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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2680402" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter 150. “Attack of the Earth Spirit”, Friday, January 20th </strong> </p><p></p><p>The men break through and it isn't who they were expecting. Heading in there direction are seven mounted United States cavalry soldiers including three ogres riding ogre-mounts. Chester recognizes the leader of this group as his former commander, who he had the confrontation with on Main Street a week-and-a-half earlier. They ride up the mountain in that direction.</p><p></p><p>"Hey Chester!" Nanuet whispers. "Those look like soldiers. I think those are the guys we saw in town a while back. Do you know any of them? Did you hear about them being involved in this hunt at all?" Chester hisses back, "Yeah. I know them. The leader is my former commander. We didn't get along at all. He was in town a while ago asking about the stagecoach robbery that we were caught up in. Bill didn't tell me that they'd be involved. Could be that they're trying to keep us poor folk safe from the monster." </p><p></p><p>Kate listened to Chester‘s answer and wasn't sure whether to put the pistol down or not. The soldiers might try to make them leave, or at least put up a fuss with Chester. She sighed. She'd almost rather it had been someone coming for a fight. Ruby sees the soldiers and sighs before grabbing the rifle and climbing down from her position. She walks a bit away from the covered opening and waits for the soldiers to approach. Nanuet comments, "How did they know where to find us? I guess they must have somehow followed the creature or the other groups to this spot. Should we announce ourselves and greet them?"</p><p></p><p>The soldiers close to 100 feet. Each of the soldiers has a weapon in hand and at the ready but are not yet pointed towards the party. The Lieutenant calls out "Lay down your weapons." Nanuet speaks from behind the rock where he is taking cover. "Mr. Soldier, why do you come here? Kate pulled the barrel of the pistol back inside the canvas and held it at her side, continuing to watch.</p><p></p><p>Chester calls out from his position, "What's going on Lt.? We're looking for the Chimaera. What brings you all the way over here?" Nanuet states, We won't lay our weapons down, we are doing nothing wrong." The Lieutenant replies, "Doing nothing wrong? Like protecting the cowboy gang perhaps. We know they're up in these hills somewhere around here. Maybe you're part of their group. Weapons down, we're coming up." The seven soldiers pick up their pace as they continue to climb the mountain towards the group.</p><p></p><p>Before speaking Ruby uses her quick hands to get her rifle behind her back. Seems the soldiers haven't noticed her yet. Using her charms she states, "Do we really look like members of the Cowboy Gang? Why would we want to hide those fugitives? If you remember they tried to ambush the stagecoach we were on last week. Believe me, if we saw them we would turn them right in." Nanuet states, "Sorry Mr. Soldier. No cowboy gang here. We hate the cowboy gang too! They shot our friend Mr. Jake. I am saying this to you, you might be sorry if you come up here. There are things here you may not want to see." </p><p></p><p>The soldiers continue to close and they near the ledge by the cave mouth. The Lieutenant says "You're being on that stage could have been a set up. They've hit two Tombstone stages in the last week, the last one just yesterday. We've tracked them to this area." An ogre wearing corporal's stripes gestures to the tarp covering over the cave and says something in the Ogrish language. The Lieutenant replies in the same language and they all stop. Chester strains to hear what they are saying. While he's doing that, the ex-soldier tries to hide the cannon under some rocks. </p><p></p><p>Three of the soldiers point their weapons towards the party on the ledge while the orges draw their weapons in the direction of the cave. "Can't say I didn't warn you." Nanuet says in a no nonsense tone.</p><p>"Alright then, why don't you make sure we aren't hiding them in the cave, since you don't believe us. But one of us is in there, let her come out." Ruby calls for Kate to get out of the cave. Kate took a few steps back from the canvas and shoved the pistol in her pocket. "I'm coming," she called with an exaggerated yawn. </p><p></p><p>"What's going on?" She shouted as she ran over to her spell book and shoved it into one of the cracks in the cave wall, hoping the soldiers wouldn't find it there if they came in. She then rumpled up her hair a bit, hurried over to the canvas, and pushed it aside. She widened her eyes as she looked at the solders. "What is going on?" Ruby replies to Kate. "Well, they think WE'RE hiding the cowboy gang in that cave." Ruby shrugs. "So they are going into find out if we are or not. I told them we aren't."