- - - - -
Baldric freezes as well, though after a moment he begins to slowly and silently pack up the most recent device. He points at the three spots where he's already buried one. "Don't step there." he murmurs. He begins to stand up, but a trio of the nearby trees suddenly explode outward and a terrifying monster rushes out of the undergrowth towards the pair of Arcadian soldiers.
For a few seconds, with the birds chirping and the soft sand under her, Sorala is completely disoriented. Sighing, she looks up at the sky and thinks, perhaps, that she has been judged, and found worthy for heaven. And then, turning to her side, the Squire sees the bodies and the wreckage, and realizes that she's nowhere near heaven, yet. Arcadia.
Another thought occurs to her, and panicked, Sorala sits up, reaching backwards and exhaling in relief as she finds her falcata still strapped to her back.
They seemed to be lucky, at least, those that were by her when they hit the rock. There's Murob, and Karzok, and the goblin that was nearby.
Standing, Sorala staggers and makes her way to her friend. "Karzok! There'll be time to grieve later! You!" Sorala says, pointing to the woman. "What's your name? Get to work looking for the injured!"
Sorala does the same, kneeling next to a nearby, motionless woman. Hearing the man with the great beard ask a question, likely to himself, Sorala answers anyway. "Hit a giant rock. Last thing I remember."
The man's divine power hums from him, prompting another question. "You a priest?"
More than a little shell shocked and still in the process of gathering his wits, Ehiz gets up and starts helping where he can. Gear and materials are strewn about, people are in need of medical attention and if that wasn't enough, they would then have to figure out a plan as to what to do next. The many tasks ahead keep him from doing anything though.
Sorala's question however brings him back to the present. A priest? I guess I would be that to them. "Yes, I am. I am Ehiz. If we gather the wounded, I can pray to Erastil for healing and guidance. Assuming .." and the man starts patting down his chest to then pull forth an intricately carved wooden amulet. Prominently displayed on it are a pair of antlers. ".. good. It seems we haven't been forgotten yet. I am sorry we have to meet under these circumstances."
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The young woman starts at Sorala's command. "Uhm, my name's Elizabeth," she says. She, too, looks a little bit shell-shocked, but she staggers over to the nearest body, falls to her knees, and starts to slap it in the face. "Hey, you awake?" she blearily asks.
Corporal Yosiah Crint swears under his breath Son of a..of course I couldn't be that lucky... as he springs into action, rushing to his left, hoping to put Baldric's devices between himself and the creature. He shouts at the other soldier as he hops over a small log, looking over his shoulder at his squadmate, only a moment behind, and the beast, further away, but not by near as much distance as Yosiah would like. "How many of these have you placed today?! I lost count! Do you think they'll be enough?!" And good Gods, what in the seven hells IS that thing?!
It was a long moment before Sorala's words pierced Karzok's veil of grief. He looked up, then looked around, really taking in their surroundings for the first time. "What is this place?" he managed to croak before his minds eye returned to his last memory before the crash. "The lookout! Did he make it?" He begins scanning the beach for the man, trying to find some shred of hope in all this sorrow.
In his search he notices Murob milling about, checking on the wounded. He trots up to her, his boots squishing, the leather plates of his armor making small wet slapping sounds, "Have you seen the lookout?"
Mogwai opens his eyes, blinking several times at the light sky. "Mogwai dead?" he asks the sky. Getting no response, he shakes his head, and moves to sit up, finding his leg pinned under some wood, not for the first time in his life. Thinking back to the church, Mogwai feels a sense of peace, and carefully lifts the wood to remove his foot. Standing up, he takes stock of his surroundings.
Seeing a few people standing, looking at the beach and jungle, he moves over towards them, still feeling somewhat stunned, before noticing Murob moving from body to body, checking for signs of life. Moving as if the goddess herself was propelling him, Mogwai rushes up alongside, throwing his tiny arms around Murob.
"Murob okay!" He exclaims, his ears twitching with excitement. Her somber expression at the bodies grounds him, and his ears quickly fold back down as he looks at the bodies spread across the beach. "Mogwai help." He promises, and begins inspecting some of them himself.
