NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Horacio" data-source="post: 427849" data-attributes="member: 82">Book VI, Part 22As so often happened in the chaos of battle, everything seemed to happen at once, with warriors drawing their weapons, casters uttering the words of their magical spells, and everyone trying to get the jump on their adversaries.The row of cloaked figures that had moved up behind the companions pressed closer.  Three of the smaller ones, each about Cal or Pel’s size, threw back their cloaks to reveal scaly, rust-colored skin and reptilian features.  Kobolds!  Three of them hurled fat objects at the companions.  Benzan easily dodged the slow-moving missile, but Pel, already in the middle of a spell, was hit with a flat plop.  The nature of the attack became immediately evident as a thick, gooey mixture burst out of the bag all over Pel’s body.  But the gnome druid, focused entirely on his spell, ignored it. “Tanglefoot bags, watch out!” Benzan cried, as he turned to face the rapidly advancing Watchman.  The third tanglefoot bag struck the ground at Valor’s feet, bursting all over his legs and rooting the magical hound securely to the ground.  The dog struggled to get free, but all his efforts accomplished was to mire him further in the glue-like mixture.  The other three cloaked forms also moved swiftly to the attack.  Another short one was revealed to be a fourth kobold, but instead of throwing another bag it pointed at Pelanther, uttered a mystic phrase, and a sickly glowing green bolt materialized and shot toward the druid.  The missile hit the gnome in the chest, burning with magical acid.  Somehow, though, Pel managed to keep his concentration even through that painful assault, continuing the difficult incantations of a potent summoning.  Another of the cloaked forms unlimbered a short bow and started firing arrows.  A long shaft darted toward Cal, narrowly missing him as the missile glanced off of the deflection aura maintained by his bracers of armor.  Cal, meanwhile, was not idle, casting his always-reliable haste spell.  Suddenly his movements seemed to blur as his speed increased dramatically, and he took advantage of the magical enhancement to cast another spell, one of his potent new enchantments.  He felt a crinkling sensation all over his body as the protection of stoneskin settled in around him, making him almost invulnerable to physical attacks.    That was reinforced a moment later, as a second arrow shattered harmlessly against his body.  The final cloaked figure, the one that was larger than Benzan, rushed forward, his cloak swirling out behind him as he moved gracefully to the attack.  He was a half-orc, clad in a rough vest of thick hide, armed with an axe and shortsword.  The half-orc charged silently toward Pelanther, who was just finishing his spell, but before he could reach the gnome Fenrus leapt into his path, growling an angry challenge.  The half orc lashed out with his blades, the axe connecting with a solid gash to the wolf’s torso, but Fenrus in turn latched onto him with a vicious bite to the shoulder, twisting and dragging the warrior roughly to the ground in a jumble of limbs and fur.  Meanwhile, on the opposite flank, the Watchman met Benzan, the two exchanging a series of swings with a loud clanging of metal on metal as their swords connected.  Any doubt that the man was in fact a member of the Watch were extinguished as the warrior pressed his attacks, his smoothly executed moves clearly reflecting the styles taught in the training yards of Castle Waterdeep.  He was good, but so too was Benzan, the tiefling himself a veteran of countless battles against a wide assortment of deadly foes.  Benzan managed to get one stroke through the Watchman’s defenses, thrusting his blade into the man’s shoulder.  He wore armor under his faded surcoat, an undershirt of mail links, but Benzan’s bronze sword was sharper than the best smith’s craft could hope to make it, and it’s magically-keen edge tore metal to dig into the flesh beneath.  The warrior staggered under the blow, but he did not hesitate in launching another attack, favoring his wounded side as he pressed Benzan with a skillful series of feints and thrusts.  And Benzan could all too clearly see the trio of armored gnolls that emerged from behind the fortification, hefting huge axes as they cleared the narrow opening and rushed toward the battle.  “Company coming!” he yelled in warning to his friends, as two of the gnolls broke off and rushed toward Pel and Fenrus, while the third moved to flank him.  No, he wasn’t going to fall for that one.  Well, not again, anyway.A globe of pure darkness suddenly appeared around the Watchman and Benzan, completely blocking all light.  The gnoll pulled up in surprise, wary.  The sound of metal striking metal issued once more from within the darkness, then only quiet came from within.  The gnoll didn’t see the faint blur that crept around the edge of the darkness; Benzan’s ring of shadows kept him well hidden.  The tall creature let out a cry of pain and surprise as Benzan’s sword slammed hard into its side, tearing up through a gap in its armor into the organs that the mail was supposed to protect.  The gnoll staggered a few steps back, then went down in a heap.  Benzan turned just in time to meet the rush of the Watchman, as he came out of the darkness into another series of attacks.  Pelanther finally finished his spell, and with a small explosion of smoke and light a pair of wolves appeared in front of him.  He’d heard Benzan’s warning, and turned to see the two gnolls bearing down on them.  He pointed and issued a low growl, and the two wolves leapt to the attack.  He glanced over his shoulder to see if Fenrus needed any help.  The giant wolf had his opponent pinned, the half-orc unable to get up with the larger creature tearing at him with his massive jaws.  