The large Korak quickly went to engage the other Gnolls. He saw that Ewtain had his fight well in hand, as the Gnoll that he was fighting was bleeding from several cuts, and Ewtain was unscathed. Vultressant and Vanya also focused on the remaining two Gnolls, but neither had any real chance of shooting a Gnoll without hitting one of the others. It turned out to be unnecessary. When Maroftis entered the fray, the Gnoll with the spear couldn’t fend off all three of them, and it went down quickly. Ewtain was also able to finish off his Gnoll, and they all started looking around, expecting incoming creatures.
They were now all able to hear more Gnolls approaching from the west, and the larger Gnoll was nowhere to be seen. Taloc and Isla were trying to stop the bleeding from their respective wounds, and the others tried to get into a defensive position. Vanya was looking all around to try to spot anything advancing on them, but she too saw nothing. Her night vision ability and the dim ambient light allowed her to see quite well, so whatever was coming was still a good distance away.
“Should we run?” Vanya asked. “We should have time to get around the hill before they get here.”
Taloc had finished bandaging himself with an assist from Ewtain, and he downed his healing potion for good measure. He quickly looked around and said, “I think that we should try to take out the leader before they arrive. He seemed to be giving the Gnolls tactical instructions, and without him, they may be more manageable.”
“He was giving them instructions,” Vultressant confirmed. “I think that Taloc’s right, and we don’t want to end up fighting them all at once.”
The others agreed, and they quickly made their way to the camp using the campfire as a directional aid. When they arrived, the hulking Gnoll sprang out from the crevice in the hill that it had been hiding in. It carried what looked to be a two-handed morningstar, but the creature was large enough that it only required one hand to use the weapon. They could see that its head resembled a hyena with some wolfish features to it. It let out a screeching howl and raised its free hand. Ewtain yelled “Duck!” just before a nearly gale-force wind struck the charging party, knocking most of them backwards; a few of them went down completely.
Vultressant watched as the wind scattered the wood from the campfire, reducing the light that it had once emitted. His personal shield flared blue when the wind struck him, but the shield protected him from being thrown back like most of the others. Ewtain, who had dropped to the ground a moment before the spell was cast, had also managed to maintain his ground.
Vultressant’s mind was formulating methods of casting the wind spell himself, but he needed to focus on the task at hand. He pumped mana points into his shield, which had been reduced to 10 HP of protection out of its maximum of 50 HP. The recharge rate was 30 HP per minute, so he would need a full minute to be able to withstand another wind spell.
Ewtain got up and was the first to advance towards the Gnoll leader. He closed on the beast very quickly but had to duck under the forceful swing of the morningstar when he arrived. He was unable to land a strike himself, but he distracted the Gnoll enough to allow the rest of the group to approach without another wind spell—or possibly something even worse—hampering their charge.
The creature was much taller than any of them, so Vultressant aimed a fire bolt at it high enough to not risk any sort of friendly fire incident. The Gnoll was taking another swing at Ewtain and had turned enough to have the bolt hit him in the shoulder instead of his chest, where Vultressant had been aiming. Its shoulder erupted in flames, but the Gnoll just hit its own shoulder with its weaponless hand as if swatting a mosquito, and the flames were quickly extinguished. Vanya had come to the same conclusion that Vultressant had, and she also aimed an arrow above Ewtain, but her shot went wide as the Gnoll moved down to make an attack just as she released the arrow.
The other three approached it in the hopes of surrounding the larger opponent, but it used the terrain of the hill, specifically the alcove that it had been in previously, to keep the fighters from getting behind it. With her shield now equipped, Isla took a defensive stance. She was the most heavily armored of the group with her chain mail shirt, but she was still wary of the large morningstar—that weapon looked like it might not have difficulties with any armor type. Maroftis was less cautious, and he swung his sword wildly in an apparent attempt to get the Gnoll to focus on him. Taloc had taken a spear from a fallen Gnoll and was thrusting it between his comrades when given the opportunity. He was unable to easily fight alongside them given the close quarters that the fight had taken on, but he was able to land a few solid stabs using the long polearm, and this kept him further away from return strikes.
