Every so often I use up the entire table to a layout, and this time we made a canyon system with about 4 shelves worth of paperbacks turned in such a way to make it appear as rock wall. 16 rounds of combat eventually ensued and the party managed to escape. Very cool night
Follows:
At the entrance we took our time and reviewed the map, noting roughly that we would have to rough it for some time in order to make our way eventually back to Thak and then IronCamp. Some hunting hawks were out, flying high over the ravines when Gryg frowned and looked around. The ranger was unsure of the hawks’ actual presence and even after waiting a while – did not see any of them flying around. When pressed about it, he said the cries were not echoes bouncing into the ravine, but originated actually in the ravine. We looked around for some time but didn’t see anything.
Not confident we went over many ideas until eventually settling on a plan where Wilhelm would force a fog cloud maybe 50’ up the ravine and over the entrance to Herodotus’ cave, allowing us the chance to get out and make our way northward. He called on Frey and set it above, blocking a portion of the ravine from being easily seen. And then the group went down the talus slope and moved on.
It was a short distance to the “Y” intersection and the party approached with care, where we heard and could see a 15 count of kobolds running our way. They had rough clothing and bits or armor, a third had slings, another third had javelins, and the last third were just tooth and claw. Connal was in the front and took the barrage of stones hurled his way, the monk dodging, ducking, leaping, and flicking them out of the way. He even saved Eoghan from getting hit with a well placed out thrust of his arm.
We closed to combat range swiftly, flatbows firing and swords slashing. The slingers moved a bit to the side to allow more room for the melee kobolds to approach. When able to, they fanned out, grouping up on the party 3 to a person if possible. Connal continued to block the hurled stones as well as ply his weapon on the K’Morat kobolds. Gryg’s shots were digging in deep and a few times, our blows were hitting with lethal instances. A few errant shots and thrusts didn’t make all one sided, but the kobold enemy were getting denuded. And then the kobolds on the walls of the ravine – 70’ up and 6 of them, fired down into the party, picking off hit points here and there where able. Dizzy, Wilhelm, and Grendel swapped over to shooting the kobolds sniping down at us.
While this was going on, the druid could hear more kobolds running our way, this time from the south passage. Another 12 at least. Frontari had been ripping one of the kobolds apart (with Louie the cat helping out for the heck of it) when Wilhelm called them back. Gryg did the same with Carca and Grendel drew up the other way as well. A volley of stones hit us as the other 8 kobolds ran up for melee. We were now in 2 battle lines, Connal and Eoghan trying to clean up the front of it, Gryg shooting into the fight, and the rest of the group facing the rear approach.
The kobolds above were slowly withering away, pegged by some good shooting by Dizzy and hit flatbow. Connal finally reached the slingers and with Eoghan and Grin, were digging in there, weapons slicing and tearing. A shield splintered, and then another one. Grin got smashed in the snout, the wolfhound turned and ran away, sprinting back to the dragon’s cave for now.
As the last of the melee from the south were taken out, Grendel had his sword out and was racing to kill off the slingers there. Wilhelm sent off Frontari to do the same (again, Louie ran along), everyone firing arrows all over the place.
And then a 3rd wave of kobolds ran at us, 16 more from the north now. These were better armed and armored, and sporting shields and stone and flint axes. We had a minute or two to be ready to face them and the party turned again, lining up to face the next foes. Gryg was once more a deadly force with his flatbow and Dizzy shot the last sniper off the ravine wall.
The kobolds hit and hit hard, Eoghan taking a number of blows that had the ranger reeling. Dizzy was right there, healing spells firing off, bringing Eoghan back to a decent health. Grendel hit the two slingers on the west side of the south ravine with a springing flash of dancing sword strokes and hacking cuts, felling one of the slingers and then the other. Meanwhile Frontari the mountain lion killed off one and a well placed arrow from Wilhelm killed the other. Cursing, Grendel swapped to his bow and started running back to the party.
Connal was sweeping and stabbing, dropping any kobold that stood still long enough for him to strike. Eoghan was using Dawnblade and even Jessie was joining in the fight, the rabbit getting more brazen and vicious with each exchange, leaping 3, 4, even 5 feet if need be to rip, tear, bite, and shred anyone the ranger was fighting as well. Carca was bowling kobolds down left and right and Gryg was a never ending barrage of bolts.
