“Finally,” Syzx thought to himself, “reinforcements and rations.” Hoping to to be greeted at the ship by a saurus crew, Syzx made his way down the beach. “More skinks,” Syzx sighed as the ships small crew began to exit the ship onto the beach. “Where are the rest of you, and the supplies?” barked Syzx in an annoyed tone.
“Well... there was a mishap on the way,” stated one of the skinks.
“Mishap? What sort of mishap?”
“We brought salamanders!” the skink said excitedly. Syzx made his way below the deck and could begin to smell burnt flesh. “Salamanders don’t like being caged up this long I guess,” said the skink, “they got bored. We had to calm them down somehow and they like to eat. We did manage to put the fires out before losing the ship completely.” Syzx looked around at the charred walls, scorched cargo crates and piles of burnt flesh that used to be skink crew, and just shook his head.
“Any news from the Mage-Priest?” Syzx asked as he made his way back up to the deck.
“You’d have to ask Trid, the priest,” the skink said as he made his way down the ramp onto the beach to join the others.
“Who is Trid?” yelled Syzx.
“He’s the pile closest to the salamander cage,” the skink said as he and his fellow skinks began to laugh.
“Unload what’s left,” Syzx ordered his saurus, “and hurry we have much to do.”
Syzx knew his warband must scour further into the island in search of supplies. They managed to salvage a little food from the charred remains of the creates on the ship, but now they needed enough to feed two salamanders and a stegadon in addition to Syzx and his soldiers. The skinks reported some ruins and that they should begin their search there. Syzx and his warband made camp for the night and began preparations for their journey in the morning.
As Syzx and his warband crested the hill, looking down on the ruins they see a collection of goblins forming on the other side of the ruins! The black orc leading the warband barks orders immediately and the goblin war drumming begins to echo through the ruins, as the night goblins and spider riders scuttle into position. One group of night goblins, flanked by spider riders, with their army standard and black orc general scurry toward the supply house! As another group of goblins with a shaman and another group of spider riders made their way toward Syzx forces. Quickly Syzx and his saurus made their way toward the supply house to secure it, while commanding the rest of his forces to deal with the on coming goblins.
Goblin Spider riders make haste toward the salamanders and it proves a grave mistake! The salamanders unleash a powerful display of flame as 7 of the 10 goblins and their spider mounts are instantly incinerated, sending the remainder of the group fleeing into the hills. The skirmishers and stegadon position to receive the oncoming night goblin group. As the race for the supply house continues. As the night goblins get near, fanatics begin to whirl about! Crushing a few saurus as they spin wrecklessly. The goblin shaman chants and magical energy pulses and cracks around him. A large explosion annihilated 15 nearby night goblins as the shaman reels from his headache. Before he can recover the hungry stegadon smashes into the night goblins, tearing them apart. Whats left of the unit tries to flee but is stomped into the mud by the rampaging beast. Meanwhile the skinks are desperately trying to quell the fanatic storm before any more damage is done. They manage to fell one fanatic with their blowguns before it can do any more damage. Salamanders begin their run toward the supplies! Syzx and his saurus get to the supply house about the same time as the goblins.
A stand off occurs while Syzx commands his other troops into position. The stegadon crew manages to control the beast and move behind the goblins, while the salamanders move parallel to the saurus. Again flames flicker in the salamanders mouth as one spouts an arch of flame incinerating 6 goblins, but the other is hungry and gobbles down 2 of the skink handlers! Feeling the end is near the night goblins charge into the salamanders unleashing yet another 3 fanatics crushing even more saurus as they whirl. The spider riders advance toward the saurus as the skinks try to take out more of the original fanatics. Not wanting to get too close the skinks fail to hit their target with darts. The goblin is moving too fast and what darts do manage to make it are deflected by the whirling ball and chain. Alas in their conservative efforts to stay clear of their target they forgot about the other and he crashed into the unsuspecting skinks killing 6 instantly! The salamanders manage to escape the goblins and their Orc leader with only a single wound! The stegadon with a thunderous roar bears down on the spider riders! The site of chunks of goblin still in the beasts horns and mouth were too much and the spider riders flee in terror! Syzx, knowing victory was near began closing on the night goblins. The fanatics dance of death saw two slam into each other and one whirl through the pack of night goblins and crash to his death into a building. Syzx and his saurus crashed into the night goblins flank. In a storm of steel and blood the saurus cut down the night goblins and their leader but all was not well. Yzxl, Syzx’s most trusted saurus was mortally wounded and died on the battlefield by the black orc’s blade.
The warband gathered all the resources they could from the supply house. It should be enough to last until the next wave of reinforcements arrive, but hunting will still be a priority to maintain enough food and supplies for the warband. These ruins must be close to what the Mage-Preist is after, thought Syzx. Hopefully, the next group would have more information about their voyage and the Mage-Priest’s plans.