</p><p></p><p>"The cowboy gang?" she repeated incredulously. "Us? I don't even know how you all convinced me to come up here and hunt for this monster. I would have turned you all in to the madhouse before I'd agree to do anything with the cowboy gang." Nanuet turns to Chester and whispers "I am glad you left the Army Mr. Chester." Chester replies, "So am I. So am I." </p><p></p><p>Lieutenant Oscar Gamble orders two of the soldiers to go check out the cave. Two of the ogres move the blanket aside and go in while the others continue to cover the rest with their weapons. The next two minutes pass very slowly until the ogres come out and announce that the only thing in the cave are the group's horses. Gamble gives Chester a nasty look and then says "What were those cannon shots we heard coming from over here?" Chester replies, "We were using some dynamite, Lieutenant. That's probably what you heard.” </p><p></p><p>Nanuet puts down his rifle. While ducking down to put the rifle on the ground he loosens his knives in their sheaths and then gets up and makes his way from above the cave mouth to where the soldiers, Ruby and Kate are.</p><p></p><p>Storm walks through the canvas and stands in full view of the soldiers glowing with an unworldly light a beam showing through her head where the bullet lodged in her brain causing her death In a voice full of the power of the other world and the earth spirits she protects she speaks in Ogrish “This is not the place you seek. The evil ones you seek would not tread on my holy grounds. These people are here because I have need of them here. Seek the evil ones who caused my death to the south east of here.”</p><p></p><p>The very superstitious ogres all begin to shake. Gamble sees that they are about to desert him so to save face yells "Mount up men, we ride to the southeast." As quickly as possible they then make their way down the mountain. Nanuet also gets the shivers. The sight of Storm in her solid form with the bullet wound is enough to shake him. Chester asks, "What's going on?" Then he looks down at Storm. "Oh, right." Louder, he yells at the retreating soldiers, "Thanks for stopping by Lieutenant."</p><p></p><p>Katherine sat down with a thump as the soldiers thundered away. She stared at Storm. "Thank you, I don't know what we could have done. Shooting soldiers is a bad idea." She slowly sunk her head into her hands and struggled to stay in the here and now. "I don't know how much more I can take," she muttered. Storm tells her, "You will take what you can and go on. You have become an amazingly independent woman who your husband would be proud of. You are the butterfly that emerges from the cocoon. Your wings are still wet but you will fly with all the power of the winds in time."</p><p></p><p>Nanuet says, "Miss Kate, maybe you should take some rest. We don't all need to be awake right now. Have some hot tea and try and relax and rest." He bows to Storm. "Thank you Storm, your aid is welcomed and needed." Katherine lifted her head up and pushed herself off the ground. She smiled a sad little smile. "Perhaps he would. But I don't think flight is in my future quite yet. Maybe I'll just start with that tea." Ruby finds a boulder and sits on it, rifle in hand, waiting for the next situation to arise.</p><p></p><p>Nanuet peeks his head into the cave to see what happened and where the dragon went. Looking inside the cave Nanuet notices that it now only goes back fifteen feet and then ends in a solid wall. The only thing inside the cave are the horses. "What happened here? Where is the dragon?" Nanuet makes his way further into the cave and begins feeling the walls. He knows that there was a much larger cave here not too long ago. </p><p></p><p>She pushed aside the canvas again and went into the cave, which suddenly stopped fifteen feet back. Kate laid her hand on the wall, testing to see if it was an illusion or stronger magic. The wall fades away as do the horses. Nanuet sees that the dragon and her child are where they had been all along. The horses are still way back in the back of the cave. She tells Nanuet "I am not without powers of my own. We needed those people gone quickly, they would have only been a distraction. I'm sorry to have to tell you this but my mate is returning."</p><p></p><p>Nanuet turns to Kate "That tea will have to wait Ms. Kate." Nanuet then scurries out of the cave and shouts "The Chimera is coming back, everybody get ready! Chester, get that cannon out, we are going to need it.” "Damn! I knew one shot wouldn't scare it off long." Chester pulls the rocks from atop the cannon. He loads it with two lightning shells. "I hope this will do the trick."