Death, Sex & Gambling

Without hesitation, knowing that there's little chance of them taking out the three remaining orcs in a hurry, Sandros moves to help Avon with orc A. He stays silent, intent on finishing things as quickly as he possibly can.

The coldness that engulfed Avon just moments ago continues to grow on him. Avon is breathing heavily, his chest moves back and forth visible to Sandros. From his throat comes a low rasping noise. His head his tilted forward, his eyes lie far back in his skull, and look upward to the Orc  standing before him. Avon's teeth are clenched into tightening lock, his lips twisted in an distorted evil grin. Surprisingly enough that is all he does, he just stands before the Orc grinning, as if he is waiting for the Orc to make a move.

Myr  quickly backs away against the wall so that the others can get by her, leaving the dirty work to the muscle for the time being.

Ven,  like Myr, tries to make himself inconspicuous and avoid getting trampled by the other eager members of the party.  He keeps his eyes peeled, however, and is ready to begin casting if any other Orcs should come into view.

The dwarf bolts full speed towards the coupled orc and half-orc, eyes locked on the female half-orc. Halfway there, Daggda pauses long enough to concentrate on a spell and says "Die" [Command Spell] in Common, eyes never leaving the half-orc. The dwarf speaks without breaking stride, footman's pick firmly clutched in both hands.

Realizing that his spells are of no use right now Andrew drops the idea all together. Seeing that Myr has stepped out of the way Andrew steps past her and into the room. The one dead orc poses no threat and the other with both Sandros and Avon on top of him Andrew looks around for any more threats. Noticing Daggda's intent stare Andrew follows the look and sees the two orcs. Not registering what they are up to or even caring he'll join the dwarf in the charge he knows is coming hoping to take them out before they can sound any alarm.
His stride easily takes him beside the Dwarf and when he gets into medium range he will let fly his spear at the standing orc. After he throws he realizes what is going on and a wave of revulsion makes him cringe. The filth of the earth rutting like dogs.

Tavarak  rushes in beside Daggda. Advancing on the male, Tav tries to shield bash the orc into unconciousness. If it looks like the male is going to attempt to yell, holler or scream . Tav will swing at the creatures head

If Quill has a clear shot, she'll loose an arrow into the half-orc female and then the male.

Orc A is enraged by the taunting grimace on Avon's face and lunges at the theif.  Avon dances out of the way easily.  Sandros swings his sword at the orc's side but the blow lands harmlessly on its leather armor.  The creature bellows a word in orcish that echos throughout the cavern [OOC: no one speaks orc in the group].  His momentum carries him past both theives and he winds up standing near Quill, Myr and Ven at the other side of the small area.

Myr and Ven move toward the side of the cavern, and Quill joins them.  The ranger sheathes her sword and draws her bow, trying for a shot at the 2 orcs on the other side.  Between the narrow opening between the two halves of the cavern and the 3 party members running in that direction, she judges it best to hold her fire.  The round ends with an off-balance orc A standing about 6 ft in front of Quill,Ven & Myr -- with Avon & Sandros on his other side.

Daggda, seeing the couple across the torch-lit cavern charges without hesitation.  The acolyte slows for a few seconds about half-way across, and implores Moradin for aid, shouting "DIE" in common at the female - orc D  She passes out and is inert.  Mentally thanking The All Forger, the dwarf resumes a full speed run toward the orc couple.

Andrew, about half way across the chamber, flings his spear at the male, but it clatters harmlessly against the rock wall behind.  The male, *FINALLY* roused from his stupor, disengages from the inert female in front of him and tries to pull up his pants and simultaneously grab for his spear.  Muttering a curse at his poor aim under his breath, Andrew rushes on behind Tav, drawing his scimitar.

Tavarak reaches him toward the end of the round and swings his long-sword at the stumbling orc C.  His trusty blade slashes into the side of the full-orc wounding him seriously.  The beast bellows in pain, stumbling backward, falling to the ground, pants around his knees, clutching his spear in his right hand, and  bleeding from the gash in his side.

Realizng she doesn't have a shot at the copulating orcs, Quill turns her attention to the half-orc to her right. With already having her bow drawn and an arrow knocked, she takes aim point blank and fires at the chest of the orc.

