Chapter 9 - The Ashen Tower (Part 2)
Dulvarna cursed as the hobgoblins began taking up the whooping cry, knowing all hope of surprising whoever dwelt in the ruins was now gone. An arrow flew high over her head and she watched it pass nervously. The hobgoblins did not have the range yet but they were undoubtedly within bow range for however many archers dwelt within the ruin. Enlishia apparently cared not for as Dulvarna reached for her sword and considered the situation, the ranger darted off the trail to the left, unshouldered her bow and began firing back at the hobgoblins.
“Erlmoor, go with Enlishia,” Dulvarna called as she started off at a jog down the trail towards where the entrance to the hold once would have stood. She rounded a copse of trees and found a hobgoblin standing ready with a flail in its hands. It called back over its shoulder to others in the ruin that Dulvarna could not see and from somewhere within, a horn blew sounded loud and clear.
Another hobgoblin rushed from the ruin with a flail held before it and Dulvarna slowed, looking back over her shoulder to see whether anyone was coming to aid her in this fight. Lavren was coming quickly, his wand in his hand, as were the two elves, their blades drawn. Kel and Thira had started off after Enlishia as well and Dulvarna saw a flash of silver lance from the tiefling’s staff towards the ruin. Erlmoor lumbered after the ranger last but his long strides quickly caught up to her and the Dulvarna felt satisfied that they would be safe as they disappeared around the other side of the copse of trees. She turned her attention back to the hobgoblins before her and started towards them.
Kel felt an arrow drive into her shoulder as she rushed towards the ruins and cursed the hobgoblins under her breath. She grabbed the shaft and snapped it off, throwing it to the ground. A drow showed no pain, she reminded herself and ran onwards. She heard a clash of weapons beyond the trees to her right but paid it no mind, focusing only on the ruin ahead and reaching the archers there before they shot her down. Then she saw another hobgoblin lean out of a gap in the north wall of the ruin close to a tree and level his staff at her. The creature raised its other arm, uttered a terrible curse in its tongue and sent a bolt of lightning lancing towards her. It struck her left shoulder where the arrow had struck her and sent her reeling and stumbling towards the tree to her right. She wanted to cry out but then Enlishia’s hand steadied her as the ranger rushed to the tree to take up a new firing position.
“Are you alright?” she asked, looking back as she nocked an arrow to her bow.
Kel stopped, put her hands to her knees and let her morning star hang loosely from them as she tried to recover. She nodded with a firmness that she did not feel as she fought to regain her breath and watched Enlishia’s arrow clatter into the stonework of the ruin’s west wall. The sounds of battle through the trees to the right were louder now and as Kel turned, she thought she could see Dulvarna slashing at a hobgoblin warrior.
“Watch out,” Kel heard Enlishia call.
She looked up just as she felt the searing pain that she knew must be an arrow piercing her throat. She gasped for breath and then felt warm liquid filling her mouth. She pitched forward and saw the ground rushing up to her for a moment only for the merciful blackness to take her before her head struck the grass.
Dulvarna felt the chain of the flail lash across her shoulder and twisted away from it as the spiked ball struck her shoulder blade and threatened to stay there. She could not help but admire the tactics the hobgoblins used together. They fought expertly as one, shields together protecting each other while each took its own chances to strike at its enemies. Through the trees to her left, she saw a tall hobgoblin with a skull at its belt and a twisted stave in its hands stride out to meet Erlmoor. It leveled the staff and seemed to break the dragonborn’s stride for a moment but then he carried on towards his foes. Enlishia was still firing arrows at the hidden archers and Dulvarna was encouraged. She could not see Kel but she only had time for a glance to her left and assumed the drow would reach the battle soon. When she turned back to hobgoblins, they were still defending fiercely and striking when they could, keeping Ilar and Micor who fought beside Dulvarna at bay.
Dulvarna surged at them then, slashing her blade left and right until she felt her blade bight into flesh under the shield of the foe before her. She retreated then as Micor went forward to meet the two shields. His blade stabbed out and seemed to be heading for the throat of a hobgoblin but at the last, the warrior raised his shield and blocked the thrust. The hobgoblins came forward in turn, the flail of one lashing out at Ilar over the shields and striking his arm, the spikes of the ball on the end, tearing his flesh painfully.
No sooner had the creature struck than it staggered backwards as searing, silver flame erupted from its eyes, mouth and hands to stream up into the air. The hobgoblin screamed its agony and Dulvarna looked over to where Lavren stood at the edge of the trees to the south of the trail with his wand in his hand and a disturbing look of satisfaction on his face. Dulvarna nodded her thanks quickly and then turned her mind back to the battle once more.
Thira looked back through the trees as Kel fell but decided at once that the drow was beyond aid. She turned her attention back to the ruin and picked out two archers, crouching behind the corner of the west wall. She pointed her stave and called a column of flame down upon them which engulfed one while the other dived aside. Thira cursed quietly at this bad fortune and then cursed again as the archer who had been burned still rose and picked up his bow. Slowly he turned his gaze her way and nocked an arrow to the string.
Thira ducked back behind the tree under which she stood and looked around the other side just as Erlmoor reached the corner of the ruin with a roar and a shower of blistering acid from his mouth. His blade swung at the third hobgoblin, the one who had loosed lightning at Kel and the spellcaster reeled away, a wound cut in its left shoulder. From where Thira stood, the creature seemed to curse the dragonborn to the deepest of the Hells and then raised its stave to fight him. Thira smiled to herself until an arrow drove into her thigh with a wet thud and drove her back behind her tree once more.