</p><p></p><p>Nanuet climbs back to a spot above the cave mouth and gets the bow and one of the arrows that had been soaked in the muddy red mixture. He begins to scan the sky to see if the creature can be spotted.</p><p>Ruby doesn't move from her rock outside the cave, but looks around to see if she can spot the creature. Kate hurried back out of the cave, strangely glad to have something to focus on. She walked as close as she could to Chester without climbing up, ready to use her spell to enlarge his body.</p><p></p><p>The next ten minutes pass as everyone waits in anticipation. The shape of the chimera then emerges, flying over the peak of the mountain, 600 feet back and 200 feet above where the party is. They notice that the goat head is dangling lifeless to the side of the creature's head and it is also bleeding from a cut on its neck. Gripped in its right front claw is the severed head of one of the bugbear creatures. It closes to around 400 feet and then banks higher and to the left. The previous hand cannon wound is still visible but it is no longer bleeding from that spot. It begins to let out a loud cry from the dragon's head followed by a roar from the dragon's head.</p><p></p><p>"What kind of range do you have on that thing Chester?" Nanuet yells. "It needs to get a lot closer for me to have a shot with the bow. I dipped the arrows in the liquid I got from the druidess but I can't reach it that far away with a shortbow." Chester replies, "Pretty far. It's based on a ship cannon after all. But Riley's right. Without practice, I don't think I could hit him at this range. Question is, do we want him to come closer so I can?" Riley says "Earlier when my second shot missed the shell continued on for a good half mile before it hit an outcropping on the next peak and exploded. Range isn't the problem, it's aiming and shooting the damned thing."</p><p></p><p>Nanuet states, "Well Chester, feel like giving it a go? What's the worst that happens? You miss and have to reload. Let's see what that thing can do!" "I could enlarge you now, but it only works for a couple minutes," Kate said to Chester. "Do you want to give it a chance to get a little closer?"</p><p></p><p>Ruby sees the bugbear head in the creatures claws. "Eww, nasty," she says outloud to no one. She remembers Jake's lesson with the rifle and that it can shoot that far, so she gets behind the boulder and rests it on the rock, waiting until she has it in her sight to shoot at it. She doesn't think she'll do much damage but maybe she'll get it's attention and it will fly closer so Chester can shoot it.</p><p></p><p>The party then notices some more movement higher up the mountain. A group comprised of a human and four half-ogres climb up from the opposite side of the mountain. Two of the ogres are carrying the barrel of a five foot long cannon. A third ogre has a pair of cannonballs. The walk until they reach another ledge, some 250 feet back and 100 feet higher up than the party. The ogres begin to secure the cannon in place with some wooden braces. The human has a long rifle which he starts to sight onto the dragon. The remaining Ogre begins to wave his arms and then starts to levitate up in the air. Up until this point they had been focused entirely on the dragon and hadn’t noticed the party on the ledge below strategically placed behind the rocks. The levitating Ogre now sees them and points this out to his allies. </p><p></p><p>Nanuet says, "Well that just might work too. There cannon is big, but it must be hard to hit a flying target with that thing. But hey, if they want to help hunt this thing down, I'm all for it." The Chimera makes and sudden turn and goes into a dive, not unlike that of a falcon diving towards prey. It initially appears to be heading in a direction that will take down the mountain and away from both groups but then shifts in a ninety-degree turn once it has closed to around 300 feet from the party and dives directly towards them, quickly closing to 150 feet. Up the mountain the three ogres attempt to load and shift the cannon while the human hunter takes aim with his rifle. The levitating ogre pulls out some type of wand.</p><p></p><p>Ruby starts singing some words of encouragement for herself and the rest of her friends and will shoot if the creature gets close enough to really threaten them. Nanuet waits until it closes within 120' then fires his shot. He then begins firing rapidly using the arrows that have been dipped in the muddy liquid. </p><p></p><p>Nanuet states, "Not so sure we will be the ones who decide that. Miss Kate is ready to enlarge you so that when it flies closer you can try and shoot it. I am in the same bind as you. My bow could reach that far, but I would have no chance to hit it. Just be ready!" Kate says, "I don't think it's going to get any closer, and they're going to start soon no matter what." The dragon continues to circle overhead. Kate took a deep breath and began her incantation. The gestures were expansive to match the spells intent. A few moments later Chester's body filled out and stretched until he was twice his normal size. "That's all I can do," she said, exhaling heavily.