Post by David on Mar 1, 2013 20:01:38 GMT -5
The party (Akom, Malkierian, Meep, Kashi, Nikolai, Talking Bird, Skierra, Joe, and Byörkmar) reassembles after healing up to again return to the orc caves. Meep flies up to the cliffs above the cave entrance to see if there’s been any activity. So Skiera casts an improved phantasmal force of a fog bank to allow the party to approach the entrance unseen. Waiting for them are a two-headed troll, an ogre, two orogs, and three orcs. They are taken by surprise, except Byörkmar.
As melee is joined, one of the orcs cries out and 16 orc skeletons rise to join the fight. Kashi notices a fire has been built at the back of the cavern while Meep disables a net trap that would have caught the party underneath it. Kashi goes down immediately under the troll assault while Meep gets knocked down off the wall and stunned.
Skiera turns the fog into an ogre, which goes past Nikolai to join the melee. Nikolai activates his new ballistic attack psi ability to launch a stone at the ogre and misses. Joe, the mage, is holding his own quite well. Skiera sends her ogre up for a suicide attack on the troll. Talking Bird starts tending to Kashi as Nikolai and Byörkmar start in on the troll.
Byörkmar gets totally shredded by the troll; there's is nothing left of the naamar but a bloody pulp. Things are looking pretty bleak, so Skiera casts a spectral force of a fireball in the cave. It only fools an orog and two orcs, who fall unconscious.
The party starts attempting a fighting retreat. Meep pulls Kashi clear as he is coming conscious. Everyone steps back as an improved phantasmal force of a wall of fire appears. They beat a hasty retreat as Skiera moves slowly away to maintain the illusion.
Back in the forest cover, they see that the cave occupants give chase, including all the skeletons. The troll takes six skeletons to pursue. As the rest of the party bolts through the woods, Skiera and Meep hide nearby and Kashi runs off in a different direction. Malkierian stubbornly insists on staying behind to protect Skiera. She tries to get him to flee, even casting command at him. Joe casts chameleon on Malkierian before running off himself.
Kicking Bird gets the troll’s attention to try to get it to go past where Skiera is hiding. It doesn’t work, but Meep flies around and gets its attention. Skiera creates an illusion of another party heading off in another direction. Meep adds to the effect by flying along with the illusion.
Mission accomplished, Skiera takes off, with Malkierian close behind. They all limp back to the village. Kashi joins them there, showing up naked. That makes for some awkward conversation among the party members.
Eeps: 112 each
A dwarf fighter, Clod, joins the party. Erik, the witch, also joins while Meep gets sent off on a task for Black Robe.
Erik’s weasel, Faust, sneaks into the cave. Through his telepathic rapport with the witch, he reports that in the cave are the two-headed troll, four orogs, one ogre, five orcs, 14 zombies, and a bunch of skeletons. The bonfire is still there. Two of the orcs don’t look very orc-like.
As the party approaches, Eric casts sleep through Faust, catching three orcs. This time, they get the drop on the defenders. Skiera casts sleep in the cave, catching the rest of the orcs and one orog. Kashi and Clod take on the troll.
Erik charms an orog and gets it to attack an ogre. Joe finishes off the ogre, and Eric directs the charmed orc against the troll. Now the skeletons start in.
Skiera turns nine skeletons. Malkierian steps into the hole in the line and starts throwing daggers at zombies. Joe gets swarmed by undead. Eric faerie fires the troll and three orogs and identifies all the glowing creatures as enemies of orc-kind. He says this in orcish for the benefit of his charmed orc friend. Talking Bird gets dropped by an orog.
Erik starts tending to Talking Bird’s wounds. They all start realizing that this troll is particularly tough but finally manage to bring it down. Skiera turns all the undead into an alcove behind the troll. Erik dumps oil on the troll and lets it run under the feet of the turned undead.
Erik questions his charmed orc and gets some information: level 3 has a magic fountain. The party has severely depleted their forces. A cleric of Iuz animated the undead. There are a half dozen clerics of Iuz. Iuz is trying to create a fleet of “sorcerers.” Then they light the oil and watch the undead burn from outside the cave. They finish off the ones that survive the fire.
Erik pumps his orc friend for more information about their lair. He tells about a strange rock that pulses. The orcs they killed have telekinesis, teleportation, pyrokinesis, etc. It turns out that the “sorcerers” are really psionic, Nikolai informs the party.
