Veythe's eyes snapped open at the yell and she quickly rolled herself to her feet, fingers grasping at Rest which she quickly brought up to her lips. She burst out a sharp, staccato sort of beat, eyes searching through dim lighting within the darkness. Her tone was sharp, edged like rock as she trilled--eyes narrowed. Danger; Veythe hated camping for this very reason. Once she finished the song she grasped Bravery, her new crossbow, and raised it up. Her eyes sought out any movement of enemies--anything she could use to fire a bolt.

Veythe refused to be useless again.

(inspiration to Kayn, ready action: fire on enemy when visible)

Ellangil shrugs his twin bastard swords, Virile and Valiant, from their scabards and steps toward the dying edge of the firelight in the direction he was told to expect enemies. He scans the shadows for any hint of a foe with eyes trained to spot movement.

Ato shook off the cobwebs of sleep and rolled to his feet, snatching up his newly-modified  broadspear as he does so. As the others take up defensive positions, he moves to the very edge of the firelight (bottom of map, Stealth 15) and blends into the shifting shadows as well as he can, intending to use that to his advantage when he can attack one of the goblins (readied action to sneak atk).

The silence of the night was broken by the loud, bearish roars of two gnarlids, who barreled out of the darkness, charging straight for Kayn-dog. Ever vigilant, Kayn-dog held his ground, evading the onslaught of tooth and claw against him, preventing the gnarlids from reaching the rest of the group. The twang of bow was accompanied by shouts of "Booyahg die!" in Goblin as two goblins, concealed by night, fired their arrows from the ledge of the southern cliff. The first one missed, but the second one struck true, imbedding itself into Kayn's side [7 piercing damage]. Three more goblins emerged from the top of the cliff by the main body of the group, firing down on the Vesra-turned-giant-badger. One missed, while the other two arrows sunk into Vesra's furry hide [12 piercing damage].

The group was ready for the encounter, and quickly retaliated. Veythe sunk a crossbow bolt through one of the goblin's throats, causing it to topple over and fall down the cliff and land on the ground with a loud Thud! right next to her [9 piercing damage]. Ato, using the trickery of light and shadows, concealed himself well enough to surprise one of the gnarlids, jabbing his spear into the beasts shoulders [11 piercing damage], causing the beast to roar out. Capitalizing on the momentary distraction by Ato's attack, Vasha arced one of her hooks into the creature's leg, ripping out bits of flesh as she tore the hook out of the gnarlid [6 piercing damage].

Status Tracker:

• Gnarlid 1: 17 points of damage
• Kayn: 7 points of damage
• Vesra: 12 points of damage

Map:

Veythe breathed out slowly, took aim at the first goblin she saw and let loose a bolt. She watched it tumble to the ground, shifted her aim, and centered her breath. She fired a second bolt and watched as her next attacker went down. Her lips tugged upward into a faint smirk.

Good job Bravery.

(fired at F2)

Two arrows fly at Kayn from the distance, one of them slams into his side while the other flies far into the ocean. He grits his teeth and growls in the direction of the darkness.

Kayn remains where he's at, summoning forth one of his greatest weapons: The power to make people sleep. Both goblins in the darkness of the night fall fast asleep as his words enter their minds and lull them to dreamland. He then focuses his attention on Kayn-dog's predicament, calling out, "If you can keep one alive, I can have it join us!" 

(No move, cast sleep, call out)

Ato dances at the edge of the flickering firelight, darting in and out as he looks for an opening to strike at the gnarlid again. He slides around behind it, spear tip snaking in to strike once again and he feels it sink home into the side of the great beast.

OOC: Hit gnarlid with second sneak attack, move to E20 since he has no idea  the other two goblins are back there - good thing Kayn slept them!

Kayn focuses some attention on Kayn-dog, having it pounce on the injured gnarlid. It rips into the gnarlid's neck and snaps its jaws closed tight enough for the bear-thing to pass out. A small joy rises up through both Kayn-dog and Kayn as it falls unconscious. This will make an amazing body for Sear. He then turn's Kayn-dog's attention on the remaining gnarlid. 

(Attack gnarlid, knocks it unconscious) 

Vesra roared in pain, her badger form bloodied from the arrows. She charged forward to where her sister was, and swung her terrific claws at the beast before her. Her claws left behind three lines of red across the gnarlid's hide. With a newfound taste for blood, she lunged forward and took a bite out of his shoulder. It was almost sweet in her new mouth. 

Ember was close behind her, giving a battle cry of his own. 

(14 points of damage, Ember took the help action.)

With a laugh and a playful howl, Ellangil springs into the air and slices downward with Virile, striking a vicious blow to a gnarlid's neck. Upon landing, he thrusts upward with Valiant, piercing it in the chest and causing the beast to moan and collapse.

He licks the gnarlid blood spattered on his face and turns to find another foe...

As Ellangil climbs up the hill and cuts the last gnarlid down, the group hears a Squeak! and turns north to find that the last remaining goblin has disappeared from the edge of the cliff into the night. At the same time, loud snoring emanates from the south, a reminder to Kayn that those goblins still sleep peacefully.

OOC: Unless the group is making an attempt to locate the -now- hidden goblin, then I will assume that they dispatch of the sleeping ones and the combat is over.

