At dawn the next day the seven men met outside Cedric's. Calin had expected to see Dermatease but the old wizard he guessed must still be in bed as he was no were to be seen and his forthcoming part in the scheduled combat was still a few hours away. After a talk with Stan he learnt that the wizard had spent the night preparing protection spells which would hopefully protect them from the rainbow-mages magic and he was now indeed now resting.
The seven had decided that they would walk to the tent of the rainbow-mage that was situated next to the lake, as horses were a rare thing on the island and besides the lake lay only fourteen miles away to the north, near island’s top part. Calin calculated that they should reach their destination in four or five hours.
Only the two blood brothers did not look as well equipped as himself, they each carried a small sword and shield only and wore a light leather armor and small helm as protection that Calin guessed was usual battle dress for a guard upon Pagzuire.
Mulk was dressed in a heavy bronze breast plate and his kilt had a light covering of chainmail over the top of it. He also wore a large helmet that covered most of his head, which although Calin guessed gave him good protection would also reduce his vision by some degree. Wrapped around his hands where large metal gauntlets and in these he carried a large bronze headed battle axe. Strapped to his back was a rather fancy and very expensive heavy crossbow which Calin suspected could cause devastating damage to an opponent, to go with this he carried in his belt a quiver of thick metal bolts.
Haurick wore some of the finest plate armor that Calin had ever seen. Although it showed signs of wear and tear it still showed immaculate work in it's design. He to wore large metal gauntlets and a large helm although in looks the helm was very different to Mulk’s as it possessed a hinged visor that completely covered his head. His only weapon though was his large scimitar, the blade looking razor sharp and being nearly four foot in length.
Croll was dressed in the traditional mercenary way, much like Calin. In fact he was armored exactly the same as Calin wearing chainmail, leather gauntlets, small metal helm and a large wooden shield. He to carried a longsword but also carried two small
throwing axes strapped in his belt.
To Calin however it was Abe who was dressed in the most outlandish and unsuitable way. He wore no armor except for a large helmet made from what Calin guessed was the skull of some kind of wild boar, a kind which he as a hunter had never seen before. As weapons he carried a large wickedly barbed spear and large throwing darts eight inches in length that were tied to a thick fur belt that was slung around his right shoulder. Calin later found out the darts were coated in a mild poison and were a specialized weapon used by the Gell warriors of his tribe.
The walk to the lake was un-troubled and even the weather was for once fine and sunny, though a cold frost could still be seen on the ground. During the walk, morale was high and each of the men practiced combat with one another. Calin learnt that between himself and Haurick there was not much of a difference, the two being marginally better than Abe and Croll in hand to hand combat and all much better than the two blood brothers. It was Mulk however who was by far the most skilled, showing none of his age and pushing all back with his skill and speed. It seemed to Calin, Mulk's battle axe was an impenetrable shield that could dish out fast death if Mulk so wished it.
It took them most of the morning to reach there destination but now they looked down on the lake from a tall hill, the same one Bill and Stan had used to spy on the inhabitants in and around the tent. The lake was long and narrow and they stood at the bottom end of it which looked about a hundred yards across, the rest stretched upwards for what looked like a couple of miles. All around the lake and everywhere as far as the eye could see was the large dark forest of Gelepicko. It was at a small clearing of a few hundred yards at the base of the lake that seven pairs of eyes looked at with most interest. In the centre of this clearing was the large red and yellow tent. Around it four ugly Quibs, dressed only in loin cloths and armed with spiked clubs and small shields stood on guard. Calin knew from the holes in the ground there were bound to be quite a few more of these creatures and from the smoke emitting from them they were cooking food down below. Smoke also poured out of the roof of the tent and each knew that the mage (and most probably the Delvock as it would be to big to fit into the Quibs holes) rested inside as the men crouched down, thus hiding themselves Calin reminded them of the Quibs blindness and whispered:
"All you've got to remember with Quibs is to keep quiet and make sure that they can't smell you on the wind". Their senses are very acute and...
Suddenly a loud squawking sound sounded from up above their heads, it came from a large black raven that circled around them. The noise made by the raven alerted the four Quibs. At this the Quibs began sniffing the air and when they smelt nothing ran inside the large tent.
"So much for a surprise attack", said Croll.
"What now", asked Haurick to Mulk. Do we charge them and flush them out".
"No", replied Mulk. "But we will move closer into the open and wait for them. I guess at a distance we shall have the advantage as those blind sods shouldn’t be able to use ranged weapons. We shall wait a while and see if any of them come out, if any do we will pick them off before they can get to us".
"What of the mage, we will be susceptible to his magic still", said Abe.
Mulk sat in thought for a moment. "Hmm, rushing in on an enemy whose strength and number we have little knowledge of might also be unwise. Besides this gives us the chance to find out whether or not we stand a chance against this mages magic, with a bit of luck Dermatease will be able to counter it and that will be one less problem for us to consider. We should know or not anyway in say an hour. We will wait that long, if nothing happens in that time then we will work our way slowly towards the tent and see what happens.
Let's all stick together for the present and stay clear of them holes in the ground".
The men then got up from there hiding position and made there way down the hill into the opening of the field. They stopped about a hundred feet from the tent, around eighty feet away from the two closest holes. The men who carried projectile weapons prepared them for an onslaught that might come any time from either the tent or the small smoking holes in the ground.
A thought struck Calin. "Damn, if only we had brought some oil we could have torched the tent".
"A good thought to late Calin", laughed Mulk. Anyway from the gleam the tent has upon it I suspect it is fire proof".
Calin looked closely and noticed the tent did indeed have a coating of something that gave it a shiny texture.
"No", continued Mulk. "Let's see what happens before we go rushing in like the wild women of Borgano.