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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2252" data-attributes="member: 143">“They’re coming.”“How many?” Lok asked.“All of them, I’d guess,” Benzan said, but there was no humor in his voice.  After a moment’s pause to catch his breath, he added, “Looks to be about a score.  I didn’t stay around long enough to get a clear count.”The faces of the companions became grim.  It was clear that the same thought was going through their minds.  A score!  We defeated a dozen, with the advantage of surprise and luck, but twenty…“How long?” Telwarden asked. “Five minutes, no more,” Benzan replied.  “Less, if they hasten their pace.”“All right then,” Telwarden said grimly.  He glanced over his shoulder at the freed slaves, who were milling about, their looks of fear writ clear on their faces.  “You can flee now if you wish,” he told them, “but we’re going to make a stand, and in all honesty you’d probably be just as safe staying as trying to make it out of the forest without food and weapons.  How many of you know how to fight?”A few hands went tentatively up.  The dwarf, his wheezing breath audible even from a distance, came forward.  “I’ve swung an axe more than once in me day,” he said, even the short declaration causing him to cough fitfully.  “Them hobgoblins have taken a lot of me strength, but what I have left, I’ll lend ye.” The sheriff nodded.  “Cal, see what you can do for him.”  The gnome was already moving to help, his wand of healing at the ready.  “The rest of you, gather up what weapons you can.  Quickly, now.  And those shields, too.”As the slaves moved hurriedly among the bodies, Benzan came up close to the sheriff.  “Those people will be no match for veteran hobgoblin warriors,” he said quietly.“I know,” Telwarden replied.  “But we need to give them a chance, in case they get past us.  And maybe even just a few more crossbow bolts will make the difference.”Lok was talking to another of the freed prisoners, and he took a quick look inside the entrance of the mine.  “What do you think?” Telwarden asked him as he returned.  “Retreat into the mine, use it as a redoubt?  They’ll have a tough time forcing the entrance if we defend it from within, and only a few will be able to squeeze through at once.”But the genasi was shaking his head.  “They could just collapse the entrance, and there’s nothing we could do except slowly suffocate,” he said.  “Stone’s too hard to tunnel through quickly.”Cal came up, slipping his wand back into its hidden pocket.  “I suggest we make our stand there,” he said, gesturing toward the massive slab from which they’d launched their initial attack.  And indeed, the granite outcropping looked from their current angle almost like a miniature rampart, its vertical edge between six and eight feet high on three sides.  It sloped down to a relatively easy climb from the back, but it would take some effort, and precious moments, for their enemies to make it around to that side.  “Take the prisoners into the mine.  You and Cullan can hold the entrance while the rest of us distract their attention toward us.  We’re closer to the trail, so they’ll have to get past us to get to you.”“You’ll be a sitting duck for their archers,” Telwarden said.“Leave that to me,” the gnome said cryptically.  “I’ll draw their fire, while you guys do as much damage as you can.  Try not to miss,” he said to Benzan, jostling his arm in a companionable manner.  The tiefling smiled, but it was a grim one.   “It’s not the most elegant plan I’ve ever heard, but it’ll do—and we’re out of time,” Telwarden said.  “Good luck, then,” he said, clasping the gnome’s shoulder.  “And to you.”  He turned to his companions.  “Sorry to speak for you guys, but it was all I could think of, on such short notice.  Everyone all right with the plan?”  Surprisingly, it was Delem who responded.  “Let’s go,” he said, cocking his crossbow and setting a bolt at the ready.  The four companions headed for the rock while Telwarden and Cullan started ushering the prisoners into the gaping entrance of the mine.  They hefted their new weapons with uncertainty, and as he watched them Cal hoped that it would not come to them having to use them.  One of the prisoners had not retreated into the mine, however.  The orc stood before them, clad now in ill-fitting hobgoblin armor, with a loaded crossbow in one hand and its bloody axe in the other.  “Brakthak chupat,” it said, pointing to the gnome, and then at itself.  “Chupat glak-morot.”  “What does it want?” Delem asked.  “We don’t have time for this…” Benzan said, glancing down the trail, still quiet, for the moment.  “It saw you before, with the dwarf,” Lok said.  “Maybe it wants healing.”“Oh, very well,” the gnome said.  He tugged out the wand and held it up, and the orc nodded.  Cal touched it to the orc, who did nothing to interfere with the action.  The healing power flowed into the creature, and when it stepped back, it seemed noticeably stronger.  “Never thought I’d see the day when I healed an orc,” Cal said to himself as he followed the others around the base of the slab toward the rear slope.  The orc followed them.  Benzan and Lok helped Cal and Delem navigate their way up atop the stone, the orc close behind.  “Just so long as you point that thing at hobgoblins, pal,” Benzan told it as it passed him. A harsh battle cry sounded from just a short distance down the trail, drawing everyone’s full attention.  The enemy had arrived.  * * * * * His guess had been a bit low, Benzan thought to himself, as he quickly counted the hobgoblins as they moved cautiously into the clearing at the end of the trail.  There were twenty-two of them, counting the one that they clustered around, a tall creature wearing an elaborate suit of half-plate chased with red ochre along with an open-faced helm and matching shield.  