The group was making progress, and other than one good hit to Maroftis’ shoulder, no one had suffered an injury other than the initial damage from the wind spell, but time was ticking as the other Gnolls were fast approaching. Taloc, with his heightened senses, and Vanya, with her Elven ears, heard the newcomers first. Taloc alerted the others and instructed the casters to move to avoid whatever Gnolls were approaching. Isla disengaged from the captain and positioned herself to intercept any incoming Gnolls that were headed their way, since the Gnolls would surely make short work of the two casters if they were left unprotected. She remembered that Vultressant carried a dagger, but she didn’t think that either had any aptitude for any sort of melee weapon fighting. The skills really did bestow on the players the ability to fight with the weapon of their given skill. Vultressant had even tried to practice with a sword back at the Anuran village, but he was like a child facing an adult when he sparred against any of the four who actually had skill with a hand weapon.
The morningstar of the enormous Gnoll started to glow; the creature spun around, with the weapon stretched out and spinning. It caused the melee combatants around it to fall back or risk being pummeled by the heavy weapon. Ewtain successfully dodged away, but the other three were dealt blows from the weapon. Maroftis was knocked back to the ground behind him, Taloc took a glancing blow to the side that staggered the large man, and even though Isla thought that she had been out of range of the weapon, she was forced to defend herself. She was able to divert part of the force away with her longsword, but she was caught by a blow to the shoulder of her sword arm. Her weapon flew to the side, and she quickly retrieved it. She saw some incoming Gnolls and broke off to intercept them; the Ranger followed suit.
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Vultressant landed another bolt of fire, and Vanya missed with another arrow. The Gnome noticed that the arrow made an erratic move just before it reached the Gnoll, and he determined that it must be some form of magic at work. He thought that wind magic was the most likely given the movement interruption, but he didn’t know enough about the magic system yet. Vanya looked frustrated, likely since she usually didn’t miss from a range this close, so Vultressant called out to her. “Vanya! Help Taloc and Isla. The captain is using magic to stop your arrows.” Recognition showed on her face, and she abruptly turned and scanned the area for a potential approaching target.
Vultressant could now hear the approaching Gnolls behind him, but he remained focused on the captain. His bolt of fire spell was doing some damage, though not as much as it had on the smaller ones. Every hit also forced the Gnoll to swat at the flame, and this either delayed a strike by the Gnoll or allowed Ewtain and Maroftis to get their own hits in. The captain was slowing some, but so were Ewtain and Maroftis. Both of his companions had already been in a fight, and Maroftis had taken a hit to his side when Isla had disengaged.
The captain yelled what Vultressant interpreted as “Base formation. Scout to others.” He knew that there was more to it, but his understanding of the language was still pretty basic.
Vultressant heard the sounds of battle behind him, but he remained focused on the captain. His personal shield would notify him if anything hit him from behind, and it was now back up to maximum protection. He unleashed another bolt of fire that he’d been charging, and it struck the captain in the neck. This allowed Ewtain to get in a sword strike while the Gnoll was distracted. Vultressant went to prepare another bolt, but he found that he did not have enough MP to cast it again. He was only at 10 MP, so he triggered his enhanced mana regen ability. That fully replenished his mana pool, and he powered up the spell for another bolt shot.
Both of his next two bolts of fire had connected, and it looked like the big beast was beginning to wear down. The captain’s red HP bar indicated that less than 10% of its HP remained. The special spinning move had left the captain fatigued as well, and Ewtain saw an opening and called, “Hurry up if you can!” Vultressant was charging another spell when Maroftis dove into the captain in an apparent attempt to tackle it. He received a strike to the back for his trouble. Maroftis went down in a heap, but the Gnoll was knocked severely off-balance, and Ewtain was able to throw a dagger that stuck deep into its neck. Vultressant immediately followed with a bolt that struck it in the face for good measure, but it appeared that Ewtain had already killed the creature.
