(053) Moonshine

[coffee]

With the battle fever subsiding, Dieter returns to the party. People are attending to the wounded, naturally, so he'll help in any way he can. And if he can't help with that, he'll search through any baggage the fallen enemy might have had, looking for anything edible (which, at the moment, covers a wider spectrum of things than he'd really like to admit...)

[Eris]

Once the wargs are out of his range, Olaf will break into a run and pound up to the party from behind shouting, "It's Olaf and a new friend!"

Olaf will slap Dieter on the back and say grinning, "Can't leave you a minute Dieter without you getting in to all sorts of trouble, can I?"

"Anybody hurt?" he says looking around then frowning as he sees Jos and Ulric down, "Damn! They aren't dead are they?"

When he gets a chance he'll introduce Beringar, and reiterate, "Safety in numbers!"
and the need to regroup and to "Do something about the Hobs and Gobs!"

[ehiker133]

"Anybody hurt?" he says looking around then frowning as he sees Jos and Ulric down, "Damn! They aren't dead are they?"

OOC: Don't forget Rufus!

[Eris]

"Anybody hurt?" he says looking around then frowning as he sees Jos and Ulric down, "Damn! They aren't dead are they?"

OOC: Don't forget Rufus!

OOC: Well, in Olaf's defense, Rufus is very small.

[Tonneau]

Reacting blindly to the sounds of warg movement, Desmond pulls his sword out of the ground and holds it steadily before him, waiting for the charge. He holds the pose for several seconds, even as the sounds of activity die down. Finally, he feels the tip of the sword starting to project the shaking of his hand and he allows it to drop at his side, a look of confusion on his face.

In the ensuing silence, he lets out an audible sigh of relief and whispers, "Bugger me, it worked..."

Then he sits down in-place, trying not to shake. After a moment, he calls out, "Josiane, Rufus and Mondes and I need to get our sight back! I can't HANDLE this anymore!"

Gustave lays a calming hand on Desmond's shoulder (or maybe its Mondes') after flicking the last bits of goblin entrails from his blade and returning it to its sheath.

"Alas, my brave comrade, our Lady is fallen" he says quietly, "but were it not for your quick mind Ill warrant it would be worse."

Noting for the first time then the body of Rufus, and legs of Ulric protruding from beneath the black hulk of fur, he adds "...though it would seem that we are already sorely hurt."

[sully]

As soon as it's obvious that the worgs are truly routed and not just playing a game, Dorgan will hook his axe to his belt, dig out his flask, and see if he can provide any succor to the Miss.

[danhem]

Ulric feels himself slowly being dragged into a great pit. Charred hands pull him closer and closer to the abyss.

[waysoftheearth]

As the wargs bound off in to the heath, the company realise that they have won a testing battle--but not without cost.

Olaf and Beringar (a new-comer unknown to everyone here) come running up to the battle site from the direction of the ruin, by which time the company are already searching among the bodies...

Rufus lies slain.

He may have been the only one with prior knowledge of the secret catacomb entrance to Ket! Wen already has the hobbit's pack off his little shoulders, and has found the curious flasks of acid recovered from the Abbey infirmary.

Ulric and Josiane very nearly met their ends also.

Gustave hauls the headless warg corpse off Ulric. He and Josiane both are bloody and on the verge of unconsciousness, passing momentarily from one world to the next. They babble a whisper when roused, but are too weak to sit up or walk.

Dorgan quickly pulls out his flask of spirit and drizzles some of the hot stuff over Josiane's mouth... at first she seems incapable of taking it, but eventually gets a gulp and is immediately wracked with coughing and spluttering. But in a few more minutes her injuries are cleaned up, the sweat washed off her, and a nip of the fiery stuff is in her belly. Her eyes blink weakly open...

This done, he plies Ulric with the dwarf spirit too, eventually rousing the sorcerer from his bleak dreams back to this bleak reality...

| I'll presume Dorgan will give Ulric the same treatment.
The pair are then up to 1 hit point--they won't have any more until after a full night's rest. |

Dorgan swills the remaining spirit in his flask thoughtfully... three nips left, he reckons.

[waysoftheearth]

Meanwhile, Dieter makes an effort to search the bodies--turning the slain goblins and wargs over unceremoniously with the toe of his boot...

There are 14 dead goblins and 6 dead wargs; quite a body count he thinks. Certainly not anything that can go unnoticed.

The goblin soldiers travel light, carrying little in the way of supplies or goods.

They have rough little pouches containing a few grubby coins each, along with knickknacks such as grubs, mice, loose nails, half an onion, snot-balls, and so on. One of the carried a small sack of copper coins--probably loot from previous pillaging? They hardly have anything in the way of supplies; a couple of them carry goblin wine skins--the content of which smells appalling--and a few heels of a hard, gray bread full of weevils, and husks of what might be some kind of black cheese, as well as several pre-gnawed chicken parts--never so much as plucked. It is a sorry business.

| The goblin coins amount to 31sp and 120cp |

[doctorx]

Josiane dreams of wyverns.

She sees their black, leathery wings flapping dolefully, blotting out the sun. She tries to cry out, to duck aside as a hideous barbed tail draws back to stab, but her every movement is as if she were enveloped in deep, cloying mud.

The sting stabs down. She feels her veins scorched by a torrent of sudden, burning, pitiless fire!!!...

And she sits up, coughing and gasping, her grey eyes wide and bewildered, one grimy, blood-stained hand reaching for her throat.

"Father! Beware! The beast! It strikes! It... it..."

Gradually, reality reasserts itself. She sees the face of her friend gazing down at her concernedly.

"Dorgan..?"