1372c Year of Wild Magic, Day 19, Month of Marpenoth (October)
Plans happened and no one died!
After Mautilus nearly died about nine times, we scampered back to town to sort through the pile of things that we took off the corpses of the people that spent their last moments trying to murder us. There but for the grace of Gruumsh, and these sweet wings, goes I. But seriously, they had some sweet stuff. I’m now a walking town full of resources, but still don’t have a decent thing to stab someone in the face with if I need to. My trusty spear and I have been through a lot, but it’s not cutting it recently.
After everyone gets the feel for their new equipment we decide to head further into the mines. When we reach the back of the caverns that we previously explored, a second key materialized in my pocket. (ed. It was one of the ones you had, unless it was on Houra's old character sheet, in which case a wizard is responsible) I pulled the new matched pair out, and the giant doors inset in the wall swung open at the sight of them. Lazy door design if you ask me, but hey. They were orcs and bandits.
Almost immediately Hawkeye nerds out on the various ambulatory fungi that make their home in caves such as these. It quickly becomes useful as we come across huge patches of the stuff. We let Felisin go to town scorching the creatures off the walls, being careful to steer clear of the potential poison gas as they die screaming. I didn’t know fungus could scream. Something to tell the kids I guess. Unfortunately, this means that whoever else is in this cave PROBABLY knows that we are here. Unless these things normally scream like this, which seems unlikely. Maybe Hawkeye knows?
There’s no time to worry about that though, because we suddenly are confronted with a rock. It’s a suspicious looking rock, and we spend about a half hour discussing the various ways that it could kill us, or hide something that might kill us, or trick us into falling into something that may kill us. We come up with a plan that only puts Alton in danger and quickly scout the edges of the rock. It turns out to just be a rock. Unfortunately, while the rock distracted us, a troupe of orcs descends on us from further down the cavern. Felisin retreats to the ceiling muttering something about a complicated relationship with her “dice.” That chick gets crazier every day.
Several plans are quickly presented and a tactical retreat is agreed upon. To our immense surprise, Mautilus engages in combat as we restructure our defensive formation and two of the orcs instantly disappear in a sputter of entrails. The tactical retreat plan succeeds with flying colors and we have the orcs just where we want them. Suddenly though, Hawkeyes nerd senses tingle once more as reinforcements arrive in the form of two cave lizards, which I assume are just regular lizards that live in caves, and their handlers arrive on the field. Jahn gets uppity and we let him have a moment until Alton decides to charge into the fray and….well I’m sure he had a good plan going into it.
We realize as the few remaining un-gutted orcs begin to scatter that none of us understand what they are saying. I can only assume that they are calling for reinforcements. We clean up the stragglers and follow the few fleeing orcs deeper into the caves, then quickly rethink our boldness as a truly terrifying and gargantuan lizard comes out of a side passage being ridden by an orc of giant proportions leading a fully armed cadre of new foes. That doesn’t sound like something I want to deal with all at once, so I pull out one of the scrolls that I acquired from the last bandit fight and expertly cast a solid wall of entangling webs throughout the hallway. I took a moment to assess the situation and decided that the orc was riding a little bit high on his saddle. With a word, I shattered the buckles and straps that held his saddle onto the gargantuan creature and chuckled as he tumbled backwards into the webs. Mautilus proved his value again by running forward through the webs and assisting me in dispatching the creature and its master.
From still further in the caves came another turn of bad luck. The few orcs that escaped disemboweling in the first encounter had succeeded in alerting the more powerful and magical of their compatriots. They moved forward, slowly chanting their spells, and as they approached a pair of floating ethereal weapons materialized in the air and began assaulting Felisin. Coupled with the enraged charge of one of the orcs, she quickly fled to gather herself. The new orcs, magical or not, stood no chance against us. One of them actually tried to hurt Mautilus by touching him. It looked like it tickled. We quickly dispatched the rest of them and took a moment to determine what to do with the rest of the orcs trapped behind the webbing.
As it turns out, they were not too happy about being trapped in their little alcove. Mautilus was able to wade through the webs and see that they had taken prisoners and were prepared to kill them at a moment’s notice. Felisin, in a remarkably coherent moment, remembered that she possessed a flask of gaseous form. Realizing that my unique talents would not be hampered by the effects of being ethereal I had to make a call on which slave to start freeing and decided on the Dwarf as we had been tasked with locating a troupe of Dwarves by Parlfray. Never let it be said that I don’t finish a job. With a quiet word, the knife held to the dwarfs’ throat shattered, and he immediately bolted towards the entrance and was grasped by Mautilus and taken to freedom. Unfortunately, the other prisoner was immediately killed. An ill-conceived attempt to save his life was enacted by myself and Hawkeye, but it was ultimately for nothing. Taking great pleasure in their confusion, I commenced to shatter the remainder of the orcs armor and weapons, completely disarming them. After they were sufficiently neutered, I dropped the web and allowed my compatriots to finish them off while I took flight behind the now confused and beleaguered orcs and mocked their impotence. Unfortunately, Alton was not so sturdy. He took quite the pummeling from the naked band of miscreants. I’m sure he’ll be fine though.
We’ll have to decide what to do with this dwarf that we’ve rescued. I hope that he is part of the band that we were sent to search for, as I initially believed. It would make the promise of reward that much more sure.
Session Loot Recap
Magical greataxe from orc warrior mixed with casters (+1)
Magical chainmail from same (+1)
 |
| This here magical longspear from one of the casters Tauser reports that while the spear is clearly magical in nature he is unable to figure out precisely how. He suggests having a scholar in one of the larger cities attempt to research the runes carved into it might shed some light on its origins and purpose. He estimates 500gp would be sufficient and offers to handle the transportation and locating a scholar. |
Magical longspear from the large mounted orc (+1)
Magical half plate armor from the same (+1)
Three silver flasks identical to ones found in the forest keep and the mine above (enchantment ones)
Small ivory handled golden dagger (nonmagical, 150gp)
1100gp
365pp
Silver sapphire earrings (600gp)
Studded silver belt (60gp)
Potion of red liquid (Cure Serious Wounds 3d8+15) 2 doses
Potion of clear liquid (Invisibility) 4 doses
Up to 20 suits of scale mail armor, heavy and light wood shields with the skull+crossbow bolts motif
Up to 15 each long swords, battle axes, throwing axes, long spears, short spears
EXP- Party Rewards
Initial combat against the 10 orcs: EL5 250xp
The big rider and caster party+2 of the original fighters:
EL6 400xp to Chris, 450 for everyone else
Mopping up the 10 webbed guys: EL5 250xp
EXP- RP and Individual Goals
200xp to everyone for various RP and negotiation during session and on hangout - good job
Ongoing Points of Interest Log
- Discover the purpose of the bandit/Cyricist/Orc presences in Haranshire (Parlfray)
- What happened to Houra?
- (From Day 19 Marp) What is this magical orc spear? Being researched by scholar
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