Ambush at the Wailing Wood

The group reacted swiftly. Animir grabbed the wand that the Flumph Ulmoapop had given her and cast a Mage Armour on herself; Hossein hurled a handaxe, lightly wounding one of their attackers, and Thorkil dismounted from his pony and spun up his huge flail; dwarves weren't cavalry.

Another flight of arrows sleeted through the party, and the kobold Akara was struck in the arm. With a wail, he slid backwards off Animir's horse, and legged it back up the road without hesitation. Animir nodded; that was what she'd have told him to do. He was a guide not a fighter. She drew her sword and tightened her shield straps as the bandits closed.

With a crash, the mounted bandits crashed into the three defenders. The leader singled out Animir for his - no, her it seemed - particular attentions, and the remaining four split themselves two-to-one on Hossein and Thorkil. Blades clashed and armour clanged, testing strikes for the most part with little damage. Then Animir's sword slipped home twice, opening small but painful wounds. Thorkil's huge flail was thrashing around ineffectually, but Hossein was making slow but reliable progress with his guisarme. He slew both his opponents one after the other, and turned his attention to Thorkil's foes.

Animir was having considerably poorer luck. Several small wounds had failed to pierce any vital area of her opponent, and a terrible crushing blow from the woman's mace had broken her left leg, although as she was still in the saddle this didn't impede her fighting much.

Thorkil finally got his balance, and struck a terrifying blow, smashing his foe clear off his horse with every rib in his chest broken, dead before he hit the ground. He turned to attack his second foe, just in time to see him sink his short sword into Hossein's chest. The ranger coughed up a gush of blood, dropped out of his saddle, and lay still. Frantically, Thorkill hurled himself at the last rider; but, encouraged by his easy kill, this man put up a good fight, and by the time he was downed, not only was Hossein beyond help, but Thorkil himself was badly hurt. He paused to drain a potion of Cure Light Wounds before getting involved any further.

Meanwhile, two hundred and forty yards down the road, Akara the kobold was still running...