NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2813968" data-attributes="member: 1210">Our heroes are dispatched to deal with the wizard who fireballed the archers.  The gnolls are dispatching a group into the woods to hunt the bowmen.  “We should take out those gnolls next,” calls Jorgen as the party gallops towards the wizard.  He is surrounded by a gauntlet of spearmen, but our heroes overwhelm them.  In only a few moments, a combination of swords and spells has overwhelmed the bodyguards, and the wizard himself falls to lightning that cracks down from the sky at Dahlia’s beckoning.  Heedless of danger, Sheriff Jorgen cries, “To the woods!” and charges away into the foliage, quickly outdistancing his allies.  Behind him, Otis and Kyle quickly search the wizard, looking for a spellbook.  To their delight, they find it.  Otis stows it, then the two of them gallop after their friends.In the woods, it is only when Jorgen stumbles into a trio of gnolls that he realizes that he is alone.  He can hear the snap of arrows seeking gnollish flesh and the growl of the hyena-headed humanoids up ahead beyond a thicket.  Immediately, he charges one of the gnolls, dealing a telling blow with his longspear.  The gnolls rush forward, Jorgen dealing another one a blow as it closes with him, and the four of them melee wildly for a moments, pricking one another.  “For Whitewater!” Jorgen cries, and stabs one in the heart, killing him.  Then he stabs another, who manages to turn with the blow and only be wounded across the ribs.  But this is enough for him, and he turns and runs; and the last gnoll, seeing so clearly how the tide has turned, flees as well.  Jorgen takes him through the back as he attempts to leave the fray, and then he is gasping for breath, letting the last one go.  He is bleeding from but a single wound.Still, he can hear the sound of more gnolls not far ahead.  “I’d better get the others,” he says aloud, and whirls his horse around.  In but a few moments, the party has reassembled.  Swiftly, they move on the gnolls Jorgen heard.  Dahlia peers ahead through a thick spread of trees and sees slightly over half a dozen gnolls advancing on a retreating group of archers. With a cackle, Dahlia entangles them.Then it is mostly a protracted missile battle, with the party moving in at the end of the battle to finish things off.  When the odds have been shifted dramatically in favor of our heroes, Dahlia dismisses the entangle and the party moves in for the kill.  The archers cheer our heroes as the last gnoll falls, but tell the party that there are more of them.  “They’re in small parties, out to hunt us down and stop us from doing our part in the battle,” the archer sergeant says grimly.Our heroes hurry to the defense of the next group of archers.  This time there are ten gnolls, and the party does not entangle them; but the party wins victory over them nonetheless.The remaining gnolls assaulting the archers withdraw, and our heroes soon find themselves hailed by a messenger as they leave the western edge of the woods. “How goeth the battle?” Sir Cedric demands. “I couldn’t say,” the runner pants.  “I am not a general.  I know that their cavalry has been broken, but one charismatic knight seems to be reforming them.  You must stop him!”Our heroes gallop away, leaving the archers to their own devices.  Dust hangs over the battle, obscuring much of it.  They know where the cavalry engagement took place, northeast of the large fenced ranch on the east edge of the battlefield.  Quickly they ride towards the scene, where a single knight and his four retainers are riding back and forth, exhorting the Tydonian cavalry to reform.  Hacking their way to the knight, our heroes defeat them soundly.  Moreover, they are delighted when, at one point, Kyle’s urging manages to elicit a fireball from the crippled elf that the group is carrying.  The routed cavalry stays routed.Bone-weary from all the fighting, our heroes withdraw to the command post.  From there, they can see the situation much better.  The Kamendan forces have held surprisingly well, given the odds against them, but the gnolls are starting to catch them in a pincer movement, and the lines are starting to buckle.  After the priests attending the command center tend their wounds, Sir Martin motions the party to him.  Grimly, he says, “We have made them pay for their attack, but there are too many of them.  We must withdraw our forces to the safety of Kamenda’s walls.  They will suffer grievously for any attack on the city, especially now that their numbers are reduced.”  He gestures out to the battlefield.  “But they are being surrounded.  You will have to cut your way through the gnolls and help rally the troops so that they can make an orderly retreat.  Otherwise, we will lose too many men- and we cannot afford that at a time like this.”“Yeth, father!” exclaims Sir Cedric.  He leads the rest of the party out again, fortifying himself along the way with a stout jolt of whiskey.  The heroes thunder into the back lines of the gnolls and hew at them, causing the humanoids no small amount of consternation.  With the party’s aid, the Kamendan 2nd Infantry slowly manages to pull back from the enemy, keeping their withdrawal orderly lest the Tydonians rush and overwhelm them.As the afternoon sun hangs fat and orange over the field, the Tydonians, too stung by the feisty Kamendan defense to pursue in earnest, watch the Kamendans return to the walls of the city.  As the gates shut behind them, Sir Cedric approaches his father atop the wall.“Father!” he cries.  “What newth?  How did the battle go?”Sir Martin smiles at him.  “Much better than I had feared it might,” he declares.  It seems we dealt them a sufficient blow that we’ve left them with too few men to properly invest the city!  The scouts say that the Tydonians are withdrawing a few miles to the south.”  He frowns.  “I do fear that they have reinforcements coming, but for now we have held them off.”Next Time: Why are the Tydonians attacking from the south when Tydon is to the east?  Find out soon!!</blockquote>

Verification