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Chapter Two: Bilal's Menagerie

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"Er. Well then." Kitrin is obviously taken aback, not having expected anything like this. At the snake-girls' last taunt, however, she comes back to herself and snarls back, "No incentive for holding back, then!" She whirls her flail, changing aim at the last minute to twine around one of Sarissa's swords.


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She then shifts her arc to catch Sarissa's second sword as well.


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Sparkle the pseudo-dragon soars above the wagons farther to the south. The little old dragon takes to the current of the wind, fully camouflaged in the night, spying upon the things below. In moments, she finds herself wishing she had stayed in bed.


By Arumgorath's diabolical tooth! What is that thing doing out of the Underdark? Sparkle twists and arcs through the air as Pecker chirps crazily at her. "I know that, you flitting, flapping fish-monger!" she replies. "Now go and warn Wolf already!"


Luna! Our problems have grown largely! Do you remember what an umber hulk is? But a short distance south of you, Wolf seems to be talking to one! Talking! But he and Powerpaw are completely unaware of the blasted hydra just south of them! And it's coming their way! Luna knows well that Sparkle has run into many a supernatural horror and magical creature in her time - she is least happy with the "sub-dragons" like hydras and wyverns - but she has good enough sense to give them wide berth.


Seven heads! Or more if you don't know what you're doing...


Speaking of not knowing what you're doing, where did Charmsring's little half-elven offspring hide away to? And do you want me to investigate further south? Something is making an awful moaning sound down there.





That half-elven offspring is but a short distance away...

...from the huge and hungry reptilian monster, but it has yet to notice the stealthy rogue. Otiorin knows his cover from the wagon is key to this. And while Otiorin's attempt to perceive dangers around him was not as informative as it normally is, the same cannot be said for another in his vicinity...


"You! How did you survive the Beast?!" Otiorin knows Bilal the Rich's voice when he hears it. The silk-clad merchant waddles behind the hydra enough to use it as cover, dragon-headed rod in hand, and just in the right spot to see Otiorin in his hiding place. Bilal is sweating in the heat of the night and not at all comfortable as he was in the plush comforts of his wagon, yet despite the corpses and fire, he does not seem displeased.


"And here I was, certain that I had lost you. Heh, heh, heh... Perhaps fortune has not forsaken me after all!" Bilal taps the hydra on the tail, aims the magical rod directly at Otiorin, and shouts one very frightening word:


"FETCH!"





The hydra immediately drops the half-munched corpses in its mouths to the ground as all seven heads turn and look towards Otiorin. Then the thing starts to lumber northward toward him, and as it does so, Otiorin gets the chance to act.


"Initiative," one fellow rogue in the half-elf's past once told him, "is who gets to think about survival first! Wouldn't you agree?"


Wolf approaches the umber hulk...

...as Powerpaw holds his ground. The furry warrior lowers his hammer, but not his massive shield. "Wolf-face, what iz you doin'? You mean you kin talk to buggy-face here?" He muses and watches Wolf closely with narrowed eyes and raised whiskers, but he does not attack.


The umber hulk faces Wolf, towering over him. Two of those hooded eyes open to become four, and it is in that hypnotic gaze that Wolf's reality slowly becomes something unreal...


Bria smiles and puts her hand on Wolf's forearm and hands him a bellflower. "Don't worry, Leonard," she says softly, angelically, in a tone that completely believes, "we will be all right." When did Wolf share his first name with the beautiful Ko monk?


Wolf looks down. And there at his feet, a dozen baby Powerpaws run about with plush two-handed hammers and thick pillows swinging on Wolf and each other. Their playful snarling and mewing is cuteness incarnate. Suddenly, they all look up, reach for him and say, "Daddy-faaaaaace!"


The wagons all about Wolf become trees and the night fills with great stars, one of which is falling, falling out of the cosmos to earth, faster than stars should. Yet all is a'right.


And in that moment, Wolf somehow senses his mare quietly leaving this world, finally succumbing to her wounds. She rides along with horses gone before her and joins a holy herd of like-minded equines, all together, all peaceful, all racing off into the night sky and into the heavens.


And all is still a'right.


Then Wolf feels a large, furry paw upon his other arm. Wolf looks up. Powerpaw is sixty feet tall, his teeth the size of lances, his eyes are full of violence, but not toward Wolf. "Wooooolf-faaaaaace," he says as if speaking through a great horn. "Shake it off nooooow. We haz a Bilal ta kill an' other adventures ta take on togethers..."


