Travels through the Wild West: Books V-VIII (Epilogue)
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Broccli_Head
Explorer
Great post (and the wonderful cliff-hanger) from Cal's point of view!
Lazybones
Adventurer
Happy new year, everyone!
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Book VII, Part 22
The magic coursed through him at his call, but as Cal looked up he saw a shadowy form fill his vision. The shadow resolved into a dragonkin warrior as it entered the radius of light, swooping down from the trees above toward the ruin, a heavy longspear in its clawed hands. With a heavy impact it landed on the broken top of the wall, its narrow eyes fixed on them like daggers.
With an effort of will Cal maintained his concentration on his spell, fixing his attention on Lok and releasing the magic he’d summoned. He knew he would pay a price for that effort, and even before he could see if his work had taken effect he paid it. He was thrust backward roughly as the spearhead caught him in the shoulder. Grateful for the protection of the stoneskin, he felt the impact nonetheless, as pain lanced out from the point of impact into his body. At least he wasn’t run through, as he rolled back and tried to scrabble to his feet while the dragonkin raised his weapon to strike again. Behind him, Cal could make out two more forms drifting down from above, and knew that soon their problems would be greatly compounded.
Dana had not been idle since casting her daylight spell. While the battle began around her she cast her mind out in a net across the boundary between realities, using her connection to her goddess to begin a powerful summoning. For a moment her thoughts brushed something... different, a place both alien and somehow familiar, and then she found herself drawn back into the present, bringing something with her at her call. She saw the dragonkin warrior swooping down from above and had time to shout a warning, but then she had to battle the rush of power that she herself had called upon, to firm the link that she had opened briefly into another plane of existence.
At her call, the air above her warped and twisted, and shifted until a small matrix of rushing air roared in place, a storm in microcosm. She pointed and spoke a word of command—one of the few words she knew in the language of the thing she had summoned—and the air elemental attacked, covering the distance between it and the two descending dragonkin in a few heartbeats. As it reached them it formed itself into a vortex, a whirlwind that caught up the two warriors. They were too large for it to simply engulf them, but even so the two found themselves flung roughly aside, spinning out toward the Mire as the elemental drove them haplessly away from the battle.
Meanwhile, Dana had raised her spear against the creature facing her atop the wall. Her first thrust missed, and before she could withdraw and reset the dragonkin leapt at her, dropping its long weapon and lunging at her with simple claws and teeth.
Just a few paces away, the rest of the companions were locked in battle with the remainder of the dragonkin force, save those still struggling to free themselves from Cal’s web. Gorath had dropped one of the giant lizards, and the second was slowing as its blood drained from several deep gashes in its flanks. The half-orc had not escaped unscathed, though, and he favored one leg where one of the lizards had caught him briefly with the crushing power of its jaws.
The archery of Lariel and Benzan had weakened several of the warriors, the arcane archer actually managing to finally drop his target with another well-placed arrow, immediately starting on a second foe. The dragonkin warrior, however, ignoring the shaft that protruded from its hip, came on in a charge, and soon the elf was darting back, continuing to fire from point-blank range whenever he could open a little distance between himself and the pursuing dragonkin.
On the far flank, Lok had rounded the wall to face a full-on assault coming down the hill. Unarmored save for a leather vest and his shield, only the speed granted by Cal’s haste kept him from being torn apart in the first chaotic moments as four dragonkin warriors laid into him with their weapons. Even his protections could not fully save him from a glancing blow with an axe that tore a gash in his shieldarm, and a potent impact from a mace that clipped his helmet, sending stars flashing across his vision. His own strikes were equally violent, catching one of the warriors solidly in the torso with his axe and following with a backstroke that nearly ripped its arm from its body. The creature refused to go down, however, hefting its axe with its other hand while its companions pressed in from all directions.
And then the first of the leaders joined the fray, swooshing its double axe before it an eager arc.
As strong as they were, the dragonkin warriors could not be held long by the sticky strands of Cal’s web spell. Already one of those caught on the edge had struggled free and rushed now to join the developing melee, and the trapped leader had nearly emerged from the layered strands when a roaring pillar of fire blasted down from the sky, immolating them within its blazing stream. The flame strike only lasted a few moments, and when it cleared the dragonkin caught within the pillar were free, still standing despite the blackened char that marked their scaled bodies. Despite their hurts, they hastened to grab their weapons and attack.
Before they could, however, three figures entered the light from along the far edge of the pond at the base of the slope. Zev hefted his spear and cried a guttural challenge while his two dire badger companions surged even more eagerly ahead, their claws digging into the turf as they rushed to attack.
