Akhom's second arrow, fired but an instant after the first, strikes the boar, sinking into a meaty shoulder.
Stifling a cry at the sudden pain that lances through his leg, Akhom moves back from the boar once more, stumbling slightly . He reaches down to lay his hand on the wound, calling on Sarenrae's healing light . As his hand glows briefly, his pained expression clears somewhat, and he resolutely rises his bow to shoot the boar again at point-blank range.
Round 4
HP = 26/26
AC/T/FF = 19/15/14
Weapon Equipped = Bow
Grit = 1/2
Orc Ferocity = 1/1
Bullets = 25/30
Black Powder = 25/30
Alchemical cartridge (paper) = 18/20
Speed = 30'
Status Effects = None
"Permission to switch to a real weapon?"
The half-orc moves to the side and attempts to fire at the boar.
"You fire that gun we need to be ready to run. Let me get to Gruthic first."
Muqaq casts a spell of healing, holding the charge in his hand. He then steps to the edge of the section of the wall, peeking around to see where the bacon-beast is. Seeing it engaged in melee with Akhom he prepares to run forward and heal Gruthic....
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Round 4
Xanyon moves closer, trying to find a position from which he has a clear line of sight to the animal. Once in position, he draws an arrow to his cheek, and looses at the beast. The arrow hits perfectly, but penetrates barely beyond the point. The arrow must have struck a bone...
Sief reloads his sling and launches another stone. Unfortunately, he misses the gap in the wall, and strikes the rocks instead.
Akhom steps away again and fires two arrows in rapid succession. The first hits the animal, but deflects off its thick skin. The second is poorly seated on the arrow rest when it is loosed, and shoots off at an angle to the monster's side.
Round 5
Muqaq steps forward, getting a view of the creature's flank, and confirming that the way to his fallen comrade is clear. He casts a spell of healing, holding the charge so he can put it to use upon touching his ally.
The boar continues to chase after Akhom, seemingly angry enough to pursue him out of the building. . Akhom flinches just enough for the tusk to come in at an angle, and get deflected by his mail shirt.
Seif-al-Din throws another sling-stone at the boar.
Muqaq runs forward to Gruthic and touches him with the healing spell.
_______________________
Round 5
HP = 26/26
AC/T/FF = 19/15/14
Weapon Equipped = Bow
Grit = 1/2
Orc Ferocity = 1/1
Bullets = 25/30
Black Powder = 25/30
Alchemical cartridge (paper) = 18/20
Speed = 30'
Status Effects = None
Xanyon attempts to distract the boar more effectively.
Akhom repeats his tactic from last round, falling back with the momentum of th boar's last attack to concede another 5 feet, healing quickly, then firing two more arrows.
Round 5:
Xanyon fires off another arrow, striking the beast in the snout. It does not appear the shot does much harm, but it certainly seems to make the animal angry.
Sief throws off another stone from his sling. This time it hits the beast, which is now clear of its cover, but the rock bounces off the thick hide without gaining so much as a reaction from the monster.
Akhom backs off another step, healing himself as he moves, and then continuing the barrage of arrows that is beginning to make the boar resemble a porcupine. The first deflects off without harm, but the second strikes true. It hits the boar in one of its black, beastly eyes, evoking a squeal of pain and anger from the beast.
Round 6:
Muqaq races forward until he comes adjacent to his fallen friend. Reaching out his hand, he lets the healing energy from his spell escape from him, and flow into the wounded dwarf.
The boar continues its attack on Akhom, now moving with ferocious anger. . Although very forceful, the attack is hindered by the beasts new lack of sight, and fails to connect with the retreating archer.
Seif-al-Din gamely attempts to throw another sling-stone at the boar!
Akhom continues to dance backward, eyes gleaming as the thrill of battle now begins to overcome his fear.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it," becomes Muqaq's repeatedly whispered mantra in between his prayers to the heavens. As soon as he's gathered enough holy energy from the sun, he touches the still unconscious dwarf. As the healing energy takes hold, Gruthic's eyes flutter open. "Stand up fast, and get ready to run," he whispers to the dwarf. Rising from his own crouch he does the same, moving back behind the cover of the wall.
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Round 6
HP = 26/26
AC/T/FF = 19/15/14
Weapon Equipped = Bow
Grit = 1/2
Orc Ferocity = 1/1
Bullets = 25/30
Black Powder = 25/30
Alchemical cartridge (paper) = 18/20
Speed = 30'
Status Effects = None
Finding the arrows to be woefully inadequate but silent enough for now, the gunslinger continues his archery lessons with the boar.
Round 6:
Xanyon fires another arrow into the beast, this one sinking in deep between the ribs.
Sief flings another stone but bounces it off one yellowed tusk.