</p><p></p><p>Chester says, "Thank you. That should help me hold this thing. Watch out. I think one of those ogres can use magic, too. It might try to use some on us." Kate nodded to Chester and moved back to shelter behind a large boulder. She only had the energy left to perform minor tricks with magic, and her pistol would never reach far enough. She dashed inside the cave and came back out with her hands full of bandages and crouched back down behind the boulder.</p><p></p><p>Chester draws a bead on the Chimaera and fires when he feels it it right. A lightning shell arcs towards the beast. Chester grunts from the recoil and thumbs the second trigger, loading the second lightning shell. Chesters shot flies directly towards the creature and his aim is true. The shell strikes the dragon's head directly in the eyes just as a spout of flame is starting to emerge from the creature's maw. The shell strikes with even greater impact than normal given the speed that the monster is traveling opposite it and the ensuing explosion leaves nothing of the dragon's head than a stump. </p><p></p><p>Equally fantastic is the aura of silvery-blue lightening that simultaneous to the explosion envelopes the monster's back and wings, the lightning traveling up the thin bones between the wing folds. While the wings appear to still be intact they no longer appear capable of supporting flight and the creature drops to the rocky mountain below. </p><p></p><p>It hits hard and then rolls down the mountain forty feet before coming to a stop beside a boulder. It lies lifeless for around a minute, then surprisingly begins to stand as the lion's head raises up and roars in defiance. This is short lived as Nanuet's arrow pierces its eye. Three more arrows strike the creature, two penetrating it's back. </p><p></p><p>The party on the ledge then sees the ogre with the wand float past them as it levitates down the mountain and towards the monster. The ogre uses its wand in a rapid back-and-forth motion to send three consecutive fireballs into the already dying monster, after which the burning husk moves no more. Nanuet lets forth an unbridled war cry, pouring forth all of his emotions into the outburst.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 2680402, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter 150. “Attack of the Earth Spirit”, Friday, January 20th [/B] The men break through and it isn't who they were expecting. Heading in there direction are seven mounted United States cavalry soldiers including three ogres riding ogre-mounts. Chester recognizes the leader of this group as his former commander, who he had the confrontation with on Main Street a week-and-a-half earlier. They ride up the mountain in that direction. "Hey Chester!" Nanuet whispers. "Those look like soldiers. I think those are the guys we saw in town a while back. Do you know any of them? Did you hear about them being involved in this hunt at all?" Chester hisses back, "Yeah. I know them. The leader is my former commander. We didn't get along at all. He was in town a while ago asking about the stagecoach robbery that we were caught up in. Bill didn't tell me that they'd be involved. Could be that they're trying to keep us poor folk safe from the monster." Kate listened to Chester‘s answer and wasn't sure whether to put the pistol down or not. The soldiers might try to make them leave, or at least put up a fuss with Chester. She sighed. She'd almost rather it had been someone coming for a fight. Ruby sees the soldiers and sighs before grabbing the rifle and climbing down from her position. She walks a bit away from the covered opening and waits for the soldiers to approach. Nanuet comments, "How did they know where to find us? I guess they must have somehow followed the creature or the other groups to this spot. Should we announce ourselves and greet them?" The soldiers close to 100 feet. Each of the soldiers has a weapon in hand and at the ready but are not yet pointed towards the party. The Lieutenant calls out "Lay down your weapons." Nanuet speaks from behind the rock where he is taking cover. "Mr. Soldier, why do you come here? Kate pulled the barrel of the pistol back inside the canvas and held it at her side, continuing to watch. Chester calls out from his position, "What's going on Lt.? We're looking for the Chimaera. What brings you all the way over here?" Nanuet states, We won't lay our weapons down, we are doing