Lost Trails 3: The Hollow Way

[ewancummins]

SIR CLIVE, SURROUNDED ON THE DIRT TRAIL

The beastmen surround him and worry him:a pack of dogs baiting a bull.

But this bull's horns are long and sharp.

Gnollish laughter turns to screams of panic.
Three down in a few seconds--and then Mercy sticks midway through the third one's back.
The knight tugs at the great blade. It resists, bone grating on steel just long enough for the fourth gnoll to turn and flee, tail between its legs.

MEANWHILE AT THE RUIN


Raen hurls a conjured web, big as a tent, over the troll, sticking it to the earth and to the ruin wall.

A moment later, the troll, horribly wounded as it was, begins to stir! It strains against the webbing, grunting, and twisting.
The ruin wall shakes.

But the troll cannot break free.
At least, not before Samus and her men shoot it again, dropping it back down.

Alain prepares to finish off the giant when he spots a gnoll with a bow creeping atop the ruin's east wall. The creature aims a black-dripping arrow right at Benn.
Benn seems heedless of the danger.
Alain flicks a blade of cold crystal from his open hand, striking the vile archer and knocking it to the ground.

Klokulf, looking around for threats, sees a pack of carnivores that resemble four-legged gnolls coming around the corner of the ruin from the back side, followed by several grinning gnolls carrying bows and axes.
One beast man, shorter than the others, shouts orders from the rear, half-hidden by the angle of the wall. It gestures with a bar flail, urging its fellow monsters on toward the now-visible party.

[ewancummins]

Gnolls and gnoll-hounds charge.

Raen hurls a thunderbolt, but the blast only seems to further enrage the monsters. In a few seconds, the monsters close the gap. Chaos!
Raen staggers when a hyena nips his robes, tearing the mended cloth along a long seam.
A drooling gnoll pushes Alain hard, forcing the spellslinger to draw his blade and defend himself in close combat with no room for casting.
Benn backpedals as the creatures press him toward his fiery orb.
But Samus and her men aid the party's magicians and then, harness rattling like a barrel of nails dropped down a stairwell, Sir Clive arrives with Mercy lifted high.
A gnoll-hound’s severed head rolls to Raen’s feet. Gnolls scream and die; stabbed and hacked as they turn to flee with their pets.

Smoke fouls the air, covering the escape of the few enemy survivors.
The troll squirms a little under the smoldering ball, and then its charred bones lay still.
Dry brush and grass crackle and blacken all around--Benn’s orb has set fire to the field and bushes!

Benn swats at the flames with his cloak, but the fire is spreading way too quickly for that to work.


The swift-spreading fire forces a retreat through the ruins and down to the sunken lane.

...


The party rejoins its missing members there, with the two men left behind to watch the horses and dogs.
Kat and Klokulf have brought the freed captives and gotten them up on horseback.


Governor Samus looks back toward the smoldering brush and smoking grass to the southwest.
“Any gnolls left badly wounded in that are dead meat. The blaze will burn out but by the time it does, tracking may not be so easy. Still, we have the hounds...”
She looks at the woman and the boy that the party rescued.
“No… not today.” Turning back to Klokulf and the others, she says,
“I mean to get those two to safety, reunited with their kin. Planning a punitive expedition must wait for now, but soon I will move against the monsters of the Vast Swamp. If you wish to join my forces, I will make your leader a captain and give your party a free hand and rights to loot. There could be a land grant in it for you, too, if any of you would prefer to stay here.”
She swings up into the saddle.
“If you prefer to continue your quest for a means of returning to the world from which you came, I will do everything in my power to help you, allowing for my duties as governor. No need to decide now. We will have time to speak again in Monksblade. Thank you all. I am honored that you fought to save my people. “


[tr]END OF CHAPTER[/tr][/size][/u][/b]