dew rolling off tree leaves, the dull thump of horses at gallop ...
horses at gallop. It was getting louder too, just faintly but enough that it would be noticed. Horses on fast approach could be one of several options, but for a group of would-be sorcerers that threatened every ruler in Avalon, there was only one sensible conclusion:
a cavalry charge.
GM notes:
Having just woken up, no one is prepared for battle.Twenty foot soldiers (ten left, ten right) are hidden in the treelines on the group’s flanks, waiting to charge when the cavalry closes in. Ten cavalrymen are on fast approach up the plains to the front. The group is outnumbered three to one, but the battle is still winnable. The only viable avenue of retreat is towards the rear, into the burned out streets of Silverwick. Good luck.