As Karzok gets up to ask about the lookout, he finds his movement restricted - something pulls on his ankle - and he nearly falls. He finds a rope looped around his ankle. Looking back behind him, he can see the lookout, face-down in the sand, a hand still clutched to the rope.
Mogwai, Murob, and Ehiz begin to range around the beach, checking peoples' pulses, slapping them awake, and checking for breath. Of the fifteen people they are able to check in the first minute, they are able to find two survivors. One of them, a well-dressed and portly middle-aged man, and the second, Arven, Ehiz's friend from the ship! Ehiz expends his god's power healing them of their aches and their bruises, and both of them spurt water and awaken, looking rather stunned and disoriented.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth has started to poke over the dead people that she finds. "Hey, do any of you have a weapon of any kind? I don't feel good here without a sword in my hand."
Around the edge of a piece of terrain over towards the left of the water, there comes into view a barge. A wide and deep vessel with a single sail. Somebody on the prow of the boat points at the section of beach with the crashed Marie Celeste, and the barge turns and starts to head over in that direction. Atop the boat, as well as swimming beside it, are gilled, oily-skinned humanoids carrying spears. There are about fifteen of them, as far as you can see. You figure you have maybe one minute before they arrive.
- - - - -
The monster closes the great distance in between Yosiah and it in only a few leaps and bounds of its many legs. Baldric and Yosiah run to get the mines that Baldric had already placed in between them and it, and before it gets too close in accidentally steps in one of the places he had laid one. With a flash, a great boom, and a geyser of dirt, the mine goes off, and the creature recoils. It pauses for a moment (during which Baldric grabs Yosiah by his pauldrons and yanks him along, saying, "Run!") to regard its injured foot. Though its lead-left food is mangled by the explosion, the injury quickly begins to erase itself. It snarls with pain and anger and begins to run after Baldric and Yosiah, chasing them off of the road.
Murob pauses for a moment in her ministrations to answer Karzok. "We seem to be in Arcadia, although I cannot tell how close or how far we are from the intended landing place... Oof!" Her breath rushes out as Mogwai barrels into her and hugs her. "Oh, I'm so glad you are alive! Thank you for your help, you are such a good person, Mogwai. I have some bandages left here, and some healing herbs that survived the salt water. I hope you can use them."
Feeling she has done all she can for now, she rises and stretches, surveying their sad crop. Only a handful of survivors, out of hundreds of people who had set out on this ill-fated journey. How many lives lost, how many shattered dreams, how many families who will now wonder forever what happened to their loved ones... Elizabeth's question shakes her out of the depressing meandering of her thoughts and she strides over to the woman. "I have nothing but my magic and my wits, but perhaps we can find something in the wreckage. Here, I'll help you search."
As she rummages through the splintered fragments of the ship, her attention is snatched away again, this time by the arrival of the strangers. She gestures at the others to gather them, pointing with her chin at the newcomers. "Those look to be gillmen, I saw a few of their kind near Absalom's harbour before we departed. I hope they don't plan to attack us, they are quite tough. If they do, though... I hope the spirits of this place favour us."
The sight of Arven, gnarly as it might be amidst a beach sprawling with corpses, returns some hope to Ehiz's heavy heart. It feels good to know you can make a difference in another person's life. However the old adagium that when it rains it pours seems to hold up even in these exotic lands. Armed gillmen had shown up and their barge was coming right at them. Social pleasantries would have to wait and oh, he was dying to ask his unlikely companions for proper introductions.
"I say we move land inwards. Yes, they'll see and might follow our tracks, but I doubt the entire group will come after us if so. That gives us a chance to parlay with them .. or defend ourselves, if need be. The loot they'll find here should be more enticing than a bunch of survivors."
Yosiah takes off down the clearest trail he can find in the woods, his long legs carrying him through underbrush, dodging rocks and pitfalls. He murmurs prayers to himself over and over, his eyes scanning the rapidly-moving ground quickly, spotting his next step mere moments before he makes it. Please Kofu, let me be lucky enough to survive today, let me please be lucky enough, Kofu, to survive this, let me survive today, Kofu... his lips mouth the words as his mind focuses on their intent, turning the nonsensical rambling into a mantra, drowning out the sound of his racing heartbeat pounding in his ears. He dares not look over his shoulder again, dares not risk taking his eyes off of the ground ahead, but his ears strain, awaiting the next explosion, or the sound of Baldric behind him.
