Ren's face at once burned and froze as he stood with his back to the wall, his free hand clutching the stonework while the other tightened so much about his staff that his knuckles turned white. As he watched, he heard the ear-splitting boom of Technus shooting a weapon even he'd never seen before, glimpsed Stalk get injured before a gnoll advanced upon him only to be repelled by Arabella, and could see the rest of the pack bearing down on the Cockatrice with every passing second.

'I have to get out of here!' he thought, his heart thundering like a stampede inside his chest. But how could he? Elsa said that door was the only way to escape, and he wasn't going to run headfirst into a pack of gnolls!

But then, amidst the darkness of panic, a light flashed as Ren suddenly realized something.

He didn't have to run into the gnolls... he just had to get behind them.

Fumbling for his spellbook, Ren pulled it free and rapidly flicked through the pages as the clashing of steel and the crunching of bone raged on before him, almost dropping his tome a couple of times as he hurried to find what he needed.

But then, he reached the correct page. Cradling the book under his left arm, Ren lifted his hand as best he could and his long fingers danced through the air as the light around him suddenly seemed to fold in on itself, and he said the name of the spell.

"Invisibility."

The warping field of light closed over his fingers, his hands, his arms and his shoulders, enveloping him like a cloak, and as it swept across his person, Ren saw his own body as a glowing white outline, as if someone has stencilled over him with a pen dipped in glowing silver ink.

It was then that he knew he couldn't be seen, and the actions of the raging fight confirmed this all the more. The gnolls from outside pushed in, forcing Logan and Finnan to back up as the knight was finally forced away from the door. Stalk rushed in with both of his swords drawn to help them, while Technus remained where he was, pumping shots from his firearm into the gnolls one after the other. But even as he kept pulling the trigger and multiples holes were burst through their bodies, the predators kept coming, snarling and slavering and snapping their jaws all the while.

Only Arabella, who was stood at the back, took her eyes off the fight for a moment and looked around with an expression of worry on her face.
"Ren?!" she called, her voice full of terror. "Ren, where are you?!"

Ren's heart was hammering at the inside his own ribcage like a smithy pounding at the anvil. He wanted to call out to her and let he know he was fine, but then what if the gnolls then figured out he was there?

Ren knew that they, like many foul beasts that lurked in Faerun, had a strong sense of smell. And that they could smell fear...

Flicking his gaze back towards the door, Ren could see that all the gnolls from outside - eight of them, by the looks of it - had pushed into the inn, the entrance now open as they were no longer clustered around it. His heart leapt in his chest, and after taking a deep breath, he ran right at the gnolls with his eyes squeezed shut and squeaked "Misty Step!"

In the darkness, Ren felt the ground vanish beneath his feet for a split-second, his legs flailing at nothing as continued to try and run desperately. Then, his boots found purchase, the sound of steps on wood thudding beneath him and the sudden chill of cold, fresh air cooling the sweat on his brow.

Peeling his eyes open, Ren found himself outside the Cockatrice, standing at the top of the steps he and Logan had climbed to reach the front door. The teleportation had worked!

The clashing and bashing of the fight indoors was muffled by the stone walls, but before the noise even returned his eardrums, Ren was clambering down the stairs, almost tripping over his own feet as he scrambled to reach where the boats docked down below.

"Edwyn!" he called between desperate gasps for breath. "Edwyn! We need to get out of here!"

As he stumbled down to the jetties, however, he saw something that made a fear scrape down his back like the cold blade of a knife.

Edwyn's boat was tied to a post at the jetty, rocking back and forth in an unnatural rhythm. The halfling lay back against the vessel's edge, arms resting over the sides, his wide-brimmed hat slathered in blood as it slid off his head and flopped into the water to be carried off in the current. More blood ran in rivulets down to Edwyn's fingertips from where his right arm had been torn off at the elbow, and hunched over him was a figure who almost filled up the entire barge on its own, its massive arms thick with veins and muscles that seemed all out of place.

One beady red eye twisted around the face Ren, squinting out from above a massive maw full of blood and half-chewed innards, spilling out from between fangs as long as Stalk's swords.