Seeing that Lok was hard-pressed, Benzan dropped his bow and drew his sword, rushing to his friend’s aid. He’d had time to slip into his coat of mithral chainmail, giving him decent protection, although he’d already seen how hard the dragonkin could hit. He did not hesitate, though, intercepting the leader wielding the double axe before it could join the bash-fest on his stout friend. As he barely dodged an incredibly swift cut of one of the razor-sharp blades, and fell back trying not to slip on the wet leaves beneath his feet, he grimaced at the adversary that had to stand at least a foot and a half taller than even his considerable height.
Of course. He had to pick the one that was big and fast.
Dana’s opponent slashed at her with its claws, testing even her considerable agility and her magical protections as it tried to snare her in its grasp. One swipe that she could not fully avoid tore through her tunic and drew lines of red across her side. Too close now to use her spear, she dropped it and drew out her kama, but before she could use it the dragonkin flapped its wings and launched itself at her. She tried to duck aside, but the creature adapted to her dodge, wrapping her in its arms as it landed atop her. She struggled, but its grasp was like iron bands engulfing her, crushing her.
Suddenly the dragonkin roared, and Dana could smell the acrid tang of burned flesh, felt her skin tingle with an almost painful jolt of energy. She took advantage of the distraction to snap her foot down into the warrior’s knee joint. It felt like she was striking stone, but the enfolding arms loosened their grip infinitesimally, and she dropped, twisting and rolling as she slipped from its grasp. As she rolled back to her feet she saw Cal, standing behind the creature where he’d blasted it with his potent shocking grasp. It turned to face the gnome, drawing a small sword with a slightly curving blade from its belt.
A loud splash reached them as the two other diving dragonkin reached the ground, but instead of swooping to the attack, they landed hard on their backs in the muck, tossed aside by the roaring whirlwind of Dana’s summoned elemental. The elemental continued to harass the two warriors as they rose unsteadily, pummeling them with blasts of concentrated air. One of the pair got its bearings enough to start slashing at the invisible thing that was attacking it, while the other staggered off a few steps through the mud, water splashing at its ankles. Finally the sound of battle cut through its confusion, and with an angry growl it rushed toward the melee still raging a stone’s throw distant.
Lariel had drawn his attacker away from the battle, chasing after him with a growing rage twisting its features. The arcane archer moved with incredible quickness, and the dragonkin could not know that mage armor protected him as well, but it did see that all of its attacks managed to just barely miss the agile elf. Lariel, in turn, managed to nock an arrow and fire each time he got a few paces back from the warrior, and more often than not the hastily shot missile bit deeply into the dragonkin’s flesh. Finally the creature roared in agony and frustration and leapt at the elf, dropping its sword as it reached for him with its claws. For a moment it looked as though Lariel had no place left to run, but then, somehow, he had twisted through a tiny gap between its right arm, its sweeping wing, and its body, and the warrior had staggered past him. It recovered quickly, and spun to face the elf.
Just in time to catch the arrow that slammed through its open jaws, ripping out the back of its throat while a discharge of electrical energy sizzled into its brain.
Lok moved with blinding speed against his adversaries, but even the incredible damage that he was dishing out could not protect him from the inevitable counterattacks from the dragonkin that encircled him. He’d slain the first one that he’d crippled in the initial rush, but another warrior rushing down from the web had been there almost immediately to take its place. As Lok struck out with his magical axe one went down, blood gushing from the ruin of its chest, and another staggered as the follow-through sliced into its side, but Lok in turn reeled as the warrior behind him laid into his back with a mighty blow from his mace. The genasi gritted his teeth as bone crunched under the impact, and spun around just in time to see the fourth warrior raise his axe to finish what his comrade had started. Lok started to raise his shield, knowing that even with the haste, he would be too late.
But the blow never came. The dragonkin wobbled to the side as something heavy slammed hard into it from behind, twisting it around. With that announcement Gorath leapt into the fray, slashing with his heavy battleaxe and the smaller blade in his other hand, forcing the warriors to split their attentions between him and Lok. Now the flankers became the flanked, and while the dragonkin still had a lot of fight left in them, even they could not long withstand the combined attacks of the two warriors.
Just a few yards away, Benzan continued to spar with the dragonkin leader. The creature was expert with its deadly double weapon, spinning the two blades in a spinning arc that served for both attack and defense. Benzan already had suffered a pair of glancing hits that would have been far worse had it not been for his armor. He himself had only managed one effective counter, and the cut on the warrior’s arm was really little more than a scratch.
All right then, just buy a little time, he thought to himself, spitting a curse as he barely twisted out of the way of a high cut that might have sheared his temples, had he been an instant slower. The other end of the double axe was already coming around, but he shifted and snapped his blade up in a quick thrust that he hoped would throw the veteran fighter off its rhythm.
Except that as he turned, his foot caught in a dip in the ground hidden by a thin cover of wet leaves, and down he went, collapsing on his back and sliding a few feet down the slope almost to the edge of the pool behind him. He felt a cold chill as his neck dipped into the water, but that was nothing compared to the feeling he got staring up at the huge axe blade that was slicing downward toward his face, the full weight of the dragonkin warrior behind it.