Knowing that this Orc is surrounded and will soon be lying in a pool of its own blood, but that many others await in the caverns somewhere, Ven resists the urge to fry the filthy bastard with a spell. Rather, he withdraws the dagger he carries, step to the side to avoid pelting Quill in the back, and hurls the weapon toward the midsection of the beast. He figures that at best he will stick it and at worst, slow it down so that Sandros and Avon can come back upon it from the rear.

Sandros takes quick stock of the situation, and takes another swing at the orc. He mutters something under his breath, but stays pretty quiet otherwise, still hoping to defuse the situation before it gets even more deadly.

Avon is no longer concerned about getting trough the caves unheard or unseen. At this moment he is not capable of thinking that far ahead. The only thing he knows is that he should kill. His eyes focus on the back of the Orc (A). He grasps the handle of his sword with two hands and plunges the blade deep into the back of the Orc. He aims purposefully at the spine of the Orc just below the shoulders. Then when the blade is deep within the foul smelling beast he turns it one quarter (counter clockwise) and pulls the blade out of the victim. The smell of warm blood that fills the air sends Avon even deeper in his dark and evil trance. He lets loose an evil laugh, but manages to suppress the sound of it due to a final spark of rational thinking. None the less the sound that comes from his mouth sounds alien and frightening.
At least, that's the way it is in Avon's mind as he begins his swing at the orc. .................

In quick succession, Sandros & Avon swing at the beasts back.  Sandros' blade arrives first, piercing A's leather and driving between his ribs.  As Sandros pulls his sword back, the spout of blood follows the blade.  Sandros steps aside just as Avon begins his swing.  Avon's hands and chest are covered with Orc blood and his sword skips off the beasts armor.  Avon follows thru nevertheless, seized in the frenzy of his mental image of a brutal, killing attack.  Avon's long sword glides thru air under the Orc's arm, then Avon twists it counter clockwise, and pulls his blade back.

Quill, taking a step back against the wall, sees the pain in the creature's face as Sandros' blade pierces him, and then sees another, longer sword, come around the other side of the orc, in mid-aid.  Her back to the wall, Quill is unable to gain full leverage with her bow, but releases the nocked arrow at the orc's chest.  The arrow thuds harmlessly into the orc's leather armor.

Veneron reaches to his belt and pulls out his dagger.  Turning it in his hand, he takes quick aim and lets it fly at the orc some 8 or 10 feet away.  The beast lunges from the pain of Sandros' sword thrust, and the dagger flies thru the spot where its head *used* to be.  The dagger continues its flight, and passes a few inches from Avon's shoulder, now covered with the spouting blood of the orc.  The dagger clatters to the floor behind Avon.

Orc A is staggered by the horrendous wound and completes his turn, facing Sandros once more.  Sandros sees that there is some human-blood in this creature's genetics, and hears it cough out a snarl, blood burbling from between its lips.  "Now Azgob kill YOU!" 

He lunges forward toward Sandros, swinging his short sword in a weak effort, easily parried by Sandros.

Myr, as before, seems determined to make acquaintance with the rock behind  her while the warrior types slash it out.
"Bloody orcs. Why can't we fight something that bathes?!"

Shrugging off the miss and seeing that Daggda and Tav have the two pretty well in hand Andrew stops, listens for the sound of running footsteps and the like, and looks around for other entrances to this cave. Knowing there must be at least one he'll search if need be and position himself by the door watching for any newcomers.

Andrew steps between the male/female couple as they disengage and looks around at the cavern.  Behind the male orc, now on the ground in front of Tavarak, Avon can see the cavern walls widen.  The concertina music has stopped, and he hears shouting in from that direction [OOC: from the general direction of E3 on the full map]

Daggda sees in the corner of one eye that Tavarak is doing a fair job of dispatching the male orc, so the dwarf takes aim at the comatose breeder to dispatch her with one well-aimed blow. Daggda feels the comfort of the earth all around. With all the noise these filthy orcs make dying, thinks Daggda, the battle may come sooner than later. This thought brings the memory of past battles, and a jolt of adrenaline that runs up the warrior's spine. Daggda peers beyond the orc's breeding pit, looking for any tunnels beyond, and any signs of trouble that may be in them.

The female wakes as Daggda approaches, and grabs the dwarf's booted foot.  "Thank the gods, sir, you've come to...." The footman's pick begins its descent... "...rescue me from these foul..."  At some level the words enter Daggda's mind -- the very LAST thing the dwarf had expected to hear was Thank god you've come to rescue me.... and the warrior nearly tumbles over in an attempt to alter the course of the heavy footman's pick.  The half-orc woman looks up, sees the descent of the weapon, screams and passes out. 