Kayn hobbles over to his pack, "Two more goblins sleeping to the west. Someone with big sword finish them off, please." Once he reaches his pack, he un-knots his rope from it and turns back to the passed out gnarlid. It's bleeding from multiple places, but he ignores that. The wounds will heal during his ritual. Kayn-dog stands watch over the gnarlid, panting from the excitement.

Kayn begins binding the gnarlid with the rope in case it wakes up. He also ties a tight knot around the muzzle. "Thank you for not killing this one. In morning it will be new Kayn-dog... but now gnarlid-kayn, thing..." The new body for Sear... he could feel Sear's excitement. One day Sear will be this magnificent creature. He looks down at the arrow sticking in to his side. Ouch! It hurt... but no time for that now. He had a ritual to perform. 

Ato can't see well in the dark, but his hearing is just fine.  At Kayn's words, he makes his way tot eh bodies and unceremoniously slit the throats of the sleeping goblins before returning to the circle of firelight. He returns to the sight of Kayn prepping for his ritual and while curiosity tempts him, he has other concerns.

"Where there are some goblins, surely more are nearby, and at least one that we know of got away. We need to remain wary of attack."

Kayn allows the rest of the companions to drag the bodies far enough away from the camp to not attract the worst of the predators for the night. Kayn-dog would help, but this is going to take Kayn's complete attention. He pulls the arrow from his side with a grunt and quickly binds it. The pain will help keep him concentrated on the ritual. 

Kayn-dog fetches Kayn's bag and brings it to him. Kayn pulls out a bottle of ink and a small case containing various sized needles. Working through fur can be tough, as he learned with Kayn-dog, but it wasn't the artistry that was required so much as the intent behind each tattoo'd pin-prick. A small bit of mana went into each needle stab as the ritual bound the two together. Once a rune was complete, it glowed a brilliant purple before settling into the fur in a dark design of the rune. He spends nearly an hour on one side of the creature, referring to a few notes in his pack as he finished each rune. As each rune glows, the beast's wounds seem to heal and its breathing seems to get shallower. Kayn-dog looks affected as well. For every glowing rune, another glows on the dog and it grows a bit fatigued.

Any onlookers will note that Kayn is killing this creature. It's literally as if he's methodically removing the spirit from the gnarlid and replacing it with Kayn-dog's. 

Vesra almost gave chase to the goblin, but knew that she was too hurt and too slow to catch up to him. With a shudder, she dropped her badger form and shrunk back down to her normal Kor-self. The wounds washed away with her hide, leaving her virtually unscathed, but she could still feel the phantom pains of the arrows on her back. Transforming into a beast for the first time had taken a great deal out of her, and she desperately wanted to curl up with Ember and go back to sleep.

"Who else is hurt?" She asked, surveying the group. She had wanted to ask Ato to not kill the other two goblins, but he had left before she had a chance. Her eyes finally landed on Kayn, and his poorly bound arrow wound. "Kayn, you're hurt," she murmured, walking over to him. He was deep in some sort of ritual with the unconscious gnarlid, but that didn't stop Vesra from reaching over and calling upon the white mana around her to heal him.

She sunk back, leaning into Vasha and resting her head on her sister's shoulder. "We have strange friends," she signed. 

The soothing touch of Vesra's magic washed over Kayn while he was deep into his ritual. The instant relief felt wonderful. He looks back to give thanks, assuming it was Vesra, and sees her signing to her sister with her eyes half-closed. He breaks the silence and says, "Thank you Vessie... it hurt more the longer it was there. You make a wonderfullistic badger." 

He starts turning the gnarlid, now much smaller than it was during the fight, to its other side and begins working the final parts of his ritual. Kayn-dog performed admirably for its first fight. It was able to withstand the attacks of two gnarlids and got the knock-out blow on the first. He was going to miss Kayn-dog, but like shedding skin to become more powerful, this had to be done. 

The final part of the ritual took another hour. It was a silent ritual, where all of the activity was centered on a realm where mana flowed freely. There were no words and no incantations. This was a ritual of precise binding of souls. When he was finally done, Kayn-dog was completely exhausted. It lay on the ground, eyes closed, breathing shallow little breaths. The gnarlid's eyes opened, its claws stretched, and its nose wiggled. Kayn had complete control. As if in recognition of this, the gnarlid's runes all glowed one bright, brilliant, final time in tune with the dog's before settling in to its fur.

Kayn cuts the bindings on the gnarlid and walks over to the dog. He sits next to it and puts it's head in his lap. "I'll miss you," he says. The gnarlid sits up, looking at Vasha, then back at Kayn. It sits next to the two of them to warm them up for Kayn-dog's final hours.

While the others hunted down the goblins asleep and Kayn did whatever he did--Veythe shot him one glance with a raised eyebrow but she couldn't see that mess very well. Instead she headed up to the downed goblins to retrieve her crossbow bolts. Next to them Veythe knelt down and dipped her head. She whispered a short apology, ripped her bolts free, and began to hunt around to see if they had anything useful.

Veythe grimaced. Nothing, nothing, ah! That rope might come in handy. She carefully placed that into her pack and then shuffled over to the group.

"Are we going to try and get more sleep?" she asked them tiredly. "Or should we expect another attack if we try?"

She does not catch what Kayn is doing.