* * * * *
Book VII, Part 22
The magic coursed through him at his call, but as Cal looked up he saw a shadowy form fill his vision. The shadow resolved into a dragonkin warrior as it entered the radius of light, swooping down from the trees above toward the ruin, a heavy longspear in its clawed hands. With a heavy impact it landed on the broken top of the wall, its narrow eyes fixed on them like daggers.
With an effort of will Cal maintained his concentration on his spell, fixing his attention on Lok and releasing the magic he’d summoned. He knew he would pay a price for that effort, and even before he could see if his work had taken effect he paid it. He was thrust backward roughly as the spearhead caught him in the shoulder. Grateful for the protection of the stoneskin, he felt the impact nonetheless, as pain lanced out from the point of impact into his body. At least he wasn’t run through, as he rolled back and tried to scrabble to his feet while the dragonkin raised his weapon to strike again. Behind him, Cal could make out two more forms drifting down from above, and knew that soon their problems would be greatly compounded.
Dana had not been idle since casting her daylight spell. While the battle began around her she cast her mind out in a net across the boundary between realities, using her connection to her goddess to begin a powerful summoning. For a moment her thoughts brushed something... different, a place both alien and somehow familiar, and then she found herself drawn back into the present, bringing something with her at her call. She saw the dragonkin warrior swooping down from above and had time to shout a warning, but then she had to battle the rush of power that she herself had called upon, to firm the link that she had opened briefly into another plane of existence.
At her call, the air above her warped and twisted, and shifted until a small matrix of rushing air roared in place, a storm in microcosm. She pointed and spoke a word of command—one of the few words she knew in the language of the thing she had summoned—and the air elemental attacked, covering the distance between it and the two descending dragonkin in a few heartbeats. As it reached them it formed itself into a vortex, a whirlwind that caught up the two warriors. They were too large for it to simply engulf them, but even so the two found themselves flung roughly aside, spinning out toward the Mire as the elemental drove them haplessly away from the battle.
Meanwhile, Dana had raised her spear against the creature facing her atop the wall. Her first thrust missed, and before she could withdraw and reset the dragonkin leapt at her, dropping its long weapon and lunging at her with simple claws and teeth.
Just a few paces away, the rest of the companions were locked in battle with the remainder of the dragonkin force, save those still struggling to free themselves from Cal’s web. Gorath had dropped one of the giant lizards, and the second was slowing as its blood drained from several deep gashes in its flanks. The half-orc had not escaped unscathed, though, and he favored one leg where one of the lizards had caught him briefly with the crushing power of its jaws.
The archery of Lariel and Benzan had weakened several of the warriors, the arcane archer actually managing to finally drop his target with another well-placed arrow, immediately starting on a second foe. The dragonkin warrior, however, ignoring the shaft that protruded from its hip, came on in a charge, and soon the elf was darting back, continuing to fire from point-blank range whenever he could open a little distance between himself and the pursuing dragonkin.
On the far flank, Lok had rounded the wall to face a full-on assault coming down the hill. Unarmored save for a leather vest and his shield, only the speed granted by Cal’s haste kept him from being torn apart in the first chaotic moments as four dragonkin warriors laid into him with their weapons. Even his protections could not fully save him from a glancing blow with an axe that tore a gash in his shieldarm, and a potent impact from a mace that clipped his helmet, sending stars flashing across his vision. His own strikes were equally violent, catching one of the warriors solidly in the torso with his axe and following with a backstroke that nearly ripped its arm from its body. The creature refused to go down, however, hefting its axe with its other hand while its companions pressed in from all directions.
And then the first of the leaders joined the fray, swooshing its double axe before it an eager arc.
As strong as they were, the dragonkin warriors could not be held long by the sticky strands of Cal’s web spell. Already one of those caught on the edge had struggled free and rushed now to join the developing melee, and the trapped leader had nearly emerged from the layered strands when a roaring pillar of fire blasted down from the sky, immolating them within its blazing stream. The flame strike only lasted a few moments, and when it cleared the dragonkin caught within the pillar were free, still standing despite the blackened char that marked their scaled bodies. Despite their hurts, they hastened to grab their weapons and attack.
Before they could, however, three figures entered the light from along the far edge of the pond at the base of the slope. Zev hefted his spear and cried a guttural challenge while his two dire badger companions surged even more eagerly ahead, their claws digging into the turf as they rushed to attack.
Seeing that Lok was hard-pressed, Benzan dropped his bow and drew his sword, rushing to his friend’s aid. He’d had time to slip into his coat of mithral chainmail, giving him decent protection, although he’d already seen how hard the dragonkin could hit. He did not hesitate, though, intercepting the leader wielding the double axe before it could join the bash-fest on his stout friend. As he barely dodged an incredibly swift cut of one of the razor-sharp blades, and fell back trying not to slip on the wet leaves beneath his feet, he grimaced at the adversary that had to stand at least a foot and a half taller than even his considerable height.
