The blue raton set down her musket on the table. “We have a limited window of opportunity before all of clan Iadosh comes crashing down on our heads.” Roderick stepped up to the table. “What do you propose?”
“We need to get into the tower in the city itself. The Iadosh clan chief resides there. We kill him, and Iadosh will scatter to the winds. Gnolls will recognize that they are outmatched.” Firish explained.
One of the dwarven miners stepped up. “We need to move fast, they keep the children in several prison cells across the city proper and in some of the offshoot tunnels. They’ll start killing them if we aren’t fast enough.”
Firish nodded. “Rally some miners and scavenge for weapons. We’ll need squads of six men and scatter ourselves everywhere so the gnolls can’t make a coordinated attack.”
The dwarf grunted in agreement and then took off running, calling out to some of his mining companions.
Roderick smiled, “Looks like we’re getting to do a lot more than just freeing a few hostages.”
“Don’t count your ducks yet,” the raton warned. “I need your group to head into the tower with me and kill that clan chief.”
Dmahdi roared a deafening battle cry from behind Roderick, holding her halberd overhead. “Let’s kill that fucker!”
“I’ll finish organizing the dwarves, then I’ll meet you up there.” Firish said, grabbing her musket.
The city was alive with the sounds of war, gnolls and dwarves alike running up and down the streets, clashing claws and steel. The uprising made it easy for the warband to get to the tower’s doorstep. Standing guard at the entrance were two large gnolls in scrap metal armor carrying a two-headed ax. Roderick peeked out from behind a pile of discarded wooden crates. Flanking from the sides would not do much, but slow them down. He looked back over his shoulder, “Dmahdi, you and me are going to draw their attention. Once we have it, Finnegan and Roshka get through that door and find a way up. Sedel, I need you to cast protectives on us and play utility mage.”
Sedel set her staff against the exterior wall of the multi-story house, pulled out her spell book, and began quietly chanting the arcane words written within its pages.
Dmahdi tightened her grip on the halberd and readied herself to sprint. The halberd had a very pointy spear tip on it, jutting out an extra six inches from the top of the ax head. She lowered it down and pointed the tip forward. She felt Sedel’s magic wash over her and with a kick-off from her right foot, charged forward at the otherwise alert gnolls. From the dark alleyway, the armored orc came sprinting, screaming her guttural war cry. She closed the distance quickly and lunged forward, plunging the spear tip into the abdomen of the gnoll to the left of the door.
A leather-clad human followed right behind her, shield first, and threw himself at the other gnoll, knocking it into the stone tower. “On me you bastard.” He took a swing with his ax and lodged the blade into the handle of the gnoll’s ax.
Sedel continued to read from her spell book, holding out her hand as it spat out globs of colored mana aimed at her companions.
Finnegan ran forward and cracked his new nine-pronged metal-tipped whip at the gnoll fighting Dmahdi, gouging its thigh with deep lacerations.
The same gnoll flailed its ax, forcing Dmahdi to step back and pull the halberd out. It growled menacingly and swung a second time, connecting with the ax head of the orc’s halberd, driving it onto the floor. A claw from its free hand followed up and scraped the black steel armor the orc wore, but drew no blood.
The other gnoll threw his ax aside, taking Roderick’s with it. It lunged at him, tackling him to the ground. With its wolf-like maw full of sharpened fangs, both natural and carved, it bit into the human’s shoulder, digging through the toughened leather. It thrashed its head around, ripping chunks out of the leather armor and exposing the shoulder. A second bite dug into the flesh, connecting teeth to the shoulder bone, and yanked hard.
Roderick screamed in pain and started wildly punching the gnoll’s face.
Roshka swiftly approached the door but instead of going in, turned around and threw a dagger at the gnoll attacking Roderick. The blade sunk into the nape of the gnoll’s neck, causing it to reel back and release Roderick’s shoulder.
With a momentary opportunity, Roderick grabbed the gnoll’s mouth, one hand on the upper skull and one on the lower jaw, and forced them further apart. His shoulder sent searing pain to his head, but in the heat of the moment, he could briefly ignore it and push his body to its limit.
The first gnoll focused on the orc in front of it. It rushed her, checking her balance with a hefty shoulder bash. The orc stood strong and counter-attacked with a pommel strike across the gnoll’s face. The gnoll brought down his ax from on high and it collided with the shaft of the halberd. A fist came in from below and struck up the orc’s chin, knocking her off balance.