The kobolds had broken up to 3 main groups and were forcing the bow wielders to swap to swords and axes. We were still holding on; hit points fading here and there a bit at a time. Dizzy was healing where he could but we needed every flatbow and arrow in the fight.
And then the last wave came from the eastern ravine. Maybe 15 more of them, one of them in headdress and fetishes, and an oversized Dire wolf and finally, an 11’ long panther creature with 2 huge 10’ long tentacles on its back – shimmering like a mirage. Fucking hell, a displacer beast!
With barely a minute to get in place, we tried to finish up the kobolds we were fighting. Gryg shot one at 20’ and it splintered its shield, but the blow was so exact and deadly, that the missile still ripped through the wreckage of the shield and killed it dead. Eoghan whistled to Grin to return and the wolfhound was running out, racing from the cave back to us. More healing was given out and once closer, Grendel went back to firing arrows at any kobold he could find.
They hit us hard, the ranger briefly separated from the party as a kobold blocked his way. Then the dire wolf climbed up the ravine to a ledge area and jumped down in order to bury the ranger. But it slipped and fell instead, sliding to a stop near the base. Bows were fired and shields were being consumed at a massive rate. The Shaman took aim at Gryg and fired off a shatter spell, ripping his flatbow apart. The dwarven ranger growled, taking out his spare one.
Connal took a series of hits and then the monastic leapt up and climbed the ravine wall until he could reach the Shaman, where the two of them slammed together, twisted about, and then fell off the ravine and down to the ground again, punching, gouging, twisting, and yelling. The K’Morat shaman whistled for the Dire Wolf who ran from Eoghan to scramble up the ravine wall. To return the favor, Connal throat punched the kobold, and then jammed his thumb into its eye and his middle finger into its ear!
The Displacer Beast was slamming its tentacles about, hitting and smashing the group. Carca got walloped and Dizzy used a cure minor to get it up again. One of the kobolds tried to climb the wall but slipped down and was killed by the group. Frontari and Louis were running all over, hitting whatever K’Morat they could get. Using a stone axe, one of them struck out at Eoghan right at his weapon arm but the ranger splintered his shield, staving off losing ANOTHER limb! Wilhelm bathed the Displace Beast in Fairy Fires making the next arrows by Grendel hit true.
One of the K’Morat was trying to help the shaman but ended up hitting the kobold leader, and the Dire Wolf again fell off the ravine with a misshaped roll and fell to the ground in a mess of limbs and howls.
And then Carca was slain, followed by Gryg, both of them falling under the press of axes and beast. Eoghan was hit again and Grin was staggering. And the Beast sauntered forward. Dizzy tried to hold his ground, casting a cure moderate spell at the dwarven ranger, bringing him back to the positive side of life. Gryg remained there, playing possum as the Displacer Beast stalked over his prone form to attack the dwarven cleric. And Dizzy was hit and walloped, going down to 2 hit points.
Scrabbling at his side, he yelled for the party, “Get here! Get here now! We’re leaving!” Rolling and grappling about, Connal once more took control of the fight with the Shaman and blinded him in the other eye, smashing his head to the ground until he stopped moving. Bleeding and hurt very bad, the monastic rose to his feet and ran to Dizzy who pulled out a scroll from his pouch and was reading it. Gryg fired up at point blank into the Beast’s guts and swung and hacked as best they could as Dizzy finished the last words of the spell and in a 10’ circle about him, super heated plasma shot out, scoring a hole in the universe; and ripped a passage from here to somewhere else.
In doing so, we also grabbed the Displacer Beast and two kobolds that were in line of the spell. We raced haphazardly through the Ethersphere and slammed full on in a broken rippling wave almost 60 miles away back on the front lawn of his mother’s home in IronCamp. However, we didn’t run through the dimensional folding cleanly and a temporal storm came with us – aging everyone and all their equipment forward 1 year in time. Hair, nails, body – everything was 1 year forward. The shock of it was too much for the Displacer Beast who was stunned by the impact of it, allowing the party to pour on their attacks against it – and Eoghan finished the fight with a well placed critical blow killing the Beast outright. As the watch was running over, we took little time to finish off the last 2 kobolds and then breathing hard in the glassy cracked crater of burned stone and charred grasses, smiled slowly at not only facing off against 3 score of kobolds and their bestial minions – but escaping alive (if VERY badly wounded) after doing so.
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