The umber hulk closes its greater pair of eyes and some force releases Wolf, ending the vivid power of confusion, leaving Wolf reeling in its wake.


The umber hulk's feelers move, its mandibles clacking as it communicates. "My caverns call. The Underdark is waiting. All who attempt to stop me will be laid low. But not you." The umber hulk turns to move on toward the edge of the forest where the gnolls have gathered in force. You see it lower its head and narrow its eyes in preparation for battle.


"Wait, wait!" Powerpaw shakes Wolf in an attempt to fully clear his senses. "Iz you talkin' to buggy-face here? We waz all Bilal's prisoners, right? It only helps Bilal if we fights each others. We all want outta here. Mebbe he kin helps us a little against Bilal?"


Wolf then hears Pecker tweeting madly from just above him. It is at this point that Wolf finally regains full control of himself. And he hears Pecker chirping.


"Fly, Wolf, fly! Dragon-thing coming! Dragon-thing comiiiiiiing!"
 
"Ha!", Otiorin laughed, the gay sound of his mirth a clever fallacy to cover the mounting panic in his body, "How apt that a corpulent, lumpen, troll-faced betrayer like you should fight your battles from behind the backs of other, more noble beings!"


He laughed again, before ducking back around the caravan he'd been sheltering alongside.


"I hope your coffers are deep, you lard-licking, waddling ox-turd, because come daybreak, I'll have made sure your entire caravan is little better than matchwood and ashes!"


As he moved, he switched Moonlit Edge for the Cudgel of the Wayfarer. If he could outflank Bilal and his pet beast, then he could dispose of that accursed staff the merchant brandished with such malice.
 
Luna feels a chill go up her spine. An Umber Hulk and a Hydra! Good Gods, can this day get any worse? "Sparkle, I'm heading back to help with the hydra. If Wolf is talking to the umber hulk, perhaps he will be able to keep it from attacking us. Keep a high watch, especially on the woods. There is a threat out there and once it reveals itself to us, I have a feeling that it will require all of us on deck to deal with it." As she talks, she turns and sprints at top speed, trusting in her magic boots to help her get enough speed to get to the others in time.

Current memorized spells:


Cantrips: Ray of Frost, Mage Hand, Read Magic, Detect Magic


Level 1: Shield


Level 2: Scorching Ray x3


Level 3:


Force Missiles x3
 
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When Wolf shook off the last bits of the vision to see the beast turning to go his first thoughts were to question it further. Momentarily he was interrupted by the falcon raining warnings from above. He looked up in an attempt to locate him, but more out of habit than anything else - it would be damn near impossible to spot the bird against the night sky. He was somewhere right above though, judging by the sounds he made. The ranger thought he saw a circling shape for a moment, and then again. Must have been Pecker.


Dragon thing? A dragon? Now? What are the chances, I wonder?


Wolf is about to shout something at the umber hulk, tell him to wait, ask him about the Underdark, but thinks better of it and remains silent. Makes peace with the giant's departure back to wherever it came from. And in a split second tenses again, realizing how royally dumb it would be to miss out on an opportunity to at least try to find out more. So since he managed to get on neutral terms with the animal, and was thus unlikely to be swatted like a bothersome fly, he talks to it again. For better or worse, that is...


"But wait!" He says to win back its attention, then adds for good measure: "Oh, great one! As one last act; would you honor this hunter with a revelation? I wonder at the nature of your being, for all things of the wilds are my passion."


The words came out quick, with less deliberation, but something else prowled Wolf's mind even as he spoke. What exactly happened between him and the giant beast? The vision... Was it a vision? Surely, it had to be... But was there something else to it?
 
Inside the Grand Wagon, Bria's prepared condition does not come to pass, so she watches silently and with some tension and Kitrin's flail yanks one of Sarissa's swords to the floor. Kitrin's flail snakes out to reach another but this time, Sarissa parries the attack. She shakes her blonde locks and giggles with a serpentine hiss. "Time to prepare our meal..."


The three begin to weave and curl near Kitrin, smiling down on her with gleaming fangs and glowing, malice-filled eyes. And they chant together in an awful devilish tongue, the sound of which makes the hair on Kitrin's neck rise.