Of course. He had to pick the one that was big and fast.
Dana’s opponent slashed at her with its claws, testing even her considerable agility and her magical protections as it tried to snare her in its grasp. One swipe that she could not fully avoid tore through her tunic and drew lines of red across her side. Too close now to use her spear, she dropped it and drew out her kama, but before she could use it the dragonkin flapped its wings and launched itself at her. She tried to duck aside, but the creature adapted to her dodge, wrapping her in its arms as it landed atop her. She struggled, but its grasp was like iron bands engulfing her, crushing her.
Suddenly the dragonkin roared, and Dana could smell the acrid tang of burned flesh, felt her skin tingle with an almost painful jolt of energy. She took advantage of the distraction to snap her foot down into the warrior’s knee joint. It felt like she was striking stone, but the enfolding arms loosened their grip infinitesimally, and she dropped, twisting and rolling as she slipped from its grasp. As she rolled back to her feet she saw Cal, standing behind the creature where he’d blasted it with his potent shocking grasp. It turned to face the gnome, drawing a small sword with a slightly curving blade from its belt.
A loud splash reached them as the two other diving dragonkin reached the ground, but instead of swooping to the attack, they landed hard on their backs in the muck, tossed aside by the roaring whirlwind of Dana’s summoned elemental. The elemental continued to harass the two warriors as they rose unsteadily, pummeling them with blasts of concentrated air. One of the pair got its bearings enough to start slashing at the invisible thing that was attacking it, while the other staggered off a few steps through the mud, water splashing at its ankles. Finally the sound of battle cut through its confusion, and with an angry growl it rushed toward the melee still raging a stone’s throw distant.
Lariel had drawn his attacker away from the battle, chasing after him with a growing rage twisting its features. The arcane archer moved with incredible quickness, and the dragonkin could not know that mage armor protected him as well, but it did see that all of its attacks managed to just barely miss the agile elf. Lariel, in turn, managed to nock an arrow and fire each time he got a few paces back from the warrior, and more often than not the hastily shot missile bit deeply into the dragonkin’s flesh. Finally the creature roared in agony and frustration and leapt at the elf, dropping its sword as it reached for him with its claws. For a moment it looked as though Lariel had no place left to run, but then, somehow, he had twisted through a tiny gap between its right arm, its sweeping wing, and its body, and the warrior had staggered past him. It recovered quickly, and spun to face the elf.
Just in time to catch the arrow that slammed through its open jaws, ripping out the back of its throat while a discharge of electrical energy sizzled into its brain.
Lok moved with blinding speed against his adversaries, but even the incredible damage that he was dishing out could not protect him from the inevitable counterattacks from the dragonkin that encircled him. He’d slain the first one that he’d crippled in the initial rush, but another warrior rushing down from the web had been there almost immediately to take its place. As Lok struck out with his magical axe one went down, blood gushing from the ruin of its chest, and another staggered as the follow-through sliced into its side, but Lok in turn reeled as the warrior behind him laid into his back with a mighty blow from his mace. The genasi gritted his teeth as bone crunched under the impact, and spun around just in time to see the fourth warrior raise his axe to finish what his comrade had started. Lok started to raise his shield, knowing that even with the haste, he would be too late.
But the blow never came. The dragonkin wobbled to the side as something heavy slammed hard into it from behind, twisting it around. With that announcement Gorath leapt into the fray, slashing with his heavy battleaxe and the smaller blade in his other hand, forcing the warriors to split their attentions between him and Lok. Now the flankers became the flanked, and while the dragonkin still had a lot of fight left in them, even they could not long withstand the combined attacks of the two warriors.
Just a few yards away, Benzan continued to spar with the dragonkin leader. The creature was expert with its deadly double weapon, spinning the two blades in a spinning arc that served for both attack and defense. Benzan already had suffered a pair of glancing hits that would have been far worse had it not been for his armor. He himself had only managed one effective counter, and the cut on the warrior’s arm was really little more than a scratch.
All right then, just buy a little time, he thought to himself, spitting a curse as he barely twisted out of the way of a high cut that might have sheared his temples, had he been an instant slower. The other end of the double axe was already coming around, but he shifted and snapped his blade up in a quick thrust that he hoped would throw the veteran fighter off its rhythm.
Except that as he turned, his foot caught in a dip in the ground hidden by a thin cover of wet leaves, and down he went, collapsing on his back and sliding a few feet down the slope almost to the edge of the pool behind him. He felt a cold chill as his neck dipped into the water, but that was nothing compared to the feeling he got staring up at the huge axe blade that was slicing downward toward his face, the full weight of the dragonkin warrior behind it.
