"… That is not at all what I expected."
Astrid's quiet admission was echoed silently by her party members. Looking forward at the green lump some 50 meters off, there wasn't a single irregular, but two. Fortunately, both were curled up together in a small heap, so the party wasn't forced to engage with them immediately, but what had been a nearly guaranteed 10 silver payday had now become an insanely risky 20 silver battle for their lives.
"Well, I'm pretty sure what the end result of this conversation that we have is gonna be, so should I just start planning out how to make sure none of us die?" Skandr's voice was only barely able to keep the edge of anger out of it.
"If you really don't wanna do this, we won't." Astrid reassured him. "This is at least as risky as the last fight we had, and we don't know what kind of gnolls they were before they mutated. If one of these is a shaman, that will be dangerous, and if they both are, then it'll be deadly, and I don't know how much we would be able to do about any variations. So, if any of us says no, we aren't doing it."
"It will be a glorious challenge!" Muti's vote was obvious, but she did cast it. "We must prove ourselves whenever we can, so that we can continue to become more than weak cowards."
"There is, of course, the reality that I'd rather be a weak coward than a dead hero. You know, like a regular person." Skandr rebutted.
"This is a huge amount of money though." Astrid scratched at her neck as she said as much, her eyes looking at the massive pile of deadly creatures. Each of them were significantly larger than the regular gnolls, even the larger shamans. These monsters both were larger than the brawler irregular that they killed months before. At least, they seemed to be larger as their shoulders shifted and they continued breathing.
"They do not have bows." Muti reported. "I do not know if one is a shaman, but I can see the knuckles of the other and it is a brawler. At most one shaman."
"That's reassuring, I suppose. If we had two shamans channeling their auras at the same time, we wouldn't have anything we could do about that but run and pray." Astrid rolled her left shoulder as she slowly pulled her shield off her back and tied it to her forearm. It weighed heavily on her wound but it was nothing more than general soreness. As they carried the corpses back to the inn after their upcoming victory, she would be able to use Quick Recovery a couple times and be basically all healed. So then, worrying over her shoulder wasn't worth concerning herself over for now.
"I don't think that I want to do this." Skandr's voice came as a surprise to Astrid, but she nodded.
"OK. If you want to explain, you can, but if all three of us are not entirely on board, then we won't do it." Immediately, Astrid set about slowly backing away from the beast, and though Muit's face was twisted in a scowl, after a moment, the Rogue grunted softly as she followed Astrid's path away. Skandr's face fell as he followed behind them.
" I… I wish you wouldn't do this to me!" Skandr said. "It's not fair! You could at least argue about it it make me feel better!"
"There's nothing unfair about us doing as you asked. We made the decision as a party, and you were the person who made the vote that chose to step away."
Skandr scouted and started to stalk away, his brightly colored armor obvious in the red fields. Then, after a minor 20 paces or so, he turned on his heel and closed back in with Astrid and Muti. Astrid had to fight to keep her smile from showing as he lifted a finger and he squinted while looked both in the eyes.
"We're going to be really careful about this?"
"I would say we always are, but I also haven't forgotten about being stabbed an hour ago, so more careful than usual, yes. We'll have a plan, and I think our focus is going to be on killing one of them in an immediate blitz. Once there's only one of them, we'll be much better able to push me to just act as a front liner, and ensure that neither of you sustain grievous wounds. And yes, of course I'm going to make sure that I'm not getting injured or killed, but I have a better chance of not sustaining deadly wounds as easily as either of you. Muti, don't look at me that way, we both know that I have a higher Fortitude than you as well as better armor."
Though she continued scowling, Muti bared her teeth a little as she said, "I will probably be best suited to slowing them. My blades might struggle to cut through their scales unless they are nearly immobile."
"I can probably help with that. With only two of them, and with both of them resting right now, I can compound my lightning shower spell. It will carry even more of a slowing effect than usual, as it will be focused on the two instead of three or even four times their number. At that point, you can rush in and deal a slowing, or even crippling blow, Muti, while Astrid tries to kill the other."
Astrid nodded slowly, as the plan came together in her mind. She continued thinking about it for a moment before asking, "If we do this, how will we escape if we need to? Skandr, will you be able to slow them enough for us to get a little bit of a gap between us? Because, if not, I might change my vote to a no."
"Admittedly, we don't have a whole lot of irregular gnoll combat experience, but with how much our attributes have grown since we fought one, I'm pretty confident in being able to do so. Especially if you two have put up a good fight and done any marked amount of damage to the surviving irregular."
Astrid breathed deeply through her nose, rechecking the straps of her shield and armor as she made sure she was totally ready. Then, her decision made, she nodded.