All right, that’s my first target, he thought to himself as he tugged a long arrow from his quiver.  A quiver that was becoming noticeably lighter, he realized.  He glanced over at Cal.“Stay low, and use the cover of the rock,” Cal instructed them, and he stood, moving almost to the edge of the slab, in full view of the hobgoblin force.  A fierce cry immediately resounded from the rocky slopes of the surround hills, and even before its echoes had faded, the first volley of bolts was knifing through the air around him and his companions.  But Cal had been prepared, and even as the hobgoblins spotted him, he uttered the words of a magical spell.  Hobgoblins were known for being adept marksmen, and several of the bolts of that first salvo were accurate.  At the last instant, however, they were turned, glancing off of an invisible shield of force erected by the gnome’s magic.  One did get through, cutting over the upper edge of the shield, but it too was deflected, hitting the still-potent mage armor that Cal had evoked earlier.   “Now, guys,” Cal said to his companions without turning, already focusing on the magical incantations of his next spell.Benzan rose up into an archer’s crouch, sighting and firing his bow in a single smooth motion.  The arrow flew fast and true to its target, but it lodged in the shield of the heavily armored hobgoblin leader, doing no damage.  “I knew that blasted gnome’s comment jinxed me,” he said, reaching for another arrow.  The bolt from Lok’s heavy crossbow was likewise ineffective, but Delem’s shot scored a glancing hit, his bolt sinking into the arm of one of the hobgoblin archers as it reloaded its crossbow.  The orc fired as well, but the others did not see if the shot connected with a target. The leader issued a command, and the bulk of the hobgoblin warriors rapidly formed into a fighting wedge, their shields held high as they charged to deflect more missile attacks from atop the slab.  That defense was not enough for a few as they staggered, and one went down with an arrow jutting from its hip.  Telwarden and the others had joined the battle, firing their bows from the shelter of the mine opening.  The leader stepped forward from the midst of the hobgoblin archers as they reloaded, a menacing figure even from fifty paces away.  He pointed at the defenders atop the great stone, and shouted a fell curse upon them.  The four companions could feel the power of dark magic sweep through them in a tangible wave of fear and despair.  But they gritted their teeth, and fought on through whatever dark magic was being wrought against them.“He’s a wizard!” Benzan said. “No,” Delem said, haltingly, “A priest of dark gods…”More bolts came in at them from the enemy archers, followed by a volley of hurled javelins from the charging phalanx.  Again Cal’s magic deflected the attacks aimed at him, but his companions shared no such protection.  Lok’s plate mail provided an effective barrier, but both Delem and Benzan took hits.  Benzan pulled the javelin from his leg and fired again, letting out a vile curse as his second missile glanced harmlessly off an enemy shield.  Thus far, the battle was not flowing in the favor of the good guys.  The phalanx approached the base of the stone, but the hobgoblins reacted in sudden alarm as a knot of mail-clad warriors emerged from the weeds and boulders to their left.  The four newcomers were elves, their armor gleaming in the sun and their longswords at the ready.  Confronted by their traditional enemy, the hobgoblins in the phalanx shifted eagerly to meet this new threat.  The delay gave the defenders more time.  More arrows and bolts fired into the phalanx, and as they turned toward the elves more of the missiles found their mark.  Another went down, with two arrows jutting from its side, and others bit back curses as they suffered wounds.  It was a slow attrition, as a full score still stood, but it was a start.  The charge against the ‘elves’ failed, of course, as the hobgoblin blades passed through Cal’s illusion.  He let the phantasm fade as the enraged hobgoblins charged around the base of the slab, eager to kill these few defiant enemies.  Another went down, as Lok fired a bolt point-blank over the edge of the slab into its chest.The hobgoblin leader—identified as a cleric by Delem—had not been idle.  As the archers continued their desultory barrage against the defenders atop the slab, he unlimbered a massive crossbow of his own, loading a bolt that was more like the missile fired by a ballista.  As the charging horde reached the rear of the stone, still more than a dozen strong, the situation looked dire for the four beleaguered companions.  Lok dropped his empty bow and hefted the magical axe, and moved to block the route up the slab.  Behind him, Benzan fired his bow again into the crowd, rewarded finally with a grunt of pain as a hobgoblin fell back, clutching the arrow jutting from its shoulder.  Delem used the wand of sleep, targeting the center of the dense cluster of enemies.  Its power was partly effective, and two fell unconscious, but another pair resisted the magic, shaking their heads as if to clear the suggestion of sleep from their minds.  On came the hobgoblins, scrambling over the rocks to attack.  Lok smote the first one with a mighty blow that separated its head from its shoulders.  Three others came at him, and while his armor protected him from the first two thrusts, the third clipped him a painful blow on the shoulder with his wickedly spiked morning star.  Lok stood his ground, shrugging off the pain of the impact.  Cal shifted to the side, along the very edge of the rock, to give him a better angle of attack and to give him a clear shot past Lok.  He launched a blazing stream of colors right into the faces of a half-dozen hobgoblins.  