The saurian trader was shocked at the sight of the big brute going under his bone sword. Unfortunately, he was within a melee without a weapon or so it seemed…Ptellac grabbed a fallen heartpick and quickly put it to good use. He took up sides with the mul who was closest, was worst outnumbered and for some reason had ceased to attack in the middle of the fight!. The pterran swung with all his might to try and crack the exposed tarek's head who suddenly stepped in and closed with the trader. The swing went awry and Ptellac found himself in close combat with a smelly tarek. Almost out of pure instinct, Ptellac raked with his left hand and his sharp claw left its imprint with four nasty slashes near the brute's neck. The tarek, unprepared for this attack, backed off and his handfork never reached its intended target.

The odds against her, Rayne was trying a different tactic. In the hopes of creating a distraction, she summons to her a mind a picture of Marteu (her mentor and teacher) and reaches deep within drawing her powers to the surface. Rayne struggles with her power trying to levitate herself out of trouble but the onrushing tarek did not let her concentrate enough. She was quickly forced to block and dodge lest the brutes bring her under. Thankfully, one of the three tareks was preoccupied with Ptellac but that still left two for her to deal with. She blocks a heartpick lunge with her a sharp crack of her tortoise blade but was not quick enough to completely dodge another heartpick aimed at splitting her bald head. The weapon catches her shoulder drawing a nasty gash that was quickly covered in blood.

Koreth grimaced at the pain in his side, and at his embattled companions. He brought his sword up again, the Tarek before him would surely fall after another blow. His sword thrust quickly, stabbing for the Tarek's exposed gut. Koreth's blade sinks deep into the stomach of the Tarek, it's blood runs slowly down his blade as it struggles to free himself. The noble warrior was astonished; he heard tales of the tareks and had even enjoyed watching them in the old games at the arena. The brute should have been dead by all standards with those ghastly wounds but it still got up and lunged for him.

Koreth's blade once again sought the flesh of his wounded opponent. He brought his blade down hard, hoping to end the life of the brute. Koreth's blade sinks into the Tarek's side, sliding between his ribs and wedging them apart. The Tarek screams in pain as Koreth kicks the now dead brute from his blade. Koreth, still surprised at his opponent, whirls around just in time to sidestep a deadly swing of the remaining tarek. This healthy beast would take more than one stroke to kill but its eyes were darting from his dead companions to the cover of the jungle.

Elric quickly scanned the area. Two on one was not what he had hoped for. Elric’s right blade lashes out from its defensive pattern to slice at the wounded tarek. The tarek howls in surprise as a deep cut appears across its chest. Following through the momentum of his right blade, Elric drops his left shoulder, his left blade coming up for a powerful thrust. The feint is realized as Elric leaps back turning his thrust into a swiping slash horizontally in front of him. The warlock scores a ghastly wound across the tarek's throat that should have felled him but the lumbering beast still kept coming. Luckily for Elric, the weak tarek missed his swing by much, the loss of blood getting to him. The other tarek was in no such state and ripped at the warlock's midsection; the three prong marks from the creature handfork were a telltale sign of where he raked the warrior's torso.

Elric suddenly disengaged and gaining all the distance he needed, burst forth using all of his speed to good advantage. Flying like an arrow true to its mark, Elric charges to the aid of the wounded pterran. The two tareks were on his heels albeit the wounded one was wobbling from the dizziness soon overwhelming him.

Before Tak’ faded out of the mindscape to take a more physical role in the conflict, he inclined his head to Mendi. A Tarek was not a nut cracked easily or quickly. Mendi went out of the mindscape abruptly, barely having the time to notice Tak's acknowledge of his victory. The tarek leader had been an impressive foe, and the elf had used most of its power, but he could still use his fighting skills. He began to stomp around in the forest, but he still resorted to his hiding skills to remain unseen. At the same time, he began to shout and yell orders: "Come on, here they are!" and then, in the nibenese dialect: "Charge!".

While moving sideways, he noticed that the warlock was alone against two foes who were following him. Mendi quickly decided to help the half-elf, and aimed his crossbow at the wounded tarek that was lagging behind Elric. He calmly leveled the crossbow, made sure that Elric was not in his line of fire, and pulled the trigger...

The weapon's bow twanged while the bolt darted toward the tarek, unnoticed. It sunk deeply into the humanoid's throat, and toppled the huge beast once and for all. Mendi didn't take the time to boast, however, and was already rearming the crossbow.