Eeps: 959 each
As they attempt to go farther, the charmed orc insists that the rest of the party cannot go. So Erik sends him on a suicide mission to kill the skeletons that ran into the forest and then to assassinate Black Robe.
They proceed farther into the caves. They encounter a magic trap. Skiera dispels it. She then leaves to hunt down the orc.
They are then ambushed by a dozen orcs in a cave. They start shooting arrows at the party. They charge into them. Two are psionic. One teeks oil from a flask onto Kashi. Another seems to be attacking Malkierian mentally. Erik sleeps two of the orcs. After they get down to just a few left, five more orcs enter from one hall, and 18 orcs and an orog enter from another.
Erik plugs up one hallway, while Malkierian and Nikolai head to the other. Five more orcs join the first five and more orcs join the second group. Nine orcs come in from the third hallway. Kashi and Joe plug that entrance.
Taking Bird manages to break his hip, greatly helping the battle on that front. The tougher orcs or orogs start moving up to the front of their lines.
After some time of holding off the orcs, Joe has killed the most orcs. Nikolai gets dropped by an orog. Eric casts animate dead and raises up five orc skeletons. Though Joe taunts the orcs by crying out in orcish, summoning aid from Gruumsh. Eric sends the skeletons against Kashi’s foes.
At this point, the orcs are now running low on leaders. Eric casts faerie fire on all the remaining orogs. NIkolai, conscious again, starts using ballistic attack on orcs. Eric casts protection from evil on Kashi, who stopped to get healed.
Faust, who had been attacking an orog, gets in a bad way. So Eric transfers hit points to him and calls him out of combat to get healed.
The orcs in two of the passageways lose their morale and fall back. This leaves one column of orcs. Joe stands in front of the passage, draws his sword, casts the glow cantrip on it, calling it “Devourer of Souls” in orcish.
Joe goes to explore down the hallway that he cleared. The orcs have fled to two rooms away. Malkierian kills the final orog, but the orcs down that hallway remain to fight. After another round of fighting (and killing more orcs), the orcs begin to withdraw. The skeletons run after them.
In the next room is a hole in the ground. They can hear water from below. It must be the magic fountain.
Before they leave, Joe transmutes all the orcs’ blood into oil and then ignites it. All the bodies are destroyed.
Eeps: 253 each
Large golden bird pectoral, worth 1200 gp, goes to Clod
Monetary treasure division:
30 cp
10 sp
6 gp
1 pp
As melee is joined, one of the orcs cries out and 16 orc skeletons rise to join the fight. Kashi notices a fire has been built at the back of the cavern while Meep disables a net trap that would have caught the party underneath it. Kashi goes down immediately under the troll assault while Meep gets knocked down off the wall and stunned.
Skiera turns the fog into an ogre, which goes past Nikolai to join the melee. Nikolai activates his new ballistic attack psi ability to launch a stone at the ogre and misses. Joe, the mage, is holding his own quite well. Skiera sends her ogre up for a suicide attack on the troll. Talking Bird starts tending to Kashi as Nikolai and Byörkmar start in on the troll.
Byörkmar gets totally shredded by the troll; there's is nothing left of the naamar but a bloody pulp. Things are looking pretty bleak, so Skiera casts a spectral force of a fireball in the cave. It only fools an orog and two orcs, who fall unconscious.
The party starts attempting a fighting retreat. Meep pulls Kashi clear as he is coming conscious. Everyone steps back as an improved phantasmal force of a wall of fire appears. They beat a hasty retreat as Skiera moves slowly away to maintain the illusion.
Back in the forest cover, they see that the cave occupants give chase, including all the skeletons. The troll takes six skeletons to pursue. As the rest of the party bolts through the woods, Skiera and Meep hide nearby and Kashi runs off in a different direction. Malkierian stubbornly insists on staying behind to protect Skiera. She tries to get him to flee, even casting command at him. Joe casts chameleon on Malkierian before running off himself.
Kicking Bird gets the troll’s attention to try to get it to go past where Skiera is hiding. It doesn’t work, but Meep flies around and gets its attention. Skiera creates an illusion of another party heading off in another direction. Meep adds to the effect by flying along with the illusion.
Mission accomplished, Skiera takes off, with Malkierian close behind. They all limp back to the village. Kashi joins them there, showing up naked. That makes for some awkward conversation among the party members.
