TTT: Elves Rediscovering Archery

[Jim Roberts]

[Feb 6 AM -- The Waterworks]

> “They had the lights on,” Laquendi mused, “and they just... died,
> relatively quietly.”
>
> Lomi sighed. "It's always the poor schmuck on point that gets it."
>
> “It's like two voices suddenly cried out,” Laurelin observed, her
> voice sombre, “and were suddenly silenced.”

Lacking any new targets, the discussion turned to guarding their rear
before proceeding further west towards the Temple. Some notions involved
trying to use Arcane “wall” spells, but the bulk of the suggestions
involved peeling off party members to form a rearguard.

The Abbot in particular liked this notion. “Sounds good!” the Holy Man
intoned. “Leave a scout and the rest slowly proceed forward towards the
TROGS.”

"Ya know, Tramma," Lomi groused, "maybe I didn't make such a good
decision coming along today."

“I always feel that way any time I join a pickup group,” Jeyshann
commiserated. “Don’t worry, I have a Word of Recall if we need to leave
them to their fate, just stick with me, girls.”

Laquendi, quite unlike Lomi and Jeyshann, quite liked what she was
hearing from the Abbot. "I would then suggest I may be one of the better
options to scout from the rear." the silver haired elf observed.

Laurelin, too, seemed to agree. “It's only paranoia if they are not out
to get you,” the priestess observed.

"Paranoia is simply situational awareness," Laquendi agreed.

Finfin sighed. Unlike all of the opinions but Lomi’s and Jeyshann’s, he
did not like this notion. Not At All. True, it had started with the
Abbot, and the Mikhailene WAS their nominal commander, as the elf had
observed last night. And Finfin had promised himself that he would let
the Abbot actually lead. But now, he was going to have to break that
promise. "NO solo scouting,” the elven officer growled. “We have clearly
announced ourselves by ringing the doorbell; we had best proceed on and
deal with the now alerted menace as a GROUP, and not throw away
individuals for rear solo scouting."

Tramma was nodding and humming a tune, but for once she didn’t burst
into the hoary old song warning against the dangers of splitting the
party. Even her positive outlook was not enough to maintain any real
hope of that message ever getting through to this particular bunch.

Laquendi considered the elven officer’s words. "Not scouting,” she
mused. “Watching and warning. And probably some killing." The silver
haired elf peered down the corridor, her eyes on “passive” looking for
any more active Darkvision radiation. She saw some, a bit further down
from the previous sources, and quickly let everyone else know what she saw.

"Fine, all ahead. Watch our six, and know when to duck." the silver
haired elf concluded.

“Sounds good to me,” Ben agreed. “Onward towards the target!”

Finfin blinked as the Abbot moved to the vanguard, the Holy Man leading
from the front. The man’s bravery was beyond question, but the elven
officer was uncertain of their leader’s tactics. But a good subordinate,
Finfin knew, was responsible for MAKING their leader’s plans work, good
or bad, so the elf fell in line, ready to stand shoulder to shoulder
with the priest if, or rather when things became intense.

As they closed the distance to the Darkvision sources actively radiating
further along the corridor, Laquendi could begin to resolve the sources
in a little bit more detail. Now she was certain that she was looking at
a pair of Darkvision users, actively radiating, looking right back at them.

Laurelin, enjoying this new Darkvision in addition to her normal
nightvision, looked carefully at the active Darkvision source downrange.
Her eyes narrowed, considering her options. “Might be worth a bow shot,”
the priestess mused.

“You still carry a bow?” Finfin asked, genuinely surprised. “It must
have the same amount of dust bunnies as mine.” In the rearguard, Lomi
just looked sadly at the two “fallen” elves. “It is terrible when they
forget their culture,” she mourned.

A moment later, both Laurelin and Laquendi had their bows at the ready,
the priestess’ a long composite bow, the drow’s a shortbow. Both nocked,
drew, released… and missed.

Lomi sighed. “May as well join in,” she grumbled. “Though I’m gonna
regret never seeing this arrow again.” She then cursed as the string
slipped from her grasp too early, shooting the arrow into the ceiling
not far ahead.

“On the bright side,” Tramma pointed out, “you can get your arrow back.”
Lomi just rolled her eyes.

"Well,” Laquendi observed quietly, “my days of not taking Elven archers
seriously is coming to a middle."

"Do we really wish to burn more arrows?" Finfin asked. "If so, and if
people do not mind a cloud of dust, I can join in." He then reached into
his chainmail haversack that protected his Bag of Holding, and found…
nothing. Opening the bag further, he reached in both arms, groping
around for some considerable time, faint metallic clanking faintly
coming from the Bag’s depths.

"So far," Lomi grumbled in tones of profound disgust, "the smoke
inhalation might be more dangerous if we piled up the arrows up and set
'em alight." Like any Kaltan she prided herself on her skill with a bow,
and there was an ancient superstition among the druidic faith about the
capricious wind-spirit Edice interfering to explain unusual runs of bad
luck.

“Move on!” the Abbot commanded, and everyone followed suit, including
the elven officer who was now grumbling as he continued to rummage
around in the depths of his bag.

“I have a spare,” Lomi suggested somewhat caustically.