Tavarak reverses his slash and lunges at the semi prone Orc. He will use his shield to parry the Orcish spear if he has the presence of mind to use it.

Tav's slash down at the Orc on the ground misses as he rolls to the side.  Tav takes the ineffective lunge of the orc's spear easily on his shield.

CounterAttack

 Sandros watches the scene almost in slow motion in his mind, as the orc is badly wounded by his attack. He sees Avon's attempt and Ven's as well, and then finds himself staring face to face with the creature.
 
"Okay, Ass-gob. Bring it on..." He smiles, and settles in to battle the creature sword to sword. For some reason, he notices the sharp smell of blood in the air far more then he normally would, and he finds himself welling with new found energy as well. "More fun when they fight back, ya know."

Avon looks down at the blood covering his hands, and then at the still-alive half-orc in amazment.  He takes another swing at Azgob.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear..." mutters Myr, still hovering near the wall. Taking Tav's advice, she starts for the crates, but then stops for a moment as if contemplating something.

The dwarf hesitates, face contorted in equal parts of disgust and something wistful, almost like pity. But dwarven blood urgent with battlelust quickly reasserts itself as the female half-orc faints in fright. "Sargh beldarak!" Daggda curses at the stupid hesitation in the middle of battle as much as at the comatose half-orc. The acolyte of Moradin then turns to Tavarak and the male orc.

Sensing that more trouble is headed their way Andrew picks up his spear and heads furthur along behind where the couple was. Moving until he finds the hallway he'll lay his spear across the opening, then grasping his holy symbol he begins to cast:

"Goddess mother block this door;
Raise this handle off the floor.
This is sure to cause a flip;
Make the bastards take a TRIP."

After his spell Andrew steps back into the shadows to hide and prepares to slay the enemy that comes through the door.

Seeing Andrew dash further down the tunnel ahead and beginning his own incantation, Daggda realizes that Tavarak is right; they have been discovered. Motioning to the crates in the cavern behind them and then towards Andrew, the acolyte of Moradin sternly replies, "No! Andrew is holding down the bottleneck. As soon as the others can get up here, we need to move out now! We can't be trapped here while the Prince is killed or taken away!" As Tavarak swings as the chest of the dodging orc, Daggda swings from above with the pick, hoping to poke a hole in his head. "Now the battle is set!" Daggda rumbles in an tone unbefitting to such a
soft-voiced dwarf. The warrior's black eyes flicker bellicosely, and the fair dwarven face is set with determination.

Tav curses under his breath and follows the rolling orc. As he gets close he will drag his foot and kick forward at the orc's face, attempting to kick dirt into his eyes, before swinging at his chest. "Lord Melchiks Hole!!! It looks like we have been discovered. If we are to be overrun i suggest we make our way atop the crates. There is always an advantage with holding higher ground."

Tav swings his long-sword down at the writhing orc once more, as orc C jabs up at him with his spear.  The orc's spear hits Tavs shield, causing the Bard's blow to miss yet again.  Tav's curse would make a sailor blush.

The rolling writhing orc C is fast, Daggda discovers, even tho it's bleeding and with pants half drawn up... being faced with certain death provides an inspiration to the ugly creature it seems.  The dwarf aims a blow at it, but hits only cavern floor with the pick as the orc rolls, twists and squirms.

(Half-)Orc D wakes and staggers to her feet.  She looks across the cavern, seeing Quill and Ven moving forward.  Unsteadily, she walks toward Quill and Ven near the center of the room, and says -- in a voice that seems somewhat too loud for a person who was unconscious just a few moments ago -- "OH! Thank the gods there are more of you.  These beasts have kept me captive and used me cruelly.  Please, please, please...You MUST take me out with you.  How did you get in here, anyway?"  The shapely half-orc falls to her knees facing Ven with tear-streaked face and pleading eyes.

Andrew steps back from his trip-trap, but finds he can't go too far without bumping into Tav.  As he draws his scimitar, a male orc (orc E) and a young female half-orc (orc F) come running out of the darkness and trip over Andrew's enchanted spear/trap.  E carries a short sword and F weilds a spear.

Both E & F fall heavily to the hard rock floor, and Andrew can hear the air *woosh* from their lungs.  Neither moves.