nothing wrong." The Lieutenant replies, "Doing nothing wrong? Like protecting the cowboy gang perhaps. We know they're up in these hills somewhere around here. Maybe you're part of their group. Weapons down, we're coming up." The seven soldiers pick up their pace as they continue to climb the mountain towards the group. Before speaking Ruby uses her quick hands to get her rifle behind her back. Seems the soldiers haven't noticed her yet. Using her charms she states, "Do we really look like members of the Cowboy Gang? Why would we want to hide those fugitives? If you remember they tried to ambush the stagecoach we were on last week. Believe me, if we saw them we would turn them right in." Nanuet states, "Sorry Mr. Soldier. No cowboy gang here. We hate the cowboy gang too! They shot our friend Mr. Jake. I am saying this to you, you might be sorry if you come up here. There are things here you may not want to see." The soldiers continue to close and they near the ledge by the cave mouth. The Lieutenant says "You're being on that stage could have been a set up. They've hit two Tombstone stages in the last week, the last one just yesterday. We've tracked them to this area." An ogre wearing corporal's stripes gestures to the tarp covering over the cave and says something in the Ogrish language. The Lieutenant replies in the same language and they all stop. Chester strains to hear what they are saying. While he's doing that, the ex-soldier tries to hide the cannon under some rocks. Three of the soldiers point their weapons towards the party on the ledge while the orges draw their weapons in the direction of the cave. "Can't say I didn't warn you." Nanuet says in a no nonsense tone. "Alright then, why don't you make sure we aren't hiding them in the cave, since you don't believe us. But one of us is in there, let her come out." Ruby calls for Kate to get out of the cave. Kate took a few steps back from the canvas and shoved the pistol in her pocket. "I'm coming," she called with an exaggerated yawn. "What's going on?" She shouted as she ran over to her spell book and shoved it into one of the cracks in the cave wall, hoping the soldiers wouldn't find it there if they came in. She then rumpled up her hair a bit, hurried over to the canvas, and pushed it aside. She widened her eyes as she looked at the solders. "What is going on?" Ruby replies to Kate. "Well, they think WE'RE hiding the cowboy gang in that cave." Ruby shrugs. "So they are going into find out if we are or not. I told them we aren't." "The cowboy gang?" she repeated incredulously. "Us? I don't even know how you all convinced me to come up here and hunt for this monster. I would have turned you all in to the madhouse before I'd agree to do anything with the cowboy gang." Nanuet turns to Chester and whispers "I am glad you left the Army Mr. Chester." Chester replies, "So am I. So am I." Lieutenant Oscar Gamble orders two of the soldiers to go check out the cave. Two of the ogres move the blanket aside and go in while the others continue to cover the rest with their weapons. The next two minutes pass very slowly until the ogres come out and announce that the only thing in the cave are the group's horses. Gamble gives Chester a nasty look and then says "What were those cannon shots we heard coming from over here?" Chester replies, "We were using some dynamite, Lieutenant. That's probably what you heard.” Nanuet puts down his rifle. While ducking down to put the rifle on the ground he loosens his knives in their sheaths and then gets up and makes his way from above the cave mouth to where the soldiers, Ruby and Kate are. Storm walks through the canvas and stands in full view of the soldiers glowing with an unworldly light a beam showing through her head where the bullet lodged in her brain causing her death In a voice full of the power of the other world and the earth spirits she protects she speaks in Ogrish “This is not the place you seek. The evil ones you seek would not tread on my holy grounds. These people are here because I have need of them here. Seek the evil ones who caused my death to the south east of here.” The very superstitious ogres all begin to shake. Gamble sees that they are about to desert him so to save face yells "Mount up men, we ride to the southeast." As quickly as possible they then make their way down the mountain. Nanuet also gets the shivers. The sight of Storm in her solid form with the bullet wound is enough to shake him. Chester asks, "What's going on?" Then he looks down at Storm. "Oh, right." Louder, he yells at the retreating soldiers, "Thanks for stopping by Lieutenant." Katherine sat down with a thump as the soldiers thundered away. She stared at Storm. "Thank you, I don't know what we could have done. Shooting soldiers is a bad idea." She slowly sunk