Drums Near Lansport

[RollinsCat]

"Sir - you'd better muster.  Some travelers and I were coming here and heard trolls on the hill, drums...I estimate at least a few hundred.  Call all the defenses you can.  I'll lend my voice - they're riled, it's going to get ugly - and I'll see if those I met on the road will help as well..."

[osxmallard]

Yippee kay-yay!  We got ourselves an old fashioned hoe down...

http://forums.layonara.com/calendar.php?do=getinfo&e=17322&day=2010-6-13

[Lance Stargazer]

*The young man clad in blue and gold , is seen amoung the town checking on defennses and rallying for help, The look of alarm on his eyes *

[gilshem ironstone]

*Gel'larian arrives in Lans Port, every intention of helping the town against the imminent attack. At the briefing with the town guard, he is referred to as "elf" and launches in to a curse-laden tirade about the superiority of elves. When one of the guards touches his shoulder, in an effort to calm Gel'larian, he receives a fist to the jaw for his efforts. Gel'larian is dragged off by the guards and the briefing continues in his absence.*

//due to RL situation, I will not be available to defend Lans Port or antagonize Andrew If there are any consequences to his outburst, let me know. Have fun everyone!

[Black Cat]

*once again, Azk'a walks into the tavern (after his defense of the Hlint' circus at Orc's Rift) after the successfull defense of the bridge leading to Lan's Port and boast of his prowess... all the while hugging a keg of ale."
 
 Ah tell ya lads an' lass... eht was a heck ov a foigh' der. All dese green tings coming an' coming an' comin' an'... comin still... ya shuld 'ave seen mah an' da lad Yurax swing our axesan' cut leg's n' heads over an' over. Dat was wha' ah call a foigh'... 'course dis toime we got 'elp.. nay loike at Orc's roift wit dem clown's ov da circus. Kin from Bloody Gate... an' Blu ta... an' da Beryl lass... aye... she be da darin' old lass ah e'er met.

[RollinsCat]

"I don't think it's over, not by a long shot, but they've routed for now."  He slung back the red tails of a newly made coat and seated himself.  A bottle of grape juice was opened before he settled back, crossing his legs.  

"Muse forgive me, and my lady's Aeridin while we're at it, but it was an epic battle if I've ever seen one.  There were so few of us, so few!  The town guard was split between holding the second line, patrolling for any trolls that got through and protecting the Inn where they'd hidden the populace that would come - there are always some that need to stay in their homes, you know, and I don't blame them really - so we were the front line.  I've never heard or smelled anything like it.

"Who?  As luck would have it kin, who are frankly the hardest things to knock over I've ever seen.  Azk'a Thunderaxe and Muse he is one, swinging like a gnomish thresher - you should have seen him, the man cannot feel exhaustion it seems. Yurax Proudaxe, another kin and another whose body and axe feel like they were born together.  Maybe they are, I'm rather unknowlegable about dwarven gestation and birth."  He grinned and took a long drink.  "Let's see, Argos Stargazer, I'm not sure what he is but he channels Toran so perhaps a cleric? Not your average Toranite, that's for sure.  Gala, a healer of Beryl's and one of the...I was going to say ballsiest but that's not technically correct is it?  One of the bravest, craziest ladies I've ever had the pleasure to know."

He leaned forward, lowering his voice so they had to listen closer.  "You have to imagine this.  The lady is wearing a riot of colors, a long coat, and is standing on the opposite side of the bridge from us -- right where they're marching down!  Waves of trolls flow in, and she casts blade barrier, lets them see her, then lets them chase her -- and runs them in circles through the chopping, jagged edges of her spell until their tendons are sliced or arrows finish them off, complaining the entire time she was too old for all this but with a huge grin.  I was in theory the moral support of the team with my song, but I could only stand there and cheer her. Simply, simply, amazing.

"We had the elven lady Feawen and her love Shadowleaf -- I'm afraid the trolls savaged Feawen a bit, but she never quit, never stopped throwing herself at them.  Her bravery stood proud next to that of the dwarves, that's for sure.  Leaf is an archer and Muse we needed him.  I can use a bow and I'm not bad but I would never call myself an "archer", not as he is.  We had another Toranite, a quiet fellow but he was casting spell after spell after spell, not a healer per say but he's certainly in favor with his god the way he stunned the trolls time and again.  And a lady who had archer skills and some trapping skills...pretty thing, if a bit focused on the gold, Jetta.  Who else...ah, and the lady Talia, another cleric -- a Lucindite and good thing too because I ended up dying to the claws and teeth of outrageous fortune after the third wave and it was her gentle touch that arose me from my deathly slumber.

"Me?  Only a singer, ladies and gentlemen.  An entertainer who felt my talents might help.  I can sing a few spells, and raise moral.  It's a living.

"The battle, though -- we prepared at a bridge across a wide river, the most likely place for them to come.  We sent Feawen out to scout and she discovered some special groups of trolls and two chieftains which suggests both an alliance and a cunning that chills my blood, don't know about you.  That and at least four hundred trolls that she could see.  Let me say that again: FOUR.  HUNDRED.  If that isn't the stuff that men sing of, I don't know what is!

