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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wulf Ratbane" data-source="post: 276929" data-attributes="member: 94">LORD OF THE IRON FORTRESS-- Part IV (cont.)It was getting quickly worse. Toe-to-toe with the hobgoblin, flanked by dire tigers, and nearly dead from a single arrow shot, Alliane decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Casting defensively, she plane shifted back to the prime, leaving Keldas alone to face the hobgoblin and his enormous dire tigers. Enormous awakened dire tigers, as it turned out. The tiger nearest the cave muttered something about “Play time!” then grabbed the paladin firmly in his mouth. An awful sense of déjà vu washed over the paladin as the tiger yanked him out of the cave mouth and lifted him straight up into Dorn’s blade barrier. The whirling blades sliced paladin and tiger equally but the tiger had a grin on its face that clearly indicated it was prepared to take it.Apparently it was a day for the bad guys to ignore blade barriers. The huge steel predator lunged forward, ignoring the blades inside the cave, and grabbed Dorn, yanking him back into the blades as well. Using every last ounce of luck he had, Dorn somehow managed to struggle free from the predator and stagger back a few steps. He cast plane shift and was gone.Wulf saw the paladin trigger his helm and  teleport out of the tiger’s mouth. Now it was just Wulf and Keldas-- and though Keldas probably had a plane shift memorized as well, he was flying about two hundred feet above Wulf at the moment. Wulf had a few choice words about this turn of events, but unfortunately the aura of silence around him prevented these newfound profanities from filtering down to posterity. One of the smaller steel predators, already weakened by Wulf’s earlier attack, retreated back into their cave to avoid the blade barrier, but the other two and the den mother still lurked nearby, sniffing around for him. Wulf nipped out of the cave and crouched under the blade barrier. There was only one way out: right through the twisted guts of the dire tiger. Unfortunately for the dire tiger its senses were not as developed as the steel predator, and it was unable to defend itself. Wulf whisked through it like dwarven brew through an elf-- a particularly apt metaphor as Wulf emerged through much the same orifice and with essentially the same level of discomfort to the hapless tiger.Wulf waded through the shaggy remains and sprinted up next to the hobgoblin-- and yet, something made him pause for a moment. Taranak waited in his hand.Keldas had summoned a dire bear to deal with the other dire tiger, and while the two huge beasts grappled atop the valley, the wizard flew down to help Wulf. He cast haste on the dwarf, then turned and belched acid breath onto the steel predators. One of the smaller ones collapsed in a sizzling puddle, but the den mother emerged from the cave and snarled loudly. The remaining smaller predator bounded out of the cave right behind it. Much to their surprise, the remaining dire tiger turned from Keldas’ bear and leapt into the valley-- right onto the huge steel predator. While the two creatures struggled, each raking with their hind legs in a desperate attempt to disembowel the other, Wulf, ever the opportunist, stepped back from the hobgoblin to concentrate on the huge predator. His instincts were vindicated once again, it seemed; he hacked mercilessly at the huge predator and grinned with satisfaction as a volley of arrows from the hobgoblin downed the smaller predator. Unfortunately, the steel predator was better armored than the tiger had been. Only a few of Wulf’s blows actually bit deep enough to hurt the thing.The den mother finished off the dire tiger with ease, then turned and snapped at Wulf. He was caught off guard by the speed of its attack, and found himself gripped tight in its jaws. It twisted its head and held Wulf helpless in Dorn’s blade barrier.That’s going to sting a bit, Wulf thought as axe-heads whizzed and axe-handles thudded around him. But not for much longer, I reckon.Wulf squinted and could just barely make out a shape diving out of the grey sky. Karak flew into the blade barrier, grabbed at the invisible shape struggling in the predator’s mouth, and teleported the both of them to the Battlecube gate. Wulf staggered through the gate and started stumbling towards Rigus.Perhaps he thanked the paladin for his trouble, but it was swallowed by the silence.</blockquote>

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