Lazybones
Adventurer
Book VII, Part 23
Desperately Benzan kicked out with his foot at the same time that he tried to twist his head out of the inevitable course of the axe. His boot glanced off something; though his kick wasn’t strong enough to actually topple the dragonkin, it threw the warrior off just enough so that the axe blade tore into the earth at his shoulder instead of crashing through his forehead. Still he felt pain, a sharp lance through his shoulder as the axe blade crunched the links of his mithral coat against his flesh.
He did not have time to get up; he barely had time to roll to the side before the axe came down again, and then again. Something hard crashed into his side as he rolled, and he felt something snap inside his torso.
This wasn’t good.
Somehow, he’d held his grip on his sword as he fell, and even as he rolled. Though he could not remember calling upon the power, it flowed into him now through the hilt, through the link that was so much a part of him that he no longer felt it unless he focused his mind upon it. He stopped rolling even as the axe came around and the dragonkin lunged forward again, kicked out with another boot to catch the dragonkin hard in the shin.
The blow itself had no obvious effect on the creature—apparently their bones were like iron—but as he connected Benzan shot up and away from the dragonkin, launching up into the air above the pond as if shot by a ballista. He didn’t fly far, perhaps a dozen paces, before the force of the kick was expended, but even as he started to slow he eased off the levitation power of his sword, and he landed in the center of the pool, in water up to his waist.
The dragonkin hissed at him, but barely hesitated before it came charging after him, its movements raising huge splashes of water around him as it came.
Benzan waited for it, his sword held ready above his head in both hands, like a spear.
The dragonkin caught within the flame strike formed up behind their leader and rushed down the hill toward the druid and his two companions. Zev paused, calling upon the natural energies of the Wood once more to aid him, but the badgers did not hesitate, barreling into the leader with their powerful claws digging at his torso. The dragonkin clipped the first with a vicious blow from his double axe that sliced a long gash in its back. The badgers got theirs back as they tore into the warrior. A human fighter would likely have been ripped to pieces by those claws, but the dragonkin held its ground, suffering gashes that got through the double protection of its armor and its thick hide.
The fighter’s allies swarmed around it, giving the whirling double blades a wide berth, and things quickly looked grim for the stalwart badgers. The one already wounded suffered a crushing blow to the head with a heavy mace that knocked it sprawling, stunned, while the second let out a sharp cry of pain as another warrior thrust its spear deep into the animal’s side.
The druid all but shouted the final words of his incantation, fury clear in the gnoll’s raspy voice. Even as the spell was completed Zev was rushing forward to the aid of his friends, his spear held level before him like a lance. Immediately behind the rough line of dragonkin three puffs of wispy smoke erupted out of the ground, resolving in moments into an additional trio of dire badgers. While not nearly the size of Zev’s pair, they were equally ferocious, and they immediately tore into the dragonkin warriors from behind.
The injured warrior that had driven Dana back turned on Cal, his sword darting out in cuts that should have sliced the gnome to ribbons. Would have, had he not been protected by the mantle of his magical stoneskin. The dragonkin hissed in frustration as the gnome drew back, raising a wand and blasting the warrior with an acid arrow. Dana picked up her kama and started to move to Cal’s aid, but before she could attack she was distracted by the sound of another enemy approaching from behind, from deeper in the mire. Battered by the elemental, the dragonkin was covered in mud and looked eager for some payback.
Even beaten up as it was, Dana wasn’t particularly keen on fighting it head-on. Instead, she opened her mind to the power of the goddess once more, and at her call a shimmering weapon appeared, a heavy mace fashioned from lines of translucent blue energy. The spiritual weapon darted to attack at her command, striking the warrior hard on the shoulder. The creature tried to fight it, but its counters passed harmlessly through its substance.
Dana knew that the thing would quickly realize that it could not fight the spell, and continue its rush toward her. She hastily grabbed her spear, setting the weapon just in time to meet the dragonkin’s charge.
The battle was turning in the favor of the companions. The dragonkin warriors had absorbed damage that would have slain five times their number of ordinary human armsmen, but even their incredible toughness could not keep them standing forever. Lok and Gorath had hacked most of their foes down with powerful strokes of their axes; both bore grievous wounds but neither let up as they surrounded the last warrior that had been part of that initial rush, tearing into it from both sides. The dragonkin, belatedly, tried to escape by flapping its wings to lift it into the air, but it barely managed a few halting strokes before it succumbed to the deadly assault.
Zev leapt with equal fervor at the remaining dragonkin higher up the slope. One of his badgers was down, the other bleeding from several serious wounds, and two of the warriors had turned to deal with the summoned badgers, dealing them powerful blows from their weapons. The dragonkin were hurting too, though, blasted by Zev’s flame strike and then suffering gashes from the iron-hard claws of the dire badgers. The leader hefted his axe to finish off the second of Zev’s companions, but before he could strike the druid jammed his spear into the warrior’s gut, crunching through layered armor to savage the organs underneath. The leader staggered, but did not fall, and he actually managed to lift his weapon once more before the badger embraced him in a vicious grasp that shredded his torso to ribbons.
