Pettilaen watched the inbred elf/elk thing attack Zina, just narrowly missing. A rage burned within his heart, as he charged forward, issuing a mental command to Gaia. She swept in from the sky, diving in low and feigning an attack, successfully distracting the centaur. Pettilaen whispered the incantations for a spell, and his rapier glowed, faintly emanating energy. He thrusted it into the centaur's hide, shouting at him as the energy drained from his blade, enveloping the centaur as bits of electricity danced along the centaur's frame. "Don't you ever try and hurt my friends you filthy animal!"

It might be apparent that his lack of sleep has put him in a foul mood, and this creature threatening them over a simple book did not improve that mood either.

OOC: 25 to-hit, 14 piercing damage.

Portia found herself fully annoyed with this arrogant creature. If he was truly a good creature wanting to properly deal with an item of evil he would have talked and would have not put faerie fire on her friends.

"Time to see the real light."

She says a quick prayer to Lathander and then pointed at the centaurish nuisance who tried to take Zina's head off. Good thing gnomes were short! A guiding bolt of light streaks through the air and bursts upon the creature's side. She nods in approval as the radiant damage soaks in and the creature starts glittering.

((Meta: Rolled a total of 19 for hit and 16 for damage. Next attack has advantage (this ends at the end of Portia's next turn but I am sure someone else will try to hit before then)))

Arriving in front of the creature, Bullden brings his hammer crashing down!

(Meta: 20 to hit with advantage, 10 damage)

Immersed in battle, the group hadn't yet noticed that, while Orst slowly got the wagon moving again, Rorn and Roe had slipped away and engaged a group of similar elf-beast (except these aren't wearing armor) creatures from the forest. Your attention is drawn that direction when Roe falls, a spear in his belly, and Rorn cries out.

"Help!" He shrieks. "My little brother!"

The brothers are doing battle against a group that had taken cover in a stand of old maple. Your group can see at least 3-4, maybe as many as 6-7.

Seeing the whole situation turn to chaos around him, Kanon has no choice but to act.

He yells to Rorn in dwarven, "As the gates fall around you, stand and defend your Citadel!" The quote from an ancient dwarven tale seems to bolster Rorn as he's reminded that his blood is thick and strong. (Bardic Inspiration) 

He turns back to the elf-a-taur and says, in elven, "This is your doing..." He runs at him and leaps onto the elf-a-taur, causing it to move back ten feet (grappled).

Zina aimed at the elf-a-taur again with single minded determination, casting witch bolt. Unfortunately, thanks to Kanon's helpful grapple, the spell went flying closer to the bard than her actual target. A little embarrassed, she began to run towards Roe and Rorn.

Rather than struggle against Kanon's grip, the creature speaks a few resonant words that seem to lift into the sky and form a dark cloud above. The dark cloud rumbles and flashes as a bolt of energy tears downward and strikes Zina in the chest. She is knocked from her feet and rendered unconscious, her small body jerking and jolting.

About the same time, Orst, in response to his eldest son's cries for help, leaps from the seat of his still-moving wagon with a heavy crossbow in one hand and a quiver of quarrels in the other. He darts west as fast as his knobby legs will carry him.

"Get away, creatures!" He shrieks, his voice cracking. "Leave my boys alone or I'll rend ye limb from limb!"

Coupled with Kanon valiantly leaping onto the elf beast and Gaia's persistent attempts to distract it, Pettilaen slashed at the creature's ankles, severing the ligaments and causing it to crash to the floor. Swiftly pulling out one of his twelve elven daggers, he leapt onto the fallen beasts back, holding the dagger to its throat. With a firm and cold tone, he commands, "If you want to live, you will call off your pesky forest friends from my allies." Shouting to the elf beasts off in the distance, he demands, "If you want your kin here to live, you will lower your weapons and back away from us!" His face is stern, completely committed to the act if needs be, as the elf lies unconscious beneath him.

OOC: Natural 20, dealing 25 piercing damage, rolled a 17 with Intimidation

She can't hear the beast going into the sky or was that a cloud, but she doesn't think he can do it forever either. She knows he will be unhappy, but she rides over and drops off her horse to slap a healing spell on Zina. She doesn't look at the menace above as she says her prayer with a hand on the twitching gnome. Even if both gnomes drove her nuts at times, she liked both of them.

