02/14/745 A.E. About noonish or a bit later.
After a quick excursion into a lower level of the complex (and a battle with carrion crawlers and a phase spider), rather than continue into the unexplored darkness beyond, the party instead ascends the stairs going east. Fenarellnen, female elf, bard and ranger, takes the lead, easily opening a locked but secret door (apparently an easy thing to do since it was meant to keep people out rather than keep them in). She emerges from the secret door into a fireplace filled with ashes, but no fire, and immediately hears the sound of snoring. A lot of snoring.
Drael closely follows, tensing up at the dangers within the darkened room as she prepares to use her sword again. Alaian, behind Drael, decides to illuminate the area and starts to get his Continual Light rock out of its bag, but before that happens, Fen's Infravision reveals many heat sources lying around this large, expansive room. Perhaps a couple dozen or so man-sized creatures are sleeping here. The word is quietly passed back as to what she sees and everybody gets ready for the worst.
"Zzzzzz Zzzzzz Zzzzzz Zzzzzz Zzzzzz Zzzzzz Zzzzzz Zzzzzz Zzzzzz Zzzzzz."
S1: Fen motions to Drael, drawing her finger across her throat to indicate she's going to try to take out one or two with stealth. She draws her dagger and crawls to the closest one. Using her hat, she stuffs it into the sleeping orc's mouth and muffles its scream as the dagger effortlessly slices through the soft flesh, killing the beast where it lay. Meanwhile, Drael, slightly better at slinking around, managed to get further into the room, crawling next to another sleeping form. Using her dagger and her hand to muffle its cries of horror, surprise, pain, and death, Drael makes short work of another orc.
Alaian advanced to where his bow and arrow could do some good if all hell broke loose, then waited, silently, his arrow knocked at the ready. This allowed a few more party members to gain access to the room as well. Both Katsumi and Trekken entered, Katsumi deftly using stealth to start making her way inwards. Trekken, however, had other ideas.
"For the honor and Glory of Thor I shall slay you all! DIE!!!" Trekken screamed at the top of his lungs, waking the sleeping orcs.
NOTE: True, it was just a matter of time before they would have awaken anyway, but a few more orcs now needed to be fought, perhaps 22 rather than 20. Not a clever thing to do, perhaps, but some would say a more honorable battle would come of it, and that suited this holy warrior of Thor just fine. Others might even say dispatching sleeping orcs was tantamount to murder, perhaps therefore an act of evil, but the regional kobolds and orcs were at war, and often different rules applied during war, and the party were fighting for the kobolds, so . . .)
Now, in the middle of the sleeping orcs, Drael finds herself in a rather bad position, so she scurries back toward her waiting party members. A few more experienced party members silently curse Trekken's name, but all leap into action as the cry, "In Thor's Holy Name," rings out again and again to accompany the holy warrior's ringing blade. Alaian fires twice, misses once, but kills one of the orcs as it rises to see if his friend is ok. He'll never know now, the arrow sinking into its chest and felling him, making his other worldly concerns moot. "IN THE NAME OF CORELLON, MINE ARROWS STRIKE TRUE!!!!," chimes Al's voice, joining the holy warrior's, and the hell the party patiently awaited finally breaks loose.
COMBAT BEGINS:
R1: Gillmesh jumps into battle, tossing three of his dart-like daggers toward an advancing orc, killing it. Drael, a bit shaken at the surprising yells while in the middle of the orcs, misses her mark but manages to get back a bit. Kat deftly moves with cat-like grace around a frightened orc who simply dies at her hands, never to be afraid again. Fen swings her Elven blade as she, too, moves back to a somewhat safer position, missing the orc. Three orcs fall on Drael's position despite her best efforts, but only one connects, hitting her with a rusty shortsword. She tosses daggers at them, but misses. Four attack Gill, two from his flank quarters manage to hit him, and he mumbles in pain but fights on like the epic warrior he is. Garren kills the orc advancing on him. Alaian wounds an orc with another arrow, but it still advances.
R2: Fen, Kat, Drael, and a few others miss their marks, the orcs screaming bloody murder in their frenzy. Another of Al's arrows fells an orc. Gill screams, "Ah am dith and bringa of pain; yield before ma blade and live ta see anotha night!" but few orcs even understand his words (even if they spoke Common, they'd probably have a hard time), though his meaning is plain enough when he immediately kills yet another orc, then another, his attacks rhythmically cutting away at the approaching wall of orcish flesh. They attack Gill without mercy since this fighting machine is obviously the leader in the minds of the orcs. Alaian screams again, "THE MIGHT OF CORELLON IS ON OUR SIDE! SURRENDER NOW AND SEEK MERCY!" Some orcs look worried this might be their last day on Orlantia. Garren chants his prayer, "Oh mighty lord Poseidon, let thy mighty spirit flow into thine servant's souls, and guide their blades fair and true! Bless Us All!" His spell goes off.
