Burgomaster Storming Norman Twenty-four names Darktop stamped the ground in Dry Creek’s quadrangle. His large force was strategically deployed and ready for an attack. His legion used their digging abilities and constructed redoubts composed of semicircles of raised dirt thirty paces in front of the east and western gates of Dry Creek. Reinforcements swarmed over wall walk and guard towers. Scouting parties had risked entering the woods to look for Kobolds and found little sign that their adversaries had been here. Nonetheless ambush parties were set up in the woods. The folk of Dry Creek busily repaired the damages fraught by the Kobolds’ earlier attack. The Burgomaster and Madam Darktop finished preparations as afternoon headed into night. Several hours passed uneventfully. Then at dusk a watcher in the tower shouted, “Winged creatures approach! Dragons!”
Storming Norman Twenty-four names charged up the wall stairs and shouted, “Not to worry! Hold your fire! It’s only a gaggle of Copper Dragons! Get some copper ore ready!”
The guard in the tower shouted, “One is much bigger! They bear burdens!”
Storming Norman shouted, “Wait! That’s not a dragon! It’s a Manticore! It carries…my stars! Longbeard Nineteen-names!
The sentry yelled, “They are getting closer! They all carry Gnomes, and the Gnomes are not moving! Shall I fire?”
Norman hesitated. Then five dragons and the Manticore landed about fifty paces from the palisade, unloaded their motionless cargo, and flew upward. A sixth dragon landed, and the Gnome it carried began shouting, stood, and whacked the dragon up the side of its head with his hammer. The dragon staggered backward, shook its head in bewilderment, and then swung its tail mightily and knocked the Gnome down. The Gnome jumped up and grabbed the dragon’s tail.
Storming Norman shouted, “That’s Donovan Eleven-names! I’m adding dragon-buster to his titles! Those in the eastern redoubt! Go help him!”
The young copper dragon shook free. The Manticore and five other dragons circled overhead. Gnomes in the hastily constructed fortification rushed toward the dragon and Donovan. The Manticore growled a command to the young dragon on the ground that was engaging the Gnome, but the beast ignored him. The Gnome Donovan was holding his own and easily dodged the young inexperienced dragon’s attempts to bite. Donovan Eleven-names expertly delivered three blows in succession with his hammer. The dragon recoiled and puffed out its chest. Norman’s troops neared the fray. From the allure Norman shouted, “It’s going to breathe!” Before the copper dragon exhaled, Donovan walloped it up the side of the head and redirected its gooey spittle to the ground near him. The acidic breath weapon merely befouled some grass and dissolved the tip of Donovan’s boot. The dragon thought better of further action and flew away toward the Copper Mountains to the west. The Manticore and other five copper dragons flew northwest and away from Dry Creek and toward Jack’s Refuge.
Donovan Eleven-names shouted, “You’ve ruined my boot! Come back and fight, you shameless wyrm!”
benjamintowe 