The pack lord...

Trembling, Ren backed up and brandished his staff. "I-I'm warning you..." he stammered.

The pack lord's sole remaining eye saw Ren's staff shuddering in his hands, and its mouth twisted into a hideous grin as a laugh rose up from its lungs.

But this wasn't the high, shrill cackles of its bestial brethren – this was a deep, cruel chuckle; the laugh of a hunter who had just found easy prey... and as the massive monster crawled from the boat and extended its blood-sodden claws, Ren's heart stopped beating.

~~~

Logan roared as his longsword found purchase in another target, parting skin and hair as he slashed cross-wise across the belly and spilled a gnoll's guts everywhere. As the creature doubled-over, he barely had time to see the blow of another attacker that came hurtling down towards him, and as he brought up his blade to parry the strike, he slammed the rim of his shield right into that gnoll's snout, smashing the monster to the floor before he then had to pull his shield back to guard against another foe slashing at him with its axe.

The sharpened steel head bit deep into the centre, splintering navy-painted wood like so many matchsticks, but the oaken aegis managed to hold firm for now.

Edging backwards slightly, Logan pulled his blade back and held it to his inside right while presenting his scarred shield in defence. Through eyes burning from the sweat trickling down, he could see five gnolls right before him, struggling to get around each other in the hopes of reaching their prey. To his right, Finnan was still on the ceiling and holding off three more beasts with his shield and staff, which was now humming and vibrating in his hand as if it had a life of its own.

"Ha! Eat Shillelagh!" the halfling boasted as he thwacked a gnoll on the head as the monster leapt up to try and bite him. And as it dropped to the floor, he saw Stalk drive both his swords down into the back of the gnoll's neck before slicing outwards, severing the spine.

One of the remaining gnolls then lunged for Stalk, battleaxe held high. Before it could swing down, Logan dove in and plunged his longsword into the gnoll's stomach, the blade parting fur and flesh as it sank right to the hilt before the young paladin tore it out through the monster's flank.

Blood splashed the walls, and Stalk lifted his beaked face to meet Logan, a glimmer of respect in his eyes.
"Thanks," the kenku remarked in a voice that was not his own.
'No worries' was the thought that flashed in Logan's head as he nodded, before hefting his sanguine-stained blade back into position as he prepared to fight on.

As another one of their comrades carpeted the floor, the gnolls still standing seemed to hesitate for a moment, clumping together and clutching their weapons close as the bloodlust faded from their eyes.

They no longer had the advantage of numbers. As Logan flicked his eyes to his right, he saw Technus standing still as stone as another copper casing dropped from his ranged weapon, Arabella's palms glowing golden as she prepared another spell from near Elsa and the bystanders, and Ren...

Logan felt his heart skip under his chainmail. Where was Ren?!

And then they all heard it blast in from outside – the high, tormented scream of agony followed by rapid, panicked panting. Panting that was slowly getting quieter and quieter...

Ren was outside! And in danger!

As this sound filled the inn, the gnoll's ears perked up, and the one closest to Logan seemed to look at him and giggle softly in its throat as its foam-flecked lips peeled back, revealing a greasy, beastly grin of razor-sharp teeth.

Logan's muscles were afire from the strain of combat, but his rage burned hotter, washing exhaustion away in a tide of fury. Lifting his left arm, he slammed the point of his heater shield right into that gnoll's teeth, wiping the grin off the creature's face as it yelped and staggered backwards, clutching its mouth with one hand, only for chunks of bone dribble out from between its fingers. Seeing a chance, Logan stepped forward and thrust for the gnoll's throat, but the monster threw its other arm up, a crude machete of a blade barring his longsword's path. The impact jarred down Logan's arm, his teeth clamping together inside his jaw, and it took him a moment to force apart so he could speak.

"We need to get through to Ren!" he called to the others, glancing in their direction.

As if in response, though he couldn't know for sure, Technus turned his red robotic eye towards Logan, then lowered the arm in which he clutched his strange ranged weapon. Retracting his shield back into his left forearm, Technus' now-free hand moved to break open the back of the weapon, pulling it up to reveal a secondary port of some kind...