Then, at last, he went down.
Without hesitation Zev was at the side of his fallen friend, pouring healing energy into the badger to stabilize it. One of the other dragonkin had gone down, a badger continuing to tear at its legs with its claws, and the last was already fleeing back up the slope, a second badger trailing after it. It looked like it would get away, outdistancing the animal, its wings beating to carry it faster, but then a silver streak lanced into the base of its skull, and it faltered in a thrashing heap that the badger quickly fell upon in a fury of tearing claws and teeth.
Benzan, meanwhile, faced his charging foe across the width of the pond, the dragonkin throwing up a wall of water as it bullied toward him. It would not have room to utilize its heavy weapon in the pond, but it did not seem to care as it casually tossed the double axe aside and drew a curving sword from its belt.
“Mashkak varthak, hooman,” it hissed, its eyes promising death as it closed the distance between them.
“I’m sure that means something dire for me,” Benzan replied. “Which I’d expect, since I’ve seen how you fight. Luckily for me, though, I know when it’s time to stop fighting fair.”
And with that, he called down a sphere of darkness down around both of them.
The sounds of splashing told him that the dragonkin hadn’t paused, and continued to come toward where it had last seen him. By the time it reached him, however, he was no longer there, the power of his sword lifting him out of the muck and into the air, clearing the edge of the darkness. His lips twisted into a grim smile as he heard the dragonkin cursing, its mood clear even if the words were unintelligible. The noise of its movements grew louder, unable to take flight with its body half-covered in the mud and water, and by the time it reached the edge of the darkness, heading back toward the edge of the pond, Benzan was ready.
The dragonkin fighter barely noticed the first bite, and angrily flicked the fist-sized beetle from its arm. But it could not ignore the small horde of insects, some flying, others swimming, that swarmed over it, each looking for a gap in its armor, some exposed flesh that it could sink its teeth into. The dragonkin was a veteran combatant, skilled in arms and disciplined of mind, but it was frustrated by this foe whom it had beaten, driven down into the mud, only to escape and now strike at him from a distance. Snarling, it staggered out of the swarm, reaching the edge of the pond quickly. Spinning, it raised its blade at Benzan and began to beat its powerful wings.
And that’s when Benzan struck it blind.
Desperately Benzan kicked out with his foot at the same time that he tried to twist his head out of the inevitable course of the axe. His boot glanced off something; though his kick wasn’t strong enough to actually topple the dragonkin, it threw the warrior off just enough so that the axe blade tore into the earth at his shoulder instead of crashing through his forehead. Still he felt pain, a sharp lance through his shoulder as the axe blade crunched the links of his mithral coat against his flesh.
He did not have time to get up; he barely had time to roll to the side before the axe came down again, and then again. Something hard crashed into his side as he rolled, and he felt something snap inside his torso.
This wasn’t good.
Somehow, he’d held his grip on his sword as he fell, and even as he rolled. Though he could not remember calling upon the power, it flowed into him now through the hilt, through the link that was so much a part of him that he no longer felt it unless he focused his mind upon it. He stopped rolling even as the axe came around and the dragonkin lunged forward again, kicked out with another boot to catch the dragonkin hard in the shin.
The blow itself had no obvious effect on the creature—apparently their bones were like iron—but as he connected Benzan shot up and away from the dragonkin, launching up into the air above the pond as if shot by a ballista. He didn’t fly far, perhaps a dozen paces, before the force of the kick was expended, but even as he started to slow he eased off the levitation power of his sword, and he landed in the center of the pool, in water up to his waist.
The dragonkin hissed at him, but barely hesitated before it came charging after him, its movements raising huge splashes of water around him as it came.
Benzan waited for it, his sword held ready above his head in both hands, like a spear.
The dragonkin caught within the flame strike formed up behind their leader and rushed down the hill toward the druid and his two companions. Zev paused, calling upon the natural energies of the Wood once more to aid him, but the badgers did not hesitate, barreling into the leader with their powerful claws digging at his torso. The dragonkin clipped the first with a vicious blow from his double axe that sliced a long gash in its back. The badgers got theirs back as they tore into the warrior. A human fighter would likely have been ripped to pieces by those claws, but the dragonkin held its ground, suffering gashes that got through the double protection of its armor and its thick hide.
The fighter’s allies swarmed around it, giving the whirling double blades a wide berth, and things quickly looked grim for the stalwart badgers. The one already wounded suffered a crushing blow to the head with a heavy mace that knocked it sprawling, stunned, while the second let out a sharp cry of pain as another warrior thrust its spear deep into the animal’s side.
