As Draque slips toward the brawny, muttering bugbear, his target makes it known that he is aware of the elf.<br/><br/>The club grinds across the floor as it's hefted up, and the creature slavers through his gibbering lips as he regards the oncoming adversary.<br/><br/>Bolts of ink flickering across the dim, Draque and Fern descend on either side of the bugbear.  And the armored giant breaks his chant long enough to bellow, hurling his arms wide to greet his attackers.<br/><br/>Those arms have hardly begun to swing down by the time Draque's blade punctures a space just below the breastplate of the bugbear's armor.  The giant bursts out a whining noise, buckles slightly forward.  At that moment, Fern's blade lances into a narrow space between the plates on the back of the beast.<br/><br/>With a snarl, the bugbear frantically sweeps his club through the air - a fierce, weird roaring sounds out as it shreds the space above Draque.<br/><br/>Miaren notices the feasting monster's errant eyes fix their seethe on the combatants, and the ecstatic jaws halt in eating.  It begins to snarl, red foam blooming in a wide garden over its lips.  With a final swallow of intestine, the monster begins to arrange its enormity onto its lower legs.<br/><br/>Her attention focuses her arrow, looses it, as another roar ricochets through the anxious dim of the chamber - another bugbear, also armor clad, bolts from the shadows next to the tunnel entrance and descends on Fern from behind.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote from: O.O.C.</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote"><span class="bbc_u"><strong>Round 1</strong></span><br/><br/>Initiative Order: Draque, Fern, Bugbears, "Beast," Miaren<br/><br/><em>(Draque's Move Silently is countered by the Bugbear's Listen)</em><br/><br/>Actions: <br/><br/>Draque stabs, hits.  Fern stabs at the Bugbear's flank, hits.  The Muttering Bugbear misses.  Bugbear 2 rushes out of concealment toward Fern, and ends the round 10' away from her.  Miaren misses.</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Miaren's arrow whistles by it, whistles by the muttering bugbear.  The chant of the armored goblin begins to lilt, lowering and screaming high as he whirls to bring his club's awful, edged weight against the elves.  Events dissolve into a frenzy of movement - the popping flash of the elves' daggers, the flailing of the bugbear, stances shifting, guards being tested.<br/><br/>Then the bugbear charging Fern finds his mark.  A two-handed swing of the club lashes at her side.  There is no satisfying clap of contact; it seems to hit nothing.  But Fern's shoulder pad is dangling, nearly torn off, its once-firm plate now a patty of ground leather.  She is stiffer in her movements as she works to finish off the first, largest, bugbear.<br/><br/>Miaren's arrow drives into the armor of the bugbear, juts from his flank.  The giant seems only to gibber louder - drive harder against Draque.<br/><br/>Behind the melee, the monstrosity raises up.  It roars fit to shake the chamber.  Its gory fist slams its chest in a bass pounding of declared dominance that makes the marrow buzz, makes the transparent liquid on its chest leap and sparkle.  Then with an angry heave, it hurls the remains of the girl into the gyre of combat.<br/><br/>The bugbear behind Fern was likely not the intended target, but the legs of the girl strike him as if from a cannon.  The tremendous wet crunch is deafening.  Impact blows a cloud of misted blood and hot fragments of organs over Fern and the Muttering Bugbear, and sheathes the bugbear it struck, as he is sent sprawling to behind Draque.<br/><br/>Shakily, he raises to his feet.<br/><br/>On the dais, the great Beast hoots and snarls with a voice as big as any Hell.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote from: O.O.C.</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote"><span class="bbc_u"><strong>Round 2</strong></span><br/><br/>Draque, Fern and the Muttering Bugbear all miss.  Bugbear 2 slams Fern for 7 damage.  Miaren hits.  The Beast misses Fern, hits Bugbear 2.</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>