The wounded pterran warrior grinned as help was on its way and redoubled his efforts on his wounded foe. He feints high and suddenly rips his blade in leveled swing at the beast's midsection scoring a deep hit that should have killed any warrior. Amazed at the sight of his persistent foe, the pterran swings his bone sword overhead as if it was an axe. The sword bites deep and lodges itself in the tarek's skull killing the beast. The pterran struggled to free his blade for a second; a second too long… The other tarek strikes a terrible blow to the pterran 's back with his heartpick. A dull thud is heard as the pterran arches his back; the heartpick had pierced his body through showing its point on the front the valiant warrior.

Their leader had fallen - but still the Tareks fought on: With more than half-dozen of the muscled humanoids still standing and fighting, the odds were still grim. But the heroes still had one advantage: the Tareks were unaware of how many they faced. "Mendi! Aryus! Keep active and make noise - make it look as though they face an army!" With that Tak’ let out a warcry, bursting out the vegetation, shaking his spear high in the air as his ululating cry rang across the clearing.

Reaching into his nexus, Tak’ drew on the Way. Letting his reservoir of Will glow through him. In his mindscape totems of the Sloth; for strength, the Kirre; for speed, the forest; for endurance appear and meld into Tak’s construct. His Will strengthens muscle, releases adrenaline - empowering the slight halfling with as much strength as any muscle-bound human.

Seeing both tareks over him, Chit-Zik knew the situation had turned on him again. He quickly drops his gythka on the ground and snapped his venomous bite at the uninjured tarek. His mandibles bite deep into the tarek's neck and green, vile saliva is injected into the brute's bloodstream. Almost immediately, the tarek's eyes roll over and he slumps down to the grass. Chit was facing the second tarek before he knew it.

Without their weapons, Chit-Zik could see that they may find it nearly impossible to injure him. He readies all four claws as he moves to within inches of the wounded tarek, trying to get too close for it to use it's weapons. A few claws rake across the tarek's chest, but not enough to bring it down. The creature is loosing blood quickly, though, but still look dangerous, especially to those very close to it. The tarek attempts his best to pierce the kreen's chitin to no avail, his handfork merely scratches Chit's armor without injuring him.

The wind cleric takes forth another arrow and sights at the best possible shot. He lets loose at one of the tareks fighting the mul. One of his arrows strikes the beast in its upper arm while the other arrow flies off wide of its mark.

ROUND 4

Ptellac was no warrior and his familiarity with weapons did not include the heartpick he was wielding at the moment. Nevertheless, the pterran battled with claw and weapon at his tarek foe. He missed his swing while the tarek ripped his side with his handfork. The pterran's tough hide took most of the blow but bright, red blood was seen oozing in between the dull, green scales.

Rayne screams a curse of utter outrage in dwarven, and brings her tortoise blade across aiming for the throat of the nearest tarek while thrusting her sword low hoping to strike with both. Her tortoise blade rips a nasty wound into her wounded foe while her long sword cuts empty air. She follows her blade and rams her shoulders into the tarek with all her might. Rayne screams again with furry- an insanity rising in her black eyes. She tries desperately to maintain control. <if ye loose it, ye die - it's too soon to die>. Both tareks were on top of her again and decided to strike at the same time trying to overpower the mul. A handfork punctures her side and a heartpick slashes her shoulder as both weapons draw blood on the warrior.

With only one opponent immediately facing him, Koreth lashes out with his sword again, his muscles flexing with the effort of the swing. His blade sings a deadly song as it rips through the air. Koreth grunts with effort as his blade passes through the air before his opponent. He growls, uttering some half intelligible dwarven curse as he dances back. His sword is quickly before him again, held ready to deal another blow or to defend one. The healthy brute tries to rally his comrades and strikes past the warrior's defenses. Another red stain appeared in the noble's tunic. The puncture wound did not bleed as much as a slash would but it could get a lot worse if not treated properly.

Seeing the pterran fall in front of him only spurred Elric's speed to new heights. One of the tareks that was attacking the pterran had fallen but the saurian's assassin still stood. Elric runs low to the ground approaching the tarek from behind. The warlock still trailed one of his original attackers whilst the other one had fallen to Mendi's bolt. Silently wishing his blades to strike true, Elric attacks with a double thrust towards the tarek’s back. Elric’s blade explodes into the tarek with startling force throwing it forward. The wounded tarek turns around swing his heartpick out of mere instinct and catches the warlock on his shoulder. The other tarek misses the warrior and suddenly finds himself with another problem…

After a brief second of thinking, Aryus rushes over to where the pterran warrior had fallen. As he is moving over, he loads an iron tipped arrow hoping to hold enemy at bay. When the windmage reaches the Pterran warrior, he quickly goes about breathing a prayer to the windlords for healing. The pterran briefly opens up his slitted eyes and a brief respite comes over him. The warrior shudders as the breath of life enters him, smiles but peacefully dies in the hands of the wind healer.

