First Battle for the Forest

January 8, 2008

The elf was riding ahead, scouting, so Notch was mostly at his ease despite their journey toward what was apparently a rampaging...something in the middle of the King's Wood. Notch knew he had little chance of spotting danger before Arindal or Deuce, so he allowed himself to relax as he walked among the horses and ponies the rest of the group rode through the crisp winter day. Should a warning come, Notch's long training had taught him to be instantly ready...he nearly unconciously made the transition from complete relaxation to total readiness - muscles taut, on his toes and ready.

Ahead there was a column smoke, but nobody seemed to think anything of it. Notch shrugged it off as a cookfire or some such. After all, they should be coming up on an inn. A short time later, the road crested a hill, and far ahead there appeared the tiny outline of a building far ahead. Notch thought it should be the inn; he had come through here in the past while working as a merchant guard. The elf's dog was still ahead, a faint shimmer on its back if you knew to look for it. Notch looked ahead to the inn again...there seemed to be more smoke, now.

A burst of movement caught his eye. First, the dog was sprinting back toward the group of horses, the elf nowhere to be seen and the shimmer gone from its back. Overhead flashed an arrow, clearly red against the blue sky. Notch was instantly prepared, and everything came together.  The smoke at the inn wasn't a cookfire - the building was burning. The elf was well ahead, and had excellent eyes. This obviously meant battle. Notch focused his awareness, dividing his body from its surroundings. He stepped forward, and disappeared.

Far ahead, just in front of the burning building, Notch's foot fell upon the ground. In an instant, he had walked a thousand feet. And he had stepped into the middle of a battle. The inn was on fire, but was not undefended. Small groups here and there fought viciously back and forth. In the first instant, it was not clear who were the attackers or defenders, but one warrior near the front of the inn looked particularly dangerous. He was bellowing like a fool, but easily besting three separate opponents. Savagely. Before Notch could determine who was who (although he silently begged Lathander that the drooling, bloodthirsty warrior was not an enemy), magic washed over him. He felt the first wave of energy as it washed over him, but where it touched him, it dissolved before the greater force of his will. The second wave was more powerful, reaching into the depths of Notch's chest and lodging a deep fear in his heart. Panic rose, Notch's eyes widened, but he remembered his discipline. Forcing the fear down, walling it off from affecting him, Notch regained his calm and turned to see who had thrown the power at him.

Thayans.

Grinning grimly, Notch stepped to them. A priest of Kossuth and a Red Wizard - Notch was now sure who the aggressors were. He clenched his fists as he approached, and the fingerless leather gloves that wrapped his hands flashed. With the crash of swords meeting, Notch's lower arms were suddenly clad in brilliant steel. Gauntlets encased his fists, and covered his forearms back to flare behind his elbow. Notch noticed arrows with familiar fletchings sticking out from the priest's red robes - damn could that elf shoot a long way. Notch reached the casters and let his fists fly. The first blow connected solidly, and carried the force of Notch' concentrated will. Surprisingly, the priest shrugged it off. But several more blows landed, and Notch's fists, open palms and elbows crashed into the man. This priests was no mere gibbering acolyte - he was clearly versed in at least avoiding blows. 

Pain washed through Notch's back - the sword of one of the soldiers had found its way into his flesh. Notch spun and turned, but he'd have to ignore that one for now. Fire exploded everywhere. The warrior at his back screamed in pain, but Notch again felt the magic dissolve around him. But this magic...this magic was familiar. Deuce! Notch made a mental note to throw that damned halfling as far as he could. Thank Lathander the little bastard hadn't been practicing magic all his life.

The priest and mage send magic at Notch again, but again there was no effect. He lashed out again, first focusing his will in a single solid blow against the priest, who again resisted the dazing effects of a punch that would crumple most men. Notch knew the priest was hurting, if still keeping his wits about him. Notch turned his attention to the wizard. She sneered as his fists lashed out and connected again and again. But...this was like punching a wall. A castle wall. Notch grunted as his blows seemed to have no effect, but he did catch her tattooed jaw with an elbow, snapping her head to the side. Notch remembered why he loved and hated fighting magicians - most of their magic washed over him with no effect, but then they had annoying abilities like this. What Notch could do with skin made of stone.