((Meta: 1d8+7 = 1+7 = 8 HP - life domain and Alcolyte setup cleric))

Bullden gets on his pony and rushes past the group, past Orst, to help out out the Dwarven brothers (double move).

"Well done Pettilaen and Gaia! Tie his arms, make sure his weapons are out of reach, gag him, and blindfold him!" With that, he runs after the others. (Double Move)

Seeing Bullden up ahead he calls out to him, "Save Roe! Pull him free from the clutches of these fey!" As he says this Bullden is filled with confidence as he charges forward on his pony (Bardic Inspiration +1d6 on any attack, save, or skill roll).

Zina's entire body was wracked with pain as the lightning struck her. Everything went white as she let out a cry of pain, and then black as she crumpled to the ground.

She awoke to Portia's kind face, a warmth emanating from the half-elf's hand. "Thanks," she smiled weakly, standing up gingerly. She had no idea how long she had been out, so it took her a moment to get her bearings back. It looked like the stupid centaur had been felled. Zina decided it would be best to sprint over their. She arrived at Pettilaen's side breathless. "What do you need, Petti?"

Rorn shrieks as the creatures he was facing attack and overrun him. He screams in pain twice then goes silent. For a moment he is lost in the shuffle, but as the creatures round the edge of the trees and gallop for the road, his still body can be seen lying beside his brother, 3 long spears sticking out of it. From the look of it, 2 of the spears were shoved through his flesh after he had already fallen.

Orst stops in his tracks, the crossbow tumbling from his grip.

"No!" He shouts, his voice squeaky. "No..."

A total of 4 creatures close toward Bullden, who is charging fearlessly in their direction, his hammer held high and his tongue spewing curses unsuitable for dwarven children.

Seeing two of the dwarven lads down, Pettilaen screams as he slits the elf beast's throat, "Jukkete! Why are you bastards so stubborn!?" Moving as fast as his adorable gnome legs can take him, he rushes towards the party, praying that this whole charade will have a positive outcome. Forgive me, Illmater, for the blood I am about to spill once again.

She nods as Zina climbs to her feet. She grabs her horse's reins and mounts quickly. She pushes the horse into a gallop riding low aiming to circle out of range of the charging elf/elk beasts closing in on Bullden followed not too far by Kanon. She notices Petti charging that way now as well and Zina would probably do the same. 

The problem was having to go through some elms and the horse winds up in a sticky spot. So much for a quick fix for the dwarves, they will probably die now. Portia swears loudly in all four languages she knows.

( going to take another round to get to them due to flubbed animal handling roll )

Bullden crashes his pony directly into the creatures, sliding from the mount to land quickly and gracefu... OR catching his foot in a stirrup and doing an unplanned aerial cartwheel courtesy of the pony's momentum.

He hits the ground hard (8 damage) on his right side, but immediately springs to his feet among the creatures, still growling curses in his native tongue. 

Kanon has his rapier out as he approaches. He calls out to the elf-a-taurs in elven, "Your friend has been knocked out." He turns and points his rapier behind him for emphasis, catching a glimpse of a bloodied Pettilaen charging forward. "If you don't leave... us... he... shit." It dawns on him that the elf-a-taur has already been killed.

Instead he helps pull Bullden up and transfers his energy into him, cleansing him of wounds as he utters the cure wounds spell. "We're in for some trouble," he whispers to the sturdy dwarf, "And I'm not sure I'm going to make through this." Kanon prepares himself for the onslaught as he whispers a prayer to Oghma...

"Wha- wha- Petti- farji!" Zina blubbered, watching as her friend murdered an unconscious man in front of her. Everything was happening so fast, she just felt completely lost. "What are we doing?" she cried, running after Pettilaen as fast as she could.

The creatures bear down on Bullden, who crouches into a defensive posture with his shield to ward off the thrusts of their spears. Seeing how difficult it is to penetrate the dwarf's defenses, having caught sight of the new arrival, AND being fully aware of the value of dropping casters with healing magic, the fourth creature opts to stab at Kanon instead, catching him full in the side (meta: 5 damage).

They're chittering frantically back and forth to one another in a bizarre, musical language one can only assume is the tongue of forest folk and casting their gazes about as if looking for something.

Pettilaen continues to run, moving as fast as he can. This battle is never going to end. Gaia, well ahead of him, flies in, distracting one of the elf beasts until Bullden can get a swing on it, and then flies up into the air, out of reach.