"Lightning Reflexes, then let us know once you're ready to call down the thunder. That's when Muti and I will get in there."
Skandr took a quick breath, set his hand to glowing with lightning, and pressed it into the two women. Without further thought, he took a couple steps forward, only 30 meters or so away from the two irregulars. As he mumbled under his breath to call the lightning, the plan immediately began to go wrong.
With a snuffling growl, both irregulars sat bolt upright and turned towards the party, and that was when they could see that while one was a brawler, the other was a shaman. The token in its hand was huge, three times the size of the regular circles of bone or wood. It had several scales dug into it, almost making it look like a green petalled flower. It immediately began to channel an aura, one that felt similar to the bloodlust aura, but of a different quality. Both of the green scaled monsters lunged forward, and a putrid light emanated from the token in the shaman's hand.
Astrid stepped forward with her shield held high, trusting and hoping that Skandr would be able to get his focused lightning in on these irregulars soon, because as the brawler threw a single punch forward, it pushed Astrid back two steps.
The Warrior grunted a curse as the brawler continued throwing out a blistering flurry of punches, knocking her shield in different directions and trying to find her body. One circled around the back of the shield and caught her in her left hip, but she squared her stance and continued to take the punishment. The bone spurs in the brawler fist wrappings, Astrid realized, were actually fangs, and they'd punched through her chain mail and punctured her gambeson to cut into the flesh above her hip.
The shaman closed in, but to Astrid's surprise, it kept its blade tucked into the nasty, grungy sash on its waist. And then, while she continued to fend off the brawler's attacks, it picked up a stone in its hand and whipped it at her head. Astrid ducked, the blow ringing against her shield and sounding like a gong. Before she could do anything, it was on her, lunging forward with its blade now drawn and stabbing towards her belly. Astrid dodged back, the blade whistling through the air, just in time for Skandr to scream a wordless cry.
Before her adrenaline could spike any further and her fear could consume her, two individual bolts of lightning as thick around as Astrid's thighs smashed into the irregulars. The shaman's voice faltered, and the aura faded for a brief moment. Astrid refused to wait any longer, and, as the brawler struggled to its feet, she smashed with her hammer into the inside of its knee, bending it out. As it squealed in agony, she repeated the same movement into its other knee, though not quite as successfully. With one splintered knee, it struggled to its feet, balancing half on its mostly whole leg and half on its tail. Astrid seized the opportunity to step forward and, with all her weight driving it, pierced her shield into its chest.
Unlike with the weaker, regular gnolls, this didn't even almost kill it. Its sternum cracked and its breath wheezed, but under the influence of the returning aura from the shaman, the brawler snarled with madness returning in its eyes while it continued to move. Muti appeared behind it and buried her short sword in its spine, and its legs and tail immediately went limp as it fell to the ground.
"Stay clear of it for now! Focus on the shaman!"
The command was unnecessary as her two companions kept clear from the crippled monster. Astrid heard Skandr skirting around to her left to stay out of the brawler's easy range as she threw herself at the shaman. It shivered slightly from the aftershocks of the lightning, but when she swung her hammer towards its torso, it had more than enough presence of mind to dodge out of the way before closing back in on her. Its dagger, different from those of regular shamans, was a hiltless stiletto of metal. It didn't swing at her, only punching its fist forward in rapid, deadly stabbing motions. Fortunately, Astrid had her new shield, and the gnoll's blows drove hard into her shield, while still unable to pierce it.
Muti appeared behind the creature with her swords, ready to chop at its waist and legs, but Astrid was too far away to keep it focused on her as it whipped around and smashed its tail into the side of Muti's right knee. She crumpled but fought back to her feet, limping heavily on her right leg. The shaman went to press the attack on the Barbarian, but its back was turned to Astrid for a brief moment.
With a scream of effort, Astrid forced her shield horizontal as she drove with her whole weight behind it to punch the shield into the shaman's spine. It launched itself to the side, escaping having its spine broken. Instead, the bottom tip of the shield cut through the flesh of its right side. As several centimeters of flesh flew free from the creature, it was forced to hunch over as crimson blood burst from the wound and immediately coated its hip. As the monster turned its attention back to Astrid and stepped back, she swung her hammer in a wild overhand blow. It leapt back again, but that was Astrid's hope. She just wanted to get it away from Muti as she continued to press in.
Three lightning bolts shot over Astrid's shoulder and crashed into the shaman's chest as it continued its eerie humming. The monster squared itself, favoring its left side, and Astrid continued to press the attack. Another two lightning bolts hit it, each one slowing the creature more until, finally, Astrid smashed her hammer into the monster's dominant right shoulder. Bone crunched and the stiletto fell from unfeeling fingers. The drakelike face twisted, agony and fury flaring from it as it opened its maw wide and threw itself at Astrid. She lifted her shield and angled it so that instead of bearing her down, the furious creature slid over her prepared shield.