her head into her hands and struggled to stay in the here and now. "I don't know how much more I can take," she muttered. Storm tells her, "You will take what you can and go on. You have become an amazingly independent woman who your husband would be proud of. You are the butterfly that emerges from the cocoon. Your wings are still wet but you will fly with all the power of the winds in time." Nanuet says, "Miss Kate, maybe you should take some rest. We don't all need to be awake right now. Have some hot tea and try and relax and rest." He bows to Storm. "Thank you Storm, your aid is welcomed and needed." Katherine lifted her head up and pushed herself off the ground. She smiled a sad little smile. "Perhaps he would. But I don't think flight is in my future quite yet. Maybe I'll just start with that tea." Ruby finds a boulder and sits on it, rifle in hand, waiting for the next situation to arise. Nanuet peeks his head into the cave to see what happened and where the dragon went. Looking inside the cave Nanuet notices that it now only goes back fifteen feet and then ends in a solid wall. The only thing inside the cave are the horses. "What happened here? Where is the dragon?" Nanuet makes his way further into the cave and begins feeling the walls. He knows that there was a much larger cave here not too long ago. She pushed aside the canvas again and went into the cave, which suddenly stopped fifteen feet back. Kate laid her hand on the wall, testing to see if it was an illusion or stronger magic. The wall fades away as do the horses. Nanuet sees that the dragon and her child are where they had been all along. The horses are still way back in the back of the cave. She tells Nanuet "I am not without powers of my own. We needed those people gone quickly, they would have only been a distraction. I'm sorry to have to tell you this but my mate is returning." Nanuet turns to Kate "That tea will have to wait Ms. Kate." Nanuet then scurries out of the cave and shouts "The Chimera is coming back, everybody get ready! Chester, get that cannon out, we are going to need it.” "Damn! I knew one shot wouldn't scare it off long." Chester pulls the rocks from atop the cannon. He loads it with two lightning shells. "I hope this will do the trick." Nanuet climbs back to a spot above the cave mouth and gets the bow and one of the arrows that had been soaked in the muddy red mixture. He begins to scan the sky to see if the creature can be spotted. Ruby doesn't move from her rock outside the cave, but looks around to see if she can spot the creature. Kate hurried back out of the cave, strangely glad to have something to focus on. She walked as close as she could to Chester without climbing up, ready to use her spell to enlarge his body. The next ten minutes pass as everyone waits in anticipation. The shape of the chimera then emerges, flying over the peak of the mountain, 600 feet back and 200 feet above where the party is. They notice that the goat head is dangling lifeless to the side of the creature's head and it is also bleeding from a cut on its neck. Gripped in its right front claw is the severed head of one of the bugbear creatures. It closes to around 400 feet and then banks higher and to the left. The previous hand cannon wound is still visible but it is no longer bleeding from that spot. It begins to let out a loud cry from the dragon's head followed by a roar from the dragon's head. "What kind of range do you have on that thing Chester?" Nanuet yells. "It needs to get a lot closer for me to have a shot with the bow. I dipped the arrows in the liquid I got from the druidess but I can't reach it that far away with a shortbow." Chester replies, "Pretty far. It's based on a ship cannon after all. But Riley's right. Without practice, I don't think I could hit him at this range. Question is, do we want him to come closer so I can?" Riley says "Earlier when my second shot missed the shell continued on for a good half mile before it hit an outcropping on the next peak and exploded. Range isn't the problem, it's aiming and shooting the damned thing." Nanuet states, "Well Chester, feel like giving it a go? What's the worst that happens? You miss and have to reload. Let's see what that thing can do!" "I could enlarge you now, but it only works for a couple minutes," Kate said to Chester. "Do you want to give it a chance to get a little closer?" Ruby sees the bugbear head in the creatures claws. "Eww, nasty," she says outloud to no one. She remembers Jake's lesson with the rifle and that it can shoot that far, so she gets behind the boulder and rests it on the rock, waiting until she has it in her sight to shoot at it. She doesn't think she'll do much damage but maybe she'll get it's attention and it will fly closer so Chester can shoot it. The party then notices