Dulvarna stepped back to catch her breath and saw one of Enlishia’s arrows strike home in the shoulder of one of the hobgoblin archers. The hobgoblin she faced came at her despite the wounds his ally had suffered and she raised her blade to parry his flail. As she did so, Dulvarna felt her heart surge and give her a new strength. Some knew the feeling as a battle rage or even a battle joy but she preferred to think of it as Lathander giving her new strength. She rushed her foe then and drove him back a step but still the two shields held together, albeit a little unsteadily now.
Dulvarna heard Enlishia cry out then and knew that the ranger must be wounded as well. The battle was fierce and all would hinge on the next few heartbeats. Micor surged forward and drove the hobgoblin back another step with a slash across his shin and the line bent now as both wounded warriors tried to keep their shields together. The hobgoblin on the right roared wildly and came at Ilar once again, lashing out with its flail over the two shields. It struck the elf on the head this time and sent him reeling away with blood pouring down around his left ear. Lavren cursed that hobgoblin in elvish and hurled crackling black energy at it. The warrior was struck in the side and hurled into his companion, disrupting the rigid line for a moment. Despite this, Dulvarna cursed under her breath and wondered how long they could hold out.
Kel felt something and wondered if she was truly dead. With a feeling of dread she realised that she would meet Lolth soon and would likely be judged wanting. The Spider Queen rarely tolerated drow who failed her on the surface of the world. Just as fear was settling over her, she realised that she could breathe and that the air she could breathe was fresh and cold. She smelt grass close to her head and tasted blood in her mouth. Surely Lolth sees her subjects in all their glorious perfection and not broken and wounded as she was. She swallowed then and the searing pain told her that the arrow was still lodged in her neck and so she raised a hand and snapped the shaft free. The point and the rest of the shaft would have to be removed by magic or a knife and so slowly, as if dreading what she would see, she opened her eyes. She let out a grating, rasping sigh as she found that she still lay where she had fallen and that the battle still went on around her. Rising slowly, Kel prepared to call forth healing power to fix her battered body.
Erlmoor roared again even though his acid breath was spent for a while. The hobgoblin before him was clearly a dark priest of some kind and the dragonborn despised dark priests of any kind. More flame came down in a column to his right and silently Erlmoor thanked Thira for her efforts as it kept the archers away from him and allowed him to concentrate on the staff wielding hobgoblin before him. The priest feinted to the left and then came in from the right but the paladin was not fooled. He parried and then lashed out at the hobgoblin, more wildly than he would have liked. The priest danced back and cackled at the dragonborn before coming at him again.
The priest struck out with his staff and Erlmoor felt a wave of force strike him. He swayed back perhaps a hand-span but was otherwise unmoved and this time, though he disliked mocking any foe, he laughed at the hobgoblin.
Lavren watched the battle between the hobgoblins, Dulvarna and the elves sway back and forth and shared Dulvarna’s worry. Ilar charged back at the nearest foe but he was still dazed and staggered as he rushed forward. The hobgoblin met his blade with its shield and then brought its flail down on the back of the elf’s neck, sending him spinning back and away again. Lavren cursed the hobgoblin again, extended his wand and loosed more crackling black energy into the side of the enemy line. The nearest foe careered away, crashed into his companion and then reeled away from the battle before collapsing on the grass. The hobgoblin did not get up and Lavren allowed himself a satisfied smile. At that moment, he heard Kel’s voice from the copse of trees beyond the battle and saw divine light wash over Dulvarna and the two elves as well as over those hidden with the drow amongst the trees.
“It seems we may be saved,” Lavren mused quietly. “Saved by a drow.”
Dulvarna felt the healing energy wash over her and silently thanked Lathander for her allies. They could prevail now, she decided. It was time to storm the ruin.
She rushed at the hobgoblin who slashed his flail wildly at her allowing her to duck back beyond the reach of the weapon. She slashed left and right with her sword, forcing the hobgoblin to parry with shield and flail handle while nicking his weapon hand and jarring his shield arm. Lavren’s blast of black energy seared past the hobgoblin’s back and it glanced nervously over its shoulder. There was a flash fo movement from the left then as Kel charged into the hobgoblin, leading with her morning star and chanting in elvish. As the cloaked drow spun away the creature was left with a ghostly, glowing mark on its shoulder in the shape of a spider hanging from a web.
“Halthe Dulvarna,” Kel uttered as she moved away and as she did so, Dulvarna felt a surge of power and an urge to strike down the hobgoblin stronger than any she had felt before. Dulvarna charged forward to finish her foe without noticing that Ilar and Micor had stopped, staring at the glowing brand on the enemy’s shoulder.
Kel heard Thira chanting and glanced over her shoulder to see a column of flame descend on the corner of the ruins once again. Only when she turned back to face the hobgoblin did she see that Ilar and Micor were looking at her aghast and ignoring the enemy that Dulvarna was now driving back. Only when the hobgoblin’s flail struck the warrior woman’s shoulder with a sickening crunch did they move to aid her. Dulvarna did not need their aid.
She feinted left and as the hobgoblin turned his shield that way she darted right and plunged her blade into his side. The hobgoblin gasped, staggered and fell and as it did so, the fiery gazes of the two elf brothers turned onto Kel once more.