Then, Logan looked on as a cylindrical object the size of a clenched fist, appeared to rise from inside Technus' left palm, and with a push and a thunk, he slotted the object into the back of his firearm.

As that 'thunk' sounded amidst the clamour of the fight, Logan also heard another sound. From the ceiling, Finnan called out "Don't worry, Sir Logan! I'll get this!" before dropping to the floor in front of the gnolls and looking across the room at them.

The halfling wasn't even half as tall as the beasts... but right before the eyes of everyone present, that began to change.

Finnan started to swell in size, abruptly growing until he was about the size of Stalk, his body twisting so much that he collapsed onto all fours. The leaves he wore seemed the shrivel in size and cleave to his body before, to Logan's alarm, they suddenly turned white and soon began to look more like hairs than leaves...

Hairs in a fur coat...

Finnan's beard coiled like a snake into a thin grey tassel under his chin, and as his hands and feet hit the floorboards, they morphed into cloven hooves. And then, the halfling's hair and clothing all transformed into a white mass of fur that ran from a newly-grown tail sprouting from his rear end to a pair of horns that burst from his scalp and twisted into a coiling, spiralling shape.

A ram! Finnan was a druid!

Before anything else could happen, Finnan 'baaaaaaed', pawed the floorboards with his hooves, and charged right for the gnolls that were clumped close together. As his horns slammed into the chest of the closest gnoll, the entire group was forced backwards, staggering and almost tripping over each other, with the one at the back gripping the door frame with his clawed hands. They were forced from Logan's reach by a few feet, but not quite out the door.

As this all happened, Technus extended his right arm once again, brandishing his newly-loaded weapon while his left eye whirred and realigned, clicking all the while.

"Finnan! Get clear!" Logan called out as he saw Technus take aim.

The halfling twisted around in his goat form, dopey animal eyes meeting his gaze for just a moment before they tracked a little further sideways to see Technus. And as the druid and cleric stared each other down, no hesitation or care could be seen in either of Technus' cold, unfeeling eyes.

He was going to pull the trigger.

Logan's muscles and nerves jolted, and sudden as a thunderbolt, he charged forward. Golden eyes locked on Finnan, the young paladin surged ahead towards the bundle of bodies, his shield slipping from his arm and his sword clattering to the floor as he opened his fists and let them fall.

A battleaxe swiped up in the corner of his eye, and Logan twisted his body to the right, hoping that his chainmail would deflect the strike and wincing as he braced for the pain of impact.

But then, a burning glow shimmering in Logan's eyes for a split-second, bursting outwards and fading before his eyes could even close, and as it did so, he saw his chainmail sparkling with a golden sheen, with white runes burning bright as stars on every steel link.

In the distance, he heard a voice call out "Shield of Faith!", and almost instantly, Logan saw the gnoll attempting to strike him stagger backwards, small shards of rusted metal bursting from the blade of its axe... as if the blade had smashed into a stronger surface and glanced off.

But there was no time to think of that, or of anything. Charging in, Logan closed his arms around Finnan's goat form, and in that instant, his ears split as Technus' weapon let loose its terrible boom once again. Out of instinct, Logan twisted his back to the noise, hoping to shield Finnan in the last millisecond he had before he and his charge slammed into the floor of the inn while a terrible crash and a blast of force rent the air all around them.

The twin impacts both tore up Logan's legs and drove into his ribs, his muscles burning from head to heel and his spine aching so bad he thought it might snap. His eyes screwed shut from the blast, he slowly peeled them open as he heard the rustle of leaves in his ears and felt the tickle of something shifting under his chin.

Finnan was in his arms, curled up in a ball of yellow and green after having shifted back into his halfling form. And where the four gnolls had once been standing... there was nothing but a fine red mist and a couple of wet smears on the floorboards. There was also nothing left of the inn's doorway either - the entire thing had been blasted into smithereens, all of which were scattered across the ground outside the inn, and onto the stairs that led down to the docks.