The warrior was still fighting back, thrusting upward with his sword and scoring a glancing cut across the wolf’s thick neck.  Fenrus, however, had stamina to spare, and with a single vicious lunge latched his jaws on the burly half-orc’s neck.  Satisfied that his companion had his fight well in hand, Pel turned to the two gnolls.  His summoned wolves were exchanging attacks with the two creatures, but one was already slowed by a brutal gash from one of their greataxes.  Pelanther had a spell that could greatly enlarge animals, one of the most potent magics in his inventory of spells, but he was reluctant to unleash it now against a mere handful of gnolls.  Instead, he drew his scimitar, and with a gnomish battle cry charged into melee.  The tanglefoot goo covering his body slowed him down, but it couldn’t stop him entirely.  One of the gnolls tried to take a swipe at him, but he easily dodged the clumsy stroke.  His own blade clove upward into the gnoll’s side, staggering it, and a moment later one of the wolves hamstrung the gnoll, driving down in a thrashing heap to the ground. Cal, meanwhile, was facing off against the four kobolds, one of whom was already proven a spellcaster.  The other three had quickly spread out and moved to flank him, attacking with a cool confidence that he wouldn’t normally have associated with the diminutive reptilian creatures.  Even as they leapt to attack, drawing small swords from their belts, Cal drew out one of his wands and unleashed a blast of blinding colors at them.  He caught only two in the blast, and when the colors faded the kobolds were down; stunned and disoriented, but not unconscious as he had expected. All right then, tough kobolds, he said to himself.The third creature didn’t hesitate, rushing up and sticking his sword into the gnome.  He might as well have been attacking a stone wall, as the blow was turned by his stoneskin.  The spell didn’t however, turn the acid arrow that slammed into him a moment later, blasting into his side with a rush of hot pain.  “So, that’s how you want to play?” he shouted.  He lifted the wand in his other hand and returned fire with his own acid arrow, catching the kobold sorcerer squarely in the chest, ignoring the hit that he took from the kobold adjacent to him in the process.  The sorcerer let out a thin screech but didn’t retreat, even as the acid continued to burn into his body.  Cal, meanwhile, tucked one of his wands back into his belt, and drew his sword.  Benzan continued to fence with the Watchman, exchanging blows with the warrior.  Or rather, taking the occasional hit that failed to penetrate the excellent protection of his mithral chainmail, while in turn landing strikes with his magical blade that tore through the significantly lesser armor worn by the guardsman.  It could only end one way, but the warrior neither sought retreat nor begged quarter, pressing his attacks more aggressively even as he took more damage.  Finally, he left himself wide open with a final desperate lunge, and Benzan finished it with a single stroke of his blade.  “Persistent bugger,” Benzan said, as the man crumpled before him.  Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of movement behind the embrasures of the defensive wall.  But no attacks were forthcoming from that direction, so he turned to lend aid to Cal against his kobold adversaries.  But the battle was already approaching conclusion, and the outcome was already evidently clear.  One of Pel’s summoned wolves had gone down, but the druid and the other wolf were making short work of the last gnoll.  Fenrus’s opponent had ceased resistance.  The enemy archer had apparently seen the writing on the wall, for he had turned and fled back down the corridor.  The kobold sorcerer, however, remained, although his last ally was rapidly being beaten down by hasted attacks from Cal.  Benzan arrived in time to finish him off with a single thrust from behind, and then the tiefling turned to the two blinded foes that Cal had stunned earlier.  “Yield!” Cal shouted to the kobold sorcerer.  “You are defeated!”But the kobold only shouted the words of another spell.  In response, a thick cloud of vapors started to form around him, the beginnings of an obscuring mist that would presumably cover his retreat.  That plan didn’t quite work as intended, as Fenrus darted into the gathering mists, and a single loud ‘crunch’ could be heard from within a moment later.  Benzan, meanwhile, finished the last two kobolds, who were no match for him in their blinded state, and with that the battle was over. The companions gathered in the center of the room, somewhat bruised and battered but otherwise hale and ready.  Benzan was the only one who had not taken any damage in the brief melee, but between them Cal and Pel were able to rapidly restore all of them to full health.  It took them a little more effort to free up Pel and Valor from the tanglefoot substance, but they finally did that as well.  Meanwhile Benzan took a quick look behind the defensive wall, and reported that the area beyond was now empty.“There was one more back here, I think, but he’s obviously high-tailed it out of here.” Benzan said.  “We can expect more of them pretty soon, I suspect, if they’re as organized as that guy said they are.”“Kobolds, gnolls, a human, a half-orc,” Pel was saying.  “And I think that archer that fled was an elf, if I’m not mistaken.  An odd alliance indeed.”“Still, I find it difficult to believe that Nelan and his friends came this way and didn’t run into them,” Cal said.  “Ready for us or not, we’ve got to investigate.”“So it’s rushing blindly in again, eh?” Benzan asked.“Hardly.  A little... preparation, first, is in order.”And they gathered around him, while he outlined his plan.</blockquote>

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