[PurpleXVI]

Lorath, Ulik, Evon

Evon seemed to be in a cooperative mood and followed Lorath's orders without question. With his assistance, the two managed to drag the heavy Ulik down the stairs and into a bed.

The night passed without incident, and all three adventurers slept well, far better than usual, in fact, as their sleep was full of very vivid, enjoyable dreams. Ulik finally bested that accursed Thor, Lorath became a powerful and well-respected statesman, Evon did whatever Evon dreamed of doing and then they woke up. The only unpleasant part of their sleep was the waking up, the dreams were so enjoyable that it was highly tempting to just roll over and go back to sleep again.

Once they woke up, they discovered an interesting factoid about whatever world the fort was located on: It appeared to have no cycle of day and night. The lighting was the same twilight as when they had arrived and there had been no movement whatsoever in the dense cloud cover above, there weren't even any lighter patches among the clouds to indicate the position of a moon or sun.

(Lorath recovers 1 HP, 16 HP remain. Ulik recovers 9 HP, 18 HP remain.)


Tamora, Bas, Anne, Balth

The first to act was Bas, who had woken up ahead of Tamora and Balth since Anne had almost stepped on him when the first creature had leapt unto her back.

Drawing upon the spirits of the forest he mumbled a low prayer of thanks in elven before extending a hand towards the beast. As he finished his prayer, the creature was suddenly surrounded by a vivid, halo of violet fire which outlined it clearly against the darkness.

Moving with terrifying speed for a creature it's size, the thing charged at Anne, ignoring Tamora's arrow which whistled past it's hind legs without making contact. It also turned out to be smarter than the rogue had expected, as it dodged past her braced spear and came straight at her.

Letting go of her spear, Anne managed to dodge the first swipe of claws at her, but as she struggled to get her dagger out, the second attack raked across her abdomen. Thankfully it was relatively shallow wound, but the graze still bled heavily, and every move she made stretched the injury, causing quite a lot of pain.

(Anne loses 6 HP, 23 HP remaining.)

Balth had finally managed to wake up completely to the situation and get his equipment ready, and before the thing could attack Anne again, he charged at it, slashing at it's torso and interposing himself between it and the rogue, giving it a nasty gash which was visible even through the thick fur, but seemed to enrage the thing more than scare it off.

Everyone but the elf saw the creature prepare to leap, but no one managed to shout a warning before the thing was already in the air. It slammed headfirst into his stomach and knocked him on his back, almost sending him flying into Anne, who was only barely fast enough to get out of the way first. Balth kept it's massive teeth away from his face and torso with his shield, but he didn't have enough room to attack it with his sword and it's claws made a mess of his legs, digging several wounds deep enough to show bone, and making it doubtful that he was going to be walking for a while unless he received magical healing.

Balth's explosive swearing as he got hurt, accompanied by yells of, "Get this thing off of me!" assured the others that he had survived the damage he suffered.

Despite being injured, Anne could still move, and she was the one closest to the thing while it was on top of Balth. She easily jammed her dagger into the animal's lower back, but it was like hacking away at an oak table, it's hide was so thick that she was unsure she had even damaged anything important until she withdrew the blade and saw blood welling forth from the injury she had caused.

Luck remained elusive for Tamora, just as she charged in with her spear to get the creature off of Balth, it got off on it's own initiative, having been alerted to other, dangerous prey in the area thanks to Anne's dagger, and the spear met nothing but empty air. It backed off a few paces towards the river, staying out of reach of Tamora, and seemed to survey it's enemies, trying to decide who to attack first.

Bas was about to move in and tend to either Balth or Anne's injuries, but before he could do so, he was alerted to movement behind him by rustling in the trees. Turning his head, the druid saw two smaller versions of the large creature approaching cautiously, each was about four feet tall, but seemed no more pleasant than the big one as they sprinted across the clearing towards the party.

(OOC: Change of situation, new tactics requested.)

[ 03-20-2007, 10:21 AM: Message edited by: PurpleXVI ]