[Last Time, on El WHAT?!: Our heroes and their mentors gathered in the quiet little town so they could go off and kill some goblins. Emmet got his face planted in Tiffany's food, which was amusing, and Tiffany's bet got paid off in spite of that.] [Shortly thereafter, the rather large group set out for the goblin army's camp, journeying first along the sandy beach which was NOT made of gold, and then up the river where they scared lots of poor defenseless animals. They stopped for the night at the large tree's clearing, believing that to be a good place to stop for the night. Emmet got the pleasure of sleeping up the tree, and everybody slowly went to sleep.] [It's now an hour or so before dawn, as evidenced by the way the night's heavy darkness is just beginning to lift over the river. A tickling itch begins poking at the feet of the sleeping adventurers, gently prodding them to wakefulness.] [Session... start!] * Nick doesn't seem to notice, not even grunting. * Harold opens his eyes slowly, as force of will prods him awake. He has enough presence of mind to not jerk up quickly, but instead gets a solid grasp on his staff and begins glancing around furtively, trying to adjust to the darkness. * Tiffany 's breathing picks up slowly, her mind slow to return to her wary body. * Fadi grumbles awake, getting up and not looking too happy about it. * The camp is forcibly awakened as Emmet falls from the tree, hitting the ground with a meaty THWACK. * Nick snorts slightly, rolling over and burying his face in the bedroll. * Fadi plesently ignores the thwack. * Emmet lies on the ground, stunned and breathless, and tries not to curl into the fetal position. * Tiffany sits up at the loud noise. "Goblins? Oh... it's just you, Emmet." and rolls over to go back to bed. * The itching becomes more persistent. * The sounds of waking adventurers comes from behind various bushes in the area. * Fadi looks at his feet to see if someone's playing a prank on him . *snore* * Nobody is scratching at Fadi's foot. * Emmet wheezes quitly. "I hate waking up like this." He stands unsteadily, brushes himself off, and looks around the clearing. (quietly, with an e) * Draghmal is sitting calmly against the river side of the massive tree. Up near the river, a pile of goblin bodies lie just barely in sight of the clearing. * Fadi scratches is foot idly. * Tiffany stretches, still laying on the ground. "This 'getting up on time' thing is something I dislike getting the hang of. Oh! Draghmal. Busy night?" * Draghmal scowls a little more and wiggles his fingers. The itching intensifies again. Murph. *snore* Not really. You should wake up your companions before their mentors get... impatient. * Fadi hmmms, and looks over to Draghmal. "Good morning to you too." He goes about scratching his feet and putting his sleeping stuffs away. * Tiffany scraches her feet and finally gets the drift, standing up and gathering her things. Her gaze drifts to the sleeping form of Nick. "He's so cute asleep though, y'know?" * Nick feels the distinctly uncomfortable sensation of six inches of razor sharp steel against his neck. Augh, fine. I mean, oh. Sir. * This steel is being held there by one Blind Edward, who has gotten impatient. * Nick is awakened rather handily, eyes opening but otherwise not making a move. "I'm awake." * Draghmal looks over at Nick. "If you say so, girl." * Blind Edward takes his dagger away from Nick's throat. "Good." * Nick sits up, reaching for his armor and weapons. With a sigh, he starts putting them on over his clothes. * Alfred and Alexis both emerge slowly from opposite sides of the clearing. Feld follows soon after. * Fadi stretches, then straps on his balderic and puts on his backpack. * Emmet nods a morning greeting to Alexis and then watches his mentor expectantly for instruction. * Fadi finishes stretching, and looks over to Alfred. * Draghmal stands up slowly. "It's about time to go. We split up here, I'm afraid. We'll be traveling quite a bit faster than you five." * Nick finishes packing up his things and slings the pack over one shoulder, adjusting the scabbard. * Tiffany finishes packing her stuff back up. Her hands move again to the ring on her hand, and she fidgets with it, obviously afraid to leave the company of her mentor. * Harold emerges from the bushes, gear pakced together as neatly as possible. The path goes pretty much straight to the camp once you cross the tree here. Just follow it, and do try to avoid any ambushes. You have scouts for a reason. * Fadi nods. * Emmet nods as well, and tugs anxiously at the straps holding his backpack and axe to his back. * Draghmal moves out halfway between the fallen tree and the massive central tree, and begins chanting softly. His friends quickly gather around him, reaching out to touch his shoulders or each other. One moment they're there, and the next, they're gone, leaving behind the pop of imploding air. * Fadi steps out