some more movement higher up the mountain. A group comprised of a human and four half-ogres climb up from the opposite side of the mountain. Two of the ogres are carrying the barrel of a five foot long cannon. A third ogre has a pair of cannonballs. The walk until they reach another ledge, some 250 feet back and 100 feet higher up than the party. The ogres begin to secure the cannon in place with some wooden braces. The human has a long rifle which he starts to sight onto the dragon. The remaining Ogre begins to wave his arms and then starts to levitate up in the air. Up until this point they had been focused entirely on the dragon and hadn’t noticed the party on the ledge below strategically placed behind the rocks. The levitating Ogre now sees them and points this out to his allies. Nanuet says, "Well that just might work too. There cannon is big, but it must be hard to hit a flying target with that thing. But hey, if they want to help hunt this thing down, I'm all for it." The Chimera makes and sudden turn and goes into a dive, not unlike that of a falcon diving towards prey. It initially appears to be heading in a direction that will take down the mountain and away from both groups but then shifts in a ninety-degree turn once it has closed to around 300 feet from the party and dives directly towards them, quickly closing to 150 feet. Up the mountain the three ogres attempt to load and shift the cannon while the human hunter takes aim with his rifle. The levitating ogre pulls out some type of wand. Ruby starts singing some words of encouragement for herself and the rest of her friends and will shoot if the creature gets close enough to really threaten them. Nanuet waits until it closes within 120' then fires his shot. He then begins firing rapidly using the arrows that have been dipped in the muddy liquid. Nanuet states, "Not so sure we will be the ones who decide that. Miss Kate is ready to enlarge you so that when it flies closer you can try and shoot it. I am in the same bind as you. My bow could reach that far, but I would have no chance to hit it. Just be ready!" Kate says, "I don't think it's going to get any closer, and they're going to start soon no matter what." The dragon continues to circle overhead. Kate took a deep breath and began her incantation. The gestures were expansive to match the spells intent. A few moments later Chester's body filled out and stretched until he was twice his normal size. "That's all I can do," she said, exhaling heavily. Chester says, "Thank you. That should help me hold this thing. Watch out. I think one of those ogres can use magic, too. It might try to use some on us." Kate nodded to Chester and moved back to shelter behind a large boulder. She only had the energy left to perform minor tricks with magic, and her pistol would never reach far enough. She dashed inside the cave and came back out with her hands full of bandages and crouched back down behind the boulder. Chester draws a bead on the Chimaera and fires when he feels it it right. A lightning shell arcs towards the beast. Chester grunts from the recoil and thumbs the second trigger, loading the second lightning shell. Chesters shot flies directly towards the creature and his aim is true. The shell strikes the dragon's head directly in the eyes just as a spout of flame is starting to emerge from the creature's maw. The shell strikes with even greater impact than normal given the speed that the monster is traveling opposite it and the ensuing explosion leaves nothing of the dragon's head than a stump. Equally fantastic is the aura of silvery-blue lightening that simultaneous to the explosion envelopes the monster's back and wings, the lightning traveling up the thin bones between the wing folds. While the wings appear to still be intact they no longer appear capable of supporting flight and the creature drops to the rocky mountain below. It hits hard and then rolls down the mountain forty feet before coming to a stop beside a boulder. It lies lifeless for around a minute, then surprisingly begins to stand as the lion's head raises up and roars in defiance. This is short lived as Nanuet's arrow pierces its eye. Three more arrows strike the creature, two penetrating it's back. The party on the ledge then sees the ogre with the wand float past them as it levitates down the mountain and towards the monster. The ogre uses its wand in a rapid back-and-forth motion to send three consecutive fireballs into the already dying monster, after which the burning husk moves no more. Nanuet lets forth an unbridled war cry, pouring forth all of his emotions into the outburst. [/QUOTE]
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"Revenge, Renewal and the Promise of a New Year" (Boot Hill/D&D)
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