Tam moves out of the cloud and tries to regain his composure.
"Well that went well enough, I think," he says, "aside from all of the gagging and retching."
It isn't difficult for you to nail down the last two and kill them.
One of the ogres carries a sack containing 18 giant-sized silver coins (worth 50 gp each to a collector). The spellcaster appears to be wearing magical leather armor (giant sized), and an amulet of natural armor +1. She also carried a masterwork war hammer.
Small clumps of green shrubs and twisted trees poke their way up through the weathered and stony earth. Their thick roots burrow haphazardly into the earth while their leafy tops mingle to form a low canopy that stretches across the lazy slopes of the valley.
As you reach the end of this side valley, a flock of birds suddenly screams upward into the sky, followed by a tremendous roar and shouts echoing from somewhere up ahead.
Toboyn turns to Mouser, "Care to do a little careful scouting? I have a suspicion something is going on ahead of us ..."
Mouser sneaks up and sees an almost comical scene.
A cyclops and a hill giant are attempting to capture a manticore. The manticore is frantically trying to fly away, but the giants have miraculously managed to get a rope around the creature’s rear legs, entangling it. In response, the manticore flings its tail spikes in a wide arc, randomly targeting the giants and any creatures within 30 feet of them. Occupied with the manticore, the giants fail to notice the halfling.
"A manticore? I've never seen a manticore!", calls Toboyn over his shoulder has he dog-trots over to the partial concealment of the trees, trusting the giants' preoccupation with their manticore-rodeo to leave him unobserved. He stays out of what seems to be the spikes' range.
"Nor have I, could be an interesting thing to see although they are quite deadly and unpleasant from what I know. Still they are giants, maybe we help it?"
Somer will creep up some to watch but stays out of tail spike range.
Both of you see the same scene Mouser described.
Well, we either want to kill all of them or all but the manticore ... so let's start with the giants. Everyone on board? All opposed?"
"I suspect the manticore will hate everyone equally, but we could see if it at least claws up the giants a bit if we cut it loose," says Tam.
When all are in place, Toboyn clenches his right hand and channels the energy of his deity to clean those defiling it (and spoiling his view of the manticore).
Toboyn's up again!
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Toboyn is taken aback at the cyclops' comparative lack of injury ..."There' some steel in that one," he mutters. Toboyn is conflicted. He never seen a cyclops either. Well, no time to get his field notebook out now.
Cyclops, from one eye to none!
Blindness,
"It is I, "NoMan", who has done this to you!"
Best to stick with tradition, he thinks.
The cyclops blinks its one big eye, and focuses on Toboyn. "NoMan will be NoMore!"
The manticore struggles to escape his noose.
Toboyn blinks both of his eyes ... was that cyclops looking directly at him? He was! Chalk up another miss. He resolves to record this after dinner: Cyclopes seem to be more powerful than he'd thought, or he is having a run of bad luck. As he frequently does, he wonders now about fortune in men's lives. He'd heard Old 'One Stone' (amusing story behind that) say that the gods didn't play dice, but he had doubts.
Not wanting to move in first Somer cast shield and waits for Balmir to act.
The blind hill giant stumbles forward, rubbing his eyes.
Not for the first time, Balmir wishes he could move faster. "I'm going to have to get some of those boots, or whatever they are, to make my feet faster." He grunts and moves to engage the giant, pulling the hammer free as he moves.
Tam seems to be picking flowers.
The cyclops focuses in on Toboyn. It levels it's crossbow and fires.
Since the cyclops seems to favor a ranged weapon, Tam decides to return the favor with a brief blast of intense illusionary light.
Toboyn is momentarily nonplussed. The monster barely missed his liver!
"I need that, foul villain!"
He twists his throat uncomfortably and gives forth a Command: DROP!
DC 16 Will
The cyclops falls prone, a little confused by his sudden weakness in the legs.
The manticore remains tethered and angry.
Mouser easily gets into position.
As the battle gets into swing Somer attempts to tilt things to their advantage.
"Lets speed things up shall we?" He comments as he casts []b Haste. [/b]
The blind hill giant swings at Balmir. It isn't even close.
Balmir raises the hammer then strikes with all his might.
Balmir smacks the hill giant once, but the second swing is only a clancing blow. Even blind, these giants are tough.
The cyclops shakes his head, rubs his eye, and stumbles forward. The blindness certainly has slowed him down.
Balmir has once again stepped into the fray; Toboyn decides to give him an edge, and casts a Bane against his foes.
The manicore stays held fast.
Tam beams another flash of blinding illusory light into the cyclops.
Tam keeps the cyclops blinded, as Mouser slashes and pokes the giant who is clearly in trouble. But these are tough creatures!
Enjoying haste Somer forgoes spells, adding acid to his arrows and lets lose a full attack at the purple cyclops.
All of the arrows smack into the cyclops, and it spins and falls down, apparently dead.
The giant is in such bad shape, I have little doubt you will quickly kill it as well.
Toboyn notes that both giants are definitely, totally, deceased, and is strangely determined to see the manticore more closely ... he casts, in quick succession, Eagle's Splendor upon himself (eight minutes, CHA+4), and then Calm Emotions on the manticore (DC17 Will negates, 8 rounds).
"I'm going to try to defuse things a bit; keep a wary eye ..."
The manticore calms noticeably as he stalks around, eyeing you warily.
"Well, there's enough meat for you for quite a while", he says, glancing at the giants. "Consider it our gift. I'm going to turn you loose, you know. Before you go, though, your people are know for your wide-ranging ways; can you tell us what danger lies that way?" he asks, indicating their next destination.