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As the warrior I was fighting stood up, I watched him very carefully. He attacked with a big overhanded chop, so all I had to do was step to the side… and I found myself very fortunate that I had stepped to the side with my shield which was always held at the ready. Even so, it didn’t stop the impact of the axe on my shield… and it didn’t prevent my arm from breaking either. I staggered backwards, wondering what had happened. The axe had clearly missed- I saw it miss, but I also felt it hit me. I heard it, too. There had also been a whistling sound next to me, but as the warrior moved in closer to me I took a moment to look carefully- very carefully- with Martial Trance.
It was then I saw it. The lighting wasn’t quite right- he appeared as if there was one light, maybe a couple, instead of the diffuse lighting Alhorn provided. Was providing, even in the middle of a tough fight. Well, it wasn’t as if the enemy wouldn’t have needed light themselves.
Anyway, Yalgreck was better. I just hadn’t been expecting an illusion… which was my fault. I’d vaguely noticed it with one of the fireballs. As I readied myself to deal with an opponent I couldn’t actually see… suddenly I could only see Socks. Presumably there was something in her jaws where the blood was coming out. Then fire streamed over Socks, and I looked past her and the body of the dead cleric, to where there were two mages and Kantrilla. I wanted to immediately go help her but… I had to deal with Trollbelly. My brief glance told me what I needed to know anyway.
Kantrilla stepped forward and swung her mace at… nothing? She hit nothing, too. Until her second swing at empty air… which connected with the head of a suddenly visible man. He wasn’t dead or unconscious, but the moment he dropped his illusions a lightning bolt pierced into him followed by several arrows. Kantrilla still had to fend with the other mage there, but she had backup.
I didn’t plan to fight fair with Trollbelly, but as I stepped up behind her and swung my mace at her head, she managed to dodge. She’d managed to hear me… which wasn’t entirely crazy. She dodged out more towards the middle of the hallway, so she wouldn’t be backed up against the wall by Alhorn and me. She gritted her teeth, “You’re such a pain… you and that girlfriend of yours.” She turned to yell down the hall, “Grab her!” then Trollbelly turned to run.
Two more figures stepped out next to Kantrilla… and I acted on instinct. Trollbelly was already out of my reach, but my arm swung towards her anyway. I am well aware that maces are not mace for throwing and that I even had tools suited for the job… but my mace was in my hand. I didn’t really think about activating the magic, it just happened… and so the mace sailed straight through the air. For Trollbelly’s part, she actually ran very quickly. Catching up to her would have been hard… but the mace was thrown with all of more than a thousand Strength and no regard for conserving mana.
A proper piercing throw spiraled, and so did this. It was a surreal experience, watching a mace fly head first instead of flipping end over end. The way it was moving it didn’t really make use of its weight, so when it struck Trollbelly in the back it just pushed her forward. With great force, in fact. The remaining wizard was a few dozen feet past us, but she was flung past him and the two new figures before the mace stopped. As her face hit the ground, she got to a knee and prepared to sprint away again… before black vines grabbed onto her arms and legs. Thrandath was suddenly standing there, glaring straight at her. The two new dark clothed figures that were reaching for Kantrilla were grabbed around the neck by one large man, one elbow around each of them. He reminded me of Timmy… but actually, he was only seven and a half feet tall maybe. If I was to guess… he was a quarter giant. If that was even possible. Otherwise, just a big man.
An elven woman appeared next to Socks. “Excuse me, could you unhand… unmouth… let go of that dwarf? We’d prefer he not bleed to death so we can properly interrogate him.”
Within moments, all of the remaining enemies were subdued… and I was surprised to find that the cleric Socks had mauled was still alive. The illusionist hadn’t gotten off so easily, nor had the assassin, and the first to attack from behind had so many hoof prints from Carlos I almost wondered if I had missed a stampede of some sort.
“Sorry we took so long,” Thrandath apologized, “We wanted to make sure we caught as many as we could, and we weren’t sure who else was still skulking about.”
Trollbelly was still struggling at the black vines wrapped around her arms and less… but less than she had been. “Let me go you… you…” she had been screaming at first, but she couldn’t even form sentences now. I wasn’t sure what those vines were made of, but I resolved not to touch them.
Thrandath just smiled at her, but he didn’t let her out of his sight as he spoke to us. “You all did an excellent job of wearing them down, even if that wasn’t your intention. As you can see, some of them are quite a bit more difficult to kill than others. You did well.”
I looked down at myself. One arm was broken, and I had several gashes in my armor I hadn’t even noticed. Socks had some blood that was placed where it couldn’t have been anyone’s but hers, in addition to some burns. Alhorn was leaning up against the wall, in a way I recognized as an admission he wasn’t sure if he could stand up if he sat down. I hadn’t seen everything Kasner and Halette had done, but from all the ice and smell of ozone and the lack of arrows in Halette’s quiver, I could tell they had been busy.
Kantrilla… immediately came to take a look at me first. Showing favoritism in who you healed wasn’t okay… except sometimes, there was nothing that you could do. Perhaps previously Kantrilla might have been worried and said, ‘Are you alright?’ but now she just said, “Hold up your arm… with your other arm.” She frowned, then nodded. “Okay, I’m going to need you to hold still.” Magic flowed out of her into my arm… and there was a popping sound as bones moved back to their right position. The pain said they certainly weren’t healed, but the process would be able to start. Kantrilla pulled out splints to keep my arm still and a sling from Carlos’ pack and administered them, before moving on to the others. I could see she was too busy focusing on what we needed to worry, but things would be different later.
“Alright,” Thrandath nodded, “We’ve got all these fellows unconscious now. Now that we’ve revealed ourselves, it would do for us to get out of the dungeon posthaste. We’ll lead the way for the lot of you, and discuss things further once we’re out.” Instead of anything fancy, people were basically bundled up with ropes and dragged behind the big guy. “They’re tough. They’re not bleeding to death right now, so they’ll be fine. They deserve worse anyway.” I silently agreed, knowing what they would have done if they caught Kantrilla or me.