From the corner of an eye, Daggda notes the appearance of the E & F orcs, but Tav does not.

Sandros' snarled challenge only enrages Azgob, who charges, as best he can, at the jeering theif.  Orc A manages to block Sandros' thrust with his own sword, but that opens his side for Avon's blade, which slices into the orc with deadly accuracy.  Another spout of blood covers Avon's sword, and finally, the beast falls to the floor---dead.

Myridian, who had scutled back toward the entrance of the other cavern, just has time to blurt out a cry of warning, "SANDY... LOOK OUT!"  She sees a the air over Sandros' head shimmer and a purple force field as the shape of a war hammer forms.  It seems to her as if a 10 ft invisible giant is standing directly behind Sandros holding it, but of course, she recognizes magic when she sees it, and knows it's a spell-generated weapon.

The purple war hammer descends rapidly toward Sandros' back, and hits him on the shoulder.  Sandros is surprised at being hit from behind, but the blow is a light one and he's not really hurt.

[Ven looks suspiciously at the pleading Half-Orc pleading at his feet. He isn't certain whether or not to trust her. Before he can formulate a reply he sees the magical hammer pound down at Sandros. Anxiously, Ven returns his attention to the grovelling "woman". "Do you know about this magic? Are there mages among this group? Oh, and while we in interrogation mode, is the Dwarven Prince here?" Bluffing, but with nothing to lose, he adds, "And speak truly. I, myself am a mage and will know straightway if you are lying."

Her voice loud, she replies, "Oh yes, there's more than one spellcaster here.  And a real bad assassin from the Arm, too.  Or maybe he left on the boat... I dont know.  They took the dwarf away this morning, I think.  Wrapped up in a sack like, out to the ship."  She looks at Sandros and Avon over by the magic hammer. 

"ONLY EIGHT OF YOU!"  she nearly shouts.  "Aren't there any more of you than this?  You'll never make it... there are more than 3 dozen of Jarg's Raiders here... Not even counting the spell casters and the assassin.   Did you go in there?" She motions to the room with all the crates and barrels.  "That's food for 40 men for a month."

Ven: "What's your name?"

"They call me Bambi -- 'cause of my eyes"  She looks up with wide-set, light tan eyes.  "... Bambi Hellfire -- cause Jarg said I was a hot one."  She smiles up at the young man, trying to rearrange her soiled blouse and skirt to enhance her appearance.

Daggda curses silently for being so soft in battle as the female half-orc (C) announces the party's presence to the entire cavern complex. Hearing Veneron offer the half-orc a weapon turns the dwarf's normally-fair face crimson red. "Shut up, Ven! Just kill the foul-blooded bitch!!"

Sandros glances once at the hammer, and without hesitation runs as fast as he can away from it.
He heads quickly around the wall and towards Ven and Quill, muttering something about "If it's not boiling oil, it's flying hammers..." As soon as he gets close to them, he gives them a nod, and keeps moving toward the battle brewing deeper in the cave.

Sandros doesn't know much about magic, and has a natural dislike to things he doesn't quite understand. But he does know enough to believe that spells require the target remain in sight of the person casting, so he's hoping his movement will get the thing away from him rather quickly

He gives the female half-orc a strange look, and seems on the brink of attacking her as he passes, but then figures she must be captured or something, since she's on her knees and unarmed. Unless...SHE is the one casting that damned spell....

Whirling back around at the thought, he takes a swing with the hilt of his sword, attempting to knock her in the back of the head. If she is the priest behind that hammer spell, it might disappear when she's unconscious.

Sandros connects with the young woman as she begins to rise,  there is a sickening *squishy*thump* and she slumps to the floor, almost at Ven's feet.

Satisfied with the kill Avon focuses on his surroundings again. He finds the sight of the purple hammer disturbing. Like Sandros he isn't to fond of magic, especially if it is used against him. He keeps facing the hammer and with his arms he motions to Myridian and Sandros to move towards Quill and Ven. "Soth! Get out of here before it strikes again!". Then he follows the two [ooc: that is if Myr joins our retreat] towards Quill and Ven.

As Avon looks at the hammer, and then at Myr to determine if she's going in the same direction as Quill and Ven, the magical purple hammer swings at him, coming down from above at an angle.  Avon leaps backwards and to the side and easily avoids its attack.