of the brush and blinks. Did I just see what I thought I saw? * Tiffany smiles. "You get used to that kinda thing, hanging around such a powerful sorcerer. Maybe I'll do such things someday." * Emmet stares at the empty space for a moment. "Wow. I hope the guy we're going after can't do anything like that." * Fadi shakes his head. "Ah, right. Lesgo, then. Emmet, Nick, you mind scouting?" * Emmet offers Fadi a slight grin. "Not at all." No prob. * Tiffany moves forward and takes a position by Fadi, her frail body dwarfed by his form. * Harold falls in next to Tiffany, oddly silent. * Fadi shakes a little, loosening his muscles. "Alright, let's go." * Fadi walks to the log. * The log is still nice and tall, even when sunk halfway into the bank. * Emmet moves carefully over the fallen tree to the other side of the river, since he can't scout ahead from the back of the group. * Nick does likewise, moving a lot easier in his armor than he was the first time they came across this clearing. * Tiffany steps timidly up to the log and takes her time moving across. * Fadi confidently gets up on the log, taking his time to walk across. * Harold climbs up and moves across at a slightly slow, even pace, trying to make sure he keeps his balance. * Emmet disappears into the foliage like a ninja, but sneaky. * Before long, everybody has made it across the river, though not without a few near falls. * Fadi continues, keeping an eye out for dangers... And the two scouts, incase they're too easy to spot. * Harold breathes a sigh of relief after he's clambered down off of the log, his legs shaking just a bit. * Nick isn't doing quite as well as Emmet, stumbling through the brush and being mildly conspicuous. * Tiffany looks around and sees only Fadi, Harold, and the parts of Nick that stick through the underbrush. "And then there were three." Tif chuckles. "And a half." * Fadi smirks. "He needs to work on that." * Harold averts his eyes from the parts of Nick that didn't manage to conceal themselves. It's vaguely like trying to be polite. * Fadi doesn't intentionally avert his eyes. "So, what'cha have for a plan when we meet this 'goblin lord' person?" * NinjaDebugger sets mode: +v Emmet * Tiffany looks off down the path and REALLY hopes that Fadi isn't talking to her. * Harold glances over at Tiffany, assuming that he's talking to her. * It takes some time, but eventually Nick starts to get the hang of this "moving silently" thing. * Tiffany feels the two sets of eyes boreing into her back and just accepts it. "Well... I figure we approach him... observe him for a while... and attack when he's alone." .oO(So this is what it feels like to be a ninja.) * Nick finally moves out of sight of the main group, like a ninja! * Fadi shrugs. "Requires some hiding, but better than rushing in. I like it... Maybe you could lure him into one of our own ambushes with a trick or two?" What if there are guards? * Emmet ghosts back to the group and hiss at them from the underbrush. "There's a trap ahead, guys. Four goblins on a little log bridge." Then we wouldn't do it, obviously. * Fadi listens and nods. "Any way around?" * Tiffany quiets down at the sound of an ambush. "Well... We could watch them and see if they're talking about anything useful... Unless we can sneak around or y'all think you can take them." * Emmet continues quietly. "On each side. Four goblins on each side of the little bridge." No way we can take that... ... we have to go around. Even if we beat them we can't conceal that there's been an incident. If we raise the camp's suspicions then we'll never have any hope of getting to the leader, and we'll just make things worse for our teachers. * Fadi nods. * Nick's voice likewise comes out of the underbrush. "So, ideas?" Well, if you look at it that way, then shouldn't Draghmal's slaughter last night have not gone unnoticed? If we try to sneak around we may have to go for miles up or down the bank to find a dry crossing. ..Eh, we took six on without even getting hurt.. * Fadi nods. "Hmmm... Okay. Take'em by surpise seems the best bet. Not the safest, but if we take too long, this can get too big too fast. I'd assume Draghmal has the ability to cover his tracks. I don't know that we can... * Harold sighs. "If we are going to fight, then we need to move very quickly." How far up ahead are they? * Tiffany suddenly looks off into the distance, her eyes fogging over for a mere moment. * The underbrush shifts very slightly as Nick draws his sword. Draghmal... They're being chased. He says we better hurry. Not too far. It took me about ten minutes to get back to you. Probably half that to get there if you're not sneaking. * Fadi nods. C'mon guys, if you think you can take them, then this is no time for dallying. Let's go. So, I'm thinkin' 'we should go off the beaten path when we approach the bridge, and hit them from the sides, flankin' and surprising them. What do ya think? Okay. I'll