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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 5438502" data-attributes="member: 9546">ROYAL RUMBLE“Now there’s somethin’ ya don’t see every day,” Tungdill said.The companions stood assembled on the balcony overlooking the inner courtyard.  Below were assembled a dozen or so guards, hastily forming themselves into ranks.  On the walls and battlements were at least a dozen more, while in the outer courtyard, six barbaric giants stood, each of them hefting boulders the size of beer kegs.  On the main road from the town, even more troops could be seen double-timing it up the hill.  It looked like dozens.“I guess we shouldn’t keep them waiting,” Mox said, steel in her eyes. “Tungdill, you can handle things from here?”“Ya don’t have ta ask, Queenie,” the druid laughed.He turned in a complete circle, and suddenly there was a whirling vortex hovering above the balcony.Mox nodded and turned on her heel, headed for the main stairwell.  The others fell into line behind her, no hesitation in their steps._______________________________________________________________Davrim reached the main doors first, and raising his sword above his shoulder, gave the Kardashian battle cry as he charged head-long into the phalanx gathered outside.  He tore into the foremost of the guards, and cut the man down like a scythe through wheat.  Before he could continue his assault, however, a coruscating curtain of electricity sprang up, catching the inquisitor in the middle of it.“Up to your tricks again, Stroon?” Mox shouted as she waved her hand and dispelled the wall. “Is that all you’ve got?  Show yourself!”In response, the guards swarmed the front doors.  Stevhan rushed to Davrim’s side, and the two fell into sync like a well-oiled machine.  Their blades swept the space before them clear as foe after foe tried to break through their defenses.  In less than a minute, four more of the guards lay dead at their feet, and the others backed up several feet, reconsidering their tactics.  From his vantage point above, Tungdill saw the hill giants beginning to move towards the inner bailey.  “Now just where would you boys be goin’?” the dwarf chuckled in a voice that sounded like rushing wind.He focused his will, and a dark cloud gathered above the giants.  With a clap of thunder, sleet began to fall in blinding sheets around the brutes.  Within seconds the ground at their feet was covered in ice.  As they shielded their heads and continued to move forward, three of them slipped and went down in a heap, blocking the inner gate from their kinsmen.It was Velox who first caught sight of Stroon.  The wizard stood atop the inner battlements beside a pair of archers.  His hands were raised above him, conjuring some spell or another.  The oracle’s eyes blazed white as he brought his own power to his hand.  With a curse, he hurled a beam the intensity of the sun at the wizard.  Stroon howled as the ray struck him, burning his skin and setting his robes ablaze, completely foiling his casting as well.“Ah, there you are!”  Mox laughedShe clenched her fist, and was rewarded by the sight of Stroon’s face going purple as he began to suffocate.  He collapsed atop the battlement, gasping his last.Tungdill saw the first of the reinforcements enter through the outer gate.“More company comin’!!” he bellowed down to the others.Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that one of the giants who’d not slipped in the ice was making its way towards the inner bailey.  “Can’t be havin’ that now, can we?” the druid growled.He conjured a second storm, this one composed of fist-sized balls of hail which rained down on the giant’s head, as well as pummeling two of the guards perched atop the battlements.  Meanwhile, the other archers on the battlement opened fire on the front door of the keep, taking advantage of the space the vanguard had recently vacated.  Stevhan, Davrim and Velox darted in three different directions, breaking for cover, while Mox quickly cast an illusion about her that made it seem as if multiple images danced in the air around her.  The archers had no easy targets.  As Stevhan moved, he cut down two more of the guards on the grounds, while Davrim fished a potion flask from his belt and quickly quaffed it.  As he did so, he quickly doubled in size, causing the soldiers in front of him to scatter in panic.  Velox, for his part, made his way directly towards the stairs that led to the battlements.  He meant to deal with the archers up close and personal.  One of the archers quickly dropped his bow as the oracle approached, but he had no chance to draw his sword before he was hacked down.Mox rose into the air on a column of air until she could see the arriving reinforcements.  She hurled a ball of flame into their midst, scattering a half-dozen or more like rag dolls.  Below her in the courtyard, Davrim reached the inner gate just as the lead hill giant broke through.  The brute wasn’t prepared to see someone his own size, and in his already battered state, he didn’t stand long before the enraged inquisitor.  Before any more of the giants could breach the opening, Tungdill sealed it with a wall of white-hot flames.  Behind Davrim, Stevhan faced off against the last three guards remaining in the courtyard.  As a lucky arrow thunked into the ranger’s thigh, the soldiers rushed him in unison.  He whirled and dodged, his sword moving as if it were an extension of his arm, darting and thrusting, and putting the guards down in rapid succession.More troops were pouring through the main gate like cockroaches.  Mox hurled a ball of corrosive acid into them, which, though several fell, mainly served to send a large number scrambling towards one of the wall towers for cover.  From atop the inner battlement, Velox could see several of the giants who’d fallen in the sleet storm struggling to their feet.  The oracle quickly wove a wall of fire about them, caging them in.  While his attention was diverted, one of the guards atop the wall rushed towards him, trying to force him over the edge.  Velox nimbly side-stepped the clumsy attempt, and drove his sword through the man’s back, sending him tumbling to the courtyard below.  Meanwhile, the archers on the far side of the courtyard began firing down on Stevhan and Davrim.  The two warriors were pinned down, and Stevhan took a direct hit which pierced his breastplate and drove painfully into his chest.  He whirled and quickly picked the offending sniper off with a perfect shot through the eye.  Suddenly, cries of terror erupted from the archers as a thousand-pound tiger abruptly appeared in their midst.  From high overhead, Tungdill chortled to himself.“That oughta give’em somethin’ to shoot at!” he laughed.The tiger pounced on the nearest guard, driving him to the ground.  As the others scattered, Tungdill sent a bolt of lightning sizzling down upon them.  The distraction, however, was short-lived.  Mercenaries though they were, the soldiers were well-trained and well-disciplined.  The archers regrouped and opened fire on the tiger, one of them sending a shaft through one of its feet, pinning it in place.  The other guards redoubled their fire.  In short order, they brought the beast down.  Their triumphant cheers were cut short by more screams as a ball of fire courtesy of Mox immolated the entire group.Velox’s fire wall didn’t deter the giants for long.  The stupid brutes were too dumb and feral to worry about their own scorched and frost-bitten hides.  They wanted blood.  They surged towards the gate of the inner wall, and only Davrim stood to stop them.  As the first one rushed towards him, he cleaved its head nearly in two with his blade.  He was outnumbered, but the giants could only come at him one at a time.  Having no concept of strategy, they did exactly that.  Again and again one would charge blindly in, only to meet a quick death at the skilled hands of the inquisitor.  In under a minute, three more lay dead at his feet.  As the last one charged, Tungdill let loose with a veritable storm of lightning bolts, roasting the big sod in its tracks.  Davrim turned and glared at the elemental druid.“Kill stealer,” he growled.After that, the grounds of the keep became a slaughter house.  Though the guards tried to form some kind of organized assault, they were simply overpowered.  Magical fire, lightning and acid drove them apart every time they massed, killing more of them each time.  When they came in smaller groups of threes and fours, Stevhan, Davrim and Velox were there to meet them, meting out death with frightening speed and ferocity.  In all, the battle lasted less than ten minutes.  When it was done, some sixty Pitax mercenaries lay dead, along with a half-dozen hill giants.  As the last of the explosions died away, the companions heard a chorus of cheers rise up from the town itself.  The news of freedom travelled fast.</blockquote>

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