We headed back
South, for our new armor awaited us. After a week of nothing happening,
something happened. Tev heard a group of dogs off in the distance,
conversing. Something about "we've found their trail -- the Captain
will be pleased." Could mean anything. We also met Tramor, a Vikul who
had been looking for us in hopes of joining our little freedom force.
Well, we let Reg in, so why not?
The next day we encountered a small pack of four dogs. They invited Tev
to join them in a hunt, to stretch his legs and go back to his dog
roots. For some reason Tev didn't want to go. I guess all that
civilization has gone to his head. In any case, Tev claimed that any of
us could beat the whole pack of mangy mutts. To which the dogs
double-dared us to prove it. Interesting, the dogs were being led by a
super janer.
Well, Krelga was all raring to go. But four dogs would rip her apart
and Nakaro and I said so. Still, she insisted on going and stalked off.
Tev, Tok and Nakaro followed her to make sure she didn't get into any
trouble. The rest of us waited with the wagons to watch the foolishness.
But it was a trick. Once the four of them got close, the dogs and janer
circled around and headed straight for the base camp. Krelga did manage
to gut one of the dogs. Treacherous curs! The rest of us formed up
around the wagon and I cast a Darkness spell. It doesn't matter if we
can't hit them as long as they can't hit us -- we just needed to hold
off the dogs until the others got back.
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The bad guys
ran off, with Tev and the others after them. After a long
chase they ran them down and managed to kill another dog and the super
janer. That was a strange encounter, but it was all cleared up for us
when the retreating dogs yelled back "we'll bring back Tanarek Dell and
then we'll see who gets the last bark!" Tanarek Dell! So, our old
nemesis had caught up to us yet again.
Ok, enough running away. This time we're going to face him and his men
and defeat him, in open combat (we couldn't find any ambush places). So
we waited for him and the next day he showed up with his men. Tanarek
Dell still disdained armor and had a motley group with him: the two
remaining dogs, a fire-plug and four Vikuls obviously teeming with
Chaos magic. How far had Dell fallen in his obsession.
They charged. Tok cast a Light Wall so we could fight behind it. Tev
engaged one dog while Timroth engaged the other. Reg backed up. Gorg
and Nakaro ran forward and engaged Dell, the fire-plug and a big Vikul.
Soon we were going down left and right as one of the Vikuls kept
casting Befuddle at us. I was quickly befuddled and then Timroth with
me. Eventually I snapped out of it and healed Tok, but by then the
battle was going well against us.
Gorg had already gone down. So had Krelga. Tok was fine, Nakaro was
barely hanging on. Timroth and Reg were still Befuddled. Tev wasn't
doing much. I was trying to get away long enough to heal people. But it
was clearly a losing battle as long as the Vikul with the Befuddle
continued to zap us. Then Nakaro was mortally wounded and Tramor
immediately afterwards. All hope was lost and it was up to Nakaro's
Divine Intervention to whisk us away.
An ignoble loss if I ever saw one... |