point them out when we get close enough so we can hit them from a distance. I think it'll work. Nick, Emmet, and Fadi split up to take the bridge, Harold and I move in as backup. I'm gonna stay here, if that's okay. ..Uh, hidden, that is. ... what, so _four_ of us can try to beat them? Well, somebody needs to come with me. I don't have a bow. Hey, Nick. You gotta be able to do something. What did you learn, anyways? How to attack when they're not looking. Which is why I'm staying here. So... You're gonna attack them when they're looking at me? ..Yeah, that sounds about right. * Emmet chuckles quietly. * Fadi smirks. "Fair enough. I'll be sure to make a big target." I could also try to talk with them... now that I have other 'skills', I can be very persuasive. Ten-four, good buddy. * You could see Nick mock-salute with the shortsword if he was visible. I don't know... I doubt they'll listen. Ahh... I wish we could do things that way, Tiffany, but even if we spoke the same language, they could easily just use that against us. So, let's go. * Fadi un-sheathes his greatsword as he walks torwards the bridge. "Tell us when we're in range." Well, by 'persuasive' I mean 'he doesn't have a choice'... but fighting them'll prolly be just as easy. * Fadi laughs. * Tiffany reaches into her robes and pulls out her trusty darts. "It's a talent, what can I say?" Can we go now? * Emmet moves alongside the party, checking the forest for a sign that will notify him of the proximity of the goblin ambush. Wait... do you mean something like mind control? * Harold tries to speak very quietly as he goes along with her. * Nick moves quietly alongside the main group, still in the forest. * Tiffany lowers her voice. "Not exactly... but hush... I'll show you later." * Emmet hisses from his hiding place. "Okay. Now would be a good time to... do whatever we're going to do." * Emmet and Nick can now see the nearest two goblins through the foliage, and shortly afterwards, the rest of the group can see them, too. * The small clearing ahead centers around another fallen tree, this time much smaller in every way, including the stream that it bridges. * Emmet pulls his greataxe from its hanger on his back and adjusts his grip on the weapon's haft as he waits for a signal from one of the party's leader... types. * Tiffany looks at Fadi and nods, waiting for him to take the initiative and strike. * Fadi nods and signals. He charges at one of the gobbo's (from the side, if possible), attempting to slice it really good. * Emmet sneaks as close to the goblins as he dares. The moment he hears Fadi rush, he charges them as well. * Nick likewise dashes out of the foliage, going for the goblin closest to him. * Fadi's greatsword thunks into the tree right above the thoroughly surprised goblin's head. * Emmet's axe thunks meatily into the goblin, nearly severing one of its arms AND the sapling beyond. * Emmet grunts with the exertion of his swing, and tries very hard to focus on the axe, and the targets. Just targets. * Nick lunges forward, shortsword leading. The goblin tries to scream, but cannot, as its throat is now blocked by Nick's shortsword. Unfortunately, the extra pressure causes the tree behind the goblin to fall, thereby spoiling any chance at further surprise. * Emmet looks up and scans the trail ahead for the target. He continues to repeat to himself that the gangly little beasts are just targets as he rushes the nearest goblin and swings his axe in a horizontal arc. * Emmet curses to himself as that arc comes short of its intended target. * The goblin is still staring in horror at how completely his friend across the trail was killed in an instant, but Emmet's axe just barely misses anyway. * Nick rips his sword out of the goblin's throat and turns to another, swinging the blade to decapitate a second goblin. * The goblin runs straight into Nick's sword as it cowers in terror from Emmet's mighty axe, and suffers a bloody gut wound. * Harold rushes in, spinning his staff as directly down at the wounded goblin as he can... unfortunately, he misjudged the distance between himself and it just a bit in his hurry, and misses by fractions for an inch. * The goblin barely ducks under the staff and lurches away a few inches, letting the short sword withdraw from his gut. He throws his bow at Nick and in one smooth motion whips out his own shortsword and lunges forward, leaving a bleeding line across Nick's forearm. Dammit! * Tiffany stands from her place in the bushes and engages in combat at last, throwing a dart with a smooth motion. The dart manages to only nick one of the closer goblins. * The goblin Tiffany just nicked decides it'd be a pretty good idea to fire back at her, and it does so, giving her a mirroring nick on the arm. Yah! * Fadi swings around, slicing again at the gobbo still in his way, hiting it through the mid-section and cleaving it into two gobbo-halves, getting lotsa blood