"Sssseeeri aspriiiii cassattaaaa!"


The trio twirl and twist in a sultry, wicked well-practiced dance of curving motions and outstretched jaws. The longer the dance goes on, the higher they chant their evil wish. Kitrin suddenly gets a feeling that time is not with her and Bria's side!


Sparkle streaks through the night like a black arrow...

...and turns in the air, spying and scanning, lurking and looking. Luna! The gnolls... They have the entire caravan surrounded except for on the road itself! The Road of Kings is the Road of Blood and Fire! And... what is this?


There is a pause.


I have found him! Or them I should say. Are Otiorin and Bilal are playing some kind of game of cat-and-mouse around a wagon? Seems that the hydra is doing most of the chasing! I daresay Otiorin has somehow succeeded in yanking Bilal's chain, not that it was a wise decision to perform alone. But still, Bilal is like a fat old duck in the middle of a Haste spell! Look at those fat feet go! He might get around the hydra and get to Otiorin first at this rate!


Pyri, should I keep an eye on Otiorin, or investigate farther south, or return to you?





The umber hulk pauses...

...and its look to Wolf is unsettling. The behemoth narrows its eyes at Wolf. And then it calmly replies in the language of beasts both high and low.


"I am but a dewdrop from a quiet dream, a gazing shadow in the black and cold. This yawning sky is too high for me, so I will tread the dark like my kin of old."


Then it pauses a moment more. "Revelations, you ask? Here. Two of the things you have seen have come true or shall soon."


At that moment, four identical Lunas run up and see the umber hulk, Wolf, and Powerpaw. Powerpaw sees the Lunas and points excitedly at the umber hulk. "Hey Luna, check out da buggy-face! He looked at Wolf an' he got all drunk an' stupids for a moment!"


The umber hulk looks to the three Lunas for but a moment. Then it watches the fires, the wagons, the corpses, and the trees. Especially the trees. It seems to be looking for the nearest way out of this chaotic scene.


Otiorin's words have a cutting edge all their own...

... and their effect is nothing less than keen!


"What?!" The merchant screams in a high-pitched childish tone, not unlike that of a spoiled four-year old. "How dare you insult the merchant of merchants with such tones! I'll show you!!" As if the seething, snapping hydra chasing the half-elf was not enough, Bilal cups one hand and shouts, "Guardians! Guardians! Come and take this fool down! Five-hundred pieces of gold to the one who brings him to me!"


And not too far away, Bilal receives an answer from the battle.


"HO!"
 
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Luna continues to run, but calls out to Wolf and Powerpaw. "Otiorin has found Bilal, but he's in trouble! There's a massive hydra on his tail, and who knows what other evil that fat merchant has up his sleeve! Hurry!" Through the link with Sparkle, she sends, Guide me to the hydra! Otiorin is skilled, but he will need help to take down this monster!
 
Wolf watches the umber hulk in silent contemplation. But the situation is pressing, and there's yet another monster at large.


A hydra. Finally get to see one in person.

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The ranger bows slightly to the behemoth and says: "I am familiar with this area. If you seek the deep underground, I believe the fastest way would be South, through the rest of the caravan. Surely one of your size would have little trouble trudging through the petty ranks of those who are already deserving of your vengeance! Either way, I wish you well, great one." He pauses a moment to observe his reaction, and then turns to sprint after Luna... Lunas, all of them, and assist with the hydra.




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Otiorin stood wide-eyed for a moment, like a rabbit in a car headlights before back-pedaling rapidly. The hydra came on like an avalanche, seven heads lashing out on seven necks like a bosun's lash. He weaved and feinted, keeping a safe distance between himself and the mighty beast. His mind raced, trying to remember something, anything, about hydras. The words of his tutors drifted across his memory and he grasped at them, hoping for wisdom. Otiorin Taletreader, will you return your attention to this lesson! The things I am trying to drill into your deficient brain might one day save your life! Now, the greatest weakness of the hydra is blah, blah, blah, yak, yak, yak. Dammit. Okay, so that was doomed to failure.


"Grimdell's Guardians, you are betrayed! Bilal the Oathless intends to use his beasts to slay you all before you reach Highwind to save from paying you your due reward. He seeks my death only because I learned the truth and sought to warn Grimdell. Seek out your captain, if you don't believe me!"