Elizabeth heads into the wreckage of the ship along with Murob to search, picking around and through things to see if anything valuable is found...
Unfortunately, after a minute of searching all Murob is able to find is a 15-foot length of frayed rope, a waterlogged music box which only works for the first 5 seconds, and somebody's shoe luggage case, somehow completely intact and full of 10 pairs of shoes of various style and function.
As it draws closer, the gillman on the prow of their barge points his spear at the beach and shouts, "Koíta! Ypárchoun epizóntes stin paralía. Proetoimáste tous ypnotistés!" At his word, a pair of the gillmen on the barge go below decks and return a few moments later, carrying a very large cage between them.
Arven opens his eyes and sputters out some water, turning over and sitting halfway up. "Ehiz? Are we dead?" he asks, his voice trembling. "What's going on?" Meanwhile, the portly man wheezes and shouts, with his eyes still closed, "Corbin! I require an immediate change of clothes!"
Not a doctor, healer, doula, midwife, herbalist, priest, or anything else related to the medical arts, Sorala gives up looking for survivors and begins hauling as many unmoving bodies as close to the bearded one as she can. "No time! I'll bring as many as close to as I can, stack 'em even. Use your gifts."
Glancing towards the gillmen, the White Squire scowls. Not much time. "If there's a fight, I'll cover us while everyone makes their retreat."
Mogwai looks up from a body to shake his head at Elizabeth. "Carrying sword invites danger." He says simply. Before going back to treat the others, he notices the Gillmen in the distance. "Start with what known." He mutters to himself, thinking that while the Gillmen may be a threat, the people on the beach would be more likely to die without attention. Mentally keeping track of the Gillmen, Mogwai goes back to trying to treat those still in this world.
Eyes awash with anguish stand in stark contrast to the soft smile Ehiz flashed Arven. "We're still alive, but the storm caused the ship to go down under. Many haven't made it and we will have to be strong if we want to make it. Now, I need to attend to the others.." and the man rises to help Sorala out with dragging all the unconscious people close to one another.
Once done, he clenches the holy symbol of Erastil in one hand and hstretches his free hand towards the heavens. Energy is drawn to the man like a magnet and just as quickly as it appeared, it washes out over the people around him. Wounds start to knit and bruises disappeared.
A god's favor had been invoked.
Several of the remaining colonists moan and shake their heads as Ehiz, Mogwai, and Sorala drag them or check their vitals, and Ehiz's expulsion of positive energy wakes up three of them. The first, a young halfling woman, gasps back to consciousness. She immediately reaches for her own throat, only to be dismayed when she finds nothing there. The second, a dark-skinned and bald human woman, lays on her side coughing up water for a few moments before quietly surveying the surroundings, and the third, an older human man, balding on top and grumbling with dissatisfaction as he wakes.
While the group scurries to return all of the survivors to consciousness, the gillman barge comes to a stop a short distance from shore. The lead gillman calls out, "Pigaíno! Thymitheíte na min tous skotósete, afíste tous siopiroús na kánoun ti douleiá tous." The two gillman carrying the cage hop down into the shallows and struggle forward, throwing down the cage once the water becomes shallow enough and opening it. A half-dozen lizards stream out of the metal box, hissing and foaming at the mouth. They begin to meander over towards the group. Several of the gillmen in the water draw close as well, coming up out of the water once they reach the shallows.
"Cautious." Mogwai warns, looking at the lizards with a degree of curiosity. "Kekar have the Frenzy." He looks sheepishly at the others. "Not am knowing not-goblin word."
Moving more quickly, he tries to help some of the disoriented and wounded to their feet, forgetting momentarily how little most of them want to be touched by a goblin.
Seeing danger to their fragile company, Murob strides forward to where Mogwai is helping up the survivors. It is not hard to imagine what the gillmen might think, if they are natives of this place - here are newcomers with unknown intentions, come to their shores. She is hopeful that this can be resolved without bloodshed, but determined to defend herself and others at the same time. Frustrated at the inability to communicate with the gillmen, she starts humming a lullaby, reasoning that its soothing tones might help to blunt aggression in both humanoids and lizards.
