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!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 4314919" data-attributes="member: 9546">BLIND MAN’S BLUFFThe goblins on the far side of the rope bridge had stood in stunned silence after their shaman’s death for several minutes, and then started wailing incoherently, throwing themselves on the ground and pulling at their hair.  They’d made threatening gestures, brandishing their dogslicers and javelins, but none had made any attempt to cross the bridge.  Ultimately, the Sandpoint deputies had elected to pull back into the briar warrens and regroup, nurse their wounds, and plan their next approach.  They had posted a watch at the exit, just to make sure the goblins didn’t find their backbones during the night.  Skud and Adso alternated this duty, neither caring to spend much time in the other’s presence.  In time, the goblins became bored with their grief and, convinced the invaders were not coming over the bridge, went back to their half-hearted patrol before the gates.  After an hour or two of this, they even abandoned that effort, instead taking sadistic pleasure in a game in which they caught a seagull, tied one of its legs to a piece of rope, and took turns pelting it with rocks as it tried vainly to flap away.  When it became obvious the goblins were not going to mount any sort of sortie into the warrens, the seven companions settled in for the night._______________________________________________“So what’s our move?”  Dex asked.  The group was congregated in the exit tunnel, still far enough into the shadows not to be seen by the bored-looking goblins across the bridge.“I’ve been giving that some thought,” Wesh replied.  “The bridge is going to be risky.  There’s nothing to stop them from cutting the ropes on their side once we start across.  We need something to distract them, and I think I have just the thing.”He turned to Randall.“Ready to do your part?” he asked the big soldier.  “This is your chance to finally be a hero!”Randall looked at him dubiously.“What exactly do you have in mind?”What Wesh had in mind became readily apparent to all, especially to the stunned goblins, a few minutes later.  Exploding from the tunnel came a giant.  He was dressed in battle armor and carried an enormous hammer, and worst of all…he was flying!!Randall roared as he soared across the gulf between the cliff and the island.  He was practically giddy with power, both the strength he felt flowing through his arms due to his increased size, and his ability to fly, thanks to the potion Wesh had given him.  In truth, however, the whole flying thing was less than graceful.  He had thought it would be a simple thing…just move in a straight line in the direction you wanted to go, but it proved much more awkward.  He wasn’t used to not having solid ground beneath his feet, and he kept careening from one side to the other.  His appearance still had the desired effect on the goblins, though.  Horror-stricken, they watched him approach, his companions and the bridge momentarily forgotten.  As Randall charged, Rico concealed himself within the briars just enough so that he could see the goblins while he, himself, remained hidden.  When he judged the time was right, the druid began to work his magic.  The grass and bushes on the far side of the bridge began to writhe.  The branches of the trees twisted and dipped low to the ground. Before the goblins and their mounts knew what was happening, they were engulfed.  Vegetation wrapped around their legs like rope, entangling them completely and rooting them in place.  “Now!”  Wesh cried, and Dexter darted out onto the bridge, knelt and put an arrow cleanly through the eye of one of the goblins.  Quickly, Adso and Luther darted past him onto the bridge, Garm following.  No sooner had the wolf began to cross, however, than the all of them heard a snapping sound.  The two western most supports of the bridge gave way beneath the accumulated weight of the four.  The bridge canted suddenly, still spanning the gulf, but now a vertical structure instead of a horizontal one.  Dexter and Luther lunged for the hand rope, just managing to grab it and keep themselves from falling.  Adso and Garm were not so fortunate.  Luther watched in dismay as the monk and the wolf plunged eighty feet into the churning sea below.The goblins momentarily forgot their plight and began to laugh uproariously as the stupid longshanks blundered right into their trap.  Their joy was cut short a moment later, however, when Randall finally reached them, swinging his hammer like a tree trunk and snapping the neck of one of the goblin dogs.  He drew back to swing again, but the weight of the hammer overbalanced him, and he veered sharply away from the ledge, struggling to remain airborne.  By the time he had regained control and flew back to the cliff, several of the goblins and dogs had managed to tear themselves free of the vines and limbs, and were waiting on him.  Their dogslicers slashed at him, but he barely felt the pinpricks.  Instead, he brought his own weapon to bear once more, smashing two of his attackers who got too close.Luther and Dexter began climbing hand over hand back towards the cliff, where Wesh and Skud quickly pulled them up.  Nearby, Rico was hurling small balls of fire across the chasm at the goblins, trying to keep them occupied and thus not inclined to start chucking the javelins they carried at his vulnerable friends.  As soon as they were clear, Wesh lent his support to the druid, loosing barrages of his arcane missiles at the horde.  Under the combined artillery, another of the goblins fell screaming from his mount.  Adso broke the surface of the water sputtering and thrashing.  The fall had not been pleasant, but he’d been fortunate enough to miss any of the deadly rocks below the cliff.  