Regardless of what the Guardians did, Otiorin knew what he had to do. He raised the cudgel in his left hand, pointed it at the stave in Bilal's hand and said, "Justice be done, you bastard!"
 
Kitrin isn't sure what to do. These snake-girls aren't casting the way normal people would! Well, maybe a smack in the face still interrupts... even if it doesn't, it'll at least soften them up for next time! She slips back into that cautious stance and twists in a graceful dance of her own, each swing heading right for Sarissa. 'Cause she's there.

Invoking Combat Expertise feat again. AC is 27, touch AC is 16.
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Before Kitrin gets the chance to unleash her flail, the door on the far side of the room swings open, and out comes Stewart. He rushes toward you as quickly as he can. He appears to be carrying a brown leathery satchel. His face is full of determination and his feet are as quick and quiet as he can make them. The "sssistersss" do not appear to hear him coming as they focus their dark magic upon you.


Stewart comes up behind them, pulls a golden something out of the bag, and Sarissa suddenly ceases her casting. With serpentine alacrity, she spins at him. Her sword flashes through the air as she stabs. "Urrrk!" Kitrin knows a critical strike when she sees one. Stewart cries out and doubles over as Sarissa's sword enters his thin chest and protrudes out of his back.


"Fool! Did you not think we would hear the likes of you sneaking up on usss?"


Stewart falls to the floor. A small golden item rolls out of his satchel and rolls to a stop between the hissing snake-women. Sarissa notices and reaches for it, but Kitrin launches her attacks bloodying the dancer's face not once, but twice. At the same time, Kitrin hears from behind her.


"Asteallo verris!"


"Ssstrike me, will you?" the snake-hag spits from a twice-bruised mouth. "I will feast on your bo-"


Then the sisters notice a glow underneath them. This is followed by a meowing sound like a kitten beneath their feet. And Kitrin sees a small, golden cat-idol there. Without warning, its eyes shine like the sun and the snake-women fill the entire room with hellish screams of pain. A feline roar great enough to make grown warriors tremble drowns out their screams before it subsides.


"No! No, please!" They beg and plead but for naught. The sunlight from the exotic cat idol consumes them all until nothing is left but their six gleaming long swords.


Bria peers from behind Kitrin. "Oh my! What in the world just happened?" She recovers from her shock quickly and fetches a towel from the rack. She walks for Stewart who is face-down in a puddle of his own blood. She does not hurry.


Bria kneels down to the servant and says, "Oh, no! We have a clean up in the pool room! Mister Stewart? Would you like a towel, sir?"


Stewart stirs and groans. Then he looks up to the two of you. "How... did you know I was alive?"


"Well, there are two answers, but you'll relate easiest to the second," Bria winks and slowly whispers. "You were breathing, sir."


"Was I?" Stewart sighs and grins most appreciatively. "Oh. How fortunate for me... How very, very fortunate you both chose to come along with me..." Then he slumps against the floor in exhaustion.


[B]Luna runs as fast as her magical boots can carry her...[/B]

...as Sparkle guides her from above. Head between the wagons. Powerpaw will be on your right and Wolf just after him. Remember - do not look at the umber hulk's face. Luna dashes between the wagons and is soon with two of her fellow Wardens.


Then many things happen, one after the other...


The umber hulk clicks and clatters, but only Wolf and Pecker know what it means. "Also to you, Man of the Wood. Leave this place. And soon."


Then the umber hulk lumbers southward, making the best speed that it can. Off toward the lush woods it goes. Two gnolls emerge from the brush and draw their axes hesitantly. One glance from the umber hulk and one of the gnolls grabs his cohort's muzzle and bashes it with his shield. His cohort whines in pain and surprise. Then the two are battling each other as the denizen of the Underdark vanishes as quickly as one of its kind can into the safety of the forest. The night swallows the creature and it is gone.


As it leaves, Wolf, Luna, and Powerpaw suddenly feel the earth tremble beneath their feet. Powerpaw exchanges strange looks at the two of you as his expression asks, "Am I imagining the earth is shaking? Are you feeling this too?" But it is no dream. From around the next pair of wagons comes the seven-headed hydra, its huge feet shaking the ground, its terrible jaws crashing all about. It seems to be chasing something or someone - a quick and nimble figure you recognize as Otiorin. He is just ahead of the creature; in his hand, the Cudgel of the Warden.


