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And ‘Round We Go

Deitricha’s Journal

Luckily for us, the room full of orcs were actually sitting down to dinner. We had a chance to charge in and take them by surprise. Tassar and Rosorc traded claims over orc kills; one would get a shot in, the other would finish the job. Rosorc has developed the knack of continuing a swing when he knocks an enemy down; a few times, he really mowed through the crowd!

Theona shot one dead right in front of us, and William killed one with a spell! He’s really gaining confidence in his spellcasting, and this day, it showed. Areon, of course, was simply in a battle rage. Even as the rest of the orcs grabbed their weapons and headed our way, he was up on a table, swinging wildly. Unfortunately, an orc in the corner grabbed a horn and began to blow; Theona’s arrow-shot surprised but didn’t stop him.

As the battle raged, I saw Theona looking pretty bad; orcs with bows were targeting her. I raced over and healed her up, then turned to see the reinforcements arrive! Two huge ogres and a mage-like, one-eyed orc. Uh, oh! William cast something at the ogres, causing them to charge through the melee after him. Poor William! Huge javelins barely missed him as he ducked back into the hallway!

Both Areon and Rosorc were looking worse for wear (which didn’t stop Rosorc from mowing down three orcs in a row, or Areon fighting like mad); Theona pointed me at Areon and waved a healing potion as she ran towards Rosorc, so I tried to make my way to Areon. An ogre reached right over me to smash at William, but Tassar killed the other one with a well-placed stab. I was amazed! Finally, I got Areon healed, and he ran to attack the archers at the other end of the room. I then healed Rosorc, and suddenly, every enemy was dead and I could heal the rest of the party!

Of course, we knew that several (including the mage) had escaped, and we could hear horns calling in the distance, so our time was limited. That didn’t stop us from searching the bodies, or me from giving a kiss and congratulations to a very proud Tassar! I asked the others if it would be wiser to follow the escapees through the kitchen, or to move back into uninhabited regions. Exploring the room, we found one other door. Theona found blood and scratches on the floor of the passage, and Rosorc went ahead of her. He got spiked by a trap, showing us where the blood and scratches came from! Stoically, he walked on, followed by the rest of us, except for Tassar, who said he was keeping watch. In the kitchen. It sounded like his mouth was full.

The hallway ended in a wooden door, barred, and marked with a symbol for the dark elves. For once, we all agreed that we were not interested in adding trouble with the drow to our situation! We turned back just in time to hear Tassar snap, “No! It’s my stew!!”, which warned us that more reinforcements must have arrived. Rosorc led the charge into the kitchen, killing two orcs right away, but taking a lot of damage, too. While I healed him up, Areon charged after the rest. So much for getting back into unoccupied territory! We ended up in another room, with columns down the sides, and a cave-in at one end. The other end held more orcs, another ogre, and the mage, again.

Shooting arrows and spells, we dashed in and hid behind the columns. Except for Rosorc, who charged right down the middle of the room into battle. He killed some orcs, but the mage pulled a lever, and Rosorc fell into a pit, several inches deep in oil! Two of the orcs lit a torch and dropped it in, Rosorc managed to catch it, but still set himself on fire! I raced forward, uncoiling my rope, and praying the others would cover me. William cast more spells, very effectively! Again, this got him more attention than he liked.

The ogre grabbed a dead orc body and flung it at Rosorc, luckily missing so badly that it knocked another orc to its death as well. It then took another body, and flung it at William, knocking him to the floor! Rosorc was climbing slowly, but I was worrying about William, and when Tassar fell into the pit full of oil, the goddess gave me strength! I hauled Rosorc the last few feet out of the pit and headed over to stabilize William. The ogre was still throwing bodies, but that ended fast when Tassar flung his war fork from Hell at the ogre and killed it outright!

Finally, I got Tassar out of the pit, and set to using up all but one of the charges from the healing wand he’d given me. With everyone healed as much as possible, we checked out the doors at the end of the room. Unfortunately, the orcs had had enough time to lock them thoroughly. Theona tried using her mystery wand, and we found out it shot a ray of enfeeblement, but that didn’t get us anywhere. I pointed out that the orcs might be using other passages to close in from behind, and we turned back. Tassar was far ahead of us, already. We did stop to penny the kitchen door shut, then caught up with Tassar, who was opening random doors in the Great Hall. He quickly found something of interest!

Four green-lit torches in the corners, an altar at the end surrounded by charred orc bodies, and fifteen-foot tall statues of dwarves in wall alcoves. One held a waraxe, the other, a warhammer. There was a mithril axe on the altar, and Tassar shouting for Rosorc! We decided to leave the dwarf alone in that room, since he wanted the mithril axe and we didn’t want to mess things up with non-dwarf presences (except for Tassar, who decided to open all the other doors while we waited). The door soon opened, and Rosorc came out, axe in hand. Theona snagged the torches, passing them out so we all had permanent light.

While Tassar explored a new passageway, I decided to check the other doors quickly before following. A roomful of statues got Rosorc’s attention, but as I headed for the next, Tassar reappeared, red-faced and choking! He slammed the door behind him and told us there were bad things were that way. I healed him up, and told everyone that I was out of spells for the day. The guys, of course, decided to check the “bad thing” out with Rosorc’s new axe. The rest of us waited at the end of the hall while the fighters walked down to where a hole in the ceiling was barely visible. When nothing came out to fight them, they got impatient and began shooting arrows into it!

I got impatient with the waste of ammunition and time and chucked a couple of sling bullets at them, which got their attention (thank heavens no one shot an arrow at me, come to think of it!). Tassar is now pretending to be cowed by my mighty sling, but spoils the effect by giggling. He won’t let us forget those two ogres any time soon! The party has reassembled in the room, and chocked the doors shut to settle down for a bit. So far, we’ve heard no sound of pursuit, and I pray we can get some rest after this eventful day!

Posted by Kate on April 27, 2004, 13:01 | Deitricha’s Journal