everywhere. * The goblin across from the one that got Tiffany steps out from the underbrush and sends an arrow zipping at Fadi, but it goes just under his armpit and thunks into the now cloven corpse of his former companion. * Emmet cannot resist shouting as he rushes the other goblin on the near side of the river. He swings his axe low, then high overhead as he charges; when he brings the axe diagonally downward on the goblin, the blade continues right through it and into the dirt near the creature's feet. Gore splatters and bits of goblin fall to the forest floor. * A goblin emerges from the trees on the other side of the stream and sends an arrow streaking just over his now-dead companion's head. The arrow slices deeply into Emmet's arm and then continues on to thunk loudly into the trunk of a tree. * Emmet is unable to prevent his shout from turning into a cry of pain as the arrow opens the skin of his arm. * A second goblin emerges from the woods and takes up a position next to his companion, sending another arrow whizzing at Emmet. The miniscule cut that opens on his arm is a mere papercut compared to the one he just got, though. * Emmet grunts when another arrow grazes him, even though he can barely feel it after the pain the first arrow caused. * Nick rushes over to the last goblin on this side of the river, chopping downward. * The goblin is ill prepared for a melee assault, and this is emphasized by the fact that it is now missing several fingers on one hand. * Harold charges at the last remaining goblin on his side of the stream, biting back the urge to cry out his friend's names. The next swing is far more confident and powerful than his first one, aiming expertly at the goblin's upper body. * Tiffany moves forward toward the bank of the river and confidantly reaches for another dart. She throws it powerfully at the goblins on the far side of the river. Much to her chagrin, the only thing it hits is the river... with an unsatisfying 'sploosh.' * The goblin's skull crumples beneath the powerful blow. * A third goblin emerges from the forest and takes up a station next to its brethren, sending yet another arrow zinging for Emmet. This one, too, is a minor sting, but enough minor stings can drop even the largest animal. * Emmet grunts again and glances around for some kind of cover. He's not feeling his best. * Fadi gets on the log, and carefully, but quickly, tries to make his way across it. * Fadi makes his way across without trouble, and slashes at the nearest troublemaker that has a bow with his greatsword, easily cleaving its head straight off of its shoulders. * One last goblin emerges from the woods and skids to a halt. It hastily sends an arrow at Fadi. the arrow carves a small trench in his leg, but not soon enough to distract him from his recent beheading. * Fadi grins. "You want some too?" * Quite suddenly, with no flash of light or anything, Sophie appears standing behind the two grouped goblins, the last two to emerge. They don't appear to have noticed she's there, yet. * Sophie doesn't exactly know what's going on, but she sees armed goblins firing things at the others. That's enough of a reason to stab her sword through one's back, so she does, hard enough so that the point comes out the front. * The goblin nearest Fadi decides that getting into melee combat with this monster isn't a good idea, so it backs away and lets fly with an arrow. Sadly, the poor thing is shaking so badly that the arrow flies harmlessly into the stream. * Emmet gives up on looking for cover, since he doesn't want to let his friends fight by themselves. He crosses the log bridge carefully, but as quickly as he can without falling off. * Nick takes less time, racing across with well-placed steps. When he reaches the end, he leaps off and at the goblin Sophie attacked, lunging with the short sword and.. missing badly. * Sophie withdraws her sword and spins a full 360 degrees, lopping off its head. ..Very nice. * Harold crosses the log bridge as quickly as he (safely) can, hopping off the other side once he's there and sizing up what little is left of the opposition. * The two surviving goblins get still MORE rattled as another of their number drops. One of them backs off from Sophie and sends an arrow zinging past her ear into the forest. * Tiffany moves her hand back inside her outfit and draws another of her darts. With a swiftness borne of necessity, she throws... and punctures the river's surface yet again. * Fadi charges the goblin nearest him, but miscalculates the swing by a large margin, and hits nothing but air above the gobbo. * Fadi's goblin screams in terror, then turns tail and runs for the forest. * Fadi takes the opportunity of the coward running to bring his sword up and bisect it neatly, head and all, directly vertically. Lotsa blood and guts. Yeah. * The last goblin turns tail and runs, opening its guard completely to a waiting Sophie. * Sophie shoves