With a evil glint in his eyes, Tak’ changed his cry into a sharp shout and ran toward the swirling melee, making no pretence to stay hidden, going for maximum impact. With his savage appearance, bloodlust in his eyes, and his spear ready to throw - Tak’ was a warrior in his element. While Tak’ closed the gap his mind was working, figuring out where he was needed most, who needed assistance and who needed to die. He makes up his mind quickly when he sees Elric being closely followed by a huge tarek.

The halfling darts across the clearing, his feet making no sound on the leafy ground - his warcry echoing loudly. Without slowing, Tak’ drew back his spear, squinting and aiming for a split-second before letting fly. The runed spear - not long by most measures, flew true - the carved shaft warbling slightly in the air. The spear impacted with a wet thud, catching a Tarek high on the shoulder. The dark-skinned humanoid grunted for a moment, both at the instant of pain, and the unexpected force of the projectile.

Recovering its balance and taking only a moment to dislodge the spear, the Tarek turned, its eyes bright with anger as blood freely ran from the wound. Pulling two bone daggers from his belt, Tak’ let out a final warcry, before entering the melee. Moving deftly laterally, Tak’ used his small weapons as an extension of his body - fighting with a feline grace and savage fire burning in his eyes.

The still invisible elf was yelling orders and counter orders. Koreth and Rayne seemed to fare well enough, but both Chit and Elric still looked in awkward situations. Mendi surveyed the battle with a quick glance. The warlock still needed help but it was certainly easier to fire over Tak. The bang of the crossbow was quickly followed by a groan of pain from the tarek and a flow of insults by a really angry elf who also took the time to yell towards Elric, "you stupid lump! get out of that melee and stay under the cover of the others!" and then: 'Second platoon! Charge! Archers! Fire!'

The kreen only had one tarek to worry about while the other was paralyzed and squirming on the ground. He bites into the shoulder of brute and the tarek dislodges itself before the kreen's saliva has a chance to enter its bloodstream. Chit is quick to follow with his claws that catch the tarek with deadly precision. This was too much for this tarek who looks towards his fallen comrade and then to the kreen's mandible dripping venom and decides to run for it.

The other tareks quickly disengage at the sight of their four dead including their leader, one blind tarek stumbling about dripping blood from his face and one paralyzed under the kreen's saliva. Sure, a few of the would-be victims were hurt but all were standing and at this moment outnumbered them. What had started out as simple raid on three pterrans turned out to be the death of half the tribe with a lot more to loose and not too much to gain. All of the tareks able to walk, made a run for it leaving two of their companions behind…one paralyzed and one blindly stumbling about…

Dusk had almost fallen again in the forest clearing and everything seemed very silent as compared to a few minutes ago. The grass and dense undergrowth had covered the tareks but Tak fathomed it should not be too hard to track them down… for whatever that was worth. Ptellac went around and checked his dead comrades; tears fill his eyes for the first time. He breathes a prayer to Mother Earth and goes about some simple ritual as if saying good bye to friends. Blood, corpses and the stink of the dead coupled with the tarek's own smell seem to violently rape an otherwise peaceful afternoon scene.

Your actions…

OUT OF CHARACTER

HEALTH STATUS

Remember the scale:

Healthy (H) 100% hitpoints remaining

Slightly Wounded (SiW) 75% to 100% hitpoints remaining

Wounded (W) 50% to 75% hitpoints remaining

Seriously Wounded (SeW) 25% to 50% hitpoints remaining

Mortally Wounded (MW) 0% to 25% hitpoints remaining

Ptellac (SiW)

Koreth (W), (SiW) PSP

Rayne (SeW), (SiW) PSP

Elric (SeW)

Chit (W)

Ayrus (H)

Mendi (H), (MW) for PSP

Tak (H), (W) for PSP

Tarek A (W)

blind, not attacking, only stumbles about

Tarek B (W)

paralyzed

I don't have much to add. I am tempted to play two scenes at once but we will not do that. I am hoping that everyone gets involved here and make this turn a good one. Let's play out the "after the battle" scene for now.

Questions, comments, and suggestions please.

L8r,

Fabian