Another of Deuce's fireballs exploded, and Notch grudgingly appreciated the assistance as the dishonorable warrior at his back was again badly burned.

Suddenly the priest and the wizard were gone, vanished. Notch turned and calmly looked the singed warrior at his back in the eye. A second later, the armored warrior lay motionless on the ground, bleeding from the open fractures Notch left as he snapped the man's limbs and shattered his ribcage. Notch didn't like being stabbed. Notch left the man lying there, unconscious and probably dying.

The battle was over for the most part. The magicians had vanished, and the few warriors left had been relieved of weapons and clothing and sent running into the forest. Ten warriors lay bleeding on the ground.  Notch noticed Deuce's initial pouting faded as soon as he saw dead bodies to loot. Well, the ones that weren't dead were as soon as Deuce got to them. Notch paid little outward attention to anyone after that, retreating into a mild meditation again, watching and listening. When the innkeeper shouted about the children, though, Notch sprang to life, following quickly to the cellar where they were hiding.

As soon as the door was snatched open, Notch dashed down the stairs into the damp room, only to see his favorite Thayans standing before him, gleefully mooning over a serpent-graced amulet held between them. At Notch's appearance, their glee fled; Notch readied himself again, but the two vanished once again. Damn. Although the children seemed to be ok.

Over the rest of the evening, Notch again simply watched and listened, mostly contributing little. He did strike up a short conversation with Finn, though. Although Notch was not particularly good at small talk, he had spent enough time around the guards of merchant caravans to compliment the man on his obvious prowess with the blade. It turns out he wasn't a babbling moron, either...Jaden explained the wizard had hit Finn with a mind-affecting spell to literally make him an idiot.

Julia had the good sense to remind Deuce and Lisha that treasure was a group proposition, despite their industrious looting. Deuce groaned and produced two hefty bags that clinked upon the table. Julia gave Lisha a telling look, and two more bags appeared. Deuce was clearly not as sly as he thought - Notch knew there was more. Placing a firm, almost painful hand on Deuce's shoulder, Notch threatened to shake the halfling upside down if more bags didn't appear. Lo and behold, two more did. Lisha cursed and followed suit. Deuce protested mightily, but again Notch did not buy it. A fifth bag from somewhere on Deuce's person found its way to the table. A heartier curse and healthy smack to Deuce's head accompanied Lisha's further reveal. Defeated, Deuce sighed. When the bags were spilled open, Deuce's face fell further. Despite enough gems and platinum to make them all rich for the rest of their lives, Notch knew Deuce was simply depressed that he hadn't managed to steal more for himself.

Notch would never get used to the amount of money he found around these people.

Soon the conversation turned serious. Abnormally, Notch found he had a significant amount to contribute - these were Thayans. At least, they looked like Thayans. The wizard was tattooed and the priest carried obvious hallmarks of the worship of Kossuth, but they weren't natively from Thay. Their skin and hair was too fair and fine, and their facial features were more angular and brutish. It didn't mean they weren't under the orders of the Red Wizards or Kossuth, but outsiders were uncommon.

After that, the group decided where to go next. Despite the Thayan raid, there was little choice but to travel into the King's Wood to investigate. They couldn't leave Arabel's rear unchecked with obvious activity deep in the wood. After Jaden conferred with Lathander, Deuce seemed even more reluctant than usual, due to some overlap in location with a previous misadventure with Figment. Nevertheless, the party carried on, expecting to confront a green dragon.

A day later, everyone was readying themselves in camp when Arindal came rushing back from a scouting trip. Despite precautions, he had been detected by the dragons, but he managed to evade them on the way back. Turns out it was multiple green dragons...two young ones and two old ones. Shortly after the elf came back, the dragons attacked. It was lucky the party saw them coming, as there was a chance to prepare. Dragonfear washed over the group as one streamed overhead and breathed a noxious gas, but he forced down the terror and prepared to fight. Catching a quick breath of air, Notch swirled his cloak and ducked under it to avoid the burning, corrosive gas.

