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Message: <blockquote data-quote="haiiro" data-source="post: 1707635" data-attributes="member: 1891">Welcome back for a post-hurricane update! With a bit of luck I'll be able to continue the dockside battle posts fron GenCon. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />A Lot Can Happen in Sixty SecondsIn full view of the main group of Follies, a section of deck on a large ship moored at the dock exploded upwards in a shower of planking and splinters. A massive, hulking figure smashed its way out of the wreckage and began hauling itself ashore -- and although only its upper half was visible, it was clearly at least ten feet tall.In that frozen moment, the Follies had time to observe that the creature was roughly humanoid in appearance, but lacked any sort of defined musculature -- instead, it looked like a mass of guts and ropy muscles jammed into a mottled, giant-shaped skin. The monstrosity howled again, and suddenly everyone was in motion.As the dozens of dock workers, pedestrians and onlookers began to flee from the river's edge, a second creature -- clearly of the same type, although not identical -- smashed through a different section of the ship's deck and leaped ashore. As the ship's masts thrashed wildly and sailors were tossed into the river, Artemis was already speeding towards the second creature.He drew his rapier as he ran, nimbly dodging coiled lines, barrels and other impediments while building up speed. Knowing that the giant's great reach would allow it to strike him before he could skewer it, Artemis dodged to one side as he came within striking distance -- but not quickly enough.The behemoth's barrel-sized fist caught Artemis in the ribs, snapping several and sending jolts of pain through his body. Undeterred, he continued his lunge and aimed his rapier for the giant's chest. The blow struck true, and Artemis watched in horror as the slender blade bent to a right angle and completely faild to penetrate its thick hide armor.While this was going on, the first beast smashed through a pallet of barrels arranged by the dock, crushing some to splinters while flinging others aside like toys. As the crowd around the Copper Cup finally had a chance to fully react to the situation, their screams became loud enough to drown out the tormented roars of the rampaging giant.Jaehn poked his head out from between two buildings not far from the Copper Cup, and saw a third giant emerging from the swaying ship behind the first two. He sized up the situation and decided to see if he could distract the trio of giants -- and with this in mind, he created a minor image of two more giants, right in the thick of things.To make it clear to his companions that these were their giants, he added huge scars on the backs of their heads in the shape of his mage rune. Knowing that any physical interaction with the real giants would make it fairly easy for them to disbelieve his illusion, Jaehn concentrated on making them swing and miss, while avoiding the blows their foes aimed at them.The giant facing Artemis clasped its hands together and brought its paired fists down on the slender man like a piledriver. As Artemis reeled, the beast followed up with a swift kick that nearly drove him to the ground. Trying to roll with the blow, Artemis began to set himself up for a quick escape from this fearsome melee -- he was seriously wounded.The other giant, meanwhile, had focused its attention on the beast that first broke out of the ship -- a punch was followed by the same paired-fist attack that nearly felled Artemis, and both blows hit the other giant like falling tree trunks. Not so for De'lea's arrow and Tuggle's magic missiles, however, nor Tal's crossbow bolt. The arrow sank into the wounded giant's hide armor with no effect, while Tal's bolt went wide. Only Tuggle's tattoo needles found their mark -- but the giant didn't even seem to notice their impact.As the Follies began attacking the giants in earnest, nearly all of the people on the dockside had fled from the scene, including De'lea's entourage. Two carts with chocks under their wheels -- with two wild-eyed, neighing horses hitched to each of them -- and a few cowering pedestrians were all that remained.Finding himself suddenly alone in the Cup -- the other patrons having fled out the rear door when they caught a glimpse of the giants -- Cupric assessed the situation through one of the windowframes. Hearing a shrill whistle blast cut through the bedlam, he tried to see whether or not the rampaging giant bore the same control nails in the back of its head as the war-ogre they had fought the night before.Between the giant's frenzied movements, the scattered people on the docks and the clouds of grain erupting from the barrels the creature was destroying, he couldn't tell for sure -- but he spotted what could be glints of metal studding the back of its head. Hoping for a repeat of his earlier success, he stepped out of the Cup and sent a wave of Tasha's hideous laughter washing over the wounded giant. It doubled over with laughter, pounding a barrel to splinters in the process.Just then, several of the Follies heard another whistle -- this one much lower in tone than the first, and coming from a different direction.</blockquote>

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