Library: The Drow Chase

The forest was full of sounds and scents. Birds sang elegantly, moles scurried around their burrows and grasshoppers sat between blades of grass making noise. After all, it was summer and all the animals were vigorously carrying out their important duties. Three men were also proceeding through the forest, charged with a more ominous and daunting task. They were chasing a dark elf, who had under the cover of darkness descended from the depths of the forest and murdered a family of farmers in cold blood at the outskirts of the village of Brimshire. When he heard of this tragedy, the Sheriff of Brimshire summoned two of his most experienced rangers and immediately set on pursuing the vile drow, whose footprints led into the very same dark forest whence it had come. The three men, Sheriff Frederick and his henchmen Janos and Rudolf, edged through the woods as quickly as they could, following the tracks of the drow. The sun had risen hours ago, but some dark elves were able to operate in sunlight. The chasers had brought bloodhounds with them and swift horses helped them to catch up. Over small streams, gloomy dales and luminous groves they pursued, but finally they reached a small, moss-covered timberjack's cottage and a river near the centre of the forest. A tall, black-haired timberjack in threadbare green clothing advanced to meet them. "We seek a dark elf, who passed this hut. Have you perchance seen it?" asked Sheriff Frederick, an aged but bulky guy with a grey moustache. "I have, and I know where it went", responded the timberjack, who looked like he knew little and less about life outside the boundaries of the woods. "I followed the drow beyond that river and saw it entering the old ruins of the Grave Robbers' Keep". "Take us there then, quickly", demanded Frederick, and so they set on pursuing again, guided by the timberjack. The dogs had become wary and growled more than before, indicating that the dark elf could no longer be far away. Beyond the river the forest was thicker and darker, so much so that moving with the horses was arduous for a while. But soon the appearance of the woods changed again, and the men came upon a much older part of the forest. Huge oak trees loomed all around them with their old crooked arms stretched in every direction. The Sheriff and his rangers were starting to sense a malevolent presence, and they merely hoped that they could soon return to their homes. But suddenly there was an opening, and the ruins of a once mighty fortress towered ahead. Most of the stony structures had collapsed and were covered by plants and vines, but the tower of the keep stood, defying age and gravity. "Just beyond the gate of the tower, I saw it sneaking in!" bellowed the timberjack. The three pursuers dismounted and advanced slowly so as not to warn the drow of their coming. Before they could reach the gate, however, a dark figure with fiery-red eyes and crimson cloak appeared from below the arches of the gateway. "I am a high priestess of Lolth", boomed the dark elf, "and I have prepared a small amusing surprise for thee". Three more drows advanced from the tower and threw three lifeless bodies on the ground, one small boy and a grown-up woman with bleeding holes where their hearts used to be. And the third body, it belonged to thetimberjack! Frederick and the rangers turned around to look at the man who had guided them. The timberjack had an expression that resembled both amusement and sadness, and he made a slow horizontal movement with his left hand, after which his outline became completely blurry. After a few heartbeats his shape sharpened again, but the pursuers saw to their horror that the illusion of a timberjack had vanished and that the real creature underneath was another drow. Even worse, all around them scores of dark elves with bows and wands suddenly rose from behind stones and other hiding places. "What, a bloody trap!" yelled Rudolf. Janos made the first aggressive move. Remarkably swiftly he pulled an arrow from his quiver, aimed the shortbow and shot at the priestess. The ebony arrow pierced the air as fast as lightning and flew toward the head of the priestess, but with a movement quicker than thought she caught the arrow between her thumb and index finger. Frederick took hold of his javelin and hurled it at the priestess, but she dodged it at the last moment. The bloodhounds charged toward the priestess and her three helpers, and for a moment it looked like they would get a bite of drow meat, but when they were already very close the high priestess lifted up her left hand and channeled forth a sort of magical projectile, which during its flight divided into five different missiles. These projectiles hit the five hounds in their muzzles, respectively. There were no death cries, since the sheer magical pressure made the dogs burst in pieces in an instant. By now many dark elves were already shooting either arrows or spells toward the pursuers, so they had to do something quickly. Rudolf rushed forward to fight with the three henchmen of the priestess, and Janos followed. Rudolf, clad in studded leather, managed to deal many vicious blows to the enemy, and soon one drow raised his oval-shaped shield too slowly, whereupon Rudolf struck his head with a longsword, and the head flew in a long bloody arch. Janos could have killed another one, but the priestess made him fall with a whip's lash, which caught his legs. Arrows whistled past Rudolf, but one pierced his armour and stuck on his shoulder, which made him wince and fall on his knees. A drow seized the opportunity and thrust an adamantium dagger through his mouth and neck. When he saw this, Janos broke and decided to run back to the horses and escape; but he couldn't get far, for the treacherous dark elf who had led them to their doom set him on fire with a magical flaming arrow. Frederick himself was battling with the priestess, and the female drow, who was incredibly skillful but rather frail, had to dodge all of his blows instead of parrying them. But once she was not fast enough and had to receive a blow from a battle hammer with her shield, and although the shield didn't even get any dents, the hit was nevertheless so powerful that she lost her balance and fell. Unfortunately the dark elf had one final trick; she plucked a glass ball out of her pocket, the ball flashed and suddenly there was a cloud of darkness, which could be penetrated by drow eyes but not by men. Having to fight blindly, Frederick struck where he thought the drow was, but there was nothing. A lash from the whip, the pommel of which resembled a wolf's head with rubies in place of the eyes, took the feet from under him. A drow spear pierced his shoulder and nailed him to the ground. Frederick was almost unconscious and bleeding heavily, but he saw how the priestess appeared above him. The female drow pressed her black boot on Frederick's throat. For a moment she considered and then said "No. I will keep you alive. You are more useful to Lolth as a slave and can help us enslave your village. For Lolth demands a far greater sacrifice than the timberjack's family or the farmers that we have slain."

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Library: The Drow Chase