Another two orcs hit Gill, and though the mighty warrior is hard, he's not that hard, and Gill falls, nearly dead.
R3: Gill bleeds, another step closer to death. Kat kills another orc, slicing through it with her katana while Al yells for some one to drag Gill back. Trekken takes the challenge and drags the warrior back while orcs swing at him. A blood-curdling cry goes forth as Fen strikes with her longsword, another orc spinning under the blow and falling dead before her feet. Garren also smites another one, dispatching the orc to the world beyond with his trident, wherever that may be for orcs matters not to the warrior, as long at it isn't here.
Two orcs hit Fen, two others hit Garren, but all miss Kat and Trekken. Drael's sling bullet goes wide. Al fires two more arrows, killing one more orc as Trekken brings him the fallen Gillmesh.
R4: Gill bleeds again, the trail of blood showing the path from where he fell to Al's waiting mercies near the fireplace. "Corellon, Bless my fallen friend and restore his life!" A Cure Light Wounds spells invokes the power of Corellon and summons a healing spirit, partially healing the warrior while Kat protects Al and Gill from the advancing orcs with her body. The orcs scramble to wound any they can. A chaotic jumble and mighty fray, but no more blows land.
R5: Fen wounds another, it falls but does not die and implores to her, in Orcish (which Fen can speak), "Please, mercy, do not kill Bobo!" More knives from Gill wounds an orc, Drael swings and misses, and Garren runs another one through, impaling it with his trident. It falls near a wooden scaffolding by the west wall where various painted scenes depict orcish life and battles and such. Most of the remaining orcs, who can, take to their heels, running off into the darkness beyond. Trekken gives chase but almost falls into a large, open pit trap, but he manages to sidestep it in the nick of time. Gillmesh hears the holy warrior screaming in the darkness. He staggers over to the nearest wall for support and takes a moment to rest. "Ah donea know if Ah should kill em er thank em... or maybe do both," he mutters while catching his breath. "Arrggggghhhhhhhhh!!!" comes a scream from the darkness beyond, but it did not sound like Trekken so much as his last foe's dying words. The orcs routed, the party stops their chase to look after their own wounds.
Fen quickly and mercifully kills Bobo, not wanting the responsibility of a hostage or prisoner, let alone a badly wounded one, and thus avoiding the gray area of ethical concerns that arise after one accepts the surrender of a foe. The ranger washes her hands clean of it and walks back to the waiting group with anger in her eyes, looking for that idiot Trekken to give him a few choice words on stupidly losing the element of surprise.
COMBAT ENDS:
Strong words and bad feeling are directed at Trekken for his alerting the orcs, but he shrugs it off, confidant the honorable thing has been done. Though the party's displeasure may give him some pause in the future, only time will tell.
A search reveals a few orcs had some money (like the fallen ones on the level below), and a very large room with several doors; two in the south wall, one in the west wall, and a strange alcove in the east wall. Further investigation of the alcove shows that a secret door had hidden it, but it was discovered some time in the past by the orcs (maybe) and ripped off it hidden hinges, leaving the little alcove behind exposed. Luckily, Drael and Alaian investigate further and find another secret door in the back wall of the alcove. Opening it reveals a waterlogged library, the bookcases and books more or less completely destroyed by age, water, worms, and mold. And yet they find another secret door, this time opening into a dry room, a sort of little lab. A table, a box, three dusty scroll tubes, and a chest are found. The box contained 6 matching rubies laid out in a circular pattern. Drael estimated their value at 1,000 GP each. Al looked over the scrolls, eventually (later after getting Read Magic) determining them to be HASTE, WALL OF ICE, and DETECT INVISIBILITY. Drael inspects the chest now, looking for traps. Finding none, she unlocks it by picking the lock and then opens the chest revealing a very black, simple looking cloak. She takes it. After thoroughly searching this area, Al and Drael take the rubies, the scrolls, and the cloak and head back to the large room.
