this morning my stomach was still a sour and smoldering disaster from last night's cactus juice
but the sound of rain overnight helped me sleep so i was rell-rested when zer' informed us all that a large number of bandit riders were quickly approaching the city in the company of a "battletitan"
fighting is horrible and doubly so before a proper breakfast and an order of magnitude more so when it has to be against a dinosaur immense enough to shake the ground as it walks
zer's alchemical traps worked perfectly and dropped most of their front line right away
the lhesh asked our group to focus on the gondola on the battletitan's back and so zer' opened a small portal directly to the inside
it's no surprise that the 3 bandits with crossbows and a spell-throwing "warlock" immediately started attacking us ... but that left nobody directing the beast
there's nothing quite like combat in an increasingly unsteady box many stories off the ground
my gravity shoes helped me keep my footing even when the battletitan reared back – it even put relic off-balance and that basically never happens! – but the swaying floor made my insides even angrier and that made it extra difficult to maintain focus on my magic
medya sang for us and her gentle magic helped so much
the bandits were no match for the way our group operates which is to say that by the end of the fight they were defeated and also the gondola was on fire a little
the hot wood and metal on its back only sped up the battletitan's approach so i used my "force wall" spell to divert its path ... and it really did just keep running in that direction so it's somewhere off in the desert now
also that giant axe turned out to belong to a dormant "geriviar" – a house-sized biped with blue-grey skin and four arms – who woke up just long enough to help clear out the mass of bandits
overall the battle went well!
... except for the wounded and dead
i've already lent as much healing magic and medical help as i can manage today ... including to an injured alpaca
i was chatting with one of the hooves of grumaar yesterday and today they're dead
there has been much crying and many hugs
we'll stay for a couple more days to help the town recover and it sounds like there will be a large victory celebration once the dust settles a bit
i hope i'll feel like joining in then but right now ... not so much
fighting is horrible