Inner conflict swirls within the rugged farmer. Running away would be prudent, but some of the other passengers seem in no state to undertake such a physical challenge. Staying also ain't an option, what with the gillmen being the alpha wolves here and wanting the meat of the ship's carcass. Kowtowing seems to be the proper response and might give Ehiz and his comrades a chance to back off and disengage from this explosive situation. The man reaches for his holy symbol and closes his eyes as he presses his lips against it. I have faith.
Against all rationality, Ehiz then raises his arms and hands up in the air to show the gillmen he has no intention of fighting. He takes a step forward to indicate he is the one talking for the group of survivors and eyes the group of warriors, hoping to spot their leader.
He then, through gesture and the tone of his voice, tries to make it clear they want no conflict. Unsure whether the gillmen understand common, he speaks loud and slow, rounding off every word before uttering the next to increase the chance of understanding. "We shipwrecked" he says as his hands point at the remnants of their ships. Both hands then form a ship together and he blows at them, exaggerating the sound in almost childlike fashion. The hands drift apart to showcase the event of the ship going under. "We" and he puts his straightened thumb and index finger against his head, mimicking the act of looking out over the horizon, "looking for Arcadia."
He then waves with the flat of his hand at himself and the other survivors and repeats "We." His outstretched fingers come together and raised diagonally, form the universal symbol for 'home'. "We looking for home."
And now for the hardest part , the man thinks to himself. Ehiz kneels down and eyes whoever he thinks is leading the pack of gillmen. He waves over all the gillmen with an outstretched hand and ends at the 'leader'. "You." he says loudly, but with a calm voice. Underneath the calmth flows a current of tension. He turns his hands so that both palms face upwards and completes the motion by spreading his arms outwide. The gesture for 'gift' or 'submission'. "You take ship."
As Karzok gets up to ask about the lookout, he finds his movement restricted - something pulls on his ankle - and he nearly falls. He finds a rope looped around his ankle. Looking back behind him, he can see the lookout, face-down in the sand, a hand still clutched to the rope.
Karzok stumbled face first into the sand. He looked down at his leg and saw his silken rope caught on his ankle. Quickly he spun around, and when he saw Dareon's body he didn't even have the presence of mind to stand up, he simply crawled through the sands over to his motionless form.
It didn't take long for him to realize there wasn't anything he could do. The lookout was passed the point of being helped and had moved on from this world. Karzok sat in the sands, silent grief surging through his body.
At first, he was completely oblivious to the approach of the gillmen. But once the splashes got louder and the hissing began, the new arrivals had his full attention. He calmly stood up and stepped forward, sliding his immense sword from it's sheath. If he noticed the bearded cleric's pleas for peace with the locals, he showed no sign of it. The time for grieving had passed, now was the time to destroy. His pain must be justified by the slaughter of his adversaries. And these gillmen seemed like a fine place to start.
His muscles snapped taut as his veins bulged. He flexed his entire body until a dark replica of his form manifested from his pores and seeped out to stand beside him. He was vengeance manifest.
"Ummmm..." Sorala looked from Karzok to the priest, to Karzok and the priest again. She didn't agree with giving the gillmen the ship, but she also didn't see a way they'd win a fight. "I may have a spellbook and some armor on this beach. I'd like to keep them."
Regardless, things were going sideways, fast. And the priest was probably the most important person to keep alive right now. With his life, so could others live. Sorala flexed her hands and inched toward the priest, grateful that she'd always kept her sword strapped to her back, even when working. She'd keep the priest alive at all costs - if it came to that.
The leader listens to Ehiz's entreaties, his smile growing wide and grotesque as Ehiz continues to talk. "We know." he says, in Common. "And we are taking you, too." His voice is guttural and deep, and he laughs while he pulls out a crossbow. Two of his fellow gillmen pull out crossbows as well, while the gillmen in the surf push the foaming lizards onto the beach and towards the colonists.
Initiative:
Even as they move into action, Murob begins to chant somnolence - one of the guards on the ship begins to feel drowsy as he points his crossbow at the colonists.
