Major Encounter, Leva 17

Of the Rat Pack's luck, Jarvis once said, "It's hard to say if it's good or bad, but we certainly seem to have a lot of it." On the morning on which they started their investigation of the Grat'han strangers in Alluarten, following their usual survey/exploration procedure, (with the humans on foot, while the half-lizard Grim rides on the shoulders of Miw, the Giant, "to see farther than he") and looking for homesteaders they might ask about the raiders' methods and whereabouts, they came to the crest of a rise and spotted a whole moving train of Grat'hans -- at least a hundred, leading more than twenty horses -- dressed and painted in just the way that the girls described (and that the Rat Pack confirmed itself). The Grat'hans didn't give them an opportunity to parley, but immediately charged, screaming battle cries that Brette would later translate as "Kill the despoilers! Kill the self-poisoners!" (Jaque would also translate it, but as, "Look at the shiny metal-type things on those people! Let's all get rich with the stealing of it from them!") It should have been a massacre, with the Rat Pack too hampered by their armor for effective flight, and outnumbered ten-to-one by powerful Grat'han natives, but the raiders were over-eager, and the horsemen charged without waiting for the rest of their forces. Even the horsemen outnumbered the Rat Pack by more than two to one, but they didn't have the skill to use missile weapons effectively from horseback, and the Rat Pack, recognizing them as the most immediate threat, started shooting their horses out from under them with crossbow bolts in an orderly, fighting retreat. While Miw stooped to pick up a boulder (one of several he would throw to disrupt and/or kill horses and horsemen, or to delay and confuse the advancing wave of deadly enemies on foot), Grim (with no effective long-range weapons) took the opportunity of bounding and rolling to the ground, and sprinting off to find and call in reinforcements. (This was at Brette's suggestion, though of course no words were needed to convey it) By the time the enemy closed, those still on horseback no longer outnumbered the Rat Pack at all (though most of the others were intact behind them, having leapt clear of their horses as they fell), and the combat developed into the Rat Pack's favorite variety of chaotic and violent free-for-all.

The horsemen charged in with their spears, and their targets side-stepped, dodged, leapt, ducked, and danced around them, taking a few glancing blows en route to their main objective ... of tackling the horsemen themselves. Jaque gets bragging rights for getting astride a horse and throwing the rider to earth on the first pass, while Jarvis only managed to get a grip on his horseman and pull himself up behind. The resulting struggle, with the horseman twisting around and trying to kill or dislodge Jarvis with the help of a crude knife, was amusing to watch, but with predictable results; the armor Jarvis was wearing slowed the whole thing down for both sides, but Jarvis eventually managed to send the Grat'han tumbling down. Jimmy, trying to tackle a rider who was in the process of lunging wildly at him, wound up rolling about on the ground in a tangle with the horseman, trying to avoid getting trampled underfoot. The rest of the Rat Pack had a good laugh over it (yes, in the middle of battle) ... and when Chap and Tarak suffered similar fates on the second pass, they insisted it was only to emulate their fearless leader. (It also happened to Mac, but the only thing he insisted upon was, "Heh heh. Fun fight. Roly-poly! Hahahahaha!") Meanwhile, Miw was tossing boulders to give the remainder of the Grat'hans something to think about and keep them as well as possible at bay, and in less than a minute, long before Grim got anywhere near the reinforcements he sought, even before the rest of the raiders came within range, the human Rat Pack members were all horsed (though in some cases with two riding together) and Miw was loping away with his gigantic strides, to get away and under cover while the rest of the Rat Pack drew and split the raiders' attention. In the end, between mock charges, suddenly slowing as if a horse had come up lame, and a dozen other Rat Pack tricks, they managed to lead the raiders well away from the site of the battle ... and then burst away at a gallop, leaving the Grat'hans to shout and swear.

The Rat Pack managed to round up the two remaining, riderless horses, and even captured four stragglers, formerly horsemen, who hadn't been able to catch up with the rest of the raiders. From there, they sought out Charracks to make their report and receive treatment for their many, but minor, wounds. On the way, one of the captives, in the way of gallows boasting, told them a little about the Grat'hans the Rat Pack had just bamboozled: They are attacking the people of Alluarten to prevent the civilization of the land and the domestication of its creatures, as these things would supposedly be an affront to Kerranas, the beast-loving Power these Grat'hans apparently worship. The raiders then live high on everything they steal from their victims while it lasts -- the real reason, Jaque and others insist, for their fervor. As a result, the Rat Pack has taken to calling them the Holy Grat'han Bandits, with appropriate emphasis and hand-waving, which was appreciated by the captives only in comparison to what was about to be done with them.

Charracks normally doesn't like to heal anyone's wounds, especially minor ones; as far as he's concerned, the Rat Pack would be better off suffering. He made an exception this time though, and called down the agonizing, wound-suturing, restorative miracles they requested, because they brought him four Grat'han bandits to ... interrogate. Charracks grinned as he healed each member of the Rat Pack, just thinking of how well -- through him -- they had served Maiden Pain, and of how he would make his four victims renounce the Power they served, and at once admit and demonstrate that the most important and most powerful force in their lives was the Power of pain to whom /he/ was sworn.