Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

1. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

   #1

   The rain kept down dust a little bit, which eased the itch. How it irritated him! A minor thing however. The road became a thick track of mud. No matter, he cared not. He beheld the flickering of lanterns ahead, and drew the muffler across his face and tipped the wide brimmed hat over his face. Nobody could recognize the truth if he were wrapped like he was. He fiddled with his old leather traveller's gloves. How his hands itched. He could not remember a time when they had not, but he remembered one thing. The tower of energy. His homeland. So many years...It would end...Sometime...

2. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

   #2

   Riisha swore vehemently. Of course the wagon would lose a wheel, and of course it would be pouring. And now the horses were getting crazy. "Hey! Calm down, boys! It's just rain! Ain't nothing worth getting all upset about! Calm down, you silly creatures." She grabbed for the reins, trying to keep the horses from bucking. She couldn't for the life of her figure out what was wrong with them. She'd worry about it later. "How's the wheel coming?" she yelled back at the others. She wanted to get going. The road had turned into mud, and it was getting cold.

3. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

   #3

   Barrak was sleeping when the rain start , he woke up and so the others trying to go on their way but in the other side all their backpacks and sacks where in the mud just the perfect time to get some free stuff , he smile and start the journey is a dirty work but someone got to do it .

4. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

   #4

   The innkeeper looked up from polishing the bar as the door flew open, letting the wind and rain into the tavern. The regulars looked up from their runny ales and honeyless meads for only a second before again resuming their boozing. The figure in the doorway was swathed in patched cloaks and wrappings, a muffler drawn across it's face and a wide-brimmed traveller's hat over it's eyes. Rainwater trickled across the floor as the figure (Now discernable as a male) made his way to a small corner table far from the light of the fire. The innkeeper looked at his heavily-bundled new customer curiously. The man was obviously dripping wet from the storm, yet he had seated himself as far away from the fire as possible. The stranger reached a leather gloved hand into his collar and scratched his obscured neck.
   "Itches, good lord?" asked the innkeeper
   "The road dust...Irritates me." said the stranger dismissively, his tone polite but terse.
   The innkeeper thought no more of the stranger, returning to his polishing.

5. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

   #5

   Riisha growled at the announcement that there would be no way to repair the wheel until things dried out some. She was not happy. And if Barrak had gotten into her stuff again when she wasn't paying attention... Looking around in frustration, she noticed something she hadn't before. Lights glimmered through the rain, not too far away. An inn. She pointed it out to the others. A quick consensus was taken; they decided it would be better to drag the wagon up to the inn, and repair it in the morning. Mood much improved by the prospect of a warm meal and a dry place to sleep, the gypsies somehow managed to get the broken wagon to the inn, and actually into the stable. Riisha took the horses to tend to them, while the others got a better look at the wheel. Riisha got the horses taken care of, and left Barrak with the others in the stable arguing about how bad the damage was. They'll join me when they're ready. After spending years with them, Riisha knew it was useless to try to get them to do anything until they were ready to.
   The inn was a welcome change to the weather outside. Riisha ordered a drink, and made her way over to the fire, ignoring leers she recieved; she was used to it. She did notice a man, swathed in cloak and mufflers, sitting as far away from the fire as he could get, but she didn't really pay that much attention.

6. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

   #6

   One of the drunks stumbled past the newly entered traveller, a woman, eyeing her lewdly, then grinning stupidly at the cloak-swathed stranger in the corner.
   "Hey, friend! What disease have ya' got? Itchworts or dwarf-pox?" the drunk said, laughing.
   "Neither. Apply yourself elsewhere, lest I remake you into something more suitable. A cockroach, perhaps, or a fly." the stranger replied, his voice scratchy and deep like that of a desert tribesman's sand-filled throat.
   "Hey! I've dealt with witch-men like you, before! I could take you with my hands tied behind my back!"The drunk threatened.
   The stranger chuckled dryly. "Oh. Is that so? Well then, go ahead, vermin."
   The drunkard raised his hands as if to the punch the stranger's cloaked face, but instead settled for an angry look. "Hey, stranger, we don't like wizards in this town! Go drink from the west side of the bridge!"
   The cloaked one laughed again, amused by the rustic local insult. "West side of the bridge indeed." He mused to himself, scratching his cheek.

7. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

   #7

   Riisha finished off her drink. She watched a particularly stupid man try to start something with the bundled up figure. Lovely. Just lovely. Why did the only convient inn have to be filled with jack-asses? She was all too familiar with the type. Trying to start a fight with someone they thought they could take, to make themselves seem like bigshots. Granted, it was amusing when they accidentally picked a magician... provided that no stray spells struck her or anyone she cared about. There was something about the man who was all wrapped up. The drunk backed down with only a token insult. Glad to know that still happens.
   Riisha didn't particularly care for fools; they annoyed her greatly. And a bully was just another type of fool. Speaking of fools, the inevitable happened. Another drunk, who had been eying her with an expression that said he had already gotten way too far in imagining things, came over and sat at her table. Gee. Nice of him to ask.
   "Heya, pretty lady. What's a sweet thing like you doin' out here, so far away from civilization?"
   "Not any of your business, really." She moved away from him.
   "Are you all alone, baby? 'Cause I could keep you company." He wasn't taking the hint. He moved closer.
   "No, actually. My two brothers and a friend are outside. Should be in in a minute or two."
   "Eh, tell 'em to sleep on the west side of the bridge."
   She didn't really get the insult, but it didn't matter. "No. Since you aren't taking the hint, allow me to be less subtle. Get lost. Now."
   "What do you mean, pretty lady?"
   Well, this should prove to be entertaining. "Leave me alone. Go away. Remove yourself from my presence. Go over there, before I make you wish you had never been born."
   His face turned ugly. "And who says I should listen to some uppity tart? You're gonna wish you'd been a little nicer to me."
   "Oh, yes. I'm sure. I'm trembling where I sit. Go kiss an orc."
   That really riled him. "Now you're really gonna pay, pretty lady."
   Well, there was no hope for it. Things were going to get ugly. Oh well.

8. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

   #8

   The door blew open again, to admit another figure - this one a good six feet tall, his body hidden by the travelling cloak wrapped about him and the hood draped forward over his face against the rain. Rain drips off the cloth, silvery beads against the grey-green fabric, as the stranger walks across the tavern towards the bar.
   
   He spares a glance for the ruffian harassing the lady, and slows for a moment; then one hand flashes out of the cloak, landing on the man's shoulder. "I advise you leave the lady alone, friend. If she wanted company, she'd have asked." The voice matches the figure's size, and the thickness of the arm and wrist which grip the man's shoulder. Undoubtedly some sort of warrior, this one.

9. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

   #9

   A lively inn, this one. thought the stranger, seeing the green-cloaked large one. He looked at the beginnings of the brawl at the other table, and saw something disturbing.
   I know that bracer. he thought, staring at the silver band over the large one's wrist.
   A fine bracer it was, silvery iron or steel with a three-headed griffon rampant emblazoned upon it.
   It jogged his memory, but why? The stranger scratched his forehead carefully so as not to reveal it, sipping from his goblet.
   No matter,he thought, I will not need to know, soon.

10. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #10

    OOC Message:
    The formatting (Italics and such) seem to be malfunctioning for me. Anybody know why?

11. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #11

    OOC: When you click the formatting buttons, you get the first part of a format tag. Clicking it a second time gets the end tag. It won't work without both, and the formatting goes to the end tag. So if the tag is out of place, the wrong thing will be formatted. It doesn't work like a word processor in that you can highlight text to format it. It's more like HTML, actually. I fixed the formatting error in the last post for you. Anyway. That's it.

12. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #12

    Two people stopping his attempts at a good night of drunkwn fun was more than the sot harassing Riisha; turning, he took a swing at the stranger in the cloak; the blow only caught cloth as the large man's hand flashed off the other's shoulder and he stepped back, hiding the bracer and his arm once more.
    
    "You try to offer a trace of friendly advice, and get attacked for your troubles. Shame." The stranger shook his head, which resulted mostly in a slight waggle of his hood. With a shrug, he tossed the cloak open, and the hood slipped back to reveal a pale-skinned man, perhaps in his late twenties, with ravenblack hair that vanished beneath the back of the cloak, and garments of a rough cut, the same hue as his clothing. On both arms were the bracers, each identical and almost ceremonial in look. "I apologize for the splitting your skull will feel come morning."

13. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #13

    Riisha got out of the way. She didn't want to be right there when the newcomer made a mess of the obnoxious little man. This was going to turn into a brawl, that much she already knew. The twins would be annoyed, but she hadn't started this one. As she had the thought, she noticed another patron, probably a friend of the man who'd been annoying her, was coming up behind the newcomer with a chair, and evidently meant to bash him with it. Never mind the fact that the new fellow was easily twice his size. He'd obviously had just enough to severely impair his judgement. Of course, he never made it far enough to actually do anything with the chair. Riisha glared at him. "None of that, now. That's just bad form."
    He most likely didn't get it, not that it mattered. He changed his mind, and made straight for her. She didn't really want to know what he planned to do when he got there. "No, see, you leave me alone. I don't like you." This had no effect, except that he smirked at her.
    Well, she had warned him. In retrospect, she realized it must have been the smirk that made her lose her temper. She kicked him. And this was no "girly" kick either. She connected hard enough to send him stumbling backwards several feet. Okay. So maybe I helped start it. There was a shocked silence that lasted for a few minutes. She guessed that they had never seen a woman do something quite like that. Well, they could see a lot more of it if they pressed the issue.

14. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #14

    The moment of shocked silence is all the stranger needs to take care of the man who started the entire issue; with a swift movement, he brings his arms together, solidly cracking the man's head with the cool metal of his bracers.
    
    In light of this argument, the drunkard bowed out of conciousness and collapsed to the floor. Dropping his hands back to his side, the tall stranger turned halfway to face the drunkard's friend, and the rest of the tavern; he looks around, and tips his head to the side slightly. "Well? Do any of the rest of you want to try your luck, or are we agreed to sitting down and behaving peacefully?"
    
    The man who was kicked certainly is in no position to argue at this point, and the rest of the inn is more than a bit cowed by both. After a moment, the tall stranger turns back to Riisha, and offers a half-bow. "Thank you, m'lady, for taking care of that sot before he could try to break his chair on my head." He shrugs his cloak closed again, concealing his arms from view again, but leaves the hood down.

15. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #15

    An impressive display thought the stranger. The image of the bracers resonated through his head.
    So familiar he thought. But how. Standing and setting a spare coin on the table, the stranger left, stepping into the rain. His footprints marked the mud in the direction of the sign marked "The Bridge."
    A flash of lightning rent the sky.

16. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #16

    Riisha shrugged. "Eh, forget it. Fools annoy me, that's all. And anyway, collateral damage is expensive. But that ain't important. I'm Riisha." As she sat down again, her two brothers came in. They were twins. Not identical twins, but it was still obvious. Riisha shared the family resemblance as well. All three of them had the dark complexions of gypsies and dark manes of hair. Derris wore his loose, and it touched his shoulders. Laren's hair was slightly longer, and pulled back into a tail. Riisha's hair was substantially longer, and she wore hers in a thick braid. They all had large green eyes that could look merely mischievious at one moment, and downright dangerous another. They even tended to dress similarly: comfortable boots, dark-colored breeches, black shirt, and a loose, brightly colored overshirt. Riisha's was purple, Derris's was blue, and Laren wore green. A slightly less noticable fact was the number of knives that they tended to carry.
    As they made their way over to Riisha's table, Derris glanced at the casualties of the evening. He sat down. "Question: Do I really want to know what you've been up to?"
    "I just kicked some sense into that idiot over there."
    "Ah." Derris knew her well; he probably had a pretty good idea of what had happened.
    Laren also glanced around. "And the other guy?"
    "Not guilty. This guy." She gestured at the big stranger. "These are my brothers, Derris and Laren. This is..." She paused. "Actually, I don't think we got as far as your name."

17. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #17

    The tall strange nodded in greeting to the two brothers, and grinned slightly at the exchange between the siblings. As Riisha turned to him, he shrugged. "I go by many names - the one to which I was born, however, is Hishe." He pauses, and grins, with a nod of his head to each of the three. "
    With another shrug, he tips his head to the side. "...At any rate, I only intend to remain here for long enough to grab a mug of something warm - so if you will excuse me, I'll be about my business."

18. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #18

    The door opened once more, this time admitting a short, brown cloaked figure. Water poured off a cloak that could no longer be absorb it all, revealing a vaguely feminine figure. She quickly crosses the room to the bar, noting the trio of gypsies and the miniture giant in a green cloak in a flurries of nervious glances. I HATE the rain. Whenever there's big trouble, it's always raining...or at least really cloudy. she sat down at a table, choosing a seat that was as close to the fire and the door as was possible to benefit from one while still being in easy reach of the other.

19. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #19

    OOC- please let me know if I'm out of line. I only vaguely certain of what I'm doing.

20. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #20

    OOC: You're fine, Dracolas, but don't introduce anymore people. I have to be able to keep track of things.

21. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #21

    The stranger stiffened, turning slowly in the road. He had heard the echoes of the voice with his magical hearing.
    "...Hishe..."
    He walked back towards the inn. Hishe. Hishe. Hishe. Hishe.
    It couldn't be. It couldn't be.
    How could he find me here!? thought the stranger, enraged. HOW COULD HE FIND ME HERE?!!
    Another lightning bolt sliced through. Underneath his wide-brimmed hat, the strangers eyes burned with fiendish light.

22. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #22

    Hishe turned from the group, and slipped across the room - as easily as one of his size could slip, at any rate, to the bar. "Just a mug of something warm, if you would, barkeep. I've a distance to travel yet before I reach my destination." My destination, and the thing which waits there... I can only hope that I make it before he does. If I fail, then all may yet be lost...
    
    Taking the mug of drink from the barkeep, and leaving a few coins as payment - too many, perhaps, carved of white gold - Hishe quickly drank the mug dry and pushed away from the bar, flipping his hood up once more to hide his face from view as he strode for the door.

23. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #23

    As his hated persuer stepped from the tavern, the stranger crushed the tiny figurine gripped in his palm, throwing the dust into the wind. A crashing noise occured almost immediately, and a flash of hellish red light that foretold of the demon which the stranger had bound and summoned from the Underworld.
    
    The thing stood twelve feet tall, covered in vicious spines from it's headless neck down to the tip of it's meaty tail. The bloody stump of it's neck spurted foul black ichor and staring eyes covered it's body.
    
    "HISHE!" the stranger shouted "WERE YOU SEEKING ME? YOU SHOULD KNOW BY NOW THAT ASARTH AWRUN IS BETTER ARMED THAN HE APPEARS!!"

24. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #24

    ...At least he isn't ahead of me any longer. Hishe remarked to himself as Asarth brought the demon forth. Even if none of the others who've hunted him bothered to mention anything about creatures from the Underworld to help him...
    
    Still, Hishe was bound by his oath - and never mind that death might well be the result, he was bound to stop Asarth. And far be it from one of the Sionn to fail a task without dying in the process... Particularly when the fate of their people was at stake, to say nothing of the rest of the world.
    
    "I know well that you are more than you might seem." Despite the rain and wind, Hishe shrugs his cloak open again - the bracers gleaming faintly in the glow of the storm overhead. "You should know know just as well that the Sionn are more than we seem as well." With a flick of his wrist, Hishe called forth the weapon the Fox had given him when he had joined the ranks of the Sionn - a simple-looking staff, stout and shod with metal at both ends, a runic script winding up the wood from one end to the other. "One last chance, Sorcerer! Give up the Shard!"

25. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #25

    "HA! The SHARD? It is only a tool. If you thought that this was about the shard, well, perhaps you are an even bigger fool than I thought you were." the Sorceror shouted leaping up on the demon's shoulder.
    "Forth, Isgrinagk! Destroy the Sionn!" he commanded.

26. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #26

    Riisha heard shouting outside. Slightly curious (and mildly drunk), she went outside to see what it was. Hishe, or whatever his name was, was there, in what seemed to be a shouting match with the odd fellow who was all bundled up. And... oh my. She stared up at the huge, violent looking mostrosity. "Oh hell..." Not much could leave Riisha speechless, but that did it.
    "Hey, Ri, where'd you get off-EEP!" In a semi-normal situation, Riisha would have teased her brother mercilessly about the 'eep.' But as it was, she didn't even realize Derris had said it. He too looked up at the demon. "This... this is not good." Then they both realized that the demon was approaching. "This is so not good." They reversed course back into the bar, hoping that the demon would stay outside.

27. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #27

    OOC: Read "Sword of Unnatainable Glory". The shard is only a tool towards getting that.

28. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #28

    Hishe swore under his breath - the words would, to anyone not descended from the straggling survivors who had become his people, have sounded like utter nonsense. Nobody mentioned fighting demons as a duty of the Sionn - at least Fox gave me a weapon capable of it. I know a few of my brethren who did not fare that well...
    
    Spinning the runed staff before him for a moment, Hishe gauged the demon's charge, and slipped the first blow, lashing out with the iron-shod butt of his staff to strike against the demon's knee; the impact itself was nothing, to something with the size and power of the fiend.
    
    The enchanted nature of the weapon, however, carried more of an argument - the staff's cold iron cap glimmered at the impact, releasing a burst of bitter cold that flashed through the demon's joint and briefly paralyzed the limb - long enough for him to regroup and begin to mutter the names of the runes adorning the staff, causing each to flicker to life with a pale light.

29. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #29

    Ashes of Hashut! Asarth thought, seeing the staff's glowing runes. Fox's staff! Leaping from the demon's back, he made a quick, powerful gesture. "APULTRAYA ULFAI DAEMONAEA!" he shouted.
    An orb of green flame flew from his outstretched hand, coating the demon in unholy energy.
    "HRUUUUUUGH!!!!!! the demon roared, examining it's new trappings of emerald flame.
    "Not even that old bastard Fox's magic will save you, now!" Asarth shouted, pointing at Hishe.

30. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #30

    Sometimes, I wish I'd been Chosen for a different path in my life... Hishe backed away from the demon, continuing the chant of the runic names engraved on the staff as he did. But then, if I had, it'd just be some other Sionn here facing this abomination...
    
    As the last rune's name slipped past Hishe's lips, the entire staff flickered briefly with a pale violet flame, before it vanished, once again seeming nothing more than a staff - the enchantment's power worked only on contact with the body of a being from Outside, and lay dormant until then.
    
    As Hishe set his feet again, he ground his teeth. "The Sionn knew you'd sunk to black magics, Sorcerer - but not even the Silent Ones expected you to deal freely with beasts of the underworld!" Taking a moment to size up the demon again, Hishe threw himself forward in an all-out sprint, leading with the gleaming silver-shod end of his staff, his features composed into a focused, detrmined line.

31. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #31

    A small figure watched the fight from the door of the tavern. Why is it that I always end up at the places of epic seeming battles. As Hishe charged, she began creeping out toward the sorcerer,sticking as close to the shadows as possible. Looks like the mini-giant could use some help againest that pile of rags. A small sigh escapes her lips. I guess it's just my lot to keep getting involved these messes. Oh, why me? When she reached the corner of the build farthest from the battle, she rummaged through a belt pouch. Guess I shouldn't complain. This is battle is going to make an excellent ballad. She smiles as herself as she produces a sling from the pouch. With great care, she loads it and hides it under her cloak as she steps from the shadows and walks nonchalantly around the combatants.

32. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #32

    Riisha watched in disbelief as a small figure slipped outside. "Derris?"
    He was, understandably, distracted. Things were getting out of hand outside. "Yah?"
    "Y'know that woman who came in just before all this started?"
    "Vaguely. I wasn't paying much attention. That's Laren's department. Anyway, what about her?"
    "I think she's completely barking mad."
    "And you think this because...?"
    "She looks like she's plannin' on gettin' involved in that mess outside."
    "EH?!"
    "You heard me."
    Just then Laren wandered up. He had a black eye. Neither of his siblings inquired as to how he got it. "Hey, what's going on out there? Couple of idiots take it outside?"
    "You could say that."
    "Neat." He'd had a little too much it seemed. Before either of them could stop him, he was out the door.
    Riisha sighed. "Bloody hell."
    She needen't have worried; Laren was back almost instantly. "Um, I seem to have had a few too many. I'm bloody well seeing things."
    "If you're referring to the gibbering monstrosity out there, no, you aren't."
    "I was afraid you were gonna say that, Der."
    Riisha suddenly noticed that bottles and cups were shaking on the wall behind the bar. One fell off with a crash. "They're gonna shake the place to peices!"
    Derris looked outside, and back at the wall. Just then, a beam overhead gave a threatening groan. "All in favor of finding a new spot to wait this out, head for the door."
    At least the rain had slacked off some. Riisha and her brothers made for the stables, trying not to be noticed by the two combatants.

33. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #33

    All Hishe needed to do was land a blow against the demon's flesh with his staff; the enchantment of the weapon would be enough to banish it for a time. Unfortunately, Asarth's spell gave the monster an extra degree of protection - enough that the monster casually swatted the charging Sionn, sending him skidding through the mud, barely keeping a grip on his staff as he fetched up against the watering trough near the stables with a painful-sounding thump.

34. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #34

    There was a loud, painful sounding noise outside. Someone had just been thrown almost against the stables. The building was still standing, so it was probably the giant-ling. The three gypsies swore colorfully.
    "Even when we try to stay out of trouble, we can't!" Laren bellowed.
    Derris, meanwhile, risked going outside to check on Hishe. He looked like he was still in one piece, but he had all but smashed the water trough.
    Riisha looked at the glowering demon across the yard. "This is only going to get uglier, isn't it."

35. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #35

    The sorceror chuckled as Hishe flew across the courtyard.
    "Slay the Sionn, my servant! I wish to devour his heart's blood this night." He shouted to the demon he rode.
    
    HRAAAAAAAAUGH!!!! the demon roared stomping through the mud towards the fallen less-giant.
    
    The demon raised it's flaming fist up to squish Hishe.
    "This is your reward, Sionn, for being so faithful to Fox!" Asarth ranted.

36. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #36

    The woman turns around at the sorcerer's exclaimation.Guess it's now or never... She brings up the sling, twirls it a few times, and lets fly the stone. It flys through the air and hits Asrath's shoulder.
    Fine. If that's the way you want to play it, Tyche, then that's how this will go. She draws a short swrod and charges straight at Asrath with a loud cry,"BONZANI"

37. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #37

    OOC: Asrath? Asarth.

38. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #38

    Riisha was alarmed. The demon was barreling straight at the stable. She was no scholar, but she did know that something that large would not be able to stop well, due to the mud. "Outside! Now!" She shoved her brothers in the general direction of the door. As they ran outside, the other woman, the one Riisha had already decided was mad let go with a sling-stone. Then she charged the demon full out.
    Riisha glanced to either side. The twins had almost identical looks of shock. "Well," she said resignedly, "As we seem to have established our total inability to not be involved, why should we let her have all the fun?"
    Laren looked at her, his face lighting up. He did love a good fight. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"
    "Yep. Someone go grab a bow. To the roof, gentlemen!"
    Laren ran into the stable, and returned quickly with a longbow that he had... liberated, and a bundle of arrows that someone had been foolish enough to leave with their horse. The three of them scrambled onto the low roof of the stable.
    "Derris, you're the best shot. Give us cover fire." Laren shoved the weapons at his brother. "Ri and I'll jump him when he gets close enough."
    Riisha looked at the approaching behemoth. "I think our best bet is to go for the little guy sitting on that thing."
    The demon still approached, and Riisha and Laren each pulled knives out of their belts and prepared to jump the cloaked figure. Derris pulled an arrow back, and let fly.
    "Good shot Der. That's gonna cause some pain when it hits."
    "Assuming it does."

39. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #39

    As the demon's fist rose above his head, Hishe fought to clear his head; as the fist descended, his arms jerked, spasming violently to bring his staff up in a purely instinctive attempt to block the fatal blow.
    
    On contact with the staff, the green flames tore across the wood, eating at Hishe's hands like a vicious acid and spilling the Sionn's blood to mingle with the rain and mud; the the demon's actual fist connected with the wood of the weapon.
    
    The enchantment, still waiting to be released, reacted to the touch like a fox pouncing on an unwary rabbit; the runes exploded with the colors of Fox's magic, flashing crimson and blinding white, and snapped up the monster's arms like a web of lightning and fire. A banishing, the most powerful one Fox had ever deigned to weave into a weapon - even if it failed, it would do well enough to hurl the demon back far enough for the Sionn to gather his scattered wits to him again.

40. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

    #40

    Riisha looked at the scene in disbelief. "Derris, that in blazes did you do to that arrow?"
    "That wasn't me. I think I missed."
    Riisha peered over the edge of the roof. Hishe's staff was glowing with red and white. "Hoo boy. He's a sorcerer too. This is going to get interesting. Maybe we should change our plan, boys."
    "What have you got in mind?"
    "Um, get that little guy off by himself and don't give him a chance to get another buddy like this one."
    "Sounds good to me."

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