That gillman resists the witch's hex, squinting hard and tensing his muscles just long enough to shake the effects off.
The three gillmen with crossbows load pure-white, glowing bolts into their crossbows and point them along the beach, hoping to catch a few of the more vulnerable and visible people with them - they fire at Elizabeth, Murob, and the halfling woman who just awoke.
Elizabeth is struck directly in the chest, though the bolt, instead of sticking into her, it bursts into a cloud of white energy which causes her to immediately fall asleep.
The rest of the gillmen stay back, though their weapons come to hand.
Mogwai opens his mouth to explain their situation to the gillmen as they open fire, not only firing at Murob but also immediately taking out Elizabeth. While he knows that a sword wouldn't have helped her here, he can't help but feel guilty. She wanted to feel protected and now look what happened. And now there were too many still wounded to carry away with the Gillmen after them. Mogwai opens his mouth in a howl and charges forward towards the Gillmen.
Mogwai howls and charges forward, making it far enough to enter combat with the many lizards that have discharged onto the beach, though he is too far to actually begin ripping and tearing at any of them.
The colonists react in a variety of ways. The young halfling woman begins to scrabble around in the rubble of the ship, looking for something. Arven runs up behind Ehiz and taps him on the shoulder. "Do you have a weapon I can use? I want to help fight these guys off!" Elizabeth is asleep, while the remaining three colonists pick themselves out of the sand and run away, cowering in some rubble to watch the battle.
Murob strides forward and cackles, extending the luck that she had granted to Mogwai the goblin.
Yosiah hops over another large log, deftly hurdling over the obstacle as he slips his hatchet into its belt-holster. Won't do a damned bit of good if it comes to it, at any rate... After getting a few more frantic footsteps planted on the ground, along with hopefully a bit more distance between himself and the creature chasing, Yosiah notes that he's running toward a patch of relatively even ground, and ventures a glimpse over his shoulder, hoping to take stock of the scene and evaluate his options.
Karzok growls something unintelligible as he charges in, his shadow double trailing his every move. Raising his massive sword he brings it down hard in a brutal overhand chop hoping to bring a swift end to the lizard threatening the howling goblin.
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Yosiah runs and runs, rushing through the undergrowth. The monster crashes through tree after tree, undergrowth crunching and parting for it. Baldric's panting is audible, the clanking of his gear and the whoosh of his feet just barely under the slavering and growling of the monster. Yosiah turns, goes to look at the monster, and sees it shrug a tree, the trunk splintering while it falls, in an attempt to catch up.
Then, his step falls a little farther than he thought it would. Panicking, Yosiah turns his head back around and finds that he'd run right off of a steep back. His ankle twists as it gets caught in a root and he falls off of his center, tumbling and tumbling down the deep, steep hill.
Karzok roars and charges in, greatsword singing. The lizards are small and weak, and his blade carves a furrow deep enough to gouge the first one's heart. It gasps a little lizard gasp and dies.
Yosiah scrabbles and paws at the ground, watching ground and plants and rocks fly past his field of vision at an astonishing rate, wincing at every bounce or bump on his way down the hill. At least let me see my Mazi again! he prays to himself as he breaks his fingernails against a tree root, trying to grip it but unable to overcome his tremendous momentum. Instinctively, he tries to focus his gaze upward whenever possible as he tumbles, searching for any sign of Baldric or his scaled pursuer.
More was needed than mere skill at arms and the tenacity to see this through to the end. A God's watchful eye was needed. Ehiz raises his arms and invokes a word so ancient that Erastil knew he had to look to this beach for his faithful needed him.
Area: The caster and all allies within a 50-ft. burst, centered on the caster
Duration: 2 minutes
Each ally gains +1 morale bonus on attack rolls and on saving throws against fear effects.
Drawing her sword, Sorala moves between the priest and the enemy, silently cursing the gods that she'd been working - and thus not in her armor - when the storm hit. With a quick waggle of her fingers and a harsh, syllabic intonation, the air in front of the Irrisenian shimmers, just slightly. The incantation would be enough, Sorala hopes, to stave off any of those sleeping bolts...
Sorala and Ehiz both cast spells, one for attack and the other for defense. Hopefully, their intervention would be enough to turn the tide of battle.