Meanwhile, Gillmesh takes up his guardian stance near the hallway he thinks the orcs have run down, waiting a silent vigil, guarding against their return. Kat inspects the mural along the wooden scaffolding. This shows her the orcs were proud of their victories over the kobolds, but it also reveals they may have feared or worshiped a bull beast, a Minotaur, perhaps, from below. What this might mean is anybody's guess. Gill hears a noise that should not be there, coming from above, an area where none of his traveling companions are. It seems someone or something is atop the scaffolding. Trekken also comes over to see what Gill is worried about. Looking at each other, they both decided upon a course of action, and they simultaneously chop out two braces of the scaffold, bringing her down. A cry goes out and the scaffolding falls with a spray and splatter of paint hitting a few of them. Also, the solid thud of an orc sounds loudly across the chamber, the bones breaking with a sickening sound as the orc hits the solid stone floor 30 feet below from where the top of the scaffolding had been. Apparently the artist of the little Orcish group, he had been hiding up there, too afraid to show himself. His worries and fears are now a thing of the past and one more dead orc graces the floor of this large room, its final painting, the oozing blood from its fractured skull making an irregularly shaped pattern pooling on the cold stonework floor.
Some more banter occurs here, but the party then decides to rest, hiding in the drier laboratory, to give the spell casters some time to ply their art. They do this, and they are undisturbed. This is when Al discovers what the scrolls are. Later, they emerge and continue to have words about this and that. Some threats are made, some explanations, and some apologies, even, but as I said, only time will tell what the future will bring. And so they move on.
Finally settling on their next course of action, the party decides to investigate one of the southern doors (the east most one, where Gill thinks the orcs did NOT go). Alaian and Trekken go in, side-by-side, ready to meet what awaits them. The others are right behind the men on point.
COMBAT BEGINS:
R1: Four orcs immediately attack the pair of adventurers, and the sound of battle arises once again to ring off the stonewalls. "For the glory of THHOOOORRR!" and "MAY THE MIGHT OF CORELLON STRIKEEEEEE!!!!!!" sound out from the usual people, but this time only after battle had started. Gillmesh uses his knives and kills one of the four orcs. Drael misses her attempt at knife throwing. A large Barbarian Berserker steps out of the shadows and attacks Alaian. A mighty chop and Al is seriously wounded, falling, almost dead. With blinding fanatic speed of a berserker, a second blow begins to fall, which would surely have killed Alaian, but Trekken jumps in front of the blow, taking the full force of it himself while deliberately not dodging, but intercepting the would-be killing blow. Trekken is also badly wounded from that life-saving maneuver, but he saved Al's life, for now. An arrow from Fen's bow hits the barbarian, wounding him as it glances off his body, merely scratching the berserker.
Katsumi leaps almost on top of the berserker, with one fluid motion of her katana biting deeply into the man. The berserker staggers back, but he just looks pissed, almost as if the gapping wound was of no concern to him. His eyes burn with hatred for the lithe devil hunter, a fiery promise of certain death for one or the other, a promise to fight to the death. An orc hits Kat from behind, a nasty wound, and another manages to tag Drael with similar results.
R2: Alaian bleeds, yet another step closer to death's door. Trekken drags Alaian out while the other party members advance, covering his retreat. If the rage of the berserker had not been so fixated on Kat at the time, this would have been a dangerous move. Trekken binds the wounds of the mage and priest of Corellon, stopping further loss of blood and life's vital essence, saving Alaian's life.
Katsumi concentrates on her devil hunter's ring, invoking a minor power, slightly healing herself, running the power of the ring dry. Good thing too, since Kat and the Berserker exchange blows, hitting one another, almost killing Kat (and it would have, too, if not for the healing). Gill attacks but again misses. Fen similarly misses, both her arrows missing their marks due to the difficulty of the shots.
R3: Katsumi, almost dead, makes a desperate lunge attack which would open herself up for a nasty return attack, but she relies on her skill and training that tells her the next blow from either will be their last. Strike! the katana buries itself deeply into the berserker's chest, and a surprised looks on his face is all she sees as he grabs her, looks into her eyes for the briefest of moments, and he coughs up half a pint of blood onto the little devil hunter, his eyes then glossing over with the look of astonishment, then death. The berserker falls. The remaining orcs also go down without a decent return.
COMBAT ENDS:
"Ye did vera well, Kat; betern Ah had thought ye could," said Gillmesh, looking at her with a bit of pride that only warriors truly understood.
The kobold warrior, Yarr, walks into the room and looks at the berserker, mumbling, but those who could hear him understood him to say that this looked like the Man-Warrior his leader foresaw, the one who would kill him. The kobold, who normally hides behind this massive army, now stood silent, only answering any questions directed at him, breathing a sigh a relief for his great chief. The prophecy of the shaman's dream is no longer a danger. They had succeeded in killing most of the orcs and stopping the major threat to his people. The silver, which he grudgingly helped carry and give to these invading human types, has been well spent after all. All is well in the kobold's little world, thanks to these ugly human types.
Wounded and tired, the party relaxes a little, thinking of what their next move should be.
02/14/745 A.E. 7 p.m.
SESSION ENDS:
© October of 1999
by
James L.R. Beach
Waterville, MN 56096