A Horse By Any Other Name (Part 11)

One Month after the Summer Solstice (Seventh Moon, 1000 ALB)

As soon as Compass Rose stops and draws her bow, the rest of the group comes to a halt. Everyone turns their attention to the underbrush, the trees, and the foliage to either side of the trail.

Shadow pauses as well, "Listen. You smell something?"

As the group turns their keen pony senses toward potential danger, Grotto quips, "Don't sniff too deeply! First one smelt it, dealt it!"

Raven and Ra'ziir both draw their borrowed swords while Cedron chants the words to a spell, "What darkness lurks? I shall see for the light resides in me!"

As his prayer takes hold, Cedron's eyes adjust to the gloom of the woods. The murky surroundings are cast in shades of gray except for several piles of sticks and leaves which dimly glow in his vision.

The fallen branches shift and move, the sound alerting the entire group to the presence of enemies.

These creatures look like piles of sticks and branches somehow brought to life; they are nearly twice the size of an adult pony. Their long wooden snouts are filled with lines of sharp teeth which resemble small palisades inside their mouth, and right above them is a pair of sinister, dark yellow glowing eyes.

The group as a whole falls upon the animated branches with a vengeance, snapping branches and crushing sticks like so much kindling with the weapons borrowed from the abandoned armory. Drax materializes out of the shadows, strikes the head off of a foe, and vanishes back into the darkness. Raven and Ra'ziir chop limbs, Shadow stabs amd twists with his shortsword while Grotto hacks with his axe. Niklas fires arrows into the mass of foliage at the heart of two of the Beasts while Cedron defends him with his staff. Honey Bucket produces a heavy wrench, crushing limbs with each blow strike. Compass Rose looses arrows, Foil Hat thrusts with his dagger, and Abacus releases a burst of magic missiles that lay low the  creatures. Kysek, his tail flipping and flapping wildly, conjures three crimson beams of energy that blast the advancing beasts, setting them ablaze.

As the group stands triumphant over their fallen foes, the broken branches begin to shift and twist, crawling toward one another where they fuse back together. In a matter of moments where a dozen timberwolves once stood, two much larger wolves remain. Only the ones burned by Kysek remain unmoving. 

- - - - -

• Cedron: 95% health;

• Drax: 100% health; Nondetection (lasts until about 10 pm), Undetectable Alignment (lasts until about noon tomorrow)

• Grotto: 94% health;

• Kysek: 100% health; Half of the Tome has been read

• Niklas: 100% health; 

• Raven: 80% health; 

• Ra’ziir: 80% health;

• Shadow: 97% health;