Meanwhile, the lizards swarm around Karzok and Ehiz, their little mouths frothing and snapping.
While both fight to fend off the lizards and do a pretty good job of it, Karzok finds two bites on his arms and Mogwai gets bitten in one of his rather large ears. The bite wounds drip with poison, and each of them can feel limbs growing sluggish...
The gillmen forge through the surf, loading their crossbows as they do so, both with another glowing white bolt. They point and fire bolts at their closest beachside enemies.
The bolts burst into blinding white energy as they strike, and the energy sort of makes those struck feel like sneezing... taking in a sluggish breath, eyes half-lidded, you suddenly find yourself extremely drowsy. The halfling staggers under the bolt's strike, but with a growl manages to stay awake. She can be heard murmuring under her breath, but not anything in particular.
Feeling the poison coursing through his veins, Mogwai's arms begin to go numb for a second, before he shakes off the poison. "Goblins eat worse things than you." He spits out, as he tears into the lizard that had latched onto his ear.
Mogwai slashes with his claws twice at the lizard who just bit him, scoring a thin slice along the lizard's neck. It hisses in pain and anger.
Arven ducks under his own hand and yells in panic as the gillmen unleash another volley of crossbow bolts onto the beach, and pokes Ehiz urgently. "Ehiz... don't any of you have an extra weapon? Gods, maybe it's not a good idea to just stay here..."
The halfling continues to search through the rubble, breathing with some difficulty due to a spreading bruise from the sleeping bolt fired at her..
Meanwhile, the other colonists cower at the corner of the beach. They seem to be on the fence about whether or not to simply flee.
With a grunt, Sorala reaches up to her shoulder where she was struck, her eyes fluttering once, twice, and then, with the sound of the surf growing loud in her ears, the White Squire sneezes once and falls to the ground, unconscious.
Murob grunts as the bolt hits her in the thigh, shaking her head savagely to resist the drowsiness. "Put us to sleep, will you? Let's see how you like a taste of your own medicine." Recalling how the white energy felt, she pictures her mind as a smooth mirror reflecting the magic back at the gillmen. Focusing on the closest one, she wills him to sleep as she takes two steps forward to be closer to Mogwai and Karzok, in case they needed their wounds tended to in a hurry.
"Take this!" yells Ehiz as he hands the man his spear. "And take cover, Arv!"
Caught up in the fury of battle, Karzok barely notices as the lizards nip at his arms. Small trickles of blood run over his knuckles as he grips the hilt of his sword and swings away, hoping to destroy the lizard to the south as it attempts to flank him and his ally.
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Murob hexes one of the gillmen in the surf, firing bolts, but with a heroic surge of willpower he manages to resist the witch's magic and stay awake. At the same time, Karzok takes his sword brutally to one of the poisonous lizards, killing it in a moment and turning to the next.
Arven gratefully takes Ehiz's spear, thanking him, but pointing at Sorala when she falls to an arrow. "What do we do? They'll get us all in no time! Should I help the subhumans with the lizards?"
The four remaining lizards continue to bite and nip at Karzok and Mogwai, while the gillmen in the surf and on the beach shout at each other in an unknown language.
Lizards manage to latch on to Karzok and Mogwai once again, pumping their poison into the warriors' veins.
The gillmen load a third bolt into their crossbows. The leader tells his subordinates something and one of them aims higher, going for the colonists on the other side of the beach, while one takes aim at Murob again.
All three bolts land their mark, with both Murob and the Mwangi woman on the other side of the beach falling to the sand, unconscious. The gillmen whoop and cheer in celebration as more people fall prey to them. Two of the gillmen start to move through the surf, headed for their prey to grab them.
- - - - -
Over to your right, two groups battle - one group, a haggard and tired-looking, barely-equipped group of shipwrecked (must be!) sailors. The other, you recognize from education in basic training. Gillman pirates are notorious in this region for their domination of the sea lanes too far out from the shore, and they frequently capture survivors from the ships which they sink or maroon.
The many-limbed monster draws closer from behind..
