* Dral1 keeps moving, flowing smoothly from one attack, into a move, into another attack.
He slips for a moment, snapping his concentration, but his whippy chain still smashes into
the gnoll's body, ripping it a new one.
* The gnoll, already harried and distracted after trading arrows with Fash, lifts its arms
in time to catch the chain with its bow.  Unofrtunately for the wolf-like creature, its
bow is crushed as easily as the gnoll holding it, and both fall to the weeds with a yelp
and clatter.
* Dral2 raises his staff to the sky and mutters a few words in Druidic. The grasses,
weeds, and brush around the charging gnoll hound and his masters spring up and ensare the
trio.
* Klizurk draws her bow and misses. Again. ;-; Stupid gnolls.
* LaughingBear calls on the strength of the spirits to bless Klizurk with sharp aim.
* The two gnolls and the hound whose legs are tangled amidst the grasping weeds struggle
against their natural bonds, while the remaining archer from the initial attack snarls at
the chain-wielding dral and runs toward its apparent comrades, its tail low to the ground
and its gear jingling softly as it speeds away.
* Dral1 charges forward on a course to intercept the gnoll, chain jingling madly as he
runs, even as his form seems to blur into the morning shadows.
* Dral2 gives a quick grunt of approval at his handiwork before running back to his
comrades on the road.
* Klizurk aims again and fires with her bow. Well, you try enough and you'll get it right,
and she sure did, the arrow landing in the gnoll's shoulder with a solid strike.
* LaughingBear continues to channel spiritual energy into Klizurk.
* The two entangled gnolls stop struggling to free themselves, and instead draw their bows
and fire at the recruits on the road.  Between the grasping weeds and the frustration of
capture, the wolf-headed humanoids' shots fall  very short of their targets.  Meanwhile,
their hound struggles and thrashes, bulling its way nearer to the edge of the entangling
vegetation.
* The last of the initial archers backs away from its chain-wielding pursuer and fires
hastily with its shortbow, but the shot goes wide.
* Dral1 dodges forward as soon as the shot passes by, blurring into two overlapping images
of himself. Each image swings from a different direction, and the twin chains intersect at
the gnoll's head.
* The gnoll spins a half-turn before dropping into the grass, its head mangled beyond
recognition.
* Dral2 sees the arrows fly by and miss his comrades on the road. Glancing over his
shoulder, he notices that the hound has managed to gain some ground. The Dral stops thirty
feet from the group and prepares for the oncoming hound.
* Holmes is now known as Fash
* Klizurk draws her bow again, hitting true against the same gnoll solid in the chest with
another arrow.
* The gnoll staggers, clearly injured, but apparently not in a critical way.  At least,
not in an immediately critical way.
* Dral1 runs like crazy, crashing through the underbrush, and several long seconds later,
skids to a stop on the edge of the path, still trailing shadows from the forest.
* The entangled gnolls fire their bows again as their hound struggles, and their arrows
miss by a hand's width to either side, skittering across the packed dirt of the road not
far from Laughing Bear, Klizurk, and Young Tom.
* Dral2 holds up his staff defensively as the arrows barely miss. He gives a quick grunt
and continues to block the path.
* Fash advances on the entangled gnolls.
* Klizurk fires again at the entangled gnolls, missing widely overhead.
* The gnolls give up firing and join the hound in their struggle to be free of vegetable
bondage, but to no avail.
* Dral1 takes a running leap over the wolf, landing just on the other side of it, well
inside the active entangle. He quickly loops the center of the chain about the beast's
neck and gives it a nice, powerful tug.
* The gnollish hunting hound snarls, then wimpers, and expires with a gasping crunch.
* Dral2 moves up behind Fash to give support if it is needed.
* Fash puts an arrow in the shabbier-looking gnoll's gut.
* The gnoll crumples, and collapses.  The weeds and grass claw at the wolf-like humanoid's
fallen body, appearing in a way to grow over it as if feeding on it.
