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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 2819826" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #334] The Killing Field, part 3[/PLAIN]"Well, now! What do we have 'ere up on this hill, eh? A couple of weedy bandits for me to crack open!" Karak said as he clanked up the hill. "Takin refuge behind a hill and shooting your wee arrows, huh? Felled the big'un. Even a blind elf could have done that,. Not very sportin of ye." He spat threateningly and glowered up at his prey, adding, "No sir, I'll make sure you pay for that!"The air in front of Karak grew dark with arrows as the five archers not otherwise engaged turned their bows on this new threat coming at them. But he was a juggernaut, heavily armored and undaunted as he hustled at them up the slope of the hill. And then, bellowing a foul dwarven oath, he was upon them, bringing death with him.Karak struck the first foe he came upon, a raggedy human warrior with unkempt hair and wind-burned skin, slamming into him like the hammer of the gods. The unfortunate human had little opportunity to do anything before he died save grow wide-eyed with fear. Then the frost-rimed waraxe cleaved his left arm messily from his body. Karak's momentum carried him forward into the half-elf who stood behind the human. His weapon cut into the archer's guts, crushing his pelvis and sending him to the ground in stunned silence.Across the gully, the folk entangled by Lela's spell wailed in impotent rage as they fought to break free. Those who hadn't yet succumbed to the clutching underbrush tried desperately to get outside the area of effect; some succeeded, but others mis-stepped and were dragged down. Lela saw the enemies who were near to escaping her trap and, sparing another handful of Confusion Dust on the elves that were still trying to pick her out of the sky, she moved to correct the situation.Her toss with the dust was half-hearted - hurled even as she turned away - so it was little surprise that she missed her intended targets. Again she hit to the left of center, dosing once more the half-elf and woman who stood there, but the sprite also managed to sprinkle a portion on the dangerous-looking elf who was engaged with the half-elf.The results were immediate. The elf dropped his composite bow and drew his rapier with murderous intent. He got little opportunity to do anything with the blade, however, before the other two confused warriors, half-elf and woman, tore into him with their falchions, ending his life quickly.One of the two remaining elves sent an arrow ineffectually after Lela as she moved across to the opposite hilltop, but the other turned and fired point blank into the confused woman's chest. She staggered, but didn't fall, despite the sheet of blood that poured down her studded leather armor. The elf's expression was unreadable, emotionless as he reached for the quiver at his hip and made some tactical adjustments to keep the woman in position.At the base of the hill, oblivious to events above, Morier looked longingly at Shamalin as the priestess bent over Feln with curative magics at her command. Clearly, he was in better shape than the half-ogre, but that didn't change the fact that he needed healing desperately. By Garn-Zanuth! He had an arrow sticking out of his leg! Did that mean nothing?Grimly, he clutched at the wound with one hand and firmly grabbed the arrow with the other. Setting his blood-smeared teeth he yanked the shaft free with a groan of pain. For a moment the world teetered and grew dark around the edges as the wave of fresh pain spread through him. But he fought the unconsciousness down, wishing to the gods that he'd paid more attention to Malcolm's lessons on healing. He'd always been too excited to get back to Arwold's training with the sword.The irony of that was hardly lost on the albino.There were only two archers left on the one hilltop who weren't confused or fighting for their lives against one of their own confused comrades. Those two stood between those combatants and Karak. As the dwarf moved toward them, stepping over the bloodied remains of two of their allies, both decided to exercise discretion. They ran down the hill as fast as they could go, heading into the heath to the south.Shamalin looked down at Feln's corpse and thought him lucky. He'd died an honorable death... not flayed alive and begging pitifully for the agony to end... saying things... anything to make the end come sooner... like Deas and Padgett.Poor, poor Padgett. He'd deserved better. They all had.A dagger of envy stabbed at Shamalin's heart. She'd touched the half-ogre's mind with her Detect Thoughts spell and she knew the sort of life he'd led. What made his dark life worthy of an honorable death? If anyone was owed such it should have been Antinua; the elf was selfless in her devotion to others. Righteous, even. And she'd died badly for it. The half-ogre was an assassin - or had been - and he'd died cleanly in battle. Where was the sense?Pondering that thought, she moved toward Huzair and scanned his ravaged body with her death sight. She saw he yet lived, but it took longer to find the pulse and meter of his lifeblood. His rhythm was darker, and she noted curiously that it was accompanied by the glowing sensation of fire. Her cheeks were flushed red with heat by the time she was finally able to draw him back from the dark of death's door through divine grace."Announce that I am dead," he instructed her gravely, and she blinked at him as his intentions sank in.Three of the four halflings Lela had spotted earlier had freed themselves from the Entangle. And they'd seen her now as well. Three arrows arced toward her and she was able to alter her flight to avoid two of them. The third clipped her leg, cutting a bloody groove in her thigh. It was on him that she dropped her Flaming Sphere.Deprived of the two targets he'd expected, Karak barreled into the back of the half-elf that Lela had Confused. His waraxe took the man's right arm and a goodly chunk of his shoulder off without slowing down. The human woman, already bloodied by an elven arrow, fell from a glancing blow that trimmed her skull messily just behind her ears. That left the dwarven warrior alone on his hilltop with two elven archers.The two fey wasted no time in adjusting their stance and targeting Karak, but his heavy armor turned aside their arrows with ease. Then, as if by some shared, unspoken accord, they both turned and bolted down the hill to the south, moving lithely amidst the bracken at a pace that Karak couldn't hope to match.The halfling tried to jump out of the way as Lela's ball of flame materialized in front of him, but he was too slow and instead cried out in pain as fire met flesh with an awful sizzling sound. The scrub grass at his feet burst into flame, making him pinwheel his little arms and dance about from foot to foot in a way that would have been comical if not for all the screaming.The sound of burning was music to Huzair's ears. And while he'd hoped to be the one doing the burning, he had a lovely spell that would assist the sprite's endeavors. He reached out with his magic, touching the fire started by the flaming sphere and calling on it to produce smoke. Lots of smoke.Morier heard Huzair mutter the incantation of a Pyrotechnics spell and then the hilltop across from them disappeared behind a bank of expanding black smoke. There came panicked screams and choking coughs from within the cloud, but of the archers, nothing could be seen.Which meant that the archers couldn't see them either.</blockquote>

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