Alright, here it is finally typed up in all it's glory. It came out way shorter than I was expecting, but hopefully I captured the frantic back and forth battle they had going.

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It doesn't take long to spot Farakim's camp once they know what they're looking for. Ro'than'dur gives them a commanding view of the landscape and Eadric manages to spot a thin trail of smoke from a barely smoldering campfire.

They land a little ways up the road to avoid giving away their position and leave Ro'than'dur behind until they need him; hoping that without the dragon they'll be able to take Farakim unaware.

Eadric guides Kavos's steps and leads the way into the forest at a crawl to avoid making a sound. They carefully approach an artificial clearing, that looks as though saplings and grass have simply been peeled away from the center by some event and a campfire put in their place.

"The prey deigns to seek the predator?" a hollow, inhuman voice echoes inside of their heads. They glance around frantically until they notice a monstrous creature with moist, rubbery skin in an impeccably tailored suit sitting beneath a tree. The creature's black, soulless eyes seem to focus through their very souls.

"Where are my amulets you bastard!?" Eadric shouts, assuming his fighting stance.

The creature laughs, emitting a horrible squelching sound. "That trash? I threw them in the river, they weren't even worth my time to sell."

Eadric nearly collapses in grief, his heart sinking as he senses no deception in Farakim's words. "But...but..."

Kavos grabs his holy symbol on impulse as his heart skips a beat at the sight of the creature before him. With his breath caught in his throat, he manages to ask "What...are you?"

"A rare sight, I'd imagine." the creature replies soundlessly, floating to its feet without moving a muscle. "One of the last of a dying race, perhaps too vain for its own good. Your people called us the Illithid, or in the particularly vulgar tongue, Mind Flayer."

As the creature speaks, an arm sized tentacle on its face twitches and a most undignified strand of what appears to be drool drips down its length before being wiped away with a silk handkerchief.

Kavos tries to steady his nerves and project power as he says "I've heard of your kind before as a child. What do you hope to gain by stepping out of a ghost story and into our world."

"An easy meal." it replies coldly. "Or to be more specific, several dozen easy meals. We do have the townspeople to think about after all."

"You will not find an easy meal in me Beast." Kavos shouts, suddenly emboldened by Farakim's overconfidence. "I've shut down every threat that The 8 has thrown at me and I do not plan on stopping now. Do you value your life?"

"You've bested a coward and a fool." Farakim replies. "Don't lump me in with those layabouts."

"No. I've beaten TWO fools. Any man who would stand in my way is a fool and a dead man." Kavos shouts.

Farakim crosses his arms and tilts his head curiously. "You'll be a fun memory human. Brief. But fun."

Kavos and Eadric both spring into action, readying their weapons and spells, however they're met with a strange and disorienting moment where it feels as though reality stopped synching up right for a second. By the time the feeling has passed they notice that Farakim is lounging against a tree, a look of concentration on his monstrous face, and a beast the size of a grizzly bear that appears to be made from pure, flickering energy stands where he once stood.

The conjured beast charges Kavos and the cleric believes it to be an illusion until he witnesses it level a small tree in its way to get to him; then he decides it would be best to keep some space between them and bounds out of the way using his Jaunt Boots.

Once out of the astral beast's range, Kavos casts Spiritual Ally and the infernal form of one of his patron's servants appear between him and his attacker. The Spiritual Ally lays into the Astral Beast with everything it has and the beast roars theatrically in response.

Eadric meanwihle flips over the campfire and lands mere feet from Farakim, taking a deep breath he exhales a burst of acid all over the illithid at nearly point blank range, causing his oppoenent to lose concentration on whatever it is he was doing.

"ROTHAN!" Eadric shouts at the top of his lungs, hoping his voice will carry far enough to get the dragon's attention. "NOW ROTHAN, COME HERE NOW!"

Farakim's eyes flare open and he growls dangerously. Without so much as lifting a finger he sends pure energy into Eadric's chest with enough force to hurl the kobold nearly 80ft and straight into the trunk of a tree. Eadric gasps as the breath is knocked from his body, but is more surprised as his current change of scenery.