The druid all but shouted the final words of his incantation, fury clear in the gnoll’s raspy voice. Even as the spell was completed Zev was rushing forward to the aid of his friends, his spear held level before him like a lance. Immediately behind the rough line of dragonkin three puffs of wispy smoke erupted out of the ground, resolving in moments into an additional trio of dire badgers. While not nearly the size of Zev’s pair, they were equally ferocious, and they immediately tore into the dragonkin warriors from behind.
The injured warrior that had driven Dana back turned on Cal, his sword darting out in cuts that should have sliced the gnome to ribbons. Would have, had he not been protected by the mantle of his magical stoneskin. The dragonkin hissed in frustration as the gnome drew back, raising a wand and blasting the warrior with an acid arrow. Dana picked up her kama and started to move to Cal’s aid, but before she could attack she was distracted by the sound of another enemy approaching from behind, from deeper in the mire. Battered by the elemental, the dragonkin was covered in mud and looked eager for some payback.
Even beaten up as it was, Dana wasn’t particularly keen on fighting it head-on. Instead, she opened her mind to the power of the goddess once more, and at her call a shimmering weapon appeared, a heavy mace fashioned from lines of translucent blue energy. The spiritual weapon darted to attack at her command, striking the warrior hard on the shoulder. The creature tried to fight it, but its counters passed harmlessly through its substance.
Dana knew that the thing would quickly realize that it could not fight the spell, and continue its rush toward her. She hastily grabbed her spear, setting the weapon just in time to meet the dragonkin’s charge.
The battle was turning in the favor of the companions. The dragonkin warriors had absorbed damage that would have slain five times their number of ordinary human armsmen, but even their incredible toughness could not keep them standing forever. Lok and Gorath had hacked most of their foes down with powerful strokes of their axes; both bore grievous wounds but neither let up as they surrounded the last warrior that had been part of that initial rush, tearing into it from both sides. The dragonkin, belatedly, tried to escape by flapping its wings to lift it into the air, but it barely managed a few halting strokes before it succumbed to the deadly assault.
Zev leapt with equal fervor at the remaining dragonkin higher up the slope. One of his badgers was down, the other bleeding from several serious wounds, and two of the warriors had turned to deal with the summoned badgers, dealing them powerful blows from their weapons. The dragonkin were hurting too, though, blasted by Zev’s flame strike and then suffering gashes from the iron-hard claws of the dire badgers. The leader hefted his axe to finish off the second of Zev’s companions, but before he could strike the druid jammed his spear into the warrior’s gut, crunching through layered armor to savage the organs underneath. The leader staggered, but did not fall, and he actually managed to lift his weapon once more before the badger embraced him in a vicious grasp that shredded his torso to ribbons.
Then, at last, he went down.
Without hesitation Zev was at the side of his fallen friend, pouring healing energy into the badger to stabilize it. One of the other dragonkin had gone down, a badger continuing to tear at its legs with its claws, and the last was already fleeing back up the slope, a second badger trailing after it. It looked like it would get away, outdistancing the animal, its wings beating to carry it faster, but then a silver streak lanced into the base of its skull, and it faltered in a thrashing heap that the badger quickly fell upon in a fury of tearing claws and teeth.
Benzan, meanwhile, faced his charging foe across the width of the pond, the dragonkin throwing up a wall of water as it bullied toward him. It would not have room to utilize its heavy weapon in the pond, but it did not seem to care as it casually tossed the double axe aside and drew a curving sword from its belt.
“Mashkak varthak, hooman,” it hissed, its eyes promising death as it closed the distance between them.
“I’m sure that means something dire for me,” Benzan replied. “Which I’d expect, since I’ve seen how you fight. Luckily for me, though, I know when it’s time to stop fighting fair.”
And with that, he called down a sphere of darkness down around both of them.
The sounds of splashing told him that the dragonkin hadn’t paused, and continued to come toward where it had last seen him. By the time it reached him, however, he was no longer there, the power of his sword lifting him out of the muck and into the air, clearing the edge of the darkness. His lips twisted into a grim smile as he heard the dragonkin cursing, its mood clear even if the words were unintelligible. The noise of its movements grew louder, unable to take flight with its body half-covered in the mud and water, and by the time it reached the edge of the darkness, heading back toward the edge of the pond, Benzan was ready.
The dragonkin fighter barely noticed the first bite, and angrily flicked the fist-sized beetle from its arm. But it could not ignore the small horde of insects, some flying, others swimming, that swarmed over it, each looking for a gap in its armor, some exposed flesh that it could sink its teeth into. The dragonkin was a veteran combatant, skilled in arms and disciplined of mind, but it was frustrated by this foe whom it had beaten, driven down into the mud, only to escape and now strike at him from a distance. Snarling, it staggered out of the swarm, reaching the edge of the pond quickly. Spinning, it raised its blade at Benzan and began to beat its powerful wings.
