Velina figured the other group was not gonna step aside and she really wasn't surprised that they had named a high toll. She was however surprised that they knew of the map. That was not a good thing at all. How did they find out she wondered. Then in an instant her wondering was over as she saw one of them charge and moments later Bearpaw charged as well. He was soon joined by two others of the party.

Taking stock of her chances in mounted combat against straight fighters, Velina knew the odds were certainly not in her favor. For now her best bet was to keep close to those who were moving forward and look for an opening. Grabbing the daggers from her thigh sheaths, she kneed her mount forward and kept to the outside of her charging companions. If an opportunity presented itself she would throw her two daggers at the charging enemy. If not she would wait for now.

Bearspaw had cut off Kannizans attack with the javelin, so he instead readied his ax. He opted to stay close to the Velina, and he pushed his pony to get beside her horse.

[I'm a little behind Velina now, prepared to attack.}

Velina called to Kannizan, "Glad for the company."

OOC: Velina is not so much charging as staying a bit behind/outside those charging so she will catch them just after they enter melee. She wants to avoid being a target in the melee but close enough to avoid the archers getting a good bead on her if possible.

Jethro watched as the cruel mockery of Gunk-Karg spill out of the evil leader's mouth. He was gauging the distance 100 feet or so? His sling would never make it that far. He was still reluctant to use his spells, perhaps he wouldn't have to but it was looking more and more unlikely.

With a scream of angry insanity, the barbaric madman off to the side had allowed his bloodlust to overtake any sense of tactic and had rushed the group of them. Jethro's head turned as member after member of their party went hurtling to meet this made man between the two. Jethro snuck a quick glance at the opposing group and saw some form of prayer commencing from the cleric who led them. This was bad news but no one was paying attention to the priest. And there were still the rest of them, all that was needed was three arrows to be knocked and that could equalize the numbers. This could happen in seconds. Their odds could plummet rapidly and Jethro wasn't about to stick himself in the middle of death. Running wasn't really an option at this point so he judged it quickly. For the sake of the Gods, he thought to himself, it seemed he too had few options beyond slinging his bullet at the barbarian... or beginning to indulge in magic-use. Perhaps it was a pertinent time to reveal his skills. Doing his best to access the situation he agreed with Ether on the point of ridding themselves of the Bane worshipping leader before moving on to the followers, who knew how committed they were, after all? Also Jethro knew enough to guess that a spell could come from him which could either put the priest's party at a serious advantage on the whole or somehow cripple their party. 100 feet, only one spell would reach that far and cause some serious distraction and harm to their leader. As long as whatever the hell he's casting isn't some form of magic resistance Jethro was okay. As far as that goes, no one in their party looked like a spell caster so he doubted the cleric would be using spells on that, especially when four of their members had rushed out to meet the charging warrior. Holding the sling in one hand, Jethro pulled something out of a pouch hanging off his belt. This might help in showing the party a gnome could do more than drink. The morningstar on his back always threw people off and he liked it that way. This would have a nice element of surprise for everybody. Jethro muttered some words, let it fly.

((ooc: I am casting magic missile on the cleric I don't think I'm outside of 110 feet. Also there's no movement involved so I should be able to maintain the holding of my loaded sling, if not he will put it down, or do whatever he can, as fast as he can to get the spell in. Let's see what happens! ))

After sub-vocalizaing a plea for aid from Shevarash in his attempt to stop the speaker [[True Strike]], Ether was startled by the suddenness and clarity of insight he received in answer to his plea. He knew when to fire, where to aim, and that a telling blow would be the result. With the speaker's face and chest covered by the shield, he his insight informed him that aiming lower, at the midriff, would be the wiser, simpler shot. Suddenly calm and assured, he loosed the arrow.

Jethro, who had been loading a bullet into his sling, realized thet the others were out of the range of the weapon, for no. After loading he bullet he mutters a brief incantation and points at the speaker, sending a small, glowing, eldritch dart to streak toward the shield-bearing human.

Gunk moved swiftly from behind his compatriots, anger fueling his movement. He knows he is at a disadvantage to strike up at a mounted rider, but if he can flank the large human in order to strike at am unprotedted back or side, the effort might just prove worthwhile..

Kannizan and Velina also moved toward the two meeting in the "middle-ground". Kannizan opted to sheath his drawn javelin and unhook his waraxe to enter the fray. Velina intended to hold back from immediate combat, but realized that unless she entered the melee directly, she and Kannizan would be targets for those who would aid their comrade.

Bearspaw met the charging human about a third of the way between the two parties, and swung his greataxe with the intention, it seemed, to severe a limb from the rider. But such was his enthusiasm for battle that he swung the weapon too soon and completely missed the rider. The momentum of the heavy weapon caused Bearspaw to turn a bit farther than intended, turning him into the path of the swinging mace of the rider. [[critical miss, weapon retained]]

After failing to recall his lunging companion, the speaker raised his hands to pray fo aid. "Oh, Bane of the Black Hand, bless our efforts to quash these unw-- ahh! unworthy-eeeEEEEAAGH! ... ".

