Session 10
General Summary
7th day of the Snake, 678 AR - The Road to Marudi
We had just rescued the prisoners from the orcs on the road to Jukai, and been seconds away from death. Coming up the road towards us was a horde of undead so we were pressed for time. So we recovered the prisoners and rushed back, as best we were able, to Villa Falconius. There we had a joyous reunion. One of the prisoners was Edie, the next door neighbour of Quintus' parents-in-law. She told us that as soon as Quintus' family had arrived in the village they all headed off for Jawa and the silver mines there. Strange. We handed over the rescued prisoners to Estelar who took them off to his Druidic circle. Estelar also told us that Minos had been in contact with some drow - these ones were not working with the Institute specifically, but they appeared allied to the Vale folk under the current circumstances. The enemy of my enemy and all that. Probably the drow had been alerted by the disruption to the arcane leylines. Tired as we were, we decided we needed to head out and find a suitable ambush spot and lay up for the night. For the next day we planned to attack the orc prisoner train to the Tower of Shivers. Fortunately Keeva knew and excellent spot. As we left the villa we spotted several orcs riding wyverns, cirling Jukai, obviously looking for us. We also had the feeling of being watched, perhaps in an arcane-scrying sort of way. The group rested the night in the ambush spot and had an uneventful and restful night.8th day of the Snake, 678 AR - The Road to Sibu
In the morning, Quintus reported feeling fully recovered after his haunting experiences of the previous day. We ate a hearty breakfast and awaited the prison train we were expecting that day. As the train came into sight, Quintus spotted Herecles, his trusty old warhorse, was being used to pull one of the three prison wagons. About a dozen orcs guarded the train and four wyvern riders circled overhead. It appeared from this far away that the wyverns were smaller or younger than the one we saw in Kupang all that time ago (was it a week ago?). Thorn was knowledable about wyverns and warned us that they would be fast and agile and would employ hit and run tactics, being unlikely to land and trade blows with us. Thorn quickly did a tarot reading and pulled the Tower, the Emperor and the Hanged Man. He told us that this meant our plan had a solid foundation and would cause great unheaval to our enemies. In short we should attack as we planned. We decided to try and hit the wyverns at maximum range to try and take one (or more) out before they even reached us. We launched our ambush but misjudged the distance and only Keeva's expert eye was able to hit the wyverns. Then the orcs charged us. Quintus stood to the front and with an arcane rune his sword burst into flames. The orcs and wyverns split their attacks between us and we had to work independently. Keevan dealt with the wyverns singlehanded whilst Flynn-bear was swamped with orc legionaries. Quintus took on a powerful orc commander in single melee and another commander rushed in to fight Thorn. This left the orc leader free and unengaged. He used his drum to organise his troops. After getting hit by an arrow, one wyvern flew off in the direction of Jukai and another in the direction of the Tower of Shivers. Then Quintus decapitated his opponent and rushed the leader, whilst Keeva took out a wyvern. Things looked better for us. Then Flynn was swarmed by the orc legions and fell. The orc legions split their forces then but as they rushed into Thorn, he took out the commander he was facing and then with a flourish of his scythe he felled all the orcs who rushed into him. Quintus shouted at Flynn and ordered him to pull himself together and the bear staggered to his feet and roared. Flynn-bear rushed in to help Keeva fighting the last remaining wyvern, but tripped over a twig and fell on his face in the dirt. Quintus just dodged a spear thrust from the leader but set him on fire with his flaming sword. Then Thorn rushed across the battlefield and decapitated the orc leader with another amazing display of scythery. The last wyvern rider was surrounded by the group and cut to pieces Quintus immediately recovered Herecles and the rest rescued the prisoners. One of the wagons was full of prisoners from Endow, and included Franc, the farmer who had bought Flynn's farm off him. From Jawa we resuced the mother of the bride to be of the summer festival, among others. From Kupang we rescued the bandits who had raided the orcs for supplies. They were all happy to see us, of course. As we discussed what to do next the whole area suddenly went dark and smokey. We looked around to discover we were surrounded by a half a dozen drow warriors! They told us to follow them if we wanted to live. We knew that the wyverns had gone to get reinforcements so we decided to do as they asked. The drow told us they wanted information on Kar'ha - so we freely gave it. They intimated they would go and "have words" with him in the Tower of Shivers. This was considered good news. We wondered if we should accompany the drow to the Tower, although the drow looked like they would take their time, so we would have time for other stuff first. The drow gave us a leyline tuning fork which we could use to alert the drow of our presence. Err, really? We supposed we didn't need to use it, but it might come in handy if we wanted aid from the drow. Quintus took it. We said goodbye to the drow, thanked them for helping us and set off towards the Druid circle with the prisoners in tow. The drow used their magic to help us be stealthy on the way. Quintus mounted Herecles and led from the front. Later that day we reached the Druidic circle and were able to drop off the last of the ex-prisoners with Estelar. We counted thirty rescued over all, which was a sobering amount, considering the population of the Vale before the invasion. Still, it felt that we had put a dent into Kar'ha's plans as we had managed to rescue every single prisoner. We took advantage of the safety and security of the Druidic grove and rested overnight.9th day of the Snake, 678 AR - The Druid's Grove
The next day we talked to Estelar about the longer term plans for the Vale. We discussed the idea of us going to Fort Hadrian and finding out if it was safe and if we could take the survivors there. Quintus suggested that perhaps the Rodinian Legions could be summoned to cleanse the Vale from the orc menace. We had a good chat with the druid and he wished us well and we set off for Jawa and the silver mines...
Report Date
09 Nov 2015
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