Akhom fires off another two quick shots, the first going high and the second failing to penetrate the thick skin.
Round 7:
Muqaq casts another spell of healing on Gruthic, causing the battered dwarf's eyes to snap open.
The Boar is starting to look bloody and injured, but seemed to be working itself more into a frenzy, as opposed to slowing down. Its present wounds don't look like quite enough to kill a beast of this size yet, but it must be getting close...
Nevertheless, it presses forward against Akhom, continuing to slash at him with its giant tusks.
"Gaah!"
Gruthic tries to fight off Muqaq, initially mistaking him for the boar. Once his vision clears, he grimaces in pain, and hears the boar's grunts nearby.
"My thanks, Muqaq. Wasn't expecting to take a nap so early in the day."
Gruthic stands and moves west toward a break in the wall, drawing out a weighted hammer as he does so. He studies the wounded boar and alerts his companions.
"We've bloodied it, so its a fight to the death now. Boars get in a blood frenzy when you wound them, and fight past wounds that would kill another creature. Don't drop your guard till it's still on the ground, lest you get gored ... like I did."
Hearing Gruthic's voice, Seif-al-Din breathes a sigh of relief, and tosses another sling-stone at the giant pig!
Round 7
Muqaq hustles south behind the ruined wall in a crouch, when Akhom comes into view he says "Gruthic's back up. Let's start to move this fight away from the village."
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Akhom grins as he sees Gruthic on his feet, then repeats his tactic from previous rounds.
Akhom nods at Muqaq's words, preparing to fall back properly. "Get the rest of them back!" he hisses.
Round 7
HP = 26/26
AC/T/FF = 19/15/14
Weapon Equipped = Bow
Grit = 1/2
Orc Ferocity = 1/1
Bullets = 25/30
Black Powder = 25/30
Alchemical cartridge (paper) = 18/20
Speed = 30'
Status Effects = None
Emboldened by his new found ability to harm the boar, the half-orc draws the unfamiliar weapon once more and fires.
This is very tiring. How to the others do it?
Round 7:
Gruthic gets to his feet, and ambles towards the boar, drawing a throwing hammer as he does.
Xanyon draws his bow again, and loosing the arrow sees it sail straight under the beast's momentarily raised head and sink to the feathers within the thing's breast; a perfect shot, right near the heart. The beast stumbles, down on to its knees for a moment, before surging back to its hooves, mouth foaming with furry.
Sief loads his sling, but loses it as he spins the sling in preparation to through. The stone clicks on the ground and skitters just a few feet before coming to a stop. The sling, now empty and lacking the weight for the spin, goes limp.
Akhom draws his arrows, and again fires off two shots in rapid succession. Both hit solidly, and sink in deep.
The Boar, still moving forward to attack the archer, misses its step and crashes to the ground in front of him. It tries once to stand, and then lies still, blood running from its many wounds.
"That's it! Give it a minute to bleed out before you think to take a trophy."
Gruthic looks around at the scuffled dirt, and spots his axe and shield lieing under the boar's corpse. "Damn."
"There's no way the gnolls are going to miss the signs of the fight here. My blood there, the boar's blood soaking the sands. Our surprise will be up the moment they find this. Thanks to Muqaq here, my guts are still where they belong, so I'll be up for taking point again as soon as I get my axe. We should make the best of the time we have."
Muqaq brushes the dust off his clothes and approaches the others. "At some point I hope we receive a task where burning down the whole village is an acceptable solution. Much easier than all this melee," he says sardonically. "Excellent work though team. Gruthic's right, we need to press on for now. Seif can you heal him again? Gruthic after your healed up, can you have a look around the nearby streets see if anyone noticed us fighting please? Rest of you into the boar's den to search for treasure and wait for Gruthic to report."
Xanyon nods and moves into the den to search. Watchers note the half-orc briefly considering casting aside the bow before hanging on to it.
Xanyon searches through the ruined building that the giant pig was using as its lair. It smells about as good as you would expect a pig's hollow to smell, though it could be worse; being unrestrained, the pig seems to have done its business in a different part of the building than where it slept and ate. There are numerous bits here and there that indicate the beast has been eating well, as when hungry, such an animal will eat bone as readily as flesh and sinew. Fragments of bone, mostly small chips and cracked bits, lie strewn all over, with bits of dried leather, rawhide formed from uneaten scraps of skin, and dried bits of viscera accenting the otherwise bony white detritus. Sifting through the fragments though, Xanyon is unable to see anything of value. Likely, any valuables dropped by victims of the animal would be claimed by his handlers, as the boar would have no interest in weapons or armour.
