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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 3373937" data-attributes="member: 11760">The sound of the angry dwarf's and jingling paladin's approach makes one kobold turn around, and he barks something in Draconic. The other litter-bearers drop the bodies of their dead. Three of them grimly draw short swords and approach to meet the charge. The one who sounded the alarm backs up quickly, pulling out his light crossbow and trying to get a bolt loaded.Pick, though, grabs Bufer by the hair and drags him behind three kobold warriors standing shoulder-to-shoulder, swords at the ready. She tugs back on the gnome's hair, exposing his throat and slashes it open with a wavy bladed dagger."YOU HAVE KILLED THE GNOMEY, BOY KNIGHT!"The gnome collapses face-first in the snow, blood gushing from his throat into the snow.Emus finishes his mumbling and his greatclub now seems somehow stronger, mightier, more oak-like than it was a moment before. As he begins another spell, Emmerson charges past him, his longsword glinting in the sun.The paladin's slash misses the middle kobold, who snarls angrily. All three kobolds turn and attack the paladin.A wolf appears beside Emus, shaking itself as though wet, but instantly turns towards the kobolds, bristling with anticipation of a fight. Emus, following the wolf's gaze, sees Pick finish casting a spell. She vanishes into thin air, her barking laugh echoing.The kobolds slash at Emmerson, but their short swords bounce off his shield or are parried away by his sword. In the rear, the final kobold has his crossbow loaded and fires a bolt at Emmerson. The bolt flies past the shield, striking the paladin in the armpit, the bolt finding a gap in his armor and digging deep into flesh.Hissing in pain, Emmerson looks at Bufer, and tries to fight his way to the gnome's side.* * *Meanwhile, several hundred yards away, Renraw continues his negotiation with Wormy, as they, Katadid and Tucker tromp towards home.Kat's body is a mass of vibrations."Oneandoneandoneandoneandone," Kat rants, his body vibrating in his frenzy, "ANDoneANDONEANDONEANDONEANDONEAND ...""No new deal," Wormy snaps at Renraw, ignoring the other wizard. "You must honor the old deal before making a new one. Or do you think me stupid, softskin?"Katadid grabs Wormy, whipping the kobold around to face him."ONE AND ONE!" he screams into Wormy's face. "ONE CONSTABLE! ONE DEPUTY! ONE AND ONE! THE DEAL IS DONE!"Before anyone can reply, the group as one stops: In the distance, they can hear the unmistakable sound of combat."They're ruining everything," Katadid moans. "Kem, what spells do you have prepared? Never mind, tell me on the way. They'll have probably killed each other but maybe Pick will live long enough to talk to if she hasn't run off already."Deputy, come with us or unlock Kem from the kobold. He'll need his hands. Oh, and I gave important military information to the kobold. That'll have to be addressed at some point. HURRY!"Kat runs off, leaving the others to blink in surprise at the young wizard's sudden shift from manic to lucid."I'll be damned," Renraw mutters, astonished. "Unfasten this shackle, Gallaway, unless you intend to keep me from helping."* * *The sounds of an invisible Pick casting a spell fill the air, seemingly coming from everywhere and nowhere at once, and all the kobolds seem somehow emboldened for the combat.Then, as one, the two adventurers and the wolf crash forward.Emmerson hacks at a kobold between him and the fallen Bufer, and the creature screams in pain and rage as the paladin opens a huge gash across its chest.Beside him, the enraged Emus swings his mighty club overhand. For a moment, it looks like the kobold will dance out of the way, and then the club comes down with a sickening crack, bones splintering loudly and the kobold collapses to the ground, neck snapped, skull fractured, compound fractures causing his blood to mingle in the snow with Bufer's blood."RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Emus screams. He's as much of a wild animal now as the wolf beside him.The wolf leaps forward at the third kobold on the front line, fangs going for its throat. But the kobold gets his short sword up, swatting at the beast's snout, turning it away and allowing the small humanoid to duck and attack.Pick invisibly shouts something, and the two remaining front line kobolds both stab at Emmerson, ignoring the dwarf and the wolf, stepping over their fallen comrade. The paladin's shield turns one blade away, but he opens his defenses up too far in doing so, allowing the other kobold to sink his blade into Emmerson's unprotected ribs.The crossbow bolt in his armpit does not dull Emmerson's senses, at least not yet, but the wound to his ribs causes spots to dance in front of his eyes a moment. He's not close enough to Bufer, not yet."You did not accept my sword in peace," he screams at Pick, "You will now feel it in the heat of battle!"There is a twang of a crossbow string as the kobold beyond Bufer's body fires again, once again targeting Emmerson, but the bolt whistles by overhead.Pick invisibly finishes casting another spell and then almost immediately screams something in Draconic, sounding panicked. The two kobold foot soldiers turn as one, clearly terrified, toward the berserk dwarf.Emmerson swings his sword at the kobold who stabbed him, but his swing is wild, missing him."RAAAAGRHL!" Foam speckles Emus' black beard.This time, the kobold Emus aims at does sidestep the club, sending a spray of snow, mud and gore spraying across all the combatants and the fallen. Likewise, the wolf's jaws snap on empty air.Then the kobolds attack.A crossbow bolt thuds into the thick meat of Emus' shoulder. He avoids a stab from one kobold, but the other gets him, but the weak kobold cannot thrust it far through thick dwarven flesh.Emmerson, seeing his opening, plunges toward Bufer.