At once, all city defenders were summoned to their posts. Ballista crews prepared their weapons. Archers, formed into eight companies, manned the city walls about the tower of the main gate. The city’s casters, wizards, sorcerers and clerics, joined them. The clerics braced the defending troops with resist fear.
Elana could hear the scouts’ thoughts telepathically. She warned them to hurry back to the city, or to take cover.
The adventurers quickly spelled up, defensively and offensively. Elana provided true seeing to all. Edward buffed particularly thoroughly, everything from enlarge to rage to death ward to find the gap, and more. He would need it. He took to the field before the main gate, together with Firiona, Lina, Elana and Arimir, four troops of soldiers, and two squads of veteran fighters with their leader. Green Arrow and Fulk remained on the city walls.
The party looked up, suddenly aware of the weather. The temperature seemed to be dropping, and unusually quickly. Snow flurries reduced their range of vision. The wind was strong and getting stronger.
They waited, listening. A faint sound reached their ears. Feet running over snow, but not human feet. What could have been snarling or barking.
Briefly, the snow flurries cleared up. The defenders could see, off in the distance, large bodies of approaching enemies.
Wolves. Winter wolves. Ten packs of the huge white beasts. And with them, a lupine monster of even greater size, with claws almost too large for the rest of its body, and teeth to match. A brachyurus, father of all wolves!
Overhead, Firiona spotted movement. Five flying creatures. Huge, white, with long necks and long tails. "More white dragons!" she hissed. "The one that got away must’ve told them about us."
Edward and Fulk stood their ground on the field before the south wall of the city, along with city soldier troops 1-4. The two squads of veteran fighters, led by one of the most senior surviving captains, stood nearby, prepared for action.
Firiona shapechanged to the form of an adult silver dragon. She leaped from the city walls and flew up about sixty feet above the onrushing brachyurus, hoping to deter the brachyurus and its lupine followers. Her fearsome presence, however, was not sufficiently fearsome. The wolf packs all ran at full speed toward the city and its defenders. The brachyurus raced toward the city with them.
From the city walls, Green Arrow fired a volley of arrows at the fifth of ten advancing wolf packs, killing one of the white beasts. All the bands of archers likewise shot at the wolf packs. Several wolves from the fourth and sixth packs went down. Ardaric brought down several more. One of the city’s sorcerers, Eberulf, and Willichar, a defending wizard, finished off the fourth wolf pack with magic missiles. Arimir’s chain lightning at the third wolf pack damaged some but killed none. The airy adventurer then flew from the wall down to the battlefield, intending to join Edward and the defenders.
Meanwhile, senior wizard Audovald cast shield on himself, and Gordian, the city’s cleric, protected himself with stoneskin.
Elana and Lina decided to take the fight to the monsters themselves. Elana, putting her fly spell to work, soared toward the onrushing wolf packs and cast greater shout with sonic might at three of the packs, deafening many and killing many more. Lina shapechanged to solar form and blasted the brachyurus with a fireball, but only did minor damage.
Before the city’s defenders could fire again, they came under attack by a wing of five old white dragons! The monsters coordinated their breath attacks on the city and its defenders. Archer bands 1 and 4 were devastated by the cold blasts from the first and second dragons, each losing twenty-one of their twenty-five men. Two ballistae were damaged.
Ardaric threw his hammer at the third dragon as it flew by, hitting it for serious damage. A prismatic spray from Eberulf singed the first dragon. Perceiving the danger from the cold creatures, Gordian quickly cast protection from energy (cold) on himself.
The third dragon flew thirty feed over the veteran fighters deployed before the city walls, dealing severe damage. The fourth and fifth dragons flew toward Lina, Elana and Firiona. The two dragons breathed at Elana and Lina, but the women took no damage!
As the third dragon flew by, Green Arrow shot it with an arrow that found an undefended spot in its belly, inflicting tremendous damage as it reached a vital organ. He then turned his attention to the wolves, still rushing toward the city, and killed another wolf. The remaining archers killed still more. Magic missiles from Willichar and Godomar, another of the city's defending sorcerers, destroyed the last surviving wolf of the tenth pack. Wolf corpses began to pile up on the battlefield.
Over the battlefield, Firiona shapechanged again, to solar form, cast greater invisibility on herself, then rushed up to the brachyurus, flying ten feet above the creature. The wolf packs kept rushing toward the soldiers defending the city, except for one depleted pack that ran off with their tails between their legs.
Suddenly, the brachyurus attacked Firiona. It was able to see her! It jumped up, tripped her out of the sky, savaged her for heavy damage, and hit her with a second claw attack. But Elana slapped the beast with Otto’s irresistible dance, and then pulled back while the creature began to dance. Helpless now to defend itself, it howled in pain as Lina advanced toward it and cast avasculate for devastating damage!
Down on the battlefield before the city, Edward fearlessly held his position for the approach of the dragons. As Arimir approached, he called to him to dimension door the two of the to the vicinity of the brachyurus. Arimir instantly did so.
The gigantic lupine was briefly astonished as the hulking paladin materialized next to him. His dismay didn’t last long, as Edward’s furious assault dropped the huge beast where it stood!
