Menrozzar staggers away from the others so they aren't as close together. "Bupkis, get under cover!"
Daseem takes a step as he prepares to rush in for glorious combat, but then a funny feeling hits him that he'd somehow be letting Tessa down if he did that. A bit sheepishly he glanced at Ivan and waited to see what he'd do.
Bupkis rolled up into a ball, trying to protect him self.
Menrozzar roared as his body shifted, changing into a red-scaled, clearly draconic being. He stepped towards the creature...and promptly bit it with his now-dragon maw.
Realising he's too badly burned to go rushing in, Daseem calls on Gorum's aid!
Ivan moves up to the drake, and stares menacingly as he can.
While keeping up the encouragement, Amira stabs Daseem with a stick.
Menrozzar takes a big bite out of the drake, drawing its ire. The drake attacks the dragon like human.
Feeling rather better, Daseem followed Ivan's move to advance, although everyone was crowding around the southern edge of the beast so he ended up next to Bupkis. The effects of the creature's breath where still lingering and there was little else he could do.
Amira keeps singing and ticks Menrozzar with the wand.
Bupkis lies on the ground bleeding.
"Could you kill the drake please? I need to heal Bupkis." Amira requests.
Ivan tries to hammer into the drake, but the changing of his speed throws him off.
I'm tryin' but the blasted drakes magic is trowin' off me rhythm.
Menrozzar, bleeding from his wounds by the drake and on his back, tries to take another bite of the drake from the ground.
Noone manages to hurt the drake. The beast keeps laying heavily into Menrozzar.
Bupkis continues to bleed.
Daseem glanced at the crumpled form of Bupkis and something inside of him snapped. Roaring, "GORRRUM!" he lifted his holy sword up high and then savagely down towards the drake!
Ivan bellows as he feels whatever sickness that had been gripping his muscles fade away. He slams two hammer strikes into the beast's side, though his second blow was still hindered by the sudden shifting of his own speed.
With the lethargy Menrozzar was feeling in his muscles vanishing, he decides to risk standing so he can strike at the beast from his feet. Once he stands, he tries to bite it again.
Amira keeps poking people with the wand.
Daseem cuts into the drake and Ivan gives it a limp. The drake slaps Menrozzar with its tail as he rises, but misses. It keeps attacking the fake dragon anyway to end Menrozzar.
Ivan takes offense at seemingly being ignored and fully devotes his efforts to proving how bad of an idea that was to the drake by attempting to turn its insides to mush.
Ivan makes his point by finishing off the drake.
Bupkis still lies on the ground, bleeding.
Amira moves the poking with the stick to Bupkis.
Daseem sort of deflates after the fight was over. The drake had made an awful mess of Menrozzar and Bupkis was unconscious curled up in the fetal position. Amira was tending to the goblin so Daseem decided to see what if anything he could do for Menrozzar.
Reaching out to touch Menrozzar he whispered, "Gorum! This one should live to f-fight again!"
.
Ivan catches his breath for a moment before looking to the others. Are those two alright? They're still with us aye? he asks finally hefting his hammer up again.
Amira turns her attention to Menrozzar. "Oh no, that can't be!" she calls out as she sees how serious the wounds are that the drake inflicted on him.
Amira becomes so nervous that she even can't remember how to feel for a pulse.
Bupkis came to and asked, "Is nasty lizard dead?"
Seeing that Menrozzar was not moving, he rushed over and tried to revive the draconic warrior.
"You think he's dead?" Amira inquires as there is still no reaction from Menrozzar.
"I, ... I, have an emergency scroll for such cases. Do we need to use it?"
"Words on paper can help Menrozzar?" Bupkis asks skeptically. The very idea is anathema to most goblins, but he's willing to consider anything that could revive his friend.
Daseem stared at the wreckage of Menrozzar, in fact he couldn't take his eyes off it. More than twice of late that had nearly been him. He felt like he should do something or say something but he had never been good with words.
Glancing at Bupkis, Daseem announced, "He is with Gorum now in his h-halls. To come back is no s-small thing."
Amira takes the scroll-case out of her backpack. She opens it and removes the scroll, written on fine parchment, out of it. She slowly unfurls it and looks into the round of adventurers standing around their fallen comrade. Seeing the sad expressions and the hope in Bupkis' face she starts reading the magical words written on it. "Don't tye vér- termáre- fírina! Túl at- ana i coirea sí."
"Heui, cin ceri- ú- leave nin hi like i!"
"Get or- alreadui cin réd -o a"
Suddenly the sound of her words change and her expression becomes tense.
"Do olk lat dare stay vadokan! Dez kurrauz ve ul gajal now."
