Seethe

When the panicked shout came through the door, the inn became a loud mess of screams. The reaction that came from our table was less panic and more of a rush into battle. I immediately stood up and my siblings followed me. We weren’t the only ones who looked like they were ready for a fight. The other people at our table, Kellen, Corrin, and Liz stood up, while the Warforged who was performing was already at the front door. While our group was running we stopped at the town’s center fountain. We could see guard’s going to the north,west, and east gates, meaning that the south gate the way we came in was undefended. We started running that direction when Corrin ran right past most of the group and started talking to the Warforged, who came to the same conclusion as the rest of us.

“Why are you running to the fight? Aren’t Warforged supposed to have a single specialization?” Corrin asked.

The Warforged replied, “Our specialization does not define who we are, I choose to fight so I shall.” Now getting a good look at them they were tall, very tall like barely shorter than a bear, which is unusual for a Warforged. They seemed to have a sort of lens that formed their eyes, and behind that lens were two glowing blue orbs . Their voice came out of a small slit that seemed to form their mouth. They also had this silver sheen but the metal seemed harder than silver, and gave off a magical aura.

As soon as the Warforged stopped speaking, I saw a group of the bandits trying to break past the shield barricade setup by the small number of guards present at the southern gate. When one finally broke through I immediately fired an ‘Eldritch Blast’ at them. After I cast my spell the same bandit I attacked started to panic and ran off screaming. I was confused, my spells don’t usually do that I thought, then I looked over my shoulder to see the Warforged had finished casting a spell, ‘Dissonant Whispers’. The moment the bandit panicked, the rest of them broke through the barricade and looked at our party readying to attack. This group of bandits consisted of one large bandit, with a bandana on their bicep, two wielding handaxes, and three with crossbows; well there were four but the fourth one just ran away.

The leader of this group of bandits started running towards our group, actually he was charging, charging towards the Warforged and I. Dashing right by us both Quarry and Liz reacted by charging at him with their weapons drawn. Then suddenly, Quarry started to grow; this was his rune magic. I've seen him use it before, an ability called ‘Giant’s Might’. I then heard a huge fear-inducing enraged roar coming from Liz, her roar changed her forearms into these bear-like claws. Liz proceeded to use her greatsword and these huge claws to carve into the bandit leader. The bandits armed with crossbows fired crossbow bolts towards our group, hitting three of us; I looked over my shoulder and saw Monsoon in shock, Kellen unphased, and the Warforged with a bolt lodged shoulder. The handaxe armed bandits then started running towards the Warforged and I, but before getting to us Corrin and Kellen ran in front of us, protecting us. The bandits raised their handaxes and attempted to carve into Corrin and Kellen, I looked away, but all I heard was metal clashing and a whooshing sound. The bandit leader who was engaged in combat with Quarry and Liz shouted “don’t hold back boys, these people think of themselves as heroes, let them die like ones.” commanding the other bandits. Unimpressed by the bandit’s leader's speech Gale started her bladesong and then looked towards Quarry and said “Hey bro why don’t we even out the size of the playing field, you’re in need of a bit of a growth spurt”. I looked over to Quarry to see him grow again, realizing Gale had casted ‘Enlarge’.

Corrin then started his counterattack against the bandit who failed to hit him by laying a ‘Flurry of Blows’ on him, striking him three times.

Monsoon took out one of her potions that smelled like burning air, threw it up, and out of it a sparking yellow liquid came out, casting ‘Lightning Lure’. When the spell manifested a rope of lighting came out directed towards the bandit who attacked Kellen, pulling him to Monsoon and shocking him. Kellen, looked startled like her head was ringing from the impact on her armor; after clearing her mind she then slammed her hammer into the bandit.

Realizing that the earlier combination between the Warforged and I gave us an unfair numbers advantage, I ran into the middle of the battlefield and cast ‘Arms of Hadar’. The arms then restrained some of the bandits:one wielding a crossbow and then two who wielded handaxes, crushing them with necrotic magic. I tried to focus the spell around the bandit leader, but I felt a backlash from the spell when I saw him break the arms, only taking some damage.

The Warforged was running towards a few of the bandits before they stopped in their tracks, I stared at them till from nowhere their violin popped out. They started playing their instrument and the music created a strange magic filled sound in the air directed towards Quarry, this magic seemed to empower Quarry. They then proceeded to start laughing at the crossbow bandit restrained by the ‘Arms of Hadar’ and said “You have horrible marksmanship. I have seen children with better aim than you.”; casting ‘Vicious Mockery' .

