RP Session 4: "A Halfday's Ride

The first of the gnolls' arrows buzzed past Rhoderick's ear like an angry hornet, but the second's timing was blessed, and it caught Lancaelad squarely in the flank, passing beneath his shield as the knight roared a challenge. The arrow tore a gash in the soft leathers the knight wore beneath his armour and left his ribs exposed where the ruined mail now hung loosely from his belt.

Pushing swiftly past Lan, Corson marched up to the more injured of the gnolls and made a lunge for its stomach. Waiting until the towering creature bent forward to pull away from his lunge the knight of the wodes changed the angle of his thrust, slicing up and into the now exposed chin.

The blade, grimy and tarnished was kept lethally sharp and it bit deep into flesh and found bone, leaving the gnoll a gory flap of hanging flesh where its lower jaw had been. The thing staggered back, canine eyes wide enough that he could see the white ring at their edges, but then its gaze snapped to the warrior's face and it shrieked a gurgling laugh through its ruined mouth, spitting flecks of blood over his simple green surcoat.

The four surviving goblins meanwhile began to circle, retreating from Tovrunn's unnatural thicket to place it between themselves and their foes. The pair with bows sent arrows towards Rhoderick and Lan as the gnolls had, while the spear-armed survivors readied themselves to answer a charge with deadly force.

The gnoll caught the blow on the ragged piecemeal of its armour and managed to stagger clear of the lance's tip, it was glancing but then in the heat of battle all blows were until they weren't. Meanwhile the great spider, easily the side of five men, looked lethargically at the melee breaking out with eight glittering eyes. As ogre thundered by the creature finally decided to move, and with frightening agility it lunged forward leaving the goblin that had been perched on its back dangling from, the vines.

Corson stood a few yards ahead of the monster arachnid, and it slammed its vast bulk into him even as the gnoll spat its hyena howls back at the knight of the green.

The incandescent warrior's bolts both flew true. The enormous spider, intent as it was on Corson who at least for now seemed too canny for it, scarcely seemed to notice the arrow that grazed over it's bulbous abdomen but the nearest of the goblins took the arrow full in the throat even as it waved its spear threateningly at Lancaelad. It died without a sound at its fellows feet.

Now separated from the spider, the bent tracker dropped from amongst Tovrunn's vines but his feet became quickly ensnared. Opting not to struggle further, he spat the words of his spell again and sent an arrow of flame after Tovrunn even as she ducked behind a stack of web-wrapped boulders.

Nesirie was ever listening, and though his opponent caught the blow of the mace on a bracer and turning it aside, the goblin's wince showed Rhoderick that he was beginning the long and familiar process of wearing foe down. The goblin leader snarled and hefted his spear from amongst the brambles. Even as he did the gnoll off to the warrior-priest's right, either sensing its master in danger or simply hungry for a foe, charged into Rhoderick with a cackling howl.

Its fellow with the ruined face, chest already a mass of steaming gore, began raining berserker blows down on Corson.

The colossal spider was a simple creature, and Corson's lightening fast riposte at its feet was clearly not what the thing was expecting. It stumbled back a few steps, off balance and clattering its mandibles in frustration.

The cluster of wounded goblins meanwhile maintained the cover of Tovrunn's spell, circling to the east and once more loosing their arrows at Lan as he wheeled Ogre about. The single survivor with the spear digging his weapon's shaft once again into the earth again a charge. All three glanced back towards the woods as if measuring their retreat.

The remaining spear-wielding goblin had prepared itself against an assault, and as Lan wheeled Ogre around and drew his pick the creature jabbed at him even as the mounted warrior loomed over the horribly wounded trio.

The spider meanwhile scrambled back to its many feet, its barbed feet skittering across the forest floor. Once it had regained its balance the malevolent arachnid once more brought its terrible mandibles to bear.

Still hopelessly trapped by the thorns Tovrunn had conjured, and now beset by Rhoderick, the Spider's Tracer hefted his glaive but instead of lunging at the heavily armoured Nesirite he began hacking at the virulent mass of vines and roots about his feet.

Even as Rhoderick landed a staggering blow against the trapped goblin, the gnoll to his left continued its savage assault. Its fellow, though growing sluggish with blood loss, did the same against a staggered Corson who was struggling against the venom of the enormous spider.

Marshalling near all that he had left in his Corson lunged forward, hacking clean through the foremost of the spider's legs. The limb tore clean away in a spray of foul arachnid ichor and the monstrous frame juddered, staggered, but would not fall.

Meanwhile, faced by Lan and his raging behemoth of a warhorse the remaining pair of goblins broke for the forest the way they had come, ducking easily under his swings as they fell back. Were they fleeing or seeking out a better spot from which to launch their devious attacks? Or perhaps fetching reinforcements? It was hard to say.