The first three went down, stunned, but the others came on over their fallen comrades, trying to catch the elusive gnome.  From the other flank, the orc entered the melee, swinging his axe at the hobgoblin that had struck Lok.  The hobgoblin sensed the danger too late, and it suffered a powerful stroke that knocked it bodily backward, to tumble off the edge of the slab to the ground below.  The companions were still outnumbered, though, and the odds got suddenly worse when Cal staggered, crying out in pain as a long and deadly shaft, launched by the hobgoblin leader, struck him hard in the torso.  The gnome fell prone, blood from the vicious wound jetting out all around him over the cold stone.  Fighting for consciousness, he clutched at the bolt with one hand and his wand of healing with the other.  Benzan saw the gnome go down, but before he could move to help him, another arrow hit him, sending a wave of pain through his left side as the missile punched through the links of his chain shirt.  Suddenly he too was in bad shape, but as he reached into his pouch, he saw that help, such as it was, was on the way.Telwarden was leading a charge out of the mouth of the mine cavern, his sword cutting a swath through the air.  Cullan and the dwarf warrior flanked him, matching him stride for stride, and behind, more cautious, came several of the former prisoners, loading their crossbows as they ran.  More hobgoblins were reaching the summit of the stone, but Lok would not give ground even as more blows rained down on him.  His axe swung in deadly arcs, crushing one hobgoblin’s skull into a frozen mess, then cleaving on into the side of a second with equal force.  The genasi seemed like a vengeful spirit of the earth, possessed of an elemental fury that could not be placated.  Beside him, the orc fought on as well, motivated by an equal anger, striking down another hobgoblin before two others thrust their blades deep into its torso.  Somehow it remained standing, roaring in defiance as it lifted the axe to strike again.  “Cal…”Delem crouched beside the gnome, who was clearly dying.  He had pulled the bolt out of his body, but had passed out from the loss of blood, and his skin was growing swiftly paler.  Delem could not remember ever seeing so much blood before, and from such a small body…  He felt an upsurge of emotions, anger mixed with impotent frustration, but as he felt the hot sting of tears blurring his vision, he heard the voice… that voice… in his thoughts again.Trust in yourself, my son... Trust in who you are…Delem reached out and grabbed Cal’s healing wand.  It was a different sort of magic; he knew that, knew that it was not something that his sorcerous talent could access.  But as he focused upon it, touching it almost tenderly to Cal’s ravaged side, he felt something awaken deep inside him.The healing power flowed, and the bloody wound closed.  Cal would live. Benzan felt the welcome surge of healing energies himself, as the potion worked its effects.  He lifted his bow and sought out another target.  Lok seemed to be doing well enough, for all that at least three opponents were still trying to force their way up the side of the slab; the bodies and the blood of their fallen comrades was making their progress difficult, however.  The tiefling turned to seek out the cleric, who had struck down Cal… But the hobgoblin commander was just disappearing from sight, retreating back down the trail toward the fort.  Telwarden and the others had engaged the archers in melee, and Benzan could see that two of the four were already down, one with two arrows jutting from its body and another split open by Telwarden’s blade.  Even as he watched, the dwarf, ignoring the bolt sticking from his shoulder, smote one in the leg with his axe, and in an almost berserk fury continued to lay into it even as it fell, chopping it apart like a woodsman gathering branches for a fire.  Since there were no clear targets there, he rose and moved to Lok’s side, firing an arrow point blank into the face of one of his remaining opponents.  The other two exchanged a look, and apparently decided that the genasi had already claimed enough of them, as they darted for the cover of the trees.  One made it, but only because he ran really fast, and because Benzan couldn’t reload quickly enough.  And just like that, the battle was over, and incredibly, they had won.  They had suffered grievously, with all of them sporting wounds.  Once the enemy was gone Lok nearly collapsed, his wounds greater than he had let on.  Cal, restored to consciousness by Delem’s intervention, used his wand repeatedly upon himself and his friends, but its power gave out before all of them were returned to full health.  But there were some allies that they could not help.  The orc, to their surprise, had been a loyal ally, at least against their common enemy.  His body they left in the grasp of his final opponent, who he had struck down even as its weapon had ended him.  And the young man Aric, whose bolts had knocked down more than one hobgoblin, was likewise dead, a lucky shot piercing his heart as he bravely charged behind Telwarden into battle.They had won, but all of them knew that it was not over, not yet.    “We can’t let him get away,” Telwarden said, torn between his desire to chase after the evil cleric, and his duty to his companions.  “He may yet—”“I know,” Benzan said.  He turned to Delem, who alone of the others could keep up with him.  The sorcerer nodded, and moved to join him at the opening of the trail.     “Follow as quickly as you can,” Benzan told the others. “We’ll be right behind you,” Cal promised.  Benzan and Delem started off down the trail at a trot, pushing their exhausted bodies yet further, toward what they all hoped would be the final confrontation.</blockquote>

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