* * *Tucker quickly unlocks Renraw's shackles. It's a moment before he realizes what Katadid has just confessed to."Wait, you what?"But Katadid is gone, and Renraw is close on his heels. Before he follows suit, however, Tucker tosses the free end of Hazel's rope over a thick branch of a nearby tree, hoisting Wormy a few feet into the air and ties the rope off at the base of the trunk. He glares at the kobold, and hopes body language will be enough to get the message through to him."Stay!"* * *Emmerson almost isn't aware of the sound of Pick's spell casting as he drops to his knees and attempts to cut Bufer's bonds, a job more suited to a dagger than a sword. But he's snapped back to reality as a translucent pick lashes down through the air at him, biting into his thigh and then jerking back up, preparing to stab down again.Emus, through the red haze of his rage, is vaguely aware that Pick has reappeared and is heading towards him, her namesake weapon gleaming in the sunlight as another crossbow bolt flies at him, whistling past his head. Then two kobolds stab him at once, driving in their short swords."NNNNGGAAAAAAAARRRH!"He lashes sideways with the club, hitting a kobold squarely in the chest. The beast is stunned, and there's a trickle of blood leaking from between his scaly lips, but amazingly, he still stands. That is, until the wolf buries its jaws around the kobold's throat, which it tears free with a wet ripping sound. The body collapses into the snow a moment later, just as Emmerson manages to cut through Bufer's ropes.Pick barks something to the crossbow-firing kobold, pointing at Bufer and Emmerson as she closes on Emus.Emmerson whispers a desperate prayer to Lothian and St. Chausle as he cradles the gnome in one large hand. Light spreads through Bufer's pale form, and his throat wound heals, although the gnome is still soaked in his own blood, as is the snow all around him. Bufer gives Emmerson a grateful look as the paladin gets to his feet.And then a crossbow bolt hits Bufer in the chest, knocking him backwards in the snow. The phantom pick stabs down at the paladin again, again stabbing him deeply in the thigh."AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGH!"The conjured wolf returns to wherever it came from at last. Emus rounds on the last of the kobold footman, swinging his mighty club. There is a crunch of ribs being shattered, followed by a soft noise of those same ribs tearing through internal organs and the burbling cough of blood filling kobold lungs. The last of the footmen lays still.Pick steps over the body of her comrade, but instead of swinging with her weapon, she says a word in Draconic and touches Emus with her mitten-covered left hand. Black energy and a spike of pain flashes through the dwarf, and he feels something within him urging him to lay down and die, but he shakes off most of the effects of the spell.A second crossbow bolt streaks across the snow, this time penetrating Emmerson's neck and flying on through. It has missed the major veins and arteries, but still, it was all his body could take, and he tumbles slowly backwards and lays still.Bufer climbs to his feet and struggles with his gag, pulling it down around his still-tender throat."Emus! Look out!" he screams hoarsely.The kobold cleric's hand glows with dark energy again and she swipes her mitten towards Emus. The gnome's warning was in time, though, and the magical spell dissipates before she can lay her hand on the dwarf berserker.The payment for Bufer's warning comes with a sickening thud, though, as another crossbow bolt hits him, striking him in the gut.The shimmering pick stabs down at Emmerson's unconscious body one more time with a wet sound before vanishing."CRAAAAAAAAAAAA!"Emus takes his momentum from twisting away from Pick's touch and spins, his massive club whistling through the air as it comes, but just as it seems about to strike the kobold, there's a flash and a shimmering field of energy flashes into visibility for just a second, and the club bounces back, sending a shockwave up Emus' mighty arms.As Emus blinks away the bright spots dancing before his eyes, he sees Bufer laying back in the snow, a second crossbow bolt protruding from his chest."Just you and us now, dwarfy," Pick grins.The kobold crossbowman barks something to Pick, who scurries to the side, giving the other kobold a clearer shot. It's enough: A crossbow bolt streaks at the dwarf, catching him in torso somewhere, buried beneath his beard. Through his haze of rage, Emus wonders if it struck bone somewhere, since it doesn't hurt nearly as much as it should.Pick growls a prayer to her savage goddess and swings her gleaming pick, sinking it into the dwarf's meaty upper arm, poking it all the way through a moment before whisking it back out."NOOOOOOOORRRRAAAAAARRGGH!"Everything goes red for Emus as he throws her back a half step, blood spurting from his bicep. His rough hands grip his blood-slicked club and he brings it up in a two-handed swing, but the blow goes wide, Pick dancing back out of range.As she does, Emus sees something getting larger and larger in his field of vision. He suddenly realizes it's another crossbow bolt.And then it all goes black.</blockquote>

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