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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Medriev" data-source="post: 4673060" data-attributes="member: 21864">Chapter 15 - Blackfangs (Part 2)Lavren turned the bend in the passage and was confronted by thick, wooden double doors identical to the ones led into the chamber to the north. Hoping that these led to the same place, the elf turned the iron handles as softly as he could and gently pulled the doors open. Sure enough, beyond the doors lay the southern end of the chamber with four gnolls crouched behind a barrier of hay bales with bows in their clawed hands. Lavren raised his wand and, picking the nearest gnoll, began to curse it softly in elven. Black, crackling energy lanced out and at this, the gnolls reacted. The one that Lavren had aimed at twisted to one side and the eldritch energy blasted into the hay bale barrier, knocking one bale forward and setting a part of it alight. The gnoll turned and loosed the arrow that it had nocked to its bowstring towards Lavren. The elf could barely react and the shaft drove painfully into his shoulder. Lavren slumped against the left hand side of the door frame as the gnoll clambered over the hay bale barrier to the other side. Another gnoll turned and raised its bow. A second arrow flew straight and true, driving into Lavren’s left leg and drawing a pained cry from his lips. His leg gave way and he slid down the wall a little as blood poured from both wounds. The second gnoll clambered over the barrier and Lavren cursed himself silently for his recklessness. Only then did he see Dulvarna and Litiraan coming down the passage towards him and he knew he was saved.Dulvarna nodded at Lavren as she passed him and then charged into the chamber with her sword held high. Litiraan rushed into the room behind her, leveling his wand at the nearest gnoll and loosing a silver bolt that drove into the hay bales next to the canine creature. The gnoll cackled and then clambered over the barrier after its companions. It raised its bow once it was crouched on the other side and loosed an arrow that drove into Litiraan’s shoulder. The elf fell back against the south wall of the chamber and with a grunt of pain, looked sympathetically towards Lavren. The warlock smiled at the wizard and together, they reached for the shafts that protruded from their bodies, ready to yank them from their flesh.Enlishia’s blade came down but the wounded hyena darted back with surprising speed and evaded the heavy sword. Behind her, Telkya lashed out with her sword but her own foe leapt back and evaded the blow. The priestess’s blade struck the stone wall and she waited for the arrow that inevitably followed but it did not come. Glancing to her left, Telkya saw that the gnolls now faced the rest of her companions and were hard pressed. One lashed out wildly with a hand-axe  and gouged a wound in Dulvarna’s shoulder but the rest had clambered over the barrier to escape from this new attack. Telkya sensed movement from the hyena then and turned back to face her foe. It leapt at her and she ducked low, slamming her shoulder into the beast’s chest and knocking it back to the floor before her. She took a step forward and raised her blade, ready to finish off her foe.Erlmoor brought his blade down again as the wounded hyena lunged at him desperately again. His blade struck its flank and threw the beast against the wall but still it dived forward and seized his leg. As it bit into his calf, the dragonborn raise his leg and shook the beast off but though it was even more sorely hurt now, the creature rolled to its feet and made ready to come forward again. With a clang, Enlishia threw down her sword behind Erlmoor and unshouldered her bow, retreating from the ravenous hyena. As the beast came forward, first one arrow, and then a second, drove into its skull and it fell forward to land at Erlmoor’s feet. The paladin said a prayer for the desperate creature and then raised his blade to face the next hyena as it rushed at him.Lavren yanked the arrows from his shoulder and his leg and despite the terrible pain, he limped forward into the chamber with his wand and his sword in hand. With a few words, he loosed more black, crackling energy towards his foe on the far side of the barrier and this time, his aim was true. The black lightning drove into the shoulder of the gnoll and threw him back from the barrier. The gnoll loosed an arrow but the shaft flew over the elf’s head and clattered into the wall behind him. Another gnoll levelled its bow over the barrier and loosed an arrow into Dulvarna’s hip from close range, drawing a pained cry from the warrior woman. Dulvarna turned her pain into a guttural roar and then lashed out low with her blade, cutting into the thigh of the gnoll before her. He pitched to the right and fell back against the barrier as Litiraan and another gnoll exchanged missiles across the barrier, neither hitting their target. Dulvarna stepped forward grimly, heedless to the battles that her companions fought. Her foe would die at her feet, her eyes promised, and the gnoll shrank back with its axe held desperately before it.Telkya lashed out with her sword but the hyena darted forward under the blade and then leapt, its teeth seizing her arm above the elbow. The force of its leap drove her back a step but she managed to twist to the right and shake the hyena from her arm. To her left, Erlmoor roared and leapt over the fallen hyena to get at its pack-mate behind it. His blade sang out and tore into the beast’s muzzle drawing a yelp from it and driving it back. The hyena growled, crouched low and then rushed at the dragonborn, leaping up to seize his arm. Erlmoor twisted to the left and slammed the hyena into the chamber wall and forced it to release its grip. With another yelp, the beast dropped to the floor and twisted around to face its enemy once more.Lavren loosed another bolt of black energy but the gnoll crouched down below the bales and the blast flew over its head, striking the fence of the boar pen behind. The gnoll rose again with an arrow nocked and let fly, the shaft flying straight and true. It drove into Lavren’s hip and twisted him around to the right into the wall beside him. He grunted and looked down to his new wound before raising his wand and sword again.</blockquote>

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