"Liwo lat rise? Um lat been another, jiak evinaj gan lat ar tessa."
"Bugd tor ul gods? Gorum send naj-ri kurrauz!"
After a minute that took seemingly forever, the words on the scroll start glowing and disappear, leaving an empty parchment. Then Menrozzar glows shortly.
"Rise from the dead! Come back to us!
Will you rise already? If you were someone else, I'd threaten you with Tessa
Call for the gods, maybe? Gorum send him back!"
But despite the random rambling, the scroll finally does its magic.
At first Daseem was very impressed, but part of him harbored some nasty suspicions... But he decided he was being uncharitable after all the results where undeniable. When Menrozzar gasped his first breath after returning, Daseem watch with fascination unsure of what to say...
With a sudden, gasping inhale, Menrozzar's eyes opened and he sat bolt upright. The first thing he noticed was that he HURT. He'd never felt this much pain in his life. He felt battered and bitten from his wounds. The second thing he felt was weakness. His body felt weaker than it had before he blacked out and...was it a dream? I saw so many ghostly apparitions, all of us, moving in the direction of a great tower. What was that that? Aloud, he said, "Thank you for healing me. That drake's maw packs a punch. Is everyone else okay?"
"I'm ok, Bupkis is again ok, but you still don't look well." Amira states.
The goblin replies, "Well, Bupkis needs a good rest; can't heal more today. But should be better after that.
"We find a safe place to make camp?"
Indeed, he was beat; he had overtaxed his body channeling so much aetheric energy.
"I was quite heavily battered by that drake, and I'm not feeling particularly well after being healed. Hopefully it will go away after we rest."
"Let me help you some more." Amira suggests. She rolls up the now empty parchment and stores it away in her scroll case. The scroll case goes back into her backpack. Then she produces the wand and taps Menrozzar a few times.
Well laddie, ifn' I had been in your situation I likely wouldnae feel well either. After all, if'n I'm understanding the situation, ye was dead to rights from that drake. But, I'm glad ye are still with us. Might be we all best talk about how ta' better handle these melee's soon. Rather not keep having these close calls for the lot O ye. Now, give me a minute afore' any thing else. I'm gonna try somethin' I remember Ma' doing.
He then steps a few paces away before closing his eyes and focusing, calling on sheer dwarven stubbornness, spirit, and maybe ancestral magic to speed the healing of his wounds. The hammer glows a soft golden light before transferring it to the dwarf who then glows a soft golden light under his armor before it quickly fades and almost all the searing and burns from the acid breath are gone.
Ivan looks a bit amazed, Well, I'll be... I didnea think it would work.. He walks over the bupkis, then menrozzar and touches a hand on each.
The valley has a lot of nooks and crannies to hide in and set up camp. There is always the risk of finding something or someone in there, you wouldn't want to meet even in bright daylight, but you are lucky. Just five minutes away from the dead ettin, bear and drake you find a small creek running out of a larger gap in the otherwise steep stone wall.
Through some bushes and some 100 foot along the creek you reach a waterfall - about chest high for Menrozzar. Behind that is a small plateau, that is hidden from sight by rock walls on all sides. It looks like the creek has washed that out over centuries when it carries a lot more water in spring. A single willow tree clings to the rock at the far end of the through. All in all a nice secluded place for a camp.
Daseem raises an eyebrow at Ivan and mutters suspiciously, "You can d-do hoodoo?!" What was the world coming to when a mountain of plate could cast spells?
Well.. of a sort lad. It seems more... spiritual, than magic. But not like from a god or nothin'.. I can't really explain it to ya laddie. Its just somthin' what I felt I should try. Call it ancestral spirits O' the dwarves.
Bupkis is eager for a rest. He helps to set up the camp, then proposes, "We set up a watch? Hopefully no giants finds us, but best to be careful. Bupkis and Menrozar need good rest, so we last watch? Ivan sees in dark, so good for middle watch. And Amira and Daseem can be on first."
"Dead to rights? Well, that's certainly the closest call I've had. Let's find a place to rest up. Thank you for the healing, Amira and Ivan. I still feel very tired, though."
"Bupkis, that sounds good for watches."
Amira's eyes grow wide as she is scheduled for a watch. Now she definitely belongs to this group and is seen as an equal. But at what price! Doing watch, instead of getting her beauty sleep!
Daseem didn't mind being on watch, it have him an excuse to sit and gently sharpen his sword with a gritstone, a task he thought therapeutic. He felt like he ought to find something to say to Amira but his thoughts where consumed with dreams of glory and terror of Tessa's wrath over some infraction. So most of the watch was spent in companionable silence, still he managed to keep a sharp eye out that would have made his tutors back at the temple proud.