Meanwhile, Ro'than'dur sweeps down with a roar of his own and locks his mighty jaws around Farakim's puppet, attempting to prevent it from engaging the poorly defended Kavos directly. Kavos casts Blessing of Fervor on his gathered allies while his Spiritual Ally continues stabbing the beast as the Astral Construct attempts to wrestle its way free.

Eadric hurls his bolo from the tree and the weapon whistles through the air before wrapping around Farakim's legs and knocking him prone. No sooner does Farakim hit the ground wioth a grunt that he raises his hands violently and the tree which Eadric now finds himself hiding in is suddenly ripped from the ground.

Eadric manages to leap free in the blink of an eye but still receives numerous gashes and cuts from the limbs that struck him on the way out. The tree slams down 40ft away, crashing into and through a second tree.

Kavos casts Wrathful Mantle as his Spiritual Ally and Ro'than'dur do battle with the Astral Beast, but the creature slugs Ro'than'dur in the jaw, stunning the dragon and tackles Kavos off his feet with a roar of defiance.

Before the creature can follow up however Kavos launches a Hellfire powered Searing Light into the it's face and the Ally plunges a weapon into the beast's back, causing it to flicker in and out of existence for a moment.

"Ro'than'dur, catch me!" Eadric shouts as he backflips away from Farakim, getting swept away by his 'faithful' dragon mount at the last second. They fly straight up at full tilt, reaching a height of nearly 100ft.

Farakim glances up irritably at the apparently fleeing kobold and reality distorts once more. To Kavos's horror a new Astral Beast bares its teeth and charges.

Kavos quickly responds with Dismissal and to his surprise, the newly created creature simply flickers out of existence, shattering almost like glass. The Spiritual Ally takes this opportunity to finish off the wounded beast and Kavos smirks confidently...that is until two more Astral Constructs flash into existence by Farakim's side and charge Kavos angrilly, they each land a blow on the fragile cleric and send him tumbling head over heels across the ground.

100ft up, Eadric tosses Ro'than'dur an Adhesive Spittle extract and the dragon gulps it down, while Eadric downs a Fire Breath extract, before putting itself into a dive straight for Farakim even as Eadric himself leaps into the air in a dive of his own. Ro'than'dur exhales a mouthful of glue all over Farakim's body, holding him fast to the ground, before pulling up at the last second in a looping motion.

A split second later Eadric lands an axekick to the top of Farakim's head that nearly breaks his leg and produces a sound not unlike thunder, driving Farakim to his knees painfully. Farakim struggles just to lift his fractured head for a moment and both Eadric and Kavos hold their breath expectantly...

Then have it knocked out of them as an explosion of pure energy arcs away from Farakim, toppling trees and holding them to the ground with a tremendous pressure. As Eadric glances up he sees that Farakim's bonds have been flung in a thousand different directions in twice as many pieces and a curtain of air whips around them in a 10ft diameter with such speed that it's actually visible. Debri, fire and simple dirt whip around with such velocity that when Eadric pokes an experimental hand towards it he has a portion of the flesh stripped off.

"Impressive." comes Farakim's passionless reply. Eadric swallows nervously and hurls a dagger which simply stops mid-air and flies to join the barrier.

Kavos casts Spiritual Weapon to assist his Spiritual Ally and directs them both to keep the Astral Beasts' attention off of himself while he fights to breathe through what feels like broken everything.

Eadric leaps forward and delivers a pair of savage kicks into Farakim's midsection. The wind is audibly knocked out of him, however Farakim responds by closing his eyes in concentration and assuming a fighting stance of his own. Despite the fact he has an utterly unreadable expression, Eadric could swear that Farakim is smirking.

Ro'than'dur slams directly into one of Farakim's Astral Constructs and clamps down on the thing with tooth and claw, holding it down and leaving the second for Kavos to finish. Kavos launches another Searing Light into the construct and has his Ally/Weapon lay into it as well.