Notch turned to one of the bigger dragons near him, and unloaded his dragonbone shuriken. Amazed, Notch watched most of them skitch off the dragon's scales, careening off before returning to his hand. Even though one stuck solidly into the dragon, Notch was not encouraged. The dragon approached, and nearly bit Notch in half. Even faster than normal thanks to Jaden's magic, Notch was a flurry of fists as he dodged, leapt and flipped around the dragon, fists crashing into the heavy scales. With almost no effect. Frustration creeped around the edges of Notch's battle calm - he was either barely missing as the dragon heaved its bulk about, or getting mere glancing blows as the slick, hard scales defected his metal-encased fists. A few solid blows connected here and there, but Notch was not affecting this dragon nearly enough.

Luckily, Finn did. After he mastered his fear, the warrior came back into battle with a vengeance, scoring an incredible strike across the dragon's throat. Viscous blood streamed from the wound, bubbling as the dragon struggled to breathe. Nonetheless, it fought on. Notch glanced around the battlefield; three dragons were on the ground, the other unseen. Most of the party was concentrating on a single smaller dragon; it was peppered with arrows and burn marks. Julia stood before it, alternately taking massive wounds and being brought back to the fight by Jaden's power of Lathander. Another, a big one, was just picking on Deuce. Notch decided he had best go save the halfling.

Rather than turning his unprotected back to the dragon nearby, Notch sprang into a backflip and handsprings, bounding away on his hands and feet. When his hands hit the ground after his first flip, though, the heel of his left hand came down on a small rock, which rolled. Notch crashed down, and before he could roll, the dragon's claw sank into him, tearing through his leg and pitching him a good ten feet. Notch got to his feet, however, and approached the dragon attempting to crush Deuce. Again he lashed out, but the same thing - his fists just skittered over the scales, rarely catching a solid piece of the dragon. Frustration began to boil over - somebody was going to die if Notch didn't start having an effect on this fight.

For the second time in the fight, acid washed over Notch. This time, his backflip worked, and he avoided getting drenched in the green ichorous fog. Notch threw himself into battle, frustration affecting his fighting again, but before long, the arrows of Arindal, lightning bolts and fire of Deuce, sudden rear attacks from Lisha, the sweeping sword of Finn and the finishing, stabbing strikes of Julia felled the three dragons. All the while, the gaping wounds and crushed bones caused by the dragons instantly and totally removed by the grace of Lathander, channeled through Jaden. The final dragon, never having landed, winged off into the night.

Notch was even quieter than usual. His initial difficulty had turned to frustration, disrupting his careful, practiced mental balance. It had affected his fighting. That was unacceptable...how could he lose discipline? And during such a critical, monstrous fight? He would need to meditate on this and seek Lathander's guidance. As the party went over the spoils, healed themselves, Notch sat and sank into deep meditation, determined to overcome this sudden weakness, and restore his mental balance.

Notes

• This was written by a player and I appreciate the break.  I don't think I am up to writing the summary for this weekend. 
• I forgot a lot of details that I wanted to work into the story.  I think I was distracted but everything.  Hopefully, I can bring it out, or remember it, next time. 
• We had a new player join us, the person playing Finn.  He is remote as well!  Normally, it would be two guys remote from the same place but one guy had to leave on a business trip.  He managed to connect from the hotel, so we were on a conference call.  We had some drops in the online calls and a few audio problems but otherwise, it went well. 
• While not an offical BADD (Bothered About Disposible Dragons) member, I didn't mean for this to be easy.  And it wasn't . It's possible that had the fourth dragon gotten on the ground and taken the attention of another melee person, which the group probably doesn't have, it would have gone different.  I also didn't want one character to be (easily) attacked by two or more dragons, as they are just too big.  The dragons hit often and hard but not enough to get past the healing ability of Jaden.  In any even, at the end of the fight, it was well "balanced" as it could have gone either way but the PCs were victorious. 
• We were missing the player of the bard.  He was missed as his boosts would have helped a lot.  It allows one person to power attack to get ten bonus damage with no loss to hit.  Very powerful!