Arachne examined the canine tracks on the road in some detail. The howling the group had heard earlier started again, much closer this time. The howls were interlaced with an odd double barking. A pack of large two-headed dogs appeared from behind a small rise a distance off the road, running towards the party standing in the road.
Aloysius looked over when he heard the renewed barking. As the dogs appeared over thr rise, he exclaimed matter of factly, "Odd, ne'er hath Stargazer seen such an odd breed." He calmly removed something from his pouch and slid back behind the armored members of the group.
"Whoa!" yelled Rumer and raced for the nearest tall tree.
Echo cursed softly and prepared to cast a spell when the dogs got in range.
Arachne sighed and remounted a perhaps worried Puddlejumper. She dug out her sling and a stone from her purse. "Where do we want to go today?" she asked the horse, expecting that, at some point pretty soon, Puddlejumper was going to decide to run for it. When the moment seemed right, Arachne let fly at a hound with her sling.
"Dammit," Jana growled. She pulled her sword and shield and moved to a position in front of the others. "Someone back there watch my horse, please." She glanced back at Echo. "Feel free to ride him. Get around behind them. Maybe take him," she added, inclining her head toward Aloysius. She turned her attention back to the weird dogs. "Anyone know what these things are?"
"They would appear to be some species of bi-headed canine," Aloysius replied matter-of-factly. He was standing just behind Jana and made no move towards Horse/Sweetie/Dammit.
"Oh, thanks," Jana muttered. "That's damned useful information." She twirled the sword a bit to loosen up as the dogs charged forward.
"Any time," Aloysius replied.
Jana giggled, then adjusted her grip on her shield, focusing her attention on the fast-approaching dogs.
With the dog pack bearing down on them, the group swung into action. Echo and Aloysius prepared spells and Jana moved to the front of the group. Arachne got back on Puddlejumper. The stallion seemed less frightened of two headed dogs than he had of undead and held his ground. Rumer, seeing no tree around, hurried to a position behind the rest of the group, with Jana's horse, hopefully out of harm's way.
Aloysius' spell caused one of the dogs to fall asleep. Echo hit another with a magic missile. Kaileer unleashed a hail of arrows on the dogs, hitting one of them twice. Both Arachne and Lasiar flung sling stones at the dogs when they got close to the group, but neither of them hit. Blacky was equally unlucky with his throwing axe.
Three of the dogs engaged Jana and Blacky while the others circled around them to get to the rest of the party. One went after Arachne and Puddlejumper. One attempted to get at Aloysius. The remaining two went after Rumer and Horse at the back of the group.
Jana, using her sword one-handed so she could employ her shield, slashed at the nearest, healthiest-looking dog with her bastard sword. "I always liked cats better," she muttered.
"Get on the horse and go!" Echo yelled to Rumer. She tried to get over to where the woman and the horse were being attacked by the two dogs, dagger in hand.
"Yeah, I would if I had any idea how to use one of those things." muttered Rumer drawing her short sword and running toward the relative safety of Kaileer.
Aloysius cursed under his breath when he saw that only one of the charging canines succumbed to his spell. Upon seeing one of the other dogs approaching him, he anxiously drew one of his daggers, and assumed his odd fencing posture. Knees flexed, dagger extended towards the dog with his right arm, and left arm straight in the air, he stared at the dog about to attack him and hopefully muttered, "Heel, I say! Heel!" He slashed at the dog as it closed in.
Arachne slung another stone at the dog antagonizing Puddlejumper, this time making contact with the beast, giving him a minor wound. The vicious dog snapped at the horse with one head and failed to bite him. Instead of running, the stallion kicked at the dog, almost dislodging Arachne from his back. She held on, however, and the dog's second head took a large bite out of Puddlejumper's flank. This finally sent the horse running down the road, the dog in pursuit.
Rumer ran towards Kaileer with one of the dogs after her. The elven ranger defended both of them against the snarling beast with his shield, but neither elf nor gypsy were able to harm to dog with their weapons.