Voices from the woods bark and cry and carry on. You hear them getting louder and louder. "Goh suul khar! Goh suul khar!" The chant begins and every gnoll voice alive joins it. Every gnoll you see makes for the woods, even forsaking their wounded to the swords of Grimdell's Guardians further south of you. They are raising their paws to the sky. Their chilling chant fills the night with the promise of something dreadful.


Otiorin makes his way around the wagon. Powerpaw, Wolf, and Luna see the crazed form of Bilal the Rich just behind the great hydra. He is running, his reddened face full of fury, or all the fury an insulted merchant in his shape can muster. "I'll get you!" he is screaming. "I'll get you and you will pay!"


Then Otiorin warns,

"Grimdell's Guardians, you are betrayed! Bilal the Oathless intends to use his beasts to slay you all before you reach Highwind to save from paying you your due reward. He seeks my death only because I learned the truth and sought to warn Grimdell. Seek out your captain, if you don't believe me!"
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From the rear of the caravan, there is a reply. "Their captain is here!" Grimdell, his black beard dripping with blood, emerges from the smoky haze about you. Like a lion, he leads his host of battered and grinning mercenaries against the fleeing horde of scampering gnolls. The fires of the wagons and bloody earth he treads upon add a menacing look to the warrior and his gore-stained men.


Bilal the Rich hears him and whirls about. He screams, his voice like an evil pipe in the wind. "Grimdell! Fetch the half-elf! I want his neck across my knee and I will pay handsomely for it!"


Grimdell is about to reply when a squad of his men come from around a wagon - a squad freshly-bandaged, fed, and ready for combat march quickly to rejoin him.


"By the Saint! Where in the Abyss have you been?"


"Captain!" His squad leader replies with an expression of pure amazement. "It was almost three-to-one! We were dead men! That adventuring party saved us from the gnolls! The elf, the woodsman, the sorceress, the little warrior, the giant hell-cat, and your new girlfriend! They broke and burned the gnolls upon us. They saved our lives!"


"My new girl-" Grimdell scowls then smiles at his fellow, happy to see him and his squad alive. "You sons of whorefiends, form up on me! Back to Summerset we go, and through the gnolls! Kill any that bar our way!"


"What?! Your contract firmly sta-"


Grimdell aims his halberd at Bilal. "Fat bastard, you offer stained gold! You would have me kill people that saved the lives of my men. Blood is better than coins, you conniving peddler." The red captain glares and grins at Bilal as he aims his halberd to the woods. His united men pour forth as one - a clanking, shining host of steely-eyed warriors on their way off this battlefield to find another.


"To hell wi- I demand you get back here this instant! Eighty-thousand gold is a lot of-" Bilal the Rich shrieks and stops, waving his dragon-headed rod about. But by pausing in that fateful moment, Bilal loses his rod, his fortune, and his life.


Otiorin races around the wagon and catches the fat merchant out in the open. And here, with the snarling hydra hot on his heels, Otiorin acts:

He raised the cudgel in his left hand, pointed it at the stave in Bilal's hand and said, "Justice be done, you bastard!"
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"Justice be done..." echoes another voice from nowhere. It is filled with fondness and complete satisfaction. It is the last time you hear it.


For the second and final time, the Cudgel of the Wayfarer hums and trembles in Otiorin's hand. A beam blacker than Bilal's soul fires out, striking the merchant's coveted dragon-headed rod. Bilal screams like his hand is on fire and the rod quakes like a thing possessed. Then it is still and suddenly quite ordinary-looking.


"No.... no! My magic rod! You fiend! My dancers will take care of you!"


He quickly slips off one of his rings, a single onyx band that appears to be three circles joined into one. He grasps it with all of his strength. "Sarissa! Meleen! Phyria! To me!" He stares at Otirion like a man drunk with power. "Rip the skin off of this fool's frame! I demand his blood! By the pact, I command you!"


But the ring does nothing...


Bilal the Rich slowly, weakly, turns toward Otiorin. He aims his rod at the half-elf still. Then his eyes rise to the thundering thing that has finally caught up to his prey. Luna, Powerpaw, and Wolf see it too. The hydra's seven heads snap and thrash as the terrible beast ignores the half-elf, and storms straight at its former master. Otiorin has just enough time to leap out of its path before he is crushed by those massive reptilian feet.