Jethro's missile strikes the speaker in the belly, eliciting a grunt of pain and a slight delay in the speaker's intonement. Ether's arrow, however, buried itself in the speaker's groin, just missing the head of his horse and the pommel of his saddle. Screaming in agony, the man falls sideways off is horse and lands on his shield. He truggles for a few seconds to free his shield-arm then grabs the arrow in both hands and rolls on the ground weakly, still screaming.

The human attacking Bearspaw continued to swing his mace in an upward moving arc. Bearspaw's serious miss turned him directly into it's path, and a telling blow was scored on the barbarians shoulder. The force of the blow spins Bearspaw back in the other direction, nearly unbalancing him.

The halfling to the rear of the other party looses an arrow of his own at Gunk-karg, but the arrow buries its sharp point into the ground a few feet to one side of the fast-moving half-orc.
On the other side of the bad-guy-group, the human mutters something and points a finger at Jethro, sending a small glowing dart toward the gnome which strikes the diminutive caster in the ribs. Jethro feels the shock of brief, searing pain as the missile stikes, His fears are realized. Here is another like himself.

The half-elven rider who had begun to dismount is now striding toward the "middle-ground". As he walks briskly, he draws a bastard sword with one hand while making a "come on" gesture with the other in the direction of the Kannizan and Velina. He shouts, "Come, bearded one! Let's match blades, eh?"

Image After first round
[[ End of round one. Only two of your party were hit: Jethro (down to 7 of 10) and Bearspaw (down to 9 of 17) ]]

Ether had plenty of experience dealing with casters, the drow males often take up the arcane arts. But it was a bit of a surprize that their own Jethro was a wizard. Figured he was a rogue or acrobat or something. Gnomes always puzzled him to no end.

The cleric of Bane was down, but surely not out. No matter, this was not something he could do. Firing at this distance against a prone target with cover from a horse was surely a fool's gambit. He had other concerns now though.

The rest of his party had darted off into melee, leaving him firmly in an artillery role. There was a decision now to be made... either take a pot shot at the charging half-elf to give his companions an advantage, or continue lobbing arrows out 100ft. at the spellcasters and archer.

Ether almost wanted to keep the cleric alive to find out where he had heard of the map. His bow could surely catch him if he ran away...

He only had a split second to decide.

With a quick knock, Ether looses an arrow aimed at the human sorcerer, making a quick sidestep if needed to get a clear shot.

"you got it boy."

Kannizan turned to face the man behind him. He dismounted from his pony, and started running forward to meet him.

Screaming loud, as though to ward off the pain, Almyrikon swings again at the rider. No puny man was going to swing at him and live to tell about it. Especially no common thiefs.

(OOC: Thanks for updating HP. And I also get a +2 on attack and damage rolls. Just making sure.)

Velina saw the enemy cleric fall and saw an easier target than the fighter. Spurring her mount she headed towards the downed opponent. "I'll take care of the cleric!" she yelled to those near her.

She intended to close with the injured man, then dismount and attack. Hopefully she would avoid being engaged by anyone else. If she was, her attention would of course be turned to her new adversary.

Maranda watched behind the party, casting glances toward her comanions now and then to see if her help was needed. So far, they seemed to have things well in hand.

Velina approached the cleric and dismounted, still uncerrtain yet as to what she should do, but knowing she had to act quickly.

Kannizan, now dismounted, closed with the half-elf, still smiling at the taunt that was obviously meant to anger him. Hefting his axe, he approached with surety and confidence in his own skill with the weapon, even though he had not used it yet against a sword as large as the one the half-elf carried. A worthy test, indeed ! The two combatants closed on each other, weapons at the ready, with Kannizan seemingly oblivious to what was transpiring around them.

Jethro loosed another eldritch, glowing dart at the caster to the rear of the "bandit" group, hoping to catch the human off-guard and spoil his "plan of action".
As if working in unison with the gnome, Ether also targeted the caster, sidestepping quickly once to make sure his arrow would pass between Kannizan and Velina to strike the spellcaster. In the back of his mind was an almost amused realization that he had mis-labeled the gnome based on his appearance, something that the gnome eveidently counted on.

Although Jethro's arcane dart reached the spellcasster first, it and Ether's arrow struck the spellcaster in nearly the same spot -- his heart -- as he readied yet another spell. As the missiles struck their intended mark, the caster suddenly went limp and fell from his horse to lie on the ground, motionless.