her sword through the gobbie's back, making sure to flick the blood off this time. * Emmet grouses under his breath as he sprints with a ragged pace toward the others, and that one remaining goblin. * Nick also chases after the goblin, sword raised. * Nick pulls back.. and misses again, swearing. * Sophie lets the big tough men handle the work and makes sure her sword's good and clean instead. * Fadi spins around to see Emmet and Nick chasing after the goblin, a certain spark in his eyes as he does so. He doesn't give chase. * The goblin completely ignores what's going on around it, and a few seconds later is skewered, chopped, sliced, and diced. * Tiffany crosses the river at a steady pace, gaining ground on the other side just as the final gobbo succumbs to her friend's advances. * Fadi glances around him, and noting there's nothing that'd get hit (Or splattered with blood), he swings his greatsword in a huge verticle arc, getting the blood off and onto the floor. * Tiffany giggles and runs to give Sophie a big hug. "Sophie! Great timing, gal! Where you been?" * Harold watches his friends cut down the last one, looking distinctly dissatisfied. "... no call for that." * Emmet plants his axe blade-down on the ground and leans on it for a moment. He puts a hand against the largest arrow wound on his arm. "Ouch." I have absolutely no idea. * Nick cleans his blade off on the grass. Ugh. So, what's going on? Why are we killing these things again? * Fadi shakes his head, getting a bearing on his senses. He breathes heavily. "Well, one thing's for certain." He gulps. "The more you do this, the less you care." We're off to see the goblin king. * Tiffany smiles. "Well, you missed a lot. We have only a ways to go before the camp with the Goblin leader. Our mentors are currently keeping the army busy." Tiffany proceeds to look around for her darts and notices only the one on the (now) far side that didn't fall in the river. How delightful. * Nick sheathes his sword and looks around. "..We've wasted a lot of time." * Harold nods to Sophie as he approaches the others. By now, the random disappearances and reappearances of his comrades are just being taken for granted. "Who's hurt?" Yeah. We've been making plans while you were in limbo, or whatever it is that happens... * Nick holds up his arm. "It's just a flesh wound." And yes, I noticed that. Next time we should just fight to a rout, getting rid of them all did us no good and ate up time. * Tiffany , seeing the dart on the far side of the river, doesn't appear to wish to retrieve it. Instead, she waves her hand and utters some words. The dart levitates into the air and flies over to her palm, and she hides it back in her robes. * Fadi checks his leg. "'tis mearly a fleshwound." He smirks. * Emmet looks up at Harold. "I didn't see who else took any hits, but I've got this arrow wound on my arm. A few others here and there, but this one's kind of bothering me." Don't look at me. I just got here. * Tiffany rubs the blood away that's been running down her arm for the length of the combat. "I'll live." * Fadi shrugs. "What's done is done. You guys ready to move on?" I can bandage you up for now but I you'll all have to keep going until this is done. Be as careful as you can on the way in... having Sophie back with us is good but you're still most of our combat strength. Yes, let's get going. * Tiffany looks off into the distance briefly again, her eyes clouding over. * Emmet nods to Harold. "Fair enough." Never thought I'd hear the day someone refered to me as "combat strength". I never thought I'd hear the day I said that with a straight face. Guys, did you get the impression that these guards were a little tougher than the last group we fought was? * Emmet grins, and says nothing. People said that a lot in the ROTC crowd, and often they were really serious. Not me. They were a piece of cake. I don't know, I didn't enjoy those arrows. Well... maybe it's just me then. They seemed to hit harder than I'm used to. And Draghmal thinks someone who knows what they're doing has been training them. We need to hurry. * Sophie shrugs. "I wouldn't know." Lead the way. * Fadi rolls his neck. "They were, well... easy. Really easy." They were... we've all gotten much stronger. We should remember that in future fights. I don't think we need to be as... ah, as desperate as we were the first time. Okay. Let's keep going, then. Emmet, Nick, you still up to scouting? Right. * Emmet nods. Not a problem. * Fadi swings his blade around, flicking off any remaining blood, and sheathes it. * Nick ducks into one side of the forest, disappearing silently and effortlessly. * Fadi heads down the path once he lets the other two disappear. * Emmet fades into the forest. * Tiffany follows, quietly thinking to herself and looking worried about her distant mentor. * And so our heroes march off towards the goblin camp, to meet their destiny. [Session... end.]