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Message: <blockquote data-quote="drnuncheon" data-source="post: 676959" data-attributes="member: 96">Session Eighteen, Part Three: ...with gently smiling jaws.Dru's head snapped up at the sound of Jim's voice.  She reached over her shoulder, pulling her crude borrowed bow from its leather bag, bending it and stringing it in one easy motion.  An arrow met the string, was drawn back to her cheek as she sighted along it. She searched for the ripples.Then, the arrow was loosed - and before it had struck its target another followed the path it carved through the air, both sinking unerringly into the giant crocodile's flesh.Di'Fier saw one of the beasts thrash in pain and rage as the wooden shafts bit deep. He glanced behind him.  Fatima had climbed into the tree, but Benares was still trying to rip his way free of the writhing creepers and marsh plants, and Shesara was faring little better.  He tugged at his own bonds, but they held fast.  All right, he thought. Maybe they deserve a taste of this as well!He forced his hand down to his belt, searched the sodden pouch, and withdrew a tiny wisp of some unidentifiable substance.  Speaking the world that would trigger his spell, he flicked it with his fingers - hardly a good throw, but the magic caught it on an intangible wind, and the bit of spiderweb twisted like a snake, darting through the air towards the crocodiles.Near-invisible strands were flung off from the wisp, glinting in the remaining light.  More followed them, crawling along the paths forged by their predecessors, and like a living, growing thing, the web expanded to a steel-hard sheet, half in, half out of the water.  It coccooned the reptiles as they struggled within its silken bonds, and Di'Fier breathed a sigh of relief.Behind him, Shesara slipped an arm free of the plants, tearing at the others that held her even as she forged her way through the waist-deep water towards Dru.  Another pair of arrows arced over her heads, and at least one struck home from the sounds of their impact.Di'Fier and Benares had little time to rest, however.  The strands of the web were beginning to part where the creatures thrashed and rolled, the spidersilk no match for their sheer mass.  The humans struggled similarly with their ampelidious bonds, but to far less effect.The last strands of web parted and the crocodiles resumed their forward movement, toothy grins splitting into enormous maws with gleeful savagery.  Di'Fier forced his hand down to his pouch, searching...A magic missile won't stop them... he thought, as his fingers encountered a grainy substance.  Sand? I hope this works... With another word of power, he flung the sand towards the oncoming creatures, watching it burst into a dazzling polychromatic array, flickering and twisting like an unearthly flame.  The lead crocodile was so close he could see its pupil dilate as the colors washed over it, and the thrashing of its mighty tail stopped abruptly.  The mage watched with satisfaction as the creepers began to grow over his stunned foes."That won't hold them for long, Benares, we've got to get out of here!""If these bonds were only of the mind," grunted the scholar, "then my deity's blessing would aid us.  As it is, brute force seems to be the only solution, lacing though it is."  As he spoke, more arrows whistled down - Shesara's bow joining Dru's in the thrumming chorus of stone-tipped wooden rain.Di'Fier dug in his pouch. "Maybe I can use an acid arrow to burn my way out." He grasped the dart and called the spell to mind, focusing on the vines that held him.  His mouth opened to speak the incantation -- and the swamp exploded with twenty tons of reptilian fury, as the crocodiles recovered from the effects of his spell.  A mighty tail slammed into Benares' chest, snapping the fragile bonds that held him, and sending him arcing through the air to slam into a tree.Di'Fier twisted his hand desperately, calling out the words of his spell, but knowing it could not stop the onrushing beast.  The emerald bolt launched itself down the creature's throat, and then the jaws crashed down on him.Shesara nocked an arrow, but a voice behind her gave her pause.  "Now, dearie...mustn't hurt the little darlings."  She turned to see the enormous form of the Swamp Hag, birthed soundlessly from the bole of a tree.  The Hag smiled, and her pointed teeth caught the dying light.The bard raised her bow, but her arm was seized in a hand the size of her head. "Put your toys away," the Hag grated, tossing her to the ground.  The place the hag had touched was blackened, and it stank of rot. As Shesara watched in horror, tiny white forms began to writhe, eating away the flesh as they grew at an impossible rate."And now the last..." the Hag muttered, turning towards Dru.</blockquote>

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