The Crabtalker
The bell was what woke them. Tolling madly in the wee hours of the night. A single bell, splitting the night.
Tello quietly poked his head out of his shell. His companions were also awakening, rubbing sleep from bleary eyes. Other then the tolling bell, the abbey seemed quiet, the locutory where they had been sleeping empty.
The Sturg shrugged from his spot near the door as if to say "beats me". He'd had been on watch, since he didn't need sleep anymore, but evidentially hadn't noticed anything unusual.
"That bell seems to be some kind of alarm" pointed out Whisperleaf worriedly. "I wonder if the giants are attacking?"
"Let us find out" said Tello tranquilly. He reached into his pack and withdrew a small, strangely crafted lantern and set it on the table. He pointed a clawed nail at the wick and a red spark jumped from his fingertip, lighting it. He adjusted the wick, and after a moment, the lantern began to burn bright green, illuminating the room in an eerie glow.
"Giants. They are close" Tello announced.
"Wait, you built a lantern that detects GIANTS" asked Whisperleaf in wonder.
"Yes, exactly" replied Tello nonchalantly.
"Well I guess we should get out there and see what's about" said Ricmo.
The outer courtyard was quiet, but no sooner had Whisperleaf vaulted onto the battlements of the low wall to get a look around then he staggered back in pain, a crossbow bolt magically materializing from his shoulder.
"Crossbows" he reported.
"Seems like" grinned Ricmo.
Instantly, Lightbringer was at Whisperleaf's side. "Careful brother, it's gone clear through, let me attend to it" his hands glowing with white light. Other then Whisperleaf's whimpering and Radiant's prayer the courtyard was still silent.
"On up the wall, carefully, keep your head down and let's see if we can see our assailants" Ricmo suggested. The party mounted the wall, but other then silent fields and vineyards nothing was readily apparent.
"I think I see something in that row of vines" Whisperleaf mentioned after a moment. His eyes might not be as keen as Merus but he was still of elvish blood and could see well in the dark.
Radiant nodded, raised his hands and it was like the dawn broke over the fields. The entire vineyard lit up like daylight, and two crossbowmen hiding in the vines came into sharp relief.
Ricmo's twin pistols rang out and one of the cloaked figures jerked back in pain.
"This doesn't make a lot of sense" Dakhir muttered thoughtfully. "This convent is not well defended but it still isn't going to fall to two crossbowmen. And they don't look like giants. Lightbringer, can you illuminate behind us as well?"
Another sunrise.
"There! Between the wall and the building, trying to scale it!" called out Whisperleaf.
The creatures were of the same general form as men but much taller, the smallest had to be a good seven feet tall, They were bulging with muscles and heavily armed, with blueish grey skin, strangely tattooed. As the daylight washed over them, and they realized they were discovered, they quickly dropped down from their attempted climb up the side of the building, brandished their massive weapons and roared.
The party was pinned, foes before and foes behind.
"I'd hardly call those 'giants'" Ricmo stated. "I mean, their big sure, but I always heard giants were te size of houses...."
"Small favors halfling" Whisperleaf responded with a smile.
"I got these fella's, gents, never fear" callled out Fantastic Freddy. His hand came crashing down on his guitar and a discordant power chord rang out over the battlefield, much louder then it had any right to be.
The lead goliath halted. A glowing, purple crown appeared on his head. With a roar he turned around and hit his nearest companion with his huge axe, dealing a grievous wound. The other half giants were thrown into disarray, first trying to restrain their fellow and then, out of self defense, attacking him,
Now that the threat to the rear was partially negated, the party focused on the ranged attackers hiding among the vines. The crossbowmen were exchanging ranged fire with the party and getting the worst of it overall, but their cover was making it difficult to finish them off.
Dakhir considered the situation. He could easily burn them to a crisp but the collateral damage on the vineyard and possibly even the abbey was a risk he wasn't willing to take. There were other powers at his disposal, ones less likely to inflict collateral damage. He unsheathed his black rapier and dark words fell from his lips. With a savage swipe he cut the air and where his blade passed it left a rent in the very fabric of realty. And out of that rent a thing came, composed only of swirling shadow and malice.
"Destroy them" he ordered.
"Yeeeesss master" it replied, in a voice cold as ice and empty as the wind.
The creature moved to obey. It left a trail of frost on the grass as it floated forward, and fear went before it like a wave.
One of the crossbowmen broke, dropping his heavy bow and running desperately away from the convent. As he fled, he franticly blew a horn.
And from out of the darkness, something answered.
This giant was big enough to live up to even a halfling's expectations. The giant crab it was mounted on alone had to be a good six, seven feet tall at the shoulder and the rider had to top twelve feet. In his hands he bore an enormous cannon, fifteen feet long with a bore a man could crawl down.
The crab was surprisingly fast, it's many legs were easily able to sprint over the vines. It closed the distance quickly, emerging out of the shadow and into the light of the Cleric's spell.
And then the giant cannon BOOMED.
Dakhir never even felt the shot hit him. One second he standing on the wall watching his minion bring doom to his enemies and the next he was on the ground with Radiant Lightbringer's simple, worried face looking down at him.
He glanced at his chest and saw a terrible wound had removed half of it, punching all the way throuh his body and nearly detaching his right arm. No one could survive such a wound. He was dead. But even as he watched, white light spilled from Radiant's hands and into the hole, suffusing his body. Dakhir could FEEL the flesh knitting back together, the bone regrowing. It was excruciating. He screamed.
What the other heroes experienced was tremendous "boom" and dense cloud of white smoke from the giant's cannon followed by Dakhir flying off the wall backward to land in a bloody heap in the courtyard.
"Holy shit, he's not moving" said Whisperleaf.
"I will tend our brother, fear not, it is not too late" Radiant Lightbringer called out and vaulted down the wall rushing over to the prostrate Warlock.
"We cannot face that cannon" Tello muttered to himself. He raised his staff. At first it didn't seem like anything had happened, no flashy pyrotechnics emerged, but a second later the cannon in the giant's hand began to glow red hot. With a cry of pain he dropped it. A second later , Tello's magical artillery boomed and the giant was knocked off his mount by the force if it. The Tortle smiled.
Prodigious raiders
Massive frame … tiny mettle
How Large is their Ship?
"Nice one" said Ricmo. "But here come that crab."
The giant reached his cannon, still glowing red hot, and with a grunt of effort he grasped it anyway, skin burning and blackening as he did so. Tello smiled to himself.
"Not too smart my friend. How to load that I wonder?"
The giant evidentially reached the same conclusion, any gunpowder introduced to the red hot barrel was sure to misfire. He slung the cannon behind him on it's sling put two fingers in his mouth and let loose a tremendous whistle. Then, he turned and ran.
The goliaths had finally managed to subdue their enchanted companion, but when they heard the whistle they also began to retreat.
"Not so fast gentleman" Freddy grinned. A new melody sprang from him, and in front of the retreating half-giants a multicolored sphere appeared.
The goliaths stopped dead in their tracks, staring at the sphere, jaws hanging slack.
Only the Giant crab fought on, but even alone it was a fearsome opponent. The Sturg was taking grievous injuries from it's huge claws, as he desperately held it off his friends.
It was at that point that Dakhir reinterred the fray. His eyes glowed red with murderous rage and he hurled fireball after fireball from his necklace at the crab.
With a final chitter, the massive beast fell over backward, steaming and dead in front of the wall.
The party took a deep breath.
"Anyone got any butter to go with that?" quipped Ricmo. "It smells pretty great"
Lateral walking
Ten legs and a carapace
Delicious tonight”
replied Tello
and the battle was over.
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