"Archers! Fire!" Ziphora orders the archers, while sending out a lightning bolts of her own.
Beachhead hides. He will leave commanding the army to the others, and he'll busy himself with keeping an eye out for direct threats to the hydra.
Mazzoss casts wall of blindness and deafness. Fortitude save DC 17. If any creature fails the save they become permanently blinded. After that Mazzoss creates the swamp.
Grash casts Mirror Image.
"Nae quite time fer drummin' yet. A little closer..."
A few of the hobgoblins die, but they keep advancing.
The hobgoblins advance in a loose formation, taking what cover they can in a cautious advance.
Ziphora continues firing lightning bolts at any hobgoblin that's too slow in finding cover.
"Hrmph. These just be scouts; we should nae waste tae good stuff on them. Lets get up there and send em' runnin'."
Mazzoss vomits forth a swarm of wasps. The wasps move directly toward the closest enemy.
Mazzoss's wasps cause havok amongst the first few hobgoblins as you fly up above them. A few shoot arrows at you ineffectually.
From your elevated position you can see the main bulk of the hobgoblins forces, along with several large beasts, is well back from these forward scouts and shows no signs of moving.
Ziphora tries to look around for who are the leaders of the army.
Grash looks around for where the biggest, toughest looking monsters are.
Ziphora doesn't spot anyone who looks like a leader, though it seems like there may be messengers going back and forth from the rear of the army.
Grash sees several monsters, but is rather sure they're all much weaker than you.
From where he's doing his best to stay out of sight of the army below, Beachhead says, "Maybe we should ask Sir Tolgrith's opinion. Where would we have the best effect? He's trained in tactics and strategy, probably, and I'd hate to distract ourselves with enemies that are decoys before the army's leaders begin a stronger offensive.
"But even though we're asking him for advice, we're still in charge, okay?"
You notice that the surviving skirmishers seem to be retreating now back towards the main body of their army.
Grash is a bit disappointed, but still urges the body to fly toward the biggest flying thing he can see.
Mazzoss agrees with asking for advice from Sir Tolgrith.
You zoom back down to where Sir Torlgrith and the lizardfolk chiefs are directing their men (which is pretty easy right now since they're just standing and waiting behind Mazzoss's wall).
"What's going on?" he asks.
"We can't find their leader. We could be killing the foot soldiers the whole day without detriment to their battle plans."Ziphora answers.
"Bah. It be lookin' like that first wave were only scouts. I still think we shouldae pressed tae assault and hit 'em hard afore they could report back... but I be thinkin' they at least fell back afore they saw most of our forces, so keepin' to our defenses may work too, I guess."
"My swamp and wall won't last forever, as soon as they are gone we need to press the offensive."
Sir Torlgrith frowns. "They may be trying to draw us out, where their advantage in numbers could crush us."
"Then what do you suggest we do." Ziphora asks bluntly.
Sir Torlgrith thinks a long moment before answering.
"We don't know enough about why they're attacking. If their objective isn't important enough, they may retreat if we inflict enough casualties to make it not worth their while. The best I can think of is to bleed them, to hold our ground and kill whatever they send until they give up."
Ziphora urges the hydra body back to getting to blow random monsters up.
Mazzoss agrees with Ziphora.
Sensing a violent option, Grash enthusiastically agrees.
It turns out to be a good time to return to the air--you see four fire drakes, a chimera, and a manticore flying towards your archers!
The flight of monsters draws closer--they'll soon be in range of your archers!
"Lightning on the chimera!" Ziphora starts blasting at the chimera.
Mazzoss readies to cast Slumber when an opponent comes within 30 ft. Mazzoss wishes to try and get most of the opponents to be in a line to cast lighting bolt. DC 18 Will save on the slumber.
Not having any ranged options, Beachhead continues to remain hidden so as to unexpectedly spring to attack and inflict biteyness.
"Hey, there be some more o' them drakes! I would be thinkin' they would nae want ter mess with us, but I guess they dinnae hear what happened ter the last ones. And a chimera and one of them manny-whatevers."