The Astral Beast dives past Kavos's diversions and rakes its claws through his stomach, turning Kavos into a bloody mess barely able to stand.

Noticing how Farakim is favoring his side, Eadric smirks and leaps into the air; throwing a flurry of kicks into the illithid's shattered rib in an attempt to take him down and easilly connects with both. Imagine Eadric's surprise when he feels the distinct sensation of an angry kobold throwing every it has into breaking his already injured rib.

Farakim's entire right side is completely caved in, yet it's Eadric that collapses with a tortured scream. Ro'than'dur likewise shouts in pain and collapses where he stands, much to Kavos's horror.

"I'll admit that the meal was hard won." Farakim's voice says as the wind dies down and he appears holding Eadric before him by the collar like a battered prize. "But it appears to be getting easier."

Kavos holds his hands up submissively as Farakim's beasts stalk into a flanking position and the cleric is forced to stumble backwards until the unmoving form of Ro'than'dur blocks his way.

"What do you have to say now human?" Farakim asks, hovering dramatically above the ground, Eadric's battered body held aloft as he savors his imminent victory.

Kavos glances around in a near panic and then smirks as he places a hand upon Ro'than'dur. "That you've proven yourself a fool."

As the healing energy of Cure Serious Wounds floods Ro'than'dur's system, a fraction of the healing is transported into Eadric as well and the kobold spins around like an angry cat in Farakim's grip before unleashing a point blank Fire Breath that causes Farakim to drop him and tumble to the ground screaming.

Farakim's beasts turn to ignore Kavos altogether and charge to protect their master, however Kavos's Ally/Weapon cut off one and Ro'than'dur pounces another as Eadric leaps upon the psionic mercenary's chest and releases a second gout of flame that renders him as little more than a blackened cinder.

The Astral Constructs simply blink out of existence.

Kavos and Ro'than'dur collapse in exhaustion and pain as Eadric tries to ransack Farakim's corpse for his stolen amulets. True to his word, the Amulets are nowhere to be seen and Eadric bursts into tears of loss and outrage until he notices the magical aura surrounding the thin strap which Farakim wore around his head.

Without caring about the consequences, Eadric places it upon his own head and is shocked as his mind processes information even faster than before. The kobold collapses to the ground in turn as relief washes over his battered body.

A slow clap rings out from the treeline and a gravelly, monotone voice calls out "Impressive."

All eyes are the dwarf with the oversized crossbow trained on Kavos's heart as he says "Just goes to show you, a thousand year superiority complex and fancy psychic powers doesn't compare to a little patience."

"Put down the crossbow," Kavos says, his hands raised. "Dolph and Farakim are dead, two spots in The 8 have opened up and we've been chosen to take them. Do you accept contracts on your own allies?"

Rosh continues training his crossbow on the wounded Kavos for a long, tense moment before grinning and resting the weapon against his shoulder. "Years from now, when you're as high and mighty as him, you just remember that I had the opportunity. And opportunity is the ONLY thing that matters in the end."

Kavos heaves an audible sigh of relief. "What are your plans now? Aren't you friends with Ibaeli?"

"Friends is a strong word." Rosh replies. "I was employed by the druid's friends."

"[i]Was[i/]?" Kavos asks.

The dwarf shrugs. "I'm being recalled by the Big 3. They never signed off on this mission so they don't consider it an official 8 assignment. I don't give a sh*t what happens to the little druid once I'm off the clock."

"Just like that?" Kavos asks. "What about their 100% success rate that Dolph was bragging about?"

Rosh narrows his eyes. "You f***ed it up, you'll fix it. Cut the heads off of enough people that might say differently and it has the same effect as being true. I mean, how the hell do you think they recruit anyway?"

Kavos smirks, appreciating the way these people do business more and more. "Tell them to drop in sometime, I'd love to meet them face to face."

Rosh actually laughs as he turns to leave, a raw and unsettling sound. "Careful what you wish for old man, initiation's a bitch."

And with that, the dwarf disappears silently in the foliage.