The Triad

Round 1 Player Phase!

Alalla and Erevain charge forward under a hail of arrows from Zenithral. While Alalla lays into the nearest slaad with her flaming longsword, Erevain feints forward as if he's about to attack the same opponent - but at the last moment rolls to the right and brings his humming blade up into the corpulent belly of another of the slaadi. The elf then rips the blade free with a peal of arcane thunder, spins about, and lands a second hit on the third monster. Each wound sparks with radiant light. (Erevain deals 17 slashing, 17 thunder, and 8 radiant to slaad 1, and also 14 damage to slaad 3)

Halla's form blurs as in seconds she becomes a behemoth of a lizard, with a towering neck and equally long tail. She takes a mighty step forward and turns her body, bringing the enormous tail swishing around to slap at the slaadi. As strong as this form is, it doesn't seem particularly quick, and the slaadi manage to avoid the blow.

Alalla's foe shows little fear of her fire as the two battle, and the flames only blacken its gray skin rather than truly burn it (the slaadi are resistant to elemental damage). The slaad brings its greatsword up high and slams it down with frightening strength, but Alalla easily matches its muscle as she blocks. Blades grating against each other between the two combatants, the slaad opens its jaws to tear into Alalla's arm, but a quick turn of her wrist turns the monster's head to one side, leaving a gash on its face for its trouble. With a wounded roar, the slaad punches forward with its weapon, bruising Alalla's cheek with her own hilt (Al takes 11 damage). Just then, Zenithral's arrow pierces the slaad's knee, and as the missile explodes with magical energy the slaad's limb crumples. The toad-man's gibberish curses are cut short as Aribeth appears in the fray, the half-elf leaping to slash a clean line across the slaad's throat. As it burbles, only searing divine light pours from its mouth, and it drops dead to the tree-floor (Aribeth deals 22 lethal damage to slaad 1).

The remaining two slaadi seem to care little for their fallen ally, and from the hungry glances they cast the corpse's way, the heroes have little doubt that if a fight were not at hand the monsters would be feeding on their own dead. One of the slaadi wetly cackles out a spell, heedlessly dropping a fireball at its own slimy feet. The fire blossoms outward and bites at every combatant - as well as at the portal behind. The portal reacts poorly to the spell, and its colors swirl faster. Multicolored feathers spray out from the portal and magically affix themselves to the nearest creatures' faces (Everyone takes 19 fire damage, or half on a DC 14 Dex save).

The slaadi guffaw gleefully at the chaos of it all, beards included. Though they took some damage from the fireball, their wounds begin to close (Slaadi 2 and 3 each regain 10 hp from Regeneration). One of the toad-aliens throws itself into another spell, this one of supernatural fear (Everyone must make a DC 14 Wisdom save against fear or be affected by the Fear spell). As it croaks out the arcane words, a second, more melodious, voice joins in with its own spell as Fenthick moves forward. The half-elf holds high a holy symbol of Tyr, the Maimed God: a set of scales resting upon a warhammer. The symbol glows, then passes its luminescence on to each of the companions. "Heed not its foul speech, friends! Stand strong in our cause!" (Fenthick casts Bless on everyone but himself)

Round 2 Player Phase!!