The big human raised his mace to swing in a downward motion, seemingly intended to soften the top of Bearspaw's head, melon-style. Bearspaw's rage seemed to be fueled even more by the pain of the blow he received from the mounted human's mace. He lashed out again with the axe in an effort to unhorse the big man and put his opponent on "even ground. The blow was a telling one, opening a deep and serious wound in the big man's side. The wound seemed to immediately affeet the man, for he not only screamed in extreme pain, but tried to lean away from the blow.

Unfortunately for him, Gunk-karg had achieved just the position he had hoped for, on the other side of the human's mount. The large human was fully focused on Bearspaw and his left side was undefended and vulnerable. Gunk opted to swing upward from the back of the rider in a blow that was intended ot separate his upper half from his legs. Even as he swund, the big man seemed to lean into the path of his greatsword, and so befell his death and doom, for at that blow, he also fell lifeless from his saddle toward Gunk-karg.

The halfling archer let fly yet another arrow at Gunk-karg, which speared the ground between Gunk-karg's feet. Cursing loudly, the dimiutive areher reined his horse around and goaded it into motion toward the trees to the right of the party, the very same cover from whence the would-be bandits had come.

Just in case:
Ether quickly nocks, draws, and releases, sending another dark arrow after the retreating halfling. As if divinely-guided, the missile struck the small figure solidly between the shoulderblades, at the base of he neck. The small one fell from his mount in a heap, tumbling awkwardly for a few feet vefore coming to rest and remaining motionless. His mount continued to run into the trees and out of sight.

Image After second round
[[ End round two. No furth4er damage to your side this round. The only one currently engaged is Kannizan (and I guess Velina, in a way) ]]

Seeing that her companions had things fairly well in hand, Velina dismounted and closed on the injured cleric. Drawing her twin daggers, she approached him. "Who sent you and how did you know of the map? Speak quickly or speak never again."

Velina waited a few seconds for an answer. If the cleric wished to co-operate she would simply monitor him for now. If he refused to answer or answered in an unhelpful manner she intended to end his life quickly.

Ether quickly nocks, draws, and releases, sending another dark arrow after the retreating halfling. As if divinely-guided, the missile struck the small figure solidly between the shoulderblades, at the base of he neck. The small one fell from his mount in a heap, tumbling awkwardly for a few feet vefore coming to rest and remaining motionless. His mount continued to run into the trees and out of sight.

As Velina approached the cleric, she was able to see that he was still rolling back and forth on the ground, although not so violently as at first. Possibly he realizes that movement only made matters worse. His screams had subsided to occasional whimpers of pain from a face contorted with agony. Both hands still clutched the arrow that protruded from his groin.

At Velina's demand, he blurted, "Ha -- AH! Pull ... ... arrow ... give me ... ... potion ... in pouch ..."

With one hand, he quickly gestures to his belt pouch, then returns that hand back to clutching the arrow.

"... then ... ... get answers ... ... If not, then ... AH! ... be cursed ... by ... Bane's black touch!" This last was almost spat at Velina like venomous acid, a look of intense hatred mixed with the pain twisting his visage.

The half-elf, glancing briefly about and seeing three companions downed and a fourth in flight, turns his sword point-down. Placing both hands on the hilt, he buries the tip in the dirt of the road, and stands still without releasing the hilt of the blade.

"There is this point of fact, bearded one. While my intent was obvious, I alone, of all of us, have refrained from doing harm to any of you. That alone should garner me leave to depart, also unharmed. What say you?"

Kannizan heard the half-elf's plea. "You seem like you possibly might want to repent. I have mercy. I'm not a killer. But you see, my comrades will have to mutually decide." Kannizan pulled his grip from the sword and set his axe against the mans arm. "But if you try anything, I'll kill you and save us the time."

Velina was thinking about the offer when the lone remaining enemy planted his sword and asked for permission to leave. "Hmm a cleric with no healing of his own? Tsk, tsk; you should know better than that." Taking out the potion she moved closer. "My dagger rests against your throat first then you drink; you try anything stupid and I will send you on your way to Bane myself. Understand?"

OOC: Assuming he accepts

IC:She placed her dagger and then offered him the potion.

"No, blast you!" the man screams, "Arrow first! ... mmm ... ARROW FIRST !!" With his far hand, he swings a fist at Velina, to avoid movint the dagger-holding arm. Velina easily avoids the blow, but the man's face now shows more anger and hatred than pain, his cold, deadly stare boring into Velina's own eyes. If looks could kill ...

Kannizan had to expend some effort to pry the half-elf's fingers from the sword hilt, byt pry them he did. At the dwarf's threat, the half-elf stood calmly, awaiting his fate. He seemed to be certain that the outcoume would go in his favor, so calm and self-assured was he.

Jethro urged his donkey into a fast trot to move up alongside Velina in case she would require aid of any sort. He knew not how he would be able to help but, if needed, he would be there.

Image After third round