In a chorus of screaming and hissing, the hydra sets upon Bilal the Rich like a great green tidal wave of flashing teeth, its every eye filled with vengeful lust. The merchant's shrieks are awful to hear. First, his hand is snapped off, followed by the elbow on his other arm, and then a leg. Piece by piece, the hydra dismembers the man as cruelly and as surely as a savage creature can.


Thus ends Bilal the Rich and his menagerie.


[B]Moments later...[/B]

...Otiorin finds that his leap to safety has brought him into a small pool of blood. This is not unusual on a field of battle, except this one is glowing a foul oily red. The sorcerer/rogue knows magic when he sees it. As the Wardens look about, they notice all of the blood across the battlefield is glowing similarly, on the wagons, on the corpses, on the dirt beneath their feet.


The chanting of the gnolls grows louder and louder.


"Goh suul khar! Goh suul khar!"


Then something strange and awesome then begins to pass.


Bronze stands just outside the prison wagon...

...with the Meadowsweets beside him. The hammer-wielding blacksmith is the first to feel it. Bronze has long had a sensitivity to something beyond him. It is a sensitivity special to his person, a unique quirk one might say, and it helps him create greater things from lesser. Odd, perhaps, that this old and familiar sense rises within him now. It is a feeling of some enormous power, some truly unstoppable force that even this contended hydra cannot hope to match. Is it good? Evil? Bronze cannot say. He only knows that he can feel it closing with every fiber of his being...


...and this feeling is telling him to flee north and now!


[B]Luna feels it too.[/B] Luna has long had an understanding with the power of fire. It is from this special quality that this feeling stems so strongly. Sparkle cannot feel it, but it courses through every mote of energy in Luna's very spirit. It is the certainty of something great and beyond her. From where, she cannot say, yet it comes natural as anything meant to be. That feeling shouts...


Fly north! Now!


[B]In the Grand Wagon...[/B]

...Bria suddenly freezes and gasps as if struck. The Ko monk's eyes become wider than Kitrin has ever seen them. Her gaze looks to the heavens even though they stand inside. Then she cries, "Run! Run now! North!" And she does just that. She swings the front door to the wagon wide and passes through the purple smoke at top speed.


Not a moment later, Stewart is staring at Kitrin in complete bewilderment. "But aren't we safe in here? Where is she-"


Kitrin and Stewart hear Bria shout from outside. "Giddy up, horsies! Walk quickly! The others have to catch up! Kitriiiiiin!" Suddenly, Kitrin knows without a doubt that the Grand Wagon is moving!
 
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Luna skids to a stop at the sight of the hydra tearing into the fat merchant, a smile spreading across her face. "To quote a friend of mine, you got it IN DA FAAAACCEEEEE!! Ha!" Then the feeling comes that there is some danger in the woods, something large enough to be a real challenge. "Good Gods, we need to go! Something very bad is coming! Everyone, get moving! Get to the Grand Wagon! Move, move, move!"
 
Otiorin was about to issue yet another colorful curse in regard the bloodstains across his clothes when he took note of the strangeness of the blood. He might not be as sensitive to the energies the split blood exuded, but he instinctively knew blood should not glow and it should not move in the way it was. A glance around told him that the rest of the Wardens were in a state of full retreat and took this as a cue to exercise his own expeditious retreat. He reversed the shortsword, and started to run, pausing only long enough to bow to the hydra.


"Powerpaw!", he shouted as he went, "Gather yourself together and get on the big wagon, looks like Bria's found us a ride!"
 
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Even the ranger, who had been observing Bilal's death from a safe distance with satisfaction, realizes something is wrong when he sees the alarming number of people downright fleeing the battlefield. The gnoll chant, umber hulk's warning, and glowing blood all suddenly start making linked sense in his mind.


"Something is not quite right here..." he says, more to himself than anyone else, then turns his back to the hydra and makes haste towards the grand wagon.
 
Kitrin shrieks in triumph as the "ssissterss" are destroyed. "Ha! Take that! Serves you right." She starts to run over to Stewart, then notices the healer doesn't have any urgency and figures Bria must have healed his awful wound. All the same, she asks, "You feeling all right? That was a terrific shot of hers!" Before he can answer, though, Bria runs outside, screaming at them to run north. Kitrin returns Stewart's look of bewilderment - with interest - and starts to follow Bria. "You stay, sounds like she's taking the wagon with us so it oughta be safe inside. Ears open in case it's not!" Then she charges through the purple smoke, calling out to Bria, "Coming!"
 
