The sun was just past it's highest bend and everyone was starting to feel weary. The vast plains around the party seemed not to have changed in the last 5 hours or so, as if they were walking but not going anywhere. Everyone was starting to feel the effects of the sweltering heat, well, everyone except for Joe, as dragons are accustomed to even extreme heat. First it was Brian who began to feel is legs wobbling underneath him. The party had run out of water hours ago and they hadnt seen a stream since the day before. Christine began to feel the heat getting to her too, she had been walking for most of the day because Joe's scales were chafing her when she rode. Shira(Dustin) didnt notice the heat much because Ty had included huge environmental tolerance in his character. The whole group had just stopped for a rest when Joe said, "I smell something... odd." At almost the same time, Brian said, "You guys hear that?" Of course, he was an elf and had much better hearing than the others except for Christine but she was half-asleep. Shira pointed north toward a small black cloud on the horizon, "There's something coming..." The others all looked and Mike asked, "What is it, I cant see anything."(Centaurs are near-sighted) Joe, who had the best eyesight of the group finally said as the cloud got a little nearer, "It looks like griffons..." Brian grabbed his longbow and drew an arrow, meanwhile Christine, who had shook herself out of her nap, began to cast armor and protection from evil on the group. Mike just asked, "What's a Griffon?" Shira smirked at him and said, "An evil flying lion with the head and talons of an eagle..." He looked at her bewildered, then asked, "Has anyone seen my sword? I must have dropped it in the stable in town." Christine grabbed a stick off the ground and cast a quick spell on it, turning it into an average looking longsword. She tossed it to him. Joe asked his friends, "You guys want me to go ahead and intercept them or stay here with you?" Shira responded, "It's better if you stay here where we can cover each other's backs." The cloud approached and finally the elves could see. Brian let loose an arrow on an arced path into the flying group, who were still several hundred meters away, but sure enough one of the creatures fell out of the group and impacted the ground at high speed. Christine quickly cast an ice storm spell just in front of the group, the creatures disappeared into the storm of icy shards for a few seconds, then most of them burst through the other side, the fight was on! Joe leapt into the air at the nearest griffon and let loose a 80 foot long cone of flame, the smell of burning flesh permeated the air as the remaining griffons decended into the group. Brian proceeded to plant arrows into two griffons as Mike took a swing at one who buzzed over his head. Shira lept at a nearby enemy and grabbed it's hind leg with one hand while slashing the tendon in it's left wing with the dagger in her other hand, she and the griffon tumbled to the ground in a wad of feathers. A griffon landed before Christine who gave it a good whack in the head with her staff as it slashed at her chest, barely missing. Joe had so far fried one Griffon to a cinder and had torn two others limb from limb, however he was bleeding profusely from one of his hind legs.
A griffon was making repetative swoops on Mike's horse back from behind, and he had the gouges to prove it, but on this run, mike kneeled with his forelegs and planted a kick with his two hind legs into the griffon's chest, it flew backward about 10 feet and rolled to a stop on the ground, unmoving. Brian was not quite as skilled in close quarters combat but he was managing to hold off a griffon with his short-sword who had come much to close for arrows. Shira finally dispatched her foe and quickly drew her crossbow with a poison dart, launching it into the back of the griffon fighting Brian. Then she proceeded to led the crossbow drop on it's lanyard while drawing her dagger and stabbing it in a twisting manuever into the heart of a griffon who had landed behind her, she used her foot to slide the corpse off her dagger and turned to aquire another target. Christine found a group of griffons circling above her and cast a chain-lightning spell into the group, however, at the same time, Joe was flying into the group on an attack, not a creature in the ball of flying flesh above her was spared a 100,000 volt shock. Dropping them all, including her friend Joe, on the ground before her. "Shit!" She cried out but she was quickly slashed in the back by a griffon. She saw Mike in the corner of her eye and she rolled forward, as the griffon advanced he was decapitated by the sword-swing of a muscular centaur. Shira was engaging the last three live griffons by herself, in a frenzy of spinning and daggerslashing she was barely keeping them from ripping her to shreds. Brian managed to retrieve his bow and plant an arrow into the skull of one of them as Shira slashed the neck of another. There was one left and Brian was about to send an arrow through it's tiny brain when Shira called out, "WAIT!" In a flash she grabbed a sleeping dart from her pouch and made a quick underhand toss launching it into the creatures chest. It made one last swing at her then collapsed before her into deep sleep. Christine meanwhile had begun tending to her fallen friend Joe, who was lying among a group of electrocuted griffons, luckily he had a lot larger body mass and he quickly regained conciousness, but groaned in pain and stiffness. Brian wipes the sweat and blood off his brow and said, breathing heavily, "I need... a nap... ugh." He fell flat on his face into the dirt, and proceeded to snore loudly. Christine cast a spell to relieve Joe's pain but his muscles were still stiff as a board. Joe gritted his teeth and said, "Dont worry about, my fault... It feels like my whole body is spasming, I cant move." She nodded and said, "The shock contracted every muscle in your body, it will subside soon, be sure to stretch later though." He managed to nod, barely. Mike panted heavily as he wiped the blood from his sword on the feathers of a slain griffon. Shira looked over the griffon she had spared as it slept, she took a rope from her pack and binded it's feet, then she proceeded to slice the tendons in each of it's wings, it would not be going anywhere... Christine cast a heal wounds spell on herself and the slash marks in her back turned into faint pink marks, she proceeded to cast it on every member of the group before sitting down on the ground to rest. Shira glanced at the group and wished that they knew that it was dustin helping them and not just some non-existant character made up to aid in Ty's torture device, but then, Dustin wasnt sure that that was untrue... At least for now they could rest. She went over to the griffon that had received the brunt of Joe's fire breath, and sliced of a sizable slab of cooked meat, she cut off 3 small pieces and ate one, then she went to Mike and Christine and gave them each one, Brian was already asleep so she offered the rest of the meat to Joe, he slowly grabbed it and chewed while trying to hide his obvious pain. Shira announced, "You guys sleep I'll take watch." Mike shook his head and said, "You took first shift last night, I'll stay up this time." She shrugged and laid out her bedroll for a quick nap.