Then Finnegan cracked the cat-o’-nine-tails across the gnoll’s back, ripping off the scrap armor entirely and exposing its furry back. A second strike of the whip cut deep into the flesh and chewed through several inches of flesh, causing the gnoll to bleed more and more.
Sedel watched the whole fight from the sidelines, book in hand. The protections were working but were just not enough. She looked to Roderick and muttered a spell she’d been wanting to try. She cast upon him a muscle enhancement spell. Then she focused on Dmahdi and enchanted the blade with a crackle of blue lightning.
Suddenly, the gnoll’s jaw gave and with it, the flesh ripped away from the neck and upper chest of the gnoll as he cast the bloody jaw aside. The gnoll’s tongue and uvula flapped in the air as it spit blood and flexed its throat. It fell over and writhed in pain when its vocal cords were destroyed. It quickly died a few seconds later from shock and blood loss.
Roshka threw his other dagger at the remaining gnoll and it sank into one of the previously made gouges in its back.
The gnoll powered through the pain, however, determined to end the orc in front of it. It howled aloud and right into Dmahdi’s face, making her ears ring in excruciating auditory pain. It lifted its leg and kicked the orc square in the chest, knocking her backward and prone. Immediately after, the gnoll’s ax swung downward and bit into the chest piece. Then the gnoll let go, leaving the ax there, and followed up with a stomp. It hit the back of the ax head with such force that it split the metal armor open, dug the blade into the orc’s chest, and cut into the bone of her ribcage.
Finnegan then realized the whip simply wasn’t doing enough and threw himself at the gnoll instead. He hopped up onto its shoulders, locked his legs around its neck, and grabbed the ears with his claws, yanking backward. It forced the gnoll to step onto its back foot and lose focus. Finnegan then dragged his claws across the side of its face.
Roshka leaped forward and tucked into a ball, impacting the back of the gnoll’s knee. The gnoll buckled and fell onto its back, forcing the tip of the dagger to pierce deeper and poke out of the chest of the gnoll. The gnoll coughed up a large amount of blood.
Dmahdi stood up and ripped the ax from her chest. It hurt a lot, almost causing her to double over. However, she stood tall, crude ax in hand, and brought it down into the gnoll’s bare chest, killing it outright.
Sedel stepped out from the alleyway, fishing through her satchel for the healing potions she’d stashed away, feeding one to Dmahdi and another to Roderick. It was enough to fix everything, but it kept them both battle worthy. Rolling the corpses over, Roshka reclaimed his blood-soaked daggers.
The tower door opened easily enough and inside was a treasure-laden room with a set of spiral stairs going upward. It was all the gold and valuables the dwarves had in the city, and it was all stacked carelessly into massive loot piles. They took the stairs upward to the third floor and entered through the doorway. The room was no larger than the first floor. It had a large dining table covered in blood and gore, which seemed to have once been the limbs and bodies of cooked dwarves.
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Standing on the balcony like a proud iron-fisted ruler watching its empire crumble at its feet, was a massive ten-foot gnoll with a muscular definition that made Dmahdi look like a toothpick. The gnoll had missing chunks of its dark yellow hyena-patterned fur. In its place, had scarified tattoos of unknown shapes. It had thick steel gauntlets that reinforced its fists, and steel pauldrons of dwarven make were strapped to the gnoll’s shoulders via a leather harness. Steel plates reinforced its haunches.
It heard them enter, but did not turn around to greet them. Instead, it stood there, looking over the city as the sounds of a slave revolt echoed all around. The gnoll spoke in almost perfect common. “You come into my home, feed these,” he scoffed and gesture at the dwarves down below. “Slaves false hopes of freedom in a world that would eat them alive if given the chance.”
The warband stood silent in the doorway, trying to figure out how this gnoll was so massive and how it knew the common tongue.
“Thezec would have them all starve in the mines, under the lash of the whip. I showed them mercy, allowed them nightly rest, warm meals, even weekends to spend with their wives and families.” The gnoll reached out to the wall on his left and pulled from its mount a pair of massive curved stone great swords with runes on them, similar in style to the ones on the gnoll’s back. They glowed an eerie blue hue, as if imbued with magic unknown to them. “I assume you all are here to challenge me, to usurp my throne.”
