Belmock the dwarf extricated himself from the impact crater
he’d created, sparing only a brief moment to look at the mangled corpse of his
leader beneath him before getting to his feet. “Ach, me aching back!” he gurgled,
taking a practice swing with his axe. He pointed the axe at Varien, wheezing, his
other hand on his knee as he bent over to catch his breath. “All right, you.
For the honour of Forgebar!” He hurtled himself at the paladin, his axe
swinging. Varien was surprised to discover that Belmock was in fact a skilled
fighter as two of the dwarf’s slashes got past his defences, bloodying him. Satisfied with his handiwork, Belmock whistled for Gralmar’s
mount, who obligingly trotted by, and hauled himself into the saddle, again
wincing at his sore back. The dire ram began to run back towards the moving
caravan. “Not so fast!” Varien said, slashing violently at Belmock
with a divine smite. The dwarf bore the deep cut with dwarven stoicism, but almost
slipped from the saddle. Another dwarven raider spurred his mount towards Theryn. The
dire ram lowered his steel-shod horns and bashed into the monk with great
force. Theryn held his ground but couldn’t avoid a biting cut from the rider’s
battleaxe. Alec also found himself in trouble as the two dwarven riders
recovered from his shatter attack and pressed their advantage. One rider chopped
his axe with enough force to stagger the barbarian, and Alec could feel rivulets
of blood spurting down from the open wound on his chest. “I say,” Siegfried called to Alec’s attackers in stilted,
phonetic Dwarven. The half-orc had attended more than one basement dwarf cage
brawl in Waterdeep’s lesser neighbourhoods and had heard a number of cutting
insults in his day. “the hairs on your mothers’ chins are not fit to sustain a
family of rats!” Judging from the contorted expressions of rage from all the
dwarves within earshot, Siegfried considered that he might have pushed things a
little too far. But he had succeeded in goading the raiders to turn their
attentions to him and not his ally. The dwarven raider turned his mount around and charged
towards Siegfried on the top of the train cars, mowing down the gnome guard
without pause as the mount lowered its horns to attack. Siegfried popped a shield
spell that absorbed the mount’s attack, and taunted the dwarf with another
zinger. “Uh, forgive my pronunciation, but I do believe that your father’s
stonework is riddled with worms!” The dwarf’s complexion went from rage-red to rage-purple. “Ah, there it is,” Siegfried said with contempt as he
executed a deft mobile flourish, knocking the enraged dwarf and his mount
sideways right off the armored roof of the train. He followed up with a
branding smite. Another bandit took the opportunity to leap aboard the
train. The gnome guard got to his feet, gingerly touched a
hoof-shaped dent in his helmet, and then sighted down with his thundercannon,
blasting the falling dwarf, who landed face-first in the snow and didn’t move
even as his mount rolled over him. The rear gunner lined up another shot with his cannon at the
raider attacking Theryn, blasting him squarely. Varien rushed across the snowy surface towards the train and
cast lightning lure, creating a lash of lightning energy that struck at
the dwarven raider who had slashed Alec grievously. The lure yanked the dwarf
from his saddle, pulling him off the train towards Varien, scorching him with
electrical energy as it did so. Erwen dropped his wildshape and landed in a snowbank. Quickly
digging himself out, he brushed snow from his fur coat and pointed at the last
gnome aboard the train. “I’ve had it with these motherfucking snakes on this
motherfucking train!” he shouted, casting polymorph on the dwarf. The
dwarf contorted painfully as his body reshaped itself into that of a harmless
garter snake, which slithered into a coil atop the saddle. The downside to this, of course, was that Erwen had to stop
concentrating on his conjure animals spell, which left Bob in a bit of a
tight spot as his flying mount blooped out of existence. The sorcerer
found himself tumbling ass over teakettle down towards the mountainside. “Of course, this would happen to me,” he muttered as he
tried to control his fall. The jagged snow-covered rocks grew ever closer. Bob
closed his eyes. Suddenly, he was buoyed back into the air as a rushing sound
of wind threatened to deafen him. Bob opened his eyes. Once again, a great winged shadow
stretched out beneath him on the ground below, and he felt his shoulders
working as the wings beat themselves in perfect, natural strokes, keeping him
in the air. I told you I’d be watching , the voice in his head
croaked. Good thing I was, too. Finally, something useful! Bob replied. He doled out some
of his healing magic on his brother Alec. Theryn and Siegfried both noticed Bob flying without the aid
of a giant eagle, and took note of the decidedly non-birdlike shadow he was
casting on the snow as he swooped overhead. The dwarves also took note of him, and their reactions were
uniform and identical. They cringed in terror and Bob’s frightful presence as
he flew over them, recoiling as his shadow darkened their faces. The dwarf who had squared off against Theryn kicked his
mount into high gear, loping away around the caboose of the train, intent on putting
the train’s bulk between him and the flying sorcerer. Alec drew the Sword of Trevelyan and squared off against the
