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[Medriev]

Telkya loosed a bolt of golden divine energy from her amulet toward the hag but the creature stepped to its left and the bolt flew past to strike the wall beyond. Enlishia moved forward and raised her bow, loosing two arrows quickly. One drove into the hag’s shoulder, drawing a screech from the crone but the other streaked past, clattering into the wall behind the creature. Lavren, finally recovered from the hag’s assault, rushed at the arborean that had wounded him. He feinted to the left and then drove his blade into the creature’s right hip. It staggered back and slashed out with his own blade to try and keep the fierce elf at bay. Lavren paid its sword no mind and came forward again in a rush.

Erlmoor rushed at the boar again but as he started forward, he felt a sharp pain sear across the bottom of his back. He turned and looked over his right shoulder to see that a second scythe-wielding arborean had rushed at him and wounded him with its scythe. He growled at the brown-skinned creature and then leapt at the boar, driving his blade into the creature’s skull. The beast lashed out with its tusks one last time as Erlmoor leapt away from it and then it slumped to the earth floor and died. With a roar, Erlmoor turned on the spot to face his new enemies and raised his blade again.

The hag crossed the open space to rejoin the arborean and as it did, it turned and howled at the companions again. Lavren and Enlishia were hurled against the west wall and reeled away along it while Telkya was hurled back into the passage between the wall of the thicket to the south. The arborean rushed after Telkya, stabbing its blade into her shoulder and driving her back into the south wall of the passage. She cried out and as she did, a silver missile streaked past the arborean and struck the west wall. Looking to her right, Telkya saw that her brother had come to aid her and knew that she would not fall to her bark-skinned foe.

Dulvarna turned to face these new foes and as she did, a tunic-clad arborean wielding a short sword, appeared as if from nowhere a few feet away. It rushed at her and stabbed out with its blade but she swept her own sword across and knocked its weapon aside. She twisted Aecris back up and across and slashed the blade across the creature’s chest, tearing its tunic and the bark-like skin beneath. Then another of the scythe-wielders rushed into the battle, slashing out with its long weapon and tearing a painful wound in Dulvarna’s left shoulder. She cried out, falling back a step as she did but her enemies kept coming toward her and she realised that these foes would be harder to slay than the boar had been.

Telkya lashed out desperately with her sword and thought for a moment that her blade would drive into the arborean’s side but at the last, the creature parried with its own blade. Beyond the arborean, Lavren and Enlishia had recovered enough to loose arrows and black bolts of energy at the hag and from the screeches she heard, Telkya judged that the creature was being hurt further by their attacks. Then the hag howled again and both were thrown back along the wall again beyond Telkya’s sight. Seeing its foe’s distraction, the arborean came at the elf maid then and though she parried as best she could, again its blade snuck through, piercing her hip this time. She fell back into the wall and Litiraan hurled another silver bolt from his wand but still the creature kept coming. Telkya began to doubt her victory then, wondering if this strange creature would in fact defeat her.

Erlmoor roared at the new foes before him, spraying acid from his mouth that seared the robes and skin of the two scythe-wielders. Erlmoor surged forward, lashing out left and right with his blade but each time, the scythe-wielders before him met his blade with their own blades ot the shafts of their long weapons. To the right of the dragonborn, the sword-wielder rushed at Dulvarna and drove its blade into her hip, forcing her back a step. She came back forward almost at once, her blade dancing back and forth before her until she leapt at her foe and thrust Aecris into the arborean’s thigh. It staggered and reeled back a step, dragging its wounded leg with it. The scythe-wielders came forward in a fury next, both slashing their weapons at Erlmoor. The paladin parried desperately, somehow managing to keep both at bay for a few moments more.

“Do we hold here?” he asked Dulvarna as the arboreans drew back for a moment.
“For now we do,” Dulvarna answered. “And we hope that the others come to aid us.”