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Message: <blockquote data-quote="VicsHacienda" data-source="post: 9846496" data-attributes="member: 6965574"><h3>The Battle of Gathin, or How We Routed Some Ragesian Punks</h3>A band of Ragesian mounted soldiers are browbeating a local, while the townsfolk stand nervously nearby, shouting at the soldiers to leave them alone and stop taking their food and drink.Trevor nudges Osnald forward, and the bard clears his throat and trots several paces nearer. The guards shout at him to halt."We are just friendly travelers passing through," he tries."No one just passes through!"Viggo, disagreeing (as I do) about the friendly travelers claim, casts hunger of leng on the leader's horse, which gives the creature a violent, ghoulish appetite."Drop your weapons!" the leader calls, unaware of his mount's pending change in attitude.I step forward with arrow on string, ready to fire upon the leader should violence break out. A horseman, who I am calling Ragesian One, canters toward me with lance lowered, and I loose. The leader takes an arrow to his armored torso. The horseman misses with the lance, draws a shortsword, and hacks at me.One of the soldiers, Ragesian Two, lets go of the farmer and leaps on his mount, charging at me. More follow, hooves thundering as they gallop toward Osnald and Viggo. "Drop your weapons and put your hands up!" A lance strikes Viggo, the point screeching past his shield.Trevor groans. "Fuckin' hell." He lunges forward, whip in hand, and strikes at Ragesian One, following up with steel. He tries to yank One off his horse but the stubborn soldier stays mounted.A hellish-looking hound near the leader runs at us, and we realize it is fully a hellhound.Fafnir's guardians spring into being and he saunters into the melee, downing a potion. He suddenly looms over everyone, the largest cleric of Nuada in these parts.More soldiers leap onto horses. Ragesian Four gallops around the rear to surround us. Ragesian Five charges into Fafnir's guardians, taking blows to the helmet. His misses his own strikes against Fafnir.The leader's horse rears and tries to bite him, compelled to devour flesh. He tries to calm it.Ragesian Six leaves his harassment of the villagers and mounts, running forward. His shortbow thrums, both shafts bouncing from Fafnir's armor.Osnald casts fog of war, taking a lance from Ragesian Three for his trouble. He grants Trevor bardic inspiration and ducks under Fafnir's legs.Viggo's hands flash, and unleashes one of his uncanny spells that seizes hearts and freezes lungs."Kill that hellhound!" calls Fafnir, and I swivel. With hunter's mark, colossus slayer, sharpshooter, and favored foe all swirling inside, I send an arrow deep into the monster's breastbone. The second arrow flies into its throat, choking the fire. It drops with a gurgling yelp.Ragesian One dashes away from Trevor's reach. Ragesian Two drops as his horse dies beneath him from Fafnir's spirits, but keeps his feet. Osnald's fog of war clouds his mind, but he advances on me, knowing me for an enemy. His battleaxe bites me.Ragesian Five or Six, I forget which, throws a javelin at Fafnir, but the fog of war causes him to hurl it into another soldier's horse. It screams.Ragesian Four, wrestling his horse around, throws his own javelin to no avail."Give 'em hell!" calls one of the townsfolk.The soldier caught in Viggo's horrific spell clutches his chest as his vitals fail. Battered by spirits, his horse collapses beneath and he falls prone.Trevor, disliking escaping enemies, whips the fleeing Ragesian One around his neck with an ugly crack. The riderless horse gallops on. Trevor spins and whips Ragesian Four behind us.Fafnir casts crushing trample, and moves forward like an unstoppable bull, crashing through soldiers and horses alike toward the leader. Soldiers are thrown to the earth. Spirit guardians follow, horns lashing. Ragesian Six? Seven? tries to dodge, hauling his reins. His horse is bashed aside and falls, taking him with it. Fafnir skids to a halt before the leader and his maddened mount.Ragesian Four dismounts and runs at Trevor, battleaxe raised high. Trevor parries it easily.Ragesian Somebody turns and sees Fafnir before his leader, and charges at the cleric with blood in his eye.The leader's horse dies under spiritual horns, unable to deliver on its magical hunger. The leader calls, "Everybody! Focus your attacks on the big one!" and tries to move around the massive Fafnir. Trying to save his bacon, it seems like. He draws a silvered shortsword and hacks at the cleric.Ragesian Somebody Else gets up from his fallen horse and runs at Fafnir, firing his shortbow.Osnald, left behind by giant half-orc and bulls, casts magic missiles at Ragesian Somebody Else and Four. He gives Trevor a second bardic inspiration.Viggo sidles up next to Trevor and casts irritating cloud. Tiny razor hairs billow from his arms like a tarantula onto two stricken Ragesians."Ye got 'im, Trevor?" I nod toward the Ragesian before him. Trevor nods with a grin. I turn to the soldier standing before me and put an arrow in his mouth. He drops from view and my second arrow sails over to plant itself in Ragesian Somebody's back. He falls off his mount into Fafnir's radius, and bull horns tear his body apart.The townsfolk join in, throwing javelins.A Ragesian soldier (I can no longer count, they all look alike to me with their dumb green armor) aims at Osnald or Viggo, confused by the fog of war, and his sword flashes and thumps into the ground between them.Trevor turns back to his foe and cracks the whip across the armored brow. Blood rains into the soldier's eyes as he falls dead. Trevor tramps forward with shortsword in hand and kills another soldier. Moving onward, he hurls daggers at the last opponents closing on Fafnir.Fafnir stands tall. Bulls storm around him. Booming blade sounds as Einherjar collides with metal armor. Off balance, the leader is gored by a bull horn through the ear, and his limp body whirls about in a spray of blood. The soldiers are likewise gored. One flees.Osnald dashes forward and viciously mocks the soldier inside the bulls' radius with a rapidly composed poem. "Once there was a knight who stole bread! His appearance was one that caused dread! His heart did swell when he first faced the Quell, but now he finds himself dead!"Viggo follows with a cantrip that turns a soldier's armor into a ravenous mouth. Yelping, the soldier runs. Fafnir charges after him to bring the bulls back into range, and tolls the dead for good measure.I send an arrow into the fleeing orc, and he faceplants.The last soldier flees. Osnald sends more magic missiles his way. The soldier falls.Trevor lopes down the hill toward the townspeople, whip curled around his neck."Who are you?" asks a woman."We're the Quell," he says. "Just a few traveling naughty words.""We thought you're the reason these soldiers were here," they say. "They've been here a couple days. We heard they were sent here because some group was supposed to come to Castle Korstull. These soldiers were sent here to stop them."How did the Ragesians know? I walk up to a Ragesian horse and grab its reins, speaking softly to it.The last fleeing soldier goes down under a flurry of bull horns.On the leader we find travel writs, imperial signet papers, and interrogation authority documents. Shahalesti diviners had warned the Ragesians of our coming, so this group had been dispatched to prevent it. I'd say they failed. We also gather up coins from the dead.</blockquote>

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