dwarf on the train, slashing at him violently. The dwarf Varien had pulled towards him swung with his
battleaxe, missing. Belmock slashed at Varien with his axe, striking a glancing
blow, and then spurred his mount onwards towards the lead steam engine. Varien hit the dwarf with a branding smite that almost
knocked him from his mount, but the steadfast dwarf soldiered onward. The garter snake slid from the saddle and tried to slither
away between the armored car and the open coal car, but Siegfried had other
designs on the tiny creature. He tried to grab it to stuff in his pocket, but
missing, decided to slash at the polymorphed dwarf, dealing enough damage to
knock him back into his humanoid form. “Hey!” Erwen called out. “That spell took a lot out of me!” Siegfried glared down at the dwarf. “Wherever you go, we
will know where you are, and we will destroy your hearth, your family, and your
children.” The dwarf responded by slashing at Siegfried with his axe. “Are
you trying to threaten me?” he shouted. Siegfried leaned in, ignoring the wound. “No, I’m promising
you. You can still save them. All you have to do is kneel.” The dwarf’s face contorted with rage. “I’ll nae take the
knee for any orc!” “Oh, but you misunderstand,” Siegfried said as he readied
Talon. “I am the one taking your knee.” Siegfried quickly moved his hex onto the dwarf and
then stabbed viciously at the dwarf, who managed to block the half-orc’s first
strike. Smiling darkly, Siegfried slashed at the dwarf’s leg, taking off the hapless
humanoid’s knee in a bloody flourish. The dwarf cried out in agony despite himself but managed to
stay upright. “Here, let me help you with that,” Siegfried said, placing a
hand on the dwarf’s shoulder and pushing down with inexorable force until the trembling,
bleeding raider was forced down on one knee before him. The train’s engineer spied Belmock, who was racing to close
the distance and readying a grappling hook. Pulling on a heavy lever and spinning
a series of wheels, the engineer sent the train’s crane into motion. The heavy
boom loomed over the dwarf, who managed to duck the grasping mechanism as it
swung past him. Inside the armored cab of the train, a guard aimed his
thunder cannon out and shot at the dwarf, cursing as he missed. Atop the train, the gnome gunner aimed at the dwarf fighting
with Varien and shot him in the back, striking the target who fell dead at
Varien’s feet. Varien wiped blood streaks from his face and took off after
Belmock, his boots of striding and springing helping him close the distance. He missed the dwarf raider with his first swing. Belmock had enough time to chortle at Varien’s expense
before he was caught by the paladin’s backswing. His sword cut deep into the obese
dwarf’s torso, severing spine and spleen alike. Belmock’s laugh turned into a
gurgle of deathly disbelief as he slowly slid from his saddle, entrails spilling
out to steam in the snow. Varien kicked at the goat, sending the bleating beast staggering.
“Go home, goat!” Erwen smiled at the mercy that Varien showed to the animal. “You’re
at the top of my food chain, Varien,” he said. Theryn swung wildly at the goat before him, missing but
warding the animal off. As the goat sprang away, the monk could hear some
clanking sounds coming from within the armored caboose. Bob sailed on his invisible wings overhead. My sons…save my sons… the voice inside his head called
out, in obvious distress. Yes, but first my friends! Bob replied. He fired off
his last two miniature meteors at two targets, striking them with fiery
ferocity. The last mounted dwarf slapped at the parts of him and his
mount that were lit up by the meteor, and Bob heard him babbling frantically as
he retreated back up the mountain slope. “The Unseen Protector! The Unseen
Protector!” Alec looked at the dwarf kneeling before Siegfried and
clocked him smartly on the head with two strikes of his greatsword’s pommel.
The unconscious dwarf fell over in a daze. Siegfried wasted no time in pulling
out his hellfire chains, which he used to bind up the dwarf. “I told you these would be useful!” he said, pleased with
himself. “What about his kneecap?” Alec said distastefully as he
looked at the gore-streaked dwarf. “It will make the small man a fine hat,” Siegfried said. The frantic dwarf urged his mount onward, the beast leaping
nimbly from outcropping to outcropping as it tried to make an escape. From within the armored caboose, there was a decisive clang.
“Fire away!” the gunner shouted. The nose of the cannon tracked towards the fleeing
dwarf, and boomed decisively. The projectile streaked out with a sound of thunder,
blasting the retreating dwarf and his mount into a fine pink mist as it
continued further downrange. “Huzzah!” the gnome gunner shouted with glee. “Last licks!” The thunderous sound of the projectile’s detonation was echoed
by an even louder thundering sound as the cannonball impacted on the northern
side of the ridge. The mountainside blurred as tons of rock, ice and snow
suddenly gave way into a roiling mass that surged over the gore-streaked
remains of the dwarf and his mount, and began to erase the blood-red tracks
that the caravan train had left down the mountainside.
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“Avalanche!” the gunner cried out in terror as a wall of
cold death blotted out the mid-morning sun.