The dust raised by the stampede hasn't settled yet when a series of frightening howls is heard. About fifty yards ahead, a single beast can be seen. It stands on four legs, with armored scales covering its back and large yellow tusks rising from its long, tooth filled jaws. It howls again and five other howls answer it. Six of the creatures gather together. They sniff about and look for the herd they were following when one of them spots the group. It raises its tooth filled snout to the crimson sun and lets out another blood curdling screech. The other five join the grisly song and a moment later the whole group start racing toward the companions.

ROUND 1

The companions were getting to know each other a little better and were actually coordinating their attacks now. Small teams were quickly formed as the heroes spread apart. Ayrus takes off to the left flank by himself, while Koreth and Elric remain together. The two hunters made a deadly team as they separated. The pterran curled back his thin lip in a smile as he stayed close to Gaigin.

Koreth grimaces as Elric mentions the paralyzing gaze. 'Mark one advantage for the bloody beasts' he thinks solemnly 'I'll just have to do my best to even the score.' He draws upon his will, reaching down inside of himself and drawing it up. The familiar feeling was slow to come to his bidding, perhaps it was the knowledge that the beasts were dangerous and approaching fast but the warrior just could not concentrate with so many things on his mind.

Koreth silently curses, he had no time to try again. He tried not to watch as the Sand howlers charged towards him. 'Don't look at the eyes, don't look at the eyes…don't look...don't look...." he chants in his head, knowing he must follow the advice or the battle may be lost.

Fighting down his nervousness Elric glances to his companions. They had been through some tuff situations in their short time together, but these where Sandhowlers. Even if he had been injured badly in the past few days, he had come this far alive, so there was no use in second guessing his choice now. Long bow in hand Elric kneels on one knee. Drawing an arrow into position, he sights the nearest Sandhowler’s chest down the shaft.

Two arrows streak in quick succession from Elric’s bow. The lead Sandhowler plows to the ground as the first arrow’s impact slams it to the ground. An eerie, pain filled shriek comes from the Sandhowler as it tries to continue the charge. The beast yaps its pain and rage and resumes its plow. An unsteady hand sends the second arrow wide as the Sandhowlers draws near. Cursing his nervousness Elric throws his bow to the side and draws his blades.

The air cleric whips his bow from his back and quickly notches an arrow. He waits until a beast veers of to the side and makes straight for him. The wind mage had a plan. The first arrow whistles its way and digs deep into the brutes neck lodging itself with a dull thud. The sting is felt by the beast as it stops and rakes the arrow loose with its claw. Ayrus takes advantage and, without thinking it twice, lets loose a second arrow at his unmoving target. He sights the beast's head but the arrow glances of its armored shell.

The startled kreen was assessing his wounds and shaking of the dust from his body when a new threat appeared. This, however, was something that he could deal with as he saw the fast approaching beast. He immediately paired off with the halfling and before he could say anything, the mantis warrior had pulled forth two of his four chatkchas and hurled them at a lizard. Seeing the ordeal that Gaigin had just gone through and hearing Elric' warning, the aim of the kreen was off as both weapons miss their intended target.

The large beasts descending on the party were unlike anything Tak’ had hunted before. With their armored hide and tusks they were predators of this land, Tak’ was certain. If what Elric said was true that their very eyes paralyzed those they gazed on, then these were very dangerous beasts indeed.

Reaching for his Will, as he had done so countless time in the past, Tak’ let the energy of the self flow into him, reinforcing muscle and sinew. Adrenaline glands were opened, he thrust two bone daggers in the air and let out a mighty halfling warcry. Tak’ was ready for battle.

"Chit-Zik!" Tak’ calls out as the sand howlers quickly approached, "Two claws of the mantis! Let us strike their flanks." With that, Tak’ started running to the left, indicating that Chit-Zik should do the same on the right. One of the six beasts had gone for Tak and the kreen; both hunters anxiously waiting the forth coming clash.

Gaigin heeds Elric's warning but decides to try and end the threat as quickly as possible. He weighs his iron tipped spear on his right hand and throws it at the largest lizard. A terrible shriek is issued for its snout as the shaft buries itself deep in the beast's flank. The sandhowler goes down in a cloud of dust. Thinking the beast is done for, the warrior takes out his serrated bone axe and closes in for the kill. The beast turns its head with its eight eyes on the approaching warrior and for just a moment, the two lock gazes. Gaigin is lost in the hypnotic pattern of the creatures eyes thinking it is the most luring sight he has seen. His movements slow down as he goes deeper and deeper into his eyes. The warrior starts to fathom beautiful colors and patterns in the lizard's eyes. Cursing loudly, Gaigin shakes his head violently, "Ye almost had me, lizard scum! Now feel me sharp edge!" As if it understood the warrior, the lizard lets out a painful howl as he sees his attack go awry. It slowly gets up and circles the warrior, vile yellow saliva dripping from its snout…

The pterran was edging close to Gaigin and let out and audible sigh of relief when the warrior came back to his senses. He made himself a mental note not to look at the beast, not even from far away as the archers had done with no apparent problem. He lifted his sight to the horizon and only saw a dark green shape closing in fast. He changed his already drawn bone sword to his left hand and hurled a bone dirk at the creature. The dirk flew wide burying itself on the ground a few feet of his mark. The pterran valiantly prepared to meet the charging beast while consciously keeping his chin high and his eyes to the horizon.