As it fell to the ground, it scrambled to its feet, but Astrid threw herself forward and smashed her hammer into the creature's spine, just where vertebrae met hips. Now the second irregular was mostly crippled on the ground, though the brawler continued to crawl towards whatever person it could see with fury in its eyes. Astrid, seeing the pain on Muti's face, stepped forward to deal the killing blows. She strode forward to where the shaman's grasping hand could nearly reach her feet, then took half a step back, jumped up in a running leap, and smashed down with her whole body weight on the shield into the shaman's face.
She felt bone crunch under her body as the irregular's snout was broken. It yipped in pain, its strange aura fading, and Astrid immediately threw herself to her feet standing above her prey and smashed into its spine with the point on the bottom of her shield.
Scaled Gnoll Irregular Shaman slain. 69 Experience gained, split among party.
The brawler's fury and frenzy faded as the aura died out, and Astrid strode forward with her hammer held by the end of the haft. It snarled weekly as it tried to strike at her with its hands, but Astrid twisted with her whole body and smashed the hammer into the base of the monster's skull. She felt flesh beginning to tear; she'd nearly ripped its head off with that single blow.
Scaled Gnoll Irregular slain. 69 Experience gained, split among party.
Refusing to be taken by surprise, Astrid looked all around as she jogged towards Muti. There were no monster approaching them, so far as she could tell, and when she looked at the Rogue, who stood with a grimace on her face, Muti shook her head in confirmation that she didn't sense anything nearby either.
"Will you be able to walk out of here?"
"Yes. I will not be able to carry one of these all the way there, though."
Skandr's jaw dropped, and he looked at Astrid, who looked similarly surprised. "You're admitting that you can't do something? Astrid! She's growing!"
Muti snarled and started to take a step towards him, but seemed to think better of it. Then, with a shake of her fist and head, she settled onto the ground. She rubbed at her knee with both hands, and seemingly made some progress in alleviating her pain.
"You're so much more flexible than me, so I'm glad your knee is holding on. Even so, are you really going to be able to walk out of here?" Astrid kept a commanding tone in her voice instead of a concerned one. Muti nodded in assurance as she explained, "Movement will help a little. Nothing is torn, only strained."
"You know the feeling of the difference between straining or ripping your tendons?" Skandr looked over as he said as much. "I'd hate to have gotten the training to learn to do that."
"And that is why you are a weak Mage." Muti waved it off as she continued to work at her knee and do… something. A short while later, she stood up and gingerly put weight on the injured leg as she walked in a circle. She didn't turn fast or even walk quickly, but she was familiarizing herself with the pain that she would be working with for a time.
"How are we gonna get these out of here? It'll be a waste of money if we spend a potion right now, but I don't know how else we can do it without it…" Skandr looked at the brawler corpse in front of him, poking at it with his knife as he did so.
"I can probably carry both just to the stairway to the second floor. I'll need to take a good rest at that point, but there we can let a draught work its magic on Muti. I don't mind spending a couple hours sitting around and recovering to ensure we can get all of this back up to Kznietch without getting anybody seriously injured. Tell me the truth, Muti. Will you need to get medical attention when we get back to town?"
"… I cannot say." Muti didn't offer anything else, but that she was willing to admit that there was a possibility that she could need some sort of ministration was a massive step forward and Astrid wasn't going to do anything that would possibly annoy or prick the other woman's pride. Instead, she just nodded and rolled her shoulders.
"Can you hold my shield for me, Muti?"
The Barbarian nodded in assent as she turned around and offered her back. Though the golden-haired woman didn't have the same small hook on the back of her armor that Astrid did, they were able to pull straps and a belt from the other two delvers, enough to finagle a system that would keep the shield on the wounded Rogue's back until they got to the stairway. Then, with a little bit of help, Astrid put both of the huge corpses on her back.
They were heavy, but she would be able to deal with it. However, she knew she wouldn't be able to make it more than a couple kilometers like this. That they would have to take it slowly to ensure they didn't get any other monsters' attention would make this more difficult, but Astrid extended her trust to her two party members as she focused herself on the task at hand. One foot in front of the other, and she kept walking. Twice, Muti directed the party to make a slight detour to stay out of the range of a pack of gnolls, but given that the party had already come this direction today, there was very little in the way of risk in finding any more monsters at this time.
Once they reached the stairway up, Astrid stumbled just a couple stairs forward before she slumped to the ground and let the corpses fall from her back. Before she could even roll herself into a comfortable position, an amused voice spoke.
"So what've you got there?