Still, swimming had never been his forte, and the surf was rough.  It took all he had just to tread water.  He looked around to see if any of his companions had fallen with him, and then spotted Garm several yards to his left.  The wolf was swimming, and doing quite well, heading for the dark opening of a sea cave in the nearby cliff wall.  ‘Smart dog,’ the monk thought, and he summoned what fortitude he had and began stroking against the current after the wolf.“Uh-oh,” Wesh said, squinting against the sunlight.  “Looks like we woke the neighbors.”Atop the eastern watch tower of the stockade, four more goblins had appeared, each brandishing javelins which they promptly began to throw at the giant still battering at their brethren.  “Alright, boys,” Wesh said, cracking his knuckles, “since Skud here can’t fly, and Adso’s in the drink, looks like Randall’s going to have to stay on point.  So, we’d best back him up as best we can or this little plan of ours is heading south in a hurry.”Skud snarled in impotent frustration, and began pacing back and forth, his fists clenching and unclenching.  Luther did his best to calm the barbarian down, while Wesh, Rico and Dexter began an artillery barrage that would have made any army commander proud.  Flame, arrows and mystic bolts hurtled through the air, and the goblins began dropping like flies.  One by one the tower guards fell, while the western tower stayed blessedly unmanned.  Adso’s clothes dragged at him.  His gear felt like a lead weight.  The waves pounded him, and time and again his head dipped beneath them, only to reemerge coughing and gasping a moment later.  He rapidly lost ground on Garm, and he saw the wolf disappear into the mouth of the cave before he went under one last time.“Randall!!”  Luther shouted.  “Adso needs help!  Now!”“I’m…a little…busy!” the soldier shouted in between hammer blows, each of which pulped another goblin.  “We’ll hold’em!”  Wesh called.  “Go get the monk!”Randall cursed, and pushed himself away from the cliff.  Descending down to the water proved much easier than flying in a straight line, and much faster, but he still ended up half-submerged before he managed to stop himself.  By sheer luck, he hit the water only a few yards from where Adso had gone under, and after a few desperate moments of searching, his hand closed on the back of the monk’s tunic and he hauled the half-orc to the surface.“Thanks!”  Adso gasped once he could breathe again.  “I owe you one!”“Yeah,” Randall growled as he struggled to gain altitude while carrying the additional weight, “you can pay me back by cracking a few goblin skulls.”_________________________________________________Garm continued to paddle through the semi-darkness of the sea cave.  The surf was not so rough within, so the going was a bit easier for him.  His keen eyes could just make out a narrow beach of dry land on the far side of the grotto, and he made for it.  He didn’t know where he was going, but he knew his friend was on land, not water, so that was where his instinct told him to go.  His mind pictured Rico’s face.  His friend needed him.  So all-consuming was that drive that he never noticed the tall dorsal fin that broke the water behind him.  Only when the powerful jaws closed around him and dragged him beneath the waves, did the image of Rico leave him._________________________________________________When Randall reached the top of the small, round island once more, Adso climbed onto his shoulders and then somersaulted through the air, landing nimbly on his feet behind the few remaining goblins and their mounts.  “Miss me?”  He grinned when the goblins turned towards him with stupid looks of surprise on their faces.  After that it was only a matter of cleaning up the mess.  Between him and Randall, the stragglers never stood a chance.  After, they hauled up the collapsed section of bridge on their side, while Skud and Luther did the same on the opposite.  Single file, and one at a time, their companions crossed the rickety span, and finally all of them stood together once more…all save one.“Did you see Garm?”  Rico asked.“Garm?”  Randall said, confused.“He fell with me,” Adso said.  “Last I saw him, he swam into that sea cave.”  He nodded towards the dark hole.  “He’s probably waiting inside.”Rico turned back to Randall.  “Would you mind?”The soldier sighed.  “Alright, but I’m not so sure I’m cut out for this flying thing.  I like to feel earth beneath my feet.”Randall dove towards the sea a second time, heading for the large opening to the sea cave.“Garm!” he called as he entered the artificial twilight of the grotto.  “Here boy!”His eyes gradually adjusted to the gloom, but he saw no sign of the wolf.  On the far side of the cave was a narrow strip of sand.   Assuming the animal would have headed for dry land, he flew in that direction, oblivious to the dark shadow that passed beneath the surface just below him.“Garm!” he called again, only this time a deep, growling snarl from directly behind him answered his call.  “Garm, that y…?”Randall turned and found himself face-to-face with a nightmare.  A creature that looked like a cross between a seal and a shark reared out of the water and sank its teeth into his back as he turned.  He felt his body go numb from the waist down and he couldn’t seem to make his arms move either.  The beast lunged again, ripping into his belly and shoving him back several feet with the force of its impact.  The sudden flash of pain from the second bite seemed to shock his nervous system awake again.  He found he could move, and he let the momentum of the monster’s charge carry him back towards the cave’s entrance.  He whirled and willed himself to fly as fast as the magic would carry him.  He could hear the predator right behind him until he finally reached daylight and fought for altitude.</blockquote>

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