* Klizurk draws again, firing at the other gnoll. She has, like arrows. And she's decent
at shooting when Dicey isn't fucking her over. ;-;
* LaughingBear breaks into a run toward Dral1. He yells over his shoulder, "Take care of
Young Tom, will you?"
<Klizurk> Yeah, yeah, I'll keep the brat in line.  ^^
* Dral1 charges forward, further into the active entangle, swinging his chain around and
around as he goes!
* The last gnoll standing, harried, entangled from the knees down, and visibly shaken and
desperate, draws an arrow and attempts to fire at the nearby dral.  In its panic, it dropd
the arrow at the feet of the onrushing dral without even getting its shot off.
* Dral1 lashes out with his chain, grabbing ahold of the last gnoll's leg. He rips the
gnoll upward, swings it around once, and slams it back down to the ground in the place
where it stood, stone cold dead.
* The last of the attackers has been slain, and the natural sounds of this rural path
gradually fill in the void left by the battle.
* Dral1 strides forth from the lashing foliage, watching carefully for further enemies.
* The distant farmhouse, the field to the north, the sparse trees to the south, and the
road in either direction appear to be clear of any enemies, or any creatures larger than a
raven for that matter.
* LaughingBear finally reaches Dral1 at the edge of the grasping weeds. "Honorable
spirits," he intones quietly in Astran, "I ask that you lend me your strength to heal this
courageous Dral."
* Klizurk puts her bow away and nods. "Looks like the coast is clear." She turns to the
kid. "You okay Young Tom?"
* Fash remembers to help loot the bodies and gather them for burial.
* Dral2 approaches his Dral brother and puts a barky hand on his shoulder. "Well fought,
brother Dral. You flew like a leaf in a summer breeze."
* Young Tom nods, his eyes wide.  "You guys really are heroes!  Master Tomas will be so
excited!"
<Dral1> I felt it.  The power of the forest.
* Dral1 is wide-eyed with wonder at the power he's tapped.
<Dral1> It was incredible.  Nothing could touch me.  :D
<LaughingBear> Well fought, friend Dral.
* Klizurk nods to the kid. "Well, did we ever say we were anything but?" ^_^
<LaughingBear> Is anyone else hurt?
* Dral2 chuckles. "I wouldn't say nothing," Dral points to the warriors minor wounds, "but
you were as close flawless as one could hope."
<Young Tom> Well, Master Tomas said that they stopped making heroes before I was born. 
... But, you guys are older than me, so I guess it's possible!
* Klizurk laughs. "Way to make me feel young."
<LaughingBear> I suppose we should continue on our way to Tomas, yes?
<Dral1> Yes.  We have miles to go before we sleep!
<Klizurk> I'm not sure it's that far, but yes, let's continue.
<LaughingBear> Please lead on, young one. We would like to meet your master.
<Fash> Should we really just leave the gnolls to rot?
<Klizurk> We should at least see if they had any valuables.
<Dral1> OH!
<Dral1> We were told about this part!
<LaughingBear> Ah, right. Leaving them in the road like this probably won't be pleasant
for other travelers either.
* Klizurk states in an imitating-old-guy-voice. "Rule one of adventuring. Always loot the
corpses."
* Dral1 gestures to LaughingBear. "Come on, you can grab their stuff, I'll pitch them off
the road."
* LaughingBear bows his head briefly to wish the gnolls' and hounds' souls well on their
way to the afterlife, then helps Dral1 look through the bodies for anything salvageable.
* Klizurk goes to supervis3.
<Dral2> I'll search the ones out in the brush.
* Fash helps and works on recovering arrows.
* Dral2 walks out to where the Dral warrior fought the original assailants.
* Klizurk goes about getting arrows. Good idea, need arrows. c.c
* Fash scavenges for arrows throughout the battlefield.
* Most of the gnolls hunted while lightly encumbered, carrying only their leather armor
and clothing along with their axes and bows (two of which are now broken).
