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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1595378" data-attributes="member: 143">Prophetic words!* * * * * Chapter 153  It was huge, easily ten feet tall at the shoulder, and it had to weigh thousands of pounds.  Zenna couldn’t identify it at first... it looked almost like a giant ape at first glance, but its body was proportioned to walk on four limbs rather than two, and its head was narrow and knobby, with tiny beady eyes flanking a massive snout.  Its mouth wasn’t that big for its body, but with the creature’s sheer side it looked quite adequate to take off a head or arm with a single bite. Zenna had never seen a giant sloth, and the first meeting wasn’t going to be a pleasant one. The battle cries of her companions shocked her back from study into action.  Arun and Morgan had both hurled their missiles, but the cleric’s javelin and the dwarf’s hammer seemed to have little or no effect as they glanced off of the creature’s thick hide.  Hodge stepped forward, his axe raised, but the dwarf looked almost comically tiny in contrast to the creature as it loomed over him.  Hodge rushed toward one limb as thick as a tree trunk, but the creature sensed him coming and lashed out at him with a sweep of one forelimb.  The sloth’s huge claws scooped the dwarf up like a shovel, and almost casually sent him flying awkwardly away.  Hodge landed hard fifteen paces distant, coming slowly to his feet, a bit unsteady.  The creature had scored first, but now it was exposed, with the companions able to pour damage into it from all directions.  Dannel’s arrows lanced down into its back, punching through the thick hide, seeking something vital.  Zenna raised her fist and poured a scorching ray into it; or rather tried to, for inexplicably the shaft of coruscating fire lanced through empty air two feet above the creature’s head, doing no damage. “Damn!” Zenna cursed. “Keep trying!” Arun yelled in encouragement, as he and Morgan closed to battle the beast.  The dwarf narrowly dodged a clawed limb that slammed into the ground where he’d been standing a moment before, and he managed a counter than glanced off of the limb, doing little damage but drawing the creature’s attention to him.  Morgan rushed it from the side, thrusting his sword into the gap where the creature’s arm its torso.  The creature’s height made it difficult for the cleric to stab his weapon overly deeply into its body, but it was clear that the attack had made an impression by the way that the creature roared and turned to face the cleric.  Morgan stood his ground, but before he could manage to strike again the sloth caught him up a scoop of its claws, dragging the struggling cleric up to its head.  The cleric of Helm was too large to fit into the sloth’s gullet, but its powerful jaws snapped down on his torso with enough force to bend the bands of metal armor that protected his gut.  Morgan cried out as the jaws crushed him with the force of a vise, but through his pain he managed to bring his sword up, stabbing awkwardly toward one of the beady eyes.  His stroke went awry, but nonetheless opened a bloody gash along the side of its skull.  In response the sloth shook its head violently, releasing its grip on the cleric and hurtling him roughly aside as it had done to Hodge earlier. The sloth had taken a beating, its fine brown pelt now marked with various red trails of blood from the wounds inflicted upon it by the companions.  Zenna had turned to help Hodge, but the dwarf was able to pick himself up where he’d fallen, and shrugged off the tiefling’s offered aid, instead casting about for his axe, and on finding where it had fallen hefting it and rushing back into the fray.  Arun continued to pound at it even as it savaged Morgan, but good fortune seemed to have deserted the paladin, as his heavy blows either missed the creature or fell obliquely and harmlessly on the creature’s thick hide.  Mole appeared in her usual manner, darting from concealment to unleash a devastating sneak attack from behind.  Augmented by her magical boots and her own nimbleness, she shot between the sloth’s hind legs and leapt upward, kicking off against the creature’s knee to accelerate her momentum up into its belly.  Her sword flickered and vanished into its gut, and for a moment she hung there, suspended from the hilt.  Then her weight drew it out, along with a jet of rich red blood from a punctured organ, and she fell, coming down into a smooth roll that carried her forward. Right in front of the creature. Which promptly roared, scooped her up, and popped her into its mouth.  Mole barely had enough time to open her mouth to scream...And then it swallowed her.</blockquote>

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