“Should be in here somewhere,” Finfin’s distracted voice wafted out of
the bag, his head and shoulders no longer visible. “Ah!” his voice
echoed back. “Here it is!” Triumphantly, he pulled out a wooden case.
Was this the time that Finfin had shown that he had reverted to the
boastful Finfin of old, threatening to "leave people in the dust" with
his awesome archery skills?

But no... his warning was far more pedestrian. He blew a thick cloud of
dust off of the extracted case before opening it, pulling out a stout
composite longbow. The elf then blinked, and had to return back into the
case to extract a bowstring.

Lomi just groaned, and clapped a hand to her face in perhaps unfeigned
horror. This was close to sacrilege to her.

By the time the group had closed to a now more measurable 300 feet away,
the elven officer finally had his bow strung and ready to go. He then
paused, realizing he had forgotten a key element. "Arrows," he mused.
"Right. Them." Silently, the tall scout handed him one of her own.
"Thank you," the elf said sincerely.

In a long-suffering tone, Lomi asked wryly, “you remember how to draw,
right?”

"I believe so," he mused quietly, testing the draw of what looked to be
a truly hefty bow.

“I can’t bear to watch,” the tall scout lamented, covering her eyes.

Laurelin and Laquendi, meanwhile, each launched an arrow apiece. The
priestess’ arrow missed, but Laquendi’s, she was fairly certain, and
just managed to nick her target.

“We fart in your general direction!,” a gargling reptilian voice echoed
from down the corridor. Several of the reptilian humanoids jeeringly did
exactly that, and indeed, the area was beginning to smell.

“INFIDEL!” Ben yelled. “For that, you die!”

“Only of old age,” sneered one of the troglodyes, waving his arms wildly
and releasing another putrid cloud.

Lomi sent one of her own arrows after their tormentors, and cursed when
it seemed to bounce off some hard cover it was hiding behind.

“You call that an ARROW wound,” heckled the troglodyte. “I’ve been hurt
worse polishing my scales!”

Finfin, meanwhile, seemed to have relearned which end of his bow was
which. Using Lomi’s borrowed arrow, he carefully nocked, drew, and shot.
Downrange, there was a wet “THWACK”, and one of the Darkvision light
sources winked out. "Yes," the elf continued mildly, "I believe I still
recall how this works."

“Fritts! They killed Fritts,” the screams came from the angered troglodytes.

“Apparently that impressed them more,” Lomi chuckled grimly.

“That still counts as one,” Laquendi smirked.

“Forward!” Ben shouted, and the Away Team continued their relentless
advance.

Everyone advanced, firing as they went, and their combined fire dropped
another troglodyte. The reptilians seemed a lot more interested in cover
now than japes and jeers.

Laquendi checked out their “six”, that most dangerous zone behind them,
switching her Darkvision to an active scan. And reported seeing exactly
nothing.

“Then let us proceed with caution,” Ben suggested firmly.

“Oh, NOW he thinks of caution,” Jeyshann muttered quietly enough only
Lomi and Tramma in the back rank heard the critique. “First indication
any of them know the concept at all. Remember, ladies, hang back, and
stay close to me.” Lomi rolled her eyes at Tramma, who just shrugged and
grinned.

The Away Team proceeded as instructed, Laquendi switching for a moment
back to “passive” sight. “Another set of Darkvision eyes, maybe two,
about four hundred feet downrange,” she announced. The Team responded
with more arrow fire, though these volleys appeared to do very little.
Lomi in particular muttered, “That should have hit. I heard a stone
clank; I think they’re hiding behind hard cover.”

As they continued their advance, the Abbot muttered “I knew I should
have learned how to use a sling.”

About that same moment, Laquendi mused aloud, “Well within fire/ice ball
range” as she eyed the tunnel ahead of them expertly. “But I'd rather
not use it on a single target with massive overkill.”

Finfin raised an eyebrow. "She can be taught," he mused to himself.

It was clear that they were not going to achieve anything at this range
in a hurry. However, the Abbot had an answer for that. “Charge!” he
commanded, and added shortly thereafter, “Be ready for an ambush!”

"Generals," Lomi growled. "A fine command. Like 'expect the unexpected'.
Of COURSE this is an ambush. How do we be MORE ready for it?"

"Watch your six, and remember how to duck," Laquendi called back to Lomi.

Lomi just rolled her eyes again, she was getting nearly as much practice
at that as ducking for cover around these guys.

The Away Team continued their advance. Once Laquendi determined that she
was within range, she unleashed a salvo of Magic Missiles… and the
distant Darkvision source vanished. Of necessity, she fell behind while
casting the spell. “Keep moving,” Laquendi suggested flatly. “I will
catch up. Or die.” She seemed remarkably unconcerned about the two options.

Yet again the tall archer Lomi coming up behind rolled her eyes even as
she was looking for targets. Hardbitten was far short of the target for
Laquendi, and she proved it yet again in the next moment.

“We should be coming up on those first two bodies,” Laquendi mused. “Ah.
There they are.”

Frozen (literally) at their posts were two very dead troglodytes. The
drow wizard spared only a glance, and commented coldly, “nothing
valuable enough to slow down, they’ll keep.”

“Till the spring thaw at least,” Lomi quipped.

“What, no eye roll this time,” Tramma queried curiously?

“Mom always warned me about my eyes sticking that way,” the scout admitted.

“From what I’ve seen, if it were going to happen,” Jeyshann smirked. “It
would have by now.”