As Xanyon searches, a sliver of light begins to swell along the horizon, signalling that the nearly instantaneous shift from darkness to light that occurs each morning in this equatorial desert is only minutes away. The crew that feeds the boar each morning will likely be along soon after.
"Aye, that I can."
Gruthic retrieves his gear from beneath the now-still boar and checks it for damage or dents. He hefts the shield onto his back and takes up his axe.
"Stay hidden. I'd reccomend in one of the ruins nearby, not the den, but that's your call. I'll scout around briefly and return. The sun will be up soon, and I want to be back before then."
Gruthic heads out, moving from building to building, looking for any gnolls in the ruins to the east. He'll keep a wary eye on the sky and turn around once he determines that sunrise is imminent.
"Nothing in here boss, I figure the gnolls took it."
Do we ambush them here or from another building? Not like they won't notice the dead pig there.
Seif-al-Din nods to Muqaq, and channels the healing light of the Dawnflower into Gruthic.
"Are we staying, or leaving?"
"Lets hide in the ruins around here. If the group that comes to feed the boar is five or less, we ambush them. If not we wait for them to leave and then we do so as well. Xanyon, I know you're not happy about it, but still no guns unless I give the order. As far as we know they still don't know we're here."
"Fair enough. We should drag the corpse out of sight, though, and try to mask the scent of all the spilled blood, otherwise they will likely notice something is wrong..."
"I don't know how we'd mask the scent, but hiding the corpse might give us those few extra seconds we need. Great idea Seif. Can you and Akhom handle that? Just drag it somewhere out of sight."
Xanyon nods and looks dubiously at the giant pig corpse.
"I think we may not need to move it. They'll probably be so surprised we can catch them. If we setup an ambush of ranged with the melee hidden between them and the rest of the city, they'll flee right into us."
The carcass of the Dire Boar is quick sizable, and probably weighs more than 2000 lbs. You imagine that moving it any significant distance would likely prove to be a very significant challenge.
When they were observed before, the gnolls came towards this building by following the road. As the town is built on the rising slopes of a hill that peaks in the middle, cutting out in any direction straight from the center, like the spokes of a wheel, would represent a steep climb, either up or down, that most of the time would not be worth the risk of slipping or falling. As a result, most of the movement you have seen in town has followed the serpentine road that switchbacks from the middle of the small settlement.
As the boar's building backs on to a steep hill, ti is entirely possible that anyone walking the road above you would actually be able to see the carcass of the boar long before they were in combat range.
Seeing his friend preparing to wade back into danger, Akhom steps forward and puts a and on his shoulder. "Are you alright Gruff?" he asks under his breath in Osiriani, so as not to embarrass the dwarf by calling his health, skill or bravery into question . "You were pretty close to... That was too close." His young face shows his concern all too clearly, however.
"I've got a few more holes in me than I had this morning, but I'll survive. My wounds are actually less severe than they felt when I got gored. I think Muqaq is a divine vessel, like you, lad. I felt the touch of your Dawnflower on my soul when he woke me. I count myself lucky to travel with such devout companions. I appreciate your concern and would not take it amiss if you were to keep me in your prayers while I scout."
Gruthic moves out into the ruins of the lower city. He moves from building to building, spotting open spaces in the walls that allow easy ingress, observing the street and the buildings around before moving on to the next space, armour clanking as he hustles from one spot to the next. Before he has made even the third structure or so, the sun crests over the mountains to the east, bathing the lower city, the crest of the hill, and anything not in its shadow, with brilliant, seering daylight. As the sun comes up, and the village transforms vertually instantaneously from night to day, Gruthic is crouched within some of the ruins, the only remaining shadows those of provided by the low ruined wall behind him.
Across from him, Gruthic spies a relatively intact building (B3). It looks to have once been an inn, or lodging house of some sort, though the sign above the door that would have proclaimed the name of the establishment has long since faded blank in the intense sunlight. The structure is well built, and seems to have weathered the passing of days and sands far better than most of the others around it. The roof looks sound, and the posts still stand straight and tall.
While he is examining the structure, looking for signs of recent use, a shrill cry erupts from somewhere nearby. Gruthic turns to the south, the source of the sound, and only some 50 ft off he sees a grotesque creature standing, screaming into the sky in a primal yell of fury and alarm. It looks somewhat like a goat, bent and grizzled, but cloaked, and walking on two legs while leaning on a wicked looking halberd. This may have been the creature that was taken for a deformed gnoll from a distance, but it is clear from here, this is no gnoll.
Those waiting in the boar's lair hear the cry, a scream that sounds both animalistic and angry, coming from the lower village, in the direction in which Gruthic so recently departed.
Round 1:
Akhom starts at the sound and begins to move forward, bow in hand. "Let's move!" he growls.