Nande's Tale

  The drums are getting louder. Bjorn the light skinned barbarian is healing slowly but feeling better and getting quicker. Our healer is praying she gets better with time and sly the funny little man is talking none stop but I understand not a word. It looks as though he is seriously thinking about making something out of that large toothed green lizard beast.

  After much debating over the loud drums we have decided to head towards the drums silently, very slowly,  for our reason out here the well armored one called Valr has told me is to figure the lay of the land but most of all to find these strange Picts. The drums have to be played by someone. So we find our selves up the river we were heading for at the beginning of the day and heading into the thick forest again. We were ambushed as if they had been waiting for us. 5 dark fierce looking little men with war paint, little clothing, and many weapons. We took them out fairly quickly. Then we cut off there ears (for Valr has told me the captain of the fort has offered 20 sp an ear.)

  A large bright area thought to be a fire is spotted by several of our party and we stealthily creep up behind a log to take in the seen.

  My God (bless Dekatos the goddess), there are men everywhere around a 5 ft fire pit. Could these be the Picts the Captain at the fort spoke of (most likely)? War painted, dark skinned, vicious men, well the backs of them anyway. They were all trained on a bigger man who was at an alter that looked to have a man tied to it. There were also 5 stakes, 4 of them had men on them. The 2 closer stakes had Picts, the middle empty and the 2 far stakes had white men striped down to loin cloths. Soldiers perhaps captured, enslaved. Nande was infuriated over the bonds these men had been put in. There also stood 3 huts one larger then the others to the back of the area.

  A plan was devised to have Sly the little sneaky one and Valr to move quietly around to the back of the camp and see if they could search the huts for the 5 man not accounted for in the soldiers band that had been captured and to see if there armor was near so we could rearm the men at the stakes if we could free them. (It seemed Sly was also going to be looking for treasure for he had a twinkle in his eye).

  It felt like we were waiting for ever, what are those 2 doing back there. Were they captured, lost, who knew. All we could do was watch this seen unfolding before us.

The man at the alter (I think he is the clan leader here) has been dancing non stop and looks as though he is ready to strike the man on the alter. He takes a swipe at him and scratches a gash across his chest then begins to dance towards the staked men. Meanwhile the Picts watching are all playing drums and urging there leader on, frenzied and excited.

  One of the men on a stake must have done something to make the leader man for he took a strike at him as well and gave him a small wound to moan over. Then he turned to face his followers and raised his arms chanting. My eyes grew wide as the Picts near us swayed and moved farther away to make room for the largest snake I have ever laid my eyes on. It looked so ghastly and venomous.  It headed straight for the alter and the man laying there. Still we had no word from Sly and Valr no sign; they were to set fire to one of the huts to create a diversion so we could try to free the white men with minimal contact with the Picts. Nothing, still nothing. We could not stand by idly for what if the man on the alter were Valrs brother he was searching for.  I could wait no longer. The female soldier Quillia tried a distraction tactic and shot an arrow at the snake. It whizzed past and struck the large hut at the back. So did Bjorn with the same result. I decided to try picking the little dark men off one by one quietly dragging then into the bush before they could be noticed. I took one down and moved back satisfied. The others joined in heartily. Just then the drumming slowed and all where looking towards the largest hut. A head could be seen peeking out, Valr? Damn there goes our cover. The Picts traded there drums for bows and let there arrows fly. None found a home in a friend, but several where sticking in the hut now. Our goal was to free the men now so we all went into motion. We started taking them out one by one. They gave a good fight. We all thought the snake to be fierce but it was either lame or blind for it kept missing its strike at bodies sinking its fangs into nothing more then thin air. The leader of the Picts was angry, he raised his knife and dealt a deadly blow to the man on the alter then stared around the group and screeched out garbled words. All of the Picts moved forward weapons raised and metal and wood started flying. It was a frenzied fight.

  I could take no more of this sneaky ticking off the enemy one by one while the white men were killed one by one by the leader. I ran full force around the camp to the nearest stake ready to free the white naked man before me. A Pict run up and tried to cleave me but missed his chance. I brought him down with a mighty slash of my war spear and kept running for the men with the hope to free them. Sly was now in the camp again handing a large bow and quiver to the middle man staked near us. Valr had freed him and the boy/man was trying to help. I hoped the man was an archer and new how to use it. Perhaps he would thank Sly later for the thoughtfulness of arming him during all this. I dropped yet another Pict then pulled the stake from the ground and let the little man slide down off of it. We where all fighting with all our might. The snake was still no threat. One of the other Picts had been slaughtered at the stake by the other Picts. Only one of them was alive trying to get loose.

  I could see Bjorn off to the other side of the camp fighting valiantly but slowing due to his wounds new and old. He’s gone down now, fainted perhaps. Quillia is near him trying to clear a trail to aid him. The other have taken shoots at the leader who now seems to be wielding some kind of magic for arrows do not him and blows do little. One of the freed men took a shot at him with his bow but did little. The shaman thru a gesture towards him and the white man blanched and grabbed his chest as if hit physically. More Picts went down and many of us where injured.

  Suddenly the leader off the picts ran from the camp as fast as his little legs would take him, perhaps since over half of his men where now dead. His men followed him suddenly into the forest; they were all to fast to track. The snake was left and one pict staked still and squirming. Our new found bowman took the snake down with 2 rapid shot arrows. All was suddenly quiet.

  Bjorn was being healed and other were checking there wounds. We had killed 14 picts17 if you counted the ones that ambushed us before we got to the camp. My attempt to track the shaman had failed. We decided to question the Pict that was still staked for one of the new men seemed to speak the language as well as Valr. It looked as if some slight agreement was made and the man was freed. He quickly disappeared into the forest looking back only once with a grin.