RP Session 4: "A Halfday's Ride

Reeling back from the horrific injury, the spider let out a defiant hiss and brought all of its massive weight down on the bloodied Corson. He was outnumbered and the burn of the spider's venom was still hot in his joints, but if he could just hold for a few more moments then Lancaelad and Tovrunn could tip the scales of his dire battle at the centre of the melee.

The monster came down, terrible hairy mandibles dripping with noxious hatred, only to thud with bone-jarring might into the tree emblazoned on the knight's shield. The enormous, alien head was close enough to Corson's face that the knight could see malignant frustration in the thing's many eyes, but perhaps also a blossom of fear?

Seeing the desperate battle in which Corson found himself, Tovrunn marshalled her energies. The towering orb of flame that had decimated the Diemen warcamp once again came forth, but this time instead of forging its sluggish but inevitable path of destruction Tovrunn redoubled her meditative prayers and the flames darted forward into the enormous spider. The creature was immediately engulfed with flame, its brittle limbs bursting and poppling like kindling as it vanished in a pall of oily black smoke.

The shaft of light that flew from celestial bow faded long before it reached the maimed gnoll however, Tovrunn's will was simply too divided to keep the missile in this world.

As the ball of flame roared into being, the vines that entangled the last of the goblins gradually fell back as if returning to slumber limp on the forest floor. With Lancaelad evening the numbers in Rhoderick's bloody melee (even as Ogre thundered after the retreating goblins with a derisive snort), the tracer bared his jagged yellow teeth in a grin, but it turned to a snarl as the spider was consumed by fire. Only two combatants remained from his little raiding party, and yet the pinkskins were hurt too.

Calculating is choices, the hooded goblin whirled his rusty glaive and thrust for Rhoderick's flank. Perhaps with half their number felled he'd make offerings of these trespassers yet.

It was clear that with the spider's demise the tides of battle were turning, and though the tracer and his gnoll entourage fought on. The tracer might have some strategy in mind, but the gnolls knew only bloodthirsty savagery. Without tactic or fear the continued their furious assaults, froth on their lips and hunger burning in their eyes.

The bloodthirsty gnoll took the bait without hesitation, and Corson's sword cleanly skewered the thing's jaw and punched out through the top of its skull. The light went out in its eyes even as it dropped its weapon and clawed at Corson, flecks of foam and blood spattering the squire's face until, with a tittering death rattle it slumped against him and slid down his shield.

If the death of their fellows and the furious warhorse descending upon them wasn't enough to convince the surviving goblins that the fight was lost then the spider and the gnoll falling moments apart was. The pair scrambled into a thorny thicket and Ogre snorted in fury as he tried to stomp his way through the web-choked brush.

Lan's weapon caught the haft of the glaive, but the tracer was fast and the crows bill found no purchase.

"Arrogant mansy-thing" the goblin sneered in its grating rasp "what goblins wins is goblin's own. Did you makes your iron, or the mountain?"

There was no choice - Rhoderick had to get away from the ball of flame that now dominated the small clearing even if the burst of speed made him vulnerable. Even as it capered back from the flames itself the bloodfrenzied the gnoll took a wild swing at him, but the flames made it impossible to make good its attack. In return the son of Nesire unleashed a thunderous report that tossed his attacker past the flames and away, but even as Rhoderick felt his spell take hold over the retreating goblin the enraged gnoll refused to leave him be and exploding in a shower of sparks through the now-smouldering undergrowth it doggedly ran him down.

Whether it was because it had once again been deafened by the voice of the storm or the continued assault of spellcraft, the gnoll wasn't able to brig its savagery to bear, and Rhoderick was able to back-pedal and catch its blow on his shield.

The burst of fire caught the gnoll, eliciting a yap of pain and scorching the flesh of its face and shoulder into a bubbling, semi-liquid mass. It turned raging, feral eyes to Tovrunn only to see its ruin bearing down on it as the ball of fire that had felled the spider claimed another victim. The gnolls screams of pain died quickly as smoke filled its throat, but it writhed and convulsed in agony at the heart of the inferno for far longer until its body turned hard and black like a mass of gnarled coal.

The tracer meanwhile, limbs stiff with resistance, turned and rushed past Lancaelad toward Rhoderick.