Finnegan and Roshka had moved out to the flanks of the room during the gnoll’s monologue, lying in wait for the command to strike.
Roderick walked forward, shoulders pulled back, weapons in hand, and his head held high. His breath was shaky, but his voice held firm in the face of the greater threat before him. “While you live, the dwarves can’t live a life free of suffering.”
The gnoll turned around and hung his head low with a heavy sigh of disappointment. He lifted his lips, revealing a mouth of sharp fangs, but hesitated on growling at them. “I should at least show a warrior’s courtesy, challenger,” the gnoll said, bowing to Roderick. “I am Therrg Siltnose, chieftain of Clan Iadosh. If you want to liberate these people, mount my head in the city square and blow the horn.” The gnoll pointed to a big ivory horn that was mounted on a display rack. “The clan will hear the summon and gather. They have trained to hail whoever mounts my head on a pike as the new chieftain.”
This confused Roderick. The gnoll showed a degree of civility that caught him completely off-guard, furthermore; it told him what to do with his body. He then asked, “Why tell me this?”
The gnoll stood upright, “Because you lot,” he then pointed to the Tasaki and Racoon-kin on the opposite ends of the room, “Patiently waited instead of ambushing me. As I said before, I will show you a warrior’s courtesy.” The gnoll then took up a battle stance. “Come at me, challenger, let us do battle and give the gods a good show.”
Roderick raised his shield and ax and braced himself. The gnoll dashed forward and took a swing at him with its massive cleaver. It impacted the shield, and the runes flashed brightly, discharging an electrical current. Roderick stood firm. A second swing from the gnoll’s offhand knocked the shield out of the way and carved a slice through his leather armor. A jolt of lightning coursed through him, zapping him and causing his heart to skip a beat.
Sedel gripped her staff with both hands and channeled her magic into it. A sphere of visible sound distortion formed around the gnoll’s head. Then a pulse of mana surged through her arms into the staff, and the distortion suddenly expanded with a thunderous clap.
The gnoll recoiled from the ear-shattering thunderclap and, in response, muttered a simple phrase in gnollish barks. Magical chains shot out from the floor and grasped Sedel’s arms and her staff.
Dmahdi roared to life and sprinted toward the gnoll. Halberd held out. She swung wide with a great heavy cleave and dug the ax into the gnoll’s calf. The orc pulled back and thrust the spear tip forward, only to have it knocked aside by the gnoll’s great sword.
Finnegan and Roshka ran into the fray from the flanks, closing the encirclement on the gnoll. Finnegan cracked his whip on the gnoll’s shoulder, drawing blood and tearing off clumps of flesh. Roshka planted a dagger in the gnoll’s rear.
The gnoll howled in pain and screamed to the heavens, “Thezec! Dominate their will!”
Roderick fell to one knee, unable to control his body. Finnegan and Roshka also fell to their knees, immobilized.
The gnoll drove down his stone great swords into Roderick, the first splitting a wedge into his shoulder, the second cutting deep into his side, spilling blood across the stone floor like a broken wine cask.
Roderick’s face suddenly washed of all color and his body fell limp and hit the floor with a heavy and audible thud.
Dmahdi went wide-eyed at the sight of Roderick’s lifeless corpse slumped and bloodless on the floor. She tightened her grip on the halberd and screamed even louder than the gnoll, “I want to rage!” She swung wildly and recklessly, landing a solid dig into the gnoll’s chest. She put all of her strength into her arms and physically threw the gnoll several feet back and away from her immobilized teammates. “This is personal,” she spat those words with venom and ran up to the gnoll with fiery rage in her eyes. The orc threw the halberd aside and threw herself at the gnoll, arms open wide.
The gnoll, however, responded with a punch of the hilt to her jaw and knocked her to the floor, “A valiant try, orc.” He walked over to Finnegan and Roshka, who were motionless in a kneeling position. “Thezec will love your souls,” he plunged his blade into Finnegan’s back. The stone great sword passed completely through the tasaki, splitting his torso open. A second swing removed the fox’s head from his shoulders.
