There is a guttural rumbling that coalesces into gravelly speech in the darkness, the sound of a massive form slithering passing the first alleyway and smelters.
"Hmmmm... a game is it? I can smell you, morsels. You, and your overgrown stink of fear and vengeance..."
The dragon begins to round the corner, following the scent of dwarven blood. Piers begins sparking his flint, working to light his torch. The two goblins, frayed rope-ends hanging from their wrists, leap out of the metalworker shop just as the trap begins into motion.
"Bul tuzak! saga tışkarı, küyüp turgan bir!" they shout in their own tongue, as they run at full speed into the darkness.
Translation:
At the same moment,
Piers' torch blazes forth, illuminating the dragon's face... which is terrifyingly close and well within biting range for the poor, hapless cleric.
Clouson, illuminated now by the torch, can see that he holds a slack rope, the other end shredded by metalworker shears in the darkness, and he stands by the dragon's left shoulder. The iron-willed cleric begins a sonorous chant, calling on the Might of Baudh to hinder this beast and guide everyone near him's blows. Osuna stands up within the first smeltery and fires a flash of swirling blue light which hits the dragon in the rump
(-2).
With the timely warning,
Scatha roars his challenge and twists back on himself (blessedly away from Piers, rather than biting him in half), but the close quarters make it more difficult than it otherwise would be. Arrows fly from
Rowine and Crowgar, flying by in the torchlight, but
Stantz' shaft pierces the dragon directly
(-6) in the back of the neck as it twists away.
Bremen rushes forward, swinging his hammer, but it glances off the ancient wyrm's scales, his surprise attack ruined.
Lug roars his own guttural battle cry, running out from the row behind, and swinging Rhybek's dwarven axe, cleaves deep into the dragon's hindquarters
(-11). Baxtaw also rushes forward from his cover, leaping in the air and bringing down the fang-bladed sword fashioned from the dragon's own tooth onto the twisting dragon's shoulder
Double damage on Scatha: -20).
Roaring at the insolence and indignity of your actions,
Scatha's throat glows orange and he blows a wave of flame over his own hindquarters, bathing the two smelteries behind him and all of you in the way!
Osuna ducks back within the protective cover of the first smeltery, but nonetheless screams and collapses as the flame pours over her
(-7). Baxtaw
(-7) and Bremen
(-7) manage to dive sideways, deflecting the worst of the flame as well. Lug, however, has his axe deep in the dragon's posterior and takes the flame head-on.
(-13) There is a
Whoooph! of air from the smelteries behind you, the intense heat of the dragonfire
re-lighting the furnaces beneath. The smelteries begin to glow brighter and brighter, the mechanical bellows churning as the hot air begins up the flue.
The dragon has now rotated, facing back towards Baxtaw, Bremen, Lug, and Osuna. Clauson and Piers are at its side and Rowine, Crowgar, and Stantz are all shooting its rear. Clauson remains chanting. The two goblins are running full-tilt down Metalworkers Row away from melee. As the massive body slithers past at such close proximity, Piers is able to see that there is a deep, festering lance wound in the dragon's side from its battle with Foxy O'Hare that remains only partially healed.
Actions?
Date: 4:30pm, 26 July 2021
Light: Lit furnaces; Piers' torch (until 5:30pm)
Effects: Resist Fire (Bremen); Holy Chant (+1 to hit, dam, save; -1 for Scatha)
Injuries: Dorbeck (Dead), Osuna (dying, bleeding, unconscious), Baxtaw (severely wounded), Lug (severely wounded), Bremen (moderately wounded), Stantz (minor wound), Clouson (minor wound)
