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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 565133" data-attributes="member: 143">Happy new year, everyone!* * * * * Book VII, Part 22The 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.</blockquote>

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