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Message: <blockquote data-quote="arwink" data-source="post: 1163669" data-attributes="member: 2292">The third day of the mission is the worst yet, the black smoke of the volcano starting to loom large in the sky.  To the relief of everyone, the narrow ledges slowly widen and the sheer drop to the water slowly becomes a long, steep slope – possibly fatal, but with far more chance of catching a lower ledge or grabbing onto something before you hit the bottom.  Gunnar pushes the team hard, the tangible proof of the previous mission’s failure forcing him to focus more intently on reaching the dwarven kingdom.It is about midday that Yip suddenly pauses in the middle of a short climb, his ears standing on end.“What?” Blarth asks, standing beside the tense kobold.  Yip waves for him to be quiet, quickly hisses at everyone else to stop and lay low.  A few silent seconds are spent carefully listening to the empty silence of the mountains, the dull roar of the river several hundred feet below.Then they hear the snort of something exerting itself, the subtle slosh of something forcing itself through the snow.  Yip and Gunnar both drop to their stomachs, crawling through the snow to look over the lip of the ledge.  Nearly three dozen feet below, on a twisting part of the trail the group passed by a few hours earlier, are a small horde of gnolls marching at full speed.  Yip quickly takes a head-count, putting the number at nearly thirty, and counts at least three archers among their ranks.“Not good,” Yip mutters.  “Furrymen coming.  Bowman.  Swordsman.  Many.”Everyone proceeds to swear in a variety of tongues.  Gunnar slumps onto the snow, his features bleak.“Can we ambush them?” Geoffrey asks, surveying the path dubiously.  It’s wider than the site of the Troll’s ambush, but there is still a dangerously long fall should they be outnumbered and thrown off.“We can send Yip as a runner,” Halgo suggests.  “He might make it, if the rest of us hold the gnolls off.”“There’s nearly thirty,” Gunnar points out.  “Even with your friends whistle, that’s to many for us.  Even if he can use it without setting off an avalanche that tears down half the mountain, they’re going to know better than to charge like the last lot.”“Then we need someplace we can fight,” Geoffrey says sternly.  “Someplace where we can even out the advantage of numbers.  You know the area – are there any caves?  Anything that’s more defensible than a damn slash of pathway between the mountain and a three hundred foot fall?”“Yeah,” Blarth says.  “Gnolls puny.”Gunnar looks incredulous, but when he sees the calm resolve on his comrades faces a faint glimmer of hope starts to form in his eyes.“There’s a fort,” Gunnar says eventually.  “It’s old, almost ruined, but we think the dwarves made it.  It might keep them from swarming over us.”“It’ll have to do,” Geoffrey says.  “How long have we got before they catch up?”“Two hours,” Gunnar shrugs.  “Maybe three?”“How long until the fort?”“An hour.  Less if you’re willing to run it.”“We can run it, then,” Geoffrey says.  “Halgo, you’ll be slowest.  Set the pace as fast as you can manage, the rest of us will follow.  Gunnar, show him where he’s going.”Everyone nods silently, their faces grim with resolve.“Lets get moving, people.  Those gnolls are only getting closer.”</blockquote>

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