DELTA
The battle goes well enough against the desert critters, but more pour in. Injured Tanagra cuts her way through scorpions, gnolls, and jackelweres while Max channels Pelor’s good health to keep her working. Though small, Tambourine flies at the best elevation to stab gnolls and claims several kills.
Gamble banes the two gnolls who are baffled by Andrakis’s mirror images. Andrakis shadow blades the gnolls, but he is isolated from the group and collecting adds. Wild magic favors him with the good fortune of a visiting monodrone which he befriends. The monodrone competently defends itself so Andrakis, rapidly running out of mirror images, excuses himself to the ethereal plane to catch his breath just in time to not witness a cyclops smack the monodrone over the horizon with his great club.
Ivor inflicts wounds both spiritually and martially. He attempts to draw the surrounding peril to his own nearly indestructible self and sentinals anything that does not comply. Unfortunately, “nearly indestructible” is not nearly enough and a cyclops bonks him into the ground with a greatclub. Max shoulders through a clog of critters to get to Ivor and lays on some hands. Ivor refreshes his shield of faith, gets a healing word from Gamble, and resumes taunting.
Reinforcements arrive for the desert critters, but Delta might be on its own for a while. Possibly for an eternity.
CHARLIE
Ander shockingly grasps the dust devil and escapes its proximity while his force ballista knocks a zombie away from Ten and into Ash. Barika wants to be where Ander does not and gets a close up look at Ten’s moonbeam radiantly cleaning the dust devil. Barika finishes off the dust devil and Ten’s moonbeam flicks over to one of the zombies raised by staff waving, cackling Gghuarrlongh The Undying who pops back from the portal on Gghrondeneuxs the dracolich. Gghuarrlongh The Undying does a quick hang to watch his zombies get battered and shoved before retiring once more into the portal. A loud pop is heard from out in the desert.
Ash advantageously joins his vicious longbow to Sqyylarr’s action surged greatclub pummeling versus the fire elemental blinded by same. Sqyylarr gets a fine hit on the fire elemental and gets splashed with fire. Sqyylarr is so often on fire that her clothing fills with desert sand from smothered rolling. The fire elemental humiliatingly stands on her smoldering proneness for maximum ignition. Barika ice cones the fire elemental. Watc magic missiles it. Ash gets the final shot on the fire elemental. Flaming Sqyylarr finds the last zombie and slays it before one last stop, drop, and roll.
FOXTROT
Armin shoots Bram from atop a mesa to the north. Bram moves toward him with misty step and thorn whips him off the cliff. Once most of the party has committed to run at Armin, he annoyingly teleports back to the wagon train onto a tanker.
Wall, not a natural sprinter, goes for Hans instead with a critical hammering, and Briar finishes the job with an ensnaring strike that ensnares Hansel “Hans” Ormanheit, traitorous secret Quori, forever. Armin yells in anguish but finds little sympathy in present company. Wall quaffs a healing potion to cheers Hans’s demise.
Briar, a natural sprinter, runs for Armin who is nefariously fiddling with something on the tanker. Bram transforms into a fiendish giant spider. Khalang mind spikes Armin, and that psychic damage seems especially effective. Urim casts a fresh spiritual sun mace to thwack Armin.
ALPHA
Nala chops down the last lamia, Moth and Tango finish the last two hyenas, Snory inflicts wounds with touched death on the last Ogre, and Scram fills his face with errant Jim’s magic missiles. But a replacement lamia and ogre arrive as a foreboding howl fills the air. Nala is in bad shape so Snory transfers life to keep her going and retreats to where Scram is scorching rays at the lamia. Tango sneakily severs many of the lamia’s vitals before slipping away.
An objectively unpleasant looking critter appears on the embankment overlooking the battle in the canyon. It howls, frightening most everyone.