The male halfling managed to get higher in the tree, away from the dragon-taur-woman.  Once he'd gotten out of her direct reach, he pulled another arrow and aimed it directly at the threat below him.  Then, however, two unfortunate events conspired against him.  The first was a sudden burst of energy to the face, which knocked him off kilter.  The second was an arrow that pierced his neck.  For a moment, he tried to keep his perch in the tree.  Then his fingers released, and he fell to the ground, dead.<br/><br/>Meanwhile, the elf woman tried to twist herself away from her attacker, but the woman managed to grab her by the shirt but good.  Luckily for her, she managed to duck out of the way of the woman's jaws.  A quick shove to the shoulders managed to break the alchemist's grip and give the elf a chance to spin the attacker around.  Now the elf had the... creature by the shoulders, and was holding her between the other attackers and herself, a knife at her hostage's throat.  "I know what happened," she told the others.  "Let me and the others..."  She took a quick look around for anyone who wasn't dead yet, but saw only two dead bodies and one swollen stomach.  "...let me and the dwarf go and we'll tell you what happened."<br/><br/>Unfortunately, the dwarf was no more.  While he'd been dazedly trying to gain his bearings, the stomach around him had gone into overdrive.  Some time between getting crushed and getting flooded out by acids, his body went the same way as his mind, completely useless.<br/><br/>(Roll to control grapple: 16.  Yellow and white targets dead.)