In all therewere about thirty relatively undamaged druids. All of them wereveterans, men and women that had been around for a long time andhad seen their share of fights. They would not give up easily. Oneof the old druids found Quab healing a young badly burnt andblinded druid.
‘Good job, Quab. Do you know what’s happening?’ hesaid.
‘A little, my Lord. After the explosion I notified Featherdownof what happened and he decided to come here to help. He wasaccompanied by a Traveller bug friend as an observer. His frienddiscovered a magic device causing the disruption and fighting amongour fellows and Featherdown disabled it. The High Druid was veryupset at this and seemed to signal the start of this onslaught,then disappeared.’
‘Okay seems as though we have given the bastard enough rope tohang himself.’ said the old druid and his face changed to that ofHeteronymous.
‘Now where is Lord Helix? I want to talk with him.’ askedHeteronymous.
‘I’m over here.’ said Helix.
‘First flower pot to the right of the unicornstatue.’
Heteronymousand Helix talked until the first of the ground troops becamevisible near one of the walls of fire. Helix agreed to act as acommunications link broadcasting using mindspeak to the defenders.His first job was to give them some general information about thestrengths and weaknesses of the Panmagican ground troops.
‘We are under attack by Panmagican ground troops. They arelikely to be mainly Newmans but will have a few half giant brutesfrom the outer colonies with them. For the benefit of those who arenot familiar with Panmagican troops’ tactics I will quickly runthrough some of their main features.’
‘The military ground units are based around a platoon offifteen made up of ten fighters, two brutes, an officer, a priestand a wizard. All of them will be wearing chain mail and haveelemental protections cast upon them. The ground troops areequipped with javelins, swords and shields. They often use javelinsat the start of an attack then close in with their swords. Theyoften fight in a V shape formation with the brutes in the centre atthe front. The officer, priest and wizard will be found in themiddle of the V.’
‘The wizards will generally use a fire ball or two if theyhave the range but close up they may use fear, paralyse, confusion,nausea or poison gas to soften up the enemy so that the fightersand brutes can kill them quicker. They are usually equipped withdispel magic wands to neutralize any enemy magic used against theirgroup. The priests will heal their group and replace magicprotections on them. They are also known to use a variety ofattacks similar to the wizards.’
‘Be careful of the brutes they are very strong and very tough.They might also be in a religious frenzy which will mean they can’tbe feared or feel pain and will fight with terrible wounds untildead.’
Helix couldhear a few of the druids laughing, so he asked the Heteronymouswhy?’
‘Many haven’t had a good fight for years. They thought thatthis sneak attack might fizzle out before they could get a littlerevenge. Druids usually work alone. They have to be both goodfighters and magic users. The third day of the conclave is usuallydevoted to fighting prowess. They have been honing their skills forweeks.’
SuddenlyFeatherdown appeared in the camp beside the statue and walked overto Heteronymous.
‘Why are you and your colleagues still here? There arepossibly a couple of hundred ground troops coming in from alldirections and those wizards will be back soon.’
Heteronymouschuckled.
‘You obviously don’t know us well enough. That onslaught hasonly whetted our appetite for a fight. Soon you will see whatdruids are made of. Those bastards will pay for interfering withour conclave.’ said Heteronymous then he walked outside thebuilding and looked at the clear cloudless sky.
‘The conclave is not here because of the scenery. You areabout to see why this place is called the Crown ofElements.’
He held up botharms and began chanting and as he did so dark clouds appeared inthe sky covering the whole of the mountaintop and began swirlingominously in a circular pattern around the druid camp. The breezepicked up and the air became cooler. Soon snow began sprinklingdown from above then chunks of ice began falling with great thumpsas they hit the ground.
He chuckledsome more then yelled,
‘Let there be lightning!’ and there was. Massive chains oflightning struck down from the sky reaping havoc in the area aroundthe druid camp. In between the thunder they could hear screams ofpain from the Panmagican troops exposed to thedevastation.
‘Why don’t they attack?’ wondered Quab aloud and at thatmoment the new High Druid appeared next to the fountain.
‘You people never learn, do you!’ he screamed and began shapechanging. He grew larger and larger until he broke through the vinecovered roof of the central area of the druid camp and kept growinguntil he was at least eight times as tall as a Newman then gave anenormous bellow. The circle of druids all looked around to see whatwas happening and saw a huge green dragon right in the middle oftheir camp. Some of the druids fell to the ground frozen withfear.
The bellow wasa signal and dozens of Panmagican ground troops came storming intowards the camp. Several fireballs came flying in exploding ingreat blossoms of orange flame burning the structures and charringthe ground. The druids were untouched having all cast elementalprotections on themselves. They stood their ground, some usingmagic causing vines to shoot out of the ground that twisted andswirled around entangling the charging soldiers while others causedlarge chunks of ice to fall out of the snow storm above onto thetroops below pounding and concussing them.
The wizardsdispelled the entangling vines and urged their troops on so thedruids called on the ground to turn into quicksand and the troopsbegan sinking, drawn down by their armour. The wizards dispelledthe ground and it turned solid again but the troops were buried totheir waists in the ground. The druids laughed with glee. Clouds ofinsects appeared on top of the groups of soldiers. They attackedthe half sunken
