The Death of Lord Darish

The party finally finds and kills Lord Darish, but they find out that is about to be the least of their problems.

October 27th

The party wakes and begins their search for the orcs once again. Yarver decides to try to scry the way Kalarian showed him once more. The spell is a little beyond his abilities and he suffers some minor strains, but is ultimately unhurt. After some odd ideas involving Reed, the party remembers that Lord Darish supposedly rides a warg. Yarver uses this information to cast Locate Animals or Plants to find this warg. After some traveling and casting, Yarver senses this beast near the western walls of the canyon.   The party carefully approaches the sheer cliff face of the canyon, but sees no entrance to any caves. After some mage hand exploration, the party discovers an illusory rock hiding the entrance to a cave. Ellie stealthily infiltrates the cave and discovers it's full of orcs, but no signs of Lord Darish. Unsurprisingly, her efforts result in immediate combat on the surprised orcs.   After a decently challenging combat, the party is attacked by Lord Darish returning from patrol and trapping them in the cave. Roswyn fearlessly runs and jumps on Darish's warg and shoves him off before being bucked off herself. In true Roswyn fashion, it proved to be a terrible idea and she is knocked unconscious during the fight. This battle is not as easy as the other orcs, despite another well placed spike growth from Ellie cutting off nearly all of his reinforcements. However, the party is victorious and Lord Darish is killed with a horrifying Blight from Yarver.   Yarver removes a tooth and eyeball from Darish's warg, they retrieve Lord Darish's mighty war axe, and they remove Lord Darish's head as proof/a trophy.   After a tiring day of battle, the party settles down early in the evening in the cave to rest up. Unfortunately, their rest is interrupted by the instant materialization of another large Orc in their cave. His arrival seals the cave up once again. Unlike Lord Darish, this one seems less aggressive and more diplomatic. In fact, he looks somewhat regal by Orc standards, and even has a monocle. He surveys the aftermath of the battle and questions the party briefly. The party quickly discovers that the Orc is not actually there, that it is just a projection of himself. After some less-than-veiled threats, the Orc disappears and summons several earth golems in the cave. The already exhausted party struggles with what should be a relatively easy fight. For the first time, Barkimedes is slain much to the dismay of the party. However, Ellie nonchalantly reveals that she can simply bring him back anytime she wants.