And that’s when Benzan struck it blind.
Lazybones
Adventurer
wolff96 said:
Pshaw, that was just a warm-up for next week's main event, when the companions reach the center of the Wood.
Maldur: Benzan's a bright fellow, but like Cal is sometimes lacking in wisdom. As for the "big picture," the companions will soon find themselves drawn into a locus of events that involves the Cult of the Dragon, the Zhentarim, the demon-worshipping humanoids that Guthan is involved with (and who just sacked Asbravn), the cabal of Cyricists, and ultimately, a rather worse-for-wear sorcerer...
Stay tuned! Book VII is my most ambitious in terms of a sprawling plot, and I hope it all comes together the way I'm picturing it.
Happy weekend to all.
* * * * *
Book VII, Part 24
“Damn, those things were tough,” Benzan lamented, gritting his teeth as Cal applied his healing wand to another of the several wounds that he’d suffered in the battle. “Just that one alone took enough punishment to fell an ogre. Two ogres, and not those weak ones that live down here; those barbarian ones we fought in the Ice Mountains.”
“Well, perhaps if you used your spells and magical abilities first, instead of rushing blindly off into battle, you wouldn’t take such a beating,” Cal said, checking to make sure that the wound had fully closed. A short distance away, Dana was doing the same to Garnak and Lok, while Lariel kept a careful watch, an arrow fitted to the string of his bow.
Benzan shot the gnome a hard glance. “Lok needed help,” he said. “After a few moments sparring with that guy and his weird two-fer axe, I wouldn’t have wished him on anyone.” He pointedly avoided looking at the pile of corpses near the two warriors; between them they’d slain five of the dragonkin, plus the two giant lizards.
“Well, you couldn’t have known he’d still be so quick, even after you’d blinded him,” Cal said dryly. Benzan’s eyes narrowed, as if weighing the comment to see if he was being mocked, but Cal only chuckled and turned away.
Only one of the dragonkin had escaped; the one that Dana’s elemental had driven furthest out into the Mire had survived the conjured being’s assault and flown away deeper into the marsh once the summoning spell had expired. They were all still tired, whatever rest they’d managed to grab lost in the violent clash against the dragonkin warriors, and they knew that they would have to move swiftly.
As if summoned by that thought, Zev came striding down the slope toward them. The two giant badgers trailed behind him, still looking battered despite the druid’s healing. Benzan stepped forward to meet him, ignoring Cal’s tug of warning on his elbow.
“And where were you, druid, when those things appeared? I thought you were keeping watch?” Zev fixed him with a hard stare, but the tiefling did not back down.
“Give over, Benzan,” Lariel said. “I was on watch, and long before I would have even sensed them coming, I heard a bluefinch’s warble—a variety not found within three hundred miles of here—coming from the direction that the lizards were coming. That’s how I was able to get all of you up in time before they reached us. He did warn us.”
Benzan’s expression shifted, but he did not quite yield. “And what if another of us had been on watch, someone who can’t tell a blue-whatever from a giant roc?”
“We don’t have time for this,” Dana interjected. “They’ll know we’re here, shortly, if they don’t already.”
“The woman is right. The Evil is already stirring,” Zev said. “We can delay no longer. We must either go forward, without stopping, or turn and flee with all haste. The time for half-choices is past.”
“Forward, then,” Cal said, wishing he could better keep the exhaustion he felt out of his voice. Worse, he knew that his stoneskin spell would soon fade, and there was no way to recover it again without a full night’s rest and study of his spellbook. Well, if it came down to it, he still had a few tricks left.
“Let’s to it then,” Lok said, simply, heading back to where he’d left his armor.
Zev paused to speak to the badgers, communicating with them using some druidic lore. The two animals grunted and started back toward the Mire.
“They’re not coming with us?” Dana asked, as the badgers departed.
“I cannot ask them to come farther,” the gnoll explained. “Already, they have come closer than most animals. This place is corrupted, and the taint deepens.”
The companions looked around, but none of them could see what the druid meant. The place was dark, dreary with the cold and the dampness that seemed to hang in the air, but otherwise seemed like any other forest. But Gorath nodded, as if seeing something for the first time, and Dana shuddered as she glanced at one of the hacked dragonkin bodies that littered the area.
“I suggest you dim that light,” the druid said, indicating the brilliant glow that still shone from the end of Dana’s spear. While Dana wrapped the spear in a strip of cloth torn from one of the dragonkin’s cloaks, the gnoll turned back up toward the slope.
“Remain close, and do not wander. Great danger lies ahead.”
Cal glanced at Benzan, but the tiefling seemed distracted, and no wry comment was forthcoming. Silently, the seven of them continued deeper into the Wood.