One of the dogs took a bite out of Jana's horse, who managed to kick the dog once before turning to run. Unfortunately, he stumbled in a hole in the road and nearly fell. Had Echo not distracted the dog with a well-timed, although rather ineffective, stab with her dagger, the horse would certainly not have gotten away. Horse recovered and ran after in the opposite direction of Arachne and Puddlejumper, leaving Echo to deal with the dog.
Aloysius took his awful fencing stance against the dog on him. Lasiar rushed to the mage's aid. The dog directed his anger at Lasiar. The bite he received was nearly fatal, and the dog knocked him to the ground, seemingly intent on finishing him off.
Jana and Blacky wielded sword and axe against the three dogs on them. Jana took bites from two of the dogs and Blacky took a bite from the third. Jana's bastard sword returned the favor against one of the dogs, leaving him very wounded. Blacky came close to killing another with his great axe, and the dog turned tail and ran.
"Ow, dammit!" Jana saw that the two dogs facing her and Blacky weren't in that great of shape, unlike the others. "Can you handle these?" Jana asked, rheotrically, since she was already turning away. She saw the dog on top of Lasiar and quickly moved to help him. Without waiting to see if she'd killed the dog on Lasiar with her swings, she spun so she could next attack the dog facing Echo.
Rumer stayed at Kaileer's side, looking for an opening into which she could insert her short sword. She glanced at Lasiar worriedly as well.
Aloysius' eyes widened in horror as he saw the Silverstar topple to the ground underneath the weight of the dog. "Nay, monster!" he shouted defiantly, as he desperately tried to slash the dog with his dagger.
"Wonderful," muttered Echo. "Uh, nice doggie?" she questioned as she stabbed at him again with her dagger, trying her best to stay out of the way of those nasty jaws.
Kaileer smashed into the dog on him and Rumer with his club, distracting the creature long enough for the woman to stab deep into its side with her short sword. The dog snarled and attacked back, but both of its bites failed to find soft skin to rip open.
Echo stabbed at the dog on her with her dagger, hitting but barely wounding it. The dog latched onto her arm with one of its heads and tore flesh down to the bone.
Jana turned her back on the dogs she and Blacky were fighting to go to Lasiar's aid. One of the dogs turned to go after her, but was too slow to cause any harm and decided to remain two on one on Blacky. The dogs fighting Blacky snapped at him twice before one fell to two brutal swings of the fighter's axe.
Before anyone could help the fallen priest, the dog on top of him bit him again, tearing at his exposed neck and face. Lasiar tried to fend the bite off with his moon's hand, but he was too weak to stop it. He stopped struggling when the dog ripped into him again. Aloysius missed the beast with his dagger, but Jana dealt the dog two strong blows with her bastard sword. An arrow flew from the moor and pierced the wounded dog's chest. It howled in pain and ran, even with the taste of the Silverstar's blood in its mouth. Aloysius threw his daggers at its retreating form, and the dog, already mortally wounded, fell.
The mage moved to the priest's side to try and staunch the horrific flow of blood coming from the wound on his neck.
Jana moved to help Echo, keeping the dog from ripping into her leg like it had her arm just moments before. Jana's sword distracted the dog so his bite on Echo drew only a little blood this time. Echo could barely hold onto her dagger and did not attack the dog. Another arrow flew from the moors, this one falling harmlessly to the ground.
Kaileer and Rumer continued to dance around with another of the mutts. Kaileer faltered in his step, unfortunately, giving the dog an opening. As it bit the elf, Rumer struck with her short sword again and laid the dog's stomach open. It fell to the ground in a stinking mess of intestines.
Blacky and the dog also continued to circle each other, the dog biting and Blacky swinging his axe to wound each other. Blacky quickly struck the dog again, cleanly cleaving one of its heads with his broad blade and ending its miserable life.
The final dog ran from Jana, only to have Kaileer bash it with his club, bringing it down as well. A final arrow flew over the spot where the now dead dog might have been, had he continued running.