Grash took a deep breath.
The manticore doesn't seem very bothered by Grash's roar, but the chimera certainly doesn't seem to like the blast of lightning.
Now that you're getting close, you can see there are hobgoblins riding each of the beasts. Two of the drakes dive and spit fireballs at some of your archers, while the rest of the creatures approach you. The two other drakes use their fireballs on you.
Several of your archers look like they're in bad shape.
The manticore flings tail spines at Ziphora.
Only one manages to penetrate her armored scales.
All of the creatures seem to be trying to avoid melee with you.
Grash took a deep breath.
"I want to make fun of that taunt, but I have to admit that it definitely would have provoked me."
Beachhead wills the body towards the manatee.
Zip weaves out of the way of the fireballs, but gets slightly singed still.
"Get those drakes first!"
Ziphora votes to move towards the drakes, gathers power and fires an empowered lightning bolt first.
x1.5
"I dinnae care which ones we get first, so long as we be gettin' all of them sooner or later! Grawwr!"
Grash is badly burned, which fills him with rage. He starts wildly thumping on his drum, filling everyone who could hear it with rage.
He then launches a parting Glitterdust burst at the manticore and its rider, in hopes they might blindly crash into something, or at least not be able to hit anything. [DC 16]
Grash will vote drakes, because there's two of them.
Ziphora blasts one of the drakes solidly as you zoom towards them.
Beachhead, finally able to do something, waits for over 24 hours since the GM posted before attacking. He comes out of hiding and attacks one of the Canadian rappers named Drake that are flying above the army.
Beachhead kills off the drake Ziphora blasted, then bites another savagely.
Your two dumb new sibling-heads make bite attacks.
They rip into the drake Beachhead bit second and finish it off, sending it tumbling to smash on the slope below.
The chimera nears and breaths fire over all of you.
The two other flame drakes try to bite Grash.
But they fail to penetrate his armored scales.
The manticore, meanwhile, goes for Ziphora.
It is more successful with its attack, though the bite wound is rather small.
Ziphora ducks partially the firebreath but she is clearly flagging at this time.
She summons a lightning horn and stabs twice at the chimera.
Beachhead contorts his neck to be exactly the same shape and position as one two new sibling heads and pushes up against it to dodge the flames.
While hiding, Beachhead disappears!
Beachhead uses his sudden disappearance to confuse the manticore (calling it a "manatee") before he attacks.
Beachhead tears into the manatee!
"NINJAAAAAAAAA!"
"HRRRGRRRAAAMMMMMBB!!!!"
Whatever Grash was trying to say only comes out as an inarticulate growl due to his mouth being full of drum, with which he attempts to batter the closest drake.
The oddly melodious beating also continues to incite rage in allied troops, possibly increasing archer aggression.
Mazzoss will cast fireball at the Chimera specifically to not hit ourself. Reflex save for half. DC 16.
Ziphora stabs the chimera once with her lightning horn, though it evades her second wild swing. Then a fireball explodes behind it and it starts falling, singed fur still smoldering. The drakes, for fairly obvious reasons, don't care about the fire, though one does care about getting hit in the face with a drum.
Beachhead savagely tears into two sides of the manticore, then your dumb siblings get involved.
They finish it off, sending it also tumbling to the mountainside below. (Your archer friends are very lucky in that none of the falling beasts have landed on them)
The two remaining drakes break off and retreat. You notice that, while you've been fighting, a fresh wave of hobgoblins has entered the pass. This one looks a lot more substantial and heavily armed, and your archers are focused on firing on them.
"You know, I really need a break. Anyone has any healing magic?" Ziphora asks the party.
"Bah! Fury be enough!"
Grash keeps up his drumming, and experiences a surge of vitality.
Oh, and Grash also votes to fly down to within range of some of those hobgoblins. Or maybe to body slam them. Doesn't really matter which.
Oh, and Grash also votes to fly down to within range of some of those hobgoblins. Or maybe to body slam them. Doesn't really matter which.
Seconded.