Not wasting a moment Andrew quickly decends upon the first of the enemies to be felled by his trap. If possible killing both before they can get up.(Might as well be alphabetical about it E then F) Hoping that in this way many of the bastards will fall prey before the dumb bastards figure it out. Andrew's scimitar moves quickly as he treis to chop the life from the prone orcs.

Andrew quickly rolls over the orcs, slicing thru the throat of both E & F [OOC from DM: S.O.P.: you can kill 2/round if they are unconscious and you're ready to do so]. 

Daggda dodges away from the squirmy, half-pantsed orc (D). "Take him, Tavarak! There's two more in the tunnel!" The dwarven warrior turns alongside Andrew to dispatch the spear-wielding female half-orc (F) as Andrew finishes off the prone sword-wielding orc (E).

Daggda arrives alongside Andrew just as he finishes dispatching the female orc, and sees the group of orcs forming on the other side of the opening.  The dwarf pushes Andrew to the side just as a crossbow fires at the Druid.  The crossbow bolt wizzes past, just missing him.  Andrew rolls to the side for cover and sees a bunch of several orcs, one of whom is reloading his crossbow.  They are about 30 ft away.

A large half-orc pushes his way to the front, he turns and snaps an order.  "Get that light out, you fool."  The light behind the group of orcs is extinguished and neither Andrew nor Daggda can see them, but of course, both can still make out their forms in the darkness.  After a quick count, Andrew hisses "10" toward Daggda who has taken shelter behind a corner of rock.  The dwarf nods grimly in agreement at the estimate of the enemy's visible strength.

Quil] doesn't like the sight of the magical warhammer at all, aimed as it is behind them, rather than at those in front.  She motions to Myr to come forward, away from the area of its attack.  Quill crosses the cavern and finds a place with rock at her back but enough room to use the bow well -- where she can see past Tav, Daggda and Andrew thru the narrow opening.  She cannot see any targets, nor the group of "10 or more" orcs in the cavern beyond.  She's ready to fire at anyone who come past the trip-trap.

Tavarak  redoubles his efforts at impaling the amazingly agile orc D, and FINALLY makes solid contact.  The Bard's sword pierces the orc's neck resulting in a burbling, gurgling gout of blood and instant death for the orc.

Myr joins the others heading toward the neck of the cavern where the fighting is continuing. 

[OOC:
Overall sequence of events :
Sandros ran away from the magical warhammer immediately.
It turned to attack Avon while he was looking at it and then at Myr.
Bambi spoke w/ Ven at the same time as this was going on.
and Andrew & Daggda saw the party of orcs outside the cavern.

Sandros arrived and knocked her unconscious as Avon & Myr were running from the hammer.
The hammer was visible *after* Bambi was knocked out.

The orc leader said "turn out the light" after Bambi was knocked out.
No one can see the magical war hammer any longer. ]

Ven looks down at the unconscious Half-Orc and shrugs. "One less moral dilema for me to screw up," he thinks. Since the magical warhammer is no where to be seen, Ven hurries to where he hurled his dagger and retrieves it.

But a funny thing happens along the way:  [Ven runs on the dotted line from V1 to the X then to Ve on the map] as Ven approaches the dagger, (at the red X) he sees the purple glowing magical warhammer.  It swoops down and swings at him, but misses, causing no damage at all.  Ven grabs at the dagger and dances around to avoid the warhammer.  He can see it while he's in the area marked by the purple polygon.  Once he's outside that, it winks out of sight.  Ven takes note of the fact that while he's up there and can see the magical hammer, he is out of sight of the entrance (down at G4).

Once it winks out of sight, and as he's deciding over the execution of the half-orc C, Ven ponders on the source of the spell.  The only magic he knows of is either line-of-sight of the caster or tied to some physical thing: a glyph, or a trap or the like.  He begins to be nervous about WHO exactly is casting that spell, and WHERE he/she might be.

 He then heads toward Quill's position, hoping to finally be able to cast an effective spell.

He doesn't get there, however. As he is passing the inert Half-Orc, it occurs to him that he really does have another moral dilema. If he leaves her behind and unconscious and she is a villain, then she will be at their rear and able to wreak havoc on them from behind. Ven briefly considers tying her up, but concludes that if she really is a spell caster, she may have an easy way to break those bonds. "If, if, if, if . . . too many damned ifs," he mumbles to himself. He hesitates and then withdraws his dagger again, "I can't chance it. I hope for my sake, at least, that you really are evil." With those final mumble words, Ven slices her throat and quickly leaves the scene and ends up near her body.