The horses (and Arachne) were out of immediate sight. A lone figure with a long bow stood a distance from the road.
Jana looked around for another opponent, but saw none. "Damn," she said, seeing Lasiar's condition. She looked in the direction the horses had gone, but didn't see them. "Oh, shit!" Jana muttered. "My horse." She took off running after the horses (and Arachne), still holding onto her shield and sword.
The man quickly shouldered his bow and ran up to the group. He dismissed any hello's and dropped to one knee next to the fallen priest. He looked up to the mage, "Take your dagger and cuts strips from the fellow's shirt to bind up his scratches. I'll take care of this neck wound." He placed one hand on the priest's wound and gripped a silver medallion that hung around his neck. Before starting his chant he looked back up to the mage, "Nice hair." He then started whispering a prayer.
Echo barely gave the stranger a glance. She sat down on the ground hard and tried to stop the flow of blood from her ripped open arm. She caught sight of bone as she wrapped it in her cloak and almost passed out.
The blood trails and hoofprints showed that Arachne and Puddlejumper had gone one way on the road and Horse had gone the other.
Jana didn't hesitate. She followed her horse's tracks. "Dammit!" Jana yelled. "Dammit, Daisy Belle, stop!"
Rumer watched wide-eyed as chaos ensued. She looked at Kaileer and his bloody arm and said, "Are you ok? Do you know that elf?"
Jana disappeared down the road, looking for her horse.
The stranger prayed over Lasiar and stabilized the seriously wounded man somewhat.
The man looked up as the woman ran down the road, "Somebody better go after her. Those dogs will go after a lone target, even if they are scared." He checked the wounded man over again before looking up at the woman holding her arm. He then look at the man with the colored hair, " Take a couple of those strips to her and help bandage that arm. She keeps looking at and we'll have two people laid out here."
Rumer looked at Kaileer as the stranger began to give orders. "What is he doing? He hasn't even introduced himself and he is giving orders. Is he a friend or something? This is really weird." Rumer eyed the stranger very suspiciously.
The man looked over at the young woman, "Etienne. Is that better? I figured keeping your friend here from bleeding to death here on the ground was more important than telling you my name." He turned back to the unconsious man. He pulled a wineskin out and washed the man's wounds clean the took some of the strip of cloth and carefully bandaged his wounds.
He looked around at the group then to the large man with the Axe, "You okay? Looked like you got tagged once or twice."
Rumer stuck her tongue out at the surly elf as he turned from her. "Sure thing, Steve." she muttered.
Aloysius watched the arriving archer suspiciously as he retireved his thrown daggers from the dog's corpse. After the other man began giving orders, the mage simply looked at him, his eyebrow twitching. "Thy directions be unnecessary, archer. We have, er.....done this many times afore."
The man looked up at the man with the colored hair, "You guys get attacked by two headed dogs that often, heh?"
Aloysius then moved over to where Echo was and pulled a waterskin from his pack. Cognizant of her injured arm, he held it up towards her mouth for her in case she wanted a drink. "Ne'er worry, child. Certain am I that Arachne will be able to assist thee once she returns." He sat down next to the wounded wizardess. He suddenly remembered something and his face became flush with excitement. "Eric! Yonder sleeping dog shall arise soon. Mayhap thou shouldst dispatch it afore it does so?"
"I've been worse, don't worry 'bout me." Blacky said as he cut off the heads of the dog Aloysius indicated.
Echo took a drink from the waterskin and looked worried. She said in a weak voice, "Uhm, maybe someone should go look for Arachne. If that dog chasing them took down the horse, she might not be in any condition to help anybody."
"Hmmmm......", Aloysius mused. "Now that I have had a moment to cogitate the point, Stargazer would not be in the least surprised if Arachne doth not halt until she reaches Thurmaster. Puddle Jumper, I be confident, be more fleet afoot than yon pursuing canine. They should be fine."
He put his waterskin back in his pack.
