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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Old One" data-source="post: 1349566" data-attributes="member: 83">Session 22 (Part Three)Greetings All!Quick update this evening...thanks to Tortoise (Rowan) and Dethstryke for dropping in...more to follow soon!The ChargeThe initial smattering of gnoll arrows was little more than an annoyance.  A few razor thin lines of blood appeared on various party appendages as missiles skipped off armor, but the companion’s advance was undeterred.  Rowan snapped a few shots off, grunting in satisfaction each time a shaft sank home.  Röse caught one unfortunate gnoll as it tried to shift firing positions; he left a red ruin in his wake.  The Emorians advanced in close order, their locked scutums warding off every arrow.  Sextus’s song of valor faltered a bit as an arrow opened a gash along his ribs, but he quickly redoubled his effort.  Drusilla crept forward silently with gladius and pugio bared, and a mask of hatred on her otherwise beautiful face.Quintus summoned a magical shield as they came into missile range and angled it downward to ward him from the gnoll archers.  He calculated his pitiful flying speed against the rapid gnoll advance and cursed.“By Osirian, I may be too late.”He held his magic until his line of sight cleared a large ruined warehouse concealing a large part of the gnoll warband attacking the laager from the east.  As he summoned forth the energy to send his deadly spell streaking towards the middle of the gnoll ranks, their lead elements hit the wagon wall.  The roar of the sorcerer’s fireball momentarily drowned out the shrieks of dying humans, halflings and gnolls.  Quintus grinned as he flapped over his handiwork on unsteady wings.“Ah…perfect placement!”All but the first two ranks of the gnoll column and a few rear rank stragglers had been caught up in the blast.  Over a score of the dog-men lay still in charred piles, with another dozen yelping in pain and desperately pawing at burning fur.  The rest of the party brushed past the weak screen of gnoll scouts and hit the shattered column broadside.  Half-a-dozen wounded gnolls went down in a few grains to axe, hammer, gladius, spear and arrow.Junior Tribune Metallus withdrew his bloody blade from a canine neck and stared at it for a long moment.  When he looked up, his eyes were bright with fervor.  He saw a knot of gnolls struggling with caravan guards to his left and leapt towards them, screaming at the top of his young lungs.“For the glory of Emor!”Bato cursed and sprinted after his foolish charge, spitting a yowling gnoll on his spear as he ran.  Cragen, Röse, Sextus and Drusilla closed on the milling rearguard of the column, slaughtering many of the stunned gnolls and putting the rest to flight.  Rowan worked his way around behind the fleeing creatures and shot them down as they ran past.  Another wagon flamed at the makeshift bulwark, but the defenders, assisted by the wild-eyed Junior Tribune and steady Optio, broke the vanguard of the gnoll attack and sent the survivors fleeing into the ruins.  Quintus circled overhead and dropped several flasks of flaming oil on the retreating humanoids.  Those on the ground paused to regroup and catch their breath.  They had foiled the eastern thrust, but now arrows began to fall again from gnoll snipers and several found their mark.  To the north, gnoll warhorns sounded and many yelping voices bayed in response.Quintus felt the magic holding his altered form together weaking and alit atop the slate roof of a ruined townhouse.  From his perch, he saw another knot of gnolls, larger than the first moving through the ruins toward his companions.  He began plotting the strike point for his next fireball, waiting for more enemies to expose themselves.  Rowan crouched behind a low stonewall, trading shafts with a trio of gnoll archers.  Despite their numbers, the ranger’s skill proved to be too much; two fell and the third retreated.Sextus looked towards the wagon laager and saw the Junior Tribune and Bato pulling wounded men and halflings away from a blazing wagon.  Acrid smoke drifted from west to east, making both sight and breath difficult.  Cragen and Röse, each a bit bruised and battered, grinned at each other and hefted their weapons.  Quintus yelled from above, pointing to the northwest, “Here they come…get ready!”As the elder Scipio turned and began calling on his inner power, his body froze.  His sight, likewise frozen, was fixed on large gnoll warband advancing towards them.  In the center were six splendid specimens, each heavily armed and armored.  Beneath the eaves of the house the held sorcerer stood atop, a gnoll festooned with bird feathers, animal and humanoid skulls, and bearing a large spiked club grinned a feral grin.  The gnoll shaman’s scarred paws dipped into his component bag as he stalked through the ruins, looking for more human victims.To Be Continued…Next: Barbarian’s Last StandEnjoy <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />!~ Old One</blockquote>

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