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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 562078" data-attributes="member: 143">Book VII, Part 21His exhaustion temporarily forgotten, Cal sprang up from his bedroll, already clutching at the neat bundle of gear that he’d stashed under the blanket against his body.  He’d laid his components and wands where they would be within easy reach, but it took a few moments for him to fully shake off the web of sleep.  He could only just make out shadows that would be his companions, barely distinguishable from the deeper shadow that was the wall.  He saw a dark form move around the edge of the wall and started, only to realize that it was Gorath, the ranger.  He did not know how late it was; the sky above was shrouded by the forest canopy, and likely overcast anyway.  “Where is Zev?” he asked softly. “There’s no sign of the druid, or his pets,” a voice came from beside him.  Benzan’s voice.  Behind him, Cal heard a soft cough, recognizable as Dana.  She wouldn’t be able to see at all, he realized, but between Benzan, Lok, and Gorath’s darkvision, they would be able to detect any threat.“What is it?” he asked.  Looking around, he saw that Lariel had truly gone, probably to scout whatever it is that they had detected.  “Dragonkin,” Gorath said.  “At least a dozen.  They’ll be here in moments.”  “I can turn the night into day,” Dana said.  “It should disorient them, but the sudden change will be startling to you, as well.”  “Very well,” Gorath said.  “Await my signal, then hurl your magic.”Cal was already spellcasting, summoning his protective stoneskin once more.  Even as he finished, though, he could hear sound from beyond the wall, in the direction of the slope that led up out of the marsh.  The noises were faint, but clearly audible; the sound of bulky creatures making their way through the wood.“Do they know we’re here?” Benzan asked, fitting an arrow to his bow.  The arrowhead glowed slightly, as if anticipating bursting into flame when drawn by the magical bow.  Lok, as well, had his heavy bow ready, although he had not had time to don his plate mail.  Cal silently cursed himself; he should have cast the stoneskin on the genasi warrior.  He reached for his magical lute, intending at least to summon some mage armor. As his fingertips brushed the instrument, everything seemed to happen at once.  Lariel suddenly appeared, leaping around the uneven edge of the wall, his bow ready in his hand.  A harsh shout shattered the night’s quiet, and a loud hiss, and the steady noise turned into a rush that drew toward their position.  Benzan leaned around his end of the wall and fired, even as Lariel did the same at the far end.  Gorath had his axes in his hands, but he held his ground for the moment, as did Lok, although the genasi shifted to a break in the wall, where he could fire his bow at the attackers.  Dana’s voice filled the confined space, calling upon the power of her goddess, and Cal closed his eyes, knowing what would come.  Even with his eyes closed, the glow that erupted was almost painful in its contrast to the darkness that had been there a moment before.  Dana held up her spear, which now glowed with the brilliance of a hundred torches, transforming night into day for a sixty-foot radius around them.  Blinking to try and adjust his light-sensitive eyes to the sudden light, Cal dodged forward and crept around to the broken edge of the wall behind Benzan’s shoulder, giving him a glimpse of what lay beyond.  The gentle slope running up from the ruin and its adjacent pond was brightly limned by the light of Dana’s spell, the thick trunks of the trees forming long shadows behind them.  There were a good dozen dragonkin warriors, all clad in armor and bearing a variety of large weapons.  Two of them stood apart, large even for the hulking dragonkin, and both carrying doubleaxes that Cal suspected he would not even be able to lift.  Leaders, then; just wielding those weapons without cutting yourself required no small amount of skill.  Accompanying those two was a pair of massive pony-sized giant lizards, plodding creatures that wore thick leather collars connected by leashes held by the two leaders.  The light had caught the creatures off guard; several had stumbled and were shielding their eyes, and the general rush had paused momentarily as the warriors tried to adjust to the magical brightness.  But they adjusted quickly, the leaders hissing orders to the others in their own strange tongue, and releasing their leashed charges to trudge down the slope toward the ruin, their forked tongues tasting the air before them as they came.  Holding off on the mage armor for now, Cal quickly summoned the trigger words of another spell, feeling the familiar energies course through him as he called upon the arcane powers that he’d long since mastered.  At his call a dense field of magical webbing sprang up out of nowhere, a sticky latticework anchored between several of the tall tree trunks that spotted the slope.  The web spell spread out in a circle roughly forty feet across, catching several of the enemy in their embrace.  One of the leaders managed to dodge free before the spell fully deployed, but the other found itself stuck, hissing as it tore at the strands with its considerable strength.   Arrows tore into the other warriors even as they resumed their charge, but while many of the shots found their targets, the dragonkin were possessed of an incredible fortitude that allowed them to shrug off hurts that would have incapacitated a human warrior.  Even so, they could not ignore all of the damage that the companions could dish out; even as the webs appeared one staggered as Lariel shot a fourth arrow into it, electricity flaring around the edges of its metal breastplate as the magically enhanced arrow bit deep into its torso.  On the other flank Benzan shot a flaming arrow into another warrior’s chest, punching through its armor.  The dragonkin roared but seemed more angered than hurt, hefting its two-handed mace above its head as it charged forward toward their shelter.   Gorath hurtled the wall in a single smooth leap, crouching for a second atop the slippery surface before he leapt, axes flashing, at one of the giant lizards.  The creature’s head rose just in time for the first blade to bite deeply into its snout, and it reared back, blood jetting from the vicious wound.  Its fellow did not hesitate, snapping its powerful jaws at the half-orc ranger, but Gorath tumbled forward with the momentum of his leap, narrowly dodging the attack, and came up with both axes slashing at scaled flesh.  While Lariel and Benzan kept up their barrage, Lok dropped his bow and hefted his axe and shield, charging around the edge of the wall to meet the dragonkin charge.  Cal grimaced in frustration—he’d been prepared to cast his spell from the magical lute, but it required a touch to work—but switched instead to another enchantment.  This one would help Lok just as effectively, as well as helping him dish out more damage.  The syllables spilled out from his mouth, triggering his familiar haste spell.  Lost in the magic, he didn’t hear Dana’s shout of warning, nor did he see the shadow from above until it was too late.</blockquote>

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