* Dral1 grabs gnoll bodies by the legs, holds them upside down with one hand, and helps
LaughingBear strip them of anything valuable before tossing them off the side of the road.
* However, one of them--the second-to-last one to die, as it happens--jingles strangely
when turned into the ditch.
* Klizurk finds all of her missed arrow shots, refilling her quiver as needed with other
arrows as well. She looks over from her position near the ditch. "Hey, what was that?"
* Dral1 grabs that one again by one ankle and shakes it.
* LaughingBear blinks after the jingling corpse.
<Dral1> Missed something?
* The jingling seems to be coming from either inside the gnoll, or perhaps more likely
from some sort of container between its back and the armor it wears.
* LaughingBear peels aside the armor a bit to peer inside.
* A horrible stench pours out of the gnolls armor when peeled even slightly away from its
body, but Laughing Bear is at least able to spot a leather bandolier attached to something
in there.
* LaughingBear coughs a little. "Ugh, the smell. There's something in there, though." He
reaches inside and attempts to pull it out.
* After some tugging, the bandolier twists enough to reveal a large but flatly-packed sack
made out of leatehr patches.  The sack jingles when moved, but it also sounds weirdly...
squishy.
<LaughingBear> What's this?
<Dral1> Dunno.  Open it up.
* LaughingBear unfastens the sack and carefully tries to open it.
* Fash stands back.
* The stench is even stronger now that the sack is opened.  It's an almost sweet but quite
horrible, and one with which Colonel Glass had familiarized his recruits by taking them
around behind a small temple on the way to Evenor.  It's the smell of clean, but dead and
rotting flesh.
* LaughingBear covers his beak with one hand as he dumps out the contents onto the ground.
* The contents of the bag jingle as they strike the ground, and then they slither and
thump.  Young Tom watches in horror as four severed human hands fall, one by one, onto a
modest pile of coins.  A few bluish stones are barely distinguishable as valuable amidst
the gruesome treasure.
<Dral1> Ah, trophies.
* Dral1 carefully picks up each coin and gem.
<Klizurk> Lovely.
* LaughingBear lets Dral1 do the picking. His feathers look a bit ruffled.
* Klizurk blinks at Laughingbear. "You've never seen severed remains before?"
<Fash> I'm with Laughingbear on this one, that is disgusting.
* There are about eighty coins of various metals--mostly from the Heartlands by the looks
of their mint--and three small gems, probably turqoise from a set or a piece of jewelry
somewhere.  All of them are covered with at least a little bit of mostly-dried blood.  And
then, of course, there are the hands.
<Dral2> To think that my own hand could have been added to that collection, well, these
are filthy creatures.
<LaughingBear> I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to the sight of severed remains, to be
honest.
* Fash buries the hands by the road if she is allowed.
<Klizurk> It's not comforting, but it's something you do have to deal with.
* Klizurk certainly allows Fash to do so.
* LaughingBear nods grimly as he murmurs a few good words for the departed spirits of the
owners of the severed hands.
* Dral2 walks Young Tom to the other side of the road, away from the scene. "Have you
heard stories about the gnolls from these parts?"
<Fash> I think we should get moving.
<Young Tom> Mom says not to stay out late because they eat people... but th-that's all.
* Klizurk scratches her crest with her left claw. "Good advice. We should keep moving."
<LaughingBear> Yes, before more gnolls decide to come out hunting.
* Dral1 puts the last of the stones and coins in one of his own pouches and stands to his
full height.
<Dral2> "Lead on again, Young one, but stay close." He motions for the group to form up
again.
* Dral1 jogs slowly onward!
* LaughingBear returns to his original position by Young Tom.
* Klizurk continues marching forward.
* Fash follows the crew.
* Young Tom sniffs and then hurries ahead, leading the group off of the road now, and
southward toward the river, the great southern forest, and--hopefully before
nightfall--Tomas the Elder.