They sent their brutes to wear us down; honestly, if I'd been those chieftains I'd have sent the hardest first, then beaten us senseless with more than we could handle.  Despite having the bridge we had limited resources.  But Muse to thank they're not too bright and we managed well for the first wave, with the dwarves forming a line and holding them tight and the archers and spellcasters making mush of the rest.

"Come the second wave their shamen got into the act and I heard the drums shift, quicken.  By the Lady if they didn't have a troll with bardic powers!   And sure enough the next wave were even more savage, more fierce  - Feawen went down, I didn't see it or I would have flung a potion at her, and their berzerkers were biting, clawing, kicking, everything.  At one point Yurax had three heads attached to various parts of him, gnawing away, and Azk'a took this as target practice and chopped them off him, or at least two I saw.  I think Yuraxe was protesting that it didn't count against Azk'a's total, I remember laughing at that in a sort of combat-induced hysteria.

"After Fea fell, Gala called her back and she formed a one-woman plug between the fighters and the archers and good thing, a few leaked through, but we held them.  By the Muse and anyone else you care to name, we held them.  They wanted to celebrate after a lull in the second battle -- well, what dwarf won't use any excuse to crack a keg? -- but I was counting and we were only halfway through the troll numbers.  Enough for the chieftans to still be cocky, I thought."  He leaned further forward, hands resting on the rough wooden table and eyes roving from face to face as the intensity of his voice increased.

"We were resting -- a few of us, unconvinced of our victory, were listening.  They came again and we were caught unprepared but we hastened to fill the hole.  It was a long, long fight -- more shamen, many of us stunned and pounded internally by the fist of whatever twisted gods they follow, even as we did the same to them -- and more of their best fighters.  Jetta was near me and caught by a troll's backhand and before she could recover her senses she was ripped open, I was in mid-spell and didn't even see before my song finished.  There was no time to pull her back, at least not for me, as I was singing every spell I knew as well as flinging potions left and right, singing for moral, and using my bow when I could.  It was the heart of madness.

"There was another lull and this time we prayed it was real...but no, only moment of peace, a calm before horror struck.  A series of spells flung from their side and each one more horrible than the last.  I saw our frontline fall to a massive, terrifying phantasm, my own heart stopping but I was too busy I think to really process it.  But when they fell the line holding the trolls back breached and a handful of elite fighters came through.  We were scattered, fighting one on one, dying one by one.   I myself was rent across my ribs by six sets of claws even as I was fumbling with a wand of protection.  

"We arose by alternately a Voraxian priest or our Lucindite Talia and were able to regroup.  A few more bands attacked but I wonder that they were under orders, the leaders seemed to have fled back to the swamp.  I verified this myself."  He took another long drink of the juice.

"Of course I tried to press on!  They were weakened, we should have finished the job.  They'll just be more angry and with a better understanding of our abilities for next time, should it arise.  And I think it will.  But I was outvoted and frankly the idea of sneaking behind troll lines to try to single-handedly take out several groups of elite fighters and two chieftains triggers even a wisdom as weak and underused as my own."  He grinned and listened as another story of heroic madness was offered up, humming softly to Ilsare and occasionally touching a still-sore rib..

[Black Cat]

*Azk'a burst out after the tale of Andrew* Outvoted !!! Ah was all fer pressin' on. Wuld 'ave rip 'em *burps* apart wit me own 'ands dose choiftain.
 
 Ah say we go nauw lad... les' get 'em whoile me axe be 'ot.
 
 *stands up a bit unsteadly... drain the last of his mug (the last one from the keg that now lies empy and sad in the corner)* LES' GIT LADS *buuuurps and rolls under the table...*

[RollinsCat]

Andrew grinned, briefly tempted to put his heels up on the newly presented footrest but resisting.  He'd seen dwarves swing in their sleep before and Azk'a's axe was still attached to his side.

"We'll plan on it."  He bent sideways to look under the table again.  "When you wake."


//can't wait for part two!

[Nehetsrev]

*Jetta stares grimly at the small pile of Trues on the table before her as she brushes her long hair free of tangles and gross remains from the battle.*
 
 *grumbling irritably*  "Most unprofitable!  Absolutely heartbreaking!  I'll go too, if only to make those Trolls pay for wasting so much of my time, sweat and blood!"
 
 *yelps in frustration as the brush hangs on a bit of dried Troll-goo still stuck in her hair*  "Disgusting!  I've washed my hair three times already and there's still gunk in it!"

[Lance Stargazer]

*As the conmotion goes on the taverm, the lonely knight walks back to the tent with a tired gesture, an black eye but a smile over his face, all bloodied on his armor and blade will need a clean up before being wore again, he cares for nothing right now, just that he needs to rest, the battle is not over, its just a respite, as he opens the tent and look it empty he smiles and shakes his head , he will worry in the morning, he sits in a small prayer and will rest , ready for what the next day present to him, after all this was just another test *

[Warchild214]

*An exhausted Shadowleaf and Feawen gather themselves after the epic battle along with others against the Trolls near the bridge just outside Lansport.   They help each other's battered and bruised bodies over to the portal to make their way back to Ft. Wayfare for some much needed rest.  Just after Leaf helps his beloved go into the portal, Andrew looks to him saying* "Leaf, the battle is over for today, but the Trolls will still have to be defeated once and for all!".  

*Leaf spits some blood to the ground before replying* "Good!, because War can only be postponed to the advantage of others!"