ROUND 2

Koreth braces his spear and watches the ground a few feet in front of him. He would not look at their eyes, but they would feel the bite of his spear. "I'm not dying because of something as ugly as you!" he yells at the oncoming beasts, and then to his companions he shouts "use your long range attacks now, before they are too close!" He tightens his grip on his spear and prepares himself. 'Don't look at the eyes…don't look at the eyes...don't look at the eyes.' he chants in his head, knowing the battle may hinge on following that advice.

The beast bowls into Koreth spear and the weapon digs deep into its flank. The warrior could feel the spear point thrust past the ribcage as nearly one foot of the weapon was impaled into the lizard. The lizard screams out its pain and instinctively thrusts his head in an upward motion that catches the warrior's side. A deep gash appears on the warrior as his flesh is torn upwards exposing part of his own rib cage. The sight of his bones is quickly covered by crimson as blood starts to quickly hide the wound.

Moving quickly Elric steps behind Koreth’s left side ready cover his flank. Speaking with a confidence he doesn’t feel, he shouts to Koreth "Koreth, I have your flank to the left so remember corpses to your right and kickers to your left and we should make short work of these howlers."

Elric's wounded opponent continues its crazed charge as the warlock prepares to meet it with two downward swings. The tactic had saved Elric in Tyr and worked well as he steps back just in time to avoid damage. One of the swords strikes true while the other is deflected by the beast's hard scales. Unfortunately for Elric, the beast strikes much in the same manner that Koreth was wounded. The upward slash of the beast's tusks combined with its charge opened up another large cut on the warlock's midsection. Elric let out a surprised grunt and looked to his abdominal expecting his entrails to pour forth any minute. The warrior thanked his strong abdominal muscles but was not sure if they would stand another charge.

Ayrus saw the ghastly wounds that his companions had suffered under the beast's charge and nervously looked towards the beast that was charging down upon him. The air cleric calls upon his Will and is rewarded by gush of energy from his nexus. The energy quickly spread over the windmage's body actually separating his cells that now vibrated with energy. His form became translucent just as the beast reached him. The surprised beast actually plowed through him as the windmage offered no resistance to its charge. Ayrus smiled at how the Way had worked but soon frowned as he realized that he could not keep this up very long. The beast turned around and started another charge at the translucent air cleric.

Cursing slightly, but still with a feral smile on his face, Tak’ notes the large beast bearing down on him. Running at full speed, Tak watches the ground in front of him, avoiding contact with the beast's eyes, letting his instincts guide his moves.

Dancing away from the front of the beast, where it’s large tusks were, Tak’ dives, rolls and comes up to the beasts’ flank, and strikes with his dagger. The dagger hits home, and slides in all the way to the hilt. Unfortunately for Tak’, the chest cavity of the beast is too large for such a short-blade to have any real effect, other than annoyance value. Tak’ had anticipated this, and now executed the second step of his attack. Using the impaled dagger as a handhold, and with strength not expected of such a small fellow, Tak’ leapt up onto the beasts back.

The halfling warrior is thrown off the beast's back but not before another slash from his remaining dagger drew another line of blood. The hunter quickly got up a few feet from the beast and drew forth his newfound dagger as he watched the kreen engage the beast.

Chit's mid swing with his gythka is a bit wide as the beast suddenly lunges forward. The beast opens up its snout and bites down with razor sharp teeth. The bite crushes through the kreen chitin and reaches hard muscle on one of the kreen upper arms. The claw from his lower arm on that same side digs deep into the exposed creatures neck and draws forth a ghastly wound. The kreen does not chance a bite at the creature for fear of its paralyzing gaze.

Gaigin attention is severely distracted as he sets himself for the charge from the wounded beast. The large lizard faints to one side and quickly turns towards the warrior. Its upward thrust rakes the warrior on its side from his kidneys all the way to his armpit. Two deep gashes quickly become covered in blood. Gaigin axe stroke hits squarely on the beast's back and a couple of scales fly off but the beast's hide was not pierced by the bone blade. The lizard turns its eight eyes upon the startled warrior and again their gazes lock. This time gaigin finds new shapes and forms inside the beast's eyes; his movements again slow down as he becomes mesmerized by the spectacle…

Ptellac had no time to worry about his fighting companion when his own beast was upon him. He deftly stepped to the side at the last moment and avoided any contact with it. Unfortunately, his sword swing was off target as his defensive maneuver left him far from striking distance. The pterran feared for the Gaigin's life as the warrior did not seem to shake off his spell. He quickly took up position in front of him as he tried to fend off the two beasts. He swung his bone sword in wide arches and quickly called for help, "I can't hold them for long, someone must engage one of the beasts!" His cry for help is answered by two blood curdling howls as the beasts slowly approach the saurian and his unmoving fighting companion…

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

Group 1

Koreth (W) S1 (SeW)

Elric (SeW) S2 (SeW)

Group 2

Ayrus (H) phased, PSP (SiW) S3 (W)

Ayrus is being played as an NPC for 1 more week by me so don't expect a post from him.

Group 3

Chit (SiW) S4 (W)

Tak (SiW), PSP (SiW)

Group 4

Gaigin (W) Paralyzed S5 (W)

Polonius has warned about email problems and may not post this turn.

Ptellac (H) S6 (H)

We will go two more rounds. Everyone is sufficiently close so as to be able to exchange opponents.

Questions, comments, and suggestions please.

L8r,

Fabian