When Powerpaw first lays eyes on the hydra, his whole attitude changes. Instead of being the fierce destroyer you now know him to be, he gets all excited, his tail lashes about, his ears and whiskers rise, and that fanged maw drops open in total surprise. "Oh, oh! Lookit all da faces! So many faces in one! I tink I'm in heaven!" He begins purring and pawing at the Lunas while never taking his eyes off the seven-headed beast. You think you see tears of joy in his eyes.


Once again, everyone nearby easily hears this friendly sound:

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Then Luna comes in with,

"Good Gods, we need to go! Something very bad is coming! Everyone, get moving! Get to the Grand Wagon! Move, move, move!"
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and Otiorin says,

"Powerpaw!", he shouted as he went, "Gather yourself together and get on the big wagon, looks like Bria's found us a ride!"
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To which Powerpaw's every strand of whisker and fur simultaneously stands on end as he suddenly roars in surprise and outrage, "What?! We iz leaving?! WHAT DA FAAAAAACE!!"


He pouts like a little cub, his purring gone, as he runs with Luna, he tries to "reason" with his new leader as the Wardens hightail it northward. "But, but, Luna! It's a multi-face! I've haz never seen one! Lemme smack it wif me hammer! Just once! Pweeeeeze!!" Nevertheless, Powerpaw quickly realizes that Luna is likely running for good reason. He slips his beloved hammer into his gear and bounds along on all fours beside his fellow Wardens.


Just once, he looks back at the munching hydra with its teeth all covered in bloody silks.


"Awwww!"
 
As the Wardens pass the prison wagon, they notice Bronze at the reins with the Meadowsweets beside him. Their wagon is moving too. It seems the Wardens-on-foot have two options now thanks to the blacksmith. =)
 
Luna jumps up into the trailing wagon, eyes constantly searching the forrest for signs of whatever it is that has her hackles up. "I don't know what it is out there, but I can feel it, like I can sense the magic of the flame. Sparkle, don't get too far away. I want to make sure you are safe from whatever it is out there that is giving me the willies." She wonders what could make her feel this way as she idly toys with her scroll case. I have a Protection From Energy scroll still. If it is a fire based monster, I might need to use it to keep us safe. If only I had some other kinds of attack spells besides fire ones. Whatever it is out there might just be immune to fire, and all I have left are a few Force Missiles and a Lightning Bolt scroll that could hurt it. She turns her attention to the civilians in the wagon. "Bronze, good job out there with the wounded. Perhaps you missed your true calling as a healer instead of a blacksmith."
 
Quickly grabbing the reins to the cart, "Something doesn't feel right, lets get outta here everyone." Waits a few seconds while people load up on the card and starts to move out slowly. Looks to make sure everyone is getting some kind of help. "Um can I get some protection here please? We have wounded!" Lets out that call for assistance just cuz it's a good iderrrr.


[dice]1271[/dice]
 
Not long after, Wolf boards the nearest, trailing wagon as well. He looks around the night sky and whistles sharply to draw Pecker back to him, then moves up to Luna and stares at her face with a worried expression of his own.


"Luna?"
 
The young mage looks over at Wolf and places a hand on his shoulder. "I'm ok, my friend. I can just sense . . . something out there that has a strong association with fire, and everything inside me tells me that we have to run north to get away. I don't know what it is, and it's bugging me. Is it a forrest fire? A dragon? Something else?" A sudden shiver goes up her spine. "We just have to get out of here with these wounded. Then, once we are safe, I'd love a chance to explore the Grand Wagon and see what treasures it holds. I wonder, Bilal seemed to be a collector of rare creatures. Does a similar collection of magic exist somewhere inside? I would love to expand my magical knowledge with some new spells."
 
Otiorin clambered aboard the grand wagon and strolled inside, his shortsword dangling from his fingers. He took a deep breath and let it out again. Another caper behind me, another death avoided. He smiled and wandered around the edge of the pool. Once he reached the opulent throne that Bilal had been sprawled across when the Wardens had first met him, he plumped himself down, snatched up the bottle that was seated in an ice bucket and began to drink. He drained perhaps a quarter of the bottle, before raising it to the ceiling.


