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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Warbringer" data-source="post: 3569210" data-attributes="member: 14391">Act IV: Ambush (Part I)Thallos and Kateria moved silently through the flora, staying within the shade of the giant size vegetation. As they moved towards the great ruin that broke the canopy of the jungle, Kateria marveled at how efficiently and silently the other elf moved, even despite the knowledge he had been trained by House Thuraani; gods she thought, this one would put a cat to shame.Thallos gestured for her to stop moving, pointing to a clearing beyond, and the makeshift huts in the shadow of the great ruin. The huts looked like they had been built with a mixture of broken rubble and mud, and they looked like they had been made recently, certainly no longer than a year ago.'What made those?' she asked. 'Clearly not giants,' Thallinos answered, stating the obvious. Pushing past the smug elf, Kateria moved to the edge of the clearing for a better view, staring at the utter calm in the middle of the jungle.Mithros also had moved away from the group, 'scouting' ahead. He couldn't understand Kateria, her moods and shortness. He truly believed that he was leading the group in their quest; he had managed to get them this far, to the heart of a foreign continent, to an ancient lost city. But, in her eyes, he seemed nothing more than a bumbling fool. He had been gone too long from his people, but surely she of all people could understand why. And yet, with each passing moon it seemed she became less tolerant, her moods more frequent.The screams of 'ambush' snapped Mithros out of his self reflection, turning and sprinting in the direction of the cry.--The ambush expertly came from two quarters, splitting the group in two; Tzzt and Kierrna to the north and Velatash and Markhad to the south. The psions had reacted almost immediately, somehow sensing the attack before it happened. Velatash had sent the warning cry out as he skillfully parried the first arrow; his second cry was one of pain as an arrow embedded itself in his shoulder.Markhad was less fortunate as a first, then second arrow, found there mark, embedding themselves deep in his thigh and stomach. The pain was almost unbearable, but his trained will buried the distraction as he shaped the ectoplasm. But the urgency of the situation trigged something deep inside of him and the power he usually controlled with ease threatened to burst out of him with uncontrolled rage. Struggling, he focused the surge into his manifestation calling forth a construct that normally lay beyond his current skill.Kierrna had likewise responded swiftly to the ambush, the arrows harmlessly bouncing of her glamoured breastplate; though the gnome appeared to wear nothing but traveling clothes, her magic concealed the fact she was as well armored as the warriors. Reacting swiftly, she quickly began to place an enchantment upon her weapon that would make her enemy pay for such audacity.Tzzt had been less fortunate. Completely surprised by the ambush, numerous arrows struck against his great chest, and while near a half dozen lay broken at his feet, three protruded from where his heart would have been.A great rage began to fill the warforged, the battlelust filling him, clearing his mind of all and any pain. Staring into the forest, he assailants began to take shape, now seeing the outline of there living force, despite their camouflage. Screaming in inhuman anger, Tzzt dropped to all fours and charged his enemy.Following Markhad's lead, Velatash began to call upon his own power, shaping his psyche energy into the shape of a crystalline like warrior, the angular reddish pink creature lightly glowing with its own translucence. Markhad's manifestation had already began to take shape, the quartz like construct clearly the work of the psion?s rational and focused mind. Velastash could clearly tell this construct was built for combat, its oversized powerful forearms threatening to pummel any foe into broken pieces. Impressed, he continued to shape his own energies, mindful of his enemy notching more arrows to their bows.When Kateria heard the cry for help she simply turned to see where it had come from and saw Thianallis already sprinting through the undergrowth drawing his bow from his back; he truly was a master of his art.Finally reacting, she followed his path, and his actions drawing her bow to his side, and not for the first time gave thanks that he was on their side.Tzzt slammed into the first lizardman, crushing it skull with the great iron chain he wielded, snapping its neck as he smashed into it, is momentum carrying him towards his next enemy. He napped the first trip wire that snagged his legs, but the second and third dragged him to the ground, the wires somehow entangling him. Within seconds the lizardmen were on him, three of them slamming his body with their primitive swords, their blows striking with precise placements that on a creature with organs would lead to certain death. Still, their blows quickly battered the warforged.Crying in grief, Kiernna uncustomary charged the closest lizardman, driving her enchanted blade into its back. The strike had little force, but the baneful magic that coursed over the weapon almost dropped the creature. Turning, the lizardman drove its own weapon into the gnome?s chest, surprised that the blade was turned aside by nothing by flimsy cloth.As one, the kalashtari ordered their constructs against the lizardmen. Once unleashed, Markhard started another manifestation, calling him to him now small pieces of the astral that he would hurl at the warring lizards.Velatash, prepared to charge into battle himself, his mental commands issued, but his legs refused to obey him. Suddenly dizzy, his legs feeling like lead, it took all his will just to retain consciousness. Within seconds, the dizziness passed, but his legs still felt heavy, his body weak. Cautiously, he moved into battle, weary that another bout should come upon him engaged in combat.Mithros barreled through the undergrowth, oblivious to his surroundings, his only concern that he had left his comrades open to ambush. Guilt fueled his speed, driving him forward recklessly.The sounds of combat had not only alerted the party?s elves to the ambush, but also the next band of lizardmen waiting to go out on their hunt. Reacting to the sounds of steel on steel, all but one of them grabbed their weapons and charged out the sentry hut. The last, a shaman, had no need of weapons.Katiera ran through the undergrowth, and approaching its edge, prepared to run across the open clearing to where her friends battled.'Wait,' Thianallis spoke in elfish.Looking around she could not see the elf, until she realized that the command had come from above her, incredulously, nearly twenty feet up a tree on the jungle's edge. The unuttered word 'how' formed on her lips, she had been less than a few seconds behind him.'More are coming from the huts. We can aid of comrades better from this vantage point,' he smiled with a smile she never wished to see again.As the lizardfolk charged across the open plain, Thianallis took careful aim and emotionless precision placed an arrow through the eye of one lizardman, and then through the gaping jaw of another one.Katiera unleashed arrows as well, and though expertly trained in the art of the bow, she lacked the killing grace of her kin.Mithros crashed into the combat, quickly gauging the scene. The kalasthari had their threat under control, the strange constructs would soon destroy the lizardmen the battled; Tzzt was in serious trouble, the two warriors above the fallen warforged attacking him with impunity; Kiernna was in combat, that was not good.'Velashtar,' he cried. 'Aid, Tzzt.'</blockquote>

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