As the lizard's teeth sink into him again, Mogwai has an easier time shrugging off the poison, some of it coming out with his blood onto the sand. "No time games." He growls at the lizard, before stabbing into it with his claws, and moving his arms apart, ripping it open, letting out a loud roar as he does so.
Mogwai tears his lizard opponent apart, roaring with satisfaction as the poisonous creature falls to the sand in a pile of its own intestines and blood.
The halfling continues to look through the rubble for something, cursing and mumbling while searching...
The merchant and the portly bald man shriek at the fall of the Mwangi woman right in front of them, and they flee away from the beach, awkwardly fumbling over the dunes that bridge the gap between the forest and the beach.
Arven, meanwhile, takes Ehiz's spear and runs over towards Sorala. He shakes her awake, and the magic affecting her falls away easily. She finds herself lying on the sand, a growing bruise in her chest, with a very young man standing over her shaking her shoulder.
Murob almost falls to her knees as a second bolt strikes her. Time seems to be moving slow, so slow. She looks over her shoulder to her right, to see the Ulfen woman sprawled in the sand. Dead? Murob shakes her head again to clear it. Up ahead, blood spatters as Karzok, Mogwai and the lizards claw and tear at each other. The strange language sounds again as the gillmen loose their bolts, felling one of the colonists, a woman that Murob herself had brought back from the brink of death earlier, on this very beach. Her tricks are useless against them. But she can at least help the others, if only she could reach them... The sand drags at her feet and her body feels so very heavy. Did she move closer or did she only imagine it? No, she hasn't moved. She is so tired. If only she could reach them. Who is them? The gillmen are shooting her friends. A third time, Murob shakes her head, but it doesn't help. Nothing helps. She screams in frustration.
"Yes, go stab 'em and scare the gillmen bastards off!" Ehiz instructs the young man while drawing his bow. He nocks an arrow, but is too late to notice the fletching of this particular projectile has been ruined by sea water. Really now?!
For the second time that day, Sorala opens awakes on the same beach. For a second, her groggy mind thinks it must have all been a dream - the ship's sinking, the attack, everything... and then she hears Murob's curdling scream.
Sitting up with a gasp and clutching her chest, Sorala takes a quick inventory of the field of batle. Clutching the sword at her side, the White Squire stands, and assuming a defensive stance, prepares for the next volley of bolts she knows is coming.
Yosiah stands quickly, his heart pounding in his chest as he scrabbles along the sand, his feet slipping with each step. "FONCTIONNE PAR LEURS! CES LÉGERS SONT DANGEREUX! ILS LE CAPTENT ET VOUS VENDENT!"
RUN FROM THEM! THOSE LIZARDS ARE DANGEROUS! THEY WILL CAPTURE YOU AND SELL YOU!
As he watches the half-orc woman stumble and shout at one of the gillmen, Yosiah forgets all thoughts of his own safety, drawing his handaxe and slapping the side of it against his buckler, hoping to draw the attention of the gillmen, and looking over his shoulder to make sure the enormous lizard was still following him as he ran. Damn, I hope this works...Kofusachi, please? You owe me this.
Karzok chops away at the scaly nuisances, hoping to put a swift end to them so that he may focus on the gillmen approaching the beach.
After dismembering another lizard, Karzok takes a step back to cover the goblin's rear.
The gillman closest to Murob seems shell-shocked by the spell she unleashes on it, and clutches desperately at his own head. The gillman bends over, shaking his head and trying to get the ringing out of his ears.
Karzok disembowels another lizard and steps to an advantageous position, while the gillmen push through the surf in order to engage the remaining survivors, barking orders at each other in that unknown language.
Meanwhile, the two remaining lizards move in to bite at Mogwai.
... And both miss.
Meanwhile, a strange sight comes from down the beach. A tall and lanky human wearing steel breastplate armor and a shield and handaxe nearly-stumbles down a hillrise. He is shouting also in an unknown language, but a different one from the language of the gillmen. And pursuing him, an absolutely huge and monstrous beast rips up the ground as it attempts to gain ground on the strange soldier, who is panting and sweating with exertion as he runs.
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As Karzok steps back, Mogwai nods. "Mogwai finish. Go help." Turning his attention back towards the remaining lizards, he scowls. "Bad kekar." He scolds. "See dead friends? Become dead, too."