The surviving wolf packs began tor each the city’s defending soldiers. Two packs attacked soldier troop 1, but lost one of their member in doing so. Soldier troop 3 meleed with two more wolf packs, killing one and wounding another. The remaining troops, along with the captain and his veteran squads, held their position, after taking serious cold damage from the passing dragon’s breath. Fulk held fast next to them.
The city defenders were briefly cheered by their initial victories against the wolves and dragons. But their cheers quickly turned silent. In the distance, the defenders could make out the shapes of hordes of orcs, goblins and hobgoblins marching on the city!
The defenders returned their attention to immediate threats. Green Arrow shot at the first of the white dragons. Five arrows found their targets. Archer band 7 shot at the creature as well, but all missed, as did Godomar’s scorching rays and Audovald’s orb of force. Nevertheless, Green Arrow had done sufficient damage to the monster that it flew away at full speed. To ensure further success, Gordian cast blessed aim on Green Arrow, archer band 5 and one nearby ballista.
Then the dragons returned for another pass. Before they reached the city defenders, Firiona reached for her scorching ray wand and blasted the third dragon, killing it! As the remaining dragons passed over the city walls, most of the archer bands held fast, but archer band 6 broke from the fear the dragons created, abandoned their posts and fled from the battle.
The second and fifth dragons’ freezing fog enveloped archer bands 2 and 3, Eberulf and one of the ballistae, as well as Green Arrow. The two dragons shot rapidly upward over the city, leaving the fog behind them. Ardaric, unobstructed by the fog, hurled his hammer at the retreating fifth dragon but did only minor damage.
Green Arrow moved out of the fog and launched another volley at the retreating first dragon, wounding the creature severely. The creature flew off, apparently driven away from the city.
Suddenly, reinforcements arrived from the battlefield below. Edward flew charging at the fourth dragon. Praying to Hieroneous, the mighty paladin smote evil with divine might. The dragon roared as Edward’s sword inflicted a devastating wound! It attempted to withdraw and began to fly away. Elana sent an orb of sound at the creature, wounding and deafening it, while Lina blasted it with scorching rays (and almost scorched herself in the process!). Now severely wounded, the dragon continued to withdraw and flew away. Godomar sent a final barrage of force missiles at the fourth dragon as it fled. The remaining dragons followed their fleeing comrades.
Ardaric and the archer bands held position in case any of the dragons decided to return. Gordian ran to archer band 7, ready to assist them. Eberulf, meanwhile, dispelled the freezing fog left by the dragons. Willichar and Audovald spelled up defensively. As they did, Arimir flew up from the battlefield to join with Ardaric and the nearby defenders.
While Green Arrow and the other city defenders were driving the dragons away, down on the battlefield, the survivors of the first two wolf packs advanced on soldier troop 3, blasting them with cold breath and killing two soldiers. The third wolf pack assaulted the soldiers as well. The soldiers retaliated, wounding three of the white beasts. Another soldier fell before the troop’s survivors finally killed the last of the wolves The remaining soldiers and veterans, with their captain, took up defensive positions in anticipation of imminent assaults from other advancing enemy units. Fulk held with them. Edward headed their way, planning to stand with them against the attackers.
Spotting Fulk on the battlefield, Firiona sped to him, and in shapeshifted form regenerated some of the damage she had suffered. When she reached the cleric, he cast cure critical wounds on her. Fulk then withdrew toward the city main gate.
Other party members repositioned themselves. Arimir flew toward Ardaric, while Elana dimension door’d back up to the city wall to support Audovald and Godomar and Lina flew to archer band 8 and the nearby ballista
The orcs, goblins and hobgoblins continued advancing at a run toward the city. Twelve companies of hobgoblins could now be distinguished in the van of the invading force.
Defenders continued to redeploy. Soldier troop 3 hastened toward the captain and his veteran fighters in front of the city gate. Firiona flew up to the city wall, taking a position between archer bands 2 and 3. While Arimir held defensively, Edward proceeded toward the veteran fighters and soldiers holding on the battlefield before the city gate. Fulk hurried toward the gate.
On the city walls, Green Arrow, Audovald and Ardaric held their positions. Godomar cast stoneskin on himself, while Gordian cast moment of prescience on himself and Lina cast displacement on herself. Elana put her bardic talents to use and sang a song to inspire courage in the defenders.
The remaining freezing fog was dispelled by Eberulf. Willichar checked for any invisible foes. Finding none, he then conferred bear’s endurance on archer band 3 and on the nearby Eberulf.
The invaders continued to advance. Mobs of orcs, gangs of goblins, and companies of hobgoblins rushed to reach the defenders and initiate combat. The hobgoblin companies broke into a run toward the city.
As the enemy closed in on the city, the defenders continued to prepare for the assault. On the city walls, Firiona cast mind block on herself. Gordian rushed east along the ward to assist archer band 8. Audovald and Ardaric held steady. From the battlefield, Edward flew up and received a stoneskin spell from Eberulf. Green Arrow likewise was augmented by Godomar. Willichar gave himself stoneskin protection. Elana maintained her song, heading west along the city wall toward the gate tower.
On the battlefield, the soldiers of troops 1-4 took defensive positions, as did the veteran squads and their captain. Arimir likewise held position.
Fulk reached the city gate, and called to gatekeepers. "Quick, let me in!" he cried. The gate opened, and the cleric ran inside.
And still the weather continued to deteriorate.
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