Marty had been stalking the stegadon heard through the hill country for weeks.
She lay motionless in the grass, her Skin of Bark and Camouflage magic making her almost invisible. The rain was starting to get heavier. A writhing mass of animated plant life thrashed behind her, a spell she had cast earlier that she could fall back to if her other magic failed. Silently, she crawled over the ridge to spy on her prey. A crack of lightning lit up the plain, revealing a lone stegadon. This one was a bull. Each of its legs as wide as the trunk of an oak tree. It snorted angrily as it grazed, ploughing up the earth with its beak.
Marty calmed herself, her lips uttering a silent prayer as she slowly rose to her feet. Eventually she summoned enough grit to speak the incantation to hold the animal, waving her hand gracefully as she completed her spell. But the bull would not be held. The mighty beast bellowed furiously, liquid fire spluttering out of its maw as it charged. Marty fled, sprinting through her animated vines. The bull pursued, but it’s powerful legs easily tore through the entangling plants. Marty hopped and skipped over the tripwires in the grass, each one connected to a glue casting trap. She then dodged the pressure plates hidden in the grass, each one ready to trigger paralysing acid blob projectors. She slowed to a jog and risked glancing back at the bull. Like a gigantic bolder it charged through the traps as if they weren’t there. Marty's hand flashed as she quickly drew throwing blades from scabbards that lined the back of her shield. The blades glanced harmlessly of the bull’s armoured crest as if they were chaff being thrown against a stone wall.
Before she could break into a sprint again, the charging bull struck. Marty feebly attempted to block the charge with her shield, but she was like a rabbit under a cart wheel. The blow knocked her to the ground winded. The stegadon reared up and stomped down, crushing Marty’s arm and shield. Screaming in pain, Marty snatched a potion from her bandolier. The bull reared up on it’s hind legs again, and before Marty could bring the potion up to her lips the creature’s massive foot crushed Marty’s ribbs, shattering the potion bottle. The glass from the broken bottle cut into Marty’s chest, and the magic of the potion seeped into her wounds, making her invisible.
Barely conscious, Marty’s broken body tumbled down the hill side. The stegadon stomped down a third time, but this time crushing only the grass. Going into shock, Marty’s shaking hand clumsily drew another potion from her bandolier. She mashed her invisible potion into her face twice before she was able to connect it with her mouth. Pulling the cork out with her teeth, she swallowed it down along with the potion. Almost instantly she felt the agony of her shattered body leave her, her broken bones popping and snapping back into place.
From the bottom of the hill, Marty again made magical incantations to hold the animal. As before, the stegadon bull’s will was too powerful. As she cast the spell, the invisibility was broken. Another clap of lightning lit up the sky. The bull eyed Marty’s now visible form with rage, its steps thundering as it charged down the hill like an avalanche of hatred. In a final, desperate act, Marty cast her last spell. This time the magic broke through into the stegadon’s mind, paralysing it. The creature’s body froze in place skidding to a halt less than a foot from Marty.
Marty gasped, “Oh-thank-Shellah-and-all-the-good-gods…”
She quickly climbed up onto the top of the beast, using the horns that lined its armoured crest as a crude ladder. Sitting on the beast’s back, she drew her dagger from its sheath. She had to slay the creature quickly. If it was still alive when the magic wore off it was sure to kill her. The moment the bull died, Marty felt an empowering chill run up her spine, as if the approving gaze of the Beast Lord Malar was upon her.
((based on in game drama. Marty went up against a "Ferocious Stegadon", and all her usual tricks failed. He was KDed with a double crit from the stegadon and almost bought the farm. Her final casting of Hold Animal saved the day though. Had he passed that final save I would have been asking for my body to be hauled back to the temple for sure!))