Ewtain made a quick check on Maroftis, who was at least moving, before turning to go help the others. Vultressant turned to see Taloc and Isla fighting four Gnolls. There were three others on the ground with various wounds and arrows sticking out of them. These were presumably dead, but he saw that Vanya was also down with a spear stuck in her leg. There was no Gnoll around her, so he thought that the spear had likely been thrown.
Vultressant sent a bolt of fire at a Gnoll that was attempting to flank Isla. She no longer had a shield out, and she was using the longsword one-handed in her shield hand due to a shoulder injury to her other arm. Ewtain arrived shortly after the bolt hit and quickly took that Gnoll out of the battle. Ewtain was truly deadly, and due to his ability to avoid most of the attacks, he didn’t have the same hesitation that the rest of the group did when entering melee combat.
With that Gnoll down, the party finally outnumbered the Gnolls. Without their leader giving them advice, inspiration, or whatever it was doing for them, the Gnolls were no match for the party, even in its reduced form. With Ewtain there to cause havoc and press the enemies, Taloc and Isla were able to finally go on the offensive, and they were able to finish off the remaining Gnolls.
They were all breathing heavily; this confrontation had been much more taxing than the quick ambush that they had easily won, and three of them were injured and in need of attention. Ewtain went back to check on Maroftis, and the other three went to help Vanya. Maroftis had certainly suffered the worst injury of the two, but his regeneration ability would help him recover. Vanya, on the other hand, still had a spear stuck in her leg. Despite her own injury, Isla readied some strips of cloth to use as bandages for the leg as Taloc prepared to take out the spear. Vultressant knew little of these things, but he did know that if an artery was hit, it was likely that she would bleed out. He sat down next to her, and she gripped his hand tightly in hers. When Taloc pulled the weapon free, she screamed and passed out from the pain. Vultressant held her as Isla applied pressure to the wound and wrapped the leg.
“I think that one of them ran off just before they made it to us,” Taloc said.
“The captain told them to go scout for the others, or told a scout to go or something,” Vultressant said as Vanya roused in his arms. She was crying and a little pale, but she looked fine otherwise, as far as he could tell.
“We can only hope that he sent them looking for the group that we already killed,” Taloc replied. “If there are more out there, we’re in trouble.” He looked around. “I don’t know if Maroftis can travel, but can you walk, Vanya?”
Vanya looked up at him and said, “I had hoped that I would never hear those words again.”
Taloc looked confused for a moment before realizing what she was referring to. “Oh, crap! Sorry about that.”
She waved him off. “It’s fine.” She moved her foot back and forth and said, “Well, I can still wiggle my toes, so I’m good.” She looked up at Taloc. “If you mean ‘can I walk right now’, then probably not without help.”
“It looks like you did some good work with your bow there, Vanya,” Vultressant said as he stood up and offered her a hand.
“Thanks,” she said, taking the hand in both of hers and pulling herself up using only her good leg. She put an arm around Vultressant’s shoulders to prevent herself from having to put any weight on the injured leg, and he put an arm around her waist to stabilize her. She was nearly half a foot taller than he was, but he bore her weight without effort. “I finally got the bow skill to level, and it did it twice,” she said, smiling at him.
Vultressant squeezed her against him and said, “I’m glad that you’re all right, and grats on the skill.”
Vanya hugged him, but then she looked around and said, “Could someone grab my arrows? I have another quiver that’s full in my inventory, but I don’t know how long it will take us to get to Ildul.”
“I’m on it,” Isla said, going to retrieve arrows. She was using both arms, so her shoulder injury must have been minor.
“Thanks. Also, could someone give me their healing potion? I didn’t keep one for myself.” Vultressant handed her his potion, and she thanked him and drank it down.
“You might want to keep a potion on you, Vanya,” Taloc said. “You can administer it to someone who goes down or make sure that you have it if you need it. Priority one is keeping the healer alive.” She nodded, and Taloc gave her his to store.
tore.