Frontiers - Expedition IV

[Infested Paladin]

The orcs spill over the lip of the mesa like a greenskinned tide... of death.

Brother Cole "Buster" Barrett lays to with a saber in his right fist and a flipped-round sawed-off shotgun in his left. The barrel is hot from firing, but a miracle worker of Berown is no stranger to burned palms. He can feel his last potent orison of the day--a prayer of protection--surrounding him, a shield of faith prepared to turn evil's blows aside. He lashes out with the saber first, staggering an orc about to deliver a deathblow to a sprawled halfling.

Alberich Tödbilder, hulking trollkin dandy and industrial heir, grabs the neck of the orc who just sliced off his left arm with his still-working right and brings his forehead and the orc's nose into acquaintance. Blood spills over both their faces, and the orc is too freaked the hell out to react right away.

The elven sharpshooter they call Kedrin Umbradahl has trouble lining up a shot. His mount, a new acquisition, is a sturdy beast, but far from battle-hardened, and the sudden appearance of a butt-ton of orcs in close proximity makes its little equine brain want to get the hell out of town. Kedrin wrestles with the reigns and wonders whether to hold his fire until he has a clearer shot, or to just point one-handed at something green, pray, and pull the trigger.

Fellow elf and dilettante duelist Fyn Silverwood trots back a few paces from the front line as he unloads a final pair of shots, and then the hammers of his double-action revolvers click onto empty chambers.

Ronin yojimbo Miaowara Tanuki falls into a rhythm with his partner, one of the tribes' champions. They fight back-to-back on the canyon floor, surrounded by the horde. One will knock aside blows coming at the other unseen. Tanuki's samurai-style crowd control training means that he can take a slash at orcs who step up to tangle before the orc can bring in a chop with their ragged sword or chipped axe. Together, they're working their way into the thick of the horde, looking for important targets, like the nature-blessed warrior they already felled. As they wade past charred corpses, they realize that they're getting closer to the camp, and a quick glance toward the fore reveals the prize: the orcs' chief shaman, waving his staff in arcane gestures at a shining mail-clad orc tromping his way up through the bodies on the mesa's switchbacks.
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"Now, if you don't mind, I am somewhat preoccupied telling the laws of physics to shut up and sit down."
-Vaarsuvius, Elven Wizard (Order of the Stick)

[fanchergw]

Tanuki and his partner create a dancing spiral of death. The two halflings move almost as though one, carving their bloody way through the horde of orcs, each providing critical defense for the other.

A glance reveals the orcish shaman not far away. Tanuki gestures for the halfling champion, indicating that they should continue to move in that direction. Perhaps they can catch the shaman in the whirling buzzsaw that they have become.