15 May 2010

From The world of Yarel

This game session began late evening (shorly before sunset) on the 3rd day of the quest to find the missing caravan of equipment. The party were in the cave where they had previously defeated the orcs. The session ended mid-afternoon on the fourth day of the missing caravan quest.

Contents 1 Exploring the cave 1.1 Looting the orcs 1.2 The prisoners 1.3 The orcs' horde 2 Chasing the orcs 2.1 Setting up 2.2 Wolves join the combat 2.3 The leader and the wolves join the larger melee

[edit] Exploring the cave

Fanglesnork arrived, having been sent to catch up with the party by Lieutenant Bren. He introduced himself quickly and proceeded to heal Blázen, Bastion and Talathel who were unconscious-but-stable at the end of the last fight.

[edit] Looting the orcs

Whilst he was doing this, Gerix began looting the bodies of the dead orcs. He took most of the loot from orcs numbers 1, 3 to 6 and 8, leaving mostly their weapons (minus crossbow bolts).

Bastion also searched 2 orcs who had not already been searched. He declared his findings to the party, which were:

• 10gp, 5sp, 3cp, falchion, throwing axe
• 6gp, 5sp, 8cp, Light X-bow + 17 bolts, falchion

[edit] The prisoners

The party found two human prisoners tied up in the cave, inside a room that smelled badly of orc filth. They were beaten and bruised but just about conscious. Bastion untied them and gave them a day's rations between them. The prisoners told the party that they had been part of the caravan's guard complement. They had been attacked by orcs whilst on the trail leading towards Tallowbrook. The orcs had split into three groups:

• One group took the horses that were pulling the wagon and set off northeast on horseback
• One group (of 12) took the magical armour from the wagon and began dragging it on foot towards the northeast
• One group (of 8) remained behind and guarded the wagon inside the cave

[edit] The orcs' horde

Inside another chamber of the cave, the party found the wagon (missing one of its sides - the prisoners say that the orcs used it to build a makeshift sled) and also a small pile of other loot. The 50 suits of magical amrour were missing. Fanglesnork used a detect magic spell and noticed that a chest towards the rear of the wagon contained a lot of magical items (mainly transmutation school).

Also present was another small pile of valuables. This loot was not part of the caravan and the party have marked it 'fair game'. These valuable items were found amongst some other items that would no longer hold any value (perished foods, rotting fabrics and the like):

• A finely etched and decorated twin-bladed sword (masterwork)
• A slightly damaged jade statuette of an exotically-dressed noble warrior wielding a curved sword
  • Between the party they have identified this as a figurine of a 'Samurai' - an oriental knight
  • This statuette is likely quite valuable (despite the damage) since it depicts one of the holy figures of the church of The Tranquil Sect. It is quite obscure and should fetch a good price.
  • Valuation puts its worth around 450gp
• A small-ish and very heavy reinforced chest
  • The chest is locked very securely
  • It bears the marks of repeated attampts to force it open and to smash it, but it is still quite sturdy
  • Its dimensions are roughly 24" long × 18" deep × 12" high
  • The party picked it up and temporarily put it on the wagon. It jingled in the way that a chest filled with coins might jingle!
• A pouch with three gemstones inside
  • An opaque black stone
  • A glimmering crystaline red stone, slightly blemished by a crack running through it
  • A red/pink cloudy stone

[edit] Chasing the orcs

The party tethered their own (borowed) horses to the wagon and set out back to Pladwell, where they spent the night and rested. Bastion paid for a messenger to ride north to Jestle and deliver a message to Lieutenant Bren that they had found most of the caravan but that the 'main equipment' was missing, taken by orcs and that the party were following them.

The party left the two prisoners at Pladwell with the wagon and the heavy loot and set out light to chase the orcs that were on foot. Along the way (headed northeast), the party saw the bodies of 3 orcs that had been mauled by animals (Blázen identified the wounds as caused by wolves).

They caught up with them not far from Tirest, a small village known for its druids. The party saw 9 orcs ahead, seven in a team pulling the makeshift sled behind them (on which the suits of armour where piled and fastened), one slightly ahead with a light crossbow, and one ahead wearing more impressive armour and carrying an orcish double-axe.

[edit] Setting up

Because the orcs had not yet spotted the party, Talathel, Blázen and Bastion moved off the the left to take position behind the orcs, hiding behind a low hill where they could not be seen. Gerix activated a magical item that he had seemingly procured from somewhere - a slender shard of crystal to cast Hypotic Pattern on the group of orcs that were pulling the sled of armour. This forced them to stop and stand in confusion for a moment as some of the group was fascinated by the spell.

The orcs eventually spotted Fanglesnork and Gerix and snapped their allies out of the fascination effect, lining up against them to attack. The leader barked some orders at the orcs and they formed up a line on the opposite side of the makeshift sled and charged. As they did, the hidden party members opened fire on them. Also, Gerix activated his wand again in order to break and confound their charge.

[edit] Wolves join the combat

At around this time, attacking the leader and the orc with the crossbow, a pack of six wolves emerged from the treeline, charging into the orcs. Two orcs who had not yet charged assisted their leader (the three wolves attacking him where eventually dispatched) however three wolves managed to bring down and kill the orcish archer.

The fight against the orcs who charged went quite well, the party were able to outmaneuver them and kill them off effeciently, whilst their allies where kept busy by the wolves. Talathel, Blázen and Bastion fight the bulk of the orcs, whilst Fanglesnork and Gerix kill a straggler who was still fascinated by the previous hypnotic pattern as well as a second orc who sprints towards them from the leaders' position once their wolves had been killed.

In the larger combat, Blázen is unlucky to be struck a wild blow that cleaves him in twain. The orc (wielding a balleaxe) who killed Blázen is swiftly put dow by Talathel.

[edit] The leader and the wolves join the larger melee

The orcish leader made his way towards the larger combat once he and his two allies had finished the three wolves attacking them (they skirted around the other three wolves that were tearing up the body of their archer). The leader was quite quickly surrounded by the partymembers who were in that combat. Bastion had also activated his smiting ability, meaning that the leader was having a hard time doing any damage to them. Bastion was able to both disarm the leader, and also to trip him to the ground during the combat, allowing Bastion to focus more of his attention on the wolves that arrived shortly afterwards.

During this fight with the leader, the three wolves finished what they were doing with the orcish archer and charged towards Talathel and Gerix (who had joined the fight with the leader). During this fight with the wolves, Talathel made an ill-advised (quite literaly) attempt to stand, and was knocked down and mauled. Despite an effort to heal him made by Bastion, it proved to be the end of him as one of the wolves mortally wounded him.

The orcish leader was defeated as he tried to stand and was struck down by Bastion. Also, the remaining wolves were also put to the sword shortly after the orc leader's fall.