Knights of the Platinum Dragon: A D&D Story

Chapter 4: The Beasts of Ruin

As the carnage turned the world red before him, Logan's hand flew for his sword. Gaston's boasting devolved into screams as his flabby right arm was torn from his body and his beer gut was ripped open by a set of rotting yellow fangs.

The sellswords all dropped to the floor, but their attackers remained standing – four hunchbacked figures, towering almost as tall as Technus even with their bent and twisted forms. They were covered in lithe, rippling muscles and grey-green skin that bristled with scraps of brown fur and fat red ticks suckling at their skin. Each figure had a crest of dirty yellow hair that reached from the back of their long necks up to their animalistic heads that had the long snouts, large ears and dripping, tooth-filled maws of hyenas.

Gnolls!

For the briefest of moments, the beasts stood and looked right at Logan and the others. But then they suddenly broke into gleeful, shrieking laughter as their mouths frothed and they hefted their own weapons – clawed fingers, rusted battleaxes, chipped falchions and morningstars, all orange with rust and dripping with blood.

Screams then filled the tavern as the merchants, now without their bodyguards, scrambled in panic away from the gnolls and towards the other side of the inn, shoving past each other and tripping over benches as they desperately scrabbled to get away.

One merchant fell to the floor, his palms slamming into the floorboards, though splinters were the last of worries when one of the gnolls forward, locked one of its clawed hands around his throat, and pulled back its lips to reveal a mass of yellow bone daggers, glistening with drool from a long, lashing tongue...

Logan's hand flew to his longsword, the blade flashing in the light streaming in from the smashed door. "Everybody move!" he roared at the top of his voice before charging right in. After a few shoves of his armoured shoulders, the sea of coloured cloth parted before him and he hurtled right for the gnolls. All their heads looked in his direction, and the one who had pounced on the merchant suddenly rose, releasing its previous quarry while its right hand hurled straight forward, driving the tip of a rusted blade right for Logan's face.

Steel screamed on steel as Logan brought his longsword up in both hands, shoving the gnoll's weapon aside. The creature staggered sideways in that moment, shoulders and neck bulging, and with the half-second he had, Logan's eyes found his target and he swung his blade downwards, every muscle in his arm burning as he strove to strike fast and hard.

The gnoll's massive neck twisted back towards him just in time for the paladin's sword to come down upon it, parting flesh and sinew like paper as the blade bit into the spine. The wound gushed crimson as the gnoll moaned in agony, and as Logan tore the blade free, ichor sprayed across the eyes of its bestial comrades.

"Run!" Logan yelled to the merchant before he looked up to see the gnoll he'd struck collapse to the floor and three more hyena heads speed in close. The remaining gnolls were now upon him, hacking and hewing wildly with their falchions and axes. Logan whirled his longsword around as he backed up, battering their weapons aside before he brandished his own right at them, breathing heavily.

Thankfully, his chainmail hadn't been broken or scratched, so he knew he was unharmed. But all the gnolls now had their beady eyes on him, cackling and snickering as if mocking his chances while they ran their gazes over him.

But then, Logan heard a whistling rush past his ear, followed by a squelch and one of the gnoll's laughter turned to a yelp of pain as an arrow plunged into its chest, caking its fur in blood. Sparing a small bit of his attention, Logan quickly twisted around to see Stalk standing centre-stage, holding his crossbow up to his eye with the trigger pulled tight before he let go and reached down to pull another bolt from his belt and load it.