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Check out something a friend made for me. <3
Esperanza, grim faced, delivers another flurry of slashes from her glaive, trying to finish the elemental off once and for all.
With a rainbow-hued flurry of graceful movement, Esperanza's latest dance of steel brings down the huge elemental closest to the party.
Gaius and Flopsy's timely intervention then doses the second elemental with magical cold. Even though the outsider moves to evade the icy blast, its nature means it suffers greatly from the spell.
The second elemental then takes a lumbering step towards Esperanza, the air hissing and popping with the clash of heat and frost.
It swings at Esperanza with its massive, fiery limbs.
Daria moves up and brings another downpour onto the raging fires (Create Water). She looks with concern at Esperanza, preparing to heal her if needed.
Feeling his own injuries start to tell, Thorek rushes in, figuring the best defense was a good offense in this case.
Lily moves up shooting a carefully aimed shot right at the elemental.
Esperanza uses the momentum from the blow to fuel her own attacks, spinning in place to deliver another pair of slashing blows to the monster.
Daria draws upon more of the natural world's powerful magic and keeps the flames from spreading, even weakening some of the existing conflagrations.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party unleashes another devastating volley of attacks upon the second elemental. By arrow, by glaive, and by dorn-dergar, you damage the outsider so badly that it quickly begins to lose cohesion.
It remains stable enough to swing wildly at the two warriors standing before it.
After this last outburst, it doesn't take more than a few moments for the party to finish the fight and send the elemental back to its home plane.
More of Longshadow's defenders hurry from the front and arrive to help contain and squelch the flames in the district.
The first rays of dawn begin to crest over the eastern hill, silhouetting the Ironfang Legion's ominous, black tower but also illuminating the network of trenches and barricades erected in the black of night. Horns sound from the distant camp, and the Ironfang forces at the city walls begin a slow but steady fighting withdrawal.
For now, at least, daylight seems to bring with it the promise of rest, and enough respite to bury the dead.
Daria moves quickly to cast spells and use poultices to heal the injuries of the party members, then moves on to use the rest of her available spell slots, poultices, and healing skills to save as many of the city defenders as possible from the icy grip of death.
Esperanza, breathing hard, pauses for only a moment to take in the devastation around her before rushing to help quench the fires raging within the city. By the end of the day, she is bloodied, bruised, and covered in ash, but her colors still shine as radiant as ever.
With the Ironfangs seemingly pulling back, Thorek immediately pivots to getting damage reports--to personnel, equipment, and the town alike--and organizes a rotation of shifts to try and get as many of the defenders as possible some rest. H shifts forces to reinforce a mauled unit here, orders new traps and ambushes set there, and tasks a few brave and sneaky souls with counting the Ironfang dead.
"We're already in the shit, I just need to know how deep."
"Miraculously, we hold fast," Eurydicia summarizes the situation whilst meeting up with her former apprentice and company during a brief council among the leaders of the town's defense.
"The Legion commander probably expected to sweep over Longshadow in a single night, so I can only imagine her fury to see that the walls have held without surrendering a single foothold to her troops. There have been losses, and considerably damage to multiple neighborhoods, but it is nowhere as devastating as it could have been."
She casts a warm expression and approving, proud nod towards Esperanza to acknowledge that her former apprentice and her newfound friends are largely responsible for such a miracle.
...
Lookouts report that the invasion force has pulled back and dug in for the daylight hours. A network of trenches, covered by tarps, has been sharply carved into the hills surrounding Longshadow. The monolithic black tower, which the Legion magically erected in mere moments at the start of the battle, looms over the enemy battle lines, ever watchful.
Regimented rotations of hobgoblin archers, supported by batteries of ballistae, keep vigil over the no-man's-land between Longshadow and the Ironfang camp. The other town leaders and local commanders recognize that sending any messengers out to parlay would only result in an arrow-riddled corpse.
For now, all that can be done is spending the daylight hours to direct relief efforts, bolster the defenders' morale, and prepare for dusk.
Daria rushes around, healing wounds, applying first aid, etc.
She also resupplies each party member with a poultice of any Druid spell they want up to third level (she can do 5 per day with her herbalism…Likely Ironskin, Bull’s strength, or cure moderate wounds, but just tell her what you want).
Lily rallies the town folk restoring morale to those around her.
Esperanza practically beams with pride at her master's praise, and a hint of color comes to her greyish cheeks.
"I only did as I was taught," she says, looking away. "You'd have done nothing less."
Later, when it seems the battle is about to resume, Esperanza takes the time to walk the battlements in her full regalia, hoping a bit of defiant color can lift their spirits.
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A fog of dust and smoke clings to the battlefield, but the sunlight remains strong nonetheless. The sudden, abrupt quiet outside the walls takes a toll on the nerves of the town's defenders who finally have time to process the night's events. Nevertheless, under your guidance, they remain strong.
You do what you can to repair the damage that's been done, treat the injured, and ready a new wave of defensive measures for the night's next assault.
