Session 09
General Summary
6th day of the Snake, 678 AR0 - Falconius Villa
We retreated back to the villa with our prisoner and the ex-prisoners. Flynn quickly headed off to speak to Estelar and tell him we'd rescued some people - which we hoped he could come and take off to his circle for safety. On his way out he noticed that Jukai was a hive of activity - clearly our rescue had been noted. Whilst we waited for Flynn to return Keeva kept a close eye out on the town, to watch for orc scouts. Thorn propped the unconscious Jerrek up in a window in case any orcs passed by, to make it look like the villa was occupied. On the way to Kupang and Estelar, Flynn saw a couple of orc warg rider patrols. He sensibly avoided them and soon reached the druidic circle. Speaking to Estelar he told him of our successes at rescuing more prisoners. He asked Estelar to come and help repatriate them to his circle. The druid agreed. Flynn warned that we would soon try and rescue more prisoners. Estelar was happy for us to bring them to him too. Estelar told Flynn that he and Minos had managed to contact the Institute. They sent word about the devastation and arcane disturbances and the reply seemed to imply that the ritual and invasion appeared to be localized to the Vale. We supposed this to be good news after a fashion. Both men took the shape of birds and flew rapidly back to us. It was dark by the time they returned. During that time we had seen no sign of any orcs near the villa, but Jukai was still full of busy orcs and the town was now well lit up. We handed the ex-prisoners over to Estelar and sent them off into the dark. Keeva and Ferrint went with the druid to help protect the villagers, leaving Quintus, Thorn and Flynn to interrogate the orc prisoner, Jerrek. Jerrek pointed out that would cooperate with us because Kar'ha would certainly do worse things to him for letting the prisoners escape, so he might as well avoid any unecessary unpleasantness. Jerrek was able to tell us that Kar'ha was going to "study" the prisoners who survived (by disecting them to death) to find out why they survived, with a view to improving the ritual which hit the Vale. The Lich King himself had cast the ritual. As far as Jerrek was aware the orc plan was to come in, grab prisoners, and leave. The whole invasion was just a test of the Lich King's new ritual. Jerrek said that he did not think the ritual would have reached as far as Fort Hadrian (Kar'ha told him that). So Zarfu had taken his ghouls to the fort to eat all the soldiers there - they should have hit the fort earlier that day. We asked him about prisoners from other villages and he told us that each settlement would be returning prisoners, who were all due here the next day (which we already knew). Jerrek wanted to kill and zombify the prisoners but Kar'ha wanted them alive so that was what would happen. We asked about the Tower of Shivers - which was Kar'ha's domain. Jerrek had never been inside, so his info was sketchy. There were no orcs inside it apparently, but there were undead and other unspeakable things inside. Generally, he told us, what goes in does not come out again. Jerrek thought that Kar'ha would probably remain here, in the Tower of Shivers, until all the survivors of the Vale had been rounded up and taken to him, before he took the Tower back to Marlek. Quintus put his blade to the neck of the orc prisoner and executed him swiftly and painlessly for his cooperation. However, as Jerrek's body slumped to the floor a dark shadow left his body and attacked Quintus! His companions rushed out of the house to aid him as the evil spirit enveloped the commander, chilling him to the bone. Thorn threw psychic magic at it whilst Flynn shot arrows and turned into a bear to charge in. Quintus' blade went right through it, as did the bear's claws. Quintus fought bravely but his armour was not able to stop the ghostly attacks. His friends watched as the life drained from the Rodinian. However Quintus was a brave and hardy soul and somehow roused himself from the grip of death. Staggering to his feet, Quintus picked up his sword again, but the wraith spun in place, flooding the area with negative energy and the soldier collapsed once more. The warrior's collapse seemed to inspire his companions and suddenly Flynn growled viciously and swiped a vicious claw through the misty body of the spectre whilst Thorn empowered the blow with extreme psychic energy and the blow disipated the wraith. The friends had overcome, just. [Fight 3/4]. Quintus was exceptionally drained after the battle but we were determined to continue with our plan so we headed out south on the road to Marudi. Quintus knew this road well - his wife's family lived in Marudi - and knew of a good ambush spot so he led the group there. Along the way Thorn and Flynn felt that we were being watched somehow, though we could see no physical signs of any scouts or passage. It was all a bit unnerving. Very tired, we settled in to camp up till the morning, setting a watch for the night.7th day of the Snake, 678 AR - The Road to Marudi
Dawn broke on another gloomy day in the Vale. Quintus had not slept at all, troubled by the spirit of the orc necromancer he had executed. He was still exhausted and felt that only a heroic act would exorcise the spirit and let him rest properly again. Thorn and Flynn still felt like someone was watching us but we could still see no one. Nothing happened until late morning when a whole column of marching orcs came into view. These were the disciplined orcs of the Marlek legions. Unfortunately there were around a hundred orcs in the column - far too many for us to consider attacking. Fortunately we realized that they had no prisoners with them. Hoping a smaller group would come along later guarding prisoners we let them pass. Around midday we did see prisoners in a wagon being pulled by 2 wargs, and these were guarded by only half a dozen or so orcs. Happily there were no zombies or ogres in the group. Further down the road we could see a zombie horde shuffling slowly down the road towards us. We judged that we could ambush the orcs, rescue the prisoners and get the flock out of there before the zombie horde arrived. We launched our attack. Feeling the need to be heroic and shake off the spirit of the dead orc, Quintus rushed into the largest and most dangerous looking foe. With Thorn employing psychic magic to enhance the effects of his blade Quintus felled the giant orc in two blows before it even knew what had happened. He then moved onto the obvious orc leader who had a drum with him, which he had been beating to set a marching pace for the prison wagon. Flynn, in bear form, rushed into the foot soldiers who were guarding the wagon and slashed about him with giant paws. Thorn made it appear to the poor orcs that the bear they fought had evil talons and his blows crushed them physically and mentally. Suddenly the leader smashed his drums exceptionally loud and Quintus ears began to bleed. The orc foot soldiers rallied and swarmed over Flynn-bear. Then we noticed a spare orc who had gone to the wagon and released the wargs from their position pulling the wagon. The wargs sprung to the attack! Flynn and Thorn between them dispatched the last of the foot soldiers but the wargs split up and leapt at them. The other orc shot his bow at Flynn whilst the leader continued to bang on his drum, which was drowning out Quintus's brave battle song. One of the wargs sprang on Flynn and ripped a huge hole in his shoulder with its pointy teeth. Things looked grim for our heroes. Flynn bravely rushed at the leader, even with the wolf on his back, and bit the head clean off the orc, whose drum crashed to the floor, silenced. The two wargs tore holes in Thorn and Flynn who both somehow managed to stay on their feet, though each were standing by force of will alone. We all combined to attack one warg and it fell to our combined might. But then the archer hit Quintus in the back with an arrow and the commander staggered and fell face down in the dirt. Whilst Quintus bled on the ground, Thorn and Flynn finally brought the last warg to its knees. With a ferocious growl Flynn-bear rushed across to the last orc, the archer, who quickly drew a scimitar and slashed it across the bear's flank, opening yet another wound. How was Flynn still standing? As Thorn gathered himself for a final flourish of psychic damage, somehow Quintus staggered to his feet again to see Flynn-bear rip the head off the last orc while Thorn overwhelmed it with psychic power. Amazed to still be alive, the group had prevailed. Just. [Fight 4/4] Level up to Level 3
Report Date
02 Nov 2015
Related Plots