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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pedestrian" data-source="post: 3629573" data-attributes="member: 40208">Session 4: Skull Gorge BridgePeering through the tree-line, the four companions looked out over Skull Gorge Bridge. The structure, spanning nearly two hundred feet across the gorge, was Great Empire work and, despite being six centuries old, perhaps more, looked solid. Patrolling the near edge was one of the fiendish hounds they had encountered on the path to Drellin’s Ferry. In each of the near towers rising from the bridge they had seen a hobgoblin sentry, and presumably there were more on the other side. The creatures held long bows at the ready, holding them with confident ease. Of greatest importance, however, was the green dragon languishing at the far end of the bridge. Every half an hour or so, the creature had been making lazy circuits of the bridge, before returning to a circle of tents, the Red Hand encampment.They had set off from Vraath Keep at first light, tarrying only to allow Tom to invoke Kade’s blessing to heal Marcus’s ravaged eyes. Along the way, they had encountered a forest giant male, withered and old, but still massively strong. The meeting had been cool, and they had escaped, only realising after that the gauntlet recovered from Vraath keep might have some connection to giant. They had returned to where they had found the creature, but it had gone. Not sure what else to do, they had left the gauntlet and pressed on.Jorr had opted to retreat into the forest, not willing to risk the drake’s wrath. Not wanting to waste the daylight, Sir Tarnus waited for the dragon to complete its circuit and signalled for Marcus and Tom to begin their preparations. Marcus girded himself with magical armour, while Tom entreated Kade’s assistance in the coming battle, bolstering his allies and enhancing his strength. Marcus had time to enlarge Marduk, but the suddenly swollen gnoll caught the attention of the dragon, even from across the bridge. The creature bellowed a warning.Marduk, taking advantage of his enhanced reach and strength, leapt across the stony grass leading to the bridge, crashing into the hell hound and felling it with one clean blow, catching several arrows from the sentries for his efforts. Marcus detonated a fireball over the two nearest towers, though the hobgoblins attempted to shelter behind the fortifications. Sir Tarnus unslung his longbow, firing arrows up at the towers, while Tom jogged as fast as he could to reach the battle. Marduk’s sensitive ears caught the sound of crunching glass, and looked up to see the dragon swelling in size. At its side stood a familiar figure, the cunning bugbear from the keep. The gnoll snarled and gripped his axe, rage boiling out of him.Another fireball crashed over head, bringing shrieking agony to the hobgoblins, and Marduk moved to intercept the fiendish dog, brother to the one he had slain, and with one more mighty swing downed the beast. The green dragon took wing, soaring up to the bridge as Tom caught up with Marduk, and vomited forth billowing clouds of acidic poison, catching them both. Tom’s new cloak, gained from the keep, flared brilliant green, lessening the agony. He invoked Kade’s wrath against the serpent, and his prayer to the Dragonslayer was answered, a peel of thundering robbing the beast of its strength.Marduk’s senses were blanketed by agony. He could scarcely see, blinded by the acid, the chemical stink mixing in his nostrils with the stench of his own dissolving flesh. His strength waned though his anger only grew. He could hear Tom shouting something behind him, and saw the dragon sag, nearly buckle in flight. Marduk did not think, he only acted. With a roar, the gnoll leapt across the wall of the bridge, catching the dragon and grappling its wings. Tom charged after him, hand outstretched, but missed, a golden flash rising from his fingers, alleviating some of his friend’s hurts as Marduk and the drake plummeted to the ground with a gut wrenching echo.Tom gaped, ignoring the pain of his wounds as arrows rained down from either side. He recalled the staff from the keep and grasped, perhaps irrationally on the idea that it might be of some help. He would need rope. Marcus had rope! An arrow shattered beside his foot, reminding him that he would need to see to the immediate situation before anything else. The dwarf beseeched his god to lessen his hurts, and was answered.Sir Tarnus, meanwhile, had given up his bow in frustration, unable to strike the sentries in the towers, which Marcus had whittled down to a single archer who was gamely putting arrows into Tom. Across the bridge, the hobgoblins were massing fire on Tom under the orders of the bugbear from Vraath Keep. A ferocious bellow echoed up from the cavern, and all eyes stared unbelieving as the green dragon emerged from the ravine, it’s scales shattered, body broken, but still, impossibly alive. It soared back to it’s tower, where the bugbear, with a flash of light emanating from his belt, alleviated some of its hurts. Tom was infuriated and, with a curse as ancient as his people, called down his god’s anger against the dragon. Once more there was a peel of thunder and the vigour drained from the drake, fading from emerald to grey.Sir Tarnus cast aside his bow and ran forward to stand with Tom, a hobgoblins bearing a bloody handed shield ordering his men to bring them down. As the bugbear pushed its way down the stairs, the dragon took wing once more, soaring over the pair, coating them in acid as it flew past. The dwarf, battered and bruised, nearly fell, but the beneficence of his god held him up.Marcus, who had been attempting to remove the last of the sentries with carefully placed magical missiles, looked up in time to see the dragon, foaming at the mouth, swoop down on him. He attempted to tap into his growing reservoir of personal might, but too late as the beast clamped its massive jaws down on him. A flurry of fang and claw, and the sorcerer slumped to the ground, bleeding heavily.The two on the bridge had been retreating, attempting to out distance the arrows of the hobgoblins, and save their friend, when the bugbear pushed his way to the fore, one clawed hand, wreathed in energy, extended before him.“Suffer” he crowed, locking fierce red eyes on Sir Tarnus.The knight had only scants seconds. He looked at Tom. “Flee.” And then he was gone, engulfed as an arc of arcane lightning crackled across the bridge.Tom’s mind reeled in confusion. He looked wildly about. Marduk was dead, a fierce warrior whose sacrifice had proved in vain. Tarnus was dead, a charred ruin of a once proud man. Marcus was likely slain under the claws of the dragon which was even now bearing down on him. He could not leave them here, those who had died to bravely. He must stay. He must.He called upon Kade once again, bolstering his failing strength with divine power, then dragged the body of his fallen ally around the tower. He might not be able to shake the dragon, but he could at least avoid the arrows of the blasted hobgoblins. Dropping Sir Tarnus, he prepared himself for the dragon’s attack.As the beast swept in, Tom called out to his god for a final time, and once more was answered. His blade glowed bronze, cloaking the dragon in slowing shadow. The dragon, near blind from the halo, chomped down upon the dwarf’s vambrace, doing no harm. But Tom could not balance himself, and his return blow swung ineffectually off of the beast’s armoured belly.The dwarf looked up into the dragon’s slavering mouth, dripping with foul acid. He could hear the stomping of hobgoblin boots crossing the old bridge. He mouthed a last prayer to Kade as the drake’s jaws descended.</blockquote>

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