Sandros, after watching the half-orc drop from the blow to her head, sighs with relief. At least that damned hammer was gone now, he noted as he looked around...
 
Moving quickly, he went to see if Daggda and Andrew needed his help, not really having any idea what they might be facing.

[Avon] The initial trance-like state he got from the battle begins to disappear, and his thinking becomes more rational. For a moment Avon thinks about getting his bow and shoot his arrows into the pitch black hole were this small army of orcs is waiting for them. The problem is that Avon is not a warrior. He tries frantically to find the best tactical solution to this problem. After losing precious seconds he decides it's no use for him to stand behind Andrew and that dwarf, uhm, oh yes Daggda. But the moment he wants to reach for his bow, he figures it would take to much time. Finally he takes on a position behind Daggda and out of the site of any Orc archers waiting to pick them off as soon as they come through the narrow space.

Andrew waits for the rush thats sure to come. Staying out of sight of their bowmen he'll be sure to take a few out when they trip on their way in. Looking around Andrew wishes he had something he could do. Shrugging his shoulders and with a small prayer he begins a ryhme you've all heard before:

"Mother goddess wise and true;
Darkness surrounds and we've need of you;
Danger faces us this night;
Make our foes shine with light."

The only thing left is to decide on a color for the spell.... a nice bright lime green would be perfect, Andrew decides. 

Just peeking over the top or around the corner enough to look down the tunnel and clutching his holy symbol tightly Andrew's call for fairie fire should make the little buggers easier to see at least.

 "Finally!!!" Tav mutters as the orc dies. Looking around, he assesses the tactical situation. "Well it looks like this will make a fine Bards song, if we make it out alive that is. Right now it would seem like we are in a bit of a bind. First thing we should do is to secure our rear. We need to block the secret door we came in from. I'd suggest a couple of crates stacked up against the closed door, that way we can move the boxes as an escape route if the need arises. Failing that we run the risk of them doing an end run and trapping us here, like so much butt lint between an ogres cheeks" Tavarak grins, really seeming to enjoy the current situation. "They will eventually rush our position. This is a tight spot so here is where we want to hold them. It takes away their superior number advantage. Its a good thing that we still have that web spell available to us. If we can web them when they are halfway down the passage we can advance and light the web on fire. We should get a torch ready in any event, better to much light then not enough. Worst case scenario is that we get over run and can't make it to the secret door. If that happens we should make our way atop the crates. It will be easier to defend and all we have to do is wait for them while staying out of rang of bows and such. I'll stand ready here if someone wants to prepare and torch and secure the secret door.

The dwarf catches Tavarak's look, and grins back at him. Daggda, Daul of Grim, is excited by the prospect of decimating these abominations, first created when the Great Forge was stolen at the beginning of time.  Everything seems to move in slow motion for the dwarf as heightened senses  pick up the stale, briny air and the distant roar of surf.

Listening to Tavarak's plan, Daggda replies, "Good thinking. We'll also need a sleeping spell from Ven after we burn through the web. As for them attacking, I think I know how to rile them up, as long as we don't give them time to think." Over one shoulder, the warrior briskly yells to the others, "Get up here!"

Spotting Myr timidly approaching, Daggda softly whispers, "Get ready, dear."

"Cover us, Tavarak," Daggda says, picking up three sea-washed pebbles off the sandy cavern floor. Hearing the words of Andrew's incantation, the dwarf starts mumbling in Dwarven, but in an antique dialect barely comprehensible even to most dwarves. Daggda shakes the pebbles in one hand while chanting. The chanting stops, and just as abruptly Daggda throws the pebbles down the
tunnel at the first ghostly outline of magical light that Andrew's spell reveals. "Stupid orc sargh beldarak, come and get us!"

Hearing Daggda's request for cover the Ranger draws her arrow back and aims down the throat of the tunnel.  The dwarf crosses in front of the drawn arrow, and Quill mumbles to herself, in hope that the idiot dwarf will have the sense to drop to the floor if something out there becomes a target.

Myr hovers quietly near Tav, searching the air above her head as if she's paranoid a mystical hammer is going to knock her even more senseless than she already is.

"Just lemme know when you want me to try that spell," she says. "I don't know how long it might hold them back, or how many we'd be lucky enough to torch. But if we decide to burn it, then any in the rear ranks will still be able to get through before too long."