Dmahdi stood up, blood boiling. “You said you would show us a warrior’s courtesy. Killing the immobile is not a courtesy, wretch!” She ran up to him and kicked him in the knee. The gnoll buckled and fell to a kneeling position, eye to eye with Dmahdi. She raised her fist and socked him square in the jaw, shattering bone. She then brought up her leg and hard kicked the gnoll in the side of the head with the steel toe of her sabaton. Then the orc brought both of her fists together and slammed down onto the gnoll’s head.
The gnoll responded with a swing of his sword, scraping it across the orc’s plate metal armor. The impact, however, still staggered her back a foot or two. He stood up, threw both of his great swords down, and snapped his fingers, breaking the holding spells on Roshka and Sedel. “You throw a good punch, orc. But not good enough.” He brought up his iron-clad fist for a solid uppercut to Dmahdi’s chin, which knocked her back and flat onto the floor. He stomped his foot down onto the orc’s lower leg.
Sedel, free from the magical shackles, cast another spell, throwing an orb of acid at the gnoll which also covered the surrounding floor in a sizzling ooze.
A tear strolled down Roshka’s face. He picked up his daggers and threw one after the other at the gnoll, landing both into his side.
A loud bang erupted from the doorway, and gray smoke wafted into the room. Standing at the doorways was a steel-blue raton with a smoking musket in hand. She drew a smaller flintlock from her belt holster and fired it at the gnoll. Both golf-ball-sized shots landed in the gnoll’s chest, staggering him and wounding him greatly. He turned to the raton guest with a toothy grin. “The pest makes herself known.”
Firish affixed a bayonet to her musket, charged forward, and plunged the triangular blade into the gnoll’s gut. She stared daggers at him and spoke, “I waited six years to do this.” She twisted the blade and ripped it out of him, leaving behind a gaping, bloody hole.
Dmahdi was slow to stand up. Her damaged leg made it hard to use because of the searing pain it was in. She picked up the whip that Finnegan dropped and cracked it on the gnoll. The bladed tips on the edge of the whip chewed through the soft flesh and fur. The whip was doing little to harm the gnoll, and she cast it aside, opting to continue their fistfight instead. She got up close to him and head-butted him in the chest.
The gnoll responded with a heavy elbow slam into the orc’s back, followed up with a swift kick. The gnoll pulled the daggers from his back and cast them aside as well, but kept his focus on the orc. He picked her up by the throat and lifted her above him. “You are truly an unrelenting force. Thezec may still have a place for you.”
Roshka was hesitant to get up close to the gnoll after seeing what feats of strength it was capable of. He picked up the pike that Finnegan used. It was unbalanced and long and it felt horribly awkward in his paws. The reach on it was what he liked, however. He thrust the pike forward but missed the gnoll. After sidestepping the second thrust, he switched to something different.
Sedel once again channeled all of her mana into her arms, forming another sphere of auditory-induced distortion around the gnoll, but it was stronger this time. The surrounding air exploded with a thunderous clap and this time, caused him to bleed from the ears. He keeled over, holding his hands to his ears, trying to make the ringing stop.
Dmahdi had a moment of opportunity and punched the gnollish chieftain wildly and recklessly. The first strike hit him in the gut, the second across the face, and the third into his nose. The third strike echoed with a crack of the gnoll’s skull as blood leaked out of his nostrils.
Firish dropped her musket and switched to a cavalry saber she had sheathed at her side. With a flurry of slashes, she produced a dozen fresh cuts across the gnoll’s chest, breaking the leather harness that held his cast iron pauldrons. The armor slumped to the floor with a loud clang. The raton remembered at the last minute that she had a third gun on her. She quickly drew the blunderbuss and pressed it to the gnoll’s neck, pressed the trigger, and watched as a couple dozen metal pellets peppered the gnoll.
Despite being gravely wounded, he was not yet down and out. He slapped the blunderbuss out of the raton’s hands and took a swipe at her with his massive metal fists. The hit staggered her but was significantly weaker than his previous attacks on Dmahdi. He turned and backhanded the orc.
Sedel shouted, “Dodge this!” From her hands came a massive sphere of explosive fire. Upon impact, the gnoll was lit aflame.
Dmahdi picked up the halberd with several heavy and exhausted breaths. She raised it and brought it down upon the gnoll with as much strength and force as she could muster. The ax head dug into the skull and traveled downward, cleaving it in two.
The gnoll slumped down to its knees, dead.