"Here's to you, Wayfarer. Your justice is done, your gruesome end avenged. Bilal is no more, a meal for one of his other captives, and your shade is freed to travel the Beyond.", he said, taking another slug then pouring a similar amount onto the floor.


He looked around at the opulent wagon and smiled. He could be happy in a wagon like this.
 
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Pecker lands on Wolf's arm but moments after his call. With the death and fire in the air, he is agitated and alert, his feathers in quite a fluff, but he doesn't voice his irritation - being with Wolf seems to bring him calm.


The Grand Wagon driven by Bria is in the lead with the prison wagon guided by Bronze and the Meadowsweets close behind. Bronze is doing a decent enough job guiding the horses without rushing them into the back of the Grand Wagon. Your speed is enough that you can catch up and hop aboard, a brisk trot, but that is all. Luna and Wolf finds themselves on the prison wagon. Powerpaw eagerly looks at Bronze, Luna, and the hobbits, but he seems to be looking for someone else at the moment. When it appears he has not found who he is looking for, he snorts and charges forward, full speed ahead, to reach the Grand Wagon.


On the Grand Wagon, Stewart is sitting cross-legged near the pool of his own blood as Otiorin plops down on Bilal's very comfortable throne. The old fellow is pale and shirtless and appears to be in such shock that he has not yet gathered the wits to act on it. Still, he turns to Otiorin and glances to the front door. "Young man, I doubt your destiny is at the bottom of that wine bottle..."


Meanwhile in the driver's seat of the Grand Wagon, Bria guides those eight incredible horses with apparent practice. Despite her calm hands, she appears far from in control of her feelings. She turns to Kitrin, her face is full of anxiousness and concern, her breathing as quick as the hoofbeats over the road. "Kitrin! I can't tell if the others have caught up yet! Please look south and tell me?" One of her hands is over her heart. "I just... there is something calling... We have to get out of here... but we can't just leave them!"


Above and behind the Grand Wagon, Sparkle swoops down out of the sky and lands on the top of the prison wagon just over the driver's seat. There she perches, far from content. Her fangs form a deep snarl as she tucks her beautiful wings close. She begins pacing in circles. "What is happening? I don't understand this at all - and that annoys me!" She looks about for something, anything, and stops suddenly. Gazing behind the wagon, her little serpentine eyes grow round with wonder. "What... By Deep Torrent's storms, what is that?"


Those characters outside the wagons notice an odd red light in the sky in the south, beyond the battlefield, just above the horizon. It was not there five minutes ago. It is a curious sphere seemingly hanging like a lantern in the night sky. Everyone outside hears the gnolls chant rise and rise until they strike a howling, gripping crescendo, and then the sounds of their rushing feet through the woods can easily be heard. The mad, joyous barking of the gnolls carries all around. They are leaving the battlefield as fast as their feet can carry them.


The aforementioned feelings in Bronze and Luna are building rapidly... and the oily blood on the battlefield? It glows now like the sanguine dot in the sky.
 
Kitrin nods. "On it. Otiorin just hopped in with Stewart, so that's one..." She clambers up to the roof of the Grand Wagon to look back, calling over her shoulder, "Bronze's got the prison wagon right behind us, I see the Meadowsweets there too, an' Sparkle on top so I guess Luna's with them. Yep, there she is, an' Wolf too. Hi Powerpaw!" That last is much louder, aimed at the incoming kitty-face, and accompanied by an exuberant one-armed wave (her other hand is hanging on to the wagon). Then she is suddenly quiet as she notices the odd light behind them. "Um... Bria? There's something really bad back there! Let's go faster!" She raises her voice again, loud enough to be heard clearly at the prison wagon. "Kitty-face! Grab a wagon and let's get moving while the getting's good! C'mon, Bronze!"
 
Regarding the now-unemployed castellan, Otiorin smiled, "I think another day where I can draw breath after a near-death experience is worthy of a drink. And today, I escaped death,", he counted on the fingers of his unoccupied and, "let's see... death by poison, that's one. Death by dismemberment and consumption by Powerpaw, that's two. Death by dismemberment by Gnolls makes three. Death by being shredded and maybe eaten by that big beetle thing, four. Death by being chopped up by mercenaries is five. Then there's all that the hydra could have done, six."


He took another swig and offered the bottle across.


"And it appears you lost about a pint yourself, fancy replenishing a measure?"
 
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