Of course, there's only so much you can do because several of your allies - Eurydicia, Gaius, Flopsy, Mayor Thom, Meriam Kems, among others - command you to get some rest right along with the other defenders rotating out to sleep in shifts through the respite of daylight.
.....
Dusk falls, and with the precision of a clockwork device, your sentries spot reinforcements pouring out of the black tower magically erected in the center of the Ironfang camp.
Despite this influx of new soldiers, you and your allies manage to observe that the commander of the invasion force, Kosseruk, is deploying her forces more aggressively, even recklessly. She even leaves gaps in the defenses around her camp that might be exploited once the next wave of assaults has been repelled.
The spearhead of this next attack marches towards weakpoints in the walls and gates of Longshadow. Protected among the shield wall of advancing hobgoblin legionaries, you can spot the towering forms of Warmaze minotaur troops acting as elite shock troopers.
Daria suggests, ”Let me grant you all the ability to walk on air, then I will try and slow down the advancing forces with a wall of thorns, allowing you to attack from above.”
Whispering a battle-prayer to the Forge-Fire, Thorek nods to Daria and then sets off towards the gate to try and get eyes on the vanguard.
Applying two of Daria's poultices, Esperanza feels their magics infuse her body with strength, and she heads to join Thorek after offering the druid a smile.
Daria grants Air Walk to those who desire it and follows along at the back of the group, applying an Ironskin poultice to herself as they approach the battle.
Lily thanks everyone for the help. Ready to help with the upcoming battle.
Daria raises her hands and a vast Wall of Thorns rises from the ground around the two trailing Minotaurs! ”Concentrate on the lead Minotaur,” says Daria from the top of the battlements. She takes cover behind the crenellations but watches the battle carefully.
Not needing to be told twice, Esperanza charges the lead with her glaive held high and with a cry on her lips.
Thorek joins Esperanza in her martial shouting, but his shorter legs see him quickly left behind as the tiefling knights surges into the fight.
Lilly quickly moves behind Thorek hoping to sneak some shots in while he's distracting them.
The minotaurs trapped within the magical barrier conjured by Daria apply all their might against the thorns, but they earn nothing but some scratches for their efforts and make no progress.
The one free minotaur pulls out a net and hurls it upon Esperanza to pin her down as a more vulnerable target.
Continuing to hide behind the battlements, Daria conjures a flaming ball of energy to slam into the lead minotaur!
Esperanza, aided by Daria's magic, tears through the net with tooth and claw before continuing her assault on her opponent.
"A net? Ha! Best hope you brought a spare!" Thorek roars and charges in, a new surge of divine power infusing his attack.
Lily calling out commands to her allies sends a distracting shot hoping to cause an opening that her allies can exploit.
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The minotaur evades Daria's fiery magic, but it is baffled by Esperanza and Lily's cunning tactics, leaving it quite vulnerable to opportunistic attacks.
One of the minotaurs manages to clamber up and over the wall of thorns, earning many stinging wounds for her trouble. She leaps down and lands upon the packed soil, and with a quick flick of the wrist hurls a throwing axe at Thorek - but it harmlessly clatters off his armor.
Daria rolls the ball of flame against the escaped Minotaur, then calls down lightning on her as well.
Move flaming sphere:
Call Lightning:
With a roar, Thorek leaps towards his minotaur foe and does his level best to shatter their skull.
Esperanza rushes to join Thorek, hoping to finish this one off before the last minotaur finishes scaling the wall.
[/spoiler]
The escaped minotaur does not move quickly enough to evade the barrage of Daria's nature magic, being burned and shocked in the process.
Thorek and Esperanza unleash another flurry of attacks that quickly puts the minotaur out of its misery.
Meanwhile, the third and final minotaur flounders helplessly but painfully within the thorny barrier, unable to escape and only earning more lacerations in the process.
Daria moves her flaming sphere close to the third minotaur, jumping it 30 feet closer--though not quite far enough to actually burn the minotaur yet. Another stroke of lightning from his storm, however, has no such issue reaching the trapped creature.
As the minotaur falls, Thorek grimmaces in grim satisfaction and turns on his heel--he learned a while ago to just pretend he was walking through mud, rather than fifteen feet off the ground--and barrels towards the remaining minotaur, erupting over the top of the thorn wall to bring his dorn-dergar to bear.
Lily quickly hustles up to the enemy fire a quick shot at the minotaur.
Lily moves up even closer to the final enemy waiting for her allies to approach before trying to distract the enemy with a shot.
Esperanza sprints back Thorek before joining his assault on the trapped monster.
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With the last minotaur trapped inside the thorns, you are shooting the proverbial fish in a barrel. After one barrage of attacks, it is Lily's cunning trickery that opens the monstrous soldier up to a follow-up set of attacks from Thorek and Esperanza that finish it off.
You have no time to celebrate this battlefield victory, nor even to catch your breath, before a runner arrives to report a new assault by another cadre of monsters in service to the Legion.
An entire company of pale, gangly creatures with bulging eyes are launching themselves at the defenders atop the walls. Although roughly humanoid, the creatures leap and climb like spiders.