Eeps: 112 each
A dwarf fighter, Clod, joins the party. Erik, the witch, also joins while Meep gets sent off on a task for Black Robe.
Erik’s weasel, Faust, sneaks into the cave. Through his telepathic rapport with the witch, he reports that in the cave are the two-headed troll, four orogs, one ogre, five orcs, 14 zombies, and a bunch of skeletons. The bonfire is still there. Two of the orcs don’t look very orc-like.
As the party approaches, Eric casts sleep through Faust, catching three orcs. This time, they get the drop on the defenders. Skiera casts sleep in the cave, catching the rest of the orcs and one orog. Kashi and Clod take on the troll.
Erik charms an orog and gets it to attack an ogre. Joe finishes off the ogre, and Eric directs the charmed orc against the troll. Now the skeletons start in.
Skiera turns nine skeletons. Malkierian steps into the hole in the line and starts throwing daggers at zombies. Joe gets swarmed by undead. Eric faerie fires the troll and three orogs and identifies all the glowing creatures as enemies of orc-kind. He says this in orcish for the benefit of his charmed orc friend. Talking Bird gets dropped by an orog.
Erik starts tending to Talking Bird’s wounds. They all start realizing that this troll is particularly tough but finally manage to bring it down. Skiera turns all the undead into an alcove behind the troll. Erik dumps oil on the troll and lets it run under the feet of the turned undead.
Erik questions his charmed orc and gets some information: level 3 has a magic fountain. The party has severely depleted their forces. A cleric of Iuz animated the undead. There are a half dozen clerics of Iuz. Iuz is trying to create a fleet of “sorcerers.” Then they light the oil and watch the undead burn from outside the cave. They finish off the ones that survive the fire.
Erik pumps his orc friend for more information about their lair. He tells about a strange rock that pulses. The orcs they killed have telekinesis, teleportation, pyrokinesis, etc. It turns out that the “sorcerers” are really psionic, Nikolai informs the party.
Eeps: 959 each
As they attempt to go farther, the charmed orc insists that the rest of the party cannot go. So Erik sends him on a suicide mission to kill the skeletons that ran into the forest and then to assassinate Black Robe.
They proceed farther into the caves. They encounter a magic trap. Skiera dispels it. She then leaves to hunt down the orc.
They are then ambushed by a dozen orcs in a cave. They start shooting arrows at the party. They charge into them. Two are psionic. One teeks oil from a flask onto Kashi. Another seems to be attacking Malkierian mentally. Erik sleeps two of the orcs. After they get down to just a few left, five more orcs enter from one hall, and 18 orcs and an orog enter from another.
Erik plugs up one hallway, while Malkierian and Nikolai head to the other. Five more orcs join the first five and more orcs join the second group. Nine orcs come in from the third hallway. Kashi and Joe plug that entrance.
Taking Bird manages to break his hip, greatly helping the battle on that front. The tougher orcs or orogs start moving up to the front of their lines.
After some time of holding off the orcs, Joe has killed the most orcs. Nikolai gets dropped by an orog. Eric casts animate dead and raises up five orc skeletons. Though Joe taunts the orcs by crying out in orcish, summoning aid from Gruumsh. Eric sends the skeletons against Kashi’s foes.
At this point, the orcs are now running low on leaders. Eric casts faerie fire on all the remaining orogs. NIkolai, conscious again, starts using ballistic attack on orcs. Eric casts protection from evil on Kashi, who stopped to get healed.
Faust, who had been attacking an orog, gets in a bad way. So Eric transfers hit points to him and calls him out of combat to get healed.
The orcs in two of the passageways lose their morale and fall back. This leaves one column of orcs. Joe stands in front of the passage, draws his sword, casts the glow cantrip on it, calling it “Devourer of Souls” in orcish.
Joe goes to explore down the hallway that he cleared. The orcs have fled to two rooms away. Malkierian kills the final orog, but the orcs down that hallway remain to fight. After another round of fighting (and killing more orcs), the orcs begin to withdraw. The skeletons run after them.
In the next room is a hole in the ground. They can hear water from below. It must be the magic fountain.
Before they leave, Joe transmutes all the orcs’ blood into oil and then ignites it. All the bodies are destroyed.
Eeps: 253 each
Large golden bird pectoral, worth 1200 gp, goes to Clod
Monetary treasure division:
30 cp
10 sp
6 gp
1 pp