I chuckled at the sight of a scolding mid-battle but then remembered to keep my focus. I looked over towards Quarry and could sense three forms of magic running through his body. His own giant rune magic, Gale’s ‘Enlarge’ spell, and the Warforged’s magic that’s empowering him. He took up his halberd and gripped a spot with a rune igniting the blade of the halberd in flames. He raised his halberd channeling the Warforged’s magic and swung down into bandit leader slashing into him and burning his skin. Then in a flash, flames then formed shackles and restrained him to the ground. Liz suddenly let out a loud roar, making my ears ring, her body then started to shift, growing, and from behind she looked just like a bear. She raised the claw she manifested before to strike the bandit leader and while he tried to dodge the shackles allowed Liz’s first claw strike to slash his face. Liz took a second strike into him and he fell down dead with the shackles of fire still burning. The bandits, shocked that their leader was taken down, were enraged. Three of them started to lay their crossbow bolts into Quarry and Liz. Liz managed to dodge one of the bolts but the other hit her claw. Quarry, despite his increased size, sidestepped the bolt and glared towards the bandit. The bandits engaged with Corrin, Monsoon, and Kellen didn’t pay attention to the other two, and both targeted Monsoon. They took their handaxes and both swung into Monsoon carving into her shoulder making her scream in pain. Almost on instinct Gale, Quarry, and I shouted her name in chorus “MONSOON!”

Gale drew her rapier and ran back towards Monsoon worrying for her. She ran in a wide swing to make sure she didn’t engage with the bandits though. When Gale reached she channeled magic into her rapier and cast ‘Ice Knife’. She hit the bandit who was struck by Monsoon’s ‘Lightning Lure’, piercing his leg and causing him to fall unconscious from the pain. The magical knife then created a shockwave of cold causing the remaining bandit in the area to be hit. After watching that exchange I let out a huge sigh at the sight of my sisters’ safety.

Corrin started to focus, understanding that the fight was almost over and clashed his fist together and swirling dragons of astral energy appeared over his arms covering them. The energy from the arms created a wave shaking the melee bandit. I could feel the force of the energy Corrin created from where I was standing, it was as if you drew upon power from an endless void. Corrin took a step back and punched with the dragon, making it extend, hitting the bandit in the face knocking him out cold. Monsoon seeing the bandits engaged with her, Kellen, and Corrin decided to attack the remaining bandits armed with crossbows. Monsoon supported her injured shoulder, pulled out another bottle, and this time the smell it had was pungent. I knew what spell she was gonna cast and prepared by covering my nose. The moment I thought of it’s name she opened the bottle in her hand and dipped her finger in the liquid and dragged it across her not injured arm casting ‘Acid Arrow’. The acid arrow hit a bandit melting his armor and almost melting his skin. Kellen noticed how bruised and beaten Monsoon was, ran up to her and cast ‘Cure Wounds’ on her, making the gash in Monsoon’s shoulder disappear.

The Warforged looked at the remaining two bandits, and from their wrist a sword slid out. They charged towards the bandit who had already been hit by an ‘Acid Arrow’ shoving his sword into his chest killing him. The Warforged then faced the last bandit, walked up to them, locked eyes, and said “You have failed here today, I know this is not the full force of your numbers. This strike seemed coordinated; you must have a way to signal the other bandit?” They then pointed the blade of their sword at the bandit’s neck. “Tell everyone to retreat, or else you shall suffer the same fate as your comrades here.”

The bandit clearly shook and intimidated by the Warforged, grabbed a horn and blew into it. They blew into it thrice, a few seconds passed then three other horns blew thrice as well as if there was a herd of elephants storming through the city. The bandit replied in fear “There we’re all going now please spare me!”

The Warforged then put back their violin in it’s compartment and their sword slid back into their wrist. They then announced “I am NoName the humble bard and with a great amount of help from these fellow travelers we have stopped the bandits from attacking the town of Onstrend!”

With that victory cry, hiding people came out of their homes to cheer for us. They started coming up to us individually and thanking us. The local guards came from the other sides of the town to gather the bodies of the deceased bandits. They came up to our group and thanked us. We all tried to escape the crowd, to return to the inn; but the townspeople ended up dragging us there anyway.